What can one expect of a bottle of Saint-Emilion Grand Cru? Due to the rules of the appellation, expectations should be limited as 50% of the wine is deemed to be Grand Cru. (If you want the really classy stuff the label needs to read Premier Grand Cru Classé – or of course you need
Ch. Cantin, St-Emilion Read More »
Two red wines showing some age are served side by side in a blind tasting. As wine ages it become increasingly difficult to age it accurately. If it is genuinely old, say more than 20 years, you feel quite good if you get the right decade, unless you know your vintages extremely well. The first
Valbuena 1985 twice: what’s the chance? Read More »
Overton’s blind tasting group found itself well beyond its comfort zone this week. Blind tasting is difficult enough with such subtle differences between wines and the convergence of styles between the so-called old and new worlds. But if you try tasting some wines which are well beyond your normal range you quickly discover how much
Hot foot from visiting 30 wine regions for her major revision of Christie’s Encylopedia of Champagne and Sparkling Wine, Essi Avellan MW introduces 16 traditional-method sparkling wines. What she showed was how many places – including some very surprising locations – where the high quality sparkling wine is being made. Please excuse any minor errors –
Essi’s sparkling world tour Read More »
The Rhône valley has been our wine region of choice in 2013. Overton’s blind tasting group has chosen it no fewer than four times in the last year. Clearly we can’t get enough of it as this week’s tasting – north and south, white and red – was a great success. As it turned out
The November ‘bring any bottle you like’ version of Overton’s blind tasting group produced three categories of wines – bankers (wines you had a chance of spotting), ‘on a good day’ (if the force is with you) and ‘you have got to be joking’. Plus one in the ‘mission impossible’ class as well. Most quality
Bankers to the impossible Read More »
Sometimes a picture (or two) are worth a thousand words. At the recent Institute of Masters of Wine annual Claret tasting the ‘helpers’ all got a turn to pour on the First Growths table. In a vintage like 2009 this was a straightforward pleasure. Although massively concentrated and youthful, this year produced wines with so
Pouring first growths Read More »
It’s tough being Chardonnay – on the one hand, you are so popular that you have become a girl’s name; on the other hand, people have tired of you and have moved on to Pinot Grigio and even Moscato. But once you get into quality wines, the real appeal of the grape to the drinker
Chameleon Chardonnay Read More »
There is a random element to Overton’s blind tasting group – the wines that is, not the people to whom I could devote many pages on this blog! The idea is that each of us, 6-12 people, bring an impressive bottle which we taste without knowing what it is. Inevitably that means that sometimes, actually
South America disappoints Read More »
The world of wine continues to expand … or should that be that our knowledge struggles to keep up with what is out there? I am happy to admit that before this week’s Vina Croatia tasting in London my knowledge of Croatian wine was just about zero. I did know that what is now regarded
Discovering Croatia Read More »