Château Tour Chapoux Bordeaux Supérieur red 2019

I promised that I would write about a 2019 Bordeaux and I finally got round to buying one and drinking it with my wife. I was pleasantly surprised about this wine. I was a bit fearful that it would be too early to drink. In a previous blog I suggested that it would be best to keep the 2019 vintage for a couple of years before drinking it. Much as I hate to say it, I was wrong; you can drink this wine as the tannin is very soft. The wine has much of the character of the region and it is of quite high quality. At less than £10 a bottle in a British supermarket it represents good value for money and I recommend it. You can find it at a discounted price; supermarkets are lowering the cost of some wines to attract customers. You can find some bargains but it would be better if the pound had a higher value against the Euro and the Greenback; however I can't see much prospect of this in the near future.

This website gives a good description of the 2019 vintage in Bordeaux.

https://www.decanter.com/wine-news/opinion/news-blogs-anson/bordeaux-2019-vintage-what-to-expect-436453/

Château Tour Chapoux Bordeaux Supérieur 2019 is mainly Merlot based wine so it is made for easy drinking. However, this wine will keep and improve in the bottle for a few more years. This wine went down well with steak and chips and we were able to savour it over two evenings.  It is light enough to drink on its own if you feel that way inclined, but I wouldn't do that as it deserves to be matched with food.

2019 was a good year for Bordeaux so it is worth buying a few bottles to lay down if you can afford it.

This wine was rated 3.5 out 5 on this website, below. I am not a lover of ratings but if I had to I would have given it 4 out 5 on the basis of value for money.

https://www.vivino.com/GB/en/tour-chapoux-bordeaux-superieur/w/2150579?year=2019

https://www.waitrosecellar.com/chateau-tour-chapoux

It pays to keep your wine -part 2

 Even though most wines can be drunk young , it pays to keep the better ones to mature in the bottle.

2013 Pietro Sartori Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG. This red wine was superb. It is made from partially dried Corvina black grapes blended with other approved varieties in the Veneto region of North East Italy. It is so well known that it is often referred to as just Amarone. This wine has all the attributes of the wine style of the appellation. It is fruity and very complex and concentrated wine with a full body with well balanced acidity, tannin, sweetness and alcohol at 15%. It is dry wine. You have to drink this wine with strong food; it really is too strong to knock back on its own and I recommend that you don't.  We tasted it over two nights with a venison stew and it went perfectly with it. To buy it now you will have to pay over £60 a bottle. I can't remember where or when I bought it but I did not pay anywhere near that price, so it was a good investment. I do not buy wine to make money so my investment only paid off as a tasting sensation. This wine will keep a lot longer. Would I be tempted to pay £60 plus for another bottle of this vintage - well yes? This is top wine.

https://www.vivino.com/pietro-sartori-amarone-della-valpolicella/w/113

2013 Alain Mathias Bourgogne Epineuil red AC. This wine is is from the  north west of the Burgundy region, on the outskirts of Tonnerre, and it reflects the nature of the cooler climate. The wine is made from pinot noir grapes grown in the limestone soils. The vines are raised bio-dynamically. The wine is fully ready to be drunk now at is near its peak. I am astounded that Alain Mathias can produce a wine that exactly reflects the "goût de terroir" of the area for such a reasonable price. My wife and I love this wine and so we have an affection for wines from the area. Her family is from the Yonne where top wines such as Chablis and Epineuil are from.

Epineuil red is much lighter than the wines from Bordeaux or Veneto and it can be drunk on its own but I never do this; it really should be drunk with food. We tasted ours with pintade. 

https://www.map-france.com/department-Yonne/

The concept of "goût de terroir" is alien to many wine lovers. If you go to the region and drink a good Epineuil then you will know what I mean. This wine style is unique. It is recognisable and it jumps out from the other red wines of Burgundy including the top ones which also have their own "goût de terroir". "Goût de terroir" does not just reflect the soil that the vines are grown in; the climate and the match of the grape variety to the soil and weather also have an influence. When I am tasting other so called "pinot noir wines" from anywhere else, including France, I have difficulty recognising which country they come from. I can't tell a Washington state "pinot noir" from a New Zealand one. All I know is that the pinot noir grape does not like a hot climate.  

https://www.decanter.com/wine-news/us-geologists-challenge-gout-de-terroir-64004/

If you are in France you should really visit the Yonne. Alain Mathias also produces superb  Chablis.  his wines are superb and great value for money. We have just finished our last bottle of Epineuil: it is difficult to go to France now, so we are looking forward to a delivery.

http://www.domainealainmathias.com/

It pays to drink your wine and keep it

 I have finally got round to buying and drinking some 2019 vintage wines.  I also found a wonderful wine and a not so wonderful one which have been kept for several years.

2019 Merinas White Wine made from organically grown grapes in the Uclés region of Castilla in Central Spain. The wine is made from Airen, Viura & Verdejo white grapes. This is basic quality wine which is good enough to be drunk with food we downed it with roast chicken. The wine is fruity on the nose and palate and for some reason I could taste a hint of bananas again; and at my age I should have grown out of this habit. You can buy half a case of this for £42 so it represents good value for money given the diabolical exchange rate of the pound versus the Euro and US dollar since Brexit; I fear this trend is set to continue - nevermind.

 I recommend this wine as you do not have to delve deep into your pocket and it has not suffered in any way from being released early.

2019 Terre di Faiano Nero d'Avola Organic Red produce in Sicily. Waitrose supermarket where I bought the wine describes the wine thus: "an explosion of juicy blueberries, blackberries and red plums"  They have described this wine perfectly. It is simply gorgeous and it is one of the best wines I have ever tasted and it is being sold at £7.49 a bottle. I am going back for more as the value for money is simply great. A prize should be awarded to the wine producers and Waitrose buyers. We drank a half bottle of this wine one evening with rib-eye steak followed the next evening with roast chicken. 

The wine was produced from dried grapes a process which concentrates the flavours hence the term Appassimento on the label.  I would pay twice the price for this wine and still feel that I had got good value for money. Well done Waitrose supermarket for finding this wine and selling it at such a good price.

https://www.waitrosecellar.com/terre-di-faiano-nero-davola-dop-le-702487

2010 Skalli Terra Vecchia Corsican  Rosé: this wine is from l’île de beauté. Corsica is genuinely a beautiful island with friendly people and wonderful scenery. The seafood is delicious and they make good, if not brilliant, wines to go with it. I was  shocked that it lasted so long and still tasted reasonably fresh even though it was sealed with a plastic cork. The wine had very slightly oxidised after such a long time, but  you might miss this if you weren't looking for it and hadn't swirled the wine in the glass and given it a good sniff. I am not overly fond of Rosé wine as it often has a slightly bitter after taste for me, and this one was no exception. The wine went done well with fish. My wife preferred it. We bought this is a French supermarket at a very cheap price so it was worth the money. I think that it is better to consume wine stoppered with plastic corks within five or six years of purchase. This wine should be drunk young anyway, but it had been hidden away on its side in the dark.

https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/skalli+terra+vecchia+rose+igp+ile+de+beaute+pays+france

https://boston.consulfrance.org/French-Corner-This-spring-discover-Corsica-l-ile-de-beaute

2011 Bordeaux Baron Phillipe de Rothschild Red appellation contrôlée: I was surprised that this wine was stoppered with a plastic cork, but nevermind it made a "romantic" popping noise when I opened it. After all this time, the wine was in perfect condition. It had hardly oxidised but there was soft tannin and the typical Bordeaux smell and taste. The wine had the complexity and concentration that I would have expected from a renowned producer that was acting as a negociant. This wine is probably a blend of different wines from the region. Even though it was not expensive it is still very good wine and well worth the 6 or 7 Euro that we paid for it. We drank it with steak and it went down very well. I suspect that if the wine had been sealed with a composite cork then it would have now been well past its best, as air would have penetrated the cork.  If you suspect that a wine has been stoppered with a plastic cork it might be best to cut the capsule of the top of the bottle and then you can decide if you want to keep the wine longer than the five years recommended. However, who knows how long this wine would have kept with an almost perfectly airtight seal. Probably, top French wines will be stoppered with genuine corks into the distant future to help them age perfectly and I am all in favour of this. For everyday wines why not use screwtops and plastic corks etc. if it helps to substantially reduce the risk of corked wines.

https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/baron+philip+de+rothschild+bordeaux+france/2011/any

So there you have it, it pays to drink most your wine young and it pays to keep it if it is well sealed. If you have paid top dollar for French, Italian , US, Australian or Spanish wine etc. then cellar it.

Cor blimey a bottle of 1989 Mouton Rothschild for 18 bucks

 It was in the news: the New York restaurant Balthazar mistakenly gave a bottle of Mouton Rothschild worth $2,000 to a couple who had ordered an $18 bottle of "Pinot Noir". The wine waiter then served the "Pinot Noir" to some well-heeled businessmen who had sat down to believe they were drinking a top premier cru wine from Bordeaux. The wine waiter had used the same style of decanter for both wines and then mixed  the containers up.

https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2020/10/ny-restaurant-mistakenly-serves-2000-wine-to-couple-who-ordered-18-pinot/

The businessmen commented on the purity of their wine. Possibly, they were drinking a wine made from 100% pinot noir but I doubt it at that price. The Mouton Rothschild would have been a blend of black grapes dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.

I have been in the fortunate position to go to a "business meeting" where the boss ordered a top red Bordeaux; fortunately, he knew what he was doing and none of us was so inebriated that we could not tell that we were drinking a top wine.

The couple joked that they were drinking a top wine but still did not realise the mistake. Perhaps, they had better palates than they thought or they were not letting on.

The restaurant could have let sleepings dogs lie and got away with the mistake. But the owner did not charge the businessmen so he lost a lot of money, but the wine would have been considerably marked up and the restaurant probably bought the wine years ago for a much cheaper price.

The couple had the pleasure of drinking a top wine for a peppercorn price.

It does not surprise me that none of the customers realised that a mistake had been made. The power of suggestion is so strong. The couple would have believed that they were drinking a bottle of cheap wine, and they were not trained to recognise a top-quality one. The businessmen believed they were drinking a top premier cru and judged that that is exactly what they got.

I have been on a number of wine courses where you are taught to identify a good quality wine that is good value for money. It is difficult, but you should be able to recognise a wine that can keep for a long time. A wine that can keep for a long duration and improve in the bottle in a cellar will not be cheap. The wine must be made from the best grapes and by winemakers who know what they are doing. 

The Mouton Rothschild in question would have matured in the bottle and would have become lighter in colour, the tannin would have softened and the wine would have tasted concentrated and complex and the fresh fruit flavours of a young wine would have ripened. Anyone who has experienced drinking or just tasting the best wines, which have aged well, would have recognised that this was an exceptional wine. The businessmen may have been able to spot a good deal but not a good wine. If there was a wine enthusiast present then he or she would probably have been distracted and subject to the power of suggestion.

The power of suggestion is so strong that you should taste wines "blind" to assess them. The power of suggestion can fool anybody, and in my experience, even masters of wine are not immune and they can be fooled just as easily as anyone else. Some red Burgundy wines made from 100% pinot noir are quite light-coloured when young and could appear to have lightened from age - hence the confusion perhaps.

However, one sniff and an experienced wine taster would know the difference.

One thing is certain, you might be able to tell a Burgundy from a Bordeaux or a French wine from a Spanish one. But, identifying a particular chateau and its vintage is nigh on impossible only the actual winemakers and their assistants can do this. 

My wife is from Champagne and she can identify wines from the north of the region as opposed to the south, and now I can do this. Her father was born in Burgundy but in the far north of the region: we have drunk so much wine from this area that we can recognise the wine style but not the producer and the year. 

Wine drinking and identification is a  subjective business, it is difficult to be objective but you can use wine tasting techniques to good effect as long as you keep your feet on the ground. You can be trained to recognise a good wine and better still a fine wine that doesn't cost the earth.

I hope that the couple were able to appreciate their good fortune and are now able to dine out on it. I hope that the businessmen could see the funny side of what happened and that they still enjoyed their wine and their good fortune in securing a good deal. This is what wine appreciation is truly about and it is not about being snobbish or looking down on anybody to make them look foolish.

Château Mercian 2018 Iwasaki Koshu Dry White Wine from Japan

Japanese wine from grapes is almost unheard of in the UK,  although a good number of people would have heard of Sake made from rice. I used to travel a lot with my work and went to Japan in the late 1980's to do IT projects. I must say that I was not too impressed with their wine then and I had little taste for Sake rice wine. I used to drink French wine when I could find it and I had to pay a small fortune for the privilege. Luckily , I was on an expense account. Even so, I stuck to beer most of the time. Several cold beers were needed to counteract the heat of the genuine Wasabi sauce dished up with  the Tempura. The Tempura served in top bars in Tokyo is outrageously expensive but the batter is light and tastes incredibly good and the sea food and vegetables are absolutely fresh. It is difficult to find genuine Wasabi in western restaurants who usually make the sauce from horseradish rather than the Wasabi root.   Genuine Wasabi tastes more herbal than the horseradish variety and it is not as hot but still almost too hot for me.

We found this wine in the Mount vineyard in Shoreham, of all places, near the Kent town of Sevenoaks in the UK.

We drank it recently with some friends before the latest lockdown on a sunny day in the garden.  A couple of our friends were from Brazil and during the conversation the subject of Japan came up. I had a plan to ask my friends where the wine came from and gave them three guesses and some heavy clues that it was from Asia. They were a bit flummoxed and surprised that wine from grapes came from Japan and surprised at the good quality. I had to show them the bottle to prove I wasn't joking.

The three women in the group, including my wife, were more impressed than the two men , including me.

I felt that the wine had strong flavours of tropical fruits and was well balanced for acidity and residual sugar it was concentrated and complex but did not last long on the palate. We drank the wine with shellfish. You could drink this wine on its own but really it should be drunk with food. However, hot sauces would overpower the subtle taste of the wine and I would not recommend it with genuine or false Wasabi - stick to cold beer or mineral water.

The wine is made from the Japanese Koshu grape variety and it is estate produced in the Yamanashi Prefecture on the base of Mount Fuji. The soil here is a mixture of gravel and clay. The climate and weather are perfect for growing wine grapes.

The Mount Fuji location is wonderful and it is a far cry from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo. If you have several thousand dollars nestling in your back pocket then Japan is really worth visiting, not just for the wine but for the culture and the wonderful cuisine.Château Mercian 2018 Iwasaki Koshu Dry White Wine from Japan is not cheap in the UK at over £20 a bottle - less per bottle for a case- but it is really worth trying even if it does not compete on a cost and quality basis with a bottle of Chablis. However, I thoroughly recommend it and it proves that Japanese wine is steadily improving and will become competitive with the best wines of Europe and the New World.

https://chateaumercian.com/en/our-wines/index.html

https://www.kwoff.co.uk/products/chateau-mercian-iwasaki-koshu-yamanashi-12-bottle-case?variant=32449530331229&currency=GBP&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gclid=CjwKCAjw5p_8BRBUEiwAPpJO61hhP4XZiT_Huul5Xn7fer4Twc6DRN-OA8vxGWiQWH1cVWXgPeYjFBoCNKcQAvD_BwE

Vino seal glass stopper

 After visiting a restaurant where they served the wine sealed with a glass stopper, I thought what a good idea it was . These stoppers have been around for several years but this was the first time I had noticed it. maybe it's because I mainly drink French wines: French wine producers tend to use artificial corks when they do not use classical cork seals.

The other night I opened a rather nice Macedonian red wine to drink over a really good meal cooked by my wife. The bottle was sealed with a screw cap.  I may be old fashioned but the act of using a corkscrew adds to the romance of opening a bottle of wine even in the house when we haven't  got guests.

The glass stopper is something different and I can't wait to find a bottle that I can open myself.

The glass stopper helps to prevent wines being contaminated with cork taint. The stopper also reduces the oxygen absorbed by the wine so theoretically a good wine can be stored longer. Some producers are happy for oxygen to very slowly penetrate the wine to assist the ageing process. All this is very controversial. I doubt , however, that top producers will all convert to wine bottles sealed with screw caps, plastic or glass seals. As I said, there is something romantic about pulling a natural cork before serving.

Natural corks also promote the sustainable growth of oak trees which is in their favour.

One advantage of plastic, screw cap and glass seals is that you can store your wine bottles upright, but of course you still need to store wine in a cool dark place that is free from vibrations.

Some commentators have noted that bottles sealed with glass and  kept on their side might leak. This would mean that the seal has been broken and too much oxygen has penetrated the wine.

All in all I am in favour of innovation when it comes to the seal on a bottle as long as, occasionally, I can still pull a natural cork when the circumstances are right.

 

 

The Mount Vineyard Shoreham Kent

 My wife and I visited the Mount Vineyard, last week, situated in the small and charming village of Shoreham, in Kent. The entrance to the Mount is on the left side of the road as you walk or drive from the bridge, over the Darent river, towards the parish church. We decided to stop for lunch before taking a walk alongside the river. We just  turned up and did not have to make a booking.

The restaurant is situated right in the middle of 4 hectares of vines. The lunch menu was simple  but our pizzas were excellent. The waiting staff were also excellent and paid us the courtesy of not calling us "guys". My wife hates this more than I do but now we have got used to it. However, it was  refreshing not to be treated in such a familiar way. 

As you would expect the wine list was extensive. We chose The Mount Vineyard's 1918 Pinot Noir, we enjoyed this wine and this was the first time that I judged an English red wine to be of really good quality. I have been enormously critical of English red wine in the past  judging it to be too expensive for its quality. This wine is different and it deserves to be taken seriously. It reminded us of the Coteaux Champenois still reds produced in Champagne region of France - from the Pinot Noir and Pinot Meurnier grapes. Perhaps it is the chalk soil and the cool climate in Kent.  However, whilst the Mount Pinot Noir tastes similar it has a distinct style of its own which is the hallmark of a good wine which has not been produced in bulk in a wine factory. The Mount Pinot Noir should develop in the bottle to reveal more fruit flavour  and softer tannin - it is a wine to be savoured with food rather that be slugged back at a barbeque.

The Pinot Noir is not the only grape variety grown in the vineyards. The Mount also grows Chardonnay and grape varieties such as Seyval Blanc which are suited to a cooler and damper climate. The Mount produces sparkling wine and I expect their bubbly will be delicious. My wallet wasn't bulging after lunch so I did not buy a bottle. The price of English Sparkling wine is almost too much for me at around £50 a bottle. I can buy really good quality Champagne from France for a third of the price. However, most English sparkling wine is of high quality and perhaps it is where the future lies when the weather warms up to provide a good harvest every year. English producers cannot achieve the economies of scale available to French, Italian and Spanish producers to compete on price so they must produce high quality wines which have their own individual style.

Soon the Mount vineyard will tempt me to open my wallet again, so more of this later. The vineyard deserves a bit of support from me and other lovers of good English wine.

The Mount vineyard is well worth visiting and Shoreham station is nearby with trains to London Victoria and Sevenoaks.

http://www.themountvineyard.co.uk/the-vineyard/

1753 Château de Campuget 2016 Viognier White - L'indication géographique Gard protégée

 We ordered this wine in a local restaurant in the Orpington area of London. The wine was superb and went with fish.  Château Campuget is situated near the Rhône valley and not far from Nîmes.

The soil and climate in the Gard is well suited to the growth of the Viognier grapes to produce white wines with their own distinctive style but which reflect the region. Viognier based wines are some of my favourites and this wine is no exception, but it is not a homogenous and industrially produced wine. the wine is fermented  partially in mature oak barrels.

The  Château recommends that you drink the wine young but after four years in the bottle it still tastes fresh. It is a dry wine, but not bone dry, and feels silky and sumptuous in the mouth and has a medium body. I agree that the wine tastes of tropical fruits and it it is complex and long lasting on the palate. It reminded me of a banana taste but perhaps that is just me. The fruit character is balanced by the acidity. 

We paid over £30 for this wine with our meal but you can buy it retail for around £11 - c'est la vie.

The bottle was sealed with a glass stopper which helps eliminate the chance of the wine being corked and perhaps this helped to preserve the freshness. This is the first time I have seen wine sealed in this way: more of this in a later post.

This wine is well worth searching out especially on a trip to the south of France - you could get stuck in a virus initiated lockdown,but what better way to spend two weeks in quarantine than with a case of such good quality wine?

http://campuget.com/fr/vins/campuget-1753-viognier-2/

Puklavec Sauvignon Blanc Pinot Grigio 2018 - Slovenian Dry White Wine

If you are looking for something different, but which is of high quality, then look no further than Puklavec  Sauvignon Blanc Pinot Grigio 2018 - Slovenian Dry White Wine. This wine is produced near Ormož in the Prlekija region of North East Slovenian. Ormož is situated on the left bank of the  river Drava and it is very close to the Croatian border. I am glad that wine from all of the regions of Slovenia are making their way to the UK market. This wine is produced in the beautiful Jeruzalem valley whose verdant slopes support the terraced vineyards. The peace and calm of this area is well worth visiting for a wine tasting and gastronomic trip and you can freely cross the border into nearby Croatia. 

The wine is a prize winner, and it deserves it, as it is well integrated for acidity and it has low sugar. It is very fruity  and tastes of tropical fruits and citrus. It also reminded me of fresh bananas !   My wife did not agree with me on this one. The wine remained long on the palate and was concentrated and complex. We drank it with fish and it goes best with food but you could drink it on its own as an aperitif.

At about £9 a bottle it is really good value for money it is worth searching for.

Ormož is a quiet town but worth a visit to buy some wine and to see the storks nesting on the houses. The Slovenians are proud of their country and its enlightened attitude to the preservation of its wildlife and the environment.

https://www.waitrosecellar.com/puklavec---friends-pinot-grigio

https://www.letsgoslovenia.si/welcome-to-jeruzalem-in-slovenia/

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

This pesky virus part 2 - The 2019 Bordeaux vintage

The Covid19 virus is playing havoc with the wine investment market. In general commodity prices follow the economy. Wine and Oil prices even seem to follow one another. I am not a wine investor and with the state of the economic conditions at the moment I would not get involved even if I had pots of spare cash to invest. If you invest in wine then you do it for the long term if you do not want to take too much of a risk. You also need to invest in wines which you know have staying power. You need to invest in wines which are prestigious - such as Château Petrus or Château Latour.

The 2019 Bordeaux vintage was a good one but many of the prestigious wines are being sold at a discount, so now could be a good time to buy especially as the lockdown prevented wine buyers going to Bordeaux to taste and assess the wines before they were bottled. If you decide that now is a good time to buy then make sure that you choose a supplier who is honest and will give you sound advice and that any wine you buy enters into your possession. You could buy a wine contract from an unreliable supplier if you are not careful, and end up losing your money and your wine when, or if, they go bust either unintentionally or intentionally.

If the wine price flops in the long term then you could drink your wine if you have no one to leave it too. I believe that wine should be bought for the pleasure of keeping it to drink rather than to make money.

All investments are risky, including wine, so it might not be wise to borrow money to invest as you could lose all the value of the wine while still having to pay back the loan.

If you are risk averse and have some spare cash you could consider gold sovereigns which tend to increase in value when other markets are risky and they have tax advantages, but once again make sure you have possession of the gold, rather than buying contracts for gold that may not be honoured. You need somewhere safe to store physical investments so wine needs to be stored in a secure location where it can mature slowly in the bottle.

On a less risky note I have seen bottles of 2019 Bordeaux on the supermarket shelves , normally even  a standard bordeaux does not appear on the shelves until 2 years after the vintage. I haven't tried a bottle of 2019 Bordeaux yet but watch this space. If you do buy some 2019 Bordeaux for drinking it will probably be best to keep it for a couple of years before opening.

2011 Château Tour Saint Germain - Red Bordeaux

This wine was a true bargain, we had two bottles left from half a case that we bought donkey's years ago. The wine was ready for drinking and had matured nicely. It goes to show that you do not need to pay a fortune for wine that will keep and mature well in the bottle, provided that you keep it on its side in a dark cool place.

This wine is typical of the Bordeaux region. It is difficult if not impossible to pin down to Blaye but it is readily recognisable as a good Bordeaux wine.

We drank the wine with roast beef one day and roast lamb a few days later. It is worth searching out and represents outstanding value for money.

The fresh fruit flavours of plum and cherries reminiscent of a young Bordeaux had matured and the wine tasted more of preserved fruits. The tannin was still present but in a softened form. The wine was dry and of medium to full body with well integrated acid. The tastes were concentrated and complex and remained on the palate for a long time. It had all the hallmarks of a good wine.

This pesky virus

This pesky virus has stopped us going to France to buy wine. It is also affecting wine production and the harvest.

I am now having to use stocks of wine which I would normally keep for a couple of years longer to allow them to improve in the bottle.

Three such wines are are:Villa Antorini Toscana Red 2018, Argentinian Catena Malbec  Red 2017 and Chateau Pey La Tour 2018 Red. All three of these wines are perfectly drinkable now but deserve keeping longer. You could say why not buy your everyday wine in an English supermarket. It's the price, in a French supermarket I can buy a reasonable wine for 5 Eur , in the UK a bottle of  standard wine costs around 7 pounds. The price of wine has shot up. This is because the pound has shot down and is falling further.

The value of sterling no longer hits the headlines but some analysts are predicting parity with the US dollar where the situation now means 1£ equals $1.20. At this rate  1 pound will become less valuable than 1 Euro.

You could say why not buy and drink English wine. The only English wine that comes close to rivaling  an ordinary continental equivalent is English sparkling wine. English sparkling wine is, however, much more pricey than Champagne or Cava. The english producers cannot benefit from economies of scale and the price will not be competitive, in the UK, unless the pound falls through the floor.

None of this is a good prospect for a  wine lover and I ask myself : "Where is the off-setting benefit?"

Some wine surprises

I was looking for some wine on the racks the other day when I found a 2012 bottle of Madiran and a 2012 bottle of 2012 Irancy red. Both wines were bought in French supermarkets for very reasonable prices years ago.

Terasses D'Autan Madiran Red 2012 AOC

Madiran is a village in the South West of France in Gascony between the towns of Pau and Auch. The red wine produced here is made primarily from the Tannat grape and it is blended with Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. The wine is strong in tannin and wine producers allow micro oxygenation of the wine to soften the tannin.This is termed micro-bullage in French. This wine was still going strong after 8 years in the bottle and would probably age for years more. It is a style of wine rich in red and black fruits but dry and with full body.the taste lingered on the palate for a long time. It was concentrated and complex and well balanced and had all the hallmarks of a very good wine that will keep for a long time. This wine had a taste of the regio. It is a wine that was designed to be consumed with good food. We had it with a shoulder of lamb from Devon. Have you never heard of it? You can still find the latter years of it on the web and in a supermarket. I highly recommend it. It is exceptional value for money.

https://www.e-leclerc.com/catalogue/rayons/alimentaire/boissons-avec-alcool/aoc---madiran-terrasses-d-autan,1153404310

Heimbourger Irancy Red 2012 AOC

Irancy is one of my favourite Burgundy wines, it is produced in the Auxerrois area in the Yonne Department in the far north of the Burgundy region. The village or commune is not far from Chablis and the kimmeridgian based soils are highly suited to the production of red wine from the Pinot Noir grape. Winemakers are permitted to use up to 10% of the César black grape which is rich in tannin. I was not expecting this wine to last so long but it aged very well. It still had the cherry flavour typical of wines from the village. But the wine had matured to develop a flavour of plums as well. The wine was dry on the palate with a medium body and it still retained its complexity and concentration and unique taste of the region. We drank it with free range roast chicken but it would also go down well roasted red meats. You can buy this wine in the Leclerc and Carrefour supermarkets. My father-in-law was born not far from the commune of Irancy and this is one of the reasons why we can identify wines from the area without seeing the label. We enjoyed so much of this wine with my late father-in-law and it brought back so many fond memories. This made us forget about Covid-19 for a while. It is difficult to find this wine in the UK, but in France you can buy it for a reasonable price. It is excellent value for money.

https://www.domaine-heimbourger.com/en/vins/irancy.html

https://www.carrefour.fr/p/vin-rouge-irancy-2014-domaine-heimbourger-3531518980043

So, there you have it there are many unexpected pleasures if you keep your wine in a cool dark place. And you do not have to spend a fortune.

Alain Mathias - Chablis 2018

The last two weeks we have been "social distancing" like everybody else in the UK even though we believe that we have both had the Covid 19 infection. I felt the infection in late January and it ran on until the first week in February and my wife had a weaker set of symptoms in early February. We cannot prove this but I certainly feel that I  had the virus before the furore started. Many other people that I know experienced something similar. At one point my temperature reached 37.9C and I was about to 'phone the doctor but it fell the next day to 37.4 C, and I felt in the clear. At one point I felt as if my lungs were under attack even though I could breathe properly. We will never know whether we caught the virus or not until a test is available; up until then we shall remain vigilant.

I feel a little bit awkward writing a wine blog and still enjoying a good glass of wine with the good food which is still available - but for how long? We are lucky we have plenty of room and a back garden where we can exercise and a  nature reserve just up the road where we can run or walk everyday. We don't feel as if we are under house arrest as many people do if they are living in a flat and can't get outside. If they are living in overcrowded conditions with frustrated children. If they are living with an abusive partner. My wife and I get along really well ,and there have been no arguments; we could carry on like this for months if needs be -as long as we can enjoy good food and wine.

The health care and public services people are heroes, they are putting their lives at risk by working without the protection they should have been provided with. So I drink a toast to them and to all those patients who have recovered and also to the unfortunate dead and their family and friends.

The health professionals are always going on about drinking too much. My wife and I do not count the wine bottles we drink, but today I looked into the recycling bin and calculate that we have drunk 6 bottles of wine in just over two weeks. This is below the health advice which we have been ignoring - it is unconscious common sense.

One of the best bottles of wine that we drank was Alain Mathias Chablis 2018. We visited his caves last year in the charming town of Tonnerre in the Yonne department of Bourgogne. We bought half a case so the remaining 5 bottles will be kept. This is superb wine which is typical of the Chablis growing area. We drank this wine with farm reared chicken - roasted. The remaining chicken was made into a "cawl" soup which we ate the following night with the remaining half bottle. Superb wine which must be kept and superb value for money.

http://www.domainealainmathias.com/

Another great wine was a half- bottle of Mathieu Antunes  Chablis 2014. This originates from the Yonne and we often drink this wine when we visit restaurants in the area. We were given this wine by our cousin who lives in the Yonne -so three cheers for her. We fear that  we won't be seeing her and her family again for a while. This wine went down so well with oysters which taste better for me with chablis rather than vodka.

https://www.vivino.com/antunes-matthieu-chablis/w/1556200?year=U.V.


We are on a semi-mediterranean diet to keep our weight and blood pressure down and it's working, I think. However, we cannot resist laying off the fish and white meat once a week to eat some high quality beef and lamb from our local butcher. What better way  to eat good  roast beef other  than with a bottle  2017 Château Jansenant, Cotes de Bourg Red AOP. This is excellent prize winning wine which shows all of the character of one of my favourite regions.

These wines are well worthy of any accolades that they have been given. I wish everyone good health.

Covid-19 and Wine

The Covid -19 outbreak is a health and personal disaster. One can but hope that that no-one else will suffer from the virus but I fear that worse is to come. My condolences are offered to anyone who has suffered. It could easily be me next, my wife or a member of my extended family, in the UK or France. I already know someone who has died of the virus.

For the wine industry this is also a disaster. It is an industry that thrives on personal contact, whether it is in the vineyard, the winery or the wine shop. Drinking a bottle of wine with friends with a good meal is part of conviviality, this is now gone, and we will all be leading lives in separation for perhaps months to come.  Soon we will be denied  the simple pleasures of visiting a cave or a wine store to discuss and taste the wine and buy it.

The future looks bleak. It is possible that automation and artificial intelligence will be used to achieve economies across the industry to save it.Wine making and delivery and vineyard work will be become de-personalised. At least, I shall be sharing my wine with friends and family. The good times will return one day.

We are all affected by the struggle against the virus, but, even so, most of us are lucky enough not to be involved in a real war which is much worse.

Tonight my wife and I will drink a glass of wine to wish good luck and good health to all those involved in the industry wherever they are.

Climate change and bottled wine

The wine industry is now having a finger pointed at it over carbon emissions. There is now criticism coming in from many directions about the carbon footprint of transporting wine in bottles and by road. Some winemakers are bottling their wine in lighter bottles to reduce the carbon footprint of transporting wine.

I am all in favour of innovation regarding the production and use of lighter wine bottles. But some environmentalists want the wine industry to go further to transport wine in bulk and "bottle" the wine in boxes and cans.

I already use "bag in the bottle" wine for drinking at home with a meal. I had a glass last night with my wife. But, at the weekend my wife and I enjoyed a bottle of Bersan Irancy Red; bottled in 2012 and left on its side to mature for 8 years. The bottle lasted us two evenings as we don't drink that much. The wine was fantastic and improved in the bottle.The bottle cost us about 8 Eur in a French supermarket. If we suddenly change "bottling" techniques so that all reasonably priced wine is sold in bulk in "bag in the box" containers filled locally, then we will lose the opportunity to buy and store wine for it to improve in the bottle.

The market for "glass bottled" wine will be reserved exclusively for the top priced brands. Wines which are reasonably priced and which have been produced and bottled on the wine estate will probably disappear.

Hopefully, I will be long dead before climate change fundamentalists kill off the majority of estate bottle wines.Only the very rich will be able to enjoy a rib of beef with a bottle of Bordeaux. Climate change must be controlled but wine producers are not the biggest generators of CO2.

Wine lovers, in the main, are fully aware of the problems associated with climate change. Climate change could easily destroy wine production and this is why we approve of innovation to reduce the carbon footprint of wine production and consumption. We are all prepared to make our contribution to reduce carbon emissions from all our activities.  However, please do not deprive wine lovers of their estate bottled wine and the wholesome food which goes with it.

https://harpers.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/25501/Trade_should_stop_bottling_it_on_carbon_emissions.html

Baronne du Chatelard Beaujolais Blanc AOP 2011

Who has ever heard of Beaujolais Blanc, well I have because I have studied wine? However, up until two weeks ago I had never tasted it. I visit France regularly and we have family in the Champagne region and in Burgundy and no one has ever opened a bottle of Beaujolais Blanc.

Beaujolais is of course in Burgundy but to all intents and purposes, and from a wine point of view, it is a separate wine region which produces enormous quantities of  wine, 98% of which is red wine from the Gamay grape. Beaujolais Blanc is produced mainly from the Chardonnay grape with small quantities of Aligoté.

Beaujolais Blanc is produced from grapes grown in a mixture of limestone, schist and granite soils in contrast to Bourgogne (Burgundy) Blanc which produced  from entirely limestone based soil. The climate is warmer in Beaujolais so this affects the growth of the grapes. The terroir in Beaujolais is different and you can taste this difference.

Many people recommend that you should drink Beaujolais within 3 to 4 years of its production. Our wine was 9 years old and it was still going strong. The wine won a gold medal at the 2012 "Concours des Grands Vins" in Macon. The Baronne du Chatelard produce their wine from limestone which has chalky white stones embedded in the soil. Soil, which is perfect for growing Chardonnay grapes, nothing it seems is simple in the wine growing world. We drank our wine with a roast chicken dish and it is wine to be savoured rather than slugging back.

Our bottle of wine was superb and had all the qualities of excellent dry white wine, it was finely balanced for acidity and fruitiness. I fancied that it was of fuller body than its Burgundian cousins from further north and especially when compared to Chablis. It was full of fruit flavour but it was not jammy. For me, it had a flavour of bananas, but my wife thought I was imagining it. I can still taste the wine in that imagination.

The next time I am in France I shall be searching out  Beaujolais Blanc; I have never seen it on the shelves in the UK. You can buy Baronne du Chatelard Beaujolais Blanc AOP on the internet for about £19 a bottle. A little expensive perhaps but I bet it is worth every penny.

https://www.chateauduchatelard.com/en/bar

https://www.99wines.co.uk/wines/Baronne_du_Chatelard__Pouilly-fuiss_.html#SID=200

Dry January

Trend-setters are trying to convince wine drinkers not to drink alcohol for the whole of January. I shall not be doing this.

No alcohol passed my lips on New Year's eve or New Year's day.This was not out of any desire "to go on the wagon". I simply did not feel like drinking even though my wife had prepared some excellent food. Usually, I enjoy a glass of wine with good food and I shall continue to do so.

If ever I felt the need to give up alcohol for a month because I was drinking too much then I would give up permanently. I like a glass of wine with my food so much that I shall ensure that alcohol will never damage my health. This means that for 2 or 3 days a week I drink no alcohol at all and for the remaining 4 days I moderate my drinking. Yesterday, at a birthday party I went a bit over the top for a change but I woke up with a clear head and conscience and no feelings of guilt as I was not drunk.

I shall ignore trend-setters and well being experts and the blandishments of the National Health Service. I shall make may own decisions about how much I drink.

I do not need multi-juices to clear my system; a couple of glasses of water will do the trick and it's much cheaper.