Oeno-File, the Wine & Gastronomy Column

by Frank Ward

Champagne – The most aural of wines

Posted by Frank Ward on April 25, 2016

AvatarApril 2016. The pressure inside a bottle of champagne, we’re told, is about the same as that inside the tyre of a London bus. Champagne, like all wines, starts out as fermenting juice, suffused with bubbles. But – unlike still wines – it retains those bubbles, cherishing them even. Over time, by mysterious alchemy, they’re refined, reduced to near-invisibility (the smaller the bubbles the finer the champagne), before being gently incorporated into the flavour and texture of the wine. That thrilling energy, trapped inside the bottle, can sometimes persist for [….]

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Finesse – What is it?

Posted by Frank Ward on March 31, 2016

AvatarMarch 2016. Finesse is as rare and elusive as truffles. It is also extremely difficult to define, yet the word is absolutely the mot juste when it comes to certain wines. And those wines, I would argue, are as perfect as humans – and nature – can make them. Dictionary definitions of finesse are imprecise, especially when it comes to finesse in wine: “delicacy” and “subtlety” crop up often but that’s only part of the picture. The great Emile Peynaud defined it as follows: “Finesse is the sum total of qualities which go to make up a fine wine; it is distinguished by the delicacy of its aromatic savour, the appeal of its bouquet, its clarity of taste and colour and its overall perfection” [….]

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A Taste of Vienna – Twenty Five Years after

Posted by Frank Ward on February 28, 2016

AvatarFebruary 2016. A quarter-century ago, in 1990, I visited the Wieninger winery in Vienna and tasted some wines. I was then the wine correspondent of “The European”.Twenty-five vintages later, in late 2015, I went back to taste some more. The wines were good all those years ago; now they’re not only better but there are a lot more of them. The winery is still run by Fritz Wieninger. When I first met him he had 10.5 hectares of vines.[….]

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TOP CZECH COMPOSER CONDUCTS ME TO MORAVIAN WINE-MAKER

Posted by Frank Ward on February 9, 2016

AvatarFebruary 2016. Pavel Zemek Novak (may his tribe increase), learning that I was about to visit the Czech Republic, agreed to show me around his native city of Brno – his country’s second city – and to drive me to one of the best wine estates in the nearby Moravia region. To put you in the picture, Pavel has been described as one of the most individual and distinctive composers of his generation. He has written a large body of symphonic , choral, chamber and orchestral works and teaches music in his native city, at the Brno Conservatoire. [….]

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Burgundy Part II : From Chorey to Gevrey Chambertin

Posted by Frank Ward on January 10, 2016

AvatarJanuary 2016. DOMAINE TOLLOT BEAUT. Based in the hamlet of Chorey Les Beaune, this respected domaine has 25 hectares of vines and makes a total of 16 different wines, two of them white: a humble generic, Bourgogne Blanc, and an illustrious Grand Cru, Corton-Charlemagne. On the red side, at entry level, they make an excellent Bourgogne Rouge (which can improve for 4-8 years, sometimes more) while other reds include two different Choreys, two Savigny Premiers Crus, several Aloxe Cortons including two Premiers Crus, two Beaune Premiers Crus, and two Grand Cru Cortons – a Corton tout simple and Corton-Bressandes. We’re received by Olivier Tollot, in charge of viticulture [….]

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Three Puligny Domaines in 2013 & 2014

Posted by Frank Ward on November 22, 2015

AvatarNovember 2015. ETIENNE SAUZET. Gérard Boudot, sympathetic and close to his vines and wines, has been in charge here for over thirty years. Among many superlative wines, including a whole range of Premier and Grand Cru whites, he makes a Bourgogne Blanc from three separate plots, one of which – Les Combes – has 60-year-old vines. The rest are younger, some only a dozen years old. They’re all vinified in barrel, none of which is new, and have been used for two to four vintages. [….]

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A Look at some 2013 Clarets, white Graves & Sauternes

Posted by Frank Ward on October 31, 2015

AvatarOctober 2015. Everybody knows that the 2013 vintage in Bordeaux was an extremely difficult one. Nonetheless, some of the greatest estates managed to fashion creditable wines, wines which would, in some cases, give more pleasure over the next few years than many much greater wines from greater vintages, that are completely closed up now and require decades of further storage. That being said, some 2013s at the top end will live for 20-30 years. Cool rainy years impose serious limitations on most properties.[….]

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Château Margaux and the City of Bordeaux

Posted by Frank Ward on August 30, 2015

AvatarAugust 2015. On my way to attend a banquet at Château Margaux, given “in honour of the international press”, I got to thinking about how to make the very best of the trip down to Bordeaux, over and above the pleasure afforded by the convivial gathering that awaited me – and several hundred others – at that renowned First Growth. After all, international travel is time-consuming, even if inside Europe, so you should extract as much as you can from each and every single trip. Every hour of our short life is precious; and every hour of boredom erodes the quality of that life. [….]

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Calon Ségur Tasting & Visit to Manoir des Quat’Saisons

Posted by Frank Ward on July 14, 2015

AvatarJuly 2015. I’ve twice been to Lutyens restaurant on Fleet Street in the last year, in both instances for a dinner combined with a vertical tasting of wines from Bordeaux estates. On this second occasion the Château in question was Calon Ségur – a property I’ve always respected, and even had a kind of nostalgia for, since drinking a quite wonderful 1947 with the late owner, Philippe Gasqueton, at his dinner table at the Château many years ago. Lutyens is a restaurant I might never have visited had I not chosen to attend those two dinners. [….]

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A Tasting at Tasca d’Almerita – Sicilian Wine Pioneer

Posted by Frank Ward on June 12, 2015

AvatarJune 2015. I first tasted a wine from the Sicilian estate Tasca d’Almerita some years ago at the Lo Scuderio restaurant in the centre of Palermo. It was by accident, or at least happenchance. This is how it came about. We’d booked for lunch on the last day of our stay on the island, arriving at the restaurant at about 13.30. “Our flight home isn’t until this evening,” I told the manager. “So we have several hours to pass. And we don’t want to get out to the airport too soon. We’d love to spend as much as possible of the intervening time at your excellent restaurant.” [….]

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