Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Wine & Dine

Till a while back, for a party in the city to pack in a punch, it had to boast of a well-stocked bar. That would often translate into a handsome variety of whiskies (Scotch mostly) for the men, besides a varied cocktail selection for the ladies.

Then came the wines and with them, the chic liquor stores that mushroomed all over the city. Going by the way it has caught up at the city's social dos, the city seems intent on inculcating a flair for wines. "Apart from wine and cheese soirees, an increasing number of people ask us to serve wine at parties, weddings and even celebratory functions at our banquets," mentions Taj Chandigarh's sales manager Sandeep Makroo.

The selection of wines too is no longer just restricted to reds or whites. "Sparkling wine is fast becoming popular and organisers often ask us to serve them with an extensive list," adds Makroo. At the recently held pre-Valentine's bash hosted by Montblanc, the German luxury label that houses a boutique in the city, the city's swish set swirled their reds and raised a toast with their choice of white wines.

"With most of us working on weekends, wine offers the perfect sip," mentioned entrepreneur Aman Gupta, who admits to being "as fond of hard drinks" as he is of wine. For a city that's raised many a Patiala pegs, wine is no longer seen as a lady's drink either.

"Wine sales have only increased with each passing year and young adult drinkers, both genders, have much to do with that," says Nitin Mehta, owner of Aqua, a high-end store in Sector 7, Chandigarh, that stocks on imported wines and spirits. Of course, the market is still immature, but Mehta says there's a keenness to explore and try out new varieties. Indian wine labels like Sula and Grover are also fast gaining popularity because of their friendly pricing. "Wines are becoming popular gifting options, specially imported ones," he adds.
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Monday, February 22, 2010

Battling against a loving competition

That demonstration was seen in the half yearly results of Fosters and Wesfarmers, which is now the owner of Coles, Target and K-Mart, as well as Bunnings. The difference between them was both large and instructive.

In 2005 Fosters paid $2 billion for Southcorp, which owned Penfolds and Lindemans. Five years earlier it paid $3 billion for the US wine giant, Beringer. In 2007 Wesfarmers paid $20 billion for Coles - it was Australia's largest ever takeover.

The two wine takeovers have been disasters for Fosters shareholders; their only hope now is that a greater fool takes them out. Wesfarmers, meanwhile, is starting to make the massive Coles acquisition work.

In the six months to December, the basket case of Coles, as it were - K-Mart - made more money than the entire global wine operations of Fosters: Penfolds, Lindemans, Beringer, Wolf Blass, the lot.

The 181-store hardware chain, Bunnings, made a bigger profit than all of Fosters, including not just wine, but Australia's greatest brewer, CUB, as well as Cascade and a bunch of popular imported brands like Corona and Stella Artois.

What's going on? It's all about competition and the lack of it, and specifically competition against people who are in it for love, not money.

Go into any wine store and the array of brands is bewildering. Not only that, many of them are produced by people who are not really in business - they grow grapes and make wine either because they like it, or because they want a tax deduction. In the past decade or so, thousands of tree-changing Australians have fulfilled their dreams of owning a vineyard, assisted by tax breaks from the Government.

Many have simply invested in grapes and booked the tax deduction, many have moved to the country and lived with their beloved vines, and many - the ones who got a decent payout from their city jobs - have employed a winemaker or learnt how to make wine themselves and slapped a catchy label on some bottles.

The wine industry round the world is drowning in a glut of grapes and a sea of wine. Talk to any weekend winemaker and they'll laugh ruefully and tell you it's a money pit - a way to stay poor. Our cities are now surrounded by small wineries with pretty labels making, in most cases, really nice wines. But not any money.

Any wine producers in the world still making a decent profit have managed to preserve a premium brand against the flood of good cheap wine. Australia's brand, unfortunately, is that of cheap quaffable wines, and our producers are being killed by discounting.

And Fosters' nightmare scenario is that the same thing is happening with beer. Small boutique breweries are springing up everywhere, like termite's nest eating into the profits of CUB. And worse still, the new breed of brewers are in it because they love it - they've quit the 9 to 5 job, taken their super and bought a little pub with a brewery and started making the World's Greatest Pale Ale.

Actually some might make money because it's still early days in the "winification" of beer.

But the number of beer brands is already bewildering; beer connoisseurs have beer tastings; pubs boast their extensive range of styles. A glut of beer is beginning to emerge, and the big producers of beer are being squeezed by demanding retailers.

Several of them are owned by Wesfarmers: Coles, Liquorland, 1st Choice and Vintage Cellars, not to mention 100 pubs.

The retailers hold the whip hand in the booze business these days and discounting is rife. What's more this is a one-way trend: there is no reason to think the wine glut is about to be cleared or that the move towards boutique beers is going into reverse. If anything, it is gathering pace.

Retailing, meanwhile, is going big, not small, and the competition is tough but rational - that is, no-one's in it for love, or at least not any more.

The best retailer, by far, is Bunnings, which has been driving small hardware operators out of business for years. Bunnings now operates 181 "big box" home improvement stores and in the latest six months made $422 million profit (compared to $356.7 million for the whole of Fosters).

Coles, by comparison, made $486 million from 2,258 stores, roughly evenly divided between supermarkets, grog shops and convenience stores.

By the time Woolworths gets around to opening enough big box hardware stores, Bunnings' profit could overtake that of Coles, which would be an amazing achievement.

The big threats to the dominance of Coles and Woolies are Aldi and Costco, the ultra-cheap chains from Germany and America. Costco is the one where you buy an annual membership for $60 before you can shop there.

I went to Costco in Melbourne the other day, paid my $60 and got a nice picture ID in return. The place was rocking, full of people like me - wandering around with their eyes wide at the size of the store and the bargains on offer.

I reckon Costco will eventually become a big problem for our big two retailers, but a boutique it ain't.
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Saturday, February 20, 2010

A dark wine secret is spilled

The wine world swirls with tales of mislabelled wine, but this week one case came to light. So why did it take so long for authorities to notice that Shiraz and Merlot was being sold as Pinot Noir? asks JOHN WILSON.

THE WORLD of French wine was thrown into disarray earlier this week when a French court found 12 individuals guilty of selling incorrectly labelled wine.

Claude Courset of wine dealer Ducasse was given a six-month suspended sentence and a fine of €45,000 (he said on Thursday that he may appeal, claiming his wine is “irreproachable”). Others were fined up to €180,000 for selling almost 20 million bottles of wine incorrectly labelled as Pinot Noir to US wine giant EJ Gallo.

Pinot Noir is one of the most sought-after grape varieties. Winemakers around the world have spent the past 30 years trying to replicate the refined elegant flavours found in red Burgundy, the original Pinot Noir. The problem is Pinot is a very difficult grape to grow, very fussy about the climate and always yielding far less than most other vines. A few regions have succeeded, mainly those with cooler climates, but most have failed.

Following the huge success of the 2004 film Sideways , in which the hero adores Pinot Noir, demand for the variety soared in the US. Gallo wanted to produce a Pinot Noir as part of its French Red Bicyclette range, and approached Sieur d’Arques in the south of France.

Sieur d’Arques is a very large co-operative responsible for 80 per cent of the wines produced in Limoux, a region in the hills south of the city of Carcasonne in the Languedoc. Limoux is noted for producing the best Pinot Noir in the region. However, it could not possibly meet the demand, which is where Ducasse came in. It bought Merlot and Syrah from local co-operatives, and sold it on as Pinot Noir.

A local source argues that “Sieur d’Arques gave them the mission to buy Pinot Noir, and was the washing machine. But everybody concerned must have known. The eight co-ops, Ducasse and Sieur d’Arques as well.”

Another grower in the Limoux area pointed out that, at one stage, Sieur d’Arques was selling more than the entire production of Pinot Noir in the Languedoc. Did Gallo know? The company denies any knowledge, and it was not accused of anything in court.

So how could such a large number of people be taken in by the fraud? Usually it is quite easy to tell a Pinot Noir, sometimes merely by looking at it. The variety has very thin skins. In Burgundy and elsewhere it is very pale in colour and low in tannins. Those produced in warmer climates tend to be fuller in body, with a bit more colour. However, Merlot and Syrah generally have a far deeper hue.

It also tastes very different. Blind tasting is far from an exact science, and less expensive wines tend to show less varietal character. Lawyers for Ducasse argued that nobody – Gallo, the wine press, or the American consumer – ever raised any suspicions about the wine. I have never tasted the wine in question, but a colleague who has was less than complementary.

Of course, one key indicator is price – given

the demand for Pinot

Noir, the market price is higher than all other grape varieties. It is clear that from the start, Ducasse was buying Pinot Noir from the co-operatives at well under market price, which should have raised a few eyebrows.

The wine world is full of dark tales of mislabelled wine. But proving any actual fraud is very difficult. At present there is no scientific method of guaranteeing that a particular wine is made from the stated grape or even that it comes from a particular area.

Yet, all producers must keep records of everything they grow, make and sell, so it should be theoretically possible to trace. However, there will always be a huge temptation to relabel wine as coming from a more sought-after region, or being made from a more desirable grape variety.
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Friday, February 19, 2010

Jonathan Ray's top 10 Kiwi wines Jonathan Ray's top 10 Kiwi wines

New Zealand is bewitching. I've travelled there on several occasions and it never fails to enthrall me. The wines in particular are fascinating and it's remarkable to think that barely forty years ago all that was produced there was bland, soapy muller-thurgau.

There are the inimitable sauvignon blancs of Marlborough; the silky pinots of Martinborough and Central Otago; the bordeaux blends and syrahs of Hawke's Bay; and the rieslings and gewürztraminers of Nelson and Gisborne. And they get better every year.

They're not cheap, but in Britain we love them (sales are at an all-time high) and are prepared to pay for them. On average, we spend £6.25 on a bottle of Kiwi wine, but only £4.82 on French, £4.49 on Australian and £4.30 on everything else.

Most of New Zealand's 570 wineries are family-owned and boutique – unlike in Australia there are few big brands.

Names I look out for include Man O'War, Kumeu River, Seresin Estate, Craggy Range, Forrest Estate, Mount Difficulty, Te Awa Farm, Palliser Estate, C J Pask and Foxes Island, although the best are too pricey for everyday. Here then – in no particular order – are 10 great Kiwi wines that won't (except maybe the last one) break the bank.

1 2005 John Forrest Collection Noble Riesling, 9%vol (£19.99 per 37.5cl; Adnams 01502 727272).

Wine lovers are in for a real treat now that the European Union's bizarre embargo on New Zealand's sweet wines has been lifted. This absolute peach from Marlborough is on the high seas as I write and will be available from March. Richly sweet, but with fresh, fine riesling acidity and complex whiffs of petrol and marmalade, it's wonderful on its own or with tarte tatin. Definitely a wine worth waiting for.


2 2009 Villa Maria Private Bin Chardonnay/Viognier, 14%vol (£5.99 reduced from £7.99 until March 16; Waitrose).

The family-owned Villa Maria winery (established 1961) has done much to popularise New Zealand wine and makes excellent and approachable wines at affordable prices. This novel Gisborne blend of chardonnay, viognier and a splash of pinot gris is no exception. Full of creamy peach and fresh apricot fruit, it's delicious with sushi and sashimi.


3 2007 Hawksburn Terrace Pinot Noir, 14%vol, (£11.99 reduced from £17.80 until Feb 28; Bibendum 020 7449 4120).

It's a little over 20 years since the first Central Otago pinot noir hit the market and they've come a long way. The best are exceptional, the second best still need work (and vine age). This is in the former category, with a heady scent and buckets of sweet juicy fruit. It's an utter delight, especially at this price, held especially for Telegraph readers until the end of this month.


4 2009 Spy Valley Riesling, 13%vol (£9.50; Wine Society 01438 740222)

Marlborough is best known for its remarkable sauvignon blancs, but ''aromatics'' such as riesling, gewürztraminer and pinot gris also thrive. Spy Valley – so-called because of its giant golf ball-like government listening post – is a fine spot for such varieties and this riesling is charming. It makes a delicious aperitif.


5 2007 Kaituna Hills Reserve Merlot Cabernet, 13.5%vol (£8.99; Marks & Spencer).

Hawke's Bay is proving hugely exciting for red wines, primarily straight syrahs or Bordeaux blends such as this. Made from 75 per cent merlot and 25 per cent cabernet, it is barrel-fermented and aged in oak for 15 months. With soft, smooth, supple fruit, a gentle touch of sweetness, and a stylish structure, it's the Kiwi equivalent of cru bourgeois claret. Perfect with a Sunday roast.


6 2009 Fern Bay Sauvignon Blanc, 12.5%vol (£5.61; Tesco).

Forty years ago nobody in Marlborough had heard of sauvignon blanc; today they're producing some of the finest in the world. The best are expensive and supermarkets have worked hard to bring in cheaper versions. Sadly, few cut the mustard. But this example shipped by Tesco (and bottled in Britain) shows the tropical gooseberry character we've come to expect.


7 2008 Jackson Estate 'Vintage Widow' Pinot Noir, 14%vol (£14.39 if you buy two as part of a mixed half dozen; Majestic).

Martinborough and Central Otago are generally thought to be the best places for pinot noir in New Zealand, but there are some crackers coming out of Marlborough, too. This is wonderfully intense and concentrated, with hints of chocolate, pepper and spice. It's a great price and best enjoyed with a rich meaty casserole or stew.


8 2008 Millton Vineyards Te Arai Chenin Blanc, 12%vol (£11.50; Vintage Roots 0800 980 4992).

Organic/biodynamic pioneer James Millton is gloriously eccentric and makes superlative wines at his Manutuke estate in Gisborne. His viognier is one of the best examples of that grape I've tasted and this chenin blanc is benchmark stuff, with rich, vibrant fruit, keen acidity and abundant freshness. Enjoy it with a salmon
stir-fry.


9 2007 Vidal Estate Syrah, 14%vol (£9.99; Waitrose).

The syrahs of the Gimblett Gravels in Hawke's Bay are coming of age and developing their own identity rather than just imitating the Rhône. And although still young, this shows where they're headed. With pepper and spice, plenty of dark cherry/blackberry fruit and soft supple tannins, it's surprisingly forward. Drink now with roast lamb shank and dauphinoise potatoes or tuck away for a few months.


10 Lindauer Rosé NV, 12%vol, (£7.19 if you buy an unmixed dozen, otherwise £8.99; Oddbins).

This is easy to drink, undemanding and one of the best bottle-fermented fizzes available in this price bracket. Made from pinot noir, chardonnay and – surprisingly enough – a touch of pinotage, it is a disarming pale pink, clean, crisp and fresh with a delicate wild strawberry character. Try it with rare roast beef salad.
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Thursday, February 18, 2010

It's a sad truth, but there is a lot of fake wine out there

The news of E&J Gallo, the world's biggest single wine producer, being hoodwinked by a group of errant French vignerons is funny and depressing at the same time.

It isn't, however, surprising. The comedy comes from Gallo's clumsy attempt to ride the post-Sideways pinot noir craze by peddling Red Bicyclette as an authentic French pinot when it turned out to be anything but.

It doesn't say much for Gallo's professionalism that its buyers couldn't tell the different between pinot, merlot and shiraz.

It is a sad truth, however, that there is a lot of fake wine out there. We're not talking here about bottles of first growth Bordeaux that may or may not have belonged to Thomas Jefferson (wines auctioned as such for over $100,000 are currently the subject of court cases in the US). While sophisticated counterfeit bottles are a growing cause for concern at the top end of the market, wine fakery is just as common lower down the chain.

Italy is the prime exponent – to such an extent that, in 2007, 25 police officers qualified as sommeliers in order to combat the problem. For years a blind eye was turned to the containers of gutsy wine from the south making its way to the more rarefied north – Tuscany, Piedmont and Verona.

I've never heard a convincing explanation of why bulk wine would be transported to regions that are disqualified from using it in their wines, but an answer may lie in more recent alleged scams. The wine of the much-lauded DOC Brunello di Montalcino has to be made exclusively from sangiovese in order to quality for the name. But sangiovese is a fragile, difficult grape, with a tendency to produce thin wine in poor vintages. Nothing that a little splash of muscular cabernet sauvignon can't mask, though – a particularly tempting option for those exporting to the US, which favours more punchy wines.

In France, the "King of Beaujolais", Georges Duboeuf, was fined €30,000 in 2006 for illegally blending lesser, generic wines into his higher quality cru cuvées. And in Bordeaux, the co-owner of classed growth Château Giscours was investigated for allegedly blending generic wine from the broader Haut Medoc appellation into the property's second wine in 1995.

One can argue all day as to whether a wine has to meet certain criteria to qualify as a good wine. If Gallo's Red Bicyclette tastes good, are consumers bothered if it's merlot not pinot? Higher up the scale, though, provenance and typicity are highly valued by wine lovers. Ultimately, though, nothing will ever compare to the taste of the Bolivian "wine" discovered by customs officials in Bulgaria last year. The content of the bottles? Liquid cocaine.
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Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Why Foster's is looking much like flat beer

If the less than stellar result from Foster's yesterday was a one-off event, then the negative response from the sharemarket would probably be an overreaction. But everything about the Foster's result suggests that it is a company in structural decline - particularly in the wine business, where the company has virtually no control over the volume of wine produced in Australia or in the US, where most of the operations are based.

When wine gluts emerge - and recent statistics out of the US on the size of last year's grape crush in California suggest this market will produce an excess of what will be consumed - discounting starts to emerge and the margins for companies like Foster's get eroded.

Such behaviour puts enormous strains on Foster's, which relies on strong brands to hold price and therefore margins. The response is clearly to invest money in marketing brands, but that comes at a price. And while consumers demonstrate some degree of loyalty, they are also happy to switch to the new brands that mushroom all too regularly.

In this respect, Foster's cannot regulate supply and has no option but to respond with price.

Adding insult to injury (from an economic perspective), the demand side of the wine equation has changed thanks to the global fall in economic growth. The Americans are buying cheaper, lower-quality wines in response to their economic circumstances. Again, this is outside the control of Foster's.

On the supply side, the situation is mirrored to some extent in the beer business. The big beer brands are seeing their volume being contested by small players with specialist beers - and market share has continued to decline as a consequence. This was evident in yesterday's result.

Faced with the challenge of limited ability to control the price of its products or the exchange rate (which also went against it), the board threw out the last management team and installed a new lot.

The new management announced its intention to employ yet another strategy to improve the company's earnings. This revolves around taking out costs and splitting the beer and wine sales force in order to better service customers (be they bottle shops or restaurants).

In the six months to December, management says it has taken out about $35 million in costs, with another $70 million in the near-term pipeline. Some of this will be achieved by negotiating better contracts with its own suppliers, such as IT, but most will be about getting rid of 500 staff.

This may enhance the company's prospects to some degree, but it wasn't enough to redress the falling profit in the half.

And it certainly doesn't address the structural issues in the wine or beer business.

When I asked the Foster's chief executive, Ian Johnston, yesterday why investors should believe that his management's restructuring initiatives will be any more successful than any of the previous (failed) attempts, his first response was that the management was new and improved, as was the board.

He also said that the company's promise to cut costs had been delivered to date.

That is all true, but again this is a business with structural problems, and it is hard to see how even new and improved management can deliver a return any better than flat.

On the stockmarket, Foster's is not competing with other wine companies - it is up against all companies, and some are showing plenty of growth.

Johnston's final response to this question was that the market needs to take a ''trust me'' attitude. That is something which markets usually don't subscribe to.

What they do take into account is the prospect that Foster's may be a takeover target. But buying troubled companies in the hope that someone will offer a takeover premium is a risky strategy.

Foster's has become a chronic underperformer, supported by a perennial takeover rumour.

Last month the company appointed the very highly regarded John Pollaers to run the beer business. It is a fair bet he is being groomed for the top job, rather than being placed to mark time until a takeover emerges.

The new management team is certainly a positive. Its strategy to improve its relationship with customers is also a good move.

But it is hard to see how this is enough to arrest this company's structural issues. It will buy it some time - maybe a couple of years, at which point the US recession might be only a memory.

This would provide some reprieve. But it is really hard to see how the natural headwinds can be overcome even in the longer term.

While investors are desperate for Foster's to demerge the wine business, Johnston has made it clear that this won't happen until its performance is reversed.

So shareholders might be waiting a while.

Johnston was very careful to be vague about forecasting future profits. Who can blame him? The biggest selling point for Foster's was its strong cash position and its relatively conservatively geared balance sheet. The company clearly has the capacity to spend but there was no suggestion it has an acquisition target.

With this in mind, some analysts have suggested it could have been more generous with its dividend.

But it's understandable that a company with a cloud over future profitability should remain conservative about giving excess cash back to shareholders.

Given its financial performance, Foster's does not have the mandate to spend, but with its strong cash-generating beer business there is room to enhance its dividend yield.

It could invest in reducing the price of its product but this might ultimately further compromise the brand of both its beer and wine products.

The company is behaving like one in turnaround mode, despite the fact that a major revival is not evident.
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Friday, February 12, 2010

Wine trail rocks with Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras dances its procession along the Cayuga Lake Wine Trail Saturday and Sunday.
Participants will receive Lady Luck's specially marked coins for exciting prizes and a string of Mardi Gras beads at each of 16 wineries along the trail with a New Orleans theme.

Wine and food pairings as well as grand prizes will be offered to weekenders. Prizes will be provided by Barrister's Bed and Breakfast in Seneca Falls, Finger Lakes Winery Tours in Geneva, Taverni Banfi at the Statler Hotel in Ithaca or a wine refrigerator with a 16-bottle sampling of the wine trail's best.

Costumed guests visiting the wineries on Saturday may be crowned kings and queens of Mardi Gras, with judging starting 5:30 p.m. at Americana Vineyard. A panel will pick the 2010 Royal Mardi Gras Couple, who will get free tickets to other Cayuga Wine Trail events, the Finger Lakes Wine Festival in Watkins Glen and an overnight stay in a suite at the Latourelle Resort and Spa in Ithaca.
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Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Drink chilled wine outside without a cooler

It may not seem like it now, but soon there will come a day when the sun is shining, and outside activities are but a picnic basket away.

When it comes to serving certain wines, temperature makes all the difference, but it can be difficult to mix a fun day spent outdoors with a perfectly chilled wine.

Advanced planning is usually essential, involving the forethought to place equipment in the freezer, such as gel packs or even bulky contrivances.

The Skybar Wine Cool Cover doesn't require you to prefreeze any equipment or freezer packs. Instead, the picnic accessory creates a double-walled barrier between your wine and the elements.

Though the cover does not need to be prechilled, the wine bottle does, so having a chilled bottle of wine for outside enjoyment is as simple as grabbing one from the fridge ad putting in the cover.Completely covering a standard 750-milliliter bottle, the Skybar Wine Cool Cover also features a no-drip base on which to place your wine. With no ice involved, or the need to freeze any equipment, the wine cover makes it just as easy to enjoy chilled wine on a picnic as it is to enjoy in the dining room.
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Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Why wine critics are useful

It's open season on wine writers at the moment. If you believe people like Oliver Thring and Tim Hanni, we are misguided elitists talking to one another rather.

Than consumers, prejudiced snobs whose evening tipple is more likely to be Château Lafite sipped from a hand blown Riedel glass, than a bottle of Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon.

The reality is rather different. As a professional wine writer, educator and Master of Wine, I taste something like 1,000 bottles a month and they vary enormously in quality. At every level, be it classed growth claret or a supermarket three for £10 deal, my job is the same: to sift the good from the bad, the great value from the over-priced.

Four-fifths of what I sample isn't worth recommending. I'm not so much a gatekeeper as a vinous night club bouncer. We used to pride ourselves on the quality of the wine sold in this country. Today, thanks to the major supermarkets' desire to grapple for space in the bargain basement, there's far more rubbish around.
Experienced wine critics are arguably more essential in a recession than ever. Increasing numbers of people are eating at home rather than in restaurants and spending more on a single bottle of wine for dinner. The higher the price, the more they need advice and reassurance.

I'd be the first to agree with Tim Hanni that everyone's palate is different. But I also think that wine tasting is something you need to practice. Some people are innately brilliant at assessing wine, but most of us have to work at it to acquire reliable, trustworthy palates. You wouldn't expect someone who's been playing the piano for a year to tackle a Chopin Prelude, so why should wine be different? Professionals are invariably better at tasting because it's their full-time job.

Do I believe that you should follow your own judgement? Of course I do. One of my favourite cartoons shows a punter tasting a sample in a wine shop. "This is disgusting," he tells the manager. "The Wine Speculator gave it 96 points out of 100," replies the manager. "OK, I'll take 10 cases," says the punter. People who buy wines they don't like because someone else tells them to are fools.

This doesn't undermine the role of the critic, however. Just as I read Philip French on film and Michael Billington on theatre, so I would advise you to find a wine critic, or set of critics, whose judgement you trust. If an Observer reader writes to me to complain about the quality of a wine I have chosen, I take the complaint very seriously. I only ever recommend wines that I would buy and drink myself. Obviously, I hope you share my taste, but if you don't I won't take offence.

I'm not a wine snob either. I would never argue, as Hanni suggests we wine writers do, that "certain wines are simply the best, and that anyone who disagrees is stupid, unsophisticated or both". Drink what you want, when you want, I say, as long as it's not White Zinfandel. Personally, I like nothing more than to come across a cheaper alternative to a classic wine style.

Wine can be a very complicated subject, covering geology, climatology, plant biology, bio-chemistry, aesthetics, history, economics and sociology among other things, but in the end it comes down to a simple question: do I like what's in my glass? If a wine critic helps you to say yes more often than no, he or she is doing a good job.
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Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Naples Winter Wine Festival Rallies in 2010, Netting $8 Million

This year marked a return to form for the Naples Winter Wine Festival auction, the top-earning charity wine auction in the country since 2004. After diminished success last year that reflected the dire economic circumstances of early 2009, the Naples, Fla.-based auction experienced a turnaround, with totals from Saturday’s event cresting over $8 million, a 60 percent increase over last year’s $5.06 million figure.

While it is too soon to know if the rebound at Naples is a bellwether of recovery for charity wine auctions in 2010, this is now already a celebratory year for the auction beneficiary, the Naples Children and Education Foundation, and for the 100,000 at-risk children aided by its many health programs.

The success at Naples this year, though still well shy of the blockbuster $15.67 million haul in 2007, is subject to multiple interpretations. But Francis Rooney, festival chairman and former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, thinks that the resilience of compassion, even in lean times, accounts for much of it.

"People feel really good about the generosity that was expressed, that we haven’t let the recession stop us from helping children that need our help. The kids need all the money we can raise, and they need it now more than they ever would have." The young beneficiaries of the festival largesse have received approximately $82.5 million over the last 10 years.

One breakout success this year, the lead earner among the 61 lots, was a fund-a-need effort that netted $652,850 for the Children's Behavioral Health Collaboration, a mental health initiative. This new addition to the auction was the brainchild of Rooney's wife, Kathleen, and it democratized auction participation among the 500 attendees: "It was a way for everybody under the tent to participate at a level that reflected their means and ability, so it enriched the community of benefactors by having the ability to give one or five or 10,000 dollars."

Other standout lots included a week-long Mediterranean cruise on the Feadship Yacht Dream for six couples that sold for $440,000 and private rendezvous with supermodel Heidi Klum, actor Robert Redford and LPGA legend/vintner Annika Sorenstam that went for $150,000, $130,000, and $30,000, respectively. But all auction-goers got a few celebrity sightings: actor and concocter of the Pursued by Bear Washington blend Kyle MacLachlan and upholder of syndicated justice Judge Judy Sheindlin were both in the bidding fray.

And of course, the wines: A 2003 Château Lynch-Bages double magnum, paired with two nights in Pauillac for two couples, fetched $170,000. A 2005 to 2003 vertical of Colgin Cellars Tychson Hill Cabernet Sauvignon served with a dinner by Thomas Keller bagged an additional $160,000. Three large-format Domaine Serene Monogram Pinot Noirs, bundled with a personal meal prepared by Emeril Lagasse, reeled in $160,000. And four salmanazars of Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut-Brion notched $150,000; Haut-Brion’s Prince Robert of Luxembourg was there to send them on their way. In 2010, economic conditions still look cloudy. But if Naples is any indication, we may yet see charity wine auctions ebb back up toward their high-water marks. Bidders understand how hard the recession can be on the organizations that depend on our goodwill.
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Monday, February 1, 2010

Is this British sparking wine the best in the world?


When I heard Nyetimber Classic Cuvee 2003 had come out top in a blind tasting at the world sparkling wine championships in Verona, beating super-brands such as Louis Roederer 2000 (who make the famous Cristal), my reaction was: so what? Blind tastings throw up weird results. When judges' scores are averaged out, the least offensive wine often comes out on top.

Until now I've been impressed but not bowled over by English sparkling wine. The best small-batch luxury cuvees can be good, but their price puts them into competition with people who have been making champagne for centuries. Then, this morning I tasted the latest release of the Nyetimber, which kicked up such a storm in Italy. It is made in West Sussex from a blend of the classic champagne grapes, chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier. It has enormous concentration and persistence of flavour – longer than the train journey from London to Penzance.

The sensations in the mouth start with a fresh flash of acidity that broadens out like an estuary, ripe, welcoming and soft. Then it takes a more serious turn, becoming eye-wateringly intense, like biting into freshly picked redcurrants. If I hadn't known, I would have mistaken it for a champagne. It has the classic champagne structure, reminding me slightly of Jacquesson or Billecart-Salmon.

Most English wines taste chalkier – you can smell the leanness, the austerity, the lack of ripeness. But this is from 2003, the year of the heatwave that ruined a lot of wine on the European mainland, but which seems to have brought out the character of Nyetimber. It tasted better than most widely available brands of champagne. I'd rather drink this than Bollinger Special Cuvee, a wine I like very much. The only thing I wish they'd change is the label. A wine this grown-up needs better clothes.
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