Easily one of the most powerful Muscadet wines I’ve ever had, this is the Gorges by Mr. Fred Lallier of Domaine Michel Brégeon.
His wines, they tend to stick out with a kind of quirkiness that somehow comes through – though not the flashy kind you’d get with the likes of Domaine Landron or Domaine de l’Ecu. Jo Landron’s moustache and Domaine de l’Ecu’s labels seem to scream for attention where Fred Lallier really is kind of a recluse.
Sitting across from Fred, his French-English dictionary always close by.
I had met Fred Lallier in 2018, when I had flown in to Nantes to visit a few wineries in the Loire Valley. Fred’s was one of the first I would visit in rainy Nantes.
Fred had taken over rom Michel Brégeon in 2011 and now farms about 9 hectares of vineyards mostly in the crus of Gorges and Clisson. He had implemented organic viticulture since having taken over at the estate. Where the Clisson vines are planted to Granitic soils, the vines of the Gorges are planted to a kind of soil that you only really find in this part of France. It is called Gabbro and is a type of blue volcanic soil, caused by underwater volcanoes, and is attributed to giving these wines their power.
A display of the gabbro rock on Fred’s table where were tasting from.
The wine felt full bodied for a Muscadet and felt like it had more heat than just 12% alcohol. The acidity balanced that power, giving it a crisp and fresh mouthfeel, its minerality pronounced and heavy, creating this sense of steeliness in the wine. As far as flavours go, the wine was incredibly lemony and flinty, with hints of lemon verbena and basil. Concentration of flavour was high beyond a doubt and started showing even some spice notes like sandalwood, eventually.
The cru system in Muscadet continues to expand with more sites being approved through a rigorous selection based off of various criteria. The Gorges cru was more recently approved in 2011, along with the crus of Clisson and Le Pallet. Along with its unique Gabbro soil type, the Gorges is also known for starting its harvests later than the surrounding areas, another reason why perhaps its wines can show these levels of fullness. These various crus of Muscadet should give the consumer greater options when it comes to purchasing the region’s wines, and would also appeal more to the serious and discerning drinkers who are after much more than just a midday quaff.
It is a shame that we don’t drink enough Muscadet, or get made fun of drinking Muscadet, when some of these well made examples can drink better with more complexity than some wines of Sancerre and the Chenin Blancs of Saumur. It is indeed a brilliant region to be discovering a bottle at a time, with every weekend fish roast, or on sunny afternoons with shucked oysters by the pool.
If you’d like to try this particular Muscadet by André-Michel Brégeon, and you live in Singapore, click here to buy online!
Thoroughly glad to have been able to taste this wine – it has not just left a bunch of pleasant and long flavours in my mouth, but it’s also quickly become a wine I’ll remember for a long while. Why haven’t I heard of this estate earlier?
Francesco Cirelli farms about 22 hectares in the commune of Atri in Abruzzo, Southern Italy, and I mean literally ‘farm’, for a bulk of that area is devoted to raising livestock like poultry animals and sheep and also farms olives and figs. The entire estate is farmed organically, including the mere 6 hectares planted to vines. The description of their farming methods on the official website however seems to point more toward a kind of permaculture, citing a more ‘cyclical’ balance with livestock manure used to fertilise crops and the grass, and that in turn feeding the animals as they graze.
The estate itself was founded in 2003 by Francesco Cirelli who had purchased the land after falling in love with it. He had apparently just graduated from a very prestigious university studying economics when he purchased it. Cirelli produces all his wines in amphora, believing in preserving the purity of the fruit’s natural character. He farms three different grape varieties – Trebbiano, Pecorino and the only red of the three, Montepulciano.
Today I am having Cirelli’s Montepulciano, a red grape that I often compare to Syrah a lot. They share the savouriness and spice, the reduction, a bright acidity, and a generally softer tannin structure than when compared to varieties like Sangiovese for example that you see planted anywhere and everywhere in Italy.
On the nose the wine was wild; bramble berry overload, crunchy black cherries, fresh earth and a slight leafiness. It was very umami on the palate too with a slight brininess about it. The acidity was bright and vibrant, tannins soft but obvious. I had this with a nice grass-fed steak my girlfriend had cooked up, though I personally felt that it would have done better with either lamb, squab or pigeon.
Overall really pleased to have been introduced to this wine, especially when the wines of the other icons of the region like Emidio Pepe and Valentini’s wines are quickly getting rare and prohibitive with their steep price points. You are sure to hear more of Cirelli in the future. I’m for sure a return customer.
Well, I’m pretty sure I can’t be the only one. I also am particularly aware that this grape variety has stirred very polarising opinions amongst sommeliers and seasoned wine drinkers. It is a wine that evades many in blind tastings (which must especially frustrate the egos of sommeliers) because of the vastly different styles. Regardless, Zinfandel’s success in its historical home in Croatia, its spiritual home in Italy and its more recent frontier in the New-World’s Californian sun-drenched valleys, is all a testament to the inherent quality and persistence of this great grape variety.
Not many sommeliers I know are fond of Zinfandel wines, attributing their ambivalence to its rather simple and fruity style – and less admittedly its evasiveness in a blind tasting.
Wineries, especially in California, have consistently positioned Zinfandel wines second to their Cabernet Sauvignon and/or Merlot labels, inadvertently marketing this wine as the lesser option within their selection. Prohibitive? Well, perhaps.
But Zinfandel’s potential quality within California beyond its obvious commercial success – notwithstanding the bastardisation of it all with the gratuitous innovation that is ‘white Zinfandel’ – has its devoted advocates. It was after all, during the 1850s, the most widely planted grape variety in the state of California.
The Zinfandel Heritage Vineyard Project (ZAP) is one such advocate of this grape variety, promoting the quality of Zinfandel through it carefully selected and cultivated grape cuttings and also works to identify some ‘legendary Zinfandel vineyards’. A very well made video commissioned by ZAP details the differences in some of these vineyards and its effects on the wines.
Many old vines of Zinfandel remain in California, some of which have existed even prior to the era of Prohibiton, and continue to produce to this day. The Original Grandpère Vineyard of Amador County does claim to have vines that are about 150 years old, making it home to some of the world’s oldest Zinfandel. Deaver Vineyard is another vineyard also in the Amador County, that is home to Zinfandel vines planted as far back as 1881.
Though I may not have wines today from either of those vineyards, they all come from very reputable Californian estates. Grgich Hills, Heitz Cellars, Château Montelena and Ridge are some of the most Iconic wineries in California, though they are not known necessarily for their Zinfandel wines.
It does look as if I had turned my bedroom inside out looking for a missing bottle of Grgich Hills. I unfortunately am left with only this picture as the one I intended to use was not saved.
Of the lot, I must say that there is one estate that does take more pride in its Zinfandel than the rest of them. It has also got to do with the heritage of the founder of the estate and his family that now continues to run it.
Grgich Hills estate was founded in 1977 by Mike Grgich, an immigrant from Croatia. Mike Grgich was Head Winemaker at Château Montelena from 1972 to 1976. His claim to fame came when the Chardonnay that he had made with Château Montelena had ranked 1st in the historic 1976 Judgement of Paris tasting.
The Grgich Hills estate now farms about 150 hectares of vineyards completely organically and produces about a dozen different wines. This 2012 Napa Valley Zinfandel comes from its vineyards in Calistoga where most of the estate’s Zinfandel is planted.
It wasn’t as lifted as the rest of the Zinfandels I’d tasted in this flight, and showed plenty of restraint. The fruit quality was nice and ripe and had just a touch of jam on the nose. No new oak here, leaving the focus on the fruit. It generally lacked the intensity you’d expect from the higher quality Californian estates, and definitely not in a bad way. The elegance in the wine helped lift some of the more nuanced aromas and flavours like black tea and cola. The wine did have some Petite Sirah in the blend, at about 3% and spent about 16 months in neutral large French casks prior to release.
Overall, it would have ranked somewhere in the top 10 Zinfandels I’ve ever had. The acidity was fresh, the tannins and the primary fruit intensity was very well balanced. One thing that I had not enjoyed about this Grgich Zinfandel was that its alcohol did not feel integrated with the wine. I must say however, the wine did rub off me as if it were from the old-world, possibly the ‘Croatian touch’ showing through. It was however not anywhere as ‘old-world’ as my next Zin.
Don’t drink and read.
Now this has got to be one of the best Zinfandels that I’ve ever had – The 2012 Heitz Cellar Napa Valley Zinfandel. I am really looking forward to having this again.. oh what a treat.
Founded in the 1950s by ex-Beaulieu winemaker Joe Heitz and his wife Alice, Heitz Cellar would eventually produce its first vintage 12 years later with the Grignolino variety in 1962. Shortly after, the winery would be known for its single-vineyard wines, with their Martha’s Vineyard wines becoming the first single-vineyard designate wine in the state, in 1965. This success would spur the addition of a few other single-vineyard bottlings, with the inclusion of Bella Oaks Vineyard and the Trailside Vineyard into their portfolio. The Ink Grade Vineyard however was the latest addition and was acquired in 1989.
This 80 hectare east facing vineyard finds itself located within the Howell Mountain AVA and is planted to a variety of different cultivars, some of which are Portugese varieties.
Fermentation takes place in stainless steel tanks and the wines are aged for two years in French oak barrels with a small percentage of new oak used here. The garnet colour of the wine struck me as an indication of the wine perhaps showing some development. The nose confirmed this, that the wine was developing with aromas of bruised black fruit, but still held its presence with great aromatic lift. It felt like some of that lift could have come from volatility in the wine.
It was indeed a savoury, earthy and complex number, possessing this undeniable old-world quality. I would always play this game with myself when I’m tasting alone, by asking myself what I would have thought this wine to be if it was served to me blind. My answer this time was that I would’ve thought the Ink Grade Vineyard Zinfandel to have been something from northern or central Italy. Its aromatic intensity was what had me comparing this in my head to a Brunello or even a Barolo. The difference however, would be more obvious on the palate.
The acidity and fruit intensity was well balanced, and the tannins would have been a medium plus. It felt like just the right amount of tannins for me. Alcohol although 14.5% was well integrated in the wine. The concentration of flavour was strong but not juicy, or jammy or fruity. It was earthier, deep and sophisticated. This is a wine to enjoy now. I would not keep this for much longer and really, what for? It just perfect now. I really look forward to getting acquainted with the rest of the Heitz Cellar wines eventually!
Zinfandels come in many different styles but so far it does seem like the price points generally stay the same. I have yet to taste a Zin that would cost as much as perhaps a winery’s top Cabernet Sauvignon release. Well I’m definitely not complaining. I talk about 2 more Zinfandels in part 2 (to be published) and perhaps some Tribidrag in part 3? Stay tuned!
On the 3rd of April 2020, the Singapore government announced the Circuit Breaker measures that would observe the closure of all restaurants, hawkers and food stalls islandwide. They would only be allowed to operate through delivery and/or takeaway. It was a tough pill to swallow for everyone and it meant going out of business for some.
The sooner these surviving businesses learn to adapt, the stronger their prospect of sticking around. Unfortunately, some restaurants have had to let several of their staff go and was the only way they were able to stay afloat in the near term. This was a move many restaurants had tried their best to avoid, but was necessary for a few.
But tough times may be an instigator for innovation. Restaurants like Cloudstreet completely did away with the idea of its restaurant menu served as takeaway, cynical about the ability of delivery and takeaway in also delivering the fine dining experience to your homes. Instead, Cloudstreet’s Executive Chef Rishi Naleendra had decided to go forth with a preview of his latest concept Kotuwa, that was due to open in brick and mortar on the 1st week of April, via delivery and takeaway. This proved to be a huge hit, Sri Lankan grub proving its due as some kind of remedy for anxiousness in this situation.
Rishi is not alone in innovating. Just a stone’s throw away from Cloudstreet, Lerouy, a modern Alsatian restaurant by Chef Christophe Lerouy, had started baking Flammkuchen, aka Tarte Flambée in French, for takeaway and deliveries during the Circuit Breaker.
But, enough about chefs. What about the Sommeliers? Beverage sales make for a huge proportion of a restaurant’s revenue and without that revenue stream now, restaurants can really suffer. Each day that passes during the Circuit Breaker without a beverage solution in place is money not being made by the business. How have sommeliers reorganised to manoeuvre through this Circuit Breaker?
Ronald Kamiyama, Beverage Manager for the Cicheti group, a small restaurant group that’s behind three Italian eateries in Singapore of which one is a pizzeria, says that the many ‘Zoom pizza parties’ taking place have helped keep the business up. He adds that in spite of the demand for takeaway pizza to feature on these webcam parties, the business will still be unable to cover its losses, but will suffice to keep the jobs of its staff. The Cicheti group has yet to let go of any one of its staff.
Ronald and the Cicheti group also seem to be favourably positioned in these takeaway times, based on the type of food that it sells. Pizza, calamari and its well-loved crack pie are all food items that would do well as takeaway food items. Even the dough recipe at Cicheti had been slightly tweaked to keep better as it makes its way to the customer. The Cicheti group has made its menu available on all four major delivery platforms (Deliveroo, Grab, Food Panda and Oddle), conscious however, of the very high commission fees charged by some of these companies.
As far as the Cicheti wine program was concerned, Ronald had decided to keep its offering simple with about under 10 labels available on its website, with about the same number of wine bundles of varying themes. He continues to increase the number of wines and bundles available on its site with time, as the demand increases. This is consistent with what the majority of restaurants have also done. Most have kept their selections rather succinct and navigable in a time where the help of a sommelier in guiding your purchasing decisions is not acquirable.
Ronald’s role as a wine professional has temporarily taken the backseat in this time and has had to direct his focus on tasks immediately responsible for generating revenue. Apart from his efforts in selecting specific wines to be made available as part of their delivery and takeaway offering, he has had to work the pizza boxes and even personally deliver some items.
Vincent Tan, head sommelier at Odette talks about his role pervading various aspects of management. Of particular interest to me amongst his number of responsibilities was his undertaking of reaching out to the rest of the staff in his team and checking up on them, to “keep everyone’s morale up and trying to make sure that they are not going crazy at home”.
The Circuit Breaker has also meant that restaurants have had to reduce the number of staff present at any one time, creating the need for shifts between staff with more time at home. Although less time at work may sound like a breath of fresh air to some of us, to the folks who are used to spending 90% of their time in the precincts of the workplace, this can be stressful. Noticing this problem, Vincent jumped at the opportunity in alleviating some of this stress for the team by carrying out wine training classes over Zoom. He has also spent much of his time studying for the Advanced Sommelier exams, that he plans to attempt next year.
Odette’s reputation was not built on its amazing cuisine alone. The elegant pastel-coloured space, high quality surfaces and furniture, the incredibly attentive and professional service team and the calming ambience completes the equation that is Odette. How do you package all this in a delivery?
Aleksandar Draganic, Beverage Manager of the Burnt Ends Group is grateful that he’s in Singapore at the time of this pandemic. He’s impressed at how well the situation has been handled thus far and feels generally optimistic about the road to recovery. Burnt Ends is not completely new to delivery, having had the ‘Sanger’ available for delivery and takeaway well before the Circuit Breaker. Aleks and his team import most of their wines but up until the Circuit Breaker, not much much importance was given to getting its e-commerce platform up and running. During the Circuit breaker however, progress accelerated. “Under these unfortunate circumstances, we figured out that this could be the ideal program to work on regarding the wines” says Aleks, adding that sales has picked up very nicely since launching and that it was the “biggest innovation” in this time.
Contemplating the future of restaurants post-Circuit Breaker and post-COVID-19, it does seem like some innovations are here to stay. Many restaurants that were in the past rather averse to the idea of delivery and takeaway, have had their eyes pried wide open now to its potential. Sommeliers are also not oblivious to the prospects of selling wines online. Platforms like Shopify and Wix have made it fairly easy for anyone to set up an online shops.
Should we expect to see more and more restaurants offering their stock online in the months and years to come? Should I go as far to say that it would be unquestionable to future restaurant business owners that when setting up a brick and mortar space, an online shop would naturally be set up with it? This very well could be one of the few innovations that make up the new normal for the restaurant industry in Singapore and around the world.
Wow. What a wine. This had to be amongst the earthiest and meatiest Pinot Noirs that I’ve ever had, one that would work well with even beef dishes, I remember thinking.
The Ziereisen wines hail from a nook in the southwestern corner of Baden called Markgräflerland. It is the southernmost district of Baden and is at borders with both France and Switzerland. Compared to the better known Baden district Kaiserstuhl, the Markgräflerland has a cooler climate and is dominated by soils of loam and loess, with some limestone.
There may be about 10 wineries in the Markgräflerland with notable production, most of which are run by some motivated individuals, some of whom are especially young, like the brothers behind Weingut Claus Schneider who are showing plenty of promise, and the bearded duo behind Weingut Scherer-Zimmer, producing only Landwein. Master of Wine Jürgen von der Mark farms about 4 hectares of vines in the town of Bad Bellingen producing wines under his eponymous winery, experimenting also with some pretty odd varieties like Orleans and Petit Manseng in his field blends.
The Ziereisens however, are on a whole other level of non-conformity. They are considered to be the founders of the Landwein movement in Baden, and as part of their commitment, initiated the annual Landweinmarkt event in Müllheim that allows only Landwein producing estates to showcase their wines. The Ziereisen are outspoken about the current wine regulations in Germany and consider it to be limiting and detrimental to the potential diversity and quality of the local wines.
It is not some well-kept secret that wine regulations can be prohibitive to creativity, diversity. Since the times when appellation controls were set upon wine producing regions, originally intended to discourage what was at the time, rampant fraudulent blending, has now turned into a powerful system of perceived hierarchical classification. However more and more, appellation systems seem to be listening the winemakers that it swore to protect, and no longer take 30-40 years before a single modification is made. Changes to appellation laws now however, do seem to take place with more immediacy, especially when it comes to addressing major issues like climate change.
Without digressing any further…
The Ziereisens are a winery to watch, if you haven’t been already for the past 30 years that they’ve been around for. This is my first time tasting the wines and am truly blown away. The Talrain was deep, smoky, earthy and animal. The words ‘elegant’ and ‘finesse’, words that I’d normally use to describe the subtlety of Pinot Noir, will not apply here. The wine definitely had a richer velvety texture than a 2017 Pommard I was having earlier, with greater grip as well. The acidity was fresh as ever, considering also that it has been planted on one of the highest vineyards in Germany, at 500 metres above sea-level. 30% of the fruit was not de-stemmed and the wines were aged in large old barrels for 24 months. Trust me, you have to try this.
It was a welcome slap to the face and a reminder to not concede your idea of great Pinot Noir to the style of Burgundy. Burgundy, no matter how great, will continue to be Burgundy. But the rest of the world still wants a shot at Pinot Noir, no country more so than Germany. Already acquainted with the elegant and mineral style of the Bernard Huber wines of Baden’s Breisgau and Meyer-Näkel’s old-school, well-oaked Burgundian approach in the Ahr, I can tell you that you need to keep an eye out of German Pinot Noirs, or you’re bound to miss out on this quiet revolution that is taking place.
With Mother’s Day around the corner, it was a scramble for most restaurants to try and capitalise on this opportunity by launching some sort of Mother’s Day promotion. I’d usually let this slip and not really engage in these ‘festive promotion’ type things, but had felt obliged in this instance, probably because of a recent Digital Marketing course that I had been signed up for by my company.
The course was carried out by hotel and tourism school SHATEC on Google Meet, a pretty neat web-based collaborative platform developed to handle such classroom learning. Apart from the occasional connectivity interruptions, and time just spent waiting on a special handful of people manoeuvre their way around the app, I must say that it has been an alright experience. It was an insight into what the internet and computers are again capable of. Also kudos to Google for really thinking up something like this and making it work.
I had learnt a handful of things in the duration of this course, but one that I thought to be especially relevant was to take the opportunity in festive times to launch a promotion or a sale. It was Mother’s Day and I thought well, why the hell not. When every other restaurant that decided that it was going to be Champagne for a Mother’s Day promotion, I had a different idea. The 2016 Foradori Teroldego was what came to mind as I’d wanted a unique red wine, but mostly because the owner of the estate herself is a mother, who has now handed over production to her three children. This would be the wine that I’d get my mother for Mother’s Day I thought, if I hadn’t already bought her a hand made porcelain tea set online.
The wine comes from the Trentino region of Northern Italy, an unlikely region for export quality wine, not because of some geographic predisposition that it finds itself in but instead its long time association with more commercial wine production. Cooperatives account for 80% of the production of all wine here, and 60% of all wine produced here come from one major company, Cavit.
An important style of wine from this region that has made export quality and is seen around the world however, is Trento DOC. Trento DOC wines are sparkling wines produced in the Champagne method, and have been made here since the early 1900s. Ferrari is a prominent brand of Trento DOC.
Though the Trento DOC wines and many of the commercial still white and red wines may be made with international grape varieties, the region is home to number of unique and exciting local grapes. Nosiola and Manzoni Bianco are two native white varieties while Marzemino, Schiava Grossa and Teroldego are some of the native red ones. These don’t make as much wine as Pinot Grigio or Chardonnay in the region, and therefore we don’t hear much of these varieties and it’s a terrible shame.
Elisabetta Foradori and her three Children Emilio, Theo and Myrtha
My first taste of Teroldego was of Foradori’s 2009 Granato, her top Teroldego bottling on the first vintage her estate was officially certified Biodynamic. I will admit that I did not enjoy it as much as I enjoyed this 2016 Teroldego, which was fresher, cleaner, elegant and more vibrant. Im sure its youth definitely helped in exemplifying said vibrancy, but they both showed great quality – quality that could threaten the dominance of international grapes in the region.
It is this story that Elisabetta Foradori had sought to tell the world, and what a way to do it. She had taken over the estate, located in Campo Rotaliano in 1984 at the age of 20. Now her three children Emilio, Theo and Myrtha Zierock continue in their mother’s footsteps, in elevating the potential of the local wines of Trentino. The family farms about 28 hectares of vineyards, and own about half of those vineyards, all farmed to Biodynamic principles. The vineyards are surrounded by the Dolomites, an alpine mountain range that turns into a very popular ski area in winter.
The beautiful view from the vineyards looking into the great Dolomites
80% of Foradori’s vineyards are planted to Teroldego, 15% to Manzoni Biano and 5% to Nosiola. The vines that made this wine come from about 9 hectares of vineyards planted in a mixture of alluvial, gravel and sandy soils. The fermentation takes place in cement tanks after which some of the wine is racked into barrels where they will mature for another 12 months. The wines are then blended and bottled.
One thing that I found particularly interesting about the Granato Foradori bottles is that they were bottled in Shiraz-looking bottles. Very squarish and stout bottles, made with what felt like high quality glass. The wines however were far from tasting anything like Shiraz. The standard Foradori Teroldego wines come in regular Bordeaux bottles.
Teroldego wines have deep ripe black-cherry flavours with a pronounced tannin and acid structure. The wines when made well have great ageing potential, as the Foradori wines reveal. The 2016 Foradori Teroldego had a Malbec-like purplish colour with good depth. The wine itself was reductive but opened up over a period of about 30 minutes. In hindsight, decanting would have been a good idea here. The aromas were more savoury than fruity with earthy notes, some juniper, aniseed and pine. It had that burnt rubber aroma that you’d normally associate with Pinotage. It started showing hints of herbaceous bramble bush aromas as the reduction eventually blew over. Overall the quality was high with the wines showing great balance and elegance. The acidity made this wine that much more gastronomic and it yearned to be sipped aside some local Tyrolean Speck. This is a wine that I’m sure that I’d revisit many more times in the future.
In any case, it turned out that the promotion was a success and we had sold out of the wines in one day – I had reordered the stock twice more since putting it up. So, hooray Digital Marketing course! You’ve proved to be…profitable.
A very happy Mother’s Day to all of you! If you’d like a bottle of the Foradori wines, they are distributed in Singapore exclusively by ewineasia, and you can pick one up here!
I had recently picked up a book on German wines by Master of Wine Anne Krebiehl and was pretty intrigued by the fact that the book had an entire chapter for Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir). A country previously only known for its white wines has seen a significant increase in Pinot Noir plantings and production. Plantings had doubled in the decade between 1990 and 2000, an increase that is primarily attributed to climate change, and the then new generation of winemakers who were more endowed than previous generations with the know-how of red winemaking.
Austria on the other hand, has about a third of its total vineyard area devoted to black grape varieties, of which many are indigenous to the country. In spite of that, it is, not unlike Germany, white wine that still comes to mind when most of us think ‘Austrian wine’. This is all slowly changing with a new generation of winemakers who are intent on elevating the perception of quality of its local red wines. Gernot Heinrich is one of them.
Gernot and Heike Heinrich, husband and wife, established the estate in 1990 in Gols, Burgenland – a town that is at the intersection between Austria, Slovakia and Hungary. The goal was to move away from the simple and bulk wines they were making at the time and to produce instead, high quality red wines with local Austrian black grapes.
Gernot Heinrich was also a founding member of Pannobile, a group that has now 9 total members. Paul Achs, Claus Preisinger and Hans Gsellmann are some of the other members. It does feature a strong lineup of members, all with an unanimous goal: to produce wines that will genuinely express the terroir of Burgenland, through local grape varieties, cultivated organically or biodynamically. Each of the member estates must release a cuvée labelled ‘Pannobile’ adhereing stringently to these principles, which will be are for sale on the Pannobile webshop.
My first taste of the Heinrich wines was of their Pannobile cuvée from the 2012 vintage. An almost equal blend of Zweigelt and Blaufränkisch, it was love. It had this cherry like tangy acidity, quite the velvety texture and was mostly fruity at the start but allowed its deeper and earthier tones to come through after about 10 minutes in the glass. The structure was reminiscent of a central Italian red wine while the savoury aromatic and flavour concentration screamed Hermitage. I would have thought the wine to have another 5-8 years in the bottle till it peaks, but I would not have kept it for any longer. It was drinking beautifully well.
2012 Heinrich Gabarinza
From the same vintage however, the Gabarinza bottling, is one their more popular blends (40% Zweigelt, 30% Blaufränkisch, 30% Merlot), and I can almost immediately tell why. 2012 was one of the better vintages in that decade, along with the 2011s, and the power of the wine is immediately obvious on the nose. The fruits are ripe, slightly estery from the 14% alcohol – its warmth quite clear on the nose alone. It does come off rather Bordeaux-esque on the nose too. Great concentration of black fruit and some red fruit on the palate with hints of clove and tobacco. Savoury and meaty flavours come through giving it that Rhône like touch and complexity. Tannins are fine with good grip, though I wouldn’t think of it as a tannic wine. The acidity is benchmark medium plus, and I think is what really gives this wine its structure. Named after its eponymous vineyard, the Gabarinza wines mature in old 500 litre oak barrels for 20 months before release.
The entry level 2010 varietal Blaufränkisch wine however, compared against the Gabarinza cuvée, is a completely different wine. 2010 wasn’t a particularly spectacular vintage in Burgenland and in some parts of Austria, it saw the lowest yields since 1997. Heightened disease threat in Burgenland forced some winemakers to harvest early, before grapes were optimally ripe. The wine did feel like it was on the verge of decline, and tertiary aromas were a dominant feature. The tannins were soft but the acidity kept fresh and was its only redeeming asset. Though it was mostly dried fruit, tobacco and dried leaves all over, I couldn’t help but still relate this wine to an aged Côte-Rôtie or Hermitage. It had that savoury and spicy undertone, that just some years back would have been a lot more vibrant and dominant. Overall, a wine that I think we waited a little too long to drink, but still had great freshness that I enjoyed very much with a big bowl of slipper-lobster pasta.
Although white wine production at the estate is getting a boost with skin contact wines also making an appearance more and more each year, I have associated the estate with modern and complex red wines. All their wines seem to be fitted with Vinolok closures though I have noticed that their 2009 Gabarinza Magnum from my collection is fitted with a standard cork closure. I do believe Heinrich’s red wines deliver as a primer to the world of high-quality red Austrian wines. The wines combine complexity with easy-drinking that not a lot of wineries seem to nail. Except, maybe don’t wait 10 years before enjoying their more entry level wines, especially not the 2010s.
My first post comes at an odd time. Not just odd, but surreal.
COVID-19 has come, as if from the wildest plots of thriller novels and thrust into the real world, like a tornado, taking with it lives and livelihoods. The escalation of this virus has been so quick that I can’t even keep up with the changes in regulations that are happening everyday.
Today marks the sixth (?) day of the ‘Circuit-Breaker’, implemented as part of the government’s plan to further try and contain the spread of the virus. One of the regulations put forth in this implementation was to have restaurants close for dine-in and instead be set up for delivery and takeaway only.
We find ourselves in completely new territory. Grab Food or Food Panda? Or should we instead consider Oddle that offers both an online shop platform with integrated fulfilment services or should we get an account with Shopify and work on fulfilment ourselves with a third-party? It was just madness with each of us proposing a different idea and eventually settling for what would more immediately work for us in this circumstance.
What our restaurant accomplished in just a matter of days, to have switched from a contemporary fine dining restaurant, to a fast paced modern Sri Lankan take-out concept peddling about a hundred curries and Kottu roti, was quite the feat to behold. It happened to be more successful than initially anticipated. We only hope this keeps up in the weeks to come.
I jumped at the opportunity to set up a wine takeaway shop online for the restaurant. I quickly realised two different things: first, on top of this being a completely new can of worms, it also required a very different marketing process. Second, that if there was anyone out there in the perfect position to start a wine e-commerce platform, it would be us in restaurants. Let me elaborate on this second realisation.
Restaurants like the one that I work for have acquired over the long and hard years before, a following and an established brand image. Almost all of our guests associate us with quality and trust our decisions when it comes to picking what we choose to sell in our space. I am sure that this trust pervades the many different aspects of our business including the wine program.
The question now is getting this brand image translated onto our web-based platform seamlessly. The team behind the branding of the restaurant, Restless, and I have had discussions about if we should build this up as its own entity, and not be just an extension of the restaurant. This would be something we are due to explore once COVID rides out.
As a restaurant, we work with close to 60 suppliers for just our wines alone. This generous access to wines allows the customer a candy store of options all in one place. Getting this variety online at retail markups all in one place could be an incredibly profitable prospect.
However for now, we are left to deal with the difficulties and limitations that the virus has left us to work with. We are, like many other restaurants, confident of emerging on the other side stronger than we were before. Focused on surviving this mess, I guess all other ambitions of grandiose will have to take the backseat for now.
