SO2 | amarchinthevines

March 24, 2017
by amarch34 1 Comment

RAW too

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And so to the wines at RAW which contain sulfites above 20mg/l, in other words sulfites added. Reading Alice Feiring’s book ‘Naked Wine’ she tells of how the founding father of natural wine Jules Chauvet used SO2 as do some of the movement’s well-known figures such as Foillard and Puzelat if they feel they need to do so in order to protect that particular wine. Natural wine is about more than just sulfites though its reputation seems to be bound with that additive. RAW’s own charter is worth reading on the subject.

I did enjoy many wines at RAW which are above my artificial 20mg/l mark. There are a dozen domaines worthy of mention so I shall be brief in describing them. Again I refer you to the RAW website for more information (via links) and also to David Crossley’s website for more detailed descriptions on some.

Vinca Minor (RAW link)

Sonoma Chardonnay (from domaine website)

Confounding all my prejudices about big, sweet California wines this domaine’s hallmark was freshness and a light touch. Whether a peach aroma Sonoma Valley Chardonnay 2016 or a juicy, red fruit Redwood Valley Carignan 2015 and even a Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 Santa Cruz Mountains – all these wines delivered everything you’d want in flavour and drinkability together with some complexity. Together with The Scholium Project I am converted to West Coast wines.

Okanagan Crush Pad (RAW link)

And Canada too. This is an interesting project where as well as making their own wine new winemakers are helped to make theirs too. Read more at the link above. Their Haywire wines were very good, providing an interesting contrast for me. As stated before I am not the biggest fan of extended skin contact wines, but here was a Free Form Sauvignon Blanc 2015 of 9 months maceration which was fruity as well as having texture, very good. I preferred it to a more traditionally made Pinot Gris. On the other hand the red skin contact was outshone by a beautifully fresh Water And Banks Pinot Noir 2015, classic grape character with red fruits and an earthy crunch. Lovely.

Vins Du Jura Thill (RAW link)

Jura wines are very on trend and with good reason, there are many excellent wines being produced there. I visited the region 20 years ago when Jura wines were hard to find because nobody was interested, now they are hard to find because they are in demand. I have had the good fortune to taste many excellent producers before including La Pinte, present at RAW. This domaine was new to me however, and another name to add to my list of must buys.

The Crémant Cuvée Adrian 2014 would certainly fit nicely into any occasion, refreshing tasty sparkling Chardonnay. The Chardonnay Sur Montboucon 2015 was even better with round , green and yellow fruits, great character. Perhaps my favourite wine was the Poulsard 2014, very light like a rosé in colour but packing dense rose and red fruit aromas and long red fruit flavours. One of my wines of the event. A word too for Vinum Paléas 2015, Éric’s straw wine with a slight honey note but dry and refreshing. Skilled winemaking.

Yves Duport (RAW link)

I don’t recall drinking wines from Bugey before. I will again. Again wines marked by a freshness and pure fruit . A lovely, fresh Chardonnay les Côtes 2016– more direct and zesty than the Jura style but a good food wine. The Pinot Noir Tradition 2016 made another comparison with the Jura and again it was more direct, good red fruits, ripe and clean. My favourite was the Altesse De Montagnieu “en Chinvre” 2016 which is quite a mouthful! Roussette is the grape and there was a grapefruit, citrus attack with a soft finish, really good.

It really is good to see a region fighting back led by a producer who lets nature speak.

Le Vignoble Du Rêveur (RAW link)

I was delighted to bump into Mathieu Deiss again. I have met him at a couple of tastings before when he was showing the wines of the family domaine with his father at the helm. I love those wines and their philosophy of place rather than grape. He is a passionate young winemaker and I am happy, but not surprised, to say that his own wines are crackers too.

Singulier is a blend of various white grapes, mostly Riesling made by carbonic maceration. The 13 was nice but the 15 was even better, singing with zesty fruit and character with mo SO2 either. It was another skin contact wine which made sense adding that characteristic texture to the fruit. Vibration 2013 was a Riesling with quite the best aromas of any wine at the Fair. Classic Riesling, zesty and long fresh flavours which grew in the mouth. Pierres Sauvages 2013 is a blend of Pinots; Blanc, Gris and Noir but made as a white wine so no long skin contact with the Noir grapes. This filled the senses, it is still developing in bottle I would say, lovely.

Hauts Baigneux et les Tètes (RAW link)

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To the Loire, that hotbed of natural wine and another new domaine to me based in Azay Le Rideau. I liked the reds but Loire reds are often a blindspot for me and it was the white wines which really stuck out, based on Chenin Blanc. The Azay Le Rideau ‘Les Chênes’ 2015 was a classic Loire white with zest and minerality, textured and fruity. I also liked the Blanc Chenin 2015 made in concrete eggs which seemed to have a richer depth. More young winemakers making an impact, the future looks good.

Chandon de Briailles (RAW link)

I have bought wines from this domaine in the past and was pleased to see them here at RAW. This is a classic Burgundy domaine and I love good Burgundy. No disappointments here, lovely Savigny and Pernand Vergelesses but there were two stand out wines. Corton Blanc 14 was a reminder of why Chardonnay in Burgundy can be just about perfect. The aromas and flavours seemed to have limitless depth, from apple and green fruits to rich, round hazelnuts. A stunner. And the Corton Bressandes Grand Cru 2014, just makes me smile thinking of it. Still a baby, but delivering forest aromas, dark red fruits, earthy notes – it’s one of those Pinot Noirs which just says this is as good as red wine gets. Tannins aplenty still but in a few years? I would love a supply of these to follow the wine’s progress. Top class biodynamic wine with producers cutting back on sulfites too. Love it.

Wines from classic old world regions and new world upcoming areas too. The world of wine is embracing natural wine.

Final selections soon.

November 7, 2016
by amarch34 8 Comments

Is it natural?

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Autumn is the time of the Foire Aux Vins in France, supermarkets and other large stores discounting their wines. One advert stood out and that was Carrefour’s, offering 10 wines which they called «Nature». Interesting to see that they feel there is a demand for such wines (something UK supermarkets clearly don’t see) and that natural wines have a market. However, on closer examination it turned out that the ten wines on offer were «Nature» only in the sense that they were «sans sulfites ajoutés» (no added SO₂). Only three of the ten were produced organically, so are they truly natural wines?

There are, of course, some pedantics (including one well known British wine writer on Twitter on Nov 7^th) who would argue that no wine is natural, that it does not make itself. The word natural has indeed become something of a millstone around the bottle neck. So, what do we understand by the term?

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One definition which carries some weight is that of Doug Wregg, a director of the UK’s biggest natural wine importer Les Caves De Pyrene:
1. Vineyards farmed organically or biodynamically (with or without certification)
2. Hand-harvested fruit
3. Fermentation with indigenous yeasts
4. No enzymes
5. No additives (like acid, tannin, colouring) other than SO2, used in moderation if at all
6. Light or no filtration
7. Preferably no fining
8. Preferably no new oak

The RAW Wine Fair of Isabelle Legeron adds two other qualifications, a limit of 70mg/l of added sulphites and “no heavy manipulation” such as micro oxygenation or flash pasteurisation. (see more here)

I think those definitions hit the main points though perhaps are a little too broad themselves, points 6-8 are especially vague and Legeron’s 70mg/l seems very high. They would, however, exclude the Carrefour wines which have seen flash pasteurisation.

At Mas Coutelou Jeff adds nothing to the wines, does not filter or fine and the only oak used is from old barrels. There are NO added sulphites. Is he an extremist? Are his wines unclean or unstable? The answer to both is no. They are sent in bottle around the world, to Japan, Australia and all parts of Europe. And then there is the USA.

The Americans have much tighter rules and restrictions for their certification. Wines which are classed as organic have to be recognised as such by regulating bodies such as Ecocert. In addition, in the USA, organic wines must be sulphite free. Wines which have sulphites added can be described as grown with organic grapes but not organic. (see more here)

Jeff’s wines can be classified as organic in the USA, the back labels from two cuvées are shown here. In effect they are being identified as natural wines by the USA. This is not a costly process, Jeff’s importer, Camille Riviėre, pays a fee of around $250 to be able to use the title “organic wine”.

Other people have started to campaign for certification of natural wines to help consumers make informed choices of just how “natural” are the wines they drink. Writers such as Antonin Iommi-Amunategui have set out the arguments for such certification however many are still reluctant to head down that route. Some, for example, fear that rules and regulations fly in the face of the outsider role and rebellious reputation of natural producers.

Antonin with his manifesto for natural wine including regulation

In my opinion perhaps the time has come for certification. Consumers should be able to buy with confidence. Look at this article from the newspaper “Liberation” describing some of the many processes and additives which can legitimately be put into wines.

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Should the consumer not be more protected? I do understand the desire of winemakers to be left free to make wine in the manner they choose but standards need to be established.

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The US Department of Agriculture shows the way, natural wine must be organic and then interfered with as little as possible. The SO₂regulation there deters some producers from organics as they feel it is not worth their while to be organic at all if they intend to add sulphites thus preventing their wines from being classed as organic. Some, like Jeff, might insist upon that restriction, others would be more liberal. In addition, Wregg’s list forms the basis for rules, if tightened up a little.

Natural wine is often completely dismissed by some on the experience of one or two bottles not being correct, a level of criticism not applied to more conventional wines. Not all natural wines are good, I personally like some more than others. In my view, it does need to be clear about what it is and that certain standards are being met, otherwise it risks being an easy target for many, however unfairly. And wines which are not natural (as most would understand the term) will continue to be sold as the same as those of Jeff, Barral, Texier, Foillard and many others.

Real? RAW? Just very good

At La Remise

In the last article I wrote about the young up and coming winemakers whose wines I enjoyed at Bédarieux, La Remise and The Real Wine Fair. Whilst this new wave are producing good things there are still many good tunes from the some of the ‘older’ fiddles. As ever there were many vignerons present who have been making natural wines for longer. Many of these began as winemakers on a family domaine and learned about winemaking in conventional form before deciding to go natural. Others have moved into the world of wine with the intention of making natural wine.

Natural wines developed a reputation for faults amongst traditional wine drinkers (especially some journalists). Some of these appraisals were genuine, others a matter of perception. There is no doubt that some wines are faulty, I have tasted them myself. Problems such as mousiness and brett are genuine faults. Other issues can be a matter of taste, eg skin contact.

In contrast, however, I visited a wine fair in Vouvray on Sunday May 15th. It was full of conventional producers, bar one converting to biodynamics. There were many dull wines, often with high sulphur. There were many faulty wines. So, j’accuse les vins conventionels.

Natural wines are, in fact, the way that wines were made for generations, over hundreds of years. The conventional wines of 2016 are the product of more recent methods, of modern science and technology. Going back to the traditional methods involves a leap of faith and requires very healthy grapes if you are to abjure sulphur dioxide. As the natural wine movement has gained momentum in the last 20 years many of its producers have become more experienced in making wines without the safety net of modern science and technology. Standards are getting higher, the wines ever better. So, here are some that I enjoyed recently.

With Fred Rivaton

At Bédarieux I was very happy to meet up again with Fred Rivaton from Latour De France (66) who makes many of my favourite wines. Blanc Du Bec and Gribouille, both 2014s, were delicious. In the last few weeks I have selected both as Wine Of The Week, and would do so most weeks when I was fortunate enough to open a bottle. One of the best.

Another of my WOTW selections was the Pinot Blanc 2010 of Gérard Schueller. He was present at Bédarieux too and his 2014 Pinot Blanc and Riesling were both excellent. Next time I visit Alsace he’ll be top of my list of domaines to visit. I bought both of those wines.

Philippe Valette‘s Macon wines were another source of quality, I especially liked his Chaintré 2012, a beautifully clear, zesty and round expression of Chardonnay. As a third generation winemaker, Valette is a fine example of my comments above.

Didier Barral (Domaine Leon Barral) is one of natural wine’s great stars. His wines at Bédarieux were proof of how justified his reputation is. They require time to be at their peak but are pleasurable, profound and priced accordingly but worth it. Barral is a model of biodiversity and philosophical winemaking, a must try. My favourites were the Blanc 14 made mostly from Terret with lovely melon, grapefruit flavours and great length, together with the Faugères 13 of stunning depth.

Nicolas Carmarans is living proof that talent and good winemaking can make very drinkable, quality wines in regions not usually associated with wine. He works in the Aveyron. There is a direct, mineral side to his wines married to fruit and length. Wines such as Selves 14 and Maximus 14 reflect local grape varieties such as Fer Servadou at their best.

Clos Fantine is a domaine which features regularly in this blog and the 2015 wines which Corinne was showing at La Remise were the best of recent vintages in my opinion. La Lanterne Rouge and Faugères Tradition have pure fruit with structure, complexity and a beautiful expression of the schistous soils of the area.

Philppe Pibarot makes wines in the Gard. As well as encouraging his young assistant John Almansa, Philippe makes first rate wines. I loved both his white wines, Blanc and Clos Domitia 14 with Clairette, Roussanne and Piquepoul and the delicious red fruit freshness of Cante Renard 15 made from Cabernet Sauvignon with Languedoc varieties such as Carignan and Syrah mixed in.

Guy and Thomas Jullien are still young but I have enjoyed their Ferme Saint Martin Rhone wines many times and met them in Arles and London. I especially enjoyed the Ventoux wine Estaillades 14 (Grenache and Counoise) with round, spicy flavours and the Beaumes De Venise Costancia 14 a 50/50 blend of Grenache and Syrah, more structured but balanced with lots of delicious fruit.

Italian producer Colombaia presented some lovely wines at La Remise, classic Tuscan wines with Sangiovese, Malvese and Colorino grapes. Lovely freshness and fruit were trademarks of the wines and I particularly appreciated their Rosso Toscano 12 from young vines.

From Galicia in Spain I enjoyed the wines of La Perdida. Perfumed, spicy aromas in their wines, nicely balanced too – signs of good winemaking. The Godello 14 with 20 days maceration on skins was one of the best examples of longer skin contact white wines that I have tasted and the Garnacha (with 30% Mencia) was even better, full of deep spice and dark fruits and very aromatic.

I could add other names like Yannick Pelletier, Julien Peyras and Alexandre Bain. Good producers all.

And, yes I am biased, there are the excellent wines of Jeff Coutelou. It is interesting to taste Mas Coutelou wines in the context of producers from around France and Europe. They more than hold their own, the 2015 freshness and restraint certainly lifting them to bear comparison with the best of the Rhone, Loire or anywhere.

Jeff is a 5th generation producer, he learned winemaking skills from his family before branching out into ‘real wine’ production. He has a natural talent of course but he has learned from experience and his wines are improving in quality as a result of that talent and learning about his vines, his soils and his cellar work. And passing it on to the new wave of producers who come to spend time with him.

Terms such as ‘real’, ‘natural’, ‘living’ are often applied to these wines, but don’t get hung up about them. The cuvées and producers I have listed here are just very very good wines and winemakers.

October 29, 2015
by amarch34 3 Comments

What happens after harvest?

The immediate period after harvest could easily be perceived as a time to relax a little. The hard work of picking, transporting, sorting, crushing and pressing grapes is done. The remontages, délestages, pigeages are memories. The wines quietly ferment in cuve, gently moving to their magical transformation into wine.

Cuves now containing wines such as Syrah and Flambadou

Sadly, that is not the case. The work continues apace, there is no time to relax just yet. The wines are in a delicate stage, fermentation is a violent chemical reaction and lots could go wrong. Therefore, they are checked frequently and analyses are sent away to ensure that everything is proceeding as it should. This is the top of the sheet which comes back from the analysis laboratory.

For each sample you receive information about the amount of residual sugar, alcohol, volatile acidity, the pH of the wine and the amount of Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) in total and free in the wine. SO2 is the controversial additive which most winemakers add to their wines to stabilise it and to provide elements of prevention against oxidation. Natural winemakers, such as Jeff Coutelou, are against using SO2 as they want wines as natural as they can be without additions.

SO2 is a natural product of grapes and winemaking so there will always be a small amount of SO2 in any wine. It combines with the chemicals of wine and so most is absorbed (bound). The rest which is free is what conventional producers use as an anti-oxidative and anti-bacterial agent in the wine. They might add sulphur at various points of the winemaking process but most likely at crushing, fermentation and bottling.

EU regulations limit the amount of sulphur as you can see in the table below. Red wines produce their own natural anti-oxidants so less SO2 is allowed. Sweet wines contain more sugar which binds SO2 so more is added so that free SO2 can work. Levels of permitted SO2 rise according to the type of sweet wine. The figures are all mg per litre.

Organic regulators allow less SO2 to be used as you can see, indeed some organic bodies such as Demeter have even more strict limits than those below.

Natural wine guidelines are exactly that, guidelines. There are no official rules for natural producers as there are no rules for any aspect of natural wines. The figures in the table are those suggested by AVN one of the groups which some producers have established.

Type of wine	EU	Organic rules (Demeter)	Natural guidelines
Red	160	100 (70)	30
White, rosé	210	150 (90)	40
Sweet	200+	170+ (80+)	40

Some natural wine makers have gone further and eschew any use of added SO2. Jeff is one of those producers.

I have chosen not to identify the figures for the analyses of particular wines he received on October 15th from which the heading is shown above, as they are not mine to share. I can say that the highest SO2 figure is 10mg/l and that is for one cuve only. Fifteen of the nineteen wines analysed contained 3 mg/l or less. In other words every cuve has negligible levels of free SO2, humans cannot taste it at less than 11mg/l in water let alone wine. No sulphites are added. Mas Coutelou wines are natural wines but also very healthy wines. The analyses showed they are all 13.5% to 15% in alcohol and volatile acidity is well under the guidelines, one or two cuves were a little elevated but that is normal during fermentation.

Cement tanks including one which contains Flower Power

So the wines are progressing well, it looks like a very good vintage. They have been put into the cuves appropriate for them to spend the winter. Jeff produces a plan to show where they all are.

On the left is a spreadsheet showing each cuve, how much wine is in it, when it was harvested, when it was moved, when assembled with other wines, date of sous-tirage, the wine and grapes, and quantities for red, rosé and white. I have made it a little hazy so as not to spoil the surprises which the patron will unleash in the next few months.

To the right is a map of the cellar showing where the wines are.

Jeff has also been receiving plenty of phone calls. It is now several months since wines left Puimisson to head to cavistes and merchants in France, Europe, the USA, Asia and Australia. Now stocks are low there is a demand for wines to be sent to them. Therefore, the 2014s which were bottles earlier this year are now being furnished with their labels and capsules and then packaged into boxes. Different regions, eg the EU, UK and USA, all have different requirements even for this packaging so even this job is not as simple as it may seem. For more on the process and a video I took last year see here.

Thursday October 22nd was a day for preparing magnums and for some markets these are sealed with wax. Appropriately Flambadou, named after a barbecue implement, was therefore held over the flames of the gas burner which heated the wax.

Jeff and Michel, waxing lyrical

On Friday Jeff was due to head north on the long drive to Nancy and a wine salon. We are entering the season for these events and that means more journeys, more selling and more work. The vendanges may be over, the work certainly is not.

Well for almost everyone.

March 20, 2015
by amarch34 3 Comments

Ten (thousand) green bottles

Air pressure was high, the moon waning, wind from the north – a good time to bottle wine. Yes these things do make a difference. The week of March 9th -12th saw around 10,000 bottles filled with wine and thousands labelled ready for a large wine tasting. Bottling is a tense time for the winemaker, risks abound. Contamination and exposure to oxygen are the main two risks; it is estimated that the wine interacts with more oxygen during the bottling process than in years inside the bottle whatever the closure. Most winemakers will add sulphur dioxide at this stage in order to protect the wine from bacteria and oxydation, including many who would regard themselves as makers of natural wine.

Jeff Coutelou adds no SO2 at any stage of the winemaking process and therefore takes risks. He has to be confident in the health of his wine and everything has to be as clean as possible to minimise those risks.

Cleaning the machinery before the process starts

As it happened the stress began before the bottling, the main machine had a part not working and the engineer was late in getting the part. Therefore, day 1 would need to use an older machine to bottle magnums of 5SO, the simpler of the Cinsault cuvées.

Magnums being filled

The magnum is corked

Bottling magnums is a much slower process than single bottles because of the older machine and a separate machine for corking. A few hundred can be produced in an hour rather than the 1200 single bottles. The costs are therefore greater even if the bottle retail price will not reflect that.

Magnums stored upright at first

Cleaning again, after bottling

Also produced were bag in box wines (BiBs) which are usually sold to restaurants. This was mostly Merlot wine (from the Le Colombié vineyard).

Filling the bag with Merlot

Bag is boxed

The next day the new part was fitted and the main bottling line was in action. This is an expensive machine but can bottle 1200 bottles an hour whilst controlling the risks of contamination and exposure to oxygen. Carole can be seen here placing the bottles on the machine. It then carries the bottles through the process at the required speed.

Inside the main body of the machine the bottle has its air sucked out to prevent any staleness. The bottle passes to the reservoir of wine and is filled. It moves on to a sensor to ensure that the level is correct inside the bottle, and removes or adds wine as necessary.It is important that there is a small gap between wine and cork to allow air inside so that the wine can breathe and develop before consumption. The cork is then driven into the bottle which begins a 3 minute journey around a conveyor belt allowing the cork to expand in the bottle neck so that is properly closed. They do rather resemble penguins waddling or a long queue in the Post Office.

This extra video shows the sensor and corking in closer detail.

Finally the bottles are stored in large pallets and the sunlight created some stunning colours.

As for the wines, well the PM rosé is fruity, refreshing and yet has plenty of texture and length of flavour. However, the 5SO was my star, it is a lighter Cinsault ready for drinking. Immediately after bottling it had a slightly cloudy appearance which began to settle by day two. I opened a bottle on the fifth day and it was delicious, with real depth. Much more than a simple wine. Enjoy!