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A short film of me tasting four pink Sparkling wines.
The wines:
So the bit about ‘nice wines’ in the title was an understatement. The wines were spectacular. It was the Primum Familiae Vini lunch at The Square, one of London’s top restaurants. The PVF is an association, or club, of 11 family owned wine companies from across Europe, and between them they can put on quite a show. Each member showed a young wine and an old wine, and there were some real highlights, which I’ll report on in a separate post. Here, I wanted to talk food. In the presence of some exalted wines, it’s easy to overlook the food, and this was one of the very best meals I’ve experienced. It began with lasagne of dorset crab with a cappuccino of shellfish and Champagne foam, which was just beautifully prepared, and had lovely flavour (pictured top). It went well with Champagne Pol Roger Blanc de Blancs 1988 and Drouhin’s Marquis de Laguiche Montrachet 1990.
The next dish had a task matching up to some very special wines, which stole the limelight a bit. It was venison wellington with baked celeriac and beetroot puree, and it was quite stunning. But the wines were even more so: Mouton 1961, Torres Mas La Plana 1982 and Vega Sicilia 1953. All completely different, but all very special indeed.
The dessert was also first-rate: a bitter chocolate pave with a seville orange souffle. So well executed. Hugel Gewurz SGN 1976, Egon Muller Scharzhofberger TBA 1990 and Grahams 1963 were the trio of quite exceptional wines that we drank with this.
Today I drove for 2 h 45 down to Somerset, stood and watched a game of rugby in the coldest conditions I can recall, and then drove back again.
Even though I’ve never been as cold (and I was wrapped up well), I don’t regret the journey, because it was a chance to see my older son play for his school in a cup final. He was playing fly-half, a position which suits him well because he’s a really good kicker, and at the age of 15 is already 6′ 2″.
The first half was one sided, and the opposition ran four tries, all converted, to go into half time with a comfortable lead. My son’s school looked like they were going to be thrashed, but they rallied, and in the last third of the game, scored three good tries, all in the corner after some attritional forward play.
Now back home, I’m warming up with a rich but well defined Shiraz from Australia’s McLaren Vale. It’s the Mt Hillary 2009 McLaren Vale Shiraz, made by Gemtree Vineyards (£14.95 Berry Bros & Rudd). What I like about this is that it’s unashamedly warm-climate Aussie Shiraz, but it’s got great fruit definition and vitality – it’s not one of those dead fruit wines bolstered by American oak. Still quite tannic and grippy, with the potential to develop nicely in bottle. And very drinkable now.
Two impressive sparkling wines from Laithwaites, both of which offer great value for money. South Ridge English Quality Sparkling Wine 2008 England Laithwaites Champagne Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs 2004 Great to see that Authentic Wine has been shortlisted for the Andre Simon awards. My last book, Wine Science, was also shortlisted, but lost out to Hugh Johnson’s Wine: a life uncorked. The good thing about the Andre Simon awards is that they are judged on the afternoon of the presentation ceremony, so no one knows yet who has won. And all shortlisted authors walk off with a cheque, which dampens the disappointment of missing out. It’s been ages since I won an award. It would be nice if Sam and I could walk away with this one on March 15th.
It’s useful to have a stock of wines that cost relatively little, but which taste really good. This is one of those Tuesday night wines. It’s a Falanghina from the southern tip of Italy, and it delivers. Asda Extra Special Falanghina 2010 Puglia, Italy
Some discussion on twitter at the moment about whether terroir is relevant to consumers. It’s all a bit daft really, because no one has defined who these consumers are, and everyone is talking as if there is just a single wine market. To understand the wine market, the first rule is that you have to segment. Some people are really interested in wine, want to discuss it, are ‘category experts’ and are prepared to spend a lot of money on good bottles. Other people enjoy good wine, will spend quite a bit of money, but don’t want to discuss the wine or learn about it. They just like enjoying it. Others want a wine that tastes OK at a keen price. They won’t spend more. They won’t change their shopping habits to find better wines. They won’t even read back labels; let alone learn about wine. Others don’t yet drink wine, but are potential consumers who need to be won to the category. I’m sure you could segment more accurately and deeply. But this simple theoretical segmentation makes it clear that to consider the wine market as a whole will lead to a lot of confusion. For some consumers, terroir is clearly irrelevant. It’s a nonsense. Indeed, this group represents the majority of wine consumers. But because of this, to dismiss terroir as a concept is absolutely nuts, because there’s a segment of the market for whom terroir matters a great deal. And to berate the wine industry for talking about terroir on this basis is just unfair. I’ve heard criticism of late that we wine writers are talking to ourselves. We aren’t. We are talking to category experts. Yes, they may represent just a small part of the wine market. But they are the consumers of wine media. To suggest that all wine writers should begin to write for the non-involved consumers who just want something tasty and cheap to drink assumes that they want to read about wine. They don’t. I do think that there should be consumer friendly wine writing, if by ‘consumer’ we are talking about non-involved consumers. Sadly, there isn’t a great deal of a market for this writing. I do my bit, with my Sunday Express column. But when it comes to my website, I’m writing for category experts because they are the people reading. Those of us who write for high-end category experts shouldn’t feel the need to apologise. My website stats show that I’m not just talking to myself or other wine writers. Wine needs words, as Hugh Johnson says. It’s actually quite elitist to assume that ‘consumers’ aren’t interested in learning about wine, and concepts such as terroir. Once I was a newbie in the wine category, and the high-end wine discussion on the internet helped draw me in. Because wine is interesting, and in large part this is because of complicated, consumer-unfriendly concepts such as terroir. Champions of the ‘consumer’ can sometimes forget this.
Two more highlights from this week’s press tasting at Majestic: a couple of lovely Alsace whites from Schlumberger. I love these wines, and at the offer price they are a steal. But they illustrate why Alsace remains a nightmare for consumers. One is dry, the other quite sweet. But nowhere is this indicated on the bottle. And both bottles are very similar looking. Of course, no back label. Domaines Schlumberger Riesling ‘Les Princes Abbés’ 2009 Alsace Domaines Schlumberger Gewürztraminer ‘Les Princes Abbés’ 2009 Alsace
Off to Corney & Barrow this morning to taste the 2009s from the legendary Domaine de la Romanee Conti, which we all know as DRC. Of course, it is virtually impossible to taste such celebrated wines completely objectively. But we try. It’s one of the superstar domaines that really lives up to the hype. Many tasters sit around the periphery of the room on the red velvet backed chairs and take ages to write their notes. I prefer to stand, and taste at my normal speed – which isn’t fast, but isn’t too slow, either. After all, how long can you spend on a single, perfectly adequate, but small pour? My full notes are here. The wines were great. Much fresher and lass ’2009′ than I was expecting. Quite brilliant really. Here’s a short film of the tasting:
Swiss wines are great, but they’re rarely seen out of Switzerland. This is a mountain wine, grown at an altitude of 1150 metres, which makes it one of the highest in Europe. It’s made from the Heida (aka Savagnin) variety, and despite the altitude, manages to get pretty ripe: this weighs in at 14% alcohol. The wine comes from a series called collection Chandra Kurt. She’s a Swiss wine journalist, and the wine itself is made by Provins Valais, It’s really interesting, with great potential for development in bottle. Collection Chandra Kurt Heida 2010 Valais, Switzerland Find this wine with wine-searcher.com |
 This is the blog of wine journalist Jamie Goode, online since 2001. Feel free to nose around; your comments are welcomed.
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