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Building a Wine Collection Part Three: Good Value Wines to Age
You don't have to spend a fortune on top-end Bordeaux and Burgundy to start collecting and ageing wine. There are quite a few sure bets out there that cost £25 or under, and also some good everyday options that do last a suprisingly long time and make interesting "project bottles" for the aspiring wine afficionado. You may raise an eyebrow at my suggestion that £25 for a bottle of wine is not a fortune, but by Claret standards it isn't.
The sure bets would include Chablis Premier Cru from decent producers like Domaine Christian Moreau and (soon to arrive on our shelves) Domaine des Malandes. The former's Chablis Premier Cru Vaillons 2010 (£23) is going to get more honeyed as it ages, but is likely to retain a balancing freshness for 5 or 6 years at least before it begins to seem "mature" and will last a few years after that. German Rieslings can also be very long-lived and something like the (deep breath) Mosel Riesling Spaetlese Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr 2007 from Max Ferd. Richter (£20), whilst already evolving, has a long future ahead of it; buy 2010 German Riesling at this sort of quality level, be it dry or off-dry, and it should last into the next decade. For reds, there are some perhaps surprising choices from the New World. It's rare to find aged South American reds in the UK but I have had some brilliant examples from both Chile and Argentina. You could try sticking away the Arboleda Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 from the Maule Valley (£15.50) for five years. From South Africa, Meerlust's famed Stellenbosch Rubicon 2007 Bordeaux Blend (£1 more than my £25 limit!) actually needs a few years to knit together, and will hit its peak around 2017, I reckon.
For a bargain white that can be very interesting with a few year's age, you can try hiding away a Muscadet Sevre et Maine Sur Lie, like our Christophe Drouard 2010 (£10). In reds, consider Cotes du Rhone: good examples now push above £10 per bottle but they do tend to hold their own for anything up to a decade, maybe a bit more in the right vintage. The Domaine de l'Espigouette 2010 Cotes du Rhone (£11.50) is a new vintage of a wine we have enjoyed in the past, and will gain more a savoury edge to its ripe berry fruit if you can be patient.
Tom
Building a Wine Collection Part One: Why Do It?
Welcome to the first in a series of missives about collecting and laying down wine.
Why start to build up a wine collection? Obviously some famous collections were built up with an eye on investment. But in this series of posts I'm going to focus on laying down wine to drink later, for personal enjoyment. I'm sure you've heard if big auctions where the contents of the cellar of someone recently deceased have gone under the hammer. As far as I'm concerned there's no point dying with wine left undrunk.
Off the top of my head I can think of two key reasons behing having a "drinker's cellar" (or wine rack, pantry etc). The first is to put some wines away and see how they change over time. It's great if you can have three or four bottles of some of these wines, and then (if very keen) you can take notes each time you open one. The second main reason is that quite a few fine wines are released before their optimum drinking window, and so the onus is on you to stick them away and, hopefully, only crack them open when good and ready. Red Bordeaux is often released in a fairly raw state. However I don't collect it because, in London, if you shop in the right places, you can always get your hands on a bottle with sufficient bottle age. Italian wines like Barolo, however, are more rarely seen on the shelves in mature vintages; so the basis of my collection is Barolo, Barbaresco, and the tuscans Brunello di Montalcino and Chianti.
You don't have to spend a fortune to get an ageworthy wine; there are wines like top-end Muscadet which costs £10 an can develop nicely over several years, as can a Cotes du rhone which might cost £12 to £15. I'll give you a list of suggestions in another post.
Tom
Building a Wine Collection Part Two: Wine Under the Stairs
My dream house would probably have a pukka cellar, or temperature-and-humidity- controlled room, a spiral cellar, or at very least a big tall wine cabinet. But many of us can't necessarily afford these options, or are living in rented accomodation, or have yet to build up a collection to make them seem worthwhile. I paln to discuss these options, however, in a subsequent post.
When starting out as a wine collector, the standard wine-rack-under the stairs may have to suffice. You might want to check that there isn't too much vibration in the area as this can harm the ageing process. Also make sure that there are no heat sources nearby. The key with keeping wine is temperature consistency, so you need to avoid the sort of temperature spikes that might be caused by nearby heating on a timer, or by white goods. Avoiding direct sunlight is also important. The ideal temperature for keeping wine is probably around 14-16 degrees. You can keep wine in a warmer environment - it will age quicker, but as long as the temperature is not too variable it should be okay.
It always annoys me when I see adverts for fitted kitchens and they have built in wine racks right next to the oven. Doh! And the other classic cock-up is to have a wine rack on top of the fridge-freezer. Because of the vent on the back of the unit, you might just as well stick your Puligny-Montrachet next to the oven.
One way of trying to keep wine insulated from extremes in temperature is to use the foam packing that you get in some wine transit boxes. Perhaps easier is to get a basic cool box. As these are not permeable you would want to put a damp cloth in every so often so that the corks do not dry out. A certain degree of humidity is vital to keep corks elastic, though too much and your labels will suffer! Similarly we keep wine bottles on their side to preserve the corks and therefore the seal.
I'm lucky that my cupboard under the stairs wass in fact a pantry, and so is now storing my compact and bijou stash of around 100 bottles. It is on an outside wall which is mostly in shadow, so the average temperature is both very steady and low enough at about 15 degrees.
Tom
Viognier
Viognier is a hedonistic grape, with masses of peachy fruit and, when made right, lovley spicy aromas of nutmeg, and clove. But we very nearly ended up with none to drink. In the 1960s there was only around 8 hectares of Viognier in Condrieu and that was about it. The grape was probably saved from disappearing by one or two wineries in California taking it on, and large French wine companies starting to plant Vin de Pays Viognier in the Ardeche. Then in the 1990s it was able to benefit from the Anything But Chardonnay movement.
One reason that it was disappearing is that it's tricky to grow. Viognier needs to get to 13% potential abv for it's aromatic characteristics to show. It seems that all those aroma compounds develop after the sugar levels reach decent ripeness. So this means you need highish alcohol to get the flavour but need to stop things going OTT.
One worry I've always had with New World Viognier is that they seem to often get up towards 15% abv and display some "burn" on the palate. Australian examples always seemed to do this for me, though I haven't had one for a while. (Condrieu can also push towards 15% but seems to avoid the heat.) Other New Worlders can seem a bit gloopy with acidity being overpowered by viscosity. One of the better ones I've recently tried is the Staete Landt from Marlborough, New Zealand (£17.50 for the 2009 at time of post), which is a lovely round textured mouthful of peachy fruit. There is a suggestion that a lesser mutation of the grape present in the Southern Rhone is the one that has spread round the world, which helps explain why wines made outside the original base don't quite have the same aromatic complexity.
So I still think the Northern Rhone is the place to go. Condrieu wines have that array of aromas mentioned above. On the palate the wines tend to be a lot more subtle, with hints of stone fruit alongside nuttiness and spice. Wines are generally £30 plus, which makes them a bit of a luxury. However there are some stunning wines from the local Vin de Pays des Collines Rhodaniennes (Rhone slopes). These lack the subtlety and depth of the more pricey wines but can benefit from more refreshing acidity making them better all-rounders with food. Yves Cuilleron is an acknowledged master of the grape, and whilst his Condrieu Vertige 2007 (£85) is epic, his Vin de Pays 2009 (£17.50) is one of my favourite wines at Bottle Apostle.
Opinions are mixed as to ageing Condrieu. They get more honeyed with age, but having tried a few 10 year old Condrieus I tend to prefer them very fresh with perky acidity. Perhaps a little raw but that's my taste. Other Viogniers probably don't have the track record to make a judgement on ageing, though I'd be sceptical about high alcohol New World examples.
Food wise I'd be looking at chicken, pork and lamb dishes. Given its flavour characteristics I can see a lamb tagine working, or pork with apricots. If you are so inclined foie gras, pan-fried or cool, is great with Viognier - which is easier for British palates than a Sauternes at the start of a meal.
The Bordeaux / Burgundy Minefield
We can't call ourselves Bordeaux and Burgundy specialists, though I think our selection will grow as the company grows more generally, and once our online shop is (imminently) launched. Funnily enough the team love Burgundy, and whilst we probably have a more complex relationship with Bordeaux, it's certainly a region I have visited several times. Moreover we are doing brilliantly with our Bottle Apostle Graves 2005 (£15) made for us by Chateau du Seuil. So what are the snags to stocking Bordeaux and Burgundy?
Firstly there is the complex "open" market which means that well heeled individuals are often buying from the same sources as retailers, which means that outside of the very well established merchants with large buying power, there isn't much of a customer base to encourage us to dive in head first.
Claret might not be the go-to region for all of our groovy South Hackneyite wine lovers; Burgundy, and particularly Pinot Noir is a bit more hip. But there are still problems. The price rises over the last few years mean that we are pushing £40 for village wines (ie not Premier Crus) from the best locations (eg Gevrey Chambertin) and best producers. And this is generally for pretty young vintages too. It takes some effort to find much older than 2006 in reds, and similarly our Meursault spot on the list is empty whilst we find something younger than a 2008.
Bordeaux meanwhile suffers from being either a bit old school in some of our customers' minds, either in marketing terms or through being rather drier and savoury than some reds with more tannin and acidity. But perhaps the bigger barrier is placed in front of Chris and I as "professional" buyers: much of the Bordeaux that we get to taste is in general tastings where we are tasting wines from around the world. And if you try a Claret, then a Brunello di Montalcino, you can guess which is going to suffer by comparison. The trouble is that even we separate out the Bordeaux wines, I find that I'm always getting a question mark of "value for money" hanging over them - at all price levels. Of course the wines we do have are exceptions: the aforementioned "House Claret", 2004 Haut-Bages Liberal Pauillac (£34) etc. But we're running out of our excellent 1998 Chateau Bellefont-Belcier St Emilion Grand Cru (£38) and I'm struggling to find a worthy 2000 or 2001 to replace it.
But we keep battling; a recent lucky break with a private source landed us some Francois Parent Chambolle Musigny (£35) and Pommard 1er Cru Les Rugiens (£45) from the great 1999 vintage are drinking beautifully and do provide a wine experience worthy of the price tags. So keep your eyes open...
Spanish Surprises & Rioja Gripes
This week we've had another batch of new Spanish wines arriving, and it's noticeable that they're not from the "obvious" regions of Rioja and Ribera del Duero. We seem to be getting more excited about the less well-known stuff.
A recent trip to Spain to seek out "House Rioja" featured an array of lollipoppy sweetish "easy drinking" reds made using Carbonic Maceration (as with most Beaujolais) and confirmed that I should look for sub £10 Tempranillo based wines elsewhere. This sentiment was echoed by a client who has replaced a Rioja on their wine list with the "Bajondillo" 2009 (£10.00) made by Jimenez-Landi in the Mentrida region of central Spain. They felt not only that they got more bang for their buck, but also that the Mentrida tasted more like what they expected from Rioja. It's hard to keep loyalty if you don't conform to some degree to customer preconceptions.
That's not to say that we've given up on Rioja; whites are a bit hit and miss, especially as the traditional Reservas and Gran Reservas are phased out, and the same-old-same-old Chardonnay and Sauv Blanc are introduced to try to raise sales figures. But we've tasted lots of very good reds albeit in the £10+ sector and from (to us anyway) familiar names. There is a newish category clumsily called semi-Crianza (a bit of oak ageing) which is meant to be a halfway house between party wines and the serious stuff and so should address the concerns laid out above, but I haven't tried anything with wow factor yet. As I write we have an "Introduction to Rioja" event coming up on Thursday, so we are definitely commited to the cause. Similarly with Ribera del Duero we've been looking beyond the ubiquitous brands and have taken a while to hit on something but think we may be there...you'll just have to watch this space.
I digress; here are three of the Spanish surprises.
The region of Penedes is not as well known as it's biggest brand, Torres. It's the heartland for Cava but there are also some interesting wines featuring the Cava grapes. "Massis del Garraf" 2009 from Terraprima is a vibrant, zesty white which blends some Riesling in with the local Xarel-lo (one of my favourite grape names; it sounds like a relative of Superman.) Yours for £11.00.
Bobal is a grape I had most associated with good value gluggers from Central Spain; I remember in the early days of my wine career enjoying an unpretentious little number at £4.99 from M&S. We've been stocking the marvellously named Manchuela winery Bodegas y Vinedos Ponce's Clos Lojen (£12.00) for some time, but myself and Chris were both blown away with their top wines. So salute the "P.F" 2009 Manchuela (£18.00) which marries vibrant cherry fruit and nutmeg with well balanced tannin and acidity.
I have to admit I had to look up Conca de Barbera in my wine Atlas; it's also in Catalunya, just inland from the Tarragona region. "Les Paradetes" 2006 by Escoda Sanahuja (£21.50) is an epic well structured red full bodied red with a hint of medicinality - it certainly made me feel better.
The blog rises again!
After a false start due to my technical shortcomings our blog is now operational and will become a regular source of event reports, product information, wine tips and other pearls of wisdom. Watch this space!