Only the sixth vintage of this classy blend of Cabernet Sauvignon with 10% Cabernet Franc. Medium ruby; on the nose you’re offered concentrated wild black cherry and bramble fruit, dark chocolate and a hint of violet, a suggestion of graphite perhaps? The palate is medium-bodied, fine-boned, ripe tannins, with black fruit, dried herbs and a cocoa dust and espresso finish. Elegant, structured, hugely accomplished and nicely refined. The estate’s knowledge of the sites and its implementation of state-of the-art vinification in its new winery is leading to smarter wines with great purity, Claret-like structure and elegance. The Helderberg has been described as the Pauillac of Cab Sauv in Stellenbosch, producing wines with slightly gripper tannins, richer profile and made for long ageing. The grapes are hand-harvested, cooled, destemmed and crushed in concrete tulip tanks. The wine is then aged for 22 months in 75% light toast 225l barriques, the wine
A modern celebration of Baga that is a great example of how far Portuguese wine has moved on in the past 20 years, Drink Me Nat Cool is an initiative instigated by top Portuguese producer Niepoort to produce light, easy-to-drink Portuguese wines – and how! Other producers are following in his wake but the first one is Drink Me, a glorious celebration of the Baga grape which, in this case, comes from 40-100 year old vines grown on clay. Very light in colour, a transparent deep pink, the nose is direct, bright, fresh and pretty with strawberries, potpourri, rose petals, and hints of marzipan and spice; in the mouth the wine is fresh and juicy with depth and minerality. Bottled unfiltered, with vinification and ageing in steel this is a pure, modern expression of a traditional wine that is just made for drinking – hence the name! Some would call
A new Vin Nature from Domaine de Montille, at the @LibertyWines tasting – first time the new French natural wine classification introduced last year has been used at this estate. Purple, fresh, dense, micro-fine tannins, lots of whole bunch with the intensity of the 2020 vintage. Really packed a punch - amazing this is Pinot!
Some of the highlights of lesser-known Bourgogne appellation wines shown by @thormanhunt last week
Wines from Fixin (pronounced ‘Fissin’) don’t get seen much here in the UK, but as for the whites from this lesser-known appellation, they really are as rare as hens’ teeth – with just 5 hectares of vines in the entire appellation devoted to Chardonnay. This wine, from ‘a producer to watch’ was complex, angular with a pleasant bitter edge. Tasted at the @liberty_wines tasting. @vinsdebourgogne #bourgogneweek
Stylish, balanced Chardonnay which marries well the ripe 2019 vintage with mineral-driven acidity from this lesser-known appellation in North Bourgogne. Part of the Chablis/ Grand Auxerrois region there are just 56 hectares grown here and, because it is not yet ‘on the map’ offers terrific value for money (£15.50 a bottle). Pale gold; bright aromas of summer hay, honeysuckle and white orchard fruit; On the palate you find honeyed spiced pear, ripe citrus balanced by fresh, crisp apple and taut acidity. The wine has a good deal of concentration, is surprisingly complex but has this thrilling core of acidity that holds the ripeness in place. Excellent value.
This 2020 Louis Latour Viré-Clessé is pale brilliant gold, the bouquet is pretty with floral notes (honeysuckle, acacia), light stone fruit (white peach), lemon balm and verbena; the palate is generous, ripe but balanced, a slight minty edge to the fruit which is overt in this sunny, dry vintage. There’s nothing not to like – so easy going you could put a straw in the bottle and pull your sun hat over your eyes. Viré-Clessé is a lesser known appellation in Bourgogne that is as straightforward as the wines which are made there – white wine only with no 1er cru sites, it is a reliable introduction to the wines of the Mâconnais region, the most Southern end of the region. Viré-Clessé was formed in 1999 with the merging of two appellations Mâcon-Viré and Mâcon-Clessé. You can feel the sun in these wines, the fruit is ripe and the mouthfeel
Think of Mâcon as a whites-only appellation and you would be wrong. True, for every one bottle of Mâcon rouge this, the most Southern end of Bourgogne, makes ten bottles of Mâcon blanc, but the reds can be great fun and amazingly good value. The reds here can be a blend of Gamay and Pinot Noir and good examples like really are the archetypal brasserie wine – likeable young, they are joyous, fleshy wines that have great acidity that are the perfect accompaniment to a board of charcuterie or an onglet steak with braised endive. Louis Jadot’s Mâcon is 80% Gamay and 20% Pinot Noir; on the eye the wine is light ruby with purple edging coming from the Gamay; aromas are of red fruits – strawberries, redcurrants and raspberries – quite intense in this fruity vintage; the palate is fresh, juicy, fruity but with real vivacity and an acidity
2020 is a vintage in Bourgogne where you don’t need to be spending big bucks on 1er Cru and Grand Cru wines. This was a small selection of highlights from today’s Charles Taylor tasting - all wines from lesser known appellations - or wines from appellations with an additional geographical denomination. @vinsdebourgogne
Pure, light-bodied, unoaked style of Mâcon with terrific finesse and great value for money. Pale gold; elegant nose with pure fruit aromas – honeydew melon, white peach – and a lemon blossom note with just a hint of wild fennel. Refined on the palate, the wine has lean citrus acidity with a buttery, oak finish enlivened by a crunch of tart pineapple. Delightful. Even though this is one of the more expensive Mâcon Uchizy wines at £13.85 a bottle this is amazing value. Mâcon Uchizy is what is referred to as an ‘appellation with an additional geographical denomination’. Part of the most Southern part of Bourgogne, it is just 46 hectares of vineyard, split across five producers making exclusively white wines. @vinsdebourgogne
Lovely example of a Rully white that ages so well – getting more golden and rounded with age. Pale-medium gold; the bouquet offers ripe lemon, honeysuckle, almond and a buttery-oak touch; On the palate there is concentration and depth of flavour with ripe Sicilian lemon, quince, some exotic fruits, a lovely thin-grained texture and an immensely long finish. Lots of fruit and ageing very gracefully. A great advert for Bourgogne Chardonnay and a great advert for the standard of wine you can get from Rully, a ‘lesser-known’ appellation in the Côte Chalonnaise. A great match with the Sunday roast chicken. Expect more like this during the week as it is Bourgogne Week in the UK, celebrating the new 2020 vintage. @vinsdebourgogne
Winemaker and terroir evangelist Telmo Rodriguez released the 7,000 bottles of his inaugural Yjar 2017 through La Place in Bordeaux, the first Rioja to be sold down this route. If, like me, you rate his Remelluri Blanco as one of the world’s great white wines then make a beeline for this young, clean and modern 3.8-hectare, single-vineyard cuvée from the limestone foothills of the Sierra de Toloño in Rioja Alavesa and made from a massal selection of Tempranillo, Graciano, Garnacha, Granegro and Rojal. The wine manages to tread that difficult line between rich, dense and concentrated and beautifully fresh and elegant, with a wonderful depth and complexity that works now and will work for many years to come. There are a ton of flavours and aromatics that are precise, impactful and merge brilliantly to create a sense of a place where the wine was made and where you wouldn’t mind
A crisp, elegant, value-driven white blend of Trebbiano, Pecorino, Passerina and Malvasia grown on clay soils 300m up in the Falerio region of Central Italy. Limpid; orchard fruit, hint of aniseed on the nose; light to medium body, with a good balance between a rich, mouth-filling fruity roundness cut through with keen acidity and a zesty lime flesh acidity, keeping everything in check. Good to have a wine that’s 12.5% abv
Quality premium Pinot Grigio made from Cantina Tramin’s best vineyards on 450m hills that will challenge most people’s preconceptions of what a Pinot Grigio should taste like – this is rich, complex with exquisite finesse, and deliciously different. To look at, the wine is pale gold, the bouquet offers aromas of ripe orchard fruit, white peach, with an attractive floral, honeysuckle lift and meadow herbs; the palate is well poised between ripe honeyed fruit and tightly reined in – which is what you expect from Alto Adige/ Sud Tirol with its South facing, mineral rich slopes and cool nights that preserve the acidity in the fruit. Quality wine with a very classy label from a union of families/ ‘cooperative’ in Alto Adige.
It’s not for nothing that James Sucking has said of this hedonistic 100-pointer Chianti Classico Gran Selezione that it is “perhaps the greatest Chianti Classico I have ever tasted.” It doesn’t put a foot wrong and is so complete an expression that it is quite mind-blowing. It’s such a credit to Francesco and his team that in this, only the fourth vintage of the wine, it is already arguably the best Chianti Classico money can buy. To look at the wine is light, ruby-red, transparent; there is a slightly retiring bouquet but, as it opens, it offers a number of cherry notes, along with sweet tobacco, wet Tuscan clay, red liqourice, raw beef, all simply in harmony; the palate is extraordinary, a perfect balance to the wine with everything in its right place – fruit profile, tannins, structure, texture, acidity, juiciness. It’s like the highest house of cards with not
Classic and very classy Bordeaux blanc that really shone in the 2019 vintage and looks good to drink now or any time over the next 20 years. Both aromatically and on the palate this wine offers so much and seriously good value given the standard of winemaking. To look at, the wine is medium yellow; the pretty bouquet offers honeysuckle, pollen, lemon peel and gooseberry, with a richer honeyed/creamy note with time in the glass; on the palate the wine is light to medium weight, with a slight oiliness but lovely acidity and balance to carry the baked orchard fruit, orange peel, lemon zest and saline. Structured with some power but it all hangs together effortlessly and superbly well.
Jansz is synonymous with freshness and this 2015 vintage shows why major players like Penfolds are increasingly sourcing fruit from Tasmania to get the acidity that is becoming harder to find on mainland Australia. This sparkler is a blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, partially barrel-fermented with over four years on the lees, it has a gorgeous depth through having had extra time in the bottle. Pale to medium gold with a fine bead; the bouquet has citrus zest, brioche, toast, seaweed and lemon curd; the attack is clean, fresh, precise and detailed with complex flavours of red berry pavlova, white peach, pistachio nougat, tarte au citron. The wine is structured with impressive acidity and great balance. Fabulous and great VFM
The influence of Petrus’s Jean-Claude Berrouet is already being felt in this Saint-Estèphe property that is reaching truly great heights now and is becoming a real sleeper with every vintage. This is a stunning wine; to look at: opaque, deep ruby with cherry red edging; the nose is slightly shy at first and then reveals complexity and layers of black cherry, camphor, cedar, sweet tobacco, spice and crushed stone. The palate is medium to full weight, an intense core of beautifully judged dark fruit – ripe but constrained by chalky, fine tannins, saline. Dark, powerful and vibrant, classic really.
Winemakers Graça Gonçalves and Gregory Viennois are big fans of the Northern Rhône, so this is very much a Portuguese version of a Rhône-style blend of Syrah with 4% Viognier added for fleshiness and floral aromatics – the wine aged in new French oak for 18 months and 15 months in bottle. The aromatics are refined and alluring, with summer pudding (red and black berry fruit), toasty oak, cracked black pepper; in the mouth the wine is medium weight, fresh and elegant with velvety tannins, micro-fine texture and a pleasing redcurrant edge to the raspberry, plum and wild bramble fruit. Great balance, lovely acidity with a mineral drive at its heart and a dry river stone finish on the tongue. From the Lisboa wine region.
Idiosyncratic Burgundian-style – 11 months in wood, 6 months in tank – with this excellent new addition to Giraud’s already impressive range. 100% Pinot Noir, it boasts summer pudding on the nose, red plum, apple tart, a hint of wild mint and spice. The palate is rich and creamy, an ample mouthfeel, shot through with a bright acidity that brings poise and makes drinking quite effortless. Dosage is 6 g/L, disgorged July 2020
