Last night I attended the launch of the refreshed WSET Alumni body. This is a group made up of diploma holders, most of whom are 'in the trade' but there was a fair smattering of interlopers, like me, who have stumped up the cash and put in the hours of study for no reason other than we wanted to.
One of the speakers was a lady who had far more impressive qualifications, obtained not only through exams but also through real world experience. She had been a flying winemaker, but didn't demonstrate this ability for our entertainment, and now works with big wine business organisations. A lot of what she told us about was to do with the high volume products that account for a big proportion of sales around the world. Many mentions were made of 'one thousand tons per day' of grapes being processed and the 20,000 litre 'flexi-tanks' in which their wine was moved around.
I know it is the reality, but it lacks some of the charm and romance that attracted a non-trade phoney like me to the subject in the first place.
This week's sample is, therefore, the polar opposite.
Week B (2015) Chateau de Fesles, Bonnezeaux. 2010. Majestic £19.99 50cl
Chateau de Fesles has only 52 hectares of vines, from which they produce wines for two appellations; Anjou and Bonnezeaux. The latter, this wine, is made from Chenin Blanc grapes 90% of which been affected by noble rot and the remainder treated to passerillage, meaning they remain on the vine until the begin to shrivel, thus concentrating the flavours and the sugars.
I don't know the actual volumes concerned, but even if all 52 hectares were given over to Bonnezeaux and the harvest was a much as 50 litres per ha, then that's a maximum of 2,600 litres per year.
This was a huge success with my tasting panel. One of them is a Vouvray fan and therefore, usually keen on any sweet wine made from this variety and the other has a palate honed over more than nine decades and usually pretty reliable.
But don't take our word for it. Mr Robert Parker, the American critic and living legend in his own estimation, proclaimed that this individual wine was good enough to warrant its own appellation. Some other people who immodestly claim to know what's what have dubbed it the 'd'Yquem of the Loire'. This is high praise as that particular producer (Chateau) is Bordeaux's only Premier Cru Superieur, coming from one of the homes of dessert wines: Sauternes.
It's all sweet, honey, beeswax loveliness and some of this is said to come from the year or more it spends in Acacia wood barrels that let in just the right degree of Oxygen to allow the wine to develop beautifully.
The average price paid in the UK for a 75cl bottle of wine is around £5.50. The wines shipped in bulk and bottled in the UK will be below that, so one big difference is that this wine is approaching six times the price. Is it worth it? Oh, yes. And not just because of the romance.
One of the speakers was a lady who had far more impressive qualifications, obtained not only through exams but also through real world experience. She had been a flying winemaker, but didn't demonstrate this ability for our entertainment, and now works with big wine business organisations. A lot of what she told us about was to do with the high volume products that account for a big proportion of sales around the world. Many mentions were made of 'one thousand tons per day' of grapes being processed and the 20,000 litre 'flexi-tanks' in which their wine was moved around.
I know it is the reality, but it lacks some of the charm and romance that attracted a non-trade phoney like me to the subject in the first place.
This week's sample is, therefore, the polar opposite.
Week B (2015) Chateau de Fesles, Bonnezeaux. 2010. Majestic £19.99 50clChateau de Fesles has only 52 hectares of vines, from which they produce wines for two appellations; Anjou and Bonnezeaux. The latter, this wine, is made from Chenin Blanc grapes 90% of which been affected by noble rot and the remainder treated to passerillage, meaning they remain on the vine until the begin to shrivel, thus concentrating the flavours and the sugars.
I don't know the actual volumes concerned, but even if all 52 hectares were given over to Bonnezeaux and the harvest was a much as 50 litres per ha, then that's a maximum of 2,600 litres per year.
This was a huge success with my tasting panel. One of them is a Vouvray fan and therefore, usually keen on any sweet wine made from this variety and the other has a palate honed over more than nine decades and usually pretty reliable.
But don't take our word for it. Mr Robert Parker, the American critic and living legend in his own estimation, proclaimed that this individual wine was good enough to warrant its own appellation. Some other people who immodestly claim to know what's what have dubbed it the 'd'Yquem of the Loire'. This is high praise as that particular producer (Chateau) is Bordeaux's only Premier Cru Superieur, coming from one of the homes of dessert wines: Sauternes.
It's all sweet, honey, beeswax loveliness and some of this is said to come from the year or more it spends in Acacia wood barrels that let in just the right degree of Oxygen to allow the wine to develop beautifully.
The average price paid in the UK for a 75cl bottle of wine is around £5.50. The wines shipped in bulk and bottled in the UK will be below that, so one big difference is that this wine is approaching six times the price. Is it worth it? Oh, yes. And not just because of the romance.
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