Château Mercian 2018 Iwasaki Koshu Dry White Wine from Japan

Japanese wine from grapes is almost unheard of in the UK,  although a good number of people would have heard of Sake made from rice. I used to travel a lot with my work and went to Japan in the late 1980's to do IT projects. I must say that I was not too impressed with their wine then and I had little taste for Sake rice wine. I used to drink French wine when I could find it and I had to pay a small fortune for the privilege. Luckily , I was on an expense account. Even so, I stuck to beer most of the time. Several cold beers were needed to counteract the heat of the genuine Wasabi sauce dished up with  the Tempura. The Tempura served in top bars in Tokyo is outrageously expensive but the batter is light and tastes incredibly good and the sea food and vegetables are absolutely fresh. It is difficult to find genuine Wasabi in western restaurants who usually make the sauce from horseradish rather than the Wasabi root.   Genuine Wasabi tastes more herbal than the horseradish variety and it is not as hot but still almost too hot for me.

We found this wine in the Mount vineyard in Shoreham, of all places, near the Kent town of Sevenoaks in the UK.

We drank it recently with some friends before the latest lockdown on a sunny day in the garden.  A couple of our friends were from Brazil and during the conversation the subject of Japan came up. I had a plan to ask my friends where the wine came from and gave them three guesses and some heavy clues that it was from Asia. They were a bit flummoxed and surprised that wine from grapes came from Japan and surprised at the good quality. I had to show them the bottle to prove I wasn't joking.

The three women in the group, including my wife, were more impressed than the two men , including me.

I felt that the wine had strong flavours of tropical fruits and was well balanced for acidity and residual sugar it was concentrated and complex but did not last long on the palate. We drank the wine with shellfish. You could drink this wine on its own but really it should be drunk with food. However, hot sauces would overpower the subtle taste of the wine and I would not recommend it with genuine or false Wasabi - stick to cold beer or mineral water.

The wine is made from the Japanese Koshu grape variety and it is estate produced in the Yamanashi Prefecture on the base of Mount Fuji. The soil here is a mixture of gravel and clay. The climate and weather are perfect for growing wine grapes.

The Mount Fuji location is wonderful and it is a far cry from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo. If you have several thousand dollars nestling in your back pocket then Japan is really worth visiting, not just for the wine but for the culture and the wonderful cuisine.Château Mercian 2018 Iwasaki Koshu Dry White Wine from Japan is not cheap in the UK at over £20 a bottle - less per bottle for a case- but it is really worth trying even if it does not compete on a cost and quality basis with a bottle of Chablis. However, I thoroughly recommend it and it proves that Japanese wine is steadily improving and will become competitive with the best wines of Europe and the New World.

https://chateaumercian.com/en/our-wines/index.html

https://www.kwoff.co.uk/products/chateau-mercian-iwasaki-koshu-yamanashi-12-bottle-case?variant=32449530331229&currency=GBP&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gclid=CjwKCAjw5p_8BRBUEiwAPpJO61hhP4XZiT_Huul5Xn7fer4Twc6DRN-OA8vxGWiQWH1cVWXgPeYjFBoCNKcQAvD_BwE

Vino seal glass stopper

 After visiting a restaurant where they served the wine sealed with a glass stopper, I thought what a good idea it was . These stoppers have been around for several years but this was the first time I had noticed it. maybe it's because I mainly drink French wines: French wine producers tend to use artificial corks when they do not use classical cork seals.

The other night I opened a rather nice Macedonian red wine to drink over a really good meal cooked by my wife. The bottle was sealed with a screw cap.  I may be old fashioned but the act of using a corkscrew adds to the romance of opening a bottle of wine even in the house when we haven't  got guests.

The glass stopper is something different and I can't wait to find a bottle that I can open myself.

The glass stopper helps to prevent wines being contaminated with cork taint. The stopper also reduces the oxygen absorbed by the wine so theoretically a good wine can be stored longer. Some producers are happy for oxygen to very slowly penetrate the wine to assist the ageing process. All this is very controversial. I doubt , however, that top producers will all convert to wine bottles sealed with screw caps, plastic or glass seals. As I said, there is something romantic about pulling a natural cork before serving.

Natural corks also promote the sustainable growth of oak trees which is in their favour.

One advantage of plastic, screw cap and glass seals is that you can store your wine bottles upright, but of course you still need to store wine in a cool dark place that is free from vibrations.

Some commentators have noted that bottles sealed with glass and  kept on their side might leak. This would mean that the seal has been broken and too much oxygen has penetrated the wine.

All in all I am in favour of innovation when it comes to the seal on a bottle as long as, occasionally, I can still pull a natural cork when the circumstances are right.

 

 

The Mount Vineyard Shoreham Kent

 My wife and I visited the Mount Vineyard, last week, situated in the small and charming village of Shoreham, in Kent. The entrance to the Mount is on the left side of the road as you walk or drive from the bridge, over the Darent river, towards the parish church. We decided to stop for lunch before taking a walk alongside the river. We just  turned up and did not have to make a booking.

The restaurant is situated right in the middle of 4 hectares of vines. The lunch menu was simple  but our pizzas were excellent. The waiting staff were also excellent and paid us the courtesy of not calling us "guys". My wife hates this more than I do but now we have got used to it. However, it was  refreshing not to be treated in such a familiar way. 

As you would expect the wine list was extensive. We chose The Mount Vineyard's 1918 Pinot Noir, we enjoyed this wine and this was the first time that I judged an English red wine to be of really good quality. I have been enormously critical of English red wine in the past  judging it to be too expensive for its quality. This wine is different and it deserves to be taken seriously. It reminded us of the Coteaux Champenois still reds produced in Champagne region of France - from the Pinot Noir and Pinot Meurnier grapes. Perhaps it is the chalk soil and the cool climate in Kent.  However, whilst the Mount Pinot Noir tastes similar it has a distinct style of its own which is the hallmark of a good wine which has not been produced in bulk in a wine factory. The Mount Pinot Noir should develop in the bottle to reveal more fruit flavour  and softer tannin - it is a wine to be savoured with food rather that be slugged back at a barbeque.

The Pinot Noir is not the only grape variety grown in the vineyards. The Mount also grows Chardonnay and grape varieties such as Seyval Blanc which are suited to a cooler and damper climate. The Mount produces sparkling wine and I expect their bubbly will be delicious. My wallet wasn't bulging after lunch so I did not buy a bottle. The price of English Sparkling wine is almost too much for me at around £50 a bottle. I can buy really good quality Champagne from France for a third of the price. However, most English sparkling wine is of high quality and perhaps it is where the future lies when the weather warms up to provide a good harvest every year. English producers cannot achieve the economies of scale available to French, Italian and Spanish producers to compete on price so they must produce high quality wines which have their own individual style.

Soon the Mount vineyard will tempt me to open my wallet again, so more of this later. The vineyard deserves a bit of support from me and other lovers of good English wine.

The Mount vineyard is well worth visiting and Shoreham station is nearby with trains to London Victoria and Sevenoaks.

http://www.themountvineyard.co.uk/the-vineyard/

1753 Château de Campuget 2016 Viognier White - L'indication géographique Gard protégée

 We ordered this wine in a local restaurant in the Orpington area of London. The wine was superb and went with fish.  Château Campuget is situated near the Rhône valley and not far from Nîmes.

The soil and climate in the Gard is well suited to the growth of the Viognier grapes to produce white wines with their own distinctive style but which reflect the region. Viognier based wines are some of my favourites and this wine is no exception, but it is not a homogenous and industrially produced wine. the wine is fermented  partially in mature oak barrels.

The  Château recommends that you drink the wine young but after four years in the bottle it still tastes fresh. It is a dry wine, but not bone dry, and feels silky and sumptuous in the mouth and has a medium body. I agree that the wine tastes of tropical fruits and it it is complex and long lasting on the palate. It reminded me of a banana taste but perhaps that is just me. The fruit character is balanced by the acidity. 

We paid over £30 for this wine with our meal but you can buy it retail for around £11 - c'est la vie.

The bottle was sealed with a glass stopper which helps eliminate the chance of the wine being corked and perhaps this helped to preserve the freshness. This is the first time I have seen wine sealed in this way: more of this in a later post.

This wine is well worth searching out especially on a trip to the south of France - you could get stuck in a virus initiated lockdown,but what better way to spend two weeks in quarantine than with a case of such good quality wine?

http://campuget.com/fr/vins/campuget-1753-viognier-2/

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.