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Waving the flag for the UK at #Eurovision with this bright, zingy, ultra fresh, slightly tart and very dry English dry Rosé from #Folc @drink .folc who have been championing premium English Rosé for the last five years thanks to its founders, @elisha_folc and Tom Cannon. This 2022 vintage is packed with acidity, flies around the palate and is a very welcome difference to the homogeneous, fruity Provence roses that dominate the category. Its a blend of nine grape varieties: all sourced from family-run vineyards in Kent, East and West Sussex, and Suffolk, including Pinot Meunier, Pinot Noir, Pinot Noir Precoce, Bacchus, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, and small amounts of Ortega, Rondo and Reichensteiner. The Cannons are also keen to make a sustainable wine and the new Folc’s bottle is made from 100% recycled glass and claims to have a 42% lower carbon footprint than non-recycled glass, with all its packaging also
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From one Coronation to another. Thanks to @chateausiran for opening this bottle at lunch yesterday to toast Queen and future King. The wine was almost past its tertiary stage - everything you might expect from a 70 yo Claret - but the acidity was still there rock solid.
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Bright, crisp, dark fruits, plums,crunchy on the palate, nice fresh acidity and a wine that can work with a myriad of dishes and going to work well with Easter Sunday Roast Lamb. Good example of what Cotes du #roussillonvillage AOP can do named after an indigenous flower that apparently retains its structure and colour long after picking. All of which also comes through from this old vine wine made from a blend of century-old Syrah, Mourvèdre Grenache & Carignan. Hides its chunky 14.5% abv very well. Made by @liamsteevenson MW and @balthazarphwine Benoit Bousquet using traditional winemaking skills to bring out rustic Roussillon for #Bousquet &Fils @immortellewines @vineyard_productions #wine #frenchwine #sommeliers #winetasting RS
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Austria is in a very good place right now viticulturally – there’s an energy here and a wisdom about the best way to do things – for the wines but also the long-term health of the soil. There’s also real dynamism about grape varieties used – brilliant Grüner, Riesling and Blaunfränkisch of course, but also many more besides like this stunning Pinot Blanc from a quality-driven family of 5th-generation winemakers. All their wines are good but special mention goes to their Pinot Blancs of which there are three, the “Alte Reben” coming from 90 year old vines, the fruit rests for three days on skins and is part vinified in large oak and amphora. Greenish-yellow, ripe and rich with Williams pear, orange zest, green tea – plenty of power here but finesse and balance at the same time. Outstanding.
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One of only 10 Masters of Wine actually making wine and the only one in South Africa, Richard Kershaw is fastidious about individual clones and vineyard plots. This outstanding Clonal Selection Chardonnay is a case in point – with fruit sourced from four clones in 11 sites with each batch vinified separately. He's making wine in Elgin whose cool climate gives great natural acidity to ‘tip the needle’ towards Burgundy. This is clean, precise, elegant with a refreshing 13.5% ABV and white fruit profile, teamed up with a mineral charge that keeps perfect balance. There is decent breadth – it’s not lean – and I liked it a lot.
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There’s not many times in your life when you utter the words “The Romanée-Conti please” as the sommelier pours you a sample. The 2020 is an extraordinary wine that expresses itself as the most perfect manifestation of a Pinot Noir that is possible to make - impressive given how hot the vintage was (Burgundy’s hottest ever). Massive, beautiful power with an effortless confidence – fresh, vinous, pure, complex, rounded, delicate, layered, savoury – a mass of beautiful contradictions that meet with utter harmony and balance in your mouth. “Everything is perfect” my notes say – both as a descriptor of the wine and a state of mind. The Nadia Comāneci of Pinot.
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Intense, inky dark (largely) Bordeaux blend from Bolgheri DOC that delivers good power and VFM. With 50% Merlot you expect fruit and the wine delivers ripe, black damsons and blackcurrant by the spade but with 30% Cab Sav and equal measures Petit Verdot and Syrah you also get a wonderful complexity and layers. The nose has tobacco, balsamic, bitter chocolate, while the initially warm, open palate has a tension and texture and a young (slightly green) tannic grip which manages to balance the wine well – there is a freshness which belies its 14.5% ABV. Intense yes, concentrated yes but also well put together – with or without food.
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Under-the-radar, natural and biodynamic Bordeaux blanc made in Barsac from a blend of 90% Semillon and 10% Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle grapes vinified in cement. The nose is complex and offers honeysuckle, wild meadow flowers, sweet Comice pear; the palate is at first quite lively, mineral-charged then has a waxy ripe citrus mouthfeel with hints of papaya. Delicious, fresh, gastronomic and worth seeking out.
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Hundred Hills, Blanc de Noirs 2019, With this extraordinarily good 100% Pinot Noir from a boutique winery in Oxfordshire there’s no denying that English sparkling really has come of age – the quality of the fruit and winemaking is right up there. The wine is sourced from a single South-facing plot, the grapes having 100 days hang time in what was a long dry vintage. Everything is in its right place. Vigorous bead, tiny bubbles, the aromatics are heaven-sent, complex with red berries and ripe orchard fruit, meadow flowers, raspberry Mivi, shortbread; the attaque is sharp and incisive, broadening with a youthful and ample creamy mousse on the palate – delicious layers of flavour that reflects the nose but also has a distinctive red apple note and ripe nectarine. The acidity is firm, structured, cleansing with a lovely balance between crisp, clean and dry on the tongue and deliciously ripe
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A truly great wine that’s in the sweet spot of its drinking window. Complex, fresh aromatics has candied lemon, peppermint and a hint of white truffle; the palate is taut, fresh and brilliantly balanced with tart au citron, yellow grapefruit, saline, white flowers and an incredible length. A great Sancerre.
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Good start to the year and one to bookmark for Chinese New Year. Wonderfully bright, fresh, Chardonnay from @xige_estate high up in the Helan mountain terroir of the exciting #ningxia Chinese wine region. Close your eyes and this could be straight out of Burgundy. So clean on the palate. Crisp acidity. Fresh as a mountain stream. Exciting premium Chinese wine. As China opens its doors again this could be the year for China to catch up some lost ground for exports too. You can explore the full range with @propeller .wine that has exclusive UK distribution. Ideal for indy wine merchants and premium restaurants. Very impressed. RS @westburycomms @christellechene #chinesewine #sommeliers #wine #winetasting #winemerchants
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Stellar vintage of Comtes from the sunny 2012 growing season. On the eye the wine is light yellow with green highlights, tight fine bead; gorgeous aromatics – surprisingly complex and evolved for a new release – with a touch of reduction, a light brioche, toasty note and white field mushroom combining well with a chalky freshness and lemon zest. In the mouth the Comtes has a crisp attack, ample mousse, bright acidity that soon fleshes out to lemon curd, orange oil, creamy orchard fruit and butteriness. The finish is beautifully balanced, refreshing and rounded. Will develop into a gem but drinking superbly well right now.
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Classic Chateau d’Issan with greater complexity and layers on account of it adding Cabernet Franc (3%), Petit Verdot (2%) and Malbec (1%) into the blend for the first time in its history (all three grapes from plots acquired two years ago from Pontac-Lynch). There is also less Cab Sauv in the blend (55%) than there was in 2019 on account of the reduced yield. (Merlot makes up the rest) Although it has another six years to really get in its stride there’s a lovely balance between intense richness and freshness – the tannins are oh so elegant and smooth, with just that little bit of sinew on the long finish. At this stage the nose is all about black and blue fruits, violets, just a hint of cigar box; the palate is layered and lively, concentrated and fresh, notes of blackcurrant berries, currants and damsons dominate. Really quite wonderful.
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Stunning Bruno Paillard Blanc de Blancs – sleek and fresh – from a less fruity and ‘obvious’ vintage than the 2012 and sourced from two Grand Cru villages only. Medium yellow gold with green highlights; vigorous fine bead; the nose is far more complex than at first appears and evolves in the glass: at first you find bright ripe apple, citrus and a chalky freshness; then other hints start to appear - candied lemon, apple blossom, butter pastry, nut shells, smoke; the attack is crisp, tense, evolving in the mouth, layered, taut with a citron pressé note. Despite its tautness there is good balance here, with a fine, elegant ripeness to the fruit. Really clean, lean, focused and precise – and a wine that will last decades.
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1982 was a classic vintage, of course, but also the start of the renaissance of Bordeaux wines. This fully mature 2nd growth, opened as part of a Léoville Poyferré 100th anniversary tasting was in a sweet spot, holding up so well and still with years ahead of it – so fresh and nicely poised is the acidity/ balance with the fruit hanging in there. Brickish red; the aromas are tertiary with cassis, tobacco, mushroom, soy, wet earth; the mouthfeel is fresh, silky smooth with sweet cassis to the fore and a eucalyptus twist on the finish. There is structure still with good balance, a sturdy core of acidity holding the wine together and maintaining delightful freshness. A stunning example of elegant, well-aged claret. Interesting was how much it changed in the glass. It was opened an hour before tasting (and not decanted) it was so full of life, then died
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Louis Roederer Collection 243, the second release of Roederer’s re-incarnation of Brut Premier – a numbered, multi-vintage release based on the 218 vintage (60%) complemented by reserve wines from a ‘solera’ established in 2012, 10% aged in oak. It’s a smart idea and, like the inaugural 242 last year, has its own identity - more voluptuous compared to the more high-toned 242. Pale gold, energetic, fine bead; Inviting aromas of lemon tart, orange peel, all-butter pastry, stone fruit, white flowers and cream soda; there is a leesy breadth to the nose which, like the palate, is surprisingly complex; After a crisp attack the mid-palate has a luxurious mouthfeel – pillowy with considerable breadth and roundness with a textured, saline finish. On the way there are bright fruits and acids, a nuttiness, with a cleansing crispness on the upper palate. Excellent.
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Here’s a lovely, easy drinking but also pretty grown up wine from the @YarraValley’s @yeringstation Victoria’s oldest producer with vines dating back to 1838. Not sure how many of those are in this The Elms Pinot Noir but at around £10 in @Waitrose it has got lots of savoury red notes and lovely freshness topped with a bit of spice on the tongue and a long elegant finish that would do very nicely against a Friday night pizza. This is the sort of Burgundian style Pinot Noir that the Yarra does so well and is made by up and upcoming winemaker Brendan Hawker who missed out on a career in medicine to turn to looking after vines instead. He says Yering is investing in “precision viticulture mapping” so it can “hunt out” the right areas to pinpoint parcels of fruit for key wines such as this luscious Pinot Noir. There
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2020 was a warm vintage in Bolgheri and there’s a plumpness to the fruit alright but it never overpowers in this classy red primed for earlier drinking. To look at the wine is deep ruby red with purple-red edging; the blend is Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot – generous and ripe – but with a youthful grip to the tannins. On the nose you find ripe red fruit, cherries, redcurrant, a hint of cream and milk chocolate, a lift of violets. In the mouth the wine is approachable, ripe, structured, with a sinewy streak at the core which is crying out for a ragu sauce, at this early stage of its life, for balance. In terms of winemaking the wine is vinified in steel and concrete then aged in wood barriques – 25% new – for 12 months, then blended and finished with another three months barrique-ageing.
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Is white port Portugal’s ‘best kept secret’? More gastronomic than ruby or tawny and best served like a white wine. Kopke produces 1.5m litres a year across all categories and is arguably the leading brand. They still have this beautiful 1935 in barrel – made when Elvis Presley was born – and is bottled according to demand. Deep brown, drier style (81g r/s) with obvious complexity – dried figs, molasses and spice tin. The acidity is still a bright 5.2 and the alcohol (because of the evaporation over the years) is now 21.5% A true vin de meditation.
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Rosé 2021, Château Galoupet, Cru Classe de Provence Worldwide rosé expert Elizabeth Gabay MW says that she’s always attracted to a rosé in a non-clear bottle as it has a story to tell and is not playing the ‘pretty in pink’ game. This is certainly the case with this debut release from Möet Hennessy’s latest project in Provence, a premium barrel-aged rosé from a rediscovered house which has a long history, but which has undergone some radical rethinking. First, the glass is amber so that 70% of it can be made from recycled glass, there is also a second wine which comes in a flat recycled plastic bottle. In organic conversion, and under the helm of ex-Krug’s Jessica Julmy, the château is aiming to be a standard bearer of sustainability in the region. As for the wine it is very classy indeed and sits quite comfortably alongside the other premium
