David Crossley's Wide World of Wine

Real Wine Fair 2019, Part 1

Posted on 14/05/2019 by dccrossley

After an absence of a year the Real Wine Fair returned to London’s Tobacco Dock, and visiting yesterday, I overheard so much ecstatic praise for the event. The venue is spacious and airy, and especially the large hall enables tasters to feel less crowded out than at some large events. The food court offers a wide range of food and (essential for post-tasting palate refreshing) beer, and there are also spaces to retreat into for a few moments of quiet relief and programme consultation.

One of the best additional attractions at the Fair (mirroring Raw Wine) is the shop, where it would be rude not to pick up a few bottles to take home. Many readers probably saw on Instagram the Kelley Fox, De Moor and Joiseph bottles I managed to nab for takeaway. I think a massive round of applause is due to Doug Wregg and the Les Caves de Pyrene team for organising the Fair, and indeed bringing it back for such an enthusiastic audience.

I was only able to manage one of the two days this year, yesterday’s Trade and Press Day. It was probably slightly less crowded, though still busy, but arriving at ten o’clock on the dot enabled me to crack on with the work (I suppose you think it’s easy). I was so busy tasting that it was past one-thirty before I realised I needed lunch. I think I tasted through the wines of twenty-three producers, and I can honestly say I wish I could have tasted at least four times as many. I’m going to split my coverage into three parts perhaps, I’ll see how I go.

I tried to visit people whose wines I don’t know well, and where I did visit favourites I tried to taste wines I’ve not reviewed before. That said, with new vintages it’s still a lot of wines, and one thing to bear in mind is that by the end of the day some wines had run out, some wines were a bit tired, and one or two producers seemed somewhat tired as well (perfectly natural in the circumstances – I’d been tasting for seven hours with a twenty minute break and they’d been on their feet for just as long).

I probably should also mention that whilst most winemakers were there to take us all through their wines with enthusiasm, a few had gone AWOL for long periods leaving visitors to pour the wines themselves and come to their own conclusions. If there’s no photo of a producer with their wines, you can assume that in almost all cases I was unable to talk to them. In one case, a winery whose wines were right up near the top of my list to try (Momento Mori) did not even appear to have turned up on the second day, leaving an empty table.

But that must not detract from the fact that this was a brilliant day’s wine tasting, at what for me is an unrivalled opportunity to taste through the Les Caves portfolio plus the wines of a range of smaller natural wine importers. I hope you enjoy my notes, which I will try very hard to keep reasonably succinct.

Weingut Andreas Tscheppe (Sudsteiererland, Austria)

Like Franz and Christine Strohmeier from the same part of Austria, I didn’t see Andreas Tscheppe on his table at any time when I passed by. I really adore the Strohmeier wines, but I’ve drunk those of Andreas Tscheppe fewer times, so I decided to take myself through the wines on the table. A good decision.

Andreas and Elizabeth cultivate their vineyards biodynamically, with a focus on sustainability and biodiversity, as mirrored in the insects which adorn their beautiful labels. These insects are drawn to the grasses and wild flowers which fill the rows of vines in what is effectively a meadow up at 500 metres altitude in Southern Styria (a region I ache to visit). The fermentation and ageing here is all in older oak, with up to two years spent there before bottling. When bottling comes around, some wines have no sulphur added, others just a little. There are no rules, it’s all based on their analysis of the wine’s needs.

Blue Dragonfly Sauvignon Blanc 2017 is very floral and fruity too. There’s a lovely range of unusual notes, like fresh mint, pear and hawthorn. A bright wine, one to bring joy and pleasure. It was my own favourite of the two Sauvignon Blancs on show (the other being Green Dragonfly 2017, which is a bit more intense, structured even).

Stagbeetle Earthbarrel Sauvignon Chardonnay 2017 is both lovely and also very interesting. The blend, of which Sauvignon is the larger component, is fermented in wood on skins, then racked to another barrel, which is buried in the vineyard, under the stars, for six months (effectively over winter). The the barrel is brought into the winery for a further 18 months before bottling. The Chardonnay contributes a roundness, as no doubt does the long ageing. Yet the wine is still bright and fresh on the palate, before the smooth fruit gives way to a bit of bite on the back of the tongue. A brilliant wine, both concentrated yet also thought provoking.

All the wines here were really singing, but I’m going to select Snail Pinot Noir Rosé 2017 to finish. I’m not sure that Les Caves has this in stock but it is a perfect wine for summer. 10.5% alcohol, pale, bottled under crown cap (although the expected fizz had largely dissipated when I tried some). It has a touch of sweetness and nicely ripe fruit and was just lovely. I’d have liked to discuss this wine and find out more. Preferably among all those wild flowers that I can almost smell every time I read about this estate.

Joiseph, Luka Zeichmann (Burgenland, Austria)

So you’ve probably begun to hear about Luka by now? I, for one, have been raving about this small producer with vines around Jois at the top end of the Neusiedlersee, and I was thrilled to be able to meet him for the first time at Real Wine. This project is in fact a collaborative effort, but Luka is the talented young winemaker. Their initial hectare of vines has grown to 3 ha for the 2017s and they tease a miraculous eight cuvées out of them. The only thing holding them back from superstardom might just be their tiny production, but these wines are beginning to be sought out. If you saw the Joiseph “BFF” I grabbed from the shop (photo on Instagram yesterday), it was the very last bottle.

Tasting just the wines that were new to me (Nick Rizzi of importer Modal Wines has taken me through many of these a couple of times already this year) I began with Mischkultur 2017. This is Luka’s entry level white wine. It’s a field blend with the grapes all picked together (from different sites) and co-fermented, effectively a gemischter satz. It’s fresh, tongue-prickling and simple, yet full of energy and zip.

Rosatant 2018 is Blaufränkisch from the same vineyard as BFF and we were tasting a tank sample as none of the 2018s have been bottled yet. It has a remarkably peppery nose, very fruity, although Luka says the fruit will tone down a bit. It is strikingly pale and as the wine has no label, you get a photo of how pale it is in the glass, below. Delicious. Look out for it soon.

Tannenberg 2016 is the top red at Joiseph. The hill it is named after has the profile which appears on the anonymous front label of all the Joiseph wines. I will nail my colours to the mast and say that this is one of the two, perhaps three, best Zweigelts I know, or at least one of my two favourites. It comes from an island of schist over limestone, a very rocky, dry, terroir with poor soils. The colour is so vibrant and deeper than many varietals from this grape. It has stunning fruit and real depth, all with just 12.5% abv.

I finished with another new wine, Muscat Ottonel 2018. This sees two weeks on skins. The bouquet is beautifully aromatic enough to get a physical exclamation from me, wow! It’s a lively wine with nicely balanced acids, but the skin maceration adds noticeable texture, adding depth. I think this particular cuvée might not be for everyone, but that would merely make it easier to obtain for people like us.

Claus Preisinger (Burgenland, Austria)

It does seem like a long time since I visited Claus, and indeed Stefanie Renner, in Gols last summer on the first day of harvest. It was gloriously hot, but the wind from over the Pannonian Plain, across the shallow waters of the Neusiedlersee, into which we were cycling most of the morning, was doing its bit to cool the grapes. Funny what you can learn about a particular terroir from the saddle.

If Claus has been deprived of sleep with his new(ish) baby, it wasn’t showing. Even towards the end of the day he had the energy to take me through the range, so the wines all deserve a note, even if cursory. The first bottle of wine I bought from Newcomer Wines’ old shipping container at Shoreditch Boxpark was one of Claus’, and since then his stature has risen even further. This is one of the best producers in Burgenland.

Kalk und Kiesel Weiss 2017 is a four grape blend (Weissburgunder, Grüner Veltliner, Welschriesling and a little Muscat Ottonel) off chalk and pebbles. It is part fermented in wood and part in amphora, and it retains a texture and slightly bitter (or savoury) feeling, without any loss of freshness. That texture comes from its vinification, ageing on lees, and bottling without fining, nor filtration. Lovely.

Kalk und Kiesel Rot 2017 blends (mostly) Pinot Noir and Blaufränkisch. The grapes are vinified in several different ways before ageing in 500-litre oak. Lightness, texture, fruit and acidity make this a complete and harmonious red with, again, a lick of texture making it food-friendly.

Grüner Veltliner ErDELuftGRAsundreBEN 2017 is not my keyboard rebelling (though it often does that, with the pounding I give it), but is a clue to the vineyard which Claus is not allowed to put on his non-DAC label, Edelgraben. It is pure schist, giving the wines intense character, whether red or white. The Grüner has an unexpected softness, like you would imagine a soft mineral rock would taste, rather than hard schist. The texture is to the fore. This is accounted for by the limestone that appears with the schist, the fermentation in amphora, and the extended skin contact of around five months.

The Weissburgunder 2017 of the same name (which can also be read as “grapes, earth, air, grass and vines” is similarly textured, dry and vivant. They are not so much varietal wines as wines which, despite long skin macerations, elaborate the terroir/site beautifully. They are not wines to select if you are after varietal typicity, more wines to choose for a journey into the poetry of wine. “Intense” is a good word to describe them, yet they don’t impose rudely on the conversation with them.

Blaufränkisch ErDELuftGRAsundreBEN 2017 has very strong cherry notes. It’s interesting that this is an easier variety to guess, or easier than the two white (orange) versions from the same site. The variety has its common brightness and spice, but the cherries really dominate, and you can also imagine you are sucking the last flesh from a cherry stone on the finish.

As for finishing, there was no Puszta Libre on show (I forgot to ask Claus whether he made any in 2018), but I was able to cleanse my palate with the ever beautiful Ancestral, in this case the 2018. It’s a pale salmon pink petnat (around 6-bar of pressure) made using St-Laurent from the gravelly Goldberg site, just 10.5% alcohol and hauntingly fruity. Gorgeous stuff.

Rennersistas (Burgenland, Austria)

I feel a little sorry for Susanne at home, presumably with her young one, whilst husband Claus and sister Stefanie enjoy the beautiful sunshine and exquisite bonhomie of the Real Wine Fair in London (also read “work their ankles off”). But it was good to see Stefanie again, and this time to taste a few wines off-list which I had not yet seen in the flesh.

As you will surely know by now, the wines the Renner sisters have fashioned from some of their father’s vineyards at Gols have created something of a sensation. The wines seem to remarkably reflect (excuse the split infinitive here) the personality of these two young women who, however tired, bring a smile to any occasion. They learnt their trade not in the conservative environment (at the time) of Northern Burgenland, but with Tom Lubbe (Matassa) and Tom Shobbrook (South Australia). 2017 is just their third vintage, and every year their winemaking grows more assured. They are one of the most sought after producers on the shelves at Newcomer Wines. It’s in no small part due to the ever generous nature, and innovation, of their makers.

Waiting For Tom White 2017 is a blend of Weissburgunder and Chardonnay. It’s a lovely savoury wine, and I assume the Chardonnay is picked quite early (?). I think the texture here probably comes from the Pinot Blanc. Overall it’s quite simple, yet it has presence. I can’t wait to get some.

Chardonnay 2018 saw two weeks on skins with whole bunches. It’s a fresh and mineral Chardonnay with some savoury and umami notes, very much emblematic of the Rennersistas style. Oh dear, another for the list.

Superglitzer 2017 is what I’d been waiting to taste ever since I saw the buzz around it from Austria these past weeks. It’s a blend of all the red varieties they have planted (Zweigelt, Blaufränkisch, St Laurent, Pinot Noir and Roessler – that last variety you may have come across at Gut Oggau). What I didn’t know was that it was originally intended as a rosé, but it turned out darker, despite whole bunch fermentation and direct pressing. It’s a massively attractive, fruity, blend and I can see why people have been excited by it. Nice version of the Rennersistas label too.

Zweigelt 2017 brings out the fruitiness of the variety, and is another of my favourite Zweigelts, which I have now tried in each of its three vintages. There’s that savoury touch beneath the fruit, a little density, and a bitter finish, but the fruit remains dominant in a wine perfectly balanced at 12.5% abv.

Iago Bitarishvili (Kartli, Georgia)

The keen-eyed regulars will know I drank one of Iago’s wines at Silo two weekends ago, and I was keen to taste further and meet the great man himself. It was no disappointment. The wines were great, and Iago lived up to his reputation as a super-friendly guy. He’s based in Chardakhi in the Mtskheta part of Kartli, in Eastern Georgia. His 50-y-o, two-hectare, vineyard gives him good base material. He harvests ripe, and that means stems too. He uses the traditional qvevri method for the skin contact wines, where whole bunches and stems go in without pressing. The stems naturally filter the wine as it settles and no sulphur is added. There’s only about 5,000 bottles made each vintage, so grab one if you see it.

Iago Chinuri 2018 (without skin contact, Green Label) shows a wonderful grape in all its glory. Chinuri here gives a very refreshing wine with quite exotic fruit, but there’s also what I have discovered is a real Chinuri trait, softness. Even with the Iago Chinuri 2018 (with skin contact, Yellow Label) the softness is still there despite the texture which extended skin contact brings (mostly a little less than a year macerating). As I said of the 2016 I drank at Silo, it is “smooth and gentle” rather than “tannic and textured”. There had been a 2017 on show, but it was all gone by the afternoon. A pity as I’d have made it a hat-trick of vintages.

Marina Mtsvane 2018 had a very lovely bouquet that I couldn’t quite put my finger on, a little like a smoky grapefruit. Made with skins and stems in qvevri again, it has a nice texture but is alive and fresh with good grip and bite. I finished on a Marina Mtsvane 2017 with an extra year in bottle. There’s greater depth, as much texture, and a palate of pineapple and stone fruits now (a peachiness, perhaps). This has 13.5% alcohol.

Slobodne (Zemianske Sady, Slovakia)

Slobodne is based at Hlohovek in Slovakia’s western hills about an hour’s drive out of Bratislava. As I said recently, the country’s wines are just beginning to truly establish themselves after we have seen a natural wine revolution in neighbouring Czech Moravia. The family here began a new era after recovering their vineyards following the fall of communism, their first vintage being in 2010. This estate is more than just about wine. As with many producers here at Real Wine, they care about biodiversity and the ecosystem, and spent twenty-five years preparing their land before launching their wines.

Veltlina 2017 is a nice wine to kick off with. It’s a simple wine, soft and with a bitter textured finish for food accompaniment. Then I moved on to a couple of very interesting whites. Interval 103 is a Riesling from the 2015 vintage. It has a Riesling steeliness which is just starting to soften. Interval 104 is the same wine from 2016. It has more structure and needs more time to age, but 103 gives a hint at the trajectory it will follow. Both are exceptional Rieslings from a lesser known wine region.

Malý Majer 2015 is a blend of Blaufränkisch and Cabernet Sauvignon which is a soft and plump red. Rebela Rosa 2018 with its attractive label is also a blend of the same grapes (Blaufränkisch is known as Frankovka here) which sees no manipulation and no added sulphur. The idea behind it is to get as close as possible to the taste of the fresh new wine in the cellar. This makes the wine interesting and different, very natural, not for everyone but chilled down, a refreshing alternative. Bottled before all the sugar is subsumed, it has a faint spritz and a pale pink colour, with haunting strawberry fruit. Annoyingly I failed to note the alcohol. Sources online suggest 13%, quite a bit higher than I’d imagined.

pArtisan Cru 2015 (sic) is a premium red and is largely a blend of Blaufränisch and Cabernet again, given a few days skin contact. It’s another soft wine with good concentration and length. Alternativa 2015 is another wine which shows the benefit of a bit of bottle age. It’s a pure Frankovka (Blaufränkisch) off the loess and clay soils of the Trnava Region. Fermentation is in open clay tanks, prolonged over six weeks, before it goes into old oak to age for a couple of years before bottling. It’s a very peppery wine with vibrant cherry fruit and, as expected, a good turn of fruit acids on the palate to keep the flavour going long after swallowing (well, spitting in my case).

It’s an over used cliché, but the Slobodne wines are quite unique. Their experimentation with skin contact styles, and the variety of wines they produce, puts them right at the forefront of Slovakian wine, not just natural wine. Some have suggested that there are no wines like these in Europe. That might err towards hyperbole, but they are certainly following an interestingly different path to most. Well worth exploring, via importer Modal Wines. You can search for other Slobodne wines I’ve drunk over the past year or so.

Tillingham Wines (East Sussex, England)

Ben Walgate is no stranger to these pages. His promising winery at Peasmarsh, near Rye in East Sussex, not only has fields of newly planted vines, but he makes cider, and looks after a range of livestock (some goats having been introduced recently to go with the sheep and cows). There are rooms being built in which visitors will be able to stay overnight, and an on-site restaurant and shop will make this a unique English wine and gastronomic venue by the end (hopefully) of summer 2019. Ben, as a former director of Gusbourne Wines, was described by Doug Wregg a year ago (the-buyer.net) as “on a steep learning curve”. Well, he’s learning, and the number of exciting wines coming out of Tillingham in small batches is quite astonishing.

I’d say that any adventurous wine lover could (and should) take any of Ben’s wines in the knowledge that they will be fun to drink and mind expanding in terms of what English Wine has the potential to be, outside of the commercial vineyards producing wines using chemical treatments. Ben is using biodynamic methods and minimal sulphur, although at the moment it is from bought in grapes (whilst his own vineyards come on tap). This is an artisan operation, but with high end goals.

I want to concentrate on two new wines here, because I’m most interested in what Ben is doing in Georgian qvevri. He began with two buried vessels, from which he made a qvevri cider and his Qvevri Artego (shh, Ortega). Now he has (I believe) fourteen of them. We have a Qvevri Pinot Blanc bottled recently but not yet on sale. It is massively fresh and fruity. I think Ben is great at coaxing freshness from his cuvées, a freshness which goes above and beyond acidity and only seems present in the wines of a handful of English (and Welsh!) producers. None of that confected acidity from under ripe but chaptalised grapes.

Then we have Qvevri Rülem. This is Müller Thurgau with a 21-day maceration on skins. Ben’s getting braver and this wine is just desserts for his efforts. It’s cloudy and leesy, still fresh but something really different. I wonder whether he’s tasted Hermit Ram Müller Thurgau from New Zealand? This is not the same but there’s a resemblance, for me, although the Tillingham is lighter, and very fragrant.

Kmetija Mlečnik (Bukovica, Slovenia)

There really should be more Slovenian wine here in my Real Wine review, and indeed in the UK too. For decades Slovenia has been producing world class wines without most of the UK wine trade taking any notice, except for Les Caves, and a few others. Valter Mlečnik farms nine hectares at the western end of the Vipava Valley, tight up to the Italian border, with mainly local varieties plus Chardonnay and some Merlot. As is traditional in the region, the whites are made with skin contact. Just two (white-ish) wines were on show, though, with Valter’s son, Klemen, on hand to pour and explain.

Ana Cuvée 2012 is a blend of Rebula (Ribolla Gialla), Chardonnay, (Istrian) Malvasia and Friulano. It has a five day maceration on skins in open vats before two years in large oak for ageing. After time in bottle, this 2012 is quite smooth, very concentrated, with a little richness. There’s fruit there, but that’s not what the wine is primarily about. We have secondary and emerging tertiary notes, complexity and a lovely presence which I promise in most people will encourage you to ponder what’s in the glass long and hard.

Rebula 2013 is a 100% varietal wine from this regional speciality grape. This cuvée has three days skin contact and two years in barrel (and a mere 11.5% abv). Both wines have a lovely bright golden colour and real concentration. There’s tannin and texture, but not as much as in many orange wines, as the short maceration times might corroborate. Both are exceptionally long.

I learnt from Simon Woolf’s Amber Revolution that Valter Mlečnik was one of the group of winemakers originally mentored by Joško Gravner in the late 80s/early 90’s, but as Simon points out, and as we see from his son Klemen’s explanations here, the tradition in Vipava Valley has always been for a relatively short maceration on skins, and that is what they stick to. Any way you want to look at it, these are beautiful, elegant, orange wines of world class.

Recent Wines April 2019 #theglouthatbindsus

Posted on 09/05/2019 by dccrossley

I’m cutting any introductory waffle this month. You probably know the score by now. There are twelve wines, and something a little different (a cider) to make up a baker’s dozen. These are the most interesting wines I drank at home in April, and their interest is accentuated by their origins on this occasion. We have wines from Germany’s Mosel, Georgia, Switzerland (Geneva, Ticino and Neuchâtel), Burgenland in Austria, Goumenissa in Greece, Slovakia, Sicily (well, Lipari to be more accurate, a very good new discovery) and (of course) Jura. Here we go now…

DHRONER HOFBERG RIESLING KABINETT 2013, AJ ADAM (MOSEL, GERMANY)

Dhron isn’t one of the famous villages on the Mosel, situated as it is, half way between Trittenheim and Piesport, which get a little more attention. The Hofberg vineyard is unusual in that it does not face the Mosel itself, but is oriented towards the southwest, following the right bank of the river Dhron, an eastern tributary of the larger river.

Andreas Adam managed to take back his family vines which had previously been rented out, and has now established himself as a successful winemaker, if perhaps still a little under the radar in the UK. This 2013 is a product of a vintage hit by poor flowering, which led to a very small crop (50% in some cases). It was, nevertheless, lauded as an exceptional year and this Kabinett has aged very well.

There’s a richness, almost a sweetness, which suggests ripe fruit, but it is matched by an intensity. The scorers have not gone overboard about this wine, but I think Adam’s wines are always good, and this is no exception. It has just 8% alcohol and is very elegant for a ripe wine. The bouquet is lime and grapefruit citrus, with grapefruit and a touch of exotic pineapple on the palate. It finishes with a wet stone, slate, texture, but just a hint, which grounds it nicely.

You can often find the wines of AJ Adam at branches of The Sampler.

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MTSVANE 2016, OKRO’S WINES (KAKHETI, GEORGIA)

John Okruashvili has around five-and-a-half hectares of vines near Sighnaghi in the Kakheti Region, in Eastern Georgia. He returned to his native country after a career in telecoms and IT, presumably with some cash to sink his qvevris beneath the floor of his new tasting room in the centre of town. But this is not a slick marketing operation. John is making wonderful traditional wines with a rather old fashioned feel.

This 2016 saw a long skin maceration, being bottled in April 2018, and I purchased this one from Les Caves de Pyrene soon after it arrived in the UK. The colour is deep orange, as one would expect from the long skin contact in qvevri. It is dry and you notice the tannins, but I love its earthy nose, and deep citrus palate. In fact you get the orange flavours, but there’s apricot too. It actually starts off bitter but opens out (don’t chill it much, if at all). It’s already complex and changed a lot by the second day, so it might be a bit young. If I’ve drunk a more interesting Mtsvane I don’t remember it.

INFINI “LES PASSIONNÉS” 2014, LA CAVE DE GENÈVE (GENEVA, SWITZERLAND)

The first of three Swiss wines this month, not only prompted by the recent Swiss tasting I went to (See Time for More Swiss Wine, 11 April) but also because I got some Swiss wines for Christmas. This wine came to me, via friends who live in Geneva, a few years ago, since when it has been resting in my cellar. I’m not going to claim greatness for this wine, but it is a good example of the work the Geneva wine Cooperative is doing.

This is a fairly standard Bordeaux blend we have here, Cabernets Sauvignon and Franc with Merlot, grown on the gently hilly terrain to the west of the city. If you are staying in Geneva and can get the use of a car, it’s really worthwhile getting out to the vineyard villages, particularly around Dardagny and Satigny (the coop is in Satigny), and especially to taste at the Portes Ouvertes events.

This barrique-aged wine has dark fruits running through it (blueberry and blackberry especially, with cherry), is smooth now with just a little tannin and still decent acidity. It’s not complex but is well judged, I suspect more so for having allowed the wood to integrate. As someone who does not seek out Bordeaux blends from outside Bordeaux, I found this enjoyable, both for its flavour, and for being something a little different.

As far as I’m aware this wine is not imported into the UK but it can be purchased in Satigny for a little under CHF23 (approx £17). Although Swiss wine tends to be pretty expensive, especially after sterling’s recent falls, the wines of the Cave de Genève remain decent value. Last time I visited they didn’t take credit card payments, but that may have changed.

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MALAGOUZIA “ORANGE” 2015, KTIMA TATSIS (GOUMENISSA, GREECE)

I tasted some of Stergios Tatsis’ wines at Raw Wine 2019 and was impressed, by the wines and by the man. Although the region here is Goumenissa, close to the slightly better known Naoussa in Northern Greece, this wine is labelled PGI Macedonia. Malagouzia is the grape variety, grown here biodynamically, on gravelly clay. As it says in English on the label, it’s an orange wine, its skin maceration taking place in old oak, not amphora. It is bottled without any added sulphur.

When I tasted this at Raw I called it “flawless” (hence Jamie’s book in the photo). It has texture and tannin, as you’d expect, but if you don’t serve it too cool (which will accentuate the tannins) then a smoothness comes through with lovely fruit as well. Its journey is from citrus to marmalade in the glass, though without sweetness, of course…it’s bone dry. Its fragrant bouquet is in perfect harmony with the palate.

The importer for the UK is Southern Wine Roads, but I couldn’t find it on their web site on checking. Give them a call. My bottle came from the Burgess and Hall shop at Raw Wine.

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ARBOIS-PUPILLIN “JURASSIQUE” 2016, DOMAINE DE LA RENARDIÈRE (JURA, FRANCE)

Jean-Michel Petit and wife Laurence farm seven-and-a-half hectares in and near Pupillin, working organically but using some biodynamic preps. Sulphur is added to the Renardière wines, but in relatively low quantities. Everything is done by hand where possible at the domaine, and Jean-Michel’s own hand on the label is a reminder of that.

Their winery is on Pupillin’s Rue du Chardonnay, apt for this cuvée which is made from Chardonnay grown on Jurassic limestone. Aged in older barrels, it is clean and very mineral, with classic limestone brightness. There’s another Chardonnay, “Les Vianderies”, which is off the local marnes with gravel, which has greater depth but less “zing”. I like this leaner wine. The fruit is still svelte, not chubby, which gives it a frame and a little structure. For me it drinks nicely with a touch of age but not too much, and this 2016 highlights the terroir very well.

I purchased this from Solent Cellar in Lymington. I believe the importer is Thorman Hunt.

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PERFECT STRANGERS, CHARLIE HERRING WINES (HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND)

This isn’t a wine, although in some respects it’s not exactly a cider. Tim Phillips makes this artisan cider from his dessert apple orchard right next to his walled vineyard, just outside of Lymington. The twist is that he adds a little red wine. This gives colour and acidity which the dessert apples lack. The only other similar cider I know is that which Tom Shobbrook makes from pear cider and a splash of Mourvèdre in South Australia.

I’ve written before about how Tom and Tim know each other via Sean O’Callaghan in Tuscany, and I’ve also written at greater length about this cider. But I have to include it again here because, well, it’s pretty sensational for cider. This newest vintage is so fresh but fine and elegant. It shares more than just a Champagne bottle with that great sparkling wine in that respect, though I personally love it young, and I’m not sure autolysis and time will have the same effect as it can on Champagne.

This is pretty difficult to track down and Tim always sells out, but a little persistence can pay off. It costs around the price of a fairly average bottle of wine, and I reckon it provides at least three times the pleasure. Not to mention the imaginative labels. Brilliant stuff that (I hardly dare say it) would challenge most petnats and at perhaps a third of their price.

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BIANCO DI MERLOT “RUNCHET” 2010, CARLO TAMBORINI (TICINO, ITALY)

Okay, I won’t argue that this is the finest wine in this roundup, but white wine from Merlot grapes is a bit of a speciality in Ticino, and if you don’t try these things then unwarranted prejudice may well linger.

Tamborini is not a small artisan producer, but a fairly large company for Switzerland, with 25 hectares in various locations in Ticino, where Merlot is, of course, ubiquitous. This bianco is made in a modern way with a gentle extraction to avoid tannins, but at least as important, to avoid colour.

The result is really interesting in two respects. First, the wine is very fruity, but I can’t quite put my finger on the slightly exotic fruit that’s there on the nose. The palate is easier – stone fruit, pear and quince. It’s slightly plump but it does have some respectable acidity left.

That brings me to the second point. This is a 2010 vintage, and the recommendation on the Tamborini web site is that it should be drunk young. But it seems to be showing few signs of age. It’s still a palish yellow-straw colour, smells fruity not oxidative, and as I said, retains decent acidity. I won’t suggest it is complex, and I won’t suggest it’s a sensational wine, but it’s remarkably good for its age, and I’m glad I became acquainted with it.

This came from Alpine Wines. They don’t have it on their web site any more, but they do have other Ticino producers.

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ROSÉ AUTHENTISCH 2017, ALEXANDER KOPPITSCH (BURGENLAND, AUSTRIA)

I’ve known Alexander and Maria for a few years but this is the first bottle (from a mixed half-dozen) I’ve been able to purchase here in the UK, as opposed to in Austria, or at tastings such as Raw Wine. The Koppitsch family farms just over six hectares on the north shores of the Neusiedlersee, from their winery in the small town of Neusiedl-am-See (a short train ride from Vienna). They took over Alex’s parents’ vines in 2011. Although the family has a very long history of winemaking, this couple are the first generation to bottle and sell their own wines. Alex works long hours in the vineyard, another farmer who likes to do everything by hand, whilst Maria (wo)mans the office and is a lively and warm advertisement for these lovely natural wines.

People ask me what I see as special in the Koppitsch wines, and that’s not too hard to answer. We are not dealing with “greatness” in any traditional sense. The wines are in some ways humble, like their maker, although they also have a youthful zest for life. The winemaker is very much a part of the “terroir” equation here. Truly lovely people doing their best to make tasty wine. In the past year or so they have gained a little celebrity, and earlier this year at an event in Vienna (see here) Maria told me, surrounded by young admirers with their bottles lined along the side of the bar at O Boufés, that they had never looked for any degree of fame. They just wanted to make a nice life for their children, free from stress and free from chemicals.

Authentisch Rosé blends Pinot Noir, Blaufränkisch, Zweigelt and St-Laurent. It’s unfiltered, but otherwise tastes like many other fruity Austrian pink wines. But you can detect that extra life and zest, although I’d challenge anyone to pick it out as a natural wine in terms of unusual odours or flavours. It’s just a well made and deliciously refreshing wine that brings joy.

Alexander Koppitsch has two UK importers. The discounted mixed six-bottle case I purchased came from Fresh Wines in Kinross, Scotland.

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L’UVA ARBOSIANA 2016, DOMAINE DE LA TOURNELLE (JURA, FRANCE)

Close to the centre of Arbois this wonderful producer has a small bistro right on the river, where you can enjoy simple food and the Tournelle wines, along with those of some of their friends. Pascal and Evelyne Clairet have a lot of friends, in truth, because since the 1990s they have given a great deal of help to so many young Arbois vignerons starting out on the winemaking road. It’s a long time since I first bought wine from them, and when I did, some Uva Arbosiana Ploussard was in the mix. It was one of the first natural wines I drank.

As for this bottle, to be fair it wasn’t the best I’ve had over several years. I’ve had them with a few years age on them before and they can age nicely. They take on tea leaf aromas which remind me of wines like Horiot’s Rosé des Riceys and Cédric Bouchard’s Creux d’Enfer Champagne. But the colour was just turning from pale red to an orangey, brownish tinge. The Clairets do counsel keeping L’Uva under fourteen degrees because this wine receives no added sulphur, although I think they are playing it safe.

But if you have carried on reading this far I’m going to get positive. If you didn’t know this wine, I’m sure you’d have preferred it on its primary fruit. If you do know it, you’d be fascinated by the development of more savoury tea and soy notes, with the added spice of ginger and nutmeg, which I’ve never really tasted in L’Uva before. And I don’t want you to think the fruit has gone as the cranberry is still there as well. As we are interested in what’s in the glass here, not what isn’t, this provided an insight into a different side to a wine I know pretty well. It remains one of my favourite Ploussards.

Domaine de la Tournelle wines are available from importer Dynamic Vines, and from Antidote Restaurant off Carnaby Street, in which the Clairets have an interest. Antidote has just opened a new retail shop upstairs from the bar/restaurant at Newburgh Street. Dynamic Vines is usually open to the public on a Saturday morning at the Discovery Business Park, Bermondsey.

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DEVIN 2016, MAGULA (LITTLE CARPATHIANS, SLOVAKIA)

Whilst the revolution in Czech Moravian viticulture has reached the UK and the USA, Slovakia’s slower rise as a worthwhile wine producer has been taking longer to get out, but two or three importers are onto it. This is one of the country’s top producers with ten biodynamic hectares near Sucha Nad Parnou in the Lower Carpathians.

The Devin grape variety is a cross between Traminer and Roter Veltliner. This version has a straw colour and a bright attack (Riesling-like). It was initially served a bit too chilled, but on warming it came into its own. The acidity gives the wine focus, but underneath there’s a lot of spice. After that initial hit, the wine fades slowly and majestically, with a long finish.

The variety is clearly a bit of a discovery, as I’ve also drunk it in Slobodne‘s Deviner blend (Devin blended with Traminer, Modal Wines). I noticed that Magula’s 2015 Devin had 14% abv on its technical sheet, but this 2016 is only 12%, and is perfectly judged. A lovely wine, and definitely one to seek out.

The 2016 is still available, via Basket Press Wines. This small importer, based in West London, has an exciting portfolio of Czech wines, and Vina Magula is their first Slovakian import.

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BIANCO POMICE 2017 IGT TERRE SICILIANA, TENUTA DI CASTELLARO (LIPARI, ITALY)

Lipari lies off the coast of Sicily, but it is closer to the North African coast than the Italian. It’s one of the seven volcanic Aeolian Islands which come, administratively, within the wider wine region of Sicily. Lipari is most famous, perhaps, for Carlo Hauner‘s Malvasia delle Lipari passito wine, which I remember buying from Liberty Wines decades ago.

Bianco Pomice is a dry white which is a blend of 60% of the Malvasia delle Lipari clone with 40% Carricante. The soils are of course volcanic, with plenty of sand. Direct pressing of the grapes allows the wine to stay fresh and fruity, and after fermentation it goes into barrels, where the lees are stirred, for just six months.

This 2017 is pale and fresh, elegant, lively, as its mere 12.5% alcohol might suggest (an achievement for this location). The palate has stone fruits, white peach and apricot, plus some orange citrus which, right at the finish, hints at marmalade (which I also remember from that Hauner wine). You know I hate “points” but I was surprised to see Parker’s team give it 92.

This wine was recommended to me by Simon Smith at Solent Cellar, and it is a brilliant example of how you should trust your wine merchant. This was just a bottle tacked on to an order, and only £26, but it turned out to be a brilliant choice. There’s also a red, Nero Ossidiana, which I intend to try because several people said how good it is after I mentioned drinking the Pomice.

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BLAUFRÄNKISCH KULM 2012, HEIDI SCHRÖCK (BURGENLAND, AUSTRIA)

The main reason I first visited Rust on the Neusiedlersee’s western shore a few years ago was to see Heidi Schröck. Heidi was one of the first Austrian producers beyond the Danube whose wines I grew to love, and I think she acted as a spur to get to know so many more producers around the lake. It’s perhaps a coincidence (perhaps not) that Burgenland has so many able women winemakers (Birgit Braunstein, Stefanie and Susanne Renner and Judith Beck being my favourites). Both Heidi and Birgit, who are friends, seem to make soulful wines which have really struck a chord with me.

The Kulm site is on the amphitheatre of vines to the west of Rust, a sun trap which is helped by the lake’s ameliorating effect on temperature. The vines are fairly old, planted in the mid-1950s, long before Heidi took over the family estate in 1983. The grapes are fermented on skins for a couple of weeks and then go into large old Austrian oak for fourteen months (for this 2012).

The colour is fairly dark ruby red, and the bouquet is lovely intense cherry with a whiff of Sichuan Pepper brightness and intensity. The palate is smooth and rich and that peppery bite comes back on the finish. It’s in a really good place right now, especially with food, mature but not losing that lovely freshness Heidi’s wines so often show.

Heidi Schröck is imported by Alpine Wines.

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BLANC AUVERNIER NON-FILTRÉ, DOMAINE DE MONTMOLLIN (NEUCHÂTEL, SWITZERLAND)

Montmollin is a long established domaine (since the 1600s) in one of Switzerland’s less well known regions for wine. For those who don’t know it, we are in the northwest of the country, on the shores of the Lac de Neuchâtel and the Bielersee. The speciality here is the palest of pale oeil de perdrix Pinot Noir, but Chasselas is also grown alongside other varieties of minor importance. Many producers, as in this case, have begun to release their Chasselas early and unfiltered, which gives them a point of difference with some other Chasselas-growing parts of Switzerland.

Auvernier is a lovely medieval lakeside village just southwest of Neuchâtel itself, on the northern shore of the lake of the same name. It is said to be the most beautiful village in the Neuchâtel region, and it certainly produces some of the best Chasselas, off clay/limestone soils. This zippy 2017, aged on lees and bottled unfiltered, is crisp and mineral-textured, a blend of herbs and citrus on the palate with the addition of slightly more exotic fruit on the nose.

This is usually recommended as an aperitif, and at a mere 11% abv it does make a delicious vin de soif, but equally it would match Asian cuisine that is mildly spicy, and will definitely cut through cheese in a fondue or raclette. I’m a fan of Chasselas in the right circumstances and on the right occasion, so the more cynical among you might want to be wary of my enthusiasm. It comes from many years of drinking these wines in Switzerland. But if I’ve encouraged you to try and enjoy Viennese Gemischter Satz, then this style of white might also be for you.

This is another from my Alpine Wines Christmas case. Although everyone complains that Swiss wines are expensive, you might catch this on special offer if you are quick, £16.24, down from £19. The 2018 will be fresher, but this 2017 isn’t lacking freshness right now.

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Posted in Artisan Wines, English Cider, Natural Wine, Rust, Slovakian Wine, Swiss Wine, Wine, Wine Agencies | Tagged #theglouthatbindsus, AJ Adam, Alexander Koppitsch Rosé 2017, Bianco di Merlot Ticino, Bianco Pomice Tenuta di Castellaro, Blanc Auvernier Non-Filtré, Burgenland Wine, Carlo Tamborini, Charlie Herring Wines, Dhroner Hofberg Kabinett, Domaine de la Renardière Pupillin, Domaine de la Tournelle Arbois, Domaine de Montmollin, Evelyne Clairet, Geneva Wine, Georgian Wine, Goumenissa Wine, Greek Wine, Heidi Schröck Blaufränkisch Kulm, Infini Les Passionnés 2014, Jean-Michel Petit, John Okruashvili, Jura Wine, Kakheti Mtsvane Georgia, Ktima Tatsis, L'Uva Arbosiana Ploussard 2016, La Cave de Genève Satigny, Lipari Wine, Magula Devin 2016, Malagouzia Orange 2015, Malvasia/Carricante Blend, Neuchâtel Chasselas Unfiltered, Neuchâtel Wine, Neusiedlersee Wine, Okro's Wines, Pascal Clairet, Perfect Strangers Cider, Recent Wines April 2019, Slovakian Wine, Swiss Chasselas, Swiss Wine, Tim Phillips Clos de Paradis, Vineyards near Lymington, Wine from Aeolian Islands | Leave a comment

More From Silo

Posted on 07/05/2019 by dccrossley

In the world of wine there are lulls and there are storms. In the following few weeks, in the way that people somehow always organise everything together, there are some big events in London. After the Real Wine Fair over next Sunday and Monday we have the big annual Canada House Tasting, followed by the London Wine Fair the following week. I’m already struggling, finding it impossible to attend an unmissable tasting of New York wines on 15th, but I do at least get to meet Blank Bottle Winemaker Pieter Walser again at a private tasting. But before that I have a few articles to send your way, including this short snippet on Silo.

You might have read about the lunch I ate at Silo in Brighton’s North Laine at the beginning of April. On Saturday we returned for dinner, most likely our last visit before they close at the end of the month, planning to reopen in (they hope) August at East London’s The Crate Brewery (Hackney Wick, E9). I just can’t resist showing you a little of what lies in store. All the food below follows Silo’s zero waste philosophy, with almost all of the ingredients sourced locally (except for things like olive oil, which nevertheless have impeccable provenance).

The wines at Silo, all natural, made without additives except in some cases small sulphur additions, are chosen by Ania Smelskaya. I was involved in an online conversation this weekend about how snooty sommeliers can spoil a meal by trying to up-sell, or indeed if they deem you not worthy to order a choice bottle from the wine list, down-sell. Ania is one of a band of intuitive and genuine wine managers in whom you can put your trust. Ania chose the wines to accompany this meal herself, from the small but beautiful list she has put together. Whilst I’m not over fixated on getting exactly the right wine for each dish, these wines “by the glass” were thoughtfully selected to go with our set menus.

We began with a couple of dishes from the “snacks” list. The raw kabu (aka Tokyo turnips) served with humous were fresh, sweet flavoured, nutty and a little earthy, and great dipping fodder. The kimchi rolls, wrapped in hispi cabbage, really are good (an under statement) and stood out, quite spicy, and although made with a local twist one bite is enough to transport you to the Far East.

The first course from the set menu was spring tomatoes on a curd base with borage, marigold, cornflower, wild rocket and mustard leaf, the foraged ingredients adding real flavour interest, not mere decoration. Tiny bits of pickled rhubarb added acidity. The green tomatoes were exquisite.

I was in heaven on dish two. I am happy to eat green asparagus (as I did last night), but I have a passion for the white stuff, which I almost never see in shops here. These spears were quite small, incredibly fresh and tender, but crunchy. They were cooked to perfection, which means not over cooked, and were served with sea kale, wild garlic flowers, and a carrot seed sauce sprinkled with aromatic alexander seeds and angelica seeds.

My main course of pan fried pollock (also sometimes called coley when locally caught off our coast) with rainbow chard, pickled samphire, mushroom powder and rosemary was a petite dish of complex flavours, perfectly judged. The fish was quite firm with a nice flavour and texture.

Dessert came as an incredible chocolate salted caramel ice cream, streaked with thick caramel. I say “incredible”, but actually, the vegan menu has green pumpkin seed ice cream, which I’ve had before and is at least as good. This dessert course was accompanied by a small and very well chilled espresso vodka martini, with Silo’s own coffee and Blackdown Sussex Vodka (distilled and charcoal-filtered seven times at the Blackdown Distillery in West Sussex).

It may seem odd to leave the bread until last. Well, first let me praise the dinner. It was the best I’ve had this year. Inventive flavour combinations, great technique in the frankly small open kitchen, and of course the results of the whole Silo philosophy, especially the locavore aspects, make the food exciting. Food to savour, not to wolf down. But Silo’s sourdough bread, however, requires a special mention.

It is made naturally, from flour they mill on site, without an added yeast proving/rising agent. There is in my humble opinion no better bread in the UK. If it has its match, it is in the bread from the Hedone Bakery in Vauxhall (and also sold at Dynamic Vines on a Saturday morning, when they open up their warehouse to the public). Silo might consider following Hedone Restaurant in opening their own bakery when they open in London. They would be queuing around the block and down to Stratford.

As an aperitif we drank the same delicious col fondo we had at lunch a few weeks ago. Rio Rocca Frisant Bianco, Il Farneto is a lees aged Sauvignon Blanc/Spergola blend from Emilia-Romagna, the second fermentation in bottle created with some of the original must. As I can’t put it better I’ll repeat what I said last time – it is fragrant, light and dry. I will add that the freshness is really to the fore, and the bubbles prickle nicely. At 11.5% abv but tasting lighter, it’s a fantastic summer picnic option.

I like a sommelier that is not afraid to give you a second sparkling wine in a “by the glass” menu matching flight. In this case it was a wine I like a lot, but haven’t had yet this year. Fuchs & Hase Vol 1 2018 is an Austrian petnat from this exciting Kamptal winery, a joint project between already well known winemakers Alwin Jurtschitsch and Martin Arndorfer. Volume 1 blends three varieties: Grüner Veltliner, Müller Thurgau and Sauvignon Blanc. The palate has orchard fruits with a lick of citrus acidity, and I think this new vintage seems to have a little more depth than the previous. Always a pleasure to drink.

More adventurous pairing came with the asparagus, Chinuri, Iago’s Wine, Kartli Region, Eastern Georgia. “Iago” is Iago Bitarishvili, founder of the now essential “New Wine Festival” in Tblisi, and maker of some of Georgia’s most highly regarded orange/skin macerated qvevri wines. Chinuri is not as well known as some other Georgian grape varieties, but it is an important variety in Kartli. If Simon Woolf, author of The Amber Revolution, reckons Iago is the grape’s best exponent, I’m inclined to agree with him. This was bottled in July 2017 (no vintage on label but the Lot Number has a “16” in it), a run of only 5,000. This is certainly an orange wine, but it is smooth and gentle, not super tannic and textured. An inspired match which I would never have considered.

The adventure continued with the pollock, although for me, a red wine was not at all a shocking pairing. The idea of pairing a wine made from a blend of Syrah, Grenache and Mourvèdre from Languedoc-Roussillon might have been, but Domaine les Arabesques “Ocarina” 2016 is not your average Roussillon blend. It does come in at 13% abv, yet doesn’t remotely seem that alcoholic, perhaps on account of the whole bunch fermentation. It is fairly light on its feet, fresh, elegant and full of zesty fruit, but you also get a nice umami flavour which works well with the mushroom powder and the pickled samphire.

Saskia van der Horst originally found a passion for wine as a sommelier in London. Since 2013 she has farmed just less than five hectares of old vines (aged between thirty to sixty years) at Montner and Latour-de-France (not far from Perpignan). Fermentation is in fibreglass, ageing in wood, with only a little SO2 added at bottling. I’d never drunk this before, and hadn’t even heard of the producer. I’ve definitely been missing out. Kiffe My Wines is the importer.

Silo has some special events on with which they will end their time in Brighton. Check their web site here for details and for their limited opening. Check out Crate Brewery here. Follow Silo on Instagram – @silobrighton . Lunch at Silo was here.

Posted in Artisan Wines, Dining, Natural Wine, Restaurants, Wine, Wine and Food | Tagged Alwin Jurtschitsch, Ania Smelskaya, Best Sourdough Bread, Domaine Les Arabesques, Fuchs und Hase Kamptal, Georgian Chinuri, Iago Bitarishvili, Iago's Wine Chinuri, Il Farneto Emilia Romagna, Kartli Chinuri, Martin Arndorfer, Ocarina 2016, Rio Rocca Frisant, Saskia van der Horst, Silo, Silo at Crate Brewery Hackney Wick, Silo Brighton, Zero Waste Restaurant | 3 Comments

Alsace/Germany Celebrating Common Ground with Newcomer Wines and Vine Trail (Part 2 – Germany)

Posted on 30/04/2019 by dccrossley

This is the second part of my article on the tasting held at Fare (Old Street, London) on 15 April, where Newcomer Wines and Vine Trail previewed the wines of ten producers from Alsace and Germany. Here we have the five German producers at the tasting. If you have not yet read Part 1 covering Alsace, follow the link here.

Whilst Alsace is at least a single region, albeit one with diverse terroirs, as we found out in Part 1, Germany in this case offers us wines from a far greater geographical area. The five producers covered come from Rheinhessen, Würtemburg, Baden, and two from the Mosel. Still, as with the Alsace producers, these importers are lucky to be able to import some pretty hot names, from the youth of Olympia and Hannes at Roterfaden to the wisdom of Rudolf and Rita Trossen. If I allow myself the subjective feeling that those two stood out here (for different reasons), all five are people I’d love to visit and whose wines I would buy – and in fact I already have bought and drunk the Schmitt wines, both in the UK and in Germany. It is here that we shall begin.

BIANKA & DANIEL SCHMITT (FLÖRSHEIM, RHEINHESSEN)

Fewer than 100 wine producers in Germany are certified biodynamic by Demeter, and the Schmitts are in that select group. But although biodynamic for a decade, they go further, reminding us that they make wine “just from grapes”. Their Natúr wines (see below) are bottled with no added sulphur. Their 16 hectare domaine is at Flörsheim-Dalsheim. It’s funny that at one time the Rheinhessen Region used to be considered a place to find commercial wine of little interest to connoisseurs, but nowadays there are fewer more famous villages in Germany. Klaus Peter Keller is a neighbour.

Natúr Riesling 2017 is the “entry” level. The wine is whole bunch pressed and spends a year in old 1,200-litre oak. As I already explained above, there’s no added sulphur. It’s slightly cloudy as they don’t fine or filter either, but it has delicious natural fruit combined with rounded acidity (ie it’s not sharp). It’s very lively and extremely moreish.

Natúr Müller Thurgau 2017 is made from Germany’s great workhorse grape of the later post-war period, except of course that “great” isn’t a word many would associate with the variety. Yet today we are seeing truly excellent versions on our shelves (let’s not forget from New Zealand via Hermit Ram as well, another country where Müller Thurgau was once ubiquitous).

The bouquet is fresh and almost (but not quite) exotic, and I reckon quite a few people with experience of MT might be fooled. It’s quite avant-garde. Fifty percent of the grapes see six weeks on skins and the other half are whole bunch pressed and go into old oak for around a year. Where it differs from the sugar water we remember Müller Thurgau producing is in its nicely balanced acidity and greater weight of body. This makes it especially food-friendly, it’s not a particularly light wine. The adventurous should give this a go.

Rosé 2017 is a blend of four varieties: (Blauer) Portugieser, Merlot, Dornfelder and Pinot Noir. All the juice is free run and it goes straight into big 2,400-litre oak casks (although Bianka and Daniel do work with amphora for some cuvées – look for Orpheus if Newcomer Wines have it). It’s one of those lovely dark rosé wines which almost become a light red, and as such is versatile. Chilled, it has refreshing lifted fruit and a very tasty sour cherry finish, making it an ideal summer red, or pink (whatever) to go with light dishes.

Natúr Spätburgunder 2016 – Wow! What a nose!. Passionfruit…on a red? Given four weeks skin contact and then a year in 600-litre oak, this is a super fresh natural wine, fairly high in acidity but extremely refreshing (just 12% abv). Whilst in the past I’ve complained that a lot of German Spätburgunder gets chugged too soon, this is another wine for summer drinking, pure joy.

Monsheimer Riesling Natúr 2016 – This was the most complex of the wines on show. The grapes were harvested late and after a week on skins were transferred to barrique for twelve months. There is a dominant floral character, but also something quite tropical (mango and kiwi fruit), a little wet stone minerality and, finally, a hint of petrol. So whereas I’d be happy to drink the other wines now, my intuition suggests this one might like to rest a while in a nice cool cellar.

WEINGUT ROTERFADEN (VAIHINGEN/ROßWAG, WÜRTEMBERG)

Olympia Samara and Hannes Hoffmann farm just two hectares of vines at Roßwag, which is about 30km from Stuttgart in the far northwest of the Württemberg Region, almost in Northern Baden. Olympia has previously worked with the relatively unsung great winemaker of Burgenland, Claus Preisinger, whilst Hannes had a very interesting career with Dirk Niepoort before the couple began to make wine for themselves in Hannes’ native country. These wines are quite special, and I don’t think many will have tasted anything quite like them in Germany, let alone forgotten Württemberg.

Riesling 2017 – The grapes for this cuvée, from a mix of 45-y-o and younger vines, grown on rare blue limestone, a hard rock that won’t shatter, ripen fairly quickly so they are harvested early. Before fermentation the grapes rest on skins for a week, and afterwards age in mixed old oak (300 litre and 600 litre barrels) on lees for ten months until bottling. The wine is very fresh and fragrant because of the early harvesting, but the grapes are placed in a vertical press, and pressed very gently, with no separation of juice. The must is allowed to oxidise a little, which makes the wine stable so that no sulphur needs to be added. A good food wine, with presence.

Endschleife Riesling 2017 – Like the wine above, the vines here grow on dry stone terraces ripening with the reflected sun and night time heat retention. The difference is that this wine comes from the oldest part of the vineyard and so has an extra intensity which warrants a higher price. The grapes are cooled for a week before pressing into 300 litre oak, with bottling in December/January (so it sees a little longer on lees). There’s a more mineral mouthfeel and more depth, signifying a wine which requires time to blossom…but it’s all there.

Pinot Noir 2017 – This red is fermented, after destemming, for three-to-four weeks with just gentle pushing down of the cap merely to keep the surface moist. It then also sees ageing on lees for ten months in 300-to-600 litre barrels, generally around four years old. It has a fleshy cherry bouquet and whilst the acids are quite prominent, it complements the fresh nose nicely because the fruit is ripe.

Lemberger 2016 – Lemberger is none other than Austria’s Blaufränkisch, and is something of a Roterfaden speciality. The regime is exactly the same as for the Pinot Noir. It has a lovely bright colour and a lifted, scented, floral nose. This combines nicely with the palate which has cherry fruit but an additional touch of earthiness in the texture. A sommelier friend of the couple described it as having “a solid earthiness with angel’s wings”. Olympia was rather taken with that. Me too. There is also an old vine Lemberger which wasn’t shown.

The wines here are all nice, but I’d go Lemberger as a point of difference if you have a choice. Otherwise, grab anything with their distinctive labels.

ENDERLE & MOLL (MÜNCHWEIER, BADEN)

Sven Enderle and Florian Moll are one of Germany’s most interesting winemaking duos. Their five hectares in the Black Forest make them small, but there are many smaller. This is why it amazes me that they rarely get more than a tiny mention in German wine books written in English when they are said, by some, to make the best Pinot Noir in Germany. They use what some may call “Burgundian methods” (both Florian and Sven worked in that region), and this includes getting their barrels from Domaine Dujac. However, these are not copycat Burgundies, as the terroir is different, with complex sandstone and limestone soils and a microclimate resulting from the forest and mountains to the east.

It’s worth noting here that the wines are classified as “tafelwein”. This is not primarily because they are biodynamic and “natural” wines, but because Sven and Florian don’t want higher alcohols. As we shall see with the reds below, they aim for transparency, and an almost ethereal quality results.

Weiss & Grau 2017 – a blend of Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc) and Grauburgunder (Pinot Gris). The wine has a genuine freshness that is very appealing, and this combines with a little grip, texture and weight. There’s colour too, and it all comes from slow extraction of whole bunch juice in the basket press used for all of the E&M wines. Fermentation is in stainless steel.

Muschelkalk 2017 – this is a varietal Pinot Blanc/Weissburgunder off pure limestone, coming in at a refreshing 11.5% abv. You get the immense brightness which comes from the limestone, with some texture from the skins, but for me, this is the kind of wine where the terroir comes through. If the main deal here is the reds, this wine shines.

Pinot Noir 2017 – The first thing you notice is that this is pale. It’s that transparency I mentioned which makes this quite different, and appealing. The fruit has a pleasantly sour edge which gives the wine a more savoury quality, and there’s just a little grip too. Even at this level it’s impressive, but approachable.

Liaison 2016 – is also Pinot Noir, and is also pale, and alcohol is (as with the wine above) a very restrained 12.5%. The fruit comes from older vines on both sandstone and limestone, hence the name. 2016 was a less warm vintage here in Baden. This cuvée sees its ageing in Dujac barrels and is concentrated with great cherry fruit depth, but the overall impression is of opacity and clarity, making a wine of presence, but equally, elegance as well.

Other wines I’ve enjoyed from this pair are a fun Müller Thurgau, and an amazing Spätburgunder Rosé, both of which Newcomer has had in the past. Enderle & Moll should be far better known outside of Germany.

THORSTEN MELSHEIMER (REIL, MOSEL)

Reil isn’t the best known village on the Mosel, but then neither is Kinheim where our next winemaker comes from. Thorsten has been in charge of this two-century-old estate since the mid-1990s, and he’s been fully Demeter Certified biodynamic since 2009. He has 11 hectares under vine, eight of which are on the slate/quartz soils of the Mullay-Hofberg, which is down river from Taben-Trarbach and Enkirch, and consequently off most detailed maps of the Middle-Mosel Region. Nevertheless, the terraces here, which Thorsten has had to restore, are as steep and formidable as any on the river.

Ancestral Rurale 2017 – what a marvellous way to start here, with a 100% Riesling vivacious sparkler made by the Ancestral method. It fermented incredibly slowly (in wood) so was bottled in early May last year, where it has been ageing on its undisgorged lees. It is beautifully clean, fresh and precise. There is no added sulphur and no reduction. Simple but amazing stuff in that context. Expect apples with ginger spice, a crown cap and around 10.5% abv.

Mullay-Hofberg Riesling Kabinett 2015 – A traditional, classic, Kab with around 35g/l residual sugar backed by good acidity and only 8.5% alcohol. A very slow fermentation stopped around Christmas 2015. It has a delicate floral bouquet, the fruit being rounded, quite exotic, and everything is nicely in balance. It has the presence to go with mildly spicy dishes.

Lentum 2015 – This is a Riesling which fermented for an incredible three years in old fuder (Lentum meaning slow one). It has a broader mouthfeel than the Kabinett, is effectively dry with lime and grapefruit on the palate. A much more serious wine, which would accompany a very wide range of dishes, depending on how adventurous you are prepared to go, although the wine seems young still.

Vade Retro 2016 – is also a Riesling Trocken, a fully natural wine with no additives. Its darker colour hints at the style, which is deliberately oxidative. This is the fifth vintage for this cuvée which is aged in barrique without skin contact and it is already garnering a reputation from those who are happy to see a bit of experimentation in what can be a very conservative region (though one which you know I love). The bouquet of baked apple I find really appealing. It has very low pH, so there’s less need for any sulphur addition. It’s still recognisably “Riesling”, but just very different. Thorsten also makes orange/skin contact Riesling too.

Goldlay Riesling Beerenauslese 2017 – There are not a lot of Demeter-Certified sweet pradikat wines in Germany. This beauty has a golden colour with a bouquet redolent of long summer sunshine. There’s a fair bit of botrytis in this 2017, but picking was in fine weather and the grapes were very ripe. Triage by an experienced team involves a special small bag for the berries with noble rot. Only 200 litres were made of this honey and lemon linctus syrup with intense citrus acidity, all bottled in halves. One to squirrel away.

RITA AND RUDOLF TROSSEN (KINHEIM-KINDEL, MOSEL)

I’ve know the Trossen wines for a few years, but I’ve only drunk a few because they do sell out very quickly. As with Enderle & Moll, the Trossens are a bit of a cult producer, perhaps even more so. I always had a mistaken belief that they were further down river, but their vines are broadly between Erden and Kröv, and annoyingly I’ve cycled past them without knowing. Not that I imagine you can just pitch up here.

The Trossen vines are on steep weathered slate which helped keep phylloxera at bay, so many parcels remain ungrafted and around 100 years old. The reason their wines have such a cult following may be in part because they have been biodynamic since 1978, before most German growers knew the word and methodology existed. Their Purus wines are natural wines which are bottled without added sulphur (as well as unfined/unfiltered).

I lose track of the Trossen wines, the cuvées I have being different to those below, but these here are all “Purus” wines, all unsulphured, and all 100% Riesling.

Purellus 2018 – What a treat to try this, the first commercial vintage of the Trossen petnat. It’s 100% Riesling, bottled last December with a tiny bit of residual sugar. The bottle will be cloudy from the lees and the bouquet is full of exotic fruit. It has a softness, and an umami character, on the palate but doesn’t lack acidity. A young woman called it “savoury”, to which Rudolf countered “what do you mean by savoury?”, which I think caught her off balance. I wasn’t going to interrupt her, but I think it has a kind of hint of soy, and added to the texture/mouthfeel from the lees, I think maybe that’s what she meant. I made a note not to use the “s” word.

Eule Purus 2016 – is Riesling, 11.5% abv, with a faint prickle on the tongue, which adds to its dry mouthfeel. Aged for an extra year (over the 2017 below) it is really lovely, with a long finish. Yes, I know “lovely” is a lame choice of word, but if you allow yourself to savour (not savoury!) the wine, you may well come to a similar adjective.

Eule Purus 2017 – Eule comes from those very old pre-phylloxera, ungrafted, vines. The 2017 has a little more acidity over the ’16 but I don’t think it lacks any of the depth of that wine. Give it another year if you can resist, though I’m sure it deserves longer.

Pyramide Purus 2017 – We are up to 12.5% alcohol here. The Pyramide site has vines around 35 years old on grey/blue slate, facing south and southeast. The grapes are whole bunch fermented in stainless steel before ageing for eleven months. There’s more depth of colour and good depth to the nose. The palate has a delicious bitter or sour touch on the finish which makes the wine stand out. In a sense it seems hardly “Riesling”, and more perhaps an expression of the site in this unadulterated form?

Madonna Purus 2017 – This, like Pyramide, is a steep slate vineyard with grafted vines on American roots, and is also 12.5% abv. It’s similar in colour too, but this seems to me more mineral. The acidity is so well judged for ageing, and that mouthfeel and texture is so agreeable that whether to keep it or drink of its raw energy is a difficult choice, the former perhaps being the sensible option…but still.

Schiefergold Purus 2017 – To me, this is the complete wine. The vineyard is the neighbour of Madonna, but is incredibly steep, and we are back to those really old ungrafted vines. The grapes go into small, 350-litre, stainless steel fermenters, the process taking a long, slow, eight months. Ageing takes a further eleven before bottling. There is depth of fruit and there is the structure to age for a long time, which is what I’d do with it in this case, although it was a wonderful feeling tasting it…I could easily have drunk quite a lot of the bottle. It’s a wine which pretty much made itself, and I can’t help but feel that this shows.

I got a great thrill meeting Rudolf, which I’m sure he was unaware of and perhaps it would have made no impression if he knew. He does seem deeply thoughtful, maybe not so easy to get to know. But his wines are stunning, and I just want to get to know them better and better. They are not easy wines, but therein lies their attraction for the lover of fine Riesling. They seem almost as if the wines can think and ponder for themselves as they silently contemplate their slow evolution. The wines I tasted certainly live up to their name: Purus.

Thus ends Part 2. When a tasting is really good it leaves an impression long after, like a great film, book or concert. This was one such tasting, surely proving that many of the wines of Alsace, and Germany, deserve much wider recognition outside of and beyond the always supportive wine trade. If you trust your importer, and both Newcomer Wines and Vine Trail have chosen very well, you can’t go wrong. I hope you will consider trying some of these.

Posted in Artisan Wines, German Wine, Natural Wine, Wine, Wine Agencies, Wine Tastings | Tagged Bianka & Daniel Schmitt Rheinhessen, Celebrating Common Ground Tasting, Enderle & Moll, Florian Moll, German Natural Wines, Hannes Hoffmann, Newcomer Wines, Olympia Samara, Purus Trossen, Rita & Rudolf Trossen, Sven Enderle, Thorsten Melsheimer, Unusual Mosel Wines, Vine Trail, Württemberg Lemberger, Weingut Roterfaden | 2 Comments

Alsace/Germany Celebrating Common Ground with Newcomer & Vine Trail (Part 1 – Alsace)

Posted on 26/04/2019 by dccrossley

Newcomer Wines and Vine Trail came together on 15 April at Fare, on Old Street, London, to show five Alsace producers and five German producers from their respective ranges. I’m not sure that the common ground extended only to geography and grape varieties (to a degree). All of the producers here, without exception, show a commitment to excellence which comes through in the wines, which is common enough ground for me. With this tasting being jointly put on by two of my favourite merchants I was walking down Old Street in the unusually summery temperatures we had back before Easter with a particular spring in my step. The tasting lived up to expectations, despite the heat.

Of course, there are differences between these producers too. We have the philosophical demeanour of Rudolf Trossen, the big personality of Marc Tempé, the vibrant enthusiasm of young Hannes and Olympia at Weingut Roterfaden, and of course the extreme viticulture of Bruno Schloegel at Domaine Lissner. But at the end of the day, even tasting in a crowded room lit by a wall of sun-heated glass, the sheer joy and quality of all these wines came through loud and clear.

For your ease of reading I plan to split this into two parts. This first part covers the Alsace producers and the second will cover the German crew. There’s no real reason for splitting it up this way aside from it being the order of the tasting booklet. In any case, if I’d confined this to one article you’d be getting towards 7,000 words, which is even over my acceptable limit.

I think trying to make too many comparisons between Alsace and the German regions covered would be pushing it a bit too far down the road of generalising. But I hope you enjoy reading about these wines as much as my enthusiasm will show that I enjoyed tasting them.

DOMAINE LISSNER, WOLXHEIM

Bruno Schloegel makes wine in that up-and-coming Alsace sub-region north of Mutzig and Molsheim, just west of Strasbourg. I say “makes wine”, but maybe he’d prefer to suggest he gently encourages it to make itself. This Domaine is “Bio” in every sense, being focused on both biodynamics, and “biodiversity”, and minimal intervention here includes no added sulphur at the ten hectare domaine, and nothing is pumped, nor otherwise mechanically manipulated. Bruno possibly practises the most extreme form of “leave alone” viticulture I know, the closest being in the methods of Jason Ligas (following the principles of Masanobu Fukuoka) on the slopes of Mount Piako in Northern Greece.

The vines at Domaine (they say “Maison”) Lissner are allowed to grow “wild and free”, meaning that there is no vineyard management in the way that most vine farmers would use the term. There is no cutting back of vegetation in the summer, and this includes no pruning (maybe a little shoot-repositioning). There is a “winter cut”, but vine branches are left where they fall. An equilibrium has been established (it took about eleven years) which also produces an environment full of biodiversity, both of flora and fauna. Bruno says there are plentiful rabbits, deer, birds, lizards, and more than two hundred species of insects.

Dionysiuskapelle Sylvaner 2017 – Like all the Lissner wines, this undergoes a gentle pneumatic press. It’s a very good value opener in a fresh style, with characteristic acidity which doesn’t, however, go too far as it can with less expensive Sylvaners. It also has a nice mineral mouthfeel, which adds considerable interest.

Pinot Gris 2017 – There’s a CO2 freshness to this Pinot Gris. Initially you are surprised by how beautifully lively it is, but its initial simplicity is countered by a smoky note which slowly creeps in. It comes off quite light soils. The finish is a hint of textured pear. Very nice.

Macération Pinot Gris 2017 – this goes a step beyond the classic ramato, or perhaps I should say oeil de perdrix, colour from the grape’s pinkish hue (some might call it “onion skin”), but to me it’s far more red than that (though the photo below does accentuate the colour). The texture here is ramped up, which initially obscures the variety a little, but it becomes more obvious as you swirl and sip. A lovely wine, the label (as with the Pinot Gris above) is from a manuscript at the Abbey of Mont Saint-Odile, up in the hills to the southwest. The abbey had vines in Wolxheim in the twelfth century.

Wolxheim Riesling 2017 – This Riesling was bottled early and kept in a cold cellar to preserve its natural CO2, which Bruno said was a key component in this village cuvée. The overall effect is perhaps to enhance the unusual degree of florality here, a floral beauty which reflects the uncut vineyard of vines and wild flowers on white chalk. It’s a Riesling to drink at perhaps three to five years old.

Altenberg de Wolxheim Riesling Grand Cru 2017 is a very different kind of wine. It needs a minimum of a decade to mature. The bouquet is far more muted than the wine which follows, but on the palate it tastes so alive in its youth.

Altenberg de Wolxheim Riesling Grand Cru 2011 gives an idea what is coming. This is only seven or so years old, but its indescribably beautiful bouquet is quite astonishing. The palate is beginning to round out and it is softer than the 2017, now. Hoping not to sound pretentious, and certainly making this comment outside the boundaries of a bland qualitative assessment, the wine is unquestionably profound. Yep, give that 2017 time!

Bruno Schloegel is undoubtedly a deep thinker. For example, he can be critical of some natural winemaking. He sees the failings of the AOP system, yet he sees their boundaries as a positive, not a straightjacket. That makes him gently at odds with others pursuing a similar path. Yet to my mind, these wines (which I had never come across before) were some of the most truly interesting in the tasting. I would dearly love to visit Bruno and to see his vineyard. Bruno was happy to explain his methods at length, but as he rightly said, you need to stand in the vines to understand what he’s trying to achieve.

A little Lissner fauna for you…

BERNARD & ARTHUR BOHN, REICHSFELD

Alsace is full of its well known villages and its Grand Crus, isn’t it. Few people know Reichsfeld, but its steep slopes, up in the hills to the southwest of Andlau, were famous for their wines in the Middle Ages, when the vineyards here were owned by the Counts of Andlau. The Bohn family vines are all between 330-to-400 metres altitude, and you can tell. The wines that result have a genuine freshness, but then at the same time no sulphur is added at this domaine (since 2010), so none of the wines are dulled by SO2. I tasted four wines.

L’Indigène Sylvaner 2017 – is a maceration wine which sees three weeks on skins. There’s a full texture and body not always associated with the variety, very much contrasting with the Lissner version. The firmness of the wine probably reflects the terroir, a mix of volcanic “redstones” and schist. The vines are seventy years old. Elevage is simple, in stainless steel with a little remontage. One to try with food.

Schieferberg Zéro Riesling/Pinot Gris 2016 – obviously off schist, skin maceration of the Pinot Gris gives the wine a pleasant pinkish tone. The aromatics are very interesting, with something like red fruits creeping in. It has great mouthfeel and mineral bite, more of the terroir than varietal flavours. The Schieferberg is arguably a unique (for Alsace) terroir of Pre-Cambrian shale/schist, with significant heat retention aiding ripeness. The name derives from the fact that this was Bernard’s first zero sulphur cuvée. It is just beginning to show well, still needing time, but I hope the briskness of the acids remains.

Muenchberg Riesling Grand Cru 2017 – this Grand Cru lies between Nothalten and Itterswiller, the latter being the first place I stayed in Alsace very many years ago. The soils here are pink-red sandy volcanic, which are said to warm up quickly in the morning. The site is pretty well known because quite a few prominent producers have vines there, including two personal favourites, Ostertag and Julien Meyer. The Bohn wine has a nice structure, elegant and fine. The minerality isn’t overplayed. The elegant bouquet of white flowers contrasts with a more exotic fruit palate.

Par Arthur Pinot Noir 2017 – Arthur looks very young, but he’s a fully trained oenologist, and presumably (I didn’t ask) this wine is his doing. I don’t think many reading this will have failed to notice how Alsace Pinot Noir has catapulted from (mostly) mediocrity to majestic in little over a decade. Climate change has seen dramatic changes in Alsace. I think Alsace reds are most successful when they attempt to emphasise the grape variety’s simpler side. It’s possibly pointless trying to reproduce Burgundy when you can make something like this: pale, bright, and lovely, with red fruits and cherry ripely filling the mouth.

If anyone finds themselves driving through the hills above the main wine route and comes to Reichsfeld, the Bohm residence is not easy to miss, the big pale blue chalet. A great tasting will surely await.

Bernard in grey, Arthur behind, in blue

FLORIAN & MATHILDE BECK-HARTWEG, DAMBACH-LA-VILLE

This is another zero-sulphur producer, based at Dambach, around the middle of the Alsace vignoble, just north of Sélestat. Florian has been working full time at the estate since 2009 and took over from his father, Michel, when he retired in 2010. The domaine is small, just six hectares, including holdings within the town’s Grand Cru, Frankstein.

We began here with a wine so lovely that I heard several people describe it as their wine of the day, and it certainly burnt a hole on Instagram, so many times did its photo appear that evening. Tout Naturellement Pétillant 2018 is an unusual blend of Pinot Noir and Muscat. It’s cloudy (unfiltered, as with wines made from the méthode ancestrale), and is packed with exuberant red fruits, a tiny floral touch and a gentle fizz. It comes in at 12% abv, but tastes more like 8-10 degrees. Drink cool (and almost certainly swiftly).

Dambach-la-Ville Riesling 2016 is fairly simple stuff, but very good. It’s off granite, and in its freshness there’s real salinity, and energy too.

Granit 2017 blends Riesling, Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir from the same terroir. It’s a juicy wine where none of the grape varieties seem to dominate the blend. Its another wine where you get pure terroir coming through, rather than varietal character. It’s very textured, mineral and direct, with lime-fresh acidity. Certainly ageable.

Pinot Gris Gand Cru Frankstein 2016 – this is Dambach’s special Grand Cru site, an arena of decomposed granite with high mica content with a south-to-southeast exposure, on the way to the Château de Bernstein. Pinot Gris here is quite plump and rich, with amplitude, but dry…it has good acids for a bigger style of Pinot Gris. There’s a bit of florality, and even more smokiness, and it’s surprisingly pure. But certainly a wine for food, quite rich food perhaps. As with almost all the Alsace Grand Cru wines, they are intended to age, so don’t treat them like Nouveau.

Riesling Grand Cru Frankstein 2016 – if Frankstein is the heart of the Beck-Hartweg vineyard, this wine may be the core of the range. With the Pinot Gris from this site you do get a tiny bit of salinity. Here, with the Riesling, you notice it a lot. It gives the wine a nice edge. It’s a Riesling of presence, a serious wine (not to suggest others are not serious). Again, you get the terroir…it has a granitic structure and a mouthfeel inescapably reminiscent of rocky texture. The bouquet of acacia flower and, unusually, fresh mint, rides above all this, for a wine of elegance and finesse, but which nevertheless requires cellaring.

DOMAINE MARC TEMPÉ, ZELLENBERG

Marc has a big personality and a strong following. He was surrounded several deep by young admirers and despite his wife, Anne-Marie, doing her level best to pour me samples at a long stretch, I was only able to taste three of his wines on this occasion. A shame.

Marc started his domaine at Zellenberg (between Riquewihr and Hunawihr) in 1993 after working for the INAO, first in the Lab, and then as part of the team delineating the Alsace Grand Cru sites. He immediately converted to biodynamics, and his attention to detail includes seeking out second hand oak from other biodynamic producers (such as Leflaive). Focus is 100% on quality at every stage. There’s just something a little different about Marc Tempé’s wines (I mean that very much as a compliment), and I think that despite the man’s laissez-faire and laid back demeanour, it’s that attention to the tiny details which help the wines stand out.

Zellenberg Pinot Blanc 2016 is in fact a blend of Pinot Blanc and its Pinot Auxerrois variant. It comes from the slopes around the village, a large handful of different plots with different exposures, perhaps a little over two hectares in total. The wine is made in large old oak. It has a lovely lift and hints of tropical fruit (maybe mango and honey to my palate), but it is grounded by a dry, mineral touch. I’ve said before how when in Alsace I’m gravitating more and more to drinking PB with lunch, and I’d snap this up if I saw it on a Weinstube‘s wine list.

Zellenberg Riesling 2016 is rich, with just the faintest hint of sweetness via the ripe Riesling fruit. This, again, is a result of the terroir. Marc’s description of the terrain here is worth repeating (from his web site): “The vines that cluster around the calcareous sandstone nipple are planted on a clay-marl soil of lias, consisting of dark gray (sic) schistose marls with fine white limestone beds, as well as carbonate and ferruginous elements” (excuse my translation). Complex! Winemaking is by pneumatic press followed by 24 hours juice settling. Ageing is 24 months in foudre. A tiny bit of sulphur is added at bottling.

Grafenreben Riesling 2013 comes from a site in the direction of Ribeauvillé. There’s a base of clay and sandy marl here, with sandy limestone up to a metre down, the soils being hard to work according to Marc. He has two Riesling plots here totalling just under three hectares, one plot planted in 1977 and the other in the 1950s. There’s real depth here, a nice rounded wine with apricot and mango fruit flavours, but as with all of these Rieslings, that is set off against texture and zippy acidity (even at over five years old). Vinification differs to the Zellenberg Riesling cuvée in that this one sees a 36-hour débourbage, whilst élevage is in used barrique, on lees, for three years. Depending on vintage, a wine to peak in ten years minimum from release.

Losing my Tempé a little – a popular guy inundated with questions

MATTHIEU BOESCH, WESTHALTEN

This producer will be better known from the label as Domaine Léon Boesch. The domaine itself, with its new Cave built in 2010, really sits between Westhalten and Soultzmatt, looking up to the slopes of the steep Grand Cru, Zinnkoepflé. The microclimate here is special as it has the protection of Alsace’s two great “Ballons” (Grand and Petit) which enhance the Vosges’ already significant rain shadow effect. Matthieu farms 14.5 hectares of vines all in this locale.

La Cabane 2017 – is a Pinot Blanc (70% Auxerrois) which produced a fresh, floral scent, with stone fruit (white peach and apricot, plus pear) and stony texture on the palate. Fresh and tasty, this has a lively attack but finishes with a lick of creamy texture which I really like.

This might be a good place to comment on the 2017 vintage, from which many of the wines at this tasting came. Matthieu says it produced very precise wines here in the south of the region, with a good sized crop. Late frosts in early April struck many, but the valley here was well protected. There was little rain, but Marc believes that his biodynamic methods have enabled his vines to cope better with water stress.

Les Grandes Lignes 2016 is Riesling grown on a 1.7 ha chalky plot, mostly planted in the early 1980s, in the valley. It has a fresh simplicity to its bouquet, quite open with apricot and a little cinnamon spice. But I’d hesitate to call it a simple wine just because its so drinkable.

Luss 2017 is also Riesling, and is the Boesch wine I have drunk by far the most times. It comes off limestone terroir which shows in its mineral bite and brightness. In fact this gorgeous 2017 is so bright it’s blinding. It’s a tiny site, under half a hectare planted between 1974 and 1989, and I believe may be the furthest vines from the winery. Like all the wines here, élevage is in old wood. This has mainly citrus aromas now, but time will develop them whilst (in my experience) that freshness of the limestone will take years to tone down (thank goodness).

Breitenberg Riesling 2016 is a lieu-dit on the edge of the Zinnkoepflé Grand Cru, the furthest west in the Ohmbach Valley, with a southerly exposure. The soils are on sandstone, the top of the hill being close to the Vosges themselves, at 470 metres. The wine is totally different to Luss. The nose begins rounder and softer, but the palate is very big in flavour. Yellow fruits, still stony but not as bright as the former wine, and there’s a hint of orange citrus there as well, not your usual lemon or lime. At 12.8% abv, that’s also half a degree more than Luss.

Zinnkoepflé Gewürztraminer Grand Cru 2017 – Matthieu only grows this variety on the Grand Cru. He makes this dry version and the VT we ended with (below). This 2017 version is still ample and weighty, with an exotic floral bouquet, but despite the richness on the nose (stone fruit, citrus and deeper bass notes of caramelised sugar…just a hint…) there’s a lightness and finesse, and the more you sniff, the more subtly complex it becomes. And it only comes in at 12.2% abv, which (I won’t lie) is such a relief these days where Gewürztraminer is concerned.

Pinot Noir “Les Jardins” 2017 has warm, pale cherry fruit. It’s a wine I’d serve a little chilled so it warms in the glass. It does have a bit of texture, but it’s basically a wine that is quite “gluggy”. It’s one of the Alsace reds you can bank on for summer drinking, really nice, not complicated, but with just enough tannin to ground it.

Zinnkoepflé Gewürztraminer Vendanges Tardives Grand Cru 2015 – This hits 14% alcohol on the label (tech sheet says 13.4%), and contains 121.4 g/l of residual sugar, in reality somewhere between VT and SGN. Golden in colour, the nose is explosively rich in all manner of exotic fruits, but with a touch of spice running on top of everything. It’s sweet, for sure, but not at all cloying. In fact, for the variety and for a VT, the freshness approaches “magnificent”. The other point to note is that the alcohol doesn’t really show, which proves it is well balanced. A stunning wine, though I confess to something of a crush on VT Gewürz, despite drinking it fairly rarely.

This is altogether a rather nice note on which to end Part 1 of this tasting. Matthieu Boesch’s wines are fairly easy to find in many retailers (though the labels don’t really stand out, do they), both in London and Paris. I don’t think I’ve had a bottle I’ve failed to enjoy and they have always been a sure bet in restaurants, so it was nice to have a chance to try seven in one go. Part 2, on the five German producers at the tasting, will appear, I hope, during the early part of next week.

Posted in Alsace, biodynamic wine, Natural Wine, Wine, Wine Agencies, Wine Merchants, Wine Tastings | Tagged Altenberg de Wolxheim, Bernard & Arthur Bohn, Bohn Muenchberg Riesling, Bruno Schloegel, Celebrating Common Ground Tasting, Domaine Léon Boesch Westhalten, Domaine Lissner, Extreme Viticulture, Florian & Mathilde Beck-Hartweg, Frankstein Grand Cru, Marc Tempé Zellenberg, Matthieu Boesch, Newcomer Wines Tasting, Tout Naturellement Pétillant 2018, Vine Trail Tasting, Vineyard Biodiversity at Lissner, Zinnkoepflé Gewürztraminer | 1 Comment

Poet and the Roots

Posted on 23/04/2019 by dccrossley

Excuse my lack of restraint in using another musical reference, but the words seem apt here. The roots bring to mind the wonderful fallen oak at Tim Phillips’ winery on a brief visit there, a couple of weekends ago. This rather beautiful piece of chainsaw art was made by well known tree carver, Richard Austin. It now provides outdoor seating and somewhere to rest your glass, beside the pond and copse which Tim is lucky to have out the back of the winery. By coincidence, Roots is also the name of the surprisingly good restaurant we went to that evening.

Poet is possibly not a word Tim Phillips would use to describe himself. This is a man who, after all, is building his own motorbike from the ground up, as well as tending one of England’s smallest yet most beautiful vineyards, and its attached orchard which he has literally uncovered from an acre-or-so of brambles over the past couple of years. Yet poet he is, for the expression his English wines pour from the bottle. This time was just a visit to the winery, near Pennington (Lymington, Hampshire). If you want to see Tim’s “Clos du Paradis” walled garden, there’s a link to a previous article here. Tim’s English wines are bottled under the Charlie Herring label, under which he made wines in South Africa (Tim’s winemaking experience also extends to Australia and Italy, but if you want to know more, follow that link).

We began by tasting Tim’s sensational “cider”. I don’t use the word lightly, although it’s not technically a pure apple cider. The apples Tim uses are his own dessert varieties from the orchard, but to give it a bit of acidity, not to mention colour and a little something extra, Tim adds a splash of his South African Syrah. The only other person I know who does something similar is Tom Shobbrook in South Australia, who makes a pear cider and adds a little Mourvèdre. It might not be a coincidence that Tom and Tim got to know each other in Tuscany, at Riecine, under Sean O’Callaghan.

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No disrespect to Tom, but Tim’s cider is absolutely gorgeous. The colour is like that of a light red natural wine. The bubbles are super small and hectic, the cider having a real palate cleansing freshness and a nice crystalline spine. eighteen months on lees gives it a little texture too. The dessert apples add a floating fragrance. All this, sealed under crown cap (at just about two-bar pressure, around a third of that for Champagne) in a clear, heavy, sparkling wine bottle with one of Tim’s exquisite “a humument“-style labels. Alcohol comes in at 7.5% and a bottle costs around £15 when there is any available for sale.

We were then able to look at some of Tim’s wines which are currently undergoing their élevage. Tim won’t release wines before they are ready. It might smack of perfectionism, and to be sure Tim is a bit of a perfectionist. But for a very small scale producer it does make sense that people try the wines for the first time when they are at, or close to, their best.

So we began with two Sparkling Rieslings, as far as I know the only sparkling version of this grape in England (not that I recall having drunk any English Riesling, come to think of it). Before you wonder how he ripens Riesling, don’t forget that the vineyard is walled. In fact I’d guess that the brick wall which surrounds the “clos” is nine or ten feet high, and it soaks up the sun into its orange-red clay, releasing it slowly to create a warm but well aired micro-climate. Tim has probably been right in his decision to hold these 2014 and 2015 wines back. They have very immediate freshness and a sort of apple crispness. The fruit is very appley too. By all accounts the 2013 is ready to drink, and I shall pop my bottle of Promised Land Riesling Brut Nature 2013 some time this summer. Just waiting for the right company.

Tim’s sparkling Chardonnay goes by the name of The Bookkeeper. I drank a 2013 last year, which was rather good after four years on lees. Despite the autolytic character and complexity that lees ageing brings, it was still as fresh as you imagine it was on the day on which it was bottled. The 2018 we tasted was ripe and at the same time, quite floral at this stage, a mixture of stone fruit and pear flavours coating the palate. Good as the 2013 has become, I can’t wait to try this 2018 when it’s eventually released.

We ended our tasting with a couple of 2018 Sauvignon Blancs. It’s fair to say that I think, for both of us, SB needs to be special to excite us, and there’s no way Tim was going to do anything ordinary with his. The first version saw five days on skins. That had already imparted a nice texture, and some good bass note phenolics which don’t normally come hand-in-hand with this variety.

Ever the experimenter, Tim then wanted us to taste another level of Sauvignon Blanc. He drew off the darker liquid which had seen three months maceration on skins. This was a lovely textured herbal wine, the like of which I’m sure has not been attempted in Southern England before. Whilst Tim has not gone down the buried qvevri route of Ben Walgate, he’s just as fascinated by texture and mouthfeel. What he will do with his Sauvignon Blanc, I’m not sure? He might decide to blend the two together. After all, quantities here are so tiny. But even if he does, I’d love him to bottle a little of this latter cuvée for a few aficionados to savour at some future lunch.

Tim’s walled vineyard is rather beautiful, and any wine trade members who have the chance to visit should grab it if Tim can find time to show you around. But the winery is also in an idyllic location. As we chatted outside before leaving, amid the sound of bird song, a deer wandered out of Tim’s copse, around fifty metres from us. It gave us a glance but, being used to Tim, it paid little attention and remained there for some minutes before ambling away. He told us she was one of four that pay him no heed when he’s there alone.

Spot the deer

Richard Austin’s work – chainsaw on oak and what were once deep roots

The Charlie Herring labels are exquisite. A man after my own heart, the winery is wallpapered with maps (all hygienically sealed for the food standards regs).

Roots Restaurant

That evening four of us headed out to dinner, and taking advantage of one of us not drinking and being happy to drive, we went a little beyond taxi distance this time, to Southbourne (on the outskirts of Bournemouth). This eighteen cover only restaurant is the kind of place you rarely find. It’s hardly unknown, as evidenced by the waiting list of several weeks to get a table, but I really did not expect somewhere this good to be found in a quiet neighbourhood near a Co-op store and a bed shop on the edge of one of Southern England’s fabled retirement towns. We were able to benefit from a cancellation, and the other two empty tables were the result of no-shows. It’s sad when this happens, even more sad for a small restaurant like this serving excellent food. Food that is probably the best for many miles around.

The deal is simple. There are two tasting menus (£56 and £66, IIRC) plus a vegan menu which is a variant on the first of the above with some modifications and substitutions. There are also added optional extras, like a cheese course. As far as the food itself goes, I’d put the meal we ate up there with most “one star” establishments, although we know that Michelin requirements go beyond the kitchen.

We were lucky to be able to arrange corkage, at a mighty reasonable £10/bottle (we tried to leave a tip which not only reflected the quality of the food and the friendly service, but also that generosity of spirit (not always seen in London)). The wine list at Roots is certainly adequate, from what one can deduce. The wines may be comfortably beyond the ordinary and dull, but there’s not the detail on the list one might wish for (producer names?), and neither would the selection satisfy someone for whom wine is a hobby or a profession. Saying that, if the food outplays the wines, then I think most diners would enjoy the wines well enough. There is a “sommelier-style” wine selection to accompany each dish, which one can take as an added extra.

We began with an aperitif before driving to Bournemouth, which I guess younger readers might better recognise as “pre-loading”. Philippe Bornard Tant-Mieux is an 8.5% petnat made from Poulsard grown in the Côtes du Jura vineyards just outside of Pupillin. It has a genuine lightness of touch from one of the masters of “Ploussard” (in my humble opinion), Tony Bornard. A lovely light red, fragrantly red-fruited with a lovely cranberry twist. It comes adorned with a new label too (see photo), one which perhaps suggests that the devil has all the best tunes.

The first (BYO) wine at Roots was a bit of a revelation. Florent Giboulot Bourgogne Aligoté 2005 (check the vintage) was an Aligoté of real depth. Fresh for its age, but equally rounded out, it has retained just the right amount of acidity to suppose that it is currently at its peak. That suggestion might surprise anyone for whom the variety has always been consumed young, with acids to the fore. Imagine Aligoté with an injection of plumpness, so that you could easily imagine it was a blend containing 50% Chardonnay. Domaine Florent Giboulot is based at Auxey-Duresses.

The second wine was no less pleasurable, with the added bonus that it is a bit of a unicorn for me. Although I consider myself reasonably au fait with all things Jura, our friends had managed to achieve what I have not yet done – a tasting with Catherine Hannoun at Domaine de la Loue, in the far north of the Jura Region at Port-Lesney.

Catherine farms a tiny area, probably no more than 1.5 hectares after giving up a site in Arbois, with vines as far apart as Pupillin and Salins-les-Bains (the latter being once a large viticultural area now diminished to a few hectares). Domaine de la Loue Cuvée Clémence 2017 is a Pinot Noir, just 12% abv, and showing quite a bit of dissolved CO2 (though it was not sparkling). It’s a fascinating wine.

Apparently Catherine said you have to drink it within two hours. We didn’t get the chance to find out whether it turns from a princess back into a pumpkin after that time because, let’s face it, wines as sappy and thirst quenching as this don’t hang around that long, even when opened (by the waiter) twenty minutes before we began emptying the bottle. It was just gorgeous and summery, and as a lighter red it suited the food very well.

All of Catherine’s wines are biodynamic, and she was originally mentored by Emmanuel Houillon. I am closely guarding a bottle of her petnat, awaiting very possibly the same people who would be keener to try Tim’s Sparkling Riesling than yet another Comtes or Dom.

The food:

Asparagus Tasting…

Goats Curd, Heirloom Tomatoes, Basil, Raspberry…

“Berlin Supper” (with exceptional rye bread, mutton coppa, pickled herring, spiced cream cheese and duck Schmalz)

Winter Truffle Ice Cream, Hazelnut, Grapes, Truffle Shavings, Celeriac and Warmed Celeriac Juice

Confit of Salmon, Peas, Shiso and Lemongrass

Tasting of British Lamb, Aubergine Cannelloni, Bell Pepper and Black Garlic (note the small souvlaki, top left and the spiced lamb and tomato ragu, top right)

Strawberry Soufflé, Yuzu Ice Cream and Elderflower Custard

…and from the vegan menu…

Roots is at 141 Belle Vue Road, Southbourne, Bournemouth BH6 3EN, Tel 01202 430005

or see https://restaurantroots.co.uk/

Posted in Artisan Wines, Cider, English Cider, English Wine, Restaurants, Sparkling Wine, Wine | Tagged Charlie Herring English Sauvignon Blanc, Charlie Herring Wines, Clos du Paradis Ramley House Walled Vineyard, Domaine de la Loue Cuvée Clémence 2017, Florent Giboulot Bourgogne Aligoté 2005, Hampshire Vineyards, Perfect Strangers English Cider, Philippe Bornard Tant-Mieux petnat, Promised Land English Sparkling Riesling, Richard Austin Chainsaw Artist, Roots Restaurant Southbourne Bournemouth, The Bookkeeper Chardonnay, Tim Phillips, Top Poulsard-Ploussard Petnats, Vineyards near Lymington | Leave a comment

“Ugly Ducklings Can Be Swans” (Says Doug Wregg)

Posted on 16/04/2019 by dccrossley

Ugly Ducklings can be Swans! That was the title of the tasting given by Doug Wregg at Solent Cellar in Lymington on Friday night. Doug’s company, Les Caves de Pyrene, has proved that statement a thousand times over in the thirty-odd years that they have been importing wines often made using less fashionable grape varieties from all over the world. The premise of this tasting was that the most maligned grape varieties more often than not turn out merely to have been misunderstood.

Doug and I share much of the same philosophy when it comes to wine (and I rather suspect in many other areas too). My manifesto is always drink the most interesting wine, not the wine which some critic states with total confidence and certainty (and often arrogance) is the best. Forget scores. Look for what is in the glass rather than what supposedly isn’t. And, perhaps most importantly, remember that wine isn’t just, if at all, about grape varieties. It’s about the terroir, absolutely everything that makes that patch of land unique…and its about how one winemaker interprets that patch of land, whether with a single variety or a blend.

All of the wines here use grape varieties which have certainly been maligned, some even banned from use for fear that they would lower the reputation of their region. Yet there are gifted artisans who show year on year, whilst embracing the variation which different vintages bring, that wines of purity, beauty, excitement and many other things besides, can be created from these so-called ugly ducklings. To illustrate this Mr Wregg chose seven very different wines, and we were lucky as all of them shone on the night.

All of the following wines are imported by Les Caves de Pyrene, and Solent Cellar were taking orders on the night. They can obtain any wines from the Les Caves list for onward dispatch by mail order. Alternatively, visit the importer itself at Pew Corner, Artington, just south of Guildford (next to the Park+Ride).

René Mosse, Moussamoussettes (Anjou/Loire, France)

This wine is labelled as a non-vintage Vin Mousseaux – Brut Nature. It is essentially a pétillant naturel, a wine in this case without the addition of a dosage (Brut Nature) and with no disgorgement of the lees before sale. The grape mix blends the beautiful red Pinot d’Aunis with local workhorse (supposedly) Grolleau, both traditional varieties in the vineyards René and Agnès Mosse own at St-Lambert du Lattay, close to the River Layon in Anjou.

I well remember getting to know Terroirs restaurant and bar near London’s Trafalgar Square, back in the days when petnats were far less numerous. Moussamoussettes was our regular aperitif. I loved it, but (as I was reminded of with several wines here) if you are always excited by so many new wines to try it’s all too easy to forget to buy old favourites from time to time.

The wine in the glass is a lovely glowing cloudy pink, cloudy from the lees in the bottle, which we should embrace by inverting the bottle before opening to allow the wine to reach its full texture and flavour. The bouquet of red fruits (mainly strawberry and raspberry) is beguiling in its purity. The fruit has a sweetness, but the wine tastes more or less dry. This is a result of the bubbles, the balancing acidity, and the little bit of lees texture, I guess. It’s refreshingly (in both senses of the word) frivolous, and a perfect, cool, summer aperitif. So much more a picnic wine than Champagne, in my view. Expect to pay circa £25 retail.

Domaine de la Senechalière, Melon “Miss Terre” 2016 (Muscadet/Loire, France)

Marc Pesnot runs this thirteen hectare domaine from the village of St-Julien-de-Conselles, east of Nantes in the Muscadet Region. Melon, or to give it its full name, Melon de Bourgogne, is the grape of Muscadet, and has been since it was ejected (well, not quite) from its Burgundian homeland by Duke Philip the Bold (as an aside, there are a few producers of Melon in Burgundy, largely around Vézelay, the most well regarded being the Montanet family’s Domaine de la Cadette).

This wine is less of a “Miss terre-y” than its name suggests. Of course, Marc has not labelled it as a Muscadet, but largely because he considers most Muscadet to be an industrial product with which he doesn’t wish to be associated. There is another reason too. After his very old vines (up to 80 years of age) growing on schist are harvested, with extremely low yields for the region, they are fermented long and slow (for months, rather than the Muscadet average of two weeks). Following this, the wine undergoes malolactic, unheard of for AOP Muscadet.

The wine is pale. When you sniff it yields up very little, with none of the aromatics which laboratory yeasts give to the region’s main wine. This is a wine which is pretty much all about the texture. This is accentuated by the wine’s body. Not a full body as such, but a lot plumper than the thin wine which high-cropped Melon usually produces.

As a result, Miss Terre was totally misunderstood in France, where Muscadet is expected to be but one thing, and to be sold cheaply. The wine consequently made its way to Japan, where an appreciation of its savoury, food-friendly, qualities allowed Marc to sell the lot. Thankfully, some comes over to the UK. The French have realised too late that they are missing out. Retailing for around £19/bottle.

G & J-H Goisot, Bourgogne Aligoté 2017 (Auxerrois/Burgundy, France)

Guilhem and Jean-Hugues Goisot farm at Saint-Bris, near Chablis. The grape of AOP Saint-Bris is, of course, Sauvignon Blanc, but the Goisots also harvest the traditional Burgundian grapes of this northerly sub-region, namely Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, César and Aligoté.

Their other wines are very good indeed, and it would be hard to find a better Saint-Bris. But it was their Aligoté which piqued my interest in this variety perhaps twenty years ago. It was not remotely the acidic juice I’d found as a producer’s afterthought on the Côte d’Or, but something with genuine character and personality. I think it is Goisot’s Aligoté more than that of Monsieur de Villaine which spurred so many young artisans to make this grape variety into something exciting in recent years, perhaps “exciting” (with some notable exceptions) for the first time ever.

One of the keys to this Aligoté, as with so many superb wines from so-called lesser varieties, is old vines. In this case we have vines up to 90 years old, and none are much under fifty now. The yields of old vines are naturally low and so the juice will be concentrated. Pretty much nothing of note is done to the wine after hand harvesting. It ferments naturally in stainless steel vats, and is aged in the same material.

Even though this is a young wine (and I know it will age), it lacks any sense that it is an old style acidic Aligoté. It has a certain amplitude that would make you wonder whether they’d blended in 30% Chardonnay (of course, they didn’t). And there’s an abundance of elegance too. Yet at the end of the day it is also just a tasty gourmet wine, a far better accompaniment for river fish or a host of other dishes than a rich, buttery, oaked Chardonnay. It’s a wine which shares some of the mouthfeel of its neighbour in Chablis. Widely available for about £18.

Jean-Pierre Frick, Sylvaner “Bergweingarten” 2012 (Alsace, France)

This is another producer I keep forgetting to buy, these days (though I’m putting that right in a small way). This was one of the first domaines in Alsace to go organic (1970s), then biodynamic (early 1980s), and is now at the forefront of natural winemaking in the region.

Bergweingarten is a lieu-dit near the village of Pfaffenheim (south of Colmar and Eguisheim), consisting mainly of brown limestone with a little sand. The grape variety is Sylvaner, so abused that it was not considered fit for Grand Cru sites when those regulations were originally drawn up (there is light at the end of the tunnel for the variety in that respect, but perhaps an explanation should be saved for another time).

Yet a Frick wine is first and foremost a Frick wine. The old vine stock yields small quantities of equally small and thick skinned grapes here and the vineyard has a warm microclimate. The must is fermented long and slow in big old oak without fear of oxygen. Add to this the vintage, 2012 being a hot one in Alsace, and this cuvée is pretty unique.

The bouquet is herbal more than fruity. There is a slight oxidative note that merely adds complexity, something like a hint of spicy baked apple with orange, nuts and spice (cinnamon?). Every vintage is different, but with around 16-17 g/l of residual sugar in 2012 there is richness, though the sweetness is masked by fresh acidity that is there, but in the background, not in your face. The mouthfeel is lovely. It’s a softer wine than perhaps most Sylvaner you’ll taste. It was a very popular wine on the night…who would have thought that?

It’s very much one of those wines where you are advised to have a carafe handy, and serve it slightly chilled, but hardly at all. This well aged vintage will cost you £24. More recent vintages may be knocking around, especially in Paris, for a few Euros less.

Zorjan, Muskat Ottonel “Dolium” 2014 (Štajerska, Slovenia)

Yesterday I tasted wines from a unique producer, one who is a deep thinker. Wines can be unique for many reasons. In that case they were unique for the extreme type of natural viticulture used. In this case, the wines of Božidar and Marija Zorjan at Zgornja Ložnica, are unique for their ageing, and it is clear that Božidar Zorjan is also a very deep thinker.

At Zorjan, the “Dolium” wines are made in amphora (Dolium is a Roman word for this vessel). But Božidar believes that as wine begins life in the vineyard, that is where it should grow up. So the amphora (in fact, qvevri from Georgia) are buried out in the vineyard. Božidar also very much believes in the cosmic forces giving life to the wine as it rests below the planets and stars.

The Muskat Ottonel Dolium cuvée is made from vines which are 25-26 years old, planted on rolling hills at an altitude of between 400 and 450 metres. Božidar operates a closed farm. The idea is to create an ecosystem where everything works together. Manure comes from their own sheep, for example.

The wine is a pale orange, only just orange in fact. It does see a six month maceration, followed by 24 months ageing (twelve in buried qvevri and twelve in 1,200 litre old wood). In this vintage there were 1,000 bottles of Dolium Muscat made. The nose is complex, full of warmth. The palate has a genuine freshness, and it is unquestionably lovely, my wine of the night. Yet it is also a wine which confounds and confuses. Not an easy wine, you need to give it time to grow in the glass and to experience the changes which come.

This wine was pardonably served chilled. Personally I’d serve it cool at most, and certainly, as with the Frick above, pour it into a carafe if possible. This almost profound creation will retail for around £35.

Julien Guillot, Beaujolais “Les Pierres Bleues” 2015 (Beaujolais, France)

Julien Guillot is very much a cult name in France. His famous Clos des Vignes in the Maconnais was one of the first vineyards planted by the monks of Cluny. In that region he has lifted the Gamay grape from obscurity and mediocrity. This cuvée is from Gamay’s heartland. I don’t just mean Beaujolais. The vines are situated on a fault line which climbs up to the famous Morgon lieu-dit, the Côte de Py. The vineyard is largely limestone and sandy clay, but the Pierres Bleues are the blue volcanic rocks around the fault.

This is a dark and intense wine, which befits grapes from vines which are a hundred years old. Barrel-fermentation adds a little spice to the fruit and it has the weight of a warm vintage. There’s also unquestionably a degree of salinity which is rare in a lot of Beaujolais, and it certainly accents the freshness of the wine. But where it really scores is in its alcohol content, 12.5% (very low for 2015). There’s a lick of tannin, but energy as well and a genuine concentration of dark, and sour cherry, fruit. You might not guess the vintage.

This is a wine to age, but one which will also give great pleasure if drunk now. It’s about £32 retail.

Clos du Gravillas, Carignan “Lo Vièlh” 2015 (Languedoc, France)

Nicole and John Bojanowski farm their Domaine du Gravillas in the fortified wine country around the village of Saint-Jean-de-Minervois, yet they are not far, perhaps five kilometres, from the region’s famous red wines of Minervois. The wine is bottled as (for the English speaker) the charmingly named Côtes du Brian. The Domaine numbers around 8.5 hectares at just under 300 metres altitude on the Causse. The Clos itself is a white gravel moonscape, which Doug describes as “blinding” in the sunlight, dotted with the region’s elemental garrigue. The Carignan bush vines here were planted in 1911, so are now well over 100 years old. As so much Carrignan has been grubbed up and lost since the 1980s, this is a terrific viticultural resource which Nicole and John have preserved.

The beauty of this landscape lies in its close proximity to the Parc Naturel du Haut Languedoc, an area of protected mountain and garrigue hardly a stone’s throw from the vines, which benefit greatly from the cooling winds that descend from the peak of the Montagne Noir at night time, creating an unusually accentuated diurnal temperature range for a Languedoc vineyard.

Carignan’s reputation as a workhorse grape making high-yield red refreshment for northern factory workers belies its potential. With very low yields you can make good wine. With respect for the variety, John says, you can make great wine. Lo Vièlh sees the grapes destemmed and foot crushed, remaining on skins for six weeks. The result is a dark coloured wine, with an abundance of cherry and dark fruits, and then there’s a real hint of coffee and leather with spice adding an extra dimension. It’s also mineral and rugged. But at the same time there’s a smoothness which stretches throughout a long finish, somehow like rough and silky at the same time.

I used to buy this back in the early days of my affair with Les Caves, and it took Doug’s selection for this tasting to remind me what I’ve been missing for so long. I won’t deny that I’ve not bought a lot from Southern France in recent years. Lo Vièlh also has the advantage that, although not a cheap wine, [French] Carignan rarely commands the highest prices, however good they are. About £25 retail.

When I saw the list of the seven wines for the tasting I remarked that I’d be happy to be passed a glass of any of these. On the night they all justified that comment. I did only order a couple for myself, but I’d be more than happy to buy any…and I’m kind of having second thoughts about omitting the others.

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Les Caves de Pyrene’s Line Moullier and Doug Wregg after one of the best tutored tastings you will go to, and clutching my wine of the night, too!

Posted in Artisan Wines, Grape Varieties, Natural Wine, Slovenian Wine, Wine, Wine Agencies, Wine Merchants, Wine Shops, Wine Tastings | Tagged Beaujolais Les Pierres Bleues, Božidar Zorjan, Carignan Lo Vielh, Caves de Pyrene Tasting in Lymington, Clos Gravillas, Domaine de la Senechalière, Doug Wregg, Goisot Bourgogne Aligoté, Jean-Pierre Frick, Julien Guillot, Marc Pesnot, Melon Miss Terre, Moussamoussettes, René Mosse, Slovenian Wine, Solent Cellar Tastings, Sylvaner Bergweingarten, Zorjan Muscat Ottonel Dolium | 2 Comments

Time for More Swiss Wine

Posted on 11/04/2019 by dccrossley

Last night Wringer & Mangle just south of London Fields hosted a reception organised by Westbury Communications for four Swiss producers from the Valais Region. The space was packed with people who came for the wine and the exhibition of label art created for the producers. We were treated to excellent canapés and sounds, and the wines were flowing freely too. Not many people were spitting. There was even a Swiss TV team there to record our reactions.

The buzz in the venue made it quite difficult to have any meaningful conversation with the producers, but the wines were perfectly able to speak for themselves. The four producers were Provins, Domaine Jean-René Germanier, Domaine des Muses and Domaine Thierry Constantin. I already knew the first three producers, who would certainly count in most people’s top dozen best known domaines from the region (I’ve got a couple of wines from Provins and Muses in the cellar), but Thierry Constantin was a bit of a discovery.

UK availability is not widespread. Provins wines are available via Alpine Wines, as are Domaine des Muses and Domaine Jean-René Germanier. Some Germanier is also available through Hedonism Wines in London’s Mayfair. I’m told that Oddbins carry two or three of the Provins wines. Thierry Constantin currently has no UK importer, but there was a note in the list of wines from the event to the effect “if interested please contact Thorman Hunt“.

A note on Tasting: These wines are, within their context, all young. Some of the reds, in particular, can taste slightly unripe. When wines are grown at altitude they aim to exhibit a purity, and lack of heaviness. The tannins can make them seem unripe (someone said green). Of course when they have aged (I’m talking about the best producers’ wines) and the tannins have softened, the purity of the fruit should come through. I’m sure we all know how to taste young wines, but I often find people expect Swiss reds to be more or less ready on release. This is rarely the case and we are in danger sometimes of judging them in the wrong context.

PROVINS VALAIS

Provins, founded in 1930 and headquartered in Sion, is actually the largest wine producer in Switzerland. Although that is very much relative, 10% of all Swiss wine is made by this organisation which, with 3,200 members, functions as a co-operative. They control 800 hectares of vines, but more importantly they produce 110 different wines. This means that whilst much of the Provins production is of everyday quality, and consumed in situ, they are able to produce several ranges of top quality cuvées.

In my view they are most effective when vinifying the traditional Valais varieties. Of the twenty-two ranges produced by Provins, “Les Domaines” are terroir wines which come from single sites, usually the terraced high altitude vineyards which make this region one of the world’s most beautiful to visit. The “Maître de Chais” range is Provins’ premium label (despite perhaps sounding generic to British drinkers). These are selections from the best plots. Both form the apex of the Provins quality pyramid.

Heida Chapitre 2017 (Les Domaines) – This is a single site wine, beautifully expressive of Swiss Heida. This variety is of course “Savagnin”. It is more towards the lighter style that some Jura producers would label “Traminer”, but even then you don’t quite get the full picture. Grown on the mountain terraces of the Valais, where you can find some of Europe’s highest vineyards, the variety takes on a purer air about it. It has a lightness. It is pale, crisp, clean, dry and mineral. A nice example.

Petite Arvine 2017 (Maître de Chais) – Petite Arvine is possibly the most distinguished of the Valais white varieties. It also seems to me that it is the most consistent across producers, and I’ve been drinking Petite Arvine from the Valais and the Val d’Aosta for certainly over twenty years. The variety usually shows quite floral aromas (as this wine does). The palate is dominated by white peach, but the finish comes with spice, quince-dryness and a little grapefreuit acidity. It tastes clean and fresh but has a little body, fleshing it out.

Humagne Rouge 2015 (Maître de Chais) – The colour is a lovely, bright, ruby red. The bouquet has cherry fruit and a touch of earth. There’s still some tannic grip which will soften after a further year or two (although this is not particularly a vin de garde), and there’s bright (but not dominant) acidity. Along with Cornalin, Humagne Rouge is one of the most important, and interesting to connoisseurs, autochthonous red varieties in the Valais. You can tell by the wine’s lifted quality that it comes from altitude, and you need to understand that this is not a wine where the fruit will show surmaturité. In youth, it shows a more floral side, and with age it can develop a more animal nature. Expect to pay a little over £30/bottle for the Petite Arvine and Humagne Rouge.

DOMAINE JEAN-RENÉ GERMANIER

The Germanier domaine, founded in 1886, is one of the Valais’ best known producers, including internationally, but you will see these wines in top restaurants and wine stores throughout Switzerland. They are based in the village of Balavaud, in the commune of Vétroz, just west of Sion. Jean-René currently runs the domaine with his nephew, Giles Besse. The domaine has always tried to produce wines with minimal pesticides but now they are in full conversion to organic viticulture.

Johannisberg Chamoson Grand Cru 2017 – Johannisberg is the Valais synonym for Silvaner (originally a Savagnin x Traminer cross, I believe), and this is a solid nod to that variety’s typical characteristics. It is a fresh, herby wine with a lifted bouquet which seems to reflect the glacial moraine on which the vines grow. The palate is also redolent of that minerality in a fine spine, finishing dry with slightly bitter quince. A fairly light wine, but as the Chamoson Grand Cru designation suggests, it has the potential to show a little more than it was showing on the night with perhaps an extra six months-to-a-year in the cellar. Retail approx £34.

Dôle Balavaud, Vétroz Grand Cru 2017 – This comes off gravels with alluvial deposits and large “galet” stones. Dôle is always a blend of Pinot Noir and Gamay (like a Bourgogne Passetoutgrain). Generally I have found it difficult to discover really satisfying Dôles, although the appellation is very popular throughout Switzerland. This one is better made than most, and I suspect yields are not so high as in many. The scent is high-toned cherry and the wine has a medium to light body, but it does not, I think, aim for great complexity. The fruit has a silky side and there’s a bit of grip. It’s only around £26 UK retail, a Swiss wine many of us can afford.

Cayas Reserve Syrah 2016 – It’s funny. I drank a bottle of this from an earlier vintage around a year ago, a bottle which Swiss friends had brought over among half-a-dozen stuffed into their suitcases. I had little idea that this wine retails at over £50 in the UK. It’s not that they are mean…they are very generous, but I doubted they would bring a £50 wine among a generous six bottle gift. What I find worrying is that this backs up everything that is said about Swiss wine being so expensive in the UK. The Germanier web site lists the 2016 for CHF42 (currently around £32).

In the Valais 2016 was a late vintage, saved by a long, fine and warm autumn. The grapes come off schist on slopes on the right bank of the Rhône. They see a 22-day maceration, and after fermentation, 24 months in barrique (50% new oak). The wine is coloured dark burgundy red. The fruits are more black than red, quite plush, and there’s a clear smokiness at this stage. The wine is young and still shows the wood not fully integrated. It needs time, perhaps a minimum of five years. It will be very good with longer in the cellar. It does show the brightness and structure you’d expect off schist. I think many would find this hard to judge because of the oak at this stage. Pop it away.

Cornalin Reserve 2015 – This off-list wine somehow appeared on the bar. This native variety is, to my mind, potentially as good as the perhaps better known Humagne Rouge. It also gets a different treatment to the Reserve Syrah, being fermented in 400-litre open top vats, and then aged 12 months in the same vessels (with a lid attached). It has a violet colour and more cherry fruit and smokiness on the nose. It’s also more animal and meaty on the palate than the Syrah, with a bit of texture too. A wine to age for less time, and one to pair with game.

DOMAINE THIERRY CONSTANTIN

With all of these long-established producers, it’s quite nice to find someone more recently established doing well, although 2001 is not all that short a time to have been working the vines. Thierry makes wine at Pont-de-la-Morge, close to Vétroz (and therefore, to Sion). He only possesses 5.5 hectares of vines, but they are situated in some of those two communes’ finest locations. Quality is the only focus here, and as well as pursuing careful and thoughtful vineyard management, the domaine is noted for its very low yields. All the wines here fit the hand made, artisan, mould. Despite the small size of the estate, Thierry does manage to fashion around fifteen different wines each vintage.

Fendant 2018 – Fendant is the Valais synonym for Chasselas. Generally it is not a variety beloved of classical wine critics (who have clearly never tasted the versions made by Dominique Lucas, or Hanspieter Ziereisen). Swiss Chasselas performs remarkably well, both around Lake Geneva’s north shore (Vaud), and here in the Valais. It’s almost always a pale wine, bright and herbal with a dry acidity and a stony texture. The latter quality, which can sometimes remind me of stones inside the apricots for which this part of the Rhône Valley is justly famous, is particularly prominent here. It has crisp acidity and a quite light finish, but is an immediately attractive wine.

Petite Arvine 2017 – is a step up, with a deeper bouquet of lemon-lime citrus and pineapple. The wine shows a nice tension between nervosité and a little fat on the bone. The finish is nice and long, and there’s a good touch of salinity along with the stony texture. This, I think, will improve further with a little time in bottle.

Cornalin 2015 – was one of my wines of the day. The yield is around 35hl/ha, which is very low in a Swiss context. The nose has lifted dark cherry and a lick of red fruit acidity. The fruit is quite plump and plush (ripe too, 13.4% abv), but there is grip and tannin, which suggests that this will age well despite the attractiveness of the fruit. Thierry’s suggested food pairing? Saddle of deer. There you go.

All three of these wines retail in Switzerland for between 25 to 32 CHF, and seem good value at or near those prices, but as stated at the top of this article, they are not strictly available in the UK at the moment.

DOMAINE DES MUSES

This estate was founded in 1992 by Louis and Nicole Taramarcaz at Sierre, which is further up the Rhône Valley, below the twin ski resort of Crans-Montana. A decade later they were joined by their son, Robert, who has slowly taken over winemaking following his studies in Burgundy (Dijon). The vines are farmed ecologically, with minimal (but not no) use of synthetic applications, but they are committed to protecting indigenous flora and fauna.

Heida “Tradition” 2017 – is fermented, and then aged on lees, in stainless steel. The wine has a lovely lime citrus attack, showing nice balance between acidity and a little flesh. There’s a lightness to the wine, and yet I was told that this wine has ageing potential (conversely the Provins “Maître de Chais” Heida I own, not tasted here, is supposedly meant for consumption soon, so it can be hard to judge). Whatever its potential, I like it now, and I’ve been a fan of this domaine for several years.

Cornalin “Tradition” 2016 – As with the Heida above, this is a right bank wine. Imagine the sun-baked terraces above Sierre, perhaps facing the Val d’Anniviers on the other side of the river. Vinification is also in stainless steel, but here the similarities end. You get quite pure cherry and blackberry fruit which seems as lifted as the altitude at which the grapes are grown. There’s also a floral element, not so much with the bouquet, but oddly, on the palate. It adds something, neither herby nor mineral, but nice. There’s also a good lick of tannin, making this a wine to age for three or four years, if not a little longer.

Syrah “Réserve” 2016 – The four Reserve wines from the domaine are all made with French varieties, although both Syrah and Pinot Noir are very common in the Valais, and can produce fine wines. There are around 170 ha of Syrah planted in the Valais. This may be one of the smallest Syrah vignobles in any major Syrah-producing nation (there is little elsewhere in Switzerland) but it’s still not bad, and not massively behind the whole of New Zealand up until fairly recently.

This is a wine both fermented and aged in oak, with an élèvage of 18 months. It is quite dark-fruited, flavours accentuated by a little spice and a hint of liquorice. It’s a wine of depth and a wine (again) for ageing. It will certainly go a decade, I would suggest. But that said, it’s still a very attractive wine, a shame to open too soon but not a disaster if you did. Some Valais Syrahs get the oak wrong, in my opinion. This one doesn’t, unless you are perhaps very oak averse.

I’ve really concentrated on the wines. Some of the art is represented in the photos below, interspersed with some of the bottles. I always enjoy drinking Swiss wine, but there are far too few opportunities to actually taste Swiss wines in the UK. If the Swiss are serious about entering the UK market then tastings like this one are essential. They won’t crack things off the back of Alpine Wines‘ hard but lonely work, and the rare appearance of the wines of Domaine de Mythopia when occasionally shown by Newcomer Wines.

Of course, if you are the kind of adventurous wine drinker who I know reads my blog, you could always grab an exploratory six-pack from Alpine. That’s what my wife bought me for Christmas. If you do, go for the native varieties such as those tasted here, with some Chasselas from Lavaux’s steeply terraced Crus in the Vaud. It is time we encouraged more of them onto our market. Watch this space.

From top left, Joelle Nebbe-Mornod of Alpine Wines and a selection of the IWArtChallenge labels and assorted bottles at Wringer & Mangle

Posted in Grape Varieties, Swiss Wine, Wine, Wine Labels, Wine Tastings | Tagged Alpine Wines, Cayas Reserve Syrah 2016, Cornalin, Dôle Balavaud Vétroz, Domaine des Muses, Domaine Jean-René Germanier, Heida, Heida Chapitre, Humagne Rouge Maître de Chais, IWArtChallenge2, Johannisberg Chamoson, London Swiss Wine Tasting, London Valais Wine Tasting 2019, Petite Arvine, Provins Valais, Swiss Syrah, Swiss Wine, Thierry Constantin, Thierry Constantin Fendant, Valais Syrah, Vin du Valais, Wallis Wein, Westbury Comms Valais Wines, Wringer & Mangle Swiss Wine Tasting | 3 Comments

Recent Wines March 2019 #theglouthatbindsus

Posted on 08/04/2019 by dccrossley

I was overloaded with lovely bottles at home last month. Here are the fourteen I couldn’t leave out, wines from Catalonia, Jura, Côte-Rôtie, Burgenland, New Zealand, Alsace, McLaren Vale, Piemonte and Vienna, so let’s not hang about.

Sumoll Ferèstec Clos Lentiscus 2010, Bodegas Can Ramon (Catalonia, Spain)

The vineyard of Clos Lentiscus produces what for me are certainly the best Spanish sparkling wines I know, from Can Ramon’s base at Sant Pere de Ribes, inland from Sitges and southwest of Barcelona. Sumoll Ferèstec is made from the red Sumoll variety, grown biodynamically and vinified as a blanc de noirs. This bottle fermented wine spent thirty months on lees and was disgorged in April 2016 (just 720 bottles were made of this very special cuvée.).

The colour is something between pale pink and light bronze. It’s bottled as an extra-brut, so is dry, but local honey is used as a dosage at disgorgement. The red fruits are concentrated with a lifted iron-rich note on the bouquet. I last drank this same wine in April 2017, and it only seemed slightly more mature here than that previous bottle. I’m sure that this is because it has retained an elegant structure. Despite some notes of maturity, it equally remains very fresh. This proves that Sumoll is a remarkably versatile, and top quality, variety. This was stunning.

I’ve seen some Clos Lentiscus wines at Furanxo on Dalston Lane, although this cuvée came from Barcelona.

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Metamorphika Moscat Brisat 2015, Costador Terroirs Mediterranis (Catalonia, Spain)

Costador is Joan Franquet’s umbrella for a host of magical wines, including the Metamorphika range in their distinctive flagons. “Brisat” denotes a skin fermented wine in Catalan, and this one was a beautiful luminous yellow (not orange) colour. The bouquet has that obvious Muscat/Moscatel florality, but with an earthy, herby note as well. For me, beautifully scented. It’s dry, and has the firm structure of a wine which spent eight weeks on skins and then seven months in barrique, and the texture gives a solidity to a very smooth palate, surprisingly long for the variety. Adorable stuff.

This is available, along with a large range of Costador wines, via importer Otros Vinos.

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Mont D’Alicante Vin de France, Domaine L’Octavin (Jura, France)

I can usually find out where Alice Bouvot sources her grapes for her negoce wines, but in this case I’m stumped. The blend is Alicante Bouschet (I know Alice sourced Muscat in Roussillon for Betty Bulles but there is a bull on the label), and the last time I saw her was the day after collecting some grapes from Savoie…the other variety here is Mondeuse.

This moderately alcoholic wine (12.5%) is just so alive it almost sets your mouth alight. Zippy-fresh, there was an initial volatile note but nothing scary, and it went with a shake. This wine is basically a pure fruit bomb, easy drinking but a tour de force of juicy simplicity. Wish I’d bought a six pack.

I’ve not see Mont d’Alicante in the UK, and I purchased this in Arbois in December last year.

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Côte-Rôtie 2003, Michel & Stéphane Ogier (N. Rhône, France)

I have quite a few of the vintages of this wine from the 2000s. I was advised that I should drink the 2003 pretty soon, and as I recall it being a plump vintage (even a magnum of 2003 from Jasmin being ready a few years ago), I thought I should pop it open before the weather gets too summery. I was pleasantly surprised.

This is Stéphane’s blend of Côte Brune and Côte Blonde fruit, and hails from the period when he was taking over from his father and beginning to make a real name for himself. The wine is quite rich, with ripe plummy Syrah fruit. Perhaps the fact that this bottle hasn’t moved since purchase helped, as other drinkers suggest this peaked at the latest last year. It certainly has depth, though only a little meatiness. Intense, fragrant (violet top note) and long, not the best Ogier by any means but a very good bottle. Best to drink soon, though.

I bought pretty much all my Ogiers from Waitrose during 25%-off promos.

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[Wiener] Gemischter Satz 2017, Weinbau Sackl (Vienna, Austria)

This is the first of two Wiener Gemischter Satz in this month’s selection, but they are very different. What they do have in common is their derivation, from the Bisamberg hillside on the left bank of the Danube, just before it flows through Vienna. Patricia Sackl is the oenologist here, husband Florian (a trained geologist) generally looking after their biodynamic vineyard. The wines are made with minimal intervention at all stages.

This field blend has a slight initial spritz which dissipates quickly. It was also slightly reductive, and a carafing might be worth contemplating. Straw coloured, it has a straw-like bouquet too, also herby, and then a floral strand comes in. The palate is fresh and flowery as well. It’s a simple kind of Gemischter Satz, in what many call the “classic” style, with elderflower and apples combining nicely in a very glugable wine.

This came from Vinifero, one of Vienna’s “natural wine” shops.

Müller-Thurgau “Skin Fermented” 2017, The Hermit Ram (Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand)

Another orange wine, and very orange this time (actually, more the colour of pale caramel when the lees are all shook up, but please don’t let that put you off). Someone described it to me as “brutal” but I’m massively impressed by everything Theo Coles is doing, and everything he does is “skin contact”. He takes a variety here that used to be New Zealand’s mainstay before Sauvignon Blanc was planted. I’d say he strips it of varietal character, but Müller-Thurgau never has a lot of that. Theo can therefore use it to express terroir. The vines are one of the oldest plantings of MT in NZ.

It’s a rugged wine, all apples and oranges with a bit of that terracotta whiff, slightly dusty (though it isn’t made in amphora but a mix of vessels including a concrete egg). Wine in an open top fermenter had six weeks on skins, after which it went into very old oak for malo, whilst that in the egg remained in contact with the skins for 168 days. There’s a good bit of zip, assisted by its cloudy lees, some texture and structure. At the same time it’s incredibly fresh, and surprisingly refreshing. It is ferociously cloudy, and here the lees certainly add to its character. It comes in at a mere 9.5% abv and is bottled under crown cap.

The Hermit Ram is easily one of my top dozen new (to me) producers of last year. Imported by Uncharted Wines. I’m not sure of retail outlets, but I know Vino Vero in Leigh-on-Sea (Essex) has some Hermit Ram. Pinot Noir is a speciality (several cuvées), and Theo makes a Sauvignon Blanc like no other in NZ. These are astonishing wines. Astonishingly different, to be sure, but astonishing!

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Pinot Blanc 2017 “Cuvée Nature”, Anna, André and Yann Durrmann (Alsace, France)

The Durrmann family occupies a winery on the edge of Andlau, in the less well know Bas Rhin, but Andlau is next door to the most vibrant village for Alsace natural wine, Mittelbergheim. The Durrmanns, with son Yann now taking over, have always been ecologically minded. If you read about my visit there in 2017 you would recall their electric cars, their use of sheep and encouraging bird life in the vineyard. But not all of their wines yet fit a stricter interpretation of the category “natural wine”. Those that do, and which are bottled with no added sulphur, are labelled “Cuvée Nature”.

That fact is interesting because a few people have suggested that this no added sulphur version of their Pinot Blanc is better than the other (which I have never bought). This is another wine that showed a little reduction on opening, but it blew off without need for a vigorous swirl. The acidity is quite high, but the wine is zippy and mineral, so it is very refreshing. Definitely more a summer wine than one for March, except that we did open it during a spell of very warm weather. You need to enjoy acidity to like this, and it is one of the lighter Pinot Blancs you will buy (just 11.5% alcohol), but obviously as I felt it worthy of making the cut for March, I enjoyed it very much.

This bottle came from the take away wine list at Plateau in Brighton, but the importer is Wines Under The Bonnet. Restaurant take away lists can be an excellent source for even more hard to find wines. Some wines are pretty much only distributed to restaurants, but the take away list often allows a few lucky punters to carry something exciting home with them after lunch or dinner. Always remember, as I said in my last article (on lunch at Silo), to take a long peek at the list if take away is an option. Plateau prices are, in my opinion, particularly generous (and intentionally so).

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NDV 2016, Brash Higgins (McLaren Vale, South Australia)

Brad Hickey continues to make some relatively undiscovered wines (on the UK market). Several are as exciting as any of those made by the younger guns of the Adelaide hinterland, if perhaps slightly less wild than some. NDV is the Brash Higgins acronym for Nero D’Avola, here sourced from Brad’s Omensetter Vineyard where it was grafted on to existing root stocks in 2009.

NDV is an amphora wine (a nod to COS, perhaps). It is kept on skins for 180 days in 200-litre, beeswax-lined, amphora which are made locally. Just as well when it comes to accidents – I remember seeing a photo a year or so ago after Brad had driven the fork lift into one. There’s bags of fruit here, which is dark and dense, but the amphora gives the wine an amazing freshness. Imagine a fruit smoothie with lavender, ginger and half a teaspoon of coffee grounds, but all blended together and lifted by nice acidity. At 13.5% abv it nevertheless, perhaps surprisingly, doesn’t taste remotely heavy or jammy.

It’s in my top three Brash Higgins wines. I just need to get near enough to a branch of Vagabond Wines in London to buy some more. All of Brad’s Amphora Project wines should definitely be on anyone’s list to try.

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Barbera d’Alba “Reis” 2014, Marchesi di Barolo (Piemonte, Italy)

I had a phase in the 1990s and 2000s of going to Piemonte quite a few times. It’s one of Italy’s most beautiful wine regions, and completely overshadowed in terms of general tourism by Tuscany, unfairly I think. Those Piemonte lovers I know tend to think mainly of Barolo and Nebbiolo, but Barbera has long provided excellent food matching potential, as you will discover in any restaurant in the region.

Barbera tends to get second rate sites in the Langhe, where Barolo/Nebbiolo reigns. The material for Reis does come from the Barolo and Barbaresco zones, but it is a well thought out wine, quite commercial but well made, and that’s why I’ve included it here. Ripe grapes are aged in small French oak. I said “material” above because, in full conformity with the DOC rules, this wine is 85% Barbera and contains 15% Nebbiolo.

Reis is quite full-bodied for a Barbera, the oak filling it out, but it does have the grape’s characteristic lifted acidity. The dark fruits are crunchy and the finish bites. I’m not sure how the Nebbiolo contributes but perhaps it softens that finish a little.

I’m not sure whether this is available in the UK. I can only see German retailers online. This bottle came as a gift from a Norwegian visitor a couple of years ago, doubtless via Vinmonopolet. Retail in Europe is probably just sub-€15. For that price I thought it was pretty decent.

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Josephine Rot 2012, Gut Oggau (Burgenland, Austria)

I tried the new vintage of Josephine at Raw Wine London, and it was so good it made me crack open this 2012 from my stash of Gut Oggau in the cellar. I say it often enough, but this biodynamic estate in the village of Oggau, a kilometre or two north of Rust on the Neusiedlersee’s western shore, is one of my favourite in the whole world. This is one of the freshest and most alive reds you will find in Burgenland. The blend is Blaufränkisch with Roesler (a 1970 cross between Zweigelt x (Seyve Villard 18-402 x Blaufränkisch)).

Josephine’s vines are 35-to-40-years-old, off gravel. The grapes are simply fermented and then aged in large oak, and after around eight months are bottled with no sulphur added. Low intervention is the key, with not even any batonnage/lees stirring. Josephine is dark-hued and the fruit is super concentrated, mainly blackcurrant. The wine is, however, light on its toes whilst also pleasantly grippy. I find it the most refreshing of Gut Oggau’s red wines.

There are many biodynamic estates which provide solid evidence that the renewed life of the vines comes through loud and clear in their wines. There are a handful where this “life” is seemingly enhanced even further, somewhat fancifully perhaps, as if the obvious passion of the farmer, in this case Eduard and Stephanie Tscheppe, glows in the glass. This is one of those estates. I find drinking their wines life-enhancing. And if you think I’m on something (only caffeine, I assure you), then I can tell you, I’m not alone.

Bought from Dynamic Vines.

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Côtes du Jura Ploussard “Point Barre” 2016, Philippe Bornard (Jura, France)

Bottled as a Côtes du Jura, you can probably locate the Bornard winery to Pupillin by the choice of Ploussard rather than Poulsard on the label. The Bornards farm around 7 hectares, with a little under a hectare outside of the Arbois-Pupillin appellation, and therefore labelled Côtes du Jura, at Buvilly, down the road. Philippe has retired now, and winemaking is in the very capable hands of his son, Tony, but in 2016 they were a team. The quality of the Bornard wines has been up towards the top rank in the region for some years, evidenced by the rather elegant and fine 2011 Vin Jaune I drank a couple of weeks ago (see my “Sportsman” article of 2 April).

This is one of those Ploussards that are unimaginably attractive just to look at, a vibrant palish red-pink, verging on luminous, rather like looking through a cardinal’s cloak in the stained glass of a French abbey church on a sunny day. Of course, there is undeniable reduction on first sniff, but that is frequently the case with modern “natural” Ploussard. Whether you splash or merely swirl, the most lovely, almost exotic, fruit does come through. The mouthfeel is smooth but the “fruit acidity ” balances the wine perfectly. This is unashamedly a natural wine, but I’m just so glad I have more of this.

This came from Solent Cellar in Lymington.

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“Les Dentelles” 2017, Anne & Jean-François Ganevat (Jura, France)

As if J-F didn’t have enough to keep him busy farming his famous ten hectares at La Combe de Rotalier, way down south of Lons-le-Saunier in Jura’s Sud Revermont, he, and sister Anne, produce an astonishing array of different negociant cuvées based in some cases on Jura’s ancient grape varieties, and in others, on grapes from outside the region.

Les Dentelles is an equal blend of Syrah and Grenache. Ganevat has a strange knack of disguising alcohol, and although this bottle had 14%, it tasted remarkably fresh, nimble and even light(ish). The grapes spent twelve months in amphora, which is always the perfect vessel if freshness is at the top of your list of requirements, because if properly lined the terracotta has a degree of contact with the wine, allowing in air (micro-oxygenation), but also imparting an edge to the juice. No sulphur is added, which most of those who eschew its use feel mutes the wine somewhat. The fruit is massive, and that’s what shines here, mainly red fruits with violets and a bit of added spice.

Friends brought this when stopping over, actually before a trip to Arbois, this year. They seem to have censored the label. Maybe this isn’t the place to join the debate on Fanfan’s rude ones, but this one in the flesh is mild (and there’s minimal flesh).

I’ve mentioned before that Solent Cellar almost always has a selection of Ganevat. The importer is Les Caves de Pyrene.

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J12, Meinklang (Burgenland, Austria)

The “J” here stands for the Juhfark grape (and “12”, the vintage). Meinklang is a famous biodynamic mixed farm at Pamhagen to the south of Neusiedlersee, but Juhfark is a native variety of the small volcanic plug known as the Somló Massif, situated in Northwest Hungary pretty much between the Austrian border near Pamhagen and Tokaj. I’ve told the story (more than once, I’m sure) of how the Michlits family owned vines there before the Iron Curtain came down, and how the current generation bought land there to continue that tradition after the fall of communism.

The Meinklang holdings in this smallest (just over 800 hectares) of Hungary’s wine regions sit below towering lava columns. They have both Hárslevelű and Juhfark varieties planted. This was a bottle I’d owned for maybe three years and had forgotten about. I’m glad I had. This poured golden with a beautiful bouquet of lime and nuts. It had the mouthfeel of a Chardonnay and the acid bite of a Savagnin, with a bit of skin contact texture to ground it. The underlying fruit was quite rich. The variety seems perfectly suited to Somló’s volcanic soils, and on this evidence seems to age well too, perhaps age softening the grape variety’s innate acidity (Meinklang call Juhfark “fiercely masculine”). Stunningly different.

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Wiener Gemischter Satz “Bisamberg” DAC 2015, Wieninger (Vienna, Austria)

Whilst the Gemischter Satz made by Patricia Sackl (see above) is a reflection of the old heuriger tradition of serving a simple field blend wine in the local inns, a wine of vivacity and simplicity, this is altogether different. Like Nussberg on the opposite side of the Danube, Bisamberg has a DAC. Wieninger is known for making the most serious of the wines from these two sites, wines with a fuller body than the “classic” version (which they also produce in greater quantity).

This is a wine to age at least a few years, as this 2015 shows. It blends Chardonnay (20%), Weissburgunder (40%) and Grauburgunder (40%). Bisamberg is covered in sandy loess on a base of chalky limestone, and the Wieninger vines, planted on a site called Ried Hochfeld here, have been farmed biodynamically since acquisition in 2012. As for all Gemischter Satz, the grapes are all harvested and vinified together.

The 2015 has delicate grapefruit aromas with a smoky note. The palate has stone fruits and herbs, with a soft mineral texture which may derive from the chalk content, the limestone giving brightness and lift. At 13% abv, higher than the “classic” Gemischter Satz wines, it is better suited to accompany food rather than as a summer thirst quencher. It’s a classic old vine cuvée, showing complexity, and also if you sample the other site-specific bottlings from Wieninger (Ried Rosengartel and Ried Ulm, for example, both off Nussberg) you will see very clear terroir differentiation. These are very fine wines, as well as the purest expression of a modern interpretation of the long Wiener Gemischter Satz tradition.

Wieninger’s UK agent is Liberty Wines.

If you’d like to read my longer article about my visit to Wieninger in August 2018, follow the link here.

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Posted in Artisan Wines, Wine | Tagged #theglouthatbindsus, Alice Bouvot, Alsace Natural Wine, Andlau Wine Alsace, Arbois Wine, Bodegas Can Ramon, Brash Higgins NDV McLaren Vale, Burgenland Wine, Canterbury NZ Wine, Catalonian Sparkling Wine, Clos Lentiscus, Costador Mediterrani Terroirs, Costador Terroirs Mediterranis, Domaine Durrmann Cuvée Nature Pinot Blanc, Domaine L'Octavin Mont d'Alicante, Eduard and Stephanie Tscheppe, Ganevat Amphora Wines, Ganevat Les Dentelles, Ganevat Syrah/Grenache blend, Gemischter Satz, Gut Oggau Josephine Rot, Hermit Ram Müller-Thurgau, Jura Poulsard/Ploussard, Jura Wine, Marchesi di Barolo Barbera Reis, Meinklang J12 Juhfark, Metamorphika Moscat Brisat, Nero d'Avola in amphora, New Zealand Natural Wine, New Zealand Skin Contact Wine, Oggau Wine, Patricia Sackl, Ploussard Point Barre Philippe Bornard, Pupillin Producers, Roesler Grape Variety, Somló Wine, Spanish sparkling wine, Stéphane Ogier Côte-Rôtie 2003, Sumoll Ferèstec 2010, Syrah Mondeuse Blend, Theo Coles, Tony Bornard, Vienna Wine, Weinbau Sackl, Wiener Gemischter Satz, Wieninger Bisamberg Gemischter Satz | Leave a comment

Missile in the Silo

Posted on 04/04/2019 by dccrossley

There’s a fantastic new restaurant heading to London later this summer. Brighton’s loss will be Hackney’s gain, because when Silo‘s lease ends they will be moving north. Silo is many things, but its claim to fame is as the UK’s first zero waste restaurant. Before I write about the lunch that three of us ate in the Brighton venue last Friday I think it’s worth telling their story, and outlining their philosophy too. It might not be easy for others to follow their lead in all its aspects, but many restaurants could incorporate some of these ideas.

The Silo motto is “Reuse, Reduce, Share, Repeat”. They aim to respect not only the environment, but the produce they use and cook. They make their own soft drinks, mill their own flour to make their own (wonderful) sourdough bread, churn their own butter and make almond milk. Silo also follows a nose-to-tail philosophy with meat and aims to source ingredients as locally as possible.

All deliveries must be in reusable containers, and any waste is composted in Silo’s “aerobic digester” (which they share with commercial and residential neighbours), although the menu is conceived in a way which minimises waste, and surplus usable food goes to the charity FareShare, supporting local vulnerable people. Upcycling is another aspect of the Silo philosophy, to reuse rather than recycle where possible. Check out the tables and chairs.

The menu uses a changing array of in season (including foraged) and “cleanly farmed” ingredients, avoiding unnecessary processing, and where processing is required (for example, milling flour), it is carried out using pre-industrial methods, on site.

All of this is worthy, but would matter not one bit were the food not of the highest order. I went to Silo not all that long after it opened in Brighton, but I always felt that it didn’t quite stimulate my need for the wine offering to be just as exciting as the food. More recently, the wine list has been revamped with the help of Ania Smelskaya, ex-Sager & Wilde and Plateau. Silo now has a frankly stunning list of natural wines.

The dishes at Silo are half way between small plates and larger selections. One of our number is vegan, so we selected three vegan plates and two meat. Radicchio salad was a feast of sweet and bitter fresh leaves. Shitake mushrooms were firm and fresh, and chick peas with hispi cabbage and caramelised onions was sweet and substantial. The crispy breaded pig’s ear, which lit up the face of one guest, was frankly the best ear of pig I’ve ever tried. Pork belly was again more substantial but tender. The quality of the ingredients shone through here, but I think this was equalled by the kitchen, who cooked the food with great sensitivity to the dishes’ innate flavours and textures.

We drank what was a perfect aperitif on arrival, Rio Rocca Frisant Bianco, Il Farneto. Il Farneto is an eight hectare estate in Emilia-Romagna, and this white frizzante is a blend of Sauvignon Blanc with local variety, Spergola. The second fermentation is made with must from the same grapes and the wine is fragrant, light and dry, made cloudy from the lees. The alcohol level seems low, but is actually 11.5% on the label. I’d never tried this wine before, but Silo currently has it by the glass.

The first wine gave us the chance to read through the now more substantial Silo list. The task was to select natural wines which would interest a friend who doesn’t drink a lot of natural wine, though is very open to try them. I went for a classic, despite having drunk this fairly recently, and having a bottle left at home. If Jura (okay, along with Burgenland) is where my wine heart lies, then this Arbois producer is certainly in my top half-dozen producers in that region.

Betty Bulles, Domaine L’Octavin is a petnat, a blend of direct press Gamay from the Ardèche with Muscat sourced near Perpignan in Roussillon. The wine has persistent tiny bubbles which carry the slightly bitter red fruit of the Gamay. The Muscat doesn’t dominate the bouquet, but it must add to the floral lift that is undoubtedly there. Alice Bouvot began making wine from grapes harvested outside the Jura region several years ago after some very small harvests, and she now makes a lot of negoce wines. The gnome motif is however home-based. Several live, and perhaps watch over her ageing wines, in the garage which serves for L’Octavin winery in the back streets of Arbois.

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Our final wine was another from the by-the-glass selection. λ13, Ktima Ligas (the wine is generally called Lamda) is one of Thomas, Jason and Meli Ligas’s wines from Pella in Northern Greece, made using permaculture techniques which require almost no vineyard interventions (certainly no chemicals, and minimal if any pruning, just repositioning of shoots). The wonderful ecosystem Thomas has created does pretty much all the work.

This particular version of Lamda is a blend of 60% Assyrtiko and 40% Roditis. The fruit is gently peachy, underpinned with a gentle minerality, expressing the terroir, which is part limestone and part sand and clay. The grapes see a short three day maceration on skins before ageing in old oak, adding just a little texture.

This is another wine with no added sulphur, yet it tastes (at least to me) clean and fresh without any frightening volatility. I genuinely believe that if you drink natural wine that has been shipped and cared for properly, there should be minimal issues with spoilage and volatility.

Two of us finished with a cheese selection (British, from Neal’s Yard…Silo does not yet have its own herd for cheese making), whilst the other enjoyed pumpkin ice cream.

Altogether, a spectacularly good lunch. Silo is at 39 Upper Gardner Street in Brighton’s North Laine, perhaps a ten minute stroll from Brighton Station. It seats 40, and serves lunch only on (currently) Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Dinner is served Wednesday to Saturday, 6pm to 9.30pm.

Booking recommended: http://www.silobrighton.com

I would strongly recommend a visit before Silo moves. They close in Brighton at the end of May (2019) and will open in Hackney perhaps in late July or August (follow them on Instagram for updates @silobrighton ). As for Londoners…I come up to London week-on-week for lunch. I think that it’s hardly any more difficult for Londoners to come to Brighton for the same. There’s Silo, and there’s Plateau. And there’s sunshine and there’s sea. Come on down. And whether at Silo or Plateau, don’t forget to raid the take away wine lists.