Who is allowed to tell us how much to drink?

The latest edition of Harpers Wine & Spirit Trade Review – the weekly wine trade publication – contains details of their “Responsibility OK” campaign urging companies in the drinks trade to sign up to seven alcohol responsibility pledges.  It’s a trade led campaign aimed at nudging everyone towards a healthier approach to alcohol consumption in an attempt to deflect government threats to legislate to the same effect.

The seven pledges are:

1. No to drinking while pregnant and the associated drive towards clearer health warnings and unit content on wine labels.
2. Awareness of alcohol units in the on-trade.
3. Awareness of alcohol units, calories and other information in the off-trade.
4. Tackling under age sales.
5. Support for Drinkaware and their “Why Let The Good Times Go Bad?” campaign.
6. A pledge on advertising and marketing alcohol responsibly (eg. no adverts within 100m of schools)
7. Community actions to tackle alcohol harms.

These pledges are all sensible enough and we will happily do our bit to support the Harpers campaign.  Indeed, our constant recommendation has always been “don’t drink more, drink better” – it’s why we exist. Actually it keeps everybody happy because your alcohol consumption doesn’t increase (and may even reduce) and you get to drink better wines which are more enjoyable and memorable than the cheap dross churned out by the big boys.  However, how much you drink is a matter for consideration between your GP and your conscience; it is certainly not our place to begin to moralise on the personal drinking habits of our customers.  Were we to attempt this they would, quite rightly, tell us to get knotted!

As for the pledges themselves, I’m not sure what we can do about the first one.  Wines arrive with the suppliers’ chosen wording already on the labels so it’s not an area where we have any influence. Legislation is probably the only way to create a uniform approach here.

Pledges 2 and 3 request more information on alcoholic units and calorific content, much of which is already available but in any case the maths are easy enough.  Just multiply the alcoholic content (as a percentage) by the volume in centilitres to get the number of units of alcohol.  Thus a 75cl bottle of wine at 14.5% abv contains 10.875 units (75 x 14.5%).  You do not need to be Einstein to understand this – it’s primary school maths.

Pledge No.4 is a legal requirement placed on all who sell alcohol.  It is not clear why one needs to pledge to do this when not to do it would be breaking the law.

The rest of the pledges all make sense.  The Drinkaware campaign mentioned contains some great advice on how to drink sensibly and ensure you have a great night out (eat first, look after your mates, make sure you can get home ok – that sort of thing) but none of this is rocket science.  It also seems to assume that everyone tends to go out when they drink. As for No.6, what responsible company would advertise booze close to a school anyway?  Someone must have done for this to have been mentioned I suppose.  I wonder who it was?  None of this seems particularly relevant to Wines of Interest customers though, who simply enjoy a bottle of wine at home, usually with a meal.  Like they do on the continent.  In company, and where the town centres are much less likely to be littered with drunk leggy females who have lost their underwear (and self-respect) as the result of drinking lurid blue booze on an empty stomach.

We at Wines of Interest are blessed with customers who are some of the nicest and most sensible people we know.  They are intelligent, discerning and considerate.  It is difficult to believe that any of them go out and regularly get plastered; they drink wine because it’s a civilised thing to do and they enjoy it, alcohol just happens to be part of the deal.  Where campaigns and pledges (and dare I suggest subsequent legislation) need to be directed is towards those who drink specifically to get drunk, and the producers of the drinks that achieve this, and those who sell them.  We at Wines of Interest fully accept that as a retailer of wines we can be a small part of the solution, but we would respectfully suggest that businesses like us, and our customers, are not the problem.

I have contacted the Department of Health to offer support, and sign up, but so have many large producers and retailers, including those who supply the toxic products that some elements of our society choose as their preferred method of achieving inebriation. But it strikes me that this is the easy bit.  Many of the larger corporate signatories are still offering “half price” deals and multibuys in their stores.  Talk always has been cheap, and while they continue to fill their aisles with booze promoted at stupid prices it’s hard to see their sincerity as anything more than veneer.

If the intoxicated nature of much of our society is ever to be addressed something much more radical is needed.  The government can try all they like to “nudge” us all towards a healthier lifestyle, but the harsh reality is that it’s the sources of cheap booze that need nudging first and only some will respond.  Those who do not respond will be the ones who most need to of course, both corporately and individually.

What is required is a sniper’s rifle approach and not a blunderbuss.  It needs to be aimed at supermarkets, high street outlets and off-licences who stock the bottom end of the market dross that only sells because it’s alcoholic, and silly “happy hour” type promotions in the on-trade.  We also need to address the misperception that you cannot have a good time unless you’re plastered.  Slapping all of us with one-size-fits-all pledges and/or legislation would not be fair and those who always have been sensible about their drinking and responsible suppliers will, collectively, fight back.

Finally, having read all this, does it not strike you as a bit strange that, as a business trading to (hopefully) make a profit and support two young families, we are being urged to encourage our customers to buy less by the obsession of the anti-alcohol lobbies?  I’m sure our accountant and bank manager would regard this as a uniquely absurd position.  Acquaintances who occasionally visit certain well-known “fast food” outlets report that they are always being encouraged to buy more of their deep fried cardboard and left over bits of cow in the form of “supersize” deals – an obvious attempt to get the customer to spend (and eat) more.  The secret here of course is that how much the customer buys and consumes is their business and not for anyone else (especially the government) to dictate.  By all means educate, but leave us free to choose.  After all, there is a world of difference between being told you’re drinking too much by your GP, and being told the same by your MP.

Gold Medal? So What!

Walking through town today I passed a pub advertising “Award Winning Wines” and I wondered whether anyone has ever looked at this and thought “Award winning eh?  I’ll pop in for a glass!”

I suppose some see a certain reassurance from a medal on a bottle, but (remember the Emperor who placed such trust in the opinions of others that his new clothes showed him to be a fool?) placing exclusive trust in wine awards can be misguided.  Why are we so frequently unprepared to make our own minds up?

In 1980 the Olympic Games were held in Moscow.  The previous year Soviet troops had marched into Afghanistan and the United States decided they didn’t want to play, along with Japan, West Germany, China, the Philippines, Argentina and Canada.  The UK supported the boycott but said its athletes could compete if they so wished.  Allan Wells competed won the men’s 100m fast running thingy.  He has a gold medal to show for his efforts but I’ve often wondered whether he would have won had the Yanks turned up?  This is purely hypothetical of course; on the day he was the fastest man in the world and nobody can dispute that.

Wine competitions are different in that so much is subjective but, like Allan Wells, wines can only compete against the other entrants and there are thousands of wine producers who don’t go anywhere near the competitions for very good reasons.  One producer’s response was to say “I already sell all the wine I make and I have a loyal following.  Why would I want to enter a competition?  If my wines do well I increase demand yet I cannot make any more wine.  All I will do is annoy my existing customers. It’s a waste of time and money for me.”

Other producers believe (correctly) that they make wines of such individuality that they would probably not be understood by the competition judges.  Is this why mass-produced “commercial” wines win so many awards? They certainly seem to dominate the entries, they do not tend to create strong opinions one way or the other, which means that hardly anyone actively dislikes them and they would welcome any increase in demand because it’s easy enough to let the tap on the end of the production pipe run off a few more thousand cases.

I was once asked if I would be interested to join the judges of a major wine competition but it transpired that I was required to attend a course to make sure that I came to the same conclusions that the other judges did.  I thought this would be unwise for someone who had been in the trade as long as I had when what they really wanted was more of a blank canvas to “clone”.  I thought my Mother-in-Law would be a good choice.

One skill that we should all develop is the ability to differentiate between that which we like (or dislike) and that which is good (or poor).  I recall having a major disagreement with a trade customer once who simply could not grasp this difference, pronouncing one of our wines as “disgusting” (which is certainly wasn’t) instead of recognising that she just didn’t like it (not the same thing at all).  This concept applies to many things in life as well; theatre, music, writing, food, even people.  The pub that this lady ran eventually went out of business, so it wasn’t just that I didn’t like her…

I have a lot of time for people with opinions of their own.  This is largely because they have obviously thought about something deeply enough to formulate an opinion.  I can disagree with them if I so wish, but at least the way is clear.  It should be the same with wine but so frequently drinkers end up with characterless alcoholic fruit juice because that is what the producer (and frequently competition judges) find least inoffensive.  It’s so much better to have wines with strong personalities that force you one way or another towards either total admiration or a preference for something else.  Only with wines like this will drinking them be truly memorable.  After all, what fun is there in you constantly drinking hooch that someone else says is good without knowing why?

We reckon every wine in our shop is good, but we would not guarantee that everyone will like them all.  But that’s the fun of it!

Contains Sulphites...?

We’ve had a few enquiries about the wording on wine labels that reads “contains sulphites” which does tend to look scary as if somehow wine has suddenly had some sinister additive included suddenly.  In fact, it’s just one of many tools used by winemakers, and it’s a labelling rule that tells only half the story.

Currently only a few things have to be declared on the label on a bottle of wine sold in the UK.  Regulations stipulate that information such as the size of the bottle, the alcoholic content, the bottler’s details, country of origin and type of wine must be there, as must the stipulation of the presence of Sulphur Dioxide if it exceeds 10mg per litre (10 parts per million).

A quick chemistry lesson then, if you will indulge me for a moment… The word “Sulphites” most likely refers to Sodium Metabisulphite or Potassium Metabisulphite which are the most common means of getting a bit of Sulphur Dioxide gas into wine.  Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) is an important part of winemaking, but will be controlled by the winemaker as one part of the complex process of winemaking.  Some SO2 will almost certainly remain in the finished wine which would otherwise be unstable.  The trick is to use as little as possible of course.

So, bottles of wine making no declaration on the presence of Sulphites contain less than 10mg/litre but you would be wrong to assume that they contain none at all.  Equally, those carrying the Sulphite wording will contain at least that level, but it is currently impossible to determine whether it’s 11mg/litre or 40, or more. Sulphites and Sulfites are the same thing of course, but I make no apology for using the correct spelling here despite the fact that the next generation are having the ugly transatlantic “Sulfites” and “Sulfur” forced upon them at school.

So why are Sulphites necessary?  What does SO2 actually do?  Well, it really does two jobs; firstly, it knocks out stuff like bacteria that would otherwise mess up the winemaking - it also ensures that any remaining yeast cells don’t suddenly wake up once the fermentation has finished and begin an unwanted secondary fermentation.  A secondary fermentation may be desirable though – as in Champagne.  Secondly, SO2 acts as an anti-oxidant, essentially keeping oxygen at bay and keeping the wine fresh – unless oxidation is a desired part of the winemaking process of course – as in some Sherries.

Some wine producers tend to create a vacuum in their bottles before bottling which removed 90% of the Oxygen which would otherwise be present.  This means that they need to use less SO2 to shut out the oxygen.  Some producers do it twice – so that’s 90% of the oxygen excluded, followed by 90% of the 10% that remained after the first go.  This costs money of course, and is unlikely to have been done to wines on the 3 for £10 shelf!

Buying Organic wine isn’t much help either I’m afraid.  This is because the statement on the label of “wine made from organically grown grapes” is fine, as far as it goes, but that only covers the grape growing, not the winemaking, and most wines made from organically grown grapes still say “contains sulphites” on the back label.  The issue, of course, is how much!  There’s no doubt that more accurate labelling would help consumers make a more informed choice, but until that time arrives buying from a respected merchant, who in turn buys from smaller, caring producers would be a good start if you need to keep the Sulphite levels down. 

It would not be unreasonable to suggest that the wines sold (and therefore made) on a massive scale, with price as the main consideration, are more likely to be subjected to a commercial mass production process where Sulphite levels are less likely to try and be lowered, there’s no incentive to do this of course whilst the current labelling requirements remain, and what the supermarkets want is a product that will remain stable however long it’s on their shelves – they don’t care whether you’re allergic to some of the contents.

I’m allergic to cats.  And horses.  My eyes itch and puff up and my asthma kicks in as well just to make sure I’ve got the message.  I have never known why, or to which precise bits of them I have an allergy, so I tend to keep out of their way whenever possible.  I have worked out that Siamese cats are usually OK though.  Mostly.  But not consistently enough to give me any confidence.  I found this out by trial and error over time, and with the help of many Piriton tablets.  Not sure whether this works with SO2 allergy though.

It seems the only way that those with an allergy to SO2 can discover which wines they can drink until levels are clearly expressed and we can really see who the bad guys are.  Maybe one day cats and horses will come with allergy labels too?

Postscript...
Further discussions with Italian winemaker Claudio Lenotti have revealed that the legal maximum for sulphites in wine are 200 mg/litre for white wine and 150 mg/litre for red wine.  Claudio goes to great lengths to exclude unwanted oxygen at every stage of the winemaking process, from fermentation to bottling.  These mainly involves rigorous hygene, tight monitoring methods and the use of Nitrogen throught the process.  The bottom line here is that processes exist to enable winemakers to manage with lower sulphite levels, but they all cost money so this is as much a commercial decision and a heath or aesthetic one.  For more details on this visit the following page of Lenotti's website. http://www.lenotti.it/en/dettaglio_tecnologia.asp
It's worth re-stating though that wines made to a price point are more likely to have higher sufphite levels simply because it's the easiest, and cheapest, way to deal with the problem of unwanted oxygen.  If you have an allergy to sulphites we'd be interested to know how you get on with a bottle of Lenotti's Colli dei Tigli (white) or Rosso Passo (red) since these are winemakers who know, understand, and have taken steps to address the problem of sulphite levels,and do all they can to keep them to a minimum.

When Prosecco is not Prosecco

First there was Sparkling Saumur, then there was Cava.  Blanquette de Limoux was in there somewhere as well, but the fashionable non-Champagne sparkler of the moment seems to be Prosecco.  Clean, refreshing fizz from Northern Italy, in either “spumante” (fully sparkling) or frizzante (semi-sparkling) and made from the Prosecco grape.  Simple eh? Except it isn’t.  Oh, it’s still fashionable alright, and it’s still fizzy, and it’s still made from the same grape variety, it’s just that some of it isn’t Prosecco anymore despite being precisely the same wine.

Prosecco, it seems, has been such a success that rather than run with its current popularity, the Italian Ministry of Agriculture took something of an alternative view.  It seems that somebody, somewhere, woke up one morning and decided that Prosecco was not the name of the grape variety, but was in fact the area of defined production; like Champagne.  They also decided that Prosecco can only make white white and can be made only from the grape formerly known as Prosecco (though they have since had a change of mind and up to 15% of other local varieties are permitted).  The grape formerly know as Prosecco has been renamed Glera.  I have no idea whether the Gypsy Lane East Residents Association in Norwich (until recently the top google result for “Glera”) are planning a legal challenge to this, but I do hope so…

The redefined area for Prosecco and the traditional area of Conegliano Valdobbiadene have now both been granted DOCG status with an outer area classified as DOC.  There is, however, a glaring omission from the decisions of the Italian beureaucrats because in specifying that Prosecco is now a region and not a grape, no-one thought to invent a name for what used to be called Pink Prosecco or Prosecco Rosato.  Our supplier has settled on the name Silvola which, as far as I can tell, is a village in southern Finland.

The Silvola on our list is what used to be pink Prosecco, it’s a blend of 85% Prosecco (sorry, Glera) and 15% Marzemino (which sounds like it ought to be a small pouched squirrel from Madagascar, but sadly isn’t).  It’s still delicious, and it still has a white brother which can still call itself Prosecco.

So, just to make sure that’s all entirely clear; Prosecco is now a region and not a grape, but it’s still a fizzy wine either way, though only white.  Glera is the name of the grape that used to be called Prosecco (unless you live in a particular area of Norwich) Silvola is what used to be called pink Prosecco (unless you live in southern Finland).  No doubt you can think of your own name for the Italian beureaucrats that thought all this through so well before changing anything.

Mulled Wine

If you like the warming effect of a glass (or mug)! of mulled wine during the autumn and winter months it really is worth making the effort to make your own mulled wine.  Don't be tempted by the tea-bag style sachets of gunk which are somehow supposed to magically convert regular red plonk into delicious mulled wine, they don't.  Here is our own mulled wine recipe (tried and tested by Mrs W and refined each year)  it's easy to make and thoroughly rewarding.  This mulled wine recipe is enough for 8 people.

Ingredients:
2 bottles of red wine
100ml of brandy (optional)
600ml red grapejuice
75g granulated sugar
2 oranges
1 lemon
6 cloves (whole)
1 cinnamon stick

Method:
Put the grape juice, sugar and cinnamon stick in a large saucepan and place over a gentle heat.
Remove all the rind (but no pith) from one of the oranges in small slithers using a paring tool or potato peeler and add this to the pan.
When the sugar has dissolved, heat for a further 5 minutes but do not let the mixture boil.
Remove the pan from the heat and leave to stand for 10 minutes while you slice the oranges and lemon, pressing the cloves into some of the slices.
When the mixture has stood for 10 minutes remove the cinnamon stick and add the fruit slices and red wine.
Gently heat the mixture until it is "steaming" and add the brandy.
Remove from the heat and serve.

This mulled wine recipe dilutes the wine with red grape juice and you can serve it at that strength without the brandy if you wish, but the brandy does provide the prefect finishing touch!

Rolf Binder

Deep in the heart of the Barossa Valley in South Australia lies the winery of Rolf Binder who, along with his sister Christa, make a captivating range of wines.  Rolf’s father, Rolf Snr, was a Hungarian immigrant in 1950 who arrived in Oz with his Austrian wife Franziska.  Initially they worked on the railways but soon befriended a couple of vineyard owners and by 1955 they’d bought the winery and renamed it Veritas.  Their daughter Christa joined the family business in 1981 and young Rolf follwed in 1982 making wine in what they named the “shed”.  In 1999 a new winery was built and the old press made the journey.  It’s still in use today.

It’s the red varieties that tend to perform best in the heat of the Barossa Valley, and Rolf Binder has extensive and old plantings of Shiraz and Mataro (aka Mourvedre) as well as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Grenache.  While the Barossa Valley is renowned for its very full bodied, sometimes somewhat unsubtle, reds of great weight and considerable alcohol, Rolf Binder looks for a more refined style with a degree of elegance and balance.  They’re still big wines mind you; big but balanced.

Rolf Binder’s 2009 Highness Riesling actually comes from the Eden Valley which borders the edge of the Barossa Valley, and is mouth watering and outstandingly fresh.  Its nose of fragrant lime citrus with a hint of tropicality and steely dry palate makes Highness the prefect match for fish, seafood and oriental cooking.  In our opinion Highness Riesling is as fine an example of southern hemisphere Riesling as you will find anywhere.

Rolf Binder has many reds to choose from but the two that really float our boat are the Halcyon Cabernet Sauvignon & Merlot blend and the Heinrich Shiraz, Mataro & Grenache blend.

The Halcyon 2008 is a blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Merlot which has a super ripe nose of berry fruit with tremendous depth.  The Halcyon is a smooth rich wine that shows notes of blueberry in the mouth, fully-flavoured without being overpowering; an excellent demonstration of Rolf Binder’s ability to maintain restraint and balance from the power of Barossa Valley fruit.  Halcyon would be perfect with a roast leg of lamb, studded with garlic and scattered with rosemary.  Mmmm.

Heinrich is a blend of Shiraz, Mataro and Grenache.  The 2006 Heinrich has these in the proportions 50% Shiraz, 35% Mataro and 15% Grenache.  Heinrich is made from selected parcels of old vines and is a fascinating and complex glass of red; spice and depth from the Shiraz, structure and richness from the Mataro, and a whack of big ripe fruit from the Grenache.  The resulting marriage is wonderfully harmonious and rich, with a pleasing silky texture, and a prime example of a Barossa Valley Shiraz blend.  Heinrich would be perfect with a Fred Flintsone sized rib of beef and an empty afternoon!  It would also be hard to think of a better glass of red to enjoy with a selection of fine cheeses than Heinrich.

Rolf and Christa make several other wines, all of which reach their extraordinary high standard. Watch out for these wherever you are. Sadly, we cannot list them all, much as we’d love to!

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Half Price Wine

You see them all the time don’t you – half price wine offers (well, not at Wines of Interest actually – unless you’re a member of the Sampling Club). Was £9.99 now £4.98 and so on. Let’s be absolutely clear about this – there are only three mechanisms that enable retailers to sell wine at half price:

1. Someone, somewhere, makes a loss. It might be the producer, or the importer, or even the retailer, but at least one of them will be losing money on the deal if they are genuinely selling at half price. Margins in the wine trade - coupled with the taxes that still have to be paid - mean that this must be the case.

2. Nobody is making a loss, which means? Yep, you’ve guessed it, the price was vastly over-inflated (doubled dare I suggest?) to start with.

3. Can’t think of a third. Sorry. Answers on a postcard please.

So, putting your Sherlock Holmes hat on for a moment, which of the above do you think is most likely to apply where you regularly (or even constantly) see wine offered at half price?

Doubling the price to start with is not against the law of course, but it does seem to be a widespread practice in some establishments. It depends on one crucial factor to succeed though. It depends on the customer not being able to tell that the wine advertised as a £10 bottle, yet being sold for just a fiver is, in fact, a £5 bottle in the first place (d’uh)!

If you’d like evidence of this, next time you are tempted by one of these half price offers, buy a bottle and then go to a specialist merchant and confess everything. Ask them to sell you a bottle of genuine £10 wine which you could compare with your supposedly £10 bottle purchased at half price. Take them home and taste them side by side.

Actually (Sherlock Holmes hat back on please) you may already know what you’ll discover – that there is a difference in quality which is easy to spot. It may not equate to the different prices you paid for the two bottles of course (much of this depends on you actually) but there will be a difference. Guaranteed.

But let’s be honest, unless you’ve taken the trouble to conduct this experiment (and we have, several times, with the same result) you will only ever end up drinking the half price bottle on its own. You might never have the chance to taste it alongside both a bottle that’s not reduced and another that’s genuinely worth the original advertised price. And that’s why the half price merchants persist of course. They know that from the moment you put the half price bottle in your basket you are already in “swipe me, what a bargain” mode. When you pull the cork you will be patting yourself on the back so hard that you will remember only that you paid just a fiver for the bottle. That the retailer was claiming it to be worth £10 will have completely slipped your mind. You will probably also have forgotten that the only reason you picked it up in the first place was because it was on offer. Even if the wine itself is horrid, you will still be able to console yourself with the knowledge that at least you weren’t daft enough to have paid full whack for it eh?

So, have you been conned then? After all, you’ve paid £5 for a bottle that’s worth £5 haven’t you, so where’s the problem? Well, there may not be a problem, but if the reason behind the purchase was your perception that the bottle was worth £10 then, at best, you have surely been misled.

So consider this then, if you were looking for a second-hand car in the back of the local paper and found just the make, just the model and just the specification you were looking for, with acceptable mileage on the clock but the price just seemed a bit too low, what would your first thought be? …… Exactly! So why, when we find the same set of circumstances when buying wine, namely a deal that looks too good to be true, why do we respond so differently?

We know that any genuine price reduction also comes (or should come) with a story. There is always a reason why this offer is on, and thoughtful customers should not be afraid to ask why a particular line is reduced. Thoughtful retailers will always be pleased to explain.

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