Christmas Drinking

Despite the fact that I try to avoid sitting round the fireplace furiously scribbling notes on what we're drinking at Christmas, I thought I'd write a quick post on what I've enjoyed whilst the memories are fresh.
Christmas day started with glasses of Ridgeview's Marksman 2009, a piercingly refreshing Chardonnay-based fizz specially made for M&S by one of the most reliable producers in the country. A touch of French oak adds an almost imperceptible sense of sweetness and spice to what is a otherwise a lively, citrus and green-apple driven refresher. I'd like to keep this for a few years. The Gusbourne Estate Blanc de Blancs 2008 was a more immediate hit, with its ripe apple flesh and autolytic complexity a bit more evident and providing some substance. This is a classy wine that has plenty of improvement still to do.
The ritual gorging of lunchtime is never the best time to contemplate serious wines, but over the last couple of years we've enjoyed Rustenberg Chardonnay from Stellenbosch with the big event. You need enough zip to cut through the stuffing, with some spice and richness to match the buttery bird and crunchy potatoes, without spending the sort of money that makes you wish you could pay more attention. This always fits the bill. I like reds with my lunch, but it seems that I'm alone in my family in that respect.
The star of boxing day was Nyetimber's excellent 2009 Rose. This managed to be open enough to enjoy at this stage, even though it will undoubtedly gain a lot from some careful cellaring. That very English crabapple jelly and autumn hedgerow fruit was there, touched with a little rose petal fragrance and tangy redcurrants on the palate. The quality of the 2009 vintage is on show here in allowing such pleasure in youth - a real success.
Other things I enjoyed included the Paolo Leo Primitivo di Manduria 2010 from Waitrose, tempering the heat of southern Italy with an attractive fruit freshness, the fragrant, moreish Caorunn Gin from Scotland and a few drams of Lagavulin 16 here and there.  Just tonight to go and then it's back on the cranberry juice....

A Trip to the Wine Car Boot no.2 (and Sager and Wilde on the way home)

Last Saturday we took a leisurely (but quite lengthy) stroll from home in Victoria Park to an underground car park in Southwark for the second Wine Car Boot (see write-up of the first one here).
None of Grandma's porcelain figurines here; the event (tagline "Taste Your Way Out Of The Supermarket") is a chance for independent wine merchants to show that, for a few extra pounds, a trip through their doors can offer a lot more than a bemused wander down Sainsburys' wine aisle. My general impression was that the average RRP of the bottles on sale this time was a shade lower than last time, with an average price of just under £13, which seems about right.
Living close to Bottle Apostle and a couple of Borough Wine's outlets, we opted to taste some things from some more unfamiliar merchants. We found the big reds quite difficult at times as the wines were down at around 13-14C, so there are some wines that I think are better than they tasted at the time. To me, oak and sweet floral/confected aromas can seem over-obvious in reds at low temperatures as their true fruit quality doesn't really jump out until they're a bit warmer.
Here are notes on everything I tasted.

Sparkling
The hit here was actually the Adami Garbel Prosecco NV, at £16.50 from Planet of the Grapes (who pitched their wines at a slightly higher price-bracket, accordingly offering up three of our favourite wines). Full of sprightly red apple, delicate and sweet enough to be comforting without being floozy, I'd drink this over cheap champagne any day. That said, there were a couple of good grower champagnes on offer; we preferred the elegant texture, touch of pastry richness and spring-like pear and apple fruit of the Clos de La Chapelle 1er Cru, £23.50 from The Sampler to the quite primary citrus-driven Veuve Borodin Brut NV (£19.95 from Roberson). Both good value for the C-word, though I'd spend the £4 more on the first. There was also a quite wacky petillant Riesling from New Zealand - the Pyramid Valley 'The Body Electric' Sparkling Riesling at £15 from D Vine Cellars. A winemaking oddity from a very 'in' producer (and magicians with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay), this was a bit out of kilter as a reasonable amount of the residual sugar left at bottling had fermented under the screwcaps. It needed a bit of that sugar back as the acidity was now pretty prominent, and it was reductive to the point of verging on rubberiness. The trouble with this kind of re-fermentation in bottle is that it is highly unpredictable, so there could be good bottles and bad bottles.

White
Holly's Garden Pinot Gris, £12.50, from D Vine Cellars, was highly expressive wine from Victoria with very ripe apple and papaya coming to the fore, dustings of fennel and spice and a generous slug of vanilla and toast. The new oak element surprised me, but the wine can handle it. Recommended. Another good 'roast chicken' buy would be the Painted Wolf Cape Hunting White "Lekanyane' 2012, a Chenin/Viogner/Verdehlo blend that, at £11 from Last Drop, was full of refined grapefruit fruit, tropical pineapple touches and a very pleasing suave texture touched by subtle oaking. The wackiest find here was the L'Estranger-Virgile Joly Grenache Blanc "Bois Du Blanc Et Tais Toi", an unusual non-vintage Langeudoc white from that was definitely on the 'natural' spectrum but proved a rare example of a wine exhibiting a cidery character that I ended up really quite liking. Usually I find it a put-off, but here it seemed clean, playing off the pithiness of the bitter herbs and savoury touches on the palate. It's an intense wine, but it knows exactly what it is and goes and pulls it off. Drink your white and shut up indeed!

Red
We didn't try as many reds as we might have liked - as I said it was all a bit chilly. The Villabelvedere Valpolicella Ripasso 2011 from Last Drop was a straightforward strawberry/red cherry and green peppercorn red that, on the crunchy/green side of the Valpolicella style, offered pretty decent value at £9. There were some good Pinots about too. I'd wholeheartedly recommend the Chauvenet-Chopin Cotes du Nuits Villages 2010,  £22 from Planet of the Grapes. I didn't write anything about this, but it was delicious; my accomplice simply scribbled "the nicest one!!" on my list so I'll leave it at that. My favourite (and the most expensive) wine of the day was not to be found on the list. The nice chap from Vinoteca had got his hands on a parcel of Bourgougne Rouge from Gevrey that he was selling for about £26 as I recall; all elegant autumn strawberry, liqourice and woodland aromas and really very delicious. I didn't make of a note of the producer but if you're into sub £30 Pinot I'd get in touch sharpish as it was the business.
The Juan Gill Silver Label Monastrell 2012, from Jumila and priced at £16 from The Good Wine Shop didn't enjoy being so cold; it seemed to offer slightly confected red cherry, ribena and toffee, with the sweetness evident on the palate too. I did like the Chateau Ferreau Bel Air Bordeaux 2009 at £11.20 from The Sampler - a juicy, finely-textured wine that is a rare example of a wholesome, enjoyable wine that tastes of Bordeaux at a great price. Also suffering from being a bit cold was the Malbec Vista Carmelita 2012 at £19 from Planet of the Grapes. However you could tell that this was a very good wine indeed - an inky blueberry and blackberry mashup, with a touch of treacle-y charr and clear concentration and length on the palate. Not cheap but it's not going to disappoint when you just want...well, you know, a Malbec with bit of class and some hair on its chest.

I'm sure there were lots of great things there that I didn't get to try. I had to save a little energy for a trip to Sager and Wilde on Hackney Road, you see. Now, this is a wine bar.  I like that. It's not a restaurant. There are things to eat, of course, but the atmosphere and design of the place is very much geared towards a civilised glass or two. It's great to have a place like this in Hackney; there are others, but not really anywhere where you won't be competing for a table with diners. Thankfully It's NOT shabby-chic like everywhere else, but done up like a real evening place with clever lighting, excellent glasses (take note certain other Hackney wine establishments!) and top-notch service. Reasonable markups too. We started with the piercingly delicious Sugrue-Pierre Brut 2010, a top-notch champagne blend from the South Downs made by ex-Nyetimber winemaker Dermot Sugrue. It flirts dangerously with being too direct in its youth but wins out with supreme delicacy and focus. Leave it for a little while if you can. Real quality though. I had a delicious gamey/wild strawberry red Arbois, and my accomplice a cleverly-sourced 1997 Rioja Crianza that was a real old leather armchair/fireside wine. Good value at £7 a glass too. I noticed that Vieux Telegraphie 2000 was available for £12.50 a glass, but by that time we had to make our way to dinner. First thing I ordered was a Campari, which went down very well indeed.

Quintas Milu 'Milu' 2012, Ribera del Duero, Spain

This 100% Tempranillo (the fruit-driven, lightly oaked wine in the producer's portfolio) pours a vivid, opaque purple. This sort of colour is a low pH colour - a wine with a healthy amount of acid. A good omen for me.
It's a bit like jumping in a vat full of ripe squished blackcurrants and blackberries, although the tarry depth that lurks beneath the fruit (and the touch of charred bell pepper) marries with a gentle clove, menthol and allspice wamth to lend a feeling of seriousness too. It has such a vivid intensity to the palate, too; that thick-textured sense of overripe blackberry juice is kept keen by fabulous acidity and nervy tannins. Full of life and quite invigorating to drink.

Vigneau-Chevreau Vouvray Sec 2007, Loire, France

This biodynamically-produced Vouvray has been in the cellar for about 3 years. I'm trying to drink more good Loire Chenin - I really love the depth and coiled-up intensity of the good ones, and only wish I had enough to be a bit more patient! This displays a clean, sweet-fruited nose of spiced baked apple, apricot, crystallised pineapple, lime cordial, brazil nut, and honey, all tinted with something like the coolness of rain on a pebbly beach.  Ripe citrus peel acidity centres the palate, which is almost pithy with the grip of stone-fruit skins, finishing with a mellow sense of honeyed development which confirms that this wine is not a baby anymore. On the other hand it would have had a while to go. Lovely.

Ridgeview Bloomsbury 2009

Pale gold, sprightly in the glass with ripe golden delicious apples, a touch of spiced baked apple too and a gentle layer of ground almond sweetness, verging on vanillla and ginger biscuits from the bottle age. It's quite an interesting example of a bottle that has had a relatively short time on lees but has been cellared for 18 months - the beginnings of the richness and toastiness of bottle age accompanies quite a freshly-textured, youthful feel to the wine. It doesn't quite have the length on the palate of the very best best lees-aged sparklers from the UK, with a touch of bitterness edging in, but that's no surprise - Bloomsbury is a consistent wine at the more reasonable end of the price spectrum for English fizz, and whilst I've had some decent 'off the shelf' experiences with it, this bottle proves that stashing it away for 18 months will be well worth it.
Incidentally I did try the 2010 Knightsbridge recently, which is an absolute cracker if you can find it....

Leung Estate 'Ma Maison' Pinot Noir 2011, Martinborough, New Zealand

I had a real Pinot craving this evening. When you have a Pinot craving there's no point fighting it -
nothing else will do and you just have to get out the banknotes and take your chances. There are lots of pretty top-tier New Zealand pinots that come in under £30 retail, and I have found a couple that have really grabbed me over the years. I tried my luck on this one, from the shelves of the ever-reliable Bottle Apostle down the road in Victoria Park.
Whether it's the vintage or just the vineyard style, this wine comes in very much at the crunchy red fruit end of the spectrum, with raspberries in vanilla yoghurt, redcurrants and sweet poached strawberry fruit gently rising above touches of green peppercorn and basil. The palate brings together the summery softness of that red fruit with a pervading tang of acidity; I can't help feeling that this wine is just a touch less ripe than it would really like to be. It comes in at 13%abv and it feels just a touch mean. I don't like big, burly pinots; however, whilst long on elegance and fruit definition it just hasn't quite scratched that Pinot itch...
As an aside, the notes on the back of the label do point to this being a vintage to drink young for this wine, so it's probably worth having a pop at another year.

Had a fun few hours in Netil Market just down the road in London Fields at the inaugural ‘WINE C4R BOOT’, where some of the city’s indie wine shops had set up to pour and sell some of their wines. There were wines from Sweet Thursday, Noble Fine Liquor, Roberson, Bottle Apostle, WineChap, Borough Wines and Planet of the Grapes. It was a friendly, unpretentious event which benefitted from Netil Market’s usual cohort of food stalls, keeping us nourished with such trendy E8 snacks as tacos, fresh pasta, and, if you were there early enough, cracking fish&chips from Fin&Flounder. Also, the little stemless plastic glasses from GoVino that we all received were a stroke of genius (a huge improvement on bog standard ISO glasses that you so often get).

 I kicked off proceedings with the impressive baked apples, dried herbs and fresh yeast of the 2011 Berthet-Bondet Crémant du Jura, available for £15.95 from Roberson. Characterful and worth the asking price. From the same retailer I enjoyed the Mas Coutelou 7 Rue de la Pompe 2012, which at £9.95 was a natural red from the Languedoc that flirted with funkiness but came out a winner with its lively fresh blackberries and juicy, sweet/sour palate. I actually wrote ‘touch of raspberry vinegar, in a good way’, so there you go. The Château Falfas 2010, a Cote de Bourg at £16.95, came across a little muted and soupy - it was a warm day - but I can see it hitting the spot if you need a hit of the Bordeaux with your Sunday lunch.

From Bottle Apostle I enjoyed the Cleto Chiarlo Lambrusco Pruno Nero NV (£14), which was towards the fun, fruit-sweet end of the Lambrusco spectrum, and the elegant Eben Sadie Sequillo Red 2010 from Swartland, a very classy, savoury red that illustrates the exciting direction that Swartland is taking South African wine. I also got on very well with the Apatsagi Prior Riseling 2009 from Borough Wines, a Hungarian wine which combined a classic, sprightly Riesling nose of lime and meadow flowers with a grippy, refreshing palate that left me wishing that Fin and Flounder hadn’t run out of fish and chips.

The biggest hits of the day came from WineChap - all of our party left with some of his wines, which included the beefy Vina Magana Dignus 2007, a Navarra red at £15.50 that would be a perfect accompaniment to the shortening evenings, and, my pick of the day, the Bourgogne Rouge Dom. Jane & Sylvain Raphanaud 2009. This is a sub-£20 Burgundy that does much more than be ‘surprisingly decent’, or however you would ordinarily describe wines in that category. It won me over with its velvety-sweet red fruits and, crucially, fine and serious texture. No thin and short Pinot here; this is the real deal for £17.50 and I’d pick some up if I were you. It might be even better in a couple of years as that remaining touch of oak slips into the background. My wine-minded friends, who are well-acquainted with Veneto wines, also really enjoyed the La Giaretta Valpolicella Volpare 2011, so I’ll pass on that recommendation too at £13.50, though I didn’t get to try it myself (ditto the 2012 Vermentino di Gallura from Cantina Giogantinu, which you can spot being taken home in a little wine carrier in the picture).
All in all a big thumbs up for this event. We went round the corner to the excellent La Bouchon Fourchette to round off a fine day - here’s hoping there are some more to come!

Tenute Sella - Bramaterri I Porfidi 2003, Piedmont, Italy

Interesting reflection of Nebbiolo, blended with small amounts of Croatina and Vespolina from the northern reaches of Piedmont. At first there’s a lovely gaminess on the nose, accompanied by juniper/clove/cinnamon spiciness. With time the sweet, slightly wild strawberry and sloe fruit emerges, with a touch of date and gentle violet perfume. The elegance of ripe autumnal fruit on the palate is really charming; the wine feels open and mature, but the cool, bright acidity is keeping it keen. A contemplative and rather beautiful wine, showing no signs of inelegance from the 2003 heat.

Nyetimber 2006, Sussex, England

When I bought this a couple of years I remember thinking that Nyetimber was letting its lead slip a little at the forefront of English winemaking - their packaging was starting to look dated and a bit naff, other producers were undercutting them with some good wines and there just wasn’t quite the buzz around the wines that there had been a few years beforehand. As it turns out they were still making some great wines (the 2003 Blanc de Blancs being probably the best wine I’ve had from this country), and, with the 2007 vintage, went on to redesign the whole brand top-to-bottom. The bottles now look fabulous, there’s definition and simplicity to the product line, and the Rosé is proving rather popular. It’s clear that the big boys are going to fight to stay at the top of the pile.

2006 was a very warm year, and it seems as thought the folk at Nyetimber made the most of the ripeness of the grapes. After 20 mins this is quite flamboyant on the nose, with praline, apricot danish, dried apple, pineapple and kiwi all making an appearance. That generosity of tropical fruit and pastry is felt on the palate, which is nevertheless quite focused and savoury, with curt acidity and a gentle vanilla sweetness. It is a delicious wine, quite extroverted and perhaps a bit unusual but very satisfying nonetheless.

Dr Loosen Beerenauslese 2006, Mosel, Germany

Again this was an inexpensive buy that has been in the cellar for about 3 years, though it obviously would be very happy there for much, much longer. Theres jasmine, pithy lime, dried mango and kerosine on the very expressive nose. It’s lithe and nervy on the palate; a fine balance between almost viscous tropical sweetness and piercing, ripe lime acidity. It ends up feeling light and breezy though - yes it’s sweet but there’s real delicacy here. There’s also a sense that this wine is out of its childhood in the haunting, almost savoury twist to the lime-cordial and lighter fluid finish.

Heidsieck & Co Monopole Gold Top 2004, Champagne, France

A cheapie but a goodie, bought about 2 years ago from Majestic. Lovely rich straw colour. Rich baked apple, vanilla, dried tropical fruits and apricot kernel on the nose.There’s a real vivacity on the palate to match the richness, with keen lemon peel acidity and a touch of pithiness and generous helping off juicy stone-fruit sweetness. Great, and a bargain! Everything you would want from a £25 Champagne - would definitely consider picking up some newer vintages and hoarding them away for a few years.

Tenute Sella - Bramaterra I Porfidi 2003, Piedmont, Italy

Interesting reflection of Nebbiolo, blended with small amounts of Croatina and Vespolina from the northern reaches of Piedmont. At first there’s a lovely gaminess on the nose, accompanied by juniper/clove/cinnamon spiciness. With time the sweet, slightly wild strawberry and sloe fruit emerges, with a touch of date and gentle violet perfume. The elegance of ripe autumnal fruit on the palate is really charming; the wine feels open and mature, but the cool, bright acidity is keeping it keen. A contemplative and rather beautiful wine, showing no signs of inelegance from the 2003 heat. 

The Real Wine Fair 2013

Walking through the failed Tobacco Dock regeneration, a dead spot in the otherwise serene and (largely) wealthy enclave of Wapping, promotes a double nostalgia — first of all for the grandeur of the Victorian Docklands, the streets dotted with impressive warehouses that sustained the economic dominance of the British Empire for so long, and secondly, once you walk through the doors of the late-1980s shopping centre with its teal trimmings and pale wooden bannisters, for the time of enormous cell phones, bermuda shorts and a general sense of economic optimism. Beautiful historic buildings are ten-a-penny; I found walking through an abandoned, un-renovated piece of interior design from the era of my childhood a much more evocative start to an entertaining day.
As it happened it was a perfect setting for a sizeable event, showcasing organic, biodynamic and natural wines, mostly from Europe and mostly imported by Caves de Pyrène. The whole ‘natural’ wine thing tends to be an invitation for dogma and polemic, so I’ll try and sum up my attitude to it as follows:

The wines I like best are the ones where human interference allows the unique flavour of a grape from a certain place to emerge.

You can ruin the individuality of flavour of a wine by over-working it, over-oaking it, over-sulphiting it… You can also ruin the individuality of a wine by being under-protective during winemaking, and allowing ‘generic’ flavours of oxidation or volatile acidity to encroach. To me, that’s just as bad as slapping on a few coats of new oak. Perhaps I’m oversensitive to that combination of bruised apple/cider/ground nuts that signals the high VA/mild oxidation syndrome, but if two wines from totally different places and grape varieties both display that trait I feel a sense of terroir being lost, not gained.
Thankfully that wasn’t often the case here, and we came across some really engaging and delicious wines. Here are some of my top finds:

The Moscato d’Asti of Ca d’GalAmongst lots of skin-contact whites and high-acid reds, these light, fresh wines were a real breath of fresh air. Sweet, low-alcohol fizz can be a serious drink, like the clean, pear and elderflower-scented Vigna Vecchia from 2011, or the gorgeous, autumnal dried-apple fruit of the 2006.

Audrey & Christian Binner, AmmerschwihrThere wasn’t a huge Alsace presence at the fair, but the wines from this producer really jumped out at me, especially next to the “we-know-we’re-good-and-we’re-only-really-here-for-the-press-tasting” Albert Mann next door. All those lovely apples and ripe grapefruit were wrapped up with a herbaceous, piney twist in their 2011 Riesling d’Ammerschwihr, with honey, pithy lime cordial and kerosine weight in their 2008 ‘Non-Filtré’ and supreme floral elegance and tropical fruit of the 2009 Kaefferkopf ‘L’Originel’, an unusual blend for a Grand Cru vineyard of gewürztraminer, riesling and muscat. Some of my favourite wines of the day.

The 2007 Vitovska of A.A. Vodopivec, FriuliMy pick of the ‘orange’ wines from Northern Italy, this really stood out for its aromatic complexity. As well as oxidative notes of baked apple and nutty warmth there is crabapple, spring blossom and bay-like spiciness. It featured an extraordinary lift of white pepper on the finish too. Oxidative and quite bonkers (having spent 6 months on skin in underground amphorae) but expressive and individual too.

The Barbera D’Asti of A.A. TrincheroTimeless wines that taste like they’ve been made this way for generations. The balance of sun-ripened plum skin, clay, liquorice and leather finds a high level of elegance and intensity in the ‘Vigna Del Noce’.

Paradiso di Frassina, MontalcinoThese were just lovely wines, complex and expressive. The classical cherry and tobacco of the Gea Rosso di Montalcino 2010, touched with mint and eucalyptus, was very appealing, though it was the 2007 12 Uve that stole the show; an IGT Maremma wine from 12 different varieties that stuck a beautiful balance between sweet, violet-tinged fruit and savoury complexity. A young black cherry and smoke and clove-spiced 2008 Brunello completed an excellent selection.

The Primitivo of Fatalone, Gioia del ColleBoth the basic 2008 and the 2006 Riserva are delicious wines, and represent great value too. Big plumskin, liquorice and red brick aromas, with and extra layer of black cherry and strawberry sweetness and bloody intensity on the palate of the Riserva, which was actually one of my favourite wines of the day. Quite beautiful!

The Wines of Cascina Disa, Elio Sandri, Monforte d’AlbaI loved the 2011 Marapika, a Barbera/Dolcetto/Nebbiolo wine, with its bright berry fruit and classic Piedmontese poise. A wine I’d buy without any hesitation. The 2010 Barbera d’Asti Superiore was also fabulous with its dark blackberry and eucalyptus. The 2000 Barolo and 2005 Barolo Riserva are wines of serious quality, with the mature and suave 2000 Barolo stealing the show over the earthy, young plum-skin intensity of the Riserva. For those with mortally-proportioned wallets the first two wines are seriously good buys.

The Wines of Pyramid Valley, Canterbury, New ZealandThis was an arresting selection of wines, from the elegant, mineral Fields of FIre Chardonnay 2009, through the richer, floral Lion’s Tooth , with its ripe peach and almond, to a lovely series of Pinot Noirs with the delicately-textured Angel Flower Pinot Noir 2009 being my favourite, cloudy in appearance but bright with wild strawberry and mint.

Other interesting finds:
- the 2009 La Pointe Vielles Vignes from Les Vignes Herbels in Anjou. Very precise, almost austere Chenin with lively aromatics of heather, anise and peppermint. Serious acidity.
- Domaine Lemaire-Fournier’s 2004 Vouvray ‘Les Morandières’, a mature, excellent-value Vouvray with all the baked apple and chestnut-honeyed, stone fruit sweetness you’d hope for.
-The 2012 A Pèl from Loxarel in Penedes. Still Xarel-lo, complex with yoghurt, white currants, fennel and fine, persistent acidity. Very unusual.
-The 2004 Brut de Brut Nature Gran Reserva from Cava Recaredo showed classic aged aromas of dried apple, digestive biscuits and red currant on the nose, but a distinctive piercing palate underpinned by milky lees weight. Rather delicious. A producer really at the cutting edge of Cava, with prices to match.
-The totally reliable, mineral and elegant wines of COS, from Vittoria in Sicilia. The 2011 Pithos Rosso, a blend of Frappato and Nero D’Avola was my pick with its crisp strawberry fruit and savoury, almost gamey finish.

I didn’t get to taste anywhere near all of the wines, with large swathes of northern Italy, Spain, and Portugal missed out. We had a slightly inauspicious start with the Georgian wines, the first wine smelling of rendering game fat and finishing with a fiesta of brett, and the second being possibly the most tannic wine I’ve ever drunk - I’m sure there were some treasures to find, but my party weren’t keen to carry on! Challenging, though I challenge I’ll try to take up again soon.

All in all, it was a well thought-out, thought-provoking event and a persuasive argument for minimal-intervention winemaking.

Man O' War Dreadnought Syrah 2009, Waiheke, New Zealand

Serious Syrah - takes some time to open out this one. There’s a meaty waft of smoked pancetta over the buzzing loganberry fruit, with milk chocolate sweetness and smouldering black cardamom and peppercorn spice. Really beautifully judged aromatic profile. On the palate it’s a bit burlier than I would have expected, weighing in at 14.5 alcohol. Quite tangy acidity rushes in as grippy berry fruit takes hold. The fruit profile is quite sharp, but not tart. This wine feels a bit raw right now - I think the high alcohol and acid are not quite sitting perfectly. Interestingly the 2007 and 2008 were14.0% A.B.V, not 14.5 - I just wonder whether the ripeness and extraction are just a tad over the top here? Some really stunning flavours though - try it in a year perhaps?

Lanson Gold Label 1999, Champagne, France

This has been in the cellar for about 3 years. . Some welcoming, broad richness on the nose here, with apricot kernel, sweet candied fruits, seville orange, icing sugar and vanilla. The mouse and mouthfeel don’t carry much effervescence - to be expected perhaps. Whether it’s just this bottle or the wine in general I’m not sure, but it seems to be fading a little, lacking the cut and thrust that I associate with Lanson (and indeed the 1998, which I tasted a couple of years back and really enjoyed). There’s a bitter citrus edge to the finish, which is touch hollow and suggestive of a touch of oxidation in this bottle perhaps? Still enjoyable though.
(picture shows the 1998)

Poggiofoco Cecco 2009, Sovana, Tuscany, Italy

This was a gift from some Italians, and is not available in this country so far as I can see. A shame, as it’s lovely stuff - 95% Cabernet and 5% Sangiovese, though it tastes like more. It tastes Tuscan more than of the grape variety, with elegant tobacco-touched blackberry and blackcurrant fruit, chargrilled chicory, violet and menthol. Lovely sappy freshness and grip on the palate, with plenty of savour and length to balance the fruit. Great discovery!

Filipa Pato Touriga Nacional 2011 for Bottle Apostle, Bairrada, Portugal

When Filipa Pato had a barrel of Touriga Nacional going, the enterprising chaps at Bottle Apostle snapped it up and put in on their shelves as a special bottling. Always a sucker, for a one-off, I picked one up, aware that the wine was really meant as a part of a blend that just didn’t get used. The question begs - why not?
This is quite a moody, brooding wine on the nose with over-ripe blackberries, milk chocolate, liquorice, nutmeg and green peppercorns. There’s a sense of black forest gateaux and quite a thick slab of oak if I’m honest. There’s also a little cool mint and floral sweetness around the edges though. The palate starts with some nice acidity, with thick blackberry fruit and a serious, but not overwhelming seam of tannin. It’s quite abrupt and without the elegance that I’ve come to expect from modern Portugal, and I find the oak a bit obvious. But then again, what do you expect? It’s an interesting drop but it does feel like one piece of a puzzle.