Written for Giorgio de Maria Fun Wines.
This month Aaron Ayscough of Not Drinking Poison told the story of big brands making good in a small pond. That small pond, of course, is the natural wine world, the big brands are Les Vins Pirouette and Pepin, both linked to Duo Oneologie. The criticism is as much about their fit within the philosophy of natural wine as it is about the negative connotations of going big (and the potential slackening of morals to come with that growth, a la Uber et cetera, et cetera).
“Depending on how you look at it, the fast growth of Pépin - and to a far lesser extent, Les Vins Pirouettes - represents either a Trojan horse aiding natural wine to penetrate new markets, or a Trojan horse aiding large organic estates with no fealty to the ethics of natural wine to penetrate natural wine markets, all while ceding greater portions of profit to enologists, investors, and marketers,” says Aascough.
I’m not adverse to a little argy bargy – especially about what does or does not conform to the philosophy around these wines. I find the lofty environmental and philosophical standards people are held to rather refreshing. I also tend to think these semantics are part of the fun in drinking and discussing these wines.
The story accompanies a flurry of subscriber-only interviews from part 1 of Ayscough’s Alsatian series, including interviews with Pierre Dietrich of Pepin (“When you drink a Pépin blanc, you know it’s necessarily organic, harvested by hand, not yeasted, no additives, and it’s not sulfited … If you’re convinced by natural wine, that everything should go into organics, that you want no more glyphosate in the vines … I don’t understand why you’re not for the democratization [of natural wine].”), and a good deep dive into the world of oenology with Xavier Couturier of Duo (“At the start [2008], the true questions were very individual … today … everyone has the same problem, which is how do we manage to finish the sugars and win against the bacteria. And it’s global warming. That’s the principal worry.”), there are also interviews with a number of winemakers in the region and their read on the topic. A cracker.
Producers:
- Alice Feiring had a chat and barrel tasting with Paul Lewakowski, a Michigan man preparing to release his first vintage in the southern Jura. While his experience was largely garnered working with producers from the north (Domaine de la Tournelles and Ratapoil), Alice reports he chose to avoid the north: “It’s getting close to a blanket of vines. There’s far more polyculture in the south.” His first vintage will be released next year, although derived from the 2020 harvest. It has been in barrel since and AF was glowing: “layered, savory and art-like [with] soul.” The hype is interesting – is it because he’s a yank? Is it because it’s new blood in the Jura?
I think it is particularly interesting to consider those questions in relation to this article by Wink Lorch (adapted from her upcoming book Jura Wine: Ten Years On) about the external price-gouging of wines from the Jura (long a problem in Burgundy). The general argument is that it’s crook to be profiting from the buzz surrounding the Jura, and selling wines in the four figures, when the people who make the wines largely continue to live humbly and sell their wines at affordable prices.
Aaron went a step further (Money vs the Jura, in last month’s Droplets) linking these lower prices to the value of the domaines, values that the winemakers would want to keep low in order to pass the domaine down the family (death taxes here are a rather hectic 30%), and, in a neat little circle, the price of the vineyards themselves remaining accessible to fledgling winemakers. “To put it lightly, the character of a wine region changes when those who operate its vineyards are no longer those who own or long-term-lease them. The characters of a region’s wines change, too.”
- Among the titbits in Alice’s newsletter, there was this little gem about wineglasses (coming from a girl who is very partial to a tumbler). “There is a debate inside the world of natural that the best glass is a glass with no pretension, sort of like the little tasting glass that Jules Chauvet helped to design, although one needs a lot of neck flexibility to drink from it. Or a squat tumbler.” (If you don’t know about Chauvet and his thoughts on wine tasting – he was for precise flavours, as we would describe colours, over poetic descriptions – read the article linked to his name above).
- I’ve been on a bit of a vinegar bender of late. I added a handful of Banyuls vintages to my stores, plus a Balsamico (ancestral fermentation, no added vinegars or water) from Acetaia San Giacomo, an excellent producer Giorgio is working with. I think it’s time to elevate balsamic out of the purgatory of the 90s … maybe, just maybe, bringing sundried tomatoes with them?
I’m now looking to add a verjuice to the mix (the pressed juice of unripe grapes) from the west coast of France (see Ruth Reichl picking it as the next big thing – tell us something Maggie hasn’t been saying for the past 3 decades!) To that end, did you know the French word vinaigre (where our word vinegar is obviously derived), is composed very simply of vin (wine) and aigre (sour)? So simple and yet I’d never seen it. While I appreciate the PR issues, I do love a good wine maker who produces a good vinegar …
- I have also been developing a bit of a thing for Barrie from Portnoo Market Garden. I like his thoughts and the gentle but direct way he shares them. He is right about the fake olive oil and honey flooding the market.
In Oz, we are lucky to have one of the very best producing the most exquisite wild honey in the Blue Mountains (the third most biodiverse temperate plant region in the world!). Like many of my favourite wine producers, I believe you can taste a little of Tim Malfroy’s personality in his honey. Tim and Emma were awarded winners of the “From the Earth” category this month in the delicious. Produce Awards (read the article here and then go and buy your Christmas presents here). In a little quirk to swing back to wine, it is our lovely friend, talented wine writer and journalist Mike Bennie who compiles all the tasting notes for these excellent honeys. For the olive oil side of the equation, you might enjoy this little round up in Gourmet Traveller.
- Sue and Roger wrote an excellent in-depth explanation of phenolic ripening in their Living Wines newsletter. Spurred on by the “many winemakers throughout the world … looking to produce wines with more phenolic ripeness and less sugar ripeness (and hence lower alcohol levels)” they delved (rather deeply to my school-girl science, but merely skimming the surface in their books) into the chemistry and biology. It is an excellent explanation of phenolics and their contribution to aroma, flavour, structure and colour.
Restaurants:
- The Good Food Guide Awards are all systems go in both Sydney and Melbourne. As with every year, brace yourself for the normal fall outs and dramas, but this year you can add the spice of:
Ben Shewry’s memoir, Uses for Obsession – oh, where to begin?! I have to say I saw truth in some of the criticisms he levelled at the critics and their oppressive lists, but I also thought some of it was wildly inappropriate and contradicted how he claimed to view the world in the rest of the book. It was a rollercoaster! The SMH were so riled up they wrote an article to defend their practices. Scroll down to the bottom for the juicy/controversial bits.
There is the question of how they handle Merivale following their recent investigation and the blanket blaming they applied to Swillhouse. (To this end, I hear Ardyn spoke very eloquently on the topic, while Women and Revolution were awarded for their work in shining a light in the dark corners of Sydney hospitality.)
Tourism Australia/World’s 50 Best also ruffled some feathers with their culinary tour of Sydney, Victoria (including the aforementioned Attica) and Tasmania. Hard to view this as anything other than paying for votes. Sure, that may be necessary to get people to Oz, but how one eyed is it when their meals are also chosen and comped by an Australian team??
(The Sydney awards have now been run – a highly scripted event, from what I’ve been told – with Melbourne in the spotlight for next week. Beyond the hoo-ha, it’s the visual tale of the 40 dishes over 40 years that has been the star of the show. You can check it out here. It’s a fun list, but I think of particular interest for the re-writing of history that was applied – Gumshara, Ho Jiak and An Restaurant all celebrated for dishes that were not in the guide at the time. NB: it’s not their only re-writing of history, as per this article, they already celebrated turning 40 … in 2019 … five years ago.)
- Where I would like to be eating in Oz is Wines of While in WA with Isabel Galiñanes García from next week: “currently cooking at the institution that is La Cave Paul Bert. She has spent the past two years cooking across Paris and elsewhere, including at Delicatessen (@delicatessenplace), Mokoloco (@mokoloco_paris), Fulgurances (@fulgurances_ladresse) and – one of our absolute personal favourites – Aux Deux Amis (@auxdeuxamis). This will be her first time cooking in Australia.”
Words:
- I enjoyed this little gem in A+ Insights on post fusion food: “Back in the early era, fusion wasn’t just a trend, it was the only way to justify higher prices for ethnic food – part of why the term became so problematic. Fusion meant Westernisation: adapting immigrant food to suit Western palates, … immigrant food was ghettoised – confined to stereotypes (low-quality, dirty, smelly, artless) and trapped in the category of cheap eats, meaning that the labour of immigrant chefs was devalued and overlooked. Meanwhile, Western chefs could borrow those same flavours, mark them up, and suddenly it was “elevated” – with no credit given to the originating cultures, or the hands that did the work.”
- The latest issue of Noble Rot came out this month. They have some hefty writers in their lineup for this issue, The Director’s Cup: Simon Hopkinson, Marina O’Loughlin, Kermit Lynch, Delia Smith, and Alice Feiring talking with the late Justin Chearno and his business partner James Murphy. And then there’s Ridley Scott.
- Working through the interviews for the Australian Culinary Archive compendium I have been warmed by the constant references to the importance the industry places on making customers happy. It’s cliched and yet it is true. I’m very proud to work among so much generosity of spirit. Perhaps that is why this appealed, from Jade Simmons via Will Guidera, “Your purpose is not the thing you do, it’s the thing that happens in others when you do the thing you do.”
- Finally, there is little that tickles as much as the collective nouns of animals. A loveliness of ladybeetles is explained here, so too why the ladybeetle came to have her name.