A salty grave: The ship Rena, which ran aground on the rocks off the New Zealand coast with its cargo

What many news agencies failed to report about the stricken container ship Rena was that it was carrying 4,000 cases of Astrolabe Sauvignon Blanc destined for Ireland, reports Giovanni Morelli.

‘Whatever does not kill me strengthens me’ – Nietzsche.

I hope you all had a pleasant and peaceful holiday. My New Year’s resolution is NOT to make any resolutions because if past experience is worth anything, none of them are observed for more than a few weeks.

I am writing this from Tuscany and, as a lover of all things Tuscan, I have visited the town of Sansepolcro with Chiara to see the beautiful painting (fresco) of The Resurrection by Piero della Francesca.

Apparently Aldous Huxley said about it in an essay in 1925, “… And when at last one has arrived at Sansepolcro, what is there to be seen? A little town surrounded by walls, set in a broad, flat valley between hills; some fine Renaissance palaces with pretty balconies of wrought iron; not a very interesting church, and finally, the best picture in the world… we need no imagination to help us figure forth its beauty. It stands before us in entire and actual splendour, the greatest picture in the world.” I cannot say if it is the most beautiful picture in the world but it is very moving and certainly leaves a lasting impression.

According to Tim Butcher from Cape Town, the fresco was ‘saved’ by a young British gunnery officer during World War II. Tony Clarke was about to give the order to shell the town of Sansepolcro when he remembered Huxley’s essay and that Piero’s fresco was there.

He knew that if the town was shelled, the church and the fresco would probably be destroyed so he did not give the order. The Germans evacuated the town, the British troops entered and the fresco was saved! If you are in Tuscany, be sure to go and see it.

What has this got to do with wine? Absolutely nothing, you might say. Well, the connection is rather tenuous, I must admit. I was following a story by Robert Taylor in the Wine Spectator about the ship Rena that went aground on the rocks off the New Zealand coast. The ship began to break up and it is interesting to read the different perspectives by reporters.

The Wine Spectator was reporting the story because the ship contained 4,000 cases of Astrolabe Sauvignon Blanc, which apparently was destined for Ireland.

The general manager of Astrolabe, Jason Yank, was quoted as saying: “All I’m concerned with the minute is making sure the Irish market has their Astrolabe for Christmas. You don’t want to upset the Irish.”

A number of coincidences are reported. The name of the reef on which the ship ran aground was called the Astrolabe reef and the ancient navigational instrument which might have prevented the ship from becoming impaled on the reef is called an astrolabe! Other newspapers and media reported the huge oil leak and the damage to wildlife and never mentioned the wine!

I took a trip to O’Briens wine shop and purchased a bottle. They have two Sauvignon Blancs from Astrolabe, one at €18.99 and the other around €32. I chose the former! It was a clean, refreshing, well-made wine but I still think it tasted too much of gooseberries. I can get a much better Sauvignon Blanc from Touraine or even a better Sancerre for about the same price. But, as I have said many times, wine drinking is a very subjective pastime.

A piece of news that might make you feel better in these troubled times — Nicholas Bakalar, writing in the International Herald Tribune, quotes a study from the Journal on Alcohol and Drugs, in which wine-drinkers lived longer than abstainers and high-wine drinkers lived longer than low-wine drinkers. They also found that moderate consumption of other alcoholic drinks, such as beer, had a beneficial effect on longevity. Needless to say, there are many possible explanations for their observations and as the authors say, the results of the study were observational, not experimental.
Whatever the reasons, I think I’ll continue to have a few glasses of wine daily.

Best wishes for 2012 and Buono Anno Nuovo.
Giovanni.

'When I left Tuscany at the end of August, the vintage was looking good. The weather was very warm with relatively cool nights — just what vines love'

Giovanni Morelli ponders his latest selection of wines but is saddened by the amalgamation of family growers into big wine-producing corporations.

“Good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well used.”
William Shakespeare, Othello.

Having returned from Tuscany, blue skies, 30°C and starry nights, it is difficult to adjust to grey skies and rain. Chiara kept saying before we left Tuscany that Ireland might get an Indian summer! That didn’t work out, but I must admit we were getting no sympathy.

When I left Tuscany at the end of August, the vintage was looking good. The weather was very warm with relatively cool nights — just what vines love.

All the Merlot had been harvested, which is quite early. Hopefully things went well for Sangiovese and there were no flash hailstorms, which can cause such damage to the grapes within 15 to 20 minutes.

Casa Emma makes an excellent Chianti Classico (CC). This is a relatively small vineyard of about 21 hectares and produces 85,000 bottles annually. The vineyard is near San Donato in Poggio and not far from Castellina in Chianti.

The CC is available in Ireland from The Corkscrew, Chatham Street, On the Grapevine, Dalkey, Holland’s of Bray, The Wicklow Wine Co and Caprani’s in Ashford. It retails at about €19.95. The 2008 is drinking very well at present.

One of the saddest things happening in our new globalised world is the takeover of small companies, often family owned, by large corporates whose only interest is in making a profit and not quality. One of my favourite Californian vineyards, Seghesio, has just been bought by the Crimson Wine Group, part of a large financial conglomerate called Leucadia National.

The Seghesios are the second-oldest wine-making families in Sonoma County. Anybody who has had the chance to drink their Zinfandel made from old vines will have fond memories. The family are quoted by Tim Fish in the Wine Spectator as saying, “What they (Crimson Wine Group) have been able to do qualitatively and on their scale is almost without peer”. We shall see, but I wonder if the quality will be maintained.

The Zinfandel is available in Ireland from WineOnline, Dublin, The Wineshop.ie, Le Caveau, Kilkenny and Curious Wines, Cork. It is not cheap and prices vary from €25-€30 per bottle, but you will enjoy it.

Cloned yeast
Did you stay awake during those microbiology lectures at college? Do you remember anything about yeasts, besides causing thrush? Well, of course as a wine drinker you will know that the interaction between yeasts on the grape skins with the sugar in the grapes produces alcohol.

Most wine-makers rely on the naturally-occurring yeasts, but some of the ‘big’ growers prefer to add cloned yeasts. Now it appears, according to scientists in Sweden, that Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the best yeast for fermenting wine. In an article in Nature Communications, J Piskur and colleagues from Lund claim that S.cerevisiae underwent a series of gene changes 100-200 million years ago that helped it to become the leading ‘fermenter’ for beer and wine. He is quoted by Jacob Gaffney in the Wine Spectator as saying: “S.cerevisiae produces ethanol, accumulates it, and kills the competing microbes.” The scientists say the further laboratory genetic manipulation of S.cerevisiae might allow alterations in the final alcohol content of wine.

Green and blanc
What am I drinking since my return to the Emerald Isle? There is a wonderful Sauvignon Blanc from Touraine, Le Courlis, available from The Corkscrew, Chatham Street, and Caprani’s of Ashford for €11.95.

I have never liked the Sauvignons from New Zealand, as most of them taste like grape juice to me. Touraine is on the Loire and is sometimes called ‘the garden of France’. Wines from here are particularly good value compared to the likes of Sancerre and to me are generally underpriced. Of course, Touraine is famous for its Châteaux, for example Amboise, where Leonardo da Vinci died in the arms of King Francois I. M&S also have a nice Sauvignon at less than €10.

Domaine Jacky Marteau has a slightly more gooseberry taste and is not as rounded on the palate as Le Courlis, but is still excellent value. Try and go that extra mile and spend €11.95. You won’t be disappointed.

Let’s hope we get that Indian summer.

Happy drinking,
Giovanni.

Badia a Coltibuono. The Abbey dates from the 11th century

Giovanni Morelli hits the white roads of the Cartizze and Chianti regions on a whistle-stop tour to sample some of the best Prosecco and reds currently available.

Mi dispiace molto ma non era mia culpa!

I may have misled you unintentionally about Prosecco. The sparkling wine made in Northern Italy is in fact made from the Glera grape. Until 2009, the grape and the wine were called Presecco but not anymore.

The consumption of these wines has increased dramatically over the past 10 years because they are relatively cheap and have a fairly low alcohol content.

The wines come from the Friuli Venezia Giulia and Veneto and the most famous areas are Valdobbiadene and Conegliano, both north of Treviso.

The hill of Cartizze, which consists of 107 hectares of vines, is considered by some as the home of the best Prosecco, but that claim is disputed by many.

Prosecco is widely available in Ireland now, from M&S to most wine shops, and it just means tasting as many as possible until you find the one you like.
If you are going to Italy on holiday, and I hope you are, try sparkling wines from Jesi (Verdicchio grape) which are inexpensive, or the more expensive wines from Franciacorta in Lombardy.

These are much more pricey because they are made with the ‘champagne’ method from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, or the so-called ‘Saten’, which approximates to Blanc de Blanc in Champagne, i.e. Chardonnay only.

I have recently consumed one from Majolini, which I can recommend. It is as good as many champagnes I have tasted and is given an excellent rating by Gambero Rosso.

Seeing red
If you are in Chianti it is a red wine area and the predominant grape is Sangiovese. Tuscany is full of hidden places and you have to go off the beaten track to find the most charming and interesting of them. Most of the roads are the so-called Strada Bianca, or white road. These are non-paved and would put any Kerry road to shame for the number of potholes! However, persist and you will be rewarded.

'A little further up the Strada Bianca is Bibbiano. Here we met the charming Elisa (don’t tell me a pretty girl can’t sell more wine!) and we tasted the 2008 Chianti Classico, which is 95 per cent Sangiovese and the much better Montornello 2008'

A beautiful village, Lilliano, is just off the road from Castellina in Chianti to Monteriggioni (a completely walled medieval town). The house that belongs to the vineyard owners was damaged during the wars between Florence and Siena, and subsequently during World War II. At present, it is a beautiful, creeper-clad villa surrounded by vines and olive trees.

The Princess Elenora Ruspoli began bottling and selling wine in 1958 and it is presently owned by Giulio and Pietro Ruspoli. Their Chiainti Classico 2008 is drinking very well at present and is very good value at €9 from the wine shop in the Tenuta (farm).

Strada Bianca
A little further up the Strada Bianca is Bibbiano. Here we met the charming Elisa (don’t tell me a pretty girl can’t sell more wine!) and we tasted the 2008 Chianti Classico, which is 95 per cent Sangiovese and the much better Montornello 2008. This wine is made from Sangiovese older vines exclusively. It is delicious and well worth the €13 we paid.

Again, the house in which the Morrocchesi family live is beautiful, surrounded by Cypress trees commanding a magnificent view of the surrounding valley. Elisa, believe it or not, learned her English during a six-month stay in the true capital of the world, Cork!

While looking down the valley, I saw my two eagles again. They were flying high and heading down the valley. It seemed they were hardly moving their wings but letting the warm air currents do all the work. On a few occasions they almost seemed to collide, but of course never did. Needless to say, I did not have my binoculars.

The weather this July was peculiar for Tuscany. It was warm and sunny until about the 20th.  Then the temperature dropped, even though on most evenings we were able to have a swim followed by dinner on the terrazza. On two occasions we lit a fire, later in the night — something unheard of in July in Tuscany!

Chianti Classico
I suppose no visit to Chianti is complete without going to Badia a Coltibuono, near Gaiole. The Abbey is well restored and there is a very nice restaurant in the grounds with wonderful views of Florence across the valley. The vineyard is run by the Stucchi Prinettii family and they are major producers (almost one million bottles per year). In spite of this their Chianti Classico is excellent and available from most good wine shops in Ireland.

The other morning (August 13) I bumped into Barbara Widmer, oenologist in La Brancaia. She says it is too early to predict the quality of the 2011 vintage and the next few weeks will be very important. The farmers here live in dread of fulmine, electric storms which are often accompanied by grandine, large hailstones. These storms, although they may only last 30 minutes, can cause major damage to the grapes, especially in August.

As I said in this column many years ago, growing vines for wine is like having a baby. All can go well until the last minute. Then nature can intervene with disastrous results!

At time of writing, the weather is perfect with blue skies and temperatures in the high 20s, so let’s hope it continues like this.

Next time, I’ll be writing to you from dull and dreary Ireland. It’s hard to imagine such weather when you are bathed in sunshine here.

Ciao for now.
Giovanni.

'Most Chianti makers favour small French oak barriques, which hold 225 litres. They mix some new barrels with old ones that are sometimes two years old'

From a famous New York restaurateur to the wine makers of Tuscany, Giovanni Morelli travels the globe before returning to his own Italian terazza.

“The discovery of a wine is of greater import than the discovery of a constellation. The universe is too full of stars.”
Ben Franklin, 1706–1790.

In June, I wrote about my misfortune with corkscrews and the cost of replacement in Ireland. Happily you can buy Laguiole corkscrews in Italy for a fraction of the price in Ireland. Notwithstanding the cost of transport to Ireland and government taxes, I have a feeling that somebody is making a handsome profit.

I have always fancied myself as somewhat of a gourmand, but I was envious of the life of George Lang, as portrayed in the International Herald Tribune this month, by William Grimes. Lang came from Hungary to New York in 1946. He spoke no English, had a few dollars in his pocket and, according to Grimes, had dreams of becoming a concert violinist.

Apparently he went to a concert given by Jascha Heifetz and quickly realised that his talents lay elsewhere. He became a restaurateur and is probably best known for the restaurant Café des Artistes close to the Lincoln Centre in New York. I have dined there, and whereas the food is not spectacular, the surroundings are and the service is excellent.

Tiresome clichés
A word of caution, however. He opened a restaurant on top on the Time-Life building and asked the waiters and waitresses to introduce themselves to the diners by their first names in an effort to simulate ‘private dining’. He did admit, according to Grimes, that this subsequently became one of the more tiresome clichés in the restaurant business. Irish restaurateurs beware.

As I have said before, I do not want to be the waiter/waitress’s best friend — unless of course she is spectacularly pretty!

Mr Lang wrote a number of books, but the one title that stands out for me is Nobody Knows the Truffles I’ve Seen, which is his memoir. Never tell me the title of a book is not important.

Café des Artistes unfortunately closed in 2009 but has reopened under a new owner and is named Leopold at Café des Artistes. I haven’t tried it yet, but if any of you have please let me know your opinion.

Spending the summer in Tuscany is interesting. One thing that was pointed out to me by a local friend is that although we are living in the heart of vine-growing and wine-making country, the selection in the shops is not nearly as good as that in Ireland. Of course, there is a huge selection of Tuscan wines, but there is little else.

Surprisingly, my friend Peiro Lanzo of Poggerino says he exports quite a lot of his Chianti to Australia. I have never been to that sub-continent but it is heartening to know that they are drinking Italian wine. I presume there are many Australians of Italian background indulging in wines from ‘the old country’.

Wine tourists
Visiting vineyards in Tuscany is somewhere between the US and Burgundy. In America, especially Napa and Sonoma Valleys, the joy of wine-tasting has been turned into a business. There are special wine-tasting rooms for tourists, not for the trade, and everything is for sale — from aprons to wine glasses and, of course, the wine.

In Burgundy, it is the opposite. Grape growers sell their produce to négociants who blend the grapes to produce the famous wines, or in some cases very poor quality, thin, acidy wines. The growers are not interested in meeting tourists, even discerning ones, and they make that quite clear.

Happily, Tuscany is somewhere in between. Yes, in places like Castello Banfi (owned by the American-Italian Mariani family) the ‘hard-sell’ operates in the specially-built ‘cantina’. It should be said that in spite of the large and commercial operation (9 million bottles annually) Gamberro Rosso continues to lavish praises on their wines.

I have mentioned the Gambero Rosso book Italian Wines, 2011, before. It is a must for anybody interested in Italian wines and especially if you plan to visit Italy. The English version is available in some Dublin book shops. Not only does it give a critical opinion on over 20,000 wines, but it gives addresses and phone numbers so you can plan a visit.

Getting back to the favourite Italian pastime (well, I’m not sure!) of eating, I will cook ‘devilled chicken breasts’ tonight. Served on the terazza by candlelight, I will cook the chicken in balsamic vinegar, chicken stock, garlic, dried oregano and sun-dried tomato purée. Served with a little chopped parsley from the garden and a few leaves of rocket and washed down with a bottle of Chianti Classico 2008 from Poggerino, it should be okay for Chiara. If we are still hungry, a little Vin Santo (chilled) with some Pecorino Nero semi-stagionato will finish off the meal.

At least we don’t have to drive home!

Ciao for now,

Giovanni.

Lagouile corkscrew

While paying US$450 for a corkscrew might be a little bit screwy, Giovanni Morelli recommends a €100-plus alternative, and some fine wines on which to try it out.

‘A man may surely be allowed to take a glass of wine by his own fireside.’
— Richard Brinsley Sheridan

A recent article by Eric Asimov in the International Herald Tribune (IHT) caused me considerable pain and distress. The article described a new corkscrew that is on sale for US$450.00. Like most of you, including gynaecologists and senior counsels, that is probably considered an outrageous price.

On reading about this, I decided to write an article on corkscrews and to put in a photograph of my beloved Laguoile (pronounced ‘layole’) opener, which was a present from Chiara many years ago. The problem was, we were in Tuscany and I wanted to bring the corkscrew to Dublin. For some bizarre reason, I put my beloved corkscrew in my carry-on bag! I am sure you can guess the rest.

The security man in Bologna confiscated my precious present, in spite of my protestations. He obviously didn’t know Bin Laden was about to meet his fate and thought that Chiara and I were international terrorists with a mission to kill a crew member with my wine opener.

A few gin and tonics on the plane helped to calm me, but on arrival in Dublin I was forced to buy another Laguoile opener. This was purchased from a very nice lady in Terroirs of Donnybrook for €125. A lot of money, you might say, but it will last for life if I don’t lose it – or have it confiscated by an overzealous security guard.

In my last article, I wrote about judging a book by its cover and the power of advertising. Another example struck me recently. This came, again, from the IHT. Lisa Abend was writing about the San Pellegrino list, which apparently is a list of the best 50 restaurants in the world.

She claims that if you had booked a restaurant like Noma (sounds suspiciously like NAMA) in Copenhagen on  24 April, you would have experienced no difficulty in obtaining a reservation. But, if you phoned the following Monday, you would have faced competition from 100,000 others because the restaurant had been awarded first place by San Pellegrino.

A bottle of Torrontés wine

Some people on the juries of ranking bodies accept all-expenses visits to restaurants while claiming that this has no influence on their choice of the best. I wonder. If this was true, it would be bad news for pharmaceutical companies and for psychologists in general.

I must say that my recent gastronomic experiences in Dublin have been mostly very good, but the price of wine kills me. To pay €40-€50 for a bottle of wine for which I pay €22 in a Michelin-star restaurant in Tuscany makes me very angry.

So what can we do to cheer ourselves up in this time of gloom? Happily, there is a superb selection of wine to choose from, although sadly I notice the demise of Oddbins. A grape I came across recently was Torrontés.

For those of you looking for a floral, crisp white wine and who are trying to get away from mass-produced Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, this is an excellent alternative. The grape is popular in Argentina, especially around Mendoza. It should be drunk young and the 2008 from Andeluna had a screw cap.

There is a dispute about the origin of the grape, but DNA evidence suggests that it is related to Muscat of Alexandria from North Africa. It doesn’t really matter. It is very refreshing and makes an excellent aperitif.

I tried a bottle from Norton, very famous wine makers from Argentina, which is widely available. This vineyard was founded in 1895 by Sir Edmund James Palmer Norton, an English railway engineer who settled in Mendoza. This was the 2007 vintage, probably a little old, but good value at €7.99. The 2008 from Andeluna was much better. More balanced and with a better structure, it is worth the extra few euro.

Chiara and I are starting our diets again in an effort to be able to appear in swimsuits without frightening the neighbours or the animals. The good news is that Dr Christine C Tangney has recently published a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, which suggests that a Mediterranean diet for those over 65 years (including moderate wine consumption) significantly defers cognitive impairment. She was quoted as saying: “Our findings from this prospective cohort suggest that adherence to a Mediterranean diet is not only a heart-healthy diet plan, but also one that fosters a healthier functioning brain.”

Let’s hope she is correct!

Ciao for now
Giovanni.

Less is more: The minimalist wine labels from La Brancaia

Should we ever judge a wine by the design of its label, ponders the traditionally-minded Giovanni Morelli.

‘Let us celebrate the occasion with wine and sweet words’
— Titus Msaccius Plautus, 254-184 BC, Roman playwright.

I have been trying to find the provenance of the expression ‘never judge a book by its cover’ and have experienced some difficulty. The expression appears to originate in the US in the 1950s, but I prefer the quote from Jean de la Fontaine, French poet and fabulist (1621-1695), who said: “Don’t judge things by their appearances only.”
I have been delving into this because I think the expression from the US is completely wrong, whereas de la Fontaine may come closer to the truth. (Incidentally and totally irrelevantly, de la Fontaine was born in the heart of the Champagne district and went to school in Reims.) Surely publishers would not agonise over the appearance of a book’s cover if it did not enhance sales. Admit it — which one of us has not been tempted or bought a book because of its cover?

As usual, William Shake-speare was there or thereabouts 100 years before de la Fontaine. Shakespeare’s saying, “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet” is probably closer to the mark, in that it implies that intrinsic quality rather than what is on the label is what really counts. Does the same phenomenon apply in other areas? Obviously advertisers think it does, otherwise they would not spend millions of euro on new brand labels.

Chrystia Freeland, writing recently in the International Herald Tribune, reflects on a recent study by Bharat Anand, a Harvard Business School professor (and he should know!). The question asked was whether brands influence our perception of quality and whether adjacent advertising does. Not surprisingly, readers of The Economist, most of whom were Harvard Business School students, gave more credence to an article when it carried The Economist’s logo than a local paper or no attribution at all. This is not news to any medic who has struggled to publish from Ireland. Try publishing an article from Ireland in the New England Journal of Medicine compared to your colleague from Harvard!

Do wine drinkers commit the same sin? Yes. Otherwise winemakers would not have gone to the trouble of making radical changes in the past 10-20 years.
Wine-drinking in Europe and America used to be confined to wealthy men (senior counsels and gynaecologists) but now is the prerogative of people from many walks of life, and includes many women. A number of things have changed in response to the ‘democratisation’ of wine drinking. Firstly, unlike many other things in life, the quality of the product has undoubtedly improved. It is true that there are millions of bottles of indifferent wine on the market, but in general, standards of production have improved since the Australians introduced stainless steel fermentation tanks to the rest of the world about 40 years ago.

However, coupled with the improvement in quality came an increase in quantity and a need to create new markets. Thus a change in wine labels was born.

I must confess that I am of the old school. Although I have an interest in and love of modern and contemporary art, I am a traditionalist when it comes to wine labels, in spite of many attempts to convert me by Chiara. The picture of the castle or the coat of arms of the family on the label still resonates with me.

Not all contemporary labels offend, however. My neighbour in Tuscany produces minimal and attractive labels for the wines from La Brancaia. A number of wine-makers have commissioned well-known artists to design labels. Baron Philippe de Rothschild is probably the best known. He took the momentous decision to label the 1945 vintage with an interpretation of Churchill’s ‘V’ sign by the artist Philippe Jullian. He and his daughter, Baroness Philippine, have continued commissioning artists such as Miro, Picasso, Dali and recently Lucian Freud.

Other wine-makers have not been so successful, probably because they employed second-rate graphic art designers rather than established or emerging artists. However, the debate will no doubt continue.

What am I drinking at present? A beautiful Arinto from Portugal. I wrote about Prova Regia (widely available) some time ago, but this is a little better. Morgado Sta.

Catherina Bucelas reserve 2008 is from the same maker. Price varies but it is between €13 and €14.99. A recent lunch guest consumed a bottle all by himself!

According to the label, this wine was served by the Duke of Wellington to his guests. If I had known that, I might not have ordered it!

Outlets include Donnybrook Fair; Corkscrew, Chatham Street; Fallon and Byrne; Hole in the Wall, Dublin 7; Marlay Wine Shop; La Touche Wines, Greystones; D Six; Morton’s; Redmonds, Ranelagh; Coach House, Ballinteer; Fleming’s, Dundrum; and Terrace Wines, Galway.

Happy drinking!
Giovanni

Pinot Blanc Vieilles Vignes from Meyer-Fonné, 2009

February might have been the cruellest month for Giovanni Morelli, but it did not stop him from discovering some superb Alsatian wines.

‘Wine is the most healthful and most hygienic of beverages’ — Louis Pasteur.

I don’t know about you, but I hate the month of February. You get up in the dark, go to work in the dark and, yes, come home in the dark! It is dank, cold and wet. I can see no use for it whatsoever.

Philip Hill writing in the International Herald Tribune reminds me that January is named after the Roman god Janus and March after Mars, the god of war.

February has no powerful god to watch over it and apparently is named after a pagan fertility and purification festival celebrated by flogging women with animal skins!

I’m not sure we should celebrate it in that fashion, but the suggestion by Hill that February should steal a day from January and March, thereby making it a 30-day-month, should be resisted at all costs.

There is no doubt that Ireland is in a deep depression, no matter whom we blame. A number of observers have claimed that crime will become more prevalent, but I have no way of knowing. I have heard of many types of theft, but stealing grapes is new to me.

Yes, I know there are no grapes in Ireland, but I was bemused by a report in the Wine Spectator recently, which claimed that the US police in Washington State were looking for 1.25 tons of Mourvèdre that was stolen from Grand Rêve Vineyard in Kirkland.

Moonlight robbery
Shortly afterwards Roland Cavaillé experienced the theft of 30 tons of Cabernet Sauvignon in the Lanquedoc. The thieves were cheeky and worked with a mechanical harvester at night by the light of a full moon.

You may think that Ireland has a chequered history, but it has nothing on Alsace-Lorraine. It was annexed by Germany during the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 at the Treaty of Frankfurt.

The territory reverted to France after World War I at the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. The Nazis annexed it again (although not formally) in 1940 and it reverted to France at the end of World War II.

Alsatian finds
The area is particularly noted for its white wines, especially dry Rieslings. The other widely-known Alsatian wine is Gewürztraminer (try spelling that after a few glasses of wine!). This beautiful white wine is made from grapes with high sugar content and has a special aroma and bouquet of lychees.

The compounds that give the fruit its aroma are monoterpenoids, such as geraniol and nerol, and they are both found in Gewürztraminer grapes.

The wine I discovered lately is a Pinot Blanc from Alsace. The Pinot Blanc grape is similar to Pinot Noir, but for a point mutation.

Chateau de Pierreux, 2008, Brouilly

Occasionally it reverts and it is possible to see black Pinot Noir grapes on the same stalk as pink/green Pinot Blanc. The wine I consumed, Pinot Blanc Vieilles Vignes from Meyer-Fonné, 2009, is a superb example of Alsatian Pinot Blanc. With a little sweetness it makes a perfect aperitif.

Felix Meyer makes this wine on a small 11-hectare estate and Michel Bettane, prominent French wine critic, is quoted as saying it is “probably the best value white wine in the whole of France”. The wine is stocked by Fallon and Byrne, the Corkscrew, Liston’s in Camden Street and Michael Wines, Mount Merrion (and Le Caveau online). The RRP is €14.95.

You all remember drinking Beaujolais from your student days or perhaps on summer evenings in France. Memories are tricky, but you certainly will have experienced some rather thin, acidic Beaujolais recently.

Made from the Gamay grape south of Burgundy, the area contains a number of Crus, which make outstanding wine. The best known include Brouilly, Fleurie, Juliénas, Morgon and Moulin-à-Vent. The one I tasted recently was Château de Pierreux, 2008, Brouilly.

This is no ordinary thin, tasteless wine but is of a deep ruby-coloured variety packed with fruit and tannins and will keep for another year or two. It is very enjoyable at present. It is available from the Corkscrew in Chatham Street, Dublin, and Woodberry Wines in Galway. The RRP is €21.95, but you can do better than this.

The Brouilly Cru also contains the Pisse vineyard, which received its name from a story of a woman who misheard the priest’s absolution in confession. He said ‘Allez! Et ne péchez plus’. She heard, ‘Allez! Et ne pissez plus’!

Happy drinking.
Giovanni.

While scientists continue their search for the chemical secret behind the benefits of red wine, Giovanni Morelli will stick to French literature and the classic grape to find his answers.

Rocker Rod Stewart has revealed the secret of his youthful looks: “plenty of sex and plenty of wine”. Well, I’m not sure about the first one but the debate about the ability of red wine to maintain one’s eternal youth continues to rage.

I have mentioned resveratrol before and its putative role as an anti-aging substance. Resveratrol is thought to work in humans by activating the gene SIRT1.

Activation of this gene is said to prolong life in mice and fruit flies and it was hoped it might have a similar effect in humans.

It is found in large concentrations in red grapes and in red wine and it has been credited with being, at least in part, responsible for the so-called ‘French paradox’.

As I reported some time ago, the giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) bought the pharmaceutical company Sirtris for $720 million in 2008 because that company had a formulation of resveratrol known as SRT501.

Unfortunately, the last clinical trial of SRT501 was stopped in December 2010. It appeared that it was very difficult to maintain adequate blood levels of the drug.

The drug also seemed to produce dehydration and increase the degree of renal insufficiency. GSK has not abandoned its research into resveratrol-based drugs. The company is investigating synthetic molecules that activate the same proteins as resveratrol.

My good friend Piero Lanza from Poggerino with his barrels

However, another study by researchers from the University of Connecticut’s Cardiovascular Research centre looked at the ability of haemopoietic stem cells to repair artificially induced myocardial damage, with and without the addition of resveratrol in the animal’s diet.

Although the stem cells lasted longer in the group which had been fed resveratrol, the experiment was a failure in that ultimately, the stem cells did not survive beyond a month. The authors claim that this could give hope to heart attack survivors if further experiments are more conclusive.

I’m not sure about any of this, but I think I would prefer a glass of red wine when I am recovering from my MI!

A matter of taste
One of the fascinating things about language is that two words with the same spelling can have different meanings. Take the word ‘taste’, for example. In the context of wine, this can refer to the fashion in wine-drinking worldwide or in different countries at a particular time.  An example is the vogue for oaked chardonnay from Australia in the 1980s. This fashion has happily waned, thanks in part to the horrible habit of some wine-makers of throwing oak chips into fermentation tanks.

On the other hand, ‘taste’ may refer to that very complex biochemical reaction which occurs when we drink wine and which is allied to memory, smell and sight. Although neurophysiologists are working to unravel the precise mechanisms, it appears from a book review in The Irish Times in January by Carlo Gébler that the French writer Marcel Proust had it worked out before neuroscience was invented.

Gébler claims that the book Proust as a Neuroscientist by Jonathan Lehrer demonstrates how Proust understood the probable biochemical nature of taste in the famous passage where he describes eating a Madeleine and drinking lime-flowered tea that prompted memories of his first Madeleine biscuit, eaten many years before. Lehrer claims that Proust’s intuition that memories “are constructions that meld the past and present” long preceded the neuroscientist’s knowledge that biochemical changes take place in brain cells when memory is stimulated and that structural brain changes take place over time.

Memories stirred
I purchased Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past in the mid-1970s, but confess that I have never read the 3,500 pages. I have, however, consumed many glasses of wine and have often had memories stirred by the first sip, although at times these memories seemed to be random.

While visiting my good friend Piero Lanza from Poggerino in the New Year, a short distance outside Radda in Chianti, I was relieved to hear that the 2010 vintage should be excellent. July was hot and dry, although June was wet and cold. The temptation to pick was postponed until the last minute and a careful inspection for fungal infection was made and all was well. Piero expects good Riserva as well as Chianti Classico.

What am I drinking at present? I discovered a lovely Pinot Noir from South Africa in Marks & Spencer. It is not cheap at €25, but it is well made and a lot better than cheap French Burgundy.

Try the Newton Johnson 2008 Pinot Noir, made by husband and wife team Gordon and Nadia Newton Johnson in Elgin, a new area in South Africa which is south east of Cape Town and gaining a reputation. I had it with salmon baked in butter and ginger with a sauce made from Pinot Noir, tomato juice and chicken broth. Excellent!

Happy drinking.
Ciao for now.
Giovanni.

A wine press from the Greek days

Following a reread of Gulliver’s Travels, Giovanni Morelli’s nose is pointed towards Château Haut-Brion, a fine wine rated a Premier Cru Classé.

‘A meal without wine is like a day without sunshine.’
Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savrin (1825)

While at a dinner party in Tuscany over the New Year, I was exposed. Not in the way you might think, but in my lack of literary knowledge. When she heard I was Irish, my host, a charming Danish lady living in Tuscany, engaged me in conversation about Jonathan Swift. The conversation moved swiftly to the novel Gulliver’s Travels, about which she assumed I was an expert (being Irish!).

I managed to bluff my way through and did not dare to admit that when I read Gulliver’s Travels as a teenager the savage political satire was totally lost on me.

Needless to say, on my return to Dublin I rapidly immersed myself in the novel and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Being burnt
One very interesting passage is when Gulliver is in danger of being burnt. He says: “I might easily have stifled it with my coat, which I unfortunately left behind for haste, and came away only in my leather jerkin. The case seemed wholly desperate and deplorable; and this magnificent palace would have infallibly been burnt down to the ground if, by a presence of mind unusual for me, I had not suddenly thought of an expedient.

“I have the evening before, drunk plentiful of a most delicious wine called glimigrim (the Belfuscidians call it fluncc, but ours is esteemed the better sort) which is very diuretic. By the luckiest chance in the world, I had not discharged myself or any part of it. The heat I had contracted by coming near the flames, and by labouring to quench them, made the wine operate my urine: which I voided in such a quantity, and applied so well to the proper places, that in three minutes the fire was wholly extinguished, and the rest of that noble pile, which had cost so many ages in erecting, preserved from destruction.”

It turns out that the said Mr Swift also made comments about wine in his diaries. According to A. Craig Copetas (a great name for a wine writer) and Guy Collins in the IHT, Swift paid 7 shillings, the price of a cow, for a pitcher of Haut-Brion. I have no idea what price a good cow would fetch today, but a bottle of Haut-Brion will sell for anything from €251 to €3,049, although a bottle of 1945 recently changed hands for $5,027!

In spite of what some might say, it appears that Haut-Brion has no Irish connection. In the classification of 1855, Château Haut-Brion became a Premier Grand Cru, the only one in Graves. The wines from Haut-Brion were very popular in England in the 17th Century and the philosopher John Locke is reputed to have said: “The wine, so revered in England, is made on a little rise of ground, lieing open most to the west. It is noe thing but pure white sand, mixed with a little gravel. One would imagine it scarce fit to beare anything.”

Château Haut-Brion
This is a good description of the sandy soil that is abundant in the Gironde estuary and which is ideal for growing the famous Cabernet Sauvignon grape. The house, Château Haut-Brion, in Graves, just outside Bordeaux, was bought by a Texan called Clarence Dillon in 1935 and subsequently completely renovated. Of course, his name was not Dillon as he was the son of a Polish emigrant called Samuel Lapowski. Clarence went to Harvard University and adopted his paternal grandmother’s maiden name of Dillon (although she was Polish she had French/Irish roots).

Clarence Dillon was a banker and a gambler (sounds familiar!). Since prohibition he had kept his eye on the wine market. Bordeaux wine-making was in difficulty and Dillon bought the Château and land for $155,000. Two of Dillon’s clever moves were to retain Georges Delmas as régisseur and to appoint Seymour Weller, his son-in-law, to manage his investment.

The Luftwaffe
During the Second World War the Luftwaffe occupied the Château and Delmas hid the wine cellar behind piles of rubbish and old equipment. Douglas Dillon, son of Clarence, was a Republican fundraiser and was appointed as American Ambassador to France in 1952. His daughter Joan married Prince Charles, brother of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg. Their son, Robert de Luxembourg, is now in charge and Jean-Phillipe Delmas is the régisseur.

In spite of the cost, a bottle of Châtean Haut-Brion still sells for less than the top reds from Medoc, Saint-Émilion and Pomerol. Apparently the American market has softened a little and the Chinese still don’t recognise Haut-Brion as one of the best wines in the world. According to Stephen Williams, who sells rare bottles of claret: “From a value perspective, Haut-Brion is definitely the wine to buy. It’s the same quality as the other first growths and half the price.” Well, I suppose it just depends on how much spare cash you have.

If you are in Tuscany for any reason visit the exhibition Venum Nostrum in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence. The palazzo, which is not the prettiest in Florence, houses many exhibitions and is beside the Boboli Gardens. The exhibition about wine traces all the earliest vineyards and you can see some exquisite Greek vases. Perhaps it could be a bit more interactive but it is interesting.

While in Florence, have lunch in Cantinetta Antinori. The family have been there for 500 years and the lunch is excellent.

One wine I discovered by accident in Dublin is Paul Jaboulet’s Syrah 2008. It should be widely available and is so soft that I suspect there is some viognier blended with the syrah. It is excellent with winter stews.

I hope you all have a wonderful New Year and discover some exciting new wines in 2011.

Buon Anno Nuovo,
Giovanni

’Tis the season to be jolly, sit back and enjoy some fine wines at a reasonable post-IMF bailout price, says Giovanni Morelli

“The Supreme Court in America has ruled that they cannot have a nativity scene in Washington DC. That wasn’t for any religious reason. They couldn’t find three wise men and a virgin!” — Jay Leno.

The season of good cheer is fast approaching, although there is nothing much to cheer about. I suppose one should be glad that we will have a chance to kick the Government out and hope that whoever replaces them are not worse. Whatever about the dismal outlook for the future, the selection of wine and prices has never been better.

Without any doubt the best value in wine in Ireland in 2010 is the sherry range from Bodega Peninsular. Available from Dunnes Stores for €5.99 the Fino, which is the one I drink, is remarkable.

I presume the name comes from the peninsular wars fought between Napoleon and Spain, Portugal and Britain in the early 19th Century. Try it as a lovely aperitif on Christmas day. A glass or two, well chilled before dinner, is an excellent way to stimulate the gastric juices. As I have said before, get a decent copita or use the standard ISO 120cl tasting glass.

If you are fed-up drinking chardonnay and sauvignon blanc, try wines made from viognier. The grape was probably brought to the northern Rhone by the Romans. It almost went into extinction because of phylloxera and World War I, but was rescued and is now grown in France almost exclusively in the small area of Condrieu and the enclave of Château-Grillet.

These wines are very expensive (only for gynaecologists and surgeons, but after the new four-year plan even they may have to drink cheaper wines!). If you can’t afford Condrieu and wish to stay in France, try Viognier de Rosine. At €19.95 it is not cheap, but is made by Michael and his son Stephane Ogier from 20-year-old vines near Vienne. All grapes are handpicked.

Viognier de Rosine is available from Deveney’s, Dundrum; Liston’s, Camden Street; The Wine Room @One Percy Square, Limerick; and, of course, online from thewinestore.ie. If you buy it online, tell Emma that Giovanni recommended it! The grape is now planted in America and Australia. The viognier from Murray Darling 2008, Block 7A from Tesco, is a steal at €7.

The science bit – isoprene
Isoprenes are common in nat-ure and are linked together in chains (you should have stayed awake during those biochemistry lectures) when they are called terpenes. They are found in large quantities in viognier grapes and are reputed to contribute to the peculiar floral aromas. If this does not satisfy you, try Offida Pecorino €15 in Fallon & Byrne. This is a nice light, crisp white wine from the Marche in Italy, which I did not know was available in Ireland until recently. The only thing that spoils my enjoyment when drinking it is the price I know I would pay in Italy for the very same wine.

For red this year, I am going to have a malbec with my turkey.  This grape originated in Cahors in France and was brought to South America by the Spanish in the 1550s. It was subsequently planted in Mendoza, which has now become the major source of wine from that grape in Argentina.

All did not run smoothly, however. In 1861, an earthquake killed at least 5,000 people in Mendoza.

I have not been there but I understand the rebuilt city is beautiful, with wide boulevards and plazas. Things went very well until the early 1990s, when the Argentinean economy fell on hard times.

Happily for us, things improved again in the 1990s and we now have quite a large selection of malbec wines in shops in Ireland.

Malbec medley
The founder of modern malbec was Nicolás Catena of the Catena Zapata vineyard.  An economics professor in Berkeley, he star-ted making wine in the 1980s. Interestingly, he planted vines at altitudes of up to 1,500 metres above sea level in the Andes.

I can really recommend the Catena Malbec 2007. The RRP is €16 but it will go ideally with old cheddar or Pont L’Eveque as well as the turkey, if you are still able for cheese at the end of Christmas dinner. Malbec from Norton and Trapiche are excellent and are widely available at less than €10.

If you want to have wines with your dessert, avoid cheap Sauternes. They are sickly and clawing, and you will need to pay about €40 for a decent bottle. Instead, drink the naturally non-botrytised wines from the Pyrenees, Clos Urulat, Jurançon AC. At €23 it is beautiful and a lot cheaper than Sauternes.

If you want to buy gifts for the wine lover, Brown Thomas has an excellent selection of gadgets that you will also find in most wine shops. Ball bearings, for example, are cheap and really work well to clean your decanter.

Ice buckets are always welcome gifts and, of course, Hugh Johnson’s pocket wine book is a must for all wine drinkers.

I hope you had a good year and that, if we have a viable country next year, you will still be able to enjoy the nectar from the grape.

Buon Natale, Giovanni.