Cambridge Cracking Christmas Wines - Competition

Win tickets to the Three Wine Men's 2018 Cambridge Cracking Christmas Wines on November 10th

After the success of last year’s inaugural Cambridge Three Wine Men tasting, Oz Clarke, Tim Atkin MW and Olly Smith are back in Cambridge in November for this year’s wine extravaganza.

And they have three pairs of tickets to give away for the main tasting (midday - 3pm), including access to the Champagne Gosset Masterclass at 1:15pm

To find out more about last year's event, check this out.

To be in with a chance of winning the tickets, just let me know, via a comment on this post, what you are most looking forward to at the event and why.

For more details on this year's event, click here.

Pinot Noir 2016 (Mr Noir)

A film-noir Pinot from Virgin Wines

Who's the black private dick
That's a sex machine to all the chicks? (Shaft)
You're damn right

- Shaft, Isaac Hayes (1971)

Pinot Noir is a cool-climate grape that is very tricky to make into good wine; like a Prima Donna, it needs just the right conditions to thrive. Historically, that meant Burgundy and high prices.

Now the New World does Pinot and the windswept, coastal Mornington Peninsula in Victoria is Australia's ground zero for this most finnicky of grapes.

Like a blaxploitation private dick, this Pinot is darkly suave and effortlessly cool.

Mr Noir Pinot Noir 2016 (£11.99) black and red cherry fruit, spice and Burgundian farmyard-ness with a silky Pinot texture; bigger and more fruit-forward than a Burgundy, but very well made with a Burgundian elegance.

Good Value (for a Pinot).

Match with gamey foods, such as venison.

Matthew Jukes is also a fan of this wine:

Louis Jadot Macon Villages 2017

A white Burgundy for curry week from Louis Jadot via Tesco

October 9th to 15th is National Curry Week - and if you fancy a change to beer, here is a  wine that will stand up.

Louis Jadot Macon Villages 2017 (£13.05, Tesco) fresh and citrussy with ripe, appley fruit and good underpinnings. Well made and balanced.

This is a versatile Chardonnay with a bit of southern warmth that will match with many foods - in curry terms, go for something creamy such as a korma.

Trésor Cathare - IGP Cité de Carcassonne

Cathar Treasure - from Vignobles Foncalieu

Cathar Treasure is not merely a whimsical fantasy idea - it is a rich seam of religious and political intrigue with a whiff of heresy, violence and corruption thrown in. A sort-of medieval conspiracy theory for Romantic francophiles.

And if you have never visited the fortified city of Carcassone, you are missing out.

This Trésor Cathare from southern French cooperative Vignobles Foncalieu makes quite a statement for itself then - the question is does it deliver?

Fortunately it does - and then some.

Trésor Cathare, IGP Cité de Carcassonne, 2017 cassis and dark berries with inky pencil shavings and pepperiness. Ripe yet fresh and supple with fine, rounded tannins. Substantial, with excellent underpinnings. Deft, harmonious and very well made.

Improves with some aeration and will repay cellaring.

Very Good.

Match with roast red meats or hearty casseroles.

DJ's Cold Infusion Pockets

A new addition to your cocktail accessory collection

DJ's Cold Infusion Pockets are, if you will, tea bags for cocktails and mocktails; pre-blended mixtures of botanicals, blossoms, rooibos and tropical fruits in a bag for infusing into any drink of your choice, be it a neutral spirit, such as vodka, or non-alcoholic alternatives such as soda or tonic water.

Why?

If life's too short - or space too tight - to keep stocks of base spirits, flavourings, bitters, mixers, garnishes and other ingredients as well as shakers and strainers and those little mini-umbrellas, you will find a box of these much easier to work with.

How?

This is the really easy bit - you know how to make a cup of tea, right? Well, this is much the same, but without the need for a kettle. Just pop the tea bag (aka "cold infusion pocket") into a glass about a third full. Leave to infuse for a few moments and then top up with mixer and ice (and a bit more spirit if it's going to be that sort of party).

Does it actually work? Is it nice?

This is the key test and fortunately, the answer is yes on both counts. The tea bags - sorry, cold infusion pocket - need only a minute or two to work and each one will gently flavour several medium-sized servings of your favourite tipple.

Stirring Botanicals adds fruits, liquorice and bitterness, Summer Equinox is full of gentle berry fruit and Blooming Blossoms is delicate, floral and perfumey.

The only thing you have to worry about is the appropriate spirit-to-mixer ratio - which I find is actually harder than it sounds.

Anything else?

DJ's also do a cold infusion pocket spoon - not quite as ridiculous as it sounds (it's a spoon, after all) it has a little groove on the back to hold the label in place and keep the bag under control.

How much?

£9.99 for a pack of 10, or £89.00 for a 10-box pack. £7.99 for the spoon - via the website: https://coldinfusion.co.uk/shop/.

Marques De Valido Gran Reserva Rioja

An aged Rioja from The Co-op

Aged wines have a quality unlike any other - for wines, as for people, maturity brings a harmoniousness, quietly self-confident mellowness and a general smoothing-off of youthful earnest vigour.

Like Bryan Ferry or Mick Jagger, all the qualities that made them great in their youth are still there - handsome, mischievous and knowing - but with the self-assurance of a few grey hairs and lines.

Most wine is not made to be aged extensively before drinking and cellaring properly at home is tricky and expensive.So the opportunity to taste a properly mature wine is not one to be missed.

With a minimum of two years in oak and nine years' age in total, this is a mellow and harmonious wine that is ready for drinking now, but in no rush to be opened if you want to hang onto it for longer.

Marques De Valido Gran Reserva Rioja 2009 (£12.99) mellow oaky spice and aged leather with bramble fruits and coconut. Fresh, supple and very harmonious.

Good.

Match with classic roast lamb, or any other roast red meat.

Garçon Wines

Wine in a flat-pack bottle - from Garçon Wines

Wine is something of a conservative, old-fashioned business - each region has its own grapes, quality standards and labelling etiquette.

One of the few standard things about wine is that it is - generally - sold in 75cl bottles. And yet even these are bulky, brittle and awkward.

Step forward Garçon Wines who have designed a flexible flat-pack bottle to fit through the letter box and that won't break when it drops on the doormat, so you do not need to be at home for deliveries.

It's one of those ingenious solutions that make you wonder why no-one thought of it before.

And what of the wine itself?

Garçon Wines was set up by wine lover Joe Revell and serial entrepreneur Santiago Navarro who was responsible for Vinopic Wines. I was very impressed with Vinopic's wines (they were tested for technical quality by both a Professor and Master of Wine) but I felt their communications did not do justice to this.

For Garçon wines, they have enlisted the help of another MW who brings 15 years of experience in wine making, buying and retailing as well as an MBA in marketing.

Garçon Wines Tempranillo Carinena expressive with ripe-yet-fresh dark berry and bramble fruit, spice and supple, rounded tannins, with a slightly porty finish; well-made, it both drinks nicely straight out of the bottle and improves with a bit of aeration.

Match with roast red meat, such as lamb with rosemary or beef with horseradish.