WBW 42 - Just Seven Words

Andrew of Spitoon has come up with a blinding idea for this months edition of WBW - describing a wine in just seven words. (http://www.spittoon.biz/wbw_42_just_seven_words.html). In these abreviated days of txtspk and slang, I suppose it is becoming more common to shorten everything. Personally I think there are times when it is useful, Im not sure that describing wine is one of them, but then again I have seen many wine reviews that run towards the verbal diarrhea so I happy to give it a shot.
The wine that I have selected is Planeta Cerasuelo di Vittoria 2006, which unless I am mistaken is Sicily's only D.O.C.G. wine. The wine is a blend of two native varieties - Nero d'Avola and Frappato. So seven words -
Reminds me of Vimto and Wham bars.
or
Tastes like summer berries and ginger beer.

For those that dont know what a Wham bar is, it was a sweet very popular in the eighties. A flat chewy bar with rainbow drops of cystalised sugar and popping candy on the top of it. The flavour was a mixed fruit flavour that had hints of red berries and rhubarb. They used to cost about 10p each and were so chewy they had the power to extract fillings!! I havent seen one for years but you can get them from A Quarter of (http://www.aquarterof.co.uk/wham-bars-p-363.html).

Well that was quite easy really, good theme Andrew and Im looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with.

Wine Blog Wednesday 41 - Friuli Wines.

For this edition of Wine Blog Wednesday, hosted by Jack and Joanne at Fork and Bottle (http://www.forkandbottle.com/wine/wblogwed/wbw_friuli_white_wines.htm)
I had hoped to find something a bit more exciting to write about than the wine that I eventually settled for. I say settled for, because I couldnt find anything better or more interesting to use, so I went back to the wine Im going to write about as an only resort. Now Italy is something of an achilles heel for me, its a region that Ive never really had much affinity for, and so Ive really struggled to get to know it very well. In the past, Ive never really had the imperative to get to know it, and so it has always languished somewhat in my knowledge, with occasional reminders that I really ought to be doing more about it. Working in Scotland for many years, there was never a great need to study the Italian wines as, surrounded by so many phenominal restaurants (Italian of course!) with amazing wine-lists chock full of the very best Italian wines (because the owner is cousin to.., uncle of.., nephew of... etc etc they are all related!!) there really was no point in even attempting to compete with them. As long as you had the required Chianti, the occasional supertuscan - Sassicaia, Tignanello, Ornellaia, Pergole Torte and perhaps a cheeky wee Orvieto then you had all your bases covered. And so it is that Ive been able to "get away with it" so to speak. Now I want to try and correct that, I need to focus on Italy, certainly if I want to progress further within the Court of Master Sommeliers, and I do, but more importantly because it is a weak area in my knowledge, and my pride in what i do requires that I action that. So I plan to invest some time, lots of money on books - Gamberro Rosso Guide, Vino Italiano (which happens to be the book on this month newly started wine bloggers book club) and Im hoping to track down an old copy of Burton Andersons Wine Atlas of Italy (currently about £150 on Abebooks.co.uk). Call it a new years resolution if you will. Anyway, thats kind of why I was hoping to find something a bit better than the wine Ive ended up with, but despite looking, I failed in my quest, which is why the wine Im going to blog about is: Angoris Pinot Grigio from Isonzo del Fruili.

Now over the last year, Pinot Grigio seems to have been the must drink white wine in the UK. Over 2007 we shifted over 2,000 bottles of the stuff, compared to 4,000 bottles of the "house" white. Ive never really understood the appeal, personally, because I find Pinot Grigio generally to be thin, insipid and just completely lacking, and hence I kind of came to the conclusion that it was drunk by people who felt they ought to be drinking wine, but in actual fact DIDNT LIKE wine. By the time it is chilled down, you are drinking what seems like vaguely alcoholic water. There just isnt any flavour there!! Yet when you compare it to something like an Alsace Pinot Gris they are chalk and cheese - despite being made from the same grape! Now maybe its the fermenting tanks - often huge ancient oak barrels in Alsace compared to huge stainless steel tanks in Italy. Maybe its something else. I dont know for sure, but I know that I just dont get it. But the customers are obviously seeing something Ive maybe missed so heres my chance to give it a shot and see.
The Angoris estate can trace its history back over 300 years. Its original owners were the noble Locatelli family, and over the last three hundred years it has swapped hands three times, lately to the Locatelli family (not sure if they are related) in the late 60's. Their vineyards are quite extensive and the Pinot Grigio comes from vineyards in the heart of the Isonzo del Fruili D.o.C region. A few years ago they changed their packaging to a more streamlined bordeaux style bottle which I must say looks very good. So whats it like? The colour is quite a pale lemon, bright and clear with a watery rim. On the nose there really isnt very much, a hint of light white flowers, some citrus fruit and thats about it. Even at cellar temp the nose doesnt really pick up. On the palate there is more flavour than the aromas, but not much. Again citrus seems quite dominant with lemons and a touch of grapefruit - possibly ruby grapefruit. There isnt much length to the wine, the flavours seem to dissapate very soon, but i guess that is why people tend to scoop it down and drink another bottle!! This wine would retail for about £9, and I think I would be a bit disappointed paying that. I have to say it was a bit better than I had expected it to be, but it hasnt really changed my opinion of Pinot Grigio especially. Perhaps Im being a wine snob, but I really cant see why we sell so much of this, but as long as the customers are loving it, then maybe I am missing something.

Wine Blog Wednesday 40 - Petite Sirah

I had to do some real digging to be able to participate in this edition. Sonadora of Wannabe Wino has chosen a corker of a theme, and the wine Ive chosen to represent the theme today is a particularly special wine for me. Sonadora's theme is Petite Sirah (Syrah or however else it is usually spelt) and her post detailing the theme can be found at http://wannabewino.blogspot.com/2007/11/announcing-wine-blogging-wednesday-40.html

The wine Ive chosen is one that I came across almost by accident many years ago. I was trawling through a broking list, as was my want at the time, in order to find little parcels of obscure wines to flesh out my wine-list. I came across a case of six bottles of Ridge Vineyards York Creek Petite Sirah. Now I had read a lot about Ridge in the American wine magazines that I had taken to buying in order to expand my knowledge of wines. I knew that they were famous for their Zinfandels - notably the Geyserville and Lytton Springs (ok I know technically they are vineyard blends comprised mostly of Zin with a few other grapes chucked in for good measure). So here was something completely new to me, and the likelyhood was that it was something relatively unknown. It was! From that first small parcel I fell in love with Ridge Vineyards wines, from the Dynamite Creek to the Santa Cruz, Lytton to the Independance School, Geyserville to the Bridgehead, the names and the grapes just entranced me - zinfandel, carignane, mataro, petite sirah, grenache, cabernet franc, petit verdot and of course cab sauv and chardonnay. From their utalitarian labels, brimming with information, harvest details, location of the vineyards, residual sugar levels, acidity levels etc etc. Not that they were easy to get, I had to content myself with buying from brokers selling small parcels, often grey market stock - european mainly. I also had my first humbling moment as a sommelier with a Ridge wine. I had only been a commis sommelier for about three weeks, and it was my first week flying solo after the departure of the head sommelier. We had a regular guest at the restaurant come in with a party of ten, celebrating a family birthday. He asked me several questions about the Lytton Springs we had on the list, and rather foolishly I tried to bluff the answers. Turned out he knew the answers to the questions and it was a form of initiation, a way of him "measuring" me. I failed miserably, and then spend the whole evening on the back foot, desperately trying to get back on top of the situation. But it taught me an important lesson, not to try and bullshit the customer. Now if I get a tough question I dont know the answer too, I 'fess up and usually avoid any aggro. Then the first opportunity I get I make sure that I find out the answer. The next time that I saw Mr R booked in, I made sure that I studied all about the Ridge Lytton Springs and the Geyserville and several other wines that I had heard him talking about during his last visit. It took me months of effort, but in the end I won him around, and once I figured out his weakness (he was an avid parker point chaser) then I gained control of the relationship and started steering his choices towards the latest 97 point + wines.

Anyways as usual I digress. The wine that Ive chosen is my last bottle of Ridge York Creek Petite Sirah 1995. I was kind of dubious about its durability, but reading the back label, it seems that Paul Draper felt it would benefit from 5-10 years of further development when it was bottled in 1997. So it is now 10 years since it was bottled and if PD's notes were correct then this ought to be at the peak of its life. Reading the notes further it seems that 95 was a challenging year. Unseasonal weather during spring delayed the onset of growth in the vines and when the vines were eventually in bloom rainstorms seriously reduced the yields by damaging the flowers. The end result was a significantly reduced yield (1-2 tons/acre compared to at least twice that), but as we all know that usually in that situation the vine seems to make up for the reduced yield by producing exceptionally concentrated fruit. Long periods of warm summer weather culminated in one of the latest harvests recorded at Ridge with the final blocks of fruit coming in on the 16th November. The wines are usually fermented by block with a portion of the fruit undergoing whole berry fermentation to add fruit character to the wines. The rest are fermented under the cap of grape skins with the juice being pumped over twice daily to extract tannins and flavour without the excessively bitter tannins often found in the seeds. Then it goes into american oak for about a year and a half aging, about 20% into new oak. Paul Drapers tasting note concludes that the wine exhibits an intense berry fruit character with typical black pepper flavours.

So what is it like now? The colour is a deep purple core with a rim that has definate browning, reddening to it. On the nose the aromas are quite well mixed, the berry fruits still quite evident but with more mature aromas too. There is blackberry and an almost plum like aroma with licoriceroot and almost cocoa flavours mixed in there. There is also quite a feral character - not quite leather but some form of animal hide like aroma, slightly smoky and a touch spicy - perhaps cloves and other exotic middle eastern spices. On the palate the black pepper character seems to be more obvious, but the main elements are the fruit flavours - black plums and brambles with coconutty oak character and a touch of tobacco - think aged cuban cigar. The finish carries a slightly smoky edge which if im honest im not too keen on, and there seems to be something almost "dirty" at the end, slightly fungal/foresty/black soil like. But apart from that it is absolutely bloody amazing wine, the tragedy is that this represents my last bottle of the Ridge "obscure" varietal wines that I love so much. My last bottle of the Bridgehead Mataro was consummed some years ago, and they ripped it all up due to viral contamination, so it is never to be replaced. I havent seen the York Creek Petite Sirah on the UK market for a number of years now, it seems they are playing safe over here with the two "Zins" and the frankly disappointing Monte Bello. Ive been trying to get hold of some of their ATP wines for a number of years, but they just dont have enough to spare. We actually did a Ridge Gourmet a couple of years ago, and while the Zins and the Chardonnay were amazing, the biggest disappointment was the Monte Bello which was an anticlimax after all Ive heard about it. For me Ridge will always be about the underdog, the obscure varieties that made me fall in love with their wines. I just hope that I can find some more to keep up the magic.

WBW 39 Silver Burgundy

Im a bit behind on this posting, so Im going to keep it short and sweet. The wine is a Givry from a producer that Ive had an affinity for, for a while now, Jean-Marc Boillot. Boillot used to be the winemaker at Olivier Leflaive, and being the grandson of Ettiene Sauzet to boot, you just know theres good pedigree there. Its a 96 which is starting to give me some cause for concern, the attrition rate on this wine is now upto one in three bottles which means that Im losing a third of the stock. But those bottles that arent oxidised beyond salvage are showing marvelous nutty character with rich buttery flavours and a stoney fruit character that is edging on the sultana. The wine is getting a touch flabby, well it is 11 years old, and I think the oak flavours are now starting to appear out of balance, but with the right dish, this is a lovely wine, and its not going to break the bank either. Currently sitting on our winelist at £33 thats not bad going when you think that Im losing one bottle in every three I open.

Thanks to the Brooklyn Guy for the great topic http://brooklynguyloveswine.blogspot.com/2007/10/wbw-39-announced-silver-burgundy.html
and Im looking forward to reading what others have found.

Wine Blog Wednesday 38 - Portugal.

My how quickly a month goes by. So much has happened in the last month, that my posting rate has declined slightly, but Im going to try and post more frequently this month. What better way to start than with our monthly on-line festival of wine that is Wine Blog Wednesday.

Ryan and Gabrielle Opaz of Catavino have selected a theme, that is very close to their hearts, vineously and of course geographically. I really like the geography themed WBW because they encourage us to explore new regions and Im sure in many cases unfamilar regions. Now most peoples experience of Portugese wines will be limited to the occasional glass of port after dinner (and many of them will consequently blame the horrendous hangover the following morning to that single glass of port!!).

The wine Ive selected for this WBW is Quinta dos Roques Reserva 1999 from Dao. Its a Denominacao de Origem Controlada, which is the highest quality rating in Portugal. Quinta dos Roques is a relatively new estate, the vineyards were replanted in the 80's and they made their own wine from then. It is a curious blend of traditional grapes and wines, made in a modern winery, to a fairly modern style. Ive always considered the wines of Portugal to be very rustic, more food orientated than drinking on their own kind of wines, but I think that reflects the whole cultural impact of wine and cuisine that you find on the continent, and that seems to be missing from the new world.

The Reserva is a blend (as it would seem most Portugese reds are), predominantly Touriga Nacional, with a bit of Tinta Roriz and Tinta Cao, some Alfrocheiro and a dash of Jaen. All thats missing is the high alcohol content and it could probably pass off as a half decent port! The fruit comes from a single vineyard, the Peach Tree (Pessegueiro) vineyard. It spent about 14 months in barrel before being bottled.

On the nose it has spicy dark fruit aromas, it kind of reminds me a bit of xmas pudding, you have a touch of spice to it, raisins, cherries, there are even hints of chocolate here too. There is something almost feral in there too, cant quite pin it down, but it isnt off putting. From the nose I would have to say that I think this wine has seen better days, dont get me wrong its still drinkable, but I reckon its glory days were maybe a year or two ago.
On the palate the dark fruit comes through bathed in spices, more cinnamon with hints of ginger spices too. The tannins are still quite firm, and the wine follows through with a rich chocolatey finish which almost contradicts my earlier thoughts about being past its prime. I dont think this is the kind of wine to drink on its own. It needs food. But it isnt going to complement my ham and cheese sandwich very well, this needs something a bit meatier. I would serve this with something like the pork belly, rubbed in spices and glazed with honey. Some green beans and crushed new potatoes would finish that off nicely. As the wine sits with an ABV of 12.5%, its not going to send you senseless either. Overall Im quite happy with the wine, given the choice I would have prefered a slightly younger vintage, but this older bottle has actually distinguised itself well. Ive got 9 bottles left kicking around the cellar, so maybe I ought to re-list it as a curiousity, perhaps the sommeliers selection for the month.

Many thanks to Ryan and Gabrielle for the great theme, cant wait for next months theme, and I must make the effort to keep on blogging!

Wine Blog Wednesday 37 pt 2 - Verdad Ibarra-Young Vineyard Albarino, Santa Ynez, California

This was a sample obtained from Morris and Verdin earlier in the year. I was intrigued when I learnt that someone in California was growing and producing Albarino. Ive known for a few years that Randall Grahm, of Bonny Doon, was growing it but as yet no-one had actually made the wines available. As we sell quite a bit of the Spanish Albarino I thought it would be really cool to have a new world alternative for those folks that feel a bit more adventurous.

The wine is made by Louisa Sawyer Lindquist, wife of Bob Lindquist of Qupe Wines. Between them they planted two small parcels of Albarino in the Ibarra-Young Vineyard in Californias Santa Ynez Valley. Its farmed along Biodynamic principles. The grapes are harvested in parcels and then vinified, 75% undergoes a long cold fermentation in steel tanks, allowing the fruit and aromatic aromas to really develop and create a richly perfumed wine. The remaining 25% is fermented in neutral wood to add some depth to the flavours.

So whats it like? I must say if I was given this blind I would probably come to the conclusion it was Viognier, the nose has really dominant peachy flavours with white flowers and an aroma that I can only describe as tarte aux abricots - custard tarte with apricots and almonds/frangipane. Im expecting it to be sweeter than it turns out. On the palate it more closely resembles the Spanish Albarino, there is no salty tang on the finish, but again the almond/marzipane flavour follows on from the stone fruit - peaches and apricots. There is a slight spicy savouryness too. I LOVE this wine - so much awsum

So Much Awsum!!

Wine Blog Wednesday 37 - Go Native.

Tyler at Dr Vino has come up with a cracker of a theme (http://drvino.com/2007/08/16/go-native-wine-blogging-wednesday-37-indigenous-grape-varieties/).

I think I may well have blogged about this wine before but what the hell, im sure its a different vintage. Im going to a wine that I really love - its white and it comes from Spain. Paco, our old restaurant manager, used to sell loads of this because it was where he was from.

Pazo de Senorans, Albarino, Rias Baixas, Spain, 2006

This is a really classy example of the grape, pale lemony yellow colour with a light watery rim, on the nose there is quite a mixture of flavours - citrus - lime fruit, and pomelo - floral - white flowers - stone fruit - peaches and nectarine. Sounds daft but I think I can also smell the sea - a slightly salty tang. On the palate the wine is very crisp and dry with full bracing acidity, light to medium bodied, no tannins present. The flavours come across similarly to the nose - the stone fruit playing a more dominant role on the palate than on the nose. There is definately a slightly salty tang to the finish, and I think thats why it works so well with seafood. If you look at the region where this grape comes from it is all coastal vineyards, hugging the rugged coastline of Spain. This is just gorgeous with a fresh seafood paella - the floral character in the wine and the saffron in the paella seem inter-twined. Its not cheap, it retails over £14, sitting on our wine-list at about £35.

If I can dig it out later at home Ill post another Albarino, this time from California from Louise Sawyer Lindquist, wife of Bob Lindquist of Qupe.

Wine Blog Wednesday 36 - Naked Chardonnay

Its a bit late because Ive been away for a few days, but heres my contribution to the 3rd anniversary edition of WBW! (http://lennthompson.typepad.com/lenndevours/2007/07/wine-blogging-1.html) The third anniversary is leather (kinky!), perhaps Lenn would have been better chosing a meritage blend where at least we would have got some aromas of leather - sweaty saddles etc etc. But actually I prefer this selection - Naked Chardonnay, or unoaked, unwooded, however you prefer it called. Chardonnay has become slightly un"trendy" of late, with many drinkers moving to Sauvignon, especially Kiwi Savvy or, certainly in the UK, Pinot Grigio has been the most popular choice.

The wine Ive chosen for this is from Australia, a country often blamed for turning people off chardonnay with its identikit examples of overoaked, underachieving wines that flooded onto the market via the supermarket shelves. Now it seems that the tide has turned and many winemakers realised the error of their ways and are starting to produce cleaner, crisper examples that show of the fruit and not the oak staves or chips that they used to use. Cooler fermentation in stainless steel allows the character of the grape to shine. The wine is called Pitchfork Unwooded Chardonnay and its a second label, make exclusively for the on-trade by Chalk Hill Winery in the McLaren Vale of South Australia. The appellation is South Australia, so Im going to assume that they draw their fruit from across the state. The winemaker is French, Emmanuelle Requin-Bekkers (sounds more like an Afrikaner to me!), and judging by the wine, Id have a stab that she has had some experience in Burgundy, possibly around Chablis. (Just googled her and it turns out shes worked in most of Frances wine regions - Bordeaux, Burgundy, Languedoc, Loire and Bandol to name a few!)

The wine has a pale lemon colour with a thin watery rim, on the nose there is quite a medley of aromas including green apples, green melon ( a touch under-ripe) and citrus - pomello perhaps or ruby grapefruit. There is also quite a strong floral element - white flowers -cant quite place it. I cant find any hint of butteryness or creamy aromas so Im going to have a stab at saying this hasnt undergone any malo-lactic fermentation. On the palate it is crisp and clean with a pleasingly sharp acidity, similar flavours to the nose - apples and green melon with a more lemony citrus with a touch of kaffir lime and a slight hint of something herbal. It has a good length and makes very pleasant drinking. Id be quite happy to drink this on its own, but also think it would be nice with a touch of white fish. Quite reasonable, price wise as well, we are currently knocking this out by the glass in the Brasserie.

A good choice for a theme, and happy anniversary to WBW!

WBW 35 - Spanish Value Wines

Michelle and Kevin at my wine education (http://www.wine-girl.net/) are the hosts of this edition of Wine Blog Wednesday and they've chosen a cracker of a theme - Spainish Value Wines (under $10 which Im going to translate to £10 because for the moment the exchange rate is in our favour - yay!!).

Im going to do two wines - one white and one red.

The White - Is from the D.O. of Getariako Txakolina, which if I hadnt looked it up I would have guessed was in Greece. Actually its on the Northern coast of Spain around the city of San Sebastian. According to my copy of the Penin Guide, there were some 220 hectares of vineyards divided amongst some 17 bodegas, producing about 1.4 million litres of wine in 2004. Less than 3% is exported, the remainder supporting the strong domestic market for wines.

Txomin Etxaniz is one of the biggest holders of vineyards in the D.O. with about 30 hectares. The white is a blend of two grapes - Hondorrabi zuri (a white grape) and hondorrabi beltza ( a red one). Until 2005 these were the only two permitted varieties, but it seems that now they are allowed to grow Riesling, Chardonnay and Gros Manseng (must be a favourite of the Basques). As far as I can tell this is just the two Hondorrabi's. On the nose it has a refreshingly zesty aroma, sharp green apples and a sweetish kind of nectarine flavour. It gives the impression that its going to be sweeter than it actually is. On the palate it has a spritz - not sure if thats from bottling under CO2 or a touch of secondary fermentation. Very clean, crisp and dry, with citrus flavours more dominant, but elements of green fleshed melon too. Its very moreish, but finishes quite sharply and cleanly. I reckon this would be fantastic with a nice seafood paella or even just a fruits de mer platter. About £8 from Moreno wines.

The Red - Is from the D.O.Ca of Priorat, in the hills above Barcalona. Cellar Cal Pla is based in the village of Porrera, lower down on the volcanic slopes. The fruit comes from vineyards with parcels of vines as old as 100 years, but the average age is about 50 years old. The wine is a blend of Garnacha, Carenina and a dash of Cabernet Sauvignon, barrel fermented and aged for at least a year in mostly french oak. Aparently the wines are unfiltered when bottled, which I find surprising because the wine is crystal clear - deep ruby red colour with damsons and winter spices on the nose. On the palate the fruit is more dominant, with currants and blackberries upfront and a touch of peppercorn and nutmeg on the finish. The finish is quite long and it ends a bit spicily, which is why I often serve this by the glass with our duck breast with honey brioche and pink peppercorn crust. Its a lovely match! OW Loeb are knocking this out for under a £10.

So thats my contribution for this month, great choice of topic.

Wine Blog Wednesday 34 - Washington Cabs

Catie at ~Through the Walla Walla Grapevine~ came up with a great topic for this months WBW. Its an area that Ive had a soft spot for, for quite a while. But its an area that frustrates the hell out of me, because I cant find many wines from there here in the UK.



My first experience of a Washington wine was many years ago when I worked at Amaryllis. I was invited down to London to get together with the other Ramsay sommelier at their weekly tasting sessions in Petrus. James Hocking from the Vineyard Cellars had come across to show some of his wines to the assembled sommeliers. As their portfolio is of course predominantly Californian we ploughed our way through numerous Californian chards and then cabs before moving on to a few Oregon Pinots - (Beaux Freres, Ken Wright - yum yum!!) before we hit the motherlode. It was a Woodward Canyon Old Vines Cabernet 1998, and it struck me like a thunderbolt. Darkly intense fruit flavours, soft supple vanilla flavours more typical of French oak than the usual coconutty character often found from American oak. It tasted expensive! And it was in fact bloody expensive, coming in to the trade at over £30 a bottle. Ronan allowed me to get six bottles for the restaurant and I think I only ever sold two of them. Ive had a natural affection for the wines of the Pacific Northwest ever since then, subscribing to Winepress Northwest for a number of years, dreaming of the days when these great wines that I read about would be readily available in the UK. Im still waiting. About two years ago the Vineyard Cellars dropped their Washington agencies after the price hikes became unworkable. And there lies the fundamental problem for me.
Compared to California the wine industry in Washington is in its infancy, there are some phenominally good producers out there making some great wines. But they arent making anywhere near the quantities of the Californian winemakers, and coupled with a strong local market, there is no financial need to export. This means that the few wines that do make it to our shores tend to be very expensive. I look with envy at the Herbfarms winelist (http://www.theherbfarm.com/WineListPDF/HFWineList0606.PDF) chock full of great wines that Ive read about and may probably never get to taste, unless I can blag a trip out there!! But there is some sunshine on the horizon. Morris and Verdun supply the superb wines of Andrew Will, made by Chris Camarda, sourcing fruit from some of the best vineyards in the state. Unfortunately I could get my hands on any of it for this WBW.

So what am I going to post about. Well Ive completely failed to get hold of a Walla Walla Cabernet, so Im going to cheat a bit and blog about Canoe Ridge Merlot, from the Columbia Valley. Canoe Ridge is part of the Diageo portfolio and is apparently the largest single estate vineyard in Washington. The 2002 was quite a challenging vintage, very dry and warm, which had to be kept under control by drip irrigation to prevent the sugars from accumulating too much. On the nose it starts off a bit dull before opening up a bit with mulberry, redcurrants and I think im getting tomato leaf too. There is obvious oak influence with vanilla and a touch of toasted coconut flavours before a tobacco like richness takes over. On the palate it was more soft red fruits - perhaps slightly underripe raspberries and mulberry, with a rich victoria plum flavour in there too. The tannins are quite restrained with a touch of greenness about them at the finish. The length is somewhat short really and the wines finishes quite weakly. I have to say that for a new world merlot Im a bit disappointed really, I would expect a bit better. It wasnt cheap either, coming in at nearly £10 trade price.

I had hoped to do somewhat better for this edition of WBW, but alas thems the breaks.

Wine Blog Wednesday 33

Quite a challenge set for this months WBW - find and taste a mid-priced wine from the Languedoc-Roussillon region. For many years Ive heard this region being touted as the next big region, in much the same way that people say that Viognier is the new Chardonnay or that German Riesling is coming back into fashion. Now Im not be-littling the region. There are some truly great whites and reds from there that I love. But they are a right bastard to sell. Now many in the know say that L-R is the potential saviour of the French wine industry, because the AOC regs are a lot looser there, and varietal labeling is permitted. These days of supermarket wine knowledge - variety is king. But you see the big problem that I have is that few of the wines that I know and love are mono-cepage, most of them are blends of anything and everything that the winemaker could plant or get his mitts on. Most of the predominant varieties are of course Rhone varieties. Carignane, Cinsault, Grenache (noir and blanc), Syrah, Mourvedre, Marsanne, Rousanne, Picpoul, Bourboulenc, Lladoner Pelut etc etc. Increasingly the more commercially viable grapes are starting to increase in plantings - Cabernet, Merlot and of course Chardonnay.

For many years the wines of this region have been the workhorse wines of France. I remember at college buying £3 bottles of Corbieres, Fitou, Minervois etc at the corner shop. These rustic red wines were amongst my first reds as I made the cautious transition from white wine to red. For all their cheapness, they were always very drinkable wines full of warming summery flavours, giving me the mental image of drinking in the garrigue amongst the scrublands of the region, sun beating down on me as I gaze over the med.

Later when I went to work for Malmaison I was introduced to more expensive wines of the region. Domaine d'Aupilhac, Domaine de l'Arjolle, Domaine Piccinini, Chateau St Martin de la Garrigue all good mid-range wines, exotic, food orientated wines that worked really well with the provincial style menu we had at the time. Finally working at Amaryllis I got to know the big boys of the region - Prieure St Jean de Bebian, Mas de Daumas Gassac, Domaine de la Grange des Peres, Domaine de la Rectorie, Puech-Haut. But they never sold, and here now, I have very little from the region on my list. In fact at the moment I have one lowly wine, a Picpoul de Pinet from Chateau St Martin de la Garrigue that I just love for its fresh, lipsmacking style (in fact isnt that what Picpoul means - lipstinger?)

So for this challenge I have to raid my cellar again. (it hasnt half taken a hammering recently!) I know that somewhere lurking at the back of my stash is a Collioure from Domaine de la Rectorie that I bought before leaving the Mal, many years ago. Ive no idea what kind of nick it is in, truthfully I dont know if it will age well, I think its a 98 vintage, but it could be older. Im sure Ive got a bottle of Bronzinelle from Chateau St Martin that only just falls into the price bracket, but its right at the back under a couple of boxes of Claret and I cant be arsed to dig it all out. I know also that Ive got a Montpeyroux from d'Aupilhac lurking in there as well, also a 98, but in the end Im going to settle for a Domaine de l'Arjolle Paradoxe, bugger me if this isnt also a 98.

Based in the Cotes de Thongue in a village called Pouzolles, Louis-Marie Tesserenc can quite rightly be called a trailblazer. Amongst the first in the region to adopt new methods, new varieties, constantly pushing the boundaries forward for the betterment of his wines and those of the region. Domaine de l'Arjolle now produces some twelve or so different wines, the majority of which are vineyard blends of traditional Languedoc varieties and more commercially viable varieties like Cabernet, Merlot and Sauvignon. Paradoxe is a blend of four - 40% Syrah, 25% each of Cabernet and Merlot and a generous 10% of Grenache finishes the blend off. It spends a whole year (sometimes a touch more) in new French oak sourced from two tonnellerie in the region. The wine has a rich smoky character, with dense black fruit flavours with a touch of stewed fruit character about them. There is a white pepper tinglyness on the nose as well which offsets the oak character quite nicely. On the palate the wine is still very firm, a rich medley of fruit, spices and slightly leaner tannins than I had anticipated. The length though is amazing, the spices and a kind of mulberry fruit flavour seem to linger on the palate for ages, warming the tongue nicely. I could just about manage a glass or two of this wine on its own, but it would seem criminal not to pair it off with some nice roasted lamb, thyme and rosemary roasted potatoes and some lightly minted peas.

Ive had a quick look at their website (all in French www.arjolle.com) and they have changed the bottle to a taller bordeaux style bottle. Although that would be easier to rack, the bottle this wine comes in is just fantastic - a squat dumpy bottle - a bit fatter than the bottle Dagueneau uses for Silex.

A great topic for Wine Blog Wednesday as the region is often overlooked.

Wine Blog Wednesday 32 - Argie Malbec

Tesco's offerings were quite poor, but luckily Ed from Boutinot came to the rescue when he sent in two samples of Argentinian Malbec. Both come from Nieto Senetiner, the first is the entry level Santa Isabel, the other is the Reserva Malbec.

Nieto Senetiner Santa Isabel Malbec - Mendoza, Argentina.
Really vibrant nose, raspberries, wild strawberries, a hint of violet cremes, with a spicy finish - star anise? On the palate this wine is smooth, the same fruity flavours, with more of a cherry like finish - thinking bon maman cherry preserves. There are some tannins to the wine but they are really smooth and quite well integrated into the wine. I quite like this wine, its young (2006) fresh and fruity. This one is coming in at about £3.50 trade price, so it would be listed for around £18 on the list. I would be really happy to pay that in a restaurant for this wine.

Nieto Senetiner Reserva Malbec - Mendoza, Argentina 2004
Instantly it is possible to tell the difference. This has had some oak treatment, 10 months it seems in French oak (I got that from reading the label, my nose isnt that good!!). This is more dark fruit flavours - there are currants there, but there is also a fig jam like component to the aroma that takes a more dominant flavour. There is vanillin from the oak and a hint of something more exotic, cant place it but the closest flavour would be something like a chocolate ganache - rich, brooding flavours with a hint of coffee. It boasts a full degree of alcohol more than the Santa Isabel, but thats not really evident on the palate. The fruit and the vanilla mocha seem inter-twined, with a hint of cinnamon lightly sprinkled on top. Its got a longer finish, the tannins are more dominant, still very smooth, but the teeth are a touch more furry after drinking this than the Santa Isabel. I would probably serve this with food, whereas Id be happy to drink the Santa Isabel on its own. This one comes in at £5.05 trade price, meaning it would sit on the list somewhere around the £24 mark. Again Id be quite happy to be paying that for this wine, especially with a nice duck and beetroot salad.

So I guess the aim of this WBW is to see if the reserve wines offer better value than the "standard" wines. These are both good wines, and I think that each would have its own place. If I was having a garden party/bbq and wanted something easy drinking, gluggable and that would be nice on its own or with food I would choose the Santa Isabel. If I was sitting down in a restaurant with a nice meal and good company then I'd probably choose the Reserva. Turns out we are going to list the reserva on the Brasserie and Banqueting lists. So nice result for Ed!

Wine Blog Wednesday 32

My goodness how the time flies. This is a fantastic topic for a WBW - Regular wines versus Reserve Wines. In a market continually flooded with line extensions (in the lingo of the marketeers!) is it really worth the extra cash for the reserve bottling, can we taste/notice a discernable difference? This is our chance to put it to the test and see. I have to say that in many cases I think there are real differences, but sometimes Im not too sure. It seems like every year, Wolfblass to use a particular example, release a new line extention. I remember the days of Black Label being the tete de cuvee, then it was silver, the platinum, then diamond, whats next? Uranium, Australium, Profiterium??

Im going to have to give this one some serious thought tonight, nip into Tescos on the way home and see what I can find. Failing that I might resort to the old fall back of Burgundy - Village and Premier Cru.

Come back tomorrow to see how I get on!

Paul Masson White Wine Carafe.

Well this is my belated entry to Wine Blog Wednesday. After much searching I finally decided to spend my hard earned cash on this monstrosity. Back when I was still too young to legally drink, and in fact probably before I even was aware of alcohol, Paul Masson introduced their wines into the UK market. They were kind of unique in that they came in these carafe like containers and many people actually used them as flower vases and the like after they had drunk the contents. This was a happy time in the UK when Mateus Rose was probably the best selling wine in the UK and Prawn Cocktail, Black Forest Gateau and Steak Diane ruled menus the country over.

Im slightly alarmed at the label which actually doesnt specify a grape variety, and several hours of digging on the internet have led to to believe that it contains Chenin Blanc. Im going to trust what I read on the net, because to be honest there really wasnt much taste at all, chilling it made it slightly more palatable, but barely. There was a faint floral smell on the nose which I could really identify. The only saving grace was it was cheap. I paid about three quid something from tescos for this, and even at that small price, it was a rip-off. By the time you take out the duty, vat and cost of the bottle, label etc, you are talking about £1 worth of wine. Take the supermarkets profit away from that and I reckon this is about £0.40 worth of wine. The old adage that you get what you pay for is most definately true here. I paid nowt, and got less.

This challenge brought out the snob in me, and I dont really like to think like this, but honestly this was truly awful wine, I suspect only the novelty of the "bottle" encourages people to buy it. Certainly if I ever needed a vase I would probably buy a bottle and throw out the contents. It would be cheaper and better for my palate. Ive been spoilt working here and getting the opportunity to taste some absolutely fantastic wines, and so I just think that you shouldnt have to drink bad wine.

Wine Blog Wednesday 31

Its that time of the month again, and this themes quite a challenge. Ive somehow got to find a wine that isnt conventionally packaged. So something like a bag in box, can, tetrapak and any other funky packed wines that might be out there. Sounds easy, but actually its not. While I admit I could go out and find any number of B.I.B. wines, I really dont want to hae to buy a litre or more of wine, particularly a wine that I wouldnt really drink. Im afraid this challenge is bringing out the wine snob in me. Check back tomorrow to see if I can manage to find something.

Wine Blog Wednesday 30

How quickly they seem to come around. Only last week I was at the Australia day tastings down in London, where I managed to taste my way around some serious big Aussie shiraz from Hunter, Barossa, Alpine Valley in Victoria, Great Southern (Western Aus), Eden Valley, Limestone Coast, Langhorne Creek, Heathcote, Geelong and Mclaren. Most of it was fairly textbook stuff - big black peppery, dark stone fruity, monster tannins, BIG alcohol. A few of the better wines were more balanced and had a bit more complexity about them.

Brokenwoods Graveyard Shiraz for example had more restrained spicy tones, but dense black fruit flavours with fine oak influence and silkier tannins. It was also bottled under a screwcap which is quite a brave step for a wine that retails in excess of £50.

Gapsted wines based in the Alpine Valley of Victoria in Australia had a very interesting shiraz - the Ballerina Canopy Shiraz. The fruit comes from 200 hectares farmed near Whitfield in the King Valley. Low yields and the slightly cooler climate produce intensely flavoured fruit with rich fruitcake flavours and more subtle spicy tones. Two years in american oak adds a sterner tannic structure to the wine which balances nicely with the natural fruit sweetness. Its quite a big wine at 14.5%abv but theres balance so the alcohol doesnt burn.

Berton Family vineyards, based in the Eden Valley of South Australia have a massive range of wines, mostly at the volume end of the market. However their "flagship" wine is the Bonsai Shiraz, so named because after five years trying to establish the vines in the High Eden, the vines still looked like rootlings. The quartz that dominated the thin soil soaks up the sun by day and slowly releases it overnight acting like a kind of radiator, allowing the grapes to reach exceptional levels of ripeness. The low goblet shape of the vines keeps the yield low and the fruit quality high, producing an excellent wine. Ripe plummy fruit flavours with a touch of vanillin and crushed white peppercorns on the nose and palate. The tannins grip quite strongly just now, but this is a 2004 vintage, so it needs a bit of decanting now or ideally a couple of years slumber in a cellar. There is a rich spicy finish to the wine with a flavour that seems to linger on the palate for ages. Fantastic wine at a good price.

Thats about all I have time for just now, got to get ready for service. The boss is in tonight with the chef and the F&B manager to make sure we are all up to scratch. Best behaviour then boys.

Wine Blog Wednesday 29 - Biodynamic Wines

As Im on holiday this week, Im raiding my own "stash" for this edition of WBW. Luckily I have several bottles that qualify, probably more so than were I to raid the hotel cellars. Biodynamic wines are almost like the ultimate in niche wines. There is a lot of debate around the "effects" of biodynamic production, which follows the principles of agriculture laid down by Rudolf Steiner (of Steiner Schools "fame") in the 1800's. In a nutshell Biodynamic farming follows the cycles of the moon and hence the tidal flow of water to dictate when certain practices are carried out, planting, pruning, cropping etc. There is also a fairly strict set of dictates as to what treatments the plants may recieve, and that which comes from the soil is all returned to the soil. Practitioners of the method include the great and glorious of the wine industry across the world - Jacques Selosse, Didier Dageneau, Nicholas Joly, Ron Laughton, Jacques Seysses, Sybille Kuntz, Lalou Bize-Leroy, Aubert de Villaine, Alvario Palacios and many many more. A comprehensive list can be found at http://www.forkandbottle.com/wine/biodynamic_producers.htm which is quite fortutious as fork and bottle are the hosts of this months WBW. http://www.forkandbottle.com/wine/wblogwed/wbw_biodynamic_wine.htm
A quick look down that list shows that many of these wines are fairly expensive. They command high prices, and they regularly get them, with great reviews to boot. So maybe there is something to Biodynamic farming.

The wine that I chose for WBW is a Chambolle Musigny from Domaine Dujac. Its a premier cru from the lieu-dit of "les Gruenchers", from the 1985 vintage. I first came across the wines of Dujac when I was working at Amaryllis in Glasgow. One of our regulars was a "Parker-chaser", regularly seeking out high scoring wines. I was tipped off to this fact by one of my suppliers who also happened to supply him. From then on, Francis would give me advance information on the wines that Mr R. wanted, and I would then snap them up. It worked for everybody, except Mr R who had to pay restaurant prices instead of retail for the wines that he wanted.

As the wines are unfiltered it has a fine suspension of particles and there is quite a bit of sediment down the side of the bottle. Looking through the bottle the colour seems light and I can easily see through the bottle, possibly suggesting some colour loss. The ullage is about half an inch short of a full bottle, which is not great news, but not neccessarily bad news either. Ive got a bad feeling about this after taking the foil off, as there is quite a strong aroma of tca coming off the top of the cork. Phewwwwww, ewwwww!!!!!!!! I dont even have to pour any from the bottle to tell its corked. I havent had a stinker like that for a while, but man that is really bad.

Plan B - Didier Dagueneau Blanc Fume En Chailloux 1997. Yup nearly nine years old. Dagueneau is considered the wild man of the Loire Valley. Apparently standing over six foot tall, with a mane of shocking red hair, he cuts an impressive figure so Im led to believe. I have a friend who met him once who told me he ploughs his vineyards with a horse drawn plough! In the seven years now that Ive been doing this Ive watched his wines increase in price enormously. But they are worth it. Silex, his top cuvee from the Loire, now retails at about £50 a bottle. On a restaurant wine list it come in at over £100. For a white wine from the Loire thats really expensive. En Chailloux is/was his entry level pouilly fume. He stopped making it in around 2001/2. The colour is a light straw colour, bright and clear. On the nose there is a strong green apple aroma with gooseberry and an unusual, aroma that reminds me of the lemon fairy liquid that we use at home. The fruit is still quite dominant on the flavour, although it isnt very acidic any more. There is a wet slate minerality to the wine that shows nicely without the searing acidity that youthful vintages show. A damned fine wine, that drinks really well on its own now. Not sure it would be as good with food, without the acidity to freshen the palate, but nice easy drinking on its own.

Bit gutted about the Dujac, after just going back to it, the cork-taint is still way strong, but there is an animal character behind the wine, that smells like sweaty horse. Not sure that if it wasnt tainted it would be any good anyway.

Well that wraps up my contribution for this months WBW. Looking forward to the round up and cant wait for the next one!

Wine Blogging Wednesday 22

Well its here again, Wine Blogging Wednesday 22 is here, with what I have to admit has been a very interesting challenge. The theme of WBW 22 was red wine with an A.B.V. of less than 12.5%. Now I thought that having a cellar with in excess of a thousand bins might put me at a bit of an advantage in finding something, but as I posted earlier, boy was I wrong. I seriously struggled to find wines under 12.5, and I was on the verge of "bending" the rules a little and doing a red at 12.5% of which I had quite a few candidates, when I stumbled upon a bottle that was 12% on the nail. Excellent, but then I found another three bottles and suddenly I had to chose which to do, which made it a bit harder, but in the end I settled for a bottle of 1982 Branaire (Duluc-Ducru) a 4eme cru classe from St Julien. Formed from a piece of the Beychevelle estate in 1666, it was purchased in 1680 by Jean-Baptiste Braneyre, before being bequeathed through many generations of the family until the late 80's. Now run by a family society under the chairmanship of Patrick Maroteaux, it is a wine that is very much under-rated. The wine is known for its rich body, fragrant aromas, with a firm palate tempered by a soft underbelly.

The cork was a bit of a bugger to get out, splitting in three places, damn thing even confounded my Butlers thief. Its one thing that I really hate about opening old bottles, and I cant wait for all these wines we are bottling under screwcap now, to mature over the years, and twenty years from now to be able to open them with ease!! So once that battle was over a small sample was poured into a glass to examine. A very clear wine, starting to look a bit dull, with a pale brick red core and a browning rim which usually indicates a good degree of maturity. On the nose the wine was a bit stinky at first, with a kind of farmyard like aroma, but that soon disappeared and the wine opened out with aromas of spiced fruit cake with quite a fruity edge to it. I was pleasantly surprised by the build up of fruity flavours on the nose, and each time I went back to sniff something else was starting to show. On the palate it was clean and quite pronounced in flavour, with the Dundee cakey flavours followed by more berry fruit flavours wrapped in the very well balanced characters of new French oak. Time has mellowed the acidity right down, and the tannins have softened up as they pass across the gums like silk, supporting the fruit flavours but never dominating them.

I think I would describe this as quite a feminine St Julien compared to more brutish Gruaud-Larose and Lagrange. I have to say that I was really impressed with this wine, more so than the 1989 which I also tasted tonight, but as it came in at 12.8% it wasnt eligable. Its on our list as Bin 230 at a not inconsiderable sum of £120 a bottle, but I really believe it is worth every pound of it.

I cant wait to read some of the other posts and see what wonderful wines the blogosphere has come up with.

Wine Blog Wednesday

Ive been into blogs recently. It all started when i came across waiterrant.net. That guy has such an amazing narrative style, and he has a skill at storytelling that seems to know when to tell a funny story, a heartrending story, a moral story or a bitchy story. I can so relate to many of the blogs as obviously i work in the industry, and although for the most part the customers over here are much better behaved that their continental cousins in the US, I experience similar scenarios on a regular basis.
Anyway that blog got me into the whole scene, and from there I discovered a world of wineblogs which led me to Wine Blog Wednesday. If I understand the concept correctly, each month a blogger hosts WBW and gets to choose the subject. Then everyone writes a short blog about the experience on their own blogs, and the results are collated by the host blogger. It's sharing knowledge in a 21st century fashion, it's instant, topical and massively entertaining.
Which brings me to this post. This months topic is whites other than Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Riesling. So the idea is to go out and taste something that fits the brief then write a short tasting note about the wine, post it on your blog then share it with everyone. So here goes.

The wine that i have chosen is Saxenburg's Guinea Fowl White 2005, which is a blend of Chenin Blanc and Viognier from the Stellenbosch. The bottle has a really smart presentation of a long white label with a spotted guinea fowl feather on it.

On the nose its a very aromatic style of wine, tropical fruit with citrus, the viognier comes through with that kind of white peach aroma with a slightly candied edge to it. On the palate there is a hint of fruit sugar pushing the wine towards off dry, its very crisp and clean with vibrant fruity flavours, a slight spritz on the tongue and a lusciously long lingering finish that seems again to have a hint of sweetness about it.

This is a stonking summer quaffing wine, and it goes really well with all sorts of food as well. We had it paired with a mutton dish on a recent gourmet dinner we did with Adrian Buhrer from Saxenburg estate, and it went down a storm.

Well thats my contribution to WBW #20, and I look forward to reading more and hopefully finding a few new things to try.