We bought this wine in France, but I cannot remember where or when or how much we paid. The wine was perfect and fully mature, the tannin was nice and soft and there was a strong aroma of red fruits and plums on the nose. The wine tasted the same as the aroma. The flavours were concentrated and complex and the flavour remained on the palate for a long time after swallowing. It had all the hallmarks of a very good wine.
Another mark of a good wine is its ability to improve in the bottle. This wine has been in the bottle for 15 years. A cheap wine will not improve in the bottle for more than a few years. The wine was perfectly mature and all the components of the wine; the acidity, alcohol and tannin were well integrated and the wine was medium to full body. It was ready to drink now and will not improve for any longer.
It went perfectly with roast chicken one night and the other half of the bottle went well with roast pork the following evening. This is the reason why I love wine so much as you can find a really good bottle for a reasonable price if you take the time to study the subject a little bit.
If you find this wine in France then do not hesitate to buy it and kept it in a cool dark place for a few years on its side. It won't break the bank and will give you a good idea of what a top wine is all about.
A top Bordeaux such as Château Latour or Château Lafite-Rothschild will keep and improve in the bottle for much longer and this is one of the reasons why it is so much more expensive than La Croix de Chene. However, you are mainly paying for the brand name and some of their lesser cousins are just as good and a lot cheaper.
http://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=635297
Thursday 28 November 2013
Tuesday 19 November 2013
Champagne -under attack in the UK
Champagne wine sales are well down in the UK and Prosecco sales are on the up. Prosecco is a competitor to Champagne mainly on price. You can get a bottle for around £10. It is not my favourite white dry or extra dry sparkling wine but I am not going to disparage it.
Most Presecco is made in stainless steel tanks by the Charmat method where secondary fermentation is made in the tank not in the bottle. The wine simply cannot match the quality of a Cava let alone good Champagne or English Sparking wine. The DOCG Prosecco which is of better quality is made by the tradition method like Champagne and Cava. So, if you see it for the same price as the standard fare snap it up.
http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/sol/global_search/home.jsp?bmForm=global_search&GLOBAL_DATA._search_term1=prosecco
It is produced in the Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of North East Italy. Like Turkish wine it is becoming trendy to drink it in the UK, especially in cash strapped times. Despite the slight economic growth none of the extra wealth seems to have filtered down to the middle classes; no wonder Champagne sales are falling and are set to fall further with the dire economic reports from France.
Prosecco is used to make the famous Bellini cocktail.
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Bellini-Cocktail
Do Not use Champagne as this will ruin the wine. Always use standard Prosecco.
Even though Presecco is relatively cheap, I see no reason to slosh it down with cod and chips on a Friday night . All sparkling wine should be used for a special occasion or when meeting absent friends or family again. To drink sparkling wine on a daily basis would mean that the wine will lose it allure . However, Winston Churchill used to have his Champagne bottled by Pol Roger in special pint sized bottles for almost daily consumption - oh well he deserved it.
My wife comes from Champagne so we know producers who produce very good wine for a reasonable price. We won't be drinking Prosecco or Cava for that matter on numerous occasions unless we suddenly become broke.
Most Presecco is made in stainless steel tanks by the Charmat method where secondary fermentation is made in the tank not in the bottle. The wine simply cannot match the quality of a Cava let alone good Champagne or English Sparking wine. The DOCG Prosecco which is of better quality is made by the tradition method like Champagne and Cava. So, if you see it for the same price as the standard fare snap it up.
http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/sol/global_search/home.jsp?bmForm=global_search&GLOBAL_DATA._search_term1=prosecco
It is produced in the Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of North East Italy. Like Turkish wine it is becoming trendy to drink it in the UK, especially in cash strapped times. Despite the slight economic growth none of the extra wealth seems to have filtered down to the middle classes; no wonder Champagne sales are falling and are set to fall further with the dire economic reports from France.
Prosecco is used to make the famous Bellini cocktail.
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Bellini-Cocktail
Do Not use Champagne as this will ruin the wine. Always use standard Prosecco.
Even though Presecco is relatively cheap, I see no reason to slosh it down with cod and chips on a Friday night . All sparkling wine should be used for a special occasion or when meeting absent friends or family again. To drink sparkling wine on a daily basis would mean that the wine will lose it allure . However, Winston Churchill used to have his Champagne bottled by Pol Roger in special pint sized bottles for almost daily consumption - oh well he deserved it.
My wife comes from Champagne so we know producers who produce very good wine for a reasonable price. We won't be drinking Prosecco or Cava for that matter on numerous occasions unless we suddenly become broke.
Wine from Turkey- why not?
We bought this red wine Pamukkale Diamond 2011 at Waitrose supermarket. it is lovely wine at a reasonable price. it is on offer at £6.99 a bottle rather than £9.99. It is made from Syrah (Shiraz), Merlot, Kalecik Karasi and Bogazkere black grapes.
http://www.waitrosedirect.com/product/pamukkale-diamond/846535
The wine does exactly what it says on the bottle; the tannin, sugar, alcohol and acidity are well balanced and it has a concentrated red fruit flavour. It not a particularly complex wine and does not leave a long taste on the palate.
Our friends had difficulty guessing where the wine from but they thought it came from the southern Mediterranean - not bad.
Half a bottle went down well one night with grilled chicken and cheese and the other half went down well with roast pork the following evening.
This wine is just as good as wine from France or Italy at the same price. It is good quality wine which will keep a few years more and mature in the bottle.
It is priced just right at £6.99 a bottle. I do not think I would be prepared to pay £9.99 and I think it will remain on offer.
My wife and I visit Turkish restaurants quite regularly: we love the food and Turkish wine. We particularly like the TAS chain. We must have been setting a trend for Turkish wine is all the rage at the moment.
I recommend that you try it as it is a very pleasant change to French, Spanish and Italian wines.
http://www.tasrestaurants.co.uk/
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/sep/03/turkish-wine-waitrose
http://www.waitrosedirect.com/product/pamukkale-diamond/846535
The wine does exactly what it says on the bottle; the tannin, sugar, alcohol and acidity are well balanced and it has a concentrated red fruit flavour. It not a particularly complex wine and does not leave a long taste on the palate.
Our friends had difficulty guessing where the wine from but they thought it came from the southern Mediterranean - not bad.
Half a bottle went down well one night with grilled chicken and cheese and the other half went down well with roast pork the following evening.
This wine is just as good as wine from France or Italy at the same price. It is good quality wine which will keep a few years more and mature in the bottle.
It is priced just right at £6.99 a bottle. I do not think I would be prepared to pay £9.99 and I think it will remain on offer.
My wife and I visit Turkish restaurants quite regularly: we love the food and Turkish wine. We particularly like the TAS chain. We must have been setting a trend for Turkish wine is all the rage at the moment.
I recommend that you try it as it is a very pleasant change to French, Spanish and Italian wines.
http://www.tasrestaurants.co.uk/
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/sep/03/turkish-wine-waitrose
Friday 15 November 2013
The Great British Public and their wine and wine snobs
So 80% of the British public prefer a £5 bottle of wine to a £20 one, according to the London Wine Academy. Also, around 50% of Britons estimated that the £5 bottle of Aspen Hills Chardonnay from South East Australia was in fact more expensive than a £20 bottle of Gerard Thomas Saint-Aubin 1er Cru from Burgundy from France. Please note that they are both made from the same grape.
None of this surprises me. It does not surprise me that some Masters of Wine cannot do it either and I often get fooled myself. Wine tasting is not scientific and it cannot possible be so. There is no independent variable to test against and the human palate cannot measure the taste components of a wine to make objective comparisons.
From a wine tasting point of view all we can do is look for the overall balance of acidity, tannin, sweetness and alcohol of the wine. Also, its general flavour and taste complexity and the length of time that that flavour remains on the palate should be assessed. Wines which are better balanced and have more complex tastes and where the taste remains on the palate for a long time can be gauged to be better.
A £20 bottle of fine wine should also be able to keep and improve in the bottle for a number of years. But cheaper bottles can do this too. Some £20 bottles are inferior in quality to lesser priced ones. The trick and skill of wine tasting is to be able to identify a really good wine at a really good price: a wine which will improve in the bottle.
At a Christmas dinner party many years ago my family agreed that a bottle of the second wine of Château Pape Clement Red Bordeaux or The Clementin, bought at a bargain for £8 pounds a bottle, was of better quality than a £100 bottle of Echezeux Grand Cru Red Burgundy. And they were right.
You are entitled to get a really good bottle of wine for £20 and quite often you do not. I have never tasted Gerard Thomas Saint-Aubin 1er Cru from Burgundy from France so I cannot pass comment on this wine. However, if Majestic stock it it is probably very good wine.
For £5 a bottle you would expect a good wine too. In some respects the market for wine is buoyed up by the expectation that if a pundit scores the wine highly then the wine must be good and the price should go up. Well pundits can get it wrong. Ask yourself, how can a wine which scores 99 be that much better than a wine that scores 97? The whole concept of wine scoring is ridiculous. In my view there are only four categories bad, standard, good and outstanding. Good and outstanding wines should be able to improve in the bottle for a number of years despite their price.
Wine is made more expensive that it need be by wine experts offering lurid descriptions of wine and suggesting quality that may not necessarily be there. Hence the bitter irony behind the
"Château L'Ordure Pomerol, 2004" see the bottom link below.
With regard to taste why should a top quality wine have to taste so much? I often buy high quality cheese for a £15 or more a kilo and it does taste noticeably better than cheaper processed cheese. But the good stuff is not so expensive that I am reluctant to buy it. This is not the case with wine.
Sometimes, I like to open a cheap tin of baked beans and eat them on toast with bacon and egg. It is delicious. There is no need for snobbery about food or wine.
The great British public deserve to get a good bottle of wine for £5 and a top notch one for £20. So what if they prefer the cheaper bottle and if they value it more than the top cru then so what again?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/wine/10445719/Britons-actually-prefer-cheaper-wine.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2504531/20-fine-wine-5-plonk-Most-just-tell--people-prefer-cheaper-bottles-blind-taste-tests.html
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2013/jun/24/should-we-listen-wine-critics
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/jun/23/wine-tasting-junk-science-analysis
None of this surprises me. It does not surprise me that some Masters of Wine cannot do it either and I often get fooled myself. Wine tasting is not scientific and it cannot possible be so. There is no independent variable to test against and the human palate cannot measure the taste components of a wine to make objective comparisons.
From a wine tasting point of view all we can do is look for the overall balance of acidity, tannin, sweetness and alcohol of the wine. Also, its general flavour and taste complexity and the length of time that that flavour remains on the palate should be assessed. Wines which are better balanced and have more complex tastes and where the taste remains on the palate for a long time can be gauged to be better.
A £20 bottle of fine wine should also be able to keep and improve in the bottle for a number of years. But cheaper bottles can do this too. Some £20 bottles are inferior in quality to lesser priced ones. The trick and skill of wine tasting is to be able to identify a really good wine at a really good price: a wine which will improve in the bottle.
At a Christmas dinner party many years ago my family agreed that a bottle of the second wine of Château Pape Clement Red Bordeaux or The Clementin, bought at a bargain for £8 pounds a bottle, was of better quality than a £100 bottle of Echezeux Grand Cru Red Burgundy. And they were right.
You are entitled to get a really good bottle of wine for £20 and quite often you do not. I have never tasted Gerard Thomas Saint-Aubin 1er Cru from Burgundy from France so I cannot pass comment on this wine. However, if Majestic stock it it is probably very good wine.
For £5 a bottle you would expect a good wine too. In some respects the market for wine is buoyed up by the expectation that if a pundit scores the wine highly then the wine must be good and the price should go up. Well pundits can get it wrong. Ask yourself, how can a wine which scores 99 be that much better than a wine that scores 97? The whole concept of wine scoring is ridiculous. In my view there are only four categories bad, standard, good and outstanding. Good and outstanding wines should be able to improve in the bottle for a number of years despite their price.
Wine is made more expensive that it need be by wine experts offering lurid descriptions of wine and suggesting quality that may not necessarily be there. Hence the bitter irony behind the
"Château L'Ordure Pomerol, 2004" see the bottom link below.
With regard to taste why should a top quality wine have to taste so much? I often buy high quality cheese for a £15 or more a kilo and it does taste noticeably better than cheaper processed cheese. But the good stuff is not so expensive that I am reluctant to buy it. This is not the case with wine.
Sometimes, I like to open a cheap tin of baked beans and eat them on toast with bacon and egg. It is delicious. There is no need for snobbery about food or wine.
The great British public deserve to get a good bottle of wine for £5 and a top notch one for £20. So what if they prefer the cheaper bottle and if they value it more than the top cru then so what again?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/wine/10445719/Britons-actually-prefer-cheaper-wine.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2504531/20-fine-wine-5-plonk-Most-just-tell--people-prefer-cheaper-bottles-blind-taste-tests.html
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2013/jun/24/should-we-listen-wine-critics
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/jun/23/wine-tasting-junk-science-analysis
Wednesday 6 November 2013
L’Hôtel Château Cléry
My wife and I have just spent a great weekend near Boulogne at the Hôtel Château Cléry. The accommodation was fantastic but it was a bit expensive.
The food in the restaurant was exquisite but that was why we went to the Hotel in the first place.
The restaurant had a very wide range of wines. We chose a bottle of 2010 Domaine Faiveley Mercurey La Framboisière to go with our Filet Mignon de Veau - dare I say it, it was veal cooked rare with wild chanterelle mushrooms and ceps.
The meat was cooked perfectly and served perfectly by happy staff. The wine was typical of the Mercurey appellation and although Faively is a négociant he owns the Framboisière vineyard. The wine was heavily marked up but we did not care; the ambience, food, wine and company were top class. This was a memorable meal.
I highly recommend L’Hôtel Château Cléry and its food and wine.
http://www.clery.najeti.fr/
http://www.wine-searcher.com/wine-20047-2010-domaine-faiveley-domaine-de-la-framboisiere-mercurey-cote-chalonnaise-france
http://ogourmandiz.over-blog.com/article-filet-mignon-de-veau-aux-champignons-100756202.html
The food in the restaurant was exquisite but that was why we went to the Hotel in the first place.
The restaurant had a very wide range of wines. We chose a bottle of 2010 Domaine Faiveley Mercurey La Framboisière to go with our Filet Mignon de Veau - dare I say it, it was veal cooked rare with wild chanterelle mushrooms and ceps.
The meat was cooked perfectly and served perfectly by happy staff. The wine was typical of the Mercurey appellation and although Faively is a négociant he owns the Framboisière vineyard. The wine was heavily marked up but we did not care; the ambience, food, wine and company were top class. This was a memorable meal.
I highly recommend L’Hôtel Château Cléry and its food and wine.
http://www.clery.najeti.fr/
http://www.wine-searcher.com/wine-20047-2010-domaine-faiveley-domaine-de-la-framboisiere-mercurey-cote-chalonnaise-france
http://ogourmandiz.over-blog.com/article-filet-mignon-de-veau-aux-champignons-100756202.html
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