London International Wine Fair 2010

This week saw the wine world descend on London for the biggest trade show of the year, the London International Wine Fair. As usual producers from all over the world came to show off the latest releases from their cellars, along with packaging manufacturers and distribution companies. The biggest difference this year was the size of the show, which was remarkably smaller than in previous years, an obvious effect of the global recession. The biggest omission from this years show had to be Constellation, who own brands such as Ravenswood, Mondavi, Inniskillen and Nobilo. Notably, many of the smaller producers shared stand space, instead of spending money to have their own.

We started the day by sampling five fantastic wines, from what must have been the smallest producer there, Terre Di San Rocco. It only produces 40,000 bottles a year, but wow it was good – so watch out for a post on those. Next, we stopped to listen to Adolfo Hurtado the chief wine maker from Cono Sur in Chile, talk about its organic wines. The guys from Brown Brothers, who produce some fantastic, if not a little off beat wines, were also there, showing off its full range. This included its lusciously sweet Patricia Noble Riesling. It had amazing flavours of stone fruit, honey, marmalade and citrus; all balanced with a mouth watering acidity. This is definitely one I’ll be adding to my wine rack!

The highlight of the day, for me, was meeting Ronald Hocher from Chateau Musar in the Lebanon. We spent some time discussing how foolish we thought a leading supermarket had been for delisting his, and many other wines. We also went through a selection of vintages of its Chateaux Musar White and Red, with Ronald revealing that they have vintages going back over 50 years for both wines, which is just amazing.

All in all, it was a fantastic day. It’s great fun getting to see what wines were coming through in the next few months, and meeting some great wine makers! I’ve already booked it in my diary for next year!

The Loss of Leasingham

Sad news in Harpers last week. Apparently, Constellation will close the Leasingham winery in the Clare Valley, Australia, if they cannot find a buyer soon. Rationalisation was inevitable for many big companies in the current climate, as they try to maximise profit from falling revenue.

The plan for the 116 year old estate had been to maintain the Leasingham brand, purchasing the grapes from its new owners. Unfortunately a buyer has yet to be found according to Harpers. This week though it managed to sell 75 hectares to Tim Adams Wines, another Clare Valley Producer, at a knock down price. Sadly, this leaves housing redevelopment as an option for the remainder of the estate.

The Leasingham winery produces some fantastic wines from Shiraz, both as a still and a sparkling, Cabernet Sauvignon and Riesling…one of my favourite wines.

I hope a buyer can be found soon, or alternatively, that Constellation changes it mind and keeps the winery. If they don’t, whilst the brand Leasingham will remain, it will no longer be specifically grapes from that estate and could encompass any Australian grape. I don’t know about you, but for me, it just wouldn’t be the same again!

Kiwi World Domination!

Sorry I've not posted for a while....I've had an influx of visitors and too much wine! Hopefully most of which will make it on to this blog at some point! But anyway, back to today's proceedings.Having already commented on the rise of New Zealand wines popularity in the UK, I was thrilled to read one of the latest articles on Decanter online. Apparently even America has caught on to the delights of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Nobillo of Marlborough has become the number one selling Sauvignon Blanc brand in the US, taking over from Kendall Jackson of Napa Valley. This has come from an IRI sales survey for April, based on volume.

Joe Stanton, chief executive of ConstellationNZ said topping the US Sauvignon Blanc sales had been the company’s main goal since launching the brand six years ago. They have been meticulous in every detail of the packaging, choosing the more popular flint white glass rather than the more traditional French green glass bottle. They also bucked the trend putting New Zealand wines under screw cap and sealing the wine under cork.

Does this mean that a new benchmark has been set for Sauvignon Blanc? I’m not sure. Personally, I don’t think that it’s quite there yet, but I think many producers in the old world will be assessing what they are doing from the vineyard to the winery, to ensure that they are producing the best wine they can. After conquering the UK, and now the USA, the Kiwi’s seem to be out for world wide Sauvignon Blanc domination, and good luck to them! They really do produce some of the best examples of what Sauvignon Blanc is capable of!

Inniskillin Ice Wine

Ice wine has been something that I’ve wanted to taste for a long time and at the LIWF this year I got my opportunity visiting the Constellation stand to try some Inniskillin wines. Germany has always been the traditional home of ice wine, but Canada has started to catch them up, producing some fantastic wines this year.

Inniskillin produces its wines from one of four grapes, Riesling, Vidal, Tempranillo or Cabernet Franc, producing some fantastically wonderful and complex wines. You’ve probably heard of most of these grapes, with the exception of Vidal; that’s because it’s a hybrid. This means that two other grapes are crossed together, in this case Uni Blanc and Seibel, to create a new variety.

In order to produce Ice wine they wait till mid January to harvest and the temperature has dropped below 8°C for a constant period. Due to the lateness of the harvest and the freezing process the grapes yield a much more concentrated juice, around 10 – 15% of what you would get for a standard table wine.

At the LIWF they had bought four of their wines with them, all from the Niagra region. There was a Riesling, two from the Vidal grape, a still and a sparkling, and a red one produced from Cabernet Franc. Whilst they were wonderful, the two that really caught my eye were the sparkling Vidal and the Cabernet Franc.

To produce the sparkling Vidal the primary fermentation takes place in a sealed vessel trapping the naturally occurring carbonation in the wine. This is unlike other Sparklings where it occurs from a secondary fermentation. The wine had aromas of stone fruit, such as Nectarines and Apricots, while the natural carbonation and the rich creamy texture is all balanced by the acidity on the palate, an absolutely outstanding wine.

As for the Cabernet Franc, the process is the same, with the exception that fermentation does not take place in a sealed vessel, resulting in a still wine. Brilliantly red in colour, with wonderful fruit aromas of berries, while on the palate again it had a rich creamy texture with flavours of strawberries and cream. Yet another wonderful wine..

It was definitely well worth the wait to sample these wines and I would highly recommend them to anyone looking for something fantastic to go with your desert!