learn more about wine

I want to try a new wine every week. I’m poor, so they will have to be pretty cheap, but from what I’ve learned you can get some pretty decent wines if you look around for $6 or less.
Week 1: try a rosé (to start with something kind of light). I’ll write about it here!

Oceans Edge sauvignon blanc 12.5%

Price
Cheap – about £4 from tescos

What it says on the label!

Intense white peach and nectarine aromas with beautiful fresh fruit, to provide a full palate and lingering finish

What I thought!

Yummy, makes a change from all the rose I ahve been drinking over the last few years. Time to ring the changes. It was very drinkable delicious chilled and cheap and cheerful.

an acceptable Riesling made by 20 Bees. Most of my friends are iffy on 20 Bees, but I have a fondness for just about everything I’ve tasted so far. I like Riesling, though most people I know do not.
I had three glasses tonight, am in a woozy haze (I certainly mean this in a good way) and find its crisp and pear-like off-dry nature appealing. Good price point.

G has got into the rather excellent habit of holding a Madeira Dinner each January, usually with a theme. This year it was wines from d’Oliveiras who are a particular Madeira house.

We had 7 wines before dinner (NB v. small glasses) and four with dinner. For me, the best three were the 1922 Bual, the 1905 Verdelho (which everyone else raved about) and the 1900 Moscatel – dark and treacly to begin with, then rich and round with a finish that went on forever. It’s such a privilege to drink these wines, feels like you’re drinking a piece of history.

An honourable mention goes to the 1968 Bual, which is available from Waitrose and which I gave my father a bottle of for Christmas. It’s super stuff – not in the league of the older ones, but still very very good and a great alternative to vintage port. It’s not cheap, but hell, it’s 40 years old!

One of the things I have learned about old madeira is that it does need to be opened a few days in advance to lose its “bottle sickness”. G recently acquired a lot of verdelho at auction, bottled in the 1930s, and it has taken two weeks to lose the nasty smell. We think this may have worked to his advantage as the auction house probably opened a bottle an hour or so before the sample tasting so anyone who tried it probably thought it was disgusting ;)

Wehlener Sonnenuhr Reisling 2003.
An intense fruity auslese for an intense fruity evening.
I don’t have much to pair it with…some cashews and salty wholegrain crackers. It’s lovely enough to bring a tear to the eye. What have I done to deserve such a wine? (weeps silently into her sweater)

on the wine front!

On Monday my esteemed friend ACC came to the office to do a free wine tasting for my colleagues. We’re a hospital charity and are trying to raise our profile generally, and may be about to move into holding more fund-raising dos. Doctors are well-known boozers so the stuff we give them will have to be up to scratch. We tried 10 wines: 2 champagnes, 4 whites and 4 reds. The favourites were the Leclerc Mondet champagne, the Macon-Uchizy from Maison Champy, an Argentinian Torrontes which reminded me of an Alsace gewurztraminer but is half the price, the Bourgogne Rouge from Latour-Labille, and a Montepulciano D’Abruzzo.

The team seemed to enjoy themselves and in particular my three big bosses were impressed so lots of brownie points. We also came up with an idea for the chief exec to hold a Christmas party and today I was able to send ACC an email to say there will be a juicy order in the offing.

Then last night I went to the Maison Champy dinner at the Carlton. Champy are the oldest negotiants in Beaune and currently run by the wonderful Pierre Meurgey and his able wine-maker Dmitri, who I had the pleasure to meet a few weeks ago when I was out there. We tried the full range of their wines from their basic Bourgognes to the Corton, both white and red. I love their Bourgognes and have drunk more than I care to remember, but found their white Pernand-Vergelesses and Puligny-Monrachet were my favourites.

Pierre told us that the Puligny is from a vineyard just across from the grand cru Batard-Montrachet which we walked past when I was out there recently, but it’s not even a premier cru. This is the sort of knowledge I love collecting because the humble village vineyards near the grand crus and premier crus are where bargains are to be had…

The more expensive wines were very good (G and I gave the two premier crus both 8 out of 10) but not worth the money in my opinion, so that was useful information. The tasting also confirmed that while 2006 is fine for whites, the reds suffer from a certain stemminess so it might be better to move straight to the 2007s which are approachable and will be drinking soon.

A great time was had and somehow we made it home afterwards although our memories are a little hazy at this point!

If you like reds, then a trip to Napa Valley is for you. Besides being one of the most beautiful places on earth, Napa reds are some of the most delicious award winning wines in the world. If you prefer cabs, then Chateau Montelena, Saint Clement, and Clos Du Val wineries make the very finest (Clos Du Val being the quintesential Napa cab taste). Rutherford Winery has the best merlot I’ve ever tasted. If you’re into zin, then Storybook Mountain has no comparison. Vander Haden Winery makes the only late harvest cab in which the sugar content of the grape has gone up to 30%. It is quite delicious as a dessert wine. I prefer wines with a lot of body and tannacity, but I suggest you try everything and find your own taste. Enjoy the moment. Enjoy the place. It’s a wine lover’s heaven on earth.

It sparkles. It is tasting of fairies and rose petals. I have it in a flute before me now, highlighting and saluting the summer evening.
Down the old rat hole!

I had to clear out Lois’ place two and a half years ago, I found a boxed, bagged and unopened bottle of scotch that had been given to her in 1961. She has never been a scotch drinker, though it would probably do her good now!
I am not a scotch drinker either.
I knew a schnorrer, once, who said ‘I’d like to be a part of that’, uninvited, barely able to keep from licking lips. It was offensive; I was offended.

I have heard that one can trade in bottles of unopened spirits (which can fetch good prices) at the LCBO. I will think optimistically, and try to trade the scotch for a couple of bottles of really fine champagne. Wish the Rat good luck on this, please.

is the ever delightful Banyuls. It is really more of a winter thing, being rich and heady, like an after-dinner port.
In summer, though, it seems less heavy than port. That’s my excuse. What I have before me tonight is Domaine Madeloc, by Pierre Gaillard. It isn’t special enough for an occasion, but it is delightful for a night of painting and poetry.

Three and a quarter squeals out of five.