Cabernet Franc | Sarah Ahmed - The Wine Detective

March Wines of the Month: Hamilton Russell Chardonnay 2009 & Raats Cabernet Franc 2007

Posted Tuesday 1st March 2011

A dynamic duo from the Cape this month, the first of which is on deal at Majestic at the mo! Hamilton Russell Chardonnay 2009 (Hemel-en-Aarde Valley) This consistently impressive South African Chardonnay was one of five Chardonnays from around the world which made the cut for the Sommelier Journal’s Top Releases of 2010. Its tightly structured [...]

Domaine des Rochelles Anjou-Villages Brissac – Plus La Croix de la Mission vertical and new releases

Posted Friday 9th April 2010

0 Comments

Recent tastings of Anjou-Villages and Anjou-Villages Brissac at the Cabernet Franc Ambassador Tasting and Chateau Brissac (see my reports here and here) have impressed with ripe fruit and markedly ripe but present tannins. And if yet further proof of the pudding was required, a tasting in London with Jean-Hubert Lebreton, the 5th generation of his [...]

Loire – Project Cabernet Franc Ambassador Tasting 2010

Posted Tuesday 30th March 2010

3 Comments

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 [...]

Anjou-Villages Brissac 2008 – kind to the teeth & gentle on the gums…

Posted Wednesday 3rd March 2010

2 Comments

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 [...]

Domaine de Pallus – pretty as that picture

Posted Wednesday 17th February 2010

0 Comments

Tom Ford’s movie, A Single Man, provoked charges of style over substance from some quarters, prompting me to wonder if they’d prejudged the movie. Sure, directed by the ex-Gucci man it’s a stylishly realised movie, but with a tremendous emotional charge. So what’s this to do with wine? Well this week I tasted two rather [...]

Two skinny Loire stars: French Connection Classics Saumur Champigny 2008 & Huet Vouvray Le Mont Demi-sec 2002

Posted Monday 4th January 2010

0 Comments

The New Year ushers in a fiscal tightening of the belt and resolutions of the type aimed at tightening actual belts, so how about a cut price, trophy-winning red which weighs in at a feather-weight 12.5%? French Connection Classics Saumur Champigny 2008 is made by Eric Laurent, the gifted winemaker at the Cave de Saumur, [...]