Editorial by Susan Hulme MW

So at last the daffodils have come into bloom and some of the long winter gloom seems to be finally shaken off. So what have we, the AWE, been up to this long winter?

Well read on, because this issue is crammed with articles on a variety of subjects, seminars and tastings: the AWE Sud De France seminar; a Robert Parker Grenache Masterclass; a Rosé Champagne seminar; an Independent Sector seminar.

Last year there was what looks to have been a very exciting trip to Champagne and we of course have the full trip report.

We also have two reports which proved to be a bit of a challenge for the spellchecker: firstly, Vivienne Franks attended the AWE Hungary seminar last November, where we learned about the latest developments in Szekszárd and Villány-Siklós; then our Hon. President Charles Metcalfe and I went on a press trip to Turkey to discover what has been happening in the cradle of viticulture in the last few years – and what a revelation that turned out to be! I can’t wait to go back and learn more.

As it is almost Easter, it is too tempting not to make a tenuous link to the AWE’s battle against the Eggheads. No-one is telling how they got on so we’ll have to wait till the program is aired in the winter of 2010/2011. One success we can celebrate though is the award of ‘Best Wine Education Book in the World’, won by our very own Keith Grainger.    

There is of course a lot more in what is a very varied issue and I hope you enjoy reading it.

Have a Happy Easter.

© Susan Hulme MW 2010

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Chairman’s Column by Richard Bampfield MW  

The trade has been lamenting the fact that wine columns in the national press have been cut further and that, with one or two honourable exceptions, all we are left with are shopping lists.  And, of course, shopping lists do not require serious wine writing skills so can easily be farmed out to non-wine journalists.

I think there are two conclusions to be drawn from this.  The first is that, like it or not, only a small percentage of the population is interested enough in wine to want to read a wine column.  And secondly, maybe the columns were not communicating about wine in a style or language that engaged the reader sufficiently.

Either way, the situation presents opportunities for wine educators.  Because we communicate about wine in an interactive forum where we receive direct feedback from the audience, we know very quickly whether the audience is engaged or not.  The fact that we earn a living from being educators suggests that we hit the right note, albeit in our own individual ways.  We must ensure this skill is not lost on producers and generic bodies who find that they have fewer channels for communicating with the public.

It is also important that we keep our own skills and knowledge up to date, and Council commits much of its time to organising events and trips that aid our continuous professional development.  A questionnaire is being sent out with the AGM papers, seeking information on which types of service offered by the AWE are most valuable to members and most used.  Please do complete and return this so that we can keep our programme as relevant as possible.  And remember that, as educators, we will constantly be judged on how comprehensive and up to date our knowledge is.

© Richard Bampfield MW 2010

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Colin Gurteen

All at the AWE will have been sorry to hear of the death before Christmas of Colin Gurteen.  He touched the early careers of many of us through his work as a lecturer at the WSET and was also responsible for planning and leading many of the WSET study tours to wine producing regions.  He was also a member of the AWE for several years.  Christopher Fielden, who probably knew Colin for longer than most, has kindly sent us the words below in his memory.

"Whilst Colin might not have been there at the very beginning of the WSET, he was a very early recruit as a lecturer. I think I first met him when I was working in Burgundy more than thirty years ago and he accompanied a party of students there. Sadly he was badly injured in a motor-cycle accident and this left him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Despite the fact that this cut short his career with the Trust, and that he was under-insured against the possibility of such a catastrophe, he bravely established himself as a free-lance educator and could be seen at all the tastings, assiduously keeping abreast of developments in the world of wine. Our sympathy must go to his wife, Elizabeth, who was constantly at his side at these events."

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AWE Champagne Visit, November 2009

CIVC by Laura Clay; Henri Giraud by Vivienne Franks; Duval-Leroy by Claire Blackler; Chartogne-Taillet by David Luck; Ruinart by Mike Murdoch; Louis-Roederer by Angela Reddin

Visit to Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne (CIVC) by Laura Clay

Meeting with Philippe Wibrotte, Head of Public Relations;

Tasting with Violaine de Caffarelli

At Philippe’s request  we all introduced ourselves and clarified just what we hoped to learn from this trip, and it was clear that the choices of Houses and Growers Philippe had organised for us to visit had been very much lead by our requirements.  

Facts & figures

Philippe then presented facts and figures about the business of champagne, new developments in the area including sustainable and organic agriculture, how Champagne is reducing its carbon footprint (which is down by 33%) and finally how the CIVC continues to fervently protect the name, Champagne.

Website

We were shown a PowerPoint presentation to demonstrate the usefulness of the CIVC website (www.champagne.fr), which I can highly recommend and where you can find all the information we were given. This is due to be available in English in the near future.  

Tasting

The tasting was hosted by Violaine de Caffarelli, oenologist and communications officer. We tasted 4 champagnes which expressed well the diversity of the Appellation - Blanc de Blancs by Claude Cazals, Blanc de Noirs, Pannier 2002, Aubry Yvoire et Ebène 1er Cru, an oak fermented 2002, and finally a Grande Marque, Piper Heidsieck 2000.

The tasting room is very well designed but for the green hue that seemed to permeate throughout and reflect in the glass! It was an interesting tasting and we benefitted from Violaine’s knowledge (how can she know so much when she is so young?!) but a tasting sheet would have been much appreciated!

© Laura Clay 2009

Photos © Anthony Stockbridge (top) and Laura Clay (bottom)

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Champagne Henri Giraud by Vivienne Franks

We were warmly welcomed by Emmanuelle, 13th generation of the Giraud-Hémart family, along with Sebastien, the wine-maker, and Laurence who looks after much of the business side of this very small concern.

The family has had vineyards in the Grand Cru village of Aÿ since 1625. They currently own 25 hectares, and produce Champagne from the south facing slopes, with 20 cm of topsoil on top of 200 metres of chalk. There are two different labels, Champagne Francois Hemart and Champagne Henri Giraud.

Most of the wines are vinified in small wooden barrels and spend 10 months in oak, all coopered from the local forest of Argonne, the original Champagne forest. This passionate family is driven to produce quality champagne from the best base wine they can make.

We tasted:

Esprit de Giraud NV (70%Pinot Noir 30% Chardonnay) 92RP

Stainless steel fermentation, with 1 year spent in tank on lees before assemblage.

A pale gold coloured, fresh crisp aperitif champagne with minerally notes and peachy fruit.

Esprit de Giraud Blanc de Blancs NV (100% Chardonnay)

Stainless steel fermentation, with 1 year spent in tank on lees before assemblage.

A lemon gold wine with a light floral nose of acacia and honeysuckle, finishing with fresh hazelnut flavours.

Esprit de Giraud Rosé NV (70% Pinot Noir, 22% Chardonnay with 8% coteaux champenois from Aÿ)

Stainless steel fermentation, with 1 year spent in tank on lees. The red wine was vinified in oak.

A lovely strawberry coloured wine with fine bubbles, this had a ripe red fruity nose with a spicy palate.

Hommage à François Hémart NV (70% Pinot Noir, 30% Chardonnay)

Stainless steel fermentation, with 6 months spent in barrique before assemblage.

A deep amber coloured wine with delicate fruit and nutty notes, good structure and finish.

Code Noir NV (100% Pinot Noir) 93RP

Barrique fermentation with 18 months spent on the lees, before assemblage.

A deep lemon colour with a poached pear nose and balanced chalky minerally finish.

Code Noir Rosé NV (90% Pinot Noir with 10% coteaux champenois from Aÿ)

Barrique fermentation with 18 months spent on the lees, before assemblage.

A lovely salmon coloured wine with red fruits spice and pepper notes, with another chalky finish.

Cuveé Fût de Chêne Aÿ Grand Cru 1999 (70% Pinot Noir 30% Chardonnay)

Barrique fermentation with 12 months spent on the lees, before assemblage, followed by 8 years maturation. A deep gold colour, with aromas of poached stone fruits, roasted nuts and a rich creamy structured finish.  

At this point in the proceedings, we broke off to tour the cellars, then returned to enjoy an excellent buffet of delicious savoury and sweet canapés. Champagne tastes so much better with food!

Cuveé Fût de Chêne Aÿ Grand Cru 2000 (70% Pinot Noir, 30% Chardonnay)

Barrique fermentation with 12 months spent on the lees, before assemblage, followed by 8 years maturation. A honey gold coloured wine, a heady nose of flowers and spice, with a very delicate creamy structured finish.

A fitting end to our first day in Champagne!

© Vivienne J Franks 25/01/10

Photos © Anthony Stockbridge

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Duval-Leroy by Claire Blackler

A curiously common story in Champagne, Duval-Leroy has been run by Carol Duval-Leroy since the sudden death of her husband, Jean, in 1991. 

Determination to pass on a flourishing business to her three sons has put Madame Duval-Leroy in the same league as other strong Champenois women such as the Veuve Clicquot, Lily Bollinger and Louise Pommery as she has completely transformed Duval-Leroy into the largest independently-owned Champagne house. 

This was achieved by focussing on respecting their terroirs, constant attention to maintaining and improving quality and being forward thinking and innovative.

Terroir

Duval-Leroy has 200ha of their own vineyards under cultivation (one third of their requirement).  Their Grand Cru and Premier Cru vineyard sites are dotted all over the Champagne region with a high proportion based in the Côte des Blancs.  Their primary grape variety is Chardonnay.  The quality of grape is taken very seriously as Duval-Leroy believe firmly that the quality of Champagne is rooted in the quality of the grape itself.  They employ sustainable viticulture as a means of protecting the terroir and have produced a Champagne made from organically grown grapes, “Cumières”.

Quality

Duval-Leroy use their own press houses for 50% of their harvest requirement and 50% is bought in as juice from external press centres but to constantly maintain and improve quality, all vinification is in-house in Vertus.  Their modern winery facilities have been designed with up-to-date technologies so each vineyard site can be vinified separately.  During harvest Duval-Leroy staff is present at each contractor’s site to ensure harvest is conducted according to Duval-Leroy standards.

Innovations

• Duval-Leroy is currently testing a crown cap stopper, called ‘maestro’, with a mechanism that makes it “pop” like the traditional mushroom cork on removal.

• A technique called jetting is used which enhances fruit characteristics and freshness in the Champagne. Jetting is the addition of a drop of wine with sulphur just before dosage, which fizzes and expels oxygen, creating mild reduction, reducing the oak impact on aroma.

•  New products:

  • Single vineyard Champagne, “Clos de Bouveries”.

   

  • “Extra Brut” contains less than 4.9 g/L sugar (“Brut Premier Cru” 9 g/L).  Introduced to meet the increasing demand for a dry Champagne to pair with food.

   

• Women have a very strong presence at Duval Leroy, 45% of staff are female.

• Duval-Leroy produce own label Champagnes on behalf of companies such as Sainsbury’s and Waitrose

Our tasting session was conducted by Duval-Leroy’s Director of Cellars, Sandrine Logette-Jardin.  We tasted the full range of Duval-Leroy’s Champagnes and, despite some obvious differences, all beautifully represented the house style so important in Champagne - elegant, floral and delicate with fine bubbles.

© Claire Blackler 2010

Photo © Anthony Stockbridge

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Chartogne-Taillet by David Luck

The Champagne House Chartogne-Taillet is in the village of Merfy in the Montagne de Reims. The vineyards here are all south-facing on the chalky sub-soil but there are two areas of sandy top-soil, up to four metres deep in amongst the usual clay.

Background

Alexandre Chartogne, who took over the family business 5 years ago and is still only 26, informed us that they have 11ha of Chardonnay 40%, Pinot Noir 40% and Pinot Meunier 20%  planted in all three soil areas. Where the sandy soil dominates, Pinot Meunier is cultivated on ungrafted vines which Alexandre believes give a wine of greater complexity and which was confirmed in the tasting. The vineyards are worked as far as possible without machines or pesticides as he considers these influence the top soil, affecting irrigation and furthermore pesticides allow roots to grow horizontally rather than vertically which reduces complexity in the wine.

Natural

This idealistic, yet practical young man, with a passion for the most natural production of Champagne, uses sheep to control weeds which at the same time provide fertiliser, and is also next year to plant ungrafted Pinot Meunier, en foule (randomly) at 35,000 – 40,000 per ha (as opposed to his usual 10,000), with each vine being pruned back to 2 buds.

As far as possible, he prefers to propagate from his own vines than to buy new. This is a récoltant manipulant with a deep respect for the soil and for nature, and makes his wine in union with these two major influencers. He claims to let nature do the work, but his viticultural practices suggest a lot of hard toil – very much a labour of love.

In the cellar

After explaining his philosophies, Alexandre led us to the cellar where we tasted still wine, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier from cask and Chardonnay (from 35year old vines grown on limestone and sand) from tank, and wines from both grafted and ungrafted vines.

As usual with Champagne, wines at this stage are quite closed but even so the difference was noticeable.  This is, without doubt, a house to watch.

If you have not tried Chartogne-Taillet Champagne, Sainte Anne Brut is available from The Wine Society at £25.

For more information go to http://chartogne-taillet.typepad.fr/france a very informative blog, particularly if you read French.

© David Luck 2010

Photo © Mike Murdoch

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Ruinart by Mike Murdoch

The last visit of the day on Tuesday 24th November was to Dom Ruinart; expectations were high for this distinguished House. We were greeted to security on arrival and the driver negotiated an impressive illuminated tree-lined drive to the main buildings.  We learnt later that the original building from the 1700 was destroyed in World War 1 but later lovingly rebuilt to the original plans.

Crayères

On arrival we were given an opportunity to learn more of the history of Dom Ruinart and a chance to see the impressive cellars, the Crayères,– the deep chalk pits renowned in this area of Reims. These were formally shaft quarries having been constructed or excavated in the 2nd or 3rd Century possibly by Roman slaves using only picks and baskets – an incredible feat when you consider these are over 100 meters deep and 8km long. 

There are over 100 Crayères, owned by 5 Champagne Houses, which have been afforded the status of national monuments since 1931.

History

The Benedictine monk, Dom Thierry Ruinart assisted his brother, Nicolas Ruinart, who worked in textiles before founding this, the oldest House, in 1729 with his son also called Nicolas.  At first the Champagne was given away to workers – all 170 bottles!  They were so well received and they consequently sold to the family’s hotel in Reims before gaining wider acclaim and sold into hotels in Paris. 

By 1769 Nicolas’s son, Claude took over the production and marketing, and sales soon soared to 40,000 bottles

Going underground

As we moved down the cellars to the first level, around 24 meters underground, we noticed the calm, cool air, perfect for the slow maturation of this fine Champagne.  We moved down to the second level at 34 meters underground.  Here the effect of the humidity was evident with several handrails coated in fine beads of moisture.

Tasting

Then onwards to meet our host Frederic Panaiotis, Chef de Cave, for a tasting in the newly painted tasting room.

The House style is without the use of oak for freshness and to preserve fruit, all Cuvées are fermented in stainless steel.  The use of reserve wines is limited to those around 2 years old, 3 years maximum, to give stability and an occasional micro-nitrogenation is used to protect from oxidation.

 “R” de Ruinart. A 40% Chardonnay, 60 % Pinot Noir with 25% reserve wines added.  An elegant structured wine, pale to mid gold with soft bready nose and very delicate.

All the following wines were 100% Chardonnay, mostly from Grands Crus sites on the Montagne de Reims (1/3) and the Côte des Blancs (2/3)

Ruinart, Blanc de Blancs.  An assemblage from several harvests coming mostly from 1er Cru sites.  A pale straw wine, more citrussy but fresh and fragrant with a creamy almost nuttiness to the still light, elegant finish.

Dom Ruinart 1998. Left on lees for 9 years which was evident in the colour – mid straw.  The nose was exuding a rich honey, ripe tropical, white stone fruit leading into a broad, long nutty finish. RS 7g/l.

Dom Ruinart 1996. Left approximately 10 years on the lees.  Again mid straw more restrained nose with green aromas, characteristic of the vintage.  The palate was razor sharp with vibrant acidity, this could age a little more. RS 10g/l.

Dom Ruinart 1993.  Again about 10 years on the lees.  A mid straw colour with lovely lactic overtones on the nose, suited to being aerated a little to release the aromas.  The palate was nutty, with an aged, refined biscuityness, the citrus fruit seems almost lemon curd like. RS 11g/l.

Dom Ruinart 1990.  Still mid straw but now very bold on the nose. Honeyed and ripe overtones lead into a very well balanced rich Blanc de Blancs with fresh acidity.  From a blend of fruit from 50% Cote des Blancs and 50% Montagne de Reims. It would be hard to find a white Burgundy at 20 years old that displayed such freshness.

We were indeed honoured to be treated to what became a Masterclass in Blanc de Blancs Champagne from such an informative and interesting host.

© Mike Murdoch 2010

Photos © Anthony Stockbridge (top) and Mike Murdoch (bottom)

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Louis Roederer by Angela Reddin

Roederer was a fitting end to a truly enlightening visit to the Champagne region.

Founded in 1776 and independently-owned by the same family since 1819, Roederer shines as a company with deep roots in the past , moving into the future confidently.    Chef du Cave, Jean-Baptiste Le Caillon, guided our tasting after an excellent video presentation by Mary Roche and a visit to the winery and cellar facilities. We tasted their Brut Premier (base vintage 2004), Brut Vintage 2003, Brut Rosé 2004, Blanc de Blancs 2003 and finally Cristal 2000. 

Jean-Baptiste was amazingly generous with his knowledge, not only of Roederer but of the whole region, historically and with a view to the future. 

Production

Annual production averages 3.4 million bottles. They own 2/3rds of their 214 hectares of vineyards. They would like to increase vineyard ownership, and this may be a possibility as there is a prediction that grape prices will fall next year and the overstock situation “will” worsen. Discounting will not move enough stock. Their yields are 13% lower than generally.

Biodynamics

Roederer have 12 hectares which they farm biodynamically to see how this method could impact for the future.  The results are “interesting”. What they are seeing is good/better flowering and ripening with significantly higher acids. The wines appear rather wild at first, but settle down with time. They have a rather unconventional aromatic profile for Champagne, so Jean-Baptiste is unconvinced so far, but is an advocate of pushing limits, “most successes are the result of an accident”.

Vinification

They try to avoid malolactic, but this is a vintage and plot dependant decision. Each block is vinified seperately to give intimate knowledge every vintage of how each garden plot behaves. They have 450 tanks for the 400 plots, now with a working history bank of 20 years, they can predict how each plot may yield with the particular conditions and adapt practices accordingly. As Champagne is halfway between the continental and oceanic influences, either can be dominant during vintage and they have to adapt the viticulture each time!

The increased use of oak (especially for Cristal) is to bring more silky and immediate pleasure, to build another layer and to enhance the aromatics of the wine. “Phenolics are the enemy of Champagne, except for Rosé”. 

Minimalist

They practise minimalist winemaking - the work in the winery is to obtain texture.  They are looking for an expression of Spring from the wines, flowers, fresh citrus, chalky minerality.  If you allow malo, you will have not Spring, but Summer with ripe stone fruits, cooked fruits, buttery etc.  Lees stirring (unusual in Champagne) brings another dimension. Ageing far exceeds requirements; Brut Premier spends 3 years on lees, Cristal 6 years.

Cristal

In 1876 when Cristal was born for Tsar Alexander II, the dosage was more than 100gms residual sugar.   The Tsar wanted a “crystal-clear bottle, without punt” as he was a wee bit concerned as to how many ways lethal objects could be concealed. 

He also wanted plenty of gold labelling as flamboyant as the Court of St Petersburg.  Louis Roederer was also a forward thinker, and bought vineyard land so that Cristal could become the choice of Kings and Courts and supply that demand. 

We concluded our visit with a fabulous lunch in the family home, after a brisk cold walk, the open fire was wonderfully welcoming.   As this was our last visit we were in no rush and our hosts were inclined to linger also. 

Lunch was accompanied by Magnums of Brut Premier and Cristal 1990, Brut Rosé 1989, Chateau de Pez 2004 and Ramos Pinto Quinta de Bom Retiro.

© Angela Reddin 2010

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AWE Hungary Seminar,  26th November 2009 by Vivienne Franks

On a freezing cold November morning, members of the AWE met up at ‘Bangers Too’ in London, for a seminar on Hungary led by Caroline Gilby MW and three winemakers from the Szekszárd and Villány-Siklós Wine Regions in the deep south of Hungary.

Caroline gave an overview of the enormous changes that have taken place in Hungary since the end of the communist era in 1989. There are new plantings, new producers and new wines. Hungary currently has 69,000 hectares, 90 grape varieties, both international and indigenous. The most planted red grapes include Kékfrankos, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Zweigelt and Portugieser. The main white varieties are Olaszrizling, Furmint, Hárslevelü, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. There are 22 wine regions, regarded by the industry as too many, so there is talk of down-sizing and amalgamation.

Our focus at this seminar was to look at the wines from 2 regions, Szekszárd and Villány-Siklós. We were very fortunate to have winemakers Csaba Malatinszky, József Bock and AndrasTakler of their eponymous wineries at our seminar, to introduce their own wines.

Szekszárd

The Szekszárd Appellation is about 2 hours drive south of Budapest. Soils here are iron rich ‘Terra Rossa’, and with an average of 2000 hours of sunshine in the growing season, a good region to grow grapes. Plantings are about 80% of red varietals, most predominant is the spicy Kadarka (known as Gamza in Bulgaria).

Hungarian Winemaker of the Year

Andras Takler is the 9th generation of Swabian farmers, who have been in the area since 1725. He talked about the family Estate which comprises 53 hectares, spread over a dozen sites with 48 hectares currently in production. 50% of the vineyards are 35 to 40 years old, the remainder are young, 5 to 8 years old. His father, Ferenc founded the Takler Winery in 1987, and now works together with his two sons, Andras and Ferenc, to produce quality wines. Ferenc senior achieved the title ‘Hungarian Winemaker of the Year’ in 2004.

We tasted Takler’s Kadarka 2007, the majority of this wine was tank fermented then blended with a small proportion of wine matured in Hungarian oak. It was a fruit forward wine, nicely balanced with a peppery note.

This wine was followed by a Kékfrankos 2007 and a Kékfrankos Reserve 2006. The 2007 was a good example of a fruity delicate style, the majority of fruit having been fermented in stainless steel then blended with the remainder, having spent 6 months in Hungarian oak. The 2006 Kékfrankos Reserve, came from very ripe fruit from specially selected sites of the family Estate. It spent 16 months in Hungarian oak, and showed very well.

Villány-Siklós 

The Villány-Siklós Appellation, Hungary’s southernmost wine region, is about another hour’s drive south of Szekszárd, and is close to the Croatian border. This warm region has a Mediterranean climate, with good sunshine and rain and very little frost. Soils are mainly limestone, clay and loess, rich in lime and calcium deposits. From the 2006 vintage, Villány-Siklós was Hungary’s first controlled origin region, using the quality designation DHC (Districtus Hungaricus Controllatus).

Csaba Malatinszky, ex head sommelier at the famous Gundel’s restaurant in Budapest, spent time in Bordeaux, learning to make wine. He returned to Hungary and founded his own winery in Villány-Siklós in 1997. Csaba currently has 30 hectares of vineyards in the region.

We tasted the Noblesse Siklósi Chardonnay 2007, a third fermented in new Hungarian oak, a third fermented in stainless steel and the remaining third in second fill 500 litre barrels. This blend had lovely minerality and a fresh elegance.

The second of Csaba’s wines, Noblesse Merlot Rosé 2007, was a light bodied saignée style, fermented and aged in 500 litre Hungarian oak with battonage to give a complex interesting wine.

Csaba’s wine tasting finished with his highly rated Kúria Cabernet Franc 2006. This was a terrific example of a complex, concentrated, fruity, velvety wine with a great balance of fruit acidity and tannin.

József Bock

József Bock is often regarded as one of Hungary’s leading wine producers, and is another ‘Hungarian Winemaker of the Year’ but he achieved fame earlier than Ferenc Takler, in 1997. József, originally an engineer by profession, is a pioneer in the Hungarian wine industry. He was the first producer of Syrah in Hungary and is an entrepreneur, with restaurants and a hotel. The family is of Swabian descent and following the 2nd World War, the family started to buy back its vineyards and now has a holding of 70 hectares of clay and loess terroir.

We tasted the Hárslevelü 2007, a delicious example of a dry fresh crisp white wine made from a grape that is traditionally grown in Tokaji for sweet wine production.

This was followed by a Portugieser 2008, a variety which originated in Germany, and was vinified in Villány in stainless steel, resulting in a spicy, juicy fruity wine with delicate structure balanced by soft tannins.

The last wine of the tasting, Syrah 2006 comes from fruit grown in the most southerly of Bock’s vineyards. The wine was a gold medal winner at the Syrah du Monde competition. The syrah was aged in new French oak for 18 months and showed exceptionally well, with intense black fruit, spicy peppery and aromatic on the nose, which together with soft tannins continued on the palate.

All these wines are available through Lazslo Hesley of Mephisto Wines, at www.mephistowines.co.uk  with discounts for AWE members running tastings.

Thanks to Caroline Gilby MW for conducting the AWE seminar and tasting, and thanks to Lazslo Hesley for organizing the producers and the wines to be available on the day.

© Vivienne J Franks 06/12/09

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Swirlers and Sniffers Challenge The Eggheads by Anthony Stockbridge

On a wintery Wednesday in late February, six of our members flew to Glasgow to film an episode of the popular quiz programme, ‘EGGHEADS’ which goes out on BBC2 at 6 o’clock on weekday evenings (too early for most of you, I am sure).

Richard Bampfield, Laura Clay, Christopher Fielden, Gilbert Winfield, Anthony Stockbridge and Ginny Malan had volunteered to subject themselves to the embarrassment of displaying the gaps in their knowledge to an audience of some 2.7 million viewers.

Auditions had been held in London earlier in the month and, to be quite honest, we were surprised when an email was received from 12-Yard, the production company, inviting us to participate.

Preliminaries

We were briefed by Victoria Joffe, the production assistant, at the studios of BBC Scotland before going to make-up and then changing into the clothes we had been asked to bring for the event.

When these preliminaries were completed, we were conducted to the recording studio where we received final instructions.  All the while, members of the production team were adjusting, name badges, touching up make-up, fitting microphones and generally creating an atmosphere of what, on the surface, appeared total chaos but was, in fact, choreographed to the most minute degree.

Let the show begin...

Eventually, calmness was restored and the formidable Eggheads team took their places.   We introduced ourselves to camera then Jeremy Vine, the presenter and quizmaster entered, assumed his place in centre stage and the programme started.

Self-assessment

Prior to the event, each of us declared a self-assessment of their ability in each of the nine possible topics which helped us to decide which member would be required to deal with each of the four rounds of specialist subjects.  We had also tried to identify any cracks in the Eggheads' armour. 

The first topic was ‘Science’ which was taken by Gilbert who challenged Daphne.  Each of these was conducted to a room about a hundred feet away from the studio where the rest of the team waited and watched.  Laura then challenged Chris on ‘TV & Films’, Anthony took on Kevin on ‘Food & Drinks’ and finally Richard took CJ to sudden death on the subject of ‘Sport’.

Did we win the £10,000 prize?  You will have to wait until the programme is screened in the next series, which will be in Winter 2010/2011.

© Anthony Stockbridge 2010

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Independent Sector Seminar  by Paul Quinn

Notes from the seminar by Rosie Davenport (editor Off Licence News)

at Sitt Manchester

Independents are classed as shops that have at least 80% turnover from wine and to survive they need to have quality wines and great staff; customer service is paramount. Their average turnover is £500,000 or £250 million for the whole section and this represents 4% of the UK wine market. There are over 360 operators in the UK.

The favourite regions that independents buy most of their wine from are France, Australia and Italy (with a jump in sales of Prosecco and Pinot Grigio still selling well). They have around 10% that cross over into the supermarket sector  - mainly champagnes like Moët and Chandon. Their average bottle price has gone up from £7.24 in 2008 to £8.25 in 2010.  Included in that rise is the 3% increase in duty. But surprisingly most are not importing themselves because of the European exchange rate and are mainly buying from agents.

Promotions

Most of the independents had promotions last year. 84% of them had tastings and said that was the best promotion tool they have. Some do case deals and multi-buys; displays can entice people in. Because of last years demise of First Quench, 85% of outlets said that they had greater footfall. 24% more people have been coming in to purchase higher priced wines, 29% to purchase value wines and 75% of people come in for a more diverse wine.  A lot of independents are now selling wines online - this has brought in 5.5% of sales and is still growing.

Main challenges for this year again are currency, duty rises, economy and getting people to come in more from supermarkets. A lot of them are expecting a good year with more growing confidence and expect to sell more premium wines.

© Paul Quinn 2010

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Robert Parker Masterclass, by Angela Reddin

WineFuture Conference 2009, Logrono

Thursday 12th November 2009

Robert Parker had never before visited Rioja and this Masterclass was a first in a number of ways, not to mention the largest tasting of its kind ever organised in Europe. 

10,800 Riedel glasses were needed for the 20 samples for 540 delegates. Nothing could be poured in advance as there was such a limited quantity of wine and herding the vast number of participants and getting them to sit down and not knock over the glasses was like pushing water uphill.   A tasting mat listed each of the wines in the pouring order but unfortunately the accompanying booklet with Parker’s tasting notes on each wine had been printed in the wrong order to the tasting which caused some frustration. We started a little late, due to getting everybody seated and perhaps the pouring was a little slow, but overall the Masterclass pourers did a superb job.

The Emperor of Wine

The “Emperor of Wine” was treated very much like royalty or a rock star, depending on your viewpoint, whisked in and out of the venue unseen until he was due on stage.  Mere wine writers or other key speakers had to arrive by the front door.

Parker’s theme was Grenache, a love of his; he stated that Châteauneuf-du-Pape was his favourite style of wine.  The wines were selected, not to be a Parker Power taste-off, but to show the diversity of Grenache, as a stand alone or in a blend.

Oversubscribed

I was in charge of organising the Australian wines selected by Parker. The Masterclass originally had a cap of 350 attendees but it was so oversubscribed that the final figures were 530 attendees plus the speakers. Even so, that was stretching the 30 bottles of each wine quite far! A guestimate in the prep room of the cost of the wines was well in excess of €100,000.

Decanting

Parker had asked that none of the wines be decanted but this proved unviable.  In my panel of pre-tasters, we found one wine where all the bottles showed signs of re-fermentation. A call to a horrified winemaker resulted in a frantic request to decant everything for half an hour to allow the CO₂ to dissipate.  We neither had the time nor decanters to do this. However, we did double decant each bottle and Robert said “no, don't pull it off, we will show everything selected”. Parker had wanted the wines not to be opened until 4 pm “because of the danger of oxidation with Grenache”. The tasting was due to start at 6pm.

High alcohol levels

On my section, the Clarendon Hills was a fantastically dense mouthful. Initially almost like chewing a brick. It just had to be decanted. Once air had given it a softened edge the wine was more forgiving to the tasters, but it still had massive presence and body. The Greenock Creek wine was showing some travel shock and again needed decanting to coax it out of its sulk. Killikanoon ‘Duke’ and Torbreck ‘Les Amis’ completed the Australian selection of old vine Grenache and both showed extremely well, Killikanoon with a lively lick of acidity and the Torbreck just gloriously seductive.

In general terms, apart from the 1945 Marques de Riscal, nearly all of the wines boasted alcohol levels in excess of 14%. There were 3 other wines at 16% and one which stated over 17.5%. Jancis made comment on this “I am sorry but women’s bodies cannot cope with above 15% abv wines”.

Assessment

Pre-tasters worked in teams of two; because of the limitation of pouring samples, only those obviously anisole-tainted bottles were taken off. All the wines were sealed under cork and out of 600 bottles, 8 were rejected.  Not a bad batting average for the cork industry perhaps?  Anything suspect was re-assessed by another team, but only to call for bottles to be decanted.  There was very little room for error as we were so limited with the amount of samples we had.

Format

The format of the tasting was such that Parker would talk about each wine which was then translated by Gabriela Ranelli, who, I have to admit, was absolutely fantastic. Her translation of some quite lengthy explanations was spot on, but it did rather interrupt the flow of the evening. Also, there were some problems with the microphones.

Dissapointing

It was not a debate; questions to Parker were only made by Kevin Szraly (they are buddies) and even though he tried to get Parker to open up a bit, in general it was a beginner’s lecture on Grenache, delivered to hundreds of very high-calibre wine professionals, so rather disappointing.  I wanted to get inside the head of this man who wields so much power on the wine stage, but there was no opportunity for interaction and he would not be drawn out. He did not really seem at ease, almost nervous in fact, and the slightly disjointed nature of the event meant that there was quite a buzz of commentary going on all around from the participants.

1945 Riscal

For the 1945 Riscal, the winery had insisted that this should NOT be opened until just before service.   The bottles had all been recorked some 5 or 6 years ago.  We removed the capsules and the variation on the size and shapes of the neck and also generally the colour and shape of the bottles was huge.   They were definitely not standard sizes so standard corks would not have fitted many of these old bottles. We pulled the corks out enough so that the pourers could pull out the final few centimeters as they were about to be poured. We tasters did try a bottle earlier and it was sublime, but enormous bottle variation was to be expected and in fact was experienced in the tasting. The wine poured into my glass was like drinking liquid rust. The pourers had 2 bottles to pour from so either side tasters could compare. This worked well.

Comments

Parker commented that “great wine is good when it is young. Too much tannin in youth is always going to be too much tannin”.  This was in reference to his tasting out of barrel, when some wines have not yet settled. His view on non-filtration is that if the wine is healthy, with no fermentable sugars and no malo yeast remaining, then only a very light filtration may be required - “Try not to over filter”.  As he tastes many barrel samples, he finds that after filtration the wines are often only a shadow of themselves. When asked about varieties of the future, Parker believes that Mediterranean style wines to match with food will do well, and also Malbec.  Parker is a firm believer in cork for ageing wines.

He said that he is slowing down – he used to taste some 10,000 wines a year personally, now he tastes 6–7,000 so it was interesting to taste 20 with him!

© Angela Reddin 2010

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The wines shown in the tasting were:

FRANCE

Pierre Usseglio, Mon Aieul 2007;

Domaine de Marcoux Vieilles Vignes 2007;

Domaine la Barroche Pure 2007;

Chapoutier Barbe Rac 2007;

Clos du Mont-Olivet, La Cuvée du Papet 2007;

Domaine de la Vieille Julienne 2007;

Domaine Charvin 2007.

CALIFORNIA

Sine Qua Non Atlantis 2005;

Alban Vineyards Pandora 2006.

SPAIN

Espectacle 2006 (DO Montsant);

Clos Erasmus 2007;

Bodegas Mancuso 2005;

Alto Moncayo Aquilon 2006;

Atteca Armas 2007;

Rioja

Marqués de Riscal Reserva 1945;

Contador 2007.

AUSTRALIA

Greenock Creek Cornerstone 2006;

Clarendon Hills Old Vines Romas 2006;

Torbreck Les Amis 2005;

Kilikanoon Duke 2006.

Wines of Turkey trip by Susan Hulme MW

A press trip to visit the wine regions of Turkey in spring sounded like an exciting idea back in the middle of a bleak December and I still felt excited as we were about to depart on the last day of February 2010. I’d even done some homework and tasted a bottle of Kavaklidere Öküzgözü from a local Turkish restaurant/deli.

The five day trip was organised by Wines of Turkey, an organisation set up only in the last 3 years by Taner Öğütoğlu and his wife and funded by a small monthly contribution from five of the main wineries. Their first initiative was two years ago when they hired a stand at the LIWSTF and several of the producers came over to represent their wines.

Blind tasting

On the first full day we were given a thorough presentation on Turkish grape varieties and key wine regions by Daniel O'Donnel of Kayra. We had a big blind tasting of 49 wines representing 16 wineries; we were to assess and give marks for the wines. This was a bit of a shock to the system as we were unfamiliar with the grapes and their characteristics. We were also being filmed for every second of the tasting - most of the producers were watching us on a big screen situated outside the tasting room.

It was quite a mammoth tasting as a first introduction to Turkish wines and I was extremely conscious of the need to be truthful but fair in my criticism of the wines. By the end things were running late and I felt sorry that we didn’t have longer to talk more to the winemakers and to taste more of their wines during the walk-around tasting in the afternoon. 

What it did give us was an overview of wine styles:

• 12 white (a mix of native white varieties (Emir and Narince), Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay.

• 3 rosés (one blend, and two native varieties (Kalecik Karasi and Adakarasi)

• 34 reds - these consisted of 3 Kalecik Karasi; a mixture of two more native varieties (Öküzgözü - pronounced Okuzgoeszu - which became my firm favourite by the end of the trip and the intriguingly characterful, tannic Boğazkere) and international varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah.

Top quality restaurants

That evening (as every evening) we were treated to a delightful meal with the producers in one of Istanbul’s many top quality restaurants. I was struck by how many international restaurants there were with an emphasis on Turkish food with an international twist; there is a wealth of top quality chefs and beautiful restaurants in stunning locations in Istanbul which I hadn't imagined. During pre-dinner drinks we met the British Consul in Turkey, Jessica Hand and her American ex-US army husband who both seemed passionate about living and travelling in Turkey and the beauty of the countryside.

Itinerary

The rest of the week involved visits to Wines of Turkey’s three major supporting wineries, Doluca in Thrace, Kavaklidere in Cappadocia and Kayra in Istanbul for a more in-depth look at what they produce and the regions themselves. While in Cappadocia we also visited the Turasan winery. What was especially well done on this trip was that the wineries, whenever possible, had organised tastings with flights of 3 or 4 of the same variety from different regions so we soon began to get a feel both for the characteristics of these varieties and the regions themselves.

Doluca

Doluca is a family-owned company based in Thrace and presided over by the eloquent Ahmet Kutman. His daughter Sibel takes care of marketing and son Ali is the winemaker (along with female Turkish winemaker Aysun Pirdel).

They were the first Turkish winery to plant international grape varieties. In 1924 Ahmet’s father went to study in Geisenheim and he founded the Doluca company in 1926 (Ataturk had recently come to power and legalised the consumption of alcohol). Before that, in 1925 he had imported varieties such as Cinsault, Riesling and Gamay to Thrace as he thought they would do well there. Later, in the mid-1940’s, these vine cuttings were sold on the market under the brand name Doluca.

Investment

Ahmet joined the company in 1969 and he studied oenology and viticulture at UC Davis, California. Production then was 150, 000 bottles and Ahmet wanted to grow and expand the company. Turkey in the mid-1960’s was going through double and triple inflation but also the tourists had discovered Turkey; this was to prove very important for wine consumption. When Ahmet became chairman in 1981, he abandoned his concrete tanks in favour of temperature controlled stainless steel tanks and introduced state-of-the-art bottling lines with inert gas fillers. More recent investment has focused on the vineyards and with a friend they developed a joint brand called Sarafin on the Gallipoli peninsula. They now own vineyards in Gallipoli and Deznir in the south-west of Turkey. They have an Australian consultant who has encouraged them to do much more micro-management of the vineyards as there is so much variation just within a single vineyard.

Alçıtepe

One exciting development is their single vineyard in Gallipoli called Alçıtepe, planted in 2001 with Shiraz, Grenache, Cabernet Sauvignon and Öküzgözü at an altitude of 200-300m; the soil is loamy with grainy sand. I had given their Doluca Grenache a high score in the blind tasting and so was very interested to see where it had come from. But distances are great in Turkey and we had driven for 3 ½ hours from Istanbul to get to the winery in Mürefte so a further journey was out of the question but the vineyard would have been worth the journey I’m sure. Next time perhaps.

Apart from Alcitepe, they have other single vineyards focusing on other varieties:

• Eceabat  - planted in 2005 with Merlot, Miskat (Muscat), Viognier

• Güney (in Denizli) - planted in 2006 with Boğazkere, Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Quality

Their big aim is to be able to provide 50% of their own grapes by 2012. Interestingly, Doluca’s production has decreased  from 11 million bottles in the 1990’s to 5 million bottles now that they focusing much more on producing high quality wines. They have decided to let go of some of the tourist hotel trade; the popularity of all-inclusive holiday packages has meant there is a demand for the cheapest wines possible regardless of quality. I really liked their trend towards individual terroir and the micro-management of the vineyards and thought it reflected very well in the progress of the wines, especially the four vintages from 2006 to 2009 of Cabernet Sauvignon/Syrah from the Alçıtepe vineyard. In 2007 the alcohol was 15.1% but by 2009 it was 14.1% with a more refined tannic structure and more distinctive cassis and blackcurrant leaf flavours. The most recent had a much better balance and elegance overall.

As we were still coming to grips with the characteristics, what really helped was tasting the wines in groups of 3 or 4 of the same variety but from different areas. It was interesting to see that the more recent plantings of Öküzgözü and Boğazkere in Denizli had a much more refined tannic structure in general but some of the flavours were being masked by expensive, high quality new oak. While on the other hand there was something more exotic and a wild beauty to the fruit in the Eastern Anatolian wines but it was masked by the wildness and rusticity of the tannins. This was partly due to poor vineyard management in this region which Doluca had no control over.

Kayra (Thrace)

We had a brief whistle stop at Kayra’s winery in Thrace where, fuelled by a desire that any long journey must be made worthwhile by visiting a vineyard, we persuaded Daniel O’Donnel, Kayra’s winemaking director (pictured left), to take us to his new Kayra vineyard. An intrepid group of myself, Caroline Gilby MW, Oz Clark and David Furer and the affable Taner jolted along for 30 minutes in the back of a tractor along a muddy track to stand in the rain and mist in a new, as yet unnamed vineyard facing Gallipoli across the sea. The other sensible half of the group were whisked around Kayra’s winery then back to Istanbul.

Still, it was unforgettable, invigorating and bracing – like the Skegness poster, and I’m glad I went. Thanks to Caroline, David and Oz for being such good sports and coming along and to Taner and especially Daniel for making it possible. On top of this we were blessed with a taxi driver with a ruthless desire to get us back to Istanbul on time. His fearless driving, tendency to take red lights as merely advisory and knowledge of back street short cuts through Istanbul was second to none. Miraculously we were back within half an hour of the others.

Spectacular

Back in the comfort of the Marmara Pera Hotel, we discovered one of the most spectacular views of Istanbul from the roof-top bar. The Kutman family were our hosts again at Mikla Restaurant. For many of us this was the culinary highlight of the trip. It was the most delicious of all the wonderful meals we enjoyed because there was a subtlety and elegance to the food and an understated emphasis on the quality of the ingredients.

Wednesday 3rd March began with a 7.20 departure from our hotel for a flight to Nevşehir in Central Anatolia to visit the Cappadocia region, home of the Emir grape variety and world famous cave dwellings where early Christians had lived and hidden from the persecution of the Romans. Here we were due to visit two wineries, Turasan and Kavaklidere.

Turasan

Turasan is owned by Hasan Turasan and has a young French winemaker, Edouard Guérin, at the helm. I had sought them both out on Monday at the blind tasting because I very much liked their Narince 2008.

We had been told Cappadocia had a continental climate and could be very cold, especially at night. It was a cold, drizzly start to the day but there to greet us was a blazing coal fire in the traditional-style tasting room which we all gathered around to enjoy.

Freedom

Turasan is a family winery, situated in Ürgüp, and was founded in 1943. One of the first things Edouard told us was that wine was not a hobby for them, they needed it to be a business – a healthy attitude I felt. He graduated from Montpellier University and started here in 2007  - he felt he could have so much more freedom and control here as a young, newly graduated winemaker than anywhere else. They work with all of the aforementioned Turkish varieties: Emir, Narince, Öküzgözü and Boğazkere. Importantly they prefer not to use too much oak because, as I had already found in the blind tasting, they felt a lot of wines were over-oaked. 

The walls of the cellar were tuffeau which, as Edouard said, acts like a sponge for water. This is important in hot dry summers with low fertility soils. Vine density is low at 6000 vines per ha  - the amount of water available would not support higher density plantings. There is no phylloxera here so the Emir wines we tasted were from vines grown on their own roots.

Altitude

The vineyard altitude varies between 1000 – 1500 metres. This year they had snow here on the 30^th September (2009) so they can’t grow varieties like Boğazkere which has a long slow vegetative period. On the other hand, this gives big diurnal differences of temperature which of course helps retain acidity and flavours.

Edouard has some flexibility when making Emir, depending on the vintage. In 2007 in July, the temperature here was 55^o C (130^o F – Iraqi desert temperature) so he used grapes planted at 1500 metres to retain acidity and flavours. Here the soils are very rich in potassium and calcium so the grapes lose lots of tartaric acid; most of the acidity therefore comes from malic acid. As Emir flavours and aromas are reminiscent of fresh green apples the malic acid accentuates the impression.

Tradtional

The most characterful and traditional lunch of the whole trip followed which I enjoyed immensely. Charles was first up to crack the neck of a clay pot with a sword-like knife so that casseroled meat spilled out (pictured right). He did it with one fell swoop - my attempt was a bit less impressive and took 2 or 3 hits. We had traditional meze, a fresh salad, local cheeses followed by meat with delicious rice.

As we entered the restaurant I noticed some lived-in houses built into the traditional rock dwellings and was surprised when Edouard told me they sell for $150, 000 just for an empty shell without electricity and are highly sought after as homes. Wish I'd bought a cave or two before they caught on!

Kavaklidere

Our next visit was to one of the big wineries, Kavaklidere, who we had just learned had come out top of the blind tasting overall. Caroline, Charles and I had given the Kavaklidere Öküzgözü 2008 our top marks. The Kavaklidere team who met us included the owner, Ali Basman, and the delightful Turkish female winemaker Asli Odman Gider, who had studied in Bordeaux. They were highly organised and had even gone to the trouble of providing brightly coloured wellington boots (see Charles pictured left) in various sizes in order for us to go out and visit their Côtes d’Avanos vineyard which was was planted in 1993 at an altitude of 950m.

Avanos translates as red and is the name of a nearby river. The soil is volcanic tufa, very highly drained with a layer of pebbles. They train the Narince and Chardonnay using the Gobelet system so that they can cover the roots with earth as frost protection. They can get temperatures of -17^oC in winter and hot summers of 40^oC; night temperatures in summer fall to between 20 and 25^oC giving a diurnal difference of between 15 and 20^oC. 

Tasting

The visit in this case was cut short by heavy rain so we trooped back in our jeeps to the winery for a very professionally laid-out wine tasting. There was a full scale map of Turkey with the wine regions set out in front of us so that we could begin to get more to grips with where these wines came from. The Kavaklidere wines were not heavily-oaked compared to some other wines in the blind tasting; neither were they over-extracted. 

Gentleness

Some winemakers seem determined to take out their wine ambitions on the grapes themselves, especially during the maceration and extraction process by squeezing every last drop out of the grapes, the result being that, in the glass, their wines lack charm and grace. This is not just a Turkish phenomenon and is common in many more well-known wine regions. The Kavaklidere wines instead had a gentleness of touch which allowed some of the beauty of the fruit and fragrance to come out, not only with the Öküzgözü but even with the wilder Boğazkere. It is often said that the personality of the winemaker comes out in the wines and this seemed to be the case with Asli. She was so attentive to detail, patient and willing to listen while being finely-tuned to what was going on around her. These are ideal qualities for a winemaker.

Unusual

The following day we were taken to one of the most impressive and unusual vineyards I have ever seen - a very old vine Emir vineyard called Çat (meaning crossroads, as it was a crossroads for the old silk route), with vines between  70 and 150 years old, surrounded by the dramatic Cappadocia landscape (pictured right). No other vines can grow here because of the winter and spring frosts and they are grown on their own rootstocks hence their longevity.

The first blinding sunlight of the trip reflected off the chalky/volcanic soils and the snow-covered mountain of Hasan Dag in the distance. I was so glad I had made the effort to get up and visit this vineyard as it was a real wrench to leave the fabulous hotel we were staying at.  

Museum Hotel

Our overnight stay in the Museum Hotel (www.museum-hotel.com) in Uçhisar/Nevşehir was definitely the non-wine highlight of the trip for me and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a romantic and authentic place to stay. It is carved into the mountain side in the manner of the traditional cave dwellings but is decorated with the most lavish ethnic furnishings, carpets, rugs and antiques.

Magical

The owner is a collector of beautiful and historically significant carpets and showed us one or two of his special rugs on display. My room was on two levels and had a jacuzzi and shower, an enormous 4 poster bed and a fish pond complete with fountain and black and gold goldfish. The room had several windows and I awoke just after dawn to the sight of 18 or so hot air balloons rising slowly above the magical Cappadocian landscape (pictured below). I am a bit of a connoisseur of hotels - this was one of the top five hotels I have ever stayed in for the beauty of the location and the luxury of the room. I must give special thanks to Ceyda at Redmint Communications and the owner of the Museum Hotel for this wonderful overnight stay.

Final day

After flying back to Istanbul, we had our final visit to Kayra winery for a comprehensive tasting with the ebullient and highly enthusiastic Daniel O’Donnell and his team. Kayra have been so forward-looking in opening a very successful wine school and when we arrived, AWE member Kevin Powell was there delivering a WSET Advanced course on behalf of the WSET.

Final tasting, final dinner

First we tasted some local, inexpensive Turkish wines to give us a feel for what was out there at the cheap and not so cheerful end. There were 6 or 7 wines but two of these were enough for me to get an idea. The 50 or so Kayra wines we tasted ranged from the latest tank samples of Chardonnay to many of the major Kayra brands. It once again highlighted the regional variations for Öküzgözü and Boğazkere between Central-Eastern Anatolia and the Aegean. We also tasted a wine which held some sentimental value for Tim Atkin MW - the famous Turkish brand, Buzbağ, which he remembered from his student days.  It was a marathon tasting at times done at breakneck speed in that macho ‘I can taste faster than you’ mode but still interesting nevertheless. Our final dinner was hosted very generously by Kayra at their restaurant and included members of the Turkish press and PR agencies as well as the Kayra team.

Final impressions

The following day we had a press conference to report on our impressions to the Turkish media and to the producers themselves. I think all of us found more to admire than we had expected. Turkish wine is at an exciting stage - it has a wealth of high quality and fascinating native grape varieties, some very committed producers who can call on the experience of outside consultants and now they have Wines of Turkey to promote them.

Barriers

Of course there are barriers to success: in Turkey there are prohibitively high taxes on wine which tend to make the better wines exclusive and over-priced; the pronunciation of the names of the indigenous grape varieties is a big challenge and it took most of us nearly a week to learn to pronounce them correctly (but isn't that true of some other countries and there is no reason why brand names cannot be promoted instead).

On the positive side, Turkey was the biggest tourist destination for the UK last year and we tend to have a positive image of the country. I would like to see one of the supermarkets or retail chains start to sell some of these wines to see what happens. Why not dare to be different and lead the market for a change?

We started the week not knowing much about Turkish wines and ended it by all of us having a great enthusiasm for several of the native Turkish grapes and a knowledge of some of the wine regions and key producers. We also had a few glimpses into the beauty and exoticism of Istanbul and Cappadocia and the depths of Turkish hospitality.

Pictured L-R: Oz Clark, Dr. Caroline Gilby MW, Stephen Brook, Susan Hulme MW, Taner Öğütoğlu (Wines of Turkey), Charles Metcalfe, Tim Atkin MW, Dr. Aysegul Gurgezoglu (Turkish Tourist Board), Ceyda Pekenc (Redmint Communications), David Furer.

With grateful thanks to the Turkish wine producers, Wines of Turkey, Redmint Communications and the Turkish Tourist Board for their part in organising this trip.

© Susan Hulme MW 2010

Photos (from top):

Panel (seated) © Ceyda Pekenc, Redmint Communications;

the Doluca family © Susan Hulme MW;

Daniel O'Donnel, Oz and Susan at Turasan, Charles with sword, Charles with yellow boots, Çat vineyard, Cappadocian balloons © Caroline Gilby MW;

panel (standing) © Ceyda Pekenc, Redmint Communications
 

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Oak: The Wonderbra of the Wine World by Debra Meiburg MW

Oak is the Wonderbra of the wine world. It offers shape and comfort to the user; it provides wine with seductive padding, support and contour. In the past twenty years oak has run rampant, dominating wines from Europe to the Southern hemisphere. While there is no question that oak enhances wine’s silhouette, many winemakers push it to the extreme, with Domaine Laurent of Nuits-St.-Georges boasting use of “200% oak.”

Overtly buxom appeals to some, but beware, there must be something interesting underneath. Otherwise, one is left with a sagging structure and the inevitable droop.

But why are oak and wine so intimately acquainted? For centuries, the Mediterranean relied on clay jugs called amphorae for shipping wine, while inland regions, such as Rioja, Spain used pig skins. As wine production progressed northward, woodsy northern Europe opted to store wine in oak barrels. Fine wine producers soon realized that oak imparted flavors into the wine far superior to pig skins and clay.

The two dominant oak suppliers are America and France, though barrels are sourced from woodsy regions everywhere including Central and Eastern Europe. American oak has long been regarded as having a vanilla and coconut influence on wine, whereas French oak is considered to impart a spicy character into the liquid. Modern science now argues this flavor differential is dictated by barrel production technique rather than distinctive oak species. How the wood is cut, dried and seasoned has much to do with the barrel’s ultimate flavor profile, but the most important influence is the heat used to shape the barrels.

In order to configure stiff corset-like oak staves into a pleasing round shape, they are warmed over open flames before being forced into a series of heavy steel bands. Any woman with an under-wire support system will understand this effort. Heat levels facilitate pliability, but also change the wood’s inherent character. Thus an oak barrel that was shaped over high flame will infuse a smoky, almost coffee-like flavor into wine. Oak shaped with minimal heat will inculcate a delicate vanilla profile and oak with “medium toast” is most likely to impart a spicy, clove-like flavor.

While oak can lift and separate the ordinary from the sublime, many contemporary winemakers are reining back their exuberant use of oak, especially Australian winemakers, whose wines were once so overtly laden with oak flavor that Yarra Valley winemaker Serge Carlei, referred to them as “wine with breast implants.” “They hone you in”, he says, “and get your attention, but when you touch them, they’re not the real thing.” These days many Australian winemakers are producing classic oak-matured wines as well as a range labeled “unoaked.”

The Wonderbra was hugely popular in the 90 ’s. We’ve now reached the end of the reactive burn-your-bra 00’s. Neither is sexy without underlying fruit and structure: it’s all a question of balance and proportion.

© Debra Meiburg MW 

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A wine shop within a hotel by John Hoskins MW, owner of The Old Bridge at Huntingdon

Why has no-one done this before? Well actually they have, at the lovely old Inn at Whitewell, in rural Lancashire. That’s where I saw a wine shop within a hotel and thought that I really ought to follow suit. Gerard Basset and I are the only MW hoteliers in the UK – I felt I should be making more of this qualification in my business.

In December 2008 we moved the hotel reception and converted a little-used private dining room into a wine shop. We spent silly money building every shelf out of English oak, installing low energy lighting and those wonderful Enomatic wine-tasting machines (pictured below).

Turnover

But it’s all been worth it. 2009 and 2010, thus far, have been pretty dreadful years for the hotel and restaurant world, outside of the big tourist centres. Our wine shop has made up the turnover we have lost in our bread-and-butter areas.

Recession

Like most hotels, our mid-week trade was held together by small, often informal, business meetings. These seem to have dried up almost completely in this new puritanical world of recession and expense-scandals.

Enomatic

Half the trade in the wine shop is from diners or residents buying wine after eating with us – normally stocking up on something they tasted earlier. The other half is locals using a classic independent wine shop. The Enomatics are half of the draw here. Customers can taste before they buy – and at any time of day (we are open all day every day). It’s also true to say that wine tastings in the shop are often as social and informal as having a drink at the bar.

The way forward

So I do wonder if this sort of cross-fertilisation is the way forward for the independent trade. Having seen the maths close up, I think it is almost impossible for a single wine shop in a small town or rural location to survive simply selling wine from that one site. If the shop is in fact the front for a great web-based business, or for a wholesaler, then of course the figures can work. But for others there is obvious potential for the combination with a deli, with restaurant, or with other retail of some sort. Kate Thal’s Green and Blue concept in south London is a model in this respect.

© John Hoskins MW 

The Old Bridge

1 High Street

Huntingdon

Cambs

PE29 3TQ

Telephone 01480 458410

Web www.huntsbridge.com

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The Old Bridge by Susan Hulme MW

Having found myself with a very early start to a day’s work in Cambridge back in January, I remembered that my former MW mentor John Hoskins MW owned an hotel nearby in Huntingdon - The Old Bridge. So it came to be that I arrived late one evening to a very warm welcome. I was shown to my room by a member of staff who insisted on helping me with my bags.

Themed rooms

The room was decorated in a ‘Wind in the Willows’ theme and had a magnificent four-poster bed and lavish decorations in keeping with the theme. Each room has a different theme and all were designed by John’s wife, Julia.

The bathroom was as big as the large bedroom with a freestanding claw foot bath, modern shower cabinet and double ‘his and hers’ washbasins. A fluffy bathrobe and slippers completed the ensemble.

Attention to detail

Once shown around my room, I was offered tea (made with proper tea leaves) which was served on the most delicate white china with homemade lemon shortbread biscuits. All of this attention to detail adds so much to the experience. As a modern touch, there was also a wide, flat-screen TV.

Comfort

When I could be prised away from the comfort of the room, there was the joy of having a really good restaurant, a delightfully cosy bar and an outstanding wine list awaiting me downstairs.

Award-winning wine-list

The Old Bridge Hotel has just won the Wine Award for best wine list (England and overall) in the 2009-2010 AA Hospitality Awards. This is the second time running they have won this award and the only hotel to have won twice.

For wine connoisseurs, the bar and the restaurant list are just an Aladdin’s cave of delights and the wine list is written in a very honest, accurate and descriptive way that is very much John’s style.

I was dining alone that night, so was very pleased that there were so many wines by the glass as well as many delicious half-bottles. To go with my goat’s cheese starter, I chose a glass of Pouilly-Fuissé which was out-performing its class and tasted more like a Meursault. I then had a half-bottle of Barolo to go with the main course of risotto. Both wines were very good.

Enomatic

One of the reasons John can offer so many interesting wines by the glass is the relatively new 'Enomatic' machines they’ve got. This amazing piece of equipment allows wines to be kept for much longer in a healthy condition by using inert gas to preserve wine in a 'just opened' state for (according to their website) more than three weeks.

Overall, the stay (including a delicious 3 course breakfast) was such brilliant value for money that I felt I had to write about it. If you are in the area, I recommend it highly as a place to stay.

© Susan Hulme MW 2010

AWE members can take advantage of a special offer which is valid until the end of November 2010.

If they contact John direct – jh@huntsbridge.co.uk  - they will be offered a special rate of £85 per person for:

A double room

Dinner in the restaurant (freely chosen from the A La Carte Menu)

Full English breakfast

Early morning tea and newspaper brought to your room

This can be on any night of the week as long as there is availability.

NB This must be approved by John -  if you apply direct to the hotel, the offer rate won't apply.

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AWE Swimathon by Gilbert Winfield

Some of your fellow members were so inspired by the team spirit engendered during their recent Eggheads experience, that they have decided to embark on another folly, this time a charitable one.

Pictured here in all their sartorial elegance, and dry, are most of the AWE Swimathon team: Laura Clay, Carol Whitehead and yours truly.  Richard Bampfield MW will also be taking part, although he was too shy to come to the photo shoot (or perhaps we didn’t say the right things to his agent).

They will be raising money for Marie Curie Cancer Care by swimming in the UK Swimathon during the weekend of 16th-18th April. Recently we have seen several wine trade Narcissi flaunting their stuff in trade publications, promoting their brand of charity, now it’s the AWE’s turn! You will not need to lock your daughters up for this lot, but you might feel like sponsoring one of them, by finding his/her name at www.swimathon.org.

© Gilbert Winfield 2010

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Eric then presented a really interesting selection of wines with all his usual thoroughness and attention to detail: 

Cuvée Royale Brut N.V. A.C. Crémant de Limoux, Les Vignerons de Sieurs d’Arques

70% Chardonnay, 20% Chenin and 10% Pinot Noir 

This was a pretty good sparkling wine with a fresh aroma of citrus and apples and flakey pastry notes.

The palate was quite nutty, if a little hard and brittle with a slightly bitter almond twist on the finish.

I had been tasting a lot of Cava earlier in the day and the contrast was really interesting, as it was much tighter and less foamy than cheap Cava normally is. It also has more acidity and this makes the wine seem more pure and elegant.

Domaine Fèlines Jourdan 2008, A.C. Picpoul de Pinet

100% Picpoul. 

The colour was very attractive bright, pale gold. The nose was bright and complex with notes of honey, lemon curd, pine nuts and flowers and herbs as well as a touch of oily saltiness - the smell sums up the Mediterranean really. The palate had a lovely weight with quite a rich mouth-feel that was fresh, but soft with tastes of honey and almonds, pithy citrus, pesto and herbs and a creamy, nutty, oily texture.

A beautifully balanced, very attractive and eminently drinkable wine with a long finish.

I have always avoided Picpoul after a bad experience a few years ago, but I won’t anymore!

Collioure Blanc Cornet & Cie 2008, A.C. Collioure Blanc, Cave de l’Abbé Rous

70% Grenache Gris, 10 % Grenache Blanc together with 20 % made up of Roussanne, Marsanne and Vermentino. 

This was another revelation for me; it had a great colour of medium deep gold, and a really complex and enticing nose; round and fragrant with sweet vanilla and floral notes and a creamy touch.

The palate was fabulous, with freshness and richness in good balance together with subtle spicy oak, herbal flavours of aniseed and spice notes of cardamom. The texture and mouthfeel were terrific with an oily, waxy feel and good acid balance. The long, dry finish had a firm touch of spicy oak with a tingle of peppery minerality.

I really, really liked this and found it complex and delicious.

Domaine de Fontseque 2006, A.C. Corbières Boutenac, Gérard Bertrand

40% Carignan, 30% Syrah and 30% Grenache  - 100% maceration carbonique (although frankly I couldn’t tell). 

The colour was an attractive translucent plum with a nose of stewed fruit with leather, spice and herbs as well as a meaty quality.  In the mouth it was soft with smooth tannins and an inherent dried fruit sort of sweetness that I often associate with Carignan. There was also dry spice and leathery notes as well as a stalky and raisiny finish with a slight taste of bitter coffee grounds.

Domaine Treloar Three Peaks Côtes du Roussillon Rouge 2006, A.C. Côtes du Roussillon, Domaine Treloar

60% Syrah , 30% Grenache and 10% Mourvèdre from the Les Aspres area in the south west of Roussillon down towards Mt. Canigou - which at 2784 metres always dominates the horizon if you turn in that direction - although this wine does not use the AC Côtes du Roussillon Les Aspres.

This estate is run by Yorkshireman Jonathan Hesford and his New Zealander wife Rachel Treloar who felt a career change coming on after having lived just 500 metres from The World Trade Centre in September 2001.

The colour was a deep and intense plummy blue black, the nose was floral, spicy and full of redcurrant and blackberry aromas and a big whack of alcohol. The palate was slightly hot, stewed and raisiny with dry resiny wood, flourishes of coffee and cocoa and a touch of forest floor. The texture was juicy and supple with smooth tannins and a herbal, liquorice character on the finish - really enjoyable in a rustic, traditional red wine kind of way.

Dom Brial Muscat de Rivesaltes 2007, A.C. Muscat de Rivesaltes, Les Vignerons de Baixas - Domaine Brial

Blend of Muscat à Petits Grains and Muscat d'Alexandrie.

Now we come to a real Catalan speciality - fortified Muscat. The great Arnaud de Villeneuve or Arnaldus de Villa Nova, who worked at the court of the Kings of Catalonia, was credited with introducing the art of distilling and fortifying from the Arab world.

This was very fresh and lively looking with a pale colour. The nose was very attractive and bright with honey and lemon as well as grapefruit and a softer, deeper citrus note like lemon curd. There were also little touches of exotic ripe fruit and pears as well as almond pastry, all giving a more complex feel.

The palate was very fresh with a touch of aniseed spice, honey and syrup and dried lemon peel with astonishingly well balanced alcohol.

It is a really splendid example of fortified Muscat.

Domaine Mas Amiel 15 Ans d’Age, A.C. Maury, Domaine Mas Amiel

90% Grenache with 5% Carignan and 5 % Macabeu to give freshness.

This was an astonishing finale - a rich, deep intense and brooding wine of great complexity that had spent a year outside in glass demijohns before being aged for 14 years in large oak casks.

The colour was reddy brown with a burnt caramel edge. The aromas are rich coffee and chocolate with a high note of sweaty leather, figs, prunes and brown sugar. The palate was amazingly fresh with prune and fig notes swirling around with rich caramel and smooth tannins. It was surprisingly dry, I tend to think of these wines as sweet but it was very well balanced. The finish was slightly bitter like really good bitter chocolate - it was a great, great wine.

Insight

With the commercial importance of Vins de Pays it was wonderful to taste a cross section of the A.C. wines from the region. It gave me a much needed insight into some of the less frequently encountered wines  and showed that there are some terrific wines at great prices out there -  if we can just persuade consumers to vary their habits a little bit.

Thank you Eric, it was very good of you to come over to share your knowledge of the Languedoc-Roussillon and show us such an interesting array of wines.

© Quentin Sadler 2010 

Photos © Sud De France

Note: there will be an AWE tasting with Sud de France on the organic/biodynamic wines of the area in December.

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Keith Grainger wins "Best Wine Education Book In The World" award by Richard Bampfield MW  

The ‘Best Wine Education Book in the World’ Award has been won by Keith Grainger for ‘Wine Quality Tasting and Selection’.

Keith was presented with the Swarovski Crystal Trophy at the Gourmand Awards ceremony held at Le 104, the new cultural centre in Paris, by Edouard Cointreau, chairman of the awards committee. The book was chosen for the award from the 11 winners of individual countries.

Expert

Described by Edouard as “the expert in the field”, Keith is now based in the UK again after working in South Africa. Instrumental in founding the Association of Wine Educators, he is now celebrating twenty years in professional wine education and is already writing his next two works.

Keith said “I am thrilled to receive this award for a book that is a serious examination of the concepts and challenges of wine tasting and quality assessment.  In a wine world that has become dominated by super-brands, many people are unable to see beyond simplistic taste profiles and rely on third party judgments. The book provides the tools for them to form personal conclusions as to what constitutes real quality in wines.”

Founder member

Congratulations to Keith from all the members of the AWE - this really is a terrific achievement.  We are particularly proud that the award winner is a founder member of the AWE.  For those who would like to refresh their memory before placing an order, I reviewed ‘Wine Quality Tasting and Selection’ in the March e-newsletter last year.

‘Wine Quality, Tasting and Selection’ is published globally by Wiley-Blackwell, price £45.

AWE members get a 20% discount and post free, so pay £36. You can order from the publisher by internet or phone.  Members need to quote the discount/promotion code VA299 to get your discount.

Internet:  http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1405113669.html
Phone:  Free dial 0800 243407
 

Contact:  Keith Grainger, keith@keithgrainger.com, Tel: 00 44 7956 004855

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AWEsome Book by Helen Savage

Paul Strang, South West France: The Wines and Winemakers,

University of California Press, 2009 pp375

ISBN: 978-0520259416

This is Paul Strang’s second book on South West France. The first was published in 1994. The present volume is a re-write, rather than a revision, but it follows a broadly similar path through the subject.

No living wine writer has a deeper knowledge or love of the wines of this vast and scattered region than Strang: and it shows. This is a descriptive rather than critical book, packed with information and personal reminiscences. Strang’s ability to discover and visit the most obscure vineyards of France is staggering at times.

Fluent

It is well written fluent and engaging, though I don’t think I’d really want to sit and try to read it from cover to cover – it’s too much of a gazetteer. As a reference book it has many strong points. It is accurate, well-researched and pretty well up to date.

Strang’s understanding of history and context is especially good. Most of the rest of the text is made up of grower profiles, which, of course, like the copious tasting notes have the unfortunate tendency to date rather too quickly – presumably that’s partly why the author was so keen to produce a new book.

The Parker approach

And then there’s the matter of which grower deserves the accolade of ‘outstanding producer’ or simple ‘other notable producer’. The Parker approach to wine books, like all attempts to find the ‘hundred best’ of no matter what category, has a lot to answer for. Those who know the region well will have fun, as I did, agreeing or not with Strang’s choice. In fact I think he did a pretty good job of it, though, of course, I would have chosen differently …

Minor irritations include the daft habit of not using initial capital letters for grape varieties (but adopting italics), and occasionally for regions: thus malbec and marcillac. Area is expressed as hectares but height as feet and temperature as Fahrenheit. More seriously, the design of the headings in the book is such that it isn’t always easy to be sure what is an appellation and what simply a convenient geographical division is.

Critical

I wish too that Strang could bring himself to be a wee bit more critical – not of the wines themselves, but in respect of more general issues. There’s no impression here, for example, that this is a region struggling pretty desperately to sell its wine. To give just one example, Strang faithfully describes Betrand Lepoitevin’s passion for wine, his decision to give up a career as a lawyer to become a vigneron, but he makes no mention that Lepoitevin is quick to say to anyone willing to listen that if he’d known how hard it was going to be he’d never have given up law. Strang’s specs are a bit too rosy.

But enough, I’m more than happy to recommend this book. It has no rival and is probably unlikely to receive one.

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AWEsome wine by Susan Hulme MW

Château Larrivet Haut-Brion, Pessac-Leognan 2004 (12.5%)

In appearance, this has a very deep, opaque, dark ruby core with a narrow rim, just showing some evolution. The nose is clean and incisive, initially with sweet cedar, cigar box and spice followed by blackberries, blackcurrant leaf and dark old fashioned liquorice - a classic red Bordeaux nose.

On the palate, it has a seductively silky texture and smoothness followed by juicy, vibrant, lingering acidity and refined but firmly textured tannins. In the middle there are flavours of blackcurrant, liquorice and a hint of leafiness which gives it an edge. It has lovely weight and balance.

This is not an over-powering 'wine-on-steroids' type of wine but is understated and elegant, yet undeniably powerful with its long, savoury liquorice notes on the finish.

What I really love about this wine is the seductive silkiness of the texture combined with a strong, characterful backbone of tannins and acidity - beautiful but powerful at the same time in an understated and elegant way. I have long admired the wines of Pessac-Leognan for their elegance and beautiful balance and weight.

This wine is £24.49 from Waitrose and worth every penny. I make no apologies for including a more expensive wine in the review because I think it really delivers on quality. Besides, if you go into any bar or pub you can easily end up paying as much or more (once they've added a double or triple mark-up) for a very ordinary wine.

This wine is over-delivering on quality so I recommend you buy it; cook something delicious such as roast lamb or good quality beef and enjoy it over Easter.

© Susan Hulme MW 2010

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And finally, Matthew Hudson, Lecturer in Wine Business at Plumpton College writes to advise us of a Korean language website regarding wine degrees at Plumpton, in case anyone has Korean contacts who are interested (seems to be an avid appetite for wine education there).

http://cafe.naver.com/fallinwine

AWE Member Updates

Anyone interested in becoming a member of the AWE should contact our membership secretary Alison Moller:

Email - molleralison@yahoo.co.uk

Tel: 07783 723728

Address: Little Mead, Langley Lower Green, Saffron Walden, Essex CB11 4SB

Prospective members should hold the WSET Diploma or equivalent.

Please note the administrative office telephone number has changed to 01753 882320. See below for full details.
 

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AWE Inspiring News
This is the newsletter of the Association of Wine Educators. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Association.

Editor: Susan Hulme MW

Sub-editor: Laura Clay

Many thanks to all of our contributors.

AWE Administrative Office:
Andrea Warren
Scots Firs, 70 Joiners Lane,
Chalfont St Peter,
Bucks, SL9 0AU
Tel/Fax: 01753 882320  

E-mail: admin@wineeducators.com 
Web Site: www.wineeducators.com 

© AWE Inspiring News 2010

No part of this newsletter may be reproduced without permission.

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