French Wine - A Very Good Hour

B&G Wine Rap Session - A good hour
Sunday - Cuisine
By Michael A Edwards Observer writer
Sunday, April 17, 2005

Three centuries or so of French wine-making and distributary expertise were adroitly condensed by Barton & Guestier's Raphael Martinaud into roughly a one-hour presentation at the Hilton Kingston that proved highly engaging.

Martinaud, who represents the oldest wine merchant in the Bordeaux region and the first brand of fine French wines to be exported, took the audience - with the help of slides - on a journey through the art and science of French wine, going virtually from grapes to grace (or at least the toast).
In France, winemaking is largely concetrated in three main regions - Northern, Oceanic and Southern.

The North, with its wide variance between summer and winter temperatures, is known for its whites (including the renowned Champagne); the South, bordered by the Mediterranean, is known
for heat and dryness, producing a wide range of wines, but among
them some celebrated reds; the Oceanic is the median of the three, known for even temperatures and regular rainfall, which again yields a wide variety.

The presenter also did one of the best jobs yet (at least witnessed by this writer) of de-mystifying the almost Byzantine system of the French Institute for Apellations of Origin (INAO) which, among other things, approves and defines vineyards and categorises the production. The Institute came about in 1935, a quarter-century after a massive fraud had almost crippled the industry.

Of course, no session on wine would truly be complete without the tasting, so B&G, through local agents Lascelles Wines & Spirits,
obliged as Martinaud went through comparative characteristics,
tasting terms and other elements of a Chardonnay and Merlot.

The comprehensive exposé also encompassed storing (the average room temperature in Jamaica is not conducive to proper wine storage), and serving.

Long after the formal presentations concluded, several of the oenology "experts" stayed on to quiz the rep, compare notes and enjoy the general conviviality that only fine wine and good people can generate.