The reason that I got onto this subject is that for me last weekend was my Birthday, one of those birthdays where the actual number is irrelevant and not really worth celebrating that much. But I am more than happy to use a birthday as an excuse to eat out and use this excuse to its full extent, this year I did very well. My wife Katie came up with the first great idea, a trip to the Chimney House on Friday night. I’ve been looking forward to eating here for a while and rightly so.  The Chimney House is a warm relaxed place and although you can’t book a table we were in luck, well we got there early to make sure. The food is traditional and very good. You can tell the ingredients are top quality and are well taken care of by the chef. The wine list is a big plus with loads of wines by the glass at reasonable prices. This is a good find. - http://www.chimneyhouse.co.uk/ or 01273 556 708.

The next day I was lucky enough to meet up with some friends and go to Sam’s. Sam’s is at Paston place where the restaurant of the same name used to be. Sam’s represents all the things I love about going out for food. The design of the place is really welcoming and attractive, the staff are excellent and make you feel well looked after and not intrusive, which I can’t stand. The menu is backed up by a specials board and doesn’t fail to deliver. The wine list is a massive plus point. I usually get annoyed about restaurant wine lists, they are lazy at best and a complete rip off at worst. I’ve seen some Brighton restaurants doing a 10x mark up on wines before. I also hate it when I can’t get a decent range of wines by the glass which happened to me a while back at the Gingerman at Norfolk Sq. I only wanted a glass of red and was offered a choice of one wine, a Merlot - great. At Sam’s you get a fantastic range of wines by the glass all at good value for money and even the bottles are very well priced, certainly the best range and value I’ve seen anywhere in Brighton, and most other places I’ve been to. The food is also the best I’ve had in Brighton, no doubt about it. If there is one place in Brighton that I can wholly recommend this is it.

http://www.samsofbrighton.co.uk/ or 01273 676 222.

Clos Triguedina Vines on the banks of the Lot river

I visited Clos Tiguedina in September 2006 and you get a real sense of history and tradition all around. The vineyards are set in the most beautiful countryside next to the river Lot and although the original house and walls are still in place just as they were 200 years ago.

Clos Triguedina winemaker Jean-Luc Baldes

The more modern winery is filled with all the awards and trophies won over the years, a perfect balance of modern technologies working for traditional ways of winemaking and the results are not just one good wine but a range of great wines ready to drink now or to be kept and aged.

Alsace is one of the driest places is France, just not on the day that I was there.

When it comes to the viticulture they are extremely, for example they don’t use topping, a process where selected leaves and canes are cut with the aim of limiting competition between grapes. Instead they prune during the winter as a way on controlling the amount of foliage on the vines.

Domaine Schueller vineyards

The way that these wines are made, in very small amounts but with enormous care and attention to detail means that there will never be that many to buy. Schueller has a massive reputation in France as a natural winemaker, the Domaine Schueller Riesling Bildstoecklé is a perfect example of a great Alsace wine, bone dry with complex minerality.

Husseren Les Chateaux, home of Domaine Schueller & Fils

The wines are made from biodynamically grown grapes plus no added sugar, no filtration, and no fining.

Having been through these wine courses I can honestly say that a short amount of time spent learning about wine and, very importantly how to taste wine will bring you great rewards. It will make your wine drinking a much more meaningful and pleasurable experience and you will be able to make sense of Restaurant wine lists.

Being in the trade has meant that I’ve been to a number of tastings and also joined many wine courses, most have been good, they get the info across but to me the range of wines has been a let down. One course that I have hooked up with recently is the Brighton based GrapeTrain - www.grapetrain.co.uk. Having joined a class for an evening I can highly recommend this wine tasting course run by Lisa McNulty & Paula Gregory. Lisa is a WSET (Wine & Spirit Education Trust) recommended tutor and Paula has completed the WSET Advanced course. The courses are very well structured and the teaching style relaxed, the range and style of wines are impressive, they cross into organic and biodynamic too. The next exciting thing about the course is that once you have got to grips with the basics you have the chance to go and learn more with the GrapeTrain in Provence.

If you are looking for a wine tasting course in Brighton I can highly recommend this course if you want a taster of how to get to know wine a bit more in a informal atmosphere with folk that are just as into learning as you are. The class sizes are fairly small which makes it easier to get to know each other and have a laugh.

If you want more info just give Lisa or Paula a call - 01273 557589/01273 701475.

Me (in green top) and Jean-Marc on a tour of the Domaine Coston vinyards

Lavender, poppies, & herbs including mint grow wild amogst the vines help to support the natural balance between plant, soil, & insect.

I made the trip to visit Jean-Marc and David Coston in May 2007 and I was really glad I made the effort to go, not only are they really nice genuine guys but the set up is all about respecting the tradition of their family winemaking. The winery is the original building with crumbling walls and 40+ year old barrels and production is casrefully controlled and managed. They don’t make that much wine instead they focus on makeing the best wine they can from selected parcels of land.

Rows of very happy & healthy looking vines

Jean-Marc is so passionate about his vines and it shows 

When I tried this wine I was really impressed by how much wine you get for the money. It has such a refreshing finish that as soon as I finished the glass I wanted a re-fill. And that’s really all you can ask for a wine. For the price it’s the type of wine you can happily take to friends for dinner and feel quite pleased that you’ve introduced a very easy drinking wine that will be enjoyed but you’ve not paid the earth at the same time.

The vineyard is located in the area of Vaison-the-Roman, between Provence and the foot of the Alps. The soil benefits from where the argilo-limestones combine harmoniously with the freshness of the south facing slopes. The vineyard of 20 ha is planted with grenache, syrah, mourvedre, cinsault.

The natural fertility of the soil is supported by an organic contribution of humus and compost to preserve the potential of the grapes. The winemaking follows a natural process of using only naturally occurring yeasts, the temperature of the fermenting wine is controlled very carefully to maintain maximum extraction and concentration of flavours.

The wines are then bottled with very low levels of sulphites, but without the use of filtering or fining either by machine or animal product.

When I meet other natural winemakers and they ask who else I work with when I tell them they all know Pierre and Antoine and all give very high praise to their wines and the way that they make the wines.

Winter scene at Chateau Le Puy

Chateau Le Puy is one of the most respected and admired names in natural wine. I visited Francoise and Jean Pierre in September 2006 and was lucky enough to spend all afternoon walking around the vineyard and winery and sampling the wines dating back to the 70’s. The wines of Chateau Le Puy are so great because of the expertise and tradition applied in all stages of the process.

Grape Burst

From the long standing organic and bio-dynamic vineyards that produce the most natural grapes that are then passed into the hands of the oenological expertise of the Amoreau family, that has such a long history of making fine wines, the results are very special wines to be savored. When we talk about respecting the tradition of winemaking and the history and expertise handed down through the generations these are terms that belong to Chateau Le Puy.

Fred Cossard, the winemaker at Domaine Chassorney has been making natural wines all his working life. Most of the wine he makes is exported to the Japanese market where natural wines are hugely popular. The yields for each wine he makes are very small and so the wines tend to sell even before they have been bottled. The vineyards are scattered around the very pretty village of Saint Romain, located just beyond Auxey-Duresses, where the terrain starts to get more rugged and hilly. Fred Cossard also owns a small parcel of land at Nuits-Saint-Georges from which he makes the Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru “Clos des Argillières”, a fantastic Pinot Noir.

The grass between the rows of vines shows a healthy vines managed without the use of chemical pesticides.

Fred has set up his new winery just outside Saint Romain, in a beautiful woodland setting. The way he makes his wines is a very natural process from the grapes he grows to the vinification, no added chemicals, apart from a small amount of sulphite to keep the wine stable but still enabling the wine to develop naturally.

Fred has always made wine this way and his experience and knowledge of natural wines is unique. Meeting Fred was a great experience, and taught me a lot about the techniques he uses in order to avoid using additives. I hope to introduce more of these wines in the future, once he has more to sell!

Catherine & Dominique Derain are the epitome of what natural wine making is all about. From the first year of production back in 1998 they have set out their beliefs in organic and biodynamic viticulture and the natural winemaking practice.

As you can imagine at this time these beliefs went against the norm for winemakers but they stuck to their beliefs and it looks like now their hardwork and efforts are being recognized at the highest levels. I met Catherine & Dominique in September 2006, it was a very clear autumn morning and all the vineyards around Saint Aubin had turned into a spectrum of colour from yellow through to pink and dark reds. The small parcels of land are managed with the long term health of the soils and vines in mind.

Great colours in the vineyard - a beautiful place to spend some time.

The winery is located in a very old Presbytery and has perfect cellar conditions. Dominique explained how he used to work as a cooper (barrel maker) but always wanted to make his own wine in a natural way. After studying viticulture at Beaune, where he met Catherine, they both decided to buy some vineyards and realise their dreams.

The cellars were very impresive, well managed and with a sense of calmness and tranquility.

The thing that really impressed me about Dominique and Catherine is that they are not scared to take risks, and experiment with wine. Even if it means they don’t always maximise the production each year, what’s more important is that they are always looking for perfection with the land that they have the with the wines that they make. A successful vintage is about all the elements of their work coming together such a harmonised way that is expressed in the taste. This is what makes all the effort worth it.

Each small parcel of land is treated with great care, no chemicals here.

Vines facing the ancient city of Troyes - the former capitol of the Champagne region

Emmanuel is so passionate about the Champagne he makes, you can’t fail to be impressed by the amount of time and the attention to detail that go into the process. The prise de mousse phase, this adds the fine bubbles to the still wine, can take anywhere between 1 - 3 months, some producers will reduce this time to 1 month, the result being a more gassy wine with less concentrated bubbles. Emmanuel takes more than 3 months to ensure a much smoother and concentrated mousse. On top of this he also uses a two phase process for producing the mousse, in between phases the wine is returned to the barrel. This adds time and cost to the process but makes for a much higher quality product. Emmanuel also uses very low doses of sulphites in the Champagnes, 20 mg/l in the final bottling is very low when you consider that the limit for white wines is 210mg/l, as per EU law.

No modern factory equipment here, just the original press