Amanda Barnes

Category: Wine

All things vino

  • Beyond Chateau Musar… Lebanese wine

    Written for Wine-Searcher

    Lebanese wine has been on the radar for some time, but it’s only recently that the reputation of this ancient viticultural region has evolved beyond Chateau Musar.

    One of the oldest wine-producing countries in the world, with records traceable to 7000 B.C., Lebanon‘s rich history features the Phoenicians and Romans as well as claims that Qana (Cana) in the south of the country is where Jesus miraculously turned water into wine. Under the Ottoman Empire (1299–1922), winemaking was restricted to church use only and viticulture languished until Catholic priests of the Jesuit order replanted vines in 1857.

    In the late 20th century, the Lebanese wine industry was all but killed off by 15 years of civil war. Only the celebrated Chateau Musar continued production amid the fighting and shelling. Its amazing story and acclaimed wines have traveled far, but it is the rapid growth of wine production in the past 10 years – when the number of Lebanese wineries has grown from five to 40 – that is changing the country’s vinous reputation.

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  • Pinotsaurus: Pinot Noir and Dinosaurs in Neuquen

    Pinotsaurus: Pinot Noir and Dinosaurs in Neuquen

    I looked at the grey stony structure. Almost the same size as my entire body, this was just a single vertebra of an entire spine – just one piece of the enormous puzzle that makes up one of the largest creatures that ever walked the earth – the 90 million year old fossil of an Argentinosaurus. Imagining it makes you think so hard that the back of your skull itches.

    If you do have the itch for dinosaurs, NeuquĂ©n really is the place to go. An unassuming city, most people pass through it. It is a transport hub and is called the ‘gateway to Patagonia’ because it basically connects the deep south to everywhere else – Buenos Aires, Mendoza or nearby ski and mountain resort town Bariloche. Few tourists venture beyond the bus station doors or airport runway. That is a real shame. Because NeuquĂ©n has some of the richest paleontology sites in the world and some pretty interesting wine to keep you company in the evening too. With the massive investment pouring in from oil refineries, the city is becoming more and more affluent and is one to watch.

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  • A look through the drinking glass with Riedel…

    ImageWritten for The Vines of Mendoza

    We all know that the temperature a wine is served at can have a huge impact on how it tastes, and also that some wines need longer time to ‘breathe’ than others, but I guess I have never really thought too much about the glass I drink it through.

    I prefer a big glass but I’ve always thought that was more to do with wanting a bit more quantity rather than improving the quality of a wine, and I don’t smirk too much drinking from plastic cups. But that has all changed after a Masterclass with Maximilian Riedel, eleventh generation glass maker and President of Riedel (aka ‘The Wine Glass Company’).

    I was deeply intrigued and perhaps a little bit skeptical going into a tasting with three wines and six different wine glasses last week at the London Wine Fair.

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  • Dispatch from the Frontline

    Written for Wine-Searcher.com

    Lucas tears at the vine stalk; dry leaves crunch, stems crackle and grapes bleed under the force of his hands, but the stalk won’t snap off. The extra effort makes his tired arms shake, his bent legs cramp and another trickle of sweat roll down from his sun cap to the spine of his neck. It’s 36°C (96.8°F). He pulls his scissors out of his side pocket and cuts the bunch of black berries, cupping it in his hand and dropping it into the bucket below piled with grapes. He grabs another bunch. Cut. Drop. Cut. Drop. Cut. Drop.

    He sees Juan next to him ripping off bunches two at a time with his hands. It’s twice as quick, but Lucas got told off by the vineyard manager yesterday for not using his scissors, and as the harvest comes to an end and work opportunities dry up he doesn’t want to risk losing a day’s work. He needs to take money home.

    It has been a tough three months of harvest and by now Lucas’s back is agony, not helped by the hard floor he sleeps on each night. Last night he was hoping he’d get more sleep but Mario woke him and the others up as he stumbled into the house steaming drunk at 3 a.m., waking everyone except the one he intended to arouse – his half-deaf, snoring wife, Maria-Lucia.

    “House” is an overstatement for the place where Lucas lives. It is a squalid, mud-brick shack in rural Ugarteche. When he arrived in Mendoza from his home town in Bolivia three months ago, he had a contact his brother had given him for somewhere cheap to live during the harvest. At first, it was just him and six others in the three-bedroomed “house,” but now more than 15 bodies are crammed in and sometimes the men bring back girls. Sweaty, musty, fatigued bodies lie on overlapping mattresses and blankets, with creaking hammocks above.

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  • Hey Presto! A Winemaker’s Box of Magic Tricks

    I guess namad_scientist_final_smallively I always thought wine was very simple to make: pick some grapes, let them ferment and hey presto! You have wine. I figured it was probably discovered in some backwater farmland in Ancient Greece sometime when a forgetful farmer left his basket of picked grapes out in the sun too long and under the watchful eye of an imperturbable goat, the juice gradually turned into wine – a discovery to the delight of the Greek family that Sunday afternoon and to future wine drinkers around the world.

    How wine was actually ‘discovered’ is a mystery, but what we do know is that people have been making it since at least 6000BC in Georgia. The oldest winery found so far dates back to 4000BC in Armenia and has relics of wine presses and fermentation vats. If they were that advanced 6,000 years ago, chances are the ‘discovery’,with my goat as the first eye witness, was long before then.

    Something we perhaps neglect to realise though is that winemakers have also been adding things to their wine for a couple of thousand years too. We are often misled to think that 100 years ago, everything was ‘natural’ – there were no chemicals added to food or drinks and that using ‘additives’ is a nasty development since the chemical revolution and McDonalisation of society. In fact, winemakers have always used additives in wine – it was developed simultaneously as an integral part of winemaking. Even the Romans would throw in lots of sulphur to their wine.

    One of the biggest clues that wine is not just fermented grape juice is when you see labels on bottles stating that they are vegan, or even vegetarian. What? Go back a minute. Vegan? Vegetarian? Why wouldn’t it be? Animal products in wine?! This is where you read a bit further and see: ‘contains milk’ or ‘contains eggs’ which can be pretty confusing for new wine drinkers who thought they were just drinking grape juice.

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  • The Wine Routes of Uruguay

    Uruguay is the little country between Argentina and Brazil on the coast. It’s not Paraguay, and they are separate countries. Sounds patronizing, but its surprising how many Uruguayans will tell you anecdotes of how most westerners they meet actually have no idea where this little gem of a country is.  And if you look at any bottle of Uruguayan wine, they almost all put a map of South America on the bottle, highlighting where their country is.

    If you are travelling in the Southern Cone, don’t miss it out. Yes – it’s organized, it’s clean, people go to bed at a reasonable hour and public transport runs on time, but that doesn’t make it boring. With Christmas and New Year’s celebrations taking the form of huge cider throwing fights, endless fireworks and lots of parties, the year gets off to a good start here, but the best time to visit the capital city of Montevideo has to be Carnival in February and March. The longest Carnival in the world, with 40 days of theatre, music, murgas and candombe – it even gives Rio de Janeiro a run for its money.

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  • 24 Hours in the Life of a Winemaker

    24 Hours in the Life of a Winemaker

    winemaker_csmallAlthough Mendoza celebrates with fiestas and siestas during harvest, winemakers are at their busiest time of the year. Amanda Barnes writes 24 hours in the life of winemaker Brennan Firth. **Article from Wine Republic(www.wine-republic.com)

    April 25th: 12am

    It’s midnight. The winery is much cooler, but I’m still sweating like a pig. I am running around like a bit of a wild man, monitoring tanks, tasting juice, taking temperatures and breaking down the caps. I have seven full tanks at the moment and the caps (grapes risen to the top) need breaking every five to seven hours. At this early point in fermentation the must is more like a thick soup – I lift the plunger high over my head and force it down into the stiff mound of blackish purple berries. It’s like kneading dough. I inhale the heady aromas: bananas, tropical fruit and the reminiscence of nail polish remover.

    Jake (my intern) is washing down all the tools, pumps, equipment and the floor. I laugh as his head nods and eyes roll and he drops off into momentary sleep, only to be rudely awakened by spraying his own feet with the cold water.

    1.45am
    Tanks are ready, the place is clean and prepped for the morning and Jake is most definitely half asleep. We haul our exhausted sweaty bodies into the car. I don’t like to leave my grapes unattended for even a moment but I’m running on less than three hours sleep and have to pick the Malbec in the morning. I put on some loud music to keep us awake and we hit the road.

    2am
    Home. Cold beer, fag and a rather stale ham and cheese sandwich from yesterday. I stink, but I forget about showering and roll into bed.

    4.30am
    Alarm clock rings. Excited as a child on Christmas morning, I get up. My body doesn’t want to but my mind is reeling, desperate to get harvesting. Being part of the pick is really important to me. I’ve been tasting the grapes every day for the last month or two, and I know today is the day I want my Malbec harvested. You basically have to chew the hell out the grape to know when it’s ready – when the seed is no longer bitter and the grape not yet a raisin. Yesterday the grapes were prime, so today is the moment. This is it.I boil the kettle and bang on Jake’s door, I hear a grumble from inside, I bang again, I can hear his leg thud to the ground – mission accomplished.
    We head out to the car. Checklist: Jake, thermos and mate [highly caffeinated tea] and very loud rock music to keep us awake.

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  • Malbec vs Cot

    malbec_vs_ct_smallMalbec made Argentine wine famous, but its true French roots are lesser known on this side of the Atlantic. Amanda Barnes goes in search of the original Malbec – in Cahors, France before indulging in a luxury tour of its adopted home here in Mendoza. **Article taken from Wine Republic

    The French Connection

    Coming from Argentina, the first thing that really strikes you about Cahors is how green it is. Emerald green fields run into sloping lime green lawns with brooding pine green forests above –this is a very lush landscape. And typically on the day we arrive, it’s raining.

    Nestled in the middle of Southern France, almost equidistant between France’s two coast lines, the Lot region has a privileged position in the heart of food and wine country between Bordeaux and Provence. So it is no surprise that the local gastronomy is one of the main attractions for visitors of Cahors, as well as the stunning medieval architecture, multitudes of resplendent and crumbling chateaus and a host of outdoor activities.

    Arriving at the peak of summer, the city centre is a hub of activity (when the sun eventually does come out) with people wandering the walled medieval town, meandering alongside the river, gawking at France’s best preserved medieval bridge, and indulging in the local cuisine. This is the land of foie gras, duck, truffles and saffron; it would be easy to just spend a week here eating but as much as my stomach would like otherwise – I came to Cahors not just to glut but to get out and see where Malbec came from.

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