Cult & Boutique Wines from Down Under
Published on: 8 March 2010 @ 7:00 am
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 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 the concentration to mop up lashings of American oak. (Photo credit: Kay Brothers). Not necessarily my favourite style, but the line up included some great, unmistakably Aussie wines from Kay Brothers, Gibson, Kaesler, Hentley Farm, Shirvington and Wild Duck Creek.
You'll find my pick of the bunch on my Australia Regional Report page here.
The Goring – food and wine matches made in heaven
Published on: 6 March 2010 @ 7:00 am
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 cream teamed with Warre’s Quinta da Cavadinha Vintage Port 1996 (£29.99 at Waitrose) did just that…to be fair, there were audible sighs and moans of pleasure, but I’m not sure that counts as speech.
And it wasn’t just about the richness of port and chocolate. Spicy, aromatic ginger top notes – fresh, infused ginger according to Exec Chef Derek Quelch - chimed magnificently ...
Anjou-Villages Brissac 2008 – kind to the teeth & gentle on the gums…
Published on: 3 March 2010 @ 11:00 am
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 the more difficult 2006 vintage but, despite a month's notice, the organisers declined to cater for a lone veggie for the post-tasting dinner. Having persuaded them that I'd still like to come, the tasting being the main event (at least for me...), I arrived to discover that even the tannin-ballasting bread provided for the tasting was lardon-studded - only in France!
Anyway, moving swiftly on, ...
A pair of Secateurs
Published on: 1 March 2010 @ 7:00 am
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 available on these shores. Well good news! South African specialist importers Swig have recently added Adi’s wines to their list.
Even better, at the Specialist Importers’ Trade Tasting last week, I got my mits on a pair of Secateurs, Adi’s entry level white and red (hmm looks like Adi has lost a pair of secateurs in the picture). As Adi puts it, ...
For the Love of Port 2007 Vintage Port Forecast – the heads up
Published on: 27 February 2010 @ 8:06 am
In my September Douro Boys’ report here, I wrote about a unique “Time is on my side” tasting of 2007 ports organised by Dirk Niepoort. A tasting gauntlet, it challenged us to taste 60 hours’ worth of 2007 vintage port in 2 hours. To explain, we tasted 15 different ports from the recently released 2007 vintage. Each had been decanted either one or two days in advance and another sample opened (but not decanted) on the day of the tasting. The identity of the quinta or shipper was revealed, but not the time of opening.
Dirk’s point was to highlight the dangers of rating vintage port without giving it an opportunity to evolve. As Dirk puts “it’s port not ...
Sauvignon Blanc de Loire Project – 2009 vintage “ambassadors” announced
Published on: 26 February 2010 @ 6:52 pm
For the second year running, I was asked to participate on the Sauvignon Blanc de Loire Project Ambassadors judging panel and the results have just been announced (see the Sopexa press release below). You can read more about the project here in a piece I wrote for Jancis Robinson’s website last year, but you’ll see it’s aimed exclusively at Touraine and Vins de Pays du Val de Loire wines, not Sancerre, Pouilly-Fumé et al. The brief is to select those wines - “ambassadors” - that panel members felt were most appropriate for the UK market. It’s a rigorous process and, in my opinion, one its best features - the provision of detailed, constructive feedback on each wine - goes to the heart of the project. This ...
St Hallet Old Block Shiraz 2006 – snap up the no. 1 wine – Wine 100 magazine
Published on: 26 February 2010 @ 2:57 pm
A quick post so you’re not pipped at the post! I’m part way though writing up my notes of the Australia Trade Tasting of which St Hallet Old Block Shiraz 2006 is a highlight – I've extracted my tasting note with alacrity below so you can make a pre-emptive strike.
Reason is I just had an email from Oz Wines. They have a shipment en route for the UK and are taking orders for it now – apparently it’s sold out at over $80 Aussie dollars a bottle Down Under.
Here’s the word from Oz Wine:
“St Hallett Old Block Shiraz 2006 was named the number 1 wine in Australia (ahead of Penfolds Grange 2004 in second place) on the ...
Madeira relief fund
Published on: 25 February 2010 @ 1:51 pm
The Specialist Importers Trade Tasting usually provides me with a chance to catch up with Ricardo Diogo V. Freitas, third generation winemaker at Barbeito. He’s a human dynamo and my visit in 2007 (reported here) swiftly dispelled any the notion that Madeira is all pipe and slippers. Well, you may have guessed that Ricardo didn’t make it over this year. Fortunately, he and his family survived Madeira’s deadly deluge last Saturday (the death toll has now risen to over 40), though he told his importer that the devastation is unbelievable. Barbeito’s shop (Diogos) in Funchal has “gone;” I was relieved to hear that the new winery, completed only last year, is unscathed. The main purpose of this post is to alert you about a way ...
Won-Dão-ful – Quinta da Falorca, Dão reds
Published on: 24 February 2010 @ 11:00 am
Just posted a regional report (here) with notes from a great tasting, trotting through a range of Quinta da Falorca Dão reds, including some mini-verticals. I’ve not visited them, but their wines were a stand out at a generic Dão tasting I attended last year in July on my 50 Great Portuguese Wines’ quest (reported here). In fact, after much deliberating (such was the quality of the candidates) by December, when I finalised my 50 Great, Falorca T-Nac 2007, an unoaked Touriga Nacional, emerged victorious. On this tasting the 07 Falorca T-Nac still did me proud - a relief because this tasting took place on the eve of my 50 Great being unveiled in London! My other picks of the bunch included the Burgundian ...
South African wine sales overtake France
Published on: 22 February 2010 @ 10:45 am
Watching the BAFTAs last night, I’d quite forgotten about District 9 – a gripping, sometimes visceral, South African sci-fi film shot documentary style about aliens stranded in Johannesburg. For some, South Africa overtaking France in wine sales might be as likely as an alien invasion, but it’s true! Here’s an extract from a press release I’ve just received. It may provoke a few visceral reactions over the channel and I’m not talking gallic shrugs!
"Latest figures from market analysts AC Nielsen show sales of South African wines have overtaken French for the first time in the UK wine market (volume MAT to 23/01/10). South African wine sales grew 20 percent, by volume, to 12,270,000 9L cases, compared to a decline ...