Chanzy reviewed as one of the Top 25 Producers in the Cote Chalonnaise.

timatkin.com

Christy Canterbury MW has been visiting Burgundy every year since 2004, often spending several months getting under the skin of this ancient winemaking region.

So a top 25 ranking from the 100s of exceptional producers in the region is worth a second look.

Ten years ago serving burgundy when having someone over for dinner might have been considered the norm, nowadays you’re more likely to be asked if you’re hosting angel-investors who are picking up the tab.

Drinking Chanzy is bit more like the old days; their Rully vineyards stretch for about four kilometers to where it adjoins the Mercurey vineyards. Pinot Noir is in the minority but have a beautiful liveliness to them.

Clos de Bellecriox faces gently north and is almost always the last vineyard to be picked. With record breaking temperatures affecting the region, this is a significant advantage.

The 2021 vintage has a tight structure, but retains that classic seductive mix of red and black fruits that defies its  £30 price point. As it matures it should develop nicely, we think this has lots of potential over the next five years – but it’s worth highlighting that part of the joy of Chanzy, is that it produces wines that are made to be drunk and not cellared by angel-investors.

The offer: This is to be a delightful wedding wine for one of our customers, so I’ve added a couple of extra cases on our delivery from France that will save you about £50 a case on the shelf price.

Signature Old Vine White 2021 Offer

This was one of the most sought after wines at our Christmas tasting. The new 2022 vintage lands soon and with quite a price rise in store we’ve thrown our arms around the remaining 2021 vintage – which those of you who tried it in December will testify, is nothing short of brilliant and another six months in bottle has only improved it.

Founded by Chris and Andrea Mullineux in 2007, this winery is now one of the most lauded in South Africa. Named ‘Winery of the Year’ five times by the Platter Guide in 2014, 2016, 2019, 2020 and 2023, Mullineux were also Tim Atkin MW’s ‘South African Winemakers of the Year’ in 2016. They chose the town of Riebeek-Kasteel, just west of Malmesbury in the Swartland, for its old vineyards on granite and schist soils, reasoning that, with such quality fruit, they would be able to make outstanding wines. It is an understatement to say they have been proved right.

Mullineux Signature, Old Vines Swartland White Blend 2021

£159 per six – very limited stocks before the new 2022 vintage arrives RRP £33.49SAVE OVER £40 per case

As always with great wines, the story starts in the vineyard. The Swartland is warm and dry in the summer and benefits from a cooling afternoon breeze from the Atlantic Ocean, which borders the Swartland to the West. Disease pressure is low, which, in turn, means spraying is kept to a minimum. While the trend in much of the rest of the world is to reintroduce native plants to vineyards to ensure a more balanced ecosystem, the fashion for monoculture in the 1970s and 1980s bypassed the Swartland. As a result, most of the vineyards that Chris and Andrea own and lease are planted amid native species like fynbos. These provide a home for native insects, which in turn act as predators of other insects that can damage the vines. Once again, this enables spraying to be kept to a minimum.

The Old Vines White is sourced from seven different low-yielding vineyards in the Swartland, with 62% Chenin Blanc being supplemented by 10% Clairette Blanche, 9% Viognier, 7% Grenache Blanc, 6% Semillon Gris, and 6% Verdelho. 

The winemaking is style is whole bunch pressing and fermentation in barrel with 100% malolactic. It is aged for 11 months in a combination of old French oak 500-litre barrels and 2,000-litre foudre. 

21 Year Old Gran Reserva ONLY £22.99

Very rarely do wines like this come along. Yes Gran Reserva Rioja is not exactly a rarity but one with twenty one years of bottle age can either be rather top heavy on price, or found tucked at the back of wine rack from a vintage that at best is ten years too old.

So when we found a pristine parcel of 2001 Gran Reserva that had been carefully stored at the winery in Rioja we crossed our fingers that the wine had held up.

As soon as we saw that classic tawny colour and the intense aroma’s of dried fruit, liquorice, cocoa and coffee jump out of the glass. When we sipped on the silky tannins – full bodied and delicate, we felt a little crestfallen. A wine of this age and quality was going to be £50 a bottle and destined for the instagram.

So when Alex who represents Finca Manzanos in the UK told us, that the aim of the winery was to showcase the potential of their wines with this particular vintage and therefore they would sell the 2001 as if it was their current vintage – We took the bait hook line a sinker.

If you are looking for a show stopping wine. Perhaps you’ve had or have a 21st anniversary this year. Then I urge you to grab a six pack. As soon as word gets around about this parcel it will sell out and like all the great wines, it can never be repeated.

Today I bought a tree snake

After many weeks of Sam talking excitedly about Juliette’s vineyard and wine project, and then linking this to wine Non Fungible tokens (NFTs), cryptocurrency and the Blockchain, I still had no real understanding of what most of these things were. Finally, after much discussion, I now believe that I may have developed a basic understanding of these things and how they may work.

For me, the simplest way of viewing an NFT is to think of it as a trading card or collectible sticker, much like the ones children collect/trade in the playground. The rarer the card/sticker, the more valuable it becomes in trading terms. The obvious differences between these cards and with the wine NFTs are that they are digital, and only 600 will exist (representing one of Juliette’s actual vines). Proof of ownership of the one original NFTs is provided by the Block chain – think of this as an excel spreadsheet which authenticates and irrefutably records the transfer and ownership of the registered NFT.

So, back to the trading cards. You may be questioning why anyone would seek ownership of a digital picture of a vine – I know I did! Again, for me it really helped to think of it in terms of a game, such as Monopoly, in which the paper money could represent the cryptocurrency used to purchase trading cards as you land on them – or in our case, Sam offering you the opportunity to buy an NFT vine as they are released/created (minted). Just as cards are traded, the NFT can then be exchanged for wine (in May once it is released), or kept and added to, much like players buy cards to complete their sets, the more ‘sets’ you own, the more valuable they may become. Once all are sold, creating scarcity, the perceived value may increase and so the game goes on. Think of the wine produced as rent from the houses linked to your trading card/NFT. The more you own, the more wine you have access to. Just like in the game, if you get bored you can choose to cash in (for wine) and leave – or alternatively you can choose to play another round (pass go) and become part of the next vintage/wine story, adding more NFTs to your collection, along the way.

Now for the clever part. Let’s imagine that Juliette’s vineyard is only a small part of the game (Monopoly board); that year on year the board continues to grow, as other similar and exciting wine projects (think Gutters and Stars and Flint perhaps) are incorporated. Now your potential access is not limited to Juliette’s future wine; you have potential access theirs too, by purchasing other NFTs to add to your collection, in just the same way. As you go around the board for a third, fourth round etc, you can now swap/sell your NFTs for a mixed case of new and exciting wines.

The final question that you may ask yourself, is why Sam is doing this now? To put it simply, making wine is not cheap. It requires many hours of love and labour; alongside expertise, equipment, bottle, label and clasp (not forgetting the advance duty payment of £2.33 +VAT per bottle). Having covered these costs themselves for the first two vintages (and sold out), Sam and Juliette now feel that given the quality of the East Anglian harvest, the wine produced this year will be the best they have made yet. Through the purchasing of NFTs you are not only becoming part of the ‘game’, and injecting a small amount of cash; but are becoming part of a community project – a wine making story. The NFTs being released as photos, or digital art, or wine labels, are a historical record of the journey of a vineyard and a wine making process – a process which to date has taken 17 years. Being part of this project enables you to walk in the vineyard, taste wine from the tank and become part of the celebration at the Vendange party. You may even fancy making a record of the wines that you drink through an NFT.

So, after all this explanation, I had to try it for myself – and it was easy. I have my sights set on an NFT of myself, my daughter and my father picking grapes at the very first harvest, to start my collection. Unfortunately, these are yet to be minted.

If you would like to keep up to date with new releases as they are minted, head over to momint.so

and follow ExperienceWine. 

And that is how I ended up with a Tree Snake….

Written by: Lisa