Each month our experts answer readers’ wine queries and share their knowledge
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Six-bottle cases
All the en primeur wine offers I’ve received from Berry Bros & Rudd and others have been for six-bottle cases. Is that because the 12-bottle case is so crazily expensive? And who decides what size and format wines are offered in – the château or the merchant? Nathan Davis, via email Simon Staples replies: Berry Bros & Rudd has offered 75% of our Bordeaux and 90% of our premier and grand cru Burgundy in cases of six (fewer for some grands crus) since the 2009 campaigns.
Choosing the size and format is a merchant decision, and the reason we chose to go down that route was to keep as many customers as happy as we could when demand went through the roof in 2009. We continued with the 2010s for the same reason.
As a wine fanatic myself, I know that I want more choice in the wines I buy and the option to trade a few cases if I want. For example, there are 20 Bordeaux châteaux whose 2016 wines I would like to buy, and I would prefer more choice and less volume – to enjoy a little bit from many rather than lots from a few.
Also, if a château releases a wine that’s likely to go up in value, it’s great for the customers who, if they can, buy multiple cases of six. They can then keep and drink one case of each and trade the others in the future.
There is one other reason I don’t see this trend going away: a 12-bottle wooden case is heavy, cumbersome and far less suitable for storage in the modern home.
Snoring and sobriety
Is there a causal relationship between my husband’s snoring and the amount of wine he consumes? Jane Williams, Brighton Michael Apstein replies: People usually snore when the oropharynx – the part between the back of the mouth and the top of the trachea, or windpipe – becomes partially blocked. Alcohol relaxes muscles, including in the oropharynx, which can allow tissues in the back of mouth to collapse and obstruct normal breathing. Despite this logical explanation, the connection between snoring and alcohol intake has not been widely studied. Nonetheless, doctors specialising in disorders of sleep, including snoring, recommend avoidance of alcohol, especially before sleep.
Since plenty of people drink wine and do not snore, it may not be the sole cause of your spouse’s snoring. Smoking, sleeping on one’s back and obesity, to name just a few, are all associated with increased snoring. I suggest an experiment: don’t drink any wine for three or four nights and see if snoring improves. Repeat the experiment a couple of times during the month to be sure the results are consistent.
Natural wine definition
Why has ‘hand-harvested only’ made the number two spot on the charter for natural wines? I can’t see how this has any impact on a wine being natural or not. Unless the idea is to remove any mechanisation from the
winemaking process, I can’t think of any rationale for singling out the picking method. Ryan Woodhouse, by email Simon Woolf replies: The natural wine category is hard to define because it represents more of a philosophy or ethos, rather than simply a method of agriculture (eg, organic). Many of the generally accepted criteria, such as hand-harvesting, are signposts that a grower is quality focused and working in an artisanal way. There is certainly room for discussion and extension of the definition in the future.