Last week Olivier Humbrecht MW of Domaine Zind Humbrecht come over to Berrys to give us a preview of his 2008 range, which is already showing real elegance with delicious acidity:

At the end of the month Signor Claudio Rosso bows out after three years as the (Honorary) President of the Langhe and Roero Consorzio, representing most – but not all – of the hundreds of (Nebbiolo, Barbera, Dolcetto, Arneis, Moscato) producers in the region. Last week I caught up with him at his family’s Cantina Gigi Rosso, where he has been the enologo along with his father since the ‘80s, and had a chat about his work with the Consorzio.

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Rhône 2008 is just about to hit the market so while we were out there recently we had lunch with Mark Perrin from Ch. de Beaucastel and talked about the characteristics of the vintage. In this video he tells us about the climatic conditions, which at times proved challenging, as well as the need for a very selective harvest which helped keep the quality and excellent balance that is now becoming apparent in these bottlings. The 2008s have had to overcome a lot already, but the result are wines which are very approachable, charming and will be good buys.

Last week we had the opportunity to sample a range of 1990s in Berrys’ Long Room (left), which confirmed the reputation of the vintage. Enhanced it even! The evening was mostly about Burgundy, albeit sandwiched between some white Bordeaux wines, Domaine de Chevalier and Laville Haut-Brion at the front and a youthful Yquem to complete the evening.

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It all goes back to a tasting sometime last year here in the Langhe of course, when I sniffed, slurped and spat my way through three score (and ten?) Barbareschi born of the promising 2006 vintage. I recall being held up by a flight of chewy ‘wonders’ (oh yes let’s all admire the cooper rather than the grape) before alighting upon this new name to me: Cascina delle Rose, with its refreshingly open, ethereal wines and friendly sincerity of young winemaker Davide Sobrine. So in spite of all that had been sampled that day, Cascina delle Rose’s fragrance suffused my subconscious, the trace of something special, refusing to let go ‘till I’d paid a visit to the property.

 

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While there’s much back-slapping over the quality of the 2009 harvest across Europe, here similar success has only heaped further pressure on the cellars of the Langhe, many fit to bursting after a dazzling run of ‘five-star’ vintages, from 1995 to the present day (bar 2002).

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After a fantastic few days with Jasper in town, Nick Pegna, Managing Director of BB&R HK (and my boss!), gives his thoughts on the events that took place.

“We have just dispatched Jasper Morris MW, our Burgundy Buyer, back to his home in the Côtes of Burgundy, having completed our second Burgundy Week in Hong Kong. The week, which consists of master classes, interviews, dinners and tastings included the first tasting in Hong Kong of the 2008 Burgundies en primeur (and perhaps the first Burgundy primeurs tastings in Asia – left) as well as a thoughtful and thoroughly enjoyable look at the 1996 vintage of Domaine de la Romanee Conti, at a dinner organised in conjunction with American Express for 15 people last Friday night.

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This morning Serralunga d’Alba awoke to the sad, sad news that Giovanni Rosso, pictured here standing to the left of his wife Ester and son Davide, died last night, following a brave two year fight against cancer. He was such a gentle, honourable man, who gathered me into the midst of his family like one of his own.

That this alien Englishman should be sharing his cantina, the very place in which he was born, was just fine with Giovanni. Aided by his wife Ester, Giovanni built the success of the winery, focusing his energy on the vineyards, and raising the fruit quality to a level that deserved to be bottled under the ‘Giovanni Rosso’ label for the first time in the mid ’90s. And right up until the last moment he was busy preparing orders for export, handing out stockings at the Feast of Epiphany 6th January and even arranging a suitable date for digging a vegetable bed at our new house. Giovanni leaves behind his wife Ester, only son Davide and faithful hound ‘Gaia’.

On Wednesday we held our annual Burgundy en primeur tasting, where Jasper and his producers got the chance to show off their 2008s to the eagerly awaiting public (and press!)
 
In between pouring and note-taking, we managed to catch a few words with Jasper and Benjamin Leroux, to talk about 2008 as a vintage:
 

We also managed to catch eRobert Parker’s  Neal Martin on his way out to see what his thoughts were after having tasted the best part of 109 perky barrel samples:
 

See the full list of Berrys’ Burgundy en primeur wines

Yes I’m now back in Serralunga d’Alba after a two month sosta/break in the UK. Dare I say that I have come home? But this time I’ve returned with the family, now resident at La Casa Rossa. Spaghetti Western-esque we’d loaded the wagon (Fiat Doblo) with Christmas pudds, Fortnum’s biscuits and Berrys’ finest malt whisky and headed out across the Rockies/Alps to arrive in time for Capo d’Anno/New Year’s Eve, to a plate-full of cotechino e lenticchi (rich pork sausage and green lentils) at Alessio’s unico family trattoria, ‘Centro Storico’ in Serralunga, accompanied by a silky 1999 Rutherford Cabernet, Frog’s Leap and a sinewy 2001 Nebbiolo from Cascina Ebreo. Sated, it was now time to do battle with our wayward thermostat and dodgy wiring.

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I find this time of year the toughest by far… Burgundy En-Primeur. It is a living hell, where I am waking up in cold sweats and arguing with my colleagues. No this is not a complaint about how busy I am but the problem all Burgundy ‘nuts’ have…what on earth do I buy this vintage?!

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As I have been based in Italy for the past few months I could well be initiating a new tradition of having Christmas, ‘Natale’, here in Serralunga d’Alba, Piedmont, and I’m banking on the following being served for lunch:

 
Lentils with cotechino (a pork salami) as an antipasti/starter; the dish is thought to bring good luck and it will probably be accompanied by a fresh smooth Verduno Pelaverga from Fratelli Alessandria.

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Champagne is a delightful enigma; seen by some as a stand-alone category which bears scant resemblance to the rest of the wine trade, and by others as a bell-weather, providing early warning when choppy seas lie ahead but when the waters are calm, luxuriating in the hazy trappings of  indulgence and success. Whichever interpretation is more plausible, any article on Champagne today, economically speaking, will differ greatly from one written eighteen months ago. There was a newspaper photograph recently of Conservative party leader, David Cameron, glass of  Champers in hand, with the caption ‘Fizzy Rascal’ cheekily appended ; the implication clearly being that such manifestations of success, are hard to swallow by an electorate that is stuck in the middle of a deep and rather brutal recession. So, how is Champagne perceived today? Is this perception justified and how is it actually faring in terms of production and sales?

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How does one gauge the success of an evening’s dinner, at Berrys’ in this case? By the level of decibels or (business) cards swapped at its close?  The number of empty glasses or perhaps more crudely, by the amount of orders taken? At Andre Ostertag’s mercurial tasting recently, for example, I measured it by the time guests remained riveted to their seats, spellbound, long after the final whistle had blown. (more…)

Does Castello di Ama’s owner Lorenza Sebasti Pallanti (left) really model herself on Madame Mentzelopoulos,
Ch. Margaux’s glamorous owner?  Or perhaps she just fashions her wines on the famed Bordeaux First Growth, a taste of whose 1961 back in 1989 changed her appreciation of wine forever…

But surely her family’s fine Castello di Ama property had been on the right course for years, thanks to the combined efforts of winemaker-cum-husband Marco Pallanti (below), in the hot seat since 1982 – a religious man who apparently found a brush with the biodynamic brotherhood a touch too much – and Patrick Leon, one of Bordeaux’s many consultants hired to steer Castello di Ama through its early years until the French accent proved too much for Lorenza?

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Back in early October I was treated to a visit from one of South Africa’s bright young gems, Mullineux Wines, Swartland: Chris, Andrea and their first born John (’JZ’). This is their account.
 
After a somewhat long and difficult trip from Amsterdam (visa issues- it’s not easy travelling as a South African sometimes!), my wife Andrea, son John and I finally found ourselves winding up the road to Serralunga on an appropriately cool and misty evening. We arrived thirsty and excited – perfect for the two-day introductory experience our kind host had arranged for us in Barolo and Barbaresco. I had been to Piedmont once before, years ago while still at University, and most of our European time has been spend in the vineyards of France and Spain, so this was to be a massive learning experience into a terroir and grape variety foreign to the three of us.

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So what began with a farce: ‘Don Pasquale’ at Turin’s La Regio…culminated, tragically so with a mesmerizing performance of ‘La Traviata’ on late Sunday afternoon.
 
And no, the interim wasn’t all ice-cream & chocolates but a privileged insight into another world; a world free of traffic lights, bungalows and political correctness but full of charm, colour and one or two clowns.
 
I leave the final words to Davide Rosso in his Cerretta vineyard at the time of the 2009 Nebbiolo harvest (see video), and to Alessandro Monchiero of Bra’s Antica Caffe Boglione (www.caffeboglione.it), whose words underpin a ‘must visit’ eatery with a ‘fast’ friendly service, great ingredients (be they food, wine or beer) and a ’slow food’ approach to life…

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In my penultimate report on the successful 2009 Barolo and Barbaresco harvest I interview Giuseppe and his mother Maria Teresa Mascarello in their Santo Stefano di Perno vineyard, Monforte.

It speaks volumes that this iron-rich, sandy calcareous site should picked last among their formidable stable of Barolo vineyards; later even than Monprivato and Ca d’Morissio. But as Maria Teresa explains in this clip, they wanted to achieve ultimate ripeness, so delaying the harvest by a week. And what a result! The bunches showing great health, ripeness & a most encouraging pink translucence; not a rotten apple among them (?)

But then so you might hope from a 60/80 year-old vineyard. Evviva!  As they say.

Week 17 (or so!) or wine adventures in Piedmont

This is it;  the final week of the 2009 Nebbiolo/Barolo harvest.  Az. Agr. Giovanni Rosso kick off with an early morning dash to La Serra, their east south east facing vineyard high up on the Serralunga calcareous ridge.

In the first video I catch up with Ester Rosso, Davide’s fine mamma, as she corals their team of pickers to pick La Serra swiftly and accurately; a vineyard appropriately drenched in the golden glow of early morning sunshine:

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Schoolboy trivia perhaps that Nebbiolo the grape (Nebuẽ in Piemontese) takes its name from ‘Nebia’ the fog that cloaks the slopes at this time of year. Less observed or well-known is that, according to Teobaldo Rivella of Barbaresco, the fog has become scarce since the early ’90; coincidently tying in with the run of great Piemontese and northern Italian vintages. For in the ‘good ol’days’ the harvest would occur deep in October, not at the end of September as this year. The difference being, apparently, that fog has a detrimental effect on young fruit, triggering rot, but serves as a refreshing wrap for mature bunches, such as those served up by warmer, earlier harvests. (more…)