Finally!! After much gnashing and wailing, we finally launch our new website. This is the latest and best version of the Independent Wine Monthly and both Emma and I are thrilled with the new look. (Thank you, Ben!) Indeed we have made a pact to update as frequently as possible and the ease of the content management system means that we should be able to add articles instantly.
I have had plenty of time by myself this week (waiting for planes and in the quiet of the exam room) to think about why the IWM site is so important to Emma and I. We both decided early on that we didn't want to join the ranks of bloggers but take a more studied approach to tasting and reviewing wine. It takes a good deal of effort to set up the blind tasting, write our notes, firstly separately then discuss together and finally score each wine in turn. Compiling each issue of the IWM takes time.
We don't regard reviewing as a throwaway activity, something to be done in an instant. Each wine we are sent is the product of someone's time, effort and hopefully passion. It is only fair and honest to taste each wine in a considered way. This is why we always write up each wine we taste, irrespective of the score we award. To only review wines that reach a certain quality level is disingenuous.
In a world where wine reviewing seems to be taken over by tweeters and bloggers I'd like to think we bring some credibility to our work by sticking to the tried and tested formula; taste a wine, discuss it and then write a full note to which we put our names. Blog sites are often hijacked by anonymous posters who put up snippy remarks, not having the courage to publish under their real names. Tweeting is as bad, reducing wine (the enjoyment, drinking or reviewing of) to glib remarks or one-line sound bites.
Having said all that, unfortunately I haven't been able to brew up another article until now because I have been busy teaching the final WSET Advanced class here in Wellington. A full class of students, all good fun and really interested in wine, which makes teaching much easier. A raft of fortified wines today (high spot? Warre's 2003 looking very good but my favourite the Hidalgo Manzanilla - a really fresh bottle). This afternoon the formal examination, practical and theory. A palpable sense of relief once it was over.
Last night I met up with Stephen Wong, wine buyer for the Matterhorn, to have dinner. Totally unexpectedly he opened two absolutely stunning wines.
2000 Puligny Montrachet Clavoillons, Domaine Leflaive: incredibly tight and unforthcoming on the nose, even at 9 years old. We both wondered if there was perhaps a bit a corkiness flattening the aroma, but the palate opened up to reveal seamless fruit, tight with a taut mineral spine. Oak, but very much in the background; cedar and nutmeg. An intriguing and thought provoking wine.
1999 Ruchottes Chambertin, Domaine Armande Rousseau: Stephen served this wine blind and it was one of those times when I wish I had been a bit more confident in my assessment. Very cool when poured, as soon as the wine warmed it revealed such perfume that it could only have been from a top domaine and appellation. The perfume was intense - not opulent - but complex and intricate. The wine just got better and better as it opened up. Whilst it was a delightful treat to drink a magnificent grand cru, we were only just starting to see it hitting its straps. Ideally it needs even longer to really blossom.
Browse articles by author or topic