Beaumont Hope Marguerite Chenin Blanc 2011

We’ve had a beautifully warm last few days in the Cotswolds recently and this evening presented the perfect opportunity to get to grips with another Platter 5 star wine, the Beaumont Hope Marguerite Chenin Blanc.

South Africa has taken Chenin Blanc from its heartland in the Loire Valley and made the variety its own. The styles are very different but there is no doubt that South African winemakers are doing something special with this grape. Led by Ken Forrester and his iconic FMC, South African Chenin Blanc is becoming well known and appreciated around the world for all its styles, clean and fruit forward, oak influenced, intensely sweet voluptuous stickies and incredibly complex Swartland White blends.

This well crafted wine from Sebastian Beaumont is barrel fermented in 400l French oak casks, only 15% of which is new. This allows the Chenin fruit character to express itself with just a supporting hint of oak given away by a light toast and merest whiff of vanilla. This is classic Chenin Blanc, apple, floral and edged with a touch of honey. The honey notes really brought out with the remnants of some Pecorino left over from the weekend.

Regular batonnage makes this a rich wine with a full body but acidity is well balanced giving a refreshing zesty feel. Allowing the wine to warm a little releases a second wave of new aromas, more stone fruit this time with apricot and nectarine but carried along with a wave of lime. Delicious stuff!

The finish is long and concentrated, pushing the apple character all the way through the spectrum.

5 Platter stars, well deserved indeed.

Beaumont Wines – A couple of tasting notes

I’m always on the look-out for new wines to add to the Vincisive portfolio and have been searching for a Pinotage that offers a pure expression of the fruit rather than the bombastic, aggressive, smoky monsters that batter you in to submission with 15.5% alcohol. You just don’t ever want a second glass of those fearsomely potent brews. This search led me to Sebastian Beaumont who is making Pinotage in South Africa’s Bot River, just a little way inland from Walker Bay. That Pinotage will be the subject of a different blog post all of its own but Sebastian also sent some samples of his other wines and I had the opportunity to try a couple of them yesterday.

Beaumont Shiraz Mouvedre 2009

A blend of 61% Shiraz and 39% Mouvedre leads to a beguiling nose that continues to change and evolve. Initially meaty but quickly supported by a delicious chorus of blackberries, dark cherry, chocolate, coffee and sweet spices. There’s a thread of vanilla with a dash of pepper and ripe figs.

Generous on the palate with an excellent structure. Firm, ripe and juicy tannin enlivened by complimentary acidity gives a keenly balanced feel to the wine. Not quite as overtly complex as the nose but I suspect given an hour in a decanter and served with grilled meats this wine will open up beautifully.

Beaumont Vitruvian 2008

Sebastian’s flagship blend of 38% Mourvèdre, 27% Pinotage, 12% Petit Verdot, 12% Cab Franc and 11% Shiraz matured in oak barrels for 2 years, 1/3 of which was new. Much more restrained than the Shiraz Mouvedre but there is the same recognisable initial meaty core with a rich sweet fruit profile. The Pinotage element marks this out as a South African blend but unlike many examples of these super-blends, it sits harmoniously with the other components and is complimentary rather than standing out as a distinct entity.

This wine is smooth, polished and statesmanlike with brooding power and structure. Quite closed at the moment but given 5-10 years the dark berry fruit and oak should come together beautifully creating a harmonious wine of beauty that will continue to evolve for a decade or 2.

Beaumont Wines Website

Rheingau Part 1 – Weingut Robert Weil

The Rheingau sits on the north bank of the mighty Rhein river where it turns directly west just above the enchanting university town of Mainz. It’s steep south facing slopes produce some of the finest Rieslings to be found anywhere. Characteristically mineral driven these wines have a core of steely acidity that ensures they are long lived and the best will only begin to reveal their complexities after more than a decade in bottle.

My first foray into the Rheingau took me to one of the regions younger, but well respected producers, Weingut Robert Weil.  Established in 1879 this estate now has 75 hectares of vines surrounding the village of Keidrich, 99% of which are Riesling.  3 vineyard sites occupy prime position above the town at elevations up to 240m and benefit from perfect exposure to the sun and correspondingly high temperatures as well as good circulation from the winds drawn into the Rhine Valley from the Taunus mountains above the vineyards. These are the Klosterberg, Turmberg and Gräfenberg vineyards with each producing distinctive and wonderful expressions of Riesling.

Klosterberg

2010 Kiedrich Klosterberg Riesling Spätlese 8.5% (€34.63)

A fabulous nose of ripe apricots and peach with figs and baked apple. Light, elegant and refined. Apparently there’s 100g/l of residual sugar but it doesn’t feel sweet or heavy and is very well balanced by the acidity. A clean and pure fruit profile, apricot, nectarine, juicy ripe apple and a touch of grilled pineapple.

Turmberg

2010 Kiedrich Turmberg Riesling Trocken 13.0% (€21.42)

Delicious nose of ripe peach and apple, juicy nectarine and flint. The palate is rich and a touch of sugar balances the bracing acidity. Minerality defines this wine, it is linear and pure with lime, peach and smoky flint. Lovely length, remaining balanced throughout.

2010 Kiedrich Turmberg Auslese 2010 8.0% (€34.51)

Opulent nose of peach, apricots and figs with a hint of botrytis coming through in honey notes. This is rich and weighty and the remarkable acidity stands up to the 130g/l residual sugar very well. Whilst refreshing, the acidity is not even remotely angular or dominant, even at this early stage. There’s plenty of complexity with ripe stone fruits, acacia honey, and even a touch of mango. This is very approachable but will only get better over the next decade or 2.

Grafenberg

2010 Kiedrich Gräfenberg Riesling Trocken 13.0% (€21.42)

Not quite as opulent as the Turmberg on the nose but it has depth and I suspect there’s a great deal of restraint in this wine at the moment. There’s a touch of sugar so not completely trocken but there is more masculine acidity and minerality dominates. The fruit profile seems less generous and perhaps a tad closed but there is apple and grapefruit evident on the flinty finish. Hide away for 5-10 years.

2010 Kiedrich Gräfenberg Riesling Trocken Erstes Gewächs 13.5% (€34.63)

This comes from the same vineyard but the grapes are left  to ripen further to about Auslese quality.

Outstanding nose, refined and elegant, complex, generous and enticing. Green fruit, stone fruit and citrus. The palate is just off dry with razor sharp acidity. It’s far too young of course but shows all the hallmarks of developing into something special with layer after layer of complexity all defined by that characteristically focussed minerality. Flint, slate, granite, choose your stone as it’s all there! Put this away for 10 years and watch this grow into a wine of great stature, poise and elegance.

2010 Kiedrich Gräfenberg Riesling Auslese 2010 8.0% (€34.50 375ml)

The nose is quite closed and less overtly fruity than the Turmberg Auslese, however there is a mineral and slate core to this wine wrapped in honey. It is more concentrated on the palate, higher acidity and 135g/l of sugar. Still integrating but this will no doubt come together beautifully. Plenty of juicy fruits, baked apple and a thread of acacia honey. Searing minerality and an endless finish. This is outstanding wine that needs a decade or 2 to shine.

WSET Diploma

A couple of weeks ago  I attended a remarkable event in London’s Guildhall held by the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) to celebrate the graduation of this year’s Diploma students. Gathered together were 331 students and their guests from incredibly diverse backgrounds. There were students from all over the world, including China, the US, Canada, all over Europe and of course the UK.  Under the carefully orchestrated direction of Ian Harris, the WSET Chairman, all students were presented with their Diploma scroll by Jancis Robinson MW, the well respected British journalist known affectionately in the trade as ‘Her Majesty.’ This was the culmination of years of study and a proud moment for all graduates.

I was fortunate enough to have done reasonably well in the exams and was awarded the UK Vineyards Association  Scholarship. This is a fabulous reward for all the hard work of the last 2 years and will involve me getting stuck in to work at various vineyards and wineries around the UK. Pruning, harvesting, fermenting, competitions and tastings are just a few of the activities that I’m looking forward to over the next 12 months.

Receiving the UKVA Scholarship from Jancis Robinson MW and Roger Marchbank

The WSET is the foremost authority for wine education in the world, based in London, the WSET was established in the UK in 1969 and has since expanded to 56 countries around the world offering courses in 17 different languages.  With courses for the novice right through to Diploma level, there is a course for any level of knowledge that you may wish to aspire to.

Initially designed as qualifications for the trade, there is now a significant number of non-trade candidates at all levels. The trade qualification offers a more comprehensive and structured approach than wine appreciation courses. The qualifications are also internationally recognised and have become the de facto standard for wine knowledge worldwide.

My personal journey began in 2006 when I decided that I really ought to learn more about the delicious wines that I had begun to enjoy. Starting with the intermediate course I was soon learning about the many different wine producing regions of the world, how wine was made and what to look for when tasting it. The intermediate level course was very straightforward and just served to whet my appetite for further study and of course more tasting.

I immediately enrolled on the Advanced course and it soon became clear that a significantly deeper understanding of the world of wine and spirits was needed. Grape varieties that I had never heard of, soils, viniculture, were all subjects that I had to master. I had to build up a whole new vocabulary for what I was tasting in the glass, identify fruit flavours, comment on acidity, sweetness, tannin and body.  A greater appreciation of what went in to producing a bottle of wine developed over time and it was amazing how quickly I began to identify specific characteristics associated with wine from certain regions or grape varieties. Passing the exam with distinction, was clearly a spur to take my studies further and enrol in a Diploma course.

The Diploma is the WSET’s highest level course and is considered to be a pre-requisite for enrolment in the MW (Master of Wine) course. The course is broken down in to various modules:-

• Viticulture and Vinification,
• Fortified Wines,
• Sparkling Wines
• Spirits
• Light Wines of the World
• The Business of Wine

There is also an essay assignment of 3000 words that has to be undertaken on a topic set by the WSET, the topic for my course being ‘The Premiumisation of White Spirits’ which, if you are truly bored, you can read here - Diploma Assignment. All parts of the course have their own exam which must be passed to qualify for the Diploma. The volume of studying is enormous and would have been extremely difficult to manage had it not been for the comprehensive guidance of Michael Palij MW of Winematters who was our course tutor.

Michaels’s prime task was to prepare us for the tasting exams that were to come in 4 of the units, sparkling wines, fortified wines, spirits and light wines. The WSET have a very rigid format for assessing wines, there’s none of the pretentious flowery language we’ve all heard from all manner of wine ‘experts’. Various components of the wine have to be assessed and written about precisely. Colour, aroma, sweetness, tannin, acidity, alcohol level, flavour characteristics and quality formed the basis of assessment of every glass of wine I was to drink over the following 2 years. It was important to learn how to assess a wine quickly and efficiently without missing out any vital observations.

Presented with 12 wines served completely blind in a tasting exam, it was a case of being disciplined enough to write down your observations calmly and quickly without trying to second guess the examiner. Making a rushed decision on what you think the wine is before properly evaluating it is a sure route to failure. Accurately describing the wine, even if you had no idea what it was, always gained the most marks. There were actually very few marks given for correct identification.

Tasting may have been the most enjoyable part of the course but there was still another 50% of the marks awarded for written exams and these required significantly detailed knowledge on all aspects of wine. The only way to manage taking on the volume of information was to be constantly immersed in the subject. It was a rare day during the 2 years of study that I didn’t pick up a book on wine at some point, there was just so much to read and to take on board.  The complete syllabus can be found online on the WSET website here  so I won’t bore you with the details, suffice to say that you may as well just describe the syllabus as ‘Wine, everything you can possibly think of and more!’

Daunting as it seems, the course is modular and this helps to break up the immense workload. However, what makes it easier is the constant discovery of new wines and the fascinating nature of the subject. The world of wine is an endlessly changing, living entity. Every vintage is different, techniques and influences continually change and evolve. There is a rich and aristocratic history but at the same time there is a breathtaking discovery of new regions and the opportunities they present. The old world is constantly challenged and has to adapt but must also remain faithful to the terroir that has served them well for centuries. To appreciate the intricacies and expression of the liquid in your glass, it is necessary to at least begin to understand some of the history of that wine, how it was made and why it tastes as it does. The WSET Diploma helps you along the road to that understanding and I cannot recommend this qualification highly enough.

I should also say a big thank you to my fellow course mates who came from remarkably diverse backgrounds and occupations and who all contributed to the enjoyment of the course. It was a pleasure to study (and drink!) with all of you.

Links:

WSET - http://www.wsetglobal.com

Winematters - http://www.winematters-oxon.co.uk/

Sula Vineyards and Indian Trains

“ONE TWO ONE SIX FIVE….(unintelligible rambling)……MUMBAI TO VARANASI DEPARTS FROM PLATFORM 1 AT 0520″ shrieks the high pitched female announcer on PA system. She repeats rapidly 15 times, pauses for breath and starts again.

Mumbai’s Lokmanyatilak station is very much alive and bustling at 5 in the morning. Crowds are moving in all directions, getting on trains, getting off trains, waving goodbye to family and friends. I’ve only had 1 hour of sleep after flying from Hong Kong to Mumbai but the raucous energy and adrenaline of the surging masses around me is infectious. Throw in the fact that this is the first time I’ve been brave enough to use the notorious Indian rail system, and my sense of adventure is starting to build, but please turn down the PA volume!

(Apologies for the poor quality of photos in this post. I only had my iPhone with me which doesn’t cope well in low light.)

Early start at Lokmanyatilak Mumbai

I’m off to visit Sula Vineyards to the west of Nashik which is a medium sized town some 170km north-east of Mumbai. The train is packed and I was fortunate to buy the last ticket in AC-2 car, the highest class of carriage on this particular train. It is remarkably comfortable and a world away from the shockingly crowded images that we have all seen of people on roofs and hanging on to the outside of trains. I have to walk past a dozen ‘Sleeper’ class carriages – don’t even think of travelling this way, ‘sleeper’ isn’t really an accurate description! – and find my carriage about 1/2 a mile down the platform. I’m pleasantly surprised to find a bed berth complete with a package containing clean sheets and a blanket. It’s 3 1/2 hours to Nashik and I need some sleep.

Berth on AC-2 carriage

The ticket cost me 478 Rupees, or about £6, which seems like a bargain especially as the train left on time to the second. It’s easy to scoff at many things in India from our ‘civilised’ perspective but they do seem to get some things right. Although, as will become clear, this system seems to hang on a knife edge and chaos is never really that far away.

India is not exactly well known for its wines of course but Sula is one of the leading producers in the state of Maharashtra and they have a well established tasting room and winery tour. Sula launched their first wines in 2000, Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc. This has been followed by with Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Grenache and even Riesling.

The general climate in India is not ideally suited for the production of high quality grapes. At 20⁰N latitude it is well outside the traditionally accepted wine growing zone of 30⁰ – 50⁰ and suffers from too much heat, too much rain and too much summer! The growing season is reversed, following the southern hemisphere timings avoiding the monsoon season of June to September and the torrential thunderstorms the SW monsoon brings. Harvest normally takes place between February and April.

Despite these climatic problems, there is a steadily growing and thriving wine industry that is paying attention to quality issues and to producing commercially successful wines. High taxes on imported wines have allowed the industry to establish itself and grow without facing the cut-throat reality of competition from international brands. Fine wines are prohibitively expensive in India but a growing interest in wine from an increasingly affluent middle class is likely to increase pressure for some of these taxes to be reduced. Large multinationals such as Diageo are also lobbying aggressively to gain entry in to the market and it’s only a matter of time before home grown wines will have to adapt and compete on a more level playing field.

The current approach seems to be conservative and the wines reflect this having a distinct ‘middle of the road’ feel to them, designed to appeal to a mass market rather than wines of character. I didn’t come across any wines that were ambitious, idiosyncratic or genuinely exciting. Many of the wines could be described as commercial and had a touch of residual sugar to them. While this may help pair them better with some spicy Indian dishes, once the local consumer begins to see good quality wines being imported this sweetness can quickly seem confected.

Cabernet Sauvignon Vineyard at Sula

The 3 1/2 hours on the train passed quickly, mostly in a doze, and we arrived on time at Nashik. After the usual haggling with a taxi driver I was on my way to the vineyards, some 25km away. It seemed a bit incongruous passing vineyards with palm trees around them but these were mostly Thompson seedless table grapes and the Sula vineyards were a bit further on. The taxi pulled up at the gate and inside were well tended vineyards. There was a sense of order and calm that is difficult to find in Mumbai and immediate impressions were positive.

The vineyard at the Sula winery is planted with Cabernet Sauvignon, Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc and Zinfandel. However, most of the grapes are actually grown at Dindori which is about 35km further north. All the vines that I could see were trained quadrilaterally using the lyre system. This helps to control the vigour of the vines and gives better exposure of the fruit and foliage due to less shading. This  system is not suitable for mechanical harvesting or pruning but there is no shortage of labour in India so mechanical harvesting and pruning is not used. Labour is cheap here and 15 years after planting the first vines the workforce is now well trained and experienced.

Lyre training system from above

Lyre training Sauvignon Blanc

Despite the high rainfall, the vines are irrigated by drip hoses. The Chenin Blanc block was being irrigated during my visit. Incidentally, this block seemed to have very high yields and this was confirmed by the winemaker, Santosh Nijai, who said that this block produced grapes for their sparkling wine where high yields were desirable.

High Chenin Blanc yields

My tasting notes are given at the end of the blog but I spent a very pleasant afternoon sitting in the sunshine on the outside deck of the tasting room. I tasted all the wines that were currently available and chatted to the tasting room staff who were all extremely friendly and efficient but unfortunately unable to answer any questions that weren’t entirely superficial. To be fair, their training is probably aimed at the hordes of local tourists that descend on the vineyards every day. while I sat enjoying a few glasses of different wines, reading Benjamin Lewis’ latest book all about Pinot Noir, I must have counted at least 7 or 8 coaches spilling 30 or 40 passengers at a time through the winery’s doors. Sula is clearly a popular attraction which can only be good news for the nascent wine industry.

Sula Vineyards tasting room

There followed a short tour around the winery which looked like nearly every other winery I’ve been to – stainless steel fermentation tanks, pneumatic presses, destemmers and a barrel room. The oak used is a mixture of US and French.

Barrel room at Sula

Eventually it was time to leave and take my cab back to the train station at Nishak and this was when ‘Incredible India’ struck with a vengeance. I was greeted by a chaotic and crowded scene at the station and I saw that a number of trains had been cancelled, including mine. While the train system works well as long as there are no problems, the system is plunged in to chaos as soon as something disrupts the timetable and today there had been accident somewhere along the line. Train tickets in India are valid only for a specific train, and only for a specific seat. You cannot change anything and neither is the ticket transferable, if your train is cancelled then so is your ticket. Naturally, I was becoming concerned and had no idea how to get back to Mumbai. I can’t speak Marathai or Hindi but found a friendly station manager who spoke enough English to help me buy a standby ticket. I then had to find a train that was going to Mumbai and hope that there was going to be a space on it somewhere, hopefully not in the sleeper class mentioned earlier but I would have to take it if nothing else was available.

Fortunately I didn’t have long to wait and the ticket inspector on the next train found me a seat in AC-3 class which wasn’t quite as comfortable as the journey up to Nashik but was nevertheless not bad and better than many British trains I’ve had the misfortune to travel on. At least I had a seat (again, unlike British trains that often only have standing room) and was on the way to Mumbai. This turned into a 7 hour epic journey as we stopped every few kilometers while trains were shuffled around the system. I arrived back in Mumbai at midnight, having been on the go for over 20 hours but I had made some new friends on the journey and had experienced a side of India that I rarely get to glimpse from the luxury of the Taj hotel.

View from the train

Sunset

Tasting Notes

Sula Brut NV

This is a méthode traditionnelle wine that spends 16-18 months on the lees. 60% Chenin Blanc and 40% Thompson seedless.

Full mousse that dies down quickly to give a gentle flow of bubbles. Pleasant apple and ripe pear nose. The palate is heavier but still has apple notes with some bitterness and even a touch of smoke. A simple sparkling wine with a short finish.

Dindori Reserve Viognier 2011

Light golden green colour with an assertive nose of clean stone fruits – apricot and peach with a floral punch. Pronounced palate with a similar profile to the aroma but with a touch of bitterness and chalk on the finish. The winemaker confirmed that this had been acidified but it’s a good effort at Viognier and should go well with spicy food.

Zinfandel Blush 2011

Looks like a Californian Zinfandel blush and smells like a Californian Zinfandel blush but is less overtly a Californian Zinfandel blush on the palate. There’s just a touch of sweetness and there’s bags of red cherry fruit with a light tannic touch and just a hint of smoke on the medium finish. There’s just enough refreshing acidity and this is a lot more enjoyable than many Californian examples.

Sula Mosaic NV

This is a blend of 60% Grenache and 40% Shiraz. It has a muted nose of red fruits, predominantly cherries but is quite confected. There are some supple tannins and the oak influence is obvious – vanilla and smoke from wood chips and staves. Simple wine that isn’t aiming to excite but is certainly quaffable.

Dindori Reserve Shiraz 2010

A blend of 80% Shiraz and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon aged in oak barriques for up to 1 year, 25-30% of which are new. The Dindori soil is iron rich gravel that gives good drainage.

This wine has a delicious nose of restrained dark fruits, plum, leather and spice. Firm, well integrated tannins, balanced acidity, medium acidity and an intriguing flavour profile of plums, blackcurrants, spice, oak, vanilla and smoke. There’s a long finish that carries the fruit without any of the bitterness that is evident in the previous wines. Most enjoyable wine of the day.

Sula Rosé Brut Sparkling

97% Chenin Blanc and 3% Zinfandel. Méthode traditionnelle with 18 months lees ageing.

Vivid pink, most definitely not salmon coloured! There is a gentle release of fine persistent bubbles. The nose is tight but there are apples, strawberries and apricots. The palate is a let down with a confected strawberry flavour. It’s off dry and has a bitter edge. There are no discernible autolytic or lees notes but they may be masked by an unpleasant ash fire aspect to the finish. There’s very little to like about this wine.

Chenin Blanc sparkling wine ageing on the lees

Sula Riesling 2011

Pale lemon green colour. An overtly fruit driven nose of apples and apricots, The palate is thin and disappointing, there’s fruit and even some florality but it lacks any body or energy. Acidity is virtually non-existent and the flabbiness of the wine is matched only by the disappointment of the incredibly short finish.

Sula Sauvignon Blanc 2011

Crisp nettle nose, pleasantly herbaceous with a touch of tropical fruit and grapefruit. There’s a very decent palate, herbaceous without being overly so and there’s even a streak of minerality. Fine acidity, guava fruit on the finish. Fully deserving of its Decanter Silver award.

Sula Zinfandel 2011

Dark red, not quite opaque. Dark cherry nose and the palate carries this through with a wave of vanilla, gentle tannins and a hint of residual sugar. This is gentle Zinfandel, not at all jammy or baked but there’s still that whiff of smoke that has been prevalent in many of the wines – is this oak, winemaking or terroir?

Pol Roger Champagne

Reading Quaffable’s tour of France that has begun in the Champagne region has given me the inspiration to recount a fascinating and insightful trip to Pol Roger last year.

Wine buffs will of course know that this celebrated Champagne house has had a historic connection to Sir Winston Churchill dating back to 1908. This was the year that Winston Churchill, then in the Cabinet as President of the Board of Trade, became a customer for the first time, beginning a lifelong association with the brand. The Royal Warrant was awarded to Pol Roger in 1911 and Pol Roger was served at the Guildhall luncheon held on George V’s Coronation Day, 30th June.

Churchill’s relationship with Pol Roger deepened after 1945, at a lunch given by the British ambassador to France following the liberation of Paris. This was when Churchill met the charming and captivating Odette Pol-Roger and began a friendship, indulged by his wife Clementine, which lasted until Sir Winston’s death in 1965. Each year on his birthday, Odette would send him a case of vintage champagne, and, in honour of their friendship, Churchill named one of his favourite racehorses after her.

So close was his relationship with the family that, on Churchill’s death, Pol Roger put black bordered labels on the bottles destined for the UK.  In 1975, Pol Roger celebrated the long association by naming their prestige cuvée after him, making it in the robust, mature style that he liked so much.

In the middle of studying for my Sparkling Wine exam during my WSET diploma and spying a few days gap in my flying roster, I took the opportunity to take my wife to Champagne for a couple of days to try and put some theory in to practice. It was also a valiant, but ultimately unsuccessful attempt, to try and show my wife that studying wine does have its fringe benefits!

Thus it was that I found myself contemplating this history in the Sir Winston Churchill room at the ‘most drinkable address in the world’ -  44 champagne Avenue, Epernay – the home of Pol Roger  where we were met by our charming, friendly and knowledgeable host, Sylviane Lemaire, who spent the next few hours patiently guiding us around the Pol Roger facilities, underground cellars and finally to the tasting room.

Champagne is of course a blended wine, in every sense of the word. It is blended from different grape varieties, from many different vineyards and across vintages. The intention being to create a consistent product that will taste the same across millions of bottles and that also maintains the house style year after year. It is only Vintage Champagne that will display different characteristics but even this will be a blended wine to a large extent.

The base wines are fermented in the normal way and they will then be transferred to enormous tanks for this blending process, or assemblage, to take place. The selection of wines is carried out by family members and the winemaker, Dominique Petit. Only once the blending has been carried out to their satisfaction will the wines be allowed to be bottled and proceed to the magical second fermentation that produces the unique product that turns unpalatable, acidic still wines in to a product that has launched a thousand parties and the odd ship or 2.

Fermentation Tanks

Much larger assemblage (blending) tank

The wine is now transferred to the bottle that it will eventually be sold in, a special mix of sugar and yeast added and then sent down to join the other 7.5 million bottles in the 7km of cellars below the streets of Epernay to undergo the prise de mousse. It is this stage that adds the precious bubbles, a by-product of the added yeast inducing a second fermentation. The CO­2 given off cannot escape and is forced to dissolve in to the wine, only making an appearance again when the cork is finally popped at your party.

Bottles undergoing second fermentation and lees ageing

Non Vintage Champagne has to remain on the lees, the sediment that is formed during the prise de mousse, for a minimum of 18 months and Vintage Champagne for 3 years. It is the lees, and its decomposition in a process known as autolysis, that gives Champagne its distinct bread, biscuit and brioche aromas. These minimum ageing periods are usually exceeded, significantly so, for the quality conscious houses. For example, the Pol Roger average is 5 years.

7km of underground cellars and 7.5 million bottles

We all know that our Champagne is sparkling bright, clear and free from sediment which means that the sediment has to be removed somehow. The traditional way was to do this by hand in a process known as remuage or riddling. The bottles are placed in racks called pupitres and turned a fraction by hand every day over a period of a few weeks. A skilled remuer will turn thousands of bottles a day and gradually tilt the bottle so that it is eventually upright and all the sediment is collected in the neck of the bottle.

Remuage

 

Loaded pupitres

Pol Roger is one of the few Champagne houses to still complete this process by hand for all its Champagnes. Most other producers use a machine known as a gyropalette which can be programmed to mimic the action of manual remuage but can complete the process in just 3 days rather than 6 weeks or more.

Gyropallette

Lees clearly visible in neck of bottle

The Champagne is now ready for removal of this sediment during disgorgement. Whilst keeping the bottles inverted, they are transferred to a super cooled glycol bath which freezes the sediment into a plug of ice that is forced out under pressure when the cap is removed. The clean wine is topped up with another special mix, but this time comprising just wine and sugar. This dosage, will determine the final style of wine by varying the amount of sugar added. Finally the wine will be rested for about 6 months in order to allow the dosage to ‘marry’ in to the wine before release to the market.

Of course no visit to a venerable Champagne house would be complete without a tasting and we were duly invited to taste a few bottles including the zero dosage Pol Roger Pure and Sir Winston Churchill cuvee. It is difficult to imagine two more different Champagnes. One is bone dry, austere with a hard edge and has a masochistic razor like quality while the other is velvet like, complex and powerful. Like the man it is named after, it commands respect by its presence, inspires confidence that it will age magnificently, and that its memory will remain long after the final sip has been swallowed.  This is a Champagne that should be at the top of every Englishman’s must try list and I am deeply indebted to Pol Roger and Sylviane for their time, hospitality and the opportunity to taste their whole line up of delicious Champagnes.

Vintage Madeira – 1825

1825 – the birth of an amazing wine. It was another 12 years before Victoria became Queen of England. 34 years before Big Ben rang out across Westminster for the first time. 50 years before Alexander Bell invented the telephone. This wine was already 45 years old before Bismarck’s troops marched in to France in 1870. In its century birth year F. Scott Fitzgerald published The Great Gatsby, Margaret Thatcher was born and Rudolf Steiner, the founder of biodynamics, died.

How do you begin to contemplate the magnitude of time that this wine has spent in bottle?

I was recently privileged to be invited as a guest to a lunch with The Madeira Club at The Clifton Club in Bristol. This group meet a couple of times a year to taste a range of vintage Madeiras and other wines over lunch. The line up on this particular day was nothing short of stupendous, consisting solely of Sercial Madeiras, the youngest of which was from the 1971 vintage and went all the way back to 1825.

Madeira may not currently be the most fashionable of the fortified wines, always seeming to fall in the shadow of Port, but they produce the longest lived wines on the planet. And Sercial Madeiras are amongst the longest lived of all Madeiras.

Typically making the driest style of Madeira, the Sercial grape is the last of the white grapes to ripen on the island of Madeira and retains a very high level of acidity. Vintage Madeiras must mature in 600 litre oak casks for a minimum of 20 years and the finest wines will often have significantly more cask maturation than this. This gentle, extended maturation in the eaves of lodges in Funchal, heated only by the sun produces the characteristically high-toned nutty almond aromas.

This lengthy maturation, also known as estufagem, is the process that enables Madeira to have such a phenomenally long life. Following estufagem, very little can harm the wine and it is extremely resistant to oxidation ensuring its longevity for decades, and centuries for the very best wines.

This was a monumental tasting, followed by a delicious lunch in the company of some of the wine-world’s most interesting characters. I owe a debt of gratitude to them all for their generosity and warm hospitality.

Today's line up

D’Olivera Sercial 1971

The nose on this wine was initially very mellow and only slightly nutty but the palate exploded behind a wave of searing acidity. Nuts, almonds, walnuts, brazil nuts, deep and concentrated, ran to the very core of this wine. An endless finish that didn’t seem to fade at all. One of the day’s favourites.

Leacock Sercial 1963

A deeper amber colour to this wine with a hint of green on the rim. Savoury nose, VA, petrochemical but with an elusive high toned marzipan aspect. The palate is rich with plenty of complexity but amazingly it seems to finish rather short. Perhaps that is just in comparison with the 1971? Following the intense acidity of the ’71, this seems flabby in comparison – of course, it is nothing of the sort but the difference in acidity levels is striking. Nuts are still the dominant theme but the VA and petrochemical plant keeps elbowing its way in leaving me feeling a little cheated.

Rutherford Miles Sercial 1954

A dark caramel colour to this Sercial with its fair share of sediment. Oak dominates the nose, almost like a sweet bourbon, lanolin and wax. This oak continues through to the palate and tannin is easily detectable. Great acidity rescues this wine to give it a very dry feel and carry it through to a clove and cinnamon spicy finish.

Cossart Sercial 1950

A medium amber colour here with green highlights at the rim. Savoury with another oak dominated nose. Lanolin and wax but there’s also a sweetness to the fruit, fig, prune and Christmas cake. This wine is much more harmonious with an elegant balance. There’s plenty of acidity but also more sugar on the palate than previous bottles which seems to give the wine a luscious feel and supreme balance. Not overtly nutty, there’s a light treacle note but also a strand of marmalade and citrus running through the core. An everlasting finish that remains sweet and focussed. Delicious!

Justino Sercial 1940

Dark amber, this, along with the 1890, had the deepest colour today. The famed green hue clearly evident also. Less wood after the previous 2 Madeiras and much more fruit, raisins, dried figs, caramel and marzipan. The palate is a treat, residual sugar and acidity in excellent balance. Tremendous harmony on display. Liquid Christmas cake, almonds, prunes and spice. Smooth and very enjoyable.

Leacock Sercial 1910

Medium amber colour with a very light green hue. Soapy on the nose, oak and Roquefort cheese. Dry wood palate, bitter and aggressive. Not pleasant to drink.

Leacock Sercial 1890

Dark amber colour with a light green rim. Initially this was like walking past a refinery, oily, chemical, plastic aromas reminiscent of a badly made Armagnac. There is a petrol note on the palate but its presence here is much more welcome as it harmonises with the nutty almonds and Dundee cake flavours. There is still remarkable acidity to this wine and it feels bone dry. The finish seems to get better and better and the VA / refinery aromas eventually subside to leave an enjoyable drink.

Leacock Sercial 1825 – rebottled 1932

Comfortably the oldest bottle of anything I’ve ever tasted by almost a century! Medium amber colour with a significant green tinged rim. The nose is light but elegant, it’s beguiling and enticing. Not dominated by anything in particular, it’s a harmonious blend with many facets, constantly changing and elusive. It’s almost impossible to pin anything down. The palate is fading but this must once have been a stunning wine. It’s off dry, retaining bright acidity and is ever so smooth. It’s melodious, sedate, statesmanlike, practically forcing you to take a moment to contemplate the magnitude of its time in bottle. This is a pleasure and a privilege to drink and was my wine of the day.

The last 2 wines, 1890 and 1825

Vincisive Christmas Wines

Christmas! Just the mention of the word starts to bring a shiver of excitement. Sadly, I’m a long way past the days of waking up ridiculously early with a feverish anticipation of what amazing goodies Santa may have left below the tree for me. More importantly though, this is the time of year when we celebrate with friends and family. When loved ones come together to share happiness, joy, good food and of course wine.

This excitement at the imminent arrival of guests can be edged with a certain amount of trepidation about getting the food just right and having the perfect wine to serve with it. While I can’t help with the cooking as well as Nigella or Delia, I can offer you some handy hints and suggestions for wines that will match, and compliment, your efforts in the kitchen.

Canapés

The obvious choice here is Champagne and why not? Champagne can be delicious, it’s the perfect celebratory drink and a wonderful way to relax your guests and get the party started. Champagne is refreshing and is also a wonderful foil to anything with a pastry base, seafood or charcuterie.

Tarlant Brut Reserve Champagne NV  £25.95

A beautiful Champagne that is seductive and generous with powerful aromas of crunchy apple, mirabelle and grilled almonds. Remarkable liveliness with hints of honey cake and caramel, this champagne will delight your guests 

Shellfish

Oysters straight from the shell, tiger prawns, even lobster are all beautifully complimented by a crisp Sauvignon Blanc. Sancerre is the old fashioned choice, but South Africa offers a style of Sauvignon Blanc that is perfectly poised between the overtly fruity New Zealand style and the sometimes austere (and overpriced) minerality from Sancerre.

Uva Mira Sauvignon Blanc  £12.50

Tremendous value for money this is more old world and mineral driven than tropical fruit forward. For those seeking a good value alternative to Sancerre, the refined balance of this refreshing wine, combining ripe flavours of gooseberry, lime and fig with bracing acidity, gunflint and minerality, this Sauvignon Blanc gives the perfect match to a wide range of seafood.

Awarded a Gold Medal at the 2009 Michelangelo International Wine Awards and listed in First Class with South African Airways.

Turkey

The traditional meal at this time of year is of course turkey which is a wonderfully versatile meat that offers a range of flavours and textures that are delicious with a variety of wines. As this will normally be the main event, it makes sense to pair with a high quality wine that will neither dominate the meal nor be overpowered by it. We’re looking for balance, elegance, depth and complexity and two grape varieties fit the bill perfectly, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

Newton Johnson Domaine Pinot Noir 2010  £17.99

The recipient of a coveted 5 stars from Platter, this is the only South African Pinot Noir to receive this honour in consecutive vintages.

It has superb intensity on the nose with wild strawberry, Morello, crushed flowers and a touch of citrus lemon, a real doppelganger for Burgundy. The palate is well balanced with crisp, fleshy red berry fruit with crisp, taut acidity and a feminine silky smooth finish. This is how Pinot Noir should be: vibrant and life affirming!  93 points – Neal Martin, The Wine Advocate

Uva Mira Vineyard Selection Chardonnay 2010  £27.50

Consistently rated 4½ – 5 stars from Platter, previous vintages of this wine have won many awards, including IWSC Best Chardonnay in the World. This is a stunning Chardonnay with Burgundian minerality and beautifully finessed oak integration. The perfect wine for special occasions that is the equal of Burgundy’s finest Premier Cru wines.

Sourced from 14-year old vines, winemaker Matthew Van Heerden has produced one of South Africas outstanding Chardonnays that stood out like a sore thumb in a blind tasting. – 94 points, – Neal Martin, The Wine Advocate

Beef

A succulent fillet or an extravagant rib of beef deserves an equally bold wine such as Cabernet Sauvignon. The tannin in the wine melts in to the beef protein allowing the bright fruit flavours of the wine to come to the fore.

Amares Cabernet Sauvignon 2007  £17.99

A total of eight barrels of hand-made wine, originating from the 2 Ha of environmentally friendly vineyards surrounding the Amares winery. The nose hints at dark-skinned berries, a promise of mint and other herbal aromas. The wine has a broad palate with an attractive mouth feel from ripe grapes backed by mature tannins and a dry cedar finish.

Awarded best Cabernet Sauvignon in Stellenbosch and Simonsberg by the South Africa Terroir Wine Awards. A deserving title for this elegant wine that is gaining in complexity with time in the bottle.

Christmas Cake, Christmas Pudding and Stilton Cheese

There can only be one choice at Christmas time and that is mature vintage Port. South Africa has been producing fortified wines for over 300 years and this example from JP Bredell’s shows the benefit of all that experience.

JP Bredells Cape Vintage Reserve 2001 £16.99

Grown in the well drained soils of the Helderberg basin, the traditional Portuguese Port grape varieties combine to give a powerful fortified wine that is capable of rivalling the best of the Douro. 5 stars from Platter, a Gold Medal at the 2006 Michelangelo awards and an Old Mutual Trophy in 2008 are testament to the quality and purity of this wine.

Mature and ready to drink now, this Vintage Port style wine is powerful with aromas of dried fruit, plums, raisins, ripe blackberries, blackcurrants, Christmas pudding, liquorice and spice. The palate is muscular with strong tannins and alcoholic grip but is voluptuously rich and packed with dark fruit flavours, mocha and mint. This is a decadent wine to finish a perfect meal matched with the finest Stilton cheese.

 

These wines are all available at www.vincisive.co.uk and a mixed case of these 6 wines is on offer for £105 giving a saving of over 10%. Delivery in the South Cotswolds area is free. Please email info@vincisive.co.uk to order, quoting xmas

Uva Mira Chardonnay

This post first appeared as a guest article on one of the wine world’s most entertaining and thoughtful blogs – Quaffable

Given the fine literary talents usually displayed by Mr Quaffable, it is quite a daunting prospect to rise to the challenge of writing a guest blog. Stick to what you know would probably be good advice, but this is a wine blog and not an aviation blog. OK, perhaps I know a little bit about wine but is any of it interesting or vaguely entertaining? After all, I don’t want Quaffable’s blog ratings to plummet – it’s a competitive world in the wine blog arena and it might be nice to be invited back some day.

Tell a story perhaps? Hmmm, well they all start with a bottle of wine and usually end up with me not remembering what happened between the second bottle being opened and waking up in another familiar hotel room on the network. Although I’m pretty sure I would have managed to solve many of Cathay Pacific’s rostering, pilot pay and recruitment issues during the course of the evening. There would undoubtedly also have been perfect solutions to the problems of bankers’ bonuses, the Euro and world peace.  Throw a bunch of pilots together, add wine, all your problems solved!

Right, back to wine it is then, why on earth does somebody with a reasonably well paid job decide to start up a business importing South African wines? We all know that the wine business is sewn up by the big boys, there’s cut-throat competition, miniscule margins, import duty, VAT, large upfront costs, and of course there’s only a small niche market that is interested in anything other than Jacob’s Creek or First Cape.

The answer is passion. A passion that develops from the instant that you taste a wine that utterly blows you away.  A wine that unexpectedly takes you by surprise with its elegance, mineral purity and complex depth of flavour. That wine is Uva Mira Chardonnay.

Stellenbosch may not be the first place that comes to mind when thinking of elegant Chardonnays, but Stellenbosch includes the picturesque Helderberg mountain which rises majestically above the plain with panoramic views to Cape Town. Uva Mira is located at the top of this mountain, above Hidden Valley and Ernie Els and stares down to Ken Forrester’s Chenin Blanc FMC vineyard. The Chardonnay vineyards are at an average elevation of about 1700 feet and this provides a cooler climate enabling chardonnay grapes to retain their freshness, elegance and mineral focus. Restricted yields of 32hl/ha, careful handling and hand sorting are all part of winemaker Matthew van Heerden’s fanatical approach to quality.

Fermentation is in new, lightly toasted, French oak with the occasional batonnage and a small amount of the wine is allowed to undergo malolactic fermentation for some added complexity.

Meeting the winemaker Matthew van Heerden earlier this year

Returning back to the UK after tasting this stunning wine I was amazed to see that it wasn’t available anywhere. Why hadn’t this wine been discovered? I still don’t know the answer to that question but a few phone calls and emails later and I had started a new business, invested a sum of money that caused some ‘discussion’ with my wife and Vincisive was born, importing the wines of Uva Mira as their UK agent. The worst thing that could happen would be being left with a pallet of fantastic wine that I would have to drink by myself, now wouldn’t that be a shame!

Fortunately, I’m not alone in thinking it’s a great wine. Take Neal Martin for example,

The palate is very well balanced with a delicate entry that expands beautifully across the palate with notes of orange peel and subtle apricot. It is both long and vibrant in the mouth with a palpable sense of tension. This Chardonnay exudes thoughtful winemaking and is highly recommended. 94 points

With reviews like this, my stash of fine Chardonnay that I can keep to myself is getting smaller. Production is limited to 800 cases a year so it’s not easy to secure a bigger allocation. However, I’m prepared to make the sacrifice as wine this good should be shared and enjoyed by a wider audience! Passion for wine is something that cannot be indulged in alone, it needs to be articulated, debated, discovered and above all enjoyed. I look forward to having that conversation with you over a glass of South Africa’s finest Chardonnay!

You can find Uva Mira Chardonnay at Vincisive

Chateau Musar Blanc

One of the benefits (and believe me there aren’t as many as most people think!) of flying for a living is being able to pick up a bottle or 2 at airport duty free shops. Most of the wines on offer are usually generic, mass produced stuff that hold little interest. There are of course the ultra high end shops that cater for the super rich that think nothing of dropping the odd £10,000 on a bottle of wine – see this article at decanter.com for a remarkable story about the client who spent US $107,000 on 8 bottles of wine at Dubai duty free. Not quite being in such an affluent mood at the weekend, I had to make do with a bottle of Chateau Musar Blanc 2003 for £8.50 that I happened to see amongst the mass produced, over priced offerings coming through Dubai’s Terminal 2.

Now Chateau Musar is well known for it’s red wine, often polarising opinion between those who love it’s unusual, but unique, character and those who really cannot stand it, claiming that it is full of volatile acidity (think nail varnish remover). A Marmite wine if ever there was one!  It is of course Lebanon’s most famous wine due to its history, longevity, triumph over adversity and the indefatigable Serge Hochar. This is all well documented elsewhere and doesn’t need another re-hash here. However, the white Musar is much less well known but apparently also has the capacity to divide opinion.

Musar Blanc is made from a blend of 2 grape varieties that you have never heard of,  Obaideh and Merwah, which are indigenous to the mountains of Lebanon. Chateau Musar alleges that they are related to Chardonnay and Semillon. Planted between 1920 and 1947 the Obaideh is on stony, chalky soils, while the Merwah vines are on calcareous gravels. Untrained bush vines and yields of about 25hl, the vines are planted on their own roots rather than grafted.

Fermented in oak for 9 months, and after bottling and blending, the wine is not released for seven years. That’s a phenomenal amount of time to keep a wine maturing in the cellar without seeing any return on your investment. Lots more information can be found on the official Chateau Musar website.

Chateau Musar Blanc 2003, Burj Khalifa in the background

Having a night off in Dubai, it was of course churlish not to take the opportunity to open the bottle with a few fellow pilots and see what it was like. I was fully expecting it to be ‘different’ and knew that it might be a bit of a shock to some of my colleagues but the joy of wine is not just in casual consumption but also encouraging something new, broadening horizons and maybe even stimulating a bit of discussion.

Opening the bottle before they arrived, I penned a quick note:-

Wild nose, rich and nutty but with a definite oxidative note. There’s some marzipan and butter that hints at an oily and full bodied wine. I’m expecting to be assaulted when I taste the wine but it’s actually rather gentle. 

Apricots are the dominant fruit but there’s lots of tropical stuff going on with passionfruit, custard apple and even some citrus elements but never moving very far from the oxidative reminder.

The finish is obviously very long and brings a bitter edge to the wine that isn’t altogether unpleasant. I’m enjoying this wine at the moment and will see how it progresses later.

Unfortunately, once the hordes arrived the bottle was empty before I had the chance to hide a bit away for later. And as for their opinions? Most definitely divided!