|
|
I have just written up a review of the wonderful wines of Lethbridge, from Australia’s Geelong region, not far from Melbourne. I really liked them, and you can read the review here.
I’ve not visited it, but the winery is actually quite remarkable. Think Grand Designs. It is built out of straw bales, by a company named Huff n’ Puff Constructions (with whose permission I have reproduced these photos here).
It’s a really environmentally friendly way to build because of the insulating properties of the straw.
 Budapest The last day of my Hungarian visit. I was in Budapest for the awards ceremony for the Pannon Wine Challenge.
I spent the morning catching up with Agnes Herczeg, CEO of Grof Buttler winery and MW student, and then it was off to the Gerbeaud, for a very grand awards ceremony and lunch. I had to give a short speech on behalf of the judges, and then we presented certificates to the winning wineries. The food was superb, and accompanied by some lovely wines.
The judges table (above). Below, a rather nice starter based on a thin layer of perch carpaccio.
A beautiful duck liver (above). Below, a really innovative label. The bull is made up of the component grape varieties. Really clever (Bikaver = Bull’s Blood).
Below: Tara is looking forward to her glass of Szepsy, and Alder and Isabelle present some awards.
I was born in the season when Manchester City last won the league. We’re talking football here (association football, or soccer, for those outside Europe).
It was called the 1st Division then. Since it has been renamed the Premiership. I’ve always been a City fan. I was born in Manchester and my family background is blue (City play in a sky blue strip). For as long as I can remember, City have been in the shadow of their Manchester rivals, United. Today they won the league beating United by goal difference in the most dramatic way possible.
City needed to match the result of Manchester UTD to win. With just a couple of minutes to go, they were losing, and scored twice in remarkable circumstances to snatch victory from the jaws to defeat. There has never been a premier league season like this; there has never been an end to a season like this.
This victory called for Champagne. Two bottles broached.
Champagne Laurent Perrier 2002
A full yellow/gold colour. Highly aromatic with notes of toast, pear and citrus with some pithiness. The palate is taut and crisp with powerful citrus, hazelnut, grapefruit pith, white peach and toast notes. Youthful and intense, this is fine, structured and savoury. 92/100
Champagne Thienot Brut Rose NV
Pale salmon pink colour. Lovely subtle cherry and rose petal nose. The palate has rounded, toasty fruit. It’s delicate and precise with nice acidity. There’s a bit of structure here, too. 90/100
Find these wines with wine-searcher.com
 Tara Q Thomas and Wojciech Boknowski taking snaps of winning bottles It is a measure, perhaps, of how good some of the wines in the Pannon Wine Challenge were that when the winners were unveiled at the end of tasting, the judges all crowded round with cameras and iPhones in order to photograph the winning bottles.
 Some of the star wines The best wines in the challenge were superb. It has made me determined to follow what is going on in Hungary with a close eye in the future. Yes, there are some problems with high-end reds that are picked too late and subjected to an oxidative winemaking regime. But there are also lovely complex wines with great definition, and superb local grape varieties.
 Vineyards on the shores of lake Balaton After judging was complete, we left Pannonhalm for lake Balaton, where we visited Istvan Jásdi. He’s been making wine here, in the Csopak region on the shores of the lake, since 1999.
He caught the wine bug during 5 years spent in Paris, and when he sold his company, aged 50, he sunk his money into this small domaine that was established by 1853 and which had, at one stage, been owned by a local bishop.
 Istvan Jasdi He specializes in Olaszrizling (Welscher Riesling), which does good things here, acting as an interpreter of terroir. Two vineyards, just a couple of metres apart, produce very distinctive and different expressions, and the only difference is the soil.
Jásdi took us to his atmospheric cellar, and showed us some cask samples. We also tried some bottled wines, and the remarkable thing is the positive way his wines develop with age, as 2002 and 2004 vintage wines showed. ‘It is not acidity but the minerality that gives this ageing potential,’ says Jásdi. He cites a friend who has loess soils, and whose wines have half the ageing potential. ‘He is a much better winemaker than me but my wines age better.’
Another full day of judging Hungarian wines. We spent the morning finishing tasting all 300 in our groups of three and then in the afternoon joined together, to retaste all the wines that had got through the cut.
 John Szabo It’s a great way of judging because we all get to taste all the good wines. My favourites included a really vivid Kekfrankos and a hauntingly beautiful, peppery Syrah. In general, the Hungarian varieties have done better than the international ones, however.
 John Szabo, Laszlo Romsics and Tara Q Thomas After judging, a few of us chose to visit the Benedictine Abbey here in Pannonhalma, which has its own winery. Pannonhalma is actually a wine region, and has 650 hectares of vines. The Abbey is the biggest wine producer in the region with 52 hectares, and they do a good job, making lovely precise, pure wines.
I’m here in Hungary, judging the Pannon Wine Challenge 2012.
There’s a nice group of judges this year. Three panels, each led by Hungarians, with two international judges on each.
 Gyor The local judges are Gabriella Mézáros, András Kató and László Romsics, and the international judges are Alder Yarrow, Tara Q Thomas, Isabelle Legeron, Wojciech Bonkowski, John Szabo and me.
 Isabelle Legeron We’re staying in Győr, a pretty town roughly equidistant between Budapest and Vienna. The judging itself is taking place at the Pannohalma Arch Abbey in the restaurant/conference centre Viator.
 Alder and Gabrielle It’s a fine set up for judging: each of us logs in on our laptops and enters a score and a tasting note for each wine directly into the system. We discuss the wines as we go. As there are 300 entered, we can give each one the attention it deserves.
 Wojciech Yesterday we covered the whites and about half the reds. Some great Furmints, some lovely Hárslevelűs, and for the reds I enjoyed some of the Kékfrankos wines, as well as the odd Kadarka. Merlot and Chardonnay were less impressive.
Some more notes from wines drunk on Sunday evening. Three from Bordeaux, in fact. The two reds were served with butterfly leg of lamb, grilled on the barbie.
It turned out to be quite a traditional evening, kicking off with fizz and then turning to Bordeaux. Nothing wrong with that.
The surprise here was Le Dôme, which when young would have probably been quite a sleek modern wine, but which has aged pretty elegantly. Just 13% alcohol, which is low by the standards of today. The Gruaud Larose tasted a bit bretty to me, and won’t get any better, but it is so tasty now. The Yquem was lovely: not supposedly a great vintage of this wine, but it’s a lovely wine indeed.
Château Le Dôme 1996 Saint Emilion, Bordeaux
13% alcohol. Beautifully aromatic with sweet black cherry, plum, blackberry and spice notes. The palate has a lovely savoury, mineral quality with some earthy notes. Hints of undergrowth and herbs. Drinking very well now. 94/100
Château Gruaud Larose 2000 Saint Julien, Bordeaux
12.5% alcohol. Meaty, spicy and intense with a nice savoury, gravelly, smoky, spicy edge to the dark fruits. A bit tarry, animal and spicy, with some cedary notes. Drinking well now, so I wouldn’t keep it much longer. 93/100
Château d’Yquem 1998 Sauternes, Bordeaux
13.5% alcohol. Rich gold colour. Lovely nose of toast, apricot, peach and nuts. The palate is rich, sweet, honeyed and viscous with peach, spice and tangerine notes. Intense with lovely weight, Fabulous stuff. 95/100
Cracking dinner last night over at my sister and brother-in-law’s pad. We decided we’d open some nice bottles, and so we began with some fizz. Initially, we’d planned on two bottles to start (between four; we had some decent Bordeaux to follow), but we got into the swing of things and b-in-law William brought out a bottle of Krug for some comparative tasting.
Three completely different Champagnes, any of which would have made the evening. But to have the three together was a treat indeed. And I also love it when you can open a special bottle and not only take a tasting pour, but actually drink the stuff. That’s the point of wine, isn’t it? In the trade we run the danger of tasting too much and drinking too little.
The Selosse and Clos des Goisses both had edges. The Krug was much more accessible: beautifully put together and balanced, yet without as much personality.
Champagne Philipponnat Clos des Goisses 2001
Deep yellow colour. Very intense and savoury with some richness, showing notes of peach, nuts, apricot and toast. Really fresh as well as being powerful with some red berry fruit hints and a lively citrussy finish. Just fabulous for the lowly 2001 vintage. 95/100
Champagne Jacques Selosse Initial Grand Cru Blancs des Blancs NV
Discorged on 13 May 2011, this is made from grapes from Avize, Cramant and Oger. Initially on opening the nose is surprisingly oxidative with notes of apple and cider. After a while, these recede a little to reveal a fresh, cirsp, taut wine with notes of lemon, herb and apple pie as well as subtle toastiness. Distinctive stuff in an oxidative style yet still fresh and linear. 94/100
Champagne Krug NV
Very accessible, delicious and easy to love with rounded sweet aromatics of toast, honeycomb and butter. The palate is taut, crisp, complex and toasty with some citrussy freshness and great balance. Everything is working together here. Very drinkable. 93/100
Find these wines with wine-searcher.com
So. This is not an essay or technical paper on reduction. Rather, it’s a few thoughts, prompted by a glass of wine.
Reduction is, of course, a misnomer. It refers to volatile sulfur compounds produced by yeasts during fermentation, and it is perfectly possible to have a wine showing both volatile sulfur compounds (reduction) and oxidation
I have recently had three red Burgundies from the same producer, all 2010s, which have shown marked reduction. The latest was this evening, and the wine was close to undrinkable, although I think this is a problem that may resolve in time. Besides, this was a cask sample.
Reduction is one of the most interesting wine faults, because it’s often not a wine fault. The wine this evening didn’t have the eggy hydrogen sulfide reduction, which is nasty. [Anyway, I rarely come across that in finished wines.] It had a more complex reduction, with strong matchstick, spice and flint notes.
A quick test with an old copper penny (from 1966, when they were still made of copper) removed the reduction almost completely, suggesting it is mercaptans (aka thiols) rather than disulfides (which can’t be removed this way). I think that modern pennies are actually copper plated, so they should work as well, but to be sure, I prefer to use an old one.
What is interesting about reduction is that not only does it change the nose of a wine, but it also changes the palate. It makes it less elegant, more savoury, and distinctly tight and grippy. Even without a lot of evidence of reduction on the nose, you can find some changes on the palate of reduced wines.
I think that reduction is actually pretty common. More common than we think. But I also think it can add wonderful complexity to some wines. I don’t like it on Pinot Noir, but I quite like it on Syrah. Most of all, I love Chardonnay with a bit of matschstick reduction. It just seems to work so well.
Headed off to meet with some friends at lunchtime. The meeting place was interesting: the Museum of London, Docklands. I’ve lived in London since 1992, but there are still places I’ve never been in the capital. This was one of them.
I visit the Docklands rarely, and it’s a bit like visiting another city. The musuem was opened in 2003, and occupies an old warehouse in Canary Wharf. It’s free, and because I arrived a little early I had a look around. I was gripped (I love history, although I never really studied it at school), and will be back. It tells the story of this interesting part of London from ancient history to the present.
Then it was off to the Majestic press tasting. Overall quality was admirably consistent, and below are some of my favourites.
Fabulously rich yet well defined Cotes du Rhone Villages Plan de Dieu from Domaine Durieu (£8.99 offer price)
One of New Zealand’s best Pinot Noirs – silky, smooth, elegant – expensive but worth it.
One of the world’s best Viogniers, and just £10.99. Stunning.
Just a tenner for this utterly world class off-dry Riesling.
Love the label on this quite serious, ripe, open Spanish Grenache (Garnacha). At £8 a steal (Salvage del Moncayo La Garnacha 2010).
|
About  This is the blog of wine journalist Jamie Goode, online since 2001. Feel free to nose around; your comments are welcomed.
|
