Archive | March, 2010
Loire – Project Cabernet Franc Ambassador Tasting 2010
A few years ago, the prospect of starting my day tasting young Loire Cabernet Franc would have limited appeal. Yesterday I spent the day doing just that, assessing over 100 wines for Interloire’s Cabernet Franc de Loire Project Ambassador tasting together with fellow judges Jamie Goode, Christine Parkinson, Nick Room and Joe Wadsack. Far from [...]
Continue reading...Landmark, Denmark – Australian fine wine & chocolate
Posted Friday 26th March 2010
I’m back from holidays this week. While I was away I received some incredibly exciting news – I’m one of 14 people selected to attend the prestigious Landmark Australia Tutorial 2010 in the Yarra Valley this September. Julia Harding MW of Jancis Robinson’s Purple Pages and Jamie Goode, The Wine Anorak, batted for England at [...]
Continue reading...New Loire Sauvignon Blanc 2009 & Pinot Noir 2008/2009 releases, including Chateau du Tracy’s maiden 101 Rangs
Posted Friday 19th March 2010
Dubbed the “smiley vintage” by Loire courtiers Charles and Philippa Sydney, 2009’s hot and dry summer was far removed from the white knuckle rides of the preceding two years. Then, cool summers left grapes looking seriously “undercooked” until a dry, sunny September came to the rescue. On the other hand, in 2009, ripe and healthy [...]
Continue reading...Australia Trade Tasting highlights 2010, more than one entity
Posted Wednesday 17th March 2010
I’ve posted my 3rd report on the annual Australia Trade Tasting here. Having already covered Pinot Noir & Chardys and Cult & Boutique’s range (see here), it covers a mixed bag in terms of wine style, region, variety – Australia’s a big country! The common thread for my choices is great quality. Some great value [...]
Continue reading...Chinon, Chi-yes, and other Loire goodies!
Posted Monday 15th March 2010
The Loire Salon is a well-timed opportunity to taste the latest vintage for the purposes of updating Oz Clarke Pocket Wine among other things, but it’s good to taste wines that are actually available in the UK and had a bit of time in bottle, for you and for my tooth enamel! I’ve posted some [...]
Continue reading...Fine sweeties from the other Coteaux, de l’Aubance not Layon
Posted Friday 12th March 2010
Hot on the heels of my 2004 Chenin Blanc study project, I wrote a feature for Wine International magazine (now defunct) about matching sweeter styles of Loire Chenin and food. I visited a well known temple of gastronomy whose proprietor French, but not from the Loire, admitted that Loire Chenins are perhaps the finest match [...]
Continue reading...Monte Bernardi Chianti – a renaissance
Posted Friday 12th March 2010
Tuscany is, of course, renaissance territory and, when I visited Monte Bernardi in 2005, the vineyards and winery were undergoing a slow but sure renovation. Purchased by the Schelmzer family in 2003, the estate had in fact only been making wine since 1992. Originally owned by the late Stak Aivaliotis, this precocious estate’s wines quickly [...]
Continue reading...Cult & Boutique Wines from Down Under
Posted Monday 8th March 2010
Cult & Boutique Wines import a number of wines I’d not previously tasted, many of which, given their name, you’ll not be surprised to hear have received rave reviews in The Wine Advocate and Wine Spectator. Last month’s Australia Trade Tasting provided the opportunity to suss them out. With few exceptions, they’re big, bold wines with [...]
Continue reading...The Goring – food and wine matches made in heaven
Posted Saturday 6th March 2010
This time last week, I presented a tasting for Waitrose Food Illustrated readers at The Goring hotel, London. I must say, I can’t remember a food and wine match that has rendered so many so speechless for such a sustained period of time. Long and intense on flavour, stem ginger chocolate fondant with drambuie clotted [...]
Continue reading...Anjou-Villages Brissac 2008 – kind to the teeth & gentle on the gums…
Posted Wednesday 3rd March 2010
Best to adopt the brace position when tasting young Anjou Cabernet, Franc or Sauvignon - predominantly schist soils make for fearsome tannins. And I realised, as I broached this pre-Salon tasting at the imposing Château Brissac, that I was still recoiling from the memory of the previous year. Then, not only was I faced with [...]
Continue reading...A pair of Secateurs
Posted Monday 1st March 2010
Ex-Rustenberg man Adi Badenhorst’s Paardeberg Rhone blends, white and red, were one of my finds of the 2008 Cape Fair (see here). A A Badenhorst Family Red 2006 received plenty of plaudits when I showed it at my “Cape Rhone blends with a twist tasting” last summer (reported here). The only grievance? That it wasn’t [...]
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Posted Tuesday 30th March 2010
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