Tuesday, 23 September 2008
Wine Mine, '60s style
A great name for a wine publication. And one with a heritage apparently. Courtesy of eBay...
Wines of Chile 2008 London Tasting
A few stars of the recent Chilean tasting at the Royal Horticultural Halls:
1. Viu Manent Secreto Carmenere, Colchagua (Caves de Pyrene)
Probably my favourite of the lot. A bit of Pinotage-style burnt rubber on the nose. Dark fruit, chocolate and spices on the palate (although no burnt rubber luckily). 8 months in oak. 15% other grape varieties (not revealed - is this the secreto?)
2. Mayu Syrah Reserva, Elqui (Guy Anderson Wines)
Zingy red fruit. 14% abv.
3. Falerina Syrah Reserva, Elqui (Great Western Wines)
Big, rich, dark, luxuriant, velvety. 14% abv.
The best "commercial" wine I tasted was Cono Sur 20 Barrels Merlot, Colchagua & Maipo - very fruit forward so will appeal to the commercial palate, but has enough balance and structure to stand on its own as a good wine (whereas the Cab Sauv doesn't quite get there).
I came away with the impression that there were as many interesting wines from "new" areas such as Leyda and Elqui as from the more established Central Valley regions. A good sign for Chilean wine I would say...
1. Viu Manent Secreto Carmenere, Colchagua (Caves de Pyrene)
Probably my favourite of the lot. A bit of Pinotage-style burnt rubber on the nose. Dark fruit, chocolate and spices on the palate (although no burnt rubber luckily). 8 months in oak. 15% other grape varieties (not revealed - is this the secreto?)
2. Mayu Syrah Reserva, Elqui (Guy Anderson Wines)
Zingy red fruit. 14% abv.
3. Falerina Syrah Reserva, Elqui (Great Western Wines)
Big, rich, dark, luxuriant, velvety. 14% abv.
The best "commercial" wine I tasted was Cono Sur 20 Barrels Merlot, Colchagua & Maipo - very fruit forward so will appeal to the commercial palate, but has enough balance and structure to stand on its own as a good wine (whereas the Cab Sauv doesn't quite get there).
I came away with the impression that there were as many interesting wines from "new" areas such as Leyda and Elqui as from the more established Central Valley regions. A good sign for Chilean wine I would say...
Monday, 15 September 2008
Autumn in the London On Trade – Not Waving But Drowning?
As September storms scupper hopes of an Indian summer, so the on trade has started gearing up for winter wine sales and the run up to Christmas. The spectre of the credit crunch has caused much hand-wringing and a great deal of moaning, but to what extent will it actually affect sales at this traditionally busy time of year?
The on trade, especially at the smaller end of the spectrum, runs on very tight margins and so is particularly sensitive to economic dips. If credit-crunched wine drinkers start spending less, it is the small establishments which will feel it first. I know of two small restaurateurs who have recently thrown in the towel rather than battle against ever diminishing monthly profits. Larger players are by no means immune either, as seen earlier in the year when the Massive Pub Company put the majority of its 46 sites into administration and eventually sold them to Innventive Pubs & Restaurants. They cited tough trading conditions, commenting “in the current conditions a five per cent decline on the top line becomes disastrous at the bottom line.”
Two other elephants in the room have added fuel to the financial flames, namely this year’s Budget and exchange rate uncertainty. In March Alistair Darling raised duty on still wine by a record 14p per bottle (to a total of £1.46 per bottle), making British drinkers the most heavily taxed in the EU. As duty is a per-bottle charge rather than a percentage, it makes up a greater proportion of the cost of cheaper wines, which has always seemed to me rather unfair as it penalises drinkers of less expensive wine. The on trade makes more money from the cheap end of its wine list than the expensive end, meaning this year’s duty increase is significant and will make its presence felt on balance sheets.
As for exchange rates, the strong euro has made non-European wine more attractive to on trade buyers. Around spring 2008 we saw a significant number of bars and restaurants delisting their French and Spanish house wines in favour of suppliers from countries which sell in dollars, such as Chile. However, we are now faced with a strengthening dollar (the pound fell 8.6% against the dollar in August, its worst monthly performance since it crashed out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in October 1992). With sterling weak against both the euro and the dollar, there may be no more room to manoeuvre and prices will simply have to be put up further. The on trade has by and large been able to pass on recent price rises to the consumer without complaint. As one south London bar manager said to me this week, “people will always find money for wine – it’s a staple, not a luxury!”
Another gripe among the capital’s restauranteurs is the restrictions placed on them by local authorities. The most high profile squabble of late concerned Tom Aiken’s eco-friendly fish and chip restaurant which was forced to close in August after only six months trading. Complaints about the smell from local residents and the effect this would have on their house prices prompted the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to start legal proceedings against the restaurant, following which Aikens decided to “cease trading until further notice”.
So what are London’s pubs, bars and restaurants doing in an attempt to lift sales? Rather than rehashing their entire list, some are concentrating on offering interesting specials in an attempt to woo drinkers who are fed up with the endless Pinot Grigios and fruity Californians. Unusual wine regions such as Mexico’s Guadalupe Valley or lesser-known varietals such as Grüner Veltliner and Petite Sirah are being served up as enticements. Prix Fixe set menus which include a glass of house wine are much in evidence. One West End Thai restaurant has a deal which throws in the whole bottle.
More wines are being offered by the glass, on the sensible reasoning that while people may not be brave enough to order an entire bottle of an unknown wine, they will happily take a punt on a glass of something new and different. This is facilitated by increasing numbers of wines coming with screw caps (easier for bar staff to open quickly) and by more bars investing in electric vacuum sealers which allow an opened bottle to last much longer before the wine starts to oxidise. Some bars have gone a step further and now serve wine on tap, although unsurprisingly this tends to be the more basic stuff.
One top London hotel is planning a series of ‘Meet the Winemaker’ dinner talks, each of which will comprise a presentation by a different winemaker followed by a dinner designed to complement the producer’s wines. Trendy Hoxton outlets are jumping on the green bandwagon with offerings such as European-only organic wines, which appeal to both the carbon footprint and natural living crowds – killing two birds with one bottle.
A growing trend is the number of establishments which are – infuriatingly, from the perspective of independent wine companies – signing up to exclusivity agreements with major drinks suppliers. The thinking is that locking in prices for a foreseeable period gives cash flow stability. Such agreements tie bars and restaurants in for anything from a year to three years – a long time in what can be a fast-moving market. Where cutting down on paperwork is all-important, small specialist suppliers will by definition be disadvantaged against the Matthew Clarkes and Waverley TBSs of the world who can offer a one-stop shop for wines, spirits and beers. The choice for the sommeliers and bar managers is essentially that of an easy life versus an interesting one. If they want to take the hassle-free route of locking themselves in to supplies of ubiquitous, branded wines then fine, but in doing so they may well be missing out on some real gems.
As for what we’re actually filling our glasses with, the consensus is that the wine drinking public is increasing in sophistication at an unprecedented rate. Tom Bird of Corney & Barrow told me “On the private client side we have growing numbers of relatively young customers with a remarkable depth of wine knowledge. A generation ago people would follow their wine merchant’s recommendations almost unthinkingly, whereas today the access to information is so much greater. Websites such as Jancis Robinson’s Purple Pages and eRobertParker mean today’s drinkers tend to be very well-informed”. Furthermore, we are gradually becoming aware of the increasing breadth of wines on offer today and appear to be responding positively. Whereas a decade ago on trade wine lists were fairly predictable affairs (oaked Chardonnay, a reasonably priced claret and so on), today you are just as likely to find great quality Torrontes, Macabeo and Godello.
The challenge for the on trade is to embrace this newfound open-mindedness among drinkers and offer approachable but interesting wine lists. The fact is that bars and restaurants expect to make 70% gross profit on most of their wines. So why would I pay £20 in a restaurant for a bottle of Gallo which my local supermarket sells for £5.99? If I am going to pay the mark-up demanded by the on trade I at least want to feel that I am getting something interesting and different which isn’t available in the offy on the corner.
The London on trade certainly has to tread carefully in the current penny-pinching climate. However, there are no prizes for being stodgy and dull. Pubs, bars and restaurants need to make their wine lists eye-catching and relevant to modern drinkers in order to entice custom away from the supermarket shelves and into their establishments. The evidence points to an increasingly savvy and enthusiastic set of drinkers out there who, given the right impetus, will not be afraid to part with good money in the cause of wine. The on trade needs to get the basics right with solid house wines which hit a price point (£13-14 is standard these days), backed up by a mixture of by-the-glass crowd pleasers (Pinot Grigio, if you must) and more exciting and unusual labels to spark some curiosity. If they get all this right there is no reason, from a wine perspective at least, why this Christmas shouldn’t be both merry and profitable.
The on trade, especially at the smaller end of the spectrum, runs on very tight margins and so is particularly sensitive to economic dips. If credit-crunched wine drinkers start spending less, it is the small establishments which will feel it first. I know of two small restaurateurs who have recently thrown in the towel rather than battle against ever diminishing monthly profits. Larger players are by no means immune either, as seen earlier in the year when the Massive Pub Company put the majority of its 46 sites into administration and eventually sold them to Innventive Pubs & Restaurants. They cited tough trading conditions, commenting “in the current conditions a five per cent decline on the top line becomes disastrous at the bottom line.”
Two other elephants in the room have added fuel to the financial flames, namely this year’s Budget and exchange rate uncertainty. In March Alistair Darling raised duty on still wine by a record 14p per bottle (to a total of £1.46 per bottle), making British drinkers the most heavily taxed in the EU. As duty is a per-bottle charge rather than a percentage, it makes up a greater proportion of the cost of cheaper wines, which has always seemed to me rather unfair as it penalises drinkers of less expensive wine. The on trade makes more money from the cheap end of its wine list than the expensive end, meaning this year’s duty increase is significant and will make its presence felt on balance sheets.
As for exchange rates, the strong euro has made non-European wine more attractive to on trade buyers. Around spring 2008 we saw a significant number of bars and restaurants delisting their French and Spanish house wines in favour of suppliers from countries which sell in dollars, such as Chile. However, we are now faced with a strengthening dollar (the pound fell 8.6% against the dollar in August, its worst monthly performance since it crashed out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in October 1992). With sterling weak against both the euro and the dollar, there may be no more room to manoeuvre and prices will simply have to be put up further. The on trade has by and large been able to pass on recent price rises to the consumer without complaint. As one south London bar manager said to me this week, “people will always find money for wine – it’s a staple, not a luxury!”
Another gripe among the capital’s restauranteurs is the restrictions placed on them by local authorities. The most high profile squabble of late concerned Tom Aiken’s eco-friendly fish and chip restaurant which was forced to close in August after only six months trading. Complaints about the smell from local residents and the effect this would have on their house prices prompted the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to start legal proceedings against the restaurant, following which Aikens decided to “cease trading until further notice”.
So what are London’s pubs, bars and restaurants doing in an attempt to lift sales? Rather than rehashing their entire list, some are concentrating on offering interesting specials in an attempt to woo drinkers who are fed up with the endless Pinot Grigios and fruity Californians. Unusual wine regions such as Mexico’s Guadalupe Valley or lesser-known varietals such as Grüner Veltliner and Petite Sirah are being served up as enticements. Prix Fixe set menus which include a glass of house wine are much in evidence. One West End Thai restaurant has a deal which throws in the whole bottle.
More wines are being offered by the glass, on the sensible reasoning that while people may not be brave enough to order an entire bottle of an unknown wine, they will happily take a punt on a glass of something new and different. This is facilitated by increasing numbers of wines coming with screw caps (easier for bar staff to open quickly) and by more bars investing in electric vacuum sealers which allow an opened bottle to last much longer before the wine starts to oxidise. Some bars have gone a step further and now serve wine on tap, although unsurprisingly this tends to be the more basic stuff.
One top London hotel is planning a series of ‘Meet the Winemaker’ dinner talks, each of which will comprise a presentation by a different winemaker followed by a dinner designed to complement the producer’s wines. Trendy Hoxton outlets are jumping on the green bandwagon with offerings such as European-only organic wines, which appeal to both the carbon footprint and natural living crowds – killing two birds with one bottle.
A growing trend is the number of establishments which are – infuriatingly, from the perspective of independent wine companies – signing up to exclusivity agreements with major drinks suppliers. The thinking is that locking in prices for a foreseeable period gives cash flow stability. Such agreements tie bars and restaurants in for anything from a year to three years – a long time in what can be a fast-moving market. Where cutting down on paperwork is all-important, small specialist suppliers will by definition be disadvantaged against the Matthew Clarkes and Waverley TBSs of the world who can offer a one-stop shop for wines, spirits and beers. The choice for the sommeliers and bar managers is essentially that of an easy life versus an interesting one. If they want to take the hassle-free route of locking themselves in to supplies of ubiquitous, branded wines then fine, but in doing so they may well be missing out on some real gems.
As for what we’re actually filling our glasses with, the consensus is that the wine drinking public is increasing in sophistication at an unprecedented rate. Tom Bird of Corney & Barrow told me “On the private client side we have growing numbers of relatively young customers with a remarkable depth of wine knowledge. A generation ago people would follow their wine merchant’s recommendations almost unthinkingly, whereas today the access to information is so much greater. Websites such as Jancis Robinson’s Purple Pages and eRobertParker mean today’s drinkers tend to be very well-informed”. Furthermore, we are gradually becoming aware of the increasing breadth of wines on offer today and appear to be responding positively. Whereas a decade ago on trade wine lists were fairly predictable affairs (oaked Chardonnay, a reasonably priced claret and so on), today you are just as likely to find great quality Torrontes, Macabeo and Godello.
The challenge for the on trade is to embrace this newfound open-mindedness among drinkers and offer approachable but interesting wine lists. The fact is that bars and restaurants expect to make 70% gross profit on most of their wines. So why would I pay £20 in a restaurant for a bottle of Gallo which my local supermarket sells for £5.99? If I am going to pay the mark-up demanded by the on trade I at least want to feel that I am getting something interesting and different which isn’t available in the offy on the corner.
The London on trade certainly has to tread carefully in the current penny-pinching climate. However, there are no prizes for being stodgy and dull. Pubs, bars and restaurants need to make their wine lists eye-catching and relevant to modern drinkers in order to entice custom away from the supermarket shelves and into their establishments. The evidence points to an increasingly savvy and enthusiastic set of drinkers out there who, given the right impetus, will not be afraid to part with good money in the cause of wine. The on trade needs to get the basics right with solid house wines which hit a price point (£13-14 is standard these days), backed up by a mixture of by-the-glass crowd pleasers (Pinot Grigio, if you must) and more exciting and unusual labels to spark some curiosity. If they get all this right there is no reason, from a wine perspective at least, why this Christmas shouldn’t be both merry and profitable.
Monday, 1 September 2008
September Already
Well, goodbye summer (such that it was). The first of September brings with it the promise of showers, scattered and not-so-scattered. Having just returned from sunny Spain, the arrival of the UK autumn is especially brusque. For those in the UK on-trade it does, however, herald a seasonal reappraisal of wine lists. For a few brief weeks, habitually stony-faced sommeliers and bar managers may actually deign to talk to wine companies, opening the door just enough for us to try to jam a foot in.
The process of getting wines onto a restaurant or bar wine list is excruciatingly slow at the best of times and can take anything from several weeks to several years. The times of year when people will look at their wine list generally fall into the pre-winter and pre-summer slots, but the exact timings vary from venue to venue and are influenced by a seemingly infinite number of variables such as holidays (frequent) and changes of management (sometimes even more frequent). Needless to say, missing out on a semi-annual tasting will set you back another 6 or 12 months in the process.
Annoyingly, more and more establishments are also signing up to exclusivity agreements with major drinks suppliers in the belief that locking in prices for a foreseeable period makes business sense. Cutting down on paperwork seems to be all-important to some on-trade customers, meaning a small specialist supplier is disadvantaged against the drinks behemoths who can offer a one-stop shop for wines, spirits and beers. Sommeliers and bar managers have to decide whether they want an easy life or an interesting one. If they want to take the hassle-free route of locking themselves in to supplies of branded, ubiquitous wines then fine, but in doing so they are likely to be missing out on some innovative, interesting wine - not to mention, as I keep telling them, some great bargains!
The process of getting wines onto a restaurant or bar wine list is excruciatingly slow at the best of times and can take anything from several weeks to several years. The times of year when people will look at their wine list generally fall into the pre-winter and pre-summer slots, but the exact timings vary from venue to venue and are influenced by a seemingly infinite number of variables such as holidays (frequent) and changes of management (sometimes even more frequent). Needless to say, missing out on a semi-annual tasting will set you back another 6 or 12 months in the process.
Annoyingly, more and more establishments are also signing up to exclusivity agreements with major drinks suppliers in the belief that locking in prices for a foreseeable period makes business sense. Cutting down on paperwork seems to be all-important to some on-trade customers, meaning a small specialist supplier is disadvantaged against the drinks behemoths who can offer a one-stop shop for wines, spirits and beers. Sommeliers and bar managers have to decide whether they want an easy life or an interesting one. If they want to take the hassle-free route of locking themselves in to supplies of branded, ubiquitous wines then fine, but in doing so they are likely to be missing out on some innovative, interesting wine - not to mention, as I keep telling them, some great bargains!
Tuesday, 19 August 2008
April Frost Decimates Bordeaux Harvests
The frost on 5 April has wiped out 60-70% of the whites in the Pessac-Leognan area of Bordeaux, according to James Ryland, sales director for Andre Lurton wines, one of the large producers in the area.May was also the second wettest on record since 1946 in Bordeaux, meaning producers all over the region have been contending with high levels of mildew. Lussac St-Emilion was hit hard by hail in June, totally ruining the vines in one of Chateau Barbe Blanche's vineyards.
Despite this doom and gloom, the 2008 vintage has not been written off yet. July and August have had good amounts of sun and by delaying the harvest until as late as early October, producers still hope to salvage a good crop. Indeed, the story is not dissimilar to the 2007 Bordeaux vintage, which was saved from a similarly inauspicious beginning by the combination of an Indian summer in September and late harvesting. Ryland claims that Andre Lurton's remaining unscathed grapes are of "exceptional" quality. Time will tell.
Monday, 18 August 2008
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 Steiner4. 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
Friday, 15 August 2008
Dollar Exchange Rate Gloom for New World Wine?
Just a quick thought on the implications of recent falls in sterling against the dollar (see graph). The situation as against sterling at the beginning of the year was a strong euro and a relatively weak dollar. One of the effects seen by the London on-trade was that, coupled with the additional pinch of April's duty rises, a significant number of bars and restaurants de-listed their French and Spanish house wines in favour of suppliers from the US and other nations who sell in dollars (such as Chile).The dollar hit a 7-month high last Friday, apparently due to a combination of downbeat UK and Eurozone forecasts and falling commodities prices. I don't have an answer to this, but I wonder if a recovering dollar (and relatively weak euro) will by the end of the year prompt a switch back to old world house wines. And if so, if that will be an early indicator of tough times ahead for New World dollar-driven exports into Europe.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)