Third wine for Château Margaux

Châteaux Margaux is to release a third wine onto the market this year. As reported on db.com, Margaux de Château Margaux 2009 is made from wine that didn’t make it into the estate’s second label, Pavillon Rouge. According to Margaux’s managing director Paul Pontallier, around 3,000 cases of the wine were made, with the majority coming onto the market this autumn rather than being sold en primeur. A price for the wine has yet to be decided.

Margaux de Château Margaux was created due to the favourable conditions of the 2009 vintage, which meant that the wine that didn’t make it into Pavillon Rouge was of such a high standard it merited its own bottling. Previously, the wine had been declassified and used for generic AOC Margaux. The addition of Margaux de Château Margaux to the Margaux portfolio means the estate now produces four wines, taking the AOC Margaux into account.

Like father like son: Paul and Thibault Pontallier

As for the 2012 vintage, Pontallier told me during a tasting at the château last week that the key to a successful 2012 en primeur campaign would be finding the right price point for the grand vin. “The global market is more open than it’s ever been but we need to come out at the right price point and listen to what the market wants,” he said.

Proving that it does listen to the market, last year Margaux came out at €360 a bottle for its 2011 vintage, down 40% on the €600 release price of 2010. Composed of 87% Cabernet, Pontallier describes Margaux 2012 as sharing the concentration of 2009 and superior in quality to 2011 due to its better tannic structure, freshness and softness. Pontallier believes that while 2012 Margaux is drinking well early, it is “built for the next 50 years.”

While he was pleased with the quality of Margaux’s top wine, quality was by no means uniform across the board, with more AOC Margaux made in 2012 than any previous vintage. “For us the vintage was very heterogeneous, with different levels of quality and style. For our best terroirs, it was an outstanding vintage for Cabernet, but it didn’t ripen well in the lesser terroirs in the region,” he said. 

Would you admit to liking demi-sec Champagne?

Have you ever tried demi-sec Champagne? If so, would you ever admit to liking the semi-sweet style? Champagne Jacquart’s chief winemaker Floriane Eznack doesn’t think so. Speaking to the drinks business at a tasting lunch at Chrysan in London last week, she told the magazine demi-sec has become the elephant in the room in Champagne.

“Our demi-sec sales are growing, but it’s the wine we don’t talk about. There’s still a prejudice surrounding the style. In the past people would add sugar to their Champagne to hide faults so it has a negative connotation. No one likes to talk about demi-sec in the region, but a lot of people like to drink it. The style isn’t going out of fashion, if anything it’s getting more popular,” she said.

Us Brits are notorious for having a sweet tooth and happily sing the praises of sweeter Sherry styles such as Oloroso, so why the hang up about demi-sec? There’s an implication that sweetness levels correspond to intellect, and the drier you like your wine the higher your intellect and more rapier-like your wit. Nonsense! Demi-sec has its place in both the Champagne arena and on the dinner table. It makes for a sensational food match with desserts like tarte tartan.

My taste tends to veer towards the drier end of the Champagne spectrum, but I’m staunchly against the idea of snobbery towards demi-sec for snobbery’s sake – it suffers the same prejudice as still rosé. Having spent a few glorious days in Provence this summer and witnessed first hand the time, care and attention top-end producers like Château d’Esclans and Domaines Ott put into their rosés, I find the narrow-mindedness of those who fail to take it seriously as a style hard to swallow.

All wine styles should be given a chance to prove themselves on their individual merits. As an aside, the aforementioned Eznack also revealed to db that sales of Jacquart rosé are booming in Japan due to the positive associations with the colour pink in the county. “Pink is a very important colour in Japan – it signals the coming of spring and cherry blossom, so our rosé sales have always been high there. I also think it pairs really well with Japanese cuisine, particularly sushi.”

Bordeaux Wines dinner with The London Foodie

In our ever-experimental age, food and wine pairings are becoming increasingly daring. Gone are the days of sticking rigidly to lazy, hackneyed alliances, like white wine and fish, or Port and blue cheese. The doors of opportunity have been flung open and all sorts of strange combinations are popping up – London foodies and winos have been howling with delight for hotdogs and grower Champagne at James Knappett and Sandia Chang's charmingly irreverent Bubbledogs. 

To illustrate that Bordeaux needn't be relegated to meat-heavy main courses, the ever dapper London Foodie Luiz Hara invited a ravenous bunch of food and wine hacks into his cosy East London home for a five-course Japanese feast, enlisting the help of glamourous wine glugger Christina Pickard to pair each of the dishes with a different Bordeaux wine, from white, to rosé, to red, to sweet. I've been lucky enough to eat at many of London's most hotly-anticipated new openings in the past few years and can honestly say that Luiz' food could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the best of them.

Thoughtfully presented and elegantly scented, his dishes were meticulously executed and full of flavour. Among the highlights was the opening plate of salmon sashimi served with an American twist in the form of wasabi infused soured cream, though the dish that will linger longingly in the mind is the Woody Allen-esque Deconstructing Sushi, formed of grilled scallops, Tobiko eggs, spicy sauce and sushi rice – a composition of such richness, creaminess and alluring beauty, I was tempted to steal my neighbour's shell and suck out the goodness.

As for the wines, while the Réserve de Sours Sparking Rosé NV proved a curiously delightful pairing for the popcorn flavoured with Japanese Seven Spices doing the rounds in Luiz' living room before we ventured down to the kitchen, the standout wine was the creamy, unctuous and beautifully textured Château Roquefort Blanc Roquefortissime 2008 – sounds like a cheese, tasted sensational, and a steal at just £12.99 from Waitrose – I'm debating buying the entire allocation at my local Chiswick branch and I'm not even a Sauvignon girl. The toasty, spicy, apricot-laced Ginestet Sauternes 2009 also pleased the crowd, especially when enjoyed with decadent dark chocolate cake.

Huddled around a table of die hard gastronauts, conversation inevitably turned to food, and soon after, a competition to see who could come up with the wittiest food-related film puns. Many a suggestion was thrown into the ring, from There's Something About Dairy to Silence of the Clams. In my finest hour, I offered Beef Encounter and The Prawn Supremacy. Leaving Luiz' replete and happy, the memory of the Roquefortissime endured. Bordeaux whites are largely under the radar, though there are many gems to be unearthed displaying the holy trinity of Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc and judiciously judged oak.

Vin Gogh? Artist creates portraits using red wine

A New York artist has come up with a novel way of making the most of her leftover Cabernet Franc – using it to make portrait paintings. As reported on db.com, using a wax resist, 29-year-old Amelia Fais Harnas pours six to seven layers of red wine on top of white cotton in order to achieve the light and shade effects. To ensure the wine dries quickly, Harnas, an avid wine lover, has to work at around 27°C, rotating between four to six portraits at a time.

She discovered how to make the portraits by melting dead candle remnants in a coffee can over a propane grill and painting the wax resist on cotton bed sheets with an old paintbrush. “The idea of painting with wine developed slowly over a couple of years. I wondered if wine could be used as a pigment for my portraits and started experimenting with Cahors,” she told Solent News. “I'd love to be able to say it happened by accident, where I spilled wine and saw Jesus's face in it, but it really resulted from a series of what-ifs.

“I enjoy the challenge of trying to control the unpredictable nature of wine bleeding through fabric in order to channel the equally imprecise nature of a person’s character,” she added. Her portraits, many of which incorporate religious iconography, have been exhibited in New York galleries and Finger Lakes producer Damiani Wine Cellars, whose Cabernet Franc-based Vino Rosso is almost exclusively used in the portraits due to its deep colour and low residual sugar content.

"I’m intrigued by what effect wine quality will have on the works, and plan on experimenting with all sorts of grape varieties and regions to see how the colour, residual sugar and tannin content affect stain penetration, she told The Huffington Post. As to how long the portraits will last, Harnas is unable to give an accurate answer, though believes their ephemeral nature adds to the intrigue.

"I’m doing everything in my power to ensure they last as long as possible, but part of the excitement is how fragile the works are,” she said. Her works sell for up to £650, depending on their size, with a 20" by 16" portrait requiring just one glass of wine. Harnas plans to move to Paris to work on miniature portraits using French wine.

Tomato wine craze sweeps Canada

Thought wine could only be made from grapes? Think again. Quebec-based farmer Pascal Miche is enjoying thriving sales of his tomato wine in Canada, crafted from a secret family recipes. As reported on db.com, the former butcher has sold over 65,000 bottles of tomato wine since launching it onto the Canadian market two years ago.

Miche makes the wine from 6,200 tomato plants on his "vineyard" in Charlevoix, 400km northeast of Montreal. "I wanted to finish what my great-grandfather had started in Belgium in the ’30s,” he told AFP. Miche immigrated to Quebec from Belgium seven years ago and started planting red, yellow and black tomatoes in Charlevoix in 2009.

The crop set to ripen by mid-August will be his third harvest, with the journey from field to bottle taking around nine months. Before making his first batch, Miche tested 16 varieties of tomatoes in order to find six that grew well in Quebec's cool climate. He can legally call his product "wine" in North America, but will have to rename it if he starts exporting it to France, where only alcoholic beverages made from fermented grape juice can be called wine.

Selecting his tomatoes with the same care as a winemaker does grapes, to make the “wine”, the tomatoes undergo the same process of crushing, soaking, fermenting and pressing. The result is Omerto Sec, a clear, dry, 18% abv wine, and Omerto Moelleux, a sweeter wine that has been compared to Pineau des Charentes, both of which are named after Miche’s great-grandfather Omer.

According to Miche, there is no trace of tomato in the wine, not even in the taste. Elen Garon, sommelier at hotel restaurant La Ferme a Baie-Saint-Paul, describes the ”honey sweet” Omerto Moelleux as having: “a hint of fruit” and “zesty aspects,” and believes it will match well with desserts and spicy food.

The wines, which sell for around CA$25 a 200ml bottle, are currently only availabe in select shops and restaurants in Quebec and Manitoba. Keen to take the wine overseas, Miche is seeking distribution in the US, France, Belgium, Germany, Luxemburg and the Netherlands.

French cows fed red wine to enhance flavour

Giving a new meaning to the term laughing cow, a number of farmers in the Languedoc have taken to feeding their cattle local red wine to improve the flavour of their beef. As reported on db.com, local farmer Claude Chaballier has been feeding his cattle red wine from Saint-Geniès-des-Mourgues, resulting in “lean, marbled and tasty,” beef.

Chaballier fed the wine to three of his cows last year in a trial run, and is set to repeat the experiment next month. Two Angus cattle and one Camargue cow were fed a mixture of leftover grapes, barley and hay before two litres of wine were integrated into their diet. Keen to develop the practice locally, Chabellier says he will use a regional wine in next month’s experiment and is considering using Muscat from Lunel-Viel to give the meat an aromatic character.

Scientists in Australia have already found a link between feeding cows grape marc and an increase in milk production. Meanwhile, in 2010 it was reported that Canadian farmer Janice Ravndahl in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley had taken to feeding her Angus cattle local red wine for the 90 days before slaughter. Ravndahl chanced upon the idea while watching celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay feed beer to his pigs on TV cookery programme The F Word.

According to Jean-Charles Tastavy, founder of Vinbovin, cows can consume up to a litre-and-a-half of wine per day, the human equivalent of two to three glasses. Tripling the cost of animal feed, Chabellier admits that the wine diet will inevitably affect pricing, pushing up the best cuts of beef to nearly €100. “It won’t be for all pockets,” he said, admitting that he aims to target top-end restaurants.

Undeterred by the high prices, Michelin-starred chef Laurent Pourcel is attracted to the meat’s unique texture and ability to caramelise during cooking. “All the finest restaurants in Paris are going to take it,” he said. The improved taste of the beef doesn’t just come from the chemistry involved in the change of diet; French researchers believe the occasional litre of wine may also increase a cow’s wellbeing.

“Digital Darwinism” for wineries who shun Twitter

Wineries who put off using social media will experience “digital Darwinism”, a leading digital expert has warned. “Social media is one of the most powerful customer interaction channels in the world, more relevant than anything seen in human history,” Paul Mabray of winery social media index Vintank told the drinks business. “Those who choose to keep waiting will see their customers migrating to the use of these channels and will experience digital Darwinism,” he added, describing the wine industry as “the last to have not succeeded online.”

Ryan Opaz of wine marketing agency Vrazon believes it's fundamental for wineries to have a presence on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. “You can’t survive without it, there’s no putting the genie back in the bottle. If you don’t embrace it, you’re back in the Stone Age,” he said.  A recent survey on social media in the French and US wine industries carried out by digital marketing agency ABLE found that 94% of the US wineries surveyed were on Facebook, compared to 53% of French wineries. It also found 73% of US wineries had a Twitter account, compared to just 41% of French wineries.

According to wine communicator Robert McIntosh, medium-sized wineries set to gain the most from social media. “For a medium-sized winey seeking a sales boost, social media can be a great way of getting noticed by an agent or distributor and securing a listing,” he said. But despite their popularity, McIntosh believes new sites will eventually replace Facebook and Twitter. “In the next year or two we’ll see a shift in the way people use social media – the obsession with the number of followers you have on Twitter and “likes” you accrue on Facebook will be replaced by sites focusing on small but meaningful networks of no more than 100 people,” he said.

Rather damningly, Robert Joseph, founder of international consumer research site DoILikeIt?.com, believes winery websites are “some of the worst on the internet”. The majority, he feels, show no understanding of what consumers want. “Most people want to buy a benefit and are asking themselves: ‘Is this wine going to make me look savvy in front of my friends?’ They want reassurance,” he said.

While wineries and merchants may not be getting the design of their websites right, online wine sales are set for considerable growth in the following year. Simon McMurtrie, ceo of Direct Wines, recently revealed that 50% of the company’s UK sales, and 75% of its Hong Kong sales are now online – figures predicted to rise in 2013. 

Paper wine bottle launch imminent

The world’s first paper wine bottle is set to hit UK supermarket shelves imminently. Its maker, GreenBottle, has just signed a deal with independent wine supplier Kingsland Wines to bottle the wine at its Manchester base. GreenBottle founder Martin Myerscough (pictured) is in the final stages of negotiation with one of the UK’s leading supermarkets, which is set to debut the bottle this autumn.

“We’re looking at a six month ‘first to market’ agreement, and will premiere the bottle with one or two wines to begin with,” Myerscough told the drinks business. “Kingsland is currently doing some shelf life testing, but we predict it to be the same is bag-in-box wine: 9-12 months,” Myerscough added. The entrepreneur has seen huge interest in the bottle from Australia, California and France, and plans to take his invention across the globe next year.

“The phone has been ringing from all corners of the world. I’ve just come back from Australia, where I’ve had serious interest in the bottle from a number of wineries. Even a few French producers have shown an interest,” Myerscough said, though warned of the dangers of getting too excited and ahead of the game. “The focus for now is getting the bottles on the shelf in the UK,” he said.

On the subject of pricing, he confirmed the bottle would be under £5, but warned that if priced too cheaply it would “devalue the brand.” The bottles, which weigh just 55g, will be made at Myerscough’s plant in St Helens and filled at Kingsland in Manchester. Myerscough intendeds to sell the technology, allowing companies to build bottling plants next to their manufacturing sites and cut down on transport. The compostable bottle’s carbon footprint is 10% of that of a glass bottle. 

Saignée method rosé “not true rosé”

François Millo, president of the Provence Wine Council, has slammed saignée-method rosé as “not true rosé.” Speaking to the drinks business at the London International Wine Fair, Millo said: “People who make saignée rosé are opportunists. In their mind they are making red wine – the rosé just happens to be a by-product. The saignée method is a bad way of making rosé. The wine is more of an afterthought, very few people in Provence use it.”

“85% of the wine we produce in Provence is rosé, so it’s at the top of our priority list – our grapes are grown for rosé,” Millo added. The saignée method (meaning “bleeding” in French), involves making rosé as a by-product of red wine fermentation, where a portion of the pink juice from the grape must is removed at an early stage, which is then fermented separately to produce rosé.

Millo favours the skin contact method, where black grapes are lightly crushed and the skins remain in contact with the juice for 1-3 days. The must is then pressed and the skins discarded. Millo said that rosé producers in Provence are aiming for the lightest colour possible without compromising the flavour profile, in response to consumer demand. 

“There’s a strong demand for the signature pale onion skin colour assocaited with Provence. Consumers see a lighter colour as a sign of quality,” he said, adding, “We’ve worked really hard recently on methods which allow us to extract the maximum flavour while keeping the wine as light in colour as possible. Techinques like night harvesting and macerating at lower temperatures have helped.”  

Millo has seen exports of Provence rosé surge in the US, up 20% on last year, with China and Brazil also proving lucrative markets. Despite its recent success, he feels the rosé category is still lacking both a recognised vocabulary and a world expert. “Rosé is the hardest wine to taste – there is no specific vocabulary for the flavours and aromas and no world expert specialising in rosé,” Millo admitted. 

Asked whether he is keen for rosé to be taken more seriously as a wine style, Millo warned of the dangers of naval gazing. “We want our wines to be taken seriously, but we don’t want to take ourselves too seriously. Bordeaux started taking itself seriously and it got boring,” he said. 

Raymond Blanc

Last week, I was lucky enough to interview ebullient, bow tie-clad celebrity chef Raymond Blanc OBE at the launch of his latest restaurant – Brasserie Blanc in Covent Garden, about the importance of food and wine matching, his ambitious expansion of the Brasserie Blanc chain in 2012, why he's never been bothered about Michelin stars and opening his loos to the public during the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

Lot 18 goes live in the UK

The UK website of New York-based online wine merchant Lot 18 has gone live. As reported on thedrinksbusiness.com, Lot18.com, which launched in the US in November 2010, sources fine and rare wines worldwide for limited-time offers. Aimed at “aspiring wine connoisseurs looking to expand their knowledge,” the members only site, which raised US$45m in venture capital funding last year, has over 800,000 US members and 120,000 French members.

Working with over 550 wineries, offers on the US site typically last only 48 hours. Co-founder and president Philip James – who also founded wine ratings and reviews site Snooth.com ­– expects to build the UK site to 200 wineries in the next six months, but is keen not to inundate members with offers. “I thought it would work because your typical wine merchant is stuffy and intimidating for the average wine consumer. There’s also far too much choice. By telling us a bit about yourself we can cherry pick wines to suit your specific palate,” James told me at the London launch at Quo Vadis in Soho on Thursday.

“I chose the name because 18 is the legal drinking age in the UK – where I’m from, and it’s also considered a lucky number, meaning “lucky purchase” in Cantonese and “life” in Hebrew. I wanted it to evoke the excitement felt when winning an auction lot,” James added. With a constantly revolving stock, the site specialises in sourcing difficult-to-find parcels and prides itself on offering rare single bottles for sale.

Wines range from £10-100, but James (far left) calls the £10-20 bracket the site’s “sweet spot.” “We’re very much pushing the ‘get it while it’s hot’ idea to keep the excitement up. Our offers are only around for a couple of days, so when they’re gone, they’re gone,” he said. The UK site has launched with offers including Château Pontet Canet 1995 at £90 per bottle and Rubicon Estate Blancaneaux 2009 from Francis Ford Coppola’s Inglenook Estate in Napa at £42.50.

Wines from all around the world will be represented, with a strong leaning towards California, Washington, Oregon and the Finger Lakes in New York. The company’s buying team is made up of 15 sommeliers and Master of Wine students operating worldwide, who source wines for all three sites. James is looking to launch the site, which also offers gourmet food and epicurean-themed travel, in Germany, Spain and Northern Europe in the near future. Membership to Lot18.com is free.

China develops thirst for white

China is developing a growing thirst for white wine, according to Vinexpo. As reported on thedrinksbusiness.com, red wine still makes up the vast majority of total wine consumption in China (91%), but white wine drinking rose by 19% last year, with 70% further growth expected by 2015.

Last week, the global wine and spirits exhibition group spelt out its views in Shanghai of the fast-developing Chinese wine market. Dominique Heriard Dubreuil, chairman of both Vinexpo and Rémy Cointreau, said China’s developing taste for white wine presents an educational challenge to vintners worldwide.

“In general, Chinese people don’t like to drink something cold, but white wine is not at its best when warm,” she said. According to Vinexpo, last year China overtook Britain as the fifth largest wine market by volume, behind the US, Italy, France and Germany. Consumption of wine on the mainland and Hong Kong rose by 21.5%.

Within three years, greater China will spend more money on still wines than the UK, and become the world’s second biggest wine consumer by value, after the US. Vinexpo expects China to consume over a billion more bottles annually between now and 2015 – a further 54% increase.

China is also on track to become the world’s biggest Cognac market by 2016, Vinexpo says, forecasting 47% growth between 2011-2015. China is already Cognac’s second largest market, after France. But recently Chinese buyers have complained of having trouble finding the extra-premium spirits they prefer. “In China, people want very old Cognacs, but global inventories of are not extensive,” said Heriard Dubreuil.

Natural wines are "not for the masses"

One of the UK’s top natural wine importers has spoken out about the natural wine movement, comparing it to the works of Karl Marx. “Natural wines require a critical approach. They’re a bit like the works of Karl Marx; not intended for the masses,” Giuseppe Mascoli (pictured) of Aubert & Mascoli told the drinks business. “Marx was writing for a specific audience with a sufficient level of knowledge to understand and appreciate his work. The same can be said for natural wines,” he added.

Mascoli, who represents over 35 Italian and French natural winemakers in the UK, said industrial wines are like “cartoon characters” made to please children. “People are trying to shortcut millions of years of history by manipulating wines with selected yeasts. I’d rather a wine have oddities than be tailor-made,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mascoli’s business partner, Guillaume Aubert, called natural wine “a silent assassin.” “The more you drink, the less you can drink other wines. You start reacting badly to them, coming out in rashes and swelling up from all the sulphites,” he said. Aubert admits he is attracted to the libertarian element of the natural wine movement. “I like the idea of questioning the status quo. It’s very left wing,” he said.

He believes it has gathered momentum so quickly in London because the city is more prone to the effects of trends than the rest of Europe. “Natural wines have come into fashion due to the rise of the critical drinker. Consumers want to know the origin of everything they eat and drink. There’s more awareness now,” he said.

Mascoli concedes that natural doesn’t necessarily mean good. “There are a lot of really bad natural wines out there. The wines are so delicate, it’s easy to screw them up. That’s the big irony with natural wine. It’s supposed to be all about letting the terroir talk, but make a mistake and it could taste like it was made anywhere in the world.”

Having submitted a work to last year’s Venice Biennale, does Mascoli see parallels with wine and art? “On the contrary. I see wine as the opposite of art. God, the artist and the poet create out of nothing. The winemaker works with what is already in existence, acting as a pimp for nature, from the fruit he picks to the soil he respects,” he said, adding, “The winemaker is a shaman. He doesn’t create, he cures.”