The Yamanishi wine region is only a 1.5 hour drive from the mayhem of Tokyo but its scenery is a world apart. In a country that is over 70%  mountainous, altitude and aspect are not a problem. Excess rainfall, on the other hand, is.  This is where the native grape variety Koshu comes in. A thick, pinkish skinned variety that has little to no issues with botrytis. It produces light, crisp white wines, not dissimilar to a (Touraine) Sauvignon Blanc or even Albarino, though with far less acidity than either. This is the most popular variety in the region. Yuki Hirayama, Chief winemaker at Katsunuma Winery is a true believer in the grape’s diversity and produces the full spectrum of styles of wines from sparkling, unoaked, oaked and sweet. The greatest challenge he witnesses in the vineyard is oidium, due to the high humidity and rainfall in the region. When he told me on the drive there they use ‘umbrellas’ to protect the grapes, not sprays, I was baffled. Perhaps another way to describe them are waxed pieces of paper which they place over each bunch and the subsequently rain just rolls off. It’s quite a scene in the vineyard.

Inside the winery is like a visit to Willy Wonka’s Choclate factory for a wine student. They had every bit of kit, for every kind of purpose. Rotary fermentors, bottling lines, refrigeration rooms for cyro extraction and a feast of new and old oak barrels from a who’s who of French coopers. Yuki san studied oenolgy in Dijon and is not shy of trailling new methods to achieve the style he wants. He has been adding the fining agent bentonite before fermentation to remove the phenolic character that he sometimes sees in the wines. Although he does not caim to be a ‘natural’ wine producer he does his upmost to minimize the use of SO2 throughout production.

As mentioned above, the results are very impressive, especially from the single vineyard wines, which won a Silver medal at the International Wine Challenge in 2010.  Indeed, Bernard Magrez, of Pape Clement fame, has teamed up with the winery to produce a joint cuvee, Magrez Aruga Koshu, for the European market. As is the case in many of the ‘up and coming’ wine regions, the skill of the winemaker is imperative in nurturing the grape along to stardom. Koshu most certainly has a future in the wine world.

Every wine producing country in the world manages, in some form or another, to offer a distinctive characteristic to their wines that helps to form a personal identity to their style. In certain areas this may be the charms of minerality found in the soils while in others it may be the challenges of noticeably high alcohol.  Following the 2011 Wines of Argentina tasting in London it is apparent that freshness is the nation’s forte. This may sound obvious to the well- read wine lover who is familiar with the county’s high altitude vineyards but as winemaking styles continue to evolve to match consumer demands for heavily extracted wines this will not always be a dead cert. When one considers the extra hang time which has been given to red varieties to achieve physiological ripeness you would be forgiven for expecting a subsequent extra ripe character to the wines. Of course this is true in certain cases but what is commendable in this part of the world is the winemaker’s ability to maintain the crunchy acidity and overall pureness of fruit which, as a whole, results in a freshness that has great charm and appeal.

Peter McCombie MW (the IWC’s 2012 addition to the Co-Chair line-up) presented a masterclass on Argentinean red blends which covered the length of the country. His introduction gave an insight into the history of the nation’s winemaking culture which was summarised by quoting a native winemaker who said to comprehend Argentinean winemakers you have to understand that they are “in essence, Italians who speak Spanish and who think they are English.”

Peter McCombie MW

From Patagonia in the far south we tasted the ‘medal-happy’ producer Vinalba, who won the Argentinean Red Trophy and International Malbec Trophy at last year’s IWC for the Gran Reserva Malbec 2008. The southerly winds down there help keep the grapes clean and dries them out for better balance and acidity. Slightly further north in Ninquen Familia Schroeder have produced a Pinot Noir (54%) Malbec (46%) blend which is an ‘acquired taste’. The 20 degrees Celsius difference between day and night temperature helps to maintain aroma while ensuring ripeness in this region.

Further north again in Mendoza’s sub region, Tupungato, Achaval  Ferrer are producing outstanding wines that portray the potential of this wine producing country. The bodegas’ Quimera wine is a wonderful blend of 40% Malbec, 22% Merlot, 20% Cab. Sav. 14% Cab Fr. and 4% Petit Verdot. This, and the rest of the range, are not sold on the high street, but are well worth seeking out in the on-trade.

Another wine worth noting from the Peter’s masterclass is the Masi Corbec 2008 from Tupungato, Mendoza.‘Corbec’ is the name Masi have given to this Corvina and Malbec blend that is made in the ‘arele’ style of drying grapes on wooden racks. Similar to the Amarone method of production, this leads to a loss of 20% of the grapes weight and causes an intracellular action which also leads to the common characteristic of volatile acidity, common in the Northern Italian region’s style. The wine is then transported to Italy in flexitank under nitrogen and aged in stainless steel until bottling. Although it remains unclear what the purpose of this initiative is, McCombie suggested it may be down to a specific bottling technique of volatile wines that the company uses back in Italy.

One of the wines from the whole days tasting that exhibited the greatest expression of freshness had to be Bodega Colomé. Founded in 1831, it is one of Argentina’s oldest wineries and perches its regal self at an altitude of between 2,300 and 3,111 metres  above sea level. Despite being closer to the equator than Mendoza its elevation gives freshness to the wines while the cooler night time temperatures prolong the ripening period, enhancing aromatics.

The wine trade in attendance seemed just as impressed with the Argentine offerings as I was and the IWC medals on display seemed to vouch for the quality of wines. Argentina seems to have covered all price points and the noble varieties while adding interest and flair to their own signature Malbec and Torrontés.

Congratulations to our short list of entries for the Sake Communicator Award 2011, listed in the previous post below. Our judges were delighted to see such enthusiasm for the character and culture of sake which came across in all of these entries. However, there can be only one winner (sadly).

This years winner is Natsuki Kikuya . Natsuki is the Sake sommelier at Zuma / Roka in London. The judges said ” Natsuki’s shares her passion for sake with her readers in every page of her blog through beautiful photography and emotional yet informative stories. Her commitment to this industry is evident in her detailed profiling of sake on a continuous basis. Her blog is a pleasure to read.”

Natsuki Kikuya

The judges added ” We would also like to acknowledge the talent of this year’s short-list who are an inspiring collection of writers dedicated to furthering the awareness of sake. We implore you to keep up your very good work.”

Natsuki will travel to Japan on Japan Airlines next February and enjoy an all expenses paid tour of some of the sake producing prefectures compliments of the Sake Samurai Association and the International Wine Challenge.

Thanks to all who entered this year. We will host another sake master-class at the IWC judging in April next year for anyone interested in furthering their understanding of this intriguing drink.

This year’s short-list for the Sake Communicator Award is announced below.

The judges have selected four entries which stood out in terms of quality of writing and information about sake. Links to their websites and blog posts are below.

Natsuki Kikuya – Sake sommelier at Zuma / Roka in London

Peter Csizmadia-Honigh – Bor-Világ

Anders Öhman AIWS – Gustibus Wine & Spirit Academy

Christina Pickard – Presenter

The winner will be announced on August 22nd and will travel to Japan courtesy of the Sake Samurai Association and the International Wine Challenge in Spring next year.

The Sake Samurai Association, in partnership with the International Wine Challenge, is proud to announce The Sake Communicator Award. This is an opportunity for Bloggers, wine writers and journalists to win an all expenses paid trip to Japan. The winning entrant will visit 5 prefectures and meet 5 Kuramotos (sake producers) for one week between late February and early March 2012. Members of the Sake Samurai Association will host the winner throughout the entire trip.

Each entrant should write a blog post or article on the subject on sake, published between April 1^st and July 29th. This could be based on introducing the basics of sake to the wider public or focusing in more detail on a specific style for your readers.

Kenichi Ohashi, Master of Sake, will introduce the basics of sake in his masterclass: ‘Understanding the world of sake: Sake making & Category’, which will take place at the Barbican, Exhibition Hall 2 at 6pm on April 19th. Kenichi’s masterclass will be followed by a talk by US Sake expert Beau Timken on sake trends and their markets. The masterclass will be preceded and followed by an opportunity to taste hundreds of different sakes taking part in the International Wine Challenge Discovery Tasting, for wines looking for UK representation. All entrants are welcome to attend this free materclass, though numbers are limited to 100 people. Please confirm your attendance by emailing iwc@wrbm.com

The successful candidate should write a 1,000 word report of their trip upon their return which will be posted on the International Wine Challenge website.

By no means undermining the scale of the recent tragedy, most of the kuramotos ancestors have been challenged by tsunamis and earthquakes in the past, as well as war and hunger, and have worked together to overcome these issues to create a strong long-lasting sake industry that still thrives today. This generation of kuramotos plan to use the experiences and skills of their forefathers to lift themselves out of this most recent disaster.

As Sake is not only a drink nor a business but an irreplaceable part of Japanese culture, there is no time more suitable than now to encourage the popularity of this rice wine.

A link to your blog post or pdf attachment of the featured piece should be emailed to the following address: ray@internationalwinechallenge.com

Closing date for receipt of entries is July 29^th 2011.

The winner will be notified by August 22nd 2011 and will be a guest of the Sake Samurai Association at the International Wine Challenge Awards Dinner, Hilton Park Lane, London on September 6^th 2011, where they will receive an on stage award.

Terms and Conditions:

1. The winner agrees to travel on the dates agreed with the Sake Samurai Association, which will be announced in due course.
2. Return economy flights depart from London Heathrow.
3. The winner is requested to compose a 1,000 word report on the events of their trip following upon their return for the International Wine Challenge website.

Any up and coming wine region might want to take a page out of Wines of Turkey’s book when laying out a PR strategy to enter the UK wine trade. Pulling in big wigs like Jancis Robinson MW, Charles Metcalfe and Tim Atkin MW to present masterclasses is a good place to start. Bringing something unique in the form of DNA foundations of the indigenous varieties was also a clever touch. Smart use of space at the all too often crammed Vinopolis tasting venue made all of the above even more digestible.

Discussing modern day Turkey, the state of the nation, Jancis told us, is pretty rosy in terms of economic vivacity. Istanbul is only just behind London in the number of billionaires they host with 28 in the former and 32 in the latter. Their restaurants are heaving and a growing number of boutique wine shops are opening recently despite the fact that wine only accounts for 7% of the total alcoholic consumption (1 litre per captia pa.). This figure may appear small but considering Turkey ranks sixth in the world for grape production with 3.85 million tonnes produced annually, only 2% of this is used for wine making. The rest goes in to your Christmas cake and pudding as dried fruit.

Their winemaking styles have evolved in the past 5 years with better control of oxidation in the barrel-aged wines to persevere the freshness and avoid acetaldehyde notes. This no doubt has come from greater winery hygiene and with some international consulting both indoors and out – Stephane  Derancourt is now working with a select number of vineyards in the country.

A great deal of quality is to be found in smaller, boutique operations who have typically been giving a lot of attention to the wines they produce. But as Jancis also mentioned the three largest wineries; Doluca, Kavaklidere and Kayra have been investing greatly in modern equipment and applying new techniques to give the smaller operations “a run for their money”.

We later heard from Dr.Jose Vouillamoz, a grape geneticist who I interviewed on his discovery of the parentage of Sangiovese amongst other varieties and about the development of indigenous Turkish varieties, which you can watch here.

Also on his panel was Professor Dr. Gokhan Soylemezoglu who described the oenological characteristics of these varieties. We tasted the white varieties of Emir and Narince as well as the black skinned varieties of Kalecik Karasi, Okuzgozu and Bogazkere,  the latter two often blended to balance their fruit/tannic structure respectively.

Judging by the number of people in attendance Wines of Turkey stand a good chance of having their message distributed through to the wider public in the very near future.

A gathering of the good and the great wines were on show at the Specialist Importers Trade Tasting at Vinopolis in London yesterday. To have so many quality importers lined up side by side gave a warm feeling of prosperity for the range of wines available to us here in the U.K. Without getting all emotional and teary eyed, every now again you have to step back and look at how spoilt we are for choice over here. The supermarkets offerings of approximately 84% of wines sold in the off trade not only keeps the vast majority of the population happy, but it encourages vertical integration for newcomers to become interested, followed by educated, followed by further curiosity and so on until they might arrive at the independents merchant door asking for Assyrtiko or Kekfrankos.

For those of you who live beyond the sunny shores of England, today was a promising sight. Wine producers should know that there is demand for their quality driven wines even if they cannot meet the price demands of some of the larger retailers. The tasting was heaving and I overheard quite a few comments like “ right, well I’ll take some of that then” from interested merchants.

I did manage to get around and taste quite a few but I was really knocked out by the style of wines coming out of Spain. You really have to wipe the vast majority of preconceptions you might have of the various regions from your text book knowledge when looking at Spain today. Every single wine (particularly the reds) were as fresh and bright as daisies with elegance the  stand out remark on the majority of my tasting notes. Indigo wines’ Olly Bartlett, (who I interviewed here) showed me some real crackers notably Bodegas Escoda-Sanhuja Coll del Sabater (no spelling mistakes, honest) from Conca de Barbera, RRP £18.50. This Cab Franc/Merlot blend is produced from Biodynamic vines and has no added sulphur. It appeared quite feral at first on the nose but this transformed to herbal notes backed up with lots of ripe fruit. Its main USP was how very very fresh the wine was. Incredible to have such intensity of fruit yet be so moreish to taste.

Another wine of ridiculous intensity was a Chateauneuf-du-Pape from Marc Kreydenweiss (of Alsace) imported by Hamish Wakes-Miller of Bella Wines Ltd. Kreydenweiss claims that this site had never been sprayed with pesticides as the vines are over 60 years old and chemical spraying is something relatively recent, i.e. 20-30 years. It’s hard to think that chemical residue that may be in the air from a neighbour’s spraying would not also land on these vines, but that’s the case everywhere isn’t it? This CNdP had another dimension to it. There was muscle and oomph but also total balance and vibrancy – not words you often see side by side in a CNdP tasting note. An outstanding wine.

The values of the wines I found appealing by no means lied in their unconventional approach to winemaking, as is the case with the two above. From the cool climate hills of Yarra Valley, Mac Forbes’ Pinot Noir 2008 maintained its consistent ethereal qualities of sweet red cherry fruits and the kind of minerality you can only expect to find in Premier Cru Burgundy sites. This wine summarised the virtues of elegance in so many of the wines on show at the SITT.

We are always pleased to see a diverse range of wines come in to the Wine Challenge each year and when I say diverse I mean both origin (Kosovo) and style (boutique Languedoc producers vs multinational brands). As most of you will know already we judge wines by the grape variety from each region so wines are often tasted alongside their peers. However, every wine is judged on its own merit. That is to say a blockbuster, ‘oak monster’ Syrah from, say, the North Rhone, will be evaluated independently than that of a N.Rhone Syrah with a more feminine approach. It’s every wine for itself.

This morning I attended a breakfast briefing by one of the bigger boys who enter the competition. E&J Gallo Winery were in London to update Planet UK on what’s happening behind their pearly gates. It seems while the rest of the world has been tightening their belts Gallo has garnered itself the muscle to increase its offerings in countries like South Africa as well as making plans for other African nations. They don’t, as Stephanie Gallo put it, “answer to the demands of Wall Street.” Following the sale of many of Constellations brands, the family owned company are now the largest wine producer in the world and although they were reluctant to reveal figures they could confirm they made a profit last year, despite the challenges they, and everyone else, faced with duty increases and pub closures.

I personally like their strategy for the future. When listing the avenues of promotion they plan in the coming year, which included trade sampling, online, radio and print campaigns, they emphasized that they deliberately don’t advertise on tv. They find social media reaches the target audience better than TV can and they have a raft of sponsorships up their sleeve as well including Surfers against Sewage, Gay Pride events and art galleries.

E&J Gallo was launching a new wine called Summer Red, which is served chilled. There’s no disclosure on the bottle or the press release about the grape varieties used but the style is meant to be driven by fresh& fruity flavours. In the case of previous success stories of chilled red wines such as Cab Franc from the Loire the reduction in temperature has helped to soften the tannins. I would imagine this would never have been an obstacle with the Summer Red wine but this serving style will help maintain ‘red wine drinkers’ in the hotter summer months when all they are faced with is whites and rosé.

Having put a sample in the fridge and tasted it I have to say I was bowled over by the ‘Cherry-tastic’ fruit flavours. It may have been a 4 O’Clock energy dip I was having but I found myself going back for more. With no shortage of residual sugar to help the medicine go down for the greater public it comes in at a modest 10.5% abv , which is singing from the same hymn sheet as the consumer demands in the UK, the largest market for E&J Gallo outside of the U.S.

The line up at the Harpers Wine & Spirit 2nd annual Champagne Summit today was a name-dropper’s dream. The blogger/merchant debate had a visual and virtual presence with the likes of Jamie Goode and Robert McIntosh rubbing shoulders with Dee Blackstock MW of Waitrose and Xiena Irwin MW of Spar. They had all convened on swanky Soho Hotel to assess the past, present and future virtues of Champagne and its industry.

I took the chance to observe Jamie Goode’s blind tasting masterclass of Vintage and Non Vintage (NV) wines, which, to Jamie’s amusement, produced results that surprised just about all in attendance.

To emphasise the difference between the two styles, he reminded the assembly of the talent of the blender and his recipe in bringing together fifty to sixty different cuvees in their high acid, low alcohol (10%abv) state to achieve a finished product that annually represents each individual house. It makes you ponder on the sort of conversations happening within those walls, along the lines of “..and what if I get hit by a bus?!!”. As our host suggested, Champagne is more an indication of human skill than a true reflection of terroir.
He continued to point out that a NV wine would most likely be 90/95% from a single vintage with the balance coming from reserve wine, of which Veuve Cliquot use particularly old wines “as seasoning.” He included the observation that many Champagne houses are making vintage wines in less favourable years, but then again, at a 50% premium above the NV one could assume there’s some pressure from the men in ties on the Board.

So what did we taste? The first flight was Champagne de Castelnau Cuvée Brut NV alongside its bigger brother, the Brut Vintage 2000. Attendees were asked to assess both wines and determine the style of each. The vast majority of the room believed the NV was the vintage, its broad and solid texture suggesting a greater quality wine. The conclusion from the Doctor himself was why spend more when you can achieve such greatness at this price, not wishing to cause a downturn in sparkling spending but rather to highlight the quality achievable at these levels. (For more on this watch the video interview on our player or here.)

Next up was Lanson NV and ’99, a vintage that struggled to maintain acidity. The House’s customary lack of Malo-Lactic Fermentation helped identify their NV as we tasted them blind, though the room remained divided in selecting one from the other, again suggesting that there is great value to be had in the NV category.

The final flight was from Tattinger who, impressively, own half of the 35 crus from which they source their fruit. With their NV and 2004 Tête à Tête the room was baffled and bemused a final time as the vintage wine showed the liveliest character and as Jamie suggested should be consumed now.

Then purely for his own indulgence I’m sure, we tasted a Blanc de Blanc 2004 from Deutz which had beautiful finesse and elegance. A wine with vibrant acidity and an orchard of citrus fruit. The whole tasting didn’t last long, but it was more about quality than quanity in terms of what we needed to take away with us. The bottom line is you should not over look the quality of NV for Christmas lunch or the next time you’re looking to spoil the ambassador.

As the new Chief Winemaker at Jacob’s Creek, Bernard Hickin is at the forefront of Australian winemaking, supervising the process from vineyard to bottle.

Having grown up a city boy, albeit in a wine loving family, the idea of becoming a winemaker hadn’t really crossed Bernard’s mind. To end up in charge of Jacob’s Creek wines, one of the world’s largest brands, is an amazing achievement and a testimony to Bernard’s character and persistence.

While completing his degree, Bernard worked vintage at Berri Estate in South Australia’s Riverland with Brian Barry and Ian McKenzie. Working under two influential winemakers spurred Bernard on, and in 1976 he accepted his first job with Orlando Wines at their Griffith winery. During Bernard’s tenure with Orlando, the winery expanded and also refined its approach to winemaking. He oversaw the progressive move to sparkling wine production and varietal-labelled bottles, and worked tirelessly to produce the best possible wines from the region.  In 1987, Bernard’s passion for white, botrytis (dessert) and sparkling wine saw him permanently relocated to the Barossa winery as the new Operations Winemaker. In 1994 Bernard was made Senior White and Sparkling winemaker, and by 1997 had taken on the same responsibility for the entire group. Thriving on the attention to detail that is required to produce great sparkling wine, Bernard drove the quality standards to new high levels.

In 2006 Bernard was promoted to Chief Winemaker of Orlando Wines where he finds great satisfaction in honing and improving the company’s respected brands. With Jacob’s Creek as his primary focus, Bernard is driving the brand with a steady, considered hand, ensuring that from vine to bottle standards and quality is maintained.