Last Sunday we spent a couple of hours in the Brindisa Tapas bar in London's Borough Market. We enjoyed the company of good friends and Tapas consumed with a bottle Rioja Vega Saja Crianza 2009 red wine.
Rioja is made primarily from the Tempranillo grape. Crianza red wines are matured for at least two years before they are bottled with at least 6 months in oak. Rioja Crianza whites are matured for at least one year with at least 6 months in oak.
Vega Saja 2009 was a very good quality red wine which is between medium and full body. It was very fruity and the tannin had softened to remove any bitter aftertaste. The wine went perfectly with tapas and was ready for drinking. Crianza wines are lighter than their Reserva and Gran Reserva cousins and have less of a flavour of oak.
The wine was perfect for a Sunday afternoon and helped to remind us of Spain even though we were stuck in the middle of London. It also helped us to remember all the lovely food and wine that we have consumed on numerous visits to Spain.
This wine and Brindisa is well recommended. You cannot reserve a table at the restaurant so expect to wait to be seated.
http://www.brindisatapaskitchens.com/assets/tapas-brindisa-london-bridge-drinks-menu.pdf
Tuesday, 29 April 2014
Tuesday, 15 April 2014
Intermarché Champagne out does Aldi
On a recent trip to Troyes we found a good bottle of Champagne - Marine Clément Cuvée Emotion NV - for 12.50 Eur at an Intermarché supermarket in the town. We grabbed a few bottles. We still have not been able to find the £10 Aldi Champagne, in England, as we don't have a store nearby: Lidl seem to have pushed them out in our area.
Champagne - Marine Clément Cuvée Emotion is made by a a wine broker or négociant in Neuville-Sur Seine which is in the Aube district of Champagne about 50 kms south east of Troyes. The négociant in question is Stéphane Février.
The Champagne tasted very good for the price; it was a light gold colour with fine bubbles. The Champagne tasted much stronger and richer than Champagne from further north . This is more to the taste of local people than the international tastes of Laurent Perrier and the like.
The soil in the Aube district to the south of Troyes is more limestone based than chalk and this affects the taste of the wine.
We opened a couple of bottles with family and friends for the London marathon celebrations and my niece who was running the next day had half a glass. She finished in a good time, so the moderate tipple did not spoil her chances even if it didn't improve them. It just goes to show that you can break the dietary rules and still get away with it.
All our friends and family though the Champagne was very good and though that it was of similar quality to most of the other Champagne's that they had drunk. My wife concluded that it was not the best Champagne, and she should know as she was born in Troyes. However, she said that it was great value for money. Who am I to disagree? I thought that the Champagne left a little bit of a bitter after taste on the palate but I had swirled the wine around my mouth.
Our other guests just drank the Champagne and did not notice the bitterness. Perhaps, it pays not to try to be too professional.
Somebody guessed the retail price of the Champagne to be about 18 Eur a bottle which is the price on their web site. Intermarché had negotiated a good deal but I do not think that it is a loss leader for them.
My brother in law knows lots of the producers in the area but he can never get a figure on how much it really costs to produce a bottle of Champagne from the Aube. He surmises that it is less than 6 Eur a bottle so the profit margins are good.
Three cheers and bon chance for Intermarché.
http://www.marineclement.com/champagne_brut.php
Champagne - Marine Clément Cuvée Emotion is made by a a wine broker or négociant in Neuville-Sur Seine which is in the Aube district of Champagne about 50 kms south east of Troyes. The négociant in question is Stéphane Février.
The Champagne tasted very good for the price; it was a light gold colour with fine bubbles. The Champagne tasted much stronger and richer than Champagne from further north . This is more to the taste of local people than the international tastes of Laurent Perrier and the like.
The soil in the Aube district to the south of Troyes is more limestone based than chalk and this affects the taste of the wine.
We opened a couple of bottles with family and friends for the London marathon celebrations and my niece who was running the next day had half a glass. She finished in a good time, so the moderate tipple did not spoil her chances even if it didn't improve them. It just goes to show that you can break the dietary rules and still get away with it.
All our friends and family though the Champagne was very good and though that it was of similar quality to most of the other Champagne's that they had drunk. My wife concluded that it was not the best Champagne, and she should know as she was born in Troyes. However, she said that it was great value for money. Who am I to disagree? I thought that the Champagne left a little bit of a bitter after taste on the palate but I had swirled the wine around my mouth.
Our other guests just drank the Champagne and did not notice the bitterness. Perhaps, it pays not to try to be too professional.
Somebody guessed the retail price of the Champagne to be about 18 Eur a bottle which is the price on their web site. Intermarché had negotiated a good deal but I do not think that it is a loss leader for them.
My brother in law knows lots of the producers in the area but he can never get a figure on how much it really costs to produce a bottle of Champagne from the Aube. He surmises that it is less than 6 Eur a bottle so the profit margins are good.
Three cheers and bon chance for Intermarché.
http://www.marineclement.com/champagne_brut.php
Wednesday, 19 March 2014
Some rotten French wine
We recently made a visit to a family reunion in the town of Quissac which not far from Montpellier in the Languedoc region of the South of France. Whilst we were there we also took a tour around and our trip included a visit to Toulouse in the Haut-Garonne department. At the party we drank some lovely Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon from the local co-operative and some really excellent Alexandre Bonnet Champagne Blancs de Noirs Brut from Les Riceys from the Aube department. This champagne was excellent.
http://www.alexandrebonnet.com/website/indexf.html
But where did we find some of the worst wine I have ever drunk? We did not have to go far for we paid a visit to Les Saintes Maries de la Mer which is a charming seaside town and which is the capital of the Camargue in the Bouches-du-Rhône department on the Mediterranean. The French love fish and chips just as much as the British and we found a lovely restaurant by the sea front. This restaurant will remain nameless. I ordered a pichet of the local white wine to go with my fish and chips, without the mushy peas, and it was disgusting and undrinkable. It was my own fault as I should have ordered a bottle of Picpoul de Pinet but we were on a mission to drink only a restaurant's offerings when we had a meal out.
http://www.saintesmaries.com/en/
http://www.alexandrebonnet.com/website/indexf.html
But where did we find some of the worst wine I have ever drunk? We did not have to go far for we paid a visit to Les Saintes Maries de la Mer which is a charming seaside town and which is the capital of the Camargue in the Bouches-du-Rhône department on the Mediterranean. The French love fish and chips just as much as the British and we found a lovely restaurant by the sea front. This restaurant will remain nameless. I ordered a pichet of the local white wine to go with my fish and chips, without the mushy peas, and it was disgusting and undrinkable. It was my own fault as I should have ordered a bottle of Picpoul de Pinet but we were on a mission to drink only a restaurant's offerings when we had a meal out.
http://www.saintesmaries.com/en/
 |
| Les Saintes Maries de la Mer When we visited the Pont du Gard the previous day we were treated to a pichet of glorious and local dry red wine at the Le Colombier Restaurant which is 200 meters from the entrance to the Pont du Gard park. This restaurant is well worth visiting The food and wine , however, could not compare to the glory of seeing the Pont du Gard Aquaduct. The Romans were phenomenal engineers.  Next we were off to Toulouse which is a very rich, vibrant and young city in the Haut-Garonne. I must have been the oldest person there. The city is also very expensive and we thought that we would try and save some money and eat in a tapas bar. We broke our rule and ordered a bottle of wine - shock horror it was Rioja. The wine was rather good but the waitress knew nothing about Spanish wines and she couldn't care less what grapes it was made from. They weren't French grapes so why bother to know anything about the wine. We left the Tapas bar with my wallet lightened by 50 Euro for three plates of tapas and a bottle of wine; but never mind. The next day we met some friends and they knew Toulouse really well and where to find good food at a reasonable price and this was at the Victor-Hugo market. On the first floor there are five restaurants selling excellent food and we choose the Louchebem. What else could we eat other than Toulouse sausages with mashed potatoes - where have I eaten Sausage and Mash before? A pichet of the local dry red wine washed this down really well, things were getting better and the costs were getting lower. We were surrounded by wine and the flags, insignia and photographs of the Toulouse rugby club.   Next we travelled to Pezenas and back to the Languedoc; we stayed the night in the delightful Hotel Moliere on the Place du 14 Juillet. We dined in the nearby village of Valros and drank some excellent local dry red wine once again. We finally paid a visit to family in Montpellier and once again drank some excellent local wine before making our way back home to the excitement of London. Most of the wine is very good in France but like all countries it has some pretty undrinkable stuff especially if you buy it served in a pichet. If you want good quality all of the time it is best to stick to a bottle with a recognisable label. |
Thursday, 13 March 2014
Chablis and distinctive taste
Whilst waiting for a plane to Montpellier at Gatwick Airport the other day my wife treated me to some smoked salmon and a glass of dry white wine at the Caviar House wine bar; she must have been feeling rich.
I took one sniff of the wine and guessed correctly, blind, that it was Chablis as it had all the mineral and stony flavour consistent with wine from the region.
How did I get it right first time? I can't do this with many other wines. Well Chablis has the distinctive and inimitable taste of the appellation. No other wine region in the world can mimic this taste even if they use Chardonnay grapes and have a cool climate. It is something to do with the unique soil and climate of the Chablis area and the way the wine is made. This is why I love Chablis it has the distinctive taste of its own and it goes so well with fish and fowl. Chablis has no need for varietal labelling.
Being able to recognise a wine also stems from familiarity with it. My wife's family come from the region and we drink the wine so often.. We can also recognise other wines from the area such as Irancy and Epineuil just by giving them one sniff. Our taste buds and sense of smell are no better than anyone else but familiarity with a distinctive tasting wine helps.
This is why I love Chablis, Irancy and Epineuil so much; they have a style and quality all of their own which no other wine producing area can copy.
I took one sniff of the wine and guessed correctly, blind, that it was Chablis as it had all the mineral and stony flavour consistent with wine from the region.
How did I get it right first time? I can't do this with many other wines. Well Chablis has the distinctive and inimitable taste of the appellation. No other wine region in the world can mimic this taste even if they use Chardonnay grapes and have a cool climate. It is something to do with the unique soil and climate of the Chablis area and the way the wine is made. This is why I love Chablis it has the distinctive taste of its own and it goes so well with fish and fowl. Chablis has no need for varietal labelling.
Being able to recognise a wine also stems from familiarity with it. My wife's family come from the region and we drink the wine so often.. We can also recognise other wines from the area such as Irancy and Epineuil just by giving them one sniff. Our taste buds and sense of smell are no better than anyone else but familiarity with a distinctive tasting wine helps.
This is why I love Chablis, Irancy and Epineuil so much; they have a style and quality all of their own which no other wine producing area can copy.
Monday, 17 February 2014
Le Pécharmant 2010 les oenologues expert club pour la region sud ouest
Le Pécharmant is a red wine made in the style of Bordeaux red in the Bergerac region surrounding the Dordogne river in South West France. The wine is very similar to Bergerac rouge but is of higher quality. I recommend that everyone tries it for it is exceptionally good value for money.
The bottle of 2010 that we tried could be kept for several years longer. It was bottled by " Les oenologues expert club pour la region sud ouest" and specially selected by them. My researches revealed nothing about this wine. All I can tell from my senses is that it was well balanced for tannin, alcohol and acidity and has medium to full body. It was dry of course and the taste lingered long on the palate. It had concentrated and complex fruit flavours so it had all of the hallmarks of a good wine. We bought it in the Dordogne region and it went down very well with confit de canard.
Pécharmant is difficult to find outside of France but it is readily available in French wine outlets and supermarkets. The next time you are in France why not search it out?
This wine proves that you can still find excellent quality wine that will not empty your wallet and that the best wines do not always come from Bordeaux or Burgundy.
This wine made Valentine's evening a special occasion.
http://www.pays-de-bergerac.com/vins/
The bottle of 2010 that we tried could be kept for several years longer. It was bottled by " Les oenologues expert club pour la region sud ouest" and specially selected by them. My researches revealed nothing about this wine. All I can tell from my senses is that it was well balanced for tannin, alcohol and acidity and has medium to full body. It was dry of course and the taste lingered long on the palate. It had concentrated and complex fruit flavours so it had all of the hallmarks of a good wine. We bought it in the Dordogne region and it went down very well with confit de canard.
Pécharmant is difficult to find outside of France but it is readily available in French wine outlets and supermarkets. The next time you are in France why not search it out?
This wine proves that you can still find excellent quality wine that will not empty your wallet and that the best wines do not always come from Bordeaux or Burgundy.
This wine made Valentine's evening a special occasion.
http://www.pays-de-bergerac.com/vins/
Thursday, 13 February 2014
Irancy Red and London restaurants
Not so long ago I saw a bottle of Irancy Burgundy Red on the menu of a London restaurant priced at £35 a bottle; naturally I have declined to order it. Why was that? I can buy the self-same wine for about 7 Eur a bottle in a French supermarket.
Irancy is exceptionally good wine at a reasonable price but hardly anyone in the UK knows of its existence . Its production is small and the vineyards are tucked away in a rather remote area near Auxerre in the Northern most part of the Burgundy region. Obviously wine lovers in Britain are being taken for a ride on this one. It pays to have a little bit of knowledge.
When I tackled the wine waiter or the "Sommelier" about this price discrepancy he shrugged his shoulders in true Gallic style even though he was not French. He gave the diplomatic answer that "he did not set the price policy " and no doubt he had been trained to say this.
The price of wine is often marked up considerably more than the wholesale price justifies in the UK, in both restaurants and some wine merchants. A little bit of knowledge helps and what better use for a tablet computer or smart phone could there be than to look up the price of a wine on Wine Searcher.
Restaurants should really only mark up wine by a maximum of 2 and 1/2 times the retail price. Most restaurants give you a fair deal.
I quite often visit the Planet Of The Grapes in the City of London, their retail wines are a little bit more expensive than I would normally pay. I am prepared to accept this gladly because the staff really know about wine and care for it and I follow their advice. I am getting a genuine service for that little bit extra.
Of course wine in Britain will be more expensive than in California, France, Italy or Spain but quite often the extra mark up is not justified. You might be better off to stick to the house wine. The restaurants will then have to reduce their prices.
If you pay more than £30 for a bottle of wine in Britain you deserve to get something really special.
http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/irancy
If you pay a visit to Northern Burgundy you can find Christophe Ferrari who is one of the top producers of Irancy. This is exceptionally good wine at a very reasonable price; around 9 Eur for a bottle. Why not buy some of this wine direct and enjoy a bottle of it at home with a good meal as it goes superbly with game birds.
http://www.irancy-ferrari.com/vin_bourgogne_irancy_chablis.php?id=47&id_ap=17
Irancy is exceptionally good wine at a reasonable price but hardly anyone in the UK knows of its existence . Its production is small and the vineyards are tucked away in a rather remote area near Auxerre in the Northern most part of the Burgundy region. Obviously wine lovers in Britain are being taken for a ride on this one. It pays to have a little bit of knowledge.
When I tackled the wine waiter or the "Sommelier" about this price discrepancy he shrugged his shoulders in true Gallic style even though he was not French. He gave the diplomatic answer that "he did not set the price policy " and no doubt he had been trained to say this.
The price of wine is often marked up considerably more than the wholesale price justifies in the UK, in both restaurants and some wine merchants. A little bit of knowledge helps and what better use for a tablet computer or smart phone could there be than to look up the price of a wine on Wine Searcher.
Restaurants should really only mark up wine by a maximum of 2 and 1/2 times the retail price. Most restaurants give you a fair deal.
I quite often visit the Planet Of The Grapes in the City of London, their retail wines are a little bit more expensive than I would normally pay. I am prepared to accept this gladly because the staff really know about wine and care for it and I follow their advice. I am getting a genuine service for that little bit extra.
Of course wine in Britain will be more expensive than in California, France, Italy or Spain but quite often the extra mark up is not justified. You might be better off to stick to the house wine. The restaurants will then have to reduce their prices.
If you pay more than £30 for a bottle of wine in Britain you deserve to get something really special.
http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/irancy
If you pay a visit to Northern Burgundy you can find Christophe Ferrari who is one of the top producers of Irancy. This is exceptionally good wine at a very reasonable price; around 9 Eur for a bottle. Why not buy some of this wine direct and enjoy a bottle of it at home with a good meal as it goes superbly with game birds.
http://www.irancy-ferrari.com/vin_bourgogne_irancy_chablis.php?id=47&id_ap=17
Monday, 20 January 2014
Some Festive Season Wines
Le Stelle Vermentino di Sardegna 2012
Viñalba Cabernet Sauvignon 2011 - Dry red from the Mendoza Valley
This is a well made dry white wine with a fresh taste of citrus fruits: it went down very well with oysters. It is a good quality wine at a reasonable price -£6.74. This wine was discounted and I would be reluctant to pay the "full price" of £8.99.
The Vermentino grape variety is widely cultivated in Sardinia and is also cultivated in northern Corsica and northern Italy and the Languedoc-Roussillon region of the French mainland.
Vermentino based wines are best drunk young and fresh: you could easily drink it as an aperitif or with a fish starter or with fish soup.
La Vieille Ferme 2012
I have never been tempted to by this wine as it has got a brand name and I tend to avoid any wine that has got a brand name. Maybe I have become a wine snob. I am quite prepared to drink "Spitfire" or "Master Brew" ale. A friend brought it round: it is made by Perrin and fils who are reputable producers. It is made from the Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre and Cinsault grape varieties and is from the Côtes du Ventoux appellation in the Rhône region of France on the slopes of Mont Ventoux.
Mont Ventoux is also famous as a region for cycling and the Tour de France mounts stages there but I digress.
I was wrong to be prejudiced about this wine. It is very fruity and went down well with grilled pork. It is not a wine for keeping but is of good quality and I recommend it at the price. There is even a rather "cheeky" video about the wine on this website. I wonder if Stephen Spielberg buys his wine from Majestic?
Rioja Reserva Cepa Sebrel 2009 - Dry Red
We drank this wine the week before Christmas with fillet steak and it went perfectly with beef. It is typical of the Rioja appellation and is instantly recognisable as such. It is a Reserva wine which is matured for three years with at least one year in oak barrels.
A friend brought this wine to us and although it does not have the absolute quality of a Gran Reserva from a producer such as Marqués de Murrieta it is nevertheless of very good quality and worth buying if you can find it outside of Spain.
I had difficulty finding information about this wine from the Internet but you can take my word for it that this is great wine and I doubt that it would be expensive if you can find it in Spain so it will be great value for money.
The wine is ready for drinking but you could cellar it for a year or two longer.
Export Series,Margaret River Semillon/Sauvignon Blanc 2010 from Western Australia; dry white wine from winemaker Adam Carnaby.
We drank this wine the week before Christmas with fillet steak and it went perfectly with beef. It is typical of the Rioja appellation and is instantly recognisable as such. It is a Reserva wine which is matured for three years with at least one year in oak barrels.
A friend brought this wine to us and although it does not have the absolute quality of a Gran Reserva from a producer such as Marqués de Murrieta it is nevertheless of very good quality and worth buying if you can find it outside of Spain.
I had difficulty finding information about this wine from the Internet but you can take my word for it that this is great wine and I doubt that it would be expensive if you can find it in Spain so it will be great value for money.
The wine is ready for drinking but you could cellar it for a year or two longer.
Export Series,Margaret River Semillon/Sauvignon Blanc 2010 from Western Australia; dry white wine from winemaker Adam Carnaby.
A fresh and zesty wine with flavours of citrus fruits. This wine is fermented in stainless steel tanks and is cool fermented after the harvest in cool night time conditions. It is fermented with selected yeast strains. It is not matured in oak so there is none of the sweet vanilla taste of "over-oaked" wines. Malo-lactic conversion has been blocked but the wine does not taste over acidic. A thoroughly modern wine with a clean and bright taste and of really good quality and exceptionally good value for money at £7.99 a bottle. I shall be going back for more.
We drank a half bottle of this one night with oysters and the second half the following night with roast chicken. It went very well with both. The wine was chilled.
It should be noted that Bordeaux white is made from a similar blend of grapes and of course it goes just as well with oysters from the Arcachon basin.
A friend gave me a bottle of this wine and I was so impressed that I bought another bottle. It has won prizes. When I first opened it I felt that the wine had been subjected to too much malo-lactic conversion where the wine maker encourages micro-organisms too convert harsher tasting malic acid to softer tasting lactic acid.
The lactic acid lends a "buttery" taste to the wine.
We drank half a bottle one night with steak and the second half the next night with roast chicken by which time the buttery taste had worn off to reveal a lovely fruity wine. I was not imagining things as my wife noticed this effect too without any prompting from me.
This wine will keep for a number of years by which time I expect tall the components in the wine to be fully integrated.
Who said that Argentina cannot produce very good qauilty wine at a reasonable price? It is readily available from Waitrose. I recommend that you try it but leave it to breathe for an hour or so before drinking and consume it with food..
The lactic acid lends a "buttery" taste to the wine.
We drank half a bottle one night with steak and the second half the next night with roast chicken by which time the buttery taste had worn off to reveal a lovely fruity wine. I was not imagining things as my wife noticed this effect too without any prompting from me.
This wine will keep for a number of years by which time I expect tall the components in the wine to be fully integrated.
Who said that Argentina cannot produce very good qauilty wine at a reasonable price? It is readily available from Waitrose. I recommend that you try it but leave it to breathe for an hour or so before drinking and consume it with food..
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)