DAN'S WINE BLOG

2024-08-02

SPEEDY INNOVATION

Recently on the shores of Lake Garda, which is roughly halfway between Milan and Venice in Italy, the DOC authority revealed that it is contemplating “opening up” its rules to include the production of canned wines for those sailing on the famous lake.

According a spokesman, the DOC has “thought about changing the rules to accommodate them [canned wines] but it is a lengthy process. However, we believe strongly that we are the right appellation to introduce different formats as they become possible through the development of technology.”

A range of super-premium canned wines could be an attractive prospect for the “yachting set” in the Lake Garda area.

“People who are wealthy and have wonderful boats, prefer not to have glass bottles on board because they could break,” said the spokesman. “Cans are a very viable option”.

It will be interesting to see how long it takes for the cans to make an appearance on the lake and whether the all powerful DOC allows them to be sold for land based consumption as well, as thy rush headlong into dramatic change!!!

OLD NEWS

At the other end of the ‘speedy’ scales Champagne Taittinger in Reims has just re-opened its ancient Saint- Nicaise cellars to visitors after some re-construction/ repair work was completed. Big whoopty-do I hear you say, well yes, it is these cellars are a UNESCO world heritage site that were first carved out from the chalk cliffs by the Romans around 200-300 A.D.- Yes 1,800 years ago, or to put it into context for us Aussies, around 1,400-1,500 years before Captain Cook first spotted Australia!!

Pre-Covid I had stood, in awe, in underground cellars in Spain and Austria that had been carved out between 50-150 years before Australia was “found” but this is a whole new level of awesome!!!

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

The venerable Magazine Wien.Plus recently reported that in Spain there is much on-going research into the native red varieties Benedicto and Moribel. The first is one of the parents of Tempranillo whilst the latter is an off-spring of Tempranillo. They are being trialled in the context of better heat and drought resistance than Tempranillo, as Spain like most grape growing regions is suffering longer and more severe heat waves and droughts. Studies conducted so far indicate that up to 90% of current coastal and lower lands growing regions could become untenable by the end of this century.

Again to put this into context, Spain currently has around 200,000 hectares of Tempranillo planted, compared to Australia’s total acreage of 150,000 hectares of wine grapes. So this is kind of very important to the Spanish wine industry, which has a mountain of rules & regulations and normally progresses at a snail’s pace- if at all.

Well that’s it for this week- have a great week, stay safe and remember to always #chooseaustralianwine and when possible enjoy #emergingvarieties.

Cheers

Dan T