Budburst - come sunshine, hail, frost and rain

Is it worth the worry?

It has been a tense week; budburst is happening across the UK. Friends in Napa or southern Europe might be thinking about flowering already, but we have only just achieved full budburst. It is late even by our own standards. Last year, we had a warm March and saw budburst happen around 14th April - we are a month+ later in 2013 with the warmer weather not coming until well into April. The flipside is that we have a better chance of avoiding frost, although some areas saw some very site-specific frosts last Wednesday night. Hattingley Valley had its FrostGuards out in the vineyard but didn't have to use them. They are also trialling a few rows of temporary coverings for the vines, to be taken on and off at crucial times of the year. The cost of all of these systems is huge and very time-consuming to implement, but pales into insignificance compared to the cost of losing the entire crop so early in the season. It is also, in theory, fundamentally no different to the Kiwis and Aussies using bird nets to protect their crops at ripening.

Of course, protecting the early buds from frost does not mean that all will be plain sailing for the the English vinegrower; last week saw warm sunny days followed by frosty nights followed by sleet and rain. One vineyard I work with asked me to come and inspect the vines after they had an isolated hail storm with hailstones the size of golf balls. About half the buds were knocked clean off the vines whilst others escaped unscathed. I heard no reports of any other vineyards being hit by hail, it was an isolated event. Then, with rain forecast for the next week, temperatures above 10 degrees C, and the leaves of the vines just sprouting, we are already starting the fight against the mildews.

Some might ask why we bother, but anyone who has been bitten by the winegrowing bug will know that feeling of being out in the vineyard, doing some repetitive, boring job, but loving every minute. And the euphoria at harvest when the grapes arrive in the winery safe and sound is hard to beat. Of course, the best moment is popping the cork on a finished bottle of something you have made and sharing it with friends. Sparkling winemakers have to wait a bit longer than most to try the fruits of their labour - I've been tasting some 2010 wines with potential buyers this weekend - it is gratifying when other people obviously enjoy wine you have made. I can't imagine what else I would be doing and I'm privileged to be able to do it so close to home.

To Export or Not?

To export or not? Should UK winemakers bother?

I wrote this post this morning, then shelved it while I got on with my day. At lunchtime I listened to Jancis Robinson being interviewed on the BBC Food Programme on Radio 4 - talking about the evolution of the UK wine trade over her 40 year career. In particular some of the issues I raise below. 

Having worked in the London wine trade as well as the provincial retail trade of the UK I have been at the sharp end of selling imported wine into the UK market. A notoriously competitive and cut-throat (as far as the wine trade goes) market to break into, as any producer from France, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, etc. will tell you, it is also THE market in which to have an international presence. Maybe the London trade is kidding itself that its importance is still top-ranked. Maybe the UK is waning in importance, as the price wars and dominance of an ever-dwindling number of national retailers takes hold. Even if we are on the wane, the UK consumer still gets through a huge volume of wine each year from all over the world. We are used to a massive choice of wines and we are fickle with our affections. One year Australia is the darling, only to be replaced by Chile or Argentina the next. As a whole we are not fussy either, White Zinfandel and other sickly sweet roses from warmer climes are ever popular and are bought on price rather than taste. We expect our local corner shop or "Offie" (retail shop for alcohol to be bought and consumed “off” the premises) to have everything from Blossom Hill to Kiwi Sauvignon Blanc to cheap claret, even a dusty bottle or two of Moet & Chandon, on the shelves. When we do our supermarket shopping we want good deals on our favourite wines and we expect the same wide range of choice.

Majestic have maintained their position in the face of competition
from the supermarkets, but at what cost to the range on offer?

This is the key difference between the UK market and that of countries producing high volumes of their own wine. Go to a wine shop or restaurant in Auckland and you will find the list dominated by domestically produced products. Eat out in Napa Valley and you will be hard pushed to find much choice beyond California; a list with wines from Sonoma Valley or even Oregon is adventurous. In France you will not find much available from outside the region you are in. The possible exception being Champagne, where even the Champenois will concede that bubbles cannot be drunk with everything.*

Supermarkets and their stranglehold on the UK trade

So, in the UK we have this luxury of choice, but it can turn around and bite us on the bum. The relentless discounting sees the smaller producers pushed out by the big guys who can use their economies of scale and large volumes to take a smaller margin to fund the ubiquitous “deals”. Don't be fooled into thinking that the retailer is cutting their margin to fund these great prices. Oh, no. It is the producer who takes the hit in the hope that once people have tried the wine at a discount they will come back and buy more at full price. It works on some people – those who actually have taste-buds and choose based on what they like. But the vast majority of the UK wine-buying public will simply move on to the next deal being offered. It is a never ending cycle of discounting that leads to a ever-decreasing number of wines able to fit into the pricing model.

One of the national chains that is no more

So, how does this affect the domestic wine production industry? We are currently in a luxurious position. There is a limited supply (note the 2012 vintage production figures at about 10% of normal) and a growing demand. We can practically name our price and then have to allocate stock to satisfy the different sales streams. This scenario cannot last forever. The planting of the classic three sparkling varieties continues each year and, although there is a delay before these vines produce any wine ready for sale, we do need to think about what we do once we have saturated the UK domestic market for English Sparkling Wine.

Who funds this massive discount? And who benefits in the long-run?

Five intrepid producers recently got back from Prowein, the international wine fair held in Dusseldorf each year. English Wine Producers, the marketing organisation for English wine took a stand and called for its members to take the plunge. I was there with Hattingley Valley and can report that it was a huge success for all involved. Starting at 9am on the Sunday morning we did not stop entertaining visitors to our stand until close of play on the Tuesday afternoon. The Scandinavians, Germans, Chinese, Italians, Dutch, Texans and Canadians were all beating a path to our door. German national television interviewed the owner of the winery for the equivalent of the BBC Breakfast Show. 

This is, as far as I can see, the solution for ESW – to prevent ourselves falling victim to the price wars of the UK market once supply exceeds demand – we can develop export markets to help sustain demand and therefore prices. It takes more work – delivering pallets 60 miles up the motorway to London is easier and cheaper than shipping wine to Toronto or Stockholm but relying on the fickle British consumer is short-sighted.

It is not often I agree with Stephen Skelton MW but his dire warnings about sustaining demand do not ring hollow. Rather than accepting it as an inevitability, however, there is a big wide world out there just waiting to be introduced to the deliciousness that is English Sparkling Wine.

*There are, of course, exceptions to every rule, I know that there are shops and restaurants the world over who do offer a wide choice, but it is definitely not the norm, in my albeit limited experience.

Regulation in the wine industry = quality?

As an oenologist and a contract winemaker I get to see a huge range of wines from across the UK. A growing industry in England and Wales, there are relatively few rules and restrictions on what we can do when making wine, especially by comparison with our continental cousins. The EU does impose a few basic regulations to ensure the consumer is drinking the product of fermented grapes, i.e. wine, but we can pretty much choose what varieties we like and our winemaking methods are open to those we feel best suit our own situation.

There are two sides to this freedom of choice – the good and the bad. Most winemakers I know use the freedom wisely, taking the best bits from regions they've worked in or visited whilst disregarding the unecessarily prescriptive. For example, whole bunch picking for quality sparkling wine. But rather than using the ridiculously over-sized 50kg bins they are obliged to use in Champagne, we use 20kg picking crates which are easily handled by one man or woman. There is not a reason I can see that a 50kg crate will give you better quality wine compared to a 20kg crate. In fact, it might be argued that the smaller the crate the less likely it is that the grapes will be crushed under their own weight.

Equal opportunities - 20kg is a comfortable weight for most to lift

The flipside is that there are still vineyards and wineries using inferior grape varieties and producing semi-sweet wines unfit for sale anywhere except the farm-gate. Each to their own, I say, and I would prefer these guys are allowed to carry on doing what they do because the very fact that they are small operations means they are unlikely to cross the radar of the serious wine-buying public, whilst I am able to cherry-pick the winemaking options I want and carry on doing as I do.

The United Kingdom Vineyard Association (UKVA) has come up with some regulations in conjunction with the EU, taking the example of English Sparkling Wine PDO: For the label to say exactly that,  'English Sparkling Wine' or 'Quality English Sparkling Wine' the wine inside the bottle must adhere to the following restrictions:

• be made from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris or Pinot Noir Precoce grown in England
• be bottle-fermented in the traditional method
• riddled and disgorged to remove the yeast
• aged on lees for at least nine months

All well and good, however it is not just with quality in mind that these restrictions were chosen. One might argue that whole bunch pressing is also a key element to quality sparkling wines, as is proscribed in Champagne. This element was not included in the UK regulations much to the surprise of many. Why not? Well, there are certain influential members of the UKVA who crush and de-stem their grapes before pressing (to get more in to each press load? Simply for convenience? Because they feel it produces better quality?). This leads the cynical amongst us to jump to the conclusion that some voices shout louder than others and subsequently get their way.

Whole bunch pressing - an integral element of quality?

It is the age-old clash between diplomacy, politics and real quality; a clash that has bugged nearly all AOCs, DOCs, PDOs as they try to set up and/or modernise. If you alienate the influential members and they drop out, then you dilute the validity of the PDO. If you pander to the influential members then the newcomers and potentially influential winemakers of the future will reject the PDO and its restrictions. Then you get the scenario seen in Tuscany whereby the Chianti DOCG has been unable to modernise because of the old guard within and the young guns who are trailblazing the new style of wines with nothing but quality in mind reject the established system entirely and go ahead with their wines anyway, without DOCG status, charging SuperTuscan prices.

Within the English system, the producer of quality sparkling wine who does not want to jump through the PDO hoops can simply label their wine Quality Sparkling Wine, Product of England. Could any consumer distinguish between this and the PDO option above? The only difference on the label is the exact usage of the word 'English'. It makes a mockery of a very weak regulatory body.

All this having been said, you cannot complain about a system of regulation established and run by your industry if you do not take part in the often boring and tedious process of setting it up. Therefore, simply being a member of your regional association and, by default, a member of the UKVA, is not enough. Go to the meetings, join the committee, shout a little louder and make your voice heard. Sour grapes are never attractive.