Our buyer abroad

Having not had an opportunity to jet off to some exquisite vineyard region for a while I am particularly excited by the fact that quite a few of our producers and my friends are coming over to London for The Real Wine fair. This does not come without it's logistical issues however, vigneron do not seem to be the most organised people when having to deal with non production challenges. Samples lost in the post; samples not sent; tickets not booked; hotels not booked; and that's just one of them!

Anyway, we have eight domains represented by the person who actually make the wine, and myself and colleagues will pretend to be the other three (watch out for strange accents and berets) and I am so proud of what we have on offer (for more details see www.therealwinefair.com) as they stand shoulder to shoulder with many of the greatest wine producers in the world next week.

This is going to be a great fair, with plenty going on and some terrific food and visual entertainment so please come along on Sunday if you can, I believe there are still tickets available.

I am off to Spain in Early June, to Galicia, but will review the highlights of the fair in a week or two and hope to see you there.

Ben

I have just returned from Alimentaria, Barcelona's wine and food fair. Although this is only about as big as the London wine fair, ie a quarter of the size of Vinitaly, it is focused solely on Spain, naturally, and therefore there are a considerable amount of wines to sift through. Normally I avoid fairs like the plague as I prefer to find my quarry in the field, not in the zoo, so to speak, but this was an exception and I needed to find inexpensive house wines and see some of our producers, the backdrop of Barcelona and the fact a few friends were there too, made for a convincing argument to attend.

Day one was spent not at this fair, but at Vini Vinoteca, a tasting of the top wine producers in Spain, well, some of them anyway. This is organised by an on trade company and is based in the centre of town. The place is incredibly busy so tasting anything is a bit if a nightmare. However with a few tips from our friends at Dominio do Bibei, I managed to select the producers worth looking at. Highlights were Erasmus Priorat, Pardas from Penedes, an agency that I hope to ship and Domaine Lupier in Navarra who make the best Garnachas I have tasted in a long time. Others of note, but who are with UK importers already were Emilio Rojo, Rafael Palacios Jimenez Landi and Pingus. Incidentally the new Bibei wines are stellar, 2010 Lapola having a touch of Albariño in it now which has really lifted the fruit. These guys will be at the Real Wine Fair.

So, on to the main event in a massive fiera centre south of the city. I spent an hour or so getting my bearings and working out a plan of attack. You can never expect to taste everything and it is better to focus in on specific targets. Mine were:

• House wines to hit a £7 price point
• Juicy reds and vibrant whites for sub £10
• Great estates from eclectic regions

I avoided Rioja, Ribera del Duero and Cava, as well as the big commercial stands, so this removed 35% of the fair in one swipe. My first targets were Jumilla and Jecar, both south east of Madrid, but with altitude. I struck gold after about 3 hours, with two fabulous reds and a pair of house wines that hit the spot perfectly, and one is organic to boot. Great packaging and a really lovely philosophy. I also tasted some horrendous extracted wines that are already in the UK and frankly shouldn't be. So Xenysel will be joining us soon, as will Bodegas Ego, with one of the weirdest labels I have ever seen (and that is saying something!)

I also met a friend who makes wines at Evohe in Aragona. We would take the Marzuala Garnacha Blanca and maybe the Garnacha too, and the pricing would be comfortably under £10 for us. They are great wines and very good value, and capture the mood of new wave Spain perfectly. These will be in the shops by May.

Next up, Ribeira de Jucar east of Madrid. I tasted some lovely wines here and again cracking value. I need to delve a bit deeper as the wine maker of the wine I really enjoyed was not at the stand but Casa Gauda make pretty juicy wines and well packaged too. The prices have yet to be revealed but they are sure to be good value.

Then on to Terra de Leon and a wonderful estate producing Prieto Picudo, a variety with rich luscious fruit but fresh acidity and strong tannins. Pardevalles makes a great introductory wines from this variety as well as a more serious wine that we would sell for around £12. As well as this they have 4 ha of Albarin, a variety that bears no relation to Albarino, and that only has 30 ha in the world. It is fresh, vital and luscious on the finish, a really great wine that sits in the Loire/alto adige school of freshness. I am keen to work with these guys and the wines will be with us in May.

Castell d’Encus have produced an Albarino for us that we could sell for £14.95. It is sensational and we have up to 2500 bottles. Raul (Bobet) has designed a new label for us and it is great that we have the world exclusivity for this wine. It was great to see his stand was constantly busy and there was a real buzz about his wines and Encus. We have an icon here to be sure!

I also tasted some lovely Galician wines, mostly Monterrei, Valdeorras and Ribeira. I found a beautiful Monterrei from Vina Arxentia, fresh and herbal with real zip, and a fine price too, circa £12. As well as this I need to track down Crego e Monsguillo who apparently make fabulous wines. I also tasted lots of Godello and I must say it’s not my favourite variety, a bit sloppy and ill defined in the main, but the wines from Coroa were excellent so I need to find out more about this lot, they will probably be super expensive but I will go and see them in June!

Mas Bertran Cava is amazing. They have produced a new label for Balma which is very cool and can be seen on the website. I also tasted a producer called Rudeles from Ribera del Duero (I know, this one slipped in somehow), based near Dominio do Atuata in the eastern end of the region. They are good wines, but I am less convinced that the market for these wines is really all it needs to be to justify shipping them. More research then...

Onwards and to Ribeira Sacra to taste around and about. No worries, we have the best producer here, but I was impressed by Algueira who make slightly more chunky wines. This is such a beautiful area and I dare say that the potential for making very fine wines will soon be realised by more and more producers. Even Dirk Nieportt has started making wines out here!

Navarra. Oh dear. I am afraid I blanked here nothing of any interest to speak of, and he region was very badly represented. This is normally rich hunting ground but...

A quick diversion with the ‘Chicos del Terruar’ a group of producers who are all cool and funky and make terroir focussed wines. Interesting wines but all in the premium range and I wonder if this sort of esoteric style has the legs to really gain traction in the UK market. I am keen on one or two of the wines, including a Priorat made by Laurent Combier from Crozes Hermitage.

I tasted a good many other wines and spent time checking out the competition too. It is incredibly tiring, three days being too long and after a while you feel you have kissed enough frogs. Spanish wine is definitely on the up, sort for where Italy was about 20 years ago, and you feel it still has a long way to go which is very exciting. I tasted too many traditional wines that still have to be made for the home markets and South America, and these wines really stick out. Cheap wine is easy to find, but mostly it is turgid and undrinkable, so it was gratifying to kind something we can work with as a house wine proposition.

I would say that wine fairs, are not for me, they are too noisy and blurred, even if this was a lot of fun. I tasted a huge range of wines, but I have to say that I would rather have been tasting them in the vineyard with only the producer and the wine to listen too!

I have a fairly cynical attitude toward the en primeur circus, and although I have attended religiously since the 2006 vintage was being shown in 2007, there are very few times during the week when I get excited. When I do it is generally for a wine that I will probably never taste again, let alone own. I can only liken it to being in the driving seat of a Ferrari 250 GTO knowing I probably will never drive one, let alone own one, in my life. So Lafite, Petrus and Le Pin aside I spend my time tasting, writing, debating and critiquing wines that have give me no satisfaction and bear no resemblance to the finish article anyway. What’s the point?

Well an answer to this lies in the outer rings of the circus, the fringe events and pure fun in observation and participating. This year I decided to completely eschew the main ring and only visit the side shows. My aim was to taste as many of the 14,000 other Château in Bordeaux who do not participate in the EP’s as possible and to spend as much time with growers as I could. This is what is uncommonly known as ‘doing the village hall tastings’ and can lead to some pretty strange encounters. The fact remains, however, that you have (to paraphrase) to kiss frogs to get princesses and that is our job, someone has to do it. Also, it gives you the air of the intrepid explorer when meeting over dinner, and whilst everyone else is regaling each over with the same old stories, your own seem vibrant and daredevil in comparison.

Young Bordeaux is a tough nut to taste. It is tannic, brooding, often reduced and seldom appetising. Only at Lafite and Tetre Rotebeouf do I ever feel like drinking the young sample, whilst at Château like Cos d’Estournel and Mouton one has to almost prize the wine out of the mouth. So young lower orders Bordeaux generally lacks the charm of the big guns but with all the structure. Even these wines are built to last, and some will for many years to be sure. My task was t find some wines for Caviste that didn’t blow the bank, had integrity in the vineyard and were made by people we could work with. No mean feat as I discovered.

I calibrated my palate at Lafite and the St Estephe/Pauillac/St Julien tasting at Union Grand Cru tasting hosted by Château Lagrange and then hopped into my rather cheeky little Fiat 500 convertible (I know, but apparently it was all they had) and set off for the Cru Bourgeois tasting at Château d’Arsac. Here I devised a way of being able to taste all the wines quickly and efficiently whilst ensuring I could judge each wine on merit. I would then go and taste the wines I liked from the 2009 vintage that were being shown in the next door room and then make a call. So head down and off i went. Normally a UGC tastings you taste 2 wines, meet someone you know, chat, say how busy you are, not much time etc, and then chat some more, taste two more wines and bump into someone else and so on. 60 wines takes 3 hours. Not here, I did not see a soul I knew, and not a single English speaker. The room was in fact populated only by people who make the wine. Promising

So, Médoc to Haut Médoc, and 120 wines tasted, 7 potentials. Now I am looking only at tannin, fruit purity and balance, and once you are in a rhythm these things become simple to spot.  Moulis to Listrac, Margaux, now and the wines are really picking up and quality is noticeably improving, into Pauillac, St Estephe and the wines are singing, there is no doubt this vintage is one for Pauillac and St Estephe. So in all 25 wines hit the spot and need retesting. In 2009 the wines are sweeter, better balanced and with more complexity so it should be able to cut out the dross. 15 remain on my hit list, only to be whittled down to 10 when I discover the prices and availability of the five Château.

A quick stop for lunch, much needed after 250 or so wines, and then on to Margaux Village Hall for the Cru Artisan tasting. 25 producers showing 2011 and an one other older vintage. I love this tasting. There is no one here, even the producers seem to have given up and gone home, so I can get my head down again. This time the strike rate is low, only three producers work for me but the wines are exemplary, and balance is amazing, even in the Margaux I tasted. There something very honest about these wines, they are not cheap but they have a layer of something that although intangible, is so prevalent. I could drink these wines all day, but I will re-taste in my office lest my romantic streak is getting the better of me.

Back in the 500, and the roof is down. For the first time I am aware of how many gendarme there are about. I am not drinking and am careful to drink much water but nevertheless, any time spent engaging with this lot is both time sent not tasting and time spent raising the blood pressure to retirement levels. I arrived at a small tasting of Bio wines in Macauillou after a quick dip (read major detour) in Calon Segur (where once again my favourite wine of the year is being made, and it isn’t the Grand Vin). The Bio tasting was populated by beards, dungarees and strange smells, not unusual, and a healthy antidote to the formality of the Grand Château, but makes tasting the wines seriously quite hard. Here I tasted all sorts of things, but was notably impressed by a producer who has very unlikely labels making wines in the Bordeaux region near Cadillac. This is the end of the day so my palate is tiring but there are some gems here and I need to make sure I don’t miss anything, and unlike the last tasting, the winemakers are engaged in their wine so interesting stories and verbal pictures add to the wine’s character. I am charmed, but now need a beer so meet up with my old mate in the Brassiere de Médoc in Blanqefort, a spiritual home with a terrible wine list and modest food, and we share our day.

Lafite is great, Margaux the best ever, Angludet was so good/bad/average (erase depending on which journo you like) and so on. I am aware that this sounds like every year (“Oh the wines are so fresh/structured/mute/lively” depending on which sample was tasted and where). These are the vaguely repetitive expletives of the UGC campaigner, where as my vocabulary has changed completely, I have to use a different lexicon to describe my wine tasting experience and I am grateful for this. Long live the village hall tastings!

I have not listed any of the Château I am keen on here, as I am still in the process of sorting and refining, but suffice to say I am extremely confident that at least a handful of the frogs kissed will turn into Princes/ses.

Ben Llewelyn, March 2011