Winophilia

There’s a fundamentalist fervor these days about “natural” winemaking. This seems to me a disturbing trend, given the temperature of the rhetoric being tossed around on some wine chat boards.

For those who have missed the current tempest in a wine bottle, here are a number of the key elements of natural winemaking: No acid or sugar additions (or de-acidification). Exclusive use of native yeasts. No use of enzymes to extract or stabilize color and tannins. No sulfur additions. Minimal racking. No filtration. Little or no new oak. READ MORE »

It remains to be seen if the Chinese government will buy Europe’s debt, but that country’s wealthy collectors are certainly snapping up Europe’s wines. After focusing on Bordeaux in recent years, top collectors in China and Hong Kong are beginning to turn their attention to red Burgundy. Since production of the top Burgundies is just tiny fraction of the typical Médoc estate’s output, any sustained new demand from a powerful, cash-rich market is sure to place serious upward pressure on Burgundy prices. The other day a well-traveled Burgundy insider “joked” (at least I hope he was joking) that Burgundy prices could well double in the next few years. Even allowing for hyperbole, any significant price spike would be bad news for long-time American collectors. READ MORE »

Here’s a wine fact that has always puzzled me: as universally loved and respected as late-harvest and fortified wines are by collectors, sales of all but the bluest of the blue chips move at a glacial pace. Perhaps this is because meals are mostly rushed affairs these days, and the fact that these wines are almost always relegated to the dessert course spells doom, since folks don’t take the time for dessert (or so they say) except at special dinners or when dining at restaurants.

Moreover, the idea that many late-harvest and fortified wines, especially those with high acidity, are actually better served as aperitifs or early on in the meal is almost completely lost on modern consumers, who tend to consider such wines exclusively as post-prandial oddities. As tough as the situation is for port, sherry and the late-harvested wines of Sauternes, the Loire Valley, the Rhône Valley and Germany, no category has suffered more in recent years than Madeira. READ MORE »

Once in a while a Bordeaux vintage will polarize experts in a big way. An earlier example was the dispute among critics on the merits of the 1982 and 1983 vintages. At the outset, some critics were unconvinced by the soft, low-acid, opulent 1982s, which they viewed as almost too ripe and unlikely to enjoy a slow, positive evolution in bottle; they preferred the 1983s, which they regarded as more classic in style. Today, although 1983 is considered to be a very good vintage, its fame, and the value of its wines, pale in comparison to the much sought-after 1982s. READ MORE »