Here at Yapp Brothers we love our staff tastings but it is sometimes, in these days of multi-tasking and role covering, quite difficult to muster a respectable turn out. However last Friday was one opportunity when most of the Yapp team were present in Mere, so we made full use of the time to further our vinous education with a tasting based around a theme of aromatic wines. These make for wonderful summer drinking and are generally lighter, cool climate wines, usually unoaked, but big on bouquet. We tasted a flight of three Rieslings – two from our Australian producers and a classic example from the Alsace.

Our Neagles Rock Vineyards’ Riesling 2007 from the Clare valley (an area renowned for Riesling) is bottled under Stelvin® screwcap and comes in at 12.5% abv. We’ve just finished the 2007 vintage which was superb with a few years bottle age, and the 2009 compared well. This was very lively with the classic kerosene aroma, tight and minerally with plenty of lemon and lime characteristics. This would be perfect with spiced Asian cuisine (with chilli and coriander) but also ideal as a bracing aperitif.

Next up was the Jasper Hill Riesling 2009 (12%) from Heathcote in Victoria. This originates from a much warmer area of Australia, and is not currently commercially available as it is ‘dry-grown’ without irrigation and yields have been hit hard by drought over successive recent vintages. The reason wine-maker Ron Laughton doesn’t want to irrigate his vines is because as water gets ever scarcer, there will surely come a time when there will be a hefty financial charge for its use. If winemakers are already irrigating, they will either have to pay for the privilege in the future, or their vines will die because their root systems will be too shallow to reach any moisture. Again, the wine displayed a strong lemon and lime character, less minerally than the Neagles and a little more honeyed with an elegant petrolly finish.

The Alsace Riesling 2004 (12.5% abv) from Charles Schléret was much darker in colour and very interesting to note that it was much fuller and more concentrated on the nose that it’s Australian counterparts. So often it’s the other way around with other grapes. This is a much bigger wine all round – fruitier, richer, more honeyed, mellower and full of flavours of mango and lychees. A perfect food wine.

Now to the Viognier comparisons. A tricky grape to grow but well worth the effort.  Even though its heartland is in the Northern Rhône, it doesn’t mind the heat, so the Jasper Hill Georgia’s Paddock Viognier 2009 which we have available for the first time at Yapp, thrives in the warmer climes of Victoria. It had a golden straw colour and it showed a very concentrated nose, with some oak influence and mango and peach notes prominent. A big wine (15% abv) – muscular and buttery but still nicely balanced.  We then tried the Condrieu Terrasses de L’Empire 2008 from Domaine Georges Vernay located in Viognier’s spiritual homeland. Georges’ daughter Christine took over the wine making here in 1997 s and still retains the exacting standards set by Georges when he, virtually single-handedly resuscitated the appellation during the 1970’s. Lighter in colour than the Jasper Hill, but showing the typical white flower and soft fruit nose of peach and pear. A decidedly fleshy palate of minerals and mango – very elegant and more restrained.

Two other wines which were very appropriate for the aromatic category were also from Charles Schléret – his Alsace (Tokay) Pinot Gris 2007 (14%abv) and the Gewurztraminer 2007 (14.5%abv). The former is made from the same grape that gives you the blandest versions of mass-produced Pinot Grigio, this was the opposite with a deep straw colour and a very rich nose of dried fruits and marzipan with a hint of yeast. The palate was typically Alsatian – oily and unctuous with a complex minerality in the finish. An ideal partner to foie gras.  The final wine of the tasting was one of Charles’ finest – a terrific example of what Gewurztraminer should be like. A big, rich, but well-balanced wine, full of the classic aromas of turkish delight, rose petals, and lychees with a fine minerality and a hint of white pepper. Again foie gras or the pungent local Münster cheese would make for fine accompaniments.

Our taste buds were so stimulated by the aromatic wine experience, that some of us promptly ordered a Chinese that evening to experience the various flavours with food. The wines paired up extremely well with a variety of dishes. I wonder if I can book that out on expenses?

Clive Greenhalgh, patron of The Ambassador

At Yapp Brothers we are blessed with a spacious boardroom which is used for many meetings but few of them are as convivial as last night’s dinner for Accenture and Vodafone Business Intelligence. Our old friend Clive Greenhalgh, patron of the Ambassador restaurant (www.theambassadorcafe.co.uk), cajoled us into opening our cellars after hours while he set up a field kitchen to cook a magnificent feast.

After a reviving aperitif of Vouvray Mousseux Brut from Domaine Aubert we enjoyed a rapid ‘Tour de France’ wine tasting in our shop in Mere. We then adjourned to the boardroom where Clive and his trusty assistant Harry served us Lobster ‘Two Ways’ (classically poached with a garlic mayonnaise and with a lime and avocado Ceviche). With the lobster we drank a Condrieu: Terrasses de l’Empire 2008 from Domaine Georges Vernay – which was a heavenly pairing. The aromatic, mid-weight Viognier married perfectly with the firm Brixham lobster and coped well with the slight chilli kick in the Ceviche. Here at Yapp Brothers we crash on (at length) about food and wine matching but it seldom gets better than that.

Our next course was a Foie Gras Terrine with Quince Compote and Toasted Brioche which we partnered with small glasses of Montlouis ‘Côte Saint Martin’ 2003. This apple-scented, gently honeyed wine was a terrific foil for the rich goose liver and met with universal approval.

The great thing about the onset of Autumn is that one can start to appreciate some warming red wines from the Rhône valley. With some wonderfully tender Fillet of Longhorn beef served with Pommes Anna and Cep Gratin we broached some of our library stock of Patrick Jasmin’s 1998 Côte Rôtie and a 2004 Châteauneuf du Pape from Le Vieux Donjon. The Côte Rôtie was starting to mellow with age, exhibiting some attractive sous bois scents and briary fruit flavours but the Châteauneuf’ was the real crowd-pleaser with a core of blackberry and cassis tastes over tannins that were beginning soften and sweeten. We followed the same estate on to our cheese course with a 1986 Vieux Donjon that was served with an enormous chunk of our local and the finest Montgomery Cheddar.  Some purists argue that one shouldn’t serve red wine with cheese but there were no complaints and the 23 year-old Châteauneuf’ held up very well tasting fully mature but by no means over the hill.

We rounded the evening off with a chocolate mousse and a Banyuls Cuvée Réserva from Domaine la Tour Vieille. The chilled, sweet, dark wine made a fine accompaniment to the rich chocolate flavours and everyone agreed that Clive and Harry had excelled themselves. If only all our board meetings were so pleasurable!

Jasmin over a barrel

If the assembled wine-tasters from Baltimore-based asset management company, T Rowe Price, would rather have been in the park on the finest summer evening this year, they weren’t letting on.  Instead, shoe-horned into an upstairs room in this traditional City boozer, they proved to be a model audience and even threw in some tricky questions – what dictates the size of the bubbles in sparkling wine and is there a correlation with quality?  No, was the answer to the latter when you are talking about bottle-fermented (although the cheapest method of sparkling production which involves pumping C02 through tanked wine will produce large bubbles which will rapidly dissipate).  The Champagne Companion (Michael Edwards, Firefly Book 1999) notes that ‘bubbles should be uniform in shape, lively, and flow in a persistent stream toward the surface of the wine; Experts differ about the ideal size of bubbles. Most Champenois say that the smaller the bubbles, the better the Champagne, but large bubbles are not necessarily the sign of an inferior wine – your palate is a better judge.‘  If any one out there can convincingly improve on this thesis, we’ll send them a bottle of Yapp Champagne!

Highlights of the Rhone wine tasting (it was sparkling Saint Péray that attracted the effervescent debate) were Domaine Georges Vernay’s rare, single-vineyard Condrieu Coteaux du Vernon 2007 (400 cases produced) which was tasted (perhaps unfairly) against the Ardèche co-operative’s generic Viognier (eminently drinkable, but not in the same league) and Patrick Jasmin’s Côte Rôtie 1999.  This was Patrick’s inaugural solo vintage (following the untimely death of his father, Robert the previous year) and it proved to be everything one might hope for in traditional (rather than single-vineyard, super charged) Côte Rôtie – rustic-nosed, medium-bodied, supple, smoky and silky.

We departed into the balmy night and the discreet group never let on whether they managed the assets of a certain Baltimore-based wine critic.

Vernay posing obligingly among her Condrieu vines

Back in March we finally fulfilled a long-held ambition, to order a portion of Quenelle de Brochet au Salpicon de Homard, at Condrieu’s legendary Beau Rivage restaurant, right beside the Rhône in the middle of the town. This is not a venture for the faint-hearted (at 38 euros as a starter) especially if it is accompanied by a decent bottle of Condrieu, which it was – François Merlin’s fragrant, complex and lightly-oaked ‘Les Terroirs’ 2007 (60 euros). Contrary to common conjecture not all of our buying trips involve such profligacy but we had a rendez vous scheduled chez Merlin the following morning and pike quenelles are deemed to be the perfect food accompaniment to Condrieu, so it seemed churlish to deny our destiny. Happily, this did prove to be a divine food and wine combination and we were very kindly disposed towards François before we had even met him.

Our tasting the following morning at François’ modest cellar in the hills above Condrieu was something of a formality in qualitative terms but we were also impressed by his infectious enthusiasm and obvious passion for his métier. François is a first generation wine-maker who paid his dues with stages at Rostaing and Vernay while scraping together the funds to buy several tiny parcels of vines (now totalling 2.2 hectares) which explains the name of his principal bottling – ‘Les Terroirs’. We placed our inaugural order on the spot and judging by initial feedback you have been as enthusiastic about François’ wine as we have.

In April we found ourselves back at Le Beau Rivage (it’s a hard life) in the company of Christine Vernay, her husband Paul Amsellem and the Weekend Telegraph’s tireless wine-hound Jonathan Ray. Christine is Condrieu royalty being head wine-maker and patrone of the appellation’s most celebrated estate but we were unable to sample her wine over lunch as the Beau Rivage had already sold out of its generous allocation.

Fortunately we had been treated to a comprehensive tasting of the entire Vernay canon before lunch including the great value, dry and delicate ‘Pied de Samson’ Vin de Pays Viognier, the mid-weight, and fruit accentuated ‘Terrasses de l’Empire’, the rich, unctuous ‘Chaillées d’Enfer’ and the sublime, mutli-faceted, flagship ‘Coteau de Vernon’, from Condrieu’s prime vineyard in the centre of the appellation. Today Christine has become increasingly recognised as a red wine producer and now bottles a fine, brambly un-oaked Syrah Vin de Pays, as well as full and fruity Saint Joseph and two cuvées of elegant and age-worthy Côte Rôtie. Thankfully on that occasion Christine and Paul picked up the bill but we did repay the gesture later in May when they joined us for lunch in London at Le Gavroche, where we enjoyed the Coteau de Vernon 2007 with a Petit Gratin de Crevettes et Pleurottes. Perhaps we could defray some of our expenses by moonlighting as inspectors for the Guide Michelin!