Harvest with Harrow & Hope

I was lucky to be invited by Kaye Laithwaite to join the harvest of Pinot Noir grapes on the Harrow & Hope vineyard this morning. I have to say it is back-breaking work and I am amazed at the seasoned pickers who work from 7am-7pm, but I left with a sense of achievement that comes from hard work and a full stomach thanks to the gorgeous Barbara Laithwaite who served a delicious lunch. 

H&H hand pick their grapes allowing selection of prime grapes with minimal damage, which is important for this small vineyard. Hand-picking grapes is also important for regions with steep aspects, such as Mosel, Duoro, and Northern Rhône. Mechanical picking can't be used for wines that require whole-bunch grapes, such as Champagne and Beaujolais. As you would expect, machine harvesting is cheaper and easier, but can also be valuable for night-picking which is required for Sauvignon Blanc grapes which over-ripen very quickly once picked.

The juice that was pressed this morning by Henry Laithwaite was like no grape juice I've ever tasted, it was intense, refined, and like nectar. I can't wait to try the Harrow & Hope English sparkling wine that my grapes make!

If you would like to find out more about the story of Harrow & Hope and the wines they make, take a look at their website www.harrowandhope.com

If you would like to learn how to grow vines or make wine, you can take courses at Plumpton College in Sussex www.plumpton.ac.uk

If you want to work in vineyards in the UK, or need help setting up your own vineyard, get in touch with Vine Works www.vine-works.com

How is Sangiovese different from Pinot Noir?

So, in one of my blind tastings as practice for my WSET Advanced I was told a wine I was tasting was not a pinot noir, but I found out it was a Burgundy (an easy mistake to make - check my previous post on how to tell what grapes are in French wine http://princessandthepinot.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/how-can-you-tell-which-grapes-are-in.html

One of my guesses was a Sangiovese, so I had to learn what makes Pinot Noir different from Sangiovese. Here are my notes:
Appearance: Both are ruby, but sangiovese is medium intensity, PN is light
Nose: Both med+ (the ones I tasted anyway)
Aromas: Both Cherry and plum, S=blackcurrant, PN=strawberry
Mouth: Both dry, low acidity, low body, but WOW S=high tannin, PN=low tannin BOOM!
Flavours: Both strawberry, cherry, plum
OK, tannin is the differentiater, take note all you WSETers.

Next... how is Nebbiolo different?

How can you tell which grapes are in French wines?

So I am given a glass of a light red wine, and before tasting "It's pinot noir!" I exclaim. "No, it isn't" my friend replies, with the knowledge of having chosen it for me to blind taste as practice for my WSET Advanced course.

"Oh, well what is it..." I ponder. Right, lets do this properly.
Appearance: light intensity, ruby, clear, med legs.
Nose: Clean, med+ intensity, developed.
Aromas: raspberry, cherry, plum, strawberry, rosehip, strawberry sweets, cherry jolly rancher.
Mouth: low intensity, dry, low acidity, low tannin, light body, medium alcohol
Flavours: strawberry, cherry, plum.
Quality: short length, acceptable quality, drink now not for ageing, inexpensive.

OK, so its not pinot noir... grenache? a rubbish pinotage? sangiovese? none of them make sense.

What is it? Roncier Burgundy 12.5% Vin de France. Ah! An understandable mistake - my friend doesn't realise that Burgundy is pinot noir, "it doesn't say it on the label". One of the "tricks" about French wine is that they expect you to know whats in the bottle from the minimal labelling terms they use. This is a common mistake.

As a basic rule of thumb:
Burgundy red = pinot noir
Burgundy white = chardonnay
Chablis = chardonnay
Beaujolais = gamay
Rhone red = syrah (aka Shiraz)
Bordeaux red = cabernet sauvignon and merlot
Loire white = chenin blanc or sauvignon blanc

Hope that helps!
Let me know if you need to know others and I'll put together a more comprehensive list.

English Wine

There is a lot good to say about English wine, its often better than you think it is... but you have to be careful about what you choose and where from. My favourites are Nyetimber, Sharpham, Chapel Down, Camel Valley and Ridgeview. The best of English is sparkling (or Espa as I call it). I had Nyetimber at my wedding, which was a great choice for something different, less alienating than Champagne and has more oomph than prosecco. Try the Classic Cuvee.

About 18 months ago a friend took me to Highdown Estate for a tour of the vineyard and a tasting afterwards. Unfortunately they don't make sparkling so we tried their white, rose and red wines instead. It's a shame that all the wines we tried that year (it was a particularly bad year for sunshine hours, so less ripening of grapes),  which meant less flavour complexity, and high acidity. I had confidence in the winemaker, so bought a not-available (i.e. kept for sale to family members and friends only) bottle of Albert's Reserve Pinot Noir. It was suggested in hush tones that I lay it down for a year to allow the fruit to develop. I did so by placing it at the back of my wine store, and opened it 18 months later. I think I left it too long.

My tasting notes are below, and the right flavours are there for a good pinot noir, but it was past its best and had quite a watery consistency. My suggestion would be to support your local vineyards and try their wines, but be careful about opening them at the right time (try a year after harvest). If you're not a risk-taker,  my suggestion would be to stick to the bigger names (above) and get to know the sparklings. There really are some great English wines, but you have to be willing to experiment. I have two Sharphams in my cupboard, a white and a rose, and I can't wait until the sun is next out to get tasting those. I'll let you know how I get on!

Albert's Reserve Highdown Estate Pinot Noir (can't remember price)
Ruby colour with low intensity.
Low intensity on the nose, clean, with a hay and barnyard aroma.
Low acidity, low tanning, medium alcohol.
Flavours of water - quite a watery consistency and low intensity flavours.
Raspberry, cranberry, damp, wet soil, mushrooms still in the ground, supermarket strawberries.
Would guess it is inexpensive (it wasn't), and past its best.

Quite a shame, its my fault, and would be willing to give it another go... that is, if they sold this to the public at the time it was ready to drink. Not sure I'd be willing to wait another 18 months!

The difference between Champagne and other sparkling wines

The main difference is where its from, but also the grape varieties used, and the method by which bubbles are put into the wine.

Champagne is from Reims (pronounced "Rams" but with a rolling 'R' and silent 'm' and 's') and Epernay in Northern France, and can only be labelled as such if its from the AC region. Only three grape varieties are permitted to be used in Champagne: Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier,and Chardonnay. The Pinot Noir adds structure and weight to the wine, Cardonnay brings finesse and elegance, and the Pinot Meunier provides the fruit. A 'Blanc de Blancs' is a Champagne made only from Chardonnay (white) grapes, and a 'Blanc de Noirs' is only made from the black grapes (Pinot Noir and Meunier). Even though red grapes are used for making Champagne, it is white because the skins are removed before pressing. It is very important not to break the skins while picking the grapes, so must be picked by hand which adds to the cost of the wine. Champagnes is the only AOC in France that allows mixing red and white wine to make rose (rather than maceration of red skins in the fermentation process. Champagne is dry with high acidity, medium body, and light alcohol. Its character is green and citrus fruit, which can be accompanied by autolytic flavours (biscuit and toast). 'Cuvee' will mean the house blend, which will taste the same year on year and comes from a mixture of grapes from a mixture of years, whereas 'Vintage' will mean all the grapes come from the same year and will only be produced in very good years. Vintages 2002 and 2007, particularly the former, should be bought now.

The Champagne Method (for a bottle to be labelled 'Champagne' it has to be done this way) is a double fermentation in the bottle, where the second fermentation follows disgorging (where the yeast from the first fermentation is removed by freezing the neck of the bottle, opening it and allowing the pressure of the CO2 to pop out the yeast) and dosage (topping up the bottle with wine and sugar). Other regions, such as Cava, use this method but must call it the Traditional or Classic method.

Cava is found in North-East Spain and uses local Spanish grapes and uses the Traditional Method. Cava has lower acidity than Champagne, because it comes from a warmer climate, so can taste a bit musty with its neutral fruit and sometimes pear flavours.

Cremant also uses the Traditional Method, but comes from Saumur in the Loire valley and is made from Chenin Blanc grapes. Cremant tastes very similar to Champagne and is a great alternative for getting the autolytic flavours (toast, biscuit) that Champagne is known for. It too has high acidity and green and citrus fruit flavours.

The Tank Method is used for making Prosecco, Asti and Sekt. Here, after the first fermentation, the base wine is sealed in a tank under pressure and dissolved CO2 causes the wine to bubble when opened. This method produces a more fruity sparkling wine.

Prosecco comes from North-East Italy and uses the Glera grape. It has medium body, is dry or off-dry and has stone fruit flavours. The best Prosecco comes from Conegliano-Valdobbiadene DOCG. 'Spumante' means it is fully sparkling and 'Frizzante' means lightly sparkling.

Asti DOCG comes from Piemonte in Italy and uses the Muscat grape. This is a sweet wine with light body and peach and rose flavours. Asti is fully sparkling, but Moscato d'Asti has a light sparkle.

Sekt is the German word for sparkling wine. It is simple and inexpensive. Its character is medium-dry or dry, with light body and s floral and fruity.

English Sparkling wine can be very similar to Champagne, because they use the same grape varieties, and the grapes experience the same climate and soil conditions as in Reims. This is a growing industry with Nyetimber (my favourite), Chapel Down and Ridgeview being the biggest production houses. These houses are very protective of their wine, and Nyetimber didn't produce any 2012 vintage because the wine wasn't good enough. I'm pretty sure they must have sold their wine to other producers though, I'd guess to supermarkets, otherwise it'd be a waste and increase the price of their other vintages considerably.

You can also get sparkling wine in other regions of the world, with Australia producing a lot (French Champagne is too expensive to import), and they even experiment with Sparkling red wine, like a sparkling Shiraz, which can be sweet, but some producers make their dry, giving an interesting alternative to sparkling white and rose.

My advice is to try them all, see what characteristics you prefer and then go on taste rather than reputation. Let's not be snobby, lets just drink wine we like. My pick is Espa, always a winner and I'm helping the UK wine industry to grow.

Please drink responsibly!

How to choose an Aussie red wine

The key to choosing and Aussie wine, and indeed many wines, is identifying location, location, location.

In Australia, there are eight main regions for red wines, two cool, two warm and four hot. You need to remember that each region will focus on the grape variety that grows best in the climate/ soil/ water conditions, but they may bottle other grape varieties too. The trick is to choose the region that is best for the grape:

Cool:
Yarra Valley - Pinot Noir
Mornington Peninsular - Pinot Noir

Moderate:
Margaret River - Cabernet Sauvignon & Merlot
Coonawarra - Cabernet Sauvignon
Heathcote - Shiraz

Warm:
Hunter Valley - Shiraz
McLaren Vale - Shiraz
Barossa - Shiraz

So if you're looking for a more delicate wine, or a wine with low tannin, the red fruit in Pinot Noir from Yarra or Mornington might be to your taste. These wines can also be served slightly chilled if you're looking for a refreshing drink for warm summer evenings. You may even enjoy the Shiraz from Heathcote which should be more refined than a "normal" Shiraz due to the lower temperature.

However, Aussies are known for their BIG reds...

If you like something with complexity (a variety of flavours) and higher tannins, I'd say try one of the Cab Savs from Margaret River or Coonawarrra. One thing I love about Cab Sav from Australia that you don't get in the rest of the world is the flavour of eucalyptus, which gets picked up from the soil and air as the eucalyptus trees expel their oils. It makes these wines fantastic for anything that has red meat and mint/ rosemary/ thyme. The wine has high tannin which is good for steak and roast or grilled meat, and the eucalyptus matches the herbs. Top match for a roast lamb, lamb chops, or even Lebanese/ Greek kebabs.

My favourite Aussie red is a Shiraz. Yum. Big fat blackberries. Alcoholic Ribena. Telly wine. Easy drinking, no food required, warms you up and goes down a treat. Most should have a lovely spicy finish, peppery. I would always recommend a Shiraz from Barossa as a starting point, you can't go much wrong. If you're not a connoisseur then price will mostly make the difference of how long the flavour, and bottle, will last. It's a good idea to drink a Barossa Shiraz slowly as the warm climate tends to encourage a greater alcohol content. Boozy!

TIP: The longer-lasting the flavour of the wine, the longer it takes for the flavour to disappear, and the longer between sips. You/ I/ we tend to take sips more frequently with short-lasting wines.

If you are a connoisseur, then I recommend you move on from Barossa Shiraz and try Barossa Mourvedre, an element in GSM (something everyone should try), and very delicious in its own right. These wines go great with mushroom, veal, beef, pasta, BBQ, duck with cherry jus... or on its own.

You can really get carried away with Barossa wines, I certainly do, as I bought a case + 3 bottles of a wine that isn't available yet + a magnum that cost £100 at the Hewitson & Elderton wine dinner at DVine cellars a few weeks ago. http://www.dvinecellars.com/ so the best tip I can give you is that so long as the label says "Barossa" on it, it will be a good quality wine. If it says "South Eastern Australia" it won't be a bad quality wine per se, but it means the producer has taken grapes from all over Australia to make the blend. This ensures their wines have consistency, and therefore more reliable (once you find a wine like this you love, you can buy it over and over again, and that's what the big guns are aiming for), but it means they don't have to pay attention to the wine when they make it, and that's what's special. "Barossa" on the label might make the starting price higher, but you can stay low without risking quality.

TIP: If you like big Aussie reds, look out for "Barossa Shiraz" on the label.

My favourite Aussie red is Rockford Rod & Spur Cab Sav & Shiraz. Tip top wine. http://www.australianwinecentre.co.uk/acatalog/copy_of_Rockford.html

If you want to look for an easily identifiable brand, you can't go wrong with Wolf Blass Yellow Label. It doesn't say "Barossa" on the label but it does say "South Australia" and all the Shiraz vineyards I listed above are in South Australia, so its good enough.

Burgundy basics

I had a great time at the Burgundy wine evening at The Dorchester, and it made me realise that there really is a lot to learn about the region (Bourgogne in French). I thought I'd share the basics. Picking a Burgundy wine that you know you'll like can be very difficult, so hopefully this will help.

A white Burgundy is normally made with Chardonnay (if it's not 100% Chardonnay it will say so on the label) and a red Burgundy is normally a Pinot Noir (and sometimes also Gamay, although this is usually found in Beaujolais, and has been banned from Northern Burgundy).

Chardonnay can be affected by many factors (its know as the tart of grapes), it can take on character of the earth it is grown on (also known as terroir), and its flavour can change through techniques like aging in oak and malolactic fermentation (which creates the creamy, buttery flavour), which means it can vary greatly.

Pinot Noir is a light red wine with low tannin and red fruit flavours. If you're not keen on red wines that dry out your mouth, stick to Pinot Noir (or a Beaujolais). Pinot Noir is very difficult to grow, it requires specific growing conditions, so it can be temperamental, and a good one hard to find.

Another difficulty with Burgundy is that it is divided up into many small plots due to the Napoleonic law, where a vineyard is split up into equal parts to the owner's offspring when they die, which still continues today (unless the vineyard is owned by a company). This means that there are many producers all trying to make their mark in an overcrowded marketplace. Plus wines from Burgundy villages can sell for a higher price even if they're rubbish wine, just because of the name.

TIP OF THE WEEK:
My WSET instructor taught me that finding a good burgundy is like kissing a lot of frogs to find your prince. And they can be expensive frogs. The trick is to learn by producer, once you find one you like, you'll probably like other wines they make.

What to choose:

• If you like light and mineral whites, choose a Petit Chablis (cheaper than a Chablis but still very good)
• If you like a bit more body in your whites go for Cote de Beaune (Mersault is my favourite but can be pricey)
• If you prefer tropical fruit flavours try Macon (good tip is Les Enseigneres, a cheaper version of Montrachet)
• For reds, I would go for Cote de Nuits every time

Dorchester Burgundy Wine Evening

With Ronan Sayburn and Gearoid Devaney

I love going to wine tastings, I love to see how different people/places pitch themselves, and at what level. So should you bother going to the Dorchester wine evenings? I think if you know quite a bit about wine, and want some more technical info, if you want to learn about the region and varieties, while being served high quality wines, and lots of them, for £39 then this is a great call! It is quite a formal atmosphere, which you'd expect from the Dorchester.

At the Burgundy evening we tasted 11 wines, and canapes were served (although rather high end - smoked salmon and foie gras isn't to my taste, so I stuck to crackers). Maps, geology and history lessons pursued, which were very interesting, but did mean the tastings were a little rushed. It was wonderful tasting wines side by side, but it became difficult to keep track of which were which (perhaps a tasting mat would have helped). I think also being in a spacious suite meant people started their own conversations and lost the thread of the tasting. Above all, however, I was very impressed by the quality of the wines that were presented, and that the presentation was delivered by two highly renowned Master Sommeliers, who clearly knew their stuff. Plus there was no hard sell, the purpose of the evening for them is for us to taste and learn, and create a more positive association of The Dorchester with good quality wines.

This one is very good value for money, so I recommend you go soon before they increase the price, which they no doubt will once this tasting evening becomes established. Maybe I'll see you at the Californian session.
http://www.thedorchester.com/wine-events

Not sure about German red wine? Try it!

Weingut Schoss Sommerhausen 2008 Spatburgunder Trocken 14% Steinbach Deutscher Qualitatswein

I had a lovely Spatburgunder while we were in Wurzburg visiting my German family. This was not particularly complex but made an easy-drinking wine. It had soft tannins, and had red fruit flavours, the plum stands out, as does the black pepper. It made me think of sitting in the bath having used fruity bubble bath.

If you're not sure about German red wine, but would like to try it, I would suggest a Spatburgunder if you like a pinot noir:
"Spatburgunder" means it has been made in the style of a Burgundy, i.e. Pinot Noir.
"Trocken" means it is dry, so you can avoid those sweet wines that are often associated with Germany.
"Qualitatswein" means it comes from one of the top regions, so is generally a good wine, but not as expensive as a "Pradikatswein" which comes from one of the top sub-regions.

Another German wine I recommend is Riesling,especially from Mosel. Again, be sure to look for "Trocken" on the label if you want to avoid the sweeter wines.