We opened a bottle of Fruitiere Vinicole d'Arbois Trousseau Rouge 1996 to go with our shoulder of lamb for Christmas dinner. Unfortunately the wine was past its best and was very nearly oxidised; it had a smell of sherry. We didn't pour the wine away as it added some flavour to our roast lamb which was sourced from a Kent farmer's market.
Luckily, I guessed that the wine might be past its best and I had a bottle of red Bordeaux in reserve -2010 Chateau Peybonhomme Les Tours which is a Cru Bourgois wine from Blaye. It was absolutely superb and it will keep for several years longer.
http://winejaw.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/world-cup-wine-brazilian-merlot.html.
The Bordeaux went very well with the lamb so our Christmas dinner was rescued.
I was expecting the Arbois to keep longer. The wine was a present. Arbois wines are produced in the Jura mountains in the east of France. The Trousseau black grape is limited to the region.
The Jura is most famous for its Vin de Paille which is a sweet white wine produced from grapes which have been allowed to dry out on straw mats. The process of drying the grapes increases the concentration of sugar in the berries.
The region is also famous for its Vin Jaune which is a dry white wine which has been exposed to a film of yeast sometimes called "Voile" growing on the surface of the wine sherry style. The film of yeast or "Flor" as it is called in Spain adds complexity to the taste as a result of oxidation. Vin Jaune tastes similar to Fino sherry but it is not fortified; it is produced from the white Savagnin grape.
http://www.chateau-bethanie.fr/fruitiere-vinicole-arbois-wines-of-jura-en/wine-of-jura-fruitiere-vinicole-arbois-chateau-bethanie-wines-of-jura.php.
We have a bottle of Arbois white wine made from the Savagnin grape from the 1996 vintage. I think that we had better open it and drink it soon; just in case.
Friday, 23 January 2015
Tuesday, 6 January 2015
Carta Roja Gran Reserva 2007 red D.O. Jumilla and Bavette Steak
We drank this wine on Christmas Eve with Bavette Steak. We were looking forward to the wine but we were a little bit disappointed. The wine was of ordinary quality but we were expecting it to be much better given the price - £12 a bottle. The San Isidro estate is renowned for good wine. This wine was a grand reserve wine aged in oak for 2 years. It should have an intense and concentrated red berry flavour. But it had lost its intensity , complexity and concentration: this wine should have aged well for 7 years and should have be fully mature for drinking. It tasted ordinary. Maybe it had not been kept properly and had not aged gracefully.
I am a great believer of reading the reviews of the public they give as good an opinion as the "experts". They are worth reading below. Some of the reviewers rate the wine as 1 star out of 5 but I feel this is a little unfair and the 3 star average rating reflects the real quality of the wine. This particular bottle was of average quality.
It is made primarily of the Monastrelle black grape or the Mourvèdre in France. The Mourvèdre grape is used in blended wines in the south of France to add body to the wine but it is not used as a primary grape in the blend. It suits a hotter climate well. It should have given the Carta Roja lots of flavour and body but this was lacking. Perhaps we just had a bad bottle. It is now being sold at a discount which probably reflects the real quality of this vintage- £7 to £8 a bottle.
http://www.ocado.com/webshop/product/Carta-Roja-Gran-Reserva-2007/56152011
We were really looking forward to drinking the wine with a Bavette steak. The steak was much better than the wine.
Bavette steak is very popular in France as it is full of flavour and is tastier than most other cuts of steak especially fillet. It is cut from the skirt of the beef and is tougher than sirloin or rump steak and must be eaten rare. If you eat it well done then you ruin it as it becomes almost to tough to cut or chew. This is part of the reason why British people only eat skirt steak in a casserole as most Brits hate rare meat. Well they are missing out; Bavette steak is a real treat and much cheaper than sirloin steak but with much more flavour. You just need to cook it carefully and make sure it is rare: medium-rare will be almost too tough.
http://www.abelandcole.co.uk/beef-bavette-skirt-steak-360g-min
If the wine did not complement the steak too well then my caramelised onions did. It is traditional to eat Bavette with sweet onions. Usually it takes hours to cook caramelised onions but I have got a quick recipe if you don't have time or you have made a spur of the moment decision to eat them with your favourite cut of steak.
Take a medium sized red onion and chop it into strips but not too finely or they will burn. Do not use butter as it can burn as well.
Pour some olive oil into a saucepan and heat it but do not put in too much oil as the onions will fry rather than caramelise.
When the oil is hot but not too hot add the onions and allow them to cook for a while.
Add a couple of teaspoons of Muscovado sugar and stir in and cook until the onion and sugar mix starts to caramelise. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Add a couple of shots of Basalmic vinegar to taste and keep stirring.
Make sure you taste the mixture; you can add sweetness to balance the taste if you have added too much vinegar or vice-versa and you can even add more onion to taste.
Now comes the tricky bit as you really need to soften the onions, so add a little water and allow it to boil off. Keep stirring. Make sure the onions do not dry out.
Repeat the water treatment until the onions have softened.
Watch everything carefully and keep stirring and tasting. When the onions have softened and caramelised sufficiently turn off the heat. All this takes 20 minutes or so. Make sure the mixture does not fry as overcooking will ruin it.
Deglaze the onions from the pan with water or wine but with only sufficient to make sure all the juices are removed from the pan.
Now you must get your timing right; do not start cooking the steak until the onions have finished as you risk overdoing the steak. The steak needs some olive oil and ground pepper and salt on the surface to taste. The steak should be allowed to get to room temperature if it has been refrigerated as you do not want the steak to be cold in the middle as you are cooking it rare.
Heat the frying pan well. The aim is to sear the top 4 mm or so of the steak but leave the interior red or bloody even. You must watch what you are doing . Do not attempt any other cooking whilst doing this. If you over cook the steak then you ruin it and there is no going back.
You can add a little chopped garlic for flavour to taste.
Bavette steak is always served with chips, so of course you have to get the timing right and wait until they are almost done until you start the steak. The steaks should not take long to cook and, I repeat, you must watch what you are doing and concentrate on the steaks only.
We served our steak with gratin grilled tomatoes too, which my wife cooked.
http://www.valais-terroir.ch/en/recette-cuisine/ete/gratinated-tomatoes-with-valais-raclette-cheese-0-6449
I like to season my chips with squeezed lemon juice rather than traditional British malt vinegar. I never use malt vinegar and prefer to eat chips from a chip shop without it. I get the chips home and slice some lemon or use wine vinegar if lemons aren't available.
My caramelised onions were delicious. Usually, I do not eat the onions but cover the steak with them for the flavour and then swish them off with my knife. My wife never eats onions but this time she ate all of my quick caramelised versions - yum yum but a pity about the wine.
PS. here are the slow methods for caramelised onions:
http://www.shockinglydelicious.com/crock-pot-caramelized-onions-slow-and-steady-does-the-trick/
http://www.coupdepouce.com/recettes-cuisine/conseils-pratiques/infos-cuisine/comment-carameliser-les-oignons/a/39000
I am a great believer of reading the reviews of the public they give as good an opinion as the "experts". They are worth reading below. Some of the reviewers rate the wine as 1 star out of 5 but I feel this is a little unfair and the 3 star average rating reflects the real quality of the wine. This particular bottle was of average quality.
It is made primarily of the Monastrelle black grape or the Mourvèdre in France. The Mourvèdre grape is used in blended wines in the south of France to add body to the wine but it is not used as a primary grape in the blend. It suits a hotter climate well. It should have given the Carta Roja lots of flavour and body but this was lacking. Perhaps we just had a bad bottle. It is now being sold at a discount which probably reflects the real quality of this vintage- £7 to £8 a bottle.
http://www.ocado.com/webshop/product/Carta-Roja-Gran-Reserva-2007/56152011
We were really looking forward to drinking the wine with a Bavette steak. The steak was much better than the wine.
Bavette steak is very popular in France as it is full of flavour and is tastier than most other cuts of steak especially fillet. It is cut from the skirt of the beef and is tougher than sirloin or rump steak and must be eaten rare. If you eat it well done then you ruin it as it becomes almost to tough to cut or chew. This is part of the reason why British people only eat skirt steak in a casserole as most Brits hate rare meat. Well they are missing out; Bavette steak is a real treat and much cheaper than sirloin steak but with much more flavour. You just need to cook it carefully and make sure it is rare: medium-rare will be almost too tough.
http://www.abelandcole.co.uk/beef-bavette-skirt-steak-360g-min
If the wine did not complement the steak too well then my caramelised onions did. It is traditional to eat Bavette with sweet onions. Usually it takes hours to cook caramelised onions but I have got a quick recipe if you don't have time or you have made a spur of the moment decision to eat them with your favourite cut of steak.
Take a medium sized red onion and chop it into strips but not too finely or they will burn. Do not use butter as it can burn as well.
Pour some olive oil into a saucepan and heat it but do not put in too much oil as the onions will fry rather than caramelise.
When the oil is hot but not too hot add the onions and allow them to cook for a while.
Add a couple of teaspoons of Muscovado sugar and stir in and cook until the onion and sugar mix starts to caramelise. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Add a couple of shots of Basalmic vinegar to taste and keep stirring.
Make sure you taste the mixture; you can add sweetness to balance the taste if you have added too much vinegar or vice-versa and you can even add more onion to taste.
Now comes the tricky bit as you really need to soften the onions, so add a little water and allow it to boil off. Keep stirring. Make sure the onions do not dry out.
Repeat the water treatment until the onions have softened.
Watch everything carefully and keep stirring and tasting. When the onions have softened and caramelised sufficiently turn off the heat. All this takes 20 minutes or so. Make sure the mixture does not fry as overcooking will ruin it.
Deglaze the onions from the pan with water or wine but with only sufficient to make sure all the juices are removed from the pan.
Now you must get your timing right; do not start cooking the steak until the onions have finished as you risk overdoing the steak. The steak needs some olive oil and ground pepper and salt on the surface to taste. The steak should be allowed to get to room temperature if it has been refrigerated as you do not want the steak to be cold in the middle as you are cooking it rare.
Heat the frying pan well. The aim is to sear the top 4 mm or so of the steak but leave the interior red or bloody even. You must watch what you are doing . Do not attempt any other cooking whilst doing this. If you over cook the steak then you ruin it and there is no going back.
You can add a little chopped garlic for flavour to taste.
Bavette steak is always served with chips, so of course you have to get the timing right and wait until they are almost done until you start the steak. The steaks should not take long to cook and, I repeat, you must watch what you are doing and concentrate on the steaks only.
We served our steak with gratin grilled tomatoes too, which my wife cooked.
http://www.valais-terroir.ch/en/recette-cuisine/ete/gratinated-tomatoes-with-valais-raclette-cheese-0-6449
I like to season my chips with squeezed lemon juice rather than traditional British malt vinegar. I never use malt vinegar and prefer to eat chips from a chip shop without it. I get the chips home and slice some lemon or use wine vinegar if lemons aren't available.
My caramelised onions were delicious. Usually, I do not eat the onions but cover the steak with them for the flavour and then swish them off with my knife. My wife never eats onions but this time she ate all of my quick caramelised versions - yum yum but a pity about the wine.
PS. here are the slow methods for caramelised onions:
http://www.shockinglydelicious.com/crock-pot-caramelized-onions-slow-and-steady-does-the-trick/
http://www.coupdepouce.com/recettes-cuisine/conseils-pratiques/infos-cuisine/comment-carameliser-les-oignons/a/39000
Tuesday, 23 December 2014
West Fisher Springfield English Sparkling Wine
I bought this fine wine at a local farmers' market. It represents all that is best in English wine. We served it as an aperitif and I saved a little for dessert.
The wine is made from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes. The colour of the wine was almost golden. The bubbles were fine and the wine had a yeasty, tangy, fruity aroma with an umami flavour. Like all good wine it was complex and concentrated and had a long length on the palate. It had well balanced acidity. The wine was dry or brut.
My wife is from Champagne and could not resist making a comparison with her favourite aperitif. Springfield does not taste exactly like Champagne but it is very similar. We know producers who make a stronger tasting Champagne and many people from France like this style of wine. Springfield has got plenty of flavour and it suits my taste buds perfectly. My wife really thought it tasted great and so did our guests.
The West Fisher winery uses grapes from a number of vineyards from the South East of England. This wine production model is also used in Champagne. The wine is blended and the wine maker obviously has a good palate and hopefully he or she can maintain a consistent house style over the coming years.
The improving climate, from a wine maker's point of view, and the soil are starting to produce really good conditions for growing sparkling wine grapes but provided that the winters do not become too mild. Hopefully, West Fisher wineries can produce great wines for many decades to come.
The price of the wine is around £17 a bottle and it is great value for money. You are getting a high quality wine with a distinctive taste and fine bubbles. This is a wine for a celebration. We shall be drinking another bottle with our family over the Christmas period.
When you see it do not hesitate as it compares favourably with the other superb English Sparkling Wines all of which need a brand name if they are to take off. I rather like Weald Wine.
http://www.westfisher.co.uk/
The wine is made from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes. The colour of the wine was almost golden. The bubbles were fine and the wine had a yeasty, tangy, fruity aroma with an umami flavour. Like all good wine it was complex and concentrated and had a long length on the palate. It had well balanced acidity. The wine was dry or brut.
My wife is from Champagne and could not resist making a comparison with her favourite aperitif. Springfield does not taste exactly like Champagne but it is very similar. We know producers who make a stronger tasting Champagne and many people from France like this style of wine. Springfield has got plenty of flavour and it suits my taste buds perfectly. My wife really thought it tasted great and so did our guests.
The West Fisher winery uses grapes from a number of vineyards from the South East of England. This wine production model is also used in Champagne. The wine is blended and the wine maker obviously has a good palate and hopefully he or she can maintain a consistent house style over the coming years.
The improving climate, from a wine maker's point of view, and the soil are starting to produce really good conditions for growing sparkling wine grapes but provided that the winters do not become too mild. Hopefully, West Fisher wineries can produce great wines for many decades to come.
The price of the wine is around £17 a bottle and it is great value for money. You are getting a high quality wine with a distinctive taste and fine bubbles. This is a wine for a celebration. We shall be drinking another bottle with our family over the Christmas period.
When you see it do not hesitate as it compares favourably with the other superb English Sparkling Wines all of which need a brand name if they are to take off. I rather like Weald Wine.
http://www.westfisher.co.uk/
Duc de Montgerald Duché d’Uzès AOC 2103 Red Wine from Waitrose
Duché d’Uzès is a new appellation and 2103 was the first year of production for this newly promoted wine which was formerly a Vin de Pays. I can understand why the wine was promoted as it is simply wonderful.
The appellation rules dictate that the wine must be made from at least 40% Syrah grapes and at least 20% Grenache; Carignan, Cinsaut , and Mourvèdre black grapes can also be used in the blend. The climate and soil in the Gard commune are perfect for the production of red wine with these grapes. The town of Uzès is situated at the source of the river Eure and it is not far from the Pont du Gard Roman aqueduct. The scenery around the area is simply wonderful.
I was going to keep this wine for a couple of years before drinking it but I couldn't resist tasting what is for me a new wine. We drank it with friends. I should have opened the bottle an hour or so before I served it as I could smell the distinct and over powering aroma of lactic acid resulting from the malo-lactic conversion used to soften the wine. The smell of the lactic acid seemed to mask the fruitiness of the wine. The aroma quickly disappeared however, and then the wine smelt and tasted much more fruity, spicy and complex. The wine was also very concentrated and had long length on the palate. After fifteen minutes the wine started to smell and taste faultless.
This wine merits keeping for a few more years and it should become more complex and the tannin will soften; it will improve further.
We bought the wine in Waitrose for £7.49 and it was very good value for money: we drank it with fillet of pork. There were four of us for dinner and we finished the bottle.
I have never seen this appellation in the UK before. We paid a visit to the area in early 2014 and we did not see it then either - not even in its Vin de Pay guise. It is indeed a hidden treasure.
The appellation also produces white and rosé wines but I have not tasted them.
Postscript
Lactic acid is excreted by human beings especially after exercise and its aroma attracts mosquitos.
Thursday, 11 December 2014
Côtes de Bergerac Rouge 2003
We went to lunch last Sunday at some good friends and they produced a bottle of Patrick Geneste's
http://www.vins-bergerac.fr/vignerons/domaine-du-petit-paris/
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.
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.
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.
Friday, 28 November 2014
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
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
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