Lanson Black Label Brut NV - The Co-operative‏

Founded by a magistrate in 1760, Lanson is one of the oldest Grande Marque houses in Champagne; this Black Label is currently on special offer at The Co-operative.

Pale sandy yellow in the glass, it foams enthusiastically on pouring, with aromas of white pears, brioche and biscuitiness on the nose.

The palate is complex with ripe pear and crisp apple fruit, a creamy leesiness and freshly-baked bread.

Long on the palate, it is mouthfilling and grippy with good structural underpinnings and a savoury, persistent finish with a muscular food-friendly rasp that is not quite limey nor yet cidery, but somehow a bit of both.

With pure fruit and precise acidity, it feels as powerfully balanced and elegant as a ballerina.

Use the refreshing acidity to cut through the richness of salmon en croute or even a roast chicken with all the festive trimmings.

£31.99 from The Co-operative: reduced to £21.99 until January 1st 2013. Provided for review.

Other related articles
Two Co-op Reds for Christmas
English Wine Producers at Circle of Wine Writers' Christmas Party
Veuve Monnier NV from The Co-op

Links
Lanson - website, twitter
The Co-operative - website, twitter

Dino Chardonnay, Selezione No 7, 2011 IGT Sicilia‏

A noble grape from an up-and coming value region in Europe's new world - this Sicilian Chardonnay from Tesco is sandy yellow in the glass with orchard fruits on the nose leading to ripe tropical melon, aromas of yeasty melon skin and pleasantly balanced acidity on the palate.

Nothing to offend, no rough edges, but not much to think about here either: a thoroughly pleasant, easy-drinking quaffer.

It would make a safe present for someone you don't know well and whom you assume to be a casual wine drinker - which is how we came to receive it; a Christmas gift from one of Mrs CWB's contacts.

Match the ripeness and acidity with mixed anti-pasti, hard yellow cheeses, plain roast chicken or meaty white fish in either a buttery or creamy sauce.

It turns out to be on sale at Tesco for £4.49, which is very reasonable indeed for the quality.

Other related articles
Ogio Pinot Grigio 2011, Umbria‏, Italy - Tesco
Lindemans Chardonnay, Sydney Cove, 2009
The Spectacular Summer Entertaining Case from Tesco
Outis - Wines from Sicily

Links
Tesco - website, twitter

The Best of Pays d'Oc IGP Tasting and Dinner‏ at Gauthier

I have long argued that New World is more a stylistic observation than a designation of origin.

New World-style wines are typically (but not exclusively) ripe, expressive and well-made in a modern sort of way.

Classic, traditional regions have a name and a heritage to preserve, whereas the New World has nothing but the juice in the bottle to play with, so out of necessity, will tend to take a few more chances.

Languedoc is France's New World; historically the source of Europe's wine lake it has reinvented itself as a producer of characterful and well-made wines - and, like Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, its winemakers are often by immigrants to the region if not the country who bring fresh thinking and a degree of ambition.

At Gauthier restaurant earlier this week, I attended a tasting and dinner for Pays d’Oc IGP, presented by Matthew Stubbs MW who is based in the region and Roberson Senior Buyer, Mark Andrew.

The wines are reviewed individually below, but overall, they were all good to very good indeed.

Another of my basic tenets is "trust the palate" and it was clear that these wines had been selected by a very discerning taster - on a technical and stylistic level, the wines were all very accomplished and composed with no rough edges and nothing out-of-balance or lacking.

In general, the whites were all delicate and elegant whilst the reds were characterful.

Mas des Dames Blanc 2011, Roberson (£12.95) organic, old vines, 100% Grenache Blanc, grown on limestone and aged in old oak: smokey-toasty nose, melon fruit and white flowers; creamy, oatmealy palate with ripe melon fruit and citrus acidity. Long on palate, savoury depth and persistence on the finish. Chablis-esque.

Domaine Paul Mas, Mas des Tannes Reserve Blanc 2011 (€4 ex cellar) 60yo vines, organic, barrel fermented and oak aged with little filtration, 100% Grenache Blanc: delicate floral aromas, melon fruit, citrus and pith. Ripe melon fruit on the palate, good savoury depth, linear acidity. Mouthfilling and creamy, fresh and clean, long palate, persistence on the finish.

Domaine d'Aigues Belles, l'Autre Blanc 2011 (€6 ex cellar) Roussanne / SB / Ch blend from near the Rhone border: butterscotch and coffee grounds on the nose; ripe, full and fat on the palate with more butterscotch, stone fruit and a freshness from altitude. Creamy and waxy with good mouthfilling acidity and persistence on the finish.

Gerard Bertrand, Cigalus Blanc 2010 (€27 ex cellars) Ch/Viognier/SB biodynamic blend from Corbieres: floral sweetness and hints of late-harvest / botrytis; floral, fat and blowsy on the palate but cut through with good acidity, apricotty with aromas of roasted peach skins, depth and persistence

Domaines Paul Mas, Vermentino 2011, Majestic (£7.99) fresh with good acidity, melon and white flowers, good texture and depth, leesiness and tangy citrus. Good value.

Domaine Begude, Pinot Rose 2011, Majestic (£8.99) Pinot Noir rosé grown at 500m altitude: pale salmon-pink, toasty nose, linear acidity, ripe red berry fruit, savoury persistence and creaminess

Domaine Gayda, Figure Libre Cabernet Franc 2010, Noel Young (£17.75) floral nose, yeasty with dark cherry fruit, woodsy leatheriness, ripe spice and savoury persistence. Garrigue herbs, black olives and well-defined structure, with muscular finish.

Domaine de Brau, Pure Petit Verdot 2011, Vintage Roots (£12.50) grown at c. 400m altitude in Cabardes: spice, dark bramble fruit, sweet vanilla and white pepper. Ripe, voluptuous, velvety palate of pure, sweet fruit, sweet vanilla and white pepper with dark pencil shavings and a sour cherry rasp.

Domaine de Gourgazaud, Quintus 2010 Slurp (£12.25) Syrah/Mourvèdre from 40yo vines: toasty nose of dark berry fruit and coffee grounds with sulphurous notes. Soft, inky, mouthfilling tannins, dark berry fruit, long on the palate and persistent.

Le Grand Noir, GSM 2010, Roberson (£7.95) GSM blend juicy, bright fruit, pure red and black cherry, garrigue herbs and grippy tannins. Distinctly middling and the one bum note of the night.

Les Vignes de l'Arque, Saveur d'Automne 2010 Leon Stolarski (£16.50) a delicious 100% Viognier sticky; apricots, honey and floral aromas; rich yet cut through with good acidity.

Recommended Wines
Top white was the Mas Des Tannes Reserve Blanc.
Top red was the Gourgazaud Quintus.

Other related articles
Mas des Dames, "La Diva" 2007 - Roberson Wines
Domaine Begude
Domaine Treloar dinner
Languedoc Wines with Joseph Barnes


Links
Pays d'Oc - website
Roberson - website, twitter
Matthew Stubbs MW - LinkedIn, Facebook
Gauthier - website, twitter

The Final Two Mediterranean Wines from Marks and Spencer‏

These two Mediterranean wines from Marks and Spencer were sent to me a very long time ago for review.

I had planned to try them at our regular Thursday evening Wine Club at work during the summer, but client demands and other factors meant we have not held one for weeks, months even.

But with the rain lashing down outside, and an end-of-term feel just one working day away from shutting up for Christmas, it was quite fitting to bring out these two reds from sunnier climes to taste.

I decided to start with the older Lebanese wine and work forwards in time.

Chateau Ksara Clos St Alphonse 2009, Bekaa Valley, Lebanon

A blend of Syrah, Cab Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, on the nose, there is baked bramble fruit, complex spice and a foresty earthiness.

On the palate it feels mellow beyond its three years - there is baked red plum and cherry fruit, roasted spice and prominent, almost zesty, acidity; it feels somewhat Old School, structurally well-built with fine, smooth, well-integrated tannins and absolutely no rough edges.

Really long on the palate with peppery spice developing, there is a pleasant, persistent firmness on the finish.

It is a classical-style wine to match with simple red meat dishes, either plain roasted or even better barbecued over coals for a touch of smokey spice.

Its mellowness also makes it a somewhat contemplative wine - ideal for a Sunday afternoon whilst finishing off a full roast dinner.

Red on Black Agiorgitiko 2010, Nemea, Greece (£50.94 case of six)

Despite giving the world the word οἶνος (which has come into English as wine), Greece's wine industry is actually much more modern; it does not have Lebanon's colonial past to hark back to.

This Red on Black, as the name suggests is dark in the glass. Made from Agiorgitiko (St George) from the Nemea region, there is redcurrant and red plum fruit on the nose with some spice.

On the palate, there is good cherry fruit, sweet vanilla spice and pleasant acidity. Low in tannins, it feels soft and silky, but is neither quite as long on the palate nor has quite as much structural interest as the Ksara.

As one colleague said, had I tried this wine first, I would have said it was very good, but now it just doesn't stand up to the Ksara.

I think that rather says it all - the Agiorgitiko is just fine in a juicy, quaffing, Languedoc-red sort of way. But the Ksara is a much more classy act; with its Noble grape varieties, French winemaker and oak ageing, it has a structure that is indebted to France even if its warmth comes from time spent under distinctly sunnier skies.

Both wines provided for review.

Other related articles
Two Eastern Mediterranean Wines from Marks and Spencer
Two More Eastern Mediterranean Wines from Marks & Spencer
Wines from Turkey, India, Greece and Georgia at Laithwaites
Greek Wines at Cambridge Food and Wine Society

Links
Marks and Spencer - website, twitter

Louis Jadot Côte de Beaune Villages 2009

This Louis Jadot Côte de Beaune Villages, a blend of Pinot Noir mainly from Chorey Les Beaune and Ladoix, is aged in oak for 12 months and comes from the rather good 2009 vintage.

A bright cherry red in the glass, there are aromas of red berry fruit, Burgundian earthiness and a touch of dark, roasted spice.

On the palate it is juicy with more red berry fruit, savouriness and a soft, mouthfilling texture.

On the finish, there is some spice and a savoury persistence.

Burgundy is France's gastronomic heartland and to me, this wine really comes into its own with food, where the lovely acidic structure can show off to its best and the subtle aromas become more prominent.

Something gamey such as pheasant would be the traditional match for this, but I found it worked satisfactorily with a slow-roast shoulder of lamb stuffed with garlic and rosemary with roast potatoes, parsnips, celery and carrots

A good, if somewhat textbook, example of what red Burgundy should be like - sadly, however, £15 is about the going rate for decent basic Burgundy, so the price is reasonable for the quality given what it is.

Louis Jadot Côte de Beaune Villages 2009, RRP £14.99 provided for review.

Available from Majestic, Nisa, Partridges of Sloane Street and other independents

Other related articles
Restaurant L'Alembic, Nuits St Georges
Wine in Threes (featuring 3 Jadot reds)
The CWB Pinot-off: Burgundy vs Chile

Links
Louis Jadot - website, twitter
Majestic - website, twitter

On Intellectual Property Ownership‏

I recently went to a Panel Discussion arranged by our firm's lawyers on the subject of Intellectual Property.

In his introduction, one of the panel introduced himself with the following anecdote: I was looking to buy a flat in London and the estate agent asked me what I did for a living. I explained that I was an Intellectual Property lawyer to which he replied "So we're both in the same business then."

As a relatively modern concept invented by lawyers, Intellectual Property suffers from not having a snappy name, but it is essentially the ownership of creative ideas - be it music, art, inventions or journalism.

In a bricks-and-mortar world, the idea of ownership of ideas is not as deeply embedded in our thinking or societal structures as the ownership of land and tangible property; theft of ideas is more inclined to be viewed as a "victimless crime" than having one's mobile phone pilfered.

And yet that very same mobile phone may be full of illegal downloads of music and images from the Internet.

A clumsy name, public apathy and a medium that facilitates sharing of IP with few checks and balances in place to deter, let alone prevent theft - it is a perfect storm, as the Music Industry found out to its cost in the noughties with the rise of "peer-to-peer file sharing services" such as Napster.

The response of performing artists to this has often been innovative - from the move to focus on live performances rather than album sales to Radiohead's pay-what-you-like arrangement for their In Rainbows album.

Having worked in the marketing services and communications industry for many years now, and generally been the person to negotiate contracts and fees, I am all too aware of the value of Intellectual Property; discussions on fees and IP ownership usually make up the larger part of the contract negotiations.

Wine writers - more gentlemanly at the professional end, more amateurish amongst the bloggers - have not really caught up with IP ownership as an issue. Bloggers do not rely on their writing for income whilst professional freelancers seem more inclined merely to wring their hands at theft of their work.

Recently, I was able to assist one fellow member of the Circle of Wine Writers whose tasting notes and scores had been taken wholesale for an auction catalogue in another country. I put him in touch with a friend who is both a wine writer and a lawyer (and also a CWW member) and between them they solved the issue swiftly and satisfactorily.

Over the weekend, I read a piece in Palate Press accusing Canadian wine writer Natalie MacLean of extensive and sustained theft of IP from other wine writers.

I don't know Natalie personally or her writing (if it is indeed hers) so I cannot comment on the specifics here.

But the issue throws into relief the need to raise awareness of the value of IP generally - especially for those whose livelihood is based on their writings on the Internet.

Back at the lawyers' IP Panel Discussion, I was rather saddened to hear most of the speakers (except for one, the owner of an online music video service) sighing and shaking their heads at the idea that the public are simply not interested in IP ownership.

We teach our children to share their toys nicely and not take others' - with this principle firmly embedded, it is not too difficult to make the next step to not stealing ideas, be it copying homework off the Internet or downloading music and films.

If the generation before us invented the Internet, it behoves our generation to teach the next how to use it properly and with respect.

Or perhaps the Internet needs simply to be treated with the general caveat - if it's personal, don't put it on the Internet. Historically, "personal" meant you wouldn't want your Mum or a potential employer to see it, but we should also view personal as "our personal (Intellectual) Property".

It seems to me that IP theft these days is seen a bit like smoking or casual racism in the 70s - whilst nobody was prepared to argue that it was A Good Thing, it was generally deemed either Socially Acceptable or at least had no stigma attached to it.

When corporate behemoths who have spent years and billions investing in their brands aggressively assert their intellectual property rights, no-one cheers the rule of law - rather, we all talk about how brands caused the London riots.

But we can't have it both ways - either we want the rule of law to apply to all, both the Big Boys at Multinational plc and the small independent freelancers tapping away at their laptops, or we accept that Society simply does not value the ownership of property, be it Tangible or Intellectual.

Looting a pair of swooshed trainers and a flat-screen TV or copying someone else's work and passing it off as your own - it's all theft.

Update 20/12/12

This tweet says it all far more succinctly: https://twitter.com/kentonallen/status/281333664787357697

Other related articles
Jule Mahoney's Wine Riot
On Blogger Independence and Disclosure

Links

Palate Press: Natalie MacLean: World’s Best Wine Writer or Content Thief?

Footnote: the image at the top of this piece is of the Statute of Anne, the first modern copyright law.  This image is in the public domain because its copyright has expired. Just in case you were wondering.

Two Co-op Reds For Christmas

When The Co-op sent round their Christmas offers list, I thought it would be interesting to compare two of their Cabs - one an estimable classed growth from Bordeaux, the other a much more recent upstart from Western Australia.

Ferngrove Frankland River 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon, Western Australia (£11.99 reduced to £8.99 until Jan 1)

Ferngrove was established less than 15 years ago and I've been very impressed with their wines previously - technically well-made with good, but not overly-dominant fruit, they mix New World ripeness with European complexity and food-friendliness.

This 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon is purple in the glass with black fruit, violets and a mix of toasty spice with liquorice and leather.

On the palate, there is more ripe dark fruit, toastiness and peppery spice, cut through with good acidity and underpinned with aromas of pencil shavings and cigar box.

It feels soft and smooth, yet full and mouthfilling with perfectly ripe tannins and a persistent firmness on the finish.

It is a lovely wine, both technically and stylistically; well-made and accomplished, it is all too easy to enjoy.

Priced at under a tenner, it is, I think, very good value.

Match with steak or rare roast beef.

Ch Belgrave 5eme Cru Classe 2007 Haut-Médoc (£24.99 reduced to £19.99 until Jan 1)

Jancis Robinson describes Chateau Belgrave as "a modest fifth growth in the Haut-Médoc hinterland around St-Laurent inland from Pauillac, now managed by the enterprising Bordeaux negociant Dourthe, which really has produced the goods".

2007 was in general a bit of a wash-out for much of France, so to find any good wines from that year is no mean feat.

Purple in the glass, on the nose there are aromas of cedarwood, black cherries, and sweet vanilla spice. The palate is soft, with perfectly ripe, smooth and mouthfilling tannins, ripe minty blackcurrant and good acidity.

Elegant, sophisticated, and accomplished, it feels very well made indeed - with a good, firm structure - and is drinking really nicely now; a really lovely, harmonious and classical wine to match with traditional roast beef.

The full article by Jancis (a review of the 2005) can be found here.

Conclusions

It is perhaps a little unfair, if highly instructive, to put these two wines up against each other; both are very good and enjoyable, food-friendly wines. Both are drinking nicely now and worth the price for the quality they offer.

The Bordeaux is the better wine of the two - let's not be in any doubt - but not by a huge margin and at £9, the Aussie wine is distinctly more wallet-friendly.

If it were me, I'd have the Ferngove on Christmas Eve and save the Bordeaux for the main event on Christmas Day itself.

Both wines provided for review.
Other related articles
Two Co-op Wines For Christmas
Two Ferngrove Wines at Cambridge Mill Road Winter Fair
Co-op Veuve Monnier Champagne

Links
Ferngrove - website, twitter
Chateau Belgrave - website
The Co-op - website, twitter