Wine Tasting Video: Four Aussies, Four Frenchies – who comes out on top?


Prestige de Calvet Bordeaux Semillon/Sauvignon 2009, France (£5.24 Sainsbury’s)
Nice juicy honest wine, with slightly catty Sauvignon to the fore at the moment, good rounded guava and greengage flavours, with Semillon giving pithy weight. B
(Dear Calvet – you must have a web site, let me know where it is and I’ll link to it…)

McWilliams Mount Pleasant Elizabeth Semillon 2005, Hunter Valley, Australia (£9.79 Tesco, Sainsbury’s)
Classic style, still young and vigorous, with tangy lime and lemon flavours, but already showing the creamy toast and custard notes that will intensify with time. S(+)

Domaine de l’Eglantière Chablis Le Carré de César 2009, Burgundy, France (£10.95 Winos)
Classic Chablis with ripe apple and citrus flavours and the creamy nutty wet wool character, good mix of richness and tension. S-

Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Adelaide Hills Chardonnay 2009, Australia (£8.49 Sainsbury’s)
Solid rather than exciting, with quite crisp lemon and bruised apple flavour, but none of the minerally tension of the Chablis. B

Château Graves du Bert, Saint Emilion 2005, Bordeaux, France (£10.95 Winos)
Starts off on the green side, but unfurls to show cool herbal dark fruit flavours, touches of savoury cedar and a smoky, gravelly finish. Still feels young. B

Cockfighter’s Ghost Merlot 2008, McLaren Vale, Australia (£10.95 Winos)
Shows rich plummy fruit, but too jammy for real class, and has a clumsy finish. C

Peter Lehmann Barossa Grenache 2006, Australia (£8.29 Tesco)
Pale in colour, with the smell and taste of jammy dodger biscuits, still quite juicy and fresh, but ultimately rather simple. B(+)

Caves St Pierre Côtes du Rhône Villages Preference 2008, France (£6.49 Tesco)
Great mix of rich and refreshing, with sweet rounded berry and plum fruit balanced by a wild hillside herbiness, and an intense but appetising finish. Some nice sausages please… S-

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