Nick Belfrage MW is garnering support for the rules on Rosso di Montalcino to stay the same.  He has sent an open letter – below – to the producers of Montalcino who are due, on September 7, to make an historic decision on the varietal make-up of Rosso di Montalcino DOC, which currently must be 100% Sangiovese.

In background to this meeting, Nick said “certain big producers, with a lot of cabernet/merlot/syrah planted in their vineyards, have for some time been trying to get the regulations changed for Rosso (and Brunello). Because the number of hectares a producer has under vine influences the number of votes he has in Assemblea, although numerically they are a small band, vote-wise they are very powerful.

“There was supposed to be a vote on this last April but (it is presumed) because they thought they’d lose they decided to put it off till now, when people are more distracted by the harvest.

“The crucial date is Sept 7. If we can get the little guys all turning up to vote there is little chance of [the big guys] winning, [whose] hope is to slip it through on a low turnout. Once it’s through it becomes a Trojan horse for the big one, Brunello, which would be a tragedy.”

Register your support in keeping Montalcino 100% sangiovese on Franco Ziliani’s blog: http://vinoalvino.org/blog/2011/08/nicolas-belfrage-master-of-wine-prende-posizione-contro-il-cambio-di-disciplinare-del-rosso-di-montalcino.html

Nick’s letter:
“I understand that, on Wednesday Sept 7, 2011, a vote will be held in the Assemblea of Montalcino wine producers on whether to allow a small but significant percentage of other grapes, which everyone understands to mean Merlot and/or Cabernet and/or Syrah, into the blend of Rosso di Montalcino DOC, which is of course at present a 100% Sangiovese wine.

“I would urge you in the strongest terms not to support this change. Rosso di Montalcino, like Brunello di Montalcino, has created for itself a strong personality on international wine markets based largely on the fact that it is a pure varietal wine. In these days when more and more countries are climbing on the wine production bandwagon it is more important than ever to have a distinctive identity, to make wine in a way which no one else on earth can emulate. It is my belief that the strongest factor in the identity of Rosso di Montalcino (and of course Brunello di Montalcino) is the fact that it is 100% Sangiovese.

“I am not disputing the fact that Merlot, Cabernet and Syrah are excellent grape varieties, but it is their very excellence, their very strength of personality, which threatens to compromise the unique character of Rosso di Montalcino. Who could ever imagine the producers of Bordeaux voting to allow 15% of Sangiovese into the Bordeaux blend? The idea is absurd – or would be treated as such by the Bordeaux producers. There are many who think that a reverse situation, in Tuscany’s finest vine-growing area, would be equally absurd. Yes, in many cases it may improve the wine – especially in weak vintages or where Sangiovese does not succeed every year. But it will fatally undermine the personality of the wine.

“I am aware that a lot of Merlot and Cabernet are planted in the Montalcino growing zone, and that there may be a need in the short term to find a commercial use for these grapes. But there are the options of St. Antimo or IGT Toscana. Perhaps, instead of compromising the purity of one of Montalcino’s unique wines, there should be more effort in the direction of promoting these other wine-types.

“You will be aware that many of us fear that a compromise in regard to Rosso di Montalcino would constitute an opening of the door to a compromise, farther down the line, of the purity of the great Brunello – one of the world’s great wines. Whether or not that might be the case, I am convinced that it is against the long-term interests of Montalcino to allow any other grape variety, including any Italian or Tuscan variety, into the Rosso, just as it would be fatal to great Burgundy, for example, to allow Syrah to be blended with Pinot Noir, as was once widely practised – with, one might add, some notable successes, but with the inevitable distortion of the style.

“You, the Montalcino producers, hold the fate not only of your own future market in your hands. You are the representatives of all of us who will not have a vote on September 7th.

We urge you, please, to vote NO.

Nicolas Belfrage MW

30 August 2011”

Young sommeliers train for the competition

Despite ash clouds dominating the skies, the 17^th Concours Mondial de Bruxelles wine competition took place as planned at the end of April, in Palermo, Sicily.  I had been invited to judge in this competition, and as Heathrow had opened the day before my flight was scheduled, my travel occurred largely uneventfully.

The competition attracted entries from more than 50 countries.  Nearly 7,000 wines and 350 spirits were entered, including a few wines from the UK.  Forty different countries provided 275 judges, who sat down for three days to assess, in a traditional blind tasting, all the wines.  Panels of 5 to 7 jurors judged around 50 wines each day. 

‘Great gold’ medals i.e. top, top golds, were awarded to less than 1% of the entries. Of those, the highest scoring wines in their categories from the whole competition were:

• Best Sparkling: Champagne Baron-Fuenté Grand Cru Brut (France) 
• Best White: Viu Manent Chardonnay Reserva 2009 (Chile)  
• Best Rosé: Casal da Coelheira Rosé 2009 (Portugal)  
• Best Red: Michel Torino Don David Tannat 2008 (Argentina) 
• Best Sweet: Lustau Solera Reserva Pedro Ximénez San Emilio (Spain) 
• Best Spirit: Tequila Espolón Reposado (Mexico)  

Some of my individual top-scoring wines, by country, along with our panel’s award, were these:

• Rust en Vrede Single Vineyard Syrah 2007, South Africa  GOLD MEDAL 
• Cederberg sauvignon blanc 2009, South Africa SILVER MEDAL  
• La Motte sauvignon blanc  2009, South Africa SILVER MEDAL  
• Quinta do Cardo Selecção do Enólogo 2007, Beira interior, Portugal   SILVER MEDAL
• Quinta de Baixo Grande Escolha 2005, Bairrada, Portugal SILVER MEDAL 
• Quinta da Nespereira Vineaticu 2007, Dao, Portugal, SILVER MEDAL 
• Domaine Cambos Gros Manseng sec 2009, Vin de Pays des Côtes de Gascogne, France GOLD MEDAL
• Domaine de Chiroulet Terres Blanches 2009, Earl Famille Fezas, Vin de Pays des Côtes de Gascogne, France, GOLD MEDAL 
• Domaine du Tariquet Les 4 Réserve 2008, Vin de Pays des Côtes de Gascogne, France SILVER MEDAL 
• Les Vignerons de Cers Portiragnes, Syrah Rosé Code Séduction 2009, Vin de Pays d’Oc Rosé, France SILVER MEDAL
• Vinarství Volarík Mikulov, Chardonnay Výber Z Cibéb (selection of berries) 2008, Czech Republic GOLD MEDAL  

The complete list of winning wines can be found here.

The briefest of internet searches about wine storage yields a plethora of possibilities for almost any shape and size of space you may have available to mature your favourite bottles of wine.

Always start with the end in mind

Always start with the end in mind. How much storage do you want? Is it just storage for ongoing consumption, or for maturation?  What space can you make available? Do you have different sized bottles, for example magnums and halves, or traditional flute bottles? Do you want space to store full wooden cases as well as unpacked bottles? How much do you want to spend?

Racking systems

You have the space and its conditions are OK (see below). Maybe it’s a cellar, maybe it’s an insulated outhouse.  A & W Moore is just one company offering bespoke racking systems to fit the shape of space available, usually made of galvanised steel with wooden blocks from front to back. They can be made to measure for any bottle shapes and sizes, and they can even come with steel shelves for wooden cases.  Costing about £1 a hole, and covering 100 bottles in one square metre, this is a pretty cost and space effective system.

The Cavovin ‘building block’ system also needs a reasonably stable environment, although the company says the material has some insulating capacity to moderate temperature fluctuations.  Their basic system 12/24 is listed at £27 plus VAT and delivery, and they have some different shaped and sized sections, giving size increments that can fit most gaps. 

Both of these options can move with you.

Temperature controlled cabinets

If your home does not provide a constant and suitable environment, one option is a temperature controlled cabinet, which plugs into an electricity socket.  This is a fertile marketplace (see links page: wine storage).

The best of these cabinets come with both temperature and humidity control systems, which alert you either visually or aurally when either parameter falls outside of your specification. New models of market leader Eurocave for example, have a packet of clay balls which sit on the bottom of the cabinet.  If the humidity alarm sounds you simply add a cup of water to the clay balls to boost humidity.

Eurocave say their most popular model is the V283 classic cabinet (175H x 66W x 70D) which holds 200 bottles and costs from £1900 including VAT and delivery, depending on your choice of door, cabinet finish and shelving options.   

Built in cellars

As well as offering temperature controlled cabinets, (starting at £1,250 including VAT, for 156 bottles), Vinosafe’s most popular offering is a walk-in cellar.  One of its biggest advantages is that you can take it with you when you move house. It is a modular unit, an air-tight, enclosed room, with racking on both sides.  It has air-conditioning and a gravel floor to which water may be added to keep the humidity level topped up. They take just 3 hours to assemble and can be located in a spare room for example, or in the garage or basement. 

The smallest, most popular, module, accommodates 1,000 bottles and costs £7,585 including VAT.  The modules can be extended to store up to 4,000 bottles, in a system costing about £20,000.

For a non-movable solution a spiral cellar could be the option for anyone with a garden, a garage or a ground floor that they own.  This is a 2m diameter hole, up to 3m deep, into which are stacked a series of wine-bins. The company says that planning permission is not required and they organise all the necessary building regulations approval. Prices start at £8,000 for the smallest cellar of 650 bottles, up to £15,000 for 1,600 bottles.  There are no running costs as ventilation pipes feed to the outside, and the whole thing is usually up and running in a week.

Outsourcing storage

If you don’t have sufficient space at home, or you have a lot of wine that needs maturing for several years to reach its ‘drinking window’, outsourcing may be a good option. Services can be offered ‘in bond’ where the excise duty only becomes payable when the case moves from bond to duty paid, and ‘duty paid’. Most providers offer both.

While traditional wine merchants offer customers storage facilities for wines bought from them, if it is important to store all your wines in one location, bespoke services exist, such as those offered by Smith & Taylor. Each customer has their own ‘bin’.  Each case is opened when it first arrives, to ensure the contents are as expected, and resealed with a metal seal.  Whilst a case rate is offered, it only includes limited liability insurance which is invariably insufficient for wines worthy of storage. The pricier alternative is a charges based on the value of your total wine portfolio, for example £15 a week for up to £10,000 worth of wine.

The big advantage of ‘in bond’ storage is to trade your wine. The physical case can remain in the bonded warehouse in a consistent environment, for example at London City Bond, probably at their Vinotheque bond in Burton on Trent, for £10.80 per dozen per year, including full replacement value insurance.  You  might sell your case to someone in Singapore, who may choose to leave the case at LCB, later selling it to a resident of the USA for example.

Depending on your needs, almost any storage possibility exists, for all budgets. An increasing number of companies are offering tailored cellar construction on any scale within the fabric of a home’s living space.  As wine becomes a lifestyle fixture, detailed choice of construction material and finish, use of glass to show off a wine portfolio, lighting design as well as accessorising with all types of wine paraphernalia are possible

Good conditions for wine maturation

• Temperature: ideally a constant 10-12°C. A temperature without large diurnal and seasonal fluctuations is good, which makes an un-insulated outhouse a poor idea.
• Light: ideally without light
• Vibration: keep to a minimum
• Humidity: a compromise is needed here. The wine prefers a higher humidity, but the label rots when it is too high. Somewhere between 60-80% is thought to be good.

Other considerations

• The running costs of your chosen system to maintain the above maturation conditions
• Insurance costs. Whether at home or away, ensure you have sufficient cover. For really posh wine you  may consider ‘replacement value’ insurance
• The conditions at your outsourced location

 
See links page for more wine storage companies.

A winemaker or viticulturist will likely have a specialist oenology or viticulture qualification, but for those people who directly trade in, and communicate about, wine, a number of high level qualifications exist.

The Master Sommelier (MS), Master of Wine (MW), and Wine MBA represent the peak of international wine qualifications and all seem to be benefiting from both the globalisation and the increasing professionalism of the wine industry. Building up to this level, the WSET, in 42 countries, and the Society of Wine Educators in the USA, Canada and Japan offer qualifications part-way up the ladder, where in fact, most people rest.

It is the rare, few individuals who climb the mountain to one or other of the top notches. Indeed for Australian Andrew Caillard MW “passing the exam was like reaching the top of Everest.”

MASTER OF WINE (MW)

Executive director of the Institute of Masters of Wine, Siobhan Turner said it “is a membership body that promotes a cross disciplinary approach to understanding wine at the highest level. It is the premier group of people promoting wine trade education with a global perspective and a complete approach to the cycle of wine from choosing the site for a vineyard through to understanding consumption of wine and all the social, socio-political, economic and environmental factors around it.”

In the past the MW came under fire for being some quirky British exam, but since becoming an international qualification in 1983, it has grown into an organisation whose members are widely reputed around the world. Fifteen years ago, when American Mary Ewing-Mulligan passed the MW, those who knew about the MW in the USA “were either very clued-in trade people or serious consumers or collectors.”  “Now”, she said, “recognition of the title has increased in both depth and breadth.”  30% of the membership and 70% of studentship now come from outside the UK.

The MW is well known for its enormous depth and breadth of knowledge across all spheres of the wine world. This offers an unique insight for businesses building an offer across countries of origin, across quality and typicity spectra, and across social issues.

A straw poll of the main UK supermarkets and top companies show many of them use MWs, either as direct employees or in a consulting role. Waitrose has a long-standing philosophy of employing MWs, currently numbering six – three employees in the buying team, and three consultants – and the company has the most well-regarded wine range of all the supermarkets. Justin Howard-Sneyd MW, the company’s manager of wine buying said: “as a fast-growing business with a great reputation for the quality of our wine range, and as the complexity of what we offer increases, we need talented people to make sure that our team stays ahead of the game.”

MASTER SOMMELIER (MS)

Both the MW and the MS are notoriously difficult exams to pass.  Starting the course is absolutely no guarantee that you will finish with anything other than heartache, and many new friends.

But the similarity ends there, as Brian Julyan, chief executive of the Court of Master Sommeliers, explained: “MSs are ‘front of the house’ people. Their job is working in restaurants, so when customers ask questions, sommeliers need to answer.  Everything we test is done orally, and is to do with doing the job. We identify those who are masters of their craft.”

Rather than the written theory papers and blind tasting papers of the MW, the MS is examined by oral practical questions in front of a jury: serving a bottle of wine equally between a number of glasses; decanting, questions about vintage, product, about food and wine recommendations, setting up wine dinners, training your team to sell house wine, managing the profitability of the wine list, preparing glassware for table.  And of course the MS must know about liqueurs and spirits as well as wine, whereas the MW concentrates on wine.

From its UK origins, the MS started in the USA in the mid 1980s notably before both the MW and the WSET. Given the cultural desire for education with certification in the USA, it is no surprise that more than two-thirds of the world’s MSs are based there, and that the other international educational bodies were slow to compete effectively.

Being both MS and MW, wine consultant and writer Doug Frost, who’s also the vice chair of the American chapter of Court of Master Sommeliers is well qualified to comment on the differences these qualifications offer. He said: “There is not a great deal of overlap between the two programs. The MS requires exhaustive knowledge of the rules and regulations throughout the wine producing world, as well as regions, grapes, producers and styles. The blind tasting component is rigorous but not as demanding as the MW. The largest focus of the MS is service, about which the MW is wholly silent. The MW focus upon grape and wine production, maturation and marketing is almost wholly absent from the MS program.”

What does unify the MS and the MW is that they both have a master-apprentice philosophy, where those who have passed are expected to offer their services to help future candidates achieve mastery.

WINE MBA

Where the MW has one written paper (out of four) focused on business and marketing aspects of the global industry, the Wine MBA’s entire thrust is commercial and marketing.  The Wine MBA is an MBA, and it is accredited Associaton of MBAs. What makes it different is the case studies and examples used throughout are from the wine industry. Director of the Wine MBA, Isabelle Dartigues said “the aim is to give students a global picture of the wine world, to benchmark management practices across the world.” With the required international travel element of the course, the development of best practices is an obvious benefit here.

It is also the newest kid on the block of top wine industry qualifications, created by the well-regarded Bordeaux School of Management to offer an international business programme targeted to an increasingly global wine industry. It has quickly evolved into a 22 month programme, based at three sites in Bordeaux, Adelaide and London. Classic topics, straight from the top drawer of an MBA, include marketing, corporate finance, strategic management, supply chain management, information management and economics.

Dartigues said “We address only professionals, which not all MBAs do, who are high position managers,. Our requirement is a minimum work experience of 5 years, and the average number of years’ experience of our students is 15 years.” She added “our pass rate is almost 100% because we have strict control during the year, so for example, when a student hasn’t passed an exam or case study, we have a strict policy for the student to re-sit the test.”

Cristían López, who achieved the Wine MBA in 2006, is the managing director of Concha y Toro UK, was clear which qualification he wanted: “I’m passionate about the wine business and it needs more professional, more capable people. Some years ago maybe the old trade was seen as too social, and not organised so much by finance and marketing. But we need to know about exchange rates and currency fluctuation, about supply-demand economic issues and financial issues. Wine is a business, and it’s difficult make a margin.”

In a recent survey, Dartigues said “though not statistically representative, those who responded had a 50% increase of salary”

WINE AND SPIRIT EDUCATION TRUST (WSET)

In order to achieve the heights of any of the three top qualifications, education needs to start somewhere, and the WSET offers programmes at lower levels, including for spirits.

Additionally, they are open to both trade and consumer candidates. David Wrigley the Trust’s international development director said: “There is something in our suite of qualifications for everybody, even if your knowledge is zero. The fully-supported nature of our courses is a particular strength. We offer full tutor materials so that there is no confusion when a student gets in front of exam paper.”

As the WSET adapts to a more global industry and a widening pool of locations to study, it has commissioned a research project in three key markets, the UK, Germany and the USA, to identify ways to improve the product and commercial relevance of the qualifications. Ian Harris, chief executive of the WSET said: “Our aims are to create an understanding of market demand for training programmes in the wines and spirits industry, to get market insights to help us develop a long term strategy, and to identify opportunities for new qualifications.”

“There are different demands and issues in different countries” Harris explained. “The UK is a mature market, the USA is in growth but has the credit crunch. I have to convince people that the training budget shout not be cut when times are hard. We can demonstrate that training puts money on bottom line – we did some research that showed £1,000 of investment put £42,000 on the bottom line in three months.”

In the USA, Ewing-Mulligan, who is president of the International Wine Center (IWC) in New York, said “the IWC is considered the international headquarters of the WSET. We recruit third parties, individuals, organizations and companies to offer WSET qualifications in other parts of the USA.”

Another USA organisation, The Society of Wine Educators (SWE), also offers wine education and certification, tapping into the American hunger for credentials.  Their president, Sharron McCarthy, said “our mission is to promote wine education throughout the world. We have over 2000 members, including a chapter in Japan.”

These are ‘feeder’ organisations into the top tier of wine industry qualifications, though the Court of Master Sommeliers leads people towards the MS with a ladder of qualifications.

LIFE-CHANGING EXPERIENCES?

Financial gain is hard to measure, and personal motivation is a clear driver for all the top qualifications. Increased profile and reputation follows, even though some people remain confused about what the MS and MW mean.  South African Cathy van Zyl MW, who passed in 2005, said “it certainly didn’t change my life financially but I do far more wine judging and writing as a result of passing the MW. Most of the change has been personal; I derived a great deal of satisfaction, achievement and sense of self worth from passing the MW.”

When Lopez started doing the MBA, he “was the managing director of Concha y Toro UK, with 4 people and a turnover of £6 million. Seven years later we have a turnover of £70m and an office with 30 people.” This is not down to the MBA he emphasised, but “the MBA helped me gain more experience; you learn and get better at what you do. And with that comes reward, a little more money, a little more responsibility. You do these things to improve, to grow and continue your professional development.”

A much higher profile in the wine world was one of Ewing-Mulligan’s rewards, which, she said “has perhaps led to financial gain, but the cause/effect is difficult to establish. I signed a book contract two years after passing the MW: somewhat cause and effect I would say. I was able to make arrangements with the WSET to offer their courses in New York city. I would say a direct cause/effect there. The MW changed peoples’ opinions of me, and mine of myself, and that has changed everything.”

Gérard Basset MS, MW, WineMBA, is the only person to have achieved all three top qualifications. In mid-1980s Britain, working in the hospitality sector, he reached the final of a sommelier competition and realised wine was his way forward. Basset said: “The MS was the logical choice for someone wanting to do sommeliery. But in the wine trade in England you were nothing if you weren’t an MW. I enjoyed learning, about different things from the MS. Then when I sold my business in 2004, I remembered the WineMBA.  It was not a strategic plan to have all three, just an evolution for someone who had no school qualifications.  Now it’s a USP.”

NETWORKING

A common thread is the opportunity to network among current and future industry leaders and opinion formers. And regardless of whether the qualification is achieved, contacts books bulge.  David Furer, who is a certified wine educator by the SWE, made four attempts at the MS. But, he says, he has “zero regrets. The process, even if you don’t get the MS, or the MW, is important. It’s the discipline, the accumulation of knowledge, the business contacts for your career, that make the journey worthwhile.”

Global insight and networking are key to both the MW and WineMBA too. Dartigues said: “We travel to various parts of the world, which allows students to compare management practices. The aim is to build a global picture, and to benchmark practices across the wine world.”

DIRECTION

Whilst the MS is clearly devoted to the highest levels of wine service and experience at the table, and the wine MBA is focused at the purely business, marketing and commercial roles, MWs are found in a broad and diverse career theatre, from journalists, educators, buyers, sellers, commercial directors and consultants. It’s difficult for someone looking in to identify a clear ‘path’ that MWs follow, because they don’t. But, Turner said “if you’re looking for someone who can talk with confidence and authority with senior people in your business then the best person you can hire is an MW.  He or she can speak authoritatively to your vineyard manager and your chief winemaker and your head of marketing and understand what your corporate social responsibility person is saying to you.”

Basset, who later this year takes on the presidency of the Court of Master Sommeliers, said the direction for the MS is “to keep education in the restaurant trade up to date and relevant. We need to encourage more people to come into the restaurant trade, despite the difficult, long hours.”

CONCLUSION

A degree of complementarity clearly exists with the three top qualifications, each offering the candidate something unique. While it is very clear that the focus of the MS is the highest level of consumer interaction at the point of experience in the dining setting, and the Wine MBA is an MBA which focuses on wine businesses, the MW is almost impossible to categorise, which is argued to be one of its strengths.

Whilst it would be convenient for there to be a simple linear relationship between peak qualification and commercial success, it would be naïve to suggest such a thing.  People who achieve these qualifications are ambitious, driven and successful, and thus attractive to employers, though Frost is apposite: “I am constantly counselling candidates to expect nothing. Any success is built one brick at a time, one job at a time, one task at a time, and having an MW or MS after your name only offers you the opportunity to do more things. It’s up to you to make the most of those opportunities.” The same is true of the WineMBA.

Wine storage cabinets for long term maturation have been around for ages. At a time when private household physical cellars are a diminishing resource, these cabinets enable wine lovers to mature wine at home knowing it is in a consistent environment with a temperature of around 10-14°C. To check how a wine is evolving, a bottle can pulled out, then either refrigerated or allowed to warm to serving temperature, before being tasted.  

More recent to the market are cabinets that allow fully matured and ready to drink bottles to be stored at their recommended serving temperatures. These cabinets have nothing to do with long term storage for maturation. They’re all about keeping wine, that’s ready to drink, at the right serving temperature.   

These cabinets are ideal in upmarket restaurants which have a strong wine focus. In the home, wine lovers who already have a cellar, either a physical or a cabinet one, may also want to have wine ready at the right temperature, rather than keeping whites and bubblies in the fridge, which might be too cold by a few degrees, or keeping reds in a cupboard, which might be 3-4° too warm.

Wine service cabinets are those from which to pull and pour. Immediacy is key, so when you have an impromptu dinner party, or unexpected guests, you have a range of wines, sparkling, white, red, sherry, port and sweeties, all at the right temperature and ready to pour. In the hectic lifestyle of modern wo/man, these cabinets seem a god-send.  And for the wo/man who has everything, they could be the new thing in seriously luxurious wine accessories.

What are the options?

The ideal long term maturation temperature for wine is 10-14°C. But service cabinets have a cool section between 6 to 8°C, possibly a warm section at 15-18°C, as well as a section at the maturation temperature.

Two-temperature models combine a separate cool section at the bottom of the cabinet with an maturation section above. So whites and bubblies can be kept at a drinking temperature, while the other part allows young wine to mature in the 10-14°C range. With this model reds must be taken out to bring to drinking temperature. Brand leader Eurocave’s 2-temperature model starts from £1,990 for a 192 bottle capacity.

The three-temperature cabinet offers full red and white serving temperature flexibility, plus a section for maturing wine. The chilled section is at the bottom, the red wine serving section at the top, and the middle provides the maturation section. Insulating shelves may separate the sections, and some manufacturers highlight that the warm and cool sections are closed off from the front as well, so when the single door to the cabinet is opened, they are not subject to an in-rush of ambient air. The Eurocave version, which holds 188 bottles, starts from £2,040.

Competitor Vinosafe are bringing out an all-singing, all-dancing three-temperature cabinet. They’ve linked up with a well-known French sommelier, Olivier Poussier, the 2000 ‘best sommelier in the world’ (a rigorous competition indeed), who helped design their ‘Precision’ model.  The cabinet has been redesigned to hold decanters as well as bottles and is ideal when wines need to be decanted prior to service. Decanters can be returned to the cabinet between pours rather than leaving them on the dinner table to ensure that the wine warms up only in the glass. The price for this starts from £3,350. Their standard 3-temperature model starts from £2,175, and is capable of storing 306 bottles. The manufacturer emphasises the special humidity and temperature control mechanisms in their models, which, they say, set them apart from other brands.

A third type of cabinet creates a gradient of temperature within the single-space cabinet. The temperature at the bottom of the cabinet is set usually between 5 and 8°C, and the temperature at the top between 15 and 18°C. A temperature gradient is created between the bottom and top of the cabinet. The manufacturers advise bubblies and dessert wines be kept in the coolest part, with rosés and lighter whites above then full-bodied whites and lighter reds, finishing with full-bodied reds at the top.  Somewhere in the middle will be a decent temperature at which to mature wine, as well. Eurocave’s version of this, with temperature graduating from 7°C to 21°C, costs £2,430 to store 196 bottles.

Caveat emptor

Whilst all of these models can be found on the market, getting to grips with the various options appears to require a PhD. Without a long list of questions it would be easy to end up with something that doesn’t suit all your requirements.

Can the size of the various compartments be altered? If you like to drink a lot of white, but red only rarely, can the cool compartment be twice the size? If you only buy wine when it’s in its drinking window, can the two-temperature cabinet be made to work just at 6-10°C and 15-18°C?

Humidity is vital for long term storage, and it is thought somewhere between 60 and 80% is about right, but one of the likelihoods of having a service cabinet is that wine may be left in for longer than you imagined, maybe up to a year, in which case humidity in the service cabinet is important. You want to be secure in the knowledge that corks won’t dry out in that time.

How is the temperature and humidity controlled in each section of the cabinet? Even if you’re expecting to drink your wine within six months, you’ll still want optimum conditions at your chosen ready-to-drink temperature.  And what happens when the temperature or humidity go out of the range you’ve set? Is there an audible warning?

Running costs and energy ratings will undoubtedly be a consideration.

Shelves may vary from a wire grill to a beautifully manicured cherry wood; doors may be glass or solid wood. Capacities are usually based only on Bordeaux bottles, so for Burgundy bottles, flutes or heavy Italian bottles, magnums and larger formats, these figures need revising.

If you’re drinking habits change can your three-temperature switch to a two-temperature or a single temperature?

Are these multi-temperature cabinets worth it?

In a cellar-less home, single temperature cabinets are great. Reds need to come out at during the day for the evening’s drinking, whites to the fridge. Given that fridges will be full, especially on dinner party evenings, a two-temperature (cold and ‘maturing’ sections) cabinet could be a good idea, as well as for those unexpected guests who turn up for aperitifs (most likely to be white/bubbly). I reckon getting reds up from 15°C (keeping) to 18°C (pre-central-heating ambient) will take about as long as it takes to enjoy the aperitif, especially if you pre-pour your red into trendy bulbous red wine glasses.

But in the home environment multi-temperature cabinets seem an expensive piece of kit just for not engaging the brain to put a bottle in the fridge or on the worktop before you go to work. And if you do forget, I suggest pouring half a glass of white wine from your single temperature unit at 14°C, and stick the rest of the bottle in the fridge to cool down. Drinking whites a bit warmer releases the aromas. Too cold and the aromas stay shivering in the wine. We all know that ice-cold milk has much less flavour than warm milk.

But for restaurants, which are, after all, their main target market, these pieces of kit look great. It is key to have a wide selection of wines, red, white, bubbly, fortified ready and waiting at their various serving temperatures, as well as to keep wine list inventory in top condition. Perhaps we’ll soon enough ask about a restaurant’s wine storage conditions as an essential element in the provenance of wine. 

Overall, these cabinets certainly seem to offer flexibility and comfort knowing that wine will be on hand at the perfect temperature whenever you need it. They do seem to offer choice in today’s fast-paced lifestyle. Imagine a warm, anticipatory feeling after a long day, knowing you have a glass of Champagne or sauvignon blanc chilled to the temperature you love, just waiting for you. And you don’t have to make up your mind what to drink until you get home!

Wine by the glass offerings have become increasingly important for on trade outlets as a point of differentiation, and as a mark of serious wine credentials. And as they expand, so does the marketplace offering bits of kit to preserve open bottles, from temperature-controlled cabinets, which blanket opened bottles with inert gas, to devices that pump out air.

Here’s the rub: as soon as the bottle is open, wine starts to oxidise. Full stop. All that any piece of kit will do is prolong the death.  But if you can keep a bottle fresh for three or four or five days, then it may well be worth its salt in terms of reduced wastage from selling a greater range, of sometimes better wines, by the glass.

If one accepts that any piece of kit is merely prolonging the inevitable, and the manufacturers claim varying degrees of success in terms of open-bottle longevity, then they can still be a profitable tool.  The manufacturers of Cruvinet cabinet system, for example, suggest the cost of their kit can be recouped in as little as two to three months, but this very much depends on the pre-equipment sales volume.

Cabinets

Russell Cocks, the restaurant manager at Pearl is happy with the two Cruvinet units they have, notwithstanding the £15,000-ish cost.  He said: “The nitrogen keeps wine as fresh as when they’re open, lasting about 5 weeks. But if it’s been sitting a few days, we’ll taste the first 50ml out of the tap to check it’s not oxidised.” With 36 still wines by the glass, including Tignanello, Château Musar and Cloudy Bay sauvignon blanc, Pearl is not messing about with its offer.

Selfridges has an Enomatic cabinet, which have been in the UK for just over a year.  Sommelier Dawn Davies said: “we have 52 wines on the machine, they can last up 21 days, depending on the wine. [But] no amount of nitrogen will protect an older wine.”  Indeed one restaurant owner said pinot noir was particularly susceptible to oxidation despite preservation systems.  

Enomatic can also be seen at Gerard Basset MW’s hotel, TerraVina. He said: “I don’t want to keep wine for too long once it’s opened, but it’s better to do something than nothing.”  

The Selfridges kit comes with a card operation system.  Customers put credit onto a card and can serve themselves from the machine, which adds a new element of interactivity. The card system can be a simple credit system, or, as David Sheedy, sales manager for Enomatic explained, it can incorporate “professional software for stock control, and which creates a database of customers’ choices.”

Newcomer onto the UK market, Ozwinebars is similar to Enomatic, with temperature controlled compartments, gas blanketing, and an optional card system. Ballpark costs are £10,000.

Pumps

Long-time market leader in the field of wine preservation, with some 9,000 outlets in the UK using it, is Bermar’s Verre de Vin system.  This is also a fixed unit, and allows any number of bottles to be used.  Bottles are taken to table for service, and returned to their storage position via the unit, for push-button preservation. 

The £2,000-plus Verre de Vin uses vacuum technology to remove air from the wine. Bermar’s managing director Dave Marr is well aware of the challenges of removing too much air, saying it bruises the wine, adding: “After long research, we discovered there was a critical measure [of vacuum] we wanted to achieve.”  He emphasised the importance of resealing the bottle as part of the pouring service.

One of the big advantages of Verre de Vin is that it has a system for sparkling wines as well as still.  It injects carbon dioxide into the sparkling bottle ullage (empty space above the liquid) which, Marr argues, protects the remaining wine.  Cocks uses it at Pearl for five champagnes by the glass. 

Loch Fyne installed Verre de Vin in their 38 restaurants earlier this year. A spokesperson said they’d invested so they could start from scratch a wine by the glass programme. The chain reports a massive increase in sales such that the cost of installation has been recouped in six months.

A very different vacuum-based unit is Presorvac, a hand held device for both still and sparkling wines. Though logic beggars its effectiveness, the method of sparkling wine preservation is to pump air under pressure into the bottle to keep the carbon dioxide in the wine. 

It’s a small, battery-powered, eminently portable device which can be used on any number of bottles, and it could be just the thing where bar space is really tight. It uses colour coded stoppers for still and sparkling, and has a switch so the machine knows whether to suck or blow. 

Paul Fenner, managing director of Waiter’s Friend, which distributes Presorvac, said: “At just £165 plus VAT it’s affordable by any on trade outlet. Its arrival has encouraged a much broader spectrum of outlets to grow in confidence with their wine-by-the-glass service, whilst reducing wastage at the same time.”

Collateral benefits

The marketing aspect may be an even bigger bonus than any preservation capabilities.  Clare Young of on trade consultants Vintellect said: “I like them as a marketing tool – it does make the customer think about what you’re doing; and enables staff to engage in conversation. Wine preservation [equipment] opens dialogue and generates interest and buzz around what you’re doing.” Basset agreed, saying: “there’s a psychological benefit. People like to see the machine; they can be sure you care about your product.”  

At Pearl, Cocks generates additional sales. He said: “it’s a showpiece, a visual selling aid.  We serve a lighter lunch at the bar, and when customers see the Cruvinet, they often buy a glass.  If people are undecided, we can offer a few mills (millilitres) to taste. We may even gain a bottle sale from the taste.”

The technology

The Australian Wine Research Institute ’s (AWRI) Peter Godden, group manager – industry development and support, and winemaker, explains:  “air is 20.95% oxygen and about 78% nitrogen. Nitrogen is ‘inert’ in that it doesn’t react with wine doesn’t dissolve in wine. Evacuating the air (with a vacuum pump), and replacing it with pure nitrogen, will therefore slow down oxidation.

“The application of a vacuum will remove some oxygen, but even with, say, a 90% vacuum you still have about 2% oxygen present in the headspace – much more than is needed to oxidise wine.

“Application of such a vacuum, especially if the bottle is then flushed with nitrogen, will draw volatile [aromatic] compounds out of the wine. The process of oxidation will be slowed, but you may be creating a ‘different’ wine, especially with highly aromatic varieties.” 

Evidently it’s better to do something than nothing. And the tangential marketing benefits appear as great, if not greater, than wine preservation, on which issue many have conservative views.  Suggestions of 4 to 5 days’ preservation are a-plenty, and if an outlet is taking longer to sell a bottle of wine, then it probably shouldn’t be on the wine by the glass offer.

Awareness is gradually growing of how much alcohol is in a bottle of wine.  It used to be that wine alcohol was an integral, seamless, unnoticed element of a wine’s overall flavour, but wine is becoming increasingly alcoholic, to the extent that ‘alcohol burn’ is becoming apparent. This kicks out of balance the equilibrium of a wine and can also interfere with that sacred food and wine matching territory.

One of the main trends over the last quarter century is to leave grapes on the vine longer, so they ripen more. This means sugars increase, tannins are fatter and fleshier, and it also means acidities are lower (as sugars increase in ripening grapes, acids decrease).  With more sugar, and with more efficient yeast, alcohols have been rising, up to 2% in the last couple of decades. When Steve Kirkham, head sommelier, at The Don Restaurant was asked by one of his customers for a Bordeaux with just 12%, he could not find a single bottle in the restaurant’s cellar. The norm for Bordeaux used to be 11.5%.

The evidence is indisputable. Bordeaux’s Château Ausone has charted its alcohol from 12.5% in 1982 to 13.9% in 2002. In the last thirty years of the 20^th century California wine rose from 12.5% to an even more heady 15% alcohol.  And zinfandels are usually considerably higher than this.

Alongside these higher alcohols, the fruit can move out of a fresh, primary fruit spectrum, into the jammy, baked fruit, prune, and raisin spectrum.  Combine this with lower acidity and greater tannin ripeness, and wines can start to taste a bit blousy, certainly alcoholic, up to 16+% in some instances, and often with this style, steeped in sweet new oak. The combined effect of this is to first assault, then numb, the palate, for a good couple of minutes or so after the wine has been tasted or drunk.  None of which is great for making the perfect food match, and whilst we tend to be more forgiving of higher alcohol in red wines, the end of the line for our tolerance may be in sight.

Wine should always be balanced.  If any of the components – acid, alcohol, tannin, oak, fruit – stand out from the others, then the wine may be out of balance. More than almost any other alcoholic beverage, with wine, the alcohol should not be noticed. If alcohol is noticed on the palate, usually as heat, or as a slight burning sensation, then it is standing out.  Part of the joy of fine spirits is that warming, spicy burn as the spirit slides down the throat.  This sensation is complete anathema to wine, yet it is being noticed on an increasing number of wines, arguably mostly from the new world, which tends to be hotter to start with, where the trend for ‘long hang times’ arose (leaving grapes on the vine while sugars accumulate), where the preference for ’super-ripe’, highly toasted wines, with acidity that’s softer and suppler than the firm backbone it more traditionally provides in the old world.

In cooler, marginal climes, and those with wide diurnal temperature variations, extra hang time doesn’t necessarily cause excessively high alcohols. Cool nights help the grape slow sugar accumulation and retain natural acid.  And where the days are warm, but not hot, sugars accumulate appropriately but not excessively. This is one simple reason why old world wines are, as a very general rule of thumb, better food wines.  Of course, there are clearly some old world regions with the warmth of climate that produces high alcohol wines such at the still wines of the Douro in Portugal, and Priorat in Spain.

While it may be early days, getting producers to make wines with lighter alcohols that are still balanced is akin to turning around a tanker – it takes time. There’s only one vintage a year.  Mark Soudah, London on-trade director, for wine suppliers, Enotria said: “restauranteurs are more aware of alcohol levels in wine than they were before. If a wine is too alcoholic or rich, there is an issue with it going with certain styles of food.”

Kirkham is aware of the negative aspects of high alcohol in the dining experience, especially with the “increasing sophistication of food flavours produced by chefs at the top end and in gastro-pubs” he said, adding that alcohol puts a blanket over food flavours.  He said: “we do blind tastings at room temperature to pick up on alcohol burn – the alcohol becomes more prominent at room temperature”. This is clearly an avoidance tactic – Kirkham said: “heavy alcohol often overpowers the delicacy of the food the chefs are preparing”, making it difficult to find dishes that can be paired with such wines. He said: “we can chill wine a couple of degrees more to make sure the alcohol is not showing too much for guests”, but this is merely treating the symptom and not the cause.

Diners are becoming increasingly aware of the level of alcohol in their glass. Kirkham said: “we’re promoting wine by the glass, we have selection of wines to go with food”. This way, he says, customers can select a range of wines with differing alcohol levels.

Some restaurants are going down the route of organising the wine list according to wine styles, from fresh and fruity, through light and crisp, on to the heavier styles.  In some cases this may not necessarily be a good thing as customers begin to avoid the ‘heavy’ styles. But Soudah commented: “I’ve not been asked by a restaurant to have a lower alcohol wine on the list, [but] some more educated customers are looking to have better balanced wines on their lists.”