2012 a good and bad year

2012 has been a good year for South Australian wines the weather conditions have been perfect for the production of high quality grapes and high quality wine. After successive bad years the Australian wine industry deserves some luck. The good year in Australia has been counter balanced by poor growing conditions in Northern France especially in the Champagne region.

In Champagne the growers have been beset with all sorts of difficulties with late frosts in April and heavy rain for most of late spring and early summer. The poor weather conditions have caused coulure when the vine flowers fail to to set and pollinate properly. Vines are self pollinating plants which need dry and breezy conditions for the pollen to spread properly amongst the vines. The flowers in Champagne did not all pollinate at the same time so the vines fruited at different times which adds to difficulties to tending the fruit and harvesting it. The poor weather conditions also caused millerandage where the fruit fails to develop properly. The cold wet weather did not help the fruiting bodies of the vines.
 To add to all this the vines were afflicted by both powdery mildew and (Oidium) and downy mildew (Peronospera). The treatments applied by the growers were washed off the grapes by the incessant downpours.

The good weather conditions in Australia and poor ones in Champagne cannot just be blamed on luck.
There is no doubt in my mind that man made climate change is altering the weather. This has been predicted by climate scientists who not only use climate models to predict the changes to the climate but who have also researched the climate of the past to make predictions. The greater extremes of weather events and the greater variability of the weather is caused by global warming which has increased the average temperature of the atmosphere and the amount of water vapour in the air. There is more energy in the atmosphere to disrupt normal weather patterns. As we pump more and more carbon  di-oxide  into the atmosphere the likelihood of  us experiencing extreme weather will increase. Some years vine growers will benefit but overall I expect that climate change will create more and more serious problems not just for viticulture but for all forms of agriculture. We are damaging the atmosphere and we shall also damage the quality of our most preferred beverage. How stupid is that?

1996 Mountadam Cabernet Sauvignon

My Australian friends gave me a bottle of Mountadam Cabernet Sauvignon from the Eden valley in South Australia. I saved it for a special occasion and opened it last weekend before some friends arrived. Unfortunately the cork was faulty and it broke in the neck of the bottle. Even though I tried hard, I was unable to extract the cork without leaving substantial pieces in the bottle. I had to open a bottle of red Bordeaux to go with our lunch. I couldn't serve wine with pieces of cork floating in it.

My friend and I did taste the wine it was still excellent after all those years in the bottle with concentrated flavours of blackberries and black fruits. The wine was still going strong and was not on the downward slope.

I sealed the bottle with a rubber cord and vacuum pump. My wife and I will finish off the bottle after I have filtered it. I think a tea strainer might do the trick.

Maybe there is a case for using screw caps but will a wine age as well? Pulling a cork, a natural one, still holds romance for me, especially for wines as good as this one.

Château Cos d'Estournel - 1996

My good friends served this wine with Sunday lunch recently. I am lucky to have such good friends. This was one of the best Bordeaux reds I have ever tasted. 1996 was a very good vintage. Château Cos d'Estournel is located in the commune of Saint-Estèphe which borders onto Pauillac to the south. The Château itself is a magnificent sight. The wine is a second class growth but in no way does it have a second class taste or quality. The 1996 vintage is ready for drinking now; it is highly concentrated wine which is full of fruit with a strong nose and taste of cloves and vanilla. The wine has extremely long length on the palate and the tannins are softening and ripening. Even so, this wine could easily be kept ten years longer.

My wife and I tasted it blind and I guessed that it was from either Pauillac or St Julien but I was not surprised when I was shown the bottle. This was not a bad guess as I have not drunk a lot of wine from Saint-Estèphe. How anyone could narrow the commune down further I do not know?  But, you would have had to have drunk or tasted an awful lot of wine from the area. I was able to tell that it was exceptionally good wine from my training.

I looked up the prices of the wine on the web: a bottle of the 1996 vintage will cost you around £110.
Compare that to a bottle of 1996 Château Latour (Grand Vin) which is about 5 times the price. Château Latour is a brand name which is more highly prized by investors but from a drinkers point of view it is not worth the extra premium.

The price of Château Cos d'Estournel is also inflated by the fact that it is on investors' lists. However, if you want to have a taste of the high life and want to spoil yourself for a special occasion then it is worth the price. It is red wine heaven on earth.

Lucien Jacob 2008 Gevrey –Chambertin “En Songe” AOC.

I reviewed this wine on the 26th of March 2011 and wrote in my tasting note that it would improve with bottle age. See my blog of that date. Luckily my prediction turned out to be right; over the last 15 months this wine has improved considerably and the cherry flavour typical of Burgundy reds is really starting to reveal itself. The tannins are softening and this wine is starting to become elegant. A good English friend who is a connoisseur of Burgundy  agreed with me that this was a superb wine when we sampled it last March so I am glad to be in good company.

We drank this wine with some French family and friends, one of whom was a connoisseur of Burgundy, and her eyes lit up when she saw the label. She was not disappointed, the wine went down well with a free range chicken. Isn't great when your opinions are confirmed by experts from both sides of "La Manche"? Just like all good Burgundy, the wine also went well with cheese. We tried some Red Leicester from the village of Long Clawson in the county of, yes you have guessed it, Leicestershire. The Long Clawson dairy also makes some delicious Stilton. The village is well worth a visit if only to sample the cheese.

Lucien Jacob 2008 Gevrey-Chambertin “En Songe” should improve in the bottle for a good many years to come. Buy it, if you can find it, but be prepared to pay more than 10 pounds a bottle.

Torres Gran Coronas 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserva

This is another superb wine from Miguel Torres, of Catalonia, who is one of my favourite producers. This wine is made from Cabernet Sauvignon grapes blended with a small proportion of Tempranillo. The wine is matured in oak. There are hints of vanilla, liquorice and  stone fruits on the nose. The wine is at its peak for drinking both now and over the next four or five years. The nose is reflected strongly on the palate which has a strong and concentrated flavour of blackcurrants with tobacco, vanilla, liquorice and clove. The wine is medium to full body and the softening tannins are well integrated with the acidity. The concentration of flavours and long length indicate that it is a very good quality wine. It matched a superb West Country  roast lamb dish cooked by some French visitors. This wine has its own style which is strongly reminiscent of both Bordeaux red and Rioja red:  this flavour was slightly disconcerting at first but I soon forgot about it when I tucked into the lamb. The wine also went down well with a mixture of French and English cheeses. It competes well with both high quality Bordeaux and Rioja red.

I cannot remember where I bought the wine or how much I paid but it can be bought on the internet for around eleven pounds a bottle. Because of its individual taste, high quality and its ability to age well I rate this as a superb wine. It should not be taken lightly as it is designed to be drunk with a hearty meal. I recommend it highly as  it would be difficult to find a better wine at its price.

Tsantali Organic Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 Halkidiki, Greece

Tsantali Organic Cabernet Sauvignon  is an excellent quality wine from Macedonia in Greece and at £6.80 a bottle from Waitrose supermarket it is very good value for money. This wine has been carefully put together with well integrated tannin and acidity. The wine has a concentrated nose and taste of red fruits with hints of spice and it has long length on the palate. It has all the hallmarks of a good quality wine. I recommend this wine for drinking with lamb or strong cheeses. It was made to go with good food and not for just knocking back at a party on its own. The wine was also made for keeping and I am sure it will develop and improve for a few more years in the cellar. The wine is such good value for money that I am back off to the supermarket to get some more for keeping.

Good Italian Grog

 My wife and I drank a glass or two of this red wine when we dined at  the Valentina Delicatessen in Sevenoaks. I enjoyed  Aglianico di Benevento - Antonini Ceresa 2010 from Campania so much that I bought a bottle for 11 pounds. We tried the wine at home with pasta and bolognaise sauce. It had a concentrated taste of red fruits and spice and went perfectly with the food. I think this is a fine example of Italian wine making at its best. Imagine my surprise when I looked up the prices on the web and found the bottle for 6 pounds. Valentina had marked the wine up by 6 an extra six pounds in their retail outlet. Even so, I still found the wine worth the money. I have drunk plenty of Burgundy which is not as good as this wine but at the same price. I do not feel as if I have been ripped off and I shall go back to the restaurant to enjoy some good Italian food in a convivial atmosphere with some polite waiting staff.

In a recent blog I agreed with Graham Mitchell that you have to pay at least ten pounds for a good bottle of wine at a supermarket. I now have to eat some of my words. This is very good wine  for six pounds a bottle in fact it is exceptional value for money. It is a tribute to the wine buyer for Valentina who has found a excellent wine for the pleasure of his customers.  A wine at such a low cost to him but one which I was are prepared to pay a lot more for. He deserves his mark up.

In general though I think Graham Mitchell's comments still ring true.