The Wine Society’s Generation Series Botanical Brew (£16, thewinesociety.com) The Wine Society, the member-owned wine-retailing mutual that is one of the best-value places in the UK to buy good-value quality wine, has been celebrating its 150th anniversary this year with a series of events and special bottlings. Previous releases in the Generation Series have focused on the Society’s past, highlighting wine styles that were popular at various points since the organisation was founded in 1874. The latest tranche, however, looks to the future, with the wines all representing a trend or development that The Society’s buyers believe will shape the wines of tomorrow. Or rather, “drinks of tomorrow” since the most radical of the new products isn’t a wine but a 0% alcohol blend of botanicals, teas and fruits that is the Society’s effort to respond to a trend that threatens its very existence: the wellness-inspired switch to temperance. Spiced with subtle chill heat and herbal bitterness, and given a gentle spritz, I reckon the Society is right to say it offers a far better, tastier, more complex alcohol-free experience than de-alcoholised wine.
The Wine Society’s Generation Series Bourgogne Aligoté, Burgundy, France 2022 (£18, thewinesociety.com) At a panel discussion during the press event held to launch the latest Generation Series wines in early September, the question of which grape varieties we will be drinking in the next few decades inevitably came up. One answer, embodied in The Wine Society’s Generation Series Sauvignac 2022 (£12.50) from Bordeaux, are varieties, such as, in this case, sauvignac (a crossing of sauvignon blanc, riesling and others), that have been deliberately bred to be more resistant to fungal diseases and to reduce the need for pesticides. I’m sure the wines made from sauvignanc et al will improve as growers get used to working with them and the vines get a bit older. But, while its gentle apple-and-citrus qualities mean it’s far from being a bad wine, I find it hard, on this evidence, to look forward to a sauvignac-shaped future. Of rather more interest, today and tomorrow, is Burgundy’s aligoté, which, after years of playing second-fiddle to chardonnay, is now making scintillatingly mineral dry whites such as The Society’s 2022 from Sylvain Pataille in the village of Marsannay.
The Wine Society’s Generation Series Vino de Altura Garnacha, Calatayud, Spain 2023 (£12.50, thewinesociety.com) While I’m pleased to see the turnaround in aligoté’s fortunes and the vast improvement in the quality of wines made from it (there was a time when it was really only worth drinking with cassis in a classic kir), there’s something more than a little unnerving about the reasons behind it: that growers in Burgundy are switching to aligoté now is largely due to climate change, both because aligoté is now much easier to ripen and because it retains freshness in a way that has become increasingly difficult with chardonnay. The profound ongoing effects of the climate crisis have also informed another of my favourite wines in the Generation Series, a sensuously ripe, fragrant, plump-berried garnacha from Calatayud in Aragon in northeastern Spain. Made by the skilful Spain-based British winemaker Norrel Robertson, it reflects a trend, which is only likely to accelerate, for moving to higher altitudes in search of cooler vineyards, which help preserve the breath of freshness that makes this Vino de Altura so drinkably balanced.
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