Champagne: The lie of the land

by Neel Burton and James Flewellen

Last week’s post gave a historical overview of champagne. In this article we cover the geographical nature of the Champagne region including grape varieties grown. Next week we will focus on the method of champagne production.

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Pinot Meunier grapes in Champagne (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The three grape varieties used in making champagne are Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier. All three grape varieties are planted across the Champagne AOC, which is the only major single-appellation region in France. This region is located about 85km northeast of Paris at latitude 49-50° North, that is, at the northerly extreme of wine making. The climate is marginal with a mean annual temperature of 10°C and all the problems that this entails, such as severe winters, spring frosts, coulure, millerandage, and hail. Nonetheless, the chalk subsoil is good at retaining the sun’s heat. It is also good at retaining water, which is relatively scarce, and accommodates the cool and damp cellars in which the wines are made and aged. The vineyards themselves predominantly face south, east, and southeast on gently undulating to moderately steep terrain that combines high sun exposure with good drainage.

A brief history of champagne

by Neel Burton and James Flewellen

Champagne served in the now-traditional flutes. (Photo credit: chrischapman)

Early sparkling wines were produced by the méthode ancestrale, with the carbon dioxide gas arising from fermentation in the bottle. The méthode ancestrale is still used in certain parts of France such as in Gaillac and Limoux in the Languedoc. But as the lees (accumulations of dead or residual yeast) are not removed from the bottle, the end product can be quite cloudy.

Historically in the Champagne, cold weather halted fermentation, which then restarted in the spring. If the wine had been bottled, the carbon dioxide gas produced by this second fermentation of sorts often shattered the bottle. And if the bottle survived intact, the result was a sparkling wine more or less similar to modern champagne. However, the Champenois considered this sparkling wine to be faulty, and even called it vin du diable (devil’s wine).

In contrast to the Champenois, the British acquired a certain taste for this accidentally sparkling wine and eventually introduced the fashion into the court of Versailles, then under the regency (1715-23) of Philippe II, duc d’Orléans. The Champenois rose to meet the increasing demand for the sparkling wine, but they found it difficult to control the process and could not source bottles strong enough to reliably withstand the pressure.

The solutions to these problems came not from Champagne but from across the Channel. In 1662 Christopher Merret FRS presented a paper in which he correctly maintained that any wine could be made sparkling by the addition of sugar prior to bottling, and it is very likely that the English were making the wine of Champagne sparkle long before the Champenois. English glassmakers of the 17^thcentury used coal- rather than wood-fired ovens that resulted in a stronger glass and stronger bottles. The English also rediscovered the use of cork stoppers (lost after the fall of the Roman Empire), which provided an airtight closure with which to cap their stronger bottles and seal in the sparkle.

Dom Pérignon

Six years after Merret presented his paper, Dom Pérignon (pictured) was appointed cellar master at the Benedictine Abbey at Hautvillers. Dom Pérignon thought of sparkling wine as faulty wine, and recommended using the pinot noir grape to minimize the tendency to sparkle. At the same time, he greatly improved practices of viticulture, harvesting, and vinification, and thereby modernized the production of the wines that became modern champagne. For example, he advocated aggressive pruning and smaller yields, early-morning harvesting, the rejection of bruised or broken grapes, rapid pressing to minimize skin contact, and the discarding of the fourth and fifth presses (the so-called vin de taille and vin de pressoir).

Until the early 19^th century, champagne producers did not remove the lees from the bottle. This spared any sparkle from being lost, but could make for quite a cloudy and unpleasant wine. The veuve (widow) Cliquot and her cellar master addressed this problem by developing the process of riddling to remove the lees with minimal loss of sparkle. This process, which is still in use, involves progressively moving the lees into the neck of the bottle and then ejecting it under the pressure of the wine.

The small amount of wine that is lost through riddling came to be replaced by a varying mixture of sugar and wine called the dosage, which then as today very much determined the final style of the wine. Throughout most of the 19^th century, champagne was very sweet, and champagne destined for the Russian market was sweetest of all with as much as 250-330 grams of sugar. At the other end of the scale, champagne destined for the English market contained ‘only’ 22-66 grams of sugar. Today, brut with only 6-15 grams of sugar is by far the most popular style of champagne, and doux, the sweetest style of champagne, can contain as little as 50 grams of sugar.

Vineyards in Champagne.

Following the ravages inflicted by the phylloxera epidemic in the late 19^th century and a seemingly endless series of poor vintages, riots erupted in January 1911. Some producers had been making faux champagne with grapes from other French regions, and the Champenois grape growers intercepted the trucks carrying these grapes and dumped the grapes into the River Marne. To pacify them, the French government attempted to delimit the Champagne region, but the exclusion and then inclusion of the Aube provoked further riots which might have degenerated into civil war had they not been cut short by the outbreak of World War I. The Great War brought severe destruction to many buildings and vineyards, and some Champenois took refuge in the famous chalk cellars or crayères which are used to store and age champagne.

The Champenois had barely begun to recover from the wounds of war when the lucrative Russian market was lost to the Bolshevik Revolution, and then the US market to the declaration of prohibition. The Great Depression also hit sales, as did the advent of World War II. Since the end of World War II champagne has been in ever increasing demand. This has led not only to a quadrupling of production to over 200 million bottles per year, but also to a great number of imitators throughout France, Europe, and the New World and, back at home, to a controversial expansion of the Champagne vineyards…

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Dr Neel Burton is a writer and wine-lover who lives and teaches in Oxford. He runs the Oxford Wine Academy with James Flewellen. Through the Oxford Wine Academy, they are available for wine consultancy and for animating tastings in the UK and abroad.

Pewsey Vale Riesling 2011 and Thai Green Curry

Every fortnight or so, time permitting, I challenge myself to make a new dish and find a wine to pair it with. This week was a Thai Green Curry paired with Pewsey Vale Riesling 2011 from the Eden Valley, South Australia. The Pewsey Vale vineyard is a stunning site – actually perched high above the Eden Valley floor in a craggy, windy and exposed location. Although blessed with abundant sunshine, the vines need to work very hard to produce fruit in the lean soil and against the wind. This results in fruit of exceptional quality and concentration, which comes through in the wine.

The Pewsey Vale Vineyard in Eden Valley. © James Flewellen

The wine was intensely aromatic, but with a more restrained fruit profile than what I’ve come to expect from many South Australian Rieslings. There was a fresh lime character, green apple and floral notes, and a hint of cream: overall blended into an intense profile of many subtle aromas. The wine showed a classic dry Riesling structure on the palate – bone dry with high acidity, medium alcohol (12.5% and very well integrated), no oak, a moderate-weight body and a long finish. In terms of flavours, the mid-palate comes across with great intensity, although it’s hard to describe exactly what you’re tasting. Yes, there are notes of lime and green apple riding along a creamy texture, but also enigmatic ‘minerally’ flavours – a bit like sucking on a stone, in the nicest possible way! The longer you leave the wine in your mouth, the more this complex mineral character is drawn out.

I like this wine because it’s not a typical Aussie ‘blockbuster’. It doesn’t immediately announce its flavour or aroma profile to you – it’s far more elusive than that. I had to work hard to eke out all the flavours here, although it certainly didn’t take me long to enjoy the wine!

And as for the food… I ended the curry with a squeeze of fresh lime juice (in part to make up for the absence of kaffir lime leaves: I’m still struggling to find where to buy these in Oxford!). This, I thought, complemented the lime/green apple fruit profile of the wine rather nicely. The body of the wine held its own against the spice and the acidity cut through the creamy coconut milk base of the dish.

Pewsey Vale Riesling 2011 with Thai Green Curry

Thai Green Curry

Here’s my recipe for the Thai Green Curry (it’s a ‘demitarian’ version, with only a little bit of meat and lots of veges):

 

Curry paste

Lightly toast 1 teaspoon each of coriander and cumin seeds until fragrant. Crush with mortar and pestle (or flat of broad knife) then place in a blender with: 2 roughly chopped shallots, 4 roughly chopped cloves garlic, big chunk (at least as big as your thumb) of ginger (peeled and grated), 6 green chillies (mine weren’t especially hot, so adjust to taste), 1 stick of lemongrass with hard exterior removed, crushed lightly with a rolling pin then chopped finely, zest and juice of one lime, 1 tablespoon fish sauce, roughly ground black pepper and a big handful of coriander leaves and stalks. I added a few tablespoons peanut oil and then a little bit of coconut milk to provide a liquid base to aid the blending. Blend until smooth.

 

Curry

Add a splash of peanut (or other vege) oil to a large saucepan over a reasonably high heat. Add 3 large tablespoons of the curry paste, 1 tablespoon brown sugar and another stick of lemongrass that’s been lightly crushed and chopped. Stir for a minute or so.

Add one diced chicken breast, stir for a minute or so until chicken is cooked on the outside. Turn down the heat to medium and add any ‘hard’ vegetables you’re using. I added chopped button mushrooms, snow peas and baby corn to begin with. Then add 400ml of coconut milk, 200ml chicken stock (more if you have lots of vegetables) and a splash of fish sauce and allow to simmer for around 20 minutes. At some stage add any more vegetables depending on how long they take to cook through. For instance, I added sliced capsicum about 10 minutes after the liquid.

The curry should thicken slightly with simmering. Taste the curry and add more paste and fish sauce if you wish. Add the juice of another lime and stir through a handful of chopped coriander and basil leaves. 

 

Serve with jasmine rice and your favourite Riesling!

Oxford win 60th Varsity Blind Tasting Match

Last week an Oxford team of blind wine tasters successfully defended their title against Cambridge University in the annual Varsity Blind Tasting match. To add to the magnitude of the occasion, this year was the 60th anniversary of the competition, which is one of the oldest blind tasting matches in the world.

Unfortunately, I was not involved in the competition this year, having reached the limit of my opportunities to compete. (Although you can read my reports on previous competitions here and here.) I did manage to make the reception hosted by sponsors Pol Roger Champagne held a few days later in Bonhams Auctioneers in London in honour of the 60th anniversary. Hundreds of former blind tasters were in attendance, including a few who competed in the very first match in 1953!

The event has duly received a lot of media attention. In particular, there is an amusing article by Scott Sayare in the New York Times and an online video courtesy of the Wall Street Journal. The Drinks Business also has an article, and Jancis Robinson usually posts something on the Financial Times so stay tuned for that.

The Oxford team will now begin preparations for the international round of the Pol Roger Cup, held in Epernay over the summer, as well as other international tasting competitions in France, which will feature university teams from the UK, the Continent, China and the USA. Many congratulations and best wishes for the competitions ahead!

Wine tasting in Waipara

About 45 minutes drive north of my hometown of Christchurch, NZ, lies the North Canterbury wine region of the Waipara Valley. The valley is nestled between the Teviotdale Hills, which shelter the region from the cool Pacific, and the foothills of the Southern Alps. The everchanging interplay of light and shadow on these surrounding hills and the immense Cantabrian skies make this one of my favourite places to visit.

New Zealand’s wine industry is still very young (about 30 years) by global standards, yet the Waipara region has been recognised for less than half of that. While there are some well-established names in the area (Pegasus Bay, for instance), many of the wineries have only been around a decade or so, and a whole host have sprung up in the last two or three years. I’ve long been impressed with the quality of wine issuing from Waipara’s small-scale, boutique wineries. A recent visit over the New Year reconfirmed for me why this spectacular region is receiving a surge of interest and that the future looks stellar for quality wine production.

Inasmuch as such a young region can be ‘known’ for a particular style of wine, Waipara is fast becoming a home to Riesling in New Zealand, an alternative base for Pinot Noir, and a lighter, less pungent style of Sauvignon Blanc. Chardonnay is also planted and there are small plantings of other reds including Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec.

Unfortunately, my visit coincided with a public holiday, so I was unable to see many of the region’s top wineries on this trip; however, we had a lovely tasting and lunch at well-established winery Waipara Springs, newcomer Black Estate wines opened their doors up especially for us, and a trip to a family friend’s farm at Limestone Hills resulted in a tasting of their very small-scale (and delicious) Syrah and seeing a champion truffle-sniffing dog in action!

Waipara Springs

Waipara Springs is one of the more established wineries in the region. They have a well-equipped tasting room and a charming garden restaurant serving delicious food designed to match with their own wines. Waipara Springs produces a wide variety of styles. I was most impressed with their 2012 Sauvignon Blanc, which was very smartly-made, melding fresh gooseberry and passionfruit flavours with a high-acid, dry palate and a long, lemony finish.

The ‘Premo’ series wines all showed great character and were a significant step up in quality from the house wines. The Premo Riesling, 2008, showed toffee notes of bottle age, zesty lime fruit, and was medium-sweet. Quite a full, luscious  body for a lowish alcohol wine and a refreshing tartness to the finish. The Premo Chardonnay, 2011, I found to be a rather light, elegant wine. Perhaps not one for those who like their Chardonnays to be bold and assertive, but a very pleasing wine nonetheless. The Premo Pinot Noir, 2010, seemed to me to have a bit much oak on the nose; the wine is aged in French oak for about 15 months, 20% of the barrels are new wood. But this is something that will resolve with time. Otherwise, the wine showed lovely concentration of dark plum fruit on the nose, an appealing sour cherry palate with green, herbal notes, crisp acidity and finely-etched tannins.

You can find a list of Waipara Springs’ overseas distributors here.

Black Estate

While the Black Estate winery and cellar door is reasonably new, the site was planted in 1993 with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The purchase of the estate by the Naish family in 2007 has seen the estate extend its plantings, with a constant eye on terroir and what the soil and mesoclimate bring to the wine. Their first Riesling release was in 2008, and I tried their 2011 incarnation. A beautiful nose with lime blossom, cream, mint leaf and sage was followed up by a rather intense lime sorbet palate. Crisp acidity was balanced nicely by the off-dry sweetness; medium alcohol (11%) and a medium length, but very pleasant finish.

Interestingly, the winery releases two different Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs: Black Estate and Omihi Series. Each comes from separate plantings with artisanal winemaking techniques (such as foot treading, and avoiding pumping) designed to bring out the terroir character in each wine. I enjoyed all of the wines and it was fascinating to see the difference the vineyards made. The Omihi Series Chardonnay, 2011, was a lean, delicate and very well-balanced wine. I discerned lighter, floral notes, with apple, cream and some truffle hints on the nose. By contrast, the Black Estate Chardonnay, 2011, had more apricot and peach notes on the nose and a heavier, more rounded body.

The Omihi Series Pinot Noir, 2010, was very aromatic, with a bright slightly estery, raspberry note along with hints of mushroom. The palate began with this bright fruit character and evolved savoury, stemmy notes all the way through to a crunchy, firm yet quite finely-etched tannic finish. Delicious, though my one criticism was the finish came through a bit hot. The Black Estate Pinot Noir, 2010, had more boysenberry on the nose, was less estery, with appealingly Burgundian ‘cooked carrot’ and white pepper hints. The palate showed a riper entry than the Omihi, with less of a progression to savoury (at least at this stage in its evolution); however, a slightly fuller, ‘gutsier’ body I felt balanced the alcohol on the finish more.

Black Estate wines are imported to the UK by Lea & Sandeman.

Limestone Hills

A highlight of the day was seeing Rosie the truffle-snuffler unearth an enormous truffle at the Limestone Hills farm. Well, I thought it was enormous, though Gareth Renowden, our host, assured me it was probably only a about 200 grams and therefore just a ‘medium sized one’! Gareth also grows Pinot Noir and Syrah grapes for his own wine made in vanishingly small quantities. I tasted the 2011 Limestone Hills Syrah and found a very interesting complex nose: black plum and berry fruit with medicinal, peppery hints alongside lavender and manuka honey. The palate showed only a medium body – a far cry from the full-bodied Shiraz of much of Australia, and even lighter than many Northern Rhone examples. Green, herbal flavours came through on the palate with a rich concentration of spicy strawberry and peppery plum. The wine had moderate acid, well-integrated alcohol and the classic, ‘ragged’-textured tannin profile I associate with Syrah. Overall a fascinating and very palatable wine.

Rosie the champion truffle-snuffler unearths some black gold at Limestone Hills farm.

Waipara certainly is a region to watch in the very near future. One of the risks with hyped-up new regions is that many people can flock to invest there, resulting in huge increases in quantity and a dramatic decrease in average quality. However, as Bob Campbell MW suggests in this article, the difficulty of securing reliable yields in Waipara means that viticulturists and winemakers really do need to focus on quality to bring about a return. Long may this continue!

This post also appears on the international gastronome site, The Rambing Epicure.

James Flewellen’s Top Wines of 2012

A recent post by my friend Tom Parker on his top wines of the last year inspired me to go through my notes to consider the same question. Wine tasting being the highly subjective and opinionated business that it is, it is nigh on impossible to narrow down a list of the best wines one has tasted in a year. Thus, I’ll go for the most enjoyable wines I can recall from the past 12 months.

Enjoyment of wine is predicated on many things other than the quality of the wine itself – the situation, the company, your frame of mind, for instance. And I’ve found that tasting great wines in a sterile, academic or commercial setting doesn’t really do justice to the mystic and sublime essence of a magical beverage. I’ve tried to take these factors into account in my list, as well as reflecting a range of styles and the locations I’ve visited throughout the year.

So, in no particular order:

Pewsey Vale vineyard, Eden Valley.

1. Pewsey Vale ‘The Contours’ Riesling 2006. Eden Valley, South Australia.

A beautiful wine from a beautiful place. ‘The Contours’ is made from the best fruit in one tiny sub-plot from the Pewsey Vale vineyard high above the Eden Valley floor. 2006 was the most recent release at the time. Lively lime,  blossom and tertiary notes developing. Refreshing and elegant.

2. Bollinger Grande Année 2002. Champagne, France.

I love rich champagne styles and Bollinger is always a sure performer for me in this regard. The superb 2002 vintage brings even more leanness and length to this wine. Still a baby in drinking terms but very hard to resist!

3. Brokenwood ‘The Graveyard’ Shiraz 2001. Hunter Valley, NSW, Australia.

Hunter Valley Shiraz is so unlike the jammy Barossan ‘fruit bombs’ that most outside of Sydney associate with Aussie Shiraz. It can be wonderfully complex, earthy and Hermitage-esque. ‘The Graveyard’ is one of the best, and it was a rare privilege to taste such a great wine at an age it deserved to be drunk.

4. Langmeil ‘The Freedom 1843’ Shiraz 2009. Barossa, South Australia.

Tiny amounts of this wine are made from one of the oldest plots of vines remaining in the world. 1843 refers to the year of planting. This wine is nothing like any Barossa Shiraz I’ve ever tasted. Incredibly concentrated and animally. Far too young at three years old, but an amazing wine to experience nonetheless.

Ancient Shiraz vine in Langmeil’s 1843 Freedom vineyard.

5. Cornas, Les Grandes Terrasses, Paul Jaboulet Aîné, 2001, Northern Rhône, France.

Rounding out a trio of Shiraz/Syrah: I showed this wine at a recent tasting in Oxford and was mightily impressed by its length, complexity and great value for money. Drinking very well now.

6. Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 2010 (barrel sample). Margaret River, Western Australia.

The most enjoyable barrel sample I’ve ever tasted. The wine had been blended from the individually-aged parcels and was into its second round of oaking. Incredibly taut, balanced and complex. Brimming with potential.

7. Phélan Ségur 1996. St Estèphe, Bordeaux, France.

During a trip to Bordeaux over the summer, Phélan stood out for their hospitality, their obvious attention to detail in the winery, and their delicious wines. We were so impressed that a friend hosted a mini-vertical of Phélan later in the year. The ’96 was the most mature, complex and enjoyable of these, although many of the other vintages will get there in time.

With David Ling at Hugel following a portfolio tasting.

8. Hugel Pinot Gris Sélection de Grains Nobles 1976. Alsace, France.

One of the most astonishing dessert wines I’ve ever had. Pulled completely out of the bag during a visit to the charming Hugel property in Riquewihr. Endless length and complexity and a beautiful balance between sweetness, acidity and the perceived dryness all great dessert wines get with age.

9. Pirinoa Road Reserve Pinot Noir 2008. Martinborough, New Zealand.

A brilliant pretender to the Burgundian crown of Pinot supremacy. Great balance between lively red fruit, floral overtones and meaty depths. Still young but starting to develop delicious tertiary character.

10. Marie-Thèrese Chappaz Grain d’Or 2010. Valais, Switzerland.

A fascinating and unusual wine. Marie-Thèrese Chappaz makes extraordinary wines from her vantage point in some of the world’s steepest vineyards overlooking the Rhône River in Switzerland. This wine is mostly Marsanne, from gnarly 90-year-old vines (with a good claim to being the oldest in Switzerland), and spends 18 months in barrel. Still too young, but it’s so hard to get your hands on a mature example of these wines – they are all sold in person every year in May at the winery!

Grain d’Or at the Chappaz vineyard in Valais.

Commended

Jansz Traditional Method Sparkling. Tasmania, Australia. When my budget won’t extend to champagne or English Sparkling, Jansz is my delicious, great value fallback option.

Three Choirs Midsummer Hill, 2011. Gloucestershire, England. Brilliant value, light, fruity English offering.

Macrocarpa Pinot Gris, 2011. Marlborough, New Zealand. Lovely single vineyard expression of Pinot Gris firmly in the Alsatian mould.

The Lane Chardonnay 2009. Adelaide Hills, South Australia. Delicious Chardonnay with judicious and balanced use of oak. Went with a delicious lunch at the winery.

McGuigan Semillon Bin 9000 1997. Hunter Valley, NSW, Australia. Hunter Valley Semillon is certainly one of Australia’s great gifts to the world of wine. Lovely to taste one with significant bottle age to bring out the subtle tarragon and nutty notes.

Duas Pedras 2009. Alentejo, Portugal. Touriga Nacional blended with Syrah, this is a powerful, rewarding wine that needs decanting in advance and has become one of my staple reds.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and holiday season with plenty of good cheer and fine bottles. I’m not yet sure what I’ll be drinking on Christmas Day, but I have a feeling I’ll stick to my favourites: something French, something Kiwi, something sparkling, something Pinot…

This post also appears on the Rambling Epicure international real-food site.

A brief introduction to fine wine at Lincoln College

I recently presented a tasting for the Lincoln College graduate students. We covered three different white wines, three reds and a dessert wine, all tasted blind to begin with. Here’s a précis of some of the tasting information covered along with my brief notes on each wine.

Lincoln College in Autumn

A very brief guide to tasting wine

Step 1: Appearance

What is the colour of the wine? Can you see through it? Tilt the glass and examine the wine against a white background. Is there a change in colour, or ‘gradient’ along the wine?

Step 2: Nose

The aroma of the wine. Is it powerful or subtle? Complex or easy to describe? Does the aroma change after swirling the wine? Does it evolve over time as the wine aerates or warms up? What can you smell? Fresh fruits, cooked fruits, dried fruits, spices, grassy notes, herbs, wood, nuts, savoury/meaty aromas?

Step 3: Palate

We look for up to 8 components of a wine when we taste. Firstly, the flavours: are these the same as the aromas you can smell? All wines have perceptible acidity and alcohol, which give structure to the wine. Alcohol is a major component of the body of a wine, which is how heavy or viscous the wine feels in the mouth. Red wines also have tannins, which provide additional structure. Some wines have perceptible residual sugar. The evidence of maturation in oak may also be present in many white and red styles. Finally, the finish is how long the flavours and sensations of the wine linger in your mouth after swallowing.

Step 4: The Conclusion

Wine tasting is a very personal thing. No-one else can tell you whether you like or dislike a particular wine, or why you do. That said, there are certain features a professional wine taster looks for in assessing the quality of a wine (whether it suits their personal tastes or not). These include:

• Balance: is the overall perception of the wine flavours and structure in harmony?
• Length: do the flavours persist for a long time or do they fall flat and short?
• Intensity: are the flavours and aromas intense or a bit weak? Perhaps they are too intense and overwhelming.
• Complexity: is there a lot going on in the wine, or is it a bit simple and ‘one-dimensional’.

Other things to think about are: When would you drink this wine – by itself or with food? What sort of food? Is it good value for money? Is it ready to drink now? Or perhaps it will be better in a few years.

The line-up of wines tasted with the Lincoln College MCR

Wines Tasted

1. Brauneberger Juffer Riesling Kabinett, 2010 (Willi Haag), Mosel, Germany.  Classic Mosel Riesling. Citrus, apple, floral. Off-dry, light, hints of honey. Long finish. Delicious but far too young!
2. Three Choirs Midsummer Hill, 2011, Gloucestershire, England. A wine that surprised many at the tasting. Light-bodied, refreshing and crisp. Cool fruit and distinct elderflower notes. Lean on the palate but with a generous ripe fruit character. A bargain at under £7.
3. Trinity Hill Sauvignon Blanc, 2011,Hawkes Bay, New Zealand. Much more subtle than the stereotypical passionfruit and pizzazz kiwi Sauvignons, and thus much more to my tastes. Quite refreshing and ‘green’ nose – shelled pea and fresh grass. Full-bodied but well-balanced; not blowsy nor sweet.
4. Weinert Cabernet Sauvignon, 2005, Mendoza, Argentina. The wine I was least impressed with. A nice Cabernet expression, and refreshingly restrained – fruit was not jammy or baked, which is always a worry with new world Cabernets. However, I felt the earthy savouriness of the bottle age had gone a bit too far and the wine was lacking in a balance between fruit and earth. A younger vintage would be good to try. Good if you’re a fan of the ‘old’ flavours in wines.
5. Ghemme, Ioppa, 2004, Piemonte, Italy. Kind of a ‘Barolo-light’, with 85% Nebbiolo in the blend. Just approachable now after eight years. Light ruby colour, sour-cherry, slightly confected notes and a massive hit of dry, dusty tannins. Crisp acidity and long finish. I love this style of wine, though I acknowledge it’s not to everyone’s tastes. Be great with rack of lamb, or venison.
6. Cornas, Les Grandes Terrasses, Paul Jaboulet Aîné, 2001, Northern Rhône, France. The grand-daddy of the night’s tasting. Such a finely poised wine. At perfect drinking age in my opinion. Nose has a wonderful earthy, black-olive, licorice root swirl of aromas surrounding the original primary blackberry and plum fruit. The palate shows balance, complex flavours, and classic rough-textured Syrah tannins. I’m going back for more!
7. Château La Grave, 2009, Sainte Croix du Mont, Bordeaux, France. A sweety to finish off with. Adjacent to Sauternes, you get a classic expression of botrytised Semillon at a fraction of the price. For around £10 this is a bargain dessert wine. Lots of apricots, honey, vanilla. Lengthy and sweet.

Grower Champagne: Désir de Matthieu

Most champagnes you see in stores on the export market are grandes marques – big brands from houses that buy in most of their grapes from an army of small landowners and grape growers in the Champagne region. There are also a few cooperative champagnes – Nicolas Feuillatte is perhaps the most well-known in the UK – which are made by an ensemble of growers who contribute their fruit and share in the eventual profits after the costs of pressing, fermentation and storage have been accounted for.

A much smaller category is that of so-called ‘grower champagnes’. These are wines made by the individual growers themselves and are often boutique, family-owned businesses. Growers in this category will typically have a history of selling their fruit to the big companies, or in a cooperative, but are trying to branch out and craft their own product. They will either have a micro-winery on-site or will contract a centralised winery to produce champagne from their fruit according to their own specifications.

Making champagne on a small scale is an expensive undertaking and grower champagnes are not necessarily cheaper than those of the grandes marques. They do, however, represent much better value as a higher proportion of the bottle price has gone into actually making the wine rather than into a multi-million euro advertising campaign convincing you to buy a particular brand.

Grower champagnes can be hard to find outside of France. However, for those in the UK there is now a specialist importer and distributor of grower champagnes – The Real Champagne Company. The company sources a range of high quality, boutique champagnes from small producers that present excellent value for money to the discerning champagne drinker.

I recently tasted Désir de Matthieu from the family-owned and -run outfit Pascal Leblond-Lenoir (rather an appropriate surname for someone in the champagne business I thought!). Unusually for a champagne, this wine is made from 100% Pinot Blanc. The grapes come from the Buxeuil area, which is apparently known for its small plantings of Pinot Blanc. Endearingly, the wine is hand-crafted – right down to the labelling!

The wine was medium gold in the glass, with a robust fizz. An intense, rich nose – ripe apple, nashi pear, a hint of confected apricot and cinnamon, clove and brioche that colluded to remind me somewhat of a pain aux raisins. Golden apple was the main feature of the palate with an intense entry that swelled across the mid-palate, the acidity pinching the corners of the tongue, before tapering to a fairly long finish. Crisp acidity, a rich body without being creamy and a fine mousse.

It gave me the impression of a ‘warmer-climate’ wine than other champagnes, although the alcohol remains a reasonable 12%. There was a hint of barley-sugar sweetness and some astringency. I enjoyed it as an apéritif, although if the idea of a bit of astringency in your champagne doesn’t appeal, it would go very well as a food wine.

Désir de Matthieu is still available for £28 from the Real Champagne Company. Kudos to the Leblond-Lenoir family for making such an interesting wine and to the Real Champagne Company for introducing it to the UK market! I’ll be back for more.

The art of tasting wine

I’m now reworking, reposting and writing some new material for an international food and beverage site: The Rambling Epicure. Don’t worry, I’ll continue to post to the Oxford Wine Blog (more so once my PhD thesis is safely tucked away in the vaults of the Bodleian Library), but here’s a link to my first post with the Rambling Epicure: http://www.theramblingepicure.com/archives/26846

Wine bottle shapes

Alsatian ‘flute’ bottle.

Have you every wondered why a standard wine bottle is 750mL? Or why wine bottles are the shape they are?

My curiosity was recently piqued by David Ling at Hugel in Alsace when he uncovered a few tidbits. 750mL is roughly the average exhalation volume of the human lungs (in the context of glassblowing). Thus, it was the most common size when bottles were all made by human glassblowers – a tradition that has persisted into today’s regulated market. Specialist glassblowers were required to blow larger format bottles – magnums for instance.

The reason Alsatian and Germanic wine bottles are the classic, tall flute shape is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a matter of economics. The main trade route out of these regions was on smooth-sailing barges along the Rhine. Bottles did not need to be as strong as those from other regions with more strenuous trade routes and thus did not require a punt at the bottom of the bottle. The long flute shape was found to be ideal for maximising packing efficiency in crates.

Bottles from Bordeaux and Burgundy are stronger, with a traditional punt found in the base, as the bottles had to withstand a rougher journey to their export markets by sea (Bordeaux) or over land (Burgundy). The high shoulder of the Bordeaux bottle is said to capture much of the sediment of these more tannic wines – a feature that is not needed with Burgundy. Wines from Chianti were traditionally carried around by a handle attached to a straw basket secured around the base of the bottle. This meant bottles did not even need a flat bottom – making fiasci the cheapest bottle yet.

What was once a matter of common sense and practicality has now become embedded in tradition – or even law. For example, Alsace AOC white wines must be bottled in the flutes. Bottle shapes have become synonymous with wine styles too. Most New World producers of Riesling, Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer will use the traditional Germanic flutes. Most Chardonnay and Pinot Noir around the world use a Burgundy bottle; similarly for Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot-based wines using the high-shouldered Bordeaux bottle.

There is a reason for everything!

Edit: “750ml is roughly the capacity of the human lung” has been changed to “750ml is roughly the exhalation volume of the human lungs”