Boring boring Arsenal and Pinot Grigio
Wednesday 15 July
The neutral nothingness of Pinot Grigio has crept onto every wine list in the country, and has pipped Sauvignon Blanc to the number two spot in the contest for the nation’s favourite white grape variety.
A survey commissioned by the Wine and Spirit Trade Association shows 54% of regular UK wine drinkers have consumed the Gridge in the past six months. It has spread faster than margarine and the shelves are full of it. But it’s as boring as Arsenal used to be.
Chardonnay is still maintaining its number one spot in the battle of the grapes but its popularity has decreased in the past two years, according to the report. Nevertheless Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon Blanc have still some way to catch it.
In the red department, our love affair with fairly unexciting grape varieties continues. Merlot remains the most consumed red variety despite the film Sideways giving it a dressing down (some five years ago now – where has the time gone?). When most respondents said they drunk Merlot in the past six months, I’m fairly sure they weren’t referring to Pomerol or St Emilion wines. However, Syrah is on the up and is threatening Cabernet Sauvignon’s second position on the red rostrum. As a Syrah fan, that’s encouraging.
Fortified blues
I’d love to write fortified sales are on the up but it’s difficult to argue with data saying the opposite. The survey shows consumption of sherry, port and dessert wine in the past six months is at its lowest ebb since the study started in June 2006. While consumption inevitably peaked around the Christmas period, the latest figures show just 11% of regular wine drinkers have had a glass of sweet wine in the first half of the year while 17% have had a glass of sherry and 23% port.
For more details on this research, see my article on decanter.com
Prosecco grape to be renamed Glera outside heartland
Friday 10 July
Any producers making Prosecco outside of the DOC and new DOCG region in Veneto will be forced to use the new grape name Glera on their labels instead of Prosecco. Apparently, Glera is an ancestor of the Prosecco grape but I think it sounds as naff as ‘Topaque’ - the new name for Aussie Tokay.
In a press release, Franco Adami, president of the Consorzio per la Tutela del Prosecco di Conegliano-Valdobbiadene explained: “In 1969, when we obtained the DOC, the grape variety was grown exclusively in the 15 communes lying between the small towns of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene. However in the last few decades, due to the quality of the wine and the winemaking skill of the producers its cultivation has gradually spread. Given this situation, we had to take action to protect the name Prosecco and to preserve the value created by this area and implement clear regulations that could guarantee a minimum level of quality.”
From the 2009 vintage the name of the new DOCG will be Conegliano-Valdobbiadene and the sparkling wines will be labeled DOCG Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore.
Adami added: “The term Superiore helps the consumer to understand right away that this is an example of the original and best quality Prosecco from the Conegliano-Valdobbiadene DOCG.”
The DOCG will not change the production rules and the production per hectare will remain the same. Director of the Consorzio, Giancarlo Vettorello said: “I would like to reassure both producers and UK importers that as production rules in our region will not be affected by the new DOCG status, the total number of bottles produced will not be reduced and consequently prices will not increase.”
Right that’s enough from me, two posts in a day makes me need a cuppa. Ah well, the weekend is upon us.
More to Piedmont than Barolo
Friday 10 July
Think of Piedmont and you automatically say Barolo and Barbaresco. You might even say Gavi di Gavi if you’re a bit leftfield but Roero and Langhe? Their wines don’t immediately spring to mind, do they?
However, one of Italy’s most successful white producers, Ceretto, is based in the Langhe. While it makes classic reds, it also produces Blange – a wine made from the white Arneis grape. The Ceretto family first made the wine in 1984, producing less than 3000 bottles from its 1ha of Arneis vines. Today it has 62ha planted – around one-fifth of all Arneis in Piedmont, according to Federico Ceretto and produces more than 600,000 bottles of the stuff.
Roero’s promotion
They’ve had to extend plantings from the Roero denominazione into Langhe but this has had its drawbacks. In 2006, Roero was awarded DOCG status – the top of the tree in Italian wine law. Federico says: ‘We had to plant 12ha over the river in the Langhe so we had to become Langhe DOC instead of Roero. I would like to be part of Roero as it became a DOCG last year but I have to cut my production by 100,000 bottles if I did. And I’m not going to do that.’
When they did that, they elevated Roero Spumante to DOCG status as well. Now I don’t know about you but I’ve never tasted Roero Spumante and am unlikely to come across it any time soon. Federico isn’t impressed by the promotion: ‘It is a DOCG with about three producers. Hardly anybody makes it and there is no history to it.’ It’s just another sign of the Italian authorities being in touch with the consumer. You may remember top producer Allegrini had to declassify its Valpolicella Classico because it bottled its wine with a screwcap and Italy’s crazy rules restrict what type of closure you can put on a wine.
Winemaking
The Blange is fermented at 4-6°C. At these sorts of temperatures, yeasts struggle to convert the grape sugars to alcohol and it takes an epic three months to complete the ferment. However, they say it requires only one-fifth of the sulphur dioxide to prevent against spoilage or oxidation.
Tasting notes
2007 Ceretto Langhe Arneis Blange: ‘As weighty as Vanessa Feltz in the mouth. Clean and fresh with a bit of spritz on entry. Aromas reminiscent of bruised apple and moderate acidity on the finish. Pretty decent but £16.49? Ouch.’ 15.5/20. Fresh & Wild, Wimbledon Wine Cellar, Bibendum
2007 Ceretto Barbera d’Alba
‘Vibrant raspberry colour. Lots of fresh red berry fruit. It is silky with lovely concentration. Soft tannins and mouthwatering acidity on the finish. I could drink a whole bottle of this’ 18/20. £16.49, Wimbledon Wine Cellar, MW Wines, Bibendum
A blogger’s world
Thursday 9 July
I attended my first-ever bloggers get-together last night. I was a bit apprehensive as I’d never met a group of bloggers before and I had images of nerdy trainspotter-types talking about the latest piece of IT kit. Thankfully I was wrong.
It helped that we met at an Italian wine tasting. Nothing like booze to liven things up. Of course there were nibbles too, and to accompany a glass of Bisol Prosecco Crede NV, out came ‘baccala’. It looked suspiciously like Portuguese dish bacalhau, tasted like it: damn it was bacalhau. Now I’ve always believed the dish was a Portuguese invention and a quick google search of its history puts its roots in Portugal. It turns out salt cod has been produced for at least 500 years as a way of preserving the fish in many different Mediterranean countries. But this was before we were blessed with the wonder of refrigerators. Why then, must we still endure this terrible stuff? To give it credit, it did work well with the Prosecco.
Most of the bloggers were foodies and I wondered where all the wine bloggers were. Too busy writing their blogs? I came to the conclusion there are simply more foodies. But if blogging is the future and traditional media is on the decline, surely there should’ve been more drinks bloggers, especially at a wine tasting.
I also note I was the only one there who actually makes a living from writing. While I don’t make any money from my blog - yet - the likes of Jamie Goode do, and as commissioning budgets are slashed, other drinks writers ought to get more involved in this network of bloggers to give themselves a better chance of surviving in the long-term.
Other bloggers to look out for:
Niamh Shields’ eatlikeagirl
Rob Mackintosh’s wineconversation.com
Stephen and Kerri’s dinnerdiary.org
Lenz Moser: gunning for Grüner
Monday 6 July
Has Lenz turned into an oompa loompa?
Lenz Moser, grandson of the man who put his name to a vine-trellising system is a smart cookie, with a New World marketing brain.
Not only is his packaging modern and easy-to-understand, his wines are approachable and offer the consumer what they want: clean, characterful and refreshing. He also has a USP: he only does Grüner Veltliner. No messing about with Riesling or Zweigelt. If you don’t like it, lump it.
He’s got his marketing savvy from an old friend: Robert Mondavi, and ended up working for him as European General Manager from 1997 until 2004, when Constellation bought the Californian winery.
The Laurenz V label was born in 2004 and now sells 35,000 cases a year in more than 30 countries. There’s no winery, no vineyards and he contracts his winemaking to Fred Loimer. By the end of 2010, he aims to sell 50-60,000 cases annually despite having giving up listings at both Tesco and Asda recently. Lenz said: “We pulled out because we weren’t prepared to trade down and discount our wine any further.” It is now concentrating on the UK on-trade.
Nevertheless, the US is guzzling his Grüner like there’s no tomorrow. “The US is our biggest market and sales are up by high double digit figures despite a severe recession.”
Why is it so successful? They have built a brand giving consumers what they want, at the right price. It’s not rocket science. The ‘Friendly’ label is just that: easy to drink, yet still typically Grüner. “I call it the international style of Grüner . The old style of Grüner was too dry, too acidic, and too peppery. Austria prided itself on making austere wines. It was exhausting for the consumer to drink.”
Global warming
Climate change is hitting the Kamptal region and he is now planning for the future. “We are looking at lesser sites that currently struggle to ripen,” said Lenz.
“If Grüner gets too much sun it gets too alcoholic. The key to the aromatics is these long hang times and in the Kamptal we are going higher to find cooler sites,” he said. Grüner is a long ripener, taking between 120 to 140 days to ripen from flowering. If it gets hotter, the ripening time will be reduced and you won’t get those lovely aromatics or fresh acidity. In short, a boring wine. Other solutions could be vines planted on cooler north or west-facing slopes.
Musings on Austrian Wine’s new logo
Wines from Austria replaced its wine bottle logo last month with a new circular symbol in the colours of the Austrian flag. The phrase ‘A Taste of Culture’ has been shortened to ‘Taste Culture’. A marketing design company came up with the idea, which is more modern, but it isn’t exactly revolutionary, is it?
While Lenz agrees the Austrian Wine Marketing manager, Willi Klinger, was right to create a new design, he has his reservations. “I like continuity in marketing. It takes so much time before a message reaches the consumer and every time we have a new manager at the marketing board, we get a new logo.” He also questions the costs involved.
On Organics
While Austria prides itself on its organic viticulture, Lenz won’t be converting. His father practised organics from the 1970s but Lenz stopped in 1993. Why? “We gave it up for business reasons. The grapes were no good. Austria is a cool climate and it rains during the season and at harvest. With organics you have no effective means against mildew or botrytis. If you lose one-third of your crop and then the grapes you harvest are no good, then you have to start thinking, what’s the point?”
“In theory, I’m pro organic, and I’ve seen many vineyards in Australia, Argentina and Chile where the climate is perfect for it.”
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