Champagne wine sales are well down in the UK and Prosecco sales are on the up. Prosecco is a competitor to Champagne mainly on price. You can get a bottle for around £10. It is not my favourite white dry or extra dry sparkling wine but I am not going to disparage it.
Most Presecco is made in stainless steel tanks by the Charmat method where secondary fermentation is made in the tank not in the bottle. The wine simply cannot match the quality of a Cava let alone good Champagne or English Sparking wine. The DOCG Prosecco which is of better quality is made by the tradition method like Champagne and Cava. So, if you see it for the same price as the standard fare snap it up.
http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/sol/global_search/home.jsp?bmForm=global_search&GLOBAL_DATA._search_term1=prosecco
It is produced in the Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of North East Italy. Like Turkish wine it is becoming trendy to drink it in the UK, especially in cash strapped times. Despite the slight economic growth none of the extra wealth seems to have filtered down to the middle classes; no wonder Champagne sales are falling and are set to fall further with the dire economic reports from France.
Prosecco is used to make the famous Bellini cocktail.
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Bellini-Cocktail
Do Not use Champagne as this will ruin the wine. Always use standard Prosecco.
Even though Presecco is relatively cheap, I see no reason to slosh it down with cod and chips on a Friday night . All sparkling wine should be used for a special occasion or when meeting absent friends or family again. To drink sparkling wine on a daily basis would mean that the wine will lose it allure . However, Winston Churchill used to have his Champagne bottled by Pol Roger in special pint sized bottles for almost daily consumption - oh well he deserved it.
My wife comes from Champagne so we know producers who produce very good wine for a reasonable price. We won't be drinking Prosecco or Cava for that matter on numerous occasions unless we suddenly become broke.
Tuesday, 19 November 2013
Wine from Turkey- why not?
We bought this red wine Pamukkale Diamond 2011 at Waitrose supermarket. it is lovely wine at a reasonable price. it is on offer at £6.99 a bottle rather than £9.99. It is made from Syrah (Shiraz), Merlot, Kalecik Karasi and Bogazkere black grapes.
http://www.waitrosedirect.com/product/pamukkale-diamond/846535
The wine does exactly what it says on the bottle; the tannin, sugar, alcohol and acidity are well balanced and it has a concentrated red fruit flavour. It not a particularly complex wine and does not leave a long taste on the palate.
Our friends had difficulty guessing where the wine from but they thought it came from the southern Mediterranean - not bad.
Half a bottle went down well one night with grilled chicken and cheese and the other half went down well with roast pork the following evening.
This wine is just as good as wine from France or Italy at the same price. It is good quality wine which will keep a few years more and mature in the bottle.
It is priced just right at £6.99 a bottle. I do not think I would be prepared to pay £9.99 and I think it will remain on offer.
My wife and I visit Turkish restaurants quite regularly: we love the food and Turkish wine. We particularly like the TAS chain. We must have been setting a trend for Turkish wine is all the rage at the moment.
I recommend that you try it as it is a very pleasant change to French, Spanish and Italian wines.
http://www.tasrestaurants.co.uk/
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/sep/03/turkish-wine-waitrose
http://www.waitrosedirect.com/product/pamukkale-diamond/846535
The wine does exactly what it says on the bottle; the tannin, sugar, alcohol and acidity are well balanced and it has a concentrated red fruit flavour. It not a particularly complex wine and does not leave a long taste on the palate.
Our friends had difficulty guessing where the wine from but they thought it came from the southern Mediterranean - not bad.
Half a bottle went down well one night with grilled chicken and cheese and the other half went down well with roast pork the following evening.
This wine is just as good as wine from France or Italy at the same price. It is good quality wine which will keep a few years more and mature in the bottle.
It is priced just right at £6.99 a bottle. I do not think I would be prepared to pay £9.99 and I think it will remain on offer.
My wife and I visit Turkish restaurants quite regularly: we love the food and Turkish wine. We particularly like the TAS chain. We must have been setting a trend for Turkish wine is all the rage at the moment.
I recommend that you try it as it is a very pleasant change to French, Spanish and Italian wines.
http://www.tasrestaurants.co.uk/
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/sep/03/turkish-wine-waitrose
Friday, 15 November 2013
The Great British Public and their wine and wine snobs
So 80% of the British public prefer a £5 bottle of wine to a £20 one, according to the London Wine Academy. Also, around 50% of Britons estimated that the £5 bottle of Aspen Hills Chardonnay from South East Australia was in fact more expensive than a £20 bottle of Gerard Thomas Saint-Aubin 1er Cru from Burgundy from France. Please note that they are both made from the same grape.
None of this surprises me. It does not surprise me that some Masters of Wine cannot do it either and I often get fooled myself. Wine tasting is not scientific and it cannot possible be so. There is no independent variable to test against and the human palate cannot measure the taste components of a wine to make objective comparisons.
From a wine tasting point of view all we can do is look for the overall balance of acidity, tannin, sweetness and alcohol of the wine. Also, its general flavour and taste complexity and the length of time that that flavour remains on the palate should be assessed. Wines which are better balanced and have more complex tastes and where the taste remains on the palate for a long time can be gauged to be better.
A £20 bottle of fine wine should also be able to keep and improve in the bottle for a number of years. But cheaper bottles can do this too. Some £20 bottles are inferior in quality to lesser priced ones. The trick and skill of wine tasting is to be able to identify a really good wine at a really good price: a wine which will improve in the bottle.
At a Christmas dinner party many years ago my family agreed that a bottle of the second wine of Château Pape Clement Red Bordeaux or The Clementin, bought at a bargain for £8 pounds a bottle, was of better quality than a £100 bottle of Echezeux Grand Cru Red Burgundy. And they were right.
You are entitled to get a really good bottle of wine for £20 and quite often you do not. I have never tasted Gerard Thomas Saint-Aubin 1er Cru from Burgundy from France so I cannot pass comment on this wine. However, if Majestic stock it it is probably very good wine.
For £5 a bottle you would expect a good wine too. In some respects the market for wine is buoyed up by the expectation that if a pundit scores the wine highly then the wine must be good and the price should go up. Well pundits can get it wrong. Ask yourself, how can a wine which scores 99 be that much better than a wine that scores 97? The whole concept of wine scoring is ridiculous. In my view there are only four categories bad, standard, good and outstanding. Good and outstanding wines should be able to improve in the bottle for a number of years despite their price.
Wine is made more expensive that it need be by wine experts offering lurid descriptions of wine and suggesting quality that may not necessarily be there. Hence the bitter irony behind the
"Château L'Ordure Pomerol, 2004" see the bottom link below.
With regard to taste why should a top quality wine have to taste so much? I often buy high quality cheese for a £15 or more a kilo and it does taste noticeably better than cheaper processed cheese. But the good stuff is not so expensive that I am reluctant to buy it. This is not the case with wine.
Sometimes, I like to open a cheap tin of baked beans and eat them on toast with bacon and egg. It is delicious. There is no need for snobbery about food or wine.
The great British public deserve to get a good bottle of wine for £5 and a top notch one for £20. So what if they prefer the cheaper bottle and if they value it more than the top cru then so what again?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/wine/10445719/Britons-actually-prefer-cheaper-wine.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2504531/20-fine-wine-5-plonk-Most-just-tell--people-prefer-cheaper-bottles-blind-taste-tests.html
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2013/jun/24/should-we-listen-wine-critics
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/jun/23/wine-tasting-junk-science-analysis
None of this surprises me. It does not surprise me that some Masters of Wine cannot do it either and I often get fooled myself. Wine tasting is not scientific and it cannot possible be so. There is no independent variable to test against and the human palate cannot measure the taste components of a wine to make objective comparisons.
From a wine tasting point of view all we can do is look for the overall balance of acidity, tannin, sweetness and alcohol of the wine. Also, its general flavour and taste complexity and the length of time that that flavour remains on the palate should be assessed. Wines which are better balanced and have more complex tastes and where the taste remains on the palate for a long time can be gauged to be better.
A £20 bottle of fine wine should also be able to keep and improve in the bottle for a number of years. But cheaper bottles can do this too. Some £20 bottles are inferior in quality to lesser priced ones. The trick and skill of wine tasting is to be able to identify a really good wine at a really good price: a wine which will improve in the bottle.
At a Christmas dinner party many years ago my family agreed that a bottle of the second wine of Château Pape Clement Red Bordeaux or The Clementin, bought at a bargain for £8 pounds a bottle, was of better quality than a £100 bottle of Echezeux Grand Cru Red Burgundy. And they were right.
You are entitled to get a really good bottle of wine for £20 and quite often you do not. I have never tasted Gerard Thomas Saint-Aubin 1er Cru from Burgundy from France so I cannot pass comment on this wine. However, if Majestic stock it it is probably very good wine.
For £5 a bottle you would expect a good wine too. In some respects the market for wine is buoyed up by the expectation that if a pundit scores the wine highly then the wine must be good and the price should go up. Well pundits can get it wrong. Ask yourself, how can a wine which scores 99 be that much better than a wine that scores 97? The whole concept of wine scoring is ridiculous. In my view there are only four categories bad, standard, good and outstanding. Good and outstanding wines should be able to improve in the bottle for a number of years despite their price.
Wine is made more expensive that it need be by wine experts offering lurid descriptions of wine and suggesting quality that may not necessarily be there. Hence the bitter irony behind the
"Château L'Ordure Pomerol, 2004" see the bottom link below.
With regard to taste why should a top quality wine have to taste so much? I often buy high quality cheese for a £15 or more a kilo and it does taste noticeably better than cheaper processed cheese. But the good stuff is not so expensive that I am reluctant to buy it. This is not the case with wine.
Sometimes, I like to open a cheap tin of baked beans and eat them on toast with bacon and egg. It is delicious. There is no need for snobbery about food or wine.
The great British public deserve to get a good bottle of wine for £5 and a top notch one for £20. So what if they prefer the cheaper bottle and if they value it more than the top cru then so what again?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/wine/10445719/Britons-actually-prefer-cheaper-wine.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2504531/20-fine-wine-5-plonk-Most-just-tell--people-prefer-cheaper-bottles-blind-taste-tests.html
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2013/jun/24/should-we-listen-wine-critics
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/jun/23/wine-tasting-junk-science-analysis
Wednesday, 6 November 2013
L’Hôtel Château Cléry
My wife and I have just spent a great weekend near Boulogne at the Hôtel Château Cléry. The accommodation was fantastic but it was a bit expensive.
The food in the restaurant was exquisite but that was why we went to the Hotel in the first place.
The restaurant had a very wide range of wines. We chose a bottle of 2010 Domaine Faiveley Mercurey La Framboisière to go with our Filet Mignon de Veau - dare I say it, it was veal cooked rare with wild chanterelle mushrooms and ceps.
The meat was cooked perfectly and served perfectly by happy staff. The wine was typical of the Mercurey appellation and although Faively is a négociant he owns the Framboisière vineyard. The wine was heavily marked up but we did not care; the ambience, food, wine and company were top class. This was a memorable meal.
I highly recommend L’Hôtel Château Cléry and its food and wine.
http://www.clery.najeti.fr/
http://www.wine-searcher.com/wine-20047-2010-domaine-faiveley-domaine-de-la-framboisiere-mercurey-cote-chalonnaise-france
http://ogourmandiz.over-blog.com/article-filet-mignon-de-veau-aux-champignons-100756202.html
The food in the restaurant was exquisite but that was why we went to the Hotel in the first place.
The restaurant had a very wide range of wines. We chose a bottle of 2010 Domaine Faiveley Mercurey La Framboisière to go with our Filet Mignon de Veau - dare I say it, it was veal cooked rare with wild chanterelle mushrooms and ceps.
The meat was cooked perfectly and served perfectly by happy staff. The wine was typical of the Mercurey appellation and although Faively is a négociant he owns the Framboisière vineyard. The wine was heavily marked up but we did not care; the ambience, food, wine and company were top class. This was a memorable meal.
I highly recommend L’Hôtel Château Cléry and its food and wine.
http://www.clery.najeti.fr/
http://www.wine-searcher.com/wine-20047-2010-domaine-faiveley-domaine-de-la-framboisiere-mercurey-cote-chalonnaise-france
http://ogourmandiz.over-blog.com/article-filet-mignon-de-veau-aux-champignons-100756202.html
Monday, 14 October 2013
AOC Côtes de Duras BB de Berticot Rouge 2010
I have made an uncountable number of trips to the South West of France but I have never tasted this wine. The Côtes de Duras borders on the Bordeaux and Bergerac regions and uses similar grape varieties in the blend of wines and wine making techniques. The wines have a reputation for being unexceptional.
I discovered BB de Berticot Rouge 2010 in a French supermarket on a recent visit. This wine is made from the Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot grape varieties and the viticulture is being converted to organic methods.
My wife and I were completely surprised by the quality of the wine. It was very rich and concentrated and had a vivid flavour of red fruits and spice. My wife felt that it had a hint of chocolate on the palate. I could have been fooled into thinking that the wine came from further South as it was so full of fruit and full bodied. The wine also had long length on the palate which is another indicator of good quality.
The wine went perfectly with fillet of lamb and my wife's Lyonnais potatoes - yum yum. The wine and food combination was simply delicious.
The wine had a distinctive taste of its own but I cannot judge whether it is typical of the appellation. The vines are grown on calcareous soils mixed with some gravel.
At about 6 Euros for a bottle this wine is very good value for money as its quality is excellent for the price.
As and added bonus this wine will keep for several years longer as it has a good solid structure and the tannin will soften further.
The next time I am in France I shall treat myself to half a case as it represents much better value for money than anything I can find in a British supermarket.
http://www.berticot.com/organic-wines,us,3,26.cfm
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/classic-lyonnaise-potatoes-recipe/index.html
Post script
We did not drink the whole bottle on our first sitting but finished it the following evening. I discovered a sediment at the bottom of the last glass. The sediment is harmless and indicates that the wine maker has either applied moderate filtration or no filtration at all. This also indicates to me that the winemaker cares about the quality of his wines.
I discovered BB de Berticot Rouge 2010 in a French supermarket on a recent visit. This wine is made from the Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot grape varieties and the viticulture is being converted to organic methods.
My wife and I were completely surprised by the quality of the wine. It was very rich and concentrated and had a vivid flavour of red fruits and spice. My wife felt that it had a hint of chocolate on the palate. I could have been fooled into thinking that the wine came from further South as it was so full of fruit and full bodied. The wine also had long length on the palate which is another indicator of good quality.
The wine went perfectly with fillet of lamb and my wife's Lyonnais potatoes - yum yum. The wine and food combination was simply delicious.
The wine had a distinctive taste of its own but I cannot judge whether it is typical of the appellation. The vines are grown on calcareous soils mixed with some gravel.
At about 6 Euros for a bottle this wine is very good value for money as its quality is excellent for the price.
As and added bonus this wine will keep for several years longer as it has a good solid structure and the tannin will soften further.
The next time I am in France I shall treat myself to half a case as it represents much better value for money than anything I can find in a British supermarket.
http://www.berticot.com/organic-wines,us,3,26.cfm
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/classic-lyonnaise-potatoes-recipe/index.html
Post script
We did not drink the whole bottle on our first sitting but finished it the following evening. I discovered a sediment at the bottom of the last glass. The sediment is harmless and indicates that the wine maker has either applied moderate filtration or no filtration at all. This also indicates to me that the winemaker cares about the quality of his wines.
Tuesday, 1 October 2013
Alain Mathias Côte de Grisey 2011 Epineuil Red and Confit de Canard
The other night we were pushed for time and we cooked some Confit de Canard accompanied by some pasta. Oh well, I opened the tin and my wife cooked it. It comes in very large tins which will feed four people but only three when I am around. The whole meal took about half an hour to cook.
Confit de Canard is one of my favourite foods; it would go in my top ten along with rib of beef and sea bass. There is a lot of salt in it, so I am sure that the diet dictators would not approve. But, if you have got a bottle of water handy and only eat it once a month or so, why worry? We are going to France this weekend so I hope that my sister-in-law has got it on the agenda.
Confit de Canard is made by curing the legs in salt and then cooking them in their own own fat. It is a speciality of Gascony in France. We buy it in large tins. My wife cooks it in the oven in some but not all of the fat. She does it to perfection and cooks it until it is almost going dry but not quite. The flesh literally falls of the bone. It goes perfectly with pasta or with potatoes cooked in the remaining fat.
Why worry about cholesterol when you can wash down this favourite with a bottle of Alain Mathias 2011 Côte de Grisey Epineuil Red? This wine is delicious and goes perfectly with duck, chicken and game dishes. It is produced in Burgundy not far from the town of Tonnerre. I always think that Pinot Noir based wines go so well with poultry and game and this wine is no exception.
The 2011 will keep for several years longer and if you are ever in the Tonnerre area why not search out some Epineuil and Domaine Alain Mathias in particular.
http://www.domainealainmathias.com/vins.htm
Confit de Canard is one of my favourite foods; it would go in my top ten along with rib of beef and sea bass. There is a lot of salt in it, so I am sure that the diet dictators would not approve. But, if you have got a bottle of water handy and only eat it once a month or so, why worry? We are going to France this weekend so I hope that my sister-in-law has got it on the agenda.
Confit de Canard is made by curing the legs in salt and then cooking them in their own own fat. It is a speciality of Gascony in France. We buy it in large tins. My wife cooks it in the oven in some but not all of the fat. She does it to perfection and cooks it until it is almost going dry but not quite. The flesh literally falls of the bone. It goes perfectly with pasta or with potatoes cooked in the remaining fat.
Why worry about cholesterol when you can wash down this favourite with a bottle of Alain Mathias 2011 Côte de Grisey Epineuil Red? This wine is delicious and goes perfectly with duck, chicken and game dishes. It is produced in Burgundy not far from the town of Tonnerre. I always think that Pinot Noir based wines go so well with poultry and game and this wine is no exception.
The 2011 will keep for several years longer and if you are ever in the Tonnerre area why not search out some Epineuil and Domaine Alain Mathias in particular.
http://www.domainealainmathias.com/vins.htm
Planet Of The Grapes and Albariño 2012 Rías Baixas dry white wine
The other day I was invited for lunch with a colleague and we went to one of my favourite wine bars in the City of London "The Planet of the The Grapes". I have no commercial connexion.
I arrived early and was recommended a glass of the Albariño 2012 La Liebre y la Tortuga white wine from
Rías Baixas.
La Liebre y la Tortuga - the Rabbit and the Tortoise what a lovely name for a wine. And a very apt name for having a leisurely and slow chat in the Cockney hinterland right underneath Bow bells. "Rabbit and Pork" means "Talk" in cockney rhyming slang and well tortoises are slow and leisurely. It must have been the wine - enough of this "Rabbit"!
http://www.cockney.co.uk/
Nine pounds for a glass is not cheap but you are paying, also, for the location and the knowledge and good service of the wine staff. The wine was well recommended so we we decided on a bottle to go with our lunch.
Albariño is a dry white wine produced in the Rias Baixas of Galicia in Spain. Rias Baixas is near to the Atlantic ocean and the wine reflects the climate and granite based soil of the region.They are lively wines with well integrated fruit and acidity. They go well with good food especially fish. They are a bit expensive but when matched with well cooked food they are worth it. They also go well with pie and mash.
http://www.riasbaixaswines.com/wines/index.php
The white Albariño grape is thick skinned and is resistant to the mildew caused by the moisture from the Atlantic. The grape and the soil combine together to give the wine a refreshing taste which is so characteristic of the appellation. It is quite easy to recognise this wine but it could easily be confused with Alvarinho which is produced from the same grape just across the river Miño or Minho in Portugal's Vinho Verdi region.
http://www.wine-pages.com/features/vinho-verde-alvarinho.htm
Whilst working on a project in Hamburg this wine was a team favourite when we dined at the Vasco da Gama restaurant and it was always drunk with fish -superb. And they had both the Spanish and Portuguese wines.
http://www.vasco-da-gama-hamburg.de/
Next time you are in the City then why not pay a visit to the Planet of the Grapes especially if you are feeling flush. And in the supermarket, why not buy a bottle of Albariño or Alvarinho if you can find it? So enjoy some happy eating and drinking
http://www.morrisonscellar.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/KeywordSearchResults?storeId=10701&catalogId=11802&langId=-1&fcd=set&Ntk=primary&N=0&Ns=Relevance%7C1&pageView=&sourcePage=keywordSearch&Ntt=Alvarinho&x=-1078&y=-69&gclid=CJS3ysux9bkCFeXMtAodxFgAfQ
I arrived early and was recommended a glass of the Albariño 2012 La Liebre y la Tortuga white wine from
Rías Baixas.
La Liebre y la Tortuga - the Rabbit and the Tortoise what a lovely name for a wine. And a very apt name for having a leisurely and slow chat in the Cockney hinterland right underneath Bow bells. "Rabbit and Pork" means "Talk" in cockney rhyming slang and well tortoises are slow and leisurely. It must have been the wine - enough of this "Rabbit"!
http://www.cockney.co.uk/
Nine pounds for a glass is not cheap but you are paying, also, for the location and the knowledge and good service of the wine staff. The wine was well recommended so we we decided on a bottle to go with our lunch.
Albariño is a dry white wine produced in the Rias Baixas of Galicia in Spain. Rias Baixas is near to the Atlantic ocean and the wine reflects the climate and granite based soil of the region.They are lively wines with well integrated fruit and acidity. They go well with good food especially fish. They are a bit expensive but when matched with well cooked food they are worth it. They also go well with pie and mash.
http://www.riasbaixaswines.com/wines/index.php
The white Albariño grape is thick skinned and is resistant to the mildew caused by the moisture from the Atlantic. The grape and the soil combine together to give the wine a refreshing taste which is so characteristic of the appellation. It is quite easy to recognise this wine but it could easily be confused with Alvarinho which is produced from the same grape just across the river Miño or Minho in Portugal's Vinho Verdi region.
http://www.wine-pages.com/features/vinho-verde-alvarinho.htm
Whilst working on a project in Hamburg this wine was a team favourite when we dined at the Vasco da Gama restaurant and it was always drunk with fish -superb. And they had both the Spanish and Portuguese wines.
http://www.vasco-da-gama-hamburg.de/
Next time you are in the City then why not pay a visit to the Planet of the Grapes especially if you are feeling flush. And in the supermarket, why not buy a bottle of Albariño or Alvarinho if you can find it? So enjoy some happy eating and drinking
http://www.morrisonscellar.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/KeywordSearchResults?storeId=10701&catalogId=11802&langId=-1&fcd=set&Ntk=primary&N=0&Ns=Relevance%7C1&pageView=&sourcePage=keywordSearch&Ntt=Alvarinho&x=-1078&y=-69&gclid=CJS3ysux9bkCFeXMtAodxFgAfQ
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