Beamsville Versus Burgundy Round 1

There is a new fad in the wine industry, a quirky little cousin of the organic movement known as "biodynamic" and every wine producing region in the world seems to be boasting a new biodynamic winery every year.  Ontario is no exception.  As you might have learned from reading my post about my visit to the Beamsville Bench a few weeks ago, I really enjoyed my visit to the Tawse Winery, a biodynamic producer.  I spoke of my admiration for their passion and dedication as well as the quality of the wines produced there. But, do I think the quality of the wines has anything to do with the idiosyncrasies of the biodynamic movement?

Jancis Robinson has written that she believes the biodynamic movement "just makes for better tasting wines".   If that is true, then certainly anyone would find a biodynamic wine better regardless of their experience with wine in general.  What I mean, of course, is that if two wines are served to a group of people, one biodynamic and one non, the biodynamic should be clearly favoured, should it not?

A couple of weeks ago I pitted two wines against each other in a tasting.  One of these wines was a biodynamic wine from Tawse Winery, a 2009 Sketches Chardonnay.  The second wine was a Burgundy sustainably produced Chablis,  2009 Domaine Louis Moreau Chablis 1er Cru Vaulignot.  The people tasting were the usual group of friends some with a greater wine appreciation than others, but none with any expertise claimed or imagined.  They certainly would not have a prejudice toward one form of farming over another.  No mention was made before the tasting of one of the wines being a biodynamic wine.

To my thinking, if a biodynamic wine is superior because of its method of farming it should be favoured by people who like wine regardless of experience or the wine simply does not live up to the marketing hype.  Furthermore, if the wine is not the clear winner and you maintain  that these methods result in the best examples of wines from any region, you must then concede that your region is not as suitable for wine making.  Or, you have to admit that there is far more involved in making wine than the position of the planets or the burying of a bovine head for a specified period of time during a specific phase of the moon.  And, let me nip in the bud this next argument, if only experts can tell the difference, you must concede that your methods hold no relevance to the average consumer and labelling is irrelevant.

So, who was the clear winner?  Eight people were asked to pick their favourite wine and what region they thought the wine came from.  Two people picked the Tawse as coming from Niagara and one person guessed the Chablis as coming from France.  As for preference, 3 people declared a preference for the biodynamic wine and 5 preferred the sustainably grown product.

Ok, this is not the most scientific test in the world, but I bet I could run the tasting a thousand times with different people and get the same statistically insignificant result.  There is no discernible difference in taste from biodynamic processes, in my opinion.  If the claims of superiority were true, I would have expected, even in this small sampling, to have seen some indication that people preferred the Tawse Chardonnay.  Almost everything about these two wines was the same: vintage, bottle size, price, amount of oak and soil type.  The only clear difference, aside from the influence of the wine maker, was the approach toward vineyard management.  This clearly was not enough to overcome the winemaker's expert touch.

Does this mean I no longer love Tawse?  No.  I think they make great wine and I think they will get better at it; I just don't think that their biodynamic approach will have anything to do with it.  While we were tasting wine at Tawse we were told that, during harvesting, workers were instructed to discard any bunches of grapes that had any unripened fruit.  Not just the unripened berries, but the whole bunch was to be discarded.  This kind of attention to quality is what will make or break Tawse and, regardless of whether or not the "moon is in the seventh house, or jupiter is aligned with mars".

I plan to write more about organic and sustainable farming in future posts, in the mean time you can read this blog to give you an idea of the criticisms of biodynamic farming.

Comparing Appellations to Oranges

There was big news out of China this past week trumpeting their expertise in wine making and claiming to have taken down the powerful Bordeaux in blind tastings.  The Chinese, of course, have a long history in winemaking as they do with nearly all things given their standing as one of the oldest human cultures.  In fact, the Chinese have been making wine longer than much of Europe, let alone the rest of the planet.  The original grapes of China were not of the quality for wine that Europe's native grapes were and so rice wine became the popular drink of choice and grape wines were reserved for the rich and powerful.  Actually, not much has changed.

Now, don't expect any kind of  "cri de coeur" from the French any time soon.  We have seen this type of gimmick used before to draw attention to an aspiring wine nation.  But, unlike the 1976 competition, this one seems even more contrived and stacked in the challenger's favour.  And I am not the only one who thinks so.  There are several problems with the methods used in this tasting but, the most glaring is the difference in quality control in both regions.  Bordeaux winemakers are very carefully controlled by the Bordeaux AOC and must use grapes that only come from the appellations listed in their guides.  The AOC First Growth and Superiore have even tighter controls for grapes from just their estates.  Even within an estate their are different levels of quality.

Controls on the French are not limited to just where the grapes came from.  They are limited to where the vines are from and how and when to plant them.  Even the amount of time fermenting and aging in oak and bottles is regulated for the various levels of wine.  This is what makes the best Bordeaux very expensive.  The cheaper a Bordeaux is, the less quality control is applied to it and the bottle's label will reflect this.  Wine anywhere from Bordeaux may be called Bordeaux but only a few can be designated Grand Cru, Superiore or First Growth.  

The Chinese wine, on the other hand, is free of any kind of AOC control.  Chinese wines can, and do, use grapes, juice and even fermented wines sourced from other regions, and even other nations, in their wine making.  There is nothing wrong with this, but you are not getting a real sense of the region when comparing wine blends and for the French terroir is everything in wine.  As with all Chinese industry, the wine industry is not just subsidized but it is owned and operated by the state and has a domestic monopoly  on all aspects of labour costs, pricing, marketing and distribution.  The only reason a wine made in China would sell for 30-70 Euros is because the government said so not because of production costs and profit margins and market forces.  This trumps the French system of subsidies for producers of unsold product.

There is a reason everyone likes to compare their best wines to the wines of France: it's because French wines have a deserved reputation as the very best in the market.  But what we see, typically, is any given country pitting their best wine against some of France's good or very good but never best wines.  There are dedicated fans of every region of wine making in France, some prefer Burgundy over Bordeaux, or Loire over Alsace, but France continues to have a little something for everyone despite any of its recent problems.  This is something that other countries can only hope to achieve and even if the French should slip from their position as the best, the world will always owe them a great debt for showing us how it should be done.

As I said, the Chinese have a long history of fermenting fruit and grains for consumption, and have never had to take a back seat to any nation in culture.  This competition will get people talking about Chinese wines, which of course was the purpose of all this, and many will even search them out and try them.  And one thing is certain, the Chinese are making great gains in the quality of their wine products and the future looks good for them.  I think any new addition to the wine world is a positive thing but, I hope the Chinese will avoid trying to be like anyone else and concentrate on the methods and techniques that would demonstrate the best reflection of viticulture from China.  Because, quite frankly, the last thing the world needs is another Bordeaux.