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News
Blog de Blogs
Our regular update on what’s causing a buzz in the wine blogosphere takes us around the world with the trade’s key commentators, featuring musings on Riesling, Australian Grenache and Beaujolais.
Wine writer Simon Woods reports from a pizzeria in Adelaide with effervescent feedback on the second vintage of Torbreck’s Natural Wine Project.
He describes this organic, wild yeast effort by Barossa winemaker David Powell to capture the purest essence of Grenache as "one of the best young Australian reds I’ve ever had."
Setting the Torbreck wine as "Catwoman" triumphing over the "Incredible Hulk" representatives also on the table, Woods called for more of Powell’s compatriots to follow this path into the expanding world of natural wines.
"To all those other Grenache growers in South Australia, please, please can we have some more wines like this", he begs.
New “open-source wine column” Cellar Book takes a refreshing look at Beaujolais ahead of db’s own original analysis of the region due to be published next year.
Keith Levenberg, who writes the fortnightly online comment piece – and “lives in New York with his family and an excessive amount of wine” – points out that “few realise that the best vineyards in Beaujolais were once as prestigious as the grands crus of Burgundy, and sold for comparable prices when they changed hands.”
He reminds us that “32 vineyards in Moulin-à-Vent were entitled to a Grand Cru appellation under a 1919 délimitation cadastrale,” and nowadays, “four of those original Grand Cru vineyards are today in the hands of Louis Jadot’s Château des Jacques estate and given their own vineyard-designated bottlings: Clos du Grand Carquelin, Clos des Rochegres, Clos de la Roche, and Clos des Champs de Cour.”
He writes that “they are as sophisticated as Burgundy and structured for long ageing.”
Jancis Robinson
The sudden death of Julian Brind MW on Sunday, 19 December, prompted Robinson to pen a heart-felt eulogy to the man she describes as being the “animus behind Waitrose’s decidedly superior wine department”.
Clearly shocked by Brind’s passing, she continues: “The overall impression he gave was as a man who was great fun to be with. He also seemed to be one of the fittest (cue hollow laughter) members of the wine trade. He was always playing tennis, real and otherwise, I believe. He just looked so healthy.”
Robinson adds that he was as valued in the educational arms of the wine trade as he was to retailing operations, saying the former chairman of the Institute of Masters of Wine “played an extremely important role as chair of the MW panel of examiners, always playing a very straight bat when asked leading questions about what sort of questions candidates might expect in any given year.”
She concludes: “All of us in and around the UK wine trade are likely to find our lives diminished by the passing of one of its most likeable characters, but of course our loss is as nothing compared to that of his vivacious and beloved wife Charlotte and their family. He will be so much missed.”
Wine consultant and self-styled “sommelier social media resource” Robert Giorgione took the opportunity to pay homage to Riesling after attending a vertical tasting of Leiwener Laurentiuslay Rieslings from St Urbans-Hof that stretched all the way back to the 1960’s.
He notes that “the vineyard character of Laurentiuslay dictates that the residual sugar of its wines be kept in check so as to emphasise its roundness, full body, and spicy minerality.
“This is also reflected in [winemaker Nik Weiss’] philosophy of expertly and genuinely expressing the best of each vineyard’s special personality. Perhaps, one could even comment that the Rieslings of this nature taste more similar to those from Austria in style, since they do differ from the typical light, racy and spritzy Mosel wines.
After picking out the 1971 Feinste Auslese and the 1969 Beerenauslese as his favourites, Giorgione adds: “Overall, I was amazed how well they had evolved and aged gracefully. They still kept their freshness and harmony, even after more than 40 years.”
This highbrow blog tries to fill a gap among the myriad of wine blogs by concentrating solely on fine wine. It covers the culture and history of wine and offers an alternative outlook from regular contributors.
Andrew Jefford approaches the topic of blends – right or wrong? He raises the interesting question of to why in the Bordeaux region they mix grape varieties but in Burgundy they don’t.
He tastes a blended wine called Chemin de Moscou from Languedoc, where people “don’t want to follow the rules regarding grape variety” and delves into the technicalities of 36 month seasoned oak barrels, heated and softened in hot water.
db, 20.12.2010