Bargain huntHow to trackdown fine wineswithout paying ahigh premiumPage 2

Inside »

The secretis outDecanting canbe the key toenjoymentPage 3

Refined approachHow AustralianChardonnay hastrimmed offthe excess fatPage 3

Keeping cooland collectedA few basic rulesfor successfulstoragePage 3

FT SPECIAL REPORT

FT WineFriday November 9 2012 www.ft.com/reports | twitter.com/ftreports

What a difference a decademakes. In the mid-1990sI made a televisionseries for BBC2 shotaround the world of

wine. I ended it in Chile forecastingglumly: “I have seen the future andit’s Merlot, Cabernet and Chardon-nay.”

At that time it really did look asthough the world’s vignerons weredetermined to uproot their local grapevarieties and replace them with theperceived glamour of an “internation-al” vine that everyone had heard of.

Just 10 years later a hearty swing ofthe pendulum in the opposite direc-tion was already in evidence andtoday’s professional wine buyers willhardly touch a Merlot, Cabernet orChardonnay unless it is grown in oneof the few places in the world where ithas been grown traditionally.

They are much more interested in

sniffing out so-called “heritage varie-ties”, the vinous equivalent of heir-loom tomatoes, grapes that are incon-trovertibly local. This is not just awine trend. It is in tune with ourgeneral desire for natural harmony,traceability, the locavore food move-ment and our increasing realisation ofthe importance of biodiversity.

It began, perhaps counter-intui-tively, in New World countries, whosewine industries are just a few centu-ries old or less so do not have theirown indigenous vine varieties.

Australia, as so often, was in thevanguard. In the 1970s, Australianwine producers and consumers hadfallen in love with all things French.The produce of ancient Shiraz vinesin the Barossa Valley was spurned infavour of fruit from baby plants ofCabernet Sauvignon, revered becauseit can make such classic and expen-sive wines in Bordeaux, first growths

and the like. In fact, so low wasdemand for the Shiraz that its fruitwas blended into fortified wines andeven had its colour removed to beused for the white wine that was sofashionable then.

It was not until the mid-1990s thatShiraz earned newfound respect. Aus-tralians realised that this vine, muchlonger established in most of thecountry’s vineyards than the newCabernet Sauvignon, was better suitedto most Australian wine terrain.

Today in Australia, the more recentFrench import is largely relegated to ahandful of the most suitable regionsfor this late-ripening variety.

A few years later, the Argentinewine industry went through a similarprocess. Malbec had long been themost commonly planted red winegrape in South America’s most impor-tant wine-producing country.

As such it commanded only a frac-tion of the respect that the much lesscommon Cabernet Sauvignon with itsglamorous associations with Bor-deaux did. Cabernets were routinelypriced much higher than Malbecs. Butthere was a realisation that, while bynow every wine producer in the worldwas trying his or her hand at Caber-net, ripe, velvety Malbec seemed to bedistinctively and uniquely Argentine.

The huge success that Argentinewine exporters have enjoyed in the UShas been built on Malbec’s offeringsomething different from CaliforniaCabernet or anything from Europe.

This set Argentina’s rival across theAndes thinking. If Australia was doingso well with its Shiraz and Argentinawith its Malbec, should Chile not haveits own signature grape variety? ManyChilean winemakers have beenencouraged to maximise the appeal ofCarmenère, an old Bordeaux red winegrape that was imported across theAtlantic in the 19th century but, hav-ing almost died out in its homeland, istoday a Chilean speciality.

Although the sensory quirkiness ofSouth Africa’s 20th-century crossing,Pinotage, has been a bit too much forCape wine exporters to promote thisvariety above all others, with whitewines they have played the CheninBlanc card for all it is worth. There isnow twice as much Chenin planted in

Continued on Page 2In harmony: a change of emphasis towards the ‘local’ Dreamstime

A taste forheritageboosts localvarietiesAppreciation of indigenous vines has prompteda global diversification away from justMerlot,Cabernet or Chardonnay, says Jancis Robinson

2 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES FRIDAY NOVEMBER 9 2012

FT Wine

On FT.com »Wine workMargaret Randfinds a vintagelearning centrewww.ft.com/reports

Cape winelands as there isin its homeland on theLoire. South African vint-ners are, with reason, par-ticularly proud of theintense, ageworthy produceof their country’s oldChenin bushvines.

Within Europe this cen-tury and at the end of thelast we have seen a verysimilar phenomenon of cele-brating the local. Sicily,currently one of Italy’smost dynamic wine regions,provides a vivid example.

In the early 1990s themost admired Sicilian wineproducer was Planeta, inthe west of the island,which did a great job ofputting Sicily on the worldwine map via a series ofwell-made Merlots, Caber-nets and Chardonnays.

But as pride in indige-nous vines began to swell,perceptions started tochange. Suddenly the most

Continued from Page 1 talked-about Sicilian wineswere those made in the eastof the island from suchlocal grape varieties asNerello Mascalese, Nerod’Avola and Frappato.

Their flavours provided awelcome diversion fromthose of any of the famousinternational grape varie-ties with which wine con-sumers and producers werebecoming bored. Planetahas diversified east and nowalso makes fine wines basedon Sicilian grape varieties.

Similarly, on the Italianmainland and throughoutsouthern France and Iberia,there has been a re-evalua-tion of indigenous versusinternational vine varieties.

Whereas a typical well-funded, new wine operationin Spain in the early 1990smight have put all its eggsinto a basket marked Caber-net and Chardonnay, itsequivalent today is muchmore likely to be research-

ing almost-forgotten localvarieties that have shownreal aptitude for the region.

I call as witness theexplosion of interest in thewines of the far north-westof Spain where wine loversare drooling over not justAlbariño and Mencía butthe more obscure likes ofLoureira, Treixadura, God-ello, Merenzao, Juan Gar-cía, Espadeiro and Caíño.

Many of these are alsogrown in Portugal, one ofthe countries that withstoodthe late 20th-century trendto pull out local grape varie-ties to make way for inter-national ones. It deserves tobenefit from this.

When we put together ourrecent book Wine Grapes –A complete guide to 1,368vine varieties including theirorigins and flavours, wewere aware of heightenedinterest worldwide in indig-enous varieties and, in rela-tively new wine cultures

such as Australia, in whatthey call “alternative varie-ties”, to tickle the fancy ofa palate jaded by too muchShiraz and Chardonnay.

We arrived at the number1,368 by limiting our analy-ses to those grapes respon-sible for, as far as we couldascertain, wines in commer-cial circulation. The listbelow shows how manygenetically distinct varie-ties we found using thesecriteria for the top 10 coun-tries in terms of viticulturalbiodiversity: Italy 377;France 204; Spain 84; Portu-gal 77; Greece 77; Germany76; USA 76; Switzerland 39;Croatia 39; Hungary 34.

Wine Grapes – A completeguide to 1,368 vine varietiesincluding their origins andflavours by Jancis Robin-son, Julia Harding andJosé Vouillamoz AllenLane/Ecco RRP£120/RRP$175, 1,240 pages

Taste for heritage boosts local varieties

On August 23, Patrick Sand-eman, the wine merchant,was in Twitter conversationwith the head of wine, beersand spirits at Tesco, thesupermarket chain. “Whycan’t you just sell wine forwhat it is, rather than hav-ing to discount?” he asked.

Supermarkets’ discount-ing, often to a price thewines were always intendedfor, makes wine puristsbristle. So much so that ear-lier this year a hashtag –#wineripoff – was employedto alert users to questiona-ble manufactured deals.

Mr Sandeman, who wasusing the hashtag in his dis-cussion, was just such apurist. He died in Septem-ber in a skydiving accidentbut left a valuable legacy inthe form of the model alter-native to supermarkets’sharp practice – the inde-pendent high street winemerchant.

Lea & Sandeman is afirst-rate example. Its fourwest London stores areunstuffy yet deal in qualitywines at honest, largelyaffordable prices.

Ten years ago, such out-posts would have been seenas high-end specialists, butthe demise of the likes ofUnwins, along with the dec-imation of First Quenchand Oddbins has left a gapin the market.

The erstwhile high streetchains could never competewith the supermarkets onprice. Cramming storeswith a mixed bag of wineson promotion, along withconfectionery and tobacco,they were, in short, a mess.

In their place havesprung up a wealth of inno-vative merchants whose

strengths are supermarkets’weaknesses: personality,focused service, constantlychanging stock, flexibility,focused promotions (oftenon esoteric regions andstyles) and, perhaps mostimportantly, in-store events.

The result is that custom-ers feel neither alienated, ascan be the case in high-endstores, nor used, as I haveoften felt when availing my-self of a supermarket deal.

The genesis of this newbreed of merchants can betraced back to the launch ofa store in London in 2006.The Sampler introducedtasting machines that ena-ble shoppers to samplewines before buying.

Often, it was more aboutthe sampling, particularlywhen the store introducedhigh-end wines into itsmachines, allowing custom-

ers to try wines that wouldotherwise be prohibitivelyexpensive. It also allowedcustomers to try unusualvarieties they might haveshunned for fear of disap-pointment.

Such a voyage of discov-ery has further democra-tised wine. Other storeshave followed suit, not justwith tasting machines butwith events, promotions anda middle ground betweenwine bar and wine store.

Take Hangingditch inManchester, which runsevening masterclasses,food-matching dinners withlocal restaurants and winesby the glass or bottle (atretail price plus a flat fee of£6) to enjoy on its heatedterrace.

In London, Vini Italiani’sidea of engagement meansinvites customers to sit onits wine selection commit-tee to choose new lines.Selling solely Italian wines– 500 plus – the merchanthouses two samplingmachines and offers a spacefor a private tasting withstaff or to simply enjoy abottle with charcuterie andcheese.

Bottle Apostle, launchedin 2009 in north London,now has two stores offeringbeginners’ classes, tastingevents and full-on wine din-ners. “Knowledge with noneof the attitude,” it says.

The mantra is typical of amodern wine merchant, per-haps best exemplified byWine Pantry, set up lastyear by Julia Stafford, whohad been snubbed by banksand investors.

No more than a shack inBorough Market, London, itsells only English wines –which explains why thebanks were reticent –serves up cured meats andcheeses, and lays on eventsand tastings.

There is still room,though, for high-end retail-ers to take a leaf out of themodern merchant hand-book. Roberson Wine inLondon puts on tastings ofhigh-end Bordeaux (a 50-years-on 1961 evening was ahighlight last year) andoffers all wines over £100 attrade prices.

Then there is HedonismWines in Mayfair, the glitzi-est launch for many a year,laden with rare vintages ofsome of the world’s mostrevered wines. Despite theexclusivity of some offer-ings (£6,500 for a 1961 DomPérignon disgorged for theroyal wedding – the 1981event, that is) there isplenty under £30.

There is also a children’splay area, a turntable andvinyl to choose from, andtables to lounge around andsip samples. You do not getthat at Tesco.

New merchants take thefight to supermarketsRetailing

Independents arethriving thanks toin-store events, writesGuyWoodward

Life is too short to drink badwine. But what if, in these aus-tere times, you are just startingout and cannot afford the bestBordeaux or Burgundy vin-

tages? Happily, there are ways toenjoy fine wine on a budget, providedyou know where to forage. Here are 10pointers to guide you.1. Pick your terroirFind lesser-known appellations wherecheaper vineyard land has attractedambitious and talented winemakers.Even in Bordeaux such placesabound. In the Côtes de Castillon,Fronsac or Bourg, quality can be sur-prisingly close to the Médoc and StEmilion, though at significantly lowerprices.

If you are after proper white Bur-gundy, you can save a fortune bysearching in St Aubin, the Côte Chal-onnaise and the Mâconnais. For reds,aim for Marsannay and Savigny-lès-Beaune. The same principles applyelsewhere. For Sancerre, try Menetou-Salon. In Italy, for Brunello di Montal-cino try Morellino di Scansano.2. Know your vintagesIn Bordeaux especially, great vintagessuch as 2000, 2003, 2005, 2009 and 2010tend to command significant premi-ums over “lesser” vintages such as2001, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2008.Sometimes, these premiums simplyare not justified. For instance, some2001 clarets are better than the muchmore lauded 2000s and are often athird cheaper.3. Buy from merchantsYou are much more likely to get a finewine bargain from a merchant than asupermarket, which generally do notdo fine wines and rarely discountthem. Merchants, on the other hand,do so frequently in bin-end sales,which can provide lip-smacking deals.

Look out for sales from Berry Bros &Rudd, Bibendum, Bordeaux Index,Tanners, The Wine Society and FarrVintners.4. The odd ones outOne exception to the supermarketrule is Waitrose, which sells fine wineand has regular sales where wineprices are cut by 25 per cent. In Sep-tember, French supermarkets’ foiresaux vins (wine fairs) can also yieldsome great buys.5. Parcel forceWine buyers should always look outfor fine wine parcels, which arebatches of wine often sold at attrac-tive discounts. Majestic Wine, forexample, recently acquired a fabulouscellar of gorgeously mature and wellpriced Riojas. Something else to lookout for are declassified wines. Theseare surplus wines that cannot be soldunder their normal label and often gofor a fraction of their standard price.6. Going, goneBuying at auction is often a surpris-ing and exceptionally fruitful sourceof fine wine bargains. Don’t just checkout the usual international suspects –Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Bonhams, AckerMerrall & Condit, Zachys and the like– often you will do better at smallerregional auction houses. Sales atJ Straker, Chadwick & Sons in Aber-gavenny, Wales, have no buyer’s pre-miums and are full of well pricedwines.7. Go onlineA golden rule for buying wine is tocompare prices online to make sureyou really are getting a good deal.One of the best sites is the globalprice comparison site wine-searcher.com. You can also buy andsell wine online, which can cut outcommission charged by middlemen.

One recommended peer-to-peer site

is Berry Bros & Rudd’s increasinglypopular trading platform Berrys’ Bro-king Exchange, or BBX. Another isthe vinXchange section on Tom Can-navan’s wine-pages.com forum. Othersites that are worth clicking oninclude online auctioneer Bid forWine (www.bidforwine.com in the UKand WineCommune (www.winecom-mune.com) in the US.8. Go directVineyard regions are often a terrificsource of good value fine wines. Butbeware: the more famous the growerand region, the higher the premium.Alternatively, try online companiessuch as Naked Wines (www.naked-wines.com), Vineyards Direct(www.vineyardsdirect.com) or theReal Wine Company (www.therealwi-neco.co.uk) to do the job for you.9. Wining and diningNot all restaurants charge eyewater-ing prices for the pleasure of drinkingtheir wines, so seek out those wine-friendly restaurants that only chargesmaller cash mark-ups. Another price-savvy strategy is to frequent bring-your-own (BYO) restaurants or takeyour own wine to establishments thatwill only charge a small fee for cork-age. But do ask in advance if this isacceptable.10. Variety is the spice of wineIt is not just certain wine regions thatcommand a premium – some grapevarieties do too. Consequently, it canpay dividends to buy good winesmade from lesser known or less fash-ionable white grape varieties, such asAligoté, Verdicchio, Riesling (espe-cially from Germany and Australia),Sylvaner and Chenin Blanc. On thered front, try Barbera, Dolcetto, Nerod’Avola, Gamay, Carignan and Caber-net Franc. But always pick a goodproducer.

Classy vintagesup for grabs atbargain prices

Buying It is easy to track down finewines andavoid paying a premium,writes John Stimpfig

Quality need not bethe victim of atighter budgetAlamy

Customers feelneither alienated, asat high-end stores,nor used, as atsupermarkets

Wine worldMaggie Rosen’sguide to thebest wine fairswww.ft.com/reports

FINANCIAL TIMES FRIDAY NOVEMBER 9 2012 ★ 3

FT Wine

If you are reading thisreport, it is fairly safe tosay you like a decent bottleof wine. You might evenhave the odd age-worthycase of claret, Rioja or porttucked away that at someunspecified point you willopen – perhaps on a suita-bly special occasion or juston a whim.

Quite right too. After all,wine is ultimately aboutenjoyment and few thingsgive more unadorned pleas-ure than a cherished bottleat its peak of maturity andcomplexity.

Indeed, this is preciselywhy optimistic oenophilesgo about the business of fer-reting away their finest andrarest for years on end,fighting the temptation toopen it. They know fromexperience that patiencereally does have itsrewards.

But it is not just a case ofwaiting and hoping for thebest. “The key thing aboutlaying down wine for thelong haul is that you haveto keep it in the rightplace,” says Chadwick Dela-ney, managing director ofone of the UK’s oldest winemerchants, Justerini &Brooks.

“Too many people focuson the buying and thendon’t pay enough attentionto looking after it. Oftenthat is a recipe for disaster.”

There are some basicrules to good wine storage,says Maureen Downey ofChai Consulting, a SanFrancisco-based wine collec-tor services firm. Theseinclude a secure environ-ment that is free from natu-ral light and vibration, andhas a constant temperatureand 75 per cent humidity.

So you need to begin byfinding a safe place to keepyour wine, particularly ifsome of it is valuable. Italso makes sense to sepa-rate your everyday drinking

wines from your best bot-tles to avoid opening thewrong wine by mistake.

The temperature of thestorage facility is criticalbecause it has a directeffect on quality and therate at which the wine willmature. The rule of thumbis that cooler is always bet-ter than warmer.

“Most experts agree thata lower temperature of 10Cwill result in the winesdeveloping more slowly,with more complex aromasand flavours when youfinally pull the cork,” saysMs Downey.

“On the other hand, winestored at 15.6C – the warmend of the scale for long-term wine ageing – willdevelop faster and poten-tially with less complexity.”

Significantly, most profes-sional storage cellars keepthe temperatureat around 13C.

The mostimportant factorof all, though, isa steady, con-stant tempera-ture. What winedoes not like ared r a m a t i cchanges on aday-to-day basis.At the veryleast, this canlead to unevenageing. At worst,it can cause out-

right spoilage if the wine isconstantly expanding andcontracting, as this canbreak the seal of the cork.The end result could be awine that is oxidised ortastes dull, baked orcooked.

For that reason alone,wine should not be storedin an outside garage, thekitchen or any heated liv-ing space where tempera-tures go up and down. Oncethe damage has been done,it is irrevocable.

Wine also likes to be keptin the dark with goodhumidity. Too much expo-sure to light can createunpleasant compounds –more so in whites and spar-klers. Too little humidityand corks can dry out, lead-ing possibly to oxidation.For that reason you shouldposition your bottles hori-

zontally orp o i n t i n gupwards at aslight angle.

The impor-tant thing is tokeep the corksin contact withthe wine. Ide-ally, vibrationshould bea v o i d e d ,although asmall amountis not regardedas critical.

Should you

be lucky enough to live in ahouse with a cool, dank,dark subterranean cellar,you are blessed. But fewwine aficionados are so for-tunate. Consequently, manycompromise by keepingwines under the stairs or inthe coolest space availableand hoping for the best.However, this is a riskystrategy for medium tolong-haul wines.

So what is the best solu-tion? Happily, there areoptions to safeguard yourliquid assets. One is toentrust young, immaturewine with your merchant orput it in the hands of a pro-fessional warehouse or stor-age company, which willcharge you a minimum of£10 a year for each case.

Only when the wine isapproaching its drinkingwindow do you have itdelivered to your home.

Another option is to pur-chase a specially designedwine cabinet. There areplenty of products on themarket, from suppliers suchas Transtherm, Tastvin,ArteVino and EuroCavethat will keep wine in per-fect condition. But do shoparound and take advicefrom specialist retailerssuch as Around Wine orWine Storage Solutions.

A third option for thosewithout cellars is to createan insulated walk-in wineroom, complete with indi-vidual temperature andhumidity controls. The skyis the limit on prices andagain there are numerousspecialist companies thatprovide this service. How-ever, a reasonably sized col-lection is usually requiredto justify the initial outlayand subsequent runningcosts.

Often a more cost-effec-tive long-term solution is toreplicate the natural condi-tions of a traditional cellar.Spiral Cellars, for example,can install its ingeniouscorkscrew design into yourhouse, garage or gardenwith a storage capacity ofbetween 650 and 1,850 bot-tles. There are no runningcosts and your wine will bekept at ground tempera-ture, which is a deliciouslycool 8-11C. Your wine willlove it and so will you.

Keeping cool and collecteduntil the time comes to drinkStorage

A successful cellar isall about followinga few basic rules,writes John Stimpfig

The first wine I ever decantedwas a 1979 Bulgarian Caber-net Sauvignon (Oddbins,£1.99). I can’t have been morethan 19 or 20 and was

attempting a dinner party solely toprogress a crush I had on a challeng-ingly aloof beauty at university.

I had no idea why one decantedwines, but I had seen my pa do it andjust assumed that was what one didwhen folk came over. I was savvyenough, though, to grasp that decant-ing my Bulg Cab meant I could hidethe bottles and claim the wine to befar grander than it was. In the event,of course, nobody gave a damn andwe all just knocked it back, alongwith the Blue Nun and Jack Daniel’s,and got happily sloshed.

These days, I am slightly the wiser –about wine not women – and under-stand that decanting gives a youngwine a chance to breathe, relax andopen out, and an old wine a chance tosmarten itself up, dust itself off andshed its gunky sediment.

Vitally, decanting lends a sense ofoccasion to any meal and allows youto show off your wine to best advan-tage, be it in crystal decanter, simplecarafe or old earthenware jug. Whatwine wouldn’t be flattered by suchtreatment? My old chum Jason Yapp,director of Yapp Brothers, the winemerchant in Mere, Wiltshire, some-times even uses laboratory flasks –fun, stable and easily washable.

Andy McConnell, glassware experton BBC television programmeAntiques Roadshow and author of TheDecanter: An Illustrated History ofGlass From 1650, once told me: “Thereis no doubt that wine tastes betterwhen served from a decanter and itgoes without saying that it looks bet-ter too. To me, serving wine straightfrom the bottle is as bad as servingmilk straight from the carton.”

Another old wine trade friend,James Tanner, managing director ofTanners of Shrewsbury, disagrees.Although he always decants hiswines, I notice that he pours themback into the original bottles, afterhaving given these a quick rinse.

“It is just that sometimes in the highspirits of a dinner party, I find it cantotally pass guests by that they havebeen drinking some ‘super second’claret from a fabled vintage,” he says.

There are ways around this – if you

have the funds and can be bothered –such as using those fancy little silverchains with spikes on them uponwhich you can skewer the cork, com-plete with estate name and vintage,and then hang them around the neckof the bottle.

About the only wine that does notdecant well is red Burgundy, espe-cially old red Burgundy, which canoften be too delicate and ethereal tostand up to it. All you end up doing isstripping the wine of its elusive scentand character.

I am with those who favour decant-ing white Burgundy, though. Even thehumblest are thus enhanced and looksplendid on the table, glinting in clearglass. The same applies to other Char-donnays and full-flavoured, complexwhites such as Alsace Gewürztramin-ers and white Rhônes. And if you areever lucky enough to visit the VeuveClicquot Ponsardin house in Cham-pagne, you will find its lusciouslysweet demi-sec is always presented ina decanter. When serving whites andfizz in this way, I do as Mr Yapptaught me, and chill the decanter inthe fridge before filling it. Not muchpoint sloshing cold wine into a warmcarafe. I ensure the decanter is clean,rinsing it with wine to make surethere is not a drop of stale water leftin it. Of course, half the fun of decant-

ing is the ritual and the kit. There arethe bottle cradles, the silver funnels,the filters, the candles and torches (orthe excellent new Pourvin light,which sits around the neck of the bot-tle and illuminates it so that you cansee the sediment coming), thedecanter labels and fancy stoppers, allof which give a great sense of antici-pation. Best of all and most crucially,says Christian Seely, managing direc-tor of AXA Millésimes, the owner ofsuch estates as Château Pichon-Longueville, Château Suduiraut andQuinta do Noval, there is the vinousequivalent of chef’s perks.

“Decanting has the importantadvantage that the host gets to tasteall the wines before the evening startsand so can receive his guests inrelaxed and cheerful mood, havinghad a few small glasses of good stuffbefore everyone has arrived,” he says.

I certainly recall being extremelyrelaxed and cheerful that night longago as I tried to impress my crush.Far too relaxed and cheerful, it tran-spired, for the lady copped off withmy chum as I was clearing up.

Even worse, I remember chippingmy father’s prized antique decanter,bashing it against the tap as I rinsedit out.Jonathan Ray is drinks editor of GQmagazine

The secret is out of the bottleDecantingHow you serve finewine is vital to its enjoyment, writes JonathanRay

Pour laws:decantingbrings withritual and rules

Dreamstime

Sometimes it seems theworld of wine is riddledwith more lazy stereotypingthan any other: Germanwine is always sweet, roséis for girlies, all winesimprove with age, and soon.

Perhaps one of the biggestlies is that all AustralianChardonnay is overripe,overoaked and over here.

It is true Australia wasalmost single-handedlyresponsible for the Char-donnay revolution in the1990s, when we discoveredthose marvellous vanillaand butterscotch-scentedChardies filled with thetropical flavour of pineap-ple. This was a new experi-ence for wine drinkersbrought up on much moreacidic white wines with farless fruit and flavour.

But our post-millenniumdrinking has switchedwholesale to SauvignonBlanc, Pinot Grigio andeven such former obscuri-ties as Picpoul de Pinet andAlbariño.

What these wines have incommon is no oak, fresh fla-vours and good levels ofacidity – the opposite, infact, of those 1990s Austral-ian Chardonnays steeped inoak (quite literally, as bagsof oak chips were often thecheap alternative to barrelageing), extremely ripe fruitand low acidity. AustralianChardonnay was dead inthe water.

Or was it? If there is onething the Australian wineindustry is good at, it is lis-tening to the market. Aus-tralian wine, particularlyChardonnay, has changedout of all recognition overthe past decade.

The changes have beenphilosophical for sure, andhave led to adjustments inviticulture and winemaking,

all aimed at transformingAussie Chardonnay fromthe overstuffed pantomimehorse it had become, to asleek thoroughbred. Winecompetition judges in Aus-tralia have rewarded finesse.

In the vineyard, a simpletrick has been to harvest alittle earlier: picking grapeswhen sugar levels are atouch lower and acid levelsa smidgen higher.

Changes to canopy man-agement (how the umbrellaof foliage shades or exposesthe growing bunches ofgrapes) has been anotherploy.

More fundamentally,though, the sites whereChardonnay was plantedhave been reconsidered.True, large swaths of thegrape still grow on undistin-guished sites for commoditywine production, but many

growers have found ele-vated sites or ones with asoutherly exposure, wheresunlight intensity and tem-perature are lower.

In the winery, avoiding100 per cent use of oak toferment and age wines hasbecome the standard, as hasreducing the toast of bar-rels (the amount of char-ring done by the cooper,which can add those coffee-ish tones).

Another trend has beenthe stopping of some or all ofthe wine from going throughmalolactic fermentation.Avoiding “malo” stops thegreen apple bite of malicacid from being convertedto the softer milkiness oflactic acid. This is a naturalprocess in winemaking butcan be encouraged orblocked by the winemaker.

Raciness and elegance arethe new watchwords for

Australia’s quality Char-donnay producers, and theyare proving as adept withthis style as they were withthose 1990s blockbusters.

So what are the hotspotsand key winemaking namesfor the new Chardonnay?The change has been funda-mental, so most areas canstake a claim, but Burgun-dy-style Chardonnays full ofverve and energy can befound from many producers.

The Adelaide hills arejust 30 minutes from thecity, but the altitude pro-duces cooler, damper condi-tions. Vineyards here tocheck out includeShaw+Smith, First Drop,Petaluma, Penfolds (espe-cially its reserve Chardon-nays such as Bin 10A andYattarna, although the lat-ter is a cross-regionalblend).

In Victoria, look at Kooy-ong and Ten Minutes byTractor from the Morning-ton peninsula; De Bortoli,Coldstream Hills and GiantSteps from the Yarra valley;and cool-climate exemplarssuch as Giaconda andBindi from the less well-known Beechworth andMacedon Ranges subregionsrespectively.

In Western Australia, pio-neers such as Cullen andLeeuwin from MargaretRiver are still going verystrong, but watch out forwines from even cooler sub-regions further south, suchas Great Southern (Planta-genet, Marchand & Burch)and Pemberton (Picardy,Houghton).

On the island of Tasmaniamuch of the excellent Char-donnay finds its way intosome of Australia’s bestsparkling wines, but look outfor Ninth Island, Domaine Aand Tamar Ridge.

Each of these locations isa relatively chilly outpostwhere altitude or southerlylatitude does the cool-cli-mate trick.

This list is by no meansexhaustive, and even at eve-ryday levels AustralianChardonnay has trimmedoff the fat to wonderfuleffect.

Australia answers backChardonnay

Vineyards have beenbusy refining theirtechniques, writesTom Cannavan

Burgundy-styleChardonnays full ofverve and energycan be found frommany producers

Warehousingand storage

Octavian Vaultswww.octavianvaults.co.ukTel: 01225 818714Vinothèquewww.vinotheque.co.ukTel: 01375 853777Cellarers (Wines)www.justerinis.comTel: 020 7484 6400Private Reserveswww.privatereservesltd.comTel: 01604 770759Nexus Wine Collectionswww.nexuswine.co.ukTel: 020 7625 9800

Cabinet retailersWine Storage Solutionswww.winess.co.ukTel: 01608 645083Around Winewww.aroundwine.co.ukTel: 020 7935 4679

Cellar designand installation

Smith & Taylorwww.smithandtaylor.comTel: 020 7627 5070London Wine Roomswww.londonwinerooms.co.ukTel: 020 3384 9744Spiral Cellarswww.spiralcellars.co.ukTel: 0845 241 2768

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4 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES FRIDAY NOVEMBER 9 2012

FT Wine

If you had told UK drinkersin the 1970s that the futureof wine was screwcapped,labelled by grape varietyand Australian, they’d havelaughed their flares off. So,what if you were to tellthem now that the future ofwine is genetically modi-fied, comes in plastic bot-tles and is made in China?

According to the Interna-tional Organisation of Vineand Wine, China was theworld’s sixth biggest wineproducer in 2011. Thatmakes it bigger than Aus-tralia, Chile and SouthAfrica. More surprisingly,the Chinese are the world’sfifth biggest consumers ofwine – they drink 30 percent more than theyproduce. That may explainwhy so little is exported,but that may change, withLondon vintners Berry Bros& Rudd predicting “Chinawill be the world’s leadingproducer of volume wine by2058” in their recent Futureof Wine Report.

It is not just volume thatis growing – the quality ofChinese wine is improvingrapidly too. In 2011, theDecanter World WineAwards bestowed the“International Trophy forBest Bordeaux VarietalOver £10” on a ChineseCabernet Sauvignon blendby the He Lan Qing Xuewinery.

It made headlines aroundthe world, and there wasmuch expostulation in theUK wine trade.

One year later a Chinesewine won the same trophyin the under £10 category –but this time there wasnary a murmur.

A month earlier, Waitroseannounced its first Chinesewine – and are “reallypleased with the results”,according to Waitrose winebuyer Katie Mollet, whoadds that Chinese wine

“achieving quality levels ona par with the best wines ofthe world does not seem tobe too far out of reach”.

The grape varieties grownin China are mostly famil-iar names, the most widelyplanted being Chardonnayand Cabernet Sauvignon.

The latter has receivedthe most critical acclaim,often in blends with Merlotand Carmenère (knownlocally as Cabernet Gernis-cht). Stylistically, most Chi-nese wine is closer to theold world than the newworld, “typically a bit pale,thin and tart”, according toJancis Robinson, FT winecritic.

So could China hope totopple the finest Frenchchâteaux? Some are pricedthat way, with one Chinese

red from Château St LouisDing costing RMB3,980 –nearly £400 – per bottle. ButYvonne Wang from HongKong vintner Altaya Winessays Chinese wines willnever command the samepremium because “Chinesewine does not have the his-torical legacy of theFrench”. According to MsRobinson, “a small handfulof wines is approaching thelower level classed growthsnow”, but “most are compa-rable to a low quality ACBordeaux”.

Such analysis may not beeffusive, but it does showthe wines are not only forspitting. Elsewhere, public-ity is less positive. InAugust 2012, one of the big-gest wine brands, Changyu,had to proclaim their wineswere safe to drink after ajournal published claimsthey contained dangerouslevels of carbendazim andmetalaxyl, the former a car-cinogen, banned in the US.

Some of the most promis-

ing are from the Ningxiaregion. Stylistically, “thewines are nicely balancedwith good, fresh fruit, 13per cent alcohol and attrac-tive natural acidity” saysMs Robinson on her web-site. The establishment ofviticulture in this mostlyarid area has been madepossible over the past dec-ade by the development ofextensive irrigation sys-tems. Young Shi, a free-lance wine consultant basedin London notes that “wine-makers [in Ningxia] focusmore on quality than quan-tity. It has great terroir, andthe local government ispushing it extremely hard.”

A further sign of endorse-ment is foreign investment– especially when thatcomes from the luxurygoods conglomerate LVMH.

They plan to make a spar-kling wine in Ningxia, witha local producer, to launchin 2014.

Pernod Ricard has beenin the region since 2006 in ajoint venture withGuangxia winery to makethe Helan Mountain brand.Their first Chinese venturedates back as far as 1987.

As Ms Shi says: “Foreigninvestment is welcome, butgenerally China’s needs aremore on the technical siderather than capital side.

“Chinese investors havemoney, but the whole coun-try lacks the knowhow forquality winemaking.” Sheadds the biggest obstacle toforeign investment is “busi-ness culture shock”.

Ms Mollet adds that “inorder for China to expandits wine export market, sup-ply chain routes would needto be developed considera-bly”. But Ms Robinson says:“I’m still not certain thatanyone is especially inter-ested in exporting anythingother than novelty volumesof Chinese wine: the domes-tic market has such poten-tial.” There is no reason tobelieve wine could notenjoy the success China hasachieved in other indus-tries.

It may only be a tricklenow, but Chinese winelooks likely to be a big partof the future in the UK.

Eastern love affair withgrape shows promiseChina

Exports on the wayfrom sixth biggestproducer, writesRichard HemmingG

rowers’ Champagnes –wines that bear the lettersRM for récoltant-manipulanton the label – account for asmall percentage of the

total Champagne market and less than7 per cent of exports.

For although the 15,000 growers inChampagne own 90 per cent of theappellation’s vineyards, many just sup-ply the major négociant (private) housesthat dominate exports with grapes; veryfew make and sell their own wines.

As a result, most négociant cham-pagne is a multi-vineyard blend, madefrom dozens of different crus spreadacross the appellation. But becausegrower producers tend to own plots ofland in and around one particular vil-lage, their wines have a more clearlydefined link to the soil they are grownon. Growers’ Champagnes are the trueterroir-driven wines of the appellation.

The best such wines can be chal-lenging and do not taste like most ofthe international marques. They oftenhave more pronounced, distinctive fla-vours, lower dosage levels and some-times work better with food than with-out. They are, in short, outside mostconsumers’ experience of Champagneand exciting examples are being pro-duced all over the appellation.

Included in the Côte des Bar region,Montgueux is an isolated village atopa chalky outcrop due west of the cityof Troyes. More than 90 per cent ofthe outcrop is planted with Chardon-nay. Emmanuel Lassaigne has justfour hectares he farms organically,producing Blanc de Blancs styles ofgreat richness that show tropicalrather than citrus fruit flavours.

You can see this in cuvées such ashis butter-rich La Colline Inspirée andthe complex lieux-dits Le Cotet. It isno accident that Daniel Thibault,former cellarmaster of the CharlesHeidsieck house, called Montgueux“the Montrachet of Champagne”.

Some 60km to the southeast in theCôte des Bar proper, Fleury Père etFils is a champion of biodynamic pro-duction, with vineyards in and aroundCourteron. Winemaker SébastienFleury is one of a new generation ofgrowers pushing the boundaries. Hemakes a pure, floral, aromatic 100 percent Pinot Blanc style, planting PinotGris and producing an all Pinot NoirBlanc de Noirs using no sulphur.

Fleury has much in common withthe 18 enterprising producers in theTerres et Vins group that meets andshows its wines together each spring.About half of these use organic orbiodynamic methods of production: ingeneral they don’t chaptalise theirwines (adding sugar to increase alco-hol content) and use natural yeastsand little or no dosage. Labellingoften gives details of the blend, theproportion of reserve wine used, theharvest base and the date of disgorge-ment – complete transparency.

Aurélien Laherte at Laherte Frèresin Chavot set up the group with Rap-hael Bérèche of Bérèche et Fils. AtLaherte, where all the wines are atleast partly vinified in oak, the highpotential, longevity and broad flavourspectrum of Pinot Meunier grown ondifferent soils is highlighted in differ-ent cuvées with the emphasis on fresh-ness and purity of flavour. Even the

most Meunier-sceptic champagnelover will be converted.

Just over the hill from Chavot inOeuilly, Benoît Tarlant is another fineexponent of Meunier whose Zéro BrutNature non-dosé style remains one ofthe most successful in the appellation.His single vineyard champagnes (LaVigne d’Or and La Vigne d’Antan) arerich, vinous expressive wines thatneed food to show at their impressivebest, while Tradition, based on the2005 harvest, demonstrates the rich-ness and complexity that extra ageingcan bring to a non-vintage cuvée.

On the other side of the Marne val-ley, Franck Pascal in Baslieux-sous-Châtillon farms his 3.5ha spread overfive communes biodynamically, pro-ducing wines of great clarity andpurity of fruit. In his 2004 Quinte-Es-sence Extra Brut – a blend of PinotNoir (60 per cent), Pinot Meunier (25per cent) and Chardonnay (15 per cent)– there is an added creamy richness.

From the top-rated premier cru ofCumières, look out for the fine range ofRené Geoffroy. Vincent Laval atGeorges Laval, where they have beenfarming organically since 1971, con-jures up exhilarating wines with a lin-ear intensity and lovely fruit character.

In Merfy, northwest of Reims, wherevines were cultivated as early as theseventh century, Alexandre Char-togne-Taillet has radically changedthe business since he took over sixyears ago. Working with the differentsoils and vinifying parcels separately,using some oak fermentation, he has

produced some exciting wines, includ-ing a 100 per cent Meunier made frompre-phylloxera (ungrafted vines).

In the Côte des Blancs, Pierre Lar-mandier of Larmandier-Bernier,which is based in Vertus with vine-yards also in Cramant, is a consist-ently top-class performer.

Guy Larmandier also makes deli-cious wines in Cramant, as doesDidier Gimonnet of Pierre Gimonnet& Fils in Cuis.

In Le Mesnil-sur-Oger at PierrePeters, Rodolph Peters blends winesof piercing intensity, balance and ele-gance. Cuvée de Réserve Grand Cruhas a harvest base of 2007, with over athird of reserve wine adding complex-ity and Mesnil fruit supplemented byOger, Chouilly and Cramant. At JLVernon, Christophe Constance’s winesare a pure and texturally rich homageto Le Mesnil’s chalky soils.

Pinot Noir-led wines come in differ-ent shades but similarly impressiveform from Philippe Brun of Cham-pagne Roger Brun in Aÿ, notably inhis lusciously rich Cuvée des Siresand La Pelle; Bouzy-based BenoîtLahaye’s savoury, spicy, cherry-fruited Blanc de Noirs; and in Mailly,Francis Boulard’s Brut NaturePetraea XCVII-MMVI, which isblended from 11 different harvests andis more oxidative in style.

Growers’ Champagnes offer a richdiversity of flavour and a tangiblelink to the soil they are grown on.Exploring them promises hours ofpleasure in the glass.

Journey into the true terroirChampagneGrower producers offer distinctively rich f lavours, writesGiles Fallowfield

Newgeneration:SébastienFleury

Achieving qualitylevels on a par withthe best wines ofthe world is nottoo far out of reach

Thewineshave aclearlydefinedlink tothe soil

Jancis RobinsonFT Wine CorrespondentJancisRobinson.com

John StimpfigFT Wine Contributing Editor

Jonathan RayGuy WoodwardTom CannavanRichard Hemming

Giles FallowfieldMaggie RosenFT Contributors

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