Douro and Port

Portugal is, of course, best known for port, the great fortified wine made from grapes grown on steep slopes in the dry, warm Douro Valley. At a Portuguese tasting at the swanky Palace Hotel in San Francisco, I sampled some extraordinary old ports, which showed just how ageworthy the finest ports are. I also tasted a number of table whites and reds from the Douro - in this case demonstrating the quality of Portuguese wines, but also the difficulty in selling them to consumers used to French grape varieties.

the whites

Portuguese white wine has a lot going for it, as the wines I tasted from the Douro confirmed. The grape varieties are fairly aromatic and share a crisp acidity, and blending adds different characteristics and qualities. The wines are refreshing and approachable, with structure added by lees ageing and maybe a little old oak. The downside is that there are so many grape varieties used, often unfamiliar to the consumer, that it's difficult to get a handle on the many subtly different styles of wines. Some wines, grassy and herbaceous, reminded me of Sauvignon Blanc; the most interesting were reminiscent of the best Italian whites, with smoked almond aromas and a really dry, mineral mouthfeel.

Porto Réccua Branco 2015

From a new winery, this was a good example of how Italian the Douro whites can feel, with stone, peach, mineral aromas, and a very refreshing acidity. ✪✪✪✪

the reds

Portuguese - and especially Douro - reds are so distinctive that it can take some getting used to for those trained on New World wines. The tannins are unavoidable, and I have to note that there was a stinky, Brett character to a lot of the reds I tried that wouldn't sit well in California. Furthermore, the many different indigenous varieties don't have an easy international comparison. But these wines are worth persevering with, with ripe red and black fruit and floral aromas and a rich, almost sweet intensity.

There are a couple of important labelling terms that can be easily confused with neighbouring Spain. Reserva simply refers to a wine that's been aged for one year (like Riserva in Italy), without denoting the nature of that ageing. Grande Reserva (pronounced more or less like Gran Reserva in Spain) is a term I hadn't previously encountered; the wines, I was told, must be aged for at least eighteen months. Unlike Spain, this term does not denote a style but refers, a little tenuously, to quality.

adorable representative of J Rosas

Vieira de Sousa Reserva 2014

I preferred the Reservas to the Grande Reservas, as they kept a little more of the youthful fruitiness. This wine had a year's ageing in used oak, allowing the red and black fruits to shine, backed up with dry, grainy tannins and high acidity. ✪✪✪✪

J Rosas Quinta da Touriga-Chã 2013

Tannic, smoky, spicy, with black fruits, and a long, complex finish. ✪✪✪✪✪

the white ports

White port is such an obscure category that it was surprising to see that most producers at the tasting poured it. Not only that, but there were some old, serious bottles too. The best wines were almost like madeira, but without that baked fruit character, and almost like sherry, but much sweeter. I'm not sure when I'd want to drink these intense wines, dominated by fudge and toffee aromas, but they showed an individual quality that in some cases was truly astonishing.

Vieira winemaker Luísa Borges

Vieira de Sousa Fine Very Old White Port

Perhaps one of the most extraordinary wines I have ever tried. With wines up to sixty years old, this was an intense, sweet wine with grapey, aromatic aromas that almost made it taste like a brandy or a grappa - the winemaker commented that the grape spirit in the wine gets more concentrated with time. There were plenty of dried fruit aromas too, with fudge, toffee, and caramel. Like a sweet version of palo cortado, and then some. ✪✪✪✪✪✪✪

the ports

Equally extraordinary were the red ports, both young and old. 2011 is the standout vintage of recent years, and all the producers were sold out. A great alternative to vintage port is Late Bottled Vintage, which spend longer ageing in barrel before bottling. 2011 LBVs are wines I definitely recommend buying to drink now, with intense, rich dark fruits. Older vintage ports were also available to try: the warm 2009 year produced quite hot, but complex wines; 2004 still felt very fresh; 2000 remarkably tannic even now. The best wine of all, though, was Kopke's 1966 Colheita - a vintage tawny, which means deliberate oxidative ageing. Tasting a wine fifty years old brooks no comparison.

Ramos Pinto LBV 2011

An attractive, elegant, restrained, but tannic wine, with intense, sweet red and black fruit aromas. ✪✪✪✪✪

Kopke Colheita 1966

Old, nutty (walnut), spicy, with rich toffee aromas. Like an old, sweet sherry. Intense (a word I repeatedly wrote down during this tasting) and with layers and layers of flavours. Unforgettable. ✪✪✪✪✪✪✪ The 1978 I also tasted was a bit hotter, still very alive with aromas of dried fruits, fudge, and spice. ✪✪✪✪✪

the market

There's no doubting the quality of Portuguese wine, particuarly from the Douro. The wines have distinctive characteristics that distinguish the wines from other countries, although a valid comparison would perhaps be the wines of Italy, both white and red, rather than Spain. But how to market those wines? The grape varieties are numerous and difficult to pronounce; the tannins and acidity are forward; and the fact that the wines are invariably blends makes it awkward to market the wines on the nature of those varieties. And it needs to be said that the Portuguese are not the best at marketing: whenever asked about the price of a wine, the producer had no answer.

There's so much foundation to work with, though. Port is one of the historical great drinks; the dry, table whites are crisp, approachable, with nice complexity; and the reds are great with heavy food. And there are few regions in the world capable of producing fifty-year-old wines that can hold up to further ageing. Explore Portugal: prepare to be perplexed, challenged, and excited, which is how wine should be.

Nuits-St-Georges

Nuits-St-Georges is one of Burgundy's most famous appellations, wine having been made from the iconic St-Georges vineyard for over a thousand years. The Côte de Nuits, a series of villages encompassing some of the great Pinot Noir vineyards of Burgundy, takes its name from the town. Originally simply called Nuits, the town expanded its name to Nuits-St-Georges in 1892, adding its most renowned vineyard to its name. The wines are known for being bigger, bolder, fruitier, and more tannic than the elegant, nuanced wines of nearby Gevrey-Chambertin, Chambolle-Musigny, and Vosne-Romanée. A tasting of six wines from Nuits-St-Georges gave the lie to that stereotype, showcasing a range of styles that depend, as is so often the case in Burgundy, on site as well as winemaker.

no Grands Crus

Despite its rich history, Nuits-St-Georges has no Grand Cru vineyards. Instead, the best vineyards are classed as Premier Cru, reportedly because of the modesty of the appellation's leading winemaker, Henri Gouges, when it was created in 1936. It doesn't really matter that there are no Grands Crus - the renown and quality of Nuits-St-Georges speak for themselves - but it's still surprising that the best vineyards don't receive that official acclaim.

The appellation covers Nuits-St-Georges and the smaller village of Prémaux-Prissey to the south. The town of Nuits-St-Georges is at the base of a valley formed by the river Meuzin. To the north of the town, the vineyards are high - 300m and more - with soils full of pebbles as well as limestone and a little clay. These vineyards border Vosne-Romanée, and the wines are floral, spicy, and elegant. It's these that perhaps counter most the reputation of Nuits-St-Georges as being big and fruity. To the south of the town, the soils gradually become less stony, deeper with more clay, and the wines get denser and more tannic.

elephants, oak, planets, and famous writers

I couldn't help be amused by the continued comparisons of Thibault Liger-Belair, a local winemaker, to help us understand the appellation. He first likened the wines to an elephant, partly because of the memories they hold. Taking it further, he described the south part of the appellation as being like an African elephant, big and bold, with the north more like an Indian elephant, round and gentle. He then went on to describe the wines as like an oak tree, because of their robustness but also because they require oak-ageing to give them structure and ageability. He didn't stop there. If Nuits-St-Georges were a planet, it would be the moon (sic), a comparison made I think solely because there is a crater there named after the St-Georges vineyard. There was still another comparison to be made, as he wanted to compare Nuits-St-Georges to two famous French writers: Rabelais, because of the b‪on vivant style of the wines, and Molière, for their more philosophical qualities. As leftfield as his comparisons were, they did enlighten the differences between this varied appellation.

the wines

The tasting covered two vintages: 2013, described as fruity with high acidity and dry tannins, and 2014, which is rounder with softer tannins. It also covered wines from the northern part of the appellation, and three from the southern part, finishing with a wine from the St-Georges vineyard, which should clearly be a Grand Cru.

Domaine Phillipe Gavignet Les Argillats 2014

Situated in the northern part of the appellation a little higher than most of the surrounding Premier Cru vineyards, the Les Argillats vineyard takes its name from argile, meaning clay. It's 340m high, with the same pebble, limestone topsoils as the neighbouring vineyards. It proves that a Burgundy vineyard does not need to be a Premier Cru, let alone Grand Cru, to be high quality. It was smoky and oaky (with 15-16mths oak ageing), with ripe strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries. Pricy at $65. ✪✪✪✪✪

Domaine Frédéric Magnien Les Damodes Premier Cru 2013

From the highest Premier Cru and from the 2013 vintage, this wine had firm, dry, slightly astringent tannins, but with a refreshing high acidity. Although not as ripe as the previous wine, there were still clear fruit aromas of strawberries, plums, and blackcurrants, with some spice, as well as stone and steel texture. Not as fruity as the the first wine, but a little more complex, and even pricier ($90). ✪✪✪✪✪

Domaine Faiveley Aux Claignots Premier Cru 2014

This was an excellent wine, ultra-modern, with 60% new oak which I found a little too much. That oak dominated with smoke, cedar, vanilla, liquorice, and roasted almond aromas. It was intense, concentrated, and ripe, with raspberries, blackcurrants, and blackberries. If the oak had been more restrained, this would have been a truly extraordinary wine ($110). ✪✪✪✪✪

Maison Joseph Drouhin Les Procès Premier Cru 2013

With this wine, we moved towards the southern part of the appellation. As a result, the tannins were more drying and gripping, but the wine was still floral, with dried roses. There was also an intense nuttiness, with walnuts and hazelnuts (the name Nuits may come from noyer, French for walnut). The wine was made through whole-bunch fermentation, which may have added to its intense tannic structure. A very interesting wine with some longevity ($110-115; N/A in USA). ✪✪✪✪✪

Domaine des Perdrix Aux Perdris Premier Cru 2013

This was the only wine we tasted from the small village Prémaux-Prissey, and it was much bigger, blacker, and bolder. It was a voluptuous, ripe wine, but with a sharp acidity. The difference between this and the wines from the northern part of the appellation was marked. Perdrix means partidge in French, so naturally the label had a drawing of the bird. ✪✪✪✪✪ (€55)

Maison Chanzy Les Saint-Georges Premier Cru 2014

Although the other wines were all of a very high quality, this was easily the highlight of the tasting, combining the best of the different parts of the appellation. Winemaking, though, was also key: what I particularly loved about this wine was that it spent just ten months in oak, of which only 10% was new. It was ripe yet restrained, fruity but spicy and oaky, with a layered, textured mouthfeel. ✪✪✪✪✪✪ (€79)


The overall conclusion from this tasting is that Nuits-St-Georges is not an easy appellation to pin down. There are truly great vineyards from which the best producers make amazing wine - it's definitely an appellation the consumer needs to understand to make the most deserving purchases. To underscore that observation, the wines are expensive: do some research before buying to get the best value and quality.

 

 

WSET Educator Top-Up Course

I just passed what I hope is the last ever exam I have to endure. Last November, I took the WSET Educator course, an intensive four-day assessment gearing me and my fellow students to becoming WSET Certified Educators. It was a course that shed a lot of light on what the WSET expect from their students, as well as educators, and definitely helped make me a better teacher.

As I still had one Diploma exam to take at the time, I wasn't able to complete the course fully. Last week, I spent a morning in San Francisco with two recent Diploma graduates, coincidentally both from Canada. Our mission was to prove that we were able to teach WSET Level 3, both the theory and the tasting, a mission complicated by the fact that Level 3 is quite different from what it used to be.

teaching the new Level 3

As I've previously written, the WSET have overhauled the Level 3 course and exam. I think for the better - the teaching is more interactive, and both theory and tasting are designed to get students really thinking about why a wine tastes like it does. However, for those educators long used to the old Level 3 the change has been difficult.

My fellow educators and I were asked to prepare a Level 3 class (in my case, Grenache-based wines) with a powerpoint presentation and session plan, just as we'd done last year for Level 2. Luckily for me, I have a habit of procastinating. Just at the point that I was about to knuckle down and prepare the class, I received a panicked email from Karen Douglas, WSET's Director of Education, asking me to stop making the powerpoint and session plan; instead, she wanted me to use a presentation and session plan (now on the white wines of Alsace) that she had prepared. The reason for this was that she had discovered that educators preparing for the course had found it difficult to adapt their methods to the new level, so Karen wanted to help us learn without having to build a class from scratch. This shows the difficulty of change, given that the WSET had spent several years developing the new course, but also how necessary it is for them to demonstrate why that change is worthwhile.

It was certainly useful to pick her brain about the WSET's approach to the new level, without having to worry that my presentation met that approach. Besides the more interactive teaching methods, the biggest change is in the revised tasting methodology. Aromas are now classified as primary, secondary, and tertiary to help students demonstrate where aromas in a wine come from - the grape, the production methods, or bottle ageing. I learnt that students do not have to write the terms primary, secondary, or tertiary aromas in their tasting notes, but they have to recognise them: if a wine, for instance, has tertiary aromas, then the student is expected to write examples of those aromas otherwise they'll lose points.

Related to this, I asked what to do about wines that had primary aromas of nuts (for instance, Rhône whites or Verdicchio) rather than tertiary aromas from oxidation (for example, sherry), which is the only place nuts are mentioned in the revised Systematic Approach to Tasting. The answer is that we, as educators, need to teach students how to understand where aromas come from, which is why being able to explain the difference between primary, secondary, and tertiary aromas is so important. That understanding enables students then to expand on the SAT to use their own descriptors, where appropriate. This underscores something that it's easy to forget: that tasting a wine is a personal experience, based on one's own knowledge and ability to interpret the qualities of a wine.

the old and new WSET lexicon

mediumitis

My theory presentation on the white wines of Alsace went extremely well, but for the tasting (on Viña Ardanza Reserva 2007) I was guilty of "mediumitis," ironic given that I am always pushing my students to be bold in the analysis of a wine in describing the acidity, tannins, or flavour intensity as high rather than medium plus. When teaching students, I am in a position of authority which allows me to push them beyond their received thinking. It's different, however, when in the presence of fellow Diploma graduates, the WSET Director of education, and an MW: I became much more cautious in describing the wine I'd been assigned for the tasting.

Both myself and my new Canadian friends were afterwards given a very useful lesson on what exactly low, medium-, medium, medium+, and pronounced mean to the WSET. Either a wine, for example, has low, medium, or high acidity, which is what Level 2 students are taught. At Level 3, the gradients medium- and medium+ are introduced. These are not alternatives to low or high, but variations on medium. So when tasting a wine, the assessment should be: are the acidity, tannins, or the flavour intensity of a wine low, medium, or high? If it's medium, only then do medium- or medium+ come into play.

The most important aspect to remember is that there is a spectrum within those gradients. In describing a wine as having high tannins, it does not have to be the most tannic wine you've ever tasted (like a Barolo): it simply has to have high tannins. Likewise, a wine with high acidity does not have to be a Riesling: it simply has to have high acidity. Failing to appreciate the structure of a wine just because it isn't as extreme as others previously tasted is a fault that students at both Level 3 and Diploma are guilty of, and frustratingly I was too in the assessment. But it's not something I'll be guilty of again.

how to use the WSET Systematic Approach to Tasting

So I am now almost a WSET Certified Educator. I just have to complete an online course on assessing Level 3 tasting notes, and then I'm done. As the WSET is consistently assessing its own courses in an increasingly competitive wine education environment, I'm excited to see where teaching the WSET takes me. But, I swear, no more exams, ever.