Question: Travelling to London and the United Kingdom next month and would like your tip Sid on a local wine I should look for during my visit.

Answer: I would recommend looking for some of those Product of England much improved Sparkling wines. I have a soft spot for Nyetimber (www.nyetimber.com) as I know their winemakers Cherie Spriggs & Brad Greatrix  who studied at the Wine Research Centre  of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver before joining them in 2007. 100% Estate grown Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier from vineyards in Sussex & Hampshire result in complex fresh vintage bubbles as Classic Cuvee, Blanc de Blancs, Rose, Demi-Sec, and single vineyard Tillington – all worth trying! I admire their brave decision not to produce any English fizz at all in 2012 because they decided the quality of their fruit was not good enough. Information on other English wine producers to explore on your visit can be found on their website.

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Green asparagus is popular in North America but the milder more tender succulent white asparagus needs more love. More work to grow because the process requires mounding the earth around the stalk to deprive it of light which produces that green chlorophyll. Previously Germany had sent for a while their juicy Spargel to Canada but when the fresh quality of the shipments deteriorated the imports eventually stopped. Bigger size is better. Also tricky customs regulation hurdles to be able to bring in a product containing dirt from Europe. Nevertheless this didn’t worry the Dutch Consul General in Vancouver who rather than just celebrating the beautiful Spring tulips also held at his residence the First Dutch White Asparagus Festival in Vancouver in collaboration with Martens Asperges sponsor & the Confrerie de l’asperge Limbourgondie. Beautiful white thick impressive stalks imported for this event by Kuehne & Nagel and to be marketed in the future by www.ponderosa-mushrooms.com.  Chefs from the Hostellerie de Hamert in the Netherlands attended to prepare a wonderful 7 course lunch menu all matched well with a lively fresh 2014 Vivace Pinot Grigio by La Stella (www.lastella.ca) from the Okanagan Valley BC Canada. Thought you might appreciate knowing some of the diverse uses for this prized vegetable:

1. Cocktail Prince Willem-Alexander: Recipe created when King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands was born  on April 27, 1967 making a white asparagus cocktail with chicken, fresh orange slices, and curry/ginger mayonnaise

2. Dutch Gin marinated wild salmon with a tagliatelle of white asparagus & herbs

3. Creamy veloute soup of white asparagus

4. Steamed white asparagus with scallops, wild mushrooms, and slow cooked pork belly “smoked bacon”

5. Stir fried white asparagus with garlic seasoned Canadian lamb

6. White asparagus “Comme il faut” (Proper – or the way it is supposed to be eaten) with Livar boiled ham, boiled egg, small potatoes & asparagus-butter sauce

7. Dessert Dutch “Haagse Bluf” (Hague Bluff  – joke that people from Hague are full of hot air) Iced coffee with caramelized white asparagus, currants, and egg foam

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By Joseph Temple

You might have noticed over the past couple of years that more and more people are drinking bubbly Prosecco!  Whether as an aperitif or part of a Bellini cocktail, this crisp, refreshing and cost-friendly sparkling wine has taken the world by storm, outselling Champagne for the first time in 2013 with 307 million bottles!  In fact, Americans imported approximately 2.3 million cases in one year alone–up dramatically from just 500 cases less than a few decades ago.

So for this week’s entry, let’s have a closer look at this delightful Italian wine:

By TUBS [GFDL or CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

1. DOC & DOCG Prosecco is produced in the northeastern regions of Friuli-Venezia Giulia & Veneto.

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2. The two towns known for Prosecco – Valdobbiadene & Conegliano – are both sheltered by the Alps, making the area near and between them ideal for growing Prosecco grapes.

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By Jeff Kubina [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

3. Unlike Champagne’s secondary fermentation which takes place in the bottle, Prosecco is fermented in stainless steel tanks, which helps to make it more affordable.

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By James Cridland (Flickr: Champagne on ice) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

4. Prosecco comes in both lightly sparkling or frizzante & fully sparkling or spumante.

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By Jessica Spengler (Flickr: Prosecco with raspberries) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

5. Prosecco is known for its lower alcohol content (usually 11-12%) and its fruity aromas/flavors that can include apple, peach and apricot.

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By the_moment (Flickr: prosecco) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

 6. By 2008, nearly 60% of all Prosecco was produced outside its traditional regions in northeastern Italy.

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By paul Barker Hemings from seregno, 85 (P6130647) [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

7. That’s because Prosecco was determined by the grape variety and not the place of origin, allowing other countries the right to use the name.

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By Sandstein (Own work) [CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

8. This worried Italian vintners, who were very concerned that the Prosecco brand was being exploited just as it was starting to take off internationally.

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By John W. Schulze from Tejas (Prosecco vineyards) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

9. So in 2009, the Italian government declared that in order for a wine to be labelled Prosecco, it would have to be produced in a designated region.  Because of this decision, the name of the grape was changed from Prosecco to Glera.

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By Agne27 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

10. When buying a bottle, check the label closely.  The absolute best Prosecco is made near the hills between Conegliano and Valdobbiadene and will be labelled DOCG (denominazione di origine garantita). Bottles with a DOC on the label mean that they were probably made on the surrounding flats.

Sources:

Cortese, Amy (2008, Dec 26). Italian Makers of Prosecco Seek Recognition. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com
Ewing-Mulligan, Mary and McCarthy, Ed. Italian Wine for Dummies. Hoboken: Wiley Publishing Inc., 2011.
Faulkner, Jane (2012, Oct 1). Why prosecco is charming the world. Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from http://www.smh.com.au
Kapadia, Milanee (2014, Nov 24). Prosecco tops Champagne in bubbly sales. Yahoo Finance. Retrieved from http://finance.yahoo.com
Kinssies, Richard (2002, Jul 9). On Wine: Proseccos sparkle on their own terms. Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved from http://seattlepi.com
McCoy, Elin (2015, Feb 25). How to Find Prosecco That Isn’t Terrible. Bloomberg Business. Retrieved from http://www.bloomberg.com
Nowak, Barabara and Wichman, Beverly. The Everything Wine Book: From Chardonnay to Zinfandel, All You Need to Make the Perfect Choice. Avon: Adams Media, 2005.

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Question: Thanks Sid for the useful information on French wine appellation “protegee”. Would you kindly please update as well on Italian wine classifications?

Answer: The latest stats at the end of 2014 shows 523 quality wines recognized as follows:

DOCG – 73 with Controlled Designation of Origin Guaranteed  These are the highest produced in specific geographic wine regions already classified under DOC for at least 5 years.

DOC – 332 with Controlled Designation of Origin. This certifies that the wine has been produced from grapes harvested from a specific delimited wine area in accordance with specific production protocol.

IGT – 118 for wines with Protected Geographical Indication. These are for quality table wines from wider wine regions with a less restrictive protocol. Note it is also interesting that Italy presently also has 269 food products with recognition:

DOP (PDO in English) – 161 Protected Designation of Origin. Produced, processed and prepared in a given geographical area using recognised
know-how.

IGP (PGI in English)   –  106 Protected Geographical Indication. Closely linked to the geographical area with at least one of the stages of production, processing or preparation taking place there.

STG (TSG in English) –  2 Traditional Specialities Guarantee. Traditional character. There is the European brand of the green leaf BIO symbol for Organic agro-food products for foods and since 2010 for wines.

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Impressed by the increasing quality of sparkling wines available from around the globe. Champagne still remains the benchmark but lots of delightful different styles out there to try. One region the Gaspereau Valley in Nova Scotia Canada and one producer Benjamin Bridge (www.benjaminbridge.com/sparklings) have made amazing strides in the last decade.  I have been an enthusiastic supporter of them since my visit there on August 22, 2011 when I was blown away with this project and thought I would now alert you. I appreciated the passion, optimism and individual attention to cuvees shown by Winemaker Jean-Benoit Deslauriers and his team on that occasion. Couldn’t believe that such low Brix (18+), high acidity (14+), and low pH (around 3) aged some time on the lees would actually work so successfully. Tried the recently disgorged samples from the 2004 vintage which were eye openers. Blanc de Blancs 100% Chardonnay (only 200 bottles) with no malo & no dosage showed crisp citrusy verve and “lemon juice at the beginning but you have to wait for it” potential and now really coming into its own. 100% Blanc de Noirs with full malo was more open yeasty brioche from the lees and showing creamy softness warranting their optimism. Even a 2008 blend of 65 Chardonnay & 35 Pinot Noir showed the benefits of very late harvesting producing clean expanding mouth coating fruit.

Last week in Vancouver provided an update with the visiting Jean-Benoit showing his new releases including fun aromatic coastal Tidal Bay appellation 2014 whites and floral fresh big seller Nova 7 with the ever changing 11-12 grape varieties. The star among the current sparklers was his 2008 Brut Reserve (61% Chardonnay & 39% Pinot Noir disgorged June 2014) the favourite of now deceased (2013) oenologist consultant Raphael Brisbois (ex Piper-Heidsieck) showing incredible richness combined with freshness. There was structure, full volume and aromatic honey intensity from low yields & phenolic ripeness being the key. Already great but can age and still develop further nuances of complexity.  World class bubbles! Check it out.

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