New wine series on Channel 4

by former winemerchant August 23, 2008

Starting 4 September 2008 Channel 4 will be showing a 6-part series about an Englishman’s quest to create a biodynamic wine in the Roussillon in the south of France.

A biodynamic wine is on one level an organic wine, with no added fertilisers or artifical chemicals added to the vineyard or in the cellar, but overlaid with “cosmic” considerations such as the timing of various phases of growing the vine and making the wine are influenced by the phases of the moon and alignment of the planets. The most famous examples are the vineyards of the Coulée de Serrant in the small Loire appellation of Savennieres and a couple of Burgundy vineyards.

There is no consensus as to whether this approach makes any significant difference to the wine, or whether it is just a little quirky!

Top wine critic and author, Monty Waldin, has decided to put his money where his opinionated mouth is and pack it all in to make wine biodynamically in rural France. He has just over a year to turn 5.4 acres into top selling organic wine. Renovating an old cabin on his vineyard so he can babysit his vines 24/7, his only company will be his donkey and occasionally his high maintenance girlfriend Silvana when she jets in from Italy. Regarded by peers as a bit loopy because of his views about Biodynamics, and even as the enfant terrible of the wine world (he’s upset the establishment for his harsh criticisms of the wine industry), Monty’s nonetheless forged a successful career and written several award-winning books…But now he’s abandoning life behind the laptop for a new one making his own wine in the French Pyrenees.

As always there is a book to accompany the series - Chateau Montyand respected wine merchant Adnams is stocking the wines - Monty’s Red 2007, Vin de Pays des Cotes Catalanes - “The aromas of young, herby red fruits and a lively, juicy mouthful of charmingly rustic hedgrow flavours.”

UPDATE:-

There’s an article in the Daily Mail (26 Aug 08) “Grape expectations: Wine critic Monty Waldrin’s French vineyard was not the dream he imagined” - an extracts from his book Chateau Monty include:-

“I also had to start thinking months ahead about how to protect the vineyard from the wild boars before harvest.
Winegrowers here would erect temporary fencing to keep the boars out, and as my grapes began to change colour the boars had begun to take a real interest in the ripening crop.
Every morning I could see fresh hoof prints and topsoil that had been disturbed overnight, while whole bunches had had every grape sucked off as if by a powerful vacuum cleaner.

Jamie Goode, writing in the Sunday Express (17 Aug 08) adds: Think of biodynamic wines as “supercharged version of organic,” he says. Work in the vineyard is fitted in around the alignment of the moon and the planets, and growers claim it has improved the quality of their wine. Some of his recommendations include:-

• 2005 Corralillo Merlot Malbec, Vina Matetic, San Antonio Valley, Chile (£12.49, Majestic)
• 2006 Chapoutier Organic Côtes du Rhône, France (£7.99, Waitrose)
• 2005 Bodega Colomé Estate Malbec, Salta, Argentinia (£14.24, Waitrose)
• 2005 Bertie Collection Syrah, Minervois, France (£7.99, Oddbins)
• 2006 Meinklang Pinot Noir 2006, Austria (£9.25, Vintage Roots)
• 2006 Millton Chenin Blanc Te Arai, Gisborne, New Zealand (£10.99, Vintage Roots)
• 2004 Didier Barral Faugeres “Jadis”, France (£17.30, Les Caves de Pyrene)