The Right Vines in the Wrong Place (or vice versa)

Unidentified allotment vine - in the right place ?

Reading an article in Le Rouge et le Blanc on the Sablet and Séguret Côtes du Rhône Villages appellation today.

The article by Philippe Bouin and Yaïr Tabor mentions that some younger vineyard owners wonder whether it is useful for appellation rules to call for the use of 'improving grape varieties' (cépages améliorateurs) in blends.

Many local regulations in southern France call for Syrah or Mourvèdre to form part of the blend in order to gain appellation status, whereas they might not give of their best in the area.

Everyone knows that the Northern Rhône is the spiritual and probably physical home of Syrah and that some of the wines produced there have gained mythical status. You would not plant Grenache here.

On the other hand the jammy grapes produced by Syrah in hot, very sunny areas of the lower Rhône valley serve only to gain the appellation badge, bringing nothing 'improving' to the party.

This leads me to reflect on the fact that there is indeed a 'right' place for certain grape varieties to grow.

In countries such as France with a long tradition of vine growing most of the 'right' places are known and have been for centuries. Generally speaking 'right' is a place where the grapes only just ripen fully, over a long season, every year.

French regulations by and large respect these traditions, but are applied a little too rigidly, ignoring or relegating to bit parts good indigenous grapes, which properly cultivated would produce great or at least very good wines (e.g. Pineau d'Aunis in the Loire; Cinsault and others in the south).

In countries like England regulations allow for much more flexibility, and the 'right' places are only starting to become known (e.g Darnibole at Camel Valley...).

There is much to look forward to as far as English wines are concerned.

Rosé wine and grapefruit anyone ?

Rosé wine and Grapefruit mix drinks can now be found in French supermarkets and are sold as low alcohol flavoured 'fruit wines' or aperitifs.

I suppose I am a bit of a grumpy old man, but I find the whole idea abhorrent.

There is nothing wrong with grapefruit juice per se. Many rosé wines have much to recommend them. But the thought of mixing the two and bottling them is simply too much.

The resulting mixture (which I do not wish to name) is sickly and stuffed full of sulphur dioxide and is very likely to leave you with a splitting headache if you are unlucky enough to drink too much of it. There is the small matter of the 7% ABV also. Too low for the elixir to be called wine, but enough to seriously intoxicate the unwary.

If you are feeling particularly adventurous or foolhardy you can sample a sparkling version. You can then move on to peach, lime, blackberry, raspberry etc

No doubt this is a new form of wine marketing because the traditional producer/terroir/tradition model means nothing to young 'consumers'.

It is sad to see in a country with so many grape varieties, wine regions and traditions, where it would not be too difficult to find a traditionally made wine with a similar flavour profile to this concoction, and none of the drawbacks.

The greatest crime is probably the attempt to convince people that this is in fact wine when it has nothing to do with it. Although it may perhaps come to pass that upon tasting this, people will seek solace in wine or any other sort of traditional drink.

It is a similar sort of debate to the one opposing British Wine (which is not necessarily wine and definitely not British, being made from imported grape must with various permitted additions from, among other things, different fruit) to English or Welsh wine, which most definitely are wines and produced in this country.

Authenticity versus the 'creations' of marketing people and people who want to make a profit above all else.

Terroir Musings

Left bank Bordeaux- terroir by design ?

I have been reading Jean-Robert Pitte's book Bordeaux Bourgogne - Les passions rivales and have found some interesting ideas on terroir (as the French would have it).

Far from being something eminently mysterious and bound in with geology, geography, climate and a little sorcery by the winemaker thrown in, the author posits that terroir is in fact a fiction, albeit a very plausible one, created over the centuries by the vineyard owners of France, in particular those of Bordeaux and Burgundy. He uses some striking analogies to make his point: would the brilliant virtuoso violinist point to the wood of his Stradivarius to explain his performance, or the sculptor explain his work of art as the product of the pure Carrara marble he is sculpting ? Likewise the sage old owner of a premier grand cru or a classed first growth will point to his vines and argue that outside of this place no great wine can be made. This is the false modesty of the winemaker assuring us that he is responsible for only 10% of the wine's standout qualities.

The predominance of Pinot Noir in Burgundy - down to Philippe le Hardi and his dislike of Gamay (decree of 31 July 1395) happened more or less by chance, yet the bourguignons will swear that great wine can only be made from the former grape, which can be quite temperamental if not cultivated in the right way. This temperamental nature is both a good (in the right hands) and a bad thing : after all a bad Bourgogne rouge can be very bad indeed, overcropped as the vines producing the grapes going into it might be, on a very bad stretch of land. Perhaps Gamay is not so bad after all. If you are familiar with the better winemakers in the Beaujolais and elsewhere you would be tempted to think so. A well made Beaujolais is a fine drink and will keep too. The stars of the show, all other things being equal, are the vine growers and wine makers aided and abetted by a large number of wine professionals and wine connoisseurs who have a vested interest in ensuring that Burgundy, Bordeaux and Champagne (there are other wine regions of similar standing) continue to be identified with high value, high quality wines.

The notions of terroir and appellation, supposedly guardians of quality (and this is true to some extent - preventing the mixing of wine from Algeria or the southern Rhone with passtoutgrain to produce Burgundy) have been used as a means of of increasing and preserving the value of land on which certain vines stand. Many restrictive practices have contributed to this in the past ensuring for example that the wines of Bordeaux and not Cahors reached the markets of northern Europe. Now appellation rules and prohibition of planting in the EU perpetuate the status quo. Since phylloxera many potentially great wine regions have been lost and unless they are still within appellation boundaries will remain so forever.

Happily English wine now has the opportunity to rival these so called great terroirs 'touched by the Gods'. Our Montrachet or DRC is somewhere to be found and will be made one day by an exceptional winemaker. The lack of restriction on grape plantations is a great freedom currently enjoyed here and should be used to the full. Alas, knowing the EU's propensity for regulation it may be restricted in future, so gather ye rosebuds while ye may. There is a unique opportunity for English growers and winemakers to create a rival to the great wine regions.

Recently planted English vineyard

Of course terroir in England is all about nosing out a good site, where grapes will ripen consistently without being wiped out by frost or rotted by fungus, not some old bit of field not used for anything else. Naturally if you are into sparkling wine then of course cuttingly acidic grapes are to be praised and sought out, but the fruit must still be good. Is it possible to produce a great wine on a useless site ? Maybe once in a blue moon but not consistently.

My view of terroir is that you must first and foremost find a good winemaker in tune with his land (he knows it like the back of his hand), his vines, the weather, on a good site, and you will have a chance of finding a good if not great wine. The label on the bottle will give you an idea of what to expect but is no guarantee of a great wine experience. There is no substitute for curiosity and meeting the winemaker.

Drinking less and better and the 250ml wine serving

There has been discussion recently over how much alcohol we should consume. A committee of MP's has recommended that we should have at least two 'dry' days each week to allow us to recover from the days when we have been binge drinking to reach our weekly allowance for intake of alcohol - defined in this country by the number of 'units' (the unit being 10ml of pure alcohol) drunk. Men, it is advised, should take in no more than 21 units per week. For women the figure is 14. These figures are believed to be the threshold beyond which damage to health may occur. It is of course ironic that MP's should be advising everyone else on alcohol consumption considering the large number of subsidised watering holes at which they can potentially drink in and around the Houses of Parliament. They do seem to have a point about excessive drinking. A look at volumes drunk in this country over the years shows a steady increase, and there has been a well-documented increase in the number of people - especially young people, treated for illnesses associated with excessive drinking, not to mention the Saturday night carnage in town centres. We should all perhaps be more careful about our alcohol intake and consider drinking a bit less and, as far as wine drinkers are concerned, better or more interesting and out of the way - or even more local (i.e. English Wine - try The Wine Pantry near Borough Market http://www.winepantry.co.uk/home.php).

This reflection led me to consider the way wine is sold in pubs and restaurants and to wonder at the 250ml wineglass, filled almost to the brim, which passes for a 'glass of wine'. To my mind this innocuous 'glass of wine' is an aberration, containing, as it does, one third of a bottle of wine, and if the wine contains 13% alcohol, amounting to 3.25 precious units ! One glass like this and you are very likely over your daily allowance; have two or three and you are waaay over...Not forgetting that the glass itself looks like a goldfish bowl (perhaps the next serving measure for plonk enthusiasts). Even in traditionally wine producing and drinking countries such as France this sort of measure is more often than not shared by two people, or consumed by one over the course of a whole meal. This 'glass of wine' even comes close to the once accepted (perhaps different now in Sarkozia) French daily wine ration of around 300ml for a man. Granted, in those antediluvian times, wines often contained no more than 8-10% alcohol. Still,  we Brits seem to have gone to extremes to catch up with our Gallic neighbours. In my view servings ought to be much smaller than 250ml and not gulped down to make room for the next glass.

Better the glass half full ?

A recent change to legislation allowing the dispensing of 'smaller' measures of less than 125ml ought to help, as do wine dispensers (see www.by-the-glass.co.uk/) which allow wine to keep for two weeks or more after opening. There is now no need to rush to finish an opened bottle, and you can use a large glass only partly filled which will allow you to better taste the wine (give it a good swirl to get air into it !). All in all drinking wine should be an enjoyable experience combining the stimulation of all the senses and the awakening of curiosity about the culture of how and where it was made and the story of those making it. It is also very much the accompaniment of food, unless drunk as an apéritif. So don't forget to order some food with your wine. It will enhance your enjoyment.

Turnips and early flowering

The first Turnips of the season

You don't see many turnips in the shops these days. As with many once common foods they are more likely to feature on the menus of Michelin starred restaurants as purées, than on the plates of the ordinary citizen. It is said that before the introduction of potatoes turnips were once a very important food, providing good carbohydrates fairly early in the season. I shall try them in a gratin this weekend with a shoulder of lamb (our weekly meat-fix) - and will report on the result. These particular turnips found themselves cooked in a couscous, and very good they were too. The wine was a rosé from the Côte Roannaise - L'Enjoleur 2009 from Domaine Robert Sérol.

The turnip may not be inspiring or fashionable but it is a versatile root (a friend suggested roasting them with a honey glaze) and worthy of our attention, just like many other neglected vegetables and wild foods. It is wise to be familiar with them.

A quick aside to comment on the early flowering of vines this year - before Wimbledon, no less ! A long growing and ripening season in prospect for English and Welsh growers. As usual there has been a lot of comment in the press about exceptionally good harvests and brilliant English wines this year. But as the saying goes, there is many a slip twixt cup and lip.