Diwald. Where Quality Comes From The Vineyard.

Diwald. Where Quality Comes From The Vineyard.

Continental climate but sometimes it rains, just to make the Irish visitor feel at home on the Danube!

“Quality comes from the vineyard, there is no doubt about it.” So say the younger generation of the Diwald family winery in Austria, organic since 1980.

“There is nothing that can be improved in the cellar, quality can only be retained. Wine must be fun, it must always offer something new and it must tempt you to have another sip. And when the bottle is suddenly empty, then you know it’s perfect!” 

“Today, the Diwald wine style follows a simple credo: the wines – whether white, red, rosé, orange or cloudy – should be lean, elegant and cheeky, but still offer depth and body. They are individual wines which speak to our – and your – taste buds….”

Most of Austria’s vineyards are in the east of the country and Wagram, just to the northwest of Vienna, is one of the best areas for white whites and especially so for the Grüner Veltliner (thanks to the soil being particularly rich in loess), the most widely planted white grape in the country. The district, close to 3,000 hectare, stretches along the Danube from Klosteneuburg (itself a historical viticulture centre) to Krems.

Wagram, neighboured to the west by Wachau, Kremstal and Kamptal, is one of Austria's 16 official wine regions, and its loess soil is noted for its water retaining properties. Warm days and cool nights also help the wine-growers and the climate is generally continental.

Diwald Zweigelt (vom Löss), Wagram Austria, 2017, 12.5%, €16.60 Mary Pawle

Zweigelt - a crossing of Saint-Laurent with Blaufrankisch, created in 1922 - is the most widely planted red-wine grape in Austria. According to Wine Searcher, well made examples have the potential to cellar for a decade. The “vom Löss” on the label indicates the grapes were grown on loess sites. Diwald practise cluster thinning in the loess-soil Zweigelt vineyards in order to reduce the yield dramatically and so considerably improve the grapes’ ripeness. “The wine becomes more concentrated, but never too heavy” and that is certainly the case here.

Colour is a rich ruby, bright. Rich fruits feature in the aromas. At its juicy heart, you’ll find flavours of cherry, plum and raspberry. A light dry wine with excellent acidity but one with a concentrated backbone and no shortage of tannin. Highly Recommended.

It’s a wine that needs food and expect it to be a good match for beef stews, goulash, mushrooms. Try also with Roasted ham hock, Grilled sausages with mustard, Duck Confit (try the excellent Skeaghanore version). Here’s an insider’s tip. If you’re lucky enough to get your hands on venison, then use some Zweigelt in the cooking and the remainder (maybe a second bottle) to drink with it!

Diwald “Goldberg” Riesling (Wagram, Austria) 2016, 12%, €21.55 Mary Pawle

Riesling is the King of Wines, according to Diwald. “..it is our secret love.” A love they share with us via this Goldberg. A light straw colour with green tints. Aromatic as ever, citrus prominent. And a citrus-y tingle intro to the palate soon followed by richer more exotic flavours. A crisp acidity ensures harmony from first sip to very satisfying finalé. This supple wine has no shortage of minerality and is Very Highly Recommended.

By the way, did you know that “deacidification” is a thing in Riesling and indeed in other wines? It is. But not here in Diwald. Here’s what they have to say on the subject: “Riesling originates from the Upper Rhine .… This grape variety demands a lot of its vineyard site and wine grower, but offers long-lived and expressive wines in return. We think it’s also important to mention that we do not de-acidify any of our Rieslings – they should be allowed to show their true, unaltered personality!”

Importer Mary Pawle has a couple of tips for you: “Allow this wine a bit of time before pouring. Try it with smoked duck breast.”

Diwald Grüner Veltliner (Wagram, Austria) 2018, 12%, €20.75 Mary Pawle

Light straw colour, bright, and micro bubbles cling briefly to bowl of the glass. Clean white fruit (apple, pear) aromas, a hint of pepper, even ginger. Quite an initial tingle on the palate and then the clean fresh fruit flavours flow in, acidity there also, minerality too and a lingering finish. The “vom Löss” on the label indicates that the grapes were grown on loess sites. 

Grüner wines are quite wide ranging, from light quaffers to serious sippers. The Diwald aim is to make wines that are “lean, elegant and cheeky, but still offer depth and body.” Serious winemakers but fun people and this is a cheeky wine that is elegant yet approachable and so so easy to enjoy!

The selected vineyards with their loess soils make it possible to create a spicy, lively and thoroughly full-bodied wine which reflects its origins. Light, dry and flavour-packed and Very Highly Recommended.

"We are still trading," that's the message from Mary and Ivan at the hillside HQ of Mary Pawle Wines in Kenmare. Both are cocooning so neither can deliver but their courier company Landbridge is taking up the slack. While demand from restaurants is knocked out, other regular customers are still ordering and there's even an increase in orders from smaller shops. So be sure and contact Mary if you need wine!

Barolo 2016 is something rare!

Barolo 2016 is something rare!

Franco Massolino (with a map of the Barolo area in background).

“Barolo 2016 is something rare! An outstanding vintage. Unique.” So said Franco Massolino during a Liberty Wines organised online masterclass last Friday. Fellow Barolo winemaker Giuseppe Vajra was our other speaker, both introduced by Tim Platt (Sales Director Liberty). Dennis Drazan Sunjic coordinated the speakers and also the question and answer session at the end.

So what made 2016 so good? Franco pointed to the weather during the year that gave them “the longest cycle of vegetation”. “The winter was relatively warm, and dry. Spring came early. A lot of rain at the right time. “We never had temperature too high and it was never too dry. September unusually warm, but not crazy.” Following the warm days and cool nights of September,  “complete ripeness was achieved in our harvest”.

He said the wine has the identity of the village, it is complete, elegant, powerful. “With longevity, 30 or 40 years no problem. The different wines underlined the identity of our various vineyards. The Barolo has achieved an outstanding level of expression, a really classical expression.”

Giuseppe

Giuseppe confirmed Franco’s assessment. “He is really spot-on, it is a killer vintage, a textbook classico vintage that expresses a sense of place and highlights the differences in the various terroirs.”

It was the first year that Giuseppe had kept a diary of the season. And the first benign sign he noticed was the “abundant flowering”. In the wine, there is a promise of longevity, the tannins are not in your face, ”so you can already enjoy it and I think that the flowerings is key in this”.

Dennis asked him to talk about recent vintages and Giuseppe said the 2015 is very good and the 2017 is excellent and interesting. But 2014 was challenging because of rain and hail. Franco though was more optimistic about the 2014, perhaps because they were able to salvage some “small quantities with outstanding qualities”. Obviously the hail didn’t hit every vineyard equally. “We have some small quantities and are extremely proud of it”. Seems to be the classic case of a good winemaker producing an excellent wine in a bad year.

Dennis then posed a tough question for the duo. “Which is your best cru from 2016?” Very hard for Giuseppe to answer as they had invested so much hard work into each. He didn’t really want to pick one but, under gentle pressure, went for the Barolo Bricco delle Viole for “its flair and elegance”. 

Franco agreed that it was a tough question and he picked the Barolo Parussi. “I got great satisfaction from that as it is the youngest of our vineyards.” He quickly added that the Marghleria “is also very good.”. Both men agreed that 2016 was similar to 2008.

Franco admitted to “still trying to understand more”..”to take care of each plant in the best possible way.” You can gather that the improvement in the fortunes of Barolo over recent decades owes much to men like these. He continued: “There is a big difference to what happened in the 70s and 80s when the goal was to produce as much as possible. There was attention too to quality but not like today.”

The soil - like lasagna

Franco’s family have been in the wine business here for 120 years. “Our range of wines represent the historic style of Barolo, a unique wine in this micro-climate, the right place to show Nebiolo’s potential. We try to balance all our wines, to respect the identity and delicate notes of the variety. We don’t change a lot in the winery.”

Franco

Giuseppe was dragged away from his soccer games (he was playing too much of it - well he was just 15) to plant his first vineyard. He and his current team are still youthful and he is proud of their work. “We hope we get wiser as we go on. We started organically and our first vintage in 1972 was not a good one, not worth ageing!” The whole extended family are at work here in this “multicultural team” near the village of Barolo.

Franco’s family are in the area of Serralunga d’Alba “where every hill can be different” and that results “in great variety” in the wines around here. The family is involved here too and they “always look for the best expression.. while looking after our vineyard”. In fact, most of them are out and about in the vines these days, staying away from the offices due to Covid19.

The virus was also on Giuseppe’s mind. “We think of all you hospitality people these days. Stay strong!” He talked about the soil of the area, “basically sedimentary”, layers laid down over the years ”like lasagna”. And he reckoned that tiny variations in the ph readings (a measurement of acidity and alkalinity) for the two areas may account for the differences between wines from the two villages.

Check out the Barolo producers below:

Massolino http://www.massolino.it/

Vajra http://www.gdvajra.it/en/homepage

Recent Masterclasses:
 Charles Heidsieck, one of the most admired Champagne houses.
Meet Ted Lemon of California's Littorai vineyard

Foraging, Cocktails, Tasty Trad and Sheer Temptation...Welcome to Week Two of the Virtual Festival of Food

Foraging, Cocktails, Tasty Trad and Sheer Temptation... Welcome to Week Two of the Virtual Festival of Food We've all been getting used to quieter times, and the Festival Team is counting ourselves lucky that we live in such a beautiful and peaceful part of the world. So we're delighted to bring you a further flavour with Week Two of the Virtual Food Festival. This week, we found out the sheer joy of wild garlic, so abundant right now (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram), and as all that foraging put a thirst on us, we were thrilled to quench it courtesy of the inspired Strawberry Sour from the Blackwater Distillery (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram). Nicola and Dvir at Mezze showed us how to spread our wings and celebrate Mimouna - a traditional North African time of feasting - at home with hummus, flatbreads and pomegranate mimosas (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram), and The Tannery's Paul Flynn gave us another feast with his Mediterranean inspired Lamb (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram). Nor did we forget your gaelgeoir dog (tá brón orainn, madra...), with a yummy dog biscuit recipe for your best buachaill (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram). Woof woof! Right now, Stocktons Wing frontman Mike Hanrahan is presenting a virtual version of his Festival gig, including his legendary chowder, from his own living room via Facebook, and we're looking forward to sheer temptation from Dungarvan's 2Sisters and Legacy Cider tomorrow. Check back online, follow us on social media, post your own recipes and event suggestions with the #VirtualWWFOF2020 and #WWFoodatHome, or sign up here for your weekly Virtual Festival Round Up. In the meantime, please support your local businesses and continue to buy local where you can. Love from the team at The West Waterford Festival of Food

Amuse Bouche

There were pancakes, of course; and sausages; and duck confit and goose-liver terrine; and sweet pink onions, fried mushrooms with herbs, and little tomme cheeses rolled in ash; and pastis gascon, and nut bread, aniseed bread, fouace, olives, chillies and dates. To drink, there was cider and wine and floc, with fruit juices for the children and even a dish of leftovers for the dog, which later curled up by the fire and slept, occasionally twitching its tail and muttering vague obscenities between its teeth.

Outside, the Autan wind gained strength, and we began to hear the rain smacking against the window glass.

from Peaches for Monsieur le Curé by Joanne Harris (2012). Very Highly Recommended.

A Quartet of International IPAs. Including a couple of crushables!

A Quartet of International IPAs

Odell (Colorada) “Good Behaviour” Crushable IPA 4%, 355mls can Bradley’s

Light gold colour, good mix of hop and fruit flavours. Very pleasant beer. Crushable, you may know (I had to look it up), is beer aficionado’s argot, meaning an easygoing, super-drinkable beer.

Odell say: “Both sessional and bursting with flavour. Good Behaviour is built like an IPA with bright hop flavours and tropical fruit, yet balanced with a light body, slight haze, and crisp finish that’s truly crushable!”

Unusually, the calories (110) are boldly printed on the label. 

“Unlike many low-cal beers and hard seltzers, Good Behavior was brewed without extracts or artificial sweeteners. All of the tropical fruit and peach flavors come from specialized brewing techniques with a blend of nine hop varieties, including Odell’s current favorite experimental, HBC 586.”

Sierra Nevada (California) Tropical Torpedo IPA 6.0%, 355ml can Bradley’s.

A little darker in colour than the Odell and also slightly more hoppy but there is a lovely twist of the tropical fruit in the aroma and on the palate. Virtually no indication while drinking that this Nevada is some fifty per cent stronger than the Odell.

They say: “Inspired by the island life, we created an IPA completely disconnected from the mainland. We used our one-of-a-kind Hop Torpedo to deliver an intense rush of hop flavor and the lush aromas of mango, papaya, and passionfruit with every sip.”

Garage Beer  (Barcelona) “Ocata” IPA 5.4%, 440ml can Bradley’s

In a distinctive black can, this Session IPA, made with Mosaic and Palisade hops, is easy drinking and juicy with hops asserting themselves in the finish. Another well-balanced beer from the quartet. Colour’s close to the Nevada but cloudy. Add this to your crushable list!

Garage Beer Co is the “hottest micro brewery to come out of Spain” and is based in central Barcelona. Founded in 2015, after a successful crowd-funding campaign, they are already making waves  in the craft beer community via their collaborations with established breweries such as Cloudwater. By the way, if you find yourself in the Catalan capital, be sure and check out their downtown brewpub.

Samuel Smith (Yorkshire) India Ale 5%, 550ml bottle Bradley’s

If the Garage Beer Company is the new kid on the block, Samuel Smith, established 1758, is the old reliable.

This ale comes in amber, darker than the other three. And it’s hops all the way in the aromas. And rich fruity hops too in the mouth. By the way, the malt is not found wanting either. Reckon a couple of these would have made life in Lahore or Lucknow or Secunderabad tolerable for a hot hour or two. Not bad either for those of us in Cocoonabad these days.

The label on the bottle is based on Samuel Smith’s Victorian letterhead when the brewery was a contractor to Her Majesty Queen Victoria’s forces.

They say: “Brewed with well water (the original well at the Old Brewery, sunk in 1758, is still in use, with the hard well water being drawn from 85 feet underground); best malted barley and a generous amount of choicest aroma hops; fermented in ‘stone Yorkshire squares’ to create an exceptionally full-flavoured complex ale with an abundance of maltiness and fruity hop character.” 

* Our next beer post will take a look at a bunch of Irish IPAs.

Biodynamic Californian Winemaker Ted Lemon and “the things that lie behind”

Biodynamic Californian Winemaker Ted Lemon and “the things that lie behind”.

Compost based on cow manure

Biodynamic Californian winemaker Ted Lemon (of Littorai) gives a different kind of masterclass, to say the least. Indeed, his mention of his wines comes in a hurry at the end. But, even some hours before last Wednesday’s online masterclass began (with some 170 attendees), we had been invited to view two videos (links below).

One was about dandelion seeds and how they can travel as much as five miles, propelled by an amazing natural “vortex” system. If the first video was micro then the second was macro, recorded by the international space station and showing a stupendous display of both the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis phenomena  set to Pachelbel's Canon in D Major.

Ted Lemon, screenshot from the masterclass

At the end of Ted’s talk on biodynamics we had some understanding of the forces that act upon our world. And forces such as those in the video, both micro and macro, are at work in biodynamic farming, “the things that lie behind” as Ted said. We have a beautiful world and we need to start looking after it. And also looking more closely, more deeply.

Liberty Wine’s David Gleave introduced Ted saying a wine masterclass was a “strange exercise without wine. “Ted,” he said, “is a great speaker. He makes fabulous wines and his story is good too.” Ted again surprised us by beginning with a 14th century Persian poem called a The Happy Virus:

I caught the happy virus last night

When I was out singing beneath the stars.

It is remarkably contagious – So kiss me.

Ted Lemon learned his craft in Burgundy. He worked at many prestigious estates including Domaine Georges Roumier, Domaine Bruno Clair, Domaine Parent, Domaine De Villaine, Domaine Delorme and Domaine Dujac. 

He was the first American ever selected as winemaker and vineyard manager of a Burgundian estate, Domaine Guy Roulot in Meursault. He has also been consulting winemaker at top wineries in California, Oregon and New Zealand.

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Screenshot from the masterclass. Ted has been hugely influenced by Steiner.

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Despite his success in France, as part of the mainstream wine industry, Ted began to have doubts. He saw the land there was being poorly treated and began to think there had to be another way. 

He found that in biodynamics and, after quite a search up and down the west coast of the USA, found his place at Littorai and set up there in 1993;  he and wife Heidi went on to build their winery in 2008. It is a small, family run winery producing world class single vineyard Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from the true north coast of California: the coastal mountains of Sonoma and Mendocino Counties.

Building up the cow manure based compost heap.

The cause for Ted’s search for “another way” emerged in a question and answer session being chaired by Dennis Drazan Sunjic. Here’s a flavour..

“How soon did you see signs of the difference that biodynamics were making?”

Within six months was the answer. "By August/September, I noticed the growth of plants between the rows of vines, plants that I hadn’t seen before. And then the good signs snowballed."

“What is the best size for a biodynamic vineyard?”

Ted didn’t see any problem with size. There are some really big BD properties in Australia for example. You just have to adjust for scale.

“BD seems to work best when it is at the heart of a community and culture. With the mindset we now find ourselves in with lockdowns and climate change etc, what do you think can be done to return farming to a localised level and do you think that this is a good thing?”

Ted said there are some great examples currently of that type, both big and small, even in urban areas. The aim really is quality, not quantity, and the question is would we spend a bit more for it.

Earlier, Ted had taken us through the “Western” agricultural history, from hunter gatherers, to nomadic cultures, to traditional community farms and then to the Agricultural revolution of the 17th century, right up to the family farm. 

Then came the Industrial Revolution, the world wars, the petro-chemical industry, the loss of diversity. “Did you know that in France, at the end of the 19th century, they had 3,600 different apple varieties? By 1950, there were just a few hundred left.”

After the wars, the family farm was increasingly replaced by the industrial farm, more inputs bought in, the produce now geared towards the market. Working for profit became the norm. “More fertilisers.. less and less variety”.

At the same time (from 1920 onwards) though, alternative forms of farming were emerging, slowly.  These included Biodynamics (1924), Organic (1930s and 40s), Permaculture (70s), and Agro-ecology (80s).

Ted cited Rudolf Steiner as one of his main influences and then took us through the use of Preparations, unique to BD farming but with which you may be familiar. Preparation 500 is animal material in an animal sheath while 501 is mineral material in animal sheath (often a cow’s horn). Vegetable material may also be placed in a sheath. And then there’s the use of herbal teas, as tonics, enhancers and stimulants.

Interestingly, cow manure is a key part of BD. The manure contains nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium and more. Cow manure compost provides a much higher yield in humus per acre than simple dung left on the field and humus is the most important carbon sink on the farm. “Cow manure,” said Ted, “is a balanced manure and easy to collect.”

The little things that count big

And then there are some little things. “Take care of the worms,” he said. Give them the conditions to multiply and they’ll reward you. The bees and the pollinators must also find a welcome. Plant those wildflowers and you’ll be rewarded. But don’t just hire in swarms as they do in the almond orchards of California. “A healthy farm is a self-contained, self-sustaining individuality.”

Observation is hugely important. Ted surprised himself when he began to study the gophers on the farm (we don’t have them in Ireland!). “Pure destruction, you think”. But their digging underground “has a beneficial function”.

“Our job as winegrowers is to work in harmony with nature and not in opposition.  Our vineyard work centres around enhancing systemic ecological health so that our vineyards do not succumb to attacks but bend like reeds in the wind and then return to their natural, healthy condition.” 

Towards the end, Ted was asked to talk about their recent vintages. I noted the Pinot Noir comments. The 2010 is hardly recent but he was full of praise for it, “quite exceptional”. The 2014 and 2016 are “more classic, the 14 a little more elegant”. The 2015 “will age”, so perhaps wait for it is the message here.

It is the opposite with the 2017. “Drink them young and enjoy the fruit from a very hot vintage”. “The 2018 seems to have everything… will be a classic, while the 2019 is looking good.” More about Ted's wines here.