The holiday season is approaching fast. This is the season to be jolly, the time for celebrating, exchanging gifts and spending time with the ones you love. This is also the time of year that everyone begins to think about holiday party planning.
Food and wine form two of the most important aspects of any party, be it Christmas or New Year. For people who love to cook, the holiday season presents an opportunity to experiment with extravagant gourmet dishes. Christmas dinners are also a great time to try new wines with old favourite recipes. However, finding the right Christmas or New Year’s wine among the several hundreds standing on the supermarket shelves is not an easy task. The diversity of choices among wine varieties, brands, labels, and prices seem almost infinite. There are just too many choices. This wonderful time of the year shouldn’t be so complex and complicated. The following paragraphs are aiming at saving you a lot of valuable time, potential frustration, energy and possible worry by lending a helpful hand in selecting a wine, whether you are looking to pair wines with a festive meal, share new wines with friends and family at holiday parties or need the best value for money wine gift.
So what is the solution to too many choices? The answer in a nutshell is: discover your own preference for wine taste. Many people know when they like a wine. But the difficult part is to understand why. What do you like about it, and how do you describe what it is that you like about that wine? Is it light or full bodied? Is it tannic or not? Is it fruity or sweet? All these questions can be answered by tasting wines, and then tasting more wine! It is a good idea to learn with comparative tasting. Take for example the Merlot grape. Tasting Merlot wines from different regions side-by-side, you may find the one that you like most. When you taste a wine of the same variety in this fashion, you can easily begin to learn the differences between a full bodied and a light bodied wine, a low tannin and a high tannin wine, etc.
When inviting friends for dinner, you want to offer something nice, something sophisticated that does not cost a lot because you are on a budget just like the rest of us, and you wish to serve what everyone likes. You just want everyone to enjoy themselves. So what do you do? There are no hard and fast rules about which wine should be drunk with which food, but there are some tried and tested guidelines that those who serve with a meal wine can follow when deciding which bottle will best complement which dish.
As a general rule, white wine is usually served with the more delicate dishes, such as fish, and heavy red wines with heavier foods such as beef, red meat and composite dishes. The best way to find out what works is to experiment, and whatever you like is fine. For red meat, grilled dishes, stews and casseroles, serve a red table wine at room temperature (18ºC). Dessert, fruit, nuts, and cheese go well with a sweet dessert wine. To round up the meal, brandy or sparkling wines are served with coffee. Drier wines are drunk before the sweeter ones and white before red when there is more than one kind served with the meal. Rosé wine is halfway between white and red and can be regarded as a multi-purpose wine. Rosé is often served with light food, such as spaghetti, lasagne, pizza, finger food, snacks etc. Sparkling wine can be enjoyed at any stage of the meal – apart from traditionally being served on festive occasions. It goes especially well with dessert, however.
Christmas dinners are a great time to try new wines with favourite recipes. If you are looking for wine options to complement your holiday meal, then look no further. Here is a good selection of Monolithos winery versatile whites and reds that are sure to enhance your Christmas gathering. Wine varietals recommended for their appearance, quality, adaptability and price.
Turkey Dinner Wine Pairings
The traditional holiday favourite needs a light and lively wine to accent its simple deliciousness. If you want to serve red, try the Monolithos range of red wines comprising Cabernet, Merlot, Shiraz and the indigenous Mavro varietals as well the blend red wine Ayios Stephanos. The Merlot is a smooth wine that generally lacks tannins and therefore perfectly accents turkey’s qualities, satisfying everyone. For white wine lovers, we recommend Ayios Stephanos white. Its balanced acidity and the touch of herbs found in its palette, offer the required complexity for your turkey dinner.
Ham Dinner Wine Pairings
For a nice red, we suggest serving a Monolithos Dry Red (Mavro): it is a young and fruity (and inexpensive!) complement to the ham dish. You can also augment the sweetness that usually accompanies ham (pineapples and other fruits) with white wine: Monolithos Dry White is typically fruity with crisp acidity, and will be a good balance to the sweet and salty ham dinner.
Roast Beef Wine Pairings
Normally Monolithos Cabernet Sauvignon is beef’s partner-in-crime at mealtime, but some prefer Shiraz . It is more tannic and the traces of liquorice and pepper bring out the intense beef taste.
Seafood, white meat and light entrees
As a general rule, for seafood, white meat and light entrees, a white or rosé table wine chilled slightly works nicely. We strongly recommend the Monolithos slightly sparkling wines Santa Monica white and rosé.
Vegetarian Wine Pairings
Contrary to popular belief, some vegetarian meals can be quite complex and heavy, so pair yours with a delicious Ayios Stephanos Red for flavour galore. It’s a medium-bodied and very food-friendly wine with yummy spices, so it will go well with a vegetarian dish without overwhelming it.
Dessert Wine Pairings
Dessert wines are always popular for whatever type of food you’re serving. In fact, they’re typically so sweet that they can even stand alone at dessert time. So head to your local wine shop and ask for a great recommendation for a silky Muscat , Commandaria or Port wine. The Santa Monica rosé is also an agreeable option.
You should always enjoy your favourite wine with your favourite food, but the key is to select wine based on the “weight” and “texture” of the meal. In general, heavier meals and sauces require a bigger wine to match their weight, and lighter meals and sauces will require lighter and more subtle wines. Weight-wise, meals from heavy to light will be red meat with heavy sauces, game meats (and turkey), things with lots of butter or gravy Lighter sauces chicken or meat lightly sautéed to sea food in lighter sauces to lobster or shrimp in light sauces. To match wines in the same order (from heavy weight to light) you can select from the international Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Shiraz wines, to Cypriot Mavro and Xynisreri wines.
Some useful tips about serving wine
There are several recommendations about the temperature for serving wine. Rosé and white wines are cooled down to 8ºC, but never served icy cold. Serving a wine too cold hides much of its taste. Red table wine should be served at room temperature – around 14-18ºC. Sparkling wine is cooled in an ice bucket and served from it (5ºC). Port and white dessert wines are served at room temperature (18-20ºC) although sherry and dessert wine can be cooled in summer. Red wine should be opened for a while before it is to be enjoyed. This allows the wine to “breathe”, or mix with the air to bring out its flavour.
Sparkling wines, when served in slender, flute-shaped glasses, will bring out their best. Before you can pour it, though, you have to get the bottle open. Despite what you see in the movies, the proper way to open sparkling wine does not involve firing the cork across the room with a loud pop. Rather, in a controlled fashion, let the pressure of the bottle gently release the cork with an ever-so-slight hiss.
The ideal glass for red or white wine should have a medium stem to prevent the temperature of the hand from warming the wine. The glass should be tulip-shaped to concentrate the aroma or “bouquet” of the wine at the rim of the glass. The bowl of the glass should be clear and transparent to show off the colour of the wine. Champagne and any other sparkling wine is served in tall glasses called flutes.
Wine glasses should be filled 2/3 full to allow room for the wine to breathe. If you’re serving wine, don’t refill the glasses of your guests until they are completely empty. If a bottle is not emptied on the first round, place it on a side table and fill the guests’ glasses again later. Alternatively, it may be left at the host’s right hand.
Unfinished bottles of wine will keep for up to a week in the refrigerator.
Are you tired of those circular wine stains on your table cloth? Well, now there is a way to enjoy your wines worry-free! Simply wrap a basic hair band (all-cloth, no sequins, etc) around the neck of the bottle (or the decanter) and even with the most unsteady hand you can save your labels and table cloths.
How to choose a wine that is right for you or as a gift:
When someone has invited you to a dinner party, whether for social or business reasons, it is customary and thoughtful to bring a small host or hostess gift as a token of your appreciation. Wine is a popular gift for many reasons because among others it is easy to give, it comes pre-packaged, and it can usually fit into almost any budget, it is not perishable (subject to storage conditions), it has universal appeal and there is such a wide range to satisfy any taste and match most occasions. However, there are several things to consider when selecting wine as a gift. Selection criteria like whom you are buying for, the nature of the occasion or celebration, purpose of the gift, budget and of course the recipient’s palette or preferences. By putting a little forethought into your purchase of a gift bottle of wine, you can show your host or hostess how much you appreciate the thoughtful gesture of being invited into his or her home. Choose a gift bottle of wine with care, and your selection will reflect that you are a gracious, considerate and sophisticated guest.
When selecting a wine, pay attention to the structure of a wine, rather than just the flavour. An appreciation of the balance of tannins, acidity, alcohol, flavour and other components can help you to understand its adaptability and suitability for the purpose it is suppose to serve. The most important factor that could help you to select a wine is your understanding of different components that influence the quality of the wine. These characteristics are explained briefly explained below:
1. Colour: The two basic types of wines are “white wines” and “red wines”. The main difference between reds and whites is that the juice used to make red wine includes the skins, stems and seeds of red or black grapes. White wines can be made from almost any colour grape, but only the clear juice of the grapes is used. The general rule of thumb is that red wines tend to be heavier while white wines are usually lighter and crispier. Rosé wines are somewhere between white and red. When the wine is prepared in a way that produces carbon dioxide, it is termed as a “sparkling wine”.
2. Tannins: Tannins are a vital ingredient in red wines. The tannins in a wine are derived from the pips, skins and stalks. They are vitally important if a wine is intended to age, as they are a natural preservative. The tannins give structure and backbone to a wine. They can be sensed by a furring of the mouth, or puckering of the gums, a sensation very similar to what happens on drinking stewed tea. Tannins are of more importance in the ageing of red wines rather than white. The tannins act as a preservative, and as they fade over many years, the simple, primary fruit flavours have time to develop into the more complex flavours that are found in fine, aged wines. This can only be learnt after you’ve tasted a few wines, but recommendations work the best here. Merlot is normally less tannic than Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz wines.
3. Acidity: Just like most fruits, wine also requires acidity. Acids of various types are present in wine, and are essential to the wine’s longevity and also to its taste. Acidity can be detected by the sharpness of the wine in the mouth, particularly around the edges of the tongue near the front. A higher acidity makes the wine more tart and sour tasting, whereas a low acidity results in a flat tasting wine that is more susceptible to spoilage. Too little, and it will seem dull, flabby or perhaps cloying, particularly if it is a sweet wine. Too much, and the wine will be sharp, harsh and undrinkable. However, when acidity is present in the right quantities, it is this element that makes all of the other flavours in the wine stand out, including the undertones of fruit, spices and herbs.
4. Alcohol: Alcohol is the product of fermentation. The amount of sugar in the grapes determines what the final alcohol level will be. In cool climates where the vines struggle to ripen their grapes, sugar levels will be minimal, and consequently such wines often only reach 8-10% strength. In very warm climes, however, the final alcohol level reaches14% or more.
5. Body: You have probably heard of full-bodied wines, which is a direct measure of its alcohol content. On every wine label you’ll notice a percentage of alcohol by volume, which indicates its body. The variations in the “body” of wine are like varying levels of fat-content in milk. Light-bodied is analogous to skimmed milk and full-bodied wine analogous to full-cream milk, and the variations in the “body” of wine are like varying levels of fat-content in milk.
What makes it even easier, is that a wine’s body is directly proportional to its alcohol content.
Less than10% indicates light body
11% - 12.5% indicates medium body
12.5% and over indicates full body
6. Sweetness: The level of sugar in the wine determines how sweet it tastes. This is quite subjective, however, and even wines that taste very dry have some degree of residual sugar. Most dry wines have less than 2g/L of sugar, although levels of up to 25g/L may be present in wines which still taste dry due to the presence of acidity and tannin alongside the sugar. The greater the amount of residual sugar, the sweeter the wine, moving through demi-sec ( Champagne ) and off dry wines (not quite dry, yet not quite sweet) to the dessert wines of the world (Sauternes, Tokay, Commandaria, Port etc). Some of these have incredibly high concentrations of sugar, as much as 250g/L.
7. Oak: Many wines are matured in oak barrels, and some are even fermented in oak. Oak from different sources (most comes from either the forests of France or USA ) will impart different characteristics on the wine, but in general, oak maturation gives aromas of butter, toffee, caramel, vanilla, spice and butterscotch. French oak may give more buttery aromas, whereas American oak gives stronger vanilla and spice aromas, however there are many more variables in the equation than this simple statement suggests. It all depends on how much oak is used, how much of it is new as opposed to re-used, how long the wine stays in contact with the wood, whether the wine is merely aged in oak or whether the fermentation takes place in it, how the oak has been treated, and so on. The term “oaky” describes the aroma or taste quality imparted to a wine by the oak barrels in which it was aged.
8. Length (also Aftertaste, Short Palate, and Long Palate): The time duration the total flavour lasts in the back of the throat after swallowing wine. It is counted in seconds and ten seconds is considered good, 15 is great, 20 is superb.
9. Other considerations:
Cost: Remember that expensive wine isn’t always necessarily better. There are many excellent wines at the lower end of the price scale. If you’re in a shop or restaurant, tell the staff what your price range is and ask them to recommend something. It is important to purchase wine from liquor outlets that take proper care of their wine, like buying directly from the winery. Extreme heat or cold, direct sunlight, and dramatic temperature fluctuations are not good for wine.
Occasion: Think about where you’re drinking the wine, and who you’re with. For instance, at a summer picnic, a light white or sparkling wine might work best, but at a big hearty family dinner, you might prefer a heavier red, or have a choice of both red and white. Also think about how many people you’re buying for – you don’t want to run out.
Food: Remember that different wines match particular types of food. As a general rule, white wines go better with lighter foods and white meat, while reds go with heavier foods and red meat, although there are many exceptions to this.
The weather: Also consider the weather when choosing wine. As a general rule, whites suit warmer weather, because they tend to be light and refreshing, whereas reds often suit cold weather better.
Vintage of the Wine: Vintage simply refers to the year the wine was made. Because weather cooperates better in some years than in others, certain years will produce better wines than others. The amount of rain that falls close to harvest time typically determines the amount of sugar in the grapes, and thus will affect the taste. But remember, older wine does not necessarily mean better wine, especially if the older bottles were from a bad vintage. Contrary to popular belief, age isn’t everything when it comes to choosing a wine. While some bottles improve with age, not all do. In fact, most of the commercially available wines you buy may even worsen if you cellar them for too long.
Preference: Think about the sort of wines that you like to drink. Are they light and fruity? Are they rich and heavy? Ask for recommendations from friends or from the staff at the shop or restaurant where you’re buying the wine. Consider whether you want the safer option of a wine you know and like, or want to try something new.
Local or imported: Wine is one of the few commodities that can improve with age but it can also rapidly deteriorate if kept in inadequate conditions. The three factors that have the most direct impact on a wine’s condition are light, humidity and temperature. Poor storage and high temperature exposure during transportation can shorten considerably the life cycle of wine. Furthermore, the wine should also be stored away from strong direct light and on their side or horizontally. When buying wines, be sure to avoid bottles that have any wine residue near the foil covering the cork, as the wine may have been stored improperly. Wine should be stored in a cool, dark place on its side to prevent the cork from drying out. For a bottle of wine to reach your dinner table, grapes need to get grown and turned into wine, which needs to find its way into a bottle, which needs to be transported and sold to a distributor, which needs to get sold to a retailer, who needs to sell it to you. At every point in the chain, if the wine is poorly treated, it can so easily be spoiled. Consequently, locally produced and distributed wines have a potential advantage over imported wines. It is even better if the wine is directly purchased from the winery.
Finally, when you go wine gift shopping, keep an open mind. There are so many ways to go. If you do not know the person’s taste in wine, it is better to get either a sparkling wine, or dessert wine, than to try and guess what kind of white or red wine the person likes. If you are looking for something that does not need to be chilled to serve upon arrival to an event, consider a red wine. If you are looking to be safe, choose a local variety white of the most recent vintage or a Merlot as a red, as most wine drinkers like smooth wines and are not too particular about a certain taste or style.
For a more elaborate gift, there is a wine gift basket for every occasion and all family, friends, and clients alike. A lot of these gift baskets are already prepared in local wine stores. Some of them are good, and some of them are terrible. Before you grab a basket and run, make sure you’re getting your money’s worth. Many items are thrown into the basket that people eventually throw out.
A wine basket can be easily made at home and include your favourite wine. For a decorative touch, place the wine bottle in a wine bottle bag before placing it in the gift basket. These bags can be made of netting, foil, or paper. Choose the right colour bag and ribbon to enhance the overall beauty of your completed gift basket. Not only that, you can add some cheese, crackers, nuts, chocolates, or anything else that strikes your fancy, and you have a wonderful gift basket.
Decide whether you want a white red or rose, sparkling, dessert or fortified wine. This will narrow down your choices and give you some direction. As a minimum, decide whether you prefer a dry or sweet wine.
While there are many guides involved to help you choose the right wine, the most important guide of all is your own taste buds. Sip many and enjoy.
The bottom line is it that life is so much better when you are around people you love and who love you.
Wine News and Information
Groundbreaking research conducted by Victorian scientists is shedding light on one of the largest and most important group of compounds responsible for wine quality, the tannins in grapes. The research aimed to add value to Victoria ’s wine industry by determining what factors affect tannins in the grapes, and how these contribute to producing a higher quality wine. Historically, grape quality was assessed based on the sugar level in the fruit or the colour of the grape. However, discrepancies were found when using colour as the indicator of wine quality because colour is not an infallible indicator of the flavour, aroma and mouthfeel of the wine. By measuring tannin levels in wine grapes, scientists can learn more about the environmental, viticulture and grape parietal factors that ultimately impact a wine’s quality. “The complex chemistry of tannin in wine and grapes is not well understood,” Dr Downey said. “Our research has given a more comprehensive picture of the tannin content and composition of grapes as well as tannin variability. Using a new technology, we have isolated tannin polymers and their individual subunits from grapes. We were then able to look at the range of tannin levels and how these levels might change between wine regions, seasons, different grape varieties and various management practices, and over the next couple of seasons, we will determine if we can increase tannin levels in different parts of the vineyard to a similar level at harvest, thereby contributing to consistent grape and wine quality.”
Monolithos Monthly News
The Pericleous family turned a hobby into a business in 1999 by establishing Monolithos Winery. Four years later, the family purchased a vineyard on a hillside near the village of Pachna (30 kilometres North West of Limassol) with the ambition of building a modern winery. As anyone who has gone through it knows, establishing a vineyard and winery is a complex and lengthy process. It involves legislation for access compliance, energy and water usage, building permission, environmental considerations and, of course, plenty of money! We had to wait seven years until we were able to overcome bureaucracy and obtain an approved permit to build a winery. Construction is scheduled to start early next year (2011). We hope to have the facility opened in time for next year’s harvest and therefore we are racing against the clock to get all of the work done by that time. Ideas for the new facility have been incubating for years. The winery is the culmination of a dream that took root nearly a decade ago when the family began wine production on a commercial basis. We look forward to the New Year.
A vineyard friendly winter climate would be as follows: Low enough temperatures that will on the one hand inhibit vine growth and rest it, and on the other hand, kill diseases but not the plant. Furthermore, sufficient rain to store reserves of moisture in the soil is necessary. Over the winter season, the main job will be pruning the vineyards. This will probably start in January and be completed during February.
Currently, all last year’s wines are available for tasting and purchasing. If at any time you are passing near the village of Pachna and wish to visit the winery or purchase any of our products, Martin Wood will be pleased to meet and assist you at his “Fig Tree Villa” in Pachna, so do not hesitate to phone him at 25-816212 or 99-165995. We thank you for your continued support. Take care and remember the old Spanish proverb:
“With wine and hope, anything is possible.”
The year 2010 is ending soon and we are starting a new one with the hope of better things ahead. From all of us here at Monolithos Winery.
Friday, 10 December 2010
Thursday, 11 November 2010
The Cyprus Wine Blog - Monolithos Wine Dimensions: November 2010
The natural and most frequent question we are asked by visitors to our Winery is where the name “Monolithos” comes from. Like choosing a name for your baby is one of the “highs” of becoming a parent, a similar feeling persists during the quest for the name of any winery.
The name of a winery and its products are important decisions, and a lot of time and energy can be spent in the search to find just the one. Winery names tend to fall into a number of distinct styles. They are usually named after their founder and family origins, after geographical names, after some particular symbol of the area, and, of course, after religious names (monks, monasteries), especially if they contributed to its establishment. It is also widely acknowledged that the most difficult thing about buying wine is remembering the name of the producer. Most of us are able to recall easily the wine type – Cabernet or Merlot – but what about the winery?
We were lucky enough to have selected a name for our winery that offered something special: a story! Behind every good winery there is typically a traditional legend. Stories have been with man since the beginning of time, and for good reason. They add substance to the challenges of everyday life, captivate us with the range of human experience, and add texture to the objects that fill our days. Telling a story is a lot easier when there’s a story to tell, and most wineries like to use names that have some meaning. The name “Monolithos” is intended to bring to mind the local myths surrounding these magical stones, standing with their strange stature in various parts of the island of Cyprus and particularly near the region of Pachna where our winery is located.
The most important reason for our choosing “Monolithos” as the name of our family winery has to do with a notion which embraces commitment and devotion to our heritage combined with a memorable name, a name that means something to us and hopefully to you after reading this short article.
The secrets of the perforated monolithic stones of Cyprus
Stones and monoliths were highly admired and feared by prehistoric peoples primarily because of their usefulness, robust structure and complex shapes. A monolith is a single massive stone or rock, or a single piece of rock placed as, or within, a monument. The word monolith is derived from the Greek word “monolithos”, a combined word from “mono” (meaning “one”, “only”, “single” or “lonely”) and “lithos” (meaning “stone”). There are natural and manmade monoliths. Ayers Rock in Australia is the world’s largest natural monolith, rising 318m above the desert floor with a circumference of 8km, and is considered one of the great wonders of the world.
Standing stones and megaliths are solitary stones set vertically in the ground. Megaliths denote formations consisting of rocks in definite shapes for special purposes. Perhaps the most famous megalithic structure is Stonehenge in England , although many others are known throughout the world. Most European megaliths were constructed during the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, and are believed to range in date from 4,000 to 1,100 B.C. There are gaps in our history that have never been explained, and standing stones are often found in several continents of the world with no known or documented history.
Legends, myths and tales of superstitions revolving around monoliths are actually part of the Cypriot popular culture since antiquity. Often, these structures are associated with hidden treasures which make these ancient remains more attractive and mysterious. There were cases where people assumed that the monoliths were instruments of “trial” and that the person who was able to pass his/her body through the hole of the standing stone would have won one prize or another.
Several such monoliths are found to be related to local traditions which deal with the goddess Aphrodite, the notorious hero Dighenis, or with the famous and mysterious Rigaina (queen) of Cyprus . Very often, popular imagination made myths and narratives about them. This was until modern times, when the “mysterious” no longer held the curiosity of people, and did not provoke popular imagination with questions any more. For this reason, many monoliths were left alone in the wilderness and were forgotten.
The Cypriot monoliths are huge stones with a symmetrical large hole in their middle or upper part, planted by unknown hands firmly into the land in many parts of the island. Their abandonment for many years has resulted in the people of the island completely forgetting the use and usefulness of these huge stones. Several centuries later, different “explanations” and “interpretations” about the existence of these strange structures found in isolated locations that are elegant and, perhaps, a little mysterious, have been offered. Several still stand, rooted it seems in the soil, while others are uprooted by unknown imaginative or desperate seekers of lost and buried treasures. Archaeologists for centuries were unsure of these stones. Who planted them into the soil of Cyprus ? Who carved them, when and why? Who made the large holes in them? And what purposes were served by carving, transporting and setting them up, which evidently must have been very laborious and hard work.
Their presence has been a well-known secret for centuries. However, it was during the 19th century that many researchers and grave robbers were attracted by the mystery that surrounded their existence, and that’s when the search for clues as to their secret began to draw interest for interpretation and solution. Most looters thought that the monoliths were “signs” which showed locations of large amounts of hidden treasures. There were rumours and speculations going around that at a certain time of day, sunlight passed through the holes of these monoliths and illuminated a point on the ground where the treasures were hidden. Consequently, it is not surprising that archaeologists, professional and amateur explorers have been looking for hidden treasures in their vicinity.
The year was 1874 when Luigi Palma di Cesnola (that notorious grave robber, adventurer, diplomat and collector who was without doubt the most famous looter and who, in the last decades of the 19th century, amassed more than 35,000 items in his 10 years in Cyprus as a member of the American Consulate) came across the two huge perforated monoliths, popularly known as “Stillarka”, only a few kilometres south west of the temple of Aphrodite in Palaipaphos (modern Kouklia). He was aware of the rumours regarding mythical “treasures” and of the many who attempted to discover them.
Cesnola subsequently dealt with the issue of the standing pierced monoliths, and carried out research as well as “excavations” on them. Having failed to locate any hidden treasures, he eventually concluded that they were related to the worship of the goddess Aphrodite, and were even parts of her temples. General di Cesnola’s luxuriant imagination created an image of a Temple of Aphrodite Anadyomene (Aphrodite emerging from the sea) with the upright monoliths as part of it. He concluded that the pilgrims from the province of Paphos passed through the temple before ascending to the main place of worship of Aphrodite at Palaipaphos ; he also identified the remains of an adjacent building as the house of a priest or priestess. Aphrodite was the goddess of love, beauty and procreation. According to legend, Aphrodite rose from the sea foam on the southern coast of Cyprus . Her temple, situated at Palaipaphos, became an important religious centre of the Greek and Roman worlds.
General di Cesnola is not the only traveller who has sought a religious explanation for these monoliths; in view of the shape of certain monoliths and the superstitions connected with them, some archaeologists consider they are parts of religious rituals.
The unique pair of monoliths at “Stillarka” attracted special interest and has been the subject of speculation since the last quarter of the 19th century. The Greek Athanasios Sakellarios (“Cypriot Studies”, Volume A, 1890, pp 78-79) describes the monoliths of Kouklia in the province of Paphos and adds that other such monoliths were found at the village and around the valley of Anogyra, near Pachna, in close proximity to the chapel of Ayios Stephanos and the locality Despotica, in the village of Dora, behind the village of Pissouri, near Saint Photios on the hills of Panagia and many others in various parts of the island. The local people had, and in some villages still have, strong beliefs in the powers of the pierced stones.
Sakellarios has also written about a tradition that “the women from the villages of Cyprus , who could not bear children, went to visit these monoliths to get cured from their sterility”. Some monoliths were therefore considered as having therapeutic powers by barren Cypriot women. Sakellarios tells us also that certain monoliths were considered to have healing qualities: “They are found all over the island and these monoliths have holes in them. The natives considered them as deterrents for fever and other diseases, and the patients who came to these monoliths hung parts of their clothes on the stones, believing that in this way the disease would be left behind. They also believed that sick children would get well after passing through the hole of these monoliths.”
Dr. F.H.H. Guillemard, in the Athenaeum of 14 April 1888, has put forward a far more realistic theory, that they are the remains of ancient presses, a use the modern Cypriot has forgotten about. Later, D.C. Hogarth (1889), made a comprehensive research on the matter. He confirmed that although Cypriots considered various monoliths sacred, he gave a more practical point of view which connected the objects with the production of olive oil and identified them as olive presses, agreeing with the view first expressed by Guillemard earlier. However, Max Ohnefalsch-Richter (1891) disagreed with the theory of olive presses and insisted that they were objects related with ancient cults and mysteries. He argued that the two Paphos monoliths were beyond any doubt objects of worship. Others followed as well, and in turn they put forth their views and developed their own theories.
Monoliths are cut from the ordinary limestone of the island. The dimensions vary indefinitely and show no significant coincidences, and they face impartially all points of the compass. They are found generally singly, sometimes in groups of two or more. All the monoliths are shaped more or less the same, tapering in some cases slightly to the top, which is either rounded or square, each pierced with a rectangular hole that in most cases is large enough to allow an adult to pass through. They usually stand between two and two and a half metres above the present ground level but some are about one metre wide and 70 cm thick. They stand in many cases at the corner of a platform of masonry or rubble, apparently intended to resist weight or pressure, and near them are often foundations of small, many-chambered buildings, like those of a farm. Near the platform cisterns are often found, lined with cement or cut in the solid rock, and small gutters lead into them: this is especially noticeable near the Pissouri village and Ayios Stefanos (near Pachna) stones. More than 50 perforated monoliths have so far been recorded in Cyprus , the majority of which are located in the south-western region of the island. This fact is not surprising as they are formed from dense calcarenite (a type of limestone) which is abundant in the region (Pachna formation).
Recent excavations showed that the most significant accessories of many of the monoliths are mill-stones. Consequently, the function of the monolith may be conceived to have been something like the following: a massive bulk of timber was passed through the rectangular hole, suspended at one end by a heavy upper mill-stone: at the other end, projecting beyond the monolith, ropes would be attached to pull that end down, and thus the mill-stone at the other end up. The latter could then be lowered at will “with a run” on to the olive berries lying on the nether stone. To resist the strain of alternately raising and lowering such a beam with such a weight at the end, a very massive fulcrum would be required, and this was supplied by the monolith, whose long slit allowed for a good deal of “play”. The latter was at first made horizontal, but later the slope was introduced to facilitate tilting the beam: in these cases, the press would be on the side towards which the slope falls. Their use was abandoned and soon forgotten on the introduction of the screw-press, but this was probably not until Byzantine times, judging from the pottery and other remains which were found near so many of the monoliths. The modern Cypriots have utilised a few of the mill-stones, but the majority are much larger than those in use nowadays, and thus have simply remained in situ.
All the surroundings of the monoliths therefore point to their being connected with olive or grape culture, but it is not easy to determine the part played by the upright pierced stone itself in the operations of crushing or pressing. As Dr. Guillemard has shown, the crushing is done by means of a beam with the roller attached, made to revolve from a peg in the centre of the circular stone. In this operation, the monolith was not required. It must be connected, accordingly, with the pressing, and be a relic of days before the modern screw was invented where the operation had to be effected by simple impact of weight or of a lever. This would amply account for the modern Cypriot’s ignorance of the character of the monoliths.
Unfortunately, no parallels exist in any of the countries of the Levant: and only the occurrence of remains of wine-presses and circular stones near certain of the so-called “menhirs” of Moab (Conder, Heth and Moab, pp. 253, 254) leads one to believe that some of these mysterious stones are not unconnected to the press.
Concluding, it worth mentioning that even today, local people in a number of locations still lend special powers to the monoliths. Typical examples are: the “Agia Trypiméne” monolith near Yerovasa village, around which bushes and stumps bear countless rags, a custom used by Cypriots (and also other eastern and Mediterranean countries) as a means of driving away evil spirits and maladies. Ailing children are said to have been passed through the Paphos monoliths, and barren women through one of those near Anoyira. Men who are unable to pass through the hole in the Ayios Stephanos monolith near Pachna are said to have unfaithful wives. The natives of Ayios Photios call their monoliths the “aγίαι πέτραι” (holy stones). Most of these monoliths are to be found at the south-western part of the district of Limassol and specifically in the area enclosed between the villages of Dora, Anogyra, Plataniskia, Prastio and Pachna. Many are also to be found in the district of Paphos, in areas of the villages of Kouklia, Archimandrita, Salamiou, Pano Arodes and other places.
Our winery’s name is therefore associated to the large monolith which stands close to the ruins of the chapel of Ayios Stephanos. It is just probable that in this area, an oil and or wine press was erected centuries ago by the natives. Our winery logo proudly displays our local pierced stone which is used as a symbol of the inexplicable. Like the monoliths, the making of wine is just a big mystery, one not yet fully understood.
Today, modern archaeological research believes that these monoliths – which for centuries were connected with legends, myths and a number of supernatural properties – are parts of special presses for olive oil production or perhaps grape crushers. But are they really?
That’s the story of the Cyprus monoliths. May their legend live happily ever after!
Wine News and Information
* Sales of the once super-fashionable rosé have stalled in the UK , latest statistics show. Supermarkets, which sell 83 out of every 100 bottles sold in the UK market, have seen a significant fall in rosé sales in the last year. The number of bottles sold increased just 1% compared to 13% a year earlier. Inflation has led to the net price of rosé increasing by just 4% compared to 17% a year earlier, according to the latest figures from market analysts Nielsen. The slowdown in sales of rosé, which since the heat wave summer of 2003 have been on a seemingly unstoppable upward curve, indicated a worrying trend according to Nielsen’s Stewart Blunt. “The market for rosé has slowed down, but people are not switching their preference to red or white wine. The economic downturn has had an effect on all wine sales, which is worrying.”
* Overall, wine sales have seen a 3% increase in net price but a 1% decline in the number of bottles sold. Average bottle prices have increased by 15p to £4.44, but Blunt said this did not necessarily reflect rising duty levels.
* Marchese Piero Antinori, the leading producer and former Decanter Man of the Year, reckons that 30% of Italy ’s vines are making wines unacceptable in today’s markets. According to Antinori, the problem is particularly acute in central Italy , where there are thousands of hectares planted to Trebbiano, “a not very interesting grape”, and in southern Italy – particularly Sicily and Puglia – where many vineyards are producing huge yields of 250hl/ha (hectolitres per hectare). “For centuries, viticulture in Italy was geared to quantity rather than quality, and a large part of its plantings still reflect that old approach,” said Antinori. “In the past, the wines were either blended and exported, largely to France , as very cheap ‘vin ordinaire’ style wine, or used as a base for vermouth. Now, vermouth doesn’t sell and these producers have to find new markets.” Antinori said that thousands of hectares are owned by small producers who have neither the resources nor the desire to change. “Transforming these thousands of inefficient acres that aren’t geared to the market is a big challenge, and more difficult than you might think. The only solution is to offer incentives to grub up the vines or replant.” Such incentives were introduced in Italy by the EU two years ago, and should bring about big changes within the next four to five years.
* Premium American domestic wineries are increasing their use of cork closures, with brands using cork showing higher annual sales growth over those using alternative closures, according to a survey released recently by the Cork Quality Counsel (CQC) based on data from A.C. Nielsen. The survey found that of the 100 top selling wine brands, the number of brands using cork closures rose by 7.5% to 72 brands during the past five months. During the same period, those same brands sealed with cork closures posted an average annual sales increase of 10.2%, compared to annual growth of 3.7% for alternative closure types, according to the survey.
Real cork is recyclable, biodegradable and creates a powerful incentive for sustainable stewardship of Mediterranean cork oak forests, which provide one of the world’s richest ecosystems. Metal screw caps and plastic stoppers produce 10 to 24 times more greenhouse gases, and consume as much as five times more non-renewable energy than real cork over their life-cycles, according to a peer-reviewed study by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
* A large prospective study of 5,033 men and women in the Tromsø Study in northern Norway has reported that moderate wine consumption is independently associated with better performance on cognitive tests. The results of this study support findings from previous research on the topic. In the last three decades, the association between moderate alcohol intake and cognitive function has been investigated in 68 studies comprising 145,308 men and women from various populations with various drinking patterns. Most studies show an association between light to moderate alcohol consumption and better cognitive function and reduced risk of dementia, including both vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Such effects could relate to the presence in wine of a number of polyphenols (antioxidants) and other micro elements that may help reduce the risk of cognitive decline with ageing. Mechanisms that have been suggested for alcohol itself being protective against cognitive decline include effects on atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), coagulation (thickening of the blood and clotting), and reducing inflammation (of artery walls, improving blood flow).
Monolithos Monthly News
Seven years ago (2003), the Pericleous family purchased a vineyard of 14,000 sq metres to accommodate their new Monolithos Winery. The land sits 724 metres above sea level and is located only 500 meters north-west of the current building with a spectacular view of the Troodos mountain range. However, plans to build a winery in Pachna turned sour when the existing access road was considered inadequate for building permission. Over the last seven years, we have been striving to acquire passage to the new location. Following a long and bureaucratic procedure, and having mobilised central and local authorities including court procedures and the office of the Ombudsman, we finally reached a workable arrangement which will allow us to proceed with the construction of the winery: not too big and not too small, but enough to make perhaps 50,000-100,000 bottles per annum. We are currently putting down the last details of the architectural plans and it is hoped that the works will start early next year. The first phase of the construction is expected to be completed before the end of 2011. The new winery will allow us to have complete control over every step of the winemaking process.
If at any time you are passing near the village of Pachna and wish to visit the winery or purchase any of our products, Martin Wood will be pleased to meet and assist you at his “Fig Tree Villa” in Pachna, so do not hesitate to phone him at 25-816212 or 99-165995. We thank you for your continued support. Take care, and remember the Spanish proverb:
”With wine and hope, anything is possible.”
The name of a winery and its products are important decisions, and a lot of time and energy can be spent in the search to find just the one. Winery names tend to fall into a number of distinct styles. They are usually named after their founder and family origins, after geographical names, after some particular symbol of the area, and, of course, after religious names (monks, monasteries), especially if they contributed to its establishment. It is also widely acknowledged that the most difficult thing about buying wine is remembering the name of the producer. Most of us are able to recall easily the wine type – Cabernet or Merlot – but what about the winery?
We were lucky enough to have selected a name for our winery that offered something special: a story! Behind every good winery there is typically a traditional legend. Stories have been with man since the beginning of time, and for good reason. They add substance to the challenges of everyday life, captivate us with the range of human experience, and add texture to the objects that fill our days. Telling a story is a lot easier when there’s a story to tell, and most wineries like to use names that have some meaning. The name “Monolithos” is intended to bring to mind the local myths surrounding these magical stones, standing with their strange stature in various parts of the island of Cyprus and particularly near the region of Pachna where our winery is located.
The most important reason for our choosing “Monolithos” as the name of our family winery has to do with a notion which embraces commitment and devotion to our heritage combined with a memorable name, a name that means something to us and hopefully to you after reading this short article.
The secrets of the perforated monolithic stones of Cyprus
Stones and monoliths were highly admired and feared by prehistoric peoples primarily because of their usefulness, robust structure and complex shapes. A monolith is a single massive stone or rock, or a single piece of rock placed as, or within, a monument. The word monolith is derived from the Greek word “monolithos”, a combined word from “mono” (meaning “one”, “only”, “single” or “lonely”) and “lithos” (meaning “stone”). There are natural and manmade monoliths. Ayers Rock in Australia is the world’s largest natural monolith, rising 318m above the desert floor with a circumference of 8km, and is considered one of the great wonders of the world.
Standing stones and megaliths are solitary stones set vertically in the ground. Megaliths denote formations consisting of rocks in definite shapes for special purposes. Perhaps the most famous megalithic structure is Stonehenge in England , although many others are known throughout the world. Most European megaliths were constructed during the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, and are believed to range in date from 4,000 to 1,100 B.C. There are gaps in our history that have never been explained, and standing stones are often found in several continents of the world with no known or documented history.
Legends, myths and tales of superstitions revolving around monoliths are actually part of the Cypriot popular culture since antiquity. Often, these structures are associated with hidden treasures which make these ancient remains more attractive and mysterious. There were cases where people assumed that the monoliths were instruments of “trial” and that the person who was able to pass his/her body through the hole of the standing stone would have won one prize or another.
Several such monoliths are found to be related to local traditions which deal with the goddess Aphrodite, the notorious hero Dighenis, or with the famous and mysterious Rigaina (queen) of Cyprus . Very often, popular imagination made myths and narratives about them. This was until modern times, when the “mysterious” no longer held the curiosity of people, and did not provoke popular imagination with questions any more. For this reason, many monoliths were left alone in the wilderness and were forgotten.
The Cypriot monoliths are huge stones with a symmetrical large hole in their middle or upper part, planted by unknown hands firmly into the land in many parts of the island. Their abandonment for many years has resulted in the people of the island completely forgetting the use and usefulness of these huge stones. Several centuries later, different “explanations” and “interpretations” about the existence of these strange structures found in isolated locations that are elegant and, perhaps, a little mysterious, have been offered. Several still stand, rooted it seems in the soil, while others are uprooted by unknown imaginative or desperate seekers of lost and buried treasures. Archaeologists for centuries were unsure of these stones. Who planted them into the soil of Cyprus ? Who carved them, when and why? Who made the large holes in them? And what purposes were served by carving, transporting and setting them up, which evidently must have been very laborious and hard work.
Their presence has been a well-known secret for centuries. However, it was during the 19th century that many researchers and grave robbers were attracted by the mystery that surrounded their existence, and that’s when the search for clues as to their secret began to draw interest for interpretation and solution. Most looters thought that the monoliths were “signs” which showed locations of large amounts of hidden treasures. There were rumours and speculations going around that at a certain time of day, sunlight passed through the holes of these monoliths and illuminated a point on the ground where the treasures were hidden. Consequently, it is not surprising that archaeologists, professional and amateur explorers have been looking for hidden treasures in their vicinity.
The year was 1874 when Luigi Palma di Cesnola (that notorious grave robber, adventurer, diplomat and collector who was without doubt the most famous looter and who, in the last decades of the 19th century, amassed more than 35,000 items in his 10 years in Cyprus as a member of the American Consulate) came across the two huge perforated monoliths, popularly known as “Stillarka”, only a few kilometres south west of the temple of Aphrodite in Palaipaphos (modern Kouklia). He was aware of the rumours regarding mythical “treasures” and of the many who attempted to discover them.
Cesnola subsequently dealt with the issue of the standing pierced monoliths, and carried out research as well as “excavations” on them. Having failed to locate any hidden treasures, he eventually concluded that they were related to the worship of the goddess Aphrodite, and were even parts of her temples. General di Cesnola’s luxuriant imagination created an image of a Temple of Aphrodite Anadyomene (Aphrodite emerging from the sea) with the upright monoliths as part of it. He concluded that the pilgrims from the province of Paphos passed through the temple before ascending to the main place of worship of Aphrodite at Palaipaphos ; he also identified the remains of an adjacent building as the house of a priest or priestess. Aphrodite was the goddess of love, beauty and procreation. According to legend, Aphrodite rose from the sea foam on the southern coast of Cyprus . Her temple, situated at Palaipaphos, became an important religious centre of the Greek and Roman worlds.
General di Cesnola is not the only traveller who has sought a religious explanation for these monoliths; in view of the shape of certain monoliths and the superstitions connected with them, some archaeologists consider they are parts of religious rituals.
The unique pair of monoliths at “Stillarka” attracted special interest and has been the subject of speculation since the last quarter of the 19th century. The Greek Athanasios Sakellarios (“Cypriot Studies”, Volume A, 1890, pp 78-79) describes the monoliths of Kouklia in the province of Paphos and adds that other such monoliths were found at the village and around the valley of Anogyra, near Pachna, in close proximity to the chapel of Ayios Stephanos and the locality Despotica, in the village of Dora, behind the village of Pissouri, near Saint Photios on the hills of Panagia and many others in various parts of the island. The local people had, and in some villages still have, strong beliefs in the powers of the pierced stones.
Sakellarios has also written about a tradition that “the women from the villages of Cyprus , who could not bear children, went to visit these monoliths to get cured from their sterility”. Some monoliths were therefore considered as having therapeutic powers by barren Cypriot women. Sakellarios tells us also that certain monoliths were considered to have healing qualities: “They are found all over the island and these monoliths have holes in them. The natives considered them as deterrents for fever and other diseases, and the patients who came to these monoliths hung parts of their clothes on the stones, believing that in this way the disease would be left behind. They also believed that sick children would get well after passing through the hole of these monoliths.”
Dr. F.H.H. Guillemard, in the Athenaeum of 14 April 1888, has put forward a far more realistic theory, that they are the remains of ancient presses, a use the modern Cypriot has forgotten about. Later, D.C. Hogarth (1889), made a comprehensive research on the matter. He confirmed that although Cypriots considered various monoliths sacred, he gave a more practical point of view which connected the objects with the production of olive oil and identified them as olive presses, agreeing with the view first expressed by Guillemard earlier. However, Max Ohnefalsch-Richter (1891) disagreed with the theory of olive presses and insisted that they were objects related with ancient cults and mysteries. He argued that the two Paphos monoliths were beyond any doubt objects of worship. Others followed as well, and in turn they put forth their views and developed their own theories.
Monoliths are cut from the ordinary limestone of the island. The dimensions vary indefinitely and show no significant coincidences, and they face impartially all points of the compass. They are found generally singly, sometimes in groups of two or more. All the monoliths are shaped more or less the same, tapering in some cases slightly to the top, which is either rounded or square, each pierced with a rectangular hole that in most cases is large enough to allow an adult to pass through. They usually stand between two and two and a half metres above the present ground level but some are about one metre wide and 70 cm thick. They stand in many cases at the corner of a platform of masonry or rubble, apparently intended to resist weight or pressure, and near them are often foundations of small, many-chambered buildings, like those of a farm. Near the platform cisterns are often found, lined with cement or cut in the solid rock, and small gutters lead into them: this is especially noticeable near the Pissouri village and Ayios Stefanos (near Pachna) stones. More than 50 perforated monoliths have so far been recorded in Cyprus , the majority of which are located in the south-western region of the island. This fact is not surprising as they are formed from dense calcarenite (a type of limestone) which is abundant in the region (Pachna formation).
Recent excavations showed that the most significant accessories of many of the monoliths are mill-stones. Consequently, the function of the monolith may be conceived to have been something like the following: a massive bulk of timber was passed through the rectangular hole, suspended at one end by a heavy upper mill-stone: at the other end, projecting beyond the monolith, ropes would be attached to pull that end down, and thus the mill-stone at the other end up. The latter could then be lowered at will “with a run” on to the olive berries lying on the nether stone. To resist the strain of alternately raising and lowering such a beam with such a weight at the end, a very massive fulcrum would be required, and this was supplied by the monolith, whose long slit allowed for a good deal of “play”. The latter was at first made horizontal, but later the slope was introduced to facilitate tilting the beam: in these cases, the press would be on the side towards which the slope falls. Their use was abandoned and soon forgotten on the introduction of the screw-press, but this was probably not until Byzantine times, judging from the pottery and other remains which were found near so many of the monoliths. The modern Cypriots have utilised a few of the mill-stones, but the majority are much larger than those in use nowadays, and thus have simply remained in situ.
All the surroundings of the monoliths therefore point to their being connected with olive or grape culture, but it is not easy to determine the part played by the upright pierced stone itself in the operations of crushing or pressing. As Dr. Guillemard has shown, the crushing is done by means of a beam with the roller attached, made to revolve from a peg in the centre of the circular stone. In this operation, the monolith was not required. It must be connected, accordingly, with the pressing, and be a relic of days before the modern screw was invented where the operation had to be effected by simple impact of weight or of a lever. This would amply account for the modern Cypriot’s ignorance of the character of the monoliths.
Unfortunately, no parallels exist in any of the countries of the Levant: and only the occurrence of remains of wine-presses and circular stones near certain of the so-called “menhirs” of Moab (Conder, Heth and Moab, pp. 253, 254) leads one to believe that some of these mysterious stones are not unconnected to the press.
Concluding, it worth mentioning that even today, local people in a number of locations still lend special powers to the monoliths. Typical examples are: the “Agia Trypiméne” monolith near Yerovasa village, around which bushes and stumps bear countless rags, a custom used by Cypriots (and also other eastern and Mediterranean countries) as a means of driving away evil spirits and maladies. Ailing children are said to have been passed through the Paphos monoliths, and barren women through one of those near Anoyira. Men who are unable to pass through the hole in the Ayios Stephanos monolith near Pachna are said to have unfaithful wives. The natives of Ayios Photios call their monoliths the “aγίαι πέτραι” (holy stones). Most of these monoliths are to be found at the south-western part of the district of Limassol and specifically in the area enclosed between the villages of Dora, Anogyra, Plataniskia, Prastio and Pachna. Many are also to be found in the district of Paphos, in areas of the villages of Kouklia, Archimandrita, Salamiou, Pano Arodes and other places.
Our winery’s name is therefore associated to the large monolith which stands close to the ruins of the chapel of Ayios Stephanos. It is just probable that in this area, an oil and or wine press was erected centuries ago by the natives. Our winery logo proudly displays our local pierced stone which is used as a symbol of the inexplicable. Like the monoliths, the making of wine is just a big mystery, one not yet fully understood.
Today, modern archaeological research believes that these monoliths – which for centuries were connected with legends, myths and a number of supernatural properties – are parts of special presses for olive oil production or perhaps grape crushers. But are they really?
That’s the story of the Cyprus monoliths. May their legend live happily ever after!
Wine News and Information
* Sales of the once super-fashionable rosé have stalled in the UK , latest statistics show. Supermarkets, which sell 83 out of every 100 bottles sold in the UK market, have seen a significant fall in rosé sales in the last year. The number of bottles sold increased just 1% compared to 13% a year earlier. Inflation has led to the net price of rosé increasing by just 4% compared to 17% a year earlier, according to the latest figures from market analysts Nielsen. The slowdown in sales of rosé, which since the heat wave summer of 2003 have been on a seemingly unstoppable upward curve, indicated a worrying trend according to Nielsen’s Stewart Blunt. “The market for rosé has slowed down, but people are not switching their preference to red or white wine. The economic downturn has had an effect on all wine sales, which is worrying.”
* Overall, wine sales have seen a 3% increase in net price but a 1% decline in the number of bottles sold. Average bottle prices have increased by 15p to £4.44, but Blunt said this did not necessarily reflect rising duty levels.
* Marchese Piero Antinori, the leading producer and former Decanter Man of the Year, reckons that 30% of Italy ’s vines are making wines unacceptable in today’s markets. According to Antinori, the problem is particularly acute in central Italy , where there are thousands of hectares planted to Trebbiano, “a not very interesting grape”, and in southern Italy – particularly Sicily and Puglia – where many vineyards are producing huge yields of 250hl/ha (hectolitres per hectare). “For centuries, viticulture in Italy was geared to quantity rather than quality, and a large part of its plantings still reflect that old approach,” said Antinori. “In the past, the wines were either blended and exported, largely to France , as very cheap ‘vin ordinaire’ style wine, or used as a base for vermouth. Now, vermouth doesn’t sell and these producers have to find new markets.” Antinori said that thousands of hectares are owned by small producers who have neither the resources nor the desire to change. “Transforming these thousands of inefficient acres that aren’t geared to the market is a big challenge, and more difficult than you might think. The only solution is to offer incentives to grub up the vines or replant.” Such incentives were introduced in Italy by the EU two years ago, and should bring about big changes within the next four to five years.
* Premium American domestic wineries are increasing their use of cork closures, with brands using cork showing higher annual sales growth over those using alternative closures, according to a survey released recently by the Cork Quality Counsel (CQC) based on data from A.C. Nielsen. The survey found that of the 100 top selling wine brands, the number of brands using cork closures rose by 7.5% to 72 brands during the past five months. During the same period, those same brands sealed with cork closures posted an average annual sales increase of 10.2%, compared to annual growth of 3.7% for alternative closure types, according to the survey.
Real cork is recyclable, biodegradable and creates a powerful incentive for sustainable stewardship of Mediterranean cork oak forests, which provide one of the world’s richest ecosystems. Metal screw caps and plastic stoppers produce 10 to 24 times more greenhouse gases, and consume as much as five times more non-renewable energy than real cork over their life-cycles, according to a peer-reviewed study by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
* A large prospective study of 5,033 men and women in the Tromsø Study in northern Norway has reported that moderate wine consumption is independently associated with better performance on cognitive tests. The results of this study support findings from previous research on the topic. In the last three decades, the association between moderate alcohol intake and cognitive function has been investigated in 68 studies comprising 145,308 men and women from various populations with various drinking patterns. Most studies show an association between light to moderate alcohol consumption and better cognitive function and reduced risk of dementia, including both vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Such effects could relate to the presence in wine of a number of polyphenols (antioxidants) and other micro elements that may help reduce the risk of cognitive decline with ageing. Mechanisms that have been suggested for alcohol itself being protective against cognitive decline include effects on atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), coagulation (thickening of the blood and clotting), and reducing inflammation (of artery walls, improving blood flow).
Monolithos Monthly News
Seven years ago (2003), the Pericleous family purchased a vineyard of 14,000 sq metres to accommodate their new Monolithos Winery. The land sits 724 metres above sea level and is located only 500 meters north-west of the current building with a spectacular view of the Troodos mountain range. However, plans to build a winery in Pachna turned sour when the existing access road was considered inadequate for building permission. Over the last seven years, we have been striving to acquire passage to the new location. Following a long and bureaucratic procedure, and having mobilised central and local authorities including court procedures and the office of the Ombudsman, we finally reached a workable arrangement which will allow us to proceed with the construction of the winery: not too big and not too small, but enough to make perhaps 50,000-100,000 bottles per annum. We are currently putting down the last details of the architectural plans and it is hoped that the works will start early next year. The first phase of the construction is expected to be completed before the end of 2011. The new winery will allow us to have complete control over every step of the winemaking process.
If at any time you are passing near the village of Pachna and wish to visit the winery or purchase any of our products, Martin Wood will be pleased to meet and assist you at his “Fig Tree Villa” in Pachna, so do not hesitate to phone him at 25-816212 or 99-165995. We thank you for your continued support. Take care, and remember the Spanish proverb:
”With wine and hope, anything is possible.”
Friday, 1 October 2010
The Cyprus Wine Blog - Monolithos Wine Dimensions: October 2010
Wines are increasingly facing a very competitive playing field, and most producers are looking for a way to single out their wines to the consumer. Each year, dozens of local, regional, national and international wine competitions are organised worldwide aiming at offering wineries the chance to win fame and fortune for their brands.
A medal can help tremendously with marketing efforts. Get a gold medal in an influential competition and your wine could soon be flying off store shelves. Competitions are believed to be held also for the sake of the consumer, as they help choose the best quality wine among offers in the given class and price segment. For a consumer, a small sticker of golden, silver or bronze colour is a sort of assurance that this is a product with improved characteristics. Overall, results of wine competitions can offer a great resource to consumers for information from a diverse panel of experts, rather than just a single critic. It is also an additional psychological factor to confirm that the right decision was made. But consumers may not realise that competitions are also money-spinners for the organisers. This short article will focus on a handful of competitions to provide an understanding of how they operate.
Broadly speaking, a wine competition is an organized event in which trained judges or consumers competitively rate different vintages or brands of wine. Wine competitions have remained popular for at least a century and a half, starting from the famous international exhibition (Exposition Universelle) in Paris in 1855. Nowadays, almost every national fair sponsors a competition. Furthermore, there are dozens of competitions sponsored or organized by magazines (Vineyard and Winery Management, Decanter, The Wine Advocate, Wine Enthusiast, etc), wine societies, wine summits, chambers of commerce, newspapers, grape growers associations, wine industry professionals and a number of independent wine experts whose competition experience spans for several decades.
Formats vary from national or regional to international. Regional competitions can be useful in helping wineries target their sales efforts. They really give a good snapshot of who’s doing the best job with certain types of local grape varieties. Wines judged in the context of their geographical origin aim at developing greater sensitivity toward the complexities and “terroir” of regional wine characteristics, and also to measure the influence of regional growing conditions on the taste and quality of individual wines.
Such competitions tend to be organized by wineries, their trade associations, or entrepreneurs. They are popular with producers because there are many winners and the medals are useful in marketing their products. The regional competitions are a complement to the international ones. Competitions, especially on the international scale, are needed by producers who have reached a certain critical mass and have enough volume and quality to make their brand noticeable on the market. In the marketing jargon, competitions are a valuable tool for brand building, development or support.
Entering wine competitions isn’t really a matter of choosing the biggest or most famous contests, but about finding the ones that will help your winery achieve its goals – whether that means getting your wines in front of influential writers and sommeliers, gauging your winery’s performance against local competitors, or breaking into new accounts. One of the critical factors of recognition and thus success is an effective communication channel with various target groups. A competition’s influence increases when more people can read or learn about it. This is why publishing houses or exhibition groups stand behind the most recognized events. Names of organizers and standards of judging play a vital role in the image of a competition. One of the most important criteria in evaluating wine competitions is the quality of the judges. Before agreeing to enter, one has to be sure to check the competition’s website for a list of participating judges. They should be skilled tasters – professionals, not wine collectors, and must come from many countries, truly reflecting a world palate. As for judges and judging procedures, organizers of any serious event understand that only high standards ensure validity of a competition and trust for results. All prestigious international events are run with the involvement of experienced professionals who are particularly reputed in their area of work.
Transparency of the process is also a key issue. The process is described in detail, starting from receiving samples and ending in giving awards. Most competitions would have only organoleptic evaluation, but some also do chemical analysis.
Some wineries believe that by entering many wines in numerous competitions they will fare better than others, simply due to the odds. Wineries with large productions may enter a large number of wines because the odds are so good. They will send in dozens of wines, and if they win a medal they advertise it aggressively. For many wineries, however, it’s just not feasible – or even desirable – to enter more than a couple of competitions each year. With all the different contests out there, what’s the best selection strategy?
The most common form of wine competition is one in which awards are given to groups of wines in various winning categories on the basis of blind tasting. That is, the judges do not know the identity of the wines they are evaluating. The awards are frequently bronze, silver, gold, and double gold medals. However, ribbons of various colours are also sometimes used. It is not uncommon for one-third or more of the wines competing to be awarded medals. These competitions often include a “Best of Class” award, producing a clear category winner among those vintages awarded a gold medal. Some winemakers go home disappointed, some go home satisfied, and some stand behind the podium and thank the academy.
Regulations govern the classification of wine in many regions of the world. European wines tend to be classified by region, by grape colour (red, white), by grape variety ( Shiraz , Merlot, Cabernet, Chardonnay), by vintage (made from grapes that were grown and harvested in a specified year), by method of vinification (sparkling, white, rosé) and fortified liqueur wines. A recent addition involves wines made from organically produced grapes.
Competitions that specialise in judging according to regional classification such as wines of particular appellations are arranged in groups (mostly of 10) and evaluated by judges who are unaware of the geographic origin or producer. In contrast, other competitions group wines by grape varietal name and suggested retail price. Selected for their familiarity with wines from specific growing regions, the judges represent some of the most qualified experts in the industry: food and beverage media, winemakers, wine marketers, oenology and viticulture professors and researchers, restaurateurs and sommeliers, hospitality and tourism consultants, and fine wine retailers.
In the paragraphs that follow, reference is made to a number of current wine competitions approved by the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) and a handful of other international competitions to provide an understanding of how they operate. This is not, however, an attempt to evaluate which competitions are best to enter, nor which ones seem more prestigious or have the best-qualified judges.
The OIV was established on 3 April 2001 with its head office in Paris , France . It is an intergovernmental organisation of a scientific and technical nature, and is recognised for its works concerning vines, wine, wine-based beverages, table grapes, raisins and other vine-based products. It has adopted specific standards for approved international wine competitions. For these competitions, an expert commissioner is appointed who participates in the works of the different juries and verifies that the rules and standards are observed. The approved competitions should be open, without discrimination, to all wines and promote knowledge of wines, encourage their production and responsible consumption as an active part of civilisation, make known and present characteristic types of wine produced in various countries to the public, and raise the technical and scientific level of producers and contribute to the development of their production. All entries must have an indication of the country of origin, including the place where the grapes were harvested and where the wines were made. All samples must be presented with labels and commercial presentations, exact identification of the participant and the exact designation of the product, in accordance with the regulations of the country of origin and analysis certificates carried out by an accredited laboratory.
The organiser is responsible for designating the jurors from several countries in cooperation with the OIV. The majority of jurors shall be oenologists or persons with an equivalent diploma in the field of wine. Persons having demonstrated a high qualification for tasting in the field of wine and may complete the jury. Within the same jury, the absolute majority of the jurors may not come from the organising country.
Each juror shall taste at the rate of no more than 45 samples per day, without prejudice to possible tastings asked again by the President of the Jury. This takes place in three sessions of approximately 15 samples each of dry wine, or two sessions of 15 samples of dry wine to which may be added a session of 10 samples from other categories.
Wines are judged according in groups to their classifications. The objective of categorising wine is essentially to present homogenous, successive series of samples based on the following categories and criteria: geographic provenance, vine varieties, vintage, sugar contents, wooded or un-wooded characteristics.
The wines are grouped and tasted by jurors during sessions in the following order:
1. Sparkling whites
2. Still whites
3. Sparkling rosés
4. Still rosés
5. Sparkling reds
6. Still reds
7. Wine under a film of yeasts
8. Natural sweet wine
9. Ice wine
10. Liqueur wine
A total of 100 points are allocated for judgment as follows: Visual (15), Nose (30), Taste (44), Harmony – Overall (11).
The sum of all the medals awarded to the samples must not exceed 30% of the total of samples presented at the competition. If this percentage is exceeded, the samples that obtained the lowest score are eliminated. The samples having obtained a determined number of points for a tasting shall be classified according to the following award level categories:
Grand gold – at least 92 points
Gold – at least 85 points
Silver – at least 82 points
Bronze – at least 80 points
List of major European and World wine competitions
1. Concours Mondial de Bruxelles: Belgium *
2. MUNDUS vini: Germany *
3. Berliner Wein Trophy: Germany *
4. Vinalies: France *
5. Thessaloniki International Wine Competition: Greece *
6. Concours International BACCHUS: Spain *
7. Concours International des Vins MONDE SÉLECTION: Belgium *
8. Concorso Enologico Internazionale VINITALY: Italy *
9. Mondial du Rosé: France *
10. Chardonnay du Monde: France *
11. Citadelles du Vin: France *
12. Concours International de vins du Brésil: Brazil *
13. Mundus Vini: Germany *
14. Mondial du Merlot: Switzerland *
15. TERRAVINO: Israel *
16. Chisinau Wines and Spirits Contest: Moldavia *
17. VINOVITA: Croatia *
18. La Selezione del Sindaco: Italy *
19. Vinagora: Hungary *
20. Concours professionnel International de vins et de spiritueux: Russia *
21. Cyprus Wine Competition: Cyprus *
22. International Wine Competition Muvina: Slovakia *
23. International Wine Contest Bucharest : Romania *
24. International Wine Challenge: UK
25. Decanter World Wine Awards: UK
26. International Wine and Spirit Competition: UK
27. American Wine Society Commercial Wine Competition: USA
28. Starwine International Wine Competition: USA
29. New World International Wine Competition: USA
30. San Francisco International Wine Competition: USA
31. Sélections Mondiales des Vins: Canada *
32. Intervin U.S./Canadian International Wine Competition: Canada
33. Sydney International Wine Competition: Australia
34. Vinalies Catador America Latina : Chile *
35. Malbec al Mundo: Argentina *
36. Vinandino: Argentina *
37. Cathay Pacific Hong Kong International Wine & Spirit Competition: China
* Note: Competitions sponsored/accredited by the OIV. The conditions for granting sponsorship are defined by the guidelines as provided in the Internal Rules of the OIV.
One of the critical factors in the reputation and recognition of a wine competition and thus success is an effective communication channel with various target groups. A competition’s influence increases when more people can read or learn about it. This is why publishing houses or exhibition groups stand behind the most recognized wine events.
The following three leading British independent wine competitions constitute good examples of the current trend in the organisation of wine competitions in the form of a business venture:
1. The International Wine and Spirit Competition
2. The International Wine Challenge
3. Decanter World Wine Awards
International Wine and Spirit Competition (IWSC)
The International Wine and Spirit Competition is an annual wine competition founded in 1969 by the oenologist Anton Massel under the name Club Oenologique. In 1978, the name of the venture was changed to the International Wine and Spirit Competition and, within a short space of time, the disciplines of the competition were redefined. The original aim of the IWSC was to award excellence to wines and spirits worldwide encouraging consumer and trade recognition for quality products. A couple of years ago, the IWSC became part of Nexus Media Communications group that also owns Harpers weekly. In 2009, William Reed (owner of the International Wine Challenge) acquired Harpers from Nexus and the IWSC announced a new media partner, The Drinks Business.
Each year, the competition receives more than 70,000 entries from over 80 countries worldwide. The awards given by the competition are considered to be some of the highest honours in the industry. The two-stage judging process takes place over a six month period, comprising of blind tasting and detailed technical analysis undertaken by an independent laboratory. The competition has its own storage facilities and cellaring for over 30,000 bottles. All wines, spirits and liqueurs are blind tasted in groups divided by variety, region and vintage as necessary. Entrants are encouraged to get their products to the organisers as early as possible to give them time to settle. Wines and spirits are judged by panels drawn from 300 specialists from around the world. Many are Masters of Wine, some are winemakers or distillers, and others are trade specialists. Every judge is screened and panels selected for their knowledge and expertise and only taste products that they know well and understand.
All judges also attend an IWSC judges’ induction course. Judges sit in dedicated tasting rooms and are served only numbered glasses and an assessment sheet – at no time do they see the bottles. It takes over six months to judge all the products as they are sorted into over 1,500 categories. Initially, all judging is by region/area; variety/style/type; vintage/age etc. Wines and spirits that win awards may then go forward to the appropriate trophy category to compete at national or international level. It is the thoroughness that makes the IWSC’s awards so valuable. Awards are made on a points system and sponsored trophies are presented in selected categories. Technical analysis is carried out on Gold, Gold (Best in Class), Silver (Best in Class) award winning wines, spirits and liqueurs to ensure that all products are technically sound and will be of the same high quality when they reach the consumer as they were when our judging panels originally tasted them. The IWSC is the only competition to judge northern hemisphere wines and southern hemisphere wines at different times of the year in line with the different harvest times to ensure an equal and fair process. The competition has the support of many of the world’s top wine and spirits producers. The unique combination of detailed technical analysis and specialist judging panels means that gaining any IWSC award is an outstanding achievement.
International Wine Challenge (IWC)
The competition was launched in London in 1984 by Robert Joseph and Charles Metcalfe, originally as a feature in the Wine International magazine, later renamed Wine & Spirit, and now the Harpers Wine & Spirit Trade Review. The International Wine Challenge is a wine competition that attracts from around the globe over 10,000 entries each year.
The results of the competition are published on the International Wine Challenge website in May, in trade bi-weekly magazine Harpers Wine & Spirit Trade Review and the World’s Best Wines Guide. As for judges and judging procedures, the International Wine Challenge claims that their lists of judges include over 40 Masters of Wine. The IWC assesses every wine blind and judges each for its faithfulness to variety, region and vintage. Every wine is assessed independently of its price. Value for money awards are made after the wine has been judged for quality.
The competition takes place over two weeks. There are three rounds of blind tasting: groups of eight to 14 wines of the same style are tasted and scored by tables of four judges. There are over 400 judges. Wines scoring more than 84 points out of 100 advance to round two, where they are tasted again and gold medal winners in each style are awarded. Round three is a tasting of gold medal winners to decide on trophy winners. Throughout the rigorous judging processes, each medal winning wine is tasted at least three times and sometimes as many as six. There is no set number of trophies awarded. In September, the IWC Awards Dinner is held in London . Each year, the achievements of the top medal winners, and the leading wine merchants, are publicly rewarded at the International Wine Challenge Awards Dinner, with over 800 guests from the UK wine trade plus international producers and winemakers. The IWC awards ceremony officially unveils the Champion Trophy Winners, Merchant of the Year Awards, Great Value Trophy Winners and Winemaker of the Year Awards, along with Personality of the Year and Lifetime Achievement Award. Each year the tasting focuses on 10-year-old and five-year-old wines.
Decanter World Wine Awards
Decanter World Wine Awards was founded in 2004 and gained a reputation as one of the world’s most respected and influential wine competitions. Pulling out its roster of high-calibre wine writers to judge, this competition was immediately seen as a major player, not only in Britain but also around the world. An expert panel of tasters from around the world, chaired by Steven Spurrier, judge wines on a regional basis reflecting variety, style and retail price. The Awards are one of the most important competitions in the UK wine trade. The 2009 Decanter World Wine Awards attracted in total 10,285 wines – more than double the amount when the competition was launched six years ago. This phenomenal growth is due to Decanter’s reputation for using only the very best judges, coupled with its unparalleled global reach for the results. Any type of wine from anywhere in the world can enter the competition, whether red, white, rosé, still, sparkling, sweet or fortified. Wines must be labelled in accordance with the European Community provisions to show the name of the region and the geographical area of origin, the nominal volume and alcoholic strength. Wines must be made 100% from grapes grown in the country in which the wine is bottled, with the exception of those cases of cross-regional and intra-national blends recognised by the EU. A thorough understanding of regional style is crucial in order to recognise quality, rather than just rewarding “competition wines”. Wines are tasted blind in groups of 12 and in eight price bands. The success of the Decanter World Wine Awards rests on its unique judging process and world-class judging panels. Results are made on a regional basis to promote a sense of origin, and judges are only selected when they have an intimate knowledge of a specific region.
Decanter has around 200 judges including regional chairs, sitting on four-person panels. Three people on each panel do the main judging; the fourth is that region’s regional chair responsible for recording the results and serves as a tie-breaker. Most regional chairs participate in the discussions as well. The judges are an international who’s who of wine, and are well-known and highly regarded wine professionals. Four bottles must be submitted at a cost of £80 ($145) per wine if the samples come from in the U.K. (from the agent of an overseas wine) or £98 ($175) per wine if the sample comes from overseas. Wines do not have to be commercially available in the U.K. Decanter prints 50,000 copies of their Awards issue, which are circulated to over 80 countries. To showcase Gold medal wines each year, Decanter hosts a big event in September called “The Decanter World Wine Awards Presentation Dinner”, where results of the Awards are announced to the trade with a high-profile stand at the London International Wine Fair and at Vinexpo. The glamorous Awards dinner gathers together the crème de la crème of the wine industry under one roof.
Like all issues associated with wine, there are those for and those against wine competitions. The challengers argue that wine competitions are nothing more than money spinners. Slow moving stock is used for entering competitions. Medals are given out in thousands and have no value. Who is benefiting from these awards? It has to be the wine houses that clear their stock, the supermarkets who can drum up sales from promotions, and the companies which organize the competition.
Though some people view wine competitions as the domain of large-production brands, it is also true that they can help boutique wineries make a name for themselves. No matter which model is chosen, a competition is a type of business activity that should be commercially attractive for its organizers. When organized correctly, a competition will cut even in the first year and turns into a profitable business from the second or the third year. According to an internal source in one of the leading publishing houses, competitions generate the third largest revenue in the list of company’s activities.
Wine News and Information
* During his 42-year music career, Julio Iglesias, the Madrid-born singer, has sold more than 300 million albums in 14 different languages, making him among the top 10 best-selling musicians in history. The singer has bought so much wine over the years that he seems to have lost count of how many bottles he has in his three cellars in Spain , Miami and the Dominican Republic . “I’ve got about 5,000 top wines and hundreds of thousands of normal wines,” he admits, without hyperbole. Generous with his plentiful stock, he gives away about 100 cases of wine to friends every year.
Brought up in Madrid in the 1950s by his doctor father, Iglesias got by in the early days by drinking “any old stuff from Valdepeñas”. In his late teens, he played as a goalkeeper for Real Madrid football club until a near fatal car accident in 1963 ended his sporting career. During his rehabilitation, to develop dexterity in his hands, he started playing the guitar and subsequently writing music. The rest, as they say, is history.
Iglesias’ wine epiphany was equally notable. In 1973, he was invited by Baroness Philippine de Rothschild – a big Iglesias fan – to a dinner party at her home in Paris after one of his concerts. “She asked me what I thought of the wine and I told her that I’d never tasted anything like it,” Iglesias recalls with brio. “She summoned the butler to serve a second wine, this time in a decanter, which I later learned was Lafite 1961. It was the first time in my life I’d felt a wine all the way down to my toes. It worked its magic through my body and made me realise that wine had a lot more mystery and history than I had first thought.” The memory of the Lafite lingered, sending Iglesias on a lifelong wine journey. He began picking up the odd case in the countries he toured in – reds in France, whites in Germany – and got seriously into collecting in 1978, after building a 4,000-bottle cellar in the Miami home. Outside of France , Iglesias is a big fan of Spanish icon wines from Rioja and Ribera del Duero. “I love trying wines from lesser-known Spanish regions like Calatayud, Jumilla and Zamora ”. He also dips his toe in the New World via Australia , South Africa , California and Argentina .
* Despite continuing global financial woes, a sunbeam of optimism has started to shine brightly on the Italian wine industry. Figures released by the Italian Wine and Food Institute (IWFI) in New York named Italy the leading importer of wines in the USA . The news follows a recent Gallup Poll finding that says Americans now drink more alcohol than they have in a quarter century. In addition, a recent European study named the U.S. market the most robust and dynamic worldwide in terms of foreign wine sales. Overall, international imports to the U.S. decreased in quantity but increased in value this year. Yet, Italy still remains the number one imported bottled wine-producing nation with 850,160 hectolitres against Australia ’s 583,580 hectolitres. Meanwhile, the Spanish trade institute in New York released a report aimed at European vintners that paints a very sunny picture of the US imports market. Thanks to interest in wine by the so-called millennial generation, wine consumption in American has grown 32% from 2000 to 2009, the report said. It described the US market as “the most robust and dynamic”.
Monolithos Monthly News
The 2010 vintage is over. All the fruit has been picked. The white wines’ fermentation has been completed. The reds are all pressed and the fermentation is progressing under temperature control. During the 2010 vintage, a spell of hot weather in July accelerated ripening, necessitating the harvesting of a lot of grapes at short notice. However, we enjoyed a beautifully good harvest enhanced by a great team of dedicated friends comprising a team of expatriates. Martin Wood managed all the picking and hence the harvesting went as smooth as silk.
If at any time you are passing near the village of Pachna and wish to visit the winery or purchase any of our products, Martin Wood will be pleased to meet and assist you at his “Fig Tree Villa” in Pachna, so do not hesitate to phone him at 25-816212 or 99-165995.
We thank you for your continued support. Take care and always remember:
“Wine is sunlight, held together by water.”
Galileo Galilee
A medal can help tremendously with marketing efforts. Get a gold medal in an influential competition and your wine could soon be flying off store shelves. Competitions are believed to be held also for the sake of the consumer, as they help choose the best quality wine among offers in the given class and price segment. For a consumer, a small sticker of golden, silver or bronze colour is a sort of assurance that this is a product with improved characteristics. Overall, results of wine competitions can offer a great resource to consumers for information from a diverse panel of experts, rather than just a single critic. It is also an additional psychological factor to confirm that the right decision was made. But consumers may not realise that competitions are also money-spinners for the organisers. This short article will focus on a handful of competitions to provide an understanding of how they operate.
Broadly speaking, a wine competition is an organized event in which trained judges or consumers competitively rate different vintages or brands of wine. Wine competitions have remained popular for at least a century and a half, starting from the famous international exhibition (Exposition Universelle) in Paris in 1855. Nowadays, almost every national fair sponsors a competition. Furthermore, there are dozens of competitions sponsored or organized by magazines (Vineyard and Winery Management, Decanter, The Wine Advocate, Wine Enthusiast, etc), wine societies, wine summits, chambers of commerce, newspapers, grape growers associations, wine industry professionals and a number of independent wine experts whose competition experience spans for several decades.
Formats vary from national or regional to international. Regional competitions can be useful in helping wineries target their sales efforts. They really give a good snapshot of who’s doing the best job with certain types of local grape varieties. Wines judged in the context of their geographical origin aim at developing greater sensitivity toward the complexities and “terroir” of regional wine characteristics, and also to measure the influence of regional growing conditions on the taste and quality of individual wines.
Such competitions tend to be organized by wineries, their trade associations, or entrepreneurs. They are popular with producers because there are many winners and the medals are useful in marketing their products. The regional competitions are a complement to the international ones. Competitions, especially on the international scale, are needed by producers who have reached a certain critical mass and have enough volume and quality to make their brand noticeable on the market. In the marketing jargon, competitions are a valuable tool for brand building, development or support.
Entering wine competitions isn’t really a matter of choosing the biggest or most famous contests, but about finding the ones that will help your winery achieve its goals – whether that means getting your wines in front of influential writers and sommeliers, gauging your winery’s performance against local competitors, or breaking into new accounts. One of the critical factors of recognition and thus success is an effective communication channel with various target groups. A competition’s influence increases when more people can read or learn about it. This is why publishing houses or exhibition groups stand behind the most recognized events. Names of organizers and standards of judging play a vital role in the image of a competition. One of the most important criteria in evaluating wine competitions is the quality of the judges. Before agreeing to enter, one has to be sure to check the competition’s website for a list of participating judges. They should be skilled tasters – professionals, not wine collectors, and must come from many countries, truly reflecting a world palate. As for judges and judging procedures, organizers of any serious event understand that only high standards ensure validity of a competition and trust for results. All prestigious international events are run with the involvement of experienced professionals who are particularly reputed in their area of work.
Transparency of the process is also a key issue. The process is described in detail, starting from receiving samples and ending in giving awards. Most competitions would have only organoleptic evaluation, but some also do chemical analysis.
Some wineries believe that by entering many wines in numerous competitions they will fare better than others, simply due to the odds. Wineries with large productions may enter a large number of wines because the odds are so good. They will send in dozens of wines, and if they win a medal they advertise it aggressively. For many wineries, however, it’s just not feasible – or even desirable – to enter more than a couple of competitions each year. With all the different contests out there, what’s the best selection strategy?
The most common form of wine competition is one in which awards are given to groups of wines in various winning categories on the basis of blind tasting. That is, the judges do not know the identity of the wines they are evaluating. The awards are frequently bronze, silver, gold, and double gold medals. However, ribbons of various colours are also sometimes used. It is not uncommon for one-third or more of the wines competing to be awarded medals. These competitions often include a “Best of Class” award, producing a clear category winner among those vintages awarded a gold medal. Some winemakers go home disappointed, some go home satisfied, and some stand behind the podium and thank the academy.
Regulations govern the classification of wine in many regions of the world. European wines tend to be classified by region, by grape colour (red, white), by grape variety ( Shiraz , Merlot, Cabernet, Chardonnay), by vintage (made from grapes that were grown and harvested in a specified year), by method of vinification (sparkling, white, rosé) and fortified liqueur wines. A recent addition involves wines made from organically produced grapes.
Competitions that specialise in judging according to regional classification such as wines of particular appellations are arranged in groups (mostly of 10) and evaluated by judges who are unaware of the geographic origin or producer. In contrast, other competitions group wines by grape varietal name and suggested retail price. Selected for their familiarity with wines from specific growing regions, the judges represent some of the most qualified experts in the industry: food and beverage media, winemakers, wine marketers, oenology and viticulture professors and researchers, restaurateurs and sommeliers, hospitality and tourism consultants, and fine wine retailers.
In the paragraphs that follow, reference is made to a number of current wine competitions approved by the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) and a handful of other international competitions to provide an understanding of how they operate. This is not, however, an attempt to evaluate which competitions are best to enter, nor which ones seem more prestigious or have the best-qualified judges.
The OIV was established on 3 April 2001 with its head office in Paris , France . It is an intergovernmental organisation of a scientific and technical nature, and is recognised for its works concerning vines, wine, wine-based beverages, table grapes, raisins and other vine-based products. It has adopted specific standards for approved international wine competitions. For these competitions, an expert commissioner is appointed who participates in the works of the different juries and verifies that the rules and standards are observed. The approved competitions should be open, without discrimination, to all wines and promote knowledge of wines, encourage their production and responsible consumption as an active part of civilisation, make known and present characteristic types of wine produced in various countries to the public, and raise the technical and scientific level of producers and contribute to the development of their production. All entries must have an indication of the country of origin, including the place where the grapes were harvested and where the wines were made. All samples must be presented with labels and commercial presentations, exact identification of the participant and the exact designation of the product, in accordance with the regulations of the country of origin and analysis certificates carried out by an accredited laboratory.
The organiser is responsible for designating the jurors from several countries in cooperation with the OIV. The majority of jurors shall be oenologists or persons with an equivalent diploma in the field of wine. Persons having demonstrated a high qualification for tasting in the field of wine and may complete the jury. Within the same jury, the absolute majority of the jurors may not come from the organising country.
Each juror shall taste at the rate of no more than 45 samples per day, without prejudice to possible tastings asked again by the President of the Jury. This takes place in three sessions of approximately 15 samples each of dry wine, or two sessions of 15 samples of dry wine to which may be added a session of 10 samples from other categories.
Wines are judged according in groups to their classifications. The objective of categorising wine is essentially to present homogenous, successive series of samples based on the following categories and criteria: geographic provenance, vine varieties, vintage, sugar contents, wooded or un-wooded characteristics.
The wines are grouped and tasted by jurors during sessions in the following order:
1. Sparkling whites
2. Still whites
3. Sparkling rosés
4. Still rosés
5. Sparkling reds
6. Still reds
7. Wine under a film of yeasts
8. Natural sweet wine
9. Ice wine
10. Liqueur wine
A total of 100 points are allocated for judgment as follows: Visual (15), Nose (30), Taste (44), Harmony – Overall (11).
The sum of all the medals awarded to the samples must not exceed 30% of the total of samples presented at the competition. If this percentage is exceeded, the samples that obtained the lowest score are eliminated. The samples having obtained a determined number of points for a tasting shall be classified according to the following award level categories:
Grand gold – at least 92 points
Gold – at least 85 points
Silver – at least 82 points
Bronze – at least 80 points
List of major European and World wine competitions
1. Concours Mondial de Bruxelles: Belgium *
2. MUNDUS vini: Germany *
3. Berliner Wein Trophy: Germany *
4. Vinalies: France *
5. Thessaloniki International Wine Competition: Greece *
6. Concours International BACCHUS: Spain *
7. Concours International des Vins MONDE SÉLECTION: Belgium *
8. Concorso Enologico Internazionale VINITALY: Italy *
9. Mondial du Rosé: France *
10. Chardonnay du Monde: France *
11. Citadelles du Vin: France *
12. Concours International de vins du Brésil: Brazil *
13. Mundus Vini: Germany *
14. Mondial du Merlot: Switzerland *
15. TERRAVINO: Israel *
16. Chisinau Wines and Spirits Contest: Moldavia *
17. VINOVITA: Croatia *
18. La Selezione del Sindaco: Italy *
19. Vinagora: Hungary *
20. Concours professionnel International de vins et de spiritueux: Russia *
21. Cyprus Wine Competition: Cyprus *
22. International Wine Competition Muvina: Slovakia *
23. International Wine Contest Bucharest : Romania *
24. International Wine Challenge: UK
25. Decanter World Wine Awards: UK
26. International Wine and Spirit Competition: UK
27. American Wine Society Commercial Wine Competition: USA
28. Starwine International Wine Competition: USA
29. New World International Wine Competition: USA
30. San Francisco International Wine Competition: USA
31. Sélections Mondiales des Vins: Canada *
32. Intervin U.S./Canadian International Wine Competition: Canada
33. Sydney International Wine Competition: Australia
34. Vinalies Catador America Latina : Chile *
35. Malbec al Mundo: Argentina *
36. Vinandino: Argentina *
37. Cathay Pacific Hong Kong International Wine & Spirit Competition: China
* Note: Competitions sponsored/accredited by the OIV. The conditions for granting sponsorship are defined by the guidelines as provided in the Internal Rules of the OIV.
One of the critical factors in the reputation and recognition of a wine competition and thus success is an effective communication channel with various target groups. A competition’s influence increases when more people can read or learn about it. This is why publishing houses or exhibition groups stand behind the most recognized wine events.
The following three leading British independent wine competitions constitute good examples of the current trend in the organisation of wine competitions in the form of a business venture:
1. The International Wine and Spirit Competition
2. The International Wine Challenge
3. Decanter World Wine Awards
International Wine and Spirit Competition (IWSC)
The International Wine and Spirit Competition is an annual wine competition founded in 1969 by the oenologist Anton Massel under the name Club Oenologique. In 1978, the name of the venture was changed to the International Wine and Spirit Competition and, within a short space of time, the disciplines of the competition were redefined. The original aim of the IWSC was to award excellence to wines and spirits worldwide encouraging consumer and trade recognition for quality products. A couple of years ago, the IWSC became part of Nexus Media Communications group that also owns Harpers weekly. In 2009, William Reed (owner of the International Wine Challenge) acquired Harpers from Nexus and the IWSC announced a new media partner, The Drinks Business.
Each year, the competition receives more than 70,000 entries from over 80 countries worldwide. The awards given by the competition are considered to be some of the highest honours in the industry. The two-stage judging process takes place over a six month period, comprising of blind tasting and detailed technical analysis undertaken by an independent laboratory. The competition has its own storage facilities and cellaring for over 30,000 bottles. All wines, spirits and liqueurs are blind tasted in groups divided by variety, region and vintage as necessary. Entrants are encouraged to get their products to the organisers as early as possible to give them time to settle. Wines and spirits are judged by panels drawn from 300 specialists from around the world. Many are Masters of Wine, some are winemakers or distillers, and others are trade specialists. Every judge is screened and panels selected for their knowledge and expertise and only taste products that they know well and understand.
All judges also attend an IWSC judges’ induction course. Judges sit in dedicated tasting rooms and are served only numbered glasses and an assessment sheet – at no time do they see the bottles. It takes over six months to judge all the products as they are sorted into over 1,500 categories. Initially, all judging is by region/area; variety/style/type; vintage/age etc. Wines and spirits that win awards may then go forward to the appropriate trophy category to compete at national or international level. It is the thoroughness that makes the IWSC’s awards so valuable. Awards are made on a points system and sponsored trophies are presented in selected categories. Technical analysis is carried out on Gold, Gold (Best in Class), Silver (Best in Class) award winning wines, spirits and liqueurs to ensure that all products are technically sound and will be of the same high quality when they reach the consumer as they were when our judging panels originally tasted them. The IWSC is the only competition to judge northern hemisphere wines and southern hemisphere wines at different times of the year in line with the different harvest times to ensure an equal and fair process. The competition has the support of many of the world’s top wine and spirits producers. The unique combination of detailed technical analysis and specialist judging panels means that gaining any IWSC award is an outstanding achievement.
International Wine Challenge (IWC)
The competition was launched in London in 1984 by Robert Joseph and Charles Metcalfe, originally as a feature in the Wine International magazine, later renamed Wine & Spirit, and now the Harpers Wine & Spirit Trade Review. The International Wine Challenge is a wine competition that attracts from around the globe over 10,000 entries each year.
The results of the competition are published on the International Wine Challenge website in May, in trade bi-weekly magazine Harpers Wine & Spirit Trade Review and the World’s Best Wines Guide. As for judges and judging procedures, the International Wine Challenge claims that their lists of judges include over 40 Masters of Wine. The IWC assesses every wine blind and judges each for its faithfulness to variety, region and vintage. Every wine is assessed independently of its price. Value for money awards are made after the wine has been judged for quality.
The competition takes place over two weeks. There are three rounds of blind tasting: groups of eight to 14 wines of the same style are tasted and scored by tables of four judges. There are over 400 judges. Wines scoring more than 84 points out of 100 advance to round two, where they are tasted again and gold medal winners in each style are awarded. Round three is a tasting of gold medal winners to decide on trophy winners. Throughout the rigorous judging processes, each medal winning wine is tasted at least three times and sometimes as many as six. There is no set number of trophies awarded. In September, the IWC Awards Dinner is held in London . Each year, the achievements of the top medal winners, and the leading wine merchants, are publicly rewarded at the International Wine Challenge Awards Dinner, with over 800 guests from the UK wine trade plus international producers and winemakers. The IWC awards ceremony officially unveils the Champion Trophy Winners, Merchant of the Year Awards, Great Value Trophy Winners and Winemaker of the Year Awards, along with Personality of the Year and Lifetime Achievement Award. Each year the tasting focuses on 10-year-old and five-year-old wines.
Decanter World Wine Awards
Decanter World Wine Awards was founded in 2004 and gained a reputation as one of the world’s most respected and influential wine competitions. Pulling out its roster of high-calibre wine writers to judge, this competition was immediately seen as a major player, not only in Britain but also around the world. An expert panel of tasters from around the world, chaired by Steven Spurrier, judge wines on a regional basis reflecting variety, style and retail price. The Awards are one of the most important competitions in the UK wine trade. The 2009 Decanter World Wine Awards attracted in total 10,285 wines – more than double the amount when the competition was launched six years ago. This phenomenal growth is due to Decanter’s reputation for using only the very best judges, coupled with its unparalleled global reach for the results. Any type of wine from anywhere in the world can enter the competition, whether red, white, rosé, still, sparkling, sweet or fortified. Wines must be labelled in accordance with the European Community provisions to show the name of the region and the geographical area of origin, the nominal volume and alcoholic strength. Wines must be made 100% from grapes grown in the country in which the wine is bottled, with the exception of those cases of cross-regional and intra-national blends recognised by the EU. A thorough understanding of regional style is crucial in order to recognise quality, rather than just rewarding “competition wines”. Wines are tasted blind in groups of 12 and in eight price bands. The success of the Decanter World Wine Awards rests on its unique judging process and world-class judging panels. Results are made on a regional basis to promote a sense of origin, and judges are only selected when they have an intimate knowledge of a specific region.
Decanter has around 200 judges including regional chairs, sitting on four-person panels. Three people on each panel do the main judging; the fourth is that region’s regional chair responsible for recording the results and serves as a tie-breaker. Most regional chairs participate in the discussions as well. The judges are an international who’s who of wine, and are well-known and highly regarded wine professionals. Four bottles must be submitted at a cost of £80 ($145) per wine if the samples come from in the U.K. (from the agent of an overseas wine) or £98 ($175) per wine if the sample comes from overseas. Wines do not have to be commercially available in the U.K. Decanter prints 50,000 copies of their Awards issue, which are circulated to over 80 countries. To showcase Gold medal wines each year, Decanter hosts a big event in September called “The Decanter World Wine Awards Presentation Dinner”, where results of the Awards are announced to the trade with a high-profile stand at the London International Wine Fair and at Vinexpo. The glamorous Awards dinner gathers together the crème de la crème of the wine industry under one roof.
Like all issues associated with wine, there are those for and those against wine competitions. The challengers argue that wine competitions are nothing more than money spinners. Slow moving stock is used for entering competitions. Medals are given out in thousands and have no value. Who is benefiting from these awards? It has to be the wine houses that clear their stock, the supermarkets who can drum up sales from promotions, and the companies which organize the competition.
Though some people view wine competitions as the domain of large-production brands, it is also true that they can help boutique wineries make a name for themselves. No matter which model is chosen, a competition is a type of business activity that should be commercially attractive for its organizers. When organized correctly, a competition will cut even in the first year and turns into a profitable business from the second or the third year. According to an internal source in one of the leading publishing houses, competitions generate the third largest revenue in the list of company’s activities.
Wine News and Information
* During his 42-year music career, Julio Iglesias, the Madrid-born singer, has sold more than 300 million albums in 14 different languages, making him among the top 10 best-selling musicians in history. The singer has bought so much wine over the years that he seems to have lost count of how many bottles he has in his three cellars in Spain , Miami and the Dominican Republic . “I’ve got about 5,000 top wines and hundreds of thousands of normal wines,” he admits, without hyperbole. Generous with his plentiful stock, he gives away about 100 cases of wine to friends every year.
Brought up in Madrid in the 1950s by his doctor father, Iglesias got by in the early days by drinking “any old stuff from Valdepeñas”. In his late teens, he played as a goalkeeper for Real Madrid football club until a near fatal car accident in 1963 ended his sporting career. During his rehabilitation, to develop dexterity in his hands, he started playing the guitar and subsequently writing music. The rest, as they say, is history.
Iglesias’ wine epiphany was equally notable. In 1973, he was invited by Baroness Philippine de Rothschild – a big Iglesias fan – to a dinner party at her home in Paris after one of his concerts. “She asked me what I thought of the wine and I told her that I’d never tasted anything like it,” Iglesias recalls with brio. “She summoned the butler to serve a second wine, this time in a decanter, which I later learned was Lafite 1961. It was the first time in my life I’d felt a wine all the way down to my toes. It worked its magic through my body and made me realise that wine had a lot more mystery and history than I had first thought.” The memory of the Lafite lingered, sending Iglesias on a lifelong wine journey. He began picking up the odd case in the countries he toured in – reds in France, whites in Germany – and got seriously into collecting in 1978, after building a 4,000-bottle cellar in the Miami home. Outside of France , Iglesias is a big fan of Spanish icon wines from Rioja and Ribera del Duero. “I love trying wines from lesser-known Spanish regions like Calatayud, Jumilla and Zamora ”. He also dips his toe in the New World via Australia , South Africa , California and Argentina .
* Despite continuing global financial woes, a sunbeam of optimism has started to shine brightly on the Italian wine industry. Figures released by the Italian Wine and Food Institute (IWFI) in New York named Italy the leading importer of wines in the USA . The news follows a recent Gallup Poll finding that says Americans now drink more alcohol than they have in a quarter century. In addition, a recent European study named the U.S. market the most robust and dynamic worldwide in terms of foreign wine sales. Overall, international imports to the U.S. decreased in quantity but increased in value this year. Yet, Italy still remains the number one imported bottled wine-producing nation with 850,160 hectolitres against Australia ’s 583,580 hectolitres. Meanwhile, the Spanish trade institute in New York released a report aimed at European vintners that paints a very sunny picture of the US imports market. Thanks to interest in wine by the so-called millennial generation, wine consumption in American has grown 32% from 2000 to 2009, the report said. It described the US market as “the most robust and dynamic”.
Monolithos Monthly News
The 2010 vintage is over. All the fruit has been picked. The white wines’ fermentation has been completed. The reds are all pressed and the fermentation is progressing under temperature control. During the 2010 vintage, a spell of hot weather in July accelerated ripening, necessitating the harvesting of a lot of grapes at short notice. However, we enjoyed a beautifully good harvest enhanced by a great team of dedicated friends comprising a team of expatriates. Martin Wood managed all the picking and hence the harvesting went as smooth as silk.
If at any time you are passing near the village of Pachna and wish to visit the winery or purchase any of our products, Martin Wood will be pleased to meet and assist you at his “Fig Tree Villa” in Pachna, so do not hesitate to phone him at 25-816212 or 99-165995.
We thank you for your continued support. Take care and always remember:
“Wine is sunlight, held together by water.”
Galileo Galilee
Tuesday, 7 September 2010
The Cyprus Wine Blog: September 2010
Over its 8,000 year-long history, wine has evolved as an essential beverage that accompanies and enhances a wide range of European and Mediterranean-style cuisines, from the simple and traditional to the most sophisticated and complex. Ernest Hemingway, in his book “A Moveable Feast” based on his memoirs from Paris , writes:
“In Europe , we thought of wine as something as healthy and normal as food and also a great giver of happiness, wellbeing and delight. Drinking wine was not a snobbism, nor a sign of sophistication, nor a cult; it was as natural as eating and – to me – as necessary.”
In recent years, trends in wine production, consumption, drinking patterns, socio-cultural factors, economic and political changes, have significantly influenced drinking cultures and their associated lifestyles. The way people select, serve and drink wine is constantly changing and different cultures acquire quite different ideas about the function of wine.
As a traditional cultural symbol of European living, the role of wine has evolved and changed from an important source of nutrition to a cultural companion to food and hospitality associated with a healthy lifestyle. However, in a number of countries, wine is no longer seen as necessarily a drink to be served with food, but rather a no-food wine. In some areas, sweet wine is served before a meal. Others use still dry wine before a meal as an aperitif, sometimes accompanied by an appetizer. In some regions, it is customary to open sparking wine at the beginning as well as at the end of a meal. In other regions, a glass of chilled wine has become a refreshment beverage and an acceptable alternative to a beer. So nowadays, Europeans in some regions see wine as a drink that belongs exclusively in the dining room. At the other end of the evolutionary scale, the custom is to drink first and eat second. Most wine cultures around the globe lie somewhere between these two extremes.
An increasing proportion of wine of all sorts, including even quite elegant red wine, is drunk without food, or without any solid matter more substantial than a bowl of nuts or potato chips. Wine experts believe that over the last two decades, consumers have turned from occasional wine drinkers into wine enthusiasts. They are not only drinking wine with meals, but are also drinking wine alone or as a cocktail, without accompanying food. Purists may complain about the apparent sweetness of so many wines made today, but for many newcomers to wine, it is this sweetness and smoothness that makes the wines so easy to drink on their own.
Mass production and middle-of-the-road popularity has also brought forth an amazing array of wines – bringing to the market a new sense of variety, affordability, and creativity that only free enterprise, competition and contemporary marketing can provide. The vast majority of these wines are sold in bulk at supermarkets. This is not to say that these wines are bad or not worth drinking. There are fashions in wine, just like in everything else. Mass produced wines aim at pleasing a wide variety of tastes. Many people would not give wine a second chance unless they are offered a soft, sweet wine that is low in acidity and easy to sip. The word “smooth” is important. It has become a sort of euphemism for sweet and soft, or low in tannin. And it is smooth reds that are the obvious no-food candidates, drunk in many bars today, slightly chilled. The very visible trend towards reds from a number of countries with their much higher alcohol content and softer, riper tannins is surely partly a consequence of these changing drinking habits.
It does not need an in-depth investigation to predict that demand for softer, sweeter reds will continue to grow, at least in the medium term. Consequently, wine producers everywhere seek to create the sort of fruit-driven styles that appeal most to no-food wine drinkers. This has huge implications for the style of wines that are likely to be most in demand.
Wines may be classified by vinification methods. These include classifications such as red or white wine, sparkling, semi-sparkling or still, fortified and dessert wines. Whether it is red or white, wine is a beverage that tastes great by itself or with a meal. Drunk on its own, wine tastes different to when it accompanies a meal, because wine acts on food in a similar manner to the way a spice does. Acids, tannins and sugars in the wine interact with the food to provide different taste sensations.
An aperitif is an alcoholic drink that is usually served to stimulate the appetite before a meal, contrasting with a digestive (digestif), which is served after meals. An aperitif is more than just an icebreaker – it is a welcome to your guests and an appetite stimulant which can enhance your celebration or wine tasting party. Generally speaking, the aperitif is light in body, fresh, lively and often served cool. It should be refreshing, not too serious or overpowering. Your goal is to enliven the palate, not restrict it! You want a drink that guests can sip easily while talking and greeting other guests. In general, you do not want something really heavy which will overwhelm the palate.
It’s only in recent times that the notion of wine as a cocktail, consumed on its own without reference to food, has become socially acceptable. Wine is definitely a versatile drink which can co-exist perfectly with other types of alcohol. Mixing wine with various other substances can sometimes lead to very interesting effects.
For summer receptions or parties, welcoming guests with cocktails in long glasses works very well. Any cocktail can be also an aperitif. Beyond just adding fruit flavours and acidic components, the use of wine can add all types of complexity to a drink. The addition of wine in mixed drinks not only lowers the alcohol level but also adds a little sweetness and can bring a rich, layered flavour to the cocktail. In fact, creating a balanced cocktail could be compared to blending a wine.
Choosing the right type and style of wine can be a key to creating a cocktail that works. The presence of wine in the cocktails is not immediately recognizable because it tastes like an indescribable fruit. Here are a few simple wine cocktails which demonstrate the flexibility of wine.
* Cranberry juice mixed with an equal amount of white (still or sparkling) wine is very refreshing.
* Kir is a popular cocktail made with a measure of crème de cassis (blackcurrant liqueur) topped up by white (still or sparkling) wine.
* Sangria is a Spanish traditional cocktail made simply by mixing a bottle of red wine, two shots of brandy, and cut-up fresh fruit. Serve over ice.
* Coke mixed with a big, fat red wine is a simple-to-make cocktail, extremely pleasant and refreshing on a hot day.
* Kir Bourgogne : This Burgundy version of a Kir is made with crème de cassis (a blackcurrant flavoured liqueur) and red wine instead of white.
When selecting wine for a reception, most couples choose one white and one red. Guests tend to choose their wine and stick with it throughout the celebration. If you decide to serve a variety of wines during a reception, it would be good to follow a few guidelines. Serve the fresher, lighter wines first – these are usually the whites. Serving whites first, then moving to younger, followed by older reds is a wonderful way to orchestrate the wine service at a dinner. However, there are no rules – you can serve whatever you like to drink or you think your guests will like. It can also vary, depending on the season. For example, while a cool, crisp wine might be a perfect opener on a hot summer afternoon, but in the middle of winter, it might not be ideal.
White wine is also perfect for starting off a social evening, and it is ideal for toasts and special occasions. Most people enjoy a glass of chilled, white wine. However, the more common toasting wine for celebrations, weddings and anniversaries is of course the more stylish choice of French Champaign or any other similar sparkling wine.
If you’re serving wine without food, then you have far more options for the serving order. Although it may sound strange to think of just serving several wines without eating, this is what you will encounter if you attended any sort of wine tasting party. The only food you’ll be offered will be plain so as to clear the palette, like bread or basic cheeses.
A rosé wine is the classic aperitif in many Mediterranean regions, particularly France , and is also highly recommended served chilled on its own for hot summer afternoons or evenings. It can be romantic, joyous and fun and is a great match to many simple appetizers.
Fortified wines are generally consumed alone, often served as aperitifs, and/or offered at the end of a meal instead of a brandy or a liqueur. These are wines to be slowly sipped while discussing the finesse and the quality of the product during relaxing and calm moments.
Wine offers more thrilling complexity than any other beverage – intricate layering of aromas, more diversity of flavour, more spirit. Which means wine is absolutely the most perfect match for the complex, varied dishes available in the international cuisine of our times. An exciting wine and food match can elevate a great meal to an unforgettable one.
The old rule about white wine with fish and red wine with meat made perfect sense in the days when white wines were mostly light and fruity and red wines were mostly tannic and weighty. A critical factor in our changing taste for wine is undoubtedly the revolution in the sort of food we eat. The old rules don’t take into consideration the complexity of today’s multi-ethnic and subtly flavoured foods and the corresponding wide range of wines from around the world that are now conveniently available to almost everyone. Delicate red wines may go beautifully with classic French, Italian and European cuisine, but it is often out of its depth with the sort of sweet and spicy dishes that are increasingly popular worldwide.
Consequently, the choice of simply red or white is no longer valid. There’s considerable room for experimentation and expression of your own personality in pairing food and wine. The best pairing is good food, good wine and good company. So the first rule of thumb is to make sure the food is good and the wine is, too. Even if the match is not perfect, you will still enjoy what you’re drinking. After all, wine and food generally work well together – there are only a limited number of combinations which really should be avoided.
Time of year, weather and the nature of the function, will help to determine which wine to choose. Red wines are distinct from whites in two main ways: tannins and flavours. Tannin is a chemical compound derived from the skin of the grape. Tannin is what makes your mouth pucker and feel dry when you first drink a full-bodied red wine. Basically, light-bodied or soft red wines have low tannin, medium bodied reds have moderate tannin, and full-bodied reds have a lot of tannin. White and red wines share many common flavours; both can be spicy, buttery, leathery, earthy or floral. But the apple, pear and citrus flavours in many white wines seldom show up in reds, and the currant, cherry and stone fruit flavours of red grapes usually do not appear in whites. In the wine-and-food matching game, these flavour differences become mere subtleties.
The secret to matching wine and food is balance. So long as a wine balances its sugar with enough natural acidity, a match can work. There is a simple way to make successful wine and food pairings, requiring only that you consider the weight of both the wine and the food when making a decision about what to pour with what you’ll be serving and eating. In plain terms, this means that wine and food sharing broadly similar proportions and characteristics tend to go well together.
Like human beings, wines come in all dimensions. To match them with food, it’s useful to know where they fit in a spectrum, with the lightest wines at one end and fuller-bodied wines toward the other end. Match delicate tastes with delicate wines; moderately flavoured food with unassertive, medium-bodied wines; strong wines with food that has plenty of personality and so on. Rich heavyweight foods, like game, roast meats and red meat casseroles, need a full-bodied wine. Powerful red wines are often the favoured choice, although it is the body of the wine which is the most important consideration rather than its colour or flavour. Always remember the contribution of the sauce. A rich creamy sauce will need a wine of sufficient body to match the food and flavours that will complement the smooth, creamy, buttery taste.
Consequently, you can make better wine choices by focusing on a wine’s weight. If you balance the wine with the food by choosing one that will seem about the same weight as the food, you raise the odds dramatically that the match will succeed. Lighter wines will balance nicely against chicken salad, salmon, grilled cheese and white sauce. A very dry wine (Riesling or Xynisteri) is perfect when teamed with veal, shrimps, cream sauces and turkey. You should avoid spicy foods with white wines. Merlot is perfectly matched with grilled meats such as barbecued red meat and chicken. A dish like pork or lasagne is best paired with a Cabernet Sauvignon.
Of course there are always exceptions to any rule. You can serve whatever you like to drink or you think your guests will like. It can also vary depending on the season. An afternoon garden party would lend itself well to a chilled, crisp, white or refreshing rosé, whereas a robust red might be more suitable for an evening meal in mid winter. Rosé wines can be drunk at room temperature with pleasure, but for most palates they work best served chilled. A perfectly chilled glass of white wine refreshes the parts that red wine can’t at this time of year. Certain styles work better as summer drinks, and others as winter drinks.
Most people probably don’t think much about the proper serving order for wines, but serving or drinking wine in the right order can make a big difference. Serving or drinking wines in the wrong order can negatively affect both the taste of the wines as well as the taste of the food, so paying attention to which wines are served when can enhance the meal, helping everyone enjoy both their wine and their food all the more.
Some people may only drink a single wine over the course of a meal, but it’s not uncommon to have a couple of different wines served with different courses of the meal. You should always have both white and red wine on hand. In general, foods go from lighter and simpler (appetizers) to heavier and more complex (main course) and finally to the sweet dessert. Wines should follow a progression as well. If you pair well with the foods, then they will naturally follow this progression. But in general we start with lighter white wines or sparkling wines, move to more full bodied whites, on to lighter red wines, to fuller bodied reds and end with a sweet dessert wine (if you are serving one). You can end the evening with higher-quality, higher-alcohol port, sherry, and after-dinner (digestif) wines – assuming anyone is still standing by this point, of course.
All wines are best served at their correct temperature, as they will be able to breathe and create the perfect mix of aromas that will delight the senses and impress your guests. Serving the wine at the correct temperature may be a difference of whether the wine will be ideal to drink for maximum aroma and taste, and may make or break a charming dinner experience for you and your guests. Normally a bottle of wine could take up to three hours before it is appropriately chilled in the refrigerator. A great way to chill your wine to perfection fast and easily is to place your bottle into a bucket filled with ice and a sprinkling of salt. Push the wine into the depths of the ice to quickly chill the bottle.
Food and wine pairing is a highly subjective and inexact process. There’s considerable room for experimentation and expression of your own personality in pairing food and wine. The goal is synergy and balance. The wine shouldn’t overpower the food, nor should the food overpower the wine. A good match will bring out the nuances and enhance the flavours and unique characteristics of both the food and the wine. With a little information, a lot of enthusiasm and a propensity to explore and experiment, you will find many wine and food combinations that greatly enhance your dining experience.
Wine News and Information
■ In recent years, Hong Kong has become an important centre for fine-wine auctions. A considerable quantity of fine-wine that would once have stayed in the US and moved between American cellars can now be found in Asia, particularly Hong Kong and mainland China . But many of the fine-wine brokers, traders and merchants who cluster around London and represent a considerable proportion of the world’s fine-wine activity will have nothing to do with wine bought in the US and Asia. Gary Boom, who founded Bordeaux Index in London in 1997, explained that stock that has been across the oceans and back has too many risks attached.
Simon Staples of Berry Bros & Rudd is in a similar position. “I really would not buy for myself a case of anything older than 2001 from anyone unless I know where it’s been. There have been far too many experiences of badly stored older wine compared to perfect stock. Provenance and good storage are the key issues, rather than the blanket ‘ France = good’ and ‘anywhere else = bad’. We would not, for example, buy wine that has been stored next to a hot kitchen in the south of France , but we would buy wine that has been stored in a cold cellar in Sweden or Denmark .”
Chris Davies of fine-wine traders Turville Valley Wines has even come across wines whose back labels had been deliberately removed because they cited a US importer. But since these back labels also carried the information on volume and alcoholic strength that is mandatory in the EU, the wine was thus rendered unsaleable in Europe . It should be noted however that many of these brokers, traders and merchants, including Bordeaux Index, now have an outpost in Hong Kong .
■ Members of the International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research have submitted a detailed review of the draft recently circulated by the United States Department of Agriculture for proposed new US Dietary Guidelines for 2010. In general, Forum members were very pleased with the alcohol recommendations in the proposal, finding them interesting, balanced, and accurate. Many commented that, rather than just focusing on warnings against heavy drinking, the new Guidelines appear to take into account the large amount of recent epidemiologic and experimental data that support many potential beneficial health effects of moderate drinking.
Among specific recommendations from the Forum were the following:
* A stronger statement is needed of the effects of light-to-moderate drinking on total mortality, in that recent prospective studies show a considerably lower of risk of death for moderate drinkers.
* Additional emphasis is needed on the reduced risk of developing diabetes for moderate drinkers, and the much lower risk of cardiovascular disease among diabetics who consume some alcohol.
* Further information should be presented on the consistent scientific data showing that women who drink moderately are at reduced, not increased, risk of weight gain in adult life.
Monolithos Monthly News
A bottle of wine is the elegant result of a very laborious, time-consuming and sometimes messy process for our family winery, especially during the period mid-August to the end of October. During these few weeks, the two most crucial steps in the wine production, namely harvesting and fermentation, are completed. After the tank fermentation, the wine will be racked off the lees (the remaining post-fermentation solids) into another tank. Here the wine will stay until ready to be blended, aged, filtered and finally bottled.
Currently, all 2009 wines are available in limited quantities for tasting and purchasing. If at any time you are passing near the village of Pachna and wish to visit the winery or purchase any of our products, Martin Wood will be pleased to meet and assist you at his “Fig Tree Villa” in Pachna, so do not hesitate to call him at 25-816212 or 99-165995. We thank you for your continued support, and would leave you with the words of Robert Mondavi, "Harvests of Joy," Autobiography
"Wine has been a part of civilized life for some seven thousand years. It is the only beverage that feeds the body, soul and spirit of man and at the same time stimulates the mind."
“In Europe , we thought of wine as something as healthy and normal as food and also a great giver of happiness, wellbeing and delight. Drinking wine was not a snobbism, nor a sign of sophistication, nor a cult; it was as natural as eating and – to me – as necessary.”
In recent years, trends in wine production, consumption, drinking patterns, socio-cultural factors, economic and political changes, have significantly influenced drinking cultures and their associated lifestyles. The way people select, serve and drink wine is constantly changing and different cultures acquire quite different ideas about the function of wine.
As a traditional cultural symbol of European living, the role of wine has evolved and changed from an important source of nutrition to a cultural companion to food and hospitality associated with a healthy lifestyle. However, in a number of countries, wine is no longer seen as necessarily a drink to be served with food, but rather a no-food wine. In some areas, sweet wine is served before a meal. Others use still dry wine before a meal as an aperitif, sometimes accompanied by an appetizer. In some regions, it is customary to open sparking wine at the beginning as well as at the end of a meal. In other regions, a glass of chilled wine has become a refreshment beverage and an acceptable alternative to a beer. So nowadays, Europeans in some regions see wine as a drink that belongs exclusively in the dining room. At the other end of the evolutionary scale, the custom is to drink first and eat second. Most wine cultures around the globe lie somewhere between these two extremes.
An increasing proportion of wine of all sorts, including even quite elegant red wine, is drunk without food, or without any solid matter more substantial than a bowl of nuts or potato chips. Wine experts believe that over the last two decades, consumers have turned from occasional wine drinkers into wine enthusiasts. They are not only drinking wine with meals, but are also drinking wine alone or as a cocktail, without accompanying food. Purists may complain about the apparent sweetness of so many wines made today, but for many newcomers to wine, it is this sweetness and smoothness that makes the wines so easy to drink on their own.
Mass production and middle-of-the-road popularity has also brought forth an amazing array of wines – bringing to the market a new sense of variety, affordability, and creativity that only free enterprise, competition and contemporary marketing can provide. The vast majority of these wines are sold in bulk at supermarkets. This is not to say that these wines are bad or not worth drinking. There are fashions in wine, just like in everything else. Mass produced wines aim at pleasing a wide variety of tastes. Many people would not give wine a second chance unless they are offered a soft, sweet wine that is low in acidity and easy to sip. The word “smooth” is important. It has become a sort of euphemism for sweet and soft, or low in tannin. And it is smooth reds that are the obvious no-food candidates, drunk in many bars today, slightly chilled. The very visible trend towards reds from a number of countries with their much higher alcohol content and softer, riper tannins is surely partly a consequence of these changing drinking habits.
It does not need an in-depth investigation to predict that demand for softer, sweeter reds will continue to grow, at least in the medium term. Consequently, wine producers everywhere seek to create the sort of fruit-driven styles that appeal most to no-food wine drinkers. This has huge implications for the style of wines that are likely to be most in demand.
Wines may be classified by vinification methods. These include classifications such as red or white wine, sparkling, semi-sparkling or still, fortified and dessert wines. Whether it is red or white, wine is a beverage that tastes great by itself or with a meal. Drunk on its own, wine tastes different to when it accompanies a meal, because wine acts on food in a similar manner to the way a spice does. Acids, tannins and sugars in the wine interact with the food to provide different taste sensations.
An aperitif is an alcoholic drink that is usually served to stimulate the appetite before a meal, contrasting with a digestive (digestif), which is served after meals. An aperitif is more than just an icebreaker – it is a welcome to your guests and an appetite stimulant which can enhance your celebration or wine tasting party. Generally speaking, the aperitif is light in body, fresh, lively and often served cool. It should be refreshing, not too serious or overpowering. Your goal is to enliven the palate, not restrict it! You want a drink that guests can sip easily while talking and greeting other guests. In general, you do not want something really heavy which will overwhelm the palate.
It’s only in recent times that the notion of wine as a cocktail, consumed on its own without reference to food, has become socially acceptable. Wine is definitely a versatile drink which can co-exist perfectly with other types of alcohol. Mixing wine with various other substances can sometimes lead to very interesting effects.
For summer receptions or parties, welcoming guests with cocktails in long glasses works very well. Any cocktail can be also an aperitif. Beyond just adding fruit flavours and acidic components, the use of wine can add all types of complexity to a drink. The addition of wine in mixed drinks not only lowers the alcohol level but also adds a little sweetness and can bring a rich, layered flavour to the cocktail. In fact, creating a balanced cocktail could be compared to blending a wine.
Choosing the right type and style of wine can be a key to creating a cocktail that works. The presence of wine in the cocktails is not immediately recognizable because it tastes like an indescribable fruit. Here are a few simple wine cocktails which demonstrate the flexibility of wine.
* Cranberry juice mixed with an equal amount of white (still or sparkling) wine is very refreshing.
* Kir is a popular cocktail made with a measure of crème de cassis (blackcurrant liqueur) topped up by white (still or sparkling) wine.
* Sangria is a Spanish traditional cocktail made simply by mixing a bottle of red wine, two shots of brandy, and cut-up fresh fruit. Serve over ice.
* Coke mixed with a big, fat red wine is a simple-to-make cocktail, extremely pleasant and refreshing on a hot day.
* Kir Bourgogne : This Burgundy version of a Kir is made with crème de cassis (a blackcurrant flavoured liqueur) and red wine instead of white.
When selecting wine for a reception, most couples choose one white and one red. Guests tend to choose their wine and stick with it throughout the celebration. If you decide to serve a variety of wines during a reception, it would be good to follow a few guidelines. Serve the fresher, lighter wines first – these are usually the whites. Serving whites first, then moving to younger, followed by older reds is a wonderful way to orchestrate the wine service at a dinner. However, there are no rules – you can serve whatever you like to drink or you think your guests will like. It can also vary, depending on the season. For example, while a cool, crisp wine might be a perfect opener on a hot summer afternoon, but in the middle of winter, it might not be ideal.
White wine is also perfect for starting off a social evening, and it is ideal for toasts and special occasions. Most people enjoy a glass of chilled, white wine. However, the more common toasting wine for celebrations, weddings and anniversaries is of course the more stylish choice of French Champaign or any other similar sparkling wine.
If you’re serving wine without food, then you have far more options for the serving order. Although it may sound strange to think of just serving several wines without eating, this is what you will encounter if you attended any sort of wine tasting party. The only food you’ll be offered will be plain so as to clear the palette, like bread or basic cheeses.
A rosé wine is the classic aperitif in many Mediterranean regions, particularly France , and is also highly recommended served chilled on its own for hot summer afternoons or evenings. It can be romantic, joyous and fun and is a great match to many simple appetizers.
Fortified wines are generally consumed alone, often served as aperitifs, and/or offered at the end of a meal instead of a brandy or a liqueur. These are wines to be slowly sipped while discussing the finesse and the quality of the product during relaxing and calm moments.
Wine offers more thrilling complexity than any other beverage – intricate layering of aromas, more diversity of flavour, more spirit. Which means wine is absolutely the most perfect match for the complex, varied dishes available in the international cuisine of our times. An exciting wine and food match can elevate a great meal to an unforgettable one.
The old rule about white wine with fish and red wine with meat made perfect sense in the days when white wines were mostly light and fruity and red wines were mostly tannic and weighty. A critical factor in our changing taste for wine is undoubtedly the revolution in the sort of food we eat. The old rules don’t take into consideration the complexity of today’s multi-ethnic and subtly flavoured foods and the corresponding wide range of wines from around the world that are now conveniently available to almost everyone. Delicate red wines may go beautifully with classic French, Italian and European cuisine, but it is often out of its depth with the sort of sweet and spicy dishes that are increasingly popular worldwide.
Consequently, the choice of simply red or white is no longer valid. There’s considerable room for experimentation and expression of your own personality in pairing food and wine. The best pairing is good food, good wine and good company. So the first rule of thumb is to make sure the food is good and the wine is, too. Even if the match is not perfect, you will still enjoy what you’re drinking. After all, wine and food generally work well together – there are only a limited number of combinations which really should be avoided.
Time of year, weather and the nature of the function, will help to determine which wine to choose. Red wines are distinct from whites in two main ways: tannins and flavours. Tannin is a chemical compound derived from the skin of the grape. Tannin is what makes your mouth pucker and feel dry when you first drink a full-bodied red wine. Basically, light-bodied or soft red wines have low tannin, medium bodied reds have moderate tannin, and full-bodied reds have a lot of tannin. White and red wines share many common flavours; both can be spicy, buttery, leathery, earthy or floral. But the apple, pear and citrus flavours in many white wines seldom show up in reds, and the currant, cherry and stone fruit flavours of red grapes usually do not appear in whites. In the wine-and-food matching game, these flavour differences become mere subtleties.
The secret to matching wine and food is balance. So long as a wine balances its sugar with enough natural acidity, a match can work. There is a simple way to make successful wine and food pairings, requiring only that you consider the weight of both the wine and the food when making a decision about what to pour with what you’ll be serving and eating. In plain terms, this means that wine and food sharing broadly similar proportions and characteristics tend to go well together.
Like human beings, wines come in all dimensions. To match them with food, it’s useful to know where they fit in a spectrum, with the lightest wines at one end and fuller-bodied wines toward the other end. Match delicate tastes with delicate wines; moderately flavoured food with unassertive, medium-bodied wines; strong wines with food that has plenty of personality and so on. Rich heavyweight foods, like game, roast meats and red meat casseroles, need a full-bodied wine. Powerful red wines are often the favoured choice, although it is the body of the wine which is the most important consideration rather than its colour or flavour. Always remember the contribution of the sauce. A rich creamy sauce will need a wine of sufficient body to match the food and flavours that will complement the smooth, creamy, buttery taste.
Consequently, you can make better wine choices by focusing on a wine’s weight. If you balance the wine with the food by choosing one that will seem about the same weight as the food, you raise the odds dramatically that the match will succeed. Lighter wines will balance nicely against chicken salad, salmon, grilled cheese and white sauce. A very dry wine (Riesling or Xynisteri) is perfect when teamed with veal, shrimps, cream sauces and turkey. You should avoid spicy foods with white wines. Merlot is perfectly matched with grilled meats such as barbecued red meat and chicken. A dish like pork or lasagne is best paired with a Cabernet Sauvignon.
Of course there are always exceptions to any rule. You can serve whatever you like to drink or you think your guests will like. It can also vary depending on the season. An afternoon garden party would lend itself well to a chilled, crisp, white or refreshing rosé, whereas a robust red might be more suitable for an evening meal in mid winter. Rosé wines can be drunk at room temperature with pleasure, but for most palates they work best served chilled. A perfectly chilled glass of white wine refreshes the parts that red wine can’t at this time of year. Certain styles work better as summer drinks, and others as winter drinks.
Most people probably don’t think much about the proper serving order for wines, but serving or drinking wine in the right order can make a big difference. Serving or drinking wines in the wrong order can negatively affect both the taste of the wines as well as the taste of the food, so paying attention to which wines are served when can enhance the meal, helping everyone enjoy both their wine and their food all the more.
Some people may only drink a single wine over the course of a meal, but it’s not uncommon to have a couple of different wines served with different courses of the meal. You should always have both white and red wine on hand. In general, foods go from lighter and simpler (appetizers) to heavier and more complex (main course) and finally to the sweet dessert. Wines should follow a progression as well. If you pair well with the foods, then they will naturally follow this progression. But in general we start with lighter white wines or sparkling wines, move to more full bodied whites, on to lighter red wines, to fuller bodied reds and end with a sweet dessert wine (if you are serving one). You can end the evening with higher-quality, higher-alcohol port, sherry, and after-dinner (digestif) wines – assuming anyone is still standing by this point, of course.
All wines are best served at their correct temperature, as they will be able to breathe and create the perfect mix of aromas that will delight the senses and impress your guests. Serving the wine at the correct temperature may be a difference of whether the wine will be ideal to drink for maximum aroma and taste, and may make or break a charming dinner experience for you and your guests. Normally a bottle of wine could take up to three hours before it is appropriately chilled in the refrigerator. A great way to chill your wine to perfection fast and easily is to place your bottle into a bucket filled with ice and a sprinkling of salt. Push the wine into the depths of the ice to quickly chill the bottle.
Food and wine pairing is a highly subjective and inexact process. There’s considerable room for experimentation and expression of your own personality in pairing food and wine. The goal is synergy and balance. The wine shouldn’t overpower the food, nor should the food overpower the wine. A good match will bring out the nuances and enhance the flavours and unique characteristics of both the food and the wine. With a little information, a lot of enthusiasm and a propensity to explore and experiment, you will find many wine and food combinations that greatly enhance your dining experience.
Wine News and Information
■ In recent years, Hong Kong has become an important centre for fine-wine auctions. A considerable quantity of fine-wine that would once have stayed in the US and moved between American cellars can now be found in Asia, particularly Hong Kong and mainland China . But many of the fine-wine brokers, traders and merchants who cluster around London and represent a considerable proportion of the world’s fine-wine activity will have nothing to do with wine bought in the US and Asia. Gary Boom, who founded Bordeaux Index in London in 1997, explained that stock that has been across the oceans and back has too many risks attached.
Simon Staples of Berry Bros & Rudd is in a similar position. “I really would not buy for myself a case of anything older than 2001 from anyone unless I know where it’s been. There have been far too many experiences of badly stored older wine compared to perfect stock. Provenance and good storage are the key issues, rather than the blanket ‘ France = good’ and ‘anywhere else = bad’. We would not, for example, buy wine that has been stored next to a hot kitchen in the south of France , but we would buy wine that has been stored in a cold cellar in Sweden or Denmark .”
Chris Davies of fine-wine traders Turville Valley Wines has even come across wines whose back labels had been deliberately removed because they cited a US importer. But since these back labels also carried the information on volume and alcoholic strength that is mandatory in the EU, the wine was thus rendered unsaleable in Europe . It should be noted however that many of these brokers, traders and merchants, including Bordeaux Index, now have an outpost in Hong Kong .
■ Members of the International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research have submitted a detailed review of the draft recently circulated by the United States Department of Agriculture for proposed new US Dietary Guidelines for 2010. In general, Forum members were very pleased with the alcohol recommendations in the proposal, finding them interesting, balanced, and accurate. Many commented that, rather than just focusing on warnings against heavy drinking, the new Guidelines appear to take into account the large amount of recent epidemiologic and experimental data that support many potential beneficial health effects of moderate drinking.
Among specific recommendations from the Forum were the following:
* A stronger statement is needed of the effects of light-to-moderate drinking on total mortality, in that recent prospective studies show a considerably lower of risk of death for moderate drinkers.
* Additional emphasis is needed on the reduced risk of developing diabetes for moderate drinkers, and the much lower risk of cardiovascular disease among diabetics who consume some alcohol.
* Further information should be presented on the consistent scientific data showing that women who drink moderately are at reduced, not increased, risk of weight gain in adult life.
Monolithos Monthly News
A bottle of wine is the elegant result of a very laborious, time-consuming and sometimes messy process for our family winery, especially during the period mid-August to the end of October. During these few weeks, the two most crucial steps in the wine production, namely harvesting and fermentation, are completed. After the tank fermentation, the wine will be racked off the lees (the remaining post-fermentation solids) into another tank. Here the wine will stay until ready to be blended, aged, filtered and finally bottled.
Currently, all 2009 wines are available in limited quantities for tasting and purchasing. If at any time you are passing near the village of Pachna and wish to visit the winery or purchase any of our products, Martin Wood will be pleased to meet and assist you at his “Fig Tree Villa” in Pachna, so do not hesitate to call him at 25-816212 or 99-165995. We thank you for your continued support, and would leave you with the words of Robert Mondavi, "Harvests of Joy," Autobiography
"Wine has been a part of civilized life for some seven thousand years. It is the only beverage that feeds the body, soul and spirit of man and at the same time stimulates the mind."
Tuesday, 3 August 2010
The Cyprus Wine Blog - Monolithos Wine Dimensions: August 2010
Dear Friends of Monolithos
What type of wine and where best to buy are two of the many contentious topics in the world of wine. The heated debate raises a number of questions such as: Why do your wine shopping at your local mega-stores and limit yourself to a small selection of the big name winemakers? What about buying an untried wine or shopping directly from a winery? What is the difference between a “boutique” wine (such as Monolithos) and a “commercial” wine? What does “small winery” really mean? Are all boutique wines good? Do the big corporations make quality wine?
It’s fair to say that most of us enjoy a nice glass of wine, but in this day and age, finding a perfect example which is agreeable to the palate and to the wallet is not always easy. The occasional wine buyer is most likely to grab a bottle at the local supermarket when completing the food shopping. This is the most accessible and quickest way to bring a bottle home, and is fine for buying a wine that is already known to the wine drinker. The average consumer views wine in much the same way as they would treat flour, milk, fruit juice or instant coffee. As long as the quality is adequate and the price is right, consumers aren’t too worried about the source. More than 70% of wine sales worldwide are done this way. It’s pretty obvious that an inferior product sitting on the retailer’s shelf is far more likely to be purchased than the superior product that sits in a cellar some place.
Wine’s popularity has skyrocketed in recent decades, but at the same time, wine has become a commodity: grapes are grown, crushed and made into wine, which is then sold cheaply and consumed uncritically. Much of that growth came through wine shops and supermarkets. Consequently, large-scale producers target larger market segments that are served through supermarkets and mega-stores. With supermarkets selling an increasing proportion of wine in many markets, mass wine producers are better positioned to take advantage of this trend towards high volumes and low margins. Thanks to a wave of mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic investments, the world’s top wine companies now control labels in countries all over the globe. Do these corporations make successful wines? Of course they do, since success in the wine business is measured by how well you can sell your product, not how good your product is. Larger wineries have a big advantage when it comes to distributing their products. They usually have dealings with distributors who guarantee their products will get into the marketplace. The small winery, by contrast, has to beg the distributor to carry its products.
Much of the wine sold in supermarkets is mass-produced in giant winemaking facilities that generate millions of bottles each year. Increasingly, wine production is being driven by the needs of the supermarket and high street wine buyers, who claim that their requirements are driven by what people want to buy. There is therefore a huge commercial pressure towards bland,
“commercial” branded wines produced in large volumes to hit the right price points. Mass production typically uses automated systems to permit very high rates of production per worker, turning out high volumes of inexpensive finished goods. The main advantages of bulk production wine is derived from the standardized processes, consistency of products, cost and time savings,
increase productivity, less skill requirement by personnel, significant reductions in inventory and economies of scale. Large wineries can become more profitable through vertical integration of their distribution systems and aggressively segmenting their products and services to take advantage of market opportunities.
From a distribution perspective, drinks are all liquid (also heavy, usually fragile, and must be protected from temperature variations) and need to be delivered on time, and managed in accounts. Because of economies of scale, a large corporation generally has access to cheaper costs of goods than smaller companies. Most importantly, large global wine companies are able to
optimize their cost of goods in every market they choose to enter. The controversy over the corporations’ role centres on the issue of wine quality. Not all wine they sell is noteworthy. In fact, mass production and the use of low-quality grapes have brought forth a new class of wine known as “plonk”. The latter is defined as wine which does not belong to a designation of origin or other quality indication or specification of origin. Plonk is a low-quality wine, usually made for the non-discriminating masses. Quite often these wines are made from 3rd and 4th pressings. Stores everywhere are loaded with tasteless wines – both domestic and foreign –
that offer no distinction in taste between grapes or brands. Nowadays, bulk-quality wine is widely found in standard 750 ml, 1 or 2 litre plastic PET bottles, five-litre demi-johns, Tetrapaks and even cans. The low price of a few euros per litre makes them a hit as an everyday wine. The supermarkets deserve some credit for the work they have done popularising wine, but now they’re slowly killing the sector they once helped develop. People have no idea that the wine they are drinking is a cheap, mass-produced beverage.
The interest in drinking wine stems not only from the fact that it can taste nice, but also because of such factors as grape varieties, vintage variations, regions, producers, “terroir”, ageing ability and winemaking techniques. One of the things that separated for centuries wine from other alcoholic drinks is that it is an agricultural product, not a manufactured one. The diversity of wine is bewildering. Not only are hundreds of different grape varieties in relatively common use, but there are also the complex influences of soil types, climate, viticulture and winemaking practices. Consequently, the diversity – and the link to geography – that makes wine so interesting is under real threat. However, the blame for this loss of diversity doesn’t reside solely at the door of the supermarket buyers. They are operating under fairly tight commercial constraints. First, they need serious volume, as smaller volumes
generally can’t be offered for sale effectively in the global market. This is inevitable, since a big winery is required to supply all the wine-selling outlets, consequently, wine must be produced at an industrial level, which means silos of wine and an enormous amount of grapes going into these huge factories. As wine is treated more like a manufactured product and becomes
more divorced from agriculture, it usually becomes less interesting, but it is these wines that appeal to supermarket buyers who want volume, continuous supply and uniformity of quality. Second, they claim that it’s only certain styles of wine that will sell. Big wineries play it safe because they must. They have too large an audience to risk alienating anyone. They will not
create the most original wines of limited production precisely because their audience is too large, and you can’t expect them to list wines that people are not buying. Supermarkets and other multiple outlets don’t like dealing with the diversity and complexity of wine, but they are quite attached to the “idea” of diversity. So typically they will stock hundreds of different lines, giving the shopper the impression of a broad portfolio of wines. The problem
here is that this diversity is actually an illusory one. The wines are almost always industrially produced, in large quantities, and to a formula. It makes life a little easier for the supermarket critics, because they can effectively do their job just by picking wines more or less at random. Plus, there are almost no surprises when you drink a commonly known wine. You know what you are getting before you even open a bottle. Most of these commercial wines appear lifeless and without any charm. Some companies alter their wines so much, that it’s not even wine any longer. While large-scale wine production often results in Coca-Cola-like product
uniformity, that doesn’t mean that the wines – or their production methods – are necessarily bad. Consistency is actually what a lot of people want; they take comfort in the fact that the bottle of wine they’re buying is going to taste just like the last one they opened. This automatically rules out a lot of the more interesting wines. Now, consistency is not the same as quality, however, consistency is not a bad thing in itself. It’s when you’re consistently mediocre that you have to watch out.
The world’s top-selling wine brands are produced in massive quantities in huge winemaking facilities. As most countries are going through the effects of the recession, sales of inexpensive wines have rocketed, while sales of premium, highly priced selections have lagged or stalled. The majority of consumers are looking for anything under €10 a bottle or even €5.
Why don’t commercial wineries get any respect? Some do, but most of them don’t. It’s mainly due to the fact that the majority of these producers are not even involved in the winemaking process. The picture of the vineyard is often on the label, and it doesn’t show a factory – it show rows and rows of grapes on the vine. Commercial wineries are there for mass production and
the associated profit, not the grape itself. The larger winery doesn’t need to be as good. So if, as a big winery, you know you are going to be able to penetrate the market, why spend big sums of money, even if you have it, to make a better product?
The situation isn’t the same as for a small winery, where the product had better be good, or else. Wine is a domain linked with romanticism, and there’s a certain feeling out there that small is beautiful – tiny operations generally yield more interesting, higher quality wines than
larger operations. A small winery producing small amounts can call itself a “boutique”, but that doesn’t mean it makes good quality wine. In the same way, bigger grounds and bigger production numbers don’t mean that quality is lacking in their wines.
There are many wineries that call themselves “boutique” wineries. It sounds a lot more elegant and fashionable to say you picked up the Shiraz blend from a boutique winery. You are sure to impress your dinner guests, but someone at the table is bound to ask: how are boutique wineries different from regular wineries?
The word “boutique” is defined as a “small, exclusive business offering customised service”. A boutique winery is a small business producing a few hundred to less than 10,000 cases per year, and usually the bottles are a bit more expensive than the stuff coming out of the bigger wineries. Boutique wineries are usually family-run businesses where the owner is also
the winemaker. They might only specialise in one or two grape varieties, although some boutique wineries produce a number of different wine types. Whereas everyone knows about the big players, smaller distributors often get business by word of mouth.
Are boutique wineries better? No reasonable person can make such a declaration about all the small wineries in the world. However, it is not an exaggeration to state that some of the best wines in the world come from the small wine boutiques. This is because the wines produced at specific wineries are the rare product of selected grape varieties in the right vineyards, the most important factor to achieving authentic wines. Big wineries must fill a big demand. Where the small winery can, for example, pick and choose its grapes, the larger winery is forced to buy huge quantities, where its control over quality can’t match that of its smaller
competitor.
Winemaking is a mastery that requires many years of experience, knowledge, and skill. A good winemaker has a passion for a specific expression of a specific grape or blend of grapes. Most small wineries are located near the vineyards, thereby minimising the distance from producing the grapes to bottling the wine. It follows that something produced in smaller quantities must be of better quality than something mass-produced. Because the volumes are smaller at a boutique winery, the winemaking process is a lot more hands-on than it would be at a big winery. The winemaker can keep a closer eye on the process and manipulate it to achieve his or her goals. This thorough process, the passion, dedication and expertise allow them to deliver wines made in a unique style to the market in an honest way. Boutique wineries are also known for the personal touches they put on their wines. Most boutique wineries design their own labels and market their wine themselves, or sometimes not at all. Customers who try their wine usually come back for more – not just for appeal of buying an exclusive wine, but usually because the quality is good. Each wine that is produced under such conditions has its own unique flavour and this is why it is so popular to a wine collector.
The small wineries do have some cost advantages over the larger ones. A larger winery is a big corporation, with layers of management, and a department for this and a department for that. All that cost needs to get passed on to the consumer. By contrast, small wineries do not have a personnel department because they mainly rely on family members. They may lack the resources of a big winery, but what resources they have largely go into the making of the wines. Boutique wines give the wine lover the opportunity to enjoy a wine of distinction, meet the people behind it and understand the philosophy behind the product first-hand and often in situ. The skills of owner-managers, who are winemakers, viticulturists and marketers, make it easier to stay focused. The main benefit (of being a small producer) is that you can literally keep your arms around every barrel, keep your nose in each barrel on a regular basis and know each drop of wine intimately. You can’t do that at higher production levels. It is important to note that not all boutique wines are equal in quality, and limited production does not always mean superior. Smaller doesn’t always mean better. The key to finding a superb boutique wine is to look beyond the production size and discover why the winemaker chose to make a slightly different and more selective variety. When a good vintage is produced, it won’t be around forever. That bottle is purchased and held onto until a special occasion arises.
The small wineries do face several challenges, including becoming known, competing for shelf space and finding distributors. The boutique wineries use various strategies to succeed. In addition to pouring at charity events, they rely heavily on direct sales to customers, wine events, internet sales and particularly through tasting rooms. Some sell to local wine shops, supermarkets and restaurants. Many boutiques focus on making a few specialized wines, including alternative varietals, in order to create a niche.
Boutique wines are often more expensive than mass-produced, commercialized wines, but the extra cost is often counter-balanced by the quality, rarity and authenticity of their wines. Some produce wines are far too expensive and not great quality, others are definitely international class, but all are making wines of individual character with pride and passion. There is enormous variety. Ultimately, your own taste buds should be the judges. If you really want to be sure the wine you’re buying isn’t made from bulk juice produced at some other location, look for information on the label. Of course, that’s no guarantee that you’re going to enjoy the wine in the bottle, but at least you’ll know where it came from and who made it. As big wineries get bigger, the niche for very small, artisan winemakers crafting distinctive, uniquely styled and esoteric wines grows too. Micro-wineries of a few hundred or couple thousand cases will satisfy that ongoing need in our society for the arts, originality, personality, creativity and spirituality.
Wine News and Information
. Enjoying a bottle of wine with friends automatically makes any bottle a good one, but it’s even better if it’s properly chilled. The Trudeau Digital Wine Thermometer makes it easy to determine the temperature without opening the bottle. When the gadget is in contact with a bottle, a temperature sensor automatically reads the temperature with the help of an LCD display. Featuring a stainless steel cuff that slips on to the neck of the bottle, the portable thermometer goes wherever a bottle of wine can go. With recommended serving temperatures printed directly on the cuff, the easy-to-use accessory allows wine drinkers to decide what to open and when. Enjoying the wine is then easy, which just leaves the hard part: getting everybody to agree on which particular variety to drink.
. Dutch researchers suggest small amounts of alcohol may lower the risk of developing several arthritic conditions. Researchers at Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands, associate low alcohol consumption – drinking less alcohol than those in the control group – with a significantly lower risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, ratisteoarthritis, spondylarthropathy, psoriatic arthritis and reactive arthritis. Lead author Dr. Annekoos Leonoor Huidekoper said another interesting finding was the degree of systemic inflammation in patients was shown to increase as the amount of alcohol consumed decreased. The researchers say there may several explanations for their findings, including the possibility some alcohol in low amounts could help protect against the development of systemic inflammation. The finding was presented at the annual congress of the European League against Rheumatism in Rome.
. France’s appellation system may soon be homogenised into globally recognised brands. The proposed new Vins de France category allows French producers and brand owners to blend wines across different regions to produce wines consistent in quality and style. These wines are designed to appeal to younger consumers at lower price levels, marketed by their grape variety, not origin. According to French wine official Valérie Pajotin, director of Anivin de France, French wine will end up “like Coca-Cola”, with many producers opting out of appellation systems in favour of adopting the generic “Vins de France” brand.
Monolithos Monthly News
August, September and October mark the annual season for grape harvesting for most vine growing areas of Cyprus. The exact time of harvesting changes from year to year based on weather conditions, vineyard location and grape variety. Grapes from international varieties in vineyards located at altitudes lower than 600m are ready for harvesting in August. The indigenous vines are picked in September. For the village of Pachna, this is the busiest time of the year. Traditional hand-harvesting is the only practice in the region and therefore, picking only healthy bunches is relatively easier.
An early wine grape harvest is certain this year. The mild winter, good rainfall, early spring, and hot sunny weather so far this summer have put vineyards about two full weeks ahead of schedule. Normally the harvest of early-ripening varieties begins right after the third week of August and other varieties two to four weeks later. This year we are planning to commence harvesting on Saturday 14 August. Other dates scheduled for grape picking are the 21 and 28 August. Unless there is a drastic change in the weather, we anticipate that 4 and 11 September will be the final dates for this year’s harvest.
Monolithos Winery ensures that the grapes are cut from the vine in the cool, early morning hours, placed in small plastic cases and transported directly to the winery for crushing. Great pains are taken to escalate the process, while keeping the grapes from becoming too warm during the transport from vineyard to crusher.
All Monolithos wines (2009 vintage) are available for tasting. If at any time you are passing near the village of Pachna and wish to visit the winery or purchase any of our products, Martin Wood will be pleased to meet and assist you at his “Fig Tree Villa” in Pachna, so do not hesitate to call him at 25-816212 or 99-165995. We thank you for your continued support, and
would leave you with the words of a French proverb:
“The best use of bad wine is to drive away poor relations.”
Regards from all of us here at Monolithos
What type of wine and where best to buy are two of the many contentious topics in the world of wine. The heated debate raises a number of questions such as: Why do your wine shopping at your local mega-stores and limit yourself to a small selection of the big name winemakers? What about buying an untried wine or shopping directly from a winery? What is the difference between a “boutique” wine (such as Monolithos) and a “commercial” wine? What does “small winery” really mean? Are all boutique wines good? Do the big corporations make quality wine?
It’s fair to say that most of us enjoy a nice glass of wine, but in this day and age, finding a perfect example which is agreeable to the palate and to the wallet is not always easy. The occasional wine buyer is most likely to grab a bottle at the local supermarket when completing the food shopping. This is the most accessible and quickest way to bring a bottle home, and is fine for buying a wine that is already known to the wine drinker. The average consumer views wine in much the same way as they would treat flour, milk, fruit juice or instant coffee. As long as the quality is adequate and the price is right, consumers aren’t too worried about the source. More than 70% of wine sales worldwide are done this way. It’s pretty obvious that an inferior product sitting on the retailer’s shelf is far more likely to be purchased than the superior product that sits in a cellar some place.
Wine’s popularity has skyrocketed in recent decades, but at the same time, wine has become a commodity: grapes are grown, crushed and made into wine, which is then sold cheaply and consumed uncritically. Much of that growth came through wine shops and supermarkets. Consequently, large-scale producers target larger market segments that are served through supermarkets and mega-stores. With supermarkets selling an increasing proportion of wine in many markets, mass wine producers are better positioned to take advantage of this trend towards high volumes and low margins. Thanks to a wave of mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic investments, the world’s top wine companies now control labels in countries all over the globe. Do these corporations make successful wines? Of course they do, since success in the wine business is measured by how well you can sell your product, not how good your product is. Larger wineries have a big advantage when it comes to distributing their products. They usually have dealings with distributors who guarantee their products will get into the marketplace. The small winery, by contrast, has to beg the distributor to carry its products.
Much of the wine sold in supermarkets is mass-produced in giant winemaking facilities that generate millions of bottles each year. Increasingly, wine production is being driven by the needs of the supermarket and high street wine buyers, who claim that their requirements are driven by what people want to buy. There is therefore a huge commercial pressure towards bland,
“commercial” branded wines produced in large volumes to hit the right price points. Mass production typically uses automated systems to permit very high rates of production per worker, turning out high volumes of inexpensive finished goods. The main advantages of bulk production wine is derived from the standardized processes, consistency of products, cost and time savings,
increase productivity, less skill requirement by personnel, significant reductions in inventory and economies of scale. Large wineries can become more profitable through vertical integration of their distribution systems and aggressively segmenting their products and services to take advantage of market opportunities.
From a distribution perspective, drinks are all liquid (also heavy, usually fragile, and must be protected from temperature variations) and need to be delivered on time, and managed in accounts. Because of economies of scale, a large corporation generally has access to cheaper costs of goods than smaller companies. Most importantly, large global wine companies are able to
optimize their cost of goods in every market they choose to enter. The controversy over the corporations’ role centres on the issue of wine quality. Not all wine they sell is noteworthy. In fact, mass production and the use of low-quality grapes have brought forth a new class of wine known as “plonk”. The latter is defined as wine which does not belong to a designation of origin or other quality indication or specification of origin. Plonk is a low-quality wine, usually made for the non-discriminating masses. Quite often these wines are made from 3rd and 4th pressings. Stores everywhere are loaded with tasteless wines – both domestic and foreign –
that offer no distinction in taste between grapes or brands. Nowadays, bulk-quality wine is widely found in standard 750 ml, 1 or 2 litre plastic PET bottles, five-litre demi-johns, Tetrapaks and even cans. The low price of a few euros per litre makes them a hit as an everyday wine. The supermarkets deserve some credit for the work they have done popularising wine, but now they’re slowly killing the sector they once helped develop. People have no idea that the wine they are drinking is a cheap, mass-produced beverage.
The interest in drinking wine stems not only from the fact that it can taste nice, but also because of such factors as grape varieties, vintage variations, regions, producers, “terroir”, ageing ability and winemaking techniques. One of the things that separated for centuries wine from other alcoholic drinks is that it is an agricultural product, not a manufactured one. The diversity of wine is bewildering. Not only are hundreds of different grape varieties in relatively common use, but there are also the complex influences of soil types, climate, viticulture and winemaking practices. Consequently, the diversity – and the link to geography – that makes wine so interesting is under real threat. However, the blame for this loss of diversity doesn’t reside solely at the door of the supermarket buyers. They are operating under fairly tight commercial constraints. First, they need serious volume, as smaller volumes
generally can’t be offered for sale effectively in the global market. This is inevitable, since a big winery is required to supply all the wine-selling outlets, consequently, wine must be produced at an industrial level, which means silos of wine and an enormous amount of grapes going into these huge factories. As wine is treated more like a manufactured product and becomes
more divorced from agriculture, it usually becomes less interesting, but it is these wines that appeal to supermarket buyers who want volume, continuous supply and uniformity of quality. Second, they claim that it’s only certain styles of wine that will sell. Big wineries play it safe because they must. They have too large an audience to risk alienating anyone. They will not
create the most original wines of limited production precisely because their audience is too large, and you can’t expect them to list wines that people are not buying. Supermarkets and other multiple outlets don’t like dealing with the diversity and complexity of wine, but they are quite attached to the “idea” of diversity. So typically they will stock hundreds of different lines, giving the shopper the impression of a broad portfolio of wines. The problem
here is that this diversity is actually an illusory one. The wines are almost always industrially produced, in large quantities, and to a formula. It makes life a little easier for the supermarket critics, because they can effectively do their job just by picking wines more or less at random. Plus, there are almost no surprises when you drink a commonly known wine. You know what you are getting before you even open a bottle. Most of these commercial wines appear lifeless and without any charm. Some companies alter their wines so much, that it’s not even wine any longer. While large-scale wine production often results in Coca-Cola-like product
uniformity, that doesn’t mean that the wines – or their production methods – are necessarily bad. Consistency is actually what a lot of people want; they take comfort in the fact that the bottle of wine they’re buying is going to taste just like the last one they opened. This automatically rules out a lot of the more interesting wines. Now, consistency is not the same as quality, however, consistency is not a bad thing in itself. It’s when you’re consistently mediocre that you have to watch out.
The world’s top-selling wine brands are produced in massive quantities in huge winemaking facilities. As most countries are going through the effects of the recession, sales of inexpensive wines have rocketed, while sales of premium, highly priced selections have lagged or stalled. The majority of consumers are looking for anything under €10 a bottle or even €5.
Why don’t commercial wineries get any respect? Some do, but most of them don’t. It’s mainly due to the fact that the majority of these producers are not even involved in the winemaking process. The picture of the vineyard is often on the label, and it doesn’t show a factory – it show rows and rows of grapes on the vine. Commercial wineries are there for mass production and
the associated profit, not the grape itself. The larger winery doesn’t need to be as good. So if, as a big winery, you know you are going to be able to penetrate the market, why spend big sums of money, even if you have it, to make a better product?
The situation isn’t the same as for a small winery, where the product had better be good, or else. Wine is a domain linked with romanticism, and there’s a certain feeling out there that small is beautiful – tiny operations generally yield more interesting, higher quality wines than
larger operations. A small winery producing small amounts can call itself a “boutique”, but that doesn’t mean it makes good quality wine. In the same way, bigger grounds and bigger production numbers don’t mean that quality is lacking in their wines.
There are many wineries that call themselves “boutique” wineries. It sounds a lot more elegant and fashionable to say you picked up the Shiraz blend from a boutique winery. You are sure to impress your dinner guests, but someone at the table is bound to ask: how are boutique wineries different from regular wineries?
The word “boutique” is defined as a “small, exclusive business offering customised service”. A boutique winery is a small business producing a few hundred to less than 10,000 cases per year, and usually the bottles are a bit more expensive than the stuff coming out of the bigger wineries. Boutique wineries are usually family-run businesses where the owner is also
the winemaker. They might only specialise in one or two grape varieties, although some boutique wineries produce a number of different wine types. Whereas everyone knows about the big players, smaller distributors often get business by word of mouth.
Are boutique wineries better? No reasonable person can make such a declaration about all the small wineries in the world. However, it is not an exaggeration to state that some of the best wines in the world come from the small wine boutiques. This is because the wines produced at specific wineries are the rare product of selected grape varieties in the right vineyards, the most important factor to achieving authentic wines. Big wineries must fill a big demand. Where the small winery can, for example, pick and choose its grapes, the larger winery is forced to buy huge quantities, where its control over quality can’t match that of its smaller
competitor.
Winemaking is a mastery that requires many years of experience, knowledge, and skill. A good winemaker has a passion for a specific expression of a specific grape or blend of grapes. Most small wineries are located near the vineyards, thereby minimising the distance from producing the grapes to bottling the wine. It follows that something produced in smaller quantities must be of better quality than something mass-produced. Because the volumes are smaller at a boutique winery, the winemaking process is a lot more hands-on than it would be at a big winery. The winemaker can keep a closer eye on the process and manipulate it to achieve his or her goals. This thorough process, the passion, dedication and expertise allow them to deliver wines made in a unique style to the market in an honest way. Boutique wineries are also known for the personal touches they put on their wines. Most boutique wineries design their own labels and market their wine themselves, or sometimes not at all. Customers who try their wine usually come back for more – not just for appeal of buying an exclusive wine, but usually because the quality is good. Each wine that is produced under such conditions has its own unique flavour and this is why it is so popular to a wine collector.
The small wineries do have some cost advantages over the larger ones. A larger winery is a big corporation, with layers of management, and a department for this and a department for that. All that cost needs to get passed on to the consumer. By contrast, small wineries do not have a personnel department because they mainly rely on family members. They may lack the resources of a big winery, but what resources they have largely go into the making of the wines. Boutique wines give the wine lover the opportunity to enjoy a wine of distinction, meet the people behind it and understand the philosophy behind the product first-hand and often in situ. The skills of owner-managers, who are winemakers, viticulturists and marketers, make it easier to stay focused. The main benefit (of being a small producer) is that you can literally keep your arms around every barrel, keep your nose in each barrel on a regular basis and know each drop of wine intimately. You can’t do that at higher production levels. It is important to note that not all boutique wines are equal in quality, and limited production does not always mean superior. Smaller doesn’t always mean better. The key to finding a superb boutique wine is to look beyond the production size and discover why the winemaker chose to make a slightly different and more selective variety. When a good vintage is produced, it won’t be around forever. That bottle is purchased and held onto until a special occasion arises.
The small wineries do face several challenges, including becoming known, competing for shelf space and finding distributors. The boutique wineries use various strategies to succeed. In addition to pouring at charity events, they rely heavily on direct sales to customers, wine events, internet sales and particularly through tasting rooms. Some sell to local wine shops, supermarkets and restaurants. Many boutiques focus on making a few specialized wines, including alternative varietals, in order to create a niche.
Boutique wines are often more expensive than mass-produced, commercialized wines, but the extra cost is often counter-balanced by the quality, rarity and authenticity of their wines. Some produce wines are far too expensive and not great quality, others are definitely international class, but all are making wines of individual character with pride and passion. There is enormous variety. Ultimately, your own taste buds should be the judges. If you really want to be sure the wine you’re buying isn’t made from bulk juice produced at some other location, look for information on the label. Of course, that’s no guarantee that you’re going to enjoy the wine in the bottle, but at least you’ll know where it came from and who made it. As big wineries get bigger, the niche for very small, artisan winemakers crafting distinctive, uniquely styled and esoteric wines grows too. Micro-wineries of a few hundred or couple thousand cases will satisfy that ongoing need in our society for the arts, originality, personality, creativity and spirituality.
Wine News and Information
. Enjoying a bottle of wine with friends automatically makes any bottle a good one, but it’s even better if it’s properly chilled. The Trudeau Digital Wine Thermometer makes it easy to determine the temperature without opening the bottle. When the gadget is in contact with a bottle, a temperature sensor automatically reads the temperature with the help of an LCD display. Featuring a stainless steel cuff that slips on to the neck of the bottle, the portable thermometer goes wherever a bottle of wine can go. With recommended serving temperatures printed directly on the cuff, the easy-to-use accessory allows wine drinkers to decide what to open and when. Enjoying the wine is then easy, which just leaves the hard part: getting everybody to agree on which particular variety to drink.
. Dutch researchers suggest small amounts of alcohol may lower the risk of developing several arthritic conditions. Researchers at Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands, associate low alcohol consumption – drinking less alcohol than those in the control group – with a significantly lower risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, ratisteoarthritis, spondylarthropathy, psoriatic arthritis and reactive arthritis. Lead author Dr. Annekoos Leonoor Huidekoper said another interesting finding was the degree of systemic inflammation in patients was shown to increase as the amount of alcohol consumed decreased. The researchers say there may several explanations for their findings, including the possibility some alcohol in low amounts could help protect against the development of systemic inflammation. The finding was presented at the annual congress of the European League against Rheumatism in Rome.
. France’s appellation system may soon be homogenised into globally recognised brands. The proposed new Vins de France category allows French producers and brand owners to blend wines across different regions to produce wines consistent in quality and style. These wines are designed to appeal to younger consumers at lower price levels, marketed by their grape variety, not origin. According to French wine official Valérie Pajotin, director of Anivin de France, French wine will end up “like Coca-Cola”, with many producers opting out of appellation systems in favour of adopting the generic “Vins de France” brand.
Monolithos Monthly News
August, September and October mark the annual season for grape harvesting for most vine growing areas of Cyprus. The exact time of harvesting changes from year to year based on weather conditions, vineyard location and grape variety. Grapes from international varieties in vineyards located at altitudes lower than 600m are ready for harvesting in August. The indigenous vines are picked in September. For the village of Pachna, this is the busiest time of the year. Traditional hand-harvesting is the only practice in the region and therefore, picking only healthy bunches is relatively easier.
An early wine grape harvest is certain this year. The mild winter, good rainfall, early spring, and hot sunny weather so far this summer have put vineyards about two full weeks ahead of schedule. Normally the harvest of early-ripening varieties begins right after the third week of August and other varieties two to four weeks later. This year we are planning to commence harvesting on Saturday 14 August. Other dates scheduled for grape picking are the 21 and 28 August. Unless there is a drastic change in the weather, we anticipate that 4 and 11 September will be the final dates for this year’s harvest.
Monolithos Winery ensures that the grapes are cut from the vine in the cool, early morning hours, placed in small plastic cases and transported directly to the winery for crushing. Great pains are taken to escalate the process, while keeping the grapes from becoming too warm during the transport from vineyard to crusher.
All Monolithos wines (2009 vintage) are available for tasting. If at any time you are passing near the village of Pachna and wish to visit the winery or purchase any of our products, Martin Wood will be pleased to meet and assist you at his “Fig Tree Villa” in Pachna, so do not hesitate to call him at 25-816212 or 99-165995. We thank you for your continued support, and
would leave you with the words of a French proverb:
“The best use of bad wine is to drive away poor relations.”
Regards from all of us here at Monolithos
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