I n s p I r a t I o n a l w I n e k n o w l e d g e a n d t h e p e o p l e b e h I n d t h e d r I n k

May2011I N T E R N A T I O N A L

château d’yquem page 6 South Africa guide page 33Wines from land of therainbow page 14

PAGE 6 CHÂTEAU ́ D YQUEM PAGE 14 sUrprising & DivErsE: winEs froM lAnD of THE rAinbow PAGE 18 bUrgUnDY 2009 PAGE 22 THE bEvErAgE AUCTion in sToCkHolM PAGE 24 AsTA DEl bArolo 2011 PAGE 28 sYrAH AnD rED lECHwE PAGE 33 soUTH AfriCA gUiDE PAGE 37 vinTAgE AMAronE 2007 is HoT PAGE 39 THE biggEsT winE proDUCEr in frAnCE PAGE 43 Don MElCHors 20TH AnnivErsArY PAGE 46 rED bAron Down UnDEr

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Welcome To A lovely Summer WiTh Fine Wine Your on-linE mAGAzinE in A GlASS of itS oWn

it’s time again for another beverage Auction in stockholm on the 7th of June. read what peter Thustrup has to say about that in this edition of fine wine. britt karlsson tells us about sweet wines and strawberries, while Johan Cereceda has been to south Africa and has prepared a stellenbosch guide for us.Even Christopher Jarnvall has been on a different kind of trip to south Africa. read about bourgogne 2009 – a tasting in England. stuart george tells us what it’s like at an italian wine auction. Amarone 2007 is Hot, according to Elke Jung. learn all about how to become frances biggest wineproducer. Don´t miss how to get to know all about the latest trends and what the thoughts are of the worlds most prominent producers? will China buy up the whole of france? (Just kidding) Does climate

change mean the English will be cultivating their own wines in the future instead of buying expensive ones from bordeaux? The English royal family will soon be able to produce achampagne of their own, according to statement. There are many questions and we wait with baited breath fort the answers.

Most welcome to a new edition of fine wine.

ove CanemyrEditor in Chief fine wine international

it is perfectly acceptable to send fine wine international to good friends and acquaintances who are 20 years and older and are interested in fine wines. please tip us off about interesting events and occurrences, get together etc. ove.canemyr@trendsetter.se we cannot take responsibility to unsolicited material. please quote freely from fine wine but always reveal your sources.

EditorAl officE:Ove Canemyr: Editor in Chief , Fine Wine Magazine/Trendsetter Box 24013, 104 50 Stockholm. Layout : Sophie L Slettengren, By Design AB, English texts: Roger Brett, Broadcasting Arts. Broadart@tele2.se Front Cover photography: Anne-Marie Canemyr.

ShErrY ProducErS, AdoPt A nEW dESiGn

sherry consumption goes up and down (not literally).it’s a bit of a generation game and always has been.in recent times though people have begun to cultivate a taste for Tapas. what do we love to drink most together with Tapas?…Yes indeed, sherry. Drunk in the good old spanish way. Miguel Montero export director at real Tesoro, took this opportunity to inform about the new design of real Tesoro sherry, the most well known sherry in sweden. why change the outline of such a successful product already so well defined?The reason is obvious. Every other product from real Tesoro has a very special bottle, where the glass is extended at the bottom. That’s why we’re going over to a similar kind of bottle. both for the litre and halflitre and it will be available from systembolaget´s order list before the summer. Those who are interested can read more on www.grupoestevez.com or check out Johan franco Cerecedas sherry tasting on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrnlTfZp2QA

torrES doublES hiS PrESEncE in chinAChina has turned out to be western Europe’s winesellers wet dream. The market has completely exploded in recent years together with the ever growing middle class. we’re talking about millions and millions of people here who want nothing else than a nice glass of wine. Miguel Torres CEo and titular head of the bodega, under-stood long ago that the future of wines lies in the Middle Empire. Therefore he has established a chain of wine stores focusing upon wines called Everwines. A statement from their head office just outside barcelona reads that the num-ber of stores and parts of some shops where he can sell his wine is to be dou-bled to 62 and that by the year 2013.right now not only the spanish con-cern sells not only its own wines, rather the chain stores offer a really exciting range of wines from amongst others: vega sicily, Egon Mueller, baron philli-pe de rothschild, Drouhin and Antiori.

JFC

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SA SWEEt WinE comPEtition JuSt for WomEnfor the fifth time in a row the annual wine competition femmes et vins du Monde was held with a jury consisting only of women. The idea behind the competition is that women should decide which is the best wine, in a male dominated world.The jury is made up of oenologists, writers, wine producers, from 24 different countries. The victorious wine this time was a sweet wine from greece, samos Anthemis, Diamond nova, vintage 2005.

JFC

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rESEArchErS PrEdict A StronG futurE for SWEdiSh WinEswedish wines are on the move. There’s no doubt about it, even if you might have opinions about some of the wines that end up in bottles. However the compe-tence is there, which is visible not least in the surprising results of a handful of producers already, after only a few years work in the vineyards.someone who believes extra strongly in the swedish wine industry’s future is Christi-na skjöldebrand, professor in foodstuff Technology at the university of lund. “Today there are 260 persons in sweden cultivating wine. Most of them are hobby growers, who have changed careers in the later days”, she told nyteknik.se and continues, “However if we are to have a more professional branch of wine growers, then we need more knowledge and more young people. Many swedish growers need help in quality controlling the wine and need support in making the operation profita-ble and attractive for visitors”, she maintains. Eventually she wants to start a swedish Education for winemakers, with more research into the area.

JFC

thE GrEAtEr thE QuAlitY thE GrEAtEr thE incomEroman Horvath from the Domain wachau in Austria, put in an appearance in stockholm to tell us more about why wines from wachau have been enjoying in-creased sales in sweden in recent years. “- we work very closely with our vineyards large or small, who have formed them-selves into a co-operative, so together we have invested a lot in training these last few years. Every one is very engaged in the project, not least because increased quality means increased everything all the way down the line. Apart from that the soil, just like that in bourgogne, is very special. within the distance of just a few feet the “Terroir” is quite variable.That gives us greater potential to attain different but also special characteristics in wines predominantly made from grüner veltliner and riesling. we also have a mi-cro climate in wachau which gives us a very broad quality harvest yield from year to year. we have even convinced our cooperative to invest mainly in the grüner veltliner and riesling which are the most important grapes for the quality we wish to create.” More information www.domaene-wachau.at

F I N E W I N E o n yo u r R e a d e r Pa dN ow ’s t h e t i m e t o f i l l u p yo u r re a d e r p a d w i t h s o m e co n t e n t . Yo u c a n d ow n -l o a d Fi n e Wi n e a s a Pd f f i l e a n d re a d i t o n t h e re a d e r. P l e a s e p a s s t h i s o n t o

f r i e n d s a n d a cq u a i n t e n ce s.

PAul clouEt-thE lAtESt crAzE in SWEdEn? clASSic chAmPAGnE At villa pauli on strandvägen in Djurs-holm. stockholm is already a fantastic setting which naturally doesn’t get any worse by the fact that the bonnaire fa-mily were visiting and together with sigva arranged a wine Maker’s dinner, to commemorate the establishment of the Champagne house in sweden - paul Clouet. Jean-Emmanuel bonnaire the son of the bonnard champagne house, who is a well known figure on the swedish scene and for quite some time too, told us during the dinner tas-ting how Marie Thérese Clouet- bonn-aire, who is a 4th generation winema-ker from the grand Cru classified village bouzy, is mostly known for producing very high class pinot noir from her own vineyard. That makes paul Clouet then the récoltant Manipulant, someone who in themselves stand as guarantor for the highest quality, which indeed set the seal for the evening, as the villa pauli served up a thoroughly superb Menu. paul Clouet is available in the pre-ordering assortment of the swe-dish state owned off-license outlets The systembolaget from 1st May. More info at www.bonnair-clouet.com

uP, uP And AWAY With thE rEd bAronpaul rogers is the general Manager at fox Creek wines and today he’s happy man. very happy! because when the red baron entered the swedish market a few years ago with a bang. 2007 was a terrific success, now their 2010 is being launched at the systembolaget. A shiraz wine from Australia made with finesse for 11 Euros. nowadays they ship 60% of the red baron production to sweden. while at the same time they are not missing a trick by launching fox Creek re-serve shiraz 2007 for 40 Euros also at the systembolaget off-license chain. so it’s a bit of an understatement to say that the red baron has taken off! More infor-mation www.foxcreekwines.com

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SuStAinibilitY iS A biG thinG!These words belong to randy Ulloms, wine master at kendall-Jackson, well known in the world of wine as one of the great forerunners of Terroir, and sustainable farming in California.Energy effectiveness, saving water through drip irrigation, ma-naging the soil by planting trees and covering foliage, which in turn helps to control erosion and fertilize the top soil, com-posting grape skins, leaves and twigs are just a few of his most important pieces of advise.“The reason that we love mist in California is that it prevents the sun from shining directly onto our grapes. The longer it takes for a grape to grow, the better. And the longer they “hang” the better the taste.randy continuous explaining to us that every vineyard should have a good view. what he actually means is a good position on a slope, its altitude above sea level and the type of grapes that will grow there.

read more about this at www.kj.com

our trAdE mArk Will cArrY uS into thE futurEA quote from fabio oberto from AnDrEA obErTo in piemonte in answer to the question of how he would develop his family business in the future. “To make people aware of the brand and stay in the market for years to come”. strengthened by parker’s 95 points and the sales success of their barolo Albarella 2007, fabio has his eye on the future. “- it all started 18 years ago, it was my father who was actually driving a truck in the daytime and toiling on his 3 hectare vi-neyard with his great interest, producing wine in the evenings

and weekends. That’s the way it is today, except that he doesn’t drive a truck for other people anymore except himself and our little family firm. At the present time we’re cultivating 16 hectares of vineyards divided mainly into 3 vineyards in piemonte 70% of which is in la Morra. There are 4 of us working all year round. During the harvest time towards Autumn, we’re 8 people. we produce a 100 000 bottles a year and sell 80% of them to export, while the remaining 20% stays for the home market in italy. some of the vines are 68 years old. And as everyone understands they yield very high quality grapes. our “Terroir” consists of 55% clay and 15% limestone. like many of the other producers in piemonte we change over to nebbiolo grapes more and more. There’s more information available at www.andreaoberto.com

thE Proof iS in thE tAStE sales of non-alcoholic wines increased by 42% during last summer. These are quite amazing statistics and still increa-sing. lillemor Eriksson, systembolaget´s Category Manager, told us during a tasting session of non alcoholic wines that the market is still groving. who wouldn’t like to choose an alcohol free wine or beer that that also goes well with food? Especially when you’re dri-ving, are out with friends, expecting, or on number of other activities after

work, where you don’t want to have to makes excuses or explain that you’re feeling tired, or that you have to get up early in the morning to catch a plane. in short, to be spared having to explain every time you don’t want to drink a glass of wine. particularly if wa-ter isn’t the optimum alter-native to go with the food. After having had a good

look around in Europe for producers of non alcoholic wines systembola-get (sweden’s state owned off- license chain) has plumped some really good dry white wines like for instance the Torres natureo free Muscat as well a very good rosé ArC-En-CiEl-brut 2010 with bubbles. Art. no: 1932 for just 5 euros.This will probably be this summer’s big hit on the non-alcohol front. Except for all the other win-ners of course, who’s social life is made that much easier because of this. well done, systembolaget. let’s hope that there will be more products coming up in this range as well as a new sales record this summer. (let us also hope that all of the seaside taverns include this kind of product in their assortments.particularly with the new laws pertain-ing the rules of the road at sea.

thE corrEct PoSitioninG of thE VinEYArd iS thE kEY to SuccESS“ - neethlingshof lies on the outskirts of stellenbosch in the heart of the Cape wineland.“it’s easy to get to from Cape Town on route n2. The place is flanked by the bottelary hills on one side and papagaais Mountain on the other”, lauren snyman from the neeth-

lingshof Estate in south Africa explains to us. The best soil is mainly at villafonté, Tukulu and oakleaf all of which have deeper topsoil.There are also eight differently definable “terroir”, where every kind of earth strata has it’s own individual character, thanks to the unique slopes and different alti-tudes. by selecting the right position it’s possible to attain the natural aroma and fragrances chosen from all of the Terroir. “The higher situated vineyards gain an advantage from the cold south easterly wind, as well as the north westerly that blows in from the cold Atlantic. it often develops mist that forms on the upper terraced slopes which favours the grapes development”, lauren concludes. read more about it on www.neethlingshof.co.za

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A PortuGuESE in Stockholm namércio Cunha Marketing Direc-tor for ftp vinhos in portugal made a guest appearance during the vine of portugal’s annual tasting on the opera Terrace. in his luggage he had a number of fine wines from Duoro and DAo. The most interesting were a pair of reservas which unfortunately are produced in such small quanti-ties to able to be exported to swe-den . Anyone who manages to secure a couple of bottles would be well ad-vised to lay them down for about 5-6 years to get the most favou-rable experience. Though, of course they are very good right now. The most well known in the ftp assort-ment is perhaps the picos Do Cou-to, a reserve from DAo 2007, which has already been awarded some international prizes. if your´re curious, then travel down to portugal and try them yourself at . www.ftpvinhos.com. or contact stellan kramer who’s their swedish importer.

onlY thE bESt GrAPES cAn GiVE thE WinE itS hiGh QuAlitYrudolph rabs from kamptal winery in Aus-tria has a motto. “only the very best grapes gives Top Quality wines”. “fermentation with natural yeast deve-loped in our own vineyards, gives har-mony in the production and creates para-

meters for producing out top wines - rAbl optimum line”. 35-50 year old vines in clay, limestone and gravely soil offers us wines with good minerals and character. Here 30% of the grapes remain on the vine longer before the harvest. This for both body and ripeness. This is one of the reasons that the export and home market are divided equally 50-50. The other is the international white wine Trophy which is won at the Decanter world-wine Award. so it isn’t only the Aus-trians that appreciate their wines. Their main areas of ope-ration are switzerland and sweden. for more info go to på www.weingut-rabl.at

thrEE WinEmAkErS from four continEntS in Stockholmsignature varietal Tasting was the name of the unique tasting that was held at Arnolds in stockholm this week. it was a different kind of tasting where randleJohnson wine maker in Chief for bodega Colomé in Argentina and the Hess col-lection in the UsA.Andrew wigan from peter lehman wi-nes in Australia and Arco laarman from glen Carlou in south Africa invited us to

a broad spectrum of typical fine wines from 4 continents at one and the same time. The white wines were wigan Eden valley riesling 2005, Quartz stone Char-donnay 2009 and Colomé Torrontés 2010. The red wines were : Artezin Zinfandel 2009, Artezin petite sirah 2007, Colomé Estate Malbec 2009, glen Carlou grand Classique 2008, 19 block Cuvée 2005 and the stonewell shiraz 2006. for an inte-resting reader, go to på www.hess-family.com

rAnDlE JoHnson, AnDrEw wigAn oCH ArCo lAArMAn, HEss fAMillY

“our vision is to develop our fine wines even more and safeguard our integrity. naturally i always recommend everybody to drink the wine now, but if you lay them down for about 35 years then the experience will be even more intensified. These words are Alistair purbricks, Managing Director of The Tahlbilk

group, situated a 1000 kilometres north of Melbourne in Austra-lia. since 1978 Tahlbilk is well known in 20 countries all over the world as one of the really fine wine producers of Australia. natu-rally they belong to Australia’s firs families of wine an association of the most prominent wine producers that formed themselves. Today they represent 12 members from more than 16 regions over the whole of the country.read more on www.australiasfirstfamiliesofwine.com.au/.Tahbilk is today still a family concern. There are no plans at all to sell it either. The company has 4 generations behind it, with

the 5th making its debut now in the form of Alistair’s daugh-ter who has just finished her education.“our white wine made from Marsanne grapes with roots that stretch back to 1926. They are probably the oldest Marsanne vines in the world. in 1997 we decided to gain benefit from these old vines and apart from the usual Marsanne, make an iconic wine from grapes according to a technique with early harvesting. High oxidisation elements and a long pe-riod of laying the bottle down. in other words made like the famous Hunter valley semillon wines.The first vintage was released in 1998 “we pressed the first vintage in room temperature in 1997 and 1998 we sold the first bottles in Australia- today we have 60% of the market,” says Alistair. The fact that Thabilk is a popular fine wine produ-cer down under is proven not least by the fact that only 15% of the total production is for export while 86% is consumed in Australia. As Alistair say’s “The magic happens in the bottle!”

All thE mAGic hAPPEnS in thE bottlE

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You can see the Chateau d´Yquem, far away in the dis-tance, standing majestically 84 metres above the sea, hig-her than any other castle in the Sauternes.The actual castle is from the 14 hundreds, surrounded by about 115 hectares of vines. It is here that the world’s fi-nest sweet wine is produced. Thanks to a rather unpleasant little fungus called botrytis cinerera or “grey rot” as its known more prosaically. El-sewhere cultivators live in fear of rots, but in the Sauternes and a few other places on this planet they give rise to honey smooth, sweet wines. Then they’re called Noble Reds.

château d’yquem a luxury with strawberries or goose liver

TexT BriTT KArlSSon phoTo per KArlSSon, BKWine.com enGliSh TexTS roGer BreTT

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IT’S ThE SIzE of the vineyards that’s one of the big secrets of y´Quem´s greatness. “We’re the biggest castle in the Sauternes, we have a great va-riation in our soils, which gives our wines complexity;” says Sandrine Garbay, who’s responsible for ma-king the wine. in 1998 she replaced the then maitré de chai,Guy latrill, who retired after pre-siding over 45 vintages. “of course it was a great responsibility, but my life’s dream come true, to be able to make wine at a castle like this,” San-drine tells us. i was employed here as an oenologist back in 1994 and learned y´Quem from the ground up (no pun intended) from my pre-decessor. For me it was an honour to replace him and i was fully aware of the responsibility. however it’s important to point out”, she says

humbly, “that this castle is full of collected experience. it houses a long tradition, everything here is well thought out.

To be the wine maker in one of the most prominent castles in Bor-deaux, perhaps the most prestigious was something she never imagined as she finished her studies in oeno-logy. “Actually i come from Bor-deaux myself, but nobody in my family has ever made wine”.But my parents have great respect for wine, so i learned that at home.

WhaT IS hER most important task here at y´Quem? “To respect the grape”, she says. many people think that as chief winemaker you have to put your own signature upon the wine, personally i don’t believe that. The grapes are the most important, extracting aroma and elegance from them and respecting the castle’s his-tory and experience.

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BaCk IN 1855 chateau d ´yquem was classified as premier Grand cru Supérieur, the only castle in that group. Already back then yquem´s reputation was establis-hed, thanks largely to Francóise, Joséphine Sauvage d´yquem, who was widowed from the compte louis Amédée de lur Saluce 1788. She managed y´Quem extremely well until her death in 1851. She was the one to initiate the stagge-red harvest in order to get as may “Grey rot” grapes as possible. The castle was in the possession of the lur-Saluce Family until 1999 when it was sold to lvmh (louis vuitton moet hennesy). Since 2004 it’s been pierre lurton from the wellknown Bordeaux family who is y´Quem´s director. The castle has 65 employees of whom 6 work in the cellar with Sandrine, and one of them is David marc the Assistant Wine maker. “There are two factors that make a go and make a Sauternes great,” says David, “people and the Ter-roir”. here in Sauternes we have a very special climate that allows us in principle to produce high class,

sweet wines. To make the Botrytis (noble red) develop over the gra-pes, we need the moist morning mist that lays over the vineyards like a blanket. By contrast the af-ternoons need to be sunny and windy. The moist fog forms when the humid waters of the nearby river Garonne meets that colder water of the little ciron tributary. “We have about 90 days of mist a year”, says David.

80% oF ThE gRaPES are Sèmillon, the most important of all of the cast-les in Sauternes. “They give, says David, the wines structure and roundness, while the 20% Sauvig-non Blanc contribute with aroma

and elegance.” David shows us a perfectly infected Botrytis grape, that doesn’t look very pretty at all. “The Grey rot causes the fluid in the grape to evaporate”, he ex-plains. “During this period it’s important that it doesn’t rain.

YquEm IN CommoN with some of other castle vineyards in Sauternes have a special way of pruning the vines that you wont see anywhere else in Bordeaux.Sandrine calls it Gobelet palis-sée (A beaker tied up with barbed wire) A vine has 3 arms with about 3 clusters to each arm. “The ad-vantage is”, says Sandrine, “is that the 6-8 clusters per vine are pretty much scattered. “The density is 6600 vines per hectare. “We do a lot of the work in vineyard manu-ally,” she continues, every year the-re are about 50 working moments spent on every vine. We plough the soil regularly and don’t use any chemical products.

aT ThE haRvEST it’s time for the pe-ople to make the entrance. The botrytis doesn’t cover the vineyard at the same time, so it’s all about

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harvesting over and over at dif-ferent times. The loyal harvesters who come year after year pick cluster after cluster and sometimes even grape for grape in various rounds, the so called Tri. The nor-mal harvest is about 25 days spread over 6 weeks. of course it varies a lot though from year to year.in 2007 for instance the harvest lasted 37 days and in 2003 we only needed to go over the vineyard once! in all this harvest only took 9 days. Sandrine is very pleased with 2008. 70% of the grapes were con-sidered good enough to be used in the chateau d´yquem, the rest was sold off as bulk. “We don’t do a se-cond wine, but we make a little for the employees of the rated grapes.”

ThE SElECTIoN PRoCESS is very strict at yquem, stricter than most of the other Sauternes castle vineyards.But in this way yquem can de-mand a realistic price for its wines. The yield is too little, Sauternes means 25 hectolitre per hectare at the most, while here at yquem we’re talking about hectolitre per hectare. in other words one glass per vine, sometimes even less.Sandrine tells us about the diffi-cult year 2000, when they had to be satisfied with a ridiculous 2.5 litres per hectare. 70% of the gra-pes ended up on the ground. it can also be more, like in 2007, when we could combine quality with quantity, we took out 17 hectolitre per hectare.” in a normal year we produce about a 100 000 bottles.

uP To 2003B the grapes were pressed in an old wooden vertical press, but this has now been replaced with a modern one of stainless steel. San-drine thinks that vertical presses

are best, they are more gentle.The essence is then allowed to fer-ment in 100% new oak casks for about 3 weeks. no yeast is added, it manages fine on natural yeast alone. When the wines reaches an alcohol content of 13-14% and a residual sugar content of about 130 gram per litre, the fermenta-tion is stopped with the help of sulphur. The wine now is stored in casks for 2 years, which is turned every three months. During the whole of the storing time the plug hole is made out of glass instead of

being sealed tight with a silicone one, which is normal for other wi-nes and seals up the hole better.“The reason is “, say Sandrine, that there’s a risk that the sweet wines continue fermenting and theyre not so sensitive to acid , as we’ve added sulphur to stop it” Before the bottling the wine is cleared with Gelatine.

IT’S WEll kNoWN that Sauternes are wines for laying down. But how does a yquem develop in the bottle?“When it’s young we get aromas of

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apricots, pineapple, passion fruit and some vanilla off of the new oak cask” says Sandrine. “The oak is well integrated but still noticeable. The complexity comes with age. A more marmalade tone comes into the picture, dried apricots, quinces while at the same time the oak gets pushed into the background. The wine becomes more spicy, The fruits dryer instead of fresh and

also begin to sense a caramel tone. The colour darkens down with age and we can also detect an aroma of coffee and toasted bread.

WE TaSTEd a 1988:ER which is still young in this context, but there is a hint of figs in the round, smooth taste. The 1996er is a little bit dif-ferent, very round and concentra-ted but with a surprising freshness

which according to pierre lurton, comes a bit from the passerillage, (grapes drying out on the vine) which retains the acidity. in the fragrance we have dried apricots, honey and almonds. The 1988er is starting to attain clear maturity tones, with ripe fruit and spices. Good concentration a long and complex taste with certain gra-vity. The 1975er has a beautiful amber colour. A rich wine with an unbelievably long taste. A mature wine with a lot of vitality, leaning towards nuts and honey. “chateau yquem is always a very concentra-ted wine, not least because of the low yield, however it’s important to point out that an yquem is ne-ver a heavy wine, it’s always elegant and round,” says pierre lurton.

2004 WaS quITE a difficult year with a production of only 50 000 bott-les “ Which meant that the selec-tion was extra important, but that’s typical yquem,” pierre Adds, it’s a small vintage”. The residual sugar content is 130 gram per litre, good acidity and the alcohol content lies around 13%. The wine is round, concentrated and tastes of apricot, oranges and honey…

WhaT’S ThE BEST vINTagE that you’ve been involved with?, we ask San-drine and David. “2001 they answer in unison. “That was a monster, we harvested 2 days in September, then it started raining for the next 3 weeks, then it was indian summer with high tempe-ratures of 25 degrees in october. We reached a 14% alcohol content and a very fine acidity”… and qui-te rightly 2001 is fantastic. long taste of dried fruits, unbelievably round and with tastes of orange

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peel and apricots, very complex.The wine feels oily but still quite fresh and i can detect an element of marzipan. The after taste stays forever.

YquEm doESN’T makE any second wines so if the grapes aren’t good enough, then quite simply there wont be any yquem that year.Some years though we produce an almost dry wine called y pro-nounced in Greek: epsilon. it´s impossible for yquem to produce a completely dry wine, says pierre lurton. The y has been around since 1959 and is produced from the last grapes of the season. They don’t have so much Grey rot, but a very high sugar content. The wine contains 10 grams of residual sugar. previously they used to be stored in oak casks for 18 months, but now things are changed, 30% new casks, and the rest are 2 years old. it is a very powerful wine, of-ten with elements of tropical fruits in the fragrance and a honey cha-racter in the taste. it’s made from 50% each of Semillon and Sauvig-non Blanc. 10 000 bottles are pro-duced every year. it goes very well with a strong cheese.

NoW ChaTEau d´YquEm has started to sell its wines en primeur, so-mething they’ve never done be-fore. it’s not because they have a problem selling their wines.

As David says “We make wine but we don’t need to sell it, it sells it-self. 80-90% goes to export. Do people actually know how and to what dishes you should drink a Sauternes? Sandrine doesn’t think so. First and foremost you should never drink it to cold.Take it out of the fridge some time earlier and just let it stand. 10-12 degrees is an adequate serving tem-perature. now what shall we eat with it?yquem together with a lobster and other shellfish is a magnificent combination, probably though its not the first thing you’d think of. even chicken and veal go well with a yquem or any other Sauternes for that matter. most of us a re little bit limited when it comes to com-bining a Sauterne with food. There are a few deserts like: Foi Gras, ro-quefort then the imagination dries up. Sweet wine to the main dish sounds a bit strange to some. But we still can have a go.personally i don’t believe there is anything that can spoil a chateau d´yquem, not even a lobster.

on Bkwine Tv you can see a video interview with chief Winemaker Sandrine Garbay.http://www.youtube.com/bkwine

château d’Yquem s a fantastic wine and there are many other sauterne wines as well. but if you don’t want to spend a fortune on your sweet wines then there are alternatives in bordeaux. opposite sauternes on the other bank of the river garonne there lies 3 sweet wine districts.Cadillac, loupiac and sainte-Croix-du Mont.The vines grow here along the steep slopes, while high up you have a splendid view of the prestigious neighbours sauternes. These di-stricts are very alternatives to the expensive sauternes wines. if you don’t want to spend that much mo-ney then it’s better to buy a better bottle of sainte-Croix-du-Montor a loupiac than a cheap sauterne. Cadillac (even if this most famous of American car names is french after a frenchman from the loire who founded the company) is a delight-ful little town dating from the midd-le ages. it was founded around the 13th century.

not quite in bordeaux, but almost lies Montbazillac, which makes fine sweet wines from the same grapes as the sauternes. Montbazillac is si-tuated next to bergerac an few miles to the east of Emilion.strawberries and noble sweet wine

is a part of summer. Try it, you won’t be disappointed!

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God News for Connoisseurs

It is time for the next Selected Wine and Spirits Auctions.

AuctionsThe Large auction takes place on June 7:th, at 12 o’clock at

Stockholms Auktionsverk, Nybrogatan 32, Stockholm.

The Small auction, single bottles, takes place on May 31:st, at 3 pm at

Stockholms Auktionsverk, Magasin 5, Frihamnen in Stockholm.

PreviewAll objects are on view in

Frihamnen, Magasin 5, Stockholm on May 30:th, between 3 and 7 pm.

For a private viewing please contact Stockholms Auktionsverk, telephone +46 8 453 67 15.

You will fi nd all objects at www.auktionsverket.se as well as

in the printed catalogue.

Read more about the auctions at www.systembolaget.se och

www.auktionsverket.se

Support our operation and inform us about Fine Wines

Take this opportunity to give your-

selves and your friends Fine Wine

throughout the whole of 2011.

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I N T E R N A T I O N A L

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surprising & diverse: wines from land of the

rainbowTexT & phoTo: JohAn FrAnco cereceDA

>>>

South africa is more than just bleached Chenin-Blancs and smoky Pinotage wines. here you’ll find a whole range of interesting grapes, which are held dear and their diversity is surprising. Therein lies an explanation, why the country has changed up a gear in record time and taken over the Swedish market.

EvERY FouRTh lITRE of wine that we buy from the SystemBolaget (Swe-dish state owned off-license chain) has its origins in South Africa, the land of the rainbow. Just that on its own is impressive. But the fact that the country has the capacity to continue expanding dispels any of the gossip that the trend is just

a flash in the pan. Formerly it was down to cartons of Wine of vary-ing quality which dominated the wine export trade, but now we’re getting Fine Wine wines… and they are astounding, not only in quality and origin, but also for the blends of grape behind the wines. Because South Africa is far from

being a wine country that is do-minated by 2 or 3 kinds of grapes. of course the country has always been characterised by the pinotage grape an indigenous transmuta-tion between the pinot noir and cinsault, known locally before as hermitage.

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oN ThE WhITE WINE side we have “Queen” chenin-Blanc, a grape that takes up about a 5th of the vi-neyards total acreage. But there ’s a lot behind these interesting variety grapes, not least the big internatio-nals, but also some amusing portu-guese grapes. Who can’t remember when Allesveloren launched three portuguese, single grape wines onto the international market. it wasn’t just that the wines we’re drop dead nice, the consumers were surprised that one could pro-duce single grape wines from these kinds of grapes, which in principle had never happened before with grapes from north east portugal.

aT ThE SamE this is typical of the new World and South Africa to blatantly disregard tradition and instead of thinking orthodox, pro-duce something that no one else had ever done before. in portu-gal the wines were received with mixed emotions and caused the country’s traditionalists to go th-rough the roof. But the wines were

(and are) unbelievably good, well produced and apart from that they displayed an enormous compe-tence amongst the wine makers in the country, who are less occupied with bulk wines and are getting more and more into quality orien-tated products. This is something that we’ve noticed, perhaps more than anywhere else in Sweden.South Africa’s positioning in Swe-den is fantastic.

i believe it’s because they continue to deliver very good and reasona-bly priced wines.

oF CouRSE ThE cartons represent a large part of the volume, but we can also see increased interest in bottles in every price range.These words belong to maja Berthas, head of WoSA in Swe-den. Wosa; Wine of South Africa’s offices are quite scarce, they are only situated at ten locations around the world. The fact that one of these is in Stockholm is not a co-incidence, when you consider how much wine from that country we drink. “i believe that we Swe-des find South African wines very good and well priced. The style fits in with our tastes and goes well with Swedish food and wine cul-ture. Because South Africa is con-tinually developing there’s always a constant stream of new wines and with newly developed tastes. “Which means that you can always discover new wines from new areas and establish new taste profiles”,

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she adds and continues “Then you find out more about this fantastic wine country, which results in more interest here at home. Will this surge of development really persist?

“I BElIEvE ThaT as long as South Africa continues to grow at this pace, then the development will be steady. This year “munskänkarna” have nominated Stellenbosch as Wine District of the year. i believe that we’ll begin to see more effort towards bottled wines in slightly higher price ranges. “But what are things like in South Africa, what does the future look like and what are the trends?” Well the simple answer is good, good and blended wines. however if we pause for a second and look further than the simple, we notice there is a strong faith in the wine that’s being pro-duced today - and that it’s only go-ing to get better and better. We mustn’t lose sight of the fact

that the country was closed down until the beginning of the 1990´s.The fact that it has managed to posi-tion itself as an important Wine na-tion in just a few years is extremely impressive. The mood today in the country’s vineyards that cover an area of 100 000 hectares is good. “We have fantastic potential to make the kind of wine we want, good grapes, competence and a thriving export market”, says mike ratcliffe , ma-naging Director of Warwick Wines, one of the better producers in South African cultivation.

hERE ThEY makE traditional single grape wines, containing high levels of fruit orientation, possibly a little over extracted, but balanced with great finesse. There’s a very exciting wine called Triology of cabernet Sauvignon, cabernet Franco and a little merlot. The blend seems familiar, but it has it’s own style. Good tone, lots of mocha, and sur-prisingly dry.

NoWadaYS IT ISN’T oNlY Stellenbosch and vicinity that is synonymous with exclusives wines.There’s a range of interesting di-stricts that have popped up within every origin oriented sub district,here you’ll find many producers that are leading the forward de-velopment, discovering new met-hods and are making even better wine. Because it’s better wines that are the new big trend. We are aware that the South Africans can make really honourable single gra-pe wine, with high fruit factor and then sell them quite cheaply.

BuT WhaT aBouT the big wines, what’s the story there? We’ve re-ceived some of the answers suc-cessively, and it’s here that many analysts, including the indigenous ones who believe that South Africa has a great expansion potential. “The fun thing is that the interest in our premium wines, made from many different grapes, is expanding

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greatly”, explains Su Birch, head of WoSA in South Africa. She emphasises the importance of a new world country mastering not only the technology for producing one grape at a time.

SomEWhaT SuRPRISINglY she says that the focus is not upon the great American market, but rather Asia. During last summer’s Football world cup it became obvious that they were orientating them-selves towards the Asian market. But they wont forget other potential market for that matter.” The market share in uSA and canada is very low, on the other hand we see a great develop-ment potential in both of those markets. in Japan we have increased our share by 58% in recent years. even though the numbers don’t say so much, we began very modestly in that country”, says Su Birch. That buzz words like eco and Sustainable ( a kind of ethical re-sponsibility) that have found their way into the consumer’s hearts is also something that the South African wine industry took up at an early stage, not just producing good wines, but not least for the vineyard workers. Today the modern wine industry faces comple-tely different challenges than only producing wine. it was 350 years ago that the first gra-pes were pressed in South Africa. At the end of the 18th century the country received a lot of praise for its sweet wine from constantia, but it wasn’t until 1990, that a new wave of wines emerged from the rainbow country which to-tally amazed the world.

BuT WhEN WE SPEak of wine from South Africa we have to realise that it’s a wine industry that has, within two decades positioned itself in such an outstanding manner. There are many who feel that Wine Tourism deserves credit for some of this success story. After the long awaited fall of Apartheid, the doors were wide open, and anyone who has been to the wine districts often like to go back there. The Southern european countries have never really understood the me-asure of this, though they travel here now to learn all about it. it’s about time!

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January is a time for new beginnings and fresh starts so it is an appropriate time to taste new releases. Each year the leading uk importers and retailers of Burgundy show their wines to the press, the trade and – increasingly often these days – to private clients. This year there were nearly 20 tastings spread over two weeks in mid-January, sometimes with five tastings in a single day. any plans for a January detox had to be put on hold.

ThE PRE-CamPaIgN hype asserted that 2009 would be the latest addition to the Burgundian tradition of fine vintages ending in a “9”: 1999, 1979 (for the whites), 1969, 1949, 1959 and 1929. The weather through 2009 pointed towards a fine vin-tage. Spring was mild and June, July and August were hot, with occasio-nal downpours that caused fears of mildew, particularly the weekend of 14 July. But there was no mil-dew and September was sunny and windy. clive coates, author of The Wines of Burgundy, said, “The wea-ther conditions and the state of the fruit as it was being collected moves me to put 2009 up with 2005 and 1999 as the very best vintage of the last 25 years.”

ovERall, ThE REdS are elegant and moreish, with ripe rather than ag-gressive tannins. The whites are richly flavoured and have the same

docile acidity as the reds, which re-minded some tasters of 1992. These are wines that will make charming drinking in the short to medium term. it is a year when the vintage conditions have prevailed over ter-roir – the wines taste of sunshine rather than of soil. Although the richness and generosity of the fruit recalls 2005, the 2009s are unlikely to endure as long as the best ’05s. The reds might turn out to be simi-lar to the 1985s, some of which ma-tured very quickly. Their generous and ripe style, however, is likely to please sommeliers and restaura-teurs, who will see a relatively quick return on their investments.

PRoduCERS aRE alSo happy with the wines. Guillaume d’Angerville of Domaine marquis d’Angerville thinks, “The 2009 wines are har-monious and complete and they decisively express their pinot cha-

racter.” The d’Angerville wines are among the best and are well worth cellaring. As usual, the volnay pre-mier cru clos des Ducs had supe-rior tannins and length to the other volnays.

domaINE a & P villaine’s manager pierre de Benoist feels, “The 2009s are wines of the sun, with a spec-tacular texture, racy minerality and plenty of character.” A & p’s Bou-zeron 2009, made from Aligoté, was a pleasing discovery and the mercurey les montots has excellent richness and structure for such an unassuming Burgundy village. The chablis grower vincent Dampt likens 2009 to 2006: “it’s a vintage that is similar to 2006 but more concentrated.” his wines were quite plump, though they retained the characteristic green apple flavour of chablis. The premier cru lys is quite fat but the côte de léchet

>>>

burgundy 2009By STuArT GeorGe

TexT BriTT KArlSSon FoTo per KArlSSon, BKWine.com

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is leaner and finer. Domaine Bil-laud-Simon’s chablis premier cru montée de Tonnerre is very clean, with a mineral finish. Do-main Jean-paul Droin’s montée de Tonnerre is also a good example. in chablis those who picked early were able to retain acidity in the grapes and make characteristically brisk wines.

oF ThE NEgoCIaNT bottlings, louis Jadot’s côte de nuits wines show bright, sweet, juicy fruit, someti-mes verging on jammy. The côte

de Beaune reds give a bit more to chew on, becoming more structu-red as the vineyard becomes smal-ler and the price becomes higher. of the top-end whites, Jadot’s Bâtard-montrachet and cheva-lier-montrachet les Demoiselles Grands crus were both very good, with splendid length. The mont-rachet was already very drinkable, with the 100% new oak barely dis-cernable.

maISoN louIS laTouR’S WINES were satisfactory but Bouchard père &

Fils’s selection was very poor, with too many bitter and extracted wi-nes. perhaps they will taste better once finished and bottled.

moST PEoPlE aRE happy with the quality of the wines, then. But even if the euro has fallen against the dollar, it remains strong against the pound, making exports expen-sive. Johnny Goedhuis, one of the leading retailers of Burgundy in the uK, said, “prices of the 2009s are realistic. Burgundian growers haven’t gone mad. They are more

>>>

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expensive than the 2008s but not ridiculously so. 2009 may well be the last opportunity to buy well-priced red Burgundies before increa-sing demand from hong Kong, Singapore, and mainland china really affects prices.” Goed-huis noted that prices at the 2010 hospices de Beaune were up by 15% overall, driven largely by demand from chinese buyers.

dESPITE ThE ChallENgES presented by exchange rates and economic conditions, sales have been terrific. Jasper morris mW, Burgundy Director at Berry Brothers & rudd, was very pleased with the campaign: “Two days into our offer and we’ve already had more orders than in ’08, ’07 or ’06. We were one of the few merchants that stayed faithful and supported producers in ’06, ’07 and ’08. That’s paid dividends now.”

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>>>

kat No: 4147Château latour 1937obviously it’s on its way down, for the last 20 years at least. However i still think that this a very enjoyable wine. if it’s bee laid down well. Tried it 5 times.87/100pauillac, 1er Cru Classéstored in private cellaru. vts1 btutrop:3.000 - 4.000euro:EUr 340 - 450

kat No:4155Château latour 1953wonderful, complex fruit, a great clas-sis, wonderful length. Tried 9 times. last time 1998. noted 85-98/100pauillac, 1er Cru Classéstored in private cellaru. us1 btutrop:6.000 - 7.000euro:EUr 680 - 790

kat No:4174Château latour 1975A big and groovy latour, the vintage gave us wines very rich in tannins. so-metimes immaturely dry and hard tannins, but a latour is an exception. A lot of tannins but they’ve become gent-ler, properly concentrated fruit, structu-red, masculine but very enjoyable, com-plex and relatively long. Tried 4 times and noted between 92-95/100.pauillac, 1er Cru Classéstored in private cellar1 dmagutrop:10.000 - 12.000euro:EUr 1.130 - 1.350

kat No:4177Château latour 1978fruit structure complex, now soft but relatively reserved as latours often are. A big wine , tried 3 times 97/100 pauillac, 1er Cru Classéstored in private cellarbtsutrop:6.000 - 7.500euro:EUr 680 - 850

kat No:4187Château latour 1982A magnificent latour, a masterpiece, it has everything you could want, con-centration , but not too much, roun-ded , soft but actually still young, in my opinion , hasn’t yet reached it’s top. which of course can be good if you happen to get hold of a bottle which has travelled a little too far, which of course age the wine prematurely. 90-100 95-2000 but now a 96/100 with the potential of becoming 100/100. pauillac, 1er Cru Classéstored in private cellaru. us1 btutrop:10.000 - 12.000euro:EUr 1.130 - 1.350

kat No:4215Château lafite Rothschild 1985brilliantly concentrated, a little bit un-typical for a lafite, more strength than usual, but a wonderfully balanced and well made wine. seductive but ne-vertheless a lot of finesse and a won-derful length. Tried 10 times, 91-96/100pauillac, 1er Cru Classéstored in private cellarslightly scuffed label1 btutrop:4.000 - 5.000euro:EUr 450 - 560

peter thustrup: the beverage auction in stockholm7th june 12.00 www.auktionsverket.se

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kat No:4218Château lafite Rothschild 1986Tried it 4 times, it’s always been a little locked in , a bit dry, dusty tannins, very concentrated and refined fruit, but like all 1986, the tannins dry out your mouth.it needs even more time before it will become gentler, that is if it ever will. it’s a bit like a 75 er with finer tannins than the 86er. Drink from 2017. Tried 11 times, noted 91 plus -95 plus even a 98/100 once when the bottle was decanted.pauillac, 1er Cru Classéstored in private cellarslip label: knud Jørgensen vinhandelDanish tax label1 btutrop:8.000 - 9.000euro:EUr 900 - 1.020

kat No:4234Château lafite Rothschild 1988Quite a hard vintage, which you still wait for, but decanted it’s a very fine wine. A bit rich in tannins but neverthe-less soft, well balanced, but wait with it another 10+15 years so that becomes a little more complex. Tried it 8 times note between 90-96/100.pauillac, 1er Cru Classéstored in private cellar6 btsutrop:24.000 - 30.000euro:EUr 2.700 - 3.400

kat No:4236Château lafite Rothschild 1989Concentrated with enormous potential, tried 5 times, always a pleasure, may be drunk “now”, will naturally improve, reaching it’s top in 2020-2030. noted 92-100but it’s should be 95 plus by 2020.pauillac, 1er Cru Classéstored in private cellarDanish tax label1 btutrop:5.000 - 6.000euro:EUr 560 - 680

kat No:4238Château lynch Bages 1989it fills the mouth well, rich and wonder-ful, almost a little rough but easy to like. people pleaser. Tried it only once 92/100 pauillac, 5ème Cru Classéstored in private cellarDanish tax labels3 btsutrop:5.400 - 6.000euro:EUr 610 - 680

kat No:4291Château lynch Bagesreally good, full of fruit, you can almost chew this wine. Dark, beautiful colour, slight smell of leather and logan berries and lots of ripe raspberries. Yummy but not sophisticated. Tried 11 times lastly in magnum 92-94/100.pauillac, 5ème Cru Classéstored in private cellar1985 (1bt)slip label: berry bros and rudd ltd, london 1989 (2bts) Danish tax labels3 btsutrop:5.000 - 6.000euro:EUr 560 - 680

kat No:4508Romanée-Conti 1966DrC, Côte de nuits, grand CruTried it 11 times as always with a roma-nee Conti a wine completely in finesse, balance and an enormous length, A wine that you don’t forget after the first drop. A solid and tannin rich vinta-ge a bit like a 1972, romanee Conti 1966 has stayed but has a little less complexi-ty, compared to more sun drenched vin-tages like for instance the 1959. There’s a big variation between the different bottles from those times. back in those days the bottles were filled cask after cask no “assemblage”. nowadays (since 1992) Assemblage is done avec 3-5 bar-rels to even out the quality, so that the bottles have the same standard.noted 90-98/100. stored at grythyttans gästgivaregård u. 1x4,0cmstained label1 btutrop:40.000 - 50.000euro:EUr 4.500 - 5.600

kat No:4547Romanée-Conti 2001 Tried 3 times, but it’s still a young wine and romaine Conti in this kind of rela-tively closed in condition is difficult to judge. but a magnificent wine, but much to young to drink right now. wait at least another 10 years . noted for a potential 90-95/100 but today to young to be re-ally enjoyable. not more than 87/100 DrC, Côte de nuits, grand Cru stored in private cellarslightly stained label1 btutrop:30.000 - 40.000euro:EUr 3.400 - 4.500

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ThE ChIEF auCTIoNEER was Giancarlo montaldo, the former president of the enoteca regionale del Bar-baresco. he was accompanied by three “personalities” (as the italian writer and blogger Franco Ziliani witheringly referred to them): Fe-derico Quaranta, a food and wine

broadcaster; edoardo raspelli, the best-known food critic in italy; and the American wine critic Ja-mes Suckling – always called “Gia-comino” (“Jimmy”) by Ziliani – who has continued to live in italy since his departure from Wine Spectator.

ThE aSTa IS RuN under the auspices of the “Accademia del Barolo”, an association founded in September 2010 by eleven Barolo producers who, says Ziliani, “have always been very well-treated, i would say with velvet gloves, by the still-influential magazine – though

auction spectators: asta del barolo 2011

By STuArT GeorGe

It rained heavily in Barolo on 13 march but over 200 guests braved the weather to attend the “XII Edizione” of the “asta del Barolo” (“Barolo auction”), held in the Winemuseum Castello di Barolo and simulcast to h one Restaurant in hong kong and Ristorante garibaldi in Singapore.

>>>

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much less than in the past – Wine Spectator and its former editor and deux ex machina for italy, James Suckling.”

ThE 36-loT auCTIoN took three and a half hours to complete. of course, this being italy meant that auc-tion rules and conventions were soon abandoned. The pA system was raised to jackhammer volume to counter the chattering italian voices and the bidding increments were largely ignored. lot 36 – “i 150 anni dell’unità d’italia”, a 12-bottle collection of Barolo from the 2006 vintage with each bottle signed by its producer to commemorate the 150th annivers-ary of the unification of italy – was intended as the final “showpiece” lot of the auction but was actually sold between lots 21 and 22. Suck-ling took the gavel for this and, although the published estimate was €1,200, started the bidding at €2,000 and eventually sold it for €4,000. its market value would be approximately €600. The auction totalled €39,320 against an estimate (or “starting price”) of €15,580. The average lot price was €1,092.22 against an av-erage estimate of €432.78. room bidders in Barolo paid €16,510 for 15 lots. hong Kong bought 11 lots for €11,560. Ten lots went to Singapore for a total of €11,250, giving it an average of €1,125 per lot, higher than either Barolo or hong Kong.

SuCklINg BId SuCCESSFullY for two lots – lot 5, three magnums of Azelia San rocco 2001, and lot 27, two bottles each of paolo Scavino’s cannubi, Bric del Fiasc and roc-che delle Annunziata of the 2000

vintage, which Suckling called (notoriously, in some people’s opi-nion), Barolo’s“greatest vintage ever… a year i rate a perfect 100 points”. Suckling generously (or, depending on your point of view, ostentatiously) took the bidding from €500 to €800 in one go when the bidding increment was €50. he paid €1,300 for this lot.

ThE PRoCEEdS of the auction were donated to the Don Bosco hotel and School at Sihanouk ville in cambodia. Brother roberto pa-netto of the catholic order of The

Salesians of Don Bosco formed it in 2006 to help “cambodia’s youth to find work with dignity in society, and thus to lift them out of poverty with its accompanying threats to a worthwhile and fulfil-led existence.”

ThE auCTIoN’S FuNdRaISINg is very worthy; its wines are good and the food excellent. But its poli-tics are not to everybody’s taste. Ziliani wrote before the auction, “Given the certain entertainment assured by the raspelli-Quaranta-Suckling trio, this ‘edition’ of the

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Asta del Barolo can be followed live on large screens positioned in Alba under the porticos of piazza Savona, where we are certain that there will be the municipal police to contain the overflowing enthusiasm of the crowds that cannot be admitted to the Falletti castle in Barolo…”

ThERE WERE No laRgE screens or po-lice (or Ziliani, for that matter). The Asta del Barolo’s style might not please everybody but it supports a worthy cause. Self-indulgence, al-beit charitable, is turned into moral excellence. And who can argue with that?

“I vINI dEll aCadEmIa dEl BaRolo” tas-ting notes eleven wines of the Aca-demia del Barolo formed lot 36, “i 150 anni dell’unità d’italia”. But the lot had 12 bottles: pio cesare contributed its “classico” 2006 to the case but this was not available to taste because the producer is not a member of the Accademia del Ba-rolo… Back to politics again.

ThE 2006 vINTagE in the langhe be-came controversial when the distin-guished winemaker Bruno Giacosa chose not to bottle any Barbaresco or Barolo. other producers were more positive. on the whole, it is a tough, tannic and – dare one say it – old-fashioned Barolo vintage. The more elegant wines will pro-bably mature into something very worthwhile, if not of the highest class. But those wines that have been smothered in so much new oak that the wine is suffocated by its tannins do not inspire as much confidence.

AzEliA bArolo mArGhEriA 2006

A good example of this powerful and tannic barolo vintage. This has all the ne-cessary components but falls short of greatness. The tannins remain obdurate.

michElE chiArlo bArolo cErEQuio 2006

Darker aromas than the Azelia, with a greater balance between the acidity and tannins. The curtains have not yet opened.

contErno fAntino bArolo moSconi 2006

oak tannins here are piled up like icing on a cake. very burly and lacking the elegance of Chiarlo.

dAmilAno bArolo cAnnubi 2006

The first wine of the day to show the unmistakeable orange tinge of barolo. Elegant and taut, needing time to open up.

PodEri EinAudi bArolo nEi cAnnubi 2006

not as impenetrable as the Conterno fantino but this has tannins as dumb as stone.

GiAnni GAGliArdo bArolo PrEVE riSErVA

some sweetness on the finish. pleasant and elegant nebbiolo fruit.

frAnco m. mArtinElli bArolo mArASco 2006

fleshy rather than extracted, with plenty of acidity to counter the imposing tannins. not quite as elegant as signor Martinetti, who is always immaculately dressed in a nice suit and brown brogues.

cordEro di montEzEmolo bArolo monfAllEtto 2006

rigorously built palate, with the tannins and acidity nicely counterpoised. some sweetness to the fruit, too.

PodErE rocchE dEi mAnzoni bArolo ViGnA cAPPEllA di SAnto StEfAno 2006

back to the bumptious style, with the fruit carpet-bombed by oak. impossibly tough and tannic, with no charm at all.

PAolo ScAVino bArolo bric dEl fiASc 2006

similarly textured to Martinetti – the wine, that is, not the suit – with flesh rather than bone and a bit of fruit sweetness.

ViEtti bArolo cAStiGlionE 2006

As dry as sandpaper on the finish but the wood-influenced tannins are rela-tively well contained.

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Att börja dricka i tidig ålderökar risken för alkoholproblem.

n a p a va l l e y

t r a d i t i o n

never tasted so good.

”Fruktig, något utvecklad doft med ektoner och ursprungskaraktär. Kryddig,

fatig smak med mognad och balans”

RekommendeRas i allt om Vin 4/2011

l o u i s M M a rt i n i Cabernet SauvignonaRt.nR: 6723. PRis: 199 kR.

75cl. 14,5% VOl. ÅrgÅng 2007

Finns Vinet i din butik?

titta eFteR HÄR »

www.spendrupsvin.se

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

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I RECENTlY TaSTEd IT. i should be en-tered for a gold medal. of course i’m joking… in case somebody hiccupped and thought that they’d missed something new in the world of wine. red lechwe ( latin Kobus leche) is an antelope that belongs to the African water buf-falo family, which is usually to be found in the wetlands of Botswana okavango. But they can be hun-ted here and there, even in South Africa where the hunting grounds are wet. you can squelch around in the marshes where the reeds are higher that a man. it’s the kind of place where you don’t really want to know what’s swimming around your feet. in the end i had him in

my sights, my “gold medal” lech-we. A couple of days later we were eating his filets together with a fantastic Syrah. it used to be called cirrus, but it now rejoices in the name ernie els proprietor’s Syrah. The South African golfing cham-pion started his own vineyard out-side Stellenbosch a few years ago. Fillet of red lechwe and this Sy-rah is a feast that you should grant yourself.

dRIvINg doWN towards the cape in a car there is almost a thousand kilometres between Kimberley the diamond town and Stellenbosch the wine town. on the way we stopped at Beaufort West, which

has been a major railroad junction for a long time. it features a res-ting stop for oxen, who’ve trud-ged their way through the Karoo desert pulling covered wagons to the diamond mines in Kimberly and later to the Johannesburg gold fields. it was here that we found a fantastic old manor house, on the downs overlooking the town. Blooming beautifully after the winters profuse rainfall.

ThE FloWERINg dESERT. in the eve-ning we selected a couple of bott-les from muratie -Shiraz 2006. So what should we eat with this in the Karoo desert? oxtail of course, delicious! The next day we visited

syrah and red lechweBy chriSTopher JArnvAll

South africa has a number of grapes that can hardly be found anywere else in the world. and now they have developed yet another one, called Red lechwe which grows in the wet lands around kimberley and gives a fantastic wine.

>>>

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muratie down on the cape. it’s an old vineyard dating back to the 17th century. At muratie there are spider webs everywhere. They don’t do any dusting here. it’s be-come something of a tradition. But about every 20 years the authoriti-es responsible for hygiene, impose upon them to clear the webs away. Then they’re allowed to re-gather again. We tasted a bottle of spider webbed isabella chardonnay 2010. Sure, ok. Then we switched to Ge-orge paul canitz pinot noir 2009, named after a former owner. Apart from the illustrated label where Ge-orge paul himself poses for a fox-hunt, resplendent in hunting coat and boots didn’t some help to make the wine particularly memorable. Somebody might say elegant, for myself who likes to combine and game, felt that it was a bit light and acidy in taste.

ThE aNSEla vaN dE CaaB 2007 (red blend) was alright, but the lasting impression that we’ll take with us from mutative came from the Shi-raz that we drank with the oxtail. When we compared them to ernie els Wines, we realised that we’d landed into something completely different than the cosy muratie. These were the complete opposite: Big, elegant and new. Without any of the charm of the muratie though. But the view from the ve-

randa where we enjoyed the wines (or was it the driving range?) was unbeatable.

in thiS ordEr:

ERNIE ElS BIg EaSY 2009 (just as calm and balanced as its creator ernie)

ERNIE ElS mERloT 2009 (merlot is not really my thing, it felt dry and acidy)

ERNIE ElS CaBERNET SauvIgNoN

2009 ( crisp, a little burnt raisin tone- completely ok)

ERNIE ElS PRoPRIEToR’S SYRah 2009

(A lovely wine with tones of cher-ries and almonds- very good)

ERNIE ElS PRoPRIEToR’S BlENd 2009 (A little bit of classic Bordeaux, dominated by cabernet Sauvig-non and Shiraz, tasted a little of chocolate, not bad at all)

ERNIE ElS SIgNaTuRE 2006 (Awar-ded gold medal), dominated by cabernet Sauvignon and merlot (rough, tasted of logan berries and liquorice…)“mmmm, i’m not sure.” i’ll put my money on his Syrah, which without a doubt can be drunk to Africa’s wild animals. i bought a couple of bottles to take home with me. Both muratie and ernie els have representation in Sweden.

So You CaN BRoWSE around and purchase yourself at your nearest SystemBolaget off-license.Just a stone’s throw away from er-nie els´s vineyard, or why not call it a par 5, lies rust en vrede (rest in peace) a not unknown label for us Swedes. But when we came from the champions golfer’s place it was unfortunately closed. But we don’t need to review the wines as they maintain their high class. The last thing we did that late summer evening (march in the southern hemisphere) as the sun set over the vineyards of Stellen-bosch, was to open a bottle of ro-zendal 2002. it was complimen-tary and had been placed in our room. unfortunately it wasn’t a very good advertisement for the vi-neyards cultivation. otherwise the place was as pleasant as it can be, with it’s hospitable and entertain-ing dinner host. his name is John, he knew a little Swedish , (hej and Tusen Tack) , he said he knew our Swedish King, or was it the Danish Queen. he had a wife who cooked some fantastic food.

hEJ då (goodbye then) he said by way of farewell, exactly the same phrase that the white Afikaaner said to us when we came out of the Wine and cigar store. i think we Swedes are beginning to leave our mark here.

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Rafael Palacios, Valdeorras As Sortes 2009 • Varunr 70002 • 349 kr Celler Cal Pla, PrioratBlanc Crianza 2008, Varunr 70284 • 149 krNegre Crianza 2007 • Varunr 70006 • 159 kr Pagos del Moncayo, Campo de BorjaGarnacha/Syrah 2010 • Varunr 70154 • 119 krSyrah 2009 • Varunr 70152 •189 krGarnacha 2009 • Varunr 70168 • 189 kr

Albino Rocca, BarbarescoMoscato D’Asti Fiordaliso DOCG 2010 • Varunr 70369 • 131 krDolcetto D’Alba Vignalunga 2009 • Varunr 70747 • 139 krBarbera D’Alba Gepin DOC 2008 • Varunr 70773 • 219 kr

Milziade Antano, UmbriaMontefalco Rosso DOC 2008 • Varunr 70562 • 179 krMontefalco Rosso Riserva DOC 2007 • Varunr 70614 • 319 kr

Wine List är en kvalitetsinriktad vinhandel som tillhandahåller vin i mindre kvantiteter till det pris det förtjänar.

Besök www.winelist.se för mer info om våra utvalda viner och producenterna bakom dem.

Hälften av alla som drunknar har alkohol i blodet

Wine List lanserar 36 nya viner på Systembolaget

Sju gudomliga viner från Domaine Jean Grivot på det exklusiva sortimentet

ineist

WL

Bourgogne Pinot Noir 2008 • Varunr 92095 • 199 krBourgogne Chardonnay 2008 • Varunr 92094 • 249 krVosne-Romanée 1er Cru Brûlées 2008 • Varunr 92093 • 812 krVosne-Romanée 1er Cru Beaux Monts 2008 • Varunr 90280 • 812 kr

29 nya viner på beställningssortimentet

Tardieu-Laurent, RhôneCôtes du Rhône Guy Louis 2008 • Varunr 70408 • 179 krRasteau Vieilles Vignes 2008 • Varunr 70192 • 209 krCrozes-Hermitage Vieilles Vignes 2008 • Varunr 70043 • 239 krVacqueyras Vieilles Vignes 2008 • Varunr 70219 • 249 krSaint Joseph Les Roches Vieilles 2008 • Varunr 70200 • 269 krChâteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Spéciale 2008 • Varunr 70485 • 439 krChâteauneuf-du-Pape Vieilles Vignes 2008 • Varunr 70424 • 459 kr

Michel Fonné, AlsaceRiesling Tradition 2009 • Varunr 70021 • 115 krPinot Gris Tradition 2009 • Varunr 70438 • 129 kr Grande Maison, MonbazillacCuvée du Château 2002 • Varunr 70745 • 179 kr Domaine Earl George, ChablisPetit Chablis 2009 • Varunr 70423 • 129 krChablis Vieilles Vignes 2009 • Varunr 70157 • 169 kr

Weingut Nigl, KremstalGrüner Veltliner Freiheit 2009 • Varunr 70394 • 149 krRiesling Dornleiten 2009 • Varunr 70300 • 179 krRiesling Senftenberger Piri 2009 • Varunr 70404 • 239 kr Weingut Jamek, WachauGrüner Veltliner Ried Marienfeld Steinfeder 2009 • Varunr 70088 • 155 krRiesling Jochinger Berg Federspiel 2009 • Varunr 70093 • 169 kr

Weingut Vollenweider, Mosel-Saar-RuwerWolfer Goldgrube Riesling Kabinett 2008 • Varunr 70304 • 191 kr

Clos-de-Vougeot Grand Cru 2008 • Varunr 90279 • 999 krÉchezeaux Grand Cru 2008 • Varunr 90278 • 1.359 krRichebourg Grand Cru 2008 • Varunr 90277 • 3.950 kr

www.winelist.se

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w w w.vinlusenab.se

VinbAnkEn

Scheduled wine tours

October 5-9, 2011: Wine tour to BordeauxFor a wine lover a trip to bordeaux is a must!In bordeaux you find world famous châteaux and world famous wines but also a lot of new exciting initiatives (less famous but maybe more important for the future of bordeaux!) and young enthusiastic wine makers. on this trip we will visit both some big, famous grand Cru Classé-châteaux and smaller ones that are less known, but very quality conscious. we will visit the well-known

regions like Médoc and saint-emilion, but also rising-stars among the regions, like entre-deux-Mers. we will learn about viticulture and vinification and after this trip you will know quite a lot about what’s going on in bordeaux at the moment.

October 19-23, 2011: Wine tour to Burgundy some of the most unique wines in the world – reds and white – come from burgundy. a well made red burgundy, made from the elusive pinot noir, is a wine of elegance, hardly found anywhere else. You find them in the Côte d’or, the golden slope, the heart of burgundy.

Custom toursWe also create wine tours specifically to your requirements, perhaps for you and a group of your friends, colleagues, business associates or customers... The tours can be focused on wine only or can be combined with other things such as cul-tural visits, three-star restaurants and gastronomic visits (cheese making, foie gras produ-cers, oyster farms etc). we work with ”amateur” wine lovers and with professionals - wine importers, sommeliers, restaurateurs, wine journalists... we can do all levels: ”just for fun and pleasure” to highly specialised and advanced educational tours.

in english with BKWineWine Tours

more info on www.bkwine.comYour are also very welcome to contact us on info@bkwine.com

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Alkoholkonsumtion under graviditeten kan skada barnet.

Mer information om vinerna och fler smakfulla drycker hittar du på www.handpicked.se

Montefalco Sagrantino

349:-

Lomond Pincushion

119:-

Pirie Estate Riesling

149:-

Nittardi Nectar Dei

436:-

Pintas Character

249:-

Poggiopaoli Pomonte

149:-

BÄSTA VITA

BÄSTA RÖDA

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things to do in stellenbosch

TexT & phoTo: JohAn FrAnco cereceDA

Stellenbosch was recently appointed Wine location of the year by the Swedish associa-tion of Cup Bearers (munskänkar) It is a pleasant little university town in the middle of the wine district of South West africa. It is well worth a visit. But what to do when there?Which taverns and inns are relevant? What’s the accommodation like? Well, Fine Wine has some exciting tips.

>>>

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Food & DrinkErniE ElS thE biG EASY

Both a good restaurant and a really nice wine store. The focus is upon the old golfer’s own wines. But they’re not for hacks. The food’s good, verging on really good and you are seated in a really nice at-mosphere.Dorp Street i centrala StellenboschTel +27 21 887 3462Fax +27 21 887 3470www.ernieels.com

SPiEr WinE cEntrE & ShoP

The Wine centre is situated in an old Dutch barn, which is more than 250 years old. here you’ll find wines from many vineyards not only the producers own. Ar-range for a wine tasting.lynedoch road (r310), Stellen-boschTel +27 21 809-1143 www. spier.co.za

tErroir

Wine producer Kliene Zalzes with its restaurant right in the middle of the vineyard is considered to be one of the country’s top 5 inns. relaxed atmosphere, good service personnel. The food is quite ok, verging on sophisticated. Good wine list.Strand road, StellenboschTel +27 21 880 8167www.kleinezalze.co.za

umAmi

cool restaurant in a nice environme-nt, you’re seated partly in a very fine courtyard with loads of atmosphere. The food’s ok, but it’s the cosy mood is what you’re here for.Black horse centre, cnr mark and Dorp Street, Stellenbosch Tel +27 21 8875204

ViSitS to VinEYArdSruSt En VrEdE

A top producer who also has a good restaurant in the same buil-ding. Famous because the house’s prestige wine was selected by nel-son mandela to the nobel prize dinner in oslo 8 years agowww.rustenvrede.com

ErniE ElS

Golf legend ernie els after a career full of awards and prizes is now doing the same thing within the Wine industry. A really wonderful view over the valley which today is one of the country’s primary am-bassadors for South African wineswww.ernieelswines.com

SPiErS

A fine old vineyard more than 300 years old.very impressive not least because wine hasn’t been produced much longer than that in South Africa.The complex also houses a res-cue centre for cheetahs as well as a trendy restaurant, popular amongst conference guests.www.spier.co.za

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AccommodAtionoAk VillAGE b&b

A central bed and breakfast in the middle of Stellenbosch with many good restaurants within walking distance. The hotel is very pleasant with a high cosy factor. it’s run by a very food and drink interested couple. here you can receive some very good tips on which vineyards you should visit.7 hamman Street, StellenboschTel +27 21 887 7889Fax +27 86 615 2095www.oakvillage.co.za

VillA GrAndE GuESt houSE

A Tuscany inspired little hotel in down town Stellenbosch . Amus-ingly and individually decorated rooms in a good milieu, a bit luxu-rious. A real favourite.1 Keerom StreetTel +27 (0)21 887-8454Fax +27 (0)21 887-8458mobil +27 (0)82 374-8353www.villa-grande.com

miScEllAnEouSStEllEnboSch WinE routE

it’s one of the most well known in the whole world. in was established as early as the 1970´s and enjoyed immense popularity in the 1990´s after the fall of Apartheid. Today there are Wine routes that take off in different directions, amongst other things Greater Simonsberg, Stellenbosch

and helderberg including a visit

to rust en vrede and ernie els. it’s definitely worth taking a look at these places. prepare your visit so that can fit everything in. At the same time the South Africans are world champions at receiving wine tourists planned or otherwise. Go in to www.wineroute.co.za

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

Support our operation and inform us about Fine Wines Take this opportunity to give yourselves and your friends Fine Wine throughout the whole of

2011. a present that will last a long time. Pay Sek: 250:-

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“Det här är Stockholms motsvarighet till Osteria Verona på Piazza Erbe fast listan på Primewinebar är bättre.”www.amaroneguiden.se

PrimewinebarÖstermalmstorg 5, Stockholmwwww.primewinebar.se

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

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vintage amarone 2007 is hot

By elKe JunG phoTo: Anne-mArie cAnemyr

“In our opinion the amarone 2007 is a very good to an outstanding vintage,” says daniele accordini, vice President of the Consorzio Tutela vino valpollicella. he points out though that the first tasting will never result in a final judgement. Particularly as the expectations of this wine will spread over the next few years.

ThE aNTEPRIma amaRoNE is held towards the end January. For Amarone the Antiprima is the first official opportunity to meet the consumers, trade people and the media. Then the wines can be compared to each other at one and the same moment. The tasting will be carried out blind. Some of them were “tank” samples because a few of them had not even had their Amarone bottled yet. The majo-rity of producers were represented, though not all of them. masi and Allegrini were amongst others two of the more well known names that were conspicuous by their absence.

ThE 2007 vINTagE is memorable. historical for being the earliest for more than 70 years. The win-ter months were unusually warm. The vines were pruned 2 weeks earlier than usual. This was fol-lowed by a warmer than usual springtime and an unusually dry summer period. in some places it caused slight scorching, mostly of the corvina grapes. The fine weather continued through Au-gust right up to the 29th. when a devastating hailstone storm af-fected the districts eastern sector, namely the valpantena and the classico-zones. The ones that were

hit most gave up any ambitions of producing Amarone. The harvest-ing began on the 7th September, 2 weeks earlier than normally and the grapes with thick skins was in a wonderful condition. September, october and november were also very warm and that also favoured the drying out period. After that the Amarone pressing began on the 1st December. A feature of this year’s vintage is the distinguishing elements of dried fruit and spices.Amarone is a phenomenon within the Wine trade. Few other wines give off such a strong social signal.Amarone a trendy up-market wine,

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suitable for special occasions and feasts as is popularly given away as a gift to a wine lover. During the recent economic crisis, Ama-rone increased their sales, which makes it rather unique. not even the wines from champagne have managed a neat trick like that. The manufacturing process is a part of the success story. Another reason is Amarone´s rich taste and combi-ned with balanced tannin it makes the wine seem gentle.

WITh hINdSIghT of the 2007 heat wave the producers have opened renewed discussions about the pergola system’s shadowy advan-tage as the importance of irriga-tion. The consorzio Tutela vino vapolocella, which has 80% of the district´s producers as members has also suggested a number of measures to assure today’sdemands for quality. A reduction of new plantings throughout the next 3 years.

SomE of thE fAVouritES of thE AntEPrimA tAStinG

2007 amaRoNE dElla valPolICElla valPaNTENa doCg

vIlla aRvEdI, CaNTINE Cav. g.B BERTaNIA classic Amarone. Dried fruit, clear cherry seeds and taste of morell, tones of coffee, chocolate and spices. well balanced. Drink it now!

2007 amaRoNE dElla valPolICElla ClaSSICo doCg moNTE

SaNT´uRBaNo azIENda agRICola SPERI vITIColToRI big, exciting and concentrated. The taste is dense with dark cherry, elements of cocoa, almonds, liquorice and dried fruit. somewhat restrained at the time of the tasting, it needs more time.

2007 amaRoNE dElla valPolICElla ClaSSICo doCg TommaSI vITIColToRI big nose, generous and uncluttered taste of sweet fruits, elements of dried fruit and cocoa. rich extract and balanced. The most modern fruitiness of the 4 Amarone wines on show.

2007 amaRoNE dElla valPolICElla ClaSSICo doCg CamPo maSua

SoCIETà agRICola vENTuRINI maSSImINo E FIglInoticeable cherry fruit, elements of apples and oranges, apparently spicey with elements ofcocoa, sour fruit Amarone. Tank sample.

More information www.vinbanken.se

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the biggest wine producer in france

phoTo: Anne-mArie cAnemyr

What would you say to a mar-ket presence in 160 countri-es? more than 7 million - 9 litre cases sold worldwide during 2010 alone. accor-ding to Wine Intelligence, the world’s next, most apprecia-ted wine brand (the result of a survey amongst 8400 wine consumers, representing ap-proximately 142 million con-sumers, spread over 8 mar-kets, uSa, England, quebeck as well as the English spea-king part of Canada, holland denmark, Finland and aus-tralia). J.P.Chenet is today the leading name in Europe.

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IN ThE BEgINNINg were 2 people and a hand thrown bottle. The year was 1984 and the gentlemen in question were Joseph helfrich and Jean paul chanel. Together they had decided to produce wine ac-cording to the following concept. The most wellknown, top quality French wine, that will be available all over the world for a reasonable price. Well, you can’t say anything other than, they succeeded!

IN 1984 J.P.ChENET was launched in two variations (even though the legend J.p. chanel was on the bottles, which might have caused some confusion with another well known product and which was why the name was swiftly chan-ged to J.p. chenet) cabernet Sau-vignon vin de pays de ´oc and Blancs vin de pays des cótes de Gascogne.

To follow up the initial success, the demi-sec vin de pays des cótes de Thau, as well as a rosé called cinsault rosé vin de pays d´oc were launched in 1987. in 1991 they won an oscar from the French packaging institute and a prize called the “Glass of Tomor-row”. in the year 2000 the first 3 litre BiB was delivered.

IN 2004, 7.4 million 9 litre cases were delivered. Sparkling wines were introduced that same year for the first time. The development of J.p. chenet was going at a breakneck pace. 2007 saw the emergence of the 18.5 and 50cl easy pack for environmental reasons and in the year 2011 we’ll see the availability of the 18.5 cl pet bottle. in con-junction with this transition the screw top, for reasons of quality of cource, will be introduced with a new straightnecked bottle because

the sealing machines cannot cope with a sloping neck.

So WhaT’S haPPENINg otherwise with quality development at J.p. che-net? We posed this question to phillipe chabert, who’s responsibi-lity it is to actually make the wines.he proudly displays a poster that clearly shows the 4 main areas of the vineyard co-operative, which they work with depending on their “terroir”. Apart from that they have assured the quality of the gra-pes through the co-operative and will continue to collaborate with them within their respective areas in the future. To further assure the quality vincent euzet shows us how they blend the special samples of their wines from the different vineyard’s grapes, which will be included in the blend they intend to make with different fu-ture vintages. vincent is extremely

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conscientious and emphasizes the importance of the combination of the best types of grapes and the best terroir.

WITh ThE REd WINES they use pre-dominantly cabernet Sauvignon, merlot and Syrah in different blen-ds to achieve a full maturity, ba-lance and structure, but with a soft and smooth acidity which is so very characteristic of J.p. chenet´s reds.

To REaCh ThE goal in creating a big aromatic white wine with a power-ful structure, the use Sauvignon blanc, chardonnay and colom-bard the natural choice. For rosé they use the Grenache,

merlot and cinsault to attain the right fruitiness and the fresh ele-gant character that they’re pursu-ing. “We are very careful about re-taining our identity”, says romain mesnil and shows a number of pic-tures to explain how they market themselves in different parts of the world. one though, that they all have in common, is the red back-ground and a big logotype. in Swe-den we are obliged to add a war-ning text at the end of every print advertisement, “which makes the market a little special”, he adds. he is an ambitious young man amongst the other 1500 employees within les Grand chais de France of which J.p. chenet is a part.

Together we paid a visit to les ca-ves de Sieur d´Arques in limoux, which is a very impressive facility with pressing, research, fermenta-tion and bottling. All of this in the same place. A brilliant example of logistics of the higher school.Those who are interested can read more about J.p.chenet on www.jpchenet.com

P.S: J.p.chenet´s Brut was recent-ly voted Best value and won the bronze medal for the best sparkling wine at the annual vinordic Wine challenge Awards in Sweden.

nY årGånG - 2010omAkA SPrinGS

SAuViGnon blAncmArlborouGh, nYA zEElAnd

ALKOHOLKAN SKADA DIN HÄLSAAlkoHolHAlT 13,0 % sb nr 6441 89 Kr

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Alkohol ärberoendeframkallande

S H I R A Z M O U RV E D R E SHIRAZ MOURVEDRE 2010ARTIKELNR: 32135ALKOHOLHALT: 14%PRIS: 69:-

WWW.AMKA.SE

En sydafrikan i basker ...Atlantkustens koncentrerade

mognad kryddat med franskt

temperament.

Elegant, tidlös och distingerad.

Bästa köp!Allt om Vin, 9/2010

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20th anniversary when systembolaget launches

2007 don melchorIt is now more than 20 years ago since Concha y Toro changed the way of thinking of South american wines when they launched Chile’s first prestige wine under the name of don mel-chor. With the help of legendary oenologist Èmile Peynaud, Concha y Toro found potential in Puente alto’s terroir in the maipo valley and in 1986 they decided to proceed with the most ambitious wine project in the region’s history. Since 1997 the work has be lead by En-rique Tirado, who is also behind the collaboration with Concha y Toro and the old respected French wine emporium Baron Phillipe de Rothschild under the name of almaviva. >>>

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WITh a ComBINaTIoN of the old and the new world’s technology, know-ledge and terroir, Don melchor has made a significant mark in the history of wine making. The dif-ferent vintages have been awarded several recognitions and the 2001 and 2003 vintage have both ac-hieved a fourth position on Wine Spectator’s Top 100 Wines of the World.

doN mElChoR 2007 is an exceptio-nal vintage where many different factors helped to create this extre-mely high quality wine. The year began with a winter that was so-mewhat milder than usual, follo-wed by a dry and warm flowering period with hardly any rain during spring. Because of this, the clus-ters became small and compact

with high contents of tannin, ant-hocyanin, flavour and colour. The summer started off quite warm, but soon the temperature dropped and by time of harvest, the grapes were perfectly ripe and ready to be handpicked between the 26th April and the 19th may. After un-dergoing careful grape selection the wine was fermented and the-reafter matured for 15 months in French oak barrels.

2007 IS oNE of Don melchor´s most notable vintages with a storage potential of up to 25 years. 9 000 bottles were produced whereof only 336 will be available from the 15th June at the three wine cellar stores of Swedish state owned off license Systembolaget.

fActS And fiGurES:Grapes: 98% Cabernet sauvignon, 2% Cabernet francAppearance: Deep cherry red colournose: intense and complex nose of black current, black berry and dark cherry with elegant tones of dark chocolate and cedar wood.Palate: round and well structured with a great depth and persistence taste.Art.nr: 92063Price: approx 35 Euros.

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Alkohol är beroendefram-

kallande

FYND!Bengt-Göran Kronstam

DN, Mat och Dryck

BÄSTA KÖP!Allt om Vin -

Stora vinguiden 2011

Art. Nr: 2223Pris 179:-

Alkoholhalt 12,5%Volym 750ml

“Svarta vinbär, björnbär, hallon, livlig syra och druvtypisk pepprighet,

viol, charkuturier, rök och örtkryddor”

Support our operation and inform us about Fine Wines

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throughout the whole of 2011.

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red baron down under…By chriSTopher JArnvAll

The idol of my youth; man-fred von Richthofen, was the 1st world war’s most promi-nent flying ace. It’s he who lends his name the Red Ba-ron Wine, from the Fox Creek Farm which produces it. The farm was once owned by an aussie Flying ace of the same war. he suggested the name as a chivalrous gesture towards his former oppo-nent. This story is told to us by Paul Rogers, who to-day in the Wine maker in Chief for the family con-cern Fox Creek Wines in mclaren vale, South aus-tralia. Richthofen´s slayer in april 1918 was also an australian.

>>>

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Pinot Noir 2005 | Artikelnr: 74480 Alkoholhalt: 14% Pris: 299:-

Marimar Estate

w w w . t o r r e s . s eALKOHOL

KAN SKADA DIN HÄLSA

FoX CREEk WaS once upon a time a sheep farm and was converted into a vineyard back in the 1980´s. la-ter on the farm was purchased by paul rogers father a doctor who changed profession to become a wine cultivator instead. paul’s mother named it Fox creek be-cause of all the predators that lived there. near to the ocean about 10 kilometres, the circumstances are very good with fresh, slightly coo-ler winds that cool down the air a bit. Today the red Baron brand sells well at the Swedish off-licen-ses called SystemBolaget. even if i think the 2007 is fantastically cheap and for my taste better than the 2010 that is on the way. red Baron is available as part of the regular assortment, costs about 10 euros and is still just as good, but the 2010 feels a little fruitier and younger than its predecessor did at this stage,

TRY IT TogEThER with indian food or Kangaroo if you have such delica-

cies available. it might be a little easier to prepare smoked reindeer, that should go very well together with the wine. Then i tasted my way through the century 2000´s 1st decade.

ThE 2007 RESERvEd was available on the SystemBolaget´s order list. it tastes of cherries, and will surely be wonderful together with roast capital Deer or elk….and Kang-aroo of course. Then it just gets better and better. unfortunately the older vintages are difficult to get hold off. paul rogers called them “our museum wines!”Which of course didn’t make them any worse, on the contrary, but it’s always fun if you can get hold of them easily. The 2006 Shiraz, was gentle to the taste, silky smooth on the palette, then becoming slightly rougher. The 2005 reserve Shiraz had a soft, deep taste of chocolate. That was the winemaker’s own per-sonal favourite, and i would have loved to enjoy it with a steak with

béarnaise sauce and fried potatoes.After that came the 2004 reserve Shiraz, an elegant Wine that hard-ly needs to drunk with food at all to be judged correctly. perhaps to a goulash, paul rogers suggested? lastly we were at the final. 2001 reserve Shiraz, A taste of Ama-rone that would surely fit together with cheddar or a Blue cheese. An elegant silky smooth wine that which nearing the end of its best period and therefore should be enjoyed now. That’s something i would have loved to do, if i could only get hold of some.

BuT I ThoughT if the 2007 vintage reaches this quality in a few years, then it might be worth laying down a few bottles via the System-Bolaget. or even better, why not visit Fox creek on a trip Down under. There maybe a chance of finding some of the older vintages hidden away there and forgotten.

Världspremiär för En Värld av Vin på nätetAll världens vinländer, regioner, viner och producenter i en dator nära dig. Registrera dig gratis på www.envarldavvin.se. Välkommen hälsar Mikael Mölstad.