Old Vines: New Climate – the changing face of Jumilla

Arriving in DO Jumilla feels not only like you’ve stepped a little bit back in time, but also that you’ve arrived in the true heart land of Spain.  There’s a remote ruggedness to the landscape that is far removed from the lush orange groves and paella-rice paddy fields that we left behind in Valencia.

Jumilla is located in south-east Spain, in the extreme south-east of the province of Albacete.  As a wine region, it is supra-autonomous: that’s to say half of it is in the autonomous region of Murcia and half in Castilla La Mancha.  So, whilst geographically not too far from the cooling breezes of the Mediterranean, the wall of mountain that is the Sierra del Carrche acts as a 1,000m barricade giving the region a semi-continental climate.

Agriculture is the principal source of employment here: vines, olives, almonds and fruit groves are all interspersed with wild rosemary, thyme, oregano & sparto grass.  It’s not only the French who can legitimately use the term “garrigue” in wine – there is a constant wonderful, warm aroma wafting through the chilly April wind.

My incredibly revealing three-day visit to DO Jumilla was organised in conjunction with the Old Vine Conference – a non-for-profit organization, started by Sarah Abbott MW, with the sole purpose of uniting the wine industry & enthusiasts to build a global wine category for old vines.

Having bumped our way cross-country from Valencia (as glass of chilled vino rosado aided the journey greatly) our first visit was to Bodegas Viña Elena . Owned & run by the familia Pacheco since 1948, we were treated to a superb lunch in their lovingly restored Casa de los Abuelos -the ancestral home to Elena’s grandparents.  Over a lunch of sardines & gazpacho jumillano we tasted their Bruma del estrecho marín collection: a personal project of Elena Pacheco whose aim was to make 100% Monastrell wines from different plots in DO Jumilla, allowing each wine to express itself in relation to its microclimate, soil, location and age of the vineyard.  Monastrell – more of which later – is a key variety to Jumilla but, for me, the stand-out wine was Paraje Las Encebras – an Airén wine from 37 YO vines made with a little skin contact and aged in glass demijohns under a small amount of flor growth.  I will never again tell wine students that Airén is a dull, unexciting grape – in the right hands it is aromatic & tangy with a wonderful salinity & freshness.

The afternoon’s Master Tasting: “Inside Jumilla” was held at the widely famed Bodegas Juan Gil led by Sarah Janes Evans MW & Amaya Cervera.  A superb showcase of Monastrell in all it’s forms from light, fruity and sappy to oaked, powerful & structured. The majority of wines were from pie franco vines, ungrafted, pre-phylloxera vines. Much discussion, at times very heated, then ensued about the “taste” a pie franco vine gives to a wine versus a grafted vine.  For me, it was less “pie franco” and more that the vine is simply extremely old, deeply rooted & low yielding thereby giving a majestic richness & balance to the wine.

Day two was mostly spend alongside, in and around soil pits.  All the wineries involved in our trip had generously agreed to dig extensive soil pits, often 6 ft deep.  The objective was to give us an insight into “soil for survival” – how to equip vines for future climate change.  Expertly led by the knife-wielding Dr Joaquín Cámara Gajate (Assistant Professor at Polytechnic University of Madrid), he continually jumped into soil pits with the enthusiasm of an unleashed puppy after a bone.  The key take-away, above all, was the available water holding capacity (AWHC) of each soil pit – or more significantly, how that capacity varied incredibly by site.  A soil with a AWHC of 19mm at the surface, can have a capacity of 157mm when you dig down 1.5m.  In those vineyards where no rain fell in 2023, this is clearly a key part to vine survival & explains why deep-rooted old vines, gorgeously gnarled relics from the past, are so instrumental in the survival of Monastrell in Jumilla in the face of rapid climate change.

Whilst taking a break from soil pit analysis, we headed out of the cold (with no Med influence, it’s wonderfully sunny but extremely cold in Jumilla in spring) and into the tasting room of Bodegas Olivares. Whilst their red wine selection is highly regarded, we were here to taste dulce Monastrell – their sweet red wines made from the oldest vines, harvested in late autumn.  Once the grapes begin to raisin, they can reach astonishing levels of richness. After picking, the grapes undergo a partial fermentation & more than 30 days of maceration with skins. At 16% abv, they are sublimely balanced with glorious weight and texture balanced with an acidity that is a revelation & tannin levels that are just dry enough to equal the incredible sweetness.  The bottle aged varieties show a wonderful ‘rancio’ character – roasted nuts, coffee & dried prunes.  I will certainly be showing these wines in the future and I strongly advise you to track some down, especially so if you are part of the “I don’t like sweet wine” brigade – you’ll be converted at one sip!

All good things must come to an end and so we tore ourselves away from the delicious nectar & plates of caramelised pecans to head to the main event: The Old Vine Conference chaired by Sarah Abbott MW. I would never do the speakers justice in paraphrasing their words here so a brief summary will have to do for now.

Jumilla is a heart-warmingly rich wine region, full of vitality but also full of contradictions & struggles.  It’s main source of employment is agriculture and yet one of the growing uses of agricultural land is for solar power.  All well and good, but it doesn’t solve a growing unemployment problem.  Old vines that are deep rooted & dry framed (thereby ticking lots of sustainability boxes) are grubbed up in favour of more profitable olive & almond trees which need extensive watering until well established.  Rights to water are political and highly controversial – we visited one vineyard of old vine Monastrell with unused irrigation pipes installed by the previous owner.  Upon further questioning, it became clear that the vineyard will lose all water rights if they uninstall the irrigation system and so it remains there, unused & unsightly.   Dry-farmed Monastrell is a variety widely suited to the climate (it’s famously drought resistant) and yet plantings are increasing of Sauvignon Blanc & Verdejo which rely on irrigation. 

In the face of climate change in a region that is already arid, dry & lacking in water, the concept of celebrating & protecting old vines seems entirely natural & logical.  Monastrell loves the heat & dryness and with its roots capable of going 6-8m in depth, it has the best chance to establishing future stability in the face of change. Please don’t miss understand – we enjoyed some incredible white wines on our trip.  But if the future of Jumilla is to be drier, hotter and more arid, then old vine Monastrell seems to about to have it’s moment in the sun. 

Is the wine bottle a thing of the past?

As good citizens of the world, we’re all becoming pretty adept at reducing our carbon footprint, whether it’s choosing locally farmed food, perhaps taking the train abroad rather than flying, or simply being better at recycling.  Likewise, the wine industry itself has had to take a long, hard look at the impact it has and take radical steps in altering wineries & production – especially given a natural by product is, of course, CO2.

However there is a large, inconspicuous elephant left in the winery when we look at carbon impact, and it’s the glass bottle.  If we want to make serious reductions, we have to reduce the impact of glass bottles and transport.   And to do that, we have to alter our perceptions, expectations and – frankly – our personal hang-ups when it comes to the packaging our wine comes in.

We won’t bore you with stats, but a few headline points are worth considering:

• Wine bottles require much fossil fuel-based energy to manufacture, and then to transport, and recycle.
• Wine bottles are round and tapered, shapes that are inefficient of space, and are often as heavy as their contents.
• Glass is general hugely inefficient as a form of packaging – fragile for one thing.
• The glass bottle dates from the 17^th C as a form of packaging wine – perhaps it’s time for an update?

So what’s the alternative? And should it be used for all wines?

There are several alternative packages including lined cardboard cartons, bioplastic bag-in-box, aluminium cans, pouches, and perhaps many more that are yet to be intended.  Light-weight, durable, robust and efficient to recycle – these alternative packing options seemingly tick all the boxes. But what about the wine inside them? Holiday wine to be drunk with lots of ice, right? 

Think again! There are some seriously impressive wineries and importers who are bottling some delicious wines in alternative packaging and gaining considerable followings for doing so.  For the next generation of environmentally conscious drinkers, who want a great, well-made wine, there are a plethora of options available so why stick with the clunky, cumbersome and down-right old fashioned, glass bottle?

So exactly how impactful could this transition away from glass be, in terms of volume of sales? Is it only the new generation of drinkers who will accept alternative packaging? Will we see a rise in consumers who actively shun the glass bottle?

According to WSTA, the sales of wine in the UK reached £10.6 bn in 2019, with 81% of adults drinking wine.   It’s also worth remembering that about 86% of table wine in the UK retails at £5.50 a bottle (Euromonitor International data, July 2019).  At that price, the cost of the bottle is in fact more than the cost of the wine itself so switching out the bottle for an environmentally sound alternative for less expensive wines would, it seems, have a fairly big impact on the carbon footprint of wine in the UK.

So if it’s a no-brainer, certainly at the less expensive end of the wine market, why is it not common place in the UK? After all sales of wine in alternative packaging accounts for 50% of total sales in Sweden & Norway, and 30% in France. 

As consumers, we’re still a little obsessed with the joyful ‘pop’ as bottle is uncorked, with the reverence with which we hold & present a bottle of wine – a little ironic if it cost £5.50 – and there is certainly still a healthy dollop of snobbery in the UK wine scene.  Wines doesn’t have to be all of that – the advent of the screw cap has mostly done away with the pop of the cork and it certainly doesn’t have to be revered and put on a pedestal.  Sharing wine is one of life’s great joys, ideally with friends sat around a table laden with delicious food & plenty of interesting wine. A glass bottle is certainly not adding much to that wonderful moment of social conviviality.  A lovely wine, decanted (I agree you don’t necessarily want a pouch of wine on your table) will keep most wine drinkers extremely content.

It will of course be quite some time before you twist the tap on a boxed Chateau Lafite or hear the  ‘tzzzz’ as a can of Chateau Haut Brion is pulled but if you are after bright, fresh invigorating wines that are made by producers with serious environmental credentials, then it’s time re-think packaging and embrace life beyond the bottle.

Still not convinced? Then come our next blind tasting event where we’ll put 3 wines from alternative packaging up against 3 bottle wines. All the wines will be decanted and tasted blind – will you taste the difference?

BIB v BOTTLE:  RE-THINKING WINE: 18 JULY | £40

Capstone California Educator Week

I recently joined 20 global educators on the first Capstone California partner training week in Sonoma, Napa and Lodi hosted by California Wine Institute.

“If you not there you can’t teach it” was the mantra and the week had been put together to give our group the opportunity to immerse themselves into the wines, history, regions, soils and producers of California to help us prepare to deliver the new Capstone California wine courses in our markets.

Day 1 started at The Lodge Sonoma with Master Sommelier Evan Goldstein introducing us to the history of California wine in 12 wines. It’s not every day that you get to taste older vintages from Robert Mondavi and Opus One. From there we visited the famous Buena Vista Winery for a speed tasting with wines from different regions and terroir from around the state and an evening of wines from grapes you don’t normally associate with California like Roussanne, Chenin Blanc, Dolcetto, Barbera, Tempranillo and even a Trousseau, Poulsard, Pinot Noir blend.

Day 2 in Sonoma Valley started with a visit to Sangiacomo Wines for a Chardonnay Masterclass tasting coastal influenced Chardonnay wines from Mendocino to Monterey and everything in between. Stand out wines included Littorai Mays Canyon from Sonoma Coast and Morgan Double L from Santa Lucia Highlands. We were put to work with some light spur pruning before lunch. The afternoon tasting focussed on Pinots and Zinfandels including some Zinfandels from Joel Peterson. Dinner was at the beautiful Three Sticks Wines in Sonoma.

We’ve had many inspiring masterclasses from California experts during the week. Chardonnay with Virgine Boone, sustainability with Elaine Chukan Brown and this morning’s Pinot Noir tasting with Karen MacNeil at La Crema Winery.  Day 3 continued with a visit to Emeritus in Sebastopol in Sonoma for a vineyard walk and lunch. The vineyards are dry farmed and we learnt the story of this transition and why it is only possible on the right soils in California as there is no rain from April to October. The tasting included their Elite Pinot Noirs made from ‘suitcase’ cuttings from DRC. We crossed the Mayacamas mountains into Napa for a speed tasting at the famous Robert Mondavi Winery in Oakville and a tasting of white and red Bordeaux blends with dinner at St Supery in Rutherford. There were many wine highlights from my notes today. Diamond Creek’s Red Rock Terrace 2019 red blend, Camp Meeting Ridge Pinot Noir 2021 from Flowers and San Andreas Fault Pinot Noir 2019 from Hirsch were stand outs. The whole week was paper free in line with the California Wine Institute’s sustainability policy. This meant that we wrote our tasting notes for the 235 wines that we tasted during the week using the Bootle Books app.

If you came to our California tasting a few years ago you’ll remember the guest speaker Jaeson Thieme. Jaeson has now moved from Hove back to California and I caught up with him at Silver Oak Cellars, the venue for our Cabernet Sauvignon Masterclass on Day 4 led by Kelli White. The visit to Matthiasson later that day was one of the most eagerly anticipated of the trip and Steve and Jill did not disappoint. Steve led us on a vineyard walk explaining how they farm for lower alcohol levels and a functioning ecosystem. The tasting and informal lunch in the winery was fantastic. After a break in Yountville we headed to Pine Ridge Winery for a fascinating class with Elaine Chukan Brown on what’s new in California with a line up of wines including Vermentino, Grenache Blanc, Albarino,  Valdigiue (from South West France and new to me) and Syrah mostly from cool climate areas. The day ended with a sparkling wine speed tasting hosted by Chris Hall at Long Meadow Ranch with a family style dinner at Farmstead.

A brilliant day on Day 5 in Lodi started at Lange Twins with a Zinfandel Masterclass with Teegan Passalacqua. There’s more to this grape style wise than I realised. Lodi is a flat delta land of levees, windswept sandy soils and farming families with long histories. We tried wines from Turley, Cline, Ridge and Jeff Cohn who was also with us, plus many more. A vineyard walk introduced us to the Lodi sustainability initiative. The afternoon tasting at Michael David Winery was on Iconic wines from Greater California and the evening tasting at Oak Farm Vineyards on unexpected Lodi featured lesser-known grapes such as Picpoul, Vermentino, Albarino, Alicante Bouschet, Counoise, Carignan and more

Day 6, our final day, started with an Old Vine Masterclass with Randy Caparoso. This has inspired me to put on an old vine themed tasting at the wine school! Next up was lunch and a Climate and Sustainability session hosted by Christine Wente at Wente in Livermore Valley. This was an eye opener and truly inspiring. Did you know that 80% of the 8,000 growers in California are signed up to the code of sustainable grape growing and winemaking programme and that 60% are already certified? The final event of the week was a Judgement of Paris tasting at the wine bar Ungrafted back in San Francisco where the week started led by their MS co-owner Chris. The line-up included J Schram Late Disgorged 2004, Chalone 1998 Chardonnay in magnum, Chateau Montelena Napa Valley 2011 Chardonnay and a stellar flight of Cabernet Sauvignons – Clos du Val Stag’s Leap 1987, Ridge Monte Bello 1995, Stag’s Leap SLV 1996, Mayacamas 1998 and Heitz Cellar Vineyard ‘Trailside Vineyard’ 1999.

This week has opened my eyes to the diversity of California and its wines. I’ll be bringing that inspiration back to the wine school with me to run the Capstone California wine courses.

Capstone California is the first accredited course on the wines of California, the world’s 4th largest wine region. The course has been developed by the California Wine Institute and is aimed at wine enthusiasts and professionals. Students progress through Levels 1, 2 and 3 in a classroom format with an online multiple-choice exam at the end of each level. When you pass each level you receive a certificate and lapel pin. Kent Wine School is running its first Capstone California Level 1 course on Sat 4^th March 2023 in Tunbridge Wells.

Does ‘generic’ reflect the 100km of diversity and richness in Rioja?

‘Vines run deep in Rioja, Spain’s finest wine region’.  Not only throughout the history books; not simply & literally as the vines drill their roots down for water & nutrients; but it is also in the range & depth in styles of wines, viticulture & vinification. Those deep running roots are reflected in the incredible passion & diversity of ‘Spain’s finest wine’.  I thought I was familiar with this diversity in Rioja’s wines but a recent educator’s trip to the region forced me to challenge my perceptions for the better and admit that I knew surprisingly little about the diversity in winemaking.  It was a source of surprises & revelations in abundance.

This made me ask myself a question:  I’m passionate about Spanish wine & yet there were clear, evidential gaps in my knowledge of Rioja’s richness in style. Why was that the case? Why, as a resident of one of Rioja’s key ‘mature’ markets, was I so unaware of the wonderfully broad spectrum of wines? It certainly wasn’t due to a lack of tasting & buying. 

Could it be that, as a mature market wine consumer, the Consejo Regulador was simply not transmitting a clear, current & accurate picture of the region to the market I am in?  Or perhaps using language that failed to do the region justice?

A pioneering region in 1925, the message was one of generalisation in the 1920s, mainly out of necessity. Then, Rioja led the way in offering global consumers the greatest control on quality & authenticity.  This is, to my mind, indisputable.  What is worth examining further is that that same revolutionary, visionary body still maintains the use of the word “genérico”, or generic, in it’s dialogue, it’s legal terminology and it’s branding.  In my view, ‘genérico’ is far from synonymous with ‘Spain’s finest wine region’.

Let’s take a look at the viticultural landscape: 15,000 vineyard owners operate in a region with about 65,000 hectares vines. They produce 400 million kilos of grapes, and 270 million litres of wine each year.  To put this into scale, these statistics are roughly equivalent to total production in New Zealand in 2021.  There are 7 wineries making over 7m litres each year and 238 making under 50,000L.  This is closer, in my view, to a Champagne or Burgundian style operation than that of Bordeaux.   Of those 238 producers, many are employing creative, dynamic & fascinating viticultural & vinification practices. 

Yet, in spite of that that creativity & flair, many of their wines land on the export market as “generic”, a word that in the English language is synonymous with bland, uniform, repetitive & cheap.   The word alone downgrades their phenomenal efforts in the eyes of the global consumer. It does their genuine passion, honest creativity & diversity a disservice – all attributes that Consejo Regulador itself uses to promote the region as a global brand of excellence. It’s a mixed message to say the least.

The new DOCa wine laws to reflect wines from a zone, village or single vineyard have done a great deal to move Rioja on from wines with barrel ageing statements to wines where terroir is the statement, in a similar way to Bordeaux, Burgundy & Tuscany.  One of the key areas of concern to me would seem to be that those wine rules are often unusable by many of those 238 small-scale producers. 

So, back to my original question:  why, as an educator and consumer, was I so surprised by the staggering diversity of a region I thought I knew well?  Let’s take a look at the UK & formal wine education in more depth.

As an educator of professional wine courses (WSET & WSG) the educational resources inform students that Gran Reserva wines are the top tier of quality, indicated with £££ symbol & exhibit complex, tertiary aromas.  At the other end of the scale we have Generic wines (formerly Joven), illustrated with a £ symbol and showing simple, primary fruit flavours.  Or, as the DOCa itself words it; “these are first or second year wines that retain their primary characteristics of being fresh & fruity”.  This focuses the consumer’s attention entirely on the near prophet-like status of the oak barrel.  Yes, magical things happen to good wine as it ages in oak barrels, however that is a very limited, narrow and restrictive view with regards to winemaking.  As the CEO of CUNE, Victor Urrutia states in the podcast “I’ll drink to that”: “if you put Grandad’s old socks in a barrel for 3 years, they will still be Grandad’s old socks at the end of it”.  The synergy between Rioja and oak has been a defining feature for centuries and rightly so. But in a world of 21^st century innovation, the broader, creative and intriguing vinification and maturation techniques used by the amazing wine makers of the Rioja needs to be applauded, recognised and labelled in a way that showcases that breadth and depth.  

Rioja DOCa was pioneering in 1925.  It then took a further 92 years for the DOCa to recognise the quality of the regions terroir and create labelling designations. So we now have the DOCa, and the wine educating community, recognising terroir and oak ageing (albeit in 225l barrels only) in Rioja.  In my view, it is really time that a region of the strength, depth and global position in the wine market such as Rioja, takes bigger, faster and more creative steps forward in recognising and labelling the wines of the region that fall outside of those labelling designations. As an educator, I really want to transmit the diversity of Rioja’s wines to students and I fully intend to do this on our own in-house wine courses which we create & write. However, when teaching the more restrictive format of WSET and similar programmes, this includes using the word “generic” in the same sentence as “Spain’s finest wine region” – an odd and uncomfortable juxtaposition of words if ever there was. 

If this is the language used by the region’s own regulatory body, how are consumers & educational bodies in mature markets, let alone emerging markets, meant to draw any conclusion about the wine other than inexpensive and uniform?  With around 40-50% of all Rioja wine being labelled as generic, we’d all agree that much of it is far bland, uniform and generic in style.  During my educator’s visit, we were privileged to taste a phenomenal range of products: from low-intervention wines without added sulphur, whites fermented and aged in amphorae, reds following the carbonic maceration path – a wonderfully, eclectic mix of style and skill – which other Spanish wine region replicates such diversity?

In my view, Spain’s finest wine region should be showing greater drive to move beyond the traditional labelling categories of Crianza, Reserva & Gran Reserva. Having heard about, and tasted, the full range and depth of wines from Rioja, the new labelling system of zone, village and single vineyard wines go some considerable way towards this.  However, there is still a huge body of wine that goes unrecognised, underrated and under-priced on the export market and is sold as ‘generic’.

Rioja has ‘100km of diversity’ in both viticulture and vinification.  I would suggest that the Consejo Regulador must move beyond language that devalues a large proportion of it’s products and be demonstrably prouder of such richness & diversity. 

So does this word ‘generic’ still have a place when we talk about Rioja wine? If to DOCa retains the word as a description of its wines, then education and marketing are, in my view, an up-hill struggle.  As an educator, I want to paint a glorious, multi-layered picture of Rioja for my audience but it’s hard to do that if the tools I am given are synonymous with bland and uniform.

The recent trends towards a broader stylistic approach (grapes, terroir etc) and alternative wine making & maturation vessels is a flag to be flown proudly by the DOCa. 

Let’s be honest – Spain’s finest wine region is far from generic.  So why use it?

---

For the love of Demi-Sec

demi-sec

/dɛmɪˈsɛk,French dəmisɛk/

adjective : (of wine) medium dry.

My first experience of Demi-Sec wine was a high class one. Around 10 years ago I went to a very poorly attended wine tasting of the now hugely popular Nyetimber at a local wine shop in Tunbridge Wells. I had no idea that this English Sparkling wine would become so revered (it probably was already with wine aficionados, but it certainly wasn’t as well known to the British public as it is now). Anyway, amongst the various styles and vintages we tasted, was their multi vintage Demi-Sec wine named Cuvee Cherié. It knocked my socks off. At that time, I was very much of the mind set that I didn’t like anything ‘sweet’. I clearly didn’t know what I was talking about, as I am now a huge fan of off dry wines, dessert wines and generally anything with sweetness provided the wine is balanced.

Demi-Sec literally translates to ‘half-dry’ in English, and the wines are typically off dry to medium sweet. They are not designed to have the intensity of sweetness that dessert wines have. The wine is made using the Traditional Method (a second fermentation in the bottle which is how Champagne is made) and then a balancing mixture (Dosage) of sugar and wine is added to the fermented wine which, to those in the know, is called liqueur d’expédition.

Demi-Sec Champagne and sparkling wine is tremendously versatile. The obvious food pairings are desserts, strawberries and cream, cake and so on. However, it also pairs beautifully with lightly fragranced spicy dishes, salty foods, creamy cheeses and paté. Many wine drinkers will pop open a bottle of bubbly as an aperitif or to celebrate an event, but a dry Brut can be heavy and ‘hard’ to drink on its own. Trust me when I say that a chilled Demi-Sec will slip down much more easily than a vintage Champagne and is incredibly refreshing.

The majority of the well-known Champagne houses make a Demi-Sec Champagne, but there are some fantastic examples from English wine makers, particularly from the 2018 vintage which was an amazing year for English wine. Aside from Nyetimber, my personal favourites are from Biddenden (Gribble Bridge Sparkling Ortega Demi-Sec) and Ambriel (MV English Reserve Demi-Sec). However, there are so many more to discover and I look forward to doing so.

Demi-Sec does not stop with English sparkling wine and Champagne, the other great sparkling wines of the world have Demi-Sec options. Think Moscato D’Asti from Italy, Demi-Sec Cava from Spain, and Demi-Sec Crémant from France. I recently tasted a truly delicious off dry Rosé Brut made by Peller Estates in Canada using Vidal Ice Wine as the dosage instead of the usual sugar and wine mix. I keep dropping hints for my husband to buy me a case, to no avail sadly!

When I started my wine education through Kent Wine School, the first and most important lesson I learned, was to keep an open mind when tasting wine. By doing this I have discovered the joy of Demi-Sec, which I will often choose over a dry Champagne. Even writing about it is making me fancy a glass!

Katherine Morgan

Kent Wine School

Chardonnay – “The Good, the Bad and …… the Good”

By Katherine Morgan; KWS Tutor, WSET Level 3

If I had a pound for every time a client has said to me that they are “not a fan of Chardonnay”, I would be a very rich lady.  I think I used to be a Chardonnay hater myself, until I realised it was a certain heavily oaked style of wine made from Chardonnay that I disliked rather than the grape itself.  The reality is that Chardonnay is an incredibly versatile and important grape.  If it weren’t for Chardonnay, we would not have Champagne, Chablis or the now very popular sparkling wine made here in the UK.

Chardonnay is one of the three French noble grape varieties and is key in making Champagne and in particular, Blanc de Blanc which literally translates to ‘white on white’. The wine is made from 100% white grapes, usually being Chardonnay.  The UK is producing some very classy examples of Blanc de Blanc and the 2018 and 2019 Vintages have generally been of exceptional quality.

Chardonnay is grown in most of the world’s wine making countries because it thrives in both hot and cool climates and can be ripened without difficulty. It is only sensitive to heavy rain and frost. The grape generally takes on whatever character the winemaker wants it to and can be used to make many different wine styles ranging from dry, to sparkling and to sweet / dessert wines. 

I think the general hatred of Chardonnay may stem from drinking low quality, over oaked wines which I like to call ‘networking wines’ – you know the ones you are served at an event which are slightly warm, and which result in a throbbing headache the next day if you have more than one glass? It is not the grape’s fault; it is usually down to poor winemaking techniques or deliberate lack of attention to create a high-volume inexpensive wine.

Aside from the Champagne region, Chardonnay is perhaps most famous for being the grape in the high-quality wines produced in Burgundy (eastern-central France). A key characteristic of Chardonnay is its buttery, creamy mouth feel which stems from its time spent in oak barrels. Puligny-Montrachet and Meursault are appellations that produce high end, complex wines with the ability to age for long periods of time which results in a price tag to match. More accessible Chardonnay in the oaked style is produced in the Maconnais region. A key appellation in the Maconnais is Pouilly-Fuissé, which is characteristically a rich, dry white wine with oak influences. However, if you move further north to the Appellation of Chablis, a completely different style of wine is produced without using oak. A classic Chablis will be crisp and dry with characteristics of wet stones and steel which goes perfectly with seafood.

Chardonnay is a key grape in many other countries including America where they also like to use oak (sometimes too heavily in my opinion) and Australia.  A good wine maker, whether they choose to use oak or not, will ensure that the oak does not overpower the fruit flavours.  Chile historically has exported low quality wines, but improved winemaking techniques and general investment in the industry is resulting in the export of some fabulous wines. Cool climate (unoaked) Chardonnay wines where the grapes are grown at high altitudes can be as delicious as Chablis, and generally easier on the wallet.

At Kent Wine School, we adopt an inclusive approach to wine and genuinely believe that there is no question too simple or comment too stupid. However, if you are going to a dinner party with wine aficionados or another wine event and you use the blanket statement that you do not like Chardonnay, you could be met with some distain…..you have been warned!

Nebbiolo – the perfect wine for Autumn

By Jonny Gibson, Dip WSET, FWS, IWS, SWS, Partner at Kent Wine School

I love the subtle shift of the seasons as we move from summer into autumn. There never seems to be any consensus on exactly when autumn starts but for me something changes around the September equinox. Blackberries are giving way to sloes in the hedgerows and it’s harvest time again at my secret mushroom spots.  On that note a friend from France has promised to take me truffle hunting but says the best time of year is December.  Apparently, he can do it by sight alone. No trained snuffling pigs or dogs for him. We shall see. 

Mushrooms are perfect with pinot noir. If you haven’t experienced the joy of a mushroom omelette with flat leaf parsley and a glass of red Burgundy or a pinot noir from Oregon, Australia or Otago then you are missing out on one of life’s great food pairing sensations.  Add some bacon or pancetta too if you want to go all out.

If you like game then think about buying wines that go well with partridge, pheasant, wild duck and venison.  If you are searing your duck or venison in a pan and then cooking it through in the oven then try Cabernet Sauvignon or a red from SW France like Madiran or Cahors. These wines go particularly well when you add hedgerow fruits into the pan.

If you are pot roasting a bird, then you need to keep things moist with the lid on with a couple of veggies like celery or carrot wand a glass or two of Marsala or Vermouth in the pot.  The game can be local, but I’d go for a northern Italian red like Barbera or Nebbiolo.

Nebbiolo is considered by many to be the most noble grape in Italy.  First mentioned in the 13^th century it is said to be derived from the word nebbia (fog) on account of the grape’s dusty bloom. Early budding and late ripening it struggles to ripen unless planted on sunny, exposed south facing slopes and is highly site sensitive. Naturally high in acids and tannins, Nebbiolo wines have complex aromas of dried red fruits, rose petals, sweet spices, leather and truffles. The best wines combine a wonderful perfume and finesse and can age for many years.  

The two classic Nebbiolo regions are Barolo DOCG and Barbaresco DOCG in Piemonte but look out for wines from Roero DOCG, Carema DOC and Gattinara DOCG also in Piemonte, Donnas in Valle d’Aosta and Valtellina Superiore DOCG and Sforzato di Valtellina DOCG in Lombardia.

Nebbiolo wines pair beautifully with game, polenta, truffle, mushrooms and slow cook braised meat dishes with a reduced sauce. The perfect wines for autumn you could say.

You can find out more about the wines of Barolo and Barbaresco at our next fine wine tasting on Thursday 30^th Sept in Tunbridge Wells.

We are also running a special online tasting featuring Nebbiolo wines on Thursday 4^th November.

To decant or not? Why a wine needs to breathe.

In the first two hours of non-essential shops opening after the first lockdown, the biggest selling item at the chain John Lewis was the glass decanter.  (You & Yours; Radio 4).  An extraordinary purchase choice to some; to others an essential item that forms part of your ritual of drinking wine.

In this week’s blog, we thought we’d take a look at the benefits of decanting, how to decant and what decanters are best.

Let’s start by taking a look at what the process of decanting a wine involves. The objective of this wine drinking ritual is to aerate the wine; to expose the entire contents of the bottle of the softening benefits of oxygen in the air.  The results are two-fold: it can soften the tannin and acidity in the wine whilst, at the same time, opening up the aromas &flavours of the wine so that the consumer can appreciate the drink in all it’s complexity.  It can have the ability of radically improving the apparent flavour of the wine.

So how best to achieve that?  We’ve all heard of the phrase “to let a wine breathe”. However, many wine drinkers achieve this by simply removing the cork from the bottle and then let the wine sit on the side for a few minutes. This achieves very little as the surface area of the wine exposed to the oxygen is negligible compared with the volume in the bottle. To allow the wine to breathe in the presence of oxygen it needs to be poured, very slowly, into an alternative vessel.  In pouring it slowly, the wine fans out down the inside of the new vessel, with every drop allowed contact time with the air around it.  Leave it to aerate further, and you have a wine that has ‘breathed’.

So, know we know how to do it, which wines should we decant? In general terms, the more robust reds benefit the most from decanting. New World Cabernet Sauvignons, Shiraz, Malbec.  In the Old World, the richer styles of reds can be found in the Northern Rhone, Italy, Spain – are can be greatly improved with oxygen contact. With these styles of wine, you can look at leaving them in the decanter for up to 2 hours or beyond.  Lighter, fruitier reds can benefit but for a shorter period of time – perhaps half an hour.   Even whites can benefit hugely from a short period of decanting such as full bodied, oaked Chardonnays and Viogniers. The opening up of the flavours and aromas can be transformative.

However, this doesn’t solve the problem if you don’t own a decanter but still want to enjoy your wine to its full capacity.  Those who attend my wine tastings and events will know that I am not a fan of gadgets at all, especially in the world of wine. There will always be a new toy that you are sold as being essential to your wine enjoyment.  In order to decant a wine, you simply need an alternative, fairly roomy vessel in which to pour your wine – water jug, milk jug even a vase would do!  It just needs to have enough space for the surface area of the wine to be exposed to a large amount of oxygen.  If you are not happy serving your wine in a milk jug at the table, simply pour it back into the wine bottle when you are ready to drink it.

If you are wanting to join the many who have ready purchase decanters, which is best for wine? In general terms, you are looking for a wide-based decanter so that when the entire contents of the bottle are poured in, the surface area remains large.  The square shaped decanters are generally intended for spirits, as a simple holding bottle, rather than opening the spirit up – spirits don’t tend to need the helping hand of oxygen.

So, back to those rather astonishing sales of decanters post lockdown.  I think this surge in purchases taps into the psychology of the Covid era. For many, the treat & pleasure of eating out and enjoying food and wine with friends was removed from life. A decanter at home has the wonderful benefit of making your wine drinking ritual so much more decadently special, just in the same way that home bar areas are back in fashion.  A glass of rich red poured from a beautiful decanter or a gin served from a bar-tenders table at home, makes the whole process seem much more pleasurable.  At the moment, it’s those little pleasures that can make all the difference!

Italy: The Ancestral Home of Food & Wine Pairing

I don’t feel compelled to start this article by telling you how wonderful Italian food & wine is – I am sure you are already convinced.  In food & wine circles we often consider Italy to be the ‘origins’ of the art of food and wine pairing – but why is that? Many countries have extensive and complex food & wine histories so why is Italy so special & often elevated above the others?

We can answer that question by looking at several aspects from geography to history & culture and the vine itself.

Geography:

Italy is unique in it’s geographical make-up and location.  A Mediterranean country that is richly varied due to its lengthy latitude, it’s mountainous landscape that spans its entirety and its cooling coastline.  This geographical variation means we also have considerable meso-climate variation – climatic variations that happen on a regional, rather than national, level.  This variability lends itself to the establishment, over centuries, of unique regional foods & wines that match and reflect that regional environment.  An example of this is the use of dairy v olive oil throughout the nation. The cool north in the foothills of the Alps have a dairy and butter-based cuisine yet, as you move to the warm south, the olive tree takes centre stage and olive oil is the basis of cooking.

History:

Here’s a pub quiz question for you: when did Italy finally unify as a nation?  Nope? It was as late as 1871.  Until that time, Italy was formed of a series of Dukedoms that operated independently of each other.  This history of regional ‘separatism’ led to a very strong sense of regional identity which carries through to the present day.  Italians are phenomenally proud of their local culture, history, cuisine and wine and fiercely protect their regional characteristics and traits – Italians tend to see themselves as Tuscan or Sicilian, rather than Italian. As a lover of food and wine this means you can travel the length of the peninsula tasting unique combinations that might only be found in that one town or province.  A culinary delight for any foodie traveller.

The vine:

As wine buyers, we generally focus on the big names: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Merlot & Malbec.  The beauty of Italian wine is that those grapes do grow here but they take a back seat and the main driving force behind wine production are the indigenous varieties – of which there are well over 350 at the last count.  Italy’s geographical and historical fragmentation has resulted in native grapes flourishing in their local village or town.  With no central government legislation or organisation until the very late part of the 19^th century, localism flourished and so did the vine.  The result is that there is a never-ending supply of undiscovered wines for any wine enthusiast to try and a myriad of local foods to pair alongside.

If it grows together, it goes together.

That’s our motto and we’ll embrace that concept when we host our two Italian wine & food experiences coming up in June.  The best wines to pair with food are from the vines that grow alongside the food itself.  Join us and ‘travel’ the length of Italy exploring this diverse country, it’s culture & cuisine – tasting as we go!

DATES:

24 June: Italy Food & Wine Tasting

30 Jun – 21 July: 4 WEEK COURSE: Italy: Food & wine from top to toe

Juniper: A humble berry or powerful elixir?

Small, slightly shrivelled with a musky, earthy aroma – it’s hard to imagine that such a humble berry could have not only held great medicinal and financial power historically, but that could also be the principal source of Gin’s aromatic smell and taste.  So we thought we’d take a closer look at this amazing berry & it’s unique story.

Let’s start with that very word – berry.  In fact, it is not a ‘berry’ in botanical terms but the female cone of the Juniper species of conifer shrub – albeit an unusually fleshy cone where the scales have merged together. But foragers, beware! There are many types of Juniper shrub; some give us this highly prized spice, others are extremely toxic.  The berry from the Juniperus communis is the one used for cooking and gin distillation & grows in N America, Northern Europe and Asia.

It’s hard to find a berry or spice that has more historical gravitas than Juniper.  The earliest recorded use dates back to 1500 BC when the Egyptians used it to treat intestinal tapeworm, among other stomach ailments. Indeed, the Egyptians had so much faith in the healing properties of Juniper that it has been found in burial chambers, alongside the deceased’s most treasured possessions.

The ‘stomach’ theme continues when we travel into Roman times where it was used for ‘purification’ of the stomach and prescribed for all conditions related to flatulence.  Such was its power over the stomach muscles that it was frequently used to bring on labour (and abortions) in unwanted pregnancies. The Greeks recognised another, more pleasant side, to Juniper and used it to boost athletic prowess at Olympic events – it was a source of stamina & muscular strength. 

These very attributes, whether real or perceived, that resulted in Juniper’s fame and reputation spreading into the middle ages and beyond.  As the Black Death spread throughout Europe, the focus of nations was on finding a cure to this crippling and life threaten disease and, of course, Juniper already had a strong reputation for dealing with stomach complaints.  Where the grim shadow of Black Death went, sales of Juniper swiftly followed.  A cure, it was not – we are, after all, discussing a berry here, not a magical panacea.

Nonetheless, Juniper now had a dedicated follower in the form of Europe as an entity and its use was widespread.  No more so than in Flanders where the first ‘eau de vie’ is reputed to have been made in 1572. Just here years later, Lucas Bols founded his first distillery and Genever was born.

At this stage, Juniper does make an appearance in English distilling recipes, but it remains a Dutch speciality for some time.  That is until the Anglo-Dutch Wars in 1674.  The valiant British bravely fought the infamously strong Dutch soldiers on the battle-field – and lost.  They were overwhelmed by the sheer strength, stamina and resilience of the Dutch army.  Just as the Greeks gave Juniper to their athletes as a performance enhancer, it is reputed that the army marched on Genever, ultimately giving them an invincible fighting edge. 

This ‘dutch courage’ so impressed the British army that Juniper and Genever was fully embraced by the British in the late 17^th century.  William of Orange claimed the British throne and so the country was awash with the Genever craze. 

It’s at this point that Juniper’s medicinal and physical properties take a back seat and its reputation grows as the source of an intoxicating liquor that captivated the, until now, abstemious British.  ‘Mother’s Ruin’ was an inevitable next step – but that’s another story.

DATES: Gin Tasting: 16 June; 8 July – Hotel du Vin, Tunbridge Wells

Wine Education: what is the real value of it?

Some of the questions we are frequently asked are: why should I take a wine course? What is its value to me? What will I gain from it?

I asked myself the very same question when I started my wine journey. Other than being a smug know-it-all, what was I actually going to gain from being able to tell the difference between Pouilly-Fume and Pouilly-Fuisse?

As it turns out, a lot. 

Prior to working in the wine industry, I worked in corporate events in London.  Yes, enjoying wine socially but not with any degree of knowledge.  Personally, I don’t enjoy not knowing about stuff – especially if I am drinking it.   So, I embarked on the Wine & Spirits Education Trust (WSET) Level 2 course in Wines. 

On day 1, my tutor asked me what I smelt in the glass of wine in front of me.  My answer?  Wine.  Just wine.  Fast forward to the end of the course and I had not only learnt to identify the vast array of wine aromas but I also had studied geography, geology, biology, culture, history, languages, chemistry, marketing and market forces.  A globally encompassing, in-depth wine course that utterly captured my attention.  

That was 15 years ago and, on the back of that one course I have been fortunate enough to travel to many wine regions, gained my Diploma in Wines, worked as a winemaker, become a Certified Wine & Spirits Educator, met as astonishing number of fascinating wine industry professionals and tasted some truly delicious wines along the way.   None of which I expected to do so back on day one of the wine course.

What can you gain from it, as a wine enthusiast?

A wine course doesn’t mean a life-changing experience for everyone. It can simply arm you with the tools you need to make better, smarter wine buying choices. 

Do you always buy the same trusted wine bottle in your weekly shop? Do you take wine as a present based on it’s attractive label? Do you always choose the second wine from the top on a restaurant wine list? If some of these actions ring bells with you, and you’d like to change those buying habits, it could be that a wine course is exactly what is called for.

In the UK, we’re increasingly concerned about the provenance of our food, especially meat & fish.  Gradually, we’re becoming better informed about its origin, the welfare of the animal & the taste of the final product.  That desire to be informed is very slowly creeping into the world of wine.  If you are consuming a product, you are better able to assess it when you are armed with great knowledge – and that comes from great education.

Professional wine courses are of equal benefit to the enthusiast as they are to the hospitality professional.  You gain the skills to assess great wine from mediocre, determine value for money, recognise labelling terminology and work out what it means to you, the consumer – just as you do with the provenance of your meat or fish.  You have to knowledge to discern a very average, mass-produced bottle from one made at a small-scale winery that focuses on great quality winemaking as much as it does on the environmental wellbeing of it’s land and vineyards sites.

All of that means, that when you part with your hard-earnt cash on a bottle of wine, you know that you will are equipped with the knowledge to make great buying choice.

How does it benefit a hospitality professional?

Here the benefit is clearer and more measurable.  Put simply, armed with good quality, accurate and relevant knowledge you can engage with your customer in a more direct, clearer & more helpful manner. By imparting your knowledge you are illustrating that your customer is in good hands – you know all about your product & you are well informed.  This knowledge, and the sharing of it with your client, directly boosts sales whether in a supermarket, specialist shop or restaurant scenario.  It not only boosts sales but also boosts the value of that sale. You customer is much more likely to feel confident and happy to pay more for a bottle of wine based on your wine knowledge.

Not only does education offer vastly improved sales, it can also add great professional benefits to your personal credentials, setting you and your team apart from a very crowded industry. 

There is still a lot of pomp and bluster in the wine industry – we prefer our students to have great quality wine education from the experts. If you have that, you don’t need ‘wine bravado’ – you can speak for yourself, with confidence, about wine. 

What is the next step?

Firstly, work out what you want to gain from a wine course? Do you want a globally recognised qualification? Maybe you already know you enjoy Spanish or French wines and want something a little more focused on your interests?

Wines & Spirits Education Trust.

Through the WSET, Kent Wine School is an Approved Provide of WSET courses offering globally recognised qualifications in wines & spirits.

Level 1: A beginner level course aimed at introducing you to the key grapes and wine styles of the world.

Level 2: A beginner to intermediate level, with no prior knowledge needed.  A more in-depth look at the key grapes of the world, the regions & styles, climate and geography.

Level 3: An advanced course requiring L2 knowledge. A detailed and thorough look at the grape growing and wine making, assessing quality and style through accurate tasting. 

Wine Scholar Guild.

WSG courses are focused on either Italy, France or Spain and offer students a fabulously in-depth masterclass into their chosen country.  It’s not just about wine – you will learn about the history, culture, grapes, regions, producers and cuisine.  A course for an enthusiast that gives you a fascinating insight into these great countries.

Wine Buying: how to make better purchasing decisions

When we meet new wine students for the first time, we like to chat about their current wine buying situation. How confident to they feel shopping for wine or choosing wine in a restaurant? Do they like to be adventurous, trying a different grape or region each time? Or stick to a ‘tried & tested’ wine that they buy week in, week out?

So, how can you improve your own wine buying power without having an expert standing next to you in the wine aisle? Here are our top tips to help you make better, smarter wine buying choices and improve your wine experience at the same time.

Don’t judge a bottle by it’s label.  Quite often, very average wine brands make up for what’s in the bottle with lots of cool, clever and funky marketing.  Many a person has bought average wine simply due to clever marketing gurus – including us!  Judge a bottle by where it’s from & the facts on the label – not it’s visual appeal.

Head off the beaten track.  A lot of the best buys are from wine regions you may not be familiar with or that you frequently head to for wine buying.  It can be scary and off putting but these regions don’t come with the prestige (read price tag) of the big names we are familiar with.  Key areas to look out for are Southern Italy, appellations within the Languedoc-Rousillon region of southern France – Fitou, Minervois, Picpoul, Corbieres – plus Spain and Portugal offer superb value for money if you stay away from the big names etc Rioja or Ribera del Duero. Spend some time looking at a few wine maps for more ideas.  The other great advantage of this buying approach is that you quickly broaden your wine knowledge and experience – plus discover new regions you might not have heard off.

Buy from the ‘satellite’ wine regions.  The ‘classic’ wine regions of the world – Chablis, Sancerre, Pouilly-Fuisse  – are a source of wonderfully complex wines but, due to their provenance, the do come with often a substantial price tag attached.  A great way to buy a wine that’s very similar to the wines of classic regions but considerably less in price is to buy from the ‘satellite’ wine regions – those regions that surround the ‘classic’ area.  You’ll often find the grape variety is the same, the climate & soil are very similar and, broadly speaking, the aroma & flavour of the wine are comparable.  So grab a wine map from the internet and get exploring!

Narrow down the region on the label:  If you buy a wine that says “Chardonnay; SOUTH EAST AUSTRALIA” you are buying a very big brand of bulk wine – the quality simply won’t be that great.  A better approach is to try and get the regional name on the label to be as small as possible for example Adelaide Hills, a small hillside area of vines in South Australia, which is in turn inside the catch-all South East Australia region.   Because you’ve gone to a small region you are much more likely to be buying ‘personal’ wines – wines with a story behind them, a sense of place and craftsmen and women making them.  You might end up paying a touch more but, overall, the quality will be infinitely better. The major benefit is that the wine will have a real sense of being and place – reflecting the character of the hillside or region it’s from.  So, even if you’ve never heard of the named region before, if it’s a valley or hill or small area within a larger zone, you’re on the right track.

Buy lesser known grapes.  Give something new a go – maybe try a Tannat wine, perhaps a Bobal, or a Petit Syrah? They are not as well known, nor as marketable, as Sauvignon Blanc or Chardonnay and so frequently sell at lower prices.  A Bobal from Spain, a Tannat from Madiran (France) or perhaps Uruguay offer unusual options to seek out.

Drink less and buy better.  We pay a fixed amount on any bottle of wine to HMRC – around £2.23 per 75cl plus VAT. Which means around 50% of the cost of a £5 bottle is taxation.  Once you then take off the cost of marketing, importing, labelling, the bottle, transportation etc you then end up with a very small proportion of that £5 going to the vineyard grower for his grapes.  You can’t expect good quality at that price.  If you up your per bottle spend to £10, the taxation stays the same which means the grapes that went into that wine ‘cost’ considerably more – which means much better quality for you.  So maybe a few nights off wine followed by a night of enjoying a great quality bottle? Easy to write on paper – perhaps harder to follow in practice!

Dates for your diary:

Saturday Introduction to Wine Tasting & Lunch: 22^nd May

Introduction to Wine Tasting: 3^rd June

Posh v Plonk Wine Tasting: 9^th June.

Wines with Altitude: It’s all about finding balance.

For those of you who have joined our wine tastings before, you will have heard our lead tutor, Victoria Aldwinckle, endlessly mentioning the word altitude or elevation.  As wine experts, we constantly seek out wines grown at higher elevations and always encourage our wine students to do the same.  But why? What exactly is all the fuss about high altitude wines?  And, perhaps most importantly, how does it affect what we’re tasting in the glass?

What is high altitude wine?

Unsurprisingly in the world of wine, we already find ourselves in a slightly grey area! In many countries in Europe, high altitude might be considered anything above 500m above sea level.  In Argentina, this elevation would be deemed to be the ‘flatlands’ by the locals.  In the northern wine growing regions of Argentina, vineyards are regularly at 2,500m – 3,000m.  So, we’re looking at land over 500m for the impact of altitude on the wine we’re tasting.

What is the effect of altitude in the vineyard?

According to Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine, temperature falls about 0.6°C per 100m of elevation.  This fall in temperature allows vineyards nearer to the equator, or in areas deemed too hot for grape growing, to be successfully planted. This also enables warm climate regions (think Australia) to produce a lighter style of wine, more akin to a cooler climate.  With altitude we also experience an increase in the diurnal temperature range (the difference between the maximum day and night temperatures). In vineyards in France, this range can be around 10°C but in the vineyards of Cafayate (Argentina) it can be up to 30°C.   The other aspect for consideration is UV radiation. We all experience the results of increased exposure to UV light when we head out skiing or walking in the mountains – the same happens to the vines in a vineyard.  Studies show that this leads to increased phenolic development – to you and I, that means aroma & flavour!  So how does this affect what we taste?

How does altitude effect the vines and what we taste in the bottle?

These unique ripening conditions lead to a very specific set of characteristics developing in wines from high altitude sites.   Yes, grape variety and region all play a part, but the overall traits remain the same.  The huge range in temperatures that we find at altitudes means the grapes both ripen and retain their acidity in any 24hr window.  The heat of the day ensures rich, ripe fruit aromas develop in the fruit whilst the sudden plummeting of temperatures at night results in the grapes clinging onto their racy acidity levels.    Rather than just having a wine that tastes like it’s from a very warm climate (think tropical fruit, full bodied, high alcohol) we get a refreshing, delightfully zippy wine that has huge finesse and quality to it.  Not only do high altitude wines show hints of that warm climate character but they are married beautifully with lively acidity, fresh citrus & green fruit notes.  The result? Quite simply, the wines show markedly increased complexity, with aromas from across the fruit spectrum, balanced beautifully by the wonderful acidity.   For us wine lovers, this means that we get a more complex, more interesting wine that has great balance – all the attributes we look for when wanting a food friendly wine that’s equally as thrilling to taste on it’s own.

Which regions should be look to?

Finding vineyard sites with higher elevations is key to top-quality wine production in the warmest grape growing regions.  The New World offers plenty of these if you know where to look.  The heat of Australia produces some seriously full bodied, rich wines but if you moderate that with altitude, you can find wonderfully intriguing and considerably more subtle wines.  Adelaide Hills and Clare Valley ( S Australia) have vineyards at just below 500m and produce delicious Rieslings & Sauvignon Blancs.  In Europe, the Trentino-Alto Adige region of N Italy offers an array of hillside wines that taste like a glass of fresh mountain air.  The real home to high altitude wines has to be Argentina – most vineyards like above 1000m.  For some serious height, head north away from Mendoza to the regions of Salta and Cafayate.  The malbecs from this area are vibrant and lively – blackberry and smoky oak flavours lifted by bright acidity and perfumed, floral aromas.  For the whites, the grape variety Torontes grows really well here producing bright, floral, aromatic wines with tropical fruit notes balanced with a citrus back note.

Discover more: ONLINE WINE TASTING of wines from CHILE & ARGENTINA: 20 & 27 MAY.