Wine Tasting commentary and notes -Lindauer Summer

Lindauer has always been a bright star for New Zealand's wine industry - partly because it was the most accessible sparkling wine in terms of price, but also because it was used as a loss leader for grocery stores, and could be had for $10, $9 or even $8 (almost half it's retail price!) a bottle! Amazing for a wine that is fermented in the bottle, and with 18 months of bottle age (it also ages very nicely in the bottle - we've had some really nice examples that had been sitting in the cellar for a year or more). At those prices, there is no better value in wine, sparkling or not, in New Zealand.

As a fan of the brand, I am concerned about the recent sale of Lindauer by Pernod Ricard to Lion Nathan New Zealand and Indevin, and hope that the production standards do not slip!

There is quite a range in the Lindauer brand - Sec, Rosé, Brut Cuvee, Fraise (a brilliant marketing design. Though I really don't like the stuff, it fits a market niche very nicely!) and more recently the Sauvignon (sparkling Sauvignon blanc), which I've tasted and think is pretty much spot-on for what a typical Marlborough Savvie drinker would want (not that it's my cup of tea, so to speak!!).

More recently, there has been a limited release in the form of Lindauer Summer, which is a sparkling Pinot gris made using fruit from Gisborne.

I know what to expect when I buy a bottle of New Zealand sparkling Sauvignon blanc, but what to make of this sparkling Pinot gris, when still wine versions of Pinot gris are all over the place in terms of style? There's only one way to find out! So... what's my take on it?

My tasting notes:

Nose:
Fresh apple (Jonagold variety, if you know it - one of my favourite apples!), honey, fresh plum and Queen Anne cherry

Palate: Nice fresh mousse, though not so fine a one. Good palate weight, with the flavour of sweet lemonade (e.g. Sprite carbonated drink or the like for those in North America that might be reading this!). Slight metallic character, but nothing too distinguishing in terms of flavour, except some Golden Delicious apple. Slight astringency, and a short length.

Note that this is not methode traditionelle, but a Pinot gris still wine that has been carbonated (like the Sauvignon). So a rough mousse is to be expected, as the complex of compounds that make a really fine mousse in bottle aged wines isn't there...

Overall opinion? I tweeted this comment about it:
"Drinking Lindauer Ltd Release "Summer" -Gissy Pinot gris sparkling wine. Verdict? Meh+. Not bad, not great, but keep up the experimentation!"

The slightly expanded version is that I like the fact that they're experimenting. I like that they're featuring a product made from Gisborne grapes, a region that has suffered a bit in recent years. I think they've made another product that will appeal to a segment of wine drinkers (personally, I don't think I'm in that segment), but I think it does suffer from an identity crisis.


The marketing does try to convey the limited availability and to some extent the wine style through the choice of the name, "Summer," but for me, it's not the sort of thirst-quenching drink I would expect for that name. IMO, it would need to have more acidity, and be more fruity.


However, I do applaud Pernod Ricard for putting this out in the marketplace, and I hope that they continue to do limited releases of different styles - always keep pushing the envelope!!


But of course, now it's no longer PR's job - it's in the hands of Lion Nathan NZ and Indevin! Keep up the innovation, please!!

Time for a pet peeve - Capitalisation of variety names!

Bear with me here!

One thing that the popular press seems to do is not capitalise the names of grapevine varieties.

Oh, sure, Glen, "big soap-box," you say... but this does really bother me!

In New Zealand it's rampant! Editors of the Christchurch Press, and related newspapers, enjoy a glass of "riesling," for example. The editors of the Listener will extol the virtues of the latest release of "sauvignon blanc."

And it's not limited to Australasia! The New York Times also finds it difficult to capitalise these proper names.

Thankfully, more rational heads prevail at JancisRobinson.com, where the real Pinot noir will stand up and be recognised!


In scientific publications, there is an effort to do the right thing and keep the capitalisation as it should be. The American Journal of Enology and Viticulture specifies that "for varietal names, the AJEV conforms to spellings listed in
the TTB listing of approved grape names for American wines
(http://www.ttb.gov/wine/wine-faq.shtml#w9)." This kinda takes it out of their hands, but at least it's an "official" source. And the US government uses capitals!!

But what about Europeans? How do they handle it?

For that, it's best to go straight to the source - the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (the OIV, http://www.oiv.int/uk/accueil/). They publish standards for viticulture and winemaking (for a more complete listing of their responsibilities, see this page), including such titles as the "Description of wine and grape varieties throughout the world," the "OIV descriptor list for grape varieties and Vitis species," and the "International list of vine varieties and their synonyms."

The latter of these, for example, lists names, all of which start with a capital letter - as proper names should!!

When you get to binomial names, such as Pinot noir and Cabernet Sauvignon, things get a bit more complex, with some people always capitalising both, some never capitalising the second of the names, and some doing a mixture, depending on what the variety name is. The OIV document has a mixture, for example.

So, is there a golden rule for capitalisation of variety names? Well, no. Sometimes in a two-part name the second name isn't capitalised.

But the first part of the name is _always_ capitalised!

Please, editors of the world, do the right thing and capitalise the names!! After all, how do you think people would react it if someone referred to barack obama, president of the united states of america??

Keep those old varieties!

Saw this article today, courtesy TizWine:

http://www.decanter.com/news/wine-news/499095/first-tasting-of-lost-grapes-in-southwest-france

It's nice to see that just because some varieties are not in vogue at the moment, people aren't necessarily discounting their worth!

It was not that long ago that Viognier was almost grubbed out of existence, with sources commonly stating that there were as little as eight acres of the variety left in France in the mid 60s. Now it is enjoying a renaissance with the New World wine countries, including New Zealand, experimenting with the grape and becoming quite successful...

Lesser-known varieties such as Sauvignon gris and Arneis are getting a mainstream chance, with reasonably large bottlings going on and being made available commercially (via Pernod-Ricard NZ Sauvignon gris and Arneis and Forrest Estate Arneis, respectively, to name a few -both varieties are worth trying - I've had the P-R Sauv gris and the Forrest Arneis).

So kudos to those around the world that are not following the wave and replacing all of the world's grape diversity with seas of Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay!

And to complete the circle, a thank you to all of you who go out and try a bottle of all these lesser known varieties! Unless it's sold and tried, we may lose some of these cultivars forever!


NB:
For an excellent resource on varietal names, have a look at the Super Gigantic Winegrape Glossary, which was put together by Anthony J. Hawkins. Sometimes entries are very detailed, but at the least, there's some interesting information in there!

How low is low enough?

First of all, let me say how lucky I feel for my family and home to have made it through the Christchurch earthquake with so little effect - my best wishes go to those that were not so fortunate!

However, despite the 7.1 magnitude earthquake, the vines continue developing! And about 10 hours after it hit, we were out in the vineyard, finishing up the pruning! This because we're on a pretty warm site for Canterbury, and the buds were showing signs of pushing, making it more difficult to prune. At this stage, the buds start getting more susceptible to being rubbed off, so pulling brush can be a very time-consuming affair if they get too far along!

So once that was finished, I could put on a lime-sulfur spray, which should help control any carryover powdery mildew that could have been left as dormant hyphae on canes left for the coming season.

Powdery mildew infections on dormant canes - the dark blotches are areas where the fungal hyphae have gotten into the shoot tissue during the season

Then came the job of getting ready for spring frosts! This takes the form of mowing the cover crop as closely as possible, so that as much solar energy as possible can be absorbed during the day, and the also released at night. A higher growing cover crop can insulate the soil from gathering the sun's energy during the day, and also keep it from radiating that heat at night, causing an increased frost risk.

So as the grass was relatively high, I had to do a first pass, and then another cut with the mower.

Closeup of the first (upper third) and second pass (lower two-thirds) of the mower. You can see that I've cut the grass shorter than it's been in a while as it's more yellow than the grass in the background.

A longer view of the row (sorry for the "Batman" angle!). First pass on the right, and second on the left.

So we're still a ways away from budbreak (meaning green tissue visible on the buds), and therefore the most sensitive time for the shoots to freezing temperature, but even now they are starting to be more susceptible to frosts. I will be keeping the grass as short as possible over the next few months!!

GM vines out in the open? UPDATE

Back in May I noted a story that said that French researchers were trialling genetically modified vines outside.

Recently it was reported that the trial site had been vandalised. It turns out that they were testing some vines made to be more resistant to Grapevine Fanleaf virus (pdf information sheet from Western Australia here), which is a debilitating and non-curable disease found in many wine producing areas of the world.

The planting was destroyed, so it is a big setback for the evaluation of genetically modified vines.

With the challenges facing the human race, in terms of being able meet the demands for dramatic reductions in the use of pesticides while at the same time increasing the productivity of plants and their quality as well, there needs to be a considerable amount of  well informed and robust debate about the role that GMOs may have in our futures.

As far as I can tell, at the moment any debate going on is neither well informed, nor robust: something I hope changes, and soon!

Aussies wine woes

New Zealand is going through a rough patch, but Australia is too, and has been so for far longer.

Their overproduction problem has been a continuing one, and as mentioned on my Twitter account (@sabrosiavit -blatant plug! :-) there have been suggestions that tens of thousands of hectares of vines need to be ripped out to address the underlying issue - too many grapes in the ground!! A recent article says that some bulk grape growers are making just 27 cents on a bottle!!

But not only do they have the oversupply problem, they have issues with water supply, water salinity, and now, locusts??

Let's hope that the next step of the Plagues of Egypt doesn't take form for the wine industry there: Plague of Darkness!! :-)

How wet is too wet?

As the rain pours out of the sky today (30mm so far), with the ground already being so wet, pools of water are appearing everywhere, most alarmingly, in the back and front yards!!

As our own vineyard is on a slope, we don't need to worry about waterlogged soil, and many other vineyards in New Zealand are on free-draining gravelly soils, again, where water-logging isn't usually a concern.

However, in some cases, water can accumulate in the soil profile to above field capacity to total saturation, where no air spaces are left. If the water is free-standing for a while, it's not much of a problem for grapevines, but if it goes on too long, the roots will suffocate!

This is most likely to happen in the winter months, although in the spring if the snow in the mountains melts too quickly, you may get rivers overflowing their banks. In New Zealand, we can get flash floods in some places with heavy rainfall, and also flooding as a result of a lot of rainfall, saturated soils, particularly those that don't drain well (e.g. high clay content).

The difference between a decent-draining soil and a horrible-draining soil. These are two posts that I set in the ground yesterday - they're concreted in, but on the left the water has drained away, but for the post on the right the water is just sitting there. For the hole on the right, from about 20cm and down what I was digging out was almost pure clay! About 7m separates the posts.

In California and Oregon, back when I was studying on the West Coast of the US, there were several times of flooding, which meant some vineyards (or treefruit crops) were in standing water for weeks, or even months at a time.

So how long can roots survive under water? They need oxygen for the process of respiration, but in the winter, when the roots and above-ground parts of the vine are in dormancy, there isn't much activity in the tissues, so the use of oxygen is very slow. There can be oxygen in the water as well (this is how fish "breath" under water), and the roots may be able to take advantage of this, but the oxygen in the water that's near the roots, once the oxygen is used, the only way to replenish it is to have new water that has been exposed to air. Down in the soil profile, this doesn't happen so often!

So there are a number of factors that can contribute to the amount of time that roots can tolerate flooded conditions, but I'm of the mind that a few weeks shouldn't harm the roots or vines. In most cases, the water won't stick around that long.

During that all-important site selection process, these sorts of things should be investigated!

Meanwhile, I'll be hoping that the rain stops soon!!