Nothing can touch red Burgundy at its best

Ballymaloe Kerrygold Litfest 2015

I have just returned from the Ballymaloe Kerrygold Litfest 2015. As usual I have this lovely warm feeling of goodwill to mankind in general, engendered by the wonderful events and interesting people I came across over the weekend. I know some people view this as an elitist navel-gazing event; all I can say is they have obviously never been there. The Litfest has a laid-back welcoming atmosphere, with no burly security guards, no VIP areas, and no helicopters flying in; just a great range of speakers and if you can’t afford that, an amazing array of free or cheap fringe events (once you pay your €5 entrance fee) in the Big Shed and the surrounding gardens.

I started on the early morning shift at 9.30 on Saturday morning, with a group of colleagues from the Irish press, each of us presenting a wine we thought offered value, and discussing what value actually meant when buying wine. I get very frustrated with wine drinkers who think that a wine must cost less than €10 to be considered great value. In fact, as most of this goes straight to the government in taxes, frequently it means the worst possible value. A wine at €25 can be great value if it tastes as good as a €50 bottle. As it happened three out of four panelists chose wines at €14-15 (mine was the brilliant El Castro de Valtuille Joven, search the irishtimes.com for details) and one opted for a €24 bottle.

The Beauty of Blending

I took part in five tasting/discussions in total, and therefore never made it down to the cookery school to watch any demonstrations. I did get to a great whiskey tasting by whisky author Dave Broom, Tomás Clancy of the Sunday Business Post and Brian Nation, master distiller for Irish distillers in Midleton, and a wonderful presentation of beers from the Brooklyn Brewery by brewmaster, writer and raconteur Garret Oliver. If you haven’t tasted the Brooklyn brewery beers, I strongly suggest that you do so. Tomás and I saved our best wines to last – on Sunday we presented The Beauty of Blending, and a nice line up of wines; Tio Pepe En Rama (Thanks Gonzalez Byass), Bollinger Special Cuvée (Findlaters), Taylors 20 year old (thanks to Chris Forbes of Taylors) and Coyam (O’Briens). We raided the Ballymaloe cellar for some Ch. Léoville-Barton 2004 and Vieux Telegraphe 2007. Proof if needed that the ancient art of blending is all about improving quality.In fact you could argue that just about every wine produced is a blend of some sort.

Sorachi Ace

Alice Feiring in action

I went to a presentation of natural wines by American author Alice Feiring, who champions this very controversial style of winemaking – organic or biodynamic winemaking, low or no sulphur, no cultured yeasts, and very little else added. She pointed out there are 72 permitted additives in winemaking many of which can drastically change the taste of a wine. I enjoyed two of the four wines, and disliked the others – a draw? I also took part in a tasting with Alice and others on terroir in wine, and another early morning session with some very bleary-eyed panelists (and audience) on whether wine is going out of fashion. There was a representative from each form of alcohol production, and it could have ended in fisticuffs. Maybe we were all too tired for fighting as it passed off peacefully.

On Saturday night I attended an amazing dinner prepared by the team at OX restaurant in Belfast. If you haven’t been there yet, make it a priority. The food is inventive, complex and gorgeous. See the menu below. The halibut, lamb, cheese and artichoke ice cream will stay in my memory for a long time, as will the Cypres de Climens. I had John Bowman sitting on one side and Rory Gallagher’s brother (and former manager) on the other, so the conversation swung from history to politics, to music and my attendance (as a schoolboy) at Gallagher’s gig in the Carlton Cinema on O’Connell Street in the mid-seventies.

All of the above were great fun, but I was probably happiest wandering around the Big Shed and other fringe areas, meeting friends and talking to stallholders. I bought some weird and wonderful seeds from Brown Envelope Seeds, some organic lettuce seedlings, a few bottles of amazing flavoured waters from Rebel Foods, oolong tea from Niks, coffee from Badger & Dodo, chocolate from Wilkie’s, lunch from Iyers Café (great dhosas) and a magical mystery lunch from Slow Food Northern Ireland. I tried Mr. Jeffares delicious flavoured blackcurrant juices, Craigies cider, smoked water (?) at Ummera Smokehouse, and much, much more. Several member of the drinks press tasted and danced long into the night – all in a day’s work. Bring on Litfest 2016. Next up Sheridan’s Food Festival next weekend!

David Trafford – de Trafford Wines & Sijnn

We don’t often see South African winemakers in this country. They seem to have forgotten about us or possibly we have neglected them. I brought this up with winemaker David Trafford, one of the leading lights of South African winemaking. I think we agreed to share the blame equally. But as Trafford says, ‘we do have quite a complicated story to tell and we should embrace that. Argentina is beautiful, but the whole country tells pretty much the same story. Our wines are much more individual depending on where they are grown.’ He has a point; the climates and soils of the Cape are very diverse, and are suited to a number of different grape varieties. Even one grape, such as Syrah, can produce a wide range of styles, varying from lean and elegant to rich and full-bodied. As outlined in the Irish Times some time ago, Dr. Eilís Cryan of Kinnegar Wines seems to be on a one-woman mission to bring us the finest that South Africa produces, including the Trafford wines.

I really enjoyed the Trafford tasting; not only were the wines excellent and full of character, but David Trafford was an interesting and very open speaker. For instance he argues that the importance of older vines is overdone. ‘Some varieties need vine age more than others. Mourvèdre is one; but you can get great Shiraz after three years – remember that the first Côte Rotie La Turque in the 1970’s was made from three year old vines. Cabernet needs a few years, but it is already quite a concentrated grape, and the very old ones are not always the best.’ Not something you often hear from a producer.

The two Trafford houses are de Trafford and Sijnn (pronounced ‘sane’). De Trafford is the family estate, on the hillside looking down on the heart of Stellenbosch. Trafford trained as an architect before moving to London in 1984 to avoid conscription into the South African army. He became interested in wine, and worked the 1989 vintage in St. Emilion. It was there he realised he says ‘that winemaking is not that difficult if you have good vineyards and look after them’. They had always made hobby wine on the family farm, so on his return he set out to become a red wine producer. The first vines were Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Following a trip to the Loire, they added a Chenin Blanc to the range, but sourced it from neighbour’s vineyards – ‘there are so many older vineyards in Stellenbosch there was no point in planting’ says Trafford. ‘There is more competition now, but it is still easy to access very good quality grapes.’

The second estate, Sijnn, was founded in 2000. ‘We are 40 kilometres from the next vineyard. There is a great diversity of terroir in the rolling mountains – both soil and climate. We are 15 kilometres from the coast, at 400 metres, giving a cooler climate with moderate rainfall, rolled stones over shale with good water-holding capacity. Most of the grapes go into two wines, a red blend and a white. The white is mainly Chenin, with around 15% Viognier (there is Roussanne, Marsanne, Verdelho and Assyrtiko to come). The red is an eclectic blend of roughly 40% Syrah with 25% Touriga Nacional, 20% Mourvèdre, 12% Trincadeira, and a little Cabernet. Trafford brought along tank samples of each variety from the 2013 vintage for us to taste as well as the final blend. This was a fascinating exercise; it is rare to be able to do a tasting like this, particularly with such unusual grapes. The Trincadeira was fresh and floral, the Mourvèdre more structured, the Touriga perfumed concentrated and elegant. The Syrah was the star for me, beautifully savoury and meaty with tobacco and dark fruits, while retaining a real elegance. The assemblage was proof, if needed, that blending can produce a wine that is greater than the constituent parts.

The winemaking appears straightforward. They have only ever used wild yeasts, they have never filtered; fermentation and maturation is done in a mixture of 400 – 700 litre barrels. The wines were quite amazing in their ability to combine relatively high alcohol with a real freshness and elegance. This was evident in the wines of both estates; we tried the Elevation 393, perfectly balanced with an alcohol level of 15.53%!

De Trafford Chenin Blanc 2012

€23.50

Nicely textured, medium-bodied wine with real interest: lightly floral with citrus aromas; plump melons and honey, with some toasty oak on the palate, underpinned by good acidity.

Available from Kinnegarwines.com

Sijnn White 2012

84% Chenin Blanc, 16% Viognier

€25

An incredibly seductive wine with creamy rich ripe peach fruits and custard, subtle toasted nuts and a good finish. There is a good clean mineral acidity to keep it from straying into to far into lush territory. A delicious and complex wine.

Available from Kinnegarwines.com

Sijnn Red 2010

(41% Syrah, 27% Tourgia Nacional, 18% Mourvèdre, 10% Trincadeira, 4% Cabernet.

14.5%

€25-30

Wild dark fruits on nose and palate; perfectly ripe with a strong mineral element. Refreshing smooth and powerful with very good dry length. A very impressive wine that evolves in the glass.

Available from Kinnegarwines.com

Sijnn Syrah 2011

13.94%

Elegant dark fruits on the nose, showing through again on the palate with a lean refinement. Some spicy oak showing through a little, but the overall impression is of a beautiful complex elegant wine.

De Trafford Blueprint 2012

14.76%

€28.50

Made from a neighbour’s vineyard, this is a very impressive wine. Sleek hugely concentrated loganberry fruits overlaid with mint, herbs and pepper. Amazingly for a wine of this power, it retains a lovely clean refreshing acidity. This is Platter’s wine of the year in 2015.

Available from Kinnegarwines.com

De Trafford Elevation 393 2010

15.53%

€45

A richly fruity nose leads on to a broad palate of blackcurrants and forest fruits, with good firm tannins on a lingering finish. I could not believe this wine had an alcohol level of over 15%; it drinks like 13.5%!

Available from Kinnegarwines.com