Start drinking Furmint
To be sung to the tune of ‘Start Wearing Purple’ by Gogol Bordello:
“Start drinking Furmint drinking Furmint,
Start drinking Furmint for me now,
All your sanity – and wits – they will all vanish, I promise,
It’s just a matter of time.”
My Eastern European geography isn’t great. If you give me a pen, and ask me to draw the borders of Hungary, Austria, Slovenia and Croatia the results will be pretty dodgy.
Fortunately, Furmint, one of the world’s great unsung grape varieties, doesn’t understand these boundaries either. It’s most prevalent in Hungary, but some is found in Slovenia (where it is sometimes called Šipon – pronounced ‘shipon’) and it also occasionally strays over into neighbouring Austria and Croatia (though it changes its name to Zapfner and Moslavac and wears an enormous moustache so as not be recognised).
It’s probably best known as being the principal grape in the sweet Tokaji wines from Hungary. They can be incredible but they tend to sit in my rack untouched for months before I can find the right excuse to open them. The Furmints that I’m most excited about are the dry ones.
It is an unusually versatile grape. The wines can vary in colour from the lighter, leaner, silver-green Furmints of Austria, right through to the deep golden versions from Hungary, with the Slovenian ones sitting somewhere in the middle. The grape is thought to take its name from froment, the French word for wheat, referring the more common golden colour it displays. The typical aromas range from green apple and pear through to more tropical fruits such as mango and pineapple. It works well in a fruity, unoaked style, but it also takes very well to ageing in oak barrels. What all the dry styles have in common is a bright, vibrant acidity running through them, making them buzz with energy.
Furmint is like a white grape supergroup. It’s got it all: the pungent aromatics of Sauvignon Blanc; the richness and oak-friendliness of Chardonnay; the minerality and acidity of Riesling. Somehow it manages to combine all these attributes into one unified whole. Not surprisingly, it is often a pretty intense experience.
Eastern Europe is a rather unfashionable part of the world when it comes to wine. Experiments with Bulgarian, Romanian and Hungarian supermarket ranges in the past have left some of us a bit wary. But Eastern Europe has come on in leaps and bounds over the past decade, and some hugely exciting wines are now being produced in Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia. Many of them, including some of the wines below, are still fantastically good value.
When it comes to food, fish, white meats and spicy dishes tend to the best bet, but since so many different types of dry Furmint are produced it’s hard to generalise. As a rule of thumb, Austrian Furmint tends to work better with relatively light, fresh cooking such as simply prepared fish or salads. Slovenian Furmints can handle a bit more intensity of flavour, working well with chicken and ham in cream sauces as well as richer fish dishes. More powerful flavours like roast pork or chicken would match better with Hungarian examples. The age of the wine also plays a part – fresh, herbal dishes pair better with younger wines, and rich, buttery dishes work well with slightly older ones, particularly those matured in oak.
When it comes to ageing, most are best drunk reasonably young, no more than 4 years after harvest on the whole. Better ones can last a bit longer, and the very best can age for a decade or even longer, building in complexity and taking on more honey, spice, barley sugar and cooking apple flavours as they develop. The best of the sweet versions can last for 50 years plus.
Though it tends to be grown in lesser known corners of the wine world, this is surely one of the most versatile white grapes on the planet. I’ve even tried some good sparkling versions. It’s got everything you could desire in a grape, being a rare combination of powerful aromatics, minerality, richness and body. It deserves to be held in the same esteem as better known varieties such as Pinot Gris, Chenin Blanc and Grüner Veltliner. So if you haven’t discovered it yet – start drinking Furmint.
Some 100% Furmint wines that are (almost all) available in the UK
Austria
Günter Triebaumer Furmint 2010
100% Furmint from Burgenland, Austria (12.5% ABV)
£12.60 from Nick Dobson Wines
Very pale green with some little silver hints. Not much on the nose to begin with, a bit of pear, a touch herbal, maybe even some seaweed. Lean, and fresh like a just-ripe green apple. Medium length, with zingy acidity and a keen minerality. 88 points, fair value.
Heidi Schroeck Furmint 2009
100% Furmint from Burgenland, Austria (13.5% ABV)
£19.20 from Nick Dobson Wines
Pale yellow/green with silver hints again. Green apple, but with a pleasing vegetal hint. More apple and kiwi in the mouth. Fresh, with a silky texture and mineral finish. More concentration and length than the Triebaumber. 89 points, just about fair value.
Slovenia
Dveri Pax Šipon 2009
100% Furmint from Podravje, Slovenia (13.5% ABV)
£10.75 from The Daily Drinker
Fresh, tangy limes. Quite full-bodied, soft and smooth in the mouth. Fresh, grippy and intense. Balanced and very long. 90 points, good value.
Verus Vineyards Furmint 2010
100% Furmint from Podravje, Slovenia (12% ABV)
£11.50 from Astrum Wine Cellars
Exciting nose with lots to entertain – peach fruitiness, smoky and herbal. Full-bodied, with more peach and nectarine in the mouth. Spicy too, with a little touch of tannin and streak of minerality holding it all in check. Well balanced, very long, compelling. 92 points, very good value.
Gomila ‘Exceptional’ Furmint 2011
100% Furmint grape from Podravje, Slovenia
£11.99 from Wine Unfurled
Bright lemon in colour, this has a heady aroma of lemon, kumquat and banana with a hint of spice. Very clean, defined flavours. Intensely concentrated, with more citrussy acidity in the mouth, a tiny touch of tannin and a mineral edge. Medium to full-bodied, this is intense, long, modern, and very impressive. 91 points, very good value.
Jeruzalem Ormož Arhiva Šipon 1993
100% Furmint from Podravje, Slovenia (11% ABV)
Around €12, not available in the UK
Smelt faintly of natural gas and swimming pools on opening. Then started to take on some honeyed aromas and preserved lemons. Medium dry yet lean with good balanced acidity. Only light to medium-bodied, but complex flavours of pineapple and lemon in the mouth, with impressions of varnish or beeswax after swallowing. Still fresh. Very drinkable and very interesting. 92 points, very good value.
Hungary
Tornai Nagy-Somlói Furmint 2008
100% Furmint from Somlo, Western Hungary (12.5% ABV)
£9.41 from Astrum Wine Cellars
Smelt distinctly of corned beef when we opened it! But don’t let this put you off, it soon blew away and it took on some lemon and lime smells with a touch of rubber. Fruity, but dry and lean in the mouth, with flavours of lemon and unripe apple. Full-bodied, with firm acidity. 87 points, fair value.
Kerkaborum Vörcsöki Furmint 2008
100% Furmint from Zala, Hungary (near border with Slovenia) (13.5% ABV)
£10.00 from Pannon Wines
Medium gold in colour, with developed aromas of honey, mango, herbs and nuts. Smells like it’s going to be a bit sweet, but tastes dry. Tangy acidity, with a smoky, toasty, oaky finish. Getting a bit old now, but still enjoyable. 87 points, fair value.
Royal Tokaji Furmint 2009
100% Furmint from Tokaji, Hungary (14% ABV)
£10.95 from Jeroboams
Deep, spicy, flinty nose, with some oak aromas. Full, soft, full-bodied with intense concentration of flavour. Dry, modern, well made. Lovely acidity and minerality, bright and intense like a jewel. High but balanced alcohol, and very long. 91 points, very good value.
Oremus Mandolas Tokaji Furmint 2009
100% Furmint from Tokaji, Hungary (14% ABV)
£14.50 from Green & Blue
Intense nose of peach, lemon, lime and markedly oaky. Dry, full-bodied and spicy, a touch boozy, but with firm acidity. Modern, powerful, and intense. Creamy texture, and coconut flavours become more apparent while drinking, and some banana, sweet fruit flavours and toffee on the finish. Unashamedly lush, ripe and oaky, overtly hedonistic. 90 points, good value.
Dobogó Tokaji Furmint 2010
100% Furmint from Tokaji, Hungary (13.5% ABV)
£16.00 from Highbury Vintners
Bright gold colour. Spicy and fruity, with lovely nectarine aromas and a touch of mint. In the mouth the flavours are apricot, nectarine and dried mango all underpinned by keen acidity. Full-bodied, very fruity, long and punchy. 91 points, good value.
Szepsy Tokaji Furmint 2008
100% Furmint from Tokaji, Hungary (13% ABV)
£29.00 from Top Selection
Medium gold colour. Complex aromas of mango, honey, vanilla custard and a hint of sweetcorn. Dry and full-bodied, lovely acidity and very well-balanced. Alcohol in check. A very elegant and restrained style compared to some of the more bombastic Furmints on show. A very fine wine, with pure, sweet fruit and dry, refreshing minerality into the long finish. 93 points, fair value.
And one sweeter style pure Furmint to finish off with
Pendits Tokaji Furmint Édes (late harvest) 2007
100% Furmint from Tokaji, Hungary (11.5% ABV)
£10.00 from Pannon Wines (half bottle)
Medium gold in colour. Very naturalistic fruit aromas, mostly orchard fruits, and lots of them: cloudy apple juice and comice pear. Medium sweet, but only just past off-dry, and very well balanced. Slightly spicy oak and Demerara sugar flavours on the long finish. Not that complex but very natural-tasting and a pleasure to drink. 90 points, very good value.
First published on www.timatkin.com.
What the wine trade could learn from natural wines
“Wine’s not my kind of thing… it’s a bit, well, posh.”
“It’s too complicated, I don’t understand all that stuff about tannin.”
“I’ll probably get into it when I’m older.”
I hear similar things all the time when I put on tastings. These perceptions act as major barriers stopping people getting into wine. It’s nothing new; it was the same when I was first exploring wine. Yes, things are improving. But we have a long way to go, and I don’t see enough individuals, companies or professional bodies addressing these issues or even taking them seriously.
There has been much introspection in the wine trade press lately about ‘engaging with consumers’. The opening comments above are people clearly telling us what they want – something down to earth, easy to understand, and relevant to a younger audience. No wonder natural wines have made such an impact in such a short time.
Don’t get me wrong, I am no table-thumping advocate of natural wines. I’m not here to discuss their merits or otherwise. My personal feelings are mixed. But the broader wine trade can learn from what this movement has achieved – unintentionally or otherwise. Many of these wines are challenging, difficult, or downright weird; yet they have found a market remarkably easily. Doug Wregg of Les Caves de Pyrène is correct to assert that natural wine is “taking wine out of its traditional niche into something cross-cultural, vibrant and funky… it’s associated with young people.”
Thanks to the increasing interest in food and its provenance in the UK, there is one word that you are hearing more and more in marketing circles: authenticity. In spirits, Sipsmith haven’t been slow to notice. Even in other types of products such as cosmetics, brands such as Liz Earle and Bobbi Brown are accentuating the importance of raw ingredients and the people behind the brand, to great success. Compared to many of the big brands seen in supermarkets, natural wine has authenticity in spades, and people are prepared to pay a premium for it.
Where natural wines are drunk, emphasis on the human element is always present. At Green & Blue the names of natural winemakers are written on the walls. At Terroirs, instead of images of vineyards and chateaux, you see photographs of winemakers. They’re not wearing Hermes ties and Gucci suits; they have beards and holes in their jumpers. They look normal – anything but ‘posh’. They look like they have a story I could relate to; I want to hear it.
The importance of food can’t be underestimated in bringing these wines to a wider audience. It has been the opening of bars and restaurants with the specific intention of showcasing these wines that has been key to their dissemination. More often than not they are run by young people who are passionate about the wines. Isabelle Legeron MW of RAW Fair states “a lot of people come to natural wine from the food perspective… who’ve never really thought about wine, but are coming at it from a fresh food angle”.
Another great benefit of natural wines is their simplicity: organic grapes, hand-picked, no additives, naturally made. The image is of a product that is easy to understand. The emphasis is on enjoying and drinking rather than analysing and collecting. Rather than precision of winemaking and tasting note – low yields, optical sorting tables, the textural finesse of the tannins, the weight on the mid-palate – they are more often sold on the story of the wine.
For what is still a small movement, natural wine has made a huge noise. The whole wine trade seems to be talking about them. There are countless blogs singing their praises. The wine trade has created little in the way of resources for the budding wine lover; blogs are easily found on the internet, and more readily trusted since they speak the language of the reader.
Craft beers are similar in many ways to natural wines. Not just that they are artisanally made alcoholic drinks, but in their brand values: authentic, straightforward, inclusive, down to earth. According to Legeron, natural wine will “always be underground”. I wouldn’t go as far as saying that the natural movement has made wine cool; but it’s certainly helping.
“First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win.” Mahatma Ghandi
Natural wines can be challenging and they are rarely cheap. Nonetheless, they have made remarkable inroads of late, with minimal marketing spend. Like it or not they are here to stay. They established themselves in part through addressing glaring barriers to consumer engagement that have existed largely unaddressed for too long. They have supplied the UK with what local drinkers have been wanting for years.
Original article published in Harpers Wine & Spirit, but this is slightly longer.
St Emilion: Liquid Luxury
St Emilion, in a nutshell: first published in Living France magazine, but this is longer.
For many, the word ‘Bordeaux’ conjures the image of the classic fairytale château in beautiful gardens. But the majority of these are only found in one half of the Bordeaux region: the Left Bank, aka the Médoc. The Right Bank, however, with St Emilion at its heart, has a very different aesthetic.
Here the winemakers steer clear of Gucci suits in favour of jumpers and casual jackets (still by Gucci though: this is Bordeaux after all). Cabernet Sauvignon is the grape of choice on the Left Bank, as it loves its well-drained gravely soils. On the Right Bank they grow more Merlot, as Merlot loves mud; clay to be precise. Wellies are called for in the rolling fields of the Right Bank, which has a more ‘country’ feel.
Merlot grapes produce less tannin than Cabernet Sauvignon, and they make for a soft, lush, fruity wine that is ready to drink a little earlier than its neighbours on the Left Bank. Here, they blend the Merlot with Cabernet Franc, which provides some extra tannin, freshness and fragrance.
The typical flavours you might find in your glass from a traditional St Emilion are plum, blackberry, blackcurrant and a hint of smoke. Modern houses show a richer style, with more cola, vanilla and stewed black fruits. As they mature, they start taking on aromas of autumn leaves, chestnut, game and cigar tobacco; few wines become so complex or compelling.
The town of St Emilion itself is beautiful; grey stone buildings perched on a hilltop overlooking the manicured countryside. The little streets are a pleasure to explore – but walk on past the bottles. Unusually for France, reasonably-priced wine shops are rare here – wait until you’re out of town or at home, they might well be cheaper.
When I say cheaper, I don’t mean cheap. You’ll be hard pushed to find many St Emilions that are worth buying for less than £15 per bottle. If you’re hunting for a bargain, travel a little further out, to the neighbouring sub-regions such as Lussac-St-Emilion, Lalande de Pomerol, Côtes de Castillon and Fronsac. But next time you deserve a treat, the best wines of St Emilion are sumptuous, opulent, and unforgettable.
Some reliable producers:
Château Puy-Blanquet
Just at ‘Grand Cru’ level but usually a reliable buy at the cheaper end (though avoid the 2007).
Château de Fonbel
This estate belongs to Alain Vauthier, who owns Château Ausone, one of the top two estates of the region. Much cheaper than the celebrated Ausone, and often good value.
Clos Fourtet
Understated, subtle and refined, Clos Fourtet is one of the best estates in St Emilion. It crafts stunning wines that are well worth seeking out.
Pierre Mansour: Wine Society Selector
It does not sell Armand de Brignac ‘Ace of Spades’ Champagne, nor does it sponsor the drinks at footballers’ weddings. The Wine Society doesn’t court the ‘glamour’ end of the drinks business. It quietly gets on with what it has been doing for 168 years – sniffing out interesting and authentic wines and supplying them to its members. So it might be surprising to find that one of the wine buyers at this venerable company was resident DJ at seminal house club Checkpoint Charlie in the early 1990s, playing warm-up sets for superstar DJs. I asked Pierre Mansour to bring a selection of his favourite dance tracks to listen to over lunch accompanied by a few of the Society’s latest finds at Duck Soup in Soho, where you can take your own vinyl.
We started off with one of the first records he ever bought: Frankie Knuckles, Your Love, Trax Records, 1987.
Pierre, or DJ Pierre M as he was known back in the day, was lucky enough to get into both wine and music during the late 80s. This was the start of ground-breaking eras for both music and wine, and he experienced both first hand. The birth of popular electronic music at this time provided an infinite new palette of sounds for producers to play with, and it quickly crystallised into an array of original and distinct new styles. For wine, this period saw the coming of age of New World wines. Previously there was little choice for the wine drinker other than the European classics; then, all of a sudden, vibrant new styles from California, Australia and New Zealand started breaking through.
Next up: 808 State, Pacific 707, ZTT, 1989.
Nonetheless, Pierre’s career progression might be unexpected. At first glance, these two jobs couldn’t be more different, which is probably why Pierre usually keeps his part in the 90s clubbing scene to himself. But they are more similar than you might think. Both involve a type of editing: trawling through hundreds of examples of a particular style to compile a selection that you think is special, one that will excite and inspire. Both rely on keen physical senses, and in-depth knowledge of the styles you want to promote. Both are about bringing pleasure to an audience that share your passion.
Underworld, Rez, Junior Boy’s Own, 1993.
Asking him to choose between wine and music, Pierre gives a tortured smile: “Wine is my job, but I couldn’t give up either… life without wine or music, I mean Christ… I couldn’t pick one over the other.” He first got into wine at university. He would often drink a bottle with friends, but occasionally he shared bottles with his dad, who was building up a collection. The quality and complexity of flavour of what he drank at home was a big contrast to the more simple stuff he drank with his mates. It made him realise it was something worth exploring, so he enrolled himself onto a wine course. This led to a part-time holiday job with a Berry Brothers wine shop at Heathrow Airport. This led to a job at a Berry Brothers wine shop at Heathrow Airport. Because of the shop hours, he worked a three days on, three days off shift system, which gave him plenty of time to concentrate on music in between working with wine.
E-Dancer, The Human Bond, KMS Records, 1998.
The rest of the time Pierre was concentrating on music. Though not based in London, the club soon started attracting international DJs thanks to the pristine quality of the sound system. He soon found himself warming up for the likes of Billy Nasty, Terry Francis and Carl Cox, and playing in clubs like Slam in Glasgow, the Ministry of Sound in London, and further afield in France and Amsterdam.
This one is a track written by Pierre and friends: Jefferies Lee, Echo Jazz, Abnormal Records. Also featured on ‘Tyrant: No shoes, no cake’ – a Fabric mix CD compiled by Craig Richards in 2002.
At this point his career could have gone either way, spending half his time working in wine and half in music. After completing the Wine & Spirit Education Trust Diploma he found himself gravitating towards wine, even though the scene was quite stuffy back then. His main motivation? The people. Despite being fun, the music industry had too many big egos to contend with. It’s hard to imagine two more different scenes in 90s Britain: sedate, studious wine tastings in St James’s by day; booming futuristic sounds in warehouses by night. But it was partly thanks to the large-scale parties of the early 90s that these social barriers began to dissolve.
Robot Man, Do Dah Doo (Plastikman’s Acid House remix), Definitive Records, 1994.
Things have moved on a lot since then, and the wine scene has changed as much as the musical landscape. When he was first working in wine, most of the people he met were “ex-public school and the nobility”, but since then wine has opened up to all walks of life: “Wine is trendy – much more than it used to be. Many myths have been removed”. He explains that this is partly thanks to supermarkets making wine more accessible, and partly to the general standard of wine on offer improving. Pierre’s tastes in music have also developed, but remain resolutely electronic.
Burial, Street Halo, Hyperdub, 2011.
To Pierre, the parallels between music and wine are clear. One thing he finds particularly fascinating to explore in both is regionality. He points out that as grape varieties like Chardonnay and Pinot Noir have distinctly recognisable regional styles, so do types of music. House music from London is very different to that produced in Chicago, New York or Paris, and they are immediately recognisable to aficionados. Like the regional differences wine lovers pick up between Sauvignon Blancs from the Loire, California or Marlborough.
The Prodigy, Your Love, XL Recording, 1991.
It’s not surprising that so many music lovers find themselves drawn to wine, and vice-versa. The guys that import XL Records in Australia are wine nuts. Mike D from the Beastie Boys blogs on wine for James Suckling’s website. DJ and label boss Giles Peterson is certainly partial to a nice drop of red. After all, wine, like music, is entertainment; just for the mouth and nose instead of the ears. They are both better shared. Both can be cover a range of styles. And whether you’re into classical, disco, or house; Chardonnay, Syrah or Steen - there’s a style out there to suit everyone’s taste. And it’s thanks to selectors like Pierre that we get to sample the best.
Thanks to Duck Soup in Soho for letting us borrow their downstairs room.
The Wines
Whites
Prince Ştirbey, Tămâioasă Românească Sec, 2010
100% Romanian Muscat grapes from Dragasani, Romania
£9.50 available from The Wine Society
Perfumed, floral and grapefruity. Very clean and fresh. Smells like it is going to taste sweet, but has a dry, clean, perfumed finish. Best Romanian wine I’ve had in a while. 88 points, good value.
Forstmeister Geltz-Zilliken, Riesling Kabinett, 2009
100% Riesling grapes from the Mosel, Germany
£13.25 available from The Wine Society
Mandarin, sweet lime, lemon, and a whiff of white pepper. Medium-bodied, with zingy acidity and a finish like striking a tuning fork. Low alcohol (8% ABV) is a bonus. It reminded us a bit of electro – crystal clean and precisely defined sounds/flavours. We tried listening to some at the same time to see if it improved the flavour of the wine or the sound of the music. Did it make any difference? No, not really. Didn’t matter – great wine anyway. 90 points, good value.
Reds
Cruz de Piedra, Garnacha, 2010
100% Garnacha (Grenache) grapes from Calatayud, Northern Spain
£5.50 available from The Wine Society
Intensely fruity nose, mostly strawberries, with a little hint of cocoa. Simple quaffing stuff but well made. Cheap Garnacha often has too much alcohol or too little acidity – but not this one. “Beaujolais on steroids” Pierre suggested – a pretty accurate summary. 87 points, good value.
Château La Dauphine, 2006
A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot grapes from Fronsac, Bordeaux, France
£17.00 available from The Wine Society
Mellow, rich, stewed dark fruits – 6 years on and it’s showing some age (in a good way). Medium-bodied, with a silky texture and soft tannins. Dry, but with a hint of sweet ripeness to the fruit flavours and a bit of cola from the oak ageing. Smooth, drinkable and a little bit luxurious. 89 points, good value.
Article first published on www.timatkin.com.
Wine Sampling Session: Internet Face Off
If you buy the weekend newspapers you’re bound to see promotions from time to time for cases of wine from mail order or internet wine companies. The discounts are eye-catching: 50%, 60%, 70% off… But the wines they sell are often exclusive to them so you can’t compare prices – and you can’t try before you buy. So how do you know if you should get involved?
I organised a tasting last week for 20 of us – no experts, just normal drinkers – to sample a few wines to see what we thought. I asked four mail order companies – Laithwaite's Wine, Virgin Wines, Naked Wines and Stone, Vine & Sun – each to send in a selection of wines that would give an idea of what they offered. Almost like a trailer, so we could sample some of the highlights to get an idea of whether we wanted to see the bigger picture.
Mail order wine in the UK is big business, and it’s a tangled family tree. Laithwaite's Wine is one of a number of different mail order wine businesses that are owned by parent company Direct Wines. Direct Wines is a family-owned company that was founded in 1969 by Tony Laithwaite, and now owns Laithwaite's Wine, The Sunday Times Wine Club, The Telegraph Wine Service, Avery’s and a number of other international wine clubs. It has an annual turnover in excess of £340m.
It also happens to own Virgin Wines, but this is run as an independent company, so I thought it would be interesting to include them as well, particularly as they are such a recognisable name. When it was bought in 2008 by Direct Wines, the MD, Rowan Gormley, left Virgin Wines – and set up a new company – Naked Wines.
Stone, Vine and Sun is the plucky underdog. Much smaller than the other three companies, it was established in 2002 by Simon Taylor, who was previously a specialist in Victorian paintings for Sotheby’s for 23 years. It doesn’t advertise like the three bigger companies, so it has to rely on word of mouth.
Every company sent in four wines, each one within a different price band: £5.00 - £7.99; £8.00 - £10.99; £11.00 - £14.99; and £15.00 - £18.99. We tasted the wines in each price band together – but the company that sent in each wine wasn’t revealed until the end. That way, we could see without prejudice which supplier, if any, offered wines which were best suited to our individual preferences.
With a total of 16 wines to get through it was a fast and furious sampling session. We rated the wines from 0 and 10, from unspeakably disgusting to lifechangingly awesome. To calibrate our scores, we agreed that a score of 5 equated to an average, forgettable but inoffensive wine. A 6 was decent, but not worth buying; a 7 was a good wine that we would buy if we saw again at that price.
So how did they perform? Part of me was hoping this might be a dramatic David and Goliath tale of the little guy beating the bigger players. But the company that attracted the most number of points for its wines was the new kid in town… Naked Wines.
But there is a caveat: to get the prices that Naked Wines have quoted, you can’t simply buy a case like you can with the other suppliers. You have to be part of their Angel scheme, and commit to putting £20 into your Naked Wines account every month… you can find a more detailed description of how they operate in my previous post.
Here are some stats
Average score per wine across all four companies: 7.22/10
Average score for Naked Wines: 7.44
Average score for Virgin Wines: 7.42
Average score for Stone, Vine & Sun: 7.05
Average score for Laithwaite's Wine: 6.95
So no individual supplier actually performed that badly; in fact, there wasn’t that much in it.
Number of top ranking wines across the four groups:
Naked Wines: 2 - Franck Massard 'Herbis' Verdejo 2011 (£6.99) with 7.19 points and Hacienda Don Hernan Rioja Reserva 2006 (£9.99) with 7.44 points.
Virgin Wines: 2 - The Big Mo' Barossa Valley Shiraz 2009 (£12.99) with 8.69 points and Fromm La Strada Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2010 (£16.99) with 8.31 points.
Stone, Vine & Sun: 0
Laithwaite's Wine: 0
It would seem that Naked Wines performed better at the cheaper end, and Virgin Wines were particularly strong with the more expensive bottles. The Big Mo’ Barossa Valley Shiraz 2009 from Virgin was the highest scoring wine of all, and they also supplied the second favourite – the Fromm La Strada Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2010.
…and number of bottom ranking wines across the four groups:
Naked Wines: 1 - Balthazar of the Barossa Shiraz 2007 (£17.99) with 7.94 points.
Virgin Wines: 1 - Blackfoot Daisy Pinot Grigio South Eastern Australia 2011 (£7.99) with 5.63 points.
Stone, Vine & Sun: 0
Laithwaite's Wine: 2 - Keep Calm and Carignan Vin de France 2010 (£9.99) with 6.31 points and Tony Jordan Margaret River Zinfandel 2010 (£13.99) with 7.00 points.
The Keep Calm and Carignan was marked down by some people due to its label; of the other ‘least favourites’ two were still marked overall at 7 or above, so still a ‘would buy’, but the others in their group were preferred. There were two other wines that scored under 7, both of which were in the cheapest category: they were the Vicien Malbec 2009 from Stone, Vine & Sun with 5.88 points and the Viña Tarapacá Sauvignon Blanc 2011 with 6.44 points from Laithwaite's Wine. This does mean however that two out of four Laithwaite's Wine entries were considered ‘decent but not worth buying’.
Overall, the standard of the wines sent in was pretty good. Almost all of the wines sent in by the bigger three companies (Laithwaite's Wine, Virgin and Naked) were either New World, or New World in style. So lots of crowd-pleasing, correctly-made wines with clean, intense fruit flavours and often a fair lick of oak. Stone, Vine & Sun were rather different and offered three Old World wines, and even their Malbec was surprisingly savoury. Perhaps including wines like these in the tasting was rather like putting on a few art-house or foreign films at the local cinema; a few people really loved them, but their subtlety was often overlooked in favour of the razzmatazz of the big-budget blockbusters.
This was a really fun tasting that gave us all a better idea of what these particular wine suppliers are all about. There are of course dozens of mail order and internet retailers out there, and many have a particular speciality. It’s just a case of finding which ones offer the kind of thing you like. What this tasting couldn’t tell us is what their service is like… the only way to find that out is to try them.
A few things always worth asking before you order from an internet or mail order wine company
- Is there a minimum order?
- Is there a delivery charge?
- What control do I have over delivery days/times/slots?
- Can I get a refund if I don’t like the wine?
Here is how the four companies that we tried out compare:
| Is there a minimum order? | Is there a delivery charge? | When do they deliver? | Refund if you don't like the wine? | Anything else worth knowing? | |
| Virgin Wines | 12 bottles but can be mixed. | Free over £150, otherwise £6.99. | Deliveries in 3 - 5 working days between 7am - 7pm, can't specify a time. Next day before 1pm or on Saturday before 1pm for a £3 surcharge. | Yes | Certain promotions available e.g. 20% off for signing up to regular 3 monthly pre-mixed cases. |
| Stone, Vine & Sun | No | Free if over £250. Otherwise 1-5 bots £8.50; 6-11 bots £6.95; 12 bots £5.50; 13-24 bots £8.50; 25+ bots £10. | Next day delivery if they receive your order before 1pm. Deliveries 9am - 5pm, Monday to Friday, can't state a time. Not on Saturday or Sunday. | Yes | No, simple as that. |
| Laithwaite's Wine | No | £7.99 for 3 working days delivery. | Next day delivery available for £8.99 if they receive your order before 2pm. Includes Saturday but not Sunday. For £9.99 you can specify AM delivery. | Yes | Certain introductory offers available, especially if you sign up to regular cases. |
| Naked Wines | 6 bottles but can be mixed. | Free over £75, otherwise £4.99. | Next day delivery if they receive your order before 5pm. Deliveries 8am - 6pm, Monday to Friday, can't state a time. Can deliver on Saturdays for £6.99 but not Sundays. | Yes | You have to deposit £20 into your Naked Wines account every month; you can spend it (or withdraw it) at any time to get the quoted prices - otherwise they'd be at least 25% more expensive. |
The wines in full
| Suppier | Average score | ||
| £5.00 - 7.99 | |||
| 1 | Blackfoot Daisy Pinot Grigio 2011 (South Eastern Australia) 2011 £7.99 | VIRGIN | 5.63 |
| 2 | Franck Massard 'Herbis' Verdejo 2011 (Rueda, Spain) £6.99 | NAKED | 7.19 |
| 3 | Vina Tarapaca Sauvignon Blanc 2011 (Maipo Valley, Chile) £6.99 | LAITHWAITE'S | 6.44 |
| 4 | Vicien Malbec 2009 (Catamarca, Argentina) £7.95 | SVS | 5.88 |
| £8.00 - 10.99 | |||
| 5 | Hacienda Don Hernan Rioja Reserva 2006 (Rioja, Spain) £9.99 | NAKED | 7.44 |
| 6 | Domaine du Grand Arc Corbières, Reserve Grand Arc 2010 (Languedoc, France) | SVS | 7.13 |
| 7 | Keep Calm and Carignan 2010 (Vin de France) £9.99 | LAITHWAITE'S | 6.31 |
| 8 | Perez Cruz Cabernet Sauvignon Reserva 2008 (Maipo, Chile) £9.99 | VIRGIN | 7.06 |
| £11.00 - 14.99 | |||
| 9 | Domaine Belles Pierres 'Les Clauzes de Jo' 2010 (Languedoc, France) £11.75 | SVS | 7.19 |
| 10 | Small & Small 'Theodore' Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2011 (New Zealand) £11.99 | NAKED | 7.19 |
| 11 | The Big Mo' Barossa Valley Shiraz 2009 (Barossa, Australia) £12.99 | VIRGIN | 8.69 |
| 12 | Tony Jordan Margaret River Zinfandel 2010 (Western Australia) £13.99 | LAITHWAITE'S | 7.00 |
| £15.00 - 18.99 | |||
| 13 | Masson-Blondelet, Pouilly-Fume 'Pierres de Pierre' 2009 (Loire, France) £16.95 | SVS | 8.00 |
| 14 | Fromm La Strada Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2010 (New Zealand) £16.99 | VIRGIN | 8.31 |
| 15 | Domaine Bott Geyl 'Les Elements' Gewurztraminer 2009 (Alsace, France) £17.99 | LAITHWAITE'S | 8.06 |
| 16 | Balthazar of the Barossa Shiraz 2007 (Barossa, Australia) £17.99 | NAKED | 7.94 |
Thanks to Good Taste Food and Drink, the best food and drink shop in Crystal Palace, for letting us use their shop for the tasting. Thanks to Laithwaite's Wine, Virgin Wines, Naked Wines and Stone, Vine & Sun for including their wines in the tasting.
Naked Wines – should you redeem that voucher?
Everyone loves a bargain. And there’s one little offer that keeps catching my eye – a voucher for Naked Wines. Sometimes for £20, sometimes for £30, sometimes for £40 off… or even more. And it’s not just me – every other week I get a text from a friend asking me if they should redeem it.
Naked Wines operate a bit differently to other wine companies. This is one reason, no doubt, they get your attention with a generous discount to attract you to their website, as it takes them a moment or two to explain their offering.
In brief:
- You can buy wine from Naked online like you would with any traditional online wine shop.
- Or you can join their club and buy wine as an ‘Angel’ which gives you certain benefits.
To become an Angel, you have to deposit £20 per month into your Naked Wines account, which you can spend at any time. The benefit to you is that you get cheaper prices, at least 25% off their list prices. This is made possible as Naked can use this large pot of cash, made up of Angels’ deposits, to invest in buying wines at keen prices. One way they do this is by offering free loans to winemakers (which can help them make immediately better wines) in return for preferential rates on the finished product. So the idea is that by crowdsourcing funds for the loans, Naked get better wines for cheaper rates and pass on the saving.
Is it popular? Yes it is. There are currently over 100,000 Angels on their books in the UK, collectively depositing over £2m per month.
The way Naked operates makes for happy winemakers – a number I spoke to were very happy with their relationship with Naked. Many customers see this as an added benefit – a kind of feel-good factor. Additionally, the website supports a busy social network that includes both members and winemakers. Winemakers get feedback about their wines from customers, customers can interact with winemakers and ask them questions, and members can rate and recommend wines to each other. I would imagine that most members would sooner take the advice of the other members they follow rather than count on reviews of the wines like the ones below. In the wine world, when it comes to social, Naked are one of the best.
They currently have 202 wines available to UK customers (they are in the process of launching in the US), from £5.99 per bottle (I’m only quoting their Angel prices here, since the vast majority of their customers buy as Angels). Two-thirds are under £10. Only 10% of the range is over £12. The average spend on a bottle of wine at Naked is £7.00 (more than £2 above the UK average). Most of what they sell is exclusive to Naked, so it’s not possible to compare their list prices to see how they stack up against other retailers. But from the fifty wines I tasted, whilst their list prices did not, generally speaking, represent good value for money, their Angel prices did offer fair or good value.
In terms of how they sit in the retail landscape, Naked sits somewhere between supermarkets and independent merchants. Their winemakers are often commercially minded producers who are happy to act upon feedback from Angels. They are often keen to tinker with the blend and iron out any creases to ensure the wine appeals to club members. As a company it is approachable, easy-going, and non-threatening. And, broadly, so are their wines. Words that kept cropping up in my notes were ‘friendly’ and ‘easy drinking’.
Characterful wines by headstrong winemakers are sometimes hard to get your head around, but are more likely to be remembered. In the long run, I often find a wine more impressive when it’s me that has to get used to it, rather than the other way around. But perhaps this is a bit much to ask of a Tuesday night glugger. Naked’s selection is largely everyday drinking stuff, so it’s surely a good thing that they are willing to iron out any perceived flaws for their customers. But if they were my only source of wines, after a while I might soon be craving something with a more forceful character or something a bit more challenging. After all, sometimes it’s the beauty spot that makes the face.
Few wines I tried at their recent London tasting were terribly complex or unusual. But that’s not to say that wines don’t have ‘typicité’ i.e. ‘typicality’ - they do still taste how you expect them to taste for a wine of that variety and region. And, unlike most supermarkets, there were no real stinkers. If you are happy to join up as an Angel, it can be a source of some decent everyday wines at good prices, with an additional element that is too often missing when shopping for wine – fun. So should you redeem that voucher? If it means you could get a case of wines like the ones listed below at Angel prices, go for it.
Some highlights:
Sparkling
Mas Sardana Cava NV
A blend of Xarel-lo and Macabeo grapes from Penedès, Spain
£10.99 list price or £7.99 Angel price available at Naked Wines
Pretty classic apple, pear and citrus fruits. Lovely soft fizz in the mouth, then with intense fresh flavours. Dry (but only just), this is a cracking cava. 89 points, good value at list price/very good value at Angel price.
Whites
Raats Original Chenin Blanc 2011
100% Chenin Blanc grape from Stellenbosch, South Africa
£9.99 list price or £7.49 Angel price available at Naked Wines
Apple and lime fruits on the nose with a hint of honey. Full-bodied, but fresh, and with enough acidity to cut through the rounded texture. Long finish. 89 points, good value at list price/very good value at Angel price.
Klein Riesling ‘S’ Trocken 2011
100% Riesling grape from Pfalz, Germany
£13.99 list price or £10.49 Angel price available at Naked Wines
Attractive satsuma and orange oil on the nose, very inviting. Intensely flavoured, just about dry, with gleaming acidity running into the long finish. 89 points, fair value at list price/good value at Angel price.
Dominic Hentall Saint Véran 2010
100% Chardonnay grape from Burgundy, France
£ unconfirmed list price or £12.49 Angel price available at Naked Wines
Soft, floral nose (orange blossom). Medium to full-bodied feel in the mouth. Oak used with care and precision, little overt oak flavour but with an enjoyable creamy texture and finish. Nicely done. 88 points, good value at Angel price.
Reds
Domaine O’Vineyards Trah Lah Lah 2010
A blend of 65% Merlot and 35% Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from Languedoc, France
£12.99 list price or £7.99 Angel price available at Naked Wines
Dry, but with juicy, ripe fruit. Punchy intensity of black fruit flavour riding on into the quite long finish. Enough acidity to hold it all together. 87 points, not great value at list price/good value at Angel price.
Carlos Rodriguez Rioja Reserva 2007
100% Tempranillo grape from Rioja, Spain
£12.99 list price or £9.49 Angel price available at Naked Wines
“Carlos is in the unique position of being able to buy the best grapes the region has to offer.” Really?? Naked Wines copy aside, this is a pretty classic, savoury style of Rioja with black olive and black fruits. Properly dry, not too oaky and ready to drink now. 88 points, not great value at list price/good value at Angel price.
Benjamin Darnault Organic Saint Chinian 2010
60% Syrah and 40% Grenache grapes from Languedoc, France
£12.99 list price or £9.75 Angel price available at Naked Wines
Intense, lively, spicy nose. Expressive, juicy fruit. Great balance, long flavours and full-bodied. Very drinkable. 89 points, fair value at list price/good value at Angel price.
Raats Family Cabernet Franc 2009
100% Cabernet Franc grape from Stellenbosch, South Africa
£17.99 list price or £13.49 Angel price available at Naked Wines
Leafy blackcurrant, cassis, licorice and cinnamon all rising up from the glass, lots going on. Juicy currant flavours, with a hint of smoke. Full-bodied, with alcohol quite high, but good acidity and a long finish. This is serious stuff. 91 points, fair value at list price/good value at Angel price.
Slovenia: Cracking wines
Driving across Slovenia doesn’t take long. About three hours from one corner to the other; it’s about the size of Wales, or slightly smaller than New Jersey. It’s a picturesque journey – from the palm trees of the western coast, past pine-covered, snow-capped mountains, arriving finally at the rolling hills of the eastern border with Croatia. If you don’t know where in Europe it is exactly, you’d be forgiven; the break up of the former Yugoslav Federation 21 years ago is bound to instil a bit of doubt. It’s here:
… and yes, it does look like a chicken, doesn’t it?
In a nutshell, when it comes to the wines of Slovenia, think of a kind of cross between Germany, Austria and New Zealand. Whites are its strong suit; wines tend to be pure, expressive and aromatic but often punchy and intense in flavour.
There are three main regions, each with their own character and classic styles: Primorje (the coastal area around the Adriatic Sea and the border of Italy – the chicken’s back foot and tail); Posavje (the chicken’s breast) and Podravje (the chicken’s head).
Primorje (the back end of the chicken), although closest to the sea, is best known for its reds. A fair bit of Cabernet and Merlot is grown here, particularly further south, but the most interesting grape is Refošk (pronounced ‘refoshk’ aka Refosco). The Bordeaux blends can be good, but Refošk is certainly hard to ignore. It is made in two different styles; one is like an intense, high-acid Beaujolais, made for early drinking; the other is deep, full-bodied, and matured in oak with medium to long-term ageing in mind. There are some good examples of both, from houses such as Vinakoper, but elsewhere it’s not hard to find some bottles with undrinkably high levels of acidity. Further north towards Italy, there is more emphasis on minerally whites.
In the 70s and 80s, Slovenia used to export a lot of wine, and it was known in particular for cheap, poor quality Laški Rizling (aka Welschriesling) – these days spoken about in the same breath as Liebfraumilch and other crimes. Fortunately, this all occurred while I was still on the orange squash, so I never had the chance to try them. I tasted a couple while I was over there and they were both quite enjoyable – I suspect the winemaking back then was to blame rather than the variety itself. What isn’t OK however is Cviček (‘svitcheck’). It is one of the worst styles of wine I have ever tasted, and it comes from Posavje (the chicken’s breast).
Cviček is very wrong indeed. It comes in many forms, but is usually a pale, pinky-red blend of white and red varieties (mostly Laški Rizling and Blaufränkisch), with low (7.5% - 10%) alcohol, low (sometimes no) tannin and blistering acidity. I tasted a few so you don’t have to: my notes are sprinkled with words like ‘bitter’, ‘thin’ and ‘harsh’. It is still massively popular in Slovenia (over 1m litres a year production, and only 2m total population) but I have no idea why. Perhaps I’m just yet to encounter the amazing ones. By all accounts they do make some good delicate, subtle whites in this region, and these are the ones to explore.
Thankfully next door is Podravje (the chicken’s head) which is better known for fuller, richer (yet still aromatic) whites. They make a fair bit of Laški Rizling, some crisp, flavoursome Sauvignon Blanc and some striking, no-nonsense Šipon (‘shipon’ aka Furmint), along with some Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris and Chardonnay. Their late harvest and fully sweet wines can be world-class.
Most of the wine produced in Slovenia is drunk locally, and much of the small amount that is exported goes to neighbouring Balkan countries. Some of the larger wineries now have enough capacity to make it worthwhile looking further afield to sell their wines, and some ambitious smaller wineries are also keen on reaching a wider audience. This is creating a drive towards better quality, and also increasing experimentation, such as sparkling Furmint. As such, we are starting to see them more and more on shelves in the UK and US. There was a real sense of optimism among the winemakers I met.
Slovenia has one of the oldest winemaking histories in Europe, with evidence of winemaking going back to the 4th century BC, but in many ways it feels like the start of a new era for its wine industry. Currently, in the UK at least, there is little knowledge of Slovenian wine so little demand for it. The wines that do make it this far are being sold on quality and value rather than reputation or brand. If you are a fan of cool-climate wines, they are well worth a try.
Some highlights:
Dveri-Pax Sivi Pinot 2008
100% Sivi Pinot (aka Pinot Gris) from Jarenina, Podravje, Slovenia
£9.80 from The Ox House Wine Company
Golden in colour, this is rich and mature with spicy vanilla flavours over apricot and peach. Full-bodied, with a creamy texture but enough acidity to keep it all in balance. The spicy oak flavours are to the fore, but with good intensity of fruit flavours as well. Medium length. 88 points, good value.
Gomila ‘Exceptional’ Furmint 2011
100% Furmint grape from Ormož, Podravje, Slovenia
£11.99 from Wine Unfurled
Bright lemon in colour, this has a heady aroma of lemon, kumquat and banana with a hint of spice. Very clean, defined flavours. Intensely concentrated, with more citrussy acidity in the mouth, a tiny touch of tannin and a mineral edge. Medium to full-bodied, this is intense, long, modern, and very impressive. 91 points, very good value.
Verus Riesling 2010
100% Riesling grape from Ormož, Podravje, Slovenia
£13.50 from South Downs Cellars
Fresh and vibrant with lots of satsuma and jasmine. Crackling acidity, with lime cordial and more satsuma and mandarin on the palate. Well balanced and long. 90 points, good value.
Many thanks to Cube Communications (who represent p&f wineries) for organising the trip.
How to organise a wine tasting
When you arrange to meet your mates for an evening down the pub, no-one calls it a ‘beer tasting’, do they? Well if a ‘wine tasting’ is done right, it’s pretty much the same as a night in the pub, but with lots of different interesting wines to try instead of the same old lager all night. And with a decent bottle of wine from a shop costing the same as 3 pints in a pub, it needn’t be any more expensive.
The term ‘wine tasting’ has a lot of baggage attached to it. It conjures up an image of unpronounceable Burgundies being sipped by a monocle-wearing bastard and his purse-lipped wife. Anyone got a better term? I prefer ‘wine sampling session’ or ‘wine drinking’; it’s more accurate. Maybe just tell people you’re going to open a bunch of fine wines and they’re invited. Now who wouldn’t like the sound of that?
It's easy:
1. Find a venue
Try to find a friendly local restaurant or pub that will let you bring some bottles with you if you order a bit of food, or maybe for a small charge per bottle. Failing that, do it at home if you have enough room, but you’ll need enough glasses to go around and you’ll have to supply a bit of food or people will get hungry (some decent bread or a few pizzas tends to do the job). Couple of jugs of water would also be a good idea.
2. Invite some friends
If there’s just two or three of you, splitting the cost of a bunch of bottles would be more expensive, and you might end up with a lot of unfinished wines. Don't let it stop you though, you can always finish them off over the next couple of days. Between 6 and 16 people is ideal. More than 16 people or so and a bottle won’t go around everyone.
3. Think of a theme
It can be as simple as a grape variety or winemaking region, but the more creative the better. Either ask everyone to bring a bottle, or, even better, buy an interesting range of bottles yourself and get everyone to chip in. Call an independent wine shop/your local Majestic/Slurp.co.uk etc and ask them for suggestions; get them to email or print out some info on each wine; then organise delivery. Stick any whites, rosés, sparkling or sweet wines in the fridge when they arrive.
4. Tell people what they are drinking
In all likelihood the wines will be new to most people, and they’ll want to know a little bit about what they are drinking. On the night, just taste 2 or 3 at a time, read out a bit of the info that the shop supplied or you found on the internet, then have a break so people can go back to talking about The Voice/Champions League/Prometheus/the person they work with who is a dirty stop out. When you finish the final group of wines maybe get people to vote on their favourite, which ones they liked or didn’t like, or which ones they would buy again. You might want to supply pens and paper so people can write down which ones they liked. But they can always photograph the label with their phones.
Most nights down the pub are fun, but hardly nights to remember; a night round a friend’s house tucking into a selection of fine wines would be. Obviously you can never replace the pub, but getting stuck into a few bottles of decent wine can be just as entertaining, if not more.
If you’ve got any questions, just use the comments box below. Do let me know about any that you put on and how they go. I set up the occasional informal sampling session myself; if you want me to add you to the mailing list, send me an email – mw(at)mattwalls.co.uk. Equally, if you want me to set up and host a special tasting for your friends/family/colleagues, get in touch.
Sherry: Collision Course
Last week I posted a crash course on sherry. Sherry is a relic, a throwback from an earlier age of winemaking. No-one would set out to make a wine in the way that sherry is made; but it is precisely this process that gives it its unique properties. If you value intensity, complexity and length of flavour in a wine, few can match it. And with food, it works better than any other style. So explore it now – while you still can.
Fortunes are made and lost in sherry. It is big business, but one still dominated by proud individuals and families. The three pillars of Andalusian culture are flamenco, bullfighting and sherry. If his or her strengths don’t lie in the physical realm, the patriotic Andalusian can still stake a claim to greatness through the business of sherry. In the 1950s José María Ruiz-Mateos built his Rumasa business empire on it. At its peak, the group is said to have bought three banks. On a single day.
Today it’s more common to make your money elsewhere, and enter the sherry business afterwards. It’s easier to lose a fortune than to make one these days. As smaller bodegas struggle and fold, they are swallowed up by the bigger players. This doesn’t mean business is good for the larger houses. In order to survive, increasingly they are having to diversify. Whether it’s still white wines and Iberico ham (Barbadillo); stud farms and bottling spirits for other firms (Grupo Estevez); or red wines, brandy and energy drinks (Osborne); it seems like every house has other interests that help keep their sherry operation afloat. Osborne’s sherries now account for a mere 5% of its business.
The focus of production is polarised: value can be found most readily in two places. At one end is high volume, low margin wines like Fino, Manzanilla or Cream, and supermarket own-label contracts. At the other end is the more expensive, premium VORS sherries (Very Old Rare Sherry – Amontillados, Olorosos, Palo Cortados and Pedro Ximénez with an average age of at least 30 years). The market for these exceptional wines is very small, but the money made per bottle can make it worthwhile. After all, there are increasing numbers of struggling bodegas willing to sell off a barrel of their prestige wines at rock bottom prices to a more solvent neighbour to pay the bills.
An illustrative contrast is between the bottling line at Grupo Estevez (home to the Real Tesoro, Tio Mateo, Valdespino and Spanish market leading Manzanilla La Guita brands) and Bodegas Tradición (Wine & Spirits Magazine Winery of the Year 2011 who specialises in VORS sherries). Bodegas Tradición bottled 15,000 bottles of sherry in 2011; Grupo Estevez has the capacity to bottle 24,000 bottles an hour. Both are doing well.
More and more small and medium-sized houses are going bust and getting eaten up by their larger neighbours. For us this means that the world of wine becomes smaller, with less variety to explore. The consequences for those employed are far graver. When you visit one of these proud houses, with reputations for excellence, and the people who work there have tears in their eyes, you can’t help but feel for them: "The market has collapsed". Oversupply is a big problem, and it is driving prices down to levels that are problematic for all but the biggest players, or for those who are in it for prestige rather than profit.
Walking around the three sherry towns of the ‘sherry triangle’ – Jerez de la Frontera, El Puerto di Santa Maria and Sanlúcar di Barrameda – they have the faded glory of so many English seaside towns. El Puerto and Sanlúcar are not without their charm, but remind you more of Hastings than Padstow. I asked a director of large sherry house what has kept Sanlúcar’s economy afloat, since sherry’s decline; his answer? “Hashish, probably”. I'm not sure if he was joking. During a visit to another good quality bodega, it was necessary for the guide to turn on the lights and bang on the door to disperse the bats before we entered. We were the only people on site for the duration of our visit. Their wines were excellent. They have gone into administration.
I endured some gentle ribbing during our trip: “The English are pirates. When they couldn’t steal it anymore they came and did it legally.” Some people have long memories. But there’s no denying it; in 1587 Sir Francis Drake mounted a raid on the port of Cadiz and stole ‘2,900 pipes’ of wine (between two and two and a half million bottles). By the late 1700s the English and Spanish had made up, and the British firms of Osborne, Duff Gordon and Garvey were well established – to be joined by a host of other familiar British names that you still see on sherry bottles today (albeit pronounced with a Spanish accent). None of this was mentioned with animosity; quite the opposite in fact: “the history of this wine is a common history" implored one bodega employee, pointing to his maturing barrels "...this is you.”
But it’s not all doom and gloom – at least not for us drinkers. Although this is a terrible time for sherry producers, it is an cold fact that for us there has never been a better time to explore one of the most unusual and rewarding styles of wine on the planet. Total vineyard capacity has reduced by 50% in the past 10 years – the first to be abandoned being the lowest in quality, meaning the quality of fruit is at an all time high. On top of this, ongoing reduction in demand has led to extraordinarily low prices. And just to make it that little bit easier, more and more tapas bars are springing up around the country offering sherry by the glass. In London alone half a dozen or more sherry bars have sprung up over the past few years. And though times are tough for many producers and shippers, there are still a number of them finding ways to spread the message despite limited resources. We’ve never had it so good.
To help our Spanish business partners and to do right by our intrepid ancestors, what is required of the British? To drink more sherry, and introduce it to our friends. Never has a less onerous task deserved a heartier pat on the back. Now is the time to explore this incredible drink.
Some highlights
Barbadillo ‘Solear’ Manzanilla NV
100% Palomino grapes from Jerez, Spain
£6.78 available from Underwood Wine Warehouse
Noticeable yeastiness (brown bread) on the nose after a long 6 years under flor. Medium-bodied, slightly meaty style of Manzanilla. 88 points, good value.
Sanchez Romate Amontillado NV
100% Palomino grapes from Jerez, Spain
£8.95 available from Imbibros
Classic spicy nose, with a touch of burnt corn. Liquorice and roasted nuts on the palate. Long, with a dry, savoury finish. Perhaps just a touch aggressive, but enjoyably punchy. 88 points, good value.
Solera 1842, Oloroso Dulce VOS, NV
100% Palomino grapes from Jerez, Spain
£26.95 available from Lea & Sandeman
A walnutty nose that smells like it’s going to be dry, but then has a hint of sweetness that helps round off the edges. Full-bodied, with tingling acidity and a savoury finish. Very long, and perfectly balanced. 92 points, good value.
Bogegas Tradición, Palo Cortado VORS, NV
100% Palomino grapes from Jerez, Spain
£59.25 available from Raeburn Fine Wines
Soft and fragrant, with aromas of hazelnut, walnut, orange peel, old furniture, leather, dried fruit and caramel; high-toned with a touch of spice. Medium-bodied with a silky texture. Very pure, long and direct. Perfectly balanced, with a rare lightness, delicacy and florality for such an old wine. Profound. 94 points, good value.
Thanks to Bodegas Barbadillo for taking us out for tapas.
See you later Prometheus, here's the trailer to Drink Me!
A couple of weeks ago we filmed a trailer for my new book, Drink Me. The idea behind it is to give people who are considering buying a copy online a quick (three and a half minute) intro into the kind of stuff the book covers and whether it might be what they are looking for. Not so easy to flick through a copy if it's just on a screen, after all.
This is the final edit.
http://vimeo.com/41352257
The book will be available in shops and online from 24th May.
Thanks to Quadrille and Oliver's Island for organising the shoot and inadvertently supplying us all with a cast-iron excuse for some pre-lunch drinking.