hybrids | amarchinthevines

Two days at RAW London, the natural wine fair which has become part of the establishment with fairs now taking place around the world. Isabelle Legeron’s work in organising the fairs as well as her excellent book ‘Natural Wine’ and other media work has helped boost the reputation of winemakers who work organically, biodynamically and naturally and she deserves much credit.

In a way that success is a two edged sword, Sunday afternoon’s public session was very crowded and parts of the The Store were very hot, not the best tasting conditions. Monday’s trade day was much more manageable and I was able to get to almost all the producers I had shortlisted. I shall be commenting on some of those in the next article, however, I wanted to give some general impressions first.

Simon Woolf interviewing Isabelle Legeron

Perhaps it was the fact that I spent a bit of time and lunch with Simon Woolf that orange or amber wines were to the fore of my RAW experience. Seemingly every producer is working with skin contact wine, some have been doing so for generations, some for years, some making their first experiments. Simon’s book ‘Amber Revolution’ is one of the best written wine books of recent years and I highly recommend it. As for the wines themselves, well they varied greatly. Once again I was struck by the success of skin contact wines using aromatic varieties which seem to add extra layers of aroma and flavour compared to others. Successful examples here included Riesling (Domaine Brand in Alsace), Gewurztraminer (Brand and the Alto Adige producer Grawü) and Silvaner (Franken producer Weigand). Make no mistake orange wines are here to stay.

Hybrids and cross bred grapes are gathering some attention in the wine world with climate change and disease resistance amongst the reasons for their cultivation. It was interesting to taste a few examples here notably two examples of Souvignier Gris. This grape is a cross of Cabernet Sauvignon and Bronner, the latter a white grape produced from hybrids Merzling and GM6494 (a romantic name if ever there was one). Slovenian producer Batic and Alto Adige’s Thomas Niedermayr both had examples (they were unaware of each other’s bottles until I told them). The results were excellent in both cases, creamy but fresh white wine with plenty of good aroma and flavour. This is certainly an area of winemaking which will be interesting to see unfold.

Niedermayr wines to the left, the left bottle is Souvignier Gris, a photo showing its pink grapes is in front. The Batic example is the white bottle.

The growth of quality winemaking in Central and Eastern Europe has been well documented, the evidence was clear once again at RAW. Austria has been a source of excellent wine for a few years now, Georgia too. Add in the Friuli / Slovenia region for orange wines, Czech, Hungarian and Swiss producers too. There were some lovely wines and the story behind wineries such as the Czech Jaroslav Osicka is inspiring, a family working in organic ways, determined to do things right whilst struggling against bureaucracy and attitudes from those in authority and colleagues too. Osicka, Batic, Balog, Natenadze’s were all wineries which offered good wines from these regions and which I would recommend. My friend David Crossley regularly reports upon the growth of such wines and I recommend his report on Osicka and others here.

Miha Batic with Jaroslav Osicka

The continued success of natural wine’s big guns continues unabated. The likes of Radikon, Gravner and Cornelissen attracted large crowds on both days, rightly so. These are fascinating, unique wines. Cornelissen wines have become more consistent to my taste in recent vintages and they were showing very well. In the hunt for the new let’s not overlook the established stars.

Similarly I was struck by how much classic wine regions shone for me at RAW. My favourite ranges of wines were probably the Burgundies of AMI and the Saint Emilion wines of Château Le Puy and Château Meylet. I would not have imagined that to be the case even a year ago. These classic regions have a new wave of producers, such as AMI, who are working in organic, biodynamic and natural ways and the results are great. Expensive, perhaps, but delicious.

Finally, fairs such as RAW always throw up surprises and new discoveries. I had no intention of visiting Sicily producer Marino but an empty table on a crowded day proved fortuitous. I really liked the two wines of this small domaine, the Turi Bianco in particular. As is so often the case lovely people make lovely wines, a young couple deserving of success. I was pleased to see David liked them too in his report. Other pleasant surprises: the Welsh producer Ancre Hill, with a terrific Orange Wine (of Albarino grapes) and two PetNats; a new Languedoc producer to me, Mas Lasta with fresh, flavoursome wines including a white wine made from Grenache Noir; the excellent Banyuls wines of Domaine Du Traginer.

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By Monday afternoon my tasting abilities were exhausted. As usual there were regrets at missing one or two producers but I had enjoyed myself and came away confident that RAW winemaking is in a healthy place with new, exciting producers and ideas emerging to join the wealth of talent already established. I shall be sharing more of my particular findings next time.

Messrs Coutelou, Aubry, Poujol, Bellahsen and Prufer

On October 8th a group of vignerons paid a visit to Domaine Vassal in Marseillan Plage, I was happy to be invited to join them. The visit boosted my growing interest in ampelography as well as being great fun, of which more later.

Domaine Vassal was founded in 1949 and is the largest collection of resources about grapes and vines in the world. Its own roots (apologies for the pun) lie in a collection gathered in Montpellier University after the outbreak of phylloxera. This was the disease which almost wiped out the wine industry in France when it arrived in 1863. It is the work of an aphid which lives in the roots of vitis vinifera the original vines of France and Europe including the cépages with which we are familiar such as Chardonnay, Syrah and Cabernet). Sadly, this aphid arrived from the USA, via England (those Anglo-Saxons!), and ate its way through France’s vineyards. Montpellier started to conserve vitis vinifera and to study it and found the cause of phylloxera by doing so. It was also discovered that American rootstock was resistant to the aphid so, by grafting vitis vinifera onto American rootstock, vignerons could grow the traditional cépages rather than hybrid vines of lesser quality.

The other feature noticed about the aphid was that it could not live in sand and so the decision was taken to transfer the collection from Montpellier to Marseillan, Domaine Vassal’s grounds are sand. This means that the vines which are grown there can be grown directly from the sand, no grafting onto American rootstock is needed. Since 1949 some 14,000 species of vine have been collected together.

The sands of Vassal

Genetics now means that they can be identified more accurately and 7,700 species remain, many of the species having been shown to be doubles. Cépages are frequently called by different names in different parts of France let alone different countries so it is easy to think of cépages as being different when in fact they are the same. (For example, Cinsault has over 40 different names around the world according to Pierre Galet’s authoritative Dictionnaire des Cépages.)

The aim of Vassal is to:

Acquire
Conserve
Classify
Valorise (ie develop and show the worth of the vines)

The Domaine receives donations of vines every year, five examples are required for each arrival. Last year there was a higher than average number of arrivals (up to 900 plants), indicating that new varieties are still waiting to be added to our knowledge. Researchers also go out to old vineyards to see if other vines can be found. These acquisitions are then planted. At first they may be placed in insect proof greenhouses to protect them and to be nursed.

The plants are then placed on one of the fifteen parcels of land at the Domaine which covers around 27 hectares. Most of these are vitis vinifera but there are also hybrids, wild vines and rootstocks.

Hybrid

The vines are studied carefully by genetics and by identification through the leaves, grapes and other features so that they can be classified as new or doubles of already recognised vines. Samples of all aspects are taken and preserved in files to make a unique collection which is being digitised. Further studies look to reveal how the cépage might be best grown, what yields it might offer, would they be commercial?

Hybrid vines with waxy leaves

With so many vines there are losses, but very few, and replacement plants are grown in the nurseries, almost 6,000 were planted last year. This is a vast undertaking and a hugely valuable resource. Vignerons are encouraged to visit and see whether they would like to trial some of the cépages in Vassal, trials which will run with a few plants and over 3 years.

Joe Jefferies takes an interest

Jeff Coutelou is keen to do just that and is looking at what cépages might mix well into the array of different vines which he already grows. Indeed, when talking with staff at Vassal, he discovered that he might have one or two cépages which are not in their collection! This could be mutually beneficial.

Remi Poujol and Francois Aubry amongst the vines

It was a fascinating place to visit and I applaud the work of Domaine Vassal. Unfortunately there is a cloud on the horizon, the collection is going to have to move. A site has been identified at Pech Rouge near Gruissan but every vine will need to be transferred and, as the new site will not be sandy, will also have to be grafted. This is a massive undertaking which will take a few years to accomplish and the staff are determined that no species will be lost. The professionalism and skill I see at Vassal will be tested, I am sure they will pass that test.

Messrs White, Poujol and Maurel

After the visit the vignerons decamped to the nearby beach, a fire was lit and a barbecue enjoyed. Accompanied, of course, by examples of many excellent wines appropriately from many cépages. There was no cloud on the horizon here. As well as Mas Coutelou there was Mas D’Agalis (Lionel Maurel), Fontedicto (Bernard Bellahsen), Julien Peyras, Grégory White, Yannick Pelletier, Fontude (Francois Aubry), Le Temps Des Cerises (Axel Prufer), Remi Poujol, Bories Jefferies (Joe Jefferies), Clos Fantine (Olivier Andrieu). In other words the great and the good of Languedoc natural winemakers. It is interesting to see that this group is to the fore in promoting and conserving old and rare cépages, a natural fit.