| Miscellaneous musings | ||
| Introduction to the tour |  |
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| France | Bordeaux | |
| Burgundy | ||
| Rhône | ||
| Loire | ||
| Alsace | ||
| Champagne | ||
| Other regions | ||
| Italy | ||
| Spain | Rioja | |
| Sherry | ||
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Of biscuits and fire bells: a lyrical tribute to the world's greatest fizz (Halloween 2006)
The year has been set a-sparkle by the discovery of a keenly-priced but exquisite vintage Champagne, the wonderful Henriot 1996. Many people just don't 'get' Champagne, and I confess to once having counted myself amongst that number. But I was young and green, and understand now, when it's not too late, why this state of affairs exists. Those 'many' too often only come to taste the aristocratic fizz at dreary weddings, whose catering staff's chief remit seems to be providing the cheapest possible version of the drink bearing an authentic label of origin. Such versions are invariably bland and damaging to the reputation of the drink. Having just this morning drained the final bottle of my penultimate half-case in celebration of 26 years of togetherness, I am brimful of its magic. |
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The usual adjectives of 'biscuity' and 'toasty' apply with some verve to its palate, not unlike truly good mature white Burgundy, yet there's also a whiff of rancio to provide a fascinating counterpoint and hold the flavour poised, stretched pleasingly taut, between outright richness and subtle complexity. The finish resembles a distant memory of the subtlest amontillado, but there is another sensory aspect of fizz not present in still wines: the aural component. A flute of lead crystal is necessary to reproduce the finest prinkle, like the faintest warning from a far-flung fire bell announcing not an imminent conflagration but the tiniest plume of smoke from a seasonal cairn of garden detritus.
Ah, to meditate upon the bubble and loose the full fanciful flurry of loquacious hyperbole: I'll raise a flute to that!
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Pink, pink sunshine: a summer of rosé (August 2006)
I've noticed a trend building over the last few years, but this year it's much bigger: rosé wines are fashionable summer drinks! I admit to being caught up in the thing myself. But it's not just an empty fashion thing: pink wines have improved in great leaps recently and deserve some attention. OK, they're not at the snobbily serious end of the market and maybe never will be, but they fit in well with summer in so many ways: |
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And there are so many more styles available: although supermarket choices tend to be dominated by brands, The Wine Society lists 20 different ones from regions as diverse as England and Argentina, both of which, incidently, are quite superb. The English offering from Three Choirs is light, fragrant and refreshing, whilst the malbec rosado from Argentina is heavier, creamy, yet a match for most food. And there are some great examples from France: from the Minervois, Languedoc and Provence, perfect for lazy alfresco lunches in searing midday heat, just us and the local mad dog.
So grab a few bottles before summer's lease is up, and get into the pink!
As oneof the central themes of good wine is the vintage, any discussion of what to buy is often centred around this; that said, many New World wine are far less vintage-dependent than their European cousins, so it makes more sense to look primarily at individual properties. Availability and cost are also restrictive in connection with discussion of individual wines, especially those of fine pedigree, so this page will set out to provide an overview of wine styles, with some pointers towards individual wineries if price and availability warrant.
Cards on the table time, we'll start with France as it produces, for me, the finest wine in the world - red Bordeaux, better known as Claret. Also, it is widely regarded as having one of the greatest winemaking traditions. So, taking the country by major regions:
Claret can retail at anywhere from £4 - over £200 per bottle, depending on a combination of property and vintage, and that's just en primeur - or first offer - price; older vintages at auctions may fetch much more. As a guide, pay £7 - £12 for a good bottle, £15 - £40 for a special bottle. Quick vintage guide, '88, '89, '90, '96, '98, '00 were all very good. Grapes used are mainly cabernet sauvignon and merlot, with smaller amounts of cabernet franc, malbec and petit verdot. All of these are available as varietals from "New World" wine-growing countries. Good claret always has a characteristic "minerally" edge, like a whiff of gunpowder. Mature claret should have a powerful soft fruit middle palate with hints of cedar or cigars on the nose, and a finish that may last some minutes.
White Bordeaux may vary from fine, bone dry lightish wines to some of the finest pudding wines in the world (Sauternes is the most famous sub-region for these). Grapes used are mainly sauvignon blanc and semillon, with a little muscadelle. The vintage and the grower's decision determine whether the wine will be dry or sweet - in the best vintages, grapes are left late on the vine to be affected (or is that infected?) by botrytis, or noble rot, a particular organism that causes the grapes to shrivel and so concentrates the juice to produce a must so strong in alcohol, that yeast does not completely ferment it, hence the wine has residual sugars and tastes sweet.
Claret's great rival is red Burgundy, made from the pinot noir grape. A perfectly balanced wine can be a sublime experience, with a light, soft strawberry fruitiness overlaid with complex, slightly "rotty" characters.
White burgundy is mainly the chardonnay grape, one of the most familiar varietals. Chablis, though effectively a satellite of Burgundy, is always considered as a separate region, with some justification; it's wines are much more austere and minerally, due to the region's soil. White Burgundy proper tends to be much fuller and richer; I still remember a fantastic Mersault I had many years ago as a benchmark!
There are many different A.C.s (Appellation Controllée, the French system of naming wines by region of origin, with only certain permitted grape varieties) in this region, some of the more famous including Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Côte-Rotie, Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage, Gigondas, Vacqueyras…., many being available in both red and white.
Red Rhônes are made from grapes including syrah, grenache, mouverdre, cinsault, carignan and others. The real muscular wines are the Châteauneuf-du-Papes, often requiring 10 years or more to show at their best, though some are made for earlier drinking. The better Côtes-du-Rhônes may also last for the long haul, and some real bargains can be found here with knowledge of the growers (£5-£7 vs. £9-£25+ for the Châteauneuf). One of my favourites is a single estate Crozes-Hermitage, Domaine de Thalabert from Jaboulet-Âiné (expect to pay £12 a bottle, and it's worth keeping for at least 8 years); this is widely recognised as a benchmark and is both consistent and reasonably widely available.
Another major region with a variety of ACs, there are a broader range of styles here too.
Starting with the whites, as these are more well-known and various, towards the mouth of the river, there's the AC of Muscadet-de-Sèvre-et-Maine, producing very dry, crisp wines, the best of which also bear the words "sûr lie", which means the wine has been aged on its lees (the solids remaining after fermentation), giving it more body and complexity. The Vouvray AC produces wines from the chenin blanc grape from crisply dry to lusciously sweet, depending on when the harvest is picked. Most famous are the wines produced from sauvignon blanc: Touraine, and, the most highly prized, Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé. The former tends to be slightly more austere and minerally, while the later has the smallest touch of residual sweetness, bringing it a little closer to a New World style. Prices range from under a fiver for Touraine to £8 - £10 for the Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé (and far beyond for single estate and special cuvées).
For reds, it's the cabernet franc grape that defines the Loire flavour: try Bourgeuil, Saint-Nicholas de Bourgeuil, Chinon, Sancerre Rouge and others. These can be drunk fairly young, at cellar temperature. Expect a characteristic 'stalkiness' on the palate, as though some flavour of the leaf has come through.
It's worth noting that there are also some rosés produced here, though they can be on the relatively expensive side.
Tucked away in the North-East of the country, in the microclimate created by the Vosges mountains, lies the old 'disputed' territory of Alsace-Lorraine. 'Disputed' as it fell into German hands more than once over its history, leaving a legacy of very Germanic names, and a white wine style unique to itself, somewhere between the heft of New World, the freshness of Germany and the finesse of France. Unusually for France, the wines are generally sold by grape variety rather than just A.C.; of course, the producer is of paramount importance.
Gewurztraminer is the grape variety most closely associated with this region, and can yield anything from freshly fragrant and floral wines with a hint of residual sweetness to the 'vendage tardives' (late-picked) and even noble rot wines (c.f. Sauternes) - unctuous pudding wines for very special occasions. A personal favourite is the Pinot Gris, here referred to as Tokay-Pinot Gris: these are rich, slightly buttery and full-bodied. Both of these varieties keep well but can be drunk young - they are worth a little investment (£8 - £12) if the intention is to cellar them for a while. The other Alsace 'biggy' is Riesling, though I've always been disappointed by them and prefer the lighter, fresher styles from Germany. Also worth checking out are Muscat and Pinot Blanc in the less expensive range. Blends are labelled 'Edelzwicker'.
Producers to look out for include Hugel, Trimbach, Josmeyer, Zind-Humbrecht...
Though my own consumption of the world's favourite bubbly is relatively low, it still deserves a section of its own as there is nothing quite like it (though some New World cuvees are coming on...). The process which makes it special is unique to itself and the New World pretenders: a second fermentation is allowed to occur in the (highly strengthened) bottle, encouraged by the addition of a little unfermented juice. The bottle is corked and allowed to ferment gently at warm cellar temperature. Over a generous time period, the bottles are slowly inverted (only a few houses still carry out this process by hand) to allow the lees to collect on the underside of the cork. Once complete, the inverted bottle top is rapidly frozen and the cork extracted with a plug of frozen lees; the bottle is then re-corked and possibly aged before selling.
Most of the best producers are almost household names, so I hardly need list them here. Supermarket own-label Champagnes should not be regarded as necessarily inferior, especially in the vintage category; they frequently offer excellent value for money.
2 excellent Champagne-related quotes, both from Brideshead Revisited (a favourite book plus THE best thing ever made for television):
"I usually take a glass of Champagne around this time - would you care to join me?" - Charles Ryder to his cousin Jasper at the latter's 'Grand Remonstrance' concerning his (Charles') profligate spending during his time at Oxford (University).
"Mr Ryder? Mr Ryder? Charles drinks Champagne at all hours" - Lord Sebastian Flyte to his sister, Julia, after her remarking that maybe their guest would like to rest after his journey.
There are many other ACs not mentioned here, from recently created, through less well-known to the downright obscure. The Languedoc-Rousillon area is generally regarded as up-and-coming, with a range of value-for-money wines as well as a few rising stars. For a really unique experience, seek out (if you dare!) the Vin Jaunes from Jura region. Very rare and expensive (£20+), made from the local Savignan grape and filled into 62cl bottles, these peculiar whites (Vin Jaune literally translates as "yellow wines") are almost like a Fino sherry in character, perhaps with a touch of dry Furmint (a native Hungarian variety). You'll either love or hate them!
For the vinous tour of Italy, we'll start in the North and work downwards. The wines mentioned here are only a small selection of what this relatively small but productive country turns out, but they nonetheless cover most of the well-known styles.
The great (red) wines of the North are the Barolo and Barbaresco of the Piemonte region, both produced from the Nebbiolo grape. These are huge, tarry, tannic wines which can sometimes have an elusive nose of violets. With great age, they mellow to a tinned-strawberry palate. Expect to pay at least a tenner, more usually £15-20, and they'll need at least 7 or 8 years before broaching. From the same region come the more affordable Barbera and Dolcetto; from the right producer, these are excellent value starting around the £5 mark. The former has a fairly broad fruit palate with a hint of chocolate (which, for me, characterises many of the wines produced from native grape varieties), the latter is perhaps thinner on the palate but fresh, a little like a Beaujolais, but with that chocolatey overlay.
Across to the other side of the country is the Trentino-Alto-Adige region, alpine in character and indeed in its wines. The whites, including Traminer, are crisp and fresh, the reds lighter in body and incisively stalky.
From Veneto, I mustn't forget to mention the hugely versatile Valpolicella. A good basic wine is bursting with black cherry fruit; the Amarone della Valpolicella is a classic, made from semi-dried grapes and usually weighing in with a hefty alcohol content - these need a few years to come round; and finally, a rare 'middle wine', Ripasso, made by fermenting a basic wine on the lees of an Amarone to give a extra complexity - I've found these in Oddbins before!
Tuscany is possibly the best-known region in Italy as a holiday destination, and produces the country's most famous wine, Chianti. This can vary from a sound house wine style to huge and sophisticated single-vineyard bottlings that require many years to show their best. It's unlikely that you'll find any squat bottles wrapped in wicker (the infamous Chianti flasks) - things are a little more up-market these days. In addition to Chianti, there are also a range of what have become known as Super-Tuscans - usually high-end blends of native and international grape varieties, often Cabernet Sauvignon- and/or Merlot-based with varying proportions of Chianti's Sangiovese thrown in. These are well worth trying, but you have to know them individually; famous examples include Sassicaia and Ornellaia. And that's not all - there are also a handful of other DOCs (Italy's officially demarcated wine appellations) that are gradually gaining international reputation such as Morellino di Scansano and I mustn't neglect to mention another established classic, Brunello di Montalcino.
There are a range of dry to off-dry whites (plus a smattering of rare pudding wines) from central regions that are practically household names, such as Soave, Frascati, Orvieto..... Many of the more widely available examples (supermarket own-label for instance) are bland and characterless, but a well-chosen example, especially from am Italian Specialist, can be a revelation.
Moving south, into the foot, there is a viticultural revolution taking place, with regions that formerly produced only bulk tanker wine for blending now beginning to make characterful wines (especially reds) from local varieties. Some, like the Aglianico del Vulture from Basilicata, can be real alcoholic monsters, pushing up to the strength of dry sherries at over the 15% mark. Good barbecue wines!
Historically, there was little more than Rioja and sherry for the connoisseur, Spain having had a pretty dire reputation in the ‘70s and early ‘80s for producing the worst kind of plonk. But already during that time, a quiet revolution was underway, one that has very much come to fruition as hitherto unknown regions of the country establish themselves on the vinous map.
But to give the oldsters the respect they deserve, we’ll begin there.
Rioja is now almost a household name, having achieved an undreamed-of immortality in Underworld’s ‘Pearls Girl’ (twice spoken as the first words). This wine has several guises, depending on style/producer: young, unoaked wines for routine early drinking; crianza wines, having spent a year in oak, offering somewhat more complexity and a hint of what for many is the true expression of the wine – the sometime quiet, sometime stormy marriage between the tempranillo grape and the oak of the barrel in which its wine matures; reserva wines, having spent over 2 years in the barrel, giving, at least for me, the best value for money - £6 - £10 is normal, and some can be truly wonderful, a strong whiff of leather and cigar box on the nose with a subtle tinned-strawberry palate, this is proper Rioja; and the gran reserves, with their 4 or 5 years in the barrel, made only in the better vintages, and providing the acme of the Rioja experience. Or almost. There is, from Marques de Murrieta and only in the very finest years, a wine produced that has become dubbed a super-gran reserve by the name of Castillo Ygay. This spends a ridiculous time in the barrel and lasts for ever – a friend of mine bought a bottle of the’42 for as many £s and pronounced it an epiphany, still with plenty of life. But for most people, find a producer you like and stick to the reserva – Campo Viejo is very good, others include Faustino and La Rioja Alta.
Less easily found is white Rioja. The style varies from fresh young approachable wines to relative heavyweights that need a few years to give of their best. The best I’ve tasted is from Marques de Murrieta: give a wine like this about 5 years, then match with powerfully flavoured food (such as garlicky tapas) – the wine has a strong yellow tint with an unusual rancio (or oxidised) taste, not unlike a dry sherry, which leads us on…
One of the world’s great fortified wines and easily the best value for money (you can buy world class wines for under a tenner!), this is often overlooked due to clichéd misconceptions:
The name ‘sherry’ is a corruption of the Spanish name of the region of origin, Jerez (pronounced roughly ‘heh-reth’). Two main grape varieties are used, the palomino and, to a much lesser extent, the pedro ximenez (or PX). Then there are the various styles of wine, depending on the exact location and/or the maturation process. Add to this the unique blending system for older wines called the solera, and you have the basis for a fascinating range of wines.
Fino and Manzanilla – these are the driest styles; Manzanilla is essentially the same as Fino, but may only come from the coastal subregion of Barrameda de Sanlúcar – it’s said to have more of a tang of salt on the palate from the sea air and, romantic notion as it is, I must say that it at least seems to be true. These wines are the palest, only faintly coloured, bone dry on the palate with a fresh tanginess that really revs up the digestion, hence they make excellent aperitifs. They weigh in between 15 and 16% alcohol and should be drunk very chilled, preferably from the freezer, and drunk up within a week, ideally straight away. The freshness arises from the maturation method – the fermented wine is allowed to remain in the barrel where a local yeast forms a surface cover known as flor. This prevents oxidation of the wine and lends the palate its unique flavour.
Amontillado - dry to medium in style, these wines are made in 1 of 2 ways: fino is allowed to age in the cask, the flor dieing off after so long and allowing natural oxidation; or the base wine is more heavily fortified, preventing flor from taking a hold. The wines are generally pale gold/brown in colour, with an assertive, nutty flavour and medium body. They are generally in the 16 to 20% alcohol range.
Oloroso – the richest and most powerful style, from dry to fully sweet, these wines can be a truly sublime experience. The flor does not develop here and the wines oxidise naturally, but they are more heavily fortified and so don’t ‘go off’. To create a great oloroso requires use of the solera system: this is a method of continuously blending new wine with old to provide a much broader spectrum for the palate. The system works, traditionally, as a gravity-fed running of new wine into the previous year’s harvest, causing overspill into the one before… etc., etc., until, at the end, only a small portion of new wine goes into the final blend, the rest refreshing the casks ‘higher up’ the system.
Other styles
Manzanilla pasadas are aged manzanillas, shy of being amontillados, and are delicate yet complex. Palo cortados are rare intermediates between an amontillado and an oloroso – well worth trying. Pedro ximenez varietals are occasionally produced – these are thick and black and unctuous, like a light-bodied treacle, wonderful as a winter warmer or poured over ice-cream.
And for the export market, we have blended sherries, most notable being the ubiquitous creams, varying from pale to dark. Useful cooking sherry!