Vertical or horizontal?

THE WINE CLUB

No, that's not an indication of my favourite sleeping position "" it's about the selection of wines for wine tasting: A "vertical" tasting is when you have the same wine from different vintages while a "horizontal" is with the same varietal from different wineries.

Most wine tastings are "horizontals", with the wines grouped by type of grape and rated using one of the several methods on hand "" from the International Wine Challenge's "gold/ silver/ bronze star" system to the 20-point scale of the recently-publicised BT "More" tasting, to the 100-point scale used by Robert Parker and the Wine Spectator magazine.

"Verticals" are comparatively rare "" few wineries have been around long enough to have anything more than a few vintages under their belt, fewer still would have laid-down adequate stocks of each vintage, and only a minuscule number would hazard exposing the good with the indifferent to critics. Added to which is the logistical nightmare of organising a vertical, given the inflexibility of Indian rules regarding import and label registration. Which is why the recent vertical tasting of 12 vintages (from 1994 to 2005) of the super-Tuscan Brancaia IL BLU in Mumbai and Bangalore was such an unprecedented and exceptional event.

Brancaia shot to international fame when its Chianti Classico won a major (horizontal) tasting competition in Italy in 1983, only two years after the present owners had acquired the winery and estate. IL BLU (termed a "super-Tuscan" because its blend includes less than 85 per cent Sangiovese "" other super-Tuscans include Tignanello, Sassicaia and Ornellaia) was first produced in 1988 and has quietly garnered an international following; that the 2004 vintage received 96 points from Wine Spectator and was adjudged ninth of the top 100 wines worldwide in 2006 merely reinforced the wine's standing.

We tasted the 12 wines in flights of four starting with the 1994; the tasting being led by Brancaia's knowledgeable head Martin Kronenburg (it helps that his wife Barbara is the winemaker and daughter of the owners). The earliest wines seemed a bit tired, but interest picked up from the 1998 (94 points) and peaked with the 2004 (96 points, as above) "" the wine itself was full-bodied, with a most interesting aroma of

freshly-cut roses and crushed berries, silky tannins and a nice long finish, and should keep drinking well for years.

So what did the vertical tasting achieve? For one, it demonstrated both the consistency (since 1998, every vintage of this wine has been rated 90 points or more) as well as the variability of the same wine over several years (each vintage had its peculiarities ""mineral notes creeping into the 2003 and 2005, while the 2002 was smoky, spicy and even gamey!). For another, it demonstrated in no uncertain terms the impact of mother nature on wine quality (the blend of all vintages from 1998 was

50 per cent Sangiovese, 45 per cent Merlot and 5 per cent Cabernet). And lastly, it was a tour de force of 12 vintages of a lovely, but reasonably expensive, wine (it retails for Rs 5,350 in Bangalore), an experience which all those participating are unlikely to ever have again.

(al.chandra@gmail.com)