Spanish Mediterranean Tasting

Thursday 26 July 2012

This was the first of the Theatre of Wine tastings I've been to, but I'll definitely be going back. Excellent tasting - very interesting wines and extremely knowledgeable speaker. So pleased to have such a good wine shop in the local area!

1. Castillo Perelada, Cava Brut Reserva NV
Very appley. Fine and restrained mousse. Fresh, fruity, reasonably intense flavour. Not bad.
Cost: £11.30

2. La Rosita Brut NV (375ml)
A pink sparkly apparently made by a scottish lady who has moved out to Spain. Made from Monastrelle/Matarro. Not bad. Ripe red fruit character. Nothing special.
Cost £10.00 (per half bottle)

3. Jose Pariente, Verdejo 2011, Rueda
Smells quite like a typical sauvignon blanc but tastes a lot more interesting. Some ripe, fleshy character. Almost peachy. Very nice. Surprisingly good.
Cost: £12.30

4. Equipo Navazos, La Bota de Manzanilla no.32
Great nutty intensity. Almond, salty, minerality. Real power and intensity. Lots of yeast autolysis character. Tastes of the ocean - seaweed/umami. Delicious.
Cost: £26.40

5. Equipo Navazos, La Bota de Amontillado no.31
Oxidized, smells a little like a dank cave. Lots of power. Nutty, caramel, almonds, cinnamon. A true "nut cluster bomb". Incredible length. Delicious, but very different to previous.
Cost £52.00

6. Anima Negra, 2008, Mallorca
Surprisingly pale given the smoky, meaty, BBQ nose. Soft and silky tannin. High acid. Something ethereal (reminiscent of a Burgundy). Violets, floral, licquorice. Rich and aromatic. Only negative is it's a little short.
Cost: £34.50

7. Capcanes, Lasendal, Garnatxa Barrica 2008, Montsant
Black fruit, cinnamon. Soft mouthfeel. A little short. Nice, but doesn't stand up to the tapas.
Cost: £9.00

8. Alemany i Corrio, Pas Curtei, 2004, Penedes
This was amazing, and a total bargain at £8.50. Inky, meaty and savoury, but with black fruit overtones. Perfect age - very good now. Violets, vanilla, tobacco. Soft and silky mouthfeel. Well balanced and complex. This is excellent.
Cost: a ludicrously good value £8.50

9. Celler del Pont, Lo Givot 2003, Priorat
Dark colour, but not as inky as the previous wine. High (searing) acidity, but soft tannins (there are plenty of tannins, but not as much as expected). A little out of balance. Quite good now, probably won't improve with age.
Cost: £20.00

10. Bodegas Bentomiz, Ariyanas Dulce, 2007, Malaga (500ml)
Classic muscat. Acidic and grapey.
Cost: 18.40

11. Dolc Mataro 2009, Alta Alella (500ml)
This is from the "mataro", aka mourvedre/monastrell grape. A nice, warm character. Floral notes come through on the palate, less so on the nose. Full bodied, spicy. Spft, ripe and enjoyable. This is good and interesting, but I probably wouldn't pay that price for it.
Cost: £22.30



Random notes from the tasting:
1. Try brown bread with vintage champagne. He says it's a classic combination where the brown bread really enhances the flavours of the Champagne. I've never tried it, must do so soon.
2. Look out for dry Banyuls. I've never come across it before.
3. The salty flavour in sherry - current thinking is that it comes from glutamates (which presumably come from the flor?). Glutamate, like monosodium glutamate, hence umami/salty-seaweed flavour. Sounds possible. And interesting contrast to the salty flavour in Santorini wines (which apparently genuinely does come from the salty sea spray getting on the vines).

World Tour of Pinot Noir

Friday 22 July 2012

After what seems like years of waiting, we finally found a weekend which Ed could do this tasting and it was well worth waiting for. However, we definitely had to wait - Ed got stuck late at work and arrived an hour late, by which time we'd already polished off plenty of Champagne (well that's got Pinot Noir in it too...) So, perhaps not the best way to taste the expensive Burgundies at the end - my notes are a little sparse towards the end considering the pedigree of the wines!

It was really interesting to see PN from around the world and also to try some New World PN with a little bottle age. Some worked particularly well - others less so. The best of the high-end burgundies at the end were amazing, if way too young. However, the more modest burgundies were quite disappointing... And so it goes with this particularly fickle grape.

1. Glen Carlou, Pinot Noir, 2007 (Paarl, SA)
Primary red fruit character, but overlaid with aromas of the forest. Note that this wine is 5 years old, quite interesting to try a "new world" PN with a few years age. Soft mouthfeel. Good, juicy fruit and acid. This wine has the acid of a cold-climate but the fruit of a warm climate. Not bad. Unlikely to improve with further age though.

2. Errazuriz "Wild Ferment" Pinot Noir 2010 (Casablanca, Chile)
Weird funky smell. Some forest-floor aromas. Very acidic. Decent length. Very pale. I really don't like the initial smell of this, but once you get past it, the taste is actually surprisingly nice.

3. Weingut Okonomierat Rebholz Spatburgunder trocken, 2004 (Pfalz, Germany)
Ed warned us that German Pinot Noir can be an odd beast as apparently they often try to make it in a style to which it is not suited. For example, it's often overly extracted and sometimes even has residual sugar (eh?!). It's always expensive regardless of the style (as a result of the dearth of red wine in Germany). However, this is one of the good examples.

Complex aromas, spice, savoury-meaty, red fruit. Too light on the palate though - perhaps done in by age? Very pale, very low tannin. I doubt anyone (apart from Ed?) still has any of this wine, but if they do it should be drunk asap.

4. Paul Cluver Pinot Noir, 2006 (Elgin, SA)
The old VB favourite... but from an older vintage! (The old, old favourite..?) I must admit that the age confused me here as I didn't recognise this. Having had the Paul Cluver PN on so many occasions, the BV crew have got a bit of a downer on it. However, I enjoyed this. It seems to improve with age, but the taste fades very quickly once swallowed.

5. Robert Mondavi Carneros PN, 2008 (Napa Valley, USA)
A bit of a shock to the system. The fruit here is almost sweet and jammy. Too much of a hot climate style. Dark colour, not a typical PN. Can see why some people like it, but it's not my style.

6. Bergacker Cuvee 1999
This was a weird one that Ed threw in for fun. It's a Spatburgunder / Cabernet Sauvignon blend! Dark colour (presumably from the Cabernet). Surprisingly good. Full bodied. It is aging really well - I would not have thought it was that old. More cabernet in character than PN. This showed well... perhaps just because it really stood out from the other wines.

7. Furst Cengraferberg Spatburgunder trocken, 2005 (Franken, Germany)
Rich and ripe. Surprisingly concentrated. Don't really have many notes for this, but remember enjoying it.

8. Wine Society Exhibition Martinborough PN, 2004 (Made by Craggy Range)
Excellent wine - one of the most enjoyable for drinking now of the entire tasting (which is impressive given the competition!). Great, complex aromas. Silky mouthfeel. Juicy acidity. Ethereal nose - definitely more burgundian in style than new world.

9. Sylvain Debord Cote de Nuits Village, 2008 (An M&S award winner)
Fruit is red berry in character. Faded very quickly and lacked complexity. OK, but probably very expensive for what it is. Hard to imagine the low quality of the competition if this won an award?

10. Domaine Jean Chauvnet, Nuit-St-George, 2005
No notes. Must have been getting a little drunk by this point!

11. Domaine de la Salle Beaune, Champimonts, 1er Cru, 2008
Elegant and classy initial attack. Sadly fades too quickly. Nice, but a little dim.

12. Morey-Saint-Denis, Domaine Dujac, 2008
Sadly this wine was not showing its best. Very uninspiring. Opens up a little in the glass, but still nothing amazing.

13. Pommard "les Rugiens", Domaine Lejeune, 2007
Powerful, but also with a soft, silky texture. High acid. Lots of red fruit. Fairly powerful. Not as amazing as I'd have hoped though. Hopefully just needs time.

14. Vosne Romanee, Domaine Sylvain Cathiard et Fils, 2008
Quite a pale colour. High acidity, but well balanced with the refined and elegant fruit. Good structure, good length. Still very much on the primary fruit side of things. This is a very good wine, but needs time to show its best.

15. Mazis-Chamberin Grand Cru, Domaine Philippe Naddef, 2006
Not a producer I'd come across before - this was awesome. Lots and lots of power. This hints strongly at future greatness, but it still tastes so young it's hard to know (plus we'd had a lot of wine by this point - probably not optimal conditions to taste it!). Lots of fruit, powerful palate. Total infanticide!