19 minute read
JUST WILLIAMS
Anger is so infuriating
David Williams is a mild-mannered guy, but even he is sometimes consumed by the red mist. Why should wine, of all things, get people so worked up? Shut up and read on, if you must know …
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Anger, according to most psychologists, is not always a bad thing. It is, as that dear little ball of red-haired rage Johnny Rotten once had it, “an energy” that can in some circumstances be harnessed to make us or the world better. The trick is knowing when to start and stop. Or, as Aristotle put it unimprovably some two and half millennia ago, “Anybody can become angry – that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way – that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.”
Tell me about it. Tell everybody about it. We’re all so cross so much of the time. And while it may be possible to spin the line that being angry at Putin or Boris Johnson or the boss of Southern Water or BP could have the useful role of spurring us on to political action, for most of us, most of the time, it leads to nothing more than spluttering and muttering, and feelings of impotence and despair. To borrow from Aristotle, we might have the right targets, but berating them late at night on Newsnight cannot be said to be using anger in the right degree, time, purpose or way.
Besides, getting cross at politicians and other people in the public eye is only the start of it. Anger gets everywhere. Even, perhaps especially, into our routine daily lives. Even into our generally hospitable and equable wine trade.
Twitter is where the rage is most visible, and “wine Twitter” is a place where the weird grudges, slights, and aesthetic dogma of wine merchants, sommeliers, writers and influencers (so many writers and influencers) with too much time and too many opinions on their hands comes into the harshest pixelated light. B ut, as someone who believes the cartoonish caricatures we all become on social media are a symptom not a cause of our age of anger, I’m more interested in the ways anger manifests itself offline. In tasting, for example. I don’t mean red-faced, apoplectic rage, something that I’ve only ever encountered once in a tasting setting (and which was funny and a little ridiculous rather than disturbing).
I mean the kind of tetchy, passiveaggressive, niggly, huffy sort of anger that so often comes out when two people disagree on a wine.
Sometimes, when a disagreement flares up, it’s not really about the wine. It might be a battle of egos: how dare you challenge my view, which can only ever be the right view since it’s my view, me, the greatest taster who ever lived?
Or it might be an expression of defensiveness or imposter syndrome on one or both sides: I’m out of step with everyone, I look stupid, the only way to save face is to double down on my opinion and to put the case in an exaggeratedly passionate way that is totally out of keeping with my frankly rather lukewarm feelings for the wine.
But anger in wine tasting isn’t always about interpersonal dynamics and pop-
Aristotle, or possibly John Lydon
psychology. You can get angry – or at least, I can get angry – at wine when no one else is around. Or more precisely, I can get angry at whatever vague, abstract personage or business is responsible for it.
Why am I angry? What, to use the modern parlance, are the triggers? Sometimes it’s to do with a gap I perceive between the quality and the price, an anger that is directed at the cynicism, greed, or even delusion of its producers.
But the red mist can descend even when all the information I have to go on in is right there in the glass. Too dull, too extracted, too much oak, too “natural”, too forced, too sickly. On some days these may raise no more than an irritated sigh. But on others, and most of all when this opinion is not shared – nay, disputed! – by a fellow taster, the hackles rise, the eyes narrow, the lips purse, and the argument begins.
Of course, if I were to take a step back and view this situation through the eyes of a dispassionate observer, someone who doesn’t spend their life working with and thinking about wine, the figure I would see – the unedifyingly grumpy man raging away at a glass of purple liquid – is ridiculous, entirely out of touch, and very clearly not angry at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way. It’s a glass of wine, you absolute lunatic, not some terrible injustice.
But you could say the same about almost any human endeavour that doesn’t come under the category of “life or death”, from literature and music to gastronomy and football. To an outsider not initiated in the aesthetic disputes of a given field, any passionate debate looks absurd and out of proportion.
But if you really care about something, I’d argue (passionately, intemperately) that you’re inevitably going to get roused to anger about it from time to time. And, while we might not want to encourage more rage in an already-angry world, provided it’s at the right time and in the right place and for the right purpose, anger, in wine as in everything, can be nothing more than a sign that you care.
Alentejo, a place where secrets are shared
Hundreds of producers in the Portuguese region are working together to make big progress on environmental and social issues, to the benefit of all
Plenty of wineries would like to operate in a more sustainable way. That’s laudible. But when an entire region comes together, with the same environmental and social ambitions … that’s when you sense that a real difference can be made.
Alentejo began its sustainability journey as far back as 2013, formally introducing the Wines of Alentejo Sustainability Programme two years later. The scheme – known by the acronym WASP – supports improvements in the way the industry looks after nature, and its people, and at the same time improves the economic performance of the region’s wine industry.
In its first year, WASP signed up 93 members. There are now 517, all striving for a more efficient use of resources, the reduction and reuse of winemaking by-products, and a resulting decline in operating costs.
Members conduct a self-assessment every year, so that improvements can be made (for example) in the way vineyards understand and deal with pests, or wineries conserve water in the cellar, or businesses recruit and train staff.
The emphasis is on sharing knowledge, ideas and best practice across Alentejo. WASP has developed a knowledge-sharing network to allow good ideas to spread quickly. Some of these include the use of regenerative farming which, in a droughtprone region like Alentejo, is showing very positive results. The difference here, as WASP manager João Barroso says, is between “trying to survive in a desert, or, thriving in a garden of Eden”.
Published in association with Wines of Alentejo vinhosdoalentejo.pt Instagram: vinhosdoalentejo
For samples of Alentejo wines, contact Eleanor Standen: eleanor@randr.co.uk
Meet two of the producers
Herdade dos Lagos, in the Vale de Açor de Cima within Mértola in the south of Alentejo, had been practising sustainability for more than 40 years when it joined WASP in 2015. Since then, the estate – which is owned by the Zeppenfeld Kreikenbaum family from Germany – has been expanding beyond its organic certification.
Planting cover crops has helped its soil’s organic matter content to rise from 0.75% to 4%. Growing olives and carobs, and rearing sheep, has not only stopped the vineyards being a monoculture, but also brought in diverse revenues when wine markets have fluctuated.
Controlling irrigation has cut water usage by more than 71% over the past seven years, and seen otters return to the estate’s dams. Four arrays of solar panels have also been erected to produce electricity on site.
HDL Branco 2021
55% Arinto, 25% Viosinho, 20% Alvarinho. Slowly fermented in stainless steel and then left for six months on fine lees with occasional bâtonage. Passion fruit, pear and lime characters, with refreshing, spicy grapefruit.
HDL Tinto 2020
60% Syrah, 30% Alicante Bouschet, 10% Touriga Nacional. Aged for six months in stainless steel with 10% of the wine maturing in French oak. Notes of cranberry jam and cherry blossom. Silky, dry tannins.
HDL Touriga Nacional 2018
Aged for eight months in stainless steel with 10% of the wine maturing in French oak. Complex, with aromas of black fruit, jam and cocoa. Velvety, balanced and slightly spicy, with a flavour reminiscent of ginger,
Herdade de Coelheiros
Coelheiros.pt Seeking UK distribution
Herdade de Coelheiros has converted 48 hectares of vineyard to organic farming and has used no herbicides for the past five years, with the amount of copper used on each hectare falling from more than 2kg in 2020 to 0.97kg in 2022. Grass has been seeded or has grown spontaneously across 51 hectares.
The estate has installed 68 bird and bat boxes, with 23 of them occupied. It has also monitored birds of prey in the vineyards, ranging from resident species such as buzzards, kestrels and tawny owls through to summer visitors including black kites and booted eagles, and winter migrants like red kites.
Thirty-six flowmeters have been fitted around the vineyards to monitor water consumption by the vines. The estate is also working on four sustainability projects with the University of Evora, ranging from biodiversity and ecosystem studies through to a doctoral thesis.
Coelheiros White 2021
80% Arinto, 20% Antão Vaz, from vines at 300m altitude. After fermentation begins in stainless steel, 30% of the must is fermented in French oak and left on fine lees. Fresh, balanced and exuberant.
Coelheiros Rosé 2021
100% Syrah, grown on granitic soil, again at 300m altitude, with a high clay content and low fertility. As with the white, a portion of the must completes its fermentation in barrel before some fine lees ageing.
Coelheiros Red 2021
50% Touriga Nacional, 50% Touriga Franca. The wine ferments in stainless steel and is left on its skins for five days, before a year of oak ageing. Concentrated but fresh, with up to eight years of ageing potential.
PERNOD RICARD EDGES OUT LIBERTY WINES IN CHARITY THRILLER
Fun in the sun at the Pol Roger Touch Rugby Tournament in aid of the Drinks Trust
The victorious Pernod Ricard team
n August 11, Pol Roger
OPortfolio hosted a touch rugby tournament in order to raise funds for The Drinks Trust.
In total, £3,205 was raised for the charity, the largest sum so far in the history of the competition. With 18 teams attending, this was the highest attendance at the competition since it began four years ago.
The teams comprised members of the wine trade, from companies such as Rémy Cointreau, Freixenet Copestick, Jeroboams, Lanique Wines, Jascots, Moët Hennessy, Pernod Ricard, Liberty Wines, Berry Bros & Rudd, Stannary Wines, Hallgarten & Novum, Maison Marques et Domaines and Lea & Sandeman.
Each game was played over 10 minutes in a rugby sevens format, refereed by former professional rugby players Nathan Hines and Jack Clifford.
After a pools championship round, Pernod Ricard, Jascots, Liberty and Moët Hennessy progressed to the semi-finals, before a final game between Pernod Ricard and Liberty. A tightly contested match ensued, and Pernod Ricard won out under the August sun, triumphing for the second year in a row.
The games took place at Barn Elms playing fields, with Barnes RFC hosting a post-match raffle to raise funds for the Drinks Trust.
Raffle prizes were contributed from the Barbarians FC, Gilbert Rugby, St Paul’s Cathedral, Charlie Allen as well as all the teams, and refreshments provided by Timothy Taylors and Igo Wine.
With the tournament growing in size each year, Pol Roger Portfolio looks forward to hosting again next year on August 10 for more wine-trade sports fun and to raise even more money for charity. Details for submitting teams will be posted closer to the time.
www.polroger.co.uk
01432 262800 Twitter: @Pol_Roger
Could Greek wine be on the verge of achieving something big in the independent trade? Maria Moutsou sees no reason why not.
In association with Southern Wine Roads
Greece is the word
Greece is finally on the independent trade’s radar. In The Wine Merchant’s most recent reader survey, just over a third of respondents named it as one of the most exciting wine producing countries, placing it in sixth place in the top 20.
For Maria Moutsou, the wines of Greece have always been a passion. A Greek native, she founded Southern Wine Roads in 2014, convinced that the UK market deserved access to a wider range of wines from her homeland.
“More or less every family in Greece has a connection to a vineyard,” she says.
“What fascinates me about wine is the relationship with the land, the experience of living the seasons, with something that takes a whole year to develop agriculturally and then perhaps many more years to make into a finished product.”
Maria is a firm believer that, even in the distant past, Greece had the terroir and the grape varieties to make high-quality wines. As she points out: “Greece was very good at producing sweet wines, and back in the 19th century there was a big export market for Mavrodaphne and sweet Muscat wines, and Vinsanto from Santorini was known to be exported to the courts of Europe during the Middle Ages under the Venetian rule.”
Political turmoil in the 1970s set the industry back, but by the 1980s a new breed of young winemaker was starting to emerge, often educated in overseas wine schools. And as wineries modernised and vineyards were replanted with the help of EU investment, the scene was set for Greece to claim its rightful place among the world wine elite.
“Our first PDO classification system was formed in the early 70s,” Maria says. “The first modern winemaker to study oenology outside Greece – in no less a place than Bordeaux itself – was Lefteris Glinavos, with whom we collaborate. He still heads the winery, in his mid 90s, together with his son Thomas.
“On returning to Greece, he established his winery and bottled his first ‘personal’ wine in 1978: a light sparkling rosé wine called Lady Frosyne, which is still going and which we import, following the local tradition of sparkling wines that dates back centuries in the region of Epirus.”
Every year, Southern Wine Roads puts a special marketing focus on two native Greek grapes, one white and one red.
“Muscat being such a long living and fascinating grape variety, it has produced many different styles of wine, from sparkling to sweet. This one is like a Moscato d’Asti: a Charmat method sparkling wine with lovely mousse, delicate sweetness and low alcohol from a stopped fermentation. It’s the perfect companion to parties.”
Vakakis Pythagorean Theorem Dry Muscat Blanc
“In some PDO areas Muscat must be made only into sweet wines. Samos is one of the exceptions, expanding the offering of wines made on the island. This is a great dry example from vineyards in the Fterias area, at 800m altitude and with sandy clay soils. The yield is low and the wine has a refreshing acidity.”
Vakakis Kalypso Under Sea Aged Dry Muscat
“This is an experiment continuing the trend for under-sea wine ageing of the past 10 to 15 years. The wine matures for two years 20m under the sea, where the temperature is cooler and more uniform, and light reach is limited. This is another example of the innovation that is happening in Greek wineries right now.”
Papargyriou Blanc Dry White Blend
“A versatile 50-50 blend of Muscat and Assyrtiko from a family winery. The grapes are cultivated at 850m in limestone soil in the northern Peloponnese. The Muscat is very fragrant and prominent on the nose, very lifted and delicate. The Assyrtiko gives body and alcohol. Both have high acidity and the combination is simply genial.”
Garalis Terra Ambera Amphora Muscat of Alexandria
“This is made by a more delicate Muscat variety from the island of Lemnos. It doesn’t have the linearity of Muscat Blanc but the aromas are exotic. Made by a natural wine producer, it spends 45 days on its skins in amphora, the clay vessel adding layers of warmth and earthiness.”
This year has seen the turn of Roditis and Mavrodaphne, both of which were featured in a recent online tasting for independents run in partnership with The Wine Merchant.
Next year attention will turn to Avgoustiatis (“such an interesting grape … it has the character of a Tempranillo or a Sangiovese, but more intriguing and delicate aromas, often floral, including violets and desiccated roses”) and Muscat, which has been one of the most praised Greek grapes throughout history and the most decorated one, claiming no fewer than six PDO designations, more than any other Greek grape variety.
“Muscat is an amazing value grape, very appealing; ancient and modern at the same time, versatile, and it performs beautifully in its home,” Maria says.
“The word Muscat comes from the Greek word μόσχος, meaning fragrant.
“The variety originates from the eastern Mediterranean and more specifically the island of Samos.
“Muscat is not only the grape with the most PDO classifications in Greek wine but the one with a multitude of regional names, showing how popular and interwoven with people’s living it has been. Of those names, about 15 are now commonly used throughout Greece, from Thrace to Crete and from Samos to the Ionian Sea.
“The Muscat varieties found in Greece are mainly Muscat Blanc, which is the dominant one, and Muscat of Alexandria, with anecdotal plantings of Muscat Ottonel also reported.
“Muscat blends are an amazing way to enjoy the grape in wines made to accompany food, as they offer the opportunity to combine a generous nose with a more substantial body and a matching, refreshing acidity, as we see in Papargyriou Muscat Blanc.”
Southern Wine Roads is steadily increasing its trade with the independent sector as more merchants take a more serious look at what Greece has to offer.
According to Maria, there is no reason why Greece shouldn’t emulate some of the recent UK market successes of Portugal.
She is hesitant to offer generalised advice to any indie thinking of expanding their Greek range. “You have to take every case on its merits,” she says. “Each merchant has its own clientele, priorities and the individual preferences of the owners and staff.” But the SWR teams stands ready to guide Greek wine novices through the process.
What are Greece’s most exciting wine regions right now? “It’s difficult to give one single answer,” she says.
“I used to say, as a joke, that you can have a vineyard on your balcony in Greece, and it would produce something interesting. You can find a plethora of microterroirs a stone’s throw from each other. For example, if you are in the Peloponnese you might think there should be some uniformity of terroir, but you can get into another enclosure between mountains within 80km or100km and then you have totally different climate influences: wind reaching from the west rather than the north, the concentration of humidity being
different and the flora and fauna becoming very local and distinct.
“Greece might not look big on a map, but I always say it’s big in its detail.
“I think Greek wine definitely deserves more attention to this intrinsic detail and to its vast winemaking history. There is so much depth and variety in winemaking right now in Greece, and a lot to discover for novices and fans alike.” In association with
maria@southernwineroads.com southernwineroads.com Telephone 07775 714595
Maria Moutsou started the Southern Wine Roads business in 2014
“A double-bill rosé wine made with black and white Muscat grapes. The must stays for a couple of hours with the grape skins and then ferments at low temperatures to create an exceptionally fruity and aromatic wine. It has the most exotic nose you can find, loaded with rose petal aromas and notes of pomegranate and quince.”
Vakakis Pythagorean Cup Semi-sweet Muscat Blanc
“A versatile wine, thanks to its generous grapey and summer fruit flavours, high acidity and residual sugars, which create the perfect balance to allow it to be enjoyed throughout a meal. It’s ideal with charcuterie and patés, as well as light desserts, on its own or as a mixer for dry sparkling wines.”
Vakakis Filion Vin Doux Muscat Blanc
“This wine style is the most popular and the most exported out of Samos. It’s made by stopping the fermentation with spirit at 15% abv to achieve the desired residual sweetness and capture all the grapeyness, summer fruit flavours and a hint of nuts. Perfect with Christmas pudding and all kinds of brioche and panettone pastries.”
Vakakis Pythagorean Epogdoon Barrel Aged Muscat Blanc
“A very serious sweet wine, made from older vines at 650m altitude. After meticulous selection, grapes are laid to dry in the sun then gently pressed, delivering a dense must that ferments with its own yeasts. The wine matures in French oak for 12-18 months. A rich wine with a broad palette of flavours.”
Vermood Bianco Muscat Blanc Vermouth
“Muscat Blanc still wine (from within the PDO Muscat of Rio) is distilled with citrus fruit peels, herbs and spices to create this sublime drink. Producers of sweet Muscat are experimenting with other styles in order to diversify their offer. I love this over ice. The alcohol level is low (18%) so you don’t really need a mixer.”
