New phylloxera outbreak in Yarra

Published on Decanter.com 19 January 2009. Click here to see the article on the Decanter website or on the image below for a larger version.


A new outbreak of phylloxera was declared in Australia's Yarra Valley last month.

According to Victoria's Department of Primary Industries, 'a detection of the grapevine pest phylloxera has been made in an existing control area in the Yarra Valley, north east of Melbourne'.

The so-called Maroondah Phylloxera Infested Zone (PIZ) was declared after phylloxera was detected in the region in December 2006.

The declaration restricts the movement of grapevine materials, machinery and equipment out of the PIZ.

Senior DPI plant standard officer Greg King said that following a recent notification of poor vigour in a number of vines, 'samples were taken from the affected vines and DPI's reference entomologist confirmed the presence of the pest'.

The Phylloxera and Grape Industry Board of South Australia is the only body of its type in the world established specifically to deal with phylloxera. It publishes information on recognising phylloxera and warns that detections tend to be made up to several years after the initial occurrence of the infestation.

Grape growers in other regions, especially those who have had regular contact with the Yarra Valley or with high volumes of wine tourism, have been advised to be particularly vigilant in looking for signs of phylloxera.

Phylloxera is a small yellow root-feeding aphid. It only targets grapevines, which it kills by attacking their roots.

NZ Annual Tasting

Yesterday's annual New Zealand tasting at Lord's was extremely well-attended. The crush at certain producers' tables, especially around the lunchtime peak, felt more like a bar on a Friday night. Not ideal tasting conditions maybe, but it shows there is real interest in New Zealand wines at the moment.

The central tables consisted of a 'walk through taste tour', showcasing Riesling and Pinot Noir (and sensibly steering clear of Sauvignon, which is in danger of overshadowing NZ's other varieties). My favourites from this selection were Muddy Water James Hardwick Waipara Riesling 2007 (at the dry end of the Riesling spectrum, with great lively fruit), The Crater Rim 'Blacks Lot 7' Pinot Noir Waipara 2007 (violets, smooth and silky and, at 14%, no hint of alcohol burn) and Felton Road's Pinot Noirs (see below).

I was (maybe naively?) surprised that 14% seemed to be the average alcohol content for the Pinots. Apparently this is due to the fact that many of the Pinot Noir clones were originally brought to NZ from Burgundy, which has less sunshine and is cooler than many NZ winegrowing areas. The NZ Pinot berries therefore tend to develop more sugar, meaning more alcohol in the finished product.

Central Otago's Felton Road is a really interesting producer, a practitioner of - in their own words - "medieval winemaking". They are 100% organic and will also be wholly biodynamic once various certification periods have been completed. The highlights were their Block 5 Pinot Noir (from a select portion of their Cornish Point vineyard) and a Vin Gris, made from free-run Pinot Noir juice (delicate with a slightly salty finish). Although their Pinots are all around the 14% mark, the alcohol is completely integrated with the fruit.

I noticed several producers now make 'unwooded' or 'unoaked' Chardonnays, with no malolactic fermentation. These tend to have pleasant crisp, citrussy flavours and - if such a comment is not a redundancy - taste very typically of Chardonnay.

Seresin's range was very good as expected (especially the Reserve Sauvignon 2008 and the 'Rachel' Pinot Noir 2006), as was Craggy Range.

For Sale - Chateau Latour

According to the Sunday Times, the renowned Pauillac estate is being discreetly offered to potential buyers by French investment bank Lazard. The Château Latour estate covers 78 hectares, but only grapes from the 47 hectares that directly surround the château - known as L'Enclos - go into the flagship first wine.

While the Sunday Times cites a potential pricetag of €150m-200m (£145m-193m), sources in Bordeaux suggest that the property would “not go for less than €600m”.

Chilean appellation review

Chile is looking at renovating its outdated system of wine appelations in order to better reflect the country's increasing regional diversity. The present system, established in 1986, defines Chile's viticultural areas with reference to political boundaries.

The new approach would involve consulting wine producers and would attempt to create a series of DOs based on factors such as predominant grape varieties, soil types and climate. In a country which has such diverse topography and weather systems - ranging from the Andes in the east to Pacific coastal regions in the west, to arid desert in the north, to lush Patagonian vegetation in the south - this undoubtedly makes sense!

Whereas some Old World countries, notably France, have extremely precise delimitations based on centuries of knowledge of local terroir, Chile at present has only the broadest of regional classifications. The 'Central Valley' covers a vast expanse of land and includes regions as varied as maritime Casablanca and sun-baked, high-altitude Aconcagua. The Chilean government is apparently keen for these improvements to be made and is prepared to act quickly to make them law.

All of which is good news for the Chilean wine industry and another step towards becoming a more complex, interesting wine producing nation.

Champagne in trouble?

Champagne exports in October were down by at least 20% in Europe, Japan, the US, Russia and China, according to the Champagne promotional arm, the CIVC. The drop is of course due to the evil credit crunch, but I suspect increased consumer confidence in other sparkling wines is also a factor.

Drinkable Champagnes retail for well into double figures in the UK, whilst a decent Prosecco or Cava costs half as much. As the snobbery surrounding 'imitation' fizz disappears and consumers' wallets encourage them to focus on quality, Champagne will find it no longer has a stranglehold on the sparkling market.

Sparkling wines from Italy, Spain and the New World are getting better and better and can be produced more cheaply. Grapes tend to be machine harvested, the wine does not legally have to spend so long on its lees and secondary fermentation takes place in tanks rather than in the bottle. Champagne, on the other hand, is a premium product and producers should concentrate on quality, which includes selecting only the best grapes from low yielding vines.

Info Mine - Sherry

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

1. Sherry comes from the area around the Andalucian towns of Jerez and Sanlucar de Barrameda. Its name is an anglicanised version of Jerez (the original Arabic name of which was Sherish).

2. The British love of sherry dates back to Sir Francis Drake's sacking of Cadiz in 1587, following which he brought back nearly 3,000 barrels of sherry which had been waiting to be loaded onto Spanish ships. Many sherry producers were founded by British families and, despite declining popularity in recent years, the UK remains the largest export market for sherry.

3. Palomino is by far the most prevalent grape variety in sherry production and is used in the dry, clear sherries, Fino and Manzanilla. The other two important sherry grapes are Pedro Ximenez (also known as PX) and Moscatel. These latter two varietals can be used to make sweet sherries.

4. Following harvesting and pressing in early September, the Palomino grapes are left to ferment in stainless steel until late November. The resulting dry white wine (about 11% abv) is then fortified using destillado. The destillado is a 50:50 mixture of distilled white wine and older sherry. This fortified wine is then stored in American oak casks and aged in the solera system, which involves moving portions of the wine down through a series of barrels, for at least 3 years (see photo). The age of a sherry is given as the age of the youngest component part in the final blend.

5. In bottle, sherry will not develop further, although it can keep for ages without deteriorating. Once opened however, it will oxidise, especially at the lighter end of the spectrum (Fino and Manzanilla). So drink it quickly!

See the official sherry site here.

See a later - and more complete - post on sherry here.

Wine duty up again

Chancellor Alistair Darling has put UK alcohol excise duty up for the the second time this year, raising the duty component on a bottle of still wine to £1.58. This represents a further increase of 8% in a year which has already seen record duty increases in April's annual Budget.

Whereas the cost of a bottle of wine would have been brought down by the recent VAT rate cut, it has now gone up overall due to this duty rise. Exactly what the Chancellor is trying to achieve with all this is unclear. Is there method in his madness?