Distilling Krug’s Clos du Mesnil with chef de cave Julie Cavil
From grower champagne to unfortified sherry, resurrected indigenous varieties from Corsica to the Canaries, and the many faces of new school Burgundy, contemporary wine culture has changed, forcefully redefined by irreverent outsiders and trailblazing pioneers. Whilst the preponderance of this change has been a great good—there has surely never been a better time to enjoy […]
The new benchmark non-vintage champagne: Billecart-Salmon Le Réserve
Founded in 1818, Maison Billecart-Salmon has a long, sustained history of entrepreneurism and innovation, successive generations have overcome varied challenges, and elevated the house to increasing heights. When seventh generation Mathieu Roland-Billecart returned home to Mareuil-sur-Aÿ in 2018 to take the helm at this family-owned and managed estate, he initiated a programme of agronomic, winemaking, […]
La Renaissance d’Anjou
In 582, historian Grégoire de Tours, who wrote frequently on the wines of France, recorded that the then sitting Count of Anjou and the local Catholic administration had planted and managed vineyards around Château de Chalonnes, less than 20 kilometres from Angers. Besides scattered vines planted by earlier Roman settlers in Nantes, this is generally considered […]
Billecart-Salmon: enduring history, evolving savoir faire, and six decades of Nicolas François
By 1844, Champagne’s grand marques were already measuring global shipments in millions of bottles. Following phylloxera, consecutive troublesome vintages, and two devastating wars, they acquired vast swathes of land from countless small growers and offered stable long-term contrat de vendange to many more. Subsequently, production grew and consolidated; between 1900 and 2000, production exploded, totalling […]
Chiara Condello: classicism, daring and reviving Predappio
Italy’s economic woes took their toll on Predappio. Today, Chiara Condello has enthused collectors and critics, and is helping revive regional winegrowing.
Carema: heroic viticulture, sudden demise, and a fervent revival
Some two thousand years ago, the first Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus, instructed the construction of Via delle Gallie, a significant road enabling Roman military and political expansion towards the Alps. Carema occupied a strategic position along the road, which intersected the small town at the southern end of the Aosta Valley. Some historians suggest the […]
Timorasso: origin, viticulture, winemaking, and more
Between 1489 and 1493, famed Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci occasionally worked as a wedding planner, organising lavish, eccentric weddings and operetta for wealthy Italian nobility. At the marriage of Duke Giovanni Galeazzo to Isabella of Aragon in Naples, Da Vinci gifted the couple a large wheel of montebore, an ancient cheese of Val Curone, […]
Langhe Chardonnay: origin, viticulture, winemaking, and more
Dramatic change characterised the late twentieth century in Piedmont. By 1980, Altare et al. had thrown tradition to the wind in Barolo, so too had Angelo Gaja in neighbouring Barbaresco. Angelo, a recalcitrant, audacious young man, began working at the family winery in 1961, aged 21. Following several trips to France, Angelo set about revolutionising […]
Freisa: origin, viticulture, winemaking, and more
As early as 1517, Freisa—a parent/offspring of Nebbiolo—commanded twice the price of contemporaneous varieties. In 1799 Count Nuvolone, deputy director of the Turin Agrarian Society, described Freisa as one of the ‘best red grapes’ in the region, and by 1861 the variety was said to have been included in almost all Piedmontese red blends. In 1875, a third of all the vineyard acreage in Asti and Alessandria was still planted to Freisa; the variety was ubiquitous in Chieri, Monferatto and Langhe too. Its popularity continued into the early twentieth century, favoured for its hardiness, resilience to downy mildew and reliability. Popularity notwithstanding, scarcely more than twenty hectares remain planted in Langhe—several hundred in Piedmont. Between 1960 to 2000, change characterised the region. Lacking as clear an identity as its autochthon counterparts, Freisa fell out of favour—not helped by mixed critical reviews. Nebbiolo, Barbera and Dolcetto better suited international palates and plantings grew dramatically, further compounding Freisa’s decline. Today, modern winemaking techniques allow growers to manage Freisa’s bitter tannins better or ferment the wines fully dry. Despite prominent producers scrubbing their productions, a small but impactful band of grower’s continues to cultivate the variety, championing tradition and biodiversity. Particularly resistant to flavescence dorée, requiring fewer treatments than other popular varieties, and yielding a ‘lighter’ canopy than Nebbiolo, Freisa’s revival may be necessary as well as deserving. Herein, I examine Freisa in greater detail, exploring origins, viticulture, and winemaking with Carlotta Rinaldi, Marie Teresa Mascarello, Isidoro Vajra and more.
Delayed malolactic fermentation: exploring the stylistic and practical impacts
Though almost universally referred to as malolactic fermentation, the process through which tart-tasting malic acid is converted to softer tasting lactic acid and carbon dioxide released is not technically a fermentation. More accurately it is a conversion or transformation. Though likely as old as wine itself, practical understanding of malolactic is a relatively recent breakthrough. As early as 1837 German oenologist Freiherr von Babo described a “second fermentation” which resulted in increased turbidity. Von Babo’s advice to winemakers was to immediately rack their wines and add sulfur to stabilise. Following a string of influential breakthroughs in the late ’80s, in 1939 the French wine scientist Émile Peynaud outlined the importance of malolactic in making great Bordeaux. By 1960, following work by scientists in California, France, and Portugal, isolated strains of lactic acid bacteria were successfully used to carry out malolactic fermentation in the winery. Nowadays winemakers have a range of malo-centric variables at their disposal. Some choose to inoculate with bacterial cultures while others opt for spontaneity, some experiment with particular cultures of bacteria while others negate warming with site-specific blocking of malolactic. And though not often discussed, there are those who consider delayed malolactic fermentation as being amongst the most impactful of these variables. In this piece, I explore this topic in more detail with the help of some of the worlds most-lauded winemakers and writers.