#323 The Ford guide to Zephyr

Ford made a car from 1950 to 1972 called the Zephyr.  It was made famous, with its stablemate the Zodiac, in the TV series Z-Cars that introduced Brian Blessed to the majority of households in the UK.  There were four models of the Zephyr in its 22 years of production, and I was shown four wines from a company named after the car.  Based in New Zealand, Zephyr is made by the Glover family who started growing vines in 1985.  Planted with Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Riesling, followed by Gewurztraminer in 1990, they decided to produce their own brand in 2007. 

2009 Zephyr Pinot Noir
Soft, creamy berries, a bit of sweetness and a spicy, gentle sweet berry flavour.  There is more spice, a berry note and then the initial fatness cleans up pretty well.  A touch of farmyard on the finish.  6.5/10  A bit like the Mk1 Zephyr, a round, friendly design with lots of positive but no sex appeal.  The sort of wine that your grandad drinks.

2009 Zephyr Riesling
A plasticine and spice aroma, with a bit of ginger beer.  The palate is, like to Sauvignon, creamy with nice hits of orange, some mineral notes and a graphite flavour mixed with lemon.  Ginger ale on the finish.  Not bad at all.  7/10  Sexy & rock'n'rolly as is the Mk2 Ford.  You desire this wine, and car, and want to rip the top off on a summers evening.

2009 Zephyr Sauvignon Blanc
A light, floral aroma, some gentle gooseberry aromas.  A clean, creamy texture, some light alcohol and a bundle of zingy fruit.  It is ok, but then the alcohol attacks you.  6/10  This is the Mark 3 Zephyr.  You know that it is good under the surface, but the things you get on the surface are, at best, boring and run of the mill.

2008 Zephyr Gewurztraminer
Lots of rosewater, some light fresh aromas and then a fat, oily, bitter palate.  A bundle of chalk on the palate and then a lot of clay.  This is a big pass.  Almost tastes like Gin on the finish.  4/10 Oh dear - it all went wrong here.  The Mk 4 car was all linear with harsh angles, and the wine is the same, and both were wobbly and unrefined.

By Peter Wood with No comments

#322 Blind Bordeaux Blends

I knew the wines, I'd tried them before, albeit a number of years ago, and I thought it was time to revisit L'Orangerie de Carignan and Firefinch Ripe Red. Both Bordeaux blends, these wines come in at a tenner each and used to offer decent value for money. I decided to try these wines blind(ish) and asked a colleague to pour me one and hope that he didn't give me the same wine twice and I'd make a fool out of myself!



Wine 1: Soft cherry fruit, a little bit of green pepper coming though. Some bacon fat, and then some sweet berries - almost some sweet & sour sauce. The palate has spiking alcohol, some restrained cherry and cassis, a nice medium weight body, some liquorice and leather too. A fuller finish, tannins gripping a little and then some sour cherry and blackcurrant leaf that would say 'new world to me' but the restrained fruit on the midpalate made me think that this was the L'Orangerie de Carignan Quite good. 8/10

Wine 2: From the first sniff, the second wine is sweeter. It has that burnt rubbery nose that I'd expect from South Africa, and then with lots of sweet green pepper and some slightly compost like aromas. The palate is darker, more savoury with some veggies - cabbage and dark liquorice. The fruit is there but very hidden. It does feel a little restrained which would mean that I'd think it was French but the nose still takes me to South Africa and I think this is the Firefinch. OK, and worth the tenner, but only just. 6.5/10

Wine 1 was 2007 Sprinfield Firefinch Ripe Red
Wine 2 was 2007 L'Orangerie de Carignan

So I got it wrong.

Drat.

By Peter Wood with No comments

#321 Champagne & Strippers - top notch Blanc de Blancs

I did a Google image search for 'Chardonnay' and the fifth photo to appear on my browser was of a lady in a bikini sucking a lollipop. This is the state of the world today that the name 'Chardonnay' is now not just one for a grape but for strippers and ladies of questionable virtue. It reminded me of the fact that, throughout the 1980's, two of Ford's biggest selling family cars, the Fiesta and the Escort, were also names of pornography magazines .

Those names conjured up two vastly opposing images, one of a wholesome family car and the other of naked ladies. Similarly, Chardonnay - according to Google - is about naked ladies too, but when talking about Champagne, it is about elegance, balance and sophistication, a point made perfectly by a selection of Blanc de Blancs that I tried on Saturday night.

Gathered together were five wines, 1959 Pol Roger Blanc de Blancs, 1979 Krug Clos du Mesnil, 1990 Salon le Mesnil, 1996 Pol Roger Chardonnay and 1996 Taittinger Comte de Champagne. We started off comparing the two Pol Roger wines.

At 51 years old, the 1959 Pol Roger Blanc de Blancs was an old gold colour, with a nose of rich, oxidised fruit. Lots of salty, baked lemon, salted and slightly smoked toffee (reminded me of the bone marrow caramels at Noma) with a little bit of peach sponge cake. The palate was rich and ripe with lots of citrus, honey, rye bread and then with semi dried and candied lemons, limes and grapefruit. Unfortunately this wine was flat, so we added just a drop of the 1996 vintage to give it a bit of pep!

Adding this younger wine was like giving a little blue pill to an old man. All the gorgeous flavours of the wine were just delivered so much better, bringing life into the old man. The candied fruit were now brighter rather than older and dustier, the peach sponge was made with fresh peaches rather than tinned and the salty, smoky toffee flavour had an injection of vanilla as well. This was a fantastic bottle of wine. 9.5/10

It's younger counterpart, the 1996 Pol Roger Chardonnay (a venture into attempting to capitalise on the popularity of the Chardonnay/stripper name perchance?) was another stunner. Sunburst yellow, with gentle lemon, bright pineapple and fresh Galia melon coming of the nose with a chalky element and lemon juice soaked bread. A super clean palate, tipping over into the mature style of champagne - but only just. Pencil lead comes to the front of the palate, with a little burnt toast too, but lemon rules the roost with this wine. Fantastic. 9/10

The next wine was the 1979 Krug Clos du Mesnil. This single vineyard wine is, possibly, the pinnacle of Blanc de Blancs from Champagne. It showed roquefort and brussel sprouts on the nose, with a sweetness of caramelised onions! Then, what I can only describe as Candy Floss that someone like Heston Blumenthal would make! A beautifully elegant palate, some sweetness all the way through with some citrus fruit, burnt lemon rind and a touch of mango skin. An outstandingly complex wine, and very youthful, despite its three decades of ageing. It just lacked a little in comparison to the '59 Pol and the wine that came next. 8.5/10

Salon 1990 is perfect. I scored it 10/10 and felt that that wasn't enough. The baked citrus fruit with sweet herbs, white peach, some honeydew melon and darker, fleshier aromas started off this experience, and then a rich, darker palate, more concentrated, with layers evolving in your mouth. Tropical fruit, graphite and some dry, bitter notes with some burnt wholemeal toast leading to citrus infused honey and baked potato skin. What was amazing though was that this wine carried all of these powerful flavours and introduced them to you with such delicacy, nothing ever being too dominant. A mind blowing wine.

Finally, the 1996 Taittinger Comte de Champagne. Initially it was quite closed, with acidic cheesy notes, bundled up with fresh citrus. Very simple and very light. The palate delivered apples, citrus and that was pretty much it. Having said that, with time in the glass it opened up, showing richer, honeyed notes and an element of the older Krug. I think that this wine just needs a lot of time - simple as that really. 6/10 but with so much more potential.

The wine for the evening for me was the '59 Pol Roger, because it nearly beat a wine 30 years its junior. Having said that, and this might be relevant consumer advice to people called Chardonnay when they come back from a night clubbing in their micro skirts and heels with their bleach blond hair ruffled after a tryst in a public lavatory, the Krug goes best with a chicken and spinach pizza.

By Peter Wood with No comments

#320 We need more cash...

"No change in alcohol duty" actually means about 20p extra on a bottle of wine, once you factor in inflation (5.5%), the 2% escalator and then a retailers standard profit margin.  Its a big jump, particularly on a £5 bottle of wine and as usual, the standard line of "it will put more jobs at risk in the UK drinks industry" is trotted out by the Wine & Spirit Trade Association.

As it was in 2010...

...and 2009...

...and 2008...

I am estimating that if the duty escalator continues for the next decade, in 2021, if chairman Jeremy Beadles statement that jobs are at risk is to be believed, we will have no jobs in the UK wine industry.  Or, to put it another way, this scaremongering is cobblers.

It is annoying when duty goes up for many people throughout the supply chain.  We all have to adjust pricing, recalculate profit margins, reprint wine lists, spend man hours re-stickering every bottle in our wine shops, but the net result to 'the consumer' is nothing.  They still buy their wine, they still enjoy it and they still come back for more.  If a 'duty adjusted price' of their favourite wine is too much for someone who doesn't want to break the £5 price point, they will simply buy another wine that costs a fiver.  You, dear reader, know as well as I do that a majority of wine drinkers couldn't tell the difference between one Australian Chardonnay and another, so the quality decline that the average Joe will experience is barely noticeable to them, and those who would notice and care will tend to stick with the product they know and accept the 20p increase.  You could claim that it is the customer who is suffering, but that is the point of a consumer tax - it always has been and it always will be the customer who ends up paying more.  It is how things like the NHS, the Armed Forces and Jacqui Smith's husbands porn bills are paid for.

And year on year, despite the duty rises, Miller still brew beer, Glenfarclas still make whisky, Penfolds still make wine and retailers, large and small, still sell the stuff.  Nobody goes bankrupt because of a tax being levied as it is levied to everyone.  Companies go bust because of many number of reasons, and tax is only one of them if they don't pay it and then get a massive tax bill they can't afford.  And even then, that isn't the government's fault, it is because the management of that company don't do their job properly and manage their cash flow well. 

Raising duty is a pain in the backside - no question about that, and it is infuriating if you have to pay more for a product you want to buy.  It is simply a cash gathering exercise by any government, but these claims by the Mr Beadles are false.  The budget rise won't cause people to lose their jobs or their companies to go bust, it will just mean people pay slightly more.

At least the excuse of "it is for the health of the nation" that was used by Brown and Darling has been abandoned for the honesty of "we need more cash".

By Peter Wood with No comments

#319 Noma Wine Tasting Menu

I've never been the best at anything before.  I've been good at somethings and lousy at others, but to be recognised as "the best" is something that I've never been.  I won a silly Scottish award which made me "Scottish Specialist Off Licence" of the year for two years, but they had to pester me to enter, so I'm not exactly sure of the calibre of my award.

To be called the best restaurant in the world takes some doing, and that is exactly what Noma in Copenhagen is at the moment.  I was fortunate enough to eat there last Saturday and the food was fantastic.  Like any restaurant menus, some dishes were more to my taste than others, but the whole experience was something I will always remember.

The chefs are exceptional, no question about that, but what about the sommelier?  If you are paying over £200 for lunch and various glasses of wine to accompany the meal, the question I always ask is is the sommelier doing a good job or a lousy one?  It is very easy to fill a wine list with the greatest wines ever made, but where a sommelier distinguishes him or herself from a simple wine waiter with a huge budget is in the choices they make on their tasting menu. 

After a series of amuse bouche - including radishes with edible earth, edible moss, a leak with a garlic puree and a smoked quails egg, the first course was Scallops and Grains paired with a 2008 Bourgogne Cotes d'Auxerre Corps de Garde from Goisot.  The dish was outstanding, with the freeze dried, sliced and dehydrated scallops having an unbelievably concentrated scallop flavour.  This, mixed with a selection of grains in a watercress cream, and a small pool of squid ink produced a taste of the sea and a selection of textures that blow your mind.  To match this was tricky and the wine choice wasn't particularly well chosen.  The freshness of the wine worked with the scallops, but the more dense flavours clashed a bit. I would have thought that a good Rhone varietal wine would have been a bit better choice, maybe even a grassier type of wine as well.  Not off to a good start.

The next pairing was Steamed oysters with green pickled unripe elderberries  and the 2009 Bourgogne Aligote from Alice a Olivier de Moor.  The wine was quite floral and peachy with a lighter, citrus, minerally palate.  The fresher, zingy pickled elderflowers worked so well with the lemony elements of the wine, and then a very subtle smoky aroma of the oysters balanced well with the peachy notes.  The sommelier has earned his money on this pairing, and deserves some praise for picking an unfashionable grape variety to match with a briefly consumed dish.

The next wine was a 2007 Le Bel Ouvrage Savennieres from Damien Laureau, and it went with potatoes.  A potato puree, with 'vintage potatoes' - apparently from the 2009 vintage - a milk skin, potato chips with a yogurt whey and lovage sauce.  The wine was quite rich and honeyed on the nose with a lot of ripe tropical fruit with a delicate clean palate with an ongoing melon flavour.  A superbly pretty wine, and it was a perfect balance with the food.  The plates flavours mixed creamy, earthy and oniony flavours, and these matched elements of the wine - spot on.  It was a pairing that, combined, made a wonderful taste experience and
possibly the best of the meal.

Pickles followed.  Not a plate of Onions and eggs, but a selection of vegetables including carrot and red beetroot that had been pickled in different vinegars.  Accompanying these were a few discs of poached bone marrow and covered in a pork rib, brown butter and tarragon sauce.  The wine choice was a 2008 Koehler Ruprecht Kallstadter Saumagen Riesling Auslese Trocken - a lovely wine on its own.  The dish was alright, not great though.  The bone marrow was pretty tasteless and appeared just to be there for effect and the vinegars were all you really tasted and not the root vegetables.  Now I love a pickle, but this was a bit much even for me.  Having said that when you put both vegetables and bone marrow in your mouth with the zingy dry German riesling, it worked. The creamy bone marrow texture went with the softer flavours of the wine and then the citrus and acid balanced out the pickled flavours of the vegetables.  Then the tarragon matched a slight herbal note on the wine (or created one?) and it just all matched well.

The 'main course' was Ox cheek, roasted for 24 hours in hay with chicory, redcurrant wine and pickled conference pear.  The food was fantastic, the Ox cheek providing full on beefy flavours, being cut by the light fresh pear.  Unfortunately the 2007 Domaine Grange des Peres from the Languedoc missed the mark.  It is a lovely wine, lots of big rich berries - raspberries and brambles - with a dark liquorice, spice and leather flavour and a big alcohol spike, but it fails to match anything including the beef.  A gentler, ideally older or more subtle wine would do wonders here.  An older Rhone red or maybe even a Touriga Nacional would have done wonders but this wine overpowered a delicate balance of a dish.

The second Riesling was a 2009 Von Horn Mosel Riesling from Rita & Rudolf Trossen.  It was paired with Whey and bitters ice cream, whey ice and dill oil, a milk crumble and sorrel juice.  Firstly, the grassy sorrel juice shouldn't have been there as it contributed little to the very subtle milky dessert.  The dish was pretty dull until you hit the milk crumble and then you got a fantastic, slightly salty, crunchy flavour that was seriously good.  The wine, all lemon and herbs, did work to a degree, but because the dessert was so subtle (crumble excepted) any sweeter wine was going to find it hard to work.  This did well though, offering a gentle sweetness with this more savoury pudding.

Finally, with a Jerusalem Artichoke Ice Cream, apple slices, malt shortbread and marjoram leaves, was a 2009 Le Cormier Coteaux du Layon from Domaine de Mirebeau.  This wine was rich and peachy, very soft aromas of melon and peach.  The palate had some lovely bitter notes, mixed with crisp lemon, rich honeyed pear and a very clean finish.  It all worked beautifully together.  The dark malty notes of the dish, with the creamy, slightly vegetal ice cream, marjoam and crisp apple flavours balanced out with the similar flavours in the wine.  The wine itself had harsher alcoholic notes that appeared to be softened by the ice cream, whilst the richer fruit flavours of the wine were cut by the tarter apple.  The wine and the food together made a stunning end to this meal.

Nobody is going to get everything right, and the sommelier at Noma hit the mark more often than not.  The only big mistake was the wine to go with the Ox Cheek, but I was disappointed that the wine choices weren't more adventurous.  If someone is prepared to spend a small fortune on lunch, eating things like squid ink and edible earth, they are certainly prepared to try more obscure wines.  I longed for a Portuguese white, or red from somewhere in the eastern block or even something from a small new world producer.  Instead it was all France and Germany and that is a bit unimaginative.  A restaurant that makes bone marrow caramels should be a bit more adventurous in its wine pairings.

Noma Website

By Peter Wood with 1 comment

#318 Lillian from John Brocksopp

Australian wine can be incredibly boring.  The same grapes, the same styles and the same overly powerful, sweet, jammy mess.  Not from Lillian though.  After a quarter of a century working at Leeuwin Estate, John Brocksopp now makes wines from Rhone varietals in Pemberton in the south east of Margaret River.  They offer restraint, subtlety and finesse, yet are still noticeably Australian and I tried a pair of his lovely wines.

2008 Lillian Marsanne Roussanne
Rich honey aromas with lovely mango pith and just a hint of over ripe banana coming through.  The palate leads on to a gorgeous honey coated pear flavour.  So clean, a touch of cream coming through on the back end with kisses of oak on the finish.  It cleans up beautifully with no noticeable alcohol at all.  9/10 £21.00

2005 Lillian Shiraz Mataro
This Shiraz Mataro (Mourvedre) blend has lots of compote berries on the nose, with just a little cream poured over the top of it.  Blackcurrants come to the fore on the palate, with soft, vegetal notes coming through.  A long lasting mid section, hints of tar and spice, and an equally long, drying, savoury finish.  A stunning wine, with great balance and wonderful to find an Aussie red wine under 14% alcohol!  8.5/10 £20

By Peter Wood with 2 comments

#317 Nine New Wines from Liberty Wine

No silliness - just a review of nine new wines on the Liberty Wines list.

Moret-Nomine are the wines of David Moret and this Meursault producer has just started having his wines distributed through Liberty Wines.  Moret started producing his own wines in the late 1990s, and the growers that worked with him then, still work with him today.

2008 Moret-Nomine Meursault 'Sous la Velle'
Light, simple aromas with some subtle fruit on the nose - honeydew melon and passionfruit.  The palate is quite sweet, with some mango pith coming through.  It is a decent wine, but a bit pricey.  £36.00 6.5/10

2007 Moret-Nomine Meursault 1er Cru 'Les Charmes'
Lots of honey, bundles of fruit but rather sweet for my liking on the nose.  There are lots of dry flavours, woody notes and then a load of sweeter, rich fruit cut by citrus.  Again, the price is a bit much.  I know it is 1er cru but this isn't worth £58.  6/10

2008 Moret-Nomine Meursault 1er Cru 'Les Genevrieres'
Some subtle oak, good pineapple and peach flavours with nutty notes.  There is good balance on the palate, some alcohol coming through but being cleaned up.  Lovely lemon flavours and a touch of nectarine.  A nice wine and worth the £58 your wallet will be lighter for should you buy it.  7/10

La Villasse  is a 'joint effort' between Thierry Caymaris, Liberty Wines and the omnipresent Matt Thomson (his name was tagged to over 12% of the 271 wines on show at the Liberty tasting in Edinburgh).  The wines from the Southern Rhone are taken from the Cairanne region.

2010 La Villasse Cotes du Rhone Blanc
Light and clean, a peachy aroma comes through.  The palate is soft, has a nice balance,  a little honeysuckle but the finish is just a touch fat.  Quite new worldy - but not bad.  6.5/10 £8.50

2010 La Villasse Cotes du Rhone Rose
Raspberries and candy floss.  Quite confected on the nose, and then some clean strawberries and fresher fruit flavours.  Not a bad rose in the slightest.  7/10 £8.50

2010 La Villasse Cotes du Rhone Rouge
Some lovely light berries, some liquorice and a sprinkling of spice.  Then you get a bundle of tannin before the fruit fights its way through.  This will be a decent drop in a year or two, it is just far too young now and the tannin and darker elements need to soften a bit.  6/10 but with potential.  £8.50

Bill Downie's wines have, up until now, been Pinot Noir, due to his love of Burgundy.  But now, straight out of left field comes a Petit Manseng from King Valley.

2009 William Downie Petit Manseng
Gentle mango, pear and some pineapple flavours mixed with just a touch of toffee from a toffee apple.  There is a nice balance on the nose.  The palate offers some lovely sweeter fruits, a bit of slightly burnt confectionary - Candy floss maybe?  The only down side is the acid, or slight lack of it.  I'd prefer if it cleaned my mouth out a bit more, but maybe, in the right food context, this would be good. £33.00  6.5/10

Charles Melton has been making wine in the Barossa since 1984, and this new wine to the UK, shows he has not lost any of his skill.

2008 Charles Melton Grains of Paradise Barossa Shiraz
Sweet juicy aromas, lots of black pepper and bramble on the nose.  The palate has a load of tannin, but then some violets and darker berries emerge, giving you a juicy, compote like flavour.  I would leave it for a wee while to soften the tannins, but it is a stonking good wine. £29.00  8/10

Schloss Vollrads is one of the oldest wine estates in the world.  They produced the world's first Kabinett in 1728 and they have nearly eight centuries of viticulture experience.  They also seal some of their wines in Vino-lok - a glass stopper that looks kinda sexy.


2009 Schloss Vollrads Riesling Spatlese Trocken
Light and minerally style with lots of citrus pith.  A really balanced palate, nice fresh fruit - especially lime - and just a touch of petrol.  Stunning acidity and a long lasting finish.  7.5/10

By Peter Wood with No comments

#316 More complex than Woody Allen in a Psychiatrists

Again, I write about another wine that blows me away.  This time it is from Sean Thackrey, and is his Pleiades XIX.  This is a seriously complex and generous wine, just giving up masses of different aromas and flavours it is difficult to keep up.  Here is what I got.

Lovely rich, soft aromas with hints of clove and aniseed leading onto Chinese sweet and sour sauce - all tangy tomato and sweet pineapple.  Then you get red apple skin, some strawberries, liquorice, black pudding, vanilla ice cream.... it goes on and on.

The palate has an initial savoury note, a shock after all the fruit on the nose, then some leather, some spice, an alcohol hit, then warmed blueberries, a load darker berry skin flavours.  The midpalate has a sweet fruit, but with a Rhone-esque style of restrained berries and subtle spice.  Then you get a Barolo note, some tar and violets, then green pepper.  The finish is dry, savoury, subtle and very very long.

The XVIII was one of my top five wines of the year in 2010, and this wine is going to strongly compete for that position in 2011.  It is fantastic and most importantly, fun.

By Peter Wood with No comments

#315 Ballet and Chianti

I went to see the Siberian Ballet's performance of Sleeping Beauty on Friday night in Edinburgh... oh dear!  `Everything about it was wrong.  The musicians were not only out of time with the ballet but out of tune as well.  The costumes were straight out of a Disney cartoon, the choreography was so bad the first 20 minutes comprised of very little dancing and just a load of people walking around looking pleased with themselves and there were a few dancers who landed with a thud that could have been heard at the other end of Princes Street.  It was so bad that we didn't wait to see the second half of the performance and left. 

That isn't to say there wasn't talent there.  Some of the ballerinas were very good, talented dancers, and although their talent shone out from the primary school level performance, they weren't enough to keep me in my seat for another hour or so.  A few gems does not a good ballet make.

And neither do a few good wines.  Some of the wines from one of the largest producers of Chianti, Sensi, passed my way this week and, on the whole, they were a disappointment.  I would have hoped that such a large producer would have had a consistency of quality throughout their range, but it was not to be.  I started with that grape that is renowned in Tuscany... err... Pinot Noir.

2009 Sensi Collezione Pinot Noir
Sweet fruit on the front of the nose with a slight farmyardy aroma mixed with some herbs.  The palate has a little bitterness up front, but it is quite pleasant.  It doesn't taste like a Pinot Noir, but what it does do is taste like a peasant Italian wine, which is a good thing.  At seven pounds, this is a decent bottle of wine.  Just don't go after it if you want a Pinot Noir.  6.5/10

2009 Sensi Collezione Sangiovese
A light, fresh, clean aroma with gentle cherry and some thyme.  The palate again has lighter, soft fresh fruit and some liquorice flavours.  Decent balance, and a nice, constant finish.  Again, at seven pounds a decent drop.  6/10

2009 Sensi Collezione Montepulciano d'Abruzzo
This is a bit wrong.  Some rotten fruit aromas, a bit musky and then a palate that is initially ok, but then gets very dirty and tangy.  Poor showing.  4/10

2009 Sensi Chianti Dalcampo
Some sweet cherries followed by sour cherries and cloves.  The aroma is quite nice, and then some ripe berry fruit, more sour cherry and then a bit of herb and earth on the finish.  At eight pounds, it is impressive as it tastes of Chianti and is better than some of the more expensive competition.  6.5/10

2007 Sensi Chianti Reserva
It smells of sweet pig manure and the palate is like licking an ashtray.  The finish tastes of stale milk.  I didn't even score it I was that eager to move on.

2004 Sensi Vin Santo
Intially a brown sugar and honey aroma, then lots of wood.  The palate has a salty element up front and then masses of wood flavours.  Marmalade then gets thrown at you on the finish but there is no acid to clean up the flabby, wobbly sweetness.  As a budget (£14) Vin Santo, it is passable.  As a sweet wine at fourteen pounds it is beaten by many things half its price.  4/10

I grant you, this is just a smattering of wines from Sensi, but it would appear that the cheaper wines are honest and drinkable whereas the higher priced ones are leagues behind the competition.  Maybe this is why everyone wants to see the Bolshoi, it is consistent quality throughout, whereas the Siberian Ballet is a bit like Sensi.  A few bright lights in an otherwise am-dram production. 

By Peter Wood with No comments

#314 Let the wind blow free... Tramontane Grenache

I totally ragged on Berton's two Black & White wines yesterday, and justifiably so, but today I find myself in a position where I have to only sing the praises of a wine.  I don't normally rate just one wine on its own, but with this I have to, it is that good.  I also have to confess that it is made by Andy Cook, a pal and former colleague, who is now making wines southern France, but seek this out and try it.

The 2009 Tramontane Grenache is a wine retailing at around seven quid, and it is quite simply outstanding and the best wine under a tenner I have had so far this year.  It has lots of dark berry fruit, cherry and crunchy red apple skin mixed with a soft sweetness on the nose.  The palate is big, dark with a little alcohol to the fore and some firm, but not domineering tannins.  There are bitter savoury flavours, mixed with lots of berries and a long, lingering finish and just little dots of sweet fruit throughout.  Will soften with time and become better, but even at this youthful stage, it kicks seven bells out of anything in its category. 8.5/10

Tramontane Website
Available from Luvians Bottleshop, Inverarity Vaults, Clark Foyster

By Peter Wood with No comments

#313 Wine web watch - Winesave video

I'm not making any judgement on the actual product here, which has positive comments from the likes of Jancis Robinson, but this video is quite special. Aside from the acting that is more wooden than a garden shed,you should look out for the following special points:

Namechecking NASA

The size of the 'take anywhere can' is huge

The austere Australian lady putting on her sexy voice when talking about Champagne

Instructions on how notice how an aerosol can is empty

and, my favourite, how to pour wine! 

Click on the image to go to the video
Winesave Website

By Peter Wood with 2 comments

#312 It really is Black or White

There are occasions in life when decisions you make are very simple.

Yes or no?

Big or small?

Supersize or regular meal?

Like or Dislike?.

Marmite is a perfect example - there is no middle ground.  You love it or hate it.  Nobody says "oh, Marmite is alright" or "I really have no preference." do they?  The decision is binary.

Similarly, hybrid cars - there are the tree huggers who think that hybrids will save the world, and there are those that think that they cause more damage during the production of the batteries than the entire life cycle of a petrol car.  The view is they are green saviours or the work of Beelzebub.  And whilst he was taking a wee break from making the Prius, having his Marmite sarnie, the devil made a couple of terrible wines - A black and a white.

2009 Berton The White Viognier
Smells of tripe and vinegar.  It is sweet, then citrussy, then alcoholic, then flabby... this is massively horrible.  It is supposed to have various aromas of orange blossom and peach, but these just weren't there at all.  1/10


2009 Berton The Black Shiraz
An innertube and pen eraser shavings, it is really terrible.  More rubber, vomit and a chemical flavour with strawberry chocolate on the finish.  This is the worst wine that I have ever tried.
Many many minus points/10

I know that I'm going to get negative comments based on this post, so before you do, please factor this in.  I wasn't alone in trying these.  I was with several experienced tasters, and these wines showed exceptionally badly against other Australian wines and we all thought they were terrible.

By Peter Wood with 3 comments

#311 6 Questions with... Bill Downie

 

With his distinctive art labels, wax seals and heavy Burgundy bottles, William (Bill) Downie's wines stick out on the Australia shelves of any wine shop.  And so they should because this is a man, with Burgundy in his blood, that is showing Australian terroir at a higher quality, and not mass produced, level. 

Producing Pinot Noir in different regions of Australia, Yarra, Gippsland and Mornington and now a Petit Manseng, he has a hands off approach and lets the grapes do all the work.  But we wanted to know a bit more about this yellow Land Rover driving winemaker.  He was asked six questions...

You lived and worked in Burgundy for a number of years.  Is it there that your heart lies or is it in Australia?

I have, in the past, wished I had been born in Burgundy, but these days I'm happy to have my heart in Australia.

You make three Pinot Noirs, from Yarra, Gippsland and Mornington, all expressing the terroir of those areas.  Have you any plans to go further along the Burgundian route and make, for example, smaller area wines or wines from particular microclimates or soil types expressing tiny areas terroir? 

One day. For now it's hard enough for people outside of Australia to figure out where the regions are let alone individual vineyards. I've visited many place where people didn't even know that we grew Pinot Noir in Australia. I'm into small steps and hard work. The Burgundian route might be for my kids to follow.

Aside from Pinot Noir, what do you like drinking? 

We're hopelessly unpatriotic wine drinkers. My wife used to work for Kermit Lynch so we drink a lot of wine from all over France. Jura, Rhone, Provence, Loire, Alsace etc. Pinot is probably less than 20% of our cellar.

What is the best, and worst, wine you have ever made? 

I'm not sure I can answer that. I always have mixed feelings about our wines. We don't bottle the rubbish though, so the worst wines never make it into the public eye. There have been some pretty unfriendly barrels in the cellar over the years....

Who or what is your inspiration? 

There have been lots of influences over the years but my wife Rachel inspires me ever day.

Name three people, real or fictional, living or dead, that would be your dream dinner party guests, and what would they be drinking?

Pierre Overnoy, Bailey Carrodus and Maurice O'Shea. Three true gentlemen and fine wine makers. We'd probably drink a '49 Rousseau Chambertin or an old bottle of Pierre's Vin Jaune.

William Downie Website

With thanks to Liberty Wines

By Peter Wood with 1 comment

#310 English Wine - Episode 2

I got a bit of criticism recently from Stephen Skelton MW regarding my comments on a bundle of samples of English wine that I tried last September.  He said that "...if this was your idea of trying to find out what English wines are like, then I am sorry, but you failed - big-time" - despite me putting at the end of the article "I know that these three wines don't mean that every English wine is horrible, but these three... don't fly the flag well at all"

Anyway, I decided to explore more, and will be trying more and more English wine.  In fact, to show my support for the category, I am starting an English Wine chart.  Every wine from the green and pleasant land will get tried, rated and ranked.  I tried four today, and they were quite good.

2006 Balfour Brut Rose from Hush Heath Estate (Kent)
Malty notes, some light fresh berry fruit coming through, a gentle minerality too.  The palate is rich, some yeasty notes, sweet prickles of berry fruit.  Very well balanced, not too sweet on the palate, a lot of honey and some rhubarb notes with a little ginger.  A good wine.  8/10  £38.99

2010 Bolney Estate Bolney Rose (Sussex)
Light aromas of sherbet straws, a little bit of raspberry and then a bit of strawberry coming through.  The palate is a little sweet up front, but then lots of Haribo Cherry-tastics come through with a little cream on the finish.  6.5/10 £9.99

2008 Bolney Estate Lychgate Red (Sussex)
A blend of Dornfelder & Rondo that has dark, rustic berries on the nose.  A bit of blackcurrant and dried mushrooms and a little bit of tobacco.  Oregano on the nose too.  The palate is more blueberries, with a touch of cola bottle giving a tartness and a sweet herbal note.  It is a little high in the acid stakes, and a little bit of dried leather on the finish.  7/10

2008 Bolney Estate Antares Brut (Sussex)
Light, sweet strawberry and watermelon aromas.  Fresh, clean fruit, a lot of bramble, raspberry and a meat aroma too.  The palate almost tastes of fruit beer, some rich bramble notes and then a malty element.  It has a slight sweetness, a bit too much acid, but it is generally a clean, if slightly strange, wine.  7/10

Hope you like those reviews Mr Skelton!

By Peter Wood with No comments

#309 Maori wine - Tohu Wines

Britain has a long and bloody past of conquering nations.  We invaded, wiped out the local indigenous people and then took over the land.  Originally inhabited by Eastern Polynesians a thousand years ago, the Dutch came to New Zealand in the 17th century closely followed by the Brits.  But rather than just wipe out the Maori, the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840 that agreed that the British and the Maori would cohabit New Zealand together.  The only flaw in this plan was that existing land ownership by the Maori was not respected.  The net result of this was a bundle of land claims through the courts in the 1970s, where Maori communities got their land back. 

This was vital to the Maori as it allowed them to have a major asset upon which they could build businesses.  One such business is Tohu Wines, the first wine company owned by the indigenous people of New Zealand. With vineyards in Marlborough, Nelson and Gisborne, they have three distinct regions in which to produce terrior focused wines.  But are they any good?

2010 Tohu Sauvignon Blanc
From Marlborough, this is definitely their strong point.  It is a textbook Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, lots of fresh citrus, grapefruit and lemongrass.  Some green pepper and asparagus too.  Nicely balanced, long lasting finish.  7.5/10 £12

2010 Tohu Riesling
Another from Marlborough, and a wine with 5g/litre residual sugar.  It is light, lemony with a honey aroma that continues into the palate.  Citrussy with a slight spritz to it.  All is well so far, but it is so acidic it becomes unpleasant.  5.5/10 £12

2010 Tohu Pinot Gris
From Nelson, this is light, fresh and clean with a creamy texture and a little lemon and mineral note on the palate.  Then a horrible plasticine flavour comes through with harsh alcohol.  A pass on this one.  4.5/10 £12

2010 Tohu Chardonnay
Back to Marlborough, with a creamy, yeasty and citrus focused Chardonnay.  The palate is not bad, some citrus notes, decent balance and an oily texture with tropical fruit throughout.  7/10 £12

2008 Tohu Pinot Noir
Again from Marlborough, quite dirty.  Some fresh fruit, but it is controlled by confected strawberries and overly sweet, but not stewed, brambles.  The palate is ok, but has too much alcohol on the finish.  it is far too expensive.  5/10 £17

I appreciate that I didn't try their entire range, but from what I did, Tohu don't appear to be producing anything different from every other winery in New Zealand.  The wines that I liked (Sauvignon & Chardonnay) are good, but a bit too expensive and the ones I didn't like (Riesling and Pinot Gris) are not good and expensive.  They appear, like a lot of wines that brand themselves with an image, be it Fair Trade or Organic, to be charging a bit more for the lifestyle choice.  The bottom line is this.  I don't care, and neither do a lot of customers, if your wines are Organic, Maori, Fair Trade or Free Range.  I just want a decent bottle of wine for a decent price.  Sadly, Tohu don't deliver that. 

By Peter Wood with No comments