Worth Keeping Your Wine - Domaine de L'Arjolle Paradoxe 2010 red

In a former blog on this site for September 2013 I wrote the following about Domaine de L'Arjolle Paradoxe 2010 red:

"The Paradoxe 2010 a blend of Syrah, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Grenache. This dry red wine was full of fruit with a hint of vanilla and spice and was concentrated and complex with a long length on the palate. Even though it had 14% alcohol it did not taste hot and all of the elements of the wine where well integrated. It had a high level of tannin which will soften with keeping and I shall not drink the first bottle for at least a couple of years. The wine is of exceptional value for money at 16.5 Eur a bottle".

Well I didn't keep my own promise and drank the wine before 2015. I did, however, give away a bottle to a good friend who took my advice to keep the wine. We went to dinner at his place a couple of weeks ago and he opened his bottle. I couldn't see the label but recognised that this was superior wine and this was confirmed by my wife and our hosts. 

The wine had indeed improved enormously in the bottle;  it retained is full fruit flavour but the tannin had softened. The wine tasted superb and went down well with some beef. There is no doubt in my mind that this wine will probably improve more over the next year or so. At 16.5 Eur a bottle it represented tremendous value for money back in 2013: what more can I say. The quality of the wine reflected the love and dedication of the Domaine as applied in the vineyard and the wine making process.

So give three cheers for my wine tasting prowess.

Domaine D'Arjolle is based in Pouzolles in the Côtes-de-Thongue and not far from Péz
énas.

http://arjolle.com/en/news/

Café de Paris Chez Boubier Geneva

Recently, we visited France to go to a party in Savoie not far from Mont Blanc. Our nearest airport was Geneva. We had some time to kill in Geneva and we arrived at lunchtime. Our timing could not have been better ; we arrived at the main station in Geneva and just a stone's throw from Rue Du Mont and one of my favourite restaurants - the Café de Paris Chez Boubier.

I have eaten is this restaurant tons of times when I did projects in Geneva and the atmosphere and quality of the food does not change; the place is expensive but excellent. My expense allowance did not allow me to eat there everyday, however, but just once a week or so.

Basically, there is only one main course and this is entrecôte steak served with the famous Beurre Café de Paris sauce and chips or french fries if you have pretension to being posh. If you order the steak rare then you will not be disappointed. The Café de Paris sauce was invented by Monsieur Boubier in 1930 at this very restaurant and it was an immediate success.

The recipe for the Beurre Café de Paris sauce is a closely guarded secret. It is mustard based and has a large number of ingredients. A chef friend of mine, who has worked in Geneva, has identified most of the ingredients from just tasting the sauce. It is only fair that it remains secret but from my friend's description we can certainly confirm what he told us.

So what is special about this restaurant? It is right in the heart of Geneva which in itself is special.
There is only one starter which is green salad with a rather lively and tangy vinaigrette sauce. The steak and sauce are wonderful and this main course is simply the best in the world for meat eaters. There is a range of traditional French style desserts. There is a limited range of wines but they all go well with the cuisine. The restaurant is in a traditional Parisian style.

For the two of us we selected a 50 cl bottle of Swiss wine - Merlot Réserve Germanier. This is not the best wine and we could have done better by ordering a bottle of French Bordeaux but we were in Switzerland and we were obliged to drink local wine.

Our meal cost about 150 CHF which is not cheap at about 118 quid, or 148 bucks. French workers in Geneva, of which there are many, would have to pay 140 EUR for two so not many of them will visit for lunch every day, if at all. Had we really hit the wine trail we could have spent an awful lot more.

For a visit on impulse this was rather a lot for us pay but we were on holiday and it was worth every penny and we could thank our lucky stars that we could still afford it even after a 15% drop in the pound.

Café de Paris style restaurants have spread across the world and another one of my favourites is the Relais de Venise in Port Maillot, Paris. I highly recommend them but only if you are feeling lucky or rich.

http://www.chezboubier.com/fr/

http://sauvage.savoie-mont-blanc.com/

http://www.savoie-mont-blanc.com/en

Fino and Manzanilla Sherry - they both go well with most types of food

On a recent trip to Andalucia, in Spain, my wife and I only drank one bottle of table wine. We fell in love again with Fino and Manzanilla sherries. Both wines are dry, white and fortified to between 14.5 and 16% alcohol. Fino is produced in Jerez and nearby Puerto on the coast. Fino is more famous than its Manzanilla cousin which is produced on the coast in Sanlúcar de Barrameda - not far from Jerez.

Both wines are produced by the same method from Palomino grapes. Manzanilla has a more salty taste. The saltiness is reputedly derived for the fact that the barrels, used to produce the wine, are more exposed to the salty air of the Atlantic than the Fino wine of Jerez which is further in land..

Both wines go very well with tapas. Whilst in Andulucia, we ate a wide range of foods ranging from shell fish to steak and sweet desserts. Fino and Manzanilla went well with all sorts of this food. I can think of only one other wine that I could drink throughout a meal and that is Champagne.

You have to drink the youngest wines available and drink them chilled; then, if possible, finish the bottle.  A 750 ml bottle will easily keep 4 or 6 friends happy over a meal. These wines should only be drunk with good food. Although stronger than table wines Fino and Manzanilla are best sipped rather than slugged back. One copita of these wines can quite easily last a whole meal.

We brought a litre bottle back from our trip and drank about 125 ml each for four nights with fish, meat and dessert.  I estimate that a 125 ml glass has about 2 units of alcohol so over four nights we only consumed about 8 units of alcohol- how very abstemious of us and the ministry of health would be very proud.

After the first serving we used a "vacu-vin" stopper to draw all the air out of the bottle and then kept the wine in the fridge; this way our litre bottle would have lasted a week if we could have resisted having a sip every evening.

Fino and Manzanilla have a nutty taste and they are tangy with a hint of fresh bread. They have lower levels of acidity but the higher levels of acetaldehyde as opposed to organic acids give them that typical sherry taste.

They are lovely wines and are almost always worthy of consideration when eating good food which is full of flavour. It is time to give both of these great wines a try.

http://www.sherrynotes.com/sherry-types/types-of-sherry-manzanilla/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flor

http://www.bbr.com/region-5401-fino?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=SD%20-%20Regions%20-%20Port&utm_term=fino%20sherry&utm_content=Fino

Porta 6 Vinho Branco 2015 Portuguese White Wine

We went on a family trip to the Algarve in June of this year. We stayed in a resort near the sea to go to a wedding. I was pleasantly surprised how nice the Algarve really was especially the walks around the coast. The interior of the Algarve was great and there is lots of quiet country to enjoy which is well away from the crowds.

There was also lots of wild life to see and we were particularly impressed by the storks soaring above our heads and nesting in the the interior towns and villages: this is a very rare sight in the UK. The local people are doing their best to protect the wildlife and maintain a balance between tourist development around the coast and protecting the environment. There is even a plan to re-introduce the Iberian lynx. Hopefully their plan to protect endangered species will prove to be successful.

The food was great especially the seafood and we ate some wonderful sea bass, sardines and gambas.

All this was washed down with local dry white wine from the carafe.

When we left the airport was crowded and I could nor work up the courage to leave the bar and go and buy some wine.

Luckily, my wife was more spirited and she bought a souvenir bottle of 2105 Porta 6 dry white wine from the Lisbon region.

We opened it a week after downing a bottle of Chateau Tahbilk Marsanne. Obviously it did not hold up a candle to the the Australian gem but it only cost a few Euros for a bottle. The wine is described below. I cannot agree that it had a taste of red berries but it did have a nutty and white berry flavour. Not bad for a couple of quid a bottle; but of course the price of all wines is about to go up with the fall in the value of the pound.

 If and when we leave the EU then what will happen to the rather generous personal allowance to import 90 bottles of wine, with no questions asked? Will we go back to the bad old days of only being allowed to carry 6 bottles of wine through customs?  Vote leave wine lovers might be crying into their Riedel glasses  - and me! I have broken most of my Riedel glasses and now the extra duty and the fall in the pound might make them unaffordable again.

It might be a good moment to rush out to buy a case Porta 6 white wine: they also do reds. We drank the white wine with fish but it will also go down well with roast chicken.

My favourite Portuguese White is Alvarinho from the North West of Portugal and on the Spanish border. The Portuguese claim that their wine is better than the Albariño produced on the Spanish side of the border and vice versa. I just love both.

https://www.vinha.co.uk/wine/white-wine-porta-6-2015-75cl-lisboa-17203/

Chateau Tahbilk Marsanne 2014

I was first introduced to the wines of Chateau Tahbilk by Australian friends in London, way back in the 1970's. We used to go to the "Cork and Bottle" wine bar on Leicester Square. The wine bar is still going strong and the balance of clientele, service, food and atmosphere is superb. The range and quality of the wines would be difficult beat; even the house wines are great. The wine bar is certainly worth visiting when you are in London. There are two entrances.

http://www.thecorkandbottle.co.uk/

Most of our Australian friends are from Victoria state and this is why they are so proud of Chateau Tahbilk wines. Tahbilk makes some of the finest wines that Victoria and Australia have to offer and their wines can easily compete with top wines from France, Italy, Spain and California.

Their Marsanne 2014 is no exception. I rarely agree with the description on the bottle or the website but this time I could not agree more. It genuinely has a taste of tropical fruits and minerals. It is a complex and concentrated wine with long length on the palate.

This wine is not for slugging back in a bar or at a barbecue but it should be savoured over a home cooked meal or at a restaurant with good food.

We drank ours with pasta and with some friends.  Before tasting the wine make sure it is served slightly chilled. Drink the wine from a reasonably sized tulip glass and give the wine a good swirl before smelling and tasting. To obtain the full flavour wash the wine around your mouth - lips closed of course.

http://www.tahbilk.com.au/

http://www.tahbilk.com.au/buy-tahbilk-wine-online/tahbilk-2014-marsanne.html

I can forgive Tahbilk for the varietal labelling as the wine is so good. There is a hefty duty on non-EU wines, in the UK and other EU countries, but the wine still stays competitive price wise.  I recommend it highly and if  you can find it then give it a try. I bought my bottle in "The Planet of The Grapes" in Bow Lane.

You can also find it here for about £10 a bottle if you buy half a case.

https://www.armitwines.co.uk/australia/victoria/tahbilk/
  

There is no prize for guessing where the Marsanne grape originated.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsanne

Don't be tempted by a wine scam

I have written about this before. Interest rates are plunging and savers, especially in Britain and Europe, are faced with extremely low interests rates on their bank accounts. The stock market in the UK is also taking a bit of a battering especially the FTSE 250.  The annuity rates on pensions are also taking a battering.

You may be tempted to invest in wine instead for your old age. Please read my previous blogs if you are tempted. Do not fall for the cold caller who promises you wonderful capital gains on a wine investment account. Check out the bona fide of a trader before you invest. Only trade with a reputable and well established trader. Always remember that a higher rate of return represents a higher risk.

This is true of any investment. If a wine deal is promising higher rates of return than a reputable and well established trader then your risk of losing both your money and your wine is much higher.

The trouble with organic farming

Many wine producers in France are turning to organic or bio-dynamic farming methods. There are some fabulous wines produced from organic wines and there are some not so fabulous.

Organic wine production can be very profitable especially as there is a trend for some drinkers to prefer only organically produced wines and these drinkers are prepared to pay a premium.

I am not so certain that organically produced wines always taste better: but organic wine production can hold its own in a niche market.

Organic farming holds many dangers fro wine producers. This year, in the Burgundy region of France there has been a severe problem with mildew destroying the crops owing to heavy rainfall and high temperatures providing excellent conditions for the breeding of mildew spores. There is very little that organic farmers can do to prevent mildew other than ensuring that their vines are  well ventilated.  If the farmer resorts to chemical means to prevent mildew then he loses his organic "licence" for three years. There is a difficult investment decision to make.

The mildew problem in Burgundy comes on top the problems that wine producers in the north of the region were faced with, in May, when thousands of hectares of vines were severely affect by intense hail storms. There is precious little that farmers can do to protect themselves from the vagaries of the weather. Hundreds of wine growers in Burgundy and other regions of France will see their profits diminish.

Champagne and glasses

The conditions this year for the growth of the vines have been appalling with late frosts in spring and heavy rain in early summer. On a recent trip to the Champagne region we were attacked everywhere we went by mosquitoes. Conditions for insect "pests" were ideal as the heavy downpours were frequently followed by hot temperatures. Neighbouring Burgundy suffered the same problems.

I expect the yields for Champagne to be much lower this year so prices will inevitably go up. All this is not so great for British wine lovers who will have to face a price rise of around 9% owing to the fall in the value of the pound.

If you keep to the new government recommended limits of only 14 units per week then your pocket won't be stretched so much. I suspect that UK wine lovers will find a way of paying a little bit more for their wine and that they will continue to ignore the blandishments of the government not to drink at all.

As far as I am concerned I would rather sit down and drink a glass of wine for entertainment in the company of good friends than indulge in the mind numbing experience of watching reality television or song and dancing contests.

There is now talk that we should all be drinking our Champagne out of tulip shaped glasses rather than flutes and one glass manufacturer is committed to making the flute obsolete. I have been to several tastings where the flute has bitten the dust. I agree that you can taste the wine better from a tulip shaped glass rather than a flute. When you do wine courses you are encouraged to use a standarised glass. I admit that it is easier to taste the difference between different house styles when using a tulip shaped glass which allows more flavour to be produced from the surface of the wine.

For every day drinking with friends at a special occasion I prefer the flute. The bubbles last longer and it is the bubbles which add to the special quality of an occasion. It is not just about taste and we can't all be wine experts. And, who wants to write wine notes when they are at a party? The same applies to Cava and other sparkling wines.


I am a little bit sceptical about using special glasses for Bordeaux, Burgundy or Chianti etc. If you a are drinking a still table wine it just has to be sufficiently big to allow you do poke your nose in the glass and have a sniff. You can do this discretely without upsetting your host or or friends. I have tried out some very expensive glasses and found that Bordeaux tastes the same whether I use a speciality Bordeaux glass or a Burgundy one. The "experts" should prove that they can tell the difference by using peer reviewed double blind tests. This will demonstrate that they are not fooling themselves or the public.

I have also found that a decent sized glass which is not made of crystal can be used to appreciate wine just as well. You do not have to be rich to either drink or appreciate good wine.

http://www.decanter.com/learn/farewell-to-champagne-flutes-in-2016-286743/


If you are throwing a party and expect to be drinking Champagne or Cava then flutes are much more practical as you can pack more of them into a limited space - so this is one up for the flute.

Chinese Rosé Wine

On a recent visit to France, I went to eat out at a Chinese Restaurant. When I eat Chinese food I normally drink a Tsingtao or abTiger beer which I find goes down marvellously with the sweet and sour flavours.

The French members of our company selected a Chinese rosé wine, 2014, recommended by a merchant from Burgundy. Most French people are not very adventurous about selecting wine from anywhere but France. I gave the wine a go and tried to be positive but after a couple of sips I decided that it was best to stick to the Tsingtao: the Chinese rosé was one adventurous step too far.

The wine will remain nameless.

Oxygenating your wine before serving

You can now buy machines which you can use to oxygenate your wine before serving. They use medical grade pure oxygen. They cost a lot of money - USD 1,000.00 + and it is probably not worth buying them for domestic use. Restaurants , however, are using them.

Traditionally, we use decanting to aerate a wine. Usually I decant a wine only if it is a very good one  requires ageing for 5 years or so before being served. Most wine is now designed to be drunk young and you simply open the bottle and serve it.

Some people are ordering very good and very young wines in restaurants and because the wine has not been allowed to mature, which allows the tannin to soften, they do not taste at their best.

I rarely buy a very good wine in a restaurant for two reasons. I do not know how the wines have been kept and the mark up makes the wine ridiculously expensive.

Some customers insist , however, in ordering a young Penfold's Grange or such like if it is on the menu. The restaurant can then use an oxygenation machine to pump 100% oxygen through the wine for a minute or so to rapidly mature the wine: All very well and good.

If you are determined to buy exceptionally good wine for consumption at a restaurant then I recommend that you get to know the restaurant first and 'phone them up in good time to allow the wine to settle upright before it is decanted  an hour or so before you start dining. The restaurant may charge you in advance to do this as they do not want to waste expensive wine in the event that you do not turn up.

If you have got a thousand bucks or so in your back pocket then you might be tempted to buy a wine oxygenation machine. Remember this though: air can be the enemy of wine and too much oxygen can ruin a bottle. An opened bottle of wine can go of overnight even in a fridge. This is why it is best to vacuum seal left over wine for a later date. If you pump too much oxygen for too long into a wine then you could ruin it. The oxygen machines use pure oxygen.

The dry atmosphere is made is made up of about 78% Nitrogen and 21% Oxygen the other 1% is composed of Argon along with some trace gases such as Carbon Dioxide. To all intents an purposes Nitrogen is an inert gas as far as wine is concerned. The atmosphere is far gentler on wine than 100% oxygen could ever be.

Of course the oxygenation machine is wonderful gadget that can impress you wine buff friends but I shan't be asking my wife to buy me one for Christmas. I shall be asking for a case of good wine instead and use decanting and patience to give the wine a bit of zing.

Wine Scams

Once again the British press is reporting investment wine scams. This is a regular occurrence. Anyone investing in wine or in other commodities or works of art should only do so after they have established the credentials of the company they are dealing with and how they operate.

Some unscrupulous wine traders will take your money without purchasing the wine and keeping it in an honest manner on your behalf. You risk losing both your money and your wine.

There are many honest wine traders who will sell you a wine contract with the genuine intention of settling the wine contract in the future even if they have not actually purchased the wine. This is all well and good if the wine trading company is solvent and competently managed. However, the trader could mismanage the cash flow of his company and go broke; you therefore lose both your money and the wine.

If you borrow money to buy wine with the expectation  of making a capital gain and the deal fails, either because you have traded with a cheat or you have traded with an incompetent broker, then you could be hit by a triple "whammy": losing your wine, losing your capital and having to pay interest on the capital which you have lost.

Buyer beware.

http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/14454941.Solicitor_facing_jail_over___200_000_fine_wine_con/?commentSort=newest

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4X2ZXXtVrP9Tl0fcdfbtnND/further-information

Château Arnauton 2011 Bordeaux red versus Château Chasse-Spleen 2010 Bordeaux red

I have been lucky recently to have been able to drink two fine red wines from Bordeaux. The first is from Fronsac - Château Arnauton 2011.  This is a fine example of a Libournais wine similar in style to St Emilion. The town of Libourne is situated on the right bank of the Dordogne river.The soil in Fronsac is limestone based and it it well suited to making good wine. Château Arnauton is produced from a  Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Côt grapes.

We drank the Château Arnauton 2011 with Bavette steak and the wine is well suited to red meats including beef and lamb. The wine was typical of the region with a very fruity and complex aroma. I could taste vanilla and the typical tobacco box flavour of a Bordeaux red. It was of full body and was well balanced for acidity, tannin and sweetness and of course the wine was dry.  The  2011 vintage is now ready for drinking but will keep longer. It is one step up from everyday drinking wine and deserves to be served with a good meal.You can buy this wine for around £10 a bottle in the UK and it is exceptional value for money. If you go to France you will find it a lot cheaper. I recommend it highly.

Château Chasse-Spleen is one of my favourites; it is produced in  Moulis-en-Médoc. The wine really is up at another level from the Fronsac. If you want to get an appreciation of what a top Bordeaux wine tastes like without paying an enormous price then try some Château Chasse-Spleen 2010. The wine has all the regional taste of a Bordeaux and more, as it has its own distinctive flavour which marks it out as a special wine in my point of view. It stands out from the Fronsac in being more complex and concentrated with a much longer length on the palate. 

The Chasse -Spleen vineyard is situated in the Haut Médoc on the left bank of the Gironde. The soil here is a mixture of limestone marls and clays and gravel. And, of course the soil, weather and climate are perfect for growing the Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot grapes which are used to produce this best of wines.

We drank our wine with friends over lunch and we ate lamb. One of our friends is a wine lover who knows his stuff  and another of our friends knows nothing about wine but I can always trust him to sniff out something special and he was not disappointed. Both of my friends agreed that this is top wine. My wife agreed too.

The Château Chasse-Spleen 2010 was ready for drinking but it will keep a lot longer. 2010 was a good vintage so it augurs well for the keeping quality of the wine.

My wife was impressed with my selection of wine and I was impressed with her French style preparation and cooking of the lamb. Two of the other ladies present chose to drink white wine so I served them a 2012 Hugel Gewurztraminer from Alsace so they were not left out in the quality stakes.

 A bottle of Château Chasse-Spleen 2010 will set you back around £30 in the UK so it is a lot more expensive than the Fronsac Château Arnauton 2011. The Fronsac manages to hold its own however, even if it cannot reach the heights of the Chasse-Spleen.

I don't usually buy wine that costs more than about £18 a bottle and at that only rarely but sometimes it is worth paying  a good bit more to treat yourself and your friends for a special occasion which was a belated birthday celebration for me. For this reason the Chasse-Spleen was worth every penny and especially when it can also give a top Bordeaux costing ten times as much a good run for its money. I highly recommend this wine for a special occasion.

http://www.bbr.com/producer-713-chateau-chasse-spleen

http://www.wine-searcher.com/wine-62395-2011-chateau-arnauton-fronsac-france

Exquisite Champagne from the Aube

 A few weeks ago I visited the cellars of Michel Furdyna at Celles-sur-Ource in the Aube with some friends and family. We tasted some special Champagne.

Michel is a grower-maker or a "Récoltant Manipulant" as they say in France, so look for RM on the label.

The Furdyna family farm about 8 hectares of vineyards in the rolling hills surrounding Celles-sur -Ource which is situated close to Bar-sur-Seine. In the southern area of the Champagne region, the Aube, the soil and climate are much more similar to the nearby Tonnerre and Chablis areas of northern Burgundy than they are to the north of the region near Reims. In the Aube, the geology is limestone based and Kimmeridgian based soils dominate the topography. You can easily notice the difference between the Champagne of the Aube and the Champagne from the chalk based soils further to the north of the region. This is not to say that  Champagne from the the Aube is in anyway inferior. Many Négociants in Reims and Epernay  blend Champagne from the Aube into their house brands. So most Champagne lovers will have drunk Champagne from the Aube even if they have never heard of the district.

Michel does not restrict himself to growing the three Champagne noble grapes - Pinor Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay but he also grows Pinot Gris. He has parcels of land dedicated to the local grape varieties Arbane, Petit Meslier and Pinot Droit. These latter grape varieties have all but disappeared in the Champagne region. It is interesting that Petit Meslier grapes are grown in the Eden Valley wine district of South Australia.

The Pinot Gris and local varieties of grapes contribute to the unique style of the Furdyna Champagne. The wines are so good that I can still taste them in my olfactory memory. Quite often you can identify the wines of a specific area within a region such as Chablis, the Medoc,or Epernay. All good wine should have a specific taste. It is not often however, that a wine really has a taste of its own which stands out from its neighbours. Michel Furdyna's wine stands out in a class of its own. This is due in part to the use of the Pinot Gris grape and the local varieties.

Michel's wine is produced with the most modern techniques without forgetting the strengths of tradition. Whilst he uses an auto-riddling machine for most of his wines, his Prestige Cuvée is riddled by hand.

His love of wine is reflected in the quality of his vine growing techniques and his production of the finest Champagne that money can buy.

Visiting his cellars was a memorable experience and I could not leave with buying a couple of cases of some of the best Champagne that I have ever tasted and at a reasonable price: what more could I ask for?

Dourthe Réserve 2012 Bordeaux White Sauvignon Blanc

I am a lover of Dourthe wines. They are made by a good winemaker without pretension and the Réserve 2012 Bordeaux White Sauvignon Blanc is no exception.

This white wine  is typical of the region. It is not too fruity and does not have an overwhelming taste of gooseberries and "cat's pee". It has a nutty citrus fruit flavour. It has a medium body with a well balanced acidity and of course it is dry but the wine is slightly richer in flavour. White Bordeaux wines are produced to be drunk with food and of course the region is renowned for its shell fish especially its oysters. Plenty of Atlantic wet fish are also landed in this region including hake, cod and sea bass. This wine goes well with all of them.

The climate and soil are admirably suited to the growth of Sauvignon Blanc grapes. I am afraid to say that the New World rarely makes best use of this variety. So Bordeaux whites rate very highly in my estimation. In comparison, I often find New World varietal "Sauvignon Blanc" too fruity and the wines lack the elegance of good white Bordeaux.

We drank our wine with fish, of course, and I recommend it  highly.

Dourthe is a well known name in the Bordeaux region and the company makes the finest of wines. All of their wines are good value for money.

Château Belgrave is a top red wine from the Haut-Médoc and competes well with some of the world's finest wines. If you select Dourthe wines you cannot go wrong but they should always be consumed with a good meal.

http://www.dourthe.com/en/vineyard/1-chateau-belgrave#more

http://www.bbr.com/producer-1112-chateau-belgrave

Lindemans Bin 40 Merlot 2013

The other day we prepared a pasta dish with a tomato ragu. I fancied a bottle of wine with it and thought a good basic Australian red would go well. I hadn't read the back of the label but Lindemans 2013 Merlot went down very well with my culinary concoction.

This wine is made predominantly from Merlot grapes grown in a variety of vineyards across the South East Australia region.  It cannot claim to have a pedigree by originating from a single vineyard. I know that I rant about varietal labelling; so calling it Bin 40 goes some way to meeting my objections.

Because, the wine does not have a pedigree it would be dismissed by some wine experts. But, why be snobbish about perfectly acceptable wine? The Lindemans Merlot is a well crafted wine with a medium body and soft tannin and with a lovely fruity taste. It is little bit sweet but it is not "jammy" tasting. It is ready for drinking young which is just right for a spur of the moment decision. It goes well with food or it can be drunk on its own.

Of course, I would love to drink a top Australian wine on every occasion - from Charles Melton or Penfolds etc. - if I had the choice and the money. However, it  is good to try an unpretentious wine every now and then to bring yourself down to earth. Bin 40 could have been produced anywhere in the world, as it is part of a standardised production process, so its quality is assured. The screw cap seal means that you are almost completely guaranteed that it will not be corked.

You know what you are getting and I knew that it would go with a tomato based dish without looking at the back label.  I wouldn't choose to drink it with the finest roast beef and on a special occasion but for every day drinking it is fit for purpose.

There is nothing wrong with consuming processed food and drink every now and then and that is why I love baked beans on toast on the odd occasion and regard it as a bit of a treat.

Owing to to duty costs Lindemans Bin 40 Merlot  is rather expensive but this does not stop it from being a popular wine. It gets faint praise from some wine commentators - even the winemaker!

https://www.lindemans.com/en-gb/our-wines/bin-series/bin-40-merlot?&lang=

http://www.drinksdirect.co.uk/acatalog/Lindemans_Bin_40_Merlot_75cl.html

Champagne Albans D'Aulbe Côte des Bar

Just before Christmas we paid a visit to Buxeuil to meet friends of our family who make some of the finest Champagne. Jean-Michel Diligent is a grower maker or  a "recoltant manipulant". With his wife Francine  he farms 5 hectares of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes in the Bar-sur-Seine district of the Aube which is south east of Troyes.

You may never have heard of the Aube and its Champagne but you  have almost certainly drank some of this lovely fizz which is quite often blended into the sparkling wine of the more prestigious houses located further north in Epernay and Reims.

The vineyards of the Aube were not granted full Champagne status until 1927 after much resistance from the producers of the north. The northeners claimed that the soil is different in the Aube and of course it is. The soil in the Aube is based on the limestone marls of a  Kimmerigian band of  earth stretching from the Loire valley, through the Chablis and Tonnerre districts of northern Burgundy to the Côte des Bar in the south of the Champagne region.

The finest Champagnes of Epernay and Reims are grown on chalk but not all of the vineyards in the north of the region possess soil which is rich in chalk.

The soil of the Aube contains chalk as well as other limestones. It is my belief that although the soil does influence the quality and taste of a wine there are other influences which are just as strong. The quality of the grapes themselves, the climate and weather and the skill of the winemaker are just as important.

The wines from the Aube are less acidic and perhaps taste a little stronger and fruitier and more "forward" than the un-blended wines from the north of Champagne.

Jean-Michel Diligent makes his Champagne from the finest grapes and he pays a great deal of attention to his wine making to produce excellent non-vintage cuvées . He does not blend his Champagne with the products of any other vineyard.

He makes three types of Champagne.

Cuvée Brut Tradition which is made from the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay noble grapes. This has a taste of ripe fruits and fresh flowers. It has a finely balanced acidity. It is great as an aperitif wine.

Brut Rosé which is made primarily from Pinot Noir grapes; this wine is one of my favourite pink Champagnes. It has an intense nose of raspberries, strawberries and blackcurrants; it tastes fruity and it has a long length on the palate . Usually, I do not choose to drink pink Champagne but I did not hesitate to buy half a case when I tested this fine wine.

Cuvée Brut Elégance is my favourite of his Champagnes. It is made from 100% Chardonnay. It is a well structured wine with a balanced acidity. It is fruity and rich with a long length on the palate. This wine goes well as aperitif on its own or with a dessert - even though it is brut or very dry.  I have also drunk this wine with a main course. Good champagne can be enjoyed on its own and with every course of food. Champagne is so good perhaps you don't need any other wine.

Jean-Michel makes the finest Champagne which easily competes on quality, taste and finesse with the wines from the north of Champagne. The next time you are in the region why not pay a visit to the lovely town of Troyes and then head south east on the N71 to the  Côte des Bar, where some of France's finest wines await you.

http://www.champagne-buxeuil.fr/

1995 Château Prieuré-Lichine Margaux 4th Growth - well suited to roast beef on Christmas day.

What better wine to go with our rib of organic beef for Christmas day? We weren't disappointed. The beef was nicely prepared, the French way, with garlic inserted into the flesh, an onion on top and a knob of butter and salt and pepper. I also opened a bottle of dry white to pour some over the beef three quarters of the way through the cooking.

After putting the beef in the oven I decided to decant the wine. Stupidly, I used a wine-waiter's corkscrew to open the bottle and the cork broke. There was no way I could extract the rest of the cork without some crumbs of cork getting into the wine. I now had to decant the wine using a tea strainer to filter out the bits of cork but inevitably some of the cork remained in the wine. Luckily, I avoided getting sediment into the wine as well.

After decanting the wine I tasted some of the wine remaining in the bottle. The sediment does you no harm. The wine tasted wonderful and there was no harm done but I should have used a screw pull model. I am not too bothered by a little bit of cork in my wine and my wife isn't either provided that the wine is good.

Our beef was cooked perfectly and we used some of the juices to make a sauce. The beef was medium on the outside but pink in the middle.

The 1995 Château Prieuré-Lichine was perfect as it was fully mature and ready for drinking. It was just starting to turn a burgundy colour and it had a nose of plums and black currants. It had medium to full body, with softening tannin and well balanced acidity and it was dry. It tasted similar to its smell but it had the typical flavour of  the spice and vanilla of a Bordeaux matured in oak. The wine was complex and concentrated but with the silky feel of a Margaux in the mouth. In my opinion this wine is worthy of more than a 4th growth classification. The wine was a truly wonderful accompaniment to the food. If you want to know what a top wine is really about then buy a bottle of this one. In the UK it will cost you £44 or so but in France you can find it a lot cheaper. You could pay ten times as much for a 1st growth Bordeaux but a first growth will not taste that much better even though it might keep longer.

I spent a little more on this wine than I am normally prepared for good Bordeaux (about £20) but it was well worth it. 1995 was a good vintage in Bordeaux.

I'ts the festive spirit

Another Christmas has passed and as the years go by they seem to be coming up faster and faster. For an 18 year old a year is a long time but as you get older and older a year makes up an increasingly small proportion of your life. All the more reason to enjoy every moment and to drink a decent bottle of wine  and eat good food whenever you get the opportunity. The days of drinking poor wine are over for me.

The festive season is full of dangers as far as food is concerned. Many restaurants see it as an opportunity to serve up terrible grub at excessive prices. The dreaded Christmas lunch with your work colleagues can often be a culinary disaster.

I experienced this when we went to a small local café which got out of its depth with the number of punters. For some reason they got our orders wrong and I ended up eating a turkey sandwich after waiting for over an hour and a half. The only saving grace was that the company was good and the wine was also palatable and reasonably priced. However, by the time my lunch arrived I had drunk a little too much so I had to wash down the the turkey with water. The turkey was well garnished and tasted good! I did not complain as the café was trying hard and was not trying to rip anyone off. They also had realised the mistake of getting out of their depth. It was good that I was able to see the funny side of the experience.

For Christmas eve my experience was completely different when we ate locally, in Orpington, which is not far from where we live. We go to Osteria da Fabrizio fairly regularly and we knew that the food would be good on Christmas eve with no corners cut and that the quality would be maintained and that the prices would not be shoved up. We were not disappointed.

After  the amuse-gueule accompanied by a glass of prosecco we ate:

Wild boar sausage, venison and beef carpaccio,

Taglioni pasta with marinated lobster,

A rack of lamb,

Chocolate fondant.

This was excellent dining.

All of these dishes were full of flavour and cooked perfectly. The rack of lamb was cooked to the correct strength and was seasoned perfectly and this is a good sign that the cooks know what they are doing. Well done the chef and his staff.

All this was washed down with a bottle of Valpolicella. The staff in the Osteria are from a variety of European countries and the are all friendly and polite and know how to treat the customers. No one ever calls us "guys". Being called "guy" in a restaurant is rude and borders on the insulting. In fact there is no reason to address anyone as "guy" unless he is actually named Guy. Why should I be treated as if I am about to be thrown on a bonfire? Would a waiter  or waitress like it if I I said, "come over here "guy"; I am ready to order?

When I go to a restaurant in France or Italy I am treated with respect because the waiters and waitresses know how to behave properly; it is a pity that the English cannot follow suit.

Any way, enough of this rant as we had a great meal at the Osteria. The boss is always friendly and plays great jazz records; even on Christmas eve so three cheers! We did not have to suffer "White Christmas" for the fiftieth time and anyway the outside temperature was 12 degrees celcius. We were set up nicely for a good culinary experience on Christmas Day. Osteria Fabrizio is highly recommended - if you are in the area.

http://www.dafabrizio.co.uk/