Le Councours Mondial De Bruxelles
Just got back from the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, one of the most important annual wine compositions, with several thousand wines being poured over the space of a few days, to be judged by about 250 wine people -- journalists, sommeliers and so on. Not that I (or any of the other judges) tasted them all; we were divided into tasting panels consisting of 5 tasters from different countries, and sampled about 50 wines each morning. Blind (i.e. with the labels hidden), and divided into flights that are similar, say Sicilian white Grillo-based IGT wines, Chilean Pinot Noir, or Sauternes; the flights ranged in number (for my panel) from 5 to 18 wines. The sessions lasted about 3 1/2 hours (with a 15 minute break), and went quite smoothly under the direction of Henri Boyer, a French enologist -- unlike some other panels, whose judges had very different tastes, we pretty much saw eye-to-eye on the wines, and as a result returned fairly uniform scores.The afternoons were instead dedicated to discovering the wine region hosting the Concours; though the organizers are Belgian the event travels, and this year took place in Bordeaux. So white and red Bordeaux before (and during) lunch, and visits to the various parts of the Appellation in the afternoons, followed by more Bordeaux before and with dinner.
Sounds (and is) enjoyable, but it was also a lot of work. Not the tastings, which were straight-forward, and also very important, especially for those of us who live outside the wine-consuming capitals of the world. Why? Wine writers who live in or often visit, say, New York or London, can be fairly certain of encountering -- sooner or later -- just about every wine produced world-wide. On the other hand, there is simply no way a Pinot Noir made north of Niagara Falls, in Canada, is going to reach Florence. But several did reach our tasting panel, and some of them were good. The work came with Bordeaux, which has a very long, complex history, and for those of us who aren't familiar with the region trying to come some sort of understanding in the space of a few days isn't easy. Indeed, what I've mostly learned is that I have a lot more to learn about Bordeaux. One might think that realizing how little one knows isn't much of a result for a trip, but one has to start from somewhere.
So I am greatly indebted to the folks who organized the Concours! To wind down with the Concours (for now), one of the wines that impressed me most at the post-session tastings was a Sauternes:Chateau De Myrat Sauternes 2002
Liquid gold with brassy gold highlights. Rich bouquet with sweetly botrytized white berry fruit supported by hints of petroleum that add considerable depth and rich underlying acidity; it's one of those wines one can hold a long, long conversation with. Spellbinding. On the palate it's full and rich, with clean botrytized honeydew melon and drippingly ripe yellow peach fruit supported by sweetness and bright apricot acidity that flows into an extremely long finish that gains definition from some greenish savory bitter accents. Beautiful.
92-3
This was head-and-shoulders above a flight of more recent Sauternes our panel tasted; those wines were pleasant enough, with the characteristic sweetness that comes from the way botrytis concentrates the sugars in the grapes, but didn't have the Myrat's acidity to keep them on their toes, and therefore came across as much flatter and weaker. As a friend once said, speaking of sweet wines, "Sweetness is easy. Acidity is interesting."
Why I don't Pick Out Organic Wines Per Se
Moving in a slightly different direction, though this is turning out to be a wine-related issue, a friend asked me to keep an eye out for organic wines for her at Vinitaly, because some of the additives non-organic producers use give her problems. I said I would, and then rethought my position for a couple of reasons.
First, what makes a wine organic? That the winemaker not use industrial fertilizers or pesticides, and practice organic farming and winemaking techniques, obviously. I know many people who do, without declaring themselves to be "officially" organic. Why? For a purely practical reason; a friend I talked with at Vinitaly said she and her husband had thought about getting certified because they've always followed organic farming techniques, until an extraordinarily wet spring a few years ago: the first leaves to sprout were infected with peronospera from the time they appeared, and the infection was severe enough that traditional techniques would have been unable to deal with it. Fortunately the weather improved, and though the first leaves remained stunted those that came in subsequently and the fruit were good. However, the prospect of loosing all their production (severe peronospera can do this) scared the daylights out of them, and they decided to forgo certification because doing so allowed them to keep their options open. One can hardly blame them; being organic is great but won't pay the bills in the event of a catastrophic parasite-induced crop failure.
The second problem with being certified organic is more philosophical: this sort of certification is not (at least in Italy, so far as I know) issued by government bodies, but rather by organizations that one joins. While these organizations do establish criteria one must meet to join, and then inspect regularly, the truth of the matter is that the organizations doing the certifying depend upon the dues they collect from those they certify to stay in business, a shady relationship at best. They also depend upon the honesty and diligence of their members; as Carlo Sitizia of Palazzetto Ardi, an organic agriturismo in the Vicentino, points out: The owner takes the inspector around, and can profoundly influence the inspector's report. Also, inspectors aren't there day to day, and this means that someone who decides to bend the rules could easily get away with it.
The other thing Carlo points out, which I hadn't thought of, is that one must keep in mind what the organic certifiers allow. Take sulfites, for example: almost all winemakers add some, because they help keep the bottled wine stable. But there's a big difference between 10 mg/liter and 80 mg/liter, the maximum allowed by one of the organizations Carlo looked into. "80 will give me a blinding headache," he said, as he poured us a glass of Chablis made by a French organic winemaker who adds no sulfites at all. It was quite good, and Carlo wishes he dared follow the man's example, though he doesn't quite dare -- if an untreated wine goes bad it goes bad, and would leave both him and his customers hanging -- so he adds about 10.
The bottom line: Much more wine is organic than one might gather from reading the certifications on wine labels, and some of the best organic wines may not be certified. If I am talking with a winemaker I'll ask if the wines are organic, but given this situation I won't limit myself to wines that are certified organic if I'm in a wine shop.
A Tasty Meringued Fruit Cocktail
Winding down, mangos are not native to Italy, but are much more common than they once were, and cheaper too. This is cool, refreshing, and will be very nice when it's hot out. To serve 2-4 (depending upon the number of glasses you fill):
- 4 ripe apricots, chilled
- 1 ripe mango, chilled
- 1 cup chilled milk
- A meringue about 3 inches (7 cm) in diameter
- 4 sprigs mint (optional)
Crumble the meringue into the blender. Add the milk and whir for a few seconds. Pour the milk mixture over the fruit, garnish with the sprigs of mint if you're using them, and serve at once.
This time's proverb is from Lombardia:
S'at vöri cunservr' la to salut, fa no al smurfius: mangia dal tüt - If you want to stay healthy, don't be picky: Eat everything.
Until next time,
Kyle Phillips
Editor, The Italian Wine Review
http://www.italianwinereview.com
Want to comment? Drop me a line at Kyle@cosabolle.com
PS -- Please forward this to anyone you think would enjoy it! If you would like to read past issues (nothing in them really gets stale), you'll find recent ones at Cosa Bolle.Com, http://www.cosabolle.com, and older ones at http://italianfood.about.com/blbol.htm.
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