Secret Sommelier - Wine On The Frontline

This podcast media series focuses specifically on sustainability in Alentejo, a wine producing area covering nearly all of southern Portugal. The project includes interviews with a number of winemakers including Iain Richardson from Mouchão, the team Herdade dos Grous, Luis Patrão from Coelheiros, and João Roquette from Esporão.

I also speak with Helena Ferreira, Director of Production at Adega de Borba, where a thousand families are dependent on the sustainability of the cooperative, as well as the American climate scientist and wine producer, Dr. Gregory V. Jones. And of course, I speak at length to João Barroso, who has been a key force in developing the Wines of Alentejo Sustainability Program, or Wasp, and who has been my guide on the road trip across the region in September 2021.

The aim of this work is to identify the characteristics of the challenges winemakers and estate owners are facing and their responses to those challenges. Additionally, I'm looking at the role WASP has played in transforming the response to the climate emergency and really paving the road to a more resilient future. Dr. Gregory V. Jones drew attention to Alentejo in his study dating back to 2005. And it's striking how wine producers have internalized what this research means in terms of risk and how they are responding to it. 

This is where WASP has emerged, learning from other regions but also taking time to develop a thorough and robust framework for producers to operate whilst transforming to a range of practices including organic and regenerative that together constitute a true pathway to creating a fully sustainable region. This introductory episode begins with producers talking about how they experience and perceive the threats. Starting with Dr. Greg Jones, recapping on the vulnerability of Alentejo to a heating climate.

Tenuta di Arceno is situated just north east of Siena and south of Florence in the Municipality of Castelnuovo Berardenga in the Chianti Classico region. The area is picture book Tuscany with rows of vines, orchards and a relentless daubing of Cyprus trees completing every perspective of the landscape.

Visit: https://secretsommelier.com to view the full article and also watch the video version.

We are in Sangiovese country but as with all things modern, diversification is much in evidence and Cabernet Franc is flourishing, as well as more expected varieties as Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. In my interview with winemaker Lawrence Cronin, we discuss how Arceno is working with these varieties in the face of advancing climatic pressures.

The estate of Tenuta di Arceno was among the first vineyards purchased by Jess Jackson and Barbara Bank outside of the United States. Their portfolio today is enormous and there is an embedded consciousness across the business for taking decisive action on climate change and respecting nature. Despite this broader international perspective, I get the impression from the team that I meet that they work with a great deal of autonomy to achieve the best they can from learning and experience.

We check into our apartment in San Gusmé, a tiny village a few kilometres from the winery but with blocks of vines stretching away both steeply upwards to the right and more gently downwards to the left.

Standing in front of the main entrance to the small walled village that has a natural elevation from which to survey the vista, there is a warm breeze blowing a mixed scent of the rich curated landscape across our senses. There is a hypnotic and seductive calm, especially now that I have learned of a local vermouth that promises to gently knead away the tensions incurred by the long drive from Liguria.

Before aperitivo, we walk the circumference of the tiny walled town. On the outside of the walls, erected in the 14th century to defend against mercenaries, there is the stone carving of a man in squat position obviously relieving himself, apparently to alert the townspeople where best to defecate so that the waste can be reused as fertiliser (no longer compulsory).

In this short interview with Ventoux AOC President, Frederic Chaudiére, we discuss the climate imprint so far and also the efforts that are now underway to join global efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

View on Secret Sommelier: https://secretsommelier.com/wine-and-climate-change/617-ventoux-interview-president

Frédéric Chaudiére: So the DNA of our terroir is very much linked to our mountain, and that mountain creates a kind of cooler climate all around the AOC.

This interview with Pasqua Wines CEO, Riccardo Pasqua, was recorded in Verona during VinItaly Special Edition, last October in 2021.

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During the wine show, Pasqua collaborated with an art collective to put on a large scale installation, demonstrating that wine can express itself as a collaborator in the arts as easily as it can in a tasting note.

The company has been developing a longstanding engagement with creative projects that include podcasting, craftworks and much more.

Regarding winemaking at Pasqua, Riccardo talks about the work going on behind the scenes that is aligning the company with the global push for sustainability.

This includes joining the highly respected Equalitas Certification programme in Italy, and also making moves towards organic conversion with wines already certified.

I caught up with Pasqua again at VinExpo Paris last month, where Riccardo hinted that at VinItaly in April visitors will see a collaborative art sequel that is going to be big. No details have been revealed, even to the Pasqua team.

This interview discusses Pasqua’s collaboration with the arts and also the inevitable journey towards sustainability that is the hot topic of the wine industry.

Stefano Girelli | Sicily, expressed in enchanting flavour

In this interview and tasting I speak with Stefano Girelli, owner of two estates Santa Tresa and Cortese, in the southern part of the Sicily, Vittoria. We discuss the island’s potential for organic produce and why it is so exciting as a 21st century wine producer.

Today, as the southern gateway into Europe, Sicily is both vibrantly awake and celebrating its wealth of flavours and human activity, coupled with the tense interplay of colours that range from Etna’s volcanic displays, to the blindingly pure azure.

Stefano Girelli: ’About 20-25 years ago I went to Sicily and it was like love at first sight.’

‘Vittoria is is in the deep south part of Sicily, south of Regusa, and if you look on the map you will see that Tunis, is north of us! Why did I fall in love? The answer is very simple. In that area you find a unique soil called Terra Rosa or faretti, which is really sandy and gives you an incredible structure. It gives you some really fine and elegant wine.’

‘My perception before going to Vittoria was that all the wines from the south were big, bold with a lot of muscle and of alcohol. Actually from Vittoria you get wines that really elegant with fruity nose and less structure but much more drinkable and enjoyable.’

Read mor eon SecretSommelier.com

Welcome to wine on the frontline where in this episode we discuss Biodynamics & Ancient Soils in the context of producing fine wine in a changing climate

In this interview with award winning winemaker, Peter Fraser of Yangarra Estate, McLaren Vale, in Australia, we discuss how using organic and biodynamic techniques has boosted biodiversity and, hopefully, resilience against climate extremes in the vineyard.

I also taste four wines: the 2020 Blanc, a blend of 5 Rhone grape varieties, the 2019 Noir, a blend of 6 Rhone varieties, the 2018 Old Vine Grenache and the 2019 PF Shiraz, all organic and biodynamically produced.

With so much focus on farming practise and how agriculture needs to find ways to boost ecosystems, Peter offers great insights into why careful conversion is very much about trialling and learning about what works and what doesn’t.

The quest here is to produce a win-win for us, the consumers, for the wine producer, and for the complex lifeforms that underpin our own existence.

Thank you for listening to Wine On The Frontline. View more on SecretSommelier.com

This interview with Christian Seely, Managing Director of the esteemed Quinta do Noval estate and owner of Quinta do Romaneira, close by in the Douro Valley, was not originally intended for podcast use, however, in listening back after the call it felt a shame not to use it.

Anyone who has visited the Douro valley and is stained by the sheer intoxicating beauty of the place, probably, like me, seeks it out in every sniff and taste of wine from the region. Noval is certainly one of the Quinta’s in the Douro that conjures it very well in the glass.

Christian in this interview also offers some great insights into the Nacional plot of un-grafted vines comparing them with those grafted onto American rootstocks post-phelloxera. He also delves into the eccentricity of Noval’s policy of declaring vintages, and sheds light on the rise of popularity and production of dry wines in the region.

It was a telephone call so the audio is akin to a radio call in but I do consider worth a listen, so here it is.

View more on SecretSommelier.com

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In preparing to speak to Bruce Jack for this interview there were very apparently too many avenues to explore. Thankfully, Bruce doesn’t shy away from engaging and digging deep on subjects that one might not expect to cover in a wine orientated interview.

Instead of transcribing, that would take me forever, I have tidied up the interview for Youtube and as an inaugural podcast for the SecretSommelier podcast channel (I will not be waxing lyrical about anything on the channel but will be adding interviews with wine pro’s to the channel).

This is a summary of topics covered:

The Jack Journal was due to be published and launched in Dusseldorf at ProWein in March. This was largely due to the printer being the only carbon-neutral printer that Jack could find. As discussed in this interview, being a brand that stands for something is important, especially when the brand is your own name.

Portugal & history

My article for the Jack Journal was based up on four trips to Portugal in 2019 and an impressionistic/anecdotal view of how climate change was being felt in this North-Western part of the Iberian Peninsula (Vinho Verde, Douro and Dao).

Bruce uses Portuguese grapes in his own wines and says he is ‘enamoured’ with Portugal from a historical perspective as well as from the viticultural perspective, citing the Methuen Trade Treaty of 1703 that bonded Britain to Portugal, ensuring that we Brits were flooded with Portuguese wines for the duration.

Yum Yum factor in wine

We touch on Bruce Jack wines and the ‘Yum Yum’ factor, a translation of what I have previously referred to on this site as one-more-glass syndrome.

Personal mythologies - giving life meaning

The concept of identity is a major part of this interview. Not just Jack’s own identity but the sense of identity that we all have and how that connects us to our own perception of who we are based on what he calls personal mythologies.

South African pandemic crisis

The Jack Journal is certainly a publication that explores values and interests that Jack has on his mind, however, the postponement of its release due to the pandemic gains wider definition with the crisis that engulfed South Africa when locking down the population and shutting down the economy.

Jack discusses how he and his team have pivoted to from winemaking to being aid workers in the Cape region seeking out and helping those people who have ‘fallen through the cracks’ and are most vulnerable to starvation, abuse, or any other impact from privation.

Of course, the Jack Journal is now live and can be read for free online here. The interview below gives some insight into the identity of the inquisitive man who conceived it… so charge the glass and have a listen.