Oremus Furmint - Hungary's not so little secret

For those of you that are not in the industry the idea of going to work and tasting wines for an hour seems like the dream job (and it is) but it also performs a couple of very important tasks.

The tastings gives us a chance to check how the wine is performing and to see if it's improving or maybe hitting the end of its life and they also gives us the opportunity to reacquaint ourselves with some of the wines we take for granted. In the tasting we held the other day it was actually the first time I had tried one of our unique Hungarian fine wines.

Ok, granted, Hungary is not the first country that comes to mind when you mention fine wine. The wines they are most renown for are their delightful Tokaji desert wines and it's likely that you have never heard of the Furmint grape.

The wine we were tasting was the 2004 Oremus Furmint Dry Mandolas a variety pioneered by Oremus. Now the first thing that you will notice is a very dark and rich colour that you would normally associate with a desert wine. Don't let this put you off as nothing could be further from the truth.

The nose is full of tropical fruit and rich lychee with a touch of honey hidden at the end. The tropical fruits greet the palate again but this time I found passionfruit, complete with seeds, showing through and the fresh acidity left my mouth clean and refreshed. Being aged in Oak I expected this wine to be a bit heavier but it is definitely a medium weight wine.

I found it very interesting that everyone at the tasting immediately thought of food and in particular Asian food. Don't get me wrong, the wine would be great by itself but we realised how well it would complement the food.

For me I wished for a Thai Papaya Salad with the tang of lime juice and the heat of the chilies and that's exactly what I'll be pairing it with this weekend.

SALES PITCH WARNING: this wine is available in 2003, 2004 and 2005 for only $140. If you are interested in trying it let me know.

Dean

Burgundy, Part 1b: Cote de Nuits (The Grand Cru legends and hangers on)

Here is Part 2 of Lee Watsons look at Burgundy.

  

This is in the heartland of Grand Cru red wine, the heart land of the Cote de Nuits and the heart land of the history of the Cote de Nuits with the Cistercian Monks building the huge wall around the now biggest Grand Cru appellation called Clos de Vougeot. I personally love Clos de Vougeot, as you can pick up some great wines at an affordable price. The Echezeaux also you can pick up some great wines at an affordable price, but some Vosne-Romanee’s can demand a very high price. Let me tell you a little bit about these next 3 appellations that could all fit in the whole of Gevrey-Chambertin together, they are the most famous and some of the most expensive Pinot Noir wines in the world.

  Vougeot:

The famous and controversial Grand Cru in Burgundy ‘Clos de Vougeot’. Its controversial because of the Grand Cru Status, the soil here has a sandy structure and produces a ripe wine that’s plump and lush, but can lack the depth of a Grand Cru at the level of Richbourg, Romanee St. Vivant or Musigny. Traditionally the area was graded on location, lower slopes the poorest quality were Cuvees des Moines (wine for Monks), the middle slopes were Cuvee des Rois (wine for Kings), the top of the slopes produced the best quality and were called Cuvee des Papes (wine for Popes). Choose your wine now though on the grower not the location. Just because it says Clos de Vougeot on the label it cannot always guarantee a Grand Cru fine wine. There are 1er Cru and village wines under Vougeot, but I feel it might be worth sourcing and spending your money on a 1er Cru from either Gevrey-Chambertin or maybe Nuits St George just to name an example.

 Flagey-Echezeaux: (pronounced “ E-shoe-zoo”)

This commune is normally mentioned together with Vosne-Romanee unless it’s under Grand Cru. Flagey has two Grand Crus; Grand Echezeaux (9,ha) and Echezeaux (37,ha) and in size they are similar to Clos de Vougeot (50,ha) and carry the similar status to connoisseurs as a second division Grand Cru. To put the size in to perspective, the top Grand Cru Romanee-Conti is only 1.8 ha. The 1er Cru in Flagey is all labelled as Vosne-Romanee. You can find some great Echezeaux at good value and the Grand Echezeaux will generally be a little higher in price as the wine is generally richer with more intensity of black fruits and some gamey flavours.

  Vosne-Romanee:

When you say the words Romanee-Conti it creates an image of the greatest Pinot Noir in Burgundy, but to some like me, Romanee-Conti means in English “an unobtainable wine”. This whole region can be unobtainable to some even the 1er Crus demand a high price. The region holds 6 of the 24 Grand Crus of Cote de Nuits (Romanee-Conti, La Romanee, La Tache, Richbourg, Romanee-Saint-Vivant, La Grand Rue). Echezeaux Grand Cru still produces more wine than all these Grand Crus together, that’s how small they are from 0.85 ha of La Romanee the smallest appellation Controlee in France to 9.4 ha of Romanee-Saint-Romanee. Vosne-Romanee and Flagey-Echezeaux are a good place to look out for 1er Crus, there are 14 and start on the slope about 500 meters from the main road (RN74). Between the 1er Crus and the main road are all labelled under Vosne-Romanee, which any in my mind are worth looking for.

Our recommendations:

            Jacques Prieur, Clos de Vougeot, Grand Cru,             2004 $1,105

            Jacques Prieur, Clos de Vougeot, Grand Cru,             2006 $1,115

            Jacques Prieur, Echezeaux, Grand Cru,                    2004 $1,785

Jacques Prieur, Echezeaux, Grand Cru,                    2006 $1,820

From the Glass of Tim Burvill

Many articles have been written about the current oversupply issues the Australian Wine Industry is facing at the moment so I contacted RockBare wine maker Tim Burvill to see if he could give us a 'grass roots' perspective on this situation. Tim was kind enough to drag himself away from a poolside McLaren Vale Chardonnay and share his views.

The issues of the AWI have been well documented by the mainstream media over the past 12 months.  So, without going into too much detail, we have a situation where the annual grape harvest (in 2010 it is predicted to be 1.8 million tonnes or 140 million dozen) is about 30% above requirements.  The area of grapevines planted in Australia doubled between 1997 to 2007 to 164,000 hectares, and such a massive increase in plantings has lead to a predictable surplus.  Compounding the problem has been the over-dependence of the AWI on a few large players which got bigger and bigger every few years as mergers and acquisitions took place (and might I add, most at completely over-inflated prices).  Throw in a global financial crisis, an appreciating Australian dollar, huge write-downs on the recent acquisitions,  and coupled with the inability of these large Australian wine corporations to be able to effectively market a sell large and diverse wine brand portfolio's, and we find our self in our present position. 

It will be very interesting to see how all of this plays out.  Grape growers are the ones really bearing the brunt of the industry's problems.  Since the large wineries, which were taking the majority of the crop previously, have opted out of the grape market, most grape growers coming out of contract are struggling to find a home for their fruit.  This in turn is resulting in very low fruit prices being offered by these out-of-contract grower.  How long will these growers be able to sustain growing crops in which they lose money on?  We will undoubtedly see vineyard pulled out, particularly in the newer grape growing regions that lack strong brands competing for their fruit.

The other sector of the industry hurting is the small wineries which were reliant on selling a container or two of wine to the USA and UK every year.  These sales for the most part have ground to a halt, and causing cash-flow and over-stock issues.  This is further exacerbating the low grape prices, as these smaller wineries which for the most part played in the high-priced fruit sector, also opt out of the grape market whilst they concentrate on selling through the stock in their warehouse.

 All sounds pretty grim doesn't it?  Well, it's not all doom and gloom.  In fact, some Australian wine companies have never had it better.  Wineries with strong brands, and solid finances are finding their market share increasing.  Yes, you read correctly, increasing.   We are are seeing a period of strong brands cementing their position in the market, and improving their footprint as they ride above the price-discount melee occurring below them.  Indeed, quality fruit has never been cheaper, nor have growers ever been more inclined to grow and crop their fruit as the wineries wish them to.  A New World Order is being created in the AWI at present.  For the most part, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th generation family owned wine companies are the ones charging ahead.  They have seen all of this before (crashes in the industry) and for the most part are well prepared.  They still offer the consumer a product with integrity- from who owns it, to who makes it, and that their brand cannot be found being trashed in the big supermarkets.   Also on the rise are the wineries who have partnered with importers/distributors on their brand.  These type of relationships give both the winery and the sales partner the confidence to invest additional time, focus and marketing dollars to the brand.  I think it will be very rare moving forward for any new brands to be solely owned from vineyard to the brand.  The capital requirement and risk is simply too high to make it a viable in the ultra competitive world wine market.

 One thing can be certain as we charge into the 2010 harvest.  By the end of this year, we will be operating in a very different market to the one we started the year in.

 Cheers

Tim

If you have an opinion on the subject please feel free to post it here and if you have anything you would like wine makers to answer please feel free to ask.

Dean

Marketing Australian Wines

Oz Clarke is in Australia at the moment and he shared his views on where the wine industry might be going wrong with its marketing approach. (click Here for full story)


I wonder if this applies to other markets around the world?

Would the 'Larakin Aussie' work in China?

I would be interested in your comments.

Dean

Burgundy, Part 1a: Cote de Nuits (The King & Queen with their consort)

Lee Watson is sales manager at Saveurs International  and thought you might like some more information on some of the popular French regions. Here is the first part of three on Burgundy, Cote de Nuits. 


Cote de Nuits is such a small place and has some of the best pinot noir red wines produced in the world. Many will say the best in the world. Here is a brief outline on what to go for when it comes to choosing wines from the Cote de Nuits.

What’s the best commune? What’s the best wine? Well let’s stick with a few communes that you are likely to find in Hong Kong. We will start with the north to south of Cote de Nuits  in the first 3 blogs. Then we will move on to Cote de Beaune.

·         Gevrey-Chambertin:

There are 26 Premier Crus and 9 Grand Cru’s. The wines are sumptuous, full and sturdy, rich and masculine. They can even be more flamboyant than Vosne-Romanee and more substantial than Chambolle Musigny. Choose this wine if you want to have in my mind the King style of Cote de Nuits and even Cote d’ Or. Be careful when buying villages level as the commune to the north is called Brochon and has 50 hectares that can label their wine as Gevrey-Chambertin villages and these wines can be up and down in quality so you need to know the growers, same goes for the east of the main road (RN74 that runs the length of Cote d’Or) in Gevrey-Chambertin these wines can be lighter in style. Look out for the most west of the commune and into the Premier Crus up to the slope, one in particular is called Clos St Jacques which some critics have said it deserves Grand Cru status.

·         Morey-Saint-Denis:

There are 20 Premier Crus and 4 Grand Crus with a little of Chambolle’s Grand Cru to the south called Bonnes Mares. I could easily explain these wines as being a little bit of both the communes to the north and south, it’s generally not as sturdy as the wines from the north (Gevrey-Chambertin) and not as fragrant as the wines from the south (Chambolle-Musigny). The main Grand Cru here to look out for is Clos de Tart, described as full-bodied but feminine, good cherry fruit and robust tannins.

·         Chambolle-Musigny:

If Gevrey-Chambertin in the north is the King then Chambolle-Musigny is the Queen with its delicate wines. It has only 2 Grand Crus with Bonnes Mares having 1 ½ Hectares in Morey-Saint-Denis to the north. There are 24 Premier Crus. This is a large area so if you know where your favourite grower is you can have an idea about the wines. Premier Crus to the north are generally sturdier and to the south they become light and delicate. The best wine is the Grand Cru Musigny; this Grand Cru is in the premier league of the whole of Cote d’Or. Production is small as always is in Burgundy, so if you can afford it and you are lucky to get you hands on some then you can experience the delight of a top Pinot Noir.

Our recommendations:

Masculine:
  Antonin Rodet, Gevrey Chambertin,                2005     $365

  Jacques Prieur, Gevrey Chambertin, 1er Cru 2006     $645

  Jacques Prieur, Chambertin Grand Cru,         2004  $1,845

Feminine:   
  Antonin Rodet, Chambolle Musigny,                2004     $405

  Jacques Prieur, Musigny Grand Cru,               2006  $3,485

2009 Vintage Report Ribera del Duero

I recently asked the hardworking team at Valduero in the Ribera del Duero, Spain, if they could give us some insight into the 2009 vintage for them. This is what they had to say:

Having become accustomed to very stressful and busy vintages, we have to recognize that this has been one of the most relaxing we have had in the last few years.

At the beginning of September we had a very high Baume and feared that the harvest would have to start a lot sooner than usual. Suddenly the Baume stabilized at 13º, while the phenolic ripening (the skin, the seeds, the tannins) continued at a good pace. From then on we didn’t get a drop of rain. Consequently, the grape did not receive any water and the components didn’t dilute.

In the end, it was very dry at harvest, which made the work in the field a lot easier. There is even a chance that this could be one of the best vintages of the past 5 years, closely competing with 2004.

With regard to the white Albillo; due to the lack of rain we had a very healthy grape that allowed us to delay the harvest until the 16th of October, something very unusual. That same night we were lucky enough to see the temperature drop to 0º, so the grape entered the winery at a really low temperature, producing a very good maceration prior to fermentation.

This vintage, we have again been among the last five wineries in Ribera de Duero to finish the harvest, putting phenolic ripening as a priority. This differentiates us from many of the other wineries in the Valladolid area. 

So it all sounds very promising. Export Manager, Roger Matthews, went on to say that the 2009 has recently been released and is already showing the quality they expected. "Bursting with apricot and ripe peach" he says.

Dean.