Club Oenologique | Issue 4

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ISSN 2631-4630

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C LU B O E N O LO G I Q U E BORDEAUX & CHINA

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FRESCOBALDI & FERRAGAMO

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ISSUE 4

C AV I A R & C A N N A B I S

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T H E W O R L D ’ S G R E AT E S T C E L L A R

BEAUTIFUL TO DRIVE

astonmartin.com Official fuel consumption figures in litres/100km (mpg) for the 2019 MY Aston Martin Vantage V8: urban 14.2 (19.9); extra urban 8.0 (35.3); combined 10.3 (27.4). CO2 emissions 236g/ km. The mpg/fuel economy figures quoted are sourced from official regulated test results obtained through laboratory testing. They are for comparability purposes only and may not reflect your real driving experience, which may vary depending on factors including road conditions, weather, vehicle load and driving style.

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FEATURES 14. OFF-GRID

With increasingly eyecatching architecture, are wineries catering to practicality or vanity?

24. THE AMAZING DREAM OF ST JOSEPH

Matt Walls visits Hermitage titan Jean-Louis Chave, who is realising a decades-long dream to revive his family’s holdings in St Joseph 28. THE CHINA SYNDROME

Foreign money has been pouring into Bordeaux for centuries. Jane Anson catches up with the first wave of Chinese entrepreneurs

34. THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

70. BLACK MAGIC

Landscape, wine and art are the three elements which form the DNA of Tuscany’s Castello di Ama

Are they planets or Christmas decorations?

Patrick Desgraupes reveals the timeless mystery of fermentation

44. PARADISE REGAINED

74. CALL OF THE WILD

Raised from near ruin, Castiglion del Bosco is an estate of unparalleled luxury – even by our standards

They’re wild and they don’t care who knows it: the unconventional distilleries of Denmark

54. THE WINE COOLER

114. BLEND IT LIKE ROEDERER

Carla Capalbo joins Lamberto Frescobaldi on a vineyard visit with a difference

Christelle Guibert goes back to the basics of creating a great Champagne

60. ROCK OF AGES

It’s the grandest of hotels in the glitziest of settings, but nothing can quite prepare Guy Woodward for the cellar of Monaco’s legendary Hôtel de Paris

116. HOT CHOCOLATE

Venezuela is the source of the finest cacao. Club Oenologique dips into the world of cru chocolate

FAC UN D O BUSTA MANTE; CH ARLIE DALEY; PATRICK DES GRAUPES; MARTIN MORRELL; C RISTOB A L PALMA ; ROB ERTO SALOMONE

Contents

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REGULARS 126. THE GREENER BLACK GOLD

A LAMY; FAC UND O BUSTAMA NTE; EYEVINE; GALLERY STO C K; OLIV IA ASHTON; RAYMON D PATRICK ; DEB ORAH WASTIE

Essi Avellan MW has the lowdown on the new wave of producers of sustainable caviar, and where to find this rarest of delicacies 132. FLOWER POWER

The cannabis industry is exploding in the US, but it goes far beyond traditional stoners. Hannah Wallace meets two brothers focusing on terroir in the pursuit of weed that isn’t about getting you high 138. BREAKING IT DOWN

Is it pop? Is it rock? Is it classical? Who cares?

Laura Barton meets the new generation of genre-defying musicians

7. CLUB O SELECTS

130. BRIEF ENCOUNTER

Our pick of the exclusive, the artisan, and the downright luxurious

Once the capital of Japan, Kyoto is second only to Tokyo and Paris in its multiplicity of Michelin-starred restaurants

12. MAYNARD JAMES KEENAN

If winemaking reflects the maker’s personality, then this multiplatinum rocker is goats, Gewürz and punk 81. THE COLLECTION

Our team of experts recommends the finest wines and spirits: 2010 white Burgundy, Hermitage, Australian blue chips, Shafer Hillside Select, rare whiskies and more

143. LEARN IN A DAY

Columnist Zoe Williams finds her whey around the ancient craft of cheesemaking 144. BACK PAGE

The poignant, Dom Pérignon-fuelled last photoshoot of Marilyn Monroe

COV E R P H OTO G R A P H T H E TA DAO A N D O A R T C E N T R E AT

122. CITY FOCUS

The new generation of revivalists making New York great again as the bagel capital of the world

C H ÂT E A U L A C O ST E .

P H OTO G R A P H B Y MARTIN MORRELL

CLUB OENOLOGIQUE

info@cluboeologique.com EDITORIAL EDITOR

Adam Lechmere CONSULTANT EDITOR

Guy Woodward EDITORIAL EXECUTIVE

Laurel Bibby

Contributors

SPIRITS CONSULTANT

Colin Hampden-White SUBEDITORS

David Tombesi-Walton

at Sands Publishing Solutions Steve McCubbin

PUBLISHING CEO, FINE WINES AND SPIRITS

Christelle Guibert PUBLISHER

Tony Long

WRITERS JANE ANSON

MAX FALKOWITZ

REBECCA SEAL

Jane Anson is author, coauthor or translator of more than a dozen wine and travel books, including the definitive Bordeaux Legends and the forthcoming Inside Bordeaux.

Max Falkowitz is a food and travel writer from Queens. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Saveur and elsewhere.

ESSI AVELLAN MW

Joe Fattorini firmly believes breakfast claret is a thing.

Rebecca Seal is a food and drink writer and the author of seven cookbooks. Her parents are baffled by her career, since she was a teenage vegetarian who didn’t like vegetables, wine, beer or coffee and made it through university eating cream cheese bagels and KP Skips.

JOE FATTORINI

Essi Avellan is a Champagne specialist, journalist, educator and wine judge.

MARKETING AND EVENTS EXECUTIVE

Silvia Rizzo

LAURA BARTON

Laura Barton is a writer and broadcaster. String music always makes her cry.

DESIGN CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Rashna Mody Clark PICTURE DIRECTOR

Caroline Metcalfe DESIGN

Rashna Mody Clark Design: Anna Wiewiora, Miguel Batista PRINTING REPRO

Eric Ladd at XYDigital PRINTING

Taylor Bloxham SUBSCRIPTIONS

DEYAN SUDJIC ANDY HAYLER

Author and restaurant critic Andy Hayler has eaten at every three-Michelin-starred restaurant in the world. He is known to enjoy a glass of wine on occasion.

FIONA BECKETT

Award-winning food and drink writer Fiona Beckett is wine columnist for The Guardian and author of 25 books.

She publishes the website matchingfoodandwine.com and is co-founder of wine podcast Bâtonnage.

LEE MARSHALL

Lee Marshall recently became Italian. He wishes all his British friends the best of luck and reminds them that there’s always space for a tent in his field in Umbria.

LUCAS REYNAUD-PALIGOT

CARLA CAPALBO

Carla Capalbo is a mid-Atlantic food and wine writer and photographer who lives between London, Italy and Tbilisi. Her latest book is Tasting Georgia: A Food and Wine Journey in the Caucasus.

Originally from France, Lucas Reynaud-Paligot now works as a sommelier at London’s New Street Grill. Winner of the IWSC Sommelier Prize 2018, he previously worked at The Vineyard Hotel in Berkshire.

Newsstand Magazines cluboenologique.com/subs

Deyan Sudjic is a critic and writer. He is director of the London Design Museum, where he curated this year’s memorable exhibition on the work of Stanley Kubrick. He agrees with Oscar Wilde that only a fool does not judge by appearances.

HANNAH WALLACE

Hannah Wallace is a writer based in Portland, Oregon. She covers wine, cannabis and travel for a variety of publications, including Food & Wine, SevenFifty Daily, Vogue and Wired. Her favourite cannabis strain is Wesley’s Wish.

ZOE WILLIAMS

Zoe Williams is a political commentator transported this issue to the world of cheese, thrilled to discover an ancient wisdom, handed down through the centuries, perfected by each generation, that still works.

Facebook @cluboenologique Instagram @cluboenologique Twitter @cluboenologique Email: info@cluboenologique.com news@cluboenologique.com ISSN 2631-4630. Club Oenologique is published quarterly by The Conversion Group. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. The title Club Oenologique is registered in Great Britain as a trademark. Every care is taken in compiling the contents of this publication but the proprietors assume no responsibility in the effects arising there from. No responsibility is accepted for loss or damage of manuscripts and illustrations submitted for publication. Views expressed are not necessarily those of the proprietors. Proprietors reserve the right to refuse advertisements.

PHOTOGRAPHERS, ARTISTS AND ILLUSTRATORS NOMA BAR

CHARLIE DAILEY

MARTIN MORRELL

Noma Bar is an award-winning Israeli graphic designer, illustrator and artist based in London. He has illustrated over 100 magazine covers (and the jacket of Margaret Atwood’s latest book, The Testaments), published more than 550 illustrations and released three books of his work.

Charlie Dailey is a fine art and commercial photographer. Her work has appeared in Vanity Fair, The Economist’s 1843, La Repubblica and The Times, among many others.

The photography of British-born Martin Morrell encompasses interiors, travel, fashion and showbusiness. It has appeared in publications ranging from the New York Times’s style magazine T to Porter.

FACUNDO BUSTAMANTE

Facundo Bustamante is a food, still-life and lifestyle photographer with more than 17 years’ experience in the creative industries. He is currently based in London.

PATRICK DESGRAUPES

Patrick Desgraupes is a critically acclaimed French photographer.

His work is published in the USA and in six European countries.

He will soon be represented by an English gallery.

ROBERTO SALOMONE

Roberto Salomone is a freelance documentary photographer based in Naples. His work mainly focuses on social issues and has been reproduced in a range of national and international publications.

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Editor’s letter

o succeed, you need humility, luck, and a team that shares your beliefs. That’s what Michel Reybier, the owner of Château Cos d’Estournel told Jane Anson when she spoke to him for our feature on how outsiders (particularly Chinese entrepreneurs) cope in Bordeaux. He’s talking specifically about wine, but what he says could apply to pretty much any major undertaking.

Almost every story we tell has some element of Reybier’s formula.

Massimo Ferragamo, for example, found himself owner of Castiglion del Bosco quite by chance. He was on the lookout for a small Tuscan vineyard and never intended to buy an entire village. A large dose of humility (he avoids all comparison with his legendary father Salvatore) coupled with rock-solid belief has led to the creation of a unique and wonderful resort. Then there’s Jean-Louis Chave realising a decades-long dream of getting back to St-Joseph; Lamberto Frescobaldi’s belief in the prison island of Gorgona (when all his peers had steered well clear)… And what about Marie Blanc, who in 1874 used her own money to excavate the rock under the Hôtel de Paris in Monte Carlo? The result: a cellar that is recognised today as one of the greatest wine collections in the world.

Outside the wine world, Reybier’s words are just as apt. Take the Howard brothers, who run one of Oregon’s most successful cannabis farms; their mission to find the finest strains of medicinal cannabis was driven by their elder brother’s incurable genetic disorders. They were told what they were doing was pointless, but they ignored the naysayers and are now part of a statewide boom in non-psychotropic weed.

This is just a snapshot of the wealth of features in our winter issue of Club Oenologique – which, seeing that we launched exactly a year ago, is our anniversary edition. As usual, we have wine and whisky, art and architecture, music and photography. You’ll be as entranced by Patrick Desgraupes’s astonishing images of fermentation as by Bert Stern’s unbearably poignant shot of Marilyn Monroe on the back page.

As with any great magazine, these are disparate elements, but if there’s one characteristic all these artisans and artists, scientists and visionary millionaires have in common, it’s the belief that what they’re doing has real and lasting value. As Ferragamo says, ‘My skill, maybe, is to see the whole ensemble. Sometimes I have a feeling for what is right.’

ADAM LECHMERE NOVEMBER 2019

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The bottles

EMULATE 007 WITH A 2007 BOLLINGER

OUR PICK OF THE MOST EXCLUSIVE A N D I N T R I G U I N G B OT T L E S

CLUB SELECTS

AVA I L A B L E T H I S S E A S O N

It was 40 years ago, in 1979, that James Bond took his first sip of Bollinger on the silver screen in that other space odyssey, Moonraker. He’s been a loyal patron ever since, sticking to the Pinotdominant fizz through thick and thin, and to mark the anniversary, the Aÿ-based house enlisted designer Eric Berthes to reimagine the Moonraker shuttle for a special release. Crafted from pewter and wood veneer, and encasing a crystal ice bucket from the Hermès-owned crystallerie, Saint Louis, that contains a magnum of the toasty, tropical, textured 2007, this suave creation is limited to 407 pieces (well, just 007 pieces would have been a bit too obvious – and meagre – we’re guessing.) £4,500, thefinestbubble.com

THE JOYS OF AGEING

CELEBRATE BRORA’S REVIVAL Over the years, the number of Scottish whisky distilleries has swelled and receded like the country’s coastal waters. Back in 1819, there was only one of note: the nascent Brora. In 1983, though, its doors were closed and it became one of Scotland’s ‘ghost’ distilleries. Now, 200 years after its birth, the distillery is being rebuilt and will soon produce whisky again. To celebrate, Brora has released 1,819 bottles of its venerable 40-year-old whisky. Bottled at 49.2%, it displays aromas rich with plenty of sweet dried fruits and fresh ripe figs, backed up by a very long finish of sweet oak and smoke. £4,500, thewhiskyworld.com

Another rare release from Aÿ comes courtesy of the venerable Gosset. Celebris 1995 Les Célébrissimes is a library edition of its prestige cuvée, and marks the first in a planned series to showcase the effects of extended ageing – first on the lees, and then, post-disgorgement, off the lees, in bottle. The result is a Champagne of supreme maturity, with exotic, tropical notes on the nose and saline tones on the palate over layers of ripe, spice-laden fruits.

It is released in a limited edition of 1,000 bottles. £1,019 (case of three bottles), frw.co.uk

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CLUB SELECTS

The experiences OUR PICK OF THE MOST EXCLUSIVE AND I N T R I G U I N G E X P E R I E N C E S AVA I L A B L E T H I S S E A S O N

THE HEIGHT OF LUXURY IN THE MÉDOC Visitors to the classed growths of the Médoc have long bemoaned the lack of choice when it comes to luxury accommodation. Now St-Estèphe second growth Cos d’Estournel has joined this not-so-crowded market.

Ten minutes’ drive from the Pauillac waterfront, La Maison d’Estournel boasts the same upscale feel as the other hotels in Cos owner Michel Reybier’s portfolio, notably La Réserve in Paris and the Bellevue Palace in Bern. English designer Alex Michaelis has overseen the interior of the restaurant, bar and 14 bedrooms with a mix of oak, slate and limestone, velvet and satin. A kitchen garden grows much of the food served in the bistro, along with seasonal local ingredients from ceps to oysters. Views over the surrounding vineyards complete the elevated feel.

Rooms from �170 per night. lamaison-estournel.com

DELICIOUS INTERLUDE IN AN ENGLISH GARDEN The English wine scene has been dynamic for years, and now wine tourism has upped its game. High-class offerings from the likes of Chapel Down, Three Choirs and Hush Heath have been joined by Leonardslee Lakes & Gardens in Sussex. This 240-acre historic garden is part of the South African-owned Benguela Collection (which has another wine estate at nearby Mannings Heath); it was planted with half a hectare of Pinotage in 2018 and now its restaurant, Interlude, has just picked up its first Michelin star. Interlude is run by South African chef Jean Delport, whose tasting menu harnesses ingredients grown on the estate in dishes such as rabbit, winter purslane, hogweed cider and charcoal; and fallow deer with sour raspberry.

Average price of a meal for two (without wine), £180 restaurant-interlude.co.uk

EXCLUSIVE HOTEL ADDS A NEW CHAPTER TO THE HISTORY OF VERSAILLES As a royal residence it catered to the extravagant tastes of the most flamboyant of French monarchs. Now the Palace of Versailles is to be opened up to well-heeled contemporary visitors. Spring 2020 will see the debut of the Airelles Château de Versailles, Le Grand Contrôle, under the same elite brand as the eponymous Alpine outpost in Courchevel. Set within the perimeter of the UNESCO-listed palace grounds, with access to the ceremonial Hall of Mirrors, the royal apartments and extensive gardens, the 14-bedroom hotel will include a private spa and a restaurant helmed by multi-Michelin-starred French chef Alain Ducasse. Prices will be available from December. airelles.com

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The objects OUR PICK OF THE MOST EXCLUSIVE

CLUB SELECTS

AND INTRIGUING O B J E C T S AVA I L A B L E T H I S S E A S O N

DAZZLING TRIBUTE TO NEW YORK Few fine jewellery brands embody their origins as vividly as Harry Winston, and for its latest collection, the New York-based house has come up with an ode to the city. The New York Collection is a romp around the Big Apple’s architectural highlights, bringing the neighbourhoods that shaped its founder’s career to life.

From the bright lights of Broadway, where Winston first courted his wife-to-be, to the stately architecture of Manhattan’s Upper West Side, where he was born in 1896, each landmark is referenced in the various pieces. Of particular note is a series of six Fifth Avenue suites. All are inspired by key landmarks on the famous thoroughfare, from the Rockefeller Center to the Flatiron Building – as seen in the Pearl and Diamond Draperie Suite pictured here.

POA, harrywinston.com

AN IDEAL PEN FRIEND In an increasingly pixellated age, Caran d’Ache, the venerable Swiss maker of writing instruments, continues to extol the simple pleasures of pen and ink. Highlights of its latest collection include the Léman de Nuit 20th anniversary edition.

Available in four styles, the silky lacquers and subtly graded guilloché pattern bring points of light and shine to the body of the fountain pen, which is topped with an 18-carat gold, rhodium-coated nib. £680, carandache.com

TIMELY ARRIVAL The countdown is on for the 2021 America’s Cup. Teams the world over are competing to challenge the defender in sailing’s blue ribbon event.

Among the contenders is the Luna Rossa team of Prada CEO Patrizio Bertelli – and it will have a secret weapon at its disposal.

Watchmaker Panerai, original supplier to the Italian Navy, has tapped into its aquatic heritage to create a dedicated collection for the team to wear at sea. The first to launch, the Submersible Luna Rossa 47mm, sports a case made from carbon fibre, replicating the hull of the AC75 yacht, and a dial made from pieces of its sail. £18,300, panerai.com

A TOUCH OF GLASS In the 1920s, René Lalique was at the height of his powers as a glassmaker, dazzling Parisian society with his Art Deco creations. From that decade came a stemware collection known as Wingen, named after the Alsace village that remains home to the manufacturer. Now, almost a century on, the crystallerie has taken the pattern and updated it with more graphic lines, rendering in satin-finished crystal a new collection that includes a decanter, carafe, ice bucket, highball glass – and this rather stylish tumbler. �145, lalique.com

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[ COLUMN ]

Maynard James Keenan WO R DS

I L LU S TR ATI O N

J O E FAT TO R I N I

RODERICK MILLS

Maynard James Keenan is in town, and he’s texting me to meet him at the Roundhouse in Camden, one of London’s legendary live music venues. He’s on a world tour with his band Puscifer. It’s possible, of course, that you may not be familiar with Puscifer’s oeuvre (which Rolling Stone describes variously as an ‘absurdist in-joke’, a ‘raunchy repository for Keenan’s bawdier lyrical excursions’ and ‘party jams for the impending apocalypse’) or, indeed, of Keenan’s other bands, Tool and A Perfect Circle.

But Keenan’s also a winemaker, and before the gig he wants to pour me his eclectic Italian varietal wines from Caduceus Cellars, his highaltitude winery in Jerome, Arizona.

He talks about soils, climate, vintages, production methods, his family’s past as grape growers in northern Italy – and about ‘rekindling a relationship with the Earth, to our community, to each other’. Then he puts on a black Mexican wrestling mask, complete with green Mohican, and heads on stage to perform hardcore alternative rock to his devoted fans.

Keenan’s business card says ‘Jesus H Christ’, but he’s famously reclusive. ‘I’ve built an entire career of not giving away the whole farm,’

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he says in Blood into Wine, the 2010 documentary about the establishment of his Arizona winery. In person, he is warm, generous and funny. When we first had dinner, three years ago in London, music rarely came into the conversation. We talked about the similarities between vineyards in Arizona and Mendoza, which share a similar altitude and latitude. We talked about his idea of putting a skincontact Vermentino in cans. The waiter turned out to be a fan and managed an impressive display of professionalism, remaining (just about) impassive until Maynard was out of the room. Then he couldn’t contain himself: ‘Is that really Maynard James Keenan?’

Keenan’s a big fan of British comedy.

When he texts me, it’s with, ‘Oi, prick, are you local?’ – a reference to the dark sitcom The League of Gentlemen. He loves unsettling comedy, but there’s also a ribald streak to his humour: his winery is named after the caduceus, the ancient symbol for commerce, but his Merkin Vineyard is named after a pubic wig. Likewise, both Tool and A Perfect Circle: ‘Genitals are funny,’ he says.

His wine and music are both public products invested with private meaning. His Cabernet Sauvignon

A P O C A LY P T I C PA R T Y A N I M A L O R R A U N C H Y A B S U R D I S T, T H E M U L T I P L A T I N U M R O C K E R I S A L S O A W I N E M A K E R W H O S E TA L E N T S R E F L E CT H I S M U S I CA L R O OT S

Nagual del Judith is named after his late mother Judith Marie, whose ashes were scattered in the vineyard.

He is reluctant to share his song lyrics, but when they’re published, they often reveal hidden themes and structures. Within the lyrics to ‘Lateralus’, for example, the amount of syllables in each line correspond to an arrangement of Fibonacci numbers.

Months after we meet, I’m in Basket Range, Australia, with Taras Ochota of the Ochota Barrels winery. Ochota (who used to play bass in a punk band) explains how he and Keenan made a wine together when the musician was touring in Australia. He pours a glass of their jointly made Shiraz. ‘Maynard wanted to co-ferment it with a white variety,’ he says, describing a night of bizarre, mercurial winemaking.

‘I didn’t have anything. But I remembered some Gewürztraminer skins in a plastic bag in the freezer that I was going to give to the goats. We threw them in. It worked, and it cooled the ferment down, too.’

People say winemaking expresses the maker’s personality. Goats, frozen Gewürztraminer skins, punk and winemaking experiments is Maynard James Keenan – wines as delicious and off-beat as his lyrics.

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“Sexy but classy!

One of the standout surprises of the vintage.”

DECANTER MAGAZINE - Jane ANSON - January 2019

vignobles-malartic.com

[ ARCHITECTURE ]

MA RTIN MORRELL

The pavilion at Château La Coste in Provence was designed by Renzo Piano and houses an ar t galler y

Off-grid W I T H T H E I R I N C R E A S I N G LY E Y E - C AT C H I N G A R C H I T E C T U R E , A R E W I N E R I E S C AT E R I N G T O P R A C T I C A L I T Y O R V A N I T Y, A S K S T H E D I R E C T O R O F L O N D O N ’ S D E S I G N M U S E U M WO R DS D E YA N S U DJ I C

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CHR ISTIAN R ICHTE R S

he name Jan Shrem may not be particularly heralded in architectural circles. Truth be told, the founder of the California winery Clos Pegase is not even very acclaimed in the wine world. Yet it is in no small part due to him that wineries now sit somewhere behind a museum or a skyscraper, but ahead of a chair, as many architects’ idea of a career-defining edifice.

When Shrem set up in Napa Valley’s Calistoga in 1982 after selling his publishing business, he was determined to make his mark on the wine world. His strategy for doing so was to put as much thought into the way the winery looked as he did into the vineyard and, therefore, the stuff in the bottle. In setting out to locate a serious, headline-making architect to take on an apparently simple job, it seemed like a startlingly new idea, but Shrem was in fact merely following the example of Bertrand Douat at Château Margaux two centuries ago (of which more later).

Shrem organised an international competition in conjunction with San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art to find an architect for the project. Michael Graves – regarded at the time as the most gifted designer of his generation and certainly one of the most famous – got the job. Graves had made his name as an architectural Pied Piper, leading the tribe away from simple-minded modernism towards a decorative style full of history, memory, colour and playfulness. He designed Clos Pegase when his reputation was at its highest (and before he had churned out some worryingly elephantine hotels and an office building for Disney, the latter pairing a giant order of dwarves with Baroque classicism). With its pastel colours, symmetrical plan and monumental forms, Clos Pegase represents the high-water mark

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[ ARCHITECTURE ]

Winer y architecture might be flat and sympathetic to its surroundings, as at California’s Dominus Estate (above), by Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, or in stark contrast, as in the case of Steven Holl’s work at Loisium (opposite and below), in Austria

CRISTOB AL PALMA

Some proper ties prefer to keep a traditional feel – such as Clos Pegase (top), by Michael Graves – whereas Smiljan Radic gave Viña Vik a more contemporar y look altogether (main image and opposite)

[ ARCHITECTURE ]

In Chile, the Vik winery is both delicate and monumental

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From the sympathetic to the avantgarde, these creations at (from top) Château Margaux, Quinta do Por tal and Villa Zapu cover all the bases – designed by Foster + Par tners, Álvaro Siza and David Connor respectively

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N IGEL YOUNG; ALA MY; PHIL LABEGUERIE; DA N GLASSER

of post-modernism at its most inventive and seductive. It looks like something of a period piece now, but it showed other winemakers what was possible.

Clos Pegase had all the elements of a modern winery. Alongside the utilitarian tanks, vats and barrels needed to ferment, settle and age the wine was the full range of attractions required to engage an audience and build a brand. Graves included a series of tasting rooms and space for multiple tours of the cellars, along with a picnic ground and art gallery. The only things missing were those commercial imperatives of the modern winery: the hotel and spa – like the one Frank Gehry was to design 20 years later for Marqués de Riscal in northern Spain or Steven Holl’s elaborate Loisium resort in the middle of an Austrian vineyard.

Shrem wasn’t the only newcomer to California to combine wine with architecture. Thomas Lundstrom, the Swede who acquired 120 acres in Napa in 1983, asked London architect David Connor to build him a home in the middle of his vineyard. If Graves created a dignified update of a Roman farm in Calistoga, Lundstrom’s house was like an expressionist lightning flash. Named Villa Zapu, it looked like the backdrop for a Depeche Mode music video. The artist Kenny Scharf’s drawing of the villa was then used for the label design of the estate’s bottles, further mirroring the 200-year-old approach taken by Château Margaux.

Reinterpreting that long heritage and history of winemaking, and accepting the sense of responsibility that should come with building in exceptional natural settings, has resulted from time to time in architecture of the highest quality. Not every Napa Valley winery sets out to generate noise – or crowds. Among the most notable example of a more understated, considered approach is the Dominus winery in Yountville, designed by Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, the Swiss architects who went on to build London’s Tate Modern and Beijing’s Olympic Stadium. The Dominus winery is a powerful but subtle composition that makes great architecture out of humble agricultural and industrial ingredients. It sits at the edge of the vineyard like a piece of land art, its gabion walls packed with basalt rising from the landscape. The rocks need no cement or mortar and are held in place by a metal mesh cage. It’s a simple but effective way of bringing light and air into the heart of the building, achieving one of the primary tasks of winery architecture: temperature control. Designing Dominus has done as much for establishing the reputation of its architects as the estate’s wines – combining Bordeaux methods and California potential – have for its founder Christian Moueix.

Beyond the state’s borders, the world’s newer wine-growing areas were quick to follow California’s architectural lead. Imaginative designs for new wineries in Oregon, British Colombia, Australia and Chile all seem to suggest a certain correlation between the growth of a country’s wine culture and the quality of its contemporary architecture.

Chile and Australia do particularly well in both categories. In Chile, the Vik winery – 50 miles outside Santiago, under the shadow of the Andes – designed by Smiljan Radic of the Serpentine Pavilion in London, is both delicate and monumental. Two parallel concrete walls are cut into the landscape to accommodate the winemaking process, framing a vast hangar-like open space, roofed with a stretched white fabric. In Victoria’s Yarra Valley, the Medhurst winery designed by Folk Architects is on a more modest scale but has a similar geometrical clarity; while in British Colombia, Seattle-based studio Olson Kundig Architects designed the Martin’s Lane winery at Kelowna, whose two inclined roof

[ ARCHITECTURE ]

Reflective surfaces in bright spaces are used to wildly differing effect by Philippe Starck at Carmes de Haut-Brion (above) and Carl Fredrik Svenstedt at Delas Frères (below)

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planes reflect the topography of its hillside setting and gravity-based nature of its Pinot Noir production.

In Europe, both Portugal and Spain emerged from the isolation of decades of dictatorship by Salazar and Franco energised by the prospect of modernising their traditional industries. In the former, Pritzker Prize winner Álvaro Siza evokes the quiet, almost melancholy simplicity of Portuguese small towns slumbering in late afternoon sun through his Quinta do Portal winery. It makes for a stark contrast with the flamboyant work of Frank Gehry, another Pritzker winner. The Marqués de Riscal vineyard at Elciego in Rioja survived phylloxera, the Spanish Civil War and the stagnation of the Franco years before commissioning Gehry to design a hotel on its property. Like his Guggenheim Museum not far away in Bilbao, the de Riscal project has a titanium skin and a billowing cloud of interlocking surfaces, rendered in a vivid palette that echoes the wines.

Despite having invented so many of the timeless traditions of winemaking, France has developed a weakness for daring architectural gestures along the lines of the pyramid at the Louvre (commissioned by François Mitterrand from IM Pei). Luc Arsène-Henry and Philippe Starck labelled their new cellar for Château les Carmes Haut-Brion ‘a blade’. To help with the cooling process, it sits partly submerged in the centre of a pond, an arrangement that makes it looks more like a dreadnought from the Jules Verne era. Starck (like Michael Graves, also a designer of kettles and lemon squeezers) has form at this kind of thing; for his knife factory for Forge de Laguiole, he stuck a giant blade on the roof.

Paris-based Carl Fredrik Svenstedt worked for Delas Frères in the little town of Tain l’Hermitage, restoring an old masonry-built house to serve as a visitor centre for the winery, while deftly inserting a chai into its walled garden. The new structure is screened by a technically ingenious undulating wall made of pre-stressed stone ribbons that is both modern and a reminder of garden traditions.

Meanwhile, not far from Aix-en-Provence, Paddy McKillen, as much a hotelier (Claridge’s, The Connaught, The Berkeley) as a winemaker, has spent years carefully turning Château La Coste into an outdoor gallery for his substantial collection of art to adorn his biodynamic vineyard.

A giant Louise Bourgeois spider sits in the middle of a pool flanked by Tadao Ando’s austere concrete architecture, while he also has a Frank Gehry pavilion – originally designed for the Serpentine Gallery – that he dismantled and shipped from London.

If the contemporary winery has its roots in California, Shrem and Lundstrom were employing a new architectural language that has its roots in a custom dating back to at least 1812. It was then, after the French Revolution, that Bertrand Douat celebrated his acquisition of Château Margaux by demolishing the original buildings and commissioning gifted Bordeaux architect Louis Combes to design the handsome house that is still home to the estate’s owners and appears on the bottles’ labels. Combes was a neo-classicist at heart, but he modelled his building for Douat on the work of Andrea Palladio, reflecting the villas in the Veneto that, like Château Margaux, combine a grand country house with wings that contain working farm buildings.

Château Margaux, the Versailles of the Médoc, has no need of exhibitionist new architecture to draw attention to itself. Its vintages speak for themselves. But while it values its traditions, it is also a dynamic estate that needs to be able to grow and develop. To that end, it commissioned Norman Foster, who has deftly added to its capacity, carried out a careful restoration of the ancient orangery (the oldest surviving building on the site, from 1815) and inserted new spaces for winemaking and barrel and bottle storage. Foster’s work reflects a continuing respect for the qualities of the past, with new pantile roofs supported by svelte, tree-like columns. Now he has been commissioned to create a new, landscape-sensitive winery building for St-Emilion grand cru Le Dôme. Perhaps someone should suggest to him that, as a debt of thanks from all architects, he take on a further commission and apply the same sort of tact to the now somewhat dated facade of Clos Pegase.

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NIC LEHOUX

Mar tin’s Lane winer y in Kelowna, Okanagan Valley, has won awards for its wines and its architecture, under taken by Seattle-based Olson Kundig

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Two inclined roof planes reflect the hillside setting

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The amazing dream

of St-Joseph

H I S FA M I LY E S TAT E I S O N E O F T H E S TA R N A M E S I N R H Ô N E T R A I L B L A Z E R H E R M I TA G E .

Y E T J E A N - LO U I S C H AV E I S M O R E I N T E R E S T E D I N R E V I V I N G T H E M O D E S T FA M I LY H O L D I N G S I N A N A LT O G E T H E R L E S S FA S H I O N A B L E A P P E L L AT I O N , W H E R E H I S A N C E S T O R S F I R S T T E N D E D V I N E S 5 0 0 Y E A R S A G O. M A T T W A L L S V I S I T S H I M

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FAC UN D O BUSTAMAN TE; NEW YORK TIMES/ EYEVIN E

onsidering the grandeur of some of the world’s starriest winemaking estates, you could be forgiven for expecting something a little more imposing when visiting Rhône stalwart Domaine JL Chave. Here, in a little corner of the celebrated yet understated appellation of Hermitage, there are no iron gates or manicured gardens. Not even a turret. You simply stroll along the main road in the village of Mauves, passing unpainted terraced houses until you reach a rusted, bent, illegible sign.

Walking through the sliding wooden doors underneath, you enter a courtyard dominated by a giant horse chestnut tree. On the day of my visit, the air is sweet with childrens’ laughter as they race each other on a sack truck, and the fruity scent of grape juice surrounds the press.

It’s a disarmingly humble scene, which belies the fact that this ancient family-owned estate is on the verge of an exciting new chapter. And for owner Jean-Louis Chave, as he nears the completion of what he sees as his legacy, the project holds a deep personal significance.

With the estate’s famous native appellation fully planted, Chave has spent the past two decades focusing his energies on revealing the potential of certain exceptional sites in the less fashionable, somewhat workhorse neighbouring AOC of St-Joseph. The family owns several favoured sites in this long, thin appellation that runs along the west bank of the Rhône, from Cornas in the south to CôteRôtie in the north. Unlike Hermitage, St-Joseph covers a massive stretch of land that includes some inferior terroirs. But there are several unofficial ‘premier cru’ sites, particularly where tributaries to the Rhône have created south- and southeast-facing slopes and where, as the climate warms, the quality potential rises. Among them, Chave would include Les Chalaix, Les Oliviers, La Dardouille, lieu-dit St-Joseph, Ste-Epine and Bachasson.

Before now, Chave has blended the wine from these sites together to create a single domaine St-Joseph. The 2015 vintage marks the inaugural bottling of a single-vineyard cuvée, Clos Florentin, a beautiful, peaceful walled vineyard and garden on the outskirts of Mauves that he bought in 2009 and which had long been cultivated organically by its previous owners. The wine is made in the same way as his blended St-Joseph: destemmed, with no new oak. The result is exceptionally refined, with great purity and depth, and it marks a new pinnacle of quality for the appellation.

When the time is right, Chave plans on bottling more single-vineyard St-Josephs. Most meaningful for him will be that of Bachasson, the original family plot where Chave’s ancestors first started tending vines more than 500 years ago. In the late 19th century it was ravaged by phylloxera and abandoned, before, over 100 years later, in 1996 Chave began the arduous task of rebuilding it, along with other forgotten plots.

‘Bachasson is the origin of the family,’ says Chave, as he unfurls several large-format photographs of the now revived vineyard. It’s a steep granite hillside that needed not only clearing and replanting but an

Jean-Louis Chave (top) has spent the past two decades replanting the neglected St- Joseph plots, such as Bachasson (left), that his family lost to phylloxera in the 1870s

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The six wines that define the estate For such a well-established estate, the range here is tight. Domaine JL Chave is synonymous with Hermitage, which still makes up the body of production. Every year Chave makes one white and one red Hermitage.

In exceptional vintages, it makes an additional red called Cuvée Cathelin, a blend of the best parcels and barrels named after the painter Bernard Cathelin, a friend of the family, whose painting adorns the label. From time to time, Chave also makes tiny quantities of sweet Hermitage vin de paille from dried white grapes.

the first year of its singlevineyard Clos Florentin, from a beautifully tended old vineyard in Chave’s home village of Mauves.

The family also owns a négociant business, JL Chave Sélection, which produces a separate range of wines using both purchased grapes and young vines from the estate, including Côtes-du-Rhône, Crozes-Hermitage, StJoseph and Hermitage.

For Matt Walls’s tasting notes on Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage and StJoseph, please turn to The Collection, p.92.

Outside Hermitage, the domaine also makes red St-Joseph. Until recently there was one bottling, the domaine St-Joseph. The 2015 vintage, however, marks

FACUND O BUSTAMA NTE; N EW YORK TIMES /EYEVIN E

extensive programme of dry-stone wall building to fortify the terraced vineyards. ‘That was the first major work that I undertook,’ he says.

It is sobering to think that Chave is going back to his family roots, since those roots run very deep indeed. His ancestors first started growing grapes in 1481, when a local nobleman presented them with the farm and vineyard at Bachasson. It sustained them for centuries, but in the 1870s, like much of France, the Rhône vineyards were decimated by the phylloxera louse. Bachasson wasn’t spared.

‘In 15 years, they lost it all,’ says Jean-Louis. ‘It was a brutal change. It was seen as a curse… The hillside was abandoned, the family moved down to Mauves, to the valley – a very poor farm where they had some goats, some cereals… It was a tragedy. But in tragedy, there is hope.’

Eventually, his predecessors turned to winemaking once again but this time concentrated on the best terroirs – and in this part of the Rhône, that meant Hermitage. Located 2.5 miles from Mauves on the opposite side of the river, the hill of Hermitage rises up sharply, facing due south. It is hard to imagine a more perfect hillside for growing grapes. The wealth of different soil types there give each lieu-dit its own personality and combine to create majestic, complex reds and whites that can last for decades.

‘Up until phylloxera, the grand cru [of Hermitage] was totally reserved for the elite – the church or the nobility,’ says Chave. But phylloxera, combined with changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution, offered a unique opportunity for his family to acquire vineyards. ‘There were many grand families who lost their vines to phylloxera, and they reinvested their money in nascent industries such as textiles, silk, paper, leather. They left Hermitage – and that was how my family were able to buy land.’

Taken as a whole, phylloxera was a blessing rather than a curse, says Chave. ‘Without it, we would have stayed Ardèche vignerons in St-Joseph. We might have had vines, or perhaps goats for cheese.

Phylloxera cost us the vineyard at Bachasson that we’d cultivated for 400 years. But it opened the door to Hermitage.’

It was Jean-Louis’s great-grandfather who first acquired a holding on Hermitage, but it wasn’t until the 1980s that the estate really gained a foothold. In 1983, Jean-Louis’s father Gérard was given the opportunity to purchase the Domaine de l’Hermite, a 4ha estate spread across some of the finest lieux-dits on the hill. ‘It was an enormous turning point for the domaine,’ says Chave.

As the wines have become increasingly collectible, land on the 137ha hill of Hermitage has become highly sought after. It has gradually been consolidated into fewer and fewer hands and is now mostly owned by large négociant houses and the local cooperative winery. ‘My generation was never able to buy on Hermitage like that,’ says Chave.

‘And we’ll never be able to again. It’s for that reason that my generation is going back to St-Joseph.’

The hope is that, with Chave now showing the way to new heights of quality in St-Joseph, this may signal a renaissance for the appellation.

But there are huge challenges to overcome. ‘The vines need to age a little more,’ Jean-Louis says. ‘And the soils need to be worked just as well as in Hermitage; the viticulture needs to be just as good. And that’s the challenge. It’s very expensive to cultivate, but the price of a typical St-Joseph isn’t the same as a Côte-Rôtie, a Hermitage or even a Cornas, so people need to invest more to be able to charge more. But that will come. The ultimate aim with a family domaine is to pass it on,’ he adds, ‘so I’m a custodian.’

Jean-Louis Chave may be the owner of one of France’s greatest estates, but he remains remarkably down to earth. And in promoting the estate from a leader in one appellation to a leader in two, the 17th generation will have a lot to thank him for.

Sunshine and igloos Jean-Louis Chave may have been born into wine, but it was not his first interest. ‘My passion as a child, which might seem a bit odd, was finance. My grandmother looked after the family finances, and she loved the stock market.

I remember, as a child, when I came home from school, we weren’t allowed to talk, because financial news was on the radio, and she would be listening and taking notes.’ The experience inspired the young Chave, who, at 14 years old, started dabbling in shares himself. ‘I didn’t create a wine tasting club,’ he says. ‘I created an investment club.’

Chave went on to do an MBA in finance and found himself at the University of Connecticut through an exchange programme. At the time, France still imposed military service; to delay joining up, he enrolled at the University of California at Davis, where he studied sensory analysis and, eventually, winemaking. Unable to put off military service any longer, he returned home in 1992 to do a year with the chasseurs alpins – the elite mountain regiment of the French army – where he could indulge his love of the outdoors.

‘It was tough. We spent time in igloos, we dug holes in the snow, spent weeks in the cold. I’d done my studies in California, so to move to that was particularly hard.’ Keen to feel the sun on his back again, he helped out with the 1992 vintage, before joining the family domaine definitively in 1993.

The Trollat vineyard is still ploughed the traditional way, with horses.

Jean-Louis (below) is the 16th generation of the Chave family to dedicate himself to winemaking

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The China syndrome T H E L A S T D E C A D E H A S S E E N A W E A LT H O F C H I N E S E P U R C H A S E S A C R O S S B O R D E A U X , CAUSING ALARM AND INTRIGUE IN EQUAL MEASURE. JANE ANSON LIFTS THE LID ON THE REALITY OF BEING AN OUTSIDER IN THE GIRONDE

hen Michael Huang bought Château Bonnange in the Côtes de Bordeaux in 2015, it was with a certain lifestyle in mind. ‘I wasn’t looking for a second career,’ the e-commerce magnate says. ‘Back home, I do the nine-nine-six working week,’ he says of the 9am–9pm, six-days-a-week Chinese work culture. ‘I had an image of holidays in the south of France, coming twice a year with my family… I thought that by buying a château in Bordeaux I could have a more relaxing life when outside China,’ he says, opening a bottle of his wine. ‘I was so naive.’

The nine-hectare Château Bonnange was losing money when Huang bought it for an estimated €170,000 ($187,000) in 2015. ‘But I thought, Hey, if I can run a 500-person business back in China, I can do this.’ He wasn’t looking for big profits, he says, and just needed to break even to make it work. ‘I thought I was being smart.’

He now realises that the running of a small Bordeaux château can’t be delegated. ‘If you don’t go all in, it’s never going to work. In China, on the key online shopping days, I can sell $14m worth of shoes in 12 hours. At a wine fair in France, I can stand there all day and not sell one bottle. I have accepted my fate,’ he says, in a resigned if good-humoured fashion.

Huang’s insights into owning a château were some of the smartest and most self-effacing I’ve heard in all my years covering the wines of Bordeaux. And they were coming from a 30-something Chinese owner with perfect English and a proven business brain, sporting three-day stubble and a pair of Converse.

His plan might have worked better, perhaps,

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if he hadn’t bought in the relatively obscure appellation of Blaye Côtes de Bordeaux.

But he is far from the first person to have been caught up in the romance of buying a beautiful château without first doing their homework. Bordeaux has been a magnet for foreign investors for centuries; the Chinese are only the latest wave of arrivals that began with the Romans in AD56.

Over the past decade or so, close to 160 châteaux have shifted to Chinese ownership, around 2% of the region’s 6,500 properties. As ever with Bordeaux, the influx of nationalities reflects where bottles are being uncorked.

The growth in the Asian market can be traced back to Suntory of Japan’s arrival at Château Lagrange back in 1983, through to Vietnameseborn, Hong Kong-based Peter Kwok buying his first estate, Château Haut-Brisson in St-Emilion, in 1997. The wave of mainland Chinese owners is more recent, beginning in 2008 with the reported €3m ($3.3m) purchase of Château Latour-Laguens, in the pretty but remote village of St-Martin-du-Puy, by Haiyan Cheng of property investor Longhai International. Some of the press stories at the time make for pretty excruciating reading now, with the New York Times reporting the buyer being wooed by the kidney-shaped pond at the estate because, as the agent explained, ‘the Chinese believe evil spirits don’t like crooked lines’. Such a view is not only fatuous, it blithely ignores the presence of the magic word ‘Latour’ in the name, which may have made for a rather more logical draw.

Over the following years, Chinese purchases snowballed, and it was hard not to question

[ INVESTING ]

the high prices paid for beautiful but often run-down châteaux in appellations where bottle prices struggled to justify the money.

There’s little doubt that unscrupulous agents were more than happy to talk up the possibility of making a return on investment and talk down the cash needed up front to make projects financially viable. Or perhaps they also believed the hype that Chinese owners would export the entirety of their production to China and bypass Bordeaux’s traditional sales network of brokers and merchants.

The reality is that any outside investor who buys in Bordeaux, whether from Beijing or Paris, shares many of the same experiences.

Take Michel Reybier at Château Cos d’Estournel. A French entrepreneur who made his money in foods and hospitality, Reybier is founder of the Mama Shelter and La Réserve hotel groups and is the 81st-richest man in France, according to the 2019 Challenges magazine, with a net worth of somewhere around €1.2bn. He was unquestionably the kind of buyer who attracts reams of respectful press. In 2000, the magnate spent a reported €100m or more buying the St-Estèphe second growth, a property that had originally come on the market in 1998 due to a familiar story of family shareholding problems (as it happens, not dissimilar to events at Haiyan

‘Nothing replaces the engagement of an owner who is prepared to invest his time in the property,’ he says. ‘It’s tough to enter a new industry. The bureaucracy of any French business is difficult, and I can only imagine how hard it must be for overseas investors. In many ways, Bordeaux has its own language, and perhaps the Bordelais don’t always see how lucky they are to be here. Coming from the outside, that was clear to me.

‘To succeed, you need a bit of humility and a bit of luck, but you also need to remember that some things don’t change – namely, you need a team that believes in the same things that you do and is prepared to work hard.’

There are still some elements that surprise him. ‘For a start, the system of brokers and merchants that stand between châteaux and consumers can pose problems. In my other businesses, I can see directly what my

How deep are your pockets?

STARTING VINEYARD PRICES IN BORDEAUX, PER HECTARE: PAUILLAC

€2.2m POMEROL

€1.8m ST-JULIEN

€1.2m ST-ESTÈPHE

€550,000 To succeed, you need a bit of humility and a bit of luck, but you also need to remember that some things don’t change Cheng’s Latour-Laguens at the other end of the Bordeaux value tree).

‘It took me six years of research before buying this château,’ says Reybier over lunch at his newly opened La Maison d’Estournel hotel and restaurant. ‘I wanted to buy in Bordeaux because of its exceptional history and the proven market for its wines. I wasn’t in a rush and knew very clearly what I was looking for. When Cos d’Estournel became available, it fitted perfectly with the criteria for my search – in its history, its terroir and its potential.’

Observers expected him to be another absentee wealthy owner – after all, he had an extremely experienced director in the shape of Jean-Guillaume Prats (now CEO of DBR Lafite) for the first few years – but today Reybier is very much at the helm, making all key decisions along with technical director Dominique Arangoïts.

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customers want, and I respond. In Bordeaux there are layers that obscure this.’ At first he wondered if he should use his existing network to sell direct, before he saw the huge value of the Bordeaux négociant system. At the same time, he says, it is essential to be in control of your own product. ‘Many château owners don’t seem to go out into the vineyards enough to see the process of growing the grapes, to really check on the quality of their raw material. But today, simply having a high price is not enough, even for classified growths. Consumers want to know what stands behind the price, and an owner needs to be able to answer those questions.’

In the end, buying a cru classé estate means you inherit many centuries of this kind of smart decision-making by previous owners. Shi Yuzhu, a billionaire online games developer and software engineer from Anhui Province in eastern China, bought Château Plain-Point in the modest appellation of Fronsac, on the Right Bank, in 2013. He is employing similar strategies to those that have well served the more glamorous Left Bank names for centuries, but doing much of it from scratch.

The list of changes implemented by Yuzhu over the past six years would not be out of place in the archives of any of the big Médoc estates. For a start, he has

ST-EMILION

€270,000 (Land here can sell for as much as 10 times this figure or more, as seen in the recent purchase of Château Troplong Mondot, for example.)

LALANDE DE POMEROL

€240,000 CANON-FRONSAC

€100,000 HAUT-MÉDOC

€80,000 SAUTERNES

€30,000 BLAYE

€20,000

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The idea of a quick turnaround is feasible with e-commerce in China, but in wine it’s impossible

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Michael Huang fell in love with Bordeaux after tasting the region’s wines

Three of Bordeaux’s most influential Asian owners JACK MA

tasting these that, as Huang likes to put it, ‘changed my life’.

‘I’m not a typical Chinese owner,’ he says.

‘I’m trying to restore traditions in Blaye and, at the same time, bring an open mind and fresh ideas. When I arrived, it quickly became clear that the sales network had not been maintained for many years, so I am looking to build that back up. But it has never been my intention to sell everything in China. It doesn’t make sense commercially, because two types of wine sell in China: either very expensive, like Lafite, or very cheap. My wine is in the middle, which is a more difficult price point. So I want to focus on selling in markets like France, where I can build a brand.’

It sounds like a sensible strategy. China’s economy grew at the slowest pace in the past two decades in 2018. Bordeaux wine exports to China, its biggest export market by value, dropped by 31% in volume and 22% in value – enough to make anyone start looking at other territories as a safety valve.

Today, Huang’s holiday plans have changed.

‘Now I spend every vacation in wine regions – but not just Bordeaux,’ he says. ‘In the past 12 months I’ve been to Gaillac, Alsace, Burgundy and Tuscany.’ His neighbours in Blaye, he says, ‘have not been particularly helpful, often because they are simply focusing on trying to make a living themselves’. But, he says, it feels good to be making something that lasts. ‘I just want to make a great wine and am happy to let it age at the château while I build the brand. I can use my income from China to support the business here for the next 10–15 years, and my aim now is to make great Malbec. The idea of a quick turnaround is feasible with e-commerce in China, but in wine it’s impossible. But I’m starting to appreciate the benefits of that.’

China’s second-richest man, Jack Ma bought the 85ha EntreDeux-Mers estate Château de Sours in 2016, making headlines for its vast renovation project.

The wine took centre stage at Ma’s retirement party from technology conglomerate Alibaba in September 2019, when he gave every employee a bottle of sparkling rosé from de Sours that came with a gift box that could be turned into a projector via a QR code and a mobile phone. The resulting video had Ma making a motivational speech with the words, ‘Work is like water, life is like wine. Wine needs water to grow but adds flavour to life.’

ZHAO WEI Since her purchase of Château Monlot (8ha in St-Emilion Grand Cru) in 2011, the Chinese actor has bought Patarabet (9ha in St-Émilion), Senailhac (57ha in Entre-Deux-Mers) and Château La Croix de la Roche (12ha in AOC Fronsac and Bordeaux).

PETER KWOK Vietnamese-born, Hong Kongbased investment banker Kwok is the owner of high-profile estates such as grand cru classé Château Bellefont-Belcier in St-Emilion and seven other properties including Tour Saint-Christophe, Haut-Brisson, La Patache, Enclos Tourmaline and Enclos de Viaud. The wines are sold through the Bordeaux network.

MATHIEU GARÇON ; ALA MY; GETTY IMAGES

bought neighbouring châteaux La Fontaine, Chadenne, Moulin des Tonnelles, HautMazeris and Arnauton to increase his vineyard size and so improve economies of scale, while retaining only Château Plain-Point on the label. At the same time, he has brought in big-name consultants: Hubert de Boüard of Château Angélus, along with terroir specialists Claude and Lydia Bourguignon, and hired interior architects Chadebost Créations, who worked on Cheval Blanc, to create a sprawling, spankingnew winery. And although he is creating a Château Plain-Point Chairman’s Selection that will go to China as the top bottling, his wider distribution strategy will be to ‘adapt to the local customs, and go through local renowned wine merchants in Bordeaux to promote Château Plain Point internationally’.

His original reasons for buying also sound very similar to those of Reybier. ‘As a wine lover, the first red wine I came into contact with was a Bordeaux. Where else has been so long famed for its deep-rooted wine culture?’

Back at Château Bonnange, in contrast, there are no plans to expand rapidly or to build a vast winery. In fact, when originally considering his purchase, Huang was not even immediately tied to Bordeaux. He looked at 12 châteaux across the Loire, Languedoc and the Rhône before deciding on Bonnange.

The previous owner was the founder of TBWA advertising agency, and Huang used to work for Ogilvy, which gave them a connection.

‘We got on personally, and he knew I wanted this estate,’ he says.

Huang retained the original winemaker (as did Shi at Plain-Point and Reybier at Cos, where Arangoïts has been in the role since 2002). The biggest change he has made has been the decision to focus on Malbec, which was the leading variety in the area in the 19th century but has almost disappeared today.

Bonnange already had some old Malbec vines with extremely low yields, and it was

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LEE MARSHALL

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Through the looking glass I N T H E R O L L I N G H I L L S O F C H I A N T I L I E S A N E STAT E W H O S E C O N T E M P O R A RY A P P R O A C H I S M I R R O R E D BY I T S Q U I R K Y, S T A R - S T U D D E D A R T C O L L E C T I O N

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I’m peering into an iron grate set into the floor of an ancient cellar on a Tuscan wine estate. Through it, far below, I glimpse something extraordinary: a female nude in pink marble, kneeling in a pool of her own making, as water oozes from the tip of the fleshy flower that springs from her torso. In another cellar, a mysterious glass basin catches the light that enters from a single window, while in one of the estate’s two private chapels, a red disc glows intensely on the dark floor. It seems like a portal to the underworld, especially when, reaching down to touch it, you can see your hand pass right through what had seemed to be a flat surface.

By Louise Bourgeois, Roni Horn and Anish Kapoor, respectively, these are just three of the 16 site-specific art pieces that have been commissioned by Lorenza Sebasti and Marco Pallanti, owners of leading Chianti Classico estate Castello di Ama, since 1999. Originally arising from a collaboration with Tuscany’s influential Galleria Continua, the collection has been managed since 2015 by independent curator Philip Larratt-Smith.

It’s not as if Castello di Ama needs the art to boost the reputation of its wines.

Singled out for praise as long ago as 1773 by Pietro Leopoldo, the Medici Grand Duke of Tuscany, the vineyards around what appears more a fortified village than a castle were rescued from neglect in the early 1980s with the help of Pallanti, a Tuscan winemaker who had studied in Bordeaux. Today, Castello di Ama is at the forefront of the renaissance of Chianti Classico, the top level of

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French ar tist Daniel Buren’s work looks out over vineyards from the lawn beneath the village of Ama. Its five windows, designed to frame the landscape as in a Renaissance painting, are lined with marble stripes that recall Siena’s 13th-centur y cathedral exterior. Each stripe is exactly 87mm wide – a Buren trademark

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Cuban ar tist Carlos Garaicoa also riffs on walls with his 2006 work Yo No Quiero Ver Más a Mis Vecinos, which reproduces in miniature nine of the barriers that have historically kept people apar t – shown here, the Great Wall of China. The title of the work translates as ‘I Don’t Want to See My Neighbours Anymore’

wine from the Chianti appellation, which now competes with Brunello as one of the great wines of Tuscany. Meanwhile, the estate’s Merlot, L’Apparita – whose 2016 vintage was awarded a perfect 100 points by the critic Antonio Galloni – is one of the region’s most spectacular and sought-after IGT wines.

At an October event to present the latest addition to the collection – a delicate, mystic installation by Polish artist Mirosław Bałka – Sebasti and Pallanti entertained around 50 guests, including some of the world’s leading museum directors and curators. Over a glass of L’Apparita 2008, Pallanti explained that Castello di Ama ‘has three legs: landscape, wine and art, each one intimately connected with the other two’. So intimate, indeed, that Bałka’s work was installed amid the steel blending vats in the working part of the winery. As Frances Morris, director of London’s Tate Modern, commented when we emerged from the hidden barrel-vaulted cellar where Korean artist Lee Ufan created his captivating, winehued work Topos (Excavated) in 2016, ‘The lovely thing about this collection is that you have to seek the works out. It’s the opposite of a sculpture park.’

Sebasti and Pallanti work closely with the artists on the pieces and their location within the estate: Bałka visited seven times before his work was finally installed. ‘The artist needs to be inspired by the genius loci,’ Sebasti said, ‘just as the winemaker has to be possessed by terroir in order to create something masterful and unrepeatable.’

Referring to the changing of the seasons and the turning of the soil, as well as other types of revolution, South African ar tist Kendall Geers’s 2003 work looks out over barrels of L’Apparita, one of the great wines of the estate

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In the private chapel of one of Castello di Ama’s two 18th-centur y villas, Anish Kapoor created a glowing red circle, called Aima (Greek for ‘blood’), in 2004.

Disorienting the viewer, it turns out to be not a flat disc but a hole in the floor

The space behind the altar of another chapel on the estate hosts Japanese ar tist Hiroshi Sugimoto’s 2014 work The Confession of Zero (below), comprising two steel-tipped marble cones that never quite touch.

In 2017, for Castello di Ama’s 15th commission, Roni Horn created a mysterious glass vessel illuminated only by the light from a single small window inside the empty storeroom of one of the estate’s 18th-centur y villas (bottom)

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In 2016, Korean ar tist Lee Ufan was invited to create a work in an ancient barrelvaulted cellar (opposite, top). For Topos (Excavated), Ufan used a wide brush loaded with paint that reflects the changing hues seen in a glass of red wine.

Chinese ar tist Chen Zhen completed the hanging glass piece La Lumière Intérieur du Corps Humain (opposite) shor tly before his death in 2000. In 2005, it was installed just as he had intended in one of the estate’s main ageing vaults

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In a secluded cour tyard at the centre of the Castello di Ama estate, Spanish ar tist Cristina Iglesias’s Towards the Ground (below) is a fountain lined by branches and leaves in carved resin. It ver y slowly fills and empties in a continuous cycle. Louise Bourgeois’s Topiary (below right), from 2009, inhabits a dark, damp cistern; seemingly made from pink wax, it is in fact sculpted in marble. The estate produces acclaimed Chiantis, as well as Tuscan IGT wines, notably the Super-Tuscan L’Apparita

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Pascale Mar thine Tayou’s Le Chemin de la Bonheur (above) is a coloured path through the village of Ama, like the trail of pebbles in the fable of Hansel and Gretel. Castello di Ama owners Lorenza Sebasti and Marco Pallanti (top left) launched the winer y’s ar t collection in 1999. Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Divisione e Moltiplicazione dello Specchio (above left) consists of a huge tree trunk with a mirror-lined slice taken out of it

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Paradise regained W H E N M A S S I M O F E R R A G A M O WA S LO O K I N G A R O U N D T U S C A N Y F O R A S M A L L V I N E YA R D , H E H A D N O I N T E N T I O N O F B U Y I N G A N E N T I R E T O W N . B U T O N S E E I N G C A S T I G L I O N D E L B O S C O, I T W A S A C A S E O F LOV E AT F I R ST S I G H T

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he northern approach to Castiglion del Bosco is along one of the strade bianche, the famous unfinished white roads of this part of Tuscany. It’s really very democratic – Porsches and hired Fiats alike have to navigate the potholes. Gleaming blacktop starts just as you pass through a stone gateway on to private land. Suddenly you’re on familiar ground as you step out of your dust-coated car and a uniformed concierge ushers you into a dim, cool reception area.

You’ve arrived at one of Tuscany’s most exclusive resorts, a paradise of cypress-shaded paths and diligently restored ancient buildings. The fact that you’ve navigated two miles of rutted gravel to get here adds to the sense that you’re in an enchanted enclave.

Massimo Ferragamo came to Tuscany in 2003 on the lookout for a modest Brunello vineyard and ended up buying a town. It was as much of a surprise to him as it was to everyone else – ‘a moment of weakness’, he says. A friend was showing him around, and they visited the Capanna vineyard, a particularly fine slate hillside, certified Brunello di Montalcino and part of the 1,800ha Castiglion del Bosco estate.

‘I looked at Castiglion with curiosity but not with interest,’ Ferragamo tells me. ‘I wanted eight to 10 hectares, and this was nearly 60 and it came with 1,800ha of land, so I definitely thought it wasn’t for me.’

But then they visited the steep, exposed Capanna and looked down over the thickly wooded hills, with the dilapidated stone buildings of the town nestled among them. Castiglion had been derelict for more than a decade, and many of the buildings were roofless. But the vineyard was in good condition. ‘I had a moment of weakness, and then I started thinking, “How can I make this work?”’

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Along the main concourse (above), the belltower of the chapel can be seen on the right

I had a moment of weakness, and then I started thinking, “How can I make this work?”

Massimo and Chiara Ferragamo (above, with dog Rose) have restored the Tuscan enclave of Castiglion del Bosco, transforming it from a deser ted town into a luxur y resor t

And of course, once you’ve crossed that line, there’s no going back. ‘It’s like falling in love; it’s a moment of realisation that you can’t step back from. You can’t plan for that sort of thing.’

So, Ferragamo – the youngest son of Salvatore Ferragamo, founder of the international shoe-to-luxury-leathers-goods empire – bought a deserted feudal town. Castiglion del Bosco comprised the ruined castle dating from 1100, 20 farms and their attendant buildings, a police station and – the jewel in the crown – the 14th-century chapel of San Michele Arcangelo, with its 1345 mural by Pietro Lorenzetti. The borgo, previously the centre of the community, now forms the main body of the resort, a cluster of buildings on the side of the hill, shaded by cypresses and Italian oaks. The azure blue of a swimming pool shimmers on a terrace overlooking the vast Tuscan landscsape.

Today, Castiglion del Bosco consists of the winery, a 23-room hotel, two restaurants, a spa, a Tom Weiskopf-designed golf course, and 11 villas. In 2015, the international hotel group Rosewood came in as Ferragamo’s partner in the venture.

When I first meet Ferragamo, in one of the small, comfortable sitting rooms that you come upon in this sort of place, he’s chatting to Matteo Temperini, his executive chef, whose forefinger is extravagantly bandaged. ‘Nine stitches,’ he tells me with rueful pride. ‘He offended me, you see, and this is what happens,’ his boss says, and Temperini starts chuckling. Ferragamo is an easy and genial host. He obviously loves Castiglion – he spends more than half his time here, since his day job as chairman of Ferragamo USA does not demand all of his attention – and as we walk around, he’s constantly pointing out details. ‘See this swallow’s nest? They were dropping on the guests. We couldn’t move it, so we had to build this shelf underneath it.’

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He has the easy confidence of the youngest of a big family. Salvatore died when Massimo was an infant, and it was his indomitable mother Wanda who brought up the six children and carried on the thriving shoe business. ‘My father died in August [1962], and in September the factory reopened, with my mother there at her desk. She held the company and the family together. She died last year, aged 97, and three days before that she was in her office. She never even used a walking stick.’

He didn’t know his father, but Salvatore – ‘he came to America with $10 in his pocket’ – was nevertheless a powerful presence. I ask Massimo what he has inherited from him. He looks slightly uncomfortable. ‘He was an incredible man, a genius, and the sons of men like that never inherit that talent. You get a Lionel Messi or a Ronaldo once every 100 generations.’

He thinks for a moment. ‘Sometimes I have a feeling for what is right. I don’t want to say “vision”, because I admire people who have vision and I don’t know if I have it. My skill, maybe, is to see the whole ensemble. When I took on Castiglion del Bosco, I saw it as it is today.’

The Ferragamos – Massimo’s wife Chiara is in charge of every detail of interior design – have looked after their purchase with an obsessive attention to detail. From the fine parquet on the floors of the (€1,800/$2,000-a-night) rooms, to the heavy little brass golf-ball key fobs of the golf house lockers; from the decorated walls, to the hand-woven carpets and the warp and weft of the table linen, nothing is there by chance. At lunch in the trattoria, which is the former priest’s house (his bread oven is now used for wood-fired pizza), Chiara tells me how she goes about selecting tablecloths. She generally orders around 50 samples of varying weight, shade and weave. She tests these against different types of light – morning, noon and evening – and different types of table, and with selections of tableware. ‘I have to think, “Does that plate work with that cloth?”’ The variables quickly become dizzying. And that’s just the tablecloths. I don’t ask about napkins.

The key, Massimo says, is authenticity. ‘You don’t want to restore anything too much. We always try to be true to the region. Almost all the materials we use are from here.’ When a wall needed to be rebuilt, as it was dismantled the old stones were numbered, so that each could be put back in its original position. Houses that had crumbled were restored and extended, but faithfully. The Lorenzetti fresco had thankfully escaped damage, but the chapel’s roof was rebuilt using local wood.

The fact that the estate is in the middle of the Unesco World Heritage Site of Val d’Orcia must concentrate the mind – the bunkers on the golf course have to be filled with dark sand, not white, for example – but Ferragamo’s instinct is to preserve, not change. When he took over, some houses were in fair condition, and some were ruins. Of one (which is now the central hotel building) he says, ‘We had to renovate the whole thing, but you can destroy things that are centuries old by renovation. I remember seeing it and seeing its character, and I said to the team of designers and architects, “When we are finished, it has to look exactly the way it does today.”’

So, the golf clubhouse – from the outside, at least – looks just like a rather well-kept Tuscan farmhouse. (Inside, it’s the acme of luxury.) ‘It’s important to be elegant, but it doesn’t have to be lavish,’ Ferragamo says. You might be forgiven for looking about you and wondering, ‘If this isn’t lavish, what is?’ But he is choosing his words to convey a certain tastefulness. After a while, you notice it: how the material of a chair cover is echoed in a lampshade; how a particular shade of green is prevalent in the rooms, on the walls and on the artfully placed cushions on a porch bench. Then you see the greens are there because they echo the tailored box hedges and the native cacti, and your eye travels to the densely forested hills that make up 70% of the estate.

The beauty of Tuscany always makes you catch your breath. As we stand in the Capanna vineyard and gaze over the Castiglion estate (its borders seem infinitely far in the hazy July heat), Ferragamo’s decision seems perfectly logical. What other response could there be to such a landscape than an urge to possess it and cherish it? So, Ferragamo found himself owner of 58ha of fine Brunello di Montalcino, the fifth-largest holding in the appellation. The vineyards were in good condition when he took over. They are high and steep (‘I like ventilated, windy, fresh terroir’), with wonderful views over the ocean to the west, the vines small and robust in a soil that, at the top, in the Campo del Drago parcel, is pure, rock-studded schist.

Ferragamo’s ambition is to produce world-class Brunello. ‘The first thing I found out before I bought it was whether you could make one of the best Brunellos in the region.’ There is no reason why he shouldn’t: he has the terroir. The wines at the moment (see tasting notes) are fresh and bright, with a nice directness. They are not yet competing with the giants of the appellation, but there’s a down-to-earth honesty about them that is very attractive. The Brunello 2014, for example, was a cool and difficult vintage that many considered not good enough. Winemaker Cecilia Leoneschi rejects this view. ‘I have no patience with people who say they won’t produce Brunello in a mediocre year. You have to recognise the vintage; you have to witness it.’

Castiglion del Bosco produces three examples of Brunello di Montalcino (above).

The round Members’ Room (opposite) has storage for wines belonging to the 120 members of the resor t’s private club

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The golf course, from the clubhouse

It’s like falling in love; it’s a moment of realisation that you can’t step back from

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The wines CHARDONNAY, IGT TOSCANA 2018

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Very fine sweet apple aromas on the nose and a fine delicate acidic heft to start the palate, then flavours of stone fruit, cut pear, lemon zest and cut peel. The wine spends two months on lees after fermentation, giving it a bright tannic texture and a lingering, sweet and juicy finish. No oak. A really charming, unpretentious wine. 2019–21. 13.5% £25 Blanco & Gomez

BRUNELLO DI MONTALCINO, TUSCANY 2014

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A dollop of cream on the nose gives way to bright cherry notes. The palate is equally bright and fresh: red cherry and earth, with a slight acidic tang early on, then muted dark fruit, black cherry and raspberry leaf. The tannins are soft and sweet, though a touch rustic. There’s a good wash of juice at the end, but the finish isn’t as long as you’d hope.

This is a straightforward, unspectacular but honest wine from a very difficult vintage. 2019–22. 14% £39 Waitrose, Hedonism

CAMPO DEL DRAGO BRUNELLO DI MONTALCINO, TUSCANY 2013

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This is from some of the highest south-southwestfacing vineyards of Capanna – you can smell that sun-warmed slate. Then there is lovely violet perfume and a mouthwatering palate, juicy, full and bright. It’s concentrated, with black cherry, slightly tarry and earthy; liquorice and fine sour tannins, grainy, very textured and palate-scouring. With its good acidity, this is a wine that cries out for food – pigeon breast for preference. 2020–30. 14% £81 Fine+Rare (selected vintages)

MILLECENTO 1100 BRUNELLO DI MONTALCINO RISERVA, TUSCANY 2012

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The Riserva comes from the oldest Capanna vines and is aged a full 36 months in oak. Peppery nose, an instant hit – then creamy red fruit on the nose, dried rose petals, some rosemary and mint and mown grass. On the palate, there is some heat from the alcohol but nothing excessive for this very hot vintage. Concentrated dark fruits, damson, cassis and tarry notes. Velvety tannins and fine acidity, savoury mid-palate, waft of potpourri. Very attractive. 2020–30. 14.5% £120 Hedonism

PRIMA PIETRA, IGT TOSCANA 2018

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A classic Bordeaux blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Fine old leather on the nose and deep red fruit, complex and savoury, promising much on the palate. With sappy, fresh, green-stick tannins, the style is more New World than Old, but the flavour profile is savoury and precise, with lots of cassis and fine black fruit, excellent acidity and a lingering finish. Very fine. 2021–30. 14.5% £45 Hedonism

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This attitude towards vintage strikes me as appealingly humble. Vignerons (especially Burgundians, I find) love to refer to themselves as mere farmers, quite at the mercy of the weather.

But farmers have to get their corn in, come what may; deciding to forgo the harvest is a luxury they can’t afford. Ferragamo (a ‘clear and patient owner who wants to do the best for the wines’, according to Leoneschi) sees himself as a guiding hand rather than a hands-on owner. ‘I don’t get involved in the blending, but I spend time tasting and looking at the different styles. In every great wine, there is always the character of someone. But that’s easier said than done – it’s all interpretation.’

When it comes to the wider estate, Ferragamo’s interpretation of his role is simply ‘to bring Castiglion del Bosco back to where it belongs’. So, while we are certainly strolling the grounds of an ultra-luxurious country estate (when I arrive there’s a Ferrari being tended to in the forecourt), it does have the slightly surreal calm of a sun-drenched Tuscan village. This feeling is intensified as we come out of the brightness into the cool of the chapel. Ferragamo points out the date on the mural – CCCXLV (1345; damaged plaster has led to the loss of the initial M, for 1000) – and to his evident delight discovers a detail that he hasn’t seen before. It’s obvious that he feels not so much that he owns this lovely piece of history but that he’s been entrusted with it.

Houses rise and fall. There are abandoned villages all over Italy (and Spain, for that matter); it takes a certain vision, and financial clout, to see not only new life but profit in caved-in walls and rotting roofs. Ferragamo – and Rosewood – have created something enduring in this corner of Tuscany. On one level, Castiglion del Bosco is a hotel run to the most exacting of international standards. At the same time, it’s also an exercise in conservation.

‘We bought an estate with centuries of history behind it,’ he says. Some of it is ancient indeed, but even the 20th-century part of it seems impossibly remote; it’s hard to imagine the €5,000-a-night Villa Chiusa was a police station not much more than a generation ago. But then he tells me that there are people working on the estate who were farmhands in the olden days – and the nuns of Buonconvento, at the bottom of the hill, have been up to thank Ferragamo for restoring the cemetery. History is closer than we think.

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The mural in the chapel (above) dates from 1345 and was painted

by Pietro Lorenzetti. Chiara Ferragamo (opposite, top right) makes all of the estate’s more modern interior design decisions

NIC K CORNISH/SHUTT ERSTO C K

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I T LO O K S L I K E A N I DY L L I C I S L A N D V I N E YA R D – B U T T H E W O R K E R S TENDING THE VERMENTINO AND SANGIOVESE OF GORGONA A R E N O T YO U R AV E R A G E V I N E H A N D S. C A R L A C A PA L B O AC C O M PA N I E S L A M B E RTO F R E S C O BA L D I O N A W I N E RY V I S I T WITH A DIFFERENCE

The wine cooler

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The grapes of prison island Gorgona are harvested by inmates and used in the wines of Lamber to Frescobaldi ( jacketed, opposite)

t’s a beautiful summer’s day as we set off towards Gorgona in a chartered boat from Livorno, in western Tuscany. The small island sits just west of the port, about an hour’s ride across the sparkling blue Mediterranean. I’m feeling excited and privileged to be going there. But this is no vacation spot; Gorgona can’t be accessed by just anyone. I’m on a special excursion that has to be cleared with the local police and approved by the ministry.

That’s because this idyllic island is not a holiday resort but a prison.

As we approach the small landing dock, I look for the tell-tale signs of confinement: barbed wire or watch towers, perhaps. I spot neither (though I notice the guards keeping a close eye on who comes off the boat).

Gorgona, which was referenced by Dante in The Divine Comedy, became a penal colony in 1869 and has been used as such ever since.

Today, it offers a uniquely free environment for its 100 residents, who spend nearly all day outdoors, working the land, and are locked up only at night.

‘The men we receive have earned their chance to come here by being model prisoners during the main part of their sentences in other conventional – and often overcrowded – jails in Italy,’ says Carlo Mazzerbo, the prison’s director. ‘If they are approved for transfer here, they will stay for a maximum of two years before being released. The idea is to focus on the reintegration of prisoners into society by giving them paid work experience in a rural context, so they can find jobs in this sector when they are released.’

The project seems to be working: despite the island housing prisoners who have served heavy sentences for serious crimes, the rate of recidivism is down to 20% (a far cry from the 80% in Italy’s main prison population). While they are here, the inmates work on the island farm – home to cows, pigs and other animals, as well as a large vegetable

The rate of recidivism is down to 20% – a far cry from the 80% rate in Italy’s main prison population

garden, beehives and olive groves. The men learn animal husbandry, in addition to how to make cheese, honey and olive oil. When they leave the island, they will have learned a trade and are free to look for work in agriculture. Several ex-prisoners have found such employment locally.

The reason for my being here – along with Lucas Reynaud-Paligot, sommelier at London’s New Street Grill, who won the trip as part of the 2018 IWSC-Frescobaldi Sommelier Prize – is to visit the most ambitious part of the island’s project: the production of an exclusive fine wine from Gorgona’s two hectares of vineyards.

‘In 2012, the prison was scheduled to close due to lack of funding,’ Mazzerbo explains as we walk from the small port on the beach up to the vine terraces, in a natural amphitheatre facing the sea. ‘We searched for winemaking sponsors from among the celebrated wine estates on the Tuscan coast to help fund it. We sent out 100 invitations asking for partnerships. Everyone said no, except for Lamberto Frescobaldi.’

‘Their loss has been my gain,’ says Frescobaldi, as we tour the vineyards later. ‘I was immediately interested in collaborating on such an innovative social project, and I had faith that vineyards in this magnificent position would produce great grapes if they were encouraged to do so.’

It’s not surprising that Frescobaldi was able to spot a diamond in the rough: his family has been producing wines in Tuscany since 1308. (His aristocratic ancestors traded wines for paintings with Michelangelo and supplied bottles to Henry VIII’s court.) The Frescobaldis are still one of the most notable noble Florentine families, with large holdings throughout the region; Lamberto represents its 30th generation of winemakers.

On Gorgona, the Frescobaldis hire the prisoners to tend the vines, harvest the grapes

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and work in the small but modern cellar under the guidance of their wineries’ expert agronomists and oenologists. However, alcohol consumption is forbidden to the prisoners, so the finished wine is bottled on the mainland.

‘We feel like pirates as we load the barriques filled with wine on to the boats and steal away across the sea,’ says Frescobaldi with a laugh.

As well as paying wages and running costs, he also rents the vineyards from the prison.

‘The whole operation costs us about €100,000 [$110,000] per year, but I think it’s worth it,’ he adds. The arrangement leaves him free to market the wines under the family label.

As we stroll up the hill, we encounter two prisoners working diligently on the neat rows of vines, pruning excess leaves to allow the bunches to get more sun. Frescobaldi immediately breaks off from our group to greet the men, and they talk animatedly about how the vineyard is performing this year.

There’s a surprisingly relaxed atmosphere here; the men are treated with a respect that comes from the work they are doing now, not the life they led before.

At lunchtime we are invited to a colourful buffet lunch prepared for us by a group of prisoners who have been trained in culinary skills. They stand proudly beside their fare, serving us a range of dishes including panini, fried rice balls and unusual rolled savoury tarts I recognise as being Neapolitan. When I ask one of the prisoners about them, he confirms that he is from Naples but adds wryly that, unfortunately, he hasn’t had chance to visit his native city for a while.

Frescobaldi and the prison director attend to the opening of the bottles of white Gorgona wine that has been cooling in ice buckets.

It’s made exclusively from local varieties Vermentino and Ansonica, and the handsome black-and-white label shows an early map of the island. Maybe it’s thanks to the setting, on a sunny terrace overlooking the dazzling sea, but the wine has a wonderful hint of saltiness that speaks of summer Mediterranean beaches. About 9,000 bottles are produced per year, sold for €90 ($100) in Italy. Its red counterpart, made from Sangiovese and the rare Vermentino Nero in a limited edition of 500 bottles, retails for €150. Both are available

in small quantities outside Italy, where they join Frescobaldi’s most iconic labels from other parts of Tuscany, from Ornellaia and Luce della Vite (both originally produced with Mondavi but now owned entirely by the Frescobaldis) to Mormoreto, CastelGiocondo, Montesodi, Pomino and Lamaione.

I can’t help but be struck by the contrasts here: native grapes grown on an isolated island are being turned into a celebrated and costly fine wine by men who have committed sometimes terrible crimes but are now gaining access to a new life through their work. Of all the joint ventures I’ve come across in the wine world, this is altogether the most inspiring.

Marchese Frescobaldi tours the vineyard with vineyard manager Federico Falossi (above).

His family’s Palazzo Frescobaldi (opposite), in Florence, dates from the 15th centur y

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Visiting and drinking Frescobaldi W IT H W I N E R E CO M M E N DAT I O N S BY LU C A S R E Y N AU D - PA L I G OT

The Frescobaldi estates The Frescobaldis’ Tuscan castelli have traditionally been located in established wine-producing areas, including Montalcino, Chianti Rufina and Bolgheri. Recently they have added to this collection by buying a large estate in Chianti Classico, Tenuta Perano, and investing in a designer cellar in the Maremma, Tenuta Ammiraglia. Although trips to Gorgona are not possible, these other estates, in all corners of Tuscany, offer a wealth of choice if you’re planning a wine and food lover’s Tuscan tour.

EYEVINE; NICK C ORN ISH/SH UTTERSTO C K; B ARDAZZI C HIARONI; REUTERS

Hospitality of various forms is now available in seven of the eight Tuscan properties, with food grown on the estates served in the restaurants. Some even have rooms. Wine tastings and visits are offered by appointment only and can be booked at frescobaldi.it.

CASTELLO NIPOZZANO, CHIANTI RUFINA

TENUTA CASTELGIOCONDO, MONTALCINO

This handsome property was one of the earliest Frescobaldi estates, and it has recently been refurbished to offer accommodation and a private dining room. The food is strictly local and includes hand-made pasta and Tuscan vegetables, overseen by head chef Alessio Zanieri.

There’s a modern art collection at CastelGiocondo, plus seven elegant rooms to stay in at the medieval borgo.

Dishes include hearty wild boar sauces for pinci pasta, and wild mushrooms when in season – a perfect marriage for the king of Tuscan wines, Brunello.

Castello Nipozzano, Montesodi, Toscana IGT 2016 This is a beautiful Sangiovese with a lovely bouquet of cherry blossom and violet and a hint of hibiscus. As the wine opens up, it shows more blackcurrant and blackberry notes, and an elegant spiciness emerges.

Tenuta CastelGiocondo, Ripe al Convento, Brunello di Montalcino Riserva 2009 This has a complex nose of balsamic vinegar, wild berry fruit and smooth tobacco alongside notes of chocolate and liquorice. The palate has wellintegrated rich tannins, freshness and a spiciness at the end.

CASTELLO POMINO, CHIANTI RUFINA

TENUTA PERANO, GAIOLE IN CHIANTI

High in the wooded hills north of Florence, this imposing Tuscan villa produces some rare wines (including Benefizio Chardonnay from old vines, and the new sparkling wine Leonia).

Guests can stay in the manor’s cottages, and eat food cooked by the local women.

A gorgeous new osteria and wine bar set in a flower garden are the attractions in this recent addition to the Frescobaldi estates. The very good food is contemporary Tuscan, with stylish presentation and a focus on local ingredients.

Castello Pomino, Pomino Pinot Nero, Pomino Pinot Nero DOC 2016 Pomino is one of the smallest appellations in Tuscany (and the only one to allow Pinot Noir, or Pinot Nero). Pinot Nero from this appellation is always a pleasure; full of redcurrants and berries, as well as a hint of cinnamon, ginger and juniper berries, followed by notes of leather and autumn leaves.

TENUTA AMMIRAGLIA, MAREMMA

RÈMOLE, SIECI East of Florence, this historic family villa is surrounded by olive groves.

Frescobaldi’s extra virgin olive oil, Laudemio, is one of Tuscany’s most exclusive brands.

TENUTA CASTIGLIONI, MONTESPERTOLI Situated in the centre of Tuscany, not far from Florence, this historic villa offers a range of traditional dishes in its vaulted dining room, including hearty vegetable and bread soups and stewed wild boar with polenta.

The architect-designed modern cellar sets the tone at this recent addition to the Maremma. Visits include tours of the Syrah and Vermentino cellars, with a merenda (Tuscan light meal) of local cheeses and salumi.

Tenuta Ammiraglia, Massovivo Vermentino Toscana IGT 2018 The aroma here is just as delicate as the texture, and the wine is a real pleasure to drink, with citrus, floral and white fruit notes, as well as a Mediterranean freshness and saltiness that enriches the nose. The palate is well balanced, with notes of white peach, green apple and yellow melon.

AND THE GORGONA? Marchesi de’ Frescobaldi, Gorgona Bianco Costa Toscana IGT 2018 This gorgeous white, made from Vermentino and Ansonica, has a complex bouquet of thyme, rosemary and an exotic fruit character on the palate, with mango and pineapple and lively citrus on the finish.

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Rock of ages I T ’ S T H E G R A N D E S T O F H O T E L S I N T H E G L I T Z I E S T O F S E T T I N G S. B U T A M I D A L L T H E G L A M O U R A N D T H E C E L E B R I T Y, N O T H I N G C A N Q U I T E P R E P A R E G U Y W O O D WA R D F O R T H E D A Z Z L I N G A L L U R E O F I T S J AW - D R O P P I N G C E L L A R WO R DS

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have seen my fair share of impressive cellars over the best part of two decades spent chronicling the wine world. I’ve seen cathedrals of wine with libraries of back vintages at storied estates in Bordeaux, Napa and Mendoza. I’ve seen row upon row of glitzy names ready to sate the thirsts of discerning guests at starry hotels and restaurants in New York and Singapore. And I’ve seen envy-inducing private collections, with more classed growth claret than their owners could ever conceivably drink, in country estates and urban boltholes.

But never have I seen a cellar quite like that at Monaco’s legendary Hôtel de Paris.

It’s not just the size that takes the breath away, though any cellar that stretches out across 1.5 sq km is bound to do that. It’s not even the number of bottles – 350,000 in total, spread across a maze of different corridors. No, rather it is the unceasing wall-to-wall quality that unfolds before your eyes – one fabled name after the next. Domaines Rousseau, Leroy, Coche-Dury and Comtes Lafon; Clos des Lambrays, Clos Vougeot; Château de Beaucastel, Guigal, Chave, Jaboulet; Krug, Cristal, Dom Pérignon; Mascarello, Quintarelli, Gaja, Sassicaia; Dagueneau; VegaSicilia… And I haven’t even got on to Bordeaux.

And the vintages – oh, the vintages. Sure, you expect to see the odd first growth and prestige cuvée in a hotel of this quality, in this location – but we’re not talking just a couple of bottles of Haut-Brion from a mediocre year. (Indeed, come to think of it, I don’t spy much 1994 Bordeaux or 1984 Burgundy knocking around.) Instead, I count 88 bottles of Cheval Blanc 1990; 72 of Petrus 2000. There’s first growths from 1961, ’59, ’45 – and more…

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Chef de cave Gennaro Iorio (opposite and bottom) is responsible for maintaining order in the wine cellars of the HĂ´tel de Paris, the layout of which has remained unchanged since it was built in 1874

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The collection spans 4,200 different listings, taking in Bordeaux crus classés (a third of the total list is claret), Burgundian grands crus, California cults, Super-Tuscans, Rhône royalty and curiosities from further afield. There is even an enterprising offering of Lebanese, Israeli and Syrian wines. You name it, you’ll find it.

The cellar dates back to 1874, when, just ten years after François Blanc opened the hotel, his enterprising wife Marie set her mind to developing a cellar she felt was fit for the discerning clientele she hoped to attract.

Over the course of two years, she employed – from her own personal funds – 100 workers to dig more than 30ft down into the Monaco rock to craft this gargantuan temple to Bacchus. The layout – and masonry – has remained unchanged since; right down to the wooden trolleys still used by staff today to wheel bottles around the neatly ordered, heavily laden corridors, themselves identified by the same hand-painted script on their walls.

The tone is set immediately on emerging from the lift that cuts through the rockface. Stack upon stack of classed-growth Bordeaux are piled high in the entrance – 2005 Cheval Blanc, Ausone and Canon-laGaffelière – all still in their original wooden cases, undisturbed since the hotel took receipt of them 12 years ago. ‘We’re waiting for the right time [to open them],’ I’m told. All the wines are bought direct from the châteaux – at the behest of the cellar’s tasting committee, which travels

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The Hôtel de Paris may regularly host royals and oligarchs, heads of state and Hollywood A-listers, but not even the starriest of guests have access to the cellar’s Réserve Patrimoniale

GETTY IMAGES

Princess Grace and Prince Rainier of Monaco – seen (top and bottom) at gala dinners at the Hôtel de Paris in 1960 and 1966 – held their 20th wedding anniversar y dinner in the cellar in 1976. They are seen celebrating (middle) with Princess Caroline, Prince Alber t, chef de cave Etienne Brigasco and Prince Louis de Polignac

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Celebrating 110 years, Italian car manufacturer Bugatti stopped right outside the HĂ´tel de Paris during its Grand Tour in 2019 (left).

Its Chiron model (right, with the hotel reflected in its gleaming paintwork) is named after Monte Carlo-born racing driver Louis Chiron

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to Bordeaux to taste en primeur every year – then delivered to age here after bottling.

As a result, the hotel is sitting on a vinous treasure trove. Some 300,000 bottles a year are brought to the surface, including more than 100,000 bottles of Champagne, to one of the 22 restaurants that come under the banner of the hotel’s owning Société des Bains de Mer. They might be destined for gastronomes patronising Alain Ducasse’s three-Michelin-starred Louis XV or the conspicuous consumption of A-listers’ favourite hangout Jimmy’z or, of course, the high-rollers of the Casino de Monte-Carlo. And should the constant flow of guests’ yachts into the Monaco harbour ever dry up, the group could always turn a quick profit from the discreet sale of a few cases of 1990 Petrus or Le Pin. ‘It’s true,’ says Gennaro Iorio, the long-term cellar master. ‘And we have clients who want to buy – we always have requests. But we have to tell them no. This is not a cellar for short-term profits.’

It has been through too much for that. At the outbreak of the Second World War, in advance of the German occupation, the staff closed off a section containing the most prized cuvées, blocking its path by littering it with empty broken bottles. The ruse worked; the cache survived. Prince Rainier III reopened the room in 1947 with a party; three decades later, he and his wife Grace Kelly held a celebratory dinner for their 20th wedding anniversary there. Today it is home to the most prized vintages. Or perhaps the second most. For while the Hôtel de Paris may regularly host royals and oligarchs, heads of state and Hollywood A-listers, not even the starriest of guests have access to the cellar’s Réserve Patrimoniale.

This ultra-elite collection, hidden away under lock and key in a remote corner of the cellar (also known as the Marie Blanc museum, though it’s not open to the public) houses the hotel’s rarest, most prized bottles, none of which is for sale: Yquem 1890, Moët & Chandon 1923, Margaux 1934, Mouton 1945, Latour 1953… So what happens if Prince Albert asks for a bottle of DRC Richebourg 1971 for a special occasion.

‘We tell him no,’ says Iorio. ‘It’s important to preserve such treasures for future generations, for posterity. I think of this as a monument.’

Iorio has worked at the Société des Bains de Mer group for 32 years, having joined as a waiter. He has been cellar master at the Hôtel de Paris for 21 years. How have tastes changed in this time? ‘The consumption of Burgundy, especially reds, has increased considerably. Champagne, too.’ Iorio reports declining interest in older vintages, particularly Bordeaux; he puts this down not so much to taste but to a ‘different culture among the younger generation’. So, is there anything he doesn’t have in the cellar that he would like? He thinks for a moment. ‘There are a few bottles of Henri Jayer that would be nice.’

And with that, he picks up his spirit level and heads off to check that everything is as it should be on the shelves of Alsace grands crus.

Gennaro Iorio (top left) keeps meticulous records of the cellar content, and is ably assisted by his team, including Luca Berettieri (bottom centre)

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T H E S E E X T R AO R D I N A RY P H OTO G R A P H S S H OW A N AT U R A L P R O C E S S T H AT H U M A N B E I N G S F I R ST B E GA N TO U N D E R STA N D T H O U SA N D S O F Y E A R S AG O : T H E T R A N S F O R M AT I O N O F G R A P E S U GA R S I N TO A LC O H O L

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They could be Christmas decorations, ready for the tree. In fact, these entrancing pictures show a purely scientific process – namely vats of grapes at different stages of fermentation, at Château Virant in Provence.

Some of the vats contain white grapes, like the Rolle (top left), just beginning to ferment, and the Ugni Blanc (middle bottom), which is undergoing the operation known as cold stabilisation. Of the reds, the Syrah in the main picture (previous page) is at a similar stage, while the shimmering pink bauble (middle row, left) is Grenache destined for rosé, fermenting at full pace.

At the far right of that row is the whirlpool created by pigéage, the breaking up of the cap of skins and stalks that rises to the top of the vat.

During fermentation, the grapes split and churn and tumble in the vat. Skins rise to the surface, appear to take on bizarre colours and create floating masses reminiscent of continents. A miasma of gases swirls over the surface: photographer Patrick Desgraupes, who took these unearthly images, is perfectly aware of the danger of leaning into a cloud of carbon dioxide.

Depending on the state of the fermentation, he can allow himself no more than a couple of seconds over the vat, capturing the images with blink-of-an-eye shutter speeds of 1/20,000 of a second. At other times – when space permits a tripod or gantry – he will produce second-long exposures.

Often he will lean right into the tank, holding his breath as he takes his shots. What strikes him most forcefully is that fermentation is a dynamic, living process. It produces heat and carbon dioxide, and it’s noisy. ‘All sorts of sounds come out – squeaks and whistles, and sometimes a cracking sound,’ he says. The photographs are all taken without natural light. ‘I wanted to reveal the magic of a process that we never see, a transformation that takes place in total darkness.’

Cosmogony of Wine is an ongoing project shot at wineries all over France. Desgraupes uses a 36.3megapixel Nikon D800E, with a 50mm Sigma Arts wide-angle lens and Profoto studio lighting.

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B O L D I N T H E I R O U T LO O K A N D I M P O S S I B L E TO C AT E G O R I S E , D E N M A R K ’ S D I ST I L L E R I E S A R E C H A RT I N G T H E I R OW N PAT H W I T H A H O ST O F I N V E N T I V E , U N O RT H O D OX S P I R I T S T H AT A R E P R OV I N G A S C O M P E L L I N G A S T H E C O U N T RY ’ S C U I S I N E

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n Christianshavn, several little islands linked by tiny bridges, old and new, press up against each other. Dark, sharpedged, glass-roofed hotels sit next to rows of pastel-painted waterside houses; water slaps the polished wood of ancient barges and the sides of stainless-steel pontoons. I glimpse free-form sculptures in public gardens, bracketed by smart shops selling Scandinavian design. This famously unconventional Copenhagen neighbourhood makes a fitting prelude to the real reason I’m here – a visit to Empirical, a renegade maker of uncategorisable spirits.

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Empirical’s vast warehouse looks like something Roald Dahl might have dreamt up if Charlie had won a trip to a distillery instead of a chocolate factory. Indeed, if you were dropped in here blindfold, you probably wouldn’t know you were in a distillery at all. None of Empirical’s sell-out spirits are traditionally recognisable – there’s no gin, rum, whisky or, indeed, aquavit. As I walk, mouth agape, past vacuum distillation equipment made from bits of old bioreactor, chefs rush by offering tastes of miso paste or crisps made out of the spent grains used in the spirits.

‘It’s one of the great things about having so many chefs working here,’ says co-founder Mark Emil Hermansen. ‘They use a lot of the waste materials.’ Right. But why on earth are there chefs in here at all? Hermansen grins.

The building is full of people not necessarily qualified to do what they’re doing: he’s an Oxford-educated anthropologist, for a start.

He became involved in this venture after René Redzepi – chef and founder of nearby worldrenowned Noma – read one of his papers on food, identity and the creation of meaning through flavour, and invited him to join the Noma team. There he met Lars Williamson,

[ SPIRITS ]

Trailblazing distilleries such as Stauning (far left and bottom) and Empirical (below) are challenging the accepted notions of how spirits are made – and of the flavours they produce – through a radical approach

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Empirical (bottom two images opposite) sells out of its Fuck Trump and His Stupid Fucking Wall (right) almost immediately.

The boutique distiller y of Mosgaard (top right) is set on the remote island of Funen

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The industry may be small, but it is perfectly formed. You could spend a very happy few weeks travelling between the country’s new distilleries, through that lush countryside, riven by the fjords. And while Empirical’s peers may be slightly more conventional (they at least tend to make spirits that can be legally classified), they are far from ordinary.

Copenhagen Distillery was founded in early 2014. Its main product will soon be whisky, made with a rare organic Danish emmer wheat, which will remain in barrel until some very limited releases later this year. For now, you’ll have to stick to the gin – which is ready, and the bay leaf is exceptional – or the very modern aquavits, particularly the pale pink mulberry rose, which mixes deliciously with tonic.

(Alternatively, try the whisky bacon, which is made from pigs fed on the spent grain, then whisky-cured.) Or just sink into their distillery’s surprisingly inviting warehouse-bar, and work your way through its collection of house-created cocktails.

When opening a new distillery, it’s easier to set it up in a sustainable way than it is to retrofit a very old one. (Copenhagen Distillery has a tightly managed closed-loop system for water and heat capture.) Multiaward-winning Mosgaard Distillery, on the

island of Funen, takes things even further, and is certified both organic and carbonneutral. Here, too, bottles sell out faster than they can be made. Founder Jes Mosgaard, a former audio engineer, attributes this in part to the mineral-rich hard water on this flat, open south side of the island. ‘As the Scots say, soft water makes hard whisky, and hard water makes soft whisky.’

Braunstein’s USP, meanwhile, comes not through the way it makes its spirits but the way it ages them. Rather than happening at the micro-brewery and distillery in Køge, 45 minutes from Copenhagen, Braunstein’s whisky is aged in castles and warehouses all over Denmark – including Kronborg, in Helsingør (aka Elsinore, Hamlet’s famous castle). Brothers Michael and Klaus Poulson started the brewery in 2004 and the distillery in 2005, and over the years they have experimented with malting Danish barley in Islay, and using Danish corn.

One particularly notable iteration, Library Collection 15:1, was aged in Sauternes casks from Château d’Yquem.

Drive two and a half hours northwest into Jutland, past dozens of Denmark’s postcardpretty, brick, stepped-gable churches, and you find the seaside town of Stauning and its eponymous distillery. Stauning is one of Denmark’s bigger spirits brands. A recipient of £10m ($12.7m) from Distill Ventures (the small-business investment arm of the huge spirits producer Diageo), it started life in 2005 in an old abattoir and is now housed in a series of starkly elegant, ultra-modern black sheds that are open every weekday for tastings. The brand was founded by a group of nine friends who wanted to be the first to make a Danish single-malt whisky.

The important thing about Empirical is that they’re people who make flavours that have never been created before

CHRISTINA DAMGA A RD - SYLVEST (C HRISTINA DA MGA ARD.CO)

Noma’s head of research and development.

The two spent several years at Redzepi’s Nordic food lab, then decided to strike out on their own. They’d never worked with spirits.

‘We’d played around with fermentation and creation of flavours [at Noma]. The byproduct of yeast fermentation is alcohol, which is a great way to capture flavour. We started the distillery in a garage just over two years ago, and now we are here.’

‘Here’ is Refshaleøen island, a waterside former industrial district now peppered with start-ups, artists, bars and restaurants.

Empirical moved in in February 2019 and shares the building with a brewery-taproom run by American chef Matthew Orlando (also ex-Noma); his hyper-sustainable restaurant Amass is just across the road.

Empirical’s 25 employees make a constantly evolving series of four or five spirits at a time, including their best known, Fuck Trump and His Stupid Fucking Wall (which, predictably, sells out almost immediately on release). There are also limited-edition collaborations with partners such as Ryan Chetiyawardana, aka Mr Lyan, whose Dandelyan in London was named World’s Best Bar and who has subsequently taken his Lyan brand to Amsterdam and (at the time of writing) Washington, DC. The aim is to make around 100,000 bottles a year, using techniques they invented – their barley isn’t malted, for instance, but is treated with koji spores, the kind usually used to ferment soy sauce – in equipment made from butchered 1950s butter churners.

‘The important thing about Empirical,’ says Michael Vachon of the distillery’s UK importer Maverick Drinks, ‘is that they’re people who make flavours that have never been created before. Spirits are just the best way that they have of conveying flavour. Like perfume, alcohol is a good way of providing a sensory experience.’

Think Danish spirits, and you tend to think of aquavit. And no wonder: until very recently, Denmark produced half the world’s supply. But today, that 500-year-old tradition is being subverted by a gang of small-batch distillers scattered across the country, upstarts and mavericks who make whatever they fancy making. The resultant spirits scene is small: while it has more than doubled in the past couple of years, there are still only around 50 producers countrywide.

Much of that mini-boom is due to Empirical’s non-conformity, which has helped attract international attention – just as Noma did for Danish food.

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Nyborg (right), set in a former train factor y, makes a range of spirits, as well as housing an acclaimed restaurant and bar.

Such destinations are fast adding fur ther appeal to Denmark’s picturesque tourist trail (below)

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Free spirits René Redzepi’s renowned Noma restaurant, in Copenhagen, has been responsible not just for establishing Denmark’s culinar y reputation but also for kickstar ting the countr y’s inventive spirits scene, through various alumni

1. COPENHAGEN BAY LEAF GIN Made with bay, angelica and fresh cranberries, this bay leaf gin is earthy but fresh, and just as good mixed as neat. €39.90 ($44), 45%, urban-drinks.de 2. EMPIRICAL ONYX BLEND Onyx has an extraordinary nose – soil, gin, musk and smoke – and once sipped, its smoky notes never stop evolving in the mouth. €65 ($72), 33%, shop.empiricalspirits.co 3. STAUNING 7TH EDITION SINGLE MALT You’ll have to move fast to get hold of Stauning’s limited bottling of this single malt. Bourbon caskaged for six years, it is rich and darkly chocolatey. £115 ($145), 48.4%, thewhiskyexchange.com 4. NORDISK NORTH STAR Anders Bilgram is inspired by the moonshines he encountered on his Arctic travels. This gin – which includes botanicals like sea buckthorn, cloudberries and qajaasat, from across the Nordic region – is a fine example.

DKK360 (£42/$53), 44.8%, shop.mikkeller.dk 5. SPIRIT OF NJORD SUN AND CITRUS GIN The carefully layered botanicals in this summery gin – lemon verbena, lemon balm, citrus peels, blueberry, blackberry, rose, heather, thyme, rosemary, linden flower and birch sap – create a gin that is zippy but never sour or tart.

CHRISTINA DAMGAARD - SYLV EST (CHRISTINADA MGAA RD.C O); IRINA B OERSMA

DKK529 (£62/$78), 47.5%, spiritofnjord.com

Like many others in the story of Denmark’s modern distilling industry, none of them had a clue how to do so. Yet when they were just a year old, whisky expert Jim Murray told them their smoked whisky had the potential to be one of the best in the world. Sure enough, Stauning Curious won Best New Make in the World at the 2019 World Whisky Awards.

Outside Denmark, Danish items have long had a reputation for being exceptional, but Danes value their own output highly, too, despite its often higher prices. ‘As a Danish citizen, you strive to choose Danish products, because you believe them to be of higher quality,’ says Christopher Rasmussen, of Spirit of Njord, a gin distillery housed in a 100-year-old pumping station in Aarhus. If you come to Denmark, it is worth devoting a couple of days to Aarhus, which sits on the east coast on the other side of Jutland. Not just so you can try all the gins, but because Denmark’s second city is stuffed with excellent craft-beer bars and restaurants, and everything, including its recently revamped harbourside, is within walking distance.

In any journey through the distilleries – and the wider gastronomic highlights – of Denmark, there’s one constant refrain.

It might be difficult to understand how one small restaurant could have such farreaching effects on a country’s food and drink scene, but ask anyone involved in

those industries what has had the greatest influence, and one name comes up.

‘Noma is part of our history, too,’ Rasmussen says. ‘It served our gin back in 2014, which was a huge pat on the back.

[Denmark] didn’t have a long-standing culinary reputation. Noma gave a fresh perspective on our food and drink, and now there’s a view of us as a gastronomic hotspot.’ Because Noma placed such emphasis on local products – showcasing Danish wine, beer and spirits, as well as food – it has focused international attention on just what the Danes can create.

Vachon agrees. ‘Copenhagen is at the intersection of the Nordics and the rest of western Europe,’ he says. ‘It’s reasonable for a place like Noma to come into existence in a city like Copenhagen, which has access to great ingredients from within the country and close to it. And then tons of places have come into existence beyond Copenhagen, through Noma alumni.’

In the black-tiled, wood-clad tasting room at Empirical, we are discussing Arctic juniper – ‘Too smackful of flavour,’ says Hermansen – versus Nepalese juniper, while sipping Onyx, which morphs from a peaty whisky to a smoky mezcal in the mouth. It’s true that most hedonists come to Denmark for the food. But they really should stay for the drink.

6. FARY LOCHAN At 10-year-old Fary Lochan, they make rich and oily whiskies with malts smoked over fresh local nettles, as well as a wonderfully fresh nettle aquavit.

Small batch production, €80–202 ($88–222) for 50cl, 47–54%, depending on batch; farylochan.dk 7. MOSGAARD ORGANIC WHISKY BATCH 1, PEDRO XIMÉNEZ CASK Made on the island of Funen, this gets a final six months of ageing in Sherry casks, marrying sweet French oakiness with raisined Sherry richness.

DKK1,000 (£116/$147), 46.3%, mosgaardwhisky.dk 8. SKÆRSØGAARD ROM Sven Moesgaard makes rum because he can and because he likes it. This has oodles of molasses and caramel, which fits well with the very sweet Danish tooth.

DKK250 (£29/$37), 46%, dansk-vin.dk 9. DYREHØJ RÖS GIN The family-run Dyrehøj vineyard and distillery makes an extremely pure, bright gin, using apples.

DKK295 (£34/$44), 40%, dyrehoj-vingaard.dk AND ONE TO VISIT: NYBORG This distillery makes whisky in a beautifully modernised former train factory. It took five years to transform the buildings, which now house a shop and a renowned organic restaurant and bar, as well as stills making whisky, rum, gin and schnapps. Visit the distillery for a tour on a Friday or Saturday.

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Artwork by Stewart Walton

EXPERIENCE THE FINEST WINES AND SPIRITS FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE Keep an eye out for new F+R events by following us on Instagram @fineandrarewines

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The Collection When you’re dealing with the world’s finest wines and spirits, there’s always a difficulty to overcome: should we be recommending bottles that are almost impossible to come by, unless you’re a dedicated frequenter of auctions? The question came up with Sarah Marsh MW’s white Burgundy 2010 feature on pages 84-91. But at Club Oenologique we also want to guide and advise you on wines that are already in your cellar – we’ll let you know what stage they’re at.

Every great wine has a story to tell. It was wonderful to have Doug Shafer talk us through a vertical of the legendary Hillside Select (wines that he made decades ago as a ‘knuckleheaded’ young man, he remembers); similarly, Matt Walls presents a detailed tasting of Chave Hermitage and St-Joseph on pages 92-95 – read his notes alongside his exclusive interview with Jean-Louis Chave in the main body of the magazine (pages 24-27).

In Australia, according to many, the basket of ‘great’ wines hasn’t changed in decades. But what about the cohorts of brilliant winemakers snapping at Penfolds and Henschke’s heels? We asked Natasha Hughes MW and Huon Hooke to report. Then on the spirits front, the intrepid Colin Hampden-White – accompanied by brilliant distiller Lora Hemy – selects the rarest and finest whiskies available (and not so available) today.

And finally, five luscious bottles from the IWSC, including an extraordinary baijiu, China’s ancient spirit brewed in vast quantities, more or less unchanged for millennia, and now wielded by switched-on mixologists from Hong Kong to New York.

Read on, and reach for your glass…

100 99 98 97 96 95 94 93 92 91 90 89 88 87 86 85 84 83 82 81 80

100–98 Extraordinary An extraordinary wine that is profound, unique and above all emotionally inspiring. By definition, it is the reference for a classic wine of its variety or style.

97–95 Outstanding An outstanding wine of exceptional complexity and characteristics, as well as remarkable personality.

A classic example of its style or variety.

94–90 Excellent An accomplished wine with considerable complexity and character. A wine with personality that will provide a memorable drinking experience.

89–85 Good A strong wine that offers solid quality. A wine that provides a highly enjoyable drinking experience. Good-value and everyday wines will often fall into this category.

84–80 Average A perfectly well-made wine but of average quality; a safe wine with little or no distinction and excitement.

A wine that provides straightforward drinking.

79–70 Below average A wine with noticeable flaws; one that is bland or lacking character. A wine not worth your attention.

69–50 Avoid A wine with faults, or a wine that is unbalanced or unpleasant.

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The tasters

ELAINE CHUKAN BROWN

NATASHA HUGHES MW

Elaine Chukan Brown is a writer, speaker, and illustrator.

She serves as the American specialist for JancisRobinson. com and is a contributing writer to Wine & Spirits magazine.

Natasha Hughes is a Master of Wine who’s made a living from writing, talking and teaching about wine and food for the past 20 years.

COLIN HAMPDEN-WHITE

SARAH MARSH MW

Colin Hampden-White edited Whisky Quarterly for three years and is now a presenter on Amazon Prime’s The Three Drinkers. He has been writing about wine and spirits for over ten years and is a judge with the IWSC.

Burgundy specialist Sarah Marsh has tasted through 14 vintages en primeur for her website The Burgundy Briefing. In 2017, she finally realised her dream of making her own wine, at Domaine Nicolas Rossignol in Beaune.

LORA HEMY

ADAM LECHMERE

Lora Hemy is head distiller at Roe & Co in Dublin. With an MSc in brewing and distilling from Heriot-Watt University, Lora has previously held roles at Atom Brands and Halewood Wines & Spirits, specialising in whiskey and gin.

Adam Lechmere has been writing about wine for 20 years. He launched decanter.com in early 2000, has worked freelance for numerous publications, and is now editor of Club Oenologique.

HUON HOOKE

MATT WALLS

Huon Hooke is a Sydney-based independent writer who has made his living writing and educating on wine since 1983. Today, most of his work is published at therealreview.com.

An award-winning freelance writer, author and broadcaster, Matt Walls lives in London and the Rhône Valley.

White Burgundy 2010 I NTR O D U C TI O N A N D R E CO M M E N DAT I O N S

BY S A R A H M A R S H M W

[ THE COLLECTION | BURGUNDY 2010 ]

T H E Y D O N ’ T H AV E T H E I N V E S T M E N T P O T E N T I A L O F T H E R E D S, A N D T H E Y W E R E N ’ T H Y P E D T O T H E S K I E S (U N L I K E OT H E R R E G I O N S W E C O U L D M E N T I O N), B U T T H E W H I T E B U RG U N D I E S O F 2 0 1 0 A R E F I N E , F R E S H A N D A G E W O R T H Y – A N D D R I N K I N G B E A U T I F U L LY N O W

A decade ago, before excessive pricing soured the Burgundy market, it was Bordeaux that hogged the headlines. As a result, one could have been forgiven for thinking that the fine French summer of 2010 benefited only the southwest of the country.

In fact, from Chablis to Chassagne, mother nature shone right across France’s central belt. And at the very outset, Burgundy 2010 was a delight from barrel: in freshness and energy, it had the hallmark of a cooler vintage. Coming after the opulent, crowdpleasing 2009s, the lucid Pinots were loved by purists, probably to the detriment of the elegant whites, which, like the region as a whole, were somewhat overlooked.

Nine years on, though, those whites are equally lovely, and the vintage is mellowing gracefully. The bright citrus and floral characters are melting into almonds, buttered toast and fresh hay, with many of the better premiers crus hovering on the cusp of youth and the more complex nuances of maturity.

These wines don’t have the fat of 2009 or the viscosity of 2012. Thanks to a small crop, they are intense, and they promise to age well. They are slim without being lean. In their youth they were energetic and fresh, and while most remain so, some have a certain flatness. I feel it is temporary.

White Burgundy often goes though a dip at five to six years; 2010 didn’t, so maybe it’s happening now.

There are notes of botrytis in the mandarin and honeyed characters, most likely due to an electric storm on 12 September that quickly ‘turned’ the riper fruit in warmer, more forward sites, often premier cru. Some grands crus – notably Bâtard – were also affected. The effect was sporadic, but it’s more apparent today than it was soon after vintage. The telltale orange blossom aroma is attractive, but a chunky or heavy palate is not. Both exist. In true Burgundian fashion, you must cross-reference domaine, terroir and vintage in 2010. Herein lies the fun – and the frustration.

Meursault was most affected, hence quality and style are uneven. Some wines lack energy and definition. Genevrières is the most difficult to perfect among the top three premiers crus, and while attractive, the wines can lack a certain precision.

(Perrières is more reliable.) The seconddivision premiers crus can be a little heavy. Village wines are usually the most interesting on the Côte, but in 2010 you are safer with Puligny. Start drinking your Meursault, and monitor progress.

Chassagne from barrel was energetic and floral (and often spicy), and it remains so today. In this tasting we had a variety of premier cru terroir – from the richer, deeper soil of Morgeot, to La Romanée at the top of the slope – and all showed true typicité: accessible but with plenty of staying power.

A good Morgeot, such as Domaine Bernard Moreau, and undoubtedly Caillerets, will go another 10 years plus. Bruno Colin’s En Remilly was a highlight.

Puligny is the most mineral and savoury of the villages in 2010, with some spot-on ‘smaller’ wines. The premiers crus had length and intensity. There is no lack of potential here, but these wines need three to five years.

Even once open, they demand time. I kept an open bottle of Domaine Jacques Carillon Les Perrières for 36 hours, after which this very closed wine began to sing, developing a long, sweetly citrus and mineral line. St-Aubin and village wines are ready now.

While it is early days for the grands crus, they were amenable and will evolve over another 10–15 years. It’s a lovely vintage for Corton Charlemagne, where even today there is a decent price:quality ratio from many producers. For good value, head for Pernand-Vergelesses.

With the exception of a few domaines – Arnaud Ente, Coche-Dury and Comte Lafon – there’s precious little investment value in white Burgundy. Instead, nine years on is a good time to start drinking them – and thankfully there was no evidence whatsoever of premature oxidation.

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85

Puligny-Montrachet DOMAINE LEFLAIVE, PULIGNY-MONTRACHET, 1ER CRU, LES FOLATIÈRES Floral and elegant, with orange blossom and slightly honeyed notes.

This is quite light-bodied but has good intensity. Vivacious, streamlined and rather sophisticated. There is a delicacy to this Folatières that carries to the fine, saline and pure finish. There is lightness of touch and aromatic precision. One of my highlights. 2019–26.

UK: £1,050 in bond (case of 6 x 75cl) Asset Wines, Corney & Barrow, Cru World Wine, Crump Richmond & Shaw Fine Wines US: $1,713 (case of 6 x 75cl) Flickinger Wines, Wine Cellarage

95

leflaive.fr

96

94

DOMAINE JEANLOUIS CHAVY, PULIGNY-MONTRACHET, 1ER CRU, LES FOLATIÈRES DOMAINE ETIENNE SAUZET, PULIGNY-MONTRACHET, 1ER CRU, LES COMBETTES

95

DOMAINE JACQUES CARILLON, PULIGNYMONTRACHET, 1ER CRU, LES PERRIÈRES Reserved aroma. Tight and well focused, but battened down. Just developing some mature aromatics on the palate of toasted macadamia nuts. After 24 hours, the straight, well-defined palate opened up and became pure as a whistle, singing on the sweet and mineral finish. Everything it should be. 2022–26.

N/A in UK jacques-carillon.com

94

DOMAINE JEANCLAUDE BACHELET & FILS, PULIGNYMONTRACHET, 1ER CRU, SOUS LE PUITS

UK: £149 Asset Wines, Crump Richmond & Shaw Fine Wines

Enticing, lightly toasty aroma. Vivacious, tight, high-toned and straight, this zips across the palate with citrus and mineral freshness and energy. Light and clipped, with delicious lemon balm aromatics on the palate. Love it. It’s not super-‘serious’, but it’s a delight. I can see this ageing rather well, for it is very well balanced and finishes with singing minerality. 2019–26.

US: $1,284.99 (case of 6 x 75cl) Flickinger Wines, Wine Cellarage

N/A in UK domainebachelet.fr

Focus and intensity, with a well-defined and layered palate.

This has proper Combettes substance and is very fresh.

There’s a vital citrus finish with a touch of cold, stony sappiness. Impressive and well sustained; it has grip. There’s no hurry, because this should age very well. 2021–28.

etiennesauzet.com

Rather an energetic and intense aroma. Ripe strike and a silky rich texture.

Aromas of toasted almonds and sweet, fresh hay. Decent depth and generosity to the palate. There is not a lot of grip, but it’s very pleasant, with a sweetness on the wellsustained finish. A very sound and accessible Folatières that is ready to drink but should evolve further. 2019–23.

N/A in UK US: $73.97 Wine Chateau

92

DOMAINE JEANPHILIPPE FICHET, PULIGNY-MONTRACHET, 1ER CRU, LES REFERTS

90

DOMAINE DES TERRE DE VELLE, PULIGNY-MONTRACHET

Most attractive. Straight, well edged, fresh and mineral. This is fully mature, with delicious notes of hay and grilled almonds. A touch of lemon zest on the finish gives it a light and pithy bite. Spot on. Drink now and over the next two or three years or so. From 2019–22.

N/A in UK terresdevelle.fr

This was rather reduced.

The broad, full body is certainly compact, and it does lack a bit of oomph.

Referts is a bigger wine, and this is certainly on the chunky, robust side. Quite a lot of matter, but it’s not showing well now. There is potential for improvement.

Keep it and hope it evolves beneficially. 2021–24.

UK: £741 in bond (case of 12 x 75cl) Crump Richmond & Shaw Fine Wines, Cru World Wine US: $94 Wine Cellarage, K&L Wine Merchants domaine-fichet-meursault.com

90

DOMAINE PERNOTBELICARD, PULIGNYMONTRACHET, 1ER CRU, CHAMP-CANET

Exotic flowery aroma and palate. It’s loosely textured.

Rather inviting. Somewhat ‘pink’ in flavour profile but offset with a light freshness.

It’s pleasant but lacks substance and length – but these are young vines.

Not a bad job. 2019-20.

N/A in UK

86

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[ THE COLLECTION | BURGUNDY 2010 ]

93

DOMAINE LEFLAIVE, PULIGNY-MONTRACHET, 1ER CRU, LES COMBETTES

Orange and honeyed notes.

It’s compact and has burly density and quite a powerful finish, but it does lack refinement. It’s a bit rugged. I would hang on to it and wait and see. 2022–24 .

UK: £2,040 in bond (case of 12 x 75cl) Wilkinson Vintners, Armit Wines, Corney & Barrow, Wine Owners Exchange US: $249 Benchmark Wine Group, Westgarth Wines, Wine Cellarage leflaive.fr

DOMAINE JACQUES CARILLON, PULIGNYMONTRACHET Restrained. Channelled line.

This is refined, savoury, mineral and precise. Sharply edged with excellent finish and presence for a village wine. Absolutely spot on.

This would give some premiers crus a run for their money. Some ageing capacity, too. 2019–24.

N/A in UK jacques-carillon.com

91

[ THE COLLECTION | BURGUNDY 2010 ]

ChassagneMontrachet

93

DOMAINE MARC MOREY, CHASSAGNEMONTRACHET, 1ER CRU, LES VERGERS

Meursault

A very engaging up-toned aroma. Ripe citrus. Silky up front and supple, skimming across the palate. This has elegance and charm. It is clean and fresh and pretty on the finish. There is a harmony to this. Lovely now but no sign of fading. I would drink it over the next three to five years. Not profound but so appealing. 2019-25.

DOMAINE REMI JOBARD, MEURSAULT, 1ER CRU, LES GENEVRIÈRES

N/A in UK domaine-marc-morey.fr

Orange flower aroma; rather engaging. On the palate, it has body but is pared back and more reserved. While it is nicely balanced, it is somewhat flat-footed at the moment. A hint of bitter orange gives the finish some bite. This improved a bit as the bottle was left open; maybe it needs a little more time. Tempted to keep this another year and see. 2020–22.

95

DOMAINE BRUNO COLIN, CHASSAGNEMONTRACHET, 1ER CRU, EN REMILLY

95 DOMAINE BERNARD MOREAU & FILS, CHASSAGNEMONTRACHET, 1ER CRU, MORGEOT

Appetisingly fresh aroma, almost minty. Tight on the attack. Nicely contained.

It’s ripe but vigorous. No lack of substance. There is a pithy fennel-andphenolic bite on the finish and a freshness that works well to offset the density of fruit. A proper Morgeot and a good food wine with plenty of matter. Drink now if you decant it, but this will age beneficially.

One to keep. 2022–29.

A floral aroma – but dried flowers rather than fresh.

A hint of cumin and ground coriander. Satin depth, with fresh citrus acidity cutting through the smoothly honeyed texture. It’s very alluring on the palate, with a lively and wellsustained, racy finish. This has immediate appeal. It is accessible but has energy and depth to last. 2019–26.

N/A in UK domaine-bruno-colin.com

N/A in UK

93

Orange flower aroma. It’s silky textured and generous.

I feel the aromatics slightly overwhelm the structure at the moment. They are quite exotically spicy, with fresh and ground ginger, while the structure is more refined. It is a touch light in substance, although a fine thread of acidity carries to the decent finish. I would start drinking this and monitor progress. 2019–22. £695 (case of 12 x 75cl) Jeroboams

91

DOMAINE BLAINGAGNARD, CHASSAGNEMONTRACHET, 1ER CRU, CLOS ST-JEAN

N/A in UK chassagne-montrachet.com

88

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DOMAINE DES COMTES LAFON, MEURSAULT, CLOS DE LA BARRE

DOMAINE FONTAINEGAGNARD, CHASSAGNEMONTRACHET, 1ER CRU, LA ROMANÉE

Slightly toffeeish aroma and a rich, rather unctuous palate. It’s quite soft but has some substance, which makes up for softer-tasting acidity. While the flavours are inviting, with notes of vanilla fudge and a hint of coffee, it lacks verve and excitement. I would tend to drink it near term. 2019–22.

N/A in UK

91

92

DOMAINE BUISSON-CHARLES, MEURSAULT, 1ER CRU, GOUTTES D’OR

Full-bodied, rich and rounded, with notes of greengage. Patrick Essa likes to pick late and fully explore the riper potential of his vineyards. Flavours of honey, butter and sweet hay. There is density and some heaviness on the midpalate, and the finish is rich.

I have a feeling this might refine over the next three to four years. 2022–25.

N/A in UK buisson-charles.com

90

Juicy, compact and surprisingly dense, but well contained. Well honed.

There is good energy and layering. This is ripe but with no lack of freshness underscoring the palate and on the well-sustained finish.

It’s impressive. Plenty of stuffing to age this wine further. It took a little time to open up, so decant it or wait. A good example of a Meursault village wine that more than fulfilled expectations. 2021–24.

N/A in UK comtes-lafon.fr

87

DOMAINE PATRICK JAVILLIER, MEURSAULT, CLOUSOTS (MAGNUM)

More mature on the nose than the palate. Orangelike aromatics of botrytis.

The palate is full and rather richly rounded. Attractive in the mid-palate, but it is certainly a heavier style, and it’s not freshly energetic. There is slight bitterness on the finish that I quite like. It will give much pleasure now, for the richer style would work well with food. 2019–22.

N/A in UK patrickjavillier.com

DOMAINE MICHEL BOUZEREAU, MEURSAULT, 1ER CRU, LES GENEVRIÈRES Really rather honeyed and orange on the nose, showing a touch of botrytis.

Elegant, lightly plump palate. Quite relaxed, but with sufficient energy. Not especially intense, but it has an easy equilibrium. There is ‘sweetness’ to the fruit, offset with a touch of bitter Seville orange marmalade on the finish, which I quite like. Drink now and over the short term. 2019–22.

N/A in UK michelbouzereauetfils.com

92

92

DOMAINE LATOURGIRAUD, MEURSAULT, 1ER CRU, LES GENEVRIÈRES

Forward and inviting.

Floral, broad and looseknit, this is plump with a crocheted texture. Quite nicely refined on the finish, which is fresh, light and a touch mineral. It focuses to a rather spicy finish.

I would not keep it too long, though. 2019–22.

N/A in UK domaine-latourgiraud.com

[ THE COLLECTION | BURGUNDY 2010 ]

Pernand-Vergelesses and St-Aubin

Grand Cru

97 BOUCHARD PÈRE & FILS, CHEVALIERMONTRACHET

90

DOMAINE REMI ROLLIN, PERNAND-VERGELESSES, LES CLOUX

This is spot on. Fully mature, very fresh and energetic. It really overdelivers. Vibrant acidity; zesty finish. It’s ripe yet slightly austere and salty. It’s from quite a warm and protected vineyard behind the hill of Frétille, and the colder 2010 suits it well. Drink now, but no hurry. 2019–21.

N/A in UK domaine-rollin.com

Focused. Pure, vibrant and saline. This is light-footed but intense. Finely chiselled edges, with cool saline minerality under the palate and a sustained savoury, sapid finish. Refined – not a showy wine. Quite accessible if decanted, but wait a little, because there is no hurry at all. 2021–28.

97

UK: £1,176 (case of 6 x 75cl) Crump Richmond & Shaw Fine Wines, Corney & Barrow, Cru World Wine US: $1,822.99 (case of 6 x 75cl) Flickinger Wines, Wine Cellarage bouchard-pereetfils.com

DOMAINE CHANSON, CORTON VERGENNES

This has well-honed muscularity and grip.

Savoury power and intensity. Notes of sandalwood. It’s compact and dense, with grippy minerality. Punchy, powerful and persistent finish, with no lack of grunt. Wait: this needs time and has plenty of potential to age. 2023–30.

UK: £560 in bond (case of 6 x 75cl) Millésima UK US: $210 The Beverly Hills Wine Merchant domaine-chanson.com

88

DOMAINE JEAN-CLAUDE BACHELET & FILS, ST-AUBIN, 1ER CRU, MURGERS DES DENTS DE CHIEN

86

DOMAINE HUBERT LAMY, ST-AUBIN, 1ER CRU, MURGERS DES DENTS DE CHIEN

Appealing and juicy up front, showing the nutty nuances of a mature wine.

There is vitality, and it’s quite well focused. Firm minerality. Sexier and more succulent than the Domaine Hubert Lamy wine (right).

There is a touch of sappy bitterness on the savoury finish. Drink now and over the short term. 2019–21.

Quite ripe up front on the nose, with sweetness to the attack. Decent intensity. The straight palate and slim texture show the terroir well.

Savoury, slightly dry salty finish of fair length. I like the pared-back austerity but would like to see more verve and intensity. Drink now and over the next couple of years. 2019–21.

N/A in UK domainebachelet.fr

N/A in UK domainehubertlamy.com

90

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DOMAINE JEAN-NOEL GAGNARD, BÂTARDMONTRACHET (MAGNUM)

95

Honeyed aroma, with notes of orange blossom. Rich and full, almost unctuous on the front palate. It’s on the heavier, muscular side but very open, expressive and quite juicy in the middle. A fulsome, burly richness, with just sufficient sweet acidity to carry the finish. While it’s not elegant, it is sumptuous and invites drinking. 2019–24.

UK: £266.67 BI Wines & Spirits domaine-gagnard.com

96

DOMAINE RAPET PÈRE & FILS, CORTONCHARLEMAGNE

Much more austere style.

Straight, edgy, savoury, stony. Not juicy. There is a richness of texture that, with the savoury character, need time to integrate. This Corton-Charlemagne needs time. The finish is firm, salty and persistent. A wine of marked sapidity. Maybe not a good moment now, though. It’s too young, so hang on to this. 2022–30+.

UK: £650 in bond (case of 6 x 75cl) Corney & Barrow, BI Wines & Spirits domaine-rapet.com

MAISON OLIVIER LEFLAIVE, CORTONCHARLEMAGNE (MAGNUM) Aromas of new mown hay combine with fruity exuberance. Still very youthful, but it is a magnum. Generous, ripe and very well contained.

This delivers. Plentiful depth. Savoury sapidity combines with sweetness on the well-sustained finish.

This gives a good deal of pleasure. All is in place now, so you could drink this or keep it. 2019–27.

N/A in UK olivier-leflaive.com

96

[ T H E C O L L E C T I O N | H E R M I TAG E A N D S T - J O S E P H ]

Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage and St- Joseph The Chave family have long been synonymous with Hermitage, but current owner Jean-Louis Chave has gone back to his St-Joseph roots with a new single-vineyard domaine St-Joseph, Clos Florentin. And his roots go pretty far back – to 1481 (see article on page 24).

While his Hermitage wines take 10-15 years to hit maturity and last for decades, his St-Joseph wines are typically mature after 6-7 years and will easily develop up to 10 years, perhaps even 15 in good vintages. His Clos Florentin marks a new peak of quality for the appellation, and will no doubt prove just as collectable as his Hermitage bottlings, though at around half the price. The following were tasting with JeanLouis Chave at the domaine in September 2019.

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Hermitage Blanc

97

DOMAINE JEANLOUIS CHAVE HERMITAGE BLANC 2012 From 2019 To 2035

At seven years of age this is starting to move into a secondary stage of evolution, taking on honeyed notes among the flowers and quince fruit. On your palate, there’s more quince and poached pear, it’s full-bodied with a good sense of richness. It has a gently granular feel in the mouth that brings some relief and interest to the texture.

80% Marsanne, 20% Roussanne, 14.5%.

DOMAINE JEAN-LOUIS CHAVE HERMITAGE BLANC 2017

From 2023 To 2050

A very rich and fullbodied vintage of Chave’s Hermitage Blanc, very rounded and flowing.

It coats your palate, is certainly low in acidity but is nonetheless vibrant and vital. It’s deeply flavoursome, with almond, caramel, macadamia and candied citrus peels. The finish is very long. Even for a Hermitage Blanc, this is decidedly opulent, and will last for decades. An unmistakably grand cru wine of great presence and resonance. 80% Marsanne, 20% Roussanne, 14.5%.

98

DOMAINE JEAN-LOUIS CHAVE HERMITAGE BLANC 2016

From 2019 To 2045

98

95

Hermitage Rouge

At once floral and fruity, this is beautifully aromatic and open already. There are touches of ripe apricot and marzipan. It’s rounded but not overly full-bodied, beautifully rich and pure and very well balanced. It has a precise, mineral-flecked frame and a remarkable sense of finesse and line for Hermitage Blanc. A totally captivating wine, that will be hard not to drink young, but will glide on, gaining complexity through the years thanks to its perfect balance. A wine to fall in love with, you’ll never want it to end. 80% Marsanne, 20% Roussanne, 14.5%.

DOMAINE JEANLOUIS CHAVE HERMITAGE BLANC 2001

97

From 2019 To 2030

A lovely vintage in the Southern and Northern Rhône, this is at a delicious stage of maturity. There are autumn leaves among the pear fruits, barley sugar, fresh mushroom and sparks of citrus. It’s very full-bodied, and still has plenty of freshness and fruit on your palate.

This is classic mature Hermitage Blanc, so rich, complex and satisfying.

A lovely time to drink, but will certainly develop further. 80% Marsanne, 20% Roussanne, 14.5%.

97

DOMAINE JEAN-LOUIS CHAVE HERMITAGE ROUGE 2016 From 2020 To 2045

Very little Chave Hermitage was made in 2016 due to unprecedented hail, but the quality is very high.

Remarkably open and ready already for a Chave Hermitage, showing cigar box and bonfire smoke among the blackberry fruit – perfect fruit ripeness. It’s aromatically bright and fresh, elegant and lifted. It has a ripe, juicy acidity running through it, giving the wine line, length and a sense of focus. A remarkably elegant, almost Burgundian style of Hermitage. You could open it now, but try to wait until 2030 if you can, when it will have taken on much more complexity. 100% Syrah, 14%.

DOMAINE JEAN-LOUIS CHAVE HERMITAGE ROUGE 2008

94

DOMAINE JEAN-LOUIS CHAVE HERMITAGE BLANC 1991

From 2019 To 2028

From 2019 To 2030

“A difficult vintage,” says Jean-Louis, and one generally considered the second-worst of the decade after the washout 2002. It was certainly wet, but great terroir is great terroir, and this is nonetheless a very enjoyable wine, and ready to drink now. It has a herbal note to the aromatic profile – thyme, rosemary and juniper – and raspberry fruits. It won’t last as long as a typical vintage, but is fresh and very drinkable.

Consider drinking this with less powerfully-flavoured food than you might normally with red Hermitage. 100% Syrah, 13%.

A great year in the Northern Rhône. This is becoming fresh again, with camomile, verbena and linden flower. There’s a subtle petrol note that’s reminiscent of aged Riesling. On your palate there’s a gentle nutty element, hazelnut. Acidity is low, and the palate is generous and flowing – freshness and liveliness come from a saline edge and a positive bitter kick on the finish. 80% Marsanne, 20% Roussanne, 14.5%.

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93

[ T H E C O L L E C T I O N | H E R M I TAG E A N D S T - J O S E P H ]

97

St-Joseph 95

DOMAINE JEANLOUIS CHAVE HERMITAGE ROUGE 2001

DOMAINE JEAN-LOUIS CHAVE HERMITAGE ROUGE 2005

From 2019 To 2040

From 2022 To 2040

Big, bold and brawny, this is classic Hermitage in all it’s power and pomp. It has a great sense of ripeness and is still full of sap. It’s a full-throttle Hermitage, perhaps less elegant than some vintages, but joyfully red-cheeked. It’s still thick with slightly blocky tannins, and would benefit from another few years in bottle before really showing its best. Loud and proud.

100% Syrah, 13.5%.

98

Still burly and fruity, with dried blood and juniper notes to the black fruits.

It’s settling down a little at this half-way stage, now medium-bodied, but still ripe and silky on your palate. It’s not hugely long, but is still lively and determined, with savoury leather complexity. Distinctly saline, still quite butch, but engaging. Certainly ready to drink, but give it a couple more years if you can. 100% Syrah, 13%.

DOMAINE JEAN-LOUIS CHAVE HERMITAGE ROUGE ‘CUVÉE CATHELIN’ 2000 From 2019 To 2050

From 2020 To 2027

Fresh, distinctly fruity but not exuberantly so. There’s a gently woody, but not oaky, vein that runs through it. It has a tight frame and a very upright feel – still feels on the stiff side for now but will relax in time. A relatively tannic vintage, with plenty of grip, accentuated with a saline finish. Coming from the imposing 2017 vintage, this could be opened already, but it would be worthwhile waiting for a year or two. Savoury, sinewy. 100% Syrah, 14%.

From 2019 To 2025

This is still fairly closed, but it began to open out with a brief decant. The 2016 has a relatively aerial feel to it, a signature of the vintage. There’s plenty of crème de mure and black olive on the palate, and more noticeable acidity than other recent vintages, which further underlines its sense of brisk freshness. Distinctly saline, this vintage may not have the depth of flavour of the 2015 or 2017, but it is very well balanced and focused. 100% Syrah, 13.5%.

DOMAINE JEANLOUIS CHAVE ST-JOSEPH 2013

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DOMAINE JEAN-LOUIS CHAVE ST-JOSEPH ‘CLOS FLORENTIN’ 2016

From 2019 To 2022

From 2019 To 2027

A long, drawn-out vintage that finished late in the season has produced a fresh and peppery St-Joseph in 2013 – more white pepper than black. It’s lighter in fruit than some years, with just-ripe blackberry flavour and no excesses. It doesn’t have the same length and depth of flavour as some of the more recent warmer vintages, but it’s lively and precise. A vintage that refreshes – the kind of wine that’s so drinkable the bottle is finished before you know it. 100% Syrah, 13.5%.

The second vintage of Jean-Louis Chave’s first single-vineyard St-Joseph.

What strikes you most of all is the beautiful shape and elegance. It’s perfectly balanced, fairly slim in profile, with expressive aromatics, with star anise to the blackberry fruit.

It’s fresh and gentle, but not without depth, and has supple texture and a precise tannic frame. A wine of great purity, sensual rather than hedonistic.

100% Syrah, 14%.

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From 2019 To 2023

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DOMAINE JEAN-LOUIS CHAVE ST-JOSEPH 2016

DOMAINE JEANLOUIS CHAVE ST-JOSEPH 2011

This cuvée is only made in great vintages (the last was 2015) and is generally reserved for the family.

The 2000 vintage was looking fairly average until the north wind arrived, concentrating the grapes. It’s vibrant and zesty now, with a touch of fresh thyme, potpourri and sandalwood. It might be a special cuvée, but don’t expect something more powerful than their classic Hermitage – this is only medium-bodied, but it’s exceptionally elegant, full of energy and vibrancy.

At over 20 years old, this still feels youthful, with great tension and freshness. Very pretty berry fruits – ça pinote as they say in these parts, when a Syrah has something of a fine Pinot Noir about it. Though lovely now, it will be even better from 2025. 100% Syrah, 13%.

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DOMAINE JEAN-LOUIS CHAVE ST-JOSEPH 2017

Blueberry, violet and cooked blackberries, this is perfectly ready to drink now as it starts to take on notes of bonfire cinders and cigar tobacco. Still generous and rich in body, with full, ripe tannins and a sense of energy and sap.

Not a big wine, but one with good definition and precision. A great success for what’s not generally considered to be a strong vintage in the Northern Rhône. 100% Syrah, 13%.

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DOMAINE JEAN-LOUIS CHAVE ST-JOSEPH ‘CLOS FLORENTIN’ 2015

From 2022 To 2030

The inaugural vintage of this single-vineyard St-Joseph.

A 2.8ha vineyard on the edge of the village of Mauves, where Domaine JL Chave is situated. Old vines, all destemmed. It’s darker and denser in texture than the 2016, with very ripe, fulsome tannins. Aromatically it’s not yet as open as the 2016, with some herbal bitters showing through the black berry fruits, rosemary and lavender.

It has great impact but without unnecessary weight, and a spicy finish that’s a marker of the vintage.

This will take a few years to relax, but will provide enormous pleasure when it’s ready. 100% Syrah, 14%.

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DOMAINE JEAN-LOUIS CHAVE ST-JOSEPH 2015

From 2020 To 2027

The 2015 vintage was exceptional in the Northern Rhône; rich, ripe and generous. As you might expect therefore, this has masses of ripe blackberry flavour, and is markedly fuller in body than the 2016.

Rounded and juicy on the palate, it really coats the mouth with flavour and sweet tannin. It’s a little richer in alcohol than other vintages, but it still feels balanced, and finishes long. 100% Syrah, 14%.

ALL WINES AVAILABLE FROM YAPP BROTHERS – WWW.YAPP.CO.UK

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Shafer Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon T H E H I L L S I D E S E L E C T I S O N E O F C A L I F O R N I A’ S G R E A T W I N E S – A M I G H T Y, P E R F U M E D C A B E R N E T C A PA B L E O F P H E N O M E N A L AG E I N G . A DA M L E C H M E R E G O E S BAC K TO T H E B E G I N N I N G

[ THE COLLEC TION | NAPA ]

I NT R O D U C T I O N BY A DA M L E C H M E R E

When the late John Shafer was on the lookout for vineland in Napa in the early 1970s, he hit on the region that was to become the Stags Leap District AVA. ‘My goal was to find hillside,’ he said at the 25th anniversary of the AVA a few years ago.

‘Bacchus loves the hills.’

Shafer, who died earlier this year, was a titan of Napa. A wartime B-24 bomber pilot, he left his job in publishing on the east coast, loaded his young family (including his teenage son Doug, who now runs the show) into a camper van and headed west.

Together with Warren Winiarski, Joe Heitz and Dick Steltzner, Shafer was a founding father of Stags Leap District, which became an official American Viticultural Area in 1989 – a few years after the young Doug decided that ‘Reserve’ wasn’t nearly descriptive enough a name for the excellent Cabernet that was coming off their rocky hillsides. ‘[We wanted] to come up with a name that no one else used, that told the consumer something authentic about the wine and gave a sense of its pedigree and quality,’ he recalls in his memoir, A Vineyard in Napa. Hillside Select was born – and it soon became a Napa icon.

The vineyards for the wine sit under the great craggy escarpment known as the Stags Leap Palisades; in the upper reaches, car-sized boulders had to be cleared with dynamite before they could plant. The soil here is thin, alluvial volcanic, poor in nutrients; the Cabernet Sauvignon vines produce small, thick-skinned, intensely flavoured berries.

All winemakers extol the geographic peculiarities of their region, and in Stags Leap District they’re no different. They tell you that the peculiar inward curve of the Palisades helps to circulate cooler air coming up from San Pablo Bay to the

south. So, grapes are cooled by the wind but warmed by the sun, allowing acid retention but with phenolic ripeness. ‘It gives a velvety texture to the wines,’ one winemaker told me.

The finest examples of Hillside Select achieve that velvety texture after five or so years. They also have a certain sweetness of fruit that has been criticised in some quarters. To some critics, it’s just too Napa, a powerful wine loaded with sweet dark fruit – an old-fashioned style. But this part of Napa demands – and naturally gives – opulence from its wines. Of course you want freshness, but you need that exotic perfume as well, and you need body. It’s no surprise that the 2011 Hillside Select doesn’t quite work. That famously cold and wet vintage produced some fantastic wines on the valley floor, but leanness is not Doug Shafer’s style.

And Hillside Select is all the better for it. The best vintages are symphonies of power and finesse; sensuous, muscular, deeply tannic when young but always with perfumed dark fruit and pacy acidity. Wines like the 1991 – still one of my favourites – are testament to their extraordinary staying power.

With a vertical like this, it’s fascinating to see the development of the style – and, indeed, the learning curve of two young winemakers getting to know their terroir. Shafer employed Elias Fernandez as assistant winemaker straight out of college in 1984 (‘We were a pair of knuckleheads,’ he remembers fondly), and the two have worked together ever since. There are few in Napa who know their land better.

The wine is aged in new French oak barrels for 32 months, then a year in bottle.

About 2,400 cases are produced.

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Shafer Hillside Select recommendations T A S T I N G C O N D U C T E D A T S H A F E R V I N E YA R D S , N A P A , I N M A Y 2 0 1 9

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BY D O U G S H A F E R , A D A M L E C H M E R E A N D E L A I N E C H U K A N B R OW N

SHAFER VINEYARDS HILLSIDE SELECT CABERNET SAUVIGNON, STAGS LEAP DISTRICT, NAPA VALLEY 2010 From 2022 To 2030

The aromas are of blackcurrant skins, the fruit still on the bush and the hot sappy wafts coming up from the damp earth below. Great depth of flavour, the palate fresh and mineral (those mountain rocks again), with fine dense tannins and restrained violet perfume.

The year was cool and damp, and ripeness was very slow to come. There’s a feeling we’re missing a cylinder here, and that’s the acidity. It’s a lovely wine that I’d drink tonight with dinner, but I might hesitate to lay it down beyond 2030. £392 Fine + Rare

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SHAFER VINEYARDS HILLSIDE SELECT CABERNET SAUVIGNON, STAGS LEAP DISTRICT, NAPA VALLEY 2014

From 2024 To 2044

2014 was the first of three or four drought years.

Pine needles coming through here on exotic fruit, with sweet Indian spices. Small berries bring intense, tight structure.

The palate is dense, tight and full of power; the fruit dark and brooding, with some liquorice mellowing wild tannins. The whole is shot through with that wonderful violet perfume.

15.5% £312 Hedonism

SHAFER VINEYARDS HILLSIDE SELECT CABERNET SAUVIGNON, STAGS LEAP DISTRICT, NAPA VALLEY 2011

SHAFER VINEYARDS HILLSIDE SELECT CABERNET SAUVIGNON, STAGS LEAP DISTRICT, NAPA VALLEY 2013 From 2024 To 2050

If there is one wine I would remortgage my house for, the 2013 is it. The nose gives little away at first, but gradually rose-petal perfume comes through with an undertow of blackcurrant and mint. It’s dramatically young and coiled on the palate; the tannins are tight; the fruit is dark and concentrated and buried but with such potential to break through.

This is going to be delicious in five years, and by the end of the ’20s it will be hitting its stride. By the middle of the century it will be a velvet-toned, perfumed classic, still with years of fine old age ahead of it. A triumphant wine. £316 Hedonism

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From 2024 To 2044

I love these symmetrical pairings, yin and yang, frost and fire: after the rot and misery of 2011 comes possibly the best vintage of the decade. Lovely aromatics, though shy.

(But you’re not going to be opening a bottle for a decade, so why worry about the nose?) Bright and fresh, the fruit is still in the green spectrum: tobacco leaf and sap, some dark plum skin, still quite austere but with fine acidity and tannin. Everything in place for a long life. Shafer calls it a ‘powerhouse. 2007 was like this when it was young. Put this baby away.’ £316 Fine+Rare

From 2020 To 2040

The 2011 vintage still gives winemakers nightmares about galloping rot. It’s the weakest wine in this line-up, but the bar is very high.

There is sweet violet rot on the nose, some tobacco leaf and graphite. The palate is missing acidity. It lacks power in mid-palate.

True to the vintage but not a great Hillside. Brown is more positive than me, preferring its leanness to the ‘overt muscle-fat of the middle vintages in this decade’. One to ponder.

Another young and vibrant wine, with some wonderful years ahead of it. The aromatics are pure hedgerow, earth and bramble and blackberries; the palate is rich, juicy, layered with red and black fruit, complex and mouthwatering. A wine to savour and interrogate, a masterclass in Napa skill.

No longer knuckleheads in charge (cf 1985), that much is sure. Shafer: ‘A beautiful vintage. A warm, tannic year. Perfumed fragrance, a hint of black tar. Nice depth.’

£226 Hedonism

£244 Hedonism

From 2022 To 2034

SHAFER VINEYARDS HILLSIDE SELECT CABERNET SAUVIGNON, STAGS LEAP DISTRICT, NAPA VALLEY 2012

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SHAFER VINEYARDS HILLSIDE SELECT CABERNET SAUVIGNON, STAGS LEAP DISTRICT, NAPA VALLEY 2009

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SHAFER VINEYARDS HILLSIDE SELECT CABERNET SAUVIGNON, STAGS LEAP DISTRICT, NAPA VALLEY 2008 From 2022 To 2042

‘The year of fire and ice,’ as it was called. A rollercoaster vintage, with 28 days of frost in a row in March and April, then ferocious heat spikes in August. Shafer says, ‘We did okay, but Mother Nature drove the boat on this one.’

The nose is grassy, with hints of freshly washed cotton. The flavours are primary, blackcurrant with cream, grassy flavours persisting on the palate, dense and peppery. Shafer again: ‘Dust, slate and resin.’ Not nearly ready. I’d pick up a corkscrew in 2022. £208 Goedhuis & Co

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SHAFER VINEYARDS HILLSIDE SELECT CABERNET SAUVIGNON, STAGS LEAP DISTRICT, NAPA VALLEY 2007 From 2024 To 2044

Shafer considers the ‘modern era’ of Hillside started with 2004. There was a dip at 2006, and 2007 is ‘where it really kicks in’. So, settling into the 21st century with a superb vintage, cool and slow. Nose of briar and earth. Opulent ripe fruit and evident alcohol. Youth and a wonderful segue from dark fruit to tannin and back.

Wonderful, assured, classic Napa. Drink with butterflied lamb shoulder on the grill £482 Hedonism

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SHAFER VINEYARDS HILLSIDE SELECT CABERNET SAUVIGNON, STAGS LEAP DISTRICT, NAPA VALLEY 2006 From 2019 To 2030

A cool year, but ‘I’ve never seen such pretty clusters,’ says Shafer, who’s not a fan of this vintage. A really classic Cabernet nose: the first aroma is hay, then plum skin, then a rather washed palate. Hard, rather unforgiving tannins at end – very reserved and austere.

This is an outlier. Of course we want freshness, but Napa should bring perfume, and a certain lushness.

Those are the qualities that we expect from Hillside Select. Then again, terroir is weather, as well as rock and wind, so if this is what the vintage brings, then you should be true to it. £129 Fine+Rare

SHAFER VINEYARDS HILLSIDE SELECT CABERNET SAUVIGNON, STAGS LEAP DISTRICT, NAPA VALLEY 2005 From 2022 To 2030

A cool, damp vintage after the hot 2004, and it shows in the wine. Plum freshness, with hints of biscuit or toast and graphite (sun-heated rock) on the nose. The palate is bright with some sweetness (dark fruits) but reined in, the tannins young and making themselves felt from the first sip. But those tannins come with a fresh juice wash. This is closed down now. Open a bottle every year or so to see how it’s coming along £391 Hedonism

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SHAFER VINEYARDS HILLSIDE SELECT CABERNET SAUVIGNON, STAGS LEAP DISTRICT, NAPA VALLEY 2004 From 2022 To 2030

The alcohol is noticeable on the early palate. There’s a classic tarry nose, then blackcurrant coulis getting chewy as the palate works through. This has the charm of all the Hillside Selects, but the hot year (‘We couldn’t get the grapes off soon enough’) dumbs it down, and it finishes simpler than you’d expect, ‘the whole character shifting to black,’ as Shafer says, ‘with those notes of blackcurrant confection’. £336 Hedonism

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SHAFER VINEYARDS HILLSIDE SELECT CABERNET SAUVIGNON, STAGS LEAP DISTRICT, NAPA VALLEY 2003 From 2019 To 2035

Mighty flavours leap out of the glass, pure memories of the long hot summer: violet perfume, damson, cedar and Napa garrigue (richer and more exotic than the Mediterranean version). The palate is full, fresh, bright and powerful. It still carries primary dark fruit flavours; it’s meaty and savoury and, above all, quite charming.

Shafer: ‘It was hard to get fruit-set. The tannins can be astringent.’ Brown adds that the wine is ‘like a person with lots of life experience, but fun with it’. £175 selected merchants and secondary market

[ THE COLLEC TION | NAPA ]

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SHAFER VINEYARDS HILLSIDE SELECT CABERNET SAUVIGNON, STAGS LEAP DISTRICT, NAPA VALLEY 2002

SHAFER VINEYARDS HILLSIDE SELECT CABERNET SAUVIGNON, STAGS LEAP DISTRICT, NAPA VALLEY 1991

From 2019 To 2030

I can’t get to grips with this nose: sweet, juicy red berry top notes, then some Christmas fruit. It seems very evolved, an impression that is carried through on a meaty, savoury palate.

The tannins are fresh, open, fine and juicy; the palate all deep dark layers. Is it a bit hot on the finish maybe?

This was the first time they filtered less, Shafer says.

‘There’s a hint of riding the edge of ripeness.’ £300 selected merchants and secondary market

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SHAFER VINEYARDS HILLSIDE SELECT CABERNET SAUVIGNON, STAGS LEAP DISTRICT, NAPA VALLEY 2001

From 2019 To 2040

A cool and long vintage.

Fine nose with tar and potpourri, mint and very sweet, fresh black fruit aromas. This is layered and deep but pleasantly unassertive (though Brown reckons it has oomph).

The fine tannins come from small berries, which give the wine its concentration and precision. The fruit is dark, savoury and opulent. £429 Fine+Rare

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SHAFER VINEYARDS HILLSIDE SELECT CABERNET SAUVIGNON, STAGS LEAP DISTRICT, NAPA VALLEY 1998 From 2019 To 2035

The ’98 is radically different from its predecessor; the vintage was cool, late and ‘difficult’, Shafer says. Deep colour, with a fine pink rim.

The nose is restrained and shy, before classic depth reveals itself. On the palate there are classic flavours from juicy fresh blackcurrant to damson, very ripe plum and dark chocolate. It doesn’t have the power of some but it is charming with fine, sinewy tannins. Shafer again: ‘We didn’t get the big voluptuous expression.

There is plenty there, but it is all very subtle.’

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SHAFER VINEYARDS HILLSIDE SELECT CABERNET SAUVIGNON, STAGS LEAP DISTRICT, NAPA VALLEY 1997 From 2019 To 2030

A renowned vintage: the summer was temperate and conditions just about ideal. The ’97 Hillside is considered a tour de force, and it regularly scores in the very high 90s. Critics have eulogised its magisterial weight and soaring flavours.

The nose has classic leather and earth flavours; on the palate, the fruit is splendid, restrained at first then opulent damson and ripe plum, blackberry and high floral notes. Elegant, washed with cataracts of juice in the mid-palate and finishing fresh and bright. But a niggling doubt remains on second taste.

Are those tannins going to get any sweeter? To my mind, they are drying, not dry, and I wonder whether they are already on their downward trajectory. £478 Hedonism

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SHAFER VINEYARDS HILLSIDE SELECT CABERNET SAUVIGNON, STAGS LEAP DISTRICT, NAPA VALLEY 1994

From 2019 To 2035

1994 was generally cool apart from a heat spike in early August. Yields were on the low side. The nose gives off violet perfume.

Deep tannins, luscious dark fruit aromas you feel you can dive into, bright minerality and a fine juicy finish, with soft tannins.

Very youthful. Delicious. £370 Fine+Rare

From 2019 To 2027

Fresh and bright, with great gouts of tar and roses coming out of the glass.

The palate is dry now (still with a wash of juice), not lush but delicate, with mint and savoury spice and fresh ripe dark fruit. Elegant and restrained, this would grace any table tonight. Shafer: ‘This is the first year we thought we’d figured it out.

The nose is pretty; there’s nice weight in the mouth.

For the first time, we went for more ripeness, moving from green to black fruit. Up to now, we’d been received okay, but now people started clamouring for the wines.’ £326 Fine+Rare

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SHAFER VINEYARDS HILLSIDE SELECT CABERNET SAUVIGNON, STAGS LEAP DISTRICT, NAPA VALLEY 1989 From 2019 To 2025

A tough year, with a lot of rain. The nose is perfumed at first, turning meaty and violet-infused – a kind of sweet rot that isn’t unpleasant. There’s fresh green on the palate; again, not unpleasant but rather too evident for a wine this age. For all that, there’s brightness and juice, hints of lovely old washed leather, delicate tannins… Overall a lack of concentration and short length. A curiosity. £312 Hedonism

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SHAFER VINEYARDS HILLSIDE SELECT CABERNET SAUVIGNON, STAGS LEAP DISTRICT, NAPA VALLEY 1985 From 2019 To 2025

Very expressive nose, with aromas of rich damson and leather, mown grass (hay), forest floor and even mushrooms. The palate is juicy, with Shafer’s trademark sweet fruit and soft and seductive tannins. Very fresh for a 30-year-old. Shafer: ‘This was made by a couple of young knuckleheads who didn’t know shit. It’s a great vintage despite the fact our skill was all over the park.

The nose is a big surprise.’ £200 selected merchants and secondary market

£317 Roberson C LU B O E N O LO G I Q U E

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[ THE COLLECTION | AUSTRALIA ]

WO R DS N ATA S H A H U G H E S M W

Life after Grange T H E G R E AT N A M E S O F A U S T R A L I A N W I N E H AV E LO N G B E E N C OV E T E D BY C O L L E C TO R S. B U T A S N ATA S H A H U G H E S M W F I N D S, T H E N E X T W A V E O F I N V E S T M E N T- W O R T H Y B OT T L E S M E A N S T H E R E I S I N C R E A S I N G LY L I F E B E YO N D THE USUAL SUSPECTS

Many wine lovers fantasise about the cellar full of Lafite or La Tâche they might be sitting on had they been a decade younger.

But there’s no turning back the clock. Prices of prestige wines from classic regions have risen dramatically over the past couple of decades as investment on the secondary market has rocketed. With burgeoning numbers of international collectors, there’s less and less top-end wine to go around – and what is available is becoming less and less affordable.

Tempting as it is to mourn the wines we can’t have, it can pay to look beyond the security blanket of classic Old World regions. Australia is a good example: it has the bluest of blue chips (Grange, Henschke and their peers), but it is also worth digging a bit deeper.

‘We’ve got so many wines here that are undervalued in a global context,’ says Judy Sarris, editor of Australian Gourmet Traveller Wine. ‘They’re an open secret in Australia, but they don’t get as much attention as they deserve in the international market.’

Langton’s Classification lists the country’s top wines based on their track record on the auction market. It’s dominated by the classics, but it also shows up trends. One of these, says head of auctions Tamara Grischy, is a growing interest in ‘vibrant, crunchier styles of wines’, as well as more demand for wines from cooler-climate origins. She cites Tasmania as a region to look out for over the next few years, but there are others, too. Alongside big hitters like Penfold’s Grange and Henschke’s Hill of Grace, you’ll find wines that rarely make it

on to the international radar – Wendouree’s Shiraz or Mount Mary’s Quintet, for example. And there are Pinots and Chardonnays from producers like Leeuwin Estate, Bass Phillip and Giaconda sprinkled in among the Shirazes and Cabernets that dominate the Aussie fine wine scene.

Other producers to look out for include Tasmania’s Glaetzer-Dixon (run by Nick Glaetzer, brother of South Australia’s Ben, whose Amon-Ra is already a Langton’s favourite) and Tolpuddle Vineyards (a bluechip prospect from the owners of Shaw & Smith). Hot tips from Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula – the source of many a new-wave outfit – include the single-vineyard wines of both Yabby Lake and 10 Minutes by Tractor, while a list of Yarra Valley superstars in the making might well feature Giant Steps and Yarra Yering (both of whose winemakers were named Winemaker of the Year in 2016 – by Australian Gourmet Traveller Wine and James Halliday’s Wine Companion, respectively).

There’s no doubt that perceptions of exactly what constitutes an Australian fine wine are beginning to change. So, while the country’s top producers will continue to dominate the fine wine market both domestically and overseas for a few years more, looking ahead, there are new names to consider that are holding healthy prices and have the stylistic heft and enough robust acidity and tannins to be worth laying down. Great collectors buy advisedly and carefully, but they are also prepared to take calculated risks on wines they love.

Australia’s reputation is growing apace; make sure you’re in at the beginning.

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Australia’s most collectible wines F R O M G R A N G E T O H I L L O F G R A C E , A U S T R A L I A N F I N E W I N E H A S A L O N G A N D H O N O U R A B L E H I S T O R Y. H U O N H O O K E LO O K S AT T H E W I N E S T H AT A R E M O S T L I K E LY T O S H O W A R E T U R N O N I N V E S T M E N T

£5,712

£5,508 £1,812

HENSCHKE HILL OF GRACE

Current vintage 2015

Current vintage 2014

Henschke is one of Australia’s most respected wineries, family owned since its inception in 1868, with fifth generation winemaker Stephen Henschke now in charge. His wife Prue is the viticulturist, completing a rare husband-wife combination. The portfolio, base on Eden Valley vineyards, is augmented by wines from the Adelaide Hills and Barossa Valley floor. Viticulture is biodynamic. Hill of Grace is a powerful but elegant single-vineyard shiraz, first made by Stephen’s father Cyril in 1958 from vines which turned 100 that year.

It ages for at least 35 years.

Screwcapped since 2002.

Average price (case of 12) £5,712

PENFOLDS GRANGE Grange hasn’t missed a vintage since its inception in 1951, the continuity no doubt contributing to its success as a collectible.

The ability of the winemaker to blend across vineyards and regions – usually based in the Barossa Valley – enables them to make the wine each year, although quantities vary widely. The best vintages (1955, ’62, ’66, ’71 and ’83) are 50-year wines. Grange remains a collectible, though recent dramatic rises in the release price have affected its investment potential. The rarest vintages fetch worldrecord prices: a single bottle of the 1951 sold for A$80,386/£44,151 in 2018.

Average price (case of 12) £5,508

£3,840 PENFOLDS BIN 707 CABERNET SAUVIGNON Current vintage 2016

Grange might have been produced from Cabernet Sauvignon in 1951 had it been available, but there was too little quality Cab around. Bin 707 appeared in 1964 and is not made every year – there’s no 2017, for example. Like Grange, this is a South Australian regional blend, based on Block 42 of Penfolds’ venerable Kalimna vineyard in Barossa Valley.

Chinese demand for Bin 707 is exceptionally strong. Again as Grange, it holds its value at auction and is regularly quoted as one of Australia’s most collectible wines.

Average price (case of 12) £3,840

TORBRECK VINTNERS RUNRIG Current vintage 2016

Torbreck is a relatively young winery, established in 1994, the first RunRig being the 1995. Founder Dave Powell quickly built Torbreck’s fame for fullbodied Barossa Valley reds. It’s now owned by Californian Pete Kight and the chief winemaker is Ian Hongell, formerly of Peter Lehmann. Northern and western Barossa vineyards, old low-yielding vines and late harvesting are the Torbreck hallmarks. RunRig is sourced from various growers on the Western Ridge. A small percentage of Viognier is blended in before bottling. RunRig is no longer the most expensive Torbreck wine – that’s The Laird – but it has a longer pedigree and remains a solid collectible.

Average price (case of 12) £1,812

£1,380 £1,188 WENDOUREE SHIRAZ Current vintage 2016

Wendouree is a great vinous treasure, a winery established in 1895 producing six estate-grown red wines based on Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Malbec and Mataro. It is a toss of the coin which you prefer, but the straight Shiraz rates highest in Langton’s Classification of Australian Wine (based on auction performance). These are statuesque, full-bodied reds with silken tannins that age well for 40 years. Their reliability will be all the greater since bottling under screwcap began in 2009.

Average price (case of 12) £1,380

£1,368 HENSCHKE MOUNT EDELSTONE Current vintage 2015

Like Hill of Grace, this is a single-vineyard Eden Valley Shiraz, sourced from a 16-hectare planting. Also like Hill of Grace, the wine was created by Cyril Henschke, the first vintage being 1952, harvested when the vines were 40 years old. It was rare at the time to plant a new vineyard to a single grape variety, as Ronald Angas did in 1912. The vineyard was bought by the Henschkes in 1974. It ranks number two in the Henschke portfolio after Hill of Grace and possesses a similar elegant style and longevity.

Screwcapped since 2002.

Average price (case of 12) £1,368

GIACONDA ESTATE VINEYARD CHARDONNAY Current vintage 2017

Australia’s most iconic Chardonnay has been produced by the Kinzbrunner family at Beechworth, at the foothills on the Victorian Alps, since the late 1980s. The vineyard is on granite-based soils at 400m altitude, but as the seasons have warmed, the Kinzbrunners have seen fit to move their Chardonnay vines to cooler south-facing slopes. Rick Kinzbrunner has always had a global outlook, and this Chardonnay is as close to Burgundy as Australia gets, employing full malolactic and barrel fermentation in a gravity-based cellar. Under screwcap (since 2013), it will age well for a good 15 years.

Average price (case of 12) £1,188

[ THE COLLECTION | AUSTRALIA ]

£1,176

£1,020 £924

£792

£732

BROKENWOOD GRAVEYARD VINEYARD SHIRAZ

MOUNT MARY VINEYARD QUINTET

PENFOLDS ST HENRI SHIRAZ

MOSS WOOD CABERNET SAUVIGNON

LEEUWIN ESTATE ART SERIES CHARDONNAY

Current vintage 2016

Current vintage 2016

Current vintage 2016

Current vintage 2016

Dr John Middleton founded Mount Mary in 1971, and today his grandson Sam makes the wines, all estategrown. Dr Middleton was also a musician, and Quintet was his name for a blend of the five Bordeaux red varieties; Triolet was his blend of the three Bordelais whites.

Quintet relies on elegance and balance rather than brute power for its charm and longevity. It drinks well for at least 25 years.

The first commercial vintage of this was made in 1957 by Grange’s arch-critic John Davoren as a riposte to Max Schubert’s Grange. It could be said to be Grange’s alter ego: medium- to full-bodied, soft-textured and always aged in large wood, never in new or small oak. Paradoxically, it ages almost as well as Grange and has its own loyal cult following. Like Grange, it can be produced from a variety of vineyards and regions in South Australia.

Moss Wood was established

by Dr Bill Pannell and has been owned since the 1990s by winemaker Keith Mugford and his wife Clare.

The Cabernet, grown on a discrete and privileged slice of land in the prime Cabernet subregion of Wilyabrup, was the region’s first to achieve cult status.

From the very first vintage, in 1974, it showed great depth of flavour, quality and ageworthiness. It is exceptional in the region for its softness of tannin coupled with proven ability to age. Screwcapped.

The Horgan family established Leeuwin Estate in the southern half of the Margaret River region in 1974, with advice from Californian Robert Mondavi.

Planted to the locally favoured Gingin Chardonnay clone, Leeuwin’s Block 20 vineyard immediately began yielding exciting wines in an opulent, tropical-fruited style. Today’s wines are tighter, more refined and less oaked, and they appear to be even slower maturing than the early vintages, which aged superbly.

Under screwcap (since 2004), they will be even more reliable in the cellar, ageing for a good 20 years.

Current vintage 2017

This concentrated Hunter Valley Shiraz, which has gradually accumulated an outstanding record for quality and longevity, comes from struggling vines on land so poor that it was once earmarked for a cemetery. The 1983 was the first Graveyard, the winery having been founded in 1970. Iain Riggs has directed the winemaking for every Graveyard vintage, providing continuity of vision. All but the lesser vintages are still drinking well, and today it’s only bottled in the best years.

The 1986 is still superb.

Screwcapped since 2002.

Average price (case of 12) £1,176

Average price (case of 12) £1,020

£948 WYNNS COONAWARRA ESTATE JOHN RIDDOCH CABERNET SAUVIGNON Current vintage 2016

Wynns is Coonawarra’s senior winery, dating back to 1897. John Riddoch is a barrel selection, the best Cabernet of the vintage.

Always powerful, its oak and alcohol levels have been moderated since chief winemaker Sue Hodder took over in the late ’90s. A 40year lifespan is conservative.

Screwcapped since 2004.

Average price (case of 12) £948

Average price (case of 12) £924

£804 CULLEN DIANA MADELINE CABERNET MERLOT Current vintage 2017

Together with Vasse Felix and Moss Wood, Cullen was one of the first wineries in Margaret River, a region that celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2017. Cabernet Sauvignon has always been this winery’s and the region’s greatest strength. Under the skilful direction of chief winemaker Vanya Cullen, youngest daughter of the founders, the wines are better than ever today. Vanya is an ardent proponent of biodynamics, and the entire domaine is managed biodynamically.

This wine, named after her late mother, the first winemaker, ages for 30plus years. Screwcapped.

Average price (case of 12) £804

Average price (case of 12) £792

Average price (case of 12) £732

£360 GROSSET POLISH HILL RIESLING Current vintage 2018

Jeffrey Grosset has worn the crown of Australia’s Riesling king with ease. Having first worked for Lindemans, he opened his eponymous winery in the Clare Valley in 1981 and produced his first Polish Hill Riesling the same year. Sourced from slate-based soils in the Polish Hill River subregion, this is the most nervy and longest-lived of Grosset’s Rieslings. The vineyard is certified organic. Fifteen years is easy for these wines; the best should last for 20, especially those under screwcap, which has been used exclusively since 2000.

Average price (case of 12) £360

PRICE INFORMATION COURTESY OF LIV-EX.COM

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[ THE COLLECTION | WHISKY ]

Independents’ day F R O M P R O P R I E TA RY B L E N D S TO I N D E P E N D E N T B OT T L I N G S, T H E R E A R E M Y R I A D WAYS O F G E T T I N G A W H I S K Y F R O M B A R R E L T O B OT T L E . C O L I N H A M P D E N -W H I T E E X P LO R E S S O M E O P T I O N S, A N D H E ’ S J O I N E D BY LO R A H E M Y AT T H E TA ST I N G TA B L E

For Club Oenologique’s whisky collections, we have one simple rule: to taste only the best. We don’t taste whiskies by themes, nor limit ourselves only to the newly released; many, after all, can be found at auction. The whiskies need not be the oldest or rarest – they simply have to be the most compelling. In this issue, we are recommending bottles from mothballed distilleries and from distilleries that create spirit for blends, alongside other stand-alone bottlings from very wellknown houses.

These whiskies show that cost is not the only guide to quality; of those that stood out, the modestly priced Gordon & MacPhail expressions were spectacular, in particular two wonderful 50-year-olds, the Dallas Dhu and the Longmorn. Some expressions may seem expensive, but price is relative with whiskies of this quality.

The St Magdalene (now a closed distillery) was distilled in 1982 and comes in at £1,000 ($1,300); the venerable Longmorn from 1966 is £6,950. Had these drams been proprietary whiskies, they would have been at least £10,000 or more.

Not only have independent bottlings become very collectible, but they can also represent great value for drinking. They are often more affordable than proprietary bottlings, because an independent might have only one cask to choose from, whereas a distillery bottling its own spirit might have dozens (a factor that, in the popular perception, will increase quality). Gordon & MacPhail, however, has been buying casks for well over 120 years, and its expertise in selecting and maturing them is second to none. As my fellow taster Lora Hemy says, ‘I particularly like whisky bottled pre-1975, and these bottles, if they’re from

an independent, can still be affordable.’

Auctions are always good places to search them out, and while some independent bottlings can be many thousands of pounds – the Glen Grant 1948 Cask 2154, for example, is £17,500 – proprietary bottlings can be thousands more. So, choose wisely: it’s possible to find several independent expressions for the price of one proprietary bottling, which can make for a fascinating (and convivial) evening of tasting.

Aged whiskies can be rare and wondrous, but longevity doesn’t always equate to quality. There is a fine line between fabulous and overblown. It all depends on the character of the spirit and the cask in which it is placed. In this collection, there are two younger whiskies, Glen Grant 1995 and Jura 21 Time, that were aged in very active casks – that is, casks that had been used very little for whisky so still had a great deal of flavour (whether of Sherry or another wine they had been used for) to give over a short period of time. The spirit has taken the best of that flavour before it reached a very old age. Both have been bottled at the perfect moment – they might have gone over if left in the cask longer. Such precise cask selection is a skill acquired over decades; Doug McIvor at Berry Bros & Rudd and Richard Paterson at Whyte & Mackay are masters of the art.

We hope you find a style you like within this collection. If you enjoy a low level of peat, as in the Highland Park, Jura and Bunnahabhain, then there will definitely be something for you here. If peat isn’t your thing, you will enjoy both the Tomatin whiskies and Carsebridge.

But everything we recommend has perfect balance, in our estimation, so whatever your predilection, it’s worth challenging your preconceptions.

A spirited taste THAT BOUTIQUE-Y WHISKY COMPANY, GLEN GARIOCH 29 YEAR OLD BATCH 4, SCOTCH WHISKY, SINGLE MALT, SCOTLAND, HIGHLAND Glen Garioch is one of the oldest whisky distilleries in Scotland, dating back to 1797; the pronunciation ‘Gerry’, in the Doric dialect of Aberdeen, is still used.

With aromas of orchard fruits and touches of underlying smoke, this smells like an old whisky.

On the palate, the fruits, including rhubarb, become more stewed, and though still sweet, there is an earthy quality, too. 46.3% £199.95 (50cl) Master of Malt

GORDON & MACPHAIL, TOMATIN 1989 29 YEAR OLD, SCOTCH WHISKY, SINGLE MALT, SCOTLAND, SPEYSIDE

JURA, JURA TIME 21 YEAR OLD, SCOTCH WHISKY, SINGLE MALT, SCOTLAND, ISLAND THAT BOUTIQUE-Y WHISKY COMPANY, HIGHLAND PARK 26 YEAR OLD BATCH 7, SCOTCH WHISKY, SINGLE MALT, SCOTLAND, ISLAND This independent bottler creates playful labels in an informative graphicnovel style that includes humorous references in jokes and puns. The liquids are delightful, too.

This Highland Park smells of leather and is slightly dusty at first, but that is followed by intense fleshy citrus fruit. On the palate, a touch of peat brings the leather and fruit flavours together, and there are persistent smoky flavours through the dram. 50.2% £343.95 (50cl) Master of Malt

The Isle of Jura has a small population of only a few hundred people, so the distillery is very much a part of community life.

This expression, one of two 21-year-old whiskies released this year, has an attractive lactic quality, with wisps of smoke. Brittle toffee comes through on the palate. The coal-dust nose is subtle, which makes the lively and complex palate a lovely surprise. 47.2% £150 (70cl) travel retail

BERRY BROS & RUDD, GLENBURGIE 1989 29 YEAR OLD, SCOTCH WHISKY, SINGLE MALT, SCOTLAND, SPEYSIDE Glenburgie officially opened in 1829, but it is said that a distillery has been on this site since 1810. Glenburgie is the heart of Ballantine’s blend and isn’t seen often as a single malt. This is a mixture of fizzy orange and milk chocolate and is incredibly expressive on the palate. The milk chocolate turns to white chocolate, and cider pears come through on the palate – both fresh and fermented, like perry. 46% £250 (70cl) Berry Bros & Rudd

There are similarities between the two Tomatin whiskies in our selection, but the subtle differences are enough of an excuse to try both. Here, there is lots of fruit on the nose, and the palate has plenty of sherbet, making it lively and fresh with generous fruit. The fruit is like a tropical style of Sauvignon Blanc, and the finish is surprisingly long. 53.2% £250 (70cl) at auction

PERNOD RICARD, LONGMORN 23 YEAR OLD, SCOTCH WHISKY, SINGLE MALT, SCOTLAND, SPEYSIDE This Longmorn is very different from the other tasted here, the most obvious difference being that it is 30 years younger.

However, the 23 years it has spent in cask has treated the spirit well. Aromas of apple pie and Love Hearts give a lively nose. On the palate, there is cassia and other light spices, while under the spices lie sweeter flavours of Dundee cake, and the finish has lots of seasoned wood. 48% £410 (70cl) specialist retailers

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GLEANN MÓR, 40 YEAR OLD BLENDED WHISKY, SCOTCH WHISKY, BLENDED, SCOTLAND Gleann Mór is creating some great whiskies at the moment, and we had several in issue 3. This blend has notes of aged leather and oil alongside intense fruit – think dehydrated orange juice. On the palate, there are nutty flavours of walnuts and hazelnuts, along with quite a bit of oak; it’s chewy and immediately lovable. 40% £360 (70cl) at auction

GORDON & MACPHAIL, ST MAGDALENE 1982, SCOTCH WHISKY, SINGLE MALT, SCOTLAND, LOWLAND

STILNOVISTI, CARSEBRIDGE 52 YEARS OLD, SCOTCH WHISKY, SINGLE GRAIN, SCOTLAND, LOWLAND Stilnovisti means ‘artists of the new style’, as in the Italian members of the 13th-century movement of enlightenment. It is also a Polish whisky investment company now bottling some of its own casks.

This venerable 52-yearold whisky from a closed grain distillery was among its first. With typical crème brûlée aromas that transfer to the palate beautifully, it is delicate and perfectly balanced – a wonderful expression from this distillery. 43% £2,000 (70cl) at auction

Established in 1798, St Magdalene closed in 1983 and the buildings are now apartments, retaining the pagoda roofs, which are protected, as architectural features. This whisky is full-bodied and has a subtle oiliness with overlying orchard fruits, plums, orange zest and kumquats. Crystalline honey joins the fruit on the palate, and the orchard fruits are surpassed by preserved lemon and dried orange wheels. 53% £1,000 (70cl) specialist retailers

BUNNAHABHAIN, BUNNAHABHAIN 1988 30 YEAR OLD MARSALA FINISH, SCOTCH WHISKY, SINGLE MALT, SCOTLAND, ISLAY Bunnahabhain is one of the few distilleries on Islay that produces predominantly lightly and unpeated whisky. Founded in 1881, the village of Bunnahabhain was built to house the distillery workers. This special release has been created by the distillery and is sweet and expressive.

Gingerbread biscuits and fudge present on the nose, giving way to complex soft spices and a gentle sweet smoke on the palate. 47.4% £450 (70cl) at auction

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GORDON & MACPHAIL, DALLAS DHU 1969 50 YEAR OLD, SCOTCH WHISKY, SINGLE MALT, SCOTLAND, SPEYSIDE Dallas Dhu operated from 1899 to 1983; it is now a museum and well worth a visit. This whisky is a rare old expression that typifies Speyside whisky distilled in the 1960s. It starts out with strong aromas of Sherry and beef gravy, then the Sherry persists on the palate and becomes more complex, with floral notes and hints of tropical fruit. ‘Oud’ perfume coats the palate, too. Towards the end, there are violets, rose oxide and seared orange peel. 43.1% £6,950 (70cl) specialist retailers

[ THE COLLECTION | WHISKY ]

ADELPHI, MORTLACH 1993 25 YEAR OLD, SCOTCH WHISKY, SINGLE MALT, SCOTLAND, SPEYSIDE Mortlach is known as the Beast of Dufftown, and this whisky doesn’t diminish that reputation. It is vinous and meaty, with lots of dried dark fruit flavours on the nose that transfer to the palate. There are lots of Sherry notes, as well as Christmas cake and cinnamon, with touches of dried orange rind. The spirit still shows well through the wood, creating a balanced whisky with tons of flavour and integrated oak. 56.2%

THE BLENDED WHISKY COMPANY, THE HALF CENTURY BLEND BATCH 3, SCOTCH WHISKY, BLENDED, SCOTLAND Created by the Blended Whisky Company, this blend presents the aromas of an old whisky. It is complex, with subtle aromas of dusty talcum powder and perfume. Dried flowers appear on the palate at first, followed by tropical fruits and balanced with sage leaf. The whisky is delicate but has plenty of structure with a long finish. 47.3%

£234.95 (70cl) Royal Mile Whiskies

£599.95 (70cl) Master of Malt

JOHNNIE WALKER BLUE LABEL GHOST & RARE PORT ELLEN, SCOTCH WHISKY, BLENDED, SCOTLAND Johnnie Walker is the most popular blended whisky in the world, producing hundreds of millions of bottles a year.

Within those millions are occasional releases of some rare whisky; this is one of those. Port Ellen is a closed distillery; what little liquid remains is used in this blend. With lots of sandalwood, Sherry notes and a sweet background, it develops on the palate, with sweet smoke and fresh fruit coming through. 43.8%

A Speyside whisky, Glen Grant can have many different styles. In issue 3, we had a deep Sherrybomb. This is very different.

The nose is fruit-forward, with lots of fresh tropical fruits, dried apricots and mango. The palate is very zesty, and the fresh tropical flavours persist. 49.2%

£275 (70cl) travel retail

£130 (70cl) at auction

BERRY BROS & RUDD, GLEN GRANT 1995 22 YEAR OLD, SCOTCH WHISKY, SINGLE MALT, SCOTLAND, SPEYSIDE

GLENMORANGIE, GRAND VINTAGE 1991, SCOTCH WHISKY, SINGLE MALT, SCOTLAND, HIGHLAND Glenmorangie is one of the best-known single malt whiskies in the world. This 1991, however, will rarely be seen, because so little was produced. It has gentle spicing and a subtle smoke or cask char. Ginger-nut biscuits, nutmeg and oranges show a spirit that has taken wood maturation well. Glenmorangie now produces a Grand Vintage whisky, which has taken over from the 25-year-old. 43% £595 (70cl) Master of Malt

TOMATIN, 30 YEAR OLD BATCH 1, SCOTCH WHISKY, SINGLE MALT, SCOTLAND, HIGHLAND Although it is believed there has been a still at Tomatin for more than 300 years, the distillery itself was only established in 1897.

The majority of the liquid is used in blends, but since 2003 the brand has slowly been establishing itself as a single malt. This 30-year-old includes rye, peppery notes and linseed oil on the nose, plus lots of tropical mango with touches of aniseed on the palate. Oily and complex, it’s an absolute gem. 46% £294.90 (70cl) The Whisky World

BALVENIE, 26 YEAR OLD DAY OF DARK BARLEY, SCOTCH WHISKY, SINGLE MALT, SCOTLAND, SPEYSIDE

GORDON & MACPHAIL, LONGMORN 1966 53 YEAR OLD, SCOTCH WHISKY, SINGLE MALT, SCOTLAND, SPEYSIDE

Dark barley sounds ominous, but that is what is usually used in the brewing of stout. Back in 1992, mashman Brian Webster and maltman Robbie Gormley took in a delivery of dark barley, kicking off a long experiment. Luckily, that experiment worked beautifully. Expect a sweet tinned-fruits nose and a big, fruity palate with lots of texture. Floral notes hang on the end of a lively whisky, with a little oak and tannin on the finish. 47.8%

Longmorn is a Speyside distillery that opened in 1893. This whisky, bottled

by Gordon & MacPhail, is 53 years old and a deep mahogany colour. The nose is very appealing, with burnt sugars and dates dominating. This chunky-spirited whisky was able to take long ageing, and the palate is balanced and complex, with confected tropical fruit notes alongside older flavours. 46%

£625 (70cl) The Whisky Shop

PERNOD RICARD, CAPERDONICH 21 YEAR OLD, SCOTCH WHISKY, SINGLE MALT, SCOTLAND, SPEYSIDE Caperdonich is a closed distillery. Founded in 1898, it stopped producing in 1902 and didn’t start again until 1965. It shut its doors once more in 2002 and was finally demolished in 2010.

This expression has a sweet, fruity nose and is weighty on the palate. Sweet peat comes through but doesn’t smother the flavours of apricot and waxy honey. There’s a subtle powdery note and, right at the end, a hit of tropical fruit. 48% £250 (70cl) specialist retailers

£6,950 (70cl) specialist retailers

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IWSC heroes O V E R T H E N E X T F I V E P A G E S , W E H I G H L I G H T S O M E O F T H E F I N E S T, R A R E S T A N D M O S T F A S C I N A T I N G W I N E S A N D S P I R I T S TO B E J U D G E D AT T H I S Y E A R ’ S I W S C

VEUVE CLICQUOT LA GRANDE DAME 2008 La Grande Dame is the crown jewel of Veuve Clicquot and one of the most coveted prestige cuvée Champagnes. Its launch in 1972, with the 1966 vintage, marked the house’s 200th anniversary, after much cellar experimentation.

This cuvée pays tribute to the original grande dame, Mme Clicquot, who took on the company following her husband’s death in 1805 and is credited with doing much to improve the quality and international appeal of Champagne.

Modern Veuve Clicquot has long been dominated by Pinot Noir; Dominique Demarville, chef de cave since 2006, made his first Grande Dame, the 2008, with an unprecedented 92% Pinot Noir, all from grand cru vineyards in Aÿ, Ambonnay, Bouzy, Verzy and Verzenay.

Chardonnay from grand cru vines in Le-Mesnilsur-Oger makes up the other 8%. In comparison, the Grande Dame 2006 has 53% Pinot Noir and 47% Chardonnay.

Demarville, who is about to join Laurent-Perrier, said he wanted to showcase the ‘finesse and elegance’ of the Pinot grands crus in the 2008 vintage in Champagne.

IWSC judges praised La Grande Dame 2008’s ‘luminous golden hue’ and ‘controlled acidity bursting with vivacity and citrus freshness’, mixed with notes of nashi pear, pink grapefruit and stem ginger on the palate. ‘Deliciously complex, the finish is a fitting finale to a very great Champagne,’ they said.

Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame 2008 £141.95, Master of Malt

[ THE COLLECTION | IWSC HEROES ]

LAURENT-PERRIER GRAND SIÈCLE Few things symbolise Laurent-Perrier’s 20thcentury renaissance like Grand Siècle, the flagship cuvée devised by Bernard de Nonancourt in the 1950s. This blend of three vintages was conceived as a way of overriding nature’s imperfections in any single year. It’s about blending ‘the best of the best with the best’, said the late de Nonancourt, who took over management of Laurent-Perrier after the Second World War. This was a transformational time for the house, originally founded in 1812 yet in a relatively delicate condition when purchased by Marie-Louise Lanson de Nonancourt in 1939. Both of her sons fought in the Resistance in the Second World War. The eldest, Maurice, was arrested and died in a concentration camp, but his brother Bernard survived and later joined the assault on Hitler’s private hideaway in Berchtesgaden in 1945 – where he uncovered a stash of vintage Champagne. Taking charge of the house in 1949, over the next half-century, he would better define its style, in part with an early switch to temperature-controlled, stainless-steel vats.

Only 24 versions of Grand Siècle have been released since its 1959 debut. Its make-up is typically around 55% Chardonnay and 45% Pinot Noir, all from grand cru vineyards.

IWSC judges lavished praise on the ‘rich, textural and very long finish’ of the latest incarnation, a blend of 2007, 2006 and 2004 vintages. ‘Bakery scents translate in the mouth to a crunchy citrus/ biscuit/nut extravaganza, with the fine mousse accompanying and lifting each element.’

Laurent-Perrier Grand Siecle £125, Laithwaite’s

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GRAHAM’S 20-YEAR-OLD TAWNY PORT There are few wines more redolent of a certain fire-lit, armchaired luxury than a fine old Port.

Many experts regard 20-year-old Tawny as one of the most accessible but delicious of the range of Douro styles. Done well, a blend of wines with an average age of 20 years creates a Tawny still young enough to show freshness and fruit but with the maturity to deliver plenty of nutty, caramelised complexity.

Graham’s will celebrate its 200th birthday in 2020, but its beginning was more by chance than design. William and John Graham first landed in Porto to start a textiles business. However, they were seduced by the local Port wines after receiving 27 barrels as a debt payment in 1820.

Graham’s was among the first houses to begin buying its own vineyards, including Quinta dos Malvedos in 1890, which remains a bedrock of its vintage Ports. Alongside Malvedos, Graham’s largely sources grapes from four other properties: Quinta do Tua, Quinta das Lages, Quinta da Vila Velha and Quinta do Vale de Malhadas.

Wines earmarked for aged Tawny are matured in used oak barrels between 75 and 100 years old, sourced from the company’s own cooperage, in Vila Nova de Gaia.

IWSC judges lauded Graham’s 20-Year-Old Tawny as a ‘beautifully made wine’. It is ‘elegant and harmonious on the palate’, with wood spices, caramel and sultanas shining through on the finish.

Graham’s 20 Year Old Tawny Port £38.95, The Whisky Exchange

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[ THE COLLECTION | IWSC HEROES ]

COSSART GORDON SERCIAL MADEIRA 1985 Cossart Gordon’s Sercial 1985 should change opinions about Madeira – or simply confirm to aficionados that their suspicions were always correct: this is one of the world’s most underrated wines.

Founded in 1745, Cossart Gordon is one of the oldest companies on the island. The late 18th century was a good time to make Madeira, which became so popular across the Atlantic that it served as a toast at the Declaration of American Independence in 1776. Tougher times have followed, despite the top wines’ renowned ability to age and to remain more or less unchanged after the bottle is opened.

Cossart Gordon’s Sercial Madeira 1985 spent 33 years maturing in seasoned American oak casks while going through the traditional canteiro system. It was bottled in 2018, after a period of racking. Canteiro is a way of delicately encouraging oxidisation during ageing by subtly exposing the wines to heat; they begin life in-barrel on the top floor of the warehouse – the warmest part – before moving down to eventually rest on the ground floor.

Sercial is the lightest and driest of the key Madeira grape varieties and IWSC judges noted this wine’s pale gold colour. But don’t be fooled.

Judges praised the dry style and ‘rapier-like acidity’ accompanied by ‘incredibly complex flavours’, with Parma violets, praline and butterscotch on the nose. ‘This is not a wine; this is a sensational experience and a privilege to taste,’ they said.

Cossart Gordon Sercial Madeira 1985 £115, Turville Valley Wines

[ THE COLLECTION | IWSC HEROES ]

JIANGXIAOBAI PURE AND PURE 100 Baijiu is the world’s most popular spirit, accounting for 99% of all spirits drunk in China. It is thought that China’s 12,000 baijiu distilleries produce some 18bn litres per year. To put that in perspective, global wine production is just under 26bn litres.

First produced more than 4,000 years ago, baijiu is also the world’s oldest spirit. Despite some obvious modernisation, methods have changed so little in that time that a baijiu distiller from the 3rd-century BCE Qin dynasty would probably feel perfectly at home in a modern distillery.

‘White alcohol’ (baijiu’s literal translation) might have been enjoyed in China for millennia, but it’s only made headway into western cultures in the past 30 years. The main influences on style come from the types of grain used, from sorghum to rice and wheat, influenced by local water sources and most importantly the qu - the solid blocks of yeast and mould that start the fermentation. Baijiu are categorised not by alcoholic strength (they all come in at just over 50%) but by aroma: strong, light, sauce, and rice aromas.

With its edgy packaging and avant-garde label, Jiangxiaobai’s Pure range is aimed squarely at a youth audience. The more traditional Lvxi Jiangjin Shaojiu Old Pot and Lvxi Jiangjin Shaojiu Craft Baijiu, both of which won gold medals at this year’s IWSC for their complex and multilayered flavours, now sit alongside Jiangxiaobai Pure and Pure 100, whose delicate perfumed and spicy notes impressed the judges and led to silver medals.

Jiangxiaobai Pure n/a in UK; US price $27, Maiya Food INC Jiangxiaobai Pure 100 £6 (100ml), VNC International Ltd

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[ CHAMPAGNE ]

Cristal gazing T H E C R E AT I O N O F A G R E AT F I Z Z I S O N E O F T H E M O ST C O M P L E X O P E R AT I O N S I N W I N E M A K I N G .

C H R I ST E L L E G U I B E RT G O E S B E H I N D T H E S C E N E S AT C H A M PAG N E LO U I S R O E D E R E R

WO R DS

EMMANUEL A LLA IRE; MIC HA EL B OUD OT

C H R I S TE L L E G U I B E R T

Winemakers sometimes like to claim that their particular discipline – red, white, fortified, sweet – is the most difficult of all. In the case of Champagne, they have a point. A Champagne chef de cave (indeed, the maker of any traditional-method sparkling wine) first has to make the base wine from different parcels of grapes; then he or she has to blend those parcels; and then predict the wine’s character when it has undergone a second fermentation in bottle and comes with additional bubbles.

Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon, chef de cave at Louis Roederer, is a master blender, and over an exhilarating 24 hours I join him as part of a small group initiated into the complex science – or is it art? – of blending base wines for Champagne.

Not just any Champagne, mind you, but Roederer’s flagship cuvée, Cristal.

In a chilly tasting room just before Easter, we taste through 25 vins clairs from different parcels of vines across the region. Vin clair, also called base wine, is bracingly acidic and decidedly lacking in bubbles. Its rapier-sharp acidity is not for the uninitiated. Luckily, the ripe fruit harvested in the 2018 vintage means this tasting is unusually kind to our teeth. Lécaillon demonstrates how the subtle differences between vineyard parcels are drawn out, as we taste and tweak the blend. Each plot is harvested separately, and each one is vinified in its own tank. In total, there are some 410 parcels of vines spread over 240 hectares, more than half of which are organic or biodynamically farmed. Roederer is blessed with far more of its own estate fruit than most houses. Only the Brut Premier comes from bought-in fruit; every other cuvée comes from the same selection of plots year after year.

Normally, 45 plots are set aside for the production of Cristal, which was originally made for Tsar Alexander II in 1876 and has been commercially produced since 1945. The art of the blend is not about the multi-vintage manipulation of reserve wines; it’s about the interplay between these plots. Like an infinitely complicated jigsaw, every piece is meticulously fitted into place, Lécaillon and his team of six winemakers tasting 35 wines a day from December to April. The team is always the same: ‘They taste in such different ways, it allows for true balance in the creation of the wine,’ Lécaillon says. This year, 2018, is exceptional –

Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon and the tools of his trade (above); the vins clairs ready for blending (opposite)

so much so that 57 plots went into Cristal, with slightly more Chardonnay (43%) than usual.

Once the blend is finalised, it begins its long evolution until final bottling and release.

It will undergo many changes as it ferments then ferments again in bottle, before undergoing a long maturation on its lees. Today’s work will not be ready for proper assessment for at least 10 years.

Lécaillon is chiefly a scientist, exhaustively researching everything from clone DNA and yeast populations to bubbles, pressure and dosage. But science is just part of it. It’s only through understanding the chemistry and biology of their material that winemakers can add the final, unquantifiable touch. ‘We couldn’t work without statistics and analysis,’ he says.

‘But balance and harmony are a feeling.’

The ancient art of blending has always been key to the creation of great wine, whisky and brandy. From Bordeaux to Islay to Cognac, the goal is always to achieve balance and harmony between the disparate elements, to make something more than the sum of the respective parts. But nowhere is the blending of artisanship and science more apparent than in Champagne.

Watching Lécaillon at work is like watching a conductor, or a painter finessing his canvas – it’s a virtuoso performance.

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Hot chocolate SOME OF THE FINEST CACAO BEANS IN THE WORLD ARE GROWN IN VENEZUELA, AND THERE ARE FEW WHO U N D E R S T A N D T H E I R T R A N S F O R M A T I O N B E T T E R T H A N T H E L U M I N A R I E S O F T H E C O M P A G N I A D E L C I O C C O L A T O. C LU B O E N O LO G I Q U E D I P S I N TO T H E WO R L D O F C R U C H O C O L AT E

Tasting chocolate is as with wine – you know when you’ve come across a jewel. Alto Cacao Extremo 90% (above) and Majani Cremino with Cacao Maracaibo (right) are two such examples 116

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[ TA S T I N G ]

WO R DS

P H OTO G R A P H S

FOOD STYLIST

FIONA BECKETT

FAC U N D O B U S TA M A N T E

JAY N E C R OS S

We’re sitting round a table tasting chocolate in the slightly raffish surroundings of Black’s Club in London’s Soho. Even from my highly qualified colleagues there are gasps of delight. The flavours of the beans and bars, some of which even our experts have never tasted before, are simply sensational. The reason? Almost all the samples come from Venezuela, the cradle of fine cacao beans.

And in terms of provenance, there is no more authentic – or, arguably, higher quality – source of fine chocolate in the world.

‘The reputation of Venezuelan cocoa is, above all, a question of genetics,’ explains Gilberto Mora, president of the Compagnia del Cioccolato (Italian Chocolate Society).

‘This is where the great single origin beans come from. The soil is rich, and the climate favourable due to the proximity of the sea.’

He reels off names, all renowned for the quality of their cocoa. ‘Porcelana, Ocumare, Canoabo, Guasare, Cuyagua, Cepe, Choronì, Carenero… they all represent the biodiversity of a “cacaotero par excellence”.’

Criollo, the highest quality variety of cacao,

developed in the tropical Alto Orinoco area of Venezuela on the border with Brazil.

Here, in colonial times, beans were used both as a source of cocoa and, by small farmers, as a unit of currency. From there it spread throughout the country; criollo production now centres on the town of Chuao on the Caribbean coast, about 70km east of the capital, Caracas, and a series of regions strung along the coast, from Lake Maracaibo in the far west of the country to Caranero, about 600km east of there.

All the chocolates we’re tasting are processed by Italian chocolatiers who have been pioneers in the genetic selection of cacao beans and in the vanguard of the improved quality found in products on the market, says Roberto Bava, a predecessor of Mora at the head of the Chocolate Society.

It’s interesting to note the very different styles of the producers in this group. They are a diverse bunch: the old-established southern Italian Maglio (which for a long time stuck to chocolate-covered dried fruits); the newcomer, Colzani; the dynamic Venchi,

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The tasting panel (clockwise from left): Gilber to Mora (also pictured below), Fiona Beckett, Sarah Jane Evans MW and Rober to Bava. Not pictured, the fifth panel member, Adam Lechmere

Chocolate myths busted . . .

IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT THE COCOA CONTENT High percentages of cocoa don’t necessarily go hand in hand with bitterness.

It all depends on the origin of the bean and on the way the chocolate is handled – and techniques have improved immensely over the past 10 years.

MILK CHOCOLATE IS FOR WIMPS Far from it. There’s a new category of dark milk chocolate that is deeply sensual and satisfying.

Two of our favourite chocolates in the line-up were milk chocolate.

SERIOUS CHOCOLATE ONLY COMES IN BARS Not so. We all drooled over Venchi’s chocolate and hazelnut spread which is recommended to top gelato and crepes, or as a soft brioche filling.

THE FRENCH ARE THE WORLD’S BEST CHOCOLATE MAKERS

a major producer with stores around the world; the classic, old-fashioned Majani; and well-established producers of single origin chocolates such as Domori by Gianluca Franzoni.

‘The brands we are tasting here may not be the most famous, but they are the ones showing the most impressive step-up in quality over the past two years, thanks to their involvement in cacao bean selections,’ says Bava, a Piemontese winemaker and a chocolate expert of international standing.

‘We’re not interested in their history or the size of the company: what matters is cacao beans and the ability to preserve their character.’

The skill of the processor makes an immense difference. ‘As with wine, how chocolate is made is just as important as where it comes from,’ points out Sarah Jane Evans MW, founder member of the UK’s Academy of Chocolate and the author of Chocolate Unwrapped.

The chocolate is divided into flights. We taste the original bean or cocoa mass – Ocumare, Cepe, Chauo, Forastero – then the products that were made from it. It’s a real ‘bean to bar’ tasting experience.

But how to describe the flavours we are encountering? ‘Compare it with a great

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wine,’ says Bava. ‘When you taste a worldclass wine there’s a sweetness, not of sugar – that’s a kind of parallel. You recognise when you come across a jewel – a wine you would drink on your desert island.”

He goes on to explain how chocolate appreciation has changed over the years.

‘From a simple matter of colour – dark or milk – we focused, at the end of the 90s, on percentages, and then origin. Indonesia was good for milk chocolate, whereas if you wanted dark it had to be Caribbean or African.

‘Then the next step was the variety of bean – criollo, forastero – and now there’s a trend for ‘natural’ and vegan chocolate.’ Evans interjects: ‘Come on. Vegan chocolate is just chocolate without dairy,’ she exclaims. ‘So it’s any dark chocolate. It doesn’t need to have coconut milk or date syrup in it.’

The major surprise to me, at least, is that chocolate that is so high in cocoa solids could be so appealing. It’s something I’ve not generally found in the past – but then I haven’t tasted chocolate of this quality. ‘It’s no longer about percentages. They’re really not that relevant,’ adds Mora.

We are all impressed with how good the milk chocolate bars are. ‘When we had

Admittedly our two Italian panel members might be somewhat biased, but the rest of us were also impressed

by Italian skill and flair. . . . AND THE CHOCOLATE TERMS YOU NEED TO KNOW • Criollo (literally ‘of pure descent’): A high quality variety of chocolate bean.

• Cru: As with wine, a specific area of origin.

• Cacao: refers to both the tree and the fruit (bean) from which chocolate is produced.

• Conching: The process of stirring and heating the chocolate paste to produce a fine texture and purer, more intense flavour.

• Couverture: The name for the chocolate coating that ‘enrobes’ (another chocolate term) individual chocolates and bars.

[ TA S T I N G ]

The world’s greatest chocolate terroirs Cacao trees need a tropical climate to thrive: 70 per cent of the world’s cocoa comes from West Africa, although these are not the most highly-regarded plantations. The best cocoa is found in Central and South America.

VENEZUELA Venezuela was the world’s leading cocoa producer at the end of the 18th century and still has a superb reputation – its product is in many ways the essence of chocolate: deep, velvety and naturally sweet. It now only accounts for one per cent of the world’s cocoa output; in recent years it has been plagued by political instability and is not the easiest place from which to source chocolate.

ECUADOR Another great source of South American chocolate; some describe Ecuadorian chocolate as floral, others emphasise its fruitiness.

Look out for Nacional – a version of the Forastero bean.

MADAGASCAR Madagascar is a very approachable type of chocolate, dark and naturally sweet. A good place to look for 100% chocolate.

VIETNAM Vietnam is much praised for its skill in growing and handling cacao, with French producers like Marou leading the way. Bold and sometimes tannic.

PERU An up-and-coming source of high-quality chocolate which has been championed by a new Canadian craft chocolate company called Qantu. Peruvian chocolate is noted for its freshness and fruitiness, and also harnesses the Nacional variety.

Majani, the oldest chocolatier in Italy, star ted creating chocolate in the late 18th centur y

[ TA S T I N G ]

a milk chocolate judging panel the tasters used to want to escape,’ recalls Bava. ‘They would say, “I’m busy, I can’t be there.” Now we have established a super-milk category and they all want to be part of it.’ And who knew that chocolate in a pot could provide more than just a sugar rush? The Venchi spread really is the Rolls-Royce of the Nutella world and, extraordinarily, not that expensive.

That said, it was interesting how much our tastes diverged, especially over the gianduiotto chocolates that both Bava and Mora adored, but Evans and I found far too sweet. It seems chocolate preferences

are rooted in childhood. ‘When I taste cremino, I am really a kid,’ confessed Bava.

By this time we were all on a bit of a sugarinduced high, discussing where and when is the best moment to enjoy chocolate.

On a plane, said Bava promptly. ‘I always travel with chocolate,’ said Evans. ‘When I go to business meetings the first thing I do is to put a kilo of gianduiotto on the table,’ returned Bava. ‘You have no idea how the atmosphere in the room changes.’

‘Maybe in bed?’ I ventured. ‘Good chocolate surely has to be the sexiest food in the world. It is an aphrodisiac after all.’ I think we can all agree on that.

10 products to change the way you think about chocolate TASTING PANEL: Gilberto Mora, president of the Compagnia del Cioccolato Roberto Bava, winemaker and former president of the Compagnia del Cioccolato Sarah Jane Evans MW, founder member of the UK’s Academy of Chocolate and the author of Chocolate Unwrapped Fiona Beckett, Guardian wine columnist and publisher of matchingfoodandwine.com Adam Lechmere, editor of Club Oenologique The bad news is that, with the exception of Venchi, many of the chocolates we tasted are made in very small quantities – just as a winemaker might bottle a single barrel or a limited release from an outstanding vintage – and sell out quickly. To be in with a chance of getting your hands on chocolate of this quality you really need to sign up for a subscription scheme or patronise a specialist shop.

MAGLIO Maglio is a family-owned company which has been making chocolate in Maglie, in the heart of Salento, Southern Italy, since 1850, and sources only from sustainably managed plantations. It had three bars in our top 10, of which two were from Cuyagua, a plantation that dates back to the early 17th century.

Maracaibo 75% Venezuela

Venchi: Gianduiotto

DOMORI Another comparative newcomer, Domori has been making chocolate since 1993, currently in None, just outside Turin. It’s now part of the Illy group.

Cuyagua Ocumare Selection 90% (Criollo) €7 shop.cioccolatomaglio.it This bar inched out the same producer’s 100% cacao bar due to the small amount of sugar. Equally intense but with a better balance – the sugar helps transport the flavour but without a cane sugar taste.

Nacional Ecuador 70% $7.99 caputos.com

Cuyagua Ocumare Selection 55% milk €7 shop.cioccolatomaglio.it Reflecting a trend towards ‘dark milk’ bars with a higher cocoa content (the normal level is 25-26%), this was found by the panel to be pleasingly creamy and milky, almost caramelly – the chocolate of cappuccino.

Latte 47% £5.58 uk.venchi.com Sweet and indulgently caramelly – milk chocolate as a dessert.

Cano El Tigre Merida Superior 80% (Criollo) €7 shop.cioccolatomaglio.it

Suprema Hazelnut and Venezuela chocolate spread 50% £15 amazon.co.uk

Winner of the Tavoletta d’Oro 2019 award (single origins category) and recently voted the best chocolate in Italy, this had incense-like notes.

‘This would be perfect with just a little bit more roasting – another two or three degrees hotter and for another five minutes longer,’ suggested Bava.

Made of cocoa, Piedmont Hazelnuts and olive oil, this is basically a fancy incarnation of Nutella.

‘The secret is not to use a lot of oil,’ said Bava. ‘It’s the perfect survival kit when you travel.’

MAJANI

Opinions were split over the Gianduiotto, a beautifully wrapped, triangular-shaped sweet made from gianduia, a paste of cocoa, sugar and hazelnuts. Our Italian panellists adored them, but our two British ones found them cloyingly sweet in comparison with the chocolate bars. ‘Maybe if I was in Turin with an espresso and a glass of cold water, it would be just the thing,’ said Evans.

Based in Bologna where it still has a shop, Majani is the oldest firm of chocolatiers in Italy, dating back to 1796, and is famous for the invention of the Fiat Cremino, a chocolate with four layers of gianduja and almond.

Maracaibo 75% Venezuela £4.50 algeriancoffeestores.com This has notes of dried fruits, flowers and coffee. It comes from a new plantation in Maracaibo, in the northern part of Venezuela, near Colombia. Very approachable, mellow and sweet, with a lifted acidity. Really super-chocolatey.

VENCHI A large commercial producer founded in Cuneo in Piedmont, which has significantly upped its game in the past few years. It has the advantage for chocolate lovers of being more widely available than some of the other producers, with 100 stores.

Gianduiotto £13.95 (150g) harveynichols.com

The only chocolate bar from Ecuador in our line-up made from nacional, which is exclusive to the country. Genetically it’s a Forastero cacao, but it is believed to have mutated and developed a particularly pure character with what our judges identified as a typical taste of fresh banana.

Surprisingly rich for a 70% bar.

AMARO Developed by a young chocolatier, Marco Colzani, who previously trained as an oenologist, Amaro is based in Cassago Brianza, north-east of Milan.

Amaro Chuao 70% €4.50 chocolate7.com A very limited production of the most famous single origin chocolates of Venezuela, from a high part of the Chuao region.

Our Italian judges hadn’t tasted this before but were unanimous in their praise for the honey and red berry tones: ‘Incredible’, ‘Unbelievably intense’.

SLITTI A comparatively recent entrant to the chocolate world, Slitti, which is based in Tuscany, only started making chocolate in 1989, having started life as a coffee roaster.

Slitti Fondente Extra gran cacao 73% €3.50 slittishop.it A blend of chocolate from different origins, including the Dominican Republic. Very sweet, fruity, almost boozy, with hints of maraschino cherry.

Suprema Hazelnut and Venezuela chocolate spread

YEARS OF INNOVATIVE WINEMAKING. From humble origins, our bold spirit has helped us become one of the most celebrated winemakers in the world today.

NUMBERS CAN BE EXTRAORDINARY

[ TR AVE L ]

City focus

Hole food

N E W YO R K I S T H E B A G E L C A P I TA L O F T H E W O R L D , B U T I T ’ S I N A S TAT E O F F L U X A S O L D B A K E R S R E T I R E A N D FA M I LY B U S I N E S S E S C LO S E .

N O W A N E W G E N E R AT I O N O F R E V I VA L I S T S I S M A K I N G T H E C L A S S I C S N A C K R E L E VA N T A G A I N

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GA LLERY STO CK ; A LAMY

M A X FA L KOW IT Z

New York is synonymous with bagels, and those from High Street on Hudson (second from left) and Murray’s (far right) are among a dying breed

Like the corner bodega and 24-hour restaurants, the bagel is one of those New York institutions that’s easy to take for granted. Which is precisely the point: the joy of the bagel is its ordinariness – a reliable, ever-present birthright of every New Yorker. This is not to discredit the technique and labour that go into making a good one, but rather to appreciate the bagel on its own terms. Because these are strange times for the New York bagel. While it’s as ubiquitous as ever, finding a great one takes more skill than it used to.

In many ways, the bagel is a victim of its own success. The form dates back to 16th-century Poland, where Ashkenazi Jews rolled coils of malted bread dough into rings (for even cooking), boiled them in steamy vats and baked them in wood-fired ovens to sell to Jews and gentiles alike. By the 18th century, Jews escaping eastern Europe’s ghettos established a healthy bagel outpost in London, and by the 19th century the bagel arrived on

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American shores. Jewish bakers opened shops in the only part of town that would have them: the slums of New York’s Lower East Side. It was here in the tenements – among Christian immigrants from Germany, Italy and the old country – that the bagel took on new life as one of the city’s essential breads.

But the evolution of the bagel is a grim reminder that the cost of American acceptance is losing a part of where you came from. The very factors that made the bagel a success story have also contributed to its decline.

As the bagel flourished in the US, so did American Jews. Statistically, Ashkenazi American Jews today are well educated, well off and more or less assimilated into the national culture. The economic and sociological pressures that drove many into food service no longer apply, and since no one gets rich making bagels, the job of making them was relegated to a wider, more diverse population. The resulting bagels have evolved to fit the broader American palate: less robust, more sweet and so overweight that the hole often disappears. This is the case even in historic Jewish neighbourhoods, where generations of New Yorkers have grown up with diminished standards for what a bagel should be.

A bagel is not a dinner roll. It should be dense and resistant to the teeth, the result of long, careful boiling, which gelatinises surface starch molecules to curtail the bread’s expansion in the oven while browning the exterior. It should fit comfortably in your palm without eclipsing your fingers. The crust – and this is key – must blister and crackle like fried chicken skin, and the crumb should be ripe with aromas of fermentation, toffee and burnt wheat.

Fortunately, good bagels are far from dead – if you know where to look.

A few Manhattan hold-outs have become quasi-legendary, ensuring a steady stream of locals and tourists alike. Meanwhile, some of the city’s best bagels come from shops on the periphery of its outer boroughs – the neighbourhoods of Brooklyn and Queens that border Long Island suburbs with large Jewish populations. And in an invigorating turn, a new cadre of bagel evangelists, trained in decidedly non-Jewish fine dining kitchens, are breathing new life into old recipes, applying the lessons of artisan breadbaking to turn out some truly fantastic bagels.

WHERE TO FIND THE BEST BAGELS IN NEW YORK (A NON-EXHAUSTIVE LIST)…

For years, baker Melissa Weller has been on a nomadic journey to bring high-end bagels into the spotlight – first at a market stall, then at the flashy Sadelle’s, and now at High Street on Hudson, where her diminutive crackly crusted bagels play on the classic salt coating with fleur de sel and rough ground black pepper.

A department store restaurant is hardly a place you’d expect to find bagel greatness, but Mark Strausman – a New York native and the chef of Freds in Barney’s Madison Avenue flagship – makes delightfully malty renderings that sport a glossy sheen on the crust.

Takeaway orders must be placed in advance, but the planning is worth it.

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Absolute Bagels is a no-frills Upper West Side institution that regularly draws morning queues. The bagels are on the large side but not too fat, and they make excellent bases for sandwiches. Absolute is one of the few bagel shops in town where you can also enjoy a condensed milk-enriched Thai iced tea – a nod to the Thai owners who have run the shop for decades.

Arguably the best traditional bagel shop downtown, Murray’s in Chelsea steadfastly refuses to toast its bagels – an oh-so-New Yorkish way of boasting that the offerings are so fresh they don’t need toasting. Depending on the hour, this is mostly true: a warm Murray’s ‘everything bagel’ unlocks a primordial taste memory.

Skyrocketing rents have driven most credible bagel shops from hightraffic parts of the city, but deep in southeast Brooklyn near Jamaica Bay, Mill Basin Bagel Cafe continues to thrive, offering bagels with rich yeastiness and a satisfying chew.

From top: Murray Pomerantz of Murray’s Bagel Store; High Street on Hudson; Shelsky’s; classic signage; High Street on Hudson chefs Melissa Weller and Eli Kulp, and co-founder Ellen Yin

A LAMY; SAS HA MASLOV/N EW YORK TIMES /EYEVIN E; GALLERY STO CK

Jewish food evangelist Peter Shelsky, the owner of one of the city’s finest appetizing stores, doesn’t mince words about the state of the New York bagel: ‘They’ve gotten shitty everywhere,’ he told New York magazine. That is why he opened a bagel shop of his own called Shelsky’s Bagel Store. The plump rings are made with a tangy sourdough starter that accentuates their dense, chewy crumb.

…AND THE FINER DETAILS SHELSKY’S BROOKLYN BAGELS 453 Fourth Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11215 +1 718 855 8817

ABSOLUTE BAGELS 2788 Broadway, New York, NY 10025 +1 212 932 2052

HIGH STREET ON HUDSON 637 Hudson St, New York, NY 10014 +1 917 388 3944

MURRAY’S BAGELS CHELSEA 242 Eighth Ave, New York, NY 10011 +1 646 638 1335

FREDS MADISON AVENUE 660 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10065 +1 212 833 2200

MILL BASIN BAGEL CAFE 6319 Avenue N, Brooklyn, NY 11234 +1 718 531 3630

Clockwise from top: Bagels ready for cooking at Shelsky’s; marbled r ye bagels at High Street on Hudson; High Street’s barista Danil Gelivera; the Flatiron Building

[ GASTRONOMY ]

The greener

black gold I T H A D B E C O M E T H E R A R E S T O F L U X U R I E S . N O W, S A Y S E S S I A V E L L A N M W, A M O R E S U S TA I N A B L E A P P R O A C H I S B R O A D E N I N G C AV I A R ’ S R E A C H

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D E B O R A H WA S T I E

I’m in the lake district of central Finland, peering curiously into the water that is home to assorted Siberian sturgeons. Its inhabitants are of different ages and size, from tiny fingerlings to mature 7kg beasts. I’m surprised to see them sympathetically greet me by popping their heads and dorsal fins up in the air – in the hope of reward, no doubt. For the water I’m looking into isn’t that of a lake but of dozens of pools, at a farm. And yet it is not the fish themselves that are the ultimate focus of the farming, but the precious treasure they carry.

In one of the pools the splashing seems considerably stronger. Belugas, I learn.

The sheer size of the rare sturgeon breed is startling. These 2m-long monsters are teenagers still (the beluga can live for 100 years and more); they weigh up to 110kg and will grow further. (The largest ever recorded female approached whale-size, measuring 7.2m and weighing 1,571kg.) They appear almost prehistoric, which is understandable, given that many of their characteristics have remained unchanged since the earliest fossil record, 200 million years ago.

Gone, though, are the days of inexhaustible beluga from the Caspian Sea. Overfishing and habitat deterioration were responsible for the caviar crisis of the 1990s, which led to the temporary suspension of wild caviar production in Russia and strict limitations thereafter. But from the dramatic near-extinction of wild caviar arose the opportunity for a more sustainably farmed variety. Since the start of the century, sturgeon farming has offered sustainable alternatives to the mighty caviar traders of Russia and Iran. Today, the biggest players after China – which is responsible for more than a quarter of global output – are Russia, Italy and France. Production now spans all seven continents and some 50 countries, from Iran to Canada, Spain to Uruguay, and Madagascar to, yes, Finland.

On the one hand, such diversity is understandable, since sturgeon can, in theory, be farmed anywhere. But like racehorses grazing on Kentucky blue grass to develop strength in their bones, or pigs feeding on belota acorns to produce the finest Iberico ham, beluga need optimum aquatic conditions.

‘Water is the most important ingredient in caviar-making,’ says Niclas Karlsson, CEO of Carelian Caviar, the first Nordic producer of the coveted black gold. ‘It’s like speaking of terroir in wine.’ With unlimited access to clean, crisp Nordic water, Karlsson says, he is able to produce a superior caviar. ‘It comes down to purity of flavour,’ he tells me as we stroll around the 60 pools, each with its own recirculating aquaculture system to minimise water usage. (Only the 1% lost to evaporation needs to be replaced.)

Farming has brought about a whole new level of sustainability to caviar production.

Modern methods are making the delicacy at least as fine and far more consistent than most wild renderings. ‘Our farm is situated on land and under cover, which provides many benefits,’ Karlsson says. ‘We can abstain from using any antibiotics, pharmaceuticals or hormones. And by controlling temperature and lighting, we can harvest on a weekly basis for nine months of the year instead of the usual twice per year.’ The result is a fresher product, cured only with salt.

Pasteurising or treating the roe with additives such as borax ensures extra shelf life, but compromises in taste are inevitable, says Karlsson. ‘Only our Classic caviar is cured by the ancient Russian recipe [with borax], which results in caviar of stronger and more matured flavour,’ he says. And consumer tastes are changing, with the fine dining scene worldwide more mindful of local production and favouring a more modern, fresh and delicate style of caviar.

[ GASTRONOMY ]

The best of the new wave of sustainable producers…

Caviar eaten on its own or on a light blini is an ever-in-demand delicacy, but it is increasingly used as an indulgent ingredient for crowning any dish. Oysters, lobster, eggs, pasta – the opportunities are endless. With caviar’s retail price averaging more than £1,000 ($1,240) per kilogram, it is a luxury. But one does not always have to go for the extravagantly priced Almas Albino Caviar to enjoy the dish. Today, sensibly priced options exist, and sustainably produced caviar can be ordered directly from the producer to ensure perfect freshness.

MOTTRA, OSETRA MALOSSOL, LATVIA This highly sustainable producer was established in 2002 as a Latvian and Russian joint venture and offers great value for money. Malossol refers to a fresh style of caviar cured with just a light dose of salt, in this case 3%. This dark-coloured no-kill caviar from Siberian sturgeons is delicate, with elegantly melting eggs and a long, clean finish.

RRP £38 ($47), 56g, mottra-caviar.com CALVISIUS, TRADITION ROYAL, LOMBARDY, ITALY This roe of the white sturgeon comes from the cradle of Italian caviar production, Brescia in Lombardy. The large sturgeon needs 15 years to start producing, and the eggs are particularly big – more than 3mm in diameter – with a pretty, dark grey hue. Expect clean, buttery flavours and a solid texture that slowly melts in the mouth.

RRP £118 ($145), 50g, calvisius.com CARELIAN CAVIAR, NORDIC IMPERIAL, NORTH CARELIA, FINLAND This is the top product from the only Nordic caviar producer. Siberian sturgeon caviar cured with salt only, it comes with a delicate 3.5% salt content. Brownish grey colour and 2.6mm in size, these eggs boast pure, elegant aromatics; mild oceanic tones are complemented by a rich, nutty complexity and a beautifully fresh taste, with firm yet succulent texture.

RRP £162 ($200), 50g, careliancaviar.com EXMOOR CAVIAR, CORNISH SALTED, NORTH DEVON, ENGLAND The UK’s first caviar farm was founded in 2010.

Pure Cornish Sea Salt is used to cure and flavour the roe of Siberian sturgeons, which is black and medium-sized. Deep and soft nose, with gentle sea and salt undertone; this has a rich flavour with plenty of character and a soft texture with a sumptuous oiliness.

RRP £100 ($125), 50g, exmoorcaviar.com PRUNIER, PARIS, SOUTHWEST FRANCE In 1920, Emile Prunier started to race fresh caviar to Parisian restaurants within 24 hours of production. Today, a three-month shelf life can be expected for the 50g tins of its iconic Paris caviar, which comes from Siberian sturgeons. Look for a lightly salted style with brown, medium-sized grain and an elegant, subtle character that has fine, creamy length.

RRP £248 (£305), 50g, caviarhouse-prunier.de

Carelian supplies René Redzepi’s legendary Noma in Copenhagen. The English favour their own, too, with the likes of The Fat Duck in Berkshire and The Ledbury in west London choosing Exmoor Caviar from north Devon (which sources even its salt locally, drying and refining whole Cornish Sea Salt crystals in-house for flavouring).

Beluga needs almost 20 years to mature, which makes it somewhat impractical from an economic perspective. As a result, the Siberian sturgeon, which requires a mere five to eight years to start producing eggs, is the sturgeon of choice at Carelian, as well as at 40% of caviar farms worldwide. Out of the water, how the all-important eggs are procured is a sensitive subject to say the least.

Layers of fat protect them as they mature, and shortly before the female lays the roe, the fat is absorbed by the eggs. ‘That is exactly when the roe is at its best,’ says production manager Jani Rantula, who is tasked with capturing the moment with the use of ultrasound. How, though, to capture the eggs? At Carelian, the sturgeons are culled by single blows to the head. It may sound cruel to kill the animal for its roe, but both Carelian and Exmoor Caviar find it to be the most ethical way (it may result in the best taste, too, since the fish do not experience the stress of manipulated ovulation and several extractions over the course of their lifetime). Of course, you are left with mountains of sturgeon meat – not a fish traditionally eaten in most countries. But in the name of sustainability, the fish is today increasingly used in its entirety. Exmoor

Caviar’s solution is particularly creative. The meat is either sold fresh at local markets or to restaurants, or it is sent to a smokehouse partner to be hot- or cold-smoked and then sold on, while the roe sack is processed and refined into the world’s first 100% pure caviar oil. ‘The only parts of the fish that are not used are the head and tail – and believe me, we have tried,’ operations director Harry Ferguson reassures me. Nonetheless, opinions of the most ethical way of producing caviar vary, with many sustainable facilities such as Latvian Mottra using milking to produce their ‘no-kill caviar’.

Whatever the technique, largeness and firmness of roe are the qualities most desired.

And at Carelian, the caviar is not blended, so the tins are all single-fish caviar. In fact, the production time is kept to a minimum, with the caviar ending up neatly packed within 40 minutes, before putting it to rest for a month to absorb the salt before repacking into vacuum-sealed sales tins.

Thanks to farming, global caviar production has risen from 100 tonnes in the record-low years of the early 2000s, to 364 tonnes in 2017 (though this still amounts to only a tenth of what was obtained from the fisheries during the heyday of the 1980s). But with wild stocks being replenished, the black market shrinking and production becoming increasingly sustainable, the foundations are there for consumers to be seduced by the divine taste sensations, health benefits and aphrodisiac qualities of this precious roe that has maintained its magic for centuries.

From Devon to Finland, caviar is produced all over the world and is now available at price points to suit ever y pocket

… and the best places to eat the stuff The second most important factor in making the best caviar (after its provenance) is freshness. The shelf life for the lightly salted styles is a mere three to four months, and even the more heavily preserved styles should be consumed within a year – the quicker the better, so one needs to keep the stocks rotating, even in the home refrigerator. Better still, eat it fresh at one of these fine purveyors.

BELUGA 15/1 Mokhovaya Street, Bld 1, 125009 Moscow, Russia To maximise your traditional Russian caviar experience, head to this lavish caviar brasserie at the extravagant Hotel National Moscow, a stone’s throw away from Red Square. There you’ll find a choice of some 20 different caviars and several caviar-inspired dishes. belugamoscow.ru CAVIAR HOUSE & PRUNIER Frankfurt Airport Terminal 2, Frankfurt, Germany Prunier opened its London Piccadilly restaurant back in 1932, and since joining forces with Caviar House in 2004, its outlets are many. Caviar House & Prunier shops and caviar bars have a strong presence at airports, where it feels like a luxury to spend some extra time indulging. I find the Frankfurt Airport Terminal 2 outlet to be particularly passionately run. caviarhouse-prunier.co.uk PARK CHINOIS 17 Berkeley Street, Mayfair, London W1J 8EA, United Kingdom London’s classic hotels, private members’ clubs and up-market department stores tend to offer great caviar service. But for something different, treat yourself to the innovative Chinese dishes at Park Chinois in the heart of Mayfair. Here you can make the most of the extensive caviar offering for the signature Peking duck and sumptuous caviar dish, duck de chine. parkchinois.com MATBAREN BY MATHIAS DAHLGREN Södra Blasieholmshamnen 6, Stockholm, Sweden Caviar is dear to Sweden’s iconic chef Mathias Dahlgren, who uses it creatively in his dishes.

This modern bistro in the famous Grand Hôtel is renowned for its rich brioche served with 30 grams of caviar, which is tough to beat. grandhotel.se THE FRENCH LAUNDRY 6640 Washington Street, Yountville, California 94599, United States Gourmet travellers still flock to Thomas Keller’s Napa outpost, as should any caviar lover. Keller’s caviar dishes are epic, and he loves the black pearls so much that he recently ventured into the business himself, teaming up with Shaoching Bishop, former CEO of Sterling Caviar, to found Regiis Ova Caviar. thomaskeller.com/tfl

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[ R E S TA U R A N T S ]

Brief encounter

Kyoto protocol S E C O N D O N LY T O T O K YO A N D PA R I S W H E N I T C O M E S TO M I C H E L I N - STA R R E D R E STAU R A N T S

RAYMO ND PAT RI CK

I T S A N C I E N T A R C H I T E C T U R E P R E S E RV E D BY A M I R A C L E , K YOTO I S A L S O A G A ST R O N O M I C PA R A D I S E ,

WO R DS A N DY H AY L E R

The name Henry Stimson may not be known to most visitors to Kyoto, but they have reason to be thankful to the former US Secretary of War. Stimson had honeymooned in the city and intervened to remove it from the list of atomic bomb targets during the Second World War, thus ensuring it avoided the fate of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Today, the city embodies traditional Japan. The capital until 1868, Kyoto is the spiritual centre of the country. With 1,600 temples and seemingly endless ornamental gardens, it is a delight to visit, offering a vivid insight into old Japan and its culture, from the geisha district of Gion to the charming shops of the old town. And with mountains on three sides, Kyoto also offers a wealth of natural features, not least the astonishing bamboo forest at Arashiyama on the outskirts of the city.

Kyoto is the home of kaiseki cuisine, the most formal of the Japanese styles of cooking. Originally a part of the ancient tea ceremony, kaiseki is a multi­stage menu focused on seasonal produce, each course featuring different culinary techniques. Western tasting menus were inspired by kaiseki. The exact length and sequence of the meal is decided by the chef, but you will usually encounter sashimi (raw fish), a course involving a simmered dish, a soup, a flame-grilled dish and an ultra-seasonal dish. A kaiseki meal always ends with rice and pickles before a simple dessert.

Kyoto is awash with Michelin stars. There are seven three-star restaurants, 22 two-stars and 75 with one star – the highest density of Michelin stars per capita of any city in the world. The most famous is Kitcho, where you dine in a large private room with a view out over an attractive garden with a waterfall. In common with many other top kaiseki places, there’s no communal dining room at Kitcho; the point is to make you feel as if you are the sole guest. The service is so carefully choreographed that you’ll never see another diner during your visit. Another of the threestar places, Mizai, set within a lovely park, has just half a dozen diners per service, with its reservation list stretching out over a year ahead. So rich are the culinary pickings in Kyoto that Tempura Matsu, a kaiseki restaurant that for me compared well to most of the three-star restaurants in the city, does not even get a single star in the Michelin guide. Meanwhile, the chef at Nakahigashi, a two-star restaurant, pioneered foraging decades before René Redzapi made the practice famous at Noma in Copenhagen.

Although Kyoto is noted for kaiseki, you can find pretty much any style of Japanese eatery here, from tempura to sushi to ramen and beyond. An example is Honke Owariya, a 16th-generation restaurant that has been selling soba noodles for centuries and dates back to 1465. Although less cosmopolitan than Tokyo, Kyoto is also home to some excellent dining options that offer foreign cuisines, such as the French food at Embellir or the exceptional Spanish food at Aca. You can even find a curry, at the popular Mughal Indian restaurant.

Kyoto is rich in culinar y excellence and ancient tradition. Clockwise from top left: Fushimi Inari temple; a typical kaiseki meal; bamboo forest at Arashiyama; Honke Owariya; Kinkakuji temple; chef Hitoshi Ishihara at Mizai; Pontocho district, home to many traditional tea houses; noodle dish hourai soba, at Honke Owariya; a lantern in the Gion district

Kyoto’s culture, shaped over many centuries and thankfully preserved, is unique. If you’re a firsttime visitor to Japan, you should aim to spend the majority of your time here. As you wander through the gorgeous ornamental gardens or explore the Gion area in the twilight among exquisitely dressed geishas, you feel as though you have been transported to an earlier, magical time.

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[ GROWERS ]

WO R DS

P H OTO G R A P H S

H A N N A H WA L L AC E

O L I V I A A S HTO N

Flower power

For Nathan and Aaron Howard, the cultivation of cannabis has a par ticular poignancy that eclipses mere commercial ambitions

W

esley Howard was diagnosed with neurofibromatosis, an incurable genetic disorder, as a baby. When he was nine, doctors detected scoliosis, a spine-deforming symptom of the disease. At 20, Wesley had his first seizure. ‘It was random neurological mayhem,’ recalls his brother, Nathan. ‘A lot of pain, epilepsy, sleep problems.’

Though anti-seizure medications helped, they had negative side effects. Eventually, Nathan and his other brother, Aaron, came to realise that a long-stigmatised plant with which Wesley already had a lifelong relationship, might be a more stable alternative – cannabis.

The drug not only gave Wesley relief from the pain, it allowed him to eat and sleep. But this was in 2004, when the only cannabis cultivars Aaron could get his hands on – illegally – were high in a compound known as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is intoxicating. And while he loved the relief and escape afforded by the THC high, Wesley didn’t necessarily want to be intoxicated all the time.

Around 2009, Aaron began hearing about a non-intoxicating compound found in cannabis, cannabidiol (CBD). Known for its antiseizure and pain-reducing effects, CBD also mitigates the sometimes

THE AMERICAN CANNABIS BOOM G O E S FA R B E YO N D T H E VA S T R A N K S O F S T O N E R S W H O C A N F I N A L LY R O L L T H E I R J O I N T S L E G A L L Y. H A N N A H WA L L A C E LO O K S AT O N E G R O W E R FOCUSING ON TERROIR AND NUANCE I N T H E P U R S U I T O F W E E D T H AT I S N ’ T A B O U T G E T T I N G YO U H I G H

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negative effects of THC, such as anxiety and paranoia. The two are the most important naturally occurring cannabinoids found in plants of the Cannabis genus. And while they have an almost identical chemical structure, a slight difference in the arrangement of atoms is crucial: THC is intoxicating, getting you high; CBD is not, but has proven medicinal properties.

But very few cannabis cultivars that were available in 2009 contained enough CBD to be medically effective. ‘At the time, you couldn’t find people who had CBD in their lexicon,’ says Nathan, whose position was complicated by the fact that he was then chief of staff for Oregon state senator Mark Hass. During the long period when cannabis was illegal in the US, most breeders bred for one main trait: high THC. Nathan likens high-THC strains of cannabis to home-produced moonshine during Prohibition’s ban on alcohol. ‘Their main goal is intoxication,’ he says.

‘Everyone I talked to prior to the 2014 Farm Bill was like, “Weed that doesn’t get you high? One: that doesn’t exist. And two: no one is going to want that.” But the Howard brothers were determined not to listen to the naysayers. Instead, Nathan, 29, and his brother, Aaron, 33, set out to do something different: produce craft cannabis that is high in CBD with lower levels of THC than most consumers have come to expect.

Oregon has an increasing reputation for producing some of the best Pinot Noir in the world. But what few wine lovers know is that it is

I was told that weed that doesn’t get you high doesn’t exist – and that in any case, no one would want it also recognised for producing top-shelf weed. Even before the state legalised recreational cannabis in 2015, breeders and growers flocked to Oregon for its climate (both political and agricultural). In the four years since, these folks have, for the most part, emerged from the shadows of Prohibition. Right now, there are so many recreational cannabis growers in the state – 1,141 at the last count, according to the Oregon Liquor Control Commission – that the market is flooded with high-quality craft cannabis. (Cannabis is still illegal federally in the United States and interstate commerce of cannabis – even from one ‘legal’ state to another – is currently prohibited.) Taking a cue from the wine industry, many of these cannabis growers are practising organic agriculture and marketing their unique cultivars with vivid tasting notes. ‘The familiar rich, vanilla, berry nose, and puffy pistillate development have been carefully nurtured,’ reads a description of Blue Dream from an indoor grower in Portland.

But as more and more ‘cannabis naive’ people explore the plant – whether for the aches and pains of ageing, serious medical conditions, or just for the pleasure of a few hours’ intoxication – it’s clear that less THC and more CBD makes for an easier transition. For those who are accustomed to sipping a glass or two of wine in the evening, nibbling on a half-square of a CBD-dominant chocolate bar could be just the thing.

The laws governing the use of THC and CBD are complicated, and, in the case of THC-containing cannabis, vary from state to state. In the US, hemp – traditionally used to make clothing, rope, textiles and paper – has long been defined as cannabis which contains minimal THC (less than 0.3%). The 2014 Farm Bill gave universities and state agriculture departments the right to grow industrial hemp, but it wasn’t until the 2018 Agricultural Act that it was legal to cultivate hemp in all 50 states.

Hemp is legally distinct from cannabis products with over 0.3% THC, which are now legal for recreational use in 11 states, including Oregon, and are licensed for medical use in 33 states.

In Portland, you can wander into any high-end dispensary and sniff cannabis ‘flower’ (cured buds) up close, buy a gram or two, and then smoke it or cook with it. You can find cultivars in every combination of THC and CBD you can imagine. A few shops even describe the terpenes in each strain – the aromatic components present in cannabis, which affect the kind of high you have (and are likely also to have medicinal properties). You’ll find pre-rolled joints, vape pens, and tinctures; you can even find cannabis-infused edibles like artisanal chocolate bars, robot-shaped gummies, and almond butter.

In short, the cannabis industry is exploding: the worldwide market is thought to be worth $14.9 billion this year and is set to break $40 billion

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A strong family bond saw two brothers team up to grow a business and help relieve the suffering of their older brother.

(Facing page, left to right) Nathan standing amidst East Fork’s acres of organic hemp; the Howard family (l-r) Nathan, dad Ray, mum Laurel, Wesley and Aaron; happier days – Wesley rafting the Deschutes River in Eastern Oregon (Right) One of the hemp fields at East Fork, which is helping to bring back the genetic diversity of cannabis and extending its reach for medical use

[ GROWERS ]

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by 2024. And since legalisation, the CBD market is also booming.

According to the Brightfield Group, a cannabis market and consumer intelligence firm in Chicago, CBD in the US is set to be a $5 billion industry by the end of 2019 and is on track to reach $23.7 billion by 2023.

Today, Nathan and Aaron Howard are part of this scene, having founded East Fork Cultivars in southern Oregon in 2015. The farm has more high-CBD varieties than any other cannabis farm in the state. At this year’s Cultivation Classics, a craft cannabis competition held in Portland each spring, East Fork’s Blue Orchid cultivar won first place in the Sun Type 3 category. The farm’s pre-rolled joints, each imprinted with a llama icon, line the shelves at most Portland dispensaries and you’ll spot its name on everything from chocolates to bath salts. East Fork, quite simply, grows some of the best weed in the state.

Last summer, I decided to take my family on a detour when we were at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. (There was something counterintuitive about hearing my 13-year-old stepdaughter complain ‘I can’t believe you’re making me visit a cannabis farm,’ en route).

The 33-acre farm is based in the little-known Illinois River Valley, just four miles from the California border, and to say it’s remote is an understatement. To get there we drove along a dusty gravel road, passing a hippie school, a zipline park and signs for a treehouse hotel. But once you open the farm’s swinging gate, you’re rewarded by its natural beauty – old oak trees, row upon row of vigorous-looking cannabis plants, and in the distance, California’s Siskiyou Mountains.

One of the benefits of locating a cannabis farm in such a spot is the Mediterranean climate. Summer mornings here in the hamlet of Takilma are cool and progress to hot afternoons. More sun means taller, more vigorous plants. ‘A big part of the success of farmers in southern Oregon and northern California is the heat,’ says Nathan.

‘The plants just love the really hot days.’ The summers are also much longer here than in the Willamette Valley up north, meaning farmers can safely harvest cannabis plants well into October. (If you wait that long in Portland, you’re likely to have problems with powdery mildew.)

In this ideal environment, it goes without saying that East Fork’s crops are all sun-grown. (In Portland, most cannabis grows indoors under LED lights.) The Howards and their staff of 16 full-time farmers also grow 12 acres of USDA-certified organic hemp; as cannabis is not yet legal across the US, it cannot be certified organic by the USDA (the US Department of Agriculture). East Fork grows the maximum amount of cannabis that state law allows: just under one acre. They employ cover-cropping – growing vetch, crimson clover and rye, to nourish the soil – and are introducing dill, parsnips and Queen Anne’s Lace to provide a habitat for beneficial insects.

The Howards wanted to bring back the genetic diversity of cannabis that nearly became extinct during prohibition of the plant – cultivars that might deliver therapeutic benefits without the severe high of 95% of the varieties available at the time. They bought their property

(Below) In an ideal Mediterranean climate, where the plants thrive, Aaron inspects the growth prospects of East Fork’s Type III cultivars. (Bottom left) Nathan wheels a load of freshly harvested cannabis toward the dr ying rooms at East Fork, where they harvest around 10,000lb (4,500kg) by bicycle and garden car t each season. (Facing page) The Church, which East Fork says is ‘a good choice when you want to be social and motivated’

in southern Oregon’s Illinois River Valley, and searched up and down the west coast for high-CBD cultivars like ACDC, Oracle, Canna Tsu, Cannatonic and OG78. Thanks to the generosity of legendary breeders in Humboldt county, California, such as Lawrence Ringo and Kevin Jodrey – both of whom pioneered CBD genetics – as well as friends and growers in Southern Oregon, they were able to patch together their initial genetic library. East Fork Cultivars was born. Its first crop was in 2016, a year after Oregon’s Measure 91 legalised adult recreational use of cannabis throughout the state.

In a few short years, East Fork has become the leading producer of CBD-dominant cultivars in Oregon. It now has a director of education, Anna Symonds, who leads science-packed CBD classes across the state for budtenders (staff at dispensaries where cannabis is sold) and other members of the industry. East Fork even launched its own branded products: CBD drops, which can be added to any beverage to help you mellow out.

Now, thanks to the passage of the 2018 Agricultural Improvement Act, even people who live outside the state can purchase products containing the farm’s organic, CBD-rich hemp. Oregon-based Empower BodyCare’s CBD-only bath salts are powered by East Fork (and are sold all over the US); Grön Chocolates uses East Fork’s hemp for its artisanal dark chocolates (which are available across the US, and in the UK and Japan); and Laurie + MaryJane relies on it for their CBD-infused granola and CBD-infused coconut oil. All of which puts East Fork Cultivars at the forefront of one of the most extraordinary booms since the repeal of the National Prohibition Act in 1933. *** Towards the end of his life, Wesley Howard was able to find relief with ACDC and other CBD-dominant cultivars grown by his brother, Aaron. ACDC, which can have as much as 17% CBD and less than 0.3% of THC, has incredible therapeutic qualities. ‘More people swear by that plant for providing consistent relief than any other CBD-dominant plant I’m aware of,’ says Nathan.

When Wesley died in 2017, aged 33, his death only strengthened his younger brothers’ mission to grow the best CBD-dominant cultivars and supply them to the thousands of Oregonians who are in need of such medicine. With hemp now legal for medical use across the country, the pair are in position to further extend its reach – and Wesley’s legacy.

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Tasting notes Long-time cannabis users sometimes still trot out the old indica/sativa paradigm to describe the difference between cultivars. Supposedly, indica described the strains that would induce sleepiness or ‘couch-lock’, whereas sativa would cover the heady, uplifting strains. But this classification is considered too simplistic. According to long-time cannabis grower/breeder and activist Jeremy Plumb, most well-informed growers today categorise cannabis into three groups based on their chemical profile.

Type I is high in THC and has almost no CBD; Type II is high in both CBD and THC; and Type III is very high in CBD with less than 1% THC. East Fork specialises in Type II and Type III.

WESLEY’S WISH, TYPE II

BLUE SHARK, TYPE II

OREGON GUAVA, TYPE III

This is East Fork’s signature strain, named after the late Wesley Howard.

Bred from Purple Hindu Kush and Pineapple Tsu, it smells like cherry cough syrup served in an overripe orange. Its low levels of THC (4.11%) and high levels of CBD (12.4%) mean that it’s only mildly intoxicating, making it the perfect cultivar for those who are new to cannabis.

Blue Shark has a distinct floral nose and a buzzy effect. The chemical profile is almost a 2:1 ratio of CBD to THC – 10.9% CBD and 5.93% THC.

Oregon Guava is a CBD-dominant plant (with no detectable levels of THC) that is the progeny of ACDC and Sour Tsunami. It carries notes of tropical fruit, including guava, for a relaxing and mellow experience. The chemical profile is 20.7% CBD and 0.78% THC.

[ MUSIC ]

A LAMY, EYEVINE

Breaking it down

WO R DS L AU R A BA R TO N

F R O M S G T. P E P P E R T O N I G E L K E N N E D Y, THE CLASSICAL-POP CROSSOVER IS N OT H I N G N E W I N T H E M U S I C WO R L D. B U T T O D AY ’ S G E N E R AT I O N O F M U S I C I A N S A R E G O I N G A ST E P F U R T H E R BY R E F U S I N G TO R E C O G N I S E G E N R E AT A L L , A N D I N ST E A D S E E I N G W H E R E T H E M O O D TA K E S T H E M – AND THEIR AUDIENCES

Being a free musical spirit, untethered by rules, is exemplified by (clockwise from top left) Canadian singersongwriter Feist; David Lang, Julia Wolfe and Michael Gordon from the new music collective, Bang on a Can; Philip Glass (right) with musical friends; Hannah Peel; Matthew Duvall of Eighth Blackbird; and sisters Katia and Marielle Labeque

The city of Cork, in the south west of Ireland, is a small city, an island city, a place known for its port and its ‘crubeens’. The latter – boiled, battered and fried pigs’ trotters – is a maverick dish that captures the rebellious streak that has long run through Cork’s politics and culture.

It’s a vibe that is reflected in the typically free-spirited festival of music, art, dance, theatre and conversation that’s held in the city every two years. Sounds from a Safe Harbour’s latest incarnation in September ran across some 30 venues, featuring big-draw acts such as Feist and Damien Rice. Alongside them came more eclectic performances — the European premiere of Spiritual America by North Carolina composer William Brittelle, for instance, which blends dissonant electric guitars with chamber orchestra and choir; and a suite of contemporary, minimalist, loosely classical works by composers Steve Reich, Philip Glass and Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke.

The latter – presented as a work entitled Don’t Fear the Light – was performed by the Labeque Sisters, hailed by The New York Times as ‘the best piano duo in front of an audience today’, Bryce Dessner, better known as the guitarist with Grammy-winning American band The National, and David Chalmin. Dessner is, along with Mary Hickson – a gamelan-playing, Cork-born creative director who had previously rescued the city’s Opera House from the brink of financial collapse – the creative force behind the festival, which they founded in 2015. The essence of its eclectic programming is, Dessner says, ‘to see what happens when you allow musicians to interact and work and collaborate outside of a [traditional] basic restrictive idea’.

Such a philosophy captures the trend for a cross-pollination of musical genres — and most particularly the melding of classical with rock and electronica – that has exerted a quiet force over the music industry in recent years. It’s there in the flourishing of labels such as Erased Tapes, PRAH and Mercury KX, in the mainstream success of electronic-classical artists such as Nils Frahm, Ólafur Arnalds and Hannah Peel, and the popularity of BBC Radio 3’s experimental show, Late Junction, which this year held its own two-day festival in East London. Far from echoing previous rock-and-classical collisions, such as Nigel Kennedy covering Hendrix or The Doors, this is more of a musical intertwining, a story of audiences as open to a string concerto as they are to a four-piece band, and musicians who move effortlessly between rock stadium and classical composition.

Dessner’s own musical background is similarly diverse. Playing in a number of rock bands from his teens, he studied classical guitar and composition at Yale, continuing his classical work while The National took root and flourished. Ask him what he is working on at the moment (while The National tour their eighth album) and he’ll tell you about the piece he has written for the Sydney Dance Company to be played by the Australian String Quartet (it will tour the world next year); his collaboration with alt-folk artist Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and the contemporary music group, Eighth Blackbird; the imminent release of a recording of his string works by the German chamber orchestra Ensemble Resonanz; and the score he has just composed for the Netflix series The Two Popes.

Dessner and his twin brother Aaron (also a founding member of The National) grew up in Cincinnati ‘fairly oblivious to some of the issues surrounding genre or any notion of what music was popular or not, or how popular it was,’ he recalls. ‘I remember making tapes of my dad’s Beatles vinyl and my sister’s punk records and listening to classical music and John Fahey.’ He liked REM, Steve Reich, the Pixies and the Grateful Dead with equal passion. ‘We essentially approached all music with a sense of discovery and free association.’ It was shortly after he finished graduate school, in the early days of The National, that he met Reich, Glass and the Bang on a Can collective. ‘Things started to merge into the more diverse creative universe I now am part of,’ he says. He was performing and recording with Reich and Glass around the same time The National were recording Alligator and Boxer. ‘Songs like Fake Empire, for instance, show a very clear influence from them,’ he suggests.

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Audiences are taken on an intriguing journey by the boundar y-stretching performances of Thom Yorke (above left), conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen (above right), composer and musician Nils Frahm (left) and Damien Rice (below) A LA MY, EYEVIN E , BRÍD O’ D ONOVAN

Today, the old genre boundaries are increasingly irrelevant. ‘The world of composition and contemporary music, and the more popular music sphere, are not as separate as some people may imagine,’ he says.

‘In New York especially, musicians collaborate across the spectrum.’

A few years ago Dessner relocated from Brooklyn to Paris, and today his music takes him to a huge variety of places. ‘I can work with an orchestra in Prague and the next week a string quartet in Paris, and the week after Youth Chorus in Brooklyn,’ he says. ‘It’s fascinating to be able to communicate through a score on a fairly deep level quite quickly with musicians you might never have met, and collaborate with artists from different cultures and perspectives.’

Consider the career of Jonny Greenwood, who when not playing lead guitar and keyboards for Radiohead, collaborates with the London Contemporary Orchestra and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, among others, and writes acclaimed soundtracks for films such as There Will Be Blood and Phantom Thread. Or think of the solo work by multi-instrumentalist Richard Reed Parry – known first as a member of Canadian group Arcade Fire, in 2011 he released his first work for orchestra, Music For Heart and Breath. Then there is cellist Oliver Coates, the profoundly creative mind behind many of the most affecting cello parts in contemporary music. Coates graduated with the highest mark ever granted by the Royal Academy of Music. Since then he has worked with Radiohead, Massive Attack, London Contemporary Orchestra, and Sigur Rós, and on a variety of projects with the British composer Mica Levi, including her score for Under the Skin. He has been artist in residence at London’s Southbank, performed with David Lynch at this year’s Manchester International Festival, and has also released several solo recordings, including 2016’s Upstepping, for which he manipulated the sound of his cello to echo the garage music he listened to on London’s pirate radio stations in the 90s.

Like Dessner, Coates is not interested in notions of genre (he’ll namecheck The Cure, Shostakovich and Stephen King as equally important influences). ‘I look for overwhelming textures which I think will envelop people in the field of sound. At the moment I like heavy, rich sounds which are saturated and colourful. I enjoy combining sounds like cello with heavy distortion and pitch alteration effects.’

Those huge rock show sound systems Coates encountered on tour with Yorke brought a particular joy, ‘because I’m interested in the revelation of sounds which overwhelm the listener,’ he explains. ‘And the darkness of drawing people in with long cello melodies in combination with slowly evolving synth sounds or field recordings.’

This autumn sees the second album from Scottish composer Anna Meredith. A former junior fellow at the Royal College of Music, in 2008 Meredith came to wider attention when she wrote a piece called Froms for the Last Night of the Proms, and in 2016 her ecstatic and hugely innovative debut record, Varmints, was awarded Scottish Album of the Year. When we speak she has just played ‘one of the best gigs we’ve done’ in Helsinki, to a crowd of ‘very civilised 50- and 60-year-olds’ who began the evening sitting down but by the end were up and dancing. This is the essence of Meredith’s music — its irresistible cacophony, its joyous and unlikely swell of impulse and instrumentation: tuba, synths, loops, drums; a sound that works across concert halls and club venues alike.

‘I try not to adapt stuff too much,’ she says. ‘I feel through sheer bloodymindedness I know what sort of thing is going to work.’ She prefers standing gigs, because there is more of a connection between the audience and herself, up on stage bouncing about. But even at a seated gig, where people wait in reverential silence, ‘I’ll chat and make people feel comfortable,’ she says. She shudders as she recalls the pop gigs where ‘people have come out before we’ve played and told the audience “OK, we’ve got a classical performer next so you all need to be quiet…”

‘It’s people making an original thing. It’s not a band, it’s not a classical performance, it’s people looking for new ways to explore their sound whether through electronics or flute – or if you want to have an oboe in your band, who gives a shit?’ She laughs as she recalls a headline early in her career: “Composer ditches Mozart for Eminem”. It’s not as binary as that.’ She is still writing orchestral compositions and still as influenced by George Michael and the Pet Shop Boys as she ever was, and in that co-mingling of styles she feels there lies something magical.

‘Maybe it doesn’t matter anymore,’ she says. ‘Really, what is the drama?

I worry about a lot of things, but I’m not worried about whether the music I write is appropriate to the genre. Who cares?’

[ MUSIC ]

Genre-defying musical capitals Reykjavik “is always a place where surprising things happen” says Bryce Dessner. “There are so many unbelievably talented people working together.”

Among them: Composers Daníel Bjarnason and Anna Thorvaldsdottir, the visual artist Ragnar Kjartansson, Jonsi and Kjartan from Sigur Rós, and sisters Gyda and Kristín Valtýsdóttir. Beloved by Anna Meredith, Helsinki is also a musical destination for Dessner for events like the Flow Festival, Musica Nova, which is run by [German conductor] André de Ridder, and The Helsinki Festival.

“Artists like the violinist Pekka Kuusito and the composer/ conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen are completely on their own in their approach to programming and performing.”

On a larger, institutional level, Paris is also enjoying a new burst of musical innovation. “Venues like the Philharmonie de Paris are very much part of a cultural renaissance where all kinds of exciting new collaborations are happening,” Dessner says. Meanwhile, for Oliver Coates, one of the most exciting music destinations is Hong Kong where he recently played an outdoor show “with a Butoh dancer, cello and digital piano samples”.

Drawing the crowds to music that challenges preconceptions are Ólafur Arnalds (above left) and performers from this year ’s Sounds from a Safe Harbour festival: the Voiceworks choir (above right) and The Dream House Quar tet (right), who premiered Don’t Fear The Light

Drink aware.

academieduvinlibrary.com

[ COLUMN ]

Blessed are the cheesemakers WO R DS

I L LU S TR ATI O N

ZO E W I L L I A M S

RODERICK MILLS

On an industrial estate in North London, Keith Sides and Philip Wilton are demonstrating the intricacies of artisan cheesemaking. Here, throughout the week, the founders of Wildes cultivate their own versions of classic cheeses, before, on a Friday, they have the pleasure of teaching philistines such as me how it’s done.

We start, for inspiration, by tasting them. First up, a Napier: modelled on the Northern hard cheeses, Wens­ leydale and Lancashire, it’s tangy, lactic, disarmingly delicate. Then, the exquisite and versatile London Blue, which can be eaten when soft, semi-hard or hard. And finally, the Londonshire, a glorious soft cheese in the style of a Saint-Félicien or Marcellin, which knocks my socks off.

Keith bats aside my wild admiration.

“As a cheesemaker, the prize is in hard cheese, because that’s what takes the time, the imagination. With soft cheese, sometimes I’m taking the money for it before I’ve paid for the milk.”

Ah yes, milk. People often think the connoisseur’s choice is unpas­ teurised, but that’s not quite right.

Pasteurisation is the process of taking the milk over 72˚C for at least 15 seconds (and no more than 25), which doesn’t change the structure but does the useful job of eradicating the bits

that kill you. The real problem is overpasteurisation, which changes the molecular structure and is really an act of vandalism (though even that isn’t as bad as homogenisation).

We are given three buckets, one for each cheese, the milk now at 32 degrees. The contents will start to become cheeses when a culture is introduced. Rule one, says Keith: you’re not a cheesemaker. “You’re producing a lovely home for bacteria. You’re like god. You’ve created Barbados for bacteria,” he adds, as Philip rolls his eyes.

It strikes me that all the skill of cheesemaking is in developing the cultures to produce your perfect cheese. The gentlemen of Wildes have already done that, so essentially all we have to do is introduce the scantest amount to the milk, then stand back for a bit to marvel at the incredible process. Though not quite all – we need to add rennet, which is a collection of enzymes produced in the stomachs of ruminants (you can get a vegetarian version, which is better, as the process of harvesting it from animals makes everyone sad).

It takes an hour or so for the mixture to solidify, separating into curds and whey. We’re left with a bucket full of a solid which is kind of silken tofu in consistency: it holds together, but

T H E A N C I E N T C R A F T O F C H E E S E M A K I N G I S A LOT M O R E C O M P L E X – A N D E V E N T R A N S C E N D E N TA L – T H A N I T S E E M S. Z O E W I L L I A M S F I N D S H E R W H E Y

it’s wobbly. We slice this mixture into inch-wide segments, with a knife, before making a kind of cat’s cradle with our hands and swirling our buckets, once every 15 minutes or so, four or five times. It is a very odd sensation, halfway between satisfying and disgusting.

Provided you have a modern cheese­ cloth, made of blue plastic – far less aesthetic than a traditional one, but a thousand times better – it’s the work of five minutes to squeeze out the whey, and squish the cheese into a mould. There is nothing remotely complex or technical about this part of the process, but it is profoundly pleasing, in a timeless, wholesome sort of way.

The ageing, meanwhile, is much more delicate: two days in the open, during which the London Blue starts to grow furry and look a bit like something out of Where the Wild Things Are, while the Napier starts to settle and harden, and the Londonshire shrinks unbelievably into the shape of a plausible real soft cheese. Thereafter, into the fridge, for two weeks, or seven, according to your very own judgment.

Look after the humidity – which for practical purposes means spraying it with water – until the time is ripe.

How to judge this? Well, the only way to stop a cheese maturing is to eat it.

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[ BACK PAGE ]

W H E N B E R T S T E R N N E E D E D T O P E R S U A D E M A R I LY N M O N R O E T O S I T F O R H I M , H E W O O E D H E R W I T H H E R FAV O U R I T E F I Z Z . I T W O R K E D , A N D T H E R E S U LT WA S A P H O T O S H O O T O F A L M O S T U N B E A R A B L E P O I G N A N CY

In 1962, Bert Stern, along with Richard Avedon and Irving Penn, was among the world’s most celebrated photographers. His images of Hollywood titans Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn and Marlon Brando defined the glamour of the era.

But the one star he had yet to shoot was arguably the biggest of them all – Marilyn Monroe. When he received the cherished assignment from Vogue, his plan was simple. He booked a suite at the Bel-Air Hotel in Beverly Hills, where he would woo the actress with 1953 Dom Pérignon and

persuade her to take her clothes off.

Stern had done his homework, and his choice of Champagne was no coincidence – the details of a receipt from June 1962 for a case of the prestige cuvée under her name and address (see above) suggests Monroe was a regular patron of the house.

Sure enough, the plan worked. Stern arrived early, bonded with the star’s stylist, and when Monroe turned up alone, several hours later, the pair hit it off over several glasses of fizz before Stern persuaded her to pose – with the stylist’s approval – wearing only

G U Y WO O DWA R D

the flimsiest of silk scarves. The subsequent shots are disarming in their candour, intimacy and total ease.

Vogue liked them so much it asked Stern to return for a second shoot a fortnight later, for which he upped his game, turning up this time with some Château Lafite as well as the failsafe Dom Pérignon.

Six weeks later, as Vogue was preparing to send the photographs to press, the actress was found dead. The pictures appeared in the magazine’s September 1962 issue, under the heading ‘The Last Sitting’.

BERT STERN /AL AMY IMAGES; B ON HAMS

The last sitting

WO R DS

SEEN BY JOAQUIN LAGUINGE

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