Kicking off this week with round two of my ‘focus on Italy’ blog entries. We always seem to taste these wines in the shop and wonder why we all don’t drink more Italian wine. Perhaps we look elsewhere for great value everyday wines, or we just don’t know enough about the great regions of Italy. Last week I wrote about wines from the North, covering regions from the Alto Adige down to Tuscany. This week I shall talk about the main regions of the South. As we leave Tuscany, sweeping down through Umbria, I suggest stopping for a quick glass of Fobiano 2001 from the immaculate producer La Carraia. Blended from Merlot and Cabernet Sauvigon, this wine is described by Hugh Johnson as ‘well crafted’ and certainly is a popular choice with our regular customers. Red wines produced in this region often get bad press, mainly thanks to the vast amounts of table wine that gets washed up on to supermarket shelves. As a region, Abruzzo has suffered from this more than most. The vast coastlines here create an ideal setting for wine making, and Montepulciano is the grape of choice for reds. Although some great examples of this grape can be found, the white wines have really found their feet and right now Madregale ‘Terre di Chieti’ is the ‘go to’ option for customers looking for something a little different that won’t eat too much into the wallet. Being a dry white with wonderful fresh aromatics, I would recommend enjoying this wine with the pan-fried fish of your choice. It is made from a blend of Chardonnay and Trebbiano, this region’s most popular white grape variety.
The further south we go, the more obscure the grape varieties seem to become. There are, however, a few areas to look out for. Campania, Surrounding Napoli, produces some wonderful white wines. Greco di Tufo, a style of white wine made from Greco Bianco, is a wine I always find complex, interesting and great value for money. Feudi di San Gregorio makes a beautiful example with stone fruits, minerality, and a finish that lasts just long enough to make another batch of Calamari. For another trip to the coast, I recommend the winemaking resort of Puglia, the heel of Italy. One of my favourite spots for discovering exiting, well-priced, interesting wines. Going through bit of a renaissance thanks to EU grants allowing vine replacement, many of the mafia made factory wines of this region are now being replaced with top notch quality wines. A trend towards organic farming has yielded such excellent wines as Promessa Merlot/Syrah. A fruity little number, with bold strawberry and cherry fruits, this is certainly a wine to be enjoyed outside with friends. Speaking of regions in the south reinventing themselves, I would highly recommend island hopping over to Sicily and enjoying the fruits of a lot of hard work. Turning Sicily into one of the most vital and improved wine regions didnt happen over night. But now it’s very much possible to seek out some real treats and, as it happens, one of this month’s staff picks is the Grecanico Dorato ‘Integer’ from Marco De Bartoli. This is personally one of my favourite styles of white wine – slightly oxidised, it has toasty notes backed up by apricot, cream and peaches. A wonderful, full-bodied white, and this month our in-house chef has recommended some fish dishes that match it perfectly. Head over to our staff recommendations page to read more.
Bérèche Brut Réserve – A Winning Champagne
Bérèche Brut Réserve was the outstanding winner at our Battleground Champagne tasting last week, so I thought it’d be a good idea to give you guys a quick introduction to the domaine and their philosophy. As some of you may know, Michael Edwards wrote an excellent book on Champagne a couple of years ago called Fine Wines of Champagne. It’s a brilliant book, no doubt about that, but I never understood why he didn’t talk about Bérèche et Fils in it. Either he didn’t know them, which is quite unlikely since he is an expert on the wines of the region, or he didn’t like their wines (is that even possible?). Either way I wasn’t too happy about the situation, because I absolutely love their wines and I think they deserve some serious recognition. I resolved to write an email to Mr Edwards himself, and that was when I stumbled upon his blog, on which, lo and behold, I read: “I set off to Ludes to visit the one grower I most regret not including in my last Champagne book – Raphael Bérèche”. What a relief.
When I visited the domaine in 2005, Raphael Bérèche was already in charge but his younger brother Vincent arrived a few years later, in 2008. It is really refreshing to see two vignerons as young as them (they’re both still in their twenties) taking the reins at the family domaine with such passion and dedication. Bérèche et Fils are probably one of the oldest growers in Champagne – the domain was created in 1847 – but it was only in 1950, when Raphael and Vincent’s grandfather married their grandmother Solange, that the estate really expanded. Solange was from Ormes, a village situated to the south-west of Reims, and so they bought another 2.5ha of vines in the village, taking the total size of the domaine to 5ha. They sold part of their harvest to the negociants until the late 1970s, when the brothers’ father, Jean-Pierre, decided to focus a little bit more on the family business. The production finally reached 85,000 bottles in the 1990s after they purchased a 3ha vineyard in the ‘Vallee de la Marne’, bringing their total holdings to 9.5ha spread across six communes: Ludes 1er cru, Chigny-les-Roses 1er cru, Trépail 1er cru and Ormes in the Montagne de Reims, Mareuil-le-Port and Festigny in the Vallee de la Marne.
More than anything, the two brothers are in love with their land. Like all great growers, they see themselves as the custodians of something much bigger than them, a piece of land that was handed to them by their forefathers and which they look to preserve and transmit to succeeding generations. With this philosophy in mind, they slowly turned towards de facto organic/biodynamic viticulture (even though they are not seeking certification). In short, they don’t use any herbicides, preferring instead to work the soil and keep a spontaneous grass cover. Plant preparations are used alongside contact products and systemic products are only used in extreme cases.
The same line of conduct is followed in the cellar, where they intervene as little as possible. Fermentations are conducted by wild yeasts, they’re not rushed or temperature-controlled and usually last until the beginning of December. The temperature in the cellars is quite cool (around 8°C between the months of September and April) so malolactic fermentation can be avoided. The wines are then aged on their lees until they are tasted and blended in May.
The Brut Réserve is a blend of equal parts Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier from the 2008 vintage, to which 30% of reserve wines from the two previous vintages has been added. It has been aged on its lees for two years and received a dosage of 8g/L.The style is very much one of restraint and elegance, with beautiful precision and a mousse that is so delicate that it seems like silk. One particular note that is constant across the whole range is a sort of grapefruity bitterness/salinity that kicks in on the finish and brings freshness to the wines.
The Brut Réserve is a little beauty and well worth seeking out, but perhaps the most astonishing cuvée is Reflet d’Antan, a perpetual solera champagne that was started back in the 1980s. The wines for Reflet are selected in the May following the vintage, aged on their lees in a cuve for another year, then introduced into a solera system (500 and 600 litre barrels) that was first begun in 1985. Once a year they bottle off 2/3, leaving the balance to blend with the next wines into the system. The wine is bottled in June and spends 3 years sur latte before being disgorged by hand with a dosage of 6 g/L. Malolactic fermentation is avoided. The result is amazing. I haven’t tasted many champagnes with such concentration and structure. It’s beautifully vinous and complex, with soft white orchard fruits mingling with the slightly salty/nutty notes coming from the long solera ageing. It did extremely well when we tasted it next to Substance, Jacques Selosse’s own solera cuvée, during our Grower Champagne tasting last October, and represents excellent value for money at £67.95 (compared to £260 for the Substance).
A small quantity of Bérèche Brut Réserve is now available to buy online or in our shop.