Domaine de la Tour Vieille, Collioure "puig oriol" 2005

Served as part of the Wines of Southern France gourmet evening last night. Simon paired a lovely little date, raisin and mature cheddar "burger" with this as the cheese course. It was following a 2000 Domaine de Trevaillon, so I was slightly dubious as to whether it would have the strength to follow it, but it coped really well and drew a lot of positive comments.

The wine is a blend of mostly grenache (70%) with rest being syrah. The town of Collioure nestles on the cusp of the Spanish border in the heart of the Basque region of France and it seems to have a very Spanish influence to its flavours. The wine exhibits strong bramble fruit flavours with a savoury influence, quite sun baked in character. The alcohol sits at 14.5% and it is quite evident on the nose with a prickly tingling on the old nostril hairs, but on the palate the wine is perfectly balanced, the medium tannins holding the flavours together and seemingly keeping the alcohol in check. The length is quite long with summery black berry flavours giving way to an almost savoury garrigue-y herbal finish of thyme and peppercorns. While it certainly worked quite well with the cheese, this would be a cracker of a wine for something like a roasted leg of lamb with plenty of rosemary and thyme. While as an 05 it was certainly drinkable it would definately benefit from a year or two of slumber in the cellar.

Domaine St Gayan Gigondas 2003

One of a bevvy of new wines that we recently listed from Yapp brothers. This had a fantastically purple colour to it, with a slightly lighter rim than the core. On the nose there was a rich medley of berries, damsons and an aroma that had me thinking of a nice piece of medium rare fillet (well maybe I was just hungry!). There are hints of spices in there too, including (pink?) peppercorns and allspice. Mostly Grenache, with a dash of syrah, a drop of mourvedre and a teeny, tiny drip of cinsault (1%), its fermented in old concrete vats before its aged for at least a year in second fill french oak. Apparently its a huge favourite of a certain Mr Robert Parker Jnr, but dont let that put you off!!

Yapp Brothers.

Last week I had a tasting with Hannah from Yapp brothers. I used to deal with Yapp many years ago at Amaryllis, although the guy I dealt with was Will Baber. Yapp have a great list, very eclectic, and their two main specialities are Loire and Regional France. They are also pretty hot on the Rhone two, so I guess that have three specialities. Hannah brought along a selection of Loire whites - a Sancerre, a Quincy and a Menetou, she brought a picpoul and a cracking red from Australia. Its not often that I would sit and taste so many wines and want to list every one of them, but thats what happened here.

Out with the old and in with some new.

Im going to get into a spot of bother over this Im sure, but Im bringing on a few new suppliers. Im trying to separate the Arkle from the Brasserie and completely sever the two lists. That means that I need to change about fifteen wines. To make sure that we dont cross over Im bringing in two new suppliers. Now Ive worked with them both in the past, so Im familiar with their wines. Theres some new vintages obviously, and a few new agencies and even a few new ranges to look at, which is all jolly exciting. The first is a London operation, Domaine Direct. Their list is predominantly Burgs, but some good white burgs, which we are going to need soon enough. Theyve also got the Leeuwin Estate wines, which are wallet frightening expensive but bloody good. The other supplier Im going to bring on is Yapp brothers. They've got an amazingly eclectic selection of wines from France - Languedoc, Collioure, Palette, Cassis, as well as some cracking Rhones, Loires and Alsace wines. Theres much more from their list that I plan to list.

Accounts are going to go nuts, because we already have something like 36 different liquor suppliers, some supplying us with loads, but many just a few wines. But if we wish to maintain a list of the standard we have, then you have to shop around.