We bought several bottles of this wine in an Intermarche supermarket in Troyes. The wine was selected by their oenologue Christophe Coppolani. I can't remember how much we paid for it but it was about 5 Euro a bottle. Christophe did a mighty fine job as he selected a really good wine at a reasonable price.
Saint Chinian is of my of my favourite wines from the Languedoc region of southern France. This wine was produced from Syrah and Grenache grapes which are eminently suitable for the soil and climate of the region.
It went down well with roast chicken but it would equally suit a good steak.
It is a fine example of a standard quality wine at a reasonable price. You could even identify that it came from southern France without looking at the label. This is what I like about French supermarkets: you can always find a wine bargain.
Thursday, 12 April 2018
Thursday, 29 March 2018
Automated Winery
In a previous wine post we have seen how vineyard operations could be almost totally automated so that there is very little intervention needed to get the grapes to the winery. The completely automated vineyard is probably 10 to 20 years off. However, a completely automated winery is a nearer proposition.
The grapes will be transported to the winery in robotic trucks and hoppers. The robots in the vineyard will have only picked grapes which are perfectly ripe.
The basic process for making red wine can be easily automated and the general procedure is described thus.
The grapes will be loaded into crusher and de-stemming machines which will provide crushed grapes ready for pressing to produce grape juice ready for fermentation, but without the stalks and stems to add extra and bitter tannin to the mash.These types of machine have been around for a long time and they use adjustable rollers and beaters to crush and remove the stems. A robot could easily control this process without manual intervention.
The crushed grapes are poured into stainless steel tanks for fermentation under temperature controlled conditions. The winemaker can use natural yeasts to ferment the wines others will use standardised cultured yeast to control the fermentation. Pumping over techniques ensure that the wine must maintains the desired contact with the grape skins to produce the desired colour and tannin content of the wine. In former times workers would have climbed into a wooden vat or fermentation tank to ensure that the skins and grape were well stirred during fermentation. Traditional techniques will be made obsolete by automation.
Some red wines use carbonic maceration techniques where the grapes are very lightly crushed so that the skins are broken up by the actual process of fermentation rather that crushing; this produces lighter wines ready for drinking young.
After fermentation the red wine pomace may be pressed to extract colours and tannins which can be added to the final red wine blend.
With modern techniques it will be no problem to analyse the wine for alcohol, sugar, tannin, acid and pigment content:the fermentation could then be adjusted automatically to obtain the desired result. There will be no need for human intervention. The tasters art can be dispensed with.
Most red wines are subjected to malo-lactic conversion where tart malic acid is converted to softer lactic acid. Malo-lactic conversion can be induced by naturally occurring bacteria but, of course, modern techniques involve the use of cultured bacteria grown for the specific purpose.
After fermentation and malo-lactic conversion the wine is matured in oak barrels for high quality wines . The oak barrels add vanilla and tannin to the newly produced wine to add character. Some standardised and industrially produce wines have vanilla flavour added in the form of oak chips to reduce the the maturation times.
After maturation the red wine is often racked by pouring the wine into new clean barrels to gently aerate the wine and to allow a sediment to fall from the wine.
Most wine is fined using egg white or special clay to remove solids and allow them to fall to the bottom of the vat.
Some wine is filtered to ensure that all solids are removed to improve its the clarity and appearance to the eye. Some high quality wine producers eschew this and this is why wine which has been left to mature in the bottle will throw a light sediment.
After fining and filtration the wine is bottled with hydrogen sulphide to prevent oxygen damaging the wine.
There is no reason why the whole process cannot be automated completely. The wines could be crated up and shipped to a wine merchant to anywhere in the world using drone ships and lorries.
White wines can be processed in a similar way and even Champagne operations which use a second fermentation in the bottle can be completely automated.
High quality wines will only ever be produced with humans being part of the tasting and adjustment process in the actual vineyards and winery and you will still have to mature them in a cellar before drinking. High quality wine will become more and more expensive so enjoy your Montrachet and Bourgogne Rouge Grand Cru now.
Soon, you will be able to enjoy a TV meal of steak and chips with a bottle of Shiraz flown to your doorstep by a drone. The wine will only get near a human being when you open it. The chips will also be automatically produced. The beef cattle will never have been patted on the backside by a farmer. Very few people will ever experience the exquisite taste of a high quality wine which has a delicious and unique taste of its own. Most wine will become industrialised and homogenised plonk, which will be used to wash down homogenised food delivered to your door by a drone with a programmed grin on its face. Welcome to the future of wine.
The grapes will be transported to the winery in robotic trucks and hoppers. The robots in the vineyard will have only picked grapes which are perfectly ripe.
The basic process for making red wine can be easily automated and the general procedure is described thus.
The grapes will be loaded into crusher and de-stemming machines which will provide crushed grapes ready for pressing to produce grape juice ready for fermentation, but without the stalks and stems to add extra and bitter tannin to the mash.These types of machine have been around for a long time and they use adjustable rollers and beaters to crush and remove the stems. A robot could easily control this process without manual intervention.
The crushed grapes are poured into stainless steel tanks for fermentation under temperature controlled conditions. The winemaker can use natural yeasts to ferment the wines others will use standardised cultured yeast to control the fermentation. Pumping over techniques ensure that the wine must maintains the desired contact with the grape skins to produce the desired colour and tannin content of the wine. In former times workers would have climbed into a wooden vat or fermentation tank to ensure that the skins and grape were well stirred during fermentation. Traditional techniques will be made obsolete by automation.
Some red wines use carbonic maceration techniques where the grapes are very lightly crushed so that the skins are broken up by the actual process of fermentation rather that crushing; this produces lighter wines ready for drinking young.
After fermentation the red wine pomace may be pressed to extract colours and tannins which can be added to the final red wine blend.
With modern techniques it will be no problem to analyse the wine for alcohol, sugar, tannin, acid and pigment content:the fermentation could then be adjusted automatically to obtain the desired result. There will be no need for human intervention. The tasters art can be dispensed with.
Most red wines are subjected to malo-lactic conversion where tart malic acid is converted to softer lactic acid. Malo-lactic conversion can be induced by naturally occurring bacteria but, of course, modern techniques involve the use of cultured bacteria grown for the specific purpose.
After fermentation and malo-lactic conversion the wine is matured in oak barrels for high quality wines . The oak barrels add vanilla and tannin to the newly produced wine to add character. Some standardised and industrially produce wines have vanilla flavour added in the form of oak chips to reduce the the maturation times.
After maturation the red wine is often racked by pouring the wine into new clean barrels to gently aerate the wine and to allow a sediment to fall from the wine.
Most wine is fined using egg white or special clay to remove solids and allow them to fall to the bottom of the vat.
Some wine is filtered to ensure that all solids are removed to improve its the clarity and appearance to the eye. Some high quality wine producers eschew this and this is why wine which has been left to mature in the bottle will throw a light sediment.
After fining and filtration the wine is bottled with hydrogen sulphide to prevent oxygen damaging the wine.
There is no reason why the whole process cannot be automated completely. The wines could be crated up and shipped to a wine merchant to anywhere in the world using drone ships and lorries.
White wines can be processed in a similar way and even Champagne operations which use a second fermentation in the bottle can be completely automated.
High quality wines will only ever be produced with humans being part of the tasting and adjustment process in the actual vineyards and winery and you will still have to mature them in a cellar before drinking. High quality wine will become more and more expensive so enjoy your Montrachet and Bourgogne Rouge Grand Cru now.
Soon, you will be able to enjoy a TV meal of steak and chips with a bottle of Shiraz flown to your doorstep by a drone. The wine will only get near a human being when you open it. The chips will also be automatically produced. The beef cattle will never have been patted on the backside by a farmer. Very few people will ever experience the exquisite taste of a high quality wine which has a delicious and unique taste of its own. Most wine will become industrialised and homogenised plonk, which will be used to wash down homogenised food delivered to your door by a drone with a programmed grin on its face. Welcome to the future of wine.
Thursday, 8 March 2018
The Winebot
New technology will soon be available to wine producers. Robots are being developed which will be able completely to maintain the vineyard. There will be robots which can drive between the vines to clear away weeds. Robots will be able to recognise diseased leaves and remove or treat them with insecticides and fungicides.
Spur and cane training and pruning will be controlled by our automated friends. The wood and wire supports for the vines will also be maintained automatically.
Automated analysis of the soil will allow robots to treat the ground with fertilisers and control the acidity and mineral balance of the growing substrate.
Automated cloches will protect the vines in the winter and will ensure that the vines are supplied with the exact quantity of UV light either from the sun or lamps.
Automated irrigation will ensure that the vines are supplied with the exact quantity of water required for optimal and scheduled growth.
Robots will be able to detect which grapes are ripe and ready for picking.
Machines will harvest the grapes and transport them automatically to the winery.
Robots will be used to deter insect and animal pests and will patrol the vineyard to ensure that humans cannot damage the growth too.
There will hardly be a requirement either for traditional farmers or vineyard workers. Everything will be managed by a technician at a computer console or using a 'phone app. The "farmer" could operate from anywhere.
You may think that this is impossible but very soon automated machines will be deployed by farmers to harvest their wheat and grain crops. These machines will be controlled by computers using artificial intelligence. Their fields will be mapped by GPS systems which will control movements down to the centimetre. Hopper lorries to transport the grain to barns will also be controlled by computer. Seeding operations can be controlled likewise. The machines will drive themselves automatically from garage to field. Our farmer cousins in France have confirmed that farming co-operatives will be operating like this in the near future. What can happen in a grain field can also happen in a vineyard but of course growing vines is more complicated.
Within twenty years it will be possible to completely automate vineyard operations. Most vineyard workers will become unemployed. There will then be a shortage of workers experienced enough to do work for the few traditional growers and the price of their labour will go up. Also, many traditional operators will be put out of business by the automated operators. The number of growers producing individually managed crops to produce individually tasting wines will be reduced. Top quality wines will get more and more expensive.
We are heading for a wine world of complete standardisation and homogenisation. Enjoy a good Bordeaux or Burgundy while you can. There is more to follow.
Spur and cane training and pruning will be controlled by our automated friends. The wood and wire supports for the vines will also be maintained automatically.
Automated analysis of the soil will allow robots to treat the ground with fertilisers and control the acidity and mineral balance of the growing substrate.
Automated cloches will protect the vines in the winter and will ensure that the vines are supplied with the exact quantity of UV light either from the sun or lamps.
Automated irrigation will ensure that the vines are supplied with the exact quantity of water required for optimal and scheduled growth.
Robots will be able to detect which grapes are ripe and ready for picking.
Machines will harvest the grapes and transport them automatically to the winery.
Robots will be used to deter insect and animal pests and will patrol the vineyard to ensure that humans cannot damage the growth too.
There will hardly be a requirement either for traditional farmers or vineyard workers. Everything will be managed by a technician at a computer console or using a 'phone app. The "farmer" could operate from anywhere.
You may think that this is impossible but very soon automated machines will be deployed by farmers to harvest their wheat and grain crops. These machines will be controlled by computers using artificial intelligence. Their fields will be mapped by GPS systems which will control movements down to the centimetre. Hopper lorries to transport the grain to barns will also be controlled by computer. Seeding operations can be controlled likewise. The machines will drive themselves automatically from garage to field. Our farmer cousins in France have confirmed that farming co-operatives will be operating like this in the near future. What can happen in a grain field can also happen in a vineyard but of course growing vines is more complicated.
Within twenty years it will be possible to completely automate vineyard operations. Most vineyard workers will become unemployed. There will then be a shortage of workers experienced enough to do work for the few traditional growers and the price of their labour will go up. Also, many traditional operators will be put out of business by the automated operators. The number of growers producing individually managed crops to produce individually tasting wines will be reduced. Top quality wines will get more and more expensive.
We are heading for a wine world of complete standardisation and homogenisation. Enjoy a good Bordeaux or Burgundy while you can. There is more to follow.
Thursday, 25 January 2018
Dry January
Good luck to you if you felt compelled not to drink alcohol throughout January - you almost got there.
I have felt no such compulsion. I simply do not drink too much alcohol and I never intend to do so. I do not take too much notice of government recommendations of what to eat and drink and how much. I know in my own mind that I rarely over indulge and that my drinking is not damaging my health.
The same can be said for my wife. It is clear that certain medical academicians are trying to get the population not to drink alcohol at all. They are constantly bringing the recommendations for how many units we should drink per week down. They are now getting round to suggesting that drinking more than 14 units a week makes you an abuser of alcohol. Such absolutism is tosh. Anyone who is an alcoholic or who has liver disease should not be drinking at all. If I drink 15 units a week it neither makes me an alcoholic nor an abuser of alcohol. I shall decide for myself based on my own health not on the idea of someone who has not even met me.
I drink wine with food and if I am deprived of a few glasses of Bordeaux or Burgundy, or any other good wine, then the quality of my life goes down. The conviviality of sharing a glass or two of wine with my wife and my friends helps to make life worth living for me. Health-puritan bores do not bother me.
I have felt no such compulsion. I simply do not drink too much alcohol and I never intend to do so. I do not take too much notice of government recommendations of what to eat and drink and how much. I know in my own mind that I rarely over indulge and that my drinking is not damaging my health.
The same can be said for my wife. It is clear that certain medical academicians are trying to get the population not to drink alcohol at all. They are constantly bringing the recommendations for how many units we should drink per week down. They are now getting round to suggesting that drinking more than 14 units a week makes you an abuser of alcohol. Such absolutism is tosh. Anyone who is an alcoholic or who has liver disease should not be drinking at all. If I drink 15 units a week it neither makes me an alcoholic nor an abuser of alcohol. I shall decide for myself based on my own health not on the idea of someone who has not even met me.
I drink wine with food and if I am deprived of a few glasses of Bordeaux or Burgundy, or any other good wine, then the quality of my life goes down. The conviviality of sharing a glass or two of wine with my wife and my friends helps to make life worth living for me. Health-puritan bores do not bother me.
Wednesday, 10 January 2018
2001 Baron d'Aupenac Saint-Chinian Cave de Roquebrun Red
On Christmas day it was just my wife and me. We decided to cook a rib of beef with a port based sauce and it was delicious. I selected my last bottle of 2001 Baron d'Aupenac Saint-Chinian from the Languedoc to go with it. We ate delicious food and drank tremendous wine - just us two. The joys of a family reunion had to wait for a couple of days.
The Cave de Roquebrun produces some of my favourite red wines. The Baron d'Aupenac is their top red wine and it compares favourably with the best red wines from France. A quick glance at the back label suggested that the wine could be kept for just 10 years but this wine was going strong after 16. There was a lovely flavour of rich ripe red fruits with a hint of oak.The wine was well integrated with soft tannin. It had a full body and was still concentrated and complex and lingered for a very long time on the palate. It had its own unique flavour and it had all the hallmarks of a great wine but at a reasonable price.
The wine was perfect for an intimate Christmas with rib of beef and good English and French cheeses.
If you are in the St Chinian area of southern France then do not hesitate to pay the Cave de Roquebrun a visit. All of their wines are of the highest quality and they are tremendous value for money. And, they all deserve to be consumed with the best of food.
The Cave de Roquebrun produces some of my favourite red wines. The Baron d'Aupenac is their top red wine and it compares favourably with the best red wines from France. A quick glance at the back label suggested that the wine could be kept for just 10 years but this wine was going strong after 16. There was a lovely flavour of rich ripe red fruits with a hint of oak.The wine was well integrated with soft tannin. It had a full body and was still concentrated and complex and lingered for a very long time on the palate. It had its own unique flavour and it had all the hallmarks of a great wine but at a reasonable price.
The wine was perfect for an intimate Christmas with rib of beef and good English and French cheeses.
If you are in the St Chinian area of southern France then do not hesitate to pay the Cave de Roquebrun a visit. All of their wines are of the highest quality and they are tremendous value for money. And, they all deserve to be consumed with the best of food.
Tuesday, 5 December 2017
Beaujolais Nouveau 2017
Every year I try a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau. Beaujolais Nouveau day was on November 16th, and I bought a bottle of the "Villages" 2017; thinking that the "Villages" appellation would some how confer some extra quality. It didn't. It did not taste very good; there was too much malo-lactic conversion on the nose. The lactic acid made the wine smell a bit cheesy or buttery. It wasn't of very high quality and did not represent good value for money at £8 a bottle. It would be unfair to recognise the winemaker or the retailer. Some people might find the taste acceptable. We could only stomach half a bottle. I poured the remaining half down the drain as it was not worth saving even for cooking.
We had a visitor from France the other day and she brought along a bottle of Nouveau. I haven't had the courage to open it yet.
Every year, I promise myself that I shall not buy another bottle of this disappointing wine. It will be my New Year resolution: I hope it will last until November 15th 2018.
We had a visitor from France the other day and she brought along a bottle of Nouveau. I haven't had the courage to open it yet.
Every year, I promise myself that I shall not buy another bottle of this disappointing wine. It will be my New Year resolution: I hope it will last until November 15th 2018.
Thursday, 23 November 2017
Don't buy Grandpa a bottle of drink for Christmas
Here we go again: campaigners are are urging young people not to buy their grandfathers a bottle of drink for Christmas. Why are they bothering with this nonsense? A huge majority of the population know that if you drink too much then you can damage your physical and mental health.
It is patronising, in the extreme, to both young and old that they should should be persuaded to change their behaviour in this roundabout way.
Christmas is a time for sharing and it is quite likely that your grandpa will share out the bottle of wine that you have brought with you. Most grand parents are not alcoholics who hide away their bottle of gin or whiskey. They are just as entitled to drink a glass of wine or a shot of whiskey over the Christmas period as anyone else. What are they supposed to do? Sit down and drink a glass of fruit juice whilst everyone else is enjoying some sociability with a bottle of wine?
Some people drink too much for a number of reasons and if they are affecting their health by boozing too much then they should be helped; not patronised or nagged.
One of my best friends was an alcoholic and he smoked too much as well. This ultimately led to his early death from throat cancer. We spoke about and discussed his addiction a number of times. He was an intelligent man and knew what his addiction meant. He chose not to seek treatment. Would any nagging and patronising from me have made any difference to his predicament? No: it would not have.
The agencies which try to nudge us in a particular direction should consider carefully what they are doing. We are being bombarded with blandishments that we should not eat particular types of food and that we should not drink a glass of wine with our dinner. Most of their recommendations fall on deaf ears but if we were to follow their path we could end up leading unsociable and miserable lives.
We are all going to die and there is nothing that the health authorities and drink aware etc. can do to stop this. If sharing some rib of beef and drinking half a bottle of wine with it, every now and then, results in me dying six months earlier then so be it. Life is about balance and making the correct decisions to protect your well being whilst you are alive. It would be better if we all all made an effort to assess the facts rather than rely upon blandishments to behave one way or another.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/dont-buy-grandpa-drink-for-christmas-plead-campaigners-wq8krwmjq
It is patronising, in the extreme, to both young and old that they should should be persuaded to change their behaviour in this roundabout way.
Christmas is a time for sharing and it is quite likely that your grandpa will share out the bottle of wine that you have brought with you. Most grand parents are not alcoholics who hide away their bottle of gin or whiskey. They are just as entitled to drink a glass of wine or a shot of whiskey over the Christmas period as anyone else. What are they supposed to do? Sit down and drink a glass of fruit juice whilst everyone else is enjoying some sociability with a bottle of wine?
Some people drink too much for a number of reasons and if they are affecting their health by boozing too much then they should be helped; not patronised or nagged.
One of my best friends was an alcoholic and he smoked too much as well. This ultimately led to his early death from throat cancer. We spoke about and discussed his addiction a number of times. He was an intelligent man and knew what his addiction meant. He chose not to seek treatment. Would any nagging and patronising from me have made any difference to his predicament? No: it would not have.
The agencies which try to nudge us in a particular direction should consider carefully what they are doing. We are being bombarded with blandishments that we should not eat particular types of food and that we should not drink a glass of wine with our dinner. Most of their recommendations fall on deaf ears but if we were to follow their path we could end up leading unsociable and miserable lives.
We are all going to die and there is nothing that the health authorities and drink aware etc. can do to stop this. If sharing some rib of beef and drinking half a bottle of wine with it, every now and then, results in me dying six months earlier then so be it. Life is about balance and making the correct decisions to protect your well being whilst you are alive. It would be better if we all all made an effort to assess the facts rather than rely upon blandishments to behave one way or another.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/dont-buy-grandpa-drink-for-christmas-plead-campaigners-wq8krwmjq
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