Every now and then, the word ‘singularity’ is used to describe a particular wine that stands apart, for whatever reason, from other wines of its type. But just what is singularity, and how can wine express it? Wine writer Tamlyn Currin investigates.

What makes a wine truly singular? Tamlyn Currin explores the rare bottles that defy convention and challenge the rules of the wine world.

Searching for Singularity in wine

Searching for Singularity

Valpolicella from maestro Romano dal Forno   February sees the annual release from Valpolicella’s pioneering Dal Forno estate. The sad news is there will be no new Amarone release this year. The 2014 vintage was difficult across Italy and Dal Forno was hit badly by hailstorms in June which only reduced the yield further. The grapes were deemed too fragile to undertake the long two-year drying process necessary for Dal Forno’s Amarone. The silver lining is that the top fruit went into their Valpolicella Superiore, which is already a canny buy in any year. The production of the Valpolicella is 30% down on normal years so it will be in short supply. To make up for the lack of a new Amarone release, the winery will be releasing a rare set of Amarone magnums from the 2011 vintage – one of the finest in the winery’s history. Look out for them later this month.  The king of kings: Château Latour’s first 2016 release  Pauillac de Latour is the ever-popular “third” wine from the First Growth Bordeaux estate Château Latour. The wine captures the purity and precision that defines Latour, but with a softer, more approachable structure, allowing fans of the estate to enjoy an earlier-drinking offering at an enticing price for the pedigree. The 2016 vintage, now in bottle, is widely acclaimed as one of the greatest modern vintages of Bordeaux, which only makes the release more exciting. Latour 2016 was without question one of the top wines of the vintage, awarded 100 points across the board from the world’s leading critics. This sibling, made by the same team, offers an affordable and approachable insight into this extraordinary estate and vintage.  The latest from Madame Lalou Bize-Leroy   The annual release from Leroy will be out this month. Exact release dates are never disclosed but we are expecting to see them any day now. The Maison wines will be released first, followed by the domaine wines from d’Auvenay later in the month. While we can’t confirm exactly what will be available, we can disclose that the selection this year has some exceptional vintages from some of the region’s top villages. Look out for further updates later in the month. To be considered for an allocation, please get in touch with your Account Manager.  Agave at altitude It’s not often that tequila really stops us in our tracks – but that was the case with Clase Azul’s stunning spirits. This artisan, ultra-premium producer is based in the town of Jésus María, at one of the highest points in the highlands of Jalisco, a location that results in a particularly flavourful agave spirit. Bottled in handmade and painted ceramic decanters, these are some of the most exciting agave spirits we’ve seen – and you’ll have the chance to sample them before the month is out.   From further afield: spotlight on Switzerland and Lebanon  We will be putting some under-the-radar regions in the limelight over the next month. You’ll see the new exceptional Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from Donatsch, a winery that has put the Bündner Herrschaft region of Switzerland firmly on the fine wine map. You’ll also have the chance to grab the latest releases from Château Musar. Lebanon’s fine wine specialists are set to release their 2014 – a low-yielding, high concentration vintage that comes highly recommended. Tasting through a range of back vintages was a highlight of last year – it’s well worth ageing these extraordinary wines. 

A varied palette of releases in February will satisfy even the most esoteric of collectors. From some of the biggest releases of the year from Leroy and Domaine d’Auvenay to lesser-known beauties from Switzerland, these are wines and spirits you won’t want to miss

A varied palette of releases in February will satisfy even the most esoteric of collectors. We name some of the most exciting ones 

Wine and spirits releases this month

What to look out for this February

Alsace – Olivier Humbrecht Food and wine are taken very seriously indeed in Alsace and Olivier has provided a wealth of options to consider. Worth noting, Alsace has more Michelin-starred restaurants than anywhere else in France. Top recommendations for wine lists at reasonable prices in the region are Tavernes lsacienne in Ingersheim and Restaurant de la Gare in Guewenheim. The best for food /wine list combo would be Villa Lalique in Wingen sur Moder, Chambard in Kayserberg. Table du Gourmet (1 Michelin Star) in Riquewihr and Auberge Bouc Bleu in Beblenheim. For a special occasion, don’t miss Aub de l’Ill (€€€) in Illhausern, which is a 2 Michelin Star restaurant. It was in fact a 3 Michelin Star restaurant up until recently but for Olivier it still is very much a 3 Star and worth the visit. 
Burgundy - Christophe Roumier "If you consider Burgundy to be larger than only the Cote de Beaune and Cote de Nuits, then my favourite restaurant is certainly Aux Terrasses in Tournus, which although only one Michelin Star, has a lovely creative cuisine full of energy and based mainly around local produce. The wine list is just perfect, although, like many places, it's full of young vintages. I like this place a lot! Closer to Beaune, one of my favourite restaurants is Hostellerie de Levernois for the high level of its cuisine and its very accomplished wine list. But here the place is a little more fancy." Brunello di Montalcino – Gianlorenzo Neri The most authentic place in Montalcino area is Trattoria Il Pozzo or Il Leccio in Sant'Angelo in Colle (a village in south area of Montalcino). Inside Montalcino village do not miss Il Giglio, Alle Logge di Piazza, and Drogheria Franci. For special fine dining you must try Osticcio. The best wine lists in town are at Il Giglio (you can find very old and rare vintages of Brunello from great wineries) as well as Drogheria Franci (same ownership of Enoteca La Fortezza who have an extensive wine list to choose from). Do not miss "Pinci" with meat sauce or pecorino cheese and pepper (in italian "cacio e pepe"), it is the typical pasta of the area, or "Peposo" which is a braised beef meat cooked in
a Brunello sauce. Santa Barbara – Matt Dees (Jonata & The Hilt) For dinner I would recommend the El Encanto restaurant which has beautiful sweeping views across Santa Barbara city. The food is awesome too. Don’t forget to stop off at the Mercado Ice Cream Parlour too. This place has got to be making some of the best ice cream in California. The Lark is pretty awesome. My personal favourite is Ca’Dario, a sort of no thrills Italian restaurant - the food is really authentic. We also have some of the best Mexican food being made in the US. These restaurants really are some of the jewels of the city. I love El Bagio
but there are loads of great ones to choose from! 
Chablis – Olivier Bailly – Domaine Billaud Simon Too few people make the one hour drive from the Cote d’Or to Chablis; the region is an overlooked culinary hot spot that offers exceptional value compared to the Cote d’Or. Olivier Bailly’s favourite restaurant in Chablis is Au Fil du Zinc for "the precision" of the Japanese Chef. According to Olivier, "he produces very good French cooking with a Japanese influence". Le Syracuse is another restaurant he recommends for the quality-to-price
ratio: "it is excellent!" 
Burgundy - Veronique Drouhin Veronique Drouhin also recommends the Bistrot du Bord de L'Eau in the commune of Livernois (just outside of Beaune). She describes it as “delicious, fairly priced and a lovely location both indoors and outdoors if the weather suits". Another recommendation is the L'Hermitage de Corton, just outside of Beaune, on the way to Aloxe Corton. Again it offers "delicious food at a good price in a beautiful setting... plus
the owners are delightful". If you find yourself in the centre of Beaune, Drouhin recommends Le Carmin, “a one Michelin star restaurant, worthy of the star”. For 'bar and tapas' style evening with friends, her pick is the gastro-bar Maison du Colombier. Another recommendation in Beaune is Le Bistrot des Cocottes: “nice, fun, very good”.

For any true epicurean, a list of top restaurants requires serious deliberation. We asked some of our favourite winemakers from around the world to give their recommendations, including Olivier Humbrecht, Christophe Roumier, Gianlorenzo Neri and more…

Winemakers Olivier Humbrecht, Christophe Roumier, Gianlorenzo Neri and more name their top restaurants

Where winemakers eat, part one

Where winemakers eat: Part one

2001 Château la Mission Haut-Brion, Pessac-Léognan, Bordeaux “A couple of weeks ago, in an attempt to try and cheer up ‘Lockdown 2.0’, I decided to order a fancy takeaway from a favourite local restaurant. It was a classic French menu – pâté to start, boeuf bourguignon for the main course, all topped off with a tarte tatin. To further brighten up the evening, I wanted to open something special from my collection, and landed on a bottle of 2001 La Mission Haut-Brion (it really had to be something French to go with  that menu!). It was the ideal accompaniment, perfectly in its drinking window. It was full of dark red fruit, and – while being absolutely strong enough to stand up to the strew – was also wonderfully elegant. Everything was exactly as it should be, this is a stupendous wine, wonderfully balanced, perfectly pure and just downright delicious.” Rose Saunders, Senior Sales Manager 2015 Domaine de la Grange des Pères Blanc, Pays d’Hérault “Perhaps my favourite quality of a truly great wine is its power to make any occasion special. That being said, many of my most memorable wine experiences are those which aren’t planned – as was exactly the case with this bottle of 2015 Grange des Pères Blanc. During a weekend break in Cornwall last month, I managed to bag a last-minute booking at Outlaw’s New Road, and on opening the wine list this line immediately caught my eye – a rare find at fine wine merchants, let alone on restaurant lists. I asked the waiter, who to my great disappointment told me the last bottle had sold earlier that day. However, Outlaw has a second restaurant down the road, and having confirmed they had one bottle left, he promptly jogged down a very steep hill, and back, to fetch it. “The wine itself is simply unlike anything else: 90% Roussanne with a little Chardonnay and Marsanne, made by a man who trained under François Coche-Dury, G’erard Chave and Eloi Dürrbach. The 2015 is still very young, a behemoth of aroma, flavour, structure and texture.
 Decanted and enjoyed over five hours, it was almost overpowering to begin with – with rich tropical fruit, spice, garrigue herbs, candied lemon and intense minerality. Continually softening and evolving with time, exhibiting an extraordinary array of nuances, this is a masterclass of how to balance raw power with freshness and finesse. One of the best bottles I’ve had this year, thank you to the brilliant team at Outlaw’s New Road for going the extra mile.” Simon Brewster, Senior Sales Manager Sennachie, 40-year-old, Cask #83/254-3, Blended Scotch Malt Whisky “Five undisclosed Speyside and Highland whiskies distilled in 1975, married in 1983 at the age of eight years, and thereafter aged at Springbank Distillery Campbeltown: this is the intriguing make-up of Sennachie’s 40-year-old Cask #83/254-3, a release of 195 bottles and one of the most fascinating whiskies I’ve had the pleasure of drinking. There are five single malt components to pick out, although it’s debatable whether it actually matters. They are in perfect harmony from the outset, with a delightful nose of honey, oranges, shortbread and sweet cinnamon spice. The palate is balanced with red apples, white chocolate and salted caramel. It’s complex and immensely drinkable. The only downside is the spirit’s unique nature; this combination of whiskies and events cannot be repeated, so it’s worth enjoying it while you can.” David Walters, Head of Spirits 2000 Clos de Vougeot, Grand Cru, Domaine Leroy “I had the privilege this autumn to taste one of the latest releases from Burgundy’s legendary Domaine Leroy, the 2000 Clos de Vougeot, in a restaurant setting – a rarity for 2020 – making the event perhaps even more special. Big, boisterous, but charming too, this perfect-condition bottle displayed epic concentration and a staggering purity of fruit, something Lalou notes of her 2000s. There was a tautness to everything, like a snake coiled and ready to pounce. Still youthful and gleaming, the perfumed nose was compelling and seemed to fill the entire room! A wine that stops you in your tracks and reminds you why Burgundy continues to run the world.” Tony Cody, Senior Sales Manager 2010 Gaia, Grosset, Clare Valley, Australia “It’s relatively rare for me not to drink French – but at my first post-lockdown meal at the Harwood Arms, this caught my eye on the list. I’ve long been a fan of the Grosset wines, and while Polish Hill may be the wine that gets the most press, they’ve clearly been putting effort into Gaia – a Cabernet that now stands up there with the world’s best. This, now a decade old, was still deeply coloured with an expressive nose of dark fruit (ripe blackberries, plums) with underlying tertiary notes. On the palate, the acidity lifted the overall ripe fruit profile from this warm vintage in South Australia. Concentrated and structured, with polished tannins, dried herb notes added complexity to the long finish. Caught at just the right moment, this was drinking beautifully – perhaps all the more so with the sweet taste of freedom.” Corentin Margier, Head of Buying Browse more Editorial 

Each month, we ask a handful of our team to pick a wine or spirit they’ve tasted recently – a bottle that surprised, delighted or merely lived up to high expectations. Here’s what they chose

Each month, we ask a handful of our team to pick a wine or spirit they’ve tasted recently. Here’s what they chose

Our team names their top bottlings

In the glass: what our team is drinking

Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW has caused quite the stir. In her Bordeaux 2021 en primeur report, her first for her new publication The Wine Independent, she scored some wines below 80 points – and just 20% made it above the 90-point mark. She’s a woman on a mission, determined to bring honour and integrity back to wine criticism. The Master of Wine and Robert Parker protégée stepped down as Editor-in-Chief of the Wine Advocate – the leading fine wine publication – last year. She was tired of what had become a corporate life. Michelin took over in 2019 and her time was increasingly spent in meetings, doing reporting, looking at corporate responsibility as well as managing her team and making sure everything was going to plan – a plan, she emphasises, that was not set by her. Most importantly, her senior position took her further away from what she really loved doing – writing about wine. “I love to sit down with winemakers and capture that story that is not on their website, that is not in their marketing material. Something that is real and raw. There is not enough of that,” she tells me. Her view is that it’s the story that makes wine “more than just a drink” – and that’s why people spend hundreds of pounds on a bottle. This storytelling is what she’s looking to do with her new, small outfit, The Wine Independent. Importantly she’s partnered with Johan Berglund – a professional photographer (whose beautiful images we've used here) – to bring those stories to life, with a modern platform that is a world away from most other critics’ sites (often “a wall of words”, she says). As the name of the new publication suggests, Perrotti-Brown is making a stand against publications that she feels no longer put the consumer first. Her inspiration is Robert Parker’s original operation – the Wine Advocate started as a small newsletter shared with friends. “Essentially a mom-and-pop shop”, she explains, getting back to basics, with minimal staff and no fancy office with big overheads. For her, the goal is simple: to publish timely – and honest – reports, allowing readers to search for wines easily and helping them to discover something new. She doesn’t hold back voicing her concerns about the state of wine criticism today. She’s damning, believing there’s a trend not just to overscore, but that it’s a strategy to gain influence, helping critics be quoted by retailers and wineries – and therefore benefitting from “free marketing”. “When you see people coming in one or two points above everyone else and they hang on and wait until other people’s reviews have come out… I mean, come on, it’s definitely happening,” she says. The compaction of scores, however, is what really riles her. Everything sits between 95 and 99 these days, she suggests. “Nobody dares to go to 100 and nobody dares to go below 90.” Perrotti-Brown is outspoken about critics for whom the tiny number of 100-point scores they hand out is a point of pride. “There are a lot of critics who are just too chicken-s**t to give 100 points,” she says. “If you know a wine is 100 points, it takes a lot of bravery to put it out there.” Some critics – such as James Molesworth of Wine Spectator – don’t believe that a perfect wine exists, and therefore never give 100 points. “Which is ridiculous!” says Perrotti-Brown. “Why use a 100-point scale, if you are not going to use the top?” Her fear is that scores will lose all relevance and meaning. Indeed, she notes that retailers don’t even reference who gave the score they quote. “You go into a shop these days and look at the shelf-toppers and it doesn’t even say whose score it is – it just says 97 points. Every wine is 97 points!”  Critics should be fighting for consumers, she argues, rather than ingratiating themselves with wineries. “I know it is difficult, because we are sat there right in front of the winemaker, listening to their stories and I think the impetus is to really feel for that person, but you can’t. You always have to see it from the consumer’s perspective – it’s what Bob [Robert Parker] always told me. You are working for them.”  Hence, therefore, the broad range of scores that she felt was inevitable for a vintage like 2021. It was, she admits, a difficult vintage to assess in the evolution of Bordeaux. She’s adamant that she hasn’t changed the way she scores: “It just happens to be the worst vintage Bordeaux has had for a very long time,” she explains. Perrotti-Brown refers back to Robert Parker’s original benchmark for 90 points – an “outstanding” wine, a wine that is complex and age-worthy. For her – tasting very widely across the region – the majority of 2021s don’t meet those criteria, but she’s quick to emphasise that wines scored in the upper 80s are very good wines. “I think there has become some stigma over the wines scoring in the 80s and I don’t know why,” she says. Again returning to Robert Parker’s original scoring crib-sheet, these are “good to very good” wines and that is where, she feels, the bulk of Bordeaux 2021 wines fall.  Looking back at Robert Parker’s own en primeur scores in trickier vintages (2007, 2013, 1996), he too was awarding many wines eighty-something points, sometimes less. While Perrotti-Brown accepts the technological advances in viticulture and vinification mean you would rarely see Classed Growth wines receiving less than 80 points today, it only emphasises just how challenging the 2021 vintage was in Bordeaux. Of course, the vintage also produced some surprises. Despite everything that happened climate-wise, there were a number of wineries that produced outstanding wines, even by Perrotti-Brown’s assessment. “Some wines were absolute trainwrecks and there are other wines that are wow… you can tell these people worked their tails off,” she says.  The critic was certainly surprised and disappointed by other reports on the vintage, particularly given she’d worked and trained some of the people behind them. “When I am looking at other peoples’ scores [for Bordeaux 2021], 60% or more of the wines scored 90 points and above and that is astonishing to me,” she says, both confused and outraged. “Some of these wines, they are giving the same score ranges as the 2018 and the 2019s – I mean how is that possible?” Her report is a statement of intent. Lower scores may mean The Wine Independent isn’t as widely quoted by the trade, but what matters to Perrotti-Brown is whether consumers trust the publication. It’s a long-term game. “Eventually I hope consumers will look at all these other scores and say, ‘But what did The Wine Independent say?’” Perrotti-Brown took a huge risk stepping down from what is undeniably the wine world’s most influential publication – but she is confident she’s made the right choice. Her need for autonomy was the impetus for her to set up on her own, and she’s found freedom on her own terms. It is still early days for The Wine Independent and, for now, Perrotti-Brown is their only reviewer – although she confirms an additional critic will be announced in the coming weeks. Competing against more established publications with an extensive database of tasting notes and scores isn’t easy – but Perrotti-Brown has established herself as a disruptor in the field. She’s lain down the gauntlet – daring her peers to put the consumer back at the heart of what they do. Read more Editorial

Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW is making a stand. The ex Wine Advocate Editor-in-Chief, trained by Robert Parker, believes that critics are at risk of losing relevance – and for good reason. We talk to the wine writer about why she’s fed up of scoring strategies and set up The Wine Independent.

Why the wine critic left the *Wine Advocate* to go her own way, determined to bring honour and integrity back to wine criticism.

Lisa Perrotti-Brown on why she left Wine Advocate

The voice of independence: Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW

Think of Bordeaux, and you probably don’t think of skateboarding and denim shirts. Damien Barton-Sartorius, however – Director of Château Langoa and Léoville Barton – manages somehow to combine millennial cool with an effortless suaveness that feels distinctly Bordelais. “When you’re one of these old families, the rest of Bordeaux looks at you in a different way,” he tells me. There have been Bartons in Bordeaux since the 18th century. One of the region’s “wine geese”, Irishman Thomas Barton arrived in 1722, and Hugh Barton bought Château Langoa in 1821, acquiring part of the Léoville estate in 1826. Since then, the empire has grown: alongside their Saint-Julien Classed Growth properties, there’s a Moulis estate (Mauvesin Barton) and a négoce operation. As if that wasn’t enough, Barton-Sartorius has two personal side-projects too: Initio and 225, the latter of which is his latest venture – a sustainability-led project, shipping wine in bulk and bottling in the destination market. He’s restless and enthusiastic, having taken over directing the Classed Growth estates (while his sister, Mélanie is in charge of Mauvesin) from his mother and Saint-Julien matriarch, Lillian Barton, in the last couple of years. This year sees the 200th anniversary of Langoa’s purchase – and when I ask him what has changed in that time, the answer is easy: “Not so much,” he shrugs. It’s the mark of a business like this, handed from generation to generation, that shifts are seamless and gradual, no one looking to make a mark – but preserve a unique heritage. Both Langoa and Léoville are classical Saint-Julien – a style often described as sitting between pinpoint Pauillac and sensual Margaux. For Barton-Sartorius, it’s “a bit like Vosne-Romanée in Burgundy, we have everything”. The Langoa estate is defined by its proximity to the river, the estuary’s constant movement helping to rid the vineyards of humidity and moderating the temperature – shielding it from extreme weather, rarely suffering from frosts (even in vintages like 2017) and allowing them to produce balanced wines in otherwise very warm vintages such as 2003, 2009 and 2018. It is, however, the soils that make Barton-Sartorius swoon. “The gravels are quite extraordinary,” he says, animated in his excitement. The gravels reach between three and six metres below the surface, giving the perfect level of drainage – but not too much, with a layer of clay beneath to hold essential water reserves. “The perfect balance,” Barton-Sartorius sighs. While it was once rare to hear the Bordelais talking about their terroir, there’s a definite shift underway. “For a long time Bordeaux was all about the brand – now they want to know what is behind the bottle,” he says. The shift, he feels, however, is not that the Bordelais are suddenly discovering their soils – but they’re talking about it. The region’s more monied estates have, however, been artful, managing to guarantee their place at the head of the fine wine table for over 150 years – and to do so, they’ve had to create stories. “There’s too much show – look at our new winery, our limited bottle....” Barton-Sartorius explains. Admittedly, he’s busily building a new cellar himself – although it is unlikely to be unveiled grandly with a row of new gleaming stainless steel tanks and the latest contraptions. Construction of the winery is already underway at Langoa (where both the Léoville and Langoa wines are made), set to be completed in 2022, the most recent update since his grandfather built it. Because of the sheer expense involved, they’ve only made tweaks over the years, but are now in a position to have been able to properly rethink it. The aim is for it to be more sustainable and functional, simplifying the process. Everything will be gravity operated, and the barrels will be stored two floors below ground so that less energy is required to keep them cool. Such concepts might seem standard elsewhere, however with Bordeaux’s high water table (remember that the Médoc was a swamp until the Dutch drained it in the 17th century), it’s difficult to build down rather than up. Winemaking at both Langoa and Léoville remains reassuringly traditional – “not by choice, but because it’s still the best”. There are exceptions, though, and where something is better done by machine, or it avoids a potential risk to workers’ health, they’ll do it – but there’s no compromising on quality to save a few cents. As just one example, they still rack everything by hand using a candle, because they feel it is a softer way to separate the wine from the lees, without exposing the wine to too much oxygen. “Details like this are very important,” Barton-Sartorius says. “But the wine is made in the vineyard.” He, like most vignerons, knows that it’s the quality of the fruit that matters most. “I like to think we’re good – but terroir is making 90% of the job,” he quips. The winery is, in his view, “more about a religion. You have to trust in something. You believe it or not.” It might be easy to be lulled into the sense that everything here is done by rote – simply following the recipe of their forebears, but that’s far from the case. “There’s a reason we do things the way we do – but we still like to challenge what we do,” Barton-Sartorius tells me, taking me through a ream of current and recent experiments, from pumps versus gravity (gravity won) to their decades’ worth of tests with organic vineyard sprays – looking not just at how they impact the cleanliness of fruit at harvest, but the wine’s final flavour. I ask him how he feels about Bordeaux’s status and relevancy today. “It feels like nobody knows it or people forgot about it,” he says. The region – in his view – remains one of the most exciting. He describes how the generation above are tired of people comparing the wines to how cheap they used to be – however is determined that they still offer great value. You can’t buy “Château Margaux as a lunch wine”, but Langoa Barton costs £30 – and “Napa is double, triple the price for the same quality”. And no one is able to hide their excitement when he gets an old bottle of Léoville Barton out the cellar. “We are lucky to have some of the best soils in the world – like Chambertin Grand Cru, the quality is the same – except instead of having two hectares, we have 80 hectares. We are lucky to produce 100,000 bottles of it.” That might make the wines, as he says, “a little less posh and fancy” – but it also means there’s more to go around. Is it a burden – a 200-year history and everything that comes with it? He instantly shakes his head, “It’s an honour – but a big pressure at the same time. I don’t want to be the generation that f***s up everything.” As Barton-Sartorius rushes off to meet the curfew in place under current Covid restrictions, it’s hard to reconcile his undeniable stature in Bordelais society with the down-to-earth character filling my screen. It’s that very lack of pomp and circumstance, an understated modesty, that will likely guarantee that Langoa Barton survives another 200 years. Browse wines from Langoa Barton and Léoville Barton

As Château Langoa Barton marks its 200th anniversary, Sophie Thorpe caught up with Damien Barton-Sartorius – the 10th generation of the Barton family to run the estate – about tradition, terroir and why Bordeaux remains the most exciting wine region in the world 

Talking tradition, terroir and why Bordeaux remains the most exciting wine region in the world with Damien Barton-Sartorius of Langoa and Léoville Barton. 

Damien Barton-Sartorius on Ch. Langoa Barton

Keeping up with the Bartons

In 1991, Jean-Luc Thunevin made the first vintage of Valandraud. In the workshop next to his house, he produced just 100 cases of wine from tiny yields, de-stemming and punching it down by hand and ageing it in 100% new French oak. Although it didn’t have a name yet, the garagiste movement had been born.  As the Super Tuscans had in Italy, these maverick bottlings, operating outside the official classification, rocked the world of wine – especially in the conservative heartland of Bordeaux. At the same time, the likes of Harlan and Colgin were starting to prove the power of Cabernet Sauvignon in Napa. Meanwhile on the East Coast, a lawyer called Robert Parker had already gathered a loyal following for his newsletter, offering independent advice and a novel scoring system. The internet was just getting started. Everything in the world of wine was changing.  “In the 1990s there was formidable energy and consumers who were ready to accept something new,” says Thunevin. But the Bordeaux wine trade was stuck in the Middle Ages, he says; it was aristocratic, closed – and one reason why the garagistes, a collection of outsiders, caused quite such a stir. Thunevin himself had been in banking, while Jonathan Maltus (Le Dôme) was a British businessman and Stephan von Neipperg (La Mondotte) a German interloper. With the challenging conditions of 1991, the first vintage of Valandraud had little impact. He made a tiny volume of red, and then a rosé de saignée that he gave away to friends. “L’histoire, c’est ’92,” Thunevin tells me, almost whimsically. The wine, a product of much more favourable growing conditions, put him on the map. “I created a revolution,” he says today. The 1991 Valandraud was released to négociants for 13€; the 2022 came out at 118€.  It was Michel Bettane who coined the term “vin de garage”, sneeringly suggesting that these new-fangled wines could be made in someone’s garage. But, as Jean-Luc Thunevin told me, “By talking about me, they made me exist.” Without such outrage from wine’s more traditional core, the garagistes likely wouldn’t have had the same success. Combine Bettane’s throwaway comment with the rise of garage music in the US and UK, and the movement gained an accidental cool-factor – but that’s all changed now.  “I don’t think anybody wants to admit they were a garagiste anymore,” Jonathan Maltus – the Englishman who created Le Dôme in 1996 – says. He looks back on the time with relative fondness, however. He’d arrived in Bordeaux in 1994, buying Ch. Teyssier, having sold his petrochemical business and decided after a stint in Cahors that he needed to be in the “Formula One” of wine, making for Bordeaux. It was an English wine merchant who told him how a single-vineyard Pomerol called Le Pin was causing a stir – one of a handful of “cuvée wines” that were becoming incredibly popular. As a canny businessman, he decided to give it a go himself.  “It was really exciting – and there was no budget,” Maltus says frankly, explaining how the movement rapidly became a game of one-upmanship. They would instantly snap up any new machinery or equipment, pushing their concepts further and further to out-do each other. Green-harvesting and picking only the ripest berries in multiple passes was de rigueur; the vines often stripped of their leaves to expose the fruit to the sunshine and maximise ripeness (something climate change has put paid to). Yields were consistently low, with over 30hl/ha considered too much to produce the requisite concentration. Maltus explains how the introduction of double-sorting and cold-soaking was radical – both expensive tools, with the latter requiring protective gas and the ability to chill tanks. He would put the wine into one set of new French oak barrels for malolactic fermentation, before transferring the wine to another batch of new oak for ageing. The resulting wines were bold, rich and lavish. “I like to think of it as a kind of Vivienne Westwood period,” Maltus says.  Ask any of the garagistes who inspired them and they’ll point to, among others, Le Pin. Although owner Jacques Thienpont firmly believes Le Pin is not – and never was – a garage wine; he feels that it is sometimes mistakenly seen as one because it was so successful at the time. Ironically, the wine was originally made in a garage, from just one hectare of vines. It was the sensuality of the wine that inspired Jean-Luc Thunevin, he tells me. He visited Le Pin several times and Thienpont told him that wine was all about the quality of the soil, rather than winemaking. “In the cellar, there are no secrets,” Thienpont says. Thienpont wasn’t Thunevin’s only advisor; Alain Vauthier of Ausone happened to be a school friend, and helped the amateur winemaker.  This tension between terroir and technique is at the heart of the garagiste movement. Jean-Luc Thunevin tells me how Valandraud was not a garage wine, but a “garden wine” – from 300 vines he planted on 0.6 hectares, a single site captured in 300 bottles. For Stephan von Neipperg, who made the first vintage of La Mondotte in 1996, from 4.5 hectares, “It’s a terroir… without an outstanding terroir, you cannot make an outstanding wine.” The garagistes, in his mind, by contrast were about “making the wine easier to understand – round, ripe, sometimes too ripe, extracted” – it’s a term he assigns to the likes of Ch. Gracia – first made in 1997, in a back-alley of Saint-Emilion.  Whether you are convinced these wines were true expressions of site or not, they were a direct contrast to the Médoc Classed Growths – where vast swathes of land were used to create a blend each year. Was it a reaction to the Left Bank’s dependence on blending, maybe even a complacency? Perhaps, but it was also a consequence of what each of them could afford; none of them, at first, had the cash to buy any more land. Thunevin’s methodology, for example, wasn’t idealistic; he had to do everything by hand because he didn’t have a tractor or any other equipment, splurging on new barrels alone, and turning a profit for the first time only in 1995.  It’s hard to untangle the movement from Parker’s influence – but few of the early renditions earned the big scores one expects and associates with these vins de garage. Le Dôme, for example, only earned 100 points in 2010 – long after Maltus had started reining in the style, La Mondotte in 2009. Although 1992 Valandraud kickstarted the movement, Parker only gave it 87-88 points when he first rated it in February 1994. Time blurs lines, inevitably – and, although it’s undeniable that Parker’s palate aligned with plush, polished styles, the truth around his influence is more complicated.   “We realised that the whole thing was just becoming a parody of itself,” Maltus says. He points to 2002 a real turning point, but it was only from 2008 that he stopped double oaking, reduced the proportion of new oak to 80%, and more recently started picking earlier. It’s the same across the spectrum, with many of these rebel estates now part of the formal classification system – absorbed into the establishment.  The instigator Jean-Luc Thunevin was branded Bordeaux’s “bad boy” for having challenged the status quo. It’s a reputation that he worked hard to keep – continually pushing forward (indeed, he even makes wine under the Bad Boy name today). Asking what prompted him to create Valandraud – and make it so differently, he says, “I have always been out of my mind. I always wanted to do things that were a bit shocking.”  Today, Bordeaux has more competitors than ever before, with a world of fine wine that is now truly global. Thunevin feels it’s a region in crisis – in need of another bad boy to take the baton. He was an outsider with nothing but a romantic dream of making wine. Whether you like what he did or not, he changed Bordeaux for good. “Les rêves sont nécessaires à notre équilibre,” he tells me – dreams are essential for our balance. The garage movement was just one chapter in Bordeaux’s lengthy history, but perhaps it’s time for another wave of disruptors – after all, they may just be the key to its long-term survival.  Browse all Bordeaux listings or read more about Bordeaux 

When it comes to wine, little has changed in Bordeaux for centuries – but in the 1990s a group of outsiders shook things up: the garagistes. Sophie Thorpe talks to three of the movement’s leading figures about its legacy – and what it means for Bordeaux today

Talking to Valandraud, Le Dome, La Mondotte and Le Pin about Bordeaux’s garagiste movement and what it means for Bordeaux today

The legacy of Bordeaux’s garagistes

Disrupt and disturb: the legacy of Bordeaux’s garagistes

The state of Indiana is probably best known as the home of the 200-lap motor race, the Indy 500, but it is little known that it is home to America’s first commercial winemakers: a group of French-speaking Swiss settlers, who made their way from the Vaud to the not-yet-a-state of
Indiana in the late 18th century.  Unfortunately, the past two centuries has been unkind to the wine ambitions of the early settlers despite being home to vast swathes of vine-loving limestone; instead, the Hoosier state is more interested in corn and soybeans than grapes and it was in this rural farming environment that a young Jeb Dunnuck grew up, far from the burgeoning winelands of the western seaboard.  Raised in a non-wine drinking family, his late start in wine was clearly no handicap: in 2013, the world’s most important wine critic hired him. “I knew I’d found a younger version of myself,” wrote Robert Parker at the time. Parker had been a lawyer that turned his hand to writing wine reviews in the late 1970s. Dunnuck was a baby when The Wine Advocate was first published but in a similar vein to Parker, he had another career before wine paid the mortgage.  An aerospace engineer by training, he caught the wine bug while working for the listed security and aerospace firm Lockheed Martin in upstate New York. He was – and remains – an outdoorsy type and at weekends he would drive three hours to go rock climbing; en-route he stumbled across a wine store, which led to the start of another hobby and a new career. “I would always stop at this tiny, eclectic wine shop that had a great selection of Bordeaux. I think that was where I probably bought my first bottle of wine, “he says. “My wife Traci was a teacher, and we didn’t make much money at the time, but I still remember hiding $20 to $30 a week so I could buy a different bottle every Friday. Some of the first wines I purchased in any quantity were 1990 and 1996 Bordeaux.” Now firmly ensconced in Boulder, which is to mountain bikers what Bordeaux is to wine lovers, Dunnuck recounts how he went from being an aerospace engineer saving up to buy a single bottle of wine at the weekend to respected wine critic. “In 2008, I created the TheRhoneReport website and started writing professionally about wine. I was lucky that I knew web programming, so I designed an online database and built the original site over a weekend. I still use the same database today,” he says. “I would work during the day at Ball Aerospace, then write for The Rhone Report from about 8pm to 2am every night. I did that for five years.” His work ethic and output clearly impressed: in 2013 an email appeared in his inbox from Robert Parker, asking Dunnuck to work for him and you don’t say no to Parker.  
The Parker Years The remit at The Wine Advocate included California, Washington and southern France, including the Rhône, and his lively tasting notes made a refreshing change. “It’s funny you say that, as I truly can’t stand flowery prose,” says Dunnuck.  “I approach the job with an engineering viewpoint as opposed to that of a writer; I’m here to solve problems and the purpose of JebDunnuck.com is to help subscribers find wines they like. You do that by tasting as broadly as possible, writing straightforward vintage reports, and doing your best to
describe and give candid opinions on the quality of the wines. That is the goal”.  But in 2017, just four years later, Dunnuck handed in his notice and went solo. “I loved working at The Wine Advocate, particularly in the early years, when Parker was heavily involved. However, I disagreed with the direction of the company and management, and thought it wasn’t a good fit for me as time went on,” he explains. Within months of
handing in his resignation, JebDunnuck.com was launched.  He retains the principles of an Advocate reviewer, basing his business on a subscription model and paying his way rather
than relying on wine associations or producer groups to fund his trips. 
Dunnuck Drinks 
While he might be known for his love of all things Rhône-related, he has now included Bordeaux into his roster of regions and publishes major reports, which include reviews of up to 1000 wines at a time, as well as smaller articles on other regions and individual producers.  But what we all want to know is what’s in his personal cellar? “I’m a Francophile so my cellar is mostly Rhône and Bordeaux,” he says, revealing he’s just bought a case each of the 2017 Janasse Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Vieilles Vignes, 2016 Château Sansonnet from Saint-Émilion, and the 2017 Domaine du Pegau Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Réservée, “but I drink plenty of wines from California’s Central Coast, Sonoma, Napa Valley, Washington, Italy and Spain.” What Rhône vintages should FINE+RARE’s clients be opening? In the Syrah-dominant 
northern Rhône, the wines of the noughties are all ready to be opened. “For lovers of young wines or those with little patience, 2014 is an early drinking, moderately concentrated vintage that has lots of upfront charm. I think one of the greatest vintages ever for the Northern Rhône, the 2015s are massive and structured wines that will reward bottle age. However, Crozes-Hermitage, some Saint-Joseph, and some Cornas are approachable today. Meanwhile, the 2016s are classic, elegant wines that will have early appeal as well yet also age
gracefully.” Vintage-wise, it’s not such a different story in the southern Rhône, home to the appellations of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Gigondas and more. If the label states 2009 or earlier, the drinking window has opened up and you should start enjoying; yes, you can open your 2010s but
there’s no rush. “Looking at younger vintages, the 2015s and 2016s should probably be held for a few more years, although there are plenty of 2016s drinking nicely, albeit in a youthful sense. 2016 is a great, great vintage for the southern Rhône, and the top wines are going to reward bottle age.” Dunnuck’s vintage is 1975. He’s clearly entered his working window in the past 10 years but will continue to hold and potentially improve for another 20 to 30 years. Based on the history of his home state’s wine scene, it’s clear he is already one of Indiana’s finest wine
exports.  Non-trade subscribers, can sign up to JebDunnuck.com for US$99 annually, which includes all reports, articles and reviews and Wine-Searcher listings. Cellar Tracker users can link their
cellared wines to Dunnuck’s reviews. In 2019, he reviewed 10,000 wines. 
Bordeaux 2019 En Primeur As the 2019s from Bordeaux begin to release, Dunnuck gives his picks for lesser known producers in the region. Looking in Bordeaux on the Right Bank and stepping outside the well-known names, some gems would be Château Badette, Château Sansonnet, Tour Saint-Christophe, Quinault l’Enclos, Château Barde-Haut, Château Ripeau, La Dominique, Clos Saint Julien, and Clos de Sarpe, among others. I absolutely love Jeremy Chasseuil’s Pomerol from Château Feytit-Clinet, and Château Laroque, under David Suire, has taken off as well.  On the Left Bank, some estates on the uptick would be Chateau Pédesclaux, Château Gloria, and Château Saint-Pierre in Saint Julien. I think Château Rauzan-Ségla is making their best wines ever while Château Labégorce and Marquis d’Alesme Becker, both under the helm of
Marjolaine de Coninck, are making brilliant wines today. Some other hidden gems would by Château Charmail, Clos Manou, Château Le Coteau in the Arsac region of Margaux, and Château Marojallia, just to name a few. While the US consumer doesn’t like second wines, given the incredible selection being made by the top estates, I’d wager the second wines today rival the grands vins of the past. The ship might have sailed already, but people should jump on the wines of Les Carmes Haut-Brion. Guillaume Pouthier is doing an incredible job there and is making world-class wines. I also think the dry whites from Olivier Bernard’s Clos des Lunes, which are based on Sémillon from old vines in Sauternes, don’t get the recognition they deserve.  Discover all Bordeaux listings or read more Editorial

Aerospace engineer turned wine critic Jeb Dunnuck talks to FINE+RARE about his trajectory from discovering wine to becoming one of the world’s leading voices on the Rhône, California and Bordeaux. 

Wine critic Jeb Dunnuck on his trajectory to becoming one of the world’s leading voices on the Rhône, California and Bordeaux. 

Jeb Dunnuck on finding his space

Jeb Dunnuck: Finding his space

Fanny Sabre

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