How do natural wines last so long once you open them?

Last night we got back to France and shared the remains of a bottle of Mas Coutelou’s Le Vin Des Amis 2011* we’d left in the fridge a week before. It was delicious - as good as the night we’d opened it.

It’s not the first experience I’ve had of that recently. Thierry Germain told us that the Terres Chaudes we tasted the other week had been open for 8 days. And some wines even taste better the second day than they do when they're first opened. So what’s going on?

In my experience that doesn’t happen with conventional wines - certainly not at this price. Often I’ve had some bottles hanging around from a tasting and tried them the following day with food and they’ve just fallen apart.

The most obvious explanation is that these are ‘living’ wines or vins vivants as the French put it. Because there is very little, if any, sulphur in them, because they’re not fined or filtered  bacteriological activity is still taking place (precisely what those opposed to natural wines disapprove of).

Wines that are clearly heat-treated (see previous post on soupy reds) by contrast or which are made with aromatic yeasts seem to fall apart very quickly. The producers and retailers who sell them probably assume - quite rightly - that most people will drink them in an evening well before they get to that stage but with the greater awareness of alcohol intake at the moment I’m not sure that’s necessarily the case - certainly in households of two like ours.

The yeast aspect is interesting. The wines I’m referring to - indeed almost all natural wines - are made with wild yeasts and therefore presumably don’t need the enzymes required to make commercial yeasts do their job. Sourdough bread also lasts a great deal longer than bread made with commercial yeast. So maybe that’s it?

Or is it the tannins - both the wines concerned were red? Or the fact our wine had been kept in the fridge which I imagine must have helped?

Winemakers, what do you think?

* a blend of Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault and Mourvèdre

Why Noma serves natural wine

As if natural wine needed a boost right now along comes this interview on eater.com with Noma's wine director Pontus Elofsson on why Noma has turned its back on Bordeaux and is serving natural wines, mainly from Austria, Germany, Champagne, Burgundy and the Loire.

He's quoted as saying "Around 2006 I started to realize the wines with the least amount of intervention, chemicals, and techniques involved had an energy and focus that many of the conventional wines did not. I also started to realize that the wilder the wine, the better it paired with René's food."

Bordeaux, he says does not and is, in Elofsson's view, "probably the biggest chemical factory in Europe."

Whoa - stirring stuff! Read the rest of the interview here.

And download the wine list here.

Thierry Germain of Domaine des Roches Neuves: taking his wines to new heights

It was pouring the day we visited Thierry Germain of Domaine des Roches Neuves in the Loire the week before last. Absolutely tipping down. And it was a leaf day so the fact his wines tasted so great was an enormous tribute to his skill. I’ve tasted them many times before and always been rather more impressed with their vigour than their finesse but this time they were quite magical.

2011 was a great vintage, admittedly ‘with zero botrytis in both the whites and the reds’ according to Germain. “The grapes were mature before the heat of September. We finished our harvest by the 15th. Many producers didn’t start till the 18th.”

The estate, which Germain took over in 1991, has been run biodynamically since 2000 and the effects are only now beginning to kick in, he says.’It takes 10 years for the full effect to show. We began to see big changes in 2008/9.’

Germain, whose family have been winemakers for several generations according to this excellent post by 'wine doctor' Chris Kissack, has also changed his style. “I don’t want over-ripeness. I make my wine how I eat my fruit - I want to be able to crunch into the grapes  The stuff about the maturity of the pips, that they should be brown is rubbish. Over-ripeness is black and dead."

He admits that at one stage he was over-extracting. “There was always one remontage or pigeage too many. Now I macerate for 10 days when previously I would have done it  for 30. Before I was all theory - now it’s about practice."

He gets the structure he’s looking for from using more whole bunches which also have the effect of giving the reds a beguilingly stalky freshness.

He’s also looking to bring down the levels of alcohol in his wines. “The 2011 vintage of Marginale, for example - still in barrel - is 12.7%. Previously it was 14.2%. Franc de Pied [the wine he makes on ungrafted rootstocks] is ripe at 11.8%. My grandfather said a great cabernet [franc] is ripe at 11.5%.”

Otherwise he subscribes to all the cherished tenets of the natural wine movement - tisanes and biodynamic treatments, low yields, horses in the vineyard (increasingly all his new plantings are worked with horses), natural yeasts and ungrafted rootstocks. He feels particularly strongly about the last two. “I am against vignerons who cultivate their own yeasts. Each year brings a different selection and that marks the vintage.” And rootstocks? “If you graft you are putting a filter between the roots and the vine.”

He’s not religious about sulphur but uses very little. “Hardly ever more than 2g and never before malo. “To say you use no sulphur is a con. I don’t go to zero but the more sulphur you put in the more you lose the life of a wine. If you get it right in the vineyard you don’t need sulphur. A living wine doesn’t oxidise - that wine (the 2011 Terres Chaudes we tasted below) has been open for 8 days.”

Not that he’s averse to innovation when it can help preserve the purity of his wines. His bottling line he says is a sterile, germ free area to avoid last minute contamination. All bottles filled sous vide (under a vacuum).

The project that excites him most at the moment, however, is creating a ‘conservatoire de Cabernet’, a collection of 220 vines from old vineyards out of which he’ll aim to pick about 60 through  selection massale (producing cuttings from selected vines rather than clonal material from a nursery). Again harking back to an earlier period when a typical vineyard would contain 45/50 different clones. “It’s essential if you’re working on own rootstocks” he says, simply. “It’s important to preserve variety because one clone can get diseased.” A bequest to leave for future generations.

We tasted the latest vintages and wines from barrel. All the reds are classified as Saumur-Champigny

Terres Chaudes 2011
A good place to start with Germain’s wines. A great expression of Cabernet Franc (40% whole bunches this year), appealingly mineral, earthy with wonderfully pure, singing fruit. “as seductive as the swish of a silken kimono” according to the inimitable Doug Wregg of importers Les Caves de Pyrène. (Not yet available in the UK. Caves de Pyrène has the 2010 for £16.80* )

La Marginale 2009
A famously hot vintage so he picked early (16-20 September). Quite funky on the nose but opened up beautifully in the glass (could, I imagine, benefit from decanting) Structured and spicy. Very low yielding vines - 25hl per ha. 40% whole bunches. Far more structured than the Terres Chaudes showing Germain’s Bordeaux roots. Perhaps the only one of his wines that borders on amber under my scoring system (right)  (£26 CdeP)

Marginale 2010 (from barrel)
90% whole bunches. 1g of sulphur. More substantial and structured with dark wild berry/loganberry fruit. Aged 50% in large oak casks, 50% in 2 or 3  y.o. barrels. Needs time, obviously. He is drinking the 2006s now - his view is that the 2008s are still closed

Franc de Pied 2010
Hard to decide whether it’s because we were aware it was made from ungrafted vines but it does seem to have an extra dimension. A profound, complex, savoury wine - Germain thinks the extra bunches he added in this vintage (he uses 100% in this cuvée) add tannin and structure. One to age as you can see from the notes on the 2008 (below) (Caves de Pyrène has the 2009 which we didn't taste at £28.50)

Franc de Pied 2008
Only 500 bottles were made of this so we were very lucky to get a taste. Very ripe, opulent with an extraordinay aroma of red roses and peonies. But savoury too, not jammy at all. Good, he says, with veal or pork chops or other fatty meats - but not with sauce. Shows the value of hanging on to this cuvée - if you’re fortunate enough to get your hands on some. (Also picked out by my husband, Trevor, as one of his star wines at the Real Wine Fair)

Franc de Pied 2011 (barrel)
Like the other 2011s the fruit is sumptous, and - despite the fact that the tannins are still unintegrated - just the most incredibly exciting Saumur-Champigny I’ve tasted. Alain Passard pairs Franc de Pied with beetroot baked in Fleur de Sel and raw radishes, appreciating the finesse behind the power

Les Ecotards Saumur Blanc 2010
Not one of Germain’s own wines but one of his protegés Michel Chevré - he encourages the people who work with him to buy their own vines (how often do you find a winemaker showing a journalist the wines of a potential rival?) A bright crisp white with lovely pure apple and pear fruit and a touch of greengage. Ideal, he says with sushi or seared scallops with yuzu

L’Insolite Saumur Blanc 2011
Superb, light yet lush, peachy Chenin from a sélection massale vineyard of 90 y.o. vines. Aged in large foudres. Brilliant natural acidity - obviously the best is yet to come. Try, says one supplier, Joseph Barnes, with with asparagus with tarragon butter, grilled perch with fennel or sauteed sea bass fillets served with a light wasabi cream sauce. Right then! (£16.80 CdeP)

Clos Romans Saumur Blanc 2011
Another very limited bottling (533 bottles in total) from a ‘magic’ place according to Germain. Heady scented nose of mandarin and peach. So exquisite it should be sipped on its own - even France’s 3 star chefs are on strict allocation. My OH’s remark that it was like a great German riesling went down well. “I have looked for this balance for a long time” beamed Germain.

Vintages Germain thinks best for the Loire - 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2011. Less typical 2003, 2005, 2009

Thierry Germain’s wines are imported by Les Caves de Pyrène and available from their Guildford shop and by mail order. As importers they obviously have the widest selection at the best prices. Other retailers tend to charge a pound or two more and may be on older vintages - on the other hand it may suit you to buy a single bottle. If you think Germain's wines are on the expensive side - they are - it reflects the care he takes in the vineyard and throughout the whole winemaking process and may make the difference between a drinkable vintage in this intensely difficult year of 2012 or a dud one. According to one (rather envious) winemaker I spoke to he's spent a huge amount sending people out into the vineyards to cut back excessive growth among the vines as a result of the unseasonally wet weather.

By the way Germain has a charmingly illustrated booklet about his domaine and winemaking philosophy which I guess he'd probably send you if you emailed him.

Vincent et Marie Tricot: a new find in the Auvergne

The problem about wine fairs is that there's just too much to take in. Even at a small fête du vin like the one we went to at the weekend at Chassignolles in the Auvergne

My normal rule is to try a maximum of four wines from any one producer so as to be able to get round as many as possible. But that can mean you miss a couple of the wines that you would have bought if you'd tasted them. As happened with the wines of Vincent and Marie Tricot

The first was La Bulleversante, a delicious, light (6%) semi-sparkling Muscat which was served at the Auberge de Chassignolles on the eve of the fair with rum babas and fresh berries - the perfect match. I failed to make the connection with the Tricots when I was trying their wines the next day otherwise I'd have snapped up a case.

The second was an equally scrummy pinot noir rosé we had for lunch on the day after the féte - a lovely pairing with a pea and broad bean soup. I think it was Le Trois Bonhommes though there's not much about the Tricots on the net apart from this report on the excellent Wine Terroirs. Again we'd have bought some if we'd tasted it the previous day.

What we did buy was two lovely 2011 reds (in the rather wonky picture above - one of the few shortcomings of the iPhone is that it's hopeless at wine bottles) - a vividly fruity pinot/gamay blend called Les Milans (€6.50) and a low-yielding old-vine gamay that was so peppery it tasted almost like a young syrah. That was just €7.50.

Anyway you can find them if you're in France at the Rue des Percèdes 63670 Orcet
Puy-de-Dôme Tél : 0033 (0)4 73 77 70 67 or in London at Gergovie wines who are back in business in Maltby Street from the end of August. Obviously their prices will be higher to reflect transport costs and UK tax and duty.

More about the Chassignolles Fête du Vin shortly. And my tasting with Thierry Germain.

The problems of being ‘bio’ in Bordeaux

You might quite reasonably wonder if I’ve stopped drinking natural wine. Gone over to the dark side and started quaffing Blossom Hill. But no. The absence of posts simply reflects the fact I’ve been manically busy - travelling (to Rioja and Bordeaux) and relaunching my website.

There’s a lot to report - not least that more and more ‘conventional’ wine merchants and restaurants are stocking natural wine, including - I hear from my colleague Fiona Sims - the Connaught which now devotes 4 pages of its wine list to natural wines. But let’s start with Bordeaux, an area not exactly noted for organic viticulture.

There’s a reason for this as I discovered from two winemakers I met at the end of my recent trip - François Landais (above, right) of Chåteau La Caderie in the Libournais where he produces Bordeaux Supérieur and Gilles Borgon of Château de Cots in Côtes de Bourg, both of whom are members of a regional organic producers' association. "Bordeaux is one of the most difficult regions to cultivate organically" said Borgon who has been certified bio since 1999 and followed organic practices well before then. "In a good year you get downy mildew, in another, odium. In a bad year you have them both. It is complicated but then the profession of a vigneron is complicated."

It’s also problematic that Bordeaux is so densely planted which makes it hard to avoid contamination from neighbouring vineyards which are chemically treated. To retain their certification they need to be 12 metres away.

Despite that a growing number of producers has been turning bio - the number of organic producers has doubled in the last 4 years, according to Borgon, because of the premium organic wines attract. He’s not sure how many will stay the course. “Dfficult years like this (2012) will sort out the sheep from the goats. You need to be used to it - to be bio (organic) is an enormous amount of work. People who can’t cope will give up."

Even the use of horses - now popular among some of the better known estates such as Chateau Latour and Smith-Haut-Lafitte - isn’t quite as ‘natural’ or green as it seems.

“When I was young my father had a horse to plough the vineyards but one hectare of vines would take him three days. says Borgon. The carbon footprint of a horse isn't any better than a tractor. And you can’t just get up at 5 and go and switch it on. You have to get up at 4 and feed the horse which takes an hour - and you need to find time to make your own hay. We could do it if we had 3 hectares of Pomerol but not in Côtes du Bourg. We can be organic but we can’t go back to the Middle Ages."

It’s also hard to get people to understand how vintages differ these days. “People are used to Pepsi, Orangina and Heineken where every bottle is the same. But the way we make wine is different every year."

That said both winemakers were making very drinkable, inexpensive wines of the kind that represent the unsung backbone of Bordeaux. Chateau La Caderie’s fresh fruity young 2010 (a blend of 93% Merlot and 7% Malbec) was a real vin des copains at just 5.50€ from the cellar door while his La Caderie Authentique 2007 (€7.10) - a blend of 60% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon was smoother and more supple. Cabernet Franc is increasingly being planted to keep the levels of alcohol within reasonable limits, according to Landais.

Borgon’s wines were more structured and rustic (by which I mean characterful rather than coarse). His 2009 Chateau de Cots (6.50€ but apparently also available in Nicolas), a blend of 60% Merlot, 20% Malbec and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon and aged in 2-3 year old barrels was spicy and substantial and the Malbec dominated 2007 Cuvée Prestige (80% Malbec, 20% Cabernet) which is, unusually for the appellation, aged in new oak for at least 18 months, even more so. At first I found it excessively oaky but it opened up well in the glass suggesting that it could benefit from decanting - and further ageing.. 

Conscious, perhaps, that his style puts him out on a limb Borgon made a point of stressing that he makes wines that he think represents the traditions of his region. "Wine is not a fashion. If you buy Bordeaux it should taste like Bordeaux. I am Bordelais. I shall remain Bordelais and I make the wines that please me. If people want more fruit why not drink Beaujolais?"

He has a point.

I'd classify all the above wines as green (see guide on the RHS)

Mas Coutelou, Puimuisson: the extraordinary natural winemaker on our doorstep

 

It’s more than a little ironic that having chased round France - and further afield - seeking out natural winemakers I should find an exceptional one in the next door village to ours in the Languedoc: Jean Francois Coutelou of Mas Coutelou. Not least because we discovered him in London at the Real Wine Fair where one of his bottles, Classe, turned up on our table at dinner.

We rang him up and got a fax signal (who uses a fax these days?) for the first few tries but eventually tracked down the man himself and arranged to meet him. The next hurdle was actually finding the chai in the backstreets of Puimuisson. He didn’t, of course have the familiar sign that directs you to local wineries or even any indication outside the door but the locals knew where he was. “You’ll be lucky to find him in” in they said darkly.

He was clearly disappointed (and a little reproving) that we wouldn’t head straight out to the vineyards with him so we stepped into the chai to taste. It would confirm all the worst suspicions of the anti-natural wine brigade - rambling, dusty and chaotic, If Roald Dahl had written a book about a winemaker Jean Francois - or Jeff as he’s known -  would be it.

His father set up the domain in 1972 and it’s been worked organically since 1987 “that is to say before this type of production became fashionable” as he points out on his website. He follows some biodynamic practices though is not religious about it. Yields in the vineyard are kept low. Vinification is adapted to the vintage but he uses no commercial yeasts and very little, if any sulphur “to preserve the authentic character of our wines.”  No filtration, either.

Clearly a restless experimenter, Coutelou started producing bottles and tank samples like rabbits out of a hat. We started conventionally enough with a vivid young syrah, 7 Rue de la Pompe, a classic vin de soif that totally demolishes the idea that all natural wine is expensive - 5.50€ from the cellar and only £8.95 at his importers, Roberson. (Needless to say the winery isn’t in rue de Pompe - I forgot to ask why the name.)

There was an enchanting sparkling elderflower drink which tasted of lychees and a sweetish grenache-based pet nat like freshly made strawberry jam. Other dry reds follow in quick succession: Le Vin des Amis, a vigorous, rustic blend of 60% grenache 40% syrah made without any sulphur, the ripe brambley Classe 2011 (40% Syrah, 40% Grenache, 20% Carignan) - a little reductive - it needed carafing and the terrific Flambadou, a 100% Carignan brimming with bright plum and cherry fruit which he has made only four times in the past 10 years. I thought it was carbonic maceration but he said it was traditionally vinified. One of the most enjoyable Languedoc carignans I’ve had.

Would we like to try a wine from his solera system? Nothing could have stopped us. We moved to the next door cellar which if anything was even crazier, piled with ancient pieces of agricultural equipment and tools. (His grandfather used to be a blacksmith). In a corner of the cellar bottles encrusted with decades of dust piled up, stoppered with decaying corks and what looked, in one case, like a small furry vole..

Another bombardment - a dozen-odd pipettes of the most extraordinary grenache I’ve ever tasted, from dry and nutty to creamy to caressingly sweet, like the finest aged sherries rather than the vin doux naturels of this part of the world. The soleras go back 40-50 years. He is, he says, merely contnuing a tradition in which every household used to make their own.

These he doesn’t sell - or at least not in any quantity. If you come and taste you can buy a single bottle which will cost you anything from 15 to 50 euros depending on the age of the wines and, you suspect, what he feels like on the day. You pick the wines you’ve enjoyed most, he blends them together, you taste and he fine tunes the blend with whatever you feel is missing. Then he labels it just for you - a totally unique wine. It’s a lot of money, he admits, but “once it’s bottled the treasure is gone”.

Oddly when we bought a selection of his other bottles at the end of the tasting we went into a third, comparatively well-organised room which made you wonder if all the chaos is just for effect. I suspect it might be.

When I looked up the Roberson site to see what his prices were in the UK I found his wines plastered all over their home page and that Jancis and - improbably -  Decanter had praised him to the skies. How did we not know about him? Thank God we now do. Remarkable wines.

My OH’s highlights from the Real Wine Fair and RAW fair

My husband, Trevor Vibert, as I’ve mentioned before, is the one who got me into natural wine so it seemed only right that he should come to the Real and RAW fairs with me the other week. (Needless to say he didn’t need a lot of persuading). These were the wines that stood out for him, in no particular order, he says.

“This is, of course, not an exhaustive listing. There were far too many wines on show for anyone to claim to be able to offer that. The other caveat is that, by and large i haven’t included wines from producers I already knew well - just wines from producers I know that I hadn’t already tasted - as I wanted to concentrate on breaking new ground as far as possible.

Domaine des Roches Neuves: Thierry Germain’s extraordinary Saumur-Champigny "Franc de Pied" 2008 (Les Caves de Pyrène)
A totally convincing demonstration of just how wines must have tasted pre-phylloxera, with all the zing of ripe Cabernet Franc, enveloped in luscious fruit (almost sweet - but definitely not). This was, in some way that I haven't quite yet managed to articulate, unlike anything else I have ever tasted. But in a good way, not in a scary, off-the-wall way. It was like the best Loire Cab Franc and then somehow even more than that.

Domaine Alexandre Bain Pouilly Fumé 2010 (CdP)
As classy as the classiest Sauvignon you have ever tasted, but combining that with all the complexity and aromatic weight that the wild men of Europe have taught us to see as equally essential to getting the most out of Sauvignon. As big as a great Chardonnay but with a whole other spectrum of delicacy and exotic fruit. A mailed fist in a velvet glove . . .

Domaine Cousin-Leduc (CdP)
Two wines here: Olivier Cousin's wildly, maniacally exuberant 2010 Gamay - which almost leaps out of the glass and grabs you by the throat. One sip (gulp in my case - tch, tch, I told you to spit! FB) and you can't stop grinning. A real vin des copains. The other is the 2007 Cabernet Franc Vieilles Vignes. Equally exuberant but with a big, big structure that makes the most out of the minerality of Cabernet Franc. This one lingers on and on in the mouth. Again it shouts rustic values and real unconfined joyousness.

Domaine du Corps de Garde 'Gueules de Loup' Bourgogne Côtes d'Auxerre 2010 (CdP)
This is doubly an exception to the rules I set myself, as it is a wine I’ve tasted before - several years ago following a wine trip to Chablis and that I didn't taste it at the stand. At the Monday night Real Wine Fair dinner there were armies of bottles all around the room and we were invited to just pitch into what we liked (many times!)

Out of curiosity to see how they had progressed I picked this bottle (hence the soggy label). We had been convinced by that first visit that this young winemaker would go places (he was so youthful in appearance that we have always referred to him as the ‘boy wonder’!). From the very first taste it was astounding - fully the equal of a great Chablis, with all the power and concentration but an overall impression of sweet and lingering delicacy. My great-uncle - a winemaker - would always describe Chablis as tasting of cream with sweetness, roundness and acidity. This had the lot. And it was wonderful with food.

There were two domaines I found exceptional in that all their wines were outstanding:

The first was Domaine Belluard from Savoie (CdP). All three wines showed  (all 2010s) were whites made from the very rare Gringet grape. All possessed a wonderful minerality with a great aromatic signature to the finish.

Monsieur Belluard came over as a kind of philosopher king. He made his wines like a warrior in the vineyard but with the thoughtfulness of a real thinker in his vinifications. The sort of innovator who extends and expands traditional values and techniques.

His first two wines, Les Alpes, and Le Feu - a single parcel - were both fermented in ovoid concrete tanks. The third was fermented on the skins for 12 months in clay amphorae. And did they taste nutty and off the wall? Not in the slightest*. They had the profile - though with the taste of a very different grape - of a great Condrieu. Particularly the last called Amphore. (*Beg to differ here. The Amphore was quite far out for me. Definitely a red! FB)

I came away from his stand wondering if I'd gone a bit mad. It was after all towards the end of two solid days of tasting but then I bumped into Arnaud Combier, a winemaker we'd met a couple of years ago in the Maconnais, and asked him if he had come across anything I should taste. He turned round and pointed to the table I had just left, saying in his view Dominique Belluard "was the man" which made me feel less out on a limb than usual.

Finally there is Testalonga and Lammershoek from South Africa (CdP, Indigo, Richards Walford).
I'd tasted one of Craig Hawkins wines before but here got the chance to taste the whole range and found them just as exciting and individual as the first Chenin I encountered - the El Bandito Cortez.

I tasted one other Chenin, the El Bandito, a Syrah grown on granitic soil and a Mourvèdre (all 2010s except the El Bandito which was from the 2009 vintage). Hawkins is a relentless experimenter, often using unstemmed bunches with carbonic maceration, and he believes (a belief shared by Combier) that the  lees are the soul of the wine.

However he does it the results are wonderful. The two Chenins are probably unlike any other South African Chenin that you have ever tasted with none of those overripe, slightly flabby, confected flavours. He produces Chenins of great length and minerality combined with a huge depth of aromatic flavour, They are not like the great Loire Chenins - they have the stamp of a hot climate southern wine about them, but they somehow combine that with a rare grace and elegance.

The LAM syrah (above) just knocked me out. It had all the finesse of a great Northern Rhone example - singingly pure - but with a depth and weight (and again length) that was never excessive, A world away from the over extracted "Parkerized" wines we have become used to. As to the Mourvèdre I reserve judgement. Still a little young and maybe not the ideal grape for granite.

Finally honourable mentions for two brilliant, exciting Italian Dolcettos - vivid and intense at one and the same time. One from Valli Unite:  the Diogene Colli Tortonesi, the other fron Cascina Corte, the Pirochetta Vecchie Vigne. Plus everything from Essencia Rural and, of course, Frank Cornelissen. Oh, and Castagna's wonderful silky Genesis . . .