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.

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

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

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

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

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

Polvanera vineyard

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

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

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

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

Tasting notes, in situ, November 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Beaujolais cru

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

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

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

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

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

Rolling Beaujolais hills

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

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

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

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

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

Wine tasting, in situ, December 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Low-slung Savaterre vines

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tasting notes, in situ, October 2010

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

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

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

Degraded schist of Bonnes Blanches

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wine tasting, in situ, August 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cellar at Polvanera showing red soil and limestone

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tasting notes, in situ, November 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Eric Manz

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tasting notes, in situ, August 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My research trip was sponsored by Deutsches Weininstitut.

Sea-level Jaddico Vineyard at Brindisi

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tasting, in situ, November 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Valle dell'Acate

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tasting notes in situ, June 2011

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

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

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

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

Wintry Puglian vineyard

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Trani, on the Puglian coast

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

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

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

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

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

Tasting notes, in situ, November 2011.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chablis vineyards

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

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

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

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

George said battonage generally is untypical in Chablis.

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

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

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

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

Tasting, in London, November 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Roches aux Moines

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Savennières Roches aux Moines producers

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

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

Mornington Peninsula

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

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

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

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

Tasting notes, London, November 2011

Chardonnay

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pinot noir

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ihringer Winklerberg, Baden

Germany has long kept secret its world class pinot noirs, or spätburgunder, though over the past few years has been slowly letting in the rest of the world on these wonderful wines.  Indeed, they hit the headlines in the UK recently, when German versions of this grape variety hauled seven out of the top ten spots in an international blind tasting, tasted almost solely by UK trade folk.

It surprises many to learn of the extent of pinot noir in Germany. It was only after the planting boom in the USA that followed on from the 2004 Sideways film, that Germany’s increasing plantings of pinot noir fell into third place. It has 11,300 hectares, behind the USA’s 15,000 hectares and France’s 30,000 hectares, (including the 13,000ha that go into producing Champagne).

At this modest, medium-term increase in plantings, pinot noir, which also ranks the third most planted variety within Germany, is beginning to give the country’s most planted grape variety, riesling, a run for its money.  Plantings of second-placed rivaner (Müller Thurgau), declined by a third in the decade to 2010, whilst spätburgunder increased by more than 20% in the same period. At this rate it will be only a couple of years before spätburgunder moves into the number two slot.

As to where pinot noir is grown in Germany, more than three quarters of is found in just three regions – Baden, with 5,743 ha, Pfalz, with 1,588ha and Rheinhessen, with 1,363 ha.  Baden is a 50km eastwards hop across the south-north flowing river Rhine from Alsace, whilst Pfalz and Rheinhessen are a geographic northward extension of the Alsace vineyards on the left bank of the Rhine. So the variety hasn’t migrated too far from its Burgundian origins. Indeed it had been the Cistercian monks who brought the variety to Baden in the 13^th century from Clairvaux in Burgundy.

In the south west corner of Germany, Baden alone accounts for more than half of pinot noir plantings. And it is the volcanic, Kaiserstuhl mountain where the variety performs its best. This southerly region gets the best of the sunshine and is warm by cool, northern European standards.  Warm air is also drawn up from the distant Mediterranean sea, crossing the Belfort Gap, or Burgundy Gate, which is a lower lying plateau between the southernmost end of the Vosges mountains and the northern end of the Jura mountains.

Kaiserstuhl, almost uniquely in the wine world, has limestone melted into the volcanic lava, so pinot noir was a good bet to plant here. Arne Bercher of Weingut Bercher, whose family have been making wine in the Kaiserstuhl for over 300 years, explained “pinot noir does nicely in Kaiserstuhl because of the minerally volcanic soils. It is something that sets this region apart from Baden and the rest of Germany.  The wines have higher ageing potential” he added “and take longer to develop.”

Tasting notes, in situ, August 2011

Weingut Manz, Oppenheimer Herrenberg, Spätburgunder Trocken Kalkstein 2007, Rheinhessn €12.50
13.5%. 30% new oak. Sweet cherry and blueberry fruits on the perfumed nose. Palate attack has aromatic tarry hints. Smooth, and nicely balanced. Decent.

Weingut Manz, Oppenheimer Herrenberg, Spätburgunder Trocken M *** 2007, Rheinhessen €18.50
14%; all new oak. Bit of spicy rumtopf on the nose, then more pinot noir character comes through on palate attack with darkly spiced cherries, though this is erring to nice red wine, rather than wine with typical pinot noir attributes.  Texture is attractively smooth, and wine has in-palate length with positive evolution of flavours. Good wine.

Weingut Eckehart Gröhl, Blauer Spätburgunder Trocken Alte Reben 2009. €9
1,200 to 5,000 litre oak casks used for his ‘basic’ quality. Bright cherry fruit, with smooth, crunchy, clean, fruit clarity. Good varietal definition, and medium length. More than an everyday pinot noir.  Good.

Weingut Eckehart Gröhl, Oppenheimer Herrenberg, Pinot Noir Trocken, in barrique, 2006, €18
14%, 80% new French oak, on yeast for two years. Dark char and curry spices, smooth and sweet palate, warmth coming through. Quite muscley, and in a strong red wine sort of way.

Britzingen Winzergenossenschaft, Muggardt, Britzinger Spätburgunder QbA trocken 2008
Muggardt, a 1.5ha vineyard at 400m in Black Forest, on a very steep, south-facing limestone slope, owned by the co-op and two individuals. New barriques and older oak. Planted 2004, with first vintage in 2006.
Medium pale, aromatic, hint of perfumed tar. Fresh and perky acidity, nicely balanced with crunchy fruit intensity. Smooth, fine grained texture. Really nice and refreshing, not so complex, but potential is there. Immediately vg.

Dr. Heger, Mimus, Ihringer Winklerberg, Spätburgunder Barrique Trocken 2007
Very pale colour. Light, juicy red cherry, youthful, quite bit spiciness mid palate with elegant fruit. Good.

Dr Heger, Ihringer Winklerberg, Spätburgunder, Grosses Gewäches, Barrique trocken 2008
30% whole clusters of German clones. Floral cherry nose, light entry, savoury, tarry spice core with dry baked red cherry. Elegantly intense. Good

Dr. Heger, Ihringer Winklerberg, Spätburgunder, Grosses Gewäches Barrique trocken ‘Hausleboden” 2009
Oldest vineyards, planted 1954. Pale cherry colour. Juicy, red cherry, smooth, fine-grained texture, complex and seriously textured, in filigree fashion. Wholesome, seamless and ridiculously tasty.

Weingut Bercher, Jechtinger Eichert, Spätburgunder Spätlese Trocken 2008
Medium pale, red cherry colour. Bright, juicy red cherry nose, smooth attack, wild strawberries. Supple, sweet berry fruit with savoury backbone. Nice.

Weingut Bercher, Feuerberg, Spätburgunder Grosses Gewäches 2008
40% new barriques. Pure south slope. Dark cherry colour. Hint rumptof, rich, full body, quite chewy mid palate. Hints of graphite. A muscley style that’s well balanced and should mellow. Good.

My research trip was sponsored by Deutsches Weininstitut.

Loire vineyards

A version of this article was first published in Hampshire View, September 2011.

If you’re into sauvignon blanc then Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé are the names to conjure with, but France’s Loire valley offers many other opportunities to drink wines from this bright and zesty grape variety.

Outside of these two famous appellations, there are another couple that offer sauvignon blanc, and usually at a more affordable price, because they are ‘humbler’ areas. One is the catch-all Vin de Pays du Val de Loire (the Loire’s equivalent of Vin de Pays d’Oc), and the other is the Touraine Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée, which covers 4,500 hectares (ha) stretching east from Tours on both sides of the river Loire.

In both these appellations other grape varieties are grown, but sauvignon blanc will be mentioned on the label. In Touraine, Gamay de Touraine is the most common red wine, while Sauvignon de Touraine accounts for nearly 80% of the white Touraine wines.

Vin de Pays du Val de Loire is even larger than Touraine, covering 5,500 ha, and nearly half of all Vin de Pays du Val de Loire is sauvignon blanc. Other Loire vins de pays are made from the likes of chardonnay, chenin blanc, gamay and cabernet franc.

Fragmentation of production in Vin de Pays and Touraine has long been a challenge to focusing on improving the quality of production, with many growers owning a few hectares here and there. With some 1,700 growers of Loire Vin de Pays wines, it is really only the negociants, who buy fruit from many growers, who can bottle significant volumes of wine under one label. Otherwise it’s a case of searching out attentive and high profile producers, but who won’t make such high volumes of wine.

Recently, to give more emphasis on quality, the organisation that promotes Loire wines created a technical project in 2008, working more closely with growers and helping them to understand what styles of sauvignon blanc are preferred in the UK, whether more tropical fruits, or stone fruits, or citrus and grapefruit styles, or grassier, steelier styles, and how to work differently in the vineyard and the winery to achieve these styles, maybe using different yeasts, or fermenting at a particular temperature. One of the most important things is to keep oxygen away from the fruit during harvest and winemaking, which will keep the fruit expressions fresh, zingy and focused on primary fruit.  Then extra style-enhancing options, especially keeping the wine on its lees for a few months, add varying degrees of weight, intensity, texture and richness to the finished wine.

The beauty of these styles of sauvignon blanc is they’re straightforwardness in delivering zingy fresh fruit flavours. It’s important to drink the most recent vintage available.

Try these:
M&S: Domaine Jacky Marteau Sauvignon blanc 2010, £7.99, Loire.
Sainsbury’s:  Taste the Difference Touraine Sauvignon Blanc 2010, £7.99
Domaine Direct: Domaine du Haut Perron, Touraine Sauvignon 2010, £8.70 (per bottle in a mixed 12-pack)

Quinta do Vale Meão, Douro Superior

The Douro is one of the oldest vineyards in the world, and it also ranks amongst the hottest, making it a challenging viticultural landscape.  Yet the region makes some of the finest still and fortified wines known to man.  When all the buzz is about cool climate, why is it cool to be hot in the Douro?

Heat stress is very real in a region where daytime temperatures can reach 40 to 50°C. Additionally, Paul Symington, the managing director of port producers Symington Family Estates highlighted a 1.2°C rise in the average temperature over the past 35 years was plenty to contend with. But, he added “there is no clear pattern of rainfall changing, as there is with temperature. You can say it’s getting hotter, [but] you can’t say it’s getting drier.”

But “there’s always been heat in the Douro” said Pedro Barbosa, the viticulturalist at Quinta do Vale Meão in the Douro Superior “and there were no problems like there are today. In the past, people used mixed grape varieties, so problems were not so exposed.” Single block plantings highlight issues, as do the use of planting particular clones.

In a scientifically modulated reversion to older practices, Antonio Magalhães, viticulturist at the Fladgate Partnership, which makes only port wine, said they “plant in micro-blocks, with the aim to look after the grapes separately during the year, and to ripe them at the same time. We then pick just-ripe, and ripe, and some overripe” to make the port blend. Such micro-planning melds with the multiplicity of aspect, for example, taking advantage of the heat-loving tinta cao on south-facing plots, and planting wind-affiliated tinta roriz on spurs of land, sometimes just a dozen vines in two rows on a tiny plot of particular aspect.

It is aspect that Magalhães argues is the most important consideration in an extreme mountainous environment, and it is a factor that cannot be controlled – orography has created 360° aspects. He said “in the middle of the afternoon, at the same altitude, the difference between north and south is 2°C.” So in a hot climate, Magalhães prefers an east-west orientation where the sun is over the canopy at the hottest time, but he rarely gets this; because of the mountains “we cannot choose the row orientation.”

The evolution of grape varieties is another of the great adaptations, along with the fact that blending different vineyards, different grape varieties, and in the case of Port wine, different years, allows unevenness to be ironed out. But Douro wine requires different fruit parameters, so, said Rui Cunha of Secret Spot wines, “we don’t want to produce over-matured red wines. We’re looking up, 400, 500m to produce elegant wines.” Indeed above around 500m production is virtually all Douro wine – lower altitudes get more points in the port classification system.

Even with the choice of grape varieties, heat stress is considered the most important factor. Winemaker Charles Symington said it’s about “varieties with the best resistance to heat. It’s more about heat than rainfall.

Dry Douro vineyards

“Touriga franca survives best; it’s late ripening, resistant to heat and low rainfall.  We tend to plant it at lower altitudes close to the river, and west facing, which is often the hottest of the four alternatives. It’s difficult to have high Baumés, so it’s ideal for hotter locations. On the other hand, Touriga nacional is earlier ripening, getting higher sugars earlier on. This is interesting if it’s east facing and higher.”

Tinto cão is more recently interesting.  Barbosa said “cão is well adapted but the tannins are rough for still wines” whereas Magalhaes, making only port, would plant cao “for climate change. Viticulturally it is a wonderful grape. In a hot climate it is the best, it has high tolerance to drought and sunburn; it’s late ripening with a high acid content.  But in vinification it is usually less than 5% – it’s not high in colour, it’s not a strong wine.”

Water stress is a variable issue west to east, but winter cover crops have become an important anti-erosion tactic, with a moisture benefit too. Charles Symington said “we thought the cover crop would compete with the vine for humidity, but in summer it dies down. [Then] the dry stubble breaks up the wind and doesn’t let wind erode so much.” But, added Cunha “our experience of planting grasses to fight erosion [has shown it also] makes the soil healthier, and helps fight heat. Making mulch creates shade and reduces soil evaporation, as well as reducing erosion.”

The impetus of dealing with water stress is towards finding ways of working without additional water.  Bringing irrigation water into the vineyards for example by pumping up from the river would be prohibitively expensive, and irrigating vines discourages them from sending roots deep into the schist to look for water reserves.

The lessons are already there, said Luis Seabra, winemaker at Niepoort’s Quinta de Nápoles “mechanisation changed the viticulture of southern Europe a lot. People are making vineyards to be more efficient, to produce more quickly with higher alcohol. So you have higher canopies which suffer more water stress, with roots that are less deep so suffer more in summer. We need to lower the canopy.”

Modern viticulture uses cordon training, so there is a lot of permanent wood. Barbosa said such-trained “20-30 year old vines are dying before the ancient ones”. The traditional guyot training he said “is adapted to Douro.  The trunk height is 25 to 30cm. But with cordon it’s 50cm high then 1m long. So there is 1.5m of old wood with cordon and just 30cm of old wood with guyot.  With a small amount of water, it’s more efficient in guyot.” At Vale Meão all new plantings since 2006 have reverted to the traditional guyot training, which said Barbosa “will still be here when I am not.”

This and other lessons from the past are being re-learnt for the Douro’s extreme climate, and could provide important new lessons for other hot climate zones.

The Douro’s climate data compared to other wine regions

NB: different sources make direct comparisons impossible.
Sources:
The Fladgate Partnership
Viticulture and Environment, John Gladstones
The World Atlas of Wine, sixth edition. Eds Hugh Johnson, Jancis Robinson

These data ensconce the Douro firmly into Winkler and Amerine’s Region IV, which previous work by Dr. Andrew Pirie, has also lined up with, for example, McLaren Vale, the Upper Hunter, Swan Valley and Montpellier in France.

My research visit to the Douro in April 2011 was sponsored by the ‘Discover the Origin’ campaign.

Baglio del Cristo di Campobello

Some countries have an adopted signature grape variety – carmenere in Chile, pinotage in South Africa, malbec in Argentina. Sicily has nero d’avola.

Though Sicily is part of Italy’s vineyard, this island of delicious food wealth has more vineyard than entire countries – more than both Chile and South Africa, so it’s not so strange to make such a comparison. And where pinotage and carmenere both account for around 8% of South Africa’s and Chile’s vineyard respectively, nero d’avola occupies 16% of Sicily’s vineyard.  If the everyday white catarratto is excluded, much of which is used in the production of fortified wine Marsala or to make grape concentrate, then nero d’avola would account for a quarter of Sicily’s 116,000 hectares of vines.

Nero d’Avola, which literally translates as ‘black of Avola’ originates from Avola, in the south eastern tip of Sicily, about 25km south of Siracusa. Here, and around Pachino, a further 25km south, and almost at sea level, produce nero d’avola in a meaty, muscular style.

The challenge for nero d’avola (as for other grape varieties the world over), which is grown all over the island, is that quality ranges from the ordinary to the extraordinary, and because it is so widespread, there is little incentive to create sub-regional specialisms for the variety.  But quality and repute are growing, both when nero d’avola is vinified alone, or blended – traditionally with frappato in Cerasuolo di Vittoria, or more recently with shiraz/syrah, as this international interloper finds some excellent expression on the island.

The altitudinous range of nero d’avola brings its own stylistic variation, from the muscle of sea level Pachino to a certain degree of elegance and perfume at around 750m up in the Madonie mountain ranges.  Alcohol in the finished wine can be up to 2% lower at this altitude, and it is at these heights that Feudi Montoni has some of the oldest source material of nero d’avola.

Back at sea level, Federico Curtaz of Tenuta di Fessina on Etna, makes a nero d’avola from Noto (near Avola). He said nero d’avola “has high acidity, like a Piemontese barbera, often with 6.5g/l acidity [expressed as tartaric] at the end of malolactic fermentation.” Even though, in Noto “with 42°C we are not oppressed by heat, because there is a fresh wind” from the Mediterranean Sea.

Masseria del Feudo

Nero d’avola arguably reaches its most famous guise west of Ragusa, in Sicily’s only DOCG (since 2005), Cerasuolo di Vittoria.  Here, nero d’avola is blended with between 30 and 50% of the light, lifting, fresh frappato. It’s frappato that adds acidic lift to nero d’avola in this warm to hot southerly part of the island. Avide’s Marco Calcaterra said “frappato is one of the first [grape varieties] that has body, but the last to reach ripeness. On average its acidity will be 6-7 g/l [tartaric].  And it will lose about 0.5g/l in the winemaking.” Frappato’s lightness and freshness is just the thing to soften the muscle of nero d’avola.

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

The warm climate in this south-central part of Sicily “gives fruity, clean and balanced” wines he added, and the regular winds coming up the Dirillo valley from the Mediterranean Sea to the west help keep the fruit healthy.  The resulting nero d’avola is “big, but less big than from Pachino, because the tannins are sweet and mature.”

Further west, parts of Agrigento province are growing in repute, both near the coast and high up in the hills.  Just eight kilometres from the sea, Baglio del Cristo di Campobello, devotes 60% of their vineyard area to nero d’avola. “There’s always a breeze” said Carmelo Bonetta, “and it can be 35 to 40°C during day, then it can be 20 to 22°C at night” which helps to restore a little freshness to the atmosphere.

A little further inland, at Masseria del Feudo, brother and sister team Francesco and Carolina Cucurullo have 18 hectares of vineyard on their 110 ha property of mixed agriculture which their family has been cultivating since 1860. Nero d’avola joins syrah, ansonica, grillo and chardonnay.  With some 450m elevation, Francesco explained there is “up to 15°C day-night temperature difference during ripening. Days can be up to 35°C, with 20°C at night.” This variation helps retain some of the grapes’ natural acidity, as does their picking a few days before full, sugar-sweet ripeness.

Feudo Montoni

Yet it is at even greater altitude, in the northerly extremity of Agrigento province, between 500 and 750m above sea level, that some of the most elegant and perfumed expressions of nero d’avola exist.  And just a handful of producers work in these remote Madonie hills.  It is here that the 380 hectare vineyard of the Regaleali estate of Tasca d’Almerita is found, and Guiseppe Tasca explained “this area gives more austere, not so explosive fruit, with a more velvety texture, more acidity, and more sternness.” Little wonder given that ripeness here occurs a month later than near the coast.

At neighbouring Feudo Montoni, Fabio Sireci claims a unique clone of nero d’avola – the vrucara clone. He said “Giacomo Tachis [who spent time working with Sicily’s Istituto Regionale della Vite e del Vino] likes the vrucara clone. Tachis was looking for true nero d’avola, and he thought mine could be one of the oldest and purest, for its age and isolation”, adding, of the vines his father had propagated, “Tachis said our nero d’avola has more acid, it’s more like a pinot noir,” which is a huge style change from the mighty, muscular, marine nero d’avolas of Pachino.

Wine tasting, in situ, June 2011

Single varietal nero d’avola

Tenuta di Fessina, Ero, nero d’avola IGT Sicilia, 2009  €13
Bright and purple hue. Nose a bit reticent, palate fresh, elegant tannin frame, silky smooth, blackcurrant and loganberry in fresh, fruit-focused style of wine.

Az. Vinicola Benanti, Il Drappo 2005, IGT Sicilia
Grown in Pachino, Val di Noto at sea level. Stainless steel fermentation then new barrels.
Attractive blackcurrant nose, then spicy, rich, sweet fruit to taste, nicely balanced with super fruit concentration and a tone of seriousness.

Azienda Vitivinicola Avide, Tre Carati 2006, nero d’avola. IGT
Half spends 18 months in barrel; the other half in stainless steel
Calcaterra “here you have the rudeness of nero d’avola, it misses the elegance of frappato”
Spicy, bramble, dark berry fruits, full body, big but not too muscley. Tasty and four square, does lack a bit of elegance, but it’s a nice big bold wine.

Valle dell’Acate, Il Moro, Nero d’Avola 2008, IGT €6.5
13.5%. Seven months in stainless steel. One year in bottle to give roundness to wine.
Red flower perfume. Supple and medium bodied. Sweet friuts, nicely textured in a fruity way, with sweet black pepper. Feel a bit of warmth at end, but a decent, uncomplicated wine.

Masseria del Feudo, Il Giglio Rosso, Nero d’Avola 2010, IGT €6
12.5%. 6 months in concrete.
Gentle red spices and redcurrant on the nose, light, primary fruit, unoaked. Nice juicy fruit,
medium deep colour. Lovely, straightforward wine, kind of soft and cuddly.

Baglio del Cristo di Campobello, Lu Patri 2008, IGP Sicilia ~€25
Dialect for the father. Nero d’avola as the father of all the indigenous vines in Sicily. 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.

Baglio del Cristo di Campobello, 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.

Tasca d’Almerita, Lamuri 2009 IGT Sicilia €8-9
14%. Ten months in 2-3 year old oak.
Medium deep, bright red cherry colour, intense red and black cherry with sweet pepper spiciness on the nose and palate. Rich, sweet fruit, dry, refreshing texture.

Tasca d’Almerita, Rosso del Conte 2006 €30. Contea di Sclafani DOC
14%.  Flagship wine from oldest vineyards, planted in 1959. New barrique for 18 months.
Smoky, aromatically tarry, lush, fat black fruits, smooth, quite powerful and well toned, not body-built. Big wine, dark brooding black fruits, liquorice, bramble, blueberry.  Rich and succulent. Spicy and characterful.

Feudo Montoni, Nero d’Avola 2009 ~€12
13%. 40% in second passage oak.
Medium deep colour. Fragrant, tarry, elegant, with light redcurrants in mouth, a medium body, and lovely balance. Fresh, crunchy berry frits, just enough grip (without heat). Very nice. Long finish.

Feudo Montoni, Nero d’Avola Vrucara 2008 ~€20
13.5%. This has 8 months in new and second passage oak. Unfiltered. Wild ferment.
Deep colour, with hints of dark purple/blue. Aromatic charcoal smoke, with very smooth texture and sweet, brooding fruit. A real intensity of substance, with a fresh core. This is long, complex, layered, fresh and meditative; balanced, harmonious, and so, so, drinkable. And extremely good value at that price.

Cerasuolo di Vittoria

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

Azienda Vitivinicola Avide, Barocco Cerasuolo di Vittoria Classico DOCG 2005
14%. 70% nero d’avola, 30% frappato. 2 ½ years in barrique, 1 ½ years in bottle.
Smoky, rich, blackcurrant, dense, sweet fruit, has fragrance mid palate.

Valle dell’Acate, Cerasuolo di Vittoria Classico DOCG 2008 ExC€6.5
13.5%. 70% nero d’avola, 30% frappato. In barrel for 8 months, some new.
Spicy nose, dark black hedgerow fruits, medium-full body, dark spiciness, but young-grainy tannin needs to integrate. Bit rustic; decent.

Syrah blends

Valle dell’Acate, Rusciano 2006, IGT Sicilia €8.60
90% syrah; 10% nero d’avola. Stainless steel,
Brambly with cardamom spice, supple, fresh and big-juiced. Full body, with fruit spiciness.

Valle dell’Acate, Tané 2005, IGT €15.6
15%. 80% nero d’avola; 20% syrah, part-raisined on the vine, press immediately for the juice. Ferment juice with skins/juice of nero d’avola for 15 days. Put in new barrique for 1 year, then in bottle for 2 years before release.
Rich, sweet, tarry and toasty nose, dense palate, with quite fragrant mid palate. Big and broad shouldered, with integrated alcohol, though I feel it a little at the end.

Baglio del Cristo di Campobello, 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.

Baglio del Cristo di Campobello, Adènzia 2009, IGP Sicilia ~€14
~80% nero d’avola, rest syrah and cabernet sauvignon.  14%, 5TA, pH3.48
Bright and sparky, with spicy, rich, dense sweet fruit. It’s more authentic somehow, and with a hint of chalky backbone.  Good.

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

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.

A much shorter version of this article first appeared in Drinks Business, July 2011.

With pioneering icons such as Domaine Leflaive and Domaine Pierre Morey who live and breathe biodynamics, Burgundy has long been at the forefront of green viticulture.  But in a perfect marketing storm where almost everyone says they’re doing sustainable viticulture, even if they don’t really, how do you separate marketing myth from substantive sustainability?

Outside of conventional production, and the biodynamic niche, there are two main ways of producing wine in Burgundy – sustainable development, and organic.  Both can be certified, meaning at least minimum standards have been achieved.

Certified organic is one thing that feels reasonably well understood, and such vineyards in Burgundy have grown rapidly.  In 2001, it is estimated that about 1% of Burgundy vineyards were certified organic.  Jean-Hugues Goisot of certified organic and biodynamic Domaine Goisot, said “In the last year, there’s been an increase of 45-55% of the surface of vineyards certified. By 2011, 9-10% will be certified.”

It’s not just that more producers are certifying organic. There appears to be a sea change in the mindset of producers. Anne Parent of Domaine Parent believes “the next 10 years will be a hundred times quicker than last 10 years” even though her own evolution has been steady, “Before me, my brother stopped herbicides, just ploughed. When I took over 12 years ago I said we need to go further.  We didn’t know exactly how to go, so we did some soil and leaf analysis. We observed each plot, and did what it needs, no more, no less.  In 10 years it was a long process.  In 2005/6 we started to work some plots organically. We did more tests, and in 2009, we decided to go organic.”

The downside she said “is it costs more. You use less quantity especially with an efficient pneumatic sprayer, but have to do more treatments because the efficacy of the product is short.”

But, she added, over and above the organic regulations, she is working this way to “protect the soil and the terroir, and for our health. It’s not a fashion, it’s a long term philosophy.”

At Maison Champy, for winemaking technical director Dimitri Bazas, the proof of their non-certified biodynamic techniques is in his team’s pudding, as it were. He said “the success is that the team finish the products in their own gardens. In the field they are doing an application because they have observed. It is no longer a dogmatic spraying regime.”

Return to traditional practices

Certainly producers appear to be thinking more about what they are doing, and not spraying according to an industrial regime, by the calendar.  Part of this is due to a system of agriculture raisonée (AR) which, for viticulture, comes in the form of a 90-point specification, issued by FARRE, the national association of agriculture raisonée.

Some of the points are obligatory, others not. In addition, producers can be third-party certified in AR, or not, as they choose. And herein lies a serious communication issue.  Denis Fetzmann, director of Domaine Louis Latour said “agriculture raisonée’ is a light control and not generally very successful in France.  Everyone says ‘we are in sustainable development’ but [when it is not certified] no one controls it.”

It’s difficult to have much confidence in a non-certified system which is open to misuse. And, Fetzmann added the standards “are checked every five years. We have had three audits since 2004, and the standards have not changed” so there is, so far, no tightening of tolerances over time, which should be an essential part of any certification, in order to increase levels of sustainability over time.

And while agriculture raisonée allows the use of synthetic chemicals, whereas organic and biodynamic use natural applications, including sulphur and copper, the benefits are that the system considers more than just the vineyard plot: it sits on the tripod of economic viability, human health and protection of the environment.

“It’s not just for the winery, but for the whole estate, and for the safety of the workers” said Jérôme Sordet, of agriculture raisonnée-certified Domaine Coste-Caumartin, adding “before I was certified, on average I did 12 sprays, spraying when it was easiest, about every 10 days. Now it’s about 8 sprays, taking into account the weather, and I use about 15% less. I have been taught how to read the leaves, so I see if treatment is needed or not.”

But Sordet spends 15-20% more time in the vineyards on his 12 hectare property. And he and his team now meet twice a day. “It’s an optimisation of work” he said, “it doesn’t cost any more.  My labour cost has not come down, I still have the same four people, but they are doing more diverse things.”

Essentially AR measures are common sense, though the approach requires a pre-existing or learned environmentally-protective mentality. Some people were already doing them, and now it is part of a programme. And sometimes a lot of small changes can add up.  The system also includes traceability protocols.

Taking some aspects a little further is the private organisation Terra Vitis, which is a member of FARRE.  Its members must adhere both to the AR specification, and to the third-party certified Terra Vitis specification, which was created in 2009.  Their viticultural advisor, Jean-Henri Soumireu-Lartigue said “we integrated new commitments dealing with biodiversity, energy use and water quality.”

Given that synthetic chemicals, and systemic rather than contact products, are permitted under AR, he also said “the association selects synthetic chemicals based on their toxicity. The more toxic chemicals are forbidden” adding “we generally use about 30% less chemicals. But we also use less toxic chemicals.”

Chemical build up in the soil or not, a return to terroir and typicity is a driving force for some to adopt a less synthetic approach to their winemaking.

Jean-Hugues Goisot, organic since 2000 and biodynamic since 2005, said “between 1990 and 2000, I had an impression that we lost, little by little, the typicity of our wine. We were more  chardonnay and sauvignon blanc rather than Cote d’Auxerre and St Bris – chardonnay from our domaine and from Australia and Chile were getting closer and closer.”

In 1996, they tested a four hectare parcel under organic.  Goisot said “in blind tastings, we knew each time which was organic, it was more typical of the region. We preferred the organic wine every time, therefore we took the decision to make everything organic.“

It’s also such a return to terroir that has driven Maison Champy, the oldest negociant in Burgundy, towards organic.  Their technical director, Dimitri Bazas, said “It’s a return to the experiential, it’s a re-questioning.  It’s good to be awake. It’s about terroir wines – wines from Champy must be Pommard before they are Champy.”

He said “you cannot do this in conventional farming. When you use synthetic fertilisers, the same fertilisers in Pommard and Volnay, the roots stay 10 to 15cm in the soil. If you don’t have microbiological life, if you don’t have roots in the subsoil there is no terroir.” And he added “the sustainable thing, terroir, is here for long time, but we are here for short time.” Pragmatically, he added, the idea is to produce better grapes.

Maison Champy was certified organic from the 2010 vintage. Joseph Drouhin has also recently completed the paperwork to convert, even though an organic way of working has been in place for over 20 years. Fourth generation estates manager Philippe Drouhin said “in 1988, fresh out of viticultural school, I was convinced the synthetic way of managing vineyards was risky and might be a dead end. In 1988, yellow and red mites were a big problem. The beginning of the discovery for me was Typhlodromus pyri, a small mite that eats the other mites. The new chemicals [at the time] had to avoid damaging the pyri; and no-one now uses chemicals against yellow and red mite.”

Of their recent organic certification Drouhin said “we wanted the organic certificate, even though it’s never used commercially. Now it becomes a selling point for some estates, and there is a tendency for some estates to let people think they were organic when they weren’t.  I felt in 2006 it was necessary to ask for certification.  It changed nothing but the paperwork and expense. It was just to be able to prove we are actually doing it.“

Such a quiet approach is not unique in Burgundy. Maison William Fèvre doesn’t shout that they are certified AR, plus half their 50 hectares of vineyards are certified organic. Didier Seguier, their winemaker said “it’s difficult to manage organic viticulture quickly. We want to be all organic, maybe it will take another five years.” But he added “the other 25 hectares have only three chemical treatments.”  Fèvre have not decided if they will put organic on the label.  Seguier said their aim was “to use less and less chemical product.”

Without the certificate though, accurate and comprehensible communication remains a challenge, as Drouhin found. Ironically, Christophe Chauvel, the head viticulturist at Albert Bichot, who practise aspects of AR, but are not certified, said the way we work “is not a marketing thing, it’s a philosophy.  It’s better for me to practise it, but not talk about it,” which seems to be the position Drouhin were at a few years ago.

Hill of Corton

A significantly louder line in the sand is being drawn in Aloxe Corton, where Domaine (not Maison) Louis Latour, certified ISO 14001, and certified agriculture raisonée, launched the ‘Paysage de Corton’ initiative in July 2010.  For Domaine director Denis Fetzmann, “the argument is not synthetic versus organic” For him, the “new challenge is the protection of territory – the hill of Corton”, encouraging all producers to think of the whole appellation and its wider environment.

The Paysage de Corton project aims to cover the 100 domaines on the hill of Corton in three villages – Pernand-Vergelesses, Aloxe-Corton and Ladoix-Serrigny – covering a thousand hectares of vineyard and non-vineyard land.

Fetzmann said, with organic, “you are chief on your little plot. Everything is your choice. But we have questions which are not for one plot, for example, erosion – it needs controlling, there are some steep plots. We decide among several domaines to slow the water flow, or to build some stone walls.”

Also, he said “biodiversity is not just about your plot. We have made traps everywhere, working for 10 years to understand if the way of viticulture in Burgundy is compatible with life in the soil, air, insects etc.”

Fetzmann’s mantra is “terroir and territory. This is the new way of viticulture” he said. The 1,000 hectares of the hill comprises 550ha of vineyards, the rest is roads, forest, buildings etc, but the initiative aims to get the whole working holistically.  He said they are working “to manage a territory intelligently, and not alone. For example we want to create more hedgerow corridors from high to low points to help life circulate” on the hill of Corton, to aid biodiversity, and they have two research students working to this, and other, ends, one financed by Louis Latour, the other by the BIVB.

He added, “I’ve already worked for one year on the project … though the work is for the next 30 years”, so he’s not expecting too many quick wins.  But at the first meeting in July 2010, 40 domaines, including Drouhin and DRC have already signed up to the initiative, as have all the organic growers in Corton. This shows there is a collective will to change attitudes and practices for the environmental better.

As with Burgundy’s biodynamic icons, the Corton Hill project could be a beacon of biodiversity for Burgundy.

My research trip to Burgundy in July 2010 was sponsored by the ‘Discover the Origin‘ campaign.