Grape Gossip - Flying Winemakers

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We've all heard of flying winemakers, but who exactly are they, where do they come from, and most importantly, do they have their own wings? Read on and find out!

This week Chris has selected an absolutely storming range of wine from Northern Italy and what's more he's giving you an amazing deal on them. We've stocked the Alpha Zeta wines for quite some time and the quality is improving year on year, they are made by Matt Thomson, who is what's known as a 'flying winemaker'.

He's a New Zealander who, during the winter months in New Zealand, spends time making wine in the Northern Hemisphere, in this case - in Italy. This trend is a relatively recent one, as transport has become more and more accessible it has become increasingly easy for individuals to consult on viticultural and winemaking practices in other parts of the world. It has never been easier to share new practices, ideas and technologies….and in turn making wines more palatable for consumer. It was the Australians who started this trend, others were eager to learn their modern winemaking practices and
move away from the over oaked wines made in unhygienic conditions that often led to partly oxidized and obviously disappointing end results.

Now change always provokes debate and the use of flying winemakers is no exception, this issue has both its supporters and its critics. So why might you potentially be upset by this? Well there is the argument that using a strong new world influence may detract from the local characteristics of the wine, that ultimately it could lead to a homogenization of wine, that we'll be dominated by fruit forward wines that satisfy (but not excite) our palates. For this reason this trend has been very popular with supermarkets who can make large quantities of wine in a style that they have found to be popular with their customers.

But here I am telling you how good the Alpha Zeta wines are, so how does that work? Well, I'm a Libran and I strongly believe in balance…and whilst I'm sure that some flying winemakers end up producing wines that all taste the same and lack any of the local characteristics that make wine so wonderful, I do believe that there are also winemakers who won't. They will make changes, improve hygiene, add a different dimension to the viticultural and winemaking process but they will also respect the local traditions and character of the wines. I think Matt Thomson is one of those winemakers, I'm sure he would work on the philosophy that you can't make wine in Italy that doesn't taste Italian. But hey why listen to me, try them out for yourselves.