Azienda Failoni - vintage variation

Antonio Failoni at work during the harvest

On Monday evening I had the good fortune to attend a tasting organised by Stephen Forward, owner of Essentially Wine, an independent wine merchant with shops in Chipstead and Richmond.

The wines featured were from Azienda Failoni from Le Marche in central Italy. The event was held in the White Hart in Chipstead.

After being introduced to us by Stephen, Antonio Failoni, the owner of the property and winemaker, ably abetted by Francisco who did the interpreting, made an interesting presentation of the wines of his estate explaining how the season, the land and the grape come together to influence the vintage.

This was illustrated vividly in the wines we tasted. The same wine, but from different vintages, displayed strikingly different characteristics while retaining a sense of the style and personality of the winemaker.

Antonio is no hereditary wine estate owner. Originally from Milan, his desire to make wine followed a holiday in the Marche region, where he fell in love with the landscape almost at first sight. He immediately set to work to build his dream - working literally all hours - patiently buying the land and the buildings, culminating in the launch of his own estate in Staffolo, near Ancona, in 1990. His wines are born of passion, of course, but also out of hard work, and a close affinity with the land and the vine. You can see that this a man who is at ease working among the vines and in the winery, and sense that he believes in what he is doing.

Particularly impressive were the two Verdicchios (DOC Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi), 2011 and 2012.

Although subdued on the nose they burst into life on the palate displaying citrus fruits (lemon and grapefruit - 2011) and more tropical and honeyed flavours (mango - 2012). This may have been because they a little cold. Antonio mentioned they should be consumed at around 12 C.

Perfectly drinkable now they are built to last (up to 10 years), thanks to the thick skinned Verdicchio grape which is resistant to fungal attack and contains plenty of aroma compounds, and will evolve in bottle if cellared well.

They both drink well on their own, but would go well with, say, spicy prawns.

The reds were no less impressive but also strikingly different. Two types of red wines were shown: Rosso Piceno DOC and Esino Rosso DOC.

Rosso Piceno: there is a story behind the name of this wine.

The ‘Piceno’ part is in fact a local name for a woodpecker, and of the people of the area, descended from the ancient pre-Roman peoples of the Marche region, who were known for their druids carrying a woodpecker on their shoulder in the style of an operatic pirate with his parrot.

A blend of 45% Sangiovese, 45% Montepulciano, and 10% Merlot this is a wine which spends time in Slovenian oak barrels before release, and provides a hit of tannin which would seem to mark this wine out for drinking with protein: roast beef, lamb,...

-Rosso Piceno 2009 - woody nose with flavours of cherries, blackcurrants and spice.

-Rosso Piceno 2010 - more fruit on the nose, and flavours of plums and damsons.

Esino Rosso: This wine is named after the river flowing through the valley below the vineyard. It is a blend of 60% Sangiovese, and 40% Montepulciano. Matured in French oak barrels there are less obvious woody notes and the tannins are subtle and rounded.

-Esino Rosso 2008 - Blackcurrant and dark fruits on the nose. Velvety tannins.

-Esino Rosso 2009 - Blueberries and blackcurrant, with a hint of vanilla on the nose, sumptuous fruit flavours and rounded on the palate with a long finish.

All the reds are drinkable now, but have plenty of structure, so can be cellared for several years. Perfect with any Italian dishes, but particularly good with any carnivorous fare, game (especially hare, venison), mushrooms and mature cheeses.

Largely based on the same Sangiovese grape the reds are also the perfect antidote to Chianti fatigue, offering the same freshness, crunchy fruit notes and structure, but rather better value for money and more authenticity than many of the Tuscan offerings.

Failoni also produces delicious olive oil from centuries-old olive trees.

All in all a very enjoyable evening, and I for one look forward to drinking Azienda Failoni wines for many years to come.

The wines are available in this country from the Essentially Wine shops or from the website

Everyday Drinkers (10)

Number 10 already! I didn't realise I drank so much wine.

This one is a real bargain at £3.99, and is from Sicily, yet again. It's a Vino Rosso Terre Siciliane IGT, a blend of Nerello Mascalese and Nero d'Avola.

What, another Sicilian? Is this the Mafia or something? No, just good value wine.

A delightfully dark wine, packing only 12% ABV despite the dark clothes, it is ideal for drinking every day, preferably with food. Handles tomatoes, cheeses, and pretty much anything else.

It is available from a well-known retailer (yes, Tesco) and produced, or at least bottled, by the Caviro Cooperative (supposedly the largest in Italy).

It has fruit on the nose and on the palate (black cherries mostly) and is well-balanced.

An eminently acceptable wine for the price. Those Sicilian wine producers can certainly deliver drinkable good value.

What religion is your wine?

By way of an introduction I will remind you of  the joke about the paramilitary traffic checkpoint in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. The masked and armed individual doing the checking asked one motorist "Are you a Catholic or a Protestant?" to which he received the reply "Neither, I'm Jewish", before asking "Are you a Catholic Jew or a Protestant Jew?".

You may ask what has religion got to do with wine? A lot in fact.

There are many references to wine in the Old and New Testaments. Noah planted a vineyard. We have all heard of Cana, where Jesus changed the water into wine.

One of the bases of Catholicism is the belief that the celebration of the Eucharist involves the operation of transubstantiation - the changing of wine into the Blood of the Saviour. The wine, which to all intents and purposes remains wine, represents the Blood and becomes it.

Wine is omnipresent, and rightly so. Viticulture and wine making are at the heart of civilisation, much like weaving, animal husbandry, horticulture etc.

Jean-Robert Pitte (in Le désir du vin à la conquête du monde and Bordeaux Bourgogne les passions rivales) describes the influence of wine in Antiquity and the great divide that is at the heart of the French wine scene - the Burgundy-Bordeaux rivalry.

This opposition is partly religious, the Protestant influence being felt in Bordeaux via the influence of northern European merchants and settlers whereas Burgundy is more Catholic in outlook with some of its great wines and traditions closely linked to church properties or monastic traditions.

There is also a profound cultural divide: the Bordelais are perceived as more reserved in their dealings and in appearance often resemble English gentlemen farmers or aristocrats, whereas the Burgundians have a reputation for being peasants at heart and also much more hedonistic in their view of wine and what it is for.

Even the bottles containing the wines of the regions get in on the act: the straight-sided bordeaux bottle versus the more rounded, perhaps even feminine, burgundy bottle.

Does all this show in the wines of these regions?

Perhaps it does: it requires years of ageing before a quality Bordeaux is approachable. This wait is akin to the abstinence and forbearance at the heart of some Protestant doctrines where success is the result of hard work and sacrifice and God's will; the immediacy of a Bourgogne passetoutgrains
might be lost on the château owner. The burgundian tradition of the drinking song and the long gourmet and gourmand meal would seem intolerable to the frequenter of dinner parties in the Médoc.

So perhaps wine does have a religious identity of sorts.

In any case it tells a story about itself and its origins both geographical and botanical, but also about the people who made it.

This is at the heart of what makes us love wine; it brings its cultural identity with it onto our dining tables and encourages us to find out more.  And it can even change your life.

Mountain vines

Mountain vine

I am always fascinated to find vines growing in out of the way places. A recent stay in France allowed me to indulge this fascination once again.

This picture shows vines found in a Pyrenean mountain village, at about 700-800m altitude, vestiges of significant vine plantings all but wiped out in the 19th century by the phylloxera mite.

I am not sure what the grape variety is. A guess would be something related to Pinot Noir, probably Chardonnay, going by the leaves.

I also noticed areas of former terraces which were cultivated right up until the 1960's where vines might still be found. Unfortunately time did not allow me to attempt exploration of these areas, a long way from the village and surrounded by scrub.

View of formerly cultivated terraces above Larcat (former vineyard areas would be on the lower slopes)

Nature never takes very long to claim back what humans once thought of as their own. After only about 50 years, the terraces carved out of the mountainside and cultivated by a particularly hardy and tenacious sort of human (the ariégeois) are now barely visible, and on the lower slopes have been obliterated by the forest. 

Azure

View of Laparat lake

As Autumn dampness encroaches in London, here is a blue sky we were lucky enough to experience during a recent stay in the French Pyrenees.

This is azure is all its glory.

Herbert Hall

See the links to two great articles by Tom Harrow and Will Lyons on this fantastic English Sparkling Wine, and its creator Nick Hall.

Tom Harrow - The Arbuturian
Will Lyons - The Wall Street Journal

A great lesson in how to make a great wine and market a boutique English vineyard.

Everyday drinkers (9)

This Purato 2011 (IGT Sicilia, Feudo di Santa Tresa) was selling recently for £3.99 (reduced from £7.50, I think).

I suppose people might have been turned off by the out-and-out organic labelling.

The fact that the paper is 100% recycled and the glass 85%, and that the label is printed with vegetable ink has no bearing on what is inside the bottle. Many would have found this just too militant. The question might well have been: is the wine recycled too?

But not to worry. The Nero d'Avola grape from Sicily is generally a good bet.

This wine was no exception, with its subtle red fruit aromas, smoothness on the palate and relatively moderate (13.5 % ABV) alcohol. Unfortunately it has probably sold out now; but even at the higher price it represents good value.

Made by the Feudo di Santa Tresa it is a great introduction to Sicilian wines, as you will be left wanting more when you finish the bottle.

Bubbles

A couple of pictures of my sparkling elderflower concoction.

After 2 days spent in an open container the part fermented liquid was bottled, and allowed to continue its fermentation for a further 2 and a half days.

After some time in the fridge to cool down and stop the fermentation, this was the result. A bit cloudy because of the fine lees.

What it was like: floral on the nose, some residual sugar and refreshing taste. Just as intended.

I have several other bottles which have been fermented for progressively longer times, and will report if taste is affected.

Elderflower delights

Elderflower bloom

Last year I missed the elderflower season.

I only woke up to the fact that it was upon us when it was too late; the blooms had already passed and the heavens had opened to deluge us with rain after a lengthy drought.

This year I was determined not to miss out, and scouted for accessible (i.e. not surrounded by thickets of brambles and head-high stinging nettles) elderflower (sambucca nigra) shrubs. There were a number within very easy reach. It was simply a matter of waiting for them to flower.

Why you may ask? Well if you have never breathed in the heady perfume of elderflower, then you have never experienced an English summer.

It is powerful and indescribable (indeed it is one of those aroma characteristics featuring in wine tasting descriptors along with orange blossom, violets and roses etc), but quintessentially floral and refreshing.

The flowers are also an extremely useful resource and can be turned into delicious elderflower cordial, and sparkling elderflower 'wine' (for want of a better word).

Blooms soaking in sugar/water solution

There are many recipes for the former, and for the latter you can follow a méthode ancestrale procedure to make the sparkling liquid (taking care to choose containers strong enough to resist the pressure of CO2 given off during fermentation in bottle). You can add lemon juice and zest to both concoctions to add acidity, and even tartaric acid to the cordial to help it keep.

The cordial is a great way of livening up tap water. Diluted to taste with very cold water, it makes a very refreshing drink. The sparkler is flowery and fresh, with a balance of alcohol/residual sugar depending on how fully you decide to ferment it.

These are two great hedgerow treats, not to be missed.

Fast forward to the End of the Earth?

I enjoyed reading an article by Martin Wolf in the FT (Wednesday 22/5/2013) entitled 'Climate sceptics have already won'.

Not content with just complaining about it Mr Wolf went so far as to offer a number of solutions with a view to buying time so that humanity can get its act together and so avoid catastrophe.

So far so good.

The solutions proposed were, in a nutshell:

• Tax carbon emissions
• Go nuclear
• Impose really tough emissions standards on cars
• Create secure global trading regime in lower-carbon fuels
• Develop ways to finance technology transfer
• Invest in research
• Invest in adaptation
• Think through geo-engineering.

You can be for or against any of these proposals, each of which has its merits.

Cars makers are already doing a lot to reduce emissions from their vehicles, for example. Geo-engineering seems a bit risky to me. Well-managed nuclear energy goes a long way to decarbonising the economy. Etcetera.

Many, or in fact all of the solutions, involve government action, not just regionally but globally. This is no doubt the greatest obstacle to any meaningful action being possible.

Our governments do not appear to be capable of formulating effective policies liable to affect GHG emissions, let alone habitat loss, mass extinction and other threats to the Earth System, Gaia or however you wish to call or planetary home.

The feeble way in which they are managing the depression/recession illustrates how incapable they seem to be.

The mantra of our leaders sounds like 'markets and the economy cannot be managed or controlled, we are helpless and will just have to wait for growth or whatever to come along'.

Woe betide us if climate change is viewed in the same way.

You can do only so much on a personal level (live an a low energy home, use public transport or stay put, grow your own food, recycle everything, only acquire things which have been recycled, support local businesses and produce etc).

What does it take for a governments to do something similar on a national, regional, global level?

The stark fact remains that it may already be far too late to avoid cataclysmic climate change induced by human activity. The only solution will be the sort of adaptation proposed by James Lovelock in order to preserve what can be preserved.

Things, such as Greenland or Antarctic ice sheets, are moving faster than we can imagine.

Enough is Enough

But what is, enough?

Is it 100 pairs of shoes, 250 cars? A million pounds?

Or is it something else?

Better late...

From three weeks to a full month later than last year, depending on the plant, Spring appears to have finally arrived.

Fruit trees are in flower, and the first delicious spears of Asparagus are piercing the earth.

Every green thing seems to be growing, at last.

On a more sombre note, there are not many insects around, and some birds are missing the roll call (greenfinches, goldfinches, thrushes for example). Hopefully they will come along later.

Life is Short

It is when someone close to you passes away and you have not had the opportunity to say goodbye that you realise life is short.

This recent bereavement explains why I have not had the inclination to write much here.

But words can be a great comfort, and in fact are the only comfort we have in the face of death. These words might be from the Bible or might have been written by Rilke or Yeats. They are still a great help and aid us to continue our living, and maybe live a little better. There is not a minute to lose.

So hopefully I will have some good words for you in the near future.

When is a Chardonnay not a Chardonnay?

When it tastes like something else.

Let me explain.

Having bought a bottle of Mâcon Villages from a large supermarket I opened it to find it tasted nothing like Chardonnay. It seemed more like Sauvignon blanc.

It wasn't just me. My son, who knows a thing or two about wine, found it tasted 'different' too.

Can we trust what it says on the label (the word 'Chardonnay' was proudly emblazoned on the front of the bottle), or is the horse meat misidentification scandal now affecting wine?

Anyone else found similar 'different' tasting wines?

Horse DNA in your wine?

Courtesy of Eric Reppert (owner of Vins Etonnants the number one source for wines a little out of the ordinary), a cartoon with some horse DNA.

"According to our tests there is horse DNA in your wine"
"Of course there is, because there's a horse in my vines"

Wandle Walk

The River Wandle

On Saturday we took advantage of the fine weather to walk along part of the the Wandle Trail, and a very fine walk it was too.

Sometimes it was hard to believe we were in London, and that if we followed the course of this tributary of the Thames we would, in a few miles, find ourselves in Wandsworth, practically in the centre of the metropolis.  But we were, and exploring the banks of a river which, in the recent past, had been described as an open sewer.

The Wandle is now returning slowly to its wild state and being repopulated by fish of all kinds, Kingfishers and many other water birds. The Pike is still missing, as the waters are not quite pristine enough, but in comparison with the dead place we might have found a few years back this river is now full of life. This is all thanks to the work of conservationists and local Councils alike, and is a fine example of what can be achieved as a result of long-term concerted action.

The Rubble Mountain

Of course you do still get the odd whiff of solvents as you go past an industrial estate; and the vast pile of scrap and rubble heaped up in one place seemed to be ready to tumble into the waters, in an avalanche of foul waste. At one time this mountain of detritus would have been all but invisible to everyone, lying as it is in the back end on a factory area, out of sight and out of mind. But walkers can now view it in all its horrific enormity.

In spite of this the route is invigorating and truly re-creational. After a couple of hours on the trail we felt great when we got back home, ready for a welcome pre lunch drink.



  

Dudley Craig tasting

Richard and Frédérique in discussion with a customer

I was invited to this tasting by Frédérique Vaquer of Domaine Vaquer, whom I met last year at an event  held at the Maison du Languedoc-Roussillon.

I knew the wines of Domaine Vaquer would be on show and looked forward to it for this reason. Not disappointed either. The Rivesaltes all showed exceptionally well, and a Muscat de Rivesaltes (probably 2000) was simply extraordinary.

The rest of the wines on show were mainly from France (Bolney Estate also featured with some English sparkling and a red), and struck one as having been very carefully selected for their individual qualities. Each stood out as a fully-fledged distinctive example of their region or style and also as the expression of a winemaker, getting the very best wine possible from their vine/soil/site combination.

Highlights for me included some interesting Cheverny and Cour-Cheverny wines from Domaine de Montcy; very well made and good value Chablis from Domaine Louis Moreau; a Fleurie 2011 from Château de Durette, a white Provence 2011 from Domaine du Deffends, a lovely Bandol Rouge 2000 from Château Vannières - this wine having shed its forbidding tannic acidity and taken on the dark fruit and leathery forest floor mantle of good aged Bandol. A Cahors 2009 from Château les Hauts d'Aglan also stood out as a wine drinkable now but with a long life ahead of it. A Macvin du Jura from Caves Jean Bourdy was delightful, with an aroma of rose petals.

An added bonus was a selection of Château Cheval Blanc - almost a vertical - 1982, 1989, 1995, 2000 ... For those of you who are looking to purchase some I can confirm that the 1982 is drinking wonderfully and will still be delicious in 10 years, the 1989 is now perfect, and again will be going strong in 20 years. Leave the 2000 for now, but look at it again in 5 years. It was a rare privilege to have been able to sample these wines.

All in all a very characterful tasting, and I am sure that many of these wines will find favour with the trade, being well made, great with food, and offering excellent value.

Dudley Craig Wines, 2a Ledbury Mews North, London W11 2AF
richard@dudleycraigwines.co.uk
Mobile 07880 694840






  

The Wrong Handbag

Someone very close to me applied for a job at an extremely well-known company recently.

Having managed to convince her interviewers that she had all the necessary technical competence, languages and experience to do the job perfectly, she was finally turned down because she had the wrong sort of handbag.

Admittedly she was interviewed by females mainly, and handbags are no doubt an important consideration to young women. But since when has not having a particular sort of bag disqualified one from doing a job?

Not that she was dressed like a tramp, or bag-lady (pun intended). She is, on the contrary, a very elegant individual. She did have a receptacle designed to be convenient for use on the London public transport network, which was more practical than stylish. A faux-pas in hindsight.

Image is now everything, it would seem, and women have a long way to go to free themselves from their enthralment to the (mostly male) diktats of fashion.
 

We'll miss it when it's all gone, won't we?

What?  you might ask...The SNOW of course. Well I like it anyway.

Blowing one's own trumpet

Let's face it, nobody else is going to do it, so please forgive me for allowing myself a little pat on the back.

One of the producers written about by us (Serre des Vignes) got a mention on French national radio (France Inter On va déguster dated 13th January 2013).

The programme featured the new (only 2 years old) appellation Grignan-les-Adhémar of which Serres des Vignes is a member, and expressed surprise at how good the wines had turned out to be despite initial skepticism. The remark was made that the region could capture the best of both the northern and the southern Rhône, something we ourselves had found.

The particular wine mentioned by Dominique Hutin was of course the Secret de Syrah.

Forget Prosecco

If you are looking for good value fizz outside of the usual suspects Prosecco and Cava take some time to look at wines from the Loire Valley.

Here the Chenin blanc grape shows off its ability to embrace any wine style you care to mention, from bone dry to deliciously sweet.

It can do the same as regards fizz, on its own, or blended with Chardonnay or other grapes. It can range from the off-dry to the crisp and citrussy.

The bottle pictured comes from Clos de la Briderie (biodynamically farmed), and is crisp with a little yeastiness. Perfect fizz and great value for money. In France it can be bought direct from the property for less than 7 Euros. I just wish I had some left.

We toasted the New Year with it and also had it with filo pastry cheese parcels (mix of Stilton, Parmesan and mature Cheddar). Yummy.

Everyday Drinkers (8)

You may not recognise the grape variety although the fact that it comes from the Rioja will reassure you.

But go on, pick it up and put it in your trolley because it is seriously good, and only £4.99.

A Graciano single varietal. This is one of the 'other' Rioja varieties, sometimes found mixed with Tempranillo etc, but until fairly recently, never on its own. But it is making a comeback.

The Rioja people have been rediscovering some of these more obscure or neglected grapes and recognising that they are very worthwhile, and worth showcasing. This wine is no exception.

Dark looking liquid, aromas of vanilla and stewed prunes. Sour cherries to follow, some acidity but not aggressive, more the food-friendly sort. Tannins also but in reasonable abundance.

As there was a lot of turkey still hanging about we drank it with that, and it worked well.

Bodegas Barón de Ley Varietal Graciano 2009 available at a supermarket ending in ...co.