Image: nyetimber.com

By Joseph Temple

Just an hour’s drive south of London, along a ring of chalk and limestone, it’s safe to say that the future is indeed looking very bubbly. After beating the Champenois at their own game in numerous international competitions (while reaping a whirlwind of publicity), English fizz has risen like a phoenix. In fact, across the counties of Kent, West Sussex, East Sussex, and Hampshire, nearly two thirds of all bottles produced today are sparkling. And experts predict that approximately six million bottles of British bubbly will be available for purchase by 2023. From a very niche product to one that is currently exported to a record 27 countries, some have even opined that English sparkling wine, arguably on par with the best Champagne houses in France, is greatly undervalued – especially given its geographical constraints.

Of course, for those of us who live on the other side of the pond and think the term ‘English wine’ is an oxymoron, it probably seems surreal that there are now over 500 commercial vineyards operating on British soil. Not only that, but these vineyards are giving the French a run for their money with their award-winning bubbles.

Simply put: How did this all happen?

In trying to identify a key turning point in the two thousand year history of English wine, one needs only to travel back to 1988. The same year that Margaret Thatcher became the longest serving British prime minister of the twentieth century also turned out to be the year that the first vines of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Pinot Meunier were planted on a property recorded in the Domesday Book and once owned by Anne of Cleves, the fourth wife of Henry VIII. Ironically, it wasn’t even an Englishman who planted them.

Noticing that the 438 acres that surrounded the 11^th-century Nyetimber Manor shared an almost identical climate and geology with the region of Champagne, Sandy and Stuart Moss of Chicago decided to bring in French experts to assess the region’s potential. Realizing that the greensand soil was near perfect for sparkling wine, the American couple moved full steam ahead with their trailblazing vision. According to Oz Clarke, “Everybody told them they should plant apples—bureaucrats always say that; we’d have no Marlborough Sauvignon from New Zealand, no Oregon Pinot Noir, if the true believers believed them.”

Living up to its potential—and then some—Nyetimber’s 1992 Premiere Cuvee Blanc de Blanc, its very first vintage, ended up winning an international gold medal in 1996. But the estate proved it was no fluke when two years later, its Classic Cuvee 1993 won the trophy for best sparkling wine in the world. Given all the accolades, it was no surprise that Queen Elizabeth II chose Nyetimber for her fiftieth wedding anniversary, helping to solidify their brand as England’s most recognizable sparkling wine.

Fast forward to today and the vines that were first planted nearly three decades ago have grown to become a multi-billion dollar enterprise as hundreds of other vintners (including some French wineries) decided to follow in the footsteps of the Mosses. While Nyetimber’s Blanc de Blanc is described by one writer as “light and lithe with fabulous length,” the Classic is “breadier with bright acidity and a crisp clarity and pure zesty orange fruit to it.” So if you ever get a chance, try a glass of the wine that has redefined the world of bubbly!

Sources:

Clarke, Oz. The History of Wine in 100 Bottles: From Bacchus to Bordeaux and Beyond. London: Pavilion Books, 2015.
Harvey, David. Grape Britain: A Tour of Britains Vineyards. Castle Douglas: Neil Wilson Publishing, 2011.
Time Out. Time Out Kent & Sussex. London: Time Out Guides, 2011.

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Question: Saw you across the room on Monday at the BC Sommelier of the Year competition finals. Wanted to get your thoughts about how they used a candle flame for the decanting service.

Answer: Sorry I missed speaking with you there. Wonderful very difficult competition organized by The Canadian Association of Professional Sommeliers BC Chapter. Really enjoyed the finals with the top 3 each being given 18 stressful minutes to orally give their impressions on 7 glasses served blind – 4 wine and 3 mixed drinks. Also only 3 minutes to point out the errors in a specially made-up many mistakes full wine list page with spelling, region and pricing etc. The decanting of the magnum of wine went well. Perhaps prefer using a magnum decanter rather than 2 smaller ones. Not a big fan of the candle use for decanting because of the resulting smells. My thoughts were that I didn’t think that lighting and especially extinguishing the candle flame right at the dining table was the best method to use. Prefer it to be lit and extinguished away from the table. Otherwise it leaves behind some smoky odours that may detract from your enjoyment of the bouquet of the wine. Prefer using a bright flashlight that avoids this issue.

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The Okanagan region in British Columbia is finally emerging as not only capable of producing excellent white wines but also red. Plantings increased in the nineties for the most southerly areas and are now resulting in better red wines from aged vines fruit. One of the leaders has been Black Hills Estate Winery iconic Nota Bene (means “note well”) Bordeaux-blend style “Single Vineyard, Terroir Specific” red wine from vineyards planted starting in 1996 on Black Sage Bench. Sandy desert soils with hot summer temperatures that can reach 46C but cool down to 10C in the evening results in a broad range that protects the acidity of the grapes and allows for longer hang time for them to reach phenolic ripeness. Using sustainable farming practices with suitable multiple clonal selection of 4 different cabernet sauvignon, 4 merlot and 2 cabernet franc has provided flavour diversity with depth. President Glenn Fawcett plus Winemaker Graham Pierce with the whole competent wine team deserve a lot of credit for their dedicated hands on approach to tending, picking, & sorting in the vineyards and quality evolution in the winery using less extractive methods. Your scribe has attended several verticals of their wines with the most recent one being at Whistler’s Cornucopia on November 12, 2016 and here are some brief impressions:

1999: First one of only 1600 cases from 4th leaf vines was from a very difficult vintage made by Rusty Figgins a member of the family that founded Washington’s famed Leonetti Cellar. Light mature colour showing gamey, earthy tobacco & brown sugar from 64% merlot but 26% cab sauv green not ripe enough.

2003: Hot year higher alcohol riper 46% cab sauv (34% merlot 20 cab franc) made by Senka Tennant (now has Terravista Vineyards) expresses black olives, blackberry, graphite and those signature sage herbs.

2004: Normal year was quite herbaceous when young and has developed more quickly – ready now.

2005: Better balance and more flavour depth here of raspberry with some black fruits too. Like this. Developing well.

2006: Year the winery opened but much more herbal minty “oven cooked tomatoes” spice. 14.7

2009: Conveyor belt berry sorting line and new press for 2nd year of Graham Pierce winemaking. Lovely rich black cherry fruit impresses. Potential here.

2013: Prefer the moderate alcohol of 13.7 and the grape variety balance of 48 cab sauv, 41 merlot, and 11 cab franc. Now in 18th leaf with better aged vines noted. Better selected quality fruit now because of Cellar Hand second label that was started in 2011. Texture and smoother tannins admirable. Elegance.

2014: Extended barrel aging program started. Still tight but amazing concentrated plummy fruit with softer integrated tannins carrying the high 14.9 alcohol well. Quality richness here.

As 2015 had good weather with a long growing season & in 2016 the crop looked good during picking and in barrel both vintages are sending signs of consistency and the best may be still to come. Another Nota Bene vertical is scheduled at the upcoming 39th Vancouver International Wine Festival (vanwinefest.ca) on Wednesday February 15, 2017 showing 9 vintages from 1999-2014. Highly recommend.

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By Joseph Temple

Whether you love him or hate him, there’s simply no denying that Robert Parker has left—and is still leaving—an enormous footprint on the world of wine. From the wineries that plaster his 100-point score on their bottles to the bookstores and online retailers that sell the latest edition of his Wine Buyer’s Guide, to say that Parker is ubiquitous would be an understatement. Nearly forty years after publishing the first issue of The Wine Advocate (known then as The Baltimore-Washington Wine Advocate), his status has been etched in stone as the world’s preeminent critic with former French president Jacques Chirac describing him as “the man who taught America about French wine.”

Given such an impressive resume, it makes you wonder how a regular guy from Baltimore ended up becoming the ultimate authority on Bordeaux? With all the prejudices Europeans exhibited towards Americans and their wine habits back then, how did someone like Parker rise to great notoriety in such a short amount of time? Thankfully, author Elin McCoy provides all these answers in her fascinating 2005 biography aptly titled The Emperor of Wine: The Rise of Robert M. Parker Jr., and the Reign of American Taste. By speaking to the man himself as well as many other prominent figures, McCoy excels at painting a fascinating picture of both Parker and the landscape he completely altered.

Starting with his early life, the author provides plenty of insight that oenophiles will no doubt find fascinating. Anyone thinking that Parker’s first sip came from the bottle of Pétrus or Romanée-Conti will be shocked to learn that the infamous André Cold Duck from Gallo was the first wine he ever tasted. However, members of the International Wine & Food Society will be glad to know that as Parker began his wine education, some of the first books he read on the subject were by IW&FS founder André Simon!

Providing context to Parker’s formative years, McCoy shows just how far Americans in general have come in terms of their collective wine knowledge. Writing about a local wine shop in 1950s Georgetown where Parker cut his teeth, she recalls a humorous situation involving the in-house French sommelier that recommended a dry table wine. “How can it be dry? It’s liquid,” was the response from one customer. And moving into the early 1970s, readers might be surprised to learn just how big of a divide there was in terms of wine tastes. While Americans living on the west coast generally preferred local California wines, the Eastern Establishment had little to no interest in their own domestic market, believing that France and only France knew how to make the great vintages.

Working as a lawyer in Washington DC before launching his now legendary newsletter in 1978, again, the author shows us how important historical events were in shaping Parker’s career. Living under the shadow of Watergate and Vietnam, he envisioned himself as the Ralph Nader of wine, exposing a corrupt system where writers recommended wines that they were importing and selling at the same time – a clear conflict of interest that wasn’t being disclosed to their readers. Embarking on a completely different strategy, The Baltimore-Washington Wine Advocate separated itself from the herd by not accepting any advertising dollars while paying for all the wines they reviewed out of their own pockets.

Of course, what revolutionized the entire industry was Parker’s trailblazing 100-point system for rating wines. As the author explains, “Now that so many other publications, as well as retailers, have adopted the same system it’s hard to realize how unusual it seemed at the time. Other wine publications in Americas didn’t bother with numbers at all, relying on categories or puffs or starts to convey levels of quality.” Tracing back the origins of this system, we learn that Parker’s team considered grades from A to F but ended up with an evolution of the 20-point system created by the oenology department at the University of California, Davis. But in reality, it is actually a 50 to 100-point system, as Parker explains that every wine automatically gets 50 points just for showing up.

What enshrined his legacy however was the 1982 Bordeaux vintage, which he predicted, “will go down in the annals of Bordeaux wine history … they are destined to be some of the greatest wines produced in this century.” Using his newsletter as a bully pulpit, the wine critic single-handedly gave the futures market a much-needed shot in the arm with his raving endorsement. Interestingly, while oenophiles are almost universal in their praise of that vintage today, many critics and magazines back then, including The Wine Spectator argued that buyers should focus on other vintages with Terry Robards arguing that the ’79 was superior. But given Parker’s independence and a slew of hyped vintages from the 1970s that never delivered, the ’82 Bordeaux is when wine aficionados en masse began to trust Parker as the ultimate source—a trust that continues on to this day.

With such great power has also come great criticism, which McCoy doesn’t shy away from in her book. Digging into what his detractors (aka the Parker bashers) have argued, including the allegations that he only likes a certain style and that he has created the “Coca-colonization” of wine, it is one of the most interesting chapters. Even more fascinating was what became known as L’Affair Faiveley where the Domaine sued Parker for libel only to have the matters settled out of court. As you read through The Emperor of Wine, you can definitely see why he is such a polarizing figure, being referred to as “Le Grand Bob,” “The Wine Dictator,” and “His Bobness” by a host of critics.

And then there are all the great anecdotes that you’ll want to share with others at your next wine tasting. Like did you know that Parker’s nose is insured for a million dollars? Or that winery owners have tried to bribe him with Porsches, vacations and even their own daughters in order to get a good rating? Surprisingly, it was cool to see that Parker was really ahead of the curve when he signed up with Prodigy back in 1988 as their resident wine expert, long before the Internet explosion that transformed both the wine business and society as a whole. These great stories alone make the book a worthwhile read.

As the most concise and thorough biography of Robert Parker on the bookshelves today, The Emperor of Wine is an essential read for oenophiles because it is not only a great history of the man, but also a great history of American wine culture over the past five decades. With the balance of power shifting towards the United States at the end of twentieth century, it almost was inevitable that someone like Parker, who McCoy described as “a regular guy writing for other regular guys who just happened to be passionate about wine” would rise to the top.

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By Piarou (Own work) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Question: What does the word “garrigue” often seen in wine tasting notes supposed to indicate?

Answer: It means that special smell of fragrant floral wild plants growing in the south of France. The expression really refers to all the multifaceted aromas from those wide variety of different herbs including rosemary, thyme, lavender, juniper and the like. It resembles a sort of super “bouquet garni” package of aromatic “herbes de Provence” you see used in cooking recipes. It can be an appropriate wine word especially to describe many wines from Southern Rhone, Languedoc and of course Provence.

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