Noses to the grindstone at London’s Saatchi Gallery

January is certainly antipodean month on the London tasting calendar. Just ahead of Australia Day, Wine Australia put on their annual trade tasting, christened A+ Australian Wine at the Saatchi Gallery in London’s Chelsea [above]. Much has been made of how Oz wine has lost its way in recent years, at least in marketing terms and certainly in the battle of the brands, but as the big conglomerates have lost ground, or at least looked uncertain, the real excitement in Australia is the bevy of superb wines being made both by established names and relative newcomers at the smaller and medium sized end of the business.  

It’s been impossible to avoid 2009 Burgundy what with all the glossy en primeur offers dropping through the letter box and a series of daily tastings put on by merchants at venues across London. In a nutshell, the reds 2009s are hailed as excellent, reminiscent of 1999, though maybe not quite up to the majesty of 2005. The whites, described as better than expected, are not seen as long-lived but are forward and enjoyable.

Last week’s New Zealand Wine’s annual trade tasting in London [despite the rugby ball it was held at Lord’s Cricket Ground] provided confirmation of the rude health of the Kiwi wine industry. The figures are fascinating. 80% of New Zealand’s wine is exported, its wines have the highest average retail price on the UK shelves and in terms of Sauvignon Blanc it has a whopping 45% of the market.  That’s simply incredible when you consider that twenty five years ago New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, or for that matter the entire wine industry, was hardly on the map. Despite the ubiquity of the grape in the Loire, Bordeaux and universally as a vin de pays varietal, France by comparison has a dismal 5.1% of the Sauvignon market.

Well Chateau Dacher de Delmonte actually isn’t so much vin de garage as vin de salle a manger. Literally. The dining room is the barrel cellar, a guilt mirror hangs from the wall and a chandelier of sorts hangs in the ceiling. What was once the kitchen, houses a laboratory and the bottling line stands in the hallway.  The cuverie, two plastic tanks and a concrete one, along with the press, stand in what appears to be a brick addition to the side of the building, itself hidden in the front garden of a larger property alongside the main road that runs through Listrac. The place is quite extraordinary.  Oh and one of the owners is a helicopter pilot. No I’m not making this up. These guys are serious. Their consulting oenologist is none other than Eric Bossenot.