A Red From the South of France - Saint Chinian

I was sent bottle a bottle of the 2013 Cours la Reine Saint Chinian the other week, this is not an appellation that I know much about at all, other than it's from the south of France. It is apparently considered to be the oldest winemaking region within the Languedoc, and is split into two distinct sides, the northern part consists of mainly schist soil while to the south they are much more clay/chalky soil types. Around 70% of the vines grown are Syrah, Mouvedre and Grenache, they also grow Carignan, Cinsault and Lledoner Pelut.

This bottle is a blend of Syrah and Grenache and has lovely ruby/purple colour in the glass, on the nose it loads of red fruit with some hints of peppery spice coming through gently from the background. On the palate, the fruit came through as juicy dark berries with the spice coming through as pepper and clove. The tannins were soft, juicy and elegant, combined with just a touch of acidity that produced a really well balanced and extremely enjoyable wine.

The big question though is, would I recommend this wine? Yes I would absolutely, it's was lovely to drink on it's own and will go with food perfectly, and when it's priced at £9.95 a bottle, how can you go wrong!

A Tasting with Jascots Wine Merchants

Last week saw an abundance of tastings happening around London town, and of course I attempted to attend as many as I could humanly possibly attend in one day, I love my wine but I can still only drink so much before it everything blurs into one. My final port of call for the day was the Jascots Wine Merchants tasting in Cavendish Square, I arrived mid afternoon very wet and probably not really in the mood, (I’d been up all night with two very poorly kittens) but I’d been invited and it would have been very rude not to turn up. On arrival I was introduced too Ben who was a member of the Jascots team and would be my guide around the tasting, I have to admit I was great to have someone to go around with and talk about the wines too, and not just make notes on my own.

Despite my initial lack enthusiasm, as we went round I was pleased to find that there was still a lot of wines that really caught my eye, well actually my taste buds, but there was one vineyard that really stood out, TerraVin from New Zealand, who I nearly missed had it not been for Ben insisting that I taste them. They also had Mike Weersing on hand who is their winemaker, after spending a good half an hour talking to Mike and tasting his wines we had to push on, I was so impressed with his wines they deserve a post on there own, which will be coming soon.

Getting back to the rest of the wines on show, there were so many that I could talk about, but here are the five that stood out to me;

2010 Three Choirs ‘Winchcombe Downs’, Gloucestershire – Yes, I  know an English wines starts us off, but this is really a fantastic wine, with loads of green fruit and a touch of white pepper flavours and aromas, a rich and rounded mouth feel and well balanced level of acidity, really enjoyable.

2008 Bolfan Primus Riesling, Croatia – Again a country not really known for producing great wines, but they’ve managed one with this. With plenty of green fruit, citrus and loads of acidity, it really was showing all the classic Riesling traits, as opened up a little you started to get the faint aromas of petrol in the background, which you only tend to get from aged Rieslings, it really was quite stunning.

2010 Maison de la Paix Old Vine Carignan, Vin de Pays d’Oc, France – An entry level wine with lashings of dark fruit, fine tannins and a good amount of acidity all combining to make a well balanced and great drinking wine, one I shall definitely be keeping my out for.

2006 Cellar Cal Pla, Priorat, Spain – A wine that I’ve really only just found and started to enjoy, this is a blend of Garnacha, Carinena and Cab Sauv, producing a wine with a deep ruby/garnet colour and pronounced flavours and aromas of plums, damsons and spice. With these were the perfect amount of tannins and acidity which, when all combined together produced a stunning wine, shame about the bottle label though!

2003 Rocca Rosso, Angelo Rocca & Figli, Puglia, Italy – This had I have to say one of the biggest and  heaviest bottle I’ve seen for a long tine, probably also not the most environmentally friendly, but the wine was delicious. With baked dark fruits, oak and loads of sweet spice, a tiny amount of fine tannins and enough acidity to go with the fruit and spice, all combining to produce a really interesting wine. 

I must say, there were a lot of very good and enjoyable wines on show, a lot more than I’ve written about, these were just a few that really stuck in mind, but don’t forget to keep an eye for my post on the wines from TerraVin, which should be up very soon.

A Red From The Rhone

This may only be me, but does anyone else ever find that after friends have been round for dinner, there’s always an odd bottle of unopened wine that some one brought round and never got drunk. Well this bottle is one of those!

I knew absolutely nothing about this wine other than what information I could glean from the label, the obvious was then name. La Tour de Marrenon 2010 Reserve, Ventoux, and is a blend of Grenache and Syrah. On close examination of the back label, I found that it had been imported by one of our leading supermarket chains and produced by Marrenon!

AOC Ventoux is a region located in the south east area of the Rhone, where 80% of it’s reported production goes to reds blended from  Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault, Mourvèdre, and Carignan. With the whites coming from Clairette,Bourboulenc,Grenache Blanc, and Roussane, they also produce some Rose; the style is very much that of light and fruity, the minimum alcohol is 11%, this one came in at 13,5%.

In the glass it had a bright/youthful ruby colour, and quite pronounced aromas of blackcurrant, with black pepper coming through from them background. On the palate, again it had quite pronounced flavours of blackcurrant, with a touch of red currants thrown in to the mix, and then you got the peppery spice. It had quite a large amount of acidity with very little fine tannins, which didn’t really work for me.

Would I recommend this wine, it wasn’t really an inspiring wine, there was nothing wrong with it in itself, but it just didn’t set my taste buds alight, if I saw it on the shelf would I buy It, then the answer is no, but if someone did bring it around again I would drink it.

Its not just wine, its M&S wine.

The other week I had the pleasure of being invited to M&S’s bi-annual press tasting; they were presenting us 127 wines from across their range, including 14 that were exclusive to their wine direct service. It took several hours of painstaking tasting, which was such hard work! But here’s my favourite 10 (in no particular order) to keep your eye out for;

1.       Cava Prestige Brut, £7.99 and available in all stores.

Produced from the Parellada and Macabeo grapes using the traditional method, it has fresh green fruit flavours and a refreshing level of acidity producing a very well balanced and enjoyable alternative to Champagne.

2.       Darting Estate Durkheimer Michelsberg Riesling 2009, £8.49 available in 300 stores.

This Riesling is produced in the Pfalz region in Germany from 10 year old vines. Producing wonderful flavours of stone fruit, with a slightly floral nose and good level of acidity, making it a well balanced enjoyable off dry wine.

3.       Mâcon Villages 2009, £7.99 available in all stores.

100% Chardonnay and left on it’s lees to add a bit more complexity. It has great green fruit flavours which linger for some time, a slightly buttery rounded texture and just the right amount acidity making it well balanced and excellent value.

4.       Chablis 2008, £9.99 available in all stores.

Again 100% Chardonnay with all the characteristics as the Mâcon Villages above, just that bit more refined and elegant.

5.       Secano Estate Pinot Noir 2009, £7.99 available in 400 stores.

Produced in the Leyda Valley in Chile, the wine is allowed to go through Malolactic fermentation in French oak barrels, giving it flavours of juicy red fruit, good levels of Tannin and acidity all combining to make a beautiful wine.

6.       Carignan, El León Vineyard 2006, £9.99 available in 100 stores.

Produced in the Maule Valley, Chile, and although the labels states its Carignan, it is actually a blend of 85% Carignan, 7.5% Carmenère and 7.5% Malbec. Aged in French oak barrels for 18 months, it had flavours of red fruit, blackcurrants with a hint of eucalyptus coming through in the background. Nice fine Tannins and good acidity all go to make this a fantastic wine.

7.       Newton Johnson Pinot Noir 2008, £16.99 available in 100 stores.

From the Hemel-en-Aarde valley, 80km southeast of Cape Town, allowed to go through Malolactic fermentation and aged in oak barrels, with flavours of red fruit, nice juicy Tannins and good acidity.

8.       The Gum Shiraz 2008, £11.99 available in 100 stores.

Hailing from the Adelaide hills and matured in oak barrels. This wine had flavours of baked/jammy dark fruits, fine Tannins with good acidity going to produce a wonderful example of Shiraz.

9.       Asti Spumante NV, £7.49 available in all stores.

Made from 100% Moscato in the Piedmont region of North West Italy, I’m not the biggest fan of Asti, but as a friend said to me every wine has its place, and he wasn’t wrong! A sweet sparkling with flavours of tangerines and a low acidity, a great drink to have after a big meal to awaken the tasted buds.

10.   Darting Estate Scheurebe Beerenauslese 2007, £17.00 available in 125 stores.

From the Pfalz region in Germany, the grapes have been affected with Noble Rot and late harvested. This gives you a wine that has a deep gold/amber colour and is lusciously sweet with layer after layer of flavours of citrus and apples.