February 2014 - they shoot, they score!!!!!!!

The February 2013 gathering of WoW found us in a football stadium, which you might think is  strange place to taste wine – however we were actually in Derek’s fabulous apartment in the old Arsenal stadium in Highbury, rather than gathering on a rain sodden and muddy pitch (although there may well be a new sport combining kicking balls and drinking wine – with extra points for not spilling - if we could combine it with an ice rink it might give us a chance of more Winter Olympic medals).

Derek had decided to set us a challenge – starting with providing an almost unprecedented number of wines (giving the challenge of remaining sober enough to remember what things tasted like). He had chosen two examples of 6 of the “big 8” grape varieties (Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Grigio, Pinot Noir, Merlot, Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon) – in other words 12 wines in total and 6 grape varieties.

You would think this would be relatively easy – well known grape varieties, that make up the bulk of everyday drinking – surely we should be able to easily identify the grape type!!!! As the notes below reveal, this was in some cases trickier than we expected………

One thing we did learn, was that there are a lot of wines around the £6 / £7 mark that are good easy drinking – fruit driven and not particularly complex, but perfectly decent (although this might also be a reflection of the relative lack of sophistication of our palates).

We started with Prosecco (which wasn’t part of the formal part of the evening and so I won't write anymore about that, other than to say how lovely Prosecco is).

The first two wines were a Chateau Ksara, Cuvee du Pape Chardonnay 2010 (Lebanon) and a Yellowtail, Unoaked Chardonnay, 2013(Australia).  This was an easy grape to identify – I think we all got this very quickly.  The Chateau Ksara was the more interesting wine – quite obviously oaked, but with some citrus taste and quite a honeyed nose – but at £12 per bottle nearly twice the price of the Yellowtail (which is £6.19 at Waitrose).  The Yellowtail was a complete contrast, and demonstrated the impact of oaking on wines – the Yellowtail was light, dry and very citrus-y – almost like a new world Sauvignon Blanc.

We then moved onto a couple of wines that were a bit more difficult to identify (although we got there eventually) – these were The Ned,Pinot Grigio (New Zealand) and an Italia, Pinot Grigio, 2013 (Italy).  Waitrose sell the Ned at £9.99 and describe it as “Pear drop, white blossom and nectarine aromas and flavours support the palate, which displays purity and energy”.  I’m not sure that I got all of those flavours, but it did set us off on a Viognier route, then wandering around Alsace (and their very nice Pinot Gris wines, which then led a discussion of a road trip to Italy via Alsace), until we tasted the Italia, which sadly was an example of why Italian Pinot Grigio gets a bad name (but did immediately allow us to identify the grape). The Italia was thin and a bit acidic – Waitrose sell it at £7.49 and describe it as “A wonderfully crisp and aromatic wine from the north of Italy. The stylish bottle and modern flavour profile make it a great purchase both as an everyday accompaniment to a wide range of foods, or as a welcomed gift”. I think the fact they are talking about the “stylish bottle” tells you all you need to know……

We then moved on to the white wines that confused us – an Emiliana Riesling from Chile and the Robert Oatley, Great Southern Riesling,2012 (Australia).  Feeling smug after identifying the first two wines, we struggled with these.  Both were good wines – the Emiliana was quite full on and fruity – more like a Gewurztraminer in terms of the intensity of flavours, while the Oatley was a drier wine, with much more mineral tastes – at the time I hadn’t realised it was from Western Australia.

We then moved on to the red wines, starting with a couple of Pinot Noirs (which we got straight away).  These were firstly the Turning Leaf, Pinot Noir California, 2012 (USA), which was a very fruit driven and quite simple wine, but very easy drinking.  Alongside that we had the Wither Hills, Marlborough Pinot Noir 2010 (New Zealand), which was a much better wine.  Majestic, going all poetic on us, describe this as “Enticing aromas of ripe black cherry and rich plum with hints of liquorice and rose petal. Silky and sublime, with cocoa notes and a purity of youthful, bright and elegant fruit flavours and subtle power”, and sell it for £12.49.

The next set of reds were easily identified as Merlot’s – both with a fruit driven and not hugely complex approach.   Both the Barefoot Merlot, California NV (USA) and the Cellier des Dauphins, Merlot / Grenache NV (France) were about £6.  There was a clear distinction between the new world and old world wine, with the French wine being drier and having more tannin. Both though were fairly uncomplicated and very easy drinking.

The final reds (like the whites) were less easy to identify – although after 10 wines the fact we were saying anything other than “mmmmm, it’s wine, red, yes…….” Is impressive.  Derek didn’t make it easy by making one of the wines  very unusual blend, an Elaborar, Oak Aged Cabernet Sauvignon /Tempranillo / Grenache 2007 (Spain) which was matched against a Gallo Family Vineyards, California Cabernet Sauvignon 2012 (USA).  The Gallo was much more typical of a Cabernet Sauvignon, with at least some of the pencil shaving / graphite smells and tannins you expect, although it was still quite easy drinking.  The Elaborar had lots of bramble fruit and a bit of pepper, which made us think first of Shiraz – currently on offer at Ocado for less than £6, this was very good value.

Overall, a great evening and thanks to Derek (and great food too)!

A journey through some (slightly) obscure grape types

So the summer has drawn to an end, with grey skies forming over London and the nights drawing in, and therefore action was needed to allay any potential depressive feelings (as well as any tiny tinges of jealousy that might possibly be affecting us at the news of Giles and Michael’s cavortings around South America),. Luckily it was just as well that Vicky (assisted by the marvellous Steve) stepped in and called a Wine on Wednesday meeting (and perhaps more importantly greeted us with Aperol Spritzes in a valiant attempt to keep the spirit of summer alive). 

The theme (as dedicated readers of this blog, as well as absent WoW’ers will know, we ALWAYS have a theme) was “Grape Varieties that Vicky hadn’t drunk”.  This noble concept slightly fell apart when the sparkling wine for the Aperol Spritz (what is the plural of Spritz?) was Vouvray and the first “proper” wine was a Sauvignon Blanc. However, it was still another “vintage” evening with wine, excellent food (with a cheeseboard that defeated even Michael) and excellent company (Vicky, Steve, Greg, Juliet, Nish, Cath, Michael and me).

I am going to ignore Michael’s descriptions of South America – the spitting iguanas of the Galapagos and the Pisco Sours of Machu Picchu (this is a wine blog not a travel programme) – and move rapidly onto the purpose of the evening.

We started, as mentioned above, with Aperol Spritzer’s (I am working my way through the possible plurals until I get it right), which were lovely if a bit of a waste of a perfectly good Vouvray – which was very dry and would give any decent Champagne a run for it’s money. 

After our aperitif we started the proper tasting – in another break with tradition Vicky had decided not to make the tasting blind – so Greg and I were forced to guess quickly before the label was revealed (although Vicky did come up with the interesting idea of “completely blind” tasting, where the wine itself was hidden to see if we could distinguish red and white by taste alone – an idea to be revisited).  The first wine was a 2012 Rod Easthope Sauvignon Blanc from Hawke’s Bay in New Zealand.  This was a very good example of a New Zealand Sauvignon – dry but quite fruity and with that typical “cat’s pee on a gooseberry bush” taste (thank you Jilly Goolden).  Of course, as regular readers will know, I’m not a fan of the Sauvignon Blanc grape, but the rest of the group seemed to enjoy this and thought it well worth the £11.99 price.

Moving rapidly on to a wine I enjoyed much more – a 2012 Montaria Alvarinho from the Lisbon region of Portugal (and again £11.99).  This was a delight – dry and fruity – and would be a great wine as either an aperitif or with light creamy pasta dishes (we are getting sophisticated matching food and wine – don’t worry it will stop soon).  I assume Alvarinho is the same grape as the Spanish Albarino – it certainly tasted similar, but I had always thought it was only a Galician grape.

We stayed in Portugal for the next wine, a 2012 Prova Regia Arinto, which Naked Wines describes as a "vibrant, scintillating white that's earned heaps of medals by being pure, clean and refreshing. The Arinto grape used to be world famous but big, industrial producers let its reputation slip."  This was again a very nice wine, in a lovely bottle that reminded us of those elegant Riesling bottles.

Moving on to the reds, the next wine was another delight, a 2010 Joly Lirac Cotes du Rhone Villages – Vicky chose this because she thought she had never tasted Mourvedre grapes before, but then once we pointed out they were a constant in Cotes du Rhone wine, she accepted that maybe she had simply forgotten.  Apparently, Mourvedre and Syrah must make up at least 15% of the grapes in a Cotes du Rhone wine, as long as Grenache Noir is more than 40%.  Anyway, this was a classic Cotes du Rhone wine – brambly and rich, but not overpowering.

The next wine was probably the only disappointment of the evening (other than Michael having met only one Jesus and no Angel’s in South America).  This was a Christian Patat Primitivo from Salento in the south of Italy (and on sale at £11.99).  Primitivo is generally reckoned to be very close to the Zinfandel grape, and nearly every Primitivo I have had has been a big brute of a wine – perhaps lacking in subtlety but with a real punch.  This wine lacked that – it was perfectly pleasant but just a bit bland and lacking in character – we discussed that it almost hinted at Pinot Noir type lightness, which was a bit odd.

The final wine was excellent though – with the full bodied taste that the Primitivo had lacked.  This was a Chilean Old Vine Carignan – the 2008 Gillmore Tontinaja Vigno Loncomilla Dry Farmed Maule Valley Old Vine Carignan to be precise (and with that many words in the description it better be precise!).  This wine brought blackberry brambles and tannins (in a very good way) and helped justified the £21.99 that Naked Wines charge if you are not a "wine angel".

Finally, I should point out (if you had not already guessed from the links) that the wines all came from Naked Wines – we discussed Naked Wines in one of our earlier posts.

CHEERS!

Wine on Wednesday - the missing months (or "Let's all go on a Wine Safari")

The more observant among you may have noticed a large gap between blog posts in the first half of the year - not because the Wine on Wednesday group was not meeting (although diaries did get a little bit complex) - but primarily because no-one took proper responsibility for writing up the evenings.  I would like to point out that this had absolutely nothing to do with the amount of wine drunk in any way at all - honest!

This entry therefore is a quick attempt at a catch up, covering both Dan and Sam's wine safari on 27th February as well as the evening hosted by Emma and Ben on 17th April that was dominated by South African wines.  Given the passage of time, my recollection may be a bit hazy, but I think that I've remembered most of the wine.

February - Zoo Safari

The theme for 27th February was a Wine Safari - every bottle had a picture of an animal on the label and so, alongside the usual blind tasting experience of trying to guess grape variety and perhaps country, we also had to guess the animal.  I think it is probably fair to say that the taste, aroma and indeed appearance of a wine are not much help in guessing what animal might appear on the label, although country of origin might provide a clue (there being slightly more chance of a platypus appearing on an Australian wine than a Spanish one, for example, though that does not explain why Platypus Wine Tours are in California!!!!)

Dan and Sam (helpfully?) tried to inspire us by providing animal masks to wear - luckily the pictures seem not to have survived, and it soon became clear that without straws drinking wine through a mask was a losing game.

I'm just going to quickly summarise the wines and my recollection (along with the animal on the label) - perhaps others will add further comments?

Yalumba Sauvignon Blanc 2011 - Fish

A quite typical Sauvignon Blanc - easily identifiable and with quite a lot of gooseberry fruit. Pleasant enough without being exceptional.

Southern Right Western Cape Sauvignon Blanc 2011 - Whale

Less obviously a Sauvignon Blanc than the Yalumba - and at one point we were discussing whether this was a Viognier - reading the winemaker's description they talk about leaning towards the Loire rather than New Zealand, which makes a lot of sense.

La Veille Ferme Blanc 2011 - Chicken

As I recall, we failed desperately to identify this wine. Given that it is a mix of Bourboulenc, Grenache Blanc

Ugni Blanc and Vermentino I feel that this is perhaps understandable.  This was a very easy drinking wine and at £6.95 from the Wine Society feels like very good value.

Casal Branco Terra de Lobos 2011 - Wolf

A fruity Portuguese red - another wine which we struggled to identify although at least some of us guessed at Cabernet Sauvignon.  another good value wine given its £6.99 price point.

The Hedonist Mclaren Vale Shiraz 2011- Pig

If you like your red wines to be full on then this was a real winner (as well as being easily idenitifed as a Shiraz!) - big and bold and delicious - as the Waitrose wine site puts it "This is a delicious, silky and smooth wine with dark-fruit flavours and an intense palate that goes beautifully with red meats. Made by Walter Clappis, a renowned winemaker, The Hedonist is made from grapes grown biodynamically, without pesticides or herbicides".  The £12.99 price tag is a bargain for the quality.

Some Young Punks Lust Collides 2008 - Cow

The final wine of the evening turned out to be the most divisive - most of the group loved it, but I wasn't so sure - this could of course be a by-product of coming after a wine I had really liked.  It is Mataro (otherwise known as Mourvedre) and again boidynamic - my understanding of the philosophy of the makers is that they are trying to mix the best of the New and Old Worlds, so perhaps this wine was just a bit refined after the full on punch of The Hedonist.

April - South Africa

Moving rapidly to our April tasting, which was dominated by wines that Ben had tried in South Africa (and in some cases brought back from there).  I haven't captured every wine, but here are the ones I remember.

Bouvet Brut Saumur

As usual we started with a sparkling wine.  Now clearly Saumur is not in South Africa, but bear with me since the theme will emerge.  This is a good Loire sparkler - less dry than a Champagne and made from Chenin Blanc - a great aperitif and available at Majestic for about a tenner.  This wine actually had quite a fruit driven taste for a dry sparkling wine.  Bouvet is apparently owned by the Taittinger Champagne house.

Boekenhoutskloof Porcupine Ridge Viognier Grenache Blanc 2008

This was a great Viognier (and easily identifiable as such) - with all of the peachy fruitiness you expect but also quite dry.  It comes from Swartland, an up and coming region, north of the traditional Western Cape regions of Paarl and Stellenbosch that seems to get a bit more sun, giving the wines a bit more "oomph".

Badenhorst Duiker White 2012

This wine is a Chenin Blanc, Grenache Blanc and Chardonnay blend and so is slightly difficult to identify, although we did sort of guess the varieties eventually (perhaps more through luck than judgement!).  Again a tenner from Majestic, this was a very smooth and rounded wine - a real winner and again from Swartland.  

Rust en Vrede Cabernet Sauvignon 2008

This was a really nice Cabernet Suavignon and I recall getting the classic pencil shaving (wood and graphite) smell as we tasted it.  The winery is one of South Africa's oldest, having been around for over 300 years and since they know far more about this than I do, I'm just going to paste their tasting notes: "Rhubarb and aniseed aromas are backed by cedar and a hint of cocoa powder. Dark cherry aromas are also prevalent. A well structured Cabernet with beautiful grainy tannins. Full palate weight with notes of tobacco and liquorice on the finish."

The Goatfather 2006

The Goatfather was the stand out wine of the night for me.  Fairview Vineyards back onto the Paarl Rock and developed the Goats do Roam brand when they were not allowed to import Cote du Rhone style wine into the EU - they now have a goat tower as you enter the vineyard.  The Goatfather is an Italian inspired blend, led by Sangiovese and Barbera.  This wine has a real punch (would you expect anything less from this mob?) but also lots of complexity and layers of flavour.  I don't recall the "perfumed violets and hints of tomato" that the winemaker talks about, but I'm not arguing (you don't argue with the Goatfather, do you!)

The DNA of grape varieties

This week’s Wine on Wednesday was at Greg and Juliet’s house – despite the great weather we have been having we did not enjoy the luxury of their massive sliding roof (not because of inclement weather, but rather because of inclement squirrels, who had eaten the electrics).  Greg and Juliet had based this tasting on a DNA investigation of the different grape varieties – apparently clever boffins have been able to use this to trace a “family tree” of which grape varieties are descended from which (although there appear to be quite a few missing links in the tree that have not been properly identified).  The idea was to see if, with some clues as to the “parent” grape varieties, we could then identify the products of the “children” grapes.  The actual science behind this is set out in Jancis Robinson’s blog.  We were a slightly smaller group than normal, due to planned absences and someone’s forgetfulness – apparently moving south of the river affected Cath’s diary (Deptford clearly being in a different time zone!)

The grape variety “family tree” is shown below, with A-F being the grape varieties we were to try to identify and the “?”’s representing the as yet unidentified grape varieties.

As always, we started with a sparkling wine – this time an off dry, very pleasant wine that would be great for a sunny day on the beach (my mind at least was on the idea of beaches as I was heading straight down to Deal on the late train). We had a bit of discussion on where it might be form – starting with the idea of a German sparkler but rapidly moving to the Loire, where indeed the wine came from – it was a Cuvee de la Chevalerie Demi Sec from Saumur, which is primarily made from Chenin Blanc.  The great thing about Loire sparkling wines (we decided) is that they don’t pretend to be a Champagne, but forge their own (often delicious) path.

Moving on to the still wines, we moved to something that I immediately thought was a Sauvignon Blanc – something about the initial smell and taste seemed typical – but as it opened up it became less obvious – with an amazing sweet green apple aftertaste that lingered a very long time, while the acidity seemed to decrease.  This led to some confusion, but it turned out that my initial guess was right and that this was in fact Domaine D’en Segur 2011 Sauvignon Blanc.  I would class this as a Sauvignon Blanc for people (like me) who don’t actually like this grape – it did not have the sometimes unpleasant acidity but did have light fruits and dryness (though I'm not sure about the blackcurrant that the wine maker talks about in his description).

The next wine was a bit of a puzzler – none of us actively disliked it, but no one was hugely enthusiastic – there was a slightly odd aroma – heavy on honey (thank you Vicky) but also something else (Whelks??????? –again thank you Vicky – mind you I said Thai fish sauce!!!!!).  This wine turned out to be a Savignan from the Jura – a high altitude wine – the Domaine Badoz Cotes de Jura Cuvee de Victoria2008.  It has a lot of body (as the write up from The Sampler wine shop says, "and a little bit sherried")  but I fear more of a curiosity than a wine I would actively seek out.

The move to the reds meant we abandoned grape varieties anyone (other than Greg) had heard of.  The first red seemed very light – bright light red – a wine that initially made you think of a Pinot Noir (but even lighter).  This would be great summer red wine – with strawberry notes (none of the Pinot Noir cherry notes here).  Clearly we were all a bit stumped (I suggested a Canadian red wine – which was way off the mark).  It turned out to be another Jura wine from Domaine Badoz – this time a 2010 Trousseau (which led to a discussion about exactly what part of a ladies wardrobe a Trousseau normally was). This was a very nice wine and worth seeking out.

One sniff of the next wine immediately betrayed the grape variety was descended from Malbec, since it shared that brambly essence of the more well known grape variety.  The actual grape variety turned out to be a Jurancon Rouge, although it had been grown in the warmer South of France (Cahors to be precise).  The story behind the wine is interesting (and betrayed in the name – look at the picture below).  Apparently the grower was told by the local co-operative that he could not use this grape variety for wines from Cahors, especially not an AOC wine – he disagreed with this view and went ahead – producing a warm aromatic red that, because of the French labelling restrictions – can only be sold as a “Vin du Table”.  However Fabien Jouves has made his feelings clear in calling the wine a Jurancon “You F*** My Wine”!!!!!!

The final wine took us just across the border from France into Spain, with a Hondarrabi Beltza (at least we think that is the grape variety – it might be the wine maker!). The Gorrondona 2012 Bizkaiko Txakolina (and no, that is not a typo driven by excessive consumption) was a good rounded red wine that was slightly rustic and also, somewhere on the aftertaste, distinctively Spanish.  The wine itself, as any student of language would tell from the spellings, came from the Basque Country – and of course Rioja lies just to the south of this.

As for how each grape variety fits into the family tree above – well, I didn’t take notes so you will have to either guess or look here.  All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable and informative evening (and with a special mention to Juliet’s broad bean and ricotta lemon infused bruschetta – yum!).

All the wines (except for the first Saumur) can be found at The Sampler wine shop in Islington. 

Goodbye to Dalston Junction.....

The Wine on Wednesday’ers gathered on for a final time atop Dalston Junction on 12^th June – a final time there, at least, since Cath and Dan were moving into new accommodation, with Dan and Sam taking that “living together” step and Cath upgrading her view from the current panoramic view of Central London to one of the sweeping Thames (not that any of us are in any way jealous of these views).  So as the sun set behind the BT Tower, we journeyed once again into the world of viniculture.

Our host, Cath, told us early on that she was repeating a theme that had already been used – since the aperitif was a sparkling wine from Hungary, it was pretty clear that we hardy explorers were once more investigating the lesser known reaches of the wine world (although the wines were from fairly main stream stockists).

So starting with the sparkling wine – a Campanula Pinot Grigio from Hungary (available from Laithwaites at a bargain £8.99 a bottle).  This was a revelation.  Tokay is well known for its sweet wines, but this was a Prosecco like stunner.  It was dry, citrus-y and really very, very nice.  An excellent start to the evening.

We then moved on to the blind tasting – starting with a Romanian white wine: Fontana Vecchia 2010 from Dealu Mare (again from Laithwaites at £6.99).  We struggled a bit to place this, with suggestions of Viognier (which may be the new default for “I can’t identify this white wine so say Viognier – I may not be right but I will sound like I know something about wine”) and perhaps a not too acidic Sauvignon Blanc.  Actually the key grape varieties are Feteasca Alba and Feteasca Regala (Feteasca meaning 'young girl's grape' apparently!) so not surprising we didn’t get those.  The actual wine was quite light, with a bit of a fruity nose and quite pleasant without, in my opinion at least, having quite enough of anything distinctive.

The second white wine took us back to Hungary – a Royal Tokaji 2011 Furmint Dry wine.  This was a much more rounded wine, with hints of Chardonnay (and that is a good thing in my book, if not in many others!).  Majesticare selling this at £9.99 for a single bottle.  As they describe it “Well-defined aromatics comprising rich honey notes and stone fruits on the nose. Plenty of acidity gives the palate crispness and bite, with mineral tinges accenting the fruit-laden, exotic feel.”  A bit full on, but again good.

Moving on to the reds, we managed to quickly identify that the next wine was a Pinot Noir – it had all the characteristic qualities – that distinctive cherry flavour and nose and light body.  In fact it was a Paris Street Pinot Noir 2012 (£7.49 from Laithwaites) – so back across the border from Hungary into Romania again.  A good alternative to a traditional Burgundy Pinot Noir and at a reasonable price too.

We then moved on to an English wine – an Ickworth Bishop’s Reserve from Suffolk.  This was revelation – rich and full with well balanced tannins and a depth that, frankly, you don’t often get from English Red wines.  It certainly tasted like it had come from a much warmer climate.  This was probably the wine of the night (and not just for patriotic reasons).  The discussion of the wine, its origin and the ownership of Ickworth (historically the home of the Hervey family), led to the quote of the night (sparing some blushes), when Lady Victoria Hervey was described as “you must have hear of her – she was a famous I.T. girl” (presumably her server maintenance skills are legendary, along with her socialising, and I look forward to her guest appearance on this).

So congratulations to Cath for another wonderful evening and onwards to July at Greg and Juliet’s (assuming the squirrels don’t eat any more of the electrical cabling).

Christmas wines - or how to match with Turkey and Christmas Pudding

Christmas Wine Tasting

As Christmas time drew near, and Cliff Richard gets his annual slug of royalties for “Mistletoe and Wine”, so the Wine on Wednesday crowd got together and, throwing caution to the wind, met on a TUESDAY, for a pre Christmas tasting, ostensibly with the theme of wines to go with Christmas leftovers – this meant the preparation of leftovers, including cold turkey (a symptom that, by the way, I may have to endure in the new year after my Christmas imbibing), roast potatoes and roast vegetables, enough cheese to make a dent in the EU cheese mountain (if this still exists) and of course mince pies (including some extraordinary glittery ones from Giles).

Despite the many emails and the multiple optimisation spreadsheets, not everyone was able to make it, but we had a few guests to swell the numbers, and most importantly Pam and Jude from Hannibal Brown wines to lead the tasting.  Hannibal Brown is a new online wine company for “explorers of great wine” that launched last month (November 2012).  They aim to provide both a personal service but also a choice of wines that is distinctly different from that in the supermarkets.  They will be stocking about 100 wines in the range, from across the globe.

Having Pam leading the tasting meant that it was genuinely a blind tasting for everyone (including Darren the host).  She led us through 9 wines from the range (plus a special seasonal extra from Darren’s “cellar” – otherwise known as under the stairs), in a series of paired tastings – helping us understand the different characteristics of grape varieties and cool versus hot climates – all of which was very informative and may even help us in future tastings (if we can remember).

Anyway, enough preamble and on to the wines (almost all of which can be bought at www.hannibalbrown.com).  All the tasting notes are also copied from Hannibal Brown.

Prosecco 4357, Vini Fabiano, Italy:£12.99

A pleasant, reasonably light Prosecco and a great way to get the party started.  The tasting notes state “Zingy, delicate and mouthwatering.  Pale in colour with a soft tingly fizz.  Whiffs of apple blossom, smooth and rounded with good length and acidity”. 

Lugana“Argillaia Superiore”, Vini Fabiano, 2011, Italy: £14.85

Another wine from Vini Fabiano, who are Veneto based (near Lake Garda) family winery, started initially in 1912 by a Venetian wine merchant.  This wine was very nice – quite delicate (although that might have been partly due to its wine pair –see below).  Greg, with his encyclopaedic knowledge, identified it as Italian, after the rest of us had guessed Reisling and about half a dozen other grapes.  It is in fact 100% Turbiana (?????) and is described as “a very well structured wine with a fruity and delicate aroma.  Soft and harmonious in taste with hints of vanilla.”  Pam recommended it with oysters or asparagus wrapped in parma ham.

Bon Courage Gewurztraminer, Robertson, South Africa:£10.45

Wow – this wine was incredibly floral on the nose, with fantastic rose petal aromas and honey, yet actually quite dry in the mouth.  This was one of the wines of the evening for me (helped of course by my success in identifying the grape and the fact it was a Southern Hemisphere wine).  It needs to be well chilled.  I drank it again as an aperitif on Christmas Day when it wasn’t that cold and while still good, the aromas overwhelmed the wine slightly.  The notes sum it up “a punchy wine with mouthfilling flavours of tropical fruits and spices.  The finish shows firm tannins and soft acidity.  Time to get the chilli out! Try it with a spicy red Thai curry.”  Yum!!!

We then moved onto the second pair of whites, helped by the wonderful Jude and some slightly saucy glass tabs, to ensure we knew which was wine 1 and which was wine 2.

Kintu Sauvignon Blanc, Chile:£14.95

This was deceptive wine – it took a long time to get to the fact that it was Sauvignon (regular readers will know about my – Darren – aversion to Sauvignon, whose acidity regularly allows me to make comparisons to the Devil’s bile).  This wine, in contrast, was fruity and dry with very muted hints of the dreaded gooseberry.  Kintu apparently comes from an ancient Chilean tribal dialect meaning 'fine view'.  The tasting notes read “Intense citrus aroma with pleasant herbal notes. It is crisp and bubbly on the palate with a long and flavourful finish.  Delicious served with Moules Marinieres.”

Walter Clappis Viognier / Chardonnay “The Hedonist”, McLaren Vale, Australia £14.55

This was another stand out wine for me, and exactly the sort of wine to give to people who turn their noses up at Chardonnay.  This unoaked wine was full of flavour and had none of the mouthfilling butteriness that puts many off Chardonnay.  This is a bio-dynamic wine, made by a vintner with over 30 years experience who believes in minimal intervention and that good wines are “made in the vineyard.” To the tasting notes again: “Made following entirely bio-dynamic principles, this fancy Chardonnay blend offers a nose dive of tropical fruits, lime and orange blossom.  Full of citrus, spice, melon and nectarine, great length and crisp acidity.  Walter Clappis really does stand head and shoulders above for his consistently elegant wines.”

At this point we were only half way through the evening, so to avoid flagging there was a brief stop for the Christmas themed food, to re-taste the white wines we liked the most and then move onto the reds.

Henri Clos Pinot Noir “le Petit Clos”, New Zealand:£13.99

This was a bit of an interesting wine – we quickly identified it as a Pinot Noir because of the characteristic dark cherry flavour, but then got completely confused by its provenance – was it Burgundy, Oregon, Australia – all wrong, since in fact it is from Marlborough, New Zealand.  This was a red wine you could very enjoyably drink on its own, and since I’m flagging now, I’m going to go straight to the tasting notes “This is not like your ordinary Pinot Noir, this Pinot has guts! Aged for 11 months in French oak barrels, this wine has lovely aromas of cranberries and red cherries with hints of tar. Although medium bodied, it offers a tasty, long, earthy finish.  This would go very nicely with grilled Tuna or a tasty Turbot.”

Bon Cap Pinotage “The Ruins”, Robertson, South Africa:£10.25

Paired with the Pinot Noir was a Pinotage.  This took a bit longer to identify – but once you got there the smokiness / woodiness of a classic Pinotage was obvious.  This was surprisingly easy drinking wine (it went well with Turkey and the stuffing and sausages on Christmas Day for example), but with lots of flavours.  Going again to the tasting notes: “Medium-bodied Pinotage with a youthful side to it.  An amazing kick of blackberry and damson fruit with a hint of cedar wood and a faint whiff of chocolate and coffee aromas.  This really is delicious drinking.  This is great served just slightly chilled on its own.  Also perfect with the season's turkey fest, or even a leg of lamb, rosemary and garlic”.  (See – I said it went well with Turkey and I wrote that before reading the notes!)

We then went off piste slightly, with a 2005 Clos du ValCabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley.  I’ve managed to find this in the UK at £30 a bottle from the Good Wine Company (which was a lot cheaper than I was expecting, since I’d been told and Pam also thought this was now a £60 bottle of wine, but that may be for better vintages), but this bottle had been given to me by Katherine Barnhisel in one of her visits to the the UK.  This was a gorgeous Cabernet Sauvignon – mellow and smooth with a long finish.  Lots of blackberry and that classic graphite / woody pencil shavings thing that Cabernet Sauvignon has.

Chateau Fontestau, Cru Bourgeois, Bordeaux, France 2004: £18.95

The Clos du Val was paired with a classic Bordeaux wine, which is of course a Cabernet Sauvignon blend.  At half the price of the Clos du Val this showed lots of complexity and a ripe mix of proper red wine flavours.  As the tasting notes put it “A great example of why Bordeaux is sooooo sought after…. Look out for a violet scent (don't be put off!). This wine has a really powerful nose with plenty of blackberry connotations. But it's a softy really. Think deep, supple, long, juicy and very elegant.  This 2004 vintage was awarded 5 stars in Decanter Magazine.”  This was a good wine and well worth stocking up on – one to impress the neighbours / parents etc – and strangely enough there was none left at the end of the night.

Simon Hackett “Old Vine” Grenache, McLaren Vale, Australia:£12.95

The final wine was another excellent choice.  Michael liked this wine, despite claiming not to like Grenache (although after the Costiere de Nimes episode, I’m wondering if Michael really does know what he really likes!!!!  J).  This was a prefect wine for a winters evening – lots of berries and depth.  It was relatively easy drinking (no sniggering about any wine being easy drinking at that stage of the evening), but turning once more to the tasting notes: “This wine is happily fruit dominated and sun drenched and fills the corners of the mouth with deep fruitiness. Whiffs of plump summer sweet berries make this bright and up-beat Grenache a real winner.  One of Hannibal's favourites - give it a go, this is worth every penny and you won't be disappointed.”

Roll on 2013 and thanks once again to Pam and Jude for orchestrating the evening!

November at Nishma's

After the small (but perfectly formed) October gathering at Cath's tasting Bordeaux and Burgundy wines (and the rogue Costiere de Nimes, which we won't mention too often to Micheal!), Nishma managed to get a full complement of the WoW crew for a “Wine on Wednesday on Friday" on November 17th, and encouraged us all to get naked (ooh-errr missues) - Naked Wines, that is (www.nakedwines.com)!

Naked Wines works on the basis of members investing £20 per month and then invests in winemakers, making wines that are distributed directly, in theory cutting prices for consumers by 40-60%. Apparently there are 100,000 investing customers (“Angels” as Naked Wines calls them), which means about £2m per month going into winemaking.  This means helping talented would-be winemakers in assistant winemaking positions to get started on their own projects, all of which sounds good to me.

The Naked Wines website has reviews of their wines from thousands of users, giving both a percentage score and a value for money rating.

The selection we tried could have been specially selected to demonstrate exactly the typical (stereotypical?) tastes of each wine variety - a Prosecco to start then New Zealand Sauvingon Blanc, a German Reisling, a Southern French Rose, a New Zealand Pinot Noir, an Argentinian Malbec and a South African Merlot.  All were good wines, and all were easily identifiable as exactly what they were meant to

be.

Here are the detailed tasting notes (with Naked Wines "non-angel" pricing):

PROSECCO: Saccheto, £8.49

A really pleasant Prosecco to start the evening – light and great value at that price

Small and Small Sauvignon Blanc by Bill and Claudia Small, £11.99

This was a hugely fruity(gooseberry, of course) wine, without any of the sourness of a typical Sauvignon Blanc. I liked this wine (and I normally am not at all a fan of Sauvingon Blanc, thinking them far too acidic - give me a good glass of Chardonnay instead!). Nish says she sometimes puts this wine in the freezer to make it really cold first, and I can understand that with all the fruit, this wine could take that. The experts describe this as "Racy, refreshing and rejuvenating this is a glass of pure gooseberry deliciousness. It doesn't get much fresher and finer than this. Perfect for washing down a massive bowl of freshly cooked mussels". Yumm!

Klein Riesling Trocken 2011: £10.99. 
A classic German dry Riesling.  Good aroma and nice fruit, but with a dry aftertaste. A wine you could drink all  evening - even on its own. Naked Wines say "Wonderfully crafted by Peter Klein who won the second place in Germany's Young Winemaker of the Year competition 2009, this is a classic dry Riesling with lots of edge and verve, and deliciously intense lemon and white peach fruit flavours", which seems a good description.

Benjamin Darnault "Pique-Nique" Grenache Rose Vin du Pays d'Oc £9.99.

A dry rose wine, not much of an aroma and a slightly sour aftertaste. Perfectly pleasant and would be nice, well chilled, on a warm day on a terrace in the South of France, but perhaps one of those wines that does not travel as well. The description is: "Think freshly crushed strawberries with a couple of raspberries thrown in to boot, combined with freshly whipped cream and a nice sharp bite. Top-drawer rose, and fresh as a morning daisy". I'm not sure I got all of those flavours though.

Monowai Pinot Noir 2011 (New Zealand), £13.99.
This was a good Pinot Noir, with the classic dark cheery aroma / flavours. Quite a light wine (as you would expect from a Pinot), this was another easy drinking wine. Over to the experts at Naked Wine: "This spicy, fruity Pinot Noir is made on the banks of the Ngaruroro River, in Hawke's Bay New Zealand. Produced by the talented Emma Lowe in her non-interventionist vineyard, it's delicious for drinking right now".

Angel's Reserve by Mauricio Korca Malbec, £9.49.
Slightly embarrassingly, I can’t remember much about this wine - it was dark red, very pleasant, but obviously not hugely memorable. I’d blame that on it getting late in the evening and all of that, but I suspect that it was more the massive impact of the next wine.......

Stephen de Wet Arabella Merlot 2011 (South Africa) £8.49.
A really full, fruity wine - loads of jammy berry flavours and great on a cold night - almost too heavy to drink on its own (and it isn't often I will say that). "... one of the most intense black cherry fruit flavours, that feel and taste in the mouth as if they've been whisked up with a shot of espresso and liquid dark chocolate. Add a hint of spice to the finish and you've got one hell of a mouthful of red wine". I'd agree entirely with that, and add that at £8.49 or £6.25 for Naked Wines Angels, this is really good value.

Next month - Christmas!!!!!!