"Peers an Happel"

To a presentation of some of the wines of Marqués de Cáceres by Florent Thibaut, their Export Sales manager. He spoke most knowledgeably and entertainingly, and, I must add, with a wonderful accent - "peers an happel" are the fruit flavours to be found in the Blanco Crianza '03 (cork) which scored a solid 14/20.

The most interesting wine of the evening was the Gran Reserva 1995 (cork). It was still fairly purple, not really aged looking at all, and boy did it show well tonight. Last time I tasted this we opened a second bottle, so dull was the first, and the second bottle only confirmed our opinion of the first. But tonight's bottle was full of wild flavours and aromas - my notes include "spaghetti hoops on very buttery toast, talcy perfume, bananas, ?toothpaste". Yeeeeha! (Also a very strong 16+/20).


I must also mention the Satinela Semi Dulce ('05, cork), which possesses one of the dodgiest labels on any sweet wine anywhere. Don't be put off as I was for so long - try this one soon. It's very, very pale, only just green; mildly aromatic, fruity and very clean; and has a lovely sweet vinous palate. This late harvest Viura scores 15/20.

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.

'42 Cuvées'

... it says on the label - obviously this wine is the ultimate answer. The question must have been, "What bargain wine should rodbod buy this week?"

The more different wines I taste, the more I like them all. But if I do have a weakness, it has to be for Minervois, the first cheap-yet-decent red wine I came across. So to find the Coop doing La Cuvée Mythique for only £3.49 gladdened my heart. It's the 2001 vintage, under cork , so obviously they are keen to clear it, but it certainly isn't past it.

It is still a youthful looking purple. The nose is strong and clean, with notes of pepper and cherry jam (or maybe pie filling). There are more cherries on the palate, which is full, dry and rich, with a spicy peppery finish.

A solid 15/20. Grab some before I complete my tour of Coops of the West of Scotland - once I've finished there won't be any left.

Shurely Shome Mishtake, Vicar

I was preparing to present some Pinot Noirs at a tasting last week, and also thinking about how we describe wine. I found a very long list of scents and flavours which were said to have been noted in Pinot. I wrote some of them out, but dismissed a fair number as implausible, and then read out the list at the start of the tasting just to get people in the mood.

Imagine my surprise when three people - at two different tables - said that one wine smelt like Sauvignon Blanc (this flavour/scent was not on the list).

I don't really have anything to say about this, I just want to share my bamboozlement with you.

Exploding Plums and Chocolate Shrapnel

This time it's Colomé Estate ('04, cork). A big, dark, plummy blend of two thirds Malbec, a fifth Cabernet Sauvignon, and some Tannat from the Salta province of Northern Argentina. I was impressed by its claim to be from "The highest vineyard in the World", but Puddleglum assures me that all Argentinian wines have this on the label. The wine is very concentrated, dry, warming, and satisfying. It seems complex, too (my tasting note mentions herbs, barley sugar and blackcurrants), and has a long finish. A very good 16++(?17)/20.

There are two points to note here. My first impression of the wine was, "Whoah! Fruit bomb! Hee-hee!", but that's such a tired description, hence this blog's title, which conveys something of the attention-grabbing nature of the wine, and also tells you a little about the flavours. There was an anonymous comment on the previous post about how we describe wines, but I did detect the hand of TallAsAVan, who once characterised a poor Argentinian Malbec as being "like the dissonant clatter of a filing cabinet falling down some stairs". Perhaps he might think of Colomé Estate as an October storm rushing through a beech copse high on the Downs; powerful, exhilarating, exciting.

Second point: scoring. What exactly does 16++(?17) mean? Mainly it reflects my inability to settle on a single number, but that isn't very satisfactory. This year I am resolved to improve my wine scoring system. Along the way I may well try out Parker-style scoring, a star rating, or anything else which is suggested to me. In the meantime, have a look at this radical new scoring system.

Plum jam and old iron

I'm drinking de Bortoli Yarra Valley Gulf Station Pinot Noir (2004, stelvin) and wondering how to describe it. I don't really hold with the fruit-salad-throw-lots-of-adjectives-and-something'll-stick approach, but I can't just leave it at 'plum jam and old iron'. Then again, if I say that I mean the sort of cheap Polish plum jam Safeway used to sell long ago, before Solidarity got started on doing away with the Communists, rather than the rich, fresh - FRESH! - confection that Bob whizzed up from Mrs O's glut last autumn I'm inviting a nomination to Pseud's Corner.


It's interesting, this challenge we face of trying to translate our impressions of a wine from the personal to the universal. For me, it's a fair proportion of the pleasure I find in wine.

"This is all very well", I hear you say, "but should I shell out £9 for a bottle?". Hmmn. Probably not. It's a decent wine, interesting, does show varietal character a little, but it's not all that satisfying to drink. In truth, I think it's too young. So, buy it and keep for a year or two, or nod wisely and move on. Despite which, I do think it rates 14/20. Interesting but not satisfying.

TN: Lamura Grillo '04

January is a month for belt-tightening, underspending, and general parsimony, so you will be pleased to hear about Lamura Grillo ('04, terrible little spongy doo-dad), one of the extensive range of wines from Casa Girelli.

For only £4.49 (from Oddbins) you get a very decent glass indeed. A strong mainly savoury nose, but with interesting hints of herbs and grass, leads onto a dry clean palate which is full, savoury and long, veering into a refreshing touch of bitterness at the finish.

Grillo is the Sicilian grape variety traditionally used to make Marsala, but here modern techniques have produced a very decent dry quaffer. A solid 14/20.

Whisky! Arrrr!

An Ardbeg tasting, hosted by Stuart Thomson, distillery manager.

Having braved the gauntlet which is First Rail, I managed to arrive at more or less the critical point in this tasting, Ardbeg Kildalton 1981. This astonishing whisky made me laugh out loud, a reaction which few whiskies (or wines for that matter) engender. Kildalton, to explain, is a more or less unpeated Ardbeg (!). What's more, you can't buy it, because they have pretty much run out. So why am I writing about it? To annoy you, of course. No, no, no, I don't mean that. That would be bad. I have to talk about it because it is such a good product. And Ardbeg might make something of its ilk again - y'never know. If ever you hear someone saying,"this is just like Kildalton 1981", bloomin grab it while you can.

Imagine, if you will, a gentle Ardbeg - yes, yes, yes, noisy boys at the back, I know, oxymoron, military intelligence, etc, etc, but that is what it is. The nose is gentle, sweet, a powerful blast of chocolate coated cherries, then becoming very mealy, with the salt finally coming through, and then more chocolate. The texture of the nose (nose feel?) reminded me of Port Ellen 24 y.o.

On the palate it is salty AND sweet, very mellow for an Ardbeg, with the charred wood / smoke character coming in on the long gentle finish. 17/20 (No really)

Having started with such a good whisky it was a little tricky to give the others a fair go. The Ardbeg 17yo was very stinky - fishy, in fact - at first, but then the smokiness came in, followed by dried fruit, saltiness, perhaps a hint of chocolate, and just a wee further touch of salt at the end. 16+/20

I was very taken, too, by the Uigeadail. This is blended from 10yo, 13yo, and some 1975 fino sherry cask, and the complex nose reflects this. It starts off metallic and seaside-y, there is a wee burning nip to it, then the fruity aromas, the smoke, more of the metallic character and a strong mealy note come through. These elements swirl round, first one then another coming to the fore, never settling on a single note. 16/20

A very fine tasting. I'm only sorry I missed some of it, since Stuart Thomson very evidently knows his stuff, and can talk about it most entertainingly.

Gosh! Isn't it dusty around here!

Four months since my last post. Which means I failed to tell you about Amayna Pinot Noir, Bonnefond Côte Rôtie, Cirsion, Cline small berry Mourvèdre, Château Talbot, and a load of other goodies. Ah well.

It' s not often that I find myself in complete agreement with what a label says about a wine, but here's one now. La Otra Vida Tempranillo ('04, cork) from the Mendoza region of Argentina did indeed hint at raspberries, and it did go very well with spicy food. In this case, a bean and vegetable stew with fresh green chillies. This is the perfect £5 quaffer to take if you are going to a mate's for supper. A solid 14 pointer.

History in a Glass - Ancient History...

As I was saying, one fishtank emergency, one unexpected visit from the ELF (featuring cremant du Jura, prosecco, much beer, and amaretto), one trip to Edinburgh (featuring a wine tasting, a three hour lunch, Greyfriars Bobby, and the Scott monument, as viewed from the top), one visit to A&E, one car service, one two-cousin sleepover with pizza and four part harmony, one broadband installation, a very thin chianti and a wholly atypical muscadet later, here is the rest of last Thursday.

Château de la Garde `La Tulipe` Rosé ('04, cork) is a deep dark merlot based rosé, drier and more flavoursome than most. I served it up chilled, but since I was rashly asserting that it can be compared to what was called 'clairet' in the dim and distant past (say around 1400AD), maybe it should have been room temperature. My favourite rosé wine this year - 15/20.

Carillon Mercurey rouge ('02, under cork). The Carillon family have been making burgundy since 1520, and I like to imagine that this one is very similar to the glass you would have been offered 500 years ago. It's dark, earthy, a rather rough and ready wine, and should you happen to have some big flat mushrooms, or better yet, some random wild fungi, then flash fry them in olive oil and butter (for forty-five seconds) pile them on toast, and eat accompanied by a glass of this. Bliss. Bliss to the tune of 16+/20.

Ducru-Beaucaillou ('97, cork). "Not a good year". "For early drinking". Pshaw! This is a fantastic wine. Savoury, concentrated blackcurrant juice, meaty and dense, with notes of coffee, even mocha, and a gentle woody spiciness. In the 1855 classification Ducru was classed as a second growth, but these days the consensus seems to be that it rivals the first growths. Certainly the consensus amongst Thursday night's tasters was that it was equal first wine of the night. The consensus amongst me was 17/20, just for the bouquet.

The disappointment of the evening was Masi Costasera Amarone ('01, cork), although of course it did have to follow on from the Ducru. Very rich, like chocolate-dipped cherries which have lain cheek by jowl with crystallised figs, but for a twenty quid wine I would expect flavours that lingered rather longer. Sad to say, only 14/20. Made from partly dried grapes, the Recioto wines of the Veneto date back to the fifth century...

...whereas the last red of the evening, Glaetzer Bishop shiraz ('01, cork) only just dates back to the twentieth. It is the vinous equivalent of a fruit smoothie: powerful, fully fruity Barossa shiraz, but with tannins more akin to butterflies kisses than rasping lions tongues. This is the kind of red wine that converts white wine drinkers, and Thursday's tasters ranked it top alongside the Ducru. 16/20.

And finally, a dessert wine. In the seventeenth century tokaji was the wine of kings. It's a style of wine that could never develop today, given that two kinds of microbes insinuate themselves into to the winemaking cycle, and both contribute to the unique flavour of tokaji. We sampled Disznókő Tokaji Aszu 5 Putts ('95, cork). This one definitely divided us: some of us were put off by the somewhat sherried character (I wasn't one of them! I love sherry, In fact, I 'm just going to go and have a glass right now) whereas others loved the rich complexity of it. 15+/20.

We rounded off the evening with a couple of historical oddities. Take white wine, honey and seawater, mix them thoroughly, and you have a delicacy of the Roman Empire. One person compared it to a dirty martini. Most of the commentary was less kind. Our other experiment was sour, unhopped beer - just as a reminder of what booze was probably like for the majority of the inhabitants of Britain for much of the country's history (and prehistory!). Not surprisingly, the vote was Three Cheers For Wine.

History in a Glass

Last night I hosted a tasting which looked at eight wines and the accidents of history which gave us them. It was great fun to discuss, not just the wines, but also their stories.

First off was Gaia Ritinis Nobilis ('04, under cork), a modern twist on retsina, a style of wine which is at least three thousand years old. Light and aromatic - pine! of course - this would make a good aperitif, or else the clean pungency of the pine would very nicely contrast spicy or oily foods. But not many of the tasters liked it: I suppose it's too far out of the mainstream of modern taste. I rated it at 13/20, but I guess the consensus was more like 11/20.

Jumping forward almost the whole three thousand years, we had Wither Hills sauvignon blanc ('04, screwcap). Just about the purest, greenest, freshest expression of sauvignon I know, it is a canonical example of the World's newest Classic Wine Style. Imagine, less than thirty years ago there was no such thing as Marlborough Sauvignon. And now you can get this 15+/20 beaut from Oddbins for £8.99.

Yikes! Fishtank emergency! I'll finish this post later - come back and look again tomorrow.

Summertime, dum-dee-dum-dum-dee-deeeeee-dum

What a glorious day. Ideal weather for sitting outside, enjoying a glass of fizz and some asparagus tips & hollandaise. So we did.

Asparagus needs no garnish. Sizzled butter or perhaps - the decadence of it! - truffle oil would be the height of luxury, but classic dishes exert a kind of gravity. To do otherwise goes against a law of nature.

The Champenois assert that champagne will pair any food. Certainly our bottle of Canard-Duchêne brut (non-vintage, under cork) was a fair match, the dryness and acidity of the wine contrasting with the rich sauce, but other wines would better match the flavour of the asparagus.

Canard-Duchêne has just a hint of pinkness in the depths. The nose is wet gravel (translation: classic champagne style minerality; aka fish tanks), and on the palate I find the same mineral quality. It is very dry, full bodied, and showing just a touch of richness. No real toastiness, tho, which is a little disappointing. I have found it better previously. 13(+)/20.

Swiss wine, by golly!

Yup, courtesy of the Big Egg, a bottle of Jean-René Germanier Dôle Balavaud Grand Cru '03, under cork. Never tasted Swiss wine before, hey-hey. Apparently they keep it all for themselves. This stuff is good. It puts me in mind of bojo, or passetoutgrains, which isn't a great surprise, since the grape blend is pretty much the same; pinot noir and gamay.

Dark red, the nose is still developing - it's a good balance of bright fruitiness and a more mature savoury (maybe potato?) character. On the palate the wine is dry, light-bodied, and markedly spicy, with perhaps a hint of licorice. It's distinctly warming.

I want to be drinking this wine somewhere in France, with a chunk of Tomme des Pyrénées, one of those skinny baguettes they call a flute, and the sun on my back. Thank you, your Eggness.

Whoops, the score... (14)-15/20.

Wine Bloggin' W*****day #11 - "Off Dry"

"Off Dry". Hmmn... tricky, that. In these days of mass-produced wine juice, the boundaries of dry have rather spread sugar-wards. Aha!, here's something which certainly isn't dry, but wouldn't (I reckon), make a good dessert wine. Is that a good definition for off-dry, do you think?

Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt Ockfener Bockstein Riesling Kabinett 02004, under cork, comes in a lovely old fashioned blue flute. It's a light wine from the banks of the Saar, a (very!) cool-climate region tucked into the corner of Germany next to Luxembourg and France.

At only 8.5% alcohol, and palest green, this would make a fine mid-afternoon refresher. It's ever so slightly pétillant, with a fresh mixed salad leaves nose. On the palate it has fairly high apparent acidity, and a moderate degree of sweetness. It is very lime-y, and very-very-very refreshing. The finish is clean but not long. A solid 15/20.

NB 1: I say apparent acidity because I suspect that this is one of those clever German wines which skilfully balances very high acidity against very high residual sugar.

NB 2: Reichsgraf von Kesselstat is the producer (website: www.kesselstatt.de), Ockfener Bockstein is the vineyard, Riesling is the grape variety, and Kabinett is the quality level.

NB 3: I daren't mention W*****days in case it sparks off another fine wine débacle.

NB 4: I bought this in the Co-op. As far as they could tell it didn't exist, so they sold it to me (after much conferring) for £3.99. I reckon it's more like six quid, so if you like the sound of it get in there quick.

NB 5: Thanks to Beau of Basic Juice for hosting Wine Blogging Wed***day no 11.

TN: The Boulders Petite Syrah '03

Stelvin closure, produced by McManis Family Vineyards.

Appearance: very dark, opaque purple.

Nose: strong and well developed, fruity and alcoholic. ?!vinegar? Something green. Wet privet hedge?

Palate: dry and fairly soft, full bodied with some velvety tannin. Dark berries. A long finish of fruit acid and Spangles, with a vegetal quality.

Conclusion: a good mid-quality wine, drinking now or keeping for a year or two or three. (14)-15/20.

Rully in a hot year

Les Champs-Lins, vielles vignes AC Rully. Vinifié, élevé et mis en bouteille par Vincent Girardin à Meursault, Côte d'Or, under cork.

In other words, full on chardonnay from one of the top producers, but not necessarily all his own grapes. Rully is in the Côte Chalonnais, the disparate here and there vineyards between the Côte de Beaune and the Mâcon region.

Rully has for long been a favourite wine appellation, a little bit more expensive than the Mâcon which I usually go for, but with a worthwhile steeliness. This bottle is distinctly richer than other Rullys I have tasted. There's oilcloth, hot toasted wood, even a mild allspice character to the nose, surely all signs of the extreme nature of the '03 growing season. The palate is immediately rewarding, full and ever so slightly sweet, then with the steeliness coming through. The finish gets a slightly bitter twist in, and lasts for ages. Woohoo, top white bourgogne for not quite top prices. Actually, I don't know the price of this un, but I'm still giving it 16/20.

Hallucinatory grass and home made lemonade

Hey, it looks very green... Oh no, hang on, that's the bottle, it's actually fairly yellow, albeit going watery at the rim. And the nose is big, aromatic, but I'm over the sauvignon blanc-a-like notion I had about this wine last year, so it's becoming clear that any grassiness is psychosomatic grassiness. So what is that nose? TallAsAVan does bang on about white pepper, but that isn't quite it, or it isn't all of it. Never mind, let's taste it and come back to the nose.

Watery, medium bodied, very very refreshing. Like home made lemonade - icy-fresh-water-&-lemon-juice-refreshing. But by golly, there is a wee bit of white pepper in there, especially in the finish, which is long and very satisfying. This is a good one. Back to the nose. It remains hard to pin down. Maybe a touch of caramelised sugar. It's a good un. Salomon Groovey gruner veltliner 02004, under cork, 15/20, from the Kremstal region of Austria to you via Oddbins for £6.49.

PS after a full glass of this the pepperiness comes through more clearly. Nice one, TallAsAVan.

PG Tips

• drink it well chilled
  
• goes nicely with various pasta dishes
  
• very good party wine, as it is medium in all respects, hence has wide appeal
  
• perfect for summer evenings
  

We have evolved a mildly complicated system for eating pasta here. In the past some of us have had strong prejudices against certain pasta sauces and in favour of certain others. Owing to stubbornness, or habit, and despite losing those prejudices, we continue to have our pasta in at least four different finishes whenever we do eat pasta. Whilst not entirely convenient, it does allow me to report that Prima Gusto pinot grigio / trebbiano 02004(synthetic closure) goes fairly well with a blue cheese and sweet pepper sauce, rather better with a basic olive oil, black pepper and parmesan, better again with a tomato and green olive (but mainly tomato, the olives are a token presence) sauce, and is only passable against strong cheddar / white sauce. All sauces were served over penne (thank goodness we don't have any more than four hobs on the cooker).

The Prima Gusto is a light to medium bodied dry white wine, with a lime-y, citrussy nose,and wet-pebbles, minerally palate, from the north east of Italy, and is mainly made from pinot grigio, which is called pinot gris in France, grauburgunder or ruländer in Germany, malvoisie in Switzerland (also in parts of France, although that hardly counts since the French also use malvoisie as a synonym for maccabéo, bourboulenc, clairette, torbato, and vermentino), pinot beurot in Burgundy, szürkebarát in Hungary, and cabernet sauvignon in Scotland. The EU has finally stamped out the Alsatian practise of calling it Tokay Pinot Gris, which was itself a retreat from Tokay d'Alsace. Not that anybody was ever likely to confuse Alsatian pinot gris (not even vendange tardive) with the Tokaj of Hungary, but thus do we erase history, the better to remistake things.

Aaaanyway, to get back to the wine, it was a good match for the food, but really it went best with the beautiful summer evening. In fact I think it got an extra point because of it. Prima Gusto: 14-15/20.

This is my contribution to Wine Blogging Wednesday #10. You can read all about it here, thanks to Alice of My Adventures in the Breadbox.

There's a whole world of sweet wines out there,

and we aim to try them all, seeing as a continuous diet of Yquem would doubtless prove tedious. As Trollope says, "It may be said that nothing in the world is charming unless it be achieved at some trouble. If it rained '64 Leoville - which I regard as the most divine of nectars - I feel sure that I should never raise it to my lips."

So to the Texas High Plains, the somewhat implausible source of Two Sisters late harvest Chardonnay (01998, technical cork) from the Fredricksburg Winery.

It looked wonderful, an intense greenish gold, like old brass lying on a sunlit streambed, but thereafter, ah me.

The nose was very strong, cloying, heavy, old. It smelt of cloves. The palate was clean, very sweet, and empty. Sad to say, the wine was gone: the little genie had fled the bottle. This wine could not be scored. But there will be others. Onwards and upwards!

Gavi Bricco Battistina

B was in Edinburgh yesterday, and the call of Valvona and Crolla was irresistable. In amongst the other tasties was a bottle of Gavi Bricco Battistina, from Araldica Vini Piemontesi. (02003, cork)

A very shiny pale gold, the wine had a mature nose faintly reminiscent of champagne - stony, watery, slightly spicy. The palate was dry and full, very satisfying and with a good bitter finish. The flavours were, initially, green apple, then stoniness and something woody or stalky. I caught a hint of oxidation or sherrying, so I certainly wouldn't want to keep this one. But then, it's a fifteen pointer right now, so I'll just go and polish off the last of it. Chin chin...

(15/20)