Give it up for the world’s most extreme winemakers
Every wine merchant has their hero or heroine – not necessarily their best sellers but the wines and winemakers they most admire. These are often viticulture’s unsung heroes – small producers who work with new techniques or revive old ones, sometimes toiling in the harshest terrain, where machines aren’t viable and human power is the only option. This can result in unique interpretations of classic grapes and also some of the rarest heritage varieties in the world.
“My idea of heroic wines would be those made from places that required heroic viticulture, either vines grown on incredibly steep slopes such as Ribeira Sacra, Douro and Mosel, or from climates that are extreme, including Etna and Valle d’Aosta,” says Dough Wregg of Les Caves de Pyrene. An example? “The vineyards of Arretxea are on steep, terraced slopes and on the other side of the border, in Roussillon, I have seen ancient vines that seem to grow straight out the schist rocks.”
There are winemakers in the valleys of Tibet. In Tahiti, the winemakers at Domaine Auroy are 3,000 miles from the nearest continental landmass. Norway’s Lerkekåsa is the northernmost commercial vineyard in the world, while an experimental vineyard growing Zilga grapes has been set up even further north at the Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant in Finland.
Winemakers have been harvesting grapes at Bodega Colomé Altura Máxima, 3,000m above sea level, since Argentina’s oldest winery was established in 1831. Viñedos Don Leo is another extreme altitude vineyard in Parras, Mexico, while the Azorean Associacao Dos Agricultores De Chavia makes wine from grapes grown on a volcanic crater on Fogo, a central Atlantic island in the Cape Verde archipelago.
Germany’s Von Winning is the hero of many. Founded in 1849 by Dr Deinhard, the estate was revived in 2007 by the late Achim Niederberger and is now run by Stephan Attmann and Andreas Hutwohl. Using no herbicides, synthetic fertilisers or copper, its Sauvignon Blanc 2017’s vines are planted at a high vine density – 9,500 vines per hectare, as opposed to the typical sub-5,000. This creates competition amongst the vines, forcing the roots to grow deep, naturally reducing yields. Its Pinot Noir Royale 2018 is a truly heroic wine, representing revenge, retribution and guts.
“My favourite ‘extreme’ winemakers would be Integrale in the Italian Dolomites; Ataraxia Hemel-en-Aarde in South Africa; and Graci in the foothills of Mount Etna, Sicily.” says Hannah Van Susterne of Bancroft Wines.
Jamie Matthewson, wine buying manager at Waitrose, nominates Hampshire’s Leckford Estate and the employee-owned South African Great Heart as his hero winemakers. Heart is the staff empowerment project of Mullineux & Leeu Family Wines, known for their multi-award winning Leeu Passant and Mullineux wineries.
Aimed at improving the livelihoods of those who work for the company as well as their families, the Great Heart wine brand is collectively owned by the winery staff, and a portion of all sales under the label go directly to them.
“For me, a hero is a wine or winemaker that everyone looks to as the benchmark,” says Grant Berry of Yapp Wines. “It’s a wine that has longevity and by a combination of vintage, terroir and winemaking sits head and shoulders above the rest of the appellation. It’s a wine which other producers admire wholeheartedly. Thankfully, the choice of heroes is widening.”