About six months ago I was invited to join a youth committee which had been set up to raise funds for The Wine and Spirit Trades’ Benevolent Society. The charity was formed in 1886 and its purpose is to help those who have worked in the drinks industry but are unable to properly look after themselves either fiscally or physically.

The youth committee, known as “Buddies of The Benevolent”, holds a number of social events through the year, of which Stormhoek has become a key sponsor, and I hope we can make a significant contribution to this worthwhile charity.

More recently, I have been asked to Chair the committee. I’m delighted to do so and very much look forward to understanding more about the internal workings of The Benevolent and how the charity can become better at meeting the needs of the trade. For members of the UK trade out there: Please remember to give generously when there is a knock at your door.

Read in Decanter the other day that , The Ramona Valley has become the third wine growing region of Southern California to be granted AVA status. Read the full story here.

This got me thinking. There is a trend here which is not good for the consumer. It follows the continuation of a ‘branding’ exercise that began hundreds of years ago and seems to be taking the New World down the same route as the Old World. Many producers seem to believe that the best way to be recognised is to strap some outmoded geographical reference onto the side of their winery. It underscores that the wine world is, for many, really about property as much as wine.

The rush for the creations of appellations in California is really driven by the vineyard owners desire to make their property more valuable; it seems everyone aspires to have their own Romanee-Conti. A few years ago, much of California’s non coastal geography was relegated to a “California” appellation, which many people in the business view (incorrectly) as down market. So, there has been a push on the part of the owners in many areas to get their “own’ appellation to enhance the value of their properties.

It is a fools errand. What these guys do not realize is that by slicing these growing areas thinner than prosciutto, they are just creating confusion for the consumer. Of course, the consumer is not on the radar of most growers or wineries for that matter. They think that their business is about managing the distributor network.

While Decanter mentions 168 AVA’s, The Tax & Trade Bureau (TTB) lists about 3,000 additional approved US county appellations. I do not know how many more specific appellations have been approved or have been applied for, but I suspect that that it will eventually wind up being a multiple of that number. But the point is that all the slicing and dicing will lead to an incomprehensible muddle of confusion for most consumers.

Of course, the exercise is modelled after the outdated European “Appellation Controllee” system. Which any casual observer can clearly see does not work for almost any of the producers outside of places like Champagne and Burgundy.

The dream of the vineyard owners is to make their little piece of real estate equivalent to 57th and 5th in New York City. It aint gonna happen. Napa is the equivalent of 57th and 5th and someone else already owns it. Further, it has taken the Napa folk about seventy years to position their piece of paradise in the minds of the consumer. Perhaps there is an argument to slicing and dicing Napa, but I am not entirely convinced.

The opportunity to make a difference in the marketplace is through branding. Not gratuitous claims that are without substance, but, through creating great wines and delivering them with meaning. Only a few wineries actually get it and ironically the best operate without these ridiculous geographical and historical constraints.

So, instead on focusing on brand value and doing the things that will make a difference to the consumer, land owners prefer to take the regulatory route of having the TTB give their place meaning. Ultimately all of these appellations (with a few notable exceptions) will be marginalized and mean nothing to anybody.

We do think about the issue of Appellation for Stormhoek. We selected “Wine of the Western Cape” as our Appellation because while we could use more specific appellations on some of our wines, we feel that South Africa is already so far away from most consumers, that using Appellations like Wellington, would just confuse. Already, when we say Wellington, I cannot tell you how many people start thinking that we are from New Zealand.

I can recall some of the first wine books that I ever read that had entire sections on how to read a German or Burgundy wine label. Call me silly, but I think that if a producer creates a label that a consumer cannot read and understand in a few seconds, then the producer is not doing his job.

Simplicity, good messages, great product. Remove the pretence. Wouldn’t it make for a simpler world?

Wow! what a year its been. We’ve proved to ourselves that although we’re only a small concern we can still have a voice in an ever conjested world. It’s hard to explain in anymore words what this means to everyone involved with Stormhoek. So, many thanks to all who have supported and encouraged us this year, and, may you all have a peaceful Christmas and a very happy New Year.

Last Saturday evening in London we co-sponsored with our friendly competitors, Microsoft, a get together for the blogging community.

The evening was hosted by our friend Hugh Macleod at The Texas Embassy in Trafalgar Square and over 100 people turned up.

It was a great chance for us to meet Robert Scoble from Microsoft. He was on the final leg of a three week European tour which had seen him take in several countries, including France, Belgium, Italy and Ireland.

It also gave us an opportunity to talk and share a glass of wine with many of the bloggers who have expressed their views and opinions about Stormhoek over the past months.

One of the weird things about the blogosphere is that you get to know about people before you meet them. Doing so for the first time is just like bumping into an old friend. I really enjoyed meeting up with Andrew Jaffe, our favourite astrophysicist, Andrew Denny, a media consultant and expert on the canals of England, Sam Sethi, who also sells wine in his spare time, Michael Jennings, who’s a great friend of and collaborator with, Adriana Cronin-Lukas and last, but by no means least, Gia Milinovich.

A great evening was had by everyone, hope we can do it again soon.

On Saturday afternoon I met up again with Matthew who had had a marathon morning visiting five estates around Beaune. We had a beer together and it gave me a chance to get his take on the whole Burgundy thing.

I told him of our experiences that morning. To him, this wasn’t unusual and that there was a healthy group of young wine makers coming through the ranks who would ensure that, not only, the traditions of the region would be upheld but also that the wines of the future would be made in a more accessible way that would appeal to those who have been brought up on super ripe, turbo charged bottles from the new world. He also believes that the somewhat feudal nature of Burgundian society will ensure that the vast majority of vineyards will stay under family ownership.

Matthew’s interest lies in the vast diversity of style that Burgundy is able to create from effectively one white grape, Chardonnay, and, one red grape, Pinot Noir. He also reckons that you can just about rule out the rest of France these days for uniqueness as other parts of the world are doing it better and cheaper. The examples he gave were the Clare Valley in Australia for Cabernet Sauvignon and Swartland in South Africa for Shiraz.

He explained that you only have to look at the layout of vineyard around each tiny village to see that the differences in soil, climate and aspect create this huge diversity. The analogy he used was Puligny-Montrachet, where just outside the village there is a crossroads where you can stand and throw a stone into a grand cru vineyard, a premier cru vineyard, a vineyard which produces AOC Puligny-Montrachet and a vineyard which can only label is wine as Bourgogne blanc. The excitement for him lies in finding out who owns the Bourgogne blanc! It’s the same all over the region he says. People making great wine that we can all afford to drink alongside those we can only dream about.

The next morning we packed our bags and made the long journey back north to reality.

On Saturday morning we met up with Francois Lequin-Colin in Chassagne-Montrachet. He’s a young gun and was in great form as the evening before he had been awarded “Young Burgundian Wine Maker 2005”.

Francois studied wine making at UC Davis in California before working for two vintages in California. His wines are definitely made in a more modern style.

He also explained how hard it was for young people to start up their own production in Burgundy without the family having historically owned vineyards in the region. His father and uncle split up their domaine in 2003 to allow him and his cousin, Bruno to do their own thing. It seems like an inspired move.

He explained that each parcel of vineyard is sold by the ouvree, which is 1/24th of a hectare. The production from each ouvree is one barrel of wine and the value of the ouvree was based on the price of 10 barrels of wine from that particular block. That seems pretty straightforward to me.

The dynamics change significantly when you overlay outside influences.

It has become very fashionable for rich people to own vineyards in Burgundy and the more prestigious the name, the better. Until recently an ouvree of premier cru vineyard in Chassagne-Montrachet would cost about 35-40000 Euros. The price today is over 60000 Euros and is expected to escalate further as more foreign money comes into the region.

Bit of a bummer if you have no vineyards and want to make wine. Not bad if your 29 years old, good looking and own 9 hectares. By my reckoning that make Francois worth about 12-15m Euros. Rock on!

On Friday afternoon we hot footed it back to Beaune to meet up with Meursault producer, Vincent Bouzereau, at the Hospices de Beaune barrel tasting.

I’d better explain what this is all about.

Every year since 1851 a charity auction takes place in Beaune on the third Sunday of November on behalf of the Hospices de Beaune.

Over the centuries people have bequeathed parcels of vineyards to the Hospices and the produce of these vineyards are auctioned by the barrel. The event creates interest from collectors and traders around the world and although the wines are usually sold for inflated prices, it does serve as a marker for both the quality and eventual bulk price for wines of that year.

Everybody can taste the wines that will be auctioned and although it was a bit of a bun-fight it was quite clear that 2005 will go down as a year of high quality.

On Friday morning we exited the motorway at Beaune and drove north towards Nuits St Georges. I’d forgotten how small the distances are between the villages. It really is like driving down a wine list.

Our first meeting was at the revered cellars of Comte Georges de Vogue in Chambolle Musigny a property which has been owned by the same family for over 500 years.

There was this strange feeling that we were receiving not wine, but, some holy elixir. I have to say that the wines were very good but at a starting price of £50 a bottle, they need to be. I guess all their stock is sold purely on reputation. It was good to have had the experience to visit this historic domaine but the over-powering sense of reverence left me a bit cold.

We then met young wine maker, Virgile Lignier in the next door village of Morey St Denis. Now, I have to confess that I have been buying his wines for a couple of years, so it was good to finally meet their maker, so to speak. Virgile is a very engaging guy and is clearly on a mission to make wines that can appeal to all tastes and pockets. We tasted all his 2004 red wines from his juicy Bourgogne Rouge all the way up to the awesome Clos Vougeot (one of the most impressive young wines I have ever tasted).

Having travelled down last Wednesday, we hit Chablis on Thursday afternoon. Our first visit was at Domaine de Genevres with Stephane Aufrere. He explained, as we tasted his 2004 wines, that Chablis for him is a special region. It has a cool climate with very deep, chalky soils. Ideal for making fresh, crisp wines with the tell tale flinty aromas and flavours associated with the region.

From there we headed into the town of Chablis and went to taste with Christian and Fabian Moreau. Both father and son have travelled widely to other parts of the world and Fabian has worked in New Zealand and California. They fully understand that resting on the reputation of Chablis will not provide long term security and that they have ferocious competition from all around the world for white wines made from their traditional grape, Chardonnay.

Domaine Moreau makes about 8000 cases of wine per year but they bottle and hand sell all of their production and most of it is of premier and grand cru status which commands the highest prices. They have consequently been able to invest in their winery and renovate much of their vineyards. A painstaking process as most of their vines are over 50 years of age. An old vineyard in South Africa would be regarded as anything over about 10 years old.

I’m off down to Burgundy for a few days, with my friends Matthew Jukes, Quentin Johnson, Hamish Anderson and Dion Gunson.

We’ve got a very busy itinerary, visiting wine makers and vine growers in the region.

It’s my first proper holiday in ages. I daresay, it was badly needed.

It will be fascinating to see how the other half of the wine world
lives!

Please see my posts each day for an update on our travels.