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.

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.

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)

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Philippe Delesvaux

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

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

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

His wines are from the very top drawer.

Tasting notes, in situ, August 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

He kicked off by suggesting more attention should be paid to the time and place from which wines originate, saying “I think people judge a wine on quality in Australia without a reference for where the wines are grown. But to really understand Australian wine better, you have to put it in the context of terroir, of where and when the grapes were grown and harvested.”

He built his theme by adding, that at the top end of Australian wine, “wines are a little piece and moment in time, and from a particular place” and that people need to take this next step in their pursuit and understanding of Aussie wine. “The best wines for me” he said “are those with the purest expression of their moment in space and time, uncluttered by winemaking.” Carson’s aim is to “make wines that are unique of where they’re grown [to show] the purest, uncluttered, seamless, precise, fine expression of purity.”

For this tasting seminar, he selected mostly wines from the 2009 vintage, the year of the deathly bush fires in Victoria which killed 173 people, when temperatures on ‘black Saturday’ reached over 47°C with 120 km/h north winds.  For the vines, which recovered after the heat, Carson said “it was generally a slightly cooler than average season. There was a heat spike in southern Victoria in late January, three days in a row which broke all previous records – 43.5°C, 44.5°C, 45.5°C at Melbourne weather station. But previous to that spring was quite mild, winter was okay in terms of rain, but we were still in the midst of a severe drought since 1997, with 13 years of consecutive lower than average rainfall figures.” There was a lot of sunburnt fruit, and vines shut down.

Kooyong

Of the first six chardonnays tasted, they saw fairly similar winemaking.  Carson said there is “a movement where Australia is now making finer, more balanced chardonnay, with lower oak, not too high in alcohol, and better balanced acidity.” These wines have been here in the cooler areas of Australia, but until now, they didn’t have too much of a voice. For example, at Yabby Lake he said, the fruit “is hand-picked, whole bunch pressed and crushed fruit with full solids and natural fermentation. There’s no malo in ours; it’s been on lees for 11-12 months, just 8-10% new oak, in 500 litre barrels, so you get the framing of new oak but not the full whack of new barrique.”

Part of the movement to cooler zones and more site expression is the choice of clones.  Carson said “a lot of Aussie chardonnay is made from clones promoted in the early 1980s – the I clones, I10, V1, V3 and V5 – where the idea was if it yielded a lot, it was a good clone.” Reflections of European viticulture in the 70s are all too apparent.  Carson’s preference is for Penfolds 58, which he said dates to the first shipment of vines to Australia by James Busby, and the Mendoza clone, “which has a lot of hen and chicken, it’s low yielding and retains natural acidity well.”

Other winemaking themes that are occurring at this level are a “steering away from overly stirring wine [on its lees], and a pulling back on the malo” which lowers acidity.  What might be needed in cooler Chablis and Burgundy, might not be needed in Australia.

For the pinot noir, Carson adopted a similar focus on mainly 2009. He said that while “pinot noir has a long history in Australia, it’s been there since the 1830s Busby cuttings, it was not till the 1970s that people started getting serous about it, planting it in regions where it would perform well.”  In Mornington Peninsula, Main Ridge first started pinot noir in 1975, Bannockburn in Geelong in the ‘70s also. With his tongue in his cheek, Carson added “we getting up towards a 40-year period, we just have 1,960 years to catch up on the experience of Burgundy.”

Not, he emphasised, that Bugundy is a point of comparison “but as a reference point as to what’s possible with the grapes.” Aussies are definitely making Aussie pinot noir. And what’s exciting Carson is “we have all this clear space to go on a journey with particular vineyards and see how they progress. [Even] over a five year period we see a quality improvement.”

We might only have been tasting wines from three regions around Melbourne, but both the Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsula are sizeable regions. Yarra elevations range from 80-90m on the valley floor, up to 500m.  “There can be five weeks difference in picking time for the same variety” Carson said, with the style being richer than Mornington Peninsula, with more stone fruit.

Mornington Peninsula, surrounded on three sides by water, has clear distinctions between the northern and southern ends. Carson said “the northern end is 60-100m [Yabby Lake, Kooyong, Mooroduc] and the southern end [Ten Minutes By Tractor, Eldridge Estate] goes up to 250m on red volcanic soils”, adding “the south is a bit more fine, elegant, [while] there’s more power in the north.” The style, he added is a bit more reserved [than the Yarra], more flint and minerality and more floral.

Wine tasting, blind, London, July 19, 2011

A couple of ringers in this line up – chardonnay and pinot noir from both Burgundy and New Zealand were included in the line up. Though we were only told half way through.

Themes worthy of note

A lightness of alcohol in almost all the wines marks part of a newish trend in Australia to find areas where fruit ripens before too many sugars have accumulated in the berries.  The fruit is generally more elegant, and more aromatic as heat hasn’t blown off the aromas from the fruit. But one of the risks of harvesting with lower sugars is that of leaner fruit and acidity, which is a bit of a strange new thing to get to grips with when trying to understand Australian wines.

A lowering of new oak regime. No longer are Aussie wines 100% fermented in 100% new oak. Judicious use of oak, new and older, or bigger, is becoming more widespread, especially where winemakers are looking to craft a wine that is representative of the place it comes from.

Eldridge Estate, Chardonnay 2009, Mornington Peninsula
13.3%. Creamy, honeyed toast, rich and quite fat on the nose, followed by scents of melon and butterscotch. Fine, lean attack, then alcohol makes itself felt.  A disappointing palate after the build-up of the nose. Quite skinny on the palate, citrus, melon, hints of tar, and that warmth at the back. The oak is still integrating, it’s a bit raw, to pick nits.

Kooyong, Faultline Chardonnay 2009, Mornington Peninsula
12.5%. Steely, leesy, enticing nose. Gentle attack, smooth and focused. Lemon, sweet ripe melon, with some attractive succulence. Fine and integrated. Good.  Tastes ‘cool’.

Yabby Lake, Chardonnay 2009, Tuerong, Mornington Peninsula.
12%. Dark brioche, toast and plenty of aromatic tar.  Attack is lean, acidity verging on tart, which disappoints, though it does open up in the glass. Still overly skinny for my palate.

Shadowfax, Chardonnay 2009, Victoria
13%. Blend of fruit from Macedon Ranges, Gippsland, Geelong, Beechworth
Wafting smoke, dried honey, peaches and creamy lees. Citrus and white peach in the mouth with a smooth and integrated palate texture. Silky components coming in here. Rich in intensity, with attractive complexity and layering. Very good.

Kumeu River, Hunting Hill Chardonnay 2009, Kumeu, Auckland, New Zealand
12.5%. White nectarine, with smoke and aromatic tar on nose and palate. Honeyed toast with hints of charcoal, making it a bit too smoky for my palate.

De Bortoli, Estate Grown Chardonnay 2008, Dixon’s Creek, Yarra Valley
12.5%. classic peaches and cream, combined with rich, leesy weight on the palate attack.  Smooth textured and integrated with warm and enticing embrace. Good.

Yering Station, Estate Chardonnay 2009, Yarra Valley
White peaches and fresh citrus in a light and elegant nose.  Palate is citrus, mealy even, with sweetness of juicily-dripping melon and fresh, white peach fruit on the palate. Nicely balanced, with long finish. Good.

Giant Steps, Sexton Vineyard Chardonnay 2009, Warramate Ranges, Yarra Valley
Carson: “This vineyard on the valley floor, an exposed site on steep north facing slopes, a warmer site in the valley.”
Peaches and meal, with enticing rich, leesy nose, erring to full body where the previous have been medium bodied, and still with fresh core and rich frame.  Attractive immediate and with the gravitas of something more serious. A more overt oaky expression here – overt, but not excessive. Good.

Yabby Lake, Block 1 Chardonnay 2009, Tuerong, Mornington Peninsula
A blend of P58 and Mendoza clones. Only 1,000 bottles made.
Leesy, with hints of aromatic toast and tarry attack, then I find the acid a bit lean on the mid palate. It’s looking for restraint, but I find this a bit mean.

Domaine Philippe Colin, Chassagne Montrachet 1er Cru Les Chenevottes 2009, Burgundy
13.5%. Tropical, yellow peachy nose and palate attack. Ripe with gras, a bit of weight and good proportion. Warm, embracing texture (not heat from alcohol), and erring to attractive lushness. Long and really very good.

Oakridge, Chardonnay 2009, Yarra Valley
13%.  White peach, lees with steely backbone running through the core. Fresh and bright with sweet stone fruits and enticing brightness. Nicely balanced, proportioned and long.  Tasty and good.

Coldstream Hills, Chardonnay 2010, Yarra Valley
13%. Something a bit herbal and leafy on the nose of this one. Still a bit leafy on the palate, fennel and sage, palate opens up into savoury notes. Then the finish is warmer (alcohol) than the nose suggests it might be, resulting in something a bit disjointed for me.
Addendum: perhaps the wine, being 2010, is yet to settle into its skin?

De Bortoli, Estate Grown Pinot Noir 2008, Dixon’s Creek, Yarra Valley
13%. Brick red, ageing rim. Perfumed, with baked red cherry pie. Wild strawberries and minute-roasted raspberries on the nose. Dry with savoury core and elegant backbone. Very good, fully mature wine.
Addendum:  mature too soon?

By Farr, Pinot Noir Tout Pres 2008, Bannockburn, Geelong
Medium pale, aromatic, with crunchy perfume and black tar. Hints of tomato leaf on first nose, then fruit quite lush on palate. Smoky and tarry, in big muscley style.

Eldridge Estate, Pinot Noir 2009, Mornington Peninsula
Bright, almost purple hue to the rim, in pale depth. Bright palate attack, not so pinot noir-like, more extracted, heavier, maybe, thought still appropriately pale colour. A bit more like red wine rather than pinot noir, and nice red wine for that, but varietal definition is missing for me.

Stonier Wines, Reserve Pinot Noir 2009, Mornington Peninsula
Crunchy and dark berry fruits, core of fresh tannin, again less elegant/filigree that I would expect of pinot noir. Quite big, toned rather than muscley, hint chewy even. Good for all of that, a different (warm?) style.

Ten Minutes By Tractor, McCutcheon Vineyard Pinot Noir, 2009, Main Ridge, Mornington Peninsula
Crunchy, with tiniest hint of VA. Warm and baked red cherries and raspberries, erring to immediately attractive lushness on the mid palate. Heading to a full-bodied wine with warm alcohol. Rich with framing new oak and fleshy fruit. Plenty going here, and I like this multi-levelled style.

Yabby Lake, Pinot Noir 2009, Tuerong, Mornington Peninsula
13.9%. Delicate nose, fresh aromatic strawberries and cherries. Balanced and smoothly textured with savoury, graphite line through the core, showing some sophistication and seamless integration. Youthful. Good.

Yabby Lake, Block 2 Pinot Noir 2009, Tuerong, Mornington Peninsula
14%. Slight, lifting VA along with dark cherries. Almost full bodied, fully dry, rich and finely textured. Dark berry fruits, with elegance, intensity and breadth. Very good.

Domaine de L’Arlot, Vosne-Romanee 2009, Burgundy, France
High vanilla oak and dark berries, with overt youthful oakiness here, meaning tannins are to the fore and still a bit grippy for the cherry fruit.  An obviously different style of wine not quite gelling with the rest of the line up.

Moorooduc Estate, The Mooroduc Pinot Noir 2009, Morninton Peninsula
Juicy, crunchy, berry fruits giving sweet-fruited attack. Dark berries, succulent core, smooth, with freshness. Long sweet finish. Good.

Felton Road, Bannockburn 2009, Central Otago, New Zealand
14%. Elegant sweetness of red and black cherry, with restraint and spiky berry notes, and some attractive lightness of being on the mid palate. This is elegant, sophisticated, layered, focused and seamless. Very good indeed.

Kooyong, Ferrous Pinot Noir 2009, Mornington Peninsula
Big, deep, almost blackcurrant, and almost full bodied attack.  Big red wine, with attractive perfume and black cherry flavours. Young and still a hint grippy.

Coldstream Hills, Pinot Noir 2010, Yarra Valley
Juicy, sweet black cherry nose. Supple, red cherry fruits. Sweet, still-fermenting sort of flavour, then mid palate a bit muted.
Addendum:  is that the 2010 again?

Helm Wines

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

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

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

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

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

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

Helm Wines

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wine tasting, in situ, October 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Loess terraces

In Lower Austria there is a divide between riesling and grüner veltliner which keeps riesling on primary rock and grüner veltliner on loess.  Loess, it seems does remarkable things to grüner veltliner – the wines are creamier, fatter, richer, and more immediately fruity in youth.

To get momentarily technical, loess (known as limon in French) is a usually light coloured, unstratified, windblown deposit comprising silt and clay sized particles, often including calcium carbonate. It is formed when particle-laden winds deposit their load, either due to a drop in wind speed or an increase in precipitation. Over millennia it takes on dense landform proportions as depths can reach 100 metres.

The deepest and most extensive loess landform in the world is in north China, which is derived from the deserts of Mongolia, transported by north-westerly winds.

In terms of viticulture, the largest loess landforms are those around Kaiserstuhl in Germany and those further east on a similar latitude in Lower Austria. These form part of a discontinuous belt of periglacial loess stretching from the Ukraine to southern Britain, formed from wind-blown deposits of the Pleistocene epoch Scandinavian ice sheets.

This discontinuous band of loess carries on through much of Lower Austria. While remnants of loess cover some vineyards in Wachau, such as Hochrain and Kollmutz, Kremstal includes in its varied geology a six kilometre loess terrace stretching east from Krems to Gedersdorf. A loess band extends through Langenlois in Kamptal, and further east again, Wagram has about 1,000 hectares, some 40% of its area’s vines, on deep loess terraces.

Deep loess

Effectively in Lower Austria, said Fritz Miesbauer, the winemaker at Stift Göttweig there are “two soils: primary rock – granite, gneiss, schist, which is mostly in the west, and loess in the east.”  Primary rock is stony, with a low water supply.  Loess is a richer rock, with deep soil and retains more water than primary rock so better meets the demands of thirstier and hungrier grüner veltliner.

Markus Huber of Weingut Markus Huber explained “gruner veltliner is grown on lower lands and foothills, and riesling on terraces, because grüner veltliner has a higher water and nutrient supply need. On richer soils, riesling would easily rot.”  

Huber’s own vineyards are in Traisental, south of the river Danube and south of the loess band, where he grows both riesling and grüner veltliner  on mostly limestone.  On limestone he said grüner veltliner “appears leaner than on loess soils, more delicate and precise.”  

It is Wagram that is regarded as the loess area of Lower Austria. About 5km north of the current river Danube is an old river terrace cut from primary rock, which has since been covered by a now dense and deep loess deposit.  With about 40% of the vineyard area over loess it is no surprise that grüner veltliner is the dominant grape variety in Wagram.  Franz Leth, of Weingut Leth said “loess gives a more balanced style, with a little bit more extract, more weight and body, more creaminess, with harmonious, balanced acidity, and not so many edges in the wine.”

My research trip to Austria was sponsored by the Austrian Wine Marketing Board.

I was commissioned by the Italian Trade Commission, a section of the Italian embassy that promotes trade, to deliver a tasting seminar at a May 2011 wine trade show – the London International Wine Fair.  This is what I talked about, along with my tasting notes below.

Soave is one of those appellations that continues to suffer after the swathes of industrial production that started in the 1970s.

The mainstay of the appellation is garganega and the purpose of the tasting was to look at this grape variety to judge whether it deserves the bad press, or if it’s an interesting or even more than interesting grape variety.

Garganega is vigorous, it’s productive, yields need controlling to produce high quality. The grapes are thick-skinned, they have naturally high acidity levels. Reductive winemaking focuses on the primary fruit characters of this not particularly aromatic grape variety, though at the top end the variety can perform extremely well with some oak influence.

Thus far, this could equally describe sauvignon blanc, which much of the world loves, and especially the UK.  Even some of the generalised fruit characters, though not all, concord with sauvignon blanc – citrus fruits, candied fruits, apple, pear, apricot, nectarine, mango, pineapple. 

But it is a notably different grape variety – independence is struck with green hints to the colour, and manifold floral perfumes – white flowers, orange blossom, acacia, elderflower, cherry blossom and honeysuckle have been variously cited. Steeliness, with a delicate spiciness and sometimes tangy, fine herbal twist of sage, fennel or chicory can also be found, as well as a very typical fresh almond note, especially on the finish.  It’s already beginning to read like quite an interesting, flavoursome option (but then I’ve long been a fan of good quality Soave).

Ripe, tinted garganega

Ripeness has previously been an issue for garganega. When picked early, the thick skins have not had a chance to soften, which can impart bitter, green flavours to the wine. When the skins are ripe they turn a translucent sun-blushed colour, and it is this ripeness that’s required to release the flavours that are bound up in the skins. Achieving ripeness is one of the key quality parameters for the grape, and work has been done on this in recent years.

Other quality parameters have been identified by research programmes instigated by the Soave Consorzio. One of these was to focus on garganega as the mainstay for the appellation.  Now it must comprise at least 70% of the blend, with trebbiano di Soave up to a maximum of 30%.  The less good trebbiano di Toscana (aka ugni blanc) is no longer permitted in the blend.

Another key quality factor was the identification of crus, after a viticultural zoning study was carried out between 1998 and 2002. Following on from this detailed classification of the 6,900 hectares of vineyards and their mostly volcanic soils, some 50 crus, or single vineyard sites were named. Work on defining these crus continues, most, though not all, of which are in the Classico zone.

In Italy, Classico denotes the original heartland of an appellation, and thus the terroir-istic apex of the quality pyramid, as in Chianti Classico for example. 

But when considering a DOCG, which is usually regarded as another quality progression, for whatever reason, the DOCG was not granted to the Classico region alone.  A DOCG Soave Superiore was created, in 2002, which – potentially – included all the Classico zone, but also – potentially – included some hillsides outside the Classico zone. 

Being on those hillsides, or in the Classico zone, is not enough to automatically qualify for the DOCG – the wines must come from lower yields (though from already generous limits), and have half a degree more alcohol (from already modest levels). That is, from conditions which are not really too arduous to achieve. So Classico wines may be ‘Soave Classico DOC’ or Soave Superiore Classico DOCG’, and from the hillside outside the Classico zone wines may be ‘Soave Superiore DOCG’, or ‘Soave Colli Scaligeri DOC’. 

Unsurprisingly the system has its critics, notably from producers already making seriously good wine, to already more stringent standards.  The geography and regulations alone are confusing for anyone not intimately associated with the region to properly understand.

Criticisms apart, the region seems to be going in the right direction. It is addressing basic production and building a hierarchy that aspirational producers can use to differentiate themselves from the basic stuff. And good quality Soave is a tasty wine.

Tasting notes, London, May 2011

The wines were all as close to being made entirely from garganega as possible. 
Flight one (wines 1 -3) showed differences in the straightforward Soave DOC, from light and simple to more rich and tropical. 
Flight two (wines 4 – 6), looked at Soave Classico DOC, showing a clear quality improvement.
Flight three (wines 7 -9) looked at the influence of smaller and larger oak, and none was stated as being new, and for me the best worked well where overt oak could not be tasted.

1.  Cantine Riondo, Castelforte Excelsa Soave DOC 2010
100% garganega; 12%, 4g/l RS; all stainless steel; 3 months on lees
Light, floral, apples and pears. Designed to be straightforward and clean, this also has pear drops and a bit of upfront fruit.

2.  Bertani, Sereole Soave DOC 2010
100% garganega; 13%, 3g/l RS; fermentation in 75hl oak casks (no overt influence)
Hints of aromatic smoke, rounded, citrus and peachy with decent supple Mediterranean fruits on the palate.

3.  Agr. Fattori Di Fattori Giovanni, Motto Piane Soave DOC 2010
100% garganega; 14.5%, 6.5g/l RS; fermentation part in stainless steel, part in 25hl casks.
Rich and fruit-laden with creamy peach melba notes, aromatic fruit spices in a medium bodied wine with attractive concentration and some power and intensity for the style. Alcohol is unnoticed and the hint of fruitiness accentuates the body and tropical notes.

4.  Cantina di Soave, Rocca Sveva Soave Classico DOC 2010
100% garganega; 12.5%, 4.5g/l RS.
Clean, fresh and straightforward wine with attractive pear and nectarine fruits in elegant and fairly light-bodied style.

5.  Cantina del Castello, Castello Soave Classico DOC 2010
90% garganega, 10% trebbiano di Soave; 12.5%, 3.9g/l RS.  All stainless steel
Creamy texture, with almond cream, white pepper and allspice in wine of good density and delicate yet persistent fragrance. Linear profile. Good.

6.  Suavia, Soave Classico DOC 2010
95% garganega; 5% trebbiano di Soave; 12.5%, 3.5g/l RS.
Spicy, rich and dense tropical fruits with a herbal twist in the core. Wafting gunsmoke complexity with very good definition and stacks of flavour – tropical fruit and a gunflint/stony edge. Good.

7.  Az. Agr. Dal Cero, Vigneto Runcata Soave Superiore DOCG 2009
100% garganega; 13.5%, fermentation and 12 month maturation in 20hl wooden casks, on fine lees.
Solid density of fruit, in more savoury than fruity spectrum, with some gentle hints of sandalwood. Slight lanolin, beeswax notes on the palate detracts from this wine for me.

8.  Cantina di Monteforte, Vigneto di Montegrande, Soave Superiore Classico DOCG 2008
100% garganega; 13%, 4g/l RS. Fermentation in barriques and 15hl casks; 12 months maturation in big casks.
Rich, medium weight with tropical fruits of mango and pineapple. Hints of savoury complexity threaded through a really strong fruited, concentrated core. Long and good.

9.  Az. Agr. Montetondo, Casette Foscarin Soave Classico DOC 2008
90% garganega, 10% trebbiano; 13%, 8g/l RS, fermentation in steel, six months maturation in barrique.
Some sweetness of fruit from a portion late harvested. Rich, dense, aromatically spicy and almost full-bodied, with tropical fruits to the fore. Texture, nuance and complexity, rather than overt flavour, provided by the oak. Lush fruit, layered, richly balanced and long.  Very good.

Bodegas Valdesil

Waitrose Wine Direct, and from four dozen of their branches, so check first.
13.5%

 
This was the outstanding wine from Waitrose’s recent press tasting. It’s a real stunner, complex, sophisticated, layered with freshness running through its veins.  

The Valdeorras appellation is tucked up in the lush, green valleys of Galicia in the north-west corner of Spain, just north of Portugal.

The wine is made from 100% godello, a white grape variety native to the region, with just over 1,000 hectares planted in the whole of the country. The family-owned estate in Vilamartin de Vadeorras grows their vines on the slate slopes of the Sil valley, at around 500 metres above sea level. Such altitude, with the cool nights that it brings, is one of the things that retains the fresh core of this wine.

Another thing that retains freshness is an absence of malolactic fermentation, which absence also preserves primary fruit aromas. It’s been aged on its lees in stainless steel for six months before being bottled in December 2010. 

The wine is serious and sumptuous, dense with concentrated fruit flavours. Melon, dried peaches and apple concentrate swim abundantly and intensely in a deep pool of fresh flavours. The balance is enhanced by a rich and succulent mouth-feel, which lingers a long time. This is a wine that widens the eyes in appreciation as the flavour explodes and the wine’s velvet texture strokes the palate.

And the development of still Douro wine in the traditional Port wine district has opened up new understanding of the grapes, their adaptations and favoured locations. Rui Cunha of Secret Spot wines said “we are learning to look at the grapes differently for port and table wine. For table wine, we don’t want to produce over-matured red wines. So we are looking at the grape varieties, at the slopes, and we are looking up 400, 500m to produce elegant [still] wines.”   

The main red grape varieties in the Douro Valley

Source:  IVDP, 2011.

Touriga franca

This is the offspring of touriga nacional and mourisco, the two main grape varieties before phylloxera, at the end of the 19^th century.  It tolerates heat and water stress well, and doesn’t produce too much sugar when ripe, so it’s good for hotter locations.  Luis Seabra, the winemaker at Niepoort’s Quinta de Nápoles said “in cold places people don’t like it because it ripens slowly.  It is an elegant variety, but not easy.”  Antonio Magalhães, the viticulturist at the Fladgate Partnership added “it is a grape variety for organic [cultivation] because it has a high tolerance to disease.”

Tinta roriz

Despite making the second largest contribution to Douro production, there are questions about the suitability of tinta roriz, or tempranillo, to the hot climate of the Douro.  “It doesn’t really like the heat, and it loses acidity a lot” said Cunha. It’s best suited to cooler sites high up on north-facing slopes. Managing director Paul Symington at Symington Family Estates said “we haven’t planted any tinta roriz because we believe we have the wrong clones.  It lacks elegance, depth, structure” for port.

Touriga nacional

A variety that is growing in popularity, but 80 years ago it was not widely planted in the Douro. Tiago Alves de Sousa of Quinta da Gaivosa said “touriga nacional was not popular in the past because it’s a low producer. But in the most recent plantings, more and more is planted.” It still accounts for only 13% of production, and it’s only since the 1970s and 1980s that it has been revitalised to its current position.

Touriga nacional’s great asset is its ability to ripen in great heat and keep its acidity, though it ripens earlier than touriga franca, and, said Pedro Tamagnini of Quinta dos Avidagos, “nacional is an overwhelming grape, it can dominate a blend.” Nonetheless, José Manso, the viticulturalist at Quinta de São Luis said “we calculate touriga nacional is 2,000 years old, with about 400 clones” so it’s had time to adapt to the climate.

Tinta barroca

This may be the grape growers’ favourite variety. Manso said “it’s a homogenous grape variety. It’s easy to cultivate.”  It has high sugar content, which along with its structure and body make it good for port wine. But with too little colour, it’s less well regarded for still wine.  Symington said “It’s not glamorous, but a port without barroca lacks structure and depth, a bit like merlot in Bordeaux.”    

Tinta amarela

There may be a west-east split on amarela.  In the western Baixo Corgo, Alves de Sousa  said the variety “can reach high sugar levels but it holds acidity well, and it’s complex in terms of flavour.” But it’s not adapted to the Douro Superior, near the border with Spain, Pedro Barbosa, the viticulturalist at Quinta do Vale Meão, said “amarela gets burnt on south facing slopes, and on north facing slopes, you get green grapes with 8° alcohol. It’s completely unbalanced.”  

Tinta cão

The ‘red dog’. Alves de Sousa said he blends tinta cão, with its “mineral, fresh, nice acidity, to civilise a bit the touriga national, which is a great grape but can be over the top with richness and exuberance.” And Magalhães said cão is the grape variety for climate change with “high tolerance to drought and sunburn” but it’s not usually more than a few percent in the finished blend.

And it’s all about the blend, for both port wine and still wine: grapes, locations, altitudes, aspects.

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

It was the Rheingau said Dr Franz Michel of Domdechant Werner’sches Weingut, from where “the oldest documentation of riesling comes, dating to 1435, with the first references for spätlese and auslese coming from Schloss Johannisberg.”

He added it was the Rheingau’s specific cool climate growing conditions “that is our trump card”, it being impossible to copy the style in other countries.

Though the six wines shown all came from the traditional fruity riesling styles, where sweetness is balanced exquisitely with acidity, Michel was keen to draw attention to the “beautiful, intense, dry wines, with minerality and fruitiness” that the region also produces, with the flagship dry wines coming under the aegis of the Erstes Gewächs.  This is, he said, “the grand crus from German terroir.”

Some comments on the 2010 vintage will be posted later.

Tasting, London, March 2011, and producer comments

It’s such a rare opportunity to taste these wines, it seems a little inane writing tasting notes, especially when ‘light’, ‘fresh’, ‘intense’ are repeated. Other consistencies included a sometimes remarkable intensity and dimension, as well as silkiness to the texture.  

Hessische Staatsweingüter Kloster Eberbach, Rüdesheimer Berg Rottland Riesling, 1946
Golden yellow colour. Fresh button mushrooms which still have a bit of fresh compost on the stalks. Smoke, mushroom, the post-striking of gunflint aroma. Sweet-savoury flavours and dry-tasting, remarkably still gently tingling with freshening acidity, clean finish, still beautifully balanced. Gentle. Lingering, haunting echoes of intensity. Refined. And sophisticated.

Managing director of Kloster Eberback Dieter Greiner said there were “parallels of 1946 with 2010. Here we have a wine with 10g/l total acidity, which is a lot for Rudesheim, and 103° Oechshle. This is a very good vineyards site, with steep slopes, and a mix of various soils – quartzite, loess loam. It has a good water supply even in dry years. The wine is 65 years old, and it’s still giving pleasure. There’s just a slight hint of the residual sugar this wine had. And it will age for another 2, 3, 4 decades.“

Weingut Geheimrat Wegeler, Geisenheimer Rothenberg Riesling Kabinett, 1983
Arromatic wafting smokiness, with notes of quince and Mediterranean fruits. Almost medium bodied, with the acidity firm and defining. Hints of a light grassiness alongside the purity of dense yellow and citrus fruits. Wonderful intensity of fruit expression even after this time.

Cellarmaster Michael Burgdorf said “ This was a very good vintage. It’s still fruity, still fresh, very good to drink now, [even though it’s] more that 25 years old. [It shows] it is also possible to make a ‘smaller’ wine with ageing potential from a good vintage.”

Schloss Johannisberg, Schloss Johannisberger Riesling Grünlack Spätlese, 1964
Lemon coloured, the palest colour of the six. Aromatic smoke, and smoked honey, a sensation of light sweetness palpable on the attack, then the core is has a dry note. Flavours of lemongrass, apple, a hint tropical too, apricot, with hints of sweetness giving fleshiness to the fruits.  An acid core keeps everything in a pure line. Silkily textured and tasting off dry with a long, dry satin finish.

Domaine director Christian Witte said “Since 1720 we only make riesling. This vintage shows nice freshness, and reminds me of the 2004 vintage. Wines like this work well with modern cuisine. It’s not massive and powerful, and has 60g/l residual sugar. You can see the elegance, and always the balance bet acidity minerality and sugar.”

Weingut Balthasar Ress, Hattenheim Engelsmannsberg Riesling Spätlese, 1975
Golden colour with smoke and aromatic mushroom development. Off dry perception of sweetness perception all through the palate, balanced poignantly with freshening acidity. Plenty of youthful primary fruit in the core of this wine, framed by hints of dry mushrooms. Suppleness and sweetly enveloping texture.

Export manager Clemens von Eltz said “1975, along with 1971 and 1976, was one of the better vintages in the ‘70s. After ‘76, ‘75 was underrated, it got lost in shadow of ‘76. The acidity level is still very nice, and the wine is still lively. At that time spätlese was around 40-45g/l residual sugar.”

Weingut Baron Knyphausen, Hattenheimer Wisselbrunnen Riesling Spätlese, 1998 magnum.   
Rich lemon colour, and rich, youthful five spice on the intense nose. Rich, enticing, tropical and aromatically spicy fruit, full and sweet, with cleansing acidity that strikes the sweetness to a perception of a relatively dry finish. Lush, fine taffeta texture, with fennel and rosemary twist to the cleansing finish. Vg.

Dodo zu Knyphausen said “This is a delicate, well balanced wine. Bright, with deeply elegant substance, from a famous vineyard.  I would give this wine another 10 years at least; it has very lively acidity.”

Domdechant Werner’sches Weingut, Hochheimer Domdechaney Riesling Beerenauslese, 2009
All primary fruitiness, spicy, sweet, tropical quince, pineapple, mango, lush and deeply sweet, as ever with the rapier core of acidity that balances all the sweetness to a glorious whole. Intense and intensely moreish. Dense, intense, entrancing, with exquisite balance, and with all the explosive intensity of youthful flavour on its side.

Proprietor Dr. Franz Michel said “this is a BA of a clean and fresh style, which is an important point in such a highly concentrated wine. It’s still fresh and lively, where the refreshing acidity should be 10% of the residual sugar: the higher the residual sugar, the higher the acidity should be to be refreshing. It brings out a wonderful fruitiness.”