Almaviva masterclass

Winemaker Michel Friou gave us an instructive masterclass on this joint Franco-Chilean venture on behalf of The Drinks Business.

ALmaviva was born in 1997 when Baroness Rothschild and Eduardo Guilisasti Tagle of Vina Concha y Toro sealed an alliance between the two companies to produce a Bordeaux-blend wine in Chile.

We learned that Almaviva need irrigation, no choice given the climate of the region.

No phylloxera in Chile, use mix of grafted and ungrafted vines.

Hand harvesting and sorting destemmed grapes individually.

2 to 4 weeks of fermentation and maceration in steel, then to French new and old barrels 

12 to 24 months for top wine 

The name Almaviva comes from the character in Barbiere and Nozze di Figaro... 

About 60k bottles produced 

EPU 2022 

Means n. 2 in mapuche language, it's the second wine 

Cab sauv 84,Carmenère 19,merlot 3,cab Franc 2,petit verdot 1

12 months French oak

Fruity intense, 

Gentle tannins, moderate structure and lenght 15. 5% abv

Score 86

Almaviva 2007 

Cab sauvignon 64,carmenère 28,csb franc 7,merlot 1

Smooth long and mod complex, still taste fruit, mature 

Score 90

Almaviva 2013 

Cab sauvignon 72, Carménère 19, Cab Franc 6, Petit verdot merlot 1

Intense, long and complex ,tannins are already smooth, unlikely to improve further 

Score 93

Almaviva 2018

Cab sauvignon 72,Carménère 19,cab franc 6,petit verdot 3

Very smooth, long, ready 

Score 93

Almaviva 2023

Cab sauvignon 74, Carmenere 19, Cab Franc 5, Petit verdot 2

Fresh attack fruity balanced ending 

Score 90

Himalayan wines from China

Chinese wines are up and coming, including at the London Wine Fair.

Thanks to Himalayan wines, a winery from Yunnan, for bringing some interesting products. 

This is the 10th year of production for them.

Below are my tasting notes and the RRP, which very ambitiously position these products in an expensive range.

The quality is high, the prices even higher!

Allofme 2022

Chardonnay

3mos each old new French oak

Balanced wine, 7000 bottles produced.

Score 89

Rrp 75




Célèbre 2022

Chardonnay

12 Mos new French oak

Balanced and complex

Rrp £ 200

Score 91




Allofme 2018

Rose of Cabernet sauvignon bleeding

Smooth long

20k bottle

Score 89

Rrp 40




Célèbre 2018

Cabernet sauvignon

18 Mos new French oak

Balanced long

35k bottle

Score 92

Rrp 200




Allofme 2018

80% Cabernet sauv 20% rose honey

Complex flowers balanced

Score 93

Rrp 40

Meet the producer: Zonin, Veneto and Tuscany

London offers a boundless range of opportunities for the wine trade and we wine writers are lucky to have access to superb opportunities to develop our palates and our skills. It is impossible to attend even a small fraction of all the available events, so I have decided to prioritize those that offer masterclasses. This is always a more structured and educational opportunity to learn than the free pours where even the most meticulous taster can easily become overwhelmed.

The UK Sommelier Association, expertly led by Andrea Rinaldi with a passionate deputy and indefatigable event organizer in Federica Zanghirella is a leader is organizing highly instructive master classes.

Here below my notes about two such pearls that revolved around the production of the Zonin house, originally from Venetia, where they still make the bulk of their wines, but now well established in Tuscany as well.

 

Thanks to Andrea Rinaldi always my mentor at AIS in the UK.

Masterclass 1: Ca' Bolani whites: Opimio Pinot Bianco and Aquilis Sauvignon.

Christopher Burr, Federica Zanghirella presenting with Roberto Marcolini, winemaker of Ca' Bolani

Zonin is based in Venetia, in the heart of the Aquileia DOC region. Here people have made wine for over 3000 years, started well before Romans who however developed viticulture in a systematic way.

There are now 570 hectares of vines, mostly 5,000 vines per hectare.

The area is protected between sea and mountain, and the trademark bora wind regularly dries the air, which is of course good for viticulture. Significant day night temperature variations create good condition for ripening. Very diverse soils over estate.

Flight 1: Optimio, 100% pinot bianco

The names comes from a Roman consul who was well known for the good wines produced under his rule. In Venetia, as in most of Italy and indeed Europe, the Romans were pioneers of viticulture, expanding and developing what they learned from the Greeks and the Phoenicians.

We tasted three vintages of this underrated grape, which I love because it is a versatile wine, unpretentious but always surprisingly well versed to match medium structured food. Besides the obvious fish and white meat dishes you can have these with medium aged cheese and some Indian masala recipes or southern Chinese sweet and sour dishes. I'd like to try it with dim sum from Guangzhou or Honk Kong. 

2020

Pinot bianco, smooth with lingering freshness, moderately long

Ready now might benefit from a couple of further years of evolution in the bottle 

Score 88

2018 

Smoother than 2020 still good freshness. Drink now

Score 89

2016

Unsurprisingly the most evolved, smoothest and most complex and long of the trio.

Score 90

Flight 2. Aquilis sauvignon blanc Friuli Doc 

2018

A surprising sauvignon with nutty and vanilla notes that make it a unique interpretation of this classic grape. Complex and long. 

Score 92

2016 

A more evolved bottle, smoothness is raised to higher levels to the point of making an elegant wine with a mouthful of complex sensations. 

Score 93

2014 

Mature long complex 

Score 94

Thanks to my teacher Federica Zanghirella for introducing the day's food and wine pairing combination and the eccentric exhibition by Christopher Burr 

Masterclass 2: A culinary trip in Tuscany with the most iconic wines of Castello di Albola paired with traditional Tuscan dishes by Executive Chef Giovanni Zagni.

Castello di Albola is owned by the Zonin house since 1979. It now has a substantial 900 hectares of farms, but only 110 of these are vineyards. Mostly work on single vineyard wines. They started organic conversion in 2016, and it is now completed. They claim to fame as pioneers in respecting environmental, social (employment condition) as well as economic sustainability. 

Poggio alle Fate 2022 

Chardonnay 

Strong acidity attack but evolves in the mouth to a perfectly balanced and long wine. 

Paired with pappa al pomodoro. 

Paired by concordance of medium structure and contrast of acidity with sweet tendency of the tomato. 

Score 91

Chianti classico 2023 

sangiovese

Again with pappa al pomodoro 

Still young, tannins need a bit of time in the bottle.

Tannins contrast well with tomatoes but slightly overwhelm their sweet tendency.

Score 88

Chianti classico riserva 2021

sangiovese

A majestic Chianti, ready but with a few years of evolution potential. 

Matched with vegetarian ribollita, good concordance pairing between moderate tannins and moderately structured food with delicate sweet tendency. 

Score 92

Il Solatìo 2019 gran selezione

sangiovese 

Powerful elegant chianti, absolutely ready now with balance and good length. 

Paired with pici alla buttera (homemade pasta with ragoût and black olives) 

Score 91

Acciaiolo 2016

cabernet sauvignon 80% sangiovese 20%

First harvest 1988, one of the original "Super Tuscans"

Ready masterpiece, perfect balance and length 

Paired with pappardelle al cinghiale, concordance of strong structures and contrast of tannins with fatty sauce. A harmonious wine.

Score 95

Vin santo 2010 

Trebbiano and malvasia

Harvested late, in October.

Dried on racks, pressed in December, obviously very little yield. 

Almonds orange peel notes. Sink cantucci biscuits, or similar dry biscuits with nuts, in this wine. 

Score 93

Premium Australian Cabernet Sauvignon

Walkaround tasting in London for premium cabs from down under. Long associated with Bordeaux, this grape is widely planted around the world.

These are my tasting notes from the bottles I thought were the best of the day. I look forward to buying some of them and drinking them at ease with a good pairing of food. Meat yes, of course, but also hearty pasta, baked fish, roasted veggies and aged cheese.

Howard Park

Abercrombie 2010

Intense, round and long, can still evolve 4-5 years to round tannins to perfection.

Score 89

Larry Cherubino

Cherubino Margaret River 2013

Perfect balance, long and mod complex.

Score 90

The 2021 bottle is fruity, balanced, ready not, more limited potential.

RRP £42 Score 89

Budworth 2019

RRP £65 Score 94

Frankland River 2011

An incredibly sumptuous wine with compex tertiary notes and velvety consistency.

RRP £65 Score 96

Leewin Estate

Art Series 2019

Intense aroma, balanced and surprisingly ready now, maybe thanks to the French barrique.

RRP £50 Score 90

Moss Wood

Moss Wood 2001

Smooth, long an complex, almost creamy.

RRP £80 Score 94

The 2021 bottle is also ready now, less complex.

Score 90

Nocturne

Yallingup 2021

Balanced and long, best in 3-4 years?

RRP £ 32, Score 89

Single Vineyard 2022

Round, perfect balance, long, ready.

RRP £47 Score 92

Passel Estate

Passel Estate 2018

Perfect balance and very long, complex.

RRP 35 Score 93

Pessel Estate Lot 71 reserve 2017

An amazing wine with still 4-5 years of potential evolution.

RRP £55 Score 95

Stella Bella

Luminosa 2017

Intense, elegant, complex and long. An exceptional cab, destemmed and hot fermented (29 °C) with 14 days on skins, MLF in oak and 14 months in French barrels, mixed new and used.

RRP 58 Score 95

Vasse Felix

Vasse Felix 2016

86% cab, 14% malbec

A harmonious wine, it's got everything you can dream of in a cab: elegance, length, complexity, body.

RRP £38 Score 96

The Vasse Felix 2021 bottle turns out to be quite a bit lighter. Score 89

Tom Cully 2015

81% cab 16% malbec 3% petit verdot

A delicate wine still sports good complexity and length.

RRP £ 100 Score 90

Voyager Estate

Voyager Estate 2014 and 2018

Both vintages are superb cabs, with perfect balance and great length and complexity.

Steel open top fermentation and aged in French oak (half new) for 18 months.

RRP 66 Score 95

Woodlands 

2014 Matthew and 2020 Eleanor

Both bottles offer a perfectly balanced wine, very complex and long. Fruit is still there but it has evolved, especially in the 2014 vintage, into intriguing tertiary nuances. Wines on the border of exceptionality.

RRP £75 Score 95

Levantine Hill

Samantha's Paddock mélenge traditionel

65% Cab 15% merlot 7% cab franc 3% malbec

Tasted the 2017 and 2018 vintages, both sumptuous, harmonious wines that tower above the magnificent landscape of Australian cabernet.

RRP £110, Score 95

Mount Mary

Quintet 2016

Round and ready now, a smooth velvet wine.

RRP 80 Score 94

The 2021 vintage is still a bit rough at the edges, give it a few years in the bottle.

Penfolds

Bin 407 2022 and 2010

Predictable, the 2010 is ready now and, incredibly, so is the 2022.

Both round, smooth like velvet, very long.

RRP £75, Score 95

Bin 707 2022 and 2020

Both amazing bottles, at the top of the Penfolds range, with length complexity and fruit.

RRP £450!! Yes Four hundred and fifty! Score 95

Yalumba

The Caley Cab/Shiraz 2016 and 2020

77% cab, 23% shiraz, proportions can change from year to year

Two harmonious bottles continue the incredible series of this afternoon.

RRP £240 Score 96

Henschke

Cyril Henschke 2019

A long and complex wine, I know I sound repetitive but this is the theme today.

RRO 125 Score 94

Kaesler, Barossa

Age of Light 2018

RRP 65 Score 92

Penfolds, Coonawarra, 2020 and 2022

Bin 169

Surprisingly the 2022 is readier than 2010, or put it another way 2010 is fresher than 2020.

RRP 160 Score 95

Wynns Coonawarra Estate

John Riddoch 2010 and 2021

RRP £100, Score for the older bottle 94 and the younger one 92

Meet the producer: Fei Tswei, Ningxia Hui, China

Wine in China is not new, as a book I recently reviewed illustrates at length, international appreciation for Chinese wine is, and so is widespread appreciation by Chinese consumers of high quality international wines. China is already among the top 5 or 6 producers of wine in the world, and quality is improving by the day.

One example is the Fei Tswei winery in northwest China. They were present at the London Wine Fair 2024 and served as the business card for Chinese wines in London.

There are lots of problems Chinese wine has to overcome, including still too much emphasis on quantity and too many fakes that spoil the market, but I came out of this tasting convinced things are moving in the right direction.

Good wines from this producer are available in the UK and the best bottles are not cheap, but definitely worth giving it a try to expand your horizons over Chinese wines.

 
Here below my tasting notes from the wines proposed by Fei Tswei at the London Wine Fair.

Chardonnay 2021
Smooth, soft sensations prevail
Moderately long
Score 86

Chardonnay reserve 2019
Similar to the previous wine but with better balance
Score 88

Viognier 2019
Apricot nose. Good balance
Score 88

Red joyous blend 2019
Red fruit is intense, an easy wine.
Score 85

Marselan 2019
Intense nose red
Complex long
Score 89

Marselan 2020
More balanced and longer
Score 90

Merlot 2019
Intense red fruit
Complex long,mod length
Score 91

Cabernet franc 2021
Intense nose of ripe cherries
Smoother than expected if you think of cab franc from loire, long
Score 92

Syrah reserve 2019
1 year in oak
Smooth, mod complex and long
Score 89

Marselan reserve 2019
Fruit bombshell, good structure tannins still a bit rough
Mod complex, long
Score 91

Cabernet sauvignon reserve 2019
Intense red fruit, balanced, complex and long
Score 91

All these reserves Ready now, some aging potential .

Bordeaux virtual master class and blind tasting

École du Vin tutors, Mike Turner and Leona de Pasquale took us through an introduction to Bordeaux.

By way of intro, we learned that Bordeaux is now 23% organic and % is growing.

Clairet can be seen as dark as Rose. Key differences between Rosé and Clairet are: Rosé: maceration normally for up to 12 hr or direct pressing Clairet: maceration 24-36 hrs Fermentation 18-20 °C and Clairet tends to go through MLF

They then challenged participants to a blind tasting to match the wines to their appellations before revealing their identities.

Leona de Pasquale was usefully on hand throughout the session to answer your questions in the chat box.

Here is what we tasted blind. I guessed two out of six right...

Wine n.1

Château Gaillard 2016 Saint Émilion Grand Cru
mod complex and long
merlot predominant 70%, 30% cab franc which still makes its presence strongly felt
50yo vines
aged in 225l barrels, one third new
14% abv

RRP £ 20-25
score 89


Wine n.2
Domaine Perganson L'Inattendu 2018, Haut Médoc
22% merlot, 23% cab sauvignon, 30% petit verdot, 18% malbec, 7% cab franc
aged 1 year in 225l barrels
still rough
avb 14.5%
RRP £ 14
score 84


Wine n.3
Clos du Notaire 2019 Cotes de Bourg
(CdBourg oldest vineyards in region, planted by Romans "Vitis Biturica"
merlot 100% organic, no barrel, no aging recommended
complex needs time to round out tannins
no oak and no sulphur
abv 15%
RRP £12-14
score 92


Wine n. 4
Chat La Freynelle 2020 rosé
100% cab sauvignon
20yo vines
direct pressing
Rosé made in whole of Bordeaux region, with many different soils and terroirs
short maceration method used to make rosé, a few hours max
fresh, strawberry
abv 13%
RRP £ 7-8
score 87


Wine n.5
Chat Haut-Rian 2020 Entre deux mères (two tides, comes from marée)
40% sauvignon blanc 60% semillon
35yo vines
4 months on lees
fresh citrusy
abv 12.5%
RRP £ 8-10
score 87


Wine n.6
Chat Faugas 2018 cadillac AOC
Semi sweet
late harvest
100% semillon
epoxy lined concrete
score 86
abv 13.5%
RRP £ 13-16
Score 88


Oenobordeaux App can be download for those who are interested.

Thank you Ecole du vins de Bordeaux

Meet the Producer: Tesalia, Andalusia, Spain

Andalusia's Wine Region (by Quentin Sadler of the WSG)

Three wines by Tesalia, from Arcos de la Frontera, Andalusia, some 50km east of Jerez, the town of Sherry. A businessman from England who had lived for forty years in Spain decided he wanted to make wine and bought land for this purpose. Andalusia is known for heavy wines, the hot climate produces lots of sugar and alcohol can go through the roof quite easily. Manager Natalia decided to do a premium wine, fresh red wines in Andalusia, a novelty. They started in 2008 and in 2018 first wines were released, the 2015 vintage. They started exporting in 2019. 

We had a chance to meet the producer at the May 2022 online fair brilliantly organized by Onvinum, a new Spanish platform to bring together producers, buyers and educators.

Thank you to Cristina Aldea, the boss of Hola Wines for presenting these bottles to the Brussels Wine Club.

monkfish cheeks!

Arx 2018

Arx by Tesalia de la terra di Cadiz blend of petit verdot, tintilla de rota, cabernet sauvignon and syrah, a plump wine of complex fruity power and good balance. Harvested at night to take advantage of lower temperatures and preserve the berries during the hot Spanish Summer.

Paired with monkfish cheeks on a bed of lettuce.

Score 90

pork belly, water bamboo and rice

Arcos de la Frontera 2017 

A smooth wine, ready to be enjoyed now. Complex aromas, mature fruit and medium body, perfect balance and medium length.

Magic pairing with Chinese dish of pork belly, water bamboo and brown rice. 

Score 92

Iceni 2020

Alcohol sits front and center in this wine, with powerful tannins on the side. It is an entry-level product that would be pleasant with some bbq meat but lacks complexity and length for more ambitious pairings. I would never have guessed it spent 5 months in French oak.

Score 83