Wine of the Month - Deptford and Diploma!

My goodness this month has whizzed by! I am currently in week four of the Diploma and have learnt and am learning an awful lot about pruning, pests, soil and other things that someone without a garden or green fingers struggles to really be fascinated by. However when the outcome is understanding the process of how to create beautiful wine and not dried up cherry tomatoes (currently raisined on my balcony) with no responsibility for myself to actually water anything then I plough (of course not literally) through and strive to understand! And hopefully reach the next part of the course sooner, which involves drinking said wine. But that won't happen if I am late again to my course, crossing the river when what hardly ever happens, happens.

Frustratingly the boat was really quite small (hence no photo) and the mast looked just a couple of inches too high forcing the bridge to open.

So a busy month what with the studying but also the FIRST EVER Deptford and New Cross Wine Club! It was a very fun event, taking place at the Albany in Deptford. I met some lovely people and everyone said they really liked the wine and learnt lots! Here is what we had, plus cheeses and charcuterie.

Not sure what my favourite was but one of them is one of the Wines of the Month! Anyway the next Wine Club is taking place on May 13th. There is more information about it here.

So the Wines of the Month are...

The first featured sweet wine, the Sauternes mentioned above. This is absolutely brilliant. It has a deep gold and beautiful botrytis nose with honey, apricot and a bit of walnut. It was creamy and unctuous on the palate with flavours of peach and creme brulée. It had beautiful balance and a very long crisp citrus finish. We did a classic pairing with Stilton, delicious! Very good value from a Premier Cru Classé producer, amazing value at £12 a half bottle!

The next wine is a very likeable, easy to drink, extremely reasonably priced Australian Shiraz Cabernet. This was tasted at the Wine Society's Wizards of Oz tasting at Lord's Cricket Ground last week. Taylors Wines Promised Land Shiraz Cabernet 2013. Very promptly a few of these bad boys were purchased! This is not an overly complex wine but it is smooth and well balanced with lovely rich black fruit flavours and soft vanilla from oak. A light touch of pepper and a roundness that develops the more you drink it. I felt amongst all the others I tried that this was a bit different and very likeable. Good value too at £7.50.

So back to the viti-studies for me, writing paragraphs on frosts, hmmm.

Gadget Time!

This month I would like to introduce you to the Steady Sticks! With summer soon upon us and the threat of nice weather, wouldn't these be lovely in the park or garden or just somewhere outside with a patch of grass, or even doing a festival in style! Available at Amazon I believe.

Wine of the Month - Serbian and Vivino Adventures and an Intro to Deptford & New Cross Wine Club!

This month has been full of wine adventures so it has been extremely difficult to choose my wines of the month, but they shall be revealed at the bottom of this post.

Right at the end of February and the beginning of March I had the fantastic opportunity and privilege to be taken to Belgrade in Serbia and present two talks on New Technologies in Education at their second national annual conference, with a focus on Inclusion. I won't bore you with the details but needless to say it was an ideal opportunity to sample the wines of Serbia! There is not a great deal written about Serbian wines and when I asked my WSET level 3 tutor, a Master of Wine for any recommendations she couldn't give me any. I learned that Prokupac is a native Serbian grape and Vranac is a grape from the area of the former Yugoslavia, they are both red grape varieties. However there are many areas in Serbia where they plant more international grape varieties, Pinot Noir, Gamay and more recently Merlot and Cabernet to produce more Bordeaux style wines. I was very keen to try the more native wines. So here we all are having (well most of us) our first taste of Prokupac at the very beautiful Kalemegdanska Terasa, a restaurant situated inside the Kalemegdan Fortress next to Belgrade Zoo.

We started our meal with the traditional throat burning aperitif Rakija, I had the quince flavour, it was definitely alcoholic. Back to the wine, this Prokupac was very light and fruity, it was by the winery Temet and was a 2012 which has won some Serbian awards. It reminded me of a Pinot Noir because of it's lightness and affinity for oak, bringing that subtle vanilla quality to the wine. I had read that it was quite a heavy wine that is often blended with Pinot Noir or Gamay or made into rosé. There are now producers though that see it's qualities as a varietal wine and are producing it in a way that expresses these qualities. Interestingly, the following evening I tried a very different Prokupac that was much fuller and richer, more my style of wine. This was the 2012 Ivanović. This had more black fruit flavours and stronger sweet spice with a higher alcohol level but was incredibly smooth, it complimented the plates of local cheeses and smoked meats really well. I managed to buy a bottle of this in the supermarket and bring it back to the UK, it was much liked by everyone around the dinner table in London!

I got the opportunity to try the regional Vranac grape at the reception at the British Ambassador's Residence! There we had the option of many alcoholic beverages, with rather an emphasis on London Dry Gin. But the wines making the rounds were the red Vranac and a Serbian Chardonnay. The Vranac was the very popular Plantaže 2011. I asked the British Ambassador about it, he told me it was their local wine, I think his interests (he was drinking beer) probably lie elsewhere. This was a pleasant wine. Quite plummy with raw tannins but smooth, served way too cold though and without Ferrero Rocher.


My next exciting wine adventure was my enrollment on to the WSET level 4 Diploma. I now have a new bed time companion, well for the next 18 months. Very excited to start this on the 9th April.

The Decanter Mediterranean Fine Wine tasting at The Landmark Hotel in Marylebone was on the 7th March. The stand out wines for me were the Priorats. I tried some from the producers Sangenis I Vaqué, their Vall Por 2006 and Clos Monlleó 2005, both of which were deep and fruity with minerality and spice, such velvet tannins and lovely length. Their Clos Monlleó 2005 is grown on 80 year old vines and it takes 5 vines to make one bottle! The two sisters who run this winery are lovely and invited me to drop in on my next visit to North East Spain, I definitely want to!

On March 18th there was a small Vivino (wine app I am currently using) meet-up for a blind tasting where I got to meet some incredibly knowledgeable wine lovers and try some fantastic wines, all (well nearly all) at least 10 years old. I'm not the biggest fan of German Riesling but I think I'm slowly being turned as the two tasted on the night (Willi Schaefer Mosel Graacher Domprobst Spatlese Riesling 2006 and a Schloss Schönborn Rudesheim Berg Rottland Rheingau Erstes Gewachs 2001) were fabulous and I learned a great deal about the different kinds of Champagnes being produced (we tried 3, Charles Heidsiek Brut Réserve NV, Savart L'Overture Premier Cru Pinot Noir Brut NV and Pierre Gimonnet Special Club 2015) thanks to Derek of Hedonism Wines in Mayfair and Champagne Spy (both Champagne expert GB Vivino users). We did a blind tasting of 3 and the differences of each style were so clear, a real eye opener! We also tried a lovely Tondonia White Rioja 1999, a 2005 Cloudy Bay Chardonnay a 1998 Château Leoville Barton (my Christmas Magnum wine!). I brought along a 2005 Saint Damien Gigondas (another Christmas wine) and to finish a lovely sweet Antic Rivesaltes Ambré 1985. A fine selection indeed! Lots of these wines are available to buy from Hedonism Wines in Mayfair.

 Beforehand at Hedonism wines I got to taste some classics, a Napa Château Montelena 2011, a small taste of a 1999 Château D'Yquem (bucket list wine!) and a 1996 Château Cheval Blanc (another bucket list!). My blood at the end of that night had certainly gone up in value!

Me and my contribution to the event!

Finally my very exciting wine news is that I am starting a Wine Club, The Deptford and New Cross Wine Club. A fortnightly meet-up for wine lovers in Deptford and New Cross, though of course anyone from anywhere is welcome! This will take place at The Albany in Deptford and will be a two hour tasting session featuring at least 6 wines. The first three sessions will be introductions to France. Session 1 will be exploring Champagne, The Loire Valley and Bordeaux. There will be a very multi-sensory approach in this club, aiding members to discover flavour and aroma characteristics, colours and pairings. To find out more or book tickets if you are interested go here!

To prepare for these events I have been trialling a few wines, some known to me and some new ones. One of these wines is one of my wines of the month. This is in the higher priced bracket and is this month's red wine. It is the Château Tauzinat L'Hermitage Saint-Émillion Grand Cru 2009, a great vintage year. Such a beautiful, welcoming nose, with sweet spice, that characteristic earthiness with full bodied blackberries and cherries in the mouth. Silky tannins and gorgeously smooth and such great value at around £15. This will be featured at the wine club. The final wine is the Marquis de Pennautier Chardonnay 'Terroirs d'Altitude' 2013. This is £8.24 and is also amazing value in my opinion, very reminiscent of a Burgundian white, subtle enriching oak and great citrus with well balanced acidity lending it that delightful crispness. Santé!

Gadget Time!

Another fantastic product from Quirky. This is the Icecap.
You get in from work, feel like a glass of that Albariño, oh no, forgot to put it in the fridge! Should you put it in the freezer for 20 minutes? Hang on, the Icecap is in the freezer! Take it out, pop it on to your glass, pour through that Albariño, aerating as it goes. Served perfectly chilled! Soon available to buy at the new Château Canard shop!

Plentia di Primitivo di Puglia!

If I cut myself would I bleed Primitivo? A question I asked myself a few times during my February Bari mini-break. A new found love of this wine has now emerged. However there is an interesting element of controversy surrounding this grape. It has exactly the same DNA profile as Zinfandel, the Italians insist that the grape originated in Italy but more recent evidence has emerged that both grapes are actually a clone from a Croatian grape called... Crljenak Kastelanski! Might just go with the Italians on this one for pronunciation's sake.

Lovely Bari, lovely weather!

On our first night we really landed on our feet by going for dinner at a small lounge-restaurant called Blanc de Noirs, a homage to the wonderfully friendly owner Franceso's love of Champagne and time spent studying wine in France. He was extremely keen to showcase the great local Puglian wines. Each was 15 euros a bottle or 3 euros for a (very generous) glass. I had done a bit of research and was very keen to try Nero Di Troia, Negroamaro and of course Primitivo, and while we were south I was keen to try my first Aglianico del Vulture as I had heard such great things about it. That evening I got the chance to taste the first three. Two of the wines were slightly reductive, but after a bit of time and swirling their true flavours came through. The first wine was the Nero di Troia, Poderi D'Agostino, I think it was a 2011. This was a lovely rich wine with beautifully smooth tannins and well balanced acidity. It had flavours of black cherry and pepper and was delightful with the bruschetta! We then moved on to the 2011 Negroamaro by Cantine Due Palme. This was a less complex and smooth wine which smelt of glacier cherries! It was very pleasant but lacked the sophistication of the first wine. We ended on the highly anticipated Primitivo, 2010 Muro Sant'Angelo Gioia del Colle. This had an alcohol content of 16%!! But you couldn't tell. It was earthy and complex, incredibly well balanced, with lovely notes of liquorice and forest fruits, was very moreish! Unfortunately I can't find any retailers of these wines outside of Italy.

The following evening's dinner was therefore very much required to be accompanied by more Primitivo! I had vowed to leave the 16 percenters behind me but a little gem came highly recommended - what can you do! So we had the Cubadi Salento Primitivo 2011. My goodness, this was molte bueno! It was rich and creamy, dark chocolate cherry liquors raised their heads along with sweet spice and mild anise, it just got better with every mouthful! This is the only wine I have written about that you can buy in the UK, but if I had to choose just one, this would be it.

The next day we went to the famous Trullo town of Alberobello. This was a different kind of sensory experience.

Here I am, check out the houses!

But, hang on, what is that by the train station?!

The Albea Wine Museum! It's like they knew I was coming! We arranged for a little private tour and tasting after the hobbit houses. The Albea Museum is attached to the Albea winery which is a rather small but quality winery. The incredibly welcoming and knowledgeable (with fab English) Tomas showed us around and brought out some good wines for us to try after showing us the winery, below.

Tomas was brutally honest, admitting that the Italians preferred to use American oak barrels because they don't like the French! But they did have some French oak, so they can't hate them that much. Their premium wine is Cantina Albea Lui, we had the 2008 which they don't have any more of. Surprisingly after having so many great experiences with Primitivo it was an interesting choice that this wine was produced with the Nero di Troia grape. This is their premium wine due to the time spent in their small oak barrels which could be either American or French depending on the grape quality at harvest. I was impressed with their Primitivo Rose, the Petrarosa Special Cuvee 2013. This had lovely aromas of roses and red berries. Delicious strawberry on the palate and a wine I believe could live up to many different meals and occasions.

That evening, guess what we drank?! Actually I got my chance to sample the Aglianico del Vulture, it was a 2009 Amorosso. I have to say I was a tad disappointed. The tannins were a bit too grippy but it did have a lot of earth and farmyard aromas which indicated to me that maybe this bottle was opened a little too early as it was bought at a fabulous traditional Puglian restaurant Terranima.

The final day was spent doing my second favourite thing after drinking wine, shopping!

Unfortunately I had to wait until I got to the airport before I could buy the best cheese in the world - burrata! Happily, as that has now been consumed I have discovered that you can buy it in Waitrose!


Gadget Time!

The incredibly talented Stuart Gardiner has a range of wine products. These are my favourites:


The wine and food pairing tea towels! I know these are not strictly gadgets, but they are amazing. Soon they will be available to buy from the Chateau Canard shop which will be going live in the next few weeks!

A Five Hour Seasalter Symposium

Finally my Sportsman post! This was one of the most fun and imaginative tasting menus I have ever experienced so has to get a post dedicated to it. Better late than never!

The last weekend in January (my birthday weekend) was spent mostly in the Sportsman Pub in Seasalter near Whitstable. It is a very low key one Michelin starred pub. However word has spread over the 15 years it has been around and I had to book the table months in advance.

They offer a £65 tasting menu which consists of about 10 small courses. Each one was so original and creative and everything is sourced from very close by, within just a few miles. Absolutely all the food is prepared on site and the wine list is great (no whining this time!). With most wines at around £20-£30 a bottle, and all chosen with great care and pairings in mind. Five of us opted for the tasting menu and two of the party with two small children had the a la carte being unsure they could entertain the little ones for four hours in a restaurant! This was very accommodating of the restaurant as usually the whole party would be required to take the tasting menu.

So we started off with a Picpoul, anticipating oysters! But what about Champagne, I hear you cry! No worries, I'd already had a go at that back at the beach cottage we were staying in in Whitstable. We toasted the anniversary of my birth with a bottle of vintage 2006 Piper-Heidsieck kindly and expertly recommended to me by an avid Champagne lover. It was fab, a wonderful golden colour with all the marvellous brioche, bready traits with the crisp apple and citrus coming through leaving a long and very satisfying finish. A champagne I will definitely remember!

So back to the Picpoul, this wine has the best name ever! Baron De Badassiere! We had the 2013. It was clean and crisp, with well balanced high levels of acidity, flavours of pear and lovely layers of minerality. Complimented the oysters perfectly.

Victoria finding an oyster difficult to swallow!

Before the oyster we had an amazing egg with smoked eel and parsley sauce.

And following these courses were many many more! Not in any particular order!
Braised cabbage with mustard.

Roast partridge with celeriac risotto.

We also had some beautiful local roast lamb, crab and carrot in Hollandaise and wonderful homemade sourdough, focaccia and soda bread accompanied by house churned butter with salt from the sea! For dessert there was a beautiful apple soufflee and we just about had room for these! What a lovely surprise!!

So the wine! We got through quite a lot more after the Picpoul!I didn't make notes on all of them (it was my birthday!) but I would highly recommend all of them!


Runnymede Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2014 - A proper NZ SB! A full on nose of grass, pineapple, lime with that custom hint of asparagus. All these flavours more subtle on the palate. A well balanced characterful wine. Paired well with the risotto.

Logeril (Pennautier) Mas de Montagnes Cotes du Roussillon Villages 2011 - wonderfully smooth, red and black fruit flavours. This is a producer who can do no wrong in my eyes! Went great with the lamb.

Las Olas Torrontes 2013

Paolo Leo Primitivo di Manduria 2010

So a great time had by all and a rather wobbly meander back to Whitstable along the coast afterwards! Will have to call now to book ahead for next time!

The Gadget!

In keeping with the seaside theme here is my favourite corkscew!

Wine of the Month - Viré Bizarre

Here is my second Wine of the Month post! This post shall be following the rules this time.
Following the indulgent Seasalter birthday weekend (to be posted about soon), February has had quite a lackluster beginning. However, the following two wines have helped brighten up this period, one with it's label alone!

Both wines chosen are from very different regions. Starting with the red. The chosen red this month is Porta 6 2012 produced in the Lisbon area of Portugal. I was lucky enough to stumble across this wine at the Three Wine Men event in London just before Christmas. I was directed to the Majestic stall to try a red Maçonnais but couldn't help but be attracted to this bottle!

And thankfully the wine within was fairly reflective of the activity on the bottle. I found it to be smooth, medium bodied with a good level of integrated tannins. It had a multitude of flavours, including blackcurrant, red berries some violet and a pleasant touch of tar. It is a very easy drinking wine and would pair well with pork or a more rustic paté, and possible a paté featuring Port as this wine is made from the grapes Castelão, Tinta Roriz and Touriga Nacional, which are all grapes that are used in the production of port. At £6.66 (when you buy two at Majestic) this is a very good value wine, as is a lot of Portuguese wine.

There also happens to be a story behind the label. The label has been designed and created by an artist from Lisbon who I believe paints scenes of Lisbon city life. The gentleman in the doorway is real life Lisboan (not sure if that is the right terminology for someone from Lisbon!) who gave his permission for his likeness to be used on the bottle as he engaged in his daily street cooking. It makes for a very attractive label and the city tram is a nice touch.

The second wine of the month is a Burgundy. It seems to me, for some, that Chardonnays in the Maçon region and surrounding areas are often seen as the poorer relation of their Burgundian older, posher, more expensive family member, Meursault (along with some of the other Northern Burgundy Chardonnays). I personally am a huge fan of Maçon Chardonnay and some of the villages there knock out some truly class wine; Lugny, Uchizy and many more. Travel a very small distance south and you arrive at Viré-Clessé. They do Chardonnay very well there too, particularly at the Domaine André Bonhomme. They have a range of Chardonnays, old vine, aged, botrytised, and varying prices to match. The wine chosen from them this month is one of their less expensive wines, but does not taste inexpensive, that's for sure! It is their basic AOC 2012 (not 2010 in photo).

 

It has wonderful aromas of honey, lime and peach. The malolactic fermentation adds a luscious buttery sensation in the  mouth and gives it a lovely full body. It is a dry wine, but with such a refined balance the acidity doesn't strike you and there is a slight welcome off-dry impression. The barrel ageing adds a subtle oak flavour leaving a beautiful clean, crisp and lengthy finish. This wine is available to buy at some UK retailers and is about £14 (could not find the 2012 unfortunately, but other vintages are great too), which I think is superb value. It would probably pair well with smoked salmon, cooked salmon and spaghetti carbonara!

It is bottled on site, and what a site that is! Having visited the Domaine it is definitely one of the most memorable. On arriving through their gates in to the court yard, you are surrounded by huge bird cages full of exotic parrots and budgerigars and any other species that should probably be living in the Amazon, and some yapping dogs. This welcome is matched with an equally lively one from the owners who escort you lovingly into their little dark sales cellar, which they spend a lot of time trying to keep the dogs out of. When you do decide to purchase many cartons of their wine it is best to use a cheque or cash as, as much as they insist their card machine works it never gets a signal (well not in the three separate instances I've been there!). Despite the chaotic Domaine this is as smooth, refined and sophisticated wine you will get in those parts - I promise!

 Santé

Gadget Time!

As promised, a featured gadget or gizmo. This post presents to you the Vine from Quirky. 

 

For those of you with short fridge door shelf spaces, this is perfect! It rests your wine (the right way up) on your fridge shelf, or even on a kitchen surface without fear of movement and looks good too! 

Wine Geekery and Gadgetry

It's happened, I'm becoming a Wine Geek, well either that or a Wine Bore. Geek is preferable though. My sister has given me time slots to talk about wine, outside of these times wine is not to be mentioned. This is proving to be quite difficult. What did I talk about before this growing interest in wine? This is quite a worrying question and an additional hobby may be required.

However this blog is about wine so I can chat about it to my heart's content here and at any future events we do. (Really hope to do one in the next couple of months). But to indulge my geekery and try not to be a bore each of my posts will end with an interesting wine gizmo, because, hey who doesn't love to accessorise!

Presenting the Tether Lasso!



Unfortunately it only appears to be available in The States but what an amazing invention! No more worries about dishwasher wine glass breakage! I want some, and I don't even have a dishwasher!

The Whine List

Before I start, I have to say that the vast vast majority of my wine experiences are positive, even when I may not like a wine, I will always look for appreciation of it and think about why it may not be of my personal taste. An example of this is Vin Jaune from the Jura. I met loads of incredibly friendly, enthusiastic producers at the Vignerons Independents exposition in Paris last year but I bloody can't stand that wine! However I know it isn't a bad wine, it is just a certain style and let's face it, probably quite an acquired taste as you don't see it in any restaurants or shops here (let me know if you do please!).

Anyway, I like to think I am thoughtful and mindful when considering the qualities of a wine without just dismissing it as being bad or cheap without any justification. It is with this mindfulness that leads me to my big whine; wine lists in pubs. Not old man pubs and not the top end gastro-pubs but the pubs, the, particularly round my way Antic pubs, the we-serve-really-nice-food but the wine is an after-thought pubs. Trying hard here not to sound like a wine snob, but I'm finding it increasingly difficult to buy a lovely decent glass or bottle of wine in these types of establishments. I think the reason it frustrates me so much is that in the world there is so much wonderful good value wine, I just feel all these places are really missing a trick, however I expect there are brewery politics to contend with in many places. But next time I'm in a pub drinking a bottle of Rioja (not by myself), I'd rather it wasn't called Livor! (My problem, I know!)

So whine over. Some great wine lists I have experienced recently are:

Gong - Top O' the Shard, to you and I! A wonderful array of proper quality wines that actually for the location don't completely break the bank and taste amazing. First up is the Grüner Veltliner, Prager ‘Hinter der Burg’, Wachau, Austria, 2012. 

 A wine with lovely mineral undertones and bags of citrus with a sprinkle of spice. A beautiful smooth refreshing white wine. We then moved to the dark side and wow! The Shaw & Smith Shiraz, Adelaide Hills, Australia, 2012.

This was chocolaty, oaky, subtle dark berries, the most velvety tannins. A total knockout!
Here is my friend Victoria (another knock out, coincidentally she did teach me how to box!), very happy drinking some in the highest bar in Europe!

The Rivington, Greenwich - I have had issue with the weird offally food this place offers and the beans on toast they did at some point, but I do have some strange food issues so I'm going to attempt to get over them. Anyway, I'm happy to visit this this place not to eat, the wine list is great! A white Musar, well I have to try that! They have the great Tandem Syrah (Mentioned in the Morocco post) but I tried the red Bacio-cielo (Kiss the sky), Conciliis 2011, an Aglianico Barbera blend. It had a lovely depth, with a definite sweet cherry flavour with a hint of leather and well integrated tannins. A very good wine, makes me want to go back and try the rest!

So next on my Wine Hit List is The Sportsman in Seasalter. I am beyond excited about going there for my birthday in two weeks, I mean, they sell my favourite Viognier from a fairly small producer! They definitely have taste!

If you have a wine list you've loved recently please let me know.

Wine of the Month - A New Dawn for Dornfelder?

As part of the blog I am going to introduce a Wine of the Month post which will feature two wines. One, a mid-range (£5-£10) bottle, easily available and the other a high to premium priced  (£10-£30) bottle which could be a little more difficult to get hold of.


Throughout December and so far in January I have experienced some fabulous wines, as you will have seen in the Christmas post and easily all of them could be Wines of the Month. However for January I have chosen two.

On the way back from Germany after the New Year celebrations I had some time to kill in Hamburg Airport. Now, I wouldn't usually buy food or alcohol in airports as their mark-ups are utterly ridiculous and make you kick yourself for not having made time for proper shopping beforehand but as I only had hand luggage there was no possibility of buying wine to take back to London at any other point in the trip so my purchases are well justified!
I was pleasantly surprised by the German wine selection in the airport shop. There were many kinds of Eiswein, lots of Pinot Noir and Rieslings but also a couple of Dornfelders. The 2012 Dr. Loosen Mosel Reisling Eiswein and a 2012 Anselmann Dornfelder from Pfalz made it into my basket after much perusing.
These were then debuted at a family dinner the following evening. No one around the table (myself included) had drank a wine made with the Dornfelder grape before. I had my suspicions that the reason for this was probably because Dornfelder did not really make particularly good wines, well that was instantly disproved! But since hearing that Dornfelder is one of the only black grapes that is being planted in the UK I have been very curious about it.
One place that currently sells it is Bolney Estate in Sussex and a gentleman I met at the Winchester Wine Festival from the Danebury Vinyards in Hampshire informed me that they were growing it there. This Anselmann Dornfelder had a beautiful violetty, floral nose, with less obvious notes of black fruit coming through, in the mouth there were plum and cherry notes with a sweet vanilla flavour from the time spent in oak barrels, without an overwhelming oaky taste and a lovely smooth creamy richness in the mouth, the tannins and acid were well integrated into the wine despite it being a young wine. It was very easy to drink and went well with our turkey pie (yep, still had some turkey left over!). Everyone was very impressed with this wine so it has been designated my first Wine of the Month, but has had to slip into the upper price bracket as although around 10 euro at the airport, it is more expensive when trying to buy it here.

Over now to the Dr. Loosen. Dr. Loosen is probably one of the most famous quality Mosel Riesling producers in Germany. There are always pictures of their bottles in the WSET accompanying texts, so it is for those reasons I selected their Eiswein, (Icewine - made from pressing frozen grapes) and because it was a Riesling. Some of the Eisweins on sale were made from different grapes and I was a bit skeptical about those as there are few grapes that have the versatility to make both great dry and sweet wines and I know that Riesling is definitely one of them, as is Chenin Blanc.

The Dr. Loosen was popped open after the turkey pie and luckily for me, while there was still (a rather large amount of) Stilton about. This was certainly an interesting wine, with a frisson of frizzante as is the case with many Rieslings. A great wine to end an evening on as it has a very low alcohol content of 6.5% due to the halting of fermentation to retain the sweetness and the fact that Rieslings tend to have a lower alcohol content coming from a cooler climate.

We all enjoyed the wine but felt that it was not such great value. At around £20 for a quarter bottle (yes, a quarter bottle!) it was a super-premium price. This is justified to an extent, producing Eiswein is very very costly and particularly on the steep high slopes of Bernkastel in the Mosel. It is labour intensive and you need to pay a lot to get pickers to drop whatever else it is that they are doing to harvest in below zero degree temperatures, often around Christmas time or New Year. I think the Canadian Icewine harvest just happened about 2 days ago actually.
From a purely drinking point of view though and for a quarter of the price I would opt for a Coteaux du Layon any day. Though this Eiswein did have some delicious notes of lime, it was very citrusy, in a lovely sweet way, there were also notes of honey and dried fruit. It is a very full-bodied, even syrupy wine and I thought that the petillance gave it another quite unusual dimension. A very good wine but I probably won't buy it again! But here it is, the smallest bottle of wine in the world! I should have put something next to it so you can see how small (cute, if not so pricey) is actually is!

The second Wine of the Month is made from a grape I mentioned earlier - Chenin Blanc. I have cheated with this wine. I first drank it in December and it costs £10.50, so 51p over budget. I apologise, but it is a sensational wine, easily available as you can get it in the co-op. I think it is excellent value for what it is and not your typical dry white wine either. Here it is:

A beautiful white Savennieres 2013, Domaine Des Forges, Le Moulin de Gue. Like a Vouvray, also from the Loire, this is a white wine that can age, but I felt on drinking, that it is perfect for drinking now. The wine has a deep  flavour which come with some oak ageing. There were lemon and apple flavours, but with a clean and rich minerality cutting through. I felt it to be complex, yet refreshing and full of flavour. I would suggest a meatier fish maybe with this wine, possibly monkfish, yet there was an underlying delicacy in this wine so it could well compliment a lighter more delicate fish such as sea bream and I imagine it would go very nicely with scallops.
So there we have it, my Wines of the Month. If you have the chance give them a go and I would love to hear what you think about them or any suggestions you may have.

A Very Berry Christmas and a Glucklich New Year!

So, this was Christmas and thanks to my growing knowledge of wine I had the privilege of selecting the vast majority of the Christmas wines! A challenge I was extremely excited to be undertaking. Also rather a difficult one as there was a lot to think about. The wonderful thing about Christmas day is that it is the only day of the year where we drink wine with breakfast! Well, sparkling wine of course! So there were lots of pairing (and pacing) considerations. I'll begin:

Breakfast
To continue the sparkling wine tradition a lovely Cava was served up with the smoked salmon and scrambled egg, a Brut Castilla Perelada Cava purchased from the Castilla itself, fruity and buttery thanks to the traditional method and cheap enough to not feel guilty when transforming it into a Bucks Fizz.

Lunch
Well, what a feast. Goose and turkey and gammon! So the traditional Chateaux Leoville 2003 St Julien Bordeaux magnum was dragged up from the cellar and a very nice 2005 Chateau St-Pierre St Julien too, these very well selected by my dad and perfect with the goose (most excellently prepared by my sister Anne-Louise). I popped in a Lebanese classic, the Chateau Musar 2007 to add a little Arabian spice and excitement and that was the contribution to the main meal. I had decided that post-lunch wine could be my focus. So after eating and eating and drinking and eating we drank some more, this time a wonderful wine introduced to me during the WSET level 3 course at Berry's. A vino da meditazione, a wine to just enjoy and while away the time, no food required. This delightful smooth, caramel and cherry tasting extravaganza is definitely wine for an occasion at £47 a pop, we were drinking a 2009 Amarone de Valpolicella Classico Riserva, Le Balze. After a little break from the food came the cheese!

Cheese
My friend Lucy and her mum Barbara joined us for this part of the day. All the cheeses were from Neal's Yard Dairy in Borough Market apart from the Comte, which was bought from the stall selling mostly Comte in Borough Market. To pair with the Comte and other nutty hard cheeses I chose a white Gravonia Rioja Reserva 2004, my other sister Marie-Claire quite controversially said it tasted like water!? In a way she had a point, she was drinking it after having a glass of the rather lovely Waitrose Brut Special Reserve Vintage 2006 Champagne produced by Piper-Heidsieck, which with it's high levels of acidity and bubbles would make many white wines taste blander by natural comparison, but that was a bit unfair. I really liked the Rioja, but I have to say when I had tasted it the first time at the Winchester Wine fair I was more taken with it, in hindsight now I might have opted for it's slightly more expensive older sister the Tondonia Rioja but it still had a lovely mellow, mildly nutty flavour, yet surprisingly light, which I welcomed at that point of the day.
Also on offer with the platter of cheese was another Berry's discovery and a wine I shall love for the rest of my life, a Malvasia, 10 year old, Vinhos Barbeito, Madeira. An unctuous dried fruit and honey delight (Christmas pudding in a glass! Kind of, except I don't like Christmas pudding but I liked that), this just tasted amazing with everything! However, because we had to try even more wine (it was Christmas) a very little bottle of the sweet Coteaux du Layon reared it's tiny head and made a big impression with the very large quarter wheel of Stilton. And this is why I am now on a serious diet! I do have to say though that I am so happy that I have discovered Coteaux du Layon recently, it is a fabulous wine and I have managed to get a few friends to buy bottles (from Waitrose), so I shall continue in 2015 to spread the Layon love. The one I bought was from Davy's Wine Shop in Greenwich. I don't have the details and can't remember the name (shame on me) but they only had the one kind. It is quite difficult to buy in this country and is easily as lovely as a good Sauternes.
So here's the photo of most of the wonderful line-up. The Rioja made it into Boxing day! Went very nicely with Christmas dinner no. 2.

The diet however did not start on New Year's Eve! I was in Germany visiting my friend Erika and her German fiance Sven. I was lucky enough to be invited to eat at a wonderful restaurant not far from their home in Flensburg called Norditeran. It was a fabulous 8 course tasting menu - see below and see if you understand it - I couldn't, but it didn't matter as it was all delicious!

To accompany this fine array of flavours we got well stuck into a beautifully aromatic Markus Molitor 2013 Pinot Blanc which was a wonder to behold with lobster. I then chose a French oaked Chardonnay, following that Erika picked an outstanding Spatburgunder (Pinot Noir to you and I) which I have to say was probably the most lovely Pinot Noir I have ever drunk (and I'm not it's biggest fan), but it being NYE and me having photography issues, I didn't get it's name!! Biggest regret of 2014! I'm on the case though. So not a Riesling consumed but my eyes (and tastebuds) are now so more open to German wines, and rather sad that there are not more of the varieties mentioned above readily available to buy over here. In my next post I will be continuing the German theme with a couple I bought at the airport (no other choice, only had hand luggage). One will feature in my new Wine of the Month post. Auf Wiedersehen!

Portugal and Morocco - A Discovery of Southern Wine

Thanks to Eid this year Friday 3rd of October was a holiday so I seized the chance to take myself away on a mini-break to Sagres (yep the beer is named after it!) in the Algarve, Portugal. Although the Algarve is not an area known for it's wine there are lots of local producers and I found the wine to be be fruity and delicious, of which the reds have a great affinity for oak. A good local producer is Quinta do Barranco Longo and one of our favourite meals was in a restaurant in Vila do Bispo called A Eira do Mel where they had a great selection of local wines. One of the wines or should I say experiences, that I truly loved was a white Dao, drunk with fish on a terrace over looking the sea, it was a perfect moment and one sadly that was unsuccessfully recreated in southeast London. White Dao is definitely a wine that needs a holiday context! But some lovely house wines were consumed, Vila Velha did a nice line in Quinta do Carqueijal Duoro wines both red and white which were very good value. However being in Sagres more beer than usual was consumed on this holiday.

With the arrival of half term came a highly anticipated trip to Morocco. I remember my first ever trip there about 15 years ago being a very sober affair, wine wasn't something I was particularly interested in then and being a Muslim country alcohol was quite difficult to get hold of and was rather pricey because of it, though I do remember getting very drunk on a bottle of rose in a Chinese restaurant in Casablanca! This time however most places we stayed in had a fantastic selection of Moroccan wines. The first part of the trip was in Marrakech staying in the very well located Riad Dar Najat. Our first meal was at the highly recommended La Maison Arabe where I had my first ever glass of Vin Gris, no, it's not grey! More orange really, but very similar to a rose in style. I wasn't blown away, but it was very pleasant. We then moved on to reds, the Cuvee President Cabernet Rouge, which was a perfect if not very exciting accompaniment to our tagines. I was excited to see a Syrah, Tandem by the French winemaker Alain Graillot on their wine list which happened to be their most expensive wine as the Wine Society used to sell it, don't know why they no longer do, luckily I still have a bottle, it is a lovely full-bodied spicy Syrah and as it says, a great accompaniment to a lamb dish.
There are 14 wine regions in Morocco and a lot of the wines I saw on the wine lists came from the areas of Gerrouane near Meknes. Most wine lists had many of the same wines on them which  included the Domaine de Sahari Reserve, a Bordeaux blend from the Gerrouane, which became a firm favourite, particularly with our dinners at Maroc Lodge in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains. The manager David hails from Burgundy so he knew his stuff when making the wine recommendations! The wine industry is really growing in Morocco and it shouldn't be too long until there are some firmly on the shelves in our supermarkets as they are truly delicious, full-bodied and fruity, great with food and very good value.

New Year, New Wine & New Qualification (fingers crossed!) - Summer Summary

So it has been a while and lots (wine-wise) has been experienced. I sat the WSET Level 3 exams last month (results pending), been to tastings in Winchester, London and Paris, sampled some beautiful French, Spanish, Portuguese and Moroccan wines in their respective countries over the summer and just returned from NYE in Germany where I managed to make more sense of the German Wine classifications which were slightly eluding me in the run up to the Level 3 exam! All that may be why I have failed to write any posts since June! However a new year and less intense studying is incentivising me to start writing more regularly and sharing my wonderful wine experiences. I shall now attempt a brief summary of my experiences over the holiday months of July to the end of August with the following posts bringing us more up to date. I shall focus primarily on the stand out wines encountered since my last post. Please excuse the lack of accents on foreign words, I have not yet mastered how to insert them on my mac.

Much of summer was spent in France. My father and I travelled from London in the car down through Burgundy and the Rhone to our destination, close to Mirepoix in the Ariege which is where we spend most of our family holidays.

As much as I can appreciate a good Pinot Noir, my wallet and inclination did not lead us to pursue a buying or tasting foray in the Cotes de Beaune or Nuits so we focused on more southern parts of Burgundy. Our first night was spent in the Macon region of Burgundy at La Marande, (http://www.hotel-restaurant-la-marande.com/uk/index.php) a small hotel with a great restaurant (quite odd decor!) with of course a great wine list. We drank some St Veran, Deux Roches 2011, a lovely soft, minerally yet buttery dry white wine with some apricot notes and a very nice Mercurey Vielles Vignes Raquillet 2012 with lots of red fruit flavours with some subtle metallic notes. The following day we shopped and tasted in Macon, known for it's beautiful buttery, fruity and rich chardonnays, which are always brilliant value. We visited both Talmard Domaines (they are cousins I believe) in the village of Uchizy and bought rather a few bottles at both including a Talmard Macon-Chardonnay, I will always be excited to buy a Chardonnay made in the village of Chardonnay! Then a trip to Vire-Clesse to the Domaine Bonhomme was in order to purchase some of their outstanding wines (my sister Anne-Louise's favourites "I don't like Chardonnay but I love Vire-Clesse!").
We then travelled down to Condrieu in the Northern Rhone - see the proof below! Via Beaujolais.

After a quick stop at George DuBoeuf's empire near Moulin A Vent in Beaujolais and an interesting visit to the Moulin A Vent Cru Chateau de Jacques (one in Louis Jadot's portfolio, the most atypical Beaujolais Cru I have ever tasted!) we travelled down to the village of Condrieu. We stayed at the gorgeous river-side Beau Rivage hotel http://www.hotel-beaurivage.com/en and ate at their stunning restaurant (most extensive impressive French Wine list ever!) where we opted for the tasting menu where I got to taste for the first time ever a Viognier from Condrieu! At last a taste of my favourite white grape from and in it's native home! An evening to remember. It was a Merlin Condrieu 2012, a much more subtle affair than I am used to but a sensational wine none the less with notes of pineapple and banana and very creamy, a good fish pairing I believe. We also experienced a wonderful white Crozes Hermitage, Charpoutier, Petite Ruche 2012. A wonderful complex wine with a smooth full finish. And of course in the Northern Rhone no meal would be complete without a Syrah, so over to a Cote Rotie Sarrasine Bonserine 2011. It had all the pepper you would expect with black fruit flavours with some oak, coffee and ash all chucked in for good measure but we suspected it might have been a bit young with a slightly astringent flavour and rather high level of tannins which weren't yet well integrated into the wine. However, kept a few years would definitely be impressive. One star of the evening was the St-Joseph Faury 2012 white wine made with the Marsanne grape, it was a very complex wine, with apple, lemon and mineral notes and a beautiful and sustained finish. It needs food but really blew us away. So after a sensational meal that included foie gras, salmon, pigeon and the BEST CHEESEBOARD EVER.

The meal was accompanied by a massive awe-inspiring storm over the Rhone. The following day we set sail (almost had to after the storm!) to the Southern Rhone (a region very close to my dad's heart). After spending a small fortune on a couple of bottles of Condrieu we paid a visit to the Cave de Tain where much Marsanne-Roussanne was bought and a few red Crozes-Hermitages. Then down to one of my dad's favourite wine makers; St Damien in Gigondas.
There he is buying up the place.

Their St Damien Gigondas Classique Vielles Vignes red wines is one of the most sensational, earthy, dirty, fruity full-bodied wines. It ages extremely well and benefits from a good decanting a couple of hours before drinking to get all the lovely intense flavours going.
So after spending some time and a lot of money down in the cellar next to their (newly en vogue concrete vats) we set off with not even space for a half bottle left in the car and a worrying suspension concern to our destination in the Ariege.

A summer spent in this part of the world would not be the same without at least one lunch spent at the Domaine Gayda in the Malpere region (http://www.domainegayda.com/) where I think their IGP Viognier competes easily with those tried and tasted in Condrieu. Their Syrah and Grenache IGP wines are not to be missed either. Another local favourite is also the Chateau Pennautier (http://www.lorgeril.com/1-32888-Chateau-de-Pennautier.php?connect=ok) in Cabardes. Their red AOC Cabardes Collection D'Altitude is as good as any Bordeaux Cru Classe and never fails to knock my socks off, an outstanding wine. Also in the Malpere is the lovely Chateau de Cointes (http://www.chateaudecointes.com/). They knock out a lovely AOC Malpere and some pretty beautiful others including their Blanc de Jean, Rouge de Noelle and a red Clemence. They always hold an annual summer party where you can try their wines and the food this time was pretty good too, with delicious mussels, cheeses and various canapes accompanied by live music and sunshine!

With the proximity to Spain, it would have been a missed opportunity not to pop to the Costa Brava and my favourite city Barcelona. Apart from the famous red Palermo prawns, a highlight of this trip was the beautiful house wine drunk at my sister and I's favourite Catalan restaurant in Barcelona Cal Boter (http://www.restaurantcalboter.com/en/) a great value, down to earth restaurant in the Gracia district. They traditionally serve the house wine in a Porron (see photo of my sister Anne-Louise!).

You can drink it from the narrow pouring opening but after witnessing a gentleman spill it all down his shirt (much to our amusement) we opted to pour it in our glasses. The wine is included in the 11 euro lunch menu, it was easily half a litre and I had to ask what it was as it was so smooth, fruity, oaky and delicious, turns out it was a Priorat, the nicest of which I can remember drinking! Unfortunately I made very few notes on my short trip to Spain but quite a few DOC Emporda Perelada wines, including their Cava was purchased. Unfortunately after these exciting experiences work beckoned on 1st September.