I was completely blown away by this wine. I tasted it during a sparkling wine dinner at the International Cool Climate Symposium in Hobart, Tasmania on February 1^st, where it was paired very well with soft peach wrapped in succulent pork.

I tasted it again the following day in more neutral circumstances, where my notes read: honeyed lemon verbena on dry toasted brioche. Multi-layered complex wine that blossoms on the mouth with flavours that seem to linger forever. It’s fresh, elegant, lifted and light and with a huge concentration and intensity. It’s refreshing where some other really complex aged bubbles lose that, perhaps not after just five years. White floral edges remain in a really youthful wine with a wonderful future still ahead if it.

Clover Hill are in the north of Tasmania.

100% chardonnay.

Partial malolactic in tanks

On lees for at least 38 months.

RS 7.9g/l

TA 8.7g/l

13%

A new enthusiasm for the variety emerged since the 1990s, and along with improving the quality of wines made, by, for example, using consultants such as Roberto Cipresso, lowering yields and generally paying more attention to detail, has been the identification of the two main areas in Puglia for the production of primitivo:

Firstly, around Gioia del Colle, a karst limestone plateau in Murge, around 350 to 450m above sea level, where thin soil overlays thick limestone. More structure and more acidity is found here.

Secondly, the heel of Italy – the Salento peninsula – from Taranto and Manduria, over to Brindisi and Lecce.  This is a hot, low lying area up to 100m above sea level, with red and brown clay soils which, nearer the sea, are liable to flooding. Cooling effects here involve sea breezes across this largely flat zone, flowing to and fro between the Adriatic and Ionian seas. Warmer, jammier styles.

It was in the 19^th century that primitivo moved from the Gioia del Colle in the north of Puglia to the south. Vincenzo Verrastro, of the international centre for advanced Mediterranean agronomic studies said “the move of primitivo to Manduria happened when a local woman married a man from Manduria and primitivo vineyards were part of her dowry.”

The south, Salento and Manduria is a very different place.  Luigi Rubino, of Tenute Rubino in Brindisi, said “in Salento – the peninsula between the Adriatic and Ionian seas – the influence of the two seas is very strong. The sea gives a salty influence to the wine, and the winds mitigate the heat.” Rubino’s Punta Aquila vineyard is about 120m above sea level on a plateau near Brindisi, in just this zone.  Verrastro added “Manduria is near the sea, with warm, brown soils. The altitude can even be below sea level.”

Polvanera vineyard

Primitivo, thankfully, is largely able to resist the summer heat of Puglia. Baldassarre said “the skin dries quite easily which makes the variety delicate. Early ripening therefore saves it from the rains. The bunches are quite small, and it can yield sweet wines from over-ripe grapes.”  In addition, he said primitivo “is rich in anthocyanins, but stability of colour is a problem.  Also the quantity of tannins is quite limited, and these polymerise easily, giving soft, well-rounded wines.” Another of those innovations since the 90s, oak ageing, can help with colour stability, so a deep colour is not necessarily anathema to primitivo.

Despite potentially lacking a bit of spine, primitivo offers plenty of berry fruit flavours, from raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, to red and dark cherries, blackcurrants and prunes. Herbal notes of mint and thyme can also be evident, along with liquorice and tarry tones of bottle age. Achieving high alcohol comes all too easily, regardless of the growing zone. These wines quite readily reach 16%, even higher, so they are not for the faint hearted or loose-limbed.  The variety, however, can easily be immediately appealing with all that juicy fruitiness and soft, supple tannin.

Primitivo is aslo used to make “extreme wines” said Badassarre, “alcohol goes to 16, 17, 18%, and the wines can have a high sugar content”.  Such extreme “Amarone” styles are not limited to primitivo, a notable one being Agricole Vallone’s Graticciaia, from negroamaro, which has 10 to 14g/l sugar alongside its almost bashful 14% alcohol.  Rubino explained it was easy for primitivo to get a portion of naturally shrivelled fruit on the vine, like passito, which he said makes the wine warm and sweet.

The primitivo wine ‘Es’ from Gianfranco Fino is one such wine where grapes are over-ripened in the vineyard, and left with, in this case 7g/l residual sugar in the wine alongside 16.5% alcohol. Fino said “It wouldn’t be primitivo, in my opinion, if I picked it earlier. In the last couple of years, we’ve waited a bit longer for phenolic maturation, which is very high. The primitivo has a character of drying out on vine – even 1-2 days the grapes dry up – so we find ourselves with a high alcohol content. And I feel we have a balanced wine even though it’s high alcohol.” However, I’m not sure this style has the acid backbone that Amarone has which balances the latter style in quite an exquisite fashion.

Tasting notes, in situ, November 2011

Generally I found too many tasted a bit too simple and a bit too jammy and sweet, something I termed ‘active sweetness’ where it seemed to be coming from residual sugar rather than just-nicely ripe fruit. Below are some of my favourites.
Tenute Rubino, Punta Aquila 2009, IGT Salento €10
14%. Stainless steel fermentation then 4 months in 40hl wooden vats.
Sweet bramble and blueberry muffin nose, medium-full body, big sweet spices here. Supple sweet tannins, big fruit still with fresh acidity, nice integrity and balance, fresh, lifted sweet fruit that’s fresh rather than flabby. Finishes with aromatic spiciness. Nice wine.

Castello Monaci, Artas 2008, IGT Salento
Supple, juicy, sweet fruit, plush fruit, supple tannin, nicely balanced with decent plummy fruit and a bit of spice. Nice.

Az. Agr. Conti Zecca, Donna Marzia Primitivo 2009, IGT Salento
Black pepper spice, decent depth and interest on the nose and palate. Sweet plum and soft berry fruits, nicely balanced. Bit of active sweetness here, creates supple, soft and simple wine.

Consorzio Produttori Vini di Manduria, Memoria 2008, DOP Primitivo di Manduria
Gentle, sweet spiced red berry fruits. Smooth and crunchy fruit. Simple and straightforward; decent for that.

Gianfranco Fino, Es 2009, Primitivo di Manduria DOC €35-€40.
16.5% Dense colour. Sweet spicy, violet-perfumed nose, with bramble jam notes. Alcohol is balanced with sweetness, undoubtedly active, sweet balance. Big concentration. Rich, sweet, lush, fleshy, intense, balanced, long. Lovely to taste, but I’m not sure I’d want to drink too much.

Castello Monaci, Artas 2008, IGT Salento
Aromatic spices, liquorice and black berries. Rich black fruits, nicely balanced in fresh, full bodied, smoothly-textured wine. Clean and focused with sweet tannins, no firm edges and enough spine.  Decent length.

Feudi di San Marzano, Sessantanni 2008, DOC Primitivo di Manduria
Big, sweet, primary fruit nose, reductive and appealing. Sweet, jelly rather than jammy attack. Fresh, and sweet-fruited, but not overly so. Smooth texture, clean, fresh, toasty hints with good length.  Good.

Az Agr. Giuliani, Primitivo Riserva 2007, DOC Goia del Colle €15-20
14.7%. Smoke, liquorice, savoury and fresh, just a bit fuller than medium bodied. Smoothly textured, quite refined with elegance. Fine backbone with ripe flesh. Graphite notes here, smooth, even hint chalky tannins. Long finish. Dry and elegant. fresh, dark berry fruits, liquorice stick, with proper fresh spine running through it. Vg.

Polvanera, Primitivo 16, 2008, Gioia del Colle DOC
From old alberelli, on iron-calcareous rocky soil.
Fragrant floral, violet perfume, elegant nose and palate attack, with hint of light chalky texture.  Upright, intense, well-deported. Also huge concentration, with good focus and intensity of sweet/ripe red berries. This has super balance, length and line, and I don’t feel the (16%) alcohol on this one. Vg. (Learn it is 2-3g/l RS after the tasting.)

Tenute Rubino, Visellio 2008, IGT Salento €16
14.5%. Fresh, gentle plummy fruit on the nose, fragrant primary fruit. Good concentration, not huge, just nice, with elegant notes. Alcohol integrated in a warm, balanced, soft and gentle wine, with good length. Jolly nice.

My trip to visit and judge wine in Puglia was sponsored by the Puglia Best Wine Consortium.

Beaujolais cru

Jean-Marc Burgaud started in 1989, the same year he married his wife, Christine. Both sets of parents were winegrowers, so there was clearly something in the blood. They have built up their vineyards to 19 hectares: 13 ha in Morgon, 5 ha in Beaujolais Villages and 1 ha in Régnié, which is “the maximum for me” Jean-Marc said, adding, while “it’s always possible to grow bigger, it’s important to stay precise” and it’s that attention to detail that is reflected in his wines.

In the vineyard Jean-Marc works traditionally, ploughing the soil.  He’s not certified organic, but his philosophy is both traditional and manual.  He hasn’t used chemical insecticide for 10 years, and only once in that time has he been forced by the vintage to resort to using a non-organic product in the vineyard.

The traditional high vine density of 10, 000 bush vines per ha is an important feature for quality, said Burgaud “it is important for gamay to have competition in the soil so you get little grapes with concentration.”  There has been a trend in Beaujolais to reduce planting densities to around 5,000 vines / ha, but, he said “the yield per vine goes up, so you have the fruit, but not the complexity and concentration.”

Vinification is by traditional semi-carbonic maceration, the same method for all his wines, though the length of maceration varies – seven days for the Beaujolais Villages and up to 15 days for his best Morgon parcels in the Côte du Py.

Grapes are put into his cement tanks and the temperature controlled to between 22 and 24°C.  The bunches have been pre-sorted in the vineyard “so we never have perfect bunches and bad bunches in the same box.”

Rolling Beaujolais hills

He takes some of the juice from the bottom of the vat, squeezed by the weight of grapes above, and sprays it over the top of the vat to oxygenate this small amount of juice for the natural yeasts to kick off the fermentation. To keep the mass of grape bunches moist during maceration he pumps over the juice daily, now without oxygen.  He said the grapes “need humidity to have a good fermentation inside the berries.”

A quarter of the harvest from Burgaud’s Côte du Py vineyards finishes off the fermentation in barrel, otherwise he’s using only cement, which helps retain the juicy fruits and floral perfumes of gamay.

Burgaud has made a Côte du Py reserve since 1995.  He explained “Reserve has no legal meaning here, but it is important for me.  I have ten barrels of Côte du Py James and Côte du Py Javernieres, but I use only 5, 6 or 7 for these labels, and the other barrels go into my reserve.”

And while Javernieres is the name of a lieu-dit within the Côte du Py climat, James is named for altogether different reasons. In 2000, a friend particularly enjoyed the taste of the barrels that now go into the James cuvée and he decided to bottle these barrels separately. The fruit in the barrels came from a parcel at the top of the Côte du Py hillside, facing south, about 350m above sea level, a place that’s always windy, which cools the vineyard.

Then after travelling for a week in the USA with his family, he smiled “they said I spoke with an accent, and started calling me James.”  The name stuck for the cuvée, not least because Burgaud is a fan of James Bond.

Wine tasting, in situ, December 2011

Jean-Marc Burgaud, Château de Thulon 2010, Beaujolais Villages
From Lantignié, on hillsides and granite soils. Graphite and plum, with nice straightforward concentration of sappy fruit. Honest, smooth, juicy and light bodied, all very nicely balanced.

Jean-Marc Burgaud, Régnié 2010
Chocolate-dipped cherries on the nose, succulent fruit attack, bit more grip, relatively, than Beaujolais Village. Gentle, smooth, strawberry perfume mid palate, with a bit of crunch. Lovely, perky, fresh.

Jean-Marc Burgaud, Morgon Les Charmes 2010,
Old vines, over 75 years. Hint liquorice spice on nose, more muscle here, with nicely balanced crunchy red berry fruits.

Jean-Marc Burgaud, Morgon Côte du Py 2010
50 year old vines. No oak. Sweetly perfumed, strawberry and raspberry. Perceptibly nearly full-4 bodied, with a round and crunchy tannin texture combo, but really all quite tight and closed.

Jean-Marc Burgaud, Morgon Côte du Py, Réserve 2010
All to barrel at end of maceration, 4-7 years old, for about 12 months.
Smoky nose with notably more grippy tannins – comparatively – and clearly young. Moving to darker fruits with a more substantial frame.

Jean-Marc Burgaud, Morgon Côte du Py, Javernieres 2010
12 months in 4-5 year old barrels. Moving away from immediacy of perfume into dark chocolate and charcoal with roasted plums.  Supple and concentrated fruit, rich and simultaneously fresh. A big wine with elegance to emerge over time. Very good.

Jean-Marc Burgaud, Morgon Côte du Py, James 2010
3-4 years old barrels. Big concentration here with purple and plush plum fruit, and an aromatic core. Texture is still fine-grainy with oak tannins yet to melt in. A huge wine, nicely balanced that will be very good.

My research trip to Beaujolais in December 2011 was sponsored by Inter Beaujolais.

Low-slung Savaterre vines

The owner and winemaker of Savaterre, Keppell Smith, set up shop in 1996, spitting distance across the road from famed Beechworth producer Giaconda. This migrant from the financial world said “all I want is a wine with personality” and this ‘simple’ wish had seen him search high and low across Australia’s wine regions for the perfect spot he says he’s found on the south facing slopes of the Beechworth hills, with their decomposing granite and clay soils. Of  his now home-turf Beechworth’s wines he said “I couldn’t understand why one of the best wineries – Giaconda – was here.  His was the first [Australian] wine with a European bent that I’d tasted – there was so much perfume, elegance, structure.”

So Smith planted chardonnay and pinot noir at around 460m above sea level, “six rows alternately because I didn’t know which would do best.  But all do well” he said.  He added shiraz to the vineyard in 2005, bringing his plantings to five hectares.  The vines are trained low on cordons, because, Smith said “the humidity here in summer is very low, and there is twice the humidity closer to ground” which he says helps keep the aromas in the fruit. The vines are planted at a dense 8,000 vines per hectare, which he said “is important for pinot noir here, you get the best intensity, structure and aroma from close planting.”

In 2010 work was well underway on an imposing new winery, with cement fermentation vats.  “I was using stainless steel” he said, “but it let out too much heat, too fast.” In the winery Smith says he’s just babysitting “I leave it alone, no yeast, no bacteria, I add sulphur, occasionally a little acid.” But there is no complacency in this minimal approach. “The attention to detail” is crucial, he said “every 1% you muck up, it’s cumulative.”

He does leave wines on the lees for a long time, about a year, “not stirred or anything” to add a creaminess to the texture.  On the reds, he said “lees really help the wood marry with the wine. It’s the gravy between the peas and the roast, the juice that brings it all together.”

His first vintage was in 2000, just two barrels of chardonnay. It must have been an auspicious beginning, because, just a decade later, in the 2010 issue of Langton’s classification, the Savaterre chardonnay jumped into the distinguished category of emerging classics.

As to the Savaterre name, it is the name of Smith’s father’s property in Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, USA – “a piece of low-lying swamp land”, he said. There is no similarity.

Tasting notes, in situ, October 2010

Savaterre, Chardonnay 2008
50% new French oak. 13.5%
Deep lemon colour. Creamy, leesy/yeast, hint buttery – not a fruit-based aroma, though some dry lemon toast notes on the palate, smooth, linear texture. Sweet-savoury yeast flavour going on in a serious and sophisticated, multi-layered wine.

Savaterre, Pinot noir 2008
13.5%. Pale cherry colour. Smoked cherry, savoury, smooth texture, dry spice and dry-sweet texture, savoury-sweet combo, delightful texture. Dark cherry fruit emerging, dry baked and layered. Texture is fine and refined.

My research visit to Australia in October 2010 was sponsored by Wine Australia.

Degraded schist of Bonnes Blanches

Domaine Ogereau is located in the Anjou village of Saint Lambert du Lattay, in the heart of the Coteaux du Layon appellation, nestled into the crook where the small tributary river Hyrome flows north to join the river Layon.

Fourth generation Vincent Ogereau took over the family business in 1989, having worked with his father since graduating in winemaking in 1983. Over the course of those generations the estate has grown to 24 hectares over about 30 different parcels, including two in Savennières. Ninety percent of the vineyard is split equally between chenin blanc and cabernet franc, with the remaining vineyard planted to grolleau, gamay and chardonnay.

Schist underlies all the vineyards in this area. In the Bonnes Blanches vineyard towards the river Layon there are deep, degraded schists which has resulted in a crumbly, white, chalky-textured rock. Nearer the river Hyrome, where the schist is not degraded, it remains a hard, grey rock.

It is the degraded alterite schist of Bonnes Blanches that is good for sweet wines, said Ogereau, “the nature of the earth and the exposure of the terroir can balance out climate extremes. For example, if there is a lot of humidity or rainfall, it is well draining.  If it’s dry, the soil is deep and friable so the roots can go deeper to find water.”  This, he added, allows the vines to mature earlier, which is good for sweet wines.

He uses a mix of passerillé (slightly raisined on the vine) and botrytis fruit, depending on the wine. Passerillé fruit, which starts developing at the beginning of harvest, from the end of September/beginning of October, Ogereau said, “is citrus, grapefruit, fresh, very sugary and very high acid.  You can get up to 30% potential alcohol, and 15 g/l acid (tartaric).” And botrytis fruit, which comes in October/November “has more viscosity, more fat, honeyed, heavy, truly liquoreux. This get up to 20% potential alcohol, and the acidity is lower than passerillé, around 9-10g/l (tartaric).”

On his dry chenin blanc, Vincent is doing his bit to experiment (link to Savennieres) with oak and malolactic fermentation. His Anjou Blanc and Savennières are fermented in 400 to 500 litre oak barrels “not new oak, but recent” he said, “between 1 and 6 years old”. Some of the casks go through malolactic fermentation, which “helps with the unctuousness and fatness of the wine, but I don’t put it all through malo because I like to keep the freshness of chenin blanc.”

Wine tasting, in situ, August 2011

Focused on chenin blanc only.
Domaine Ogereau, Anjou Blanc 2009, En Chenin
Fermentation and maturation, for 12 months, in 400 to 500 litre casks, 1 to 6 years old, on the lees.  Dry, 100% chenin blanc.
Toasted vanilla nose, new oak is overt on nose and attack, but doesn’t dominate. Citrus, lemon toast, and a fatness of fresh texture create a rounded, well balanced wine.

Domaine Ogereau, Savennières 2006, Clos le Grand Beaupréau
On schist and sand. 14%. On lees for 15 months.
Beautiful bright deep lemon with green hints.  Creamy nose, pale toast, steely core, very smooth texture, with gunsmoke and ripeness.  A sophisticated sort of wine, and powerful. It has a good balance of spice and stone fruit,  with just a small nudge of alcohol at the end. Smart wine.

Domaine Ogereau, Coteaux du Layon, Saint Lambert, 2009
100g/l RS. Fresh, tropical, and apricot fruits in focused and linear wine. Clear and clean fruit lines.

Domaine Ogereau, Coteaux du Layon St Lambert,  Harmonie de Bonnes Blanches, 2009
Liquoreux. A new label in 2009 as Vincent has decided to select best parcels and vintages for the Clos des Bonnes Blanches, which he is only making in the best vintages. This is a mix of passerillé and botrytis fruit. 12%.
Quite a deep gold colour. Honeyed, tropical, dense, viscous. Huge wine, immediate flavours, with a defining acid core, and clear freshness. This has big, sweet, honeyed flavours, with just a hint of the button mushroom of botrytis.

Domaine Ogereau, Coteaux du Layon St Lambert, Clos des Bonnes Blanches, 2007
Not made every year. Not in 2008, or in 2009. Fermentation in 500 litre casks; maturation for 18 months in barrel on lees. 200g/l RS.
Deep gold colour. Nose is dense and golden with nectar-like honeyed, tropical, lush sweetness, that is fresh and cleansing. Huge fruit and concentration, with tangerine notes and zest coming through its many layers.  Long and delicious. Vg.

My research visit to the Loire in August 2011 was sponsored by InterLoire.

Cellar at Polvanera showing red soil and limestone

Gioia del Colle is a DOC in the middle of Puglia, located on the limestone plateau of Murge, inland and south from Bari, which rises to around 450m above sea level, giving an element of temperature moderation in the otherwise sunny south of Italy.

The DOC is named after a town of the same name, and it was the original area specialising in primitive production.  Reds must have a minimum of 50% primitivo, with the rest mostly from montepulciano, plus a choice of sangiovese, negroamaro or malvasia.  But if primitivo is on the label, only primitivo is allowed in the bottle.

Primitivo grown here seems to retain acidity well, in part at least to notable diurnal temperature variations during the ripening season.  Raffaele Guiliani, of his eponymous property, said “primitivo has about 6 to 6.3 g/l acidity at harvest,” which provides a decent backbone on which to hang, said Filippo Cassano, of Polvanera “the essence of primitivo [which] is jam, prune, dark fruits, plum, raspberries and other berries; cherry.”

The area is a karst limestone plateau some 300 to 450m asl, and vineyards are based on red, iron-rich limestone soils. Cassano explained that primitivo in Gioia del Colle “is so different because of the limestone and red soils.  In July and August, when there is generally no rain, the roots can still access deep water.”

It is in Gioia del Colle that the story of selection of primitivo began. In the 18^th century, said Cassano “primitivo was part of a field blend of grape varieties. Primitivo used to be called primaticcio, which also means early.” Vincenzo Verrastro, of the international centre for advanced Mediterranean agronomic studies said, at that time, “a priest, don Filippo Francesco Indellicati, from Gioia del Colle, with experience of wine, noticed a local vineyard that blossomed later and was harvested sooner, and he did massale selections on this primitivo. Other farmers transplanted the variety grown in this vineyard in their own farms and the surface area increased quickly.”

The area is now dominated by small and family producers, and while the total vineyard size of Gioia del Colle was never large, a period of decline in the 1960s and 70s meant that by the 1990s, Giuliani and three others were the only growers bottling their own production. Verrastro said “in 1996 the number of hectares registered in Gioia del Colle was 14.  Now it is 200 ha with small farms and around 20 cellars controlling all their production.  The largest farm is Polvanera.”  Giuliani has 25 ha, on the farm founded by his father in the 1940s.

Primitivo here, as well as readily achieving high alcohol levels despite a little altitudinal elevation, is capable of floral perfumes, which Cassano preserves by avoiding oak altogether. Giuliani is keen that “barrique doesn’t dominate” and he has settled on about a third new oak for his Gioia del Colle Primitivo Riservas.

Tasting notes, in situ, November 2011

Az. Agr. Giuliani, Primitivo Riserva 2001, Gioia del Colle DOC
Rich and attractive stewed brambly and redcurrant nose and palate. Plenty of smooth tannins, with sweet fruit flavours at fore, with still-fresh core of acidity running through. Sweetly balanced. Alcohol integrated at 14.5%. Vg.

Az. Agr. Giuliani, Primitivo Riserva 2002, Gioia del Colle DOC
14.5%. Smoky and sous bois notes on nose, bit of wet compost maturity developing. Sweet liquorice-confectionary, dark fruits, smoke and some meaty notes. Smooth and sweet core, in softly rounded body.

Az. Agr. Giuliani, Primitivo Riserva 2003, Gioia del Colle DOC
14.5%. Warm, spicy, full, sweet, youthful berried fruit. Sweet, fruit, round, supple, with defined balanced. Good.

Polvanera, Primitivo 17, 2008, Gioia del Colle DOC
From 60 year old alberelli, on clay rich soils. 16%.
Juicy, dark berries, sweet, pure fruit. Huge concentration, alcohol kick at the end, though considerably less than I might anticipate for 16%.  Lovely, dense, round, sweetness, rich, fleshy, raspberry jam and blackberries, but I’m not sure I’d want to drink a whole glass. Great purity of fruit with a core of freshness amid the sweetness and alcohol.  (Learn it is 9-10g/l RS after the tasting.)

Polvanera, Primitivo 16, 2008, Gioia del Colle DOC
From old alberelli, on iron-calcareous rocky soil.
Fragrant floral, violet perfume, elegant nose and palate attack, with hint of light chalky texture.  Upright, intense, well-deported. Also huge concentration, with good focus and intensity of sweet/ripe red berries. This has super balance, length and line, and I don’t feel the (16%) alcohol on this one. Vg. (Learn it is 2-3g/l RS after the tasting.)

Polvanera, Primitivo 14, 2008 Gioia del Colle DOC
From old alberelli and cordon spur trained. Calcareous clay soils.  14%
Dark spices and berries, hints of aromatic plums and cherries. Nice texture and balance, succulence of fruit and freshness. More approachable (half the price) than No. 16 or 17.

My trip to visit and judge wine in Puglia was sponsored by the Puglia Best Wine Consortium.

The book’s stated audience is undergraduate and post-graduate students, viticulturists and winemakers, and given that the authors have a superfluity of research post-nominals to their names, one can expect some seriously high-brow content.

And there’s nothing in the book that disappoints that expectation. This book is only for the most serious student of viticulture and wine, who has a ready grasp of science.  From the grapevine, to its structure, function, growth, and berry production, the reader is taken through the current science and offered insight into practical aspects of the science.

The mechanism of scientific literature review, summarising research studies, and outlining them in the case of ongoing studies, is the main channel for content in this book. So while, for example, studies on shiraz, grown in a particular location, suggested a positive relationship between berry colour and wine score, the authors exercise caution at the idea of extrapolating these data too far beyond the specific location. An advantage of the format is that detailed insight into particular aspects of each subject can be presented, and these are then rounded out with additional references, and explanatory sections.

On many pages a small portion of text is centred in the column and in a different fount, to highlight the key point being expounded in main body of the text, for example in the section on wine style and quality the highlighted text is ‘we define grape quality as the suitability of a batch of grapes to produce a wine of high quality of a targeted style. Suitability is the key word’. Thus chardonnay ripened to make Champagne wouldn’t make an exciting still wine.

Indeed, the practical application of the science is a theme running at the heart of the book. This is not high-brow content for the sake of it.  Coloured symbols draw the eye to sections where practical considerations are offered, or questions posed to the reader, for example, on the efficient use of water, or are small berries an advantage for wine quality?

Further chapters cover fruit growth, water relations, climate and training the vine for particular locations, as well as a look at the vine in relation to its environment, touching on terroir, organics and biodynamics.

Temperature and insolation are key themes of climate at the scale of macro, meso, and microclimate. Where a study had previously suggested a positive relationship between colour and wine score, other studies show the regional temperatures best suited to colour compound synthesis are found in cool to warm regions, rather than cold, hot and very hot regions. Thus the reader is able to build a complex picture of the factors affecting grapevine growth and overlay on it the styles of wine to be made in order to hone possible vineyard locations.

Each chapter is littered with pictures, diagrams, graphs and charts, and extensive bibliographies so readers can further pursue particular points that pique their passion. Additionally, chapter summaries then draw the reader back to the main points, providing a succinct presentation.

One gets a feel for how microscopically complex a thing it is growing grapes for wine.  Finding a decent soil is only the beginning, but working with the climate to best express grape flavours and aromas is a whole another story. Do you want more monoterpenes (floral, citrus), methoxypyrazines (asparagus, green pepper) or norisoprenoids (honey-like, stewed apple) in your sauvignon blanc, for example? And according to the answer, where should you plant, and how should you manage your canopy? This book looks at those issues through the medium of longstanding and the latest science.

Filippo Cassano

Filippo Cassano of Polvanera owns vineyards around Gioia del Colle on the Murge plateau, some 300 to 450m above sea level. He farms 40 hectares, 25 of which are his own, including some 40-50 year old primitivo bush vines, or alberelli, his grandfather planted, directly into the superficial rock.  While much of his vineyard area is dedicated to primitivo, Cassano also makes aleatico, aglianico, fiano minutolo, falanghina and moscato.

His first vintage was 2005, the same year his partially subterranean cellar was carved out of the limestone and terra rossa soils.

Up where his grandfather’s vines are, Cassano said “we have more breezes to dry out the grapes here, and we’re maybe one of the latest areas for picking.” In 2011 they picked in October. At this higher altitude he added, compared to vineyards around 200 metres lower, harvest can be a month later. In addition to which he said “September is good month for day-night temperature differences, so if you can hold off from picking, it’s good for the perfume of the wine.”

Cassano has a strong philosophy of oak avoidance. He said proudly, “my wine contacts only steel and glass”, and some pipework, he conceded.  He tried working with barrique in his first year, “but it so changed the wine that I couldn’t find the typical dark fruit of primitive, I could only taste vanilla.”  At the time, he added “I was swimming against the tide of barriquistas, and of blending primitivo with French varieties, because I was pure primitivo and no wood.” But “now, my choices are more appreciated around the world. The current movement is in favour of the styles I’m making.”

Cassano also makes an intriguing, and tasty, traditional method sparkling primitivo, with ten months on the lees.  It’s made from the secondary bunches which mature a couple of weeks after the main harvest, though he said “I pick them before the whole of the two weeks so they’re slightly under-ripe, with around 9-10% potential alcohol and 9-10g/l of acid.”

After some experimentation, he’s settled on a two hour skin contact before the first fermentation. But as this results in a colour that he feels isn’t vibrant enough, he adds strongly coloured primitivo in the dosage. This wine represents some 10% of his total production.

Why the estate is not eponymously named is because Cassano decided to take the name of the farm instead.  He explained “the centre part of the farm was built in 1820 of local rocks, and the original family was nicknamed ‘soot’ (polvagnor) because they used to burn wood to make charcoal.

Tasting notes, in situ, November 2011

Polvanera, Metodo Classico, Rosé Brut
100% primitivo. 2011 disgorgement, date on the label. 12%
Lovely bright pink colour. Nice freshness, with cherry fruits. Dosage at the high end for brut, so tastes (to me) off dry rather than dry, but this is a good fun wine.

Polvanera, Primitivo 17, 2008, Gioia del Colle DOC
From 60 year old alberelli, on clay rich soils. 16%.
Juicy, dark berries, sweet, pure fruit. Huge concentration, alcohol kick at the end, though considerably less than I might anticipate for 16%.  Lovely, dense, round, sweetness, rich, fleshy, raspberry jam and blackberries, but I’m not sure I’d want to drink a whole glass. Great purity of fruit with a core of freshness amid the sweetness and alcohol.  (Learn it is 9-10g/l RS after the tasting.)

Polvanera, Primitivo 16, 2008, Gioia del Colle DOC
From old alberelli, on iron-calcareous rocky soil.
Fragrant floral, violet perfume, elegant nose and palate attack, with hint of light chalky texture.  Upright, intense, well-deported. Also huge concentration, with good focus and intensity of sweet/ripe red berries. This has super balance, length and line, and I don’t feel the (16%) alcohol on this one. Vg. (Learn it is 2-3g/l RS after the tasting.)

Polvanera, Primitivo 14, 2008 Gioia del Colle DOC
From old alberelli and cordon spur trained. Calcareous clay soils.  14%
Dark spices and berries, hints of aromatic plums and cherries. Nice texture and balance, succulence of fruit and freshness. More approachable (half the price) than No. 16 or 17.

My trip to visit and judge wine in Puglia was sponsored by the Puglia Best Wine Consortium.

Eric Manz

Riesling may be Germany’s signature grape variety, covering 20% of the country’s vineyard area, but another 10% is covered with the increasingly trendy grauburgunder (pinot gris/grigio) and weissburgunder (pinot blanc).

Plantings of these two increased by more than 50% during the first decade of the 21^st century, which means that grauburgunder and weissburgunder now rank as the sixth and seventh, respectively, most planted grape varieties in Germany.  Together with spätburgunder / pinot noir, this trio cover almost the same amount of vineyard area as riesling, making them a growing force on the German wine scene.

As plantings have increased, so wine styles have evolved, and both are now being drunk in oaked and unoaked styles. Eric Manz of Weingut Manz in Rheinhessen said “I used to make my top quality weissburgunder without oak until two years ago. Then the gastronomy sector asked for [an oaky style], and now I’m convinced this is the right way to do it.“

Further south in deepest Baden, Joachim Heger, owner of Weingut Heger, emphasised how “pinots do very well with food.  Pinot gris is very popular in northern Germany, while in southern Germany people like pinot blanc at least as much as pinot gris.” Heger’s wines are all dry, which he says makes them more food-friendly than sweeter styles. More than half his total production is of grauburgunder and weissburgunder, and his top wines such as Achkarrer Schlossberg weissburgunder “is always fermented in barrel for more complexity” he said.

Oak doesn’t hold universal appeal though. Martin Messmer of the Messmer estate in the Pfalz is less keen, even for his top wines such is ‘Im Goldenen Jost’, which has 2% new barrique. He said “for me it is too much because the aromas are lost a little under the barrique.”  All of which means the trend for pinot varieties creates an innovative flux among producers.

Along with some oak, the malolactic fermentation, often on a proportion of the fruit, provides additional texture in the more serious (expensive) styles. Manz said “malo helps to reduce the acidity, and to get better texture.” For Heger it’s more a vintage thing, he said, as “we did no malo at all in 2009, because the acidity was lower” in that very ripe year.  Then in the more classic 2010 vintage, Heger used the malo in some of his wine.

Barrels and malo add complexing textures and flavours into the wines. Grauburguner can take on an aromatic nutmeg and perfume spice. And weissburgunder heads towards a Burgundian style, with aromatic spices, fatness, texture and nutty notes to the wine.

Experimentation in the winery is no surprise given that in their ‘pure’ state, neither grape variety is necessarily hugely aromatic, though both retain clean, fresh, lucid lines without oak influence. Weissburgunder tends to be a bit more full bodied than grauburgunder, and may also be a little more reticent on the nose, with delicate fresh, white nut notes amid white fruits such as apple and pear and white-fleshed nectarines, and sometimes a white pepper spice. Grauburgunder tends to be more appley, lemony and pear-ish with a moderate acidity.

Where these grapes converge is in their origins. All hail originally from Burgundy. Pinot blanc (weissburgunder) was first reported in the 19th century as a white mutation of pinot gris (grauburgunder).  And pinot gris had already mutated from pinot noir. As apparent evidence for this, ripe grauburgunder has a shiny, muddy-mauve colour, and this explains why it’s possible to get a faint pink hue to a white wine made from it. But France no longer has primacy for grauburgunder. Germany’s plantings of this variety are the third largest in the world, after Italy (under its pinot grigio moniker) and the USA.

Also deriving from their Burgundian origins, the pinot varieties do very well on loess and limestone soils, thus most grauburgunder and weissburgunder is grown in Baden, Pfalz and Rheinhessen. These regions run in a north-south direction along one or other side of the Rhine river, south of Mainz. Manz, in Rheinhessen, said “loess, which covers most of the Rheinhessen region, is a good soil for pinot blanc. And below the loess is limestone, which is an ideal soil for the pinots because the vines have to send roots deep, which is better to get minerality” in the wines.  And Messmer in the Pfalz, added his pinot varieties are “all on limestone because it makes them smooth, and they don’t have a high acidity coming from the warm soil, which gives more physiological ripeness.”

Tasting notes, in situ, August 2011

Weingut Manz, Grauer Burgunder Trocken, Alte Reben, 2010, Rheinhessen €9
13%. Creamy nose, supple attack, white pepper piquancy with a bit of firestone, nice depth and freshness of primary fruit, with that fresh-creamy texture. Good.

Weingut Messmer, Grauburgunder 2010, Kabinett Trocken, Pfalz €7.80
12.5%. Fresh, creamy, lifted piquancy of acidity, then smooth, creamy with hint of white pepper. Silky smooth. Very nice.

Britzinger, Grauer Burgunder 2010, Kabinett Trocken, Baden €5.95
Yellow/green hue. Fresh-cream, white nuts, light and appealing aperitif, balanced and refreshing. Good.

Britzinger, Sonnhole SONNE, Grauer Burgunder Spatlese Trocken 2009, Baden €7.95
14%. Smooth and silky white-creamed nuts, aromatic spice notes, nicely integrated and balanced. Fresh enough with medium weight of body and decent substance. Good.

Dr. Heger, Ihringer Winklerberg, Grauburgunder Spatlese Trocken 2010, Baden €16.50
His ‘basic’ pinot gris/gio, 13%, White peach and pear. Fresh and smooth. Light and intense, with hints of freshly-harvested cob nuts. This is really posh, and tasty ‘pinot grigio’. Good.

Weingut Bercher, Grauer Burgunder Burkheimer Schlossgarten, Kabinett Trocken 2010, Baden €8.50.
Creamy, white nuts, fresh and straight down some very nice lines. Good aperitif, nice to drink, with juicy acidity and white fruit on the finish.

Weingut Bercher, Grauer Burgunder Spätlese Trocken 2009, Burkheimer Feuerberg, Baden
13%. Rich, lush-dry combo, dry tropical fruits, steely edge running through its linear structure and definition. Ripe and tropical, with chalk-stony edge to it. Good.

Weingut Klumpp, Grauburgunder Alte Reben 2010, Baden
13.5% White stone fruits on nose, fresh, creamy white nuts as palate attack. Nice, slippery-smooth texture. Fresh balance with white pepper and sweet spice finish. Good.

Weingut Manz, Weisser Burgunder Trocken, Loess, 2010, Rheinhessen €6
Gentle, white pear, white pepper spice on mid palate. Nice freshness and tastiness. Good flavour in mouth, though not especially long.

Weingut Messmer, Weissburgunder, Im Goldenen Jost, 2008 GG, Pfalz €19
Hints of gunsmoke, and creamed fresh cob nuts. Supple and silky texture, rich and pepper-spicy.  Very good.

Dr. Heger, Ihringer Winklerberg, Weissburgunder Spatlese Trocken, 2010, Baden
13%. The ‘basic’ pinot blanc.  Citrus, smooth, white fresh-cream, balanced with poise. Good.

Dr. Heger, Ihringer Winkerlberg, Weissburgunder ***, Grosses Gewaches trocken, Gras im Ofen 2010, Baden €20.50
Chalky, floral nose in fully dry wine with hints of white pepper spice and allspice in white fresh-cream. Pristine and very clean, with a really big intensity. Vg

Dr. Heger, Achkarrer Schlossberg, Wesibburgunder *** GG  trocken 2010, Baden
Aromatically spicy, creamy-fresh-cream. Fresh-fat, spicy and peach. Vg

Weingut Bercher, Weissburgunder Spatlese Trocken, Sasbacher Limburg 2010, Baden
Rich, fat, spicy, tropical nose. Then sweet-fruited, yellow stones, in supple and smooth textured body. Tasty wine that finishes fresh and light.

Weingut Klumpp, Kirchberg Weissburgunder 2010, Baden
13.5%. Firestone and tropical fruit, sweet fruit attack in a medium body. Nice bit of intensity and palate prickle, with nutmeg and pineapple. Fresh, sweet finish of a dry wine. Vg.

My research trip was sponsored by Deutsches Weininstitut.

Mathieu Lapierre

Having returned to the domaine in 2005 to work with his father, Mathieu Lapierre now runs this estate after the untimely death of his father Marcel in 2010.

From 1981, Marcel adopted a less interventionist way of growing his fruit and making wine, under the auspices of Jules Chauvet who is widely regarded as the father of what has become known as ‘natural wine’.  Essentially, synthetic vineyard applications are avoided, as are industrial yeasts, enzymes, chaptalisation, and minimising the use of sulphur dioxide, eliminating its addition altogether in some cuvees.  Mathieu said “we respect as much as possible what the terroir, and the vintage is, without adding anything.  So we don’t kill the yeast before we want to use them”, with chemicals in the vineyard for example.  But he does plough the vineyards, because, he said “vines are lazy.  We make the roots go deep into the rocks to find what they need” to survive, by severing shallow lateral roots with the plough.

As some evidence for his viticultural approach, the 15 hectares of this estate are certified organic.  Mathieu is also testing biodynamics on 3 hectares of this, and he keeps this wine separately to watch its evolution.

His vines all belong to the Morgon appellation. They average 45 years old and include a hectare on the climat of Côte du Py. The soils are all decomposed granite.

Mathieu uses traditional Beaujolais carbonic maceration to make his wines. Whole bunches only, with any individual bad berries discarded. If it’s hot the baskets of grapes will go into a cooling truck.  The level of carbonic maceration “is not the winemaker’s choice” he said, “in 2009, it was 95% carbonic maceration because the fruit was dry.  But you could have 30% juice and 70% carbonic maceration” depending on the conditions of the vintage.

The quality of the vintage also directs the length of maceration, which is anything from two to five weeks for Domaine Lapierre. Wines then go to large oak casks, and fourth fill and older Burgundy barrels, for about nine months.

Mathieu trained as a microbiologist to better understand the non-interventionist opportunities.  He said “my father was one of the first in Beaujolais working on a green revolution in the 1970s.  Marcel wanted to go back to a quality that was lacking, the way that people had done things for ever, using oenology as a tool, or as medicine.” Because he doesn’t add sulphites, acid, sugar, yeast, or use temperature control, “you need to control everything” he said.  A lot of this is done by regular tasting at vintage, as well as knowing at a microbiological level what he’s able to avoid doing.

He makes half his bottling without sulphites, and the other half with around 25mg/l of SO2, and has noticed that “younger wine without sulphites can be better, but after a few years it can be the other way round.”

About 70% of his customers ask for his wines with sulphites, which, he said “make the wine clearer and straighter.”

Tasting, in situ, December 2011

Domaine Lapierre, Morgon 2010 (without sulphites), ~£20
Not hugely fragrant, but nicely smooth and textured. Sapid, graphite notes in a well-structured wine. Fresh with elements of steel.  Delicious.

Domaine Lapierre, Morgon 2009 (without sulphites)
Graphite and dark, fresh, plums, smoky notes, something different, purple notes, fresh core and quite strong. Liquorice stick, savoury-fresh linear element.

Domaine Lapierre, Morgon 2009 (with sulphites)
Notably fruitier, but I don’t find it simpler. Has chalky fine tannin, and is packed with flavour.

Domaine Lapierre, Morgon 2005 (with sulphites)
Fresh, violet, soft-plum and rich fragrance. Sweet fruit.

Domaine Lapierre, Morgon 2005 (without sulphites)
Smoke, lead, graphite, more character, dimension and length. Vg.

My research trip to Beaujolais in December 2011 was sponsored by Inter Beaujolais.

Sea-level Jaddico Vineyard at Brindisi

Negroamaro is one of the top three grape varieties grown in Puglia and a strong component of several DOCs. It’s found mainly in the southern, Salento, region of Puglia.  Duccio Armenio of Slow Food said “Salento is the heart of negroamaro. It is a plain, level land with similar heat degree days to the Hunter Valley, around 2000 – one of the hottest areas in the world [where] we have quality in spite of the heat.”

Salento is the heel of Italy, with the Adriatic Sea on one side, and the Ionian on the other, where, said Armenio, “is the magic of these two seas.  The exchange of winds between the two seas creates a unique terroir.  Negroamaro has adapted and enjoys this climate.” Proximity to sea level maximises the cooling benefit of these winds, though Armenio also emphasised the modern importance of canopy management to shade fruit from the sun.

Negroamaro lends itself to many styles, from “rosé, to simple, in a good way, table wines. And dry wines made from late harvest that remind you of Amarone styles” said Armenio.  While the grape readily accumulates colour and phenols, preserving acidity is more of a challenge.

As to its flavour, said Luigi Rubino, of his eponymous estate, and president of the Puglia Best Wine Consortium, “you can feel the true character of negroamaro – it’s rich in spicy notes, red fruits and blackberry.”  Armenio added it also “has spicy notes, tobacco, coffee and dried prunes, and like all big wines, they need some years to come out.” The tannins of this variety, which ripens later than primitivo, are not to be trifled with.

Marco Sabellico editor of Gambero Rosso added that the heritage of old negroamaro vines was very important for the ageworthy character of the best examples.  Vineyards of 50 to 90 years old are quite common.

While negroamaro does particularly well as a rosé wine, in reds, it is blended with a wealth of other grape varieties, including malvasia nera, montepulciano, and bombino nero, or susumaniello. More recently also with primitivo, Puglia’s top variety.  For example, in Salice Salentino, Squinzano and Copertino, negroamaro is blended mainly with malvasia nera, while in Brindisi, a proportion of montepulciano is allowed.

As to the origins of the name, Rubino explained negroamaro as being twice black:  negra from the Latin for black, and amaro, from mavro, the Greek for black.  This view seems to be gaining popularity over the traditional view of negro for black and amaro for bitter.

Tasting, in situ, November 2011

Torrevento, Sine Nomine 2005, Salice Salentino Riserva DOC
Negroamaro, malvasia nera. Medium pale colour. Savoury steaks cooked fully, showing some age, not unbalanced for that. Very well developed, meaty and mature.

Torrevento, Matervitae Negroamaro 2010, IGT Puglia
Violet perfume, sweet texture, smooth, medium body, fragrant palate, some nice freshness.  Good example.

Schola Sarmenti, Roccamora 2008, DOC Nardò
Negroamaro. Bit smoky, bit spicy, rich, sweet, fat and flavoursome. Some nice freshness and backbone structure. Graphite and dark berry fruits. This is really nice.

Paololeo, Orfeo 2009, IGT Puglia
Negroamaro. Smoky, dark floral notes, smooth tannin texture, nice definition and balance.  Good.

Paololeo, Salice Salentino Riserva 2007
Negroamaro, malvasia nera. Charcoal darkness of flavour, in a good way, smooth with some attractive complexity, balanced and with very good depth of flavour. Dark berries, aromatic spices, cardamom, nutmeg, tamarind.  Good.

Feudi di San Marzano, F 2008, IGP Salento
Negroamaro.  Tarry oak, but this bottle a bit bitter, amid the fragrance.

Gianfranco Fino, Jo 2008, IGT Salento
Negroamaro. 16% alcohol. Big, savoury, black-fruited, huge and good for all that. Soft in a muscular sort of way.  Deep rich, sweet flavours, spiced, almost mulled, berries. Good.

Candido, La Carta 2006, Salice Salentino Riserva
Negroamaro, malvasia nera, 13.5%  Smoky, savoury, black tea and tar, serious, smooth, dark, savoury berries. Some backbone, sweetly textured tannins. Good.

Candido, I Satiri 2006, Salice Salentino Riserva
Negroamaro. 13.5%. Smoky, savoury overt oak still here. Silky smooth texture with rich, ripe smoked fruits. Long and deep flavours. Good.

Candido, Cassio Dione 2006, IGT Salento ~€30
50% negroamaro, 50% primitivo
Big dark berries on nose, sweet fruit (only a few g/l RS), smooth texture, full body, with smoky oak notes and liquorice.  This is, for me, nicely balanced. Dense black fruit notes and aromatic spices – star anise, allspice. Soft, round supple wine.

Agricole Vallone, Vigna Castello 2008, Salento IGT,
Negroamoaro, susumaniello. Smoky, tarry nose, sweet/ripe fruit attack, graphite, smooth, tar-roses, black tea, nice complexity and length. Good.

Agricole Vallone, Graticciaia 2006, IGT Salento ~€40-50
100% negroamaro, 70-75 year old bush vines. Made “as it used to be in the past.” Grapes dried on straw mats for 10 to 12 days to give a sugar concentration. This is about 10g/l RS.
Some refer to this as an amarone of the southern Italy, but the active sweetness is a bit too much for me (and more than normally found in Amarone?). Has big concentration of red berry fruits and sugar in a soft, round, full body.

Cantine Due Palme, Selvarossa Riserva 2008, Salice Salentino Riserva DOP, ~€15
90% negroamaro, 10% malvasia nera. 50-70 year old vines.
Spicy, big new oak spices, quite dominant with sweet, sweet black fruit, high alcohol kick at the end. Has good freshness, but made slippery with sweetness (not in a bad way).

Conti Zecca, Nero Conti Zecca 2008, IGT Salento
70% negroamaro, 30% cabernet sauvignon.
Sweet notes on nose and grippy, slightly bitter tannins. Angular, with dry, savoury near-pucking tannins. I’m not sure this blend does well. Is it simply too young?

Cupertinum, Cantina Sociale Cooperativa di Copertino, Settantacinque 2004, Copertino Riserva DOP, ~ €8-12
Negroamaro, < 20% malvasia nera
Dark charcoal, mocca tar, savoury on nose, hints of VA. Dry, with grippy astringency. Fruit has been hidden, is now disappearing? Not aged hugely well, I feel.

Tenute Mater Domini, Casili 2008, Salice Salentino Riserva DOC ~€25
A field blend: 95% negroamaro, 5% malvasia nera, planted 3-4km from the sea.
Smoke, fresh leather, black tea, sweet violet perfume on the palate attack. Aromatic, black cherry core, sweet (ripe), silky texture finishes quite sweetly, in a gentle balance. Acid not so pronounced, but not flabby. Gentle, fine tannins, not to tannic; has nice elegance.

Tenute Rubino, Jaddico 2007, Brindisi DOC ~€15
70% negroamaro, 15% montepulciano, 15% malvasia nera, on sea level vineyards at Brindisi.
Cinnamon, star anise, cardamom aromatic spices, cardamom. Sweet red fruits in medium bodied wine of attractive freshness. Hint of liquorice stick, sweet, modest tannins, that have a certain degree of elegance and smoothness to them.

My trip to visit and judge wine in Puglia was sponsored by the Puglia Best Wine Consortium.

Pink granite and blue volcanic rock

Château Thivin is the oldest estate on the slopes of Mount Brouilly, with part of their cellar dating to 1383.

This excellent property came into the Geoffray family in 1877, when Zaccharie bought the two-hectare estate at the time of the phylloxera crisis.  It is now run by Claude Geoffray, father and son: Claude-Vincent the father, and Claude-Edouard, the son and sixth generation.

They work the two most southerly of the ten Beaujolais crus – Côte de Brouilly and Brouilly. Brouilly is also the biggest of the crus, with 1,327ha. Its vineyards surround one of the smallest crus – Côte de Brouilly, with just 322 hectares, at higher altitude up the slopes of the volcanic Mount Brouilly, which peaks at 483m.

Côte de Brouilly is the heart of these two appellations. The bedrock is hard, blue volcanic plutonic rock that formed beneath the earth’s surface and never erupted. It’s the only one of the crus not to be based on granite, though the lieu-dit Côte de Py in Morgon is also volcanic in origin.  Geoffray said Côte de Brouilly “has more structure, it’s more serious, and will age longer than Brouilly, which is an easier-drinking” appellation.

The broader Brouilly is based on pink granite, and the Thivins “prefer to drink Brouilly in the first five years, to have the fruity flavours” that they express by using concrete to age this wine.  This keeps the freshness and fruitiness more than the oak casks they use for the more serious Côte de Brouilly.

In both their crus, managing gamay’s tannins using semi-carbonic fermentation is a challenging task, so Geoffray said “we taste the juice every day, and if the tannins become too strong we stop the maceration and press.  And with more tannin, we give a longer ageing.”

Three generations of label design

The property, which now comprises 25 ha, has three label designs, from 1946, 1976 and 2004, each almost 30 years apart, created by the last three generations.  The Côte de Brouilly wines keep the 1946 design, while the Brouilly takes on Claude-Vincent’s design.  The more minimalist lines of the new millennium take centre stage for Claude-Edouard’s design.

Chardonnay is a bit of a surprise in Beaujolais, though it represents some 2 to 3% of plantings. The Thivin’s parcel is in Thiezé, in the south of Beaujolais, where the soils are a much better suited clay-limestone mix. Grapes also come from a limestone vein in the village of St-Lager in the Brouilly appellation. The Thivin’s name their chardonnay cuvée after the wife of first generation Zaccharie.

Tasting notes, in situ, December 2011

Château Thivin, Marguerite, Beaujolais Villages Blanc 2010,
Chardonnay from St. Lager, planted in 2000. Vinified and aged in first to fifth use barrel.
Lightest creamy notes, with smooth and supple texture and sweet mediterranean fruits.  Fresh, with deep concentration of fruit. Nice.

Château Thivin, Brouilly 2010
Whole bunches for 8 to 12 days, then to stainless steel.
Fresh, dark cherry notes, with a bit of liquorice stick in a medium-bodied wine with nice gentle concentration and balance.

Château Thivin, Cote de Brouilly, Les Sept Vignes, 2010
Whole bunches for 8 to 12 days, and oak casks for six months. “A blend of our parcels, vinified separately, each with different expositions. The top parcels are more mineral and tense. The bottom parcels are easier, rounder and fruitier.”
Hints of aromatic smokiness, purple and dark cherries, smoothly textured, fresh, with hints of  graphite. This has a lovely fresh backbone and balance, bright, with violet-perfumed concentration. Vg.

Château Thivin, Cote de Brouilly, Clos Bertrand 2010
This parcel is the historic parcel around the estate, with south west aspect.
Rich, concentrated, lead pencil, violet and dark cherry perfume. Very smoothly textured, silkily-smooth, and sweet fruited.

Château Thivin, Cote de Brouilly, Cuvée Godefroy 2010
This parcel is at the bottom of the hill on the east side, a very old vineyard.  Meaning freedom of god.
Smokily aromatic nose, smooth with a bit of fine chalkiness added in. Certainly a bit grippier than the previous, and in a sweet, ripe fashion.  Nice.

Château Thivin, Cote de Brouilly, La Chapelle, 2010
At the top, facing south, on very rocks, blue stone soils.  Whole bunches and destemmed fruit for 2 weeks, and about nine months in cask.
Aromatic in a different way – rose petals and blossoms amid bright, near-crunchy red cherry fruits. Medium weighted and very fresh, with silky concentration and fine-chalky tannin lift. Vg.

Château Thivin, Cote de Brouilly, Cuvee Zaccharie 2009
Made in small barrels, 10% new oak, with a two week vinification.
Dark and chocolately, less perfumed, but with a bit more tannic grip that’s not at all distracting. Full bodied, with huge concentration.

Château Thivin, Cote de Brouilly, Cuvee Zaccharie, 1999
The second vintage of this cuvee.
Smoky and farmyard development, fully mature and interesting. It’s very nicely balanced, and still has freshness and vibrancy, though the fruit has moved to farmyard on the nose, and does come through more on the palate. Has big concentration of flavour.

My research trip to Beaujolais in December 2011 was sponsored by Inter Beaujolais.

Valle dell'Acate

A two hour – Italian-style driving – journey south and slightly west of Mount Etna lies Sicily’s only DOCG, Cerasuolo di Vittoria, in Ragusa province, awarded in 2005. Before that it had been Sicily’s first red wine to achieve DOC status, in 1973.

It’s made from frappato, which is a thin-skinned variety, and in this appellation, it is blended with the island’s king of reds, nero d’avola, in proportions of 30 to 50% frappato, 50 to 70% nero d’avola.

Modern technology and knowledge has fundamentally improved the fate of frappato. Marco Calcaterra of Avide started in the region in the early 1980s, using temperature-controlled stainless steel to better extract a little more colour from the pale frappato. He explained this was a turning point for vinification in the area: “at the beginning” he said “Cerasuolo di Vittoria was a light colour because there were three kinds of maceration: 12, 24 or 36 hours, without temperature control.” Frappato quickly loses its colour pigments at higher temperatures, but, said Calcaterra “working at 22-23°C lets you get the best part of its colour.”

Calcaterra describes frappato as a semi-aromatic variety saying “the fragrance [in the wine] comes from frappato, it has a good concentration of terpenic compounds, though not as much as muscat.”  These are what give frappato its floral and blossom aromas.

Despite needing close attention to colour development, frappato retains its acidity well in the basking warmth of southern Sicily, and it is this variety that adds acid backbone to nero d’avola in Cerasuolo di Vittoria. Calcaterra said “frappato is one of the first [grape varieties] that has body, but the last to reach ripeness. And on average its acidity will be 6-7 g/l [tartaric], only losing about 0.5g/l in the winemaking.”

So in Cerasuolo di Vittoria, frappato provides cherry fragrance and acid lift to the blend, nero d’avola adds flesh and structure. And where nero d’avola on its own can become broad-shouldered and muscley, blending with frappato moderates its exuberance, bringing it into a more medium bodied wine and with greater aromatic profile.

Frappato is specialised in this Cerasuolo di Vittoria, with only 840 hectares for the whole of the island.  This is less than 1% of Sicily’s total vineyard.  By contrast, the much more widely planted nero d’avola comprises some 18,800ha across the whole of the island.

Barrique ageing has been a development over the last quarter of a century, which has led to a more serious, full-bodied style of Cerasuolo di Vittoria.  At Valle dell’Acate, Francesco Ferreri explained they started maturing nero d’avola in barrique, and have more recently moved to 500-litre French wood casks for a softer impact. This they then blend with frappato made in inert containers as, he said, the theme for Cerasuolo di Vittoria DOCG, “is an elegant wine rather than powerful wine.”

The origins of frappato are beginning to emerge via DNA analysis. Sicily has always been at a crossroads of Mediterranean trade, so import at some stage in history is a distinct possibility, and recent DNA studies have suggested a link to sangiovese in a parental role.

There are around 7,000 hectares of grapes grown in the Cerasuolo di Vittoria appellation.

Don’t confuse it with Cerasuolo di Montepulciano which is a rosé wine made in the Abruzzo region from montepulciano grapes.

Tasting notes in situ, June 2011

Az. Vitivinicola Avide, Cerasuolo di Vittoria Classico 2008 ~€9
13.5%. 50% nero d’avola; 50% frappato. All stainless steel
Aromatic redcurrant and raspberry, soft and supple attack, sweet fruit, lush and medium-full body, gentle, fragrant spiciness on the palate core. Fresh and flavoursome. Smooth and with some elegance. And fresh finish.

Az. Vitivinicola Avide, Barocco Cerasuolo di Vittoria Classico DOCG 2005
14%. 30% frappato, 70% nero d’avola. Two and half years in barrique, plus one and a half years in bottle.  Smoky, rich, blackcurrant nose, with dense, sweet fruit, and mid palate fragrance. This is a remarkably youthful, gentle giant sort of wine.  Tasty.

Valle dell’Acate, Cerasuolo di Vittoria Classico DOCG 2008 ExC€6.5
13.5%. 30% frappato, 70% nero d’avola. The nero d’avola was in barrique/tonneau for 8 months, some new, before blending with frappato.
Spicy nose, of dark, black hedgerow fruits. Medium to full body, with a dark, almost savoury spiciness, with fine-young-grainy tannins still needing to integrate.

My research visit to Sicily in June 2011 was sponsored by the Sicilian Regional Institute for Viticulture and Wine.

Wintry Puglian vineyard

The origins of the increasingly impressive nero di troia remain uncertain, though an abiding story is that it is named after a village near Foggia in the north of Puglia. Indeed the variety is mostly found in the north of this region, while other mainstay grapes primitivo and negroamaro are found in the centre and south of Puglia.

Castel del Monte is the main DOC of northern Puglia, in which nero di troia plays a leading role. This area accounts for a quarter of Puglia’s 5,000 hectares of the grape. Altitude is a key advantage in Castel del Monte, as Francesco Liantonio of Torrevento, whose vineyard Vigna Pedale is 500m above sea level, explained “in summer we have temperature changes between day and night of 10 to 15°C. This gives freshness to the wine.”

While much nero di troia is bottled as IGT Puglia, other DOCs in which nero di troia plays a significant role include Rosso Canosa, Rosso Barletta and Rosso di Cerignola.

Nero di troia was traditionally blended with other local varieties. Sebastiano de Corato, of Rivera said “nero di troia is a very late variety, it ripens till October, when it’s raining in Puglia.  The tannins are an issue, so the fear of having wines with too much tannin [meant] it was blended with softer varieties such as montepulciano.”

It is only in the last 15 years that the variety is emerging as a flavoursome, qualitative grape variety, and one made as a single varietal wine. Enzo Scivetti, of sommelier association ONAV (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori di Vino) said “15 years ago there were only two or three labels of pure nero di troia. Now there are more than 80 different labels.”

Historically, Scivetti said “nero di troia had a constant but difficult evolution. It was extensively planted in the 19^th century around Foggia, Benevento and Basilicata.” And more recently, “for decades it was considered not a very elegant grape variety.  The wines were tannic and strong, and it needed years to make these wines smooth and softer.”

Scientific research into the variety, the types of planting and training revealed that production had focused on big grapes where strong tannins and herbaceous notes could develop.  But, Scivetti said “by limiting the yield, grape size decreased and the herbaceous characters disappeared. The phenolic content changed, and it became a wine that could be aged.”

Barletta-based Tenuta Rasciatano employed Naples university oenology Professor Luigi Moio to work with their nero di troia. Moio had been studying aromas for many years and said “I came across nero di troia in 2001. I was struck by its aromas, especially in the back palate, which reminded me of coriander and powdered cherries.”

Trani, on the Puglian coast

Making nero di troia as a single variety can be challenging, as Moio explained “nero di troia is usually very tannic, and the anthocyanin concentration is high, so maceration can be a problem to manage. You need a more moderate temperature to keep the tannins under control, and maceration lasts only 10-12 days.”

Firstly, though, he said “grapes are picked as they ripen, little by little, not all at the same time” to ensure only ripe tannins go into the vat.

For Rivera it was in the mid 1990s, when the family started selecting for small berries that the vines “started producing fruit with good concentration” said de Corato, “the fruit balances the levels of tannins, so there was no need to blend.” Though they do use micro-oxygenation.

Oak also helps with tannin management.  Moio said “a tannic wine will always be tannic, so winemakers must plan wines from nero di troia so that it becomes softer. Oak plays an important role in this, where the main role of the oak is played on the tannins, not the aromas.”

No-one is saying nero di troia is the next big thing. Indeed de Corato said “maybe nero di troia will never become a fashionable wine among regular consumers as happened with primitivo and negroamaro.  It is probably more for more evolved consumers.”  But not everything can be mainstream.

Tasting notes, in situ, November 2011.

On the basis of a small tasting, it’s worth the effort to get that mix of herbs, aromatic spices, graphite, plums and cherry fruit in a wine that’s not hugely full bodied.

Tenuta Rasciatano, Nero di Troia 2007, IGT Puglia
Black tea leaf, petals, and savoury tannins that are somewhat nebbiolo-like in texture. The body is smooth, soft, round, and not so firm with acid. This is elegant and very finely textured, with notes of leather and hints of biltong and cardamom sweetness and dark, dried cherries.  Length is good.

Rivera, Puer Apuliae 2007, Castel del Monte DOC
Smoke, black tea and smoked spices. Some fine-grainy tannin texture, savoury, graphite, leathery. Lovely medium bodied texture, with chalky dry tannins. Elegant with aromatic herbs and a long in-palate length. Good.

Torrevento, Vigna Pedale 2008, Castel del Monte DOC
Dark dried cherries, mulled spices and black tea leaves, with a violet perfume emerging. Good primary fruit here too – black cherry, dark fresh plum. Medium body, with fresh and gentle acidity, ripe fruits, and faintly dry and fresh tannins. A sweet texture makes it wholesome.

My trip to visit and judge wine in Puglia was sponsored by the Puglia Best Wine Consortium.

http://www.vinsdeloire.fr/SiteGP/FR/Appellation/Appellation/Quarts-de-Chaume

Due south, across the river, of new Loire appellations Roches aux Moines and Coulée de Serrant in Savennières, lies Quarts de Chaume, recently elevated to grand cru status.  Claude Papin of Château Pierre Bise explained its origins.

The appellation is situated on the right bank of Loire tributary, the river Layon, as it wends its way in a north-westerly direction, to join the Loire at Chalonnes-sur-Loire.

The new grand cru is a 43 hectare enclave within the 1,400 ha Coteaux du Layon appellation.  Its peculiarity is that it is an outcrop of carboniferous sandstone and Britanny schist that’s higher than the rest of the slope, and nearer to the river, which means it gets “less wind, more sun and more mists” said Claude Papin. He said Layon “is the geological frontier between Brittany and Anjou, an area where there was a lot of movement.  At the bottom of the slope is Breton schist, which is normally on the left bank, but here is on the right bank.”

Three geological formations influence the appellation. Around 250 million years ago, Papin said “the left bank went down and the right bank came up in a fault, creating carboniferous rifts.  There was a tropical climate at the time as the land was around the equator. Volcanic ash, dust, trees accumulated” in huge hollows, which is now coal.

Between 250 million years and 6 million years ago the Britanny schist was created by compression from the depth of sea above, and volcanic heat.  Finally, from 6 million years ago, when the area was still under the sea, this Britanny schist was fracturing, creating “30 to 50 km deep volcanic fissures, through which lava arrived” said Papin, adding that Pierre Bise is on an epicentre of lava flow.

Papin said a typical Quarts de Chaume expression “shows aromatic finesse, is marked by botrytis and has a balance between the mineral and citrus quality, and botrytis.”  Any concentration should arrive by natural means as chaptalisation, reverse osmosis and cryo-extraction are all forbidden by the appellation.  “Most are vinified in oak” he said, “though not new, and there is no malolactic fermentation in Quarts de Chaume.”

Different expressions are argued to arise from the underlying bedrock, whether on Brittany schist, close to the river, on the carboniferous outcrop, or volcanic soils of the mid-slope. For example, Papin said a ginger note is typical of volcanic soils. A unifying feature is botrytis.

The 14 producers in Quarts de Chaume produce a total of between 5,000 and 8,000 cases a year.

My research visit to the Loire in August 2011 was sponsored by InterLoire.

The Chablis protagonists were Fabien Moreau, sixth generation and son of Christian at Domaine Christian Moreau Père et Fils, representing the ‘oak’ corner, while another sixth generation vigneron, Guillaume Gicqueau-Michel of Domaine Louis Michel et Fils, represented the ‘non-oak’ corner.

In a region with a notoriously precarious climate, climate change was high on the agenda. Among other protection measures, smudge pots are still used in Chablis, albeit infrequently, to offset frost risk to young buds. The risk appears to be lessening. Gicqueau-Michel last used frost protection in the heatwave vintage of 2003 which had had frosts early on in the season. Even then they used it only for one night, adding there was no great addition to their carbon footprint when compared with potential fuel use by tractors.

Combined with an apparent lessening of frost-risk at the beginning of the growing season are advancing harvest dates. In the 1980s harvest began around October 1^st. In the 1990s that date had advanced to the third week of September, and in the 2000s, said George, “a couple of vintages started at the beginning of September”. Gicqueau-Michel added “something is changing over the last 10 years.  We have had to harvest quite early several times.”  This issue, he said, is to keep the level of acid freshness in Chablis, adding “maybe we’ll have to be careful with the amount of leaf-plucking in the future.”

Focusing in on the two recent vintages shows quite different characteristics. Moreau described the 2009 vintage as “a good example of perfect climate. Everything was normal in terms of the average for the past 20 years. For me it was too good, it was a challenge not to harvest too late and to keep a certain amount of freshness.” Gicqueau-Michel added “the wines are more fleshy, and will open quite quickly.”

Chablis vineyards

This freshness was easier to achieve in the more classic 2010, where the acidity was higher. Gicqueau-Michel described it as a “great vintage. The greater acidity makes it more [typically] Chablis. The wines have a nice balance and complexity.”

But the lower yields in 2010 gave Moreau a concentration of fruit that year. Consequently, he didn’t keep much lees in 2010.  He said the amount of lees he does keep is keenly vintage dependent, and he likes “to see how the lees look after alcoholic fermentation because sometimes they’re good, or not so good.” In 2010, he said “the yield was too strong in terms of concentration” so he didn’t keep a lot of lees.

On the contrary, it was in 2009 that Gicqueau-Michel cut the maturation time on lees “because [the vintage] was warm, and we wanted to avoid a heavy wine, and keep the freshness.”

And when he does keep the lees, there is no battonage. On which subject Moreau agreed, saying “in 2002 [when the new guise of the domaine started], I did lots of battonage, and the year after I stopped it.  It’s why we’re using oak, so we don’t need battonage.”

George said battonage generally is untypical in Chablis.

And generally, she estimated that only somewhere between 5 and 10% of total Chablis production goes into oak. And where it is used at all, it is usually on premier cru and grand cru wine.

On their Le Clos, for example, Moreau may use 40% oak, but less than 2% of the total blend is new oak, and, said Moreau “we prefer longer heat at not so high a temperature” for toasting the barrels because “we’re not looking for oak flavour, but for a slow oxidation. Oak adds tannin structure to the wine, and we don’t use it for Chablis or Petit Chablis.”

Gicqueau-Michel remains un-tempted by the oak argument, saying “I want to continue to explore terroir, with its lots of small changes, so we vinify as neutrally as possible, using tanks.” He added “when we work with stainless steel, we try to manipulate as little as possible. There is very little contact with oxygen, so our wines will need more time to open than some other Chablis producers.”

Regardless of whether Chablis has been vinified using oak or not, George said with age “it has the chameleon aptitude of making you think it’s been in barrel, when it hasn’t.” Moreau suggested that with bottle age “acidity gets rounder and softer” which may influence a taster’s perception, while Gicqueau-Michel suggested this trait may be “a character of terroir. The typical aromas of Chablis evolve in bottle to mushroom aromas, humus characters, sometime buttery, nutty” notes.

Tasting, in London, November 2011

Apart from one oxidised bottle (no notes), this tasting was a treat for the palate and the brain.

Domaine Louis Michel et Fils, Chablis 2010
Citrus, meal, smooth, with steel acacia. Persistent palate with fresh, citrus, linear flow.

Domaine Christian Moreau Père et Fils, Chablis 2010
Oatmeal and steel nose, with acacia and apple blossom, steely attack and lemon curd. Smooth, refined and with a big depth of flavour and long finish. Very nice indeed.

Domaine Louis Michel et Fils, Chablis Montée de Tonnerre 1^er Cru, 2009
Steely allspice nose, hint of ginger and nutmeg complexity. Very smooth with good density of fruit, and tightly focused. Linear and good.

Domaine Christian Moreau Père et Fils, Chablis Vaillon 1^er Cru 2009
Fresh lemon toast, lemon curd toast, round and with some almond-gras/weight. Youthful spices of toast and nutmeg. Richness and latent complexity here.

Domaine Louis Michel et Fils, Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos 2009
Smooth, citrus, steely, lemon zest and pith, with silky texture and rich density of primary fruit layered with steely, flinty minerals. Richness from razor focus, with flesh of ripeness. Good.

Domaine Christian Moreau Père et Fils, Chablis Les Clos Grand Cru 2009
Lemon toast, vanilla pods and nutmeg nose in elegant, discreet proportions. Smooth, with fine open-knit ‘grains’ and warm richness of youthful fruit flesh. Long finish.

Domaine Louis Michel et Fils, Chablis Les Clos Grand Cru 2007
Nose a little muted, fruit erring to preserved lemons, still with linear acidity. Seems to be sulking a bit, yet to open up. Hints of fresh-light-cream on the palate attack, pristine and steely smooth.

Domaine Christian Moreau Père et Fils, Les Clos 2007, Chablis Grand Cru
Creamy, lemon toast, quite richly spicy, almond, honeyed dry toast with hint of nutmeg and even cardamom. Long length in palate, and long finish. Warm and clearly toasty. And very smooth texture.

Domaine Louis Michel et Fils, Vaudésir 2004, Chablis Grand Cru
Steel magnolias with smooth texture. Heading towards medium-full bodied fatness in a an attractive way. Smooth and rounded, warming and very drinkable. Vg.

Domaine Louis Michel et Fils, Vaudésir 2003, Chablis Grand Cru
Fleshy melon and peachy ripeness. Smooth and succulent, mouth-filling and perhaps not so classic? Rich, round, and not quite rotund. Aromatically spicy.

Domaine Christian Moreau Père et Fils, Blanchot 2006, Chablis Grand Cru
Round and fleshy with warm cardamom and aromatic spice. Oak spiciness in a warm, gently enveloping sort of way. Lemon curd on toasty nose, hint of sweet fruit, leesy cream, rich and fat in a Chablis context, i.e. still fresh and linear. Smooth, silky, delicious now.

Domaine Christian Moreau Père et Fils, Blanchot 2004, Chablis Grand Cru
Rich, honeyed, some overt nuttiness and open knit character. Full bodied and lush, still with a nice linearity and steel core. Very nice indeed. À point for me. Long finish with rich depth of flavour.

Domaine de Vaudon/Joseph Drouhin, Chablis 1989
Toasted, rich nuttiness and creamy-fat texture with full complement of tertiary, developed aromas, toasty, dry honeyed, fat. Lovely drinking.

Domaine Servin, Montée de Tonnerre 1998, Chablis Premier Cru
No oak, yet honeyed and toasted, with great amount of freshness still, with steely notes and blossom notes intact. Length not huge but, good flavours on the palate, smooth, nutty, floral, silky texture. Good.

Domaine des Malandes, Montmains 1996, Chablis Premier Cru
No oak. Citrus, fresh, indeed quite tart, and erring towards out of balance for me.

Domaine François Raveneau, Forêt 1995, Chablis Premier Cru
10% new barrels every year. Aromatic spice and  nuts on the nose, still tightly and tensely structured. Rich, fat, fresh, linear and taut. Little real sign of age. Huge concentration, finesse, elegance and depth. Long. Vg.

Domaine Laroche, Les Vaillons 1987, Chablis Premier Cru
Smoky, dark, roasted nuts, almost tarry aromatics, big, fat, still with freshness. Full and nicely balanced.

Domaine Christian Moreau Père et Fils, Valmur 2003, Chablis Grand Cru
Aromatic, youthful nose and palate of honey and acacia. Virtually no signs of ageing here at all. Quite full and ‘rich’ without weight or sweetness. Faintest hint of fresh. Dense, still-perfumed with rounded acidity. Lovely.

Domaine Long-Depaquit/Albert Bichot, Moutonne 2002, Chablis Grand Cru
Pale gold colour. Fat-cream and smooth toasty nose, firm acid core. A big wine.

Domaine de Vaudon/Joseph Drouhin, Vaudésir 2000, Chablis Grand Cru
White-nutty nose, creamed cobnuts. Smooth, round, softer acidity than experience so far this morning. Aromatic spiciness, with rounded acid profile.

Domaine Louis Michel et Fils, Grenouilles 1996, Chablis Grand Cru
Sweet, leesy nose, fresh-honeyed cream, nutmeg and allspice notes on the palate. Full, round, rich, fat mid palate, and with typical fresh backbone, even now. A bit of a warm finish. Good.

Domaine René et Vincent Dauvissat, Les Clos 1995, Chablis Grand Cru
Tarry, toasty nose, fresh-creamed cobnuts, youthful and delicious. Fresh nuts, still floral, and so young. Fresh, pristine, medium bodied and deliciously proportioned. Long, linear, lovely.

Roches aux Moines

A visit in August to Savennières Roche aux Moines, which is to become an Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée/Protegée in its own right from the 2011 vintage, revealed what might be interpreted as something of an identity crisis, with some quite dramatic shifts in philosophy.

Savennières is a tiny appellation just to the south of Angers on the right bank of the river Loire.  It has just 145 hectares, including the 33 hectares of schistous Roches aux Moines (17ha planted), and the seven hectares of equally schistous Coulée de Serrant, solely owned by biodynamic supremo Nicolas Joly. This also becomes an AOP in its own right.

Such ambitious niche production is a long way from the nadir of the 1970s, when Savennières looked to be in near-terminal decline. It emerged from this low point as the Loire’s champion appellation of pristine, dry chenin blanc, where the traditional interpretation meant no malolactic fermentation (malo) and no overt new oak expression.

Over the past half a generation the use of malo and new small wood have evaporated all ideas of a single, unifying style from Savennières. And the seven active producers of Roches aux Moines look set to pursue further experimentation in their new appellation, where using a proportion of botrytised (nobly rotten) fruit and/or leaving a few grams of residual sugar further complicate the evolving picture.

New oak is used in varying proportions with varying degrees of overtness in the wines and without too much apparent controversy among growers. Indeed it is largely the norm among top producers. Views on malo appear more divergent. At Domaine aux Moines there is a laissez faire approach. Proprietor Tessa Laroche said “we do nothing, so it might or might not go through malo. If the pH is 2.8, then there is no malo.  We press then do nothing. We use natural yeast. After fermentation we don’t add sulphur dioxide.  But we do adapt the vinification according to the taste, so we taste all the time.”

On the other hand, the winemaker at Domaine FL said “I don’t think malo is a good thing. Malo is a marketing and economic move. Not to have malo gives length and something crystalline.  It’s better not to have malo for the life of a wine.”

Source: http://www.vinsdeloire.fr/SiteGP/FR/Appellation/Appellation/Savennieres

Are market fads really driving such changes? Some of these growers explained that they’re trying to minimise their use of sulphur as well as working more organically. But when you’re told that malolactic fermentation helps reduce the gap, during bottle ageing, between primary fruit and more developed characters, thus allowing the wine to be drunk sooner, and allowing less sulphur dioxide to be used, one wonders what are the motivations for such noticeable style changes. Does a drive to use less sulphur mean malo is inevitable in order to stabilise the wine? Malo certainly changes the fruit profile and acid balance, two of the recent historic defining parameters of Loire chenin blanc. But it makes the wines more approachable, younger – better for the market.

Charles Sydney, a broker based in the Loire believes the real issue in Savennières is ripeness.  He said “all good chenin producers in the Loire pick by hand in selective tris. A harvest with no rot is very unlikely to be ripe. Given chenin’s tendency to be acidic, it is essential to wait ‘til the grape reaches full phenolic maturity before harvesting – bringing sugar and acid into balance but, as important, also bringing the tannins to ripeness, reducing astringency.”

Perhaps such overt changes are more to do with carving out a unique identity for the new appellation. Roche aux Moines means ‘rocks of the monks’.  Its “south-east to south-west aspect”, just 75m above sea level, said Damien Laureau, of his eponymous domaine, mean the slopes “are very well exposed.”  It’s windy on those outcrops, which reduces the mould risk.  And, we are told, the volcanic schist gives a typical bitter quality to the wine.

At some straitened point in history the Roches aux Moines land had been given to the abbey in nearby Angers in lieu of taxes.  Domaine aux Moines became a second residence of the monks, and home for those who managed the vineyards, which had originally been planted by Cistercian monks in the 12^th century.

With so few growers in the new Roches aux Moines appellation, agreeing appellation regulations may be less fraught than where larger numbers have vested interests. Most growers are already farming organically, biodynamically or in conversion to one of these production systems, so it is no surprise that in the new appellation, no chemical herbicides are allowed.

The growers have also decided that vines should be five years old before they can be used for the appellation, and wines must be bottled at the domaine, though only one producer’s domaine is actually located in the appellation. Yield maxima in both new AOPs will be 30hl/ha versus the 50hl/ha allowed in ‘straight’ Savennières.

As to style, as with many things, it comes to preference. Do you prefer a fatter, creamy pseudo-Burgundy style chenin blanc, or one with racier, more pristine, crystalline lines? On the basis of my brief visit, it seems a small proportion of new oak is both undetectable and even enhancing of the latter style. But malo seems to invoke quite a personality change for chenin blanc.

Savennières Roches aux Moines producers

Domaine Clément Barraut
Domaine Damien Laureau
Domaine aux Moines
Château Pierre Bise
Domaine FL
Domaine des Forges
Château de la Roche aux Moines
Clos Ferrard – Eric Morgat (with a parcel in Roches aux Moines, not yet producing)

My research visit to the Loire in August 2011 was sponsored by InterLoire.

Mornington Peninsula

Pinot noir is effectively a proxy for cool climate, and in the Burgundian model, where pinot noir does well, chardonnay is sure to follow. Perfume, brightness of fruit and vivacity of body should be hallmarks of cool climate wines, so when Wine Australia held a tasting in London during November of wines from Victoria that are available in the UK, these are the two varieties I stuck with, and I still didn’t manage to taste them all.

Australia, with many of the top examples coming from Victoria, has revolutionised its approach to these two grape varieties in the last, less-than-a-decade. Practitioners who are making classy pinot noir have often worked vintages in Burgundy at high profile domaines, and are bringing back to Australia the philosophy and practicalities around site-specificity required by such a capricious grape variety.

Attitudes to chardonnay, traditionally in Australia the winemakers’ malleable friend, are also revolving to much less active involvement. Instead, minimal intervention and more fruit-caretaking are leading to more refined, linear, even austere, expressions of this grape.

In Victoria, specific sites within such places as Mornington Peninsula, Geelong, Gippsland, Yarra Valley and Macedon Ranges are all making some outstanding examples.

Tasting notes, London, November 2011

Chardonnay

Crittenden Estate, Estate Chardonnay 2008, Mornington Peninsula, ~£18
Sweet leesy cream nose and palate with tropical fruit, and I feel a bit of an alcohol kick though it’s a pretty standard 13.5%.

Crittenden Estate, The Zumma Chardonnay 2008, Mornington Peninsula, ~£25
Creamy lemon on dry brown toast to nose, verging on the buttery sweet, which detracts a little for me. Sweet, unctuous sort of style, has good backbone, but a bit full-fat for my preference.

Dexter Wines, Chardonnay 2010 Mornington Peninsula, ~£25
Mealy and a hint reductive in that leesy, crème fraiche sort of way. Lovely sweet texture that’s not overpowering and with an acid frame that keeps everything fresh and tingly.

Kooyong Estate, Clonale Chardonnay 2010, Mornington Peninsula, ~£15
Light and leesy – meal, brioche, with sweet notes amid citrus fruits. Uncomplicated.

Kooyong Estate, Farrago Single Vineyard Chardonnay 2005, Mornington Peninsula, ~£26
Fatness and slippery broadening texture of some age, vegetal would be a bit strong, but still with savoury, leesy lines (as opposed to sweet lines), bread and dry biscuit notes, hints of sweet texture come towards the back. Lovely balance.

Stonier, Chardonnay 2009, Mornington Peninsula, ~£12
Sweet lemon cream nose and palate in quite a sharp lemon-syllabub sort of tartness. Softens on the palate into a good example at the price. Balanced, uncomplicated.

Stonier, Reserve Chardonnay 2008, Mornington Peninsula, ~£18
Weightier that the straight chardonnay as you’d expect, with some aromatic tarriness on the nose. Everything in the right place, but can’t quite get excited.

Ten Minutes by Tractor, 10X Chardonnay 2010, Mornington Peninsula, ~£24
Closed nose, in reductive style of slight sweat / flinty element, mealy notes amid just-ripe peaches on the palate attack, rich-linear profile of good intensity. Good personality and dimension. Some nice sophistication here, very good.

Ten Minutes by Tractor, Estate, Chardonnay 2009, Mornington Peninsula, ~£35
Wafting wood smoke is the first nose, slippery-textured attack, very smooth and richly concentrated. ‘Nice’ biscuitiness, almost unctuous-dry texture with linearity and clarity.  Vg.

Ten Minutes by Tractor, McCutcheon Chardonnay 2009, Mornington Peninsula, ~£45
Cream, leesy gentle toastiness, richness and creaminess are the themes, sweet-dry textured.  A huge wine, but finely balanced and sweetly balanced for that. Seductive and blanket-wrapping cuddliness at the same time. Vg.

Yabby Lake, Red Claw Chardonnay 2009, Mornington Peninsula, ~£15
A bit gunflint and austere, lean lemons and acacia-steel sort of stuff.  Good volume of that apple tart fruit, with a bit of leesy cream alongside. Good at £15.

Yabby Lake, Single Vineyard Chardonnay 2009, Mornington Peninsula, ~£26
Lees, meal, lemon cream, steely/metallic note on the mid tongue. Austerity, or, at 12%, just not quite ripe?

By Farr, Geelong Chardonnay 2008, Geelong, ~£34
Meal, white peachiness, huge intensity of ripe, near tropical fruit amid that leesy, toasty refinement, erring to full body, in quite muscular style, and with backbone of defining acidity. Not a particularly elegant wine but has a well-proportioned balance.

De Bortoli, Reserve Release Chardonnay 2008, Yarra Valley, ~£20
Lees and crème fraiche. Sweet texture and purity of fruit without huge complexity, but packs a lot of those lovely, sweet-line chardonnay characters into a straight down the line wine.

Pinot noir

Crittenden Estate, Estate Pinot Noir 2009, Mornington Peninsula, ~£18
Crunchy black cherries with attractive hessian notes, nicely balanced with fresh core. Good intensity.

Crittenden Estate, The Zumma Pinot Noir 2009, Mornington Peninsula, ~£25
Fresh and juicy, with very nice concentration of primary fruit. Good.

Dexter Wines, Pinot Noir 2010, Mornington Peninsula, ~£20
Pale colour, bright, sweet red cherry fruit, juicy succulence, enticing density of fruit with sweet lines. Lovely drinkability.

Kooyong Estate, Massale Pinot noir 2010, Mornington Peninsula, ~£16
Rich, round sweet footballs of juicy red plums and redcurrants. Sweet balance and uncomplicated juiciness. Focuses on the primary fruit, with the backbone of acidity, so not a fruit bomb.

Kooyong Estate, Haven Single Vineyard Pinot Noir 2005, Mornington Peninsula, ~£28
Developing a nice feral forest floor on the nose, dark berries, sweetened and fattened with ripeness, with a savoury spear of structure keeping the whole in its pure lines. Some nice sophistication of texture and dimension here. Vg.

Paringa Estate, Peninsula Pinot Noir 2009, Mornington Peninsula, ~£25
Warm herbal and earthy note on the nose, supple fruit with firm defining acidity, medium full body of huge intensity. Richly textured and layered with light bramble fruits and graphite earthiness. Vg.

Stonier, Pinot Noir 2009, Mornington Peninsula, ~£13
All quite light and with a faint hint of bitterness. Not hugely liking this one.

Stonier, Reserve Pinot Noir 2009, Mornington Peninsula, ~£20
Pale colour, redcurrant spiciness nutmeg and allspice. This is nice in a good ’solid’ unexciting way. Sound, but at a high level of soundness.

Ten Minutes by Tractor, 10X Pinot Noir 2010, Mornington Peninsula, ~£28
Bright, sweet red cherry and redcurrant, big hit of fruit delineated by freshness that gives it form. Perkily balanced with nicely toned lines. Vg.

Ten Minutes by Tractor, Estate Pinot Noir 2009, Mornington Peninsula, ~£38
Smokiness an added note of complexity here, amid dark cherries and hint of dark chocolate, in a full, rich, nutmeg infused whole. Fine grains of new oak still to meld in, as are youthful notes of silkiness. Vg.

Ten Minutes by Tractor, McCutcheon Pinot Noir 2009, Mornington Peninsula, ~£55
Smoke with hint of charcoal, on the nose, smooth, super-fine grained tannin in rich, lush (dry) palate sensation. Is a seductive, strong and slinkily built wine. Filling out on the palate nicely. Long finish. Vg.

Yabby Lake, Red Claw Pinot Noir 2009, Mornington Peninsula, ~£22
Pale colour, spicily toasted redcurrants, medium weight, bit of austerity here too, certainly less fleshy than some other examples. Gentle, modest texture.

Yabby Lake, Single Vineyard Pinot Noir 2009, Mornington Peninsula, ~£29
Sweet red cherry/redcurrant compote on the nose, enticing and cuddling. Perfectly proportioned tonality with intoxicating fruit/acid balance and volume of fruit/ nutmeg spiciness on the palate. Vg.

By Farr, Tout Près Pinot Noir 2008, Geelong, ~£65
Aromatic smoky with a hint of graphite on the nose. Sun-dried cherries attack the palate sweetly and freshly, warming into a full bodied, big style for pinot noir. Succulent, juicy, and with retaining frame that keeps the whole thing tastily proportioned. Long finish. Vg

William Downie, Gippsland Pinot Noir 2010, Gippsland, ~£35.00
Earth, dry compost and high-toned raspberries on the nose, an intriguing combination. Full steam ahead on the palate, rich, tongue-tingling, fresh dried raspberries and strawberry pieces; savoury, not quite earthy/graphite core. Hints of tannic grip, just enough to intrigue and critique, without losing the pleasure of tasting/drinking. Just young. Vg.

Olivier Humbrecht

In part one of his presentation on minerality, Oliver Humbrecht said what minerality is not, and explained the need for a soil full of microbial life to bring the mineral fraction into contact with the organic fraction of the soil. Plants need minerals to grow properly.

Will this mineral fraction give a taste to the wine? “I can’t answer that” he said “this is a subject for the next few decades. It’s very hard to say that because your soil has this mineral fraction, its wines will taste more complex.”

However, “finding a wine with a high mineral content is always a sign of a soil that functions properly and a sign the vine is capable to transfer these minerals from the soil.”

Humbrecht explained that the extraction and transfer is done by different microorganisms in the soil. “A vine that has a high mineral extract also has mycorrhizae on the roots functioning perfectly, able to absorb those minerals.

“So minerality in a wine is a sign that the vine is working properly. But it’s a dangerous statement to [suggest] minerality affects the taste of the wine in terms of flavour. We don’t have the research to clarify that.

First steps, he said, are that “you must learn to recognise minerality on the palate. This very small amount of minerals may not smell of something, but they will taste. Very often it’s associated with acids in the wine especially tartaric. And it will modify the structure of wine in terms of acidity, pH, salinity of wine. A wine with a high mineral content, with lots of ashes, will for sure be a wine that makes you salivate.”

Part of this learning is to avoid confusing “true minerality or true salinity with green acidity.  People have to learn how to distinguish. A big mistake is to confuse unripe characters with actual salinity/minerality.”

Root activity is key to understanding minerality, he said. “Everything in non-organic cultivation favours the development of the green parts of the plant [branches, leaves]. It neglects the root activity and flowering process.” So when you increase the vegetative part of the vine by augmenting photosynthesis, you diminish the importance of root activity and dilute minerality.

Checking to see if a vineyard is managed properly can be done by digging a hole and cutting a piece of fine root.  Under the microscope, Humbrecht said “in vineyards with good organic metabolism, you find lots of mycorrhizae, like a veil of white mushroom filaments. These mycorrhizae are in symbiosis with the roots, using vine sap to satisfy their own sugar and carbohydrate needs.  And they help to degrade the soil around the roots, liberating minerals” in this zone.

But when mycorrhizae are not working properly, for example where soil is compacted or where chemicals have been used, he said, fertilisers are needed so vines get the minerals they need.

Whether your mycorrhizae are working properly or not, all soils are not equal in the minerals stakes. “Not every soil has the capacity to produce high quality clay” he said “and therefore have the capacity to fixate minerals in the soil.

“You can measure the mineral capacity fixation ratio.  It depends on the capacity of the mother rock to degrade into particles small enough. Limestone, calcareous [soil], schist, marl, ferruginous clay and basalt are all soils that have this capacity to produce these interesting elements. But some soil types do not have the capacity to produce minerals and these are usually sandy soils, sandy loam, silt, gravelly soils that are not mixed with marl or richer content.”

Grape varieties, too, can influence the sensation of minerality. Humbrecht said “probably there is an inference that varietal aromatics of a wine can hide minerality. I often say that minerals don’t smell. But some aromatics are often associated with a mineral quality. For example iodine is a volatile compound so you can smell iodine.  If I smell iodine it brings a notion, an association, of minerality to my mind.  But you have to teach your brain not to fall into certain traps, the most common one is not to associate reductive character in wine with minerality or unripe character such as high malic content.“

On the question of high alcohol and lots of new oak, Humbrecht said “anything that detracts from the fundamentals of the wine may hide the minerality. New oak, a very aromatic grape variety: for example many people say riesling is more mineral than gewürztraminer but this is because we look at things from the aromatic point of view. Yet once you dissect the taste, not the flavour, on the palate, you understand what makes you salivate. It’s a tasting exercise.”

He reiterated “minerality is not acidity. Acidity is not minerality”. However biodynamic practitioners report a rise in analytical acidity, anything from 0.5g/l to 2g/l, though it’s still not fully understood why this happens. Humbrecht did say “wine is based on tartaric acid, a strong acid, with two acid radicals which each can combine with minerals. [Biodynamic growers] have seen a change from malic-dominated wine to tartaric-dominated wine, and tartaric acidity is capable of fixing more minerals which are in the wine.”

So minerality is by no means a preserve of biodynamic producers, but the inference is that they get more of this elusive palate sensation.

Olivier Humbrecht

In London earlier this month, Olivier Humbrecht, of Alsatian Domaine Zind-Humbrecht, discussed minerality in wine.

His presentation was part of a tasting of biodynamic wines from members of Biodyvin Syndicat International des Vignerons en Culture Biodynamique, the organisation of which Humbrecht is president, though his discussion was not uniquely about minerality in biodynamic wines.

He kicked off by dispelling some commonly held mis-perceptions: “for most people minerality is reductive, or a certain green flavour, it doesn’t taste fruity or floral, and you end up calling the wine ‘mineral’. Minerals don’t smell.  If stones, or water, or salt smell of something, it’s because it’s associated with an organic compound that is volatile.”

The organic compound commonly associated with minerality is sulphur, about which he said “sulphur is a very broad component in nature, it’s found in very many organic molecules. It smells a lot.  At worst, think of wet dog, mercaptan, H2S.

“These sulphur compounds can be linked into more complex molecules, not smelling obviously like sulphur, and these elements might be associated with some kind of minerality. And the most common mistake is to associate reductive character with minerality. [Another mistake] is to associate certain forms of organic acidity with minerality, if the wine is tight, with green acidity.  All these are not minerality.”

Minerals are present in soil, coming from the degradation of rock by erosion, weathering, frost action, as well as the activity of microorganisms, all of which break down larger particles to smaller particles.  When the size of these particles is smaller than two microns, it is called clay.

Humbrecht said “the finer the structure, the more it can trap minerals in the soil. And minerals are necessary to the plant. But will the minerals in the soil give a taste in the wine, that is questionable” though he did say “the mineral fraction in the soil will be represented in the wine as a mineral fraction.” And it is this that is interesting to analyse in a wine.

“Often people analyse minerality of a wine by analysing dry extract, or reduced dry extract” he said. “This consists of evaporating all the liquids, then burning all the organic elements. Or by calculating the reduced dry extract.  It’s good to have a high reduced dry extract as it shows wine is more concentrated.

“But the organic fraction of a wine is expendable, according to physiology of the plant – you can easily have more sugar, more organic acids, as the vine continues to function. [Dry extract] is something the vine is continuously producing, so it can change with time. It can also be altered if you acidify a wine or add sugar to a wine.

“So when we talk about minerality we should talk about the ashes. Take a wine and burn it till you have only dust left. You end up with few milligrams of dust which directly comes from the earth. It’s the only solid fraction in a wine that you can directly link to the earth, everything else comes from photosynthesis – 99.9% of wine is made from heat, air and light.

“The fraction of minerals is a very, very small quantity. Whether the wine is very acid, or high or low alcohol, it doesn’t really change the mineral fraction.”

And, he added “we don’t analyse the mineral fraction in a wine very often because it’s very expensive. But it’s the best way to see if a wine has been produced from a high or low yield.  The reduced dry extract could be the same for a wine made from 25 or 100hl/ha, but the mineral fraction will be divided by 4.”

Digging deeper into the issue to understand the soil, Humbrecht said “a soil should be able to feed a plant without doing anything. For us having a living soil means having a soil that is able to supply all that the plant needs at different moments in the year. And this is something modern agriculture has forgotten.” He spoke of forests that have survived centuries in a sustainable fashion without man’s interference in the form of soil additions, be they fertilisers or chemicals.

But even biodynamic producers add composts to their soils. Humbrecht said “it’s not really to bring fertilisers to the soil, but to bring something alive, microorganisms, and the elements of humus to stabilise the mineral fraction in the soil and bring energies to bring back harmony into our wines.

“We want our soil to be alive, with worms, fungus, micro-organisms, everything it takes to allow the mineral fraction to combine with organic fraction in the soil. If you don’t have this link the soil will fall apart” for example being eroded after rain, or compacted from repeated machinery passes.

This is so important, he said “because the very small mineral fraction is absolutely necessary for the vines to grow properly.”

Will this mineral fraction give a taste to the wine? Find out what Humbrecht said in part two.