Franciacorta DOCG white Italian Sparkling Wine

 We tasted this sparkling wine as an apéritif when we joined our friends for dinner. Our host is a bit of a wine expert and asked us to guess the wine blind. I didn't do so bad as I guessed in was a high quality Prosecco; at least I got the country right. My wife was a little more circumspect. She has got a really good sense of smell. She was holding the wine at waist level and the look on her face was a picture. I could tell from her expression that the wine was not Champagne well before she expressed an opinion. She is from the Champagne region of France.

The wine turned out to be Franciacorta Brut NV from the Brescia province of Lombardy in northern Italy. This sparkling wine is made by the champagne method. The wine is very fine and of excellent quality with a "biscuity" flavour  reminiscent of Champagne. You can also taste the umami flavour of the yeast after the wine has rested on its lees. The wine was bone dry and has very fine bubbles. Franciacorta is produced from Chardonnay grapes in gravel and limestone based soils and the taste resembles Crémant de Bourgogne which is also produced by the champagne method from grapes grown on limestone soils - mostly Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. It is of much higher quality than most of the Prosecco produced in the Veneto region. Most Prosecco is not produced by the champagne method, so the secondary fermentation takes place in a tank.  There are, however, some higher quality Proseccos that are made by the champagne method, hence my confusion, or that's what I like to think. 

Why did my wife not even have to taste the wine before she recognised that it was not Champagne? She grew up in Champagne and is completely familiar with the wine, she doesn't need to become "all analytical" she just recognises Champagne by its smell and doesn't even have to taste it - like I do. She never gets it wrong like me, as I have mistaken an English sparkling wine for Champagne at a blind tasting.

My wife and I had not tasted Franciacorta before, but we shall drink more of it in the future even though it is more expensive that standard Prosecco. However, we will still stay loyal to the world's best wine like true Champenoises and an honorary male one.

https://www.majestic.co.uk/sparkling-wines/castelveder-franciacorta-brut-23356 

Are we going to see the demise of the wine industry?

 Further to my previous article, I can see more and more problems ahead for the wine industry in both France and the rest of the world, we could see wine production almost disappear in the future , but not in my lifetime.

There has been a huge drop in the demand for wine in France and other countries. Part of the problem for wine producers is a change to the buying power of younger people who are turning to non-alcoholic drinks, and drinks which they consider safer to consume from the point of view of chemical additives. 

Probably, advertising campaigns about the consumption of alcohol are beginning to work especially with the younger generations who are concerned about  the effects of over consuming alcohol on their health. Younger people  are turning to cocktails etc. without alcohol. France has a culture which encourages the development of new tastes so wine is under threat. 

All of us are concerned about the additives in our food; sulphites are added to most wines to act as a preservative, so many young people are reducing their wine consumption to reduce their ingestion of chemicals. Sulphites, however, are added to an enormous range of food and drinks but wine seems to be the strongest target against sulphites.

Even though demand for wine is falling, the price of wine does not seem to be going down, even in France. Many vineyards are being grubbed up  to reduce wine production. Eventually a new balance will be established between production and demand and no doubt  prices will go up. Soon, the majority of the population may only be able to afford wine on special occasions - even lower quality wine. What a shame it will be if the tradition of opening a bottle of good wine with friends disappears.

https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20230825-france-eu-to-spend-200-million-euros-on-destroying-surplus-wine

French wine production and Consumption

 The French like other Europeans are consuming less and less wine, so much so that the French government is purchasing millions of Euros worth of wine to financially support the industry. This excess wine is being converted into alcohol for products such as hand sanitiser.

The reduced consumption of wine has many causes. I believe that the message about not drinking too much is getting through especially to young people. Excessive drinking undoubtedly leads to health problems. Inflated prices are also contributing the to financial woes of the wine industry, reduced production will lead to further price increases. Automation of the wine making process may not be able to reduce the cost of a bottle.

All in all the wine industry faces trouble.

From a personal point of my wife and I hardly drink more than a bottle of wine per week, unless we have friends around.. We are increasingly reluctant to pay inflated prices for our wine and we rarely buy Burgundy in the UK.

Champagne and English sparkling wine prices are sky rocketing so consumers are changing to Prosecco and Cava. Luckily we travel to France often enough to buy  reasonably priced Champagne.

Climate change is affecting Prosecco production so the outlook for sparkling wines is not good.

I hope that the wine industry does not suffer too badly from climate change and demographic effects to cause the demise of the industry. There is nothing I like more than a good bottle of wine with my food and friends, so cheers.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/25/france-fund-destroying-excess-wine-demand-falls

Cuvée des Anges Montlouis-sur-Loire AOC sparkling wine brut by traditional methods

 If you find Champagne too expensive and are bored with Prosecco and Cava and the Southern Hemisphere alternatives, then try this: Cuvée des Anges Montlouis sur Loire AC sparkling wine brut. This dry white sparkling wine is produced from Chenin Blanc grapes in the Montlouis sur Loire appellation near Tours in the Loire Valley. The limestone soils  and climate here are perfect for the growth of the Chenin Blanc grape.

The sparkling wine produced is refined with a medium body and it has a well balanced acidity with a taste of green fruits and lemon. The wine is dry and will clear your palate. It is best as an aperitif in my opinion, but would go down well with a dessert or even throughout a meal. I find it more refreshing than Prosecco and it does leave an unpleasant after taste, like some cheap sparkling wines do. It should not be compared with Champagne in either terms of taste or quality. It needs to be tasted and assessed in its own right. We bought it for about 7 Euros a bottle in France, and this means that is exceptional value for money when you compare taste and quality with cost. You can even buy it in the UK, so try it; I think you won't be disappointed.

https://www.vivino.com/GB/en/montlouis-cuvee-des-anges-brut/w/1420627

Florence and Pisa and food and Chianti

We went to Florence and Pisa recently to meet some friends from Australia. There were ten of us so it was difficult to find a good restaurant to accomodate us so we had to eat in cafés. I drank beer and we all ate pasta or pizza which gets boring. On our last day my wife and I went to Pisa on our own and found an excellent restaurant called " Il Capodaglio" in Via Del Carmina.The food wine and service here were excellent. I had a "summer soup" made of vegetables according to a local recipe.This soup can also be eaten hot in winter, in fact it is a soup for all seasons and delicious. I followed this with  a plate of mixed Tuscan meats with beans. My wife ate a seafood pasta, which was of course of much higher quality of that served up in the Florentine cafés. 

We washed the perfect food down with a bottle of  Leonardo da Vinci Capolavori Chianti Vergine Delle Rocce 2021. This wine went down so well with the meat dish and even with my wife's pasta. Of course it tasted of cherries and spice and identified well with the region and was the perfect wine to go with Tuscan food. When you travel it is best to stick with food and wine from the region, but of course Chianti and Italian food travels well;so you can eat good Italian food,anywhere in the world, if you can find the right  restaurant - even in Singapore.  

Our waitress, Beatrice, spoke English so well that I could not believe that she had never visited an English speaking country; her word order and use of adverbs was perfect. She spoke English better than some native speakers that I meet in restaurants and pubs. No doubt her Italian is perfect too. It was a pleasure to talk to her.

 You can buy our wine for about £16  a bottle in the UK so it represents very good value for money. The wine will also improve in the bottle. You cannot go wrong but it is probably best to go to Pisa and visit  " Il Capodaglio" to eat authentic Tuscan cooking with your Chianti.

https://www.xtrawine.com/uk/en/wines/leonardo-da-vinci-capolavori-chianti-vergine-delle-rocce-2019/p31675

https://ristoranteosteriailcapodaglio.it/

"Toxic Masculinity" Ugh?

 President Macron of France has been accused of "toxic masculinity ", by some of his french female political opponents, after a film of him knocking back a bottle of Corona beer in the Toulouse rugby players dressing room was broadcast on social media: Toulouse had just won the league. This accusation is of course complete nonsense.  My wife is French and assures me that she does not consider someone knocking back a bottle of beer as toxic masculinity. My wife does not go to boozy  hen parties  and neither of us would accuse a boozy hen party as being "toxic femininity". It's time for the accusations and personal comments to stop.

Apparently, President Macron likes a glass of wine and he often drinks one glass with his lunch and one glass in the evening with supper or dinner. Also he is reputed to be opposed to the health gimmick of dry January. I agree with him there, if you drink so much that you have to abstain for a month then it is probably better if you don't drink at all. It seems that Macron has a healthy attitude to wine drinking so why should he be criticised for enjoying a glass of wine with his meals or a beer with his Rugby winning mates.

I have never believed that wine drinking is good for your physical health but conversely I believe that drinking wine in moderation does not damage your health either. So three cheers for a glass of good Burgundy with your dinner.

https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20230619-toxic-masculinity-macron-criticised-for-downing-beer-with-rugby-champions

Wine and AI chatbots

 The other day, I asked an AI chatbot to write me an essay about the colour of Schrödinger's cat. I thought that it might have been ginger and white. The AI chatbot gave me a discourse on quantum mechanics and particle physics, without mentioning the cat or a cat experiment. All of the information was gleaned from the web citing Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg and Neils Bohr and the great Schrödinger himself etc. This is all very interesting from a scientific point of view but it did not answer the questions: what was the colour of the cat, did the cat exist at all and are we talking about the right Schrödinder? The chatbot really was brainless and could not see the point of the joke. AI has a long way to go.

There is no doubt that a chatbot could describe a vintage champagne, where it was produced and what it tastes like etc. All this information can be gleaned from the web and reproduced in a grammatically correct essay with all the conjunctions in the right place. What it cannot do is give you a personal opinion of the wine because a robot will never have tasted the wine for itself and experienced its flavour, and it cannot give you an indication of whether you will appreciate its quality or not. You have to be alive to really judge a wine for yourself and you cannot fully rely upon the opinion of others gleaned from hundreds of comments on the web.

All this is why I shall never resort to using chatbots to write about a wine or the wine industry, as for me that would be sacrilege. But buyer beware, there are plenty of intellectually lazy writers about.