Life through Jason's wine glass: Sud de France Languedoc-Roussillon trip January 2015

Last month Bancroft's Jason Busby headed down to the South of France for vinous explorations and all manner of interesting food. A foodie as much as a wino, here he reports on his findings, provides an insight into how we source our wine and what we look for as well as visiting a few of our current suppliers...

"the Langedoc-Rous is a hidden gem with great value wines that are over looked by the more well-known areas of Bordeaux and The Rhone."

"This was a well organised trip by the Sud de France team where approximately 150 wine buyers from around the world - America to China, Germany to Brazil congregated for the the Languedoc-Roussillon tasting of 1500 wines coupled with the Biologique festival both at the expo in Montpellier.

Day 3 Southern Rhone, By Jason Busby

Just two estates but quite far apart and another two favourites of mine as well as Bancroft for over a decade.

Yves Gras of Domaine Santa Duc, Gigondas and other appellations. What can I say? Biting wind whistling down the valley when we arrived (maybe the Mistral) at the quaint homestead on the outskirts of Gigondas with Yves's new Eco friendly tasting room and office looking more like a space station next to the 18th century farm house, actually doesn't look out of place.

Day One in the Northern Rhone, By Jason Busby

A good but very long first day as we all started by 5am to get to Gatwick for the red eye to Lyon. A full flight and squashed between the Scot and the former Yugoslav for a few hours waiting the choice moment to get up for a loo break to annoy my learned colleagues.

A cold Lyon awaited us, but swiftly into the car to circumnavigate the airport three times before the United Nations got involved to tell the international community in the front seats THAT way. Safely cuddled into one of the five back seats I watched the dreary landscape scoot by until we finally saw the murky river with so many wonderful vines on its banks, yes Le Rhone. 

A little Serbo-Croat goes a long way, AKA Neb's Summer Holiday July 2013

0300 is not the time to get up unless there is very good reason....flying to visit Marjan Simcic in Slovenia and Ivica Matosovic in Croatia provided the reason to get out of bed. The only good thing is that you can pack an awful lot into a day like this, especially when you don't turn in until gone four the next morning, but that is getting ahead of ourselves. 

Now that is what I'm talking about, By Alex Harper

For so long we have all discussed how we break the barrier down between wine and the consumer. Farfetched ideas have been proposed (and launched) but to little impact. It's a head scratched and the million dollar question.

But a weekend at Hartenberg estate has shown me it is not rocket science, it it a simple equation. They have a winemaker who's every thought and breath is his wine; a humble farmer, a modest genius. He is most comfortable amid his tanks and barrels, and his closest ally is Wilhelm, a viticulturalist burnt mahogany by the sun, forged amid the vines and who lives(quite literally) in the midst of them. 

Burgundy Trip (2011 Vintage) - Day One, by Jason Busby

An early start to get to Gatwick for our flight to Lyon. No mention of terminal confusion! Arrived mid morning in a sunny Lyon to collect car ready for 2 hour car journey to Beaune, one of my favourite places on earth, with its uncommercial, friendly atmosphere - oh and some of the greatest wines available.

Montrachet

An ode to Riesling (Part 2), by Alex Harper

Day 3 was the reason for the trip, a visit to the industry giant Reh Kendermann, home of the Black Tower brand.  It was in stark contrast to the small boutique operators such as Busch, but there was no lack of passion among the winemaking team there.  The reality is that this is the work horse of the wine industry and the style and price point at which the majority of the worlds wine is sold at.  We tasted through their range which included a response to the market demands of low alcohol 5.5% abv wines and their weight watchers range at 8.5% abv complete with full nutritional labelling. 

An ode to Riesling (Part 1), by Alex Harper

With nothing in my armoury of German vocabulary other than ‘Auf Weidersehen, Pet’ I set off for Frankfurt and a tour of some of the German wine regions care of the generous Reh Kendermann MW scholarship bursary.  Picking up the car I was faced with driving on the wrong side of the road (for the first time in my life) at night in torrential rain while the black skies were split in two by savage lightning.  Talk about a baptism of fire. Driving with my nose glued to the windscreen my terrified passenger and I arrived shaken, not stirred at our destination.

Sommelier trip to Slovenia and Croatia - day Two

9 am Monday morning, a few sleepy but smiley faces- we were all still digesting what was an incredible marathon of superb Slovenian food and even better wines. We all had a different favourite Simcic wine from the last night that underlines the sheer quality that runs throughout his range. Joao was impressed with the Opoka Sauvignon, Isa with that ultimate sweetie Leonardo, Colin and Neil could not resist Opoka Merlot, David was drawn in between red and white Teodor and Igor found Chardonnay Selection irresistible. Still we were unanimous that there is no compromise in the quality of Marjan's organic and biodynamic wines. Marjan's unparalleled passion coupled with the great potential of his Collio/Brda terroir help to produce really exceptional wines.

A few double espressos later we were on our way to the neighbouring Istrian Peninsula to visit Croatian star winemaker Ivica Matosevic. Not completely intentionally (we missed the right turn!), our journey lead us through the swathes of unspoilt forests and hills of Slovenia and Croatia. These are the famous hunting grounds full of pheasants, wild boars and deer. Istria is also famous for truffles and if we add oysters and fresh fish from the Adriatic, it is no wonder that this area is fast becoming one of the gastronomic hot spots of Europe.

My trip to Calvados in the motor home, by Mike Unsworth

We recently returned from one of our regular adventures touring France. My wife Helen and I are fortunate enough to own a motor home which has solar panels enabling us to “wild camp” as we have no need for electric hook-ups.

Patricia Langton visits Mas Amiel, Languedoc

Interesting article by Patricia Langton on her blog about her visit to Mas Amiel, Languedoc.

Our trip to Chile to visit Julio Bouchon, by Rob Allen

From the semi-desert near moonscape of rural Mendoza-shire we hopped over the Andes, trying not to think of the film Alive too much, and touched down in Santiago in the late afternoon. We gladly met up with a limping Julio (a recent skiing accident left him with a bad limp – get well soon!) and Jaime, before the relatively simple drive three hours south to their hacienda in the Maule Valley. Driving down the Central Valley’s spinal dual carriageway gave us a good opportunity to see other vineyards from the road and to marvel at the amount of vines and fruit trees planted. Chile has a much greener and more “European” countryside than in Argentina with rolling hills with forests and crops. Arriving as the light was fading gave us a tantalising glimpse of the Mingre estate, but we would have to wait until the morning to properly see it. After a delicious home cooked supper, we retired to the outdoor hot-tub to watch the Southern constellations slowly roll by – all in the name of work! 

 

Bancroft and Hawksmoor’s memorable visit to Argentina - Part Two, by Alex Harper

Next stop, Mendoza. Touching down as dusk painted the Andes pink.  Breathtaking.  Eyes held open by matchsticks by this point and a dip in the ice cold roof pool was the only option... much to Rob’s disappointment as obviously he couldn’t be shown up by a girl and was forced to take the plunge too. 

Visit to Argentina and Chile - Day One, by Rob Allen

After a relatively painless overnight flight, breakfast in Buenos Aires was a strong coffee in Luigi Bosca's dockside offices, before setting out to take in the sights. We are five strong, Mark & Tom from Hawksmoor, Alex & Rob from Bancroft and Soledad from Luigi Bosca.

UGC Bordeaux Trip - Days Three and Four, by Alex Robertson

Days 3 and 4 require real stamina as the tastings continue and detailed notes need to be taken for every wine. Our palates were starting to tire but we persevered with the wines of St. Emilion, Pomerol and Graves. The properties at most of the châteaux are stunning and in some cases brand new cellars had been built since last year.

Ch. Cheval-Blanc

UGC Bordeaux Trip - Days One and Two, by Alex Robertson

The Bancroft Fine Wine Team recently embarked on the annual trip to Bordeaux to taste the latest En-primeur vintage.  With low expectations of the 2011 vintage, we knew the trip would be a very different affair to 2010 where we were spoiled by superb wines across the board.  So with four days to taste over 250 wines, our first visit was Château d’Yquem, a surprisingly informal tasting and a sensational start to the trip. 

Ch. d'Yquem

Jason's Australia Trip to Schild Estate - Day Three

I am a little fuzzy on day three with sore feet and knees (too old for being on my feet all day – ahhhh!) but off to the vineyard for sadly my last day in the Barossa.

I started with a tank tasting with both winemakers Scott and Alex tasting all the 2012 whites, Riesling, Chardonnay, Frontignac, Three Springs (lightly sparkling Riesling Moscato style), Alma Chardonnay and the new Chardonnay sparkling base – all with their individual fruit flavours but the quality shone through as always.

Jason's Australia Trip to Schild Estate - Day Two

I had the same early start as yesterday (7.45am pick up) and went straight into pumping over the last open red wine vat that had been macerating for a week. Testing the thickness of the cap, cleaning into the vat a little, I caught a massive nose-full of CO2, which made me see stars for a moment! Definitely a reminder of the danger of winemaking and brought me back to my lack of disclaimer and need for a Rottweiler solicitor. 

Italy Trip: Day Two at Elena Walch, by Johnny Paterson

After a peaceful night’s sleep just 2km away from the De Stefani winery, we set off for the mountains and Alto Adige. We changed passengers in each of the cars en route as apparently listening to Jason for two hours is the fastest way to get a migraine and that it would just be plane cruel to subject the same people to his chat for a further three hours drive. 

Now I know the Italians have a small reputation as being slightly crazy when it comes to driving but this still did not prepare us for what came next. The amount of times I saw Jason and his happy car load of oblivious guests nearly get squashed by an irate Italian truck driver made the initial drive towards Verona exciting to say the least. However as we turned further north the traffic eased and the near death experiences became fewer. At the same time the mountains rose up to meet us and the fantastic weather showed them in all their majesty.

Austria MW Trip, by Alex Harper

It was with trepidation that the group of fledgling Master of Wine students met at the airport to fly to Austria for the first year seminar course; nervous and convinced we would be found out for the wine frauds that we were. The schedule had assured us it would be a punishing week of lectures and wine tastings. A vinous boot camp.