Chile Needs to Reserve the Use of Reserva

I make no apologies for hounding the Chileans with regards to their use of the term Reserva. If there is no legal definition of the term in Chile then why are so many Chilean wine labels determined to use it as a selling point that indicates quality? Why does the EU allow it on labels when in many of its own wine regions there are strict, and legally enforced, definitions of the term. Allowing unbridled use of such an emotive wine term is a basic abuse that feeds off consumer ignorance. Wine makers in Chile who decide which of their wines will be labelled Reserva are, on the whole, an honest and well educated bunch. They are not doing anything wrong but look at it through the consumers eyes.

Rioja sells Crianza younger than Reservas and Gran Reservas. Chile ships similar and current vintages of both red AND white wines some bearing the term Reserva and others without. The distinction has been made by the wine maker based on his quality assessment of his own wines. This nonsense led to the following ridiculous situation in Tesco last week.

    

Middle stage here supports Caliterra Reserva Merlot at €5.00. Left of Stage we have Errazuriz Estate at €7.00 and Right of the action we have Carmen also at €7.00.

There are no losers here with regards to pricing. It's keen and what we expect from our supermarkets. Well done Tesco. If you buy on price in this instance you will be rewarded with a well worked Merlot for a fiver. I have the greatest respect for each of the chief wine makers at each of the three wineries in question. So, what's ridiculous? Well, last year Carmen withdrew its entry level non Reserva wine from the Irish market so that it could concentrate on introducing its Reserva range to us instead. This is still their strategy and I hope it works. The fact that they have had to reintroduce a non reserva to compete with dropping price points is simple commercial reality. Thing is though this non Reserva was €2.00 a bottle more expensive last weekend than its Caliterra Reserva competitor. Does the consumer win here? I have no idea.

I have absolutely no idea what criteria the Caliterra wine makers chose when assigning Reserva to their wine any more than I know why Carmen did not!  What I do know is that the Carmen wine makers can choose to ship this non reserva as a reserva if they want to compete with a little more bite next time around! I don't believe they will but others will. Remember Tesco own label Chilean wines still carry the curious mixed message Reserva Especial. If, as I have said before Reserva means nothing out of Chile then does Especial Reserva mean nothing really special at all?!

Three Wine Men Show Their Wares

Christmas is coming. I know this because it's Wine Fair Season and invitations to tastings pop through my letter box almost every day now. It's not the same during the summer. Nothing at all then! Christmas is so important to the wine trade that the lead into it is a long one. Some say that 75% of their annual wine sales will arrive in the final quarter of the calendar. Yes, that does make the Silly Season quite a serious proposition. This leads to an annual situation where everyone cries out for attention and screams for press coverage. Some do it better than others.

I received notification this week to a wonderful serious of tastings in the UK arranged, I am told, by the Three Wine Men. The Men in question, Oz Clarke, Tim Atkin and Olly Smith  are very well known in wine circles - so much so that they are often referred (deferred?) to by first name only. Oz, Tim and Olly. I suspect this wouldn't work too well over here but the point is well made. These are Three Well Known Wine Men.  

Three Well Known Happy and Smiling Wine Men

Please note the Manchester date - easy to pop over to for the day.  Also, the term students may equally apply to graduates. Hope so. Everyone from my School out there - if you want to go I'll work to get you the discount!

I like this event for a number of reasons and I think the same principles apply to most of the good, successful and educational events that I have attended:

• Personal: I really have no time for impersonal events where the speaker is cossetted and protected as being more important to people other than his audience.  If it's an Oz Clarke event I want to meet and speak with Oz Clarke. If its a Bollinger event I want to speak with a Bolly person. Nothing against PR people but I cringe when I'm told something like, 'I'm here for all your needs. Yes, this is my first wine event, but I'm already getting to like it'. Wine and its story and all the info behind them should not be treated as chocolate bars, cars or telephones. We need people, and if the wine makers, or winery people, are not around then make sure qualified and engaging professionals have been hired. Oh, and in Ireland I really do feel we have enough expertise available without having to resort to bringing it over from the UK .....        

Winter variety at the wonderful Fattoria Cabanon organic vineyards in Lombardy.

• Objectivity: Nothing wrong with a brand coming to town and promoting itself. I wouldn't expect nything else! There is something very wrong about wineries arriving and preaching a story that is clearly untrue and designed to simply feed sales back into supporting a bloated marketing budget. I have seen winemakers completely ignore valid criticism by saying things like, 'Well. that's our style' or 'I don't agree with you' or 'Our sales would appear to support us rather than you.' Remember when Australian Albarino wasn't Albarino at all? We were saying a particular wine wasn't all that good or representative of the varietal and got all three answers to our critique! Unless we can have objective debate we will sink to a common level of ignorance and blandness. This commoditisation of style and thought is happening on our supermarket shelves every day. It is a dangerously self prophesying space to work in as it answers its own questions with guff like, 'Sure don't our sales support our approach?...  

• Variety: This allows us to learn and to make valid comparison across the world of wine. Sometimes similarity can creep into tastings when a country of origin presents a hundred wines from the same region made from the same grape! I'm not saying its either boring or shouldn't happen but very often I wonder whether the point would  easily be made by showing three wines only. Let's face it, after the fiftieth Cabernet at a a good value price point there really is nothing more to say! Variety is also the sole reason why we have a thriving wine trade today at all. Nature has allowed and encouraged vines to grow, prosper, cross and change over time. We do the same with our palates and fashion. Without variety we wouldn't have a wine trade. No, it would be an alcoholic juice industry only. Lucky us it's not.

So bring on the Three Wine Men. Let's see what treasures they carry on their journey. Lets' hear their wisdom and meet and greet them along the way. Then we can make our own minds up.      

Objectivity: Taken from the Sideways Movie site.

  

   

Supermarket Wine Bargains - Out of Control?

Couldn't help noticing Lidl advertising a Special Buy for this coming Saturday.

Two for a Fiver. The gas thing about this offer is they won't sell you just one bottle below cost but you have to dip below cost twice just to get in on the action!

Nothing wrong here. I met a nice man in Aldi at the weekend. He was buying six cans of beer. He reckoned the price he was paying for the cans would allow him to enjoy the All Ireland Final better knowing he wasn't breaking the household budget down at the pub! Can anyone fault that?  

Two for a fiver though. That's sharp. It doesn't really pay for anything except government taxation. It doesn't even pay for anyone at Lidl to collect the tax in the first place! 

The question is how low is too low. I've asked this before and there really is no correct answer unless perspective is allowed to enter the argument. Two big ones here. Health and Social Responsibility. It would seem to be proven at this stage that when we lower selling prices on alcohol we increase sales. Diminishing returns set in after a while as the customer base is saturated (good word for an alcohol customer base!). Therefore even an Everyday Low Price strategy requires regular Specials to keep it looking fresh and constantly on the move. This is practised by both Aldi and Lidl with each of the other super markets carrying an EDLP range on their wine shelves at all times. Thus no-one can say they can buy a bottle at 4.99 in Aldi but nowhere else. In fact right now you can buy at 4.99 almost everywhere!

If increased sales reach diminishing returns then it's a logical conclusion that the customer base is finite in size. It can only drink so much! Therefore, the customer who buys at these low prices is actively encouraged to buy to their max and are therefore drinking to their max! Therefore low prices are encouraging poor health evenly spread across the nation with all the consequent problems associated with excessive drinking patterns. No-one drinking regularly to their max can claim they are practising a healthy lifestyle. By the by, I'm not passing judgement here. I really don't care if someone decides to (drown in alcohol) drink too much. I do care if I have to pay for it through increased health service costs and blue Mondays!  

If one looks at this from the cash strapped consumers point of view you must be sympathetic. It generally takes more than one €20.00 note to go out to the pub. There's many, myself included, who cannot justify this even on a semi regular basis. Inexpensive wine is seen by many as proving the slogan, Every Little Bit Helps. Nevertheless, ease of access to alcohol does encourage participants to drink more. This is especially so if the drinking is at home with no driving involved or watching eyes passing judgement.

Notice that I haven't bothered to bring quality, or anything wine related, into the argument. I'm not going to either. It is a total red herring to suggest someone buying at an EDLP is less discerning than someone buying at the cheapest price available at the local Off Licence. In both cases they are simply buying on price and hoping for the best. More often that not they don't even recognise when they do actually buy something that's quite good. This isn't about buying wine. It's about an alcohol based commodity. If they are buying at the independent off licence because they believe the quality will be better then the EDLP argument has no relevance and the supermarkets marketing department has lost. Indeed if this became a trend then the marketing boys would simply up their game and convince consumers that they do indeed deliver quality at low prices.

So, S'up John? Not wine prices anyhow. They're still dipping downwards. Social Responsibility would appear to be off the agenda for now. How low can prices go? As low as the Social Responsibility agenda allows them to go. 'Responsibility' usually arrives as an expose in the national print or televised media - or even on the Joe D Show! - as a shock horror - How the Hell Did we Allow this to Happen : How has it Come to This : Who do They Think They Are, and on and on. These are always backwards looking and seldom achieve anything moving forward. The only way to do that is to begin in the present and recognise that its a society issue and not a supermarket one. Why should it be the retailers fault that we insist on buying so much at the cheaper price points.If we didn't they wouldn't bother to try to lose money in the first place!      

Varietal Days

How could I have missed it? Clearly I'm not tweeting as I should be. (Well, I'm really not tweeting at all - doesn't seem to stop loads of people connecting to my 'firstpress' alter ego anyway!) Must do better. Must tweet more.

This week I was happy to pass on some good news about International Grenache Day. It's on September the 24th. In that blog I mentioned Malbec Day and then today I noticed/missed altogether before today that September the 1st was not only Cabernet Sauvignon Day but it was Tempranillo Day also!! Is this a bit like the Hallmark cards people inventing Ex-Partners Day or International Anniversaries Day or something. Am I just cynical or do Varietal Days have any relevance at all?

These 'Days' are meant to raise awareness and to celebrate. As such they are marketing exercises. Nothing wrong there so long as we look on them as a bit of fun and a chance to learn.

Life long learning begins at home - Kirsty's grapes, Sallins, Co Kildare 2011 

Facts to Celebrate Varietal Days that I am aware of. 
Some facts are New to me and some I Knew all along.

• Tempranillo is widely planted in Italy where it is better known as Malvasia Nera - New
• Tim Adams has planted some amazing dry farmed Tempranillo vineyards in the Clare Valley - Knew
• Grenache is the most widely planted red grape in Spain at 120,000 hectares of Garnacha! New
• 15 to 16c is the ideal serving temperature for a Grenache based wine - keeps alcohols in check. Knew
• Malbec is Argentina's signature grape and is currently 'trending' well in the US  - Knew
• Malbec is one of the five varietals allowed into a red Bordeaux blend. It is thought by some that in the 18th century it was the principal grape used there - New
• Up to 20% Cabernet Sauvignon is permitted in Chianti Classico - Knew
• Cabernet Sauvignon's parents are Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc - Knew!

www.wineeducators.com

Errazuriz Seminar 2011 was Excellent

Last week Francisco Baettig, Chief Wine Maker at Errazuriz in Chile, whisked up some magic at the latest instalment of his annual series of lectures. I do my best not to miss out on these because of the simple and honest approach this talented wine maker takes in presenting his thoughts to us. This year he showed an array of Icon Wines from Errazuriz along with a fascinating discussion of what makes an Icon Terroir- if indeed such a thing exists at all.

'The term Icon refers to those wines that represent a given producers maximum quality potential and have earned recognition as such before the consumers'

Francisco Baettig in Dublin last week

This years lecture was the 17th in the Errazuruz series and the 11th delivered in Ireland. I loved Francisco's opening ramble where he attempted to define an iconic terroir - 'everyone talks about having the best soil.....picking at optimum ripeness .... sorting tables ... and so on  ...' Everyone, it seems, has twigged how to make great wine. But, he asks is it enough to just follow a recipe to success or do you need to define the terroir required and then to work closely and intimately with it at every step of the growing process. Errazuriz reckons that truly great terroir is in short supply and so truly iconic wines are also. There is no short cut to success. A very deep understanding of the multitude of interactions in the vineyard, above and below the ground, is a vital ingredient to making wines that are the best.

The Vital ingredient is Terroir which can be taken as a combination of climate and soil along with a 'human factor'. Icon wines though need to take the following along as necessary baggage also:

Heritage

Family History

A Scarce and Unique Terroir that can be characterised and recognised

Ethical Responsibility

Handcrafted wines made with particular care and attention to detail

Scarcity and Rarity

Critical Acclaim

Terroir - Soil - Climate - Human Factor

Truly helpful information from Errazuriz

Francisco brought us on detailed journey through the 'pedalogical character (presence of rocks, types of rock, state of the rocks ) of the vineyards Errazuriz uses to make its Icon wines.

'Great soil has a high presence of rocks in its profile and a high rock to root ratio'

Francisco then related each wine to its location in the Valle de Aconcagua thus building climate and history into the equation. Interestingly irrigation technique and practice needs to be factored in to all of this. When I asked how potential climate change could be handled within a definition of an Icon Terroir Francisco accepted that change to terroir is not only possible but likely over the the next few years as he accepts that climate change is happening.    mmm I wonder .... Is it?

We were then treated to an exquisite tasting so that the effects of everything mentioned above might make sense.

1.   Don Maximiano Founders Reserve 2007
      Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc, Syrah
2.   Don Maximiano Founders Reserve 2008
      Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenere, Syrah, Petit Verdot 
3.   la Cumbre 2007
       Syrah
4.   la Cumbre 2008
5.   Kai 2007
      Carmenere
6.   Kai 2008
7.   Sena 2007
      Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenere, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot
8.   Sena 2008
      Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenere, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc 
9.   Chadwick 2007
      Cabernet Sauvignon
10. Chadwick 2008
11. Chadwick 2009

The wines all showed well. I may have finally shrugged off my bias against Carmenere - Kai is well worth looking out for -but was glad see my faith in Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon showing such confidence - Chadwick is immense.

FYI : If you get chance to look up the Errazuruz QR Code. It deflects you into a very fine company presentation.  

Grenache Day Fest at the Ely!

September the 24th has been designated International Grenache Day. I have no idea how these days are assigned. Malbec Day has been running for a couple of years now and there may be more grape days out there that I'm not aware of. This is the second outing for Grenache - one of THE great grapes of the world. I'd love to see a Sagrantino Day but I don't reckon it'll happen any century soon!

The Torres family  - staunch advocates of quality Garnacha - many Spanish lay claim this grapes heritage. 

Matthew Nugent of WineNow.Biz and the Irish Mail on Sunday  is working with Grenache Day celebrations at Ely Wine Bar and reminds us that, 

Ireland joins the rest of the world on September 24 to celebrate all things Grenache - one of the most widely planted red wine grape varieties that doesn't get the recognition it deserves.

140 Year old Grenache vine destined to add 'immensity' to a Peter Lehman wine  

A Masterclass, with Yalumba's Jane Ferarri and Toni Collado from Torres, sets the agenda for what will be a day of fun - and education. Nine wines to be tasted here.

This will be followed be a Free Pour Tasting of 24 plus Grenache and Grenache-based wines from around the world. The day ends with a specially prepared four course Dinner which will showcase matching Grenache wines.

The beautiful Yalumba winery

The event , to be held at ely bar and brasserie @ the IFSC (call 01 6720010 or email elybrasserie@elywinebar.com for bookings), costs just €65.00 per had for the full day. 

Jane Ferrari in Dublin last year - Yalumba's great communicator/winemaker

Win Tickets to Wine Australia's Italian Taste Off

Last week I told you all about John McDonnell's innovative Rugby World Cup themed tastings. It's probably just as well that he didn't force a US based one into the agenda - it might have left a poor after taste! I have no doubt that Australian Wines with an Irish Story will go well this Thursday before the match on Saturday. Well, the wines will go well .......

Here at Free Running we're backing what we consider will be a sure fire winner with the Italian themed Australian wine tasting at the Ely Brasserie, on Thursday the 29th of this month, in advance of us (beating) playing Italy. 

Two Tickets to the tasting are on offer here for the correct answers to the following:

  

Ceist 1: On the Wine Australia - Ireland web page how much $ does it say that wine exports contribute to the Australian Economy?

Ceist 2: How many Italian varietals are listed in my blog as being amongst those currently grown in Australia? 

Send answers to kevin@:kevinecock.ie

As ever this is only open to persons eighteen and over. It makes no sense to enter unless you can attend the tasting. Sorry to everyone in Alaska. There is only one prize. As I always receive more than one correct answer to my competitions I will, as before, assign a number at random to each of the correct answers and then draw at random a winning number from a closed spittoon. It is my policy to delete all emails received in connection with competitions after the prize has been awarded. As such your details will never be used for any purpose other than the competition itself.    

Sunrise over the Barossa

A Langmeil Barossa Tasting from Curious Wines

Curious Wines is  delighted to announce its first tasting of the autumn season. The following is from the very excellent Curious Wines web site....

It’s our great pleasure to welcome Emma Shaw of Australia’s Langmeil Barossa Winery to host two portfolio tastings, in Cork and Dublin, on the 15th and 16th of September.

The informally tutored tastings will tell the stories and history of the Barossa, including Langmeil’s own dedication to the heritage of this great wine region. There will be a tasting across the full range from Langmeil, including the 2008 ‘Freedom 1843′ Shiraz, from what are believed to be the oldest shiraz vines in the world and recently given one of the highest ever scores awarded by the world authority on Australian wine, James Halliday.

The tastings will be held on Thursday 15th and Friday 16th September:

Thursday 15th September 2011, 7.30pm-9.30pm: Rochestown Park Hotel, Douglas, Cork.
Tickets available from Curious Wines on 021 432 0233, or you can purchase online here.

Friday 16th September 2011, 7.30pm-9.30pm: Donnybrook Fair, Donnybrook, Dublin 4.
Tickets available from Curious Wines on 021 432 0233, and Simply Wines on 01 295 9730, or you canpurchase online from Curious Wines here.

Tickets to each event are €15 per person and are available on a first come, first served basis.