Winefriend

Châteauneuf-du-Pape is a grand name with wines of a range of qualities.  If the appellation did not exist, the wines would be a much more humble Côtes-du-Rhône (Villages) and you might wonder what all the fuss was about.  But it certainly does exist and in fact its contribution to the way the French thought about wine was enormous. And, at least historically, where the French have gone the rest of the wine world has followed. 

The appellation is certainly a triumph of marketing. The name, the pope’s new castle, harking back to the arrival of the Avignon popes in the thirteenth century, the weighty bottles and the crest on those that are bottled within the appellation all convey seriousness and importance.  Sadly for romantics there is no real connection between the early middle ages and today’s wine – though probably just as well for those of us who actually want to drink it.  But much importantly for the history of quality wine production was Baron Le Roy de Boiseaumarié’s response to the crisis in French viticulture following first phylloxera and then adulteration scandals in the early twentieth century.  He persuaded his fellow growers to draw up a set of rules for what in 1933 became the first ever AOC for a French wine.   The parameters are interesting:

• geographical delimitation, as practiced much early by Port growers on the Douro
• including only very infertile land which in turn leads to:
• low permitted yields (35hl/ha)
• a minimum 12.5% alcohol level to be achieved solely by the sugar in the grapes
• a (generous) list of permissible grapes
• and, intriguingly, no rosé.  

The test for infertile land was that lavender and thyme would thrive there.  The alcohol level – still the highest minimum level stipulated in France – is a testimony to the warm of the climate in the south of France.  And the grape varieties are dominated by volume by Grenache Noir, but also allowed initially 9 other, then 12 other varieties for red wines.  After all, the AOC could hardly rule out of court the minor blending grapes which people already had in their vineyards. 

Saturday’s night’s fine wine supper focused on quality wines in the middle price range.  We started with two whites from Sénéchaux 2006 and the Baron’s Fortia 2003.   These share the structure of warm climate wines, a certain waxiness and the herbs which are so characteristic of both whites and reds of the region.  The first was both obviously younger with still fresh acidity, the second a triumph of resistance to the bakingly hot summer of 2003.   It led with honey and butterscotch notes and then dried fruit on the palate.  Wines of substance and real interest. 

The reds showed the versatility of the AOC.  Because of the warmth and the soft, Grenache-based, fruit, these wines can be drunk surprisingly young. Thus Clos du Calvaire, Mayard, 2009, had a beautiful layered nose of oak and ripe fruit and a palate which featured ‘strawberry jam – which has caught on the bottom of the pan’!  But keeping the bottles for a few years does repay your patience.  Dom. de la Roquète 2006 and Ch. Mont Redon 2006 have really got into their stride with great depth of flavour, the wood now a secondary theme to the lovely soft fruit.  The Roquète is more traditional, aged in large neutral barrels, while the Mont Redon was layered and attractive in the modern style, half of it being aged in smaller barriques. 

The next pair were a step up in terms of quality and slightly older.  La Nerthe 2005 has a larger Syrah component (31%) with Grenache having dropped to 50%.  It was somewhat closed on the nose (violets, black pepper), but showed great concentration and length on the palate.  A good all rounder in cricketing terms – but perhaps one that will only flourish in the second half of its career?  Completely different was La Gloire de Mon Père, Bosquet des Papes, 2004, from 60-70 year old vines which are basically Grenache – 98%, with a smidgen of Cinsault and Clairette.  A modest nose for a grand wine but then a superb, soft, deep palate, sweet fruit and good acidity, very warming and massive in the mouth – 16% alcohol it turned out.   And finally, we tasted Châteauneuf-du-Pape’s abilility to develop with age: Dom. Font de Michelle 1998.  Now garnet in colour, instead of the vivid ruby of the young wines, beginning to develop some attractive barnyard notes, now elegant not robust, soft fruit and fine tannins. 

At this quality level (£20-30 a bottle), both white and red Châteauneuf is easily equal to the cachet attached to it. 

And finally …

A few weeks later we were treated by friends who had been at this tasting to a bottle of Ch. de Beaucastel 1989, one of the great estates of Châteauneuf-du-Pape.  As you can see from the picture the label was still in great condition as was the wine.  Garnet in colour, the nose was now a very refined and lifted combination of strawberry fruit and old oak with the subtle sweetness of many years of ageing.  In the mouth there was still a good structure, soft tannins and good length.  It is remarkable how long lived these wines are. Although it was clearly fully mature, there were no signs at all of the wine beginning to fall apart.  They just getting softer and more ethereal with time. 

May’s BBC 1 – bring any quality bottle or the odd joker and taste them blind  – threw up a distinctly mixed bag.  The whites in general,, unusually, did not shine, the one sparkling wine met a distinctly mixed reception and the evening was saved by good company and a high standard in the reds.  Here is a quick run down with the emphasis on the quality wines. 

The best white of the evening by some distance was wine number two.  Floral and ‘fresh peas’ on the nose, some fine integrated oak on the palate, beautifully textured and balanced, it turned out to be Trinity Hill, Facon Traditionelle, Sauvignon Blanc, New Zealand 2009. The typical grassiness of this grape variety in New Zealand is much attenuated by barrel fermentation, full malolactic and, who knows, the wild yeast. Superbly balanced, finely knit to together and very drinkable.

Wine number 1 turned out to be Angores, Frontignan, South Australia 2006, which may have been a light and pleasant Muscat in its prime but was well past that stage now though it still showed some sherbet fruit on the palate and had commendable freshness.  Wine number 3 was apparently a less than typical bottle of Antiche Vie, Malvasia Bianca, Pietro Beconcini, Toscana 2011 which should have been mildly aromatic but wasn’t – fairly high acidity, some apple notes but also a synthetic edge.  Number four was a rather oxidised Vigneau-Chevreau Vouvray sec 2002 with toffee flavours, some bruised apples and a drying finish.  Finally in the whites there was a wine which was an interesting curiosity and a demonstration of why the inhabitants of Jerez have stuck to Sherry as a style.  Again some oxidisation, toffee apple, almonds and some green notes, medium acidity with a cheesy finish:  Vino Blanco, Navazos Niepoort, Spain 2005, made from the Sherry grape, Palomino. 

The sparkling wine was in fact fizzy Australian Shiraz, which some love and others, well, don’t.  It leads with oak on the nose and then black fruit, with an unconventional combination of blackberry, oak and fizz on the palate: Charles Melton Sparkling Red, Barossa Valley, Australia.  Things can only get better … and they did with four very good to excellent reds in a row. 

All four reds showed excellent fruit if in rather different styles.  Mithas, Valpolicella Superiore, Corte Sant Alda, Veneto, Italy, 2003 shows a remarkable concentration on the palate and it is difficult to image that this is basically the same Corvina grapes which make pale and lightly cherry Valpolicella.  More typically transformed in its new home is Famiglia Zuccardi, Malbec, Mendoza, Argentina 2009.  if you like your wine big and bold, with marked toffee and coconut aromas, big black fruit, weight and no rough edges, this is the wine for you. 

The third red was undoubtedly top of the quality/price ratio league: £10 buys you great depth of black cherry and plum fruit, subtle oak, fruit sweetness, complexity, some richness and balance.  Vigna delle Monache, Salice Salentino Riserva, Sampietrana, Puglia, Italy, 2006 won a prestigious Decanter regional prize a couple of years back and you can taste why. And finally, premium Spanish Syrah,: Thalarn, Castell d’Enclus Costers del Segre, Spain, 2010 is perhaps in its infancy but is a great big mouthful of dense ruby-coloured sweet red and black fruit, powerful rather than layered but there is no denying the quality of the fruit in a very modern style. 

And the moral of the evening: if you are going to have a mixed bag, fortune has shone on you if the wines basically improve through the evening.

As stated many times on this blog, exposing yourself to trial by blind tasting is a mug’s game.  My worst moment was failing to identify the grape variety of an Alsace Grand Cru Gewurztraminer. After I knew what it was its typical rose water and lychees aromas were as obvious as it gets.  And yes there are a few easy hits – Riesling, young or aged, tends to announce itself, classic Pinot Noir should not be too difficult – but generally it is extremely challenging.  The brain plays funny tricks on you; smells and tastes are difficult to pin down; increasingly, New World producers are successfully imitating the ‘European’ restraint, while the climate warms up in Europe producing ripe fruit which could come from warmer locations. So what the world needs is a blind tasting improbability index, the BTII to the cognoscenti: 0 for wines so bland that they could be made from a blend of the European wine lake  or grape varieties so obscure that even the grape grower doesn’t really know what they are called, 7 for classic Bordeaux blend in a cool climate, 9 for young New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and so on. 

On ‘the index’ (as I as sure it will be known), wines at the late April Bring a Bottle Club scored pretty low: one grape variety which nobody had heard of before, one rare blend, a red wine from a famous white wine maker, and a white wine from an appellation almost uniformly associated with red.  And I thought there was supposed to be only one joker per evening! Ok – there were also two Clarets, one showing classic characteristics, the other rather atypical.  Let’s give the index its first outing. 

	Curiously amber in colour, this had some oxidised notes as well as toffee and floral aromas.  On the palate is was a bit waxy (?Marsanne) with a rather drying finish. It turned out to be Domaine Tempier, AC Bandol Blanc 2003 – probably suffering from the heat of that year. Mostly Clairette with Bourboulenc, Ugni blanc and 3% Marsanne! But an unusual white from a famous red AC: BTI index 2 or 3 at most, though well done to those who thought it was a Rhone white which was in the right area.
By contrast this wine had a BTI score of 7 or 8.  Restrained green herbaceous and grassy notes, some very mild pleasant oak on the palate, more assertive ripe fruit towards the finish. TerraVin, Marlborough Te Ahu 2008 is a very good oak-fermented Sauvignon Blanc.  My only real success of the evening as I spotted correctly the grape variety, the oak and the New World origin despite the restraint.
	Medium deep ruby in colour, quite aromatic on the nose, a rather thin palate of plum, cherry and perhaps a hint of chocolate.  I joked that from the colour it could not be Pinot Noir; in fact it was a blend of oak aged Pinot and Rondo – which I later learnt has some non-vinifera genetic material in it which gives it good protection from winter frost and downy mildew.  Useful in northerly climates:  Wickham Reserve 2008, a local vineyard here in north Hampshire. Joker no. 1 and BTI index of 2  or perhaps 3 for a wine that is local.
Joker no. 2 and BTI index of –2 (ah, you mean you didn’t know the index has negative numbers?). Which red wine has some bell-pepper and cedar notes but then high acidity and tannins, a rasping palate of some interest but not very polite manners?  A clue (of sorts): it is a relative of a grape variety which makes a famous white wine.  Step forward (and then backward quickly) Listán  Nero, the red version of the Palomino variety, the main stay of Sherry.  Tajinaste, Valle de la Orotava, Tenerife, 2010.
	By contrast, this wine should have been both a great treat and a relatively easy spot, BTI index 8.  Moderately rich fruit, leafiness and a rather farmyardy note on the nose, with fair fruit but very high acidity and marked tannins on the palate.  An old Bordeaux favourite, but in this particular example the balance of wine was not quite right for chateau or vintage:  Ch. Batailley, AC Pauillac Grand Cru Classé (fifth growth), 2002
Same BTI score or a nudge up as this wine did exactly what it was expected to do.  On the ruby/garnet border in colour with a broad rim, well integrated oak effects, restrained red and black fruit, medium acidity and tannins which were a bit chalky:  still in Bordeaux but rather humbler if absolutely true to type:  Ch. Cissac, Cru Bourgeois, Haut-Médoc, 2000.  Enjoyed by all, wide consensus as to its identity.
	Classy and elegant nose, oak, red and black fruit which managed to be both sumptuous and restrained, The fruit is bright and very attractive – but doesn’t fall entirely into one obvious varietal or wine style, but there is no doubting the outstanding quality. I guessed right but was not really sure as the intensity and structure of the fruit threw put a question mark against Tempranillo:  R. López de Heredia Tondonia, Vina Cubilla, 2005. Marketed as a Crianza but much better than that would suggest.  65% Tempranillo, 25% Garnacha, with some Mazuelo and Graciano.  Wine of the evening, BTI index 7.5.
A bonus bottle with the cheese which followed the Red Lion’s superb lamb dish.  Pronounced wood notes, rich, caramel, something spicy, obviously fortified, rather too chunky on the palate for my liking:  Marks and Spencer’s Dry Oloroso Sherry, made by the excellent Lustau.  BTI index 8.5. Score could be higher but, sadly, we just don’t drink much quality Sherry.

Average BTI score over eight bottles? a miserly 5. This shows how difficult an evening it was – but note that the average conceals a lot of very low scores and some high ones.  The BTI – like our tasting skills – might need some honing. 

This weekend saw the chance to taste two interesting but very contrasting sweet wines.  I am sorry that it was only after the event that I thought to take the photo. It was one of those evenings that sort of ‘developed’ as it went along But if are very sharp sighted and use a bit of imagination you can see the difference of colour: the Muscat on the left is a browner yellow, the Sauterne on the right a more classical gold. 

The difference of colour heralds greater contrasts in the wines.  Dom. Cazes, Muscat de Rivesaltes, 1993 is an excellent, long wood aged, Muscat. The wine starts out pale and ends this deep colour after many years in large casks – see my post on Cazes. The nose is dominated by caramel and wood notes, the orange blossom now very subdued; overall only medium in power. But the palate is remarkable for its intensity of those caramel notes, especially the way that it finishes with great concentration and tempered sweetness.  A remarkably good example.

By contrast Ch. Sigalas Rabaud, Sauternes Premier Cru, 2003 is a whole decade younger but more complex.  One of the best purchases I have ever made was a case of this Sauternes in half bottles – perfect for many occasions, easy enough to keep over the years and see how it develops.  I guess it is now at its peak: powerful and exquisite nose of marmalade and floral notes, outstanding palate in which the fruit, the sweetness and the acidity are beautifully balanced.  Great length. 

Two excellent examples in contrasting styles. 

Andover Wine Friends’ monthly tasting featured wines from small French appellations and provided a tour of the south of France with a stop-off in Corsica.  Led by Lefty Wright (picture in second box below), it showed what quality there is outside of the well known areas – if you can source these small production bottles, here provided by Yapp Brothers. 

First up was rather a classy wine, AC Cassis, Clos St Magdeleine 2009.  Cassis itself is an old fishing port, now tourist resort, with the AC having 180 hectares of vineyard. Made from Marsanne, Clairette, Bourboulenc and Ugni Blanc, this wine had a good lemon richness on the nose, citrus and ripe fruit on palate with an interesting toffee note (as though it had been in old wood which apparently it hadn’t) and good length.  Structured and substantial it would be good with all sorts of food.
	No photo of Dom. Saparale’s Corse Sartene, 2010 which may have been a Freudian slip as this was the dis-appointment of the evening.  Almost water white, this Corsican Vermentino comes from the south of the island and an altitude of 300m which should make for quality.  Quite a marked nose but only herbaceous and pear drop notes, missing the lemon fruit which characterises good Vermentino from here and other Mediterranean shores.  Those who had had this wine before said it was not a typical bottle.
By contrast this wine was one of the stars of the evening, living up to its top reputation.  La Berne, AC Condrieu 2003 comes from the home of the Viognier grape, which is now grown around the world, in the northern Rhône.  It shone with its rich, honeyed and peach nose with some fine wood notes, classic satin texture and, surprisingly for a very hot year, a good sharp edge of lemon and grapefruit acidity. Very intense, full of elegant fruit, just very good.  Thanks to Lefty for sharing this from his cellar.
	Moving much further south west into Basque country (the last AC in France), this wine is a Pyrenean version of a Bordeaux blend: AC Irouleguy 2007, Dom. Ilarria, made from 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Franc and just 20% Tannat.  Fresh and dried red and black notes on nose and palate, fine perfumed bouquet, medium weight, good tannic structure but perfectly drinkable, medium length.  The domaine works just six hectares of vines.
As there seems to be quite a lot of Cornas about, it comes as a surprise that there is only 110 hectares of vines, 13.5 of which belong to Dom. Lionnet: Terre Brulée, AC Cornas 2005.  And the refinement of the wine was also unusual, as normally Cornas comes in a rustic style.  Perfumed with violet and red fruit notes, slightly meaty edge on the palate but with very good depth of flavour, not obviously peppery.  We agreed that this was an excellent wine and most thought that we might not have spotted the northern Rhône Syrah in a blind tasting. thanks again to Lefty for this bottle from his cellar.
	With nearly 1,000 hectares of vines it was stretching a point to include Bandol in this tasting – but it made the cut on the (good) grounds that Lefty likes it.  And it is another old fishing port which has made its distinctive name in the world of wine.  Powerful aromas of red fruit and blackberries, plus herby garrigue aromas, in an excellent example of a very good if rustic wine.  55% Mourvèdre, 20% Grenache, 20% Cinsault and 5% Syrah make up the blend for Mas de la Rouvière, Bandol 2007.
Back to the genuinely small, Bellet is an appellation with 15 producers which is under threat from being built over as it is now in effect a suburb of Nice.  The blend here is the very local Braquet (now not thought to be a relative of the aromatic Brachetto in NW Italy), Folle Noir and Grenache – so that you can recognise one grape variety.  Dom. de la Source, Dalmasso, AC Bellet, 2006.  Strongly farmyard aromas to begin with, then good red fruit, a fine and structured wine without being heavy this far South, good acidity and length.
	Ch. Simon is the big player in AC Palette, near Aix-en-Provence, as it has 16 of the AC’s total of 35 hectares.  The wine here is made from 45% Grenache, 30% Mourvèdre, 5% Cinsault and 20% of other red grapes which includes some Syrah.  Ch. Simone, AC Palette 2007 is matured in a slightly unusual way: eight months in small casks and then a year in more conventional barriques. Vanilla and red fruit on the nose, refined palate, moderately fine tannins and all round a very classy wine.  A very suitable climax to an intriguing tour of southern France’s small treasures.

Unfortunately I could not attend the Bring a bottle club this month due, on this occasion, to a work commitment.  But every cloud has a silver lining: here is a guest blog from Rob: 

For the second notable birthday of the month, attention was focussed on a region known by reputation by all of us and especially by our birthday boy. Through the BBC’s association with Caviste we have a fondness for Australian wines, but more so perhaps for the Barossa. Nonetheless we all felt confident of spotting a cooler climate Margaret River chardonnay or cabernet sauvignon: so how would we fair with all of Western Australia to go at?

Two themes emerged. Firstly, in an interesting twist on the excellent Two Ronnies’ “Mastermind” sketch, an ability to identify the next wine and how wines age differently in Western Australia (and classically the whole of the New World) than the old.

First up, four whites of excellent calibre and unanimity of order of preference from the group.

We started with a lively fresh, limey, just-the-right-amount-of-petrol, well, riesling surely? “Chardonnay” declared one member of the group. The 2009 Plantagenet, Great Southern, Riesling was a good example of cooler climate new world riesling.

The second wine was as predicted by our Ronnie Barker, a chardonnay. The Umamu Estate, Margaret River, Chardonnay, was everything we had hoped it would be: creamy, rich, lovely buttery oak well integrated with tropical fruits and, suggested one of us, Greek yoghurt. Everything a well aged Margaret River Chardonnay should be. However, does a 2006 count as “well aged”? The old world would need 10+ years to be as rich; this was lovely at half that age.

The third wine was just as easy to spot: waxy, good palate-weight, lovely balance, tell-tale lanolin. Mid aged semillon surely? “I know what this is!”, one member confidently declared, “McHenry Hohnen’s 3 Amigos”. The Moss Wood Vineyard, Margaret River, Semillon, 2010 was neither a Rhone blend nor mid aged.

The final white was indeed the McHenry Hohnen, Margaret River, 3 Amigos, marsanne, chardonnay and rousanne blend. Creamy, rich, lovely buttery oak, well integrated (I refer to the previous description!): chardonnay surely, but with even more of that richness of which the old world would be proud. 2000 maybe? No, too old; learning how the whites age, a tad younger, 2004? No, 2008!

The four reds offered a different perspective: do Western Australian reds have a closed phase at the same age as the whites are beautifully showing tertiary characteristics?

The first red was unanimously declared as wonderful. “One of the best wines I have had in quite some time”, thought one. Dense, but feminine: burnt pepper and floral notes of a Coti Rotie; silky but rich; pale cherries and roses. The richness and the density of colour showed the Wignalls, Albany, Pinot Noir, to be some distance from an old world cousin, but unlike the whites, from 2007, it was still an energetic teenager.

Bramble jam! Rich, succulent, sweet, brooding, blackberry, damsons, blackcurrant, tell-tale mint and green leaf. Classic Margaret River cabernet sauvignon. One member spotted the blended merlot in the Cape Mentelle, Margaret River, Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot. We were even not too far away from 2004.

If the 2004 was showing its fruit wonderfully well, the Cullen, Mangan, Margaret River, 2006, a blend of merlot, petit verdot and malbec, was still relatively closed. The nose was not giving much away, although the palate opened up nicely showing violets again (is this a Western Australia theme?) and pepper against a dark, brooding background of dense red fruit. Lovely, but still young.

The final red was even more impenetrable, but then a 2007, Plantagenet, Great Southern, Cabernet Sauvignon would be expected to be more closed than a pinot noir of the same age. Lovely tannins and suggestions of fruit hinted at more to come with time.

A final sweet concluded the evening and returned to the white aging theme. A lovely rich amber colour, suggesting the wine making processes involved, underlined by the rich orange marmalade balanced by lighter apricot. Mid aged, botrytis semillon? Botrytis semillon sure, but the 2009, Vinelane, Noble Botrytis Semillon followed the theme that at three years it showed a depth which a good Sauternes would envy at six years.

Andover Wine Friends’ March tasting was designed to have some fun while tasting a range of sparkling wines blind.  It certainly achieved the first aim. The blind tasting part showed some the difficulties of this game all too clearly:

1.  Sparkling pink wines don’t give a lot away.  Apart from an occasional difference in colour – like the Saumur rosé and the New Zealand copper tinged wine in the picture on the left – even markedly different grape varieties are difficult to detect blind when made as pale rosé.  This is because the wines have very little time on the skins and intentionally pick up little varietal difference.  Only one person correctly allocated the wines to the Loire, Spain and New Zealand and he has more years in the wine trade than he might like to admit to!  The wines were:

Selección Especial, Cava, Rosé Brut, Marques de Monistrol, 11.5%, Monastrell, Pinot Noir – neutral red fruit and apricot, short on the palate

Saumur Brut Rosé, Gratien & Meyer, 12%, made from Cabernet Franc and a small amount of Grolleau – some indeterminate perfume and almond notes, slightly off dry, the most acidic of the three, rather more refined than number 1

Sparkling Cuvée Rosé, Oyster Bay, New Zealand, 12% – Chardonnay and Pinot Noir – easy drinking stone fruit, lower acidity, some sweetness of finish, rather lacked character for a wine that was £5 more than the preceding two

 

2. Guess the grape variety, guess the country. Again, despite being 100% varietals, this was a surprisingly challenging. Certainly the old rule of thumb, ‘Chardonnay for finesse, Pinot Noir for structure’ did not really help, even though these were the grape varieties.  But what applies in Champagne may not apply in the same way in a rather warmer climate, in this case, Northern Italy.  And certainly the Pinot Noir did not have a hint of pinkness about it:

Blanc de Noir, Extra Brut, Puiatti, Friuli, Italy – a real rarity this with the bottle stating that this is from the only winery making bottle-fermented sparkling wine in Friuli, the extreme north eastern corner of Italy, famous for its white wines.  100% Pinot Noir – fine subtle fruit, marked yeasty notes and a touch of something savoury.  Unusual and worthwhile. 

Brut 25, Franciacorta DOCG, Berlucchi – a striking autolytic notes on nose (but then the 25 in the name refers to the number of months the wine has spent with the yeast in the bottle), modest if elegant fruit, a lower acidity and fully flavoured.  Next month Janet and I are visiting Franciacorta, the Italian stronghold for bottle fermented wines, east of Milan, so this was by way of homework!

3. Guess the quality level (for example, non vintage, vintage or special cuvée) and guess the country.  With marked yeast and brioche aromas, you should have (and most did) head to vintage or special cuvée level for these two outstanding wines. We had less success with the country though one of our members did spot the English connection, whereas most assumed from the quality that these were both Champagne:

Classic Cuvee, Brut 2004, Nyetimber, English quality sparkling wine, 12%: made from the Champagne trio of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier grapes and given 36 months in bottles before removing the yeast.  Pronounced biscuit notes, medium high acidity (though some found this even more marked), powerful structured fruit which perhaps lacked some complexity.

Blanc des Blancs Les Fleurons, Brut Premier Cru, Pierre Gimonnet, Champagne, 12.5%, more than four years on the lees in bottles: initially rather a neutral nose but a complex and beautiful palate – cut ripe and green apple, layers of interest, excellent length.

 4. What the **** is that?’ section: two more or less sparkling wines, pale red and a deeper red, one very sweet and the other with a touch of sweetness and some bitterness.  It was obviously a good evening because I forgot to take any pictures of these colourful wines, which turned out to be two glorious Italian eccentricities:

Brachetto d’Acqui DOCG, Alasia, Araldica, Piemonte, 5% – similar in conception to Asti, this wine is tank fermented to retain maximum fragrance from the Brachetto grape variety and all the sugar in the wine is from the original grapes. The fermentation is stopped when the low 5% of alcohol is reached with the yeast and its nutrients being filtered out under pressure and at a low temperature.  Moderately fizzy, pure strawberry cordial, sweet and delicious: good wine does not have to be serious stuff. 

Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro DOC, Tenuta Pederzana, Emilia Romagna 11.5%, lively frothy fizz, ruby red (if not as deep as a sparkling Shiraz as some thought), some red fruit but then almond and savoury flavours; light on the palate and only slightly sweet, but with a bitter finish, ergo must be Italian.  And indeed it was a traditional Lambrusco, not the industrial stuff, but still best served with a plate of fatty salami …

And the moral of the story? – in fact there were two: 1.  because of the subtle differences between them, identifying sparkling wines tasted blind can only succeed if the number of variables are reduced so that contrasts stand out (eg start from base of same region or same grape variety or strongly contrasting styles) and 2. nonetheless a great deal of fun can be had in the process. 

The birthday boy’s choice for this month’s themed Bring a Bottle club was Burgundy (good choice!), with a stipulation for more reds than whites. That is in fact how it worked out but not always for the best of reasons. 

Even if the wine is off it can serve some photographic purpose.  Sadly two of the five whites were either very oxidised (Chablis 2000, Emanuel Dampt) or just oxidised, the latter a real loss: Meursault, Les Forges Dessus, Domaine Prieur-Brunet 1996.  The photograph too was a mistake but a rather happier slip of the hand. 
Petit Chablis, Cuvée Special Juliette Anaïs, Patrick Piuze, 2010 was in much ruder health:  obviously young and fresh, tart apple and lemon sherbet, we all agreed that it is a remarkably good wine for its humble appellation. The Puize label now has quite a following in this part of north Hampshire courtesy of Caviste.  The second bottle is also available locally: Macon-Cruzilles, Clos des vignes du Mayne, Aragonite, 2009. Some of us had tasted this before as it is supplied by Grape Expectations and very good it is too. On this bottle the oak was not as evident as a few months ago, rather it was showing attractive stewed apple notes, some creaminess and mild oak.  The final white was a class act with honeyed, gooseberry and even some exotic fruit aromas, good oak and mineral notes, complex, fine and long.  On this occasion the appellation lived up to its name:  Puligny-Montrachet, Moret-Nominé, 2006.

The evening’s reds were an excellent line-up and some quite venerable:

Nuits-Saint-Georges, Mommessin, 1993

Hospices de Beaune, Premier Cru Guigone de Salins, 2002

Gevrey-Chambertin Premier Cru Les Cazetiers, Vallet Frères, 2000

Chambolle-Musigny, La Combe d’Orveaux, Jean Grivot, 2005

Aloxe-Corton, Premier Cru Les Chaillots, Louis Latour, 1996

Auxey-Duresses, Terre des Velle, 2009

The 1993 was doing pretty well, managing to combine a blue cheese or germolene aroma with pure raspberry fruit, but it was rather drying out and tough on the palate.  The 2002 was a beautifully velvet Pinot Noir, with some ageing notes and some weight, probably at its peak.  There was further development on the 2000, the best of the older wines, with lovely old fruit and that velvet texture again.  The 1996 started off in dusty and wet cardboard mode but then recovered itself, with some fruit but it was fading with noticeable drying tannins.  Of the younger wines the 2005 shone with its lively raspberry and strawberry flavours, subtle and perfumed if still structured and tannic.  And the 2009 was young and fruity as it should be with a whiff of gun powder and toasty oak, even marzipan.  Evidently there were far more highs than lows in the red wines.

Burgundy not being noted for its sweet wines, the final offering was an excellent Vin Doux Naturels but far out of region: Grand Reserve, Rivesaltes, Les Vignerons de Terrats, 1974 – not quite the year we were celebrating but a good approximation!  And the wine was charming and subtle as the celebrand:  sweet caramel, raisins, orange peel and a fine sweetness with smooth alcohol.  Special birthdays are something to celebrate!

Saturday night’s fine wine supper was a chance to reassess some of the best wines now coming out of New Zealand courtesy of a selection from the Wine Society.  Most UK consumers associate Kiwi wine with its own super-vibrant style of Sauvignon Blanc – but there is much more to it than that. 

The evening started with two sparkling wines – a ‘pre-aperitif’ in the shape of the simple but drinkable Brancott Estate Brut Cuvée and then the much more sophisticated Quartz Reef Brut Sparkling Non Vintage – the slightest hint of pink in a basically pale lemon wine,  then a fine well-integrated set of aromas on the nose (red fruit, subtle yeast, brioche) and a rounded palate of creamy fruit, excellent acidity and medium length. Great value at £14.  

If this were an Italian meal, the primo was two starkly contrasting white wines – full of substance as a pasta or risotto might be, but subtle and full of flavour too.  In contrast to the great majority of unoaked Sauvignon Blanc we had the barrel fermented Dog Point Section 94, Marlborough, 2009. This needed 10 minutes in the glass to rid itself of pronounced sulphur smell and for the oak to not be the most dominant feature.  Once past the ‘burnt rubber’ phase, there was elderflower, apple, vanilla, spice and honey, a great deal of extract and a long rich savoury finish, a wine with layers of interest which needs more time yet.  Rather more conventional – and a personal favourite of mine – was Kumeu River Maté’s Vineyard Chardonnay, Auckland, 2009.  This wine is barrel fermented too but doesn’t shout ‘oak alert’ at you. Subtle floral notes, ripe fruit and oak on the nose, rich apple, melon, and tropical fruit and some yeasty flavours, very long, an excellent combination of powerful fruit and refinement.  On the whole I prefer the leaner style of white Burgundy but this is a text book wine in a fruitier but restrained style. 

The next three wines, the secondo in Italian meal terms, were what attracted me to this case in the first place: three examples of Pinot Noir, one from each of New Zealand’s Pinot hot spots.  First in a line was a very famous name, if for a very different grape variety. Cloudy Bay Pinot Noir, Marlborough, 2009, headily aromatic when I decanted it it, continued in this vein:  attractive red fruit, light on the palate but so drinkable, good persistence, quite a subtle finish.  Two heavier weights followed but with a real difference between them. Ata Rangi Pinot Noir, Martin-borough, 2009, is from low-yielding 30 year old vines planted on silt over gravel.  The result is a wine rich in red fruit character with beautifully handled oak ageing.  It had a bold palate of rich red fruit – though apparently not as full as in some, better, vintages.  Finally, we tasted Prophet’s Rock Pinot Noir, Central Otago, 2009.  Palest of the three in colour, this convinced with its sublime, succulent fruit and subtle tannins.  Not as weighty as the Martinborough wine, but its equal in overall quality. 

The last of the core six wines, hardly a dolce, was New Zealand’s new kid on the block, high quality Syrah, in this case from Hawkes Bay.  This area was famous for its Cabernet, with a Bordeaux-like maritime climate, low rain fall by NZ standards and gravel, but Syrah is making serious inroads.  Craggy Range Le Sol, Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay, 2009, is a big, deep ruby-red wine with purple edges. The red and black fruit palate, with a characteristic pepper note, was solid and slightly muted at the moment, but this will develop with a bit of time in the bottle with its great concentration of fruit and good length.  For my money, it is a bit pricy at £38 – a premium for a fashionable wine? 

The evening finished (digestivo?) with two bonus bottles, both aged for some time in the cellars of those who came to the tasting.  On the right of the picture is a testament to the enduring appeal of the grape varieties of the (Italian) homeland – Montepulciano here teamed up with Merlot.  Vin Alto Merlot Montepulciano, Auckland, 2005 showed civilised plum and prune notes, nice tertiary features and  a soft, rounded palate.  Also with an Italian name at least, La Strada, Merlot reserve, Fromm Winery, Blenheim, 1998 was on the ruby-garnet border in colour and pleased with its rich fruit-cake flavours and continuing freshness. Good length but beginning to dry out. 

This tasting was a small sample of the good things coming out of New Zealand – we could have added very good Riesling, Pinot Gris and much more.  New Zealand may be one of the minnows of world production in volume but it more than makes up for it in the quality of its best wines. 

Outside of the New World with its focus on the characteristic qualities of single grape varieties, Alsace has got to be the easiest wine to taste blind.  Aromatic Gewurz, steely Riesling, more neutral but classy Pinot Gris and the odd glass of Pinot Noir (which has the decency to be red), this is going to be a doddle isn’t it?  Let’s see how we got on at the late February Bring a Bottle Club. 

	We started with a little flight of three whites. First up was something quite floral and then there were two wines with marked similarities. A great debate followed on whether this was one or two grape varieties or different wine makers’ approaches or vintage difference.  Light began to dawn when we were challenged to re-taste glass number one and just concentrate on the aromas and taste of this one wine.
In a rare triumph …  I got the muted tones of orange blossom and grapey notes of … Muscat! A young Muscat is normally an easy spot but rounded out, with some subtle ageing notes and less obvious primary fruit after five years in the bottle it is not so easy. But this was indeed Muscat 2006, Julien Rieffel. On then being told that wines 2 and 3 were in fact two varieties, we
	agreed that one was Pinot Blanc and one Pinot Gris and even got them the right way around with Pinot Blanc’s honeyed tone and quality Pinot Gris’s spiciness and exotic fruit: Pinot Blanc 2006, Josmeyer and Pinot Gris 2005 Trimbach.   All three were excellent wines, subtle, complex and harmonious – and mannered partners for food.
An unintended pair of wines followed. I was supposed to be bringing a Grand Cru Gewurztraminer … but it turned out to be a GC Riesling, obviously a late night pick out of the cellar.  But Grand Cru or not, the wine was in any case badly oxidised with a poor, crumbly cork.  You can see something is wrong from the colour alone (right): Brand GC, Riesling 2001, Zind Humbrecht – we missed you!
	By contrast, the more basic wine was everything it should be: a classic nose of green apples, mineral and petrol notes well to the fore, and sharp acidity.  A huge contrast to the baked apples and caramel notes which just about survived under the oxidised version of big brother.  Riesling, Tradition, 2005, Hugel.  And of course this did live up to the promise of being easily to spot tasted blind.
On to the final dry or dryish white wine:  pronounced honey notes on the nose, barley sugar and a touch of tangerine.  This wine had a lot of quality about it but there was no consensus on what it was: more practice needed: Herrenweg de Turckheim, Pinot Gris, 2002, Zind Humbrecht. Given the fate of the other two wines from this company, it was good that this was in top condition.
	Sadly the label was the best thing about this corked bottle of Zind Humbrecht’s  excellent Pinot Noir 2005.  I tasted this in October 2009: ‘a brilliant example of Pinot, fragrant, a clarity of fruit and balanced acidity presumably reflecting its northern latitude. Not cheap but a fine accompaniment to pork and prunes.’
On to the sweeties:  marked aged notes, not either very sweet or luscious, this showed good balance, some chiselled fruit, and was excellent with cheese:  Riesling, Furstentum Grand Cru, Vendanges Tardives, 1989, Paul Blanck.  Easy to identify but not as easy as the final wine:
	A dull label but a classic wine: pronounced aromas of lychee and rose water … do I need to go on: obviously Gewurztraminer … rich on the palate and again the sweetness modified by age, very good indeed: Gewurztraminer, Sélection de Grains Nobles, 2000, Henri Ehrhardt.  A fitting climax to the evening – and once we were past the first three white wines tasted together a relatively straightforward evening as promised … it won’t last!