Happy Christmas 2020

 Happy Christmas, one and all!

Just in case this is the only historical record recovered by some future generation, you should know that 2020 has been an unusual year. However, I am not prepared to allow it to become the third year since I started this little blog to have no entries at all. I have added the bread and cheese pages this year, but wine is where I started and I am determined (yet again) to re-establish a habit of exploration and comment. Unless there is a radical change it is likely I will have enough time on my hands to get back into the swi(n)g of my little project, given that the Covid-19 pandemic looks set to continue into a second year despite the recent start of the vaccination programmes. Enough of that.

Weeks 1-52 (2020) Tesco Finest Barolo 2011. £17 for the current wine.

I have had this one in the cupboard for at least four years, so I can't remember what I paid for it at the time. It may even have been a present which, if that was the case, is greatly appreciated.

Usually, when I drink Barolo I find it to be an enjoyable experience, but it is all too rare an occurrence. I think this is because of an earlier experience, between 15 and 20 years ago, when I bought a bottle along with a small baguette and some pate on the way home from the station to make a light supper. That's a polite way of saying 'to have something to eat whilst drinking an entire bottle of wine in front of the television', which was something of a habit during a less than satisfactory period in my personal life. My education in wine had not started at that point, but I must have been sufficiently aware of wine to know that Barolo could be special, otherwise I would have picked up the supermarket red with the best discount. I remember wanting a big, rich juicy-fruit type of wine that would be easy to drink and that would wash down the fatty pate and leave me ready for bed. I think I must  have tasted some Barolo somewhere previously, and enjoyed it, but my recollection of why was obviously unreliable. The wine I had was very dry, had astringent tannins (not a phrase I would have understood at the time) and was high in acidity. I was most disappointed and I am not sure I even drank much of it. I think it was this bad selection, made in not unreasonable ignorance, that has left its mark and made me unreasonably timid about the wine.

As this year Christmas lunch was an intimate affair just for me and The One, who is not a keen wine-bibber, I thought I would put to the test the advice that I have read quite widely that Barolo makes a good partner for a turkey and sprout blow out. I took the precaution of decanting the contents of the bottle (using the ornate decanting funnel given to me by generous friends earlier this year to mark a significant birthday) a few hours before what became a late afternoon meal, and although I did not taste it both pre- and post-decantation and so cannot be sure, I think this was a beneficial approach.

I thought it was lovely. The One didn't, for reasons not dissimilar to those matching my historic disappointment, but even on a good day red wines of most types are not really her thing. It had the acidity to cut through the phenomenally luscious gravy, the restrained tannins to prop up the turkey and stuffing and the complexity to compete with and complement everything else. I didn't finish the bottle with the meal, even if it would have been more acceptable on Christmas Day than on a school night, but saved about half of it for Ron. (Later, Ron.)

When I returned to it on what was probably Boxing Day, I think I enjoyed it even more. The meal was much the same as the previous day, given that a 4 kilo turkey is a bit more than two of us could devour in one go, so it was either the extra time it had spent in the decanter or, more likely, something about my taste buds / demeanour / expectations / weather / what was on the telly, that made the difference. 

Labelled as Tesco Finest this wine was made by Cantine Ascheri Giacomo, a great producer who is based in Bra, Piedmont, where in September 2019 with some friends we visited the International Cheese Festival. But that's another story.

Gewurztraminer

Two Tesco Finests in a row? Surely a record.

Last week we had the robust red Faugeres and this week something completely different, to quote a strong developmental influence from my teenaged years.

Week G (2019) Tesco Finest Gewurztraminer, 2017. Tesco £9.00

Straight out of the fridge on a pleasant evening, my immediate observations were: 1) The One will enjoy this and 2) this is dangerously easy to drink.

I was right on both counts. Described on the bottle as 'exotic and fruity' I think it lives up to the billing. I would add off-dry as a defining characteristic and could be persuaded that it is sweeter than that. The fruit flavours are towards tropical, lychees usually get a mention, and there are floral notes, too. Turkish delight and roses are also frequently cited by other drinkers and I wouldn't object to them being listed here, however it is not the most richly complex Gewurztraminer to have passed these lips. Then again, it is far from the most expensive to have done so (there was a great bottle from Zind-Humbrecht's Clos Windsbuhl consumed on a beach restaurant in Mauritius that claims both of those awards).

The general advice for Gewurztraminer is that it should accompany something lightly spiced, such as Thai food, as it itself has some spicy flavours (everyone at this point has to explain that Gewurz translates as spicy) but we consumed the bottle's contents with nothing spicier than the most recent episode of Line of Duty and a few crisps, but it did the job very well indeed.

By the end of the last glass I was beginning to feel that the residual sugar content was a little more than it needed to be and perhaps the Chardonnay from Week E (2019) would have had the tension required to balance Detective Superintendent Hasting's predicament or that a bowl of Tom Yum Gai would have been preferable to the crisps so I will look forward to testing at least the second of these hypotheses at some point in the future.

Eden Valley

Having not been to Australia for two years now I have felt the odd moment of loss. Not pining for the job that took me there, that is happily consigned to history, but the privilege of visiting that big sunny island on a fairly frequent basis was one of the more enjoyable perks.

I have only visited South Australia once (so far...) and did manage to squeeze in some winery visits in McLaren Vale and the Adelaide Hills, but didn't have time to go further south. If I had then I would certainly included the Barossa Valley and its close neighbours of the Clare and Eden Valleys.

It is the latter of these from which comes:

Week E (2019) Hill Smith Chardonnay, Eden Valley 2018. Waitrose £8.99

Hill-Smith Family Wines have an impressive history stretching back 170 years and they are truly one of the pioneering families of Australian wine. Have a read here.

Yalumba (the first winery established by Sam Smith in 1849) wines have been a favourite of mine for a number of years and you will find examples in earlier episodes of my exploration should you have the inexplicable urge to investigate. One particular favourite is Yalumba Organic Viognier which I think is a great return on a few quid.

This Hill-Smith wine is a Chardonnay and is a good example of the restrained style that is produced with care in a cooler climate region, compared with the fruit-heavy and more oaky styles that UK drinkers no longer favour.

The fermentation was driven by wild yeasts, rather than those grown and selected for the purpose, and 40% of the wine was fermented in French oak barrels ranging from new (16%) to three years old. The remaining 60% of the blend was fermented and matured in stainless steel. The winemaker says this combination gives the best balance between vibrant fresh fruit flavours and the weight and texture influenced by the oak.

I was quite surprised how fresh this tasted, even though it is only just over a year sine the grapes were picked, and enjoyed the greater complexity that comes through in the finish. It doesn't feel like a 13.5% abv wine and has medium/light qualities that make it perfect for either a warm summer's evening or alongside a nice creamy chicken supper.

The flavours are not as intense as the Viognier referred to earlier, but at £9 (I think this was an 'offer' price) it is a very pleasing choice.

Delica

We find ourselves in the land of the rising sun and a little challenged when trying to keep things up-to-date. Not only because the technology has been limited to a mobile phone, but also because wine does not feature highly in the dining rooms of Japan. It is available but it felt wrong, even to an enthusiast such as yours truly, to diverge from the local dining practices.

One evening, however, over the card table rather than the dining table we did find a compromise:

Week D (2019) Delica, Vin de France, ¥640.

This is a basic French wine that can be bought in one of many, many convenience stores which are open 24 hours a day for the approximate equivalent price of £4.35. It is a compromise because you may just be able to read the name 'Suntory' towards the bottom of the label, revealing that this wine has been produced and bottled in France at the behest of one of the largest drinks companies in Japan. So not Japanese wine in the sense that it comes from that country, but Japanese by ownership. The actual makers are Castel Freres who produce 640 million bottles of wine in a good year, over half of which never leaves the country.

Being labelled 'Vin de France' means that it has not been produced under particularly demanding or stringently enforced rules, but has been made with grapes grown anywhere in France. In this case the fruit all comes from the South-Western part of the country, otherwise known as Languedoc.

The varieties could be any but are in fact Grenache and Carignan which are stalwarts of this and many other regions.

The wine was surprisingly enjoyable for the price; easy-drinking and the ideal accompaniment to a game of Bolivia. Do try.

Not much more to write home about expect that this reminded me of times not long past when £4.35 would buy something drinkable in the UK. Not so now, as with UK duties and VAT even if all of other elements of the cost were unchanged, this would be priced at around £7 at home and that would make it less of a bargain.

It's ok and I am glad we found something with a Japanese connection, but it is little more than a means to keep my game on the rails.

Cortese

I like Italian wines. I like how complicated they all are and that there is so much to investigate and forget. And learn again.

I may have mentioned, and you will not have read, that we are off to Bra later this year for the bi-annual Cheese Festival, (The One can hardly wait) and I fully expect to learn and forget a lot about cheese before, during and after the festival, but I am certainly looking forward to visiting Piedmont as it is the home of some great wine villages and regions, including, among many, Barolo, Barbarseco, and Gavi. And the last of these is where we find:

Week C (2019) La Monetta Gavi di Gavi, 2014. Waitrose £12.79.

Piedmont, for those without an atlas and having no intention to use Google any more than is completely necessary, is in the North-West of Italy and its name translates roughly to 'the foot of the mountain' giving us a clue that we are in a hilly region. Grapes like hills as they assist with soil drainage and allow the fruit to get good exposure to the sun. Gavi itself is in the South of Piedmont in the province of Alessandria and South-East of Turin, so perhaps not the hilliest of hilly bits but we will find out.

The fruit in this case is 100% Cortese, a grape known for retaining good levels of acidity, even in the hot summers enjoyed in its homeland. It smells citrussy, being a bit more lime than lemon and has some other sharp fruit flavours. I am told greengages taste a bit like this, but I wouldn't know.

It has a medium body and this matches the fruity acidity rather well, in my uninvited opinion.

A couple of years ago I bought a few bottles of this as the white option alongside the Cotes du Rhone red to be drunk at a dinner in honour of a good friend's significant birthday. I think it was well received by those who preferred the paler plonk and no-one complained. At least, not about the wine. Not many complained even about the enforced poetry writing I inflicted on the assembled company. I did this because I had been invited to conduct a tasting as part of the festivities and had been concerned that those present may not be enthused by listening to a self-confessed wine bore banging on about tannin, balance, malolactic whatevers, etc.,  and I had recently read and enjoyed an excellent book by Michael J. Gelb entitled 'Wine Drinking for Inspired Thinking', from which I stole the idea of a new symposium. Have a look.

Bekaa

This one was a gift from some generous colleagues when I moved on from having a proper job. I was accompanied by two more, which at this point remain in the 'cellar' (cupboard).

If you mention Lebanese wine to many people they often respond with something close to 'oh, Chateau Musar?' as they are one of the better known an more prominent producers from the region. With good reason, too.

But, no. This week we will drink:

Week B (2019) Domaine des Tourelles, 2014. ~£15 (but it was a gift.....)

My research tells me that this wine was previously made from 100% Cinsault, a grape from the South of France that has had a less than glowing reputation in the past but has more recently been increasing in popularity. It was known as producing high yields of poor quality fruit which would be the major source of juice for bulk wines and some for blending.

In this bottle, the producer has not relied entirely on Cinsault and, in fact, has used only 15% of it alongside Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah, at 40% each, and a 5% splash of Carignan.

All of these grapes have a French heritage, as does most modern viticulture in the Bekaa Valley, which is not to say that without the French there would be no Lebanese wine. Wine has been produced here for around 7,000 years and that is pretty much as long as it has been produced anywhere and much longer than anyone has been using the term French.

The Domaine itself has been producing wine for 150 years, having been established by a Frenchman named Francois-Eugene Brun in 1868, and that makes it one of Lebanon's oldest. The last of the Brun's passed away in 2003 but the winery was taken on by two Lebanese families of Issa and Issa el-Khoury who have brought update practices to bear.

So, what's it like? It is a deep ruby colour, smells of black fruit and Morello cherries and tastes much the same with a hint of spice. It feels medium plus body and has quite an alcoholic punch, being labelled at 14% abv. There are noticeable tannins, balanced nicely with acidity and the all-round experience is very pleasing.

As with Week Z (2019), two weeks ago, this has been fermented and aged in concrete vats, suggesting that modern, trendy(?) methods are as at home in the Levant as they are in Argentina. I still can't say with confidence that I can taste any evidence of that technique, but I do like the result and am grateful for the kind gift.

Assyrtiko

Welcome to lap six of the alphabet of exploration. There was a time when I didn't think we would get this far, but it helped taking a three year breather.

Delighted to have found this week's wine as it has had the effect that I had hoped all of them would have, which is that it has encouraged me to investigate not only its major grape, but also two others of which I had never heard or even read.

Week A (2019) Atlantis Assyrtiko, Santorini, 2017. M&S £12.

Santorini features on our long list of places still to be visited and, therefore, this is not a wine that carries happy memories of warm summer evenings overlooking the Aegean. Perhaps one day. Last year we did enjoy some lovely warm evenings overlooking the Ionian sea and drinking a variety of local wines some of which may have travelled well to be enjoyed again at home and others that didn't even travel very well from the supermarket to the villa, which was all of seven kilometers. But that is the fun of wine exploration, even if my holiday companions didn't see it that way.

This has travelled well, it seems. Assyrtiko is the famous grape from Santorini and is known for producing 'steely, mineral wines' (just google any review and those words will appear) and I have encountered this before. In this bottle it accounts for 90% of the contents and, under EU rules which will apply for a minimum of 23 more days, that qualifies the wine to be labeled as a single varietal wine, but the producers provide the names of the other two contributors who share the remaining 10% equally.

Delightfully, both of these additional blending partners have names beginning with A and, added to the wine's brand name, that gives us five A's in one wine. Very pleasing. The first additional A is Athiri, described in the excellent Wine Grapes book as being easy to grow and producing fresh, fruity, lemony, crowd-pleasing wines with soft acidity and moderate alcohol. The second is Aidani, described as being thick-skinned, lower in acidity and alcohol that Assyrtiko and adding floral qualities to a blend. Neither of them is often the star of the show and both are more frequently found, as here, blended with Assyrtiko.

I like Sauvignon Blanc and sometimes there are examples that underline why that grape has become such an international success, but I also like to find wines that are, perhaps, less well known and can provide a good challenge to the reigning champions. This does that, as it has all of the bright acidity of a Sauvignon but also provides the complexity that comes from the floral and mineral flavours for which the credit, apparently, goes to the minor players in this Greek delight.

Zorzal ZZ

There have been a few ornithological associations with wines listed in these pages and today we have another. This is not the reason for its selection and I didn't discover the connection until I was trying to find out anything of interest about the producers, but turns out that Zorzal is the Spanish name for the Song Thrush. A bit like Merlot being the French for Blackbird.  Unlike the Merlot, Zorzal also translates as 'dupe' or 'mug' (as in stupid person) and even as 'ingenious', so take your pick.

I like to think it has been chosen for the last of these three translations and I will explain in minute. For now, let me introduce:

Week Z (2019) Zorzal ZZ, Tunpungato, Argentina. 2017. M&S £9.50.

It is now a couple of weeks over eleven years since The One and I moved into our family home and we are very fond of the place. We chose it for a number of reasons, one of which was that it was a little unusual. It had been designed as a small, modern 'farmhouse' using well-thought out use of natural light and one particular material that would have been quite on-trend and the very start of the 1960's. (A very significant moment in history for personal reasons, too.)

The material in question is concrete. Something of an acquired taste architecturally as evidenced by comments from well-meaning friends when they first examined our choice of home. For example, 'do you think they left all this showing because they ran out of funds?' and 'are you going to plaster over all the unfinished bits?' No and no. It's brutalism in a domestic context; go and read about it.....sigh.

Anyway, concrete may not be the first material that comes to mind when you think of winemaking, but it does play a significant role in this case. The winemakers at Zorzal, the Michelini brothers, have chosen not to ferment their juice in either oak barrels nor stainless steel vats, but in concrete / cement 'eggs'. The brothers are pioneers in the use of this technology amongst their South American vinicultural community and seem to be proud of that fact. The use of concrete eggs, based on ancient amphora, is first credited to Michel Chapoutier in the Rhone valley and has since been adopted by winemakers across the globe, especially the trendier ones. It seems that the egg shape allows more of the developing wine to be kept in contact with the dead yeast cells and that the natural convection currents generated by the act of fermentation as it heats up the wine provide an automatic 'battonage' effect, which is where under more traditional methods the winemaker would stir the lees to assist with the development of complexity and texture in the wine. In addition to this the insulating properties of concrete help to maintain a stable temperature for fermentation without the need for expensive cooling systems. It also allows just the right amount of oxygen to permeate the egg and help the wine soften tannins and develop complexity.

The Zorzal winery was established in 2007 and has 70 hectares of mixed soil types 4,500 feet up in the Andean foothills, which makes this the highest vineyard area in Mendoza. Here they grow Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc alongside the Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon that appear in equal proportion on this bottle. The two varieties are picked by hand and vinified separately before being brought together in the final blend.

The resulting wine is rich, smooth and fruity with a spicy-herb finish. At the price it is a very decent wine.

Yalumba

As Today is our 12th wedding anniversary it really ought to have been Champagne, but I couldn't find one with a significant Y associated with it and so we have:


Week Y (2019) Yalumba Organic Shiraz 2017. Waitrose £9.99

I am finding that having returned to recording my weekly wine selection there is often a reference back to earlier times. In this case it is that Yalumba was also the producer responsible for Week Y (2014). On that occasion it was their white Organic Viognier, which remains one of my favourites.

This wine also comes from South Australia and, like the Viognier, is made from a grape whose original home is in France's Rhone Valley. There it is known as Syrah, but Australians renamed it Shiraz, for reasons unexplained.

Shiraz is a powerful grape variety, full of black fruit, bell pepper and spice flavours, often with strong tannins and capable of delivering high alcohol levels. Whilst wines from the Rhone valley appeal to me generally two of my 'bankers' are both Guigal's and Chapoutier's Cotes du Rhone, where the Syrah has been blended with one, two or even more of the twenty-one permitted varieties. They tend to be good value for money and often get favourable comments from friends and mealtime guests.

Perhaps it is because I regularly drink these Rhone blends that when I see a single varietal Shiraz / Syrah I tend to shy away as I expect it to be more challenging and possibly less enjoyable than the easy drinking blends. This probably says more about my faddy habits than anything intrinsically wine-related. I rarely order fish in a restaurant for similar reasons, but invariably enjoy the experience if I do.

So it was with that prejudice in mind I approached this bottle. Well, it's like the fish all over again. Not the wine, I am sure you understand, but the experience. This is a well made, easy to drink, fruity red wine underpinned with both floral aromas and spicy flavours. There is tannin, but it is not excessive or unripe. It is more structured than the Cotes du Rhones, but that just means it is distinct from them in a pleasing way.

Yalumba is now definitely a name I trust. There are four wines in their organic range, all overseen by a talented lady named Heather Fraser, and I look forward to trying the Pinot Grigio and the Chardonnay in the near future.

If you hurry, Waitrose have a 25% discount on the Shiraz right now..

Ximinez, Pedro

It is supposed to be a red wine week and so Pedro Ximinez, the grape used to create this week's wine, doesn't really qualify. However, I am prepared to make this exception for two reasons. Firstly, whilst the grape itself is a pale, yellowy-green colour the wine is a rich, dark, mahogany brown and a long way from white. Secondly, the rules are mine and should not be allowed to constrain my exploration. More about a particular constraint later.

Since escaping the responsibilities associated with bluffing my way through the world of IT, I have very much enjoyed becoming a volunteer in a community shop in my home village. Apart from the great pleasure derived from doing something that feels genuinely useful and is motivated by something other than financial gain for the first time in many years, I have also made a number of new friends and acquaintances, with a wide variety of background and experiences. The shop itself  sells an impressive range of essential items including a number of wines supplied by Liberty Wines. One of these is:

Week X (2019) El Candado, Pedro Ximinez Sherry. Wigginton Community Shop £22.

This is a unique drink and very distinct from anything you might associate with the word 'Sherry'. If you don't like Sherry, try this as it may surprise you.

It is Sherry, however, as it is made in the traditional Sherry way, with the wine having been matured in a solera system, after it has been fortified with grape spirit. This is where new wine is added to the barrels at the top of a stack and each year part of the contents are drawn off and added to a barrel in the next layer down in that stack until, after a few years, it has reached the bottom of the stack. Once there it can be drawn off and bottled. The liquid that goes into the bottle will be at least as old in years as the number of levels in the solera and, because the barrels are never more than one-third emptied and topped up in any one year, mostly much older. This process in known as 'fractional blending' as only a fraction of the wine from any one harvest is used at a single time and the blend is created in the solera from the juice of all the years that have ever been added to it. This wine has an average age of ten years as a consequence. (Make sense? No? OK try Wikipedia, or a proper book. Perhaps go on a course?)

Pedro Ximinez, or PX for ease, is extremely sweet. This version has 400 grams of sugar in every litre of wine. Is that a lot? Yes, as a typical dry table wine will have about 1% of that amount. In fact, this is so sweet that if it is drunk without being chilled first or, as is suggested on the bottle, being taken 'on the rocks' it can be too syrupy to be experienced at its best. It is full of figs, raisins, chocolate and even coffee and spice. Ideally, this should be drunk with friends although it won't mind being kept in the fridge for quite a long time which is just as well, given that you want to keep your teeth.

Poured over vanilla ice-cream it makes a great, simple dessert and it can stand up to a good, salty blue cheese when its sweetness and dried-fruity flavours make a great combination.

The bodega from which this comes is Valdespino, named after Alfonso Veldespino a 13th century knight who fought alongside King Alfonso X against the invading Arabs. I can't find any reference to him making Sherry which may not have come along until a couple of hundred years later, but the family who own the lands Alfonso was given in return for his loyalty, the Estevez family, produce a good volume of different styles of Sherry from 750 hectares of their own vineyards and if the others are as good as this, then I really must try some of them.

The keen-eyed amongst you will have noticed that there is a padlock attached to the top of the bottle. That's not me being overly cautious but the producer's attempt to tell you this is worthy of a bit of pilfering. El Candado translates from the Spanish as ' the lock' and, I think, hints at the close control the winemaker has on the quality of his product.

White

I did say I had relaxed the rules for my weekly wine selection, but even I think I may be pushing the limits with this one. White it is, but I did have a better reason for wanting to buy this particular wine.

I am usually quite ruthless when it comes to mail management. The vast majority of emails that reach my inbox are deleted without being read and that is after an even bigger majority has been filtered out by those kind people at Google. Those that get any attention at all have really done very well and have made it into the second round. At this stage most will get a cursory glance and then meet the same fate as the losers in round one. Some get read properly. With hard copy mail the odds of success are even less, so Majestic can consider themselves truly honoured that not only did I read their flyer for 'Aussie Rules' but, as a direct consequence, took myself off the local branch to taste and then buy six bottles of:

Week W (2019) Soumah Chardonnay 2017, Majestic £11.98.

Those familiar with Majestic's pricing policy will appreciate that this is the 'mix six' price which in this case is a 33% reduction on the amount asked for a single bottle, being £17.99.

So why did I respond to the marketing material when I am usually so resilient to such approaches? It is because when I still had a proper job that took me to the land down under, every now and again, I had the opportunity to visit a few wineries and on one such trip I visited Soumah.  I mentioned this in Week Y (2014) under the heading of Yering Farm which was the last stop that day, from where I bought a Pinot Noir for that week. I remembered enjoying the visit to Soumah, in fact I enjoyed the whole four winery tour (as far as I recall) and wanted to refresh that memory.

And very refreshing it is. This is much better than I had expected. I was prepared to discover that my rationale for selecting the wine was a misguided personal indulgence and that the reality would not live up to the romantic notion of some vague reconnection with a pleasant day five years ago.

The aromas are interesting, being mostly clean and fruity but with some hint of subtle oak, but the flavours are much more intense than I had imagined. Green apples, limey citrus and some touches of matchstick and nuts all of which lasts a pleasingly long time.

The cellar door price for this wine is A$28 and at today's exchange rate that is a touch over £15.50, so allowing for Majestic's buying power giving them a hefty discount but also allowing for the logistics, duty and vat, I think the mix six price is a pretty fair deal.

I remember meeting the winemaking family and they were very welcoming, even by Australian standards, and also that they were concentrating on Italian grape varieties, but it was only when reading the small print on the bottle that I discovered that Soumah is not a family name, not an Aboriginal name for the land where the grapes now grow, nor is it anything to do with Italy. It is a reference to the vineyard location being SOUth of MandoorAH.  I hope to go there again one day.

Veronese

It's winter, it is cold and sunny or cold an grey as the weather chooses and that means an ideal, warming, late and long Sunday lunch is in order. The Ox cheeks were cooked long and slow, really long and very slow, such that they fell apart with a deeply satisfying richness and demanded to be over-eaten.

Having cooked Ox cheek previously I wanted something that would pull its weight and, despite having marinated the meat for more than 24 hours in a bottle of Errazuriz Coastal Series Pinot Noir, I went for:

Week V (2109) Masi Campofiorin, Rosso del Veronese IGT 2015. Waitrose £9.74

This did the job very nicely, thank you. In fact so nicely I find myself feeling rather pleased that I bought two bottles and only opened one. It was rich and fruity, in a cherries and berries kind of way, but had good tannins and typical Italian acidity that made it a well-rounded pleasure.

I have for quite a long time been a fan of Valpolicella, in all its forms, as I may have mentioned in the past (not that I expect anyone will have read it) and although this particular bottle is labelled IGT and cannot, therefore, use that name but it is in effect what it is. Made in the Veneto with the three most frequently used Valpolicella grapes: Corvina, Rondinella & Molinara, this wine is a 'supervenitian' for the same reason the wine from Week T (2019) was a Super Tuscan.

Masi first made Campofiorin in 1964 as the prototype for what has become the Ripasso style of Valpolicella. That is, the fermented wine is re-fermented on the pomace left over from the production of either the Amarone or Recioto styles. I definitely banged on about this on 28th June 2015, if you are really bored.

Masi, a producer run by the Boscaini family for six generations, are an innovative bunch as, not only introducing this style of wine, they have also more recently been leading the reintroduction of a near-extinct regional grape variety, Oseleta, which was at the start of the 21st century down to its last 50 acres of vines, near Lake Garda. I was lucky enough to attend a tutored tasting back in September 2016, during the fallow period for my blogging, at the WSET School where a range of Masi wines were shown to illustrate the effect of adding a proportion of Oseleta to the various blends. All of the wines were good with my personal favourite being the Costasera, described by Masi as 'proud, majestic, complex and exuberant...a gentle giant...a benchmark for the Amarone category', which doesn't contain Oseleta so I came away having tasted some excellent wine but being less convinced that Oseleta was the missing magic ingredient. Italy is not short of unusual grape varieties and I was hoping to be more convinced as I like the idea of a winemaker's efforts to maintain local specialities being successful.

Campofiorin will be bought again, especially as at ~£10 a bottle it is good value for money. Costasera may also be bought but at £33 a pop it will need to be for a special occasion. Did I mention it's my birthday next month?

Umberto's again

I have enjoyed exploring wine for around nine years now and found that what started as a simple desire to understand the difference between, for example, Bordeaux and Burgundy or Chianti and Valpolicella, has developed into a seemingly endless voyage of discovery of all manner of unexpected delights.

I have found myself reading not just about grapes and fermentation, but geography, meteorology, history, biology, chemistry, economics, marketing, counterfeiting, fraud, philosophy and politics, amongst other things that I can't recall quickly enough and which in any case would only make an already unnecessarily long list longer.

I have made friends, and lost others, through the sharing of opinions and the debating of the merits or otherwise of particular styles and bottles. I have learned from many, disagreed with some, but always enjoyed the interests and experiences of others who have an appreciation of the juice and where it can lead.

The romance attached to some wines or their producers can be beguiling, as long as it is not transparently invented solely for promotional purposes. There was an element of romanticised history involved in this week's selection bought from Umberto's in Thame.

Week U (2019) Da Vinci Vermentino IGT 2016. Umberto's £12.50

As I noted last week, this wine was bought alongside its Tuscan cousin as part of a 'bin-end' pair, marked down from significantly higher original retail prices.

The romantic history attached to this Vermentino was that it came from vineyards originally owned by Leonardo Da Vinci and now in the hands of his great, great, great, etc until there are enough greats, grand-daughter. I may have misheard the precise details, but the strong family association was certainly part of the sales pitch, even if that was nothing to do with the decision I made to buy the bottle. That was much more to do with the fact that I like Vermentino and I like the salesman.

The wine is good. Bright and lively with citrus and floral aromas leading to some stone fruit flavours and a pleasing, tropical finish. For the apparently discounted price it is very good value and is the kind of wine that I would be happy to have on hand for any occasion where a white might be enjoyed.

Now, back to the provenance. Armed with Google (other search engines are available) it would not take even the least experienced of investigators to challenge the notion that the owner of the vineyard or winery responsible for the wine is a part of Leonardo's legacy. Yes, it comes from Vinci, the town from which Leo was Da, but it seems the winery itself, Cantine Leonardo Da Vinci, was established in 1961 by a group of 30 farmers who saw the benefits of forming a co-operative. In 1965 they first made wine in barrels and were putting it in bottles from 1971. The number of growers has increased since then to around 200 who together account for the production of over 4 million bottles of Da Vinci wines every year.

So, perhaps not a long-established family firm although it is of course possible that the great, great, etc, grand-family member was one of the original 30 farmers, or even a later entrant. But g-g-g-grand-daughter seems unlikely as LDV had no documented offspring, but does have documented records of behaviour (and later speculation) that any offspring at all would have been unlikely.

Does any of this matter? No, not a jot. In fact it is quite a good example of how the simple act of purchasing a single bottle of wine can lead to unexpected places, as long as you let it.

Toscano

Despite Saturday morning being a little drab and grey, The One and I decided to take a trip to Thame, by way of a change of scenery. Whilst there we visited a couple of kitchen shops, a ladies outfitters (where a very attractive woollen poncho-type-top was acquired) a supermarket and our favourite deli: Umberto's.  I mentioned Umberto's last week as the source on two separate occasions of Franciacorta and it is a coincidence that this week's pick was also found there.

Umberto is a charming man who makes shopping in his deli a very enjoyable experience. He has great enthusiasm for everything he sells and make his customers feel they have made great choices, which is as it should be.

I wasn't intending to buy any wine there yesterday, but he had two bottles which he explained were 'bin ends' and that I could have them both for £25, instead of the original £30+ prices that they had been marked up with. The white, a Vermentino, came from Leonardo Da Vinci's estate, so that must be very expensive....

Week T (2019) Dogajolo Carpineto, 2016. Majestic £11.99 (£9.99 mix six).

This is a 'Super-Tuscan'. A bold claim when you consider that Dante, Galileo, Puccini, Da Vinci, Machiavelli, Boccaccio and many more all came from that part of the world. However, in this case the 'super' doesn't mean bigger and better than, rather it means above or at least outside the rules that determined how wines of Tuscany could be made until the 1970's. At that time some producers of Chianti felt the rules were too restrictive and that being limited to Sangiovese as the permitted grape variety was preventing the improvement and development of wine styles in the region and so started making wines using other 'international' varieties even though this meant they had to label the wines as IGT rather than DOC. That is to say, they gave up some marketing advantage in order to follow their own preferences.

This Super-Tuscan is a blend of 70% Sangiovese and 30% Cabernet and 'other varieties', where the exact percentages vary with vintage to give the producer, Carpineto, the ability to manage the flavour profile to get the best balance each year.

Carpineto describe the Dogajolo range as their Baby Super-Tuscans, as they are designed to be drunk young. Interestingly, they recommend a serving temperature of 15-16C in the first year (after production) and then a warmer18-20C thereafter. At the time of drinking we are into year two, so I have not lightly chilled this bottle and will never know if the advice is useful!

We drank it with a meal of sausages, Brussels sprouts, peanut-butter sweet potato gratin and a game of cards, so hardly a classic Tuscan pairing, however, it was very drinkable, soft and fruity and surprisingly well-developed for a young wine.

Umberto's slow-dried pasta, olives, Cannoli and other cakes, pastries and sweetmeats are all outstanding and whilst I will be a little cautious with respect of wine price labels I will certainly look forward to our next visit.

Sparkling - Franciacorta

Happy New Year!

After a three year rest and following the termination of any kind of 9-to-5  style professional life, let's pick up where we left off. That means we need an S, as long as we ignore the only 2016 entry that crept in below. If I had returned to my game in strict adherence to my own unnecessary rules, I would have needed to find a red S to follow the white Rousanne from 27th December 2015 but, as you will see from the title of this week's entry, I have decided to play much faster and looser than before. So, S is for Sparkling.

This seems appropriate as for the festivities to welcome 2019 into the world we had a small celebratory gathering and the sparkling that I chose to mark the occasion was:

Week S (2019) Tesco Finest Franciacorta DOCG NV. Tesco £15.

I have become something of a fan of Franciacorta since first hearing of it when studying for the WSET exams during which time I had read about it as an exotic-sounding Italian alternative to Champagne, but for a long time could not find any to buy. In fact, although I had completed the diploma level unit on sparkling wines in 2011, it was not until 2015 that I chanced upon some in Majestic. That was Berlucchi Cuvee Imperial which I shared with a friend and we were both very impressed.

Since then I have also bought the Rosato version of the same wine, from Umberto's Deli in Thame, and also some excellent Lantieri from the same shop.

I was delighted to see that Tesco had started to import Franciacorta in late 2017 and even more delighted when I asked in the Aylesbury branch if they had any to replenish the empty shelves, to find that it had been put on offer at £13 a bottle!

So what it is all the fuss about? It is a traditional method sparkling wine (don't say 'Champagne Method / Methode Champenoise' or the French will be after you, even if that is what it is) that comes from Lombardy in the North-West of Italy.

The grapes used are a blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Nero & Pinot Blanc, the last of these being the only variety not used in Champagne, and they have been selected under strict rules (so Tesco say) and lightly pressed before fermentation in small wooden barrels by the producer, Castel Faglia, who farm 17 hectares of vines in small garden-like plots.

The results are great, especially considering the price tag. A Champagne showing the same crisp flavours, backed with some appealing Brioche tones, as this would cost twice as much.

I look forward to finding more examples of Franciacota, perhaps en-route to the slow food and cheese festival in Bra, Piedmont, later this year and of which I will write more in the coming weeks.

Astronomer

It is Easter weekend and we have had the full range of English weather, from a beautifully warm, sunny Good Friday, that had us drinking coffee in shirtsleeve order in the morning and overspending at an equally sunny food festival in the afternoon, to an Easter Monday that opened with Storm Katie bringing a mix of torrential rain and even snow.

Almost all four seasons in as many days. The One is very fond of the antipodean beat combo, known as Crowded House, who once sang about a city in that part of the world where it is possible to experience 'four seasons in one day'. They were referring to Melbourne which, by happy coincidence, is where the bonus daughter is currently located, having gone there to annoy her significant other who is alleged to be studying 'international relations'. I think we'll leave it there.

Anyway, in tribute the the bonus one, who missed a very enjoyable family day yesterday with her bonus siblings, I have selected today's wine to accompany lunch.

De Bortoli, 'The Astronomer' Chardonnay 2014. Majestic £5.99

I was seduced by a mailing from Majestic that offered me two Dartington crystal wine glasses if I bought any twelve bottles of anything before a certain date. I already had two of the same glasses from a previous shopping trip and rather like drinking from them so, as I was starting to run short of supplies, I found the offer to be well-timed. Sucker? Perhaps.

I chose some Chapoutier Cotes-du-Rhone and some Vasse Felix Cabernet Merlot from Margaret River but was having a dither about a choice of white. I explained to the young (they're all young, just like the policemen) assistant that I was on a cupboard stocking exercise and she recommended this Chardonnay.

It is produced by De Bortoli, who are a well respected if large scale Australian producer with over 35 brands in their stable, and is honestly pitched as 'entry level'. They do have wines that are most definitely not entry level, reaching up into very pricey territory indeed, but that shouldn't be understood to mean that their cheaper ranges are thrown together and flogged to the great unwashed who don't deserve any better.

It is well made, extremely drinkable and is a modern style, fruit-driven wine, with quite intense flavours of warm citrus and tropical fruit. Although off-dry, the intensity of the fruit gives it a sense of sweetness and the 14% abv doesn't really show. Perhaps the high alcohol content adds to the impression of sweetness, as it is capable of doing.

I expect we are not too far off the barbecue season and this wine will do very nicely then. At £6 a bottle and being easy to drink, a dozen of these in the cupboard makes good sense.

Since we last spoke I have once again been to Australia, but this time managed to visit South Australia where I had not been before. I liked it. Quite a lot. This is probably because by chance my visit coincided with the Adelaide Fringe Festival and that gave the place a bit of a buzz, but was definitely because a colleague who had grown up in the area, before she started driving warships for a living, was kind enough to provide a guided tour that took in two wineries (K1, by Geoff Hardy and Mollydooker) and then dumped me by a fabulous beach at Glenelg. My visit concluded at the Adelaide Cellar Door Festival where 180 producers were keen to encourage me to try many of their brands and blends and I also had a very interesting conversation with a lady who teaches people how to make cheese. An excellent day out.

Roussanne

What a busy time of year. Christmas day was conducted at a very relaxed pace, with only four of us gathered around the seasonal feast, which somehow was cooked and eaten rather more efficiently than the average Sunday roast and not because any of the trimmings were overlooked.

At some point during the period between Christmas Eve and today, the contents of this bottle were polished off.

Week R (2015) Charles Back Stonedance Roussanne, 2014. M&S £10.

And very nice they were, too. Roussanne is a grape from the Rhone valley where it is often blended either with other white grapes, typically Marsanne, or red grapes such as Syrah, Grenache and Mourvedre. Here it appears as a single varietal wine but, rather than coming from the Rhone, or anywhere else in France, this was made in South Africa around the city of Paarl.

It is a medium bodied, aromatic wine with a nice oily mouthfeel. It has quite intense flavours of peach, pear and apple and hints of something herbal. M&S say fennel, but I wouldn't swear to that.

It has moderate levels of acidity and a finish that lasts very well. A small proportion of the wine has been matured in oak, but that does not really make its presence felt to any obtrusive degree.

All in all, this is a pleasing wine and I think it could well become a bit of a banker. I have had few other experiences of Roussanne but all of those that I can remember have been enjoyable.

Quetzal

My father was a keen ornithologist and would take me out to bird reserves at almost any opportunity during my formative years. I enjoyed this greatly and inherited through these outings a love, albeit less passionate than my father's', of all things feathered. In my case this includes duvets.

Probably because of this early exposure to birds that many people will never encounter during their entire lifetimes, when at the age of ten I was asked along with all of my classmates to supply one question and answer for a general knowledge quiz and thought 'what is an Andalusian Hemipode?' to be a resonable contribution. My father was very proud. My teacher disallowed the question, probably because she couldn't tell whether the answer I supplied was correct or not.

This week we have a wine branded with the name of another bird not native to these shores.

Week Q (2015) Quetzal Malbec, Baja California 2014. M&S £8.50

The Quetzal is a colourful chap found in central America and if we're not for him it is unlikely that I would have picked a wine made in Mexico.

Wine education courses teach that the majority of wine grapes are grown between latitudes of 30 - 50 degrees North or South of the equator, as outside these ranges the climate is unsuitable by being either too hot or too cold. Mexico city is around 19 degrees North and far too hot, however, Mexico is a a big country and in its northern most parts, including the peninsula of Baja California, the climate is much more hospitable. So that is where the grapes for this wine grew.

It is a blend of two varieties, one well known and the other less so. They both originated in Bordeaux, but one has become more widely known than the other. It is 90% Malbec, now most famous in Argentina, and 10% Petit Verdot.  It tastes very acceptably like similar blends or at least like other Malbecs from other places and I was pleasantly surprised as I suspected it may have been a bit rough. More prejudice, I am ashamed to admit. I can't say it has much 'spirit of place' about it, but for the price and the interest value of it coming from Mexico then I am happy.
Based on this experience I would be happy to try other Mexican wines, but my socks have not been blown off with the intensity of this first encounter.

Many years after my primary school quiz experience I was reprimanded by a lecturer (that's what they called the teachers at West Kent College) in Communications (that's what they called English....) for answering a general knowledge question 'who was William Morris?' by correctly describing him as a wallpaper designer. I have always enjoyed the obscure.

Pouilly Fuisse

We have enjoyed a couple of white wines form the Maconnais this year, so here is another!


Week P (2015) Marc Dudet Pouilly-Fuisse, 2009. Waitrose £14.99

This one comes at a premium price because it comes from a specific village, Pouilly-Fuisse, which is generally considered to be in the best part of the region for producing good wines.

It is 100% Chardonnay, once again proving the 'anything but Chardonnay' crowd to be small-mindedly misguided, and delivers an experience to please many of our senses.

It looks pleasingly golden and bright. It smells beautifully aromatic and shows peach, pear and hints of vanilla. It tastes as good as it smells and feels full and rich in the mouth with some creamy notes backing up the fruit.

Its finish is long and lingering and has some of the 'minerality' that wine type bang on about.

I chose this one to compare with the Macon Village we had in week M (2015) and also the Uchizy we had in week U (2015). They cost £9 and £11 respectively, so this week's wine is expensive by comparison. The producer hasn't provided any information about the methods of production used, the vineyards sites from which the grapes have been harvested or, indeed, anything at all that would justify the higher price. This leaves us to rely on the most important criterion; what do I think?

Well, I do like it and I would buy this if I wanted to be i) reasonably certain that my guests would enjoy the wine and ii) a bit pretentious, but I can't say that the difference from the other regional wines we tried earlier was so distinct that my enjoyment of either of them would be spoiled now that I know what and extra fiver could have provided. 

Ogio

One to test the prejudices today.

As an explorer, keen to keep learning about what makes wine enjoyable for me and what might make it enjoyable for others, I sometimes have to remind myself not to get stuck in any ruts of my own making and only explore those bottles that fit some unspecified but constraining criteria.

One such criterion could be that a wine has to have something that makes it unusual to qualify it for selection. Whilst I have become something of a fan of Marks & Spencer, especially the Simply Food branch in Tring because they stock such a wide range for such a small shop, I don't feel the same way about Tesco. They have, I think, a smaller and certainly less diverse range and have to carry the baggage of being, well, Tesco.

However, a red wine with a strong enough connection to the letter 'O' to qualify for selection is proving hard to find and the day job is doing as good a job of competing for my attention as my two cats usually do when I am trying to read (or type this pointless stuff) that I needed to get on with it and overcome my probably irrational instincts.

Week O (2015) Ogio Primitivo 2014. Tesco £5.50.

First thing to notice is that there hardly any information on the bottle. This usually makes me suspicious but, when studying with WSET, I once undertook an assignment to assess what differentiates 'good' from'bad' wine labeling and I used a very acceptable red Burgundy as the example of 'bad', for exactly the reason that the producer appeared to expect wine drinkers to know everything they should need to know from the word 'Bourgogne'.

In this case there is a bit more on the back label (the Bourogne just had a bar code) and tells the buyer to expect spicy blackcurrant, raspberry and a smooth velvety finish and, to be fair, that's probably all you need to know if you are picking a bottle from the bottom of the wine wall. The name itself reveals the variety ss Primitivo, a red grape known in Califorinia as Zinfandel.

Does it live up to its own billing? Yes, it does. It is a good example of a well made but inexpensive wine. It tastes of what it claims to taste of, doesn't have rough or unripe tannins, isn't either mouth burning with alcohol or mouth stinging with acidity. On the down side, it isn't complex, is of a medium everything from body to finish and doesn't make me want to call or text any of my virtual friends (I don't mean 'on-line' friends, I mean most of them don't actually exist) to encourage them to try it.


A little research on the Tesco website revealed an honest marketing description that declares the wine by suggesting 'served with a big plate of pasta, this is hard to beat' and that it is 'utterly made for TV dinners'. Spot on, I think. My tasting panel and I had this with Liver & Bacon, mashed potato and onions. I liked it, but neither of my associates passed any comment. Always a clue.

Finally, I notice that it was credited to a winemaker named Alessandro Botter, whose business is mostly concerned with bottling, appropriately.  

Neuberger

I am quite pleased that this week I have been able to return, probably briefly, to the original premise of this exercise, which was to select one wine a week based on the initial letter of the name of the principal grape whose juice has ended up in the bottle. As I am on lap five of the alphabet this is becoming harder to achieve, especially for some colour and letter combinations. There are few white grapes with names starting with an 'N' and most of them are not exactly mainstream, which makes this find all the more satisfying.

Week N (2015) Markus Altenberger, Neuberger Reserve 2013. Newcomer Wines £15.90.

I have twice before found my wine of the week at Newcomer Wines, the wine store in a shipping container at the trendy Shoreditch Boxpark that specialises in wines from Austria. The first two were very good.

This is made by Markus Altenberger in his family winery in the village of Jois that can be found in the East Austrian state of Burgenland which describes itself as the sunny side of Austria. Jois itself can be found to the North of the large inland lake the Neusiedler See, relatively close to the borders with both Slovakia and Hungary.

The Neuberger grape is  is a crossing between Roter Veltliner (surprisingly, no relation to the fashionable Gruner Veltliner which is Austria's most widely planted) and Sylvaner. It is an early ripening variety and this gives it the chance to develop relatively high must weight, or sugar content if you would prefer me to be patronising, compared to its parents.

This is the first Neuburger I have tasted, I think, and I was offered the opportunity to spend another £10 to try 'a really top end' version, but I thought it sensible to start at a price point that should provide the producer with enough return to take care and do a good job.

The producer's own notes refer to a sallty finish and after my second taste (glass) I was beginning to understand what they mean. It is certainly dry and quite rich, underpinned with good acidity and a noticeable influence of the seven months it had spent in 500 litre barrels.

The senior member of my tasting panel told me that it cleansed her palate efficiently after she had demolished the smoky bacon quiche that the management had provided by way of a light luncheon. I would agree that it has that ability, but for me it is a little 'austere' (popular word, these days) and for that reason alone unlikely to become a regular purchase. I did enjoy it and it is different from so many of the indentikit wines that frequently fall into the shopping trolley and, therefore, I will keep it in mind for the right occasion.

Merlot

There are a few good films with wine-related themes and most people will have heard of Sideways which is not about wine but it is certainly a theme. One of the two main characters is a dedicated wine enthusiast with clearly defined tastes. It is said that this film was responsible for damaging the US sales of Merlot after Miles, the character in question, declares passionately '...if anyone orders Merlot, I'm leaving. I am not drinking any f*****g Merlot!'

Week M (2015) Casillero del Diabolo, Merlot. 2014. Tesco £8.

So, does it deserve that reaction? No.

Merlot is one of the great grapes of Bordeaux where it contributes soft fruity tones to blends with Cabernet Sauvignon which provides more tannin. This wine is a pure varietal with 100% Merlot and comes from the Rapel Valley of Chile. This is around the middle of the long Chilean wine region, slightly to the South of the mid-point.

The climate is moderated by proximity to the Pacific coast and, therefore, cooler than other parts of the country. This is well suited to the production of a modern style of Merlot which is very easy to drink, not overly complex and has levels of tannin that provide some structure but don't dry your mouth.

There are more interesting Merlots, or Merlot based blends (see Week P (2015)), but this is definitely a good value, pleasing drink. Not going to rock your world, but not going to let you down either. Its the type of thing that makes sense to have a few bottlesin the 'cellar' ready for when the mood strikes, or when the neighbour pops round to be beaten at cribbage.

Concha y Toro is the largest exporter of South American wine and accounts for a quarter of Chile's production. They have been producing wine since 1883 and have many brands and labels in their portfolio. Casillero del Diabolo fits under the broad heading of 'Premium Wines',which I take to mean mid-range, not being the cheapest, but not claiming to fit into 'Fine Wines'. Considering the price, which is about as little as it makes sense to pay in the UK this points to the good value that can often be had from the wines of Chile.

If you haven't seen Sideways, then I would recommend it. Not for the wine advice, but for some very entertaining moments, especially one set on a golf course.

Lamberhurst

Man of Kent, born and bred, weak in the arm and thick in the head. That's me. I spent much of my first half century living south and to the west of the mighty Medway and that separates me from the Kentish Men who colonise the lands to the north and east. The Medway was also the river from which at the age of 16 I plucked a four ounce Dace and by doing so won the Junior Hornsby Cup, a trophy awarded by the Royal Tunbridge Wells Angling Society on an annual basis to their most successful young fisherman. I was the only competitor. The society also held rights to a tributary to the Medway, the River Tiese, which rises in my home town at Dunorlan Park, where I spent much of my teenage life hiring canoes and generally being annoying, and flows through various villages including Lamberhurst which is where the grapes that went into this week's selection were grown,

Week L (2015) Lamberhurst Estate, Bacchus Reserve 2014. M&S £13.

The producers of this wine, Chapel Down, are well known as being amongst the leading group of the English sparkling wine movement and for which they rightly have a very strong reputation. They are based at Tenterden which is some thirty miles deeper into Kent, as Lamberhurst is very close to the border with East Sussex, from where they make a range of sparkling and still wines, together with beer and cider.

The Lamberhurst Estate wine is made from Bacchus grapes all grown in the Lamberhurst vineyard and is an exclusive blend for M&S. They do produce other Bacchus Reserves but I can't say how these differ as I have not yet tried them.

My selection of this wine was in part driven by a mixture of nostalgia and enduring fondness for the part of the world in which I lived for so long, but also in part because I have read a lot recently about how English still wines are beginning to be as noteworthy as the sparkling variety.

I have tasted English still wines but never really found the reality to match the marketing. This one is a definite step in the right direction. The makers claim it is an alternative to Sauvignon Blanc and I expected to find that it would, at best, be an alternative to the rather bland examples of the world beating grape, however, I was really surprised by the intensity of the ripe melon, grapefruit and, yes, elderflower flavours that this wine delivers.

It is very fruity in the lengthy finish and has a level of acidity that some of Marlborough's Sauvignon Blancs would be pleased to match. The alcohol level is 12% and that's about ideal for this style of wine.

Chapel Down are an innovative organisation. They are on a mission to change perception about English wine and, based on the success to date, have diversified into a range of beers following a very successful crowdfunding campaign. Very trendy. They also have a vine leasing scheme, so if Santa Claus is reading this.....

Kangarilla Road

There were a couple of changes in the UK retail wine market this month. Firstly, Tesco has decided to reduce the number of different wines it sells and to stop 'discounting' wines. That is, they will abandon the irritating practice of telling customers that their £6 bottle has been reduced from £9.99 (or similar). This is very welcome, although I think the result is that the wine in question will now always cost you £6.50.  Swing:Roundabout. Banana:Pyjama, you choose.

The other move was by Majestic, who have removed the six bottle minimum purchase rule and again, this is very welcome. The downside on this one is that you do, in effect, pay a premium for not by six bottles, because that's when the discounts kick in. Had I popped this week's selection in the trolley on November 1st, when I picked up a total of 22 bottles, it would have cost £9.98, but as I didn't, it cost almost a third more all of four days later. Irritating, but my fault through poor planning.

Week K (2015) Kangarilla Road Shiraz, McLaren Vale, 2013. Majestic £13.32

McLaren Vale is a varied wine-growing region of South Australia that was first planted with grapes in the 1830's, along with other famous regions in the same state. One of the early growers in these parts was Mr Thomas Hardy, but as with another vinous pioneer, Sam Smith, it's not that one. This Mr Hardy didn't have anything to do with Tess of the Madding Crowds in Casterbridge, but did go on to establish the eponymous Australian wine brand which produces countless millions of bottles of the jolly swagman's favourite tipple. I only mention that to fill space, as if that wasn't obvious.

I expect you know that Shiraz is the Australian name for Syrah, the red grape variety with a Persian name famous for its role in the wines of the Rhone valley, and that in Australian hands it can produce very 'big' wines that are full of jammy fruit and so much spicy, pepper character that it makes you cough. Well, this one doesn't.

The producers report that the rainfall in the winter of 2012 and the late summer in 2013 set up the vines perfectly and that together with the long warm autumn days and cool nights this has helped them produce a very nicely balanced wine.

I would agree with that. There is the fruit that Australian wines are noted for, dark berries and prunes today, and also some spice, but not of the aggressive variety. There are some floral aromas, too, and some gentle oak induced softness that comes form 25% of it spending 16 months new French and American hogsheads and the rest relaxing in older barrels.

It was bottled in December 2014 by winemaker Kevin O'Brien and unbottled in November 2015 by li'l old winedrinker me. I was at school with a Kevin O'Brien in the 1970's but although his nickname was 'cobber' on account of his initials he wasn't one, so I doubt this is the same man. Cheers to him, or them, either way.

Jackson Estate

New Zealand again. But I am quite excited about this one. As my regular reader (who, coincidentally is also the major contributor to this column) knows I am a fan of Kiwi Pinot Noir and do understand why the nation is famous for its Sauvignon Blanc, even if it has only been growing the stuff for a fraction on the the time that the French have been at it. This is neither of those.


Week J (2015) Jackson Estate, Botrytis Riesling, 2011. Marlborough. Majestic £19.99. 37.5cl

Not cheap, but then dessert wines generally aren't. It used to be unfashionable to like sweet wines. Big mistake that, as are most fashion based choices, because sweet wines often offer huge pleasure through a great combination of flavour complexity, mouthwatering acidity and low alcohol. True, they may not be the best choice to accompany a beef Wellington, but I like a good, hoppy, bitter real ale and that wouldn't be great with a creme brulee. With wine we should think outside the box, not just use it to get out of your box. Experiment, that's what this pointless blog is all about.

I won't bang on again about Botrytis, or noble rot, because you must be reading this on an internet enabled device and that means you can use Google, Bing, or the search engine of your choice to find a nearly reliable definition on some other wine typist's outpourings. I will, however, note that I was attracted to this wine because I have tasted some great German Botrytised Rieslings, but not one form New Zealand.

How do they compare, I hear no-one ask?

Pretty well, would be the answer if you actually cared. This is very sweet, has mouth-coating, almost syrupy texture which benefits from gentle chilling, and tastes of honey, apricots, citrus and warm spices like cinnamon. In the finish its Riesling character comes through. Up until that point it could be almost any Botrytis influenced dessert wine, but then it steps up a gear and is really very nice indeed.

This is not, at least by my standards, a cheap wine. At this price a full bottle would set you back about £40, unless of course you bought it as part of a job lot when you could get 25% off (that would have been a good idea), however, it is remarkable and the investment as an occasional treat is probably justified. Probably.

You may notice there is a tree on the label. This is, so I have read, a gum tree planted by the original estate owners, Adam and Alice Jackson, in 1867 some 12 years after they bought the land. It stands in what is now the Homestead Vineyard although at the time there were no vines to be seen. The first of those was planted 120 years after that gum tree and it is only since 1991 that wines have been sold. It is quite remarkable how much progress has been made in the development of the region as a major source of excellent wines, in under a fifth of the life of that tree.

Irancy

This week we are still in North West Burgundy, still quite near Chablis in fact, but this time we are 20 km away to the South West, and the other side of the 'Autoroute du Soleil' (or A6 as it is far less romantically known).

Irancy is home to a grape variety which claims to be the oldest cultivated variety in France. It goes by many names, including 'Romain' reflecting the notion that it was first brought here by the Romans, but on this bottle is called the equally Roman sounding 'Cesar'.


Week I (2015) Simonnet & Febvre Irancy, 2013. M&S £14

Although Irancy is home to Cesar, it being grown almost nowhere else other than this general area, there are only five hectares of vineyards where it can be found within the appellation so it is not surprising to me that I have not heard of it before.

I have read that single varietal wines are made from Cesar, but in Irancy it is permitted to add up to 10% of it to the majority Burgundian star, being Pinot Noir, which through DNA profiling has been revealed as one of Cesar's parents. The other is Argant (which I hadn't heard of either, I really must keep reading) and that comes from Spain. So perhaps the Romans brought that. Who knows?

In this particular blend only 5% is used and the producer says that it contributes colour and structure, the latter coming from its strong tannins. If the intention was to give the wine a tannic boost, then my inexperienced advice would be to use more of the permitted 10% as the dominant component in this bottle was the acid content. I had put that down to the cool climate of the region where acids develop in the berries long before sugars and tannins and that 2013 had been a bit of a difficult year, leading to late picking and low yields. These together can be a great combination as long as the fruit has ripened sufficiently, but this wine is a little thin, suggesting that it had not had the chance to do so before being picked in October.

The fermentation occurred in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks and then the wine was matured for 16- 18 months in the same, apart from 15% which enjoyed some time in oak.

There are red fruits and some floral aromas, but compared to Week E (2015)'s Earth's End Pinot Noir this one is not as good. They both came from M&S, but if you are going to spend £14 on a bottle of Pinot Noir I would recommend shelling out the additional £2 for the New Zealander. The All Blacks made it through to the RFU World Cup final last night and for a country with a population of less than 4.5 Million souls (not counting sheep) I am beginning to suspect there may be something about the place that produces quality (you can't blame them for Lord of the Rings; that nonsense was written in England).

Hipster

OK, I admit it. This purchase was definitely influenced by the packaging. That and a bit of jet lag.

I had intended to find a Hunter Valley Semillon whilst I was close by. Close by, that is, in terms of being in the right continent even if by the time I had the opportunity to go and look I was 4,000km away on the wrong coast. I failed. The day job kept getting in the way and so at what might have been 5am, or possibly mid-afternoon, on the way home I looked with little expectation of success at the bottles on offer in the duty free shop in the UAE.

Week H (2015) William Fevre, Hipster Edition Chablis, 2013. Dubai Airport AED 60 (£10.67)

I quite liked the idea of the 'Hipster Edition' wine, partly because I knew that in two days there would be an assembling of the family to belatedly celebrate my son's birthday and I thought (correctly) it might amuse, and partly because it appealed to my curiosity to understand whether the image of wine can be developed for new markets without diminishing the quality of the product.

I thought the design consisted simply of a white bottle with some green text in various fonts to make it look more interesting that the usual rectangular paper label, but I was wrong.

The bottle has been designed to sit on the shelves in trendy bars, clubs and who knows what other kind of places I'll never visit, under ultra-violet or 'black' light. When this is the case the bottle on the left, which was the one I had bought, turns into the one on the right, which I didn't even know existed until I scanned the QR code on the back of the bottle.

So, having been beguiled by the packaging I was prepared to be disappointed by the contents. But I should have had more faith. I like Chablis, which comes from the most North West part of Burgundy close to the town of Auxerre. This is a cool climate area and the wines reflect that through their steely / mineral character which (in all good examples) is refreshingly acidic under mostly white fruits and citrus flavours. This one is indeed a good example and, once I had checked the exchange rate to establish that I hadn't allowed my in-transit status to see me unintentionally splurging ten times more than I could afford, good value. I'm sure there is a small premium for the collectable bottle, but I'm happy with that.

GSM

GSM generally stands as shorthand for the Rhone Valley style blend of Grenache, Syrah & Mourvedre, however, down here in the land of the Possum I have chanced upon a different mix using the same sobriquet. The S stands not for Syrah, but for the Tuscan grape, Sangiovese.

Week G (2015) Mitchell GSM, Clare Valley, 2009. David Jones $25.95 (£12.20)

Sangiovese is the grape used in Tuscany to produce famous wines from Chianti, and its sub-regions, and also Brunello di Montalcino and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. Great names, all. Its name also translates as 'blood of Jove' the god also known as Jupiter and responsible for thunder and the like.

Why the Mitchells decided on this unusual blend is not something I have been able to establish, but it does appear that they have stopped using this combination as the website no longer mentions it.

The proportion of Sangiovese was only 15%, as was that of the Mourvedre, leaving the 70% leading role to Granache, which is in truth what I was looking for in the first place, although I had hoped to have found one from Western Australia which is where I find myself this week. Clare Valley is in South Australia.

The grapes for this wine were hand picked in 2009, vinified in open tanks, using whole bunch fermentation, rather than taking the berries off their stalks, and then left to mature until October 2012 before being bottled.


The result is a wine that has rested for three and a half years prior to bottling and a further two years in the bottle until I came along and plucked it from the swanky department store shelf.

It is a medium intensity ruby red colour, smells of red cherries, light licorice and nutmeg and has a warming, spicy feel in the mouth that hangs around a long time after it has been swallowed. There is a good balance of ripe tannin, that is clinging to my teeth as I type, and acidity that is providing me with the means to remove it. The finish is quite dry but there is an interesting hint of pepper and chocolate in there somewhere.

I like this one. How much of the smooth integration of its components is due to its treatment since the fermentation finished I will never know, but it would appear that six and half years is a decent interval between vine and glass.