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Today, 05 May 2008

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As buyers and critics took part in last week's tastings of a difficult-to-grow 2007 vintage in Bordeaux, producers agreed that modern techniques were changing winemaking. Ten, 20 or 30 years ago this vintage would probably have been a write-off.

"It is true that bad vintages are finished, and that 15 to 20 years ago this vintage would not have happened," said James Gregoire, owner of three Bordeaux chateaux, and the principal shareholder in Vintex, a wholesale wine business which presented about 150 mid-range Bordeaux at a tasting this week.

Gregoire, who recently sold his worldwide agricultural machinery brand of the same name, described 2007 as technical.

"It is a very honourable, technical vintage, but more expensive," he said, referring to the increased costs of production — up by about 30 to 40 percent this year, he estimated — that go hand in hand with new vineyard and winemaking techniques.

"There was a lot of manual work in May and June to get rid of the young shoots and then again in July lots of de-leafing," he said.

As well as pruning and pulling off leaves, both of which increase air circulation in the vines, limiting rot and mildew risks and allowing the sun to get through, there is also increased sorting of the picked grapes.

Taking more risk

Another widespread change is letting the grapes hang in the vineyard longer, said Gregoire. "Producers are more prepared to take the risk of waiting longer to harvest," he said, with the result that grapes are riper and wines richer and less "green" in flavour.

Ludovic David, who runs Chateau Frombrauge in St Emilion said this year was the latest he had ever harvested.

"I started 1 October, eight days later than last year, but it is worth taking the risk to give the tannins a chance to reach full ripeness," he said.

David added that the 2007 vintage was notable for its late harvest without the normally associated high alcohol levels. "The 2007 is very fresh, with alcohol levels of between 12.5 and 13 degrees," he said.

The more generalised use of harvest machinery has also made things more flexible. "You can harvest at night if you have to now," instead of waiting for a team of people to assemble, Gregorie said.

Other factors

Gentler transportation methods for the grapes, plus the now widespread use of temperature control are also major factors.

"In at least 20 percent of Bordeaux chateaux, we move grapes into the vats using gravity instead of pumping them," said Gregoire. The so called gravity method simply means grapes are either lowered into vats, placed below ground level, or hoisted into them using lift systems.

"And about 80 percent of people now use temperature control," Gregoire said.

Keeping temperatures at 25 to 27 degrees centigrade increases the fruit flavours of the wine.

"If it was left by itself it would go up to 30 degrees and more which means harsher wines," he said.

"And just at the end of the fermentation we can let it go up a bit, to extract a bit more flavour if we need to."

Other modern techniques, which producers are sometimes less keen to discuss, include chemical treatments — which on average doubled in 2007 — to combat the mildew, rot and odium, a kind of mushroom, all of which flourished during the wet summer.

Nor are they particularly keen to discuss techniques such as reverse osmosis, used to concentrate unfermented grape juice, micro-oxygenation or adding of selected yeasts, but they too are deployed in the effort to produce ever more attractive wines.

Other 'tricky aspects'?

The other tricky aspects of applying new techniques are, inevitably, their cost, who can afford them, and how they are used. Buyers at one tasting were not sure they had all been successfully deployed in 2007, nor that they had reached all areas.

"I heard it was a very expensive vintage, and I am not sure if they all had the money to do what they needed to do," said Canadian David Hopgood, who buys for over 200 BC Liquor Stores and other distributors in Ontario.

"It is probably true about no more bad vintages, with modern techniques coming into general use since 78, 79 and the 80's," said Boston-based buyer Alfred Sirois. "But for the most part, wines are more drinkable, but not necessarily more pleasurable," he said.

And the idea that bad vintages are over, is of course, not accepted by everyone, nor the suggestion that it might be a good thing.

"What's true is that the troughs and peaks are not as marked as they were," said British wine critic Neal Martin, who now works with American wine guru Robert Parker. "Which might in the end make things less interesting," he said.

And happily for wine buffs, if not producers, the vagaries of the weather still have a role to play in vintage variation.

Bill Blatch, another member of the Vintex team and author of an annual report on harvest conditions, said even with modern methods, without the sudden sunshine in September and October, the 2007 vintage would have been a write-off.

"It was an amazing volte-face," he said. "In spite of everything, maybe somebody up there still likes us."

AFP