Chris | Postcards From Here and There

RAW Wine Fair

The RAW Wine Fair returned to London earlier this month for a two day event featuring over 160 producers of organic or biodynamic wines. These are minimum intervention wines which are truly authentic and have a real sense of place. Speakers Corner featured a number of talks and tastings led by the producers themselves or industry experts. For a break from the hustle and bustle of the main tasting room I was lucky to attend Understanding Bubbles, a tasting of six sparkling wines led by Patrick Schmitt MW. It was a lovely opportunity to compare such very different wines and the quality was very high indeed.

Ancre Hill. Triomphe. Pet Nat. Ancre Hill is a family owned vineyard in Monmouthshire, South Wales. Vines were first plated here in 2006 and they now have 12 hectares.The estate has been fully biodynamic since 2010 and was given certification in 2014. Triomphe is a variety which is able to ripen even in cool summers so may well be thought to be highly suited to the climate in the UK. A wild ferment and without fining or filtration this wine is ruby red in appearance with a slight haze and an intense nose of red fruits. I have never been a fan of red sparking wines finding them too aggressive on the palate but this is rather pleasant, the lower pressure in the bottles gives a wine which is gently sparkling on the palate and much the better for it.

Cantina Furlani. Surlie. Alpino. Alto Adige. 2017. From vineyards at a height of 700m close to the city of Trento in Northern Italy. Produced with a wild ferment, unfined, unfiltered and with no added sulphites. Lovely aroma of pear and green apple, barely sparking with touch of sweetness. This is a very drinkable wine and I wish I had another glass.

Champagne. Franck Pascal. Fluence. 2012. Made from Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier it has the faintest of pink tinge when held to the light. It’s toasty, lemony and nutty with a great finish. This is really excellent stuff, a standout wine.

Agricola Alessandra Divella. Blanc des Blancs. Franciacorta. 2015. Made from 100% Chardonnay and vinified in old oak this is a very fine, elegant wine. It’s toasty and with nice body and lovely texture. Serious stuff. Excellent.

Meinklang. Foam White. Burgenland. Austria. 2017. An orange pet nat made from Pinot Gris, unfined, unfiltered and with no added sulphites. Orange in appearance and the nose is quite aromatic, there are stone fruits, candied peel and a touch of residual sweetness. For me this is a wine that is probably best enjoyed along with some food.

Swik Wines. The Beav. 2018. A natural pet nat from the Pacific Northwest of the United States. A rather bonkers mix of 50% Cinsault, 40% Gewurtztraminer and 10% Riesling. Macerated on skins for two weeks and a wild ferment in stainless steel without any fining or filtration has produced a wine which is a light orange, salmon colour with a slight haze. A really interesting wine and I mean that in good way. Floral, perfumed and with nice texture, this is a wine that invites you to have another glass because it is just a little bit different and there is nothing wrong with that.

Travelling the Algarve by Train

For our recent trip to the Algarve we decided to forego hiring a car and see how much we could do just moving around using the local regional railway. We didn’t miss having a car but you do need to plan carefully how you will manage a visit and exactly what you want to see and do. I don’t suggest this option is for everyone but it does give a cheap option for those on a budget.

The Algarve Regional Railway runs from Vila Real De Santo António in the east to Lagos in the western Algarve. It is often necessary to change trains in Faro. The station at Faro can be somewhat confusing when catching a train as there are no departure boards. Even the locals can be unsure at times as to which platform to use. We found the staff to be most helpful in this regard. Most trains also have the destination on display at the front.
Trains to and from Lisbon connect with the regional railway at Faro, Loulé, Albufeira and Tunes. These trains have a different pricing structure and tickets can not be bought on the train.
Journey times are; Vila Real De Santo António to Faro is roughly an hour, from Faro to Lagos it takes 90 minutes. Trains are roughly hourly in each direction but not all trains run at weekends.
Tickets are relatively cheap compared to the UK. There are only two types of ticket, single and return. The cost of a return is double that of a single.
Tickets are not available in advance and must be purchased on the day. Not all stations on the line have a ticket office, in this case you simply purchase a ticket from the conductor on the train who come round after every stop. It’s worth noting that the conductor only deals in cash, he does not take card payments.
A tourist ticket is available. Called the Tourist Travelcard it can be bought as a two day or three day card. This allows you to use the Algarve line as often as you like but the days of use must be consecutive. A two day card costs 20.90 Euros and the tree day 31.90 Euros. It can only be purchased from a station with a ticket office, they are not available on the train. You may well want to check if it is actually a saving for you. Faro to Tavira is 6.40 Euros return and Faro to Lagos is 14.80 Euros for a return. We didn’t use a Travelcard for our visit.
It is worth checking in advance if the station of your chosen destination is actually close to where you want to go. The station at Albufeira is actually 3 miles from the old town, Lagos is much closer but it is still a reasonable walk to the old town though it is a very pleasant walk past the marina and along the river.

Algarve Cork Production

Cork is produced by a species of oak tree called Quercus suber, it grows well in the western Mediterranean where it favours the mild winters and plenty of sunshine. It grows wild in the Algarve and is not usually grown in plantations so you are likely to come across it in the mountains along with other useful trees such as olive, almond and carob. Portugal produces half the worlds cork, most of which is used to make stoppers for wine bottles. The best quality cork for stoppers is said to come from the Algarve and parts of the Alentejo.

Cork production has remained largely unchanged for centuries. The cork oak is not a fast growing tree so it must be at least 25 years old before the first harvest. This will be inferior cork and unsuitable for wine stoppers. Cork can then be stripped from the tree every nine years but it will be the third harvest before cork for stoppers is good enough. Following harvest the tree is painted with the year it was undertaken, 5 painted on the tree trunk signifies it was harvested in 2015 it therefore can’t be harvested again until 2024. Producing cork is a long, slow process.

Cork is initially only taken from the lower part of the trunk. As the tree gets older it can be taken from greater heights as the tree grows. Cutters work in teams of two, one climbs the tree and the other remains on the ground. They carefully strip away the cork layer using axes but extreme care is needed not to damage the living layer below as this is where the new cork will be regenerated from. Cork is usually removed in the summer months between May and July, this gives it the remainder of the summer to dry out.

Cork oaks can live for over 200 years and are protected by law. The law regulates the frequency of cutting at nine years and it is illegal to cut down a cork oak even if it is dead or diseased.

Once the summer is over the cork is sold to cork factories. The town of Sã0 Brás De Alportel is the epicentre of the cork processing industry in the Algarve. The industry has declined in the area and much of the finishing of cork products is now undertaken in northern Portugal. When the cork first arrives at the factory it is stored outside in stacks two pallets high. The curvature of the bark can clearly still be seen at this stage.

The cork is then taken into the factory and placed into a boiling water tank. This kills any insects and microbes that may be on or in the cork but also softens it so that it can be flattened. The boards are then stacked and left to dry.

The boards are then examined by eye for the quality of the cork. The person that does this is highly skilled and is looking for imperfections and patches of retained moisture. Strips are cut away until the best, most even cork is left. The offcuts are bagged and used to make cork tiles and insulation material. Nothing is wasted here.

Below shows two pieces of cork, the one on top is much higher quality for making bottle stoppers.

Today the cork is now sent to other factories to be turned into the final products which can be anything from the aforementioned bottle stoppers to floor tiles, thermal and acoustic insulation boards, clothing, shoes, handbags, purses and shopping bags. The amount of cork that is processed for use is staggering just from this one factory

Corks for bottles used to be punched out individually from strips of cork cut to the required depth

Stoppers used to be punched manually using a machine like this.

Today the demand for bottle stoppers is huge. Something like 80% of the 20 million bottles of wine produced each year are stoppered using cork. It is not surprising therefore that the process is now fully automated and can produce thousands of stoppers per minute.

A fascinating visit to one of the traditional industries of the Algarve.