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| It’s time for ‘sell
by’ dates on wines |
We need a big sip of healthy scepticism when
it comes to supermarket wines
TELEVISION chef Rick Stein claimed in The Daily Telegraph in
August that “the wine revolution that had swept this country
was leaving the French behind,” with better choice in British
supermarkets than in “some of France’s finest restaurants”.
Because “the French stick doggedly to their own stuff …they’re
missing out on all those lovely Australians and New Zealands and
Chileans”. This turning away from “fantastic new wines
and healthy competition” has left the south west France –
where he was making his latest series – with red wines that
are “brown and old” and whites that are “dull and
flat”.
Four months previously Which? magazine, in a blind tasting of 41
wines from 11 brands responsible for 26 per cent of wine sold in
Britain, found a “worryingly high number of below average and
poor performers”.
The brands in question were from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa
and California. Only one is French. Which? could find only a single
‘Best Buy’ – Lindemans 2004 Cawarra Cabernet Merlot
priced at £4.99. One of their tasters commented that “in
general this was a shocking experience”. Another pointed to
a lack of “freshness and vibrancy”. Who is right?
We might begin by looking at two influences. The first is technology.
The second is the spread of retail power. More wine is being consumed,
but produced on an individual basis and scale.
There is nothing necessarily wrong with mass-produced wine. Many
of us were able to drink wine regularly thanks to Bulgaria, which
introduced its wines to Britain in the early 1980s. Their grapes
were grown and bottled in state-owned vineyards using methods pioneered
in California. Bulgaria’s wines were as good as much of Bordeaux
at half the price, but its quality plummeted when the industry was
privatised after the fall of communism. We now seem to have entered
a new phase where many wines are designed to fill the mouth with
as much fruit as possible as soon as the bottle is opened.This explosion
is often followed by a bitter aftertaste. Even when this doesn’t
happen, it’s at the expense of a range of other sensations
and how long these remain in the mouth.
Supermarket influence and the producers’ desire to reduce storage
costs have resulted in wines with shorter lives.
Did the last bottle of white wine you bought reduced in price from
a supermarket or chain have a slight effervescence, leaving small
bubbles sparkling on the side of the glass?
This is the result of secondary fermentation, probably due to the
supermarket trying to impose limits on the wine’s life. In
effect, you’ve been sold a product, which is at best ‘fading’
and at worst not worth drinking. Perhaps it’s time for sell-by
dates on wine bottles?
We need to be sceptical of supermarket-sponsored brands. They signal
the inability of those with power over the market to leave winemakers
alone.
A quantity of Tesco’s own Best Chablis (initially priced just
blow £10 a bottle but knocked down last Christmas to £5)
was characterised by a combination of overpowering fruit giving
way to acrid aftertaste – traditionally Chablis is never fruity.
These effects are often delayed. Hardy’s Crest 2003 Cabernet
Shiraz Merlot from south-eastern Australia (Sainsbury’s at
£6.99) is pleasantly dry with a mild tannic aftertaste on
opening. But within half an hour the aftertaste has overpowered
the rest of the wine. Even the full-bodied Wolf Blass 2003 Shiraz
Cabernet Sauvignon (£6.03 from Oddbins) may be showing its
age at two years old.
Nor are the people who buy wines for the supermarkets – négogiants
– immune from this. Calvet’s 2004 Limited Release Sauvignon
Blanc is advertised by Waitrose as ‘Sauvignon in a new world
style with generous ‘Extra Fruit’ flavour – Modern
Bordeaux!’ at £4.99 a bottle. But open it and what are
you likely to find? After a first rush of fruit to the mouth, the
wine ages: within 20 minutes it is all but undrinkable.
Calvet demonstrates, not the stubborn French conservatism Stein
identifies, but a reckless imitation of new world styles. If French
producers are guilty, it’s in losing confidence in wines that
produce complex sensations, complement food, linger in the mouth
and tell us something of the struggle to extract the requisite balance
of minerals and fruit from an inhospitable earth – the real
miracle wine. During the next few weeks we’ll be looking for
local wine merchants who offer a different range to the supermarkets.
We can’t promise to get it right. But we’ll do our best
to be independent.
• John Mason tasted his first wine in 1962 – a classy
Pommard from Burgundy, France. Don Ryan began drinking wine in the
mid-1970s. Both are frequent visitors to wine fairs and have visited
wineries in Europe and America.
Over the years they have organised and participated in dozens on
wine tastings in Camden, where they are both long-time residents. |
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It’s time for ‘sell by’ dates on wines
TELEVISION chef Rick Stein claimed in The Daily Telegraph in August
that “the wine revolution that had swept this country was leaving
the French behind,” ....
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