tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852085Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:44:19 +0000Smell the cork, taste the wine, tell me what you think.http://smellthecork.blogspot.com/rodbod@gmail.com (rodbod)Blogger87125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852085.post-6141616858981539517Fri, 14 Aug 2009 02:01:00 +00002009-08-14T03:39:31.310+01:00The other night someone remarked, "this smells like a good cheap wine - the sort of thing you give people and tell them to rush out and buy some". I'm not going to say what that wine was, since it cost £9. Instead let me tell you about a different, eight quid, wine which you really should rush out and buy.Les Tourelles de Sipian 2004 smells, well, wonderful. It has that aroma of posh about it http://smellthecork.blogspot.com/2009/08/buy-this-before-its-gone-really.htmlrodbod@gmail.com (rodbod)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852085.post-96441837215294034Tue, 07 Jul 2009 22:04:00 +00002009-08-02T03:21:24.971+01:00Last year it was all split labels. Before that it was Animals on your label. Some wineries managed split labels with pictures of animals and an animal name.I believe I have spotted the beginning of the latest trend in wine labelling: intertextuality. In evidence let me point to Fox Gordon's Princess Fiano (buy it before it gets lawyered out of existence) and tonight's tasty little drop, Lanterna http://smellthecork.blogspot.com/2009/07/if-alan-scott-were-wine-no-not-that.htmlrodbod@gmail.com (rodbod)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852085.post-4644171644026553391Wed, 06 May 2009 23:32:00 +00002009-05-21T12:27:01.372+01:00I've never been much persuaded by the fruit-salad approach to wine descriptions. I sometimes like to taste fruit alongside the wine it's compared to, just to see what's what (For example, New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, which is often said to taste of passionfruit, lacks a certain earthy, leafmold character I find in the fruit itself).The wine I tried today only made me more suspicious of those winehttp://smellthecork.blogspot.com/2009/05/avast-ye-scurvy-costermongers.htmlrodbod@gmail.com (rodbod)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852085.post-6929569066389441811Sat, 18 Apr 2009 22:45:00 +00002009-04-21T12:54:39.005+01:00The best, most enjoyable wine experiences, say I, are the ineffable ones. The tasting where your notes are non-existent, or contradictory, or mainly consist of splash marks, but you have an urgent memory of a delicious, complicated something which makes you grin as you recall it.So it is with the Verget Saint-Véran 'Terroirs de Davayé' 06. There are better white Burgundies, but Verget has long http://smellthecork.blogspot.com/2009/04/indefinable-pleasure.htmlrodbod@gmail.com (rodbod)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852085.post-2332347339683812290Wed, 15 Apr 2009 22:09:00 +00002009-04-22T23:46:28.892+01:00After our Rieslingfest last time, we opted for a mixed bag - very mixed, as it turned out; we finished the evening with a curious basil flavoured sweet white wine called Longo Maï!, which did indeed, as promised, go very well with Crème Brulée.But I'm getting ahead of myself. Tonight's ampeloleptic treat, courtesy of the Tall Guy, was a blend of Merwah and Obaideh, but it might as well have been http://smellthecork.blogspot.com/2009/04/sweet-wine-wednesday-5.htmlrodbod@gmail.com (rodbod)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852085.post-1020592917226507741Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:05:00 +00002009-04-02T13:18:01.545+01:00As I may have mentioned before, Carignan is nectar to me, so I was excited to see this bottle. The Terra Andina Syrah and Sauvignon Blanc have gone down well with customers, and I rather rate them myself. High expectations then.The first thing that hits your nostrils is intense blackcurrant, so much so that one is looking for Cabernet on the label, but then comes a herbaceous note, not the http://smellthecork.blogspot.com/2009/04/tn-terra-andina-altos-carmenere.htmlrodbod@gmail.com (rodbod)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852085.post-6203463132445197239Sat, 28 Mar 2009 23:22:00 +00002009-04-28T13:29:08.795+01:00And I don't particularly mean that the wine smells tannic. Rather it has the fragrance of tea, some sort of dark leafiness. Then there is some more leafiness, of the tobacco sort, and then interestingly, braised red cabbage, and then finally a bit of smoke.By contrast the palate has lots of bright fruit, and indeed it isn't all that tannic. It's fresh and medium bodied (viz, that means light for http://smellthecork.blogspot.com/2009/03/tea-and-fruit-but-mainly-tea.htmlrodbod@gmail.com (rodbod)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852085.post-3356795148537996961Wed, 11 Mar 2009 23:40:00 +00002009-03-16T01:10:00.495ZAnother SWW, another new flavour. This time it was dill (the herb, not the dog), found in a very lively eighteen-year old Riesling from the Pfalz region of Germany, the delicious (delicious = 5, before I forget) Dr Bürklin-Wolf Wachenheimer Rechbächel Riesling Auslese '90. But dill was only one of the flavours. There was a ton-load of buttery goodness, another herbaceous note which I think was http://smellthecork.blogspot.com/2009/03/sweet-wine-wednesday-4.htmlrodbod@gmail.com (rodbod)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852085.post-2479105139121498974Tue, 10 Mar 2009 22:14:00 +00002009-03-24T12:03:51.401ZHugh Johnson uses the term 'Plain Wine' in describing Gaillac in his 1983 Companion to Wine. I don't supppose he meant to compliment the wine, but here I am drinking a Gaillac Blanc Sec and finding that Plain Wine sums it up very well, and that plain wine suits me very nicely please-and-thank-you.Lions Lamartine Gaillac Blanc Sec 07 is made with Mauzac and Loin de l'Oeil, grape varieties found http://smellthecork.blogspot.com/2009/03/blanc-sec-and-foursquare.htmlrodbod@gmail.com (rodbod)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852085.post-5065452736759224555Wed, 18 Feb 2009 23:07:00 +00002009-02-20T14:14:38.158ZI'm lost in thought, drinking Cos d'Estournel'99, from a magnum. It's like being in a conservatory full of fresh cut flowers. A sunny conservatory, where the warmth has made the earth in all the pots come alive and breathe, so that the air is full of leafy foliage scents intermixed with a powerful whiff of humus, maybe with mushrooms in there somewhere, a crazy mix of freshness and mouldering http://smellthecork.blogspot.com/2009/02/it-cos-how-much.htmlrodbod@gmail.com (rodbod)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852085.post-1495153747680702096Thu, 29 Jan 2009 23:15:00 +00002009-02-08T14:32:27.393ZTo kick off SWW3, Puddleglum, a fellow singularly obsessed, provided us with a very fine Very Old Reserve Sherry (officially, it is designated VFVORS... all right, that's a lie, but it ought to be true).As ever, it begged the question of why such fine wine is not more popular. My notes on the Sacristia de Romate VORS Oloroso are full of question marks - always the mark of a good wine - but the http://smellthecork.blogspot.com/2009/01/sweet-wine-wednesday-3.htmlrodbod@gmail.com (rodbod)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852085.post-5609561372720249926Mon, 26 Jan 2009 23:21:00 +00002009-02-12T15:56:34.828ZFashions run through wine, as through everything. In antiquity, the Romans drank wine saturated with honey and diluted with seawater (I offered this, or something like it, to a history-themed tasting. Nobody liked it save one taster, who compared it to a dirty martini). Dry champagne swept across Britain late in the nineteenth century, and so far shows no sign of leaving. More recently, there hashttp://smellthecork.blogspot.com/2009/01/next-big-thing.htmlrodbod@gmail.com (rodbod)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852085.post-362333929420904898Wed, 21 Jan 2009 23:03:00 +00002009-03-03T14:26:16.197ZTastings often throw up surprises. Once at a (red) Burgundy tasting, two people independantly suggested that one of the (red... RED) wines smelt like Sauvignon Blanc.Tonight's oddity was Shelmerdine Chardonnay 05.The Tall Guy immediately wondered if the wine was matured in American oak. Then another taster asked if it had been in ex-Sherry or -Bourbon casks, à la whisky, and another chimed in http://smellthecork.blogspot.com/2009/01/oh-oak-swoons.htmlrodbod@gmail.com (rodbod)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852085.post-2607731591419025456Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:31:00 +00002009-01-20T12:10:55.222ZChâteau Lauduc is a forty hectare property just to the east of the city of Bordeaux, in Entre-Deux-Mers. Confusingly, one of their reserve wines is called Château La Roche (perhaps it alludes to some historical whatnot?). La Roche comes from just one hectare of the vineyard, and rather unusually for Bordeaux these days, it is half Malbec, half Merlot.It's a tasty , light, juicy mouthful, not too http://smellthecork.blogspot.com/2009/01/ch-la-roche-04.htmlrodbod@gmail.com (rodbod)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852085.post-7406687098914188084Wed, 14 Jan 2009 23:50:00 +00002009-01-20T12:12:35.162ZTonight's tasting was looking at the differences that terroir make to a grape variety but for me the similarities were much stronger.There was a common thread of high-toned fresh foliage in the three wines, a much stronger similarity than the more obvious ones like chocolate or black pepper.I liked the Paul Jaboulet Ainé Hermitage 'La Chapelle' ('01, cork) best, probably because I'm a Francophilehttp://smellthecork.blogspot.com/2009/01/world-wide-wine-syrah-shiraz-shyraz.htmlrodbod@gmail.com (rodbod)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852085.post-4538722074427531372Fri, 09 Jan 2009 11:11:00 +00002009-01-09T11:51:27.493Z...for four lovely wines. The Mendel is mentioned elsewhere. The Ollieux Romanis Corbières, was a fresh, bright carbonically macerated wine, delicious, and for early drinking, so it only needed a very temporary stopper. The Mandolás, from a bottle of Oremus Dry Tokaji, probably isn't meant to last, but still they gave it first rate cork, presumably because they are proud of their lovely steely, http://smellthecork.blogspot.com/2009/01/four-lovely-corks.htmlrodbod@gmail.com (rodbod)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852085.post-7280321151684461448Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:59:00 +00002009-01-01T02:58:03.783ZSo it seemed like an idea to do a best of 2008 list. But I inspected my notebooks, and discovered that there are actually two lists - the best wines, and those which gave me the most pleasure. Which leaves me wondering what best really means.Leaving that tricky problem aside, I here present, in no particular order, my top six, extracted from the 1008 listed in my notebooks.Murdoch James 'http://smellthecork.blogspot.com/2008/12/best-schmest.htmlrodbod@gmail.com (rodbod)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852085.post-3039912992861137113Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:57:00 +00002009-05-21T12:20:59.650+01:00... Carignan / Syrah / Grenache / Cabernet / Merlot.Oh yes, and semi-carbonic maceration.But it definitely works: the wine is a very dark purple, very fresh looking. On the nose is a hint of coffee or chocolate, but sadly none of the herbaceousness I enjoy in Carignan.The palate, on the other hand, is herby. It's a relaxed, rounded, mellow, gentle, balanced wine with a warm finish.On the second http://smellthecork.blogspot.com/2008/12/random-grapeage-but-it-works.htmlrodbod@gmail.com (rodbod)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852085.post-8018321910844519307Wed, 10 Dec 2008 23:54:00 +00002009-01-20T12:22:53.517ZMendel Malbec ('06, under a rather decent cork), was a revelation. My mental shorthand for Malbec says “beefy bruiser”, but these guys have taken it to places entirely new to me. Light in body (all things are relative, of course: for an Argentinian Malbec it seems light to me, but on an absolute scale of Moscato d'Asti to freshly fermented Madiran, it is up there with the garagiste Bordelais), ithttp://smellthecork.blogspot.com/2009/01/well-i-never.htmlrodbod@gmail.com (rodbod)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852085.post-8271708148820323500Wed, 26 Nov 2008 23:14:00 +00002009-01-20T12:40:07.271ZOld Wines are rare beasts. As Sillynote has it, "drink now through teatime". Something like 95% of wine bought in this country is drunk the same day. Most wine, of course, is made for now & won't benefit from bottle age (although I find that some new world wines are better if given time to get over their initial tartaric-induced tartness). So there's a special gloss on an old bottle.Tonight's http://smellthecork.blogspot.com/2008/11/sweet-wine-wednesday-2.htmlrodbod@gmail.com (rodbod)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852085.post-6839789657343015458Sun, 02 Nov 2008 22:08:00 +00002009-01-20T12:43:03.982ZBy chance I happened across a small stash of Hegarty Chamans No3 ('03, cork). 2003 was their first vintage, made in an unfinished winery, which had to be sold as Vin de Table, presumably because they didn't manage to deal with the bureaucracy in time.At the time I was very excited about Hegarty, because they use a fair whack of Carignan, making the sort of funky, herbaceous wine that really gets http://smellthecork.blogspot.com/2008/11/old-friend.htmlrodbod@gmail.com (rodbod)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852085.post-2995412004424012240Wed, 29 Oct 2008 22:58:00 +00002008-11-11T10:40:32.551ZYou would suppose that the frequency of finding a completely new taste in wine must lessen as one tastes more of the stuff. This ought to make me glum, but the wine which sent me off along this thoughtway is so very excellent that I'm not glum, in fact I'm verr verr happy.Rijckaert Chassagne-Montrachet Premiere Cru "Saint Jean" ('06, stelvin) is a huge wine. Ultra-concentrated, with a fair http://smellthecork.blogspot.com/2008/10/novel-organoleptic-joy.htmlrodbod@gmail.com (rodbod)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852085.post-8699086925228889567Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:05:00 +00002009-04-21T12:58:08.983+01:00The greatest bottles of wine are a kind of intersection or coming together of a good year, on a good vineyard site, in the hands of a skilled winemaker. And of course the best of the best are made from one of the handful of noble grape varieties.Nebbiolo is one of these noble grapes, because it shares with Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon the knack of being simultaneously powerful and graceful. In http://smellthecork.blogspot.com/2008/10/great-wine-defined.htmlrodbod@gmail.com (rodbod)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852085.post-4124622629379822442Sat, 27 Sep 2008 22:39:00 +00002009-04-12T03:00:50.081+01:00Maycas del Limari is a modishly styled offshoot of Concha y Toro, a venture aimed at premium (how I hate that word. It reeks of marketroids doing their well-oiled duty) - a venture aimed at making posh wine in the far North of Chile. The Limari valley is hard by the Atacama desert, which means fewer pests or diseases to attack the grapes, and vast quantities of sunshine for ripening.This http://smellthecork.blogspot.com/2008/09/tn-maycas-del-limari-chardonnay-07.htmlrodbod@gmail.com (rodbod)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852085.post-8920909303478412723Wed, 27 Aug 2008 22:37:00 +00002009-01-19T00:55:47.077ZOne night expect a garagiste wine made by both Jean-Luc Thunevin and Michel Rolland to be be fairly approachable after eight years, but the Château Branon '00 (cork) was decidedly not for playing. There were hints of the possibilities - a whiff of fresh cut flowers, plenty of shiny oak - but my abiding impression of the wine was of dark, dark fruitiness and endless tannins. Immensely enjoyable, http://smellthecork.blogspot.com/2008/08/chateau-branon-2000.htmlrodbod@gmail.com (rodbod)0