The EU and Australia recently signed a new trade agreement. One part of that agreement says that Australia will no longer use the denominations Port, Sherry and Marsala for its fortified wines. Many Australian wines have been called such things, since these kind of naming restrictions simply are governed by international agreements, and no such limitation had previously been agreed. (Do you remember the Danish feta cheese?) The wine producers in Australia say that this will cost them millions of dollars since they will have to change their naming and establish new brand identities. The agreement also covers e.g. Moselle, Burgundy, Sauterne, and Chablis. In return the Europeans will recognize the Australian wine regions as specific denominations (Coonawarra, South Australia etc) and will allow certain wine making techniques regularly used in Australia but not permitted in Europe to be used for Australian wines imported to Europe (e.g. use of oak chips and copper citrate). Read more: www.abc.net.au and www.theaustralian.news.com.au
The Wine Doctor in Australia has launched what they claim is the world’s first wine with a boosted level of resveratrol. Like milk with extra vitamins? Resveratrol is a substance that wine contains naturally, especially red wine. The normal content is around 1-2 mg/l resveratrol. The super-charged Wine doctor wine has been boosted to contain 100 mg/l. All for the modest sum of AU$19.95 per bottle. Is it better? We don’t know. More info http://www.drnorrie.info/ (well, there should be but the site seems to be down)
1) Tight filtration causes wine to be more dry and austere when young, but most of the effect wears off as the wine ages.
2) The level of filtration is as critical as filtration vs. non-filtration. In other words, the difference between a loose filtration (to remove sediment) vs. an extremely tight filtration (to remove malolactic bacteria) is as big or bigger than the difference between no filtration and a loose filtration.
3) Red wines are more impacted by filtration than white wines.
4) I would rather have a somewhat lesser wine due to filtration than a wine gone bad that could have been saved by filtration.
5) If you want to make unfiltered wine, you need excellent hygiene, attention to detail and laboratory analysis by the wine maker.
So, like most things in life, when people ask if filtration is “good” or “bad”, the answer is…it depends.”
Thank you for the comment!
The World’s Best Sparkling Wines (Effervescents du Monde) is the name of a competition that each year (just in time for New Year) gives prizes to the best (you guessed) sparkling wines. this year there were 43 wines in the top category, Gold Medal. Everything from Argentina to the United States was on the list, well worth looking at if you’re looking for an alternative source for your bubbly. The most original Gold Medal? - Salveto Muscatnoe Semi-sweet from Mauler & Cie in Moldova (http://www.acorex.net). Here’s the full list of winners: http://www.effervescents-du-monde.com/
No, it’s not a Christmas donation from Norway (like the Christmas Tree in New York’s Rokefeller Plaza) to the President Elect. Erik Dahle was born and raised in Bergen, a rainy costal town in mid-Norway, but has found his way to Washington in the north west US (they’re not exactly lacking in rain there either). In 2003 he planted a small vineyard and is now making his own Norwegian-Washingtonian wine at his Tasawiki Vineyards in Walla Walla County. The size is modest, 7.5 acres planted with merlot, cabernet sauvignon, sangiovese, viognier and syrah, but the location is fabulous, overlooking the Snake River. We have not tasted the wines but maybe we will soon have the opportunity since Erik hopes to start exporting to Europe soon. http://www.tasawikvineyards.com/
L’Auberge Etchegorry, Paris 13
Click here for address and more recommendations.
Divine & Sens, Montpellier
Click here for address and more recommendations.
There are many, often small, French appellations that are unfortunately far too little known. Sometimes one wonders if the wines wouldn’t be better known (which is important) and easier to sell (even more important) if they used a wider, less precise, but better known appellation. Montlouis is one of those. Have you heard of it? It is a neighbour to Vouvray (a hair’s-breadth better known) in mid-Loire - not big, making only white but ranging from bone-dry to luscious sweet, and including sparkling. All from chenin blanc grapes (one of the most underrated and misunderstood grape varieties) on just 400 ha. The sparkling deserves a special mention due to its originality. Aptly called Pétillant Originel it is made by adding no sugar. That, perhaps, does not sound special, but for sparkling wines it is very unusual: no chaptalisation (sugar added to the must), no liqueur de tirage (sugar added for the second fermentation in bottle), and no liqueur d’expedition (sugar added after dégorgement). Instead they bottle the wine before the fermentation has finished and the bubbles are purely from the natural grapes. Another difference from e.g. champagne is the yield: only 65 hl/ha is permitted (about half of what they do in Champagne). But the most important port of the production are the still whites that, when well done, expresses the wonderful, aromatic, sometimes exotic, sometimes honeyed (even when dry) characters. Providing the grower knows (or dares) to make his wines express the terroir and the grapes. Our favourites are invariably the dry ones. Here are some of the best producers:
Francois Chidaine: Since 10 years he works biodynamically and is one of the leading lights of the appellation. Very fresh and minerally wines, e.g. the Les Choiselle and Le Clos du Breuil (~14€)
Stéphane Cossais: A newcomer to the region, arrived in 2003. (There are several young, new, and ambitious growers here. Land is relatively cheap…) He has only 3 ha. Does some barrel aging of his wines, but that works well with the high acidity. Ha also dares to charge a substantial price for his wines. But they are indeed good. So much better than the others? Try it and decide. E.g Le Volagré or Meuchandelle (both around 20€)
Domaine Levasseur, Alex Mathur: Their dry wine, Les Lumens, is quite full-bodied (barrel fermented and aged for 14 months), more moth filling than most (12€); and excellent sparkling that has a good varietal character (not always the case for sparklers, 12€).
Le Rocher des Violette: Xavier Weisskopf started making Montlousi in 2005 but already makes an excellent, fresh, appely, andminerally wine called La Négrette (13€).
Domaine Frantz Saumon: His Le Clos du Chêne is quite full-bodied, with a ripe-fruit style (ripe, yellow apples) and good finish (23€)
La Taille aux Loups: Jacky Blot is one of the most famous producers in Montlouis. He makes an very good sparkling, called Triple Zéro (0 chaptalisation, 0 liqueur de tirage, 0 liqueur d’expedition – 12€), and a dry Rémus where he harvest in two passes to make sure the grapes have optimal ripeness, giving added concentration. He adds aging on a third new oak barrels giving a substantial wine (12€).
Closerie de Chanteloup: Vincent Guichard’s dry L’Essentiel is well-made (and good value), good structure, minerality, quite light but elegant. (7.50€)
Laurent Chatenay: His Les Maisonnettes has a very good acidity and fruit, very clean flavours with only a minute touch of barrels (9€); Les Hauts de Cangé is much more full-bodied, new oak gives it added body (but actually no oak character) and a touch of residual sugar (11g/l) rounds off the high acidity without making it sweet. Interesting.
Click here for address and more recommendations.
Click here for address and more recommendations.
Click here for address and more recommendations.
This time of the year is relatively calm and quiet in the wine cellar. The fermentation is mostly finished. Where the action is at this time of the year is in the vineyards. It is the period for cutting back the branches – la taille. Much of it is still done by hand. Depending on what kind of training system is used, some can be done with machine, the so called pré-taille. Virtually all of the branches are removed so the vineyards look very empty and barren in this season. Just long rows of black stumps sticking up from the ground. The pruning can start just after the leaves have fallen off in the autumn but often it is done later, sometimes much later. Doing the pruning very late makes the budding come later which can be good if you are in a place where there’s a risk of frost. But you have to do it before the sap starts to rise though. And since it can take quite a while to do it all the vigneron has his work cut out during the whole of the winter season.
But let’s get back to the couch, or perhaps the reading chair in front of the computer. I heard the other day that the average Frenchman spends 3h27 watching television each day. Sounds a lot but it was the number mentioned. And that today he spends 3h50 watching video clips on the internet. Per month. Does not sound much but it still means that internet video (YouTube, Metacafe, DailyMotion etc) has clawed an entire day’s watching from the television. We don’t mind if that number goes up even more, if only a bit of it is spent on watching our wine videos on BKWine TV (beta). We have over 60 clips with interviews with winemakers, reportage from vineyards and other wine stuff. Since the last Brief we have added ten clips – on Greece, Bordeaux and the Roussillon. You can watch the BKWine TV wine videos here: www.youtube.com/bkwine, and get a bit more background information to the wine video clips here: www.bkwine.com/vininformation/bkwinetv-wine-videos.htm
This month we also have some extra reading for you. Not only here in the Brief (unusually long, apologies if you like your information short…). In addition to that we have some added reading for you on our guest writers' page: www.bkwine.com/vininformation/guest-writers.htm. For the moment there’s one new article on Sardinian wines and more will be posted in the coming days. Keep checking the page. Did you know we have almost 50 articles from our Guest Writers for you to read there?
In this Brief we give you some Christmas gift suggestions: some sexy things and some things to hang on your wall. And to keep you going over the festive season maybe you should try some of the turbo-charged wine we write about.
And if you need some more inspiration for Christmas, you can always give a gift voucher (to someone else or to yourself) for one of our wine tours. Or if you really want to splash out, you can ask us to make an entirely custom made and custom designed wine tour for you, your wine friend, for your company executive team, to go hunting for suppliers (if you’re a wine importer looking for good producers – we have quite a few to suggest), or…
Britt
PS: Recommend to your friends to read the Brief or forward it to them !
Read the whole BKWine Brief here!
The Wine Trials – A fearless Critic Book
By: Robin Goldstein
Fearless Critic Media
Buy the book. More wine book reviews.
La Vigne Assassinée – l’Avenir du Vin
By: Christian R. Saint-Roche
CIDE
ISBN 2-9525036-1-3
Buy the book. More wine book reviews.
YouTube, Yahoo, MySpace, Metacafe, Google, DailyMotion, Blip.tv, Veoh and Graspr
Grand atlas des vignobles de France
By: Benoît France (ed)
Solar France, 54 eur, ISBN 978-2263046605
Buy the book. More wine book reviews.
The Wines of Burgundy
By: Clive Coates
University of California Press, £35, ISBN 978-0520250505
Buy the book. More wine book reviews.
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Vine Growing and Wine Making
The original Swedish title is "Ett vin blir till" meaning A Wine is Born. It is a unique description of the work in the vineyard and in the wine cellar. Published in 2009. More info on the web site for A Wine is Born.
Languedoc
Wines, vineyards and winemakers in Languedoc in the south of France, one of the most dynamic wine regions in France, and in the world. Published in 2007. More info on the site of the Languedoc book.
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