Tea! And Fruit! But Mainly Tea!

And 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 a Malbec), and really rather tasty.

My good friend TallAsAVan, Malbecista Supremo, observes that Malbec always says blue fruit to him, which I don't find. What I do often find is fishy. I've never even seen one, but that sort of dried fish called Bombay Duck (Why is it called Bombay Duck? It's been around too long to blame the name on Google Translate. Perhaps it's another case of Your Finger You Fool?) often pops into my head on tasting the bigger, more full bodied kinds of Malbec.

So it is an interesting change to find this lighter example of the grape. Well done chaps.

(Whoops – the details: Viu Manent Malbec 2007, Colchagua Valley, Chile, 14%, £7 from Oddbins. really rather tasty = 3++)

Sweet Wine Wednesday #4

Another 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 nettles, definite popcorn, and a wee bit of rubber.

All that was just the nose. The taste was intense lime-lemon meringue pie, and then a tiny hit of mushrooms at the tail end. An absolutely delicious wine, and well worth keeping for decades yet, I would guess.

Blanc, Sec, and Foursquare

Hugh 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 in no other part of the world. Mauzac is said to impart a flavour of apple peel, but instead I find a strong taste of honey in this old-fashioned wine. It's very, very refreshing, (very very refreshing = 3+),but in a style which is a thousand miles away from Kiwi Sauv Blanc refreshing.

Update : After I decided I liked Johnson's term 'plain wine', I found another wine that falls into the category. Le Monache Bianco is a Cortese / Sauvignon Blanc / Chardonnay blend made by Michele Chiarlo in Monferrato, in Piemonte, Italia. On tastings, people find it uninteresting, but with certain foods it sings. Less fashionable, but nonetheless a useful style of wine, long may it continue.

It Cos how much?

I'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 earth. And the texture!

Silky, but more delicate than silk - say, perhaps, lace made from silk, or spider silk - and tougher too, the tannic strength of the wine a basso counterpoint to the delicate contralto freshness; a refreshing freshness, even as the tannins coat your tongue. A kind of paradoxical watery toughness. It is difficult to figure it out, but who needs to anyway. It's enough to enjoy the pleasure.

And then I refocus and see that there are a lot of faces being pulled, noses being wrinkled. Tonight's tasters are decidedly not Francophiles, or at least, they are not keen on youthful, dark, tannic, earthy, Bordeaux. It is quite startling to me how much dislike the Cos engenders, so that I need to taste it again, in case there is a problem, but it's lovely. Tannic, yes, earthy, decidely, but also fresh and powerful and delicious (delicious = 4-5, while I remember). Like all good Claret, it is of course priced at a point which brings general expressions of disbelief from the room.

Sweet Wine Wednesday #3

To 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 flavours I've noted are dry, leafy, chocolate, struck flint, salty - no fruit y'see, which probably explains why it's not the trendy drink de nos jours. A crying shame, as it would make the perfect apéritif with a handful of almonds, and is decidedly excellent, 4+.

The Next Big Thing?

Fashions 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 has been a fashion for enormously extracted, dense, heavy red wines. d'Arenberg's Dead Arm Shiraz is one such, but I am beginning to think that the spotlight is ready to move on.

There were many excellent wines at the Australia Day Tasting in Edinburgh, but one of the best I tasted was the Gemtree 'Obsidian' Shiraz ('05). It had the expected red fruitiness, and some fragrant smoke, but much more interesting was the savoury, herbaceous aspect. At three-and-a-half years old it is perfect right now, mellow and chocolate-y, with a brilliant balance between acidity and fruity sweetness. A fantastic 5 pointer, and definitely ready to step into the limelight.

Oh the oak! **swoons**

Tastings 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 saying the wine reminded her of whisky.

These remarks make it sound like some sort of crazy wine, when in fact Shelmerdine is a straightforward oaked Ozzy Chardy (straightforward = 3++). But perhaps the barrel influence seemed rather too strong compared with the delicate, zingy, mineral-y Debavelaere Rully 'Les Cailloux' 06 (a very good 4), or the complex and strong - but in a much sweeter way - Scarbolo Friuli Chardonnay 07 (Don't take this to mean that the Scarbolo was anything but dry. Nevertheless, the oak was sweet. And I rated it a tangy 4)

Château La Roche '04

Château 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 fruity, but rather earthy and very claret-y, if that's useful. But it didn't call to mind any Malbec characteristics at all, nor Merlot. One of those wines where the whole is decidedly more than the sum of the parts. And a very, very good match for the Beetroot, Orange and Chocolate soup I made. Château La Roche Première Côtes de Bordeaux ('04, cork), very good (3++).

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.

Four lovely corks...

...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, sharp refreshing wine. The Jaboulet, the poshest cork here, is from a bottle of 'Les Cèdres', which one might want to keep for perhaps a decade (Hugh Johnson says in his 1983 Wine Companion that the best Châteauneuf he ever drank was a 1937, tasted at 44 years of age)

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).

Well I Never

Mendel 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), it still has the tannins one would want to accompany roast beast, and is a-swirl with all sorts of interesting flavours – green peppercorn, dried fruit, chocolate, savoury stews – that kept me sniffing for ages. Decidedly excellent, 4.

Sweet Wine Wednesday #2

Old 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 shiny bauble was a Viña Tondonia Blanco 1987 (excellent). It was the colour of brass, but with beautiful glints of gold through it. The nose was strong - acrid - and very earthy, loads of mushroomy notes, as well as a novel scent for me, of caraway seeds.

It tasted very mellow, gentle, but still with a strong core of citrus acidity. It was lovely.

Interestingly, we had another white Rioja, Finca Allende 2005 (excellent), to compare with the Tondonia. The Allende was only three years old rather than twenty-one, and matured in French oak for rather less than the four years the Tondonia underwent. Yet the similarities were there to see.

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?

Novel Organoleptic Joy

You 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" 2006 is a huge wine. Ultra-concentrated, with a fair oxidative whiff about it, a little bit of white pepper, and some honied notes, the main, powerful scent for me was white chocolate, a completely new experience. I don't even like white chocolate, but this smelt just fab (I know, I know; what on earth was I thinking of, drinking Chassagne 1er when it's not even two years old. Look, it was there, it's Rijckaert, what can I say. It's just another fine wine débacle. Get over it).

The oxidative note is very interesting. Rijckaert, these days, is based in Jura, to the East of Burgundy where the most prestigious wine is Vin Jaune, which sits in barrels for 75 months without topping up. Crazy stuff, like sherry, but bracing, since the Savagnin grape is naturally very acidic. I suppose his Burgundian wines are feeling the Jura influence. The other comparison in my notes is to Bollinger Grand Année, it being rather oxidative in style too. If you like Bolly I guarantee you will love this wine.

So anyway, pay attention here folks. Actual factual "Outstanding" wines don't come along very often. In the 1300 or so tasting notes I have made and indexed over the last year-and-a-half, I have found a scant half-dozen worthy of the name, so I heartily advise you to track down this nectar and just splash the cash (a mere forty squid for a brand new organoleptic experience).

Great Wine Defined

The 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 remembering some of the greatest wines I have tasted, their delicacy or textural subtlety is just as important as intensity of flavour.

Tonight's wine will be added to this mental list of mine. Luciano Sandrone's Nebbiolo d'Alba 03 isn't even his top wine (he makes Barolo in various spots, including Cannubi Boschis, if I remember right). It certainly has intense, and interesting, and surprising flavours - fresh cut flowers, solvents, shit, anchovies, leather, nivea hand cream - but just as important is the near perfect balance on the palate, a kind of tension between softness and tannin, where, in the end, the tannin wins by a nose, which is why the wine is only (only! Ha.) delicious, rather than, say, superb.

TN: Maycas del Limari Chardonnay '07

Maycas 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 particular bottle is the strongly oaked version of Limari Chardonnay, and the oak has been nicely done; clean and fresh, giving the wine a mealy or nutty scent, with notes of mandarin oranges or tangerines. It tastes dry, full and lovely, with an excellent mineral or salty endnote. And for once I am persuaded by the rear label, with its mention of 'green apple flavours', although I'd say it is rather riper than that. Concha are too polite to say so themselves, but I do think this wine is aimed squarely at Meursault, and it's pretty much on target. Excellent.

Château Branon 2000

One 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 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, but undoubtedly it will be much better ten years down the line. So I rate it as merely excellent.

(Hah, "merely")

TN: Rubino Vermentino 07

Tenute Rubino Vermentino 07 is that somewhat rare beast, an Italian white wine with character. Rather than the neutral-foil-to-great-tasting-food style, there's tons going on here. A biscuity nose, but not sweet biscuits, the savoury sort, and probably with paté spread in them, seafood paté to be precise, and then the palate is sour and refreshing, with just the tiniest hint of dirtiness about it; a peck of dirt, which as any fule kno, is good for you. Interesting dirtiness, such as you would never find in a supermarket wine. All in all, mighty tasty.

Certainly there is a place for neutral wines, spear carriers. But it's good to find an Italian white which can happily take the leading role.