The King of Zin Does it Again

At the 2008 London International Wine Fair, I got the chance to meet Joel Petterson who’s more affectionately known as the “King of Zin”, and is the wine maker behind the great wines from the Ravenswood winery in California. Unfortunately and I’m not quite sure why, I didn’t taste any of his wines that day, so I’d been looking for an excuse too, not that I ever need one!

I opened a bottle of Ravenswood Lodi Old Vines Zinfandel 2006 (Adegga) the other day, for myself and friend to enjoy as she’s a huge fan of Californian Zinfandel. Now despite saying Zinfandel on the label it is actually a blend of Zinfandel (76%) and Petite Syrah (24%) which just helps to give it a greater depth and complexity of flavour.

It had an opaque purple colour with pronounced aromas of Plums, Blueberries and a touch of spice from the oak ageing in the background. You got all these aromas coming through on the palate, where the spicy notes revealed themselves as Vanilla and Liquorice, you also got a touch of cocoa just to add to the mix. All these flavours, with the good levels of acidity and juicy tannins went on to produce a fantastic and beautifully balanced wine which is definitely worth more than the £8 price tag it has at the moment.

If you like your red to have plenty of flavour and body then you can’t go wrong with this wine, which can be enjoyed equally on its own or with food. It definitely goes into my top ten 10!

Brown Brothers

Brown Brothers have done it again and produced some off beat, but fantastic wines that I was lucky enough to taste at this year’s London International Wine Fair (LIWF).

I’ve been a fan of their wines for many years, especially the Tarrango; a cross of the Portuguese Touriga red grape and the Sultana grape, it is a bright crimson, light bodied wine with flavours of red berries and raspberries. Best served young and chilled, especially on a warm summers lunch time. Their Orange Muscat and Flora desert wine is also fantastic, and as far as I’m concerned, a great alternative to the wonderful Sauternes. A little tip for a great desert is to pour it over a good quality Vanilla ice cream…simple, yet effective!

At the LIWF they brought three new Sparklings with them, a Prosecco, Zibibbo and Zibibbo Rosa, all of which were very pleasant wines. The Zibibbo Rosa reminded me very much of Hubba Buba! The stars for me however were their Cienna and Dolcetto and Syrah reds. The Cienna, like the Tarrango is best enjoyed young and well chilled. With wonderful aromas and flavours of summer berries, it is also only 5%, so you don’t need to worry about that usually inevitable next day hangover.

As for the Dolcetto and Syrah blend, again, it needs to be served young and well chilled. The aromas and flavours were more blackcurrants and spicy; at the show they served it with chilli chocolate – an unusual, but perfect combination! Try it at home!

Brown Brothers, my congratulations, yet again you have managed to produce some fantastic wines for us all to enjoy! So, next time you’re stuck for a wine, or want something a little different, try any of their range, they truly produce some incredible wines, especially the reds!

Pomegranate Wine from Rimon Winery

Having finally managed to decipher some of my notes from this week’s London International Wine Fair, the first thing I wanted to post about is this amazing Pomegranate wine (and yes I can already see everybody turning their noses up at it!), from the Rimon winery in Israel.

In order to produce this wine they use traditional winemaking techniques and then age it in French Oak barrels. They produce it in three styles, a dry, desert and port style wine.

To taste, the wines are excellent. The dry has flavours of cherry with a hint of black pepper in the background; the desert also has the flavours of cherries but with hints of chocolate. The port style is, as it says on the bottle, a port style wine with a delicate warm finish.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was very difficult to distinguish these from traditional wines, and they come with the added health benefits of Pomegranates which are high in antioxidants, and contain vitamins A, B and C, iron, calcium and other essential minerals. For those of you interested, they are also kosher wines, unsurprising considering their origin.

Now to the important part - would I recommend these wines to anyone? Strangely enough, yes I would! They are a little different but they are superb, so congratulations to the Rimon winery and keep it up.

If you want to sample these wines for yourself, you can find them in Waitrose as well as several small wine shops and delis.

For more information go to: http://www.rimonwinery.co.uk/