Saturday 21 August 2021
Last of The Summer Wines - New Zealand, Australia and Italy
Friday 20 August 2021
Two Wines From Daniel Lambert
Thursday 19 August 2021
Kinsbrook Pinot Gris
Think of English still white wines and it tends to be obscure Germanic or native varieties that come to mind; anything that can tolerate England's cool, damp climate.
Pinot Gris, the grape of warm, dry Alsace is certainly not high up on the list and yet that is what the founders of Kinsbrook have planted in their vineyard near the South Downs between Brighton and London.
The full history of the winery is below, but suffice it to say that in 2014, the Beckett family established the 40-acre vineyard with largely self-taught Joseph Beckett the youngest vineyard owner in the country.
With no small amount of vision and ambition, they have made a really lovely wine that manages to be several things at once:
- technically impressive (really well made from good quality fruit)
- unusual, if not unique (great for bragging rights)
- lovely to drink (delicious!)
Kinsbrook Pinot Gris, 2020 (£20)
Aromatic with delicate herbs and white flowers; ripe pear and white stone fruit with gooseberry, cantaloupe melon and freshly-cut grass; honeysuckle, some sweet spices and a touch of minerality. Very adept and elegant, very well-made.
Drinks well on first opening, but rounds out with some aeration; will gain complexity with age.
Very Good.
Light enough for a summer sipper, match with young cheeses or seafood.
Stockist details here: Stockists — Kinsbrook Vineyard
- The Orchard Site was the first vineyard to be planted in May 2017. In the 20th Century, the field was used to grow apples and pears to make English cider. The site is made up of 19,500 vines.
- The Pension Field was planted second, in 2018. This field is our smallest block with only 3,500 vines. It is solely Pinot Meunier.
- ‘Picketty 1’ was planted the same year, with 12,500 vines.; a further planting of 9,000 vines took place at ‘Picketty 2’ in 2019.
Tuesday 17 August 2021
Warm Weather Wines from Familia Torres. And Some Spanish Food
Summer wines from Spanish producer (with vineyards in Chile) Torres
Here are some wines to have on standby this summer from Familia Torres; bubbles, crisp white, aromatic white, barbecue reds, rosé and something sweet.The accompanying food was from Brindisa, my "winnings" from a world cup sweepstake in which I drew Euro champions Italy. It consisted of tapas foods, such as olives, almonds, chorizo, cheeses, breadsticks and jamon.
A perfect set of simple but delicious tapas-style food for matching with a range of wines.
Everything here was very enjoyable indeed and good value.
Estelado Rosé, Chile (£13.99 Thedrinkshop.com, VINVM, Vivino, Soho Wines)
Miguel Torres Estelado Rosé is one of Chile’s most innovative sparkling wines. Made entirely from Pais, Chile’s oldest grape variety. Planted by many small farmers, the variety was long forgotten, and undervalued until Torres rediscovered it for making quality wines.
Made using the traditional method with second fermentation in the bottle.
pale pink with fresh wild strawberries, redcurrants and yeasty brioche; elegant and mineral; very pure and clean.
Serve as an aperitif or match with light starters such as shellfish.
Vina Sol 2020 (£7.50 Tesco, Waitrose, Sainsburys, Morrisons, Asda and Co-op)
Made from Parellada (with a touch of Garnacha Blanca), the white grape traditionally used to make sparkling Cava wines, here it shows beautifully as a still wine.
The grapes are cool fermented in stainless steel for fresh fruitiness.
aromatic and citrussy with white pepper and lime zest; fresh and lemony with white stone fruit and a persistent minerality. Very harmonious and adept.
Good.
Light enough for a summer sipper, match with fish and chips, sushi, soft white cheeses or even spicy Thai.
Also available in an environmentally friendly 2.25-litre bag-in-box, which will fit easily in a fridge – the perfect format for summer months.
Vina Esmeralda 2020 (£9, Tesco)
Made from a blend of Moscatel and Gewürztraminer, off-dry with expressive floral characters and tropical fruit aromas.
orchard fruits, white stone fruits, orange blossom and pear drops with tropical melon, pineapple and lychees; lime marmalade and honeysuckle; crisp, refreshing and light.
Good.
Serve well-chilled as an aperitif or with appetisers such as avocado and shellfish or melon with ham or with grilled fish.
Vina Sol Rosé 2020 (£7.99, Waitrose, Ocado)
Vina Sol Rosé 2020 is the pale raspberry pink sibling to the classic Vina Sol. Made mainly with Garnacha and Carinena, it’s fragrant and sensual, with notes of redcurrant and a lovely spicy, pink peppercorn finish.
strawberries and white pepper; delicate red berries, crunchy orchard fruits and fresh, crisp citrus; concentrated and long with good underpinnings. Fresh, delicate and balanced.
Good.
Light enough for impromptu sunny alfresco lunches; match with charcuterie and tapas, cold chicken and pasta salads.
Sangre de Toro 2019 (£7.50 Tesco, Sainsburys, Asda)
First made in 1954, this red is all about the Spanish way of life. It’s the one with a eco-friendly bull on the bottle, representing Spain’s culture. Made from native Spanish grapes, Garnacha Tinta and Carinena, selected from vineyards throughout the region, gives this red its spicy notes and delicious fruit.
black fruits, dried prunes, cherry and toasty-oaky spice with some liquorice, dried herbs and cocoa; good structure with juicy fresh acidity and very gentle tannins. Some aged complexity and savouriness.
Thoroughly enjoyable.
Match with barbecue and picnic foods, duck liver pate or roasted red meats, smoky cheese, or any tomato-based dishes.
Floralis Moscatel Oro (£8.99 Waitrose, Ocado, Morrisons)
Floralis Moscatel Oro is one of the Mediterranean’s most characteristic dessert wines made since 1946. Luscious, clean and crisp, with lovely honeyed and acacia flavours and naturally sweet and an unmistakable floral perfume of roses, geranium, lemon and verbena.
Floral and aromatic with raisiny cooked mixed fruits, sweetness and lemony ginger beer and verbena.
Good.
Serve well-chilled and match with almond tart, or a flaky pastry Pastels de Natas with its rich custard filling served warm or anything chocolatey to finish of a perfect summer night dinner under the stars.
*****
Tom Cannavan makes the Floralis Moscatel Oro his wine of the week, here: Review of Torres Floralis Moscatel Oro wine - YouTube
Thursday 12 August 2021
Two Tesco Whites for National White Wine Day
Sunday 8 August 2021
Berton Vineyard The Black Shiraz - Co-op
Australia is not so much a country as a continent; it made its name as a producer of Big Ripe wines and you can still find examples in this style - if that's what you want.
Baked fruits, spice and lots of alcohol are the hallmarks of warm-climate Australian wines; easy to drink and easy to understand, they are expressive and make a statement.
The Co-op's website says: the Black Shiraz is an extreme example of a New World Shiraz with deep colour and aromas of blackberry and plum over toast, vanilla and spice. Full flavoured and intense for those who like a full throttle wine.
Another way of putting it is as big, muscular and unashamedly old school as a ute; an enjoyable blue-collar hero.
Berton Vineyard The Black Shiraz, 2020 (£8.25, Co-op)
dark fruits, cocoa, spice and menthol; ripe black and red pastille fruits, toasty-oak, sweet vanilla and mouth-watering acidity with firm grippy tannins; generously extracted, long and savoury
Thoroughly enjoyable - in a rough-and-tumble sort-of way.
Expressive, fruited and exuberant on first opening; becomes a little more savoury with aeration
No shrinking violet, this will stand up to strongly-flavoured party foods; think smoky, char-grilled meats with plenty of barbecue relish or curry house lava, such as a rogan josh.
Saturday 7 August 2021
Two Tesco Wines for International Pinot Noir Day
Wednesday 4 August 2021
My Sherry Amour - M&S Very Rare Dry Oloroso Sherry
A heavily marked-down M&S dark sherry, made by Lustau
My sherry amour,
Lovely on a summer's day
- My Cherie Amour*, Stevie Wonder (1969)
At a summer garden party, a beer-drinking friend-of-a-friend observed that that every time we bump into each other socially, I seem to be drinking sherry.
Why sherry? he asked.
The obvious answer is of course: why not? But I felt something more considered was needed.
Establishing that he did not really want chapter-and-verse on sherry production, but simply a short list of reasons, I gave him this:
- sherry has very high acidity, so it is very refreshing
- it has no primary fruit flavours, so is highly versatile
- it is fortified to a higher alcohol level, so can stand up to foods
- it is aged for years in soleras so is complex, harmonious and mellow
For food matching, just go by the colour:
- paler sherries match with lighter foods, such as olives, bread and oil and manchego
- darker sherries match with roasted foods, such as roasted almonds, roast beef or roasted vegetables.
If you want to do the food matching properly, the mantra is:
- If it swims, Fino
- If it flies, Amontillado
- If it runs, serve Oloroso.
In my case, I had brought along a half-bottle of M&S VORS Oloroso. It had been marked down to under £2 at a local M&S branch so I had picked up as many as I could physically carry, stuffing them in coat and trouser pockets.
It is fresh enough for an aperitif, especially well-chilled, but comes into its own with some slightly charred barbecue foods, such as burgers.
At home, match it with a starter of roasted almonds and toasted ciabatta with olive oil, followed by a griddled steak.
Very Rare Dry Oloroso Sherry (£9, marked down to £1,79, 37.5cl, Marks & Spencer)
deep brown, with nuts, coffee, nutmeg, old leather roasted almonds and dried apple, apricot and prunes; charred cedarwood, toasted hazelnuts and exotic citrus peel with fresh acidity. Complex and adept.
Good.
*OK, possibly slightly misheard
Bottle shot courtesy of Erik Burgess.
Tuesday 3 August 2021
What Drives The Price of Wine? And Who Buys What?
How is wine priced and what sort of a wine purchaser are you?
The price of wine (and pretty much everything else, for that matter) is driven by two fundamental factors; cost-to-produce and seller's margin.
Some wines are priced on a cost-plus basis, others are value priced.
Certain industries, such as airlines, are famous for the sophistication of their pricing approaches, including dynamic demand-led pricing.
However, the basics are always fundamentally the same.
Cost to produce
At its most basic, the cost-to-produce is simply the cost of making a particular wine (including selling and distribution costs as well as duties and taxes). Key variables in this include:
- the cost of the land for growing the vines
- labour in tending the vines, picking the grapes and making the wine
- cellar techniques, such as aging (requires vessels, space and time), oak (the newer, the more expensive) and lees stirring (requires skilled labour)
Another factor is the amount of grapes produced for a set area of land; some vines are naturally more prolific than others and in many areas, maximum yields are defined by regulation. Frost, hailstones and even wild boar can all reduce the amount of fruit produced per hectare.
In cooler, damper climates vines do not live as long (so therefore need replacing more often), and require more attentive care to deal with late frosts and vineyard pests. These can be some of the most expensive wines to make.
For this reason, English wines and Chablis, for example, will always be expensive to produce and this will be reflected in the price.
Dessert wines from cool-to-moderate climates are also much more expensive to produce; late, manual harvesting, sometimes on a berry-by-berry basis and the need for botrytis brings a greater risk of disease and harvest failure.
Sauternes can often be a great bargain vs production cost, since it is expensive to produce yet largely unfashionable due to being sweet.
Land prices are driven by a combination of fashion and quality; well-appointed vineyards producing better-quality fruit will command a premium. Even more so if they are inside delimited areas that also command a premium, so you will pay more for land in AOP Pauillac vs generic Bordeaux vs vin de pays.
You will pay less for land in Languedoc-Roussillon or Cahors vs Bordeaux or Burgundy, yet may well find yourself able to produce very high-quality fruit from sites with the right combination of altitude, cooling breezes. the right aspect and good soils.
Margin
The margin on a wine depends on how much profit the seller wishes to make; wineries that invest in making themselves distinctive are able to command more of a premium than those that don't, can't or won't.
Fashion is a significant factor here; rosé has gone from deeply unfashionable in the early noughties to the insta-influencer's bottle of choice, so the entire category commands something of a premium vs the cost-to-produce.
Within the category, Provence rosé commands a further premium and a celebrity association adds more again. A well-branded celebrity Provence rosé will generally command very healthy margins for the producer.
Other super-margin wines include First Growth Bordeaux and top Burgundy as well as classic regions within Italy and California.
Unfashionable wines, be they individual producers or entire regions, may struggle to command any premium and may have to be sold at a discount; for years, sherry and entry-to-mid level German wines have been a difficult sell and therefore relative bargains.
Austrian wines are a case study in a region (rightly) going out of fashion and then gradually, but successfully rebuilding its reputation and increasing prices over time.
In principle, however, any wine can command a price premium over cost of production plus margin, provided the producer invests in effective brand-building.
Cost-plus pricing
Cost-plus pricing is the simplest to understand for supplier and consumer; you simply take your total cost to produce, say £10 for a bottle of wine, and then add your margin, say 20% mark-up. This gives you a selling price of £12 per bottle.
In reality, the system is more complex than this as there are wine producers, importers, retailers, packing and distribution costs as well as fixed vs variable costs and differing sales volumes, but conceptually cost-plus is simply cost + margin = price.
Cost-plus pricing is best suited to undifferentiated commodities where premiums are hard to command; it encourages scale and efficiency in the production process to gain share and increase overall profits.
It is not at all suited to small-scale production such as mid-level wines produced by artisan winemakers (rather than the corporate behemoths of the New World).
However, small-scale mid-level producers may find themselves in a difficult "squeezed middle", lacking the budget to invest in professional price-enhancing branding activities and therefore unable to create a meaningful distinctiveness vs more commoditised, high-volume, low-priced wines.
Mid-level producers / sellers risk getting trapped in a perception gap of simply being more expensive versions of a basic wine and constantly trying to persuade reluctant buyers to trade up.
The solution to being in this squeezed middle, however, is not education but distinctiveness; as the saying goes, the market can remain uneducated much longer than you can remain solvent.
Value-based Pricing
Value-based Pricing does not begin with the seller's cost to produce as a starting point, but with a consideration what the market will pay.
A value-based pricer will look at what people are prepared to pay for a product and set a price accordingly. High-end Bordeaux, vintage Champagne and Napa Cabs all command prices that are in no way based on their cost of production.
A large proportion of what you spend on these wines is margin to the seller; the benefits you get in return are rarity, exclusivity, bragging rights and status.
Examples of value-priced items from other sectors are Apple phones, Nike trainers and Vans clothing.
Cap-and-Collar
Some wines exist in an interesting cap-and-collar spectrum; English wine is expensive to produce but does not yet command the reputation and margins of Champagne and Burgundy. So it is expensive at the bottom and cheap at the top.
The same is true of Beaujolais, New Zealand and, to an extent, Austria.
What type of wine buyer are you?
It is worthwhile assessing your own attitude to wine and the type of buyer you are, in order to find wines that suit your own buying preferences, as well as palate.
Aside from a preference for red or white, New World or Old, classic or edgy, your wine buying approach can be categorised in several ways:
Maximisers vs Satisficers
If you mainly just want a wine to enjoy without needing to know too much about rootstocks, clones, training methods, lees aging and so on, then you are a Satisficer; that is, someone who wants their wine to be "good enough" with minimal choosing effort. This is said to be around 85% of all wine buyers.
For Satisficers, the liquid in the bottle is just a small part of the overall experience of buying and drinking wine; other benefits may include social elements, appreciation of the packaging and a sense of inclusion as part of a commercial wine club.
If you love reading up about wine, discussing bottles with sommeliers and understanding how Portlandian soil types affect flavours vs Kimmeridgian, then you are a Maximiser who wants just the right wine for the occasion and is prepared to put in a lot of effort to get there.
Sophisticated and enthusiastic, you are representative of a minority of around 15% of wine buyers and you are likely only interested in the liquid in the bottle, rather than any extraneous factors.
Price-Sensitive or Not
The less Price Sensitive you are, the more you are willing to pay extra for the same thing. This is not about absolute wealth or the ability to splash your hard-earned cash on life's finer things. Rather, those who are Price Insensitive simply do not worry if something they want is available more cheaply elsewhere.
A Price-Insensitive buyer does not especially consider price or relative value-for-money when buying a wine; she has some money in her pocket and wants some wine - it is as simple as that.
By contrast, a Price-Sensitive enthusiast will scour the offers and discounts sections for bargains, or attend auctions in the hope of knock-down prices on high-end wines.
Conservative vs Open-Minded
Conservative drinkers will tend to drink the classics, well-known wines from reputed regions; this could be Burgundy, France or the Old World generally, but the overall aim is to choose wines that will be socially approved of and not in any way embarrassing.
It bears repeating; it is not always just about the wine itself. A conservative drinker may well be more interested in reducing her risk of social embarrassment at choosing the "wrong" sort of wine than concerned about the quality of the liquid in the bottle.
By contrast, open-minded drinkers seek out the new and unusual, be it location, production-method or flavour profile; they do not feel the weight of societal pressure to conform, so will happily champion Georgian qvevri wines, amber wines from Croatia, Japan or Israel. At any rate, they will be open to suggestions from a sommelier.
My buying style
I am a Price-Sensitive, Open-Minded, Maximiser; I would hazard a guess that that makes me one of the rarer types of wine purchaser.
I love a genuine bargain, I am interested enough in wine to read up and learn about it regularly and I actively enjoy tasting wines from countries, regions and grapes that I have not encountered before.
It's not much of an exaggeration to say that I prefer the novelty of trying a new wine to the actual quality of what is in the bottle. In practice, years of wine tasting have taught me what a good wine is like and the sorts of wines I prefer - usually mature classics from cooler regions.
For that reason, you'll often find me picking up an eclectic mixture of quirky marked-down bottles and fire-sale classics.
Mine of course, is just one of many possible approaches; neither "right" nor "wrong", it just is. Equally valid are other approaches, such as a Conservative, Price-Insensitive Satisficer who is very pleased with her purchase of celebrity wines from a large retailer.