Xerolithia White, Peza 2008, Crete, Greece (£7.99 Oddbins) Nice mix of richness and crispness, rounded and fleshy, with some pineapple flavours, but also a slightly pithy, piney edge and an almost volcanic note on the finish. B(+)
Alois Lageder ‘Vogelmaier’ Moscato Giallo 2006, Alto Adige, Italy (£7.60 in the Bibendum sale – normally £12.93) Grapey and spicy, but has lost its youthful zip and is starting to show an oily/bitter edge. OK, but would have been far, far better two years ago. In this state, C
Peter Lehmann Layers White 2009, Adelaide, Australia (£10.50 Enotria, SWIG) Young, slight rose petal aroma, quite rich lychee, rhubarb and peach flavours, but can’t make up its mind whether it want to be young and crisp or fleshy and mellow. B(-)
Château Brown Pessac Léognan Blanc 2008, Bordeaux, France (~£30 Soho Wine Supply) Young, and still quite oaky, but the smoky character is in balance with the zesty but refined flavours of tinned pears, peaches, guava and passionfruit, and there’s an almost briny tang to the finish. Fresh and very classy, needs 3+ years, but should be worth the wait. S(+)
Bisol ‘Cartizze’ Prosecco di Valdobbiadene Superiore 2008, Veneto, Italy (£22.99 Bibendum) Starts off lush and peachy, but then the minerally restraint kicks, adding a drier, more serious, clay-like edge and keeping you coming back for more. S-
Cono Sur Brut NV, Bío-Bío, Chile (£9.99 Morrisons, Oddbins, Tesco.com) Toasty sweet’n’sour Riesling character comes through strongly on the nose, also in the mouth. It tends to take over what without it would have been a quite elegant wine. Shame. C+
Codorníu Reina Maria Cristina Cava Brut Reserva 2007, Catalonia, Spain (£18.99 Majestic) Relaxed, confident style, showing some maturity, but still with a core of earthy citrus fruit, and a touch of herbs, a touch of sweetness, but nicely balanced. S-
Petaluma Croser 2006, Piccadilly Valley, South Australia (£16.06 Bibendum – £11.08 in the sale from Feb 2nd-15th) Showing some creamy, even cheesy lees edges, along with some of the strained chocolatey richness of a touch of oxidation. But these are all in balance with the rest of the wine, and the bready/biscuity citrus and pineapple get their chance to shine. Rich but dry, classy style. S
Champagne Moutard Cuvée des 6 Cépages 2004, France (£37.50 – Sommelier Wine Co, Markinch Wine Gallery, Winos, Den Boer Wines, Kevin O’Rourke Wines, Divine Wines, Vineyards, Cherchez le Vin, Ashbourne Wines, K D Brands Ltd, John Gordons Ltd, Beverley Bollons, The Larder, The Naked Grape, Bacchus)
(the 6 Cépages are Arbane, Petit Meslier, Pinot Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir & Pinot Meunier)
Not much on the nose, or in the mouth. Has a creamy, herby edge, but not a great deal of flavour coming through at the moment. Nor with further time – am I missing the point here? B
Australia Day + 1, so a few hangers-on from the haggis adventure, plus a moody but not all that magnificent Italian…
Jacobs Creek Grenache Shiraz 2008, South Eastern Australia (£5.99 Tesco, Asda, Ocado) Quite light, almost refreshing, sweet raspberry aroma and flavour, slightly jammy, but then the more earthy gravitas of Shiraz comes through. Good, easy commercial style, almost chillable. B
Peter Lehmann Layers Red 2008, Barossa, Australia (£10.50 SWIG) Liquorice and earth, slightly jammy dodger-like sweetness, big, quite fleshy, concentrated and juicy, and the blackberry and plum fruit isn’t overripe, but seems not to be quite sure what it wants to achieve. B
Wyndham Estate George Wyndham Founder’s Reserve Shiraz 2005, South Australia (£9.99 Majestic) Big, pungent, peppery, inky, has a pleasing black fruit and herb intensity, but there’s a slightly ‘processed’ feel to it, along with some vanilla that detracts from that nice fruit. But a decent glug all the same. B(+)
Castello Banfi Rosso di Montalcino 2007, Tuscany, Italy (£15.07 Bibendum – sale price from Feb 2nd £7.82) Vague brown sugar, black cherry and Cola, touches of vanilla and bayleaf, but ultimately quite simple with not much in the way of aroma, and a finish that’s just that bit too dry and charmless – too controlled. B-
Leaping Lizard Cabernet Merlot 2007, Western Australia (£7.99-£8.50 Seckford Agencies) Vibrant, crunchy blackcurrant nose, then slightly pippy blackberry flavours, with a tar-like streak, easy fleshy wine, quite powerful and ripe but finishes dry. B
Ferngrove ‘Symbols’ Cabernet Merlot 2008, Frankland River, Australia (£8.99-£9.50 Seckford Agencies) Fresher and tangier than the Leaping Lizard, with fine cassis, black cherry and leafy Cabernet edges joined by an oily richness, intense, but never aggressive. S-
Yalumba The Scribbler Cabernet/Shiraz 2007, Barossa, Australia (£9.99 Oddbins, Noel Young) Jovial forward style, ripe and rounded, with the sweet edge of plump Shiraz and the vanilla sheen of (American?) oak coming through. Good meaty finish, tasty and honest, but not hugely complex. B+
Casillero del Diablo Reserva Privada Cabernet/Syrah 2007, Maipo Valley, Chile (£8.99 Asda) Classic Chilean dusty blackcurrant pastille, intense but quite angular – needs sexing up. B(-)
Brown Brothers Patricia Cabernet Sauvignon 2004, Victoria, Australia (£22.99 Christopher Piper, www.everywine.co.uk) Corked! Bugger.
Houghton The Bandit Shiraz/Tempranillo 2008, Western Australia (£8.99 – available from Spring 2010) Young but not disturbingly so, with bright strawberry, blackcurrant and jammy dodger fruit, a touch of reduction and hints of mint and milk chocolate. B(+)
D’Arenberg “d’Arry’s Original” Shiraz Grenache 2006, McLaren Vale, South Australia (£9.95-£12.99 The Wine Society, Oddbins, Bibendum) Lovely lush sweet allure, ripe, plump, plummy fruit, rounded and easy to drink with extra interest provided by earthy mineral and iron notes. S-
Jim Barry The McRae Wood Shiraz 2005, Clare Valley, South Australia (~£22.50 winedirect.co.uk) A weighty giant, initially a tad minty but then the voluptuous black fruit washes over you. Add in notes of bread dough and licorice, and a leathery meaty finish, and you have wine that, while not refined, is certainly complex, warm-hearted and honest. S(+)
If you are surrounded by cake, what do you do? Open three sweet wines…
Mont Tauch Muscat de Rivesaltes NV, France (£5.99 per half Morrisons)
Plump juicy grape and barley sugar, a hint of rose petal, maybe a touch of heat from the fortification, but overall this is very friendly, sticky wine – perfect for Christmas puddings. B+
Heggies Botrytis Riesling 2006, Eden Valley, South Australia (~£11 per half)
Alluring apricot, orange and peach kernel aromas, supple, juicy wine, not overladen with botrytis, but with that almost creamy richness allied to the tangy floral edges of Riesling. S
Disznókő Tokaj 5 puttonyos 2001, Hungary (£21.36 per 500ml Waitrose)
Classic burnt sugar and deep marmalade character, showing some maturity but still with that backbone of searing, almost herby acidity that will keep it in good nick for years to come. Yes it’s sweet, but that acidity dries up the finish – save it for blue cheese and foie gras. S+
Mixed emotions chez Woods this evening. At approximately 6pm, our hamster Smudge trotted off to the great trundle wheel in the sky. She seems to have gone out on a high after having had an energetic work out in her plastic orb in the company of five rather rowdy children. Apparently, once back into her cage, she wended her way through a maze of tubes and then just went limp. A doctor arrived half an hour later, but he was the parent of three of the children, and wasn’t so much interested in the well-being of a two-year-old rodent as in having a Coopers Pale Ale – another case of the NHS not being what it was during the Blitz…
After the Pale Ale was all gone, the good doctor (I don’t know if he’s good as he works in a different borough from where we live, but I can imagine he has a decent bedside manner), his wife and the two of us worked our way through a bottle of Bründlmayer Grüner Veltliner Alte Reben 1999 from Kamptal in Austria. At 10 years old, it was fighting fit, and although I don’t know how alte (old) the reben (vines) were in this instance, certainly there was some power and persistence to the fragrant pepper, pear and citrus flavours. Add in notes of minerals, some waxy, honeyed maturity and that peculiar earthy lentil character of older Grüners, and you had a wine that was just singing.
And certainly one that was holding up better than the 1998 Polish Hill River Vineyard Riesling I opened last night with some friends. It came from what used to be the Mildara Blass stable, and was made by David O’Leary, who’s now making some cracking Riesling under the O’Leary Walker label. And I have a feeling that this too would have been a cracking wine were it to have had either a screwcap or a better cork. As it was, it came across like a fading Alsace wine, ripe and rich, but with an odd dried burnt sugar edge (I know what I mean by that, not sure if others will) and its fruit fading into obscurity. It tasted far, far older than the excellent Mount Horrocks 2000 Riesling that I drank over the weekend (see here), but then that was one of the first batch of Clare Valley wines with the Stelvin closure.
And when the Grüner had all gone, we moved on to the 2007 St Bris from Clotilde Davenne (£7.95 www.fromvineyardsdirect.com). Yes, we should have done them the other way round, but hey, after a sip or two we weren’t complaining. St Bris is one of those wines that’s not sure whether it wants to be Sancerre or Chablis. At its best – here – it combines the grassy pungency of a Loire Sauvignon with the creamy minerality of Chablis, and at a price that undercuts both. Very tasty wine, perfect for mourning the death of a hamster…
Cast your mind back, dear reader, to the year 2000. Pulp fans were actually able to discover what that girl in the song was doing on Sunday Baby (not much in reality, but the cafe at IKEA was open), Bordeaux produced a spectacular vintage, certainly a candidate for vintage of the century, although no one was fully sure whether it was the 20th or 21st century, and a group of winemakers in the Clare Valley banded together in protest at manky corks and released their Rieslings with Stelvin screwcap closures.
Now I’m not a Stelvin zealot. It’s a bit of metal that holds in an inert disc, in the hope that all the bottles opened anywhere around the world will contain something that bears more than a passing resemblance to what the winemaker put in them in the first place. Food writers write about things such as meat, cheese and vegetables, not the packaging in which they’re delivered to the end user. Shame then that so much wine writing over the past decade has been about packaging.
So why am I writing more words about Stelvin? Simply to say that on the evidence of the thoroughly splendid, svelte and delicious bottle of 2000 Mount Horrocks Watervale Riesling I’ve been on tonight, the closure did what it’s supposed to to the wine – nothing. It delivered a sleek, perfumed beauty, showing some toasty, honeyed age as it enters it’s tenth year, but with its lithe citrus, apple and mineral flavours shining through. Still wonderfully lively and zesty, with at least another five years life ahead of it – shame it was my last bottle…
About ten years ago, I went to South Australia as a guest international judge at the McLaren Vale wine show. There are those who criticise the Australian show system, but as anyone who’s been involved in it will tell you, a) it’s great fun, b) it’s hard work, and c) in my limited experience (I’ve done 4 of them) the judges are to a man/woman interested in bettering the standards of wine. Anyway, McLaren Vale was a hoot, thanks in no small part to having the wine world’s scruffiest and unhealthiest marketing man Zar Brooks as a chaperone.
Three events outside the days of judging come to mind. Firstly, my introduction to vertazontal tastings. Yes, vertazontal, as in vertical meets horizontal. In other words about eight wineries (that’s the horizontal bit) presented several vintages (the vertical bit) of their wine, in this instance Shiraz. Secondly, there came the realisation that some in the region had begun to take the idea of big is beautiful too far. I’m all for pushing limits to the extreme, but I’m also all for then stepping back from those extremes to discover a happy medium. I found that some of the wines that were then being made in McLaren Vale were just too big. Am I the only one who has never understood why Clarendon Hills receives the acclaim it does? I taste it at every opportunity, just so I can see if I can get what people like Robert Parker see in the wines, and I still haven’t had any Road to Damascus type of experience.
The third event was my visit to Drew Noon’s winery. You arrive at some wineries through a well-manicured shrubbery, often with lavender bushes in attendance, and are greeted by enough marble to furnish a Greek temple. But ten years ago at Noon – they may have spruced it up since – you drove up a dirt road to a building that estate agents would have described as ‘rustic’ and ‘with potential’ – a shack in other words. Ah, but the wines… Drew doesn’t try to hide the heat of McLaren Vale in his reds, and it’s a rare wine that dips below 15% alcohol. But there’s brain to match the brawn, with that earthy, almost ferrous edge of some of the local soils playing as much a part in the wines as the generous fruit flavours. Back in Blighty, I bought a mixed case of his 1998s, about 6 months before Robert Parker showered them with praise and huge scores.
And whereas I disagree with Bob on Clarendon Hills, with Noon, I’m right with him. These are wines that have the power and intensity of Clarendon Hills, but none of the volatility and oxidation. And they’re wines for the long haul – just over a year ago, I broached a bottle of the Grenache Shiraz Eclipse (see here) and it was way, way too young. So too is the 1998 Reserve Cabernet we’ve been on tonight. It started off in rather obvious and chunky fashion, and even began to look a little jaded, but then an hour or so later, the fireworks began. Pencils. Blackcurrants. Cedar. Mint. Warm earth. Iron. Tannic but balanced. Ripe but never descending into bimbo-dom. Six hours after I pulled the cork, it’s still opening up and revealing extra layers. However, my glass is nearly empty, and it’s late, and I have to give my sister a lift to the airport early tomorrow. But there are three bottles left. Next time, if I’m thinking about having it for dinner, I’ll open it at lunchtime – 12 Noon would seem like a good time.
Thanks Enotria for the six Rieslings that landed on the doorstep recently, two with corks, two with screwcaps and two with those very pretty Vinoloks. It’s been a rather soggy afternoon in the Pennines, but these brightened up matters considerably. More on this week’s First Taste page here.
