Seven Springs At The Cambridge Tasting

The final three wines at The Cambridge Tasting were from Tim Pearson's Seven Springs in South Africa.

Tim originally ran his own service business before moving into wine - and although we've yet to meet in person, I sense he brings a thoroughly practical and professional approach to the business of making and selling wine.

Like everyone else who had provided wines for the tasting, he had agreed to be online for a tweet-up - albeit from a much sunnier South Africa, along with his winemaker Riana Van Der Merwe.

I had debated the overall running order with Davy, who had procured the use of a room at Downing college for the tasting - his theory was that as the least expensive of all the wines, they should go first ahead of the more ambitious samples.

My approach and our final plan was to put the wines in order of ripeness - the light Swiss wines first, big Bordeaux next and the sunny Saffers to finish off.

With the snow falling on the ground, we brought in the 2011 Sauvignon Blanc and kicked off the final part of the tasting.

The general consensus was that all the wines were well-made and good examples of their type and price point.

Other comments echoed my own feeling that these are primarily crowd-pleasers - reliable, well-made, fruit-driven. There's nothing not to like from these very pleasant quaffers.

Whether something more interesting and challenging will emerge as these young-vine wines gain a bit of age remains to be seen.

2011 Sauvignon Blanc aromatic with ripe passionfruit; good and well-made in what was deemed a "commercial" style

2011 Pinot Noir "Young Vines" Marlborough-style Pinot; lots of ripe fruit, pleasantly silky texture; deemed a "picnic wine". Those who had been unimpressed by the Adank Pinots felt this was a better example of a textbook Pinot style. For me, it was an easy-drinking quaffer - Pinot without the tears.

2010 Syrah lots of ripe fruit; again, nothing untoward and an easy drinker.

Aoife Maxwell - who has reviewed the tasting here - deemed the Sauvignon one of her top wines of the whole afternoon.

More on The Cambridge Tasting
Overview
Adank (Switzerland)
Crus Bourgeois 2010 (and 2000)

Other related articles
Seven Springs Sauvignon Blanc
Denise Medrano on Seven Springs Syrah 2010
Tara O'Leary on Seven Springs Pinot Noir 2011
South Africa's Arabella Wines - Shiraz Viognier, Chenin Blanc

Links
Seven Springs Winery - website, twitter
Winemaker Riana Van Der Merwe on twitter

AOC Languedoc Dinner at Ampersand Hotel

Another week - another tasting of wines from the Languedoc region. This time I was a guest of AOC Languedoc at the Ampersand Hotel in South Kensington.

Before dinner in the Games Room, we started in the Wine Room with talks from two winemakers - Vianney Fabre whose family moved from Bordeaux to La Clape to run Chateau d'Angles and Loic Bacou who runs Ollieux Romanis in Corbieres Boutenac.

Languedoc - the history

Languedoc is a region full of dark historical grudges and bloody battles; formerly the source of the country's wine lake, it is now France's New World - a progressive and exciting region making characterful, well-made wines.

Languedoc - the quality factor

For the talks this evening, Vianney and Loic focused on the quality factor in the wines, and expecially on freshness and elegance due to rocky soils, cool air and altitude.

In La Clape, 200m above sea level, it is blue limestone and sea breezes from the Mediterranean - in Corbieres Boutenac, 100m above sea level, it is chalky, pebbly soils and northerly winds.

As quality increases in Languedoc and winemakers become more ambitious, inevitably there will be attempts to test out the market for higher-end wines.

Whether AOC Languedoc should focus on being a reliable producer of low-cost, well-made crowd-pleasers or set its sights on higher goals is something of a moot point.

Languedoc - The Wines

AOC Languedoc La Clape

Classique blanc 2010, Chateau d'Angles (£9.99 Wine Rack) a blend of Bourboulenc, Grenache Blanc, Roussane and Marsanne, it has a waxy texture and some spiciness cut through with refreshing acidity and underpinned by a leesy savouriness. It feels weighty and toasty with a long palate. Good.

Chateau d'Angles, Grand Vin 2008 (£19.99 Ocado) the same blend as above, but barrel-aged, this was a weightier more complex wine with honey, acacia and salinity on the nose; creamy toastiness from lees ageing and a rounded minerality. A perfect match with baked scallops. Very Good Indeed.

Chateau Complazens, Cuvee la Garrigue 2008 (£8.99 City Beverage Company) Syrah/Grenache blend, does what it says on the tin - vanilla, ripe black cherry and elderberry fruit, garrigue herbs. Mouthfilling with good ripeness and acidity. Technically well-made and very pleasant but for me somehow a little unambitious and overly crowd-pleasing.

Chateau Ricardelle, Cuvee Closabieres 2010 (£12.95 BBR) Grenache/Syrah/Carignang blend, I found this rather stalky and lacking in fruit. This prompted a discussion with Robert Georgione who praised its regional and varietal typicity and Quentin Sadler who questioned the idea of typicity in as dynamic a region as Languedoc.

AOC Minervois La Liviniere

Chateau Cesseras 2009 (£15.45 BBR) Syrah-blend, musky and woodsy, vanilla, black cherry and sour cherry fruit, mintiness and inky texture.

Chateau Maris Les Planels Old Vine Syrah (£17.95 Vintage Roots) vegetal nose with vanilla and dark fruit; sour cherry and vegetal palate, with dark fruit and vanilla, aromas of garrigue herbs and mintiness. Fresh acidity, inky texture.

Domaine La Rouviole 2006 (£16.99 Corking Wines) Syrah, ripe sour cherry acidity dominates, mouthfilling and well-structure if a bit of a one-trick pony.

Chateau Sainte Eulalie Cuvee Cantilene 2011 (£11.50 Wine Society) Syrah with Grenache and Carignan, ripe fruit and vanilla on the nose, a touch of Pinot-esque farmyardiness. Blast of pure blackcurrant, sweet vanilla and ripe dark fruit with garrigue herbs. Spicy, ripe and long with a soft, inky mouthfilling texture. Grip and pepperiness on the finish. Very Good.

AOC Corbieres Boutenac

Chateau Les Ollieux Atal Syrah 2010 (€18 ex cellar) Carignan plus GSM. Dark fruit and mocha, ripe dark fruit and toasty savouriness, lovely rounded acidity and good texture. Long palate and finish. Very Good Indeed.

Chateau les Ollieux Romanis Cuvee Or 2010 (€21 ex cellar) Carignan plus GSM musky Carignan nose; more muskiness and ripe elderberry fruit, complexity, well-structured acidity. Mouthfilling texture, long palate and good finish. Very Good.

Chateau de Villemajou 2009 (£13.04 Majestic) Carignan, Grenache, Syrah ripe dark fruits, a touch stalky, good acidity, grippy finish. Underwhelming.

Dinner menu at Ampersand

Baked scallops with seaweed
Grilled cannon of lamb, saffron potatoes, pipperade and olives
Pistachio & olive oil cake with vanilla ice cream
Pecorino cheese with poached pear

I attended as a guest of AOC Languedoc.

Recommended Wines

Top white was the weighty and complex Chateau d'Angles, Grand Vin 2008.

Overall top red was the Chateau Les Ollieux Romanis Atal Syrah, but top red available in UK was Chateau Sainte Eulalie Cuvee Cantilene 2011.

Other related articles
On Character Sketches, Languedoc Wines and Minor Royalty
Pays d'Oc Dinner at Gauthier
Ollieux Romanis at Joseph Barnes Wines
Languedoc wines at Cambridge Food and Wine Society
Others' reviews of this event: Quentin Sadler, India Farrington, Jenny McKenzie, Denise Medrano (whites)

Links
AOC Languedoc - website

On Character Sketches, Languedoc Wines and Minor Royalty

If Bordeaux is Landed Gentry and Burgundy a land of dukedoms, then Languedoc wines are Prince Harry - more entertaining and characterful than its regal older relatives, and whilst a bit of a loose cannon and prone to the odd mishap for sure, yet all the more loveable for it.

Languedoc wines have an impish, cheeky grin: they are a bit of a handful and prone to some high-spirited behaviour - ill-judged fancy dress costumes, stripping off at a party in Vegas or diving in the pool fully clothed with their mates.

But these fun-loving, mischief-making tykes also have impeccable breeding and when occasion demands, scrub up well in uniform and cut a rather dashing figure - even if they are still liable to flirt with the pert-derriere'd maid of honour.

And given the choice, many of us I suspect, would rather spend time with these grinning, partying, swaggeringly handsome cheeky chappies than their more regal relatives who are, no doubt, excellent company but rather more staid and restrained in comparison.

With the top spots already taken and scant opportunity to put their mark on history, their motto is live for today. And Party On.

Their world is one of mates, girls and endless parties - for now at least. Given time, who knows, they may start to mellow a little more and crave a degree of respectability - instead of falling out of nightclubs.

That won't change their natures, but they may well mature into something approaching greater respectability, trading youthful exuberance for finesse and gravitas.

No amount of breeding can hide their wilful, fun-loving, unpredictable and slightly rogueish personalities and they will always refuse to conform to the stultifying norms of polite high society - hopefully.

Caity Weaver writing on Gawker.com puts it all much better than I:

"Whom would you rather have visit you when you're ill? William, who will bring you a card "signed by everyone in the office" signed by half the people in the office, or Harry, who will make balloons for you out of latex gloves and dress up in scrubs and pretend he's a doctor so he can sit in on your surgery and "keep an eye on things" even though you've begged him not to?

Whom would you rather have attending diplomatic functions? William, whose nervous, quiet laughter echoes so hollowly in marble ballrooms, or Harry, who can cajole the heads of warring nations to arm wrestle just by yelling "This one's for the Facebook!"

The appeal of Prince Harry is that, whether he's playing "strip pool" in Vegas, challenging Olympic gold medalists to swimming races in jeans, or making sex faces at William every time he stands behind Kate Middleton, he's just doing what any of us would do if we were a prince. Or Prince."

Quite.

Now, glass of Languedoc anyone ?

Other related articles
Pays d'Oc Dinner
Domaine Treloar Dinner

Links
Caity Weaver on twitter

Main image credit: http://gawker.com/5936914/prince-harry-should-be-king-of-england-mayor-of-funkytown-chief-inspector-of-boobs

Harry and Pippa image credit: http://www.toshstory.com/2011/04/royal-wedding-pippa-middleton-and.html

Crus Bourgeois 2010 At The Cambridge Tasting‏

The second part of the Cambridge Tasting at Downing College was six 2010 Crus Bourgeois wines with three 2000s provided by Davy from the college cellars for comparison.

As well as the group of tasters in the room, I had organised for Louise Hill of PR agency Phillips-Hill to be online for a tweet-up as well.

After the discussion prompted by the earlier Swiss reds, there was greater uniformity in the response to these wines that was only in part due to the quality.

Bordeaux is not only a benchmark style but also the basis of the whole En Primeur / wine-as-an-investment business - and, with prices in the £15 - £25 range, the Crus Bourgeois are perhaps the heartland of affordable, age-worthy wines that fill college cellars.

College buyers like Davy are accustomed to tasting through a room full of Crus Bourgeois wines to select just a small handful to buy. The tastings may well be organised by a merchants such as Cambridge Wine Merchants and the wines will be served to members of the University's Wine Tasting Society and Blind Wine Tasting Society.

As a result, the Crus Bourgeois wines we tasted were, for more than half the people in the room, not just familiar, but a fundament of their wine knowledge, a pillar or key reference point.

Historically somewhat independent-minded, I have never approached wine in terms of what I felt someone else said I should like - I have always wanted to make up my own mind. But over time, one inevitably drifts towards the classics - and with good reason.

Bordeaux, however, has always been my first love for red wines - the wine that first got me interested in wine and the one I would still buy above all else.

The 2010s
2010 was a good year in Bordeaux and the consensus here was that there was "lots of fruit, lots of everything" in all these wines - tannins, structure and general "stuffing".

Chateau La Garricq, Moulis en Medoc cassis and fragrant cigar box on the nose; ripe blackcurrant fruit and vanilla, good acidity and grip. Good depth and length.

Chateau La Commanderie, Saint Estephe a touch of cork taint on this one, perhaps - nose is funky, the palate feels thin and grippy in the wrong places, astringent on the finish.

Chateau Beaumont, Haut Medoc hints of farmyardiness on the nose, ripe bramble and vanilla fruit, pepperiness. Soft, mouthfilling texture, long on the palate and finish.

Chateau Gironville, Haut Medoc blackcurrant and cigar box, ripe bramble fruit, vanilla and good texture; the tannins are perfectly ripe, the fruit is ripe, it feels long and well-structured. Good.

Chateau Preuillac, Medoc very similar profile to the Gironville immediately before it. Perhaps a little more sweet vanilla and bramble fruit.

Chateau Patache d'Aux, Medoc ripe fruit, sweet vanilla and pepperiness. It feels easier-drinking with good grip and length.

The 2000s
2000 was another good year for Bordeaux and a good, well-cellared 2000 Cru Bourgeois is perhaps now just at full maturity.

Patache d'Aux, Medoc looks much younger than its decade-plus in the glass, just some slight paleness around the rim. Smells older though and a slurp reveals it has cork taint.

Chateau Bernadotte again, surprisingly youthful in the glass; complex, aged nose. Lovely blackcurrant fruit and vanilla.

Chateau Lanessan ageing and starting to tire, this one - fruit has become more rosehip, but acidity still lovely.

Recommended Wines

Of the 2010s, the style and quality was quite uniform. But if I had to pick one, it is the Gironville for its ripe tannins and lots-of-everything-ness.

It was hardly a fair fight between the 2000s, but the clear winner was the Bernadotte.

Other related articles
An Evening of Aged Bordeaux Wines
Troplong-Mondot Magnum, 1998
A 5th Growth Bordeaux from The Co-op
Affordable Right-Bank Bordeaux from Cambridge Wine Merchants
Rousseau de Sipian 2005, Haut Medoc

Links
Crus Bourgeois - website, twitter
Phillips-Hill PR - website, twitter, Facebook
Bordeaux Wines - twitter (main), twitter (UK)

Image credit: side pictures courtesy of the Crus Bourgeois website.

Adank at The Cambridge Tasting‏

I kicked off The Cambridge Tasting with six wines from Swiss producer Adank.

I had met Patrick Adank whose father makes the wines in German-speaking eastern Switzerland in Cambridge last year with fellow Cambridge wine blogger, Davy Kurniawan.

Based in the village of Fläsch on the border with Liechtenstein and in the foothills of the alps, Patrick had explained how they make international white varieties and mostly Pinot Noir for the reds.

With the snow falling outside and the heating in Downing College turned up to "institutional" levels, we had chilled the whites simply by popping them outside.

The most-planted Swiss white variety is the relatively-obscure Chasselas, but we had the international Sauvignon and a Chardonnay to try.

Both were, I thought, well-made and very interesting - with good fruit expression, textural interest and sense of individuality, blending modern and traditional.

Both were also liked by fellow Oddbins blogger, Paola Tich who is not generally a fan of generic Sauvignon and clunky Chardies.

The Pinots were not well-liked by two of the more experienced tasters in the room who felt they lacked fruit and "stuffing".

I found myself in the slightly odd position of speaking up for them (I somehow have not yet learnt to love Pinot); I approached them in terms of their acidity first, which I found to be quite good, as was the persistence.

I wondered whether the dislike stemmed from the fact that they fell outside of a standard PN pigeon-hole and, whilst not completely faultless, were perhaps as much "different" as "bad".

I spoke afterwards with late-arriver Matt Boucher who is a fan of German wines and he rather liked them, but noted that there was something of substance lacking on the mid-palate.

Some of the naysayers also suggested that the style was perhaps deliberately old school and rustic.

At the end of the tasting, I collected up all the leftovers and took them home. The Adank reds I thought improved with some air and showed more fruit - even after several days - so perhaps they did not show their best straight out of the bottle.

The final red, a Syrah, was light and pale - rather like a slightly darker version of the Pinots. I was unsure what to make of it at the tasting, but later I decided I rather liked its gentle, elegant softness.

2011 Fläscher Sauvignon Blanc pungent, aromatic, herbaceous nose; mineral, creamy texture. Long palate and good persistence.

2011 Fläscher Chardonnay ripe fruit, creamy buttery texture. Nicely-judged oaking, toasty. Feels elegant and very well-integrated.

2011 Fläscher Pinot Noir ripe cherry fruit and vanilla, touch of smokey spice, pleasant acidity.

2010 Fläscher Pinot Noir Auslese cherry and red berry fruit, a touch stalky with thinness on the mid-palate, but long acidity and reasonable persistence on the finish. A touch of spice develops but rather lacks complexity.

There were complaints at the time of this one being "hot, alcoholic and harsh" and "lacking fruit"; there is perhaps an element truth in all of those observations, but I don't feel that, taken alone, they adequately summarise the wine. And I think it improved significantly with aeration.

2008 Fläscher Pinot Noir Barrique the most complex of the PNs here. Again, not liked and described as a bit tired and lacking fruit.

2010 Fläscher Syrah translucent in the glass like the PNs, definitely not Rhône-esque.

Delicate fruits on the nose, some sous bois; spice and dark berry on the palate. Soft, gentle Pinot-esque texture, long on the palate with good acidity. Again, a touch of stalky astringency, especially on the finish, but otherwise quite elegant in style.

This was considered "fragrant but lacking complexity" which, again, I feel is not wholly representative.

Other related articles
Adank Pinot Noir Barrique 2010
Adank review by Vinoremus
The Cambridge Tasting
The Cambridge Tasting reviewed by Aoife Maxwell

Links
Adank - website, twitter

The Cambridge Tasting

Last weekend, I held The Cambridge Tasting at Downing College with the help of Davy Kurniawan.

It was a gathering of friends to try a range of wines that I thought might be interesting: mainly a mix of bloggers and trade, the idea was simply to taste our way through the wines and see what we thought - with the producers / their PR agencies on line for a tweet-up.

The Cambridge Tasting in numbers:

- 18 different wines
- three countries represented
- 16 tasters, a mix of bloggers, WSET students, trade, buyers and other enthusiasts
- 1 Cambridge College
- three tweet-ups and 4 twitter hashtags

The wines were from Adank in Switzerland, Crus Bourgeois 2010, with some 2000s from the college cellars for comparison and South Africa's 7Springs.

With a mix of experience levels and backgrounds, there was some interesting and often lively discussion. The consensus was that it worked very well as a format and should be repeated - with Davy heading off back to Indonesia shortly, the next one won't be at a Cambridge college, but at least one person offered to host some time.

I'll be writing up each flight of wines separately.

Attendees included:

- Davy Kurniawan
- Paola Tich
- Aoife Maxwell - who has already written up the event here:
- Caroline Biggs
- a number of Cambridge Wine Merchants buyers
- a number of Cambridge University Blind Tasting Society members

The Cambridge Tasting in Pictures

The Room - before any wine arrived.

The Adank Pinots - which caused quite a bit of discussion.

The 7Springs wines.

Finishing up.

Snow still falling as we leave.

Other related articles
Adank at The Cambridge Tasting
Crus Bourgeois at The Cambridge Tasting
Seven Springs at The Cambridge Tasting
The Cambridge Tasting by Aoife Maxwell

Links
Adank - website, twitter
Phillips-Hill PR - website, twitter
7Springs Winery - website, twitter

Colin Hampden-White: Exhibition Closing Party

Um, who owns the copyright in this image, I wonder

A digital photograph of a digital photograph: it's a copy and it's digital, but it's not a digital copy in the way that downloading an album to your iPhone is.

But it is not an analogue copy either - is there even a word for what it is ?

Analog, like analogous - meaning basically the same as but not identical. An analogue copy stored digitally, perhaps ?

On a more pragmatic level, who owns the IP rights in my photograph of the original ? Am I breaching the artist's copyright by reproducing a shot here ?

I hope not, because Colin Hampden-White was kind enough to invite me to his photography display at The Marylebone Hotel and I was not able to stay long at all.

To find out I'd also breached copyright would merely add insult to injury.

I had time to say hello to Colin, catch-up with a few friends, one glass of Moet fizz, quick view of the photos and then I had to head off.

There were to be whiskies later, partly in recognition of the following day being Burns Night, but I missed that part.

I'm not quite sure how best to describe Colin's winemaker and whiskymaker photos - perhaps an appropriate analogy (that word again) is a vintage blanc de blancs Champagne; they have an elegance, purity and brightness as well as a recognisable style.

They are balanced, instantly recognisable and well-constructed.

So far, so good.

But, for me, what they do not have is contrast, impressionism or a sense of the unexpected. Each shot, generally, is a well-lit, face-on colour portrait of a wine-make or domaine owner with a little of the winery in the background; but it feels very much like a "public face".

They are not, for example, intimate portraits showing deep-set emotions - rather, they are perfectly executed studies, technically precise.

Perhaps these are photos to fall quietly in love with: they generally eshew quirks - out-of-focus juxtaposition, unusual angles or contrasting light - but gradually we find in their bright positivity and elegance a reassuring comfort.

I later had a look at Colin's portfolio on his website - where I found much more of the sort of thing that I'm trying describe here: architectural structures contrasted with cloud formations, intriguingly-lit interiors with a sense of depth and movement, public icons caught intimately in real-life situations.

There are some really lovely and eye-catching images there.

Now, I hope that's enough to keep the IP lawyers at bay.

Other related articles
Whiskies for Burns Night - with Colin's recommendations
On Intellectual Property Ownership

Links
Colin Hampden-White - website, twitter
Greatest Winemakers
Greatest Whiskymakes