Vine Path Blog 1/21: New Year, New World
New Year, New World Vine Path Blog 1/21
With 2020, my personal pick for worst year ever, over and 2021 starting to kick off I figured we all need something new and uplifting in our lives (especially this week). That’s why this month’s theme is New Wine, New World. We’re focusing on a diverse collection of wines from producers established and emerging from four distinct wine regions outside of Europe. It’s not typical for our club to veer far away from Europe or the United States. In 2021 that’s going to change. What counts as the world of wine is no longer stuck on a single continent, it’s now global. Pretty much anywhere you go on earth you’ll find expeditious vigneronne pushing the envelope and demonstrating that great wine can come from anywhere.
The idea of the New-World/Old-World divide is a contemporary one in discussions about wine. This distinction grew out of the wine industry’s conversations with itself about how to understand the wines coming from places outside of Europe in the second half of the 20th century, most importantly California. My issue with this distinction is that it always involves defining the wines of a non-European country from the perspective of Europe. The view from the Old World is a comparative one, one that explains the intrinsic character of wine outside of Europe in relation to Europe. To me, this is obviously faulty. If the vine expresses the place of origin then it would make no more sense to compare Californian wine in terms of French wine than to compare Italian wine in terms of French wine, an activity I’m sure would provoke riots in Florence. The other mistake with the New-World/Old-World divide is that it’s a distinction based on global winemaker’s style and not the terrior at all. Mostly this distinction is deployed to describe high alcohol wines made with a lot of extraction, possibly off-dry, and presumably aged extensively in new French oak before bottling. The fact of the matter is that you can find wines made this way all over Europe. If there is one point that I can sharpen up when it comes to this distinction it’s that the distinction isn’t real. There is no Old-World/New-World divide. Like there is a difference between French and Italian wines understood as a matter of terroir and winemaking culture, so too is there a difference between Californian, Chilean, Australian, South African, and New Zealand. This month we’re going to explore wines that demonstrate that difference proudly, for each wine selected for this collection is free from any European comparison.
Manuel Moraga of Cacique Maravilla
Cacique Maravilla ‘Pipeno’ D,O, Secano Interor de Yumbel, Chile
Long standing members of the club might recognize this wine. Manuel Moraga, proprietor of this nearly 250 year old family farm and winery, is Yumbel’s greatest champion. His life’s goal is to put Yumbel on the map as a region everyone around the world recognizes. The winemaking here is brutally traditional and old fashioned. Punch downs are actually performed with a large stick Manuel fashioned from a tree on his property. No additions are used during the winemaking. Pais is an ancient grape native to the Canary Islands but is mostly unused in it native terroir. In Manuel’s part of Chile there is a lot of Pais and some of it is over 200 years old, no kidding. The oldest vines that go into this bottle date back to the late 18th century. Pais is not for the faint of heart. It’s an intensely aromatic grape with almost no tannin at all. The distinctive Yumbel-flare that this wine has is expressed by the note of Hoja Santa that makes this wine the ultimate wine for Latin cuisine.
Mick Craven in the vineyard.
Storm Point Chenin Blanc W.O. Swartland, South Africa
If you asked me what I thought was the most exciting emerging wine region I’d pick South Africa’s Swartland. With a blistering diversity of varietals, an amazingly deep well of pristine old vines, and a new wave of creative young winemakers, Swartland has emerged in the past 30 years as one of the world’s most dynamic wine regions. Storm Point is the project of Mick Craven, an Aussie that moved to South Africa to pursue the life of a vignerone. I adore Mick’s wines, and always have since I first met him back in 2018. The wines are lean, crips, lip-smackingly refreshing and always interesting. Chenin Blanc is the queen of white wines in South Africa which boasts the world’s oldest plantings of the varietal. What makes Chenin so exciting is how dynamic it is, how much it’s character changes from place to place. South African Chenin is nothing like Loire Valley Chenin and it shouldn’t ever be. You’ll find this one to be more mineral heavy in an earthy, dusty way with less honeysuckle and more tropical fruit than Anjou or Vouvray.
The stunning Te Mata estate.
Te Mata Gamay Noir Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand
The Te Mata Estate was established in 1896 making it the oldest standing winery in Hawke’s Bay. Still independently owned and operated, the winery is so historically significant that it was granted a special denomination just for it’s estate vineyards. The terroir here is extreme and unique. It was given its name from the mountain range that creates the terroir’s protective rain shadow, Te Mata O Rongokako, or ‘Face of Rongokako’. New Zealand is the highest latitude wine region on earth making it one of the coldest and most unique. What sets Hawke’s Bay apart from the rest of New Zealand wine regions is its distinctive gravelly soil, a soil type perfect for Gamay. Though famous in Beaujolais, Gamay has yet to find a home outside of Europe. I think that Hawke’s Bay is a great place to start. This wine is excellent but it is in my opinion too young. If you can wait, try and keep it until 2022. If you can’t wait, then serve it with a light chill and enjoy.
Elena Brooks
Dandelion Vineyards ‘Lionheart of the Barossa’ Shiraz Barossa, Australia
Dandelion Vineyards is the project of Elena Brooks, a young winemaker from Bulgaria who’s quickly made a name for herself in less than 10 vintages. Her wines are intended to express the diversity of terroir in Australia, a country whose homogenized wine culture has been the victim of Yellow Tail for far too long. Barossa Valley is one of the most prestigious areas for viticulture in Australia, boasting some of it’s best terroir and oldest vineyard sites. Shiraz rules here, and for good reason. The Shiraz (Australian for Syrah) here is unique to the wines of the Northern Rhone, packing more of a punch with greater ripeness and tannin. The striking thing about Barossa Shiraz is how giving, juicy, decadent, and satisfying it so often is. It’s the kind of wine that says, ‘hey, relax, everything is going to be alright now that I’m here.’
A brilliant Barossa vista.