Ct webinar i’m talking to you from my Home In the rome valley about this area And i hope i can transport you here Virtually The presentation is about 45 minutes of Slides And then there should be time for some Questions Afterwards and if you have a glass of Rome wine with you On this journey so much the better Enjoy if we haven’t met before I’m linda i’m british and a resident of The rome valley I worked in london for about 20 years But Never in the wine trade and my Interest in wine led me to do the wset Qualifications through the wset School london and i became a wine Educator i moved to the rhone about 12 Years ago And set up the house in this photo as The auberge du van Where i run wine holidays and i now Teach the wsct Qualifications myself So i need to credit interrogan Who are the generic trade body for the Rhone valley region Because they have supplied some of the Slides in this presentation And some of the statistics um
Their website van roane.com Is a really useful source of information On rome wines if you’re studying them Or just are generally interested in them It’s got loads of information However the views expressed today are my Own In the presentation and i’ve also listed There my email address If anybody doesn’t feel like asking Questions on the webinar but Would like to contact me afterwards with Any queries about rome wines Happy to answer them by email So here’s an outline of what i’m going To be looking at Today on this presentation In the first part we’re going to be Looking At an introduction to the area The geography the names of the wines And their commercial profile And in the second part i’d like to try And give you more of a bit of an Insider’s view of the southern rhone And we’ll be looking specifically at the Harvest here This year what’s new in the rhone valley Wine world and what people here in the Wine world are actually thinking and Talking about what’s on their minds So to start for those of you who are Around the world It’s wonderful to hear we have south
Africa and peru And portugal people from all around um Here’s my area of the world and it’s a Bit of a small slide But you can probably see at the very top Where i’m pointing here Is the city of lyon and at the bottom Here Is the port city of marseille on the Mediterranean And in between the rhone river runs from North to south And the area sort of shaded on the map Are the rhone valley vineyards It’s roughly divided into two parts The north and the south and we think of It with a sort of Imaginary line about halfway across here Through montalima Dividing the north from the South roan valley I live just east of avignon in the south Here just around here where i’m pointing Now You can already see although it’s Difficult to see the names you can see From the size of the vineyard area That the north is a much smaller area And actually only produces about five Percent Of the total wine production by volume But it does have half of the top Wine making villages so it’s a small Production
Of very high quality wines in the north The south by comparison is much Much larger So here are the sort of key points of Difference between The north and the southern rhone In the northern rome the grapes are Majority of the grapes are wines are Made from Single varietal grapes So the two that you might recognize Would be Siddha the black grape syrup And violet so you get wines made 100 Of those grapes up here in the uh Northern rhone by contrast The wines in the southern rhone are Blended wines and they tend to be from A large number of varietals you can use Up to 30 different grape varieties here But the most prevalent is the grape Grenache Which is a spanish grape variety which Really responds well to the hot Mediterranean Climate of the south In terms of the soils or the terroir The north is mainly granite based Whereas in the south there are a large Number of different types of terroir and Soils But probably limestone is the most Common But clay and sand are also present
And as i’ve mentioned there’s a slight Difference in a climate The northern rhone has much more of a Semi-continental climate Whereas the the south is hotter a more Mediterranean climate So what does that translate into What does the area look like well here’s A picture some pictures from the Northern rhone of the topography The grapes in the north are planted on The steep Slopes of the rhone river And because the gradients is so uh Steep they have to be planted in Terraces And they use a particular training System here called the echela And you can see that on the right hand Side of the um Of the picture there that’s how they Train their vines Much of the vineyard work has to be done By hand Because the tractors cannot get up onto These terraces as it’s just too Steep The south by contrast is much more Undulating as you can see from the Pictures here So vineyards are bigger and Easier to manage with machines such as Tractors and harvesters The vines are also interspersed with
Trees or scrub land called garrigue Many grape growers also diversify by Growing Olive olives through olive trees they Grow lavender Or even truffles trough was very big Around here They’re grown underneath oak trees But we have hedgerows of conifers or Poplar trees To act as windbreaks for the mestral Wind and the mestra wind Um is uh is a very strong can be a very Very Strong wind which comes from nor flows From North to south it comes down the rome Valley from the north Um and it’s often a wind that happens After we’ve had rain so the rain tends To come In from the south and which is what’s Happening today we’ve had quite a bit of Rain from the south today And so tomorrow the mistral is going to Kick in And it’s going to push all those rain Clouds back away So it’s known as the winemaker’s friend Because it prevents rot and mildew Happening in the damp vineyards So it’s it’s very very good for the Vines This is just looking at more of the
Commercial side Of the road the rhone is the second Largest Quality wine region in france and here We’ve said In 2017 there were 372 million bottles sold And that’s quite incredible that if you Think about it that’s about Over a million bottles a day are Produced In this region so it’s a huge area of Production In terms of the colors of the wine the This is still a big red wine country 74 of the vineyards are Growing red grapes um 16 percent are growing grapes for rose a Wine Now that has certainly increased in the Last 10 years as consumer demand Across the world i’m sure everyone’s Experienced that in their home markets That Rose seems to suddenly become Fashionable And is continuing to sell well across The world There’s 10 percent of white grapes grown In this Region but we’ve also seen a lot of Consumer demand for roan white wines Increasing in the last couple of years
So In turon have now got a big project to Identify Where these white grapes grow best and They will be Expanding their planting in these areas For future wine production So do look out for those white wines Coming From the uh the the rhone valley Um we’ve mentioned the great varieties Before we’ve mentioned Viole but they’re also grenache blanc Is very big um and a couple of other Different white grapes But if you haven’t tried one do try a White Roan if you get the chance Of the wines produced Only 33 is actually exported which Quite surprises me that there’s a really Big demand For rome wines here in france So they sell really well here And of the 33 that are exported In the box on the right hand side you Can see the major Export markets Now the us and the uk Are sort of vie for the number one Position but they’re both Currently about 16 Of the export market both have Commercial pressures
Uh in those markets which we’ll talk About a little bit more later But i should also note here china China has really increased strongly In the last 10 years in their demand for Rome wines 10 years ago they were importing about Half a million Bottles of wine but now Last in 2018 they actually imported 11 million bottles of rome wine Bringing them up to the fourth biggest Export market For the rome wines Now this is busy slide um and it’s a bit Difficult to see I’m trying to do two things on this Slide i want first of all To show you the appalachians or the Named Regions of the rome valley as well as Their relative size Of production so if we look on if you Can see On your screen on the right hand side There The production of the area known as the Cote d’iron Is about 70 of the production of the Rhone valley as a whole And the other 30 are made up of what are Called the Other appellations of the rhone valley Now that’s a number of different
Appellations The biggest is the von tu apalacian Controller Which is where i am now and i’m going to Be talking a little bit more about later That makes up nine percent of the total Production of the rhone valley But for this slide i’m going to move Across to the Pyramid here which explains the quality Levels of the Cote d’irone wines which as i say is 70 percent of the production of the rome Valley If we start at the bottom of the pyramid The regional coat jerome wines Make up about 46 percent of the Production of the rome valley So these are wines which will just say On the on the label on the bottle These are good everyday drinking wines But if you move up the pyramid a little Bit You get to what are called the village Wines And there are two types of village wines Can you hear okay yep Okay the village wines make up about 13 of the total production And there are 95 villages in all And 21 of those villages can actually Add the name of their village onto the Bottle of wine So for example they will have code
Village Dash sable and that means they’re one of The 21 special villages of the Cote d’irone and they can actually use The name of their village Then at the top of the pyramid we have What are called the Crew mines and you will have heard of Shutter nerf de pap because that’s Probably the most Famous crew village in the rhone valley But there are another 16 of them and the These will all be covered on a wset Level three course If you are planning to do that or if You’ve already covered that On wact level three So there we are that’s all the um a Little bit of the background there for You That’s we’ve covered the geography of The region We’ve looked at the landscape and and What that looks like and we’ve looked at The names of some of these regions And so now we can focus on what’s Actually happening In the rome valley today Here’s um again a picture of the oberge De van where i live And i wanted to show you some photos From around the house You can see from this aerial photograph
That i’m Surrounded by vines for neighbors It’s a bit different to the view of the Metropolitan line that i used to have From my old flat in london A bit more a bit greener and not so Noisy So here’s a view from the house The photo taken from the house looking North And you can see the vineyards here Um this is all these vineyards you can See Come under the von tu appellation that i Mentioned Earlier producing about nine percent of The rome Of the wines of the rhone valley Some of you will recognize mon von 2 If you are a cyclist it’s a classic Stage of the tour de france I can see people nodding there [Music] But you can see the wide Flat areas ahead of monbon 2 These are ideal for mechanization it’s Very easy the vines are planted In spaciously so that tractors Can get through and weed and trim the Vines And the mechanical harvesters can come Out and actually harvest The grapes at this time of year there Are actually vines
Up to about 400 meters on monville Too chateau pesky has the highest vines At about 400 meters or that’s 1200 feet So now it’s time to meet my neighbors May i introduce you to madame viannier This is literally the the parcel of land That’s just outside of the Uh just outside of my window here And um my friend karen who should be on The call Uh introduced me to a game which Characterizes Great varieties as actors and we decided That if Vyonie was an actor she would be mae West She’s voluptuous generous Spicy and fruity That’s your violi On the outs um the south side house we Have a parcel here of Grenache now i think uh grenache Is is a female grape i like to think of Her as Female and if she was an actor i think Salma hayek or perhaps even penelope Cruz Attractive friendly approachable But can be intoxicating The wines do improve with age As do those actors And for those of you with sharp eyes you Can possibly see at the bottom of this
Photo An irrigation hose And just to note that in this area You can irrigate vines up to Um up to for their first three years So these are actually two-year-old vines Which have been irrigated this year but I’ll be touching a bit more and Irrigation A bit further on My third neighbor is monsieur silva For me this is sean connery as James bond smooth Fruity everyone’s attracted to him He’s often traveling around south America or australia But he’s always a class act and the Accident never changes For karen he’s antonio banderas He can be serious brooding and he adds Gravitas So there you are that’s a sort of uh Run-through of My neighbors and the the major grapes Around the house and the major grapes of The southern rome So now we’re going to move on and look a Little bit at the harvest Here so it’s early days Um and but looking at the growing season From march Until september till today We started with some frost in some parts In march and again some areas of the
Roan Had hail damage at the end of may But otherwise it was a warm spring And a consistent hot summer There was very little rain this year and In fact Limited irrigation has been authorized For coterron and coderon village wines Between mid-july and mid-august They stop it at the the middle of august Because they don’t want the grapes to Swell too much Just before the harvest But this is uh unusual to have uh to Have irrigation At this time of year because we’ve just Had a real drought This summer It’s was an early harvest They started picking um about the Uh end of august um And it’s still got ongoing uh as we are Now Uh there’s a lot of um when i’m driving Around there’s a lot of Unpicked grenache out there grenache is Always The last grape to be picked they pick The white grapes first And then move on to the sanso and then The syrup and last of all the grenache It’s a bit too early to make conclusions About Volumes of wines because not all the
Grapes are in And we have got these pockets of frost And hail in various areas But generally the grapes people are Telling me are healthy and Clean the only area that has come out With Bats some bad news is the crew village Of taval Which is known for its white sorry it’s Rose wines And they were possibly the worst hit Area And they declared that the volumes there Will be 30 percent Lower this year due to those Adverse spring conditions that they Experienced So the next couple of slides i wanted to Talk a little bit about mechanical Harvesting it’s not a subject that you See covered in most Wct textbooks and Most books tend to assume that grapes Are hand-picked It’s also not something that you see at All I don’t think in in uk vineyards Usually the crew wines of the rhone Valley And the smaller parcels of vines Are hand-picked as as other the wines as We talked about in the northern rome But much of the wine in the southern
Rhone is actually harvested by These machines i spoke With the winemaker at the celia de dopa Which is the largest producer in the Rhone valley And they say this year probably 70 Percent Of their harvest has been done by Machine The reality of living in the southern Road While this harvest mechanical harvest is Going on Means that for three weeks you have got This drone of machines Going on around you and the harvest Started here for me and the von two On monday the 31st of august At 4 00 a.m when i was woken up by a Mechanical harvester like this Right outside my bedroom window starting To harvest the violet So you do have to get used to being Woken up by these uh Machines so how do they work So you can see here the machine actually Straddles the vines it’s got a row of Vines in between And i’ve got a nice slide here Thanks to chateau peskier here in Lavontu Who provided this diagram Machine that we saw there clasps The stem of the vine and it vibrates
You can see the machine is going from Left to right here And it violently shakes the stems Of the vines and these vibrations Inside the machine cause the berries to Fall off their stems And they fall onto a sort of ongoing Conveyor Or roller inside the machine This roller then picks up the berries And carries them to the top where the Berries Under 0.3 there are thrown Into reception bins or hoppers at the Top of the machine Meanwhile there are blowers going which Will eject The leaves and the stalks from the Machine So all that you’ve got in there are Hopefully some nice clean berries This is the back of the machine And there’s me looking into the machine And you can see these Vibrating rails that i was trying to Describe Which violently shake the stem of the Vine Causing the individual berries to fall Off into the machine So that’s the machine going up and down They’ll go up and down a couple of rows Of vines Until the hoppers on the top are full of
Berries Then the machine will stop and there Will be A um they will meet up with a tractor With a trailer attached to the back And if you can see in this picture They’re lifting There’s a man on the top there with his Headphones on and he’s checking that the Machine is in place and the Hopper is lifted up and voila The berries all fall into the trailer on The back of the tractor The trailer waits until it’s had a Couple of loads of berries And then it the tractor drives off to The winery So the roads around here are full of Tractors with the trailers On the back this is one of my favorites This is from the village of uh near London This these are actually hand-picked Grapes in the back of this trailer Because they’ve got lovely nice nice Round bunches still there So why do they machine harvest Well it’s particularly relevant for the Larger producers And the cooperatives um And one of the main points is you can React really quickly To the local weather conditions if you See
Rain coming in um you can quickly get Your grapes in you’re very responsive Um to the situation The thyme as well as you can imagine a Mechanical harvester like this Picks a hectare of grapes in about an Hour It’s much more efficient than hand Picking The grapes they can work Early mornings they can work in the dark They’ve got big headlights on the front Of them And talking again to celia de dorfan They actually start their machine Harvesting about 2 a.m and they like to pick The grapes that are going to go into Their white and rose Wines at that time in the middle of the Night or first thing in the morning Because it will preserve the natural Freshness and Keep the wine keep the grapes cool Until they get to the winery at the Moment Sunrise is about 7 a.m around here So you can see they can get in a good Five hours work Which you couldn’t be able to do if you Had people picking in the dark Another advantage of these machines is That most modern machines Take out the leaves and the stalks and
Therefore you’re effectively de-stemming Even before you get to the winery so the Red grapes can go Straight into the crusher when they get To the winery And the last point there is really the Downsides of manual labor Here employees hand picking grapes Cost with taxes about 20 euros per Hour they’re often spanish Or eastern european so therefore The the teams need accommodation they Need transport And this year they’d need extra hygiene Measures For for covid as well so there’s lots of Costs associated with manual harvesting That you wouldn’t get necessarily with A nice machine So there you are that’s a little bit of A machine harvesting For you we’re now going to look at What’s new in the uh In the region and first of all we’re Going to look at the promotions in the Appalachians Remember we had that pyramid earlier of The the wines of the coterone And wines villages do change And villages do move upwards in that Pyramid The ultimate being to become crew status And the last village to became become a Crew
Was the village of keran which became a Crew Way back in 2016 um but we haven’t seen Any more since then But there are also four new villages Which can um add their name To a cote d’or village on the front Label of the bottle So these promotions are in recognition Of both the terroir of the village And also the wines produced So you might not come across these names Before but do look out for Coteron village san cecile Codon village sous la rust Village vezon la romen and in 2018 Cod village san andreol I’ll just show you where these uh Villages are On the next slide Here you are i mentioned that there were 95 villages which Used the term koduro village They’re all here in the southern rhone And 21 of them which can Use their name are in this red Box here here’s the last one i mentioned San andreol it’s just here on the Right bank of the rhone in the ardesh Region So these are new names that you might See In the marketplace i actually think cote D’ivoine village is a very exciting
Area because the wines i think are Excellent value they don’t get as much Recognition as the Crew wines do but they’re worth looking Out for in the uk Or wherever your home market is really Good value wines Uh again the feedback from the from joe From the celia dado fan Was that they’re launching um next year I think A range of specifically village nay What named wines um So they will be making a big feature of That in the future But if you want to try one of the Cellulfa Village wines they currently have if You’re in the uk Market they have code one village wine In waitrose Which is very good and that sells for About 9.99 Um another wine recommendation From this area uh i had this Earlier and i was i didn’t have time Unfortunately to Advise you all of it before the Presentation But i chose a wine from aldi Because i thought many of you are in the Uk And this is one that is therefore widely Accessible through aldi
And um this is the wine It’s it’s just called coduon village This is the 2019 vintage that i’ve got But It’s currently the 2018 is the vintage That’s available In uh aldi shops in the uk market And as i say really good value I’ve actually got one here which i Opened earlier Um so if those of you who are On the call if you’ve got a wine uh it Might be worth um Having a sip of your wine now and Perhaps you can share that later after I’ve done the presentation But this is a as i say a good example Of a sud Village wine it’s a Lovely medium intensity ruby color Because of its youth On the nose there’s some lovely ripe Cherry and raspberry fruit coming Through there Very yummy On the palette it’s a medium bodied wine It’s got um low tannins And a lovely smooth finish it’s a very Easy drinking wine as i say that’s a Coat of and village From from aldi So moving on then to what else is New in the rhone valley I think it’s worth just highlighting
The region’s commitment commitment to Sustainable Agriculture i’m sure you all Aware of the growth in organic wine Production That’s that’s worldwide And certainly um sales have been growing Of organic Roam wine for many years now And by that i mean the region has a Commitment To eliminate chemical weed killers and Pesticides In the vineyards but also there’s a big Commitment in this Area to biodiversity There are several different projects That interrogan are leading To encourage birds to encourage Fees to the region there’s even a big Project I was discussing the other day with Somebody on nesting boxes for bats And bats are really good because they do Actually eat A lot of the smaller aphids and flies And they’re very much encouraged uh in The rhone valley At the moment Corporate social responsibility well i Think This is all companies and all wineries Are included in that this is more sort Of
Direction of the packaging Of wines how are we packaging wines These days Um aiming to reduce the use of plastics Increasing Recycling of materials All those sorts of things are very much Being implemented In the rome valley This is just a slide i had from into Rome which showed A share of organic wine across France and you can see here that In the 2017 harvest eight percent Of the wine of the rome valley was Actually Organic um that i’m sure that’s Increased by now i’m sure that’s near a 10 In now in 20 in 2020. But you can see here provence doing very Well 16 Of provencal wines are now organic And increasing so that’s quite Interesting Okay welcome to just the sort of last Parts of the Um presentation and i’m Trying to address the current challenges To making And what’s on the minds of winemakers Here in the rhone valley And i’m sure many of these things are Also apply to other winemakers around
The rest of france but climate change is Always going to be a big one Uh in this region it’s how to handle Those more random weather patterns that I was talking about earlier Suddenly getting a frost uh In say the end of april or suddenly you Get a really heavy hail storm in may When you weren’t expecting it Um we’re seeing things like the Hailstorms The seeding of thunder clouds before They reach the vineyards so that they Drop The hail before they actually cover the Vineyards Uh and for frosts they’re trying to As they are in other parts of france the Braziers trying to have fires In the vineyards trying to keep the Temperatures up In those um very cold unexpected Uh frosty days or nights Is probably the biggest challenge to the Rhone valley And the uh because the heat has just Been increasing Significantly last year it’s not been as Hot This year as last year but last year we Saw temperatures Of 47 degrees c At the end of june which wasn’t planned At all
And then we just have we know that In july and august it’s a very dry Period And so the grapes last year were quite Dry and small by the time they were Harvested This year as i said it’s not been as bad As that But we’re having to prepare for drought And there are big discussions going on Between the authorities and the wine Makers as to When they can when they’re allowed to Use Irrigation in uh extreme circumstances There are also the commercial pressures As i Said as we saw earlier the two biggest Markets for rome wines Are the us and the uk and We’ve now got a 25 tariff On all wines imported into the usa Which means selling them really ex extra Difficult Into the u.s so sales there have been Extremely challenged and Of course with the uk market the french Are trying to grapple with How to cope with brexit and what’s going To happen with the trading arrangements Post-brexit And what’s going to happen to exchange Rates um All these sorts of things are on the
Lines of minds of winemakers uh Now and now we’ve got the third c Coming in another challenge uh Which is coved and there’s the immediate Impact on the harvest Um which is a challenge what happens if Somebody in the winery Gets covered and at the moment The the rules say that uh if there is Covid in the In a workplace that everyone has to Self-isolate The seven days uh well of course that’s Terribly impractical when you’re trying To harvest daily harvest grapes And to make wines over this period So that’s that’s quite a challenge But looking forward there are um trade Shows expected They normally happen in february and March next year are they going to happen Are people going to be able to to fly And travel How they’re going to manage their Relationships with their suppliers All of these are our thoughts on the Minds of of winemakers at the moment I must say that one of the opportunities Afforded by covid has been the bag in Box I know that uh in the uk and certainly Here in france Sales in bagging box in french Supermarkets have gone up 300
It’s suddenly selling really really well Uh in markets so lots of producers Desperately trying to get their wine Into bag in box And into the french supermarkets and the Uk Markets to supply them so it’s not all Bad news In fact i wanted to finish to try and Finish on the positives I think the rome valley still has a Great future for winemaking Yes we have still we have to be prepared For more extreme Weather events but winemakers are doing What they can to adapt And it’s still a comparatively benign Climate For grape growing I think it’s important to say that into Rhone is a very Forward and dynamic trade body Addressing the issues of the community And they’ve got great plans In place for the future development of This region The current president of antavon is Michel chaputier Who many of you will know for being a Famous Winemaker in the northern rome as well As some wines down here in the south and Across the world and he’s quite A visionary and an inspiration
And lastly i think it’s i think really The rome wines continue to sell As they are well made reliable And good value wines So that’s all i was going to to say About The presentation um there is a last Slide here to thank wset School london for hosting this Presentation And for hosting me giving me a chance to Speak to you all It’s quite exciting to think there are 83 people Out there all uh listening to this Hopefully you’ve got a glass of rome Wine in your hand And again there’s the slide if you want More information on the rhone valley Do look up the van roan.com site Or if you want to talk to me send me an Email And i will do my best to respond to you So that’s all i had in the presentation So richard you’ve joined us there yeah I just want to say a big thank you for That it’s great to get your insight and Um Hear it hear how it is on the ground as Well as it were yeah it’s been It was really fascinating now if you’ve Got some time there are there were some Questions Yes indeed yes we’ve still got plenty of
Time i think what about 10 minutes for Questions Popping up if i work through the chat so One one straight one was are the Wineries still open for The tastings yes most definitely yes So and they’ve got they’re at a social Distance that everybody here Um adheres to a social distance of one Meter And of course the you have your one Glass And you don’t you don’t allow anybody Else to touch your glass But yes it’s very much still open for Business Yes great it’s good to know Then there was a question about the Difference between organic And biodynamic viticulture Well as you know richard you could Probably do a whole presentation On the difference between those two Types that Um organic wines tend to be the wines That don’t use Chemical pesticides and Fertilizers and things like that Biodynamic wine making is a stage beyond That And as well as not using any chemical Pesticides or fertilizers the treatment Of the vines Is in conjunction with a calendar which
Looks at things like the phases of the Moon And is a much more holistic approach to Growing grapes I haven’t got time to go into all the Detail here but i would say that Biodynamic wine producers on the whole Tend to spend about four times as much Time in the vineyards looking after Their vines Than a regular wine maker does so There’s a lot of care and attention that Goes into The looking after the grapes in a Biodynamic Vineyard do you know how many there are In the In the rain um It’s difficult to say it’s it’s Definitely increasing Um the uh the most common label if People are looking for biodynamic wines From the rome valley the most common Label is called Demeter and that’s the label you’ll see On the back Of a bottle of wine if it says demeter Then it’s been Certified by that organization as a Biodynamic Wine i would hazard a guess and i think They would probably be included in the Organic Figures so i would hazard a guess that
Maybe about Three or four percent of the um wineries Of the rome valley are biodynamic Okay three or four percent okay great Changing the subject from that From biodynamic it was a question from Tim About how roman growers are addressing Control of alcohol in wines Is this an issue locally or Internationally Um again this is a big area And i’ll try and keep it brief but The the issue is that Grapes like particularly granash Um come in quite naturally at High levels of alcohol so the grenache That would be harvested in the next Couple of days Is going to come in about 14 and a half 15 15 and a half percent alcohol And that there um you could you could Argue well why don’t you harvest it Earlier when it’s only 13 the problem is That alcohol is only one component Of the grape and other components such As the tannins Are not ripe yet which is why they’re Waiting So they wait until the tannins are ripe But unfortunately you end up with high Levels of alcohol Particularly in the grenache grapes
Now things that you can do to address This In the southern rhone as i’ve mentioned You’ve got the great benefit Of being able to blend your wines So if you’ve got um if you normally have A wine which is say 50 Grenache and 50 other grapes And your grenache comes in at 15 percent And you don’t want to you know you don’t Want to make such a strong wine What you can do is increase the amount Of other grapes in the blend And grapes like muvedra rarely Seem to get above 13 of alcohol even When they’re ripe So in a really year when you have got Very ripe grapes in the grenache you Might be putting More syrup or more grenache into the Blend And less grenache that’s a kind of Temporary Thing that you can do in to manage in The winery There are longer term things that you Can be doing which is Um maybe for replanting People are planting grenache at higher Levels Um and maybe even on north-facing slopes Um in order that they don’t get so much Exposure to the sun And so that the alcohol naturally will
Come in a bit less than Those high levels of 15 degrees Great thank you i think moving on sort Of slightly from that christopher had a Question About exchanging and portions of um Syrah Um because it might have been a bad year For syrah overton Virginia so do you have any information On that particularly in chateau and After pat Um i don’t know what the i will be Honest and say i don’t know what’s going On with the sarah in chattanooga pap Today i haven’t heard that they’ve had a Bad time Certainly they it’s normally the Grenache That gets affected by bad springs And i haven’t heard anything about uh About that this year for the grenache In um shattered north so um now i don’t Know Of any concerns about the syrah uh in in Chat enough And certainly here in the volunteer and Most of the southern road i haven’t had Uh issues with that Great thank you i saw richard lane put His hand up Are you hello yeah there you are hello Hi How are you fine thanks richard how are
You right yeah good thank you Hi linda it’s richard hi there linda Lovely presentation um Thank you very much and i’m hoping to to Complete diploma fairly soon so this is Very helpful timely And my question really is about southern Rhone Two-part questions too with to do with The southern road And more about its reputation really Do you think the rep rep of southern Rhone which always seems to lag behind The northern road is catching up a bit And do you think the crew excluding Shattering of dupa In the southern rhone are kind of Getting on an equal pagan with Shattering of jupiter because Some of them are really really good Aren’t they like gigan darce and Caroline i mean Rusto there’s some there’s some really Good quality southern rome now as Roman now isn’t there but i sense Generally it hasn’t had hasn’t been Getting The appreciation internationally as much As the northern road Um well that’s a that’s really quite a Subjective question i suppose Um i’m i’m biased because i’m in the Southern rhone and Uh i tend to think of them as uh as
Being fantastic blinds and Um i think it’s also a question is going Back to Perhaps richard what i was saying Earlier about the north and rome Being um a smaller Uh volume they are only a small volume Of production Um and so i think there is a little bit More of an exclusivity around those Wines And they’ve drilled down there’s a lot Of work been done on The specific parcels of syrah And where they’re located there’s a lot Of work being done by the winemakers There to Give the sort of um parcel identity to Some of the wines Um so i think that’s going on um I think you’re right i think there are Actually nine crews In the southern rhone compared to eight In the northern rome Um by a far away the biggest is is uh Shuttle nerf de pap But yes you’re right the jigondas and Um the other crew wines are Catching up and getting more and more Visibility Um they’re doing things like uh reducing You know Trying to manage the yields trying to do Special uh special vintages um certainly
Uh in chat enough to pack they’re trying To do a premium range of sort of 100 grenache style of of wines At their top level so um yeah i think That there’s a lot of visibility in the Southern road and i think They they will certainly they are as Equal to the northern road In uh in quality thank you and just very Quickly what is your favorite crew from The southern rome Um that’s a good question i think Um if uh i love jigondas wine and that’s Only about 20 minutes away from here Um but i often point out lyrac To people oh fabulous because it’s On the right bank and really very few People go and visit there Very few people know their wines as the Crow flies They’re only 20 kilometers from shatter Nerf de pap Yeah they’re opposite they’re opposite Shatteredness on the other side directly On the side Yeah but they just happened to be on the Wrong side of the river and all the Actions on the Uh left bank are shutter nerf to pap and Um Uh lyrac on the other side just uh Is has got the similar type of terroir Um but they don’t have the same type of Visibility because they’re not as big
Um and certainly i’ve had real um real Joy Out of 10 year old um lyric ones Which have cost me nine euros a bottle So It’s great value as well so um yeah i Put a Put a word in for lirak as well i’m glad You did because i like lyric and their White Lyric is good as well as they’re read It’s very good yes yes Thank you linda very much good thank you Richard Cheers have you got i mean There’s amongst all the people saying Well the wonderful Presentation there are a couple more Questions if that’s okay Yeah sure yeah yeah so um there’s a Question about Carbonic maceration and is that a common Practice in their own Quick answer no Great um and then a question about Why is um provence so far ahead with Organic wines Uh short answer probably climate Yeah it’s um you know the the um In in this climate that they’re south of Here um But often when i’m visiting winemakers It’s not a question of Um i don’t ask them sort of have you
Thought about becoming organic I ask people in this hot climate why are You not Organic because really um it’s more People in the uh cooler climates which Suffer more From the lack of sunshine the increased Rain And they have more problem with bugs and With rocks and with mildew here in the South you shouldn’t have that And that’s as i say why um i think that The south is probably the better area The easier area for making organic wines Great thank you and then i think a final Question from what i can see unless Anyone wants to um Fire one last one over that i’ve missed Is Um about the sweet wines of the rain can You Can you explain a bit more about them And a few popular names Right um that’s a good point yeah on my Pyramid that i If you want to go back and look on the Slide on the on the pyramid uh in your Own time There are two crew sweet wines The most popular is um a wine made from The muscat grape In the village of bone de venise and the Title of the appellation is muscat The bone de venise uh and um
That’s uh that’s i think it’s still Quite Unfashionable drink but i love it um It’s a great uh wine made They picked they’re probably the muscat Grapes are probably the first grapes in The room to be picked Because they’re picked very young and They’re picked at night again when They’re cold Because they want to preserve that Lovely freshness and For those who have had a muscat wine you Know that gorgeous Sense when you put your nose in a glass Of muscat wine of um Lovely floral lychee honeyed Kind of characters coming through in in The wine So that’s uh one one that’s again Um if you’re in the uk market and you Want to try the muscat waitrose do the Half bottle Of muscat de boe de venis The other one is the other crew wine is From the village of Rasto which have a red sweet wine And unfortunately despite my attempts i Haven’t been able to find This anywhere in the uk Uh but it’s a sweet red wine made From the grenache grape um so That’s uh that’s perhaps one to look out For if you can’t find it
You’re going to have to come over here On holiday and try it in resto I’ll take you to the village of resto There you go and that’s an offer you Can’t Correct well i think if we can we have One final question then that Just came in when i gave the final call Out and it was About do you do you have any producers You’d recommend as good Examples of classic um traditional Versus modern To promote in southern rome That’s uh that’s a really difficult one Because i don’t know what you’re You’re trying to to do um christopher There so what was that I was just asking the person who asked The question still The um because each of the regions has Traditional winemakers And uh and um more classical winemakers And then they have the Often the younger ones who are a bit More uh A bit more dynamic and um making a bit More Fruit forward um styles of wine Um i have to say that you know when i Was looking at this bottle of wine Earlier Um i really am not a fan of this whole Medieval labeling uh and scripts on the
Front of bottles of wine it just looks Far too old-fashioned for me um and that Just smacked me of a kind of like Traditional Uh they’re trying to appeal to a Traditional market Um but uh no look at the Um look at the big producers i think if You’re looking for Someone um traditional you probably Would want to go for someone in In shatter nerf de pap one of the big Producers Uh like Beau renar or someone like that if you Were looking for someone a bit more Modern why not try chateau peskier who Are here In the bantu region they’re wine makers They’re Young guys and just making really Nice interesting um fresh Wines and uh very passionate about what They do So there’s two recommendations right Thank you i’m just sharing your email Address someone who wanted it on the Chat And there you go yeah there we are it’s Just at the bottom there Yeah great well thank you very much i Think that that’s Okay i think that’s it for for the Questions and yeah just thank you again
For For joining us this evening and taking Us taking us around the Round the road it’s been really Interesting well i know you Many of you can’t travel at the moment So i hope you’ve had a bit of a virtual Tour of their own and Uh uh yeah so go and open a bottle of Rum wine Cheers absolutely cheers everyone Bye-bye and absolutely keep a lookout For any future events we’re we’re doing These sort of These webinars for for the foreseeable Really until Things things change which they don’t Look like they’re doing so yeah please Do Keep a look out and we’ll see you again Soon [Applause] Thank you