Julie Balagny briefs the workforce

Julie Balagny said she simply wasn’t cut out to be a doctor or an engineer, like others in her Parisian family.  Instead, having spent ten years at Terre des Chardons in the southern Rhône, she is renting 3.2 contiguous hectares on the remote, upper slopes of Fleurie, in Beaujolais.  “I love gamay” she says.

Her work companions are Manon the donkey and Boréale the hardy Pie Noir Breton cow, which breed had almost reached extinction by the end of the 20^th century, though numbers are now back up to more than a thousand. These guys pull the plough and help keep the weeds down.  Her other weed control agents are a goat, and a sheep from the Scottish island of Soay.  “They don’t eat the same things” she explained.

Balagny clearly likes to live on the edge.  She arrived here in 2009, needing to work on the sometimes steep, south, south-west facing slopes where the density of one parcel of 90-year old vines is around 14,000 vines per hectare, and where the ground is so rocky that in places vines seem planted directly into the rock. There’s pink granite, and a patch at the top with quartz and with basalt. Then with just a couple of months to go before harvest, she still had no place to make her wine.

Her wines are certified organic “but I’m not a terroirist or extremist” she said, “if I need to add sulphites, then I do.”

Fermentation is by the typical Beaujolais carbonic maceration. The fruit is chilled for a day to 6-8°C which slows the start of fermentation. The bunches go to vat with a covering of protective carbon dioxide for fermentation with natural yeast to start soon after.  The cuvaison lasts about three weeks. “I like carbonic maceration” said Julie “because you don’t have to touch the wine during fermentation.” The blanket of carbon dioxide protects the whole process, though there is less colour extraction than with semi-carbonic maceration.

Balagny changes her labels each year.  In her inaugural year, there were stones; in 2010 women, and in 2011, she said Brazilian carioca dance will feature.

Wine tasting, in situ, December 2011

Julie Balagny, Cayenne 2010, Fleurie ~€18
On basalt, very hard ground with lots of rock, from 30 year old vines. Bottled at the end of April.
Pale cherry colour, has a spiciness and chalky dryness to texture which is coming from the fruit, it isn’t tannin heft. Dark cherry, part dried dark cherry with hints of very dark chocolate, and a violet perfume that arises from the back of the palate.

Julie Balagny, En Remont 2010, Fleurie ~€24
On granite, from 40-60 year old vines. In old barrique for six months “if you want to keep the fruity side of the grape, six months is enough.”
Medium pale cherry colour, gentle fragrance of red cherries and cranberries, hints of dark berries. Lovely sappy freshness, and fresh-sweet fruit. Elegant and focused fruit. Very nice.

Julie Balagny, Simone 2010, Fleurie ~€30
On quartz, from 80-90 year old vines. Will be on the market in April 2012.
Medium pale colour again, fragrant strawberry and redcurrant fruit. Sweet crunchy fruit, elegant and long in the mouth, medium bodied with a rich fragrance at the core, a gentle concentration that creeps up on you. Long finish. Very good.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Phillipe Vatan

Nearly midway between Angers and Tours, along the middle part of the Loire’s languid length lies its clutch of red wine appellations, and it is the village of Dampierre-sur-Loire, near Saumur, that Château du Hureau has carved its reputation.

Philipp Vatan took over the estate from his father in 1987, which now comprises 20 hectares in some 20 parcels. More than 90% of his vineyards are planted to cabernet franc in the 1,500 hectare Saumur Champigny appellation, with just 1.5ha planted to chenin blanc, from which he makes Saumur sec, and Coteaux de Saumur, a rare late harvest wine.

The cellar doors open straight into the 20m high tufa cliff running along the south side of the Loire river. The original caves in which the winery is established were quarried in the 11^th to 13^th centuries for the tufa type of limestone that was used for building material all along the river.

The cellars are 10° to 11°C all year round, which may be great for sparkling and white wine, but, said Vatan “the constant temperature is a problem for reds. And we have to cool the temperature mechanically to 0°C for two to three weeks for tartrate stabilisation. Otherwise for all other things it’s good.

He’s recently invested in a new 32 hectolitre oak cask, first used for his 2010 white wine. He said “in my cool cave I have difficultly fermenting in barrel, it’s hard to finish the fermentation” fully dry. But he added, the cask “has temperature inertia, and I can put a heater in it to maintain 15°C at the end of fermentation.” So pleased is he with the result, he’s bought two more for his red ferments. Given the size of cask and Vatan’s choice of very little toasting, there’s minimal new oak flavour even in the first uses.

The reds have a better time in the vineyard, where Vatan said they “never suffer drought, nor have too much water” because some 300 litres of water is stored in each cubic metre of tufa, though the roots have to work hard to release water from the rock.  For this reason Vatan said “cabernet franc on tuffeau remains fresh despite heat” such as in 2003.

Vatan has more than two dozen red vineyard parcels and, he said “it’s important to separate the terroirs in Saumur Champigny.  Where the tufa is deeper, it is better for lighter [bodied] reds and for white wines. Other factors include the exposition and the depth of soil above the tufa, which can be 50cm or 5m deep”

Vatan began practising organics in 2007, and started the certification conversion in 2011.  One of the things he’s currently experimenting is cultivating a low-growing plant immediately under the vine which means he has only to plough in the mid-row. As ploughing needs to be done three or four times a year, he’s keen to avoid damage to the vine trunk which can occur with under-vine ploughing.

What he’s finding in the glass is “a different flavour, a purity that most of the time we don’t have in the classical non-organic way.  Acidity is just a bit higher, which gives a lot of freshness to the wines.”

Wine tasting, in situ, August 2011

Château du Hureau, Rosanna 2008 Saumur brut rosé, €10
Just 3,000 bottles made, from 90% cabernet franc and 10% chenin, named after Vatan’s granddaughter, Anna.  One year on the lees.
Strawberry bubblegum nose, nuanced with rose petals. Nicely balanced, good density of elegant red fruit flavours. Refreshing.

Château du Hureau, Tuffe 2009, Saumur Champigny, €9
From 15 parcels, old and young vines, different aspects. About 80,000 bottles produced.
Aromatic, violets, pure raspberry and redcurrant, with light chalky tannin at the front palate. Nice.

Château du Hureau, Fours à Chaux 2009 Saumur Champigny €13
Vatan “from one of the best terroirs of Saumur Champigny, a reference terroir for thin soil on tuffeau.” No wood, no stems.
Smoky, hint graphite, sweet density of baked raspberries. Supple tannins, mouth-filling fruit. Chalky dry finish. Palate is filled with fruit. Good.

Château du Hureau, Les Fevettes 2009, Saumur Champigny, €13
Vatan: “I separated this cru for the first time in 1989. It’s an old massale.” Seventy year old vineyards; deep tufa, no oak.
Plenty of perfume, lifted violets.  Elegant attack, raspberries, blueberries, lovely purity and backbone, with supple tannin endoskeleton. Delicious, with long, earthy graphite core. Vg.

Château du Hureau, Lisagathe 2009, Saumur-Champigny, €17
Named after daughters Lisa and Agathe. Vatan: “a particular way of ageing – no oak at all – aged without sulphur for a long time then I added some sulphur at the end.”
Hint of tarry smokiness on the nose here, dark, sweet blueberry and dark cherry palate attack, smooth and fine grain texture, elegant and serious. Complex and refined. Will age nicely I think. Delicious. Vg.

Château du Hureau, Les Fevettes 2005, Saumur Champigny,
Perfume, violets, dry compost, enticing, everything is perfectly in its place, fresh sweet fruits, hints of sweet-savoury notes. Long, elegant, linear, seamless. Lush and perky at the same time. Vvg.

Château du Hureau, Lisagathe 2003, Saumur Champigny
Hints of smoky development on the nose, with fresh, dry compost, and supple, sweet fruit. Gentle even, despite 14% alcohol which is seamlessly integrated. Hints of earthy mushroom amid plentiful sweet fruit.

Château du Hureau, Coteaux de Saumur 2005 €40 / 50cl
Rare appellation, only about 15ha. Solely from chenin blanc in sweet style.
Vatan’s most recent vintage; not made since 2005. Uses both passerillé and botrytis fruit. 11.5%; ~10g/l TA; 240g/l RS
Pale gold colour. Aromatic wafty smok nose with spiced ginger. Fresh and concentrated dried apricots, quince and nectarine, with a deceptive lightness of being. Complex, lush-and-fresh, linear, long. Lovely.

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

Jacky Blot

Owner Jacky Blot is one of those charming, unassuming iconoclasts of wine whose passion oozes from more pores than he possesses. Almost everything he says makes seductive sense even if you don’t actually quite understand it, and one could easily lose days of fascinating conversation and thesis in his company.

Blot has amassed some 60 hectares (ha) of vineyards in the Loire valley in two estates – 14ha of Domaine de la Butte in Bourgeuil, plus Domaine de la Taille aux Loups, covering the Vouvray and Montlouis appellations.

Just last year he bought the Le Clos de Mosny property in Montouis, with a full 12 hectares inside the walls, and another eight outside, including 1.6km of traditional wall. The 2011 vintage is his first from this Clos, which will eventually come under the wing of the Taille aux Loups domaine. Given that the entire Montlouis appellation is 380ha, his is no mean holding for one inspired individual.

Three quarters of his production is white, from the Loire’s chenin blanc, a grape variety Blot said “which corresponds strictly to the Loire” and on which he does his own massale selection using the many very old vines he has as indicators of the variety in its Loire terroir.

He’s investing €5,000 / hectare in his new vineyard, including planting new vines in the slightly down-at-heel Clos. The plans are to raise the canopy and lower fruit, so that “at the end of the day you get residual heat reflected up” to the ripening bunches.  By taking leaves off the bottom of the canopy and lowering the fruiting canes, you need to go higher with the leaves, without getting too much leaf, Blot explained. And with all this effort, and by pruning in winter for the correct number of future bunches, Blot avoids the need to green harvest. Instead he gets a limited number of aerated bunches. And still he harvests only at around 30hl/ha, in comparison to appellation allowances of 52hl/ha.

Blot is a man passionate about geology too, saying “there is no appellation without geology”, adding that particular geology zones of the late/upper Cretaceous sedimentation are well suited to growing both Montlouis and Vouvray.

The Montlouis appellation fits snugly into the crook of land created where the river Cher flows in north-westerly direction into the river Loire.  The land is only around 80m above sea level, with the river Loire still having around 200km to meander to the Atlantic Ocean.

Montlouis cross-section

Montlouis cross-section

Source: www.vinsdeloire.fr/SiteGP/FR/Appellation/Appellation/Montlouis-sur-Loire

The tuffeau, or tufa, (porous calcium carbonate-rich rock – limestone – laid down here under an ancient lake) so typical of this part of the Loire was laid down in the Turonian age of the Upper Cretaceous some 94 to 88 million years ago.  It is into this tufa that caves were dug to excavate the rock for building in the Middle Ages, and that now form many a grower’s winery/cellar.

Overlaying this is younger yellow chalk of the Upper Cretaceous which contains lots of shells. And above this lies layers of sand, clay and flint in a free draining matrix. The silex/flint and sand “is a particular expression” Blot said.

Though Blot is not certified, he said “you can express terroir only if you farm organically.  If you use chemical fertilisers, you may as well be growing tomatoes.” He hinted at his long term view when he said “my vision of wine doesn’t fit into the here and now.”  And yet he’s a relative newcomer to winegrowing, having been a courtier/broker in the Loire and Burgundy some 20 years ago.

In his pursuit of the freshness, richness and purity that he says define Loire valley wines, Blot is pretty non-interventionist in approach, after the nine sorting tables have allowed him to select the fruit he’s happy to ferment.  He said “after the grape there’s no intervention in the cellar, [though] we can increase the temperature a little to help fermentation.”  Given the ambient 11 to 13°C of the underground cellar, fermentation is slow, even very slow, taking 4-5 months, and often up to nine months.

Flint in Clos du Mosny

Slow settling of juice, use of natural yeasts, fermentation in a cold cellar, fermentation in small volumes – barrels – which usually gives rise to fewer issues. And Blot added “without fertiliser in the vineyard parcels there is very little yeast-assimilable nitrogen [nutrients], in fact there’s so little nitrogen that some chemistry labs have said it’s impossible to ferment.  But it does.” He added that once the first yeast populations have started fermentation, the second yeast populations feed on the nitrogen created by the first set of yeasts.

Blot is aiming for “very dry wines, with very, very augmented minerality.”  But, he added “if minerality is on its own, this makes the wine hard to drink.  The slowness of fermentation gives fatness and roundness to the wine, and the long fermentation is like a permanent battonage.”

All his wines ferment in barrel, with just 10% new, coming from an artisanal barrel maker in Burgundy.

His wines do not undergo malolactic fermentation.  He said “I think a great grape can make great wines without residual sugar or malolactic.  Malic acid gives an accent, and tones in the wine – a bit of relief or contour, and makes the wine agreeable.”  He added the malic acid “is the spinal column of the wine, giving structure, adding relief and vibrancy to the wine [whereas] weight and body, roundness and flesh are coming from old vines, restricted yields, ripe grapes and the long fermentation.” He also said the low temperature of the cellar and the very slow fermentation protects the wine against malolactic fermentation occurring, which is important for him, as Blot doesn’t add sulphites in the cellar (which would help to block the malolactic).

Tasting notes, in situ, August 2011

Domaine de la Taille aux Loups, Triple Zero, Montlouis Sur Loire, Petillant naturel, €12
Traditional method sparkling, with a twist:  it has zero chaptalisation, zero triage sugars, and zero dosage.  To achieve this, fully ripe grapes are used, to provide all the requisite sugars.  After about a nine month fermentation, the wine is bottled, still with around 12g/l sugars, for around 18 months.  At disgorgement it is topped with wine, but no dosage.
It has a fine-looking mousse, both aesthetically and in terms of size of bubble. The nose is ripe with chenin blanc citrus and apple, the palate rich with almost tropical fruit, and the whole is pure.

Domaine de la Taille aux Loups, Les Dix Arpents 2010, Montlouis Sur Loire Sec €10
The “simplest wine in the house” and delicious at that.  A ‘first tri’ or harvest selection wine, with fresh attack of spiced apples and pears, rich and enveloping, racy with juices. It has lovely intensity and balance.

Domaine de la Taille aux Loups, Remus 2009 Montlouis Sur Loire Sec €12
A ‘second tri’ wine, a blending of parcels closer to the Loire river, on clay soils.
Slight piquancy of citrus toast, lush and sweet fruited on the palate with broad white fruits – chin-dripping melon, apples, poached pears. Sweet texture and mouth enveloping fruit. Vg.

Domaine de la Taille aux Loups, Clos Michet 2009, Montlouis Sur Loire  Sec €14
Also a ‘second tri’ wine. Floral nose, rich and enticing, hints of lemon curd, dry toast amid quince and almost tropicl fruits in a racy frame. Full breadth of palate in seamless quality. Vg.

Domaine de la Taille aux Loups, Remus Plus 2009, Montlouis Sur Loire Sec €16
From one part of the vineyards where vines are nearly 100 years old.
Quince, poached apples, piquancy of acidity offering height and backbone as counterpoint to sweet fat fruit. Life and vibrancy exude along this wine’s huge length.

Domaine de la Taille aux Loups, Clos de la Bretonniere 2009, Vouvray Sec €12
Bretonniere in Vouvray is calcareous with heavy clay that sticks to the shoes.
Blot: “2009 was quite problematic, I didn’t really like it at the beginning.”
Hint tarry and toasty on the nose, then fat and rich, with spiky, sweet leesy notes.

Domaine de la Taille aux Loups, Clos de Venise 2009, Vouvray Moelleux €20
Clos de Venise in Vouvray is silex/flint.
I would say almost  fully sweet. Lush, fat, and fresh, with sweet melon. A dense, huge wine.

Domaine de la Taille aux Loups, Clos de Venise 2005, Vouvray Liquoreux €30
Richly honeyed, with more than 100g/l RS. Tropical, piquant notes and no sign of any ageing. The balance and depth of the whole thing is wonderful and remarkable.

Domaine de la Taille aux Loups, Romulus 2005, Montlouis Sur Loire Liquoreux €50
This wine is only make it when it’s very sunny, which results in the “great, late harvests being early.”  170g/l RS.
Tropical and spicy with huge depth and succulence. Lush in the literal and the colloquial. ‘nuff said.

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

Julian Castagna

Ex-film director Julian Castagna, who learnt his love of wine in 1970s London – when the classics were affordable – bought his vineyard land in Beechworth, Victoria, in 1997, planting shiraz, sangiovese and viognier, with nebbiolo following in 2001 ‘because it is one of the great wines of the world’, he said.  His reason for planting sangiovese is equally poetic “I walked on the land [at Beechworth] and thought I was in Montalcino, Tuscany.”

Before taking the plunge, Castagna had gained several years’ hands-on experience with illustrious and iconic immediate neighbour Rick Kinzbrunner at Giaconda. His first vintage was in 1998, using bought-in fruit, and 1999 marked the first of his estate wines, which are single vineyard wines, biodynamically grown. He is not certified, but is a member of the Return to Terroir / Renaissance des Appellation group, a collection of nearly 200 certified and non-certified biodynamic producers from all over the world.

The four hectare vineyard is northerly-facing, and Castagna plans to reach a maximum of six hectares. Soils are granitic loams with quartz crystal particles, and Castagna said “when the [biodynamic] preparations are used correctly, they allow the vines to access stuff that in the soils.”

In 2010, Castagna took delivery of some concrete egg-shaped vats, with which to experiment.  He said “the eggs allow the wine to move” without getting any ‘dead’ areas as can be found in rectangular shapes. The plan, he said, was to put Genesis-destined [his flagship wine] shiraz and viognier into the eggs. “I expect another layer of complexity from them” he said “Aat the level of wine that we make, to try and increase quality by even 1% is worthwhile.”

Castagna always says he’s an intuitive winemaker, not a scientist, but his reasons for experimenting are sound “I can’t give a scientific reason, I do it because it tastes right.” No arguments there.

Castagna's vineyards

Many of the wines coming out of Beechworth show delightful flavours, which can partly be attributed to the cooler climate. The region’s heat degree days (HDD) range from 1240 to 1687, with it’s mean January temperature (MJT) ranging from 19.9°C to 20.4°C, which puts Beechworth across Amerine and Winkler’s Regions I and II.  Castagna said “cool climate Australia is where great wines will be made. We’re still working out who we are and what land works best and why. But it truly is about the land.”

The Beechworth vineyards also have the benefit of being around 500m above sea level. “Obviously,” Castagna said “we’re not as cool climate as Tasmania, parts of the Yarra Valley, the Macedon Ranges, but we get cool nights during the ripening phase. During the day it can be as high as 30°C to 35°C, then it drops to 10°C and sometimes less [at night]. Vines love that.”

Tasting the wines I found a silky fineness to the tannins, which Castagna explained as being “in the vineyard. At 13.2% there isn’t enough flavour, the tannins aren’t ripe. At 13.5% they are. Generally at 14.5% they’re fat,” adding “I make shiraz the way most people make pinot noir. We only pick ‘til 11am. The fruit is always cold when it comes in. I do a cold soak of up to 6 days pre-fermentation, with whole bunches and whole berries.”

His aim, he said is to make “wine that plays with your brain. I think our wines have an energy, a spirit of their own. And this life comes from the vineyard.”

Castagna’s son Adam is the assistant winemaker, who also makes his own label, Adam’s rib, from both estate fruit and bought-in fruit.

Tasting notes, in situ, October 2010

Adam’s Rib, White 2008, $35
14%; chardonnay 70%, viognier 30%. On lees for 18 months with a little stirring.
Dry honey note, sweet melon, nice leesy texture. Tropical fruit, with apricot, nice density.

Castagna, Ingenue 2008 $55
14%; viognier
Vibrant pale gold, reticent peach and apricot blossom nose, smooth textured attack, fine oak texture which supports the fresh and full body, with defining acid core. Not an ounce of flab on the wine. Has an elegance along with linear profile and lovely balance.

Castagna, Allegro 2009 $30
14% syrah rosé.  Same fruit as use in Genesis.
Pale, salmon colour. Warm strawberry nose, followed on palate with attractive weight, and slippery texture in fully dry style. Has a certain restraint, which opens up in the mouth.

Adam’s Rib, The Red 2008 $35
14%; nebbiolo (60%+), syrah
Medium pale colour. Aromatic cherry fruit on the nose, quite enticing. Something dark and herbal at the back of the nose. Palate gently spiced red cherry, sweet-sour, smooth, fine-layered tannin, fresh core. Nothing fleshy and fat but all nicely ripe. Elegant balance, and really tasty in a medium body which integrates the alcohol completely in layers of tannin. Very good.

Castagna, Genesis 2008 $75
14%; 98% syrah; 2% viognier.
Medium deep ruby red. Aromatic tar, plum and dark perfume. Smooth, dark, silky palate attack, just sweet fruit, in cool spectrum of silky black fruit. Dense fruit layers, hints of graphite retronasally, a delight to hold in the mouth and let flavours emerge. Long finish. Dry and youthful.

Castagna, Un Segreto 2005 $75
13.5%; 60% sangiovese, rest syrah.
Herbal cherry and plum nose. Bright and perky cherries in medium bodied wine whose tannins have a sweet-chalky grip. Dark fruit, berries, dark spices,with sweet core of fruit, as well as freshness. Complex and layered with, with not a sign of age, and a fresh finish.

Silvia Maestrelli and Federico Curtaz

Tuscan wine producer Silvia Maestrelli, and Federico Curtaz bought Tenuta di Fessina on Etna’s northern slopes in 2007, part of the growing band of producers on this active volcano.  From just a decade ago numbers have increased almost tenfold to around 40 wineries, all of whom make less than 3% of Sicily’s total production.

The Etna property of Maestrelli and Curtaz comprises 10 hectares, which used to belong to eleven people. Curtaz said “it’s an old property, planted after the second world war, all bush vines. They are single stake bush vines, 1m by 1m – the old-fashioned way” he added proudly, planted on finely textured, black volcanic soils.

The vineyards are planted to red varieties nerello mascalese and nerello cappuccio which are “similar to nebbiolo” said Curtaz, who still lives in Piedmont, and used to be the vineyard manager for Gaia, “with high acidity, and which need a long maturation.”

Their white carricante vines are planted at 800 to 1,000m above sea level, which they pick in late October, early November, with around 12° of potential alcohol.  Their A Puddara 2009 Etna Bianco was recently awarded the top, tre bicchieri (three glasses), in the 2012 issue of the Gambero Rosso Italian wine guide.

The top red, Il Musmeci, is named after the family who formerly owned the vineyards. It is made from the best selection of all the nerello mascalese and nerello cappuccio grapes, from small bunches. Fermentation is in stainless steel, then maturation for 14-15 months in 500-litre and 35hl casks, and bottled after around two years.

Traditional single-stake bush vines

In addition to their Etna wines, the pair also produce a chardonnay on calcareous soils near Segesta in the west of Sicily, where Curtaz said poetically “every stone has chardonnay written on it”, and a nero d’avola from Val di Noto in the south-eastern tip of the island.  Nero d’avola, said Curtaz “has high acidity, like Piemontese barbera, with 6.5g/l total acidity (tartartic) at the end of malolactic.” And despite the hot temperatures, on occasion more than 40°C, the vines “are not oppressed because there is a fresh wind in Noto”.

The aim, said Curtaz, is elegance, whether red or white, and with plentiful character. Among other things this means a lot of new oak is avoided. They also aim to remain artisanal in production – the maximum capacity of the winery is just 70,000 bottles, and they’re still a good way off that yet.

Tasting notes, in situ, June 2011

Tenuta di Fessina, Chardonnay Nakone 2009, IGT Sicilia  €13
All stainless steel, on skins till May.
Curtaz: “it has no big structure, but finesse and elegance. The character of chardonnay is riper because it’s in the middle of the Mediterranean.”
Melon, peach, hint of mandarin zest. Rich palate, sweet and succulent, with sweet freshness. Full bodied, and very appealing

Tenuta di Fessina, Apuddara, Etna Bianco 2009  €30
Vineyards face south at 1,000m. Carricante. Oak fermentation and maturation in big casks.
Curtaz: “it could stay in bottle 15 years. The acidity is around 7g/l. It’s a wine that searches for the centre of Europe, not the south. We pick cool grapes in late October, early November.”
Fresh, leesy nose, with Chablis-like mealiness on palate, though this has more fullness and roundness. Quite full, in a lush- fresh form, and sophisticated. Long mealy, citrus finish. Very good.

Tenuta di Fessina, Erse 2009, Etna Rosso  €16
Nerollo mascalese.
Curtaz: “No wood, fresh, simple wine, with strict Etna character; spice, freshness, tannins, acidity is the centre of the wine.”
Pale colour, strawberry initially, then hint of stick liquorice and nutmeg spice, and a little more complex than Curtaz suggested. Nicely balanced with a fresh core of supple fruit. Good.

Tenuta di Fessina, Il Musmeci 2007, Etna Rosso €35-40
Pale colour, aromatic, wafty smoke nose, almost full bodied, fresh core with sweet baked, red forest fruits, strawberry and raspberry, and supporting fine grains from tannins. Good.

Tenuta di Fessina, Laeneo Nerello Cappuccio 2009, IGT Sicilia €13
Curtaz “A curiosity, we make just 2,000 bottles to see what nerello cappuccio could give to the blend.”
Medium pale, juicy red fruit nose, sweet attack, fresh and straight lined. Young and youthful. Think Chinon.

Tenuta di Fessina, Ero Nero d’Avola 2009, IGT Sicilia  €13
Bright and purple hue. Nose a bit muted, but the palate is fresh and elegant, with a silky smooth tannin frame, and sweet black currant and loganberry fruits.

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

Sam Plunkett

Plunkett-Fowles arose as a merger of two family wine businesses in 2005, both located in the rather rugged, granitic region of Strathbogie Ranges, remote even though it is only around 130km north of Melbourne. The business is run by chief winemaker Sam Plunkett, and CEO Matt Fowles.

Strathbogie is one of Australia’s cooler growing regions. With an HDD 1460 and an MJT of 20.7°C (James Halliday, Wine Atlas of Australia, 2006) it is little wonder that riesling is a favoured grape variety, and producers such as Domaine Chandon have a vineyard in the area, growing chardonnay and pinot noir, much going to their sparkling wine.

In one of those quirks of Australian viticulture, shiraz is also making a more than respectable name for itself.  Plunkett summed up his region thus: “Strathbogie is a 400 million year old mountain range. It’s two key features are firstly elevation, and secondly, granite.”  Elevation certainly plays a cooling role, with vineyards from around 200 to 600m above sea level, amidst granite tors and boulders.

Plunkett added “a lot of cool climate Australia is coastal – maritime, with high rainfall and the mould and disease pressure” that that brings, but “Strathbogie has less rainfall, it’s continental.  We get things ripe because there is less [disease] pressure to pick.” And in terms of ripening, Plunkett said Strathbogie is 1-2 weeks behind the Yarra Valley.

Strathbogie Ranges

The soils are infertile though, Plunkett said it’s mostly “timber land and sheep farming.” But in 1968, Plunkett’s father planted 30 grape varieties across three acres of their farm, though commercial plantings had to wait till 1980.  Now, the two wineries have 500 acres (200 hectares) of vineyard, and also make wine under contract for around 20 clients, half of whom grow grapes in Strathbogie Ranges. In any given year, Plunkett said “we crush between 2,300 and 4,500 tonnes.”

Plunkett-Fowles are also the makers of the quirkily-named Ladies Who Shoot Their Lunch range of wines, available, in the UK, through wine merchant Naked Wines for around £15 a bottle, for riesling, chardonnay, shiraz.

Plunkett is a firm believer in getting his wines to express the site as best they can: “we don’t use yeast which will influence the flavour, and we don’t use too much new oak which will mask the place.” Though he added “it will be a decade and more before we get a sense of what Strathbogie Ranges is” in terms of site expression.

As well as ‘Ladies Who Shoot Their Lunch, which Plunkett regards as something of branding phenomenon, the winery makes the ~AUD$25 Stone Dwellers range (granite boulders in the landscape), the ~AUD15 490m (the altitude of the farm), plus flagship wines The Rule and The Exception.

Tasting notes, in situ, October 2010

Plunkett-Fowles, Stonedwellers sauvignon blanc 2010
Grassy, aromatic, herby. Residual sugar was a bit too high for me (5g/l), I thought it made the wine a bit loose.

Plunkett-Fowles, Stonedwellers riesling 2010
However, in the riesling, 6g/l of residual sweetness created the perfect balance, with pithy lemon zest; light, bright, and with intense apple and lime. Vg

Plunkett-Fowles, Stonedwellers riesling 2008
Lime and petrol combo, with some nice weight developing. Light, steely, with gentle savoury notes, and good intensity.

Plunkett-Fowles, Ladies Who Shoot Their lunch riesling 2009
A third in old oak for texture, plus a tiny amount of gewürztraminer.  This was not my style, petrol development on the nose, fuller and fatter style.

Plunkett-Fowles, Stonedwellers Shiraz 2007
Black pepper spice, dense and gravelly, then with smooth, supple attack and texture. Dark brambly pepper, dense, sweet fruit, smooth, characterful and good.

Plunkett-Fowles, Ladies Who Shoot Their Lunch Shiraz 2008
Spicy plum and red fruit aromas, hints of new oak aromatics in a rounded, supple, less complex wine, undoubtedly more wide appealing for that.

Plunkett-Fowles, The Rule Reserve Shiraz 2008
Deep, smooth texture, very fine tannins. Fine, sophisticated, new oak absorbed completely in ripe, perfumed, dark, black gravelly fruit. Vg

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

The estate is one of the six Douro properties of the Alves de Sousa family, who bought it in the late 1980s. Along with their other estates further along the valley, the family is one of the larger independent producers in the Douro.

The fourth generation of this family to be farming is Tiago Alves de Sousa, who explained they used to supply bulk wine to the famous Port shippers. But, he said “in the early 1990s, Port was struggling with the prices of bulk wine, so my father decided to explore still wines.”  He added “Port represented half the production of our vineyard, and we had the other half of ‘leftovers’ which wasn’t really the ‘leftovers’.  Because Port production is controlled, we couldn’t make Port from those grapes – from the same vineyard, from the same grape varieties.”

Alves de Sousa explained what a challenge it had been to make still wines.  All their expertise was in the making of Port wine, which requires a different use of winemaking skills from making still wine. Port wine needs super-ripe, sugar-rich fruit which undergoes an massive maceration. Still wines needs fresher fruit, and gentler, longer maceration.  Even now, more than 20 years later he said “it’s still something exciting and evolving.”

The vineyards at Gaivosa are at 350m to 500m above sea level, with the best of them facing west to maximise the sunlight hours at the cooler western end of the Douro, and because the altitude already adds a cooling influence. And, said Alves de Sousa “the vineyards have a bigger temperature amplitude between day and night, so grapes hold their acidity”, which is crucial for still wine.  He added “Baixas Corgo is very good for still wines because it’s cooler with more rainfall, so the wines have a better balance.”  But even in this region, those vineyards close the river surface, around 80-100m above sea level, can be too hot for still wines, but make good fruit for Port wine.

One of the property’s top wines comes from a two-hectare ‘abandoned vineyard’ which has half its vines missing. It sits at the top of a slope at 470 metres, with rock very close to the surface.  The family tried to replant the gaps but said Alves de Sousa “the new plants kept dying”.  The vineyard is a field blend of around 30 different grape varieties.

Quinta da Gaivosa

In another of the estate’s vineyards, Lordelo, the vines are 100 years old.

Come the winery, Alves de Sousa is making some single varietal wines, though “more to study the varieties than to think about the wine on its own.  We do a 100% touriga nacional, and our first vintage of sousão [2009] is still in the barrel.”

The family is also experimenting with white wines. Alves de Sousa said “higher altitude with north facing slopes provide great conditions for making modern white wines.” And he said “the best is yet to come with whites. We had to plant everything from scratch.  As the vineyards mature and as we get to know them better, whites in the Douro can get to the same level as reds.”

Tasting notes, in situ, March 2011

Quinta da Gaivosa, Branco da Gaivosa, Reserva 2009.
12.5%.  Blend of malvasia fina, which “behaves a bit like chardonnay; it gives body and shares the same family of floral flavours; gouveio, arinto and avesso, “which plays on mineral, acidity, freshness.” Fermentation in new French barrels because “we wanted to have a long ageing to work on the structure and complexity.”
Golden colour. Rich, toast and tropical notes, supple and soft fruits with fine texture on palate; oak is overt and seamlessly done. Savoury, full and fresh, with aromatic spiciness, great depth and length. Vg.

Quinta da Gaivosa, Quinta da Gaivosa 2005
14%. Blend of around 20 grape varieties. 15 months in 2^nd year French barrels.
Fragrant, strawberries and raspberries. Gently balanced with wweet and textured fruit, medium weight, with warmth of alcohol at end amid lovely aromatics.

Quinta da Gaivosa, Reserva Persoal 2005
14.5%; 80 year old field blend.
Dark, muscley fruit, yet with supple and rounded texture. Fresh with attentive grip, but not grippy. Lovely.

Quinta da Gaivosa, Vinha de Lordelo 2007
15.5%. Baked fruits and fresh redcurrant preserve. Sweet and fragrant, with mulberry jamminess alongside freshness, lift, an aromatic core and density of flavour. Long and refined. Vg.

Quinta da Gaivosa, Abandonado 2007
14.5% Complex, multi-layered nose, big, toasty, mint and tar notes, rich in savouriness. Dark berry fruits, fresh and aromatic in brooding, chocolate-y style, and with great length. A ‘meditation wine’. Vg.

My research visit to the Douro was sponsored by the ‘Discover the Origin’ campaign.

Their 10.7 hectare domaine lies between the Loire and Layon valleys, located on the hillsides of the Corniche Angevine, which is within the UNESCO world heritage site that stretches from just west of Angers to Sully-sur-Loire, east of Orléans.  White wines account for seven hectares, including 1 ha of ungrafted chenin blanc.

The couple have been making wine since 1978 of which year Philippe, previously a research at INRA, said “I had cows, corn and wine.  In 1985 I decided to make good wine.” His specialty is sweet wine, and he makes two red wines, one each from cabernet franc and cabernet sauvignon.  He said “we’re on top of a hill and we have two valleys. With mist coming off with the sun, the leaves are wet, and for noble rot you need three things – warm, wet and wind.  If one of these three is not there, you cannot have botrytis.”

The domaine is certified organic, in addition to which Philippe said he “practice[s] biodynamics and [is] a member of the Renaissance des Appellations [Return to Terroir]”.

Soils in the Loire valley can get very complicated.  Here the soil is schist, underneath a ‘pudding’ conglomerate from broken stones. Delesvaux said “this [conglomerate] is glacial moraine from the Brittany mountains [which used to be around 7,000 metres high] of the Massif Armoricain.  This moraine filled in the holes in the landscape, so it can be 5m deep or up to 30m deep.”

In another twist, one of his single vineyards, the Clos du Pavillon, is on coal. The Delesvaux’s village, La Haie Longue, is an old mining town.

They planted one hectare of ungrafted chenin, said Catherine, because “we wanted to find again the authentic taste of the vine before phylloxera.”  But what about phylloxera coming into the vines?  “For 10 years we’re safe” Catherine said “and to plant one hectare is the price of a very big car” which after 10 years if pretty much worthless, so they feel the costs balance out in their quest.  The soil on this plot is schist with a little sand.

The domaine sits between the rivers Louet and Layon, where regular mists rise of the waters, so it could be argued their sweet wine specialty chose them.  Philippe said “our vineyards are made for sweet wines. It is difficult for us to make dry wine.” But, he added of the Feuille d’Or and Authentique (both Anjou Blanc) wines “our aim is for dry wine, but we don’t always achieve it”.  Thus, on these two wines, ‘sec tendre’ appears on the label in some years, when there is a bit too much residual sugar to achieve a ‘sec’ designation.  In 2010, said Philippe “the level came in high, so there is no Feuille d’Or because the sugar is too high.  We let it go into the passerillé and we made sweet wine.”

Philippe Delesvaux

The couple make three cuvees of Coteaux du Layon.  It is the first harvest that provides the noble rot selection, which they harvest in mid-October.  The second harvesting is a mix of half noble rot and half  non-botrytis, late harvest.  And the third harvest is all passerillé – of late harvested, over mature, and non-botrytised fruit.  This usually takes place at the end of October or beginning of November.  At this end of the season said Philippe “in one week there are a lot of changes.”

As to the winemaking, Philippe explained, with his usual glint of the eye “the more botrytis the more barrels, because it needs time to ferment, and barrels are better to control the temperature, they are better to keep an eye on your babies!”

Delesvaux achieves huge sweetness in is wines, with a raciness of acidity that accentuates the focus and precision of the palate.  For 15 years he fought to get Sélection de Grains Nobles (SGN) recognised as an official designation for Layon wines.  He said “we worked with Alsace winemakers for this, and since 2002 SGN is an official mention.  It must have more than 19% potential alcohol; no sugar can be added; there’s no minimum alcohol, and the more botrytis you have the lower the alcohol because it can take a year to ferment.” It cannot be marketed until two years after the harvest.  Philippe added “our level for SGN is 22 to 23% potential alcohol.”

His wines are from the very top drawer.

Tasting notes, in situ, August 2011

Anjou Blanc, Feuille d’Or 2008, Sec
Philippe: “2008 was a cold vintage, which gives a high minerality; and a cold vintage on coal smells of oxidation, which is not typical.  1994, 2004 and 2008 got this smell.”
It certainly smelt of oxidation to me, quite cidery, and challenging to understand.

Anjou Blanc Feuille d’Or 2009, sec tendre, €11
The same plot in a warmer vintage, with 10g/l RS, therefore ‘sec tendre’
No oxidation smell. Bruised, fresh apples and Mediterranean fruits, and the hint of sweetness creates a pleasant balance with the ~8.5g/l acid, expressed as tartaric.

Anjou Blanc Authentique 2009, Sec tendre €19
Ungrafted vines. Stony nose, stone fruit, with some lovely layering of fruit and stony stuff, with a well-depth of flavour, apricot and firestone.  It tastes off dry and very nicely balanced indeed for that.  Elegant, intense and very good. I’d drink this as indulgent aperitif.

Coteaux du Layon, Saint Aubin Passerillé 2010 €11
Always made in tank. This is the third trie, or harvest. 100g/l RS.
Apricot, hints of mango, precise focus and purity, with exquisitely defined and racy acidity, which brings the perception of sweetness down to around 60-70g/l RS to my palate. Huge intensity and focus here, with tropical fruit a-plenty at its crunchiest ripeness. Lovely balance and dreamy elegance. Vvg.

Coteaxu du Layon, Saint Aubin, Les Clos 2010. moelleux, €12.50 / 50cl
All made in tank, though the 2009 was in old oak.  This is a 50:50 passerille / noble rot, so from the second trie / harvest. 11.5%. 130g/l RS. The grapes from Clos de la Guiberderie and Clos du Pavillon.
Hints of sweet spiciness on the nose, quite subtle. Fruits more in the succulent tropical fruit spectrum with mango, bake pineapple, honeyed apples and still racy acidity. A wine that demands attention. Very good (my preference is for passerillé purity).

Coteaux du Layon Saint Aubin, Selection de Grains Noble 2008, €30 / 50cl
Botrytis fruit from the first trie / harvest. The grapes from Clos de la Guiberderie and Clos du Pavillon.  200g/l RS. ~10.5g/l TA. 11%.
Spicy, clean mushroom compost, apricot compote, concentrated essence of gently spiced fruit. Long. Concentrated. Good.

Coteaux du Layon Saint Aubin, Selection de Grains Noble 2009
Warm and sunny vintage. 200g/l RS; ~9.5g/l TA, 11%
Spiced ginger, juniper, allspice, pure and round. More expressive and immediate than the cooler 2008. Almost supple in its enveloping flavours. Very nice indeed.

Coteaux du Layon, Saint Aubin, Selection de Grains Noble 1997
212 g/l RS.  Golden colour, mushroom, with burnt barley sugar, salted caramel and crème brulée of a gracefully maturing wine.  Supple and oozing with richly spiced botrytis flavours, a little reminiscent of a few putts Tokaji.  Unctuous, long, still with framing freshness.  Lovely.

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

Cobaw Ridge

Alan and Nelly Cooper set up Cobaw Ridge in 1985, having bought the land in 1981 as a place from where they could commute (quite lengthily) to Melbourne.  Their original plan had been to sell the grapes, but they were smitten and decided to make wine before the first crop was off the vine, which was in 1989.

They are high up in the Macedon Ranges, with their 5 hectares of vineyards ranging from 610 to 635m above sea level. Shiraz was planted in 1985 and 1985 on granitic sandy soils.

The vineyards are also planted to chardonnay, pinot noir and lagrein, that little known red Italian grape variety from Alto Adige.  Indeed the Coopers were there first people outside of Italy to commercially produce lagrein. They had planted a little cabernet sauvignon but it only ripened one year in three so they grafted it over to lagrein.  “The site and soil match Bolzano” Alan said, so he had to give it a go.  The first vintage was in 1997, with the first commercial vintage one year later.

Elevation gives a good degree of cooling and Alan, a fifth generation farmer, said “shiraz can ripen 7-8 weeks behind central Heathcote, yet you can drive there in 25 minutes.” And there’s not so much disease pressure because it’s a windy place, and it dries out quickly, he added “the predominant winds are from the south east, and they can up to 65km/hour.” This has no doubt helped with the conversion firstly to certified organic, in 2009, and more recently, in 2011, to certified biodynamic farming.

Cooler climate shiraz is a very different beast to classic Barossa shiraz, and Alan calls his syrah, as though to distinguish the cooler from the warmer. He said cool climate shiraz is “spicy, savoury, minerally, earthy.  It could be spicy on the nose and peppery on the palate, or the other way round – black pepper and graphite.” His is attractively redolent with piquant black pepper spiciness.

The Coopers have also been working on a couple of so-called natural wines, where, effectively, additions in both the vineyard and the winery are kept to a minimum, though a strict definition is hard to come by. Alan said “The move to being ‘natural’ to us really is a natural progression from chemical farming to organic then to biodynamic. I guess all about letting ‘here’ speak a bit clearer,” allowing the place to have first voice in the expression of the wine.

Tasting notes, in situ, October 2010

Cobaw Ridge, Chardonnay 2008
14% 100% barrel, 20% new barrel fermentation.
Creamy vanilla nose and very smooth texture. Rich, sweet creamy, nougat, Good sweet spot, nicely balanced, alcohol seamless.
Alan: “it’s richer than we’d like to see – 2008 was warm”

Cobaw Ridge, Pinot Noir 2008
Aromatic smoky tar nose; sweet palate attack, cherry and soft berries. Gaining suppleness amid sweet fruit and fleshy body, auguring well for a bit more bottle age.

Cobaw Ridge, Syrah 2007
Cooler vintage than 2008
Medium deep, bright ruby colour. Spicy, black pepper, rich intensity, with freshness, and depth of flavour, nice concentration, big intensity, layered flavours. Vg.

Cobaw Ridge, Syrah 2008
Medium deep ruby colour; warm cherry pie nose, fruit taking on rich and sweet notes, ripe and supple, and still with attractive freshness. Supple and mouth-filling wine. Good.

Cobaw Ridge, Lagrein 2006
13%. Dark cherry nose, smooth attack, dark and ripe, chewy tannins. Fine-grained dark, brooding sort of wine.

Cobaw Ridge, Lagrein 2007
Sweet, dark cherry fruits, sweet core, plum and cherry, good and chunky, with juicy core of fruit.

Cobaw Ridge, Lagrein 2008
Juicy plum and dark cherry fruit nose and attack. Fine bit of grip is just softening into the fruit nicely.

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

Owner Fred Pizzini emigrated from Alto Adige, with his parents, sister and brother in 1956. They very soon settled in the King Valley. Fred’s property is located at the higher altitude, southern end of this north-south orientated valley, where vineyards verge onto the foothills of the Southern Alps, the highest at around 860m, though many are around half that altitude, some 300 to 400m.

With encouragement and grape contracts from Brown Brothers, whose home is still at Milawa at the north end of the valley, near Wangaratta, the Pizzinis, who were quickly becoming ex-tobacco farmers as that market collapsed, planted their first commercial vines in 1978 – riesling and chardonnay, for Brown Brothers.  Stalwart grape varieties cabernet sauvignon, shiraz and sauvignon blanc soon followed, and over the next decade they also introduced Italian varieties, planting some of the first nebbiolo, along with sangiovese, pinot grigio and arneis.  Fred said it was in 1991 that they had their first barrel of nebbiolo.

Fred and wife Katrina now have 70 hectares of vineyards on their 280 hectare farm “and still quietly planting” said Fred, adding that while there are many micro-climates in the King Valley, the “climate is suited to medium bodied styles that are more delicate in style. While the north [of the valley] is warmer and dry, the south is cool at night in the growing season.” It’s just one and a half hour’s south to the snow, he added.  And while growing season temperatures may be in the mid 30s°C during the day, Fred said they can get down to 14-15°C at night, which helps keep the grapes’ natural acid.

Their wine business is a real family affair. Eldest daughter Natalie is in charge of marketing, wine events and the wine club, while son Joel is winemaker. He includes four vintages in Italy on his CV, including at top Chianti producer Isole e Olena. And Katrina runs a cookery school in an expansive kitchen area adjoining their smart cellar door tasting rooms.

The King river

In good Italian style, the family make more than a dozen different wines, and it’s the Italian varieties – pinot grigio, sangiovese and arneis, plus their nebbiolos, that make up a big chunk. Fred puts down part of the success of his wines from Italian grapes to “the drinkability of the grape varieties.”

Not that all the vineyards are the same, and Fred is clearly proud of one patch of sangiovese which he said “is particularly good – it has a slightly different gradient, the soils carry less rock, it’s tighter grained.  It’s more of a clay loam than volcanic soil and the wind is different.  It might see a bit more sun, and it produces consistently good fruit.” In contrast he said, the vineyard on his north-east facing slope has “deeper clay, more volcanic soil, which is more robust, more powerful.”  And his nebbiolo vineyard, which tops out at 400m above sea level, he said “is 2.5°C warmer at night than the valley floor, and 2.5° to 3°C cooler during the day than the valley floor.”

Such detail shows an admirable terroir-istic grasp of his vineyards.

Wine tasting, in situ, October 2010

Pizzini, Pinot Grigio 2010, King Valley
12%. Apple, pear, melon, intense fruit attack of sweet fruit. Dry wine, fresh, intense, thoroughly decent.

Pizzini, Arneis 2010, King Valley
13.5%. Apple skins and lime grass. Very clean, nicely fresh, more backbone than the pinot grigio. Really tasty.

Pizzini, Verduzzo 2010, King Valley
Whole bunch pressed, and a portion barrel fermented, rest in stainless steel on lees.
Lovely creaminess of texture, with the focus all on fresh white fruits, with tight structure and good backbone. Good.

Pizzini, Sangiovese 2009, King Valley
13%. Medium deep colour, brick rim. Bright cherry, cinnamon, bright sweet fruit, has chalky dry tannins, and with sweet fruit. Medium bodied, firm backbone, good ripe fruit, nicely balanced. Rich balance of good fruit weight. Good.

Pizzini, Nebbiolo 2005, King Valley
14.3%. medium deep, brick rim. Warm, spicy fruitcake, baked cherry pie, rich, sweet and fine-grainy attack. Quite full bodied, mouth-filling, dry, chalky fruit savour. Nicely structured with depth and fruit concentration. Vg.

Pizzini, Nebbiolo 2006, King Valley
Medium pale, brick rim, black tea leaves on nose. Dry baked cherry crumble. Sweet fruit core dissected by web of fine, structured tannins.  Savoury black olive notes. Vg.

Pizzini, Rubacuori Sangiovese 2004, King Valley
Meaning stealer of hearts. Deep colour, spicy, brambly and savoury in a gamey vein, followed by dense, sweet fruit, darkly spiced, and richly textured.

Pizzini, Il Barone 2006, King Valley
Cabernet sauvignon, shiraz, sangiovese, nebbiolo, a blend that was put together nearly a decade ago.  Dense colour, flavours of spice and dark fruits; dense, youthful, and with a big balance.

Pizzini, Coronamento Nebbiolo 2004, King Valley
Meaning crowing achievement. 14.5%. Medium deep with brick rim. Perfumed, smoothly structured, with sweet baked cherry notes, fine-knit tannins, warming feel and long, integrated, finely balanced palate. Vg.

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

The Bonettas, father Angelo and brothers Domenico and Carmelo, have revitalised their business in the new millennium. They used to sell bulk wine, but in 2000 they planted new vineyards on their 50 hectare property, and in 2006 a state of the art winery was opened, costing some €5m.  It was in 2007 that they bottled their first vintage, taking it to market in 2009.

The 30 hectares of  vineyards, all around 230 to 260m above sea level, are mostly planted to nero d’avola (60%) and grillo (25%), with the rest being split among insolia, catarratto, syrah, cabernet sauvignon, merlot and chardonnay, though, said Carmelo, “after 2006, we’re moving more to indigenous grape varieties.”

Domenico, Angelo and Carmelo Bonetta

A lot more than money has gone into this property, with an emotive Sicilian story being woven around the wines, whereby dialect names have been chosen for the names of the wines, and where some of the labels are “based on veils from 200 years of Arab rule” Carmelo said.  Still on the agenda for restorative investment is the traditional farmhouse complex – the baglio – which sits near the top of a slope amidst the vines.

With the sea just 8 km to the south Carmelo added, “there’s always a breeze. And it can be 35 to 40°C during day, then it can be 20 to 22°C at night.”

The family is making around 25,000 cases across eight labels, and not a duff one among them.

Wine tasting, in situ, June 2011

CDC 2010, IGP Sicilia Bianco ~€10
25% each of grillo, insolia, cataratto, chardonnay, in stainless steel. 13%. 5.9TA, pH3.16.
Aromatic, quite peachy nose, full, rich, tasty, tropical, flavoursome with decent length. Good.

Lalùci 2010, IGP Sicilia ~€15
Lalùci means light in Sicilian dialect
100% grillo, all stainless steel plus 4-6 months in bottle. 13%, 6TA, pH3.11.
Lemon grass, citrus, quite full and richly flavoured. Nice round balance with good fresh, prickly core. Long. Good

Adènzia 2009 IGP Sicilia ~€12
Adènzia is dialect for paying attention.
75% chardonnay, 25% grillo. Stainless steel plus on lees for 4-6 months. 13%, 5.5TA, pH 3.2.
Nose a bit reticent, in typical non-aromatic chardonnay style, with melon, white peach. Attractive smooth texture, nicely balanced.

Laudàri 2008 IGP Sicilia ~€17
Laudàri is dialect to sing someone’s praise.
100% chardonnay, in barrique, one-third news, plus 3, 4^th year, for 2-4 months with battonage. 13.5%, 5.7TA, pH3.22.
Peachy, toasty, broad, well made, but for me lacks a singular identity. It’s a bit like so many other nicely oaky chardonnays on the market.

CDC 2009, IGP Sicilia Rosso 2009 ~€10
~25% each of nero d’avola, syrah, cabernet sauvignon, merlot. No oak. 13.5%, 5.25TA, pH3.41.
Spicy rather than fruity nose, which comes through much more on the palate, with soft, crushed red berries and cherries, alongside soft spices.

Adènzia 2008, IGP Sicilia ~€14
60% nero d’avola, rest cabernet sauvignon/merlot. 13.5%, 5.3TA, pH3.42
Spicy black fruits on nose, soft, supple sweet texture, round and quite lush, full bodied and appealing, with hint of bramble on the finish.

Adènzia 2009, IGP Sicilia ~€14
~80% nero d’avola, rest syrah and cabernet sauvignon.  14%, 5TA, pH3.48
For me this wine works better with more nero d’avola and less cabernet sauvignon. It’s bright and sparky, with spicy, rich, dense sweet fruit. It’s more authentic somehow, and with a hint of chalky backbone.  Good.

Lusirà 2008, IGP Sicilia ~€25
Dialect for syrah. 14 months in French barrique, one-third new. 14%, 5.5TA. PH3.54.
Bass notes of stewed red berries, in a full, round spicy, and quite hot, whole. The alcohol shows through a little, and it’s not in a familiar varietal style (but is the style of Sicilian syrah?), but does have very good length.

Lusirà 2009, IGP Sicilia
100% syrah; 14.5%, 5.1TA, pH3.45. Not released at time of tasting.
Spicy with bits of raw oak, which is still integrating during bottle ageing. Big, with the alcohol showing, and also with big fruit, which tastes like it will all come together in a really good way.

Lu Patri 2008, IGP Sicilia ~€25
Dialect for the father. Nero d’avola as the father of all the indigenous vines in Sicily (but maybe also for Angelo?) 14 months in French barrique, one-third new. 14%, 5.5TA, pH3.42.
Smoky, liquorice stick, savoury nose.  Palate with smooth and silky texture, dark berries, full bodied, hint savoury elements and lovely layers. Elegance with substance. Vg.

Lu Patri 2009, IGP Sicilia
14%, 5.2TA, pH3.42. Not released at time of tasting.
Bright and crunchy red fruits with depth amidst the still integrating oak. At this stage the alcohol is showing again and the firm structure still needs to mellow with more bottle age.

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

Having graduated in 1991, his CV includes stints at Coldstream Hills and at Knappstein where he was involved with the first two vintages of Lenswood pinot noir from the Adelaide Hills. He is now the winemaker at Yabby Lake in Mornington Peninsula, where he moved in 2008 after a 12-year sojourn at Yering Station in the Yarra Valley. Amongst all of this he has worked five vintages in France, a couple in Champagne and three in Burgundy, most recently, in 2000, with Bernard Moreau in Chassagne Montrachet.

Carson said what he learnt in Burgundy was “respect for the land and the vineyard. The time-honoured wealth of knowledge in Burgundy is something you can’t pick up in a four week vintage. It comes from generations of farming.  But it puts some perspective on what we’re doing in Australia. We can’t rush it.”

Thus he speaks of prospects and future in Australia, saying the Yabby Lake site “has huge potential, it seems the foundation of quality is high” and he’s just itching for the vines to age to see what they are capable of in maturity. But already he said “the wines are really precise, detailed, they have presence, purity and integrity.”

In finding those sites of potential, Carson discusses the four parameters of acid, sugar, phenolic ripeness and flavour, likening them to four clocks, saying “if they’re all running in the same time zone and at the same rate, if they all intersect at this nice point where you harvest the fruit, then you have wine that’s inherently balanced,” adding “when you have the site right, the components of the fruit seem to work in synch. As it reaches ideal ripeness, acid falling at a slow rate, the balance, the flavour is there.” It’s only when the clocks work out of synch that the winemaker needs to do something to bring back the balance.

But when the clocks are in synch, “the sites that can produce fruit that has this inherent balance, then the wines need virtually no winemaking except judicious care to be able to produce wine that reflects where it’s grown, and its balanced.”  He makes it all sound so easy. 

This is probably why he also said “the best wines I’ve made are the easiest. When it’s right in the vineyard and we’ve picked at what we feel is the ideal moment, they look good on vine, and every time you look at them they look good. There’s very little manipulation or invention winemaking. They tend to look after themselves.”

This is not to say that minor adjustments “at the edges may be required in some years because of the marginal climate.” It’s the cool-marginal climate that offers the opportunities to synchronise the clocks, but it doesn’t happen every year, because cool marginal can be rather unpredictable, which is why the wines reflect the vagaries of each vintage.  Carson said “we haven’t added acid to chardonnay for years. With pinot noir most years we don’t, and some years we may need to add a very small amount.  Like in Burgundy, usually they don’t need to chaptalise, but sometimes you need to add a tiny bit of sugar.”

Carson is deliberately seeking that reflection of vintage, of season, saying “we want the wines to reflect different personalities from the site, and primarily from the season. Of all the great wines we talk about, it’s the season that has the biggest impact on flavour, texture, weight and balance.”  

And to this end, Carson needs to change the business model of the Aussie winemaker. He said “the future is the vineyard – a combination of winemaker, viticulturist and site.  It’s more of a vigneron feel, with the winemaker as a piece in the puzzle, not the game changer.”

At least he’s not completely alone in this gargantuan task, there’s a growing band of admirably tall poppies in this vanguard.

An HDD 1460 and an MJT of 20.7°C (James Halliday, Wine Atlas of Australia, 2006) put this region towards the cooler end of the wine growing spectrum, so it is no surprise that the likes of Domaine Chandon have a vineyard in the area, growing chardonnay and pinot noir, much going to their sparkling wine.

Elevation also plays its cooling part, with vineyards varying in altitude from 200 to nearly 600 metres above sea level, in a striking granite landscape.  Grant Taresch said “Strathbogie is a renowned cool growing region. You could never grow wheat or corn.  The soils are well-drained, infertile, and rocky, on a granite base.”

And it’s a windy region, which may explain why the estate has a 30m tall, 150kw wind turbine on the property. Grant said “we generate two times the electricity that we need in the winery.  So we supply the national grid.” They say they are the first winery in Australia to be fully self-powered by renewable wind energy.

But this couple don’t just generate electricity. Their whole ethos is geared toward maximising the sustainability of their farm. Suzanne said “Grant built the winery on sustainable practices. We started in 2001, ahead of the game, and it took five years to get the wind turbine project.  It started rotating in 2007.” The winery was ready for the 2004 vintage.

Elgo Estate water treatment lagoons

Elsewhere, Grant said “we compost all organic waste and re-use it in the vineyard. The liquid waste is treated in a series of lagoons, to a point where it can be reused in the vineyard,” before explaining in more detail “the liquid waste is aerated at night for aerobic bacteria, which break it down quicker and [without] smell. The sludge – organic solids – falls down and is composted again. And the winter storage lagoon is pH neutral and can be used in the vineyards.” The three lagoons mean water is in them for up to two years before being re-used in the vineyards.

But the pair is deliberately avoiding an organic certification, as Grant said “with organic, there would be more tractor time, so more diesel and more compaction.  We do use glyphosate weed killer.  If we didn’t use it, there would be more tractor time, which means our carbon footprint on the environment would be bigger if we were certified organic.

“We run sheep in the vineyards in winter. As spring starts, we take the sheep out, the grass grows a bit. We keep the mid rows covered with grass, and we add one spray immediately under the vine row to kill the grass and get a band of bare soil there, which sets us up for the year.  If there was grass up against the trunks, we’d get water competition.” The 4,000 grazing sheep reduce tractor trips and fuel usage.

In addition, 80 hectares of the property are ring-fenced for wildlife sanctuary, and they have created 6 km of wildlife corridors, planting around 10,000 native trees and grasses this millennium, with more to come.  In total the farm extends over nearly 900 hectares.

In the winery, the carbon dioxide from fermentation is recycled to protectively blanket bulk wine against oxidation.  Marc is put back into the vineyard. And said Grant “we watch what we use in the winery too.  No waste is carted away apart from card and plastic.”

About 10,000 cases are made, entirely from fruit grown on the 60 hectares of vineyard, lying across three sites at different altitudes, which give different fruit expressions. The lowest, Tarcombe Valley, is around 320m, planted to cabernet sauvignon and shiraz.  Upton Hill vineyard is at 530m, where the winery and wind turbine are also situated, and Lake View vineyard, at 480m, they bought from Hardy’s in 2004.

Two ranges of wine are made, Elgo Estate, and the easier drinking Allira range, so named after the indigenous word for quartz, which is common in the region. Suzanne described the Allira style as being “on the edge of having a glass by itself, or needing food with it.”

Wines, tasted in situ, October 2010

Allira  Sauvignon Blanc 2010
Peachy on the nose, full bodied, and attractive, in tropical style

Elgo Riesling 2006
The current release. Petrol, lime, zest and juice. Good intensity, fresh and pure fruit. Attractively balanced, with good density, and lovely varietal definition. Vg.

Allira Shraz 2008
Dense plummy, sweet nose, sweet attack, with fresh, attractive balance, and black peppery notes, with fresh fruit behind it all. Full, sweet body.

Elgo Shiraz 2006
Smoky and black spiced, with savoury hints among the dark, fresh fruits, with plush, nicely dense fleshy fruits.

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

Helm Wines

They are made in Murrambateman, in the Canberra District of ACT, about 30 minutes from Canberra itself.

Ken Helm set up the winery in 1973, planting vines at Nanima Creek, and was one of the first commercial wineries in the district, coming from the crop of ex-CSIRO researchers who kick-started wine development in Canberra.    

That Helm is a descendant of German origin may or may not have affected his choice of varietal focus on riesling, but he is a fourth generation Aussie grape grower.  He is also the founder of the Canberra International Riesling Challenge, a competition that has been running since 2000.  

Climatically it’s not a particularly cool spot, so it’s not classic riesling territory.  Helm said “we were warmer than Germany, so thought we could grow riesling, which responds to climate; it needs a low temperature overnight and hot temperature during the day.” Not, he added “that we’re trying to produce German riesling. We’re making Aussie riesling and are becoming unique.

“We get very hot summers, 39-42C”  he said, before adding that springs are cool and wet, and autumns are also cool, resulting in picking starting around early March with the chardonnay and riesling.”  One argument goes that the Canberra climate is continental, and riesling is grown in Germany in a continental climate.

Helm said that despite the ocean being about one and half hours east, “Bateman’s breath [an easterly sea breeze] comes in nearly every day in the summer around 8pm, dropping night temperatures to around 15°C.” Such a drop in temperature would help retain riesling’s natural aromatics, and the breeze also brings moisture which reduces a bit of stress in the vineyard. 

Helm Wines

The aim for his rieslings, Helm said, is that they are “clean, fresh, they exhibit characters of the vineyards, with a ferruginous minerality from the volcanic ironstone, and that no element stands out, they are all in balance.”

Some of Helm’s fruit come from the neighbouring Lustenberger vineyard at 650m asl, which Helm said “is north facing, with an east-west row orientation that maximises fruit protection from the sun” The soil is a conglomerate volcanic ironstone.

Two rieslings are made: classic dry is a blend across vineyards, and premium is made from single vineyard sites when grapes are perfect.  All of which makes the 2010 vintage Helm’s 34 riesling vintage, and only his 6^th vintage of the Premium riesling. He’s been using screwcap since 2002.

Helm said because he wants to express the vineyard, he doesn’t work with the lees, and doesn’t like the vines to be stressed either by too much crop or from not enough water.

He only uses free run juice, and he controls the fermentation so that must ferments 0.7 Baumé per day. Then towards the end of fermentation, he turns off the cold and lets the ferment finish itself. Which means he might end up with 3 or 5 g/l residual sugar.

His rieslings swim in a flood of awards. In the last five years Helm has won 23 trophies and 28 gold awards.

Wine tasting, in situ, October 2010

Helm Wines, Classic Dry Riesling 2010 $28
11.5%, tropical fruit, with sweet apple, full and rich fruit, with a long fruit explosion at the end, followed by long finish. 

Helm Wines, Classic Dry Riesling 2009
11.7%. Salty lime nose, with approachable attack within taut framt, intense, zesty and long. Vg.

Helm Wines, Classic Dry Riesling 2008
12%. White pear, apple, zest and pith, structured and linear. Beginning to blossom a little.  

Helm Wines, Premium Riesling 2010 $45
11%. Max 5g/l RS. Vines around 15 years.
Creamy, stony, very smooth texture, intense and with volume of fruit, taut and with flesh. Citrus and lime pith, might use stoney-mineral. Seriously good, with huge intensity.

Helm Wines, Premium Riesling 2009 $45
12%. Lime pith and zest, slatey, and wet stone, savoury/stony complex. Full and rich while still being steely. Pithy citrus back note, big fruit intensity, long.  Has flesh to support the tautness.

Helm Wines, Premium Rieslign 2008 $45
12%. Fresh, lime pith, zest and focused. Intense, rich fruit in a delineated profile, with apple and lime citrus. Less stony than the 2009, but full and rich in a focused manner. Long. Vg

Helm Wines, premium Riseling 2005
11.2%. Pith, steel, hint of dry citrus toast ageing characters coming through, yet still retains its freshness.

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