Côtes de Bergerac Rouge 2003

We went to lunch last Sunday at some good friends and they produced a bottle of Patrick Geneste's 

Côtes de Bergerac Rouge 2003 from the 

Domaine du Petit Paris.  We had brought this particular bottle to our friends years ago and they had laid it down.

When we got round to drinking it we were astonished at how good the wine was. It had maintained its ruby colour and had hardly lightened with age. The wine was full of fruit and was complex and concentrated and you could still feel the softening tannin on the the palate. The wine had long length.

Côtes de Bergerac Rouge  is made in the Dordogne region which is famous for Monbazillac dessert wines. The red wines are made in a similar style to Bordeaux reds and from similar blends of grapes. This particular wine is made from Merlot and Cabernet Franc.

We drank the wine with casseroled lamb and it went perfectly.

I cannot remember where I bought the wine but it must have been when I was visiting the region. You can buy Côtes de Bergerac Rouge for around  £8.00 in the UK but it is difficult to find.

Patrick Geneste's wine is of the highest quality and if you can still manage to find his Côtes de Bergerac Rouge 2003 then buy it and drink it immediately with good food. This wine encompasses all that I love about the wine industry as you can still buy exceptional quality wine for a very reasonable price. It has restored my faith in human nature. It is no wonder that this wine has won prizes.

http://www.vins-bergerac.fr/vignerons/domaine-du-petit-paris/

1998 Château Gruaud-Larose Saint-Julien Second Growth Bordeaux

Château Gruaud-Larose is one of my favourite red wines from Bordeaux. I drank a half bottle the other week with some friends in the Planet of The Grapes wine bar. The wine is from the village of Saint Julien in the Médoc. 1998 was not particularly good year in Bordeaux but you would not guess it after tasting this wine. As far as I was concerned this wine was superb and my two friends agreed.

The wine had all the complex and concentrated tastes of an exceptional Bordeaux and in my opinion it was still rather youthful and the fruit was still waiting to come out. If you want to find out what a top Bordeaux wine tastes like after it has matured for ten years or more then Château Gruaud-Larose is the wine to try. It will be expensive but not exorbitant. The quality of Château Gruaud-Larose is right up there with Château Latour. However, because it is not so highly renowned as an investment wine the prices have not gone through the roof.

The Château has a second wine Sarget de Gruaud-Larose and you will hardly notice any difference in quality but you will notice the difference in price and your wallet will be just that little bit heavier. The second wine will not keep as long, however.

http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/gruaud+larose+st+julien+medoc+bordeaux+france/1998/uk

http://www.hewines.com/1998-chateau-gruaud-larose-saint-julien

http://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=57378

Forget about scoring systems and florid descriptions this wine is produced by experts from vines which grow on the finest ground in the finest micro-climate. This is why it is such great wine.

It is a wine to savour with properly cooked beef or lamb - which is not overdone.

Lidl Champagne

Last week a friend of ours brought around a bottle of Lidl non-vintage brut Champagne - Comte de Senneval and it was good stuff. The wine is made by a producer who adds his brand name to the blend of wines in the bottle this it is termed as a Marque auxiliaire or Marque d'acheteur. The bottle will therefore have "MA" next to the producer name on the label.

This wine has been blended from wines throughout the Champagne region and probably there is wine from the Aube in the mix. Most Champagne is produced from blends including wine from the most famous houses.

Wine snobs will probably turn up their noses at the thought of drinking Champagne with a supermarket brand name. However, would they be able to identify a brand named wine if they were tasting blind. or friend paid £11.99 for the bottle.

The Champagne was of perfectly good quality, and it is much more preferable for my wife and I to share a bottle of this wine with friends than to drink Prosecco.

Comte de Senneval is made from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes. It is a darker colour of yellow that consumers in the UK are used to and it is stronger tasting with plenty of fruit and tangy and yeasty flavours. The wine is well balanced with a well integrated acidity.It is just the sort of taste that French people prefer: My wife is from the Champagne region and was brought up drinking its famous wine. She was impressed and so was I.

The producers of this Champagne have obviously got taste buds that are just as good as the tasters in the famous houses. The buyers of Lidl also have a "good eye" for a bargain. This is good wine at a reasonable price; so well done Lidl.

I recommend that you try a bottle or two for Christmas.




 I could not agree more with Helen McGinn's comments below here. Her comment about the biscuits is probably tongue in cheek. I am not able to distinguish the difference between brands of digestive biscuit blind but perhaps she has got better trained taste buds than me!


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2736246/We-Lidl-class-Store-s-11-99-bubbly-woos-new-shoppers.html

Château Prieuré-Lichine and other wines at The Planet of The Grapes

Last week a friend and I paid a visit to The Planet of The Grapes in the City of London. They know us well there. The wine bar was doing a wine tasting of Spanish wines. My friend loves Spanish wines and can speak the Spanish language fluently.

We tasted an Albariño Rias Baixas Lagar de Cervera  white wine which was absolutely excellent. Albariño, is one of my favourite wines and it goes extremely well with fish and tapas as you would expect. I forgot to write down what year it was but you can drink this wine quite young or leave it to improve with age for 5 years or more. It is more expensive that your average white wine but paying 2 or 3 pounds a bottle more takes you to a different level. Pound for pound it is excellent value for money.

http://www.tanners-wines.co.uk/lagar-de-cervera-albarino-rias-baixas-2013.html

http://www.marksandspencer.com/bodega-castro-martin-albarino-case-of-6/p/p21128009

We followed this with a tasting of a red Rioja  - 2004 Viña Ardanza, Reserva, La Rioja Alta. This was another superb wine with the typical taste of of the region but above average in quality. I have got a 2001, which a friend gave to me, and it is maturing on its side to wait for the next time she visits. She is a vegetarian so she won't be able to appreciate the food it goes best with it - Lamb.  There is no doubt that my wife will think of something suitable without meat. I can recommend this wine for a special occasion.

http://www.bbr.com/products-17184-2004-vina-ardanza-reserva-la-rioja-alta

Things got a little better when we tasted a bottle of 1998  Gran Reserva 904, La Rioja Alta red; we were going up the quality tree to another branch. This wine had matured perfectly and I agree entirely with the comments on Berry Brothers and Rudd website. You need to keep this wine to appreciate it fully it is rather expensive but it is worth paying £50 or more for a bottle to find out what really good wine tastes like.
 http://www.bbr.com/products-10969-1998-gran-reserva-904-la-rioja-alta

You can buy this wine for just over 50 bucks in the USA; mmmmm.

http://www.wine.com/v6/La-Rioja-Alta-Gran-Reserva-904-Tinto-1998/wine/117692/Detail.aspx?state=CA

Even though we had not drunk too much the wines put us in a good mood so we decided to buy a couple of glasses of French red Burgundy but when we saw Château Prieuré-Lichine 1995 being sold by the glass we decided to switch choice to the Margaux red. Château Prieuré-Lichinehas been  been improving since Alexis Lichine bought the property  in 1951. He also bought plots of vines from the likes of Châteaux Palmer and Giscours and this shows up in the quality of the wine.

Château Prieuré-Lichine is classified as a 4th growth but I believe it to be better than this on the evidence of the 1995 vintage. As far as my friend and I were concerned the Margaux was of much better quality than the Riojas that we tasted. It was more complex and concentrated and the fruit flavours were bursting out and, of course, it was silky smooth with a medium to full body. We had gone up the quality tree again and were now at the top. You will not find many more wines that will taste better than this. Some may keep longer but you will have to pay a lot more to find them.

http://www.prieure-lichine.fr/

Château Prieuré-Lichine features in James Turnbull's book "Bordeaux: The 90 Greatest Wines" and I agree with him that this wine is top quality. It is worth buying this book if you are interested in Bordeaux wine.

Now let's look at scoring systems:

Various commentators have scored these wines and  the 1998  Gran Reserva 904, La Rioja Alta has been given a score of 96/100 by one and 93/100 by another. One commentator scores the Margaux a lot less but I completely disagree; to my taste buds the Margaux is a lot better. How am I supposed to score it 110/100?

Scoring systems are rubbish, so I prefer bad, average, good and excellent or outstanding. The 1995 Château Prieuré-Lichine tasted so good that I had to buy a bottle there and then even though I could find it cheaper elsewhere. In my opinion it is outstanding wine.

My taste buds are no better than most other people and even though I have been on lots of wine courses and I have learnt to assess wine, from formal point of view, my opinion is no more invalid or valid than anyone else's. I have, however, learnt how to spot a wine that has the quality to age for a long time in the bottle but anyone can do this if they are prepared to study the subject. There is nothing magical about scoring systems or the people who devise them.

http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/prieur+lichine+margaux+medoc+bordeaux+france/1995

Weekend Wines in France

My wife and I went to Troyes last weekend to visit our family. We drank some superb wines which were not very expensive. If you are in England and live near the channel ports or the channel tunnel then it is always worth making a trip to France to buy wine even though the pound sterling has gone down from the heady days of 1.9 EUR to the Pound to 1.27.

France is really feeling the effects of economic chills and wine prices are going down there especially for Champagne. The Intermarche supermarket is now selling two varieties of Champagne for EUR 9.95 a bottle and this is cheaper than Aldi and Lidl can manage in the UK.

The first of their is cheap champagnes  J.Contet Père & Fils/Brut . J Contet is a négociant: we did not buy his Champagne but I have no reason to believe it is anything but good value for money. All négociants buy Champagne from all over the region and blend them into a house style. J.Contet is probably just as good as anyone else in identifying good quailty wines which also taste good.

The Second cheap Champagne on offer was Champagne - Marine Clément Cuvée Emotion NV also now at EUR 9.95 a bottle. I have reviewed this before and all of our friends in England enjoyed it. My wife and I think this is superb value for money. We weren't tempted to buy this Champagne either.

My brother-in-law opened a beautiful bottle of Champagne from a grower producer of Buxeuil in the Aube which is to the south of Troyes:Champagne Albans D'Aulbe Brut Élégance NV. This fine wine is one or two steps up from the Marine Clément Cuvée Emotion and it literally tasted elegant. You can buy this wine from the producer by contacting jean-michel.diligent@laposte.net. The Brut Élégance NV is in short supply but the Brut Tradition is readily available at EUR 12.25 per bottle and it is exceptional value for money. This Champagne easily rivals the top houses from Epernay and Reims.

My brother-in law also produced some excellent Bourgogne Rouge the first was: Ladoix 2010 Domaine Désertaux-Ferrand. I have not drunk Ladoix for ages and I had forgotten how good it can be. Domaine Désertaux-Ferrand is situated not far from Beaune and they farm about 12 Ha. They are prize winning producers and this shows up in their wine. The Ladoix was full of red fruit flavour with soft tannins and had the distinctive style of the region: the 2010 is ready to drink now. It is difficult to obtain outside of France. I have seen the 2011 on Wine Searcher for £11.45 a bottle and the wine is most certainly worth it but you could probably buy it cheaper at the producer.
http://www.vins-bourgogne.fr/nos-vignerons-nos-savoir-faire/des-signatures-de-renom/desertaux-ferrand-corgoloin-21700,2397,9211.html?&args=Y29tcF9pZD0xNDA2JmFjdGlvbj12aWV3RmljaGUmaWQ9VklOQk9VMDAwMDIwMDM0NyZ8

We also savoured a bottle of Domaine Mouton Givry 1er Cru Bourgogne Rouge, from the Côte Chalonnaise, and this wine was perhaps half a step up from the Ladoix as it had more fruit flavour. My wife preferred the Ladoix. The Givry was also full of fruit flavour with soft tannin and to me it was more complex and concentrated than the Ladoix. Of course it had all the style and distinctiveness of red Burgundy which is unique to the region and cannot be copied by the New World or even elsewhere in France. This was superb tasting wine. UK buyers can buy the wine here.

http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/dom+mouton+givry+premier+cru/2011

We had some excellent home cooked food to go with these wines. Roast pork, coq au vin and roast duck. The wines went down perfectly with this food and they also went down well with some English and French cheeses.

We also drank a lovely aperitif wine; Expert Club Gewurztraminer Réserve Fleurie. This wine was full of the flavour of fruits and flowers. Alsace wines are always excellent value for money and there is a plentiful supply in French and British supermarkets but do not let the unapproachable names put you off for you are in for a treat.

The wine and food always make our  journeys to France special - a gastronomic delight.

Nalmefene

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence or NICE will soon be recommending the drug Nalmefene to be prescribed to people who they deem to be drinking too much. Any man who consumes more than 7.5 units per day will be offered this drug which will help to reduce the desire to drink. The limits for women are lower being 5 units per day.

This is all very well but it is still possible to drink too much whilst taking Nalmefene which can have strong side effects. Nalmefene is an opiate substitute and should only be prescribed for six months. Heavy drinkers could face the possibility of having to cope with two drugs to help curb their desire for drinking: Alcohol and Nalmefene.

If you have a drink problem perhaps it might be better to  find a gentler method of reducing your alcohol consumption by avoiding stress and putting yourself into the social position where you are not encouraged to drink more than is good for your health. Why not try having two consecutive days per week when you do not drink at all to give your liver a rest.

Our society stresses people at their work by asking them to work too long hours or expecting them to travel continuously. We need a different approach to our working and social lives to solve the problems of excessive drinking and alcoholism - taking a pill seems to be the easy solution.

My wife and I regularly drink but we have at least two or three days where we do not drink at all. Sometimes we have one glass too many but we don't get a bad conscience about it.

The last bottle of wine we drank took us four evenings to consume. This meant that we drank one small glass each for four evenings with our food. We vacuum sealed the wine to stop it going off; there is no need to polish off the bottle if you take this approach.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2778367/Mild-alcoholics-want-one-glass-wine-night-given-3-pill-reduce-dependence.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nalmefene

Some people may be tempted not to drink at all but still obtain the benefits of mild alcohol consumption: why not try the wine pill?

http://www.resveratrolbenefits.com/red-wine-pill.html

The evidence to support the claims for resveratrol are tenuous to say the least but taking a pill always seems to be an easy solution.

There are possible health benefits to drinking one or two glasses of wine per day; it makes food taste that much better and anything which improves conviviality cannot be such a bad thing. Be happy but please be safe

Château De Treviac Arnaud Sié 2011 - Corbières Red wine

Last Friday we visited  the Côte restaurant in Covent Garden which is part of a chain. We had a pastry chef with us and he felt that the food was more than acceptable and the rest of us agreed.

http://www.cote-restaurants.co.uk/

We ordered a bottle of Château De Treviac 2011 - Corbières red AOP from the Languedoc  and were impressed by the wine. It was smooth and silky and, dare I say, it  was quite elegant. The wine is made from Syrah and Grenache grapes and of course it was fruity with a hint of spice. The tannin had softened nicely and the wine had a complex and concentrated taste: it went down well with the food - especially the duck.

The hot summer sun in the Languedoc produces wine which is quite strong in alcohol and at 14.5% this wine could have tasted "hot" but the alcohol was well integrated into the body of the wine. All in all it was a good quality wine but at £20 + for a bottle it was well marked up as you can buy it on wine-searcher for £6 a bottle retail. I did not feel, however, that we had been cheated and I have happily drunk wine of a much lesser quality for more money in other restaurants.

It is not often that my friends remark on the different qualities of wine without being prompted by me but before going to the restaurant we had visited a wine bar and had drunk a bottle of Sicilian wine made from the Nero D'Avola grapes. This wine had a much fuller body and was more concentrated but had a slightly rustic quality. I thought it was delicious.

I was just about to comment that the Château De Treviac was lighter and smoother when one of our friends beat me to it and her son, the chef, agreed but he still stuck to drinking beer. My friend is awarded a Winejaw star for being so observant.

Some people are prepared to pay 17 US dollars for this wine and they probably will not be disappointed at the elevated price. In the Languedoc this good quality wine would, however, be much cheaper.

http://www.nataliemaclean.com/wine-reviews/chateau-de-treviac-arnaud-sie-2011/207306

The wine on the above website gets a score of 91/100 and this is fair as far as I can taste but would a 92/100 wine taste that much better?

I prefer my rating: Château De Treviac is good quality wine but not exceptional or outstanding but it is worth trying a second bottle.