Who said that English Wine cannot be as good as French or Californian Wine - Eglatine North Star

 I was given a bottle of 2014 North Star dessert wine from the Eglatine Vineyard in South Nottinghamshire. This wine is superb and has won prizes. It had been sitting on the wine rack for ages just waiting for the right moment  to be opened; over the Christmas period of 2020. There was little to celebrate except the wine: friends and family could not join us. We drank the wine with one of my favourite desserts: apple tart and vanilla ice cream. Apple tart is one of my wife's specialities. Immediately, upon opening the wine, which had been chilled, I could smell pineapple and exotic tropical fruits. On the nose and palate the taste was extremely complex and concentrated. The sweetness of the wine was balanced to perfection by the acidity. The taste of the wine rested long on the palate. It was one of the best dessert wines I have ever tried and it easily rates favourably with a good   Monbazillac from the Dordogne.

I looked at the back label and the vineyard described the wine as tasting of pineapples and other tropical fruits. It is a rare occasion when my judgement concurs with the wine makers.

The wine was just about starting to turn a golden colour and I guess that it  will keep a good few years longer; provided it is stored well in the dark.

I have no idea how much a half bottle of this wine cost but whatever it was it was worth it. This is one of the best wines I have tasted and it  is from England. I shall be searching out this wine when I am allowed to visit my sister in North Leicestershire, we can then celebrate the end of restrictions with a decent bottle of wine and some good food.

https://www.eglantinevineyard.com/#Flavor

The world's best wine

 So now we a have it; Mouton Rothschild 2018 Bordeaux Premier Cru Red is the best wine in the world. Rare Champagne 2008 is the best Champagne. Penfold's winery is the best in the world. 20,000 wines were tasted by 130,000 professional tasters and amateurs who voted over a 3 month period. One of the wines voted best in the world was a Merlot. But, wait a minute, Merlot is not a wine it is a grape variety; the Merlot had to be identified by the producer who made it. 

http://bwwcompetition.com/

https://redon.maville.com/actu/actudet_-bordeaux-le-titre-de-meilleur-vin-du-monde-attribue-au-chateau-mouton-rothschild-2018_54135-4472074_actu.Htm

It is fun to read about such competitions but I do not take them too seriously as a guide to the best wines in the world. I am looking for quality versus value for money.

I have never tasted the 2018 Mouton Rothschild, and probably never will unless a rich uncle opens a bottle but I am too old to have any rich uncles that are alive.  I have no doubt that I would find the wine to be excellent along with all the other wines that were voted best in the world. However, other wine producers might feel a little aggrieved;  there is no doubt that Château Petrus believes that it produces the best red wine in the world and who is to say that it doesn't. 

All judgements about wine are in the main subjective; you can learn to identify wines which are distinctive but which also represent the style of their area. However, many Champagne Houses blend wines from many different parcelles of vineyard.  Some Champagne houses, in the more renowned north of the region, blend in wine from the less renowned south of the region into their house brands. It's my opinion that the best Champagnes come from small growers who make their own Champagne. These grower-makers hardly get onto to lists for judgement. However, I would never refuse to drink Pol Roger non-vintage Brut.

It is also possible to be trained or educated to recognise wines that can be kept for many years or decades to improve in the bottle. The 2018 Mouton  Rothschild will do this and also it is renowned as an investment wine, and some of this wine will never be opened, but will rest in a cold, dark cellar.

One thing is certain, the price of any wine that gets on the Best Wine in the World list, will go up.

Today, we will be celebrating my wife's birthday with a bottle of Champagne from a grower-maker whose prize winning Champagne has not been on anyone's list for popularity, but it will be our Best Wine in the World, and no-one else's opinion will affect our judgement.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bww-2021---best-wines-of-world-have-been-selected--chateau-mouton-rothschild-is-the-winner-301212995.html#:~:text=In%20BWW%20Competition%202021%2C%20the,Rothschild%202018%2C%20Bordeaux%2C%20France.&text=The%20Best%20Winery%20of%20the,awarded%20to%20the%20Penfolds%2C%20Australia.&text=BWW%20warmly%20welcomes%20all%20vineyards,wine%20for%20the%202022%20competition.

Domaine Pountet L'Horloge Côte de Bruhlois 2012 AOP Bruhlois red

We discovered Domaine Pountet at the Lille wine show but we knew the Bruhlois appellation from visits to the Lot and Garonne region to meet the family. The Bruhlois  appellation is situated on the banks of the Garonne river south of the city of Agen which is famous for its prune production. The climate and weather is well suited to the growth of wine grapes as it is under the influence of the Mediterranean. The soil is a mixture of gravel and clay so the forested slopes produce the finest wine grapes.  Domaine Pountet use grapes from selected parcelles of vineyard to make  L'Horloge predominantly from black Malbec grapes.

The Domaine is a member of the Vignerons Indépendant which I have written about before; L'Horloge 2012 red is a prize winning wine and it deserves every accolade that it accrues. The 2012 which we tasted over the Christmas period has an intense dark purple colour, the wine is extremely complex and concentrated on the nose and on the palate, it tastes of dark fruits, liquorice, spice and vanilla and dare I say prunes. The taste lingers long on the palate. The wine is of course full bodied and sumptuous and the tannin is now beginning to soften. You can drink the 2012 year now but it will keep longer.

What makes this such a good wine? It is from the quality of the grapes acquired and from the technical ability and passion of  Guillaume and Amanda Combes - the winemakers. The wine has a distinctive taste of its own but it reflects the character of the appellation and only the best growers and winemakers can achieve this.

This is wine to be savoured and not sloshed down at a party or barbeque we drank it with rare rib of beef; it should always be consumed with good food.

Most people in the UK have never heard of this wine so they are missing a treat. It can hold its own with the best wines from anywhere and I highly recommend that you search it out.

Because of travel restrictions, we were unable to travel to France but the Domaine sent us a case which arrived before the problems surrounding importation because of the Covid 19 epidemic. Probably after Brexit there will be increased duty on  wine if you import it to the UK, but this wine is so good it will not detract from its value for money.  

http://www.pountet.com/domaine-wine-brulhois.asp

https://www.wine-searcher.com/regions-brulhois 

Mastroberardino More Maiorum 2015 Fiano di Avellino (Italy) DOCG Fiano Mastroberardino White

 This is one of the best white wines that I have ever tasted. It is made from Fiano white grapes in the Campania region of Italy near Naple. The Mastroberardino domain apparently helped to develop the future of the grape. The grapes are grown in calcareous soils which add a touch of minerality to the smell and taste of the wine.  It hails from a single vineyard in the hills. Our wine was still developing in the bottle. The wine has a complex taste and for me it tasted of green and citrus fruits, honey and of course the mineral flavour. The wine was very concentrated and its flavour lingered long on the palate after  swallowing. It is not quite bone dry but it is of full body and it is slightly unctuous. Everything about this wine is fully balanced and integrated. It will keep for years longer. It was simply a joy to drink with fish, but it would go down with Parma ham. This is not a wine to be treated lightly and slugged back. It needs to be treated with all the respect that a really good wine deserves by drinking it with a good meal and good friends.

More Maiorum 2015 has its own distinct taste which sets it apart from all other white wines that I have tasted. We  have only sampled it twice but it is quite possible that my wife could recognise it again- blind- as the wine is truly memorable. It is up there with the finest Chablis and dare I say it : Montrachet. It shames bulk wine producers.

Before, I was introduced to this wine last year by a friend I had never heard of it. We shared a case of this wine and the price was right. However, I could easily have paid twice as much and still felt that I was getting a high quality wine at a good price. It compares favourably with the best whites from Burgundy, The Loire and Bordeaux and Spain. What more can I say?

https://mastroberardino.com/vino/more-maiorum-fiano-di-avellino-docg-2011/

https://www.vinissimus.com/en/wine/mastroberardino-more-maiorum/

Domaine Alain Mathias Bourgogne Epineuil Tradition red 2018 - Vigneron Independant

It is getting rather tiresome that we cannot travel easily from the UK to France to visit our friends and family and buy wine. Even though we both have French passports and cannot be refused entry, we have to have a Covid 19 test before travelling to France and fill in forms to show where we are going. When we come back we have to go into quarantine and provide a negative test. Travel within England and from England to other countries is now banned. It is pointless to try going away. My wife is pulling her hair out to travel to her original home in Troyes and visit Burgundy where her father came from and where she still has lots of family. 

Luckily, we can still find a taste of France and Burgundy, by ordering our favourite wines directly from the vineyard. We had pre-Brexit worries that our wine ordered in December would not get through. Domaine Alan Mathias delivered a case of Epineuil perfectly packaged in very strong cardboard at a price not much more than visiting the property. They are brilliant and so is their wine.

Epineuil is difficult to find in the UK and most wine drinkers have never heard of it. It is one of our favourite wines from Burgundy. It is produced in the very North of the region where the climate and soil are different from the more famous wines from the Côte de Nuits such as Nuits-Saint-Georges, which every wine lover in the UK has heard of.

Alain Mathias produces Epineuil red wine which reflects the true nature of the area, as the grapes are well matched to the soil, weather and climate. Only the best wines are instantly recognisable by their smell and taste as being from a particular area. Many wines from bulk producers are shipped to the UK and other countries in huge tanks and are bottled locally and marketed with brand names. The wines are usually perfectly acceptable to quaff back in a wine bar, or at a party or barbeque; but at a blind tasting you have no idea which country or even region they hail from. You have got no idea how the grapes were grown; the brand name could be from wines blended from many different vineyards and regions. The varietal brand names are meaningless - Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot or Sauvignon Blanc - because they all taste the same; even different brands of Baked Beans taste different.

There is so much snobbery and myth attached to wine appreciation that sometimes it makes my heart sink.   It is only possible to tell where a wine comes from if you are completely familiar with that wine and other wines from the region.  Luckily, my wife and I are so familiar with the wines from Tonnerre and Chablis and their surroundings that we can recognise them. We would not be able to pick out Domain Alain Mathias wines from other good quality producers of the same area, at a blind tasting, but we are getting close to it.  This  all we can expect from ourselves or profess to others.

What makes Domaine Alain Mathias wine so special in my view. They are small producers and are members of the Vignerons Indépendant. Members must respect the terroir of the region, grow and make wine from their own grapes on their own property, bottle the wine themselves and respect wine traditions. These are quite stringent conditions to ensure the quality and authenticity of the wine. 

We tasted Alain Mathias Bourgogne Epineuil Tradition 2018 during the Christmas period. The wine tasted and smelt exactly as described on the bottle.It tasted of cherry and plums and of grilled bread and roasted coffee or torréfaction. It is also described as charnu or fleshy. To me it was dry and of  medium to full body with tannin which was only beginning to soften. The wine was concentrated, complex and the taste lingered long on the palate. It was well integrated and balanced for tannin and acidity. It had all the hallmarks of an exceptionally good wine. The wine is matured in the vat and in oak barrels.

This wine should be consumed with food.  We drank it with rib eye steaks but it would go well with pheasant and other game birds or guinea fowl. The wine needs to be cellared for a few years more to reach its peak and we shall be saving the bottles for several years. Alain Mathias wines have all the attributes and qualities of good quality wine which reflect the unique character of the terroir. The soil in this region is based on Kimmeridgian geology and this is reflected in the wine which is produced from  the pinot noir grape - there is no need for varietal labelling and brand names. I highly recommend this wine.

If ever you are in Tonnerre it is worth visiting the cellars which are situated on the Route de Troyes on the left as you pull out of the town towards the ancient city of Troyes.

http://www.domainealainmathias.com/

https://www.vigneron-independant.com/

https://dico-du-vin.com/torrefie-vin-arome-de-torrefaction-degustation/

http://www.winereviewonline.com/Wayne_Belding_on_Kimmeridgian.cfm

Château Tour Chapoux Bordeaux Supérieur red 2019

I promised that I would write about a 2019 Bordeaux and I finally got round to buying one and drinking it with my wife. I was pleasantly surprised about this wine. I was a bit fearful that it would be too early to drink. In a previous blog I suggested that it would be best to keep the 2019 vintage for a couple of years before drinking it. Much as I hate to say it, I was wrong; you can drink this wine as the tannin is very soft. The wine has much of the character of the region and it is of quite high quality. At less than £10 a bottle in a British supermarket it represents good value for money and I recommend it. You can find it at a discounted price; supermarkets are lowering the cost of some wines to attract customers. You can find some bargains but it would be better if the pound had a higher value against the Euro and the Greenback; however I can't see much prospect of this in the near future.

This website gives a good description of the 2019 vintage in Bordeaux.

https://www.decanter.com/wine-news/opinion/news-blogs-anson/bordeaux-2019-vintage-what-to-expect-436453/

Château Tour Chapoux Bordeaux Supérieur 2019 is mainly Merlot based wine so it is made for easy drinking. However, this wine will keep and improve in the bottle for a few more years. This wine went down well with steak and chips and we were able to savour it over two evenings.  It is light enough to drink on its own if you feel that way inclined, but I wouldn't do that as it deserves to be matched with food.

2019 was a good year for Bordeaux so it is worth buying a few bottles to lay down if you can afford it.

This wine was rated 3.5 out 5 on this website, below. I am not a lover of ratings but if I had to I would have given it 4 out 5 on the basis of value for money.

https://www.vivino.com/GB/en/tour-chapoux-bordeaux-superieur/w/2150579?year=2019

https://www.waitrosecellar.com/chateau-tour-chapoux

It pays to keep your wine -part 2

 Even though most wines can be drunk young , it pays to keep the better ones to mature in the bottle.

2013 Pietro Sartori Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG. This red wine was superb. It is made from partially dried Corvina black grapes blended with other approved varieties in the Veneto region of North East Italy. It is so well known that it is often referred to as just Amarone. This wine has all the attributes of the wine style of the appellation. It is fruity and very complex and concentrated wine with a full body with well balanced acidity, tannin, sweetness and alcohol at 15%. It is dry wine. You have to drink this wine with strong food; it really is too strong to knock back on its own and I recommend that you don't.  We tasted it over two nights with a venison stew and it went perfectly with it. To buy it now you will have to pay over £60 a bottle. I can't remember where or when I bought it but I did not pay anywhere near that price, so it was a good investment. I do not buy wine to make money so my investment only paid off as a tasting sensation. This wine will keep a lot longer. Would I be tempted to pay £60 plus for another bottle of this vintage - well yes? This is top wine.

https://www.vivino.com/pietro-sartori-amarone-della-valpolicella/w/113

2013 Alain Mathias Bourgogne Epineuil red AC. This wine is is from the  north west of the Burgundy region, on the outskirts of Tonnerre, and it reflects the nature of the cooler climate. The wine is made from pinot noir grapes grown in the limestone soils. The vines are raised bio-dynamically. The wine is fully ready to be drunk now at is near its peak. I am astounded that Alain Mathias can produce a wine that exactly reflects the "goût de terroir" of the area for such a reasonable price. My wife and I love this wine and so we have an affection for wines from the area. Her family is from the Yonne where top wines such as Chablis and Epineuil are from.

Epineuil red is much lighter than the wines from Bordeaux or Veneto and it can be drunk on its own but I never do this; it really should be drunk with food. We tasted ours with pintade. 

https://www.map-france.com/department-Yonne/

The concept of "goût de terroir" is alien to many wine lovers. If you go to the region and drink a good Epineuil then you will know what I mean. This wine style is unique. It is recognisable and it jumps out from the other red wines of Burgundy including the top ones which also have their own "goût de terroir". "Goût de terroir" does not just reflect the soil that the vines are grown in; the climate and the match of the grape variety to the soil and weather also have an influence. When I am tasting other so called "pinot noir wines" from anywhere else, including France, I have difficulty recognising which country they come from. I can't tell a Washington state "pinot noir" from a New Zealand one. All I know is that the pinot noir grape does not like a hot climate.  

https://www.decanter.com/wine-news/us-geologists-challenge-gout-de-terroir-64004/

If you are in France you should really visit the Yonne. Alain Mathias also produces superb  Chablis.  his wines are superb and great value for money. We have just finished our last bottle of Epineuil: it is difficult to go to France now, so we are looking forward to a delivery.

http://www.domainealainmathias.com/