Author: Brian Mitchell

Tom Cannavan is an English wine journalist,  blogger, and TV/Radio host.  He recently interviewed Kevin Judd, the owner/winemaker of Greywacke Wines in New Zealand, and I thought I would share a bit of this interview with you.  Kevin Judd was on the scene in the early days (1980s) of modern New Zealand wine-making  and was responsible for helping launch Cloudy Bay wines, which in turn helped to launch New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc on to the world scene.  More recently, Kevin has gone on to create Greywacke Wines, which for my money are some of the best values and best tasting New Zealand SBs out there, as well as some of the best SBs from anywhere in the world, period.

We are currently featuring Greywacke Sauvignon Blanc, 2011, at Max Downtown in Hartford and Max Oyster Bar in West Hartford, and as long as availability holds up I plan to run at other locations throughout the summer months.

You can see Tom’s website here: http://www.wine-pages.com/tom-cannavan.html

Enjoy the interview below – Thanks, Brian Mitchell

Tom Cannavan, 03/13

In 2011 I met up with Kevin Judd in New Zealand and published a little tasting profile of his exciting new project, Greywacke. Winemaker at Cloudy Bay for over two decades, Kevin had launched Greywacke to huge critical acclaim in 2010 as a ‘négociant’ operation, borrowing winery space and using fruit he buys from long-standing friends and associates, all coming from mature vineyards within the central Wairau Plains and the Southern Valleys of Marlborough.

In February 2013 Kevin was in the UK, travelling around the country with his importer, Liberty Wines, and I was delighted to meet up with him for lunch and a tasting of his current releases. Two years on and it is status quo for Kevin terms of his business model, with a seven-wine range, still made in facilities borrowed from Dog Point Vineyards and sourcing fruit mainly from vineyards owned by Ivan Sutherland, ex-Cloudy Bay colleague and co-owner of Dog Point. But much else has changed: the phenomenal success of Greywacke has taken Kevin a little by surprise, with demand for the wines outstripping supply, and now selling in 25 different world markets.

 I asked Kevin why he took the decision to rent cellar space and buy in fruit. With a wry smile he shrugged and confessed “Because I had no money.” Kevin left Cloudy Bay after the 2009 harvest, an important milestone for him as it marked his 25th harvest as winemaker there. His resignation was amicable, but it is pretty clear Kevin had tired of the corporate life (Cloudy Bay is part of luxury goods empire Luis Vuitton Moët Hennessey). “Now I share a lot of the backroom stuff with Dog Point,” he tells me, “but I don’t have all the bureaucracy and big business structure to deal with – it’s me, my wife Kimberley and one assistant doing the paperwork.” He sums it up in six words: “Greywacke has got to be fun.”

 How long the fun can last if Greywacke’s success continues is a moot point, but I also asked Kevin about the fresh winemaking start he had in 2009, quitting Cloudy Bay after 25 years and immediately launching his own label. “When I left Cloudy Bay I wanted to harvest fruit at the riper end of the spectrum, with lower yields, all the fruit on Scott Henry trellises, and doing things a bit differently.” I asked if level of ripeness was the main difference between Cloudy Bay’s iconic Sauvignon Blanc, and his own, but there are other differences: “I ferment 10% in barrel, and we use wild yeasts.” Even more interesting in some ways is the ‘wild’ cuvée of the Sauvignon Blanc, 100% barrel fermented with wild yeasts. “I guess it is somewhere down the same road as Cloudy Bay’s Te Koko,” Kevin explained, “but not as far down.” I also asked if he had thought of adding some Semillon to the blend (as was the case in early vintages of Cloudy Bay), but he was pretty firm in his response: “If we had the right clones we might, but Semillon is too heavy yielding in Marlborough and can be pretty ugly.”

All of Kevin’s fruit is sourced in Marlborough, with no thoughts of taking fruit from other New Zealand districts (“We’re a Marlborough label,” he says emphatically). That includes his Pinot Noir. Given that this operation started with a blank piece of paper, and he could theoretically buy fruit from anywhere, I wondered why he did not consider sourcing Pinot from Martinborough on the North Island, or from Central Otago further down the South Island, both established Pinot hot-spots with huge reputations. “Now that we’ve got the Southern Valleys coming on stream with Pinot in Marlborough, I think we have the potential to grow it as well as anywhere in the country,” says Kevin. The Southern Valleys is a cool sub-region, with silt, gravel and clay soils and a relatively long ripening season. “I think we’re a lot closer to Martinborough in style than Central Otago,” Kevin adds. “We were slow off the mark with Pinot and we planted in the wrong places, but that has changed.”

Kevin’s Chardonnay has been a runaway success, and has given him the headache of sourcing enough fruit of the right quality. “I even placed ads in the local newspapers,” he tells me, “looking for mature vineyards planted with the Mendoza clone, but there’s just nothing about.” The Mendoza Chardonnay clone is famous for its ‘hen and chicken’ habit of uneven sized berries, but Kevin is 100% convinced of its quality in Marlborough. Like the “Wild” Sauvignon Blanc, it is fermented only with indigenous yeasts, whole bunches being vinified in French oak barrels.

Sauvignon Blanc remains Greywacke’s – and Marlborough’s – undoubted headline act, Kevin’s two bottlings accounting for 70% of production. I quizzed him on whether the image of Marlborough Sauvignon had been irreparably damaged by huge, industrial scale plantings and a spate of big harvests, that led to tumbling prices – the nadir hitting £4.99, even £3.99 on promotion a few years ago. “There are still a few of those ‘get rich quick’ operators about,” he admits, but also he believes the steam has gone out of that: “and it’s finite,” he reminds me, “Marlborough has more or less all been planted.”

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by Brian Mitchell

In my wine education plan, Malbec is considered to be one of the “other big six” grape varieties, by which I mean that it is not one of the six most common varietals, but is a significant enough player that we can place it among the very top selling and most important grape varietals to learn about.

Malbec’s traditional home is not Argentina, but in fact is France.  In France, many regions – including the Loire and Burgundy wine areas – would have grown Malbec, but it is in the southwest that it is best known; Cahors being the principle area where the grape is known as Côt.

Today, most people would associate Malbec with Argentina, and specifically the Mendoza region, but why?  In the early and mid-1800s, when many immigrants were leaving Europe and settling in the New World, they would take familiar things with them, such as grapes, in order to reproduce “home” as much as possible.  Argentina has a population

that is 90% European in origin and so wine is huge part of the culture.  Malbec was brought to Mendoza along with many grapes, but the climate is especially suited for this grape.  Mendoza is at a high elevation (3000’+), which means lots of sunshine.  Malbec is a relatively thin skinned grape that ripens on the early side.  This means that by the time the harvest rolls around, the Malbec grapes can be a bit over ripe in both sugars and tannins, and thus produce some intense and even hard wines.

In high elevation growing areas of Argentina, the warm, dry days and cold desert nights allow for the growing season to be extended which in turn allows for full (but slow) ripening of the grape’s sugars as well as the grape’s tannins.  The effect is that the wines made in Argentina are often more juicy and softer than the wines made in France.

Another interesting point about the Malbec grapes of Argentina is that much of the genetic material that is used in Argentina is descended from grapes brought to the country in the early and mid-1800s, well before the plague of phylloxera destroyed much of the European vineyard area.  With Argentina’s relative isolation in the late 1800s and first half of the 1900s, this genetic grape material was not diluted or crossed with outside varietals, and so the grapes growing today are more closely related to the grapes originally grown in France than those grown there today.  This purity of the grape DNA could also account for the difference in styles of wines from the two countries.

Malbec vines are perfectly suited to growing and producing the wine styles in Mendoza and other regions of Argentina.  Fruity but not flabby, smooth tannins, not harsh or heavily astringent, dark fruits flavors that go well with cuisine, especially grilled meats, and a smooth overall style.  Plus the prices are relatively low as the land costs and labor costs are favorable in Argentina.  All of these factors make Malbec a great choice to accompany almost any meal.

Look for these great Malbecs being served at MAX locations…

Trumbull Kitchen offers the Tinto Negro Malbec. Which is a great style produced by two longtime Argentine wine industry pros, each of whom spent many years working together at Catena Zapata.  Dark fruits, fleshy mouth-fell, this is a great style that is easy to drink.

Max Burger in Longmeadow offers the Bodini Malbec, which is imported by one of the top firms working with wines from Mendoza, VineConnections.  Super easy style with a soft, round attack followed by smooth black fruits on the finish.  Great for burgers.

For something a bit more upscale, Max Downtown offers the Bramare Malbec from Vina Cobos, owned and produced by Paul Hobbs, the famed California winemaker who has been making wine in Mendoza for over 20 years.  This wine competes with any of the top wines from the region as well as top wines of the world.  A full but balanced style that is elegant, smooth and very deep with flavor.

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In the 19^th Century, Irish whiskey was one of the most popular whiskey style in the world.  Its lighter style – due to typically being distilled three times – and lack of heavy peat flavors often found in Scotch, made it an enjoyable and even elegant style of whiskey compared to many styles of the time.  Then three things happened to curtail availability and eventually its popularity: World War I, the Irish fight for independence, and Prohibition in the US.

With the outbreak of WWI, much of the shipping and trading of goods was curtailed for obvious reasons, and this resulted in a decline of sales for Irish Whiskey.  Up to WWI, Ireland was part of the British Empire, but then the Irish War for Independence (1919-1921), and resulting independence, cut Ireland off from access to London and the major trading that resulted by being a part of the empire.  ,Irish Whiskey was essentially replaced by Scotch as the favored whiskey of the Empire.  Then with the enactment of Prohibition of alcohol in the US (1920-1933), which was a major market for Ireland due to the vast number of Irish immigrants living in the US, Irish Whiskey was nearly knocked out of existence.  By the end of WWII, the industry was in shambles with the effects of these events lasting even to this day.

Did you know that y the 1960s, Ireland only had 3 commercial distilleries?   Two in the Irish Republic (Midleton and Cooley) and one in the North (Bushmills).  All three produce pot stilled whiskies, while Midleton and Cooley also do grain whiskey in column stills.

Irish whiskey is distilled three times, which is the feature that gives it its lightness and smoothness, especially when compared to Scotch, which is usually double distilled.  The other distinction with Irish whiskey is the use of roasted malted and unmalted barley in the grain mash.  Most whiskey is made using malted barley plus other grains, but few are made with unmalted grains.  The use of these grains contributes to the richness and smoothness of Irish whiskey and is what helps to define it as a world class style along with Scotch and Bourbon.

The other significant distinction between Irish and Scotch whiskey is that many Scotch whiskies rely on peat for flavoring to a certain degree; Irish whisk is almost never peated, thus reinforcing the lightness.

Jameson is the major player, with brands such as Bushmills, Powers, Red Breast, Tyrconnell and Tullamore Dew (to name a few), also being quite popular.  Today there are over 100 Irish whiskey brands on the market with new ones being added each year.

The new interest category for Irish whiskey is the aged category.  By law, all Irish Whiskey must be aged for a minimum of three years before release, but some are aged much longer to increase the smoothness.  Many people look for Scotch and Bourbons that have been barrel aged for many years.  Today, it is possible to find Irish styles that are aged extensively.

Jameson 18 year old and Red Breast 15 year old are just a few examples of this style.  With aging in barrel for such a long time, the whiskies have an opportunity to mellow and take on really complex, smooth qualities that are appreciated by whisky lovers around the globe. 

You can find a top tier of great Irish Whisky at Max Downtown.  We now feature the following:

Jameson 18 year – this is a full-bodied whiskey with rich flavors of sweet oak, vanilla, but hints of citrus and spices build through the complex finish.

Redbreast 15 year – this is a pure pot stilled whiskey, which makes it a throw-back to the great styles of the past.  Wonderful tones of caramel and nuts with spice on the finish, plus a velvety smooth over-all style that is distinctive and delicious. vanilla, but hints of citrus and spices build through the complex finish.

 

Bushmills Black Bush – no age statement here, but a blend of whiskies aged upwards of about 7 years.  What sets this whiskey apart is the wood used for aging – mainly used oloroso sherry casks and bourbon barrels.  The effect is an added intensity of darker flavors, all derived from the richness of oloroso sherry (the fullest and richest style of sherry) along with the toasty sweetness of bourbon.  Complex and lovely.

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Last night, nearly 60 patrons had the pleasure of enjoying a fabulous meal and presentation at Max’s Oyster Bar in West Hartford.  Chef Scott Miller went all out with a round the world assortment of dishes that played off the flavors and styles of the strikingly good brews from Stone.

As our guests entered everyone was given a pretzel lei to enjoy and nibble on while the rest of the guests arrived.

First course was paired with the Stone Levitation Ale, a fabulous style that is a bit easier on the alcohol at 4.5% abv, but big on flavor with rich maltiness and fresh citrusy hops.  Chef Miller paired this with a Hiramasa Crudo (King Fish) with some foie gras powder and freeze dried strawberries.  Our guests knew they were in for a treat last night after seeing this dish.

Coming up next from Stone was the Stone IPA, really their flagship brew and one that is easily identifiable as a classic.  This beer is what IPA, especially West Coast IPA lovers, are looking for.  Full on hops with a smooth undertone of maltiness.  At 77IBUs there is nothing shy about this, but it drinks great and you are

usually not aware of the 6.9% abv.  Chef Miller paired this with a take on a classic Mexican dish called a Chilaquiles, a dish often served in the morning or for brunch as its often meant to use up left-over tortillas and other ingredients.  This was a perfect foil for the Stone IPA, though and with the addition of a soft boiled egg, its was just decadent enough to make you feel really good.  Smoked chorizo was a nice touch as well.

For the third course, the Stone Sublimely Self Righteous Ale was up, and this is one of the fan favorites.  At 8.7% abv and 90 IBUs, there is nothing really being held back with this brew.  Full on hop aromas, rich malt and nutty flavors, though surprisingly clean drinking for such a big brew.  Chef took this intensity of hops in the beer and played off that with a little twist that complimented the flavors and tingled the senses.  Pine needle smoked pork jowl with some lime and an assortment of Vietnamese styled pickles, plus just as the dish was to hit the table we flamed the fresh pine needles to boost the aromatics even more.  Fabulous aromas and taste with this dish.  The whole room smelled of smoky, woodsy pine and hops.

For the entree course guests were treated to a unique take on the “Chicken Fried Steak”, where Chef Miller took a short-rib and wrapped it in chicken skin before cooking.  Bringing the crispness of fried chicken and the richness of well braised short rib together in one satisfying bite.  With the addition of a southern waffles and white gravy, the dish was full-on delicious and flavorful.  For this dish we poured full pints of the Stone Enjoy By 4.10.13, a limited release ale that is only available for a very limited time and then it is gone for good.  Bright and hoppy, this was a smooth and crisp style and paired perfectly with the chicken fried ribs.

I think for me the favorite dish of the evening had to be the last.  This was such a  great combination and both the beer and the dessert were better for the flavors in each.  Chef Miller put together this decadent, but easy to eat combination of baked apples, Caramel and Rogue Creamery Rogue River Blue cheese that was visually and flavor-wise delicious.  The caramel tuile made this look like a million dollar dish, and the taste was right on. Paired wit the Stone Old Guardian 2013, a barley wine style ale clocking in at 11.4% abv, the combination was the perfect way to end a fabulous dinner.  The cheese was perfectly light and heavy at the same time while the beer was sweet and biting.

If you happened to miss this event, Max Restaurant Group will see Stone Brewery again at the Trumbull Kitchen Brewfest on March 16, in Hartford and then again with Wednesday Sampler night at TK in April.  Jeff from Stone always brings out limited and small production stuff when he comes in so don’t miss these great events.

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By Brian Mitchell, Corporate Beverage Director for the Max Restaurant Group

Recently I was asked about a term that comes up quite often in wine education and on wine technical information.  It is a process of production that is used by wine makers to affect the style and feel of wine.  The term is Malolactic Fermentation.

Malolactic Fermentation, or ML for short, is a secondary “fermentation” process that happens to wine if allowed, but is often used purposely to create a certain feel or style to the wine.  Technically this is not an actual fermentation, but the process resembles a ferment due to the fact that carbon dioxide is released, thus the name has stuck since first scientifically described.  We often hear this term associated with Chardonnay wines, but many people do not realize that just about all red wines go through the process.  The reason for this is that ML is a process where malic acids, which are naturally occurring in grapes and which are tart or even harsh depending on the level, is converted to softer lactic acids.  This is done by a bacteria called Lactobacillus and is completely natural. 

Malic acid is present in a lot of fruit, it is one of the fuels fruit-plants use to grow and ripen as well as protect the young fruit from predators.  It has a tart, sharp feel; much like a Granny-Smith apple is tart and crisp.  This is one aspect that gives many crisp white wines their “bite” or edge, as many people describe.  The plant uses the malic acid as energy and converts it to sugar as the fruit ripens.  Often malic acid is present in grapes at harvest – both red and white grapes.  The process of ML ferment then converts the harsh acids to softer (think yogurt) lactic acids.

After the primary (alcohol) fermentation is complete, the winemaker will decide if the wine should go through ML, and if so should all or only a percentage of the wine.  It should be noted that just about all red wine goes through ML.  If this was not the case then the wines could be harsh and challenging to drink – think Beaujolais Nouveau.

With respect to white wine, though, it is the winemaker’s decision to allow all or some of the wine to go through ML.  A young crisp stylistic wine, such as a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, will not see any ML.  The appeal of a wine such as this is that intense freshness that the acid brings to the wine.  Conversely, a full-bodied chardonnay from California might see a lot of ML, which will soften the style, create richness to the feel of the wine on the palate and even give some buttery flavors.  Malolactic Fermentation is a process that is often spoken about but not always understood.  By tasting wines that are using ML to varying levels it becomes much easier to understand and even detect on your own.  Here are some examples to try that have no, partial and full ML.

No Malolactic Ferment

Mohua Sauvignon Blanc, 2011 (Marlborough) – intense crispness and typical pungency of flavors found in Kiwie SBs.  Fresh acidity.  Find this wine at Max’s Oyster Bar

Partial Malolactic Ferment

Stulmuller Chardonnay, 2010 (Alexander Valley) – this wine sees 45% ML, which creates a style that is both rich and bright at the same time.  The acidity giving lift to the wonderful round flavors of the chardonnay.  Find this wine at Max Amore

Full Malolactic Ferment

Jean-Clause Thevent St Veran Clos de L’Hermitage vieille vigne, 2010 (Maconnais) – richness of this chardonnay derives from the age of the vines and from full ML.  Find this wine at Max Downtown and Max Fish

Kistler Chardonnay Sonoma Valley, 2010 (Sonoma) – rich and full, but as this comes from a cool climate region the wine is balanced and elegant.  Definitely for those that like a little bigger style wine.  Find this wine at Max’s Oyster Bar

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