Torres is now Fairtrade - wasn't he always!

I received a press release last week. It was titled:

MIGUEL TORRES IS SET TO BECOME THE FIRST MAJOR FAIRTRADE WINERY OF CHILE

Three things here:

One: I really am a fan of Miguel Torres and what he has achieved over the years. I'm a great fan of his current sustainability and green agendas and I have long been a fan of his wines out of Chile. I can't remember how often I've used his Santa Digna Rose in my wine classes.

Two: Is Chile about to get Fairtrade principles and its Sustainability principles either mixed up, confused or unnecessarily entwined?

Three: What's with the 'First Major Fairtrade Winery'? I'd have thought that Fairtrade principles are all about creating a level playing pitch. Not one where there are The Big Guys (read - important) and the Smaller Guys (read - we can beat you)

As it happens the headline was the result of a simple burst of enthusiasm based on the genuine happiness that Torres is now Fairtrade compliant. It's a bit like saying Cadbury's is now a major Fairtrade partner as compared to saying Cadbury's is the first major Fairtrade chocolate manufacturer! The headline is no longer the headline but the facts remain. Good news for Fairtrade? I hope so.

Chile has embarked on a major Sustainability programme for its wine trade. It will be certifiable and run according to Global reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines

http://www.globalreporting.org/Home. 

Successful participants will be entitled to carry a banderol on their bottles telling the world that the wine in question has been produced according to recognised Sustainable practices. These cover the three major areas seen in this graphic from http://www.winesofchile.org/sustainability/

This is very much in response to the Swedish government insisting that all wine imports into Sweden must meet environmental and social traceability transparency guidelines by 2012. Assuming GRI is good enough then it's all good news so far. This year something like 70 wineries in Chile will submit a Sustainability statement. This will be in addition to their financial statements. In 2011 it must be noted that Vineyards areas ONLY are being reported. Winery and Community aspects of the code will follow later. Therefore wineries will not be fully compliant for Sweden by 2012.

Perhaps then there is some magic in this Torres declaration? Fairtrade will cover off their social compliance. Couple this with the broader wine trade's awareness of Torres' championing  a very strong Green agenda with regards to environment - and this includes all of their wineries - see Barcelona Declaration of a few weeks ago and we begin to see a very rounded profile. We begin to see a man, and his company putting their money where many believe others should follow.

1. I hope Fairtrade, Sustainability and Green agendas, and all sorts of other things, get entangled and mixed up together. I hope they are all successful additions to the immediate future of the wine trade.

2. I hope that more governments, like the Swedish one, put producers under pressure to comply with basic accountability standards when it come to making claims on their bottles of wine.

3. I still likeTorres. It's a family thing.

Miguel, Miguel and Marimar

Blending it with Chile and Vina Maipo

I am constantly banging on about how much better Chilean wine will be when they learn to blend well. I'm also a big fan of good blending. Nothing wrong with straight varietals other than they reach a ceiling of quality beyond which they cannot travel. Its not easy to blend well. I found out recently; and I was found out recently ......

Dunnes Stores imports a range of wines from Chile called Vina Maipo. It has been a very successful  range for them. At the top end of the range is a blend titled Gran Devocian. WineMaker Max Weinlaub was in Dublin recently and he brought with him three wines that he wants to blend together for his Gran Devocian red wine. He presented each of the three wines to us. He gave us a 100ml graduated cylinder. He told us to get blending after which he would judge whose wine/result would end up in the final assemblage. Great fun.

Presenting for One Night Only

The Gran Devocian Blend

by Vina Maipo, Max Weinlaub and Dunnes Stores 

The Cast
Syrah - aged a couple of years in French oak barriques.
Malbec 2010
Carignan 2010
Graduated Cylinder
Taster
Taste buds, sight and brain
Examiner Winemaker

Act 1 Scene 1

White stage. One white table in the centre holds three dark bottles of wine, one graduated cylinder and four ISO tasting glasses. 
Narrator from the wings
Look at the wines. Cripes but they've all got  an amazing depth of youthful colouration. this is especially so in the Carignan: inky purple damson youth personified.
Fade to front. Spotlight on tasting glasses.

Act 1 Scene 2

Enter taster who swirls, tastes, spits and pronounces.
Great youthful vigour and colouration.

Shiraz: well rounded wine with full and rich fruit. Acidity good, tannins medium , balanced alcohols. Excellent meatiness on the palate follows a bright and green olive with light spice and slight citric fruit nose. Does this need to be blended. It's almost good enough on it's own.
Malbec: Highly perfumed bouquet is a bit unsettling. Fleshy soft and very rich palate. Light acidity, medium to full tannins.
Carignan: My goodness. Screaming acidity and lively tannins with an inky young fruit. Undrinkable on its own.
Taster proceeds to pour varying amounts from each bottle into the graduated cylinder until the volume reaches 100ml. He intones in a melodic chant as he pours:

10% Carignan for acidity, tannic structure and youthful verve; should help it to age well: 35% Malbec for fleshy, soft palate, excellent tannins and wonderfully interesting bouquet: 45% Shiraz for style, elegance, opulance and all round goodness.

With ceremony taster pours his blend into the remaning empty tasting glass. Fade lights with spot left on The Blend.

Act 2 Scene 1

Enter Examiner who looks at the The Blend. He proceeds to Swirl, Taste and Spit and then pronounces.
Excellent. Very good indeed. Fine effort. Here is a wine showing off Chile as a warm country capable of ripening shiraz and carignan way past their green stages. Here is a country capable of finding sites with strong diurnal variation throwing up sharp and intrinsically likeable acidic structures, edgey fleshiness on the palate and wonderfully expressive layers of floral elements on the bouquet.
With a smile to the audience
Personally, I would have thrown in an extra 5% Carignan and 5% less Malbec making Shiraz 55% of the final assemblage. But, as I say this is a fine effort.

Fade all lights



Act 2 Scene 2

Bustling wine shop floor. Interested couple looking at a bottle of Vina Maipo Gran Devocian. They take it down to look at it.

Interested Couple 1: But what is it?
Interested Couple 2: It's a red from Chile.
IC1: Oh, that's good but will I like it?
IC2: I dunno. Say's here it's a blend
IC1: Ah, no. I want a Cabernet Sauvignon. You know that's what I like.
IC2: Yeah but the blurb on the shelf says its exquisite and its won awards
IC1: So, smarty, does it tell you then why they had to blend it in the first place. What's wrong with the  grapes they can't make a proper wine from them at all. Yeah what's going on there?
IC2: Well, look, Vina Maipo has a nice Cabernet as well. Let's go for that today instead

Couple fade out while new couple come into focus
IC3: Oh, look a new vintage from Maipo's Gran Devocian
IC4: But it's a blend.
IC3: That's what makes it so special. Look, they've taken some of the best Syrah, Malbec and Carignan grown in Chile and then blended them 55/30/15. That makes it a wow.
IC4: You work for them or what?
IC3: laughing No, I took a wine course last year ... hey, come on, let's give it a whirl and see if we can check out how the grapes have come together in the bottle.
IC4: You can look at the grapes mister. I'm going to drink the wine!
Exit laughing.....
Fade lights
End


So ended my Vina Maipo Gran Devocian blending exercise. It was quite brilliant to see how different, and better, the final blend was to its individual parts. This is what wine makers the world over do for us every year. Max has shown that this is now what Chile and Vina Maipo are doing well also.

My (fairly pitiable) example above though attempts to show that if Chile wants us to appreciate, and to purchase, its wine in the premium and super premium categories we need to be told why. We need to be educated. This can be as simple as Max did for us recently; it may be through your local wine course or wine club (look up mine at http://www.kevinecock.ie/) or it may be via a generic marketing body such as Wines of Chile. - Mind you they pulled their funding away from Ireland this year. Cheeky.

Whatever route you take, remember, it IS worth exploring and getting away from buying 'more of the same'. The fun and excitement is in the trying.

Let's hear it for IC3, then, and hope he enjoys The Blend.

 

O'Briens Delivers

O'Briens Wines held a fascinating tasting recently. Its success lay in its variety. If I taste for a competition I am happy to look at say, twenty wines in a flight of similar wines. The best gets the medal. I'm equally happy to do this at a country of origin tasting. Take Australia+ recently. They showed a flight of Pinot Noir based wines with the labels hidden. The point was not to award prizes but to note how the country had come along with its Pinot Noir styles and quality.

Very often I am invited to a look at a range of wines by a retailer. The wine maker is in town or the range is new or, god forbid, the commercial manager needs to justify an expense account!  Very often these are shown in isolation to their peers or indeed away from their competition. These can be pointless tastings. Sure, they may prove that the wine is indeed worthy and well made but often fall far short of showing me where they will sit waiting for an eager consumer to buy them.   

Years ago I visited the mighty, and impressive, Dourthe in Bordeaux. They were trying to show how good their Dourthe No. 1 Bordeaux blend was. They had assembled a bottle of each of their competitors wines to taste against - and they had the confidence to taste everything blind. It was brilliant, in context and instructive - and Dourthe No.1 did indeed shine.

Where am I going here? Well, O'Briens had a good mix of product on show. Some old, some new. Some  Greek. Some Austrian. Some pink. Some vintage. This made it a proper retailer tasting. It was as if O'Briens was saying 'Here they are. Like them or hate them. These are (a few of) what we have chosen and these are what  we are now selling'. Proper context and proper question. Keep it simple and get on with selling is confident retailing. No need to depend on wine makers or producers or indeed country of origin marketeers. Yes, O'Brien's delivered.

Impressive
I really like to follow grapes. Nebbiolo, and indeed many other Italian grapes, tend not to have travelled too far though. So when I find them alive and well, in faraway places, I dive straight in. Have a look at this beauty

Ironview Estate Adelaide Hills Australia     -    Nebbiolo 2007

It has an amzingly accurate pour where everything has a light depth but full on, orange flashed, tawny. Two samples tasted . One had been decanted the day before! to bring the tannic effect down. The other had been opened about four hours earlier. Go for the four job and get a bite of the tannins. They really are huge. The fruit does NOT have an asphalt effect but goes more to an attractive ripeness with tons of rich, deep layers.

If this is all a bit much then go for the Longview Nebbiolo Rose 2010. It has a slightly elevated sweetness on the finish that balances the tannins out well. It delivers well on everything else. Otherwise Longview excels with its red wines. It was a privelege to taste the Devils Elbow Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 and the Yakka Shiraz 2008 both at €17.99.

There was table of rose wines that included one of the girliest pinks (am I allowed to say that?) I've ever seen in a wine. It was a north Italian blend: Rizzardi Chiaretto 2010 and it made a wonderful contrast to the Longview 'Boatshed' wine. My favourite of the pinks though was a rich and dry wine from the Loire; Petit Bourgeois Rose 2010 €11.99. 

Girly pink meets Salmon flesh

The following 2008's were open
Ch. Gloria, Leoville Barton, Pichon Longueville, Lynch Bages, Kirwan and Giscours. I was mighty taken with the first three of these and the tight tannins and sombre effect of Longueville really impressed. Brooding.

Excitement came with a couple of Austrian Wines:
Rabel Gruner Veltliner Liss 2010 €12.99 is textbook stuff and should be shown at all wine classes this year. There is an outstanding fruit in the Sabathi Sauvignon Blanc 2010 €16.99 and it was a pleasure to revisit Scheurebe again in the guise of the Sabathi Scheurebe 2010 at €16.99. Its a gutsy grape.

Then there were the Greeks.
I won't make any friends here but I can't see the point. I was not sufficiently impressed with the value or styles on show. Greek wine in Ireland will always be a very hard sell. Therefore anything on sale in the upper teens needs to really impress. Gaia is by all accounts a fine winery and a fine project. I found the Assyrtiko Wild Ferment 2010 Santorini €17.99 too wild; the Agiorgitiki 2009 €17.99 fine but too soft on the palate and the blend Gaia S 2008 Nemea €19.99 well put together, but forced as in cobbled rather than crafted. Work in progress and working in the right direction. If I were to spend my money, though, I'd go back to Austria! 

There were a lot more wines on show from the reliable Marc Kreydenweiss Alsace wines to a selection of 'summer sips' that I am assured will be on tasting through O'Briens all summer long. They show that O'Briens are doing it well and the quality in their range will ensure repeat custom.

Final Cracker
Ridgeview Cavendish 2008 Sparkling from Sussex in England €27.99 Really brilliant altogether. Lots of rich fruit appeal with a light orange peel character; long and satisfying. I really must look at some land in the South East .......

    

Support your local Independent - Wine Trade!

I am a fan of buying two for a tenner. I'm also a fan of the independent wine store. Is there room for both because, as we well know, if the independent sector is forced  to sell wine at two for a tenner they may as well pull their shutters down for good and invest their money in the post office. If that happens we will lose experience, knowledge, variety and expertise. That cannot be allowed to happen. How can I square this off with my support for low pricing in supermarkets? 

First of all, the super markets are not going to go away! They are selling up to 90% of all the wine sold in Ireland. The independent sector must plough its own furrow and successfully market itself. 



The redoubtable Alain Bras in his store in Kenmare, Co Kerry



Second. There are thousands of quality wine makers out there who will never sell their wine through a supermarket. These will be, and are, stocked by the independent sector. Knowledge of this and the benefits of this must be marketed successfully. Benefits? Well, this is where the excitement begins and never ends. Noone should ever be allowed to walk though the door of an independent wine store without being enthused with this excitement. Independent: your mantra must be apostolic and you must be a preacher. You Have a Dream. Sell it.  

Yours truly having fun with legenday golfer Christy O'Connor as he launched his wine label at O'Briens Wines 

Third. Perception of value does not begin and end with supermarket offers. I was tempted in to my local Carry Out Off Licence this weekend by a Sale sign. I was disappointed. Why? Because it was a Bin End Offering. That's not a Sale. It is simply outdated vintages and scuffed labels at cheap prices! That's very poor marketing. I won't be fooled a second time. Genuine Sales bring customers in and bring them back again a second time. The independent sector needs to realise that a Sale is not the same as battling against supermarket pricing. It is simply a vital part of the annual marketing mix. Have regular Themed Sales and Be Proud.

Next Door at Sundrive Road in Dublin

Get On-Line and be Active On-Line. In this regard Irish wine distributors and agency houses are pathetic. They barely have web sites; when they do they are static entities; they have allowed a few brands to take over what should be their marketing space. When supermarkets operate in this arena corporate governance, buying policies and supplier loyalties and conflicts seem to stimey their creativity. Some, such as Superquinn do their best, but this is never as attractive as what the independents come up with. Integrate the whole Social media spectrum and play with it on a daily basis. Have fun. Have competitions. Interact. DON'T try to sell! If you want to sell online then set that up as a separate business. As a simple add on it will end up being a major, and possibly expensive, distraction. Make Friends; Keep them close and be Loyal to them.

Warming welcome at your local wine store - The Wine House at Howth Co. Dublin

Be professional and be consistent. I have no problem with shop assistants wearing t-shirts and blue jeans. I have no problem with staff wearing suit and tie. I have a very big problem with t-shirts and blue jeans where a suit is expected. Take the public service hatch syndrome. The person on the other side wearing ragged, split jeans, a dirty Grateful Dead t-shirt hasn't bothered to shave. He (she?!!) then proceeds to question you about your lifestyle in order to assess whether you are a responsible citizen or not. This goes on all the time and is not appropriate. The same applies to the shop floor. Standards must be: Set, Consistent: Enforced. Oh, the suit thing was for illustration only!

The independent wine sector is alive and well in Ireland. It needs to develop an Annual Day Out; a sort of an annual Open House type of thing. Maybe tie this in with attracting customers to your Wine Club or to your Wine Classes. What - you don't have these? Target everyone who is currently buying wine in a supermarket only. Somehow get them in to your store. Wow them. Win their support for at least one purchase a month and a percentage of them will develop a new habit and will return.

Like me, they will still support the supermarkets 'two for offers' but they won't be satisfied unless they support their local independent as well.

  

Taste of Dublin - We Have a Winner!

Thanks to everyone who took part in my recent Taste of Dublin competition. It was sponsored by Edward Dillon and Co.

I am always amazed to see how popular Wine is as soon as I mention the word Food! I get three times as many entries to my competitions when there's a food element attached to them. There was a great entry this time around. What does this mean? Are there just not enough wine geeks around? Do Foodies read more blogs than Wine Guys do? It must be true then that Wine goes well with Food? I have no idea.

The correct answer was 'Malbec' and it could be found on the Dona Paula web site. I have a lot of time for Dona Paula and indeed a huge amount of time for wines (esp Malbec) out of Argentina.  

Our winner was notified last night and the tickets are winging their way to him as we speak.

DreDRRRRum rrrrroll....

Congratulations Denis McAuliffe in Limerick. I hope you have a really great day out.

As ever I am sorry that I have only one prize to give out. That said, I have more competitions on the way....so Keep Reading....

                                 

Sibling Rivalry - Not Just a Thing of the Past!

Last year, or was it the one before that again!, I wrote about the Some Young Punks winery in South Australia. Three young? winemakers with a passion for good juice and extraordinary labels. Have another look at Passion Has Red Lips Cabernet Shiraz or their Naked on Roller Skates Barbera. Since I wrote about them they have been imported to Ireland by Curious Wines in Cork. Hope they're doing well. 

Well, now I have another trio to write about! The Speck brothers at Henry of Pelham in Ontario have a label titled Sibling Rivalry. Three brothers with three labels and each made from three varietals. Great isn't it? What they do to solve their rivalries is to play Rock, Paper, Scissors - and they have this stamped onto the top of their closures!! 

  
                                                                 
   

Many of you will know that for years I worked in the wine trade with my two brothers, Tony and Richard. Our 'Rock, Paper, Scissors' was to open three separate wines stores - one of which was Ireland's first 'Wine Only' wine store. When that wasn't sufficient we traded along three distinct lines of business - Retail, Wholesale/Agency and Restaurant. Tony still runs the Restaurant - the very excellent Thai House in Dalkey, while the rest of Ecock's Wines and Spirits was sold on. Today Richard is Drinks Buyer for Dunnes Stores and I am an independent wine writer and wine educator. So long as we're still associated with the business there will be three strands to whatever we do! Sibling Rivalry indeed.

Over the years I've squirreled away the odd bottle of Henry of Pelham's Ice wine. (My first intro to wine ever was in Canada - but that's another, very long story). I still have a half of their Riesling Ice Wine 1991. It's been well stored and looks great. Here it is on my desk a few minutes ago.  

That makes it twenty years old. I have a plan. Later this year I'm going over to run the Toronto Waterfront Marathon. (It's only my fourth Marathon and I'm really hoping against an Indian summer...) Wouldn't it be something to open an ice cold 20 year old Canadian Ice wine to celebrate finishing a Toronto Marathon!! Just don't tell the Specks. They might want the bottle for themselves and that'd be one Rock, Paper, Scissors triangle I wouldn't want to be caught up in. 

Dunnes Stores Breaking their Mold - Mediterranean Food and Wine Festival

Last week a very impressive looking invite popped through the letter box. It was from Dunnes Stores and I was invited to a Mediterranean Food and Wine Festival. That was nice but the impressive bit was where they had decided to host the event. It was at their own HQ where it turns out they have a suite dedicated to the designs of Ireland's Paul Costelloe. Sounded brilliant. A Mediterranean Wine Tasting in the Paul Costelloe Suite.    

As wine events go, this was the first time that Dunnes had invited guests to their own offices! What's going on? Were they about to throw their mantle of secrecy and conservatism aside?

The Costelloe Suite it turns out is in the refurbished old part of the Dunnes HQ and faces out onto Georges Street. We were met on arrival and whisked by elevator up into the labyrinth of open plan office space that runs the Dunnes empire. It was a bit like the telly programme V where a mere mortal is brought up to the Mother Ship. Everything is machine like and busy and techy until you meet the Queen at the helm. There everything is sweetness and light without a machine in sight. The Paul Costelloe Suite is sumptuous. A fine tasting venue.

Dunnes is running a Mediterranean Food and wine festival from June the 15th to July the 4th. Yesterday we were introduced to the wines. Mind you there were fab looking cheeses and nibbles available also but, sadly, I didn't have the time to get tucked in!

Quick verdict:       Very good value for money
                            Interesting selection of Wines
Predict:                This will do well.

I was pleased to see principals, or their agents, in attendance and especially pleased to see a table devoted to the wines of Miguel Torres. Across each of the countries on show there were wines that are attempting to shrug off the 'cheap and cheerful only' image that multiple grocers have adopted with embarrassing ease over the past few years. Of course there are wines in this sale whose prices beggar belief but, if it's not too awkward a pun, in this sale they have have their counterpoints. Let's hope this is the beginning of a genuine trend where crazy value is balanced by other offerings of excellent quality at fair prices. 

      

Selection of Wines that impressed:

Laurent Miguel varietals always impress and at €6.99 his Chardonnay Viognier and Cabernet Syrah deserve to be well supported. I was very impressed by his Viognier Verite 2008 and his St Chinian 2007. Both will retail at €12.99 and would make a very smart gift pair.

 

A wine that surprised me was a Cote de Thongue vdp Merlot from Domaine de Cantaussels - €6.99 It's a big brambly bush of a thing with genuine, rich fruit ageing well. At the price it would serve really brilliantly, and seriously posh, out of a decanter!

Miguel Torres was represented by his complete portfolio! This means Mas la Plana €31.99, Milmanda €31.99, Fransolo €19.99, Celeste €14.99, Salmos €19.99 and Ibericos €10.99 join the regular gang of Vina Sol €7.49 and Sangre de Toro at €7.99. Gran Sangre de Toro and Gran Vina Sol were there also.  This is a bit of a wow and genuinely good to see. IN ADDITION the Ibericos label is a different colour to those that are in the rest of the market. A supermarket own label from Torres for Ireland? Excellent.

Love it: at this price its a winner!

Spain is well represented in the sale and you really can't go wrong with the very expressive Poco a Poco Tempranillo at €5.99, a rich and succulent Tinto Arroyo Crianza at €10.99 and (a biggy) the Crossos Priorat at €12.99.There really is something for everyone - the Cava Gran Baron is excellent sparkling at €9.99 as is the white Dous Albarino at the same price.

Italy was there also with a couple of red crackers. The Toscana Burchino IGT €12.99 is an excellent blend of Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and I really liked the Toscano Campomaggio at €11.99. I found the €5.99 Masseria Salice Salentino a fine wine. Just look at the price! Riva Leone Barolo '07 at €13.99 is the best value of its kind on the market (watch out though, the tannins demand balance with food) and along with the Riva Leone Barbaresco '08 at €9.99 (throwing up fine orange/tawny hues) they are both very good intros to this style of wine. 

All in all this is a good Festival - Wine Sale. As the weather man is predicting warm things for the month of June it really is a good time to begin thinking staycation Mediterranean themes, salads, barbecues and a good selection of wines.