Massandra for interesting wine in Moscow

Buying wine in Moscow so often seems like doing a tour of the most familiar brands but there are places where a more discriminating hand is at work and one of these was Massandra on Komsomolsky Prospekt.

Here were wines from Moldova, Ukraine, even Georgia as well as from the fledgling Russian vineyards of Rostov-on-Don. Here's what we bought;

First, a Bastardo (aka Trousseau) from Inkerman, a name known to every British schoolboy at one time in connection with an important battle in the Crimean war. There are a lot of Port grapes grown in the Crimea. This is one of them.

This was in the main disappointing although it had the surprising virtue of lasting for days after being opened and even improving.

Then came something altogether rarer as its name suggests, a Rara Neagra Purcari from Moldova

Rare it might be; rare it can remain if this is as good as it gets. Surprisingly for us, this received a Decanter award. Were we missing something?

There is a surprisingly large amount of Aligote grown in Eastern Europe. Having once tasted a divine Californian Aligote wehave been very interested to see how this variety fares in other regions outside Burgundy. This one was much nearer to the French model than the American one - so its significance is more as a product which avoids import costs than something distinctive in its own right.

We had tasted Tsimlyansky from Vedernikov in the Rostov-on-Don area (Russia) at Excel in London. This bottle was more tannic than we had remembered and less approachable but we like Tsimlyansky and believe it has a future.

 Now for a discovery. Also from Vedernikov was this interesting bone-dry white called Sibirkovy. According to 'Wine Grapes' this is a variety introduced from Dagestan in the middle ages and found along the banks of the river Don. Our bottle was corked but we had drunk this wine at a Japanese restaurant on the same visit and found it fascinating.

There were lots of sweet wines on offer; the Russian taste still favours these which is a good thing. For how long is another matter.

At GUM, among the brands, we found a few Russian wines including some of the above.

Our majot purchase here was Vedernikov's Krasnostop Zolotovsky. Again, Krasnostop (Red Stalk) was something we had already tasted in London thanks to Vedernikov's participation at Excel. We loved it then and it was to become one of the stars of the East and West tasting a few weeks later in London.

So all in all our visit was not disappointing. There are surely many more interesting bottles to be found in Moscow. We had not even touched on the sweet wines of which there are many and no doubt other shops have things we would want to take home with us.

The majority of wine shops are more like 'Grand Cru' near the US Embassy where brands predominate. Perhaps once Russian winelovers have had their fill of these they will support their own indiginous producers and those of what President Putin calls the 'Family' of nations on their borders. They deserve it.

Prokofiev recommends Ch. Climens, Haut Barsac

From Anthony Phillips's magisterial translation of the Diaries of Sergey Prokofiev (1924 - 1933):

"The cooking at 'Le Chapon fin,' [restaurant in Bordeaux] in fact turned out to be good but not earth-shattering, although when I asked for a good wine (Chateau Climent, Haut-Barzac - sic, 1915, 25 francs a half bottle) it proved so incredible we had never in our lives drunk anything like it. We did not drink much - half a bottle between two - but were more intoxicated than we had been for a long time."

You might think Climens would have pressed this quote into service in their promotion but composers' endorsements are not highly valued in general. Did you know that Beethoven was a client of Coutts Bank at one point? Admittedly he only used them for Poste Restante purposes but Edna Healey's worthy but pedestrian history of the bank fails to include this important fact and management was uninterested when this unparalleled endorsement was pointed out.

In praise of Sedlescombe Organic Regent

After Quoins Orion, now this! A Demeter certified organic Regent from East Sussex.

Regent performed surprisingly well in the 'North' tasting earlier this year. That was a German example. This English organic one is lighter, not surprisingly but none the worse for that. Slotovino thought this was really worth seeking out.

The list of lovely English reds is becoming quite substantial. We would now include

Gribble Bridge Dornfelder
Biddenden Gamay
Sedlescombe Regent

in addition to quite a few Pinot Noirs.

In praise of Quoins Organic Vineyard Orion

Thanks to the Wine Pantry, we bought a bottle of Quoin's Vineyard organic Orion and greatly enjoyed the result.

Orion is a Geilweilerhof hybrid from Optima and Villard Blanc produced in 1964 by Dr. Gerhard Allerweldt. Optima is a crossing of Riesling x Silvaner and Mueller-Thurgau.

Quoins is situated near Bath and is run by Alan Chubb and his family. It is one of only six certified organic vineyards in the UK. They produce another white from Madeleine Angevine and a Rose and Red from Rondo. These are unpromising varieties in our experience but judging by what Quoins has acheived with Orion, we should give them a try.

Australian Terroir according to Andrew Jefford

Have you ever attended a lecture where the speaker was in total command of his or her material and so practiced in delivering it that every eventuality or intervention could be accommodated within the allotted time? A talk which leaves you with a large body of information digested and refined so you can walk away knowing you have really learned something?

Such was this Masterclass held by Andrew Jefford last March in our opinion. For us it had the added effect of altering our perception of Australia and Australian wines for which we are extremely grateful.

The wines selected for the tasting which was an integral part of the masterclass told a different story from the one we had learned from our own experiences. Andrew explained the move away from 'Fruit Bombs' in recent years and these wines reflected that. We always love to have our preconceptions either re-enforced or overturned. This time they were well and truly shattered. Such a pleasure.

Without discussing the wines here, suffice it to say they were selected by Andrew through long experience having lived in Australia for a year and no doubt having visited many times. Some of them are not available outside Australia thus giving credibility to the saying that the Australians keep all their best wines for themselves. Most were at the high end of the price range of Australian wine (£30 - £45).

1. Mitchell Watervale Riesling, Clare Valley, South Australia 2012

2. Pewsey Vale, The Contours Riesling, Eden Valley, South Australia, 2007

 

3. Cullen, Kevin John Chardonnay, Margaret River, Western Australia 2010 (13.5%)

 

 4. Giaconda, Chardonnay, Beechworth, Victoria 2010

 

5. Grey Sands, Pinot Gris, Tamar Valley, Tasmania 2009 (14.6%)

 

6.  Curly Flat, Pinot Noir, Macedon Ranges, Victoria 2010

 

 

7. Yabby Lake, Block 2 Pinot Noir, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria 2010

 

8. Philip Shaw No.89 Shiraz, Orange, New South Wales 2006 

9. Frankland Estate Isolation Ridge Shiraz, Frankland, Great Southern, Western Australia 2009

10. Tapanappa, Whalebone Merlot-Cabernet Franc, Wrattonbully, South Australia 2008

The title of this masterclass, 'The Great Australian Terroir' might be a little provocative to Old World ostriches with their heads in the sand but Terroir there is even though soil diversity is not nearly as rampant as in Burgundy for example. Indeed Andrew told a story of how he has journeyed 400 miles and found the soil was the same as at his departure point. Laterite, a red soil rich in iron and aluminium dominates in Australia.

He pointed out that the soils of Australia are the oldest you can find. The landmass is particularly ancient with massive erosions already having taken place over milennia. The Winegrowing areas are therefore smaller, more limited than one might have imagined and are rarely far from the oceans which have a decisive effect on the climate in these areas. That climate is very continental. Altitude in Australia has as crucial an effect as latitude elsewhere with higher altitudes being beneficial.

We also learned that there are not many sites in Australia which are really suitable for Merlot although quite a lot is grown there. Much more frequently found are good sites for Pinot Noir. Chardonnay does well in the Margaret River region where winter rainfall is twice that of London. In general it is warmer than Burgundy but without the heat spikes and being on the Indian ocean wines can take on a tropical note.

The Great Dividing Range offers opportunities for cooler vinegrowing. The Clare Valley is the most northerly, high in altitude and the furthest area from the ocean which explains why Riesling does well there. Tasmania's climate was likened to that of Baden; cooler than Colmar and Burgundy.

Andrew also introduced us to the two regions of the Mornington Peninsula (Up Hill and Down Hill) as well as those of the Hunter Valley (West and East Slopes). The West Slope is much more continental and better for viticulture. Where is our darling Hunter Valley Semillon grown? The East Slope of course, where apparently everything is against it. The great Southern area of Western Australia is the most continental of all Australian regions.

The wines on offer fell into place as a result of these explanations. At least we understood in the generalized way of soil ignoramuses that we are, that there are reasons for how the various regions came into being as wine-growing areas and what influences these terroirs have on the wine made there.

Andrew even had time to make mention of  quite a few clones that are used in these wines and how another problem with Merlot in Australia is poor clonal selection. We also learned that some of the wines were organic or biodynamically produced with natural yeasts and in the case of No. 4, the Giaconda Chardonnay, the cellar where it was produced is only one of two in the whole of Australia that play Classical Music to the sleeping wines, the others tending to play Heavy Metal. We think that has to be significant somewhere along the way and should be included in any definition of Terroir.

 

What we drank this summer

Being abysmally ignorant we supposed Lucca had always been part of Toscana but this year we discovered it had until the unification of Italy been either an independent city state or part of something called the Garfagnana - this after making Lucca our summer HQ for perhaps 35 years.

The Garfagnana is a geographical area which had belonged to the Duchy of Modena and Reggio with Castelnuovo Garfagnana as its capital. The d'Este family ruled and they appointed the poet Lodovico Ariosto as its governor in the 16th century. It is mountainous and one of the wettest - and greenest parts of Italy.

Local grape varieties have survived, some of them, dare we venture, are unknown to 'Wine Grapes' (unless they are unrecognised synonyms for other grapes). We discovered these in wines in Barga, a pretty hill town right in the middle of the Garfagnana. The wines of Poderi di Garfagnana, Vini di Montagna.

Seduced partly by the name (Riana) we bought this beauty before discovering the grapes involved were Balsoina and Verdolino. Verdolino turns out to be Verdeca - not exactly unknown but Balsoina? The wine by the way is excellent and deserves to be widely known.

The red is composed of Pighetta and Farinella which our preliminary researches suggest might be quite unknown elsewhere. The wine is tannic and a bit rustic but opens out nicely and is not unpleasant by any means.

In our post about wine at the Frieze Art fair, New York back in April this year we had noted that a wine from Lucca had finally crossed the Atlantic and promised to take a look at the estate concerned, Sardi Giustiniani.

This we did and bought a Colorino in purezza as well as a blend. We had enjoyed Colorino previously and this was no less attractive.

So much so that we picked up another Colorino at Enoteca Vanni in Lucca of which more shortly. This second Colorino proved that the grape has merit in more than just one or two emanations.

The Sardi Giustiniani operation is interesting as they are working to revive heritage varieties and have created an attractive Agriturismo.

Enoteca Vanni, Lucca is the best wine shop we know in the area. Apart from Champagne practically all their wines are Italian and inevitably as well as the Colorino mentioned above we found some other lovely wines. The one we kept coming back to was a Demeter Biodynamic natural Cortese of all things from Bellotti

Now Slotovino has had a problem with Cortese in the past as in we never had one we actually liked. This one we loved. At less than ten Euros it was also reasonable in alcohol at 12.5%. And it's available in the UK.

By luck, again this year we were practically neighbours of what we consider to be the best producer in the Lucchese, Fabbrica San Martino of Pieve Santo Stefano. As previously we introduced ourselves to the delightful Giuseppe Ferrua who has built up the less then 3 ha. vineyard to produce 2 reds,

the San Martino and the Arcipressi (meaning 'over by the cypresses in local dialect), a white, now a Rose and Olive oil. There are in addition all sorts of toiletries made from ingredients grown on the 20 ha. property (annual production only 12,500 bottles).

Sr. Ferrua had been at Vinitaly this year but we had contrived to miss him as we had missed so much else. He has distribution now in the USA (Louis/Dressner), Japan and several European countries although not yet the UK. He also exports to a private customer in Russia for his own consumption.

Last year we had found the Arcipressi, a blend of 9 grapes more interesting than the San Martino (only 3 varieties; Sangiovese, Canaiolo and Colorino) but this time it was the other way around. The white (Vermentino, Malvasia and Trebbiano) continues to be a delight and the Rose (only made in certain years) was pleasurable too.

There was at least one variety in the Arcipressi which we couldn't find in 'Wine Grapes.' We asked Sr. Ferrua how he had identified all the vines that go into his field blend. The answer was that he had invited an ampelographer to examine them and this was the list he came up with.

Aleatico
Canaiolo
Cilegiolo
Colorino
Malvasia Nera
Montanina
Muscatellone
Muscat d'Amburgo
Sangiovese

Here's another one, Jancis

Jancis Robinson, on the button again wrote in yesterday's FT about highly-priced entrants to the market.

We didn't know the phenomenon was as frequent as it would seem from her piece but we had clocked an example of our own at San Francisco International Airport Duty Free of all places.

Could the cop on his Segway have been providing security?