Pennautier - New 'Old World' in Southern France

The wine world is struggling to shake off the twin terms of 'Old World' and 'New World'. They were originally coined to make a distinction between France, Italy, Spain and the Rest of the World. This distinction was based on wines styles - the latter being more fruit driven and less stylistically mature than the 'Old World'.

Stones, Altitude and Attitude at Pennautier in the Cabardes, Languedoc

Times change and wines change. Almost twenty years ago Oz Clarke brought out a book titled, New Classic Wines. In 2002 Andrew Jefford brought out one titled, The New France. Both are quite brilliant and excellent reads. Strange as it seems both authors make similar arguments albeit from opposite perspectives. Oz champions what he perceives as 'classic' styles from the likes of New Zealand, South Africa etc while Andrew gets stuck in to producers all across France who are making brilliant wines that are anything but (old) Classic in their style.

Confused? Don't worry. So is the wine trade as it attempts to hang on to Old and New distinctions!

Syrah 2009. Two day old ferment. Cotes du Roussillon.

Case Study

I visited the Lorgeril Group last week. They are based at Chateau Pennautier in Cabardes near Carcassonne in the Languedoc (SW France). Clearly the Chateau is a Classic in every sense of the word. Breathtaking is another description. I could go on and on......

I looked at three of their six locations, how they make wine and of course the wines themselves:

• Chateau Pennautier -AC Cabardes and Vin de Pays d'Oc


• Moulin de Ciffre - AC Faugeres, AC St Chinian and AC Languedoc


• Mas de Montagnes - AC Cotes de Roussillon Villages

Nicolas Lorgeril. Always smiling. Always working. Great explanations. Super philosophy

Nicolas Lorgeril explained that his vision is to develop a natural advantage that his late father began to exploit in 1960's - Altitude. Vines grown at altitude he says, "exploits the twin influences of both the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, develops low yielding plants which produce delicate, well structured and intensely perfumed grapes of the highest calibre." This doesn't make sense. After all we have been led to believe that the the 'South of France' has been driven by volumes of poor quality destined to fill a European Lake of Wine. Clearly not so with the Lorgeril family! They began to crusade towards a new Classic a good length of time ago.

2009 Macabeo at Maury in the Roussillon. Fermenting for five days

The Lorgeril estates reflect Altitude well with cool climate effects (garrigue and herbal perfumes; delicate and enticing structural elements) in its Terroirs d'Altitude labels. But this is only one part of the story. Another is the choice of Patrick Leon (Mouton Rothschild, Ch d'Esclans and many others) as consultant wine maker. Leon favours finesse and character over strength of fruit and richness which can be sloppy and ultimately boring. I watched as this years Syrah was prepared for Mas de Montagnes according to how their consultant Leon had advised. It was a careful and deliberate succession of processes to bring the fruit on to a higher elevation and a more noble level altogether. All of this was handled locally by skilled wine makers whose tradition is in making sweet white and red Maury wines. Times Change Wines Change.

Finally, these are very good value wines. Let's bash the old chestnut on the head that says if its good from France it also needs to be expensive. I can name ten wines from every so called 'New World wine making country that are dreadful value for money. I can do the same for France, and Italy and in fact everywhere that produces wine. Equally, if we look around we'll begin to notice good value - from all wine producing countries. (Well, maybe not some!!)

Chateau Pennautier AoC Cabardes Rouge 2008

Dunnes Stores at €9.99 on special at €7.99. This is genuine value at €9.99. It's a steal at anything lower!

• Great colour, lots of ripe dark berry fruits on the nose, rich and soft attack in the mouth, rips into a fabulously blended mid palate ( Cab Franc, Cab Sauv, Merlot, Cot , Grenache and Syrah in the blend!) All come together for a long well structured finish.

Try the Pennautier Rose. You'll be enchanted.

Mas de Montagnes rouges Terroirs d'Altitude 2007 AoC Cotes du Roussillon Villages Mitchell and Son €15.95

• Fantastic style. Big, wide and open with a currant and blackberry background; some pepper and spice; garrigue herbal effects. Full, palate of rich and well integrated (acid and wood) fruits (Grenache, Syrah, Carignan) leading to a peppered, rounded and very long finish. Really liked this a lot.

Later I'll come back to the wine of Moulin de Ciffre and more from Pennautier and Mas de Montagnes. For now let's leave you with the thought that there are no wine empires any longer where an atlas might be coloured according to wine style.

Lorgeril is proof positive that the future will be knowledge led; that the best styles of wine won't result from where you are in the world but will be defined by hard work and what you do with the skills available to you.

Tasting Wine by Numbers

Every so often I come across the amazing number of wines that Georges DuBouef tastes his way through at any one session before he chooses wine he wants to buy for his labels. I think it's something like 400!! Then I see blenders in Champagne Houses zipping through 60 to 80 different village wines, again and again, before deciding on the final assemblage for their House styles. Now that I think of it I've been to a major blending exercise in Jerez where the famous 'nose' of Domecq was in action. Awesome tasting/nosing prowess all around. Commentators generally refer to these guys as 'tasting legends'. Take a bow.

Last night I let slip that I managed to zip through a press tasting of 97 wines from Chile earlier this week. I thought nothing of it. I wasn't asked to take a bow!! In fact, now that I remember, there was a general embarrassed silence - looking at shoes - a kicking tyres moment.

Over the years the wine trade has decided that a 'proper' tasting consists of thoughtful and slow movements. More recently, sections of the wine press has decided that this should also be a silent and uninterrupted process. Robert Parker is well known to ask for the latter. Mary Dowey in her intro to her ' 101 Great Wines Under €12' goes further and states that she is ...'passionately opposed to over hasty judgements about wines - so no wines (in this book) are recommended on the basis of a quick mouthful at a tasting event. All were sampled slowly at my kitchen table. Many I then re tasted with food.'

Looks like I'm in trouble... 97 in an hour. How unfair is that?

Allow me to set out my defence.

Good wine tasting consists of a stepped process that should be repeated each and every time a wine is tasted. Appearance, Nose, Palate, Finish, Conclusion. Each category can be subdivided quite easily. For instance I often look at front, mid and back palate and so on. Note taking will take a lot of the tasters time - decisions and conclusions will not IF the question being asked is a simple one.

Consider the following question: How does this wine compare to previous vintages from the same property? This is a complex question and needs a careful and considered tasting. Anything else would be grossly unfair to the wine, the wine maker and indeed to whoever is asking the question.

Compare that question to this one: Are the following new world varietals, all of which retail below €10.00 a bottle, good value for money? The question may be longer but to the experienced taster of retail led New World varietal wines the answer is easily accessible through a short, quick, and let's be fair, proper tasting.

I find that Wine Tasting is only useful if I ask a question of the wine. I get bored to my pants in writing tasting notes for wines for the sake of writing tasting notes. In fact I lost interest in writing notes for simple wines a long time ago. This is very different to saying that I have no interest in tasting and making decisions about these wines. au contraire mon ami! No, I still love it.

The Chilean Press Tasting this week was very impressive. 97 wines all lined up in a quiet room. Wines of Chile should be congratulated. The wines were presented by colour and by Valley of Origin. (You know, I still get mixed up with my Chilean Valleys!! but that's another story altogether....). Most of these wines were good value (without being too inexpensive) varietals and blends available in retail outlets across Ireland.

I asked my self three questions of each wine.

Well made?

True to the varietal/label?

Good Value?

Only a few wines failed at the first hurdle, about 30% failed at the second and in and about 40% failed at the third. All wines were tasted properly. The wines that passed all three tests are now my cohort that I can work with, and taste in greater and more thoughtful detail, over the coming months. I am confident these are well made, true to their label and good value to boot! Maybe a few will even get Mary D's kitchen table test!!

Thoughtful analysis is a space that experts rightfully fill. Tasting however is for everyone. Don't let the wine trade tell you that you can't do something - 97 in an hour? Bring it on.

One word before I sign off. For an expert, true quality should jump out at any tasting - regardless of speed and questions being asked and so on. This week the bottle of Indomita 2007 Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon from the Maipo Valley jumped off the table it was so different. It is a spectacularly well made wine; a haunting aroma of light night scents mingling with a herbal smokiness; the palate is soft and supple. Then I found it had recently won a Decanter Wine Awards International Trophy and retails for a mere €14.95.

I really must slow down...I'd hate to have missed it!!

Burgundian Bliss

Recently I had the good fortune in being allowed to attend the Instructors course with the Bureau Interprofessionnel des Vins de Bourgogne (BIVB) in Beaune, Burgundy. Net result is that I am now an Official Instructor on behalf of the Wines of Burgundy. How cool is that?

None of this really matters of course unless I have an audience. Part of my responsibility back to the BIVB is that I am committed to giving eight lectures a year on the wines of Burgundy. Anyone, or any wine club, can ask me to come along and give them an evening they won't forget. All I ask is that they supply a budget for the wines.

Why won't they forget it? Because Burgundy is unique in the world of wine. It's story is the history of wine and how it is so intimately interconnected to the land it comes from.

Burgundy tentatively includes Beaujolais but the BIVB takes the view that its instructors should begin at the Macon, on into the Challonaise, work up through the Cotes de Beaune into the Cotes de Nuits and end up in Chablis. The changeable geology, history and local climates account for a variability within the wines that continues to astound the wine making world.

Contact me at kevin@kevinecock.ie or through my web site at www.kevinecock.ie

The incredible tasting room at Louis Bouillot, Cremant de Bourgogne, l'Imaginarium.