AWE INSPIRING NEWS • Winter 2014/2015 • Issue 42 4 1 0 2 W M e m l u H n a s u S © e t o r a z n a L

En Rama + Lanzarote + German Pinots + Double Pruning & Winter Harvest + Music & Wine + Art & Wine + Plumpton + Champagne + Slovenia + Ridge Vineyard + Domaine Montirius + Friuli-Venezia Giulia + Rare French Varieties + German Riesling + Languedoc-Roussillon Editor's column tastings. So why not use music or art as a way of getting to professional wine educators. And while members of the the heart of a wine? Laura Clay and Lindsay Oram tell us wine trade may be familiar with the idea of wine by about two alternative ways of appreciating wine and education, it seems the general public, even those who Susan Hulme MW however unusual they seem, who knows what will help are members of wine groups and societies, may not be. students make a connection with a wine? However we do Much of this edition is concerned with our attempts to it though, I’m sure we will continue to enthuse, inform Perhaps I need to broaden my focus and to remember that communicate what can sometimes seem elusive to many, and educate the public in this most wonderful subject of my job is not just to promote the AWE, but to namely how to describe what we can taste in the glass, ours. communicate more fundamentally about what it is to be a the relationship of wines to their origin and the wine educator. This is something we can all do, by getting differences between vines grown on different continents I hope you find something to interest you in this edition the message out about what we do, day in day out, week or maybe just in the next field. and I’d like to wish you all a successful and prosperous in week out. One small step in this direction is that future 2015. issues of this newsletter will be available to view on our Anne Krebiehl MW tries to convey the character of website, allowing not just those in the wine trade, but real German Pinot Noir but finds it difficult to pin down given wine consumers, to read about what we do. the variety of soils and methods of production. Sometimes Chairman’s column a style of wine is not as clear cut as we might think, as by Cheers, Heather Natasha Hughes MW explains when she uncovers what Heather Dougherty en rama sherry really means. The German classification * En Rama Sherry - Natasha Hughes MW - 3 system, as summarised by Charles Metcalfe in his Riesling * Malvasia Volcánica! - Susan Hulme MW - 5 There’s nothing like talking to “ordinary” wine consumers article, may put further barriers in the way of * German Pinot Noirs - Anne Krebiehl MW - 8 to bring you back down to earth with a bump. understanding what is already a complex subject. And * Ridge Vineyards by Gilbert Winfield - 9 sometimes the borders between regions are more blurred * If you don't like the wine, change the music - Laura Clay - 12 I was slightly taken aback a couple of weeks ago, when a than we might think as I discovered when I visited Friuli * Plumpton/UK Wine Research Centre Update - Chris Foss - 13 lady at a tasting I was running commented “I’m intrigued and Slovenia recently. * German Riesling - Charles Metcalfe - 15 to hear that you describe yourself as a wine educator. * A Champagne Refresher - Richard Bampfield MW - 17 What exactly is that?” As this comment came at the end of Often the key to understanding these wines it seems is to * Looking For Taste - Lindsay Oram - 1 8 the tasting, rather than the beginning, it threw me even taste them, often, and ideally in situ. Being able to taste * Things we've forgotten to remember - Heather Dougherty - 20 more. Had I not just spent the last couple of hours Malvasia Volcánica in Lanzarote undoubtedly added to * The Perfect Brew? - Helen Savage - 22 educating the 30-odd people in the room about the wines my appreciation of the special character of these wines * Wine Without Borders - Susan Hulme MW - 24 of Virginia? It seemed obvious to me – but clearly the and the students who accompanied Helen Savage on a * Slovenia Wine Festival - Paul Balke - 26 connection between what I had been doing and the term trip to Vacqueras will probably never forget the lessons * Double Pruning and Winter Harvest: Extending the frontiers of ‘wine education’ was not obvious to this lady. learned tasting an evolving wine at its source. viticulture in Brazil and other countries - Tufi Neder Meyer - 28 * AWEsome Wine - Helen Savage - 29 As Chairman, I would like to make it my mission to raise As educators however, we are usually faced with the task * AWEsome Book - Wendy Gedney - 30 the profile of the AWE as a body of independent, of explaining all of this without vineyard visits or vertical * Member Updates - 31

Page 2 AWE Inspiring News - Winter 201 4/2015 The trade’s enthusiasm for en rama And how many of you have seen a really larger) in order to exclude only the continues unabated. At the last count cloudy en rama? Surely, if the wine is grossest of impurities. However, one (conducted while I was researching the unfiltered, a substantial number of bottles producer filters its en rama to sterility (to topic for my MW dissertation), 15 of the should be thick with yeast cells. my mind this begs the question of what 23 sherry producers shipping fino and the difference might be between this En Rama manzanilla to the UK were exporting at A generous sprinkling of the trade are also producer’s en rama and its standard least one en rama as well a standard under the impression that en rama is a bottling. by bottling. Although volumes are small, en single-barrel bottling. You don’t need to Natasha Hughes MW rama has achieved the one thing that have a maths degree, though, to calculate Three producers fine their wines and three seemed impossible a few years ago – it’s that it would be impossible to ship as cold stabilise their wines. Oh – and that got people talking about sherry. much en rama as, say, Barbadillo or thing about en rama being drawn off in For almost as long as I’ve been writing Hidalgo, without having recourse to a spring, while the flor is at its thickest? about wine (coming up on 15 years, in But although en rama is flavour of the multi-barrel bottling. Most producers draw their en ramas off case you’re interested), sherry has been month, it’s important to ensure that we twice a year, in spring and in autumn, seen as the wine trade’s problem child. don’t lose our taste for it in the long term. The truth is that our British perspective on while a substantial minority draw their en The generation that loved cream sherry is Guaranteeing that this happens, however, en rama is a rather romanticised one. rama off on demand (although some slowly dying off, and most consumers means addressing the elephant in the en Sure, if you happen to be in Jerez, you can producers do, indeed, bottle in spring have yet to be persuaded to love the drier rama room. My research revealed that buy a ‘true’ en rama, one in which the only). styles. Like the Red Queen, the sherry there’s little understanding – even among wine has been bottled straight from the trade was running fast but getting importers and stockists of en rama – of the barrel, with no messing around. But this All of this may leave you wondering what nowhere. Until, that is, the arrival of the true nature of these wines. kind of en rama is local wine for local en rama actually is. Pending a decision flashy new kid on the block. people. from the Consejo, the closest we can Well over half of the wine trade believe currently get to a definition is by stating En rama sherry became the fortified drink that en rama is not filtered, fined or The confusion stems from the fact that that the vast majority of these wines are du jour soon after Gonzalez Byass otherwise manipulated before it is bottled there is no official definition of en rama bottled with minimal intervention (and launched its Tio Pepe En Rama back in ready for export. Let’s stop and think destined for export markets. As a result, minimal filtration), with the aim of 201 0 (the small number of en ramas about that for a minute. Stable as sherry is, producers are effectively free to slap an en reproducing (as closely as possible) the available in the UK prior to the Gonzalez it is not stable enough to cope with a rama label on any wine they want. experience of drinking sherry straight from Byass launch had received little attention). journey to the UK from southern Spain – Although there’s little abuse of this the butt. The initial run received terrific word-of- in many cases followed by time spent freedom, there’s also little consensus mouth publicity and, before you knew it, sitting on a shelf or in a wine rack before about what anyone means by the term. It is certainly true that en ramas do, the stuff had sold out. By the time the a bottle is opened and drunk – without all For instance, the vast majority of generally speaking, seem to be stylistically 2011 shipment arrived, the wine trade had kinds of problems manifesting themselves. producers filter their en ramas. Almost all different to standard bottlings of fino and apparently been struck by sherry fever. use a large-pore filter of 1 micron (or manzanilla. They tend to have greater

Page 3 AWE Inspiring News - Winter 201 4/2015 depth of flavour, an intensely tangy, yeasty quality and more personality than your average bottling (you might just want to think of them as the Joe Wadsacks of the sherry world).

You don’t even need to take my word for it. During the course of my research, I asked 30 highly qualified tasters to assess eight en rama sherries and eight standard bottlings blind. The aim was to see if they could pick out the en ramas based on stylistic criteria with any consistency. All the en ramas were correctly identified by a majority of tasters, and half of them had such a clear en rama character that 70% or more of the tasters picked them out.

Five producers who make great en rama (clockwise, from top left): Even more impressively, when asked to rank the wines in order of perceived quality, six of the en ramas were Equipo Navazos, I Think en rama (manzanilla) ranked in the top 50% (although it should be noted that Gonzalez Byass, Tio Pepe en rama (fino) tasters said they found the exercise challenging). Hidalgo, La Gitana en rama (manzanilla) Delgado Zuleta, Goya XL en rama (manzanilla) It seems clear that, whatever problems exist in terms of Lustau, 3 en rama (there are three en ramas in the range, one from each of the main sherry-producing towns) defining en rama, these wines are different from regular finos or manzanillas. In fact, not only are they different, by and large there is some evidence that they are objectively better.

But until the Sherry Consejo and its member producers get their acts together in order to create a clear working definition of en rama, the UK trade will remain in the dark – and we’ll struggle to communicate about them with any degree of accuracy at all.

Text © Natasha Hughes MW 201 4 Main photo courtesy of Gonzalez Byass

Page 4 AWE Inspiring News - Winter 201 4/2015 4 1 0 2 W M e m l u H n a s u S © Malvasia Volcánica! by Susan Hulme MW

I had a very different idea of Malvasia before I visited has adapted to its severe volcanic surroundings (Diego is Lanzarote is such an austere and imposing landscape: Lanzarote. My first impressions were of a variety that was a rare white grape variety). Certainly the best wines I against a backdrop of flat, black and russet coloured soils, round, fat and simple - a little oily perhaps with low tasted have a textural richness and complexity balanced conical volcanoes rise out of nowhere and dominate the aromatics. Several examples that I tasted from warm areas by a vivid acidity and some of the smouldering mineral low-rise whitewashed towns and villages. Set against this in the South of France seemed to confirm that description qualities of the soil. This may be because the vines have stark backdrop of black soils, vines, vegetables and plants and it wasn't a grape variety I sought out much. Then been grown in a harsh landscape on uncompromising, burst forth in bright shades of green punctuated by when I found myself regularly visiting the Canary Islands black, volcanic soils, or it may be because yields are low occasional dashes of crimson geraniums which erupt for some winter sun and outdoor exercise I naturally and the vines are old or it may be simply clonal from the landscape, the intense bright light making them wanted to drink the local wines and discovered a differences. Whatever the reason these wines are stand out like a pop-up card completely different style of Malvasia. This is Malvasia brimming with character, personality and vivacity. Volcánica! You can see how the landscape produced and encouraged Lanzarote’s home-grown artist, the talented Some of the Malvasia grown here seems to be a different and visionary architect, Cesar Manriqué, whose presence clone entirely or perhaps one that has adapted to its is still felt all over the island. Perhaps his greatest legacy environment and taken on an amazingly vibrant, taut and is the ban on any high-rise buildings on the island and mineral quality. Local winemaker Francisco Perdomo the insistence that any paintwork on houses be in the believes the Malvasia Volcánica clone they have in traditional colours of green or blue. This allows the

Lanzarote may be an old Diego/Malvasia crossing that Vines against black soil © Susan Hulme MW 201 4 landscape, its shapes and colours to dominate.

Page 5 AWE Inspiring News - Winter 201 4/2015 Francisco Perdomo © Susan Hulme MW 201 4 Los Perdomos Moscatel-Diego © Susan Hulme MW 201 4 Bottling, corking, capping, labelling, selling © Susan Hulme MW 201 4 Some of the local wines seem to have taken on an extra the Los Perdomos name I tasted his whole range of wines grapefruit and orange zest flavours and a savoury, intensity and adopted the flavours of the place as well, as and below are the ones that really stood out for me. volcanic minerality and a nice zingy freshness on the tasting some of the very best Malvasia Volcánica reveals. finish. A very easy-to-enjoy wine but with some Malvasia 2013, 90% Malvasia Volcanica, 10% Diego. personality. 89/100 Francisco Perdomo Pale gold-toned lemon. Light honey and floral aromas, a Francisco has 1 0 ha of vines from which he produces really lively, zippy wine with multi-layered flavours of Los Perdomos Rosé 2013, Listán Negro,13.5%. 20,000 bottles of Malvasia and 1 0,000 bottles of Moscatel orange peel, Orange Muscat, floral and savoury, mineral Beautifully deep pink colour, slight irony, tarry aromas d' Alexandra. He has some 20 year old vines of the black notes, balanced by juicy acidity. 90/100. This wine is with a green pepper note (apparently green pepper is very variety Listán Negro. This is the black-skinned version of fermented in stainless steel tanks and spends 9 months on typical for Listán Negro). Crunchy green and red fruit the Palomino grape and a genetic match to the Mission the lees. flavours, raspberries and leaves, with an unusual irony grape, though distance and time have made them evolve finish – a bit like an iron tonic. 88/100 quite differently. Los Perdomos Moscatel, 50% Diego, 50% Blanco Seco 2013, 12.5% Very pale lemon, lightly fragrant nose of Malvasia Volcánica and Diego 2012 Dulce. Mid-gold He also has 3,000 vines of a very rare white variety orange zest and neroli. A lovely, rich mouth-filling texture with a honeyed, floral nose. Sweet ripe raisins and known as Diego, of which only 20 ha is planted on the with savoury, salty notes and a lip-smacking acidity. sultanas, dried fruits and apricots, contrasting with a island. It's a variety with low aromatics but a rounded, full Deliciously enjoyable wine with lots of vitality. 90/100 swish of refreshing acidity. Lively, brimming with volcanic bodied mouth-feel. Francisco likes it for the textural minerality. This wine is full of energy and vitality with complexity it gives to the wines. His first vintage was in Malvasia Moscatel semi-seco 2013. Mid-lemon colour. layers of marmalade, orange, sultanas and honey. Lovely 1 995 but just to confuse things some of the wines are Honeyed, grapey Muscat aromas with again an orange balance of contrasting flavours. Delicious! 94/100 bottled under the Bodegas Reymar label and some under blossom note. Soft, fruity, medium-dry with pink © Susan Hulme MW 201 4

Page 6 AWE Inspiring News - Winter 201 4/2015 I also tasted a delicious sweet Moscatel 201 0 which had smooth, honeyed apricot flavours. It was fatter and less well balanced than the previous wine but so enjoyable.

I was not so excited by the reds, but it was interesting to taste a sweet Listán Negro called Tinto Vino Dulce de Licor 2013, 17.5%. It was almost black and had a contrasting sweetness but the same crunchy green leaf flavours I found in some of the other Listán Negro wines.

In Lanzarote there are 1 8 commercial vineyards, predominantly in the centre of the island, with 2000 ha that together produce approximately 2 million litres of wine. There are three main vineyard areas in Lanzarote: La Geria, located between Tías and Yaiza; Masdache, the largest area around Tinajo and Masdache; Ye-Lajares, located between Haría and Teguise. The oldest wine producer on Lanzarote is El Grifo, among the 1 0 oldest in Spain.

Apart from Los Perdomos, my favourite wineries producing exciting wines are:

Vulcano – a relatively new winery, only set up in 2009 and the only urban winery, situated in the centre of Tías village. It produces vivid and vibrant style of wines with a characteristic volcanic minerality.

La Florida Bodegas, Malvasia Volcanica 2013. They have only just started bottling their own wines. They have an almost orange wine style.

Martinón – modern fresh lively wines but brimming with volcanic minerality and personality. Photos & text © Susan Hulme MW 201 4

Page 7 AWE Inspiring News - Winter 201 4/2015 W M

German Pinot Noirs l h e i

by b e r

Anne Krebiehl MW K e n n A © y e l l a V r h A

Now here’s a question I hear quite often: “What is European about Spätburgunder. But this is where the And have I mentioned marl, keuper, rhyolite, German Pinot Noir like?” “Delish, of course,” would be a common ground of German Pinot Noir ends. And, Stubensandstein and granite? So you see how impossible correct but off-hand, rather churlish and at least brief considering the facts, how could it possibly be otherwise? it is to answer the fairly innocent, entirely justified and answer – because there simply is no short way of rightfully curious question that got me going here. explaining. Spätburgunder is grown in every single one of Germany’s German Spätburgunder is simply too varied to be 13 growing regions: from the 48th to the 51 st degree of summarised under any particular heading. And that is For a start, it has happened to me, and to many other latitude, from Baden to the Ahr respectively – and notwithstanding stylistic decisions made by the people, including winemakers coming across their own everywhere in between: as far east as Saxony and some winemakers: there are fruity, classic numbers aged in wines, that German Pinot Noir, or Spätburgunder as it is of it so far west it even grows on Alsace soil [but is large, old fuders, then there are used and new smaller called at home, did not necessarily stick out in a blind vinified in Germany] on the Franco-German border of the barrels, both German and French oak abounds. line-up of Burgundies. Pfalz. I have, at times, believed that a particular savouriness I I have also successfully bluffed many known Pinot-nuts at It thrives in the cool corners of Churfranken in Franconia, come across, akin to the way your hands smell after my own dinner table. This tells us two things: firstly that on the Neckar’s banks in Württemberg as well as on you’ve crushed lovage and fresh bay leaves, can be traced Spätburgunder, when it is good, can and regularly does windy hillsides in Rheinhessen – yes, it’s the Frauenberg I back to certain clones but the more I try and ground my live up to world standard; and secondly that it is am talking about here. It is planted in the Devonian slate theory in solid fact, the more elusive my quest becomes. intrinsically ‘Old World’ in style and structure. And yes, of the Mosel, the shell limestone of Malterdingen, the yes, I know on what terribly thin ice I am skating here, quartzite and mica schist of the Rheingau and the loess of It’s the same with the ubiquitous INRA/ENTAV clones think of the Extreme Sonoma Coast, I hear you think, of the Kaiserstuhl where it also roots in volcanic ash and which are also widely planted in Germany: they too can Waitaki or Oregon…. But there is something very calcite-veined basalt. come across very differently on German soil.

Page 8 AWE Inspiring News - Winter 201 4/2015 Then there is a certain smokiness that I seem to detect in slate-grown Pinots, but then, is it just my fancy informing my sense of smell? Texture does not really give much clue, either: there is ethereal, barely-there silk and sumptuous velvet. Fruit expressions range from tiny, dark elderberry to wild strawberries, touching on sweet and Ridge Vineyards sour cherry….then there are marked vintage differences. by Gilbert Winfield But you see: this is an impossible question to answer. Experience and exposure are the best teachers here. Just like a whiff of Sangiovese or Nebbiolo often seems to A visit to California to stay with friends in Santa Clara, whisper ‘ciao bella’, a German Pinot often has that just south of San Francisco, started with the principle that certain German something that simply cannot be put into this was a wine drinking, not wine tasting trip. No words. vineyard visits, just barbecues, some sightseeing, and a bit of healthy imbibing. So of course, when we realised Even if we talk about a far more confined regional that our friends lived about 20 minutes away from Ridge expression, like that of the Pinots of the Côte des Nuits, Vineyards, we called and made an appointment straight for instance, we would struggle to write a definitive, all- away. encompassing flavour/taste note. Now blow this up into 11,700 hectares across the German vineyards…… Some For my sins, I worked for Steven Spurrier in the early 80s things, thankfully, defy generalisation. while his wine ‘empire’ was still extant in Paris, so from this, and subsequent study, I was quite familiar with the For those who really need an answer, the best way is to quality of Paul Draper’s wines, and the effect that the taste. Not doggedly, because that would become 1 976 ‘Judgement of Paris’ tasting had on Ridge and the frustrating, but curiously and with an open heart: this way Above: steep other ‘kids from the sticks’ (as Bo Barrett of Château the unique and often brooding savouriness of those Württemberg vineyards Montelena put it at the time), although I am not quite old German Pinots will perhaps prompt and produce a familiar, along the Neckar enough to have been there for the tasting. I could hardly recognisable hunch out of their intrinsic Pinot-ness. Left: Loess Hohlweg in miss the opportunity to visit just on a principle. Photos & text © Anne Krebiehl MW Bickensohl The following day, on a beautiful sunny September © Anne Krebiehl MW afternoon, the 4th in fact, we travelled the Montebello Road to the winery. The various parts of the Monte Bello vineyard are at elevations varying from 1300 to 2700 feet, and you really see why they call them the Santa Cruz

Page 9 AWE Inspiring News - Winter 201 4/2015 © Gilbert Winfield 201 4 © Gilbert Winfield 201 4 © Gilbert Winfield 201 4 Mountains as you travel upwards; the road is a succession The wines are organic in all but name, and are currently Paul talked with fondness about the early days in the 70s, of hairpin bends, as you would expect on a mountain, getting certification for the Monte Bello vineyard. Paul before the boom, when they used to import top Bordeaux not so much in a vineyard. has always used the minimum possible intervention, like Lynch Bages and Leoville Lascases in barrel and including only natural yeasts, and minimal sulphur, and bottle at Ridge in order to keep the cash coming in. I was We arrived at Monte Bello to be greeted by Paul Draper has always focused on quality, rather than a label. even allowed to spit on the drain in the floor of the himself; three hours of fascinating insight into the famous winery, as we used to do on tasting trips in Burgundy and estate followed. At the hopper above the winery, 1 00 That said, Ridge’s the Rhone in the 80s. I, if no one else, derived a huge year-old Carignane grapes were just being delivered into labels have always amount of childish pleasure from the looks of horror from the de-stemmer, so we got to taste our first grapes of the featured more my friends as I did it. Paul, like the seasoned professional 201 4 California vintage. Paul described 201 4 as one of winemaking he is, stood well clear of me. the earliest in Ridge’s history, which is why grapes had information than been arriving in the winery since a week before. He almost any, and We tasted 2013 Monte Bello in barrel in the cellar cut thought the harvest would be just about finished by the now include into a limestone ravine in the 1 880s; it still has six third week of September; usually they wouldn’t have ingredient months left to mature in barrel, and seemed very well started until then. labelling; it’s lucky balanced, dry, dark fruited, smoky, oaky, yes, but not they don’t fine sappy as I sometimes find. Promising. We tasted a 201 4 Ridge are still at the top of their game. Paul Draper, often, as the Zinfandel, picked on 29th August, and still in the always open minded, talked with enthusiasm about general public fermentation tank; I don't consider myself expert, but I textural changes effected in the wine by the occasional don’t like to see am familiar with tasting fizzy, sweet, semi-alcoholic fruit fining they do; single parcel fermentation for each egg white as an juice. vineyard and combining the best, far too complicated to additive (but that detail here; the advantages of air-dried over kiln-dried doesn’t stop them My friends, though, were bowled over. ‘It's like Port’, said oak, and its cooperage, and the importance of grapes at including it on the one of my hosts; I began a wine lecture on Port moderate sugar levels. label when they production and why she was right, but happily I was © Gilbert Winfield 201 4 do). quickly stopped by the groans of the audience.

Page 1 0 AWE Inspiring News - Winter 201 4/2015 © Gilbert Winfield 201 4

We talked of the ‘Judgement of Paris’ tasting in 1 976. It should be remembered that Steven intended to show that © Gilbert Winfield 201 4 California made good wine, not to enact a competition We moved back up to the newly built tasting room. Paul We tasted: between France and the US, but the first places achieved introduced the 2011 vintage, which was largely 2011 Monte Bello Chardonnay – Oak toast and smoke by Chateau Montelena in the Chardonnay section and something of a disaster in many parts of California; one of showing, edging towards butterscotch. Lovely ripe tang, Stag’s Leap in the Cabernet was dramatic: Californian my favourite euphemisms, ‘challenging’, often used to but alcohol a little visible for me. wine had arrived. describe miserable vintages in France, was even used to describe the Californian summer that year. At Monte 2012 Geyserville Zinfandel – Fresh, with black cherries It then progressed on a path of excess into ‘cult winery’ Bello, though, they escaped the cold fog which poisoned raisins, and great balance, fluffy tannins, a freshness. and 200% new oak territory, but Ridge continued and the summer for many vineyards, as their elevation put continues on its path of moderation, minimal them above it. 2012 Lytton Spring Zinfandel – Smokier, more complex: aniseed, pepper, lovely. intervention, and traditional winemaking with modern equipment, and long may it do so. Thank you sincerely, 2011 Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon – Smoke, spice, Paul Draper, for a fantastic afternoon of wine tasting on a aniseed, black fruit, cool climate, but ripe, with bright tasting-free holiday! acidity, mineral, almost salty. Superb. Photos & text © Gilbert Winfield 201 4 And another treat: 1985 Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon – Wood smoke, leather, Christmas cake, burned sugar, tannins still there, but smooth, the wine fading a little; graceful in age. © Gilbert Winfield 201 4

Page 11 AWE Inspiring News - Winter 201 4/2015 If you don’t like the wine, change the music by Laura Clay

We know music has the tingle factor, evokes memories, can reduce us to tears and raise our spirits but it also affects how we perceive what we taste. According to Professor Barry Smith of University of London, tasting generally and wine tasting in particular is not a unified experience. We look, smell and taste a wine as independent actions but actually all those senses we use, and many others besides, work together in our experience of how we assess the wine, and this includes the sense of hearing.

We’d like to think we are not influenced by outside factors, that we really can make an independent and © Hannah Harley 201 4 intelligent assessment of what we taste but who hasn’t had that great wine on holiday/rubbish at home moment? Our brain has already made an assumption of what to presented by Barry, who is not only a Professor of expect when it has seen, smelt and even heard something Philosophy but also the Founder of the Centre for the Our interpretation and appreciation of that wine was which then lands on the taste buds. So the experiment Study of the Senses. influenced by our mood, the sunshine, the lapping of the Barry worked on 12 wine professionals was how sound, waves in the distance, all factors conspiring to make that and in this case music, affects how we taste a wine, in We began by correctly identifying the music which he wine taste like manna from heaven. Under grey skies, on this case champagne. has had specially composed to represent sweet, sour, a damp and miserable evening with U2 playing in the bitter and salty tastes proving that we have a cerebral background, the wine is not so appealing. It doesn’t mean To celebrate the tenth anniversary of Les Ambassadeurs conception of what each might sound like. We tasted five that the wine wasn’t good when you first drank it but that du Champagne competition, the Comité Champagne very different champagnes, each time first in silence and our senses, and Prof Smith suggests we have between 20 invited the UK ambassadors to the impressively beautiful then with two diverse pieces of music carefully chosen to and 33 and not 5 as Aristotle would have it, conspired to Rosewood Hotel for the seminar and tasting, brilliantly emphasise acidity, softness, savoury or balance. make it ultra-delicious. We can’t control that.

Page 12 AWE Inspiring News - Winter 201 4/2015 Barry had hoped to select pieces that we Champagne - Music Matching might not already 4

1 know so that we 0 2

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s 1 . Rybycon (7” single) – Tangerine Dream Plumpton College, with many new students enrolling, e f down solely to the o r P 2. Himmel og Hav – Valkyria Allstars including the first cohort of the MSc in Viticulture & sound we heard. Oenology. This new course, unique in the UK, is an Mailly Blanc de Noirs Grand Cru intensive and challenging programme in the science of There seemed to be little subjectivity about what the 1 . Sure Thing – St Germain (Tourist) grapegrowing and winemaking. It focuses on cool- differences were – we were agreed that the wines tasted 2. Mountain Wind – Eagle climate wine production, climate change effects on differently and also in what ways they had changed. One viticulture, terroir and sparkling wine. Led by Plumpton piece of music always made the wine taste better than the Bruno Paillard Blanc de Blancs Première Cuvée lecturer Dr Matteo Marangon, the course will truly other and we were agreed as to which it was. It mattered 1 . This Lamb Sells Condos – Owen Pallet (Final benefit from the new UK Wine Research Centre at not that some of us might have been music nerds, others Fantasy) Plumpton College, which was opened by the Duchess of tone deaf – our findings were the same. 2. Take Five – Dave Brubeck Cornwall in March 201 4.

The music was matching to the acidity with high notes; Bollinger La Grande Année 2004 Plumpton’s winemaker, Peter low notes emphasised bitterness. And the speed of the 1 . No Rest for the Wicked – Cervantine (A Hawk and a Morgan, retired in October, wine across the palate worked with the tempo of the Handsaw) and was replaced by Sarah music. And possibly the most mystical finding was how 2. Lums O’Lund – Catriona Mackay (Starfish) Midgley, graduate of Lincoln the texture of the champagnes changed depending on the University (NZ) and former sounds we were listening to. For the savoury notes: Assistant Winemaker at 3. She’s Gone – Gonjasufi (The Caliph’s Tea Party) Camel Valley Vineyard in It is a tasting that I am sure would be of interest to AWE For balance: Cornwall. Sarah (left) members and I am trying to organise one but in the 4. Now that We’ve Found Love – Third World successfully completed the meantime, should you want to share our experience, 201 4 vintage, our largest these were the champagnes and pieces of music we Text © Laura Clay 201 4 ever at 32 tonnes, producing ‘paired’. Photos ?????? some very promising wines.

Page 13 AWE Inspiring News - Winter 201 4/2015 Another hard-working member of the Wine Team, Jo It’s also good to see that the vineyard trial plot that we our students has won the International Wine & Spirit Cowderoy, has been setting up lots of really interesting planted last year, containing new disease-resistant Competition’s Peter & Penelope Duff Memorial Trophy courses for the UK wine industry through the WineSkills varieties like Saphira, Hibernal, Cabernet blanc, Felicia, for the top-performing associate judge. This year's winner project (see www.wineskills.co.uk ). The current DEFRA Souvignier gris, Muscaris, Allegro, Bolero, Accent, Ian Warborn-Jones (below, centre) says: "Being an funding contract for this scheme ends in March 2015, so Pinotin, Cabernet Jura & Cabernet Cortis, is going well. associate judge at the IWSC this year was a great now’s the time to sign up for courses. Who knows what we’ll be drinking in 50 years’ time? experience and a lot of fun, particularly the opportunity to translate the tasting skills learnt in class in a I spent a very enjoyable week leading an international However, the main research activity in the department professional setting. The fact that I am the second team reviewing the Viticulture & Oenology provision at has been the launch of the 5-year EU Life+ ADVICLIM Plumpton College student in a row to win the Peter and Stellenbosch University, South Africa, in September. Their research project, a multinational initiative, which will Penelope Duff Associate of the Year award must serve as hospitality was outstanding, and it was really fascinating monitor weather, cultural practices and grapevine growth testament to the high quality of the tuition at Plumpton, to see how the provision in South Africa’s top agricultural in many locations in several different European vineyards. so my thanks to the Wine Department!" university compared with Plumpton’s. With the use of some very sophisticated computer Sponsorship for the UK Wine Research Centre is still models, the international project team will produce a fine progressing, with the acquisition of the new equipment scale analysis of the effects of climate on vine phenology, sponsored by Nyetimber, Nutbourne and Ridgeview wine then estimate the potential effects of climate change and estates, and there has been some success with the MSc simulate the impact of different adaptation practices for Project Sponsorship initiative, where stakeholders in the vineyards. It’s expected that the project will develop industry can encourage MSc students to focus on specific technologies which could be applied to other viticultural research themes. areas worldwide.

Last year’s first iteration of the Marks and Spencer Several members of the Wine Department are also Scholarship was a great success, so a new student has working hard to develop the programme for the been chosen to make a bespoke wine for the major International Cool Climate Wine Symposium, which will We must be doing something right! international retailer. take place in May 201 6. Over three days, leading members of the international wine community will © Chris Foss 201 4 Dr Matteo Marangon has launched a wine yeast research gather in Brighton to share ideas and meet with others project with the Australian Wine Research Institute, Tony involved in the business of wine. An event not to be Further enquiries to Chris Foss, Head of Wine Milanowski is working with Reims University on laccase, missed by anyone seriously interested in wine! Department Plumpton College at and Andrew Atkinson is testing a new English strain of [email protected] or on + 44 1273 89201 8 malo-lactic bacteria (sponsored by CHR Hansen). Lastly, we’ve had a couple of awards: two gold medals for For pictures of recent activity at the Plumpton College our wines at the Champagne and Sparkling Wine World Wine Department, see plumptonwinery on Championships, and, for the second year running, one of https://www.tumblr.com/dashboard

Page 1 4 AWE Inspiring News - Winter 201 4/2015 Standing on the little tower at the top of the Felsenberg Felsenberg, with its reddish, volcanic porphyry stones, vineyard, it’s hard to imagine how men actually prune occasionally flashing quartz and greenish copper, gives vines and pick the grapes here. The day before, I stood at tight, mineral wines with a hint of fiery warmth. the bottom of Dr Loosen’s Erdener Prälat vineyard, where Hermannshöhle has soft slate soils, and a wide difference German Riesling an almost vertical monorail hoists equipment up to the between day and night temperatures, which results in by vines (and grapes down after they have been picked)! As wines of steely tautness, developing to exotic passion Charles Metcalfe someone used to the general Douro rule that slopes with fruit and pink grapefruit flavours. And Brücke, the a gradient over 40 degrees have to be terraced, it was vineyard just above the bridge over the river Nahe, extraordinary to see the steepness of some of the usually makes sweet wines, in which the sugar is well vineyards in the Mosel, Rheingau and Rheinhessen. balanced by mineral power.

Many of these must have gradients of over 75 degrees, Dönnhoff is undoubtedly the top winemaker in some equipped with pulleys to haul vine workers up and Oberhausen. His wines are perfect examples of the down the slopes. And, as in the Douro, the soils seem to transparency of the Riesling grape. I don’t mean that you be either rock, or the same rock eroded into something can see through them, but that Riesling has the knack of beginning to resemble soil. Blue slate, red slate, quartz, precisely interpreting a patch of vineyard in a way few volcanic rock, sandstone. I saw hardly anything that other grape varieties do. This is so clearly seen in looked like conventional soil in any of these famous Germany, where the legislation of nomenclature has vineyards. evolved over the years to identify from which exact vineyard site the top wines come. As with the Dönnhoff Felsenberg is a vineyard within the village of wines, the differences between the wines from nearby Schlossböckelheim, in Germany’s Nahe wine region. but differently-named vineyards can be astonishing. Half of it belongs to Helmut Dönnhoff (pictured right), one Like the famous single-variety, single-vineyard

of Germany’s most revered 4 Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs of Burgundy, wines from 1 0

winegrowers. And he has a 2 Germany’s top vineyard sites are easy to compare and e f l a

great sense of reponsibility: ‘My c contrast because they, too, are made from a single variety. t e

work is to interpret this valley, M Particularly in the regions of Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, Rheingau s e l and not make mistakes. r and Rheinhessen, Riesling rules. Few other grapes can a h

Felsenberg, Hermannshöhle, C challenge Riesling’s historic dominance in Germany, © Brücke, they all need different interpretations.’ The other despite efforts to breed other varieties that can equal two vineyards are in the valley overlooking the village of Riesling’s quality, but which ripen earlier. (Riesling is a Oberhausen an der Nahe, and in each Dönnhoff makes late-ripening grape.) dazzlingly different Riesling wines. Ernst Loosen's Erdener Prälat vineyard © Charles Metcalfe 201 4

Page 15 AWE Inspiring News - Winter 201 4/2015 I went recently to see some of Germany’s finest Riesling VDP members classify their wines according to a system producers at work, to visit their vineyards, and to taste their that aims to restore the reputation of the best dry wines, as wines. The one thing they all shared is a passion for their well as preserving the fame of Germany’s late-picked vineyards, and the vines that grow in them. At every stop, sweet wines. The basic wines are classified as ‘Gutswein’. before I was allowed to taste, I was taken to the vineyard This means ‘estate wine’, typical of the region where it is and shown the soil and the vines (and, in many cases, the made, and from grapes grown only on the estate. Next extremely steep slopes on which the vines are planted). ‘We comes ‘Ortswein’ (‘village wine’), wine from the best and see ourselves as vineyard workers, not as cellar-magicians,’ most representative vineyards of the village, and made explained Johannes Hasselbach of the famous Rheinhessen from typical local grape varieties. If it is dry, the label reads wine estate of Gunderloch. ‘Qualitätswein Trocken’ (‘dry quality wine’). If it is sweet, it may be labelled with one of the traditional sweetness To the interested outsider, however, the German system for levels (Kabinett and Spätlese are the two most likely to be naming wines is extremely complicated. There are a found on wines of this level).

bewildering number of different vineyard names, made Helmut Dönnhoff's Felsentürmchen vineyard © Charles Metcalfe 201 4 more difficult by the fact that some large winegrowing areas Nearly at the top of the pyramid are the ‘Erste Lage’ wines are lumped together under a single name (which sounds (‘premium site’). These wines are from first-class vineyards As Dönnhoff told me, his Oberhäuser Brücke vineyard is like a single vineyard). A good example of this is Piesporter and made from typical local grape varieties. Again, the dry best for the sweet styles. But from his other two great Michelsberg. You might imagine that Michelsberg is a wines will say ‘Qualitätswein Trocken’ on the label, and vineyards, Felsenberg and Hermannshöhle, he does his best vineyard in the high-quality Mosel village of Piesport. Er, the sweet ones will use the traditional sweetness level to make great and long-lived dry wines. And when they are no: it’s the collective name (Grosslage in German) that can indicators (and these may go further, to Auslese, dry, he puts just the vineyard name on the label – be used for a huge number of wines produced in the Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese and Eiswein). ‘Felsenberg’, rather than Schlossböckelheimer Felsenberg’, substantial area between the villages of Trittenheim and with the name of the town before the vineyard name. Minheim on the Upper Mosel. Most are mediocre. The very top wines are few in number, called ‘Grosse Lage’ (‘great site’). These are Germany’s very top vineyard This system may remind you of something. Estate, village, One way of simplifying selection within the complex sites, which have made Germany’s finest, most ageable First Site (in French, ‘Premier Cru’) and finally, the Great German system is to stick with the top producers. (Isn’t it wines for centuries, with specific soil types and intense Site (yes, we’ve reached ‘Grand Cru’). If the great vineyards always?). Conveniently, Germany has an association of top character. The dry wines made from these special of Burgundy are the model, that’s no accident. It’s the other producers called the VDP which includes almost all the vineyards come in bottles with the letters ‘GG’ embossed place in the world of wine where, for centuries, vineyards best in the country. Their symbol, displayed on every bottle on the necks (for ‘Grosses Gewächs’ – ‘great growth’), and have been classified with different levels of potential of members’ wines, is an eagle with a stylised bunch of the sweet wines ‘Grosse Lage’, with the appropriate quality. It’s the vineyard that matters. And, in Germany, the grapes. Every wine released by VDP members has to pass sweetness level. Not all great vineyards can make great dry Riesling grape. the tasting scrutiny of their official tasting panel before it wines. can be released for sale – as well as being ratified by the Photos & text © Charles Metcalfe 201 4 state organisation in the normal way. Originally published in WINE - A Essência do Vinho

Page 1 6 AWE Inspiring News - Winter 201 4/2015 been falling in recent years and there are no signs at The viticultural research centre at Plumecoq maintains present that France is about to enter a new era of plantings of all the different clonal material used in the prosperity the biggest export market, the UK, is still way region and investigates different methods of trellising, ahead of other markets, but sales in recent years have ploughing and general vineyard management, such as been at best stable with grape prices now up to over 6 organic and biodynamic. They also have trial plantings of A Champagne Refresher euros per kilo, Champagne is becoming even more foreign grapes which are high in acidity and might be expensive to produce compared to its two main rivals, required in the region if the current trend of climate by Prosecco and Cava. change continues: grapes such as chenin blanc, feteascu Richard Bampfield MW alba, xynomavro and parellada. A strategic plan up to the year 2030 has been agreed, but There can be no better time to visit Champagne than mid- there is as yet little detail on how the objectives are going The economic woes in many of Champagne’s key October when the vineyards are resplendent in their to be achieved in practice. In many markets, less markets in recent years mean that confidence in the Autumn colours and the vignerons are relaxed and expensive sparkling wines such as Prosecco and Cava are region is not at the same level as it was 1 0 years ago. As content having brought in a good vintage, in this case growing at pace and it seems inevitable that some of a result, the proposed expansion of the region seems to 201 4. Consequently, an invitation to spend 3 days there those drinking these two sparkling wines may have been be very much on hold for the time being, at least until in the company of other European Champagne former Champagne buyers. there is a more consistent balance between supply and Ambassadors was easy to accept. demand. However the purpose of my recent visit, as a guest of the Production in Champagne has grown from about 30 CIVC, was in part to demonstrate that Champagne is well As for so many wine producing regions around the world, million bottles a year in 1 950 to between 290 and 340 placed to address the issues above. There is an energy much depends on whether the Asians develop a taste for million a year now – dramatic growth, particularly and dynamism amongst younger growers in Champagne a particular wine. Given the Asians’ appetite for western considering the price level at which the wines sell. that mean that the region’s wines have never been more brands, it is certainly possible that Champagne, the most exciting nor diverse. heavily branded of all wine styles, can be reasonably What’s more, with improvements in both vineyard confident of its prospects. management and technical know-how, quality has never Allied to increased use of social media and the opening been better or more consistent than it is now. of new routes to market, particularly over the internet, © Richard Bampfield MW 201 4 there should be sales opportunities for the majority of the In the long term, the assiduous work that the Comité small and mid-sized producers. Champagne (CIVC) has put into protecting the name of Champagne against any sort of infringement of title The CIVC research laboratories continue to work towards would appear to have served Champagne well and built a better understanding of different yeast strains, the the foundations for sustained stability and even growth. process of autolysis and more efficient and economic means of cold stabilisation, to name but three examples. In the short term, there are problems to resolve: 60% of Champagne sales are in France but this percentage has

Page 17 AWE Inspiring News - Winter 201 4/2015 Looking for Taste by Lindsay Oram Freshness! Most of the wine educators in this country have come through the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) education stable. We have all been taught to assess first the appearance then the nose and finally the palate. Then using this evidence to come to conclusions regarding what the wine is, its quality, age and cost. The terms the WSET allow are very descriptive, quite rightly as there has to be a level playing field for the markers to assess exams. I know this for practical experience of marking WSET tasting Body! papers. For example how can you mark statements such as ‘like my mother’s rum sauce’? The result is firstly that many tasting notes sound dry, factual and unexciting, and often 2 very different wines end up with very similar notes. Below is a note I wrote for a McLaren Acidity! Vale Shiraz, however how many other wines would it have described?

‘Aromas of spiced damson and summer berries. Well-structured smooth palate with fleshy dense raspberry coulis flavours framed by compact ripe tannins, shot through with firm acidity and seamless oak. All this combines to give a long, very satisfying finish’.

The drawback of using words for tasting notes is that words often have differing meanings and perceptions to different people. Furthermore in some cultures the descriptor used is not recognised, gooseberry as a descriptor of Sauvignon Blanc in much of Asia, for example. In addition, words can rarely convey the emotional feeling that an individual wine gives you.

Diel Schlossberg Riesling 2013

Page 1 8 AWE Inspiring News - Winter 201 4/2015 minds with a taste. For example, if asked for a colour associated with acidity and freshness 80% of respondents reply green to lemon yellow, sweetness and body from 3

1 golden yellow through orange to brown, with blue 0 2

n representing minerality. e k c o r T

g Therefore depending on how these colours are combined n i l s

e in the picture and if the brush strokes are sharp or i R

n rounded will allow a fast and effective way of conveying n a m

t the style of wine. t i W So does it work, or is it all theory? When our group was asked to pair each of 5 wines with 5 different paintings, 80% paired the wine with the intended picture. Bear in mind that empirical evidence suggests that the recognition Sachsen Schloss Proschwitz Riesling Kabinett Trocken 2009 rate of verbal description is not more than 25%. 3 1 0

2 So am I suggesting that all wine educators should r e d

n become artists, I don’t think so, but this is a very different u g r

u and more visual way, and may suit students that learn b t ä

p more visually. Perhaps we should encourage students to S m

i bring coloured pencils to classes so they can produce a e h s visual record of the wine. n i e r F s g n

i Maybe tutors could, with the aid of coloured markers R provide a quick sketch on the board of their impressions So is there a different way, and if so is it more effective in of each wine. And maybe coloured paintings conveying how we feel about the wine? A recent visit to representing the wine style would be more helpful to Germany explored a non-verbal method to visualize consumers, when choosing a wine, than the dreary sensory sensations, using art to describe wines. tasting notes that some marketing departments use. Certainly food for thought. The subject was presented by Martin Darting of Sensorik International, who also painted all the pictures. It is based Photos & text © Lindsay Oram 201 4 on the principal that people have an association in their Kiefer Tradition Grauburgunder Spätlese Trocken 2012

Page 1 9 AWE Inspiring News - Winter 201 4/2015 instead. As part of this work he began noticing individual that all the varieties that we come across in commercial vines which seemed unlike their neighbours. In order to vineyards are indeed self-fertile. Olivier predicts that preserve this potentially interesting or valuable plant within a hundred years we will have forgotten that the Things we’ve forgotten to remember material, Dubosc would even go so far as to pay growers kiwi vine ever existed in male and female forms, as to maintain these vines, rather than uprooting them to commercial breeders will have developed self-fertile by replace them with known varieties. vines and the old male/female varieties will have Heather Dougherty effectively become extinct. The story moves on to 2002, when a “conservatory” of I am constantly reminded of how little I really know these potentially new varieties was established, about grapes and wine. Olivier Bourdet-Pees, Managing containing 20 vines each of 39 distinct varieties, enough Director of dynamic Saint Mont-based Plaimont to make just 3-4 bottles of wine. By 2007, the science of Producteurs gave a talk in London recently on DNA identification was brought to bear in identifying (re)discovering some of the rarest grapes in Southwest varieties, or in determining how they are related to

France. 4 1

existing varieties. 0 2

4 Many AWE members will y 1 t r 0 e 2

no doubt already be h y g t

r Science has its limits, though, and 12 of the 39 are still u e familiar with some of this o h D g unknown, in that they share no relationship with any r u e o part of France’s horde of h t D known variety anywhere in the world. This means that a r e

e unique indigenous h H t this small corner of the winemaking world is potentially a © e

varieties, including the s e H the home of 12 entirely new varieties – and who knows e © P

characterful white - s t e how many more lurking unnoticed in the vines? e e d r P Mansengs (Gros and - u t o e d B

r Petit), Petit Courbu and r u e i o Olivier told us that a number of these varieties were v B Arrufiac; the fiercely i l r e

female, which had the audience rather non-plussed: O i v

i tannic and age-worthy l we’ve all learnt that grape vines, Vitis vinifera, are self- After that food for thought, Olivier then led us through a O Tannat and the lighter, fertile, or hermaphrodite. And yet it seems that it ain’t tasting of some of the wines made from the potentially fruity Pinenc (also known as Fer Servadou, Braucol and necessarily so. Oliver quoted the example of the new varieties. Mansois). These are the ones we know about – but are kiwifruit: as many disappointed would-be growers of it there many others waiting to be discovered? know, it exists in both male and female form. Only the Pedebernade No. 5 – there is no official name for these female plants are capable of bearing fruit, but they vines as yet, so they are named after the owners of the In the 1 970s and 80s, winemaker and oenologist André require a nearby male kiwi plant to fertilise them. vineyards in which they were found. This is a red variety Dubosc began to work actively to reinvigorate the with interesting marzipan and cherry aromas, brisk flagging fortunes of Saint Mont’s growers, who had The same used to be true of grape varieties too, but we acidity and low (1 0%) alcohol. On its own it makes for previously provided grapes for distillation as Armagnac, humans have bred out that characteristic, with the result an odd wine, but Olivier feels it could have a future as a by urging them to focus on the production of table wines

Page 20 AWE Inspiring News - Winter 201 4/2015 blending partner with the region’s renowned Tannat, Other varieties in the line-up were of interest because La Madeleine Saint which when ripe, can produce wines with overly high they add to our knowledge of the interrelationships Mont 2012 - £43.50 alcohol. He compared it to the existing white variety, between varieties. Dubosc No 2 made a nice enough from Adnams Arrufiac, which he says is “terrible”, but can be used in wine, but the real interest lies in the fact that it is related This is from vines the same way as salt to add flavour and character to a to the Magdeleine Noire des Charentes variety, which is planted in 1 890, blend. itself “an awful grape” according to Olivier, but some of the very nevertheless important in our understanding of grape first to be grafted However, as a female vine, it is currently forbidden by varieties as it is a parent of internationally renowned onto American INAO to be grown commercially and no exception has Merlot and Cot (aka Malbec). In vines, as in life it seems, rootstocks in the yet been granted, so it may be a while before we see a close genetic relationship is no guarantee of quality. wake of the Pedebernade No. 5 (or whatever it ends up being called) devastation caused appearing in Saint Mont’s red wines. There was a final wine anorak treat of a tasting of pre-and by phylloxera. It post-phylloxera Tannat wines, planted within very few exhibits the variety’s Pinenc RH4 – by contrast with the first variety we tried, years of each other. hallmark tannic this made a quite delicious wine, with the juicy red fruit © Heather Dougherty 201 4 structure and and hint of pencil shaving that I associate with regular weight, with masses Pinenc/Fer, but with greater aromatic intensity, of rich, dark fruit complexity and ripeness, but also maintaining its and mineral pull. freshness. Vignes Préphylloxeriques Saint Mont 2011 – RRP £46.50 This is a tetraploid selection of the widely-grown (in This wine is the first to be made in the modern era from Southwest France, that is) Pinenc. This version of it vines which were planted in 1 871 in sandy soils which almost died out because the short, almost non-existent inhibit phylloxera’s ability to tunnel. The abandoned, stalk between the vine and the grape bunches made it prostrate vines were staked in 2008 and were gradually difficult to harvest – one person could harvest around raised to a more vertical position to facilitate cropping 200kg of this per day, compared with 1,000 kg for and harvesting. It has a dense, Port-like, intensity and “regular” Pinenc. In the 1 970s, inferior quality clonal incredible length. selections were made which facilitated more efficient harvesting, but which sacrificed quality to ease of It would be a shame to drink either of these powerhouse picking. wines any time soon.

Olivier hopes to have this RH4 version in commercial Photos & text © Heather Dougherty 201 4 vineyards within two years.

© Heather Dougherty 201 4

Page 21 AWE Inspiring News - Winter 201 4/2015 Much thought has been devoted to the best way to extract Similar concerns also control the length of the maceration. colour, tannins and flavour by maceration during and after In a year like 2013 in Bordeaux, extended maceration the alcoholic fermentation of red wine. A wise wine would, again, only serve to emphasise the lack of maker employs the tools of punching down, pumping phenolic ripeness in the wine. The Perfect Brew? over and rack and return according to the character of the by variet(ies) in the vat and the conditions of the year. Yet conversely, in the case of the voluptuous, alcohol-rich Helen Savage musts of 201 0, when the polyphenols were easy to extract, An obvious example is in Burgundy, where in a relatively over-extended maceration could increase the tannins to unripe year like 2008, pumping over was much to be such as level as to rob the wine of its elegance and preferred than the more traditional punching down in balance, as sadly, a few Right Bank wines show. Such a order to avoid extracting unripe tannins; whereas in the shame. much riper conditions of 2009 there were many fewer such worries.

Domaine Montirius © Helen Savage 201 4

Page 22 AWE Inspiring News - Winter 201 4/2015 It’s not just a case of how gentle an extraction is, or how long. Research has also shown that the level of oxygen in a must during maceration also affects the extraction of anthocyanins and polyphenols in a wine. And for this reason, amongst others, winegrowers may decide to experiment with micro-oxygenation, or to embrace it with evangelical enthusiasm.

Science drives practice in a well-disciplined cellar, but this should never be to the exclusion of a more intuitive, ‘taste and see’ approach to winemaking. Indeed, a ‘taste and see’ approach may also have a thoroughly empirical rigour. This was made very clear to me when I accepted Christine Saurel’s invitation to bring some of my students to ‘witness the birth of a wine’ this year, at Domaine Montirius, her outstanding (biodynamic), family estate in Vacqueras.

It all sounded a bit mystical, but it turned out that it was a rare chance to taste our way through a range of tank Christine Saure of Domaine Montirius © Helen Savage 201 4 samples from the 201 4 harvest, drawn each day to We then tasted a co-fermentation of Grenache and Only with time in the oven would they come together monitor the progress of the post-fermentation maceration Mourvèdre, probably destined to be a top cuvée of into the magic of a cake. and thus provide a highly effective way of re-checking its Gigondas, but taken the following day (9 October), just as development. And the changes were dramatic. the alcoholic fermentation had finished. It was Christine’s little exercise revealed the wisdom of a undoubtedly impressive, with immensely deep colour careful, library reference system to ensure that even the For example, a sample of Vacqueras Les Clos, taken on 5 and masses of highly-scented, almost floral black fruit, most experienced taster was better able to monitor the October was impressive, with richly concentrated black but as yet with nothing of the texture that the final development of a maceration, and to my students, fruit aromas, moderate acidity and tannin, but a sample Vacqueras sample had revealed. disproved the oft-stated assertion that it’s not possible to from the same tank, three days later, revealed firmer judge a wine at such an early stage of its development. tannins, but also, surprisingly, fresher acidity. In just three It reminded me of the days, when as a child, I helped my They learned more about winemaking in that hour than more days the fruit had really come into focus. Christine, mum do her baking, in the hope that I’d be allowed to they had in many previous hours of my patient her husband Eric and eldest daughter Justine, now a scrape out the bowl afterwards. I could taste the butter, explanations. winemaker in her own right, all judged that it was ready flour, eggs and sugar, which were delicious, but all still for ‘birth’ - and it was racked off. identifiable. Photos & text © Helen Savage 201 4

Page 23 AWE Inspiring News - Winter 201 4/2015 Wine Without Borders by Susan Hulme MW

Many wine regions have natural borders - think of Alsace for example - but what if you woke up one morning to find the borders had been drawn up arbitrarily by someone else and that many of your vineyards were in another country? That is exactly what happened in Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Slovenia.

I had a chance to explore this theme on a recent press trip to Northern Italy entitled 'Wine Without Borders'. It involved criss-crossing back and forth along the borders between Friuli- Venezia Giulia in the north-east corner of Italy and the Brda wine region in Slovenia, the concept being that these two wine regions have so much in common they should be considered as one.

The similarities include the grape varieties planted, the style of wines produced and the fact that the vineyards are in the same range of hills, called Collio Goriziano in Italy and Goriška Brda in Slovenia. ‘Brda’ means ‘hills’ in Slovenian and 70% of these hills and their highest peaks are on the Slovenian side. © Susan Hulme MW 201 4

Page 24 AWE Inspiring News - Winter 201 4/2015 After the Second World War, an interim Yugoslav-Italian border was drawn up by the Allied Forces and then re-drawn again by the Allies and Tito in 1 947 when he established a unified Yugoslavia. Almost overnight, extended families found themselves separated by a border with wine producers having some of their vineyards in Italy while their homes were in Yugoslavia, now Slovenia.

Vignerons were required to obtain special passports to tend their vines which were now in a different country. Historically there had been such a strong interdependence between these two regions that it was felt that neighbours who had known each other for years would not make good border guards so Tito insisted the border guards were brought in from what is now Serbia and Macedonia.

One young producer I met in Cormòns in Friuli-Venezia Giulia recalled how, as a child, he regularly walked through the vineyards to visit his grandfather about half a mile away and had to pass through heavily-guarded border controls. Even nowadays many of the leading Italian wine producers in the Friuli region speak Slovenian at home.

But aside from arbitrary and enforced divisions there is far more that unites these two wine regions. Both sides of the border are known mainly for their white wines, and varieties such as Pinot Gris, Ribolla Gialla, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Blanc, Malvasia and Friulano (previously known as Tocai Friulano or Sauvignonasse) dominate alongside pockets of the rare and high quality Picolit. As for the red varieties, they grow mainly Merlot and a little of the fascinating Schioppettino or the often rustic Refosco.

There is also a reputation here for orange wines too (white wines fermented on their skins as if they were red wines which may or may not be fermented in amphorae) with famous producers like Gravner and Radikon leading the way.

To underline the interconnections between the two regions, half of our small group stayed on the Italian side of the border and half on the Slovenian side. Although my first wine love will always be Italy, I was pleased to be on the Slovenian side as I had never visited the country before. Both Friuli and Brda are beautiful hilly regions with green, wooded hillsides and quiet, picturesque hilltop villages and those were exactly the kind

of views I had from the comfortable Belica hotel in Medana. Looking out over the borders between Italy, Slovenia and Croatia, near Trieste © Susan Hulme MW 201 4

Page 25 AWE Inspiring News - Winter 201 4/2015 There is a lot of excitement on both sides of the border variety with a mini vertical tasting of their 1 984, 1 994, special. They are also making a delicious new sparkling with regard to the wines. Big, creamy, full bodied whites 2004 and 2008 wines. The 1 994 was the wine of the wine from the Glera variety which Tomaz Ščurek says are typically made from either blends of Ribolla Gialla, night for me. Also excellent was their Cialla Bianco 2001, was historically planted in Friuli. Move over Prosecco! Friulano, Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc, or from single a blend of 60% Ribolla Gialla, with Picolit and Šibav (Slovenia) All their wines were good but they make varietals such as Pinot Gris or some of the best Ribolla Verduzzo. outstanding Pinot Gris/Sivi Pinot. Gialla. The Malvasia Istriana grown here is more aromatic Bastianich (Italy) especially for their Plus 2011, 15.5%, 1 0 Jakončič (Slovenia) They make a delightful, dry white than almost any other Malvasia I have ever come across. g/l residual sugar. Big, bold, over-the-top style but blend with a very Burgundian feel called Carolina (201 0), There are ripe, full-bodied Merlots, and smoky, more impressive. a blend of 60% Chardonnay, 35% Rebula, 5% Pikolit. delicate Schioppettinos - referred to by one producer as Meroi (Italy) especially for their Friulano 2013 which had Valter Sirk (Slovenia) His Merlot and his Malvasia were Friuli's answer to Pinot Noir. Not to mention orange an elegant, minerally, Chablis-like style. both outstanding. wines which attract so much attention with their Marjan Simčič (Slovenia) The best Rebula I tasted on the Primož Lavrenčič (Slovenia) from Vipara Valley. Their intriguing flavours but generate so much controversy even whole trip was from Marjan Simčič. Burja Bela 201 0 was very elegant. among the producers themselves, let alone the wine Ščurek (Slovenia) A rising star - all of the wines I tasted Photos & text © Susan Hulme MW 201 4 critics. Last but not least, there are some thrilling wines here were excellent. The dry Picolit was really something made from the lovely Picolit/Pikolit grape variety in both 4 1 4 0

sweet and dry styles. 1 2 0 2 W M W e Both regions have so much to offer in terms of the quality M m e l u m l H

and excitement of the wines not to mention the scenery u Slovenia Wine Festival n H a s and the food. Friuli and Slovenia may not quite be 'wine n by a u s S u © without borders' but they are wine regions with more S Paul Balke s © o k h e similarities than differences, and the border matters less c r s u a r č a

than their mutual dependencies. In our current times of Š Slovenia's Wine Festival comunicates a message of P z s a i

conflict and nationalistic separatism, this is surely an x interest to every wine lover: it shows the abundance of m e l o T example for all of us. A Slovenian wines and the emergence of a young wine nation with its own wine styles, its own wine regions, Here are some of the outstanding wines I tasted and the and increasing quality. The increasing quality of the s e e producers who made them. l wines is especially noticable and is enthusing all visitors. r i e h t Borgo Di Tiglio (Italy) especially their DOC Collio white 4 Each November, Slovenia’s wine centrepiece, Festival 1 n 0 o bends. 2 Vin, takes place. It is held in the Hotel Union in a s e W n i

Paraschos (Italy) Interesting orange wines. M beautiful rococo-painted hall, in the centre of the w e e m g

Tercic Matijaž (Italy) exceptionally good Pinot Blanc. l charming city of Ljubljana with its typical ´middle- n u a r H

Ronchi di Cialla (Italy) These producers are masters of o European´ ambience, a mix of Austrian and Slavic n k a e s r Schioppettino and presented a wonderful study in this u influences. u S č Š ©

Page 26 AWE Inspiring News - Winter 201 4/2015 As a result of a fast-developing gastronomic culture hills, which creates a special climate dominated by the climate to a very mild Mediterranean part (not everybody Ljubljana boasts a number of good restaurants and some Bora wind. Here, star winemaker Burja leads the way, realizes that a large part of Slovenia is Mediterranean!). good wine bars. Festival Vin offers some gastronomic followed by with interesting winemakers like Tilia, Sutor, Some typical dishes of Slovenia are: jota (a Sauerkraut events too but in reality these are meant for the local Stokelj, and others; Slovenian Istria, a wine region stew), struklji (cooked dumplings, different from Austrian wine lovers. Each year some hundred Slovenian offering much potential, has producers like Rojac, Steras, Strudel), cherries from Brda and fuzi, a fish dish from winemakers from all regions present their wines to an Mahnik and also Vinakoper; Ormoz, with the ever- Slovenian Istria. ever more enthusiastic public. Some winemakers from present Jeruzalem Ormoz winery; and Styria with Some exceptional wines tasted at Festival Vin: Macedonia and Croatia contribute to the atmosphere. interesting wines of Steyer and Verus. But there is much – Simcic, Opoka, Rebula 2013, an exceptional wine more to discover in all of these wine regions and much of from the Rebula grape, with a light fragrant perfume with Almost all wine regions are closely related with the it good quality and it shows how Slovenia has grown into some herbs and fresh mint, and a most refined taste. An regions at the other sides of their borders – often they a real wine producing country. And that is the interesting exceptional Rebula. have grapes, wines and wine styles in common. Brda has message. – Burja, belo 2013, a wine with a wealth of taste, a lot of Rebula, as does Collio and in Styria, Sauvignon freshness, length, some mint, herbs, and a long finish. A Blanc dominates, just like in Steiermark. In reality there Apart from the Vipava Valley, where, almost exclusively, beautiful wine from producer Primoz Lavrencic. are many different wine styles due to the many local the Zelen, Pinela and Klarnica grape varieties are grown, (Editor's note: Marof Winery make an excellent Zweigelt) grapes. Slovenia has not really any indigenous grapes. In all the other regions the grapes are the same as in Austrian and Next year's festival is on 1 8 & 1 9 November 2015 According to many, Brda (or Slovenian Collio) is the most Italian wine regions: in Brda grapes like Rebula, www.slovenskifestivalvin.si Ljubljana can be reached by prominent wine region of Slovenia, with star producers Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Blanc and Sauvignonasse direct flight from London. like Marjan Simcic, Movia, Scurek, but now there are dominate, whereas in Styria Sauvignon Blanc is Text © Paul Balke 201 4 interesting newcomers like Ferdinand, Kristalvin, Emeran predominant. In Prekmurje it is Sipon, which is identical Reya, Reja, Bjana, Sibav and many others. Brda is an to Furmint. upcoming region bursting with new initiatives where every year new young producers emerge and there is an Some Slovenian producers were not present at the increasing number of voices talking about a reunion of Festival Vin due to the fact that they are more interested old historical Collio, which would include both in foreign markets as Slovenia's home market is small. But Slovenian and Italian parts, as it was before 1 920. nevertheless the festival shows much dynamism and the Slovenian Collio is somewhat higher and maybe slightly ferment of a young wine country coming of age after just fresher but in reality there are not many differences in soil 20 years of independent existence. or climate between the Italian and Slovenian Collio ponca soil - a kind of marl is present everywhere. Slovenia is developing a gastronomic culture stimulated by the increasing quality of Slovenian wines paired with There are other regions though, like Vipavska Dolina, a dishes from the various regions . The country boasts valley between the outcrops of the Alps and the Karst many different climates from a rather strong continental Vipava Valley © Susan Hulme MW 201 4

Page 27 AWE Inspiring News - Winter 201 4/2015 "...double-pruning the vines in a Standard procedures have been, in brief: Syrah grafted specific manner started another onto adequate rootstock; vines spaced 1 .5 m x 2.5 m and production cycle, trained on a VSP trellis, with north-south oriented rows; so that harvest could happen two different prunings (August and January), each Double Pruning and Winter Harvest: in the winter..." determining two growing seasons (summer and winter); Extending the frontiers of viticulture in application of 6% hydrogen cyanamide (Dormex®) to Brazil and other countries avoid apical dominance; the small summer production is discarded; and spraying as needed. by Many regions in Brazil and other countries are Tufi Neder Meyer inappropriate for serious viticulture because heat and rain are excessive at traditional ripening and harvest times. This kind of management, previously unheard of in Brazil, attracted the attention of the press and important national publications reported on it. The technique is Good quality wine can only arise from good quality Though the weather cannot be controlled, another vine quite distinct from the double pruning used to delay bud grapes, with adequate amounts of sugar, acids, colour, cycle can be obtained in such regions, where the vine break for a few weeks due to weather hazards. flavour and aroma components. To achieve correct berry does not undergo dormancy, so that ripening/harvest can indices, the vine needs favourable weather during happen when weather conditions favour better fruit DPWH wines are already being produced. From the maturation, including temperature (daytime and quality. Since 2001, at Três Corações (altitude: about pioneering vineyard at Três Corações comes the Primeira nocturnal) and rainfall. 900m), in southern Minas Gerais state, Brazil, a town where V.Vinifera wine had never before been produced, Estrada brand, a monovarietal Syrah; its first commercial vintage was 201 0. Not far away, in Cordislândia, Dom de Excessive heat is unpropitious to producing fine wine; double-pruning the vines in a specific manner started Minas wines are already being sold. In Goiás, the even if temperatures are not extremely high, the grapes another production cycle, so that harvest could happen Pireneus enterprise has also released its wines. will lack the fundamental attribute of acidity. Both field in the winter (double pruning and winter harvest: observations and controlled experiments have shown that DPWH). A complete wine complex has been established in higher environmental temperatures reduce the content of Espírito Santo do Pinhal, São Paulo state; its wines will be tartaric and malic acids in mature berries. High The fruit ripens better, thanks to low rain, much sunlight, on the market in 201 4. The planted area comprises over temperatures during ripening are also deleterious to and ample diurnal temperature variations, conditions that 150 hectares; more than R$ 8 million (over GBP 2 anthocyanin accumulation; high night temperatures are commonplace here in June-August. In 2005 and million) have been invested in vineyards alone. reduce this accumulation. Such temperatures impair 2006, it became evident that Syrah was the best-adapted flowering, slow the growth of berries and reduce sugar cultivar; detailed studies have shown that grapes of better The possibility of increasing drastically the viticultural build-up, so delaying harvest, reducing yields, and quality for wine production could be obtained in a areas, through the extended use of DPWH, could well compromising berry composition. January/July cycle, as compared to the normal August/January. This led to the planting of commercial begin by looking for regions where the climate is similar to that of the places where this management is already Too much rainfall, on the other hand, increases the vineyards in Três Corações and other nearby towns in successful. One invaluable tool is the Multicriteria susceptibility of berries to splitting and fungal diseases, Minas Gerais as well as in São Paulo and Goiás states, Climatic Classification (MCC), using three viticultural delays ripening and reduces potential wine quality. under similar conditions and altitudes.

Page 28 AWE Inspiring News - Winter 201 4/2015 climatic indices to classify grape-growing regions Democratic Republic of Congo (1 ), Madagascar (1 ), according to their macroclimates. To find other regions Malawi (1 ), Mozambique (3), Namibia (3), Paraguay (1 ), and countries where DPWH could be used, I conducted South Africa (2), Tanzania (1 ), Zambia (4) and Zimbabwe some research, the results of which were approved (9). recently by the WSET, thus allowing me to obtain the An Awesome (Christmas) wine Level 5 (Honours Diploma) degree. I defined two new important parameters: RL2M (rain in by the last two months of the cycle) and DVLM (diurnal Helen Savage I investigated the climate of a large series of places in variation in the same period). Such parameters were not a several countries of the Southern Hemisphere. The search part of the MCC and can be used by other researchers in for places having a potential for DPWH included those forthcoming works. with a climatic type, defined by MCC, similar to that of Maynard’s 20 Years Old Tawny southern Minas Gerais. This region, considering the The potential viticulture expansion in the studied places, 20% abv,ph3.6, 120g/l sugar winter cycle, is temperate warm, sub-humid, with cool to as shown by this climatic study, can be huge. In Brazil, a £1 4.99 (50cl) Aldi very cool nights. The winter is mild. Places with less large area of adjacent parts of the states of Minas Gerais, rainfall were also included. Those with over 1 00 mm of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Admittedly it would be hard to fake 20 Year old Tawny, rain in the sum of the last two months of the cycle Grosso, Goiás and Bahia, and comprising most of the but this is far better than a wine that just made the grade: (RL2M) were excluded. The limits for minimal average prospected places, has a total surface area of about 1 .26 subtle, complex and beautifully balanced. I’m not an out- temperature in the month of harvest (cool night index: CI) million km2, or 126 million hectares. If only 1 % were and-out fan of the Aldi wine list, but this is an were determined as 1 0-1 4oC. occupied by vineyards, these would sum 1 .26 million extraordinary bargain. hectares, about one sixth of the whole world hectarage in Integrated spreadsheets were built for each Brazilian state 2012. and for each other country, including: altitude, latitude, longitude, rainfall, RL2M, average maximum and Those interested in reading the whole work can e-mail minimum temperature, diurnal variation in the last month Tufi at [email protected]. of the cycle (DVLM), evapotranspiration (ETP), heliothermal index (HI), dryness index (DI), CI and MCC climate classification. Data from six months were collected for each place, beginning in December, © Tufi Neder Meyer 201 4 January, February or March, according to which 6-month cycle was more adequate.

A total of 212 places with climate suitable to DPWH were found in 13 countries in South America and Africa: Brazil (1 84 places in 11 states), Bolivia (1 ), Botswana (1 ),

Page 29 AWE Inspiring News - Winter 201 4/2015 My passion for this region and my knowledge have grown It is aimed at anyone who wants to know more about this through my close connection with this place and many of region no matter what their level of wine knowledge. I its wine makers. I wanted to reveal this relatively have not included any specific producers, but armed with undiscovered region to more people. I wanted to capture this book people will be able to discover those for the essence and spirit of this place and its wines in a themselves. The Wines of the Languedoc-Roussillon book that would encourage people to stop thinking of it as a ‘good value but nothing special’ wine region of The book has been purchased by people all over the by France. world I have been delighted by the reaction to it and Wendy Gedney comments I have received such as: So this year I launched my beautifully illustrated book, ‘The Wines of the Languedoc-Roussillon’. The book "It's the definitive text on the wines of this region - as After attaining the WSET Diploma in 2006 I began describes the history of the wines, the landscape and well as a thoroughly entertaining read. I've given copies teaching the WSET qualifications and other wine subjects terroirs the grape varieties and wine styles. It demystifies to all of my friends who know and love wine and they all but I had decided I wanted to specialise in wines of the the wine laws of France and describes every appellation thought it was terrific. South of France and in particular Languedoc-Roussillon. in the Languedoc-Roussillon and the highly important My interest in Languedoc-Roussillon began over 20 years Vins de Pays category. "It is easy to read, for novices and wine buffs alike, and ago and my job as a wine teacher was a great for those that don't already know this wonderful region apprenticeship for becoming a wine tour guide. you will fall in love with it after reading Wendy's book. You can sense Wendy's passion on every page. My new French life began in 2009 when I started my business Vin en Vacances. I now live close to The book can be bought either directly from me by Carcassonne and run vineyard tours for people on emailing [email protected] or from holiday in the region as well as tours for the more serious www.amazon.co.uk. It costs £1 9.95. wine enthusiast.

As you will know Languedoc-Roussillon is a huge wine © Wendy Gedney 201 4 region with a great many terroirs and appellations plus the very important IGP category. This region produces the most diverse range of wines in the whole of France. When visiting Burgundy, Bordeaux or other French regions the wines are often superb but are variants of each other. Whereas in Languedoc-Roussillon the range is so diverse you could be tasting for a fortnight and still not have covered all the styles and terroirs!

Page 30 AWE Inspiring News - Winter 201 4/2015 Member News AWE Inspiring News

This is the newsletter of the Association of Wine Erica Dent has moved to: Educators. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect Enjoy Discovering Wine, the opinions of the Association. Landfall, High Street, Editor: Susan Hulme MW Hamble, Many thanks to all of our contributors. Southampton Hants, AWE Administrative Office: SO31 4JF Andrea Warren Scots Firs, 70 Joiners Lane, Stephen Rosser has a new email address: Chalfont St Peter, [email protected] Bucks, SL9 0AU Tel/Fax: 01753 882320 Ian Symonds has moved from Hong Kong to the UK: 1 4 Campion Close, E-mail: [email protected] North Walsham, Web Site: www.wineeducators.com Norfolk NR28 9XJ © AWE Inspiring News 201 4 Phone: 01 692 405534 No part of this newsletter may be reproduced without Mobile: 07453 707677 permission. E-mail: [email protected]

Page 31 AWE Inspiring News - Winter 201 4/2015