A visit to Gerard Bertrand

Gérard Bertrand, a winter pruning celebration and Vanina the mule

Pruning 4 million vines across 2,420 acres is the task set for the vignerons at Gérard Bertrand’s Languedoc empire. We travel to the city of Narbonne to see how they do it with the aid of seven mules, get the lowdown behind the world’s most expensive rosé and hear from the man himself, both his philosophy of winemaking and also why he had to tell rugby legend Tendai Mtawarira of South Africa, aka ‘The Beast’ to stop calling him on the phone.

By Geoffrey Dean February 2, 2024

“We stand on the threshold of a new era, which will demand courage, solidarity and a disruptive vision,” says Bertrand.

Gérard Bertrand, or Le Grand as he is known, played rugby for his home town of Narbonne for 14 years

During the Rugby World Cup in France in the autumn, Gérard Bertrand entertained a trio of famous ex-players at his L’Hospitalet winery and hotel near Narbonne. Bertrand was himself an accomplished flanker for the Stade Français club in Paris, whom he captained, so he felt in good company with fellow forwards Thierry Dusautoir of France, Richie McCaw of New Zealand and Tendai Mtawarira of South Africa, aka ‘The Beast.’

The latter, a self-confessed wine lover, even if he had to restrict his intake of it during his 117-cap international career, recently launched his own bespoke The Beast Wine Collection.

“I told the Beast to ring me if he needed any advice,” Bertrand chuckled. “But when he got home, he was calling me five to ten times a week, I had to say to him, ‘Beast, I’ve got a business to run with 450 employees, so you can’t keep calling me this like this.’”

Gérard Bertrand is a regular on the circuit speaking at Porto climate conferences and here at the launch of his book Nature at Heart

Bertrand the thinker

The story encapsulates Bertrand, a man of great charisma and generosity of spirit. His staff love him as he looks after them so well, but he is such a driven character that he will not allow too many distractions. It is one reason why his remarkable array of wine labels has been built up so successfully, now sold in 180 countries. It is an all-encompassing stable of Languedoc wines – red, white, rosé, orange and sparkling. The world’s most expensive rosé – Clos du Temple – is one of them, retailing as it does at €195.

Behind the bling and Bertrand’s extrovert showmanship, however,  lies a deep thinker who admits he is obsessed by spirituality and sense of place. He is proud of Narbonne, his home town for whom he also played rugby for 14 years, and he is passionate about biodynamics. Indeed, all of his 17 wine estates are either farmed biodynamically or in the process of conversion.

“The essence of an exceptional wine is a combination of time, space, energy, spirit and soul,” he wrote in his book Wine, Moon and Stars. “A great wine is connected to its terroir, its grape variety and the plot of its land of birth, but also to the universe that surrounds it.”

Vanina, one of seven mules helping at the winter pruning celebration

Ardent disciple of Steiner

We are down at Bertrand’s Languedoc base, L’Hospitalet, in the picturesque Massif de la Clape for a winter pruning celebration in early December in what is the first period of four months of pruning. A team of 40 are tasked with pruning the 4 million vines on Bertrand’s 2,420 acres of Languedoc vineyards, which are ploughed by seven mules to avoid soil compaction. One of them, named Vanina, is a magnificent beast, a 15-year old standing close to 17 hands.

“She is stronger than a horse, eats less and will live longer – to around 50,” purrs her devoted handler, whose commands we see her responding to. “She works five or six days a week for ten and a half months a year. She has a sixth sense about the state of the soil – occasionally she will refuse to plough, so we respect her intuition.”

Bertrand’s belief in the need for biodynamic farming is formidable.

“Taking care of the Earth has become a priority,” he said. “Not just the climate, the oceans and the forests but also the pollinators, soils and living species are all suffering from human activity. Biodiversity is in steep decline, and deregulation has become a threat to life on Earth, which is regarded with almost universal indifference. Respecting ecology is an act of civic duty that requires open mindedness at the service of the biosphere, because pollution and global warming know no frontiers.”

An ardent disciple of the founder of the biodynamic approach to agriculture, Rudolf Steiner, Bertrand is as philosophical as he is clear on what he thinks needs to be effected.

“Our commitment to organic and biodynamic farming has enabled us to conduct large-scale experiments on its relevance, especially in relation to wine-growing,” he continued. “A living soil strengthens the plants growing in it and helps them to capture the life forces emanating from the sun and the planets. We have to repair the damage inflicted on our Earth in the last fifty years, and return to a baseline of harmony and sustainability.”

“We are limited and incarnate, but our spirituality is limitless. Since Abraham, Jesus and Mohammad and, more recently, Goethe, Steiner, Mother Teresa and Mandela, prophets and exceptional people have each carried their epochs forward. We stand on the threshold of a new era, which will demand courage, solidarity and a disruptive vision.”

An honour to work here: Benjamin Gadois, winemaker for Clos du Temple

World’s most expensive Rosé

Meeting the challenges of global warming is one of Bertrand’s preoccupations, with the fruit for his Clos du Temple Rosé being picked earlier than ever this year. Benjamin Gadois, the winemaker and vineyard manager responsible for it, revealed that harvesting had started on 17 August.

“I’m really happy with this harvest as I was a bit worried by the high temperatures,” Gadois told me. “This year, we are looking to make 30,000 bottles of Clos du Temple, which is the highest number ever.”

Production has increased steadily from 7,000 bottles in the inaugural 2018 vintage, 12,000 in 2019, 20,000 in 2020 and 25,000 in both 2021 and 2022.

The varietals grown are Cinsault, Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre, with a dash of Viognier being added to give te wine florality. Yields are a maximum of 30hl/ha from vines aged between 35 and 80 years. Planted on schist and limestone soils between 200-240m above sea level in the cradle of rosé in France – Cabrières near Montpellier – they benefit from a Mediterranean climate without any hydric stress. Between 500-600 millimetres of rain each year replenish a complex subterranean circulation network under the 12 hectares of vines, which enjoy south-west exposure.

Clos du Temple fermentation vessels

Each of the 11 plots are vinified separately in pyramid-shaped vessels, made of bauxite with stainless steel interiors, in the magnificent new hillside winery designed by renowned architect, François Fontès. Fermentation is completed in oak barrels of between 225 to 500 litres (50% new, 50% second fill, with really light toast), which are turned weekly to encourage lees contact. The juice spends no time on the skins, which explains its very pale colour – more yellow than pink.

The key to Clos du Temple’s freshness is its low pH – between 3.3 and 3.5 according to Gadois. This year it was higher than normal in the Cinsault, so he had to add some tartaric acid to that varietal’s juice (but not the others). “In the south of France, it’s difficult not to add some acid, but our low pH means I do not need to use much sulphur,” he said. Indeed, his levels are low, with total SO2 typically 40-45mg/l and free SO2 25-30 mg/l.

“It is an honour for me to open these gates every day,” Gadois confessed. He is returning that honour, though, by making some exquisite rosé. The 2019 vintage was judged best of its type in the world by the Global Rosé Masters 2020, and the 2022 is another classic, considered by Bertrand himself to be one of the three best produced in his 36 years as a vigneron.

“Rose petals on an ocean breeze with lemongrass behind white nectarine,” he purred. Throw in hints of almond and aromas of apricot and white peach, as well as tension, saline minerality, textural complexity and exceptional length. A gastronomic wine, or an aperitif, it has the potential to age – for ten to 20 years in Bertrand’s view.

Winemaker Arnaud Saulnier, with Villemajou soils

Villemajou – where it all began

Apart from his most celebrated red, Clos d’Ora, another super premium wine of Le Grand (‘the tall one’), as Bertrand is known, is La Forge 2021. Made up of two-thirds Carignan from 100-year old bush vines, and a third Syrah, it comes from Château de Villemajou in the Corbières-Boutenac appellation. It was here, in 1975, that Bertrand, aged 10, took part in his first grape harvest (two years after his late father Georges had bought the estate).

“The terroir of Villemajou cradles my childhood memories,” Bertrand said. “Here, I understood the strength of emotional attachment the vigneron can feel for his wines.”

At Villemajou, which has 200 hectares under vine, I met Arnaud Saulnier who is in charge of winemaking there.

“We employ carbonic maceration mainly for La Forge,” he revealed. “It gives a dark colour and soft tannins as well as ridding the Carignan of any rustiness.”

After a period in concrete eggs, the wine spent 12 months in 100% new oak, which it absorbed effortlessly. Intensity and concentration from old vines is extremely marked. These have flourished in soils composed of big, round pebbles and blocks of limestone on a subsoil of clay and sandstone.

The white Grand Vin 2022 from Château de Villemajou also sang, being composed of the best fruit from the village of Boutenac – a third each of Roussanne, Marsanne and Grenache Blanc. Generous, with a rich array of citrus aromas and hints of bitter orange blossom notes and brioche, it has refreshing acidity on a lengthy finish.

The last word must go to Bertrand. “Villemajou is the yardstick, the barometer of our wines. I have a deep love for them because they are gifts given to me by my father, a bond that links the past, present and future.”

Under him, the future could hardly look much brighter.

Sicily visit: Noto and Syracuse

Best of new Sicily: Montecarrubo, Planeta, Feudo Maccari & Giasira

Most wine buyers know that Sicily is one of the most exciting wine regions in Italy right now. If they don’t they should, argues Geoffrey Dean who visits Montecarrubo, Planeta, Feudo Maccari, Giasira and Zisola to discover a range of exciting wines, 10 of which he highlights for your list. Whilst in Sicily Dean meets up with wine aristocracy in the form of Peter Vinding-Diers and Alessio Planeta who was named winemaker of 2023 by Wine Enthusiast.

By Geoffrey Dean January 27, 2024

“Indeed for many, Sicily has become Italy’s most exciting wine region,” writes Dean.

The last great wine project: Peter and Susie Vinding-Diers in Montecarrubo, Sicily

Winemaking aristocracy moves to Sicily

It is telling that such a legendary figure of the global wine industry as Peter Vinding-Diers settled on Sicily for his final foray into winemaking with his boutique estate Vinding Montecarrubo. That was 20 years ago when the charismatic Dane, then 60, and his British wife Susie acquired some land in the south-east of the island. Since then, thanks to Vinding-Diers and other notables like Alessio Planeta, who was named winemaker of the year by the American publication Wine Enthusiast in October, Sicilian wines’ inexorable rise in reputation has continued unabated.

Despite having just become an octogenarian, Vinding-Diers has the drive and sparkle in his eyes of a much younger man. He spent nearly all of November on a sales and marketing trip in France, where he lived as a winemaker in Bordeaux for nearly a quarter of a century. There he won acclaim from none other than renowned research scientist, Denis Dubourdieu, for proving how native and ambient yeasts can dramatically influence a wine. Vinifying the same Semillon fruit from his own Rahoul estate in Graves in three different tanks with three yeast strains – one from Lynch-Bages, another from Angludet and the last from Rahoul – the three wines showed quite differently.

“Peter intuitively saw and understood what had taken me 20 years to prove scientifically,” Dubourdieu said. The year after, in 1986, Vinding-Diers was elected to the Académie du Vin de Bordeaux, which he regards as the greatest accolade of his career.

Not long after an 11-year sojourn in Hungary where he co-founded the Royal Tokaji Wine Company with Hugh Johnson, Vinding-Diers opted for Sicily ahead of somewhere like Tuscany as he found it more welcoming and open.

“I landed up at the property we called Montecarrubo because of the carob trees on the estate,” he said of his estate near Melilli, 25 km north of Syracuse. “We were planting on soils that had never seen vines, so we farmed organically from the start. The site is on the edge of an old volcano with strata of lava, loess and washed-out clay. This seduced me as there was nothing here. I love it here. The local people are curious and helpful, and I’ve been free to do exactly what I want.”

What he wanted to do, in particular, was plant Syrah. He tried Sicily’s indigenous varietal, Nero d’Avola, but found it never ripened fully as his vineyards were in a cooler micro-climate. His Syrah, though, is as good as it gets on the island, with his two single vineyard labels – Vignolo and Vigna Grande – being the best I tasted of a score or more of Sicilian Syrahs. The 2022 versions were both wonderfully clean and fresh, with both very low pH (3.2) and SO2 (15mg/l free and 35 total). No new oak was used, just second and third fill medium toast.

Vinding-Diers – selling Sicilian Syrah en primeur

Ever the innovator, Vinding Diers revealed how in 2022 he had decided to pick his Syrah grapes much earlier than usual to make wines that were 12% or under.

“In 2022, we picked early and made some very pleasurable wines which were light with a maximum of 12% alcohol, with lots of fruit and easy to drink,” he said. “It was an experiment, answering the call for low alcohol wines, but was it right? Susie and I still wonder. After all, it is totally out of place here in Sicily of all places to go out and pick early in order to try and make ‘Burgundy’ wines. It must be wrong! Pick early, yes, but respect where you live and give the plants a chance to produce what we should here, and not what we are told we should do. We have always picked with good acidity, and nice tannins, making elegant wines which would last for some years. The alcohol would be between 12.5 and 13.5% max, and I think that is where we should try and remain.”

Nevertheless when buyers became aware of the 2022s, they snapped them up, helped by Vinding-Diers’ idea to sell ‘en primeur.’

“There was a moment this summer when nothing moved,” he said. “The coffers were empty and the mood was in the basement. I remember sitting down in the library to read my old friend Jean Michel Cazes’ book, and he talked about how poor they were in the early ‘70s. Then he described how he got the splendid idea to sell en primeur, and the train began to move again. I jumped out of the sofa and immediately sat down to write an invitation to buy our Vignolo 2022 en primeur for €30 instead of €35 which I pointed out would be the price after September 1. Our order book was suddenly full and we sold a little more than 4,000 bottles in two weeks out of 5,000 – we are now selling at €35 and it still flies out. But now comes an extra flower. Everybody wants a pallet, so they have all filled up with the other wines. It is hard to describe my joy at this move.”

Planeta – 2023 winemaker of the year

“Deeply honoured.” Alessio Planeta

Meanwhile, Alessio Planeta, CEO and technical director of Planeta, described himself ‘deeply honoured’ by Wine Enthusiast’s best winemaker of 2023 award, the first Italian to receive it since 2007.

“It is a recognition that I am happy to share with our entire staff,” he added. “Next year, we will be celebrating our 30th anniversary, and receiving such a prestigious tribute at this time makes me proud of the solid reputation that the wines of Sicily have won across the globe.”

Planeta’s vineyard holdings, spread all over Sicily, total over 400 hectares, and remarkably, all have been certified organic since 2022. In addition, all have been certified sustainable since 2011 by Fondazione SOStain Siciliana. Alessio is based at the 41-hectare Buonivini estate near Noto in the south-east of the island, where we visited him.

“When we arrived in the late 1990s, Noto was a ghost village that was known for bulk wine,” he recalled. “Then came the earthquake, which led to restoration and a boom. There is huge potential for viticulture in Noto as it’s a denomination that is different from other parts of Sicily. For we have these white soils which are super calcareous, and the local varietals definitely prefer them. We get such a fine regional expression of Nero d’Avola.”

That was evident from a vertical tasting of Planeta’s top-of-the-range Nero d’Avola label, Santa Cecilia, from 2005 through to 2021. The tannins of all those vintages older than 2013 had softened noticeably. Patricia Toth, the company’s Hungarian-born winemaker who was recruited in 2005, declared that “you can only find unique soils and terroir like Noto in three or four other parts of Europe. They offer opportunities for very long bottle-ageing, with the calcareous soils giving great acidity in the red wines.”

To prove this point, a big hole dug into a section of vines revealed their roots went as deep as nine metres.

Feudo Maccari – indigenous varieties

Antonio and Alberto Moretti Cuseri of Feudo Maccari

With its low annual rainfall (300-350 mm) and windy conditions, Noto has become a haven for organic producers. One such, Feudo Maccari, which is only six kilometres as the crow flies from Buonivini, has 55 hectares of bush vines on similarly calcareous soils. Some of the Nero d’Avola vines are 70 years old. The estate was bought by luxury goods entrepreneur Antonio Moretti Cuseri, who also owns another producer in the Etna denomination of Sicily as well as three other Italian wineries. His son, Alberto, is the international export director for all five estates.

While Feudo Maccari’s ‘Saia’ 2020 underlined how good Sicilian Nero d’Avola can be – possessing elegance, freshness, concentration, soft tannins and considerable length – its single varietal Nerello Mascalese ‘Animardente’ label from its Etna DOC winery displayed attractive red fruit and supple tannins, with structure coming from 20% new oak. Around 30% of the grapes came from vines over 100 years old, while the remainder was from young five-year old vines.

Giasira and Zisola

Seeking distribution: Giovanni Boroli, owner of Giasira

Another organically-farmed estate in the Noto denomination is Giasira, which has 13 hectares under vine and ten different labels. All of its energy needs are served by its own photovoltaic solar power system. Bought nearly twenty years ago by Piedmontese publishing and printing magnate, Giovanni Boroli, this stunning 130-hectare farm also has 3,000 olive trees, 2,000 almond trees, hundreds of citrus trees and scores of centuries-old carobs not to mention a canyon and a river.

Giasira, which produces Nero D’Avola, Nerello Mascalese, Moscato, Grillo and Catarratto exports mainly to Holland and Belgium, but would like to find a UK distributor.

Already with sales channels in the UK – for example Davy’s Wine Merchants – is another Noto winery, Zisola. Apart from two good Petit Verdot and Syrah single varietal wines, we tasted two fine examples of Nero d’Avola, both Sicilia Noto Rosso DOCs.  The super-premium Doppiozeta 2019, whose fruit came from the best four of 29 parcels, was aged in 30% new oak while the mid-market generic label from 2021 saw only old oak.

Zisola was also bought early in the new millennium (in 2003) by the Fonterutoli-owning Mazzei family whose forebears started making wine in Chianti in 1435. The very fact that so many wealthy Italian mainlanders with a history of winemaking have invested in Sicilian estates cannot be insignificant. Although the amount of hectares under vine on the island has come down from a twentieth century high of 140,000 to to today’s 95,000, that is symptomatic of higher quality and less bulk wine production. Indeed for many, Sicily has become Italy’s most exciting wine region.

10 wines that caught the eye and palate

Vinding Montecarrubo Scherzo 2021 IGT Terre Siciliane, 14% abv

Two thirds Merlot, one third Cabernet Franc; named after one of pianist Igor Stravinsky’s earlier works; as Peter Vinding-Diers says: “wave after wave of happy music streams through it.” Need one say more?

Vinding Montecarrubo Syrah 2022 IGT Terre Siciliane, 12% abv

Violet, spice and earthy tobacco aromas with red fruit, black olive and lightly peppery notes on the palate. Mineral and balsamic hints on a long finish. Beautifully fresh, elegant and poised with very supple tannins.

Planeta Allemanda DOC Noto 2022, 12% abv

100% Moscato Bianco; named after a Baroque opening dance – “we imagine this as a perfect aperitif wine” says Alessio Planeta. Invigorating freshness (pH3.35) with fragrant jasmine and rose petal aromas and pink grapefruit notes.

Planeta Santa Cecilia DOC Noto 2018, 13% abv

100% Nero d’Avola; a cool vintage, and an outstanding one; cherry, plum and blueberry notes with princely elegance, vivid freshness and extended length; firm but beautifully integrated tannins.

Feudo Maccari ‘Saia’ 2021 Terre Siciliane IGT, 14% abv

100% Nero d’Avola; black olive, cherry and earthy notes with soft tannins; structure from 30% new oak, which is well absorbed; lovely concentration and length.

Feudo Maccari ‘Family & Friends’ Grillo 2021 Terre Siciliane IGT, 14.5% abv

100% Grillo; crisp, dry stonefruit notes with a backbone of citrus from Sicily’s third-most planted grape after Catarratto and Nero D’Avola; some time spent in concrete eggs gives a touch of richness from lees circulation; bright acidity counterbalances 14.5% abv

Giasira ‘Morhum’ Terre Siciliane IGT 2020, 13.5% abv

100% Nerello Mascalese; named after the Latin for mulberry tree (Morum) of which a number are on the estate; very light in colour (Pinot-like); refined with red cherry fruit and silky tannins.

Giasira ‘Keration’ Terre Siciliane IGT 2020, 13% abv

Made from 100% Catarratto Bianco Lucido as opposed to Catarratto Bianco Comune (probably two clones of the same variety). The former is considered to produce the higher quality wine. Fermented in stainless steel at 16-18°C, this has some body, with fresh herbal citrus notes and minerality on a lengthy finish. Appealing as an aperitif or with food.

Zisola ‘Effe Emme’ Terre Siciliane IGT 2020, 14.5% abv

Made from 100% Petit Verdot 16-year old bush vines; ‘Effe Emme’ is the Italian for ‘FM’ as in owner Filippo Mazzei’s monogram; 16 months in French barriques (50% new); typically deeply coloured and powerful with zesty acidity and floral violet notes; firm, overt tannins need time but freshness and structure make this an ageworthy wine.

Donnafugata Ben Ryé  Passito di Pantelleria DOC 2021, 14% abv

One of Italy’s great sweet wines. Made from sun-dried Zibibbo grapes (Muscat of Alexandria) on Pantelleria, the volcanic island between Sicily and Africa. Low bush vines (‘alberello pantesco’) that are over 100-years old are buried in a hole, with dry lava stone walls offering protection from hot dry winds. Golden-coloured, luscious and rich with 130g/l residual sugar.  Giacomo Rallo founded Donnafugata in 1983 with wife, Gabriella, a pioneer of viticulture in Sicily.

Dijon: a must-visit

Why Burgundy’s Dijon is a must-visit for foodies & vinophiles

It’s that time of year when we plot our holidays and excursions for the coming 12 months. What better destination for wine lovers and gastronomes than Dijon, the capital of Burgundy? asks Geoffrey Dean. He was there to check out the Cité Internationale de la Gastronomie & du Vin which is still less than two years old and offers a journey through Burgundy’s viticulture and history, amongst many other things.

By Geoffrey Dean January 7, 2024

“In 2013 the French government chose Dijon as one of four cities selected to showcase the country’s gastronomic heritage with Dijon’s focus being wine,” writes Dean.

Some of the 3,000 bottles for sale at the caveau in Cité Internationale de la Gastronomie & du Vin

Less than 15 months after the opening of Dijon’s Cité Internationale de la Gastronomie & du Vin in May 2022, the monumental €280 million cultural project welcomed its millionth visitor. The Cité (or ‘Estate’) is a fitting tribute to the ambition of the Burgundian capital to broaden its allure and become a must-visit city in the region. Not that it ever lacked appeal – this sleeping giant of a tourism magnet has always had all the ingredients – but it has finally awoken from its slumber to shout its claims from the rooftops.

And what claims it has.

The vineyards of the Côte de Nuits just to the south of it, most notably Gevrey-Chambertin and Vosne-Romanée; a beautiful old pedestrianised city centre of 97 hectares with its many half-timbered buildings that is a UNESCO world heritage site, and entered via its own triumphal arch (known as Porte Guillaume); the Saint-Bénigne Cathedral and the 13th century Eglise Notre-Dame; numerous museums (all free entry) including the second biggest in France after the Louvre – the Musée des Beaux-Arts; the Palais des Ducs and its neighbouring tower of Philippe Le Bon, with its 316 steps, from which you have stunning 360-degree views of the whole city (and the Alps on a clear day).

Throw in 45,000 students who come from all over France to attend the university and the legal, medical, business and oenology schools, and you have a cornucopia of cultural, historical, architectural and human vitality.

Cité Internationale de la Gastronomie & du Vin: already with a million visitors in less than two years

The new landmark destination, the Cité Internationale de la Gastronomie & du Vin, is the icing on the cake, though. A short tram-ride from the city centre, it is an imposing complex of buildings, old and modern, on a 16-acre site that was the city hospital for 600 years. Taking ten years to complete, it includes immersive exhibitions, a branch of the prestigious Parisian culinary school, L’Ecole Ferrandi, and a gastronomic village with nine themed stores (showcasing cheese, charcuterie, meat, fish, seafood, vegetables/fruit, bread, chocolate and pastries).

There are also restaurants and numerous other shops, including one, fittingly in the global capital of mustard, that sells nothing but that condiment. Of the 95,000 tons of mustard produced in France every year, as much as 90,000 tons are made in Dijon.

Last, and certainly not least, is the Cité’s extraordinary wine ‘caveau’, which has over 3,000 wines for sale (80% being Burgundian but featuring many great labels from all over the Old and New World). These vary in price from €10 to several thousand Euros, with many very old vintages found. A bottle of Chambertin Clos de Bèze Grand Cru 1961, for example, was selling for a cool €1,382. Over 250 wines are also available for tasting from enomatic vending machines that offer 3, 6 or 12 cl samples. So too are many of the world’s great whiskies, brandies and rums along with other spirits.

Journey through Burgundy’s history

Dijon street scene

The exhibition in the beautiful reconditioned great chapel of Dijon’s former general hospital represents a journey through Burgundy’s viticulture and history. An ode to Burgundy’s ‘climats’ is the first thing that greets you, with a proud historical reference to the year of 1584 when the word ‘climat’ appeared for the first time in a document about the Clos de Bèze in Gevrey-Chambertin when the canons of Saint-Mamet use it to describe the vines at ‘champ Berthin.’

 The term, used for a plot within a vineyard, spread more widely from the 17th century. “The local specificities in the geology and landscape of the climats produce very precisely defined parcels of land, sometimes down to a matter of feet,” it is pointed out, along with a reminder that Burgundy’s climats are on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

Although it is not clear precisely when, during the Roman occupation, vines were first planted in Burgundy, Jasper Morris MW, in his authoritative tome, Inside Burgundy, speculates that it may have been by a member of the Roman professional classes based in Dijon. A revealing find in 2008 of a small vineyard on the edge of Gevrey-Chambertin was dated to the first century AD.

“This invites the picture of a Roman amusing himself by planting a ‘lifestyle’ block of vines at his weekend villa in the same way doctors and lawyers have done in Australia, New Zealand and California in the Yarra, Gibbston and Napa Valleys,” Morris writes.

A centre of French gastronomy

Dijon’s reputation as a culinary centre likewise goes back a long way, with the city’s first gastronomic fair taking place in 1921. The Cité’s gastro exhibition, which has a poster extolling the seventh such fair in 1928, provides detailed background information on the region’s gastronomic history and ‘Le Repas Gastronomique des Français’, which was UNESCO-listed in 2010.

This refers to the history of celebrating good wine and food in France. “The repas is an essential element of France’s identity, which we have perhaps taken too much for granted in the past,” Jeremie Penquer, the director of the Cité project, said. “This is why it was so important when it was recognised by UNESCO.”

Remembered: the flamboyant late food critic Jean-Pierre Coffe

Within the gastro exhibition are portraits of ‘Les Pères Fondateurs’ (Founding Fathers) of the critical food-writing fraternity – de la Reynière, Brillat-Savarin, Curnonsky and Gault & Millau. The trip down memory lane continues with old posters of revered restaurant guides such as the Michelin of 1929 and Champerard of 1988. A beaming photo of the flamboyant late food critic Jean-Pierre Coffe adorns one wall with a reference to his love of ‘bonne bouffe’ (good nosh) and disdain of anything substandard (dismissed with his famous punchline of ‘C’est de la merde’).

There is, of course, good nosh aplenty in Dijon where, apart from its half dozen Michelin-starred restaurants, there are a plethora of Bib Gourmand ones (the label given to good value establishments with outstanding food). The excellent ‘La Table de Climats,’ situated within the Cité, describes itself as a ‘restaurant vinostronomique’ as it pairs wines with courses. Two other restaurants we ate at – a Georges Blanc brasserie, ‘Pré aux Clercs’ in the Place de la Libération, and the Grand Hôtel La Cloche – likewise served sumptuous cuisine.

And then there is the famous Mulot & Petitjean shop, where Catherine Petitjean, a tenth generation descendant of the founders in 1796, makes some of France’s best gingerbread with a secret recipe. Known as ‘pain d’épices’ (spice bread), it actually contains no ginger.

A new cooking school, given the English name of ‘Salt and Pepper’, taught us how to prepare local delicacies such as ‘Gougères’ (cheese and egg pastries). Talking of cheese (and the 46 French varieties of it accorded AOC or the EU’s PDO status as detailed in the Cité), a Dijon wine shop named ‘La Source des Vins’ conducts an apt pairing/tasting of five Burgundian labels and five cheeses. An Aligoté went especially well with an aged Comté cheese, with the former’s sharp acidity cutting through the latter’s richness.

It has, then, been a remarkable last decade of development and recognition for Dijon. It began in 2013 when, as part of a cultural initiative launched by the French government, Dijon was one of four cities selected to showcase the country’s gastronomic heritage. Dijon’s focus was wine and its UNESCO listings, while the other three cities were Lyon (nutrition and health), Tours (human science’s link with food) and Paris (food marketing). In summer 2023, the influential OIV, the International Organisation of Vine and Wine, moved its headquarters from Paris to Dijon, further enhancing the latter’s prestige. In the meantime, the city of Dijon, at the mayor’s behest, has been buying up land on its outskirts with a view to planting vineyards. A Côtes de Dijon label would be a fitting new addition for the French city where it all seems to be happening.

Five wines that impressed

Du Grappin Bourgogne Aligoté 2021

From 80-year old vines on white limestone marl soils in Macon in La Roche-Vineuse; made by Andrew Nielsen, one of a number of Australians producing quality Burgundian wine, along with his English wife, Emma; fermented in large old oak vessels with wild yeasts

Domaine Alain Gautheron, Chablis Premier Cru, Les Fournaux 2021

Organic practices are followed on this 2.2 hectare plot but without certification; classic minerality with some saltiness on the finish; made by Cyril following father Alain’s retirement in 2019, using no oak; DIAM closure.

Domaine Jean-Pierre Maldant, Corton-Les Grandes Lolières Grand Cru 2021

 Intense fruit with silky tannins and notable concentration and length. Refined and very classy.

Domaine Agnes Paquet, Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune 2021

From Pinot Noir vines in the village of Meloisey; lovely fruit with fine tannins and good length.

Domaine Gerard Quivy, Gevrey-Chambertin Les Journaux 2021

Single vineyard village wine from 75-year old vines on a lieu-dit just to the north of Gevrey-Chambertin; no herbicides or insecticides used; no filtration; alluring raspberry and cherry fruit with soft tannins and very fresh acidity.

Best Wines of 2023

Best Wines of 2023: 10 wines that lit up the year for Geoffrey Dean

Geoffrey Dean recalls trips to South Africa, Australia, Italy and the South of France in his Best Wines of 2023 selection. Here are 10 wines that stood out from the many thousands Dean tasted last year, and still bring that little ray of sunshine…

By Geoffrey DeanJanuary 2, 2024

Bruce Jack, Mary le Bow 2018, 13.5%.

A stellar red blend fashioned by one of South Africa’s top winemakers, Bruce Jack, this wine comes from a remote mountainous vineyard with deep, iron-rich rocky soils on a farm named Wildepaardekloof (‘Wild Horse Valley’) near Ashton in the western Cape. The label takes its name from the Mary-le-Bow church in the City of London, in whose crypts some ancestors of winery owner, Angela Frater, were buried. The old Cabernet Sauvignon block that makes up the majority of the blend was planted in the early 1980s. “The tannins off this block are unlike any Cabernet I have experienced in South Africa – refined, smooth, persistent, more-ish,” Jack says. “The Shiraz adds black pepper, spice and very ripe plum, while the Cabernet Franc and Merlot round off the flavours with an unusual depth of cassis and intriguing hints of red dust, marjoram and black olive.” Tremendous concentration and length.

Chêne Bleu, Aliot  2015, Vaucluse IGP, 14%.

Alluring barrel-aged blend of Roussanne, Grenache Blanc, Marsanne and Viognier. Citrus aromas with hints of toasted almonds and anise. Lime on the palate with mineral notes. Long and complex – another brilliant offering from Chêne Bleu, the sole winery in the world to hold the ‘butterfly mark’ certification from Positive Luxury, the leading sustainability experts in global luxury. Laudably, owners Xavier and Nicole Rolet, are relocating to Boston in 2024 to undertake a dual ‘social impact’ fellowship at the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative. Each will work on projects on regenerative agriculture and viticulture. “I’m focussing on how to scale up eco-conscious practices in the vineyards so that they become the norm,” says Nicole.

Familia Pisano Arretxea, Tannat Gran Reserva 2011, 13.5%.

Both the Pisano and Arretxea families arrived in Uruguay in the second half of the nineteenth century from Italy and Spain’s Basque country respectively. This high-class Tannat is named after the mother of the Pisano brothers Daniel, Eduardo and Gustavo – Maria Elsa Arretxea – being made only in the best years. Spice and raisin aromas give way to black cherry and blackberry notes with hints of gravel and tar. Rugged and full-bodied, as you might expect of a Tannat, but a really well-balanced wine with fresh acidity, fine fruit and a long finish. Great with a steak.

Geoff Weaver, Lenswood Adelaide Hills Chardonnay 2013, 13%.

Although ten years old, this showed how well Adelaide Hills Chardonnay can age under screwcap, with its fruit still as fresh as a daisy. Barrel-fermented with wild yeasts, and having gone through full malolactic fermentation with extended lees contact, this has richness and roundness to counterbalance its racy acidity.

Gerard Bertrand, Clos D’Ora 2018, 15.5% abv.

The flagship red wine from Gerard Bertrand’s 17 Languedoc estates. A seductive blend of Syrah (50%), Grenache, old-vine Carignan and Mourvèdre from eight biodynamically-farmed parcels. Glorious fruit, plenty of structure, high-quality tannins and fresh acidity balance high alcohol of 15.5% abv. While that figure might not sit with certain drinkers, I found the wine a delight with rich French cuisine.

Klein Constantia, Vin de Constance 2017, 14% abv.

Matt Day, winemaker at Klein Constantia since 2012, has produced yet another stunning Vin de Constance in what he called an exemplary growing season. Picking was conducted over as much as two months, yielding 20 separate batches for blending purposes. “We leave batches to finish fermenting for a long period of time,” Day revealed. “Some will finish after one month while others may take up to six months. We’ll therefore blend numerous times to get the right balance between sugar, alcohol and acidity.”

After fermentation, the wine was aged for three years in a combination of 50% new oak and acacia barrels and large foudres before the final blending and bottling. 165 g/l residual sugar is counterbalanced by 6.6g/l TA (pH 3.7). Honeysuckle and rose aromas from 100% Muscat de Frontignan fruit (none of it botrytised) with fabulously rich and creamy opulence on the palate. Lemon pith bitterness on an immensely long and satisfying finish.

Nyetimber 1086, 2010, 12% abv

 A world-class vintage cuvée that comes from Nyetimber’s very best parcels in west Sussex, planted on chalk and greensand, with the ‘1086’ label a play on the date of the Doomsday Book (when the name of the valley of ‘Nitimbreha’ was first recorded). This spent seven years on the lees and was disgorged in February 2019. The husband-and-wife winemaking team of Brad Greatrix and Cherie Spriggs have produced a refined English sparkling wine to stand up in Champagne’s highest company. An ultra persistent mousse with fine bubbles along with complex autolytic, biscuity notes; appealing grapefruit zest on the palate with hints of honey and almond nougat; ample freshness from vibrant, but not overly tart, acidity as well as an extremely long finish. A veritable tour de force. 45% Chardonnay, 44% Pinot Noir, 11% Pinot Meunier. TA 7.8 g/l, RS 9.7 g/l.

Richard Kershaw Clonal Selection Elgin Syrah 2013, 13.5%.

Richard Kershaw hailed from the Midlands before marrying a South African and settling in the western Cape, where he sources exceptional fruit from the Elgin region where he lives. As a past question-setter for the MW vinification paper, he knows all there is to know about the technical side of winemaking, and it shows in his wines. His Syrahs are as good as New World examples of the variety get, with seductive fruit of glorious intensity and concentration counter-balanced by beautifully integrated tannins and vibrant acidity.

Tenuta di Arceno, Valadorna 2018, Toscana IGT, 14.5%.

From the Tuscan winery of the hugely impressive stable of Jackson Family wines, this is a single varietal Merlot. Winemaker Lawrence Cronin, American-born but an Italian resident for the best part of three decades, has crafted a voluptuous wine. A blend of different micro-crus helps give real complexity. Blessed with silky tannins, it has structure from two-thirds new French oak, as well as glorious, intense plummy red fruit. Very long.

Vinding Montecarrubo, Vignolo IGT Terre Siciliane 2019, 13.5%

Peter Vinding-Diers, the great Dane, made this enchanting single varietal Syrah in the south-eastern corner of Sicily. With aromas of white pepper, wild thyme and dried earth, this very pretty wine dances on the palate before revealing notes of dark cherries, blackberries, black olives and tangerine zest. Chalky tannins provide beautiful structure, with linear acidity giving freshness. A thrilling, elegant and long wine.

Three special spirits

All in the finish: Geoffrey Dean on three special spirits

The Christmas spirit is what you drink, argues Geoffrey Dean, as he picks out three that caught his palate in the run-up to the festive period. Two sell themselves on their special finishes: it’s a first for St-Rémy with its eau de vie finished in Calvados casks for the first time, and a one-off as master blender doesn’t like repeating these aged releases; then there’s Colección Visionaria Edición 01, which is an 18 year-old Brugal rum that has been finished in barrels toasted with cacao beans; and with budget thrown to the wind keep your eye out for the Highland Park Single Cask #4627 18-Year-Old London Edition which was finished in sherry-seasoned oak.

By Geoffrey Dean December 22, 2023

St-Rémy, the Loire-based company which exports all of its annual production of 600,000 8-litre cases, has released a limited edition XO brandy in its Cask Finish Collection that has been aged in Calvados casks for the first time. Master blender, the highly experienced Cécile Roudaut, who gets a mention on the back of the eye-catching Lucas Beaufort-designed packaging, told The Buyer about the philosophy behind this limited edition, of which just 12,850 bottles were made. She revealed how this is the first St-Rémy ‘eau de vie’ that has been finished (for 12 months) in Calvados casks, which came from Château du Breuil, the Normandy producer.

St-Rémy master blender, Cécile Roudaut

“For this XO, part of our collection with different finishes, there is no particularity on the liquid, but in the past I have used rum, sherry, port, Sauternes and others,” Roudaut said. “For this last edition, I wanted to work with a French product which is why I picked Calvados. I wanted to work with a house that shared the same ideas of transparency, care with the terroir and collecting very carefully the raw materials. We share exactly the same philosophy with Château du Breuil, which is why we exchanged casks. It’s a great expression for us – it gave apple, cinnamon, apple pie and candied fruit notes but also a lot of freshness. I tasted every three months to monitor the maturation to have sufficient notes of apple but not too much as I wanted to keep the St-Rémy DNA. This is the first time I have used Calvados casks, but it will be the last as I have a lot of trials in my cellar and do not want to do the same thing two times.”

A rum deal 

Meanwhile, rum lovers should be aware of the superlative new release of a Brugal 18-year old, named Colección Visionaria Edición 01, the first edition in a multi-part series, that also has a special finish. Its point of difference is its finishing in new French oak casks toasted with cacao beans from the producer’s home country, the Dominican Republic.

“We took a double aged reserve that had been aged in Bourbon and Oloroso vessels, and then finished this liquid in virgin French oak casks, toasted with cacao beans,” a Brugal spokesperson said. “The rum is crafted using the world’s first aromatic cask-toasting technique developed by Brugal family member and fifth generation rum master, Jassil Villanueva Quintana.” When appointed in 2011 aged 24, Quintana was the youngest ever female rum master.

The result is a magnificent rum of extraordinary complexity and length, and well worth its RRP of £80 (available at The Whisky Exchange, Master of Malt and Berry Bros & Rudd). A cornucopia of gloriously diverse, rich notes flood the palate – dark chocolate and coffee, caramel, toffee, almonds, toasted nuts, vanilla, dried fruits and orange peel.

Highland games

Whisky drinkers wanting a truly special tipple over Christmas might want to consider a new single cask release from Highland Park. The Orkney distillery’s Highland Park Single Cask #4627 18-Year-Old London Edition (58.8% abv) has an RRP of £390, with 642 bottles having been originally made available through Edrington UK.

 The cask, from one of Highland Park’s 23 stone warehouses, was hand selected by master whisky maker, Gordon Motion. The whisky, distilled in 2002 and bottled in 2021, was matured in a refill sherry-seasoned European oak cask. Light golden in colour, it exudes earthy, smoky tones with a deep, rounded nose of vanilla sponge, oak and nutmeg. Flavours of pears, aniseed and rich cedar wood filter across the palate, along with a gentle peaty note and sweet spice.

 “Some of our most outstanding single-cask bottlings come from refill casks, as they have often previously held whisky for only a short period of time, so have much to give in subsequent maturation,” Motion said. “I’m looking for the exceptional – a unique aroma, an outstanding character or simply a superb example of Highland Park’s uniquely complex balance of flavours. This cask was marked out by its particular marriage of diverse yet harmonious flavours. When it comes to whisky that’s matured for 18 years and more, I have fewer casks to choose from, so those in our single cask series are, quite simply, the most exceptional Highland Park casks available. By bottling at cask strength, we encourage whisky enthusiasts to experiment with adding water or ice to reach their preferred drinking strength and flavour.”

Visit to the Loire Oct 2023

All change in the Loire! And how this wine region is ‘upping the ante’

Loire Valley Wines is on course to have 100% of winemakers organic or HVE in just six years’ time; it has invested heavily in an agroclimatic atlas to help; wants to up exports by 10% and has rolled out a new marketing campaign to drive it. And this on top of Anjou AOC which looks set to get cru status imminently and seven of the nominated 10 Muscadet crus communaux having been approved with the lees-aged quality of the wines going through the roof. The Buyer’s Geoffrey Dean hotfooted it on the Shuttle to get the lowdown on what’s going on in the region.

By Geoffrey Dean December 20, 2023..

“Adaptability and sustainability remain the Loire Valley’s twin watchwords in the battle against climate change,” writes Dean.

Aiming high: Loire Valley Wines’ ad for the US and UK – its two largest export markets

“Go On! Bloom Big” is the motto of the new Loire Valley Wines advert that consumers in the UK and USA will be seeing, or may already have seen. A pair of smiling, glamorous women are embracing two happy-looking men with four Val de Loire bottles in the foreground – a red, a white, a rosé and a Crémant. The rationale is all about winning market share and increasing volume in the two countries.

Another ad, with a younger mixed quintet of twenty-somethings quietly picnicking with the same wines, carries a less exuberant motto of “The Blooming Notes.” This more ‘gentle’ treatment, as Vins du Val de Loire describes it, fits in with a strategy for its next three biggest markets – Canada, Belgium and Australia – aimed at consolidating sales there.

The two ads are part of an imaginatively creative marketing concept called ‘Bloom Up!’ – created in conjunction with Sopexa – that will run until 2026. “It’s a concept,” we are told, “that uses gentleness, generosity and authenticity to express the distinctive accessible personality of Loire Valley wines: fresh, fruity, floral and fair.”

If some might find that a bit waffly, the alliteration in the form of the 4 Fs is catchy. The first three adjectives speak for themselves in the Loire’s wines, while the fourth – ‘fair’ – could be interpreted to refer to the very high number of the region’s wineries that farm organically and biodynamically, or are HVE certified. Indeed, the Loire leads the way in that respect in France’s classic regions, with 2030 targeted as the year by which 100% of the valley’s vineyards will be either HVE (Haute Valeur Environmentale), or organically, certified.

Already, 29% of estates and 23% of vineyard surface areas (11,000 hectares) are being organically farmed in the Loire Valley with 1,100 of those hectares certified biodynamic. Add in HVE-environmentally certified vineyards, and you have as much as 80% of the valley holding HVE or AB (organic) status. By contrast, under the National Wine Sector Plan for France as a whole, the target is 50% by 2025 for organic/environmental certification.

In 2022, 42,000 hectares of vines yielded more than 54 million bottles, with exports finding their way to as many as 150 countries. Most of the 53,000 hl that British drinkers bought in 2022 was white wine (69%) with the balance split equally between Crémants (15.7%) and reds/rosés (15.3%). Touraine Blanc, Muscadet and Crémant in that order were the biggest sellers in the UK.

Julienne Fournier, winemaker for Domaine FL

Muscadet’s reputation pushing higher

Half of all Muscadet exported goes to the UK, mostly to supermarkets, but on a trip to the Loire in October, an eye-opening tasting of wines from Muscadet’s new cru system underlined the potential high quality of extended lees-aged Melon de Bourgogne (or Melon B as Burgundians have had it re-christened). Seven of the nominated 10 Muscadet crus communaux have been approved by INAO – Clisson, Gorges and Le Pallet (in 2011) and Monnières-Saint Fiacre, Château Thébaud, Goulaine and Mouzillon-Tillières (in 2019). The trio awaiting recognition – La Haye Fouassière, Vallet and Champtoceaux – hope to receive it by 2025.

Effectively qualifying for premier cru status in Muscadet, the ten growths are raising the bar. Yields must not exceed 45 hl/ha, vines must be 10-years old and wines must be aged much longer on the lees than other Muscadets (a minimum of two years with no maximum). The Château Thébaud cru wines must do at least three years, and frequently see 48 months ageing.

Different soils in the crus lead to differences in style. Clisson, the most southerly and perhaps the best-known cru, sits on sandy and pebbly free-draining terrain with granitic subsoil; by contrast, Gorges lies on clay over gabbro. The former’s grapes ripen more and typically lead to flamboyant, fuller-bodied and higher alcohol (13% abv) wines than the latter’s, whose wines (nearer 12%) are steelier with a shrill line of acidity. An analogy might be ‘Meursault meets Chablis’. Château Thébaud, meanwhile, whose soils are stony and sandy on granite and gneiss, produces wines with tension, elegance and a slightly saline finish.

Jérome Houssin, a fifth generation winemaker whose family have owned Domaine des Tilleuls in the Vallet cru since 1905, exports his wines to Wine & Earth in Guildford, and to York Wines.

“The UK is a key market where I want to increase sales,” he said. “It’s about pushing the reputation of Muscadet higher and the prices as well. The value for money is great – my vines are up to 80 years old. Long ago some Muscadet was not planted in perfect terroir but the grape can really reflect terroir if you take good care of it. Before, too much chemical products were used. Now it’s all about producing in a more eco friendly way.”

“We are now ready to get cru status,” Vincent Denis, president of the Anjou AOC

Changing fortunes of Chenin Blanc

Some 60km north-east of Vallet lies the beautiful rolling terrain of the Savennières appellation, and prime Chenin Blanc territory. Its president, and owner of Domaine du Closel, Evelyne de Pontbriand, explained how the landscape there encouraged organic farming.

“All around Savennières we have 17 chateaux and 17 parks, and only a population of 1400,” she said. “This belt of parks is a very important reservoir for biodiversity, especially as some parks are not well-maintained. We also have little valleys called ‘coulées’ with a lot of bush, and hedges and trees in the vineyards. Bats love it and eat the moths. This has encouraged a lot of winemakers to become organic as there is no need for insecticides.”

Organic farming also predominates next door in the celebrated sweet wine-producing appellations of Quarts de Chaume Grand Cru AOC and Coteaux du Layon 1er Cru Chaume. Ivan Massonat, president of the former appellation and owner of Domaine Belargus, nevertheless has a love-hate relationship with Chenin Blanc. “Chenin Blanc is a difficult grape like Pinot Noir – it can be a pain in the backside to grow and vinify,” he sighed.

“But on the schist we have here and in Savennières, Chenin has some bitterness, which brings a lot of balance to sweet wines. Cabernet Franc used to be all that was planted here, although now it’s 60%. It was only at the end of the 20th century that a generation of growers said ‘Hang on we have a great variety in Chenin Blanc.’ So they went organic and prolonged the ageing. It’s a revolution, a renaissance.”

Whereas Cabernet Franc hates hydric stress, Chenin Blanc copes well with it. This was a problem in the very hot year of 2022 in the Loire (but not 2023) and can lead to unwanted green bell pepper notes in Cabernet Franc. In view of global warming, Chenin Blanc is well placed to take advantage, and Vincent Denis, president of the Anjou AOC, says demand for it is rapidly rising.

“Many customers are asking more and more for it,” revealed Denis, whose Domaine du Petit Clocher wines are imported by the Oxford Wine Company. “Our project is to create a cru, to increase the knowledge of Anjou Blanc in general. We have 14 crus in Anjou, such as Quarts de Chaume and Bonnezeaux, but we need one for Anjou Blanc in our quest for quality. INAO has visited us twice to check progress, and we are now ready to get cru status although we must still present to the commission.”

Built on dinosaur soil: Amandine Brunet, co-owner of Domaine de L’Enchantoir

Cabernet Franc and investment in research 

Saumur Puy-Notre-Dame AOC received its official recognition back in 2008, and is a notable appellation for high quality Cabernet Franc. “We have amazing soil in Puy-Notre-Dame,” says Amandine Brunet, co-owner of Domaine de L’Enchantoir. “It is mostly ancient soil from the Jurassic period – we call it our dinosaur soil. A blend of red and yellow clay with flint and iron. It gives lightness to the wine.”

The neighbouring appellation of Saumur Champigny is likewise home to a plethora of outstanding Cabernet Franc producers. Particularly impressive were the wines of Château de Villeneuve, made from 45-50 year old organically-farmed vines. Owner Jean-Pierre Chevallier’s daughter, Caroline, who honed her skills for three years at Bordeaux’s Pichon Baron, makes the wines while sister Cecile heads up sales.

Jean-Pierre Chevallier & daughters Cecile (l) and Caroline

Currently, the Loire Valley exports just over 20% of production. “By 2030, we will gladly share 30% throughout the world,” declared Lionel Gosseaume, president of InterLoire, the trade organisation representing the wine region. “We owe this international recognition of the quality of our wines to the continual innovation carried out by an entire wine-growing region and a growing generation of producers.”

InterLoire is playing its part by investing in an innovative new tool the body calls the ‘agroclimatic atlas.’ Designed in partnership with a regional research team, its app shows the projected changes in climatic and agroclimatic indicators. It allows producers to identify vulnerabilities within their vines and adapt viticulture accordingly. Indeed, adaptability and sustainability remain the Loire Valley’s twin watchwords in the battle against climate change.

10 wines that impressed on my tour

Damien & Vincent Papin, Cru Clisson 2018, Muscadet Sèvre et Maine AOC

From an outstanding vintage in Muscadet. Shows how well its cru communal wines can age. Full-bodied with rich tropical fruit expressions; taut acidity balances 13% abv. Long finish (seeking UK distribution).

Domaine des Tilleuls, Cru Vallet 2018, Muscadet Sèvre et Maine AOC

Rich yet elegant with a highly expressive floral nose and intense citrus fruit (Wine & Earth/York Wines).

Domaine du Closel, Clos du Papillon 2021, Savennières AOC 2021

From 45-year old biodynamically-farmed vines on schist and volcanic rocks, yielding 25hl/ha; elevage in 420l oak vessels (25% new); cordite minerality with roundness from 100% malolactic fermentation (Ideal Wine Company).

Domaine FL [Fournier & Longchamps] 2015, Quarts de Chaume Grand Cru AOC

100% botrytised fruit; 5 tris; 190g/l residual sugar balanced by vibrant adidity; 11.2%; gloriously rich and remarkably long (Vinatis).

Château de Plaisance, Chenin Sec 2021, Cru Ronceray, Anjou Blanc AOC

Freshness, intensity and length. Superb (Lea & Sandeman).

Château Soucherie, Blanc Ivoire 2021, Anjou Blanc AOC

Aged in older 500l vessels, the fruit really sings with notes of apples and honey as well as a touch of straw. Bright acidity (Vinatis).

Château de Villeneuve, Le Grand Clos 2019, Saumur Champigny AOC

From low-yielding vines (25hl/ha) on clay limestone soils. Fragrant with raspberry aromas, medium-bodied and silky tannins (Thorman Hunt).

Domaine des Sanzay, Domaine 2022, Saumur Champigny AOC

A cracking mid-market Cab Franc from organically-farmed 40-year old vines on clay/limestone; round and fruit-forward with soft tannins; for early drinking (Haynes, Hanson & Clark).

Domaine de la Renière, Moulin Repenti 2021, Saumur Puy-Notre-Dame AOC

Winemaker Thibault Masse has crafted a stunning Cab Franc from old vines yielding 30hl/ha in 2021. Dusty tannins and glorious red fruit. (seeking UK representation).

Domaine de l’Enchantoir, Le Pied à l’Etrier 2019, Saumur Puy-Notre-Dame AOC

From organically-farmed vines on Jurassic soil, matured in concrete vats; elegant spice and black pepper aromas with enticing black fruit notes; silky tannins (seeking UK distribution).

Sweet Tokaj more than dessert wine

Sweet Tokaj wines are the best known in Hungary but they are not where they need to be in the international market where an overall decline in consumption of sweet wines has offset massive, sporadic growth in some areas of the US. The Buyer’s Geoffrey Dean visited Michelin-starred Trivet restaurant in London, speaks to the key movers and shakers in the Hungarian wine scene and picks 10 wines that every wine buyer should have on their radar.

By Geoffrey Dean December 3, 2023

The ‘Sweet Tokaj Campaign United Kingdom 2023,’ which was launched this autumn, was formulated jointly by Wines of Hungary UK and the Hungarian Wine Marketing Agency. Some heavyweight ballast was provided by the Hungarian ambassador in London, Dr Ferenc Kumin, who spoke at a promotional lunch for the region at Michelin-starred London Bridge restaurant, Trivet, in early November.

Although no winemakers were present, the sweet wines of ten of Tokaj’s top producers were on parade along with the Royal Tokaji Wine Company’s managing director, Charlie Mount. The engaging Old Etonian revealed the 2023 vintage was a very good one, and addressed the issue of sweet wine demand with positivity despite its gradual decline in sales over recent years.

“Yes sweet wine sales as a whole are shrinking in the US, the UK and markets everywhere, but we don’t look at it too much as we’re such a tiny part of that market,” Mount told The Buyer. “If we were 80% of the fine sweet wine market, and it was shrinking by 20%, we’d be terrified. But, in the UK and elsewhere, we have consistently been able to grow our sales in a shrinking market because we offer something so unique.”

Mount was referring, in particular, to his winery’s legendary Tokaji Eszencia, the 2016 version of which was recently released. Notwithstanding a price tag of £490 per bottle in-bond at Farr Vintners, he revealed “it has been flying out the door, leading to a spike in fine wine sales.”

If that is a niche product with superstar status, Mount pointed to some encouraging general trends.

“If you look at what is termed ‘sweet wine consumption’ in most market research,” he continued, “it is growing massively in the US, and it’s starting to grow in the UK, although it’s driven by low level wines – a lot of Moscato for example. But the thought is that potentially those consumers with an undeniably sweet tooth may trade up in the future. So there are reasons to be positive.

“The category as a whole in the US is growing faster than Rosé – at the $10 level rather than $55 a bottle though. The US is very much a state-by-state picture – certainly in Florida, Texas and New York, sales have boomed. Overall, we’re very positive in the US, and here in the UK, off-trade sales have been very resilient, going well at Waitrose and Majestic for instance.”

Royal Tokaji exports to as many as 41 countries, with the once fastest-growing markets of China, South Korea and Taiwan now relegated to slowest growth status. It is to the UK, however, that Wines of Hungary UK’s head, Zsuzsa Toronyi, is looking for sweet wine growth even though Britain is already the number one market for all Hungarian fine wine.

“Sweet Tokaji wines are the best known wines from Hungary, but they’re not yet in the place they should be in the international market,” she declared. “We’d like every consumer to have a bottle of it in their wine fridge. You can open a bottle of Tokaj and it will keep for months. It goes well with all food – ham, fish, meat, cheese and desserts. It can be a special dining experience with your family. So we are targeting the on and off-trade equally, and need sommeliers to be our ambassadors.”

The message was eloquently reinforced by Dr Péter Molnár, owner of the Patricius estate and president of the wine council of Tokaj.

“Tokaji Aszú is much more than a sweet wine,” he said. “It is a global reference for elegant balance, drinkability and living acidity. It needs to come out of its hiding place in the box marked ‘dessert wine’ and show that it’s a joy with other cuisines, including spicy Asian flavours.”

So how were the wines tasting?

There were 30 different examples at the lunch of the two most important sweet styles, namely Tokaji Aszú and Szamorodni:

Aszú (minimum 120g/l residual sugar for 5 puttonyos; 150g/l for 6 puttonyos) is made from botrytised fruit and aged oxidatively in barrel for between 18-36 months in barrel. It must have 35g/l of dry extract, and a kilo of Aszú berries can produce no more than 2.2 litres of wine.

Szamorodni (minimum RS 45g/l but generally 80-120g/l) is also botrytised but barrel-aged for at least six months and is not necessarily aged oxidatively. Dry Szamorodni (max 9g/l RS) is also made.

Apart from the residual sugar levels, the two sweet styles have subtle differences. Szamorodni is characterised by its fullness, richness of flavour, fine tannins and complex, ripe fruit. Aszú wines represent perfect harmony between natural sweetness, freshness and medium to low alcohol. Their wealth of dried fruit, spiciness, oily texture and complexity derived from the long ageing process ensure they stand out from other sweet wines. Above all, they have extraordinary length.

Interestingly, though, the first of half a dozen Szamorodnis tasted, a sumptuous 2021 made from 100% Furmint by Istvan Balassa, came in with a whopping 253g/l of residual sugar (the fermentation having been stopped with the wine only 9% abv). Contrast this with Chateau Dereszla’s 2018 Szamorodni (70% Furmint; 30% Hárslevelű,) which has 130g/l RS and 10.5% abv.

Making up a triumvirate of beguiling Szamorodnis was the Szepsy 2016 (60% Furmint, 20% Hárslevelű, 20% Yellow Muscat; 12% abv, 177 g/l RS). Of all Tokaj’s producers, none is more revered than Istvan Szepsy, who has handed over to his son Istvan junior. Eighteen generations of the family have been making wine since 1631 when Laczkó Máté Szepsy was the first to write down how to make Tokaji Aszú. Their 50-hectare holding of vines, planted on steep slopes on rocky volcanic soils just outside the town of Mád, is considered in some quarters to be the world’s single most complex soil composition. The Szepsy Aszú 2017 (a great vintage in Tokaj) exhibited almost insane concentration and length (260g/l RS, 10% abv), being balanced by 8.5 g/l of total acidity.

The Patricius 6 Puttonyos Aszú 2017 was another magestic wine, being half a degree higher in alcohol but with 48g/l less residual sugar and very similar levels of acidity. Sauska’s very classy Aszú 6 Puttonyos from the same year was higher in both RS (228g/l) and alcohol (11.5%) was very long indeed with massive concentration and intensity.

The Royal Tokaji Wine Company is one of the few producers in Tokaj which focuses mainly on Aszú wines.

“The first thing we focus on at harvest is the availability of the Aszú berries,” Mount said. “This year,initially, was quite slow as it was taking a long time to dry out. We were spending a lot of time in our vineyards and hoping to spread the botrytis around. We also buy in about two thirds of our grapes, and it was quite challenging this year to persuade smaller growers to delay harvesting in the hope of getting Aszú berries. So we took the decision very early on to raise what we pay growers by 30%, and luckily that generated their patience to wait and dry the grapes on the vine.”

“There’s a risk you may lose everything but, at the end, we were able to have a very successful harvest: we had the Aszú berries we wanted. We bought in more than everyone else in the region put together, and it’ll be a very good vintage that will come to the market in seven years time.”

The Füleky estate, founded in 1998, shares a similar single vineyard philosophy to Royal Tokaji with 25 hectares under vine in some of the region’s best sites. Its 2007 Tokaji Aszú 6 Puttonyos (203g/l RS, 11% abv) was as beautifully balanced as it was elegant and underlined how well Aszú ages.

Also hugely impressive were the wines of the Zsirai family, which owns 18 hectares of vines in some of the most renowned first growth vineyards, including Betsek, Középhegy, Szt. Tamás and Úrágya. Kata Zsirai, who was Hungary’s young winemaker of the year in 2018, and her sister Petra have run the estate since the death of their father Csaba in 2011. Their Szamorodni 2019, made from 100% Furmint, was elegant and complex with notable concentration and length (103g/l RS, 13.5% above). By contrast, their Aszú 2019 had 235g/l of residual sugar and 9% abv.

Another extremely capable winemaker, Vivien Ujvari, crafts superb sweet wines for Barta, a 13-hectare estate that is farmed organically. It was founded by Karoly Barta, who started replanting Furmint vines in 2003 in one of Tokaj’s most historic sites, the Öreg Király Dűlő (Old King Vineyard ), that had been abandoned after World War II and ignored through the communist regime. Situated on a steep hillside outside Mád between 320-345 metres on rhyolite and zeolit red clay, the vines produce wines of startling concentration, minerality and freshness.

Founded a year earlier than Barta in 2002 was the Béres winery in Erdőbénye. Its rise has been no less meteoric, with award after award coming its way. In 2015 it was voted Hungary’s most beautiful winery, and in 2020 its 2016 6-puttonyos Aszú was selected as ‘Wine of the Hungarian Parliament.’ That wine featured a dramatic level of total acidity (13.07 g/l) to counter-balance 216 g/l of residual sugar. Super-high TA is a common theme of Béres’ sweet wines, as is formidable concentration. Its 2008 6-puttonyos Aszú (171 g/l RS, TA11.1 g/l, 10.5% abv) was also supremely rich thanks to intensive botrytis in what was a very warm autumn in a 5-star vintage.

While Béres is one of Tokaj’s youngest wineries, Tokaj-Hétszőlő is quite possibly the region’s oldest. In 1502, the Garai family selected the seven best parcels on the south side of Mount Tokaj. ‘Het-Szolo’ means ‘seven parcels of vineyard’ in Hungarian. They were classed as Tokaj premier cru as early as 1772 when the estate still belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. A special microclimate and the loess and volcanic soils, which are farmed organically, yield Furmint grapes that produce wines of great harmony and complexity. The Tokaj Aszú 5 Puttonyos Hétszőlő 1er Cru 2010, from what was an outstanding vintage, was a superb wine to end a memorable tasting.

The wineries and their UK importers

Balassa (Best of Hungary), Barta (Corney & Barrow), Béres Tokaj (Mephisto Wine Merchants), Chateau Dereszla (Armit Wines), Füleky Tokaj (Amathus), Patricius (Enotria), Royal Tokaji (Bibendum), Sauska (Enotria), Szepsy (Top Selection), Tokaj-Hétszőlő (Les Caves), Zsirai (Jascots)

Visit to Vargellas in the Douro

UK duty hike a new hurdle in running of Fladgate Partnership

Juggling a number of balls simultaneously comes naturally to Adrian Bridge, managing director of the Fladgate Partnership – responsible for Taylor’s, Fonseca and Croft – Portugal’s third largest port producer. His military training has helped him run Fladgate as well as mastermind the building of the Yeatman hotel and the World of Wine museum in Porto, projects which have helped oil the cogs of the Douro’s all-important tourism industry, as well as earn him the city’s highest civic honour. Now a hike in UK import duties, which adversely affects fortified wines, is another hurdle in an already complex trading environment that Bridge must overcome. Geoffrey Dean travelled to the Douro, met up with Bridge and David Guimaraes, head technical director, to get an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of one of the world’s most respected producers.

By Geoffrey Dean November 8, 2023

Adrian Bridge, the Fladgate Partnership’s managing director, seems to relish problem-solving. After all, plenty of hurdles would have been put in his way at Sandhurst, the royal military academy where he won the sword of honour before joining his cavalry regiment. Under the former army officer’s meticulous auspices, the company, which consists of the port houses of Taylor’s, Fonseca and Croft, keeps going from strength to strength, with sales up 50% since 2018, thanks in no small part to the boom year of 2021. But as we drive from Porto to Vargellas, the magnificent Taylor’s estate in the Douro Valley, Bridge is musing over how to respond to the big duty increase on fortified wines that the UK government introduced a few weeks earlier on August 1.

Adrian Bridge, with Vargellas behind him, Sept 2023

This has put an extra £1.30 + VAT on a bottle of port of 20% abv, which may not affect uptake of vintage port but could impact on sales of mid-market versions, notably Late Bottled Vintage (LBV). “What we can do is cut the alcohol level in LBV to 19% as there’s a smaller duty increase for wines under 20%,” Bridge chuckled, referencing the duty hike of £0.97 + VAT for wines above 15% but under 20%.

LBV’s price point is important as the full new duty rise potentially lifts it from around the £16 mark to nearer £18. Although Bridge believes many UK retailers have enough stock that was duty-paid before August 1 to satisfy the surge in demand that always accompanies the run up to Christmas, the days of Taylor’s LBV being £16 RRP (sometimes promoted down to £10) are effectively over. But any means of keeping duty rises as low as possible are desirable for what is one of Fladgate’s cash cows.

For very large quantities of Taylor’s LBV are made by Fladgate, for whom it is their premium commercial wine. And demand for it, and other special category ports, is on the up, as Bridge is very much aware. “The interesting thing about this year is that we may get to the point where 25% of port sales in volume is special category but over 50% of the value is special category,” Bridge declared.

“That’s where the future of the industry is….before it was 80% standard ports and 20% special category. We just do that top bit, but what it tells you is that top bit is the bit that’s in growth, and that is likely to continue. Globally in most regions, the market for purely cheap alcohol is declining. People are looking for something that’s a bit more sophisticated. They’ll drink less but better quality. It doesn’t mean everyone is spending 50-60 quid on a bottle, but many between the £10-20 level. You can expect to see Taylor’s LBV retailing at £18 in the UK, sometimes promoted down to £13-14.”

Special category port is anything with a date on it – vintage, single quinta, LBV, Colheita, aged tawnies (10-40 year old) and crusted as well as dry white port and reserve ruby (such as Fonseca bin 27, which is hugely popular in the USA). Not qualifying for special category port status are white, standard ruby and three-year old tawny. This trio represent big volume sales.

Two main wineries

Fladgate has two main wineries in the Douro Valley: Roeda in Pinhao, and Nogueira which is 25km further east, near Sao Joao de Pesquiera. Nogueira, which was bought in 1997 and completely refurbished, is dedicated to making special category ports.

David Guimaraes, technical director of the Fladgate Partrnership, in the vines at Quinta da Roeda

“It’s really designed at Nogueita to be the top end…so we limit the quantity to about 120 tons per day that we take in. At Roeda, we’ve effectively got four wineries in one – traditional treading; cold fermenting and vinification of white or pink ports; some tanks making LBVs; and some big pumpover fermenters that will end up making ruby. They’re the buffer you need for those peak days when you’ve suddenly got too much coming in. They can take up to 200 tons per day at Roeda.”

Although Nogueira is only a working winery for about seven weeks of the year in autumn, it serves another very useful purpose. Its large surface area allows Fladgate to use it as a storage and maturation facility for its ports, particularly its tawnies. Bridge estimates that 20 million litres of stock is at Nogueira, with a similar amount elsewhere, including in the traditional maturation location of Vila Nova de Gaia in Porto.

“All these buildings here at Nogueira cover 5,000 square metres,” Bridge revealed during a tour of its many warehouses that house tens of thousands of barrels and scores of foudres. “We have some beautiful foudres, including a 14,000-litre ten-year old one. It’s pretty good temperature control here as its relatively cool being at 700 metres on top of a hill. So storing here is better than on city centre land as it’s not a good use of it. We still have some storage in Gaia at the visitor centre – mainly 20-year or older Tawny which you don’t move very often by definition – and also where our bottling operation is, on a 35-acre site close to the Yeatman [the 5-star Fladgate-owned hotel]. When ‘World of Wine’ was built, we moved a lot of stock to Nogueira.”

The wonderful World of Wine

World of Wine: opened in 2020 and was masterminded by Adrian Bridge

World of Wine, aka WOW, which opened in 2020, is surely the globe’s most comprehensive wine museum. Built by Fladgate at a cost of €105 million over 55,000 square metres where old port cellars were situated, it is nevertheless much more than that. Hailed as a cultural district, it has not just seven immersive museum experiences but also twelve restaurants and bars, shops, a wine school, a gallery for temporary exhibitions and even a chocolate factory. Bridge was the driving force behind WOW, as he was for the Yeatman, for whose completion he was awarded  the ‘gold medal of the City,’ Porto’s highest civic honour.

“We liberated all that land to make World of Wine,” Bridge continued. “The climate difference here at Nogueira has not had a big effect. To simulate the conditions at Gaia, we have controlled humidity thanks to water jets that pump a small amount of water at very high pressure through a very, very tiny hole, and essentially create a cloud which is way more humid. Our re-use of barriques and smaller vessels is an experiment – you get higher rates of evaporation with 225, 470 and 600-litre vessels.  We’re doing another experiment with the whisky people, buying their 470-litre waste casks, and cleaning out the whisky residue with Croft brandy, which we make about 100,000 cases of per year. We get them for just €100 – a new one costs €1500.”

The Yeatman and WOW embody Bridge’s belief in the importance of diversification for the Fladgate Partnership, which owns a top hotel in Pinhao and has plans for another in the valley. Although the company recently acquired another 200 hectares under vine, taking their total to around 750ha of vineyards, Bridge still pointed to the fact they are not in the top two of port producers.

“We are not that big – around 16.5% of value and about 13% of volume,” he said. “The biggest player, Porto Cruz, would be 30% volume, and Symington about 20%. We’re number three, then Sogrape is next one down on about 10%. We’re different in that Cruz and Symington would have about 2,500 farmers or more. We buy from 76 or 77 growers. All ours are professional farmers – that’s all they do. We don’t buy from the weekend farmers with half a hectare or a hectare who are the ones feeding the co-ops. It’s just not what we do. Either you’re going to buy from a co-op, or do it yourself and make better wine than you’ll get from the co-op. The better quality port we make from farmers, the more we pay them.”

The importance of foot-treading

Foot-treaders at Vargellas, September 2023: making a crucial 1% difference

Fladgate’s other key point of difference is its continued embrace of foot-treading. “We still feel foot-treading for us makes the difference,” Bridge declared. “Others have 100% mechanised lagars. We probably do 60% of the foot-treading in the valley – we think it adds to complexity, gives better structure and makes better wine, even if it’s just 1% better.

“We’re one company – the reason we call ourself the Fladgate Partnership is that we’re not trying to say one company is more prominent than then other. Each port house has its own property, brand and stock. Essentially they have got the same quality ethic, and the way we approach the business is the same. I’m the CEO of all of them; David Guimaraes is the head technical director of all of them; but our tasting panels will have three people involved in each house’s blending – the head blender, the winemaker and the person for the house style. Some of our LBV will have had foot-treading.”

Guimaraes elaborated on the technical benefits of foot-treading during a rendezvous at Croft’s celebrated estate, Quinta da Roêda.

Guimaraes: “The thermal dynamics of concrete give more structure and more depth of nose.”

“Treading is very effective due to first treading after filling lagares,” he said. “The initial cut to open up the berry is so important to release the pip. Pre-Covid, we had treading all day as well in the evening, but I ventured into the first mechanical plungers in closed fermenters as a half-way house between mechanical and foot-treading. We didn’t want to change the style of our vintage port, and the alternative to treading was a big drop in quality. That’s when I introduced the first mechanical plungers in concrete rather than stainless steel. The thermal dynamics of concrete give more structure and more depth of nose.”

The harvest and foot-treading at Vargellas, where a large team of local Portuguese of varying ages pick by day and then tread for three hours in the evening, lasts around three weeks. Housed and fed at Vargellas for that period, it is hard physical endurance but a good arrangement for both parties. The pickers effectively get double pay and do not have the problem of having nothing to do in the evening in a remote location.

“We hire an entire community and provide good accommodation and food, so we don’t have the common problem of finding pickers,” Bridge explained. Treading with some of them for half an hour one evening, it was clear how well-motivated and happy they were in their work. They perform with the same military precision and commitment that the indefatigable Bridge runs the Fladgate Partnership.

Tasting a selection of Fladgate Partnership ports

Fonseca Bin 27

2,000 cases per year sold in UK (where RRP was £14.50 but now £16); biggest SKU seller in USA (closely followed by Taylor’s LBV), where it is sold in 16,000 shops; full-bodied reserve blend, also very popular in travel retail. 104 g/l residual sugar, TA 4.3 g/l

Fonseca Vintage Port 2003

Silky tannins with high quality brandy spirit; hugely complex, very long. 92 g/l RS, TA 4.45 g/l

Taylor’s 50-year old tawny

Stunningly complex (light colour no different to 30-year old). 158 g/l RS, TA 5.86 g/l; RRP £180

Taylor’s Quinta de Vargellas 2015

Beautifully integrated tannins; remarkable complexity and concentration from old vines that date back to 1908. 99g/l RS, TA4.36 g/l; RRP £35

Croft Vintage Port 2003

David Guimaraes’ favourite from the estate; the first to be made from foot-trodden fruit since 1963 (following Fladgate’s acquisition of Roeda in 2001). Very expressive, intense fruit; supremely elegant and so long. 92 g/l RS; TA 4.45 g/l

Croft LBV 2017

Very fresh with sweet fruit and peppermint notes. 101 g/l RS, TA 4.6 g/l; RRP £16

The wines of the Fladgate Partnership and imported and sold in the UK through Mentzendorff which is a commercial partner of The Buyer.

Francois Lurton: ahead of his time

How Chacayes shows Francois Lurton as a winemaker ahead of his time

When Bordeaux’s François Lurton planted vines in the semi-desert foothills of the Andes Cordillera, at an altitude of 1100m there were many people questioning his wisdom. But when people tried his red blend Chacayes, a wine that came from five year-old vines there, many followed his example, even establishing a new Geographical Indication of Los Chacayes – named after the wine. Over a lengthy dinner in London Lurton regales tale after tale about being born into Bordeaux ‘royalty’ and, through his Bodega Piedra Negra, putting ‘inhospitable’ areas of Argentina onto the map.

By Geoffrey Dean

October 20, 2023

François Lurton still remembers his and his twin brother Jacques’ reaction when they tasted their very first vintage of Chacayes, made in a semi-desert sub-region of Argentina near Mendoza, where they were the first to plant vines. “In 150 years in Bordeaux, we never produced a wine so intense like the one we have made in this area,” he recalled.

“We said, ‘Shit we’ve got an impressive terroir. How have we made a wine of such concentration, quality and elegance, and with vines of only five years of age…and in a place not producing wine before?’ We were born at Château Bonnet in Entre-Deux-Mers, and so we decided to give the wine the name of the place we had registered a few years before and not used.”

That was back in 2002, since then the Chacayes label has achieved something approaching cult status. Los Chacayes later became an IG (Indicación Geográfica) within the Uco Valley when new neighbouring planters, who had followed the Lurtons’ lead, requested the name’s use for a new sub-appellation. By then, Francois had bought out his brother’s share in the winery, Piedra Negra, in 2007.

Francois Lurton

The Lurton family has long been steeped in wine, owning several Bordeaux châteaux, including La Louvière in Pessac-Leognan. Their late father André, who died in 2019, was a notable figure in the region, having been active in establishing the Entre-Deux-Mers appellation.

Chacayes has been produced almost every year since that revelatory first vintage, a couple having been lost to hail. Lurton considers 2007 amongst the very best but the 2008 which we tasted over dinner with him in London in late September was outstanding.

“2007 was fabulous but we don’t have any more,” he declared. “2008 was quite warm without being very hot, but is well-balanced and has aged very well thanks to the acidity.” At 1100 metres, the vineyard’s wide diurnal range means that acid retention is seldom an issue.

“You can have some serious variation of vintages in Argentina, but there is not so much variation in Chile, where every year you produce similar wines,” Lurton continued.  “The notion of vintages is interesting to follow in Argentina. They don’t have the habit to age the wines but I have forced them to keep the wines. This 2008 Chacayes has an incredible ability to age thanks to this density of tannins and its controlled acidity.”

Some of the Malbec vine material for the wine (85% Malbec and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon) came from Argentina and some Côt from southwest France. It was fermented in barrels, which were sealed and then later rolled to obtain very light extraction. Freshness and brightness are its hallmarks along with impressive weight and structure from firm tannins. The black cherry and damson fruit is very expressive, being well complemented by herbal and floral notes. A well-balanced, rich but very polished wine whose abv of 15.5% is not out of kilter.

A pioneering viticulturist in Argentina, Lurton was also ahead of his time in Bordeaux with his employment of screw caps there more than 30 years ago. He likes to joke how he is known as ‘Mr Screwcap’ in France. “I was the first to introduce it at Château Bonnet in 1992,” he recalled. “It was an error as they had some cork inside – only in 1996 did they use an aluminium cap. I have plenty of this 2008 Chacayes under screwcap, although now we work a lot with Diams.”

In 2000, after lengthy research in several regions of Chile, Lurton also bought 200 hectares in the Lolol Valley, an offshoot of the Colchagua Valley. A pioneer in what was virgin terroir, he planted vines on poor granite schist soil, farming some extremely steep vineyards under a strict biodynamic and organic regime. He explained his philosophy behind his alluring Hacienda Araucano Clos de Lolol White 2022, which is predominantly drawn from the best Sauvignon Blanc plots, with a splash of Chardonnay.

“I harvest the Sauvignon riper to get peach and white, not green, fruit. I like to avoid the typical style of the grape you will find in other parts of Chile or in South Africa or New Zealand. I ferment all my whites in some oak, and I like to use some skins too. ‘Orange’ wine is part of my vinification secrets.”

Fermented in a third new oak, a third second fill and a third third fill, the wine is matured on fine lees for eight to nine months. Very rounded and generous on the palate, with tropical fruit aromas and some soft spice, it is well balanced thanks to vibrant acidity. Its finish is fresh, complex and long.

Lurton still believes that too many South American producers think wine is made in the cellar and not the vineyard. “In France, everyone knows you make the wine in the vineyard but in South America, they don’t believe that,” he said.

“It is changing little by little thanks to the influence of people like me and foreign consultants like Michel Rolland, who explain to them. The oenologists there do things that we try to stop as they think they can improve the wine in the cellar. I am so organic and so bio as I want the vine to be happy. If you have a happy vine, you have a good wine at the end.” Under Lurton’s devoted auspices, it is hard to see any of his many wines failing to be good.

Francois Lurton’s Argentinian and Chilean wines are imported into the UK by Condor Wines 

The current vintage of Piedra Negra Chacayes Single Vineyard is 2017 (RRP £72.49). The current vintage of Araucano Clos de Lolol Red is 2020, the White is 2017 (both RRP £22.99 each).

Green credentials at Hatch Mansfield

How green credentials shone at Hatch Mansfield portfolio tasting

The legacy of Hatch Mansfield co-founder Philip Tuck MW was everywhere to be seen at this autumn’s portfolio tasting, not only in the diversity and quality of the portfolio but also in its focus on the winemakers’ ‘green approach’ to their craft. The Buyer’s Geoffrey Dean gets a feel of the key issues in the room and picks 10 wines that he would recommend for on-trade from the likes of Esporão, Cherubino, Kleine Zalze and Esk Valley.

 By Geoffrey Dean

October 17, 2023

Now in its 30th year of existence, Hatch Mansfield staged a memorable autumn tasting in late September at the Institute of Directors in London but in the sad absence of one of its nine co-founders. The tragic death in July at the age of 59 of Philip Tuck MW, the importer’s wine director, will long be felt.

Hatch’s CEO, Patrick McGrath, his fellow MW and co-founder, paid tribute: “Philip played a huge role in the growth of Hatch, working tirelessly to develop the sales and distribution of our wines across the many varied sectors of the trade. He was an immensely kind, loyal and considerate man with that rare ability to laugh at himself. His mischievous grin will forever remain etched in our memories.”

The late Philip Tuck MW

Tuck has left a large hole to fill but his legacy lives on in the form of a formidable stable of brands from around the world. Topically, given the increasingly pressing issue of climate change, every one of them embrace a ‘green approach’ and, in the tasting booklet, each producer detailed it ahead of their listed wines. This ranges from biodynamic and organic farming to HVE and other environmental practices.

Among the frontrunners are the Rhône house M.CHAPOUTIER, with 266 hectares out of 467 certified biodynamic – the balance being farmed organically. In the Loire, Joseph Mellot (which holds both the HVE level 3 and BRC certifications) was the first French vineyard to join the 10:10 climate change campaign (to cut carbon emissions by 10% in 2010); in Burgundy, all Louis Jadot vineyards have been HVE3 certified since 2019. Meanwhile, Taittinger has been accredited with the ‘Viticulture Durable en Champagne’ sustainability badge.

Away from France, C.V.N.E was the first wine company in Spain to achieve the double environmental footprint certification (carbon and water); Esporão has the biggest ownership of organically-farmed vineyards in Portugal (18% of the national total); in Chile, Caliterra, Errazuriz and Viñedos Familia Chadwick were among the first wineries there to obtain the national sustainability certification. Across the Pacific, Esk Valley has been an active member of Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand (SWNZ) since its inception, while Villa Maria has achieved Certified Emissions Measurement and Reduction Scheme (CEMARS) certification.

As Gaia Gaja puts it so succinctly: “More life in the vineyard, more life in the wine.”

What of the wines on show though?

As far as value for money is concerned, it remains hard to beat Beaujolais, particularly in the face of Burgundy’s inexorable price rises.

“The region of Beaujolais is experiencing a great rebirth these days,” David Stephan, export director for Louis Jadot, declared. “It is worth noting that in the early stages of the 20th century, the crus of Beaujolais were as highly considered, and priced, as premier cru Côte de Nuits. Our Château des Jacques Moulin-à-Vent is a great testimony of what the region has to offer.” Indeed it was, with their Clos du Grand Carquelin 2015 label (RRP £31.30) showing especially well.

David Stephan

Also making a strong impression were the wines of ‘Terroirs et Talents,’ an association of Beaujolais and Maconnais family-owned estates. “Basically, we are all friends together,” said Gregory Barbet, a ninth generation member of a family making wine in Beaujolais since the 18th century. “We are all HVE3 certified and are all trying to replant our vineyards as almost all of the vines were planted between the two World Wars.” Barbet revealed that at his family’s estate, Domaine de la Pirolette in the Saint-Amour cru, they are replanting a hectare every three years.

“Fleurie is the most important cru,” Barbet continued, “but with Hatch, we are pushing other crus like Saint Amour, Julienas and Brouilly to bring a little bit more diversity than Fleurie. There are three styles in Beaujolais: fruity and floral, like in Brouilly, Fleurie and Chiroubles; fruity and spicy in Chenas, Saint-Amour and Julienas; full-bodied in Morgon and Moulin-a-Vent. Why the difference? It depends on the soil and terroir. Generally, the red fruit and floral crus have pink soil granite; the fuller style have blue volcanic soil…more black fruit.”

Gregory Barbet

Breezing charismatically into the tasting was Clovis Taittinger, the Grande Marque Champagne House’s head of exports and international development. Taittinger’s partnership with Hatch Mansfield is, of course, a longstanding one, with the duo being partners in the Domaine Evremond sparkling wine project in Kent where Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier vines were ceremoniously planted in May 2017. While revealing that the first release from there will be autumn next year, Clovis gave his thoughts on the UK market, which receives a bigger allocation of Taittinger than any other.

“We’re very happy with export levels here,” he proclaimed. “Sales are stable. We aim to keep focus on the quality, and don’t want to create any new cuvées. We don’t want to grow – the point is to keep doing the same thing better. Keep being better from the soil to the winemaking and to keep producing one of the top Champagnes in the world that is enjoyable, simple, super elegant. I’m super happy with the wines on show here. The Brut Reserve NV is wonderful… and the key cornerstone of the house.”

“I genuinely believe that the wines we are making are in superb shape, both technically speaking and pleasure-wise speaking. They are in their majesty right now, which comes from their simplicity, their consistency, the light elegant mineral style. As a drinker, I have an immense pleasure to drink them from the bottom to the top and vice versa.”

Pedro Vieira, sales director of Esporao

In contrast to Taittinger, Esporão is in only its second year with Hatch but has already seen sales to the UK soar as a result. The company, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary, has 645 hectares of organically-farmed vineyards across three key regions – Alentejo, the Douro and Vino Verde. “We’ve been in the UK twenty years but could never find a solid partner that could really represent our wines in a sustainable way,” Pedro Vieira, sales director, said. “Finally, we were lucky to find Hatch, and already have had our best year in the UK, with sales 35% up on our previous highest-selling year – mostly on-premise. We have no listing in supermarkets.”

Supermarkets, though, remain Hatch Mansfield’s biggest customers thanks to brands like Villa Maria and Errazuriz, but off-trade indies are important to the importer, stretching to well over 300. The strategy remains not to represent too many producers, with 19 still the number.

10 Hatch Mansfield wines that caught the eye

C.V.N.E. Virgen del Galir Val do Galir Godello, Valdeorras 2021 (£19.85)

A very appealing Godello from the village of Entoma on poor salty soils at 500m. Six months on the lees gives good structure and full body. Floral notes of herbs and citrus with a hint of minerality and a saline finish. Freshness and length.

Taittinger Brut Reserve NV (RRP £52.95)

A seductive blend of 40% Chardonnay, 35% Pinot Noir and 25% Pinot Meunier from over 35 different vineyards. Three years on the lees and dosage of 9 g/l. Fine mousse with fragrant aromas of peach, white flowers and brioche. Autolytic and biscuity notes with a touch of honey. Complex and long. Fully deserving of Clovis Taittinger’s description of it as ‘wonderful.’

Louis Jadot Beaune 1er Cru Clos des Ursules 2017 (magnum £165)

The flagship wine of Louis Jadot, sole owners of this 1.26 ha site since 1826 when bought from the Ursuline order of nuns. From low-yielding vines (30 hl/ha) aged between 50 and 60 years old on particularly stony soils. These aid in the production of one of Beaune’s most accomplished wines – generous and full-bodied with complex rich fruit and depth. Beautifully integrated structure from a third new oak, a third second fill and a third third fill.

Domaine de la Pirolette, Saint-Amour 2020 (£20.45)

From the second smallest cru in Beaujolais, the estate, which dates back to 1600, takes its name from a pretty white flower, the Pirole. Located on south-facing pebbly soils of sandstone, clay and pink granite, the vines produce a full-bodied wine with juicy red and blueberry fruit as well as white pepper notes. Cracking value.

M.CHAMPOUTIER Domaine de Bila-Haut Blanc 2021, AOP Côtes du Roussillon (£13.75)

While one of the oldest companies in the Rhône valley, dating back to 1808, Chapoutier makes wine from several French regions. This enticing blend of Grenache Blanc, Macabeu, Marsanne and Roussanne is superb value at this price point. Salty hints with fresh sea-shell notes, it comes in at 13% abv but is well-balanced by vibrant acidity (and a low pH of 3.12).

Esporão, Torre de Esporão 2017, DOC Alentejo (£216)

Only made in exceptional vintages, this being the fourth instance. A blend of Aragones (40%), Touriga Franca (30%), Alicante Bouschet (25%) and Touriga Nacional (5%). Grapes harvested separately between 21 Aug and 29 Sept. Elevage in 100% new French oak. Just 300 bottles produced. Complex blackberry fruit with dark chocolate and minty notes. Full-bodied structure, fine tannins and great length. A stunner with a long life.

Pepa Chadwick and the new vintage of Rocas

Seña, Rocas de Seña 2021, Aconcagua Valley (£64.95)

Six varietals go into this alluring blend, being made for only the second time. Pepa Chadwick says her father wanted a Mediterranean blend, and does not consider it a second wine of the flagship label. Malbec is the predominant grape (35%) followed by Syrah (21%), Cabernet Sauvignon (19%), Grenache (10%), Petit Verdot (9%) and Mourvèdre (6%). Elevage in concrete eggs (50%) and wood (50%).

Cherubino, Frankland River Cabernet Sauvignon 2019, Western Australia (£42.65)

Dark in colour but medium-bodied with very well-integrated high quality tannins. Complex, earthy notes with intense red and black fruit. Terrific concentration and length. Winemaker Larry Cherubino is a master of his art.

Kleine Zalze, Project Z Chenin Blanc Skin Contact 2019, Stellenbosch (£48.55)

Seven days of skin maceration and 9 months on the lees in amphorae. Spicy texture with some complex creaminess. Apple and citrus notes with hints of almonds. Zesty acidity balances 13.5% abv.

Esk Valley, The Terraces 2016, Heipipi, Hawkes Bay (£90.50)

One of New Zealand’s great wines, from very low-yielding, terraced vines planted in 1989 on seashell, limestone and clay soils. Malbec (40%), Merlot (33%) and Cabernet Franc (27%) all picked on the same day and co-fermented with wild yeasts. 50% new oak effortlessly absorbed with silkily soft tannins. Glorious black cherry and blackberry fruit with purity and complexity.