The Regent Semillon Chardonnay 2007, Australia - Laithwaites

Another mystery case wine from Laithwaites, this was described on the website as herbaceous, lemony and [with] slightly honeyed fruit ... a joy for sipping anytime.

The reality was somewhat different - heavy and old school, it was deep yellow colour with a waxy appearance suggestive of both plenty of Semillon in the blend and quite a bit of time in old oak barrels; full-to-heavy on the palate, it does go surprisingly well with smoked fish.

Overall, I was less than impressed with this wine, but the guests we had it with were more appreciative.

£5.49 (plus delivery).

Links

Laithwaites - http://www.laithwaites.co.uk/

XV Du President, Grenache, Côtes Catalanes VdP - Laithwaites

"Thunderously powerful vintage of the King ... pure fruit with a whack of 15% power!" announces the Laithwaites website - my own take on this southern French Grenache is a little more pedestrian; overcooked.

Côtes Catalanes, as the name suggests, is a lowly VdP in the Pyrénées-Orientales region of Languedoc in southern France where the late-ripening Grenache dominates; Grenache is a big Essex girl of a grape - up-front and blowsy, not very classy, but will generally show you a good time.

Baked, jammy and overcooked, with stewed plums, prunes and raisiny spice  - a bit like supermarket own label, oversugared blackcurrant jam.

I've had plenty of cheap and cheerful Grenache from Languedoc that I have really enjoyed, but I have generally paid around €5 from a decent French supermarket (see Wine-buying in France; Calais for more details).

At £7.99 (plus delivery) from Laithwaites, this wine feels overpriced as well as overcooked.

Links

Laithwaites - http://www.laithwaites.co.uk/

Grenache on Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenache

The Amasimi Kelder Reserve Chardonnay - Laithwaites

A good oaked chardie should be a mix of complex contradictions - ripe fruit and buttery, nutty oatmeal cut across with a zip of acidity, crisp toast and some spice.

Unfortunately, that is not what is on offer here with this South African Chardonnay from Laithwaites- yes, it's a pleasant-enough and reasonably well-made Chardonnay, but so what ?

On opening, there was some pear on the nose, good acidity on the palate, a touch of butteriness, but not much else - after about three hours in the decanter, it opened up into something a little more complex, but overall it seems to require an excessive degree of concentration to appreciate fully.

Overall, just a bit too subtle and restrained to be properly enjoyable - food matches would need to be equally light and neutral, lightly-cooked white fish or cream cheese.

£6.99 from Laithwaites (plus delivery)

Links

Laithwaites - http://www.laithwaites.co.uk/

Villa Quinziana, 2008 Squinzano - Laithwaites

This Laithwaites Negroamaro blend comes from the somewhat obscure Squinzano region in Puglia (the southern "heel" of Italy). Southern Italy is generally an area of increasing interest for up-and-coming value wines (rather like inland Spain and Languedoc) and is the spiritual home of the red Negroamaro grape which typically produces rustic wines combining perfume with an earthy bitterness

This wine, made by Cantina Due Palme (although it doesn't seem to appear on the company's website), is pleasant enough, suitable for quaffing, with fruit, a touch of spice and some sweet tobacco on the palate. Quite more-ish, it slips down easily, but lacks the tannic grip on the finish to make it a really good food wine.

Perfect if you are in the mood for something easy-drinking and unchallenging - as we were the other evening at the end of a weekend of serious wines - but the price is quite toppy for something like this, especially as southern Italy is supposed to be a value region.

According to the Laithwaites website, Assunta Maci of the famed Cantine due Palme winery is a great ambassador for Puglian and Italian wine as a whole ... the grapes for this wine come from a prime site of low-yielding, very old bush vines.

Pleasant, but middling, I'd say; it was provided by Laithwaites under their 100% satisfaction guarantee.

Food matches are not that easy, but pasta with a tomato-based sauce, some kind of stew or rustic sausages would probably work.

£7.99 from Laithwaites (plus delivery).

Links

Laithwaites - http://www.laithwaites.co.uk/

Cantina Due Palme - http://www.cantineduepalme.it/

More info on Squinzano DOC - http://www.italianmade.com/wines/DOC10281.cfm

Villa Mare 2008 - Laithwaites

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this Laithwaites Italian wine is that the grapes come from both the island of Sicily right to the south of Italy and the Abruzzi hills just outside Rome.

However, there's not much sense of place here; it's pleasant and thoroughly inoffensive, with plenty of juicy, red berry fruit - if a little jammy and baked - but reasonably well-made. Nothing to get upset about, but not that much to get excited about either.

It's only £4.99 a bottle (plus delivery), but I can't help feeling I'd rather shell out a couple of extra quid and get something I really liked.

It apparently has a Decanter World Wine Awards 2010 and a International Wine Challenge 2010; however, the Laithwaites website is rather coy about the exact level of award.

£4.99 from Laithwaites, I picked it up as part of a mystery case.

Links

Laithwaite's - http://www.laithwaites.co.uk/

A Riesling for the Zeitgeist: Klein 2009 Riesling Trocken, Pfalz - Naked Wines

I have been a fan of Austrian Riesling for as long as I can remember; it was more or less the first wine I really decided I liked - ripe, aromatic and mouthfilling yet minerally and bracingly dry.

Over time, I have also grown to love Chardonnay's more studied and technical complexity, but I immediately took to Riesling's thrillingly racy, slatey, minerally food-friendliness.

Unfortunately, not many places do Riesling as well as (or at least in the same full-and-ripe-but-dry style as) Austria, and German examples are typically lighter, gentler and have a hint (sometimes more) of residual sugar.

That is not always the case, however, and on a driving holiday in the Mosel a while ago, I found some excellent examples from Kirchengut Wolf.

This Klein Riesling is in much the same style as the Wolf wines, but comes from the Pfalz, further south than the Mosel where the wines tend to be fuller and fleshier. It is the first of a mixed case from Naked Wines and is completely dry ("trocken" on the label).

The Pfalz - or Palatinate - is the sunniest and driest of Germany's wine regions, although not actually the furthest south. It sits in the lee of the the Haardt Mountains, a continuation of Alsace's Vosges Mountains where vines have been cultivated since the first century AD.

Weingut Gerhard Klein is situated on the picturesquely-named Weinstrasse (wine street) in Hainfeld, not far from Cambridge's twin city of Heidelberg and has a tradition of wine-making going back 350 years. This Riesling, however, is thoroughly, thrillingly modern and in touch with the zeitgeist for racy, unoaked whites.

Focused and precise yet smooth
 - a BMW M5 engine

With a crisp, minerally nose, it is mouth-wateringly slatey on the palate with flavours of comice pears, cox apples and a hint of grapefruit. On the palate, there is great mouth-filling concentration, and it is as focused and precise yet smooth and well-balanced as a BMW engine.

With a long, crisp-yet minerally finish, this is very classy, sophisticated and extremely food friendly; potential matches include meaty or oily fish (tuna, mackerel or salmon), well-seasoned roast white meats (pork or chicken) and almost anything with a buttery or creamy sauce, as well as soft and pungent cheeses.

German Wine Regions:

Key:

1. Ahr
2. Baden
3. Franken
4. Hessische Bergstraße
5. Mittelrhein
6. Mosel
7. Nahe
8. Pfalz
9. Rheingau
10. Rheinhessen
11. Saale-Unstrut
12. Sachsen
13. Württemberg

According to the Naked Wines website, winemaker Peter Klein won the second place in Germany's Young Winemaker of the Year competition 2009. After tasting this, I'm not surprised.

£9.99 / £6.66 for Angels - provided for review.

Links
 
Naked Wines - http://www.nakedwines.com/
 
Weingut Klein - http://www.weingut-gerhard-klein.de/

Pfalzwein official site (English)  - http://www.pfalz.de/en/

Pavillon de La Brie 2009, Bergerac Sec

This was the last of a batch of Bergerac wines I was sent for review - the others being red, white, rosé and dessert - and I have been impressed with all of them (even the rosé !).

Bergerac is just up the road from Bordeaux and produces similar wines from essentially the same grape varieties - for sure, it has no first-growth Chateaux, but in the mid-range, where real people buy wines, quality is good, even if the area does not get written about much (my trusty Oz Clarke and Hugh Johnson wine books from various years give it little more than a few sentences).

This wine is a zesty Sauvignon Blanc, a grape variety which originated in Bordeaux long before becoming such a star in New Zealand. It shows typical, but restrained, herbaceous aromas of cut grass and nettles.

It's light, crisp and fresh, and matched well with a simple salad of mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, olive oil and aged balsamic vinegar.

For other food matches, keep the food light, simple and slightly herbaceous - goat's cheese and rocket, white fish poached with herbs or allow the crisp acidity to cut through smoked salmon or sushi.

£6.95 from Jascots - provided for review.

Links

Jascots - http://www.jascots.co.uk/

Vins de Bergerac - http://www.vins-bergerac.fr/CIVRB-INTRO/index.html