The Review - FOOD & DRINK- The Wine Press with DON & JOHN Published: 14 February 2007
Tasting the ground beneath your feet
While labels tend to concentrate on the fruit qualities of a wine, it’s important to know that minerals contribute just as much to the taste
THE annual presentation of wines by smaller, independent French winemakers arranged by Vigneron Indépendant, now in its sixth year, brings together producers who would otherwise never come to London, and a growing number of independent wine merchants in Britain.
Both sides enjoy independence from the big corporate names but at the cost of exposed and precarious economic livelihoods.
The event, in a large, brick-lined railway arch attached to Vinopolis (close to the Globe Theatre in Southwark) is both exhilarating and upsetting.
The pride of the producers in their wines is infectious and humbling. The diversity speaks for itself with scarcely a bad wine from nearly eighty producers.
The wines themselves prove that small producers are committed to experimenting.
Yet few of these wines will ever be sold in the UK. For some it is their first visit to Britain, and few of them are likely to return next year.
Take M Thierry Rodriguez from Causses et Veyran, about 12 miles from Béziers, and possibly the most interesting exhibitor (www.prieuresaintsever.com). His father, a Catalan, fled Spain during the civil war.
As well as displaying his own wines, Thierry acts as négociante for his neighbours, with 10 wines in total.
Three are Vin de Pays (VDP) and two Appellation d’Origine Controllée (AOC). The other five wines are unclassified.
Marketed under the general title of Stratagème, they are called Argile (clay), Galets (pebble), Calcaire (limestone), Schistes (shale) and Basalte (a volcanic rock), the first a white, the second a rosé and the last three reds.
M Rodriguez has produced five wines from different soils, which emphasise the conditions in which they were grown rather than the grapes themselves.
Labels generally pay more attention to the fruit-led qualities of their contents or the tannins responsible for the slightly bitter taste of some wines.
The decision to give pride of place to geology is therefore a radical one.
The terminology is ambivalent here: Stratagème means strategy or plan, but may also indicate “strata” or different geological layers.
Grapes are self-evidently fruit, but their versatility and the range of tastes they give wine make them like no other fruit.
They thrive on poor, stony ground by pushing their roots very deep in relation to the height of the vine to maximise their intake of moisture and nutrients.
It’s no accident that many of the best wines grow in poor soil. The variety of minerals they can draw from these soils contributes strongly to the range of tastes in the final product.
What are the results of this intriguing experiment? The most interesting wine seems to be the Argile, the only white.
It balances thin, tart mineral flavours, but develops a full-bodied and complex overall character. An unusual and fascinating wine.
All five are perfectly drinkable.
This takes us to the topic of terroir. This concept used to be confined to French wines, but is now spreading to the New World. Its simplest definition is the combination of soil, climate and the winemaker’s experience.
Once we move beyond this, we enter a conceptual and philosophical minefield. If we use it in a strictly scientific sense, does that necessarily exclude experience and skill?
From an experimental scientist’s view, probably yes, but not for the winemaker. If soil, geology and climate lay down the basic structure of the wine, is the winemaker’s role confined to “tweaking” them?
As scientists begin to unravel the genetic structure of grapes, so this debate becomes more intense.
But back to M Rodriguez. Few British drinkers will taste his or his neighbours’ wines.
Blaming the supermarkets and their buyers would be convenient, but that hides the true picture.
Many vignerons indépendants at Vinopolis believed it would be enough to present their wines to the public. Regrettably this is not the case.
The success of a wine depends partly on economic power within existing markets and partly on marketing skills.
Sopexa, the French wine PR agency in London, Vigneron Indépendant and the syndicats or trade associations in France’s wine regions have allowed producers to come to London with little if any marketing expertise.
As a result everyone loses out except the supermarkets.
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