Our news articles are repeated
on our
news blog where suitable - or even possibly unsuitable - comments can be posted..
Flying Cork
The Portuguese cork industry
is branching out in a bid to find new markets for its declining cork stopper
business, where the screwcap has made painful inroads. Of course there will
probably always be a place for a good unblemished long cork in a bottle of
vintage Port or
Claret, which is designed to mature in the bottle. But most wine
is consumed in the month after purchase and in this market the cork share is
only about 70% (down from over 90%). The industry needs to consider the long
term - the cork bark is first harvested when the tree is about 20 years old and
then again about every 10 years for the next two centuries. The future plan is
to make aircraft wings out of carbon fibre and cork instead of PVC, whilst
resistance to fire (and oil prices) will be used to advantage inside the
aircraft too. But they may have some unexpected competition in that land of the
screwcap: Australia is considering planting the
Quercus Subur to exploit its
resistance to bushfires. At least the Portuguese know they have to give a
minimum of 20 years notice...
February 10
Scottish Wine at
last?
A vineyard has been planted in
Perth and is due to give its first vintage in 2010. Jokes about global warming
seem inappropriate this year but as anyone who has spent a winter in Burgundy
will know, it's not the winter but the summer that's important. So here's to a
blistering Perthshire 2010 vintage!
February 10
Brand New Red
Bicyclette
What is it with bicycles?
Various wineries and co-ops in the South of France are being prosecuted by the
French authorities for selling cheap Pinot Noir, that wasn't, to Gallo for its
'Red Bicyclette' brand. One might have thought Gallo should have been able to
smell and taste the difference but, as one wag has already pointed out, probably
the overwhelming aroma was that of a nice fat, high margin...
January 10
Make Mine A
Swimming Pool - continued
Making derogatory remarks
about lager has - of course - prompted a 'friend' to point out that you
can bathe in red wine too. At
Kanagawa in Japan there is a
health resort where bathing in red wine is said to be a rejuvenation treatment
for the body. Well perhaps, but the last time this writer so much as trod grapes
for half an hour it took two months for the legs to tone down from bright pink
to pallid white. If it had been total immersion there would need to be a racial
type created. Closer inspection of the spa does reveal - doubtless to the relief
of passport authorities everywhere - that there is quite a lot of water with it
- so it is more of a dark rosé colour. Just enough probably to put you in the
pink..
January 10
The Tractor Factor
in New Zealand
Grove Mill,
the world's first Carbon Zero winery, has modified a tractor to run on vine
prunings, which as a tractor is often going six hours a day they consider well
worth the cost. Although we had visions of this new tractor looking rather like
Stephenson's rocket it turns out that the vine prunings undergo
gasification first and the result
can then be used as fuel. But the real pity is that those steaks grilled over
the vine cuttings will loose that unique tangy flavour that is so delicious...
Still, perhaps that's progress, perhaps not.
January 10
Make Mine A
Swimming Pool
Word reaches us from
Starkenberg in Austria that a health spa is offering a recuperative break where
the spa's bathing pools are filled up with - er beer. Apparently bathing in beer
has health benefits such as improving skin tone and blood circulation. Pure
prejudice leads us to suggest that this must be the proper use for lager and is
for certain miles better than drinking the stuff...
December 09
PET Beaujolais
Nouveau in Japan
Japan has for some years now
been Beaujolais Nouveau's largest market but recessionary pressure and declining
sales has led to what the trade will doubtless call 'packaging innovation'. Many
retailers are to sell Nouveau in PET plastic bottles, which are both cheaper and
-allegedly- more environmentally friendly than glass. It is certainly true that
nobody is looking to buy Beaujolais Nouveau to 'lay down' so part of the
objection to plastic bottles is immediately overcome. As the largest Burgundy
negociant supplied the USA with Beaujolais Nouveau in plastic last year, we are
left wondering whether this light, fruity and easy to appreciate wine might be
the forerunner for a major packaging change for other wines. If Australia and
New Zealand can champion the screw- cap perhaps France will be the PET champion?
At least if we are selling our
Beaujolais Nouveau
next year in PET you'll know they are!
November 09
Wine (not just
Guinness) is good for you
At the World Wine Symposium in
Italy
Jean-Robert Pitte, ex
President of the Sorbonne University, lamented the fact that the French state
did not separate alcohol from wine. That sounds rather like being able to get
alcohol out of the wine but being unable to get the wine out of alcohol.
This is entirely logical and nor should they be separate. Where he does have
more force is when he pointed out that
L'Association Nationale de
Protection contre l'Alcool et les Addictions (French quangos seem to have even
longer names than British ones) has an annual budget of 66m Euros and 1,400
employees! What on earth do they all do? We trust they don't drink at
lunchtime.. Yet Dr NK Yong, a Singapore wine enthusiast, seems rather to hope
they do - "anyone who tells you wine is not good for you is lying. If the
politicians don't understand this, you should change the politicians." This has
rather more impact when you realise that Dr Yong is 80 years young.
November 09
White wine attacks
tooth enamel shock
We were unsurprised to
discover that the acidity in wine is bad for tooth enamel and the acidity in
white wine is generally higher than red. According to the German University
study that made this earth shattering discovery, eating cheese with the wine
helps (full of calcium - like our teeth). The British Dental Association has
replied that "If you're going to have a glass of wine do so with your meal and
leave a break of at least 30 minutes afterwards before you brush your teeth."
What they don't mention is that if you brush your teeth before drinking
the wine you might never drink wine again...Please don't try this at home!
October 09
Paternoster
Lift
This lovely phrase (referring
to one of those lifts that goes on continuously without ever actually stopping
at a floor) has been used by a report in the American 'Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences' to describe the way the bubbles in
Champagne act as a flavour delivery system! It is not unique to
Champagne but also found in 'good' - for which read bottle fermented - sparkling
wine. By using mass spectometry it was discovered that the aromatic compounds
were present by a factor of up to 30 times more in the bubbles rather than the
wine. Their continuous rising and bursting delivers the flavour. (Shades of
"every bubble has passed its fizzical" which was an advertising campaign of old
for a soft drink.)
However, to anyone who has ever tasted still 'Champagne' before it passes
through its bottle fermentation this will certainly come as no surprise. Without
the improvement brought about by secondary fermentation it is doubtful if it
would be drunk at all!
October 09
Some like it
hot
French wine lovers - and
Greenpeace in particular (though it is unlikely many of us had them marked down
in this category) are warning that global warming may see off the wines of
Meursault, Montrachet and Volnay. If global warming continues at is current
rate the temperature will be six degrees warmer on average by the end of the
century. Already between 1996 and 2008 the time taken for grapes to mature in
Burgundy has reduced by ten from fifty to forty days. This is distinctly
serious for such a prestigious area, where the length of time taken to fruit
maturity is very important for finesse and complexity. France loses this at its
peril! No wonder a group of chefs, sommeliers and winemakers wrote to 'Le Monde'
in August to insist that Nicolas Sarkosy push for a strong agreement on climate
change. He would probably be all the more motivated if they were to mention that, should it happen,
Southern Britain is likely to be a major beneficiary of this particular bit of
climate change...
September 09
Record price for
Zonnebloem Cabernet Sauvignon
It is true that we do not
unfortunately have stocks of Zonnebloem Cabernet Sauvignon 1965 and 1967, which
achieved record prices at the recent South African Nederberg wine auction, but
we do have stocks of a rather later but almost as delicious 2004 vintage at just
£7.29 a bottle!
September 09
Bring on the
Clones
Carmenère is the grape that
may well have originated in the Médoc. After the phylloxera outbreak the 1880s
it was not replanted. Chile however had been supplied with vines earlier in the
century and had no phylloxera problem (indeed still doesn't) and is now the home
of far and away the largest quantities of Carmenère vines, such that it is now
considered a (so called) signature variety for the country. Even so it is
remarkable how it can add an attractive depth to a Cabernet Sauvignon as in the
Terra Mater version. Perhaps this should be unsurprising in view of its
Médoc heritage!
With a view to improve quality - some single variety Carmenères can be a bit
'grassy' or 'herbaceous' - the Chilean government is funding the University of
Talca to try and discover the best clone. But again the attitude is very wise
"We don't want to completely lose the green or peppery character, otherwise it
won't be Carmenère" says the university. Hear, hear - a clone but not cloned!
September 09
Chilean
Sustainability
The University of Talca in
Chile is attempting to put forward a programme for sustainability, which is
"more than organics". Although
Chile is a country admirably suited to organic
viticulture, being protected from pests and pestilence by both the Pacific Ocean
to the West and the Andes mountains to the East it is admirable that there is a
realisation that producing organically grown grapes can count for very little,
particularly if, say, the vineyard contributes to soil erosion, intrusive
irrigation or large energy use. Hats off to the Chileans for working on
the complete picture!
September 09
Seriously
folks..
A professor of oceanography
and statistics (an odd combo - but at least the second is relevant) who also
happens to own a small winery in
California's Humboldt County decided to study wine competitions after seeing
his own wines win in some events and yet get no awards in others. He has upset
many by discovering that this alarming inconsisitency in the way his own wines
were rated was the norm. His suggestion that the competitions were pretty self
serving has not gone down well in the sunshine state!
It is interesting to compare with the UK's own International Wine Challenge,
where not only is it the world's biggest competition but anecdotally is fairly
consistent. The stupidity is that the long embargo on the results often means
that the wine has changed considerably since it was judged and in one or two
cases sold out! The add-ons such as Wine Merchant of the Year are though, similarly
self serving, indeed companies propose themselves in true unbiased
fashion! The panoply of competitions is however likely to be much enhanced if
the BMA get their way for a ban on alcohol advertising. This would be one of the
minor drawbacks of what would otherwise be a very good thing. Alcohol probably
needs to be made more serious..
September 09
France back as top
dog
It seems that France, after
faltering last year, is set to be the world's number one wine producer again.
Spain's production is well down this year, by 4%, in Italy - last year's top
producer - production will be little changed, whilst France's production is
scheduled to increase by 12%. According to a study by the Milan based Italian
Wines Union,
France is due to produce 48.1 million hectolitres of wine. Can the world
keep up, because French consumption is declining..?
September 09
Gloomy View from
Australia
No this is not a recessionary
new wine from
Australia, but a summary of the economic outlook given by Fosters, the
brewer that now owns the famous Australian names of Wolf Blass and Penfolds. It
has announced that its global wine volumes are down 5%. It is scrapping 37 wine
brands and disposing of 36 vineyards. It also has started selling its vineyards
in California. The bright spot? Beer sales are strong... Penfolds Grange
drinkers may be pleased that more potential investment is on its way from beer
drinkers' profits..
August 09
You heard it
here first..
Well actually no - we are
indebted to 'The Guardian' for bringing this to our notice. Italian banks are
likely to take wine as collateral for loans. And it is not as crazy as it at
first sounds because they won't be accepting cases and cases of plonk de plonks
so you can max out on the holiday money, but good wine that matures and
improves. So it should be perfectly safe as long as they ensure they get
repayment before it has turned into vinegar. Could put a whole new slant on the
idea of taking the bank manager for a drink...
August 09
Drinking not
smoking..
News reaches us from Canada's
Niagara that old kilns once used for drying tobacco leaves are to be used by a
winery to dry grapes so they can make their own version of
Amarone - but not by drying the grapes over a couple of months or longer but
just a fortnight! More intriguingly they are going to use another old kiln to
blast the harvested grapes with humidity and botrytis cinerea, which is the
mould responsible for the sweet concentration of
Sauternes for example. But in European vineyards the mould attacks the
grapes on the vine and they are late picked so the juice is highly concentrated.
Although it will be an intriguing trial, factory kiln production is unlikely to
be any great threat to Château Yqem just yet...
August 09
New Zealand
feeling the squeeze
Gisborne grape growers are
facing difficult times as Pernod Ricard, the French drinks conglomerate, seems
to have cut back its grape requirements by as much as 25%. This is predominantly
destined for its Montana label, New Zealand's biggest (but not its best) wine
producer. Constellation - another conglomerate, this time American- has not
helped by following a similar course for its Nobilo label. Chardonnay is the
predominant grape of the area and the one most out of favour with the consumer
now touched by the so called ABC view (Anything But Chardonnay). Some producers
are vowing to go back to growing avocados... Certainly fashion and farming are
uneasy bedfellows and probably it is also prudent to beware of exclusive supply
to enormous conglomerate wine companies.
August 09
From Prohibition
to McMerlot in less than 80 years
In what one American wag has
christened the arrival of the McMerlot a fast food chain (not in fact that
one) in North America has decided to sell wine with its burgers - in order
to move up into "fast food premium" according to their spokesman. Whatever that
means. Still don't they know that if there really is beef in those burgers
McCabernet McSauvignon is likely to be a better choice?
August 09
Please contain your excitement...
On the 1st August 2009 the EU
introduced new Wine Regulations. Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée(AOC or AC)
becomes AOP (Appellation d'Origine Protegée) and Vin de Pays wines, often
referred to as Country Wines, will now be known as IGP (Indication Géographique
Protegée). So that's alright then. At least any wine is now, legally, able to
put its constituent grape varieties on its label, which is how most of us start
to consider the style of wine that is likely to appeal to us. This should
certainly help Europe to compete a little more easily against the New World.
Money to subsidise distillation will now also be phased out to encourage wine
producers to be more market orientated. However this writer laments that the
addition of sucrose (one lump or two?) has at the last minute been permitted -
concentrated grape must would be much more honest!
August 09
When is a
Burgundy not a Burgundy?
A recent Wine & Spirit
Association survey has found that most UK wine consumers think that, whilst the
country of origin is probably of consequence, region is unimportant. It is
intriguing in this context to see that the Burgundians are locked in dispute
with their Beaujolais colleagues further South, who are planting Chardonnay
apace. Beaujolais has always been counted as part of Burgundy even though their
red grape is Gamay rather than Pinot Noir. But a mature Beaujolais Cru such as
Moulin à Vent is often indistinguishable from
mature Pinot Noir from further North. Yet it is the Chardonnay - the same white
grape that is grown throughout Burgundy that is really causing the problem. The
Burgundy winemakers' association considers that the Beaujolais producers should
be calling all this production Beaujolais Blanc, whereas in fact it has the
right to be called Bourgogne Blanc. They consider it is not Burgundy.. Surely
their time would be better spent on ensuring the quality was indistinguishable
from the posher stuff further North. But on second thoughts this is probably
what is worrying them...
July 09
The Real Thing
Apparently a consignment of
Bodegas Kohlberg wine from Bolivia has been found to offer rather more than was
expected. The Bulgarian authorities have discovered that over 90% of all bottles
contained just liquid cocaine. We did not know too much about Bolivian Wine
either but it is apparently much appreciated in the Czech Republic. No wonder..
July 09
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