We drank this wine a couple of weeks ago and it was simply superb. It had aged very well and still had a lot of life left in it. It will age for several years more was beginning to reveal itself.
The label on the back of the bottle described the wine as having a flavour of plums and red fruits and oak and with a flavour of roast coffee or Torréfaction in French. My wife guessed these flavours blind. Rarely does a wine taste exactly as it says on the bottle.
This is perfectly well integrated wine with a long length on the palate. I cannot remember how much it cost when we bought it in the region but it was probably less than 10 Eur per bottle. It is superb value for money and if you can find it then I recommend that you buy a case.
It went down really well with some roast beef cooked rare.
Côtes du Brulhois wines were once termed "black wines" on account of the strength of the deep black colour of the Tannat grape used in production.
The Côtes du Brulhois was granted appellation status in 2011.
http://www.thevineroute.com/southwest/les-vignerons-du-brulhois-in-the-land-of-black-wines/
Friday, 12 June 2015
Tuesday, 19 May 2015
Investing In Wine For Profit
In my E-Book " Investing In Wine For Profit" on Amazon, at a bargain price, I made comment that the price of oil is related somehow to the price of investment wines. When oil goes down in price so does wine. And low and behold the price of wine has been falling in recent months.
http://www.liv-ex.com/staticPageContent.do?pageKey=Fine_Wine_100
I can't for the life of me think what the connexion would be other than general confidence in the price of commodities.
The Chinese economy seems to be cooling off and the demand for investment wines is falling. Businessmen are now less prone to giving gifts of expensive investment wines to their prospective customers. The price of commercial property is falling.
Across the developing world investors and speculators are indulging in margin borrowing to fund the purchase of high yielding (and of course high risk) bonds and other financial instruments. Margin lending to finance the purchase of stocks was a major contributing factor to the Great Depression in the USA which started with the distress selling of stocks in 1929. Few, in the financial markets, seem capable of learning from history.
Margin lending is used to fund the purchase of assets. When the price of the assets falls the Banks who have lent the money to the purchaser make a margin call in cash to increase the collateral which guarantees the loan. This system of margin lending can catch out both the lender and the borrower. The borrower ends up with junk assets and is not able to repay the loans so the Bank loses too.
This is why in my book I advised that you should not borrow money to purchase wine for investment purposes and should only invest what you can afford to lose.
The world could be heading for another crash if vast quantities of margin lending funds junk assets. As a hedge against fiat money crashing in value it might be wise to invest in some gold in the form of gold chains or sovereigns. If you get into financial difficulties a chunky chain comes in handy as you can sell links as necessary. Keep the gold somewhere very safe such as a safety deposit box but not where jewellers keep their gold as the vault could be the target of robbers.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-32799703
In straitened financial times it is probably best to keep actual gold rather than gold contracts which can be reneged upon. The same applies to fine wine. Happy investing and remember the higher the potential return the higher the risk.
If all else fails you can drink your wine and still enjoy it even if it is worth nothing.
http://www.liv-ex.com/staticPageContent.do?pageKey=Fine_Wine_100
I can't for the life of me think what the connexion would be other than general confidence in the price of commodities.
The Chinese economy seems to be cooling off and the demand for investment wines is falling. Businessmen are now less prone to giving gifts of expensive investment wines to their prospective customers. The price of commercial property is falling.
Across the developing world investors and speculators are indulging in margin borrowing to fund the purchase of high yielding (and of course high risk) bonds and other financial instruments. Margin lending to finance the purchase of stocks was a major contributing factor to the Great Depression in the USA which started with the distress selling of stocks in 1929. Few, in the financial markets, seem capable of learning from history.
Margin lending is used to fund the purchase of assets. When the price of the assets falls the Banks who have lent the money to the purchaser make a margin call in cash to increase the collateral which guarantees the loan. This system of margin lending can catch out both the lender and the borrower. The borrower ends up with junk assets and is not able to repay the loans so the Bank loses too.
This is why in my book I advised that you should not borrow money to purchase wine for investment purposes and should only invest what you can afford to lose.
The world could be heading for another crash if vast quantities of margin lending funds junk assets. As a hedge against fiat money crashing in value it might be wise to invest in some gold in the form of gold chains or sovereigns. If you get into financial difficulties a chunky chain comes in handy as you can sell links as necessary. Keep the gold somewhere very safe such as a safety deposit box but not where jewellers keep their gold as the vault could be the target of robbers.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-32799703
In straitened financial times it is probably best to keep actual gold rather than gold contracts which can be reneged upon. The same applies to fine wine. Happy investing and remember the higher the potential return the higher the risk.
If all else fails you can drink your wine and still enjoy it even if it is worth nothing.
Monday, 20 April 2015
Au Bon Accueil at Champlost Burgundy
A few weeks ago my wife and I visited Champlost in the Auxerre arrondissement of Burgundy to dine at the "Au Bon Accueil"l restaurant before visiting some relatives. Au Bon Accueil is loosely translated, by me, as "The Warm Welcome". This was a Routier style restaurant which is frequented by lorry drivers, commercial travellers and local workers. The restaurant was full which is always a good sign. No one, in France, goes to a restaurant that does not serve good food and wine. I think that I was the only foreigner in the restaurant not that I was made to feel unwelcome - National Front attitudes had not penetrated here - well at least in the restaurant.
The food was traditionally French so we chose to eat faux fillet steak washed down with a half bottle of Irancy Red. The food was excellent and so was the wine.
We drank a bottle of Matthieu Antunes Irancy red 2013. This wine was excellent and had the typical taste of an Irancy and unique to the region. There are so many nondescript wines which could come from anywhere and quite often they are labelled with the grape variety. Irancy red is made from the Pinot Noir grape but the producers do not need to boast about it. Most Irancy producers produce the finest of wines at very reasonable prices.
Our three course meal with wine cost us around Eur 40. You rarely get a high quality meal for two with an excellent bottle of wine in the UK for 40 Eur. In the UK you have to pay big bucks for decent food and you also might have to suffer the indignity of being addressed as "guys". But, "guys" and good food and wine rarely go together.
They don't have an expression for "guys" in French to address both men and women together; perhaps no one tried to blow up their parliament!
Good wine in France also comes with the name of the region rather than the grape variety and good manners dictate that no one is called "guys" especially women - eh les gars.
http://www.antunes.matthieu.sitew.com/Notre_Etiquette.F.htm#Nos_Vins_Rouges.C
The food was traditionally French so we chose to eat faux fillet steak washed down with a half bottle of Irancy Red. The food was excellent and so was the wine.
We drank a bottle of Matthieu Antunes Irancy red 2013. This wine was excellent and had the typical taste of an Irancy and unique to the region. There are so many nondescript wines which could come from anywhere and quite often they are labelled with the grape variety. Irancy red is made from the Pinot Noir grape but the producers do not need to boast about it. Most Irancy producers produce the finest of wines at very reasonable prices.
Our three course meal with wine cost us around Eur 40. You rarely get a high quality meal for two with an excellent bottle of wine in the UK for 40 Eur. In the UK you have to pay big bucks for decent food and you also might have to suffer the indignity of being addressed as "guys". But, "guys" and good food and wine rarely go together.
They don't have an expression for "guys" in French to address both men and women together; perhaps no one tried to blow up their parliament!
Good wine in France also comes with the name of the region rather than the grape variety and good manners dictate that no one is called "guys" especially women - eh les gars.
http://www.antunes.matthieu.sitew.com/Notre_Etiquette.F.htm#Nos_Vins_Rouges.C
Friday, 10 April 2015
Alpa Zeta 'R' Valpollicella Ripasso Superiore 2012 - DOC
Valpollicella Ripasso is one of my favourite wines and a good one is full of fruit flavour. 'R' from Alpha Zeta is a classic example of this wine. Ripasso wines use a technique which " re-ferments" the standard Valpollicela using the lees leftover from the production of Amarone. This improves the concentration of flavours and the structure of the wine. The ripasso technique has been used for centuries.
Valpollicella Ripasso is an individual wine which retains some of the structure and taste of the standard wine but its flavour is more concentrated and the wine has a fuller body. Sometimes it has been referred to as a "poor man's " Amarone but this is not true. Ripasso is a great wine in its own right. The wine is much more approachable than "Amarone" and it does not need to be drunk with heavy food. It goes down well with both Italian and French cuisine. We drank Alpa Zeta 'R' wine with rib of beef cooked in French style by my wife. It also went down well with French and English cheeses.
Alpa Zeta 'R' is produced by Liberty Wines who deploy the skills of Matt Thomson, a winemaker and New Zealander to bring out the best of the Corvina and Rondinella grapes and the ripasso tradition.
This wine has its own individualistic flavour - dare I say New World - whilst retaining the characteristics of the Veneto region's wines. This is wine is exceptional value for money as you can buy it for around £10 a bottle. It is well worth tracking down a bottle or two. One to drink now and one to drink in two or three years as the 2012 will improve in the bottle if kept under favourable conditions. Appellation rules dictate that the wine must be sealed with a cork rather than a screw cap, so lay it on its side.
http://libertywines.co.uk/index.htm?pageto=prddtldrt&productCD=AZ117
http://www.wine-searcher.com/wine-53507-0001-alpha-zeta-r-valpolicella-superiore-ripasso-veneto-italy
Valpollicella Ripasso is an individual wine which retains some of the structure and taste of the standard wine but its flavour is more concentrated and the wine has a fuller body. Sometimes it has been referred to as a "poor man's " Amarone but this is not true. Ripasso is a great wine in its own right. The wine is much more approachable than "Amarone" and it does not need to be drunk with heavy food. It goes down well with both Italian and French cuisine. We drank Alpa Zeta 'R' wine with rib of beef cooked in French style by my wife. It also went down well with French and English cheeses.
Alpa Zeta 'R' is produced by Liberty Wines who deploy the skills of Matt Thomson, a winemaker and New Zealander to bring out the best of the Corvina and Rondinella grapes and the ripasso tradition.
This wine has its own individualistic flavour - dare I say New World - whilst retaining the characteristics of the Veneto region's wines. This is wine is exceptional value for money as you can buy it for around £10 a bottle. It is well worth tracking down a bottle or two. One to drink now and one to drink in two or three years as the 2012 will improve in the bottle if kept under favourable conditions. Appellation rules dictate that the wine must be sealed with a cork rather than a screw cap, so lay it on its side.
http://libertywines.co.uk/index.htm?pageto=prddtldrt&productCD=AZ117
http://www.wine-searcher.com/wine-53507-0001-alpha-zeta-r-valpolicella-superiore-ripasso-veneto-italy
Wednesday, 18 March 2015
1990 Allegrini Amarone della Valpolicella Classico DOCG, Veneto, Italy
Allegrini is one of Italy's top producers. Their Amarone is a top red wine. It is produced in the Veneto region of North Eastern Italy from dried grapes. The drying process increases the concentration of sugars in the grapes. It also concentrates the flavour. The grapes are dried on straw mats. Amarone is usually strong in alcohol: our was 14%.
Amarone is made primarily from the Corvina and Rondinella grapes. Some of the grapes are late harvested and are subjected to noble rot. This increases the complexity of the wine but reduces fresh fruit flavours.
We drank our wine with roast duck. In my mind you should not drink Amarone without food.
As our wine was 25 years old, it was well matured and had turned a Burgundy colour. It smelt of dried fruits with a very slight oxidised character reminiscent of Port. There were also hints of oak. The smell was powerful and the wine smelt as if it was fully mature and ready for drinking.
On the palate the wine was of full body with softening tannin. It was bone dry, it was strong in alcohol but not hot. The wine was warming just like Port. There were no fresh fruit favours and it tasted of stewed fruits. It also tasted a little like aged vintage Port but very dry and a little sour from the acidity. The wine was concentrated and complex and you could tell it had been matured in oak barrels. It had exceptionally long length on the palate. It had all the hallmarks of a great wine.
Drink it now and decant it as it throws lots of sediment which is harmless.
One of our friends who is a wine enthusiast was suitably impressed and so was I.
Formerly, Amarone would have been given the name Recioto della Valpolicella Amarone or Amarone della Valpolicella but this is a bit of a mouthful so now it allowed the much simpler name.
Wine drinkers will recognise the name Valpolicella which is a lesser quality red wine and once upon a time it was derided as garbage by an influential wine writer. Valpolicella is much improved and is now a quality wine with lots of fruit.
One of my favourite wines is Valpolicella Ripasso which is matured on the lees of Recioto or dried grape wines.
These wines are best enjoyed with food especially Italian. Good Amarone is simply wonderful.
http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/allegrini+docg+amarone+della+valpolicella+cls+veneto+italy/1990
Amarone is made primarily from the Corvina and Rondinella grapes. Some of the grapes are late harvested and are subjected to noble rot. This increases the complexity of the wine but reduces fresh fruit flavours.
We drank our wine with roast duck. In my mind you should not drink Amarone without food.
As our wine was 25 years old, it was well matured and had turned a Burgundy colour. It smelt of dried fruits with a very slight oxidised character reminiscent of Port. There were also hints of oak. The smell was powerful and the wine smelt as if it was fully mature and ready for drinking.
On the palate the wine was of full body with softening tannin. It was bone dry, it was strong in alcohol but not hot. The wine was warming just like Port. There were no fresh fruit favours and it tasted of stewed fruits. It also tasted a little like aged vintage Port but very dry and a little sour from the acidity. The wine was concentrated and complex and you could tell it had been matured in oak barrels. It had exceptionally long length on the palate. It had all the hallmarks of a great wine.
Drink it now and decant it as it throws lots of sediment which is harmless.
One of our friends who is a wine enthusiast was suitably impressed and so was I.
Formerly, Amarone would have been given the name Recioto della Valpolicella Amarone or Amarone della Valpolicella but this is a bit of a mouthful so now it allowed the much simpler name.
Wine drinkers will recognise the name Valpolicella which is a lesser quality red wine and once upon a time it was derided as garbage by an influential wine writer. Valpolicella is much improved and is now a quality wine with lots of fruit.
One of my favourite wines is Valpolicella Ripasso which is matured on the lees of Recioto or dried grape wines.
These wines are best enjoyed with food especially Italian. Good Amarone is simply wonderful.
http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/allegrini+docg+amarone+della+valpolicella+cls+veneto+italy/1990
Monday, 16 March 2015
2012 Bodegas Rafael Palacios Valdeorras As Sortes Val do Bibei
We drank As Sortes 2012 White with our meal when we sampled the Les Forts de Latour. This wine is from a top winemaker in the Valdeorras region of Galicia in northern Spain. It is made from the little known Godella grape.
The vineyards are situated in the Sil river valley on slopes at a height of about 240 meters; in a climate influenced by the Atlantic ocean.
Rafael Palacios has produced a well crafted wine here. It is dry with a light body and medium plus acidity. It tastes just as it smells with a nutty flavour combined with citrus and green fruits. It is concentrated and complex with an extremely long length. It has its own distinctive flavour which is a little reminiscent of Albariño which is another Galician wine. The As Sortes is , however, at another class level compared to standard Albariño.
Rafael Palacios As Sortes is a little more expensive than I normally pay for wine but it is worth it and it holds its own with the best wines from France and Spain and even the Les Forts de Latour as you are not paying a premium for an investment wine label. The As Sortes will keep and improve in the bottle for 5 years or so but you can enjoy now. It is best to drink it with good sea food - Sea Bass or Hake.
This is wonderful wine and I thoroughly recommend it.
http://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1744199
The vineyards are situated in the Sil river valley on slopes at a height of about 240 meters; in a climate influenced by the Atlantic ocean.
Rafael Palacios has produced a well crafted wine here. It is dry with a light body and medium plus acidity. It tastes just as it smells with a nutty flavour combined with citrus and green fruits. It is concentrated and complex with an extremely long length. It has its own distinctive flavour which is a little reminiscent of Albariño which is another Galician wine. The As Sortes is , however, at another class level compared to standard Albariño.
Rafael Palacios As Sortes is a little more expensive than I normally pay for wine but it is worth it and it holds its own with the best wines from France and Spain and even the Les Forts de Latour as you are not paying a premium for an investment wine label. The As Sortes will keep and improve in the bottle for 5 years or so but you can enjoy now. It is best to drink it with good sea food - Sea Bass or Hake.
This is wonderful wine and I thoroughly recommend it.
http://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1744199
1989 Les Forts de Latour Red
Les Forts de Latour is the second wine of the famous Château Latour Paulliac. 1989 was a good year in Bordeaux but I was not certain that this wine was going to age well any longer.
I decanted the wine just before some guests arrived to eat roast beef with us. There was plenty of sediment left at the bottom of the bottle and I sampled a glass of the dregs to make sure that the wine was OK. If you swallow a little bit of sediment it does you no harm.
The wine was past its best and was on the downward slope but if you want to buy a bottle now it will cost you around £100. We had bought the wine for considerably less years ago.
The wine had turned a Burgundy colour owing to the age. It smelt perfectly clean with aromas of vanilla and oak on the nose and dried fruits rather than fresh fruits. It was more like stewed prunes than plums.
On the palate it had medium acidity and the tannins where were very light. It was now medium body but I suspect that in 1992 it would have had a fuller body. It tasted very much as it smelt with the typical tobacco box flavour of Bordeaux and the oak taste of vanilla was still there. There was very little fresh fruit flavour and there were vegetal flavours just like aged Burgundy. It was very concentrated but it had probably lost some complexity. It tasted very warm on the palate which in my view is a mark of a wine which has aged well. it was not however hot as all the components of the wine were well integrated. It had a very long length. All in all it had aged well and was of very good quality. Most wine would have gone rotten after 25 years.
I suspect now that buyers are prepared to pay lots of money for this wine because of the label. If you have got some of this wine then I suggest that you drink it if you are not interested in money, as it is on the way down.
I was interested in the reaction of our guests when they tasted it . I told everyone what wine it was. My wife and one of our female friends were very impressed. I could tell from the faces from my other guests that they were less enthusiastic. I think that we have all got used to drinking wines at a younger age and we are used to strong fruit flavours and even wine enthusiasts get a bit of a shock when they taste ageing fruit flavours rather than fresh ones.
I think I got a genuine reaction from my wife and friends uninfluenced by the label, the reputation or the price or my suggestion and this is what wine appreciation should really be about.
http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/les+forts+de+latour/1989
I decanted the wine just before some guests arrived to eat roast beef with us. There was plenty of sediment left at the bottom of the bottle and I sampled a glass of the dregs to make sure that the wine was OK. If you swallow a little bit of sediment it does you no harm.
The wine was past its best and was on the downward slope but if you want to buy a bottle now it will cost you around £100. We had bought the wine for considerably less years ago.
The wine had turned a Burgundy colour owing to the age. It smelt perfectly clean with aromas of vanilla and oak on the nose and dried fruits rather than fresh fruits. It was more like stewed prunes than plums.
On the palate it had medium acidity and the tannins where were very light. It was now medium body but I suspect that in 1992 it would have had a fuller body. It tasted very much as it smelt with the typical tobacco box flavour of Bordeaux and the oak taste of vanilla was still there. There was very little fresh fruit flavour and there were vegetal flavours just like aged Burgundy. It was very concentrated but it had probably lost some complexity. It tasted very warm on the palate which in my view is a mark of a wine which has aged well. it was not however hot as all the components of the wine were well integrated. It had a very long length. All in all it had aged well and was of very good quality. Most wine would have gone rotten after 25 years.
I suspect now that buyers are prepared to pay lots of money for this wine because of the label. If you have got some of this wine then I suggest that you drink it if you are not interested in money, as it is on the way down.
I was interested in the reaction of our guests when they tasted it . I told everyone what wine it was. My wife and one of our female friends were very impressed. I could tell from the faces from my other guests that they were less enthusiastic. I think that we have all got used to drinking wines at a younger age and we are used to strong fruit flavours and even wine enthusiasts get a bit of a shock when they taste ageing fruit flavours rather than fresh ones.
I think I got a genuine reaction from my wife and friends uninfluenced by the label, the reputation or the price or my suggestion and this is what wine appreciation should really be about.
http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/les+forts+de+latour/1989
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