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.

El Maestro Sierra Fino, Jerez, Spain

Serious sherry is one of the bargains of the wine world. I love it. It is similar to champagne in that a lot of the interesting flavours come from the winemaking process rather than from the primary flavours of the grapes. Both wines offer flavour experiences you don't get any other way, and in both cases you have big houses producing dependable, consistent styles and smaller producers going their own way with exciting results.
This is quite extravagant on the nose for Fino, with seville orange and pithy lemon fruit, the lightness of meadow flowers, sea air and fragrant almonds/cashews all emerging from the quite deeply-coloured liquid. Real weight on the palate here, with fine ripe citrus acidity and intense, savoury grip coupled with floral dimension and the tang of salty cured meat on the finish. Long, ripe, bold Fino, and much more than an aperitif - this is serious food wine. Think pot-roast chicken with honey, saffron, pimenton (and sherry of course, but I'd get something a bit humbler for the cooking....)

Laurent -Perrier 2002 Champagne, France

This is always one of the most readily available of the Grande Marque vintage wines, and is quite often found 'discounted' at between £30-35, which is a fair price for it really. Quite expressive nose here, with red.currant, baked apple and lemon macaroon. It's savoury and citrus-led on the palate, with slight bitterness building towards the finish in this bottle - to me this bitter/pithy elements dominate, and the palate feels a little inelegant. I must confess that I'm not 100% convinced about this bottle, as I was expecting something much more complete. Your experiences of this wine?

The wines of Max Ferdinand Richter at Bottle Apostle

Last Thursday I was excited to attend a tasting with Dirk Richer, owner and winegrower (not 'winemaker'! ) of Max Ferd. Richer, one of the top estates in the Mosel. A Richter wine was one of my first really good Mosel Rieslings - it was the 1998 Graacher Himmelreich Spätlese, and I still have the empty bottle. I obviously enjoyed that wine, almost a decade ago, but there were some equally memorable wines on show at this tasting, including an unforgettable Eiswine....
Dirk Richter spoke of the history of the Riesling vine in the Mosel, and how the long season, slate soils and unique topography of the Mosel valley allow the vines to ripen their fruit perfectly, despite day-to-day weather conditions being similar to the southern counties of the UK. Thanks to all the folk at Bottle Apostle for another top tasting - get in touch with them if you'd like some of these wines. Here are my notes.

Riesling Classic 2011 TrockenThe relatively-new classic designation for off-dry wines is a useful one, with Mosel wines carrying this designation having under 15 g/l residual sugar and a minimum alcohol level of 11.5 %. This was quite heady and expressive with ripe white peach and clementine fruit on the nose, going in an almost tropical direction with touch of banana skin (sounds odd but it was there, and I liked it!), and a perfumed, almost rose-like floral lift. If those don't sound like classic Riesling descriptors, then the palate might seem more recognisable with its fine balance and weight, invigorating tangerine fruit and light spritz. Lovely stuff

Zeppelin Mülheimer Sonnenlay 201110.5% alcohol. Less fruit-led than the Classic, with a precise lime, floral honey and white pepper nose. A touch more sweetness is evident on the palate, with finishes with some attractive citrus pithiness. Less definition on the palate than the Classic for me, and a slightly lower refreshment value.

Brauneberger Juffer Kabinett 20119% alcohol (all the Kabinetts are around this level). Elegant restraint on the nose, with its sweet honeysuckle, clementine and peach juice framed by lightness and precision on the palate. 7.6 g/l acidity, 57.5 g/l residual sugar. Will be excellent in a few years.


Brauneberger Juffer Kabinett 2009Dirk described this as a 'perfect' vintage. Apricot, ripe red apple and sweet meadow flowers on the nose here, with that lime-cordial-turning-to-kerosine aroma that I love in good Riesling just starting to add some weight and complexity to the nose. The roundness of the mouthfeel is quite evident, the palate feeling generous but still balanced by 9.1 g/l acid. Lovely grip on the finish.

at the moment.

Brauneberger Juffer Kabinett 2008Seems to have developed faster than the 2009 - I'd describe it as lime marmalade on just-burnt toast, with a sprinkle of white pepper. There's a delicious sense of minerality and savoury depth on the palate, yet that fresh balance of tangerine fruit sweetness and acidity is still the spine of the wine. More angular and developed than the 2009, but at this moment I prefer it.



Baruneberger Juffer - Sonnenuhr Auslese 2006Moving on to the sweeter styles, the golden yellow colour of this wine precedes a nose of rich candied pineapple, tangerine, pink grapefruit, lime cordial and barley sugar. Those crystalline fruits give the palate a lovely broad richness, yet, as you would expect, the acidity keeps it clean as a whistle as it finishes very long with tropical dried fruits. Still very primary, but this will be delicious in 10 years +!
at the moment, + in time

Graacher Dompropst Riesling Auslese 1992A treat to taste this currently unavailable wine. The heady, kerosine-edged nose carries a little savoury cheese rind and flint/smoke along with preserved stone-fruit and lime cordial aromas now. It is undoubtedly still very fresh, with impeccable balance, the sweetness 'drying out' over time (Dirk's words) and leaving us with quite a feminine, delicate wine in this case. Very striking


Mülheimer Helenenkloster Riesling Eiswein 2003Well we were lucky to taste this, for sure. Everything is magnified in this fabulous wine, its nose exploding with candied tropical fruit, dried mango and apple, marmalade, and ginger spice. Tremendous concentration and opulence on the palate, each mouthful evolving kaleidoscope-like as you drink it as those crystalline fruit move though honey, barley sugar, lemon peel and spice. Staggering and unforgettable now in what is still a fairly primary stage - I'm sure it will continue to impress over many years.
My first in 50 or so posts this year on Bunchpressed.

A little update on 2012 in Kent so far

It seems like every year in England is extraordinary in some way; some month or other is always the hottest, or the coldest, or the wettest in living memory. Last year, it was a freakishly cold August. This year, after one of the warmest Marches ever, we had the wettest April for 100 years and an abject May-June period (save for one hot week). It has been winter and summer on and off (although mostly winter), which, I suppose, added together gives you something like spring. Here are the vines I look after in Kent last weekend (the 11th June 2012)


The wind over the last few weeks has really tested the new shoots, and together with some very heavy rain there is a small amount of bruising at the tips. Not too much to worry about, though - last year we had hail at the beginning of June that heavily bruised the vines and damaged early flowers. 2012 has got off to a hairy start, though without the warm March and hot week during May we would be behind schedule enough to be worrying about having enough growing season left...
Just to get an idea of the relative progress this year, here are the vines at the same stage of maturity in 2011, almost a full month earlier on the 15th May 2011


We had a scorchingly dry start to the year - in fact, by the time of fruit set, I was worried about drought stress. The vines were will in flower by the end of the 1st week of June.
Finally, here is a picture of them just coming into flower on the 26th June 2010. This is about where I expect them to be by the end of June this year. Flowering at the end of June is what we want to stand the best chance of avoiding wet/cold/windy conditions during fruit set. If the fruit sets, there will be wine (unlike last year...)!

Tessari Soave Classico 'Le Bine Longhe' 2009, Veneto, Italy

Soave is consistently one of my favourite white wines from Italy. It's also quite a difficult wine to generalise about, because it ranges from dilute plonk, through elegant, mineral seriousness to tropical, nutty richness. A lot depends on site and yield, with many producers bottling single vineyard wines costing upwards of £15 per bottle in the UK. This looked like a good buy at £13 - especially when I noticed on the back the words 'parziale appassimento'. This means that the grapes were given an extended hang on the vines to dry out and concentrate.
The style of the wine bears this out, with quite extroverted dried mango, apricot danish, toasted almonds, candied citrus peel and meadow flowers on the nose. That tropical plushness is there on palate, but it's far from blowsy, balanced out by pithy ripe lemon classic savoury nut flavours on the finish. It's the impact and depth of flavour that really impresses me here - I have a big soft spot for this style so long as it's all in balance.