Wine Doctor Question: Storing wines under Screwcaps

Q:Do wines sealed with screwcaps still have to be stored on their side or should they be stored upright?

A: Technically you can store your screwcapped wine anyway you like. The reason why wine was traditionally stored on its side or inverted was to keep the cork 'moist' - with the porous cork absorbing a little wine on the contact side, thus expanding the cork volume and allowing for a more airtight seal.

Screwcapped bottles don't require this and so can be stored in any position. A word of warning though, be careful when handling screwcapped bottles and avoid stacking them too high - they may look sturdy, but a well placed knock on the side or top can dent the cap and break the perfect seal! (It's happened at Winemakers Choice HQ only recently - I dropped a bottle and dinged it, thought nothing of it, then opened it a couple of weeks later and the wine was oxidised).

What we've been drinking

Luigi Bosca La Linda Malbec 2006
From a vineyard 15km South of Mendoza in the heart of Argentinian Malbec country. This has a nice purple maroon colour, the nose shows wild berries and spice with hints of licorice & some meaty overtones. On the palate it is meaty, spicy with some vanillan oak influences in a medium weight style. Its an interesting wine for a Summer BBQ.

Wine Doctor Question: What is Dosage?

Q: What is dosage in Champagne/Sparkling Wine?

A: Dosage in a sparkling wine refers to the liquid that is added to a bubbly before bottling - A small amount of liquid is lost during the final steps of the sparkling wine production process and the dosage serves as the top up liquid. In French this addition is called the liqueur d'expédition and, in traditional method wines, usually comprises a mixture of wine and sugar syrup. Dosage thus determines the sweetness, or residual sugar, of the finished wine and is thus used as a finishing touch to ruond out the palate.

Champagne is naturally so high in acidity that even wines with relatively high residual sugar can taste bone dry. Bottle age or extended autolysis are excellent substitutes for dosage, however, and, in general, the older the wine, the lower the necessary dosage to produce a balanced wine, and vice versa. Some champagnes are made with no, or zero, dosage in an attempt to showcase the skill of the winemaker and the clarity of the fruit.

Nearly all sparkling wines will have some sore of dosage added to them, depending on what sort of style is desired - more commercial, softer, early drinking styles usually require a higher dosage than super fine French Champagnes, however it is often surprising how much dosage even the finest bubblies receive - a judicious hand is required to come up with the perfect balance of sweetness.

What we've been drinking

Yalumba Y Sauvignon Blanc 2008
Sauvignon Blanc has recently overtaken Chardonnay as Australia's white wine of choice and with bargains like this available its not hard to see why - available for under $10 around the place, this light, crisp and very well made Savvy couples the Herbaceous early picked Sauvignon Blanc aromatics with some riper notes of passionfruit & melon. The dry palate closely follows this, with the acidity closely matched by a dollop of residual sugar.

Impeccably well made, this reminds us once again that the our medium sized, family owned wine companies (Yalumba, Brown Brothers, De Bortoli, Mcwilliams, Tyrrells, Angoves etc) make Australia's best value wines.

Redbank Emily Brut NV
These days the Redbank label is also owned by Yalumba, with the Robb family selling the Redbank label to them some years back (even though, confusingly, the family retained the Redbank winery, which is still called the Redbank winery, yet make wines under their own label).

A light green colour, this soft and slightly sherbety sparkling white has clear lemon, pink grapefruit & candied lime fruit with a tinge of creamy softness. Light & simple this very easy drinking quaffer is only let down by some excessive sweetness, leaving a mildly confected finish. Still, its a good quality sparkles that would be perfect at a Summer picnic.

More good news

An interesting article about a Sydney doctor who has prescribed wine!

Wine - Just what the doctor ordered

What we've been drinking

Majella Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2001
A previous winner of the Stoddart trophy (best 1 yr old red at the Brisbane wine show) and always an entertaining drink, this is quite classic Coonawarra Cabernet, if drying out a little now. Cedar, blackcurrant and blackberries on the very Cabernetish nose, the palate is a touch angular with very dry tannins and an element of toughness. It probably needs a few more years in the bottle to settle down or some red meat to control the tannins.

Benfield & Delamere Red Blend 2005
One of the few Cabernet blends to come out of Martinborough, this is one outstanding leafy red - a leafy, dusty blackberry & spice nose with some herbaceousness to remind how cool a climate this comes from. The palate is light to medium bodied dry and refreshing, with natural acidity making for a very taut and long palate. The beauty here is the pristine, leafy blackberry fruit characters that make for a beautifully elegant dry red. Very much modelled on Bordeaux, this is excellent stuff (and impossible to find in Australia).

What we've been drinking

Barwang Cafe Series Pinot Chardonnay NV
Whilst the winery is listed as being from the Hilltops, the fruit could really come from anywhere for this bubbly. But we aren't bitching, for what's in the bottle is top class - a crisp, fruit driven yet classically dry base wine, with some nutty yeasty overtones indicating that whoever put this together knew a thing or two about what makes a good sparkling. Top stuff, at a very realistic price. (Disclosure - we have this on special at the moment!)

Pierro Chardonnay 2006
Such an impressive Chardonnay. The positively chilly 2006 vintage brought us this classic Pierro Chardonnay, with overt toasty oak and malo mixing with dense, beautifully textured powerful grapefruit fruit. Its definitely not a subtle wine, but it is a superb Aussie Chardonnay. Still available if you search for it.

What we've been drinking

Charles Cimicky Reserve Barossa Shiraz 1998
A big, full bodied red in its youth, age has mellowed this somewhat into a more rounded red fruit style & chocolate style. Drinking at its peak now, but with time on its side, its a nice aged Barossan Shiraz but without hitting the absolute high notes.

Jim Barry Armagh Shiraz 1998
This also was a monster in its youth and is still incredibly intense even now. The nose carries the trademark super ripe Armagh nose of raisins, turkish delight and roasted meat with a sumptuously rich and sweet fruited palate. This is probably drinking at its peak, for there is a creep of mushroomy development that takes over this wine pretty quickly (though the cork was very soft in this). Drink up (good bottles are probably still going strong).

Global Wine Trends - Our shores and beyond

We came across a stat recently that paints an interesting picture for Australian wine:

'According to the ABS, the volume of Australian wine imports increased by 40.7% in the past year to 34.2ML in 2006-07 and the value increased by 45.3% to A$307 million. Imports accounted for 7.1% of all domestic sales in 2006-07' Winebiz.com.au

Spearheaded by New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and French Champagne, it looks like imported wine is 'so hot right now'. So, to follow the trend, lets look at some global wine varieties, styles and buzz words that are currently fashionable.

Firstly Natural Wine - a buzz word with murky, though this term is generally accepted to be European in nature (with most of the 'natural wines' largely French). At the heart of 'natural wine' is a set of winemaking principles, including:

• Hand-picked, organically or biodynamically grown grapes.
• Low-yielding vineyards.
• No added sugars, no foreign yeasts.
• No fining or filtration.
• No adjustments for acidity.
• No other additives for mouth-feel, colour, etc.
• No micro-oxygenation or reverse osmosis.
• Little or no added sulphite.

Natural wine in particular has garnered serious attention on Britain, where there are whole sections in wine outlets dedicated to 'natural wines'. The concept itself is admirable, green and morally high brow, however, the controversies on what counts as 'natural' and whats not is a grey area. Like adding sugar, (chaptalizing) which is banned in Australia but de rigeuer in France (even in the best vintages). We might call it an additive, to others its just sugar.

Further, this style of winemaking is labour intensive and prone to the vagaries of nature. The use of minimal filtration and little or no sulphite preservatives can have a detrimental effect on the finished wine, resulting in wines prone to bottle variation, yeast spoilage and off flavours.

'Natural wine' continues to be the wine producers holy grail, but its interpretation is topical to say the least...

Next up we have the return of Riesling. After decades spent languishing behind an image of sickly sweet rubbish (Liebfraumilch anyone?) Riesling is back. According to panel data figures released by AC Nielsen, between January 2006 and January 2008, Riesling sales in the US have grown 98 percent (winebusiness.com). What's more, the majority of interest has been in the drier styles, which happily suits the bone dry style produced in the Clare & Eden Valleys. In the US, the attention has firmly been on the very good off dry (Kabinett to Auslese levels on the European scale) wines of Washington state. In Germany, the strength of the 2007 vintage has seen a renewed interest in the classic wines of Moselle & Pfalz, with the Wachau just over the border in Austria gaining attention with its pristine Rieslings. Even in Italy, not known for its Rieslings, there has been a renewed interest in the grape.

Whilst this is probably a news story that we have heard plenty of times before (how many Riesling renaissances can we have?) its nice to see this great global grape receiving more attention. It might surprise people to know, but at the turn of the century, top Riesling was worth as much as top vintage Bordeaux (for evidence, check out this turn of the century Berry Brothers & Rudd [the UK supermarket chain] pricelist on Jamie Goode's excellent blog).

The next global fad we believe is somewhat the way of the future and that is Grower Champagnes. Traditionally Champagne is produced under a rather strict hierarchy system. The growers grow the grapes & sell through a co-op system, with the grapes themselves often crushed in co-op run pressing houses. The co-ops then on-sell the juice (or grapes) to the large Champagne producers (referred to as 'houses') via a middle man known as a Courtier (who takes a 1% cut by value). The Champagne houses then turn the juice/grapes into bubbly and everyone is happy.

The Challenge is that there are there are 20,024 growers (approximately) in Champagne and only 200 buyers, with the demand comfortably outstripping supply. As a result, yields are left unchecked and the vineyards themselves miss out on the attention they deserve, driving quality down with it.

The revolution then has come at the hands of the best growers, whom have worked out that that the margins are made largely in the hands of the big producers, with growers just another step in the process. Thus, the growers have vertically integrated and taken over all of the production steps - growing, producing and selling all their own products.

The result is the rise of the grower Champagne - now showcasing the vineyard terroir, rather than the Champagne house's winemaking skill. With biodynamics and organic production firmly embraced, the resultant grower Champagnes are almost revolutionary in their quality levels, achieving results found only in the finest ultra premium cuvees, at standard NV bubbly prices.
The trade off? Grower Champagnes are produced in tiny numbers, making them a challenge to acquire at the best of times. Some of the top names include Egly Ouriet, Agrapart, Larmandier & De Sousa, but expect to see many more as this movement gains momentum.

Finally, within a nod to our interconnected, finance savvy age, we have the advent of a very fashionable trend in the wine industry - that of the Virtual Winery. Essentially, a virtual winery is a winery without a winery, often without any vineyards either - the way that they work is to buy grapes off a grower and then have a winemaker to make the wine under contract (or at the minimum, make the wines in someone else's winery). The virtual winery owner can do as little as sit back and sign the bills, or to get fully involved and source their own grapes and have a hands on role in the winemaking process.

Larry Cherubino's glorious Westeran Australian wines (under the Cherubino, The Yard & Ad Hoc labels) are all the output of a virtual winery where Larry sources the grapes and makes the wine in others wineries. Rory Lane's acclaimed 'The Story' Victorian wines are under a similar arrangement, as are Michael & Susan Papps 'Yealand & Papps' Barossan wines.

In all these operations, by taking out the fixed costs associated with traditional bricks and mortar wineries, the resultant wines are often of the highest quality and sold at the most realistic prices. Even larger producer Cheviot Bridge run their business model along these principals too.

Watch to see many more virtual wineries in years to come - judging by the initial operations, its a trend we are bound to see more of.

Pinot Gris vs Pinot Grigio - A one sided affair

Firstly, lets clear up a common misconception. Pinot Gris and Pinot Grigio are one and the same. Both come from the Pinot Gris grape variety, with the difference between the pair relating more to where it was traditionally grown - and the associated stylistic differences - than anything else.

Pinot Gris itself is actually a highly variable mutation of Pinot Noir, with 'Pinot' referring to the pine cone shaped bunches that characterise the 'Pinot' group of varieties. The grapes themselves range from a greyish blue to a brownish pink - often on the same bunch! The varietal name follows this closely; Pinot Gris is French, Pinot Grigio is Italian for 'Grey Pinot' '; Pinot Noir - French for 'Red Pinot' & the little seen, pale, highly aromatic Pinot Blanc - French for 'White Pinot'.

The challenge then is to establish the characteristics of Pinot Gris and Pinot Grigio under this cloud of variability. To do this, we look at both styles in their traditional homelands.
Firstly, Pinot Gris: The traditional home of Pinot Gris is Alsace, located on the border between France & Germany, in an area that has regularly changed hands between France & Germany for generations. In Alsace, Pinot Gris (which is also locally referred to as Tokay) has traditionally been associated with very rich, dry white wines that are known for their palate texture and viscosity. Picked quite late, the wines are relatively high in alcohol, low in aroma and almost Chardonnay like in their palate weight, also retaining great palate acidity, with the best examples capable of ageing for considerable periods (up to a decade). This Pinot Gris style may also undergo some wood ageing and yeast work in the winery, making for a creamier, richer wine again.

In direct contrast with this style is traditional Pinot Grigio. As we found out earlier, Pinot Grigio is the Italian name for Pinot Gris, and in Italy it finds a home in Northern Italy, where the plantings have exploded over the last decade, in line with the worldwide popularity of the style. Most of Italy's Pinot Grigio is produced in the Veneto region, where it is made in a very dry, neutral and crisp style that is more Sauvignon Blanc (without the lifted aromatics) in style than the richer Pinot Gris of France. Early picked, quite low in alcohol and almost boring in its neutrality, the best examples are crisp, understated and refreshing food wines. Renowned wine taster James Halliday describes it best:

"Like painting a picture with white paint (NZ winemaker), or losing a blind tasting against Evian (Robert Joseph, UK wine journalist) are my usual reference points for pinot grigio."

So essentially we have two very different wine interpretations, both coming from the same grape, just treated differently. The challenge in much of the new world (ie outside of Europe) is that the stylistic definition between Pinot Gris and Pinot Grigio is blurred - lean Pinot Gris, rich ripe Pinot Grigio and a lake of watery rubbish in between.

The greatest successes of the variety have largely come from the cooler climate regions of Australia: Yarra Valley, Mornington Peninsula, Adelaide Hills & Tasmania. In New Zealand the variety has found success in Martinborough in the North Island & Marlborough, Central Otago & Canterbury in the South Island. Mostly it is the Pinot Gris (French) style that is favoured (arguably as it is the more interesting of the two), with Pinot Grigio largely relegated to much more commercial level wines.

If ever there was a wine that requires you to read the tasting notes before purchasing, it is Pinot Gris (or is that Grigio)!

Andrew Graham