A couple of years ago, I wrote a book called Time Tamed. In retrospect it is an ambitious title. Even at the time I realised as much, describing man’s efforts to tame time as being a task as Sisyphean as it is Canute-like. Humankind invented time to make sense of the world around us. It can be argued that an understanding of time – and the ability, however rudimentary, to track it and act according to it – is right up there alongside the ability to fashion tools and communicate using spoken language, as one of the characteristics setting humans aside from the other species with which our planet is shared. In the beginning at least, the extent of our relationship with time was a cognitive reaction to phenomena that permitted the prediction of cyclical seasonal events such as the migration of animals, and later forecasting the effect of variations in terms of temperature and daylight hours on the flowering and fruiting of crops.   The triumph of human intellect, and the beginning of our species’ march to its position at the apex of life on our planet, was to make conscious use of this intellectual edge that allowed us to benefit from the recurring patterns of events foretold by observation of such astronomical phenomena as the rising and setting of the sun, the waxing and waning of the moon, and the lengthening and shortening of the diurnal span. Lunar phases repeat themselves in a cycle of 29½ days; the tropical year as measured, say, from winter solstice to winter solstice (when the day is shortest and night longest) is approximately 365¼ days. The interaction of the solar and lunar calendars, providing, respectively, the year and the 12 months in it, gave us the framework upon which to build civilisation. “If time was conceived as the precise measure of an ordered succession of states, it should come as no surprise to find that its first criterion of measurement in every known civilization should have been the movement of the stars (which is both movement and return, in other words a ‘constant periodical appearance’)”, wrote Umberto Eco. He next posed the rhetorical question: “Even if there were nothing more to time than this, it would still be interesting to ask why, for so many centuries, men measured out the years, the months, and the days, but came so late to measuring hours and minutes. The main stumbling block was the need for mechanically precise instruments to measure them.” Calendars of varying degrees of sophistication have been in use for millennia. In my book, I wrote about a series of 12 fire pits in Scotland that – in conjunction with the known location of sunrise through a mountain pass on the morning of the winter solstice – functioned as a calendar in the Mesolithic period, 10,000 years ago. Compared to that, widely available accurate timekeeping is only a relatively recent phenomenon. Had you asked a medieval peasant the time, he would have probably told you what season it was and, as recently as the mid 19th century, time was measured according to local meridians that gave a local solar noon. Britain, at the time the world’s preeminent industrial power, only got its first real taste of unified national time in 1851, when millions visited the Great Exhibition, travelling from all corners of the Kingdom by trains that ran to a single national time. But in the last couple of centuries the pace has hastened: we have become, as Eco put it, “children of a clock civilization”, and I am sure there are those who would argue that it is from there that many of our problems have arisen.   The industrialisation of time was of particular interest to Karl Marx. “The clock is the first automatic machine applied to practical purposes,” he wrote to Friedrich Engels in 1863, “and the whole theory of production of regular motion was developed on it.” Even though abstract, time had become the ultimate economic commodity. Life became lived according to the maxim ‘time is money’ and with a Gradgrindian myopia we have concentrated on ever smaller divisions of time until we have become not children but slaves of the clock. Time was never tangible, but in the past it linked human experience to the cosmos through the tracking of solar and lunar cycles. The division of time into units that are independent of astral cycles has distanced us from the natural rhythms of life. Division of time into small units standardised around the world has facilitated the synchronisation of activities that enable us to live in our modern world of ‘just-in-time’ production, conurbations with populations of millions, and a network of integrated transport systems that allow us to travel from one side of the world to the other well within the span of a single day. It has taken the recent and as yet unresolved upheaval wrought upon our carefully organised world by the COVID-19 pandemic to reveal the humbling fragility of the system by which we live and regulate our lives. Moreover, one could argue that it is the application of monetised time that is responsible for the ravages that we have perpetrated on our planet in pursuit of our industrial goals. But before we blame the rise of the timepiece for the ills of the world, there is an aspect to watchmaking that can enable us to reconnect with the cosmos in a way that is familiar to those conversant with the world of biodynamic winemaking. So, when the editor of FONDATA suggested biodynamic winemaking as the prism through which to view watchmaking, I was intrigued. Once upon a time, a long time ago, I did work in the wine trade. However, we parted company during the 1980s, some time before biodynamic winemaking became what I believe is called ‘a thing’. Obviously, all readers of FONDATA understand the basic principles of biodynamics, but I needed to undergo a quick crash course in what is just one of the legacies of the quite extraordinarily colourful and at times controversial Rudolf Steiner; the late 19th- and early 20th-century Austrian philosopher, social reformer, writer, educationalist, editor, architect, spiritualist, scientific spiritualist, mystic, Goethe superfan, campaigner for the independence of upper Silesia – and much more besides. He came up with everything from a new, quasi-religious movement called ‘Anthroposophy’, to a new approach to medicine; a new artform, ‘Eurythmy’, to a new form of agriculture, ‘Biodynamics’. Steiner turned his fecund and agile mind to the problem of agriculture in the early 1920s and addressed many of the concerns that we are still grappling with a century later, advocating a sustainable ecologically-oriented approach to farming that eschewed chemical pesticides and fertilisers in favour of natural alternatives and conducting agriculture based on an astronomical and astrological calendar. Steiner is memorable because he could enliven even the relatively practical activity of growing things with woo-woo mumbo jumbo of a level to which even Gwyneth Paltrow can only aspire: for instance, burying manure in a cow horn over winter and then exhuming it; or controlling infestations of field mice by sprinkling fields with the ashes obtained by burning the skin of a “fairly young mouse” obtained “at a time when Venus is in the sign of Scorpio”. And yet, such was the power of his way of thinking that it would be wrong to characterise him as a total crank: Steiner was apparently taken seriously by Hitler as a threat to National Socialism.  But back to wine. Prima facie, there is little to link the joyous celebration and bounteousness of viniculture with the mechanical slicing of hours into minutes, into seconds into milliseconds. However, to view watchmaking as being just about the business of telling the time is to underestimate what is in my opinion one of the most engrossing areas of human ingenuity and creativity, where science, mathematics, mechanics and art meet. I like to think about watchmaking as being connected to the detection and calibration of rhythms and patterns … biodynamic farming is all about rhythms and patterns, especially those of the lunar calendar. In his writings, there are times when Steiner could be writing the script for Star Wars – when he talks of entering into “the forces that regulate growth, crucially the ‘fully-evolved Moon-force’”.  The Biodynamic Association uses less picturesque language to summarise the approach, saying that the philosophy of biodynamic farming is founded on “the influences of the moon, planets and constellations on plant growth”. “Each month the moon moves through all twelve constellations of the zodiac in turn. This is referred to as the moon’s sidereal cycle and forms the basis of the biodynamic calendar. Although the waxing and waning (synodic) cycle is the most well-known lunar rhythm, it plays a small part in this calendar.” The indication of moon phases has long been a feature of watchmaking, and even if knowing whether one is living under a waxing gibbous moon is not of primary importance to most of us, the function is undeniably decorative when artistically transferred to a watch face – the moon disc, often decorated with a background of stars, making a complete rotation once every 29½ days. Watches with more advanced astronomical functionality feature sidereal time as well. And this year, the long-established watchmaker Jaeger-LeCoultre demonstrated that it is capable of getting seriously cosmological. To celebrate the 90th anniversary of its famous Reverso model, it released the world’s first four-sided watch, the Hybris Mechanica Quadriptyque. As its name suggests the Reverso flips over to reveal its back. Initially conceived as a protective measure, more recently the back has been used to display other information (another time zone for instance). Now, the cradle in which the watch sits on the wrist has also been mechanised to offer two further planes for display – much in the way that one can connect multiple screens to a single computer rather than having to be constantly opening and closing windows. And Jaeger’s watchmaking wizards have turned faces three and four into a banquet of lunar information.  On the interior face of the cradle there are three displays giving the synodic cycle in the northern hemisphere, the draconic cycle (the height of the moon) and the anomalistic cycle (apogee and perigee, when the moon is respectively furthest from and nearest to the Earth), while the fourth side of the watch gives the synodic cycle in the southern hemisphere.   It sounds like an observatory on the wrist and according to the makers: “the Hybris Mechanica Quadriptyque can predict the next global incidence of astronomical events such as supermoons and eclipses – the world’s first wristwatch to provide such a deep reading of the cosmos.” I imagine even Steiner would be impressed especially as in biodynamic circles cosmological connections are crucial. Biodynamic agricultural activity is governed by knowledge of the behaviour of celestial bodies: ascending moon days favour certain agricultural activities while other tasks are better performed on descending moon days. Eclipses, apogee, perigee, and new moons all have their associated agricultural messages for the biodynamic farmer.   “It’s connected into the cosmos,” explains Philippa Hegarty of Hegarty Chamans, a vineyard in the foothills of the Montagne Noire in the Minervois. “We find an explanation that people respond to is; if the Moon has such a strong tidal influence then it can certainly move sap up and down a vine and that’s what we work with at different times of the year.” Providing timing of the movement of the tides is another function that the mechanical clock or watch can perform; indeed it is one of the oldest, predating the minute hand, the second hand, the wristwatch and even the pocket watch. The provision of times of high tide by a mechanical timepiece can be traced back to the 14th century and the famous Astronomical Clock designed by Richard of Wallingford, Abbot of St. Albans – which as well as showing the fixed stars and charting the movements of the sun and moon (complete with ecliptic nodes – another important feature for biodynamic winemakers) gave the times of the tides at London Bridge.   In fact, the technical leap forward accomplished by clockmakers in the 14th century rivals that of computer networks in our own time: at the end of the 13th century time was still being told by clepsydrae (like an hour glass but with water instead of sand) and by the middle of the following century, man was mapping the cosmos using mechanical machines of unimaginable complexity. If Giovanni de Dondi’s Astrarium of 1364 looks a little like a lunar landing module, then that was not the only thing it predicted. About a metre high and standing on protruding feet, the Astrarium featured seven panels with dials that showed the movements of the sun, moon and the then-known planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Further dials indicated dates of fixed and moveable religious feast days, the intersections of the solar and lunar orbits, and time of sunrise and sunset. In comparison, the 24-hour clock seems prosaic, almost otiose. Another common feature of these miracle machines of the Middle Ages was the zodiac. Rather than being relegated to the horoscope section of the tabloid press, astrology was as much of a science as astronomy, and a medieval megaclock could not take itself seriously without a dial or two depicting the signs of the zodiac. The celebrated Three Kings Clock of Strasbourg Cathedral was no exception. As well as its astrolabe dial, ecclesiastical calendar, carillon mechanism that filled the air with religious music, and the automata that replicated the nativity, an illustrated panel linked signs of the zodiac to body parts, connecting human health with the movements of the celestial bodies, thus indicating propitious or hazardous times for that key medical procedure of the times: bloodletting. The influence of the zodiac constellations is an important part of the biodynamic playbook. “Since ancient times the twelve zodiac constellations have been associated with each of the four elements: earth, water, air and light,” observes the Biodynamic Association. “Three constellations are connected to each element, and each element is related to a part of the plant: thus, Earth – root; water – leaf; air – flower; fire – fruit.” “For example, for sowing or harvesting carrots, an earth – root day should be chosen; for lettuce, a water – leaf day; for beans and apples, a fire – fruit day; and for flowers and broccoli, an air – flower day.” As the example of the Jaeger-LeCoultre Hybris Mechanica Quadriptyque shows, thanks to the technological advances that have accrued during the last 20 or 30 years, the miracle of modern mechanical watchmaking is that it is able to miniaturise cosmological functions and place them on the wrist. Recent years have seen some truly spectacular wristwatches enter the market. Patek Philippe’s double-faced Sky Moon Tourbillon is regarded as one of the trophies of modern watchmaking: featuring minute repeater with ‘cathedral gongs’; tourbillon; perpetual calendar with retrograde date hand; day, month, leap year in apertures; hours and minutes of mean solar time; moon phases; and on the reverse, moon-focused watch face, sidereal time, sky chart, and phases and orbit of the moon. Van Cleef & Arpels caused a stir when it released a watch that condensed the workings of a planetarium onto the wrist with a watch charting the movement of the five planets visible to the naked eye from Earth: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn; each planet orbiting on its own disc in its real rotation time. Blancpain, meanwhile, has tackled the notoriously complex lunisolar Chinese calendar to create a watch that displays the ten celestial pillars, the five celestial elements, the phases of the moon, the animal associated with the year and the date as given by the Gregorian calendar. I am neither watchmaker nor winemaker, but given the approaching centenary of Steiner’s 1924 series of agricultural lectures which gave birth to biodynamics, now might be a propitious time to consider a mechanical timepiece that displays the cosmological information pertinent to biodynamic viticulturists and farmers. This article was originally published in FONDATA, Issue Two.

Author and writer Nicholas Foulkes reflects on how modern horological advances are resulting in some exquisitely made timepieces that look to display increasingly complex celestial information pertinent to a surprising demographic – biodynamic farmers.

Delve into the intricate connection between humans and time. From celestial rhythms to watchmaking marvels, uncover the ties that bind.

Exploring Humanity's Complex Relationship with Time

Celestial Movements 

Wine, though the most intimate of pleasures, lends itself to the most expansive of texts. We drink wine most often – tastings aside – in pairings of two, or in lonesome but agreeable solitude, and, its narcotic pleasure being felt internally, we feel its effects as we feel a fever: almost secretly, in shivers. Though wine is like sex in its intimacy, unlike sex, the form in which we fetishise wine – our vine erotica – is not hushed and illicit but encyclopedic. On the shelves of any wine drinker, there are likely to be catalogues, dictionaries organised by region, old Parker buying guides some 600 pages long that somehow, though dated, can’t be discarded.  Wine seems singular among human pleasures in this. We don’t, as a rule, rush from reading a poem to great anthologies of poetry, or add to the savour of seeing a play by reading a big atlas of dramatic literature – not, at least, after we graduate from school. Sports fans, it’s true, like big books of statistics, but then sports-watching is a social act in the first instance – the more people in the stands, the merrier the occasion. With wine, we like the macro with our micro: with a solitary glass in hand, we look, in print, over the next hill, or the current vintage, at the vineyard across the way, or the vintage yet to come. It’s part of the pleasure the glass provides. The reasons for this micro and macro turn are, on reflection, commercial and artisanal as much as aesthetic. The business of wine needs a big picture of its domain, its resources, and its potential market – scale sets the stage for commerce. The makers of wine like to place themselves on a broader map of where wine is and what it’s made with. The great Bordeaux classification of 1855 is not just the noblest public monument to a beverage ever attempted, but a model of market-making and even market price-fixing. Once a hierarchy of growths has been established, it is easy to slot in the price tags. But there is a truth of taste beneath the ordering of value. With wine, we know that what we are experiencing is, however singular, still an intersection of opposed forces – as the peerless wine writer Jancis Robinson MW says of her first glass of Chambolle-Musigny 1959; “I knew at once that there was something in the glass that was sensually delicious but that it was also made, produced, and therefore suggested a history of intellect and discernment.” The pleasure of wine is the crossing of a place, a grape and a people; and so, we turn to the big books to frame the small pleasures.  What distinguishes wine from even a good glass of ale or a local brew is the specificity of the pleasure set against the scale of the system that made it – one that historically embraces the planet. It’s a First Growth, or a domaine Burgundy, or a Ridge Zinfandel or a New Zealand Pinot Noir made to a Burgundy model by American wine makers … the more we know, the more we’re free to feel. Most sensory pleasures are specific to the point of being illicit – aside from the bemused fetishist, romance is a spontaneous pleasure, often aided, to be sure, by a systematic wine. Wine is premeditated; we choose a bottle, let it ripen, and break it open. Even casual table drinking has a tale to tell, a journey to trace on a map. These thoughts are brought to mind in contemplation of Wine Grapes, the monosyllabically titled but unprecedentedly expansive dictionary of grape varieties grown to be crushed and fermented on this green planet. Authored by Robinson, along with Julia Harding MW and the geneticist Dr José Vouillamoz, it marks an epoch – several epochs – in our understanding of wine, from both a professional planet-straddling and an amateur glass-in-hand perspective. A book of its time (published in 2012), it was made possible, in part, by a revolution in the DNA analysis of wine grapes to help discover their origins and histories.  The DNA profiling of wine grapes only began in 1993, and the first ‘paternity test’ successfully concluded in 1997 – a mere few days ago by historical perspective – with specialists, Dr Vouillamoz among them, drawing astonishing Darwinian lines among seemingly unrelated grapes. Zinfandel, it has been discovered in the last 40 years, is not only the Siamese twin of Primitivo, but its Croatian Siamese twin. In proper Darwinian fashion, the book tells us, “It looks increasingly as though an enormous proportion of the grapes we know today are members of a few key families.”  The leading families of wine, Pinot and Nebbiolo and the rest, like the leading houses of Westeros, jostle and engage in incestuous inter-breeding as they move towards dominance. As Jancis Robinson admits, the quest for the origins of grapes can become surprisingly emotional. “The Zin quest is so … heated. There was a Zinfandel conference in Croatia, with all the great Zin makers, even Joel ‘King of Zin’ Peterson from Ravenswood, and we all had to present our various things about Zinfandel. There was a small cohort of people from Montenegro who reckoned that their variety – whose name is unpronounceable – was the true progenitor of modern Zinfandel, not the Croatian one. It became so … Balkan! And you know what? They may be right!” Wine Grapes is of its time in another sense as well, marking the moment when we have started to think of wine not solely in terms of region, but much more in terms of variety, with the semi-mystical term ‘terroir’ acting as a kind of Holy Spirit between them. Thinking ‘grape’ more than ‘place’ releases our imaginations. The wholesome instructive pleasures of the book, to which we’ll come, shrink beside the unwholesome, guilty pleasures of turning the pages to meet the failures among grapes – the near-misses, the long-forgotten and forlorn lost toys – which please more than the patterns of primacy. The pleasure of reading about the grapes whose juice we do drink is nothing compared to reading about those we don’t. In dictionaries, oddities and parentheses fascinate us more than the major entries. No one turns to the dictionary to study ‘and’; we go to study ‘antediluvian’. So, turning these pages, flipping through the P’s on our way to encounter the great Pinot families, we come upon the lesser gods, even the little misshapen gnomes and dwarves of the wine world, and we delight in meeting them. (A fascination added to by the forthright sub-heads the editors provide.) On our way to Burgundy and Pinot Noir, we also meet Pinotin, a ‘recent obscure Swiss hybrid’ which edges into Pionnier, ‘a minor but complex, cold-hardy American hybrid used in blends in Québec’, and, of course, Pinotage ‘South Africa’s very own cross, both loved and despised’, which leads us on to Pugnitello and even Pukhliakovsky (a Russian variety ‘with erratic yields producing light wines’) and even unto Pules – ‘a minor Albanian white’. Radiating out from five pages on the major Merlot, we bump into Merseguera, ‘an uninspiring variety’ from Spain, and Merzifon Karasi, and Merzling, dismissed as a ‘very minor disease-resistant German hybrid’. Why these lost or obscure kinds of grapes bring so much delight with them is a fascinating question. It has in part to do with our general appetite for oddities and obscurities, which once produced ‘freak shows’ and still makes us fascinated with archaic musical instruments: we are curious to hear the sackbut because we want to know what led to the trombone. It is also the virtuous case that variety is the safeguard of continuity. In an age of ever-decreasing biodiversity with just a few varieties taking the place of many possibilities, one Quixotic California winemaker, driving through the fields of Cabernet and Chardonnay, dismissed them all – with a wave of the hand – as “chocolate and vanilla, chocolate and vanilla”.  The health of the planet is safeguarded by the persistence of so many kinds. It is also because the existence of these minor yet still thriving varieties gives us a satisfying picture of adaptation, the central biological act. Each of these grapes has found a home in the world. It may not be much of a home, but then neither, face the facts, is ours. We identify with the unknown grape. We are all more like a very minor disease-resistant German, or a cold-hardy Québec hybrid, than we are something noble and complicated. Few of us are bottles of Burgundy; we can all identify as minor Albanian whites. In conversation, Jancis Robinson, sheltering at home near Kings Cross in London, a home with a view of a graveyard (though a cheerful one she assures an interviewer) – talks of the wine almanac with the blunt enthusiasm that marks her writing. Robinson, in addition to her obvious honours and credentials, is a rare thing in the wine world, or any world: a writer who writes with equal parts brio and expertise. She explains the origins of Wine Grapes. “What happened was that one of the co-authors, Dr José Vouillamoz, who had been at University of California, Davis, felt that he needed to earn more of a living, and came back to Switzerland and got a job working on Alpine botanicals. But he didn’t want to lose his relationship with wine, and he came to me and said that he’d like to collaborate on a book about grape varieties. I’d already written one in 1986, based on our very fractional knowledge then.  Over lunch, I took along Julia Harding, a wine writer who works on my website. She’s extremely punctilious.” (Robinson, punctilious herself, says this with such emphasis that the listener feels that, with Harding, we must be talking about new frontiers, not to say dimensions, in punctiliousness.) “She had exactly the right sort of brain for a project like this. José suggested that we focus on the 10 or 12 most planted grape varieties to help simplify it. I thought that that book didn’t sound interesting enough. I waited until we were quite far down a bottle of Valpolicella and said, ‘I think our book should be about every single grape variety we can find.’ He gulped and said, ‘Then that’s what we shall do!’” The idea of creating a ‘perfect map’ of a subject is one of the itches that govern modern life. John James Audubon set out to describe not the major but every bird and beast in North America, and that’s what he did. Similar ‘almanacs of everything’ fill our botanical and anthropological shelves. It is an ambition so tied to modernity that in the mid-19th century, Lewis Carroll perfectly satirised it in his novel, Sylvie & Bruno, where two mad professors talk about their dream of making a map that would be on a one-to-one relation to the actual world – utterly perfect, if impossible to unroll. “I loved the scale of the thing,” Robinson says of her perfect map. “So, we carved things up: José did all the DNA stuff and history because he had good access to it, Julia, bless her, did the footwork – how much of each grape is planted where – while trying to taste as many as possible, too! And I wrote the entries on the best-known varieties, and the introduction and read every single word.  As with any dictionary, we used what came before: we went through appellation lists, with all of the varieties allowed, some of them almost extinct. A nice little detail of the book is that we persuaded the publisher that it should have some colour plates, and we were particularly keen to include the plates from the world’s first oenological book, L’Ampélographie: Traité Général de Viticulture, of 1901 … just out of copyright!” She pauses. “Of course,” she adds reflectively, “it was José, naturally, who discovered that Pinot and Syrah are related.” The offhand nature of her mention can’t conceal the significance of the remark. Of all the discoveries offered in the book, this is perhaps, for the amateur wine drinker, the most exemplary and astonishing. Painstakingly tracing the DNA heritage of the varieties, these two noble houses, Syrah and Pinot – the grapes of the Rhône Valley and those of Burgundy, the heart of Côte-Rôtie and the soul of Chambertin – are unified as cousins. This happened not through willed cultivation but in the natural evolutionary way: through variation and adaptation. Initially, the elegance of Pinot Noir was transformed through the usual evolutionary pressures of place and mutations, into the earthy pleasures of Syrah.  Chance mutation and lucky planting turned one grape into its near opposite. (‘Cross-fertilisation’, we’re told, ‘was common until the early 20th century because several grape varieties were often intermixed in the vineyards, facilitating natural crossings between distinct grape varieties’.) The phylloxera epidemic in France from the 1860s on – though it did not destroy as much as is sometimes thought – acted as a kind of sieve or filter of grape varieties, a sort of extinction event in large-scale natural history, forcing hard choices and making obscure varieties less desirable to save by root grafting with New World vines.   One virtue of the book is to propose, in effect, a new order of wines by celebrating ‘secondary’ grape varieties. “For me, among the obscure wines, something about as well-known as Cinsault stands out – it can make such lovely wines,” Robinson says. “There’s been such a sea change as the century turned. Everybody once wanted to make fruit bombs to one of three standard recipes. Then in this century, higher acidity, lighter wines are finally revaluing, and so Cinsault comes into its own. “Sometimes I come across a grape that isn’t well known but that’s so obviously superior. There’s Aglianico – the name suggests it’s Greek, though no Greek variety has ever been found and you only get it in Southern Italy. Perfect for late ripeness, and not for cool climates – and now it has travelled to Australia, where they’re desperate for hot weather varieties.  The whole array of Portuguese and Greek grape varieties are so fantastic! And so individual. And I love that after a dalliance with international varieties, both countries are now celebrating their own. There’s another white grape, an Iberian variety that’s stunning, and, again, I’m not sure it’s yet been planted much: Godello! It’s a bit crass to say it makes wines that taste like Montrachet, if a little more terroir-y and mineral … but it does. I could drink Cinsault for red and Godello for white into the next century. “There’s such a gap nowadays,” Robinson goes on, “between the Napa Cab thing, and these young people who are buying unknown grape varieties that sell for a fraction of the price, that are really good. Such a lot has happened in the field of recuperating old vines, some so obscure that they don’t even have a name. Miguel Torres, the scion of that great company in northeast Spain became very interested in grapes.  At first, he said, ‘Hey Dad, we need the posh varieties, Cabernet and Chardonnay’ – and made all these wines which did well in the Judgement of Paris. But, with time, he realised that it made more sense to concentrate on the indigenous varieties. He’s been engaged for 30 years, putting classified ads in the local press – ‘If you know of a wine grape that you can’t identify, let us know of it, and – if we think we can propagate out – we’ll do micro-vinification.’ He’s actually rescued Catalan varieties that were on the brink of disappearing; I think he found 30 varieties, and recuperated eight for micro-vinification with sufficient character to give them a new lease of life. And much the same thing has been happening all over Italy. If we published the book today, we’d be up to at least 1,500 kinds of grapes.” The great sorting question of our time, of course, is the question of climate change and its effects on wine cultivation. Robinson is cautiously hopeful about Burgundy. “I was lucky enough to go there and spend some time. The 2020 harvest is the earliest ever, at least since the 14th century. But, whereas the 2003 vintage, that legendary hot summer in France, produced wines that were pretty bizarre, the 2019s seem as fresh as a daisy, with pure fruit. I’m no plant biologist, but the vines seem to be getting used to the conditions … or the winemakers are. They’re not extracting as heavily, but, given that, there’s no sign of added acidity (it’s routinely added in the southern hemisphere), the acidity is coming from the grapes as well. Even some real old Burgundy hands, when you ask why the wines are so fresh, say, ‘I really don’t know.’” About the Southern Rhône, though, she is more pessimistic. “They’re not helping themselves in the Southern Rhône: too many are trying to make concentrated, high alcohol, 16% wines. And maybe consultants are too powerful down there – one consultant can be responsible for 20 or 30 labels, and so you’re going to have 20 or 30 wines that reflect that.” It’s here, though, that the knowledge of grapes, and our possession of this specialist dictionary, seems particularly valuable. If wine is to save itself from the vagaries of climate change, it will probably be through the introduction and new use of ‘marginal’ or forgotten ‘heirloom’ grapes. Only recently, France’s Institut National de l’Origine et de la Qualité (INAO) officially approved six new varieties: four red grapes – Arinarnoa, Castes, Marselan, and Touriga Nacional; and two whites – Alvarinho and Liliorila – all described as ‘well-adapted to alleviate hydric stress associated with temperature increases and shorter growing cycles’, potential saviours of the region against the villain of global warming. All of them, of course, are charted and explicated in Wine Grapes.

In the end, the great strange truth of wine is the truth of life: a thousand vectors press down on us at once – place, history, time, temperature, luck and breeding – and somehow in the intersection we find, or make, our pleasures. The question of type and variation was very different before Darwin who wrote, oddly (or perhaps not so oddly) almost simultaneously with the great classification of Bordeaux, publishing On the Origin of Species in 1859.  (Oddly because his theory would have been true in any other time; not so oddly because the urge to map the world, for the ‘almanac of everything’, was typical of mid-19th century confidence, as Carroll’s satire suggests.) Before Darwin, who loved wine, the fundamental view of the world was that the superintending categories, species and varieties, were the fixed things in the world. Everyone took it for granted that the ‘kind’ the ‘essence’, was the real thing and all the little variants merely particular shades away from it. A grape was a better or worse instance of its variety. Grapes, like apes, were of one fixed sort. Darwin’s great overriding insight was that only particulars exist, and that species and superintending categories are the labile and ever-changing kinds. Every kind of living thing came from somewhere weird and is on its way to somewhere weirder, with a brief stopover at being the thing it is now. The elegance of Pinot Noir is a close cousin of the earthiness of Syrah, one state is simply a moment in the life of the other, and each are moments in the life of the surging, unfixable whole. Wine, braiding through the planet and only coming to rest on a name for a moment in one place, is a bit of scientific epistemology in your glass, the truth of the particular made potable. It’s a fine destiny for a simple pleasure. This article was originally published in FONDATA, Issue One Photography by Gavin Bond; floral set design by Studio Lupine

Essayist and author Adam Gopnik takes a look at the world of wine through the lens of seminal wine-lover’s bible, Wine Grapes, and talks to one of its three co-authors, Jancis Robinson MW about the joy of discovering long-forgotten indigenous grape varieties

Adam Gopnik talks to Wine Grapes co-author Jancis Robinson MW about the joy of discovering long-forgotten indigenous grape varieties

FONDATA: Pleasure in the detail

Pleasure in the detail

Schrader Cellars is one of Napa’s most decorated producers. The estate’s approach of pairing specific clones with the perfect site to produce the ultimate expression of Napa Cabernet has made it a critics’ darling – and the property is behind some of the most coveted fine wines on the market. To date, Schrader has received an astounding 35 100-point scores.  Schrader Cellers founder Fred Schrader and the estate’s winemaker Thomas Rivers Brown are huge fans of the To Kalon vineyard in Napa’s Oakville and much of the production from Schrader is concentrated on this single site, such is the obsession with the place and conviction in its quality.   To Kalon is home to some of Napa’s oldest vines and best Cabernet Sauvignon. There are more 100-point wines to originate from this vineyard than any other on the planet and many famous names have built their reputation on it. Schrader bottles different clones of Cabernet Sauvignon from this site, highlighting the nuance and personality that Napa Cabernet can achieve.  Stylistically, Schrader’s wines are immense, opulent and plushly textured, underpinned by elegant power. Schrader is high-octane Napa at its finest. It is immediately clear tasting through the range that these are precise wines. High alcohol, high levels of oak, high levels of concentration are all potential red flags when it comes to wine faults (these wines being much more volatile), but these Schrader bottlings are as clean as a whistle.   With a total production of just 2,500 to 4,000 cases each year, this is meticulous winemaking at its finest. It means winemaker Thomas Rivers Brown and his team can keep these high-octane wines protected from potential faults throughout fermentation and élevage, never losing the fruit clarity that so clearly defines these wines.  RBS is made entirely from the Cabernet Clone 337 from Beckstoffer To Kalon. Jason Smith – Schrader’s in-house Master Sommelier – explains that this clone is their most fruit-driven; it can achieve phenomenal levels of ripeness and is known for its bright, fruit-forward style. Tasting the 2017, the wine is super intense, though the power is measured, pulsing with energy that builds beautifully on the palate. The purity of fruit is impressive and the fruit flavours mesh so well with the new oak tones, while a distinct red fruit character dominates. It is beautifully balanced, despite its opulence. Due to Clone 337’s natural style, it spends less time in new oak – around 18-19 months.  CCS is made from Clone 4 Cabernet – also known as the Mendoza clone – in To Kalon. Clone 4 is known for its density on the mid-palate and is much more tannic and extracted than the RBS. The wine really does have a denser core and more intensity compared to Clone 337. The fruit character is also darker and much more brooding. The 2018 still has more to give and is a little clenched at the moment. The warmer 2018 vintage also would potentially emphasise that, but this is also the characteristic of the clone, built for longer ageing.  The Heritage Clone cuvée is made with Clone 31 – the original clone planted by Robert Mondavi in To Kalon. The 2019 is a breath-taking wine. This is perhaps partly due to 2019 being an incredibly expressive vintage, but what is most notable is how the intensity is matched by overriding freshness. The balance of concentration and acidity from Clone 31 (at least in this vintage) really gives the wine a distinct character. It is stunning – and the length is really quite something. Old Sparky is Schrader’s top cuvée – a mix of Fred Schrader’s favourite blocks from To Kalon curated and blended differently each year. To taste the 2012 out of magnum, a wine now with some bottle age, was a rare treat, but also confirmed the precision at work at Schrader. After 10 years in bottle the wine has fully unfurled, the tannins bring structure but are open-knit. The depth is extraordinary. There are the first signs of tertiary development but the aromas are still so pure. It is a heavenly bottle and such is its balance that it is going to age effortlessly, but why resist this any longer, it is perfect now.   Contrasting the three clonal wines side by side, it is undeniable that each of the wines have quite different personalities considering they are all Cabernet from the same vineyard and made by the same winemaker. When it comes to personality, the Heritage Clone bottling really stands out, but matches the other bottlings for its plushness and amazing fruit clarity. Old Sparky, as a blend of clones, also shows how well they can work together. Understanding the effects different clones have on wine flavour, structure, concentration and ageing potential is one more aspect to a wine’s make-up that, while not often so publicly addressed as with Schrader’s bottlings, has played an instrumental part over the last 20 years in building fine wine’s complexity.  The latest vintage from Schrader is released each autumn. Find out more about the estate and browse all current listings of back-vintages, or read more about California 

Top Napa estate Schrader Cellars has championed the use of individual clones of Cabernet Sauvignon in its quest for quality. Tasting through the range with the property’s own Master Sommelier Jason Smith, we explore how these pioneering wines have won the hearts of oenophiles around the world

Talking to Master Sommelier Jason Smith about Schrader Cellars’ use of single-clone To Kalon Cabernet Sauvignon to make the finest Napa wine

Clonal Cabernet Sauvignon with Schrader Cellars

Talking clonal Cabernet with Schrader Cellars

We have unearthed an absolute gem in the guise of Rosso della Centa, a 100% Merlot wine grown on just one hectare of a distinct marl clay hillside in Friuli, Italy. The wine is the creation of one of Italy’s top winemakers Nicola Manferrari who first produced the wine in 1985 and has gone on to release it only in top vintages, producing just 1200 bottles per vintage. 

As we have managed to source a small parcel of Rosso della Centa 2010, we explore the history of this incredible and rare wine.  Friuli ranks highly among Italy’s finest regions for white wine production, producing some of the most vibrant, mineral, saline whites on the planet. The global reputation of the top wines of Friuli continues to grow, gaining fans throughout the world and firmly positioning it on the global fine wine map.   Whilst more famous for their white wines, top grower Nicola Manferrari has a very special one-hectare plot dedicated to red wine. On taking over the family vineyards in 1982, Nicola was not happy with the quality of wine coming from this Merlot site. So much so he took to studying French and French winemaking to learn the secrets of Bordeaux and then apply these techniques to his own wine, to get the best out of this unique site. He states that François Champagnol’s Elements de physiologie de la vigne was one of the most intellectually stimulating reads of his life. Nicola Manferrari is one of Friuli’s original trailblazers. Along with Mario Schiopetto, Josko Gravner and Silvio Jermann, Manferrari was just one of a handful of producers in the 1980s who had the vision and courage to follow his convictions.

He experimented with the 1982,’83 and '84 vintages before he was happy with the techniques he had adopted and, matched with the perfect weather, managed to produce something exceptional, releasing the inaugural Rosso della Centa in the 1985 vintage. Nicola was confident that he could create the first world-class red wine from the region and was not swayed by his neighbouring premium sites opting to plant Cabernet Sauvignon rather than Merlot. But for Nicola he believed the Merlot was perfect for the clay and collio marl soils in which Cabernet Sauvignon struggled.   The ’85 was a critical success, described by the critics as the "First Great Friuli Red". Other greats of the region include Enzo Pontoni of Miani fame and Christian Patat from Ronco del Gnemiz have followed in his footsteps making incredible Merlots from the Friuli region.
Nicola Manferrari continued to improve the wine buoyed by its critical acclaim, further reducing the yield, increasing the vine density (more than 7000 hectares per hectare), introducing shorter pruning techniques, using no fertiliser and complete grassing in the vineyards to improve the soil health. The wine is fermented in small 12 hl wooden vats and are matured in small oak barriques for four years. Only the finest vintages are released as Rosso della Centa. 
In the summer of last year Monica Larner (Wine Advocate) had the opportunity to taste some more recent vintages of Rosso della Centa. “Looking over my scores, I can't help but notice how consistent they are across vintages and varieties. Results like these are hard to achieve, but not at Borgo del Tiglio. She goes on to describe the ’06 as “musical and operatic in character… there is complete harmony and silkiness here in another gem from Borgo del Tiglio’s cellar”.

"Nicola Manferrari and his family have been working tirelessly since the 1982 vintage to become a benchmark for winemaking in Friuli Venezia Giulia." Monica Larner, Wine Advocate 

Larner did not have the opportunity to taste the mythical 2010 but we pulled a cork on it this week to find out how the wine has developed and we were blown away by the quality. This is a superb rendition retaining everything that is great about Italian wine – the acidity, freshness, dried floral notes and herbal spice along with all the greatest assets of fine Merlot – the rich expansive multi-layered tannins that provide tremendous depth on the palate and the rich mid-palate juiciness full of black fruits and now with age a beguiling leather and earthy savoury notes. The wine has tremendous energy whilst showing handsome tertiary development and to retain so much acidity in a grape that often lacks it underscores just how fantastic this wine is. 

Nicola believes this steep southwest slope of marl and sandstone is perfectly adapted for his old vine Merlot providing a marked elegance and complexity in his Rosso della Centa. The 2010 certainly reflects this and with only 1200 bottles produced virtually impossible to find. This is a unique parcel unlikely to be seen again and is entering into a beautiful drinking window. This wine is a piece of Italian winemaking history and one for any afficionado not to miss. 

It is always difficult to put fine wine into words but Nicola Manferrari’s philosophy outlined on his website gives possibly the greatest insight into this pioneering spirit of Friuli:
“I believe that in effect, the path I have followed has left its mark on the character of my wines which have, according to many, their own maker’s trademark. Over the last twenty years, I have transformed, studied and debunked certain common beliefs and have also overcome - while allowing plenty of room for the sacrilegious power of empirical observation – some of my own personal taboos. I have observed, researched and innovated in the face of hypocrisy and prejudice. 

"Often, however, while doing this I have unwittingly renewed ties with ways of the past which were interrupted by a modernity which had lost all sense and memory. It was probably my unorthodox approach to the world of wine that has guided my choices, meaning this also includes my checkered educational history; I was at the same time a child of scientific teachings and an orphan of technology. This has taught me to take absolutely nothing for granted, and the words of Galileo, which accompany me wherever I go, have taught me to be humble when facing all situations, and to be dignified when dealing with people.” 

Explore more Editorial

Whilst more famous for their white wines, one of Friuli's top growers, Nicola Manferrari, has a very special one-hectare plot dedicated to an incredible and rare world-class Merlot, Rosso della Centa Friuli 

We explore the history of the incredible and rare world-class Merlot Rosso della Centa Friuli 

Rosso della Centa, the first great Friuli red

Rosso della Centa: The first great Friuli red

The Macallan is one of Scotland's most popular whisky distilleries and its rare aged bottlings have become some of the world’s most collected and expensive whiskies on the planet. Founded back in 1824 it has been a stalwart of Highland whisky ever since. More recently it has been at the forefront of the Scotch whisky revival and its 1926 release hit the headlines all over the world by becoming the most expensive whisky bottle sold at auction for an astronomical $1.9 million dollars. The Macallan's history 
The Macallan distillery was founded in 1824 by farmer Alexander Reid and became one of the few licensed distilleries following the Excise Act of 1923. In 1868, James Stuart took over the distillery and rebuilt it. Stuart ran the site until 1892, when Roderick Kemp, a distilling giant who previously owned the Talisker distillery, took over and led the distillery to success.  Kemp’s ancestors managed the distillery for over a century, until 1994 when the Highland Distillers Group took ownership. Finally, in 1999 the Edrington Group took control and Macallan led the company to unprecedented growth. Most recently, in January 2020, Suntory, a long-time partner of Edrington, acquired a 10% share in the group.  Through well-placed advertising, marketing, and brand-building, The Macallan has managed to draw in young professionals to the brand, a sector that previously had little interest in whisky. From the turn of the millennium, the Macallan brand has gone from strength to strength, positioned today not only as a premium spirit but a luxury brand. The early 2000s saw the team at Edrington build the brand’s fanbase by launching a single-cask program, the Exceptional 1. This increased rarity and exclusivity beyond widely available age statements and would go on to be one of the most successful ranges under the brand.  The Macallan's collectability On their journey to becoming the most collected single malt Scotch whisky in the world, the brand released many different ranges, each with different receptions. To this day, the Macallan collaboration with Lalique on the Six Pillars set and the Macallan 72 Year Old are two of the main drivers of their global success and they gained notoriety in different Asian markets. To show the steep growth of the Macallan’s collectability we need only look at a Christie’s auction which took place in 2007. At that time, the Macallan 1926 sold for $US75,000. In December 2019, the same bottle sold for $US1.9 million, breaking the world
record for the most expensive whisky bottle ever sold.   Of the 40 bottles to be released of the Macallan 1926 – 12 of the bottles were released with a label created by Italian artist Valerio Adami, and 12 were released with a label created by Peter Blake, most famous for his artwork for The Beatles. The Peter Blake labelled Macallan hit the headlines with the sale of a set at Le Clos at Dubai airport for $US1.2 million. The same year saw a bottle of Valerio Adami 1926 sell at auction in Edinburgh for over $US1 million and at the end of 2018, a one-of-a-kind 1926 bottle designed by Irish artist, Michael Dillon, sold for $US1.5 million at Christie’s in London.  The records broken at auction for Macallan can be listed by the dozen these days, what is clear the Macallan’s growth as a collectable is astounding. Such a feat isn’t achieved overnight, and while the brand attracts much criticism from the whisky fanatics, its impact on the industry is real. Many whisky fans believe the quality of the spirit has dropped, as the brand continues to shift away from age-statements to NAS expressions. This wouldn’t
be an issue, but many of these NAS products are seen by many as largely overpriced.
 The brand invests greatly in advertising, PR, and events, in order to make the Macallan product match the luxury brand it’s perceived to be. Just last year, over £140 million went into opening the new Macallan distillery, a state-of-the-art facility that took years of planning and building. The new site again hit the headlines and has attracted thousands of
visitors the world over since the site opened.  While not singlehandedly, the Macallan brand has helped lift the entire Scotch whisky market into the luxury sector and allowed many other Scottish whisky brands to raise their price tags and grow in global markets. Some of the best buys from the Macallan include: Macallan Sherry Oak 18 Year-Old (2019) The Macallan 18 Year Old is a classic and one of the best expressions to taste for a well-rounded, deep understanding of the Macallan and their use of premium sherry casks hand-picked from Jerez. The Macallan has long been known for the rich depth that comes from their skilful creation of sherry-forward whiskies and the rich depth of the 18-year-old is a perfect example and what they can do. While many of the higher-aged expressions from
the Macallan are hard for most to open up, due to their rapidly appreciating value, the 18-year-old is still at a price that allows fans and collectors alike to open and savour without a heavy heart. Tasting notes: Rich dried fruits burst through on the nose, with figs, raisins, and a touch of roasted nuts all from the influence. The palate brings hints of citrus alongside the rich fruit, joined by warm spices, and a touch of oak.  Macallan Edition 4 The Edition series by the Macallan, now on its 5th Edition, has grown increasingly popular over the years, both as a collectable and a range to drink. As each new Edition launches, the previous ones grow more expensive. Today, the Edition 1 sells for over 10 times its original value upon release in 2015. Out of all, the Macallan Edition 4 is one of the most balanced
in the series, and includes liquid aged in seven different types of sherry casks. An affordable and very enjoyable dram.  Tasting notes: The nose opens with walnuts and dates, a touch of orange peel and some orchard fruits. The palate is rich and smooth with honey, milk chocolate, and a hint of winter spice. The finish brings more spice, paired with citrus and rich sherry.  Browse all current Macallan listings or explore more Editorial 

We explore the history of The Macallan Speyside distillery and chart its incredible commercial success in the recent Scottish whisky revival and what today remains the best buys from the distillery. 

Exploring The Macallan, one of Scotland's most popular whisky distilleries, and its rare aged bottlings that are some of the world’s most collected spirits

The Macallan producer portrait 

The Macallan: producer portrait

Adrianna Catena (Catena and El Enemigo) – 1999 La Tache, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti “Christmas in Argentina is a summer affair – the days are long, and the heat is intense. This year we will gather with family and friends at our home in Mendoza, spending the day together – lunch and a siesta – before dinner on the 24th. I live far from my parents and these are special moments, so we pick our wines for the memories too! They'll include an Adrianna Vineyard White Bones Chardonnay (my mother's favourite), and some Nicolás Catena Zapata (1999 or 2004, perhaps). My father also has a Burgundy collection and always makes a trip to the cellar at some point in the evening, reappearing with a cheeky smile and something extraordinary – like a 1999 La Tâche. For the end – what we call the sobremesa, that long and magical moment after the meal when we are all still gathered at the table, sharing old stories and laughter – a 2008 Vin de Constance.”  Isabel Ferrando (Domaine Saint-Préfert) – 1990 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Spéciale, Domaine Henri Bonneau “What I love! First Champagne – maybe a great bottle of aged Champagne, either Selosse or Agrapart (the opposite of Selosse). Ideally around 20 years old – for aperitif. After that a white Burgundy – maybe a great Meursault or Puligny-Montrachet. I love Henri Boillot’s Clos de la Mouchère, that would be a great choice. For the red, it is going to be the 1990 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Spéciale by Henri Bonneau because I love this man. I remember him with a lot of tenderness and it will be a lovely bottle to share with the family. And to finish a 1995 or 1997 Sardat Mallet, which is a lovely sweet wine from the Languedoc-Roussillon... Then for New Year I think probably L’Ermita from Alvaro Palacios. I don’t know which vintage I have in my cellar and an old bottle of Ch. Latour for sure. For a white wine, it will be a German Riesling from Markus Molitor. The spirit of opening wines, opening to a new world. I love that! And it is me who is doing the cooking – capon, fish and truffles.”  Matthieu Mangenot (Domaine Long-Depaquit) – 1995 Ch. Lafite Rothschild “Christmas usually offers the occasion to open a wide variety of wines, especially when the family come from various parts of the planet (Washington DC, São Paulo, various parts of France…), bringing back a few fun things. But when it comes to eating and celebrating, serious things are beginning and I can’t skip Burgundy, at least for a part of the banquet! 2016 Chablis Grand Cru La Moutonne, Domaine Long-Depaquit in magnum would be a perfect candidate to pair with our Christmas dinner, especially the seafood part. I love the pure and saline expression of the Chardonnay in Chablis and the fleshy-zesty character that La Moutonne shows with ageing, a combination of structure, refinement and elegance. This 2016 vintage also has a personal meaning for me for two reasons: first because the climatic conditions in spring 2016 were dramatic with a major frost that really made this vintage difficult to make, as well as a rare and unique product. But also because my son Léon was born just before harvest, so this vintage is his! While re-exploring my personal cellar, I came across a bottle of 1995 Ch. Lafite Rothschild, remaining from a series of six I was offered while a trainee at the estate in 1999. I think it is high time to celebrate more than 20 years of activity as a winemaker and we will take this opportunity to pay tribute to this monument from Pauillac! Other wines I will be opening include 2015 Domaine de la Chevalerie, Cuvée Bretêche Rouge, 2019 Crozes-Hermitage Cap Nord, Domaine Combier and 2018 Meursault, Chevalières, Domaine Henri Germain. I like this domaine for it’s personal vision of Meursault, insensitive to more trendy styles.” Luca Martini di Cigala (San Giusto a Rentennano) – 2009 L’Apparita, Castello di Ama “Marco Pallanti and his son Arturo from Castello di Ama visited us in late October, then we visited them a few days ago. I swapped some older bottles of San Giusto with a 2007 Chianti Classico Vigneto Bellavista and a 2009 L’Apparita especially for this year’s Christmas table. The 2007 vintage produced very powerful wines and despite expectations has got good ageing potential but is already drinking well. The 2009 is a medium-power vintage, easy to drink in a relative short time but now in perfect condition. We are looking forward to drinking both this Christmas.”  Desiree Reid (Cardrona) – N.V. Cardrona Otago Pinot Cask, Single Malt Whisky “The day will start with a glass of Bollinger, while the children open their stockings, and the Christmas ham bakes in the oven. Later that evening I’ll finish with a dram or two of the Cardrona seventh birthday release – Otago Pinot Cask. The perfect way to finish a Southern Hemisphere Christmas.” Alvina Pernot and Philippe Abadie (Domaine Alvina Pernot) – 2014 Champagne Cédric Bouchard, Roses de Jeanne, La Haute Lemblé Blanc de Blancs “We love Cédric Bouchard’s Champagnes because he works his Champagne cuvées in the same way as what is done in Burgundy. Each bottling is one terroir and one vintage. For the reds we will be opening 2012 Petite Siberié from Domaine du Clos des Fées – a great producer from the Languedoc-Rouissilon as well as a 2010 Vega Sicilia Unico and a 2005 Ch. Haut-Brion.” Marco Ferraresso (Guado al Tasso) – 2013 Guado al Tasso Matarocchio “I have always spent the Christmas holidays at home with my family. It may seem trivial but it is an opportunity to open something of my own with them, as the rare times I haven't done so they almost got offended! This year will be an opportunity to let them taste the 2019 Guado al Tasso which represents a lucky and sought-after vintage for me. Lucky because mother nature has been merciful, sought-after because it goes in the stylistic direction that we like for this wine. Another wine that I would like to open for them is 2013 Matarocchio. With this vintage the Cabernet Franc has kept a strong varietal identity with a beautiful balance between acidity and tannic structure, a wine that should be in its full maturity and with which I hope to give a moment of happiness to my loved ones."  Christian Leusder (East Asia Whisky Company) – Ch. Rauzan-Ségla “It's really the simple stable stuff that takes centre stage during Christmas drinks. To start the evening a nice crisp Yebisu, Asahi SuperDry or a Suntory Premium Malt. The main course usually goes well with sake or red wine, depending on the cuisine of course. My favourite reds this year are Ch. Rauzan-Ségla's Margaux or Ch. Pape Clément from Pessac. When it comes to after-dinner drinks: the one and only Christmas spirit is Irish. Nothing beats a Baileys to remember what Christmas tasted like when you were allowed a sip of what the grown-ups were having once a year.”  Read more Editorial

Christmas and the New Year offer the perfect opportunity to open special bottles with family and friends – but what do the people behind the world’s finest wines and spirits drink? We caught up with some of our favourite winemakers and distillers and asked them what they will be uncorking – and why

We find out the special bottles some of our favourite winemakers and distillers are uncorking this Christmas

What producers are drinking this Christmas

Sauternes might be the most distinctive wine on the planet. Its combination of power, unctuosity and aromatic complexity is unparalleled. These extraordinary wines consistently compete with the finest wines made anywhere in the world. But unlike most wines of the world, Sauternes’s journey from vine to bottle is a tumultuous affair. Typically, over half the crop is sacrificed in order to reach the heady levels of complexity the region is famous for. The journey from berry to bottle is one of the most fascinating molecular transformations and one of wine’s greatest miracles. Bérénice Lurton of Ch. Climens describes the process “as a sacrifice, death and resurrection all in one. It is like the rising of the phoenix,” she says. “Within the process of the grapes’ destruction is the ability for transcendence and transmutation into something else, something beautiful.” Every Sauternes vintage is a rollercoaster ride of unknowns – one that would leave most vignerons at the end of their tether. “All the rules you know about wine production: forget about them,” Lorenzo Pasquini – who recently arrived at Ch. d’Yquem – says. The grape’s reaction to its terroir, to humidity, to the process of noble rot: it’s all a gamble and, often, a gamble you lose. No one understands this game of chance better than Bérénice Lurton. The crop at Ch. Climens has been decimated in the last few years. She hasn’t made a sweet wine of any volume for five vintages in a row. Frost has become the biggest threat of late, completely wiping out the most recent 2021 crop as well as 2017. The severity of the damage to the vines in 2017 encroached on 2018 too, where coulure (poor fruit-set) and mildew also dwindled production to zero. In 2019 it was the attack of the drosophila fly that destroyed almost the entire crop, and in 2020 it was hail’s turn to wipe out production. No one in Sauternes is left untouched by the risks involved. Once – and if – your crop survives, there are several key elements to a successful vintage in Sauternes. Pasquini thinks it is best to think of Sauternes as having two ripening phases per season. The first is like any other wine region: the maturation of the grapes. The varied terroir here plays its role. The gravel and clay soils at Yquem, for instance, are vital in reducing the vigour of the vines, naturally producing small bunches of concentrated fruit. Pasquini remembers being taken into the vineyard to try the grapes when he first arrived at Yquem. “It was just incredible how tasty they were,” he says. This concentration is an essential part to the finest Sauternes. At Ch. Doisy-Daëne and Climens, it is Barsac’s limestone soil, which brings added florality, salinity, freshness and aromatic complexity to the final wine. This first phase of ripening will determine the style of vintage (rather than the final quality). Lurton describes how 1997, 2002, ’04 and ’07 were all dull summers in Bordeaux; while not great for the region’s reds, they were incredible vintages for Sauternes. The cooler temperatures produced a brighter, more acidic style with great tension. The development of botrytis following this was a great counterbalance, adding richness, intensity and aromatic complexity. “But it doesn’t have to be a cool vintage in Sauternes to be a great one,” says Lurton. Dry, sunny years like 2005, ’09 and ’15 produced a richer style of wine – with botrytis only adding to the opulence and richness of the year. Once the grapes have reached maturity, and only then, do vignerons pray for botrytis to arrive. “The botrytis plays two roles,” says Ch. Doisy-Daëne’s Jean-Jacques Dubourdieu. “Most famously it is known to digest the skin of the berry and this allows for the water evaporation from the berry, and therefore concentrates the sugar in the grape.” But Dubourdieu believes its second role is just as important, but less well known. “The botrytis causes a chemical reaction in the berry. As a way to fight the botrytis, the berry produces precursor aromatics in the grape. Depending on the maturity of the berry when the botrytis arrives, this directly affects the concentration of aromatic precursors produced.” The magic number for Dubourdieu is a potential alcohol level of 13%. “If the berry is at this level of maturity, it can produce up to 50 times the number of aromatic precursors than less mature grapes.” Once the botrytis sets in, the vignerons then pray (and there is a lot of praying) for another dry period in which the grapes can further concentrate under the effects of botrytis. This is where the wind – a key feature of Sauternes’s microclimate – becomes vital. The wind can quickly concentrate the grapes – but, depending on the varying exposures and terroirs within the region, different styles of botrytis aromatics and flavours develop adding even more complexity to the wine. “Having more botrytis grapes to choose from, creates more flavour complexity in the final blend,” says Pasquini. This is, in many ways, Yquem’s greatest asset – with 113 hectares under vine. In some vintages, quality botrytis might only be successful in one part of the vineyard, but in a great vintage there is opportunity to blend the different botrytis styles from across different microclimates for a more complex expression. This is what brings such variation in style from château to château, and vintage to vintage. Production in the last few years has been on a worrying sliding scale. The sacrifices made seem to be greater with every vintage. For a winegrowing region whose fortunes are so much in the hands of Mother Nature, is Sauternes at risk? Is there a danger that we will lose the unique conditions necessary to make these unique sweet wines? For Dubourdieu, the warming climate has, on the contrary, brought many benefits. Firstly, the grapes much more often reach 13 degrees potential alcohol before botrytis sets in, meaning there are more years in which he can craft “great” wine. His biggest concern, however, is that the climate is pushing the onset of botrytis later and later. “The 2020 is a perfect example of this,” he explains. “The grapes had reached significant maturity by the end of August, but botrytis didn’t arrive until mid-October.” The dry, warm, sunny September held off any onset of botrytis. “The danger of this is if botrytis comes too late, there won’t be enough power from the sun to concentrate the berries through the all-important evaporation process. Also there is the risk of the acidity dropping too.” Beyond mid-October, if no botrytis has formed the whole vintage could potentially be lost. Fortunately this hasn’t yet been the case, but 2020 came close – and it could become more of a threat in the future. “For now, the issue is quantity, not quality,” says Dubourdieu. “The increased levels of mildew in the summer, the hail and the spring frosts – these are our concerns.” Sauternes has had a long line of great vintages, however volumes have been decimated. Whatever the appetite in the market is, there is very little Sauternes available from the most recent vintages. There’s often a question over the appeal of these luscious wines – but Sauternes production is so limited that its audience can only ever be small. Yquem, Climens and Doisy-Daëne all describe themselves as guardians of this unique craft, rather than vignerons feeling commercially pressured to produce a drier style in greater volume. They know that for many wine enthusiasts drinking Sauternes is not a regular occurrence – but they want it to be one of the most memorable wine experiences of their lives when they do. And that’s the magic of these wines. Despite the low volumes, Pasquini, Dubourdieu and even Lurton are optimistic about Sauternes’s future. Quality has never been better and they’re in a long-term game: they look at yields over 20-year, not five-year, cycles. There is a new buzz coming from a rise in tourism in the region, while the spirits industry’s recent interest in Sauternes barrels for cask finishing is yet another alternative income (with old barrels selling for five or six times more than they bought them for), not to mention the publicity – bringing Sauternes to a whole new range of potential consumers. Unfortunately, 2021 is looking like another miniscule vintage for the region and that’s even before botrytis has arrived. But not even this dampens Dubourdieu’s mood: “If you want to control everything, you certainly wouldn’t be a vigneron. As a vigneron you learn to live with uncertainty.” For Lurton, “Living with such uncertainty keeps your feet on the ground.” As the region continues to develop, their experience of uncertainty and necessary sacrifice, Lurton believes, means Sauternes “will never lose its soul”. Discover our current Sauternes listings or read more Editorial

Producing Sauternes is a noble venture – one that often brings more risks than rewards. Gavin Smith talks to three of the region’s leading producers about the perils of crafting the world’s most sought-after sweet wines – and why it’s worth it

Exploring the perils of crafting the world’s most sought-after sweet wines with three leading Sauternes producers, Chx Climens , D’Yquem and Doisy-Daëne.

Sauternes – the great sacrifice

Sauternes: the great sacrifice

The Pacific Northwest is the birthplace of some of the greatest innovations of the past 40 years. Microsoft, Amazon and Starbucks are just some of the multi-billion-dollar enterprises to come from the region with its spectacular mountainous ranges and lush forested land.

When it comes to drinks of the alcoholic kind, craft brewing has been the area’s most notable export. In California alone there are more than 900 breweries. Unsurprisingly, craft distilleries have followed a similar trajectory – swelling from 35 to over 2,000 in the past 17 years. What may come as a surprise is that single malt whiskey, rather than Rye or Bourbon, is growing apace and pioneering a truly exciting new flavour frontier with traceability and transparency at its heart. 
“We shouldn’t be growing corn,” Seattle-based Westland Distillery Commercial Director Chris Riesbeck says. “We shouldn’t be making Bourbon. We shouldn’t be making Rye. Making single malt makes an enormous amount of sense when you think about the Pacific Northwest climate and agriculture.”

The Pacific maritime influence, warm, dry summers and cool damp winters in Washington, Oregon and California are optimum two-row malting barley growing conditions. “The conversation you hear from almost every distillery on the planet is that barrels and time make whisk(e)y,” Riesbeck continues. “That is true in the most basic, basic way. But the reality is that it gives no real respect to the raw ingredients. “We would argue that whisk(e)y starts in a field – and if you don’t have an appreciation for the grain that you are using and an interest in how you can develop and embrace that flavour, then you’re perhaps not getting the full experience of what whiskey
could be.” It sounds simple enough but, as Riesbeck explains, a seismic shift in global whisk(e)y-making convention needs to occur to produce a varietal-specific single malt that is truly a product of the Pacific Northwest. In Westland’s case, it has been almost a decades’ worth of work. The distillery has partnered with Washington State University’s Bread Lab to find a barley that puts flavour rather than yield first.

“If your goal is to make things cheap, then it’s a race to the bottom and nobody wants to win that race,” Riesbeck says. “But if your goal is to make something that’s lasting and impactful, you have to be willing to support the science.” Westland’s funding of a PhD student is a sign of their long-term investment and it’s the company’s hope that the research produced should benefit the entire industry. But this is just the beginning of the process and many more stages are required to get from grain to glass. Once the barley is chosen, it can take years of testing to balance out things like stripe rust and other diseases before it can be planted in a Skagit Valley field. All this time, money and patience is in the name of one thing: flavour.

Travel 174 miles south and you’ll find Westward on Distillery Row, Portland. Founder and Master Distiller Christian Krogstad has been at the forefront of the craft brewing movement for the best part of 30 years. His role in the spirits sector is not to be sniffed at either – perhaps his biggest achievement is a certain Aviation Gin which was sold to Diageo for $610m in 2020 after actor Ryan Reynolds took on the brand. Brewing informs everything Krogstad does at Westward. “We see ourselves coming out of the beer world,” he says with an enormous smile. “We are much more informed by that than we are by Scottish single malts or traditions.”  In a refreshing juxtaposition to the sometimes-cloak-and-dagger world of whiskey-making, Krogstad is an open book. “We don’t have a lot of secrets and I think that’s something that has gone back to when I was brewing,” he says. “If somebody wanted a recipe for one of the beers I was making, I would give it to them. There’s nothing about the product or the process that is secret.” For the former brewer, imitation is most certainly the sincerest form of flattery. “If somebody wants to try and do what we’re doing then they are welcome to try,” he says. “But just like we’re not trying to copy Scotland, it’s not very interesting for somebody to try and copy us.”    Whether he’s producing a beer, gin or whiskey, Krogstad says his guiding principle is to create a flavourful and balanced liquid that isn’t palate-fatiguing. “My ultimate goal is to produce something that when you finish a glass of it, you immediately want another. I don’t ever want something that I make to be referred to as an acquired taste.” Approaching single malt whiskey with a brewers’ mentality means fermentation is king. A nice, cool temperature and long fermentation produces a beer that Krogstad calls delicious and defect-free. This means there is little reflux at distillation and the spirit is very rich and textural. “Our philosophy is not that the stills clean up the beer,” he says. “It’s that they concentrate it.” The largely defect-free, rich spirit is perfect for maturation in new charred oak because it can stand up to the flavours. “Because we’re not distilling it to a high proof, we have a lot of these great fruity esters from the fermentation that really come through,” Krogstad says. “If we aged it differently, we would want to distil it differently.” Perhaps another hangover of the brewing world is innovation with raw materials. The team frequently experiments with different malts and yeasts to develop more flavours and characteristics. One of the more interesting experiments, according to Krogstad, has been a sourdough levain for the fermentation. “It was almost on a lark and it turned out fabulous, so we are making more of that,” he says. Barrel trading is another inexhaustible playground for flavour development. When the team empties their barrels, they give them to neighbouring breweries for maturing their “big, 10%” imperial stouts for a year to 18 months. The will then return them to Westward 
where whiskies will get a final finish for a year. The process is then repeated ad infinitum. Rather than bringing in barrels from Spain or Portugal, Westward opts to work with local wineries, breweries, and tea and coffee companies. When we speak, Krogstad is wandering around a “buddy’s vineyard” for a photoshoot. The indefatigable founder created a Tempranillo-finished whiskey after he was given a warped butt a few years ago that “turned out fantastic” with red fruit, dried cherry and redcurrant flavours. Every experiment is another learning opportunity for the Portland distillery and its founder and Krogstad speaks about all of them with equal excitement. “I didn’t start this because I created some Business School brief. I started the distillery because I was brewing and I loved brewing. And I loved whisk(e)y and I wanted to do something interesting and bring something new to the conversation.” The whiskey conversation has certainly changed since Krogstad founded the distillery in 2004. When he and seven others created the American Single Malt Whiskey Commission five years ago, there were a handful of members. Today, there are 160 – approximately 60 have products on the market and the remaining 100 are all ageing their liquid. A huge number considering the Federal Government has yet to recognise the category. “It is all about transparency and authenticity now,” Westland’s Chris Riesbeck says. “Brands like Westland will win that war because we were designed with that in mind. "From day one, we really wanted to be authentic [and] we wanted to be transparent. People should know what’s in a bottle of whiskey, they should be able to say without any sort of hesitation – when I buy a bottle of Westland, what am I getting? Well, you’re getting 100% malted barley, distilled in a single distillery, bottled no less than 40% ABV and aged in oak casks with no specificity to an age statement.”

When it comes to the future and the 160-plus American single malt producers, Krogstad says saturation in spirits is a long way off. “In brewing, every six or seven years you get a plateau in the market and everyone confuses a plateau with a collapse. This is the fourth or fifth time I have seen people worrying that the brewing industry is saturated, and I don’t know if it is or isn’t, but what I do know is that comparing the spirits industry to the beer industry, spirits is not saturated.”

Westland is days away from launching the realisation of its 10-year varietal-specific project with the latest addition to its Outpost Range – Colere Edition 1. “It is a really important thing for this distillery philosophically and frankly emotionally,” Riesbeck says. “It’s hard not to get a little misty-eyed about it. The idea was that we should create this not simply because we can but we should create something genuine because this region deserves it.” Browse American whiskey or read more Editorial 

For many, the words “American whiskey” conjure up images of Kentucky, Bourbon and Rye. Two equally innovative and candid producers tell Holly Motion why the Pacific Northwest is perfectly primed to create sensational American single malts

Two key Pacific Northwest whisky producers, Westland and Westward, explain how the region is primed to create remarkable American single malts.

Exploring the potential of American single malts

A new flavour frontier

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