Thursday, 12 November 2009
Marly 2009
Sauvignon Blanc wine is made very simply due to the grapes being so delicious on their own. Minimal amount of winemaking is require just squashing and fermenting in large steel tanks and filtering. Due to this, the wine is best drunk as soon after it is made. The freshness in this 2009 vintage is evident and older wines lose interest as they age so drink it up!
Brand new 09 - plate Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand.
Marlborough Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2009
Very pale white silvery yellow in colour. Very aromatic fruit on the nose of fresh blackcurrants, gooseberries and nettles. Clean on the palate with fresh passion fruit intensity and a mineral texture. lovely long finish.
reallly enjoyable and really worth the price. look out for the 2009 vintage not the 2008.
4.99 Co-Operative Supermarkets
Monday, 9 November 2009
Donnafugata
A delicious wine from Sicily made from the indigenous grape varieties Nero D'Avolo blended half and half with Syrah to make a mouth watering wine..
2007 Donnafugata Sherazade
Firstly an amazing name on the bottle! and striking label.
Gorgeous dark black purple in colour. Sweet dark fruits and liquorice nose with well balanced fruit, a rich smooth body, spicy, refreshing fruit and a great long finish.
This is a treat of a wine from the Oddbins top shelf in the Italian section. Just what you need these long nights in.
£10.99 Oddbins
Thursday, 5 November 2009
Portugese Tour
We visited beachside towns, villages high in the hills , rattled round in trams and frequented great wine bars in the evening. We were also not afraid to risk gout by consuming large quantities of PORT ugal.
Garrafeira Alfaia, Bairro Alto, Lisbon
Tiny wine bar with seating outside. Enormous menu of all Portugese wines and spirits.
My favourite was the Ribera del Duero 2006 Duradero.
Rich purple red in colour with delicous sweet fruit,chocolate like richness with toasty oak, integrated tannins and smooth long finish.
Minutes from our pension in B Alto, the Mirador San Pedro de Alcantara housed a miniature wine bar. It is set up at a kiosk on the lower tier if you have trouble finding it! Here we were helped to the
Alentejo 2008 Fiuza Castas
I drank quite a few Alentejos last week and loved this one here.
It was dark and fruity but with a great refreshing finish. Perfect for an evening at a mirador.
Next stop on our wineological tour was PORTO. I loved exploring the steep neighbourhood of Gaia which is where all the wine lodges are located. All the port rafts are moored on the river which is a very pretty sight.
Croft Port
White Port served before the tour
Lovely reddish gleaming gold in colour.
This had warm fruity notes of anised and tropical fruit with wood and spice! nice. not many people are aware of white port.
Croft 2003 Late Bottled Vintage Port.
Vintage quality grapes bottled after a bit of time in oak.
Dark cherry red coloured with sweet fruit, dried fruit in cake and licourice flavours.
Croft Tawny 10 years old Port
Aged for 10 years in oak barrels.
Light brown tawny red orange colour with dark roast coffee and hazelnut flavours. wooded smoky oak and light fig hint.
Croft 2007 Vintage Port
Constructed from superb quality grapes from the excellent summer of 2007. feet pressed and carefully vinified.
Rich dark purple crimson in colour with perfumed sweet nose of pure blackcurrnt, blueberries with a refreshing touch. Elegant and smooth.
Tuesday, 27 October 2009
Regionally Accented Merlot
(From Today's Guardian)
"Bewildered by talk of "blackcurrant top notes"? Baffled by "bouquets"? Unsure if "long legs" are a good thing in a glass of wine? Retailer Spar is claiming today that 64% of shoppers are intimidated by the labels on the back of wine bottles.
Link to Geordie Audio
So instead of a straightforward plain English description of what you might find when you pour yourself a glass, if you are in Somerset you get this: "Alright my luvver, eers one helluva Merlot. Be stinkin hummin a sivvies thar be bleddy ansome wi yaw croust or oggy. Purfect ta share wi yaw pardy as i' aiin ta eavy. Mygar be a purdy wine! Churs!"
Mark D.
Chateau Bas/Chateau Dodder
Needs must! With no money for new fancy bottles of vino we staged a smash-and-grab ram-raid on our own well-protected wine cellar that was almost looking respectable for a minute there. With no money for fancy meats and fishes and the like we were prepared a vegetarian feast by Tom 'Dodder' Dodd, who is very modest about his cooking skills but whose slowly roasted veg tray got crazy love from a panel of particular palettes.
Tom's professional cheffery is now on the backburner, but his military-style organisation and finickety attention to detail can be viewed in the guise of an artist management agency herrre.
After the course of rabbit munch came the wine and cheese double act. A wine I'd copped in Lavinia, Château Bas Saint Césaire 2008, from d´Aix-en-Provence. I'd bought it thinking I was in for another type of juice, I think the Lavinia folk weren't too specific, they rarely are if you're paying less than €20 for a bottle and only getting one once a month.
The web told me that it was grenache blanc (which I love) and sauvignon blanc (which I don't get). We poured that out and saw the golden colour of a well-tended young French white. Not too expressive at first, but warm and inviting to smell, we tried that and were getting caramel, honeysuckle, and sour apples; one taster washeard to remark that it tasted exactly like Murray mints, without the mint, which I thought was bang-on. The texture was fine, the taste not too long, especially with stronger cheese, and a late citrix inclusion sealed the deal.
This wine didn't bring the house down but went well with lighter cheese, pears and the like, and reminded us of the difference a few miles can make in the production of wine. Catalan garnatxa can leap out of the glass, but with the French, it seems, you've to really get in there and explore.
Mark D.
Thursday, 22 October 2009
The New Wine
This is a tenuous link, but I stumbled upon this great indie/disco band from Norway by the name of The New Wine.
I know not how they make such joyful music in the land of such darkness!
Their Myspace.
Mark D.
Pansa Blanca
I don't know quite why the photo won't rotate.
Pansa Blanca is the Alella name for Xarel-lo, one of the three grapes that commonly make up Cava. Alella is the nearest D.O. to Barcelona, It's about half an hour up the coast. I copped this bottle the last time I visited and we popped it last night. It's from the Marfil line produced by Alella Vinícola from 2008.
It is palid in colour, quite floral to whiff, and opens up significantly upon agitation. It has a smooth attack, a slight touch of pleasant acidity, and an over-riding grapefruit boost which doesn't hang around for a particularly long time.
As we say adieu to the summer, we'll be onto the wooded german whites, but for one of the last warm evenings of the year, it was top.
Mark D.
Sunday, 18 October 2009
Old school reds
Burgundy is made from 100% Pinot Noir in the french region of the same name. The wines are light and silky in texture which is very addictive and it has lovely aromatic qualities as well.
I decanted both of these wines which looked great and helped the wine breath which is very important with Burgundy.
2001 Tesco Finest Cotes de Nuits Villages
Quite a bit of age on this wine from my cellar.
Rich brilliant ruby red in colour with orangey fringes.
Light and crisp raspberry and cherry fruit with leather and savoury hint.
£12 Tesco
2006 Morrisons Cote de Beaune Villages
Super super wine!
Red burgundy in colour. Very aromatic lavender and rose nose with refreshing lively cherry fruit and savoury barn flavours.
£9 Morrisons
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
My First Ever Grape Harvest
Value Viognier
Always worth giving one a try!
Delicious full fruity flavour, citrusy grapefruit, almost flowery, also a definite powerful aniseed kick wallop!
Under a fiver from tesco!
Chris Hewitt
Saturday, 10 October 2009
Cava Tast '09

Here comes the new CAVATAST edition, the cava and gastronomy fair of Sant Sadurní d’Anoia.
The dates for this years event are 10-12 October 2009 and the fair will contain many interesting activities for all those fond of cava who want to enjoy quality sparkling wine and good traditional local food over the event’s three days.
Consumers will be welcomed to take part in this cava tasting occasion, having the opportunity to sample hundreds of wines from the Penedès region and other wine-growing areas while learning about Sant Sadurní d’Anoia, the Penedès area and the people that produce cava.
More information at:
Tel. 0034 93 891 31 88
Fax 0034 93 891 43 67
E-mail info@cavatast.cat
Tuesday, 29 September 2009
Italian Blossom

This is actually taken THROUGH a glass of it!!
Normally associated with California, this mega brand has recently branched out into International wines.
This new Montepulciano Abruzzo is fantastic, brilliant. I just keep going back for more yes yes yes. oh ..now its gone!
only cheap as well.
2007 Blossom Hill Montepulciano d'Abruzzo
Italy
Montepulciano is the grape variety here.
Excellent fragrant sweet fruit, toast and a bit of spice on the nose.
Medium bodied on the palate with well balanced texture. smooth but the tannins have a nice bit of grip.
Aromatic fruit and delicious cigar like savoury hints.
Superb example of ripe, tasty and mature Italian wine.
£4.49 Morrisons
Monday, 21 September 2009
Vinho Verde...

...is a special young type of wine from a controlled region of Portugal, you can peep the norms here, and what follows is an account of one bottle I came across.
This particular number is 100% Alvarinho, an affordable cousin of the German/French Riesling and with characteristics similar to Gewurztraminer
Deu La Deu is pale to see with your eyes, not as pale as some which appear near clear in their bottles. Tiny bubbles hug the glass, and there is nearly no density or body to speak of, but this is not what we're after when we pull that bottle out of the fridge (or even better, the freezer).
The juice smells floral, herbal even, opening up somewhat with agitation; some pour the wine from some height to aid this process.
The attack is nothing like a cava or champagne might be, you only really notice the carbon in the background, and after you have gulped some down.
There is still plenty of plant to taste after a wee dram, but more fruit to be found, that can go long if you invest a couple more bucks than the average Vinho Verde may set you back. I paid 4.70 for homeslice.
This joint would be perfect with any type of seafood you care to mention, provided you don't mess with it too much; salads, freshish cheese, and the like.
Mark D.
Saturday, 19 September 2009
Gevrey
2005 Horesztyn Gevrey Chambertin
Beautiful ruby pink in colour. Light elegant velvet texture with raspberry fruit, gamey savoury edge and a perfumed nose.
Fantastic.
Monday, 14 September 2009
O Porto!
Hello winos,
Your despondent correspondent writes to you from Porto in Portugal. We get on well, the English and the Portugese, despite our footballing differences: our relations in trade are older than the agreement of any other two countries in the world. This deal was originally centred around wine, so that the English could buy wine from Iberia cheaper than from France.
English logos dominate the left bank of the Douro river that divides Porto from its neighbour Gaia. Signs reading Cockburn’s, Sandeman and Forrester light up at night and look quite charming from the terraces o the banks opposite. In a curious side note, it seems that all Port wine is harvested 100km up the river, and ages in cellars in Gaia, so Porto seems to have no right to put its name to the fortified wine. Correct me if I have equivocated.
Along with the visits to individual cellars, there are two other spots to visit should you ever visit this slightly grubby but elegant city in Northern Portugal. The Museu Do Vinho Do Porto offers a historical overview of the industry, with historical knickknacks, seafaring fare and a wee shop. It’s small and there’s nothing to sample, but at least it’s free at the weekend.
The second port joint that you could visit is the Solar Do Vinho Do Porto. This is quite well signposted but could easily be missed, tucked away in the South-East of the city centre, as it is. Originally a 19th Century merchant house, it was bought by the council in 1955, and converted into the Solar (Space in English) in 1974, it is a magnificent old manor house with a modern lounge and a garden that has an elevated view of the Douro. The name of the river, I believe, comes from Do Uro, or Of Gold, which it has because of the burning yellow reflection of the sunset, something you will be able to witness if you pick the right time to visit.
The menu of wines is startling. There are eight pages of ports to choose from, in the styles of Tawny, Rosé, Ruby and Reserve, as well as two pages o DOC Douro non-fortified wines. You can also cop glasses and books from there if you like. With a little time on my hands, I went through three beverages, making a few notes along the way.
As it was a balmy afternoon and I had been marching around Porto’s hilly hills all day, I was thirsty and in no mood for the tannic syrup that could be feared in such a circumstance. I saw a port cocktail at the top of the menu, the Portonic: dry white port, tonic, ice and a slice of lemon, which was refreshing and not nearly as tart as its gin-bearing cousin.
Feeling slightly stronger, I then went for a light and young ruby from the Ferreira cellar. It was ruby in colour, strangely enough, with a purple rim. It had an intense fruitful olor, clean and peppered taste, small sips were plenty to savour the flavour long after the sip was sipped.
Finally, I felt up to a Reserve, Sandeman’s Finest to be precise. This glass was a touch thicker, with a deep red colour and browning rim, a smell less fruity and subtler, complex perhaps. It seemed more spiced and was just as long and satisfying as the last.
I expect I’ll be back to this fine establishment before my holiday is over; after all, I’ve still got seven and three quarters pages of options to get through.
Mark D.


