Time for a glass of champagne rather than Burgundy – in order to celebrate Burgundy! My book on the vineyards and vignerons of Burgundy, titled ‘Inside Burgundy’ – we resisted the temptation to go with ‘The Sex Life of Burgundy’, though it is certainly true that gaining an understanding of the human relationships among the vignerons can go far to explaining the style of their wines – has at long last gone to press.

 Here are the bare bones – 656 pages, commentary on 1,000 or so different vineyards from generic to grand cru, and from Chablis to Pouilly Fuissé. Thumbnails of 450 producers, vintage reports, and plenty of background to what makes Burgundy what it is. I am starting to get very excited indeed!

We shall be promoting the book from early September, with physical delivery expected in the second half of October. Watch this space!

Initial impressions of wine regions can often disappoint: arrival at a non-descript airport followed by a drive across a bleak light industrial landscape until hills loom into view on the horizon and vines are finally spotted. My first visit to Alsace was no exception, the drive from Basel airport across the border towards Colmar memorable only for the torrential rain, rather disappointing given Alsace’s track record for the second lowest rainfall in France after the Languedoc. After an hour on the motorway we were winding our way up into the mist-shrouded foothills of the Vosges, with vines stretching away on all sides: much more like it.

Monday dawned a little clearer and the Vosges loomed large as we set off to meet Olivier Humbrecht MW at his winery in the Heerenweg vineyard just outside Turckheim. Lest we were in any doubt about the weather, Olivier explained that this year’s May was more like an average March, but that the rain was more welcome viticulturally than the dry conditions which have recently strained vines in the region, last year particularly. Read the rest of this entry »

What an honour and a pleasure it was to welcome Rick Kinzbrunner, the creator of Giaconda surely one of Australia’s finest wines, back to Piedmont five years after his last visit. The seed was sown for this brief three day tour when Rick came to Berrys last year to host a dinner. Mention of my moving out to Nebbiolo country had got him thinking. He had then proceeded to tell me of his passion for the grape; of his St.Chinian bolt-hole across the Alps; how he had three vintages of Giaconda Nebbiolo in the cellar; and how he would really try and make it out to see me. And come he did.

For what with global warming and wild fire, Rick’s Giaconda vineyards, planted in the early 1980s with the Chardonnay first bottled in 1986, have been feeling the heat of late. So six years back he grafted Nebbiolo onto half a hectare of wilting Pinot Noir. He’s happy with the result, as are the hacks at the Wine Advocate apparently, rating his Nebbiolo as the best tasted outside Italy. I sense though that his new business partner Michel Chapoutier is not so keen, preferring Syrah instead. Rick stresses he’s not out to make a me-too Barbaresco or Barolo style wine, but one that reflects the lower pH  granite and schistous soils that lie on the Victorian Alp foothills at between 500-700 metres above sea-level, made with the same painstaking care that characterises all his wines; wines that are truly hand-made, without recourse to yeast, pump or filter. Read the rest of this entry »

We had a bit of a treat last week when we celebrated the 900th anniversary of the extraordinary vineyard called Clos Blanc de Vougeot. It is well known how the monks of Cîteaux, having established their new monastery in 1098, started to plant up what is now the Clos de Vougeot from 1110. Fewer people are aware that they singled out the vineyard next door, known as La Vigne Blanche or Clos Blanc de Vougeot, as being clearly a white wine site and planted accordingly. There are hardly any white vineyards in the Côte de Nuits, but this one has been in existence for nine centuries.

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Following on from our very successful Bordeaux 2009 tasting in London last Monday, Emmanuel Cruse from Ch. d’Issan (Margaux’s oldest château, no less) came in to give us a taste of some of his vibrant, floral back-vintages and explain to us a little about the history of this beautiful estate.

The World Cup is over and Spain now reign supreme as masters of the soccer universe. But equally importantly, many congratulations to Richard Taylor who won Berrys’ Wine World cup with ‘Team RT’!

His reward for this great honour? A case of wine so fantastic that it inspired thousands of people (including our Chairman, Simon Berry, who came 590th)  to fight it out in a battle for the top fantasy football team made up entirely of players from wine producing nations.  This legendary case includes gems from Ch. Latour, Vega Sicilia, Penfolds Grange and Taylor’s Port – well done Richard and enjoy the wines, we’ll all be thinking of you!

Located nearly 500 miles west of Casablanca, basking in gentle Atlantic currents (not so gentle during the recent floods) Madeira is a small volcanic island, beloved of the so-called silver tourists and of course of those who appreciate the very finest of fine fortified wines. I, for a few more years at least,  fall only into the latter category, and it was therefore a great pleasure indeed to accept a generous invitation from The Madeira Wine Company to visit the island and taste a few of these rather special wines. We were promised one or two ‘older’ examples, a promise that was honoured with a good deal of interest! Indeed the whole trip was a source of huge interest, fascination even, as one learnt the story of one of the most evocative and distinctive of all wines.

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It’s been the most hectic, frantic and let’s face facts, bonkers three weeks of my 22 years in the wine business. Seventeen hours-a-day of what seemed like stratospheric prices that we shouldn’t buy at one minute, that then sell out in an hour…….I’ve never seen anything like it.
 
So is this insanity that’s all going to go belly up or is this a new world order for top wines and are these prices really here to stay? 
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Some have called it revolutionary and others have even gone so far as to say magical, but one thing is for sure the new iPad from Apple is perfect for navigating the new free Berrys’ Fine Wine App.

Wine and technology geeks can tap into our vinous knowledge and the shiny iPad’s magical multi-touch screen makes reading easier and browsing and navigation far simpler, and much more intuitive.

Whatever time it is, wherever you are, take a look at the brand new Vintage Charts, producer Profiles and Wine Ratings. We have listened to your feedback on our iPhone App launched last year and we have enhanced the search functionality and you can now filter by price and vintage rather than just the previous keyword search of wine name, region, producer and grape. We have also improved the transactional function which means it’s now even easier to purchase through the free App.

But don’t fear – you can still enjoy original favourites like tasting notes from our Masters of Wine and the Virtual Wine School video tutorials.

This is the must-have upgrade for all Fine Wine aficionados, whatever the size of your cellar – or portable communication device!! Download the free App at: www.bbr.com/app.

This beautiful weather has seen endless garden gatherings over the last few weeks.  But, we’ve noticed today’s barbecue parties are more sophisticated than ever before. Burnt-yet-raw chicken drumsticks have been replaced by dishes like char-grilled sea bass and Halloumi cheese kebabs. And of course, such delicious fare deserves the right wine to accompany and complement it.

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El Bulli was awarded its third Michelin star in 1997, and has ever since been fêted as the most original, most adventurous and most fabulous restaurant in the world, its owner Ferran Adrià (in us in the picture, further down) seen as the father of a style of cooking that has been imitated throughout the world, most famously in England at The Fat Duck, but with few, if any achieving its brilliance. And now, what a disaster, it’s to close for two years; that is to say for the 2012 and 2013 seasons (a season is June to December only), some fear it may be for even longer.. ……….why? Most clearly not for want of inspiration, if our 35 courses were anything to go by, and certainly not for lack of popularity, judging by the legendary length of the waiting list which makes the Ivy appear under-booked by comparison.

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There was a time not so long ago when the sight of large oak botti in a (Piemontese) cantina was synonymous with the past, with dirty, unripe and tough wines. The spangly ‘80s and ‘90s were the decades of the French barrique (2.5 hectare litres); one whiff of which calmed all fears, reassuring the market that this was indeed a ‘modern’ wine, spotlessly clean and worth every one of those 95 Points. I recall, in another life as Burgundy buyer, priding myself on spotting the provenance of a domaine’s oak barrels before that of the wine; not hard  fortunately as they had chosen high toast alliers oak from Francois Freres, cloaking every wine in the cellar!

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Last week we received a visit from Australian winemaker Dean Hewitson and his wife Lou (the namesake of one of the vineyard’s tasty offerings). In this video Dean talks about the wines from their Old Garden site, which they claim is the world’s oldest Mourvedre vineyard (planted in 1853)…

I returned to Valpolicella in trepidation as to what I might find, and eat. The promising news is that there appears to be a wave of younger Venetians willing to forsake easy sales of fruit to the local Cantine Sociale (originally set to gather votes as well as fruit!) and give (fine) winemaking a go; that and a key improvement in the cucina! The (wine producing) field remains split, as per the regions* between those emulating the traditional ‘Classico’ Quintarelli model (unirrigated, minimal intervention, long appassimento and invecchiamento, pale coloured mineral wines) and those aping the modern ‘non-Classico’ Dal Forno path (irrigated, max intervention, short this and that, giving dark fruited impact wines). The former requires prime terroir; the latter not.

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Major storms in the Mâconnais and Beaujolais on Sunday 6th June have inconvenienced local growers, with torrents of rain bringing the topsoil down the hillside. There are unlikely to be any lasting problems, just extra work at one of the busiest times of the year. Otherwise the flowering has been taking place over the last few days, suggesting a vintage around 20th-25th September for most of Burgundy, with Chablis scarcely behind the Côte d’Or. It is cool and cloudy now – we definitely need a bit of sunshine and warmth.

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Every year the time between when we taste the wines and when we get the prices to sell them to you seems to get longer and longer. I just wanted to express how I understand your frustrations with the ludicrous and seemingly pointless nature of this delay. I have to say this is the most ridiculous way for any product to get to “market”. We tasted these great wines at the end of March, we told you about their various merits the 2nd week of April. Ok, so then we have to wait for good old Parker to release his edict, marvel at the stunned awe etc. etc., but that was the end of April…….it’s June 14th!

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I hadn’t long landed back in Serralunga d’Alba after my two weeks in Tuscany when I was off again to Monforte, just across the valley, this time to watch Chiara Boschis of Barolo producer E.Pira plant a new vineyard. Read the rest of this entry »

World cup fever is about to hit and nowhere more than in Berrys’ HQ, where we’ve designed our very own online Wine World Cup fantasy football game – with a wine twist…

It works just like an normal fantasy football game but you can only choose players from the 12 major wine producing nations who have made it to South Africa – and you can’t have more than one from each country (until the first round is over, at least).

And that isn’t even the best bit – as well as weekly prizes for top-scoring managers (and the chance to battle your friends to the bitter end in your own mini leagues) the overall winner will get a corking mixed case of wine worth £1,700! It contains a bottle of a top wine from each of these 12 nations, including Ch. Latour from France, Vega Sicilia from Spain and Penfolds Grange from down under.

Go to www.berryswineworldcup.com to see all the wines in the case and to register your team (make sure you do it by midnight on Thursday 10th June though to make sure you have all your players in place for the first match).  Finally, it’s all free – it doesn’t get much better than that (unless England bring the trophy home).

For the last several weeks I have been much more in Beaujolais mode than Burgundy, prospecting for suppliers to add to the range to take advantage both of the brilliance of 2009 in the region, and also what I perceive to be a renewed interest in the region from trade, press and consumers alike. Thank goodness, it is about time!

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After visiting 41 Chianti Classico cantina over 11 days I now feel a certain grasp on what’s going on among the Tuscan hills. I also got a grip on the twists and turns in the road, aided and abetted by my mate Tom (Tom). True ‘he’ occasionally threatened to lead me up the garden path, requiring a gentle tap on the ‘shoulder’ bringing ‘him’ back in line. It’s a nice metaphor, in my view, for what’s going on ‘down under’ in ‘Chiantishire’ that is…

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