Wines in the Press, February 28-29

Tuesday, 03 March 2009

This week's reviews of the national wine writers

The Guardian
Now, says Victoria Moore, you're not able to take bottles on planes, it takes the joy out of rummaging around vineyards and picking up your own little gems to take home. But on the upside, she says, you can access the vineyards of small producers without ever having to leave the sofa by going online.

She explores two sites. FromVineyardsDirect.com "aims to be at least 20% cheaper than traditional channels" because its cuts out the agent. But this is not entirely accurate, says Moore. "Some of the ones I checked were available at a near-identical price elsewhere. But there's some lovely stuff and delivery on a two-case order is free."

The Château Pontet Bagatele Rosé (£7.95 14% abv) was "gorgeous" and "magical".
Mas Belles Eaux Les Coteaux 2005 (£12.95; 14.5%abv) a "savoury wilderness".

Less keen was Moore on nakedwines.com. set up by Rowan Gormley, the former MD of Virgin
Wines. "It feels a bit sloppier, and with its Facebook-style website and complex buying system it holds limited appeal."

Plus said Moore: "He had reduce the headline price of Raats wine by £1.50 a bottle when I pointed out that it was that much cheaper elsewhere."

Financial Times
Jancis Robinson was caught up in the Australian bush fires with some of the worst hit areas being the wine growing regions Gippsland, Beechworth and Yarra Valley.

Flown by helicopter, "we hardly talked on this sombre flight, silenced by the blackened paddocks and smouldering fires."

The view from the Yerling Station tasting room was a series of fires that were still smoking.
Yet it was "business as usual," Robinson points out as they got on with the vertical and horizontal tasting of all the wines in the Rathbone Group.

Then on to DeBortoli where winemaker Steve Webber was going to be rinsing the Pinot Noir grapes that were due to be picked the following day, so there was no noticeable smoke legacy.

Officials have now jumped into action offering to taste samples of vine leaves and grape juice for guaiacol, reports Robinson.A compound viewed as an indicator of smoke effects that can build up in the bottle over time.

Far more serious was the death of the Leonards of Steels Creek and wine distributor Rob Davey and his family. They all perished in the fires.

With 150 hectares being lost and vineyards destroyed the Yarra Valley Winegrowers Association is busily broadcasting that the region is still very much open for business.

Sunday Telegraph
Susy Atkins was busy trying to match wine with mussel recipes devised by the Sunday Telegraph's resident cookery writer, Diana Henry. "A Loire Muscadet immediately springs to mind," says Susy Atkins.

But Henry's mussell recipes introduce plenty of other elements, which need a bit more "muscle," says Atkins.

With the spaghetti mussells and tomato, "nothing weedy, it's got to be a bright, sunny Italian white such as Tesco Finest Gavi 2007, Italy (£6.99)."

Atkins top choice is a lime-soused, scented Australian riesling for mussells with coconut and lime such as Jacob's Creek Reserve Riesling 2007, South Australia (Booths and everywine.co.uk, £8.99).

The Independent
Anthony Rose points out that BYO is a sub-culture in this country, tolerated rather than encouraged. "It's a great way to eat on a budget. And I'm a fan of some of the south-west London places listed on Tom Cannavan's website (wine-pages.com/food/byolist)."

The reason it's not bigger he explains is because it undermines the gross profit margin that most restaurants apply to their wines of between 60 and 75%.

The wine list essentially subsidises everything else, "the costs in the kitchen are higher, so the profit contributions on non food items such as spirits, water, coffee and wine are higher," says Nigel Platts-Martin, one of London's top wine buyers.

Another alternative is charging a corkage price. No doubt restaurants could do more to bring customers in with better deals on wine and charging corkage is "one of the best kept secrets of the wine trade," says Rose.

"At Carluccio's recently, I accidentally discovered that you can order one of the superior bottles in their retail front-of-house to have with your meal for just an extra £5."

The Times
Similarly Jane MacQuitty explores, "restaurant rip-offs on the wine list." "My real bugbear, though - and everyone else's - during a credit crunch is the outrageous mark-ups on wine : 100% is standard and 200, 300 and even 400% not unknown. "It helps if you study a few wine list before you eat out, to memorise a few wines and prices," says MacQuitty.

This week's supermarket best buys are Viña Maipo Gran Reserva, Sauvignon Blanc 2008 and Vina Maipo Gran Reserva Shiraz 2008, Chile (£3.99 Sainsbury's) until March 24.