David Crossley's Wide World of Wine

Burgundy 2005 at QCH

Posted on 18/11/2015 by dccrossley

I’m sure I was not alone in itching to get a first overview of this highly praised vintage at ten years old. One single wine from a moderate producer is all I’d tried of 2005 Red Burgundy before Monday night, my bottles sensibly tucked away in the least accessible part of the cellar. The idea, put forward and organised by my friend Dave Stenton, was to take advantage of free Monday corkage at Quality Chop House, and look at a dozen wines at village level, to see where they are at, and just how (potentially) good they might be.

The wines were by no means as closed as many of us imagined. The brief summary is that we liked most of the wines, none were faulty (except for the Fourrier Clos Solon 2004 which someone generously brought along for a fun comparison – it was corked to death), and even those that showed less well had obvious potential. There is no doubt, looking at this array of village wines, that 2005 has the potential to be a truly great vintage. Even at village level, from carefully chosen producers. Those who have some stashed away should be in for a treat when they finally get pulled out.

The detailed notes below should give an idea of where we are at with 2005, at least at this level. Many of the wines can be enjoyed now, but most with be substantially better in a few years. If you have a lot of them, then take a look at the earlier drinkers. If you have just a few, keep them locked up a while longer. I hope that expresses not just my view, but the opinions of most of the people present.

Quality Chop House is becoming a regular venue for wine evenings. The food is unashamedly old fashioned, relatively simple in presentation but majoring on fine meat cooked to perfection. My last two meals here consisted of pork and lamb chops, so it had to be a return to their famous minced beef on dripping toast with their equally infamous confit potatoes on Monday. The key for this dish is to go easy on the entrées, and to nibble a bit of cheese in place of a dessert. Even then, don’t expect to jump out of bed with a spring in your step the next morning, but it’s worth it, if filling.

Michel Lafarge Volay – This split opinion. We were two tables of five and oddly my table found it very closed, whilst the table we nicknamed “the classicists” thought it majestic and aristocratic. This has obvious potential, but for my taste it requires Lafarge levels of cellaring.

Rebourgeon-Mure Pommard – This was a complete contrast to the Volnay. A touch of age on the nose, one of the most open wines of the night, and generally enjoyed over both tables. The fruit is fine, and the palate almost voluptuous. My only question is whether it will go the same distance as the others? This producer was unknown to me. A real find.

Confuron-Coteditot Vosne-Romanée – The contrast it colour between this darker Nuits wine and the slightly paler Beaunes set the tone for the rest of the tasting. There was initially a slight whiff of alcohol, but it blew off and, as it warmed, there was a nice spicy richness, almost sweetness. Opening for business with lots in the tank. Universally liked.

Bruno Clair Chambolle-Musigny Les Varoilles – Inevitably closed, spicy but seemed to lack weight. There was a tiny touch of volatility, though not enough to upset me. A wine which improved in the glass. I do like Clair’s wines, but this wasn’t one of my wines of the night.

Digioia-Royer Chambolle-Musigny – Quite exotic nose, savoury, umami. Opens up voluptuously, but there’s muscle underneath. It’s very good now. It builds in the glass, it would be nice to drink a whole bottle. Very much a seductive Chambolle, very popular.

Robert Arnoux Chambolle-Musigny – A big wine with whopping legs on the side of the glass. There’s some polish here, but also a woody/stalky note which slightly disappoints.

Virgile Lignier Morey-St-Denis – This is apparently Lignier-Michelot’s negoce label, a first for me again. As expected, softer than the domaine wines which followed, very good and enjoyable, but one of the least complex wines on the night.

Lignier-Michelot Chambolle-Musigny – This domaine wine is more serious than the above, but when compared with the Lignier-Michelot Morey-St-Denis our table found a clear comparison, suggesting a producer-led style than terroir-led. Others may not have agreed. The Morey was the most individual of the two. One taster noted a biscuity (digestive) note on the nose, a savoury quality, and maybe some oak poking through?

Domaine Dujac Morey-St-Denis – For our table, Dujac’s domaine wine shone brightest. Suave and sophisticated, it begins with a mineral salinity beneath an elegant nose. It has sweetness of fruit and refreshes. It isn’t tannic but it has the restraint of a wine not yet quite ready to go.

Jean-Michel Guillon Gevrey-Chambertin Vielles Vignes – Initially unclean on nose, but that dissipates and the wine becomes very attractive. Another under-the-radar producer. It’s a dark wine, maybe some new oak still in evidence. I was getting to like this after half a glass, but I think the slightly farmyardy note came back.

Pierre Damoy Gevrey-Chambertin Clos Tamisot – I’m in the very unusual position of being more familiar with Damoy’s Chambertin and, even more so, Clos de Bèze, than their village wines. This was concentrated, earthy, starting out quite dumb, and for me only just beginning to show some progress by the end of the glass. A little too dense to judge properly at the end of the evening.

The room voted for Wines of the Night and the result was:

Digioia-Royer Chambolle
Confuron-Coteditot Vosne
A tie between the Dujac Morey and Lafarge Vonay (a clear split between the two tables)

My own top three, for what it’s worth – 1. Dujac, 2. Digioia-Royer and 3. Confuron-Coteditot, though I did really enjoy the Rebourgeon-Mure as well.

Our table decided to cleanse our palates with a lovely Txacoli from Gaintza, off the QCH list, an 11.5% blend of Hondarrabi-Zuri and Gros Manseng. The other table decided to resolutely avoid it (philistines!).

No one left disappointed, although a couple of us left feeling the pleasures of the mince just within the limits imposed by nature. I do always feel a glow of satisfaction on leaving QCH, but I don’t always relish the train home (attempting to stay awake whilst digesting the meal). The restaurant always look after us really well, and service is always friendly and helpful. I do tend to repeat this rather often, but it is one of my favourite places to eat in London, especially for down-to-earth, no nonsense, meaty sustenance.

Perfect Antidote (To Boring Wines)

Posted on 11/11/2015 by dccrossley

Regular readers will have seen the notes on our first two Beaujolais dinners at The Ten Cases and Quality Chop House earlier in the year. The third and final attempt to look at the (mainly) newer or younger growers alongside some old hands took place last night, upstairs at Antidote, near Carnaby Street, in London.

I’ve dined at Antidote before, but it has been getting very good press recently, and I think the cooking has moved up a notch (it was always very good) based on those reviews and last night’s meal, though a good few attendees felt the portions a little small. With a two hour journey home, I was less worried as, to be honest, I felt a lot less stuffed than I often do after a late finishing wine dinner.

The menu was notable for the quality of the ingredients. We ate a set four course menu (varied for those with dietary requirements) of:

Slow cooked organic egg with green leaves Mullet (freshly sourced from St-Jean-de-Luz) with chanterelles and trompettes de mort Pork chuck (cooked pink) with dandelion, seaweed and walnut purée Goat’s curd & olive oil parfait with pink muscat grapes and vermouth

The bread, from Hedone (I kind of guessed as the two restaurants are connected and Mikael Jonsson oversees head chef Michael Hazlewood in the kitchen) was delicious.

The wines, all fifteen of them, presented a quite varied array of winemaking techniques and philosophies. I think I’ll give a few brief comments on each wine this time, but as an overview my initial reaction was that there were fewer peaks than in the previous two dinners. On reflection I found more I liked from my notes than my impression at the end of the evening gave me. My top wines were really good. I think anyone looking at all the wines drunk over the three dinners would find an awful lot to buy. The three dinner format presented an excellent in depth look at what is happening in one of Europe’s most exciting regions. I hope we can pursue this idea next year, though the problem is I can think of too many regions to look at already.

THE WINES

Dom des Terres Dorées Beaujolais Blanc – We had both the 2012 and 2014 here. The ’12 tasted a bit flabby to me and was much darker than the almost rapier-like ’14. I preferred the latter, which was the one that brought back memories of this J-P Brun wine I have not drunk for at least five years. The 2014 made a delicious, palate cleansing aperitif.

Dom Le Grain de Sénevé Roue Libre Vin de France 2014 – This, for me, is a pure vin de soif. Enjoyable, light, with fresh cherries and a slight cheesy note which I didn’t mark down too much as it seemed to dissipate.

Dom Perraud Vin de France 2014 – Another simple, quaffable vin de soif but with a nice nose, and deeper cherry notes than previous wine.

France Gonzalvez Beaujolais-Villages 2014, “Cueillette” and “Point G” – We had both these cuvées. I preferred the more perfumed Cueillette from sandy soils (Saint Etiènne La Varenne, partial carbonic, cement) to the bigger, meatier, Point G (granite at Blacé, later picked, two-thirds aged in older oak – thanks to Dave Stenton for this info). The Point G needs more time for my taste (it’s the second time I’ve drunk it), but others preferred it.

Les Bertrand Coup d’folie Fleurie 2014 – This had a Fleurie-like lifted elegance but didn’t, for me, rise above the pack. On the lighter side.

J-C Lapalu Cuvée des Fous Brouilly 2014 – Richest wine so far, touch of VA but within acceptable parameters. A wine with stuffing and one which might be spottable blind. Nice, classic of it’s type and maker. I liked it.

Antoine Sunier Regnié 2014 – Brother of Julien, 2014 being his first vintage, this was a wine which split opinion. For me it was middling, and not a patch on Julien’s, which won Wine of the Night at a previous dinner. Others loved it, but one who did said it had fallen apart by the end of the evening. Thankfully I bought some, so will revisit soon.

Domaine Perraud Moulin-à-Vent and Morgon 2014 – My first words on the Moulin were “smells of sock that is definitely not fresh from the drawer”. I wondered aloud on the Morgon whether I’d offended someone – there was a smell of peach blossom and bitter almond which, I’m told, is a classic cyanide pointer. I survived, but several people found these two Perrauds faulty.

Daniel Bouland Chiroubles 2013 – Simply lovely. Universally liked, and so nice to actually drink a wine from this village, let alone one so good. Very elegant. Trouble is, I bought it in Paris and I now have to try to remember which of the usual crowd of bars/shops I found it in.

Anthony Thévenet Morgon VV 2013 – Another excellent example, though certainly bigger (and seemingly alcoholic?) than the previous few wines. Grows in complexity in the glass.

Dom des Terres Dorées Moulin-à-Vent and Morgon 2011 Fifteen-or-more years ago (is it really that long?) I used to rave about Brun’s wines. They were the first Beaujolais which re-captured my interest in this region, which I’d previously seen as a commercial wilderness (I’d not quite discovered Foillard and Métras at that time). These reds didn’t really do it for me on the night. I was slightly put off by the almond and talcum powder notes I found on the Moulin, and the same talcum and cyanide combination on the Morgon. I did make a mistake in taking a mouthful of the delicious dessert before tasting and I’m pretty sure that was a bad move. The only times Brun has really failed me there has been a suspicion of poor storage, but they always used to need time at village level.

Ch de Beauregard “Colonies de Rochegrès” Fleurie 2009 – Last but not least, I think this wine got lost as a post-dessert offering. It was really good, lovely in fact, if unusual. I got a sweetish caramel note, cake-like (in a good way). Very big legs, rounded. As it opened up it almost reminded two of us of a peaty Malt Whisky. It sounds a very odd description but it was a very complex wine and it deserved to be savoured for a while.

So, a diverse list with diverse reactions. At these events we all vote on wines of the night. Although one person escaped without voting (we were twelve), the group vote was: 1. Antoine Sunier Regnié 2. Daniel Bouland Chiroubles 3. France Gonzalvez Point G

My own wines of the night were: 1. Daniel Bouland Chiroubles 2 (joint) Anthony Thévenet Morgon and Ch de Beauregard Fleurie

But as you can see from the notes, plenty to get stuck into from that half-dozen and more. The previous two dinners can be accessed via the highlighted links at the top of this post.

Several of last night’s wines were sourced from The Sampler, who are bringing over an increasing number of fine Beaujolais. Many, as always, were sourced in Eastern Paris, which is pretty much the beating heart of modern Beaujolais consumption. I wrote a small piece about some of the bars and shops a few of us frequent (as frequently as we can!) here.

**Some of the wines above were a bit stinky in one way or another. It’s not unusual for these odours to go away in the glass, but many people find that giving them a good shake works, either in the glass or in a carafe/decanter. You can’t guarantee it, but it works wonders much of the time. Some wines merely suffer from reduction, others have a lot of disolved CO2 (which helps protect the wine when using less sulphur). Most of these winemakers ensure scrupulous cleanliness in the winery, but sadly not all and some wines are just plain faulty. But I find the latter quite rare these days.

Posted in Beaujolais, Wine, Wine Tastings | Tagged Anthony Thévenet, Antidote Restaurant, Antoine Sunier, Beaujolais, Chateau de Beauregard, Daniel Bouland, France Gonzalvez, J-P Brun, Jean-Claude Lapalu, Les Bertrand, Terres Dorées | 6 Comments

How the Other Half Leflaives

Posted on 10/11/2015 by dccrossley

If one only drank the kind of wines which I do much of the time, the ones most normal people think a bit odd, then I would be like those wine makers who only drink their own wines. The palate would be fooled into thinking that what I habitually drink is good, without a benchmark for comparison. I like to flatter myself that when I promote “natural wines”, or wines from new or unusual wine regions, I do so having a sound knowledge of, and a good grounding in, more classic wines. In fact, what I choose to write about here often excludes the classic wines that we drink and the wine dinners and lunches I go to increasingly pursue the new. But occasionally an evening of fine wine debauchery comes along which merits a blog post.

It can sound awful writing about such evenings, where a whole raft of expensive wines are consumed one after the other. But such evenings are not every day affairs for most of the people present, and they are done in a spirit of generosity and the desire to share our treasures with others. I don’t think anyone ever loses sight of how lucky we are. But at the same time, things don’t always work to plan with the wines.

We began the evening, following delayed trains up to London on a dark and damp, if unusually mild, November night, with Dom Pérignon 2002. This vintage still seems very young, but there’s no doubting its class. Very fine but also quite full, if a little tight. I’d say hold onto this, but that’s not really news for those who own some, I think. There’s a touch of the beast about it now, but that will be tamed with more time in bottle. Always a privilege to drink it, of course.

The Dom was followed by a Jacquesson 2002, which might easily have been lost after the previous cuvée, yet being closer to readiness it presented a touch more maturity, whilst remaining finely chiselled. Not in the same league, though the freshness had a beautiful palate cleansing effect (a flavour which my detractors and friends alike point out that I am far too often tempted to describe as mineral intensity but which others have described as salty). Most critics suggest this will go to 2018, and that’s about where it would sit on my graph of evolution too.

We began our meal proper with Leflaive Puligny 1er Cru “Les Pucelles” 2000 from magnum. For anyone fearful of premature oxidation, no sign of pox at all. It did open a little tight (and cold), but grew in the glass, becoming much more expressive, so that I can recall its flavours now, as I type. On reflection this was probably my joint wine of the evening. With the difficulties presented by premature oxidation of white Burgundy, it is wonderful to be reminded just how magnificent and majestic these wines can be. Poise is a word which comes to mind, like someone perfectly dressed with a small flamboyant touch to show personality. Classic elegance, in other words.

If ever you are tempted to be jealous when you see people bragging about drinking a flight of icon wines, never forget that these wines do not always perform to expectations. The old cliché about there being no great wines, just great bottles, definitely applied with the four iconic Rhônes which followed.

The lineup began with Chave Hermitage 1982 in magnum. The last time I had this wine, admittedly from bottle, was a few years ago, when it was unforgettably a sensual bacon sandwich of maturity. Tonight it was not on top form, although hard to work out why. Not actually faulty, just a little dumb (though no TCA). When someone brings a wine like this, you hardly expect a backup, but a 1983 (bottle this time) was duly pulled out. This was better, but there was a touch of smelly sock where you usually expect that whiff of runny bacon fat. Would I have identified these as Chaves blind? I doubt it. But lest you think they went to waste, I for one drank mine, and was very grateful for the generosity of their provider.

The next pair were younger vintages of Clape Cornas. The 1996 was, for me, the best of the four Rhônes on the day. It really developed in the glass, moving towards a supple sensuality that you look for in a mature wine from this region. The 1999 was a disappointment (I can say this as it was one of the wines I took), considering the vintage. It had a certain hardness to it, which showed the promise of further development you get with a young Cornas, but also, I think, a certain touch of rusticity. Of course, sometimes our tastebuds aren’t always on top form, but I didn’t hear massive praise or swoons of delight for any of these from around the table.

Moulin Touchais 1983 was, by way of contrast, everything one would expect from this well remembered old Chenin. Not as complex as the most concentrated wines of Anjou/Layon, but very dependable. Dark in colour, and mature, yet retaining freshness if not much acidity. The kind of wine where the sweetness balances on the tongue before spreading gently over the whole palate, encasing the mouth in a warmth of concentration.

The last wine of the night, and it was very much night, not evening, by this stage, was without much doubt the most concentrated wine I’ve drunk all year. Equipo Navazos Amontillado Bota A.R. No 49 originates from Gaspar Florido, via Pedro Romero in Sanlúcar. The wines used for this bottling are between 55 and 80 years old, and it shows. It may only be a half bottle, but fortified to 22% and with such concentration, a little goes a long way. The perfume is like essential oil, and the length of the wine is truly extraordinary. These bottlings from Equipo Navazos may be rare, and perhaps expensive for Sherry, yet not expensive for a wine of such world class. This small bottler continues to highlight the forgotten riches which lie undisturbed in Jerez. This little half bottle outshone everything which preceded it, although wines of such intensity are for meditation, not carefree consumption.

So that’s how a far from average Saturday night goes for us. Blessed with food cooked with great care by perhaps the best amateur cook I know, and company to match, it made for a night of fascinating vinous exploration. But also as a reminder that even the most highly regarded wines don’t always quite live up to the extremely high expectations we place on them.

Wines of the night, the Leflaive and the Equipo Navazos for me, but I still thoroughly enjoyed them all.

Posted in Fine Wine, Sherry, Wine, Wine and Food | Tagged Chave, Clape, Dom Pérignon, Equipo Navazos, Jacquesson, Leflaive, Moulin Touchais | 1 Comment

Spice Up Your Life

Posted on 07/11/2015 by dccrossley

That seems so long ago, doesn’t it! My life needed spicing up yesterday, one of those mornings, thankfully not coming along too often, when Friday 13th seemed to have arrived a week early. It was our last “curry” lunch before Christmas. Officially it is known as “Spice Oddities”, the brainchild of Wine for Spice founder Warren Edwardes, who is a regular attendee at our Rochelle Canteen Oddities lunches. But I’m usually hopeless at matching wine to hot or spicy food, and although we cook a lot of pseudo-Indian meals at home, we either drink beer or don’t think too hard about which wines we drink, often choosing a cold and fairly neutral white of no great complexity.

The India Club, on the Strand by Waterloo Bridge, is our usual venue. The food is extremely good value with the premium set lunch costing £20 including a reasonably generous tip. I always enjoy it, though whether it was my mood or not, I was not quite so enthusiastic yesterday for some reason. Nothing wrong with the food, but the flavours seemed a touch muted.

We began with two whites (all wines served blind). The first was correctly identified as a Southern French dry white. We also got that it was a single variety – linear with mineral freshness and a real purity of line, very dry. It turned out to be Clairette – Clos Mathelisse Clairette 2014 Vin de France, David Caer. It’s a wine in the Natural Wine mould, though in no way cidery. Delicious, in fact, though not complex. A good 13% alcohol.

The second white was not difficult to guess as to grape variety, but we were wholly out with origins. Some said New World/Australia, I said Alsace. It was a lovely off-dry wine, petrol on nose, some lime and citrus on palate. It was in fact Erdener Treppchen Spätlese 1986, Schwaab-Riebel, a producer (from Urzig) I’d never heard of. Actually a delicious wine, and only recently purchased from Berry Bros, although I’m told it’s sadly all gone. 7% alcohol, balanced, aged beautifully (I thought it was maybe 1998/99).

Next were two wines brought by Warren, both fitting into his view of what enhances Indian food, though one being a bit unusual. This generally means an off-dry frizzante style. In other words, not fine wines, but wines which, like beer, with a touch of fizz and sugar, soothe the warmth and spice of the food.

Velada Moscato Rosado NV, Valencia DO from Spain was simple, pink, frothy, just 5% alcohol. Perfectly fresh, yet simple. I thought it a Brachetto. It appears that the grapes may not be your vrais Moscato Rosa, but perhaps white Muscat with a touch of red wine added. Its strawberry/raspberry fruit was quite nice and only a touch confected.

The second spritzy offering I’d had before. With it’s “Lucozade” orange colour and its “Aperol-like” herby nose and bitter orange palate this had to be one of Warren’s famous Lidl specials, Grazzano Sprizz. It’s described as an “aromatized wine-product cocktail with notes of bitter orange” (6.8% alcohol). It’s pretty much the same as Aperol diluted with sparkling water, though again here there’s a touch of the confectionary in the orange. I have a rather unhealthy, if mild, appreciation of this, and having had it several times before it was not too difficult to guess.

Both of these went well with the food, and as beverages were both pleasant and refreshing. They are not wines to over excite the wine obsessive, but that’s not the point.

Moving onto the reds, this is often the type of wine we find hardest to match. First we had a dark, plummy red with a good heft of alcohol and a bit of acidity. The plummy business, along with a tiny touch of mint, should have helped us guess Australian Merlot, but I think as everyone had guessed New World, the acidity then threw us as to grape variety (did the majority think Shiraz?). It turned out, however, to be Wild Duck Creek Estate Reserve Merlot 2001, Heathcote. This region, in the North of Victoria, produces, for those who allow themselves to use the term, highly mineral wines with a pronounced freshness. Obvious when you see the bottle. 15% alcohol, though it didn’t taste like it. It was refreshing and very enjoyable, and not a wine we are used to having with a good bit of bottle age.

My bottle next, which Warren guessed pretty quickly, or near enough. He said Barolo Chinato. It was, in fact, the same idea but from within the Barbaresco zone – Monsú, Giuseppe Negra. This is pretty much what you get if you take a Nebbiolo, fortify it to 16.5% and age with herbs like gentiane and spices like coriander. The spices are quite prominent on the nose, but the palate is richly sweet and smooth. Ironically, I think this very left field choice might be the best food match I’ve made at one of these lunches.

We were left to finish with a treat, a favourite producer and a lovely wine – Gewurztraminer SGN “Fronholz” 2007, André Ostertag. Half bottle, 8.5% alcohol, concentrated, balanced sweetness with lychees. A lovely wine. Not really an ideal food match here, but then we’d finished the meal and it was a great way to end it.

So, yet again, we proved how difficult it is to match the product of the fermented grape to Indian cuisine, but at the same time, how easy it is to eat well (in both respects) on The Strand, and equally to get through a few nice bottles on a Friday lunch time.

Posted in Wine, Wine and Food, Wine with Curry | Tagged India Club, Wine For Spice | 3 Comments

A Pest – Decide

Posted on 04/11/2015 by dccrossley

Recently I’ve been writing about different perceptions of wine quality, and especially the emergence of the “natural wine” scene, which puts the philosophy behind the wine at the forefront for consideration when discussing a wine’s quality and qualities. The over arching buzz word of the moment is sustainability, which not only incorporates the aim of not harming the land which provides abundance, but also of not harming those who work the land, and those who consume the fruits of it.

I admit that I’m not committed completely to a natural wine approach to wine consumption. With a reasonable wine collection I’d be missing a lot of pleasurable wine experiences if I ditched every wine which was not at the very least organic. But there’s no doubt that over the past three or four years a few things have happened which have made me think more widely about exactly what I eat and drink, and whether there is any probability that I could be causing myself serious harm by what I consume (though perhaps the elephant in the room there is alcohol itself, but what the hell!). We are also encouraged, by organisations like the Fair Trade brand, to think about workers – their health, rights, levels of remuneration etc. If we are concerned for a coffee producer in Java or a tea picker in Assam, then we should equally be thinking about the guy spraying a vineyard in Languedoc or Maipo.

An article on The Guardian Newspaper Web Site (29 October 2015, by Andrew Wasley and Amanda Chaparro) brought into the mainstream an issue which has been bubbling around the wine press and Web forums for some time – that of pesticide use in vineyards. Wasley and Chaparro point out that France alone (Europe’s largest pesticide user) consumes 60,000 tonnes of pesticides every year. Fewer than 10% of French vineyards are farmed organically, or without the use of synthetic pesticides, and pledges to halve their use by 2018 (from 2008 levels) have proved so unattainable that the French Government has put back this date to 2025.

There is, it should be stated, no direct proof that agro-pesticides used by the wine industry cause cancers and other chronic illnesses, although there are many studies which do appear to point to links. All that could change when a decision is handed down in the case before the French courts of James-Bernard Murat, whose death sparked the first ever criminal investigation into the potential manslaughter of a vineyard worker through pesticide-induced illness. This case is pretty well known in wine circles, but the article suggests more cases could be in the pipeline if this one, brought by Murat’s daughter, is successful. If so, the possibility exists not only for compensation, but for prison sentences to be handed down.

It has been clear to most serious, quality conscious, wine producers for many years now that irrespective of any potential harm which some agro-chemicals could cause to humans (at any level in the chain), they might actually cause harm to the land on which the vine grows. The movement towards organics and biodynamics in France happens to have been taken up enthusiastically by many of the country’s finest producers, unlikely by mere coincidence. Some regions, being warm and dry are well suited to the avoidance of chemical applications against diseases, especially types of rot. But what often surprises observers is how successfully biodynamics has been introduced by the finest domaines in Burgundy, where the climate can be more varied. Even in that conservative, maritime (thereby quite wet) climate of Bordeaux, a few highly regarded estates punching well above their classification, like Pontet-Canet, have embraced the philosophy.

Often, if you ask a producer why biodynamics works, they will not really be able to explain, at least not in a scientific way. It’s not that they (usually) believe some of the more esoteric practices have a demonstrable direct effect. What they are very good at is showing the difference between land farmed with chemicals and their own soils (usually a difference between a hard base, stripped of life other than the vines themselves, compared to soft soil, spongy under foot, and full of diverse life). Biodynamics appears to help and allow an eco system to thrive, be it through vegetation beneficial to microbial activity or benign insect life which helps combat harmful life forms which strike at the vines.

Before I even began thinking about, or reading about, the natural wine movement, I found that by coincidence a lot of the wine I was buying was from producers following a biodynamic regime. It was also more or less mere coincidence that a lot of wines I began to discover in my search for exciting new wines over the past few years were what would describe themselves as “natural wines”. Three French regions which have seen a really dynamic movement of young growers appear in recent years, namely The Loire, Jura and Beaujolais, happen to be hotbeds for natural wines. Likewise some of the most interesting regions of Italy (Piemonte has an increasing number, Sicily a real core of natural wine producers).

There is little doubt that if you want to find excitement in wine, the likelihood is that the wine will be described by someone as “natural wine”, wine made with as few interventions as possible in vineyard and cellar, and certainly without the use of synthetic pesticides. Of course many people see these wines as faulty, and a fashion. That really does remind me, as I’ve noted before, of punk rock when it burst onto the music scene in the 1970s.

But this isn’t really the point of this piece. I just want to draw attention to the questions being asked about the use of synthetic pesticides, and other agro-chemicals. It’s a debate which needs to be aired, which is why it’s so good to see something under the banner of a mainstream broadsheet newspaper rather than merely tucked away in a wine trade publication. My own explanation and comments may be flawed and simplistic, but my object is only to promote more of that discussion.

I remember an Italian winemaker in Emilia-Romagna being asked why he had stopped using chemicals on his vines. His answer – “for my young baby daughter”. That’s very emotive, but I do remember that statement making me stop and think.

So can great wines exist without manipulation by chemical means in the winery, and without the use of synthetic pesticides in the vineyard? Are the risks of losing a crop due to infestation or disease worth it, economically and in terms of wine quality? Or are the risks of continuing to use these products too great? Are we shortsighted in doing so or are we just scaremongering? That is one of the important questions wine consumers need to ask, and indeed the consumers of all agricultural produce – but only a minority appear to be doing so when it comes to wine.

Yet there is one section of society that is thinking about these issues. Remember all those trendy sommeliers introducing weird wines onto their list at the expense of wines that should rightfully be there by their status? Well, they just happen to be likely to work in restaurants where the chefs are meticulous about the ingredients they use in the kitchen. The sommeliers are just learning to do the same with their wine inventory.

No synthetic chemicals were used in the growing of these vines

Posted in Natural Wine, Wine, Wine and Health | Tagged biodynamic wine, Natural Wine, Pesticides and Wine | 4 Comments

Recent Wines (October 2015)

Posted on 01/11/2015 by dccrossley

I rarely write about the wines I drink at home, but in light of the last post, and the one on the Oddities lunch, I thought it might interest or amuse some readers. For some people who I know read this blog it will just seem like the normal run of midweek wines. To others, it may merely confirm me as a lost cause. The following were drunk over the past week-and-a-bit.

Two Swiss wines is unusual, even for me. I love Swiss wines and drink them whenever I can (Alpine Wines is a really good source for UK mail order/online sales). But we were lucky that Swiss friends came to stay recently, generously lugging half-a-dozen bottles in their suitcase (which they replaced on the way back with British beer).

Humagne Rouge du Valais 2014, Lamon & Cie was on paper a cheapish negoce version of a lovely Swiss grape variety capable of quite serious wines on occasion. 13.2% alcohol here (the Swiss tend to go for accuracy), the cherry colour of Gamay, it was both simple and rustic, but in a good way. Smooth on the palate but with a nice bitter finish, it was an excellent glugger. That’s what you want on a dull Tuesday night in October.

Lavaux “Coup de L’Etrier” 2014, Jean & Pierre Testuz looked of a similar type. I’ve enjoyed Testuz wines before and this came in a light bottle with a none too elegant, somewhat old fashioned, label. Yet the wine was delicious. The slopes of Lavaux, and the Crus clinging to steep terraces down to the lake between Montreux and Lausanne, are a UNESCO listed World Heritage Site, and vie for the title of the most beautiful vineyards in Europe. Their wines, however, are not so highly regarded outside Switzerland. In my opinion this is unfair. Chasselas is capable, from these sites, of both flavour and tension, with a sprinkling of carbon dioxide to add a prickly freshness. Citrus and straw with a good touch of quince on the finish. A wine of personality. As I’d not had a Lavaux wine for a good twelve months, my pleasure was all the more pronounced. Not a “fine wine”, but lovely nevertheless.

Beaujolais 2011, Yvon Métras . A producer who needs little introduction, one of the legends of Beaujolais. But in the UK at least, it’s about ten times easier to find Foillard than Métras. This wine looks more like a Burgundian Pinot Noir than Gamay, yet it has a lovely, concentrated, cherry nose bursting from the glass. Note the vintage. The wine (labelled Beaujolais but effectively a “Villages”) is in perfect harmony. This is another wine where the savoury twist on the finish completes a palate which is otherwise pure smooth fruit. Is it serious stuff, good fun, or both? The latter, I think. It suggests there’s no hurry to open any younger bottles…if you can resist them. Masterfully made yet for enjoyment, not intellectual contemplation.

Muscadet de Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie “Cuvée Excellence” 1999, Château du Coing de St-Fiacre . How can this be so good, 1999 Muscadet? There are a few people for whom this is a really stupid question. They have tried the likes of Luneau-Papin’s L D’or bottlings many times. This wine is yellow-gold. The nose is quite suggestive of Riesling, Chenin, and perhaps a little white Rioja. There’s citrus, nougat and curry spice in here, and the palate finishes its mineral journey with a little touch of orange. I only bought this bottle (and one which preceded it) a year ago in London, after someone brought one to one of our Oddities lunches. A treasure as much as any supposedly finer old bottle. These older Muscadets are well worth looking for, and they can still be found at Loire specialists. Complete bargains.

Blaufränkisch “Hochäcker” 2009, Mittelburgenland DAC, Weninger . Weninger, not to be confused with the similarly named Vienna producer, is one of the best producers of Blaufränkisch in Middle Burgenland. I’ve become a big fan of this grape over the past few years. When done well it seems to have the fruitiness of a grape like Gamay with additional savoury depth. This isn’t one of Weninger’s more expensive wines, yet a few years in bottle shows how the grape can develop. There’s characteristic pepper, and brambly fruit, still quite crunchy, but an added leafy complexity. It’s nicely balanced at 13% alcohol. Really hitting its stride. Austria is one of a handful of the most exciting places for wine in Europe at the moment, yet this is not a new producer, nor a new wave wine. Weninger has distilled the best out of Blaufränkisch without trying to make a souped-up oak bomb.

Le Vin des Amis 2014, Vin de France, Mas Coutelou . Jeff Coutelou makes some of the most exciting natural wines in the Languedoc at Puimisson, just north of Béziers. Every different cuvée is really well thought out and lavished with individual attention. Whilst I love his more expensive wines (at least those I’ve tried), the Vin des Amis must be one of the most satisfying wines I’ve drunk this year (2013 and 2014 vintages). Purple, with intense berry fruit, it has a beguiling freshness and even lightness which conceals its 13.5% alcohol. It’s usually a blend of Syrah and Grenache with a good dollop of Cinsault (though I’m guessing there’s no set formula). As the name suggests, it’s not really meant for keeping, though I think a year or so will do no harm whatsoever. We drank this on the first night of winter – well, the day after we put the clocks back. As a wine for pure pleasure it’s exceptional. It is very much one of those wines Pascaline Lepeltier (see previous blog post) describes as a wine for drinking with friends. In essence what wine should be – simple but pure pleasure. Yeah, should’ve bought a case of the ’14.

**The Coutelou wines are available from Roberson. Weninger’s Hochäcker probably came (having aged it a bit myself) from Fortnum & Mason , though Alpine Wines (see below) stock Weninger. The Muscadet was from The Sampler. That 2011 vintage of the Métras was from Solent Cellar. I have bought the 2014 from Vintrepid. Métras may sometimes be available at Roberson. The Swiss wines are unavailable in the UK but Alpine Wines has these bases well covered. In fact, they are a really good source for, especially, Swiss and Austrian wines.

Posted in Swiss Wine, Wine, Wine Tastings | Tagged Alpine Wines, Beaujolais, Blaufränkisch, Coing de St Fiacre, Humagne, Jeff Coutelou, Lavaux, Mas Coutelou, Métras, Muscadet, Roberson, Solent Cellar, Swiss Wine, The Sampler, Vin des Amis, Vintrepid, Weninger | 3 Comments

On Quality…(again…)

Posted on 27/10/2015 by dccrossley

Although I have been banging this drum a bit, it’s hard not to. It’s like a mid-life crisis as all the certainties in wine I believed in seem to be getting replaced by a wholly different philosophy, or at least to a degree. Not that this is bad. Indeed, it’s really exciting.

My thoughts here are occasioned by a piece in World of Fine Wine 49, written by New York Sommelier Pascaline Lepeltier MS (more about her in a moment). It struck a chord, and it confirms that I’m far from the only person developing a new philosophy of wine quality.

When we as individuals measure quality in wine we do it incrementally. What I mean is that we start at the so-called bottom and work our way up. This may begin with wine as a mere alcoholic beverage which we drink at parties for inebriation, and which we may then come to appreciate as an accompaniment for food. Once we take notice of wine for its potential qualities other than the alcohol, we start to explore up a chain which, if we are lucky enough to be moderately well off, in money or friends, might lead us to the established peaks of wine appreciation. Grand Cru Burgundy and Bordeaux, Champagne’s luxury cuvées, perhaps Napa, Brunello, Barolo and Rioja in their finest forms.

If we show a certain spirit of adventure we might explore the best wines of Priorat, Alsace’s Clos St-Hune, Huet’s sweet delights, or perhaps, for the really adventurous the finest wines of Germany via Prüm, Keller and Egon Müller. And for some people, that’s the journey’s end. Satisfied to be home, they happily drink these wines for the rest of their lives. That’s absolutely fine. I’m not knocking it. If I had some Haut-Brion in my cellar I’d be very pleased. But for a few people it’s not the getting there that matters, but the journey…and perhaps this can lead to the discovery that there are other, wider, ways of enjoying the juice we love.

This weekend Marina O’Loughlin, one of the best restaurant critics writing today, published a supplement in the Guardian Newspaper listing her favourite 50 restaurants (although the cover said “Top 50” she did make it clear it was her favourite fifty, something critics failed to take account of). It’s a personal selection, subjectivity at its best rather than cold objective assessment. I wondered about my Top 50 Wines. I could fill such a list with vintages of top Bordeaux alone, but I wouldn’t, and even then something like Chateau Talbot 1978 would make the cut where other more famous names wouldn’t. It’s because a time or a place mean more than clinical analysis, like those old Carpenters’ hits I love because my parents played them endlessly on the car stereo when we drove off on our holidays. The old cliché is true: there are no great wines, only great bottles.

As I’ve said before on this blog, I don’t want to drink the same thing every night. Just as I might prefer to see Luigi Rossi’s Orpheus at the Sam Wanamaker Theatre (as I will later this week) rather than Aïda at the arena in Verona, I might just want to drink something from Burgenland for a change.

But you have to be careful. Drinking widely makes you look at wine in a different way. You look at a wine’s intrinsic qualities and you start to notice a different set standing out rather than those which merely excite high critical scores from the established professionals. Things like purity, freshness and excitement, and even that much abused term sure to bring down ridicule, “honesty”. Thankfully there are others who have come to the same conclusion, and if you are as lucky as I am you find them and become friends. If some of them are wine merchants you have a source for these (often new) wines/producers. And that’s the thing – whole new wine communities are being born which almost completely bypass the old ones.

Back to Pascaline Lepeltier. If you don’t know her name, you may know that of the restaurant where she made it, Rouge Tomate in New York. Rouge Tomate got a name for innovation at the highest level. I’m guessing that some people might stop here and think “ah, yes, he’s going to talk about one of those young New York Somms who have filled their lists with trendy wines from Jura, or unripe Californians”?

Pascaline, as her name might suggest, is French and grew up on the outskirts of Angers. She studied philosophy and, as we all know how conservative these things are in France, was supposed to become a philosophy teacher. Well, to a degree, she did, but in order to teach a different philosophy she had to return to school as a 24-year-old, in a classroom with 16-year-olds, and then fly away to America. That takes a particular dedication and determination.

And what is this philosophy? It’s one of biodiversity and ecology, that great wine is made in the vineyard. Also, that great wine needs not just an understanding of chemistry, biology and economics, but also critical thinking. That critical thinking led to an understanding that the wines she liked best were those which saw the least manipulation. It’s refreshing in a world where fine wine is getting ever more expensive that Pascaline says she found the “wines I felt close to were also very affordable…were made to be drunk among friends, not to be speculated in for financial gain”.

Pascaline moved to America in large part because ten years ago it was clear that France was just not ready for the idea of a female Sommelier (though I think we were a little more open in the UK where some excellent female Somms were already working in London). In New York Rouge Tomate founder Emmanuel Verstraeten gave Pascaline the opportunity she needed, seeing in her the potential to become one of the world’s finest in her trade. Not that there weren’t setbacks – I really can picture the white middle class men telling her to wear makeup and high shoes as feedback when she entered the Best French Sommelier Competition. But working at the red tomato, and with the team working on the Health Through Food Programme, she found a place for the philosophy of wine she’d begun to develop. Wine began to reflect the philosophy behind the food. Her mission was to eliminate the disconnect behind eating sustainable food, and the restaurant’s wine list. Wine can reflect something other than pure economics, often the economics of big business – there can be a connection with place, culture, history too.

What we are talking about here is drinking wines with a story worth listening to. Wines rooted in “place”, made by passionate people. Wines which want to promote personality and individuality above sameness – wines not merely trying to be a better (sic) version of their neighbour’s. This poses a danger. These stories are a marketing man’s bread and butter. It’s very easy to peddle a false tale which portrays a mass-produced wine, available in many thousands of bottles, as the product of the small artisan’s hand, and there are people out there who do just that. They won’t fool the wine obsessive, but they may fool the mildly curious.

That aside, we are beginning to see a parallel universe in wine appreciation. There are those who have deep pockets, or deep cellars, who continue to appreciate old classics, and who cannot see why these young whippersnappers have suddenly made stuff like Natural Wines, Amphora Wines, Californian Trousseau and Catalan Sumoll as fashionable as a beard in Hoxton. But for people who don’t have that sort of wealth or cellar, they are understanding that wine can still be exciting, and what is more, it can be more in tune with a healthy and ecologically aware lifestyle which younger people are increasingly following.

What is interesting for some of us who grew up in that old world of fine wine certainty is that we are also finding that the excitement in all these new wines, made by artisans who have a passion for both their wines, and for the place they grow the grapes, is actually greater than the staid certainties of what we knew before. That doesn’t mean that there are no innovators in the classic regions, far from it with most of them. It just means that after more than thirty years of enjoying wine, people like me can feel young again, enjoying the same kind of excitement as when we tasted our first Australian Chardonnay, or our first bottle of Domaine Dujac.

The explosion of the new is something akin to when Punk Rock burst into our lives in the 1970s. It’s surely no coincidence that so many of the new breed of winemakers express a “punk” ethos and attitude. Punk met with resistance at first but became embedded in the mainstream. It became watered down, yet its finest practitioners are now as firmly set in music history as those who we later, and unfairly, deemed dinosaurs, again slavishly following the fashion of the day. In music I enjoy The Clash and King Crimson, Handel and Berio, and in wine I’m the same, open to what’s good whatever it looks like.

What the producers who follow the philosophies outlined above will achieve will, I think, redefine our perceptions of quality, of what is fine wine. The Periodical in which Pascaline Lepeltier’s article appears may seem a bastion of conservative wine values, but this is very far from the truth. Her article may be preceded by photos from a black tie Penfolds Dinner, but you will also find articles in WFW49 on Arnot-Roberts, “Modest Revolutionaries” (as the heading proclaims) in California, and on one of Galicia’s regions of the moment, Ribeiro, with a photo of the cult producer Emilio Rojo (who would even have heard of this tiny, if exceptional, producer a few years ago?).

No, it’s not just a band of metropolitan wine geeks from Paris to San Francisco who are getting excited by the real “new world” of wine. It’s seeping into the mainstream, like punk on the BBC. There’s no stopping it. Wine did not die when en primeur got stupid. That merely helped us to realise that you don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars on a bottle of wine, but you do have a choice of literally hundreds of bottles which will give you no less enjoyment than those expensive classics. So no need to learn your 1855 Classification any more, just get out there and learn who is truly committed to making the best wine possible from their patch of this planet, in a sustainable way so that we can enjoy it, and our children also.

WHY IS ALL THIS IMPORTANT? Because at the end of the day if there is nothing else besides the classics we can no longer afford, then fine wine appreciation dies along with people like me, for all but a few wealthy collectors. The fact that there is evidently far more to fine wine than the 1855 and the cadastral maps of the Côte d’Or gives us hope that wine will have the capacity to fascinate our children, and perhaps their children, for many decades to come.

The article Sommelier in New York by Pascaline Lepeltier appears in the current edition of World of Fine Wine, WFW49, 2015 Q3 – see www.worldoffinewine.com for details on how to subscribe.

Marina O’Loughlin‘s favourite 50 restaurants in the UK appeared in The Guardian, 24 October 2015. I love the very personal nature of her choices, and in any case, anyone who appreciates the Quality Chop House on London’s Farringdon Road deserves my admiration.

The photos throughout this piece are some of my own favourite wines…but are categorically not intended to mean that they are “The Best”.

Posted in Fine Wine, Philosophy and Wine, Wine, Wine Hobby | Tagged Marina O'Loughlin, New Quality Wines, New Wine Universe, Pascaline Lepeltier MS, Punk Wines, Sommeliers, World of Fine Wine | 10 Comments

Fizz – The Sparkling Wine Show

Posted on 22/10/2015 by dccrossley

My first visit to Fizz, the sparkling wine show put on at Church House within the precincts of Westminster Abbey, sponsored by Glass of Bubbly Magazine. It was nasty and wet yesterday and I had the beginnings of what has become an equally nasty cold, but it was worth dragging myself up to Victoria. I won’t pretend everything I tasted was good, indeed there were some disappointments, not least down to serving temperatures (way too cold in some cases) and bottle condition (too many pours from bottles devoid of bubbles), but equally I made some real discoveries. Excuse me sticking to those, there’s not enough time to moan about the others, though I’ve an idea that a couple of wines in particular were let down by the last of those gripes.

I wanted to hit the English producers – there were a good few on show. Four stood out from what I tasted. I know Bolney Estate very well – I can reach their winery and cellar door in 15 minutes from my home, and I’ve bought several of their wines from Waitrose, including a good few bottles of their still Pinot Noir, this year. I really do need to pay them a proper visit (not just their shop) and devote a separate piece to them. I’ll just mention two wines here. The first was their new release Blanc de Blancs 2010. Great vintage, potentially great wine. It’s actually pretty good now, one of the best wines of the day, but it will surely grow in complexity.

I refused to pass up the opportunity to sip one of my favourite wines of their range, the red sparkling Cuvée Noir. This is a Dornfelder. Think dark brambly fruit with a bitter twist, yet fun and smooth with no rustic edges. I’ve taken this wine to several tastings and lunches and everyone loves it. No one guesses its source.

Bolney are probably a little bit in the shadow of the likes of Ridgeview and Nyetimber, unfairly in my view, yet their Pinot Gris has recently been served to First Class passengers by British Airways. Do seek them out, their top of the range wines, still and sparkling, in particular. And don’t forget to try the Cuvée Noir.

Hampshire’s Meon Valley is home to not one but two of the best English producers on show, but they make contrasting wines. Meonhill was planted in 2004 by Avize Champagne producer, Didier Pierson. The vineyard grows Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and Didier showed his Grande Réserve NV (50:50 PN/Ch), Chardonnay NV and Rosé. The latter is a blend of 50% Ch, 35% PN plus 15% PN as a tank-aged red wine. The Reserve is mainly 2010 base with 2009 and 2008 reserves, whilst the Chardonnay is largely 2009. The key to the wines here is long lees ageing, five years approximately in bottle. The range is quite serious but not lacking freshness. Very good, nicely put together wines.

The wines of Exton Park are quite a contrast. They have 55 acres planted and first came to the market in 2011, the same vintage as Meonhill. I’ve not visited Exton but they do seem to be well funded. The key note in these wines is freshness. Indeed, they really knock you back and have instant appeal.

The Brut Reserve is 60:40 Ch/PN with just 15 months on lees. Cleansing citrus lemon freshness. The Blanc de Noirs (100% PN) is rounder in the mouth but still refreshing. A food wine. A rosé is made from 70% PN with 30% Meunier. It’s the opposite of the Meonhill, being made from gently pressed fruit to give its colour (a press lasting 5-7 hours under nitrogen). It gives it crunchy red fruits.

Exton Park’s rare vintage pink – the pale one

A 2011 Vintage wine is Exton’s first vintage release, just disgorged this March after longer lees ageing. As with the Bolney BdeB, it promises complexity. I was also able to taste a really interesting 2011 vintage pink. Originally winemaker Corinne Seely (of Coates & Seely fame) wanted to make a rosé for owner Malcolm Isaac’s birthday, but a stash was kept to see how it would age. The answer is very well indeed. It hasn’t been commercialised but I understand they will sell some of the 700 bottles they have at Exton Park if anyone is interested.

These are elegant wines with fruit and freshness, seeming to err towards a particular house style, but one which, within the context of quality, should bring wide commercial success.

Last but not least among the English producers, Gusbourne. Although based in Appledore, Kent, Gusbourne owns vineyards across Kent and Sussex. This is increasingly seen as essential for the premium producers in this country, to mitigate frost or rain damage – oh the vagaries of the English summer! This is another producer whose still red Pinot Noir increasingly finds its way into my wine racks, but yesterday they were showing their Brut Reserve, 2010 BdeB and 2012 Rosé. These might be the best known of the English producers on show, and will need no introduction to many readers. But if you’ve not yet come across them, add them to your list.

Away from England I really enjoyed the specific Champagne of Henri Abelé which this Reims house produces from Les-Riceys fruit. The group of small villages called Les Riceys, along with vines in the nearby village of Avirey-Ligney, are two of the secrets of the Côte des Bar sub-region now known as the Barséquenais. They provide some exquisite Pinot Noir fruit, and one or two very famous and exclusive Champagne Houses have contracts down here, though they don’t always trumpet the fact. Les Riceys is also home to another secret, the often hauntingly beautiful and long lived still wine, Rosé des Riceys. But with only fizz on show, this pink Aubois cuvée, “Le Sourire de Reims” was new to me, and on tasting yesterday looks like a wine I’ll seek out for closer examination.

It’s a single vineyard PN which undergoes a very short maceration (36-48 hours), and is then aged for at least ten years – I tasted the 2003. The wine is then not released until it has undergone a further six to 12 months’ post-disgorgement ageing. It has a lovely colour (see above), and real character and personality. Not for those who prefer bland anonymity in their pink Champagne, though.

One of my star finds was lurking on the Vintage Roots stand, the Franciacorta wines of Barone Pizzini. The “Animante” NV is a blend of 78% Ch, 18% PN and 4% Pinot Bianco. It was good but the “Satèn” cuvée was stunningly good, even initially when it was too cold, and as it warmed up it filled the glass with a brilliant nose and amplified complexity. (Satèn means the same as Blanc de Blancs in Franciacorta, and although Pinot Blanc is permitted, the Pizzini Satèn is 100% Chardonnay). The wine’s gentle bead is the result of another Satèn regulated characteristic – the wine is bottled with 4.5 atmospheres of pressure rather than the more usual 6.

I enjoyed the nice Rosato 2011 (100% Pinot Noir), but the Riserva “Bagnadore Pas Dose” 2008 was on a par with the Satèn, and I’m not sure which I liked best. The “Bagnadore” is a 50:50 split between Ch/PN, aged for six years. It’s probably more complex than the Satèn, both being impact wines which seemed to be garnering praise from not just me, but everyone else drawn to the table whilst I was there.

The Pizzini wines were actually recommended to me by Nik Darlington of Red Squirrel (regular readers probably saw my piece on the Red Squirrel portfolio tasting at Black’s Club in Soho a couple of weeks ago). It was good to have the chance to focus just on their sparkling wines, though I didn’t try bottles like their Nantais fizz (aka Sparkling Muscadet) that I already know, good as it is.

Ca’ di Rajo produce a really nice Prosecco Extra Dry by the charmat method of tank fermention usual for this DOC. But they also make a really interesting bottling called “Le Moss”. It’s an unfiltered, bottle fermented, dosage free, frizzante. It has a very autolytic nose, more yeast influenced than fruity. It’s also quite unique on the palate. Whilst the straight Prosecco is the wine with commercial appeal, this “cloudy Prosecco” will appeal to the adventurous. Nik said he thought it’s almost “more like a craft beer than wine”. A great description, and when a lot of “natural wine” tastes a little like cider, even more fitting for an unusual wine which nevertheless does not.

Red Squirrel have a habit of getting me to try a brilliant wine and then telling me they only have four bottles left and I’ll have to wait for the next vintage. Luckily the 2014 vintage of the Vondeling Rurale Méthode Ancestrale Pétillant Naturel from Voor-Paardeberg, South Africa, is on its way. I think this is my first South African pét-nat, and it may even be a South African first. 100% granite-grown Chardonnay is fermented in tank and then transferred to bottle under crown cap, where the fermentation finishes. It has 12% alcohol, and is really “mineral”, clean and refreshing. Very good indeed.

I couldn’t refuse a sip of Red Squirrel’s Cava, Parxet’s Titiana, one of the absolute stars at the previous portfolio tasting. I also tried their good value Champagne, Gratiot-Delugny’s Brut Réserve. This is a Meunier-heavy wine with 20% PN, dosed at around 7-8g/l. Good value if you can find it around £25 retail. Also worth mentioning is the Jus de Raisin Pétillant, an alcohol free sparkling grape juice from Domaine du Landreau (Loire). Quite similar to an alcohol free version of Clairette de Die, quite a bit of sweetness but refreshing too.

ND, MD of RS

Plenty more on show, such as the lovely Lambrusco Reggiano Concerto of Ermete Medici on the Vinumterra stand, and possibly more commercial offerings from Paul Mas, Fortant and Cono Sur, plus some wines I didn’t get round to, such as Louis Bouillot’s Crémants de Bourgogne. I’m also sorry I didn’t have time to visit the Bancroft Wines stand. But a good day’s tasting, and luckily the cold only really kicked in when another delay of 40 minutes on the train sapped my remaining energy. But who would complain after a day out drinking fizz! Not me.

The hall, and, unexpectedly (only just spotted that), a major wine personality

Posted in Wine, Wine Agencies, Wine Merchants, Wine Tastings | Tagged Barone Pizzini Franciacorta, Bolney Estate, Ca' di Rajo Prosecco, Champagne Henri Abelé, Exton Park, Fizz, Glass of Bubbly Magazine, Gusbourne, Meonhill Wines, Parxet Cava, Parxet Titiana, Red Squirrel Wine, South African Pétillant Naturel, Sparkling Wine, Vintage Roots, Vondeling | 2 Comments

Dynamic Day in London

Posted on 20/10/2015 by dccrossley

There is a lot going on in the world of wine in London this week. Monday was no exception, but I’m so glad I decided to choose the trek down to the Spa Terminus for Dynamic Vines‘ 10 Year Anniversary Tasting. Of course, my choice was never in doubt. I wasn’t going to forego the chance to meet up with the people behind two of my favourite producers, Domaine de la Tournelle (Arbois) and Gut Oggau (Oggau, near Rust), though it was also nice to bump into some visitors I didn’t know would be there.

Regular readers will know that Domaine de la Tournelle is one of my favourite Arbois producers, but I do have a habit of visiting the region around harvest time these days, and they are resolutely closed when they need to focus all their energy there. So it was not only really great to taste through a few of a range I know pretty well already, but to say hi to Pascal and Evelyne as well. The Clairets are both two of the most sympa individuals in wine, laid back and friendly, but at the same time determined to make the best wines possible from their eight hectares.

I can recommend all of their wines without hesitation, from the brilliant natural Ploussard “L’Uva Arbosiana” (very light colour, sensual gorgeous fruit) to the complex Vin Jaune 2007 (my first taste of this). Buy from Dynamic, or try them at Antidote restaurant near Carnaby Street (which has been getting a lot of really good press of late). Pascal and Evelyne are partners in this London venture.

Pascal and Evelyne with their 2007 Vin Jaune

If any other domaine has been written about in abundance on this Blog, it is probably Gut Oggau. The domaine with possibly the best wine label concept in the world is run by husband and wife team Stephanie and Eduard Tscheppe-Eselböck in the village of Oggau, just a couple of kilometers north of Rust on the western side of the Neusiedler See. They have literally constructed a family of wines which aim to express terroir (mainly limestone or schist here) over grape variety.

Eduard took me through a good few of the range – a lovely, cloudy, bottle fermented sparkler in the mould of a pét-nat, the fresh white Theodora, the Bertholdi red 2013 (from Blaufrankisch grown on limestone and schist), the Josephine red 2012 from magnum (a blend of the red-fleshed teinturier Roesler with Blaufrankisch grown on limestone) and the wonderful (if presumably rare) sweet version of Josephine. Same grapes as the dry one, 12% alcohol.

Eduard and Stephanie

To read more about why I love these wins so much, see “All’s Gut in Oggau“.

It seems a very long time ago since the very first time I tried the wines of Francis Boulard. Francis at that time made the wines for the family Champagne firm of Raymond Boulard, but in 2009 he struck out on a resolutely natural path with his daughter Delphine, and now also with son, Nicolas. The vineyards in the Saint-Thierry massif, the valley of the Marne, and near Mailly on the Montagne de Reims, approximately just 3 hectares, are, from this year, farmed 100% biodynamically. Since I last tasted Francis’ own wines a couple of years ago they seem to be even better. Complex, mineral but really refreshing, all wines are dosed lightly, and a very strict pruning regime ensures grapes grown even in cooler sites ripen regularly.

Nicolas Boulard

The range kicks off with a NV, Les Murgiers, which comes in both zero-dosage Brut Nature, or Extra Brut (3-5g/l) forms. 70% Meunier, it’s refreshing and clean. First pressing juice is fermented in a variety of sizes of old oak, unergoing batonnage and malo. An excellent aperitif wine.

More serious is the Grand Cru from Mailly. Mainly Pinot Noir with 10% Chardonnay, this also comes as EB or BN, sees wood fermentation and has 30% reserve wines. This wine will accompany food.

The vintage wine on show was the 2006, a stunning vintage making a broad and rich wine whose 3g/l dosage also makes this, when it has aged, a good food wine match, perhaps covering richer dishes than the Mailly.

There was none of Francis’ absolute cracker, Petraea, to taste, but I was able to finish on the Les Rachais Rosé. The white version was Francis’ first biodynamic masterpiece, and it appeared in the book “1001 Wines You Must Try Before You Die” (2008 edn, Quintessence Books, Ed Neil Beckett). The pink was really good. Massale selection Pinot Noir from a sandy/limestone plot on the Massif de Saint-Thierry, it is dosed very low at 2g/l. For me, it could not be a better accompaniment for a side of salmon. There are red and orchard fruits, with peach and apricot, but an additional complexity too in this 2005 version. Delicious.

One of the stars of the Dynamic Vines range, albeit made up of delicious but expensive bottles, is Emidio Pepe, who will need no introduction to the more up-to-date followers of the Italian wine scene. The Pepe family has been active in the Abruzzo hills since 1899, but Emidio founded the domaine of his name in 1964. Three generations of Pepes now work this 15 hectare estate around the foot of the Gran Sasso mountain.

The whites on show included my favourite, the Pecorino 2012 (£60), which is totally unlike any Pecorino you’ll find elsewhere. Complex notes of curry spice and a wonderful mouthfeel make this a must try if you can afford a bottle. I’ll admit that none of the Pepe wines are cheap. The lovely Trebbiano d’Abruzzo 2012 seems restrained after the Pecorino but is no less fine. For many, the star of the range is the red Montepulciano d’Abruzzo. This was available to taste in 2012, 2003 and 2000 vintages. The 2000 is a very fine wine, but it will keep for a lot longer. Dynamic actually have a host of back vintages available, if at serious prices, going back to the 1970 Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Riserva (£646). I’m guessing that’s one amazing wine!

If I write about any more wines in detail I may lose the reader, but there are a few names worth exploring. You’ll probably know that I think Savoie is about to make an appearance and I tried two good producers – Domaine Giachino, whose attractively labelled wines impressed a lot for their lightness/freshness, and Domaine Prieure Saint Christophe, whose winemaker, Michel Grisard, is known as the Pope of Mondeuse (why always “Pope” in France!). He showed some older Mondeuse from 2009 and 2005, from tank, old wood and a new wood cuvée, but he also makes a good Persan and some nice whites.

Dynamic Vines combine big name producers (Josmeyer, Radikon, Nicolas & Virginie Joly) with the new stars of natural wine (Julien Courtois, Emmanuel Giboulet), alongside some producers whose star has not yet risen above the wine press radar quite so much (Domaine de Velloux, Anthony Thevenet, Le Casot de Mailloles). Whatever your taste, if it is of the “natural” persuasion then Dynamic’s range will have something you’ve never tried before. Judging by the positive responses I was hearing, you may find a few of them in an independent wine merchant near you very soon. I hope so.

Posted in Austria, Jura, Natural Wine, Wine, Wine Agencies, Wine Merchants, Wine Tastings | Tagged Domaine de la Tournelle, Domaine Giachino, Dynamic Vines, Emidio Pepe, Francis Boulard, Gut Oggau, Natural Wine, Prieure Saint Christophe | 4 Comments

SHOddities – Reaching Perfection in Food and Wine

Posted on 17/10/2015 by dccrossley

Whilst Oddities, our tasting lunches at Rochelle Canteen, have previously elicited a random selection of wines in terms of geography, we decided to focus this one on the Southern Hemisphere (hence the “SH”). The wines were as far from “shoddy” as you could get. Indeed, many attendees felt this was our best yet (they said that last time). It may have been helped by the decision to go with a sharing menu which, for a main course provided a very large shoulder of braised lamb of such exquisite quality it brought some of us close to tears…and bursting. Served with a potato gratin, it was preceded by a crab salad and broccoli starter and followed by an apple and blackberry crumble, also magnificent. The lamb truly highlighted the careful sourcing of meat at Rochelle Canteen. We loved it to bits.

Note the near religious expectation of the main course

The wines were too good not to mention them all, though I’ll keep the notes short for each. If some don’t seem as “odd” as usual, I think that’s a good thing. The quality was pretty high and the bar will be difficult to leap when we next meet in December. All wines served blind.

Damien Tscharke “Eva” Savagnin Frizzante 2014, Barossa and Girl Talk Savagnin 2012, Barossa

Two Barossan wines which could not have been less Barossan, to be honest. The low alcohol (7%) frizzante 2014 was fresh and grapey. We all assumed it was a Moscato, but it was indeed made from the same grape as the second Tscharke wine, once thought to be Albarinho. Neither tasted remotely like a Jura Savagnin. The dry still wine was fresh and light, if lacking in a surfeit of character, both wines being nevertheless clean and fresh and a fitting aperitif.

Farrago Chardonnay 2010, Kooyong, Mornington Peninsula

I did eventually get this, Kooyong being one of my favourite Mornington producers. It’s not especially Chardonnay-like at first, in a New World context. It has that great freshness which the marginal climate of Victoria’s Mornington benefits (or suffers?) from. Not an odd wine, indeed a very good wine, but one which deserves to come up when naming the top Aussie Chardonnays, for sure. 13.5%. For me, one of Australia’s purest Chardonnays.

Boekenhoutskloof “Experimental Production” 2004, Cape

Not sure exactly where Mark Kent got his grapes for this from. As the label says, 45% Grenache Blanc, 33% Sémillon, 22% Viognier with 200% new oak. This was left and aged slightly oxidatively and bottled in 2010. A really fine and complex wine, not at all overburdened by oxidative notes, nor by oak. Very nice, harmonious, and serious.

‘T Voetpad White Blend 2013, Eben Sadie, Swartland

A blend of Chenin, Palomino, Muscat and Sémillon, 14% alcohol so quite big and young, but another really classy wine which was nevertheless in balance. A really nice example of why Eben Sadie is a master, blending seemingly disparate varieties into something finer than its constituent parts. One of the Sadie Family’s Old Vine Series.

Ochota Barrels “5VOV” Basket Range Chardonnay 2014, Adelaide Hills

Fewer than 400 bottles of this were made (ours was numbered 240). Just 12.4% alcohol, a portion of this was aged under flor giving it a lovely slightly nutty complexity without a full-on Jura-like tang. A lovely wine, potentially slightly lost after the previous two whites initially, but coming back to it, I wanted to glug a bottle in isolation. A nice hint of salinity cleaned the palate for the half time break and the reds.

“Little One” Basket Range Petit Verdot 2014, Gentle Folk Wines, Adelaide Hills

The reds began with a real cracker, a wine I’d not heard of. My initial thought was “tannic Gamay”, but it turned out to be yet another wine from this exciting region of South Australia, one of my Wines of the Day, and a couple of people had this as their top wine. Truly delicious, and as my co-organiser said on Twitter, “would never have guessed Petit Verdot”. The man who brought it described it as “breezy”, very apt, Tony. Gentle Folk Wines are a bit of an enigma, see their web site here to see whether you can glean any more information than I did. One to seek out. Brought in by Les Caves de Pyrene, I’m told.

McWilliam’s Private Bin 35 Claret 1967, Riverina

I remember on my first, late 80s, visit to Australia tasting some lovely old wines at McWilliam’s Hunter Valley winery. It was a sheer treat to have the privilege of tasting this beauty from Hanwood, in the far north of NSW. Very much an old wine, brick red as the photo shows, but still haunting and by no means dead. 26 fluid ounces on the bottle, imported (but probably bottled at source) by Avery’s. Wow!

Pinotage 2010, Kidnapper Cliffs, Hawkes Bay

Our first New Zealand wine, which surprised me a little. I once had a New Zealand Pinotage many years ago, possibly made by Nick Nobilo, though I may well be wrong about the maker. But there certainly is some planted, both in Hawkes Bay, and up around Auckland. These vines were previously bottled under the Te Awa label. I believe Te Awa own Kidnapper Cliffs. Another wine where it became pretty difficult to spot the grape variety, though spotting Pinotage would not be one of my strengths. Why difficult? Well, it was certainly very good, but it had something quite Syrah-like about it. Strange, given its location in prime Syrah territory.

Rutherglen Shiraz-Durif 2009, Stanton & Killeen

A big boy, for sure, but beginning to resolve nicely into a wine with a smooth palate of rounded fruit and a nice meaty texture, with a nose to go with it. This had been re-decanted into another bottle so I didn’t get the alcohol, but it was no shy and retiring type. I think the wine reflects the Australian chap who brought it very well (meant as a compliment, Max).

Meerlust Rubicon 2001, Stellenbosch

Not an “oddity” as such, but yet how often do we get to drink wines like this at maturity? I was concerned (my wine, this one) when I looked at some recent notes on Cellartracker ranging from mild disappointment to “drink up now”. I don’t think this bottle fitted those concerning descriptions, most attendees yesterday suggesting it had plenty of time to run. I’m pretty pleased I didn’t substitute another. The blend of the three main Bordeaux varieties probably made it one of the best matches for the lamb shoulder, but it really did have a sort of claret-like quality to it as well. Not quite wine of the day, but for me it performed well above internet-fuelled expectations.

Sparkling Shiraz 1994, Great Western, Seppelt

The key, again, to the oddness of this wine is its vintage. Age had mellowed it. It was served technically too cold, but in some ways that worked out well. It was surprisingly refreshing to begin with, but changed and became more complex (in a Sparkling Shiraz context, of course) as it warmed.

Joseph The Fronti III, Primo Estate, Soth Australia

Our first dessert wine hailed from the company famous for its Moda Amarone (sic), made from Cabernet and Merlot fruit grown in Clarendon and McLaren Vale. Primo Estate‘s “The Fronti” is a rare and unusual fortified (18.5%), blending Muscats of varying types from Rutherglen, Barossa, McLaren Vale and the estate’s own Virginia Vineyard. I understand that there have been six releases in the past 30 years, I-VI. This No. III reputedly contains wines up to 130 years old, though its base is Joe Grilli’s 1981 Frontignac. An exceptional wine which wears its alcohol level very well – you might almost think twice as to whether it is fortified, so seamless is its structure. Long on the palate as the legs on the glass, and lovely.

Mazuran’s Old Tawny Port NV, Auckland

This really stumped us. Brown as a Rutherglen Muscat, sweet and sticky as a sticky toffee pudding, it’s made from some unknown and non-vinifera vine varieties grown up in humid north of New Zealand, very probably the reason for such vine plantings. Fortified to 19%, wines aged for 40-years and made by a company, Mazuran‘s, which, to be honest, no-one today is listing among their most well known New Zealand wineries. Those who had heard of this Henderson producer asked whether they were still going (they were founded in 1938, by Croatian emigré George Mazuran). I’m glad they are. It just goes to show that sometimes you can indeed make a silk purse from a supposed sow’s ear of vines. One key to the quality of this wine may be that Mazaran claim to be the only NZ winery distilling their own spirit for fortification.

Several wines today were certainly “odd”, others less so, but I’m hard pushed to say that many stood head and shoulders over the rest in terms of both quality and enjoyment, all being pretty excellent. For myself, of the whites the Sadie and Mark Kent’s experiment thrilled me, the Petit Verdot was really nice as a stunningly good every day wine, and the McWilliam’s brought back very happy memories in a roundabout way. Another great Oddities. The stickies both had that warming quality all good stickies have, pure sensual pleasure, which with the food and company summed up the day.

Some of the odd people who attend these lunches

All but two of the empties

Posted in Wine, Wine and Food, Wine Tastings | Tagged 'T Voetpad, Adelaide Hills, Australian Wines, Basket Range, Boekenhoutskloof, Damien Tscharke, Eben Sadie, Gentle Folk Wines, Kidnapper Cliffs, Kooyong, Mazuran's Old Tawny Port, McWilliam's Claret, Meerlust Rubicon, Ochota Barrels, Oddities Lunches, Primo Estate, Rochelle Canteen, Rutherglen, Seppelt, Southern Hemisphere Wines, Sparkling Shiraz, Stanton & Killeen, The Fronti | 1 Comment

David Crossley's Wide World of Wine

Burgundy 2005 at QCH

Perfect Antidote (To Boring Wines)

How the Other Half Leflaives

Spice Up Your Life

A Pest – Decide

Recent Wines (October 2015)

On Quality…(again…)

Fizz – The Sparkling Wine Show

Dynamic Day in London

SHOddities – Reaching Perfection in Food and Wine

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