Natural wines – I don’t think so

In these days of endless chit chat about natural winemaking and natural wine, some will see the three-day course to be conducted by Professor Roger Boulton at Melbourne University from the 2nd to 4th December a healthy antidote.  He has been a senior figure at the University of California Davis for many years, and has been a long term friend of the Australian wine industry, not surprising given his Australian education. The course will cover the application of chemical engineering principles for the effective production of high value wines, and the design and operation of sustainable wineries in an era of reduced water availability. He was the key figure in the design and development of the first platinum-scored winery at UC Davis, with its advanced wireless network monitoring and controlling its 150 fermenters, allowing research wines to be made reproducibly and precisely. As I say, it’s the furthest end of the spectrum from natural wines.

Fake Factor

While at Savour Australia, I was given a copy of Fine Wine and Champagne, published in India by Fine Publishing India (www.fine-magazines.in).  Its luxurious presentation is similar to many of those that you see out of China and Hong Kong, but some of the content is decidedly interesting and unusual.  The editor is Rajiv Singhal, and he has some very interesting contributors.  There are tasting notes and profiles of 100 wines from many parts of the world, and each has a summary covering price, bottle condition, tasting note, how many times tasted, decanting time, etc, etc, but my eye then caught the next item, ‘Fake Factor’.  It varies from comments such as ‘None yet, but in near future – yes’, or, in the case of items such as a 1956 Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon ‘None’.  

It was decidedly ironical that the Fake Factor for 1955 Romanée-Conti should be described as ‘Huge – especially among big-sized bottling, and as you can buy original Domaine labels from eBay at a modest price of 500 euros, it will be hard to tell without opening the bottles if it is the real thing...’  There was a photograph of the said Romanée-Conti opposite its taste rundown, and the bottle number was written in hand (331).  Quite apart from the clearly faked bottle number, the label itself seemed to have done hard yards, not surprising.  And before I get off the subject (and the magazine) my eye also caught 1960 DRC La Tache.  Here the Fake Factor was ‘None’, with the added quotes ‘Inside information a very bad vintage throughout France, but not at DRC’.  Here, too, the label seemed to have done hard yards and it was not possible to see the label clearly enough to tell whether the bottle number was hand written or printed.

Piper-Heidsieck

It is absolutely astonishing that Regis  Camus, head winemaker at Champagne Piper-Heidsieck should have recently received the trophy for Sparkling Winemaker of the Year from the International Wine Challenge in the UK for the seventh year in a row. This is the most credible of all the UK (indeed European) wine competitions, with the high-powered head tasting panel of Tim Atkin MW, Oz Clarke, Sam Harrop MW, Peter McCombie MW, Charles Metcalfe, Derek Smedley MW, not only validating the gold medal winners, but also the regional or national/international trophies.

Lower Alcohol Wines

Wine Intelligence, the foremost market research business in the UK and Australia (but with a world outlook) has just released a report on Lower Alcohol Wines.  The full report runs to 74 pages, but its essence is very interesting.  It says ‘Once considered a niche, outsider product category, lower alcohol wines are now growing in stature in many markets around the world. Across the 8 markets looked at in this report, buyers of sub 10.5% ABV wines now account for 38% of consumers, or in other terms, over 80 million regular wine drinkers – making a rather compelling case that this is a market sector which can no longer be ignored.’

I wonder whether this will finally provide an ice-breaker for Hunter Semillon.

Best Shiraz in the World

I always get a little puerile amusement out of tastings which discover the Best Shiraz (or Chardonnay, etc, etc) in the World.  Normally they come from various competitions in London, but now we have on our own doorsteps.  Winestate Magazine organised an international shiraz event, with shirazs from France, South Africa, New Zealand and many parts of Australia.  Grant Burge Wines’ 2010 Filsell won the competition (admittedly with 700 wines), and in consequence is the Greatest Shiraz in the World. Well don Grant Burge.

Best Shiraz in the World

I always get a little puerile amusement out of tastings which discover the Best Shiraz (or Chardonnay, etc, etc) in the World.  Normally they come from various competitions in London, but now we have on our own doorsteps.  Winestate Magazine organised an international shiraz event, with shirazs from France, South Africa, New Zealand and many parts of Australia.  Grant Burge Wines’ 2010 Filsell won the competition (admittedly with 700 wines), and in consequence is the Greatest Shiraz in the World. Well don Grant Burge.

UK Export Market

While all the excitement is focused on China, there is life in the old bulldog yet.  Australia’s exports to the UK have broken through the $1 billion barrier, increasing Australia’s lead over Italy (the second largest player in the market) and, to my surprise, sales of wines priced above £7 have risen 16% in volume terms over the past 12 months.