I love Europe. It was exciting to be back on the continent. I had dozed on the short flight from London to Charles de Gaulle, negotiated the disinterested French immigration control post (no questions, just a stamp of arrival in the passport), was surprised to see both of my bags emerge from the carousel, walked past an empty customs post and then hurried to the rental car counter hoping they still had my car, booked for collection four hours earlier.
My rental booking is great value but I later realised it looks like I have no insurance cover. I hope that's not right as I thought I had just declined the major excess reduction, which is covered by my travel insurance (I have an annual policy, which saves a fair bit of money and hassle). The car is a diesel Peugeot 5008 stationwagon. It's got heaps of room, two vital power outlets, plenty of grunt, and diesel is so much more economical in Europe.
The TomTom fired up and quickly had me on the right roads. I was soon on the A4 doing 135kmh towards Reims and then Strasbourg. I was heading for Germany but I was thrilled to be back in France. I decided Germany was like family -- reliable, secure, constant -- and France was more romantic intrigue. It'll be better when I have time to improve my basic French, but for now I can get by and I love it.
I hit some roadworks and a major traffic jam near Luxembourg, and ended up doing a U-turn to get my exit, but I was on track for a 4pm arrival in Saarburg. Gavin and Gen had driven up from Beaune via Champagne so Gavin could fill his boot with more grower/bio champagnes, and arrived at the Hotel Galerie half an hour or so before me.
I had a shower, changed and we walked about 150m up the road for the first tasting visit of the March-April 2010 tour: Weingut Forstmeister-Geltz Zilliken.
With Hanno and Ruth away, the ever-delightful Dorothee gave us a guided tour of the cellars and then did a tasting of the 2009 range. German wine rules are changing again in a bid to make them simpler and more logical for the customer, and Zilliken have tackled all of the changes in this vintage.
They now have a three-tier range, start with gutsweine, or estate wine, then orstweine, or village level, and finally the Erste Lage range.
The names are also being simplified, and while all VDP members are expected to make a Grosse Gewachs now (a grand cru dry wine), they must no longer name wines kabinett trocken or spatlese trocken. No matter what must weight the grapes are picked at, they will be labelled trocken (max 9g/l r/s) or feinherb, with the terms kabinett, spatlese and auslese reserved for fruity wines.
At Zilliken we started with a trocken from each of the three quality levels: The Zilliken Riesling Trocken was first, and I was really impressed. It's very open and floral on the nose, and has impressive softness in the mouth. The Saarburger Trocken is less expressive on the nose but has a richer, more soil-driven palate. Then the "Rausch GG", which in more confusing times would have been called Saarburger Rausch Spatlese Trocken Grosse Gewachs. I'm not convinced about the pursuit of dry wines from a region that does fruity so well, but dry is where the German market is, so I understand the desire to try.
Zilliken's first is a nice effort -- it has real length and persistence. It's closed on the nose but on the palate it is dense and yet still elegant. Yellow fruit seem to be a hallmark of the vintage here. I often think of Z wines as featuring lime, vanilla essence and slate, but this vintage there is more tropical fruit -- mangoes, peach, apricot and pineapple.
Dorothee opined that Saar's point of difference is the variation in the climate, which she believes gives the wines more character and depth of flavour. 2009 had been wet in August but was perfect in September and October. One day after they finished picking it rained for a month.
Zilliken were able to make wines at every level they wanted, except eiswein as the grapes had lost their sugar and acid by the time the weather was cold enough to snap freeze them.
The process at Zilliken is to handpick grapes, press gently (or not at all for a couple of wines, taking just what juice emerged naturally from the weight in the press), put the juice in tank for one day and then transfer it to old oak fudres in the cellar for fermentation, which they believes improves the mouthfeel. When they feel the wine is balanced at whatever sweetness level they rack the wine off the yeast (twice if necessary), do a large-pore filter and then sulphur to stabilise. The sweeter the wine, the more sulphur is required to ensure there is no refermentation with all that sugar.
Back to the vintage 09: Dorothee says the wines have the elegance of 04 but the intensity of flavour of 05. Then she compares it to 1983. Every vintage has its subtle differences, and although the acids are as high as 08, they are softer, riper, rounder, comprising less malic acid (apple flavours). Minerality shines through, and the devonian slate seems to have imparted a powdery, wet-concrete taste that we'll call slate.
So, back to the glass: I'll go for the estate trocken because it's so expressive and will be the best value (people love dry wines but seem reluctant to pay much for them). The second flight is three off-dry wines: Zilliken Butterfly, Saarburger Feinherb and "Rausch Diabas", a new name in the family. Without kabinett trocken or spatlese trocken to identify a wine picked at a higher must weight, Zilliken convinced the VDP of the need for a new estate name for a top-class feinherb. Diabas is the second most prolific type of rock in their vineyards, a minerally stone.
The Butterfly is pretty, fresh, limey, talcy, just lovely. With 17g/l r/s, a screwcap and a label that was inspired by a wine writer's description of Zilliken wines as being as delicate as a butterfly, this is certain to be a big seller. I like it more than the 07 and 08, from memory.
The Saarburger Feinherb has a pale yellow colour, nice intensity, 22g/l r/s but finishes even drier than the Butterfly. It's very good.
The Diabas was picked at auslese level of ripeness -- 108 oechsle -- and fermented to about 24g/l r/s. It has delicate flavours but they are intense, clean and long, and the wine again finishes virtually dry.
Up a grade in sweetness now to kabinett and a chance to compare Zilliken's 8ha of Saarburger Rausch and 1ha of Ockfener Bockstein. Ockfen is the next village along the river.
The Zilliken Riesling is the estate kabinett and shows lots of ripe yellow fruit. It's clean, fresh, fruity and carries the 50g/l of sugar with ease.
The Saarburger Kabinett is richer on the palate and has hints of passionfruit. It's full in tatse but light on the alcohol, one of the reasons I love German riesling.
The Bockstein Kabinett comes from a vineyard that is not as steep as the Rausch but is still south-facing. It has devonian slate but it's more gravelly. The wines tend to be more open and powerful, and this one, even with just 45g/l r/s, tastes quite dense, with grapefruit, passionfruit and powdery slate on the palate. The alcohol is about 8.5 to 9% (the final analysis is not made until the wines are submitted for approval for their AP numbers).
The Rausch Kabinett leaps up to 65g/l r/s and is more floral and delicate. This site delivers more elegance and tropical fruit flavours of apricot, peach and pineapple.
The next wine grabs me too -- the Rausch Spatlese, which will be AP #6, and here comes a revelation about the grade of quality at Zilliken. They assign AP#1 to their best wine and move down the order from there. So if there are three spatleses in the vintage, the lowest number is what Zilliken consider to the best of them.
This spatlese is intense, with lots of peach, apricot, mango ... lots of acid too to keep it clean and in check on the finish. It leaves the palate thirsting for more. Dorothee likes to call it "animating, elegant acidity". This wine has about 80g/l r/s and alcohol of 7.5 to 8%.
Even the next wine, the Rausch Auslese (AP#5), doesn't taste sweet at 95g/l r/s. You can see it's a dense and ripe vintage but it's still bright and lively on the palate.
A quick palate cleanser and then we have a look at the 1993 Saarburger Rausch Auslese which I'll be importing later in the year (I've also got the last 10 cases of the '93 spatlese). The sugar has subsided (and was probably spatlese level to start with), and waxy, lanolin flavours have begun to develop, but it's still so fresh on the palate -- lemon curd, quince, a hint of licehn -- and then we learn that this bottle has been open for six days!
Next up is the Rausch Auslese #8 from 2005. This was the vintage of a lifetime for Zilliken and one they consoled themselves with when they cracked their last bottle of 1959 last year. They made six auslese that vintage -- two standard, two goldcap and two longcap! The best of them was AP#5, so this goldcap was fourth in the queue. The flavours are concentrated and in the lemon curd spectrum, but the acid is fresh and energises the palate rather than overwhelming it.
I'm exhausted and distracted so Dorothee decides to perk me up with their best two wines of the 2009 vintage. Both will be available only at the VDP auction in Trier in September, so I'll have to go to that!
The Rausch Auslese Goldcap #2 was picked at 130 oechsle, with 100% botrytis, but it is so clean and light on the palate. Energy and intensity rather than lushness. The 180g/l r/s is easily carried by acidity of 12g/l.
The big daddy is the most intense TBA Zilliken has made, with more must weight than their gauge could measure, and it goes to 230 oechsle! The raw figures are approximately 400g/l r/s, 15g/l acid and a surprisingly high 6.5% alcohol. "We've never had a wine with such concentration," Dorothee says. There is just 80 litres of it and I'll be trying to get my share. It's noticeably viscous in the glass but still not overpowering in the mouth. It's all about balance.
Looks like 2009 is a cracker, and yet different to the great string of vintages preceding it. And that's got to be a good thing.
Today's schedule: Van Volxem. Owner Roman Niewodniczanski is leading the charge for classication clarification at the VDP and will surely have plenty to say. And with his 2007 and 2008 wines grabbing people so quickly on arrival in Australia, I'll be paying close attention to the stars of his 09 lineup.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Back in Europe: daily updates (I hope)!
Hello anyone out there.
I figure it's time I attempted a daily blog to keep any interested parties up to date with what's going on during this extended buying trip in Europe.
Friday, March 12, 2010:
My usual chaotic preparation for a trip overseas. I'm always a fairly good chance of missing flights because I attempt to do so much before I fly. This day was no exception. I had a 9am appointment with a dermatologist because of an inflamed mole on my lower back that had been bothering me, and with two previous skin cancer incidents I had decided to play it safe. The doctor felt that the two moles I referred her to were fine but she removed them both anyway and they will be tested for nasties.
I went home and packed and worked through a list of jobs, primarily being frustrated by TomTom ... I'd almost missed flights 18 months earlier after stuffing around trying to download maps of France and Germany to my mobile phone, and this time my GPS was giving me just as much grief. The maps I had bought for my unit at $180 downloaded to my computer but wouldn't fit on the GPS. I got a snotty support guy at TomTom who eventually hung up on me and went to lunch. The next guy was much better but I eventually had to give up on making it work. Instead I had deleted everything off the unit and was going to try to figure it out on the plane.
I had intended to catch a cab at 2pm so I could beat the driver changeover and be at the airport in plenty of time for a 5.40pm flight. Too easy, so instead I drove around town to do three jobs: I left home at 1.45pm and booked the cab for 3pm, then set off to drop off two bottles of chablis at the warehouse to add to an order and one bottle of champagne to be posted to a restaurant that is looking for 50 cases. Then I drove to News Limited to leave three bottles to be photographed for an article James Halliday is writing on Schloss Lieser for The Australian weekend magazine. The final task was to get 2kg of Campos Superior coffee beans from Newtown for a mate in Burgundy. I pushed the cab booking to 3.15pm and then 3.30pm as I raced home.
Scrapping plans to have another shower, I quickly changed, grabbed all my things and headed outside. The cab turned up almost on time and although it took longer than I would have liked, by checking in the night before I only had to arrive 60 minutes early to check in bags.
Qantas were unmoved by a letter from my doctor asking me to be given a more comfortable seat (that would have been business!) so I settled in at the back of the plane on a new A380. New but not reliable apparently as it had "engineering" issues and we left about an hour late. My connection time in Singapore was only one hour for th flight to Paris and I was given conflicting information about whether that flight would be held.
Despite the constant farting of the old man in the aisle seat, or maybe because of it, I slept a couple of hours and caught up on a couple of movies. There was no hope of making a quick getaway because although the crew offered to take me upstairs through business, the old farter didn't want to let me out.
Ground staff told me the flight was going to be held for 70 minutes but then when I checked at the transfer desk they told me it had already left. They were going to put me back on the 380 for London, with a connection to Paris and an arrival time about five and a half hours later than planned.
I changed clothes, got back on the plane and this time had 13 or so hours to look forward to sandwiched between two big guys -- one a nice British businessman based in Hungary, and the other a giant Mormon who smelled bad, slept with his mouth open and also turned out to be a chronic farter. Why do people do this in enclosed places? Can't they go to the bathroom and spare the rest of us the nasal torture?
Still, I slept for a few hours, watched a couple more movies and made it to London and my new connection. Also, on about the fifth attempt, I got the TomTom map to fit on the GPS. I then went in and deleted a bunch of voice files (as instructed) to free up more memory, and then tried to add one voice. It wouldn't work until I emptied the trash, but even after downloading the voice the unit said it didn't have any matched to the maps and I would be guided by arrows instead of voice commands.
Still, I thought I could live with that -- at least I had the maps. Let's call that the end of the first day and the end of a ridiculously long post. I'm not going to be able to do this much every day!
I figure it's time I attempted a daily blog to keep any interested parties up to date with what's going on during this extended buying trip in Europe.
Friday, March 12, 2010:
My usual chaotic preparation for a trip overseas. I'm always a fairly good chance of missing flights because I attempt to do so much before I fly. This day was no exception. I had a 9am appointment with a dermatologist because of an inflamed mole on my lower back that had been bothering me, and with two previous skin cancer incidents I had decided to play it safe. The doctor felt that the two moles I referred her to were fine but she removed them both anyway and they will be tested for nasties.
I went home and packed and worked through a list of jobs, primarily being frustrated by TomTom ... I'd almost missed flights 18 months earlier after stuffing around trying to download maps of France and Germany to my mobile phone, and this time my GPS was giving me just as much grief. The maps I had bought for my unit at $180 downloaded to my computer but wouldn't fit on the GPS. I got a snotty support guy at TomTom who eventually hung up on me and went to lunch. The next guy was much better but I eventually had to give up on making it work. Instead I had deleted everything off the unit and was going to try to figure it out on the plane.
I had intended to catch a cab at 2pm so I could beat the driver changeover and be at the airport in plenty of time for a 5.40pm flight. Too easy, so instead I drove around town to do three jobs: I left home at 1.45pm and booked the cab for 3pm, then set off to drop off two bottles of chablis at the warehouse to add to an order and one bottle of champagne to be posted to a restaurant that is looking for 50 cases. Then I drove to News Limited to leave three bottles to be photographed for an article James Halliday is writing on Schloss Lieser for The Australian weekend magazine. The final task was to get 2kg of Campos Superior coffee beans from Newtown for a mate in Burgundy. I pushed the cab booking to 3.15pm and then 3.30pm as I raced home.
Scrapping plans to have another shower, I quickly changed, grabbed all my things and headed outside. The cab turned up almost on time and although it took longer than I would have liked, by checking in the night before I only had to arrive 60 minutes early to check in bags.
Qantas were unmoved by a letter from my doctor asking me to be given a more comfortable seat (that would have been business!) so I settled in at the back of the plane on a new A380. New but not reliable apparently as it had "engineering" issues and we left about an hour late. My connection time in Singapore was only one hour for th flight to Paris and I was given conflicting information about whether that flight would be held.
Despite the constant farting of the old man in the aisle seat, or maybe because of it, I slept a couple of hours and caught up on a couple of movies. There was no hope of making a quick getaway because although the crew offered to take me upstairs through business, the old farter didn't want to let me out.
Ground staff told me the flight was going to be held for 70 minutes but then when I checked at the transfer desk they told me it had already left. They were going to put me back on the 380 for London, with a connection to Paris and an arrival time about five and a half hours later than planned.
I changed clothes, got back on the plane and this time had 13 or so hours to look forward to sandwiched between two big guys -- one a nice British businessman based in Hungary, and the other a giant Mormon who smelled bad, slept with his mouth open and also turned out to be a chronic farter. Why do people do this in enclosed places? Can't they go to the bathroom and spare the rest of us the nasal torture?
Still, I slept for a few hours, watched a couple more movies and made it to London and my new connection. Also, on about the fifth attempt, I got the TomTom map to fit on the GPS. I then went in and deleted a bunch of voice files (as instructed) to free up more memory, and then tried to add one voice. It wouldn't work until I emptied the trash, but even after downloading the voice the unit said it didn't have any matched to the maps and I would be guided by arrows instead of voice commands.
Still, I thought I could live with that -- at least I had the maps. Let's call that the end of the first day and the end of a ridiculously long post. I'm not going to be able to do this much every day!
Friday, January 22, 2010
New arrivals
The boats are lining up over the next few weeks.
First in to port is the 2007 Unison Syrah from the Gimblett Gravels in Hawke's Bay. I somehow missed the release of this and could only snare 56 cases ... I've got 50 here now, just in time for a 95-point review in Gourmet Traveller Wine by Andrew Caillard MW. Apparently it was one of the highlights of a recent NZ visit. The 06 was very popular and this is by all accounts better. There are just five cases of the 06 left if anyone is keen. $39.95 retail, but you can get it on www.eurocentricwine.com.au for 10% if you read the instructions. Amazing how many people don't!
Next up is the overflow of an ambitious containerload that arrived last December. These three producers had to sit in the coldstore (which was really a warm store at 12C since it was sub-zero outside) until I managed to get space in a new shared-reefer scheme through one of the freight forwarding companies.
So, hopefully by the end of next week I will see the debut of Domaine des Croix (two 06 red Burgundies), Camille Giroud (red Burgundy from 02, 03 and 06, but maximum of five cases of each wine, including the Decanter Trophy-winning 06 Chambertin!), and Domaine des Chenevieres from Chablis (awesome juice!)
"Finally", a container full of 2008 German rieslings ... including, just in time, the full range of Willi Schaefers and Schloss Liesers. Thomas Haag of Schloss Lieser will be in Sydney and Melbourne at the end of Feb/early March, and his wines should go through the roof, they are so good. The Schaefers have been sold out bar one wine, and I expect these to go quickly too. I'll put out a pre-arrival offer on this duo next week (sign up for the newsletter at www.eurocentricwine.com.au to be in the front of the queue).
There are some lovely quirky wines in this shipment, including a gorgeous red called Cuvee X, weissburgunder (pinot blanc), chardonnay, spatburgunder (pinot noir), grauburgunder (pinot gris), sparkling riesling, sparkling pinot-chardonnay, and various expressions of gewurztraminer.
That'll be all for a little while, although the orders are banking up in Europe, if only I could sell some of this to free up some money and space! Spend, my friends, spend up large!
First in to port is the 2007 Unison Syrah from the Gimblett Gravels in Hawke's Bay. I somehow missed the release of this and could only snare 56 cases ... I've got 50 here now, just in time for a 95-point review in Gourmet Traveller Wine by Andrew Caillard MW. Apparently it was one of the highlights of a recent NZ visit. The 06 was very popular and this is by all accounts better. There are just five cases of the 06 left if anyone is keen. $39.95 retail, but you can get it on www.eurocentricwine.com.au for 10% if you read the instructions. Amazing how many people don't!
Next up is the overflow of an ambitious containerload that arrived last December. These three producers had to sit in the coldstore (which was really a warm store at 12C since it was sub-zero outside) until I managed to get space in a new shared-reefer scheme through one of the freight forwarding companies.
So, hopefully by the end of next week I will see the debut of Domaine des Croix (two 06 red Burgundies), Camille Giroud (red Burgundy from 02, 03 and 06, but maximum of five cases of each wine, including the Decanter Trophy-winning 06 Chambertin!), and Domaine des Chenevieres from Chablis (awesome juice!)
"Finally", a container full of 2008 German rieslings ... including, just in time, the full range of Willi Schaefers and Schloss Liesers. Thomas Haag of Schloss Lieser will be in Sydney and Melbourne at the end of Feb/early March, and his wines should go through the roof, they are so good. The Schaefers have been sold out bar one wine, and I expect these to go quickly too. I'll put out a pre-arrival offer on this duo next week (sign up for the newsletter at www.eurocentricwine.com.au to be in the front of the queue).
There are some lovely quirky wines in this shipment, including a gorgeous red called Cuvee X, weissburgunder (pinot blanc), chardonnay, spatburgunder (pinot noir), grauburgunder (pinot gris), sparkling riesling, sparkling pinot-chardonnay, and various expressions of gewurztraminer.
That'll be all for a little while, although the orders are banking up in Europe, if only I could sell some of this to free up some money and space! Spend, my friends, spend up large!
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Comings and goings
Happy new year!
There's a lot happening in the first half of this year with Eurocentric Wine Imports and if you love your wine you might like to be involved.
There's an overflow shipment of wine arriving later this month, including the debut of Domaine des Croix and Camille Giroud from Burgundy and Domaine des Chenevieres from Chablis, following by a container of mostly 2008 German rieslings. Actually that shipment includes some quirky obscurity of the kind that top restaurants love.
Take Cuvee X from Schmitges in the Mosel -- it's 10% pinot noir, 90% dornfelder and 100% delicious, like the classic lunchtime claret. Other small parcels include dry and sweet gewurztraminers, pinot blanc (weissburgunder), pinot gris (grauburgunder), pinot noir (spatburgunder), sparkling riesling, methode champenoise, chardonnay and of course rieslings, from dry to TBA goldkapsel!
Three of our winemakers will be in Sydney and/or Melbourne in the next couple of months and are available to meet sommeliers and retailers. The schedule is:
Feb 2-5, Sydney & Melbourne: Unison's Philip Horn, launching the 2007 Syrah (look for a glowing review in Gourmet Traveller Wine in the Feb-March issue).
Feb 6-8, Sydney: Redoubt Hill winemaker Leslie Jackson to promote the 2009 pinot gris and 2009 sauvignon blanc.
Feb 28-Mar 3, Melbourne & Sydney: Schloss Lieser winemaker Thomas Haag, with trade tastings on Feb 28 and March 1 in Melbourne, including a dinner for punters with 15 wines from the 2007 and 08 vintages, and then the same in Sydney, with dinner at Galileo at the Observatory Hotel on March 3.
And the goings?
I'm finally off to Europe to meet potential new producers and to try the 2008 and 2009 vintages in Germany, Alsace, Burgundy, Beaujolais, the Rhone, Chablis and Champagne.
I've had friends come along for all or part of the journey before and I'm open to up to three people coming along this time. It's a fairly hectic schedule at times, but you'd get to taste a huge range of wines at many fantastic domaines. It's a little more relaxed in Germany, where I usually taste at just two houses a day.
Here's the plan:
March 12: Sydney-Paris
March 13: Drive Paris to Wiltingen/Saarburg to taste with Zilliken and Van Volxem.
March 15: Maximin Grunhaus, Schmitges (staying @ Schmitges, in Erden).
March 16: Willi Schaefer, Schloss Lieser
March 17: Reinhold Haart, Knebel (night out in Koblenz)
March 18: Emrich-Schonleber, Schafer-Frohlich
March 19: Rebholz, dinner at a German restaurant with an amazing wine list
March 20: Alsace tastings, dinner at a little restaurant with an amazing wine list (think Faiveley Musigny and Coche Dury Corton Charlemagne)
March 21: Lunch at a cute restaurant with an amazing wine list (it's the toughest three-day stretch!) Then struggle towards Beaune.
March 22: Grands Jours de Bourgogne in and around Beaune. A six-day wine fair at various venues with great regional tastings.
March 27/28: Dinner somewhere fab. Drive south.
March 29: Tastings in the Rhone, inc Domaine des Espiers in Vacqueras.
March 30: Tastings in Beaune, inc JM Burgaud, Roland Pignard, possibly others.
March 31-April 9: Burgundy tastings, including Camille Giroud, Domaine des Croix, David Clark, Drouhin Laroze, Benoit Ente, Jean-Philippe Fichet, Dupont-Tisserandot, Amiot-Servelle, Paul Pernot, Thierry Matrot, Stephane Aladame, Alex Gambal, Aurelien Verdet, Humbert Freres, Auguste et Lucie Lignier, Livera and other rising stars.
April 10: Chablis @ Chenevieres and JC Bessin
April 11: Bertrand Gautherot (Vouette et Sorbee)
April 12-16: Henri Billiot, Rene Geoffroy, Chartogne-Taillet, Ployez-Jacquemart, Ulysse Collin, Georges Laval, David Leclapart and other growers.
April 17: Return to Paris, Eurostar to London for R&R
April 24: Fly to Frankfurt for two-day Weinborse German wine fair in Mainz
April 26: Frankfurt-Sydney
April 28: Arrive home.
If you'd like to join in for part of the trip, drop me a line. I'll try to blog every day or so, otherwise it just doesn't happen!
There's a lot happening in the first half of this year with Eurocentric Wine Imports and if you love your wine you might like to be involved.
There's an overflow shipment of wine arriving later this month, including the debut of Domaine des Croix and Camille Giroud from Burgundy and Domaine des Chenevieres from Chablis, following by a container of mostly 2008 German rieslings. Actually that shipment includes some quirky obscurity of the kind that top restaurants love.
Take Cuvee X from Schmitges in the Mosel -- it's 10% pinot noir, 90% dornfelder and 100% delicious, like the classic lunchtime claret. Other small parcels include dry and sweet gewurztraminers, pinot blanc (weissburgunder), pinot gris (grauburgunder), pinot noir (spatburgunder), sparkling riesling, methode champenoise, chardonnay and of course rieslings, from dry to TBA goldkapsel!
Three of our winemakers will be in Sydney and/or Melbourne in the next couple of months and are available to meet sommeliers and retailers. The schedule is:
Feb 2-5, Sydney & Melbourne: Unison's Philip Horn, launching the 2007 Syrah (look for a glowing review in Gourmet Traveller Wine in the Feb-March issue).
Feb 6-8, Sydney: Redoubt Hill winemaker Leslie Jackson to promote the 2009 pinot gris and 2009 sauvignon blanc.
Feb 28-Mar 3, Melbourne & Sydney: Schloss Lieser winemaker Thomas Haag, with trade tastings on Feb 28 and March 1 in Melbourne, including a dinner for punters with 15 wines from the 2007 and 08 vintages, and then the same in Sydney, with dinner at Galileo at the Observatory Hotel on March 3.
And the goings?
I'm finally off to Europe to meet potential new producers and to try the 2008 and 2009 vintages in Germany, Alsace, Burgundy, Beaujolais, the Rhone, Chablis and Champagne.
I've had friends come along for all or part of the journey before and I'm open to up to three people coming along this time. It's a fairly hectic schedule at times, but you'd get to taste a huge range of wines at many fantastic domaines. It's a little more relaxed in Germany, where I usually taste at just two houses a day.
Here's the plan:
March 12: Sydney-Paris
March 13: Drive Paris to Wiltingen/Saarburg to taste with Zilliken and Van Volxem.
March 15: Maximin Grunhaus, Schmitges (staying @ Schmitges, in Erden).
March 16: Willi Schaefer, Schloss Lieser
March 17: Reinhold Haart, Knebel (night out in Koblenz)
March 18: Emrich-Schonleber, Schafer-Frohlich
March 19: Rebholz, dinner at a German restaurant with an amazing wine list
March 20: Alsace tastings, dinner at a little restaurant with an amazing wine list (think Faiveley Musigny and Coche Dury Corton Charlemagne)
March 21: Lunch at a cute restaurant with an amazing wine list (it's the toughest three-day stretch!) Then struggle towards Beaune.
March 22: Grands Jours de Bourgogne in and around Beaune. A six-day wine fair at various venues with great regional tastings.
March 27/28: Dinner somewhere fab. Drive south.
March 29: Tastings in the Rhone, inc Domaine des Espiers in Vacqueras.
March 30: Tastings in Beaune, inc JM Burgaud, Roland Pignard, possibly others.
March 31-April 9: Burgundy tastings, including Camille Giroud, Domaine des Croix, David Clark, Drouhin Laroze, Benoit Ente, Jean-Philippe Fichet, Dupont-Tisserandot, Amiot-Servelle, Paul Pernot, Thierry Matrot, Stephane Aladame, Alex Gambal, Aurelien Verdet, Humbert Freres, Auguste et Lucie Lignier, Livera and other rising stars.
April 10: Chablis @ Chenevieres and JC Bessin
April 11: Bertrand Gautherot (Vouette et Sorbee)
April 12-16: Henri Billiot, Rene Geoffroy, Chartogne-Taillet, Ployez-Jacquemart, Ulysse Collin, Georges Laval, David Leclapart and other growers.
April 17: Return to Paris, Eurostar to London for R&R
April 24: Fly to Frankfurt for two-day Weinborse German wine fair in Mainz
April 26: Frankfurt-Sydney
April 28: Arrive home.
If you'd like to join in for part of the trip, drop me a line. I'll try to blog every day or so, otherwise it just doesn't happen!
Monday, December 21, 2009
The calm between the storms
I'm taking a break! Well, in a way I'm just working from a different location -- a different continent for three weeks -- but the plan is to wind down and recharge the batteries after a full-on couple of years.
I'm in Canada staying with friends for Christmas, and trying to catch up on some paperwork before what should be a huge 2010.
This year has already been massive, including landing a third container from Europe for Eurocentric Wine Imports in early December. It was a lot more trouble than it should have been, thanks to crazy shipping companies. I used Ziegler for my pickups this time, as they offered a quick, careful and inexpensive service. They also wanted to pack the container and ship the goods, so I let them to see how they went.
Well, they didn't fill the container for a start. They left out 150 cases! Granted I may have been ambitious, forgetting how much bigger Champagne and Burgundy bottles are than riesling bottles, but it seemed crazy that they left the back row stacked only halfway up, and throughout the container it looked like they could have gone one row higher.
At first I thought I would be paying storage for these 150 cases until I could get another full container organised out of Europe. But then I discovered a new service, where you can share space in a refrigerated container. It's an extra expense, but better than driving customers mad waiting for overdue stock. And I wanted to get it off Ziegler as soon as possible, thinking this all might have been a scheme to get more money out of me.
Then, the day before the container arrived, the customs clearance agents realised they didn't have the necessary paperwork. Why they didn't think about this earlier, they still won't say. The shippers said they'd send it by DHL, a useless courier company which managed to turn a three-day promise into a six-day non-delivery before I went and snatched the envelope off them. We dodged cancellation fees at the port and fortunately Ziegler picked up the bill for the courier and a day of storage, and finally the container was delivered on December 8.
Anyway, it was still nice and cold when we cracked it, and replenished stocks of René Geoffroy and Henri Billiot champagne, plus included David Léclapart champagne (biodynamic, zero dosage), Jean-Claude Bessin chablis, Jean-Marc Burgaud beaujolais, and 2007 Burgundy from Dupont-Tisserandot, Humbert Freres, Aurélien Verdet, Benoit Ente and Jean-Philippe Fichet.
Some of these have already been snapped up by Rockpool Bar & Grill, Bentley Bar & Restaurant, Aria and Ultimo Wine Centre in Sydney; the Royal Mail Hotel in Victoria; and the Wine Emporium and Enoteca 1889 in Brisbane.
I've hardly had a chance to show the wines yet and already I want to uplift another container in Europe -- this week! I'm hoping to get the go-ahead today for collections in Germany to bring out the 2008 rieslings from Willi Schaefer, Schloss Lieser, Reinhold Haart, Andreas Schmitges, Knebel, Schafer-Frohlich, Emrich-Schonleber and Rebholz, plus the first shipment from Van Volxem in the Saar, including 07s and 08s. There will also be some left-field wines -- sparkling riesling and pinot-chardonnay from Rebholz, as well as weissburgunder, grauburgunder, spatburgunder, dornfelder and gewurztraminer from various producers.
There will also be some very limited mixed dozens from Willi Schaefer -- just six of them, which will contain one bottle of a special 07 auction auslese, a very rare 08 auslese, the last of some other special 07s and the best of the 08s.
There will be other limited items, including back vintages from some of the top producers. The best way to get a heads-up on these is to subscribe to the Eurocentric newsletter at www.eurocentricwine.com.au
Hopefully the German container will land in Sydney by February 1 because it will contain a large parcel of the off-dry riesling Haart to Heart as a potential Valentine's Day gift. Maybe I should team up with a gift basket company on that one!
Next up, as soon as I can afford it, will be another container primarily out of France, but also including the first shipment from Carl von Schubert's Maximin Grunhaus and a mixed 1993/2008 shipment from Zilliken. The French portion will include champagne from Vouette et Sorbée, Chartogne-Taillet and Georges Laval for the first time; beaujolais from organic producer Roland Pignard; clean, lush and inexpensive Rhones from Domaine des Espiers; and gorgeous Burgundies from Drouhin-Laroze, David Clark and hopefully I can squeeze in a couple of others.
That might have to do us for a while! The warehouse is bulging, so I better concentrate on sales! Well, by the time I get back on January 13 I will have six weeks to sell, plus host Unison (NZ) boss Phillip Horn in Sydney and Melbourne, and hopefully do some German wine dinners with one or two producers on a flying visit.
Then it will be back off to Europe to sample the 2008s from France and the 2009s from Germany, plus attend the Grands Jours de Bourgogne trade show in Burgundy and finalise agreements to import one or two more boutique producers from the heart of the Cote de Nuits.
I better recover quickly because it seems like the pace isn't going to let up for a while yet!
However, I'm encouraged by surging sales, new restaurant listings and some others to be added soon, plus the blanket coverage achieved in WA by my agents Terra Wines. The Eurocentric website store is now fitted out to accept credit cards, and debtor finance will make it easier to deal with the cashflow challenges of introducing so many new producers to the market in quick succession.
Starting our third year, I'm more excited than ever and looking forward to bringing more great wine to those who appreciate quality at a fair price. There's no reason not to spoil yourself and try a few of these new gems.
I'm in Canada staying with friends for Christmas, and trying to catch up on some paperwork before what should be a huge 2010.
This year has already been massive, including landing a third container from Europe for Eurocentric Wine Imports in early December. It was a lot more trouble than it should have been, thanks to crazy shipping companies. I used Ziegler for my pickups this time, as they offered a quick, careful and inexpensive service. They also wanted to pack the container and ship the goods, so I let them to see how they went.
Well, they didn't fill the container for a start. They left out 150 cases! Granted I may have been ambitious, forgetting how much bigger Champagne and Burgundy bottles are than riesling bottles, but it seemed crazy that they left the back row stacked only halfway up, and throughout the container it looked like they could have gone one row higher.
At first I thought I would be paying storage for these 150 cases until I could get another full container organised out of Europe. But then I discovered a new service, where you can share space in a refrigerated container. It's an extra expense, but better than driving customers mad waiting for overdue stock. And I wanted to get it off Ziegler as soon as possible, thinking this all might have been a scheme to get more money out of me.
Then, the day before the container arrived, the customs clearance agents realised they didn't have the necessary paperwork. Why they didn't think about this earlier, they still won't say. The shippers said they'd send it by DHL, a useless courier company which managed to turn a three-day promise into a six-day non-delivery before I went and snatched the envelope off them. We dodged cancellation fees at the port and fortunately Ziegler picked up the bill for the courier and a day of storage, and finally the container was delivered on December 8.
Anyway, it was still nice and cold when we cracked it, and replenished stocks of René Geoffroy and Henri Billiot champagne, plus included David Léclapart champagne (biodynamic, zero dosage), Jean-Claude Bessin chablis, Jean-Marc Burgaud beaujolais, and 2007 Burgundy from Dupont-Tisserandot, Humbert Freres, Aurélien Verdet, Benoit Ente and Jean-Philippe Fichet.
Some of these have already been snapped up by Rockpool Bar & Grill, Bentley Bar & Restaurant, Aria and Ultimo Wine Centre in Sydney; the Royal Mail Hotel in Victoria; and the Wine Emporium and Enoteca 1889 in Brisbane.
I've hardly had a chance to show the wines yet and already I want to uplift another container in Europe -- this week! I'm hoping to get the go-ahead today for collections in Germany to bring out the 2008 rieslings from Willi Schaefer, Schloss Lieser, Reinhold Haart, Andreas Schmitges, Knebel, Schafer-Frohlich, Emrich-Schonleber and Rebholz, plus the first shipment from Van Volxem in the Saar, including 07s and 08s. There will also be some left-field wines -- sparkling riesling and pinot-chardonnay from Rebholz, as well as weissburgunder, grauburgunder, spatburgunder, dornfelder and gewurztraminer from various producers.
There will also be some very limited mixed dozens from Willi Schaefer -- just six of them, which will contain one bottle of a special 07 auction auslese, a very rare 08 auslese, the last of some other special 07s and the best of the 08s.
There will be other limited items, including back vintages from some of the top producers. The best way to get a heads-up on these is to subscribe to the Eurocentric newsletter at www.eurocentricwine.com.au
Hopefully the German container will land in Sydney by February 1 because it will contain a large parcel of the off-dry riesling Haart to Heart as a potential Valentine's Day gift. Maybe I should team up with a gift basket company on that one!
Next up, as soon as I can afford it, will be another container primarily out of France, but also including the first shipment from Carl von Schubert's Maximin Grunhaus and a mixed 1993/2008 shipment from Zilliken. The French portion will include champagne from Vouette et Sorbée, Chartogne-Taillet and Georges Laval for the first time; beaujolais from organic producer Roland Pignard; clean, lush and inexpensive Rhones from Domaine des Espiers; and gorgeous Burgundies from Drouhin-Laroze, David Clark and hopefully I can squeeze in a couple of others.
That might have to do us for a while! The warehouse is bulging, so I better concentrate on sales! Well, by the time I get back on January 13 I will have six weeks to sell, plus host Unison (NZ) boss Phillip Horn in Sydney and Melbourne, and hopefully do some German wine dinners with one or two producers on a flying visit.
Then it will be back off to Europe to sample the 2008s from France and the 2009s from Germany, plus attend the Grands Jours de Bourgogne trade show in Burgundy and finalise agreements to import one or two more boutique producers from the heart of the Cote de Nuits.
I better recover quickly because it seems like the pace isn't going to let up for a while yet!
However, I'm encouraged by surging sales, new restaurant listings and some others to be added soon, plus the blanket coverage achieved in WA by my agents Terra Wines. The Eurocentric website store is now fitted out to accept credit cards, and debtor finance will make it easier to deal with the cashflow challenges of introducing so many new producers to the market in quick succession.
Starting our third year, I'm more excited than ever and looking forward to bringing more great wine to those who appreciate quality at a fair price. There's no reason not to spoil yourself and try a few of these new gems.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Wave goodbye to heat damage
If you've ever bought wine from an interstate cellar door or retailer, hopefully you've been told of a "heat policy" that delays delivery of wine at certain times of the year. Like right now.
With a heatwave gripping much of Australia, it's timely to consider what happens to wine when it's shipped with regular postal carriers or couriers.
There isn't much available in the way of specialised wine delivery service in this big brown land, and Australia Post is not only increasing its rates but slowing delivery times, in my opinion trying to force people to use their more expensive express service.
The lack of proper service is a real concern for Eurocentric Wine Imports, which has always had a "driving" concern about the heat-sensitive (or rather insensitive) handling of wine by some parties entrusted with its care. We use temperature-controlled trucks in Europe, a shipping container set at 14C for the duration of the journey from warehouse to warehouse across the high seas, and a 14C storage facility in Sydney. Transport across Australia has been the missing piece of the puzzle.
Where possible, Sydney deliveries are done in an airconditioned vehicle, but interstate despatches have required an eye on weather forecasts along the intended route. And we don't send wine interstate on Thursdays or Fridays to ensure it doesn't sit around in unsuitable conditions over the weekend.
This has come to a head with the 40C+ heat in the Adelaide region at the same time our Perth agency, Terra Wines, has been going gangbusters getting listings for Dombeya, Knebel, Emrich-Schonleber, Ployez-Jacquemart and others.
It seems every customer wants to list the wines -- and now. Terra quickly ran out of stock and put in an urgent request for a top-up, but we weren't about to ship (especially Champagne) when we knew the wine would be unprotected in the back of a truck for more than two days. OK, the trucks use two drivers and go virtually non-stop, but there is still a chance of heat damage as the wine cruises out of Sydney and thunders over to Adelaide, across the Nullarbor and into Perth.
Then, just when it looked like Adelaide was going to get some respite from the heat, the forecast for Sydney was several days of heat, and once that passes Perth is set for a temperature rise. And we're not even in summer yet!
Enough was enough, and after many frustrating phone calls to freight companies who admitted they couldn't deliver, we struck gold with a firm that does daily runs across the country. The Perth pallet was booked in, we get to choose a temperature down to 2C, the wines never leave that environment until they reach Terra's airconditioned warehouse, and everyone's happy.
We can also make temperature-controlled deliveries for order of eight cases or more to Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne, and we'll be working on securing proper facilities there so we can store and dispatch smaller orders from each city, thus saving time and avoiding the risk of damage.
It's one of the reasons Eurocentric was formed -- to treat customers and their wine with the respect they deserve. We trust you'll appreciate the difference in your glass.
With a heatwave gripping much of Australia, it's timely to consider what happens to wine when it's shipped with regular postal carriers or couriers.
There isn't much available in the way of specialised wine delivery service in this big brown land, and Australia Post is not only increasing its rates but slowing delivery times, in my opinion trying to force people to use their more expensive express service.
The lack of proper service is a real concern for Eurocentric Wine Imports, which has always had a "driving" concern about the heat-sensitive (or rather insensitive) handling of wine by some parties entrusted with its care. We use temperature-controlled trucks in Europe, a shipping container set at 14C for the duration of the journey from warehouse to warehouse across the high seas, and a 14C storage facility in Sydney. Transport across Australia has been the missing piece of the puzzle.
Where possible, Sydney deliveries are done in an airconditioned vehicle, but interstate despatches have required an eye on weather forecasts along the intended route. And we don't send wine interstate on Thursdays or Fridays to ensure it doesn't sit around in unsuitable conditions over the weekend.
This has come to a head with the 40C+ heat in the Adelaide region at the same time our Perth agency, Terra Wines, has been going gangbusters getting listings for Dombeya, Knebel, Emrich-Schonleber, Ployez-Jacquemart and others.
It seems every customer wants to list the wines -- and now. Terra quickly ran out of stock and put in an urgent request for a top-up, but we weren't about to ship (especially Champagne) when we knew the wine would be unprotected in the back of a truck for more than two days. OK, the trucks use two drivers and go virtually non-stop, but there is still a chance of heat damage as the wine cruises out of Sydney and thunders over to Adelaide, across the Nullarbor and into Perth.
Then, just when it looked like Adelaide was going to get some respite from the heat, the forecast for Sydney was several days of heat, and once that passes Perth is set for a temperature rise. And we're not even in summer yet!
Enough was enough, and after many frustrating phone calls to freight companies who admitted they couldn't deliver, we struck gold with a firm that does daily runs across the country. The Perth pallet was booked in, we get to choose a temperature down to 2C, the wines never leave that environment until they reach Terra's airconditioned warehouse, and everyone's happy.
We can also make temperature-controlled deliveries for order of eight cases or more to Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne, and we'll be working on securing proper facilities there so we can store and dispatch smaller orders from each city, thus saving time and avoiding the risk of damage.
It's one of the reasons Eurocentric was formed -- to treat customers and their wine with the respect they deserve. We trust you'll appreciate the difference in your glass.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
On the road again ...
I made a last-minute decision to postpone my European buying adventure and do an Australian selling adventure instead.
I packed the car with new-bought eskies (one holds 36 bottles and stays cool for days and the other holds about 12 bottles and runs on mains or car power) and set off after two hours' sleep for steamy Brisbane. Remarkably painless drive and even managed to make a few phonecalls via Bluetooth. Fair bit of roadworks but not too many delays.
After catching my breath in Brisbane I set off for Noosa and knocked on plenty of doors to see if anyone there wanted to drink decent wine over summer. Some said they had already done their summer shopping, others didn't have space, and others promised to order. If I was going there for a week, I would have eaten at Sails at Noosa Heads, the River House, Wasabi and Ricky's at Noosaville. Sails has several cellars and would be your best bet for a decent wine list.
Made contact with several contenders at Maroochydore, Mooloolaba and Caloundra and emailed the catalogue and pre-arrival offer to 20 or more potential customers.
Then I hit Brisbane with very little time to organise anything. I started by sending out an email to every restaurant and retail address I had in town, and soon had appointments at Aria Brisbane, Wine Emporium, Cru Bar, Drinx/Grand Central Cellars, Festival Cellars, Bar Alto, Stewarts Wine Co, Enoteca 1889, Bar Barossa and Nectar.
Aria already has the 93 Zilliken spatlese and 06 Dupont-Tisserandot Fixin on its list but really needs much more red and white Burgundy, so I hope they buy up soon.
Tony Harper at WE seemed impressed with many of the wines and hopefully they will expand their Eurocentric offerings. Cru already take a few wines, namely Willi Schaefers and Alex Gambals (which they reordered), as well as Alluviale, Dada, Rene Geoffroy champagne and now the Benfield & Delamare bordeaux blend from Martinborough -- their first outlet in Australia!
Grand Central went for Dombeya shiraz and the bordeaux blend, and the Champagne Gallery ordered Henri Billiot as a Christmas treat for their loyal supporters.
Bar Alto boss Simon Hill is renovating his Isis Brasserie and relaunching with a new look and feel before Christmas and I am very hopeful of getting a good range of German riesling and gewurztraminer there, as well as the gorgeous Redoubt Hill pinot gris.
Better not jump the gun but I think Brisbane wine lovers will be able to find other Eurocentric wines in several other retail outlets soon.
WA has been going great guns through the agency Terra Wines, and after a week of driving through the Gold Coast, Byron, Coffs Harbour and Newcastle, I will seek to spread the love throughout NSW to Canberra, then Melbourne and Adelaide.
I'm counting on it all going well enough that I can sneak over to Europe in November.
I've also added a post on the www.eurocentricwine.com.au site showing the shipping movements expected over the next few months.
Redoubt Hill should be in the warehouse next week, about the time the new Dombeya wines set sail from Durban (I ship from there to avoid going through Singapore and a double equator crossing).
My focus now is on some quick sales to clear some space and raise money for three more containers planned from France and Germany. Sales have been going well for the first one, heavy on 07 Burgundy, with our two Chablis producers and two Beaujolais domaines to make their debuts, and David Leclapart's first 20 cases of champagne for Australia finally to get on board.
It's hot here in Brisbane. Perfect weather for Hawke's Bay sauvignon blanc or German riesling. And now I'm thirsty!
I packed the car with new-bought eskies (one holds 36 bottles and stays cool for days and the other holds about 12 bottles and runs on mains or car power) and set off after two hours' sleep for steamy Brisbane. Remarkably painless drive and even managed to make a few phonecalls via Bluetooth. Fair bit of roadworks but not too many delays.
After catching my breath in Brisbane I set off for Noosa and knocked on plenty of doors to see if anyone there wanted to drink decent wine over summer. Some said they had already done their summer shopping, others didn't have space, and others promised to order. If I was going there for a week, I would have eaten at Sails at Noosa Heads, the River House, Wasabi and Ricky's at Noosaville. Sails has several cellars and would be your best bet for a decent wine list.
Made contact with several contenders at Maroochydore, Mooloolaba and Caloundra and emailed the catalogue and pre-arrival offer to 20 or more potential customers.
Then I hit Brisbane with very little time to organise anything. I started by sending out an email to every restaurant and retail address I had in town, and soon had appointments at Aria Brisbane, Wine Emporium, Cru Bar, Drinx/Grand Central Cellars, Festival Cellars, Bar Alto, Stewarts Wine Co, Enoteca 1889, Bar Barossa and Nectar.
Aria already has the 93 Zilliken spatlese and 06 Dupont-Tisserandot Fixin on its list but really needs much more red and white Burgundy, so I hope they buy up soon.
Tony Harper at WE seemed impressed with many of the wines and hopefully they will expand their Eurocentric offerings. Cru already take a few wines, namely Willi Schaefers and Alex Gambals (which they reordered), as well as Alluviale, Dada, Rene Geoffroy champagne and now the Benfield & Delamare bordeaux blend from Martinborough -- their first outlet in Australia!
Grand Central went for Dombeya shiraz and the bordeaux blend, and the Champagne Gallery ordered Henri Billiot as a Christmas treat for their loyal supporters.
Bar Alto boss Simon Hill is renovating his Isis Brasserie and relaunching with a new look and feel before Christmas and I am very hopeful of getting a good range of German riesling and gewurztraminer there, as well as the gorgeous Redoubt Hill pinot gris.
Better not jump the gun but I think Brisbane wine lovers will be able to find other Eurocentric wines in several other retail outlets soon.
WA has been going great guns through the agency Terra Wines, and after a week of driving through the Gold Coast, Byron, Coffs Harbour and Newcastle, I will seek to spread the love throughout NSW to Canberra, then Melbourne and Adelaide.
I'm counting on it all going well enough that I can sneak over to Europe in November.
I've also added a post on the www.eurocentricwine.com.au site showing the shipping movements expected over the next few months.
Redoubt Hill should be in the warehouse next week, about the time the new Dombeya wines set sail from Durban (I ship from there to avoid going through Singapore and a double equator crossing).
My focus now is on some quick sales to clear some space and raise money for three more containers planned from France and Germany. Sales have been going well for the first one, heavy on 07 Burgundy, with our two Chablis producers and two Beaujolais domaines to make their debuts, and David Leclapart's first 20 cases of champagne for Australia finally to get on board.
It's hot here in Brisbane. Perfect weather for Hawke's Bay sauvignon blanc or German riesling. And now I'm thirsty!
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