Tasting Reviews - Details https://www.oxfordwineclub.org.uk/tasting-reviews http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification mojoPortal Blog Module en-GB 120 no Greek Wines Approximately 50 OWC members gathered at the Cherwell Boathouse Marquee on a mild winter evening for a wonderful ‘Greek odyssey’ tasting of some of the best in Greek wines. Our speaker, Czech born MW Lenka Sedlackova, who now works at Bancroft wines, is on the Greek wines judging panels for both Decanter and the recently established 50 Best Greek Wines Award.

 

In her introduction, Lenka gave us a brief overview of wine production in Greece and some of the current trends highlighting the fact that quality now takes precedence over quantity and that ‘Greek wines have come a long way from the days of cheap yellow overly sweet Retsina’. All of us were astounded to learn that Greece has up to 300 different grape varieties and 14,000 wineries. 

 

The wines we tasted, all from indigenous grape varieties, thus underlining the move away from international varieties, ranged from an astounding dry Assyrtiko produced on the island of Santorini, ‘a Jurassic park of 4 to 500 year old vines’, via a Limniona red, ‘the Greek Beaujolais’, and an ‘ode to French wine’ made from Agiorgitiko grapes, to a resurgent and newly fashionable dry Assyrtiko Retsina made using a ‘tea bag of resin’.

 

During our wanderings we visited the islands, not only of Santorini, but also of Naxos, Crete and Cyprus learning that island wines, most of which are white and made from very old phylloxera-free grapes in boutique wineries, are very much ‘on trend’. Indeed, to the surprise of many we learnt that most wine produced in Greece is white. To sample the reds, we paid a visit to the mainland, calling in on Mt Olympus along the way.

 

Throughout the evening, to accompany the wines we enjoyed Greek themed snacks and nibbles for which many thanks must go to Ali and the OWC team.

 

The successful tasting certainly opened our eyes to the quality wines that Greece has to offer and provoked many interesting questions. Having only tasted 7 of the multitude of grape varieties on offer in Greece, no doubt many OWC members will now be booking holidays there to continue the odyssey of discovery.

 

1. Estate Argyros, Assyrtiko 2022 - 14%

 

Estate Argyros was established on the island of Santorini in 1903. It is now run by Matthew Argyros, the fourth generation of the family to do so although the family has been involved in grape growing on Santorini for 200 years. The cutting-edge Estate Argyros Winery, located in Episkopi, was established in 2015, and has 120 hectares of vines averaging 70 years old with some at over 200 years. The vineyards boast ungrafted, phylloxera-safe, original rootstock. The vines are basket-pruned (unfortunately now becoming a dying art), and no irrigation is used. Organic methods are applied so there are no pesticides, and ploughing is done using mules.

 

This dry Assyrtiko is the most important bottling of the estate. Made from grapes hand-harvested in the early morning from volcanic soils, in top quality areas of the island, mainly Messaria, Karterados, Pyrgos, Megalochori and Akrotiri. These vines, averaging 100-120 years old, produce completely dry, crisp wine with high natural acid. Fermented in stainless steel at cool temperatures for three weeks and then aged for two/three months on fine lees.

 

Crystal yellow in colour with flavours of citrus fruits, lemongrass and stone, with a long clean finish and a distinct saline character. Can be enjoyed immediately, though may continue to develop for at least a decade. It is an excellent accompaniment to seafood and in particular shellfish, oysters, grilled seabream, or bass.

 

Data sheet for the 2020 vintage: https://estateargyros.com/media/content/files/Fiche_Technique_Estate_Argyros_Assyrtiko_Santorini_2020.pdf

 

Winery website:  https://estateargyros.com

 

2. Ekhô White, Naxos 2021 - 13%

 

Founded by oenologist Lefteris Anagnostou, the Ekho [a connection with the past] wines project is a new venture that deals with old vines from areas of historical significance such as the island of Naxos, considered to be the birthplace of Dionysus, the god of wine. Grapes from selected single plots are bought from contracted growers. For the time being vinification takes place outside the island, but there are plans to start a winemaking installation.

 

See website of Greek MW Yiannis Karakasis: https://www.karakasis.mw/wine-revelations-ekho-project-wines-made-old-vines-found-areas-are-historically-significant

 

The Aidani and Potamisi grapes for this field blend (which also includes unknown varieties such as Karabraim), are sourced from a high altitude, single vineyard plot on the foothills of Mt Za. Exclusively old vines of more than 150 years old, these low yielding, ungrafted bush vines are planted on spectacular rocky and clay terraces.

 

Aidani grape: https://winesofgreece.org/varieties/aidani/

Potamisi grape: https://glossary.wein.plus/potamissi

 

Vinification in stainless steel is initiated with ambient yeast for aromatic complexity followed by 10 months of lees ageing. 1010 bottles of the 2021 were produced and is Anagnostou’s first vintage.

 

This dry wine displays herbal notes on the nose with sweet aromas of apricots. On the palate, lemon verbena, white peach and grapefruit combined with ginger and flinty. The crisp acidity balances perfectly with the wine’s salty and tangy profile.

Drink from now to 2033.

 

3. Oenops Wines, Vidiano, 2022 - 13%

Oenops was founded in 2015 by winemaker Nikos Karatzas, who operating as a négociant produces a range of distinctive wines from a newly established state-of-the-art winery.

 

The Vidiano grapes come from old vineyards at 300 metres elevation in the mountainous area of Heraklion in Crete. (The island produces 12% of all Greek wine). At this altitude the diurnal temperature differences influence the vines. The old vines produce low yields of concentrated fruit. The vines are Double Cordon trained and are cultivated ecologically with minimal spraying. The grapes are hand-harvested; picked during the cool of the night and transported by a refrigerated truck, via a ferry, to the winery.

 

Slow spontaneous fermentation is allowed to occur using wild yeasts, in four different types of vessels, made from four different elements: clay amphorae, concrete tanks, 600-litre large barrels and stainless-steel tanks. The resulting wine is thus imbued with complexity and depth. No less than 18 different vinifications take place. Once fermentation was complete, the wine was aged for six to nine months in amphorae and concrete tanks, in order to preserve the purity of fruit, with a small percentage in old, large barrels. The wine was bottled unfiltered to retain its purity and elegance.

 

A bright, silver-gold colour, the wine displays abundant citrus notes and white floral, herbal and mineral overtones. Creamy and layered with a lively freshness and flavours of stone fruit, lime and subtle spice. A great match for fish, oysters or Asian cuisine. Also accompanies a variety of cheeses. Drink now to 2026.

 

NB. Jancis R gave a previous vintage 17 points.

 

4. Makarounas Vineyards, Xynisteri, 2022 – 12.5%

 

Makarounas Winery is a family organic boutique winery located in the village of Letymbou, 14 kilometres east of the city of Pafos, on the west coast of Cyprus, a region with a long tradition in vine growing. Four generations of the Makarounas family have been involved in viticulture. Theodoros Makarounas started the winery in 2016, strongly adopting the principle that good wine is made in the vineyard; thus, particular attention is paid to the notion of terroir. It is the only winery in Cyprus that sources grapes solely from their privately-owned vineyards. These cover 25 hectares of land, located at an altitude of 400 - 600 metres above sea level. There is a strong Mediterranean influence here but also considerable rainfall. The combination of surrounding hills, the crystal gypsum, limestone and quartz rich soils, along with the uninterrupted exposure to the winds of the valley, are moderating factors in the local microclimate.

 

This dry white wine is from 100% Xynisteri grapes sourced from ungrafted 30 to 35-year-old bush vines at 400-450m altitude.

 

Xynisteri grape: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xynisteri

NB. Blended with the Mavro grape, Xynisteri contributes to the renowned Commandaria (OWC Wine Challenge 2023 question 4), dessert wine.

 

Produced by spontaneous fermentation from natural yeasts in steel tanks. It is then aged on the lees for 3-6 months, with twice weekly bâtonnage.

 

Light gold in colour with hints of minerality, lemon zest, lemon flesh and dried lemon on the nose. Well balanced acidity and freshness on the palate with notes of pear, green apple, apricot and stone fruits. An ideal pairing for richer and more oily vegetable and poultry dishes, as well as seafood such as calamari.

 

At the 2022 Decanter World Wine Awards the 2021 vintage of this wine gained a silver medal with 90 points.

 

Winery website:  https://www.makarounaswinery.com/author/makarounaswinery_tewasf/

 

5. Dougos Winery, Meth`Imon "L" Limniona, 2021 - 13%

 

The Dougos Winery, founded in 1991, is located at the foot of Mt Olympus, in the Tempi valley and is part of the PDO Rapsani, in the Thessaly region.  The vineyards are at an altitude of 550-800 m on the north-east Olympus slopes, in Prosilia and Tourtoura. The soil consists mainly of iron-rich schist with a sandy-clay sub soil. The vineyards are cultivated without the use of irrigation, at low yields, and are certified organic. The main varieties cultivated are the indigenous Assyrtiko, Xinomavro, Krasato, Stavroto, and Limniona.

 

The rare Limniona grape, from which this wine is made, is local to Thessaly. After maceration, the grape must is fermented in open-topped tanks, then the wine is aged in a combination of old lightly toasted French and American oak casks for 8 months prior to bottling.

 

Limniona grape: https://www.wine-searcher.com/grape-2240-limniona

 

The resulting wine is medium ruby coloured. On the nose, it is highly perfumed and aromatically rich offering roses, dark cherries, and herbal undertones. Oak is undetectable and the purity of fruit shines through. Elegant on the palate with a high level of freshness and finely textured chewy tannins on the long finish. Will accompany roast leg of lamb,

mild chicken karahi (kadai chicken), grilled Halloumi.

 

Drink up to 2033.

 

Winery website: https://dougos.gr/welcome/

 

6. Gaia Estate, Nemea 2020 – 14.5%

 

Gaia Wines was founded in 1994, and their winery in the Nemea P.D.O. appellation, the largest wine-growing zone in Greece, was built in 1997 in Koutsi (Peloponnese peninsula).  The vineyard ranges from 250m to 850m in altitude with a wide variety of soils and climatic characteristics.

 

Made from 100% Agiorgitiko grapes, considered to be the Greek Grenache, cultivated from 40-year-old vines grown at an altitude of 550 metres on soils with a layer of approximately 75cm of clay over a bed of limestone. Yields are 45 to 48 hectolitres per hectare. The grapes are manually harvested then cold soaked and macerated for approximately 20 days. Fermentation took place with selected yeasts in traditional oak fermenters at 22 to 28°C. The wine went through 100% malolactic conversion, which was followed by 18 to 20 months’ maturation in mostly new French oak casks. The wine was bottled without fining or filtration.

 

The resulting wine displays a deep red-black colour. On the nose it has a complex and intensely aromatic profile with hints of fruit, wood, vanilla and carnation. On the palate it delivers depth and complexity with concentrated black and red fruits, vanilla, black pepper and violet enveloped in powerful, yet smooth tannins. A rich, full bodied and rounded wine with a long finish. Matches well with steak, roast beef or casseroles. The wine has aging potential will continue to evolve for up to 20 years. It is recommended to open and decant Gaia Estate at least half an hour before tasting.

Winery website: https://gaiawines.gr/en/

 

7. Alpha Estate, Ecosystem Xinomavro Reserve Vielles Vignes Single Block Barba Yannis 2020, Amyndeo - 14%

 

The 220-hectare vineyard of the Alpha Estate is located in the northwest part of Greece, on a plateau that ranges from 620 to 710 metres in altitude in the Amyndeon viticultural region. The vineyards are situated on gentle slopes with a north-westerly exposure. The local climate is semi-continental with a high diurnal range frequently observed during the summer. The soils are sandy-clay loam with a limestone subsoil. The Estate was founded in 1997 by the viticulturist Makis Mavridis and Bordeaux trained oenologist Angelos Iatridis. In the present day, Emorfili Mavridou and Angeliki Iatridou continue the founders’ traditions of eco-friendly growing practices underlined by sustainable viticulture and winemaking.

 

The Xinomavro Reserve Vieilles Vignes is made from 100% Xinomavro grapes from vines planted in 1919. The vines are 100% ungrafted, phylloxera-free Gobelet (bush) vines. Planted at a density of 2,600 vines per hectare, they yield just 25hl/ha of concentrated juice.

 

Xinomavro grape: https://winesofgreece.org/varieties/xinomavro/

 

After harvest at the coolest hours of the day the grapes are destemmed, followed by a light (gravity) crushing and cold soak with skin contact. Fermentation is by indigenous yeasts at gradually increasing temperatures. The wine is aged on the lees for 18 months with regular bâtonnage, followed by 24 months aging in new Allie - Jupilles French oak casks. A minimum 12 months further aging in bottle takes place before release. Bottled without fining and filtration.

 

The colour is bright dark ruby with a complex nose and typical bouquet of sundried tomatoes, smoky black fruits, strawberries, dark cherries, liquorice and spices.

On the palate it is full bodied with rich fruit depth, blackberries, plums, herbaceous hints and oak. Solid, velvety tannins and long aftertaste with persistent aromas.

 

A perfect match with juicy red barbecued meats, roasted lamb, spicy sausages, red baked peppers in olive oil, rabbit stew, light spicy full body cheeses.

Drink: now - 2036

 

Winery website: https://alpha-estate.com/

 

8. Troupis Winery, Assyrtiko Retsina 2022, Mantinia – 12.5%

 

The boutique Troupis Winery, founded in 2010, is situated in the centre of the Mantinea Plateau in the Fteri wine region (Peloponnese peninsula). Their vineyards cover 7 hectares at 650m altitude. Assyrtiko vines comprise 1 hectare and are thought to be the sole planting in Mantinea.

 

The grape juice is fermented in two parts, one in concrete eggs and the other in old barrels. One portion is infused with small amounts of Aleppo pine resin and then the two parts are blended together. Made without the addition of additives, fining or filtration, this Assyrtiko Retsina wine has a bright, golden hue. On the nose the wine shows apricot blossoms and a slight scent of tangerine coexisting with pine, herbal, thyme, ginger, mastic, chamomile, and floral notes. On the palate, there is a refreshing, slightly acidic tang with resin, ginger, tangerine, and grapefruit notes. Think ginger beer, but wine. It has a long finish.

 

A good accompaniment to grilled fish and fried seafood, grilled vegetables, spicy Asian cuisine dishes, sushi and traditional Greek food.

Winery website: https://www.troupiswinery.gr/en/

 

Chris Blakey.

 

21/02/2024.


Gina AllenTweet This]]>
https://www.oxfordwineclub.org.uk/greek-wines georgina.allen@gtc.ox.ac.uk (Gina Allen) https://www.oxfordwineclub.org.uk/greek-wines https://www.oxfordwineclub.org.uk/greek-wines Tue, 20 Feb 2024 19:45:00 GMT
Call My Bluff Wednesday 24th January 2024 - St Cross College

For those who are unfamiliar with the ‘Call my bluff’ format, ‘en bref’ it is an evening of fun and involves a competitive viniferous guessing game. Each of the ‘wise men’ in turn describes the wine that has been poured then each table must guess which of the three is telling the truth. At the end of the evening the table with the most correct guesses wins. It probably took new members and guests a few minutes to settle into the rhythm of bluff and double bluff, however those familiar with the format, including our ‘Bluffers’, certainly pitched in with gusto.

Thanks to the generosity of our presenters in waiving costs and fees we have been able to make a substantial donation to the Club’s current charity, Flexicare, which provides support for families in Oxford with disabled children.

The following write-up aims to capture the humorous spirit of the evening rather than provide a detailed analysis of the six wines tasted.

Wine 1 – white, sparkling, dry

RB - started by describing the wine as an English cuvée, number 7, produced by Harrow and Hope on their estate outside Marlow. Made from the classic champagne grape varieties and using the traditional method of production the flint soil gives the wine its stylistic identity.

MP - criticised RB’s description by saying that there was a time when being an MW actually meant something! It is of course a classic champagne MP declaimed, then went on to tell of the time when, as spiky-haired young man, wearing bovver boots and riding his motorbike, he had spent time with a woman in Paris whose name he has now forgotten, then worked on a small and underestimated organic estate in Champagne, hoeing the garlic that was used to spray the vines. The estate is just 2 hectares, and is situated on the Côte des Blancs. MW concluded by asking the audience – when was the last time I ever lied to you?

JP - described the wine as a 2017 Reserve sparkler made from 100% Chardonnay, which has spent 5 years on the lees. It is produced by the 1300-acre Trump Winery, owned by Trump’s son Eric, located on the US East Coast south of Monticello and discovered by JP when visiting his daughter in Washington DC.

The wine was revealed to be the 2017 Harrow & Hope Brut Reserve No 7 NV from Henry Laithwaite's Marlow estate. The fizz is based on the 2018 vintage, using Champagne's classic grapes and the traditional method to make a rich, biscuity, creamy peach fizz. This wine retails for about £25.

Wine 2 – dry, still white

JP - referred to Club members making a bee line for the best wines left over at the end of a tasting. With this in mind, one night when there was no snooker on the television, he snuck down to Aldi (trying to ensure he did not catch anything) and bought the cheapest wine he could find. He bought a bottle to drink himself, to ensure he did not kill all those present. The wine was described as ‘garbage from Spain’, 10.5º alcohol and retailing for £3.45. JP said he was not sure if it was made from grapes, but is certainly clean, short and simple – and not so dreadful as he might have thought. JP advised Club members to make their way to Aldi and queue for this ‘high quality beverage’.

MP - agreed in general with JP’s assessment but claimed it was ‘filth from Portugal’, obtainable at Sainsbury’s for £5.49. MP has a soft spot for Portugese reds, but not their whites, because of the hot climate, the wine’s low acidity and un-exciting taste profile.

RB - the wine advisor for Lidl, offered to drive members there. However, he described the wine as a prime example of the wine business ‘shafting’ the consumer, who are prone to buy anything that has the name Pinot Grigio on the label. This wine is from Sicily, the wrong place to grow Pinot Grigio, for the grape likes a cooler climate. The wine tasted has too much acidity and is too high in alcohol. It would not get near his tasting table at Lidl and was described as ‘like making love in a punt – fuckin’ close to water!’.

The wine was revealed to be the £3.45 from Aldi. With the total cost of the wine in the bottle estimated at 62p, JP said that the wine had no faults and was ‘not so bad as he thought it would be’.

Wine 3 – still red (served in short measures due to a faulty bottle)

JP – raising his eyes to heaven and struggling with a dud microphone, JP claimed St Cross should still be part of Pusey House, that we should be at prayer (instead of drinking wine) and that his ambition was to be ‘de-platformed’. The wine under consideration he said was another produced by the Trump Estate, a Merlot dominated Bordeaux-style blend. Pre-soaked, fermented on the skins and spends 18 months in ‘surrender monkey’ oak, made to be drunk young.

MP – declaring it to be a root day, MP told the audience he had been too nice to them and that at vast expense he had obtained a Sardinian grenache, made by a local woman (Frederica) who trained partly at Romanée-Conti. MP had discovered the wine almost by accident during a visit to Sardinia, during the course of which he bought all the unopened bottles stored behind a bar, rather than drink the only wine served by the glass – which was made by the bar owner. MP had been in search of a wine mentioned by Gabriele d’Annunzio – we were not told whether he ever found it. [For those unfamiliar with d’Annunzio I highly recommend Lucy Hughes-Hallet’s biography of D’Annunzio, ‘The Pike’. You simply could not make him up!] MP claimed we were the first in the UK to taste this wine.

RB – commented on MP’s description, saying it all sounded credible, however it was all narrative and said little about the wine. Following a MW trip to Greece, he (RB) was warming more and more to wines from the region. The wine under consideration is from the Peloponnese, from the central plateau, the elevation of the vineyards giving cool nights and the ferrous soil a minerality to the wine. Made from the Agiorgitiko grape by the well know producer Semeli, the wine is widely available in the UK and costs around £20.

Revealed to be from Sardinia and produced on granite soils from old vines, MP estimated the retail price of the wine at around £40.

Wine 4 – still red

MP – describing an MW trip to Bolivia, MP claimed to have bought some coca leaves to alleviate the altitude sickness. He ended up by accident in Peru and visited an estate called Tacama, famed for its wines and pisco. He arranged to have lunch with the lawyer/entrepreneur owner at a much sought-after restaurant called Central. More coca leaves were involved and on being asked if he wanted to buy any Tannat, MP responded that it was the best Tannat he had ever tasted and bought a container load. On reflection MP felt this was rather like asking someone to marry you, then on reflection wondering why one ever said that! MP urged us to buy a case.

RB – commented on MP’s accent and observed that on occasions MP sounded rather like Michael Caine. RB used to work with the Australian producer Brown Bros and that this wine comes from the satellite estate All Saints, run by members of the Brown family. The deep coloured rather tannic wine is made from a grape called Durif, also called Petite Sirah in California. Matured in some American oak, this wine will keep for some years.

JP – declared this wine to be another offering from the Trump Estate, 75% Cabernet Sauvignon and with some Merlot and Cabernet Franc. He also told us the audience he was lying!

The wine was declared to be a Tannat from Tacama, one of, if not the, oldest vineyards in S America – and MP did indeed buy too much!

Wine 5 – a still rosé wine with a heavily perfumed nose. (Again served in small measures due to a spider that had found its way into a decanter!)

RB – informed us that Greece is producing some exciting rosé, however Portugese Mateus Rosé still sells well and is not bad. However, this is not Mateus, it comes from Cliff Richard’s former estate in the Algarve, where they produce the award-winning Vida Nova. Made from Syrah and Aragones this is a flavourful wine but he feels this, the 2022, has lost some of its freshness.

MP – quoting Socrates, MP told us ‘an unexamined wine is not worth drinking’. This wine comes from Provence. Every so often an MW is paid to sit around drinking Krug, and when a billionaire living not a million miles from Oxford asked MP to fly to Provence to take a look at their new estate, he felt he could not refuse. The building was beautiful, with the winery ‘insanely kitted out’, despite being part way through a renovation process. MP claims it was the location for a royal honeymoon. The wine is a credible rosé at a price. A little secret?

JP – declared the wine to be Kylie Minogue’s rosé, which had been given a gold medal at a drinks industry tasting in 2021. He hoped not to offend us with a celebrity endorsement and claimed to have done his WSET Level 2 with someone from a warehouse in Leeds who knew Leigh Francis who wrote and starred in Bo’ Selecta, and also to know someone who once stood behind Kylie in a queue for an ATM.

This wine was indeed Kylie’s rosé, which is available from Sainsbury’s and at the time of writing is on offer for £7, reduced from £9 for a 75cl bottle (JP quoted £14.50). JP agreed the wine had lost some of its freshness.

Wine 6 – a sweet white still wine

MP – stated there are only three things certain in this life, being death, taxes and MP including an Italian wine in a tasting. MP told us of the first time he encountered Inama Soave, and that Stefano Inama used to make a sweet Sauvignon Blanc. MP was hunting for a sweet wine from the Veneto when he encountered Federica Nardello, in the Soave Classico area. This is a 2021 recioto, well made and matured in oak, with a little acacia oak also used. Priced at c£15 for a half bottle.

RB – Hungary makes wines that command respect. This is not a Tokaj, but is a late harvest wine made from Hárslevelü. A good example of a cheap white sweet wine and a lovely way to finish the tasting. This excellent wine (said Richard, who is, as you will remember, the Lidl wine adviser!) was available as part of Lidl’s Christmas wine offering at under £9.

JP – claimed this was not from a Tokaj winery but is from Vermont. Vermont has a tradition of hand-crafted wines and ciders. This one is made by a lady wine maker with tattoos, on a small scale, using for example demi-johns and natural yeasts. Made from the Brianna grape, a hybrid. Late harvested. Called the Loup d’Or after a local legend involving a golden wolf.

The last wine of the evening was a Hungarian wine, made by a top Tokaj producer, and was available at Christmas 2023 for £7.99. [At the time of writing the Lidl website lists a Szamorodni Edes 2017 for £7.49, available in store only.]

After a recount, the table having initially mis-recorded the names of the presenters, the prize for the evening was awarded to Table 4 who identified 5 out of the 6 wines correctly.

 

HRE 25.1.24

 

 

 

 

 


Gina AllenTweet This]]>
https://www.oxfordwineclub.org.uk/call-my-bluff-1 https://www.oxfordwineclub.org.uk/call-my-bluff-1 https://www.oxfordwineclub.org.uk/call-my-bluff-1 Wed, 24 Jan 2024 19:30:00 GMT
Sweet Wines The word ‘selected’ considerably underplays Mark’s generosity when he presented seven spectacular sweet wines to the Club at St Cross on 22 November.

Many of those he showed were from his own – irreplaceable – library stock. Current prices for these wines – if they could be bought on the market – would have broken our bank by some distance.

For Mark, wines are under an imperative duty to be interesting. If they’re not, he’s not. In the case of sweet wines that means he’s always looking for good natural acidity so that the wines are not just ‘sweet’ but offer the possibility of refreshment. For our tasting he also wanted to show how these wines age. As he said, everyone knows what a young Sauternes tastes like – and he feels that in their middle years many sweet wines are uninteresting - but once they have thirty or forty years age? Well, we’ll come to that later…

The first wine of the evening was Leydier family’s 2019 Muscat de Beaumes de Venise from Domaine de Durban. In the 1970s, these muscats were cult wines. Popularised by Robin Yapp, they were hard to avoid at dinner parties up and down the land. Twenty hectares of the Leydiers’ 350m high 50 ha in Beaumes de Venise (Vacqueyras and Gigondas just next door) are devoted to muscat. They make red wine too – but this is hard to find in the UK and the appellation is rather overshadowed by its illustrious neighbours.

Our wine, like all good muscats, was intensely aromatic with a bouquet of orange blossom and a touch of apricot. Adding grape spirit (the technique of ‘mutage’) stops the fermentation and leaves a wine with 90-100 grams of residual sugar and 15% alcohol. This was a young wine of course but it would age twenty years or more, gaining colour and intensity, if you left it undisturbed. Easy to say, but hard to do! Mark suggested that whilst it could serve as an aperitif or as a dessert wine, a French trick was to fill up the hole in a small cut melon. Add a bit of parma or Iberico ham and you’ve a wonderful starter for any dinner.

Wine no 2 was Weingut von Hovel’s 2005 Riesling Auslese from Oberemmeler Hutte. Like all but one of Mark’s fifty producers, this is a small family business. The one exception is a Benedictine monastery that’s been tending its property for a thousand years or so and ‘is not dictated to by their accountants’. Mark feels these families aren’t really in it to make money but for the satisfaction of doing a difficult job to the best of their ability. The Hutte vineyard in the Saar is a monopole owned by the Von Kunau family. One of Mark’s first tastings when he joined the legendary firm of OW Loeb & Co was of Von Kunau’s 1971 wine (‘one of the best German vintages of the last hundred years’) which showed him what great Riesling could be. That wine – if you find it and afford it – would still be in great shape. The high level of acidity means that Rieslings of this quality can easily age for fifty years. Although 13 years old, the wine we tasted is still young.

For Mark the recent German trend towards ‘trocken’ wines tends to flatten the distinctiveness of individual Riesling sites. It’s been made possible by climate change which allows full ripening of the Riesling grapes but, in his view, it also represents a shift away from the long-held German belief in wine for wine’s sake. For the French, wine is made to be paired with food; in Germany though a glass of Riesling mid-morning, or between tea and dinner, is (or perhaps was) perfectly natural.

Balance is one of Mark’s key criteria. That means looking not just at one element but considering acidity, sweetness, alcohol (and tannin of course) all together. Not all varieties achieve physiological ripeness at the same point. 12.5% can often be right for Cabernet whilst Merlot needs around 14.5%, ditto Grenache – at 12.5% the latter is simply too green, too herbaceous. And the 8% alcohol of the Hutte wine is in perfect balance with its 50 or so grams of sugar and high acidity.

There was perhaps a little bottle variation in colour, ranging from uniform gold in some glasses to the greenish tints of younger wine. On the nose there was very little of kerosene that some adore and some hate but lots of elegant lime and grapefruit and a touch of tangerine peel. Still lots of energy and lots of appeal – as there will be in another twenty or thirty years.

One of the strengths of this tasting was the sheer range of wines; the distinctiveness of each wine in this fabulous selection. For wine no 3 we were back in France (close to Pau in the Pyrenees) for a Jurançon Moelleux of 2017. Mark feels this is an area that ‘flies under the radar’. The Moelleux is produced on Camin Larredya by Jean-Marc Grussaute (once a rugby player, now a vigneron). This is the highest vineyard in the area at some 300-350 metres. He also makes an excellent dry wine from a Gros Manseng dominated blend but the Moelleux is 100% Petit Manseng which gives the wine huge intensity and attack. The colour is amber and the nose is a fascinating blend of orange peel and stone fruit with a touch of something close to roast banana (or was it Christmas pudding?). 14% alcohol with 90 grams RS and 6 grams of acid per litre. The wine making is slow: whole bunch pressing with wild yeasts and then 10 months of ageing on the lees in 225 litre barriques (mostly old). Jean-Marc makes on average 8000 bottles a year and though it’s not quite as slow a seller as the unpronounceable (to the average English consumer) Pacherenc du Vic Bilh it’s still a tricky sell. Your loss though…

 

Tokay, by contrast, now recovered from its post-communist era slump, is well known and highly regarded. Under Russian domination the stress was on volume and the old heritage of the ‘greatest sweet wine’ in the world had been lost. But, with new investment (much of it from England in the early 1990s) the quality has been restored and wine no 4 was full proof of that assertion. Zoltan Demeter is a renowned Tokaji expert - consultant to others and producer of his own wine - has led the way in rediscovering the finest sites (and acquiring some of them!). His 2019 Szamorodni ‘Anett’ (his wife’s name) is clearly still very young but already sports a rich nose of ripe apple, apricots and lime with a touch of orange marmalade. The blend is dominated by Furmint and Harslevelu with a dash of Muskat Ottonel to add to the aromatics. 10% alcohol and RS of 212 grams though it wears it remarkably lightly thanks to the high acidity of the Furmint). Only around 174 cases of this wine are made each year. Not much botrytis here (to this reviewer’s palate) and, unlike the Aszú wines, it’s not a requirement of the appellation. This is a wine that will ‘age for as long as you like’.

 

Szamorodni wines are also made dry, hence the name which means something like ‘as it comes’. Sweet szamorodni is not always as rich as the increasingly expensive Aszú wines which now cost more than Yquem and Mark explained that the old quality grading based on ‘puttonyos’ is now less and less used. The 3-4 puttonyos level is now rare though the 5-6 puttonyos level is still around. For Mark this was the most interesting wine of the tasting, but it should be noted that Demeter also makes highly regarded single varietal dry whites from his parcels of Furmint, Harslevelu and Muskat Ottonel. Well worth a taste if you’ve not tried them.

 

Wine no 5 was Heidi Schrock’s Ruster Ausbruch 2014, Auf den Flugeln der Morgenrote (‘on the wings of the dawn’). We had tasted a 2015 version of this wine a year or so back but that was 100% Welschriesling whereas this wine was a 50/50 blend of Weissburgunder and Welschriesling.

 

However, the Ruster Ausbruch is made from individually harvested botrytised berries (hence the term ‘ausbruch’ means ‘broken out’) – and undoubtedly contributing to the price of over £100 per half bottle. The grapes for this wine are grown on a number of parcels of land. The morning fog on the Neusiedlersee is the basis of the noble rot in the grapes and there was a strong note of caramelized orange marmalade in this nine-year-old wine. Older wines acquire a creme brûlée note - rather like Yquem - but this is not yet at that stage. Lots of sugar of course - perhaps 200-300 grams RS - and 11% alcohol but beautifully balanced, gratifyingly complex and with years of life and evolution to come. The producer also makes somewhat austere dry white wines and a red Blaufrankisch.

 

From Austria we headed to Germany and Erwin Tinhof’s 2010 Beerenauslese. Tinhof is based near Eisenstadt, just 45 minutes from Vienna. The producer has a new cellar and makes both red and white wines, as well as sweet wines when the conditions are right to do so, on his c12 hectare estate. The two wines (5 and 6) were similarly dark in colour. However, the Beerenauslese, which is made from Neuburger (a local Austrian grape) and Welschriesling, has more restrained botrytis. Slightly more alcohol at 12% and probably 180-200 grams RS - but, as ever with good Riesling, balanced and vital. Mark explained to us that the sugar and botrytis will mask the characteristics of the individual grape varieties. Despite its greater age, Mark thought it a touch less complex than the Ruster Ausbruch. Nonetheless a fine wine which will continue to age for 10-30 years.

 

The last wine of the evening was a 1997 Sauternes, the Château Sigalas Rabaud. A good vintage (especially for white wines) and a great wine. Mark had made it clear from the beginning of the tasting that he wanted to show us how sweet wines age and this Premier Cru Sauternes was both fascinating and fantastic. This would have been a Sauvignon / Semillon blend, probably with a touch of Muscadelle (perhaps 10% at most). Deep colour again and this wine really did have that apricots, burnt sugar and crème brûlée note of good, aged Sauternes.  Perhaps as much as 14% alcohol but certainly 13%. Already over 25 years old - an example of Mark’s remarkable generosity given the current price of over £75 a bottle - but with many years of life yet to come. We were privileged…

 

In her vote of thanks, Hilary Reid Evans stressed not just Mark’s generosity and remarkable wines but also his ‘effortless knowledge’. Rightly so. A memorable tasting. She also went out of her way to thank those in the Club who had made this tasting - and so many others - so successful and we were happy to thank St Cross for their hospitality.          

GH: 23/11/23


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Brazilian wines A little over 40 OWC members and guests attended a tasting of wines from Brazil, presented by Nicholas Corfe, Managing Director of Go Brazil Wine and Spirits. We tasted a range of eight quality wines from recent vintages ranging from a traditional method sparkling wine to a fortified late harvest Tannat. The vast majority of those present had never before tasted good quality Brazilian wines. Thus, the evening proved to be an eye-opening and informative moment for many. Before sampling the wines, Nic gave us a brief outline of the history and geography of winemaking in Brazil which I have attempted to summarise below.

 

All of the wines provoked a good deal of comment and discussion from participants. The first wine in particular, a Blanc de Noirs, led to many positive observations and comparisons with other more well known traditional method sparkling wines including those from the UK and even Champagne. After such an auspicious start, we went on to enjoy two more white wines, four reds and finally a not overly sweet dessert wine.

By the end of the tasting the consensus amongst the attendees was that we had enjoyed some very impressive, though understandably not always inexpensive wines. With order forms supplied on our tables, a good number of us took the opportunity to buy some of the wines for more leisurely tasting and appreciation over the coming weeks. Some bottles may even also find their rightful place maturing in members cellars!

Thanks and appreciaition for his presentation were conveyed to Nic. With Brazilian winemakers continuing to make strides and simultaneously improve the quality and value of their wines, we can surely look forward to more pleasant surprises from Brazilan wines in the future.

Although it was the Portuguese who first introduced vines to Brazil in the 16th century, Brazil’s commercial wine-making heritage can be traced back nearly 150 years, to the last quarter of the 19th century, when the first of many Italian emigrants arrived in the south of the country and started putting their existing wine-making skills to good use.

The modern Brazilian wine industry still retains an Italian feel, not least because many of the descendants of those original settlers are involved in wine-making, and sometimes within wineries which still bear their family name. Since the turn of the 21st century, however, many new vineyards wineries have appeared, owned by wealthy entrepreneurs or families with very different backgrounds.

With roughly 83,000 hectares (205,000 acres) of vineyard, it ranks just behind its near-neighbors Argentina and Chile in terms of acreage under vine. Only a small proportion (about 10 percent) of these acres are planted with Vitis vinifera vines, however this large acreage does not translate into large volumes of quality wine. Although, over the last 10 years there has been a sustained improvement in quality.

Around 90% of Brazil’s vineyards are situated in the far south of the country. This is a vast region, bordering both Argentina and Uruguay, and comprising the states of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina. Although technically sub-tropical, it is relatively cool compared with the rest of the country, with fog, frosts and rain all commonplace. Altitude plays an important role too, varying from around 600m in the Serra Gaúcha hills down to 150m in the most southerly Campanha region. This contrasts markedly with the more northerly uplands of Santa Catarina, Brazil’s coldest state, where the highest peak reaches 1827m (>6000’) and snow is not unusual!

These temperate conditions favour the production of sparkling wine – for which Brazil now has an international reputation – but both red and white grapes intended for the production of still wines benefit from a long growing season and generally hot summers.

There are however a couple of exceptions to the above:

New wineries have started to emerge in the state of São Paulo, whose capital city (also São Paulo) lies on the Tropic of Capricorn at 23.4° latitude. This region it is too hot and too wet to harvest grapes during the normal January-March season experienced further south so, ingeniously, the harvest is delayed until the winter months of July-August, when the weather is much cooler and drier. A newly developed technique allows for an extra pruning of the vines, which delays the onset of the fruit. The São Paulo-based Guaspari winery, which first planted vines only 20 years ago, and is creating some much acclaimed wines using these methods.

Second, mention must be made of the vineyards of northeast Brazil, situated alongside the banks of the River São Francisco on the border of the states of Pernambuco and Bahia. Here, due to the region’s proximity to the Equator (at 8-9°), there are no seasons and thanks to constant irrigation the vines produce at least two harvests per year!

NB September 2023 issue of Decanter with article on wines from Brazil.

https://www.decanter.com/premium/discovering-brazils-flourishing-wine-scene-plus-10-wines-to-seek-out-510500/

 

The wines

  1.    Familia Geisse Blanc de Noirs 2020     £24.99                                                                                   12%

Cave Geisse, owned by Mario Geisse, a Chilean of German extraction, is located in a wonderfully scenic area known as Pinto Bandeira in the Vinhos de Montanha (‘Wine Mountains’), to the south of Bento Gonçalves. The site sits at an average 800m altitude, on well drained soil and enjoys plenty of sun, albeit with an average rainfall of 1,400mm – in other words, near perfect for small scale sparkling wine production. On 29 November 2022, the Altos de Pinto Bandeira became the first DO in South America exclusively for traditional-method sparkling wines.  Yields are limited to 12 tonnes per hectare (as in Champagne).

 

Made entirely from Pinot Noir grapes, this brut Blanc de Noirs has been aged on the lees for a minimum 36 months. It has 12% abv. and 8.5gm/ltr. residual sugar; some 15000 bottles were produced. The 2019 vintage [there are no NV sparkling wines], scored a stunning 94 points in the September 2023 Decanter magazine!

A sophisticated wine with a generous mousse, a powerful nose exhibiting toasted, brioche aromas. Some spicy notes alongside dried fruits with a rich [touches of honey?] and creamy palate. Has a juicy and penetrating acidity. The bubbles, tend to be very soft, filling the entire palate. Recommended as a ‘food wine’, for example enjoyed with scallop ceviche.

 

Vineyard website: https://loja.familiageisse.com.br/cave-geisse/cave-geisse-blanc-de-noir-brut

 

  1. Campos de Cima Três Bocas Branco 2022     £14.99                                                                      12.5%

Located in the extreme Southwest of Brazil in the region of Campanha Oriental that can can only be accessed by a handful of roads. Campos de Cima is a boutique winery comprised of a 15 hectare vineyard on a gently sloping, north-facing hillside outside the town of Itaqui.

This dry wine is an intriguing blend of three white grapes, Alvarinho [45%], Assyrtiko [40%] (replacing the Viognier of earlier vintages) and Arinto [15%]. 2200 bottles were produced. Richly aromatic with roasted nut and citrus aromas, and lots of creamy nougat. In contrast, the palate is bone-dry with wonderful acidity. Bright and mineral-citrus in style with grapefruit and melon notes, a green leafiness and satisfying lemon finish. 91 points from Decanter. Partner with seafood, salads and fish dishes.

Vineyard website: https://en.camposdecima.com.br/enoturismo

  1. Pizzato PP Semillon 2021   £18.49                                                                                                          13%

The Pizzato vineyards, first established in 1879, are located in the Serra Gaúcha wine region region in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, where Brazil meets Uruguay. The landscape here is characterized by low mountain ranges (serras). The altitude and mountainous topography here are vital to the area's suitability for viticulture, providing cooling temperatures to create a longer growing season and higher acid retention.

This wine comes from the Vale dos Vinhedos, in Bento Gonçalves which in 2002 became Brazil’s first Geographical Indication (GI). The Serra Gaúcha region became a Denomination of Origin (DO) in 2012. The Pizzato family owned winery here has vineyards dating from 1968. The semillion vines for this wine were planted in 2012. The terroir is basaltic, clay based, scattered with small rocks. The vineyards are aligned north-south at 600m altitude. Climatic influences in the Vale dos Vinhedos range from subtropical to temperate.

Flavio Pizzato is the only winemaker producing Semillon in Brazil. Partial ageing in oak and acacia barrels for eight months adds complexity and texture to the beautifully balanced, harmonious palate. Deep straw yellow in colour, exhibiting aromas of ripe yellow fruits, wild flowers and sweet spices. There are layers of citrus and yellow fruit, nuttiness, delicate peach hints, herbaceous earthiness and a touch of savoury smokiness. All underpinned by focused excellent acidity. Only 5,550 bottles were produced. 92 points from Decanter. Possibly a difficult wine to match with food though Nic suggests white/ cured meats, fish and salads.

Vineyard website: https://www.pizzato.net

  1.  
  2.  Don Guerino 1880 Origine Teroldego 2018   £14.99                                                                      13.5%        

The Don Guerino estate is located at Alto Feliz in Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil. Their 60h of vineyards occupying a privileged microclimate within the Serra Gaúcha wine region, are situated at 450 m altitude on rich red clay slopes surrounded by sub-tropical forest.

Well adapted to the terroir of the Don Guerino vineyards, the Teroldego red grape variety originates in the northeastern region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, Italy. 1880 is a reference to the year the vineyard’s founder emigrated from Trentino to Brazil. Hand harvested the juice is cold macerated for 3 days after which selected yeasts are added, fermentation then taking place at 25C. Malolactic fermentation is allowed to occur. Finally the wine is aged for 9 months in French and American oak barrels before bottling. It is of an exceptionally deep, inky-purple colour with aromas of dense dark brambly fruit, with hints of raspberry or redcurrant. On the palate, ripe black cherry, licorice, traces of vanilla and even a touch of smokiness are all apparent. It has an ageing potential of up to 8 years. It pairs well with traditional Italian dishes, is a perfect match for roast lamb, pork or beef, game and venison as well as strongly flavoured cheeses.

Vineyard website: https://www.donguerino.com.br/linha/conceito/teroldego-origine-1880

 

  1.    Guaspari Vale da Pedra Tinto 2020     £25.49                                                                              14%                     

The Guaspari winery, catering mainly to the elite of Sao Paulo, is located on the site of an old coffee plantation in the highlands of São Paulo state. The 700 hectare estate also grows and trades coffee.

 

Despite the vineyard’s high altitude (900-1200m), it is usually too hot and wet to harvest during February or March, as would typically occur in the more southerly wine regions. Guaspari have developed a technique to delay the budding and an additional second pruning of the vines takes place. The harvest is thus delayed until the cooler and drier winter months of July and August, and allows the grapes to ripen more slowly before reaching maturity.

 

This Tinto is made from 100% Syrah hand harvested from four different 1200m high vineyards planted on granitic-rich soils. Aged in used French oak barriques for 8-9 months, then rested in bottle for a minimum of 12 months prior to release. A deep ruby colour, on the nose it shows a spiciness typical of the varietal, together with a concentration of red fruits and a floral perfume of rosemary and dried herbs. Medium to full bodied, this is a powerful, well balanced and intense wine with a lovely lingering finish. Can be enjoyed with steaks, roast beef or lamb, venison and well seasoned/spiced dishes.pork as well as aged cheeses.

Vineyard website: https://www.vinicolaguaspari.com.br/home/

 

  1. Pizzato Gran Reserva Concentus 2020   £26.99                                                                         13.5%                                   

 

This Reserva [the term has no legal definition in Brazil] is a serious, confident red blend – Merlot-dominant (65%) with Tannat (18%) and Cabernet Sauvignon (17%). Added complexity comes from barrel aging for 11 months in both French and American oak. Appealing aromas of ripe black and red fruit edged with florals and spice. Satisfying palate: velvety Merlot fruit is tempered with savoury spice and grip from the Cabernet and Tannat. Fine, well-integrated tannins and a long finish. 17100 bottles were produced. Well made and over-delivers! 93 points from Decanter. Ideally, it should be decanted. It can be enjoyed now but has cellaring potential for the next 10 years. Serve with roast beef or lamb and strong cheeses.

                                                                                                                                                                  

  1. Pizzato Reserva Nervi Tannat 2020   £18.49                                                                                    13.5%                                   

Made entirely from the historic Madiran (SW France) Tannat grape variety. Now also well established in Uruguay. This wine is made from from 25+ yr old vines and has been aged in new French oak barrels barrels for 11 months.

Nervi refers to the vivacious nature of the wine! Has a very deep purple-garnet appearance, and aromas with a huge concentration of dark berry fruit. some oakiness, traces of sweet spice – nutmeg and cinnamon,  and even coconut. On the palate it demonstrates an elegant but ‘meaty’ palate of rich, ripe red and black fruit complemented by oak, vanilla and spicy notes. The wine is full bodied; tannins have started to soften, so wine is now approachable.  To better appreciate ideally needs food such as roasted or grilled/BBQ red meats, game, venison, chilli con carne, spicy sausages or strongly flavoured cheeses. Ideally open well in advance and/or decant. An excellent aging potential.

 

  1.     Campos de Cima Tannat ‘Licoroso’ NV  £36.99 (500ml)                                                              18%                                   

A unique wine made entirely from late harvest Tannat grapes fortified with grape spirit. Separarated from the lees then barrel aged in French oak for 6 years. Only around 1000 bottles were produced. Dark, almost black in colour, the wine is rich, unctuous and heavily textured, and shows a nutty, dark chocolate and raisin character. Well balanced, it is neither dry nor particularly sweet. Pairs well with various desserts, cheeses or can simply be enjoyed on its own.

 

Go Brazil Wine and Spirits’ www.gobrazilwines.com

Prices given include 10% discount for orders made on the evening by OWC members.

 

Chris Blakey 25/10/23.


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Super Rhône John Livingstone-Learmonth’s tasting of the wines of the Rhône at St Cross on 19th September was remarkable for its passion, its erudition and the quality of the wines he showed. Rightly this was a full house of members – over 70 in total – a tribute to the man and his subject.

It was also, we learnt, something of a fifty-year anniversary. On 21 June 1973 he travelled from Aix-en-Provence to meet Marcel Chapoutier. The Union Jack flew over the premises and John was first taken into the vineyards before tasting first a 1961 Chante-Alouette and second a 1947 Hermitage Blanc. This ‘coup de foudre’ started a dedication to the Rhône and its wines that has lasted a lifetime. He was then an aspiring journalist, finding sources by the simple expedient of going into local bars at lunchtime and asking if anyone made wine. He found vignerons who had been born before World War One; he made enduring friendships. In retrospect it was a ‘magic moment’ before marketing and selling dominated minds.

His first book, Wines of the Rhône, (bashed out on an Olivetti Lettera 22 just like Len Deighton’s Ipcress File) was co-written with Melvyn Master, but it was John who persuaded Charles Monteith of Faber & Faber to publish the book that made this 25-year-old’s reputation. He held other jobs such as selling Black and White whisky in Africa and Latin America, but it was wine that had him in its grip.

He remains a one-man band. No ‘underlings’ doing the tasting; no-one else deputed to talk to the ‘people in the vineyards’. As several of his stories suggested, he’s fiercely independent in his judgments, quite prepared to call out producers whom he thinks are letting themselves and their customers down. If that means they try to ‘run him out town’ then so be it. But, as one Southern Rhnôe producer found out, that’s tricky since John is now a ‘Citoyen d’Honneur of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Instead he ‘put his skates on and got better’ – as our tasting confirmed.

When John started working on the Rhone it was somewhat unregarded as a producing area. Now it is ‘economically sustainable’ and includes areas such Crozes-Hermitage, supposedly the most profitable appellation in France thanks to its blend of high allowable yields and easy working conditions. Meanwhile, the ‘flames of demand’ are licking round the Northern Rhône. A small amount of wine from the Southern Rhone is distilled but overall the area is in good shape. The region has outlasted the Robert Parker effect and, as our tasting showed, the best wines now stress elegance rather than power and balance (that ‘alpha and omega’ of all good wines) has regained its status. 

Almost all recent vintages have been good. The 2021, in particular, is felt by John to have been the ‘best Châteauneuf-du-Pape white vintage of my life’. We tasted three wines that reinforced his point.

First up was Franck Balthazar’s 2021 St Péray at £26.50 from BBR – for which see https://www.bbr.com/products-20218151452-2021-st-peray-franck-balthazar-rhone. Franck is a friend of John’s – and a neighbour since John himself has vines in Cornas. This 100% Roussanne comes from a tiny plot of 0.31 ha of ten-year-old vines (‘un jardin’), producing only 2000 bottles a year. The 400 metres of altitude and limestone soil guarantee freshness in this 12% ‘aperitif wine’. Medium gold in colour, fragrant with a hint of salinity and a satisfying mouthfeel. ‘Clarity’ and ‘restraint’ were the words John used to sum it up. This could age 4-5 years perhaps – and John made the general point that the longer Rhone whites age the more exotic they become.

Wine no 2 was Domaine Mouton’s Côte Bonnette 2021 Condrieu (https://www.bbr.com/products-20211134720-2021-condrieu-cote-bonnette-domaine-mouton-rhone). 100% Viognier but though apricot was the first fragrant note, there was apple and peach too – and none of the blowsiness that mars so many of today’s Viogniers. Definitely ‘not standard issue’ Condrieu this. White pepper on the nose plus white fruits and a touch of tobacco. This wine weighs in at 14% and glycerol gives it that oily texture – and its capacity to age. Right now, this wine is compact, dense, even stubborn but it will unfold over the next few years and could easily continue to develop for a decade or more. It’s handled in 300 litre oak casks (20% new each year). This was universally liked by members, even though wine no 3 just shaded it as the white wine of the evening.

Wine no 3 was Le Vieux Donjon Blanc of 2021 (see https://www.yapp.co.uk/chateauneuf-du-pape-le-vieux-donjon-blanc-2021). 50/50 Clairette and Roussanne from a single hectare of 1990s plantings that produce some 3500 bottles of this stunning 15% wine. The varieties are picked 12 days apart (Roussanne before the slower ripening Clairette) and handled in steel – no oak. Today these wines are handled more gently than in the past: pressed more lightly to minimise tannins, and a halt to bâtonnage since sufficient richness is not an issue here. Malolactic was blocked in 2021 to maintain freshness. The result is a soft, welcoming wine with saline length and white flower aromas. ‘Rock and roll and finesse’ was John’s pithy summary.

On to the reds…

We started with Patrick Jasmin’s 2021 ‘La Chevalière’ (https://www.yapp.co.uk/igp-collines-rhodaniennes-patrick-jasmin-la-chevaliere-2021), classified IGP des Collines Rhodaniennes since the vines grow on the plain outside the Côte Rôtie appellation area. This is 100% Syrah, yet ‘delicate’ and ‘pretty in the best sense’, though liable to get lost in mass tastings and at 12% alcohol would certainly not have been to the taste of Robert Parker (that ‘good American boy who liked sugar and exaggeration’). But, ‘energy-giving’, perfect for ‘steak frites’ and a dab of garlic. It evolved in the glass though – as several members testified.

Wine no 5 was Domaines de Lises 2019 from Crozes-Hermitage (https://www.yapp.co.uk/crozes-hermitage-rouge-alain-graillot-2020). Alain Graillot has 6 ha of clay and limestone soil by the Hill of Hermitage and the 2019 (warmer and drier than 2021) gave the wine plenty of weight and 14% alcohol. We drank from magnums which age more slowly and benefit from double decanting to lose that reductive tang (think sol and damp earth). In the southern Rhône Syrah can go a bit jammy; here it was laden with black fruit, warm and welcoming without losing its fine tannin structure or its composure. This would happily age for a decade or more – and John told stories of recently drunk bottles of Crozes going back into the 1960s.

From Crozes-Hermitage we moved to a 2020 Côtes du Rhône from Domaine Charvin (https://www.vinetrail.co.uk/growers/domaine-charvin/domaine-charvin-cotes-du-rhone). 81% Grenache (some from hundred-year-old vines) with 10% Syrah. 5% Mourvèdre / Mataro and 4% Carignan making up the balance. The Syrah adds colour and tannins; the Mourvèdre length, firmness, colour and a liquorice note. 15% alcohol with spicy fruit and lots of concentration. For John this was a wine that still needed time to come together. ‘Unfinished business’ as yet was the verdict … but give it time.

Wine no 7 was Moulin de la Gardette Tradition of 2019 from Gigondas (https://www.vinetrail.co.uk/growers/moulin-de-la-gardette/gigondas-2017-tradition). 80% Grenache (again) but now paired with 10% Cinsaut and 10% Mourvèdre. Moulin de la Gardette’s vineyards are in the clear air in the lee of the Dentelles de Montmirail, though lower down the slopes to get the herby /spicy notes form the ‘garrigue’. Gigondas was promoted from ‘village’ status only in 1971; kept at bay by the protectiveness of Baron Le Roy of Châteauneuf-du-Pape who saw it as a threat. This example showed why – lots of exuberant brambly fruits with a touch of menthol and pine on the nose and red / black berry fruited palate to carry its 14.5% of alcohol. For John this a wine from his ‘W-O-W’ category – ‘what one wants’. Versatile, easy to drink with a wide range of foods. Jean-Baptiste Meunier is a ‘discrete’ producer, allowing the wine to come together in old oak foudres rather than rushing or attempting to show off.  

Last up was a pair of Châteauneuf-du-Papes from 2020. The first we tasted was Le Vieux Donjon Rouge (https://www.yapp.co.uk/chateauneuf-du-pape-le-vieux-donjon-rouge-2020); the second Piedlong from Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe (https://www.bbr.com/products-20208136949-2020-chateauneuf-du-pape-piedlong-famille-brunier-rhone ). 2020 was a ‘kindly’ year for growers – no mildew and not too hot. Both were raised in similar fashion though the blends were slightly different: the Vieux Donjon 75% Grenache, 10% each of Syrah and Mourvèdre and 5% Cinsaut whilst the more immediately approachable Piedlong was 90% Grenache and 10% Mourvèdre but for John, the real difference was in the soil. The Piedlong Grenache is grown on sand (a pairing ‘made in heaven’), whereas the Vieux Donjon is grown on galets giving a darker wine from older vines that at this stage of its development – decades to come of course – felt more closed and brooding. At this point the 14.5% Piedlong was characterised by red fruit freshness (redcurrants and cherries?) and fine tannins, and beautiful balance and finesse. The Vieux Donjon, which is slightly weightier at 15%, shows more spice and leather right now, and still needs a bit of time to allow the fruit to come through as it will. A fascinating pair of wines to finish with indeed.

The members’ votes for their favourite red were fairly evenly balanced but the Piedlong finished top with some 20 hands raised in support against 16 for the Gigondas and 14 for the Domaine de Lises.

Giving a deeply felt vote of thanks, Richard Liwicki summed up the tasting perfectly: great wines, passion, deep knowledge, and great stories.

A memorable treat for those who attended and our regrets that we had to turn away some later-booking members and their guests.

 

GH: 20/9/23

 


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https://www.oxfordwineclub.org.uk/super-rhône https://www.oxfordwineclub.org.uk/super-rhône https://www.oxfordwineclub.org.uk/super-rhône Tue, 19 Sep 2023 18:30:00 GMT
Rosé - "Anything but Provence" The Club members were treated to a highly entertaining and informative presentation on the world of rosé by Provence resident, rosé producer, and rosé specialist Elizabeth Gabay MW. (A return visit to the Club. She made a first presentation to us several years ago).

 

In order to entertain our tastebuds and explore our vinous appreciation skills, we were firstly presented blind with a glass of what appeared to be a slightly petillant rosé. On revealing to members that this wine was the infamous Mateus Rosé; Elizabeth went on to discuss the question of how we define rosé wine. This was to become an underlying theme of her presentation during the evening.

Remarking that as there is no legal definition to rosé wine, winemakers are free to create the wine by which ever method best suits them … and therefore their market. Noting that the market is the driving force for most producers, Elizabeth then presented us with a table of the best-selling brands of rosé in the UK. This revealed that the majority were from Provence and the top brand to be that produced in the name of Kylie Minogue! But how can one tell the difference between the wines and are some better than others? Elizabeth revealed to us that in her professional career she tasted dozens of rosé wines every day and that she did not like 90% of them, however ‘the other 10% were exciting’.

 

We were presented with eight wines to taste, and these were served in 3 flights. The first three wines classified as popular ‘fruity, aromatic, off-dry, easy drinking’ type rosés. The second flight was concerned with the question of ‘can rosé be serious?’ This consisted of three traditional and historic, old-fashioned style wines.

The final flight of two ‘outside the box’ rosés came with a mention of ‘Gorgeous Gabriele in Puglia!’

 

Flight 1

 

1).        Shypoke, Rosé of Charbono 2020.

The estate grown, hand crafted wines are sustainably farmed on the century old family ranch, located in the northern end of the Napa Valley. The ranch is situated on a bed of alluvial soil which creates fruit of unique character and elegance. The heirloom Charbono variety, hailing from the Savoie and has been grown at the Calistoga ranch since 1904.

See https://www.shypoke.com

 

This rare Napa Valley ‘fruit to bottle’ rosé…. is the result of a fruit thinning pass at 50% veraison. Whole cluster pressed and fermented at 12.7C until dryness. Nevertheless an off-dry pink wine though with some crispness.

 

According to one reviewer, this wine is delicate with compelling balance. Lifted fruit, while detailing restraint. Crushed rose petals and delicate strawberries on the nose, on the palate, sticky dense strawberry jus dominates, with fresh lychee fruit elements and bright savoury notes on the finish. Very satisfying and refreshing. 200 cases produced. [NB. For California, the 2020 vintage was nothing short of traumatic, with heatwaves, lightning strikes, wildfires, and the Covid pandemic!]

See https://www.winespectrum.com/wine/2020-shypoke-rose/

 

Charbono (Bonarda) is a widely travelled [usually red wine] grape variety with a complicated history. Originally from the alpine vineyards of Savoie in eastern France, it is now mostly planted in Napa Valley, where it is known as Charbono, and in Argentina, where it goes by the name Bonarda. Charbono was known as "Corbeau de Savoie" in its native France, and as "Douce Noire" in Savoie itself. Charbono covers 30 hectares of land in the Golden State. In the vineyard, Charbono, is usually one of the last varieties to be harvested, as it needs plenty of time on the vine to ripen fully. Even then, it is notable for its high acidity, but when yields are kept to a minimum, this can be accompanied by rich fruit complexity, structured tannins and some sweet notes of spice.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douce_noir

 

2).        Troupis Route Gris Moschofilero 2021.

An gris ‘natural’ wine in the form of the intensely flavoured Moschofilero from Greece. Moschofilero is the flagship grape of this particular winery from vines at 700m altitude. It is in fact a 'gris', or grey, grape, meaning the skins are tinged slightly pink in colour. It is macerated on its skins for one week, like it has been for this wine, the result is a pretty peachy-pink hue. A little cloudy in the glass, as it's unfiltered. An explosion of heady rose petal and parma violet fragrance, for which this grape variety is known. The palate is pleasantly full and round, with flavours of mandarin, mango, Turkish delight and grapefruit. It's a very individual wine, which won't be to everyone's taste, but offers good complexity of flavour, intensity, and uniqueness.

See https://www.decanter.com/wine-reviews/greece/peloponnese/troupis-route-gris-moschofilero-arkadia-peloponnese-2021-62506

Moschofilero is a pink-skinned, aromatic grape variety grown mainly on Greece's Peloponnese peninsula. It has been said that there is no single Moschofilero, only many mutations of the ancient "Fileri" grape family from Peloponnese. The -filero suffix lends itself to many varieties grown in the area that have a similar DNA makeup to Moschofilero.

For vineyard website, see https://www.troupiswinery.gr/en/wine/route-gris/

3).        Cabernet d’Anjou: Chateau La Tomaze Rosé 2020

Made from Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon or a blend of the two. This Cabernet d'Anjou, demi-sec [10 grammes residual sugar] rosé wine is salmon-pink in colour, with fresh, inviting, wild strawberry, crushed-raspberry aromas, the merest hint of pepper, and a juicy palate for carefree summer drinking. A perfect aperitif on a hot summer's day, this rosé wine is also very adaptable and can be served with a varied range of dishes such as savoury-sweet or spicy exotic food, (Indian, Thai or Chinese cooking), quiches, or a melon topped with berries. Serve at 6 - 8 degrees C. Certified organic. Will keep up to 5 years.

See https://www.yapp.co.uk/cabernet-d-anjou-chateau-la-tomaze-rose-2020

 

Cabernet d'Anjou is the appellation specifically reserved for rosé Anjou wines made from the 'Cabernet' grapes – a combination of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. The wines are frequently off dry or even semi sweet. However balanced acidity and good tannic structure make them not only more ageworthy, but currently more commercial than their Rosé d'Anjou counterparts. A Cabernet d'Anjou wine can originate from any one (or several) of the district's 150 communes, stretching from Saumur in the east to Champtoceaux in the west. This area lies on the dividing line between the carboniferous soils of the Armorican Massif and the whiter, limestone rich soils of the southern Paris Basin.

 

Vineyard website [French only],  http://www.tomaze.com

 

Flight 2

 

4).        Château de Manissy, Tavel Rosé Tet de Cuvée

The 17th century Château de Manissy is in the Southern Rhône Valley. Once the property of the Lafarge family they donated it to the local church. The Holy family’s missionaries acquired the castle at the beginning of the 20th century and began growing their own vines to produce their first Cuvée of Tavel wine. The same wine making technique from 1915 is still currently used.  In 2003, winemaker Florian André took over management of the vineyards. The Tête de Cuvée is a biodynamic barrel aged dry rosé. Made from hand-harvested, Cinsault, Clairette and Grenache Blanc grapes grown on galets roulés [the Rhône Valley’s classic rounded pudding-stones] over sand and blue clay soils.  The grapes are destemmed, crushed, and cold-soaked for 24-48 hours before pressing, alcoholic fermentation is initiated by native yeasts and continues at low temperatures (16-18°C) for around 15 days with malolactic fermentation depending on vintage. The wine is then aged in 225-litre oak barrels for 12 months and has excellent aging potential.

A pinkish colour, with bold, copper highlights. A rich, complex style of rosé with aromas of ripe quince, dried orange and hints of almond and exotic spice; full bodied yet dry and elegant with a long, satisfying finish. Comes into its own when paired with food, matching particularly well with North African spiced grills and tagines. Serve between 10° - 12°.

See https://www.amathusdrinks.com/b2c/chateau-de-manissy-tavel-rose

 

Vineyard website, https://www.chateau-de-manissy.com/le-domaine/?lang=en

 

5).        Saint-Chinian: Château Milhau-Lacugue Rosé 2020

A scarlet-hued oaked rosé in complete contrast to the translucent Provençal pinks. Winemaker Jean Lacugue makes this ruby-red rosé à l’ancienne' ('in the traditional style') using the saignée method - producing the opposite of a light-salmon vin clair. This is a blend of Grenache Noir, Cinsault and Mourvèdre grapes grown on limestone-clay soils. It has fresh, dry, vibrant red berry fruit flavours and aromas. A versatile and excellent food wine that can be appreciated in both summer and winter. Can be drunk up to 5+ years after vintage.

See https://www.yapp.co.uk/saint-chinian-chateau-milhau-lacugue-rose-2020

 

Saignée means ‘to bleed,’ and describes a method of rosé winemaking that involves ‘bleeding’ off, after a short period of time, a portion of red wine juice after it has been in contact with the skins and seeds. This separated juice then finishes fermenting on its own to produce a bolder and darker colour rosé wine.

 

6).        Rioja Rosado, Finca Allende 2017

A wine that breaks myths …

A blend of 60% Tempranillo and 40% Garnacha grapes, sourced from the Acquineta vineyards that are over 30 years old. The grapes are handpicked, pressed in a vertical press, fermented in stainless steel tanks at 18C, then aged for approximately 30 months in French oak Bordeaux barrels that are racked every four months. Finally, the wine is bottled without being filtered.

 

The result is a rich, complex dry wine with a bright salmon-pink in colour. Notes of strawberries, raspberries, cherries, and a hint of citrus on the nose. The palate reveals a vibrant acidity and minerality, balanced with a subtle sweetness and a refreshing finish. Perfect pairing with vegetables, pasta, salads, pizzas, spicy dishes, rice dishes, grilled fish, and seafood. Best served at 9C. Has extraordinary bottle aging potential.

 

Finca Allende, established in 1986 by Miguel Ángel de Gregorio, is housed in a historic manor from the 17th century situated in the mediaeval town of Briones on the right bank of the Ebro River, in the centre of Rioja Alta. The high altitude vineyards are situated on hills that face north, northeast, and northwest composed of red clay and gravel. They are thus exposed to various continental, Mediterranean, and Atlantic influences. The vines are grown without using any form of herbicide or artificial pesticides and are protected and cared for using traditional manual methods, including the use of draught animals.

 

Vineyard website, http://www.finca-allende.com/en/

 

Flight 3

 

7).        Alto Piemonte, Al Posto dei Fiori, Le Pianelle Rosato 2018

 

‘A rosé in the family style of Barolo.’

From the northern Piedmont, Al Posto dei Fiori (Instead of flowers) is a rich full bodied, yet refreshing dry, organic rosé.

A blend of 90% Nebbiolo, 5% Vespolina and 5% Croatina grapes from at least 20-year-old vines. The Nebbiolo had a cold maceration period for about 48 hours with the temperature controlled using dry ice. The rest of the wine is a saignée of Croatina and Vespolina from the red wine production. Cold fermentation followed in stainless steel tanks for about 22 days. Winemaker Cristiano Garella ferments 10% of the wine in used Slavonian barriques. The wine is then bottled in March following the harvest.

 

The bouquet is dominated by aromas of red fruits, liquorice. Then big, rich, dense and spicy with slightly sweet flavors of pomegranate and watermelon. Wild strawberry, lychee sour cherry and fresh orange peel flavours are also present. There is an overarching minerality to the nose. Finishes very juicy and long.  Al Posto dei Fiori will age well for 5 years or more and is excellent with food such as salmon, shrimp, roast chicken and pasta.

 

Vineyard website, https://www.lepianelle.com/en/

 

8).        Aoton Lola Retsina Rosé 2018

 

‘If men drink retsina and women drink rosé, if you mix the two then everyone will drink it’.

 

Made from a blend of 74% Mandilaria, and 26% Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, this organic dry rosé hails from central Greece and the Retsina of Peania PGI. The 1.1-hectare vineyard is made up of mostly slightly alkaline clayey sand.

 

The grapes are hand-picked at night then quickly destemmed and basket pressed. Wild yeasts are used in the fermentation during which a small quantity of pure resin from the pine-forest of Kouvara is added. This is dissolved during the vinification leaving behind subtle resinous undertones. The wine remains in tanks for 8 months on its fine lees with periodic batonnage.

 

Dark pomegranate in colour.

A complex nose with aromas and taste of fresh and dried strawberries, raspberries, mastic resin, pine nuts and hints of mahlab spice and rosemary. On the palate, flavours of melon and strawberries float over the botanical base notes.

The wine is perfect with, sardines, grilled salmon, baked grouper, spicy sausages, grilled mushrooms with garlic and coriander, pork tigania and any olive-oil based dish.

 

Technical details, https://aoton.gr/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/LoLa-2018.pdf

Vineyard website, https://aoton.gr

 

 

Chris Blakey 20/06/23


Gina AllenTweet This]]>
https://www.oxfordwineclub.org.uk/rosé-anything-but-provence- georgina.allen@gtc.ox.ac.uk (Gina Allen) https://www.oxfordwineclub.org.uk/rosé-anything-but-provence- https://www.oxfordwineclub.org.uk/rosé-anything-but-provence- Sun, 18 Jun 2023 18:30:00 GMT
Rioja: expanding its horizons ‘Ten wines, ten different aspects of Rioja.’ Such was Andrew Halliwell’s pitch when he came to talk to Club members at St Cross College (a new and very successful venue for the Club).

And ten wines there were: a sparkling Rioja, a rare Tempranillo Blanco, a rosé made by Andrew himself at Bodega Obalo, and then seven reds ranging from examples of new wave, fruit-driven wines from Garnacha and Maturano Tinto to more traditional, Tempranillo- and oak-dominated wines.

 Andrew himself came to the wine after spending a happy few years at New College studying engineering and getting seriously into rowing. In fact, we only managed to book this tasting by making sure it coincided with Eights Week. After ten years of engineering he switched careers to wine, doing first a conversion course in Adelaide and then a range of harvests all over the world. He’s now been in Rioja, at Logroño, for eighteen months and preparing to make the most of the pretty free hand he’s been given. ‘Match the colour of the rosado’ (wine no 3) appears to be the only instruction – apart from making sure he’s producing wines that sell.

And that, in a changing Rioja, poses problems. The big question is this: do you follow the taste of the consumers in Spain (who he tells us are very traditional and loyal to Spanish wines) or of those elsewhere, or do you follow the wine critics? Just as the Rioja region is subject to three competing wind patterns, so the wine has to battle the competing pressures of climate change, the consumers’ love of the familiar vanilla oak dominated traditional wines and the critics’ pressure for non-traditional varieties and wine-making styles that showcase fruit and terroir.

“A hundred kilometres of diversity” is one way of characterising Rioja. The three sub-regions of this beautiful mountainous area – Rioja Alta to the west, Rioja Alavesa to the north and west and Rioja Orientales (previously known as Rioja Baja) to the east – get rain on the northern slopes from Atlantic winds coming south, hot, dry air from the Spain’s central southern belt and damp, warm winds from the Med coming in from the south-east. As the climate gets hotter the challenges increase. Tempranillo, the central grape of Rioja for 150 years and more, doesn’t do too well in the heat. This is less of a problem for other grapes such as Garnacha – but they bring their own challenges. Garnacha can deliver more alcohol than the market wants and doesn’t take that well to vanilla oak treatment, the style that made Rioja’s name and still sells well both in Spain and in the UK, which is Rioja’s no 1 export market. The sheer scale of the region adds to its diversity. 65,000 ha of vines, 567 wineries with DO accreditation and another 150 without, nearly 15,000 growers and an astonishing 1.3 million barrels of oak – a collective investment of £650 million pounds. Even today, it’s not really one region – and tomorrow that will be even less true as terroir-drive producers stake their claim and make their fame.

So how did Andrew express this diversity in a single tasting?

Wine 1 Conde de Haro Cava, 2019 Wine Society, £13.95

We started with a Sparkling Rioja from Muga. Technically this is a traditional method Cava, though made from Viura and Chardonnay rather than the usual Xarel·lo, Viura (aka Macabeu) and Parellada, with bright autolytic character from fermenting in oak. Cava, however, has had an image problem – and a geography problem – for many years. Certainly 95% of Cava is made in Penedes (Catalonia) but there’s little to stop any Spanish sparkling producer using the name.  The nationalist ferment in Catalonia a few years ago led to some consumer boycotts and a chance for other producers to establish their own regional identity.  

Wine 2 Cor de Mei, Martina 2016 14.5%abv, c 15 Euros direct from Bodega

Made by a small, quality-oriented family producer in Rioja Alta, which switched from a 400 year-long heritage of grape-growing to making their own wine in 2015. They only make ‘Reserva’ wines – that is wines with age and this, their 2016, comes from the rare Tempranillo Blanco, discovered only in 1988 when a red Tempranillo vine went rogue. The white bunches were spotted, subjected to massal cloning and is now becoming an increasingly important player in the Riojan scene. A touch of butterscotch and caramel on the nose with grapefruit and grapefruit peel flavours and a waxy/lanolin character. This is a non-DO wine but, as Andrew said, DO certification is pretty lax if you want that accreditation. Yield limits and approved grapes are all that’s needed. Irrigation is accepted but limited simply by lack of water – an increasingly important issue. In response to a question, Andrew said that in his view dry farmed wines were not necessarily better.

Wine 3 Bodega Obalo 2022 Rosado  14% abv C8 Euros direct from Bodega

Of Andrew’s own making this is 100% Tempranillo is produced using the ‘sangrado’ method – that is, grapes are piled into the vat for eight hours and left to drain under their own weight. The free-run juice makes the rosado; the residue on the damp skins is pressed to go into red wine. 2022 was an ‘insanely hot’ year and the alcohol is a touch higher than Andrew would have liked – this year he will be picking earlier. The colour – not the pale pink of Provence, nor the deeper red of Cinsault wines – is a marker for the Bodega and maintaining it was the sole stipulation on Andrew from the winery owners. Some very slight reductive notes with red fruit and a touch of fennel in the finish. All we lacked was the yacht in Menorca…

Wine 4 Eguren Ugarte’s Maceración Carbónica 2022 13.5%abv £11.95 Butlers Wine Cellar

With wine no 4 we moved on to red wines. First up was from the Rioja Alavesa. This is a wine for drinking young (like Beaujolais Nouveau in many ways) and a very traditional style in the Rioja region, though it had some years out of fashion when it was seen as a symbol of Basque independence. 100% Tempranillo and – as the label makes clear – 100% carbonic maceration of whole grape bunches. This delivers a low tannin, vividly coloured and early release red wine with a hint of candied banana that’s low cost and very likeable. Made in a hot dry year, the grapes were picked early so there is some evidence of green tannins.

Wine 5  Sierra de Toloño, La Dula  2021 14% abv £20.95 Ultracomida.com

This wine is definitely not traditional. Made by Sandra Bravo, one of the ‘new faces’ of Rioja who are ‘shaking things up’ it is made from 100% Garnacha grown on 75-year-old old wines  at 650 metres, in the western Rioja, on a plot with vines dating back to 1944. This is borderline country for Garnacha which is usually found further south. Made in clay tinajas, there’s no oak here and the result is an unfiltered wine with blue tints, a pink rim and huge amounts of sweet fruit, a touch of spice and savoury / farmyard character (perhaps a spot of Brettanomyces) and bags of energy. Not for ageing though. Definitely in the ‘drink now’ category.

Wine 6 Kármán’ Tinto 2021 14.5%abv £11.95 Butlers Wine Cellar

This wine comes with a fine ‘Urban Spaceman’ label to complement the name – apparently the Kármán line marks the edge of space! Once such a design would have bene unthinkable but now ‘anything goes’. This is another new project aimed at a new generation of younger drinkers. 88% Garnacha with 12% Tempranillo, fermented in stainless steel with some partial carbonic maceration. The result is smooth and juicy with sweet red fruit from the southern edge of the Rioja Alta and an old established winery. The ‘rosé of red wines’ was Andrew’s brief summation and, as promised, it went down very easily.

Wine 7 Leza Garcia’s Nube 2021  14%abv 8 Euros direct from Bodega

This is another tradition-buster. Made with Maturana Tinta, (described by Andrew as ‘a cabernet franc type of grape’) very dark red / purple, almost fiery in its attack with the bell / green pepper notes of pyrazine complementing rich black fruit. Maturana Tinta is only grown in Rioja. Despite (or because of) mainly maturation in stainless steel and only a few months in American oak, there was nothing vanilla about this wine. Made by a small winery.

Wine 8 Navajas’ Crianza 2017 14%abv £9.25 The Wine Society

With this wine we moved for the first time into more traditional Rioja territory.  Produced on the north-western edge of Rioja Alta from 95% Tempranillo and 5% of other varieties and aged in American and French oak, this a fairly traditional Rioja blend rather than the increasingly terroir-inflected wines we had tasted to this point. This, said Andrew, is currently a rather unfashionable stye. Customers like it – but the critics don’t. However this was many members’ favourite among the reds. It’s probably at its peak now but currently the blackberry fruit is appealing with vanilla notes on the nose and just a hint of farmyard to add complexity. After 2-3 years the fruits will fade.

Wine 9 Lopez Heredia’s Vins Cubillo 2014 13.5%abv £18.00 The Wine Society

From a very traditional house with a great reputation, and a stylish architect designed tasting room, this is classic Rioja to the nth degree. The firm, based in Haro’s famous ‘Barrio de la Estación’, ages its wines far longer than most – Andrew had a story of a bin of 1970 white Rioja that the house still refused to release on the grounds that it was not ready! Slightly oxidative character, less fruit than most of the other wines we had been tasting but very fine – smooth and with notes of game and leather. The firm has its own coopers to prepare and maintain its old American oak barrels and Andrew pointed out the price advantage of American – 600 euros a barrel versus 900-1000 euros for French.

The Barrio de la Estación, which calls itself the ‘greatest concentration of historic bodegas in the world’ hosts an annual tasting called La Cata which, Andrew reckoned, was well worth its 75 euro price – given the quality of the wines from producers such as Muga, Bodegas Bilbaínas, Gomez Cruzado and CVNE (producers of the last wine of the evening), and the gourmet quality of the snacks on offer.  

Wine 10 CVNE, Imperial Reserva 2017 14%abv £26.95 Ultracomida.com

We closed with CVNE’s (Compañía Vinícola del Norte de España, erroneously but generally pronounced ‘Cune’)’s Imperial Reserva. This wine, which is made only in good years, is a blend of 85% Tempranillo, with 15% of Graciano, Mazuelo and Garnacha. Designed to last and improve for a minimum of 5-10 years, it represents the apex of the traditional style of Riojan wine-making with huge amounts of care taken over each component of the blend and the final assemblage taking place only when the aging process (in both American and French oak) is complete. Still tasting youthful with mulberry and vanilla on the nose and powerful cassis in the mouth, which powered a long and elegant finish.

Andrew had taken questions from the floor throughout the night but there were still plenty of more voices and hands raised as we quizzed him about the future of the region. Should producers follow critical taste and diminish the oak and the emphasis on quality as determined by length of aging or should they go more for less extraction, cooler ferments and lower alcohol. In terms of our tasting was Kármán’ Tinto the future or is Navajas’s Crianza the way to go. And what should growers do? For them, uncertainty is a big issue. Some – like Bodegas Familiares (wine no 2) – have moved into wine-making; others look for the security of long-term contracts with the bigger houses. For the houses the best policy seems to be ‘grow some, buy some’ and this philosophy is the one that Andrew’s own bodega espouses.

Giving a very well-deserved vote of thanks, Leah Maclean spoke of the range of the tasting, the wonderful way in which Andrew had identified and explored the tensions in the region and the approachability of his explanations.

     

 

 

  GH: 26/5/23

   

 


Gina AllenTweet This]]>
https://www.oxfordwineclub.org.uk/rioja-expanding-its-horizons georgina.allen@gtc.ox.ac.uk (Gina Allen) https://www.oxfordwineclub.org.uk/rioja-expanding-its-horizons https://www.oxfordwineclub.org.uk/rioja-expanding-its-horizons Thu, 25 May 2023 18:00:00 GMT
The Best of the US: an insider guide to North American wine A wonderful tasting of wines from the Wine Society’s portfolio, illustrating the effects of terroir on the choice of grape variety in California and Oregon and contrasting wine making techniques. A sparkling wine (Quartet Anderson Valley Brut, Roederer Estates NV) was the entry wine followed by four pairings:

  1.  Elk Cove Vineyards Williamette Valley Estate Pinot Blanc 2021 versus Epiphany Santa Barbara Grenache Blanc 2018
  2. Sokol Blosser Dundee Hills Chardonnay 2020 versus Au Bon Climat Santa Barbara Chardonnay 2021
  3. Fess Parker Sta. Rita Hills Pinot Noir 2021 versus Piedrasassi Sta. Rita Hills Sebastiano-Patterson Vineyard Syrah 2017
  4. Long Meadow Ranch Napa Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 versus Once and Future Dickerson Vineyard Napa Zinfandel 2020.

The presenter, Sarah Knowles, who has responsibility for wine buying at the Wine Society for Champagne and Italy as well as North America, also discussed her ‘wine journey’ from geography undergraduate to MW.

For details of the tasting please click through.

[weblink to main tasting report]

A spectacular tasting and an inspiring presenter. Thanks to the generosity of the Wine Society we were able to taste a remarkable range of North American wines chosen by @Sarahthewinebuyer.

Sarah Knowles mixed stories and insight from her own personal journey into the world of wine (‘exciting, exacting – and very poorly paid!’) with illuminating commentary on the wines she had chosen. The politics of family businesses, Californian fogs and their role as fridges, the importance of finding mortgage-free wine-makers, the freedom given to WS buyers to list only those wines that they believe offer value – and that they themselves would buy (and do buy). All this and more in a packed two hours.

Having won a hockey blue, Sarah gave it up because (she said) the social side of Oxford sport was taking up too much time from her geography course – and joined first the Wine Circle and then the Blind Wine Tasting group. From the start she was hooked by the intricacies of blind tasting – and from the start she was clearly a spectacular star. Part of the winning Oxford team in the Pol Roger contests against first Cambridge and then a French team, James Simpson MW of Pol Roger said ‘you need to become an MW’. So she did. Work experience along the way in France, Chile, Australia, New Zealand and Oregon demonstrated the generosity of the wine trade, persuaded her that wine making was not her calling (‘soft hands’) and set her en route to her present role as buyer for Champagne, Italy and North America.

The first wine of the evening was the Roederer Estate’s non vintage Quartet Anderson Valley Brut. Made in a mountain enclave opening out to the Pacific planted up by Roederer and others in the early 1990s this is a 60/40 Pinot Noir and Chardonnay blend that draws on as much as 40% of reserve wine stocks. Reserve wine is the secret weapon of sparkling wine producers and it was encouraging to hear that English producers are steadily building their stocks – which means there should be a steady improvement in the quality of the house blend. There’s not so much Pinot Meunier in the Anderson Valley as in Champagne and there’s a mix of champagne and burgundian clones. Two years on the lees and several years of bottle ageing make for a rich, creamy wine with clean fruit, yeasty / nutty notes and great freshness. Then came a pair of west coast whites with very different styles.

First of a contrasting pair of white wines was Elk Cove’s Willamette Valley Estate Pinot Blanc from 2021. Oregon’s wine industry – as Mark Savage has told us in previous tastings – was dominated from the start by a ‘plant a row or two of everything and see what works’ approach. It’s easy to make the assumption that Oregon is too far north for properly ripening grapes but in fact it’s pretty much the same latitude as central France. Pinot Blanc, given cool night air and good sunshine, works a treat. Elk Cove’s winemaking showcases both freshness and aromatic richness and this example from 20 year old vines displayed nectarine and peaches on the nose with decent acidity and a sense of richness. The Wine Society suggest this needs drinking by 2024 – but Sarah did say that the Society are always super-cautious with their drinking windows. ‘We are a retailer after all and don’t want you to blame us for out of condition wine’ – so the end date is their view of when the fruit will start to fade. But if you have a taste for the bouquet that comes with older wines then you can afford to take them with a pinch of salt.

Wine no 3 was from the Santa Barbara vineyards of southern California. Fess Parker’s success as Davy Crockett in the Hollywood movies made him rich and famous and when he retired from acting the money went into growing vines (unlike many US producers who buy in grapes farmed by others) and making wine. The business is now run by his children and grand-children – and here Sarah hinted at the need to keep on top of family ‘politics’ and the importance of getting to know each succeeding generation.

The Parker estate’s Epiphany Santa Barbara Grenache Blanc 2018 reminded some members of Riesling with the whiff of petroleum (or the waxy/lanolin of old vine Semillon). 20% of new oak adds to the slightly funky, almost feral, character of the grapefruit peel nose. Lots of energy and attack in this wine – and sufficient acidity and structure to age for 5-10 years whilst gaining aromatic complexity. Some (limited) oak influence and fairly high alcohol at 13%.

Responding to a question Sarah talked of the difference between ‘linear’ wines and those which sit more horizontally in the mouth. Linear wines are those which deliver a single-minded intensity with, hitting the same spot on the palate from start to finish. More horizontal wines are those with more dimensions – spreading out to offer different sensations on the palate and in the mouth.

Next up came a pair of Chardonnays – again matching up Oregon vs. Santa Barbara and again offering different takes – with preferences changing as we tasted and re-tasted the wines over the space of 10-15 minutes.

In the Oregon corner was the Sokol Blosser Dundee Hills 2020 Chardonnay. Bill and Susan Sokol Blosser planted their first wines in the Dundee Hills area in 1971 on red volcanic soil that had been the home of redwood forests. The soil is fairly infertile – so ideal for vines – but the land itself needed major ‘engineering’, meaning dynamite and big machinery to clear out the root systems left behind after the lumberjacks had moved through. The wine itself was delicate, precision made, with peach and apricot rather than green apple aromas overlaid with some salinity and a hint of warm vanilla from a degree of French oak fermentation and ageing. Probably another five years of good drinking for this one – but after that the fruit may begin to fade.

In the Californian corner, was Au Bon Climat’s Santa Barbara 2020 Chardonnay. The late Jim Clenenden who founded ABC in the early 1980s had become fascinated by wine on a visit to Burgundy and his approach to viticulture reflected this with Burgundian clones, 100% barrel fermentation in old French oak and the use of batonnage and wild yeasts to add complexity. On first sniff it seemed paler, less compelling that the Sokol Blosser but as it opened in the glass layers of complexity were revealed. Intense citrus and stone-fruit aromas with a touch of that reductive ‘struck match’ effect. In Sarah’s view this was a wine that would improve for another five years and then hold for at least another five years.

Then came the first two pairs of reds.

Fess Parker’s Santa Rita Hills 2021 Pinot Noir (14.5% abv) was served with the Piedrasassi Santa Rita Hills Sebastiano-Patterson Vineyard 2017 Syrah. Both these wines show high levels of typicity and Sarah strongly urged us that one of the best ways to build up our tasting skills is to taste one wine against another – blind! Thankfully she did not insist on this with the Club. Parker’s Pinot Noir was all clean red fruit (raspberries, strawberries, red and blackcurrants). French oak and 10-15% of whole bunch fermentation add complexity. The whole bunch fermentation (which demands hand-picked fruit) adds complexity to the flavours and makes for greener / stalkier tannins. This wine comes from one of the cooler sites of Parker’s vineyards – thanks again to all-night fogs – hence the remarkable freshness. Another keeper in Sarah’s view though some members wondered if there was enough structure for real longevity.

The Syrah was a very different beast. In Sarah’s view this was the possible ‘marmite’ wine of the tasting. indeed one Wine Society member’s response to this wine was ‘sack the buyer!’. Not for our members though. Winemaker Sashi Moorman’s approach is deeply influenced by the Northern Rhone. Like many of the smaller west coast producers, the family buy in their grapes and the wine is then made in small batches at Lompoc. Any tasting note that starts with stressing the initial hit of bacon or prosciutto (very reminiscent of Frazzles for those a taste for salty snacks) runs the risk of diminishing the stature of a fine wine that shows intensely floral and black pepper notes on the nose, dark fruit in the mouth and then leathery / gamey notes as the wine develops in the glass. Yet it carries its freshness through into a long, long finish.  

Sarah’s final choice was to showcase two iconic Californian grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel. The very first of her Wine Circle meetings had featured the wines of Chateau Kirwan. At that point she knew nothing of Bordeaux blends but the region fascinated her so much that she found her first wine job there – living in the ‘very grand’ West wing bedroom of Chateau Issan next door to Kirwan and dong whatever menial jobs were thrust upon her. But she was already hooked and Cabernet remains one of her (several) vinous obsessions.

The Long Meadow Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon of 2016 was the tastings only representative form the Napa but this was a wine not of the increasingly hot valley floor but of the hills. If you can’t get enough fog, go high! The Hall family ranch encompasses vineyards, olives and pasture in the hills to the north of Napa itself. Their still youthful wine opens with a bang - a big nose of plums, blackberries and a touch of menthol. Slightly smokey with a touch of licorice in the finish.

The final wine of the tasting was the Once and Future Dickerson Vineyard’s 2020 Zinfandel. For many members this was perhaps the surprise of the evening. Zinfandel links to southern Italy’s often pretty rustic Primitivos. Emigrants to America brought bundles of mixed vines with and their ‘mixed black’ rows of Alicante, Primitivo, Petit Syrah, Petit Verdot, Primitivo and the like were prized for their ability to deliver a balanced wine. Now Joel Dickerson makes a seriously classy 100% Zinf from ungrafted 110 year old vines grown on sandy soil (water hungry but phylloxera resistant). Red fruit notes of raspberries and red apple were overlain with distinctive notes of chocolate and coffee from its maturation in old redwood barrels and leading into a long and mint-tinged finish.

Both these wines, in Sarah’s judgment could take another twenty years of ageing and development. So, support the Wine Society, buy a box of each and ration your tasting… And, if you’re not a member think about joining. Every extra member (even if it’s two or more from a single household) adds to the buying power of Sarah and her colleagues.

Listening to Sarah it was clear why she is now a tutor for MW candidates and a mentor to so many women in wine. No wine b-s here, only clear and memorable expressions of her own enthusiasm for the way wine is shaped by the patterns of the land and climate (her geography degree finally earning its keep), by the nature of the soil and by personalities and passions of its makers.

A memorable tasting … and to reflect it at home you need naught but a Wine Society membership!

GH: 28/4/23

 


Gina AllenTweet This]]>
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Wood and Wine: a world of alchemy Wood and Wine: a world of alchemy with Nancy Gilchrist MW

It was a dark and stormy night at the Cherwell Boathouse on 22 March when Nancy took us deep into the depths of the forests … and led us out safely with a brilliant display of entertainment, erudition and fascinating wines.

The wine world, said Nancy, is perhaps just at the beginning of a third age of oenology. In the beginning (aka the 1970s) it was all about the cellars and the wineries. Wine, we thought, was made in the winery. Then in the 1990s came the vineyard revolution. Issues of leaf cover, planting density, vineyard management, soil treatment, micro-climatic effects dominated the discourse. And now we are entering the age of wood.

It’s not that the partnership of wood and wine is a new one. Wooden casks have been used to ferment, mature and store wine for millennia. What is new though is the technical advances that are adding science to the age-old art and expertise of the coopers.

A combination of DNA and chemical analysis of the wine itself enables us to identify not just the type of wood that has been used to produce the wine but to trace the wood back to specific forests. More than that, we can also identify the chemical compounds produced in the wine by that wood. Hence the winemaker can increasingly fine tune his or her processes to generate the specific aroma, flavours and mouthfeel required. 

Different woods and different use of those woods give very different aromas and flavours to the wine and Nancy used a combination of wonderful photographs, forest-location maps and her own clear exposition to make these differences clear to us. Most of the wood used by coopers for wine still comes from French forests - a legacy in part of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the French minister who planted forests such as the Allier and Tronçonnais over four hundred years ago and ensured that the practice of planting oak trees has continued since then. These forests, which still dominate top-end winemaking, are of two different oak species: quercus robur or quercus petraea. The wood of these trees is finer-grained than the most-used American oak - quercus alba - which comes from forests in Pennsylvania and Missouri. Eastern European wood from forests in Romania, Slovenia and Hungary is increasingly important to the wine trade. It’s not only that they can supply lower-priced French oak but the forests there are important source of other woods such as acacia, chestnut, cherry – though Italy is both the major user and major source of chestnut and cherry.

It is becoming increasingly clear that micro-climatic and terroir influences are as vital to the quality of the wood as they are to the grapes. In general, American oak trees grow faster than French. That creates a more open, less fine-grained cellular texture which in turn makes the transfer of flavour compounds quicker and easier. Denser woods also take longer to dry out sufficiently for use with wine. French oak wood is air-dried; most American oak is kiln-dried. Kiln-drying is not only far faster (weeks rather than the 3-5 years of French oak) but gives different flavouring to the wine. By contrast, air-drying oak allows wind and rain to slowly leach out tannins and creates wood that is almost impossible to saw but easier to bend to shape, though, unlike kiln-dried wood, it is more prone to warping and twisting in the barrel-making process.

Because French oak is impossible to saw into staves it has to be split, a laborious and highly skilled task but one which means that a proportion of each trunk is wasted. A single 130 year-old oak tree makes no more than 2-3 barriques. By contrast American oak can be sawn into staves far more easily and with less wastage. The staves need to be bent into shape to form the barrel and there are different techniques used. Immersion in near-boiling water is one technique, steam-bending another but traditional barrels are laboriously bent into shape over an open fire by the coopers. This process chars or ‘toasts’ the oak but there’s always the danger that over-exposure to heat can kill the vanillin which is so important to many red wines. Judging the precise amount of toast is one reason it takes a full five years of apprenticeship to become a master cooper. The barrel shape formed there’s still the ‘head’ to make. You can saw these pieces of the structure but - at the top end - you need to use specially grown female bullrushes to produce the glue that keeps the head watertight yet allows it to flex slightly with the barrel. But this specialised knowledge of craft is now spreading. French cooperages have set up in America, are introducing air-drying and learning how to make the most of American oak.

One consequence of the variation in woods and their treatment is that the price per barrel varies enormously. Kiln-dried barrels from Eastern Europe range from $360-500; top end French barrels can cost over $3500. Mouton Rothschild’s barrel room holds some 1000 barrels - that’s around $1,500,000 worth of stock before they receive even a drop of wine. Of course, these barrels - which will be used for only a few years - have a second-hand value. They hold Mouton Rothschild yeast - and what winemaker wouldn’t relish some of that in their cellar. The longer a barrel is used the less the flavour that it imparts - a ‘tremendous impact’ in the first year and rapidly falling thereafter. By year 4 they no longer impart much flavour or tannin to the wine - but they do have other advantages. After this time the pores of the wood which allow for micro-oxygenation whilst remaining wine-tight are ‘clogged’ with wine sediment. This slows down yet further the inflow of oxygen so the wine ages more slowly and, ultimately, more smoothly. The staves can be ‘shaved’ to reveal a fresh level of flavour but this reduction in thickness has the downside of speeding up the oxygen flow.  

If you can’t or won’t afford full-on oak barrels there are still ways of getting the impact of oak. Oak powder is the lowest level, next up is chips and at the top end there are staves which can either be dangled into the wine like an oaky teabag or be built into the framework of the barrel to further increase their impact. What’s more the winemaker can mix woods - an oak barrel with cherry staves to accentuate red fruit flavours for example. Chips, which in the past had a poor reputation, are steadily improving. The problem in the past was that they produced wines which were a bit ‘Smartie’ like - an outside veneer of flavour rapidly giving way to a less refined taste. But now, as our first set of white wine samples showed, the aromas and flavours are well integrated and telling the two treatments apart is getting harder. There’s a big cost impact though - French oak adds around 98p a litre to the bottle cost versus under 5p a litre if you use chips.

Once in the cellar, there are still influencing factors at play. Where in the cellar? In Jerez, closeness to the sea or height above the sea affects humidity and ageing. Closer to the sea the wine acquires a more saline quality. Humidity can also be managed by spraying water, while evaporation levels can be changed by rolling barrel so that the bung is off centre. So much to consider as we tasted the first four wines…

Wine no 1 was the Wine Society’s Macon-Villages (a quality bargain at £12.95). This was our ‘control’ wine - fermented and aged in stainless steel. This was rich and well-concentrated with notes of lemon and grapefruit and tropical fruits. Next up was a 2021 Chardonnay, the Candelabro Reserva from Underraga, based in the Leyda Valley in Chile. This is one of the oldest properties in Chile with its founder bringing in cuttings from Europe in the 1870s. A stronger, golden hue to the eye with discrete vanilla and rich tree fruits on the nose demonstrated the progress of chips and the increased precision with which winemakers handle them. 

Wine no 3 was many members’ wine of the evening. This was the Catena Alta 2019 Historic Rows Chardonnay. In this context ‘historic’ means 50-80 year-old vines grown at around 900 metres and irrigated through a complex system of channels - remarkably akin to the Madeiran levadas. Fermented in stainless steel and then matured for 14 months in French oak. The Catena Alta was much more intensely focused with a more savoury nose (nutmeg perhaps) as well as vanilla and roasted nuts. In the mouth a touch of tannin from the oak of the barrels (don’t believe those who say white wine has no tannin).

The final white wine was the 2018 Monopole Clasico Seco from CVNE. This white Rioja was made from Viura grown at 600 metres. Fermented in stainless steel and concrete but then aged first for eight months in American oak barriques before a blending period in Manzanilla barrels which added a distinct and appealing touch of oxidation. This had a deeper colour than previous wines and a richer, more expressive nose of pear, apple and white flowers with a hint of spice that oxidative effect from the sherry barrels added complexity and edge to the wine on the palate and in the finish.   

From white wines we moved to a set of four reds. First up was a 2018 Bonarda from Mendoza. ‘El Enemigo’ (and yes, it does mean the ‘enemy’) is made by the rather Zorro-like Alejandro Vigin (we had a distinctly Byronic picture of a winemaker apparently wrestling for his soul with the universe). This is not the same as the Italian Bonarda. Alejandro’s wine (which has 15% Cab Franc in the mix as well) was inky black with a narrow pink rim and high acidity. Fresh black fruit prevails with no indication of oak on the nose, and with tannins that have been polymerised and softened. This is down to ageing not in new oak but 100 year-old French foudres.

The next wine was not only fermented but also aged in large old chestnut casks. This was a 2020 Nebbiolo Arpepe (winemaker Arturo Perego’s use name) from the Rosso di Valtellina DOC in northern Italy. Nancy’s pictures revealed the scale of the winemaking challenge. The steep terraced slopes of granite and schist mean that grapes sometimes have to be helicoptered out. Apparently there is an official category of ‘Heroic Vineyards, to qualify for which they have to be at an altitude of over 500 metres and with slopes at more than 30 degrees. Arturo’s Nebbiolo was cherry red with a nose of red berries, rhubarb and a hint of nuts and mushrooms. Tart, even astringent in the mouth and in the finish with fine, slightly sandy tannins. A delicate wine, this would be over-powered by French oak hence the use of chestnut which, in general, has only a small impact on flavour and colour.

Wines nos 7 and 8 were both from Valpolicella- but different styles and quite different tastes. The 2019 Monte Piazzo from Alighieri was a blend of Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara (the Alighieri’s own clone). Unusually it is is semi-appassimento (rather than the full on appassimento for an Amarone). Deep in colour with a broadening brownish tinge to the rim. Red/black fruit with a strong hint of coffee grounds overlaid in the mouth with a touch of balsamic vinegar. Again rather unusually, this is aged for four months in cherry wood but it was hard to detect any specific effects. For coopers, cherry wood has the advantage that it can be sawn but the disadvantage that it is not always water-tight which means that spoilage can be a risk until the barrels have had time to become clogged with wine sediment. In general, the wood contributes cherry and red fruit flavours to wine.

No 8, the last of the reds, was an Amarone della Valpolicella made with a blend of 70% Corvina and 30% Rondinella passito. The grapes are air-dried for 3-4 months (losing 40% of their weight in the process), fermented to dry and then aged for 15 months in large Slavonian oak foudres. Dark red in colour, with a warm spicy nose and lots of dense but not at all harsh tannins.

The last wine of a fascinating - and extraordinarily well-received tasting - was a 2018 Santa Christina Vin Santo from the Antinori stable. Trebbiano and Malvasia grapes, dried for 5 months on straw mats and then slow fermented with indigenous yeasts and matured in 50 litre carritelli oak barrels. 14% natural alcohol with an elevated, rancio aroma and great length.   

The issue of barrel size is yet another source of different expressions in the finished wine. This is a tricky area, not just technically but also linguistically, since barrels change names and sizes as they cross regional or national boundaries. Burgundy tonneaux are bigger than those in Bordeaux; foudres can be anything from 500 to over 1000 litres in capacity. In general larger barrels means less flavour since less of the wine is exposed to the wood.

Oak, cherry and chestnut are not the only woods used for wine. Acacia (or the black locust tree) is fairly frequently used in Eastern Europe, particularly for white wines made from neutral or aromatic grapes. It has little effect on aroma and flavour but tends to add a yellow note to the wine and produces a slightly ‘waxy’ texture.

Club members were unanimous in their appreciation of this absorbing and deeply researched tasting. That’s not to say that everyone liked all the wines but the clarity of Nancy’s explanations and the evident distinctions in style imparted by different wood treatments to the wines, particularly the four whites, gave us all a far deeper understanding of the complex relationship between wine and wood - and the strong sense that, as Nancy said, this is still an unfolding science -and an unfolding story.

And if that gives us a chance to tempt Nancy back in a year or so with an update on the world of wood, then there would a large number of very pleased Club members. Thank you, Nancy.

GH: 24/3/23


Gina AllenTweet This]]>
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Eastern Discoveries (Wines of Eastern Europe) Background

A botanist by training (she graduated from Keble College Oxford and gained a PhD at Bath) Caroline is a woman who knows her way around a vine in more detail than most!

Caroline’s wine journey began when, in 1988, she joined Augustus Barnett (the wine store chain, now of blessed memory) as a junior wine buyer. She tells us she suffered some envy when her colleagues were assigned to more glamorous areas such as Champagne, but her love of the wines of Eastern Europe was soon ignited.

Caroline’s first book, published in 2018, was The Wines of Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova and she contributes to all the main wine publications: Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine Guide, the World Atlas of Wine, the Oxford Companion to Wine and Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopaedia, to name but a few. She is also a panel chair for the Decanter World Wine Awards, is a frequent contributor to Decanter and was the first foreigner to be made a ‘Friend of Hungarian Winemakers’ and is a member of the Confrerie of Tokaj. She is a wine consultant to the supermarket chain Lidl.

Caroline set up her own business in 1995.

Introduction

Caroline started her presentation by reminding us of the geography of the region, how varied the history and culture is of each of the countries and how varied the topography. With national boundaries changing over time, often several times within a relatively few years, culture and ethnicity tend to be of greater importance than a ‘nationality badge’. Each of the countries represented in the tasting (Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Hungary and Slovenia) was introduced showing a map of the country, highlighting the main wine growing areas, and the main wine industry statistics and grapes were given. The latter information is shown in each of the sections below.

THE TASTING

Bulgaria

Under communism, Bulgaria was a planned economy, so had a well organised, large scale wine producing sector. Today the wine industry is small and niche, with lots of smaller wineries, not large person teams. In total, it is today about a quarter of the size of Bordeaux in terms of size.

Bulgaria Statistics 2020 - data from EAVW

Total vineyard area                          60,162 ha

Vineyard area harvested for wine 29,108 ha

Red wine grapes                              15,791 ha

White wine grapes                           13,317 ha

99 wine grape varieties grown/harvested

Harvest (2020) 118,054 tonnes processed by wineries

Commercial wine production

2020: 735,359 hectolitres

2019: 857,375 hl (inc. 5,400hl PDO, 353,685 hl PGI)

282 registered wineries

Grapes in Production for Wine by Area (2021)

Leading Red Grapes

           Hectares

Merlot

                5,071

Cabernet Sauvignon

                4,773

Pamid

                1,058

Syrah

                1,032

Mavrud

                   855

Cabernet Franc

                   668

Pinot Noir

                   516

Gamza

                   218

Broadleaf Melnik

                   197

Rubin

                   185

Storgozia

                   150

Malbec

                   141

Leading White Grapes

        Hectares

Muscat Ottonel

            3,103

Chardonnay

            2,553

Sauvignon Blanc

            1,307

Red Misket

             1,170

Rkatsiteli

                950

Dimiat

                791

Traminer

                725

Ugni Blanc

                429

Tamianka

                301

Rhine Riesling

                 255

Viognier

                 233

Pinot Gris

                 207

Wine 1 – Logodaj Satin Brut 2017

Situated in the Melnik area on the Struma River in South Western Bulgaria, in the sunniest and warmest part of the country, the Logodaj winery was established in 1994 and the wines are produced under the consultancy of enologist Riccardo Cotarella. The Broad Leaved Melnik Vine and Early Melnik Vine are grapes varieties grown only in this part of the world. Made from Broad Leaved Melnik, by the traditional method, the wine has considerable natural acidity. Manual sorting ensures good grape quality. It spends a minimum of two years on the lees. Straw yellow with golden hues, notes of citrus and yeasty brioche on the palate. Clean, medium bodied and complex on the finish. Sparkling wine production was introduced in the 1960s and a pink sparkling wine is also made by this winery.

 

Romania

Romania is the largest of the countries in this area by population size and is the fifth largest grower of grapes in Europe. Unusually, of the 85 varieties to be found, the two largest grape varieties grown are native, not ‘noble’. Most of the production is drunk within the country and relatively little is exported. For example, Romanians think Pinot Noir is ‘too thin’ and most wine drunk is made from native varieties. Exports of wine to Germany, the UK and the Netherlands are however growing. Most of the Romanian wine to be found in the UK comes from two large scale producers. The geography and the climate of the country is diverse with Romania only having achieved its current boundaries in 1918, which contributes to the diversity of its culture. Romania was not a designated wine export country under communism.

Romania Statistics 2021

  • Total vineyard area:                   180,345 ha
  • Vineyard area Vitis vinifera:     97,042 ha
  • Red wine:                                     2.3 m hl
  • White wine:                                 2.2 m hl
  • DOC/IG wines:                            2.6 m hl (58%)
  • Commercial wine production:   4.45 million hl (Exports 174,000 hl, imports 562,000 hl)
  • Per capita consumption:            24.9 litres

Romania – Leading Grape Varieties 2021

Name

Area in Hectares

Fetească Regală

12289

Fetească Albă

12075

Merlot

11152

Other noble grapes

8488

Riesling Italico

7064

Sauvignon

5697

Aligoté

5204

Cabernet Sauvignon

5423

Muscat Ottonel

5156

Fetească Neagră

3187

Roșioară

2653

Băbească Neagră

2569

Pinot Noir

2040

Chardonnay

2009

Tămâioasă Românească (Muscat)

1747

Pinot Gris

1471

Burgund Mare (aka Blaufrankisch)

690

 

Busuioacă de Bohotin

678

Wine 2 – Prince Stirbey Cramposie Selectionata

The Cramposie grape variety goes back to pre-Roman Empire days when the region between the Danube and the Carpathians was inhabited by the Dacians. Since then, over the course of a few centuries, Cramposie vines have evolved to adapt to both soil and climate of the Drăgășani region in the south of the country. The grape is thought to be a cross between two other native varieties. This wine has become the white icon of the Drăgășani region as well as of the Prince Stirbey wine estate. The estate has an interesting history, with the family having managed to reclaim some of their estates which were seized during communism.

With refreshingly fruity notes (melon, grapefruit, lemon, lime) on the nose and the palate, the wine has bracing acidity and subtle minerality.  The head wine maker is German. Could accompany fish dishes and asparagus.

 

Moldova

Moldova is a country whose population is in decline. However Moldovans refer to their country as being ’built on vine roots’ and think of the country as being shaped like a bunch of grapes. Although noble grape varieties are grown, Moldova is trying to make native varieties a unique selling proposition. However, many ‘local’ varieties are also to be found in Romania. There are three main wine producing areas. Under communism, Moldova was a major producer of semi-sweet wines for Russia but Russia subsequently banned imports of Moldovan wines which had a disastrous effect on the country’s economy. (Most heavy industry is located in the northern breakaway area of Transnistria.)

Moldova Key Facts

Area under noble wine grapes

70,200ha

Area in vineyard register to date

34,000 ha

(1,403ha local grapes)

Total area under vine (incl hybrids & table grapes)

124,000 ha

Harvest volume

263,000 tonnes

Wine production

1.46 million hl (57% still wine is white)

Leading export markets

Romania, China, Poland, Russia, Czech Republic

Wine exports

83% by volume, 3% of GDP, 7% export value

Moldova Leading Varieties (2019) from registered vineyards by hectare

Cabernet Sauvignon           4644

Merlot                                     4523

Aligoté                                    4523

Sauvignon                            4154

Rkatsiteli                                2538

Other noble grapes              7138

Chardonnay                          2319

Pinot Noir                              1271

Riesling                                 954

Cabernet Franc                    495

Saperavi                                352

 

Moldova’s Local Grape Varieties

  • Reds
    1. Rara Neagra (aka Babeasca Neagra)
    2. Feteasca Neagra
    3. Codrinschii (Rara Neagra/Cabernet Sauvignon cross from 1970)
  • Whites
    1. Viorica (Siebel 1366 x Aleatico 1969)
    2. Feteasca Alba
    3. Feteasca Regala
    4. Alb de Onitcani (Chil Gyulyabi x (pollen mix of Pierrelle + Seyanets 244 1970)
    5. Riton (Villard Blanc x Gewurztraminer, no date)

NB 1,403ha local grapes in register by 2018

Wine 3 – Timbrus Viorica 2021

Viorica is an indigenous Moldovan grape variety, which is distinguished by its special aroma and taste. Largely disease and frost resistant, Viorica is the potential flagship of Moldovan white wines and the grape is thought to be a ‘grandchild’ of Muscat. Straw yellow in colour. Complex aromas and flavours on the nose and palate, including basil, flower, fruits and citrus notes. Aromatic. Balancing acidity and long. Produced in the Purcari region and part owned by a Spaniard, Manuel Ortiz. The winery was founded in 2016. Protected Geographical Indication Stefan-Voda.

 

Hungary

Hungary was a designated wine export area under communism. However, in Hungary people were allowed to keep a small amount of land, relative to the number of people in each family, and so to some extent wine production knowledge was retained. Nevertheless, following the fall of communism, vast areas of vines were grubbed up. More wine was produced by Hungary than New Zealand in 2017. Tokaj is the possibly best-known of Hungarian wines, alongside Bulls Blood.

Selected key facts – Hungary

  • Area in production (2021)         57,600 ha
  • White grapes (2021)                 39,852 ha
  • Red grapes (2021)                    17,748 ha
  • 571,000ha in 18th century (third biggest vineyard area in world)
  • 22 wine regions, 33 PDOs registered with EU, 5 PGIs
  • Total wine production 2.9 million hl (2020)
  • 178 varieties grown in 2021
  • Top export market for bottled wine is now UK

Wine 4 – St Andrea Bull Bikavér

 

Produced in the Eger region, where the soil is mainly volcanic and the climate cool. Eger is a protected area. The family-owned St Andrea vineyard team is trying to rehabilitate the reputation of ‘Bulls Blood’ type wines. Made from a blend of grapes with Kékfrankos (aka Blaufrankisch) as the majority. The winery is located on a south-facing hillside. Some oak ageing (c1 year) using native Hungarian oak. Deep and complex nose with aromas of red cherry, red berries and a hint of liquorice root. Savoury cool-climate style with notes of ripe bramble and leafy black fruits complemented by oak, chocolate and sweet smoked spice. Soft, ripe tannins and fine acidity. A good food wine with ageing potential.

____________________________________________________________________

Slovenia

A small country with around 2 million inhabitants, Slovenia has three main wine regions – Podravje in the north east, Posavje to the south of it and Primorska in the west.

Wine 5 – Tilia Estate Rubido 2018

Produced in Vipava Valley, in the Primorska area close to Italy, this red wine is made from low yielding vines. 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, so Bordeaux in style. The area is Alpine with some Mediterranean influence so the merlot does not over ripen. The producer is a specialist in pinot noir production but these are very highly priced. Grapes are hand-picked. The soil is marl and clay. Aged for 16 months in Slavonian and French oak barrique barrels (10% new). Ruby color with youthful violet hues. Mature cabernet sauvignon blackcurrant nose plus aromas of ripe red fruits (bramble, raspberry, cherry), some spicy cinnamon notes, vanilla and some smoky notes. Soft tannins and good acidity. Ready to drink now but will keep for 5 – 10 years.

 

Back to Moldova

Wine 6 – Novak Feteasca Neagra/Saperavi 2019

Made in the south-west corner of the country, the hottest area, which is home to the biggest and boldest reds that are produced in Moldova. Saperavi was a Georgian grape but is well-suited to Moldovan conditions. Feteasca Neagra is an old indigenous Moldovan variety. Andrey Novak has set up a micro winery within the large family estate. Aged in oak. Garnet red, rich and predominant oak on the nose with ripe red and black fruits. Some pepper and spice on the palate. Prominent alcohol although 13.5%. Ready to drink now.

Back to Bulgaria

Wine 7 – Georgiev/Milkov Mavrud Novi Izvor Vineyard

These two winemakers are working on personal projects with parcels of old vines all over the country. Mavrud is the flagship native grape of Bulgaria and an ancient legend of ‘Khan Krum’ credits the grape with granting great strength. The vines are around 40 years old and the Mavrud vineyard is situated near the village of Novi Izvor. The winemakers use modern wine-making techniques, having worked around the world including in the USA, New Zealand, China, Austria and Malta. Deep ruby colour with crimson hues. On the nose and palate, very pronounced red and black fruit notes, combined with sweet vanilla and roasted nuts. Medium to full bodied with great balance, well integrated ripe tannins and intense notes of blueberries, redcurrants, dried herbs and spices.

Back to Hungary

Wine 8 – Balassa for Best of Hungary Aszú 6 Puttonyos 2017

From the cool north of Hungary and an area where two rivers meet and the soil is volcanic. The mountain breezes and fogs on autumn mornings are ideal for the formation of botrytis. Picking is by hand. There are no rules as to which grape is used either for the soaking must or for the grapes used for the final wine, with the six varieties shown below permitted for either. However Furmint is an estimated 70% of all plantings. Aszú has a reputation for living for decades. From the family-owned Balassa winery in the town of Tokaj. The wine maker is Istvan Balassa. Deep gold colour and a complex, intense nose packed with honey, flowers and rich spiced fruit. A creamy mouthfeel is balanced by gentle acidity, while the rich palate of apricot jam, orange peel, honey and sweet spices culminates in a long dried fruit and floral finish.

Tokaj Facts and Figures

Vineyard Area in production

5189ha

Furmint -total area

            -in production

3424ha

3317ha

Six authorised varieties

Furmint,

Hárslevelű,

Sárgamuskotály,

Kövérszőlő,

Zéta, 

Kabar

Volcanic bedrock

Rhyolite, Rhyolite Tuff, Dacite, Andesite, with outcrops of Zeolite, Perlite, Kaolin

Soil types

Nyirok (red clay from weathered volcanic rocks),

Loess (fine windblown silt with clay and sometimes sand),

Rock flour (weathered pumice, rhyolite, perlite)

HRE 27.2.23


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Unusual French Varieties On 26 January 2023, Jonathan Pedley MW came to waken members of the Club from their Christmas hibernation. For him, as he said, it was a great pleasure to be back to face-to-face tastings after the remote tastings of the Covid period.

 

Jonathan is now (re)-trimmed, his daughter having insisted that the Old Testament Prophet hair and beard had to go, but the cutting of the locks had no Samson effect. This was Jonathan at his best – fascinating wines, glorious insults, deep knowledge, effortless ability to communicate. As Hilary Reid Evans said in her closing vote of thanks, with Jonathan you can never forget (and never should forget) the sheer fun of wine.

 

This tasting of ‘Unusual French Varieties’ was in essence a clockwise circumnavigation of France – from Limoux at 6pm on the clock, round through the Loire (11 am), Alsace (1 pm), the Jura (3 pm) and back down to the South-West (7.30 pm) to finish. There was praise for the Wine Society (‘not just about claret for retired lawyers’) and the Caves de Pyrène (‘fabulous oddities’); and for the Jancis/Julia/José monster tome, the ‘bible’ of wine grapes, as well as Steven Spurrier’s now long out of print French Country Wines (1984).

 

First up (‘to enable us to get through the parish notices’) was the ‘St Hilaire’ Blanquette de Limoux (£9.50 from Tesco). Yes, the Limousins have been making sparkling wine for a long while but no, they didn’t teach Dom Perignon the secrets of the trade. Cremant de Limoux is 100% Chardonnay but the Blanquette is 95% Mauzac with a touch of Chenin in the mix. Mauzac is an autochthonous grape – meaning no obvious relation to anyone or anything else in the worldwide viticultural family – found pretty much only in the Limoux area (though there’s a bit in nearby Gaillac).Fresh, clean and light with a touch of complexity on the nose thanks to 12 months on the lees) but no yeast influence in the mouth, just a touch of citrus. Jonathan doesn’t buy the ‘Mauzac = apples’ trope – but not every table was with him here.

 

Second came Gros Plant du Pays Nantais, aka Folle Blanche, under which name it was dominant in pre-phylloxera days down the Atlantic coast of France. The problem was that it grafted badly to the American rootstocks used to fight off the phylloxera bug and so other vines got the nod. Gros Plant is now behind Muscadet in the Loire – and not having the best of times. It’s early budding so hard hit by the late frosts now plaguing French vineyards in these days of climate change. In five of the last seven years there have been major losses for producers. Nor has a reputation for making wines that ‘no-one in their right mind’ would dare to drink helped. But … not so here. This was beautifully fresh and clean, lots of Grannie Smith apple influence and a touch of sur lie yeastiness. All we needed – but didn’t have – were oysters and shellfish… Domaine de Champ Chapron 2021, £10.90 from www.madeinlittlefrance.co.uk.

 

Wine no 3 – again from the Loire - was Romorantin, Cour-Cheverny 2020 (£12.95 from the Wine Society). Legend has it that the Romorantin vine was brought to Cour-Cheverny by Francois I around the turn of the 16th century but DNA analysis shows it to be yet another Chardonnay sibling – linked to Gouais Blanc and Pinot Teinturier. It is thought to be a natural cross. Cour-Cheverny has 73 hectares of Romorantin – and that’s about the sum total in the world! A shame on this showing… Those members who had drunk Romorantin in days past were very pleasantly surprised by its complexity (probably helped by old vines and some ageing in wooden vats sur lie), its richness (warm summers and modern viticulture bringing out the flavour and pushing up the alcohol to a well-balanced 14.5%) and its generous nose of melon, yellow plum and a touch of vanilla. Criticism? Very little – perhaps a tad ‘soft’.

 

Next up was Louis Sipp’s 2019 Auxerrois from Alsace (£10.95 from the Wine Soc). Not really obscure, said Jonathan, with around 3200 hectares of planning, but sometimes bottled as or blended with Pinot Blanc. In the mid-1980s everyone in the wine trade adored Alsace but now it’s rather different. Star producers can charge fabulous prices; the rest not so – and the (lack of) appellation rules and the labelling system makes working out sugar levels very tricky. This wine was off-dry (even verging on demi-sec) but if you didn’t know you could go very wrong on food matching. In the fine wine stakes, top flight German Trocken Rieslings offer ‘spectacular quality’ in Jonathan’s opinion – much better than high-end Burgundy. That said, this particular wine was a rare treat. 100% Auxerrois, rich, juicy, a nose of ripe melon and Golden Delicious – not huge length but a pleasure to drink.

 

Wine no 5 was many members’ pick of the night. This was Domaine Tissot’s Trousseau ‘Singulier’ 2019 from the Arbois appellation in the Jura. Not cheap at £32 (Wine Society) but there’s a gorgeous floral / rose petal nose with red currant and red cherry in there too. Light colour with a touch of brown / garnet, excellent intensity and acidity and fairly light tannins. Trousseau, also known as Bastardo in Portugal, is part of the Salvanien family. It’s not easy to grow; another early budder but also prone to grey rot – and in 2021 frosts did a great deal of damage to the few producers. In good summers it can get to fairly high sugar levels, thus explaining the 14% alcohol. But these problems go a long way towards explaining its now small representation in the Jura – at less than 200 hectares that’s under 5% of total Jura production. So buy a bottle or three from the Wine Society and help keep it alive. Another Arbois option well worth trying in Jonathan’s view is the Poulsard rosé, which the Oxford Wine Company stock.

 

With no 6 we switched towards the bigger, blacker category of reds. The original Negrette was supposedly brought back from the Holy Land by Count Raymond of Toulouse in crusading times but DNA analysis says it’s actually part of the Malbec / Cot family so probably local to Toulouse and the nearby Fronton appellation. 100% Negrette is now pretty rare and this fine example of Domaine Roc’s 2018 vintage (Caves de Pyrène, £12.95) had 20% Syrah and 10% Cab Sauv in the mix to give a supple, perfumed wine with decent weight, rich jammy fruit and supple tannins – no ‘desiccated grocers’ claret’ this one. In the post-match show of hands it came out as second only to the Trousseau and just ahead of the Romorantin.

 

Then came the ‘proper dog-strangler’ for those who really like their wines big and black. Fer, the last of the red varieties of the tasting, is another autochthonous variety (though it may be an ancestor of Carmenère). It goes under a lot of different names such as Servadou and Pinec and some speculate that the ‘Fer’ name refers to iron in the soil (or the wine) but it’s more likely a reference to its wild – ie ‘feral’ origins. There are still some 1600 hectares in France but it’s really only in the spectacular beauty of the terraced ampitheatre that forms the Marcillac appellation that it’s used unblended. With pruce and tar on the nose and rich dark fruits on the palate with a strong tannic grip, the wine lived up Jonathan’s ‘dog strangler’ epithet. Old vines add character and complexity to this example, which has a 35 day maceration period and 18 months in oak foudres – but it divided opinion in the room, that’s for sure. Domaine du Cros ‘Cuvée VV’ 2019, £18.40 from Caves de Pyrène.

 

Last up was the ‘Renaissance’ Vendanges Tardives Loin de l’Oeil from Gaillac where it grows side by side with Mauzac (thus closing the circle of our tasting). Around 640 hectares are grown in the Tarn. The name ‘Far from the eye’ may come from the lengthy distance (for vines) between bunch to flower but who can say for sure. What you can say – and our members wholeheartedly did say – was that this was just beautiful. Lovely golden colour, lots of botrytis, fresh and fragrant and without that waxy note that denotes Semillon in the mix. A perfect alternative to Sauternes! 2017 was a dry summer with a little early September rain as a bonus and noble rot starting by late September. Slow fermentation produced a wine with 12% alcohol, some 190 grams of residual sugar and lovely stuff at a very good price (£16.50 from the Wine Society).

 

Thanking Jonathan at the end of the tasting Hilary was succinct. ‘You bring back the fun … and we love you for it!’

 

GH: 28/1/23

         

 

  

 

 

 

 


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The Wines of the Western Loire

Background

Describing herself as ‘a journalist with no letters after her name’, (a situation the Wine Club has now remedied) Liz Sagues has in fact written extensively on wine for the Independent, the Sunday Express, Country Life and the acclaimed Hampstead & Highgate Express. She has twice been winner of the Louis Roederer Regional Wine Writer of the Year award (2005 and 2011) and is the author of two books about wine – Sussex by the Glass and A Celebration of English Wine as well as a book about Chichester Harbour (England’s Coastal Gem). She is also a member of the Circle of Wine Writers and a former Committee Member of that organisation.

Liz, however, particularly enjoys the wines of the Loire Valley and believes Muscadet and Loire Moelleux are the most underrated wines today and that Chenin Blanc is a grape to cherish.

 

Introducing the tasting, Liz reminded us that the Loire is France’s third largest wine region and that the Anjou appellation area extends across 128 communes in Maine-et-Loire, 14 in Deux Sèvres and 9 in Vienne. The Anjou regional AOC also includes a number of sub-regional and communal AOCs.

 

Soils - The appellation area comprises two distinct regions:

Anjou Noir, or ‘Anjou sur Schistes’, the dark, schist based soil of the south-eastern edge of the Massif Armoricain, which is the larger of the areas;

Anjou Blanc, or ‘Anjou sur Tuffeau,’ a smaller area of lighter-coloured soils comprising altered chalk (tufo) at the south western extremity of the Paris Basin.

 

Production - Average annual production over the last few years has been approximately 70,400 hl. Of which Reds comprised 47,300hl, Whites19,000 hl, and Sparkling wine 4,100 hl.

 

Primary Grape Varieties - Red: Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon,
Pineau d’Aunis and Grolleau (10% maximum) or 100 % Gamay for Anjou Gamay.
White: Chenin (80 % minimum), Sauvignon, Chardonnay

 

Climate – Generally described as ‘temperate oceanic’, the Loire Valley has not been exempt from the effects of climate change, with the area experiencing extreme variations in temperature over the last few years.

 

The Loire Valley has a large number of organics estates – it is estimated that in 2021 around 25% of estates or 18% of the production area were certified organic, with a smaller number (upwards of 2% of the production area) now certified as biodynamic.

 

 

 

 

The Tasting

The Wine Society’s Celebration Crémant de Loire 2019 (12.5%) £12.95 was the entry wine, with Liz explaining that sparkling wine does not in her view ‘show’ terroir. Made by Gratien and Meyer, a house founded by Alfred Gratien in 1864, Gratien and Meyer have been supplying the Wine Society since 1906. Based on the outskirts of Saumur, the house has relatively recently started producing its own grapes, rather than buying all of its requirements from local producers. The wine is made from Chardonnay grapes and has a fine mousse, a creamy texture, shows well-ripened grape characteristics (ripe apples, pears), is concentrated and has a fresh finish.

 

Domaine de la Noblaie Chante le Vent Chinon Blanc 2019 (13.5%) £15.95

Produced further east, on tufa soil and made by a rising star of the region, Jérôme Billard, on the nose and palate the wine is intense, complex and has notes of peaches and apricots. Production of Chenin Blanc is relatively rare in the Chinon area. Usually vinified in stainless steel, in recent years Jérôme has been experimenting with amphoras and working to put more texture into the wine.

 

Domaine des Forges Savennières Le Clos du Papillon 2020 (14.5%) £19.95

From the Anjou Noir area, the wine is so called because of the butterfly-like shape of the vineyards of the area. Made from 100% Chenin Blanc, the wine provided a contrast with the previous Chenin Blanc grown on tufa soil. The harvest is manual, carried out by two or three successive sortings or at the beginning of botrytization to bring "fat" and fullness to the finished wine. The aromatic character of Chenin is further developed due to careful temperature control during fermentation. Partial malolactic fermentation. Careful aging on the lees with batonnage in 400-litre barrels for about eleven months. The wine has an intense herbal nose with some toasty elements, is ample and round on the palate with good minerality. Bone dry. Should keep for up to 15 years and continue to improve in the bottle.

 

Bois Mozé East Side IGP 2020 (13%) Not available in the UK but cEuros12.70

Brought back by Liz from the Loire, this is an unusual Pinot Noir, in that the grape is not normally found so far west in the region. The vines are to be found on the slightly sandier soil at the top of the estate. The estate has been working towards organic certification and has a reputation for being highly innovative, with a range that includes for example, a ‘Pet Nat’ wine. Hand harvested and pumped over. With fresh and bright fruit, clean acidity, and light mouth feel, this is ‘Pinot Noir Light’.

 

Château de la Roulerie Anjou Rouge 2020 (12.5%) £16.60

Located close to Domaine des Forges, the 38 hectare estate is bio-dynamic. This wine is 100% Cabernet Franc. (The grape, apparently, was a favourite of Rabelais.) Hand picked, pumped over and fermented in stainless steel. Aromatic red fruits on the nose with a soft and warming palate full of raspberry and plum flavours.

 

Filliatreau Saumur-Champigny 2020 (13.5%) £16.50

This 45 hectare estate has recently undergone organic conversion and is aiming for biodynamic status. The soil is clay limestone. Vines are around 35 years old and fermentation is in stainless steel vats. This is the estates flagship wine. The 100% Cabernet Franc wine is intended to be drunk young. Light, sweet red fruits with hints of strawberries and raspberries. Good balancing acidity.

 

Domaine des Rochelles La Croix de la Mission Anjou Villages Brissac 2019 (13.5%) £14.95

Made from 90% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10 % Cabernet Franc. The average age of the vines is 25 years, grown on south facing slopes on what is described as ‘red schist’. Matured in stainless steel tanks (no oak is used for this wine). Rich ruby in colour, with a generous nose and palate of somewhat candied red and black fruits. Would benefit from decanting. Will age for up to 10 years.

 

Domaine des Forges Chaume 1er Cru Les Onnis 2019 (12%) £24

From a single vineyard. 100% Chenin Blanc, this wine has 160g of residual sugar. The evident acidity will help with the ageing process. Pale golden in colour with an intense nose with hints of marmalade and ginger. Rich but not cloying. The vineyard is considered one of the finest in the Coteaux du Layon appelation.

 

 

HRE 5.12.22

 

 

 


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Unravelling the mysteries of Sherry: Tim Holt of Barbadillo treated OWC members and guests to a fascinating and informative master class on the production of sherry, accompanied by a tasting of 9 differing Barbadillo wines.

Background

The term sherry is used for series of traditional fortified wines, produced in an area in the province of Andalucia, in the south of Spain. The denomination of origin is one of the oldest in Spain. The production area traditionally consisted of the so-called sherry triangle. This is formed by the cities Jerez de la Frontera, Sanlúcar de Barrameda (also known as the gastronomic capital of Spain) and El Puerto de Santa María, plus six neighbouring municipalities. The soil in this region is chalk / limestone based. It provides the perfect conditions for growing Palomino, Pedro Ximénez and Moscatel, the three traditional grape varieties used in the production of sherry, since it retains the winter rainfall, which is vital since under the denomination of origin rules no irrigation is allowed.

The climate in the area is Mediterranean, with mild wet winters and hot dry summers.

Barbadillo’s history dates back to 1821; the year in which they first began producing Manzanilla wine. With vineyards that stretch over 500 hectares, 16 ageing wineries in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, and a red and white winemaking plant, Barbadillo is one of the largest wineries in the Marco de Jerez vineyard area.

Bodegas Barbadillo has a very close association with Manzanilla, being the first company to ever name a sherry Manzanilla, the first to sell it in bottle as opposed to the barrels, and one that is still the world’s leading producer of Manzanilla. Manzanilla Solear is Barbadillo’s flagship brand.

As well as sherry, Barbadillo produces and sells a wide range of products including, gin, brandy, red and white wines and vinegars. Barbadillo is the producer of the Barbadillo ‘Castillo’ white wine which is the best-selling white table wine in Spain.

Bodegas - bodegas, where sherries are matured, are unlike a traditional winery, with bodegas being more open and airy due to sherry’s appetite for oxygen. Bodegas Barbadillo owns 16 bodegas that are dotted throughout the best sites, in Sanlúcar de Barrameda and collectively house 32,000 casks. The Barbadillo bodegas are located on elevated ground called the ‘high quarter’ of the town next to the Guadalquivir River, facing out towards the Atlantic Ocean. They have been built here for more than just stunning views during the ageing process – their position and design make them perfect for trapping the sea breeze, which brings lots of humidity, keeps the air cool in the summer and is also believed to give sherry its characteristic salty tang.

Manzanilla – Manzanilla can only be made in Sanlúcar due to its specific microclimate. If it’s 40 degrees in Jerez in summer, Holt estimated it will be down in the 30s in Sanlúcar. This microclimate has been utilised for centuries as part of sherry production.

Flor - Tim reminded those present that flor is the veil or thin layer of indigenous yeast cells that forms on top of biologically aged sherry wines. It is a kind of Ivory coloured, wrinkled, waxy foam, up to two centimeters thick, that protects the wine from air contact and that grows naturally in the specific microclimate of Southern Spain.

Until the late 18th century sherry wines were mostly vintage wines, brown (oxidative) and heavily fortified. Flor occured naturally but it was seen as a defect, a variation on Mycoderma Vini which makes wine cloudy and smelly. It wasn’t until the 1820s that Manzanilla and Fino as we know them today are produced under the influence of flor, although the mechanisms behind this phenomenon remained unknown for many years.

Flor basically divides all of the sherry denomination wines into two main categories: biologically aged sherry (the ‘natural’ way– wines that mature entirely under this layer of flor – Manzanilla and Fino) and oxidative sherry (which matures in contact with oxygen Olorosa and Pedro Ximénex)

Tim told us that flor is a very delicate organism. If it gets too dry, too hot, or too cold it will die off. It will also become very unhappy if it’s in a closed atmosphere. It doesn’t want a dank atmosphere, it wants a breezy, well-aerated area in which to thrive because it is highly aerobic. Hence the use of bodegas.

Production Process - Tim reminded us of the production process that sherries go through, following production of the base wines. After filtering the musts, correcting the pH and treatment with sulphur dioxide to prevent bacterial contamination, the grape juices will start to ferment naturally. (At Barbadillo they claim no sulphur is used due to the hyper oxygenated must.) In the old days this was done in wooden barrels but nowadays most bodegas use huge stainless steel tanks that are heated to 23-25°C. Usually a small amount of already fermenting must (pie de cuba) will be added to speed up the initial process. At Barbadillo most of the yeasts are wild indigenous yeasts. Different natural yeasts occur in Jerez and Sanlúcar. After that, two phases of fermentation (tumultuous and slow fermentation) take place.

Musts of Palomino grapes will keep fermenting until nearly all of the available sugars are processed into alcohol – this will lead to a “base wine”. The other sweet musts of PX and Moscatel will be brought to 10% alcohol very early in the process, in order to retain a lot of the sugars. The wine is left to settle and slowly ferment during the winter months. It is then fortified to its final strength of 15-18%.

At the end of the fermentation process, a layer of flor will naturally occur on these base wines.

After fermentation the lees will be filtered off and the musts will be classified. The finest, most delicate examples will be fortified to 15 – 15,4% vol. alcohol by adding neutral grape spirit. The delicate musts are intended for biological ageing, i.e. ageing under a layer of flor, without contact to oxygen.

The slightly coarser base wines, which show less elegancy at this stage, will be fortified to 17 – 18% vol. alcohol. This kills any existing flor. From that moment, the wine will mature in an oxidative way, with contact to the surrounding air. The result will be an Oloroso. Naturally sweet wines will always be fortified to a higher degree as flor is not wanted in this type of sherry.

After the first fortification and a short maturation, the base wines or sobretablas will be classified again. The different categories will then enter a solera, an array of barrels that are arranged in a hierarchical way, with the younger wines partially replacing the older wines that are taking out.

In accordance with the regulations of the Denomination of Origin the ageing of sherry wines must last at least two years (this used to be three years), enough time to allow the wines to develop the distinctive characteristics of each type.

Nowadays the preferred type of cask is the American oak 600 litre butt, also known as a bodega butt. It is never filled to the top, thus creating a surface area upon which the flor may develop. Some of Barbadillo’s oak casks are over 100 years old.

Soleras - Barrels in a solera are arranged in different groups or tiers, called criaderas or nurseries. Each scale contains wine of the same age. The oldest scale, confusingly called solera as well, holds the wine ready to be bottled. When a fraction of the wine is extracted from the solera (this process is called the saca), it will be replaced with the same amount of wine from the first criadera, that is the one that is slightly younger and typically less complex. This, in turn, will be filled up with wine from the second criadera and so on. The last criadera, which holds the youngest wine, is topped up with the wine from the latest harvest, named sobretabla. Taking away part of the wine and replacing it with the contents of other scales, is called rociar or to wash down.

The wines

1. Barbadillo ‘Castillo’ Palomino 2021 – made from the Palomino grape, and 90% machine harvested, grapes are processed on the stem and a continuous helix screw press is used. This was the first white wine to be made in Andalucia and has its own website www.castillodesandiego.com. Pale straw in colour with a delicate nose hinting at white flowers.  On the palate crisp, delicate, smooth and dry with hint of apples and pears.

Next we experienced two cask sample Manzanillas, illustrating the impact of the ageing process on the wines and the influence of the sea breezes on the wines. Both wines were the same age and came from La Arbodedilla, the ‘Cathedral’ Bodega, which was purpose build in 1870.

2. Cask Sample No 1 –a more pronounced woody, nutty nose and from the more enclosed end of the bodga

3. Cask Sample No 2 – from the ‘sea’ end of the bodega and showing more of the Manzanilla ‘salty’ tang on the nose and palate than sample 1.

4. Manzanilla Solear – this is Barbadillo’s flagship brand, distinctly lighter in colour than the cask samples due to the ageing process. Clean, bright and pale yellow colour. A somewhat intense nose, with some finesse originating from the prolonged contact with the flor. Delicate hints of salty air and camomile. Very dry on the palate but then smooth on the finish. Subtle, slightly salty and with a persistent and pleasing flavour. Tim recommended drinking the wine with seafoods, cured ham and indeed any salty foods.

5. Manzanilla Pasada Pastora. This wine spends a further two stages in the solera system, with the solera process taking place twice a year. Whereas the Solear goes through nine stages over six years, the last two years for Pastora take a slower pace, leading to a thinning of the flor layer which allows a little oxidation.

The end result is a golden sherry with more pronounced chamomile notes. It is a step up in complexity, with a bigger body, a richer, more oily texture and a slight nuttiness on the palate. The bodega’s Manzanilla Pasadas are all en rama (unfiltered), the way they would have been made a hundred years ago. In fact, Bodegas Barbadillo was the first to pioneer en rama as a modern category in 1999 with four ‘sacas’ (or releases) coming every year so that you can see the influence of the seasons.

6. Amontillado Principe 12 yr. This has a further four years ageing than the Pasada Manzanilla. On the nose lots of nuts and toffee. A very dry palate, with pronounced hazelnut flavours. Amontillados are firstly aged biologically as a Manzanilla, under flor, for 8 years before a further 7 years of oxidative ageing.

7. Oloroso Cuco 12 yr. (Cream sherry is the sweet version of Oloroso.) Once the fermentation of the Palomino must has finished, the most robust wines are selected and fortified with wine-based distilled spirit to bring the alcohol content up to 18%. This fortified wine is known as sobretablas and is destined for ageing in traditional Jerez butts, usually of 500 litre capacity. The ageing or crianza is achieved through oxidation of the wine whilst in barrel and racking within each tier of the criadera. Mahogany in colour and with oak, dried fruits and nuts on both the nose and palate. Smooth and dry.

8. Palo Cortado VORS Obispo Gascon. This a rare type of sherry and production is limited (only 240 bottles were produced in 2020 by Barbadillo). The name derives from the chalk signs made on the barrels (palo: stick, cortado: short). The VORS designation (Vinum Optimum Rare Signatum) under the denomination rules mean that the wine must be aged for over 30 years. Tim told us that Barbadillo’s method is to have certain select-cask Oloroso that originates from free-run juice, and therefore has a much finer style than the normal second press Oloroso. There is also a matter of chance. Each cask can be slightly different depending on its origins and position in the bodega. The idea of a Palo Cortado is that you’re trying to get the best of an Amontillado in terms of aroma, and the best of Oloroso in terms of body, mouth feel and flavour. Amber in colour, on the nose and palate, intense with lots of nuts, dried fruits and dried orange peel.

9. Pedro Ximénez La Cilla. PX sherries are naturally sweet dessert wines created from the grape variety with the same name. The grape is a white one, but the resulting sherry is almost black in colour. In order to use the Pedro Ximénez name, the wine has to contain at least 85% of Pedro Ximénez grapes. The grapes are either picked very ripe and/or dried in the sun to concentrate (a process called asoleo). The Pedro Ximénez grape variety is believed to have been introduced to Spain by a German soldier, Pieter Siemens, although this story is debated. Once the grapes have been pressed, the must is fortified with a wine-based distilled spirit to bring the alcohol content up to 17.5%. It is then matured in American oak barrels following the traditional system of soleras and criaderas. Dark mahogany in colour and with plums, raisins and chocolate on both the nose and palate.

HRE 10.11.22


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WineGB Award winners ‘The story has only just begun’ said Julia, introducing us to arguably as fine a selection of English wines as could possibly be assembled in September 2022. The wines were all winners in the 2022 WineGB Awards and Julia was referring, of course, to the development of British wine growing.

Sparkling wines

The tasting extravaganza started with no fewer than five English sparkling wines, all differing in their expression of production methods, terroir and grape variety. The wines were all poured at the same time, so that a true ‘compare and contrast’ exercise could be undertaken.

First tasted was the 2020 Vagabond Pet Not from Vagabond Winery (13% ABV), £16.

An urban winery, Vagabond is located in London’s Battersea. Made from 100% pinot noir grapes (sourced from Oxfordshire, Essex and Surrey) and made using the ‘méthode ancestrale’ the wine is low in sulphides and is bottle fermented. The wine’s name is a pun on the term pétillant naturelle and it is a non-disgorged pétillant wine. Presented with a crown cap, the wine’s pressure is less than that of a wine produced using the traditional method. A fine mousse with a little cloudiness from residual yeast and, on the nose and palate, some cherry, cranberries and blackcurrant leaf.

Wines 2-5 were all made using the traditional method.

2. Louis Pommery England Brut NV (12.5% ABV) £29.99

The cépage is 50% chardonnay, 35% pinot noir and 15% pinot meunier. With own vineyard plantings dating back to 2017, this wine will include a percentage of locally sourced grapes. Located in Hampshire, currently Pommery has around 30 hectares under vine, with a further 10 newly planted.   The wine maker, Clémont Pierlot, is building a library of reserve wines and the French house of Pommery is certainly evolving an English style of sparkling wine – definitely not a champagne look-alike, although on the palate the wine is fresh and crisp (‘zingy’ was Julia’s description), with notes of lemon and Cox’s apple (much as a champagne would!). A vintage ‘Pinglestone’ wine is planned.

Pommery is one of two champagne houses to have set up ‘shop’ in the UK, the other being Tattinger, who are planning a first vintage in c2024 from their Domaine Evremond vineyard in Kent.

3. Chapel Down Kit’s Coty Coeur de Cuvée 2016 (12% ABV) £100

Sourced from the 95-acre Kit’s Coty vineyard on the North Downs of Kent, this Blanc de Blancs wine is made from 100% chardonnay and is hand harvested. Fermentation is with wild yeasts and the wine is kept on the lees in French oak for seven months, before bottling. On the nose and palate, hints of butter and toast (with a touch of cumin in the mix) as well as pears and melons. Clearly aimed at a prestige market in terms of its marketing and price.

4. Exton Park RB 28 Blanc de Noirs NV (11.5% ABV) £43

Contrasting with the 100% chardonnay wine above, this was a Blanc de Noirs made with 100% pinot noir. From a single 60-acre estate, Exton Park, near Winchester (Hampshire), the wine spends a minimum of three years on the lees. RB 28 refers to the 28 different reserve wines that are in the blend, The reserve wines have been built up over the past 11 years by winemaker Corinne Seely (previously of Coates and Seely, naturellement). The vineyard has a sustainability scheme – as do an increasing number of British vineyards. It’s a sunny site and the soil is almost pure chalk with nine  different plots within the estate.

 

Julia explained that until recently there in general were no NV British sparkling wines, since the producers had not yet built a library of reserve wines. The style of English sparkling wines is still evolving, as the winemakers experiment with length of time in oak and on the lees, the use of wild yeasts and of course the impact of the development of the vines themselves. Nonetheless, thought Julia, a distinctly ‘British’ style is emerging characterised by that quality of fresh zinginess and purity of flavour.

5. Everflyht Rosé de Saignée 2019  £40 No ABV information available

Situated at the foot of Ditchling Beacon in the South Downs National Park, the 10-hectare Everflyht estate was first planted in 2016. The Rose de Saignée is a blend of 60% pinot noir and 40% pinot meunier, with the grapes hand-picked. The intense colour is developed from colour bleed from the grapes, not from the addition of any red wine. The wine is aged on the lees for 18 months. On the nose and palate, ripe soft red fruits (cherries, strawberries) with some brioche notes. The estate also grows chardonnay, pinot gris, gamay and pinot precoce grapes. The winemaker was previously at Ridgeview and wine making is done at Hambledon in Hampshire.

In response to questioning, Julia discussed the tactics of WineUK in relation to the nomenclature for English sparkling wines. Brands are seen as leading, rather than the category, although some producers do feature potential generic terms such as Merrett and Britannique. The lessons of Prosecco and Cava have been considered, where individual producers are virtually unknown since the generic term has itself become a brand and has overtaken the individual brand names. The experience of Cap Classique in South Africa has also been considered, where a lot of funding was put behind the establishment of the term, but still it is not widely known what it stands for. The term British wine was in the past used for highly alcoholic wines made from imported grapes, but some attempt is being made to ‘grab back’ the name, hence WineGB. In the USA, the term British fizz is frequently used so there is some potential.

Still white wines

Wines 6, 7 and 8 were poured together.

6. Bluebell Ashdown Chasselas 2020 £15.95

The c30 acre Bluebell estate is located in Sussex, on the edge of the Ashdown Forest and based around what was once a pig farm. Chasselas is a traditional Swiss grape and not a lot is grown in the UK (only around 2.5 hectares) with most of the planting at Bluebell. It is considered that the cooler UK climate is in fact better suited to the growing of chasselas than Switzerland, since most of the Swiss planting is on lower, hotter slopes. On the nose and the palate, hints of lime zest, peach blossom and white pepper. Good acidity.

7. Thorrington Mill Bacchus 2021 c£17

Grown in Germany as well as the UK, bacchus is considered by many to be a quintessentially English grape. Thorrington Mill vineyard is a 12 hectare estate located on the north Essex coast with the first plantings dating back to 2018. Run alongside a working farm, sheep graze between the vines. On the nose and palate, nettles, grapes and elderflower, with some resemblance to sauvignon blanc.

Julia explained at this point about research that is currently underway by Dr Alistair Nesbitt of Vinescapes, into the potential for growing particular grape varieties in the UK. For example, pinot noir in East Anglia and the comparison points between the soils of Essex and Burgundy.

8. Balfour Springfield Chardonnay 2018 (ABV 12%) £25

Founded by Richard and Leslie Balfour-Lynn, the first plantings at the Hush Heath estate date back to 2002. Their aim was to produce the best English sparkling rosé and their Brut Rosé won a gold medal at the International Wine Challenge in 2007. Considerable investment has been made into the winery. Business interests include the production of cider as well as wines and pubs and hotels. A son has succeeded his father as wine maker at Balfour and each has their separate views on oak treatment and malo-lactic fermentation! Hand-picked, the grapes for this wine are fermented in stainless steel tanks and barrel aged in new French and American oak. On the palate, grapefruit, green apple and cinnamon. Some felt it could be compared to a young Chablis.

Currently, Julia explained, retailers are very much behind English wines with some retailers, especially Waitrose, featuring locally produced wines. Tesco and M&S have their own label English wines. Majestic has two English wines in its Definitions collection.

Pricing is sometimes questioned – why are English wines so expensive when there is no import duty? Duty is only £2.50, other duties are the same as for imports. Production costs are arguably relatively high since winemakers here do not, as yet, enjoy the same economies of scale as longer-established wine producers. The quality of English wines will arguably sustain the price points as consumers recognise the value of English wines.

Around 4% of English wines are exported, with Norway, the USA and Japan amongst the largest markets. The direct to consumer sector is still the largest market however.  Wine tourism is expanding and WineGB is working with Visit Britain to help promote wine tourism to an international market.

Still Red Wines

Wines 9 and 10 were poured together.

9. Gusbourne Pinot Noir 2020 £35

First plantings were in 2004 and today chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier are grown across the 60-hectare Gusbourne estate in Kent and their 30 hectare estate in West Sussex. Grapes are hand-picked. Only grapes grown on the Gusbourne estate are used in their wine making. Different clonal varieties are grown at each estate due to the differing soil qualities. Charlie Holland, the head wine maker, is a three time IWSC champion wine producer. A light red in colour, the wine on the nose and palate has some cherry and strawberry fruits and is lightly tannic. Good length with fruits predominating but enough oak to enhance the complexity of the wine.

 

10. Ark Ripasso Noir 2020 £30

Mount Farm Vineyard is a 30-acre estate in the East Anglian Stour Valley. Soil is a mixture of clay and loam. (The same soils are found in the Napa and Barossa Valleys and in north-eastern Pomerol.) It is run by a Swedish family who grow eight different grape varieties and experiment with different techniques and varieties. Wine making is on site. Their Ark Ripasso is made by drying acolon grapes (a German cross of lemberger and dornfelder) on straw for 90 days before fermenting them and blending with pinot noir. The wine is dense and rich, with lots of red fruits and a hint of spice and eucalyptus. Julia considers this wine has ageing potential.

Hilary Reid Evans gave the vote of thanks, asking Julia to return to the Club and keep the Club updated with the GB wine story, and commented that Julia spoke so quickly she suffered a repetitive strain injury trying to keep her notes up to date!

HRE

3.10.22


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25th Anniversary Dinner


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The Wines of Domaine Treloar The best in Roussillon’ says Jancis: the wines of Domaine Treloar with Jonathan Hesford

 

Although many of us will say a relieved farewell to Zoom tastings, listening to Jonathan Hesford speak from his cellar in Trouillas added an extra dimension to his, at times feisty but always informed and committed, celebration of independent wine-making – and how important it is for wine-makers to be granted freedom to express the terroir.

Jonathan began by describing his, and his wife Rachel’s, journey to Domaine Treloar, nine hectares in Roussillon, south-west of Perpignan. It began with witnessing, first hand, the horror of 9/11 and continued through volunteering at a winery, coming top of the class at wine school (no luck involved there, but a lot of hard work), and then learning the business at a small family winery in New Zealand. In 2006, Jon and Rachel bought their vineyard in Roussillon, drawn in part by the region’s value for money and the presence of old vines, but – as became clear during the tasting – primarily inspired by the range of grape varieties and the relative lack of bureaucratic control of the wine industry there. In Roussillon, Jon said, they had the freedom to express themselves. Specifically,  Domaine Treloar is committed to wines made in the vineyard, with as little manipulation of flavour as possible – wines that one can trace back to their creation.

Jon covered a vast range of topics – from the history of wine-making in the Roussillon (not to be conflated with Languedoc!) including the move away from the traditional sweet fortified wines of the region to the impact of climate change, from his planting of disease tolerant Souvignier gris (looking to the future) to his scepticism concerning biodynamics.

As was proper, however, the wines were the centre of the evening. The first was fascinating (and divided opinion). As Jon said, if tasted blind at room temperature, Daltonien 2019 IGP Cotes Catalanes Blanc, made with Muscat alexandria, could be mistaken for a red. This grape’s skins are pleasant to chew upon: Jon allows about six days of skin contact. He was keen to distinguish this aromatic white from the currently fashionable orange wines, which can have up to a year of skin contact.

The second wine, a mineral, leafy white named for a Bruce Springsteen song (La Terre Promise 2019) was – and again, Jon was adamant about the appropriate terminology – a combination, not a blend. He grows Grenache gris, Macabeo and Carignan blanc in a mixed vineyard and the percentages of each grape in the vintage depends on that year’s growth. All grapes are picked on the same day and – with no yeast or other additives – the skill is to enable ‘nature’ (as Jon said) to make a balanced wine.

Moving onto the reds, we were advised to serve La Rescape Carignan 2018 slightly chilled. This, for me, was the most interesting wine of the night – although I suspect I might be a lone voice. 100% Carignan, from low-yield old vines, the wine’s potential to be overly tannic is counteracted by partial carbonic maceration. We heard for the first time, but not for the last in the evening, Jon’s views on barrels – he favours American oak because it doesn’t dry out the wine, but does add spiciness, and he dismissed the notion that barrels had much to do with ‘oak’ flavours. I was struck by the surprising distance between the chocolate/coffee nose and the light, refreshing taste in the mouth.

Wines four and six were in one sense traditional Roussillon blends of Syrah, Mourvèdre and Grenache. The first, Three Peaks 2018, was predominantly Syrah, with a distinctive blackberry nose and leathery spice underneath. Many tasters enjoyed the rich, earth spiciness of this eminently drinkable wine – and at £11.00 a bottle (at the OWC price), eminently affordable as well. The second blend (Tahi 2013) had, perhaps, more elegance and structure, and – obviously – was more mature. Jon explained that he will make some twenty or so different blends of the three grapes before deciding on the appropriate balance, and then will make further corrections. In and of itself, it was interesting to be tasting a 2013 Roussillon, such is the prevalence of young wines in the market.

The fifth wine (Motus 2017) stood as another example of Jon’s independence and resistance to the sometimes heavy-handed bureaucratic rules of French wine-making. Motus is dominated by Mourvèdre – in some years he will use 100% – and is a meaty, leathery, intriguing wine. Tasters mentioned smoky bacon crisps. This is not a wine for the faint-hearted, and all the better for it!

Overall, the tasting demonstrated conclusively the contribution that Domaine Treloar has made to the transformation of Roussillon viniculture in recent years. Yes, the region’s production is still dominated by cheap, cheerful, easy-drinking wines but Jon has shown what commitment, innovation and – occasionally – sheer bloody-mindedness and determination can do. I learned a lot, far too much to put into this short report, and would like to thank Jonathan Hesford for sharing his expertise and passion with us.

 


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