Question: What in your opinion are the more recent best quality vintages of Brunello di Montalcino for cellaring?
Answer: Quite subjective but I would recommend those amazing 2010s followed by 2006 & 2004 from the last decade. More current best years this decade include the very classic 2016 that should age well for a long time. Some excellent 2015 wines but in an more approachable style for earlier drinking. 2017 was a more difficult drought year with a smaller crop showing good structure with lots of tannins compared to the harmony of 2018 and the 2019 with a very large crop. Lots of good choices.
Fond memories during this lock down looking back 50 years to the earlier days that first sparked my continuing passion for fine wine. The year 1970 was this scribe’s first visit to Bordeaux. Those were the good old days of few tourists with most wine merchants located along the Quai de Bacalan in the Chartrons district. They all had time in those days to spend with a curious taster and this was my first meeting with many of them who turned into long term friends. The most instrumental on this trip was Rene Barriere whose firm had almost an exclusive on what turned out to be several top properties he sold to Belgium including L’Arrosee & L’Eglise Clinet. Rene kindly allocated a case of 1961 L’Eglise Clinet (cost $6.05/bottle) one of the Pomerols not replanted after those 1956 frosts which turned out to be a legendary wine treasure.
Subsequently acquired from Barriere many wines from the successful 1970 vintage which provided a lot of enjoyment and knowledge over the years. Many experiences adoring cellar worthy 1970 Chateau Grand Puy Lacoste yet learning early on about both bottle variation and scores as Robert Parker’s first Bordeaux book (1985) scored it only 74 stating it was inconsistent and “not up to the standards of the vintage” though in subsequent editions in 1991 was raised to 90 & in 1998 to 91 “convinced the off bottles had been cooked.” Also always a big fan of classic 1970 Latour, Ducru-Beaucaillou, Palmer and Lynch Bages. The vintage was hyped on arrival coming after very poor years of 1969 & 1968. Harry Waugh in his “What to drink in 1973” for IWFS remarked that “the excellent 1970 clarets had already doubled in price with world demand and speculation – how much of the 1970 vintage was bought by people who really mean to drink it?” Great foresight by him that applies to lots of subsequent vintages over the last 50 years! Some of us feel the 1970 vintage is slightly underrated overall because it has no super star holding the vintage banner high for it in the same way you have 49 Cheval Blanc, 59 Lafite, 61 Palmer, and 89 Haut Brion among so many other top years.
During the first half of this unique pandemic year your scribe has had the opportunity to study quite few different 1970 Bordeaux over dinner. They now are mature lighter (most don’t list alcohol on the labels and those that do say 12 degrees) drier with more acidity and yet so perfectly paired with food. They still retain interest in this style with that special complex elegance that Bordeaux does so well. So much fun to open old bottles and still be surprised as to how long they have aged successfully. A rare treat. They may not be the choice for those that prefer younger riper bigger fruit wines which also can be impressive but often more difficult to drink and taking a much more assertive role when matched with accompanying food. Probably most consumers would prefer somewhere in the middle where there is still prominent fruit left but also a harmony of coming together with softening tannins and tertiary notes. Experiment to learn your own aged preferences.
Some brief 1970 wine notes on 9 bottles:
CUVÉE DE LA COMMANDERIE DU BONTEMPS: A Medoc AC wine of “4670 bouteilles” bottled by Cordier at St. Julien-Beychevelle that seemed a lot like Chateau Talbot – a beautiful surprise indeed.
CHÂTEAU D’ANGLUDET: This Sichel Margaux always starts out with more colour than Palmer but now is coarser with the fruit dried out. Drink up. 83 & 85 holding better and current vintages excellent value.
CHÂTEAU CHASSE-SPLEEN: Favourite underrated Moulis & never disappoints with fruit roundness. Delightful now.
CHÂTEAU MOUTON-BARON-PHILIPPE: Several name changes from this to Mouton-Baronne-Philippe and back again to D’Armailhac. More of a baby Mouton back in those days than now but lighter elegant cedar of Pauillac.
CHÂTEAU GRAND PUY LACOSTE: Always found this property to deliver excellent quality for the price and balanced for extended aging. Big collector. Picked earlier but captured a lot of Pauillac character and vintage style that continues to delight.
CHÂTEAU LYNCH BAGES: Bigger richer subtle spiced fruit that still carries on well. Michael Broadbent captured it in his The Great Vintage Wine Book noted “Cabernet aroma, ripe fruitiness, cinnamon overtones, loads of tannin and acidity. Long life ahead.” So appropriate.
CHÂTEAU DUCRU-BEAUCAILLOU: Still a deep dark look with paling rim. Impressive fruit as one of the top 1970s for sure this Super Second. Wonderful textbook St. Julien that really sings with roast duck tacos!
CHÂTEAU PALMER: One of the great acquisitions by Peter Adams consultant for BC LDB and sold for $11.50 in December 1975. High praise for this property in 70, 66, and 61 – and many more current vintages too. Also really like their 1989 (and 1983). Merlot and cab skillfully blended to great effect for other-worldly bouquet and smooth textures is still so enjoyable.
CHÂTEAU LATOUR: First Growth level. Underrated in classic old style wine making that will still get better IMHO. Some wine writers say it is going down hill but bottle variation again. Well stored bottles can really impress with their typical density and that acidity balance keeping the wine fresh so finally coming around to greatness.
Question: What is the unusual grape that they use in producing Valtellina red wine?
Answer: Nebbiolo. However in this part of Lombardy Italy the local moniker for the grape is the more unusual CHIAVENNASCA rather than Nebbiolo which is better known and used in Barbaresco & Barolo.
Cool climate is becoming ironically even a “hotter” topic than when this focused wine discussion first started out in Ontario ten years ago. Climate change has been a really important issue this last decade and continues to be so including especially for grape vineyards. This year’s i4C conference had three webinars (called homeschool edition) highlighting “a decade of cool” with some thought provoking key speakers July 17-19, 2020. Next year is scheduled July 23-25, 2021 – same opening date as postponed Japan Olympics.
ANDREW JEFFORD opened by stating cool climate (defined as having a seven month median temperature below 16C or 61F & 1500 Growing Degree Days) “by itself is not enough” but you want your place to be a best distinguished terroir site. The grail is not cool climate but pleasure & charm in your wine being “deliciously cool”! He examined in more detail the regions of Chablis, Saar Germany, and Alsace as cool regions but just making delicious wine.
MATT KRAMER followed reflecting back over 42 years of writing before there were cool climate discussions suggesting it was more a New World concept. Tried to define it by looking at ripeness factors including high acidity and differences between style & character but felt it was best summed up as “where it is not a sure thing to ripen”.
IAN D’AGATA with some difficulty of sound/video break-up cited historical climate change data back to 1760 but more recently the warmer winters for pest concerns and freaky extremes including floods, fires and the like.
KAREN MACNEIL pondered what is “ripeness” (what is truth?) and when does flavour click in. Can’t say move to Carneros as the answer or just pick early and call it cool climate. Perhaps too many “talk the cool talk but don’t walk it.”
A good dialogue followed with MK raising the influence of the accompaniment of food and AJ the actual drinking of wine as an experience rather than just tasting it with the place it is from being key as coming first to mind. Moderator Magdalena Kaiser boldly put the four speakers to task on seeking out their opinion of Ontario chardonnays. All were laudatory with MK finding distinctive “minerality” especially in Prince Edward County that is hard to find this style in California, Oregon & Washington. KM loved the maximum flavour with minimum weight – energy tension “ballet watching”. IDA born in Canada couldn’t find these in Italy with world class chardonnay balanced acidity communicating the essence of the site specific land. AJ finds impressive chardonnay around the world but often hard to drink with no non-European doing it as well in a soft, supple subtle enjoyable drinking. High praise indeed.
A second panel with Canadians of regional representation included JOHN SZABO (Ontario), TREVE RING (BC), BRAD ROYALE (Alberta), and VERONIQUE RIVEST (Quebec) who all did an admirable job at trying to examine further this undefinable “cool climate”. They looked at charts of GROWING DEGREE DAYS for the 7 months of April 1 to October 31 using the mean temperature per month (less 10C) times the number of days in that month to get a total. The range of 14 regions shown was from Epernay (Champagne) low 1050 to South Okanagan of high 1552 (North Okanagan shown at 1325). However when you examine it closely obviously this can’t be the total answer to cool climate because Beaune is 1315 but warm Napa at 1450 is lower than both cool Niagara Peninsula (1485) & Geisenheim Germany at 1550. Therefore they looked at a Washington State chart on soil temperatures clearly showing grass surface 3.7C lower than Basalt stones (20.7-24.4) but also subsurface of them 3C (22.2-25.2) . Also the importance of latitude as well as altitude & elevation, diurnal swings (more important in hot regions), bodies of water, winds, and sunshine hours. JS made a great point that sunshine used to be your friend always wanting more but now “is sunshine the new rain?” as can be too much of it. Canopy covers have become important and “berry temperature” is the key or “photon flux density” to your resulting fruit in the vineyard. A final third less formal more fun casual social tasting of Ontario wines with John Szabo & MICHAEL GODEL concluded this most educational virtual conference. Very well done indeed!
The full 1 1/2 hour keynote video and second seminar are below:
Question: Which wine regions and grape varieties dominate in New Zealand?
Answer: Presently Marlborough dominates with 70% of the producing vineyard area followed next by Hawke’s Bay and then Central Otago, Canterbury, Gisborne, Nelson and Wairarapa. As everyone knows the main grape variety is Sauvignon Blanc with over 60% of the planted vines followed by Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Merlot, Riesling and Syrah.
