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Wine & Beer Tastings with a Difference
2015 French Harvest Kicks Off In Earnest
After a hot and dry summer, vintners across France are embarking on a harvest that many are hoping will equal some of the best of the century – and all have their fingers firmly crossed.
In Champagne in particular there is huge optimism. The growing season, from flowering to harvest, was ideal – very hot and dry but with rain in August to hasten maturation.
“It is far too early to say, but we have the green light for high expectations,” said Thibault le Mailloux, communications director for trade organisation Comité Champagne.
“Of course we won’t know anything until we taste the wines, but the key characteristics point to an absolutely outstanding vintage. Thanks to the rain the grapes are gaining weight so we are confident of volume as well as quality.”
Le Mailloux also played down reports that Champagne grapes were suffering from low acidity this year. “The level of acidity is quite satisfactory for Champagne.”
Some villages picked before the official start date of 2 September set by the Comité, making 2015 one of the six earliest vintages (in 2003, 2007 and 11 picking was widespread before the end of August).
In Burgundy feelings also run high. Erwan Faiveley of Domaine Faiveley, which began harvest on the last day of August, said the weather conditions had been “perfect… fast and precise flowering which brought homogeneity of ripeness of the grapes. Spring was warm and dry… and we got three days of rain in the second week of August that not only helped to ripen the grapes, but will also bring a much better yield.”
The hail that swept across Chablis on the last night of August was very localized and – as giant negociant- producer Albert Bichot reported – damage to most Grands and Premiers Crus was limited. But, Bichot said, “selection is likely to be needed as the rain [after the warmth] will have resulted in some rot damage.”
Rot is also a preoccupation for the white harvest in Bordeaux. At Chateau Brown in Pessac-Leognan, owner Jean-Christophe Mau said the health of the reds is “perfect”, and while he’s happy with the quality of his whites, he is “wary of the rot potentially lying in wait for the Semillons” after nearly 100mm of rain in August.
The size of the French vintage – an important issue in Burgundy, which has suffered a run of very low yields – has been much discussed this year. According to France’s agriculture ministry, national wine production will be slightly smaller than 2014 but higher than the average of the past five years. In Burgundy and Bordeaux the vintage is expected to be around 11 per cent smaller than 2014.
The south of France is also optimistic for quality, after a hot, dry summer with localized storms. “Yields are expected to be slightly lower than those of the 2014 … the region's grapes are in excellent health and phenolic maturation has progressed promisingly,” trade body Provence Wines said.
Scotland’s first wine not great.
Well I can't say that I am at all surprised at this news, but not chilling the grapes quickly enough in a climate like eastern Scotland beggars belief.....was there a heatwave during harvest? Gotta give him an A for effort!
Article below from DB
Château Largo in Fife is the brainchild of former chef and food writer, Charlie Trotter (pictured), who planted the vines three years ago in a bid to create Scotland’s first commercial winery.
Using the early-ripening Solaris and Siegerrebe, he has hoped to take advantage of warmer summers in recent years but had to admit that the first vintage hadn’t been a success.
“It’s not great,” he admitted. “We have produced a vintage of, shall we say, a certain quality, but I am confident the next time will be much better.”
He added that his mistake was not chilling the grapes quickly enough after harvesting, which meant the fruit began to oxidise and made the resulting wine Sherry-like in flavour. For this year’s harvest he intends to use dry ice to help preserve the grapes and their fruit characters.
Richard Meadows, owner of Edinburgh-based Great Grog Company, was among those members of the trade who got an advance taste of the wine said it wasn’t particularly drinkable but did have “potential”.
“It doesn’t smell fresh but it’s crisp and light and structurally it’s fine,” he told The Scotsman.
He added that he had enjoyed it, in a rather “masochistic” sort of way and that it might complement a (“very”) strong cheese.
Despite the reverse, Trotter remained upbeat saying his wine would “never be like Chablis” but that he continued to believe making a “good-quality table wine” was still possible and that this year’s spring had been “terrific” and the vines were looking “fantastic”.
USA: Pacific NorthWest Drought Fears
Oregon and Washington are experiencing their hottest summer on record so far, just one year after their previous hottest summer.
Last year it was good news: both states also celebrated their largest wine harvests ever. But it's also unusually dry, and Oregon grapegrowers are beginning to get nervous Temperatures in normally cool, wet Willamette Valley have reached as high as 37ºC.
Moreover, while the drought in Oregon has not been as long or as severe as in California, "the vast majority of vineyards in Willamette Valley are not irrigated", says climatologist Greg Jones of Southern Oregon University.
"I just got back from a growers' meeting," Jones told Wine Searcher. "The conversation was all about conserving soil moisture. If you're not doing much irrigation, a year like this is a real challenge. But if you are dependent on irrigation, people today were worried about when they are going to get cut off from water."
In Washington the situation is not as disturbing, yet, because Eastern Washington is generally hot and dry anyway, so growers are better prepared. Moreover, Washington vineyards are mostly planted with warm-weather grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, whereas Oregon has hung its reputation on cool-climate Pinot Noir.
But Jones said farmers of all crops in Washington, including wine grapes, are beginning to keep an eye on the water levels of the Columbia and Snake Rivers.
"The whole area is driven by access to that water," Jones said. "If they had a downturn in the amount of water, they could have a real problem."
In wetter Oregon, paradoxically, the dryness problem is more immediate.
The NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) is predicting more hot, dry weather for the Pacific Northwest – and California as well – over the next 30 days. But it's the weather; anything can happen.
However, while California might get help from what appears to be a forming El Niño effect, "El Niño hasn't historically brought very much rain to the Pacific Northwest", Jones said. "It tends to bring rain from Northern California south. I'm very hopeful that northern California southward will have a cooler, wetter winter. I'm not as hopeful about the Pacific Northwest."
Of course, it's only the second week of July, and even an early harvest is still several weeks away.
"The last two weeks are really what will define the vintage," said Oregon Wine Board communications manager Michelle Kaufmann.
And it's worth pointing out that three years of hot, dry conditions haven't hurt the perception of quality of California wines. If anything, each drought vintage seems better received than the last. Oregon vintners might not have enough water, but the pending ratings for its drought Pinots could slake a different kind of thirst
Veuve Clicquot launches mixing Champagne
Veuve Clicquot has just launched a Champagne designed specifically for mixing in cocktails....Really?
Dubbed “Rich”, the new sparkler, housed in striking silver foil wrapping patterned with Veuve’s anchor motif, is sweeter than the house’s flagship brut non-vintage.
The added sugar allegedly helps to bring out the aromas and flavours in the wine when mixed with fruit and vegetable juices.
The fizz was launched at the Yacht Club in Toronto earlier this month in a bid to move Champagne out of the realms of special occasions and into cocktail bars, beach bars and clubs.
“After three centuries, we’re launching the first Champagne for mixology. It’s a bold move – some may think of it as sacrilege,” Veuve’s new president Jean-Marc Gallot told the Toronto Star.
“We believe Clicquot should always move forward. Tradition is good in life, but in this challenging world, we have to push the boundaries,” he added.
Gallot is aware that Champagne drinkers are getting older and hopes Rich will attract younger consumers to the brand for the first time.
The fizz, which retails for £40, is designed to be drunk in a wider-rimmed glass than a flute with ice cubes and certain fruits like lime, strawberry and grapefruit.
Vegetables like cucumber and red and yellow peppers are also encouraged.
This isn’t the first Champagne of its kind on the market – Moët Ice Imperial is a demi-sec designed to be served with ice and slices of strawberry and lime.
Lanson White Label is a similar construct; a demi-sec best enjoyed with orange peel, raspberries or sprigs of mint.
It is also not the first “Rich” for Veuve – the brand also has a Rich Reserve Champagne in its portfolio released as a vintage wine. Containing around 28g/l of sugar, the sparkler is designed to be paired with food.
Plundered Nazi Champagne discovered
A collection of Champagne and Cognac plundered from occupied France by the Nazis and which survived looting by the Soviets has been discovered in Saxony.
Discovered at the Marcolinipalais Villa in the grounds of the Wasserschloss Moritzburg estate north of Dresden, the booze was found in the gardens of the villa during renovation work by a famous German restaurateur, Silvio Stelzer, some years ago.
The discovery was supplemented by ledger belonging to the late Prince Ernst Heinrich of Saxony whose family used to own the estate.
In the ledger it was shown that in 1944 the SS had stored large quantities of Champagne, Cognac, fine food and cigarettes, moving it on the orders of Adolf Hitler out of Berlin which was being pounded by Allied bombers.
“It was brought here at night in hundreds of boxes,” said Stelzer. “In addition to alcohol there was cheese, biscuits, tins of butter, salami sausage, coffee, chocolate and cigarettes – everything that it was impossible to get on the home front.”
It has not been revealed how many bottles were discovered but there existence is remarkable in the first place as the estate and rest of the carefully stored loot was comprehensively looted by the Red Army in 1945.
The contents and cellars have been turned over to historians for research.
Although described as “Hitler’s cellar” in other parts of the press, it is more likely that the stash was for the entertainment of high-ranking Nazi officials and SS officers who were always furnished with the very best of the luxuries looted from occupied Europe.
The Führer was not entirely tee-total, he drank wine and beer occasionally and while he largely followed a vegetarian diet during the war he ate meat from time to time.
Middle aged drinkers….a warning.
As many as 3.4m UK middle aged drinkers are at risk of health problems despite industry warnings.
Follow link to Harpers article. Makes for some very interesting reading.
http://www.harpers.co.uk/news/as-many-as-34m-uk-middle-aged-drinkers-are-at-risk-of-health-problems-despite-industry-warnings/519351.article
Is there a New Zealand Sauvignon shortage looming?
There is a credible warning that there may be a shortage of Sauvignon grapes produced in NZ, so fans best stock up if this is true. See article below, published in Drinks Business....scaremongering or fact based?
Mark Holness, drinks buyer at British hospitality firm Beacon, believes that due to a smaller harvest in 2015 supplies of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc are “under strain”, which he said could cause prices of the country’s flagship variety to increase in 2015.
This is despite a record harvest in 2014 which saw export sales of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc increase to $1.5bn.
His warning comes just days after Roberto Cremonese, export manager of Bisol, warned that there was a very real possibility of a global Prosecco shortage this summer.
“The double whammy of a possible Prosecco and New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc drinks drought will mean fans of both wines having to spend more this summer to access their favourite bottles”, he said.
“In the case of Prosecco the extra cost will result in a better quality drink as the shortage is at the entry level for a wine, which in the last two years, has outsold Champagne. There is concern that supplies of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc are also under strain following the poor harvest and we are working with our contacts and suppliers to identify the full extent of the problems.”
Buyers of New Zealand wine brand Cloudy Bay have already been warned of possible price increases later this year following the dramatically reduced 2015 vintage in the country.
Speaking to the drinks business last week at the Chelsea Flower Show in London, where Cloudy Bay sponsored a gold-medal winning garden, Ian Morden, the producer’s estate director, said that reduced supply and increasing demand were pushing up grape prices of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, which in turn will effect the brand’s future pricing.
Despite price warnings, Chris Stroud of New Zealand Wine Growers, the trade body that represents the country’s winemakers, said their was little cause for concern.
Speaking to the drinks business, he confirmed that while the 2015 vintage is expected to be about 25% down on the record harvest of 2014, producers would be capable of meeting demand.
“While there may not be significant growth, we expect wineries to manage their current stocks of the 2014 vintage and future stocks of 2015 to meet existing demand”, said Stroud. “We are also confident of an excellent crop and consumers will be able to continue to enjoy the quality that New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc delivers.”
Official harvest statistics for the 2015 harvest are not expected to be released until early June.
Curing a Hangover the Ancient Egyptian Way
From an article in Wine Searcher: And here we thought a good old fry up was just the trick!
Sticking your head in a hedge is a common result of overindulgence in wine, but it's also a cure, apparently
Forget the greasy breakfast and reruns of 30 Rock – the ancient Egyptians have offered up a new hangover cure for those who perhaps had one too many glasses of Muscat of Alexandria the night before.
The catchily-named Oxyrhynchus Papyrus – a collection of medical texts from 2000 years ago – suggests that those suffering from a "drunken headache" should wear a necklace made of Alexandrian laurel around their neck. This is meant to ease any ill effects from overindulgence, and potentially worked by causing a lot of self consciousness that served as distraction from the headache at hand.
Alexandria laurel is native to the eastern Mediterranean and is thought to be the very same laurel associated with winning Olympians and poets. It also goes by the name of Danae racemosa as well as Poet's laurel, which begs the question – will this hangover cure turn your drunken ramblings into beautifully constructed prose? Probably not.
The ancient Egyptians were great wine drinkers, using wine for ceremonial purposes as well as for leisure. Depictions of winemaking have been found on tomb walls, along with raucous party scenes. Interestingly, the unpleasant after-effects of overdoing the wine have been recorded in the same way. It therefore makes sense that they would have their very own addition to the world of dubious hangover cures, joining snails rubbed on the forehead (the Romans) and downing a pint of buttermilk (the Scots).
The papyri were dug up as part of a major excavation of an ancient rubbish dump at Oxyrhynchus in 1896, and experts have been translating the almost 500,000 documents since. The collection of medical texts that forms the 80th volume of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri has offered historians new insight into medical practices in ancient Egypt. The document is nearly 2000 years old and contains doctors' notes, recipes and details of surgical procedures, as well as writings by Hippocrates, the father of western medicine and Galen, an important Greek physician.
A total of 168 bottles of Champagne were found 50m below the Baltic Sea in 2010 off the coast of the Aland archipelago in Finland. Produced by Champagne Houses including Heidsieck & Co, Ponsardin, Veuve Clicquot and Champagne Juglar, which later merged with Champagne Jacquesson, the shipwrecked bottles were estimated to be around 170 years old.
Taking three Veuve Clicquot bottles, a team of scientists led by Prof Philippe Jeandet from the University of Reims in Champagne-Ardenne, have carried out a chemical analysis of the liquid, discovering very high levels of sugar and traces of arsenic. While much of the CO2 had dissipated, much of the wine’s chemical features were preserved thanks to the “close to perfect” ageing conditions of the cold and dark seabed. Such conditions had allowed the Champagne’s “intrinsic features” to be preserved, allowing the team to shed light on the winemaking practices of the 19th century.
Publishing their findings in the journal PNAS, the team noted that the “composition of 170-year-old Champagne samples found in a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea constitutes a remarkable and unprecedented example of long-term combinatorial chemistry, which can occur in such sealed 750-ml microlaboratories.”
The main difference was the sugar content, which was about 150g per litre (more than most Sauternes), compared to today’s Champagnes which are generally between 6 to 10g per litre. This high sugar content was characteristic of people’s tastes at the time, with the Russian market known for its preference for sweeter wines, so much so that it was common for people to add sugar to their wine at dinner, said Jeandet.Traces of arsenic in the wines were attributed to the probable use of arsenic salts to control pests in the vineyard. The presence of wood tannins suggested the Champagne had been aged in barrels, while surprisingly high levels of lead and iron were explained by the barrels’ iron fittings and brass valves, which likely contained lead.
Speaking to the BBC, Jeandet explained how he was only able to taste 0.1ml of the wine as part of his analysis. He said it was “impossible to smell” because of the tiny quantity, but that the taste remained for “two of three hours”, recounting flavours of tobacco and leather.
In 2011, two of the salvaged bottles were auctioned off with one selling for €30,000 – a record for Champagne. Eleven more bottles were sold in 2012, while the remainder oif the haul is stored in Åland and may be auctioned later date.
Last year Veuve Clicquot sand 300 bottles and 50 magnums of Champagne near to where the 170-year-old bottles were found as part of a 50-year ageing experiment to commemorate the find.
Prosecco overtakes Champagne as the top fizz for Britons
The following article from the Telegraph only confirms what we have seen in the last 5 years!
Prosecco has soared in popularity with supermarket shoppers in Britain splashing out £181.8m on the Italian sparkling wine last year.
Spending on Prosecco overtook Champagne for the first time, with £141.3m spent on Champagne during 2014, according to the market researchers Kantar.
The fizz particularly appeals to women and young people, as it is sweeter than Champagne, according to one industry expert. The price is also appealing – Prosecco sells for an average of £6.49 a bottle, while the average for Champagne is £16.23, according to KantarC
Spending on Prosecco last year was double that of 2013.
“Despite making cutbacks, customers still want a bit of luxury” said Toby Magill, head of beers, wine and spirits at IRI, a marketing company, commenting in The Grocer.
The supermarket Asda reported its sales of Prosecco shot up 41 per cent so far this year, compared with the same period last year. Over Easter, shoppers snapped up more than 700,000 bottles.
Marc Ambrose, Asda's champagne and sparkling wine buyer said: "By nature, Prosecco hailing from Italy is far sweeter than the majority of champagne so we can see why it appeals to females and a younger audience plus its price point makes it easy to splash out on a few bottles when hosting a party.”
Dror Nativ, a wine buyer at Marks & Spencer, said earlier this year that there was a new trend rather than solely on celebratory occasions.
"Our customers are enjoying Prosecco midweek, at dinner parties with friends, or simply as a treat, and sales show no sign of slowing down," he said.
Prosecco sales have grown rapidly in the past five years, but The Grocer reported that some Champagne suppliers see this as an opportunity.
“People come into the category through Prosecco and then evolve into buying Champagne as their interest in quality becomes more prominent,” said Paul Beavis, managing director of the Champagne house Lanson.
EU moves closer to counting calories in alcoholic drinks
Health conscious tipplers may be closer to finding out just how many calories they are imbibing as consumer advocates push for EU nutritional labelling on alcoholic drinks in the face of strong industry resistance.
Adopted by 63 of the 68 members of the parliament's health committee, the resolution also calls for labels that highlight the dangers of alcohol for pregnant women and motorists.
It was sweet revenge for Glenis Willmott, a Labour MEP from Britain who steered the proposal through the committee after a first attempt failed in 2011 with what she said was heavy lobbying from the drinks industry.
This time around, Willmott wants to make sure there is no mistake and that consumers get the information they need.
"Consumers have a right to know that a glass of wine has the same number of calories as a slice of cake and that drinking while pregnant can harm your baby," she said.
"This isn't about telling people what to do but giving them the information they need to make informed choices," Willmott added.
Ilaria Passarani, an official with the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) advocacy group, said people need to know alcohol's effect on their diet.
"Most of us know alcohol must be consumed in moderation. However, the scale of alcohol's impact on our weight and health is far less obvious," Passarani said.
"How many people know that an average half litre (around one pint) of five percent alcohol beer contains as many calories as a chocolate bar?" she asked.
Wildfires Threaten South African Wine Region
Wildfires near to Cape Town have threatened to engulf some of South Africa’s oldest vineyards, forcing winery owners and staff to sacrifice sleep to protect their estates.
Soaring temperatures – up to 48 degrees Celsius - and dry conditions have fuelled some of the worst wildfires that Cape Town area has known in recent memory.
As well as the threat to lives and homes, there were local media reports in South Africa of scorched vineyards. The extent of the damage was not immediately clear.
Several wine estates told of their struggle to stop the fires spreading to their land.
‘Our team worked solid for 30 hours,’ said Buitenverwachting, which has had vines for nearly 200 years, in a Facebook post. Its workers started the day by harvesting Viognier grapes. ‘From 4pm we had to battle the fires and [were] on top of things at around 2am.’
Helicopters dumped water from the estate’s dam on to fires, while local farmers and residents have been dousing thatched roofs with water in an effort to stop flames from taking hold. One of the problems volunteers and firefighters face is the ability of wildfires to spread so quickly.
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