The Scent of Summer

COMPLIMENTARY Wines of Distinction vini- a combining form meaning “wine”: viniculture, vinification [Latin vīni-, comb. form of vīnum] – Vinification is the production of wine, starting with selection of the grapes or other produce and ending with bottling the finished wine THE SCENT OF SUMMER ISSUE: #002 SUMMER 2014 02 ISSUE: #002 Re-discover the beauty Welcome of Bergerac Contents to our second edition of Vini. Contributors Matthew Clark | Vini | Summer 2014 We are not only into our second Brought to you by the wine geeks at Matthew Clark 10 edition but well into the warmer @MatthewClarkLtd months of summer. Meet the enigmatic Simon l Simon Grayson Douglas McCrorie Grayson and his top ten is one of our Wine found his passion To get us in the summer spirit, we tipples from our wine list PLEASE NOTE Development for wine when he 16 take a look at Rosé and a range of Specialists who joined Oddbins THE CODES LISTED NEXT TO WINES grape varieties used plus a feature works out of the nearly 20 years Read about the different ARE OUR PRODUCT CODES WHICH on Summer Sparkling Wine, as Midlands. He has ago. He worked styles of Rosé to see why CAN BE USED TO PURCHASE WINES. well as taking the Sherry out of a background through his WSET this category is no longer PRICES QUOTED ARE LIST BOTTLE in fine dining and started out on his exams and gained his Diploma in exclusive to Summer PRICE. THESE ARE CORRECT AT TIME Christmas and landing it straight into wine career almost 10 years ago. Wines & Spirits. He joined Matthew OF PRINT BUT MAY BE SUBJECT TO our long hazy, summer days. He’s a qualified WSET Educator and Clark in 2004 and then left after 5 18 CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE. spends most of his time out in trade years to join Bibendum Wine. He Master Sommelier, Ronan Sayburn in support of Matthew Clarks’ regional quickly returned to Matthew Clark 2 Good enough for Royalty, talks about the Champagne wine customers. years ago as a Wine Development good enough for us! Manager for the National Accounts category in Restaurants and we Tiffany Mogg Division which involves consulting on 20 take a look at matching some of is the latest and evolving customers’ wine lists, the best Dessert wines with savoury addition to developing wine training packages Find out what happens food - cue rumbling tummies... the wine team and generally enthusing about wine! when you pour food in the role of Wine is not just a job for Douglas it’s colouring into the wine... Wine Marketing a passion. We take you on a trip around Manager, she the world from South Africa, to has experience in wine retail and Laurie Davis, our 34 Argentina to Italy to take you sales with Majestic and holds her resident Aussie, 26 First part of a continued away from the UK for just a WSET Diploma. has always had a passion for wine Who said sweet wines journey around Italy... few moments... Siobhan Irons is which started when were just for Dessert?! dreamy... one of our Wine 32 he picked grapes in As always, we welcome all your Buyers who not the school holidays Ali Reynolds from views and comments so please only keeps the for Bruce Tyrrell in Hawksmoor shares some rest of the guys 36 the Hunter Valley. After a 16 year stint get in touch! wine based summer on the team in as a Chef in the UK and Oz, he joined It’s Sherry, Sherry, Sherry cocktails. Delish! Cheers! check but has Matthew Clark 14 years ago, turning time! Goodbye Christmas, sourced some absolute gems from his wine habit into a career. Having the old world. worked on the sales side for many hello Summer! Simon years, he now finds himself as our Zoë Coombs Wine Controller. is our Wine Development Rachel Love is Specialist for spending her the South West. tenth year in the She really should wine trade but her know what she’s passion for wine doing by now having started back started earlier at Matthew Clark in 2000 (although than that through there was a short 3 year break to run regular family holidays to wine a couple of gastro pubs). The last regions of France. Her career in the couple of years have seen her get industry began at Majestic Wine in her WSET Diploma and qualify as a 2004 and has travelled extensively WSET Educator. to wine regions around the world, completed her WSET Diploma with a lot of fun had along the way! Rachel joined Matthew Clark in 2013 as Wine Development Specialist and has recently qualified as a certified WSET educator. Matthew Clark | Vini | 3 Over the past few years, a handful of Grape varieties at Château Thénac less oak, varying according to the Bergerac producers have striven to are familiar to Bordeaux lovers: character of each vintage. CHÂTEAU THÉNAC resurrect the image of the Appellation. Cabernets Franc & Sauvignon, Merlot All of the viticultural and winemaking Although the Bergerac Appellation and Malbec for the reds; Sémillon, activity at Thénac is under the control spreads over a large region across Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle of the estate director, Stéphane Guillot, for the whites. Malbec, which needs a both sides of the Dordogne river, and aided by the eagle eye of consultant warmer climate than that of Bordeaux, BERGERAC therefore has a range of diverse terroirs oenologue Denis Durantou. and micro-climates, there are some produces well-coloured, spicy wines terroirs with the potential to make very that marry well with the backbone Mr. Durantou is the owner and Tim Smith, a supplier with an age old relationship serious wines – the famous limestone of Cabernet and plush, ripe Merlot winemaker of the 4.5 hectare Pomerol with Matthew Clark talks history and in depth about ridge of St. Emilion continues fruit. Muscadelle, a distant, much estate Château l’Eglise Clinet, and he through the Côtes de Castillon and less obviously perfumed relative of has more awards and 100 point scores interesting wines from Bergerac. into the Bergerac region; and it is on Muscat, is also a very interesting in his back pocket than almost any other aromatic component, with notes of producer in Bordeaux – to give just one Bergerac has a very long historical association with England – Eleanor of a series of spurs of this limestone ridge white flowers, hawthorn, stone fruits example, l’Eglise Clinet was the only Aquitaine’s marriage to Henry the Second in the twelfth century brought a large that the vineyards of Château Thénac and even Darjeeling tea. Most of the 2012 Bordeaux to be given a potential chunk of Southwestern France to the English crown, and began the Englishman’s are located. vines on the estate date from 20 to 45 100 point rating by Robert Parker. By love affair with Bordeaux wines, or ‘Claret’. Customs restrictions were imposed The vineyards are situated at 150 years old, but as the viticultural team honing every detail of Thénac’s work in on wines from vineyards in French France further up the rivers Dordogne and to 200 metres altitude – nothing to come to understand better the potential the vineyards and winery, Mr. Durantou Garonne, and Bordeaux & Bergerac enjoyed a near-monopoly of the UK trade. compare with some new world regions, of each vineyard, there is a continuous is overseeing in each vintage a small but an important point in comparison programme to replace selected plots gain in finesse and complexity, taking with the Médoc, whose high point is each year – with either grape varieties Château Thénac’s wines from the ranks around 25 metres! A further important or clones better adapted to the terroir of the very best in Bergerac to a level factor is the distance from the sea – and micro-climate. comparable with many a Bordeaux whereas the Bordeaux vineyards enjoy Grand Cru Classé… / suffer from the temperate, humid Winemaking at Château Thénac Atlantic climate, Bergerac is more takes place in a recently re-equipped Bergerac is part of the Périgord region, influenced by continental weather cellar next door to the château itself. well-known in France and abroad for conditions – harder winters, but also Vinification for the whites is in either its production of fine foods – foie gras warmer, longer summers. This results in temperature-controlled stainless steel and black truffles are among the local a longer, warmer ripening season. vats or in oak barriques. The reds are specialities. As in many wine-making fermented in the traditional upright regions, the wines match well with the Grapes have been grown at Thénac wooden vats of the Bordeaux region. local cuisine: the rich fruit, fine tannic for centuries, and the château itself, The barrel cellar has two floors whose structure and acidity of the Château magnificently situated on a ridge temperatures can be regulated, one Thénac red with a magret de canard with imposing views of the rolling for white wines and one for reds. The (duck breast) with truffles and foie countryside, dates back to the sixteenth Château Thénac red is aged for around gras, for example… the complexity and century. The current owner has 15 months in a mix of new and used richness of the Château Thénac white not only restored the property, but barriques of French oak, and part of with a risotto of cêpes and Périgord also invested heavily in bringing the Château Thénac white blend for truffles… while the frozen plum parfait the vineyards and the winery up to 8 months (the rest is kept in stainless made with our eau de vie de prune is modern, high-quality standards.

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