Hohe Domkirche Trier

As noted in a previous blog, Hohe Domkirche Trier is part of Weinguter Bishcoflichen Trier, together with Bischöfliches Konvikt and Bischöfliches Priesterseminar. They were merged in 1966 to give Weinguter Bishcoflichen Trier.  The Hohe Domkirche (Cathedral of Trier) estate is the most recently established of the three (in 1851) but the cathedral itself is the oldest church in Germany and the oldest cathedral north of the Alps being built in the 4th century. The cathedral has been closely associated with winemaking for a very long time, with documents dating back to the mid-13th century showing that staff were freed from religious duties for the grape harvest. The estate holds 22 ha of vineyard of which the most famous is the 6 ha of Scharzhofberg.

Tejo wines

This is a bottle of DOC Tejo wine, from the Province of Ribatejo in Portugal. Prior to 2009, the DOC as well as the VR were both named after the province (ie Ribatejo) but this changed, initially to have just Tejo VR, but later, the DOC name was converted to Tejo as well. Grapes grown for wine in this region include such local white varieties as Fernao Pires, Alicante Branco, Arinto etc; local red grapes as Castelao, Trincadeira; other Portiguese varieties as Aragonez (Tempranillo) and Touriga Nacional as well as international varieties as Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah.

The region has a wide range of soils and crops (including fruit, olives and rice) and was used to supplying large quantities of rather commercial wines. In recent years there has been a drive towards quality and with the classification of the DOC into 6 subregions, further delineation into special regional emphasis enables the DOC to produce a wide variety of wines of increasing quality.

Encountering double purpose grapes in the supermarket

This is a box of Black Corinth grapes bought at the supermarket the other day. To be truthful, apart from its use as eating grapes and as the second component of Mavrodaphne of Patras, Black Corinth are used mainly for drying into currants. But this is not the only time I have encountered grapes for wine and table in local supermarkets. Some one has sold (and I forgot which supermarket) Korean Campbell Early under its Korean synonym for the table, but then Campbell Early is not a common Western wine grape. However, Muscat of Alexandria is, and I remember seeing it in the supermarket section of a Japanese department store

Of course your common or garden table grape can be made into wine by an adventurous (or simply mad) winemaker. I had blogged about a wine made from Kyoho grapes, which can be found in Japanese supermarkets, the supermakret sections of Japanese stores and increasing in fruit stores (usually mainland or Taiwan grown versions). Of course the commonest table grape, which is sometimes made into wine, to be found in supermarkets as table grapes is Thompson Seedless, a white seedless grape which is also dried into "raisins" usually called by its synonym Sultana.

Another mixed up wine

Those who remember the blog entry on Vino della Pace with something like over 600 grapes in the blend will undoubtedly find this wine a bit of an anti-climax; after this wine only have some forty odd varieties. However, to those accustomed to Cabernet Sauvignon and Cab-Merlot or Cab-Shiraz blends, and to those that struggle to remember the 13 grapes (or 18 if one separate white and grey variants) of Chateauneuf (or Cotes du Rhone), this is much more mixed up than they have encountered before. Unlike VIno della Pace, this one had been presented at one of the local Wine Century gatherings two years ago and I remember JC saying that this counts for the next level. Now I wonder if JC had that cepage list handy; I'm sure there are a number of grapes in this wine I have not tasted before. I don't really think I have encountered over forty Portuguese grapes yet!

Josephshofer

The Josephshofer vineyard is a monopole of Riechsgraf von Kesselstat, and I had wanted to try it for some time. It was a very pleasant surprise to see it at the Food Expo this year, and it was all the better that I was able to taste both the Kabinett and the Spatlese of the vineyard from the 2011 vintage (not always possible for any given year and even less so side by side). This site (part of Graach) lies between Wehlener Sonnenuhr and Graacher Domprobst. Acquired by the von Kesselstatt estate in 1858, this 4 ha site consists of south facing steep slopes (60-70 deg) up to an altitude of 180m. This together with its relatively heavy soils of weathered Devonian slate with much fine earth gives full spicy wines with can be aged for a long time.

Schilcher Rose

This is a bottle of Schilcher rose wine from Weingut Familie Sternat of South Styria in Austria. I had never heard of the wine until I met it at the Food Expo this year. It turns out that it is made from a grape I had not previously encountered - Blauer Wildbacher. Properly speaking, Schilcher wines are only produced in West Styria, but both South and Southeast Styria also produce this style of wine, so the wine above is really Schilcher style rather than genuine Schilcher wine. The above wine does not carry the emblem of the Lippizan white horse bred for the famous Spanish Riding School in Vienna either.

As for this wine, it was a lovely rose pink with a fruity berry nose. The palate was dry with hints of fruit and berry, accompanied by a lemony acidity which continues through to the finish as support.

Christian Moueix

Christian Moueix (in a drawn portrait decorating the labels of one of the earlier vintages of Dominus, see earlier blog) is a French winemaker as well as the president of the negociant business Ets Jean-Pierre Moueix, which his father founded in 1937. Apart from buying bulk grapes and making its own brand of wines, it owns a selection of Right Bank estates including the Pomerol Chateaux Petrus, Trotanoy, Lagrange (Pomerol), Magdelaine, La Fleur-Petrus, Hosanna (previously Ch Certan-Giraud) and the St Emilion Chateaux Fonroque and Belair and of course Dominus in the Napa Valley. Although it grow and makes the wines at Ch Latour-a-Pomerol, the estate actually belongs to Fondation de Foyers de Charité de Châteauneuf de Galaure, having been donated by its owner in 2002.

Now a respected vigneron in Bordeaux, Christian courted controversy when he tried to introduce green harvesting in the early 1970s, and was roundly criticized. He did not succeed in saving the 1991 vintage by some foolhardy helicopter stunts and decided not to offer any wine from Chateau Petrus that year. He was named Decanter's Man of the Year in 2008.

My 4th Scharzhofberg

The Scharzhofberg vineyard (classified as Erste Lage by VDP) in Wiltinger is under the ownership of 8 estates (according to German Wikipedia), of which Egon Muller has the largest holdings at 8.4 hectares. That was my introduction to this famous site many moons ago. I chanced upon the wine from von Kesselstat some years later and for a long time, those were the only two Scharzhofberg wines I know (having tried a number of different vintages of course). Von Kesselstat has the next largest holdings at 6.6ha. I recently came across the offering from von Hovel (see earlier blog), who owns some 2.8 ha. I met this one from Hohe Domkirche Trier, which is one of three estates making up Bischoflicher Weinguter Trier. They own slightly less than von Kesselstat at at 6.4ha. The other 4 estates own less than 4.6ha altogether. So I have met the wines from the four largest estates in Scharzhofberg!

Koverszolo

This was one of the Hungarian wines I tasted at the Food Expo. Although I had tasted the grape before (as a minor component of a Noble Late Harvest sweet wine from the same estate), this was actually the first time the grape was tasted as a varietal  A grape indigenous to Transylvania, it is also a grape permitted in the cepage of Tokay Aszu. With its name literally meaning fat grape, Koverszolo is characterized by large berries, but it was hit hard by the phylloxera epidemic and nearly disappeared from Tokay region altogether. It is also called Grasa de Cotnar, which can confuse (especially if you are prone to looking VIVC!) Another grape Grasa de Cornari is supposed to originate from Moldova, whilst Grasa de Kotnar is a synonym of Furmint. In the wine dinner which I tasted the Late Harvest wine, I also had a white wine made from two Feteascas, with one of them, Feteasca Regala being the offspring of the other, Feteasca Alba with this grape!

Food Expo 2013

I had 3 hours spare time in Wan Chai on Sunday and so I decided to give the Food Expo a visit; not that it wasn't intruding into my life this last weekend. My little girl was taking part in rehearsals and performances at the Academy for Performing Arts (APA) the whole weekend and I was to be in charge for Saturday and Sunday. She however had Taekwondo lessons between two sessions on Saturday, but at the other end of Harbour Road (Wan Chai Sports Centre). Police crowd control meant that we had to go round the block rather than as the crow flies, hence the frustration.

As I only had 3 hours and I needed material to feed this blog, I decided to target the wine booths. In a previous Expo, I had some Korean grape wine as well as wine from Moldova. This time I tasted some Hungarian wines from the importer I know, but also got to taste a number of obscure grapes that I never tried before. These discoveries include Schilcher rose from Austria, another of eight vignerons (making it the fourth I know) with holdings in Scharzhofberg as well as the Josephshofer monopole of von Kesselstat. I had also encountered (and tasted) von Kesselstat's Scharzhofberg again. So all in all a good (even if short) visit!

Bobal

I had earlier blogged about this wine, which being a Vino de Pago made entirely from Bobal, must represent the pinnacle of achievement for this rather obscure grape from Utiel in Valencia. My first encounter with the grape though was in a wine from Utiel-Requena, bought from (you guessed it) that doyen of the unfamiliar supermarket wines, Marks and Spencer. There was a simple quaffing red and a rose, but there was one which was a touch more sophstiicated, but still not much above the level of an everyday wine.

Back to the grape, Bobal is the third most planted grape in Spain after Airen and Tempranillo. A vigorous grape in its native Valencia, Bobal does not grow well in other localities and it also suffers from the erratic ripening of grapes on the same plant. The grapes are high in tannins, colour and acidity but relatively low in alcohol. The wines produced are fresh and fruity and contain high levels of the antioxidant resveratrol.

Bernard Magrez

Bernard Magrez is a French wine magnate with many properties (Bordeaux, rest of France and abroad) under his name. His main holdings are in Bordeaux, wholly owning Ch Pape Clement (above), Ch La Tour Carnet, Ch Fombrauge and Ch Haut-Peyraguey, with shares in others including Ch Malleprat in Pessac-Leognan, Ch Moulin d'Ulysse in Listra-Medoc, Ch Latrezotte (Barsac) and Ch Romer (Sauternes).

Magrez made his fortune with the William Pitters spirit company that he founded and with the Malesan brand of Bordeaux wines. His portfolio of around 40 properties encompasses (besides Bordeaux) Languedoc, Spain, Portugal, Napa, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Morocco and even Japan!

Hugh Johnson 2013 in English and Chinese

It has been more than a couple of years since I got a copy of Hugh Johnson's book and I made a note to get a copy of the 2013 edition, but it was only recently that I managed to get it, not one but one each in English and Chinese. The real spur to getting this and not putting it off until the 2014 edition comes out next month or so is my encountering the Chinese edition (translated locally) at the Book Fair last month. I had encountered a Chinese version some years ago, and then it was from an earlier year. I have no idea how often they make the effort to translate the book, but I would not presume it would be yearly.

Having got the Chinese edition, I set about acquiring the English one, so that I can learn more (especially about writing about wines in Chinese) by comparing the two versions. that should be an interesting exercise, and I am sure I will be sharing some of my more interesting finds in this blog as I go along. 

Gevrey-Chambertin and the vineyard suffix

It used to be plain Gevrey, but the people of Gevrey wanted everyone to know that the famous vineyard of Chambertin belongs to the village and so they lobbied the King to add the name of their most famous vineyard to their commune and it was granted in 1847. This also helped them to sell their lesser wines, so other communes followed suit. Aloxe appended Corton in 1862, Chassagne-le-Haut became Chassagne-Montrachet in 1879 and Chambolle became Chambolle- Musigny in 1882. Others which appended vineyard names include Flagey (Echezeaux), Puligny (Montrachet) and Vosne (Romanee).

Although the Wikipedia article on Chambolle-Musigny stated that it was one of twelve to do so, the only other I can recognize, going through their list of Cote d'Or communes is Morey-St-Denis, making my count of only eight. As for Morey, there are some who wonder if the appended vineyard name (Clos St Denis) was the best one available, out of its four Grands Crus, the others being Clos du Tart, Clos de la Roche and Clos des Lambrays. (Bonnes-Mares is mainly in Chambolle Musigny, but then both Puligny and Chassagne lay claim to Montrachet!)

Alentejo Wine

There are two classes of wines from Alentejo, Vinho Regional (VR) and Denominacao de Origem Controlada (DOC). Situated in the southern half of Portugal and running through the country from the border right to the coast, Alentejo is noted for its cork production but its wines have been attracting attention. As was noted from the entry on Quinta do Carmo, such attention includes investment by the Lafite-Rothchilds in the estate prior to its buyout by Bacalhao in 2008.

The grapes of Alentejo include such indigenous ones as Alfrocheiro Preto, Castelao/Periquita, Trincaderia, other regional grapes as Tempranillo (known as Aragonez locally) and Palamino as well as "international varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Chadonnay. Although Alicante Bouschet was developed in France and still is the twelfth most planted red grape there, it is in this region that the grape is coming into its own and as I wrote in the earlier blog on the grape, my association with the grape is with Alentejo.

Justino's Madeira

Justino's Madeira Wines was established in 1870 and is one of the oldest wineries in Madeira, and one still independent of the dominant conglomerate Madeira Wine Company. Producing a wide range of wines from the noble varieties and Terrantez as well as the the lesser known grapes as Tinta Negra, Complexa and Triunfa (see previous blog on colheita madeiras sporting the above picture), its wines are stored in a huge underground warehouse of 5000 sq m and distributed widely throughout the world. In 1993 it formed an alliance with a French wine and spirit distribution group and then embarked on a programme of modernization of its winery and production lines.  My limited experience of its wines are fully documented in this blog, tasting this and other wines at the Wine Fair in 2011 as well as having bought a 1933 Malmsey and waiting for a suitable occasion to drink it!

Jancis Robinson

The first woman to become a Master of Wine as well as the first person outside the wine trade to do so, Jancis Robinson is a familiar name in the wine world. She is also the wine author of whose works I have the most volumes after Hugh Johnson, covering both her "autobiography" Tasting Pleasures, her collaborative volume with Johnson - The World Atlas of Wine as well as the above Guide as well as the earlier larger tome, Vine Grapes and Wine. Of course I have her most recent tome Wine Grapes on my Xmas wish list!

Apart from writing these tomes and a wine column for the Financial Times, Robinson has also made a BBC2 television wine course, which has been issued on DVD. Her Website Jancis Robinson's Purple Pages has both public and subscription access material and is very popular.

Finca Terrerazo

It was entirely serendipity that led me to buying three bottles of this wine for a dinner the other day. When I asked at the shop, my first and second choices were unavailable and so having had a quick browse of their Web Shop on the PDA phone, I settled for 3 bottles of the above, which I had to return for, as the physical stock had not yet arrived. Having returned to pick the wine up, I noticed that it stated in golden letters beneath the name that this is a Vino de Pago, the highest legal category of Spanish wines in which the estate itself was accorded its own DOP. I had previously blogged about Vino de Pago in the entry about Dehesa de Carrizal and this wine indeed is the second one I have encountered. Although the Web Shop stated otherwise, a quick browse of the winery's website indicates that this is made from 100% Bobal, an indigenous grape of Utiel in Valencia. I could not have done better if I had looked for this wine deliberately. I shall surely enjoy tasting it very soon.

Quinta do Carmo

This is a bottle of Quinta do Carmo, a Portuguese wine from the region of Alentejo. If you were wondering why you cannot find any sign of Lafite-Rothschild collaboration, it is because Bacalhoa bought the whole estate in 2008 and turned it into the winemaking and production centre for the whole of the Bacalhao group. Dating back to the 17th Century when it was built by King Joao IV for a Lady in his court, the 1000 hectare estate is planted with some 100 hectares of olives, oak and forests as well as wines. Wines produced include a white and three reds, of which the above wine is the middle in quality.

Domaine Faiveley

Domaine Faiveley was founded in 1825 at Nuit-St-Georges by Pierre Faiveley and the family business was guided through a series of crises by a number of extraordinary men, including Georges Faiveley who founded the Confrerie des Chevaliers du Tastevin in 1934, amidst the economic crisis which followed the Great Depression, and in doing so brought along the renaissance of Burgundy wines.

Owning a large number of climats from all over Burgundy, Faiveley's holdings include 15 Grand Crus, a large number of Premier Crus as well as a number of monopoles at Grand Cru, 1er Cru and village levels. Recently their wines from the Cote Chalonnaise are re-labelled Domaine de la Framboisiere.

La Gibryotte - a micro-negociant of the Dugat family

I went to a wine dinner showcasing the wines of La Gibryotte a couple of weeks ago. La Gibryotte is a micro-negociant associated with Domaine Claude Dugat. Based in Gevry-Chambertin, the business buys in wine after alcoholic fermentation from growers in Gevry-Chambertin close to the family vineyards and then takes over the elevage as well as the distribution and selling of the wine. The range seems to be a basic Bourgogne, a village level Gevry-Chambertin as well as a 1er Cru wine (but without specific climats). The top of the range is a Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru. This whole range was showcased at the wine dinner (including two vintages of the 1er Cru wine) and it was a nice evening.

Denis Dubourdieu

Denis Dubourdieu is famous as vigneron and oenologist. An acknowledged expert on white wines who consults for many vineyards in France and abroad, including Chateau Cheval Blanc, Dubordieu also runs the family's portfolio of vineyards - Chateau Doisy-Daene, Clos Floridiene, Chateau Reynon, Chateau Cantegril and Chateau Haura. A Professor of Oenology at Bordeaux since the mid 1980s, he researched yeasts, aromas and colloids. His most important influence is on raising the quality of the dry white wines of Bordeaux, introducing such innovations as organic farming, fermentation in oak barrels with extended skin contact and improved bottling techniques. Born into a wine family where he is the third generation of winemaker specializing in white wines, his sons have also started to help run the family vineyards.