Why DO We Put White Wine In Barrels, Anyway ??

Week Ending 22nd May 2021

Good Lord, what a week. I felt like the world’s oldest ‘newbie’ on the job - complete with creaking knees, aching legs, and a vastly increased ‘step’ count on the past year.

Four days in, and I’ve finally begun to appreciate just how hard these guys work - the ones who own and run vineyards. This week I’ve helped load pallets for export and learnt that European pallets vs delivery pallets take differing numbers of boxes - who knew ! I’ve learnt that it’s crucial to have your ‘stockage’ in place before your first customer arrives, or they will surely ask you for 6 cartons of the thing you ran out of the day before when your last client pulled up as you were locking up at 1830… Some clients will drop huge sums of money on a single visit, and others will come in for 2 litres of vin ordinaire ‘en vrac’ and take it away in a plastic Cola bottle.

I’m re-learning the routine of handwriting receipts, of searching through the White Pages telephone directory to update the client database. 

I have a newfound respect for anyone who can ‘make up’ a box with one of those tape guns without literally tying themselves up in knots, and that I derive an enormous amount of pleasure from ‘snapping’ those protective sleeves in wine shipping boxes (it’s a long story).

I’ve also discovered why Stanley knives and I aren’t a good fit, and that recklessly attempting to remove pallet ‘cling’ film is like wrestling an octopus.

Also, my handwriting - which personally I think is pretty good, may as well be Mandarin. My work colleagues cannot read it. I’m going back to printing everything next week. 

The winery has an adorable elderly Bichon called ‘Diams’ and a new to motherhood ( as in she went into labour in the office ) Cat called Fripouille. ( ps 4 kittens all healthy and utterly adorable) 

It’s been so long since I worked ‘for’ someone, it’s a strange feeling. Good though. Tiring, but good.

So, as promised, on to other things !!

White wine and oak - it can be a beautiful thing. It can also feel like being hit in the face with a 4 x 2 plank. 

Some of the most heavenly white wines I’ve ever drunk have come from the Cotes de Beaune in Burgundy. Puligny Montrachet… Meursault… Chassagne, these are names that may be familiar.  Perhaps less well known but equally divine is the very rare white Aloxe Corton, heavenly Pernand Vergelesses, and delicious Savigny Les Beaunes. 

But Chardonnay is one thing. It’s a grape which is like the perfect Chanel model, adapts to all manner of accessories ( winemaking techniques ); it’s well behaved, travels well, and as a pretty neutral canvas, is capable of handling various styles. It’s a great all rounder which, without wanting to sound dismissive, doesn’t have masses of personality of its own.

This isn’t something that can be said of Sauvignon Blanc. Love it or loathe it, it’s difficult to deny that the global reach and popularity is the success story of the wine industry in recent years. Could it be the polar backlash from the ‘bad old days’ of industrially produced ‘oaked’ chardonnay ? Zippy little SB’s with no oak at all, those from New Zealand packing that passion fruit punch whilst the slightly more austere Loire versions offered that rapier like acidity and more taut green fruit than their antipodean cousins. It was a viniferous 180 from the buttery, creamy - woody - chards from both California and Australia.

So why then put SB into a barrel ? It seems like the antithesis of what makes sense ! What on earth would induce a winemaker to put a highly aromatic little number like Sauvignon Blanc, into a barrel ?

Well, firstly, there are barrels and there are barrels. Whilst the neutrality of chardonnay makes it a perfect bedfellow for the sweet vanilla or coconut of a newly toasted barrel, and a standard 225 Bordeaux barrique allows for a high percentage of wine to remain in contact with the wood, a second or third use large format demi muid for example has less flavour to offer up, and appreciably less surface area wine to wood. Still, what’s the appeal of putting an aromatic grape into a barrel?

Oh, you thought I was going to give you an answer ? ! 

No my friends, merely options and suggestions. I know both Wendy and myself have been known on occasion to anthropomorphize wine. Let’s take that idea and run with it a little. I’m 51 years old and have no children. There is no earthly reason that I should know who Miley Cyrus ( stay with me ) is, and yet I do. 

An unoaked simple Sauvignon Blanc is Miley - when she was on the Disney Channel. Simple, youthful, uncomplicated and held my interest for a few minutes.

But Miley got interesting around the time of Wrecking Ball. Why ? Because it was unexpected, strangely and potentially guiltily appealing. Complicated, slightly confusing, disconnected to what we’d previously heard. It engaged a new audience, perhaps an older audience - an audience who had, until then, dismissed Miley as ‘disposable pop culture’. 

Meh, since then, she’s done more pre Wrecking Ball style stuff and well as post. It’s all down to personal taste. But it’s good to know there’s versatility, even if it’s not your particular bag.

Time spent reflecting on life, the universe and everything whilst hanging out in an oak barrel can be great for Sauvignon. It’s a very different animal to the Del Monte tinned fruit salad in a bottle that often passes for quaffable SB ! 

Somehow, oak raises the stakes, it makes Sauvignon grow up. Turns it into a wine to serve with a meal rather than a ‘sip and forget’ wine.

In France, you can find miraculous examples of oaked Sauvignon both in Bordeaux and the Loire Valley. My heart on this one belongs to Doisy Daene, where SB is the star of the show,

https://www.denisdubourdieu.fr/en/chateau-doisy-daene.html. 

Pessac Leognan - the mini appellation inside the wider appellation of Graves also makes some sublime examples.

You know who else makes great oaked Sauvignon ? Well, South Africa make a couple of belters,  so does  Australia. Worthy of further investigation. And of course if you’re reading this in the States, do go and get a bottle of Mondavi’s Fume Blanc - you do need to be a fan of both Sauvignon and oak, as I’ve found this wine can sometimes lack a little subtlety, but it’s definitely worth a go !

And so to Viognier, which sits rather like a piggy in the middle. More aromatic than Chardonnay, less than Sauvignon, but with the capacity to make some of (arguably) the most beautifully elegant oaked white on the planet - whilst simultaneously being responsible for some of the flabbiest, least interesting ott unoaked wines on the market. I’ve always said that Viognier, if treated well by the winemaker, may be endlessly fascinating. The wine may have not only fabulously nuanced aromas, but a textural quality that personally, I adore. Sinuous, velvety, intoxicating in every sense. 

The bad news is that handled poorly, she’s the irritating loud mouth at the party. Too much cheap perfume and obnoxious small talk.

Condrieu really is the Mecca for Viognier. Low yielding, full ripeness and delicate touch makes this a wine to savour. You can find other extremely good examples all over the Northern Rhone Valley - I would direct you toward the Gaillard family in Malleval who are a winemaking family with a strong sense of reverence towards not just their grapes, but the land they farm.

So, I posted earlier this week about tasting these three grapes side by side. Let’s make that happen. Soon ! 

Have a great Whitsun weekend.