Errazuriz Estate Chardonnay, 2010

The grapes for this Errazuriz Estate Chardonnay are grown just 20 miles from the Pacific Ocean in the Casablanca Valley, one of Chile's top regions for white wines.

In the glass, it is pale gold with pear drops on the nose.

The palate shows ripe apple and pear fruit with a good depth of flavour; most of the wine is fermented in stainless steel for freshness and fruit expression, but around 20% is aged in French oak to give depth, richness and some butteriness.

The texture is creamy and mouthfilling with lively, rounded tropical fruit acidity and a long finish with just a hint of tannic buzz.

Well-made and balanced, this is a classic, really enjoyable, fruit-forward New World chardie; match with roast chicken, pasta with creamy sauce or meaty white fish.

£8.99 from Sainsbury's, Asda, Majestic, Booths, Wholefoods Market; provided for review.

Links

Errazuriz - http://www.errazuriz.com/

Wine of the Month - April

APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.

T.S. Eliot (1888–1965). The Waste Land. 1922

These days, I measure the time since I studied TS Eliot's free verse masterpiece on dusty middle class ennui and spirituality, in decades rather than years.

April is also the month of Easter, the most important festival in the Orthodox calendar, origin of the term "movable feast" and a Pagan fertility / earth re-birth celebration.

These days we may celebrate it by hiding chocolate eggs in the garden for small children to find, but for the ancients, the first signs of a return of the fruitfulness of the land after winter was a cause to rejoice and give thanks to their Pagan gods.

My own bar-stool philosophy is that it must have originated around the end of the last Ice Age when the arrival of spring was a long-awaited event whose outcome was anything but certain and when each winter must have felt like the threat of a return to permafrost.

These days, it is a long time since economic cycles followed the calendar year and in any case, its probably still too early to give thanks to the gods of the free market economy for the return of growth.

Bodega El Cortijo de la Vieja, Iniza Tinto 2008, £10 - Joseph Barnes Wines

A curious blend of 40% Tempranillo, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Syrah and 20% Merlot from slopes of the Sierra de Gador Mountain range in the Alpujarra region of Granada, in Spain, this wine is dark purple in the glass with little suggestion of age.

On pouring, there is a nose of dark fruits and spice; the palate shows lots of sweet, ripe elderberry, plum and black cherry, spice, liquorice and hints of beeswax, leatheriness and undergrowth. It is soft and inky with a mouthfilling texture, liquorice and spice on the finish.

It is a big, effusive personality with a hint of a dark side; my only slight reservation - and it's a very personal one - is that with so many noble grapes in the blend, it feels a bit like a rock supergroup, with various different varietal characteristics vying for the limelight; at times the cassis of the Cab dominates, at others the plumminess of the Merlot and then there's the elderberry inkiness of the Syrah.

Dom. Rimbert Cousin Oscar 2011 Vin de France, £7.49 - Cambridge Wine Merchants

There's scant information on the label; it's a Vin de Table de France, pretty much the lowest classification there is, but a few tweets from Stewart Travers tell me that it's 100% Cinsault from St Chinian, 20yo vines, schisty soils and made by J-M Rimbert.

The only other bit of information on the label is the 11% alcohol and holding the bottle up to the light, I can see the wine is very pale.

In the glass, its the colour of Ribena - I've had darker Beaujolais and Pinots than this. On the nose, there is soft red fruit, cherries and a hint of Pinot-esque woody undergrowth.

Mrs CWB pronounces it "studenty", meaning light, quaffable and easy to drink with pizza on the sofa in front of the telly.

I think that undersells this curious wine a little - neither a blockbuster nor an up-front crowd-pleaser, it is elegant, delicate and well-made; light and fruity with low tannins and good acidity, it would work well for drinking in the garden or with tomato-based pasta dishes, such as a spaghetti pomodoro.

La Bascula 'Catalan Eagle', 2011, Terra Alta, £9.99 - Noel Young Wines

La Bascula is a joint project involving a British ex-wine merchant who just happens to be a Master of Wine and a South African wine-maker.

Based in Terra Alta, which is apparently somewhere near Barcelona, their Catalan Eagle is a curious mixture of the local but unusual Garnacha Blanca and the more well-known but decidedly un-Spanish Viognier.

Golden in the glass it has a peachy nose with hints of toasty yeastiness and roasted peach skin.

The palate is full of sweet ripe yellow stone fruit, with a peachy texture and a mouthfilling, rounded acidity.

The palate and finish are long, savoury and persistent.

It feels both exceptionally well-made - with great balance and superb depth of flavour - and also very more-ishly drinkable. Match with meaty fish such as salmon.

Duas Pedras, Alentejo, 2010, Quinta do Centro, £10.99 - Bacchanalia

Named ‘Two Stones’ after the granite and schist in the soils in Portugal's Portalegre region, this is an unoaked blend of the international varieties Syrah and Viognier with the native Tourga Nacional. As a result, it feels rather less distinctly Portuguese than something made purely from local varieties.

Straight from the bottle there is elderberry and black cherry fruit, liquorice, dark roasted spices and tar.

The palate feels inky yet custardy with ripe, sweet black cherry and prune, a slap of leather, some dark spice and a pleasing streak of sour cherry acidity.

On the second day, it seems to have become more understandable and turned into something approaching a classic Syrah Viognier; there is inky, ripe-elderberry-and-pencil-shavings from the Syrah whilst the Viognier adds a peachy texture and perfume on the finish; overall, it feels more harmonious and balanced now, and also more approachable.

By the third day, it is the turn of the Touriga Nacional and the port-like eucalyptus dominates.

Recommended Wine

Either of the Iberian reds would work well with some roast lamb for Easter, and the Cousin Oscar would be a good garden sipper if we have an early heatwave, but for me the most accomplished and enjoyable wine is the Catalan Eagle for its instant appeal with subtly effortless complexity and sophistication.

Links

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

Image credit: http://www.digitalbookworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/ts-eliot-the-wasteland-shot.jpg

Polz and Tement from Austria's Styria‏

In the south of Austria near the Slovenian and Italian borders, Styria (known locally as Steiermark)  is a high-altitude land of hills, valleys and pre-historic fossil reefs warmed by southerly air currents that produces highly distinctive wines.

Piercingly crisp, thrillingly racy and lushly aromatic, Styria's entry-level klassic wines make great aperitifs, whilst higher up the scale, the richer, fuller, barrel-fermented wines will stand up to meaty white fish, chicken and lighter game.

Favoured grape varieties here are Chardonnay (unoaked and known as Morillon), Gelber Muskateller and, especially, Sauvignon Blanc.

Two of my favourite Styrian producers are Polz and Tement, and I got a chance to catch up with them at the Annual Tasting of Austrian Wines in London last month.

For more on the wineries themselves, check out my reviews from last year's tasting on Polz and Tement here:

Polz - http://cambridgewineblogger.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/polz-styrian-terroir-elevation-and.html
Tement - http://cambridgewineblogger.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/styrias-tement.html

Polz

Sauvignon Blanc 2010 - grown on mixed soils and fermented in stainless steel, this is aromatic and peppery with good structure.

Therese Sauvignon Blanc 2010 - from a single vineyard of 9ha at around 480m, this is grown on schist and fermented in stainless steel; less aromatic on the nose it is more mouthfilling and mineral.

Grassnitzberg Traminer 2008 - classic varietal gewurz aromas, good minerality and structure, dryish on the finish.

Hochgrassnitzberg Sauvignon Blanc 2009 - grown on limestone at 390m, this has been made in a Burgundian style since 2006 with fermentation in old oak -from a cool-ish year, it feels less open and tropical; tighter, more closed, there's a natural savoury depth with spice and smokiness, great finesse.

Tement

Gelber Muskateller Klassic 2010 - fermented in stainless steel from mixed vineyards, there is an expressive varietal nose of gooseberries and nettles, good structure and some flintiness.

Sauvignon Blanc Klassic 2010 - greener aromas on the nose and palate, good rounded acidity, some flintiness, balanced, elegant and focused.

Grassnitzberg Sauvignon Blanc 2010 - grown on shell limestone, this feels more weighty on the palate with less aromatic expression; savoury with a creamy texture and a minerally finish.

Zieregg Sauvignon Blanc 2009 - toasty smokiness on the nose and palate, it is savoury with a creamy texture and depth of flavour, long mineral finish.

Recommended Wines

These were all good wines and choice is really only dictated by budget as quality increases reliably as you move up the scale.

Whilst the entry-level wines are great, especially if you are looking for an introduction, for me the best wines are the Polz Hochgrassnitzberg SB and the Tement Zieregg SB.

Polz is imported by Clark Foyster, Tement is part of Austria's Fine Brands.

Links

Polz - http://www.polz.co.at/
Clark Foyster - http://www.clarkfoysterwines.co.uk/
Tement - http://www.tement.at/
Austria's Fine Brands - http://www.austriasfinebrands.com/

On (Personal) Branding‏

Last night, I had a fascinating chat with ex-journalist and now owner of Cambridge institution, Fitzbillies, Tim Hayward about blogging as personal branding.

We were both at 12a Club for the launch event for Cambridgeshire Wine School, so the setting was highly apt.


Cambridgeshire Wine School is the new venture from vicar turned celebrity journalist turned wine education entrepreneur Mark Anstead. It follows a franchise model and the main challenge initially is simply raising awareness, for which having a website and a twitter account is merely the start.

12a has something of a similar issue as the terms of their licence prevent them from doing any overt advertising and instead it has to rely on word of mouth.

In the audience as well were local Masterchef finalist and now restaurateur Alex Rushmer, local history blogger Caroline Biggs and photographer Jean-Luc Benazet; as it happens, we all do something creative and are all building our personal brands in one way or another, be it for professional purposes or as a hobby.

The conversation kicked off when Tim, who is writing a book, referred to the need to know who your audience is and how you communicate with them, observing that his background in a PR agency had effectively trained him in the way of thinking.

"Of course, you understand branding as well", he said to me. I had not particularly thought of this, but the decade-plus spent counting the beans in various marketing and communications agencies has clearly rubbed off.

In the golden age of advertising, the 1980s, several now-famous novelists such as Salman Rushdie and Fay Weldon plied their trade as advertising copywriters. I had always assumed that they had used their time in agency to pay the bills and hone their writing skills.

But Tim had a more interesting observation; in these brand-building agencies, they had also learn the importance of personal branding.

But where, I asked, is the next generation of ex-agency writers, now that, with the rise of procurement and the fall in client spend, advertising has become more professional and workmanlike ?

Interestingly, the examples Tim gave were of food critics not from creative agencies (still but to a much lesser extent the powerhouses of marketing services) but from PR agencies which are much more closely linked with journalism and selling-in stories.

As I have written earlier, for a while I pondered the idea of trying to make living, or at least a second income, from my blog, but very quickly realised its better potential as a paid-for hobby.

Tim's next observation was another insight - the blog may be a mere paid-for hobby for now, but it is also building a personal brand. Right now, I have not yet found a way to commercialise the blog - and maybe I never will - but I am building up the equity in "brand CambridgeWineBlogger".

I find it rather ironic that as a company director who wants to know the return on investment of everything we do, I have invested a huge amount of time in the blog for negligible financial return - if I were a mere shareholder investing for a profit, I would have pulled the plug a long time ago.

Building a personal brand is something that celebrities instinctively understand - and yet it was precisely because he sees a decline in celebrity journalism that Mark Anstead decided to give up his day-job to run Cambridgeshire Wine School.

Where the money goes from here is anyone's guess - Tim talked about the need to keep fingers in various pies and just keep trying things to see what succeeds as the future works itself out.

The one analogy I can draw is with the music business where, essentially, you give away the album for free and make your money with the tour (plus associated merchandising); what has become valuable is not the (standardised) product, but the (unique) event.

How to apply that to wine blogging is unclear, but the zeitgeisty informal offering of Cambridgeshire Wine Schools, based around populist events, is not too far away from the music business model.

And just as success in the music business is about more than mere musical ability, so perhaps the future of wine education is about more than just the quality of the wines and the technical know-how imparted - as wine education becomes more popular, the growth in the market may well be at the more populist end where branding is more important.

Cambridgeshire Wine Schools have spotted that gap in the market, for whilst technology and habits will change for sure, brands are here to stay.

One of these people knows about personal branding

For more on the launch event itself, see these blogs:

http://movingfoodie.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/event-cambridgeshire-wine-school-launch.html

http://www.gastronomicgirls.com/2012/04/bites-and-pieces.html
Main image credit: http://www.boxedsolutionsgroup.com/graphics-print/corporate-branding/

Prager at Annual Tasting of Austrian Wines‏

Based in the pretty village of Weissenkirchen mid-way up the Wachau, Prager is one of Austria's greats.

It was in part researching the different Prager vineyards that gave me a day-dream to compile an encyclopedia on the terroirs of the Wachau; for whilst there are any number of books on the minutiae of Burgundy, the vineyards of the hundred or so producers in the Wachau are still not properly documented in one place, yet to my mind are equally worthy of study, classification and documentation.

A retirement project, perhaps.

The wines were presented by Toni Bodenstein of Prager - an impressively dapper gent, pictured below with wife, Ilse.

As noted elsewhere, 2010 was a cool and difficult year in the Wachau; 2009 and 2011 were warmer and easier.

Smaragd Steinriegl Riesling 2010 - a lean, herbaceous, mineral nose. The palate shows a flintiness and is weighty with a sweet-sour feel.

Smaragd Achtleiten "Stockkultur" GV 2009 - from 80yo vines, an expressive nose of petrolliness and sweet, ripe fruit. On the palate, it is ripe, mouthfilling and savoury. It feels rich and powerful with a ripe sweet-sour acidity.

The word Stockkultur refers to the vines being untrained and growing freely.

Smaragd Achtleiten Riesling 2010 - a ripe, concentrated nose with a rounded ripe fleshy, peachiness on the palate. It feels full with a complex mixture of savoury toastiness, ripe fruit sweetness and persistent minerality.

Federspiel Hinter der Burg 2011 GV - shows the effects of a warmer vintage in the Wachau; with a peppery, flinty nose it shows ripe stone fruit on the palate but has lower acidity. There are classic varietal puy lentils and celery on the palate and a mineral smokey toastiness.

For more details on the winery, see my review of Prager from 2011's Annual Tasting of Austrian Wines.

Recommended Wine

As may be expected, all the wines here were excellent, but the Smaragd Achtleiten "Stockkultur" GV 2009 was the stand-out.
The wines are imported by Fields, Morris & Verdin.

Links

Prager - http://www.weingutprager.at/
Fields, Morris & Verdin - http://www.fmvwines.com/

Arachon T.FX.T‏

It may sound like some over-styled, uber-niche hand-built supercar, but Arachon T.FX.T is actually a joint venture between three Austrian winemakers - Tibor & Illa Szemes, FX Pichler and Manfred Tement.

Their aim was to produce a premium red Austrian wine from both native and international varieties from vineyards around Horitschon in Burgenland.

The winery is a member of Austria's Fine Brands who were presenting the two wines on show at the Annual Tasting of Austrian Wines in London earlier this year.

The a'Kira T.FX.T 2008, another mouthful of a name, is 100% Blaufränkisch from various vineyards around Horitschon.

There is elderberry fruit on the nose whilst the palate shows sweet, dark berry fruit, juicy acidity and vanilla. It is mouthfilling, balanced, harmonious and approachable with a grippy finish.

The Evolution is a red blend whose proportions change every year, but for the 2008 that I tried, the main grape is Blaufränkisch.

With elderberry fruit and sweet, dark spice on the nose, the palate is a complex mix of sweet cherry and bramble fruit, sweet vanilla, roasted spices, bright juicy acidity and minerality.

Rounded and approachable, it has a firm but gentle grip on the finish.

Recommended Wine

Whilst the a'Kira T.FX.T is impressive enough, the Evolution is quite superb.

Links

Arachon T.FX.T - www.arachon.com
Austria's Fine Brands - http://www.austriasfinebrands.com/

Knoll and FX Pichler at Annual Austrian Tasting‏

Knoll and FX Pichler, two of the greats of Austrian wine, are both located pretty much next to each other at the (warmer) eastern end of the Wachau.

Both were represented at the Annual Tasting of Austrian Wines in London by Richards Walford and I tasted my way through all the wines on show.

For more on the background to each producer, see my more in-depth reviews from last year on Knoll and FX Pichler.

As many of the wines here were of Smaragd level, the 2010s, with extensive ageing on the lees, are the current vintage; 2010 was a difficult, cool year in the Wachau but the wines are starting to open up now.

Knoll

All Smaragd-level wines are aged in old oak until September following the vintage. All the wines here were very long on the palate with elegance and balance.

Smaragd Kreutles GV 2010 - peppery hints on the nose, ripe citrus fruit, savoury, balanced and elegant.

Smaragd Loibenberg GV 2010 - peppery toastiness on the nose, more intensity and minerality, a touch of smokiness on the palate and a creamy texture.

Kabinett Pfaffenberg Riesling 2010 - Smaragd-level, but from just outside the Wachau so cannot be labelled as such. Restrained nose, with floral acacia blossom and elderflower on the palate, ripe fruit acidity, the most expressive and approachable wine here.

Smaragd Kellerberg Riesling 2010 - ripe citrus fruit, zippy acidity and full texture.

Smaragd Schütt Riesling 2010 - mouthwatering limey acidity, balanced with ripe citrus fruit sweetness.

Auslese Riesling 2005 - dessert wines from the Wachau are somewhat unusual and are generally lighter and fresher than those from Burgenland. This Auslese has aromas of ripe stone fruits, a fresh, balanced palate with aromas of roasted peaches in butter with a touch of toasty pungency. It feels light yet concentrated.

FX Pichler

Federspiel Loibner Burgstall Riesling 2009 - neutral on the nose, it feels somewhat closed up, but has a limey acidity and a full, creamy texture.

Smaragd Loibner Steinertal Riesling 2009 - a concentrated nose with ripe, fleshy peach and nectarine fruit. Mineral and savoury.

Federspiel Loibner Burgstall 2010 Riesling - citrus fruit on the nose, the palate is fleshy yet concentrated with a mineral underpinning and toastiness. It feels ripe and complex.

Smaragd Loibner Steinertal Riesling 2010 - ripe fruit and sweet-sour acidity, complex with savoury depth and a hint of tannic bitterness. Long savoury finish.

Smaragd Loibner Loibenberg GV 2010 - ripe and moutfilling with a toasty leesiness. Savoury, complex and mineral.

Smaragd Duernsteiner Liebenberg GV 2010 - ripe fleshy peach fruit with savoury mineral underpinnings; complex with rounded acidity and toasty-yeastiness.

Recommended Wine

All the wines here were superb and it is difficult to single out a particular one.

The Knoll Auselese was quite incredible, but is hardly a sensible starting point for exploring the Wachau.

Julia Harding MW writing on JancisRobinson.com rates the Knoll Schütt Riesling Smaragd (scoring it an 18, for its glorious complexity, very rich palate, amazing concentration, piercing acidity ... Lonnggg and wonderful) and the FX Pichler Steinertal Riesling Smaragd 2010 (scoring 18.5 for penetrating freshness through all the rich depth and intensity ... a wine of dazzling intensity and superb length).

Her full review is here, but it is available to Purple Pagers only - http://www.jancisrobinson.com/tasting_articles/ta201202292.html

Links

Weingut Emmerich Knoll - http://www.loibnerhof.at/en/the-winery.html
FX Pichler - http://www.fx-pichler.at/
Richards Walford - http://www.r-w.co.uk/