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

What we've been drinking

Voyager Estate Margaret River Cabernet Merlot 2001
The bottle we tried was a little dried out, but still an excellent example of classic cool climate Cabernet. Leafy, cassis & secondary cedar on the nose, the palate linear, very dry and showing a little meaty developed characters. It's very Bordeaux like in its savoury character & would be fantastic with a lamb rack.

Hoddles Creek 1er Cru Pinot Blanc 2008
Seriously sexy packaging. The bottle is enormous (can't see this fitting into many wine racks) & the label is ornately European. The wine itself is quite European too, with a crystalline honey character to it that is very pure and light. Very dry and pure, this really needs some bottle age to flesh out. Drink with a Thai Noodle salad

Going Organic

Once upon a time, organic products were mostly reserved for the hippie-types. Today, consumers are more eco-savvy and eco-friendly than ever before. Organic products have found its way into the mainstream market. This is great for the wine industry with producers and consumers embracing it on both sides of the supply and demand market.

Organic wine has been around for some time, though till now, has not been taken too seriously. There are varying differences of organically made wine and I will briefly discuss the differences between organic wines, bio-dynamic wines and preservative free/ low preservative wines.

Organic Wines:

Organic viticulture and production practices are designed to work in harmony with nature and the seasons in order for the vineyard to be self-sustainable, not only for upcoming vintages, but for future generations.

Organic wine is available in two forms. The first being, wine produced from organic grapes and the second is wine which not only contains organic grapes, but which is also processed using organic methods. Organic grapes are free of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, weed killers or other synthetic chemicals. Essential natural preservatives like sulphur dioxide are kept to a minimum. (A standard wine may have 400 parts per million or more of sulphur. Most organic wines are limited to125 parts per million or less of sulphur.) In the vineyard, grapes are selectively hand-picked, whilst in the winery; wine is treated gently with minimal handling. Additionally, any winemaking equipment must be washed without the use of any chemicals. Winemakers pay careful attention to minimise the need of cultured yeasts in organic winemaking, as this is reduced by the farming itself, for wild yeasts remain present, not having been eliminated by weed killers or insecticides. Winemakers also practice minimal filtration and fining methods.

Bio-Dynamic Wines:

Bio-Dynamics is a method of organic viticulture that incorporates organic principles and is heavily influenced by the theories of Rudolf Steiner. Bio-dynamic vineyards are designed to be self sufficient. Work on a bio-dynamic vineyard is timed to coincide with the earths natural rhythms ( determined by the position of earth relative to the sun, moon and other planets) throughout the year. Another major element of bio-dynamic farming is the use of natural preparations to nurture and enlivened the soil.

As for organics, no synthetic chemicals of any kind (fertilisers, herbicides, insecticides etc) are used, but in addition, biodynamic preparations are sprayed on soil and vines. These preparations (made from cow manure, silica , and extracts from various pants) encouragenatural biological processes that result in a healthy structured aerobic soil. Healthy soil s form the basis of a balanced ecosystem in which vines can access nutrients in optimal amounts ,allowing them to produceidealfruit and avoiding many pest and disease problems which can occur if nutrients in the soil (and subsequently plant foliage) are out of balance.

In the winery, the bio-dynamic winemaker will also take into account the earths rhythms when carrying out certain winery activities.

Low Preservative / Preservative-Free Wines:
The main difference between organic wines and low preservative / preservative-free wines, the latter is made without sulphur dioxide and former may contain lower amounts than standard wines. Sulphur has also been used as a preservative in winemaking for centuries. To prevent wine spoilage, European winemakers pioneered the use of sulphur dioxide (SO2). Unfortunately, freshly pressed grape juice has a tendency for spoilage due to contamination from bacteria and wild yeasts present on the grape skins. Not only does SO2 inhibit the growth of moulds and bacteria, it stops oxidation and preserves the wine's natural flavour and colour. This is not to say that wines with very little S02 are impervious to oxidation, rather, the shelf life of low preservative / preservative free wines can be comparable to standard wines. The alcohol and tannin present will act as natural preservatives in wine, negating the need for huge amounts of SO2.

Whilst sulphur poses no danger to 99.75% of the population, the affected population are highly allergic with asthmatics, particularly highest at risk. Having said that, many people have little tolerance for sulphur. Even for moderate wine drinkers, the average level of sulphur found in many standard wines can cause side effects. Unpleasant reactions include migraines, hives, cramps and skin flushes. For those affected, preservative free or low preservative wines is a good choice as they contain minimal amounts of sulphur.

Certification:
Though there are seven certification authorities for organic farming in Australia, the vast majority of organic-wine grape growers operate under the Big Three.

Demeter is the oldest certification seal in Australia. It's administered by the Bio-Dynamic Research Institute and only certifies organic produce from biodynamic growers who follow the beliefs of Austrian philosopher/scientist Rudolf Steiner.

The next oldest organisation is the National Association for Sustainable Agriculture Australia Ltd (NASAA), which holds the rights to the "certified organic" label and has strong links with the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service.

Third of the trio is the more recently established Biological Farmers of Australia (BFA), which merged with the Organic Vignerons Association of Australia to get a bigger share in organic wine production. The BFA administers the Australian Certified Organic scheme, which allows the display of its bud logo on certified products.

Organic production should definitely be considered. Whilst it is a matter of personal taste and opinion, organic winemaking increases the final quality of the product, which is what we are all after. Bringing with it many health and environmental benefits as additional positives.

Winemakers Choice now stock a variety of high quality Organic, Bio-Dynamic and Preservative Free wines from Happs, Botobolar, Hardys & More. Why not try them and see the difference. We're sure you will be impressed with the quality on offer.
Check them out here

Why does my wine contain milk products?

This unusual question was posed recently by a customer who was rather surprised to find the following label on the back of her Chardonnay - 'This wine has been produced with aid of milk products and traces may remain' thus leading to the perplexing question of what milk was doing in a bottle of wine.

For the answer to this we can look back to 2002, when the Food Standards Authority (FSANZ) revised the food standard for Australia and New Zealand. Within this revision, wine was more formally recognised as a food, thus subjecting wine to the same (world class) standards of health and safety as 'food products'.

Also in the revision was a change in food labelling, including the advent of the allergen warning - a declaration requiring producers to specify if certain substances have been used as an ingredient, food additive or processing aid and are present in the final product. These substances have been identified as allergens - substances that can cause an adverse allergic reaction in humans. They include:

- Cereals containing gluten and their products
- Crustacea and their products
- Egg and egg products
- Fish and fish products
- Milk and milk products
- Nuts and sesame seeds and their products
- Peanuts and soybeans, and their products
- Added sulphites in concentrations of 10mg/kg or more
- Royal jelly
- Bee pollen
- Propolis

Now wine is a classically natural product (fermented grape juice) with stringent laws on what can be 'added' to wine, yet there are some quite unusual natural products that are used in the production process. Previously, little attention was paid to these products, however the increased awareness of allergens and the increased prevalence of allergies ultimately spurred the food standards authority to introduce the requirement for the allergen warning.

Some products used by winemakers include several foods (listed above) which are recognised as common allergens, including milk, eggs and fish, all of which are used as fining and clarifying agents (leading to brighter, cleaner wines). Egg whites, for example, are sometimes added to red wines to remove astringent tannins. The protein in the egg whites bind to the tannins, which then polymerise and form a deposit in the bottom of the barrel. Before bottling, the wine undergoes a process of racking, whereby the wine is seperated from the solid sediments, leaving the egg white deposit behind in the barrel (thus little, if any, actual egg white actually makes it way into the final wine - particularly after the wine passes through standard filtration).

Some of the other substances used by winemakers include casein, a protein derived from milk (which is used for clarification), or Isinglass, which is derived from fish swim bladders. Some winemakers also add tannin to red wine to give it more 'body' and the tannin can occasionally be derived from chestnuts.

The reality is that most of these products are used largely as production aids and the additions are so minimal, with such low concentration in the final product, that they are viewed as essentially innocuous. A study funded by the Australian government wine & grape research body (GWRDC) found that negligible levels of allergens remain in finished wines, and as yet there has been no medical evidence to support any linkage between wine fined with egg, fish or milk products and allergic reactions.

So next time you spot a wine 'produced with the aid of fish products' think allergies and not seafood
Andrew Graham

What exactly is a 'cool climate wine'

This may sound like a very simple question, but the term 'cool climate' has been overly used in Australia to the point where no one actually knows what constitutes a 'cool climate wine'. In this article we are going to (attempt to) arrive at a conclusion on what's 'cool' and what's not.

For the most logical answer, we went straight to the top - to Australia's peak government wine body, the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation. The AWBC (or these days, Wine Australia) define Australian wine areas (and the subsequent climate classifications) in terms of Geographical Indications (GIs). GIs are the official Australian description for a wine zone, region or sub region - so you can have a Limestone Coast GI (which is a zone and a conglomerate of regions including Padthaway, Coonawarra etc..) or a Frankland River GI (which is a sub region and is small & unique). (The AWBCs list of GIs is here)

As for delineating the cool from the rest, the AWBC then goes on to defines GIs as either cool climate or warm climate. There are only a handful of warm climate GIs - including the Riverland, Murray–Darling, Perricoota, Riverina and Swan Hill - all areas based around our warm, inland, irrigation fed wine regions. The problem then is that any wine producing area outside of these areas can, according to our peak Government body, call themselves 'cool climate'.

As anyone who has spent some time in the Hunter or Swan Valley in January can tell you, the AWBC definition is a long way from accurate & out of step with global expectations on what makes a cool climate wine.

For a better interpretation, we went to the National Cool Climate Wine Show (NCCWS). Held in Bathurst every year, this show is purely devoted to cool climate wines and thus has a clear definition of what constitutes a cool climate wine.

In the NCCWS regulations the definition of 'cool climate' is:

a) Heat Degree days 1600 or less
b) Cool nights in growing season
c) Four distinct seasons
d) Large variation in diurnal temperatures
e) Cool Autumns

Much of this is also quite broad in its definition (How cold is a 'cool night' or a cool autumn - it can get pretty cold in the Hunter in May, yet stifling hot in March). The 'Heat Degree Days' measurement however is a very particular measure of vineyard warmth that is used by grape growers around the world to compare climates.

Heat Degree Days are measured by taking the average temperature per day (°C) minus 10, multiplied by the number of days in the 7 month growing season (Oct to April in the Southern Hemisphere). The base is 10 as vines do not function below 10°C.

To get some perspective, the table below (from Geoff Weaver) shows Heat Degree Days (HDD) of some global wine regions:

Region	HDD
Champagne, France	1131
Burgundy, France	1264
Lenswood, Adelaide Hills, SA	1278
Bordeaux, France	1420
Coonawarra, SA	1437
Napa Valley, California	1499
Barossa Valley, SA	1587
Mclaren Vale, SA	1765
Hunter Valley, NSW	2075
Riverina, NSW	2201

As you can see, the Barossa Valley would scrape in, but with its quite low diurnal temps and warm autumns would be essentially ineligible.

So going by these guidelines and using the HDD measurements, we start to get a clearer picture of where a cool climate wine comes from. I've set the table up below to show a few examples of what are true cool climate GIs, what could be more accurately described as 'moderate' climate GIs and what are warm climate GIs (based upon HDD and climate figures).

Cool	Moderate	Warm
Tasmania	Barossa Valley, SA	Riverland, SA
Eden Valley, SA	Langhorne Creek, SA	Riverina, NSW
Coonawarra, SA	Clare Valley, SA	Hunter Valley, NSW
Orange, NSW	Mudgee, NSW	Swan Valley, WA
Yarra Valley, Vic	Mclaren Vale, SA	Murray Darling, Vic
Great Southern, WA	Rutherglen, Vic	Adelaide Plains, SA
Margaret River, WA	Granite Belt, QLD	Swan Hill, Vic
Canberra District	Goulburn Valley, Vic	Peel, WA
Mornington Peninsula, Vic	Hilltops, NSW	Perricoota, NSW
Adelaide Hills, SA	Bendigo, Vic	Cowra. NSW

This list is by no means definitive - Mclaren Vale, for example could be warm climate but it abuts the Adelaide Hills & thus has considerable variation within the GI. Similarly, Cowra is very warm, with a high HDD, yet has quite cool nights.

So beyond the scope of where cool climate wines come from, what do they taste like?

Cool climate grapes will be subject to less heat during the growing season, with the grapes taking longer to ripen and often achieving significantly lower sugar levels than their warm counterparts. This translates into finished wines that may have lower alcohol levels & higher levels of natural acidity.

Cool climate wines are often thus 'drier' and more 'savoury & elegant' in style. The flip side of course is that the soft, opulent generosity that characterises many Australian wine styles is often absent in cool climate wines, with cool climate wines regularly emphasising wine structure over obvious fruit (which not everyone is attracted to).

The problem also with cool climate vineyards is that they normally yield less than warm ones; are more expensive to maintain and prone to the vagaries of the very cool climate that imbues them with character - Frosts are the enemy of cool climate vineyards.
Following on from this, many varieties need the warmer climates to achieve full ripeness - In the Mornington Peninsula, Cabernet struggles to ripen & even Shiraz can have an element of greenness to it & Tasmania sticks to early ripening Pinot Noir as most other red grapes are challenged to even ripen in all but the warmest vintages.

What ultimately defines cool climate wines however is acidity. Acidity = refreshment. Acidity keeps wines tight and crisp even after decades in the bottle. In warm climate wines, acid is added to the final product to keep it stable and, well, fresh! Acidity is the lovely dryness that comes from cool climate Sauvignon Blanc. Acidity is what makes Orange Chardonnay's that much more taut & pristine.

In short acidity is a crucial ingredient of wine, and the more natural grape acidity (when in balance) the more vibrant the wine can often appear - particularly in white wines. Winemakers love natural acidity - it makes their job easier. Thus winemakers love cool climate wines. Thus we have a preference of quality focused winemakers towards cooler climate wines. Thus we have Australia's finest winemakers making wine in cool climate regions (or 'moderate' regions at the most. There are, naturally, many exceptions).

Ultimately we can conclude that cool climate wines = Premium wines.
Or do they?....

Andrew Graham

I am looking for a wine that will last for 20 years.....

Aren't we all! This is a question that we see pop up very regularly, yet the answer is, in a word, complicated. The problem is not actually about the wine, but about storage: Unlike European homes, most Australian households don't have chilly underground wine cellars (or even basements for that matter) and wine routinely ends up sitting on wine racks in hallways, lounge room and garages.

This is all well and good for wines that will be drunk within the next 18 months, but for longer term cellaring, the average lounge room wine rack is less than perfect. The ideal conditions for cellaring wine include a cool stable temperature (under 16C & the cooler the better, though consistency is just as important), a relatively high level of humidity (60-70% plus) and minimal light and vibration.

The bottles on your typical wine rack then doesn't stand a chance - with temperature variations in particular causing wines to mature much more rapidly than their well cellared brethren, so come the 20 yr mark, your wines will be dead and buried. Even in an airconditioned house the annual temperature can vary by 10C+.

But if you are Batman, for example, and live in a subterranean cave, or at least have access to a decent wine fridge/cellar etc. then there are plenty of wines out there that will comfortably live till their 20th birthday, often at entirely reasonable prices.

The perfect example of this is Hunter Valley Semillon - a vastly underrated style of unwooded dry white that is often not released until it is at least 5yrs old, with the finest examples lasting 30yrs plus. The 2008 vintage in particular will be a stunner for Hunter Valley Semillon, with the ultra cool summer producing intensely flavoured wines that will be extremely long lived. The best include Tyrrells Vat 1, HVD & Belford Semillon's, the Mcwilliams Lovedale and the Brokenwood ILR, with all retailing at release below $50 a bottle.

Whilst we are in the Hunter Valley, the 2007 vintage was particularly kind to Hunter Shiraz producers and the best wines will live for an extremely long time, with the earthy medium bodied Hunter Shiraz style can do capable of cellaring very well indeed. Best wines include the Meerea Park Alexander Munro, Mcwilliams Rosehill Shiraz and Tyrrells Vat 9. 2007 was also a top notch vintage in Margaret River where it produced classic full bodied wines of absolute cellarability - The top Cabernet's of Cullen, Moss Wood and Vasse Felix will be very long lived wines indeed.

From here we move to another underrated wine style - a wine that was once our nations favourite wine related tipple, yet has fallen from favour over the last few decades, even though we make some of the best in the world. I'm talking about Vintage Port: A wine style that can't even call itself Port any more and has suffered with the rise of table wines. The Vintage Port styles of Rutherglen, McLaren Vale & the Barossa, from good vintages, will easily last two decades - the best examples will live for 40 yrs plus!
What's more, because they simply aren't cool any more, the top wines can be picked up for tragically low prices. Look to Château Reynella, Stanton & Killeen & Noon's - all of which again sell below the $50 mark.

Finally, if you can afford the very best, the options are many and varied, with the sky the limit for French Champagne, Italian Super Tuscans or Hill of Grace. The secret is always to go to labels with a track record - choose producers that have a history of producing wines that will cellar and always choose the best vintages. We are spoilt for choice, so if the current vintage of Grange is a crap one, skip it and buy a good bottle of Burgundy instead - Don't be fooled into thinking that Grange is always the best, and be open to ideas from around the globe.

Just don't forget to find your bottle a nice cool dark home and then attempt to keep your hands off it for 20 years!
Andrew Graham

Wine Show Medals - Do they represent the best of the best?

As I sat glued to the television screen last week, revelling in the festival of sport that was the Beijing Olympics, I couldn't help but think about gold medals and wine show awards in the wine industry.

Australia has easily the world's largest and most active wine show circuit, though the results of which are often hardly representative of Australia's finest wines - contrast this to the Olympics, which represent the absolute pinnacle of sporting achievement, with each countries absolute finest athletes on board.

Admittedly there is a big change in scale between a one in four year world event and an annual wine show (that is one of many similar shows) but even the most prestigious international wine competitions, rarely award medals and trophies to a nations finest wines (and definitely not the worlds best). Why is this?

For the answer we need to start with the wine, and notably, the absolute complexity of this peculiar fermented beverage. Wine is one of the most magically complex consumables on the planet - it is accurately described as a 'living thing', changing in flavour, texture, colour and smell over minutes, hours, days and decades.

The challenge then is to award a finite score & arrive at a 'winnner' with this product of seemingly infinite variables. Indeed, Australia's finest wines often take many years to develop and hit their peak drinking and as young wines can be a long way from a 'winner'.

Take Grange for example. There is a mantra in the wine industry, that you should never drink a bottle of Grange that is less than 10 yrs old. Considering that the current release (the 2003 Grange) is only 5 years old (and the fabulous 1998 sold out very quickly) it is simply not practical for Grange to be entered in wine shows when at their peak. Thus no Grange in wine shows!

Beyond this, the challenge lies with the structure of wine shows themselves. Traditionally run by Agricultural Societies, it has been alleged that many wine shows are seen as real money spinners for the respective organisers - with each wine submitted requiring a fee for entry, leading to even the not-for-profit Ag. Societies cottoning onto to a little earnings potential: They all have admin & promotion departments that require funding for survival. This further results in entrant number skyrocketing, with individual panels now regularly required to move through brackets of 100-150 wines without respite (and often before lunch).

Even the most hardened professional can tell you that after Wine 120, many wines can tend to blur into one, so what chance has the Greatest Wine in Australia got if it is Wine 133? Further, if you have a lineup of 150 2 yr old Shiraz, which wine do you think is going to shine through and stick out in your mind? The subtle, elegant & light weight cool climate style or the massive, super sweet and incredibly rich Barossan power house? The biggest, which by default, must be the best!

To further compound the issue, two of the most famous trophies given to Australian wines - the Jimmy Watson & the Stodart - are both judged on one yr old red wines. These 1 yr old reds needn't even be a finished product - they can just be a tricked up barrel sample prepared especially for the one wine show, which will take out the trophy and then get poured back into the 10,00 litre blend!

The result is that Australia's finest wines (particularly those from boutique producers) are rarely submitted to wine shows, with top producers realising that word of mouth (and wine in mouth) will sell the wine, with critics and consumers doing more for a wine's reputation than a gold medal or trophy.

So what, if any, value should we place on a gold medal or trophy win? In essence, it all comes down to the individual show. The smallest wine shows are usually focused on wines from a single region - like the Adelaide Hills or Mudgee wine show. These regional specific shows serve to 'improve the breed' in the classic agricultural mindset, but their absolute focus on regional styles tends to lend itself to more relevant results. For example, the winner of the best Chardonnay at the Margaret River Wine Show will be, by nature, an excellent example of a Margaret River Chardonnay. As a result, if you are looking for regionality, then don't discount the results from the small wine shows.

From here, the next level up is the capital city wine shows - Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne, Sydney etc. At this level things start to get murky, with the aforementioned unfinished wine fiascos, burgeoning classes and occasionally amazing results. A gold medal or trophy at this level usually indicates a good wine, but not necessarily a great wine. Five trophies and 6 gold medals however, is a fair indication that a particular wine has all the attributes that the judges are looking for. Given the quality of judges in Australia, this is a fair indication of a very fine wine indeed (but may never be the greatest).

Finally we come to the exceptions - there are two particular wine shows in Australia who take the quality expectations a further level up - The National Wine Show and The Sydney International Wine Show. At the National Wine Show, wines may only be entered if they have been awarded a medal at a previous wine show - effectively reducing the volume of crap submitted. The trophy winners from the National Wine Show are rightly considerd to be of a very high standard indeed (but still carrying the weaknesses of the wine show system on their shoulders). The other example is the Sydney International Wine Show, the only wine show in Australia where wines are judged with food. Entrant numbers are capped and the judging panel is international in flavour, leading to results that are often quite different in nature to the traditional wine shows - the winners are often much more subtle and skewed towards boutique producers & arguably more interesting wines.

In the end, all show medals, especaily when served in singular doses from capital city wine shows, should be viewed as an indication of a good wine, but not a great one. To find the greatest drinks, look for consistency - a wine that gets rave reviews, show medals and ultimately, most importantly tastes the best to you!
Andrew Graham

Winemaking - Scourge or Saviour (Part 2)

- The final rounds -

In this issue we continue our look at winemaking and the application of technology in the winery, further examining the contrasting notions of 'natural' 'non-interventionist' winemaking vs 'modern' winemaking via an old fashioned death match - Old World vs New World, Man vs Machine, Tradition vs Science in a battle for supremacy. (To understand more about this contest, read the first instalment)

In these final rounds we will see the two opposing sides battle it out on the issues of maturation vessels, filtration & closures, with the 'natural' approach fighting against the big guns of technology.

Round 4 of this fight is all about maturation and the rise of the now ubiquitous stainless steel tank

Traditionally, all wine was matured in oak - white, red, rose everything, all would see the inside of an oak barrel at one time or another, if only for a short period, as this was the main way to store & mature wine. In traditional winemaking, these barrels where usually old as to impart minimal oak flavour on the finished wine and allow the terroir to shine. The barrels themselves also allow a small amount of oxygen to permeate through the staves, with the resultant low level oxidation serving to soften the wine, with the oak barrels also giving structure. The problem is that oak maturation & aromatic intense don't always go hand in hand, with the light, delicate fragrance of wines like Riesling or Gewurtztraminer not benefiting from any oak influence.

In a modern winery, the same maturation can take place in a sterile stainless steel tank - a sealed vessel that has only a very limited ingress of oxygen and can be cleaned to the point of food grade sterility. The wines that are produced in stainless steel tank end up with much more pronounced 'crisper' flavours, no 'off' aromas and often show more 'fresh fruit' characters than those produced using oak barrels, but can conversely lack the complexity & inherent structure.

The introduction of stainless steel as a fermentation, maturation & storage vessel has been a boon for the producers of crisp dry white styles, particularly those who are looking for heightened aromatics and maximum freshness. Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, Clare Valley Riesling & Hunter Valley Semillon may not have scaled the heights of popularity without stainless steel tanks. Stainless steel tanks have also helped preserve the freshness of Unwooded Chardonnay & revitalised Rose, not to mention brighten up many early drinking red wines.

Round 4 Results - Score the win to technology here. Any winery that wants fresh whites, roses or light reds needs a stainless tank simply to compete. Red wine producers need not apply.
Winner: Technology

Round 5 and its smackdown time for technology, with some highly controversial aces up the sleeve to take this round. But the traditions of 'natural' winemaking make a comeback in this round, and the main proponents aren't who you would expect....

We could roughly call this round 'filtration' as these techniques fall under the banner of serving to remove certain elements from a solution, but it goes a little deeper than that.

Traditionally winemakers used (amongst other things) cheese cloth to filter their wines - allowing for the removal of seeds, stems and other residue. Filtration, even in this basic form, has been part of the winemaking process for a considerable time, mainly attempting to remove solids from the final product.

In a modern winery however, filtration has taken on a whole different form, with the wine industry now having to conform to the strictly controlled hygiene & sanity standards found in the food industry, with the expectation of quality product that is implied by these standards. Filtration in a modern winery serves two purposes then - clarification & microbial stabilization. In clarification, larger particles are removed to enhance the appearance of the wine, whilst microbial stabilisation serves to remove yeast & bacterial organisms which, if left in the wine, could lead to spoilage or, at the very worst, re-fermentation (and the odd exploding bottle!)

Clarification is de-reguer for white wines & openly embraced by many more 'traditional' winemakers, allowing for any cloudiness to be effectively removed, often with the use of very natural products (like egg whites or Isinglass - A derivative of fish swim bladders) however it must be noted that most young wines, if left for long enough, may reach the same levels of clarity naturally.

Microbial stabilization though is particularly intensive (and invasive), as it requires a filtration of at least 0.65 micrometers to be effective. The trade off is that at this size, there is considerable chance that colour, tannin & flavour can be removed in the process. Thus modern wineries invest considerable amounts into filtration devices in an attempt to create stable wines that haven't been stripped of their goodies in the process.

Interestingly the main push against filtration of this nature has actually come from a very unlikely source - the beating heart of the new world wine industry: Super premium red winemakers of the Napa Valley in California & the Barossa Valley in Australia. It is these cutting edge 'cult' producers who have picked up on the sentiment that filtration can strip flavours and colours & whom now label their wines as 'unfiltered'. This perhaps serves to instil some 'natural' winemaking credibility to some wines which are very 'modern' in their winemaking approaches (lavish new oak, considerable winemaking influence etc..).

The evolution of filtration though has taken an entirely different tact, with some of the latest technology in the winery rewriting the rules. In this case, it is reverse osmosis and spinning cone column processes: Two very exotic gadgets that use specialise membranes or high tech 'spinners' to separate wine into its various components - water, alcohol, juice etc.., then remove what they don't want before putting the wine back together again.
Some of the ways these technologies have been used is to concentrate grape juices (by removing water) and make more intense wines; to remove excess alcohol (if the grapes got too ripe) or even to remove the flavour and aromas of 'smoke taint' (as experienced in a few bushfire prone Victorian regions over recent vintages).

This ability - to break wine down to a molecular component level is arguably a phenomenal scientific advance, as is argued by the modern winemaker, or is conversely a horrible Frankenstein-like attempt to fiddle with nature, as argued by the 'natural', 'non interventionist' winemaker.

The argument for and against intensive filtration is muddy and complicated - on one hand, there is the desire to produce clean, rich, full flavoured stable wines, on the other there is a desire to produce a wine that is as its maker intends it. What's more is that a small amount of filtration goes a long way... and even the most 'natural' winemaker uses a little.

Round 5 Results - This is a draw, the arguments for both sides are strong and both sides have been known to 'dabble' with the application (or lack of) filtration technology.
Winner: Draw!

Round 6 This final round has been done to death by all and sundry, but we can't have a modern vs traditional winemaking death match without exploring the issue of closures.
A wine closure serves two purposes - as both a containment (keep the wine in) and preservation (keep everything else out) device.

Traditionally, wine bottles were sealed exclusively with cork. sourced solely from Portugal. The cork used in the production of wine corks is actually a product from the bark of the cork tree, with the production of wine corks a rather lengthy process - the tree itself must be a minimum of 25 yrs old for cork production, with the harvested cork requiring 8-12 months of seasoning before it is even considered for use. Cork was used as a closure as it naturally expands to form an air tight closure that both preserves and contains the wine in the bottle.

There are however a few problems with cork. Firstly, the big one: TCA or 2,4,6 - Trichloranisole, a compound that is produced by a reaction between the chlorine used to sterilise natural cork & a mould found in wood products. TCA affects a wine by giving it a mouldy, wet hessian type aroma and flattening the flavours on the palate. This cork taint is generally thought to affect somewhere between 2-5% of all wines sealed with cork seals, although that figure varies wildly according to which source you are quoting.
Another, less recognised problem is what is known as random oxidation - where the cork fails in its job as a preserver, letting oxygen into the wine and prematurely ageing the contents. When you add these two faults together (Random oxidation is estimated to run at between 1-3%) we have a significant problem with cork closures.

The modern winery (and plenty of traditional producers are taking the plunge now too) have comprehensibly embraced alternative closures. The most predominant of these is the screwcap - a screw on, metal cap that is already used in many other adaptations - from Tomato sauce to Vodka bottles. The advantage of a screwcap is that it is a manufactured, consistent preserver and containment device, with none of the possible taints associated with cork.
Another seal that has arisen as a potential premium closure is the glass stopper, which has already been adopted by some German producers as it seems a quite natural addition to 'glass' wine bottles (looks good too).

Perhaps the only major drawback to screwcaps is that they don't 'pop' like corks do, removing some of the romance associated with the popping of corks. But with even some of the top Bordeaux Château's (producing expensive 'old world' wines) confirming that they are trialling screwcaps, it looks like the days of cork are numbered. The only real retort from the cork loving, 'natural' winemakers has been that screwcaps are such an efficient seal, that wine cannot mature in the bottle like cork sealed examples, as there is no natural, minute oxygen ingress (as experienced with corks).

This writer can attest to the redundant nature of this theory, with a recent tasting of two 1998 Richmond Grove Clare Valley Rieslings confirming that wine will mature as steadily under 'screw' as it does under its cork sealed brothers (the screwcapped wine was much 'fresher' too).

Round 6 Results - Consider this: If 3-5% of our milk went off because of a dodgy lid, and there was a more effective lid that was almost a dollar cheaper and worked every time, what would the logical move be?
Winner: Technology
Andrew Graham

For another perspective on this debate, read this excellent article by Ric Einstein
(The Other Red Bigot)

Modern Winemaking - Scourge or Saviour

Following on the heals of our look at the complexities of terroir, in the next two issues we will take a closer look at winemaking & the application of technology in the winery - An area where Australia leads the world, yet also a highly contentious & contradictory issue within the global wine industry, with two very different viewpoints played out on different sides of the world – Traditional (old world European) vs Modern (new world – everywhere else).

On one stereotypical side of this argument you have the ultra traditional, 'non interventionist' style purists who rely on what could be classed as 'archaic' winemaking practises that are absolutely time honoured & 'natural' yet prone to very inconsistent results. Indeed some of the worlds most expensive wines are produced via this method, but also some of the most expensive flops!

The other extreme then is the scientific winemaker who utilises science and technology to produce the wine they want, effectively controlling the chemical & physiological processes involved in wine production to get a much more consistent, if overly homogeneous & 'industrial' result, lacking the soul of the traditional winemaking process, yet making much more consistent wines.

The reality is that most wineries sit somewhere in the middle of this battle, utilising the best of the old and the new world in the quest for vinous glory. What’s more, many old world producers have wholly embraced modern winemaking (just look at the raft of Aussie winemakers plying their trade in Southern France every Aussie winter) and plenty of New World producers who make their wines in a very traditional manner (Like McLaren Vale producer D’Arenberg who foot tread grapes and use century old basket presses).

In many ways, this argument pits man against machine in a grudge match that is the symbolism of our modern era – Art vs Science, Tradition vs Technology. Which way produces the finest wine? We've decided to test this out with an old fashioned ruckus:

Round 1 of this traditional vs modern winemaking fight is set in the vineyard. We will ignore the viticultural (grape growing) side, as this is a whole separate dilemma (see biodynamic & organic wines) and may well influence the result (after all, great wine is made in the vineyard - or is that the winery?)

Traditionally, grapes are picked by hand in whole bunches and remain this way until they get to the winery. This preserves the integrity of the grapes themselves, can enhance the freshness and allow for only top quality, ripe grapes to be picked. Hand picking is though limited by the human element - requiring a large, costly workforce and is largely limited to daylight hours (or whenever pickers can be found). Hand picking is essential when whole bunch fermentation is required (such as in the production of Pinot Noir & fine bottle fermented sparklings).

Conversely, the modern option is machine harvesting - machine harvesting is efficient and effective at harvesting large tracts of vineyards in a very short space of time, day or night. The problem with machine harvesting though is that it is very hard on both the grapes and the vine - with the vine literally beaten of its grapes, increasing the chance of berry splitting (which can lead to oxidation - the enemy of fresh aromatic whites). Machines are also indiscriminate - they will take all the grapes, regardless of their condition and include plenty of nefarious material with it. This can be combated by sorting in the winery, but considering the logistics of machine harvesting are not all that condusive to hand sorting, it rarely happens (especially with large volumes).

Round 1 Result: Handpicking wins for quality, but not efficiency. Machine Harvesting wins for convenience. Handpicking is essential for some varieties, but when it starts to really rain at harvest time, the machine harvesters can be the only way to get your fruit off in a hurry. Many winemakers in Coonawarra still use machine harvesting but they are the exception, as most premium wines are made by hand picking. Winner: Tradition

After an exchange of body blows, we move onto Round 2 & it is fermentation time – Time to convert grape juice into wine:

The traditional fermentation method is largely to let the wine begin fermenting on its own accord – with the naturally occurring yeasts found on grape skins, in the atmosphere or in the vats serving to start fermentation of grape sugars into alcohol 'naturally'. Natural yeast fermentation is thought to give more complexity to finished wines, with yeasts performing unpredictably & hence producing ‘wilder’ more pronounced flavours and less obvious alcohol (as wild yeasts are less efficient at turning sugar into alcohol). It is this unpredictability though which is the major downside of wild yeast fermentation – just one of the ambient yeasts floating around a winery can be working against the winemaker, producing off aromas or not working at all, resulting in a fermentation that dozen’t quite work like it should, leaving a stinky, semi sweet final wine that is largely undrinkable.
Some wineries have naturally occurring yeast strains that are consistent enough to allow them to naturally ferment every year (or their makers know exactly what tricks to use to make them consistent) but it is still regarded as a somewhat risky process.

Contrast this to the modern winemaking method, which involves the use of a cultured yeast in the fermentation process. Cultured yeasts are still all natural products, yet are cultured in a controlled label. They then can be ordered in bulk and added when appropriate (there are even yeast catalogues!). Wineries even cultivate their very own strain of yeast to be used in their wines – leading to similar characters in all the wines of a single maker (good for ‘house style’). The main advantage of cultured yeasts is their consistent results, producing ‘safe’ ferments that are clean and efficient, with nary a off aroma in sight. Cultured yeasts are particularly useful in the production of aromatic white wines – Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling etc.. The main disadvantage is, again, the homogeneity – cultured yeasts provide safe wines that may lack the complexity of their ‘natural’ brothers.

Round 2 Result: Small scale producers will go the natural ferment as they have much less to lose. On a larger scale, natural ferments are seen as an overtly risky 'unclean' proposition. Some large scale producers get around this by separating their wines into 'batches', allowing for individual parcels of grape juice to undergo natural fermentation (so if a batch goes astray there is little worry). Wild yeast ultimately wins for complexity though (and complex wines are uniformly the hgihest quality wines)
Winner: Tradition!
Andrew Graham

Next Issue: The Final Rounds - Winery Gadgets, Filtration & Closures

The Terroir Issue

Whilst Australia holds the claim for some of the oldest vines in the modern world, in the grand scheme of fermented grape juice we are only infants - Our wine history can only be traced back to the early 1820's cuttings of wine pioneer James Busby. In contrast, French wine production can trace its roots back over 2000 yrs to that of the ancient Roman societies, with wine having evolved alongside much of France's modern cultural history.

The result of these disparate histories is that the French have a richer appreciation of wine's complexity, in particular the different factors that can affect the way a wine tastes. The most important (and contentious) of these is known as Terroir (pronounced Tear-WAH) a French term that has no true English translation (which only adds to the aloofness) but is roughly translated as 'a sense of place'.

The premise of this notion is that the geography of a local environment can have an effect on the final product, giving rise to the applied term 'gout de terroir' or 'taste of the earth' - That is, we taste the region, the vineyard & the soil, the grapes (and hence, the wine) are then an expression of the environment in which they are grown.

The reason why this notion is contentious is that terroir is the backbone of French wine law. The Appellation d'origine Controlée (AOC) is the French Wine classification system that (theoretically) groups producers together by their geography, with strict defining laws about where grapes can be grown, when they can be picked, how much each vine can yield, how long the wine is matured for and even how much alcohol the final wine can have!

In this fashion, the principle terroir of each AOC area is preserved, leading to a vinous expression of the local environment, not what grape varieties are produced in that local environment. This is like the control tyre in Formula 1 - by having the drivers all drive on the same tyre, it is the drivers natural ability and driving style that becomes apparent, not what rubber they are driving on.

Theoretically this expression of 'place' is the ultimate goal in wine production. However, whether this actually produces the finest of wines is another point of contention, particularly when applied to the wine producers of the new world (Australia, NZ, America etc).

Penfolds Grange is the perfect example of this, as a blend of grapes (usually Shiraz with a small amount of Cabernet Sauvignon) sourced from vineyards all over South Australia, with the different vineyards and regions utilised changing every year to suit. The finished product is arguably the worlds finest Shiraz, yet terroir plays no part.

For a further example we move to the world epicentre of fine sparkling wine, Champagne, France & Moet's famous super premium Champagne - Dom Perignon: Drunk by James Bond & Jay-Z & purported to be the 'finest wine in the world', yet produced from a large spectrum of vineyards that similarly change every vintage according to demands. It remains as one of the finest Champagnes in the world and is priced accordingly, yet, again, consistency and 'house style' take precedence over individual vineyards or terroir (although it can be argued that the terroir is that of the Champagne region itself).

What can't be denied is that the same grape, grown in different regions will taste differently. (For an excellent investigation of this, check out this video from Campbell Mattinson, author of The Wine Front) Further, the same grape, in the same region, produced in exactly the same way, yet grown on different sides of the same valley can produce wines that tastes differently - A notion that is the very essence of terroir and is definitely not confined purely to the vineyards of France.

Australia may lack the archaic wine history, yet we have the old vines. Our major producers do eskew regional character in the quest for consistency, yet our small to medium sized, (often) family producers can proudly call themselves terroirists. Look at the magnificent Tyrrells single vineyard Semillon's as the perfect examples of celebrating 'a sense of place' - wines produced from vineyards that are bare kilometres apart, that look identical, produced in a near identical manner, yet taste distinctively different, thanks to their varied meso climates and soil profiles.

The key ingredient of terroir then is simple, and completely outside of man made control: That wines from a unique region, subregion or vineyard are incapable of being reproduced outside of that area. That despite all the edifices of modern winemaking, we will never be able to replicate the intricacies of Geography and its 'flavours'

How do they make Champagne Bubbly?

Have you ever stopped and wondered how Champagne gets (and keeps) its bubbles? Most people assume that it is produced by using the same technique as used for making soft drink - An injection of carbon dioxide bubbles into a still wine.

In reality, sparkling wine is traditionally made via three sometimes laborious methods, with a sliding scale of effort suitably matched to the intended final style (and price) - Only very cheap 'passion pop' styled bubblies are produced by the aforementioned carbon dioxide injection. The CO2 injection method is used as it is the simplest & cheapest, but produces large, coarse bubbles that dissipate quickly in the glass.

The second method is known as the 'charmat' or tank method and is most commonly used for the production of fruity sparkling wines where freshness is the key (such as the Italian sparkling Prosecco). This process involves a secondary fermentation that takes place in a pressurised stainless steel tank. The resultant bubbles (called the bead) are smaller and finer than the injection method but nowhere near as constant or long lasting as those bubblies produced using the bottle fermentation method below.

The final method is known as the traditional method (or Methode Champenoise) which French Champagne and most premium sparkling wines are produced by. This lengthy, labour intensive process involves a secondary fermentation in bottle and maturation process that can last up to 10 yrs for some super premium Champagne, producing the highest quality sparkling wines with the finest, most persistent bead.

Step by Step Sparkling Wine Production

1 In the vineyard
As the proverb says, great wine is made in the vineyard: Sparkling wine is no exception. Most grapes used in the production of sparkling wine are picked earlier than their still counterparts (except for sparkling red, but that is a whole other story) with the aim to retain high levels of natural grape acidity and create a refreshing sparkling wine.

If we are creating a traditional French Champagne style sparkling there are only three grape varieties that are used: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay & Pinot Meunier. However sparkling wine can be made from just about anything - From Sauvignon Blanc to Durif to Chambourcin.

Picking for sparkling wine is often done by hand and at night time to minimise oxidation & preserve the inherent crisp freshness. In Champagne this is taken to the next level wit press houses located in amongst the vines to attempt to get the graps in and crushed as soon as possible.

2. Making the Base Wine
Once in the winery the grapes are crushed and fermented like any other still wine with the yeast (natural or added) converting grape sugars into alcohol. Once this still wine is produced it can be blended with different base wines from different vineyards (or different years) to form a master blend - known as a cuvée. At this stage the base wine may simply be injected with carbon dioxide and bottled immediately if a low budget sparkling wine is the aim, or follow on to the steps below for higher quality examples.

3.Secondary Fermentation
After this the base cuvée has a mixture of yeast and sugar added which serves to start a secondary fermentation process - creating bubbles of carbon dioxide, which are gradually integrated into the wine over a period of time (making for smaller, finer & more persistent bubbles). This second ferment can take place in a tank (Charmat method) or will take place in the individual bottle (Traditional method).
With the Charmat method, the sparkling wine is bottled quite quickly (3 weeks to 3 months) after this secondary fermentation to aid in freshness (albeit with less bottle pressure and less persistent bubbles). If we are using the traditional method the bottle is then sealed with a crown seal and sent off for maturation on lees.

4.Ageing on Yeast Lees
The next stage in the sparkling production process can take the most time, but is the most crucial in the production of complex, premium bubbly. Once the yeast cells used in the second ferment run out of sugar to feed on, they simply starve and die in the bottle. However, their usefulness does not stop there, with the wine drawing more flavour out of the dead yeast cells (known as yeast lees) the longer they are in contact. This process is known as yeast autolysis - a poorly understood chemical process that serves to give top Champagne the lovely bready, creamy, yeast derived flavour that it is renowned for. Ageing on yeast lees is compulsory for French Champagne (15 months minimum) and can last for a decade plus in the finest vintage wines.

5.Riddling
Once the wine has spent its requisite time ageing on its yeast lees, we need to remove the lees from the bottle (or end up with cloudy sparkling). This was traditionally done over a six week period by hand, with the bottles gradually turned from a horizontal position to inverted vertical by human 'riddlers' - using a special wooden riddling rack called a 'pupitre' (Like those in the photo above). These days the task is covered by a 'gyropalette' which looks like a massive wine carton, mechanically inverting the bottles and then vigorously shaking the contents - Forcing the yeast lees down into the neck of the bottle.

6.Disgorgement and bottling
The final step in this complex process is delightfully dramatic. The yeast lees now lie in the top of the bottle and we just have to get them out! This is done by dunking the neck of the bottle in a freezing solution, which freezes the bottle neck and the yeast lees with it. The bottles are then upended & opened, with the lees deposit jettisoned out by the pressure contained in the bottle, taking the form of a flying frozen yeast pellet! The bottle is then topped up with a mixture of wine and sugar syrup known as the 'dosage'. The sweetness of the dosage can vary from nil (in Brut Nature or ZD wines for example) up to about 12g/l, depending upon the desired finished style.

The bottle is finally then sealed with a special sparkling cork (Champagne producers are said to get the best cork in the world) with a wire muselet cage ensuring that the approximately six atmospheres of pressure doesn't force the cork off.

A few of our favourite Champagnes produced using the Traditional Method