Gonzalez Byass Altozano Verdejo Sauvignon Blanc, VdlT Castilla, 2010

This Gonzalez Byass Altozano Verdejo Sauvignon Blanc from Spain's inland Castilla region was something of a first for me as I have no record of ever having had Verdejo before.

And with no entry for the grape in my trusty Oz Clarke Pocket Wine Book of a few years ago, I checked on Wikipedia to find that Verdejo wines are aromatic, often soft and full-bodied.

I reviewed the wine with a couple of colleagues who had enjoyed the tasting I presented earlier in the week and were keen to learn a bit more about wine in general - I selected this one as hopefully a good "introduction to tasting" wine .

I started by putting the wine in our company wine fridge at (doesn't every company have one ?) at the beginning of the day, with the result that when serving several hours later, it was at just the right temperature (and several degrees warmer than I usually serve whites at home) - the fridge notwithstanding, there are no company decanters, so on opening, I poured it into a broad-bottomed water jug as the next best bet.

Straw-coloured in the glass, on first opening the nose is floral with the yeasty toastiness of thick skinned grapes. There is some sweet spiciness whilst the fruit aromas are of ripe peaches, apricots and pineapple.

On the palate, there is more ripe, tropical fruit, with some mid-palate sweetness of melon, a fresh, rounded acidity and more toastiness. It feels mouthfilling and there is a minerality on the finish that increases with aeration.

Overall, it feels very well made and balanced in an easy-drinking, more-ish and crowd-pleasing way, as befits a wine in this price bracket; you can't really ask for much more.

The different characteristics of the two grapes are well integrated even if distinct at times; with more aeration, the Sauvignon characteristics become more prominent - especially the minerality on the finish - but the transition from the softness of the Verdejo to the minerality of the Sauvignon is seamless, whilst a curiously cool mintiness also develops on the palate.

Medium-bodied and ripe with fresh acidity, this would match well with roast chicken, salmon or hard yellow cheeses.

It also proved popular with my colleagues who had started by saying "Yes, we like this" but after an hour or so of swirling, sniffing and gentle coaching found themselves using words like minerality, balanced and botrytis-like.

£7.49 from Ocado, Rhythm & Booze, Villeneuve Wines, drinkshop.com and independents; provided for review.

Links

Gonzalez Byass - http://gonzalezbyass.com/en/intro.htm
Ocado - http://www.ocado.co.uk/

A Wine Tasting at Work With Cambridge Wine Merchants

Earlier this week, I held a wine tasting for colleagues at work.
I have learnt from previous experience not to challenge people too much initially or take them too far beyond their comfort zone, so I generally opted for sub-£10, well-made crowd-pleasers that would show well straight out of the bottle - with the odd curve-ball thrown in for fun, too.

I sourced the wines from Cambridge Wine Merchants from wines I have tried previously and which I confidently expected to be appreciated by a general audience, presenting each one blind initially and inviting people to hazard a guess at grape variety, country and price.

We started with an appropriately Valentine-esque pink sparkler that I reviewed in my February Wine of The Month column, an Angas Rose Brut BV which once again impressed with its good red-berry fruit, rounded acidity and mouthfilling leesiness from fermentation in bottle - and all for under a tenner.

Next up was one of my wild cards - a Barbadillo Manzanilla; sherry is one of my favorite dry white wines and the growth of sherry bars in London suggests the much-heralded revival might even be underway. Crisp, elegant and balanced with a salty, tertiary pungency from the flor, this was immediately recognised by many and even positively received by a few.

The simple food that I had arranged for the tasting - salami, cheese, bread and olive oil - was a perfect match for this wine.

The last white was a versatile Alpha Zeta Garganega - almost no-one picked the country, let alone the grape variety but it seemed to be quietly appreciated over time.

From previous experience, I know that this particular wine can be relatively neutral straight out of the bottle and its tropical, flinty, spicy aromas and honeyed texture can take a while to develop with air. All of which perhaps explains why the appreciation was more murmured than enthusiastic.

Food matches for this wine would be pasta with a creamy sauce or roast pork.

By contrast, the first red, one of CWM's best-sellers, was a real crowd-pleaser and proved very popular - the Mont Rocher Old Vines Carignan has a nose of cherries, dark berries and liquorice with a soft, smooth texture and a balanced finish.

With its rounded acidity and berry aromas, it matched very well with the salami.

For the next red, I chose something similar but a real step-up in terms of quality and interest - a Tahi 2006 from Domaine Treloar.

I got to meet banker-turned-winemaker Jonathan Hesford at a Game and Wine Dinner organised last year by Cambridge Wine Merchants and held at the St John's Chop House, so it was a real pleasure to revisit one of his wines.

Inky in the glass, it has a complex, gamey nose of woodsy forest floor and truffles; the palate is mouthfilling with a dense, inky texture and some firm grip on the finish and it really is quite superb.

I had opted for the oldest vintage available as the 2009 Tahi I had tried previously needed a lot of aeration to open up fully; however, even with six years' bottle age, it still felt a little closed-up on the palate initially with many people saying they felt it was disappointing - which I take to mean that it needed further aeration.

Nobody guessed this as a Syrah-blend from France and people generally struggled to identify it - I did hear Pinot Noir mentioned and whether this was a reference to its gamey nose or simple a random shout-out I do not know.

Food matches are perhaps hardest with this wine due to its prominent aromas, but hare would suit perfectly.

For the final wine I had originally thought of a sweet sherry, but when stocks proved hard to find (it being shortly after Christmas), I took Mill Road Manager Matt Boucher's advice and plumped for a Ramos Pinto 10-year-old tawny port.

I was impressed at how many people spotted this not only as a port, but specifically as a tawny, and it was perhaps the most enthusiastically received wine of the evening.

A pale brick red in the glass, it showed cherry fruit, a prominent eucalyptus mintiness (or "cough syrup" as people suggested), balanced by a fresh acidity and an exceptionally well-balanced mellowness.

Recommended Wine

For me, the Domaine Treloar Tahi was a clear winner from the table wines, if not the best wine overall. However, the Ramos Pinto 10yo tawny port was also excellent.

As noted above, the wines were generally sub-£10; however the Tahi and Port were both around £18 - and absolutely worth it.

Links

Cambridge Wine Merchants - http://www.cambridgewine.com

Jamie Goode's review of the Tahi, from which the image is also taken (scroll down to April 12th) - http://www.wineanorak.com/blog/2008_04_01_archive.html

Wine of the Month - February

After the January detox and ritual breaking of New Year's resolutions, February brings the Romance of Valentine's Day.

According to Wikipedia, the day is named after one or more early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine, and was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496 AD, becoming first associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer during the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished.

However, of far more importance, is how to woo that special person with something appropriately impressive and indulgent, so here are four wines, all suitable for some serious Valentine's wooing.

Best with food - Angas Brut Rosé NV, £9.50 Cambridge Wine Merchants

This is a classy and elegant pink fizz from Australia, using the two main Champagne grapes, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Like Champagne, it undergoes secondary fermentation in the bottle, giving a rich, leesy depth of flavour.
 
Salmon pink in the glass, it foams with a fine mousse; there are aromas of red berries and a touch of yeastiness on the nose. The palate is extremely elegant and smooth with a hint of red-berry fruit sweetness, a creamy texture and a fresh acidity.

It finishes dry, crisp and savoury, so will work well as an aperitif or just a Romantic indulgence a deux. However, if you are planning to make an evening of it, it will also match with food such as salmon, meaty white fish or even roast chicken.

Best for sipping - Ameztoi Rubentis, £11.99 Joseph Barnes Wines

This month, we welcome a new-comer to Wine of The Month in the shape of Charles Hardcastle, proprietor of Joseph Barnes wines in the pretty and genteel market town of Saffron Walden, just a short drive south of Cambridge.

This Ameztoi Rubentis is perhaps the most unusual wine here - made from the Hondarrabi Zuri and Hondarrabi Beltza grapes, it is from Spain's Basque region.

With a petillant spritz, it is pale pink in the glass with aromas of red berries, watermelon and something aromatic.

On the palate, there is also a touch of minerality and just a hint of something bitter - either grapefruit or perhaps quinine, as FringeWine notes - but overall this is a light, easy quaffer with elegant red berries and fresh acidity balanced with a touch of fruit sweetness.

The delicate fruit here will be overpowered by most foods, so plan on sipping this in the most Romantic of circumstances - but if food is required, salmon or tuna sushi would be a good match for the fresh acidity.

Best with something sweet - Innocent Bystander Pink Moscato, £6.99 (37.5 cl) Noel Young Wines

Another wine from Oz in the European style, this Pink Moscato is a dead ringer for an Italian semi-sweet frizzante.

On the nose there are red berries and watermelon whilst the palate shows fresh strawberry fruit, a hint of red fruit gums, a touch of elderflower and a delightful sweetness and fresh acidity; it is almost a grown-up raspberry elderflower lemonade.

With a gentle mousse and a pleasingly balanced finish, this is an elegant and accomplished antipodean wine - think Nicole Kidman rather than Hugo Weaving in Priscilla.

Although light, this wine has enough weight on the palate to match with fruit-based desserts and rather incongruously (perhaps ironically ?), it's sealed with a crown-top.

Best for making a statement - Piera Martellozzo Rosé Cuvéé, £9.99 Bacchanalia

The most immediately noticeable thing about this this Italian Spumante is the shocking pink / fuchsia foil and label, set against a blacked-out bottle.

Beneath lies a pink, charmat-method sparkler which foams enthusiastically on pouring - there are aromas of pink grapefruit and hoppiness, whilst the palate shows redcurrant fruit and sweet pears.

---xxx---

Clearly, with their pink hues, bubbles and even sweetness, none of these wines is intended to be particularly serious - but they all demonstrate that making a romantic and frivolous gesture does not mean having to dumb down on quality; they are all good wines in their own right and make for a gentle return to oenology after the traditional month of abstinence.

And as we are all so loved-up this month, it would be churlish to single out any individual wine as a winner - simply choose the one that best suits your occasion, mood and loved one's preferences.

And don't forget to buy her some flowers, as well - just preferably not from a garage forecourt.

Links

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

Image Credit: The Art of Wooing - http://rosebud-design.blogspot.com/

A Sunday Morning in Saffron Walden

Last weekend, I took #2 child on a Boys' Trip out down to the genteel market town of Saffron Walden, which lies just 15 miles or a half-hour's drive south of Cambridge.

One of the unfortunate things about Cambridge is that, although very beautiful indeed, it is a rather tiny city, surrounded by rather dull countryside - something I particularly notice having spent my teenage years between the hills of the Peak District and the vibrant, buzzy and cultural hotspot that is central Manchester - so it is easy to become complacent at times about the city's charms.

Most of the surrounding villages and towns near Cambridge are pleasant enough, perhaps even rather nice, but somehow not quite worth the trip out, but there are a small number of exceptions to this (places such as Ely and Bury as well as Saffron Walden) if you are looking for an easy visit somewhere different.

Saffron Walden is actually even smaller than Cambridge so that, whilst a weekend will suffice to see all of Cambridge's best sights, a morning spent wandering around Saffron Walden's market square and surrounding lanes is more than enough.

Like Cambridge, the town has plenty of neat and well-appointed historic buildings to admire, with timbered Tudor houses, old coaching inns and elegant Georgian townhouses. It is also relatively hilly - compared to Cambridge, at least.

More notable sights include the parish church dating from 1250 (but mostly built in the late 1400s / early 1500s) and the castle ruins dating from the 1100s.

However, for me, it is the elegance of the market square and surrounding streets that provide Saffron Walden's charm and a quiet Sunday morning is a good time to appreciate the local architecture (there are 27 Grade II* listed buildings to admire) as the town proved to be almost deserted.

Sadly for us, the town's coffee shops all seemed to be closed as well and we ended up queueing in a clean and pleasant but uninspiring Costa Coffee chain-outlet for rocky road muffin and juice (Young Man) and a latte and a Bakewell slice (me).

It also made a pleasant change from Cambridge that most of the clientele that day seemed to be locals rather than tourists or visitors which made for a more friendly atmosphere.

For wine enthusiasts, Saffron Walden is also home to Adnams and Joseph Barnes (see my review here).

Links

Saffron Walden Tourist Information - http://www.visitsaffronwalden.gov.uk/
Downloadable Tourist Trail Map - http://www.visitsaffronwalden.gov.uk/pdf/Saffron-Walden-Town-Trail.pdf

Chateau Baccarat: Oenology range

Yesterday, I took delivery of a pair of "Oenology" wine glasses, courtesy of Baccarat; one for red wine and one for white.

The Baccarat Oenology collection, launched at Maison et Objet in Paris earlier this month, comes to the UK at the end of February, so this is something of a sneak  preview.

Baccarat claims that the glasses are created "with technical specifications that offer a perfect tasting of any wine or champagne", so I plan to test them over the coming days and weeks alongside my other glasses to see if they enhance the wine appreciation experience in any way.

I'll also be assessing what they are like to live with - as well as doing my best not to break them whilst washing up.

My current range of tasting glasses is fairly limited and functional - some Bormioli Roccos, a couple of Riedels, plus some basic flutes for fizz - so these two will certainly be, if nothing else, the smartest glasses in the cupboard.

Prices are £64 for a single glass, £125 for a pair or £360 for six; the range also includes a tumbler and decanter, all pictured above.

Links

Baccarat - http://www.baccarat.com

Vesevo Beneventano Aglianico IGT 2008, Vinopic

Last year, I visited Santiago Navarro of Vinopic to talk about his new venture and in particular his science-based Intrinsic Quotient method of scoring wines.

I had feared an eccentric, iconoclastic, mad-science vision of being able, through scientific analysis, to reduce all the world's wines to no more than a bald score, but the reality was much more reassuring and sensible, with the science side of Vinopic focused on production quality and the overall Vinopic score based as much on a "palate test" by Rosemary George MW as the man-in-a-white-coat Intrinsic Quotient value.

At the time I noted that "the real test is whether their wines are any good and represent value for money at their listed prices", so this is the far-more-important follow-up to my meeting with Santiago - the proof of the pudding, so to speak.

On first opening, this Vesevo Beneventano Aglianico is darkly, inkily purple in the glass; there is a complex nose of sour cherry, elderberries, dark spices and a Burgundian hint of funky earthiness. On the palate it is full and very smooth, with well-integrated tannins and a balanced finish.

It feels rather more restrained that I had expected for a Southern Italian wine, with more emphasis on texture and mouthfeel than up-front fruit. Mrs CWB summarised in her usual, succinct way: "It feels more French", she said, and part of the answer for this lies in the altitude of 450m - 550m at which the grapes are grown, giving a more temperate-climate feel.

The wine opens up quite gradually over the course of dinner - even with the assistance of a decanter - but sampled the following day, the big, outgoing personality you would expect to see is more in evidence with lots of ripe, dark berry fruit and spice.

By day 3, the nose is showing elderberry, blueberry, spice and chocolate - on the palate there is is more dark berry fruit, red plus, sweet vanilla spice and a touch of cool mintiness.

It is supremely well-balanced and feels elegant, with crowd-pleasing touches. The tannins are fine-grained, ripe and really well-integrated, giving a gentle but firm grip on the finish.

It is truly a food wine in the sense that, served with food, it reveals aromas not apparent when sampled alone, but also because of the wonderfully rounded, food-friendly acidity.

Match with dark meats such as beef or lamb, or darker game with a spiced sauce.

So, I liked the wine a lot, but how much of this is due to Santiago's initial sourcing, the Intrinsic Quotient it scores or to Rosemary George's assessment I simply don't know - or can't say at this stage - but I suspect that the Intrinsic Quotient covers the "build quality" aspect whilst Rosemary's assessment is "enjoyment".

Its Vinopic score is 99 from Roger Corder and 17.5 from Rosmary George MW; the overall score is 92 and it has a Decanter silver medal.

Sadly, the 2008 vintage of wine is now sold out whilst the 2009 was not considered sufficiently impressive and is not stocked - the 2010 will be assessed on release.

Provided for review.

Links

Vinopic - http://www.vinopic.com/

Good Food Would Choose Bordeaux?

I have recently been reviewing my way through a number of wines being promoted as part of the Good Food Would Choose Bordeaux campaign, aimed at promoting mid-priced, easily-available wines typical of Bordeaux.

The wines were selected by the Association of Wine Educators and full details can be found on the GFWCB website.

Bordeaux, perhaps the single most famous wine-growing region in the world, was my first love when it comes to wine and I have been a fan of Bordeaux wines at various levels for many years.

In the early years, trips to France allowed me to stock on good, basic Bordeaux in French supermarkets where quality is good and prices low - more recently, with less foreign travel, I have tended to rely on our excellent independent wine merchants in Cambridge, so I have little experience of what the national retailers have to offer for Bordeaux.

And based on the selections sent to me for review, it is not that inspiring - the two best wines, I thought, came from The Wine Society (a Chateau Bourjaud Premieres Cotes de Blaye and a Perponcher Reserve Bordeaux Blanc), whilst the offerings from Direct Wines, who supply Laithwaites and Avery's, were rather disappointing.

And so I draw a number of general conclusions:

- spending more money is not necessarily a guarantee of a better wine; the (more expensive) bottles from Direct Wines wines were not as enjoyable as the (cheaper) bottles from The Wine Society;

- trust the palate; whilst the sample size is hardly scientific, to me there is a definite indication of which retailers have a good palate and which do not. Given a choice between being able to specify only one of region, grape variety and retailer, I would opt to choose the retailer on every occasion

- the distinction between liking a wine and not can be very slight and is way beyond the sophistication of a wine app; of two similarly-priced, similar style white Bordeaux I reviewed, I found one much more preferable to the other and I do not believe that any wine app would be able to predict my preference.

The first (a Dourthe Grande Cuvee) was expressive and fresh, but felt slightly clumsily made, whilst the second (the Perponcher Reserve) was poised, precise, balanced and elegant - do wine apps go into that level of detail ?

I would be fascinated to know what Vinopic's objective, scientific assessments of wine would make of these two very similar wines and whether there would be a distinct difference in the scores they achieve.

As for the GFWCB Bordeaux campaign itself, I am left unsure what to make of it.

The use of Dom Joly to present a short video about Bordeaux brings a fresh and unstuffy approach, as well as a new audience. It also has some nice visuals of the Bordeaux region itself.

The overall strategy feels right - Bordeaux is a food wine and the region's fame cannot continue to rest solely on its most famous First Growth reds given the volume of other, mid-range, everyday wines of all hues produced there.

However, the execution feels somewhat unconvincing - the visuals are not only bland, they positively blend into the background, whilst the idea of the food-wine link idea is not obvious and easily overlooked.

The slogan is technically correct, but clumsily worded and quite a mouthful.

The suggested food pairings do not seem to fall into neat buckets and are rather eccentric - pizza, lobster, chorizo, turkey, cheese and roast are not obvious food-matching groupings to me at least. And what if you have roast turkey with chorizo ?

Moreover, the seven reasons why Good Food Would Choose Bordeaux, even if all correct and true, feel more like a focus-group tick list than a reason to go out and buy the wines:
 
- Bordeaux has centuries of experience in producing food-friendly wine
- Bordeaux’s diversity of styles complements every type of food
- Bordeaux’s restrained style works with food not against it
- Bordeaux wines reflect the individual skill of the winemaker
- Bordeaux wines are not mass produced
- Bordeaux wines are not high in alcohol
- Bordeaux wine are for all occasions
 
And how many of these are unique to Bordeaux ?
 
Overall, then, at an executional level, the campaign feels workmanlike and functional, not vibrant and exciting. It is ironic, given that terroir is a uniquely French word and concept, that the campaign gives little sense of Bordeaux as a place - the vineyards, the old towns, the rivers - and that the first thing you come across on the website is a link to a pizza recipe by Jamie Oliver.

Yes, you need some kind of celebrity endorsement and yes, Jamie is this century's most famous food businessman (for reasons that completely escape me), but really, has it come to this ? Can the PR agency in charge of delivering this campaign think of nothing more novel or imaginative than attempting to shoe-horn the wines of Bordeaux into the UK's love of Jamie Oliver and pizza ?

By contrast, the boldest move - the Dom Joly video - is the most interesting and inspired.

Overall, it feels like the key elements are all in place - a focus on the more everyday wines of Bordeaux, an awareness campaign that Bordeaux is not just posh reds for wine snobs and crass billionaires, the link between food and wine.

However, I think there are much better ways to promote Bordeaux that could include food and tourism presented in a more aspirational way and showcasing the history, geography and terroir of the region as well as the UNESCO World heritage status of Bordeaux iself.

As for me, I'll continue buying great wines from Bordeaux - just from my local independent wine merchants who all have a really good palate.

For more information on buying good, inexpensive Bordeaux in France, see Wine Buying In France; Calais.

For more on two of the best Bordeaux I have had and reviewed here, see this Tim Atkin-recommended Rousseau de Sipian 2005 from Cambridge Wine Merchants and a rather more expensive magnum of Troplong Mondot 1998.

For those in Cambridge, or prepared to order via the phone or internet, I am putting together a list of the Bordeaux recommendations of the Cambridge independent wine merchants - check back in a while and it will be here.

Bacchanalia recommend '05s, Lezongars (GVDB) & Lestage-Simon (Haut-Medoc). For boat pushing duties Haut-Marbuzet.

Charles Hardcastle of Joseph Barnes Wines in Saffron Walden recommends Chateau la Claymore 2006, Lussac Saint-Emilion (£16.99 before discounts).

Santiago Navarro of Vinopic recommends Chateau Toulouze Graves de Vayre Bordeaux 2006 (£12.99).

Hamish Wakes-Miller of  www.bellawinetours.com suggests the following from Adnams as affordable (under £15), interesting and good quality: Chateau du Pin 2009, Jouanin 2009, Thebot 2008 and Chateau Falfas 2008.

Links

Good Food Would Choose Bordeaux - http://www.goodfoodwouldchoosebordeaux.com/
Association of Wine Educators - http://www.wineeducators.com/