Reflections for issuu

Reflections through a wine glass Some contemporary issues explored

Bob Campbell MW

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Reflections through a wine glass Some contemporary issues explored

Bob Campbell MW

This Monograph – the fifteenth in the series – is published in 2014 by The International Wine & Food Society Ltd, under the chairmanship of Yvonne Wallis, and The International Wine & Food Foundation of America, a Californian non-profit public benefit corporation.

Text and images © Bob Campbell MW, 2014

The International Wine & Food Society Ltd 4 St James's Square, London SW1Y 4JU, UK www.iwfs.org +44(0)20 7827 5732

Edited by Susanna Forbes Designed by Jayne Clementson Printed by The Ludo Press Ltd, 18 Wimbledon Stadium Business Centre, Riverside Road, London SW17 0BA, UK

Contents

Introduction

2

A sense of place

5

When blends are best

11

The screwcap revolution

19

The merits of matching

27

The delicacy of old age

35

Hedonists and hoarders

41

The X-factor

47

Scaling the heights

53

Bibliography

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REFLECTIONS THROUGH A WINE GLASS

Introduction When approached by The International Wine & Food Society to write this monograph on contemporary wine issues I accepted the project with enthusiasm. The opportunity to write about issues important to me and of interest to IWFS membership seemed rather indulgent.

I spend a good part of my I would dream up a topic life with my nose in a wine before going to sleep on Friday night and awake the next glass searching for quality morning with the essay neatly – or the lack of it written in my head. All I had to do then was transfer my mental images into words on paper. I’ve always written that way.

I devoted a row of Saturdays to completing eight chapters. My very understanding wife, Marion, generously agreed to suspend gardening duties for the duration.

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The journey ahead I spend a good part of my life with my nose in a wine glass searching for quality – or the lack of it. I’m fascinated by the often elusive imprint of vineyard character that sometimes emerges as a common thread when I taste several vintages of wine from the same vineyard. My first chapter, A Sense of Place, was the logical starting point.

Wine myths that need to be debunked include the popular belief that wine made from a single grape variety, vintage or vineyard are invariably the best. Blending is a valuable

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INTRODUCTION

winemaking tool that has been used to produce some of the world’s truly great wines for centuries. That was the inspiration for our next stop, When Blends Are Best.

Screwcaps aroused enormous passion, both for and against, when they were first trialled in New Zealand in 2001. I recall being physically assaulted by a winemaker after daring to suggest that he conduct a cork vs screwcap trial before making up his mind about the new closure. Closures no longer arouse passion in New Zealand and Australia. As detailed in The Screwcap Revolution, winemakers understand the options and choose the closure that best suits their wine and their market. Experience has brought closure to closures – at least in this part of the world.

Food and wine matching is something most of us do on a regular, if not a daily, basis. Experiencing the interaction of food and wine has been one of the more fascinating aspects of my vinous journey. I enjoy cooking which makes the partnership even more interesting. In The Merits of Matching, we see how creating a special match is like playing a great golf shot – both inspire a feeling of pride tempered by the knowledge that there was a little bit of luck involved.

I am in the very fortunate position to occasionally taste great wines from wonderful vintages. When opening a special bottle I feel a terrific responsibility to show the wine at its best. Choice of glasses, serving temperature and decanting collectively make a big difference to old bottles as well as more youthful wines. As we see in The Delicacy of Old Age, thoughtful wine service is all about the pursuit of pleasure.

Don’t do as I do, do as I say. For nearly 30 years I have lectured to students about the perils of keeping wine past their “Best By” date. A recent house move forced me to carefully

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evaluate my 2000-plus bottle cellar. Many bottles were given to grateful friends and family. I have made a vow to follow my own advice in Hedonists and Hoarders by not being a cellar Scrooge in future.

An estimated fifth of my working hours are spent tasting wine at wine competitions or in my own tasting room. I have enormous respect for the wine judging process but also understand some of its frailties. It’s not a perfect system but it’s the best we’ve got.

The X-factor will, I hope, provide a little insight into the subjective process involved in evaluating wine quality.

Becoming a Master of Wine was one of the high points of my life. The experience of studying for the qualification was enormously fulfilling while the benefits of belonging to the Institute of Masters of Wine are impossible to measure. I hope that my comments in Scaling the Heights, the closing chapter of this monograph, will inspire others to set their sights on this challenging qualification and enjoy a life in wine.

For all, I hope you found this thought-provoking and entertaining, just like a glass of good wine. You are welcome to engage with me via my Twitter account, @VinoNZ, and to make the most of the IWFS organisation – do join up if you haven’t already done so. We’d love to see you.

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A SENSE OF PLACE

A sense of place The notion of terroir may have been bequeathed to the world by the French, but these days it is the Australians who are finding out exactly what it means Technology has elevated the general quality of golf clubs and wine to a point where truly bad examples are increasingly hard to find.

A decade or two ago my tasting notes were peppered with the notation “DNPIM”, short for “do not put in mouth”. The aroma, and sometimes the colour, carried such a dire warning of foulness Great wine has an almost that I needed to go no further. magical X-factor that is I rarely write DNPIM today. impossible to define I’ve just checked my tastings database to discover that the last although the smile on your time I did so was five months face is always a clear ago. Two wines from the same indication of its presence winery were unceremoniously dumped without having been tasted. I even phoned the winery owner to let her know that two of her wines were faulty in the extreme. She told me that, after she’d noticed her winemaker behaving irrationally, she’d discovered that he was addicted to methamphetamine. “We’ve got a new winemaker now and the wines are much better,” she advised cheerfully.

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The roots of individualism A great wine should be free of obvious faults. It should also possess intensity, power, complexity, harmony, good length of

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flavour and a texture appropriate to its style. While it is possible to quantify those qualities, I believe that great wine has an almost magical X-factor that is impossible to define although the smile on your face is always a clear indication of its presence.

I also believe that great wine should reveal a sense of place.

The French describe it as terroir, although I like the term used by natives of New Guinea – “arse place”. It’s an almost indefinable character that links a wine to the vineyard, region or even country Terroir is the imprint left by from which it came.

I recently tasted a Cabernet climate, aspect, soil and Sauvignon from Vietnam that even human involvement had an extremely strong sense of terroir. It boasted an alcohol level of just 8.5 per cent and flavours that resembled stewed grass. The vineyard apparently produced two crops a year, although the viticulturist admitted that the quality was not high. The wine’s distinguishing feature was its unmistakable sense of place, even though it qualified for a DNPIM rating.

When most wine lovers talk about terroir, they mean it in a positive sense. For example, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche 1985 is not only an outstanding wine with all of the quality attributes mentioned above, it also has a character that is uniquely La Tâche. An astute wine taster should, in theory at least, be able to distinguish DRC La Tâche from a wine bearing the label of the neighbouring premier cru vineyard, La Chaume.

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Subtle distinctions In practice the identification of vineyard character is rather more difficult than it sounds. I recall a tasting where several experienced

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wine tasters confidently predicted that they could easily distinguish between wines from Nuits-St-George and neighbouring Vosne-Romanée. The tasting included three samples from each commune. No one scored even a 50 per cent success rate. The fact that terroir may be difficult to identify doesn’t invalidate its worth. Quite the reverse.

Does the absence of terroir detract from a wine’s intrinsic worth? Penfolds Grange is widely regarded as Australia’s greatest wine. It is certainly one of that country’s most expensive wines.

Penfolds has access to a large number of high quality vineyards in South Australia. They choose the very best components in each vintage to produce a wine which, in the view of their winemakers, is as good as it gets. If Penfolds gradually began to favour one superior vineyard until the wine was eventually the product of only that vineyard, I would suggest that Grange would, in time, gain value by being able to exhibit the character of that single

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vineyard. Such a move would naturally spark heated debate about whether the quality of the old, blended Grange was superior to the new single vineyard Grange. That scenario is unlikely to happen because I doubt that a single high-quality Shiraz vineyard could satisfy the present scale of Grange production.

I recall visiting a winery in the southern French wine region of Fitou. As I inspected the vineyards, small plots of vines perched on scrub-covered hillsides, the proprietor plucked a handful of leaves from the stunted bushes around the vines. We returned to the winery for a tasting. She asked me to describe the wine in my glass. I was happy to oblige but struggled to identify an aromatic

THREE OF THE BEST Wines tasted in the last year that scream ‘terroir’ the most • Bell Hill, Chardonnay 2011, North Canterbury, NZ from a tiny vineyard on an abandoned chalk quarry. Absolutely unique and very special • Craggy Range, Aroha Pinot Noir 2010, Martinborough, NZ a high iron content in this stony vineyard gives the wine a tautness and energy that I readily identify • Felton Road, Block 1 Riesling 2013, Central Otago, NZ wonderful Riesling that defies the experts by tasting dramatically less sweet than it actually is and slightly floral character. “Perhaps it smells like this?”, she said, presenting me with a handful of herbs with an identical aroma to the subtle character I was trying to describe. I asked what the herbs were. “Garrigue”, I was told. A French word used to describe the Mediterranean scrubland made up of lowgrowing, bushy plants, including holm oak, broom, and wild

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A SENSE OF PLACE

herbs such as rosemary and thyme. The aroma of wild herbs makes an important contribution to regional terroir in Fitou.

So what causes terroir?

Australian research has helped to explain how the scent of plants can be found in wine. A June 2012 study by the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) of various Australian vineyards The fact that terroir may be examined the source of a minty, eucalypt character often found difficult to identify doesn’t in wine made from grapes invalidate its worth. Quite grown near eucalyptus trees. the reverse The AWRI found small levels of eucalypt character in grapes grown 25-50 metres from eucalyptus trees and substantially higher levels in grapes grown closer to the trees. The flavouring compound from the trees is found in high levels on the skins of the grapes and is extracted when fermentation takes place on the skins. Red wines are traditionally fermented on grape skins while white wines are not, which explains why the latter are relatively unaffected by this eucalypt character (Capone et al, 2012).

According to the study, mechanically harvested grapes are more likely to have eucalypt characters than hand-harvested grapes, because eucalyptus leaves can find their way into the picking bin when it’s a machine doing the honours. The AWRI recommended avoiding leaf contamination as far as possible, and fermenting grapes grown close to eucalyptus trees separately as a way of reducing the eucalypt character in wine.

While some wine drinkers appreciate the minty/eucalypt character occasionally found in Australian red wine, not all do.Yet

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eucalyptus trees give many Australian wines a national and sometimes a vineyard accent. There have been cases where the character of a wine changes significantly after eucalyptus trees are removed from the vineyard perimeter.

The Kiwi connection Central Otago, New Zealand and the world’s most southerly wine growing region, makes Pinot Noir with its own distinct regional signature thanks, it turns out, to gold miners’ efforts to spice up their diet more than 150 years ago. On 8 June 1861 a Central Otago newspaper reported that gold had been discovered by an Australian prospector. By Christmas, 14,000 prospectors had travelled to Central Otago in the hope of making a fortune. Many came from the depleted goldfields in Victoria, Australia.

The staple diet of the miners was damper; a mix of flour, salt and water fashioned into a flat pancake that could be cooked over an open fire. To add a little extra flavour, the miners planted the herb thyme. This woody, hardy bush soon covered the hills, filling the air with its rich scent when it flowered in October and November.

Less than a decade later the goldfields were seriously depleted but the miners’ legacy lives on. The subtle character of thyme adds complexity and a strong sense of place to the region’s red.

Great wine needs quality and character. It needs to have a strong personality that is uniquely its own. In short, it needs to have terroir.

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WHEN BLENDS ARE BEST

When blends are best With centuries of evidence in the cellars of bordeaux, champagne and the douro illustrating the merits of mixing, it’s time that the art of blending got the respect it deserves Is a blended wine inferior to a non-blended wine? Most people seem to think so, despite the fact that almost all wine is at least a blend of different batches and barrels even if it is made from a single vintage or variety. The purpose of every, well… nearly every, blend is to produce a wine that is better than any of its parts. Why then is the term “blend” more likely to reduce, rather than add, to our perceived value of wine?

Perhaps the word “blend” carries a suggestion of adulteration?

Wine has been “stretched” by adding inferior, or at least cheaper, wines for a very long time. In the 1st century AD, Pliny the Elder complained that “not even our nobility ever enjoys wines that are genuine”. In the 18th century it was common for the red wines of Bordeaux and Burgundy to be “beefed up” with fuller-bodied reds from the Rhône or from Spain. Even today, exalted labels from highly rated vintages are fetching such high prices that they have become targets for forgers.

The art of imitation I visited a wealthy winery owner in China recently and was escorted into a private room where his collection of first growth bordeaux had been laid out on a large table for me to examine.

“Which are genuine?” he asked me. I’m no expert in the identification of fake wines but I managed to divide his collection

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into “probably genuine”, “not sure” and “probably fake” (the largest group, as it turned out). In China there are different grades of both fake watches and wines. A good fake Rolex, for example,

THREE OF THE BEST Wines made from grape blends • Château Haut-Brion, Bordeaux, France my favourite Bordeaux red • Château d’Yquem, Bordeaux, France the greatest sweet wine in the world • Champagne Bollinger RD, France a masterful blend of grape varieties, vintages and vineyards can be hard to tell from the real thing and might keep perfect time for many years while a poor fake Rolex looks dodgy and stops as soon as the vendor has disappeared into the crowd.

A badly forged bottle of Château Lafite-Rothschild bears such little resemblance to the genuine article that it’s almost worth buying to use as a paperweight and conversation piece. A cleverly forged bottle of Château Lafite will probably contain a pretty decent bordeaux red and may even be blended with a small amount of Lafite. I’m sure that many fake bottles have been savoured and enjoyed by people who believe they got their money’s worth.

The regulation of blends Many wines that we believe are made from a single grape variety may in fact legally be a blend of varieties. In most countries it is perfectly legal to add a small amount, usually up to 15 per cent, of a second grape variety without declaring it on the label. In the EU, for example, if a wine is labelled as Riesling it is required to

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WHEN BLENDS ARE BEST

contain only 85 per cent Riesling although Alsace Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) regulations are more stringent, demanding 100 per cent Riesling. The general EU rule implies that if a wine is at least 85 per cent of one particular grape, this variety will dominate any minor blend of other variety(ies). This rule accommodates, some might even say “encourages”, the judicial use of blending a The addition of ten per cent small amount of wine for Gewürztraminer can practical purposes and possibly to improve the significantly enhance the quality of the end wine. For fruit flavour in Pinot Gris example, the addition of ten without necessarily per cent Gewürztraminer can significantly enhance the fruit undermining the latter’s flavour in Pinot Gris without varietal character necessarily undermining the latter’s varietal character.

Perhaps the best known and most respected blended wines are port and non-vintage champagne. Tawny port is an interesting example of how blending can provide a quality bonus. If you add equal parts of a one-year-old tawny port and a nine-year-old tawny port you would expect it to taste like its average – a five year-old tawny port. However the older portion has a more dominant influence and the wine is likely to taste more like a sixor even seven-year-old tawny. In this type of situation, the judicious blender gets something for nothing.

The same principle applies to the small amount of aged wine that is typically blended into non-vintage champagne – it has more influence on the final wine because it tends to be more

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flavoursome and characterful. The blending process for champagne is an interesting one. A small winery might, for example, have ten tanks of wine available for blending into its non-vintage wine. First the winemaker prepares a sample of wine that is equivalent to all of the wines blended together. Then a second sample which is all the wines without tank one, a third with all the wines without tank two, and so on until 11 blended wine samples are lined up along the tasting bench. Now the winemaker can see what influence each component has on the master blend. He or she can then prepare a blend conforming to their house style. Blending gives non-vintage champagne consistency despite vintage variation in the cool and often variable climate of the vineyards.

It is worth noting that both champagne and port are normally a blend of several grape varieties and often a blend of many different vineyards. However, it is also worth noting that vintage champagne and vintage port, both wines from a single year, tend to command a significant premium price over their non-vintage equivalents. Vintage port and vintage champagne are only produced in top years although the more cynical might suggest that market demand plays a part in the decision of whether to declare a vintage in any given year.

Bordeaux wine producers would certainly dispute any notion that wines of a single grape variety are superior to their blended counterparts. Indeed, Bordeaux must surely be the world’s blending capital (if you exclude Champagne and the Douro). Red bordeaux is typically a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and/or Petit Verdot, with the first three capturing the bulk of the mixture, and all five occasionally making a group appearance.

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WHEN BLENDS ARE BEST

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When I was first introduced to Bordeaux red I was told that the combination of varieties added complexity to the finished wine. That made perfect sense.

The art of the blender I’m sure if we could deconstruct a good Bordeaux we’d find that none of the component wines are quite as good as the blend. I was lucky enough to be able to taste the components of Château Lagrange, a Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant fourth growth from St-Julien. It was a Goldilocks experience. The Cabernet Sauvignon was very good but just a tad too astringent.

The winemaker at Château Terrific Merlot but it needs a Lagrange must blend a wine touch more structure. Blended together they were perfect to achieve optimum quality because the structure of the when it is consumed in, say, blended wine was neither too ten years’ time, rather than astringent nor too mellow – it was just right. I was surprised making a wine that will at how much better the blended perfectly match his lamb wine was than its components, but the smug expression on the chops that evening winemaker’s face suggested he’d seen a similar reaction from other visitors. That experience gave me even more respect for winemakers who determine winning combinations and I have been a big fan of Château Lagrange ever since.

The winemaker at Château Lagrange must blend a wine to achieve optimum quality when it is consumed in, say, ten years’ time, rather than making a wine that will perfectly match his lamb

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chops that evening. That skill requires years of experience and much careful thought. A crystal ball might also be helpful.

I understand that one of the reasons that bordeaux wine producers choose, or chose, to make wine from a combination of up to five grape varieties, instead of sticking to Pinot Noir for red and Chardonnay for white as they do in Burgundy, is insurance against bad weather. Merlot ripens quite early while Cabernet Sauvignon ripens late. If frost, hail or torrential rain devastate the vineyard near harvest time, the loss is unlikely to be total because different varieties are at varying stages of maturity.

Insurance may have motivated the Bordelais to plant five red varieties but centuries of experimentation has enabled them to home in on the best sites for each variety and the winning combinations that best suit the region’s various communes. For example, on the Left Bank of the Gironde River, wines tend to be Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant while Merlot rules on the Right Bank.

Bordeaux has inspired winemakers in many New World countries to follow its lead. The Meritage Association was formed in 1988 by a group of Napa Valley vignerons in California, to provide a label for blended white and red wines made from the varieties found in Bordeaux. The word “meritage” is itself a blend of “merit” and “heritage”. The organisation boasts 367 members, including 16 international members from six countries.

For their part, New Zealand winemakers first blended Merlot with Cabernet Sauvignon in the 1980s to ameliorate the harsh tannins and herbal flavours of Cabernet Sauvignon grown in sites that were too cool to ripen it fully. Now Cabernet Sauvignon does ripen fully but winemakers continue to blend the so-called “bordeaux varieties” in order to achieve greater flavour

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complexity. Te Mata Coleraine, a Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant blend, is one of the country’s finest examples.

While most New World wine producing countries now blend the red bordeaux varieties successfully, some of Australia’s best reds combine Cabernet Sauvignon with the Rhône variety, Syrah, the grape that has been mis-spelled as “Shiraz” ever since its introduction in the early 1800s. White grape varieties are less commonly blended than reds in the New World, despite France’s classic blends of Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle in Bordeaux, and Marsanne, Roussane and Viognier in the Rhône.

And it’s not just white with whites and red with reds. The Northern Rhône practice of blending a little Viognier in with Syrah is increasingly being adopted in New World countries.

Supporters of blended wines might justifiably argue that to make a wine from a single grape variety is a bit like painting a picture only using one colour. Adding extra grape varieties to the mix, they could assert, adds extra colours to the winemaker’s palette while delivering greater complexity to the wine drinker’s palate. I’ll drink to that.

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THE SCREWCAP REVOLUTION

The screwcap revolution The two biggest moments in the history of wine over the past thousand years occurred with the arrival of corks and, more recently, the creation of screwcaps If I were allowed to choose to live my adult life in any part of the world and at any time in wine’s long history, it would be New Zealand over the past 40 years. I wouldn’t change a thing.

The growth in the quality of New Zealand wine over the past four decades has been astounding. Working in such a Imagine how life must have dynamic environment I’ve felt a bit like a rocket scientist been for wine drinkers working for NASA until they before the late 17th century put a man on the moon or an when corks and bottles IT expert working for Apple first made an appearance computers before the launch of the iPad. The “big moment” equivalent to landing a man on the moon or successfully launching a ground-breaking personal computer was when New Zealand winemakers embraced screwcaps.

Imagine how life must have been for wine drinkers before the late 17th century when corks and bottles first made an appearance. Wine lived and died in barrels. When a barrel was first broached the contents may have tasted pretty good at first.

Oxidation and acetification would soon turn the wine to vinegar as the level within the barrel dropped. Most wine probably needed to be consumed within a year or two – the sooner the better.

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The joy of corks Wine quality made a quantum leap forward when corks and bottles arrived nearly three centuries ago. Corks have the remarkable ability to be compressed and forced into a bottle neck and then to expand again to occupy an often irregular shape, giving a wine-tight seal. They retain their elasticity for decades.

Long-term wines may require re-corking for extra insurance. The Australian winery Penfolds is relatively unusual in that it offers Re-corking Clinics to the Open 12 bottles of the owners of wines that are 15 same ten-year-old wine years and older. and you will find a Vintage port is capable of significant variation in improving, or at least lasting, in bottle for at least 50 years under maturity and taste careful storage conditions. To help them last the distance, they generally have an extra-long cork and a bottle with more than the usual tapering in the neck (bottle necks tend to taper away from the opening for extra cork security).

As a result it can be difficult to remove old corks from vintage port. I use a pair of port tongs to open old bottles of fortified wine.

I heat the tongs with a gas burner until red hot – you could warm them on a gas ring or an open fire – and clamp them around the neck before applying a wet cloth which snaps the bottle neck below the cork. It’s a good trick at the end of a dinner party.

Cork does have a few disadvantages however. Because it is a natural product every cork is slightly different, allowing variable amounts of air to enter each bottle. Open 12 bottles of the same ten-year-old wine and you will find a significant variation in maturity and taste. The highly respected UK wine writer Andrew

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Jefford told me that he likes the “lucky dip” aspect of cork variation. I find it frustrating, particularly when I find bottles that have aged prematurely and are undrinkable.

I recall conducting an experiment with corks around 15 years ago. I took 30 corks from a single bale and placed each in a wine tasting glass containing tap water. After two weeks the water colour varied from water white (no change) to deep yellow and every shade in between. If water is capable of extracting such a varying amount of colour from corks, surely the solvent action of alcohol and acidity in wine would be even more effective at extracting both colour and flavour? That experiment helped explain to me why some wines have a slight cork flavour and others don’t.

And I wasn’t the only person frustrated with the variability of bottles stoppered with corks. Inventors and wine specialists began to create alternatives. Along came plastic corks, the Vinolok glass stopper and screwcaps. As a result, the cork producers

THREE OF THE BEST Wines under screwcap • Maison de Grand Esprit, Montrachet Grand Cru, La Belle Voisine 2009, Burgundy, France • Pascal Marchand, Chambertin Clos de Bèze Grand Cru 2009, Burgundy, France • Domaine Laroche, Les Clos Chablis Grand Cru 2009, Burgundy, France started to lose business. It was time to act. They reviewed their manufacturing procedures and introduced a number of changes which significantly reduced the incidence of TCA, most commonly appearing as cork taint.

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Cork taint is the best known defect of this 300-year-old closure. In 2000 I travelled to Portugal as a guest of Amorim, the world’s largest cork maker, to see the cork harvesting process, to visit a couple of factories where they turned tree bark into closures and to see what steps had been taken to counteract cork taint.

Amorim claimed to have significantly reduced its incidence by discarding the bark closest to the ground and by filtering the water used to soak the bark in large cauldrons.

Today, estimates vary but it’s my guess that still cork taint affects between 5-10% of all wines sealed with cork.

Time for action For centuries it seems that the world’s wine drinkers and wine makers accepted a certain amount of wine loss through faulty corks. A chemical compound called 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA) is the main culprit. This is produced when the sort of mould or fungi that can be found in cork bark comes into contact with chlorinated phenolic compounds.

While one part per trillion is The motivation for change enough to give wine a detectable musty, wet cardboard character, was disenchantment with in my view cork taint’s most corks. Some winemakers insidious form is at low had suffered cork taint concentrations, where TCA rates of over 50% flattens the fruit character in wine without introducing any off-odours. The wine may appear to be off the pace with no obvious reason. I should emphasise that corks don’t have a monopoly on TCA – it has been found in shipping containers, wooden wineries and mineral waters to name but a few locations.

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THE SCREWCAP REVOLUTION

Wine under screwcap (left) is in fine form while the wine under cork (right) is oxidised and undrinkable. Both were stored at 14째C since release

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Kumeu River winemaker Michael Brajkovich MW even claims to have found a baked potato with TCA! In 2000 a group of winemakers in the Eden and Clare Valleys of South Australia including noted producer Jeffrey Grosset jointly agreed to bottle their Riesling under both cork and screwcap. One year later a group of New Zealand winemakers followed suit. The motivation for change was disenchantment with corks. Some winemakers had suffered cork taint rates of over 50%, with many believing that, since they were Portugal’s most distant wine market, they were being supplied with an inferior product. Personally speaking, I’m not sure that there is much truth to this claim.

Most of the New Zealand winemakers, like their Aussie counterparts, started by conducting trials with wine under both cork and screwcap. I recall that Ross Lawson of Lawson’s Dry Hills was the first to bottle all his wine under screwcaps though others quickly followed his lead.

The move toward screwcaps was initially very divisive, causing fierce and sometimes acrimonious debate between producers in either camp. The screwcap adopters were worried about market acceptance, particularly in conservative export markets such as Europe and Asia. Sommeliers and wine waiters complained that the new closure would take the romance out of wine service. The cork brigade were sure that an air-tight seal would encourage reductive, off-odours to appear in wines sporting a screwcap.

Personal research In 2001 I purchased 12 cases of wine in a range of styles from Sauvignon Blanc to Cabernet Sauvignon. Each case contained six bottles under cork and six under screwcap, allowing me to do a

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THE SCREWCAP REVOLUTION

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closure comparison. Marion would pour one glass from one By 2005 it was clear that, closure and two glasses from the for white wines at least, other. I and a group of trusted screwcaps were a far better friends would then try to closure than corks. The identify the odd one out. If we wines under screwcap were were correct we then made a consistently true to variety judgement about the different character and quality under and terroir both closures. By 2005 it was clear that, for white wines at least, screwcaps were a far better closure than corks. The wines under screwcap were consistently true to variety and terroir. They were, quite simply, better.

After 13 years I am almost convinced that screwcaps are also a better closure for red wine. I say “almost” because I’d like to see how both closures perform in another ten years. Red wine under screwcap is consistent, more youthful but still showing positive bottle development. It appears to me that screwcaps slightly more than double the window of drinkability.

My tasting records show that I have notes for 13,856 wines under screwcap. Only two of those were prematurely oxidised and, upon close inspection, the screwcaps themselves revealed a hairline split where each cap had been damaged.

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Putting closures to the test Wine under screwcap appears to be more resistant to imperfect storage conditions than wine under cork. A friend conducted a test whereby he progressively heated two bottles of the same wine under both cork and screwcap. At 36°C, wine started seeping past the cork. When the bottle under screwcap reached 78°C, the

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screwcap popped like a can of baked beans in a pot of water but the bottle remained airtight.

I once took part in an insurance claim tasting for a distributor who had shipped a container of German wine under various closures – cork, screwcap and Vinolok – across the equator where the wine had been affected by the heat. He air-freighted control samples and we compared them against the wines from the container. The wines under cork were unsalable while those under Vinolok showed far less damage. We could find no difference between the control and container samples under screwcap.

During a recent visit to Burgundy I enjoyed the generous hospitality of several wine producers, and one moderately large producer let me taste his entire range of wines. During the tasting I asked the young, very bright winemaker what he thought of screwcaps. “We bottle 20 per cent of our wines under screwcap,” he explained. With that experience surely he must appreciate the benefits of screwcaps, I enquired. “Yes I do,” he said with a wry smile, “but it is the market…”

It must be stressed that screwcaps are not a cure-all for wine faults. If a wine is oxidised, affected by brettanomyces (a yeast that can make wine smell uncannily of plastic bandaids or sheep urine), volatile (on its way to becoming vinegar), over-oaked or excessively acidic before it is put in the bottle, it is beyond help and will not be rescued by a closure of any sort. Screwcaps in their present form have a relatively short history. Alcohol and acidity are powerful solvents that could react with the closure wad, giving wine an off-odour, although there is no evidence of that happening after a couple of decades.

I certainly hope that screwcaps will continue to be refined and new closures continue to be developed and trialled.

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THE MERITS OF MATCHING

The merits of matching Matching food and wine is an enchanting mix of art and science.

Here we dip our toe in the water, looking at some of the principles behind this most beguiling of pleasures “You are in excellent health,” my doctor said with the warmest of smiles. “But it wouldn’t hurt to lose a few pounds.”

My doctor would indeed feel little pain if I were to shed some weight but the abstinence and exercise needed to achieve that goal would cause me considerable discomfort. I enjoy my daily glass or three of wine, I love cooking and look forward to every mealtime with pleasure and anticipation. To round off the experience, I take special delight in choosing a wine that will enhance a particular dish.

A good match is when the wine makes the meal taste better or the meal makes the wine taste better. A great match is when both the wine and the dish taste better. An outstanding match is when not only do they both taste better but they develop a synergy that prompts a celestial choir to sing Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus. Let me offer an example.

Students learn that foods Tonight I plan to serve a dry with sweetness need to Riesling with a simple dish of hotbe matched with wines smoked salmon and avocado, a that are slightly sweeter popular entrée in my house.

Riesling seems to emphasise the than the food to achieve flavours of salmon and avocado a good match in much the same way that a

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squeeze of fresh lime adds energy and vibrance to both. That’s a good match in my book.

Making careful choices The main course is slow-cooked lamb shanks. They are in the oven as I write and their wonderful savoury, herby aromas have travelled from the kitchen to my office. I will serve them with creamy scalloped potatoes and green beans with garlic and toasted almonds. I’ve tasted 50 examples of youthful Central Otago Pinot Noir today and believe I’ve found one wine that will suit the dish perfectly. Normally I prefer aged red wine with slowcooked lamb but the creamy-textured fruit bomb I’ve chosen will work well. It has enough intensity and richness to give the lamb a helping hand. I expect the lamb to emphasise the wine’s subtle savoury character making it even more complex. If I’m right this will be a great match.

Thanks to my doctor’s sage advice I have made a compromise and cancelled the cheese course. The Stilton will remain untouched while the 1980 Dow’s Vintage Port that I planned to serve with it will continue to gather dust in my cellar. Bill Warre MW (of Warre’s port fame) tipped me off about the 1980 Dow’s many years ago. I am very grateful to him. 1980 is not a highly rated vintage but the stars were aligned when this wine was made – it’s a marvellous port and very undervalued.

Anyway, I know from experience that the combination of 1980 Dow’s and Stilton cheese is an outstanding match. The salty sharpness of the blue cheese seems to restrain the sweetness of the wine while the wine restrains the pungency of the cheese. Both cheese and wine retain their flavour integrity with each amplifying the flavours of the other. Putting the two together is like the mad

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THE MERITS OF MATCHING

Port and Stilton, one of the world’s classic food and wine matches

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professor combining the contents of two test tubes but instead of an explosion we get the Hallelujah Chorus. Marvellous!

Back to school For nearly 30 years now, I have been running a wine certificate course, primarily in New Zealand, but also occasionally in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and London. Mostly attended by consumers, it also attracts students working in the wine trade, and wine and food matching is one of the most popular segments of my wine course. Rather than simply tasting in isolation, I offer the students a practical demonstration of how different food types influence the taste and texture of various wines.

We start by tasting and evaluating a slightly sweet wine, usually Riesling. I then invite the students to eat a slice of apple and re-taste the wine. Does the apple make the wine taste sweeter, drier or is there no change? Most, if not all, indicate that the wine tastes drier after they have eaten a slice of apple. Sweetness in food, in this case a ripe apple, cancels out sweetness in wine, making the wine taste drier.

If we take a very sweet food, such as crème caramel, and match it with a dry Chardonnay the wine will taste so dry it becomes almost bitter. Students learn that foods with sweetness need to be paired with wines that are slightly sweeter than the food I choose a slightly sweet and to achieve a good match.

The subtle sweetness in a Thai flavoursome wine to match curry may be completely masked even a mild curry by the spiciness of the dish but it will still make an accompanying wine taste less sweet, or even slightly bitter if the wine is dry. That’s why I choose a slightly sweet

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THE MERITS OF MATCHING

and flavoursome wine to match even a mild curry. Marion does not like wines that are even slightly sweet. However she finds a medium-dry Pinot Gris perfectly acceptable if it is served with a Acidity in food strips acidity curry whose flavour profile strips from wine, heightening its the sweetness from drier wines. sweetness The students are then asked to taste a slice of lemon before re-tasting the same, slightly sweet wine. They discover that the acidity in the lemon has made the wine taste dramatically sweeter.

Any acidity in food tends to strip acidity from wine, heightening its sweetness. Thus if you match an acidic food with a low acid wine, the wine is in danger of becoming too bland.

This means that foods that have been garnished with lemon or lime juice as well as naturally acidic foods, such as tomatoes or dishes with a strong vinegar (acetic acid) influence, need to be paired with wines high in acidity such as Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling or Chenin Blanc. Champagne is the perfect partner for

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THREE OF THE BEST Food and wine matches • Taylors 1963 vintage port and Stilton cheese • Champagne Salon Le Mesnil, Blanc de Blancs 2002 and freshly shucked oysters garnished with lime juice • Château d’Yquem 1967 and fried goose liver raw oysters garnished with lemon or lime because both wine and food have plenty of this crisp acidity.

Marion likes the taste of Sauvignon Blanc but seldom drinks it because she finds it too acidic. However, if I garnish a piece of

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fish with lime juice and serve it with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc, she isn’t bothered by the acidity at all because it has been moderated by the lime.

Cheese can convert an unpalatably astringent red into a wine that’s deliciously drinkable. To demonstrate this beneficial reaction, I serve the students the most astringent red wine I can lay my hands on – usually a Madiran from the south of France made predominantly from the aptly named Tannat grape variety.

The class reacts as though I have tried to poison them! After eating a small cube of cheese they retaste the wine to find that it has mellowed considerably. Most Protein in saliva softens now find it delicious.

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tannins so that a red wine enjoyed with food tends to feel softer and smoother than red wine tasted without food

Dissecting the principles So how does this happen? When we eat food we salivate.

Enzymes in our saliva help the digestion process, and proteins in saliva coagulate the tannins in red wine, reducing the astringency caused by them. Red wine enjoyed with food tends to feel softer and smoother than red wine tasted without food simply because it loses some of its mouthdrying astringency.

Foods with uncoagulated protein, such as rare steak or cheese, make red wine taste less astringent than foods where the proteins have coagulated, such as well-done steak, simply because they are more effective at coagulating red wine tannins.

Another illustration appears in our tea cup. There’s plenty of flavour in a strong cup of tea, but the tannins can make it

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THE MERITS OF MATCHING

excessively astringent for some. That astringency can be modified by adding milk, with its uncoagulated proteins, or by balancing the astringency with sugar. We can also soften the tea with lemon juice, which has the effect of cancelling out some of the tannic acid in the tea.

Finding the ultimate matches Individual tastes in food and in wine vary considerably. Many people dislike oysters, a lot of people don’t like Riesling. If you fall into either camp you are unlikely to enjoy freshly shucked rock oysters garnished with a squeeze of lime and washed down with a dry Mosel Riesling, a combination that induces in me a sense of well-being that a swami might take a lifetime of meditation to achieve.

Wine and food matching is fascinating because it is subjective and infinitely complex. That was clearly illustrated at a Dom Pérignon dinner at Tetsuya’s Restaurant in Sydney. Dom Pérignon’s own chef had, with the assistance of Tetsuya, devised eight courses each of which showed a different facet of the wine.

It worked brilliantly. We tasted the same wine eight times but the dishes were so skilfully designed that it was like tasting eight different wines. At the conclusion of the dinner we were invited to have a glass of any wine from Tetsuya’s extensive list. I chose the Dom Pérignon we’d been drinking all night.

Good wine and food when enjoyed with the right company is about as good as it gets. Whenever I read of a world conflict I wonder whether it might not be easily resolved if the leaders each chose their favourite food and wine before dining together to talk about anything except politics. The world would be a more peaceful place.

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Perhaps I’ll invite my doctor around to dinner and offer him 1980 Dow’s Port with Stilton cheese as a finale. If I did, I’m quite sure he would pat my hand and say, “Don’t take my advice about dieting too seriously. Just carry on as you are.”

For more on this fascinating topic do check out the work of Tim Hanni MW, in particular his book, Why You Like The Wine You Like (2013).

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THE DELICACY OF OLD AGE

The delicacy of old age Serving a special bottle always calls for care, but when it’s a treasured legend, the stakes are even higher. So how do you get it right?

I’ve had a bottle of 1947 Cheval Blanc resting in my cellar for many years. I plan to open it this weekend.

I’ve never tasted this legendary Right Bank Bordeaux although I have visited the château and have enjoyed many other vintages.

I bought the wine at auction after checking its provenance (impeccable) and fill level (low neck, since you ask). It is fair to say that I am a huge fan of Cheval Blanc and have always wanted to taste its most highly rated vintage. The pleasure of anticipation has already paid me a handsome dividend over the years.

1947 is the year of my birth. This wine was probably being racked into barrel when I took my first breath. I had originally planned to open it on my 50th birthday, then my 60th and more recently on my 65th, but the time and company just didn’t feel right. I really want to share my most precious bottle with I really want to share my people who are as excited about most precious bottle with tasting it as I am.

I’ve planned this tasting for people who are as excited some time. The wine will be about tasting it as I am served with a main course of braised wild venison. Slow-cooked meat is my favourite match with aged Bordeaux. Lightly seasoned venison won’t, I hope, threaten to override the potentially delicate flavours of the wine.

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The wine will have been standing upright for a week to allow any sediment to settle when I open it. It will spend the last few hours in a room that has been warmed to an ideal temperature for the wine, to avoid any sudden temperature change for the wine, and without regard for the temperature preferences of my guests, although I believe they should be comfortable. I plan to open and decant the wine only a few minutes before serving. I recall tasting a bottle of 1929 Château Lafite-Rothschild which was at first closed and hard to read before evolving rapidly until after 20 minutes it displayed a “peacock’s tail” of subtle flavours that were absolutely beautiful. Thirty minutes after the cork had been drawn the wine tasted like stale coffee grounds. Old bottles can be unpredictable. I do not want to miss a precious window of optimum quality.

How to serve the wine The choice of glass required considerable thought – they do make a difference. If it meant the wine would taste even better, I would have been happy to purchase six glasses for the occasion and considered buying Riedel’s top, hand-blown Sommelier Bordeaux Marion was somewhat glasses but instead decided to use sceptical about investing their less expensive Vinum in glasses we might only Bordeaux glasses which I already own. The Sommelier glasses are use once slightly finer but are basically the same shape as the Vinum. I really didn’t expect to find an appreciable difference between the two models. More importantly Marion was somewhat sceptical about investing in glasses we might only use once.

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THE DELICACY OF OLD AGE

With two days to go before the “big dinner”, all is in place. A good friend suggested that my detailed preparations were something of an overreaction. “If you just rip the cork out of the bottle and slosh it into glass tumblers, surely it would taste exactly the same,” he ventured.

I don’t agree. I expect the careful choice of glasses, serving temperature and the appropriate food match together with decanting and even finding the appropriate occasion and friends will enhance the pleasure of opening a precious old bottle by 50% to 100%.

And it’s not just expensive wines. The same principle also applies to cheap and cheerful bottles. I routinely use good wine glasses, fine-tune the serving temperature, decant ahead, and consider the food match with every bottle of wine I open.

Compare the pleasure you get from a thoughtfully prepared glass of red wine with one served too cold and poured straight from the bottle into glass tumblers. In my view, a little effort can easily double the pleasure.

THREE OF THE BEST Old wines I have tasted • The 1795 Terrantez Madeira from Companhia Vinicola da Madeira • The 1929 vintage of Château Lafite-Rothschild • The 1962 vintage of Penfolds Bin 60A Cabernet Shiraz The art of chilling Serving temperature is, in my view, the most important and most abused quality factor in wine service. When did you last visit a restaurant and think “Wow, this wine is at a perfect serving temperature”?

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Marion likes most whites at fridge temperature which is around 4°C. I prefer them at my cellar temperature, which is more like 14°C. Who is right? We both are. Serving temperature is a matter of taste. That doesn’t mean we have to compromise. In our case I serve white wine at fridge temperature but give my glass a few seconds in the microwave to take the chill off it.

When I take a bottle of red from my 14°C cellar, I first taste it, to confirm my suspicion that it is too cold, then pour myself a glass and pop it into the microwave for ten seconds before retasting it. If the wine is still too cold I give it another few seconds.

If it’s too warm I slosh a little more cold wine in the glass. It takes just 30 seconds or so to get the wine to a perfect temperature… for me that is.

If you object to putting wine into a microwave, I suggest that you heat one glass in warm water and a second in the microwave before comparing them. In my experience there is no difference.

When we chill a glass of red wine, several changes take place.

The wine appears to lose flavour while becoming increasingly more astringent as the temperature drops. On the other hand the wine becomes more tactile (the pleasing physical sensation we get Serving temperature is, when we drink chilled water) as it gets colder. I don’t like tepid red in my view, the most wine but neither do I like important and most excessively chilled red. Somewhere abused quality factor between these two extremes lies in wine service perfection. I can drink softer reds, such as Pinot Noir, cooler than more tannic reds like Syrah or wine made from a blend of the bordeaux varieties.

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THE DELICACY OF OLD AGE

A similar principle applies to white wine. As white wine gets cooler so it becomes more tactile, which is good. However colder white wine has less flavour and more aggressive acidity. Once again it’s important to get the temperature right. Sweet wine, for example, usually has flavour to spare and often benefits from amplified acidity. I like to drink most sweet wines at fridge temperature myself. Fridge temperature will kill the flavours in a delicate dry white such as Chardonnay, which I prefer to drink lightly chilled. The bubbles in champagne make it a very tactile wine. It needs to be chilled.

Be tolerant of the preferences of others. We don’t all like to drink the same wine at the same temperature.

What about decanting?

Many purists claim that wine should only be decanted to remove any sediment and that if aeration is required, this can be achieved by simply swirling the wine in the glass. While I have some sympathy with that view, experience has shown that a young red wine, particularly when it has been bottled with an airtight screwcap closure, can benefit from being sloshed into a decanter

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and allowed to sit for at least 15 minutes before serving.

Decanting can result in a slight loss of aroma but it can also give the wine a softer texture. In my view the benefits outweigh the shortcomings, and I routinely decant young red wine.

Devices that fit into the neck of a bottle to aerate the wine as it is poured appear to be effective and also have the advantage of not aerating the entire bottle in case there is leftover wine.

The big night Which brings me to my dinner party and the 1947 Cheval Blanc.

The event took place last night. We started with the 1982 Salon Le Mesnil Blanc de Blancs Champagne, quite developed but magnificently complex. I nervously opened a bottle of Comtes Lafon 1985 Montrachet Grand Cru hoping that it was not a victim of oxidation, like so many white burgundies in the decade or so after it was made. The wine was great.

As the main course was being served I struggled to extract a crumbling cork from the Cheval Blanc and succeeded without getting any crumbs in the wine. I poured a small sample into my glass and under the expectant eyes of my guests examined the colour. It looked good – developed of course but still showing a healthy garnet hue. I gave the wine a brief swirl and stuck my nose in the glass.

It was badly corked.

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HEDONISTS AND HOARDERS

Hedonists and hoarders Building up a cellar is just the first step. It’s how you – or your merchant or auction house – keeps your wine that ultimately determines its long term health Shortly after I developed an interest in wine I decided to start a wine cellar. I purchased three bottles that, for the first time in my life, I did not intend to drink within the next 24 hours. Two of the bottles were Australian Shiraz while the third was French, a Châteauneuf-du-Pape. I placed them reverently in my “cellar”, a cool, dark and inaccessible spot under my house. Less than a week later some friends dropped around unexpectedly. We drank my entire wine cellar.

There are two sorts of people in the world; hedonists and hoarders. I am a hedonist. Hedonists are impulsive. We want things now rather than later. Hedonists lack discipline. Hedonists have trouble starting let alone maintaining a wine cellar.

A few weeks after my first attempt at starting a cellar I tried again. I bought two bottles of 1967 Château d’Yquem at a very good price. 1967 was, arguably, the best vintage the world’s greatest sweet wine producer had enjoyed that century. The wine was ten years old when I purchased it. I drank one bottle on the day I bought it. It was so good I drank the second bottle the following evening. The bottles were gone but the memory remains.

Eventually I did manage to accumulate a sizeable cellar by locating it some distance from my home to reduce the risk of ransack. If I wanted to take a bottle from my cellar, the rule was

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that I had to replace it with two bottles. When I had accumulated 2,000 bottles, I made the replacement rule “one for one”.

Hoarders have a bigger problem than hedonists. While they enjoy buying and storing wine they have difficulty drinking it.

They face the very real danger of holding their precious bottles for so long that they become oxidised and undrinkable. A I wonder how many bottles successful wine cellar requires have been sold at auction discipline.

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when their awkward adolescence was mistaken for terminal decline

Why start a wine cellar?

The most compelling reason is that it will eventually provide you with a supply of mature wine. Wine is one of the very few consumer products that can improve with age, although by my estimation only about 10% of all wine produced is ageworthy. Jancis Robinson MW discusses this in her excellent book, The Oxford Companion to Wine, as follows: “Wines which generally do not improve with time spent in bottle, and which are usually best consumed as soon as possible after bottling (although after a few weeks in bottle has eliminated any bottle sickness) include the following – although the following is only the most approximate generalization: wines packaged in any containers other than bottles – boxes, for example; most basic wine without geographical indication in the EU, jug wine in the US, and their everyday, commercial equivalents elsewhere; almost all branded wines, with the possible exception of some red bordeaux; most wine coloured pink; all wines released within less than six months of the vintage such as those labelled nouveau and the like.”

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HEDONISTS AND HOARDERS

Assuming you have avoided choosing a wine from the “won’t age” list above, what changes take place in the cellar? What makes wine taste better with age?

The most obvious change in red wine is its colour. A group of compounds called anthocyanins (cyanin is the Greek word for blue) from the skin of the grape give red wine its colour.

THREE OF THE BEST Styles of wines that respond best to cellaring • Barolo • Vouvray • Vintage Port Anthocyanins change colour depending on the level of acidity in the wine. In high acid red wines such as those produced in the relatively cool region of Burgundy, the anthocyanins are red.

Napa Valley Merlot, on the other hand, tends to be more purple (red/blue) in colour thanks to its lower acidity.

As red wines age, their anthocyanins cluster together in a process called polymerisation. Eventually the anthocyanins become too big to stay dissolved in the liquid, and so they precipitate out, forming part of the deposit often found in old red wine. During that process the colour typically changes from red or purple to garnet and eventually tawny.

The complexity of ageing The grape and fermentation aromas in young red wines react with each other and with a group of compounds called phenolics to form the more subtle and often more complex tertiary aromas much appreciated by lovers of mature red wine. Acid and alcohol

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react together to form esters in the process described as esterification. Esterification makes wine taste less crisp initially although acidity starts to dominate towards the end of the life of many red wines as their flavours diminish.

An interesting transition period occurs as red wines lose their puppy fat and begin to gain bottle development. Bordeaux reds, for example, can go through a rather flat phase at around seven years when they seem to lose flavour and become increasingly astringent.

I wonder how many bottles have been sold at auction when their awkward adolescence was mistaken for terminal decline.

Wine scientists understand a great deal about the process of red wine ageing although there are simply too many variables for them to predict how a given wine will develop.

Much less is known about the process of white wine ageing.

White wine is less likely to throw a sediment but colour changes are more extreme and give a good indication of maturity. Wines with high acidity such as Riesling or Chenin Blanc are good candidates for the cellar. Wines affected by the beneficial vineyard mould, botrytis cinerea, appear to age better than similar wines made without the help of botrytis. Wines that have been fermented in barrel seem to last longer than if they have been fermented in stainless steel before being matured in barrel.

Temperature controls Storage temperature has a huge influence on wine longevity. My school chemistry lessons taught me that the rate of reaction doubles with every rise of 10째C. In my experience a wine stored at 12째C is likely to last twice as long as one stored at 24째C. All serious wine collectors are aware that a wine stored at a cooler temperature will not only last longer, it will also taste better than

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HEDONISTS AND HOARDERS

My wine cellar

the same one that hit its peak earlier. The slower the journey the greater the complexity.

Bottle size makes a difference to wine life and ultimately to quality, at least when the bottle is sealed with a cork. Many wine collectors believe that a magnum is the ideal bottle size because it extends the wine’s life, raising its level of quality. I have on several occasions tasted the same wine from a 750ml bottle and a 1.5litre magnum and can confirm that wine from the magnum does appear to be more youthful.

In theory that would suggest that wine lives longer and reaches a higher level of quality when stored in even larger bottles but I haven’t been able to test that hypothesis. Screwcaps more than

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double the longevity of wine when compared with the same wine sealed with a cork but whether that means that wine under screwcap closures will reach a higher peak of quality, only time will tell.

Everyone who buys wine at auction knows that the wine fill level on the bottle is a useful indicator of wine health. Many auction catalogues list this fact, using terms such as “high neck”, “mid neck” and “low neck” to indicate how much wine has been lost. As the fill level drops so does the auction estimate. Lower wine levels are an indication that the wine may be oxidised.

When you next buy wine from a wine store, run your eye along the fill levels of bottles bearing the same label. You might be surprised at the variation, particularly in wine that has been in bottle for a few years. Choose the bottle with the highest fill level and you are also buying some insurance that the wine hasn’t been affected by heat and has a sound cork (this only applies to corktype closures).

Wine can be a good investment provided you buy wisely and cellar well. On two occasions I’ve purchased wine with a plan to re-sell it at a profit. In both cases the wine did increase significantly in value but I drank it with friends, boasting how I’d bought it at bargain prices. Hedonists are too passionate and impulsive to profit from wine while hoarders can’t bear to sell. It takes a special breed of hard-nosed investor to buy wine for resale.

It probably also helps if they don’t drink.

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THE X-FACTOR

The X-Factor With such a vast array of wines available, how do you choose?

Competitions are one way but not all judging processes are equal. So how do you work out who to trust?

I count myself fortunate to be able to indulge in vinous promiscuity. Over the past year I have formally recorded notes on 2,503 wines. In that time I have judged in four wine competitions, adding another 2-3,000 wines to the total. Recreational wines add another 200 or so, bringing the annual total to perhaps 5,000 wines. If you think that’s a lot I once judged 400 wines a day at a competition lasting 10 days. I’m still recovering from that experience.

Wine competitions are hard work. They are also very rewarding. I’ve made many good friends and discovered even more great wines in a judging career spanning 40 competitions in 12 countries.

What’s the point?

Every competition has the same objective – to identify the best wines in each class. Some award a trophy to the best wine overall despite judge discomfort at finding a winner in such diverse styles as sparkling, Sauvignon Blanc, Syrah and sherry. I’m sure dog shows face the same dilemma. How can you objectively choose between a well turned out Pug, Pointer and Pomeranian?

Finding the best Syrah or Samoyed from within a group of these varietals or dogs is a little easier because we are comparing like with like. The wines are served blind to avoid bias. The

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judging panel usually comprises three or more judges to dilute any prejudice an individual might have for or against a certain wine style. Most judging panels discuss the qualities they hope to find in the best wines.

In a Syrah, for example, they might be looking for wines of concentration with a complex array of flavours that are typical of the variety but without any green and under-ripe notes or Wine judging, whether by an jammy and over-ripe flavours.

The wine should be at least individual critic or a panel, moderately full-bodied, with is an imperfect process an appropriate backbone of ripe tannins that both balance although it does serve a fruit and alcohol sweetness useful purpose and produce a dry finish. It will show evidence of oak maturation but the oak influence should flatter, and not threaten, fruit flavour. The wine must be balanced.

So how do judges choose between a top Australian Shiraz, Penfolds Grange for example, and a top Syrah from the Northern Rhône, such as Jaboulet La Chapelle? Incidentally, the misspelled Australian version resulted from poor literacy when the vine cuttings were first imported into Australia in the early 1800s.

In this Australia vs France example, professional judges would apply the same objective standards to help them pick a winning wine but my bet is that a French panel of judges would favour the Jaboulet while an Aussie team would give Penfolds the nod. Wine judges sometimes refer to an intangible quality that raises one wine above its peers as “the X-factor”. The X-factor in this case might be familiarity with a style that the judges from each country

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THE X-FACTOR

put on a high pedestal, although every contest does what it can to minimise such influences.

Ensuring a rigorous judging environment The Paris-based L’Organisation International de la Vigne et du Vin (www.oiv.net) is an intergovernmental body which deals with technical and scientific aspects of viticulture and winemaking, and includes with this wine judging. They go to extreme lengths to remove subjectivity from the judging process. Wines are presented one at a time with no reference to country or variety. Judges are faced with a red, white or rosé in a glass and must judge it entirely on its individual merits. A large panel of judges reviews only 60 or so wines a day without any consultation. A complex score sheet that could only have been developed by very bright scientists considers many aspects of each wine’s quality and character before arriving at a score out of 100 points.

I first judged using the OIV system in Belgium and was puzzled by one line on the score sheet which awarded points for “franchise”, translated into English as “genuineness”. I asked two

THREE OF THE BEST Wine competitions I have judged in • 6 Nations Wine Challenge, Sydney in 2014 • Decanter World Wine Awards, London in 2013 & 2014 • New Zealand International Wine Show, from 2005 to 2014 seasoned French judges if that meant true to grape variety or regional style – difficult anyway, since we were given no information on either. They were both adamant that it did not mean true to variety or regional style but were unable to say what

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it meant. I asked a third rather ebullient Frenchman from Luxembourg. He thought for a minute before saying, “‘Franchise’?

Ah oui, ‘franchise’. Imagine a beautiful woman dressed for a grand occasion with a splendid hat, stylish evening dress and handbag.

Now imagine the same woman naked. The naked woman has ‘franchise’.” I was still baffled.

I dutifully completed my scoresheet by giving each wine a total rating before completing the sub-totals then inserting a figure for “franchise” that made the thing add up. It seemed to work. I was invited to judge the following year.

Sharing the judging process Wine competitions that I have attended in Britain, America, Asia and Australia adopt a more consultative process. Most use a panel of three or four judges (three is less problematic than four). Wines are usually presented in flights by grape variety giving the panel a chance to discuss the qualities they hope to find in the best wines. When the judging is complete, scores are compared and a final medal award given. Any disparity in scores is discussed and the wine is often re-tasted before an agreement is reached.

I have greater confidence in this more subjective wine judging system, which seems to produce a set of results that is often repeated over different wine shows applying similar judging principles. I do think that the typical workload of 150 to 180 wines a day is too much however. I have seen standards slip toward the end of the day. On this point, the OIV total is far more manageable.

Wine judging, whether by an individual critic or a panel, is an imperfect process although it does serve a useful purpose. There is no doubt in my mind that the critical analysis of wine has made

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THE X-FACTOR

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a major contribution to the evolution of wine quality. Many winemakers note and sometimes taste the winning wines to help them define new quality targets. That is probably more true in New World wine regions that are less bound by tradition.

Wine medals or critics’ scores help guide us through the large, ever-changing array of wines on offer. While I do follow wine show results and panel tastings, I find the scores and comments of individual critics equally interesting and sometimes more valuable. For many years I’ve followed the assessments of Robert Parker Jnr, a man who the Los Angeles Times was the first to describe as being the world’s most influential critic of any sort.

By comparing my preferences with his, I’ve learned to trust Parker’s judgement more on bordeaux than burgundy, for example. While we both appreciate richly textured wines with complexity, Parker prefers power while I favour finesse. We agree on the basic rules that define greatness in wine but have different definitions of the all-important and difficult to define X-factor.

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Scaling the heights If the world of wine fascinates you, and you want to take your level of understanding one step further, there is nothing more challenging – and fulfilling – than the MW programme Every Master of Wine can recall in graphic detail the moment when they heard that they were able to put the letters “MW” after their name. It is momentous because no one expects to pass this notoriously difficult exam.

I was teaching a wine class when I heard the fax machine kick into life. My students were engrossed in tasting three white wines so I slipped into the office to read the emerging message. Moments later I returned to the classroom like a stunned mullet and announced “I’m a Master of Wine!” They passed the hat around, bought a magnum of Bollinger champagne. The class ended when the bottle was empty.

I became a Master of Wine in 1990, a few years after this formerly exclusively British qualification became international. It dates back to 1953, the year the London-based Vintners’ Company set an exam to measure professional excellence in the British wine trade. Two years later the six people who passed the exam founded the Institute of Masters of Wine.

When I decided to embark on the MW programme, I was a self-employed wine critic and wine educator with my own wine school. My work involved travel to many of the world’s wine regions, writing, and tasting over 3,000 wines a year. In short, I earned a living doing many of the activities required of MW students. Having a shot at the MW exam seemed a logical move.

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I also felt the qualification would enhance my status as a wine professional.

When I sat the exam I had to travel to London to do so but today students can attend a study programme and sit the exam in the USA, Australia, France, Austria as well as England. The Institute recommends that anyone wishing to enter into the MW study programme should have a wine qualification at least to the level of the Wine & Spirit Education Trust’s Diploma as well as a minimum of five years’ experience in the wine industry.

So what’s involved?

Once admitted onto the study programme, at the moment, it takes a minimum of three years before candidates can sit the final exam.

If all goes well, students may sit the Theory and Practical Exam after the second year and, if they pass those significant hurdles, they are able to submit their Research Paper in June of the following year.

Preparing for the exams Preparing for the exams involves a lot of self-study involves a lot of self-study which means self-discipline which means self-discipline and self-sacrifice, not to mention a and self-sacrifice significant investment to fund tasting wines and to travel to the world’s wine regions. I was rather fortunate that my career as a wine writer and wine educator provided much of the preparation needed.

The Theory Exam these days consists of five papers, on viticulture; vinification and pre-bottling procedures; handling of wine; the business of wine, and contemporary issues. As well as his or her wine-related knowledge, the exam tests each candidate’s

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21 Club lunch (see Three of the Best), left to right, Michael Brajkovich MW (NZ), Bob Campbell MW (NZ) and Tim Hanni MW (USA)

communication skills, plus his or her insight and knowledge on current issues that affect the wine trade.

Here is a question from the vinification paper that I sat in 1990: “Describe the role of yeasts in the production of wine.�

Seems simple enough. We all know that yeasts are fungi that convert naturally occurring grape sugar into alcohol. But to earn a pass mark, the candidate would have had to talk knowledgably about how yeasts work and how they need a source of carbon,

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nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus and oxygen as well as various minerals, trace elements and vitamins to live and reproduce. They would certainly need to discuss the impact on wine if the yeasts

THREE OF THE BEST The most pleasurable MW experiences • MW trip to Tuscany, 1990 because it was my first MW trip so I made many new friends as well as enjoying the scenic splendour and wines of Tuscany • MW trip to Bordeaux, 2003 It was the 50th anniversary of the Institute of Masters of Wine. Bordeaux was the first region visited by a group of MWs so many of the producers allowed us to taste their 1953 wine – a great vintage and a great honour • 21 Club lunch at O’Connell Street Bistro, Auckland, September 2014 members of the 21 Club must have been an MW for at least 21 years.

I greatly enjoyed the company of my old friends Michael Brajkovich MW (New Zealand) and Tim Hanni MW (USA) while the Institute paid for an excellent white burgundy to accompany our lunch ran out of nutrients and began to contaminate the wine with hydrogen sulphide (H2S). They should also explain how a winemaker might remedy this by adding the nutrient diammonium phosphate to stop yeasts producing H2S before adding copper sulphate to remove it.

Discussion on the merits of cultured versus naturally occurring yeast would be obligatory as would the influence of different yeast strains on wine flavours. The role of yeast in bottle-fermented sparkling wine and barrel-aged Chardonnay would certainly earn extra points, as would the negative effects of the undesirable brettanomyces yeast. Yeast’s lack of tolerance for high alcohol

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levels and the implications for a wine industry facing higher alcohol levels through climate change might also be worthy of mention. And much more‌ The Practical Exam consists of three tastings, each involving 12 different wines. Candidates are expected to be able to analyse the colour, aroma and flavours of each wine and to use their global wine knowledge to answer the question. Here is a sample from the 2014 Practical exam: Question 2 Wines 5-8 come from four different countries and are made from the same single grape variety.

With reference to all four wines a) Identify the grape variety (24 marks) For each wine b) Identify the origin as closely as possible (4 x 10 marks) c) Discuss quality and style (4 x 9 marks) The wines were: 5. Watervale Riesling, Mount Horrocks 2013 Clare Valley, South Australia, Australia (12.5%) 6. Domaine Ostertag, Riesling Grand Cru Muenchberg 2011 Alsace, France (13.5%) 7. Domaine Rewa, Riesling 2011 Central Otago, New Zealand (11.5%) 8. Dr von Bassermann-Jordan, Deidesheimer Kieselberg Riesling, Kabinett Trocken 2011, Pfalz, Germany (11.5%) I love Riesling and regularly taste wines from the four regions represented above but would find this question reasonably challenging, particularly under the stress and pressure of examination conditions. However the examiners award points for correct analysis and sound reasoning. If, for example, the

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candidate noted that the German Riesling was dry with crisp acidity and a moderate (for Germany) alcohol level and chose the region as Rheinhessen I’d doubt they’d lose too many points.

When I sat the Practical Exam, one of the wines was a Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot blend from Lebanon (yes, Château Musar). I had never tasted a Lebanese wine but my chosen region of Bordeaux cannot have been too far off the mark stylistically.

Happily I was more familiar with the rest of the wines.

The Research Paper was a hurdle which I didn’t have to cross.

Introduced in late 2013 it can only be attempted by candidates who have passed the Theory and Practical Exams. Having agreed the subject with their mentor, students are required to research and write a 6-10,000 word paper on any topic that makes a contribution to the understanding of the world of wine.

Since 1953 a total of 372 people have passed the exams to become Masters of Wine. There are currently 319 Masters of Wine living in 24 different countries. The UK is understandably home to more MWs than any other country with 195, or one Nine Masters of Wine live in person in every 323,000. The US New Zealand, giving us the is second in terms of numbers, with 36 MWs – about one in second highest density of every nine million people. I’m MWs per head of population proud to point out that nine Masters of Wine live in New after the UK Zealand, giving us the second highest density of MWs per head of population after the UK,with one MW per 500,000 people. New Zealand also produced the youngest Master of Wine, when wine distributor, Stephen Bennett, gained the qualification in 1994 at the age of just 25.

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The first female Master of Wine was Sarah Morphew Stephen MW who passed the exam in 1970. There are now 97 living female Masters of Wine and in 2005, 2008, 2011 and 2014, more women than men gained the qualification.

So, is it worth it?

I’m often asked how I benefitted from becoming a Master of Wine. The qualification has certainly helped me to gain greater credibility, particularly internationally. It has boosted the number of invitations to judge at wine competitions around the world, increased my demand as a wine writer and raised the registrations at my wine school. It has also provided greater opportunity to travel to new wine regions while giving me access to an instant network of MWs that includes some of the most influential people in the wine industry.

The Institute organises at least one visit to a wine region each year. I join them as often as possible. These highly organised trips provide access to the best producers and often spectacular wines.

In 2003, for example, I visited Château Haut-Brion in Bordeaux with a group of MWs and tasted the top seven wines that the estate had produced in the last 50 years. They also opened the worst seven wines made in the last 50 years, an enlightening tasting that reinforced my view that top producers seldom make bad wines.

Like other MWs I like to get involved in mentoring candidates, partly to give back something to an organisation that has benefited me enormously. In my view the examination has certainly got tougher since I sat it, partly because the wine industry has become even more diverse and complex. I’ve occasionally wondered how I’d fare now if I had to re-sit the

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exam. I have certainly increased the scope of my wine knowledge and have tasted many more wines (including a number from Lebanon) than I had in 1990. I’m happy to imagine that I would pass for a second time. I have no intention of testing that theory.

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Waiting for grapes in the hail-hit 2014 vintage in Puligny Montrachet

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Bibliography Capone D, et al, Eucalyptus Character in Wine, Australian Wine Research Institute, 2012, www.awri.com.au/wp-content/uploads/ eucalyptus_character_in_wine.pdf Hanni MW, T, Why You Like The Wines You Like, The New Wine Fundamentals, 2013 Institute of Masters of Wine, www.mastersofwine.org Robinson MW, J, The Oxford Companion to Wine, Oxford University Press, 2006; the 4th edition will be published in September 2015 Robinson MW, J, Harding MW, J, Vouillamoz J, Wine Grapes, Penguin Books, 2012 www.wine-searcher.com

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Bob Campbell MW Bob Campbell fell in love with wine after joining Montana Wines, then New Zealand’s largest wine producer, in 1973.

After leaving Montana he spent a year visiting wine regions in Europe and America with his wife, Marion, before joining Corbans Wines to head up their export office in Los Angeles, before returning to New Zealand.

Bob gained his Master of Wine qualification in 1990, and is currently one of the directors of WineSearcher.com, the world’s largest wine website.

He looks after wine matters for a number of New Zealand magazines, ranging from Your Home & Garden and Taste to the New Zealand Winegrower and the Air New Zealand in-flight magazine, KiaOra. Bob is also NZ editor for the Australian magazine, Gourmet Traveller Wine.

He contributes to wine publications in seven countries, including Decanter (UK), Tasting Kitchen (Hong Kong) and Wine Press (China).

Popular on the after-dinner circuit, over 22,000 people have attended Bob’s wine certificate courses, which take place in New Zealand, Asia and Europe. Currently chairman of the New Zealand International Wine Show, he has judged in wine competitions in 12 countries.

Bob lives with Marion in Devonport, a picturesque seaside suburb of Auckland, with his two daughters and four granddaughters living nearby. When not tasting wine, he can be found on the golf course or out at sea, fishing. www.bobcampbell.co.nz • twitter: @VinoNZ • www.wine-searcher.com

OTHER MONOGRAPHS IN THIS SERIES: Ruth Binney The Science of Taste Beverley Blanning MW Biodynamics in Wine Philippe Boucheron Growers’ Champagne Sid Cross An Appreciation of the Age of Wine Michael Edwards Chablis Christopher Fielden A Dissertation on Wine Waiters Stephen Hobley Barolo Ben Howkins Tokaji Tom Maresca Chianti Classico Michael Raffael Truffles Judy Ridgway Traditional French Cheeses Paul Scholten, MD Wine and Health John Schreiner Icewine David Wolfe Visiting Vineyards

Additional copies may be obtained from: The International Wine & Food Society Ltd 4 St James’s Square, London SW1Y 4JU sec@iwfs.org • www.iwfs.org