Raising yeast

New Zealand scientists at the University of Auckland have now discovered that wild yeasts differ according to region. This is interesting because there are some winemakers who swear by cultured yeast and others who prefer a so called 'wild ferment'. On a recent visit to the Douro one Port maker was adamant that he only ever made use of wild yeasts whereas he was unsurprised that another house visited earlier (at the time owned by a large brewing group) only ever used cultured yeast! Because of course, a cultured yeast to a brewery is vital - it offers the possibility of consistency of style with every brew, which are often produced on a daily basis. With wine, produced just once a year, a certain variation in vintage is sometimes considered a good selling point so may actually be advantageous. What is more it now seems certain that wild yeast would play a part in this variation. It will also be a constituent of the mix in the 'terroir' of the wine - the individual vineyard character and regional identity. So far only New Zealand has investigated yeast in this way, but it seems reasonable to suppose that New Zealand is not unique. So this is just another small stitch in the large tapestry of wine analysis....

Short Video

Britain in the beerage

Normally when an Italian, a Portuguese and a Greek go to the pub the Germans seem to pay, even if only with considerable reluctance. But the Germans drink twice as much beer as the Brits yet Britain pays more than five times as much duty and VAT. According to accountants, Ernst and Young, Britain pays more than 40% of the European beer tax bill! even though Britain represents just 13% of Europe's beer consumption and 12% of the European population. Emigration anyone?

Hearty fayre

There is rejoicing at the Hôpital de Montbard, near Dijon, because a recent trial conducted by the Université de Bourgogne has affirmed the efficacy of red wine in assisting recovery from - or perhaps more properly guarding against a recurrence of - a heart attack in cardiac patients. Just a fortnight of consumption of 1 glass of red wine with meals improved blood cell fluidity and decreased levels of LDL (so-called 'bad') cholesterol compared with those who were given water. What seems to get less mention however, is that both groups were not dining on Boeuf Bourgignon and Chaource but alas, a Mediterranean diet. They were however drinking (what else?) red Burgundy. It would be interesting to know if the effect might have been more marked if Malbec rich wine from South West France had been prescribed instead. But probably this is not the piece of research that one should look to the Université de Bourgogne to conduct...

When NATURAL WINE is not so NATURAL

There is a growing clamour about the so called ‘natural’ wine movement which seems to market itself as a half way house to organic. Organic wine itself is rather full of inconsistency and confusion (see our summary on organic wine here) and the thinking behind ‘natural’ wine is equally muddled. The promoters are proud of their non interventionist stance and lack of ‘treatment’ of wine which they parade as naturally better. Reality, we feel, lies elsewhere!
If we return to first principles we can see that wine is never natural! Because although alcoholic fermentation takes place naturally in grapes, without human intervention it all too quickly ends up as vinegar which is the real natural result. So it is all very much a matter of degree. Some so called 'natural' wines are distinctly variable bottle by bottle. Interestingly, (leaving aside Austria and Germany where producers are still conscious of the antifreeze scandal) the natural wine movement is largely confined to France - a country with a Roman Catholic heritage and where not so long ago wines with what would today be regarded as faults were routinely on sale – the Good Lord had made the wine, as it were, and that was how it turned out, faults and all. The Protestant background of somewhere like Australia has led to a much more widespread technical approach in winemaking as a way of 'improving' nature. Of course this can lead to a certain standardisation, but for inexpensive wines this amounts to a version of quality control for the consumer. Without intervention interesting variabilty can all too easily be a lottery. And even for wines in wide production careful 'interventionist' winemaking and cellar practices lead to wines that have more individuality such as, for example in the barrel ageing of any number of wines from both old and new worlds, or Château Buisson Redon's microbullage (oxygenation) to enhance ageing characters of a simple Merlot based Bordeaux 'Petit Château'.
To paraphrase the cream producers, it may not be natural but it's nice. And nicer than it would 'naturally' otherwise be!

Has the time come to be hard on soft drinks?

Amid the much criticised news that the government is to continue with its cooperative approach with the food industry in reducing fat, this does not seem unreasonable when the soft drink industry seems to have been completely overlooked. Of course Coca-Cola is the leading sweet drink in the world and is - irony of ironies - a sponsor of the Olympics. The tooth decay it engenders is well-known, but less so is that unless you burn up the energy you consume in a soft drink virtually immediately (and here let it not be forgotten that Coca-Cola is selling not to the athletes but to the spectators) this energy will be changed into fat. So fine if your are running the 500 metres and like your dentist, but surely not such a good idea if you are not or don't.

Contained Joy?

News that the container ship that hit the reef of New Zealand's North Island has at least half a million pounds worth of wine on board is not good tidings for wine suppliers or customers. Certainly delays in someone's supplies are inevitable. There are no insurance claims yet permitted as the goods aren't yet lost, though the recent revelation that 70 or so containers have fallen into the sea may engender a rethink. Maybe there will be scenes as there were some years ago when the MSC Napoli came to grief off the South Devon Coast and "Sauvignon Blanc Galore" will turn out to be the sequel to "Whisky Galore"...
October 11