The 2010 Alicanté Bouschet crop (affectionately known as the Black Velvet) was hand picked on Saturday 20th March and is now bubbling away in the winery.
Having recently released our first ever Forester Alicanté from the 2008 vintage, we were both excited and nervous approaching the harvest of the 2010. The 2008 has received an excellent reception by all who have tried it and we have a sensational 2009 ageing in barrel awaiting bottling later this year so we were keen to capture the best possible fruit in 2010 to carry the quality forward. Check out the shots below showing the amazing colour that bursts from the berries the moment they are crushed.. there is always a long and painstaking cleaning process for the equipment after the Alicanté has passed through!
To find out more about the Alicanté grape and our belief in its future at Forester read the text below drawn from a recent press release;
Alicanté Bouschet is the only member of the Vitis vinifera wine grape family that is also termed a Teinturier (a grape with red colour in its flesh rather than in the skin). This rare trait sets the grape well apart from all other red wine grapes which require long periods of skin contact during ferment to extract the deep red colour we see in the finished product. Alicanté grapes picked straight from the vine burst a vivid scarlet red when crushed and stain just about everything they come into contact with much the same as mulberries do.
Developed by Henri Bouschet in 1866 as a cross of the grape varieties Grenache and Petit Bouschet, Alicanté Bouschet was widely planted in France by the end of the 19th Century. It spread to Spain, Portugal and Italy and then on to California where it was very popular during prohibition due to it’s naturally high yielding tendency, thick skin and deep colour. These traits allowed for big crops to be transported as fresh fruit in good condition long distances by rail to New York, and then permitted dilution of wine with water without substantial loss of aroma or colour.
Alicanté Bouschet has most often been used as blending material to add colour and fruity aroma. Plantings slowed and then reversed in the 20th Century with the variety now extinct in some areas of France however there are examples of quality full bodied varietal wines being produced today in Portugal and California. In Australia the grape has had limited opportunity to express itself across different regions and has commercially only ever been made as a lighter rosē style wine – the Rockford Alicanté Bouchet Rosé from the Barossa is a leading example.
From this history Forester Estate has been experimenting with a small amount of fruit from the Touchwood vineyard, which is to our knowledge the only Alicanté Bouschet planting in the premium Margaret River region. The stable Mediterranean climate of Margaret River with excellent annual rainfall and a long reliable ripening period appears ideal for producing Alicanté grapes that are full of flavour while retaining good natural acidity and importantly good fruit tannin. Where Alicanté has fallen from favour as a varietal it is often described as lacking structure or intensity. In our short experience of three vintages making the wine, we are gaining confidence that we may have found an exciting match between variety and region.
Perhaps most exciting is that in the abnormally warm vintage of 2007 (conditions closer to those experienced in areas where Alicanté has been considered better suited to rosē production) the wine quality was only average and we decided to blend away, while in the more typical years 2008 and 2009 we have seen the fruit rise to a quality that demands serious attention. Moderate ripening conditions without excessive temperature spikes are potentially a key to stabilizing the phenolic components of the grape and delivering lasting structure to the wine.
Prior to bottling the 2008 Alicanté we assessed a range of blending trials and decided to incorporate 5% Cabernet Sauvignon which seemed to just subtly improve the balance and progression of the finished product. As a wine the 2008 Forester Estate Alicanté looks to be a real crowd pleaser; the fragrant, violet-like bouquet perhaps most closely matches Petit Verdot, yet the palate shows no firmness but rather more a plush, ripe Shiraz feel. There is a warmth and generosity to the fruit that is rarely if ever seen in the established red varieties of Margaret River. The wine has an inky depth of colour and bursts out with juicy plum and blueberry fruit, some sweet spice for intrigue, and finally heads into dark chocolate flavours in the back palate. Rigorous scientific trials by the staff at Forester have established that the wine drinks exceptionally well with rustic style pizza featuring grilled meats, roast turkey with cranberry sauce and Venezuelan black chocolate tart.
Forester Estate has embarked on a journey to fully explore the intricacies of Alicanté Bouschet as a grapevine and a wine in Margaret River. Grafting trials are underway at Touchwood to see how the vines perform on the established roots of another variety, while new plantings on own roots are also being pursued to ensure an increase in production is possible in coming years.
