Through a glass, darkly...shattering wine preconceptions

As a wine writer, it’s part of my stock in trade to shatter other people’s misconceptions about wine.  These are the kind of bombshells I like to throw at you, you know the kind of thing:  sherry doesn’t have to be sweet and is perfectly safe for the under 65s to drink!  White wine is often better than red with cheese!  Riesling is a top quality grape variety and shouldn’t be ignored!  It really is OK to drink Beaujolais, a lot of it is very good!

You’re probably reeling from that lot for starters, so take a moment to compose yourselves while I press on.  Yes, it’s all very well when I’m the one dishing out the home truths – but what about when I’m faced with my own “No!...Really?” moments?

To wit, a mixed case of wines from Aldi arrived on my doorstep recently.  I’d never considered buying wine from them, thinking it unlikely that a discount supermarket would be investing much effort into its own-label wine range.  Well readers, I must say I was pleasantly surprised in some cases.  I also took the opportunity of a residents’ meeting to try them out on a group of unsuspecting neighbours – without at first revealing where the wines had come from.   Far be it from me to suggest that Surrey drinkers know not to look a vinous gift horse in the mouth, so to speak.  However, they seemed happy enough to drink them and were suitably surprised at the quality for the price.

I especially enjoyed these bottles from the selection:

The Exquisite Collection Côtes de Provence Rosé 2012 - £5.99

A pale pink blend of Grenache, Cinsault and Syrah that delivers gently fruity, rose-petal scented flavours and bags of refreshment.

The Exquisite Collection Rias Baixas Albariño 2011 - £5.99

Albariño is a classy white grape that makes crisp whites with an alluring blend of freshness combined with a hint of stone fruit – peach in this case.  It may not be the best Albariño on the market, but at this price, well-chilled and served with something fishy, you can’t go wrong.

The Exquisite Collection South Eastern Australia Shiraz 2012 - £5.99

I normally avoid wines labelled South Eastern Australia like the plague – this denomination is a catch-all that covers a geographical area roughly equivalent in size to western Europe.  Would you buy a wine that was “produce of various members of the European Community”?  Only to slosh into sangria or to mull, or to play a cruel trick on a wine snob, I imagine.  I hope I haven’t given you ideas there.  In any case this has a tasty mix of dark berry fruits, blackcurrant, bitter chocolate and something savoury, even slightly wild about it, thanks to the inclusion of Cabernet Sauvignon, Durif and a sprinkling of Petit Verdot in the blend.  At 14.5% alcohol it packs a punch, but would stand up admirably to smoky barbecue fare.

Crémant du Jura 2010 - £6.99

This 100% sparkling Chardonnay from the tiny Jura region in eastern France delivers sensational quality for this price.  I recently served this at a wine dinner and, very gratifyingly, it drew gasps of disbelief (and appreciation) when its identity (and price) was revealed.

I often puzzle over the worth of tasting notes for wines.  Is there really any point in trying to convey to other people how a wine tastes to me?  Who’s to say whether a wine smells of strawberry rather than raspberry or cherry – are such things not in the eye (or nose) of the beholder?  Nevertheless I soldier on, reassuring myself that I’ve been at this for a few years now and have honed my skills to such a degree that I am able to communicate something useful to distinguish one wine from another.

Yet again, however, my high falutin’ thoughts on my own worth were brought crashing down to earth by my son the other day.  I was tasting a rather classy Italian Sauvignon Blanc – Vie di Romans “Piere” Sauvignon Blanc 2009 to be precise, available from independent merchants, including Laithwaite’s, at around £26 a bottle.  My son asked to try the wine and of course I obliged.  After a second of reflection he said, “Mmm it’s really fruity, but not sweet and kind of tangy. I love this kind of wine – yum.”  Here he is again, this time describing the Portuguese red wine, Marco de Pegoes Terras do Sado 2010 (£7.99, or £6.49 if you buy two bottles from Majestic), “It smells soft, musky.  Mmm is tastes so nice it makes you want to have another sip.”   He’s ten years old. 

I should stress that I only ever let him have a sip of wine, before you think of grassing me up to social services, but he’s obviously been paying close attention to those sips over the course of his brief tasting life and I am now seriously considering letting him do all my tasting notes in future.

Jura - land of the laughing cow and yellow wine

Have you ever had a wine from the Jura? I'm guessing that for most of you, the answer is no. This little (and little-known) region is tucked away in a hilly region of eastern France, above Switzerland and about level with Burgundy. It's a land of rolling green hills, a prelude to the Alps, rich for agriculture and famous for two things – wine and cheese.

In fact you have more chance of having tried the cheese: Comté. It's one of those big, flat wheels that we used to call “Swiss cheese” and it does have similar flavours to its Alpine neighbours, Emmental and Gruyère. The story of how it is made tells us much about the land here.

Comté is made primarily from the milk of cows, mostly Montbeliards, which graze the rich pastures of this region known as Franche-Comté. The isolated farming communities need a way to turn the milk into a food that keeps over the long winter months. Artisan cheeses such as this are made from a single day's milk, so if each small-holding farmer were to make cheese from his own small herd, only a small cheese would result, which would have limited keeping capabilities. In order to make a more sizeable and slow-maturing cheese, neighbouring farmers pool their daily milk production, which is collected by the specialist cheesemaker, or fruitière.

The fruitière undertakes the process of turning the milk into cheese. Each fruitière's cheeses have subtly different flavours, informed by the milk of the cows that produced the milk that day – outside, eating fresh spring grass mixed with wild flowers; indoor in the winter eating hay and so on. There are myriad different elements that go to make up the final flavour of the cheese – yes, cheese has terroir too.

Once the cheese is made, the job of maturing it is handed over to another specialist: the affineur. There isn't really a ready English translation of this term, but it means someone who matures (and often sells) cheese. The affineur will buy cheeses from a network of different fruitières, to give a range of quality and flavours to sell to the consumer. As the cheeses slowly mature in the cool dark conditions of the affineur, they are tested to determine their readiness and quality.

Top quality stuff is destined to be sold for eating. Those which have not quite reached the pinnacle are sold as suitable for cooking. Any that does not make the grade at all is sold to the “Vache Qui Rit” (The Laughing Cow) processed cheese factory down the road. I did say you had probably tried the cheese!

I do not need to tell you that there is often a strong link between the food and wines of a region, and the Jura is no exception. If you would like to enjoy the Jura food and wine match par excellence then you need to search out a bottle of Vin Jaune (literally, yellow wine) to go with your slice of top quality Comté.

Vin Jaune's story is at least as idiosyncratic as its cheesy partner. Savagnin grapes are harvested and made into wine in a pretty straightforward way, but they are then matured in oak barrels for at least six years and three months. This is the time needed for the special ageing process that gives Vin Jaune its unique flavours.

The barrels are not completely filled at the beginning, leaving space for a layer of yeast, or flor, to develop on the surface of the wine. Sherry aficionados will recognize this, as this same process plays a vital role in the production of fino, the light, dry style of sherry. The yeast flor protects the wine from oxidising and turning to vinegar and promotes the production of nutty, complex flavours. Unlike sherry, however, Vin Jaune is not fortified.

Vin Jaune is made all over the Jura, but the finest examples are widely regarded as coming from vineyards surrounding the small town of Château-Chalon. Its quality has long been recognized – indeed Prince Metternich, the power behind the throne of the Austrian Empire in the early 19^th century, is said to have told Napoleon that the best wine in the world came from Château-Chalon. Though perhaps he was just trying to keep on the right side of his belligerent neighbour.

Where, I hear you say, can I buy such sought after and precious wine in Surrey? Les Caves de Pyrène, at Pew Corner, Artington, has a great selection of Jura wines, from Pinot Noir-like reds from the Trousseau grape; pale, almost rosé-coloured and sometimes funky reds made from Poulsard – and Vin Jaune, including this delicious Château-Chalon.

Château-Chalon 1998, Marie et Denis Chevassu, £39.49 for a 62cl bottle

Why a 62cl bottle? This is, apparently, the amount of wine left from a litre after evaporation during the ageing process. The wine itself is deep gold in colour with a complex mix of nutty, sherry-like aromas and flavours – some even find curry spice in there.

Trousseau 2009, Domaine Daniel Dugois - £16.99

An attractive garnet-purple colour and with plenty of clove-tinged, juicy berry fruits, this is a more straightforward and user-friendly introduction to the region. Try it with new season navarin of lamb.

As for where to find top class Comté in Surrey to accompany your glass of Château-Chalon – try a really good local cheesemonger and please don't settle for a triangle of Laughing Cow if you can't find any!