©2007, The Birmingham Post
It's a fact that, 30 years ago, half the total wine production in Bordeaux was white. Unfashionable and overlooked, nowadays, red wine dominates accounting for 89% of the share, with dry white representing a mere 8%.
The heartland of white wine production is the Graves, immediately south of the city of Bordeaux, and Entre-Deux-Mers located to the east, between the rivers Garonne and Dordogne. Traditionally, these areas created mass-produced cheap table wine, often sweetened for the British market. The style was generally regarded as flat, dull and sulphurous and, as demand has fallen, the growers increasingly turned to red wine production.
To create cheap wine, low-cost production methods are required. Within the Entre-Deux-Mers, closely planted vines were ripped out to accommodate heavy machinery, and the yield was increased to supplement the shortfall.
This is contrary to the basic rule that to fully ripen a crop you need to restrict yields, not increase them. Little wonder the Bordeaux consumer has turned to other sources.
As red became more popular, the vines were replanted, initially with Cabernet Sauvignon but, using the same production methods, the results were thin and harsh. Subsequently, the earlier ripening Merlot was introduced but, again, it is essential to rein in yields to maintain any semblance of quality.
The story of the Graves is similar. At one stage, the whites were made in old cement tanks without any temperature control. With poor hygiene, the wines were heavily sulphured, to keep them stable.
At the bottom end of the market, the competition is fierce. Warm climate regions such as South America, South Africa, etc, effortlessly produce ripe fruit, whereas temperate Bordeaux cannot. As prices hit rock bottom, producers can't invest, and so are forced to pursue the course of mediocrity.
Initially a red-only appellation created in 1987 in the northern section of the Graves, the one success story is Pessac-Leognan. The AOC contains the finest chateaux of the region, and can therefore maintain high prices. In fact, the whites from Domaine de Chevalier and Chateau Haut-Brion fetch higher prices than their reds, but this remains true for only a handful of properties.
Bordeaux is ideally situated to produce tangy, fresh whites effortlessly, but, regrettably, it doesn't. Perhaps the region is too obsessed with its reds, and many of the best white vineyards have been uprooted and lost.
Moreover, even though it's possible to make decent white wine to a recipe, not enough co-operatives or negociants appear to follow it. Within the co-operatives, too many members are supplying poor quality grapes, and the larger negociants are finding it difficult to source clean, well-made wines.
The sheer number of small-holdings in many ways is holding back progress, as they are preventing economies of scale. Thus Bordeaux, in terms of "branding", cannot compete with the volumes produced by New World competitors.
The only route to quality is a close association between the co-operatives and their members, or negociants and their vignerons. By providing the right advice, technical support and investment, standards will be raised. What Bordeaux can achieve is niche branding, of which Dourthe No. 1 is a prime example.
Generally, three grape varieties are employed for white Bordeaux. The most important is Semillon, which has citrus-lemon flavours and, with age, develops a rich waxiness. It can also take on more complexity when fermented in oak or blended with the other varieties. Semillon is particularly suitable for sweet wine.
The most fashionable is Sauvignon Blanc, but somehow in Bordeaux, it rarely achieves the exciting crisp, gooseberry flavours commonly found in the Loire. The third and least-known, is Muscadelle, used in small proportions for its floral perfume and spice.
Of course, the wine style will vary according to the proportion of varieties used, or if oak is employed during fermentation or maturation.
Recommendations include the following:
With the current fashion for dry white wine, sales of sweet white Bordeaux are particularly slow. This is a pity, for the AOCs Sauternes and Barsac, produce amongst the greatest and most complex wines found anywhere in the world.
What gives the wines their hallmark is "noble rot" or Botrytis Cinerea, which is effectively a benign fungus. The powdery spores grow on the grapeskins, sucking out moisture from the pulp, resulting in concentrated sugar levels with a potential of between 17.5 to 26% alcohol by volume.
I was recently sent a sample of Haut-Bergeron 2002, a lesser-known Sauternes estate, but currently on the rise. Primarily a Semillon blend, oak-aged for nearly two years, it has delicious flavours of honey, barley sugar, caramel, peach and apricot, seasoned with spice and vanilla. Despite its sweetness, it still stays fresh, always the hallmark of great wine. It's currently available at Asda for £9.56 (half bottle).