Mâcon Villages 2006 - Joseph Drouhin

Well after the Pinotage (I didn't drink it all-don't worry) I had to see what else I had in the wine rack/fridge. Luckily in the fridge was one of my favourite everyday drinking whites - this little Mâcon-Villages by Joseph Drouhin.

For those in the know - Drouhin is a very large négociant in Beaune, on Burgundy's Côte d'Or. The range of wines from this very famous producer is immense and the price/quality ratio is without competition in my opinion.

Drinking the wine chilled but not too cold - the nose reveals aromas of white flowers and slight hints of cashew nuts. On the palate we find a rich wine, nutty but not too overpowering.

One would expect a big, opulent Chardonnay packed with butter and hazelnuts as one would normally get from a Meursault or Chassagne-Montrachet. The Mâcon has this to a certain extent but not too much, which renders the wine far easier to drink. A class wine.

Ghost Tree Pinotage 2005

Pinotage is a grape variety, which one only finds in South Africa. It is a hybrid of Pinot Noir and Cinsault. Not normally a great fan of pinotage, I thought I'd give this one a shot - just to give myself a bit of a change from the European wines that I normally drink.

The wine in the glass had a deep reddish purple colour, reminiscent of an Australian Cabernet Sauvignon. Nice aromas of plums on the nose. Quite a jammy wine to be honest. On the palate however, this wasn't my cup of tea. Don't get me wrong, it isn't a bad wine, just not my wine. A little too sweet in the mouth for my liking (probably the reason for which I'm not the greatest fan of Pinotage!) Apparently there is only 2.8g/l of residual sugar, but I'm convinced that there's more. One of the sweetest reds I've had (excluding the likes of some German Dornfelder or Greek Xinomavro).

I could imagine this wine would go well with a nice duck breast fillet and the distinct level of sweetness would certainly provide a bit of warmth on a cold Sunday. Give it a try, see what you think and let me know!

Banyuls - Michel Chapoutier 2007

Michel Chapoutier is a well known and reputed wine maker from the Rhône valley - many probably know him for his Châteauneuf-du-Pape or his remarkable Condrieu, I dare say few know him for this little wine.

Banyuls is the most southerly appellation in France, down in the Languedoc-Roussillon where the heat beats down over many months of glorious sunshine on the little grenache grapes, which produce this wine.

This is a Vin doux naturel (or VDN - Natural Sweet Wine) not dissimilar to the wines of Rivesaltes. At 16%, I was expecting a slight headache the next day, which I didn't get - so that's a plus point in my book.

The wine has a stewed raisin nose with slight aromas of Pedró Ximinès sherry and once tasted dark chocolate notes leap onto the tongue and coat it in a layer of coffee and almonds. Mmm Mmm.

With the winter days closing in and with the last few days of ice-cool white wine drinking coming to an end (although a bottle of Meursault may find itself sat next to the Christmas Turkey), these deep, intense reds are what is in order to keep the cold at bay!

Keith

3 Stones Riesling

3 Stones Riesling 2007

Coming from New Zealand's North Island, from Hawke's Bay to be exact - this wine was a great surprise upon opening. Riesling is, as we all know, one of the all time great grapes of both Alsace and Germany and to be honest, I didn't expect much to come from this specimen, especially having recently had some very fine Alsacien nectar.

First of all it makes a great apéritif as the wine is only 11% (due to the cool New Zealand climate) - well done in my opinion, we need more wines like this. On the nose, a huge surprise - nice oily, diesel aromas spring from the glass (Riedel Riesling of course), aromas, which one would normally associate with well aged German or Alsacian wines and not from a 2 year old Kiwi one (and definately not from one, which costs half the price of a lot of the aforementioned wines). In the mouth we have a nice gras texture, that almost fatty sensation one gets from a fine chardonnay for example. Notes of crushed lime are evident on the palate - the back label really doesn't lie. It was like a vinous Caprihinia on the tongue. There was also a certain acidity there , which counterbalanced the gras feeling very well, the fattiness also cloaking to a certain extent the acidity - a very well balanced wine.

It's true to say that Riesling has, in a fashion, fallen out of wine drinker's vogue, which is a great shame. The profilic aussie winemaker, Mr Wolf Blass recently told Decanter magazine, that he thinks Australian wine makers should concentrate on Riesling instead of producing wines from every other possible grape variety under the sun. I'd be more than happy to taste some of these wines providing they were as good as this one.

Keith

Morgon - Domaine Charles Jenny

Morgon - Côte de Py - Domaine Charles Jenny

For years Beaujolais has had a bad reputation over recent years, what with Georges Duboeuf, the so-called 'King of Beaujolais' dragging down the already quite down-trodden reputation of the wines of the Beaujolais by selling inferior quality wine and trying to fool his loyal clients into buying shoddy versions of his once great cuvées and with the annual release of the not-all-too-great-beaujolais-nouveau. This particular wine comes from the Beaujolais Cru 'Morgon', perhaps the greatest and most certainly the longest-lived of all of the ten crus beaujolais and from the Côte de Py area of Morgon, perhaps the greatest area of this appellation. A surprisingly rich, dense wine, which one wouldn't normally associate with the wines of this region, nor of the Gamay grape variety, the grape, which makes up 100% of this wine.

On the nose we find a very flowery, perfumed wine - fragrant notes of irises and violets and once tasted, dark cherries and a slight pepperiness spring onto the palate. We tasted this wine ever so slightly chilled in order to firm up the tannins and we were glad to find a wine with a low ABV. Well 13% is low nowadays with Australian and Chilean blockbuster reds packing a huge 15% ABV in some instances.

This wine could easily substitute for a light Burgundy, one from the Côte Chalonnaise rather than those of the Côte d'Or or the big, chewy wines of the Côte des Nuits, a light Mercurey, perhaps. A nice wine, easy to drink, easy to open a second bottle....and a third....

Keith

Champagne Tasting.....

Under the doom and gloom of the financial crisis and after reading the front page of The Telegraph, which kindly lets us know that we're all 3 days from catching some sort of incurable flu...I thought a little Champagne tasting may be in order....if bubbles can't fix a problem, what can?

We tasted 3 champagnes: Ayala Blanc de Blancs 2002, Veuve.A.Devaux Blanc de Noirs NV and Louis Roederer's Carte Blanche Demi-Sec, also NV.

Ayala Blanc de Blancs 2002: Ayala is a champagne house, which was founded in 1860, but which has been recently bought by Bollinger (also based in the village of Ay, (pronounced 'ai-ee') and hence the name AYala). This is Pinot Noir country yet this prestige cuvée is 100% Chardonnay. And strangely enough, Ayala doesn't think to put the words 'Grand Cru' on its label despite the fact that all the Chardonnay grapes for this wine are of Grand Cru status (50% from Mesnil-sur-Oger, 25% Cramant and 25% from Chouilly). This is, therefore, a very serious wine from a very serious vintage.
A very pale robe with a slight lemon hue with an almond and brioche nose. A fine persistant trail of bubbles also mark this champagne. On the palate, the Champagne shows less acidity than expected, almost creamy - undoubtedly through the malolactic fermentation not being blocked and it has good length in the mouth. A rich and opulent chardonnay with the steeliness of a decent Burgundy. Puligny-Montrachet with bubbles!

Veuve.A.Devaux Blanc de Noirs N.V:
Moving completely to the other end of the champagne spectrum this time with a 100% Pinot Noir Champagne. Veuve.A.Devaux is a champagne house founded in 1846 (originally where Perrier-Jouët now stands) but now based in the Aube, the most southern area of Champagne, in Bar-sur-Seine. The Aube is a huge supplier of Pinot Noir to the larger champagne houses in the more northerly Marne, Veuve Clicquot and Piper-Heidsieck to name but a couple, so it goes without saying that the black grapes here are second to none.
On the nose a typical Aubois Pinot Noir nose with red berries, bitter black cherries and aniseed.
On the palate, a big round, yeasty wine as one would expect with minty notes towards the end and almost a powered sugar sensation on the tip of your tongue despite the low 11g/l dosage.
Excellent.

Louis Roederer Carte Blanche Demi-Sec NV:
From the great Champagne house in the Marne from whom we have Cristal, Roederer is one of the few grandes marques who produce such a quality medium-sweet cuvée. We used this as a dessert, almost a digéstif towards the end of the evening and rightly so seeing as it has a huge 45g/l of residual sugar thanks to the dosage. A powerful, intense wine. On the nose we find apples and pears followed by a liquid pear-drop sensation on the palate. Caramalised quince flavours were also dominant through the lightly frothy mousse. This could quite easily substitute a medium sherry as a Christmas mid-morning drink and would work quite well with a tart fruit dessert.


Champagne tasting over but more to come, I can assure you.
Santé,
Keith

Future Events....

It was good to see so many of you at our annual wine tasting at the Longland's Hotel on Saturday, 3rd October.

This is the start of our run-up to Christmas with the introduction of our new offers and selected tastings for loyalty scheme members.

Here is a taster of what we have planned for the festive season:

* 5th December - Bollinger Champagne Tasting, Special Cuvée, Bollinger Rose and Bollinger Grande Année 1999 -

FREE to loyalty scheme members, £10 to non-associates.

* 12th & 19th December - Loyalty scheme members have the chance to try free of charge:

12th December - Corton grand cru, 2000, Hospices de Beaune, Cuvée Docteur Peste by Jaffelin

19th December - Château Batailley grand cru classé, Pauillac, 2001

We will, also, post a weekly blog in order to inform you of the wines we have been drinking - including tasting notes etc.

We look forward to seeing you in the very near future.

The Winetime Team