Jean Foillard, AC Morgon 2010, around €24 from Le Caveau in Kilkenny, Market Yard; Fallon & Byrne, Exchequer Street, Dublin 2, online nationwide at lecaveau.ie and in better wine shops nationwide
Our Wines Today are all about the big new drive for, Natural Wines, pure products of the vineyards with few or no interventions from the winemakers and vineyard managers. And certainly without the kinds of additions that many more industrial wines could have. Natural Wine is perhaps the next step onwards from Organic and Biodynamic Wine. In Organic Wine you use on the things that nature provides and the best of human technique. In Biodynamic wine you take this a step further and try and create an ecosystem which works with nature, so using chickens to peck the soil and eat and kill insects that may harm your vines or have peas growing along between the rows of vines to add natural nitrogen. Natural Wine goes even further and refuses in many cases to make, any intervention. So no sulphur is added to clean and stabilise the wine. No filtration is done to remove debris, so the wine can through a crust if poured to quickly. And no fining, to polish the wine, so it can be a little hazy. If done well the results, are spectacular, like a great pot of homemade jam, which will beat every factory made product. However that jam will go off quickly, so you need to treat it with care. Jean Folliard of Morgon, a Beaujolais appellation is a pioneer of the natural Wine movement and is meticulous in its practice. This is a lusty, rugged wine, un-photo-shopped. Brooding dark fruits, fine acidity, a long finish. Delicious when decanted or left in the glass for a while. Wine with soul.
Marks & Spencer, Shiraz, Barossa, Australia 2012, around €15.49 from Marks and Spencers Supermarkets and Stores nationwide.
The wine here is also trying to look towards our increasing interest in purity and traceability, in addition to our interest in additives. Here while not being in any sense part of the Natural Wine movement we have a wine that is both entirely suitable for Vegetarian and in fact Vegan wine lovers. Being a Vegan or Vegetarian wine lover is a hard thing as although you may think of wine as a fruit based delight, during its processing it often encounters, especially in the very best wines elements that make it unsuitable for Vegetarians and Vegans. The most obvious example being in the final cleaning process when we transform wine into the glossy and leaf or twig free drink we all love. The best way to clean the wine is to whip up egg white into a bowl, around a dozen per barrel and pour this into the barrel. The egg white floats to the surface, cleaning, or fining the wine. Making it indeed glossy. Blood from cows, or in Hungary bulls was often also used. Today, filters with fine mesh can do the same job. This wine is very well made, a rich, glossy rush of strawberry and cracked black pepper notes over a lifted, bright finish. A well priced, easy drinking delight.
