The correct temperature?

I very rarely eat grapes, probably because we making a living out of growing them. (I guess it's like the people who work in chocolate factories that eventually give up eating chocolate).

The other day, for some unknown reason, I bought a few grapes and popped them in the bottom of my fridge. When I tasted them later I remember thinking to myself that they were a bit acid - I left the remainder of the bunch on my kitchen counter. A little later I picked at a few more, but this time they tasted somewhat sweeter and generally more flavourful. One simple but important difference - they were warmer!

Of course this one of the fundamentals of wine tasting too - how your perception of wine is altered by the temperature at which you drink it.

Obviously I'm not suggesting that you should drink your albariño warm (albeit that this is the best way to expose many potential faults), but conversely, if you drink it too cold, not only will it exaggerate the acidity, but will also help to mask the true character of your wine.

If you find yourself being offered a tooth-shatteringly cold white wine in a restaurant, then cup the bowl of the glass in your two hands, and gently swirl it around until the temperature recovers a little - then, and only then, should you taste and pass your judgement.

Most red wine is served at 'room temperature', which to be honest is a little vague. So if your room is a little too warm, your red wine might also be adversely affected. An over heated bottle will throw all the alcohol to the forefront, perhaps giving your glass a bit of alcoholic 'burn' - not literally, but just a sensation of heat in the back of your throat. This, quite naturally, is more exaggerated in heavy, alcoholic red wines, and is quite easily remedied by chilling the bottle just a little - but not too much!
If you chill a red wine too much, this will simply exaggerate the tannins and could make your wine taste hard, harsh and maybe even a bit metallic.

As you will gather, temperature can make a bit difference to your enjoyment of any wine.

Another month, another city

Let's get one thing clear - Angela and I both love travelling (not that we can always afford it). For the last couple of years we have managed to include one or two customer tastings during our annual holiday, which might seem above and beyond the call of duty, but there is also a plus side....

Often, when we are obliged to travel to tastings, we try to include a spare day in our itinerary to take in the local sights, and perhaps a bit of shoe shopping for Angela - the Imelda Marcos of the wine industry.

Our recent trip to Northern Ireland was actually an exception to this rule, as just getting there and back was so complicated that we restricted ourselves to just a short hop, in and out, with precious little time for sightseeing. We did however learn one valuable piece of information for our next visit - in future we will try to fly to Belfast City airport rather than Belfast International - the latter is a long, long way from the city centre.

The tasting itself was a huge success for us as the customers of our importer could not have been more appreciative of our wine. Castro Martin was one of the stars of the show, yet again, and totally justified the time and effort in getting there. It's just so great to meet our end consumers.

The tasting lottery

It's always been a bit of a conundrum to me, and I have written about it many times before, but there are times when I really do question the value of submitting wines to wine guides and competitions etc. At best these types of tastings are inconsistent, and at worst they are simply a complete lottery.

The reason that I chose to say this now is because over the last month or two we have travelled the world showing our wines to some very knowledgeable professionals in several different cities and countries. The general consensus has been that the 2009 wines that we are selling now are outstanding, and possibly some of the best we have ever made. (Not just our opinion, but an opinion shared by the huge majority of people that tasted, including some top journalists).

Imagine our surprise therefore to discover that the very same wines were rated with some of the lowest scores of the region in a new Spanish wine guide (which shall remain nameless).

Those of you who know me will know that I am often brutally honest, and sometimes get myself into trouble with my outspoken views, but to say that this story does not make any sense is probably something of an understatement. The problem now is that this review has been printed in black and white and will be circulating in book shops over the coming year.

I must say however, that I am not convinced that these wine guides actually have too much influence when it comes to selling our wines, and the real measure of our success or otherwise, is determined much more by our importers and their customers who actually buy, consume and enjoy our wines.

Just to finish, I thought I was honest, but here's a tasting note written by a proprietor about his own wine that might be just a bit close to the bone. I have deleted the name of the wine, but the rest is verbatim.....

******  is not exactly an elegant wine, but it’s not over-extracted either. At first sight, it looks like a “rough soul” with hairs all over his chest, which goes straight to the point, but without dismissing subtleties and a gentleman’s good manners while it bombards your senses with an array of well polished exaggerations – it’s like an iron hand in a glove of soft velvet. A wine for those moments when we are tired of everything and won’t have “more of the same”

Challenging the rule

Back in November last year I wrote briefly about how tasting perceptions may or may not be altered by different factors - weather, barometric pressure, the cycles of the moon, etc., etc.

Perhaps back then I treated the subject with a bit of scepticism, or maybe it's just that I'm a grumpy old man who always knows best (as Angela will readily attest to). So, in the spirit of open-mindedness I decided to put it to the test.....

Now, I must be one of Amazon's best customers here in Galicia, so in my latest order of books and software I added the small pocket tasting guide based on Maria Thun's biodynamic calendar, simply entitled "When wine tastes best". I must confess that there were two things that struck me immediately - firstly, that the 'book' was much smaller than I imagined (when I opened the parcel I thought that they had forgotten to pack it), and secondly, how detailed it is. It does not simply give the days on which your wine might taste better, but then this is also broken down even further, indicating the actual hour!

As I write this entry Angela is travelling again, this time in Barcelona. I think that I will await her return so that we can taste together, and see if we can come to some sort of consensus over this alternative tasting theory.

This might be life changing!

A new approach to binge drinking

A sentiment somewhat lost in translation

The scourge of many a European country these days is that of teenage binge drinking, or "le binge drinking" as the French call it. In Spain it is known as the "Botellon", and those of you who follow my blog will know that I have written about this many times in the past.

The reason that I have resurrected the tale of this troubling phenomenon is largely because of a story that I read about a new French initiative..... education. No, not teaching the kids how to drink more, but an attempt to teach them a little more about wine, and wine appreciation. A government report is recommending that university canteens hold wine-tasting sessions to educate the young in the virtues of moderate consumption!

With typical Gallic flair and imagination a well-known French gastronaut explained in a radio interview, "Why is there sexual education and not viticultural education? You can learn wine too. Drinking is not drinking a bottle. Wine is pleasure. It's like love. It's the same."

OK, we all know that the French are a very passionate lot, but perhaps this type of reasoning could be stretching the point just a little too far...... It's like love???

A former director of the Sorbonne added "In order to avoid the total freak-out that happens every Friday night and Saturday night … we want to try to teach students a sense of responsibility, to allow them to taste wine in very moderate quantities, and to show them that it is both a pleasure, good for their health … and a part of their national heritage."

Unfortunately not everyone is in agreement with the idea of serving wine to students in their lunch break, saying that it is simply naive to think that this approach will reduce binge drinking, and adding that it is more likely to serve as a form of marketing for the wine industry.

On final, rather sobering, statistic is that, according to the Paris authorities, a fifth of 17-year-olds now drink at least five glasses of wine in a single sitting at least three times a month.

Spot the wine writer!

The wine trade can sometimes be a rather drab place, with far too many people taking themselves far too seriously, so it's really good to have the opportunity to laugh a little from time to time.

I have not posted for a week or so, as Angela and I have been over in the UK where we attended the annual tasting of one of our customers. I think I have written about this particular tasting before; fantastically organised around an original central theme each year, and always hugely well attended. This year was no exception, and even the freezing conditions could not deter hoteliers and restaurateurs from travelling the length and breadth of the country to taste an outstanding selection of wines.

Amongst the many wine writers in attendance was an old friend of mine, who appears in the picture with me (I'm the one in trousers!). I was originally inclined to ask for suggestions as to his identity, but instead, as a clue, I can tell you that (in common with Oz Clarke), this man has a great singing voice and often appears on stage in Opera, both serious and light. On this occassion he is however, appearing in Pantomime, as hopefully you may have gathered from his make up.

It is in fact Charles Metcalfe, wine writer, broadcaster and co-founder of the London International Wine Challenge, now one of the biggest tasting competitions in the world. Charles seized the moment and changed into his Pantomime outfit to promote the charity event.

How is it the song goes?......... there is nothing like a dame (and Charles assures me, he really is nothing like one)!

Tasting and the lunar cycle

Now, I have been tasting wine for much longer than I care to remember, and at the peak of my wine buying career I would easily sample 100+ wines a day. Today the demand on my tastebuds is much more restrained, and often limited to tasting a couple of dozen tanks in our own cellar (which I do with Angela on a pretty regular basis).

Of course our tanks are all 100% Albariño and therefore the differences from one tank to the next can be fairly miniscule, and the evolution over time very subtle, but then there is something else that I notice from time to time....

There are days when I emerge from the cellar positively glowing about the quality of our wine, and then there are other days, when I am not quite so ecstatic. Now, this could be down to me - perhaps my own palate is not as sharp as it should be on certain days, although this is not a phenomenon that I have been aware of in the past. So what could be the reason for this apparent variation in quality? Could it be the moon?

Some UK supermarkets are now actually arranging wine tasting sessions around good and bad days as determined by the lunar calendar. According to a German grandmother called Maria Thun (back in the 1950's) the calendar should be divided into four categories according to the relative positions of moon and stars - “fruit”, “flower”, “leaf” and “root”. Wine is best on fruit days, followed by flower, leaf and root days (best avoided completely on a root day). Tesco and Marks & Spencer are the latest supporters of this philosophy, and the two supermarkets now have a policy of inviting press and wine critics to taste their wine only on days which the calendar says are favourable.

Of course sceptics say that there is no proof to support Ms Thun's theory, whilst on the other side believers argue that wine is, after all, a living organism and can therefore be affected by cycles of the moon. Finally, the more logical, scientifically minded amongst us might simply say that the apparent variations in taste are more likely to be caused by changes in atmospheric pressure, but who really knows for sure - it could be just in our imagination?

Perhaps it's appropriate, with Halloween just behind us, that it all sounds like a bit of witchcraft. Personally I quite like the moon theory, albeit that the logical part of my brain tells me that it all sounds just a little far-fetched!

Drinking in an orderly fashion

Over many years in the wine trade I have been lucky enough to participate in an enormous number of organised wine tastings. Whether it be at wine fairs, in tasting competitions or even just to find a wine that I wanted to buy, there was one important rule that I always tried to obey.... tasting any comprehensive selection of wines in the correct order.

Now, you may not view this as a major issue, but I should tell you that it can make a significant difference and may inadvertently dictate the wine that you single out for special note.

With bottled white wines I always like to start with the oldest wines first, and gradually work my way on to the younger wines, and there is a very simple reason for this. Take our Albariño as an example – it is generally enjoyed as a young, clean, fruity wine, with a fresh acidity. Tasting a young Albariño first and then following with an older vintage might easily give the second wine (no matter how good), an appearance of being a little tired, or possibly even oxidised. Actually more of an olfactory illusion than a true comparison.

As an aside, this rule of ‘young and old’ can actually be carried through to the pairing food with wine. The privileged few may consider drinking Champagne with dessert, which may give rise to a small but significant problem – if you are enjoying a dessert of fresh fruits and you are lucky enough to be quaffing an older, vintage Champagne, then this too might appear a touch oxidised when tasted alongside the fresh, youthful fruit. By contrast, a vibrant, young Spumante, or even an off-dry Lambrusco might actually make a better pairing, and could be considerably cheaper too! (Please note that there is some very good Lambrusco on the market).

A similar type of rule applies to sweet and dry wines. Tasting a sweet wine first, and then moving immediately to a dry wine can give the second glass an appearance of being a little thin, and possibly a bit harsh, by comparison to the lush mouthfeel of the former. This can be further exaggerated if the second, dry wine also has a slighter higher acidity.

As you may now begin to understand, the order of tasting in a wine competition is of paramount importance, especially if you bear in mind that in nearly every case the judging is conducted completely blind. If the 'flights' are not arranged in the correct order, then your precious wine sample might easily be eliminated for completely the wrong reason.

Taking this a step further, there are other variables that should possibly be taken into account - temperature, for example. Whilst it is true that any red or white wine tasted at room temperature might highlight any potential faults, in some circumstances it can actually be quite damaging. Tasting a meaty, full-bodied red wine that is too warm serves merely to exaggerate the alcohol, and might render the sample flabby and unbalanced. Too cold, and a young Bordeaux will show all its mouth puckering tannins, and not much else, although it might also appear hard and metallic.

Finally, we have sulphur! At the moment of bottling the winemaker might well 'fine-tune' the amount of sulphur added, in order that the bottle enjoys an optimum shelf-life. It is therefore not uncommon to find a recently bottled wine that has a slightly elevated level of sulphur. In the long term this will no doubt be of benefit, but in the short term it can easily render the bottle a little dumb, or at least not very expressive. To be honest an average consumer would not be expected to recognise this, but suffice to say that it might just taint his or her experience of a potentially great wine.

Now who would want to be a professional wine taster?

Añada tasting 2008

Barcelona's beautiful Casa Fuster Hotel

Once a year the Rias Baixas circus moves to different locations around Spain. The object, to introduce the new vintage (añada) to both the press and selected trade customers. To be honest I am not sure exactly how many Bodegas from our denomination show off their wine at the tasting, but it is certainly the vast majority, making for a fairly sizeable selection.

This year we re-located to Barcelona, which of course, is a great place to visit for whatever reason, so we need no excuse. The precise location was the Casa Fuster, a small, five-star luxury
hotel situated in the very heart of the city. Not only is this hotel honoured by the presence of our denomination tasting, but it also boasts a jazz bar that producer Woody Allen visits every year to show off his talent on the clarinet and/or saxophone (but not necessarily at the same time!)

At the tasting itself we are not actually allowed to pour our own wine for visitors, or even to stand behind the table (please don't ask me why), we simply mingle with the crowd and take the opportunity to taste as many other Albariños as possible (which for me at least is my main motivation for attending). It is always interesting to find out exactly where we stand in the hierarchy of quality, and I do my very best to revive my old 'buyers hat' and be as objective as possible in my judgement. With hand on heart I can tell you that in 2008 my opinion is that we rate amongst the very best - and certainly within the top five or six......

Since returning I have started to save up so that I may visit the Casa Fuster again - not saving in order to stay the night, but merely saving enough to pay for a beer in their bar!

Fire & Brimstone

Sulpur, sulphur or sulfur, was commonly called brimstone in English translations of the Bible, possibly because of it's volcanic origin and rather pungent smell. Burning suphur, and more especially the smell, was associated with the old 'fire and brimstone' religious sermons that threatened eternal damnation. (It is the burning of sulphur that actually produces the suffocating and dangerous sulphur dioxide gas, as in it's natural form sulphur is virtually odourless).

Sulphur dioxide has many different uses, not least of all in winemaking - we use it as a preservative agent, but only in absolutely miniscule amounts that are measured in parts per million. In the wine bottle it serves as an antibiotic and antioxidant, protecting wine from spoilage by bacteria and oxidation. It also helps to keep volatile acidity within acceptable levels, and it is for this reason that you will see the expression "contains sulfites" on every wine label.

The precise amount of sulphur added at bottling is absolutely critical, as this not only has a huge impact on the taste, but also on the actual 'shelf life' of the bottle itself. Too little and your wine might oxidise quite quickly, too much and it can render your glass completely flat and unpleasant - effectively 'killing off' the wine for good. Natually the amount we add is determined by the experience of our own wine, and how quickly we like it to evolve. As we have never really designed our wine simply for 'instant gratification', it is perhaps possible that we might add a touch more sulphur than some of our neighbours.

It was my own experience at home yesterday evening that provoked me to explain this story, as we opened a bottle of Castro Martin 2007 with our meal. After pulling the cork, whilst there was no obvious presence of sulphur on the nose, the wine did appear to be a little 'dumb', and was not really showing it's true potential. At this point some consumers might say that the wine should be allowed to 'breathe', but in the case of a (quality) white wine it is really more a question of letting the wine recover for a moment, allowing the last remnants suphur to dissipate.

So the moral of today's sermon is, if you whip out the cork and find our Albariño appears just a little flat, swirl your glass a little and give it a few moments before you pass final judgement.

Castro Martin in the 'Gran Manzana'

OK, so the photo is a bit cheesy, and I'm sure that it has been done before, but I do like to keep myself amused.....

I am just back (and recovering) from a few days in New York, where I attended the annual tasting of our US importer. It was a bit of a rushed trip owing to the fact that the date of the tasting was so close to the harvest - indeed, if it had been either 2006 or 2007 we would have already started picking.

Of course New York is a shoppers paradise, especially with the Euro being so strong against the Dollar (unfortunately not that great for exporting wine) and so, as you can imagine, Angela was devastated at not being able to fly with me - as winemaker she had to stay behind and 'hold the fort'. She did however compensate by sending me with a long shopping list, and so my sightseeing on this year's trip was mainly confined to Fifth Avenue!

Anyway, I am now back in the real world of grapes, pH and acidity, as we wind up towards the start of this year's campaign. As expected, owing to the late flowering, this years picking will start a little later than the last couple of years, and actually much nearer to the normal start-date for this part of the world.

Castro Martin in New York

Angela at the Lincoln Centre

September is usually the time of year when our thoughts turn to grapes rather than a 'big apple', but this year we made time to squeeze in the annual tasting of our new Castro Martin importer in New York City.

At the famous, and prestigious Lincoln Centre (or should it be Center) Castro Martin rubbed shoulders with many other top wine producers from around the world, and appeared to be very well received even in such illustrious company. Naturally we hope that the enthusiasm for our Albariño (and it's packaging, which was also admired), will be converted into listings and new orders!

So, after a quick shop-a-thon in New York, and just a little jet-lag, we find ourselves back at the coal face, rushing around preparing for the harvest. The contrast between the big city and rural Galicia could not be more extreme.....

Serious about food & wine pairing?

I have written on a few previous occasions about food and wine pairing (and the snobbism often associated with this subject), but in the end there is really only one way to find the definitive answer..... make some tastings for yourself.

Now here is an idea where you can really have some fun, but more importantly, learn a huge amount about the do's and dont's of food and wine. If you have some friends who have even a passing interest in wine, then invite them to join you - this can make for a very entertaining evening. If you own a hotel or restaurant this can also be a great way to educate your employees....

Firstly, make a small but simple shopping list. You will need:

1). A 'Granny Smith' apple (or similar green apple with tart acidity)

2). Pieces of dried apple (or other dried fruit)

3). A wedge of lemon

4). An artichoke (could be tinned, so long as it is well drained)

5). Brie or similar cheese with black pepper coating

6). Blue cheese (of your own choice)

The idea is quite simple - you open a bottle of wine (or even better, a selection of two or three different wines), and then systematically taste each one with each of the different foods. You can also try some combinations - spread a bit of blue cheese on the apple, squeeze a little lemon juice on the artichoke - see if this changes your perception.

If you do decide to do this with two or three different wines, then do make sure you have some contrast. For example, I would suggest:

1). A light off-dry or medium sweet white wine

2). A richly oaked white wine

3). A fresh, dry fruity white (which must be Albariño!)

4). A fresh fruity red wine

5). A more tannic red wine

Certainly, professionals would be advised to make copious notes of the results - otherwise simply try to remember the combinations that really don't work, so that you do not make an expensive mistake when eating out! Remember, it is often the way that food is prepared, and the sauce, that makes all the difference - Pinot Noir with beef for example, can be excellent, but then add some horseradish sauce to your meat, and the wine is destroyed. Egg is also notoriously difficult to match, and probably best avoided - I can only make one possible suggestion - a very old (almost oxidised), white Rhone wine, which might sound disgusting but can work reasonably well with scrambled egg.

We live and learn!

Irish tastings

Angela discovers Guinness in one of Dublin's oldest bars

You may have noticed a lack of posts recently, and this is simply because we have been living out of a suitcase in Ireland. Our importer recently held a series of tastings, both north and south of the border, in Belfast, Dublin and Cork - and it was a real voyage of discovery.

Not only was it an opportunity for the Irish people to learn about our Albariño, but as it turned out, it was also a chance for my wife to discover one of Ireland's national treasures..... Guinness! I have to say that I too enjoyed the odd pint, and I can truthfully say that it tastes much better drinking it in it's country of origin. Of course your memory of a wine (or stout) can easily be influenced, and it reminds me of the tourist who enjoys his first sip of Provence Rosé whilst sitting on a sun-soaked beach in St Tropez, eating his delicious Niçose salad. When he tastes the very same wine for a second time on a grey, wet day in Brighton it doesn't taste quite the same.

I was also tempted to introduce Angela to another Guinness based drink - Black Velvet (a very potent cocktail of Guinness and Champagne) but I will maybe I will leave that for another ocassion. Hmmm.... I wonder if Guinness and Albariño would work? Perhaps not!

Rias Baixas - Wine styles

It's true that there is a lot of snobbery in wine drinking, and we are probably all guilty of a bit of name dropping, or using the odd oenological phrase to demonstrate our knowledge. One such phrase that is sometimes used, and often abused within the wine world is the French expression
'Terrior' - and this does not simply mean soil or region as our dictionary might suggest.

In the world of wine 'terroir' can refer to any number of elements - not simply region and soil, but it can also include aspect, climate, grape variety and even the wine making technique itself. In addition to 'terroir' we then have the term 'microclimate', which can be used to narrow a vine growing region down to tiny areas or even individual vinyeards.

There is no doubt that these varying physical conditions will have an influence on the fruit (even if the same varietal), and will therefore modify the resulting wine. And after all, most wine makers worth their salt will explain that at least 90% of quality is created in the vineyard.

Within the Rias Baixas denomination, there are literally hundreds of different microclimates (which is really as a result of the way in which our tiny vineyards are distributed). However, at the risk of making sweeping generalisations, there are actually two main criteria that tend to produce distinctly different styles of Albariño. These are climate and soil.....

Although our denomination stretches barely 100km (60 miles) from North to South there can be quite significant differences in the weather, with the South being up to 1° or 2°C warmer. The South is also considerably drier - especially the inland areas of Rosal that do not enjoy quite the same refreshing maritime influences. Away from the sea summer temperatures can actually be several degrees warmer.

Rias Baixas North (sub regions - Valle de Salnés & Ribeira del Ulla)
As one would imagine the wines from the cooler Northern zones are usually not as heavy, and have marginally lower alcohol than those from the South. They have the steely, zesty, almost salt like qualities, tight structure and 'nervosity' often found in cool climate wines - in other words many of the attributes normally associated with the Albariño grape variety. This style is also influenced by the high concentration of granite in the sub-soil of the area that can provide an extra touch of minerality to the quality of the wine.


Rias Baixas South (sub regions - Soutomaior, Condado de Tea & El Rosal)
The additional heat of the South also provides extra sugar, and therefore alcohol - the resulting wines tend to be a little more full bodied and slightly heavier. It could be said that this fuller style is in some ways a little atypical of Albariño, and might not be the choice of the purist (I sometimes compare this to the differing styles of Chablis available from France). The sandy soils and alluvial deposits from the Miño river on the Portuguese border do not give the same mineral structure as the Northern wines, and they can sometimes be softer with lower acidity.

Of course, the wine making technique of each individual cellar will have a huge influence on the quality and style of the finished wine. And in addition, there are also cellars that buy a 'mix' of Albariño grapes from different sub zones in order to balance their wine, and perhaps add acidity where it may be lacking.

As I have said many times before, tasting is purely subjective and in the end it is your own tastebuds that will help you decide the style of Albariño that you prefer.

Visit with Google, now taste with Prolafiol!

If you tried the virtual visit with Google Earth recommended in my last post, and were astonished by the technology, then you really have to try this one to believe it.....

Prolafiol® tasting technology has been around for one or two of years now and we are delighted that (after much pressure from our local D.O.), they have finally added Albariño to their list of noble grape varieties. We invite you to try this unique virtual “tasting” experience – Please start by double clicking on the image to enlarge and then follow the instructions carefully:

Hands must be perfectly clean before starting (do not use perfumed hand wash)

1. Click box in lower right corner to activate Prolafiol tasting.
2. Using finger tip very gently rub selected coloured box
(Warning! Excessive pressure may damage your screen)
3. Finger tip should now reveal trace odours of chosen grape variety
4. Repeat process for next selection (using different finger)

As with any new technology there have been problems depending on your operating system (for example, I have been trying to establish if it works with new Windows Vista). If you need any advice just drop me an e-mail.

Happy (virtual) tasting!