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.
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