Niepoort The Senior Tawny, Portugal

Brilliantly pitched port from Niepoort. In-between a tawny and ruby in colour - it’s going slightly rusty around the edges but still vibrantly red at heart. The nose is alive with juicy raisins soaked in good spirit (I’ve written calvados here, and I was definitely picking up a little apple), spicy agen prunes, pine resin and green peppercorn, all wrapped in a nutty light muscovado sweetness. The palate is quite open and sweet at first, then some grip and acidity builds and savoury nutty grip cuts through the pruney sweetness. That caramel flavour of brown sugar lingers with some bright, wild damson acidity. Complex stuff - an marriage of classic tawny flavours and fresher, more ruby-like fun.

Tarlant tasting at Bottle Apostle, Hackney

So we were down "the local" again last night to taste through the portfolio of this excellent medium-sized producer from Oeuilly in the Marne valley. I was pretty amazed that the little room wasn't filled up, as I really love doing single-producer tastings. It's another 'constant' that allows you to really focus on the differences in grape variety/production etc across a range of wines. It was also a first for me in being able to taste two base wines - the 2012, just weeks old, and the 2011, which has spent approximately 6 months in old oak and will become a reserve wine. Benoit Tarlant, the current winemaker, spoke of his philosophy of "no makeup" - his heart is in the zero-dosage or extra-brut style, and there wasn't a wine on show with more than 6 g/l residual sugar (by comparison Moet currently has 9 g/l and Nyetimber Blanc de Blancs 2003 has 12 g/l...but higher acidity...). I'm a convert, at least in the hands of this house, whose long lees-ageing certainly helps to keep the wines in balance without the flattery of sugar.

2012 Base wine - L'Enclume VineyardThis still has the pear-like sweetness of a brand-new wine, which will dissipate soon. Ripe red apple and clementine are lurking, with an attractive floral note. It's vinous and, as expected, bracingly acidic on the palate. Not giving away much, but a fascinating taste.

2011 Vin ReserveThe first thing that struck me in this was the wood influence - suddenly there's a layer of creamy vanilla sweetness that took me by surprise a bit. There's a touch of apricot here as well as the same appley vinosity that was in the 2012. I can compare it to tasting a curry at the start of cooking - one spice is maybe dominating, but after time it will subside and become integrated with the other flavours.

Zero Brut NatureEqual blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. The house's most widely-available wine, this spends 3 years on lees on average. Bags of character, with the sweet smells of bakers yeast and malt drawing you in at first, before the freshness of juicy whitecurrants, candied lemon, whiffs of mint and vanilla take over. It's like a cold shower on the palate, with the natural acidity cleansing out your mouth and filling it with a surprising depth of texture. The Brut Reserve is the same wine but with 6 g/l residual sugar made as an 'alternative' - Benoit made it clear which was closer to his heart.

Rose Zero Brut NatureThis caused a bit of a stir, with the room fighting over who got to take home the one bottle that was available! Benoit spoke of his many different trials with rose wines, and how, for his non-vintage, he settled on a blend of 85% Chardonnay with 15% still Pinot. This one is based on the 2007 vintage, so has a bit less time on lees and in the bottle than the standard champagnes to retain the freshness of the fruit. I picked up cranberries, rosehip and chalk on the nose here, with lovely red apple on the palate, which is fiercly dry and elegant. Not one to swill with your Quality Street on Valentines day, this - a steely, invigorating wine and one of the real hits of the evening.

Brut TraditionThis is almost a blanc de noirs, with just 6% Chardonnay making an appearance alongside a dosage of 6 g/l. Whitecurrant, peach skin and freshly baked patisserie here, though I can still recognise some of that deep, vinous apple fruit from the other wines. As expected, acidity dominates on the palate, with none of the fatness that can pop up in heavily pinot-dominated wines. Only made when the pinot are of excellent quality. A Tarlant take on this style of champagne.

Extra Brut Prestige 2000Benoit discussed his approach to making vintage wines, which is a very open-minded one - all winemaking decisions come as a result of the grapes that he gets. In 2000 Chardonnay managed to beat the storms and hails the most effectively, so this wine is 90% Chardonnay and 10% Pinot Noir. 9 years on the lees here, being disgorged in 2011. There's a fineness and subtlety to this wine that reveals itself quite slowly - beyond the baked apple fruit and lemon peel there are touches of fennel seed and turmeric, and a real sense of savoury presence on the palate, which finishes long with delicate vanilla. Tasting this makes me realise how much some of the flavours and aromas I associate with 'aged' champagne are really bottle-age aromas - the 9 years on lees here are all about depth of texture and gentle aromatic complexity. I'd love this even more after a few more years in bottle.

La Vigne d'Or, Blanc de Meuniers 2003A first for me - 100% Pinot Meunier from the very warm 2003 vintage. This is quite a special wine for Tarlant, from 62 year old vines from a single site in Oeuilly. 3 g/l residual sugar. The consice fruit definition of the other wines doesn't make an appearance here - there's a kind of ethereal richness of nougat and dried pineapple beyond the toasty weight of the nose, with a particularly sparky mousse characterising the palate. It's very attractive and individual, though it feels a little stubborn and two-dimensional compared to some of the other wines.

Cuvee Loius Extra Brut50% Chardonnay, 50% Pinot Noir. Blend of 96/97/98 vintages. This is also a single vineyard wine - the proximity of the Marne river regulates the growth of the vines here, insulating them against weather extremes and promoting the sort of slow, even growth that produces the finest flavours. The sweet fresh yeast aromas reach you from your glass 2 feet away, becoming finer as you dive in with icing sugar, juicy whitecurrants, candied peel, apricot and caramelised brioche, just going towards touches of wild mushroom savouriness. There's a real presence of quince and tropical fruit on the palate, which is nevertheless driving and fresh (as you would expect), finishing with a floral touch and real length. 12yrs on lees and 3g/l dosage make this the most opulent wine in the portfolio, but it's very keenly priced for a wine of this age and quality. Worth keeping for a few years too - it certainly has another decade in it.

Breaky Bottom Brut 2008, Sussex, England

100% sparkling Seyval Blanc from one of Sussex's oldest vineyards. Breaky Bottom have been growing this stalwart grape for over 30 years, and although more modern vineyards growing the champagne varietals have stolen the limelight over the last 10 years, I always sense a real soft spot for Breaky Bottom amongst English wine fans. It has been quite fashionable to knock Seyval recently, and it tends not to do too well in blind tastings next to the pinots and chardonnay (in this year's annual tasting of over 90 English wines organised by Stephen Skelton MW, Breaky Bottom's 2006 came in a respectable 21st as the highest-placed non-champagne varietal wine). My feeling about Seyval as a base wine is that it is never going to reach the heights that the champagne varietals can in a top vineyard and a good year, but it can be approachable younger and more reliable in poor vintages. Perhaps most importantly, I like it - it's not blowsy or pungent, it tastes of apples and herbs, and it doesn't tend to have the searing acidity that a young English chardonnay can have in a year like 2008. I hope that a few hardy souls will keep making Seyval wines.
This pours a very pale, green-tinted straw. It reminds me of a fine Blanc de Blancs at first with its lovely sense of icing sugar and macaroon, but moves on to reveal quite deep and vinous bramley apple and as well as hints of white pepper, vanilla and thyme, all under a gentle whiff of apple blossom. Very elegant style on the palate, as the patisserie flavours surround the core of tangy, clean ripe apple and fine acidity. It's not the most persistent in flavour or aroma, and in fact the effervescence was not the longest lasting in this bottle, but it is very attractive and certainly up there with the Camel Valley Brut (although made in a much more vinous, Loire-like style). 2008 was a pretty tricky vintage in the UK and this is much readier to drink than a raft of 2008s from Chardonnay in particular, even if they end up overtaking it in a few years.

Villa Schinosa Falanghina Spumante 2010, Puglia, Italy

A quick note on a pretty interesting wine picked up from Bottle Apostle (where else?) for £14. Falanghina can be a lovely grape - along with Greco and Fiano probably the best white grapes to be found in the south of Italy. The problem this part of the world has is heat - any white grapes have to be able to hold on to as much acidity as they can whilst the flavours develop in the grapes, otherwise things can get flabby and flaccid. Often you find a little bitterness or pithiness in these wines, which compensates to some degree for the lack of intrinsic, acidic bite.
For me, a sparkling wine devoid of acid is not much fun, but there was something about this bottle that intrigued me. I ended up really liking it, even though I was hankering for a rasping glass of English bubbly by the end. Lots of ripe yellow plum and toasted almond richness on the nose, with a little freshly baked bread, dried apple, lemon pith and even basil. Really lovely aromatically - a lot more complex and richer than I was expecting. It's quite soft and broad on the palate, with that pithy character keeping the sweet yellow plum fruit in check. It does work - it would actually be great for someone who claims not to like Champagne/cool-climate fizz (these people do exist apparently!). Or with sensitive teeth...no, it's well worth a try, and good value.

A trip to Sicily

Muscat at Planeta's Noto Winery, left 

A two week trip to Sicily was an opportunity not to be wasted on the vinous front, despite the other interested party being more interested in traditional attractions such as nature reserve beaches, fabulous pasticcerias and gelaterias and beautiful baroque towns (all of which I loved, of course). In the end, what we found is that wine tourism in Sicily is perhaps not as easy as we had thought it might be, with many producers not doing tastings for couples, or simply not taking in visitors. Good wine shops abound though, and we did come across some small vineyards really making an effort to get people in and sell direct (such as Feudo Ramaddini in Marzamemi).
After some time in Palermo and Scopello in the North, we headed down south to the Agrigento region, staying for a couple of nights at Francesco Cucurullo's Masseria Del Feudo as well as a lovely agriturismo called Baglio San Nicola. I'd reccomend stopping by Masseria Del Feudo if you're driving inland to try their Chardonnay, which I reviewed here a few months ago. It's quite a young vineyard with big ambitions - I also liked their melony, spicy Inzolia/Grillo blend. Francesco told me that he's going to be cutting down on barrel usage in the future for his top red, the Rosso Delle Rose, which seems like a smart move as Nero D'Avola from this region is not the big, structured wine it can be from the far South East.

We finished off our trip near the home of Nero D'Avola, in the beautiful countryside near Noto and the lovely Vendicari Nature Reserve (below)

Planeta have a fascinating winery near Noto, where they produce their flagship Santa Cecilia red. We went through a few wines from all over the island:
La Segreta Bianco 2011 Grecanino/Chardonnay blend. I always really like this wine, with its spicy melon and grape, dried apricot, and meadow flowers. Balanced weight on the palate.
Cometa 2011 Cometa was the first Sicilian Fiano. It has a very distinctive style, rich with skin contact and extraction. The dried mango, spice, unrefined sugar and vanilla flavours, together with the pithy extraction on the palate, present quite an idiosyncratic style. It does have some freshness and balance, but it's a bit OTT for me.
Cerasuolo di Vittoria 2010 40%Frappato and 60% Nero D'Avola. I love this style, with its fresh strawberry, red cherry and rhubarb, lip-smacking acidity and sappy elegance. Excellent.
Santa Cecilia 2008 Showing some lovely evolution of tobacco and pine alongside the bramble and prune fruit, with dried cherry and gentle savoury tobacco on the palate. This was less in-your-face than I remember this wine, with its elegant tannins and refined fruit. Worth seeking out.
I sensed a grudging respect for Planeta in Sicily - they're big, they're slick, and their wines are consistently good. In a country where modern wine tourism is just waking up, Planeta are ahead of the game.

A last mention must go to a wine I picked up in a little enoteca in the attractive town of Modica. Probably my favourite bottle from the trip. An interesting blend.
Vivera Terra dei Sogni 2009 Nerello Cappucio from Etna, with Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah from Corleone. Charcoal-tinged raspberry fruit on the nose, gently accompanied by red rose and cherries. The ripe red cherry fruit is supremely elegant on the palate, which has a a real mineral restraint and a rich seam of edgy acidity. Totally delicious.

As a postscript, I must say that we ate fantastically well on this trip. The following list represents all the components of one meal at the Agriturismo Baglio San Nicola:
Caponata, Arancinetti, Courgette salad, olive crostini, tomato crostini, local cheese, grilled marinated aubergine, couscous, frittata, potato bread, anchovy panino, 1L local Nero D'Avola, courgette and pancetta risotto, fennel and salsiccio pasta, chicken stuffed with couscous, local fruit. All, it must be said, top notch.

M&S Marksman Brut 2009, Sussex, England

This is a 100% Blanc de Blancs wine made by Ridgeview for M&S. This is unusual for an English sparkler in using a small amount of French Oak in the winemaking - I can't find any details but I'm thinking that perhaps a small percentage of the wine was fermented in a-few-years-old oak. On paper this is a risky thing to try and pull of with our nervy style of Chardonnay, but in this case it's more of a faint seasoning than a major player, and it really works.
The nose is all fresh red apples, ripe lemon zest, whitecurrants and the faint warmth of brioche dusted with vanilla sugar. There's a pleasing savoury thrust on the palate which for me is the main manifestation of the oak usage, and it sits very well alongside the tangy whitecurrant/apple fruit. As with many English sparklers it feels a bit 'tight' at this age and could do with more time in bottle - as the evening went on it started to uncoil a little bit. I'm going to pick some up and stick it in the cellar alongside a few other English goodies...

Michele Reverdito Nebbiolo d'Alba Simane 2010, Piedmont, Italy

Sometimes the first sniff of something switches all the lights on in your head. This is quite haunting, with its moody autumn fruits of loganberry, bramble and over-ripe cherries. What impresses is the complexity of sweet fresh figs, nutmeg-spiced orange peel and liquorice - really engaging. The palate is initially quite open with that lovely ripe autumnal fruit sweetness, though savoury grip and acidity build as it finishes long with gamey tones and bitter herbs. This is a beautiful wine - sometimes the tag 'mini-Barolo' can be very misleading for Langhe Nebbiolo wines which are simple and straightforward, but this is serious stuff that manages to be very drinkable young, Will improve for 3/4 years, but once that sweet perfumed fruit is gone it won't be worth it.