The New World of exciting young and vibrant Wines Vs the Mystic Old World of aged and traditionally crafted wines.
Wine making tradition goes time immemorial and we see mention of wines centuries ago in Greek and Roman history. European countries like France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, and Greece are the traditional wine making countries with their heritage going back to centuries ago. Over this period, the vineyards and the wine making traditions have been passed on from generation to generation. However, over a period of time, many new techniques have evolved which have resulted in the fine quality of these wines. Needless to say, wine makers from these countries take deep pride in their rich heritage and tradition.
The one person who has taken this pride to the extreme end – much to the delight of wine lovers - is George Duboeuf. The undisputable (and unofficial) “King” of Beaujolais, France produces and distributes nearly 25 million of the 175 million bottles of wine produced by this region annually. George Duboeuf has not only perfected the art of winemaking, but has perfected the art of exhibiting his love for wine by creating “Le Hameau du Vin” (“The Village of Wine”) – a museum of wine! This mammoth learning and tasting centre includes a dizzying array of choices - fancy a wine tasting? Go to the free tasting bar! Feel like learning more devoted to corks and bottles!
Fancy seeing an art exhibit? Go to the Art Section! And the ride just doesn’t end. Located next to his corporate base in the tiny village of Romaneche-Thorins (56 km. north of Lyon), the museum explores the wines of Beaujolais through a self-guided tour employing sophisticated audiovisuals, exhibits and tasting. George has used the best of the New World technology of entertainment (read “Disneyland”) to remind the French and the rest of the world that wine is an important part of French heritage.
And then began the era of the new world wines! These come from Australia, New Zealand, America, South Africa and Latin America. Most of these countries started making wines quite recently – hence, the branding of “New World”. These countries have taken advantage of the new techniques that have evolved over centuries by Old world wine regions and have used them to the best of their advantage – resulting in some great quality wines, in a much shorter life cycle. Whether it is advanced equipment, irrigation systems or faster oak ageing, new world has used all of this to its best advantage. Many new vineyards have been developed by picking the best of soil, climate and technique and of course, the best of the wine makers. No doubt several new world wines today compete closely with the best from the old world.
A new landmark was created in wine history on January 23rd of 2004 - better known as the day of “The Berlin Tasting,” when thirty six of Europe’s most highly regarded wine journalists, writers and buyers met in Berlin and in a blind tasting selected Viñedo Chadwick 2000 (Chile) and Seña 2001 (Chile) over French classics Château Margaux, Château Lafite, Château Latour and Italian Solaia and Sassicaia. History repeated itself 2 years down at the Tokyo Grand Hyatt Hotel - On June 14th, 2006, seventy of the most important wine writers, sommeliers, owners of fine wine shops and restaurants of Japan, together with the key specialized journalists from China, Korea and Hong Kong tasted blind. Remarkably, they reached a similar verdict as their European counterparts - placing Seña 2000 and 2001 on top of Château Margaux, Château Lafite and Italians Sassicaia and Tignanello. These 2 events played a crucial role in getting Chilean wines on the world map for top quality wines.
Longevity Vs Fresh and Young wines for Drinking:
The old proverb, “Wine goes better with age” may still hold good for lots of wines made by Old world wine regions. The focus here has always been towards the structure and the longevity of wines. The Ageing in Barrels to get the best quality and reflection of wine and in turn selling at a premium to optimize on this careful production. In the new world wine making countries there seems to be more focus on the young and easy drinking wines. But that no way means that new world does not produce wines with long ageing potential.
Price:
Majority of people across globe even today will put their money on the top wines from the old world. The fact still remains that Bordeaux wines do command highest price in the wine market. More I drink wines from both the worlds, more firm I go in my belief that wines should not be drunk with any pre-conceived notions. I have found ample wines from the old world which are just average in quality and at the same time have come across some amazingly great quality wines from the new world, at very good prices.
Government Regulations:
Old world is still in the shadow of the rigorous laws in wine making, whether it is AOC classification in France or DOC classification in Italy. The Wine Guardians still ensure strong adherence to the age old regulations for wine making. Whether these rules are towards the flexibility allowed in the percentage of the grape production per Hectare of land or use of only natural methods and conditions for the wine viticulture - they certainly help the old wine world regions with the continuous adherence to wine standards and style. Most of the new World wine making countries have also formulated their laws and regulations to ensure quality and consistency but have provided more flexibility to the wine makers for the adaptation. This has helped new aged wine makers to experiment with soil and wines to discover several new combinations and styles. Yering Station Shiraz Viognier wine from Yarra Valley in Australia is a remarkable product resulting from such experiments. Addition of just 5% Viognier to Shiraz added so much more intensity and aroma to this wine. Many other wineries later followed Yering station success and created this new blend.
Marketing:
In this world of clever marketing, packaging plays a crucial role in the success of any product. Some of the best wines from the old world still follow traditional classic label. Considering that the wines are moving not only in the “A” list restaurants but also retail & minibars of hotels – the packaging can make it or break it for the amateur/ experimental drinker. The New world wines have shown better flexibility to more creative labels and packaging. These vibrant labels designs and names in new world wines have made understanding of wines simpler and easier for the wine enthusiasts and has certainly helped new world wines to sell better at the retail segment. Learning from the success of smart packaging of new world wines, now even the Wine makers from the Old world are following suit.
Not so many years back when New World introduced Screw cap instead of Corks for the bottling of wines, traditional Wine drinkers were very adverse to this trend. I presume that for many, the romance and charm of the wine was in the cork and the elaborate ceremony to the opening of the cork from the bottle. After a lot of repulsion, today we see a majority of Old World Wine Countries using Screw caps - especially for their young wines or the ones meant for early consumption. The romance may have got diminished, but it sure made more business sense. This change to the use of Screw caps decreased the “cork defect” drastically - which earlier amounted to even up to 5 % of the total production.
As a Wine lover, the most important thing that gets me closer to wine is its diversity. Unlike any other beverage in the world, one can drink from a new wine bottle every day of life but still the wine journey never ends. That is why it is rightly said, “Life is too short to drink Bad wine”. As a consumer one must be open to trying different wines depending on the mood, company, food or just the time of the day! This selection of a wine should be irrespective of the Country of Origin or demarcation of old world or new World. In fact the boundaries have narrowed down so much that today any good international wine list carries good wines from all parts of the world.
So here’s a toast to the community of Wine lovers who transcend all geographical boundaries for the taste of a good wine!!!
Sumedh Singh, Partner
Finewinesnmore
Courtesy: http://www.ambrosiaindia.com