Turning Leaf Pinot Noir 2009

I liked this Californian Pinot Noir from Gallo. It was fruity with a medium to full body with soft ripe tannins. It does not compete with red burgundy, which is usually 100 percent Pinot Noir, for elegance or complexity. It went very well with roast chicken. I get a feeling that this wine is blended from wines from a number of vineyards but this does not detract from its quality. It is half the price of the English wine, Regent Sedlescombe Organic Vineyard - Red, which I drank recently but twice the quality: so what chance has English wine got to compete? American wine also has extra tax to contend with. I don't think that climate change will assist the English wine making industry for many years to come, especially when it comes to red wine making.

Ochagavia Silvestre 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon Chilean Red

I drank this wine in the Parlour restaurant at Canary Wharf with a business colleague. I was very impressed with its fruit character and the wine was well balanced and not overwhelmed by oak. It went down well with a Hamburger. You can buy this wine for about 13 pounds a bottle on the retail market and at just over 20 pounds in the restaurant it represented good value for money. This wine can compete on equal terms with French, Spanish, Italian and Californian wine. I recommend it for drinking with red meats and I am sure that it will improve with a few years of bottle ageing. It really should go down as a complement to food rather than swigging it back at a wine bar.

The restaurant was so so; the food and service were quite good and the waiters were polite. And they do not address you as "guys" which is egregious as far as I am concerned. The only problem with the restaurant is that the tables are too close to one another so it is not the place to go if you dabble in insider trading. Though, it is OK for a trade of Chilean red.

Regent Sedlescombe Organic Vineyard - Red

I bought this wine at a farmers market in Tunbridge Wells UK in 2010. It is a non-vintage wine so I suppose it is blended from more than one year. It is produced from organic grapes grown by organic standards. I kept it for opening on a special occasion, so I opened it when I had some American visitors to give them a taste of England. I was disappointed with wine and decided not to serve it to them. The reason why I was disappointed was the wine tasted very ordinary; it was light to medium bodied and I could just about taste some fruit character. It cost 15 pounds for the bottle at a discount. I would not expect a non vintage wine of this character to improve very much in the bottle. It was not bad wine but it could not hold a candle to a good Bordeaux or Rioja costing less. This is the problem with English wine for in the main it is so expensive compared to its competitors. I am sure that the vine growers and winemakers adhere to the highest standards but they cannot account for the British climate and weather which still does not favour red wine production even in the South of England.

In its place, I opened a bottle of La Croix de Beaucaillou 2006, the second wine of Château Beaucaillou. This wine cost 23 pounds at Majestic and the jump in quality was far more than the price difference. It showed all of the characteristic of a good Bordeaux red from St Julien and is not far short of the quality of the first wine. I could have kept it for another five years and it would have improved further.

The next day we opened a bottle of Denbies Flint Valley non vintage white wine. This wine was an improvement as it had hints of spice, gooseberries and minerals. It is produced from the Reichensteiner and Seyval Blanc grape varieties which suit a cooler climate. It tasted like an English white wine and it was light and refreshing so it had regional character. At 7 to 8 pounds a bottle it is quite expensive and in France I can buy much better quality white wines for this money.

It is a shame that English wine producers can not benefit in any way from the economies of scale. They will always be hard pressed to compete.

Some wines I have drunk recently

I have drunk some interesting wines over the last month or so. I did not write tasting notes as they were all drunk in a social situation with friends over a meal and I just jotted down some notes.

Barberesco Reserva 1996 Allini DOCG. This wine was given to me by a friend who had just emptied his cellar. The wine had been accidentally kept for a long time. My friend cannot remember where he got it from and when he bought it . It might have been a gift. This red wine is from the Piedmont region of North West Italy and is produced from the Nebbiolo black grape variety. The Nebbiolo variety is very tannic and this can lead to well structured wines which are able to mature for a long time. Not so with this wine as it was well past its best and had completely lost its fruit but retained a vegetal character reminiscent of a very well aged Burgundy or Bordeaux. It was just about drinkable. It was sixteen years old. You should always be careful to drink wines before they are past their best. A very good quality Barbesco Riserva should mature well for as long as this but if I had any in my cellar I would drink it now. A related wine Barolo is also from the Piedmont area but is generally of higher quality. It is also made from the Nebbiolo grape. I have drunk some which were twenty years old and still going strong.

Benoit Lahaye Brut Essential Grand Cru Chamapagne which was disgorged 15/12/2010. This non-vintage champagne is made from 90% Pinot Noir and 10% Chardonnay grapes. Bouzy, where it is produced, has one of the finest terroirs on the Montagne de Reims, the climate and soil here is exactly suited to the production of the finest champagnes. Benoit Lahaye is a "recoltant manipulant" which means that he makes his champagne from his own grapes. He does not blend his wine with that of other growers. Most of the top houses blend their champagnes. Since Benoit took over the running of the vineyards and wine production from his father Serge in the mid-nineties he has changed the viticulture to organic and bio-dynamic. This has changed the flavour and style of the wine so that it is now lighter and less intensely flavoured. This style appeals more to international tastes and needless to say the French people that I know prefer the older style. My wife and I can see the attributes of both styles. I shall still buy this wine for years to come. This wine and all his others, especially the vintage champagne, are certainly ones to watch.

Côtes du Brulhois 1808 vintage 2008: this red wine is from the Garonne "region" or area in the South West of France. It is concentrated red wine which is full of fruit and even had a slightly smoky or empyreumatic flavour which adds to its complexity. It is made from the Merlot, Tannat, Cabernet and Cot black grape varieties. This wine is of very good quality and is very good value for money. I wish I did not have to go to France to find it.

Côtes du Brulhois Chateau Grand Chene 2006, this wine is very similar to the 1808 but it has matured a little longer and shows a little bit more complexity. I obtained both these wines on a recent trip to South West France. I have not seen them in any wine merchant or supermarket in the London area including Nicolas. I recommend these wines with good strong tasting food such as beef stew.

Bouchard Pere and Fils 2007 Echezeaux Grand Cru: this was bought for me as a birthday present perhaps I should not have opened it so soon. I was not disappointed neither was my wife. This is classic red burgundy with all the elegance, finesse and concentration of flavours that I would expect. Of course, it is readily available at its high price but for me it is worth the 80 or so Euros which you have to pay. It was a birthday present so even better value for money.If I had kept the wine it would have improved in the bottle for many years to come. So what, one of my good friends, who rates himself as a Burgundy expert, gave it full marks.

Cheurlin-Dangin Non Vintage Champagne from Celles-sur-Ource. This is one of my favourite chamapagnes from the Aube region south of Troyes. Celles-sur- Ource is a small village situated between Bar- sur-Seine and Bar-sur-Aube. This area is regarded as being a "second class" producer of champagne and much of the wine ends up being blended into the Champagne offerings of the negociants further North in Reims and Epernay. The soil in the Aube is more akin to the the Kimmeridgian soils found futher to south east in the Chablis area which is in the Burgundy region. The chalky limestone marl soils of the Aube produce wines which are different in character and taste to the wines produced by the cretaceous chalk soils of the classic champagne areas in the North. Dare I say it, they remind me of Cremant de Bourgogne. Never the less, Cheurlin Dangin produces the finest sparkling wine and this elegant Champagne it is well worth trying if you can find it outside of the Aube area.

Corked Wine

I have recently opened a number of bottles of Bourgogne-Epineuil from various producers and have found the wine to be corked and fit only to be poured away. Epineuil is not the most expensive wine but it is one of my favourites and I hate wasting wine and money. I live too far away to take the bottles back to the producer. Nowadays, there is no other reason than cost to invest in a supply of sterilised or composite corks. It may be too expensive to invest in screw cap "corking" machinery but screw caps almost eliminate the possibility of spoilage of the wine from cork taint. Epineuil wine is not meant for long term storage or maturation so why not consider screw caps? Epineuil is difficult to find in the UK, but I recommend it to drinkers who like a red wine that is not over fruity but dry in style and with a genuine "goût de terroir" which reflects the influence of the soil, weather and climate prevalent in one of the most northern areas of Bourgogne. Nicolas supply it in the UK and at least you can take the bottle back for a replacement if it is spoilt by cork taint.

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De Bortoli DB Selection Verdelho 2009 SE Australia

De Bortoli DB Selection Verdelho 2009 SE Australia - We bought a few bottles of this white wine from Waitrose when we had lots of friends round for a Tagine. At five pounds a bottle it was not going to break the bank. The quality of this dry white wine is very good and the tangy taste went down well with the mildly spicy Chicken.

The verdhelo grape is widely grown in Madeira for the production of Madeira dessert wines and is renowned for its acidity which adds balance to the sweetness. Some producers in Madeira are now experimenting with this grape for table style wines. This grape has obviously transferred well to Australia where for a very long time it was also used for sweet wines. Obviously it is able to produce a very high quality dry wine which suits it purpose exactly: three cheers for De Bortoli. London drinkers can find other producers of Australian Verdelho at the Cork and Bottle wine bar on Leicester square but you will have to pay a lot more.

Louis Felipe Edwards Merlot 2011 Lot11 vintage 2011

My wife was given this wine "Louis Felipe Edwards Merlot 2011 Lot18 Vintage 2011" as a complimentary bottle in a Hotel. It is Chilean red from the Rapel valley. On the web you can buy this for about 12 pounds. We got a half bottle for nothing. I was extremely disappointed by this wine as I felt that the malo-lactic conversion was over done. Winemakers deliberately introduce bacteria into the wine to convert harsh tasting malic acid to softer tasting lactic acid. Malic acid gives apples their tart taste. Lactic acid is present in milk and is a much softer tasting acid.

In this wine I could taste too much lactic acid and I found the wine un-drinkable. My wife did not have the same opinion but did agree that there was something not quite right with it. It was a good job it was free. Perhaps, given time and a couple of years in the bottle it might improve. Screw cap "corks" do not appeal to me for wine that needs keeping - for some reason.