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A Selection of Wines from Domaine Paul Zinck, Alsace

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 14:05:18 +0000

First halt in a four day Alsace wine tour, a delightful restaurant Au Vieux Porche in the village of Eguisheim. Seeing as the restaurant manager is the sister of winemaker Paul Zinck, it is understandable that the domaines wines are served here. The winerey is right next door!

Lunch opened with a delicious courgette soup, fresh, crisp flavours that ended with a underlying edge of curry, nicely done. No wine with this course but being seated near a window (lending an enchanting diffused light to the table) a delightful photo resulted. So forgive my indulgance for posting here rather than, as usual, on SpittoonExtra.

The first Paul Zinck wine - Pinot Gris Prestige 2007, proved an absolute delight with a fine, thick, slice of Foie Gras. The course only let down by being served with two toasted slices of white processed bread rather than something more artisanal like the homemade bread in the basket..

Paul Zinck offer three ranges. The more basic, introductory wines, are labelled as Terrior with Prestige being the next rung up before hitting the Grand Cru range. The vintage of this PG, 2007, is rather young; without exception all the wine makers and producers we met and visited acclaimed 2007 as one of the very best vintages in Alsace for many, many a-year. Well worth storing regardless of grape variety.

Review0.3
Wine Tasting Note: Paul Zinck Pinot Gris Prestige, 2007, Alsace, France.
[More: Adegga / Snooth] Alcohol 13%.
Andrew BarrowScribblings Rating - 90/100 [3.75 out of 5]

The World's Oldest Wine Barrel

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 17:50:46 +0000

One of the most recognisable names and also one of the oldest wine families in Alsace is Hugel. Under the winery, improbably positioned in the heart of Riquewihr (just how 'do' they get the grapes into the winery?) is this imposing beast of a barrel.

Certified by the Guinness Book of Records as the world's oldest vat in constant use, it is still utilised to this day.

This is to certify that

Hugel et Fils, founded 1619

world's oldest vat in constant use

from 1715 - date

spanning 12 generations of the familybr>
February 1990.

Artisan & Vine : London's Best Wine Bar

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 12:40:08 +0000

You can't fault her passion, her drive or her enthusiasm. Kathryn, manager of Artisan & Vine, has also a rather good palate - the wine list is superb. 'Natural' is the philosophy - wines made as naturally as possible (if that means biodynamic, organic or made in the old cow trough then that is good enough for Artisan & Vine) or wines that are locally produced.

Our private lunch time tasting - just five wines - lasted way into the afternoon. I can think of worse things than being in good company, drinking a personal selection of stunning wines and regaled with stories on each. If the wine doesn't have a 'story' or Kathryn hasn't detected your 'passion' your wine just isn't going to be listed.

"At artisan&vine our objective is to bring your taste buds as close as possible to the fantastic produce of artisans and vineyards. To do this, all of our 120+ wines are either naturally or locally produced. We think you'll taste the difference this proximity to the grapes brings and we are proud to be London's first wine bar to specialise in local and natural wines.
With around 20 English wines and liqueurs, we think we could have London's longest English drinks list. With the remainder of our wines and liqueurs being all natural or biodynamic (more than only organic) we have one of the longest and most interesting natural wine lists in the capital too."

No English wines at the tasting, although I noted two from my local vineyard, Brightwell, on the shelf.

Review0.3
Wine Tasting Note: Casa Coste Piane, Prosecco di Valdobbiadene, 2004, Italy.
Price: £29 [More: Adegga / Snooth]
Light and playful but appley, citrussy with some weight. Very fine bubbles with a "hazy, natural appearance". Long lasting yeastiness. Alcohol 11%.
Andrew BarrowScribblings Rating - 90/100 [3.75 out of 5]

Review0.3
Wine Tasting Note: Bret Brothers La Soufrandière Pouilly Vincelles, 2006, Burgundy, France.
Price: £31.10 [More: Adegga / Snooth]
A wonderful 100% Chardonnay. Palate has a richness that is quite delicious, barrel fermented, lovely texture, a big wine with elegance and structure. Touch of ripening strawberry to the flavour. Delicious. Alcohol 13%.
Andrew BarrowScribblings Rating - 92/100 [4 out of 5]

Review0.3
Wine Tasting Note: Alain Caux,Tir a Blanc, Le Casol de Mailloles, Vin de Table, France.
Price: £35.60 [More: Adegga / Snooth]
Unusual in the extreme; a blend of Grenache Blanc and Maccabeu that is so distinctive on the nose that my initial reaction was met with hoots of laughter by those who had already tried it! Extremely 'cider-like', straw, apples, hawthorn, pears. Weighty, Exceptionally long aftertaste. Distinctive and I'm sure will have its detractors but, after initial scepticism, enjoyment ensued to the extent of drinking a glass or two rather than the Pouilly Vinzelles. Alcohol 13.5%.
Andrew BarrowScribblings Rating - 92/100 [4 out of 5]

Review0.3
Wine Tasting Note: Frank Cornelissen Rosso Contadino 5, 2007, Vino da Tavola, Sicily, Italy
Price: £28.10 [More: Adegga / Snooth]
Another controversial bottle, but a huge talking point none-the-less. A blend of white and red varieties Carricante, Inzolia, Catarratto, Nerello Mascalese, Alicante,... 100% natural, no added sulphites; non-filtered. With the aroma evolving with every sip it was clear the wine is different (and doesn't hold up well after a day being open). The volcanic soils that give the grape a foothold on the mountainside also supply individuality - a combination of freshness and a Pinot Noir-like lightness that gives sweet rose-hips and darker, mixed fruit jam, gives way to darker, blacker fruit flavours and a tannic structure. Alcohol 13%.
Andrew BarrowScribblings Rating - 90/100 [3.75 out of 5]

Review0.3
Wine Tasting Note: Cuvee 51, Le Clos Perdus, 2007, Corbieres, Languedoc, France
Price: £28.50 [More: Adegga / Snooth]
A wine with character - gorgeous generous, black fruits and tobacco. A wine "that refuses to behave in the mouth". A blend of Grenache, Carignan, Mourvedre. Alcohol 14%.
Andrew BarrowScribblings Rating - 92/100 [4 out of 5]

All prices are 'drink-in' bottle price. All wines are available, cheaper, to 'take-away', there are even plans for a full internet wine shop. Fingers crossed! More photographs of the wine bar are on SpittoonExtra and pictures of some of the wines on flickr. Rob at The Wine Conversation has also written a post on the tasting.

South African Wine : Brief Notes From a Naked Wines Tasting

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:45:26 +0000

A buzzie little tasting at One Alfred Place, London saw Naked Wines open a range of South African wines, some new, some expanding the showing of existing producers.

"You'll notice that we have two prices next to each of our wines. When you buy form us, you can either choose to pay our standard RRP prices or our VIP prices. Customers paying our VIP prices are members of our Naked Cash Back scheme. IN other words, they set aside £20 a month into their Naked Wines Account, theirs to spend on ANY of our wines, at ANY time. And the best bit... as we know they're going to be buying form us, they're guaranteed a 33% saving every time they order"

The wines detailed below - my pick of just six from the 32 opened wines - have two prices the first being the RRP, the second the Cash Back price. This £20 regular saving scheme is in addition to being a Naked Wine Angel. Rather than £20 a simple £5 a month acts as a sponsor to a specific producer, which results in a 33% cash back on future orders of their wines. Don't do too many of these schemes guys, it's getting confusing!

Greg Baker tapped me on the shoulder (find him at twitter) a little challenge ensued - the best Shiraz? I would snap up the Manley Shiraz 2005 (RRP £12.99/VIP £7.99) simply for its superb structure, European-focused, restrained but still sweet fruit and long, long length. Greg was having none of it picking the Arabella Shiraz 2008 (RRP £6.99/VIP £4.66) for its pure drinkability, luscious ripe, up-front fruit, concentration and excellent price. If the latter is the main consideration then I have to concede the Arabella is rather decent. But the Manely is still lovely.

Neither bottle was the best of the evening though...

Review0.3
Wine Tasting Note: Avondale Jonty's Ducks, 2007, Paarl, South Africa
Price: RRP £10.99/VIP £7.33 [More on Adegga / Snooth]

A Bordeaux blend (Shiraz, Merlot and Cabernet) so distinctive, so technically perfect! Sweetness of fruit, upfront dissipating into a chocolate, almost meaty whole. Lingering.
Andrew BarrowScribblings Rating - 90/100 [3.75 out of 5]

Review0.3
Wine Tasting Note: Avondale Green Duck The Duke, 2005, Paarl, South Africa
RRP £12.99/VIP £8.66 [More on Adegga / Snooth]

A blend! The staff were under informed, sadly, and didn't have a clue as to the grapes; with one eye to those who really don't care about such specifics, preferring drinkability and price/quality considerations I won't stress on the lack of details. I'm guessing at a Bordeaux style blend*. Good depth, decent tannin-led structure and a long black fruit finish.
Andrew BarrowScribblings Rating - 92/100 [4 out of 5]

Review0.3
Wine Tasting Note: Avondale Green Duck The Duchess, 2007, Paarl, South Africa.
Price: RRP £12.49/VIP£8.33 [More: Adegga / Snooth]
The white blend sister to the Green Duck Duke. I'm guessing at a Semillon/Sauvignon type blend (Chenin Blanc? Gewurztraminer?). My notes suffered from some dripped wine but I think this is the one that had a distinct edge of sweet spice (from Viognier or Gewurztraminer). More proof that decent blends offer superb complexity and interesting flavours.
Andrew BarrowScribblings Rating - 94/100 [4.25 out of 5]

Review0.3
Wine Tasting Note: Strandveld Adamanstor, 2008, Elim, South Africa
Price: RRP £13.49/VIP £8.99 [More: Adegga / Snooth]
A near perfect rendition of a Sauvignon-Semillon blend. The Sauvingon is plucked from a single vineyard known locally as "Pofadder Bos Sauvignon Blanc" due to frequent encounters with the snakes in the surrounding fynbos. The Semillon component in the 50-50 blend receives a little oak treatment and some lees activity. These wine making activities result in a complex wine bursting with peashoots, broad beans and lettuce aromas and flavours. Dry. Alcohol 13%.
Andrew BarrowScribblings Rating - 92/100 [4 out of 5]

All these wines are 'on the water'; expected listing on the Naked Wines website is July.

Beyerskloof Video Tasting

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:21:41 +0000

Following on from the Beyerskloof tasting notes yesterday, a little video on the Beyerskloof Field Blend. Taken at this years London International Wine Fair the vid is hosted by Denise, the Wine Sleuth talking to Francois Norde, who, incidentally I enjoyed lunch with after the cellar tasting at Beyerskloof. I held the camera.

Brief Notes from a Visit - Beyerskloof

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:05:42 +0000

If you need to know anything about Pinotage the man to talk to is Beyers Truter (if you can't find Peter May, of course). Beyers has done more than anyone to promote and develop South Africa's own unique red grape variety. Beyerskloof is the spiritual home of Pinotage with Beyers, the sixth generation of the family to farm the estate, is often cited as the "King of Pinotage".

Awards drip from the wines. If you have never encountered a drinkable, enjoyable, Pinotage Beyerskloof is the label to turn to.

If you sit in the open-sided deck restaurant, with the Kanonkop hill in the distance (photo on SpittoonExtra) at your feet lies the 'field' a mixed planting of vines that goes into the companies Bordeaux-style Field Blend.

Their pale, peachy, refreshing, sparkling Pinotage Rosé Brut washed down a plate of superb garlic snails beautifully while a selection of older Pinotage's and various Cape Blends vintages, tasted in the cellar with Beyers Truter himself, were very interesting. The latter come in various mixes - the 2006 Synergy comprises 43% Pinotage, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Shiraz and 7% Merlot compared to the 2001 Synergy being 55% Cabernet, 37% Pinotage, 8% Merlot and 14% 'others'. Basically they are still experimenting with these! I didn't enjoy the older vintage, I have to admit, the reductive edge on the nose dominatated but perhaps I'm just more susceptible to those aromas as my tasting partners enthused.

The Field Blends are certainly worthy of trying. They age beautifully too. The 1995, which my notes contradictorily say is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, had a gorgeous perfume, complex with tobacco-edged age. Little stock remains but it is available on the restaurant wine list. The 2001 was luscious with a vailed smoothness from the addition of Merlot. I didn't catch the blend details but the 2006 has 60% Cabernet Sauvignon coupled with 40% Merlot.

According to our host Pinotage works wonderfully in a blend with Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz. Merlot, however, is not a great working partner. No stainless steel tanks for Pinotage either, rather the grapes at Beyerskloof see open, concrete, fermenters, a little temperature control and manual punching of the cape by hand.

While age worthy it is the younger Pinotage single varietals that impressed during the cellar tasting. With ripe, sweetish upfront fruit, good structure and length they have structure and drinkability with the Beyerskloof Reserve Pinotage being singularly impressive.

The Twittering Classes - Top 12 Wine People to Follow On Twitter

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 13:45:54 +0000

I did wonder if I would make it to 10 for this personal top twitters selection; searching through my follower list though has highlighted the following list of dedicated, passionate, interesting and educated wine people. This is a list of the UK's top wine-related twitterers, and a real cross section they are too, being bloggers, journalists, wine bar owners and so on. In no particular order...

RowBags - Rowan Gormley, founder of Naked Wines
Fran Krajewski - also of Naked Wines
Simon Woods - journalist, also blogging at DrinkingOutsideTheBox
Charles Metcalfe - "speaker, writer and sometimes singer about wine"
Jo Mason - heads Wines of South Africa in the UK.
Denise Medrano - blogs as The Wine Sleuth
Philippa Vanham - runs Wine Unearthed a company offering wine tasting workshops
Victoria Bucknall - also part of Wine Unearthed
Kathryn O'Mara - runs Artisan & Vine, a London wine bar
Wink Lork - wine educator and heads up Wine Travel Guides
Robert McIntosh - promoting social media and Wine2.0 and all that entails
Fiona Beckett - food and wine guru, also find at Matching Food and Wine

If this list was expanded to 20 who else, UK-based only, should be included? Oh, and there is of course the Wine Scribbler.

Tong A New Wine Magazine

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 07:30:35 +0000

Launching a niche magazine during these economically difficult times would certainly be a challenge; but Flemish food and wine critic Filip Verheyden has done just that with Tong (Tongue).

The English language publication, is unashamedly aimed at wine geeks across Europe. . As Filip states in an interview with the Wall Street Journal everything in the magazine is linked:

There's a playful, organic, almost biological concept behind the magazine. Everything is linked, from the paper and the font to the photographs. The paper we used for the launch issue on Sauvignon Blanc, for instance, is smooth and hard, but for the issue on terroir, I'm using a grainier, thicker paper. Each magazine must be a print version of the wine variety.

The second issue, just released, has as its theme, Terrior.

In this issue, we haven't sought a definitive truth about terroir, but we've tried to provide a panorama of views on the subject. You may not be at ease when you've finished it - too many questions remain, too many people think they have found the truth.

Subscriptions to Tong (four issues over a year) are only available from their website and cost €100.

New Australian Wines At Naked Wines

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 15:15:52 +0000

While I was gallivanting around the wine-lands of South Africa those fine folk at Naked Wines organised an innovative little event - a tasting/auction to determine a new selection of wines to be added to the retailers range. My friend The Wine Sleuth was there and detailed the process on her blog. The idea to involve potential and existing customers in selecting which wines to buy - with a A$10000 budget - was a unique experiment and one I was really annoyed to have missed.

"Once the wines had been winnowed down to the final 15 we had to each set a price for what we would pay, then, thru some mysterious algorithythms, the Naked team came up with a price, the money was divvied up, the Australian winemakers were called and the bidding began. We were all able to watch the bidding via a live money graph, every time a wine went up or down in price there were loud hoops and hollers from the crowd! I was sitting at the twitter/auction table and it was really exciting to hear and watch Rowan, Greg and Francesca work the auction."

I've managed to get my wine-hungry mits on a couple of the successful new listings. No idea on final retail price with both wines currently listed at Naked Wines as arriving in 'late June'. (Another range of wines brought during the auction was from Plunkett Fowles; these I tasted at the Excel Wine Fair, so notes 'coming soon').

Review0.3
Wine Tasting Note: Penrice Estate Dusty Dog Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006, South Australia.
[More on Adegga / Snooth]
Rubbish label but a great full-bodied wine - full, juicy, sweet blackberry flavours and an excellent blackcurrant edge. Complexity added from red apple skins and a smidge of savouriness. Good long blackcurrant finish. Alcohol 14%.
Andrew BarrowScribblings Rating - 88/100 [3.5 out of 5]

Review0.3
Wine Tasting Note: Clairault Cape Red Cabernet-Merlot, 2004, Margaret River, Western Australia.
[More on Adegga / Snooth]

Showing its Western Australian provenance with a little less fleshiness (when compared to the Dusty Dog). A wine still offering a rush of up-front black forest fruit but in a drier, gravelly-textured palate. An inky long finish with a touch of plum and spicey oak. Alcohol 14%.
Andrew BarrowScribblings Rating - 88/100 [3.5 out of 5]

How Much Money did Comic Relief and the Red Nose Wines Raise?

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:05:24 +0000

A note from Bibendum:

This year the Red Nose Wines produced by SAAM Mountain Vineyards raised the grand total of £736,376.00 as part of Wine Relief 2009.

This is a wonderful achievement and is testament to the power of cooperation in the name of a good cause. SAAM Mountain Vineyards, Bibendum Wine Ltd, JF Hillebrand, Quinn Glass, Erben and Multiprint all worked together with the major retailers to make sure that the bottles of Red Nose Red and White hit the shelves for £4.99, of which £1 went straight to Comic Relief. Tesco, Sainsbury's, Waitrose, M&S, Morrisons, Somerfield and Booths all did a brilliant job selling the wines, which were a real hit with drinkers.
This year Wine Relief raised a total of more than £1 million, through sales of the Red Nose Wines and other fundraising activity amongst the Wine trade, bringing the total it has raised in the last ten years up to over £3.7 million. Michele Settle, Marketing Director at Comic Relief said, "It's a fantastic achievement to have raised such an amazing amount of money for Wine Relief 09. It was a first for us to have two distinct Red Nose Wines and it simply wouldn't have been possible without the immense support and cooperation of all our partners, suppliers and supporters. Money raised will be spent by Comic Relief to give extremely vulnerable, poor and disadvantaged people in the UK and Africa a helping hand to turn their lives around."

I don't think the wines are still available; but if you have an odd bottle kicking you might like to read the Red Nose Day wine tasting notes

Berry's Wine Matters: Biodynamic Wine

Sun, 31 May 2009 14:15:41 +0000

What are your views on biodynamics? For me I can appreciate the beliefs and thoughts behind the practise, especially after chatting to such converts as Rudiger Gretcher, winemaker at Boekenhoustskloof, South Africa. For the general consumer however the 'ideas' appear as little more than 'hippy talk' or, at worse, just add to the mysticism and impenetrability of wine as a whole.

A survey by Berry Bros. & Rudd backs this up as only 15% of drinkers would buy a wine purely because of its biodynamic (or organic) certification. The environmental impact of wine production is rarely a concern for wine lovers.

As the Berry Bros. survey finds the root of this is a lack of understanding - with six in ten (57%) wine buffs saying they'd buy more biodynamic wine if they understood how it was grown.

"In light of the fact that many wine lovers remain in the dark about biodynamic and organic wine production, with many respondents citing biodynamic methods as 'mysticism', Berry Bros. & Rudd is launching 'Wine Matters', an initiative to dispel biodynamic myths and encourage wine enthusiasts to have their say on how the wine they buy is produced.

The initiative, at bbrblog.com/category/wine-matters, is an interactive platform for debate with a series of topics and discussions from Berrys' Masters of Wine and industry experts, including a post from Jasper Morris MW, asking: 'Biodynamics: Do we believe?'

Morris comments: "Our number one concern as a business is selling the very best quality wine and we are increasingly seeing that biodynamic production methods, given the stringent attention to detail required by producers, result in better quality wine. We want to share this knowledge with our customers and let them know where their wine has come from and how it has been made."

Berry's will be inviting guest bloggers each week to join the debate including biodynamic wine producer from Rhône, Montirius, and Gavin Partington from The Wine and Spirit Trade Association."

Visit Wine Matters to have your say on biodynamic wine production and learn more about biodynamic viticulture methods.

Berry Bros. & Rudd will also be inviting wine lovers to come to the Berrys' Factory Outlet, in BasingBerry'sstoke, for a complementary biodynamic wine tasting on 5th and 6th June and are including an organic or biodynamic wine in Wine Club cases going out to over a thousand members.

PINOTAGE: Behind the Legends of South Africa's Own Wine by Peter May

Tue, 26 May 2009 15:05:24 +0000

A press release from my good friend Peter May on his new book PINOTAGE: Behind the Legends of South Africa's Own Wine.

Pinotage is South Africa's very own wine, but there has never been a book about it until Peter F May from England decided to tell its story.
2009 is the 50th anniversary of the world's first Pinotage wine and in PINOTAGE: Behind the Legends of South Africa's Own Wine author Peter F May tells the story of this uniquely South African grape variety, its creator, Professor Abraham Perold and the people who grow and make Pinotage.

During researches in South Africa Peter F May was told information that differed from the standard definition of Pinotage in text books. Turning detective, May investigated various legends about Pinotage's parentage and origins. "I felt like Sherlock Holmes," he says, "as winemakers told me things in confidence that contradicted everything I'd read about Pinotage."

May resolves the mystery and proposes the real reason why Prof Perold created Pinotage. Peter F May travelled to four continents to interview winemakers and winery owners for the book which provides a comprehensive review of Pinotage worldwide. May details the history of Pinotage and how the variety is grown, made and marketed in South Africa.

ABOUT THE BOOK
PINOTAGE: Behind the Legends of South Africa's Own Wine tells of Peter F May's infatuation with the Pinotage variety and follows his investigations into its origins. After exhaustive investigations into various legends about the variety he identifies when and how it was created and first planted and he discovers the oldest living Pinotage vineyard.

The book contains a history of winemaking in South Africa and a biography of Pinotage's creator, Professor Abraham Izak Perold. May investigates various legends about the variety including ones that say it has Shiraz or an American rootstock vine in it parentage and the reasons for Pinotage's creation.

In the second part of the book May discusses growing, making and marketing Pinotage wines with case studies of several classic South African vineyards and wineries. Various styles of Pinotage are discussed, the Cape Blend controversy is covered and criticisms of the variety are analysed.

In the third section of the book, author Peter F May takes a look at Pinotage in other countries. His travels take him from South Africa to California and Virginia, Canada, Israel and New Zealand.

This timely book is for anyone interested in wine and wine making, and those who want to know the full story about South Africa's wine gift to the world.

PINOTAGE: Behind the Legends of South Africa's Own Wine by Peter May is available from Amazon.co.uk for £14.24. Signed and dedicated copies can be obtained from the author by sending a UK bank cheque for £15.99 to the address below or paid by credit card or Paypal via www.pinotagebook.com.

English Wine Week : Tasting Five English Wines with Cheese

Mon, 25 May 2009 12:40:35 +0000

The local deli did me proud. Salvador's of Wallingford sourced three stunningly delicious cheeses just for this English Wine Week bloggers meet-up. Each was perfectly ripe and at the perfect temperature; not cheap but near perfect.

Especially good - by itself and with the various wines - was the Godminster Vintage Organic Cheddar. Next to it laid a perfect boxed slab of Cranborne Chase Alderwood (unpasteurised semi-soft rind cows milk cheese from Dorset) with the third being Simon Weaver's Kirkham Farm Organic Cotswold Brie. Coupled with a handful of fresh tomatoes and a salad of local mixed leaves (from Down To Earth) all I forgot was to add a handful of basil I was growing on the window sill...

FoodStories: #aeww back at Andrews now, more English wines and cheeeeese! He also has fabulous windows.

Three of the wines were brought from Festival Wines of Chichester. The Brightwell Sparkling was brought from the vineyard after our tour and tasting while the Balfour Sparkling was a free sample.

Review0.3
Wine Tasting Note: Sedlescombe Vineyard, Sedlescombe, East Sussex a blend of Ortega, Faber, Bacchus, Huxelrebe and Siegerebe. £8.19

wine_scribbler: #aeww sedlescombe dry white organic and vegan not much on the nose but nice flavours chalky
wine_scribbler: #aeww sharp finish - not greatly liked - made from vegans
thewinesleuth: #aeww organic vegan english wine- um, not very interesting

English Wine Week : A Tour and Tasting at Brightwell Vineyard

Sun, 24 May 2009 22:10:15 +0000

Brightwell Vineyard is a quintessentially English vineyard overlooking the Thames in South Oxfordshire; family owned and run the estate is small (14 acres) and still in an experimental stage with new plantings, grubbing up and so on on-going. Things must be going well as there are plans for extensive Pinot Noir plantings next year where the pig field currently stands. They do not, currently, make their wines on the estate although most of the equipment is now in place to do so in the future; but like so many other English wine estates they utilise another estates wine making facilities.

Six wines currently in the range - two blended whites Oxford Flint and Crispin, a single varietal Bacchus, a rosé Oxford Rose , a red Oxford Regatta and a sparkler. Given the climate and the generally accepted assumptions of English wine you might be surprised at the results of our tasting.

The bloggers involved - sadly four had to drop out at the very last minute - were Denise the Wine Sleuth, Jeanne Cooksister, Helen of Food Stories, Mark 'the beer guy' who writes at Pencil and Spoon and Niamh of Eat Like A Girl. Plus myself. All travelled out to Oxfordshire for a little English wine exploration as part of English Wine Week.

With the exception of Jeanne all were twittering on the day hence the use of tweet extracts in the report below. The tag #aeww (awesome English Wine Week) was used (when remembered) so you can read the full days events via that tag. More images and tweetie-bits are on Spittoon Extra and more aeww pictures on flickr.

Bisol Prosecco and Cichetti (canapés)

Tue, 19 May 2009 17:15:28 +0000

The only thing I really wanted after a full days tasting at the London International Wine Fair was some food; the invite to a Bisol and canapé tasting was ideal.

Taking the Italian version of tapas, cichetti, and matching a different dish with a Prosecco from the Bisol range was the aim of the tasting at the newly opened Wine Theatre in Southwark. Not only a stylish venue and, I should add, free food and drink but a chat with the owner/chef too (who use to be the personal chef of Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed. Well, it impressed me!). They source their ingredients from the local markets of Borough and Smithfield and offer punters a free selection of cichetti everyday between 5:30 and 8pm. Surprisingly they find some reticence with us Brits on the take-up of the food; many expecting a hefty bill at the end I guess.

In Madrid I adore the tapas dishes - free or paid for; it is the main reason I returned there a couple of weeks back (for the tapas and seeing my old mate Roberto too of course). But this is cichetti, the Italian version, with the bubbles supplied by Bisol.

First with the 'basic' Bisol Jaio Prosecco a superb calamari brushetta