Guinness measured it and found it to be the world’s largest wine glass: 2.4 metres high and 1.65 metres wide, made by a group of Lebanese winemakers to promote their products, half of which are exported. Cheers! And good luck getting a manageable sip. For thier efforts, here’s a little information on Lebanese wines:

It’s one of the world’s oldest wine-producing nations, and claims to be the oldest, but in the past decade, the number of new wineries has increased dramatically. Grape varieties, according to wikipedia: “Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Rhone varietals such as Cinsaut, Carignan and Grenache. However Lebanon has a rich heritage of indigenous grapes which are attracting more attention, for instance Musar White is made from a blend of Obaideh and Merwah.” The Wall Street Journal wrote a good feature article on the current state of the business in early 2009.

For more information on Lebanese wines: the Vinifest 2010 web site for the just-ended festival with the world’s largest glass and a description (Fre) of the Route du Vin.

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Ten Swiss Syrah wines have brought home awards from the Mondial du Syrah in Ampuis, France 2-4 June. They were among the 130 prize-winning wines, with 37 golds and 93 silvers.

The one gold award went to Vins des Chevaliers SA for its barrel-aged Valais AOC Syrah 2008 (Patrick Z’Brun).

Silver medal winners:

barrel-aged Valais AOC Syrah Martigny Les Serpentines 2008
Cave Gerald and Patricia Besse

(barrel) Valais AOC – Tonneliers Syrah 2008
Robert Gilliard SA
Hansueli Pfenninger

(barrel) Syrah du Valais AOC – Diego Mathier 2009
Adrian Mathier – Nouveau Salquenen AG
Diego Mathier

(barrel) Valais AOC Syrah Grandmaître – Barrique 2009
Gregor Kuonen – Caveau de Salquenen
François Kuonen

(barrel) Valais AOC – Clos Combe d’Uvrier 2008
Frederic Varone Vins
Philippe Varone

(barrel) Valais AOC Syrah 2006
Cave Antoine et Christophe Betrisey
Antoine Betrisey

(barrel) Valais AOC – Syrah Selection 2009
Robert Gilliard SA
Hansueli Pfenninger

(the only winning Syrah from Switzerland that is not matured in barrel) Valais AOC Syrah 2008
Badoux Vins
Daniel Dufaux

(barrel) Valais AOC – Terre Vivante Vieux Salquenen 2009
Gregor Kuonen – Caveau de Salquenen
François Kuonen

(barrel) Valais AOC Syrah Les Mazots 2008
Maurice Gay SA
Claude Crittin

Store it properly or you could end up uncorking plonk: 1981 Chateau Mouton Rothschild

Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Filip Opdebeeck was struggling three years ago to convince people that his idea of renting out space to store wine in a former bank vault on the Rue du Rhone in Geneva would work. He was certain the city holds enough people living in apartments without decent wine storage space, who like good wine, want to own bottles and be able to select one for dinner. I wrote an article about him after meeting him at Arvinis, the wine fair in Morges in April 2007, where he was working with Domaine des Muses, one of Switzerland’s top wineries. A lot of potential clients, he told me when I met him, would be people working in the financial industry in Geneva – people who would understand about risk, consumption, and who would enjoy the idea that they were either getting pleasure from drinking their fine wines, or enjoy the investment risk of stocking some that might go up in value.

Your average Geneva wine-lover has nowhere to store fine bottles at home

But  he was adament that it was  not just a well-heeled group of investment-oriented people or snobs who would buy his idea: he was looking for those who simply love good wine and have nowhere to store it properly, and who want to have access to their wines. I was struck by his arguments, for I spent seven years in apartments in Paris where there was no space and the temperature was always far too warm to keep good wine. I wrote about wine and traveled in France, and to my great frustration buying a bottle that would be good in two or three years was never an option. Buying six was even less of an option!

When I moved to Switzerland I lived in an apartment that came with a cave, or storage room, but the building’s heating pipes ran through it. I mistakenly stored what should have been a beautiful top line 1981 Bordeaux there, which taught me a sad lesson.

The ex-pat who leaves town can’t always take his wine with him

Opdebeeck believed another group in the Geneva area would be interested: expats who have bought fine wines while living in Switzerland, then move away. They store their wines with him, paying a reasonable monthly fee. They can ask him, from abroad, to add to their holdings and ship in small or large quantities, as desired.

Those among the international population who have discovered the beauty of learning about Swiss wines by traveling around the country and bringing back a carton each time, the Geneva storage vault offers a nice option for managing their stock. Opdebeeck knows his fine Swiss wines, as well as world wines.

Opdebeeck called the business, which he opened in 2007, Au Bonheur du Vin.

One part of it is a bourse, where people can buy or sell their wines. Opdebeeck, who is an oenologist and who earlier worked as a rep for some of Switzerland’s best wineries, counsels buyers.

His faith in the business model has paid off, if the New York Times has it right, and in any event the article which  has just appeared, featuring his buy-store-have delivered business is bound to be a wonderful bit of publicity for this young (30) entrepreneur. Bravo, Filip!

Au Bonheur du Vin
+41 22 310 7980
info@aubonheurduvin.ch

Christie‘s had a good week, as did Sotheby‘s, in Geneva, with sales of fine jewels netting the two nearly CHF100 million in sales. The diamond sales makes the price of a fine bottle of wine dim a bit, but nevertheless, the CHF109,250 ($98,951) paid at Christie’s wine auction at the Four Season’s Hotel des Bergues Tuesday 11 May set a record for the wine and was nearly twice the estimated pre-auction price. Six bottles of Hermitage, La Chapelle went for that price, sold to a private, unnamed Asian investor (and/or drinker of wine).

We can’t improve on Christie’s description but we can dream about drinking this fine Syrah:

Hermitage, La Chapelle–Vintage 1961
Rhône. Domaine-bottled: Paul Jaboulet Aîné
Recent release from the Domaine. Offered in a new original wooden case of six bottles from the domaine. Excellent appearance. Levels: five at 2,5cms or better and one at 3.5cms

Tasting note: This is unquestionably one of the greatest wines made in the twentieth century. In the two dozen tastings where I have had the 1961 La Chapelle, I rated it 100 points twenty times. The opaque purple/garnet color is accompanied by spectacular aromatics representing the essence of old vine Syrah (smoked meat, pepper, hoisin sauce, and soy).

As the wine sits in the glass, notions of pepper, new saddle leather, grilled meat, and awesome levels of blackberry, plum, and black currant liqueur-like notes emerge. Extremely unctuous, with compelling concentration and purity, this full-bodied, seamless, mouthfilling 1961 is truly immortal. It still possesses a freshness and vigor that defy its nearly forty years of age. It should continue to drink well for two more decades. Prodigious stuff! 100 Points. Robert Parker, Wine Advocate # 129 (Jun 2000)

It’s $10,000 a bottle if you’re lucky enough to put your hands on one of the 54 bottles of Gordon & MacPhail’s recently released Mortlach 70-year-old whisky, the oldest bottled single malt whisky in the world, the company says. These are the standard 700ml bottles, so if this is out of your price range, don’t lose heart: the company just corked 162 smaller bottles, 200ml, which go for £2,500 each.

The whisky has aged since 15 October 1938 in an ex-bodega sherry hogshead cask made from Spanish oak. The cask was emptied and the whisky put in elegant tear-drop shaped bottles and closed with premium cork from Corticeira Amorim in Portugal. No skimping for this product, start to finish. It is sold in a beautiful wooden case.

“We believe Mortlach 70 years old is a malt without comparison,” say David and Michael Urquhart, the joint managing directors of Gordon & MacPhail.

Here is what the family says about itself and its fine whiskies: “Gordon & MacPhail is an independent, family-owned spirit and wine merchant who have been based in Elgin, Moray, since 1895. Four generations of the Urquhart family have continued the tradition of seeking out the best and rarest Scotch whiskies. Since its foundation, Gordon & MacPhail’s policy has been to send casks to distilleries throughout Scotland, fill them with ‘new make’ spirit and mature them either at the distillery of origin or in the firm’s own bonded warehouses in Elgin.”

The Whisky Exchange sells it online; you might want to read their tasting notes first (it does sound quite good).

Almost an antique: 1981 Chateau Mouton Rothschild

There are two types of wine investors: those who buy wines they want to explore, and who set them aside for later when the sensory value will have increased, and those who buy, gambling that the price will rise neatly. The investors will either sell it or open the bottle when it is time to impress someone, a second business transaction.

“Wine Investment and the Financial Crisis”: plenty of money, little drinking

A research paper published in 2009 and updated in March 2010 by University of Fribourg economics professor Jean-Philippe Weisskopf and co-author Philippe Masset has been making the news around the world, but wine lovers should beware that it’s about the second group, the investors. “Raise your Glass: Wine Investment and the Financial Crisis” , reviews how wine auction prices performed from 1996-2009 in order to determine if wine was a better investment than shares during this period. They concluded that wine was indeed a good investment, confirming popular media reports: “Our findings show that the inclusion of wine in a portfolio and, especially more prestigious wines, increases the portfolio’s returns while reducing its risk, particularly during the financial crisis.”

The study covers a longer period than earlier ones and includes “two significant economic boom phases (1996-2001 and 2003-2007) as well as two major economic and financial crises (2001-2003 and 2007-2009).”

My initial reaction: this is bad news for lovers of fine wine, with investors driving prices so high that top wines are often unavailable to all but the very wealthy – who are not necessarily winelovers.

Read more…

Associated Women in Wine in Switzerland in 2008, touring the vineyards above Sion, Valais

The role of women in wine-making continues to grow as women become oenologists and run vineyards in ever larger numbers in most wine-making countries. The shift has natural roots in family wineries, where women have always played a role, as well as in the growing tendency for women to be the main buyers of wine.

The Swiss group, Artisanes de la vigne et du vin, women who produce wine in Switzerland, was given responsibility for communications by the International Associated Women in Wine (IAWIW) at its annual meeting, held in Spain in January. The organization brings together women who produce wine in several countries, to facilitate exchanges, but also to promote the intelligent consumption of wine. Greece was elected to the presidency of the group for the next three years, led by winemaker Mary-Irene Triantafillou Pitsaki. Women from France, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Spain were also elected to the board of directors of IAWIW.

The Swiss group will hold its annual meeting in Mont-sur-Rolle in March, home to producer Coraline de Wurstemberger of Domaine Dames de Haut Cour. The Artisanes group actively promotes the work of women winemakers in Switzerland.

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The rosé wine producers of France, Italy and Spain have won their battle with the European Union to ensure that rosé wine remains the unblended specialty it currently is. This is good news for consumers, for rosé can be an excellent wine, but its reputation is not helped by cheaper, less interesting blended wines. The Telegraph in the UK runs a good article giving the background on the fight to maintain this as a wine made soley from red grapes.

Not everyone agrees, and perhaps they are right that a change in the law might not have forced the French to lower their standards. Belgian wine writer Hervé Lalau, president of the Federation of Wine Journalists, recently wrote to his fellow journalists:

“87% of the French people are opposed to the European project authorising the blending of white and red wines to make rosé”, says an IFOP-poll. Even if this wine were less expensive than today’s rosé, only 14% of the French would be willing to buy it”.

My question:

Do the French people in this poll know that Champagne rosés are white & red blends;  and if so,

a) How come they buy rosé Champagne today?

b) Will they keep on buying it?

Coming next: some of those wonderful pink wines from the south of France, just in time for summer. We may not all love the French for their attitudes about wine, but we definitely love much of their wine!

Winter is a lovely time for drinking wine, and let’s be clear, drinking is not the same as tasting. We’ve had guests in the mountains, where we opened big hearty red wines from Spain to have with roasts, and other friends with whom we compared fendants from Valais over raclette (cheese melted over potatoes) next to a roaring fire. We’ve sipped elegant and classic Salquenen Pinot Noirs with roast chicken, on our own, and drunk exciting Pinot Noirs from Vaud with spicier foods. I don’t remember if we had guests or not, it was that good.

Now I’m back to tasting and visiting vineyards. As a result, you’ll be seeing more of me here again. Swirl, smell, sip, chew (okay, only some of the time) and spit it out. Over and over, for numerous wines. It’s a different sport from drinking.

The wine season is upon us, with 2008 wines being bottled: winemakers are asking for the world’s opinions. Most of the time I write in “Among the Vines” about Swiss wines because I think it’s the world’s loss that they are too little known.

This time, however, it’s Bordeaux in my glass. At the end of the first week in April I went to Saint Emilion to write an article for a US travel magazine called France Today, about the annual circus that surrounds the Bordeaux primeurs – the tastings and price negotiations that surround the newly bottled Bordeaux wines that won’t be sold to most people for at least another couple years.

I drink Bordeaux, and was once even told that if only I would agree to marry a man on the spot he would take me to the best restaurant in Paris and buy me a fine old bottle of one of the best Bordeaux wines (remarkably, I turned him down). But I had never tasted the primeurs, or new wines which are still in their barrels.

I decided to concentrate on Saint Emilion, the little cousin to giant Médoc. The latter was bound to be too busy because that’s where the bulk of the 1,000 or so journalists plus négotiants, or brokers, spend the primeurs week. I thought it would be easier, in a production area that is relatively cozy and manageable, to see how serious wine journalists handle the daunting task of writing notes on hundreds of new wines. I wanted to listen in when the brokers, merchants and producers talked prices. Bordeaux sells €3.4 billion of wine a year, more than a third of that for export, and it accounts for 2.3 percent of the world’s wine production. In wine drinker numbers, Bordeaux produces 258 million bottles of still wine a year.

By comparison, the entire Swiss wine production is about one-tenth of what Bordeaux produces.

Médoc is big vineyards with big names. Saint Emilion has a few big names, such as Chateau Angelus, but it is a patchwork of much smaller vineyards, each with a chateau in the centre of the vines. From any vantage point on this mostly flat land you can see dozens of these family-size operations.

Burdeaux budding: drinkable starting in 2013

Just as in the larger production areas, the problem is to know where to begin. I started at my host’s, at Chateau Corbin. The owner, young Annabelle Bardinet Cruse, is a very serious and reputable producer who is working hard to bring her grandmother’s vineyards and old home back to their former glory, after some years of semi-neglect. The Cruse in her name comes from her father, a producer in Médoc who comes from one of the first Bordeaux brokers.  Some of the merchants in the family remained in the business and theirs is a well-known name; others gradually turned to winemaking. She has the genes, the university training, the skills and the passion plus the good terroir to make her drream happen.

The wine I had at Annabelle’s was smooth and elegant and everything you expect from a Saint Emilion, shared over good conversation with meat roasting over the open fireplace and candelabras casting beautiful long flickering shadows. This is Bordeaux as it is meant to be drunk.

The next morning I set off in a chilly fog for nearby Chateau Angelus, where a few dozen wines could be sampled. These were wines from the owner’s own chateau, the famous Angelus, as well as several others where he is a consultant. British wine writer Jancis Robinson recently complained that there are fewer and fewer blind tastings during this week, that the chateaux want to pull you in to sample only their goods, clearly labeled. I, for one, didn’t mind that.

At 10:00 in the morning a Saint Emilion that was harvested in October 2008, then left in wine barrels for six months, is rough stuff if you are thinking in drinking terms. Elegant but rough, with tannins so chewy in some cases that you could starch your collar in them. The wines will quietly continue to mature after this, and lucky is the drinker who gets to wait for them.

In my case it took a good 15 wines for me to start truly differentiating and appreciating the finer points of these young wines, not yet ready for bottling. I started to trail along behind a group from Singapore, for Asian buyers were very much in evidence, and these people were serious tasters. I began to pay closer attention, limited myself to red wines, learned to appreciate the differences in these tannins so typical of young wines. I quickly realized that a couple of these were wines I knew I would learn to love in the near future, after their quiet spell in the cellar. You’ll have to read the magazine article to find out which ones.

The French merchants who sell to the world are describing the 2008 vintage as classic, with good colour, promising structure and silky, well-balanced tannins, good complexity.

Jancis Robinson, who with her sidekick Julia wrote notes on 550 wines, says “in St-Émilion, the large region on the right bank of the Gironde which has produced more than its fair share of exaggerated wine styles in recent years (even in a recent blind tasting of 200 top wines from the celebrated 2005 vintage), the 2008s seemed in general attractively succulent, energetic, concentrated and only rarely over-extracted.”

I only sampled 100 or so wines, but I’m inclined to think she’s right. I’m still chewing on the notion of over-extracted.

A Chinese multi-course meal with officials, complete with strong rice alcohol and tea, 1985 - E Wallace on right

Things are heating up in Bordeaux, France, with the tasting sessions for the primeurs, or new wines, starting today (30 March). Wednesday I’ll be joining 1,000 other journalists and wine writers who descend on the area, for three days of tastings and talking to producers.

Meanwhile, Bordeaux winemakers are taking advantage of the wine world’s eyes turned on them to share their news. Today’s headline: Château Lafite, one of the most prestigious of the region’s producers, is scrambling to get a share of the Chinese market by taking a stake in Penglai, on China’s Shandong Peninsula, where 41,000 hectares of vine are growing. The Guardian, which carries the story, says China is expected to become “one of the world’s biggest wine producers over the next 50 years and European wine estates are keen to get a foothold in the latest new-world wine trend.”

Changing times for Chinese wine?

Hmmm. I read New World here as mass production, of which there already appears to be enough, if wine consumption statistics tell us anything. I’ve had some truly bad wine from China, although that was in 1985 when the country’s production was limited pretty much to one red and one white. You could almost understand why the Chinese preferred their potent rice firewater. And I’ve had some mediocre Chinese wine since then. I am sure China can learn to make excellent wines, just as it’s learned to make so many other products well.

What it needs to do first is grow a generation of wine drinkers, who are able to judge quality and create a home market. There is evidence in the cities that among young professionals wine is chic: they are concerned about health, enough so to trade in the national sport of hard liquor tippling. But it will take more than trendiness to build that market. The Swiss, for example, drink 40 litres per capita a year while the Chinese drink 0.91 litres per capita. This is potentially a growth industry, with those kind of numbers, but it assumes wine will make sense in China.

Will it?

Last week I matching regional foods and wines with Raymond Paccot, winemaker from Fechy, Vaud, who pointed out that good wines are traditionally developed to accompany food from an area, and that vocation is what keeps the winemaker focused on getting the wine just right. If this holds true for China, maybe some good wines will appear by 2020, but what a surprise these wines could be for the rest of the world if they are made for the home market, designed to go well with Chinese food. I’m willing to drink to that possibility, but I’m not convinced it will happen.