The Armchair Interview with Arnaud Compas from Bedales Wine Bars

What is your most popular wine for the summer months?
 
Without doubt, it is our Breganze Prosecco white or rosé.
 
On the hills surrounding Conegliano, about 50 miles north of Venice, lies the beautiful estate of Breganze, Today, the family business is run by Umberto and Luigi, who have a passion for making wine which marries tradition and innovation for the production of truly outstanding wines. The wine is vinified in stainless steel and then by charmat method for two months. Clean, fresh and elegant, with delicate, persistent bubbles that enhance its subtle citrussy fruit. "Definitive Prosecco, as chiselled as a piece of pink Verona marble, Bellenda's Brut doesn't make even a nod to Champagne. Its sharp, mineral-laden lemon flavours seem designed with shrimp scampi in mind," enthused Wine and Spirit magazine.

What wines would you recommend for a relaxed summer barbeque?   Ten Chillable Reds …   Gamay de Touraine, Domaine de la Charmoise – Loire Dolcetto d'Alba, Gianni Gagliardo, Piedmont – Italy Corbières, Cuvée Alice, Jacqueline Bories – Languedoc Rioja Joven, Bodegas Medrano Irazu – Spain Saumur-Champigny, Domaine des Roches-Neuves – Loire Cheverny Rouge, Domaine du Salvard – Loire Valpolicella Ca Fiui, Corte Sant' Alda, Veneto – Italy Pinot Noir, Domaine Mathis Bastian, Luxembourg – Luxembourg Minervois, Clos de l'Azerolle – Languedoc Chateau Plaisance Cuvée Classique, Fronton – South West France

What would be a good wine to buy as an investment this summer?
 
Even though I am often part of the en primeur Bordeaux tasting I never buy wine for investment. One tip, wait before buying any recent vintage, 2007 nor 2008.
 
What is your favourite wine?
 
In the last couple of years I have assembled a selection of "Italian dreamers", a group of growers dedicated to producing wines of purity and individuality, who are not only perfectionists and passionate about their own wines but also fine ambassadors for their respective regions. My idea was to represent growers from both Italy's classic and lesser-seen regions. From the Alpine valleys of Valle d'Aosta to its baking southern Mediterranean coast Italy is many countries with a fascinating diversity of cultures, climates and winestyles. It is our intention to demonstrate the Italian wines can match the French for regional diversity and sensitivity to soil. But if I had to choose one it would be, LA MONACESCA, ALDO CIFOLA, MATELICA, Marche.
 
The Matelica zone is inland and at higher altitude (450 metres above sea level) than the better-known and larger Castelli de Jesi. La Monacesca (Italian for monastery) was established by Casimiro Cifola in 1966 and is now run by his son Aldo. For many years the estate has been producing a range of high quality white wines, and the Cifolas are now considered by some among the best white wine producers in the whole of Italy, not just the Marche. Their estate is located in the largely inaccessible region of Matelica, in the Marche region of central Italy. On the cru the bouquet bequeaths subtle scents of acacia flowers, apples, sun-dried fruit and hazelnut and even notes of melon and citrus. The length of the wine is amazing. The Mirum, meanwhile, is an extraordinarily complex, rich dry wine. It is produced from late-harvest grapes, from old vines, which remain on its lees for a total of 18 months, easily confusable with top Chablis, sharing excellent structure and power yet elegance of fruit. La Monacesca's wine represents outstanding value for money.
 
With so many to choose from, how do you select the wines you sell at Bedales?
 
I aim to promote delicious, tasty, unmediated wines; diversity of style and indigenous grape varieties; the endeavours of small independent growers; and the importance of sustainable, organic viticulture. I always work from the point of view of understanding the wine by trying to understand the country, the region, the microclimate, the vineyard and the grower. Every wine tells a story.
 
The future, we believe, lies in reacquainting ourselves with "real wines", seeking out and preserving the unusual, the distinctive and the avowedly individual. I therefore applaud growers and estates who work the land and harvest by hand, those who apply sensitive organic sustainable solutions and achieve biodiversity whatever the struggle.
 
It is time to reclaim wine as something individual, pleasurable and occasionally extraordinary.

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