North Africa Flashcards
1
Q
What is Carignan?
A
- Carignan is a red grape
- Algerian ‘Pieds Noirs’ French winemakers used
- High in everything, acidity, tannin, colour, bitterness but not charm and finesse
- Sensitive to powdery mildew and Downey mildew
- Grows on bush vines, high yield
- Late ripening, needs a hot climate
- Replaced a lot of Aramon in France, post Algerian independence
2
Q
What is Alicante Bouchet?
A
- A red grape variety grown in France and Algeria
- The most widely planted of France’s Tinturier varieties, red flesh
- High yields, colour and decent alcohol
- Little character
- Part of Algeria’s colonial legacy with France
3
Q
Where was Auto-vinification invented?
A
It was developed in Algeria in the 1960s
4
Q
What is auto-vinification?
A
- A method of extracting more colour, through automatic pumping over of grape skins.
- Developed in Algeria in 1960s ‘Ducellier’ system
- Doesn’t need electricity or labour
- Self perpetuating process from build up of pressure of CO2 to extract colour
- Widely adopted in production of Port
5
Q
What is Cinsaut?
A
- Red grape variety
- Planted in France and Morocco
- Good drought resistance
- Also known as Cinsault
- High yields
- Prone to rot
- Light soft fruity aromatic when youthful
- Used to add perfume and fruit and body to a blend
- Used to be used in dodgy French ‘Burgundy’
6
Q
How much of the international wine trade did Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria collectively represent in the 1950s?
A
2/3rds
7
Q
What is Grenache?
A
- Red grape variety
- The most cultivated grape variety in Morocco.
- Important part of soupy reds of Algeria
- Suited to hot dry counties
- High in alcohol
8
Q
What is Aramon?
A
- Red grape
- Not widely planted now but used to be popular in Herault, Languedoc and Algeria
- Produced very light red wines ‘petit rouge’
- Very productive
- Resistant to powdery mildew
- Low alcohol, colour extract and character
- Needed blending with red fleshed Teinturiers like Alicante Bouschet from Algeria to add colour, tannin and alcohol
- Buds early and ripens late, so limited to hotter regions like Algeria
9
Q
Who is Castel?
A
- France’s biggest wine company and important distributor of wine machinery in France and Africa
- Family owned, based in Bordeaux
- Bought Oddbins, Nicholas has JV in China
10
Q
What is the link between the Languedoc and Algeria?
A
In the 1900s, the plains of the Languedoc were killed of pale, light ‘petit rouge’ red made from Aramon that needed blending with more robust wines of colonial vineyards in Algeria (Alicante Bouschet) to produce commercially acceptable wine.
Algerian independence significantly reduced France’s imports of Algerian wine (reduced by half almost overnight)
11
Q
8 Key facts re Morocco, location, climate, appellation system, history, grapes
A
- Vineyards located at an altitude of over 500m on the Atlas Mountains and cooled by Atlantic breezes
- Appellation system exists with 14 recognised regions
- Grape varieties include Carignan, Cinsault and Bordeaux and Rhône varieties
- Potential for producing the best wine in North Africa due to high altitude and cooling Atlantic breezes
- French colonists brought large scale wine production
- Independence in 1956 reduced domestic consumption as French fled and wine expertise departed
- Frozen out of EU due to quotas
- State had a virtual monopoly
12
Q
Key facts Africa
A
- Once a world renowned wine producer, problems with economic and cultural problems posed by having almost a great an area under vine as Germany or South Africa but in an Islamic environment became a problem of economic dependence
- Key counties Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria
- During the 1950s Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria accounted for 2/3 of international wine trade
- All suffered with independence from French, loss of domestic market as French fled, main export markets EU and technical wine skills departing
13
Q
Key facts Algeria
A
- Historically important North African wine producer, exporting large volumes of heady feeling coloured wines (Alicante Bouschet) to France for blending with Aramon
- Vine growing since classical times but French Phylloxera crisis saw it converted North African colony to vineyards
- At the start of Algeria’s war of independence 1/2 of exports by value = wine
- At Algerian independence in 1962 1m French settlers left + army and domestic consumption collapsed and technical skills departed
- EU reduced quantities of Algerian wine allowed into Europe
- USSR agreed a trade deal for very low prices 1/2 of previous trade price
- Vineyard area has shrunk from 400,000 ha to around 60,000
- Investment and improvement is lagging, practically zero investment in technology
- Substantial producer of corks, processed in Spain and Portugal
- Mediterranean climate, mild winters, hot dry summers
- Algerian wine now a shadow of former self due to abandoned vjneyards, lower prices and yields. More focus on providing table grapes
14
Q
Tunisia key facts
A
- French occupation developed wine industry but independence in 1956 caused decline
- Best vineyards located on the coast near Tunis
- Recent investment in winery equipment by Italian’s French, German’s, Swiss & Austrians
- Full bodied red and sweet and dry Muscat’s are produced
- 5m tourists per year propping up domestic consumption, minimal imports only 30% is exported mostly in bulk to Germany and France
