Gold Medal Reserve des Dentelles Cotes du Rhone Remy Ferbras 2010

 Corked. 

Varied Festive Vino

Matra Mountain Pinot Grigio 2010 - This goes down for me as the benchmark for good value Pinot Grigio. The apple and pear flavours shine through so strongly you can imagine identifying them without reading the label. Well worth a try, and at £6 beats all the PGs I've tried so far, most of which were not so cheap.
Casillero del Diablo Merlot 2010 - You've seen Casillero for sale for sure, it's everywhere. Often that would mean it would be bad, as mass produced = shite. That's not totally true here, it's not outstanding value but is a label which produces reliably decent wines at below and upto the £10 mark. Worth a punt if nothing else takes your fancy. This one was all blackcurranty goodness, strong for a Merlot.

Barolo Vendemmia 2007, Brazin Old Vine Zinfandel and a bonsai tree. Of the three, drinking the tree was probably the most appalling decision. Barolo, made from the Nebbiolo grape, makes other powerful rich wines seem like tiny little children trying to climb up your legs, while the bully Barolo smashes your face in with a coal shovel. Not for the weak. Definitely for those who are convinced deep and devastating wines are for them. Overall however, I preferred the Zinfandel, which was rich and powerful but with a little give. I'm not sure it quite justified the price tag though. Both Waitrose.

Two dessert wines here, both from Sainte-Croix-du-Mont in Bordeux. Somehow, they are completely different. The Chateau Loubens 1997 is practically the colour of gold, rich beyond belief for a wine, and pairs perfectly with exceptionally sweet desserts and salty cheeses. The Chateau La Rame 2009 was far drier and less singularly powerful, and although the colour would be exciting compared with any other white, next to the 1997 it looked weak and pale - the picture does this no justice. I can't say I enjoyed it less though, and it went better with more moderate cheeses and desserts.

I would recommend trying a dessert wine if you haven't - it's an odd experience even if you decide it's not for you. Obviously, don't have it without food, or it'll be like drinking milkshake syrup but without the sugar high which is the main reason for doing so. Unless it's for a bet.

And so to the end of the festival of festive fun-fest, with a Sancerre and a Pouilly-Fuissé. It's Sauvignon Blanc versus Chardonnay and neither comes out the winner.  Sancerre has always been a personal favourite, but both are really interesting examples of their grape and I don't have the wine knowledge to explain how so er... balls.

Red red wine

After a spate of average and poor wines, to have three come along which were all excellent made for a pleasant surprise, and the minimal hangovers even more so...

D'Arenberg McLaren Vale The Custodian Grenache 2008
Coming in at £10, the same price as the Highwire Summit Pinot Noir and cheaper than the Tilia Estate Rubido I didn't review because it was as bad but cost just shy of £20 (don't buy it), this wasn't going to have to work too hard to impress me. Rich, deep and with good fruity notes none of which I could specifically distinguish. Classic grenache. The man in Majestic wine said this wasn't worth cellaring, but it says on the bottle it will 'benefit from extended bottle ageing' which goes to show the guy was a fucking idiot, which came across in the amount of time he spent answering my question about which wines to buy i.e. pointing at a couple and saying 'they're decent'. Prick.

Burgo Viejo Rioja Reserva 2004
Coming in at £12, the same price as... oh wait that was the other one. Actually I had this first and it's a fine example of a nicely aged Rioja, and having had the entire bottle across an evening I felt little to no ill effects except the desire to drink more. However, against the Vina Del Perdon Gran Reserva 2000 reviewed some time ago, this came out just behind, yet costs a little more. Good but must try harder? Or perhaps by the same age it would have been better? I'll never know, but it made a good point of comparison for the...

Vina Muriel Rioja Gran Reserva 1989
The problem with trying to describe how good this was to drink, after the event, is that even in my brain I can't replicate it. I can only remember knowing that it was one of the best wines I've drunk yet. It beat the Burgo Viego hands down, although it didn't come cheap by any means (£25 reduced to £17 for buying two). On this blog so far only two reds can compete, the Chateau Musar and the Beneficio. To compare them: their vintages are 1989, 2003 and 2008; each comes from a different continent; each is made from different grapes. However, of all the wines I have drunk the Chateau Musar and this Rioja seemed to be two of the most alike. The Beneficio, also absolutely epic, was quite a different style - full, deep, richer but far more intense and with less complexity and less intrigue.

The lure of the Kiwi

Two crisp, fresh and zesty Kiwi Sauvignon Blancs here. Not the average supermarket crap either, although Wairau Cove is currently half price at Tesco, so for £5 odd it's at the average supermarket crap price - good news for lovers of SB (no, not Silvio Berlusconi, you get paid to love him not the other way around). Both are good examples of why New Zealand is famous for SB, mixing a light and dry approach with vibrant fruit flavours and good acidity to keep everything in balance. I think I slightly preferred these to a recent bottle I drank which was more in the Sancerre style, but that may be because I was comparing it with Sancerre and, although it's all the same grape, these are quite different in style. Oh dear, I don't seem to have managed to swear or say anything which is not politically correct. I'll have to steal a few lines from Jeremy Clarkson for the next one, that'll be guaranteed to piss a few people off. That's if anyone actually reads this drivel.

Anyway, if you like SB, get down to Tesco and pick up a bottle. And don't worry about that guy, I had to include the picture to prove I don't have the largest bottom lip on the planet. Critics silenced.

Tasting Notes

It's been too long since there's been a proper fight on my blog, so as an excuse to crack open another bottle of red stuff (having demolished the Vicien Bonarda Reserve yesterday) I've decided a taste off is in order. Let's face it though, this isn't really about wine, this is about national pride.

In the red corner we have South Africa's Highwire Summit Pinot Noir. Weighing in at £10 and only a year old, it claims to be light bodied and with an array of red berry flavours, and untypical of a Pinot Noir. In the other red corner is Argentina's Vicien Bonarda Reserve, weighting in at £11 and with three years of maturity on its shoulders. It is grown at 4934ft above sea level and is allegedly rich in red fruit flavours.

In Round 1 South Africa takes an initial lead, with an intense and intriguing aromas, reminiscent of the Viking invasion of Reading in 871 AD as described in Burzum's album Det Som Engang Var, presumably. Argentina puts up a decent fight, with a richness akin to the an impromptu evaluation of string theory by Professor Leonard Susskind of Stanford University fame, but the judges lean towards a one point lead to the Highwire.

In Round 2 Argentina takes the edge early on, with immediately pleasing powerful richness, tinged with a little more sweetness than the judges are favoured towards but nonetheless reminding one of a sustained session of Sepak Takraw (aka Malaysian foot-volleyball, for the ignorant among you). South Africa proves disappointing, perhaps showing its naive youth, as too much tannin gives one the impression of being stuck in a world made entirely of geometric objects with less than eight sides.

In Round 3 nothing happens because Argentina has already won it, and the referee is drunk. Overall however, I'm not a big fan of either of these. The Pinot is too soft and not well balanced, and perhaps need to mature, the Bonarda is rich and sweet but lacks subtlety and complexity. The Bonarda takes it because it simply tastes better and feels like better value, and I appreciate a winemaker that releases their wine when it is ready (18 months of oak ageing for that chappy). The second bottle of Highwire can chill out for a couple of years, by which time it will either be actually worth £10 or, possibly, vinegar. In which case I'll use it to make a dressing. The kind which brings to mind the raging inferno of a hurricane of wasps immediately after your head has been smashed into the inside of their nest and all the wasps have decided that your left eyeball is their new home.

Pérez Cruz Winemaker's Selection 2009

Some facts about this lovely vino:

1) It comes from the Maipo valley in Chile.
2) It is made from Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Cot.
3) Cot is also called Merlot. I had to look that up on Wikipedia.
4) This is actually a picture of the same wine taken from google images. My wallpaper is much less rubbish.
5) Drinking it is more interesting than reading these facts.

Oh yes and the drinking. Well. It's bloody marvellous! Mostly it is smooth, blackcurranty, juicy and very very cotty. Plenty of intensity and great balance. Complex for a 2009 and further maturity could only make it better. Drinks well on it's own. Probably drinks well with food. So, overall, there's pretty much nothing bad to say about this wine. And the catch? £20 a bottle. Which makes you wonder: how much of my £20 pays for the cot?

Bad Experience on a Tram? Get drunk to celebrate.

Have you had a bad tram-based experience? Perhaps your tram was late, or didn't provide an appropriate level of seating. Was your tram conductor rude, inappropriately dressed, or farting copiously? Did your tram support the wrong football team? Perhaps (topically) the tram wasn't really the problem, and rather it was an inadequately educated scumbag whose children are liable to become the most appalling human beings the human race has ever seen through no fault of their own apart from being born?

Whatever your tram-based experiences, celebrate multi-cultural Britain with cheap French plonk! To whit, here’s a great bottle of proper Champagne, worthy of a special occasion, for half the usual £30 price tag. A special occasion could include the birth of a child (although after up to nine months of not drinking you might find lots of gin on the rocks more appropriate), a new job, or just your day being ruined by some c**t on a tram who has subsequently gained national fame. For being a c**t.

Seriously though, I’ve no idea if it’s worth thirty quid, I’ve never spent that much on sparkling wine, but it’s definitely worth fifteen. Having had various boring proseccos and cavas recently I was beginning to think perhaps sparkling wine wasn’t special at all. Faith restored.

Offer ends 6th December at Sainsbury’s.

P.S. apologies to anyone reading this outside the tram-based media storm bubble which will undoubtedly become an irrelevance in all history. Except tram-based history, where everything was irrelevant to begin with. 

Tor del Colle Riserva Montepulciano D.O.C. 2007

Now some might suggest that as time goes on, when people are doing the same thing for a while, they may become complacent. They might suggest that, as I review more and more wines, my reviews will become shorter, more superficial, with fewer attempts at rubbish humour which, let’s face it, are undoubtedly missed by you, the stupid reader. Well, they’d be right. As you can tell, this mulling over is less a review of wine as a method of creating additional column inches which, given I’m not paid at all, let alone by the word, may seem foolish. However, as the astute among you would see, if I’d just stuck with the half arsed review then the number of lines written would be disproportionate when compared with the picture of the wine, affixed left. So, onto the review... It’s red. It’s nice. It goes with blue cheese. It comes from Italy. I like it. I have bought more.

*This was a singularly unfair review of a genuinely interesting wine - sorry Italy. On the other hand I didn’t even bother to review the Sangiovese I had last week which was crap and cost more, so on balance you’ve come off well.

Michael Shafer 1997 Riesling Kabinett

This wine is OLD. In two years this wine will be able to legally get married. In four years this wine will have the vote. Oh sorry, thanks for correcting me, it's a wine and is therefore unable to enter in to legal matrimony and is not technically a citizen. Yeah, THANKS, I wasn't aware of that. I certainly wasn't using personification for comic effect.

Anyway, apart from you being a pedantic cretin, this wine is as yet the oldest I have reviewed. It's fair to say that because I'm an epic loser, I mostly bought this wine because it was old. And cheap for its age. At £7 a bottle 14 years seems quite reasonable - 50p a year.

And what has 14 years of ageing done for this sweet little nugget of wine? Well, it's super balanced and super drinkable and as golden as... gold. It does rather lack intensity though, and compared with the pinot gris I reviewed a while back is a little less interesting. A nice wine, sweet and fragrant and entirely pleasant to drink, and balanced nicely with fairly a simple fish. Certainly worth the 14 year wait. And after all just think: in 1997, as Michael Shafer was brewing this wine in Germany, next door in France Princess Diana was being killed in a car crash.

A Majestic Tasting Experience

Last Wednesday El Sollinidor (let’s just call him Joe Bloggs, or Joe) and myself headed over to one of Majestic Wines’ London stores, with the express purpose of having lots of free booze. The key aim, underpinning the free booze (or ‘wine tasting’) event, was to learn a little more about whatever different wines there might be to gobble. The format, rather than just throwing lots of different vineyards and vintages in your face until you can’t stand, focused on a small range of styles, giving a good chance for close comparisons. For the whites were three chardonnays each coming from a different part of the world, but apparently more critically from different latitudes and altitudes. For the reds a small table with two Lebanese wines from Chateau Musar, and a table of six reds either from Bordeaux or from the new world but Bordeaux style, all cabernet sauvignon or blends with this as the primary grape.

Chateau Musar – Two wines here, both with the same grape blend and from the same producer. One was their flagship and used the best grapes and was a year older, the other was their ‘second wine’ and a decent margin cheaper. Having tried the cheaper one, we were pretty impressed. Then we drank the other and deficiencies became clear. The latter was better balanced, with more power in its complexity; velvet richness on top of layers of tastes and just as the tannin arrived, an explosion sweetness from somewhere to offset it. Surprisingly it had almost no finish, where the cheaper wine’s finish was impressive. The difference was huge and like the fickle bastards we are we instantly downgraded the scores we had just given to the actually very good lesser wine of the two. Cheateau Musar seems to be a well known producer and you can pick up a bottle from Waitrose if the minimum six bottles needed for a Majestic wines order puts you off. Alternatively, buy six.

The Bordeaux(s) – The first wine of these we drank, the Calicanto 2009 Vina El Principal, was perhaps the most interesting of the evening for me, and yet one which scored poorly. This may be a style issue. The wine was literally (not literally, metaphorically literally) bursting with fruit, subsequently identified as blackcurrants. I’ve never tasted such strong and distinct fruit flavours in a wine, which is why it was interesting. However, it was crap because the intense fruit masked a lack of complexity or subtlety, and failed to mask too much acid and a poor finish. Some would love this wine though, and I can see why, but it’s not for me. Next up were two unmemorable new world wines, following by a Chateau Griviere, which was memorably unmemorable for a 2002 from an apparently well respected producer. It seemed to do almost nothing for either of us - this may be because it followed some younger more intense wines and the subtle flavours were lost... or it may have been past its best drink by date, as indicated by the man pouring it. Finally two immense Bordeaux(s) both of which I found very good, although the slight difference in quality not accounted in the 30% price difference. Neither, for me, was as good as the better Chateau Musar.

Unfortunately we had the three chardonnays first, and my memory of them is poor. However, we did identify some great vanilla aromas which come from oak ageing and identified that we can’t agree on white wine yet. The Sauternes, which we had later along with very salty cheese, was perhaps the second most interesting wine of the evening. Joe, who's happy to say he doesn’t know his whites well and doesn’t like sweet wines, immediately bought a bottle. Impression made.

A Late Summary of some Late Wines

Il Barone Pinot Grigio 2010 - There are two possible options here

1 - It was underwhelmed by this Pinot Grigio, because I was already half cut when I started drinking it, and therefore its subtleties were lost upon me .
2 - This Pinot Grigio was underwhelming.

It ticks all sorts of boxes – crisp, clear, clean, colourful, other words beginning with C. However, it only ticked the boxes, and didn’t do any more. Compared with aforereviewed apply PG it didn’t quite stand up. That’s not to say it was bad, it was pleasant and well balanced and before my serious explorations – and this blog – began I’d have rated it above medium. But here we are.

Minervois – Intriguing, this. I was really looking forward to trying it. An interesting name, bottle, and coming from a system whereby the wine distributor funds the wine grower in a sort of mini cooperate (see Naked Wines for more details). I think this is the taste of a good wine drunk too young. The aroma was limited but what was there was intriguing, it was juicy on the palate with interesting fruit but limited complexity. At first it seemed ruined by a little too much acidity, perhaps suggesting a rest in a cupboard would have helped, I’m too much of a nubcake to be certain. After eating an orange, however, the acidity went away and I found it to be much more pleasant. I think this would have matured into a subtle and complex medium bodied fruity beauty. I’ll never be sure, but I’m giving it a thumbs up anyway. Someone else can prove me wrong, I’m not feeling patient this week.

The Society's White Burgundy, Macon-Villages - France, chardonnay

The Society’s White Burgundy comes from France’s AOC of Macon Villages. I’ve had Macon Villages somewhere before, possibly from Waitrose, and remember it being pretty good. In light of previous claims that chardonnay isn’t ‘really my thing’ is the contradictory statement that Chablis definitely is. And is made entirely of chardonnay. And so is this. The problem with The Society’s White Burgundy is it presents the danger of wine which could happily be mistaken for a Chablis at a mere £7.50 a bottle. Having polished off a whole bottle of red the day before I decided I would only have a glass, maybe two at most, of this delectable, fresh, crisp, balanced beauty. In the end I only had four, which constituted two thirds of a bottle. The rest will be going in my face later today. This is essentially the lower grade of the Wine Society’s ‘own label’ stuff, they also do The Society’s Exhibition bottles. If those represent anything like wine this good for its price, I imagine I’ll be drinking a lot of both. This also leaves me quite excited at the prospect of the Society’s Rioja, which is sitting under my bed making little ‘drink me drink me’ noises. A bit like a wine troll. Except in this case I’m the goat, and I’m drinking the troll. Or will be in about six hours. NOM.

Biferno Rosso Riserva, 2007

My first wine from The Wine Society, this is an Italian reserva from 2007 with montepulciano as the dominant grape. Wonderfully smooth and a fine accompaniment to a VAST plate of paste bake, it is generally pleasing warm and yummy. Don't let the bottle and description fool you however, it's less a big powerful red and more of a subtle little beauty, with mellow undercurrents and merlotesque reminiscences of fruit. It couldn't be much more drinkable - I've just had the lot. OM NOM NOM.

An Idiot's Guide to Buying Wine

I am an idiot.
Here is my guide to buying wine.

1. Spend at least £5
Why? Maths. Maths says that tax is horrible. Every time you buy a bottle of wine, before you have actually purchased any of the wine, you need to buy the bottle. The bottle, according to the government, should cost you around £2.50 in Value Added Tax, excise duty and having fun tax. That means that if you buy a £3.50 bottle of wine, you are actually only buying a £1 bottle of wine. If you buy a £5 bottle of wine, maths says it is 150% better than the £3.50 bottle of wine, even though it only costs around 45% more to buy. Even an idiot (me) can see that cheap wine is going to be horrible. Above £5-£10 you aren't going to notice the difference so much, so if you don't know your way around that price range you may not benefit from spending more. So don't.


2. Read the label. Both labels
Why? Because some wines are obviously shit just from looking at them. Look at the wines in your local chain pub - they look shit - and you don't need to drink them to know they taste awful. If a winemaker hasn't bothered to make a decent, refined looking label, they've probably put no effort into the wine. This applies to almost everything in life. The phrase 'don't judge a book by its cover' is absolute guff in the case of a) books b) wines c) almost anything you can buy in a competitive marketplace. The label on the back will probably tell you a lot more than the label on the front, and is always worth reading. It might be in French, in which case you need to go away, learn French, come back, read the label, and then decide. It might equally be in Spanish, in which case they're idiots and should've put in English as well.


3. Buy a grape you like, or want to try
Why? Because everyone's palate is different. However, drinking the grape you want to drink may not be so easy. Some wines are clearly labelled 'merlot' or 'sauvignon blanc' but many more are not e.g. Rioja is not a grape, it's a place, and you can get very good wines made from tempranillo (the main grape in red Rioja) which will be called something else. European wines are much less reliable at giving you grape types, so you may need to invest some research to know what you're buying or have bought. I'm sure there's an iPhone app for it, there's one for bloody everything else. Try new types as well, just because you once liked one wine, there is with absolute certainty a better one waiting to be found, and you'll never find it if you stick to that reliable Cabernet Sauvignon every time.

4. Think about the vintage
Most wine, especially red wine, is drunk too young, and therefore doesn't taste as good as it would if it had been left for a while. Decent reds probably want to be two years old, except for Beaujolais which is always drunk young. Don't buy a Rioja from the last couple of years and assume it to be any good, it probably needs to age. Whites can be drunk younger so there's less to worry about here, but there are still interesting differences between the young and old. As a massive generalisation, older wines are more complex and more subtle, but only good wines will age well. Usually if they're selling it to you and it's more than a couple of years old and under £20, it's ready to drink but may well also keep. Some wines will tell you when you can drink them - next time you are in a Marks & Spencers read a few of their bottles.

5. Buy more wine
This wouldn't be an idiot's guide to buying wine if it didn't recommend buying more wine. The more different wine you buy, the more experience you have, the better your own instinct for picking the right one will be. Some people even recommend deliberately buying an appalling wine now and again just so you can really appreciate the good ones. Personally I prefer just to vomit heavily and lick that for an hour or two and then drink a nice wine. You can really appreciate the complexity of a good Shiraz after a plateful of sicked up curry.

You were (possibly) not an idiot before. Welcome to the club.

An Epic of Pretentious Tasting

Yesterday we got super pretentious. We swirled our glasses, closed our eyes, discussed flavours, finishes, noses, the socio-economic breakdown and replenishment of the former soviet union in eastern Europe, the effects of tannin and acidity on balance, the depth of colour, the differences of old and young... etc. We also looked up scorecards for some of the tastings, which genuinely helped us narrow down some of our thoughts on different aspects of the wine - something I'll be doing again. Pretentious? Tick.

Learning is fun when it involves getting drunk.



Albacore Coonawarra McLaren Vale Shiraz 2009 (Australia)
Definitely a belter, the intensity of the nose was spectacular. It wasn't complex and only a couple of flavours came through, but on their own they were enough to make it excellent. Smooth and strong, I'll be interested to drink the second bottle in a few years and see if the balance changes, as it says it's drinkable over the next ten. It may be that by then there is more complexity, but will there be a loss of intensity and will it matter?

Gran Villa Reserva 2002 (Spain, Navarra, Merlot)
The complexity gained with its age was undoubtable, the aroma was a little less intense than the Shiraz but overall about equal, being more complex and interesting but with less immediate impact. Extremely balanced, 'chewy'ness came through on the palette and in the finish, but there was sweetness and richness hitting at different times. This merlot felt a lot like a Rioja and had undergone similar oak ageing, and was produced in the neighboring region. Anyone who says merlot is boring needs to give this a shot, it says a lot about what different ages and ageing processes can have on the grapes - nothing like your classic merlot here. On paper i.e. on our scorecards this came out on top of the Shiraz, but in fact we both preferred the latter, as although some individual characteristics were not as strong (perhaps as it was much younger) the power and intensity were such that the rest became less relevant.

Cave de Turckheim Pinot Gris Sables at Galets 2008 (France, Alsace)
The fact that this comes from the same grape as all those Pinot Grigios I've had in the past is extremely surprising. My wine tasting partner El Sollinidor did notice the smell was reminiscent, but the crisp dry elements were nowhere to be found. Of all the wines drunk that eve, this was the most interesting. Very complex, with an outstanding nose and finish, it was rich and aromatic. Amber is my closest thought, but this is probably prompted in part by the colour. Which was amber. By the end of the glass it was beginning to feel too sweet for our palates, but that hardly ruined the experience and while we both agreed this was not naturally our type of wine, it was interesting to taste and try. El Sollinidor also nearly choked himself on the second sip, trying to get 'more air' into his mouth by sucking in little gulps of air with the wine in his mouth, a ridiculous sight which when described here isn't at all funny. Needless to say, it was actually the funniest thing to have occurred in the entire of history. HA HA HA. This'un I think is fairly typical of Alsace, and recommended as being at drinking age. It was certainly complex for a white and the oak ageing definitely shined through (unless it wasn't oak aged).


Also drunk was further Sail Chardonnay for comparison purposes with the Pinot Gris, and the rest of the Three Block from yesterday. The Three Block fell well short of the Albacore on the scorecards, which was borne out in the price (though I didn't tell El Sollinidor the price difference until afterwards, that part at least was blind!). One thing we noticed was that though the Three Block was interesting and tasted good, the nose smelt a little of chemicals and lacked complexity, and the finish was very short and with too much tannin. That's not to say it's a bad wine - it beats many I've drunk of the same type, and the previous review says much - but rather sheds light on the importance of comparison, and when put up against a bottle much better it's easier to see where it could be better; I would not have noticed the nature of the differences without going to the efforts we did.

Three Blocks Shiraz by Nico Vermeulen 2009

More and more I'm realising that young Shiraz can be great. Is two years young? Can great red wine be designed to be drunk young, without being Beaujolais? Perhaps this here is one of those medium wines, that's still good now because it's at its prime, and doesn't need to get any better, or wouldn't. Shiraz seems to be extremely popular and I've drunk a lot of different versions; those which are younger are lighter and fruitier but so far by no means less good. However, I've not had a seriously good aged Shiraz in a while to compare. Opinions on ageing wines seem to vary a lot, but mostly agree that on average more wines are drunk too young than too old. This is probably because most people don't have a cellar, any patience, don't care, can't remember when they bought them, got drunk and had the bottle anyway, left it somewhere silly and their [insert applicable thief] had it, thought it was a good idea to make sangria out of it even though it cost £15 in the first place, sold it to someone in exchange for a rubbish pair of binoculars, made it into gravy, or had no idea it was too young anyway. Almost certainly universally the latter. I've also decided to make my blog much more exciting by varying the colours, as you will have noticed by the exciting dull grey I have used for this post. Expect more of the same madness in future.

Summary tastings

McGuigan Black Label Red 2010 (Australia, Shiraz blend)

Now here my friends is a winemaker I never thought I would say good things about. Long ago I worked in hotel slash restaurant slash bar. I remember well helping the head barman restock from the cellar, and the exact way he said the word 'McGuigan' (you might think it is not possible to say the word 'McGuigan' in only one syllable, but I assure you it is). It can't have been that he actually presumed it to be bad - afterall he was a souped-up-car-owning Essex boy who had likely never tried the stuff - but he made it sound a bit like everything else that was being moved was fine, but this was somehow worse than white lightning and would only be paid for by idiots. Years later I bought some McGuigan from, I suspect, Tesco. It was rubbish. Even the label on the bottle of this one being reviewed looks shit. Frankly I'd never have bought this had it not been for the fact that it was only marginally less highly rated by Virgin Wines customers than aforereviewed Beneficio epic fucking amazingness, and yet costs well short of half the price. In summary, it had to be tried. After thoroughly enjoying a couple of glasses, I came to repeatedly swirling it in my glass and sniffing the aromas. I have two theories. 1) This is the best smelling wine I have ever smellded (not a typo) or 2) I have learned to smell wine properly, and this is also an immense smelling wine. Going back to tasting the wine, this is so well balanced it's the historical equivalent of the Cold War before anyone realised the Russians were absolutely shafted. This is a 2010 vintage which tastes like it is being drunk at its prime, and counters the idea that such reds should never be drunk young. If it isn't at its prime, and it's going to be better in a year or few, then by then it's going to also be worth twice as much. I'll be buying more soon either way. Genius.


Chateau Des Cedres Bordeaux Rouge 2009 (France, Merlot blend)
Writing this review some days later I have... sort of... forgotten this wine. I had it with some red meat, it was nice, went well, generally I was happy but it was not memorable. Good Bordeaux, from what I have read, should not be drunk young. Therefore I can only assume I have reduced a good wine into an average one through my own impatience. It must have been a good one as it was quite nice even with a mere two years to mature, which is far less than generally recommended. Sorry Bordeaux, I will do better next time. Maybe.


The Magnificent Crowing Cockerel Sauvignon Blanc 2010 (NZ)
Ok so... on the one hand this was a good tasting Sauvignon Blanc, with clear rounded flavours, a decent finish, crisp and clean. On the other hand it seemed to give me a serious headache almost immediately after the first half of the first glass, and subsequently a crushing hangover having had less than half a bottle. No, I am not that lightweight. Perhaps I was not feeling myself, but I wondered if the bottle I'd had was a bit off. Since I have three more bottles of the stuff, I'm hoping feeling ill isn't just a reaction to the Cock in general (ok terrible joke, bye now).

I've now reviewed two chardonnays, Bellevue and Sail. One is in my view, hugely better than the other. Bursting with flavour and intensity, the victory of Sail is the wine equivalent of world war II, except both sides are Australia and there was a clear victor from day one. So nothing like world war II. More to the point, why is one so much better? The first thought that comes to mind is that the one of nautical naming is oak aged, but I've not been able to find out. Even the devastating power of google is truly pathetic when trying to find out such basic facts. it's interesting to note how different the Sail is from a Chablis, which is a classic white and can only be made from 100% Chardonnay. The Sail is perhaps a blend, mixing some other fruity power to reach the potency which isn't as crisp but is ultimately more satisfying than the Bellevue contender. In short, to confirm either of the above suggestions, I will have to a) drink lots more oak aged white wine and b) drink lots more not-Chardonnay.... and OK, sorry google, you've been good to me in the past. Just try to know more things. Thanks.

Muchly Vino

1x  + 1x me = 1x hangover.

The only reason for this unfortunate scenario is that this Sail Chardonnay (2010 - Australia) is so drinkable I demolished the entire bottle within about an hour. The first thing of note is the power of flavour - the wine equivalent of being hit in the face with a lot of fruit. Very hard. None of the indecisiveness you find with many of the same grape, it is clear, crisp, powerful and holds no punches. I was hoping to make a variety of nautical puns instead of repeatedly referring to hitting things, but it hasn't worked out so far. However, this wine is definitely plain sailing for anyone who is trying to brave the rough seas of finding a proper Chardonnay that hasn't been made with the wine buying public of Romford in mind. And that's the truth, the hull truth, and nothing but the truth. If you aren't sure about Chardonnay but you like Sauv Blanc or Pinot Gri, this is one to test the water with. I matched this with a sort of mackerely (the label was russian) fish with tomatoes - the additional intensity and complexity the fish bought out in the wine was absolutely oarsome, and has further persuaded me of the potential for food and wine matching. It's highly drinkable alone though, and my unfathomable hangover is a stern reminder to drink a little slower.

Other notes: now onto bottle three of the 'Grand Livre' as previously reviewed as not being very interesting. While this thought remains, it would be a great introductory red being smooth, non-offensive and still having a little of the flavours that its bigger better cousins have in abundance. That abundance would put some off, and to those the book should be given.

Epic Success!!

                    
Tierra del Corazon Casablanca Pinot Noir Reserva 2010 (Chile)

Incredible success! Today, upon smelling this fine fruity Pinot Noir, I suggested to my fine fruity girlfriend that it possibly resembled blackberries. Today, upon reading the label of this fine fruity Pinot Noir (subsequent to aforementioned smelling) it said 'blackberry scented fruit'. And so, for the first time literally ever, I have tasted (albeit through the schnoz) what the winemakers actually think the wine is made of. This is essentially a first, because I hadn't read the label in advance and therefore decided in advance that I was going to definitely experience 'crisp, pretentious gooseberry notes with a hint of I can't believe it's not butter on the nose, with a velvety scotch of mangled columbines with a delicious, blood red sea of actual blood, resulting from a finish of slaughtered peasantry'. Afterall, it's easy to taste ethnic minorities when the wine label tells you it's going to taste of them. Okay, the wine and success may have got to my head.

Wine of a Holiday

Drinking and reading are the order of the day. Or really the order of last week. There are plenty of wine drinkers who will say that they know 'a good red' or a 'claret from their beaujolais' (Blur, 1990s) but few of those will claim they really know how to buy one, short of a little luck and sticking to the bottles they know. Perhaps when they want a great bottle they simply dig a little deeper, or go to a decent wine shop and tell them what they're after. I've always tried to judge wine by the label, and it's a system which hasn't done me too much harm. It's never totally reliable, because a grape you like from a country you like with the right amount of age may still be terrible. Buying wines which have been reduced in the supermarket occasionally brings great rewards, but you have to question why they are reduced - is it simply a promotion or are they past their best-to-drink date? It seems to fall both sides. It's hard to tell when you're standing there trying to determine whether the bottle you're staring at is going to have too much acid, taste of rubber, or simply be insipid and fail to deliver the knockout blow you were looking for with that extra few quid.


In an effort to understand wine a little better, I've begun a knowledge quest. Where is my wine from, how is it made, and in many cases which grapes are actually used!? I was surprised to discover that many winemakers give no indication of grape type on their bottle. I suppose I was aware of this from looking at bottles and not seeing a type - I knew that Bordeaux was not a grape itself, but hadn't appreciated the huge variety of grape types in the different wines we know as Bordeaux. This applies to many wine types. What, for example, is in a Burgundy? I am only beginning to find out the combinations and the styles which come from each region. Even indeed from a single wine. You'll have heard of Chateauneuf Du Pape, but do you have any idea what it consists of? Apparently, usually primarily Grenache grapes, but with potentially ten or more grape type in any bottle - and according to the rules which control the Appellation (the AOC 'Appellation d'Origine Controllé*), it could be made from any combination of those grapes - or just one... so it could contain no Grenache at all. I just knew it tasted epic! How about Shiraz and Syrah? Actually the same grape, with both names used according to preference. And why have I given all the grape type capital letters? Presumably overconsumption.


I've also tried to challenge my traditional thoughts on regions and value. Because South American wines have always seemed good value, I've tended to stick to them when buying wine at around the £5-8 mark, along with a few French bottles as I know a little about French wine. Increasingly I'm realising that, in fact, I know practically nothing about French wine, but that what makes good value in wine is an appreciation of where it comes from and the quality processes associated with this. Winemaking is extremely complex and many factors influence the differences you taste in your wine - the final price may rarely be indicative of how good it is. Without boring you with the details... I'd have to say absolutely nothing else on this subject. Watch this space for an idiot's guide to wine buying i.e. a guide to wine buying by an idiot, which you'll at least be able to understand.


Aanyway... on to the wine drunk on my recent trip up north. Pretty successful with all concerned. Two bottles with high expectations absolutely delivered, and one with much lower expectations proved pretty damn good, although the lesser quality red went down easily but without making much impression. 3 out of 4 is not bad, especially since we were suitably drunk at least twice (ok, exactly twice).



Seraph Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2010 - Sauvignon Blanc (France)
It wouldn't be unreasonable to simply refer to my previous review of the Seraph Sav Blanc, which was excellent, and simply add the words 'a bit better'. This might not give it the credit it deserves, except that the 'bit better' moves it well into the Sancerre league. Is it worth the extra £1.50 a bottle? Yes if you are buying one for an occasion, but only a maybe if you are buying a whole case because you really like the stuff. Which would be quite reasonable.






Reina Mora Special Selection Torrontes 2010 - Torrontes Blend (Argentina)
Where the Seraph is a £10 bottle of wine which definitely make it's price tag worthy, this is a wine which comes only a little cheaper. I was pleasantly surprised, not least because a week earlier I had drunk a red Reina Mora and found it fairly average (review pending, I have three more!). This was reminiscent of a good Pinot Grigio, crisp but powerful, not subtle but not wanting for it, with plenty of fruit. It doesn't beat the slightly cheaper Seraph previously discussed, but then it is a very different wine. I plan to compare the next bottle more closely with aforereviewed (now a word) Pinot Grigio, as they feel similar and come in at a comparable price.




Grand Livre Coteaux du Languedoc 2009 - Grenache Blend (France)
I found this more drinkable than expected, having seen the reviews other customers had given this at Virgin Wines. I'd also applied the 'label theory' described above, and expected it therefore to be boring. It was fairly rich with a decent finish, but wasn't doing anything special. Certainly not nearly good enough to justify close to £10 bottle, but it came cheap in a bargain case so I'll not be complaining. Except now. GRR.







Arva Vitis Cuvee del Pago 2006 - Grenache Blend (Spain)
My first thoughts were 'yes!' and then 'bloody YES!'. My above thoughts on the Seraph pretty much apply here. It's hugely earned its £10 price and knocks out plenty of wines of comparable value. Without harping on about the price it... oh wait too late. It's advertised as 'Rioja style' but I felt it bridged that gap towards a good Shiraz, being both smooth but very powerful and with spices in abundance, and with a finish demanding more. More wine that is.





*As was kindly explained to me by the frenchman that introduced me to wine tasting, cooking with garlic and shaking-hands-everytime-you-see-each-other years ago, French wine has three 'levels of quality'. Vin de table (no quality controls), Vin de Pays (some quality controls), and AOC. Where the bottle bears AOC this means it has met the requirements for that territory or type. Guarantees that you will like the wine depend on far more factors, but you can understand from this label that the wine has met certain strict quality controls during production.