Armit 20th Anniversary Tasting

Notting Hill merchant Armit marked its 20th anniversary with its 2008 tasting yesterday at Delfina Art Cafe. Their strong French and Italian portfolio is backed up by some interesting New World wines. My highlights were:

Burgundy

Domaine Leflaive Puligny Montrachet 1er Cru Clavoillon 2006 - minerals and loads of citrus/pear, long finish with an almost autolytic taste

Mischief & Mayhem Meursault 2006 - lovely rounded fruit, gentle but full in the mouth

Rhone

Andre Brunel Chateauneauf-du-Pape Les Cailloux Rouge 2005 - classic Grenache - dark cherries, chocolate and spice

Germany

Baron Heyl Estate Brudersberg Grand Cru 2006 - a big, viscous trocken from this producer in Rheinhessen which really rolls around your mouth; lowish acidity though

Italy

Valentina Cubi Amarone - there were 2 Amarones, a 1997 and a 2003. I actually preferred the 03, which seemed richer, smoother and with an (even) longer finish. Both were tawny, with a classic nose of raisins and alcohol vapour; coffee, chocolate and dark spices on the palate.

Bruno Giacosa Barbaresco Asili 2003 - light-med tawny colour; 14.5% abv, huge chewy tannins which dried my teeth out, high acidity - too young still? - would be good to taste in 15 years!

Ornellaia 2001 - walnuts and big red fruit (strawberries) on nose, as well as alcohol whiff (14.5%); a bit disappointing on the palate, alcohol masking the flavour a bit

Tenuta San Guido Sassicaia 2000 - 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Cabernet Franc. Still young (average age for Sassicaia is 30 years). Tawny, big aristocratic nose, bit thin on palate?, high acidity, fine sediment, v long finish

Argentina

Nomade Torrontes 2007 - an especially floral, aromatic Torrontes from Cafayate; good acid (compared to other Torrontes I have tasted), although still a bit flabby/watery

NZ

Sauvignons - at the cheaper end, the Momo Sauvignon was classic NZ cut grass, greenery, apples; the basic Seresins (07 and 08) were very good (although a little watery on palate?); the Seresin Reserve was great - fresh minerals and a real mouthful of the terroir

Seresin Reserve Chardonnay 1996 - fantastic, deep golden, not too much oak

Seresin Riesling - strong petrol whiff (in a good way) - v typically Riesling-ish

Info Mine - Biodynamic Wine

The Wine Mine Blagging Toolkit - 5 wine nuggets with which to impress your friends...

1. So what's all this about biodynamic wine then? It's a bit presumptious of me to think it can be covered in 5 paragraphs, but I'll give it a go. The theoretical roots of biodynamic agriculture lie in eight lectures given in 1924 by Austrian philosopher/scientist Rudolf Steiner. The lectures were entitled Spiritual Foundations for the Renewal of Agriculture and drew on Steiner's lifetime mission to reconcile the spiritual and physical worlds.

2. In practice, biodynamic viticulture is not that dissimilar to organic - think of it as "organic +". The most important difference is the biodynamic preparations used instead of synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. For example, cow manure fermented in a cow horn, stinging nettle tea and oak bark fermented in the skull of a domestic animal.

3. Each biodynamic producer seems to follow a slightly customised system which, while anchored to the wide Steiner principles, tends to vary in the particulars from winegrower to winegrower. Something they all agree on is the importance of soil health and the central role of compost in achieving this. Pinning the vineyard's annual cycle to planetary movements appears less common.

Rudolf Steiner

4. The international organisation Demeter (www.demeter.net) is the principal certifying body. To become certified you first need to have organic certification (from the Soil Association or other equivalent body). You must also have used the full gamut of biodynamic preparations (sprays and compost) for two years. Keeping animals (chickens, sheep) among the vines is recommended, although not mandatory. Some biodynamic producers, such as Michel Chapoutier, have complained that the Demeter certification process is not rigorous enough.

5. Lastly, it is sometimes said that biodynamics is cultish and anti-scientific. The fact that it has been invested in and is practiced by large, profitable producers such as Chapoutier in the Rhone Valley, Pontet Canet in Bordeaux, Matetic in Chile and Milton and Seresin in New Zealand suggests there must be something to it. Limited proper research is so far available, although, a 21 year comparison of traditional and organic/biodynamic farming was published in 2002 in the scientific journal Science. It concluded that although biodynamic yields were lower, it outperformed traditional agriculture on counts such as biodiversity, resource utilisation and soil microbes.

Sources: wineanorak.com, Demeter, quaffersoffers.co.uk