Le Clos Du Serres Les Maros 2011

The whole time I was drinking this  - two bottles, two occasions - I was thinking, "Châteauneuf". I really did think it was that good

Le Clos du Serres "Les Maros" is 60% Grenache, 20% Syrah, and 20% Carignan, from a single vineyard site on the Terrasses de Larzac, which is a highly regarded sub-zone within Languedoc.

The wine is dark, almost purple. The shorthand description of the aroma would be Fruits of the Forest Yoghurt.

It tastes lovely. Strawberry, bramble, creamy yoghurt, ultra ripe soft tannins. But the main attraction is its sheer welcoming drinkability. I don't think it's a wine to age, but given its present deliciousness, that really doesn't matter.

For another take on this wine, here's my video review.

And you can watch Nicolas Mollard of Le Clos du Serres talking about another of their wines, Le Clos, here.

Synchronicity?

I organised a tasting last month for some folks who wanted a selection of "interesting" wines, rather than any regional or grape theme. We had a great discussion about wine in general, and afterwards one of them sent me a bottle from a producer I haven't tried. So I tried it, purely for the purpose of assessing the wine, of course, no actual hedonistic drinking involved.

The Bradgate Syrah 2007 is a densely purple wine, with the utterly characteristic South African nose of rubbery smoke - oh how I love it. Of course you can't say that when you are selling a wine, so let me add that it's sweetly fruity (plums, I think), a little savoury - like soy - and there's a touch of vanilla structure from the oak barrels.

On the palate it's rich and fairly sweet, again very South African, with smokey notes, a little herbal tobacco, and a touch of chocolate. It has a nicely drying finish, where the fine-grained tannins come through. Altogether good to excellent, 3-4, and by a happy coincidence, soon to be available from Oddbins.

World Wide Wine - Syrah, Shiraz, Shyraz

Tonight'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 Francophile, but ostensibly because of its silky texture, tobacco notes and a little hint of merde. Truly excellent, 4+++.

d'Arenberg 'Footbolt' Shiraz ('05, cork), from McLaren Vale in Australia, had the same whiff, along with great fruit concentration and real ripeness. Also excellent, (albeit not French, so it doesn't get the excitable plusses) 4.

The third red, Chono Reserva Syrah ('06, cork), from Geo Wines of Chile, excited me rather less than the others, perhaps because it's ultra-clean, but it did occur to me later that the interesting herby, sausage-y savouriness would probably make it the best partner for the Burns Night Haggis¹ which you are no doubt already planning (only eleven days to go!). Still and all, another excellent wine, 4.

1: assuming you want syrah with your haggis. Far be it from me to counsel against Vendange Tardive Gewürztraminer or Grand Cru Chablis.

Best Schmest

So 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 'Saleyards' Syrah '06. I haven't tasted any other syrah which combines the lightness and intense sweet spiciness of this wine. And at twenty quid, it's not utterly out the window.

i Clivi 'Brazan' Tokai Friuliano / Malvasia '03. Brazan makes the cut for reasons of eccentricity, I suppose. And me being partial to a fair degree of oxygen. Tallasavan would not approve, but Puddleglum probably has a six pack of this under his bed.

Château Cantenac-Brown Margaux '01. This particular bottle was truly singing - second-growth quality, really - with a remarkable freshness and a lovely light floral character.

David Duband Gevry-Chambertin 'En Reniard' '05. A truly Burgundian wine, ethereal and difficult to pin down - the more so in that my notes, although they rave, don't bring it even faintly back to mind.

Carmes de Rieussec Sauternes '05. The second wine of Château Rieussec rather falls into both my 'best of' lists, because we had it with some Roquefort. Sweet-salty perfection, but somehow the honey, wet leaf, and marmalade notes are in harmony too.

Hegarty Chamans No 2 '04. This one gets on my list because it has Carignan in the blend, and because the winemaker, Sam Berger, seems happy to let the Carignan run naked and unfettered through the herb meadows of funky wildness.

All but one of the wines on this list are five-pointers. I leave it as an annoying exercise for the reader to figure out which one ain't - but there is a vinous prize for the first correct guess posted as a comment.

Random Grapeage, but it works...

... 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 day the nose is now smoky cheese and a hint of flintiness, whereas the palate has become soft rich spicy, smoky and full bodied, with dark cherry flavours. Upscore to -4.

Château Les Ollieux Vin du Pays de l'Aude 'Capucine' 07, very good indeed, 3++ (or -4 if you let it breathe). Oddbins, £6.99, 13%abv (but you'll need to be quick, or ask nicely - this is a brilliant and hugely popular wine which never lingers on the shelves).

An Old Friend

By chance I happened across a small stash of Hegarty Chamans No3 2003. 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 my goat floating, and I said I would try some at a later stage to see how it was evolving. Of course, being such good wine, it rapidly sold out, before I tucked some away. So unexpectedly finding three bottles was a treat. And it has evolved rather handsomely.

The jumping acidity and powerful herb stink have calmed down rather. The wine seems much darker, and the fruit flavours – bitter cherries, plums, that kind of thing – stand out more. Also, there is a mineral, stony flavour which wasn't evident three years ago. Very rich, with medium grained tannins, at five years old this Minervois is in fine fettle and truly excellent.

I'm not planning to save either of the two remaining bottles. They are the ideal winter warmer for this weekend's family gathering in Moffat. The only problem is, what else can I take that's going to be even half as tasty?

New Year's Blow Out

We drank rather a lot of very decent wine over the last couple of days. No tasting notes, just a picture to make me grin (and you, I hope).

It was purely coincidence that all six bottles came from just two years.

Minervois (Again) (What's your point caller? Minervois pure dead rules!)

Doing a tasting of crowd pleaser wines tonight, I threw in the Hegarty No3 (02004, cork), laughing all the while. There were one or two down-drawn lips, but it drew a reaction from everyone, and nearly all good.

Last time I tried this, I figured I could cellar some and give an updated report, so natch the whole lot disappeared straight away. Tonight's was the new vintage - also, it's AC Minervois this time, not Vin de Table.

It's a very dark purple-to-black carignan/syrah/grenache blend, and (heh heh) it's a stinky wine. Earthy, farmyard-y, big, herbaceous. The carignan has been so skillfully vinified. It shines. The palate is rather softer than the previous vintage, perhaps a little less funky, but oh so tasty. Prunes, sweet-perfumed smokiness, perhaps a little chocolate, some bitter apple pip notes. One day carignan will rule the world {Thppt! That for your malbec sirrah!}, and it's this sort of wine that will be in charge of the Department of Keeping the People Happy.

Pointy scoring thing: 4 - 5 (compares with 15/20 last time, which is roughly (3-)4 ).

TN: Borie de Maurel Cuvée Sylla

At a tasting of syrah / shiraz from around the world, this was the wine for me. I am a Francophile, but even setting that aside, this was a skelper.

A powerful nose of very ripe dark fruit (?cherries?), strangely mixed with what I took for apricot, and the near-suffocating perfume of strongly scented flowers such as lilies makes wild promises that this will be a bold, sensual, sexy wine, and the palate fulfils those promises in a manner which allows me at last to use the adjective 'saturnine'. Strong and smooth and dark, with loads of acid, fruit and tannin, this is a big wine, which will go on being big for years. Go and read 'Snow Crash', if you haven't already, then come back and taste this stuff and see if you find yourself agreeing when I say that if this wine weren't called Sylla it would be called Raven.

We tasted the '03 vintage (cork closure) and I scored it 4-5. (New scoring system! More details to follow. Runs from 0 (faulty) to 5 (Astonishing) with a theoretical possibility of 6 for such marvels as d'Yquem, Observatory, Mouton-Rothschild.)

Link to Borie de Maurel website.

More Minervois

Last time it was an AC wine - La Cuvée Mythique - for only £3.49. Tonight I'm drinking a Vin de Table which costs twice that. Yup, it's Hegarty Chamans No.3, under cork (£6.99 from Oddbins). The way the wine is labelled though, it's clear that it is from the 02003 vintage.

In truth, the label would make you think this wine was Australian, but one sniff tells you otherwise. I originally wrote, "...it can only be Southern France", but then I thought about how it rather reminds me of the Observatory Carignan/Syrah, from South Africa, so I intend to keep that assertion in reserve until I can test it against my precious last bottle of that finest of nectars.

The No.3 is very youthful looking - bright purple - and has a powerful nose, with a complex mix of herbs, burning green twigs, molasses, licorice, soy sauce and five-spice powder. There is also a fair whack of bright fruit, I'm told, but I was too distracted by all the savoury elements to pay any attention to that. The palate is strong, dry, somehow bitter and sweet at the same time, with fairly rough tannins and a long finish with a sharp little twist to it.

Despite all these good things I'm saying about it, I only rate the wine as 15/20. It falls into the same category as the de Bortoli Gulf Station Pinot Noir (blogged here); interesting but not satisfying. I think it's just not knitted together yet. I'll try it again in six months or a year and tell you how it is evolving.

Excuses! Excuses?

Who needs an excuse to drink Observatory carignan / syrah? (02002, under cork) It was a Wednesday, OK? I would have been all right if I hadn't mentioned it in passing during the last wineblogging Wednesday.

However it happened, we found ourselves confronted by a bright purple, fresh-looking glassful - remember folks, this wine is three years old now, and didn't start out with the highest allocation of tannins in the first place - and still with that startling, powerful, zingy fresh herbs and dung nose. It doesn't sound appealing when I put it like that, but believe me, it is unutterably lovely.

On the palate it is just off-dry, but this is countered by that powerful fresh acidity, and the concentrated flavour of currants (maybe blaeberries?). We managed to save some til the next night, so that the acidity has calmed down enough to reveal that there is a reasonable streak of medium tannin in there. I hope I have the willpower to keep some of this til it's ten or twenty years old, but that is going to be hard, since it scores 18/20 right now.

Smiley's South African Tasting

I know I shouldn't blog when I'm drunk, but sometimes wine gets you so fired up that you just have to talk about it. The Observatory Carignan/Syrah is such. Yes, I mentioned it only last month, but this is the stuff that dreams are made on. There were other wines. It says so here. I hardly remember.

Oh yes, we started with The Berrio '03. The finest sauvignon of the year. I have tasted better sauvignons, but, not this year, and not at that price. Certainly the best non-Loire sauvignon. A rock solid 16/20, despite the acidity having mellowed slightly. I can hardly wait for the '04.

The Observatory '02. Opened at nine in the morning, poured into glasses at five, this was still evolving when we came to taste it at half-eight, it has such jumping-fresh acidity and fruit flavours. This time I also detected a shiny metallic edge to it. Two medics at the tasting likened this to the tang of blood. But that wild herb nose! Honestly, if you care about wine at all, go and get a bottle of this stuff, lock yourself away for two hours and contemplate the magic. 17-18/20

The Observatory carignan / syrah 02002.

Where to start? Well, to temporise, there was the Cantina Birgi rosato. Made from nerello mascalese, or possibly frappato nero (some uncertainty there) it is a pleasantly dry rosé which mostly avoids the typical strawberries and cream fare which is so popular at present. A person might reckon to this stuff even if deeply suspicious of all rosé wine. I must try this one on Aaaaaaar Bob, who deals with rosés the way your spam filter handles viagra adverts.

But enough of such trifles. To the main feature, the mighty Observatory. I'm not gonna scatter superlatives like buckshot. It's enough to say that if you care about wine you will grin when you taste this stuff. You may startle like a spooked colt at the bouquet, eighty percent sharp black concentrated fruit, fifteen percent crazy garrigue herbs and five percent ..., what... I dunno, that intangible something which marks out a wine as unique. You may flinch slightly at the jumping acidity on the first sip, although if you have decanted it and given it air to breath all day it'll be as mellow as a drunken uncle at a big fat family wedding, calling out for rich supper dishes of aubergine parmesan or red dragon pie. You may wonder if there is something funky going on, chemistry wise, which perhaps shouldn't be, until you give it a minute and realise that everything going on in this bottle is goooood.

if you believe in reincarnation then this stuff is the return of Joey Ramone and Jerry Garcia. Which of them is carignan I wouldn't like to say...

But don't take my word for it. The Big Egg likes this so much he blew his entire month's budget to stock up on the stuff. And as for Smiley, his grin was ventilating his cervical vertebrae.

The Observatory appears not to have its own website. There is this.