You may have noticed it being a bit quiet here recently. A couple of reasons. Firstly, it’s been the Easter holidays – Alton Towers was great, the knackered clutch on the way home less so… Secondly, I’ve been on International Wine Challenge duty, and as one of the 20 panel chairmen, I am tasked (dreadful word) with guiding a set of judges through the good, the bad and the ugly of the wine world – today was good, yesterday was mostly ugly… And if you’re not sure what goes on at the IWC, take a look at these accounts from Kathryn O’Mara of Artisan & Vine and Tara Devon aka Wine Passionista
I have a number of videos in embryonic form waiting to be processed but to be honest, after a day of IWC tasting, the last thing I feel like doing is slaving over Sony Vegas on a hot laptop. So I’m handing over to my mother (1926 vintage) and her scone recipe, captured here in glorious colo(u)r by my Melbourne-based sister Stella on one of her recent trips back to Blighty. Enjoy…
Clarendelle is the ‘new’ range of generic Bordeaux from one of the finest addresses in Bordeaux. May I quote from a press release that accompanied them…. ‘According to Prince Robert of Luxembourg, great-grandson of Clarence Dillon and President of Château Haut-Brion; “Clarendelle’s style and structure represent elegance, complexity and balance. Clarendelle strives for a style representative of its roots. Our red and white wines are the fruits of an assemblage which mirrors the marriage of grape varietals found in our estate wines.” ‘
But as we all know, there is a difference in the quality of the nominally same raw ingredients. And there is a difference in the way different chefs approach those ingredients…
Clarendelle Bordeaux Blanc 2006 (£13.99 Avery’s) Quite old-fashioned and rather heavy, creamy lemon curd fruit with some beeswax and a touch of nuttiness, but ultimately lacks freshness. C-
Clarendelle Bordeaux Rosé 2007 (£10.99 Avery’s) Ripe blackcurrant and plum aromas, but this is flabby and lacking zip – they really should be on a younger vintage now. 0
Clarendelle Bordeaux Rouge 2004 (£13.99 Avery’s) Some plummy fruit, but the figgy/pruny edges speak of a wine that’s fading, slightly earthy edges to the finish, but very little charm or class. C
Clarendelle Amber Wine Monbazillac 2003 (£19.99/500 ml Avery’s) Heady, almost Tokaji-like, burnt sugar, orange marmalade, intense but simple and not exactly subtle. B(-)
All in all, not a great advert for Bordeaux. I find it hard to comprehend why such a famous producer would want to soil their reputation with a range such as this.
Montes Sauvignon Blanc 2009, Curicó, Chile (£6.50 www.qpwines.com) Clean and fresh, slight lime and lemon jelly, zippy and zesty, with a touch of river pebble, a simple but honest style. C+
Montes Limited Selection Sauvignon Blanc 2008, Leyda, Chile (£9.40 www.qpwines.com) A mixture of lushness, warmer and rounder, a touch of green pepper, plum and ripe citrus, maybe has lost a little freshness, but still pretty tasty. B
Snoqualmie Chardonnay 2008, Columbia Valley, Washington State, USA (~£11.50 Stratford’s Wine Agencies) Heavy vanilla fudge, crystallised pineapple, oily, tinned fruit cocktail syrup, rather heavy and clumsy style, not very appealing. 0
Viña Mar Chardonnay Reserva 2008, Casablanca, Chile (£9.99 www.qpwines.com) A much fresher, fruitier wine with ripe apple, peach and plum, touches of cashew nut and a creamy oatmeal finish. B(+)
Yes, it’s nearly Easter, the greatest time of the year. Celebrate with eggs. Celebrate with Champagne. But perhaps not best to celebrate with both at once…
It’s about two decades since my words on wine first appeared in print. They weren’t all that memorable, just rehashes of other people’s tasting notes – ‘John found blackcurrants, Jane detected boiled hake, while Albert noticed a hint of Listerine etc.’ More inspiring stuff has hopefully emerged since then, and I’ve also come to the conclusion that I’d rather be entertaining and informative than earnest and scholarly. And so in that spirit, here are my 20 lessons from 20 years of wine writing.
1) I’d rather have an OK wine with a good friend than a great wine with a prat.
2) Not everyone thinks wine is fascinating. This used to disturb me, as I watched friends guzzle down stuff that deserved a more attentive audience. Now I know that for every nine people who see wine as a means to an end, there’ll be one who ‘gets’ it, and wants to go further. That’s why I’m all for supermarkets getting more people to drink wine – 10% of a bigger pie means more people having those ‘A-ha!’ moments.
3) The more expensive the wine glass, the easier it is to smash. Otherwise known as Riedel’s law.
4) There will always be another vintage. Bordeaux has already had three vintages of the century, and the century is only a decade old. Your tastes may change with time, and you could find you’ve lost the taste for those five cases of [FILL IN WINE OF CHOICE] you were suckered into by a pushy merchant.
5) Cheap does not mean good value. Which of course doesn’t apply only to wine.
6) Don’t get hung up on wine and food matching. Just as with people, there are a few matches made in heaven and a few ne’er-the-twain-shall-meets. But in general, most things get on OK together.
7) I don’t want drum-solo wines. Once upon a time, boisterous, ripe, oaky and potent wines had some sort of appeal. Now I’ve reached an age where permanently loud is not good. I don’t mind a bit of Sex Pistols and Metallica every now and then, but I also want a little Joanna Newsom and Purcell.
8) Similarly, I don’t mind tasting a winemaker’s thumbprint, but I don’t want his footprint. Some producers try to eradicate all blemishes from their wines, and in the process expunge all traces of personality. If they were in the Nip’n’Tuck business, they’d make Al Pacino taller, fill the gap in Madonna’s front teeth, and remove the mole from Cindy Crawford’s extremely beautiful face.
9) Tasting sparkling wines gives you wind. It’s not all that great for your teeth either.
10) Not everyone likes the same wines. Just because a wine gets a big score in an American magazine doesn’t mean it’ll go down well here. And just because I love a wine doesn’t mean everyone will.
11) Even if you’re spitting them all out, taste too many wines and you won’t be able to read your notes.
12) Be very suspicious of a winemaker who looks like he’s never got dirty. One wine merchant told me he picked out a particular Italian grower in their range purely because the man had filthy, scarred hands.
13) There ought to be a wine equivalent of uSwitch. So all those who have been signed up to those schemes where a case of wine arrives every three months can switch to a company that offers better value and better wines. Maybe uSwill?
14) There will be rumours of a Riesling revival roughly every four years.
15) The best thing to get grape juice off your hands is to be licked by a cat. I found this out picking grapes in Australia’s Yarra Valley. In theory it should work with wine stains on carpets, but I’ve never found a cat willing to experiment.
16) France and Italy have the most interesting wines and the worst marketing in the world.
17) Stories are more interesting than formulae. Is anyone bothered that a wine is 64% Cabernet Sauvignon and 36% Merlot, has been aged in a French oak barrel for 18 months and has won 23 gold medals? It’s far more interesting to discover that the winemaker shoots the wild boar that scoff the fruit from his vineyard – and that he has the evidence of this on a stone slab in his cellar.
18) Not enough places in the world make refreshing red wine.
19) Restaurants serve their whites at freezer temperature and their reds not much cooler than the minestrone. Don’t be afraid to get those whites out of that ice bucket and plonk the red in instead.
20) Wine is fermented grape juice. It is not worth fighting over. But it can be very nice. My job is to point you towards things that I think are very nice. It is a very nice job.
Encouraged by the inspired comments on yesterday’s post on visting wineries, I’m going to open the floor to you guys – what tips have you learned over all those glasses of wine?
The 4th and final installment of wines from the Wine Society and Morrisons.
Maurice & Fils Hautes Côtes de Beaune Grande Réserve 2008, Burgundy, France (£12.99/£6 Morrisons) Smells like it’s going to be scrawny and it is. There’s a touch of leafy raspberry, but there’s just not enough flesh, and the finish is very weedy and unsatisfying. 0
The Society’s Full French Red, Vin de Pays des Côtes Catalanes NV (Caves des Vignerons de l’Agly), Roussillon, France (£4.95/£4.50 The Wine Society) Rich, meaty vigorous wine, gutsy and healthy with bags of fruit, not subtle but wonderfully rustic style, bags of plummy berry fruit, touch of earth and raisins too. Bargain. B+
The Society’s Corbières 2007 (Château Ollieux Romanis), Languedoc, France (£6.95/£6.08 The Wine Society) Fascinating after the previous one, it’s riper but also opens up to be more fragrant and floral. Lush berry fruit, a wild herby side, also some meatiness, and a fleshy but tangy finish. S-
The Society’s Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 (Concha y Toro), Maipo Valley (£5.75/£5.00 The Wine Society) Classic Chilean blackcurrant pastille on the nose, also hints of mint, but these are in balance with the warm black fruit flavours and hint of tar. An honest tasty glug. B+
The Society’s Argentine Malbec (Dominio del Plata) 2009, Mendoza, Argentina (£5.95 The Wine Society) Starts off with the rich toasty chocolatey edge of oak dominating, but then the plummy blackberry notes tinged with violet emerge, and the finish is refreshing. B(+)
Buckingham Estate Reserve Shiraz 2006, Western Australia (£7.99/£6 Morrisons) Showing some leathery maturity, also a slightly savoury edge. There’s a minty note to the concentrated figgy berry and raisin flavours, but it’s just a tad simple for real class. B
The 3rd installment of wines from the Wine Society and Morrisons.
The Society’s Pinot Grigio 2008 (Lorenzon), IGT Venezia Giulia, Veneto, Italy (£7.95/£7.08 The Wine Society) Starts of nice and cream, with fresh apple, pear and nectarine flavours and even a touch of (yes) aspirin, but just let down by a slightly flat finish. B-
The Society’s Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine sur Lie 2008 (Chéreau-Carré), Loire, France (£6.50 The Wine Society) Has a bracing Atlantic briny tang, but it’s backed up with lots of green apple, citrus and bready/yeasty character. B+
The Society’s French Dry White Pays d’Oc 2009 (Domaine du Bosc), Languedoc, France (£5.75/£5.17 The Wine Society) Some zippy pear and ripe citrus, almost Bordeaux-like, just a touch soft, almost too friendly, needs a little more zest to keep it fresh. C+
Montana Sauvignon Blanc 2008, Marlborough, New Zealand (£8.19/£6 Morrisons) All zip and zest, clean, green and grassy, with a touch of green pepper, but it’s in balance with the riper edges. B+
Received two big batches of wine from Morrisons & The Wine Society and thought, why not taste some of them against each other – blind? Here are the whites, the reds follow soon (the offer prices are valid until April 3rd for The Wine Society and April 4th for Morrisons)
The Society’s Touraine Sauvignon 2008 (Bougrier), Loire, France (£7.50 The Wine Society) Nose is quite grassy with more than a hint of tom-cat, then touches of citrus and greengage, fresh, but just a little too soft. B-
Calvet Sancerre 2008, Loire, France (£12.99/£6 Morrisons) The initial touch of sulphur gives way to pungent, nettly character, lots of greengage and grassy lemon fruit, then a grippy sappy finish. B+
Bertrand Capdevigne Chablis 2008, Burgundy, France (£9.99/£6 Morrisons) Starts of creamy with a touch of peach but then it’s all downhill – there’s a slightly dirty lees edge, not much fruit and a tart finish. 0
The Society’s White Burgundy, Mâcon-Villages 2008 (Jacques Dépagneux), France (£7.50/£6.67 The Wine Society) Simple but honest young wine, quite full and fleshy, with pear, peach and pineapple flavours and a clean finish. B
Château Jouclary Cabardès Cuvée Tradition 2006 (£6.99) Quite lively, spicy blackcurrant flavours tinged with a touch of iron, but then let down by something ever so slightly stale and cardboardy (still there a couple of days later), also a slightly metallic hint to the finish. Still good, and improves with time open, but flawed – don’t think it’s a bottle fault, but willing to be proved wrong. B-
Domaine de Cazaban Cabardès 2007 (£15.99) Fresh vibrant and virile wines, vibrant, the Merlot giving plummy roundness with the Syrah giving more plums plus orange peel and blackcurrants, some reduction giving that sage-infused sausage meat character, very promising spicy youngster. S
Château Jouclary Cabardès Cuvée Guilhaume 2004 (£11.25) Riper fruit than the Cuvée Tradition, but also comes across as fresher and more confident, with tannin and acidity providing backbone for the relaxed plummy blackcurrant flavours. Showing a touch of age, but still with bounce and passion, and again an edge of iron-like minerality to the finish. S-
Domaine de Cazaban Cabardès Demoiselle Claire 2007 (£10.25) A touch of rum’n’raisin, but also vibrant white pepper-y black fruit, again that iron-like minerality with the edge of reduction giving that meaty sage and onion, character. Entertaining and fresh – very tasty. S(-)
All these are from The Mixed Case
Moraitis Sillogi White 2007, Paros (£9.95 Laytons) Similar citrus crispness, but richer, lacks the zip and minerally zest, just turning a touch bitter – should have been drunk up by now. C
Hatzidakis Nykteri Reserve 2007, Santorini (£13.99-19.80 Cooden Cellars, Theatre of Wine) Peach, melon, pineapple chunk, some smoky/resinny oak, very rich and mouthfilling, but lacks the balance of the basic version. Comes across as slightly bloated. B
Moraitis Sillogi Red 2005, Paros (£10.95 Laytons) Earthy cherry, cooked fruit, ripe but with quite a big structure, slightly bitter cherry, some red berries, but finish is just a little coarse. B-
