Support Your Local Indie - Use Them or Lose Them

You'll miss them when they're gone ...

Retail is a brutal business; sectors and businesses that seemed solid a few decades ago are now a bloodbath - high-street retail in areas like banking and fashion have been well and truly disrupted by technology.

The sectors that continue to do well on the high street today are the sorts of activities that you can only do them in person - nail bars, hair dressers and coffee shops.

There is a saying that with every purchase you make, you are making a choice about the kind of world you want to live in.

Do you want a vibrant, thriving local scene of independent businesses; or a cut-price clone town of standardised, race-to-the-bottom chains?

If the former, then don't forget that you need to keep visiting local traders to ensure they stay in business.

If you want your local independent wine merchant to be around in, say, February, then maybe consider spending some money with them in January. Less-but-better January might just ensure that your local independent can pay staff wages and put food on the table in the quiet season and still be there for you on Valentine's day, throughout the summer and in the run up to Christmas party season again.

Local indies in the Cambridge area include:

- Cambridge Wine Merchants, who have bars as well as shops
- Noel Young Wines, have a new wine shop and bar
- Bacchanalia, two sites in Cambridge including one in the hub of independent shopping, Mill Road
- Private Cellar, MW-sourced wines from a small internet retailer
- Thirsty and Thirsty and Hungry, small, quirky and iconoclastic - and that's just the owner
- Joseph Barnes Wines, handcrafted wines from small, independent chateaux

And it's not just independent wine merchants.

Be it your local pub, café, bakery or Spanish private chef, remember to use them or lose them.

Joseph Barnes Tasting

A tasting of four wines with Charles Hardcastle of Joseph Barnes Wines

If you fancy a set of characterful dinner party wines, you could do a lot worse than serve this selection from Joseph Barnes.

Dedham Vale Vineyards Sparkling Brut 2012 an elegant vintage English fizz from mostly Chardonnay with a bit of Bacchus in the blend; the winery dates back to 1990 and was resurrected from Carters.

Pale straw yellow, it spends two years on the lees - biscuity yet floral and quite aromatic with English hedgerow. Ripe orchard fruits with lemon-and-lime, a leesy creaminess and a fine mousse. At £23.50, it is cheaper than almost any vintage Champagne.

Will improve with age. Serve as an aperitif.

Bodegas Bernabe Navarro "Tragolargo" Monastrell 2013 vibrant, rare, high-altitude organic / biodynamic Spanish red.

Dark purple in the glass, with dark fruit, black pepper and roasted dark spices. A complex and vibrant palate of dark fruit, pepper, bitter green herbs, red chili and sweet spices. Long with pronounced minerality.

One of only 3,000 bottles made, and excellent value at under £10.

Match with roasted leg of lamb with juniper berries.

Domaine Berthoumieu, Madiran Haute Tradition 2011 chewy Tannat blend from south west France.

Dark, opaque - almost black. Dark blackcurranty fruit, roasted spices and floral hints. Supple, but still grippy despite having been decanted much earlier in the day. Under the tightly-knit tannins, there is dark fruit, earthiness and minerality.

£13.50, match with a roast Sunday lunch.

Chateau de Jau Rivesaltes Ambre 2007 unusual fortified, madeirised French VDN sticky.

A blend of mostly Grenache Blanc with some Macabeu, this is part-fermented, fortified, then aged in glass demijohns for two years followed by 12 months in old oak, giving a deliciously complex curiosity in the Mediterranean-island tradition.

Amber-mahogany with floral, grape spirit, roasted nuts and a dark-sherry / Madeira aroma. Sweet and fresh with orange peel, honey, spice and ginger and a satisfying savouriness.

Serve with blue cheese, as a dessert in its own right or as a midday aperitif.

Good and great value at £13.50 for 50cl.

Other related articles
Joseph Barnes Wines EASCA Tasting

Joseph Barnes Wines EASCA Tasting

A tasting of organic, biodynamic and natural wines with Joseph Barnes Wines

Charles Hardcastle of Joseph Barnes Wines has an enthusiasm for all things quirky and offbeat, eschewing the classics for organic, biodynamic and natural regional wines.

Here, more than anywhere, you need the guiding hand of an independent merchant with a good palate, but at their best, these wines are vibrant and fresh in a way that more conventional mainstream wines can only dream of.

Casa Belfi, Colfondo Prosecco 2012, Italy (£14.99) sealed with a crown top, it looks like cloudy lemonade; it is actually a natural, unfiltered traditional-method Prosecco. Fresh sharp and lemony, with a fine mousse and linear acidity. Neither a Champagne nor a Prosecco, it is vibrant and vivacious.

Serve as an aperitif.

De Martino Muscat, 2012, Chile (£11.50) Made from the less aromatic and ancient Muscat d'Alexandrie grape grown at an altitude of 800m, this is plump yet fresh with sweet, ripe lemony apple flavour. There is a rich, apricotty Viognier-like character with minerality and freshness.

Match with light starters or roast chicken.

Bodegas Aroa Laia, Navarra 2013, Spain (£11.50) a garnatxa / Garnacha / Grenache, this late-ripening grape is full of ripe fruits with pencil shavings and some woodsy-earthiness. Sweet, ripe vibrant cherry fruit, it is clean, pure, fresh and supple. An easy drinker, it can be lightly chilled in summer.

Match the supple freshness with tuna, barbecue foods or roast chicken.

Chateau de Jau, Muscat de Rivesaltes 2011, France (£11.99, 50cl) made from the aromatic Muscat a Petits Grains and fortified to 16% with grape spirit, this sweet-strong wine, drunk locally as an aperitif, is floral with candied lemon and marzipan, sweet spice and touch of alcoholic bitterness.

Match with lemon torte.

Other related articles
Three Wines From Joseph Barnes
Joseph Barnes Wines Tasting
Joseph Barnes Wines, Saffron Walden

Wine of The Month - March

A wine and a sherry to match a seasonal tapa dish from Cambridge-based ¡Que rico! Tapas - also broadcast with Estefania Led Ramos on Cambridge105

Estefania's suggested tapa is marinated duck with sun-dried tomatoes; my job was to find a sherry and a wine to match.

With soy, balsamic vinegar and tomatoes, there are some strong flavours in this dish - so it needs a fairly robust wine to be able to stand up to it.

Sherry: Sanchez Romate Hermanos, Oloroso Don Jose Reserva Especiale NV, Jerez 18% 75cl £19.99 Cambridge Wine Merchants

This dark oloroso sherry ages oxidatively to give aromas of roasted chestnuts, raisins, salt, earth, caramel and leather; it starts broad and creamy then becomes long and linear with caramel and a juicy finish.

Wine: Bodegas Pittacum, Bierzo 'Tres Obispos' Rosada 2011 £10.99 Joseph Barnes Wines

Something of an unusual beast, this is a rosé made from the Mencia grape in Bierzo, a remote region of northwest Spain; it's a deep raspberry red in colour, with strawberry and raspberry fruit on the nose as well as something a little more unusual that I can only describe as "workshop" - a mix of swarfega, tyres and used engine oil. It's in no way unpleasant and rather intriguing.

On the palate, there is more red berry fruit, good acidity and a persistent, clean finish.

The recipe for the tapa is on Estefania's website.

Other related articles
¡Que rico! Tapas

Links
¡Que rico! Tapas - website
Cambridge Wine Merchants - website
Joseph Barnes Wines - website

Wine of The Month - December

With Christmas and the end of the year hoving into view, it's time to think about celebratory wines.

With that in mind, we have fizz (and plenty of it) in the form of a couple of guest wines. WineTrust 100 make a welcome return, and we have the wines of local resident Eugene Lismonde who set up a vineyard in South West France near his wife's childhood home.

To start - fizz

Taltarni Tache 2010 (£18, WineTrust 100) from cool-climate regions of Australia, a very classical, elegant and composed Champagne-style fizz - pale salmon pink, restrained yeasty-citrus nose; ripe white pear and white peach with redcurrant. Assertive, well-structured, linear acidity and leesiness. Savoury persistence on the finish

Really poised and precise, it is drinking nicely now, but will repay a few years' cellaring.

Tour de Belfort Crémant de Bordeaux Brut (£12.50, Tour de Belfort) Bordelais grapes, but Champenois method; elegant, crisp and refreshing and as good as many an entry-level Champagne.

The main event - Christmas Dinner

Henri Clos Marlborough Pinot Noir 2009 (£24.99, Joseph Barnes Wines) Combining New Zealand freshness and precision with classical European elegance - ripe, pure red fruits, elegance and a lick of oak. This is really lovely and worth every penny.

Domaine de Vedilhan Serica Viognier (£10.49, Bacchanalia) a Languedoc Viognier that sees a bit of time in oak; stone fruits and creaminess that will match well with roast turkey.

Go on then, just one more mince pie

Stanton & Killeen Rutherglen Muscat (£13.49 per half bottle, Noel Young Wines) solera-method Aussie sticky, this is a dark orangey-mahogany colour and very syrupy. Very full on so won't be phased by mince pies and Christmas pudding. Serve lightly chilled to emphasis the freshness.

Henriques & Henriques Bual Madeira 10yo (£18.99 per 50cl bottle, Cambridge Wine Merchants) delicious raisins, mixed fruit, roasted nuts and sweet spices - but with a refreshing acidity, a sort of Christmas pudding in a glass

Goes best on Christmas Day after you've stuffed yourself with turkey and sprouts, had your Christmas pudding and you can't face another mince pie; sip whilst staring contentedly into the fire - or watching the Dr Who Christmas Special as the Daleks try and conquer the universe again

 

Links

Cambridge Wine Merchants - website
Joseph Barnes Wines - website
Noel Young Wines - website
Tour de Belfort - website, twitter
Wine Trust 100 - website, twitter

Main image credit: http://www.mrwallpaper.com/wallpapers/Winter-Snowman.jpg

Three Seasonal Wines

Most Wanted, the lifestyle magazine from VoucherCodes.co.uk recently got in touch and asked me to recommend three wines for Christmas for under a tenner each.

Christmas is traditionally a time when we spend a bit more on wine; hopefully some of the uplift goes into quality as well as quantity, but we also need to stock up on decent gluggable wines.

We need supplies of presentable, good-but-not-bank-breaking quaffers to go with third-day left overs of turkey, to take along to parties and to break out in the event of unexpected visitors.

Aperitif - the fizz: La Delfina Prosecco Spumante NV Special Cuvée £8.99 (Cambridge Wine Merchants)

The rule of thumb for inexpensive fizz is well-chilled and plenty of it, and this elegant Prosecco ticks all the boxes.

Spritzy with Conference pear fruit and a slight seaside tang, there is ripe orchard fruit and rounded acidity; refreshing, elegant and balanced.

Also suitable for bucks fizz with salmon and scrambled eggs for breakfast, gifts, parties, celebrations or simply whenever you feel in need a pick-me-up

With starters or brunch - the white Domaine de Menard, 'Cuvee Marine' 2012 £9.15 (Joseph Barnes Wines)

This white wine from Joseph Barnes is a blend of the local Colombard, Ugni blanc and Gros Manseng from southwest France.

Aromatic with zesty grapefruit and orchard fruits, it is crisp, fresh and slightly herbaceous with peach and pear fruit, zippy acidity and a persistent, minerally finish

Also suitable for aperitifs (if you have drunk all the fizz), fish and seafood dishes or creamy pasta

With mains - the red Bodegas Borsao 'Monte Oton' Campo de Borja Garnacha Noel Young Wines £5.99

From the northern slopes of the Moncayo mountain range in Spain, cooled by the Cierzo breezes. Translucent purple with expressive aromas of morello cherries, plummy fruit, liquorice, leather, vanilla and spice.

The palate is juicy and mouthfilling, with a lovely sour-cherry acidity, more plummy and dark berry fruit with sweet vanilla, spice and roughed-up herbs. Soft, smooth texture, some gentle grip developing on the finish.

Also suitable for mixed anti-pasti, salami and cheese, bolognese or herby sausages.

Vouchercodes provided me with a budget of £80 to sample and select my wines for this article.

Links
Cambridge Wine Merchants - website
Joseph Barnes Wines - website
Noel Young Wines - website

Main image credit: http://collectiblesxgifts.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Christmas-Wine-Bottle-Accessories.jpg

Wine of the Month - November

November brings bonfire night - a smokey, spicy, chilly celebration of fireworks, oohs and aaahs. It is also the month of Remembrance Day and Movember.

The wines from our regular Cambridge merchants are, like many a fuzzy upper lip, bigger and fuller this month - and we have not one but two guest appearances - firstly from newly-established WineTrust100, plus a welcome return from Beaujolais and Beyond.

We start, however, with an off-piste natural wine from Joseph Barnes.

Vina Almate Tempranillo 2012, VdlT Castilla y Leon (£10.50 Joseph Barnes Wines)
If brambly, vanilla Spanish Tempranillo is a style you are familiar with, don't expect to find it in this elegant-yet-rugged natural wine.

Dark in the glass, the nose gives little away, except perhaps for a touch of dark fruit and funk.

The palate is sharp and refreshing, with pure black-cherry and dark berry fruit, an elusive savouriness and a hint of fermented fruit.

It's a curious wine - as natural wines often are - yet strangely alluring. Intense, focused and uncompromising, this is something of a punk wine; like the mohican-ed toughs who used to hang out in my East Midlands town centre on a Saturday when I was growing up, it demands your attention and feels edgy, yet underneath the scowl, spikes and studs, it's actually very civilised.

Match with something equally edgy - such as steak tartare. Also beetroot with cream cheese.

Domaine du Diamant Noir, Cotes du Rhone 2012 (£8.99, Cambridge Wine Merchants)
The start of autumn can be said to be heralded by opening your first Cotes du Rhone - warming, dark and spicy, it is perfectly suited to hearty stews and gamey dishes.

This Domaine du Diamant Noir from the southern Rhone is a blend of Carignan, Syrah, Grenache and Cinsault - with dark berry fruit and some spice on the nose, it has a classic, southern Rhone profile.

On the palate there is more plummy fruit, sweet peppery vanilla spice and fresh acidity with perfectly ripe tannins underpinned by grippy savouriness - classy and elegant, if perhaps a little lacking in concentration.

Match with roast beef dinners and hearty stews.

Sottano Malbec 2012, Argentina (£9.99 Noel Young Wines)
From the Llujan de Cuyo region of Argentina, where vineyard altitudes are from 800m - 1,100m giving wines with deep colour and ripeness with fresh acidity.

Malbec is Argentina's signature grape - historically from Bordeaux, it is also grown in Cahors where it is known as Cot.

Typically quite flamboyant, if a little rustic, Malbec often feels like it needs a bit of a wash and brush-up to be acceptable in polite company - it can be a Bruce Springsteen of a wine.

This dark, seductive Sottano, however, is more of a Bryan Ferry - with dark fruit, spiciness and a chocolatey texture underpinned by a fresh acidity and good savouriness, it is well-groomed and classy.

Don't be afraid to decant - and serve with the best Argentine beef you can find.

Bodegas Borsao, Tinto 2011, Campo de Borja, Spain - (£5.99, Wine Trust 100)
The first guest wine this month is from Wine Trust 100, a new wine retailer, set up by three local Masters of Wine - Sarah Abbott from Bedford, John Hoskins who runs The Old Bridge in Huntingdon and Nick Adams who lives in Cambridgeshire.

This Spanish Garnacha from Bodegas Borsao is a classy crowd-pleaser - with a nose of morello cherries, plummy fruit, liquorice, leather, vanilla and spice.

The palate is juicy and mouthfilling, with a lovely sour-cherry acidity, more plummy and dark berry fruit with sweet vanilla, spice and roughed-up herbs.

The texture is soft and smooth, with some gentle grip developing on the finish.

Match with darker game, such as pheasant stuffed with apricots, or spicy sausages.

2011 Chénas Cuvée Tradition (£11.50, Beaujolais and Beyond) I was so impressed with the guest Beaujolais from Beaujolais and Beyond last month that I've included another one this time.

This is a textbook Beaujolais cru - purple in the glass with dark berry fruit, the palate shows dark fruit and cinnamon spice. Elegant and precise with good, food-friendly sour-cherry acidity, lovely tannins and good finish.

Match with lighter game such as duck, partridge or a game casserole.

Links
Beaujolais and Beyond - website
Cambridge Wine Merchants - website
Joseph Barnes Wines - website
Noel Young Wines - website
Wine Trust 100 - website, twitter

Main image credit: https://www.makewav.es/blog/180715/bonfirenight

Wine of The Month - October

In a recent post, Will Lowe says that the start of autumn is marked by one's first opening of a Châteauneuf-du-Pape .

I think this is spot-on and as the evenings get darker, the weather more blustery and the leaves russet and golden, the idea of a wine with more southern warmth and spice becomes ever more appealing.

This month we have two classics and one curve ball from our Cambridge merchants; interestingly, they all come from within a fairly narrow north-south band: two from the Rhône in southern France and one from Rioja in northern Spain.

Saint Cosme Côtes du Rhône 2011, Noel Young Wines £11.35

The most northerly of our wines this month, this is 100% Syrah from the classic Rhône region.

Dark purple in the glass, blackberry and black cherry fruit on the nose, some spice. The palate shows lots of ripe, sweet black cherry fruit, soft yet mouthfilling texture.

Good fruit expression, acidity and savouriness. Lovely balance, elegance and finesse. Lovely finish with a touch of spiced prune or baked fig - very accomplished and showing well despite its youth.

Mas de Libian, Vin de Petanque 2011, Vin de France, Joseph Barnes Wines £10

Our next French wine is a whole lot funkier - unfilitered and unfined, this needs to be allowed to settle for a few minutes before serving.

Labelled as a humble Vin de France, it comes from the Ardeche in the southern Rhône and is mostly Grenache with some Syrah in the blend.

A dark ruby garnet in the glass, there is some elderberry and black cherry on the nose. The palate shows pure, quite primary, black cherry fruit on first opening with a prominent, almost Italian-style acidity - with aeration it all rounds out a little more into elderberry and prune.

Good savoury depth, clean acidity and lovely balance with soft tannins and a persistent finish.

Rioja Navajas Crianza 2008, Cambridge Wine Merchants £9.50

(reduced to £7.12 during October)

Rioja, from northern Spain, is another classic and a staple of autumnal evenings.

This 2008 Crianza from Cambridge Wine Merchants spends over 12 months in American oak and has a textbook "Rioja nose" of sweet vanilla with cedar, woodsiness, spice and cherry fruit.

A deep cherry red in colour, it is not quite as bright and youthful as the other two youngsters and shows a slight paleness around the rim.

On the palate, there is more sweet vanilla and mellow oakiness, with cherry fruit and meatiness. The texture is soft, supple and mellow. Long on the palate, a touch of pepperiness and eucalyptus develops.

Good, savoury and well-balanced finish, held together by well-integrated tannins. This is a very classy - as well as classic - wine and a textbook example both of what a Rioja should be, but also of the harmonious mellowness that comes with a bit of age.

And if Rioja is your thing, Cambridge Wine Merchants will be having wine and tapas tastings every weekend, masterclasses and some fine dining menus with restaurants.

All three wines have a distinctly autumnal, warming feel to them matched a European elegance and food-friendliness.

Match with stews such as beef and root vegetables or chicken, tomato and rosemary.

Recommended Wine

All three are very lovely wines and improve with a bit of air - however, my personal favourite here is the classy, elegant and complete Côtes du Rhône from St Cosme.

Links

Cambridge Wine Merchants - http://www.cambridgewine.co.uk/
Joseph Barnes Wines - http://www.josephbarneswines.com/
Noel Young Wines - http://www.nywines.co.uk/

Wine of the Month - September

After an August break during which the CWB household travelled to Burgundy and the south of France, we returned to a cold, wet and miserable late British "summer".

Now, with the schools just back, that seems like a distant memory with temperatures rising and a barbecue Indian Summer in the offing.

It's hard to know what to recommend when the weather is as unpredictable as this, so here is a varied collection of wines that hopefully will suit all occasions this month.

Rousseau de Sipian 2002, Medoc - Cambridge Wine Merchants (£11.99)

From the left-bank region of Bordeaux, this Medoc wine has a high proportion of Cabernet Sauvignon, giving it structure and ageing potential and even at 10 years old, it still feels relatively youthful.

There are meaty, truffley aromas on the nose with pruney fruit and cedar wood; the palate shows bramble fruit, sweet vanilla and minty eucalyptus with good juicy acidity, with pepperiness and grip developing.

Long on the palate, the finish is nicely grippy. Match with plain roast red meat or something gamey such as duck or pheasant.

Magpie Estate "The Beak" 2010, Barossa - Noel Young Wines (£9.75)

From Noel's Magpie Estate vineyard in Australia's Barossa Valley, this newly-released wine is blend of southern Rhone varieties - Syrah / Shiraz and Grenache.

A dark purple colour in the glass, on the nose there is lots of expressive, ripe, dark berry fruit, cassis and aromas of liquorice, leather and spice.

The palate is soft, full and rounded with an inky, custardy texture, juicy acidity and good savoury underpinnings.

Long on the palate, the finish is firm, structured and persistent with more black fruit and spice.

Fresh off the boat, this is still a young wine and whilst drinking nicely now, will also repay some cellaring - for drinking now, it is best decanted an hour or so before drinking.

Match with either roast lamb or lamb koftas if it's barbecue weather.

Bodegas Pittacum, Bierzo 'Tres Obispos' Rosada 2011 - Joseph Barnes Wines (£10.99)

This is something of an unusual beast - a rosé made from the Mencia grape in Bierzo, a remote region of northwest Spain located on the border of Galica and Castilla y Leon and considered by many to be the next 'big thing' in Spanish wine.

A deep, raspberry red in colour, there is strawberry and raspberry fruit on the nose as well as something a little more unusual that I can only describe as "workshop" - a mix of swarfega, tyres and used engine oil. It's in no way unpleasant and rather intriguing.

On the palate, there is more red berry fruit, good acidity and a persistent, clean finish; this would be perfect for an Indian-summer barbecue.

Recommended Wine

Whilst the rosé and the Aussie Shiraz will prove great if you get the chance of a barbecue, for me the winner this month is the Rousseau de Sipian 2002 for being a good, affordable Bordeaux with a bit of age that is drinking very nicely now.

Links

Cambridge Wine Merchants - http://www.cambridgewine.co.uk/
Joseph Barnes Wines - http://www.josephbarneswines.com/
Noel Young Wines - http://www.nywines.co.uk/

Ch La Claymore Lussac St Emilion, 2007 - Joseph Barnes Wines

This half bottle of right-bank Bordeaux was a gift from Charles Hardcastle of Joseph Barnes Wines; I had reviewed a series of wines for the Good Food Would Choose Bordeaux Campaign and found a number of them to be rather underwhelming, so began compiling a list of good Bordeaux from local independents around Cambridge as alternatives.

Charles kindly gave me a half bottle of this Ch La Claymore as his recommended "everyday Bordeaux" to try - according to Charles' website, the name of the estate is an apparent reference to the big sword (Claimh mhor) of the Scottish Highlanders who invaded the region in 1370.

Lussac St-Emilion is a lesser, satellite region of the right-bank area of St Emilion. At this price level, that's no bad thing, actually.

The right bank is mainly Merlot dominated, meaning generally softer, quicker-maturing wines, with aromas of plums and coffee.

Purple in the glass, there are touches of brick red age; immediately on first pouring, there is mostly oakiness on the nose and it is initially a little lacking in fruit; however, this all changes after around 30 minutes.

With time and air, there is dark cherry fruit and developed oaky aromas on the nose, with touches of spice.

The palate shows lovely bramble and black cherry fruit, a touch of pencil shavings and coffee grounds.

At five years old now, it is showing nicely developed secondary aromas, but will also keep for a little longer - a note that a standard sized bottle will generally age more slowly, all other things being equal.

Good acidity, with a supple and mouthfillling texture; perfectly ripe tannins and nicely balanced finish. Extremely well made indeed.

Continues to improve with some air - resealed and sampled the next day, it is better again, so don't be afraid to decant for a while before serving.

Match with slow-cooked, plain roast beef or roast duck.

£16.99 per full-size bottle; provided for review.

Links

Joseph Barnes Wines - http://www.josephbarneswines.com/home.aspx

Joseph Barnes Wines at Cambridge Food and Wine Society

The Languedoc, according Charles Hardcastle of Joseph Barnes Wines, is a rustic, peasanty land with an ancient and bloody history - a land of impenetrable dialects, heresy and repression.

The strange, earthy character of the region is also reflected in the wines, which tend towards an expressively rustic, spicy charm.

Add to this Charles' natural showmanship and charisma, a touch of biodynamic mysticism, some meteors and space dust and it was a highly entertaining evening at the Cambridge Food and Wine Society.

The Languedoc was historically the source of Europe's wine lake - gallons of cheap, unpleasant plonk dumped on the market. But quality has been improving for as long as I can remember and it is now a source characterful, well-made rough-and-tumble wines that can be rather serious indeed.

Chateau Le Roc Fronton, NV £30 magnum

This natural wine is in simple terms a pink fizz; more precisely, it is a petillant blend of Negrette and Mauzac made by a single fermentation in bottle according the euphemistically-named Methode Rurale, with no added sulphur and fined only by racking.

A cloudy pink in the glass, there are pear drops and red berries on the nose. The palate shows good acidity and primary fruit aromas of apple and galia melon. Good depth of flavour, but not especially complex and just 9% alcohol.

A very popular seller at Charles' shop, it was well-received on the evening.

Domaine des Foulards Rouges, La Soif du Mal Blanc 2011, £14

This white blend is a mix of Grenache Blanc, Muscat and Macabeu; a pale yellow in the glass, there are Muscaty aromas of honeysuckled and blossom on the nose.

The palate shows a good leesy depth, with sweet acacia blossom, rounded, lemon-and-lime acidity, more Muscaty florality and a mineral edge.

Suggested food matches were sea bass with fennel or chili and ginger.

Domaine de l'Hortus, Bergerie de l'Hortus Blanc 2011, £12.95

This white is a blend of Chardonnay, Grenache Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier and Roussane.

The nose shows pear and orchard fruit, spice, stone fruit, lemon and pineapple and a leesiness. Long on the palate, there is more orchard and tropical fruits, a soft peachy texture, good leesy depth and a persistent finish.

Chateaux Ollieux Romanis, Corbieres Rose 2011, £9.25

Mainly Carignan, but with some Syrah and Grenache, and a pale salmon pink colour, this is made by carbonic maceration which gives something of a bubblegum aroma.

With a savoury, spicy nose, there is watermelon on the palate, prominent rounded acidity, a touch of mint and pepper, minerality and a toasty-yeastiness with a good, leesy finish.

Domaine du Meteore, Faugeres, Les Leonides, 2008, £9.20

A GSM + Carignan blend, this has a rustic charm, with an earthy, funky nose of barnyardy wet hay, plus some spice, coffee and a mix of red, black and sour cherries.

On the palate, there is sour cherry fruit, garrigue herbs and tarriness.

The finish is savoury and this would match well with robust meat dishes.

The name of the domaine is a reference to a crater in the vineyard caused by a meteorite, so there may just be traces of cosmic space dust in the wine.

Ch Ollieux Romanis, Alicante-Bouschet, VdP Aude, 2011, £15.99

This is made from 100 year-old vines from the obscure Alicante-Bouschet grape - the last 2 hectares in France, apparently.

In the glass, it is dark and impenetrably inky - which apparently made it popular in prohibition-era America as it could be significantly watered down and still retain some colour.

With dark berry fruit and mocha on the nose, the palate shows elderberry fruit, peppy spice and mintiness.

It is concentrated and long, with a custardy texture and a lively, juicy acidity.

The finish is grippy, savoury and meaty and it would match well with spicy meat dishes such as tagine.

Chateau de Jau, Banyuls Rimage, Les Clos de Paulilles, 2008, £11.99 (50cl)

The final wine of the night was a Banyuls - Languedoc's answer to tawny port.

Made from 100% Grenache, but naturally sweet due to fortification up to 16.5% alcohol with grape spirit, it had aromas of raisins and garrigue herbs and a sweetness cut through with good acidity.

Utterly delicious on its own, it was a perfect match with good quality dark, bitter chocolate, and proved very popular on the evening.

Recommended Wine

If you are looking for a reason to visit an independent wine merchant, Joseph Barnes Wines is it; characterful, rounded and quirky - and that's just Charles Hardcastle.

What struck me was the quality of all the wines - mostly organic, often biodynamic and / or natural, they feel incredibly well-made, both technically and stylistically.

They are also unashamedly crowd-pleasing with lots of personality.

Given all this, it's hard to pick a best overall wine of the evening but the Domaine du Meteore was especially notable for being both excellent and under a tenner.

Links

Cambridge Food and Wine Society - http://www.cambridgefoodandwinesociety.org.uk/
Joseph Barnes Wines - http://josephbarnes.webdev.perceptive-office.com/home.aspx

Three Wines From Joseph Barnes

A while ago, I went to see Charles Hardcastle of Joseph Barnes Wines in Saffron Walden and was very impressed with his range of southern French, Basque and Spanish hand-crafted wines.

At the end of our meeting, he gave me a couple of wines to sample in full and I opened them up at home the other weekend for some guests.

Bodegas Ameztoi, Txakoli di Getaria 2010 - £12.25

Very pale yellow in the glass, it smells of brine, seashells and wet stones.

On the palate, it is neutral, clean and fresh with lemony apples-and-pears acidity and gentle minerality.

With little primary fruit, it is all about lovely purity and focus. It makes a great aperitif or a wine for seafood or tapas.

Lovers of obscure grape varieties will be keen to learn that this is made from Hondarribi Zuri grape (aka Petit Courbu in France).

Cave de Saint-Etienne de Baigorry, Irouleguy Blanc 'Cuvee 'Andere d'Ansa' 2010 - £10.99


Aged in oak and made from a blend of 80% Gros Manseng and 20% Petit Manseng this smells curiously of take-away fish and chips, with a saltiness and aromas of malt vinegar, some oakiness, floral aromas and a touch of sour hay.

On the palate, it feels quite old school with buttery-creamy-sweet oak, nutmeg and cinnamon spice, toastiness and some oxidative character.

There are also floral aromas and long, apricotty, lemony acidity with more of the same on the finish.

This is much weightier than the previous wine and would match well with heavier fish dishes, such as smoked haddock or salmon mornay.

Domaine Du Meteore, Les Leonides, Faugères 2007 - £9.10

On opening, there is an intense nose of dark berries and tarry liquorice with garrigue herbs and hints of roasted dark spices and dark coffee.

Made from a mix of typical southern French varieties, Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre and Carignan, in the glass it is a dark cherry colour, but now running to a faded brick red with age.

The palate is juicy with more dark berry fruit, some vanilla sweetness and rounded acidity.

With a few years of bottle age, it has now gained a degree of harmonious mellowness and after a couple of hours in the decanter, the nose has faded a little and palate opened up showing more garrigue herbs, coffee and dark spices with lots of elderberry fruit and a smooth custardy texture and some grip on the finish.

To me it is like a young Mick Jagger - a brash, eclectic in-yer-face mix of things, but behind it all, actually quite sophisticated and respectable.

Food pairing is relatively straightforward - anything that matches the bitter, herbaceous herbiness will go well, so think rosemary and sage.

We found it matched superbly with starters of beetroot with rosemary cream cheese as well as asparagus wrapped in pancetta and a main of herby sausages.

Recommended Wine

All three are excellent wines and it's a bit "you pays your money and you takes your choice". However, taking price into account the Domaine Du Meteore represents superb value given its price of under a tenner.

Links

Joseph Barnes Wines - http://www.josephbarneswines.com/home.aspx

My earlier review of Joseph Barnes - http://cambridgewineblogger.blogspot.com/2011/07/joseph-barnes-wines-saffron-walden.html

Joseph Barnes Wines, Saffron Walden

The little market town of Saffron Walden defies the image of a stereotypical urban Essex - it has no ring road around which boy racers drive their modified hatchbacks with blaringly loud music emanating from open windows and no hoards of bubbly peroxide blondes in white stilettos.

Rather, it is a quiet, genteel sort of place with an impressive 15th century church atop a hill (yes, rolling hills - another stereotype challenged) with timbered buildings and narrow streets around a quaint market square.

It is a place of old money which is also proving popular for London professionals of a certain age who want somewhere green and pleasant to bring up children with a Waitrose and good train links into the city.

So, idyllic and practical, then.

Another staple of the sophisticated, middle class lifestyle is a independent wine merchant - ideally an effortlessly cool one in a listed building with stripped wooden floorboards, soft, noodling jazz playing in the background and an affable patron.

We have several of these already in Cambridge so when Charles Hardcastle decided to move back from France to the UK, he opted for somewhere that had all the positives of my adoptive home city without the same density of independent wine merchants.

Of course, there was some local competition in Saffron Walden - a Waitrose and a branch of Adnams - but the local population is around 15,000, meaning that one more still left 5,000 people for each.

One hot sunny day recently, I made the short drive down to Saffron Walden from Cambridge to meet Charles, chat about his shop and try a few of his wines.

Finding the shop was no mean feat in itself as Saffron Walden still has, like Cambridge, a street layout from an earlier era and Joseph Barnes Wines is somewhat tucked away on one of the narrow side streets away from the central market square.

However, once inside, you suddenly feel as if you have taken on a touch of the shop's stripped-down, unpretentious effortless chic and you could be in an edgy part of Soho rather than a sleepy, gentrified market town.

Sitting up to a small bar at the window, Charles talked me through his background in hospitality - including stints in Michelin-starred restaurants in Paris, Munich and Zurich - to wine stock-taking which involved commuting to London from the south of France to his decision to return to the UK and set up in business.

Having lived in the Languedoc for several years, he pretty much had all the contacts he needed to start a shop without needing to go via the big importers.

This gave him both access to more interesting and unusual wines and a pricing advantage.

He also brought with him an interest in all things natural, organic and biodynamic.

I must confess to a certain cynicism about whether an adherence to phases of the moon can really improve the quality of a wine, so I merely nodded politely at this point - and then noted that the biodynamic wine was indeed very good.

As we talked through the wines, Charles explained that what he enjoys most is telling stories. And this is clearly what today's punter wants - not the dry, technical, scientific stuff about soil-types or vinification methods, but the human-interest story about the producer, his passion for winemaking and the provenance of the wine itself.

We are used to seeing details of the provenance of our food in restaurants - was our chicken free-range, did our jamon feed on acorns - and the same trend is happening in wine, which after all is a food as much as a drink.

This is very much an Old World view of wine, but a progressive one at that - and the wine list reflects that, as it is mainly from the more go-ahead parts of Europe: Languedoc and inland Spain.

We started with a new grape variety for me, Grenache Blanc from Saint Cirice. With a floral aromatic nose, it had a waxy texture, tropical fruit and some spice.

Next was a more weighty Albarinho from Terras Gauda - this is apparently a very popular wine by the glass in the shop, but struck me much more as a food wine with honeyed weight, good acidity and minerality, candied peel and a hint of thick-skinned phenolic ripeness.

Moving onto the reds, we tried a Tours des Genres unoaked Merlot with 5% Malbec added to the blend.

Charles described the producer as "fanatically bio-dynamic" with no sulphur added to the final wine and oxygenation of the wine whilst in the oak barrels.

The results of all this were a ripe, typically perfumed nose of plummy fruit, good sour-cherry acidity, a densely concentrated texture with dark, Christmassy spices and a savoury finish.

The final wine was something rather unusual - a 100% Alicante from 100 year-old vines, again made bio-dynamically.

There are just 2.5ha of these vines on the estate so the wine is made in tiny quantities.

Dark in the glass, the complex nose showed plums, cherries and some forest floor funkiness. On the palate there is bramble fruit, peppery spice, some toastiness and dark chocolate aromas.

After this, we chatted further about Charles's plans to put a seating area outside the front of the shop serving wines by the glass with tapas, the success of his wine club - a monthly mixed case of interesting wines - the awards he has won and his plans for a second outlet "probably closer to London".

As well as the quality of his wines, what most impressed me about Charles is how he "gets" marketing and is confidently but unpretentiously doing everything the marketing handbook recommends and successfully punching above his weight for a small business - he has a well-made and attractive website, a monthly newsletter, each wine has a recommended food match, he holds regular in-store tastings as well as selling wines by the glass, is active on Twitter and writes a monthly column for one of Cambridge's many free local magazines.

But above all, to me, the wine club is the best indicator of success - the club comes at two price points - £60 or £90 and the only element of customer selection is all-reds, all-whites or mixed with (officially) no satisfaction guarantee.

To have a group of customers trusting your palate to this extent and providing a regular inflow of funds is a sign of huge loyalty and trust that many much bigger brands spend years and invest huge amounts of marketing spend to achieve.

The Wines

Chateau de Saint-Cyrgues, Saint-Cirice Blanc 2010, Costieres de Nimes
Bodegas Terras Gauda, Albarino, Abadia de San Campio 2009, Rias Baixas
Chateau Tour des Gendres Bergerac Rouge ‘Le Classique’ 2010
Chateau Ollieux Romanis, Alicante Bouschet, Vin de Pays de l’Aude 2009

All wines range from around £8 - £15

Recommended wine: all the wines were very good-to-superb, but the most interesting and enjoyable for me were the Saint-Cirice Blanc and the Alicante Bouschet.

Links

Joseph Barnes Wines - http://www.josephbarneswines.com/