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Established in 2002 by Sam and Audrey Watt from what was an apple orchard, this small vineyard makes microscopic amounts of wine. We found this place mainly due to the attractive accommodations but the wines are something of a surprise bonus. The vineyard currently spans over 5 hectares with vine densities of 2600 vines per hectare. The soil here is predominantly clay from the Moutere area. What I would really like to highlight here is their 2007 SVSauvignon Blanc which is one of the best expressions of New Zealand SB I have had this trip and perhaps the top handful I have had from New Zealand. Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm not going to mince words here - if what you want is a light, tart and aromatic quaffing wine then this is not it. Sometimes, I am convinced that the British wine trade wants to box in New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc as aromatic, tart thin thirst quenchers to serve before the serious wines- bullocks. If that's what people think will sell then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
This starts with an explosion of intense aromatic fruity & zesty fireworks. It is then followed in the mouth by intensity, density & concentrated nectar with a lingering finish. This has character, guts and strength. The fruit were late picked (by hand) and yielded 2.5 ton/acre (quite amazingly low yields for this grape and the region). 92+ Points
In a tasting of her wines, Audrey Watt put the Sauvignon Blanc last as she was afraid it would dominate if it was first. In most other shops the SB is invariably first to taste. She also told me that the wine judges didn't know what to make of her Sauvignon Blanc - I can see why it's totally out of their comfort zone and hit the ball way outside the park.
This is a monster. Powerful nose, powerful palate and powerful dark ruby colour. Which I like at times but something is not quite in balance here. There is a pungent, smoky quality that is burning my senses and I'm picking up too much sulpher which I believe I'm sensitive to. Some black fruit coming through, nice firm tannins and a bitter finish.
Perhaps this is evidence that noting the vintage of a wine is incredibly important when choosing your wine - because the 2006 does not shine for me and I would probably only give it 2 or 3 stars at a push. It's a bomb and after half a glass I was ready to move on.
A bit more than 1/2 year ago, we were in Chateauneuf du Pape. Anyway long story short. The sommelier at Beaucastel came up with a short video clip to explain the varietals and the philosophy going into CdP and Beaucastel in particular. Enjoy
The collapse of part of McLaren Vale's Wirra Wirra winery last week was widely reported - but not widely seen. The visual is far more dramatic than the telling. This is a substantial winery in the middle of vintage - or it was in the middle of vintage.
It would be hard to guess that this came from the same vineyard as the recent Faiveley Santenots. The Faiveley was more butch, and perhaps longer - an ‘hommage’ to the style of Lafon - but the width and complexity of fruit here seems more ‘Volnay’ though the oak needs to fade a little more. [...]
According to the company, the ‘podcasks’ provide the latest updates on wine news, en primeur releases and wine events as well as featuring exclusive interviews with some of the biggest names in the world of fine wine.
We hopped in the car with some friends yesterday and went on a little day trip to Chicago to take in WIRED magazine?s 2008 NextFest , an annual exhibition of emerging technologies.
While not nearly as grand in scale as the 2005 event on Navy Pier, this year?s show in Millennium Park still packs a lot of wow factor in its exhibits ? and admission is free. We were greeted outside the tent by a whimsical, grass-clipping electronic sheep (which later had to be corralled inside after a light rain began to fall). Once inside, there were exhibits relating to about every aspect of modern life, including clothing, art, design, health, transportation, communication, entertainment and the environment.
Toyota, which along with Xerox and Citi is one of this year?s major sponsors, brought along a range of transportation exercises ranging from personal vehicles (imagine a luxurious Segway) to its plug-in Prius, a pre-production model that is currently undergoing real-world shakedown tests. Toyota also is showing its 1X concept vehicle , a lightweight (980 lbs.), fuel-sipping (90 mpg) four-passenger vehicle suitable for urban environments.
Xerox focused on green technology, including its solid-ink printer technology that reduces waste by 90 percent and is much more cost-effective than conventional color printers and a paper that printing fades from over a 24-hour period so that it can be reused. Those who value the permanence of print might find this a strange product, but Xerox was motivated to develop it after determining that more than 40 percent of office printouts are discarded the same day they are printed. Obviously, the potential savings in money and resources made possible by such a technology are enormous, particularly for school systems, large corporations and governmental entities.
In the energy and environment section, a technology that rapidly makes diesel fuel from algae and ultra-efficient photovoltaics that convert 40 percent of the sun?s energy to electricity ? up from 15 percent for conventional solar panels ? were the standouts. For photographers, the Gigapan technology developed by NASA and Carnegie Mellon University is exciting, and apparently will be surprisingly affordable. And while it seems unlikely that you?ll ever see them at Bed, Bath and Beyond, the food-delivery systems created by designer Martin Kastner for chef Grant Achatz will give foodies something to drool over.
Nextfest?s run will continue October 7 through 12 (the show is closed on Mondays). If you get there early, you could have time to wander through the Art Institute across the street or head down to the Museum of Science and Industry to tour the modular, green smart home which will be on display through January 4 of next year. If your route to Chicago takes you up I-65, be advised that major highway construction will cause you to take a detour , whether your preferred route is the Tollway or I-80/94.
If you are often frustrated reading wine magazines, wine books, and wine reviews that focus on wines you can't find in your local store, you may wonder why I am addicted to Michael Broadbent's Vintage Wine: Fifty Years of Tasting Three Centuries of Wines. This book collects his tasting notes for the oldest, rarest, and most coveted wines in the world.
If you don't know Michael Broadbent's book, it's an awe-inspiring trip through some of the oldest and most expensive cellars on the planet. And because there's no conceivable way most of us will ever be able to buy any of the wines he tastes here, there's none of that frustration--just pure enjoyment. If this sounds like something you might find fun, or you are looking for a gift for a wine lover, check out today's post.
When I first saw this link, I didn?t quite understand what they were talking about. But, never fear my friends, I did the research and am now perfectly prepared to tell you about the Dutty Wine Dance.
There is a Jamaican rapper who wrote a song entitled ?Dutty Wine?. To the best that I can decipher dutty should translate to dirty. The basis of the song is that he is poor and can only afford dutty wine that gets him very?.um?inebriated. Apparently it also gets the women he is with very drunk as well and this is the dance they do for him while drinking it.
The middle class is in an uproar. All their little girls are doing the 'Dutty Wine'. From left, right and centre, even disabled children, everybody is doing the 'Dutty Wine'.
Disabled children? Did they really go there?
Not wishing in any way to detract from the suggestive nature of the dance, I must point out that it is impossible to do it without long tresses. If you can't get your hair to swing round and round your head while you get down on all fours on the ground, you're not doing the 'Dutty Wine'. It requires supreme flexibility. Consequently, there's not a child who hasn't been stopped from doing it by a parent in the last few months
OK, why are CHILDREN in Jamaica doing this dance. I mean, it sure doesn?t sound like the hokey pokey to me.
The ones I feel sorry for are the disabled children. They don't have legs, so it's perfect for them. They can wine their little hearts out. But even when they do it, it's suggestive if not more so. All the adults hurriedly put a stop to it. Poor little children.
LOL! OMG, did I read that right? Why do they keep picking on the disabled kids? Are there just tons of disabled kids sitting around in Jamaica waiting to do a dance?
What?s worse is that I went on You Tube to see what it was all about and when I searched Dutty Wine I got like 50 million results. Here is one of the first ones I found but the most important question is ?How in the hell could a disabled child do this?
Well I?m back, with many changes on the way?too many to report on here.The move was predictably stressful, complete with long waits at the police for foreign national registration, idiot bank employees who don?t do what you ask them to, negligent estate agents only interested in their miserable commission?and that?s if they?re still employed, considering the global financial meltdown that ensued, seemingly occurring right after I physically landed at Heathrow and cleared the baggage claim.Oh well, at least the internet service provider finally showed up and set me up, so on towards the more exciting, positive bits of news...I look forward to coming back more often to post, particularly on my own domain.Look for updates on that soon.
Onto the wine?one of the final remaining, seemingly recession-proof products around, particularly if you?re a wine producer from Argentina or South Africa, or perhaps a wine importer in China, but I?m getting ahead of myself again.
I find the UK wine marketplace, from the consumer?s perspective, incredibly fascinating in ways that would make importers and distributors from back in the US think twice and want to look hard and long on certain matters.After all, this is the market from which, time and again, I?ve seen trends emerge, subsequently reaching American stocklists, on average and depending on the specific trend, around 12-18 months later.Whether we?re talking organics, fair-trade wines, an upsurge in country/region-specific wines being consumed (Austria, Bierzo, NZ Pinot Noir, Chilean takes on Alsace, Argentine Tempranillo, and many more ), or even a specific craze for wines that single out a particular grape variety, it always seems like it all begins here first.A small clarification of course, we always need one of those?when I discuss market trends, the proportions I am are referring to could well be regarded as ?mainstream? or en-masse.Leaving aside the handful of enlightened, forward-looking importers, distributors, retailers and agents involved in the US wine trade, I?m thinking of trends that American consumers simply haven?t embraced in mainstream fashion.
What trends am I talking about, then, in terms of the ?here and now??The recently sudden and intense interest, expressed particularly by some of the largest retail entities in the US (Target, Walmart, etc?), in ?certified organic? and ?fair trade? wines, has been preceded by all sorts of retail outlets here in the UK by almost five or six years.In fact, the revered wine education cathedral of sorts, Vinopolis, recently hosted a consumer-oriented Fair Trade tasting featuring South African and South-American wines.In terms of the prevalence of ?Fair Trade certified? wines in the marketplace here, even large supermarket chains maintain extensive production relationships with wine producers in Argentina, Chile and South Africa that intend to compensate the grape farming coops that supply them fairly and ethically.The venerable Trainsfair USA, I believe, is just beginning to crank the gears that will soon establish an American Fair Trade certification scheme in the vein of its successful coffee program.One recently elaborated section of its website seems to be calling all potentially interested retailers, importers and distributors of Fair Trade certified wines, complete with legal advice and guidelines to becoming approved agents.
I don?t have much in the way of a formal set of closing thoughts on this, but a few questions come to mind in terms of this apparent phenomenon where certain trends poke their heads out in the UK first:
1) Could this simply be attributed to there being an altogether greater sense of open-mindedness here in the UK?I?ve seen many food products here, ingredients easily available at mainstream chain supermarkets for very reasonable prices?meats, spices and foods for which I used to have to trek all the way to a Whole Foods in the US, sometimes fifty miles each way, just to get in line and pay frighteningly exorbitant prices, given that my purchases didn?t consist of the bland crap available in most stores.
2) The second question revolves around economic irony:Why is it that the UK is at the forefront of wine consumer trends, as far as imports, when it is actually the US market which the latest reports point to as being the most profitable market to export to, on a per liter of wine basis?This should be taken into account in addition to the US being ranked the second largest export market (by volume).Would the people at the American Association of Wine Economists have a paper on this?
Whether I am here or there, from now on I will be posting recommendations and pieces such as this one on both the American and British wine market environments.More to follow in the near future?
As you may have noticed, Enotheque has been missing some updates for some time now. At the moment, I'm on the road at a very challenging but rewarding consulting job. The days are long and the nights seem all too short, resting only in brief moments before it's time to attend to the task at hand again.
I'll bring back some good posts with recommendations, interesting regions, values and interviews soon enough. For the time being, enjoy the other subscriptions of your Google Reader, since nobody is ever truly caught up with it anyway.
It was time for the main event, and there must have been four or five hundred giddy people gathered in downtown Manhattan. One or two of dozens of Burgundy’s elite winemakers sat at each table in anticipation of this Bacchanalian orgy. The long, army-style lunch room seating had to have about forty people per table, [...]
Retief Goosen has started his own brand of wine, called Fine Wines by the Goose. The farm, interestingly enough called Ganzekraal is located in the Upper Langkloof, not far from Goosen's house in George. Winemaker Morne Jonker is very positive about the brand, with the flagship wine 'The Expression' being a 50% Shiraz - 50% Cabernet blend retailing for about R270 a bottle, with only 1 000 cases of the wine currently on the market.
Jonker describes the Expression as ?an elegant wine, well-balanced wine?.
?Our acids are high ? we don't over-tannin our wines with wood tannins ? and we use 20% new barrels, 80% second, third and fourth fills which gives it that nice classical feel. The wine, in fact, tastes older than what it is.?
Having been produced in the Langkloof ? a cool climate wine region where the average temperature is 17 degrees ? the ripening process is prolonged, resulting in smaller, more concentrated berries.
The Expression is distributed by NMK and Global Brands, and stocked by Caroline Fine Wines at the Cape Town Waterfront.
Brendan Barratt, a good friend of mine and the Assistant Editor of Compleat Golfer magazine(www.compleatgolfer.co.za) caught up with 'The Goose' at the recent SAA Open in Pearl Valley and asked him about his new range of wines.
How did you get into winemaking? Were you always interested in wine?
Well you know, I sort of really got into wine let's say 15 years ago, drinking wine with my wife ? she always liked the Chardonays, so I started drinking it and then I became more interested while travelling around the world. You just about eat in a restaurant every night when you play around the world so I just became interested in ordering different wines off the menu and started really getting interested in all the different flavours. About two years ago I said to a good friend of mine, Werner (Roux ? of Lagoon Bay Golf Estate), Let's get into the wine. And he said, 'Well, I know this guy who makes very good wines, just across the mountain here in George'. So we went to go see Morne (Jonker), and Morne was very interested in getting involved, and that's how we started the brand. So far it's been going fairly well and we have only really been running it now since May last year, and we know the wine is good.
How involved are you in terms of hand-on winemaking?
Well I am not there actually picking the grapes! That's for sure, but I am drinking it! But I have been on the farm a few times and we have invested a lot into the farm to upgrade and plant some more grapes. I was quite involved in the selection of the actual bottle itself and the labelling, they were pretty much my idea.
You're following in the footsteps of some fine winemaking golfers, Ernie, Arnie...
Well yeah, just about every second golfer now has a wine farm, isn't it? We are obviously big drinkers! But it's more of an interest than really a business thing and if it does happen to make it, it's great ? and so far it is doing well. And we know we've got a good brand.
Do have have any particular wine preferences?
I love this combination that Morne has made, the Cabernet-Shiraz and the Sauvignon Blanc we are bottling in February, so my wife is more of the white wine drinker. I like both, purely depending on what I am eating and how I feel.
In terms of marketing the brand, can we expect to see 'Goose Wines' on your shirt sleeve any time soon?
Well, I have Grey Goose, which is unfortunately a French-American vodka, but that's something I will definitely start looking at, doing some sort of branding somewhere on my golf bag. At the moment we have been doing quite a bit of marketing and we were at the wine show in London a few months ago, so we are slowly building up our customers. We are doing well, we are exporting a little bit to England, Ireland, Singapore and China. We are looking forward to the East, once we get China then it is going to be our biggest market for exporting.
To contact Morne - call : 082 653 6800 ; e-mail : morne@thegoosewines.com or for more information log onto www.thegoosewines.com
(Thanks must go to Brendan for providing The Cru with this exclusive interview with "The Goose" - let's hope we see him win another 'Major' soon!)
It is home to over one third of all vines planted in France. Yet, how the Languedoc adjusts to world glut in grapes will have a profound effect on its future. Once responsible for massive amounts of low quality grapes, growers in the France's south have had to make a choice as competition from other countries have made this a less viable business.
Faced with the option of simply pulling out vines, a new generation of winemakers have chosen to make higher quality wines. While lower yields have improved the wines, putting more emphasis on more marketable grapes like Syrah and Grenache have no doubt made them more attractive to today's varietal conscious consumer. However, this second decision has come at a price.
The Carignan grape, indigenous to the south, has suffered as many growers have switched to Syrah and Grenache. Carignan can do wonderful things if given the opportunity, adding color, structure, depth, as well as dark cooked fruits, licorice and earthy aromas. However, since it is often relegated to the more fertile plateaus where it over produces, it can become rather innocuous.
At a recent tasting of Languedoc wines, the bottles that had appreciable levels of well-grown carignan were the ones that stood out. If you place a value on the importance of regional ?distinctiveness,' look for those Languedoc wines with higher percentages of this grape. Coteaux du Languedoc 2001, Mas Jullien One of my favourite producers is Olivier Jullien. His estate, Mas Jullien, is spread out over 15 acres around the village of Jonquiers, just north of the Mediterrean coast and the city of Montpellier. I have already reviewed his Mas Jullien Blanc, a six grapes blend that includes Grenache Blanc, Viogner and Chenin Blanc, and to my taste is one of the most distinctive and interesting whites in France that requires years of cellaring to reach it's apogee.
His red, a blend of Carignan, Syrah and Mourvedre, is no less interesting. Like many carignan based wines, it requires a couple of years of cellaring to iron out some of the rougher edges, but it rewards patience like few wines from the region. This was my fourth bottle (I still have two left).
Drunk to the tune of a big juicy steak.
Deep purple in both color and style. Like Richie Blackmore's guitar playing, Jullien combines virtuosity with power, beauty without being very pretty. It smells and tastes of dark plums, marinated in licorice and sweet spices. Rich and concentrated, the tannins melted away to a dense, powerful and harmonious finish. This is not the new dulcimer Blackmore, but the Richie of Old.
It may sound obvious to put a girl in blue jeans in an ad for wine (like, helLO, this is an advertisement for youths, duh), and therefore not that interesting, but for some reason it works. Sacre Bleu's frankly young-looking model, along with product placement at the hip Miami music venue The Fillmore, support of charitable organization Rock the Cause and funny winemaking videos from French Gustave (it's always nice to have a Frenchie in the mix), put the brand at the top of the wine-marketing-to-Millennials heap. Haven't tasted the wine yet, but seeing as it's coming from France's promising Languedoc, my bet is it's not half bad.
Fetzer Vineyards, one of the largest US wineries, will lightweight its entire line of wines to reduce its environmental footprint, continuing the winery's more than 20-year history of environmental responsibility and a decade-long commitment to help alleviate global climate change.
Carbon Footprint of Bottles Reduced by 14%
On an average annual basis, the new bottles reduce glass usage by 16% (more than 2,100 tons) and supply chain greenhouse gas emissions (or carbon footprint) associated with glass bottles by 14% (3,000 tons of CO2e). This is equivalent to planting 70,000 trees and growing them for ten years ? or nearly tripling all the trees planted in New York's Central Park.
Another summer is quickly coming to an end, and I hope everyone got a chance to visit their favorite local vineyard for a tour or a wine tasting. The highlight of my summer is always being able to visit the northern Michigan wineries. This summer, I got a chance to go up to the Leelanau Peninsula several times, and each time was memorable.
Leelanau Cellars is, by far, my favorite place to visit up north, especially because of the tasting experience. You don’t feel limited of how many wines you can taste, and the staff working the tasting room are VERY knowledgeable and friendly. I left with about 16 bottles of wine the last time I visited! If you are looking for some odd fruit wines, this is the place to go.
The wine: I shared a bottle with my new roommates in Grand Rapids. All three of us loved it.
Matt: “Delicious with chips and dip” Casey: “It would be a good winter wine. Surprisingly smooth!”
I enjoyed this 5 dollar bottle of wine with a thin-crust pizza and it was great. The wine was rich, and had a lot of flavor. I could taste the typical hints of cherry that most Michigan wines boast.
Summary: Great job, Leelanau Cellars! I look forward to coming back next year! Rating: 9/10 - Excellent! Price: 5 bucks Winery Information: Leelanau Cellars Leelanau Wine Cellars 12683 E. Tatch Rd (County Rd. 626) Omena, MI 49674 (231) 386-5201
I don’t often buy wines from Maison Latour, and whilst I’ve had so-so bottles from them, it has more been due to lack of local availability than quality reasons. Now I’ve found a relatively close merchant, so two or three bottles might appear over the next days. 2005 Louis Latour, Gevrey-Chambertin Medium-plus colour. The [...]
Just in time for Christmas, Sainsburys and Secret Sommelier have teamed up to produce a case of 12 Bordeaux with an accompanying podcast by Christopher Burr MW and Ewan Lacey.
Bordeaux, I think, can be the region most in need of explanation to the uninitiated, as its charms occasionally need to be coaxed out. In this world of immediacy, these wines lag behind in the crowd-pleasing stakes, especially when you venture down from the top drawer. But given a lead from someone knowledgeable, I think - unlike some wines which initially please but become repetitive and dull - they can become friends for life.
It would make a great present for someone and is a useful tool for a group of friends who don't go to a wine club but want to have fun with it at home.
Good for Sainsburys to seize the initiative and find quite an innovative approach to wine tasting. But why is the podcast an audio recording not a dvd? I haven't heard it yet but I would have thought there was quite a lot of opportunity for visuals here.
To make it even more appealing, they have included a prize draw to win a trip for two to the Bordeaux Wine School. That would be quite a fun trip, I imagine.
The case can be bought at www.sainsburys.co.uk/wine or buy the wines individually in-store. Many of these wines I have not tasted myself but I do know the "Taste the Difference" ones are very decent examples.
I've always privately believed that if everyone just drank a bit more wine, the world would be a better place. Who knows if that's really true, but apparently it's quite likely that if everyone drank more wine, the world would be more democratic.
What's that, you ask? Wine drinking liberal elitists? Guilty as charged. But get this little statistic:
Amount of wine produced in states that McCain won: 4.3 Million Gallons Amount of wine produced in states that Obama won: 773 Million Gallons Percentage of wine produced in America that comes from states that Obama carried: 98.6
Harper's Index eat your heart out. The whole thing makes me giggle. And while Obama is a big beer lover, it
Tecnorati
We hopped in the car with some friends yesterday and went on a little day trip to Chicago to take in 
It may sound obvious to put a girl in blue jeans in an ad for wine (like, helLO, this is an advertisement for youths, duh), and therefore not that interesting, but for some reason it works. 
