Puklavec Sauvignon Blanc Pinot Grigio 2018 - Slovenian Dry White Wine

If you are looking for something different, but which is of high quality, then look no further than Puklavec  Sauvignon Blanc Pinot Grigio 2018 - Slovenian Dry White Wine. This wine is produced near Ormož in the Prlekija region of North East Slovenian. Ormož is situated on the left bank of the  river Drava and it is very close to the Croatian border. I am glad that wine from all of the regions of Slovenia are making their way to the UK market. This wine is produced in the beautiful Jeruzalem valley whose verdant slopes support the terraced vineyards. The peace and calm of this area is well worth visiting for a wine tasting and gastronomic trip and you can freely cross the border into nearby Croatia. 

The wine is a prize winner, and it deserves it, as it is well integrated for acidity and it has low sugar. It is very fruity  and tastes of tropical fruits and citrus. It also reminded me of fresh bananas !   My wife did not agree with me on this one. The wine remained long on the palate and was concentrated and complex. We drank it with fish and it goes best with food but you could drink it on its own as an aperitif.

At about £9 a bottle it is really good value for money it is worth searching for.

Ormož is a quiet town but worth a visit to buy some wine and to see the storks nesting on the houses. The Slovenians are proud of their country and its enlightened attitude to the preservation of its wildlife and the environment.

https://www.waitrosecellar.com/puklavec---friends-pinot-grigio

https://www.letsgoslovenia.si/welcome-to-jeruzalem-in-slovenia/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prlekija

This pesky virus part 2 - The 2019 Bordeaux vintage

The Covid19 virus is playing havoc with the wine investment market. In general commodity prices follow the economy. Wine and Oil prices even seem to follow one another. I am not a wine investor and with the state of the economic conditions at the moment I would not get involved even if I had pots of spare cash to invest. If you invest in wine then you do it for the long term if you do not want to take too much of a risk. You also need to invest in wines which you know have staying power. You need to invest in wines which are prestigious - such as Château Petrus or Château Latour.

The 2019 Bordeaux vintage was a good one but many of the prestigious wines are being sold at a discount, so now could be a good time to buy especially as the lockdown prevented wine buyers going to Bordeaux to taste and assess the wines before they were bottled. If you decide that now is a good time to buy then make sure that you choose a supplier who is honest and will give you sound advice and that any wine you buy enters into your possession. You could buy a wine contract from an unreliable supplier if you are not careful, and end up losing your money and your wine when, or if, they go bust either unintentionally or intentionally.

If the wine price flops in the long term then you could drink your wine if you have no one to leave it too. I believe that wine should be bought for the pleasure of keeping it to drink rather than to make money.

All investments are risky, including wine, so it might not be wise to borrow money to invest as you could lose all the value of the wine while still having to pay back the loan.

If you are risk averse and have some spare cash you could consider gold sovereigns which tend to increase in value when other markets are risky and they have tax advantages, but once again make sure you have possession of the gold, rather than buying contracts for gold that may not be honoured. You need somewhere safe to store physical investments so wine needs to be stored in a secure location where it can mature slowly in the bottle.

On a less risky note I have seen bottles of 2019 Bordeaux on the supermarket shelves , normally even  a standard bordeaux does not appear on the shelves until 2 years after the vintage. I haven't tried a bottle of 2019 Bordeaux yet but watch this space. If you do buy some 2019 Bordeaux for drinking it will probably be best to keep it for a couple of years before opening.

2011 Château Tour Saint Germain - Red Bordeaux

This wine was a true bargain, we had two bottles left from half a case that we bought donkey's years ago. The wine was ready for drinking and had matured nicely. It goes to show that you do not need to pay a fortune for wine that will keep and mature well in the bottle, provided that you keep it on its side in a dark cool place.

This wine is typical of the Bordeaux region. It is difficult if not impossible to pin down to Blaye but it is readily recognisable as a good Bordeaux wine.

We drank the wine with roast beef one day and roast lamb a few days later. It is worth searching out and represents outstanding value for money.

The fresh fruit flavours of plum and cherries reminiscent of a young Bordeaux had matured and the wine tasted more of preserved fruits. The tannin was still present but in a softened form. The wine was dry and of medium to full body with well integrated acid. The tastes were concentrated and complex and remained on the palate for a long time. It had all the hallmarks of a good wine.

This pesky virus

This pesky virus has stopped us going to France to buy wine. It is also affecting wine production and the harvest.

I am now having to use stocks of wine which I would normally keep for a couple of years longer to allow them to improve in the bottle.

Three such wines are are:Villa Antorini Toscana Red 2018, Argentinian Catena Malbec  Red 2017 and Chateau Pey La Tour 2018 Red. All three of these wines are perfectly drinkable now but deserve keeping longer. You could say why not buy your everyday wine in an English supermarket. It's the price, in a French supermarket I can buy a reasonable wine for 5 Eur , in the UK a bottle of  standard wine costs around 7 pounds. The price of wine has shot up. This is because the pound has shot down and is falling further.

The value of sterling no longer hits the headlines but some analysts are predicting parity with the US dollar where the situation now means 1£ equals $1.20. At this rate  1 pound will become less valuable than 1 Euro.

You could say why not buy and drink English wine. The only English wine that comes close to rivaling  an ordinary continental equivalent is English sparkling wine. English sparkling wine is, however, much more pricey than Champagne or Cava. The english producers cannot benefit from economies of scale and the price will not be competitive, in the UK, unless the pound falls through the floor.

None of this is a good prospect for a  wine lover and I ask myself : "Where is the off-setting benefit?"

Some wine surprises

I was looking for some wine on the racks the other day when I found a 2012 bottle of Madiran and a 2012 bottle of 2012 Irancy red. Both wines were bought in French supermarkets for very reasonable prices years ago.

Terasses D'Autan Madiran Red 2012 AOC

Madiran is a village in the South West of France in Gascony between the towns of Pau and Auch. The red wine produced here is made primarily from the Tannat grape and it is blended with Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. The wine is strong in tannin and wine producers allow micro oxygenation of the wine to soften the tannin.This is termed micro-bullage in French. This wine was still going strong after 8 years in the bottle and would probably age for years more. It is a style of wine rich in red and black fruits but dry and with full body.the taste lingered on the palate for a long time. It was concentrated and complex and well balanced and had all the hallmarks of a very good wine that will keep for a long time. This wine had a taste of the regio. It is a wine that was designed to be consumed with good food. We had it with a shoulder of lamb from Devon. Have you never heard of it? You can still find the latter years of it on the web and in a supermarket. I highly recommend it. It is exceptional value for money.

https://www.e-leclerc.com/catalogue/rayons/alimentaire/boissons-avec-alcool/aoc---madiran-terrasses-d-autan,1153404310

Heimbourger Irancy Red 2012 AOC

Irancy is one of my favourite Burgundy wines, it is produced in the Auxerrois area in the Yonne Department in the far north of the Burgundy region. The village or commune is not far from Chablis and the kimmeridgian based soils are highly suited to the production of red wine from the Pinot Noir grape. Winemakers are permitted to use up to 10% of the César black grape which is rich in tannin. I was not expecting this wine to last so long but it aged very well. It still had the cherry flavour typical of wines from the village. But the wine had matured to develop a flavour of plums as well. The wine was dry on the palate with a medium body and it still retained its complexity and concentration and unique taste of the region. We drank it with free range roast chicken but it would also go down well roasted red meats. You can buy this wine in the Leclerc and Carrefour supermarkets. My father-in-law was born not far from the commune of Irancy and this is one of the reasons why we can identify wines from the area without seeing the label. We enjoyed so much of this wine with my late father-in-law and it brought back so many fond memories. This made us forget about Covid-19 for a while. It is difficult to find this wine in the UK, but in France you can buy it for a reasonable price. It is excellent value for money.

https://www.domaine-heimbourger.com/en/vins/irancy.html

https://www.carrefour.fr/p/vin-rouge-irancy-2014-domaine-heimbourger-3531518980043

So, there you have it there are many unexpected pleasures if you keep your wine in a cool dark place. And you do not have to spend a fortune.

Alain Mathias - Chablis 2018

The last two weeks we have been "social distancing" like everybody else in the UK even though we believe that we have both had the Covid 19 infection. I felt the infection in late January and it ran on until the first week in February and my wife had a weaker set of symptoms in early February. We cannot prove this but I certainly feel that I  had the virus before the furore started. Many other people that I know experienced something similar. At one point my temperature reached 37.9C and I was about to 'phone the doctor but it fell the next day to 37.4 C, and I felt in the clear. At one point I felt as if my lungs were under attack even though I could breathe properly. We will never know whether we caught the virus or not until a test is available; up until then we shall remain vigilant.

I feel a little bit awkward writing a wine blog and still enjoying a good glass of wine with the good food which is still available - but for how long? We are lucky we have plenty of room and a back garden where we can exercise and a  nature reserve just up the road where we can run or walk everyday. We don't feel as if we are under house arrest as many people do if they are living in a flat and can't get outside. If they are living in overcrowded conditions with frustrated children. If they are living with an abusive partner. My wife and I get along really well ,and there have been no arguments; we could carry on like this for months if needs be -as long as we can enjoy good food and wine.

The health care and public services people are heroes, they are putting their lives at risk by working without the protection they should have been provided with. So I drink a toast to them and to all those patients who have recovered and also to the unfortunate dead and their family and friends.

The health professionals are always going on about drinking too much. My wife and I do not count the wine bottles we drink, but today I looked into the recycling bin and calculate that we have drunk 6 bottles of wine in just over two weeks. This is below the health advice which we have been ignoring - it is unconscious common sense.

One of the best bottles of wine that we drank was Alain Mathias Chablis 2018. We visited his caves last year in the charming town of Tonnerre in the Yonne department of Bourgogne. We bought half a case so the remaining 5 bottles will be kept. This is superb wine which is typical of the Chablis growing area. We drank this wine with farm reared chicken - roasted. The remaining chicken was made into a "cawl" soup which we ate the following night with the remaining half bottle. Superb wine which must be kept and superb value for money.

http://www.domainealainmathias.com/

Another great wine was a half- bottle of Mathieu Antunes  Chablis 2014. This originates from the Yonne and we often drink this wine when we visit restaurants in the area. We were given this wine by our cousin who lives in the Yonne -so three cheers for her. We fear that  we won't be seeing her and her family again for a while. This wine went down so well with oysters which taste better for me with chablis rather than vodka.

https://www.vivino.com/antunes-matthieu-chablis/w/1556200?year=U.V.


We are on a semi-mediterranean diet to keep our weight and blood pressure down and it's working, I think. However, we cannot resist laying off the fish and white meat once a week to eat some high quality beef and lamb from our local butcher. What better way  to eat good  roast beef other  than with a bottle  2017 Château Jansenant, Cotes de Bourg Red AOP. This is excellent prize winning wine which shows all of the character of one of my favourite regions.

These wines are well worthy of any accolades that they have been given. I wish everyone good health.

Covid-19 and Wine

The Covid -19 outbreak is a health and personal disaster. One can but hope that that no-one else will suffer from the virus but I fear that worse is to come. My condolences are offered to anyone who has suffered. It could easily be me next, my wife or a member of my extended family, in the UK or France. I already know someone who has died of the virus.

For the wine industry this is also a disaster. It is an industry that thrives on personal contact, whether it is in the vineyard, the winery or the wine shop. Drinking a bottle of wine with friends with a good meal is part of conviviality, this is now gone, and we will all be leading lives in separation for perhaps months to come.  Soon we will be denied  the simple pleasures of visiting a cave or a wine store to discuss and taste the wine and buy it.

The future looks bleak. It is possible that automation and artificial intelligence will be used to achieve economies across the industry to save it.Wine making and delivery and vineyard work will be become de-personalised. At least, I shall be sharing my wine with friends and family. The good times will return one day.

We are all affected by the struggle against the virus, but, even so, most of us are lucky enough not to be involved in a real war which is much worse.

Tonight my wife and I will drink a glass of wine to wish good luck and good health to all those involved in the industry wherever they are.