#wine future

Winemaking is a practice of patience. After harvest, crush, fermentation, blending, adjustments, clarifying and racking the wine must rest, sometimes for years. Much of the wine’s character and structure will continue to develop within the bottle.

The harvest seems magcial as one envisions lush vineyards. The crush excites as the coveted juice is extracted from each grape. Then comes the miracle of fermentation, and the promise of cellars teaming with barrels. At last comes the opening the bottle and pouring a first glass. Between the barrel and the dining room table, there is one final step: bottle aging. Wine is meant to rest in bottle to prevent bottle shock, which may cause the wine to taste fragmented and mute the wine’s flavors. After bottling, the wine requires time to calm down and reassemble.

Ideally, through a series of tastings, the winemaker decides when the wine is stable and ready to release and roll out for sale. For many large scale wineries the decision to release wine is not always in the hands of the winemaker. Often a wine is released on a schedule that coincides with a predetermined distribution calendar.

What does winemaker Jessica Boone look for before releasing a wine?

Winemaker Matt Smith chronicles his experience:

“I have a very intimate connection with the wine. I knew it during the growing season. Watched it mature and tasted the flavors of the grapes in the vineyard. Most times, I can remember vividly each day in the fermentation, as it progressed from sweet, fruit juice to a deep and satisfying young wine. Then, tasting it multiple times throughout aging until putting together the final blend. I know exactly how it is supposed to taste. How it showed in the barrel at the final point before bottling. We have to suffer the shock it feels when being closed down and confined in an inert glass container. We wait for signs of its re-emergence. The wine can appear all knees and elbows, sharp edges, non-harmonious curves. The beautiful aroma closed and muted. But bottle-aging is a beautiful thing. When the wine starts to emerge, it shows the beauty of its aroma and the roundness of its palate; then we say it is ready.”

The release date is the earliest the wine is deemed completed but is not an indication of how long the wine can be stored.

Wine lovers, not investing for profit, generally purchase wines that they appreciate. Buying a case or three of a loved wine forces one to start storing or cellaring. This practice means that in a relatively short time one can amass a proper wine collection, which is as exhilarating to reflect upon as it is to drink and share. How long one can cellar a wine varies depending on the quality, varietal, region and vintage. The best way to know how long a wine can be aged (and to learn how the wine may change) is to ask the winemaker, the winery or a Wine Steward.

A premium is charged for aged wines, bottles that have been carefully stored by wine retailers or wine brokers well beyond the wineries release date. Purchasing these wines allows enthusiasts to obtain bottles ready to drink close to their peak. It can be a great way to try a label at its best. In contrast, a sizable number of wine buyers are looking towards futures. Not a traded commodity, buying wine futures allows wine lovers to buy pre-released wines from wineries. This may sound like a gamble but these futures generally come at a lower price point than the released bottle will fetch.

GrapeSeed Partners can take advantage of our Wine Steward service to learn more about selecting their wine for aging, as well as serving their wines. Partners also have access to GrapeSeed wines prior to release (like a future) at pre-release prices.

#vinicolki nasce dallo studio degli appunti di uno dei più grandi vignaioli che abbia mai conosciuto: Randall Grahm, un genio (for me) che sa coniugare la capacità di fare business con il suo essere visionario e percettivo, al servizio della sua azienda che si chiama Bonny Doon Vineyard e al servizio di tutta la viticoltura mondiale.

Recentemente invitato insieme ad alcuni grandi nomi del mondo del vino a Hong Kong per Wine Future, Randall ha parlato di un prossimo futuro con vini che possiedono "a life force, a sense of ch'i" che potrebbero trascendere l'attuale metodologia con cui il vino è analizzato e discusso.

A giugno era apparso un post sul LAWeekly in cui era scritto: " Wines of terroir: they have life force or chi," says Grahm. Noting that "it's not just hippie-dippy, it's demonstrable, and as they resist oxidation, they're more stable once a bottle is opened."

E' da qui che qualcosa ha incominciato a frullarmi nella testa, è da qui che è nato insieme al lavoro pratico "invigna&cantina" di Luigi Fracchia il progetto #vinicolki , un progetto aperto a tutti quelli che sentono affinità con le idee di Randall Grahm, che desiderano andare al di là delle apparenze e condividere una visione, una percezione.

Luigi Fracchia ha iniziato a scrivere sul suo blog http://gliamicidelbar.blogspot.com/ di vini che secondo la sua percezione possono essere visti come #vinicolki e devo dire che condivido le sue valutazioni, #vinicolki è un esperimento, una provocazione a uscire dai soliti binari e percorrere una nuova strada.

Di seguito alcuni link con la visione di Randall Grahm (in inglese) e un post di Maria Grazia Melegari sulla visita di Randall Grahm in Italia (febbraio 2011)

http://www.harpers.co.uk/news/news-headlines/11292-randall-grahm-predicts-a-future-with-nutritional-wines.html

http://blogs.laweekly.com/squidink/2011/06/randall_grahm_bonny_doon.php

http://www.soavemente.net/soavemente/2011/02/a-trip-with-le-cigare-volant-randall-grahm-al-ristorante-ratan%C3%A0-di-milano.html

The second ever Wine Future event was held in Hong Kong – on November 6, 7 and 8 – and it was a series of conferences, debates and tastings about the challenges and opportunities in the wine industry.

Wine Future is aimed at professionals, but I wanted to talk about some of the key points from a consumer's point of view. There were three 'grand tastings' that included over 50 wines from some very expensive names so I've chosen five of the best wines from the event. I've also looked at five trends and topics that are applicable to anyone with an interest in wine.

The scale of the event was incredible: for Robert Parker's grand tasting alone, there were 20 wines with 1,000 people tasting. That's 20,000 wine glasses.

A word of warning: most of these wines are very expensive. I don't mean just a splurge, these are the supercars of the wine world.

01 | Antinori Tignanello 2001 (Tuscany, Italy) Looks like an espresso in the glass: dark and thick with a brown-black colour. A rich and intense wine that's like blueberry, pure cocoa, fig and mint were all melded into one. Definitely a food wine, as it's crying out for a big piece of meat, but the flavour of chocolate and menthol linger in the mouth for a long time.

02 | Castillo Perelada 2005 'Finca Garbet' (Costa Brava, Spain) Made in Spain, but from a grape more popular in France and Australia – syrah. An incredible nose that's floral, almost like perfume, and with a touch of chocolate. On the palate it's got red fruit flavours that leave you with a stone-like finish. The wine is beautifully balanced as every part of the wine blends together smoothly.

03 | Château Lafleur-Pétrus 2009 (Bordeaux, France) The first thing I thought of when tasting this was silk: there's something about the wine that is so silky and so smooth. Raspberry and 'mineral' are the main flavours, with a hint of liquorice, but this wine is all about the texture. Expensive, but it's neighbour 'Petrus' sells one bottle of its wine for the same price as a case of this.

04 | Château Palmer 2009 (Bordeaux, France) This is a serious wine – it's big, bold and delicious. It's dark: full of blackcurrant, blueberry and earthy flavours. The taste lasts for so long with a lingering flavour of cassis and dark chocolate. It's incredibly rich, but still fresh at the same time. I recommend not looking at the price unless you've got money to burn. 

05 | Clarendon Hills 2006 Syrah 'Onkaparinga' (McLaren Vale, Australia) I could have chosen many wines from Clarendon Hills, as there are so many single vineyards... but also because the quality of the range is so high. The Onkaparinga is a powerful wine, but not over-the-top. A beautiful combination of red fruit, floral notes and black pepper. This would give any top syrah from the Northern Rhône a run for its money.

There were many topics discussed over the three days, but these were the key points that I feel are applicable to consumers.

01 | France's Rhône valley is where to look for value With the rapidly-increasing prices of both Bordeaux and Burgundy, it's surprising that wines from the Rhône valley are still competitively priced. They offer quality and consistency, even at the entry-level, so look for wines labelled Côtes du Rhône and Côtes du Ventoux for bargains. It's one of France's great regions, yet the prices are still sane.

02 | Grape varieties that are becoming more popular There's much more to wine than just sauvignon blanc and pinot noir – and there's always trends that come and go. Some grape varieties making noise that could be the next wave of popular wines: whites like assyrtiko, grenache gris and petit manseng; reds like aglianico, cabernet franc and touriga nacional.

03 | Countries that are soon to make an impact Wine is grown almost worldwide now and there's bound to be breakthrough countries making big impacts soon. It's crazy to think that New Zealand was relatively unheard of until the 1990s. Brazil looks to be in a strong position, especially with its sparkling wines, and Turkey could be the next European success.

04 | The quality (and price) in Bordeaux is higher than ever Robert Parker talked about the fact that Bordeaux winemakers are able to make wines with "sweet tannins" due to improvements in technology. This means the wines are now able to be drunk much younger than past vintages as there isn't the 'puckering' effect. Incredibly many examples can still last for 50-75 years, but were still tasting excellent right now.

This past week I attended Napa Valley Vinters’ 2007 cabernet sauvignon tasting in New York City. A panoply of Napa producers––including HALL, Chappellet, Shafer, and Joseph Phelps––congregrated in the Manahattan Penthouse to pour their 2007 cabernets. It was an afternoon of dense opulence to say the least. 

Despite the event’s 2007 vintage focus, many of the wineries proffered some of their 2006s, but also, and quite more rousing, they premiered their 2009s.

Joseph Phelps was one of the wineries that showcased a 2009 barrel sample. But it wasn’t his standard Insignia or Backus bottling. Instead, it was a novelty item, his new 10-case cabernet sauvignon production. 

Created in February 2010, Ashley Hepworth, Joseph Phelps’ winemaker, blended cabernet from both the Backus Vineyard and the Las Rocas Vineyard––Insignia’s provenance. Currently in Taransaud V barrels, which are handcrafted from the notable Tronconais Forest’s tight-grained oak and then aged for five years, the wine will continue to age until its bottled and released in November 2012.