Wine~Works
Wine & Beer Tastings with a Difference
Johnson Celebrates 40 Years of Wine Guides
Hugh Johnson's wine guide was the first wine book that I purchased way back in the 1980's.
In February, Hugh Johnson addressed the lecture theater of the Culinary Institute of America in Napa.
In the dramatic, steeply-raked auditorium, Johnson, in a long sleeveless waistcoat that looked faintly Afghan, spoke for 40 minutes, amiably meandering his way through the last half century or so of popping corks and wielding knife and fork. The audience sat relaxed but rapt; the veteran wine critic speaks in public as if he's sitting at a kitchen table covered with open bottles, corkscrew in hand. It's a rare skill.
ohnson is a prolific writer (and tweeter). The first article he ever published was in Vogue in 1960. It begins: "Talking turkey to a number of people who know their minds about wine , I was struck by the confusion that surrounds this inescapable bird." You can just hear him, can't you? The laconic, slightly amused, drawing-room tone is there already, and it's changed little over the years.
Zoom forward six decades and he's writing sentences like this (on the hoo-ha over the great 2015 vintage): "What an industry! Imagine if Stuttgart partied every time they made a batch of cars that started!" Elsewhere he calls Port and Sherry "cockle warmers to export to shivering northerners". He's endlessly quotable.
Those quotations above are from the foreword to Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book 2017 (Mitchell Beazley, £11.99/$16.99), now in its 40th edition, with 12 million copies sold. It's a satisfying, heavy little tome, dense with facts, all of it shot through with Johnson's neat way with a phrase. He sums up the dynamism of California by noticing the "extraordinary numbers of fanatical winemakers in deadly earnest". In Switzerland he notes "the savvy of the Swiss themselves", keeping prices high and the grapes obscure. He skewers fads – when he uses the words "irrationally fashionable" you know what's coming and, sure enough, the following paragraph is about natural wines and concludes with "seasoned drinkers don't get carried away". There's a steely eye behind those friendly half-moon spectacles.
The Pocket Wine Book is now put together by a couple of dozen critics, journalists and MWs, many of them eminent. Under the editorship of Margaret Rand they are assigned sections and they add and prune as necessary. They aim to change a minimum 25 per cent of copy every year. Johnson goes through it with a "fine-tooth comb", Rand tells me. It's clear he does. His wit and erudition run through the book like the lettering in a stick of Brighton rock.
That style was honed writing columns, dozens of them, thousands it must be, for Vogue, About Town, the Sunday Times, Decanter, World of Fine Wine and many others on both sides of the Atlantic. Hugh Johnson on Wine (Mitchell Beazley, £20) is subtitled "Good bits from 55 years of scribbling".
There's a nugget on every page. An article chosen at random is from the early '80s and asks: "Three hundred, six hundred pounds a bottle? How much can wine fresh from a producer possibly be worth?" Another page, and it's a 1994 broadside against Robert Parker. The critic (at the height of his powers at that stage) is castigated as a bore and mocked for his prolixity. "To RP big is good; huge is great. What could be simpler? But why does he take so long to say so?" As I said, that mild exterior conceals steel.
Johnson has added chatty margin notes. "I do hope I'm not repeating myself", he says of his stiletto-job on Parker. But the articles and book extracts need no updating. Comments made more than 30 years ago are still perfectly reliable. How much indeed can a new wine be worth? Even when a comment is dated, it's usually notable for its timeliness in predicting (or deploring) a trend. He's always been a champion of the artisan – he's written about the Slow Food movement from its beginnings, and he generally sides with the small, the slow and the painstaking. He looks with a hint of disapproval on tasting marathons. "You have to go back to a wine, again and again," he's fond of saying.
Fittingly, Johnson is also a gardener of national renown, creating a splendid arboretum and gardens at Saling Hall, the Elizabethan manor house he bought in the 1970s and lived in until 2011. "The parallel pleasures of wine and gardening are obvious," he wrote in 2002. "The exercise of taste, enjoying the productions of nature, and the element of time. Both are moving targets. A garden is as much a process as a place."
Above all, he's a master of the vivid description. The valley of the Ebro is "open, austere, a great hammock slung between the snows of two Sierras". On the Tuscany of old: "the black-clad contadini planting, cultivating and cropping with hardly a pause". The sentences roll on the tongue like rich Brunello. And they can be brief as a haiku. In the Pocket Wine Book, producers are described (or filleted) in a sentence. Here's Marojallia: "Micro-château looking for big prices for big, rich, un-Margaux-like wines. Less full-throttle from 2011." Or the ultra-modern Baigorri in Rioja: "Wines as glamorous as the glassy architecture."
In one early column, the author described himself as having "one foot in the cellar and the other in the potting shed". It's a fine image of a man who has measured out his life with trowel and corkscrew – and pen, of course.
Time for Eastern Europe to shine again
If you could go back to the 1980s and 1990s then you could take your pick of wines from central European countries like Bulgaria and Romania in your local supermarket. It seems they could be about to have their moment again. Georgia, Bulgaria, Moldova and Romania have all recently released figures showing wine exports to the UK are all up. There was a 78% increase, for example, in wines imported from Georgia in 2015. The UK is Romania’s number one export market and of the 50 million litres of wine that Bulgaria exported in 2015, a record amount went to the UK. This means there are a lot of people here buying them.
French winemakers drain Spanish tankers
The incident unfolded less that 10 miles from the Spanish border on April 4, when around 150 winegrowers from the southern departments of Aude and Pyrénées Orientales seized upon a number of tankers travelling into France, draining their loads onto the tarmac.
The group had positioned themselves at a toll barrier at Le Boulou, close to the Mediterranean town of Perpignan and less than ten miles from Spain, to monitor the number of wine trucks entering France from Spain, as reported by Vitishpere.
Five tankers were targeted with some 70,000 litres of wine spilled onto the motorway.
“In two hours, we stopped five trucks,” said Frédéric Rouanet, president of the winegrowers of Aude, speaking to Vitisphere. “This is a breakneck pace. This is a disaster. We want to verify the traceability and compliance of these wines.”
Tensions between French and Spanish producers, and also Italy, have been mounting with rising imports of their wines into France. This incident comes after figures confirmed that France was now the biggest buyer of Spanish wine, purchasing 580 million litres in 2014, a 40% rise on 2013. Globally, Spain became world's biggest wine producer in 2014 outstripping both France and Italy, producing 51 million hectolitres of wine.
Initial estimates from the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) indicated that Italy has now overtaken Spain producing 48.9 million hectolitres, up 10% on 2014. Italy was followed by France, which produced 47.4 million hectolitres, a rise of just 1% compared with 2014. Following its bumper harvest in 2014, Spain’s production dropped to 36.7 million hectolitres, down 4% on last year.
Rouanet claims that 28,000 trucks filled with wine had arrived in France from Spain in 2015, with bulk shipping allowing the wine to be sold cheaper. Protesters also claim the provenance of wines entering France in tankers are not being verified and that the Spanish wine is has not been produced in accordance with European regulations. Graffiti was scrawled on the side of Spanish trucks which read “wine not compliant”.
“If a French vineyard produced wine using the Spanish regulations, he quite simply couldn’t sell it”, said Rouanet, reported in the Daily Mail. “‘I want Europe to work, but with the same laws for everyone.”
French police said there had been no immediate arrests but that the incidents were being investigated.
Wine is finally set to return to British TV
An “informative” new TV series centred on the world of wine will hit British screens this spring – the first show dedicated to wine to be launched in years.
The Wine Show will star actors Matthew Goode and Matthew Rhys, who will aim to “provide a fresh, informative and entertaining journey into wine.”
The 13-episode series will air on ITV and will feature wine pairings with dishes prepared by some of the world’s leading chefs, who will be tasked with cooking the perfect meal to accompany their favourite wine.
Chefs include Atul Kochhar, Michael Caines, Jose Pizarro, Peter Gordon, Francesco Mazzei, Brad McDonald, Clare Smyth, Dan Doherty, Elena Arzak, Niki Nakayama, Frances Atkins and Stephen Harris.
Along with this weekly segment, viewers will see Goode and Rhys travel to discover more about how wines – from everyday bottles to the world’s most famous labels – are made.
Expert wine contributors Joe Fattorini and Amelia Singer will also feature in the show.
Throughout the series there will be a special focus on Italian wine – commonly considered to be the most difficult in the world to understand due to the various regions and sub-regions, each with their own labelling and winemaking rules.
From their villa in the Italian countryside, Goode and Rhys are set a new challenge every week that sees them explore different parts of Italy to discover the country’s wines.
The Wine Show was acquired for ITV and ITV4 by Angela Jain, director of digital channels and acquisitions. Angela said: “The show is a joyful romp through wonderful landscapes, tasting great wine, enjoying fantastic food and all in the company of our charming, witty and vivacious hosts, the two Matthews. This show is for wine novices, wine drinkers and wine enthusiasts and we are thrilled to bits to have it.”
Russ Lindsay, founder and director of Infinity Creative Media, which created the show, said: “Wine has now transcended culture, class and background and is a part of the lives of millions. The Wine Show is a cultural journey across the world, which is informative, visually entertaining, humorous, engaging and surprising. We are thrilled that ITV have given us the most wonderful home for our series in the UK.”
Wine before bed time helps with weight loss.
Some great news for all you dieters, and oh do I hope it is true!
Resveratrol – a substance found particularly in red wine – helps to turn body-hugging white fat into quick-burning beige fat, scientists at Washington State University found.
They tested mice by feeding them a high-fat diet before giving a selection a diet high in resveratrol.
Furthermore, a separate Harvard study of 20,000 people found those who consumed around two glasses of wine per day were 70% less likely to be obese.
Online articles have focused on the late-night aspect of the studies, saying that wine’s impact on fat-burning and craving-reduction is particularly effective before bed.
However, some have criticised press reports for not referencing a paragraph by Professor Min Du, author of the Washington study, which said that resveratrol levels in wine can vary depending on the filtration process.
“Many of the beneficial polyphenols are insoluble and get filtered out during the wine production process,” he said.
But resveratrol’s effect on fat levels was undisputed, with Professor Du saying: “Resveratrol can enhance the conversion of white fat to beige fat and, when you have high rates of browning, it can partially prevent obesity.”
England’s first Albariño hits shelves
Kent winery Chapel Down has released England’s first Albariño, made using grapes from the country’s only commercial vineyard that grows the Spanish variety.
The Albariño grape variety is best known for its wide planting in Galicia, Spain, as well as across Portugal for Vinho Verde wines.
“With England sharing a similar maritime climate to the temperate Galician region, the variety thrived during the excellent 2014 vintage in England,” Chapel Down said.
Chapel Down Albariño 2014 (12% abv, RRP £15) is made from grapes grown at Sandhurst vineyard, where an acre of five-year-old vines are grown on Wealden clay soils with high sand content.
It can be bought by consumers directly from the winery online.
The new launch forms part of a wider project by Chapel Down to explore the potential of different grape varieties and winemaking techniques in England.
In October 2015, Chapel Down released England’s first skin contact white wine, Chapel Down Orange Bacchus 2014, and a number of other trials are also underway.
Chapel Down winemaker, Josh Donaghay-Spire, said: “With England still being a relatively young wine region, there is the opportunity to better understand the terroir and the potential of different varieties.
“As a winemaker, the opportunity to work with a new style and produce the first wine of its kind in England is hugely exciting; although it comes with a certain responsibility to do the fruit justice.”
The aromatic dry white wine has “intense aromas of fresh citrus, white peach and apple, combined with background tones of subtle oak and yeast lees,” the winery says.
“The wine’s naturally high acidity balances the richness of the palate and intense stone fruit notes culminating in a lengthy and balanced finish.”
Prosecco smashes through £400m a year sales.
Given these figures it would appear that the Prosecco bubble has yet to burst.
Prosecco sales in the UK have crashed through the £400m barrier rising 28% to £430m in the year to January 6, according to Nielsen figures.
Although its phenomenal rate of growth has slowed a little from 34% last year it remains the hero wine category adding a further £118m in retail sales.
Last year’s growth was driven by the impulse sector which saw a 40% rise in sales to £45.6m up from £27.5m.
The arrival of I Heart Prosecco accounted for £4.5m additional sales alone, making it the number one impulse brand behind private label with £5.3m overall sales.
Wine could cut risk of death from dementia by 77%
ccording to researchers at the University of Southern Denmark Odense, a pint of beer or medium glass of wine a day could help protect against an early death from Alzheimer’s.
The study, published in the online journal BMJ Open, analysed alcohol consumption among 321 people with early stage Alzheimer’s disease as part of the Danish Alzheimer’s Intervention Study (DAISY).
It found that those who drank moderately, between two to three units a day, had lower death rates than those who were teetotal, drank a unit or less or drank more. While there was no significant difference in death rates among those drinking the most or fewest units, the risk of dying dropped by 77% for those who drank the equivalent of a glass of wine a day, between two to three units a day.
“The results of our study point towards a potential, positive association of moderate alcohol consumption on mortality in patients with Alzheimer’s disease,” said lead author Professor Frans Boch Waldorff, of the University of Southern Denmark Odense. “However, we cannot solely, on the basis of this study, either encourage or advise against moderate alcohol consumption in these patients.”
While alcohol is known to damage brain cells, and that it would be easy to that alcohol could be damaging to those with dementia or Alzheimer’s, Dr Sine Berntsen of the University of Copenhagen said this assumption requires further research.
“It has been argued that social drinking may be harmful for patients with AD”, he said. “However, we have not been able to identify any studies on the association between alcohol consumption and mortality in patients diagnosed with dementia. Considering that AD is a neurodegenerative disorder and that alcohol has known neurotoxic effects, one could easily jump to the conclusion that alcohol is damaging for patients with AD. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the positive association between moderate alcohol intake and mortality shown in population-based studies on healthy subjects can be transferred to patients with mild AD.”
Taittinger to plant vineyards in UK
Taittinger is launching Domaine Evremond, a winery within a 69 hectare plot in Kent near Canterbury that will be used to produce a range of new “premium” English sparkling wines.
Around 35-40 hectares will be planted with Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. Some 20,000 to 25,000 cases are expected to be initially produced.
“We have dreamt for a number of years of working with our dear friends in the UK to create a special Franco/British project,” said Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger, president of the Champagne house. “We are very excited that this dream is now becoming a reality.”
The purchased land is a former orchard near Chilham in Kent, close to Canterbury and Faversham.
Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier vines will be planted to produce English sparkling wine, although the exact planting figures are not yet known.
The plots have an “ideal terroir” for producing sparkling wine, sitting at a maximum of 80 metres above sea level with chalk soil and south-facing slopes, Taittinger said.
No wine will be produced until the land is fully transformed from orchards into vineyards, with no definite time-scale so far in place.
It is estimated that planting will begin in May 2017, although it could start as quickly as May of next year. However, the first wines will likely not be seen on the market until the mid to late 2020s.
Taittinger has insisted that the English sparkling wine it will produce should not be directly compared to Champagne.
“Our aim is to make something of real excellence in the UK’s increasingly temperate climate, and not to compare it with Champagne or any other sparkling wine,” he said.
Champagne houses have been rumoured to be searching for plots in the south of England for some time as they seek to capitalise on its increasingly similar growing conditions with the famous French region.
Land prices are considerably cheaper in the UK than in Champagne, with an unplanted hectare in Kent costing £10,000 to £15,000 and rising when under vine. A top Champagne vineyard can cost between €1-2 million per hectare.
Furthermore, with sales of English sparkling wine expected to continue rising, the likelihood of further investment from Champagne is increasing.
Taittinger has not revealed the exact financial details of its investment in Domaine Evremond, named after Charles de Saint-Evremond, a 17th century poet and courtier to King Charles II who is buried at Westminster Cathedral.
UK distributor Hatch Mansfield is a joint partner in the venture, along with a number of unnamed private investors.
Patrick McGrath MW, managing director of Hatch Mansfield, expressed his belief in English sparkling wine, saying: “Our aim is not just to be an English sparkling winemaker, but also to be a significant supporter of the whole English wine industry.”
English vineyards are forecast to double in capacity and production over the next seven years, according to trade group English Wine Producers.
The prediction was revealed in September as politicians toured one of the UK’s biggest wine producers, Rathfinny Wine Estate, where they also heard about the Sussex winery’s application to the EU to have the county fully recognised as a wine appellation.
Julia Trustram Eve, marketing director of English Wine Producers told the drinks business she thought the news from Taittinger, “shows the seriousness and high regard English sparkling wine is held in.”
She added it was yet further proof that there was an “exciting future” for English fizz and that it was a “new chapter” in its story.
The rising quality of English wine is being continually praised. A blind tasting in October saw two wines from English producers Nyetimber and Hambledon coming top in a contest featuring sparklers from Veuve Clicquot, Pol Roger and Taittinger.
Prosecco boom to last ‘at least 10 years’
Follow link to recent article in Drinks Business. You know I wouldn't be surprised......until the next big thing comes along that is!
http://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2015/10/prosecco-boom-will-last-for-at-least-10-years/
Champagne’s 2015 vintage almost ‘too good’
At a tasting of Ruinart’s blanc de blancs NV and vintage Champagnes recently, Frédéric PanaÏotis, chef de cave, reported that while 2015 yields in Champagne had dropped by around 20%, the quality of its harvest had been exceptionally high.
“Don’t expect me to say its a vintage of the century because I never say that, but I have a pretty big smile on my face at the moment”, said PanaÏotis.
“We are all pretty happy at the moment. If you don’t make a good vintage this year then what does it take to make a good vintage? It was not a difficult season.”
While conditions throughout much of 2015 were favourable, a drought toward the end of the growing season did dent the eventual yield of the harvest, but importantly not its quality.
“We had a pretty severe drought, not as bad as ’76”, said PanaÏotis. “We did experience hot temperatures which prevented a lot of diseases. We had no downey mildew and no botrytis until the end.”
“The lack of water meant the berries did not grow big enough”, he added, “so yields were around 20% lower than expected but we have nothing to complain about because between the reserve quality is very good.”
Chardonnay grapes for both Ruinart’s blanc de blancs and vintage Champagnes are sourced from vineyards in the Côte des Blancs and Montagne de Reims – Premiers Cus for the Blanc de Blancs, and Grands Crus for the Dom Ruinart. The best Champagne grand cru to PanaÏotis mind is Chouilly, describing it as “the Mersault of Champagne”.
When asked if this year would result in a Dom Ruinart vintage Champagne PanaÏotis is confident, the last being from the 2004 vintage.
“I think we should be able to make a Dom Ruinart in 2015”, he confirmed. “Blanc de blancs I have no choice, it’s not an option not to make it. This year the goal with Blanc de blancs is to not make it too good. You want to make its good but not too good because what am I going to do next year when its not so good? It has to be consistent. So this year I might use some reserve wines and save some of this year’s for the future. We have to think about that.”
While PanaÏotis’ continued goal is to make wines of “purity and aromatic freshness”, his current focus is on increasing the “elements of toast” in his wines, believing increased contact with oxygen to be the key. Since 2010, Ruinart has used corks to seal bottles during secondary fermentation rather than crown caps – the results of which will not be known until 2022.
“I’m very much a fan of toasty elements coming from the reduction”, explained PanaÏotis. “The idea is to in the future increase this toastiness. We think oxygen is the answer to that so we have switched our bottling for secondary fermentation from crown caps to corks, starting with the 2010 vintage. The expected result is more purity and expression.”
Panaïotis joined Champagne Ruinart as chef de caves in 2007, having previously worked at the CIVC, later specialising in the interaction of cork and wine and training its professional panel on different tasting procedures.
Italy beats France to become world largest wine producer
Italy has surpassed France to take to crown of world largest wine producer in 2015, according to European Union data. This year's benign weather conditions have resulted in an abundant grape harvest across the Mediterranean peninsula, as opposed to that reaped on the other side of the Alps.
Italy's projected wine production is up 13% on the previous year and 5% on the average for the past five years, for a total output of 48.8 million hectolitres, figures submitted by member states to the EU Commission in mid-September show.
Lack of rain and a heatwave have instead caused a 1% contraction of French production, which relegated the country at the second place with 46.4 million hectolitres. The world-famous regions of Beaujolais and Bourgogne were among the worst affected and wine lovers with a taste for local bottles could face a price rise in the coming months, according to Les Eechos newspaper.
Italy and France have long been the sole duellists for the title of world top wine producer, both in terms of quantity and quality. However, 2015 has arguably been a particularly favourable year for the Italians after Ferrari (Trentodoc) won the prestigious sparkling wine producer of the year award.
Spain is set to maintain the third place in terms of wine output with 36.6 million hectolitres. Other EU states follow at distance: Germany ranks fourth in the continent with 8.7 million hectolitres, trailed by Portugal (6.7 million) and Romania (four million). Britain is last among the top 18 EU producers, with 470,000 hectolitres.
Worldwide, the US, Argentina, Australia, South Africa, China and Chile traditionally placed themselves between Spain and Germany producing from 25 million to 10 million hectolitres each
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