Luis Felipe Edwards Lot 18 Merlot 2011 - Chile

Some how a half bottle of  Luis Filipe Edwards lot 18 Merlot 2011 got left on its side and hiding in the dark. I retrieved it the other day when my wife said: "let's just drink a half bottle with our beef stew". Normally we would polish off a wine like this after at most 2 years rather than leave it 8 years.

The wine had a screw cap so there was no need to lay it on its side. I opened the wine and gave it a good sniff. I couldn't believe it, as it smelt fresh.

My wife enjoyed the wine with the beef. To me it tasted a bit flat. It had  retained the spice and tannin but it lacked a fruit flavour. The wine had maintained its ruby red colour and for me there was no hint of oxidation. The lack of a fruit flavour was therefore due to a natural reduction of its fruit-tasting compounds. The wine was, however, drinkable with the food.

This wine is obviously not designed to be kept for a long time but after just 4 or 5 years of maturing in the bottle it would probably have retained its fruit flavour. It is a tribute to screw-caps that the wine had not oxidised during a 9 year period.

I have some good quality Australians wines, sealed with screw caps, which I am leaving to mature for a considerable time . I am expecting them to retain their fruit character and to taste very good. These wines, however,  will not age in the same way as a  cousin in a cork sealed bottle. With cork sealed bottles you run the risk of a putrefying cork tainting the taste of the wine. Cork sealed wines also eventually oxidise owing to the gradually diffusion of oxygen into the bottle.

I was quite surprised that our wine in question lasted for such a long time without deteriorating too much.

I can't remember how we came by this wine, as it was probably given to us: and how much it cost if we had bought it. Younger versions of this wine will probably be good value for money, they are worth a try, be sure to drink them with a wholesome meal rather than sloshing them back at a barbecue.

http://www.simplywinesdirect.uk/?product=luis-felipe-edwards-lot-18-merlot

What ! A 12 euro bottle of champagne wins a silver medal!

Just before Christmas we went into an Intermarché supermarket to find bottles of Bel Vigne non-vintage brut champagne for 12 euros a bottle. This champagne is produced by the negociant Fourrier-Delmotte in Baroville in the Côte des Bar. The Côte des Bar is in the Aube region of the champagne appellation to the south of Troyes. Belle Vigne was awarded a silver medal in 2016. What could go wrong with buying half a case: well nothing?

We tasted this wine to drink in the new year with 9 relatives and we drank 3 bottles. The wine is superb and its taste is typical of the region where the soil is different to the  north of the champagne region. The soil is limestone rather than chalk based.  The wine was light and elegant and it was easily consumed with titbits before we dined.

I wish we had bought couple of cases. The value for money is tremendous. You could easily pay twice the price and still feel that you were getting value for money. So, here are three cheers for Intermarché and Belle Vigne champagne.

https://www.adresse-horaire.com/v-baroville-10/c-negociant-en-gros-de-vin-spiritueux-et-alcool/e-sarl-fourrier-delmotte

Marqués de la Concordia Rioja Reserva 2013 Red

This is a high quality Spanish red wine made from the Tempranillo grape. The wine has reserva status which means that it must be matured for three years before bottling with at least one year in oak barrels. This form of maturation is reflected in the taste and quality of the wine. The wine is also classified as Denominación de Origen Calificada which is the equivalent of French AOP status.

We drank a half bottle with roast lamb. Rioja is an ideal wine to go with roast lamb. Our wine was of full body with well integrated tannin and acidity and it was dry. It had a lovely fruity taste with elements of vanilla and nuts from the oak ageing. It was quite strong in alcohol at 14% but it did not taste hot as the alcohol was well balanced against the tannin and acidity. The wine went perfectly with our roast shoulder of lamb. The taste dwelt long on the palate which is another indicator of good wine. This is wine which should only be drunk with good food.

The following evening we finished the bottle with a lamb cawl that I made with  the remaining meat. I was a bit heavy handed with the meat stock which I kept from the roasting tin but it made no difference because the wine cut through the little bit of extra fat. Lamb cawl is one of my favourite dishes and it is great for a cold winter's evening.

Marqués de la Concordia Rioja Reserva 2013 Red is a high quality wine which is ready for drinking now but which could be kept a few years longer and it is readily available.It is excellent value for money and easily competes with most red Bordeaux wines at about £13 a bottle. I recommend it.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/11455/welsh-cawl

Cawl can just as easily be made with beef, pork or bacon. I prefer it with chunks of bacon rather than lamb. if you are making it with beef or pork why not add some cubes of smoked bacon by frying the bacon in some oil in the pot before adding the vegetables and meat. I like to add some lemon juice which is balanced against a large teaspoon full of honey. You could replace the lemon juice with cider vinegar.

Château Jansenant Côtes de Bourg AOC 2015

Château Jansenant Côtes de Bourg AOC 2015 is a perfect example of a really good quality red wine which can be bought for a reasonable price. This wine won a gold medal at the Concours International De Lyon in 2017. It thoroughly deserves its prize. It is an uncompromising wine from the Bordeaux region and has all the attributes of an easily recognisable Bordelais.

It is exceptionally well balanced for tannin, and acidity. It is fruity but with a strong taste of vanilla; it almost reminded me of marzipan. It is a full bodied wine which rests long on the palate.

We drank a half bottle of wine with sirloin steak last night: it goes perfectly with beef and refreshes the palate. After finishing the meal I was slow to drink the remaining half glass. It is not wine for slugging back at a party, you must enjoy this wine with good food.

The wine is another winner from Bordeaux that proves that you do not need to pay a stratospheric price for a really good wine.  I recommend that you try this wine which can be left longer to mature further - in a cellar.  We bought ours at a supermarket in France but it is quite easy to find outside of the homeland.


https://www.concourslyon.com/fiche-vin-23650-chateau-jansenant.html

Tinned Wine - no thanks

The US trend of drinking canned wine has taken off in the UK. What was very "2016" in the US is now very "2018" in the UK. It is almost needless to say that I won't be joining in this trend. Tinning food and beverages is good for baked beans, tomatoes , soup and weak tasting lager. But, I must say that a tin of confit de canard  can taste superb; as did a tin of  choucroute which we ate the other night but without a canned wine.

Of course no self respecting wine blogger should reject new developments out of hand, so I bought a can of wine from a supermarket the other day to give it a try. I sampled a tin of organic Syrah  from the south of France. The wine and the supermarket shall remain unnamed. The wine cost £3.50 for 25cl. That's £10.50 for a bottle.

I poured out 2 small glasses to go with an organic roast chicken.  I tasted the wine in the usual way but was not impressed but was giving it the benefit of the doubt. My wife had no doubt: the wine was rubbish and it deserved to be poured away which I did.

We had paid a lot of money for a rather poor Vin de Pays which tasted acidic and rustic. At the supermarket you can buy a much better wine from Australia, the US or France for the same money:  a  good quality wine, in a glass bottle, which will go down well with good food.

Canned wine is a convenience and it is trendy but quite frankly you are being ripped off. A lot of the time the wine is cheap so the profit  margins are greater. Canning wine is also cheaper than bottling it so it improves the profit margins further. Using the term organic is a marketing ploy and claiming that it is environmentally friendly is also another marketing ploy. How often have you seen empty tins of lager littering your local park? Organic wine will not taste better if the wine is poorly produced.

There is no doubt that that you could be tempted to drink wine straight from the can at a party, a picnic  or on a train or bus - just like beer. You would be missing out as wine is best consumed from a glass so that you can appreciate the aroma better. The same can be said for craft beers. The can will hide the taste of the wine, but what difference does it make if the wine is rubbish. If you can't be bothered to take a cork screw with you when you go on a picnic then a good alternative would be use bottled wines with screw tops.

If ,you have got plenty of money and do not mind paying through the nose for inferior wine just for the convenience, then good on you. As far as I am concerned, I'll use a corkscrew or just undo a screw top.

https://www.chatelaine.com/food/drinks/food-trend-wines-in-a-can/ 

Plastic Corks

The other day I opened a bottle of Rioja from a famous retailer. It was of 2015 vintage. The wine had oxidised and was nearly fully on its way to becoming wine vinegar. I suspect that air had leached into the bottle through the seal of the plastic cork. The wine had been laid down. There was no way of telling that the cork was a plastic one and no warning on the bottle.

The idea of plastic corks was to prevent wine spoilage owing to fungal "infected" natural corks which render a musty taste to the wine and ruin it. Natural corks ,however, expand when the wine bottle is laid down to prevent air leaching into the bottles - but you run the risk of a corked wine.

Plastic corks do not guarantee that the wine will be protected from spoilage. If you suspect a wine has a plastic cork it maybe best to cut the top of the foil off the bottle. If it is sealed with a plastic cork , it will probably be best to drink the wine within a few months of purchase. Better quality wines will either be sealed with natural cork or a screw top. I have never had a problem with screw top wines but the seal could get compromised.

As a general rule it might be best to examine all bottles of wine for damage or leakage before buying. However, a wine sealed with a plastic cork will most of the time not reveal itself until you cut the capsule.

Don't let the hot weather fool you

The wine harvest in France is predicted to be earlier and better than in 2017. Of course it is important to make hay while the sun shines but climate change could bring many difficulties in the coming years.

Climate change is changing the patterns of the weather. The climate  and weather may become too hot or too dry or wet for certain types of grape varieties. Pinot Noir grapes do not lend themselves to excessive heat. The weather might become too hot for growers in  Champagne and Burgundy they might have to change to growing grape varieties which are able to sustain themselves in  the coming weather conditions. What will that do to appellation rules?

Also rain and thunder storms are becoming stronger and more frequent; excess rain and hail can badly damage crops.

Climate change in the coming decades could ruin wine production.

It is not just France that is affected by climate change. The South UK is becoming warmer in the short term this might render the climate more favourable for wine production but our winters are becoming wetter and this might counter balance any favourable effects.

If we do not start to mitigate the effects of extreme climate change we could lose our favourite accompaniment to good food. Enjoy the 2018 vintage and hope there are plenty of good vintages to come.