David Crossley's Wide World of Wine

Exploring & Tasting Wine – Berry Bros’ Beginners’ Bible

Posted on 14/10/2015 by dccrossley

I’m sometimes asked to write about wine for beginners, but where to start? My answer is that it needs a book. There are many of those, of course. I often find one thing or another I don’t like about them, but it’s hard to judge when you are not, in fact, a beginner. Yet a few weeks ago I bought a copy of the book brought out to complement the courses put on by London merchant, Berry Bros & Rudd, out of their historic premises on St James’s Street. The book, called Exploring & Tasting Wine, seems to me a little different from what I’ve seen before. It may well be all that you need to get to grips with the subject to begin with (though you could consider Jane Parkinson’s “Wine & Food” to cover that subject in more detail), and it is by no means necessary to attend the Berry Bros course to get the most out of the book. Indeed, as Berry’s Wine School Head, Rebecca Lamont, says in her Introduction, “…not every wine-lover is in reach of the heart of London”.

There is a lot of mystique around wine, and wine knowledge. At dinners it isn’t rare by any means to meet intelligent people with responsible jobs and a healthy interest in all sorts of subjects who say they know nothing about wine, and yet they drink it in restaurants, take a bottle to a dinner party, and perhaps have a rack of a few bottles at home (usually placed rather frighteningly next to their hot oven).

This book is really just what these people need. It helps to build a framework around which a little knowledge will help the drinker to work out what they like to drink and why. Onto the simplest beginnings (for me it included Bordeaux, Chateauneuf and the newest thing at the time, Australian Chardonnay) you are then able to build a world of vinous pleasure.

The first twenty pages of Exploring & Tasting Wine cover an introduction to wine tasting. Topics include essentials like balance in wine (components like tannin, alcohol, acidity etc), the flavour spectrum and how wine is made. Already we see the three key elements coming together which make this book so attractive to beginners. First, colourful diagramatic representations of the concepts discussed (see the flavour spectrum diagram in the photo below). Second, the text, which is no dense essay but easy to digest chunks clearly set out. Third, we have the photos. Some of these matt images (by Jason Lowe) are beautifully evocative, of a type which does make you want to be “there, now”, but many are helpfully illustrative of a winemaking processs, or vineyard work.

There are maps too. Some have suggested that these are the book’s only weak point, but I disagree. This is not a Wine Atlas. The maps used are all clear and concise, and give enough information for a beginner, who would probably prefer a cartographical snapshot over a detailed cadastral carte of, say, the Côte-de-Nuits Crus with contour lines and spot heights.

The heart of the book can be found in the five chapters, or “Sessions” on major grape variety groups (for example they group Sauvignon Blanc/Chardonnay/Sémillon together in one session, Cabernets Sauvignon/Franc and Merlot in another). The usual analysis of aromas and flavours is there, of course (with more use of diagrams), but with plenty of interesting background information. This is for me part of what makes the book so stimulating. The company’s wine experts, many being Masters of Wine, contribute valuable insights. It’s nice to see a bit of digression. Catriona Felstead MW has a page about preconceptions that Riesling will be sweet, Barbara Drew asks indeed “What is Sweet?”, and Demetri Walters MW discusses how ancient methods are being rediscovered, among many others.

What the book doesn’t attempt to do is go too far. There’s a little bit of science, but only enough to explain a process clearly, described as soundbites, such as the nine or ten lines explaining how fermentation works. You don’t get pages on many of the worthy grape varieties which the adventurous wine explorer will come to appreciate (though you do get a few paragraphs along the lines of “Also Try…Zinfandel” at the end of the Syrah/Shiraz Section). Neither do you get to learn about many of the less well know wine regions of the world. But this is a book aimed primarily at people with no prior knowledge, for whom Vin Jaune production criteria or the legal grape varieties for Liguria’s various DOCs might be geek-facts too far.

The last section covers choosing and enjoying wine, everything from food matching, serving wine, glasses and storage. Appendix I is a very useful blind tasting crib sheet which I’d suggest is highly useful even for so-called experts, whilst Appendix II adds in some more maps, EU Wine Law Facts, the various Bordeaux Classifications (hmmm!) and the answers to the fun quizzes which follow each session, testing the knowledge learned.

Exploring & Tasting Wine is nicely produced, somewhat in the style of Berry Bros’ first publication, Jasper Morris MW’s essential book on Burgundy (albeit in a different format). Like that work, it has a contemporary matt feel throughout, the text is clear and easy to read and there are enough photos here to paint a picture of how beautiful the world of wine can be without turning a practical guide into a coffee table book. You even get a free tasting notes pad, slipped into the front cover. It won’t replace a good cellar book, but is doubtless useful for those attending a course at St James’s.

Maybe the best thing about this book is that I don’t think it’s actually just for absolute beginners at all. I’ve enjoyed a decades-long passionate affair with wine, probably amounting to an obsession in some ways. I certainly found useful information here, along with things I already knew explained in a different way. And some of the digressions are well worth reading on their own terms. Excellent.

Exploring & Tasting Wine (A wine course with digressions) is published by Berry Bros. & Rudd Press, 2015. It runs to 240pp and costs £30 from Berry Bothers’ Web site, www.bbr.com

Posted in Wine, Wine Books, Wine Hobby, Wine Writing | Tagged Berry Bros, Berry Brothers & Rudd, Exploring & Tasting Wine, Wine Books, Wine Courses, Wine for Beginners, Wine Tasting | Leave a comment

Reader Reminder – The World of Wine is Wide

Posted on 13/10/2015 by dccrossley

At the Red Squirrel Event, which I wrote about recently, I spent quite a bit of time tasting in the same cramped spaces as Peter Richards MW. He’s quite distinctive, as a tall chap, easy to spot on the circuit, but I don’t know him and have never had reason to interrupt his concentration. But had I managed to read a paragraph from his pen in the current Decanter Magazine, I might have passed a comment.

The current edition celebrates the magazine’s 40th Anniversary, and I suppose it fits in that they asked forty key contributers (not me, alas) to name their wine of 2015 (so far). Peter Richards is Chair of the Decanter World Wine Awards Panel for Chile, and he chose a Chilean wine I certainly knew nothing about, Bodegas Re, Velado Single Vineyard Pinot Noir 2009, Casablanca.

The story of this wine bears repeating, and I hope Peter won’t mind me extracting this information from his entry in order to allow lovers of the unusual to hear about it. It is a wine, as he says, which “laughs in the face of terroir and other geekery”. The Bodega originally had a host of barrels earmarked for a pink wine. Then came the tragic 2010 earthquake, sending what one presumes was a stack of casks rolling around a shed somewhere. When they were finally recovered it was discovered that some had formed a layer of flor-like yeast.

Now the world has just rediscovered flor. Sherry is popular once more among wine “geeks” thanks to people like Equipo Navazos, and we are even reading about the flor’d-up Vin Jaunes from my beloved Jura in the National Press, heaven forbid. But is the world really ready for what Peter Liem and Jesús Barquin in their 2012 book on Sherry term Biologically Aged Pinot Noir?

Peter Richards called the wine unique, but to make it his wine of 2015 it must also have been exceptionally good. It was, because he says “Tasted blind alongside Montrachet, Morey-St-Denis and Haut-Brion, it stole the show. Mind-blowing”.

I don’t suppose I shall get to try this wine, although I see there should be some in the UK, albeit north of £50 for a bottle. But this is just one example of how the perception of what is fine wine has spread way beyond classic regions and styles. The forty writers selected for this article include a few who have chosen what I suppose one might call expensive trophy wines. A favourite writer of mine, known for his inquisitive and open wine mind, nevertheless selected a Rousseau Chambertin (though I thank him personally for reassuring me that Rousseau “did impressive triage in that year” – I don’t only drink weird wines and do have the odd Rousseau 2004).

But, looking through the forty wines, it is both refreshing and perhaps remarkable how many esteemed wine writers have chosen more unusual examples. It’s as if a once conservative profession is waking up to an almost hidden magnificence of (and I’m quoting examples taken from the Decanter piece) Zierfandler (Brook), Bierzo (Kemp), Teroldego (Guibert), Godello (Evans), Sylvaner (D’Agata), Picolit (Baudains), Kekfrankos (Gellie) and Cape Chenin (Rose)(to name but a few).

It may just be coincidence, but another DWWA Regional Chair for South America, Patricio Tapia (Argentina) also chose a fairly unusual wine, one of the single vineyard offerings (in this case from a 0.8 hectare plot of 90-year-old Listan Negro) from Suertes del Marqués. Now I’m pretty sure that most of the people who take time to read my Blog have possibly heard of this Tenerife producer, even if they’ve not tried one of their wines. But think about it. This year you could have read about Suertes in the Financial Times Magazine, in Decanter, or in a very good appreciation of the domaine by Tom Cannavan, either on his Winepages site or in this very issue of Decanter.

Just stop to think. Four or five years ago, would you have thought someone would list a wine from Tenerife as their wine of the year? Or one made from Listan Negro? My guess is that if you go back five or six years you would find hardly a single wine trade insider, merchant or writer, who had tasted this producer’s fabulous wines. I think that’s how fast the world of wine has changed.

Why? I think that wine from all around the world has improved quite dramatically over the past decade, building on the success of many of the well known New World producers who showed that you can make a living from quality wine outside the traditional, classic, wine regions. But an even bigger catalyst has been the market. As it has broadened and grown, there are just too many people chasing the icons. By icons, I don’t just mean the Latours and the Coches, but pretty much any producer from a classic region in France and Italy (for starters) who gets a good name.

The growth of the market has made the once supreme wine royalty and their heirs unnatainable luxuries for the ordinary wine lover, notwithstanding that the Bordelais have whole vintages lying almost unsold in Bordeaux. So it’s a damned good thing there’s a whole world out there for us to explore.

The analogy which comes to mind is the time when the powers of Western Europe woke up and discovered a New World full of riches, which they brought back to enrich their own lives and culture. Of course, these days we can pay for the vinous treasure we find without the pillage and plunder of those early explorers of South America, the Far East, India and the Caribbean. And many of those treasures are, as with Tenerife…or Bugey, Beaujolais, Friuli, Savoie, Granada and Catalunya, much closer to home. Yet all of a sudden there’s a “New Australia”, and a bunch of young winemakers finally transforming South Africa. And, poignant given my focus here on the comments of the two relevant Decanter Awards Regional Chairs for the Continent, a sudden rush of really interesting wines from Chile and Argentina which are neither soupy Syrah nor thick, alcoholic, Malbec – where did they all come from?

So, drink widely and, as the motto on the back of that Red Squirrel tasting list said, “don’t drink alike”. I like that.

Posted in Wine, Wine Hobby | Tagged Bodegas Re, Decanter magazine, drinking widely, fine wine, Patricio Tapia, Peter Richards MW, South American Wine, Suertes del Marqués | 2 Comments

A Wing and A Prayer (Actually Making Some)

Posted on 11/10/2015 by dccrossley

So, I’ve spent decades drinking it, swanning around wine regions, poking my nose into dozens of wineries on several continents. I’ve even got some vines growing in the garden, yet up until yesterday I’d never tried my hand at actually making wine.

Now, most interested wine addicts follow the route of a good many people I know, they go and help out a winemaker. Take all my mates who pop off down to Beaune to drink copious quantities of beer with Andrew and Emma Nielsen at harvest time. Some, if considered sober enough, are actually let loose in the vines and then, as a treat, allowed to sort, tread on and tip bunches of grapes into vats (trying not to fall in at the same time). Those who held back just a touch on The Kernel and those Trappists may even come away with more than just a rudimentary knowledge of winemaking, alongside their hangover.

I’ve often thought about helping Andrew, but an old man’s back, a growing inability to consume beer in quantity, and an increasing desire to be in bed by the time most young people start seriously enjoying themselves these days (remember “last orders”?), means I’ve never offered my services (despite the odd gentle prod). So when a friend got to the top of the Allotment waiting list and found his plot had vines, and he turned to me with a “you know about wine, Dave” look, I kind of knew we were in for some fun.

The first task was to try to identify the grapes. Twitter is full of experts who can all walk into a vineyard and distinguish Grenache from Syrah, or Cabernet from Merlot, so I thought a few pics of grapes and leaves and I’d be sorted. Not so easy. We never got a firm identification, though one or two suggested Seyval Blanc. Although that’s the educated guess I’d have chosen too, we can’t be sure.

The weather this year has been pretty mixed on England’s South Coast. Hot early in the summer, things kind of deteriorated through July and August, so we were not looking at mega-ripe raisins. That said, a couple of weeks of fine weather, barring a day of rain, meant healthy grapes (only a few insects and snails to worry about).

Picking went well with a crack(ed) team of four, and after three hours we’d filled seventeen bins. We weren’t treated a lunch of chicken chasseur washed down with a bottle or two of last year’s vintage lovingly made back at the cuverie though. We just had the pleasure of retiring to the shed to brew up coffee and down a couple of Vegemite rolls, plus the bar of dark hazelnut one of the team thoughtfully brought back from the nearby Waitrose.

So, by the beginning of the afternoon we had loaded up the tractors (er, hatchbacks) and set off for the Brighton Permaculture “winery” at Stanmer (winery is a total misnomer as these were the first grapes to reach a facility which normally presses apples for cider and apple juice, but as an experiment it will hopefully help open more possibilities for the people who run it).

The big advantage of the Permaculture facility, aside from plundering the knowledge of the extremely helpful and super nice guy, Stephan Gehrels (Eco Schools Project Manager, but also the man who makes the cider), was access to a press. A hydro press might not actually be a Bucher or a Willmes, but let’s face it, three bar of pressure wins over a bucket and a potato masher every time.

Making a cake!

Apple pressing was in full swing up at Stanmer, so we drew an enthusiastic audience, both the volunteers and public seeming fascinated that some grapes had arrived. The pressing bit was actually great fun, although running around cleaning and sterilizing buckets to catch the juice, placing the bunches in the press, and generally avoiding getting sprayed was almost as tiring as the picking. We finally obtained about 70-80 litres of juice from four pressings. The cake remained moist with even some unbroken berries, so I don’t think the extraction was too hard, just as well because we didn’t have a destemmer.

Ah, science, kids!

We had hoped to make the wine as naturally as possible, including the use of natural yeasts and no sulphur. Our first realisation was that we needed to chaptalise, oh English summer! The second was that we needed some yeast to get the fermentation going. We have three lots of pure juice with lees sediment and one into which we have dumped a load of grapes for a skin contact white. I was so tempted to find a small amphora at the garden centre, but I figured lining it with beeswax might best wait until next year.

We all need goals!

So now we have to wait. First to see whether it will ferment, then settle and clear (the juice did look brown after pressing but we know all about how that will clear, right?). I’m expecting at best a very acidic, low alcohol, beverage which I will hesitate to call wine (and the law might almost be on my side there) – but we shall have to see what the chaptalisation does. I swing from expecting a disaster to thinking that it can’t be hard, can it? I mean, a lot of what I seem to drink these days is natural wine made by winemakers who insist they just allow the wine to “make itself“.

One thing’s for sure, I have surprisingly got the bug. Now, I don’t have the sort of funds which will allow me to buy a wine estate, but I’m pretty keen to see whether Plumpton College have any short courses. Next year (I hope there is one) I plan to be much better prepared. For better or worse I’ll keep you all informed of how it goes. In the meantime, if anyone spots an old corking machine in a French vide grenier sale…

**Special thanks to Stephan, without whose help and volunteering to come on board, this project would not have got off the ground. Brighton Permaculture Trust is a charity working for greener lifestyles and sustainable development, including a lot of work in schools (which is part of what Stephan does). Follow the link and see what they do. They deserve our support.

Posted in Wine Agencies | Tagged Brighton Permaculture Trust, DIY Winemaking, Plumpton College, Wine Making | 4 Comments

Squirrelled Away in Soho

Posted on 08/10/2015 by dccrossley

It’s around 1pm on Wednesday and I’m walking through a big black door in Soho, entering the tight confines of a hallway to a very old town house. One young lady vets me, another locates my name on a list and hands me a badge with my name on it. I climb a somewhat rickety stairway and enter the first of three crowded rooms on the first floor. The noise being made by the throng of people, all clutching expensive wine glasses sloshing various hues of fermented grape juice, suggests a really good party in full swing. This is Red Squirrel‘s Portfolio Tasting at Black’s Club on Dean Street.

Most wine tastings for the trade are hushed affairs, taking place in large, light-filled rooms, and to be quite frank, the largely male, middle-aged, trade tasters at some of these events regard chatting as, at best, mildly impolite when there’s a morning’s hundred wines to work through. But Red Squirrel are a bit different. Nik Darlington started this new agency out of a spare room in 2012 out of a desire to see the wines of Liguria gain wider recognition. Three years later the business has grown from this eclectic beginning. The wines remain quite eclectic, though not for the sake of it, living up to the company slogan, “Don’t drink alike”.

The tasting was well attended. Plenty of the younger crowd of bar owners, savvy sommeliers, bloggers etc. I started off in a back room smaller than my bathroom, vying for the spittoon with David Williams, Rosemary George, a blogger and a MW, and then almost clashed heads at the spittoon in the next with Helena Nicklin. Judging by Twitter the turnout must have pleased Nik.

Red Squirrel showed 100 wines, with many producers present to pour them. Don’t expect a tasting note on every one, but at the same time, a short piece would not do justice to the best wines on show – so please bear with me. By the end you should get the idea that I tasted some lovely new discoveries and had a great time. Everything below is seriously worth checking out if you are even mildly adventurous.

That first room, somewhat cramped by a large day bed backed by an even larger mirror (we are in Soho), contained the starting point for Red Squirrel, two producers from Liguria. Five wines from Francesca and Roberto Bruna began with three Pigatos of increasing complexity, all fresh. Majé, the lightest, Le Russeghine more complex, and U Baccan an altogether more serious, yet wild, expression of the grape variety which is seen as distinct from Vermentino in this part of Italy. A blend of mainly Grenache and Syrah, Pullin Rosso, was nice, but the ethereal Rossesse Riviera Ligure di Ponente was my star for originality, pale with hints of cherry, redcurrant and Earl Grey tea. Little colour, yet not a rosé, a truly different take on table wine.

There’s a nice looking recipe from Emily Scott for a lemon sole pairing with the Pigato Le Russeghine on the Red Squirrel Blog, a simple recipe which sounds just perfect for this wine from Emily’s description.

Altavia is their second Ligurian producer. For me, their Rossesse, with a touch more colour and body/concentration, impressed me even more on the day, though I keep thinking how I really need to study a whole bottle of both. Bruna’s 12.5% to Altavia’s 13.5% might well sway me over lunch. Altavia produce one of the most unusual terroir-grape variety pairings I’ve come across, a Ligurian Touriga Nacional called Thend (sic). A 2005, still primary. Not wholly sure this is legal in Liguria but it sure was impressive, and ageworthy, but probably a bit chewy at present.

One other wine deserving mention (although the three wines in this room from Bodegas Arribes Del Duero, near the border with Portugal, were all good) is effectively a sparkling Muscadet – a Méthode Traditionelle Melon from Frédéric Guilbaud. Fresh, non-aggressive, 12%, very enjoyable.

The next room showed four producers of a frighteningly high level of excitement. Vinteloper is the label of David Bowley (Adelaide Hills). Nine wines were shown in his absence, including two very different Watervale Rieslings of real interest, eclipsed by three very different Pinot Noirs. The Adelaide Hills Pinot 2013 is a real Aussie with mint and eucalyptus in the background. The 2014 version is gentler, fresher, less muscular. The Odeon Pinot, from Lenswood, is more serious and complex. The 2012 has the makings of a very fine wine indeed, smooth and concentrated, though just shy of £60 on the retail list.

Kloster Ebernach (not to be confused with another well known German estate with a very similar name) has an Aussie connection. Martin Cooper, whose wife is German, started out in his native Western Australia, put in stints in Burgundy and the Finger Lakes, and ended up at the less fashionable end of the Mosel, making what some might call highly fashionable, modern wines. Martin showed a nice Pinot Blanc and an equally nice Riesling Halbtrocken (he told me he also does a Feinherb). The two wines I liked best were Das Antwort Ist Riesling (The Answer is Riesling), a nicely labelled (see below) Auslese with 65g/l r/s, and his Experimental Orange Riesling. This has 13% alcohol, sees 40 days fermentation in wax-lined barrels, 100% malo, and has a really lovely nose.

Martin and one of his un-Germanic labels

Eschenhof Holzer is from Austria’s Wagram Region, and was represented by Arnold Holzer who makes the wines with brother Matthias. The whole range here, new to me, was a revelation, with some excellent Gruner Veltliners, Roter Veltliners and Zweigelts. I can only really single out two wines, though all seven tasted really merit comment. The Orange is fermented in open steel for three weeks and the 2013 then saw 18 months in small French oak. A lovely skin-contact wine made from rare Roter Veltliner, with one of the “noses of the day”. The 1995 Gruner Icewine was made by Arnold’s father and left, hidden away. Incredibly complex on nose and palate, a stunning one-off which I think Red Squirrel have taken all of. Body, length, balanced acidity, it has it all right now. Moreish in a way that detests how this comes in halves -it should have been bottled in magnums! Everyone wanted Arnold to just keep on pouring.

Arnold and his lovely Wagrams

The biggest queues in this room were at the Emil Bauer table, but I think the wine names had something to do with this. Alexander and Martin are the fifth generation to run this Pfalz estate. Of course, quality is to the fore, but the brothers have also reinvented the range with some irreverent labels: Bullshit Grauburgunder, Asshole Sauvignon Blanc, My Merlot is Not The Answer, and Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll Riesling. German wine is certainly changing. These wines may not yet be in the very top rank, but they are fun and will appeal to younger drinkers. They are also very good.

Clos Cibonne, in the hills overlooking Toulon, is unusual in that they concentrate on the rare Tibouren grape. Their two Cuvée Tradition wines are very good, the pink being a serious food wine, quite savoury with a nice acid finish. The red is peppery, bright and structured with tannins, but also showing real individual character. It reminded me (just a little, mind you) of the much more expensive Chateau Simone from Palette. Both Tradition cuvées have 10% Grenache added to 90% Tibouren.

One of the stars of the tasting came from Spain, Alella in fact, and is a style I buy very little of – Cava. Don’t be put off, Parxet Titiana is not like most other Cava’s you’ll have tried. This vintage dated 2011 is made from Pansa Blanca, hand picked, very cold fermented (giving it an amazing linear freshness), to give a wine which underneath the bubbles has fresh citrus, stony pear and a garrigue-like (what is Catalan garrigue?) herbiness. The blurb says that Alella’s sandy-granite soils elevate the acidity. It certainly elevates this wine way above the dull offerings we so commonly find under the Cava name. A star in the making here. I hope that Red Squirrel went long on this producer. At £16.99 retail, a real bargain. My favourite retailers, please take note!

Just time for a couple of Italian estates to end on, certainly producers in the “last but not least” category. Franco Mondo is run by the founder’s grandson Valerio, from the town of San Marzano Oliveto, near Asti. Three nice Barbera reds were shown, but they were eclipsed by a delicious Monferrato Bianco, made from a blend of a third each Cortese, Favorita and Chardonnay. The nose was more complex that many pure Cortese, with fruit, herbs and spice, complementing a round, mouthfilling palate.

Tenuta La Pergola (Cisterna d’Asti) was a great place to finish. Four wines, all very nice, but the first of them perhaps being one of the half dozen-or-so best wines on show – the Grignolino. I have a soft spot for these secondary (actually, let’s say third-tier) Piemontese varieties. I seek them out in restaurants in the region, and in shops like The Sampler and Vini Italiani in London. This just might be about the nicest Grignolino I’ve tasted for a long time. Different to many, it’s very pale indeed, and ethereal (like Bruna’s Rossesse). More of that Earl Grey or green tea thing going on (not sure where it comes from but Cédric Bouchard’s saignée pink Champagne, Le Creux D’Enfer, has the same thing and I love it). It’s not a weakling, however. The deceptive pale colour packs 13.5% alcohol, so when Oli North on the Red Squirrel Blog extols its virtues as a lunchtime wine, remember that some of us might need to share the bottle, unless an afternoon nap is in our plans.

La Pergola also showed two nice examples of varieties not often seen from Piemonte over in the UK, Bonarda and Croatina. I finished with a wine not listed, a beautiful strawberry scented, gentle and fresh Freisa, another variety I have a soft spot for. It was very tempting to ask for a glass to slug back, to remind me of sunny days in the Monferrato Hills, before I struck out into London’s afternoon drizzle, but thankfully my whole journey home was refreshed by the aromas emanating from my Algerian Coffee Stores (just round the corner) purchases, rather than an alcohol induced snooze on yet another delayed service from Victoria.

A very good tasting, and a few hours well spent in exploring the boundaries of the London Wine Universe. The Red Squirrel portfolio has shaped up to be one of the most interesting and adventurous in the UK, and if you want something different this is a great place to look.

There are actually two, no three, Red Squirrels in these photos

Posted in Wine, Wine Agencies, Wine Merchants, Wine Tastings | Tagged Altavia, Black's Club Soho, Clos Cibonne, David Bowley, Emil Bauer, Emily Scott, Eschenhof Holzer, Francesca Bruna, Franco Mondo, Frédéric Guilbaud, Kloster Ebernach, Ligurian Wine, Nik Darlington, Oli North, Parxet Cava, Parxet Titiana, Red Squirrel, Roberto Bruna, Sparkling Muscadet, Tenuta La Pergola, Vinteloper | 3 Comments

The Contenders (Arbois Week)

Posted on 29/09/2015 by dccrossley

As my latest week in Arbois begins to fade a little from memory, or more realistically how many articles is it reasonable to write on one subject, I thought I’d mention a few producers who I’ve got to know only in the past couple of years, but who seem to be forging a bit of a reputation for themselves, both in the region and internationally.

I should admit straight away that all of the producers mentioned below make “natural wines”, wines with very little intervention and, sometimes, without even the addition of sulphur at bottling. That said, they all share a consistency of quality and, in my experience, reliability, though some of their wines may have required time in a carafe/decanter (and a shake) to get rid of a bit of reduction on opening.

One of the best ways for people in the region to try new producers of wines which are at least organic (either Ecocert Certification or in conversion) is at the event held in March each year, Le Nez dans le Vert. The event, which also attracts top names as well as new ones, allows a limited number of wines from each domaine to be presented by an increasing number of producers. There is a public day and a trade morning, and it is one of the prime ways a lot of these young producers have reached the main metropolitan and international markets and audiences. When you visit some of the names below you won’t find flashy, hi-tec wineries and tasting rooms – the one I visited at the end of this latest trip, L’Octavin (see below) basically makes wine in a large double garage. But you will often find that well over half their production goes overseas.

Domaine de la Tournelle

I’ve known the wines of Domaine de la Tournelle longer than the others listed here, having drunk their gorgeous light red, L’Uva Arbosiana, at Antidote Restaurant in London over a few years (they also do “take-aways”). This vibrant Ploussard (they use the Pupillin spelling) is made by semi-carbonic maceration and no sulphur is added. It is recommended that the wine is transported and kept at 14 degrees or below, although I have taken bottles home from Antidote in summer heat without ill effect. From Arbois, use a cool box to play safe.

The domaine produces a full range of Jura varieties, including Vin de Paille and Vin Jaune. They produce Savagnin, both topped up and under flor, and several classy Chardonnay bottlings. But this is a domaine where it pays not to forget the Trousseau as well. Aged in older wood, this wine will gain complexity in bottle.

As I’ve already written in a previous Arbois article, Pascal and Evelyne Clairet also run the Bistrot de la Tournelle from the pretty riverside location of their Central Arbois chais and tasting room. It’s the perfect place to sit in the sunshine and drink a bottle of Uva Arbosiana with some tasty small plats.

Domaine des Bodines

This Domaine is about four years old. Alexis and Emilie Porteret have most of their vines close to their home and winery, which is very easy to miss but it does have a sign, just outside Arbois town limits on the road from Dôle. They have now expanded a little, and like so many Arbois winemakers, have managed to find some vines near Pupillin.

The domaine first came to my attention in 2014, via their Pétillant-Naturel “Red Bulles” (Bulles cropping up a lot in the names of these bubbly wines). The wine’s reputation doesn’t rest on a witty title, however. It’s a great expression of Poulsard, easy to drink, refreshing. I was very pleased to find some this year as September isn’t strictly a good time to find a wine mostly consumed after bottling in Spring and early summer. They do need drinking, but in my experience they’ll last nicely into the autumn. With a pét-nat you can either stand it up to drink it clear on the fruit. or you can shake up the sediment for a more savoury, yeasty glass, as the wine undergoes its bottle fermentation without disgorgement.

I have only obtained, in addition to the Red Bulles, some Chardonnay and Pinot Noir so far, but I’m planning to work my way through the Bodines list when I can. I’ve heard great things about their non-Vin de Paille and there’s some wine set aside for, if it works out, some Vin Jaune (a few years off, perhaps 2018).

Domaine Hughes-Beguét

I have a special affection for the wines of Patrice Beguét (the Hughes part of the domaine comes via English wife, Caroline), as he is possibly the most friendly and hospitable Jura producer I’ve visited. I try not to be demanding of the time of busy people, especially when they are getting ready for harvest, but in 2014 we spent a wonderful morning in his cellar, beneath the family home in Mesnay.

Patrice and Caroline gave up careers in Paris to make a home just outside Arbois, almost within sight of the towering limestone cliffs of the Reculée des Planches. Patrice has vines at Mesnay, but also more vines in Pupillin, where he has had much encouragement from the likes of Pierre Overnoy. Commited to biodynamics and natural wines, this young man makes so many different cuvées it’s hard to keep track.

The clever names now prevalent in the natural wine sphere, whether in Jura, The Loire or elsewhere, reach new heights here. Straw Berry for non-Vin de Paille, Pulp Fraction for a bled pink, Très orDinaire for a fruity ouillé Savagnin. The very good pét-nat is called Plouss Mousse (no guesses for the grape variety there).

Patrice certainly also has a serious side, displayed through his two top reds. Champ Fort is a Ploussard made from this vineyard of exceptional beauty, all wild flowers, on slopes above Mesnay. Côte de Feule comes from one of the more well known, and exceptionally well-orientated, sites on the sun-trap slopes which face south from Pupillin (the Plouss Mousse comes from a lovely untidy patch over the stream to the east this slope – we had a wonderful walk around Pupillin’s vineyards with a hand drawn map on which Patrice had marked all his plots for us). These contrasting reds show the effect of the different terroirs very well indeed, and they are serious wines capable of ageing.

Patrice and Caroline give the impression (whether true or not) that they have found their own personal paradise. One or two of their wines have been imported into the UK (The Wine Society were first off the mark, and one cropped up earlier this year at a tasting at London’s Planet of the Grapes). I really hope they achieve the genuine success they so truly deserve.

Domaine Ratapoil

This domaine is slightly out of place here, in that I’ve not visited Raphaël Monnier, nor have I bought his wines in the region. But I have bought his tasty Ploussard “Partout”, and the slightly more serious Pinot Noir “L’Ingénu” from innovative UK merchant Solent Cellar. The domaine is based way north of Arbois at the very edge of the AOC, at Arc-et-Senans, with vines spread widely around this area – both near Arbois, at Vadans (off the Arbois road to Dôle), and at Buffard where the River Loue forms a tight, Mosel-like, meander east of Arc-et-Senans (if lacking the continuous steep, vine-clad, slopes of the German river).

I only hear nice things about Raphaël, and I’m looking forward to trying more.

Domaine L’Octavin

I made my first visit to L’Octavin this year. One of my discovery wines of the 2014 trip had been their red with the long name, “Boire du Trousseau n’est jamais une Corvée“, which we drank whilst entertaining friends in Arbois. It had leapt out of the bottle as one of the freshest natural wines I’d tasted all year.

I first met Alice Bouvot, who runs the domaine with Charles Dagand, during this year’s harvest. Despite a forthcoming trip driving to Savoie and back in a day, Alice graciously offered to meet me at their garage winery on the other side of town the morning after, on our last day in Arbois. We were up bright and early for the drive home, but Alice turned up at 8.15am as promised, looking as if she really deserved a couple more hours sleep. It’s typical of how helpful and accommodating people are in this region.

Alice, thank you so much for that visit

Many of the cuvées at L’Octavin are named after characters in the Mozart Operas the pair love (Commendatore, Pamina, Reine de la Nuit…). Not all. Their pét-nat is called “Foutre d’Escampette”, which my translation would be “F-about” (being as mild as possible). Their unusual white Poulsard is called “Cul Rond à la Cuisse Rose” (somewhat ruder), which displays a certain cussedness perhaps stemming from the hard time they’ve had establishing themselves.

Not only have the dullards in charge of the agrément for the AOC been giving them trouble (all the domaine’s wines are now released as Vin de France with no obvious detriment to sales), but that came on top of difficulties over their original name. It seems that the Californian label, Opus One, felt that “Opus” should be reserved for them alone, and that a tiny producer in Eastern France who made wines with a musical connection should not be allowed to use this word. That is why “Opus Vinum” was changed, I presume due to the pressure of lawyers and money, and L’Octavin was born. I’ll be honest, the new name sounds better and they will find that their rise to stardom will not now be hampered by the hassle of threats from corporate law suits. Wonderful wines, so full of life. Such dedicated farmers. I hope they get their just rewards.

Domaine Christelle & Giles Wicky

Another producer who I don’t know all that well, but having drunk their delicious Cotes du Jura “Clos de Jerminy” two weeks ago, it had a similar effect to the Trousseau from L’Octavin I mentioned above. One of those wines where you just wish you had a magnum, or a second bottle, sitting in front of you (and with only 12.8% alcohol, we’d probably have drunk a second).

The Wickys farm in the region known as the Sud Revermont, south of Lons-le-Saunier. It’s a region not much known for viticulture these days, despite the fame of Alain and Josie Labet, whose lovely wines were known abroad long before their children, in particular Julien, took over the running of the family domaine in the first years of this Century. Of course, it also happens to be home to perhaps the Jura’s most famous vigneron currently, Jean-François Ganevat, who’s based a few kilometres south, near Rotalier.

The wider Sud Revermont is one of the parts of the Jura region to watch. Ganevat continues to push the boundaries of experimentation under the Vin de France banner (Gamay blended from Beaujolais, ancient autocthonous Jura varieties…), and the younger Labets continue to gain greater recognition. But I’ve also had lovely wines from Peggy and Jean-Pascal Buronfosse, especially their Côtes du Jura “L’Hopital”, and I yearn to find a solitary bottle made by Japanese couple Kenjiro and Mayumi Kagami, of Domaine des Miroirs at Grusse. Those who read the wonderful year in the vines BD by Etienne Davodeau, “The Initiates” (ComicsLit 2013) will have met them fleetingly on page 227.

Heading further north again to finish this brief look at the region’s exciting new domaines, here’s a short list of those who are firmly on my radar but whom I’m yet to pin down with a visit:

– Domaine de la Loue, Catherine Hannoun’s tiny domaine near Port-Lesney.

– Les Bottes Rouge. Jean-Baptiste Ménigoz was a former partner of Raphaél Monnier (of Ratapoil) before setting up with his wife between Grozon and the D469.

– Domaine Renaud Bruyère. Renaud works with partner Adeline Houillon, sister to the famous Emmanuel who is now in charge at Domaine Overnoy. They are the hot new names in Pupillin.

– Les Dolomies. Poligny, if it is quite as dynamic as Arbois, has thus far hidden that fact from me, but in the rural hinterland of Passenans, Celine Gormally is gaining a bit of a reputation, enough of one that I tried in vain to find some of her wines this year (I get the impression that visitors are not particularly encouraged, yet Celine has already managed to achieve broad export success).

Of course, the Jura region has at least a couple of dozen more established producers who perhaps merit exploration first if you have not yet got to grips with the region, not to mention those, like Philippe Bornard in Pupillin, who probably seem more “established” to me than to some others (Philippe has been at it since the distant past of 2005). But that is surely enough to be going on with for France’s smallest viticultural region. Bon exploration! Drink and then visit. I’ve yet to meet anyone who has not enjoyed this rural idyll, despite a few jokingly negative remarks from Parisian friends who probably still see this region as a rural backwater. Perhaps backwater is a gross insult, but I think the peace and quiet which goes with all that great food and wine is why we love it so much.

Posted in Jura, Natural Wine, Wine, Wine Travel | Tagged Alice Bouvot, Christelle & Giles Wicky, Domaine Buronfosse, Domaine de la Tournelle, Domaine des Bodines, Domaine Hughes-Beguet, Domaine L'Octavin, Domaine Ratapoil, J-F Ganevat, Le Nez dans le Vert, Les Dolomies, New Jura, Sud Revermont | 5 Comments

Fine Sense of Balance

Posted on 26/09/2015 by dccrossley

The third article in my Arbois Week highlights my favourite restaurant in the town, La Balance Mets et Vins. There’s a fascinating section about Arbois gastronomy in Wink Lorch’s Jura Wine, telling the story of how Arbois was once a major stop on the old Paris to Geneva route. It already boasted two restaurants with a Michelin Star before the Jeunet family renovated the former Hotel de Paris. Jean-Paul Jeunet is now, and has long been Arbois’ most famous restaurant. The food and service are exemplary, and it holds two Michelin Stars.

La Balance, at 47 rue de Courcelles, is a bit further out on the edge of town, towards the Maison Pasteur. It took me a few years to dine there, partly because of its location (though it is in fact a mere five minute walk from the centre of Arbois, the casual visitor might not pass it unless they were heading to the Pasteur Museum), and partly because we began staying in Arbois with small children, before they were old enough to be successfully introduced to the delights of eating out in Europe.

Back when Jeunet obtained their first Star, La Balance was one of the two Arbois establishments that already had one, but the restaurant appears to have disappeared from the culinary map, and with that its Star, until its revival as a restaurant in the late 1990s. Today, Thierry Moyne is in charge, and oversees the most innovative and exciting menus in the region, with a wine list which attempts to match the finest as well. This won’t surprise anyone when told that the restaurant has received considerable backing from some of the local winemakers. Arbois’ restaurants, with the exception of Jeunet, have not always provided a spotlight on the region’s best wines, though thankfully this is changing fast.

The difficulty at La Balance is the choice of direction to take. The Carte is always good, with specialities like cuisse de pintade, filet de truite et sauce au comté and, of course, coq au vin jaune et aux morilles, all also available as choices on the Delices de Saison and Menu Gourmand options. The coq au vin jaune comes in a casserole dish with a rich sauce, two large pieces of chicken of a colour and firmness of texture far removed from most British fare. Served with rice, it’s very filling, though when I ate it last week I’d started with the very good, but thankfully small, tartare de carpe.

tartare de carpe coq au vin jaune

The classic choice at a restaurant which, unusually, draws attention to its wine list is the “L’Improvisation Mets et Vins”. It’s a degustation menu of eight courses from amuse bouche to dessert for €65, each accompanied by a small glass of wine (an extra €26 at the time of writing). The menu itself is (like all the food at La Balance) based on local ingredients in season. The wines are exceptionally well matched and, in addition to Crémant or red/white selections, you can expect a little Vin Jaune and/or Vin de Paille. It’s always a treat to be presented with something like Stéphane Tissot’s Spirale “non-vin-de-paille”, and the specific matches may differ around the table depending on what course options each diner has chosen – it means that in generous company you can taste even more wines.

Last week I chose the Delices de Saison menu and, after a Crémant from the biodynamic Domaine de la Pinte, we drank a rare bottle of Tissot 2009 Amphore Savagnin, an orange wine, the colour of Lucozade with serene scents of citrus, a texture of skin contact and a very well hidden punch of 15% alcohol which you only notice as you try to leave the table. A fabulous wine, at €54 only about €20 above domaine prices (and, as you all know by now having read my previous Arbois posts, it is only available in tiny quantities for a few months every year). Before coffee we were served a single berry of Tissot Poulsard macerated in Macvin.

The food at La Balance is very well presented. The sourcing policy, which if they were in a large metropolis would be called “locavore”, of using local ingredients, in season, really shows in their flavour. Arbois finds itself with new restaurants every year, with an exciting prospect due to open soon on the Place de la Liberté in the centre of town (wine list compiled by Wink Lorch so I can’t wait to try it). Gourmets will also want to try Jean-Paul Jeunet for that more formal Michelin experience. But I can’t imagine I’d miss a meal at La Balance when staying in Arbois. They even have that rare thing, a vegetarian menu, which I’m told really highlights the freshness of the produce.

La Balance Mets et Vins, 47 rue de Coucelles, 03 84 37 45 00, http://www.labalance.fr

Closed Monday in July/August, but closed on Sunday too for the rest of the year (festivals such as the Biou excepted). They close for a well earned break between early December and early February annually. They always recommend booking.

Posted in Jura, Wine, Wine and Food | Tagged Arbois, Coq au Vin Jaune, Jura, La Balance Restaurant, Tissot Amphore | 3 Comments

Watching Stéphane Tissot

Posted on 24/09/2015 by dccrossley

We first visited Domaine André & Mireille Tissot in Montigny-lès-Arsures in the early 1990s. We were staying nearby and we found our way to their small tasting room down a hill behind the church, where we were entertained by a very friendly André and his wife, Mireille. Then in wandered a young man who they introduced as their son, Stéphane who, after completing his viticultural studies in Beaune, had returned to the domaine after stints abroad with Brown Brothers in Australia and in South Africa.

Offspring of winemakers habitually do a stage or two abroad nowadays, and you’ll find all sorts of people from California, South Australia and so on working a harvest in the Jura now. But back in the 1990s that was quite unusual, especially in this quiet region, somewhat cut off (or so commentators thought) from the “progress” being made in the major regions of France Viticole. Perhaps the closest we get to this is Jean-François Ganevat working as cellar master for Jean-Marc Morey on the Côte de Beaune. At that first meeting, there was certainly a glimpse of a searching intelligence and a forceful focus on quality that has made Stéphane one of the region’s star vignerons today.

There are a lot of Tissots around Montigny and Arbois. Indeed, long before our subject made his name, Arbois boasted not one but two shops owned by Domaine Jacques Tissot, alongside those of Henri Maire and the large, quality conscious, family-run domaine, Rolet Père et Fils. Most are descended from Maurice Tissot, who started out in Montigny-les-Arsures in the late 1950s. All have done well, although Maurice’s youngest son left the region to found the best estate in Buzet, Domaine du Pech (now run by daughter Magali and partner Ludovic Bonelle, and which, because they have had problems with their AOC Panel – their wines are just too good for Buzet in my opinion – deserves our support).

Stéphane has been firmly in charge of the domaine since the 1990s, and works with his wife Bénédicte, although the domaine retains the name of his parents who, although retired can still be seen pottering around the village. The domaine has now grown, from the few hectares planted by André to 50 hectares. After making the domaine fully organic, with Ecocert Certification in 1999, Stéphane has embraced biodynamics (Demeter, 2005). It was all just part of his quest to experiment and to get the best out of his grapes and terroir.

The first experiments with the market do not now seem so profound, but at the time the delineation of individual vineyard names for Jura wines in a somewhat Burgundian manner, were quite unusual in a region where even knowing the grape variety in any given bottle was often a case of serious detective work. Stéphane began in earnest with his Chardonnays and soon we were introduced to the different terroirs and locations of La Mailloche, Les Bruyères, en Barberon and then later, Sursis from near Chateau-Chalon.

As the range expanded we saw another style of wine which pretty much started here – what I can only clumsily call “Not Vin de Paille”. Vin de Paille, the long-famous straw wine of the Jura made from dried grapes requires (inter alia) 14% alcohol, don’t ask me why! Many producers wish to make a lighter dessert wine with dried grapes. The wine which contributed most to Stéphane’s fame in those early years was “PMG” (an acronym which roughly translates as “for my gob”, presumably as opposed to the “gobs” of those in authority). It’s made from partially fermented grapes with around 400m/g of residual sugar. That the domaine can charge €68 currently for a half-bottle is testament to it’s success.

But for half that price we can (thankfully) buy “Spirale” (white grapes) and “Audace” (from red Poulsard grapes), made in broadly similar styles and showing a refreshing lightness and fruity flavours.

One of the most popular Jura styles, often the unsung hero making up a good 50% of the production of many domaines, is sparkling Crémant. Yet again, Stéphane innovates. His two top sparkling cuvées are the complex “Indigène”, where yeast from fermenting Vin de Paille is used for the second fermentation via the Liqueur de Tirage, and “BBF”, a low dosage sparkler which sees oak and is aged for over 50 months before release.

The limits of experimentation here know no bounds, and the domaine’s next trick was amphorae. First they started making a Chardonnay, “en Amphore”, macerating the grapes for six months in terracotta amphorae made specially for them in Vaison-la-Romaine in the South of France. In contrast, and contrast is the key experiment here, Stéphane also makes a red from Trousseau which undergoes a much longer maceration in Georgian Qveri. Both wines are rare, with a usual limit on purchases of two or three bottles. They are available from mid-November and sell out early in the New Year. Arbois restaurants are a good bet for latecomers, and we had a lovely orange and earth scented Amphore 2009 in La Balance last week. But beware – you will be totally unaware that this wine contains 15% alcohol until you come to walk home.

The two most recent experiments are very different. If fame came initially from those early single vineyard Chardonnays, Stéphane had a plot just north of Arbois which he was sure could produce grapes of the very highest quality. Planted at high density to restrict yields, the “Clos de la Tour de Curon”, easily visible below the tower from the edge of town, produces a Chardonnay on chalky, partly terraced, soils with a southerly exposure which may well be destined to become the Grand Cru of the region. At a whopping €60 a bottle, there is evident ambition here.

The latest trick takes this man who can’t seem to stand still a way down south. The domaine’s Vin Jaunes, never being likely to follow the herd, come as not one but three separate cuvées – “en Spois”, “La Vasée” and “Les Bruyères”. They represent either different soil types or exposures, and they are very different from each other (en Spois is usually the most forward of these long-lived wines which don’t deserve to be touched until, at the very least, ten years from harvest).

Before long those wandering eyes caught a glimpse of a small plot in Chateau-Chalon, that most famous source of the “Vin Jaune” style (wine aged under a veil of thin flor for 60 months and sold, after the Percée Festival, in the seventh year after harvest). I bought my first of his production this year and will not likely open it for some years, but as with everything at this domaine, early tasting notes suggest a distinguished addition to the Chateau-Chalon tradition, a wine of typical finesse which one day will accompany a chunk of 24-month-old Comté and perhaps a few fresh walnuts.

According to Wink Lorch (Jura Wine, Wine Travel Media, 2014), Stéphane has promised his wife that he will not expand beyond their current 50 hectares, though it’s hard to see him standing still. He’s now one of the most influential faces, both in the region and as an ambassador overseas. More importantly, he’s been the catalyst for so many young winemakers who are beginning to make a name for themselves. His generosity in mentoring will be one of his lasting legacies. So many wines I now buy are made by people who worked for him, or who he actively encouraged and helped.

For me, personally, it is gratifying to see that this domaine, which I visited almost (but not quite) by accident so long ago, now presents such an international face for this profoundly bucolic region in Eastern France. I hope that the domaine continues to be so spectacularly successful in the next thirty years and beyond as it has been in the decades since I have known it.

Although the information in this article comes from my own research and my long knowledge of the domaine, I would like to thank Wink Lorch, whose wonderful Jura book, mentioned in the text above, allowed me to check one or two specific factual details in addition to those found in the sources produced by the domaine. As one of the finest wine books written on any specific wine region, it is an essential purchase for anyone wishing either to visit the Jura region, or simply to try its wines and other produce.

If you have not already seen it, the article preceding this one covers the town of Arbois and its attractions, and those of the surrounding countryside.

Posted in Wine, Wine Agencies | Tagged A&M Tissot, Amphora Wines, Arbois, Bénédicte Tissot, Clos de la Tour de Curon, Jura, Montigny-lès-Arsures, Stephane Tissot, Vin Jaune | 3 Comments

Between the Wood Smoke and the Water – Arbois Week

Posted on 22/09/2015 by dccrossley

I began visiting the Jura region in Eastern France more than twenty-five years ago. It began as a day trip from our then fairly regular wine visits to Burgundy, and then as a stop-off en route to Geneva by the scenic route. Then a few house rentals followed and Arbois has (I hope) become a regular annual trip for us. I’ve just returned from a week there.

Despite the wine world being full of regions I hardly know, and many I still long to visit, Arbois increasingly seems like paradise, and writing about it doesn’t please all those who would like it to remain a secret. Whilst towns like Beaune are now crowded with wine tourists, and the Côte d’Or’s wine route is likewise one stream of traffic for much of the year, the towns of Jura, a mere hour’s drive away, retain a country calm which once existed further west.

So, over the next week I will write a few articles about this region which I’ve come to hold so dear. Before talking about the wine, and the food, I thought I’d introduce my own little corner of paradise. For Arbois seems to encapsulate everything I want from a relaxing holiday in the countryside. Fantastic walking in forest and vineyard, spectacular scenery, wonderful food and wine, and never being far away from the sensory delights of the scent of wood smoke and the sound of a fast flowing river.

Place de la Liberté from outside the Tissot shop

The town itself contains a surprising number of attractions, not all of which leap out immediately at the casual visitor. One of the best ways to orientate yourself is to pick up a town map from the Tourist Office (located opposite the large edifice of the Church of Saint-Just). There’s a marked circuit, about an hour long, but the most interesting parts of the walk are those which link St-Just with Pasteur’s House (a secluded route by the River Cuisance), and in the opposite direction, that which passes through the old Faramand winemakers’ quarter and over the river by the Tour Gloriette.

Once you have got to grips with the compact layout of Arbois, it’s time to explore. First, its museums. It took me a while to visit them and each one turned out far better than my initial reticence had suggested, though don’t expect The Louvre. Pasteur’s house (Maison Pasteur) is fascinating, both because it’s pretty much as it was when France’s most famous scientist lived there, and because his laboratory upstairs has also been preserved. The Jura wine museum in the impressive Château Pécauld on the opposite side of town is not large, but on two floors there are well thought out displays on local winemaking and its attendant traditions. Then there’s the lovely townhouse which is now the Musée Sarret de Grozon, home to one of the region’s important families during the Napoleonic era and afterwards. Unfortunately it’s only open for a few weeks every year (check website but usually July to September on certain days). They often have temporary exhibitions in the rooms. A tip is that this year, because we’d been to the wine museum, our receipt seemed to get us in gratuit.

Wine Museum, Château Pécauld

After the culture comes the inevitable shopping. Arbois is unusual for wine lovers. Long before Burgundy had much more than the Faiveley shop in Beaune, various local producers opened shops in the town, following the lead of major local negoce, Henri Maire. Over the years the number has grown, but there’s no doubt in my mind that the best of these is right on the corner of the Place de la Liberté, that of Domaine A&M Tissot. Arbois has a good number of Tissots, all originating from one Maurice, who started out planting vines near Montigny-les-Arsures in 1957. Domaine A&M Tissot is now run by Stephane and his wife, Bénédicte and, to most international observers, is the best of them. The domaine is now biodynamic, and one of a handful of the most experimental and quality conscious in the region (I’ll be writing a post on the domaine in the coming days).

The existence of the “producer” outlets in town stifled any more general wine shops for a long while, although the various food shops always stocked a selection of local wines. That changed when the well known sommelier at the famous Michelin-starred Jean-Paul Jeunet, Stéphane Planche, set up Les Jardins Saint-Vincent (49 Grande Rue, just round the corner from Tissot, currently only open Thurs-Sun). Planche specialises in “natural wines”, of which Jura is very much a leading region. I’ve made some exciting discoveries in this shop and, in the region, it is probably only matched by Epicurea in Poligny which is one of the region’s best cheese shops and also specialises in natural wines.

There are a few other shops which really should not be missed. Hirsinger, pretty much opposite Tissot on the “Place”, is (this surprises many people) one of the most famous chocolatiers in France. Chocolate and cakes can be purchased in the shop, or consumed with a beverage at one of a few tables outside.

A couple of doors away is the Cave du Comté, principally a place to buy local cheeses, but they also sell local charcuterie and Morteau sausages, local artisan beers and preserves etc.

A short walk up the other part of the Grande Rue and you’ll soon find Philippe Gonet’s Vins et Vinaigres (at number 16). There are a few local wines and oils, but it’s the vinegars Gonet makes from local grapes which are the stars. Not inexpensive, these are some of the finest French vinegars I’ve tried. The vinaigre du vin jaune is probably the most famous, but we also love the scented poulsard.

Continue up this part of Grande Rue and fine (and good value) local cheeses (principally Comté, Morbier and Bleau de Gex) can also be bought from the delicatessen section of the Arbois co-operative (just up the hill from the Champ de Mars car park).

When I first visited Arbois you had pretty much two options for dining, the aforementioned Jean-Paul Jeunet (with two Michelin Stars) and La Finette on the edge of town, which my memory suggests serves a decent, if basic, selection of dishes around sausage. Jeunet is a fine restaurant, if slightly lacking in atmosphere on a quiet night. However, if you want to sample the local speciality, coq au vin jaune, there’s no better place, and probably no better poulet (de Bresse) in town. The food here is of a standard you’d expect of a two star, if more “traditional” than what you may be used to in London, New York or San Francisco.

But in the late 1990s La Balance (La Balance Mets et Vins to give it its full name) was revived (47 rue de Courcelles). This restaurant isn’t cheap, but it has introduced some exciting, innovative cooking, a vegetarian option (pretty much unknown in much of Franche-Comté), and a great selection of local wines, several of which will be paired with the various dishes so beautifully if you take the “improvisation” menu with the added sommelier dégustation.

There are several new restaurants which have opened recently in the town, and I haven’t visited them all, but the one place I’d recommend in addition to Jeunet and La Balance, is the Bistrot des Claquets (on Place Faramand). They generally have a single “plat” with starter, a buffet and something like a tarte for dessert, and they serve a selection of mainly natural wines. The plates may not match, and service can be a little brusque (maybe it’s me), but the food is hearty and genuine. A sign of this is that, as Wink Lorch so accurately states in Jura Wine (the essential guide to the Jura region), “this is where you should bump into a famous vigneron or two”. Indeed, not just locals – the occasional Burgundy and Beaujolais producers have also paid visits here – it’s a good place to try newcomers’ wines.

One of the town’s nicest domaines, La Tournelle (5 Petit Place, close to the Tourist Office) also has a tasting room and a bistro. Although I’ve had the chance to adore La Tournelle’s wines on many occasions, I’ve yet to find their tasting room open. But in summer, up to around 1 September, weather permitting, their wines can be enjoyed along with small plats in the Bistro de la Tournelle, next door, right by the flowing Cuissance, a beautiful setting in dappled sunlight.

Bistro de la Tournelle

With all this food and wine, you really need to walk off some calories, and as is fitting for paradise, there is some lovely walking. The Tourist Office has a map, well worth the €5 cost, called Jura L’inattendu – Arbois Vignes et Villages (at 1/25,000 – the useful IGN Série Bleu map 33250 for Salins-Arbois is the same scale). The walks I have enjoyed most are listed below:

1. La Châtelaine and the walk to the Fer à Cheval along the top of the Reculée. Castle ruins, mountain goats (if you are lucky) and great views down (so long as you don’t have bad vertigo and it’s not very wet and slippery).

2. The Source of the Cuisance and the spectacular waterfall, the Cascade des Tufs at Les Planches. A short stroll but the waterfall is well worth seeing. You can walk on and clamber up to the petite source and make a circuit back. Sadly the caves here seem to have been closed for some time now.

Cascade des Tufs

3. The walk through the vines from Arbois to Montigny-les-Arsures (home to many of the region’s most famous domaines). If you walk back to Vauxelle from Montigny you can extend this walk by picking up a track which turns, for a short distance, into the GR59 before another lovely track drops down through woodland to the wine village of Mesnay (the IGN map mentioned above is essential for this extension).

Harvest, south of Montigny-les-Arsures

4. The Hermitage and Pupillin. As you wander around Arbois you might notice a chapel sitting half way up on the wooded hill. This can be reached via a steep in parts but not too strenuous walk which starts on the Champagnole road (D469) where, a hundred metres or so after the Pupillin turn, there is a small shrine. There are old steps through the forest and abandoned terraces, a sign (as elsewhere) that man once farmed land now abandoned to the trees.

Above the Hermitage you hit a road and if you turn right at the bins (!) you will see a viewing platform with a perfect view over Arbois (the same can be said for the Croix de Dan which provides spectacular views over Poligny).

Viewing Platform above the Hermitage

Continue from here along the road and you will find the markings for another section of the GR59. One direction goes to the Reculée des Planches and the other will eventually lead you towards Pupillin, on a plateau a few kilometres from Arbois. If you have the energy there are nice walks among the vines here (see the Jura L’inattendu map). The village has its own coterie of famous vignerons (and, in Le Grapiot, an increasingly well regarded restaurant, when open). But if you want to take the easy route back to Arbois, there’s a nice path (the old road). Look out on the right just a way outside the village where it dips into the trees.

If you do happen to visit Arbois in early September, do make sure to have a look inside the Eglise St-Just. One of the region’s special festivals is the Fète du Biou. Taking place on the first Sunday in September, a large constructed bunch of grapes (made up of individual bunches supplied by all the producers) is paraded through the town, and then hung high in the church crossing, where it oozes juice and fermenting smells as a sort of offering for a good harvest. It supposedly echoes the return of the Israelites to Canaan with the “Eschol“, though what came to my mind the first time I saw it was Poussin’s painting “Spies with grapes from the Promised Land” (aka Autumn) in The Louvre. The region’s other famous festival is the Percée du Vin Jaune, the symbolic opening of the first Vin Jaune cask 6 years and 3 months after the vintage. But this takes place in different villages each year on the first weekend in February, when the region is perhaps at its shiveringly coldest.

Posted in Dining, Natural Wine, Wine, Wine Agencies, Wine Travel | Tagged Arbois, Bistro de la Tournelle, Bistrot des Claquets, Cave du Comté Arbois, Domaine A&M Tissot, Fète du Biou, Hirsinger, Jean-Paul Jeunet, Jura, La Balance Restaurant, Le Jardin Saint-Vincent, Pupillin, Stephane Tissot, Vins et Vinaigres Arbois | 8 Comments

Spice Oddity #2 (Without Major Tom)

Posted on 11/09/2015 by dccrossley

The second Spice Oddities at the India Club was a perfect example of how far some wine lovers will go to select truly “different” wines, odd in their origins (to a degree) but certainly not in their flavours. All seven wines today were attractive. As far as the difficult task of food matching went, most people thought the wine which provided the best overall match was a Vinifera/native hybrid from Missouri!

As always (it has been the case since the 1960s) the India Club provides a combination of wonderful food at incredible value, less than £20 with service for the most expensive set meal. A selection of starter dishes, four main dishes with rice, breads and chutneys. The main clashes were the lime pickle and chilli bhajis, the latter being pretty hot and impossible to match with wine for some considerable time after eating it…yet they are so good.

The Wines (all wines tasted blind)

Dry River Gewurztraminer 2006 The colour and nose suggested New World but the bottle neck didn’t provide sufficient clue to the origins of a wine we all spotted by grape variety. It wore its 14% alcohol really well, assisted by being off dry. As time went on this wine seemed to grow sweeter. It also seemed to provide one of the better food matches on the day, so a well thought out selection. Nice bottle age too.

Champagne Du Mont-Hauban 1999 Demi-Sec This was very much a bottle fermented wine from Northern Europe, and its tight and persistent bead and advanced autolytic character single it out as Champagne. But no one guessed it was demi-sec because it had become dryer over time, though not dried out. A very nice wine on its merits, but possibly not the best food match. It was also, though obviously aged and with an oxidative note, surprisingly sprightly for a 1999.

Hatten Wines Anggur Rosé, Bali Possibly the most unusual wine we’ve had at any Oddities lunch, Spice or not. Unlike some Balinese wines, this is made from home grown, not imported, grapes. It was actually quite drinkable, and I’d take it over one of the big branded pink wines we see on offer in UK supermarkets, and indeed over some of the acidic bottles professing a southern French origin I’ve mistakenly bought in French ones. Only 11% alcohol. Pleasantly fruity, if simple. I’d like to say I nailed this exactly…and, actually, I did, but claim no big prize – sometimes a focussed analysis of the wine (which yielded “simple but pleasant”) is less important than knowing the travel movements of the man who brought it.

Bolney Cuvée Noir Brut 2010, Sussex This has seen the odd outing before. It’s a genuine crowd pleasing red sparkler, which seems a contradiction in terms. 12.5%, Dornfelder, frothy and fruity. Another wine where thinking outside the box for food matching might not have been the best idea, but a lovely wine in its own right.

Plavac 2010, Tomic, Croatia It took a long time to get close to identifying this, with guesses of Gamay, and even Rondo and a more westerly location, though Croatia finally got a mention. The grape mix is largely the best known of Croatia’s red varieties, Plavac Mali, along with lesser Plavacs. A fruity wine feeling balanced (13.1%), with a softness and little tannin, nothing to clash too much with the food. Plavac is the child of Zinfandel (in its current guise of Tribidrag). Softness without high alcohol.

Norton 2010, Augusta Winery, Missouri This one foxed us all, but this hybrid between vinifera and native varieties was not in the slightest bit “foxy”, the problem with many non-vinifera wines from the United States. Guesses from my direction included Virginia, but frankly no one expected Norton from Missouri (although “Norton’s Virginia Seedling” is the grape’s full name). Fruity, smooth, and even tasting a touch sweet…ish, this may not win any prizes for complexity, but it provided a double education. First for the grape, and second as a match for “curry”. The vote wasn’t completely unanimous, but most (including me) had this as the best match for today’s dishes.

Renski Rizling 2011, Dveri Pax, Slovenia It must be said that since starting these various Oddities lunches I’ve managed to get to drink quite a good number of wines from Croatia and Slovenia, two of the countries seen as offering great potential within Europe. And Dveri Pax is a winery many will already know, a least by name. Based in Stajerska Slovenia/Podravje up near the border with Austria’s Styria region, they make a range of good value varietals (according to Jancis and Hugh’s World Wine Atlas). The wine was light, quite fragrant with a dry delicacy which made me think first of Northwestern Spain (Godello), and then Austrian Gemischter Satz (which, let’s face it, I think of way too often) with a bit of bottle age. This wine was not high in acidity and no one would really guess “proper” Riesling as the variety. Pleasant, light and fragrant, but not challenging for wine of the day.

As well as the pleasures of the restaurant, India Club also boasts a bar, equally as old fashioned. The coffee may be made from a kettle, but it’s nice to be able to sit and digest/chat for a while. Thanks Warren for organising and to everyone who provided the wines and entertaining conversation.

Warren as Ben Bill for six

Pass the Norton…pleez!

Posted in Wine, Wine Agencies, Wine and Food, Wine Tastings, Wine with Curry | Tagged Augusta Winery Missouri, Bolney Estate, Champagne Mont-Hauban, Dry River, Dveri Pax, Hatten Wines Bali, India Club Restaurant, Spice Oddity, Tomic Croatia, Wine and Spice, Wine with Curry | 5 Comments

More from Germany (Howard Ripley)

Posted on 10/09/2015 by dccrossley

The second instalment of Howard Ripley’s Germans was presented at Middle Temple Hall Yesterday, comprising the dry whites and reds, with a few strangers thrown in for good measure (one of which was my Wine of the Day!). I don’t profess as much expertise in German wine as I might with some wine regions, but I hope my notes are of some value to those who couldn’t make it.

There is still a sense that British lovers of German wine have quite a conservative attitude to the dry whites. I can understand both sides of the argument. I love the lower Pradikats for their poised perfection, wines which seem to express a side of the Riesling grape which pretty much no one else can replicate and which, for me, finds its apogee on the steeply slated slopes of the Mosel, (Saar and Ruwer). I’m at one with those who lament their apparent passing, in the search for the supposed sophistication of the dry.

Yet I can also appreciate the dry wines, exemplified none better than Philipp Wittmann’s Morstein (Rheinhessen) which I wrote about at the “Wimps” lunch recently, one of my white wines of the year so far.

What was going to be interesting at this tasting, regarding the 2014 Grosses Gewächs whites, was whether they were going to be ripe and balanced. On the whole the wines clearly managed this, for my palate, though I do prefer a touch of acidity and texture. The people at HR certainly believe that the wines, as the year has progressed, have begun to show “better and better”.

Of twenty-three white wines the first thing to note is that you get what you pay for. The top wines were clearly, for me, the ones to buy if you can afford them (and, of course, grab quick enough in some cases). The two Keller whites (Kirchspiel and Hubacker) showed potential and demonstrated class, as did Hermann Dönnhoff’s Hermannshöhle (the Dellchen was a bit tighter for me and less easy to assess, but I was tasting very early in the day).

Of the less exalted bottles, wine number one always appeals to me, and I know from experience that it keeps very well – von Schubert’s Abstberg Superior. My discovery this year has been Julian Haart (Mosel), and I enjoyed both the Piesporter Goldtröpchen (good value) and the slightly more expensive Wintricher Ohligsberg, though with the caveat that the latter, to my pleasure, had something of a note of young Champagne on the finish, minus the bubbles of course. The wines of Thomas Haag at Schloss Lieser continue to impress my own tastes, and Schäfer-Frölich, though the Felsenberg strangely had a hint of Sauvignon Blanc gooseberry on the nose (a lot of wines seemed to have clearly defined grapefruit and lime). Of course, those two producers can’t be termed “less exalted”, but they are by and large affordable, for now.

The German reds were a mix of 2013 and 2012, and were not consistently to my Spätburgunder taste. But again, there were wines I liked a lot. The not too expensive Schloss Lieser 2012 had a nice colour and softish cherry fruit, and my first ever taste of von Schubert’s 2012 was a pleasure (though I’ve a long history of appreciation when it comes to the white wines from the Grünhaus). I also like Ziereisen, having enjoyed the Jaspis Alte Reben Pinot, Syrah and Tschuppen already this year. But the 2012 Schulen won out among the less expensive of their wines, the Rhini (which I think sees about 30% new oak) being worth the considerable premium.

Another new name which impressed, and which merits a particular mention, is Daniel Twardowski. I admit I’d never heard of this producer, though the price suggests I clearly should have. My tasting note included the banned phrase “…young Burgundy” (sorry).

I enjoyed the Kellers (Dalsheim Bürgel and Flörsheim Frauenberg), and was also impressed by Thomas Studach’s wine from Graubunden, but the wine of the tasting for me was fellow Swiss couple, Daniel and Marta Gantenbein’s Pinot. Someone remarked that the nose was better than the palate. This might have some truth, but in honesty I liked both and the bouquet, after all at the very least 50% of the pleasure with this grape, was amazing. A masterful wine. But it was also, by a good way, the most expensive wine on show yesterday. Not more than a couple of years ago it used to cost around £30/40 retail. Now the (much higher) price is almost immaterial, tracking down odd bottles being close to impossible (though I do know someone who proudly owns a personal allocation, lucky man). If you can afford £350 in bond, give it some thought. Some years ago we put on a dinner at The Ledbury where Gantenbein Chardonnay and Pinots were put up against some pretty good Burgundy, and with age they held their own.

A few general observations. Many of the reds were pretty pale. This is no sign of a lack of quality, and who wants their Pinot Noir to look like Syrah, but there were occasional wines which on the day seemed a little thin, and often these were also of lighter hue. Will they be wines to drink fairly soon?

I also need to be educated in Pfalz reds by someone. I often find these wines the hardest to like with the one (very big) exception of Friedrich Becker down in Schweigen (who Stephan Reinhardt calls “not really representative”). His vineyards are not only “pretty much in France”, some of them actually are, if I recall correctly. You’d expect this warm region, at least in German terms, to produce reds I’d like, and in 2015 I’m not sure it’s because everything is over cropped and machine harvested, nor because Dornfelder is still the most planted red variety. There may be a tendency to dark, over oaked Pinots, but, as I say, I need a few lessons here.

It’s also worth noting the labelling of these German reds. Some producers stick religiously to Spätburgunder, whilst others go for Pinot Noir. I’m not sure there is any consistency with this (size/age/type of wood used etc). Whichever the case, I find the production of this grape in Germany completely fascinating and absorbing, especially seeking out the different terroirs (slate, limestone, clay, volcanic etc). And I think we in the UK do need to look forwards rather than conservatively backwards in appreciating the quality of red wines Germany is producing. The sixteen German reds on show today were a privilege to taste, probably the most I’ve done in one go.

Naturally Howard Ripley doesn’t have all the best wines (I missed the J&B tasting, lacking the stamina for both), but they do have a brilliant selection and unrivalled knowledge (which makes them my choice for an overview). Other producers I’ve been drinking of late whom I think offer great value include the whites of AJ Adam (Dhron, Mosel) and a very inexpensive red from Thörle (Rheinhessen – Saulheimer Kalkstein 2012).

As a final note, it’s worth remembering that Howard Ripley will attend the VDP Auction next week (and indeed the Bernkastel/Mosel, Nahe and Rheingau Auctions), and they offer customers the opportunity to bid for the rarities up for grabs there (contact HR for more information). As always, far greater insight on these wines than I am able to give can be found on http://www.moselfinewines.com .

Posted in German Wine, Wine, Wine Merchants, Wine Tastings | Tagged Daniel Twardowski, Gantenbein, German Red Wine, Graubunden, Grosses Gewächs 2014, Howard Ripley, Julian Haart, Keller, Schloss Lieser, Spätburgunder, Von Schubert, Ziereisen | Leave a comment

David Crossley's Wide World of Wine

Exploring & Tasting Wine – Berry Bros’ Beginners’ Bible

Reader Reminder – The World of Wine is Wide

A Wing and A Prayer (Actually Making Some)

Squirrelled Away in Soho

The Contenders (Arbois Week)

Fine Sense of Balance

Watching Stéphane Tissot

Between the Wood Smoke and the Water – Arbois Week

Spice Oddity #2 (Without Major Tom)

More from Germany (Howard Ripley)

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