Tavel – A rosé to be taken seriously

The etheric oils of wild herbs are filling my senses and the warm Autumn breeze of Rhône is taking care that it doesn’t feel like late October. Looking down I see limestones bigger than my fist. Better watch my step not to sprain an ankle here. As far as eye can see, grumpy looking old vines are sticking out, looking even more tormented than vines growing on extremely poor soils usually do. The leaves have started to change colour from lively green to decaying brown which is nature’s way of saying the Winter will eventually reach the region too. I’m visiting Tavel, the infamous rosé wine region in South-Rhône and find myself thinking: how do they manage the soils as brutal as these? I’m also falling in love with the wines.

Moon like rocky soils of Tavel can be divided into three types. The limestones seen here, the sandy soils and the “rolling stones”, that the neighbouring Châteauneuf-du-Pape has made famous with its red wines.

The scrub-bush meets dry oily herbs kind of combination readily seen in Southern Rhône. Garrigue, as it is called in the local dialect, is said to be the secret of many terroirs responsible for some of the greatest wines around.

The mighty Rhône river originating in the Swiss Alps used to be 30 km wide. These extremely hard ‘galets roules’ are pretty much all that remains of the ancient river bed.

Monsieur Guillaume Demoulin of the brilliant Trinquevedel owns 32 hectares of the total 960 to be found in Tavel. To put the number in perspective, Provence is producing rosé with some 20.000 hectares.

Domaine de la Mordorée was responsible for the best wine I had during the short visit. 2008 was youthful and complex. Most people don’t know but Tavel ages gracefully and is not at its best within the first year after the vintage. The producers seemed to agree that one year of patience is more than recommendable for the wine to show its true colours. A Tavel can age up to 40 years, they claim.

A magnum almost taller than me. I had to buy one to take to the bring your own party at the DWCC conference held this year in Montreux, Switzerland. And yes, the wine went well with pizza.

Tavel is a great bet because today there’s basically no low quality producers to be found. All of the circa 35 producers are very much quality orientated. Even the Co-op, Les Vignerons de Tavel, responsible for 45% of the total output, is doing a good job.

As is the case with many of the small appelations with lots of history, I feel that Tavel has, to a certain degree, missed the changes the wine world has gone through the past decade. The producers do not seem to be big in communicating what they have to offer and have probably too much trust in the wine lovers to keep remembering Tavel’s existence. This is understandable, since a winery must concentrate first and foremost to make the best quality wine possible and Tavel is able to sell its production without problems, but at the same time unfortunate since it is possible the younger wine drinkers are being alienated from the region. I do feel we should hear more noise about the darker toned yet palate cleansing rosés of Tavel, because the wines are convincing and probably better than they’ve ever been.

I will continue to drink these wines also back in Helsinki, which gives an opportunity to ask for a favour from you. If you know a nice online shop selling Tavel and shipping it to Nordic countries, please let me know.

Disclaimer: I participated an expenses paid press trip as the prelude for the DWCC

Esporão – Between new and old

I just returned from a trip to Esporão, located in the extremely beautiful Alentejo in Southern Portugal, close to the Spanish boarder. As the days passed, a thought kept bugging me. Since I by now know there’s no other way to deal with it, I’ll share it with you. To me it seems that Esporão is existing in between new and old in a quite fascinating way. Let me explain my perception with three examples.

First, lead by the Australian chief wine maker David Baverstock, the style of Esporão seems to bridge the old world to the new world. This is evident for example in the ripe and rather big house style that is often supported by a dose of American oak with some French oak playing a supportive role.

The full bodied reserve wines surprised me in their capability to age gracefully for 15 years and more. In fact, the way the wines seem to age would be the second argument why Esporão can be seen both new and old world at the same time. When young, the red reserve can be oaky to the point of smelling like milk chocolate, which puts it in my mind firmly in the sphere of “the blockbusting new world”. But when the wine ages around 5 years, it seems to go through a transformation, a sort of a leap if you will, that connects it with the more European tradition of expressing origin more clearly.

Thanks to varieties such as Trincadeiro, Alicante Bouschet, Touriga Nacional and Aragones (more commonly known to #winelovers as Tempranillo), the wines do end up being Alentejo more than spicy American oak. If you’re into full bodied and bold style of reds, these bottles offer nice bang for your buck. If you are able to forget them on the lower shelf of your wine stash for a few years, that is. If one asks me, as is the case since this is my blog and I’m entitled to both ask questions and reply to them like the pompous person I am, it might be in the best interest of the estate to launch the red reserves a year or even two later that they do, but of course such capacity and capability does not exist and it is therefore up to consumer to practice patience. A contemporary problem not limited to Alentejo, no doubt.

The white reserves were hitting the spot for me by being rich and full bodied but balanced, palatable and even somewhat palate cleansing. The ripe yet not too primary style of the whites reminds me a bit of the great whites of Northern Rhône that seem to be more refreshing and structured than their technical data sheets would suggest. It’s not always about acidity level or PH, some white wines can feel vibrant on the palate though not exactly high in acidity. To me Esporão reserve is like that. It should age with ease from 10 to 15 years.

But to get back to the original argument, a third reason why Esporão can be seen as between old and new can be found in the cellar. While visiting their brand new winery constructed for the top wines, one can take a picture that includes traditional lagares used for pressing grapes with feet (made of white marble since we’re in Alentejo), some amphoras and in the back a row of stainless steel tanks. What makes the setting interesting is that the newest additions represent at the same time the most traditional take on winemaking, since the steel tanks were there first and the more ancient utilities have been put in place only recently.

As an ending note: Alentejo seems like an aspiring place to visit as an enotourist. True, there’s not yet a comprehensive system in place for wine tourism, but Esporão is up for the task and there’s no fear of the over commercial take on wine tourism. Besides, that means the region is still open for discovery. The pictures below taken at the nearby fortified village of Monsaraz speak volumes. Catching these both, Esporão and Monsaraz during the visit, is highly recommended.

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Disclaimer: The winery took care of the expenses during the 2 day visit.

The third member of the trinity

With this piece I continue to cover the Murcia region which I’ve written about in the previous posts. Now it’s time for Yecla, the third player of the Monastrell-kingdom of Murcia region. It’s a smaller DO than its next door big brother Jumilla but also a younger one. Only 8 producers in total. The few seem to play together well, sitting all around one table and sharing bread; not necessarily a common thing to happen on any European wine region. 

Out of the three Murcia areas I visited, Yecla seemed to be the most savvy when it comes to the business side of the wine. This makes sense when you think about the modern history of Yecla. The region has had winemaking going on of course for milleniums but it was mostly small scale production for local consumption. Farmers making wine on the side. 50 years ago the region was more known for thriving furniture business (in serious trouble at the times of the current crisis).

When producers like Castaño started getting serious about wine, two things happened. First, because Jumilla was already a well known player and Yecla was challenging its reign by producing similar Monastrells, the region needed to push the envelope further to gain recognition and not be left in the shadow of the big neighbour. Enter contemporary label designs, progressive marketing thinking and stylish bodegas with restaurants serving fine dining.

“Out of the three Murcia areas I visited, Yecla seemed to be the most savvy when it comes to the business side of the wine”

Secondly, because of the furniture tradition, Yecla had people who were involved in the international trade. They could use that know how. And unlike Jumilla, Yecla didn’t have extensive bulk wine culture in need of a make over before they could get serious. So jump start for Yecla when Jumilla had to gather its speed more slowly.

All of this means basically one thing: Yecla produces tasty wine brought to you in chic looking bottles.

But time to get honest here folks. How do the wines of Yecla actually differ on one’s palate from wines of Jumilla and Bullas? Beats me, I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. My five cents for the three regions would be: collaborate more.

It’s a big planet catering 7 billion people. When you try to get your fifteen seconds of fame (some inflation here), size matters. Small regions lying next to each other but concentrating on their own messages may in fact cannibalise the common objective: the goal of raising awareness and thus selling more Monastrell with better prices.

“It’s a big planet catering 7 billion people. When you try to get your fifteen seconds of fame, size matters”

Since all three regions produce (on my palate) rather similar bold and juicy Monastrell wines and since the notorious generic consumer has probably never heard about any of the regions, why not create one ceiling DO to represent all of the regions? ‘Monastrell from Murcia’ wouldn’t sound too bad to my ears.

From what I talked with the producers, collaboration between the three Monastrell regions is unlikely to happen, since though the producers of one region may get along well, same cannot unfortunately be said about the three regions. It seems the regions live like lone satellites in space concentrated on their own orbits. Jumilla might see Yecla as a cocky new comer and Bullas Jumilla as an old fashioned bulk area and so forth and when they attend international wine events, it’s three different stands selling similar stories with different DO’s. The one getting confused might be the consumer.

“People tend to craft their micro cosmos based on smallest differences instead of biggest similarities”

It has a lot to do with the history of course, since the producers of all three region are very friendly and hospitable people. Murcia used to be an underdeveloped piece of land with little connections to outside world (just like many other regions, mind you). On conditions like this people tend to craft their micro cosmos based on smallest differences instead of biggest similarities. That’s the way humanity seems to work. Therefore if you live on the arid plains of Yecla, you might think you have barely nothing in common with a person living next to the sea in Cartagena though you share the genes, the cuisine, the dialect, the history and the traditions.

Embedded in the local culture, the situation is probably difficult to change. That is unfortunate because the world around has already changed dramatically. It’s a big globe with a lot of competition from powerful brands. The regions are close siblings, so why concentrate on the differences? Especially while trying to challenge the more well known brands.

“The one getting confused might be the consumer”

I do recognise the issue might be a bit of tabu, something one shouldn’t really talk about like this, but I want to make perfectly clear that by no means do I look to hurt anyone’s feelings or piss someone off. But I want to do my job properly. Sometimes it means articulating things that would normally be left intact. Consider about collaborating more folks.

At Yecla, my coverage from Monastrell region unfortunately ends. If you ask from me, the story of Monastrell and Murcia is a winning one. The style of tinto the region produces has lots of potential among eco-friendly European consumers looking for juicy reds produced organically closer to home base than Chile, Argentina or Australia. Murcia, located in the South-East of Spain, is definitely an area to keep a close eye on.

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Thinking inside the box in rural Spain

At first sight there’s nothing special. Just a guy filling a bag in a box. But if you think about it in the context I’ve been trying to set up the past two posts it hopefully starts to make more sense. Two worlds clashing at one coop in the rural Spain. The old and the new. The way the guy is filling it by hand (which probably doesn’t really happen at Devil’s rock, you know) with inexhaustible patience is a symbol of the old way. The package format obviously represents the new. Foil would have justifiably meant space technology for the grandparents, nothing less.

I really like this clip. The old and the new collide without violence.

Please click the picture to see the video at Youtube

Rock n’ Roll Jumilla

 – If these vines weren’t here, nothing would grow. I mean nothing. With other varieties, like Syrah and Tempranillo, one needs to nurture and irrigate them or they will die. Monastrell thrives even with barely any water. That’s why local farmers love to work with it. The amount of grapes Monastrell is able to provide is a miracle if the extent of water is considered. It shouldn’t basically happen but every vintage it still does, Joaquin Galvez Bauza of Bodegas Carchelo says and smiles.

The man looks distantly like a rock n’ roll professor on a tour. His body language is full of electricity and he speaks about wine with passion. He’s the type of wine maker you want to finish the bottle with. Originally from Chile, he worked for three years alongside legendary Paul Draper at Ridge Vineyards.

– I learned more in three years than during the whole university, he laughs and tells how he learned to analyze the maturity of grapes by tasting the skins frequently with Draper.
After California he ended up in Madrid and eventually landed in Jumilla. Though Jumilla is ten thousand kilometers away from Chile, when you listen to the man talk about Monastrell, you get the feeling that he is here for good.

– Jumilla is pretty much naturally organic. You don’t need to treat the vines during the season. Conditions are close to perfect. Organic wine is not a big thing in Spain so most wines are uncertified. That doesn’t mean that viticulture in Jumilla would be a walk in the park. About once in five years skies open and hail storms destroy most of the crops. That’s why one needs to have his plots spread wide, Joaquin explains.

I follow the man into the winery, where we’ll taste some tank samples. Crunchy wines. They command you to return with a raw stake. Let’s leave them to mature and open a bottle. Sierva 2009 is juicy and dries your palate. The tannins are hefty in amount but finely grained. Tasting the wine makes me yearn for jamon iberico, though it’s only been an hour since the last portion. The big wine is in nice balance.

Joaquin represents the type of winemaker that was probably not present in Jumilla two decades ago. This is why he embodies the regions transition so well. He is eloquent and speaks perfect English, he made his way from the other side of the globe off the beaten track but didn’t stop creating his own path when arriving into Jumilla.

The region used to be known for bulk wines (that some claim was used to give Rioja colour) but has gone through a transformation. Because of that the traditional rustic wine style has been at many times replaced with smoother style produced in bodegas designed by known architects. Quality wine. The end results are able to surprise even a person inclined towards skepticism like yours truly.

I leave Carchelo and continue my tour around Jumilla. Over the two days I visit more than ten bodegas. The transformation of the area is best spotted in the coops that have modernized their production, but continue to produce bulk wine as well. You can see gigantic yellow tanks in rows, each filled with half a million liters of wine. Impressive sight. Locals still come and buy cheap wine into their plastic containers. On the other hand the one can hear the progress in the fluent English of the marketing directors of the coops and see it in the chic labels designed by studios abroad.

The best coop on my palate is San Dionisio, hands down. They make pure and delicious Monastrells that sell for ex-cellar as little as 1,5 euros. Talk about bang for a buck! In general my favorite producer turned out to be Bodegas Olivares with their wines that take the purity of Monastrell to the next level. The winery is a prime example of how a traditional family company can reinvent itself and jump from bulk production into quality markets with great success.

In Jumilla one has to also mention Juan Gill, successful winery, with Clio and its big brother El Nido fetching praise from well known American publications. Like icon wines from South-America, these wines are packed in heavy glass bottles and contain full bodied and bold wines that are at the same time serious and ‘hedonistic’. They are easy to fall in love with, no doubt. I didn’t, though we did sip a bottle or two during a wonderful tapas dinner. Enjoyed, yes, but fell in love, no. I lost my heart to more affordable style of Monastrell, with less oak and more freshness. Sometimes it definitely pays off to have a simple taste, as proven once again.

Talking about simple pleasures of life, if you ever have the chance to taste Jumilla Monastrells together with local raf-tomatoes, do not hesitate. They are crazy tasty served with local olive oil and a pinch of salt flakes. Combine them with big sips of Monastrell and you are in food heaven my friend, nothing less.

Let’s hope the success of Jumilla wines on international markets will help to spread the cuisine as well. I for one wouldn’t mind buying a case of Monastrell and ten kilos of raf-tomatoes and not leaving home before the deed was properly executed.

Disclaimer: the trip was done in collaboration with the Spanish embassy in Helsinki and the DO

Languedoc spiked with Cab Franc

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One of the issues with Languedoc region is the lack of distinctive styles from one sub region to another. Obviously there are nuances like within every region,  but the most popular style seems to somewhat suppress the differences. From consumers point of view all the different appelations don’t feel justified. Whether consumer point of view should count in the AOC-system made to protect originality of the region is another conversation. To me it seems that they are making things quite difficult in order to claim they have an identity that many times doesn’t taste in the glass. But enough with the rant, let’s get to positive matters.

Don’t blame yourself if you’ve never heard of Malepere AOC. I hadn’t either before I tasted 30 odd wines from the AOC a few weeks back. The wines of the appellation are mostly sold locally (only 20% are exported) and the small family companies that make up the vast majority of the producers are not big in marketing to put it mildly.

What separates Malepere from the rest is the use of Cabernet Franc in the blends. I was skeptical of the concept before tasting but was forced to change my opinion while sipping and spitting. The variety seems to work very well in Malpere providing classic notes of bell pepper, building up decent structure and increasing overall complexity. Dash of Cab Franc makes the difference.

The story behind the use of Cab Franc is not the most romantic wine story. Scientific approach was used in the 70’s to determine which varieties would suit the region best. One of them was Cab Franc and though people had doubts in the beginning, they soon made the same conclusions I did. Proof is in the glass and if something works, just go with it and stop over analyzing. Recognizable style in Languedoc context is a good start for recognition.

This Western part of Languedoc is an interesting region. It’s the final frontier for so called Atlantic varieties. According to Ryan O’Connel (making wine near Carcassonne in the Cabardès AOC) coastal areas of Languedoc enjoy often sunshine when Cabardès and Malepere fall under a cloud. Two weather systems collide above the AOC’s which seems to provide wines with some needed freshness. Watching forecasts predicting sunshine everywhere except your place may feel depressing, as Ryan put it, but in the end it seems to be good thing for the wines!

There it is in short. I apologize for writing in haste but I feel like getting this post out of my system before continuing to taste Crozes-Hermitage wines over a dinner with producers in down town Lyon. A glass or two of wine? Why not.

The hyberpole of journalism

If we agree that mean value means the average value of a set of numbers, around 50 percent of values should be below average just like 50 percent has to be above average. This is plain mathematics. In this classic and revered Parker chart more than 90% of the scores put a given vintage ‘Above average or excellent’. What’s up? You tell me. A decade of a century?

Dr. Vino was on the topic of score inflation few weeks ago. Check out the post and the conversation.

Expertise in transformation

I know my shit

When the Age of Enlightenment got off in the 18th century weird things followed. Reason replaced religion and the church lost its monopoly on ultimate truths. New authorities were needed to fill the void. They were found within science. The idealists of the time hoped that the scientific method would eventually eliminate irrationality in our lives. This has been partly achieved: Helsinki Airport would probably not work if the flight control would rely on faith instead of mathematical patterns. On the other hand, irrationality didn’t go anywhere. The priest was kicked from the limelight but the expert was put on the pedestal previously reserved for the priest. But let’s make a jump to wine shall we? You ready?

Keep your shitty parachute

Think about the traditional wine expert. He or she has read a hundred books on the subject, toured the wine regions thoroughly and is able, if needed, to give an ad hoc lecture on some trivial subject. He or she (from here on only “he”) is almost like a walking encyclopedia, whose main purpose is not so much to generate new knowledge, but to manage already existing knowledge.

Knowledge is his source of power. That’s why he prefers to keep his clearance from the crowd he’s communicating to, enforcing the power distance between the ones who do the talking and the ones who do the listening. Many times he is not really into dialogues because the value of his professionalism is partly measured in his ability to portrait himself as somewhat infallible. That’s why the most respected experts are sometimes referred to as gurus, that are masters of sacred knowledge. Bit like priests.

Yes, it’s been about knowledge. How well experts are capable of expressing themselves by writing or speaking is less important than the sheer amount of knowledge accumulated by meticulous studying and experience. After all, encyclopedias are supposed to be boring.

From this shit…

…To this shit roughly in a century

These experts of Enlightenment had their golden age. In wine it was very late, starting in the 1970’s (when mass markets for wine gained momentum in the USA) and peaking in the 90’s. But it has now ended. You see, something crucial happened. Internet saw day light.

When Internet began to show first dawning signs of maturity, the cloud emerged and Google works as a bridge to it. With no need for knowing all the books by heart, a random person with a portable device can look for even the smallest detail and find it. You still need the big picture but all the details are starting to be available for anyone, anywhere, anytime. Information has become the air we breathe and since we don’t usually think about the undeniable significance of air while we are doing it, its value goes into inflation. That’s why nobody wants to pay for news anymore these days. The uninterrupted stream of information is taken for granted.

As a result the keepers of knowledge are now amidst one of the biggest information revolutions mankind has witnessed (in my opinion proving to be even more important than the crucial invention of printing press). In the core of the change is the concept of knowledge turning ubiquitous. We are all on that roller coaster.

Yes, we know more shit than we used to

Since the changes in culture tend to follow technology with a substantial lag, we seem to be in the middle of two eras, standing on a narrow bridge above a gorge. What does this mean in terms of the future of wine writing?

Before the ongoing information breach started it was both necessary and sufficient requisition for someone claiming to be a wine expert to know world of wine thoroughly. These days general expertise is still necessary, but not alone sufficient. This is essential.

One answer to the task thrown by the structures in transition is to become a specialist, basically an old school expert owning a territory only a fraction of what the kings and the queens of the field used to rule with sovereignty. Expert on the wines of the Greek archipelago. Expert on emerging regions of Portugal. Expert on cold climate wines of Southern America. Expert on natural wines.

This information shit is addictive, need another fix

Even if you are one of the respected MW’s but with no specific area of ​​expertise, when it comes to wine communication, you might soon find yourself playing in the loosing team. Why? Because even if you spent a hundred years learning the details of different wine areas, a passionate wine pro born to a certain viticulture village will most probably know more about the local wines than you’ll ever do. Most importantly, the quality of information he can tap into will  be more dense, relevant and valuable to most followers than something learned mostly from books with a certain general view on the topic. And if you’re missing the mark, he will let you and the world know about it instantly. It’s a competition and a single person can’t beat someone born to it empowered by efficient communication, not to even mention a community tapping on crowd intelligence. You just can’t win that match.

If you want to continue to be a generalist wine communicator in the future, you should have a dimension in your work that cannot be reduced back to mere knowledge. Such as excellent skills in writing or speaking, a charming appearance, the ability to entertain, a vision clearer than most or the ability to combine different spheres of intelligence into one. Something that sets you apart from the others that have similar access to the data in the cloud. To put it simply, if you needed to be good before, you now have to be brilliant.

Technology’s making many things easier. That’s why we invest in it. It’s not exaggeration to expect that in fifteen years technology will assist pretty much anyone with a high school diploma to produce flawless text in a similar way the GPS is helping us find our way today (if your inner compass is as broken as mine). In fact I’m already utilizing this kind of technology by resorting to several online dictionaries while writing this. MS Word helpfully corrects some of my misspellings automatically and WordPress hopefully the rest.

The age of  general expert with no exceptional talent is coming to an end. Enter the long tail. Enter the rise of the rest.

But even the specialist has to adjust himself to the new world even within his field. Mere broadcasting is no longer considered enough by audiences. People want insight, well formulated arguments and informative opinions. Describing has to be enhanced with active and ongoing interpretation. That’s why traditional illusory objectivity as a paradigm is in the decline and making room for sophisticated subjectivity. No longer can an expert justify hiding behind technocratic objectivity in matters of great importance. You need to have an opinion about things that fall on the field of your expertise and you can’t withhold it like a keeper. You need to spit it out and take a stance. Sounds self explanatory but has been far from it the past decades.

This shit you expected didn’t you?

What I’ve described above happened to the uomo universales, the polymath geniuses of Medieval times, preceding the Age of Enlightenment in their scientific ethos, but failing to make the leap to the new era of incremental complexity. They flourished in a world that was not too fragmented and complex for a single person to absorb and master whole areas of expertise. Their disappearance took a hundred years to happen. I promise you this one will take significantly less. The question is: are you willing to jump? Take a look at the picture of the jumping man in the beginning of this post. If I’m not mistaken, you now understand it in a completely new way.

Sipping wine with Mr. Tignanello

What does Renzo “Mr. Tignanello” Cotarella of Antinori think about wine blogs? Does he have some reserves or is he fully supporting the structural changes in wine communication? That’s what I tried to find out when interviewing him in ViiniTV. Check out the part II to find out yourself. In the part I we talk about the future of Antinori family and his own past including sipping his first glass of wine at age of seven. A smart and eloquent guy with noticeable lack of ego. Together the clips are something like 15 minutes so have a cup of coffee and check them out, thanks!