Chapel Down Rosé Brut NV (£22.99 Majestic, chapeldown.com, simplywinesdirect.com, slurp.co.uk)
Reasonable citrus, apple and red berry notes, but there’s a smoky elderflower note that speaks of underripeness, and a slightly burnt edge too. C+
Chapel Down Three Graces 2008 (£24.99 chapeldown.com)
This is more like it, lovely balanced style, combining a toasty, caramelised richness with the tang of Bramley apples (fresh and stewed), lemon and grapefruit, and finishing with crisp, elegant aplomb. S
Chapel Down Blanc de Blancs 2007 (RRP £26.99 Harvey Nichols, chapeldown.com)
Svelte style, lean but never scrawny, and with a smoky note to its juicy green apple and citrus flesh. S
Chapel Down Pinot Reserve 2006 (£22.99 chapeldown.com, Berry Bros & Rudd, simplywinesdirect.com, slurp.co.uk)
Quite bready and rich, but while I don’t mind the cooked apple and pear flavours and citrus bite, it seems just a little stolid after the two previous wines. B
Harvey Nichols Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore NV, Veneto, Italy (£15.00 Harvey Nichols)
Friendly young wine, with the classic peach and apple of Prosecco, a touch of pumice and a toffee-like richness. B(+)
Codorníu Cava Reina Maria Cristina Blanc de Noirs 2008, Catalonia, Spain (£14.99 Majestic)
Remember Fruit Salad chews? Lots of citrus and cranberry flavours, but with the ripe flesh reined in zesty freshness and crisp minerality. S-
Coates & Seely Blanc de Blancs NV, Hampshire, England (~£26 www.coatesandseely.com)
Classy style, fresh but rounded with ripe citrus and green apple (fresh and cooked) and citrus, touches of the hedgerow (blackberry and hawthorn) and a yeasty/bready/uncooked cake mix note too. S(+)
Domaine Pfister Crémant d’Alsace Blanc de Blancs Brut NV, France (£18.50 Slurp.co.uk)
Rounded, soft and yeasty with a touch of spice, the apple charlotte flavour is pleasant, but I just wish it were a little more prominent. B(-)
Hush Heath Skye’s English Chardonnay 2010, Kent, England (£20 hushheath.com)
Clean, bright style wine some Chablisque flinty notes, piercing citrus and apple fruit, a touch of nuttiness and a salty mineral tang. B(+)
Ocean Eight Verve Chardonnay 2010, Mornington Peninsula, Australia (~£25 Hallowed Ground)
Pure precise style, lightly cooked apple and cashew flavours pepped up by funky/toasty spent match characters, a note of honey and a vibrant, minerally finish. Full in flavour, but just 12.2% alcohol. S
Hilltop Estates Cserszegi Füszeres 2011, Neszmélyi, Hungary (£5.75 The Wine Society)
Gewürztraminer in training, but more Italian than Alsace in style, has the lychees and ginger, fresh, dry and with a hop-like bite, OK, but lacks a little magic. B-
Chapel Down Flint Dry 2010, Tenterden, England (£8.99 Waitrose)
Light, dainty and fresh, just off-dry with aromatic green apple, melon and orange fruit flavours, notes of elderflower and Alka Seltzer, and a tangy finish. B+
Chapel Down Bacchus 2010, Tenterden, England (£10.99 Waitrose)
Starts well with a Sancerre-like flintiness, and the catty nettle, gooseberry and elderflower notes, but maybe too sweet? B
Dveri Pax Sipon Furmint, 2010, Slovenia (£9.95 The Wine Society)
A wine that grows on you, decent citrus fruit with a feline twang, but it’s the other elements – hawthorn, thyme, pebbly minerality – that give it class. S(-)
Prince Stirbey Tamâioasa Româneasca Sec 2010, Romania (£9.50 The Wine Society)
Has citrus fruit flavours – lime jelly and crystallised orange – plus the lychee and ginger character that are reminiscent of Gewürztraminer, along with a tense minerality. Can’t fault it for intensity, but is this all too much in a dry wine? I wonder whether a little more sweetness might have softened the impact. B(+)
April 17th 2012 is the second World Malbec Day – or Malbec World Day, as the website has it. To celebrate this, some bright sparks thought it would be a good idea to ship some Malbec grapes from the 2011 vintage over to the UK to see how a English winemaker would cope with them…
Chapel Down World Malbec Day “An English Salute” (sadly not available due to petty politics, but made in conjunction with Gaucho Restaurants)
Quite pale in colour compared with many Argentine versions, with bouncy, spicy cherry, berry and blackcurrant bounce plus a touch of violet, and while there’s a freshness that is reminiscent of (good) Beaujolais, there’s also a backbone of earthy tannins. All in all, a good gutsy glug – come on EU, this deserves a wider audience! S(-)
Chapel Down Chardonnay 2010, England (~£14 – ’09 is current vintage, but ’10 should be available from chapeldown.com, slurp.co.uk, Majestic)
(from vineyards in Kent, Sussex & Essex)
Pale and very interesting style, quite bracing, and showing easy yeasty bruised/baked apple flavour with a nutty undercurrent – think Mâcon fruit, Chablis acidity. S-
Santa Rita Medalla Real Chardonnay Gran Reserva 2009, Leyda, Chile (£10.99 Majestic)
Not sure if this is prematurely oxidised, but it’s a rather tired, buxom fruit cocktail type of Chardonnay, with creamy, smoky, clumsy oak. C
La Castelia Prosecco NV, Veneto, Italy (£11.99 selected Co-operative)
Slightly vague, confected style, touches of apple and little stony character, but not great. C-
Follador Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore Extra Dry 2010, Veneto, Italy (£14 Oddbins)
Just off-dry, but still a precise, fine-boned style with the tangy apple, citrus and just-ripe peach flavours underpinned by stony minerality, has freshness, bite and life. S-
Chapel Down ‘Chapter Two’ 2008, Tenterden, England (exclusive to Roast restaurant)
Fresh and bracing, with reasonable lemon zest and a touch of red berry, but the smoky elderflower note speaks of underripeness. C+
Champagne Moët & Chandon Grand Vintage 2002, France (£39-£55 widely available)
Broad-shouldered, rich and (melba) toasty, lovely citrus and crystallised pineapple flavours pepped up with yeasty, biscuity hazelnut notes, not the most elegant of Champagnes, but I love its ruddy honest flavour. S+
Champagne Billecart Salmon Cuvée Brut Sous Bois NV, France (£56-£65 James Nicholson, Bottle Apostle, Corks Out)
Feels like there are two wines here – a fat creamy one with buttery malolactic notes and peachy flesh, and a crisper, more refined one with green apple and citrus notes. The two elements do come closer together with time, but for me it slightly misses out on the joy, and is ultimately intriguing rather than really classy. S-
Casillero del Diablo Brut Reserva NV, Limarí, Chile (£7-11 Morrisons, Waitrose, Ocado, Tesco.com, yourfavouritewines.com)
Rather classy fizz, quite full in flavour with hints of apple crumble and a toffee-ish richness, but then a seam of minerality and zesty acidity kicks in, ripe but refined, great value. S-
South Ridge Brut 2008, Sussex, England (£19.99 Laithwaites)
Young and fresh, with quite delicate green apple and pear flavours, plus a richer, creamier nutty bread dough character and a hint of honey. Would like to see this in three years’ time. S(-)
Huia Blanc de Blancs Brut 2004, Marlborough, New Zealand (£19.20 Bibendum)
Rich, very winey style, with almost cidery apple, pear and pineapple fruit, and notes of yeasty bread dough and hazelnuts, but running through it all is a rather stale cheesiness that is hard to ignore. Hmm… B-
Champagne Besserat de Bellefon Cuvée des Moines Brut Millésime 2002, France (£41.99 contact Lanson International for stockists)
Older than the Huia but has far more life and élan. Has some brioche-like yeasty development, along with some notes of chocolate and hazelnut, and there’s a real daintiness to the crystallised pineapple and apple flavours. Good for another five years at least. S
Bassermann-Jordan Riesling Trocken 2009, Pfalz, Germany (£12.60 WineBarn)
Bracing young wine, with pithy grapefruit flavours joined by fleshier peach and pear notes, and a straight spine of acidity and pumice stone-like minerality to bind it all together. S-
St Urbanshof Ockfener Bockstein Riesling Kabinett 2010, Mosel, Germany (£14.65 WineBarn)
Still in short trousers, this opens up with time in the glass and becomes a dainty delight, unashamedly off-dry with grippy lime and lemon and richer tinned plum juice flavours, lively yet elegant, a joyful wine, fresh and zesty yet with depth and flesh. S
Coates & Seely Britagne Rosé NV, Hampshire, England (£27.95-29.95 Coates & Seely, Lea and Sandeman)
Fresh, lively young wine with lush gentle strawberry flesh and a touch of sherbet balanced with taut appley acidity. Would benefit from a little longer on the lees, but still very tasty. S-
Brandal Albariño 2010, Rías Baixas, Spain (£8.95 The Wine Society)
Also a pup, but beyond the pear-drop notes that speak of cool fermentation (and which will dissipate with time), there’s the zesty tang of citrus fruit, floral, spicy overtones and a pithy mineral finish with a touch of pumice stone. S-
Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf du Pape 1994, Rhône, France (see Wine Searcher for stockists)
Mature but still full of life, wonderfully spicy and herby, with vigorous berry, damson and fig fruit, touches of roasting game and a rounded, voluptuous finish. And as for brett? Well, there’s the savoury meatiness, but none of the bandagey barnyard character. G
Feiler-Artinger Ruster Ausbruch Pinot Cuvée 2001, Burgenland, Austria (see Wine Searcher for stockists)
Oh yum, honeyed rich apricot, bonfire toffee and marmaladey maturity, soft but fresh, like crème brûlée in a glass with crystallised oranges on top – delicious. G(-)
