More new juice!

Despite my repeated promises to leave the portfolio alone once it had been printed, there’s lots more new wines arriving at the moment! From Spain, we have two new whites which are just superb:

A new pretender to the throne of Spain’s greatest white wine grape in a Godello from Valdeorras – called “Tempestad” – rated 91 from Parker and retailing at €14.99 this is a great one to satisfy the anorak within.

Also, at the risk of going too far, we’ve got our hands on the wine that I consider to be the best white wine in Spain – Moraima Albarino – from Rias Baixas. There’s Albarino, and then there’s Albarino from ungrafted, 100 year old vines. Honestly this is up there as the best unoaked white I have ever had the pleasure of tasting.

From France, our best new friend Christophe Coquard showed us his 2009 Beaujolais Rose at ProWein and we fell in love with it – that will arrive next week along with his much awaited Bourgogne Chardonnay and Bourgogne Pinot Noir. Our old friends at Danielle de l’Ansee also dispatched the 2009 vintage of their deliciously good value Touraine Sauvignon Blanc which is arriving tomorrow. So keep your eyes peeled as we’re adding new wines and new vintages every week!

 

Ugolforte scores 91 Points in Wine Spectator

Guido Folonari’s excellent Brunello di Montalcino ‘Ugolforte’ has come up trumps again, this time scoring 91 Points in the April 2010 edition of Wine Spectator. A multiple award winner, including Tre Biccheri (the highest award) in the 2010 Gambero Rosso, Ugolforte is quickly gaining notoriety as one of Italy’s great value Brunellos. Here’s what James Suckling had to say:

“Wonderful aromas to this wine of Indian spices and berries with hints of sultanas. Full bodied, with super velvety tannins and a long, flavourful finish. A subtle, complex and balanced wine. Best after 2010, but why wait?”

 

Westend Estate the big winner at Sydney

One of our customer’s favourites – Westend Estate – last weekend scored a remarkable achievement by winning the “The Wine Society Perpetual Trophy for Most Successful Winery” at the 2010 Sydney International Wine Show. This was awarded on top of a huge haul of nine medals at Australia’s most prolific wine show.

Westend Estate Wines Director, Bill Calabria, collected the award on the day and said the trophy and awards reflected the winery’s commitment and investment in the Riverina region. Enthused Calabria also described the win as a “fantastic note to start the year.” Westend Estate Wines was established in 1945 by Bill’s parents, Francesco and Elizabeth Calabria. The newly arrived young Italian migrants bought with them expertise of traditional Italian cooking and the love of making wines. These were the foundations laid out for what would become one Australia’s most interesting family winemakers.

Today the winery harvests 14,000 tonnes of grapes per annum, exports to over 30 countries around the world and employs over 40 people, including six members of the Calabria family.

 

Important Point #2: Winelists do not have to be rubbish

Something that really annoys me is the misplacement of apostrophes. You’ve all seen the corner store with the “breakfast roll’s, sweet’s, drink’s, newspaper’s” sign. Without sounding like a total spanner I’ve been redesigning some winelists recently, and I’ve got to say the standard of English on a lot of them is atrocious, making me feel a lot more comfortable with said “sweet’s” .

Example: “A classic blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre gives this full-bodied rich red with ripe cassis flavoured fruits, well structured and a long smooth finish.” It doesn’t make any sense. It smacks of a lazy sales rep who couldn’t care less and has no interest in providing a clearly designed, well written wine list that anyone bar he/she can decipher. A winelist should hope to provide you with (1) the name of the wine, (2) the price, and (3) a brief but well formulated tasting note that’ll give you a rough idea of what you’re going to order. Just writing “Gavi – €23.99″ is the equivalent of just writing “petrol – €17,999″ on a car listing.

Aside from containing a sentence that is readable, it would also help if it told you something about the wine: “The Merlot grape is widely planted in northern Italy. Soft, attractive fruit and good balance.” Who cares how much Merlot is planted in northern Italy? You’re just out for the night and having a quick bite to eat. It just looks like padding because whoever has sold that wine to this restaurant doesn’t even know what the wine tastes like, and can’t tell you anything more about the fruit than it’s attractive. Well, I’ve yet to come across a fruit that wasn’t attractively flavoured, so at least I know now that it’s going to taste like one of them.

 

New Agencies for 2010

Quality is at the heart of everything that we do, and provenance is still the key word in our relentless search for the best wines. We have undertaken a large overhaul of our French selection, added agencies from two new countries for us in New Zealand and South Africa, and continued the broadening of our Italian and Spanish ranges.

Our dedication to premium wines also continues, with the USA remaining a strong niche for us, but this year with many lower prices. Our additions this year range from the historic Hartenberg estate in Stellenbosch, to the up-and-coming micro negociant Christophe Coquard of Beaujolais who is truly a name to watch. We’ve chopped and changed our Burgundy range in response to the current conditions with a focus on wines for drinking now that also over-deliver at competitive price points. It is important to note however that we have not shifted our focus away from quality. In Spain our never-ending search for quirky but quality oriented wines has brought us to the little known region of Emporda, where Espelt are a great find, and to Valencia and what must be one of Spain’s greatest ever values in El Molinet.

Marlborough in New Zealand is now represented by Wild South, who aside from offering classic Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir also give us our big tip for 2010: New World Riesling. Check out Wild South, Wirra Wirra and Hartenberg’s examples to see what we will inevitably be harping on about this year! A new partnership in Italy with the Itynera brand has brought us beautifully styled Montepulciano, Primitivo and Nero d’Avola, while we’ve discovered an amazing value Pinot Grigio from Sicily of all places!

Couple that with our new screwcap organic Prosecco from Perlage and there is now a huge amount of value across our list – helped undoubtedly too by the government’s decision to reduce excise duty. We hope that you have as much fun tasting our 2010 wines as we had – there’ll be plenty more information posted as the wines come on stream over the next few months.

 

When a good deal is not a good deal

So one of our discount German stores have just announced their latest offers, and they include a range of “wines”. I’ve decided to question the word or term “wine” in this instance. Here’s the maths:

• Sale Price              €3.16
• Ex VAT                  €2.60
• Minus Excise       €0.14

Within that 14c there is a budgeted cost for

1. “Wine”, or the liquid within
2. Dry goods: labels, corks, glass, boxes
3. International Shipping and internal freight

At what point do we just decide to throw away everything that is unique about wine, and just start making alcoholic grape juice? Do we really want to continue this race to the bottom? Will we decide to stop when all recognizable quality is finally eradicated from all wines? When all quality producers are out of business? When all choice and uniqueness has been eradicated in favour of lower-priced, soul-less wines?

Most of the trade here has worked hard the last 30 or so years educating and helping improve the Irish palate, so it is difficult to see a 21st century version of 70s Yugoslavian wine re-appearing.

 

Just landed: Recession proof Prosecco!

Just landed as of today and ready to woo you, it’s our new Prosecco! Produced by the esteemed organic/biodynamic prosecco powerhouse that is Perlage, this one is made from organically grown grapes and is bottled under a super convenient screwcap. Fresh, lively and absolutely delicious it is also very keenly priced, with an RRP of just €12!

 

Chateau de Mayragues

Back in Easter I visited the Tarn region (Gaillac to be precise) of France with my wife and two good friends – we rented a farmhouse among vineyards and spent most of our time eating, drinking and playing this awesome card game called Pit. That and making sure we took in some Pro D2 rugby – Albi v Racing Metro. I got to see the legend that is Andrew Mehrtens play which pretty much made my holiday.

Anyway Gaillac is a pretty traditional wine region (the first of the Gauls apparently), using primarily local grapes such as Loin de l’Oeil, Mauzac, Ondenc as well as Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadet for the whites; and Duras Fer Servadou, Braucol with Syrah, Cab Franc, Gamay and others for the reds. Taking into account the relatively large size of the appellation and the wide selection of permitted grapes there were many different styles, and many different qualities. What struck me though generally was the health – or lack of it – in the vineyards. With no leaves on the vines it was easy to see the problems with soil erosion due to heavy handed use of chemicals.

By complete accident one day we happened on Chateau de Mayragues, the only certified biodynamic producer in the region. Aside from being a stunning Chateau, the owner Alan Geddes is a scottish born astro-physicist who has become a huge supporter of biodynamics. He believed that a lot of Steiner’s principles of biodynamics could be explained through astrophysics and an understanding of the relationship between the earth and space. Heavy stuff but ultimately fascinating. His wines were superb! The show stopper for me was his white 2005 Clos des Mages Blanc. It had been open, with no vacuum seal, for four days and still tasted fresh. I didn’t, and still can’t, understand how that was.

To come full circle I brought a bottle of it home and had it with some Sea Bass, crushed caeser potatoes and rocket salad. Beautiful. I was so wrapped up in discussing biodynamics at the time however that I didn’t write any notes. I think it cost around €9 at the cellar?

2005 Chateau de Mayragues, Clos des Mages Blanc

Out of the frying pan, into my glass

 

Ramón Bilbao: Winery of the Year 2009, among other things

Bodegas Ramon Bilbao has been awarded the title of “Winery of the Year 2009” by the Grupo Gourmets (Gourmets Club). It is the only prize in the winery category of the Gourmet Awards and the result is made from the votes sent by the readers of the Gourmet Wine Guide.

This prestigious award follows some other recent awards: Mar de Frades, Albarino won the White Wine of the Year award at the 2009 Nariz de Oro awards, and Ramon Bilbao’s own flagship wine, Mirto, won the Spanish Trophy at the 2008 International Wine Challenge.

 

Bousquet expands into Maipu

It’s been a pretty remarkable few years for Domaine Jean Bousuqet – from fairly humble beginnings in 1997 DJB have grown to be the number one Argentinian exporter of organic wines. Increasing demand for their wines worldwide have prompted the team to purchase a 72 hectare vineyard in Maipu, Mendoza which is planted with Malbec, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. Maipu is a well regarded region for Malbec and work is already underway to acquire organic certification for the new vineyard.