Welcome back to our weekly news blast! Snippets of information from around the wine world.
English wine has stunning Autumn
There are few sections of the UK wine trade with as much confidence as the fledgling English wine industry in this current state of Brexit limbo. A promising 2016 harvest for English wine looks set to add to the optimism that has been building around the sector for several years now.
Things were looking tricky until warm, sunny weather arrived in August and continued throughout much of September and early October. In the Brexit context, there’s a wry humour in this being almost the perfect description of a ‘continental vintage’, as set out by Louis Roederer’s chef de cave, Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon, in Champagne. But, English producers won’t mind that.
‘2016 is shaping up very nicely,’ said Cameron Roucher, vineyard manager at Rathfinny Estate. ‘We were very lucky to avoid any late frosts which affected large parts of Europe.’ Mardi Roberts, of Ridgeview, said the estate fruit was coming in ‘beautifully clean’, thanks in part to September sun.
‘The yields this year are generally down due to the cold snap in April and mixed weather at flowering, which affected some of our partnership vineyards,’ he said. ‘What 2016 will lack in quantity though it will make up for in extremely intensified quality.’
Stephen Skelton MW, an English wine expert and consultant, said that he expected sugars and acids on Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and Meunier to be excellent for sparkling. He added that 2016 might also be particularly good for English still wines, if estates hold their nerve.
‘If people wait, then some very good still wines from these varieties will be produced as well,’ he told trade body English Wine Producers.
Andrew Jefford wrote in a recent column for Decanter.com that England’s long growing season has been under-played in the past. ‘It is not so much the precise soil type as the very long, drawn-out season itself which counts most in England’s favour,’ he said.
Masseto releases one of lowest priced Vintages
Merchants in the UK have priced Masseto 2013 at roughly £4,000 per 12-bottle case.
In the US, it was this week available for between $600 to $700 per bottle at several retailers, in bond, according to Wine-Searcher data. Owner Frescobaldi has been selling a portion of Masseto via the Place de Bordeaux since the 2006 vintage release in October 2009. Its 2013 release is one of the cheapest Masseto vintages on the market, according to Liv-ex data.
On the Liv-ex trading platform, it was slightly below the 2011 and 2010, roughly level with 2012 and only the 2009 was slightly cheaper, at £3,800 per case this week. That could see the 2013 earn attention from fine wine investors and collectors, and possibly dollar buyers looking to take advantage of a weak sterling currency and scoop stock from UK merchants and retailers.
Masseto, a Merlot dominant Tuscan IGT and in same wine family as Cabernet-led Ornellaia, has a relatively established pattern of price increases after release; unlike some of its counterparts on the Place de Bordeaux in recent years. The 2009 has struggled for momentum, but the four preceding vintages all increased in price by double-digit percentage points five years out from release.
Vintage conditions play a part. Tuscany’s 2013 vintage was as a relatively fresh year and Masseto 2013 is the result of an up-and-down growing season which culminated in one of the latest harvests in the wine’s history. ‘Masseto 2013 is the result of an overall late, fresh weather during the harvesting period,’ said winemaker and estate director Axel Heinz.
‘These are particularly favourable conditions for Merlot, which was able to ripen slowly and completely in sunny weather, without excessive heat.
‘These conditions enhanced full expression of the aromatic qualities and perfect ripening of the polyphenolic content.’
The vineyard lots underwent malolactic fermentation and were matured for a year in new oak barrels separately, then the final blend was put back into cask for a further year, before 12 months of bottle ageing prior to release.
Cognac from 1801 sold for £220,000
The bottle of Massougnes 1801 Cognac was sold to a buyer from Asia, said David Baker, managing director of Hermitage Cognacs Ltd and Brandyclassics, which originally procured the bottle and first reported that it had been sold by Hedonism in London.
The Cognac’s £220,000 price tag (US$272,000) makes it easily one of the most expensive Cognacs in the world.
Hermitage Cognacs sold a bottle of Massougnes 1805 last year for around $230,000 – then £148,000 at 2015 exchange rates.
The Guinness Book of World Records said in 2011 that a bottle of Croizet Cuvée Léonie Cognac 1858 was the most expensive on the planet after it sold for the equivalent of £100,000 at an auction in Shanghai.
The Henry IV Dudognon Heritage Cognac Grande Champagne has been known to sell for more than £1m, according to Brandyclassics. But, its ornate bottle made up the vast majority of the price, it said.
The Massougnes 1801, in an imperial three quarter gallon bottle, came from Marie-Antoinette des Allées, Comtesse de la Bourdelière and a direct descendant of Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine and their children, King Richard of England and King John, said Hermitage Cognacs, Baker said.
The Comtesse still lives in the Château on what remains of the Massougnes estate near Aigre in the Charente region of France.
Baker said ‘The estate, or what remains of it, is very much falling apart but in its day was probably the largest Cognac producing estate in the Charente and I am told had around 360 hectares of vines.’
The opportunity to buy remaining Cognac from the estate is rare.
‘I only obtained those that I had through a good friend in Cognac who has from time to time looked after her,’ said Baker.
‘Despite my repeated efforts to get more of them the supply dried up about 10 years ago.
‘We have one remaining Massougnes 1805 of the same size as the one that was sold at Hedonism.’
Cheers!
