Author Archive
The Best-Looking Bridesmaid – The Slow Rise of Riesling
Posted by: | CommentsIn his third guest blog for Society Grapevine, Paul Pujol (winemaker at Central Otago’s Prophet’s Rock) looks at riesling’s perennial image problem…
How is it that the most beautiful, erudite and alluring aromatic wine in the world keeps getting jumped in the next big white variety queue?
Chardonnay, sauvignon blanc and pinot gris have all had a turn – now, they are not exactly the ugly sisters but it still doesn’t seem fair. When will the wine drinking public notice the gorgeous wallflower in the corner (chatting with her bohemian friend gewurztraminer)?
'Why won't anyone talk to me?'
I have quizzed a number of people about this state of affairs (read, I won’t shut up about riesling) and there are some interesting theories.
Many are quick to blame riesling’s dodgy past (who hasn’t got one of those) of watery acidic bulk wines and brushes with substance abuse at the hands of some greedy industrial wine producers. This did undoubtedly happen, albeit 20+ years ago, and left consumers with a hangover it seems they are still getting over.
The upside of this tarnished history is that producers have put an enormous amount of energy into rebuilding the quality and image of riesling. Now, in any given price category riesling will invariably offer the best value for money.
This is also due to the fact that winemakers love riesling and when talking with them it quickly becomes evident that it gets a disproportionate amount of love, care and attention in the vineyard and winery. In fact, several friends in the industry have pointed out that they don’t actually want riesling to become fashionable so that it remains a bargain for those in the trade.
Another factor that causes consumers to hesitate in choosing riesling is that like any true beauty she can carry off a wide range of styles. From mouth-watering dry styles to some of the most opulent, poised dessert wines in the world, this makes for a bit of confusion when facing a selection of riesling. Again, producers have responded to this by moving towards very clear labelling with regard to the sweetness or lack of in their wine. For our riesling, we try to make this blindingly obvious by putting it on the front label – Prophet’s Rock Dry Riesling.
So, having put those issues to bed we are running out of excuses as to why riesling shouldn’t finally take off. A fantastic food wine, a refreshing terrace wine, relatively low alcohol, the list of reasons to give riesling the time of day goes on… I also thought that if I write ‘riesling’ enough times in this post, that subliminal messaging might work too.
I’d love to hear your views on riesling, good or bad. Rant away: I just did.
Paul Pujol
Winemaker, Prophet’s Rock
Our Very Small Corner of the World – Prophet’s Rock, Central Otago
Posted by: | CommentsIn his second guest blog for Society Grapevine, Paul Pujol gives us a Central Otago perspective on the subject of terroir.
I was recently asked to write a piece for an Asian wine event on the concept of terroir in relation to our Bendigo Vineyard, home of Prophet’s Rock Pinot Noir. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, the below is what I came up with.
Paul Pujol at the Bendigo Vineyard
How to pin down the unique combination of environmental and human factors that define our vineyard’s terroir? Quantify every element in the soil, every breath of wind, every drop of rain, every ray of sunshine, add each vine’s unique structure, then combine all this with us and everything we do? It seems impossible.
We simply think of it as Our Very Small Corner of the World.
Let me take you to our Bendigo Vineyard. Firstly, head south, a long way south, to the southern-most wine growing region in the world. Here, on the 45th parallel, you will find yourself in spectacular, mountainous Central Otago.
In this semi-continental climate, unique in New Zealand, is the sub-region of Bendigo. Our vineyard is located on a high terrace, 120 metres above the valley floor. Our elevation is 320 – 382 metres, which means cool nights, yet our steep north-facing slopes intercept loads of sunshine. This means we easily get our grapes ripe, but retain good acidity at the same time. Our picking dates are several weeks behind those of the vineyards just a few minutes’ drive down the hill.
The soils in our Bendigo Vineyard are a fascinating mix of quartz, bands of different-coloured clays, and a layer of chalk about a foot thick lying 60 to 100 centimetres below ground. There is a lot of schist: ground-up in the soil, as rocks and also in the form of an enormous house-sized boulder in the centre of the vineyard.
We love this site and we do the best we can in the vineyard to produce fruit which reflects our special place. Crop loads are kept very low. We practise sustainable viticulture and make our own compost on site. In the winery, use of native ‘wild’ yeast, very gentle extraction and extended élevage are features of our vinification.
Our goal is a wine that is a true reflection of our vineyard, our very small corner of the world. But that’s enough description – taste our wines and catch your own glimpse of our terroir.
Paul Pujol
Winemaker, Prophet’s Rock
Members will have drunk many of Paul Pujol’s wines over the last decade – he has made wine at Kuentz-Bas in Alsace, Lemelson in Oregon and now back in his homeland at Prophet’s Rock in Central Otago. Making small lots of pinot noir (including the excellent Mount Koinga, which he crafts exclusively for members), riesling and pinot gris, the style of his wines perfectly balance old-world complexity with new world generosity. In the first of his guest blogs for Society Grapevine, Paul gives us an engaging report on Central Otago’s 2011 vintage.
Pierre Mansour
New Zealand buyer
At Lake Wanaka
Perhaps I should start at the start and you might get the idea.
After a pretty warm end to winter in Central Otago (and a good ski season) spring really took off with a bang. October and November 2010 were easily the hottest I have seen in Central Otago. It felt like every day was over 30°C and my kids were swimming in Lake Wanaka in October – usually a ridiculous idea until at least January. We therefore experienced very rapid spring growth and a very successful flowering of the vines. This ultimately meant two things – one, we had ‘locked-in’ an earlier than normal harvest and two, that potential crops could be quite high in certain sites due to quite sizable bunches of grapes.
All well and good you say. Then came December, where the temperatures dropped, the wind arrived and the weather became more variable. Although the wind was a little annoying (more canopy management) everyone was pretty relaxed and glad that the early season extremes were over. Personally I was quite happy that the high temperatures had dropped as I favour a ‘slow cook’ in terms of ripening grapes rather than a hot, fast ripening – not that I’ve ever had a say in the matter. From the end of December the weather settled into quite an alarming weekly pattern: Rain, clearing with wind, a nice day or two, wind and then the next rain front again.
Ummm, not text book stuff but at least the vines weren’t stressed and we didn’t need to irrigate. Disease pressure was a little higher than usual which meant we did a couple of extra organic sulphur sprays than normal. As the season progressed through the summer I started to receive the common question: ‘How’s the season looking?’ My response was initially, ‘well it’s the last six weeks that really count’, then as the crazy weather continued: ‘well it’s the last month that really counts’ and finally, ‘well it’s the next two weeks that are critical’ – this is when the worry kicked in.
Thankfully as we entered the harvest period the weather sorted itself out and moved into typical autumn conditions. The rain disappeared and we had calm settled weather right through the harvest period. We had successfully dodged any disease issues and our yields were right on target, time to make wine.
At Prophet’s Rock we harvested some of the best fruit I have seen from our two sites thanks to a nice finish to the season and some excellent work from our team of pickers. Any fruit that showed signs of shrivel or damage from the weather was left on the ground for the birds. They say (whoever ‘they’ are) that a vintage with character makes for wines with character – I look forward to watching these wine evolve and seeing what sort of character that will be!
Moral of the story: When you are in the southernmost wine growing region in the world, anything can happen but it usually comes right in the end. Luckily for us, pinot noir and aromatic whites love life on the edge.
Have you been to Central Otago? I would love to hear your impressions of the region and the wines.
Paul Pujol
Winemaker, Prophet’s Rock
Australia 8 – 0 New Zealand
Posted by: | CommentsThese were the headline results from two days of judging Antipodean rieslings at Decanter Magazine last week (I was part of a panel of six judges who had worked through over 130+ rieslings). We all agreed that Australia’s wines were compelling- dry, pure, beautifully poised, intensely flavoured and pristine…… the very best showing quite outstanding minerality and class.
No fewer than 8 of the Australian entries received the top accolade, a Decanter Award, many of them from the Clare and Eden Valleys. There were a handful of Kiwis which I thought showed brilliantly too, the best being made in a drier Alsace style. But with the bar set so high, New Zealand struggled and failed to get the scores to qualify for even one Award – too many of her wines were confected, resting their quality on sugar rather than fruit. So, as far as generalisations go, it would seem today that Australia has it over New Zealand when it comes to classy Riesling. The results are published in August.
Pierre Mansour
Australia & New Zealand buyer
Beautiful Grapes
Posted by: | CommentsMargaret River is in full harvest swing and I’m at Cullen Wines, a pioneer of this great cabernet sauvignon region.
Vanya Cullen
I was struck by the intensely-coloured, almost fluorescent bloom of Vanya Cullen’s cabernet grapes (which will go into her best wine, “Diana Madeline”, due to be harvested any day soon).
I hope the above photo does justice to what must be one of the healthiest vineyards in the area, proof that biodynamics works.
Grape sorting
Vanya, not one to oversell, reckons 2011 may be her finest vintage ever. The grapes certainly tasted delicious: pure, fruity and with perfectly ripe pips. For the wine, well, we’ll all just have to wait three years once Vanya has worked her winemaking magic.
Pierre Mansour
Australia Buyer
Guest blogger: Ben Glaetzer
Posted by: | CommentsIn his fourth and final installment for Society Grapevine, Ben Glaetzer (director and chief winemaker of Heartland and Stickleback wines) updates members on how the 2011 vintage is shaping up in Australia.
The man himself
At this time last year we’d harvested all of our Langhorne Creek pinot gris for Heartland, the semillon for Stickleback was nearing the end of its cool, slow fermentation and the verdelho had in fact already turned into wine. A few batches of shiraz had been harvested, fermented and were maturing in oak, and a trial batch of sangiovese that I was playing around with was bubbling away on skins. The delayed start does have positive ramifications for the leisure time of our cellar staff; however there’s a general feeling of anticipation – the calm before the storm.
Vineyard at Langhorne
There’s little positivity further north of us in the Riverland area of South Australia where huge expanses of vineyards supply the large commercial brands of chardonnay, cabernet and shiraz. High rainfall and humidity have combined to cause outbreaks of powdery mildew that have decimated the livelihoods of many growers and impacted heavily on the profitability of the corporate vineyard ventures. Strangely enough there’s talk of a shortage of chardonnay for 2011. Not many in the Australian wine industry have heard the words “chardonnay” and “shortage” used in the same sentence for decades. That shouldn’t bother too many Wine Society members though as you should all be drinking semillon, verdelho and pinot gris!
I’m heading out to have a look through a few of our Barossa vineyards this morning with one of our fourth generation growers. Even though little is happening on the harvesting front we always manage to spend most of the day walking up and down vineyard rows chatting about the industry, the changes, the future.
I wish all the Wine Society members well in the coming year. When the 2011 wines from Australia start to appear in The Society List later this year and into next, you’ll be able to at least have some insight into how the vintage was shaping up!
Best Wishes,
Ben Glaetzer
Guest blogger: Ben Glaetzer
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Ben Glaetzer
Ben Glaetzer, director and chief winemaker of Heartland and Stickleback wines, updates members on news from the Barossa in this, his third posting from Down Under.
Ben Glaetzer, 17th January 2011
Australia is renowned as the continent of droughts and flooding rains (a phrase coined from the iconic Australian poem “My Country” by Dorothea McKellar.
The end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011 have proved just that. As I’m sure has been on the news in the UK, much of our northern state of Queensland is underwater, river heights in excess of 20 metres up from a pool level of less than three. Crops decimated, table grapes washed away and a devastating time for more than 800,000 Australians. This water will make its way into the Murray-Darling river system over the next couple of months, the residents downstream are already preparing for floods. It’s quite a turn-around from last year when the river was so dry that one could literally walk across the Murray at its widest point.
Areas such as Langhorne Creek have been regenerated with the fresh water, the water tables are rising and the groundwater is being recharged.
All vineyards have now set fruit and overall crops are again below average in most districts. Cabernet sauvignon is in demand again this year which will give hope to some grapegrowers who’ve been unable to sell both cabernet and chardonnay for the last few years.
Dramatic Skies
Here in the Barossa the weather has been decidedly muggy and warm, the humidity caused by the heavy moisture content over our northern states channelling down south. This has meant that the region has been on downy mildew alert and most growers have been vigilant with their canopy care.
We’ll commence vintage in about three weeks, kicking off with some crisp and zesty verdelho and semillon from the Limestone Coast for Heartland Stickleback and from there it’ll be full swing until the middle of May. Between now and then I’ll be spending most daylight hours in the vineyards and talking with our grapegrowers. Attention to detail is the key for this time of year, making sure crops are balanced, dropping fruit onto the ground on unbalanced vines and ensuring healthy canopies to protect against sunburn.
To top it all off my wife, Lucy, is expecting our first child….the due date was in fact 11th January. When the baby arrives it had better get used to sitting in a Ute and touring vineyards!
Best regards
Ben Glaetzer
Guest blogger: Ben Glaetzer
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Ben Glaetzer
Ben Glaetzer, director and chief winemaker of Heartland and Stickleback wines, updates members on news from the Barossa in this, his second posting from Down Under.
Ben Glaetzer, 16th December 2010
It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas in the Barossa. For Australians that’s quite the polar (pardon the pun) opposite of the weather you in the northern hemisphere are currently experiencing! A balmy 28 degrees here, sun shining brightly and the vineyards and gardens all vibrant green. Last week however was quite a different story. A slow moving trough passing across Australia channelled tropical storm intensity into South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales. At the winery we had over 86mm of rain in the space of 4 hours, just down the road in Krondorf was 110mm. We’re generally not used to this type of unseasonal event so flooding was rife, houses inundated and mud and debris everywhere. Widespread blackouts, lasting upwards of 16 hours were reported and the State was almost in shut down.
Every year in December along with a mate of mine, James Lindner from Langmeil Winery, I organise an event that is known as the Generations Lunch. The concept is that the younger generation get to hear the thoughts, desires and Barossa viewpoint of the older generation. The idea really is to illustrate that the wheel doesn’t need to be re-invented with generational change and many of the issues faced today such as economic downturns, grape varietal choices, urban encroachment and other various topics have all, to some degree, been issues faced by the generations who came before us. Allowing that exchange of knowledge provides both direction and unity going forward. The 2010 Generations Lunch was held in “The Great Vintage Hall” at the historic Seppeltfield Winery, one of the jewels of the Barossa historic crown.
Two generations of Glaetzers: Ben & his father Colin
The calamaties of the weather failed to deter the 280 guests who attended this year’s lunch and the vigorous debate was enjoyed by all. It was only towards the end that we told the gathering that we did not in fact have any electricity and that we were running on generators that we had spent hours begging, borrowing and stealing from various wineries in order to ensure the show not only ran smoothly but ran at all. There was a proposal to change the event’s name from the Generations Lunch to the Generators Lunch which drew a few laughs.
Best Regards,
Ben Glaetzer
Guest blogger: Ben Glaetzer
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Ben Glaetzer
Ben Glaetzer is one of Australia’s ‘young gun’ winemakers who in a short space of time has had a massive influence in South Australia. He has the rare knack of making high quality wines at all price points, from the fruity, everyday Stickleback and Heartland range of wines right up to cellar-worthy modern Barossa classics (Ben is behind the iconic Amon-Ra label). He is also a dab hand at writing blogs, the first we publish below which he has written especially for Wine Society members. Pierre Mansour, Australia buyer
Ben Glaetzer, 8th December 2010
The first hints of summer have arrived today with all the subtlety of the English Cricket team.
After one of the coolest springs on record the mercury hit 36 degrees here in the Barossa Valley by 10am. Ample winter and spring rains have rejuvenated the groundwater and the vegetation around the valley is now bathing in sunshine with renewed vigour after what had been an incredibly arid 2007 and 2008. The local gardening enthusiasts have proclaimed 2010 to be the best bloomin’ year in decades, the grape growers are eagerly watching the weather as flowering approaches, the local businesses are booming with the influx of tourists all keen to experience a dose of spring in the Valley, and as per usual the local graziers are whingeing about the cold, the heat, the dry and the rain. Life’s getting back to normal after a few very lean years for us all.
My garden in spring overlooking one of our vineyards
It feels like only yesterday since the last load of grapes from 2010 finished ferment and was transferred carefully to barrels for maturation, and now vintage 2011 is little over eight weeks away. The travel agenda has been no less hectic this year which has compounded the speed of time. Since May I’ve been fortunate enough to visit our importers, distributors and customers throughout the world and although it feels like I spent most of the time in airports and on planes there is a noticeable buzz about the wine industry and positivity about the future despite the economic hardships that many have been battling through.
I’ll be down to Langhorne Creek tomorrow, about an hour and a half from my base in the Barossa, to look through our Heartland vineyards and try to make an early judgement, pre-flowering, of likely crop levels, vine vigour and overall vineyard assessment. There’s always a large degree of approximation at this early stage, although it may appear that all is in good balance tomorrow, we may experience strong winds combined with extreme heat or moisture next week which will have a dramatic effect on the success rate of flowering and thus ultimately will dictate what fruit we will have available to us. Certainly an exciting time of the year and an everlasting reminder that we can try to predict the grape growing and winemaking process as much as we like yet the overriding influence is not ours.
On the winery side, we’ve had a few wines being bottled but the majority of that action is in August each year. With vintage just around the corner we’ve been in full cleaning and preparation mode. There’s something soothing about a warm bucket of suds and a scrubbing brush this time of year…at least that’s what I’ll be telling our new crop of junior cellarhands who’ll join us later this week.
Ben Glaetzer
The Wine Society caught in Moss Wood vineyards
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Clare Mugford and her winemaker husband, Keith, are owners of Moss Wood, one of the pioneering vineyards in Margaret River. Members might be amused to see this photograph of Clare in the vineyard during the 2010 harvest. We ‘lent’ Claire one of our high-visibility vests (which are a requirement when touring The Society’s warehouse) following a visit here last year.
