They say a picture call tell a thousand words. This might be true, but I’d say a glass of wine could tell even more.
Earlier this year I was invited by my friends at The Corkscrew Wine Merchants to attend a tasting of Champagne Drappier at Saison Restaurant in Dublin. My account of the event is in the new Issue 7 of Glass of Bubbly Magazine:
Glass of Bubbly Magazine Issue 7 (front cover)
Here’s a sneak peek at the Drappier article:
Drappier Article in Glass of Bubbly Magazine
Whilst tasting through some of Drappier’s fabulous range, it struck me that some of their choices are actually commercially quite risky. Producing the Brut Zero Sans Souffre (neither dosage nor SO2 added) depends upon a fastidious approach to quality, including an almost draconian approach to hygiene.
The grapes have to be perfectly ripe, but not overripe, so that fruit flavours can shine without the addition of sugar.
The grapes have to be perfectly healthy so that there is minimal chance of spoilage which sulphur would normally prevent. Only own estate fruit is used for this Cuvée
Malolactic Fermentation (MLF) is allowed to proceed so that the acidity is softened and has less need of sugar for balance.
Extended lees ageing gives the Champagne character, but also helps to preserve it for longer and also lessens the impact of no dosage.
All of these factors have to be in perfect tension. Here is my first attempt at an infographic capturing this relationship.
On we roll with a summer, of sorts, here in Ireland. Here’s an outstanding bottle of wine from Sweeney’s in Glasnevin, that I tried recently which calls, nay demands, a barbecue.
Château Michel Cazevieille Origine 1922 AC Saint Chinian 2012
Château Michel Cazevieille Origine 1922 AC Saint Chinian 2012
As is the norm for the Languedoc this is a blend, but only has two components – Syrah and Grenache – which are both considered well suited to the area. (Carignan is also still grown in the area and can be very average if overcropped).
Michel Cazevieille created Origine 1922 as a homage to his grandfather Paul who set up in Cazedarnes at the beginning of the 20th century. Since then the family has gradually expanded their holdings so that today they have 22 hectares of vines across plateaus and clay / limestone hills.
Lots of deep black fruit framed with a touch of tannin and spice, and a smokey character that would pair so well with barbecue marinades. The alcohol is quite high at 14.5%, though not uncommon for such a southerly location, but it comes across as richness rather than heat. It’s a well balanced wine.
If you’re not familiar with Saint Chinian (there are so many Saint- wines in France that confusion sometimes reigns), it’s in the central part of the Languedoc, an arc stretching from just above the Spanish border on the eastern side of the Pyrenees, around the Mediterranean past Montpellier:
Map of Languedoc wine regions (from wine-pages.com)
And the best bit about this wine? It’s only €12.99, what a bargain!
If you’re a budding wine drinker (or you know one) looking to ensure you have the most essential wine accessories, but without laying out big bucks, this is the right guide for you.
PART 3 – Something to drink the wine out of – glasses
Although you could drink wine out of almost any kind of drinking vessel, glass is pretty much the best material for your …erm… glass known to man. Coffee mugs and polystyrene cups can hold liquid, but nothing beats the real thing. So, now we’ve established the material, it’s time for a fairly fundamental statement:
The type of glass you use makes a significant difference to how a wine smells and tastes.
As you’re reading a wine blog I’m assuming that this is of some importance to you. Here is a summary of the important characteristics of a good wine glass:
Format
A proper wine glass needs to have a stem by which it can be held. This ensures that any chilled white wine isn’t heated up too quickly by a grasping hand and the bowl isn’t smudged with fingerprints (which makes examining the wine much more difficult). Of course, if you want to put it down on a flat surface then it will also need a foot to rest on.
Thickness
It’s far more pleasant to drink from a thin wine glass than something which could double as a coffee mug. A cleaner edge means that you have precise control over how much you pour into your cakehole – which is a good thing, surely.
Clarity
The glass should be transparent, not coloured, and not etched. Being able to see the wine properly is an important part of evaluation and appreciation.
Shape
A good glass needs a wide bowl with a narrower rim so that the aromas are gathered within the glass rather than evaporating out into the ether. It also means that when the glass is swirled to get the wine in contact with air, the wine stays in the glass…
Volume
Swirlability also depends (in tandem with shape above) on the capacity of the glass – it’s a lots easier with a bigger glass. Many wines, particularly reds and / or oaked wines, need space in the glass to breathe, so they are better if the glass isn’t too full. A bigger glass means a reasonable pour without filling it too high.
Let’s start by naming and shaming a few different types which you should avoid if looking to acquire some glasses:
1. Paris Goblet
Paris Goblet
The standard vessel of many French restaurants – those without at least a Bib Gourmand at least. They fulfil the very basic task of holding wine, but don’t hold enough and no good for swirling.
2. Tumbler
Tumbler (not the Batman version)
What am I, a fecking peasant? Tumbler’s are fine for water and water of life, but not for wine.
3. Champagne Flute
Champagne Flutes
Traditional Champagne flutes are dead. Flutes might look pretty, but they aren’t that great for anything other than basic Prosecco or Moët. Anything I serve at home with a high Pinot content or significant ageing gets put into a white wine glass as a minimum, or even a (larger) red wine glass.
Now, I do have a few Riedel flutes, and they’re are wider than most, so they’re not too bad for the basic stuff.
4. Champagne Coupe
Champagne Coupe
Supposedly made in the shape of a famous French woman’s breast (though the story varies), the coupe is great for making Champagne towers, but not for drinking the stuff – the aromas dissipate too quickly and so do the bubbles.
5. Cut Crystal
John Rocha Waterford Crystal
Waterford crystal by John Rocha. Don’t get me wrong, it’s really pleasing on the eye, worth of display in a cabinet, but it’s about as much use as a chocolate fireguard when it comes to appreciating wine. The lip is too thick, the pattern interferes with examining the wine and the lack of a decent bowl shape means if you swirl a wine you’ll probably end up wearing some of it.
6. INAO/ISO tasting glass
ISO Tasting Glass
This might be a surprise for some, but although “official” tasting glasses are de rigeur on most wine course and at some trade tastings, they’re actually too small for many wines. As an example, when I was tasting a subtly oaked white Louis Jadot Burgundy earlier this year, the oak was over-emphasised by the ISO glass.
At bigger pro-events the tasting glass of choice is usually the Riedel Vinum Chianti Classico/Riesling, a significantly larger glass.
So, if you are on a budget, what sort of glass should you go for?
There are several high quality glass manufacturers, and many of them make different ranges which get more and more wine-specific and correspondingly more and more expensive!
But if you’re on a budget these are out of reach. I would suggest you could do with something cheap and cheerful such as this:
Tesco wine glass
Even better would be something with a taller bowl, such as this:
Tesco finest wine glass
If you drink quite a lot of white wine as well as red, then it’s worth getting some slightly smaller ones for white so that the wine doesn’t warm up too much – important for sweeter wines, for example.
Riedel Sommelier and Zalto glasses belong in another post entirely…
The greatest wines on earth aren’t made by co-operatives. Whether your preference is for Claret, Barolo, Burgundy or Champagne, co-operatives aren’t ranked in the upper echelons of each region’s producers.
Way down the quality scale, a lot of ordinary wine is made by co-operatives – owned by a multitude of producers who can’t afford their own vinification and maturation space and equipment – who make wine to suit growers’ yields and production decisions rather than quality.
Cave de Turckheim
It’s often the lower common denominator type of wine – it follows the DO / DOC / AOC regulations and is somewhat faithful to variety and terroir, but it’s just a bit ordinary. Dilute, but rarely bad. Humdrum. Boring! (There, I said it!)
Acknowledging all of the above, this series aims to highlight the better co-operatives…those which, if they don’t hit the heights, certainly make wines in the top quartile of quality, that are both interesting and value for money. The better co-operatives are becoming increasingly skilled not just at wine-making but also at marketing specific bottlings designed to look and taste every bit as distinctive as the individually produced competition.
La Chablisienne
The worst co-operatives play almost exclusively with subsidies and politics. Co-operatives are at their strongest in areas where wine’s selling price is relatively low and where the average size of individual holdings is small, although co-operatives are also quite significant in Champagne and there are several in the Médoc, for example. The majority of wine co-operatives were formed in the early 1930s in the immediate aftermath of the Depression.
As you will see, most of the co-operatives covered in this series are in Europe, specifically France.
The former is down to ownership patterns, particularly those jurisdictions that have Napoleonic inheritance laws (splitting properties equally between children of each generation). With a growing population this can result in vignerons (and other farmers of course) owning smaller and smaller land holdings to the point where, unless the land is in one of the very best appellations, there isn’t sufficient economic scale to justify making, bottling and maturing wine on the property.
Le Mesnil sur Oger, Champagne
This leaves a “grape farmer” with restricted choices – sell his or her grapes to a négociant or join a co-operative. The first usually carries lower risk, though certainly lower income. The second has the potential for a little more control and a share in the surplus.
And why will this series focus on France? The simple reason is that I am far more familiar with French wine than that of any other European country!
If you’re a budding wine drinker (or you know one) looking to ensure you have the most essential wine accessories, but without laying out big bucks, this is the right guide for you.
PART 2 – Something to pour the wine into – decanter
Posh decanter
Decanters are a statement and the centrepiece of every wine aficionado’s dining table. Showing off aside, there are two main reasons to decant a wine:
1. To separate the wine from its sediment
If a wine – particularly red wine – is mature, it might well have developed some sediment. It’s perfectly harmless, but can taste unpleasantly crunchy, and looks quite unsightly.
Sediment is usually the sign of a well-made wine that hasn’t been fined or filtered too much; these techniques remove tiny solid particles that might eventually fall out as sediment, but they also take out some of the flavour compounds which made a wine so enjoyable.
Vintage port is a great example of a wine that throws a sediment. It’s usually bottled quite young and not opened until after a few decades. Look at this contraption:
Port Decanting Cradle
Turning the handle slowly tilts the bottle, and hopefully the sediment is visible from the light of the candle, so you can pour the wine but stop it just before the sludge.
Sediment is far less common with white wine, and usually comes in the form of white crystals. Again these are natural and not harmful – they are tartrate crystals, and their occurrence is often due to a positive quality decision by the winemaker.
2. To let the wine breathe
Here are two statements for you to evaluate, true or false:
A: Virtually every wine will benefit from some time to breathe
B: Simply opening a bottle is a perfectly fine way of letting the wine breathe
Whaddya think?
Well it is all down to opinion, but I reckon that A = True and B = False
As a general rule, the younger the wine the more time it needs to breathe properly. This allows chemicals in the wine to react with oxygen in the air and hence aromas and flavours are unlocked. Tannins taste softer, so young red wines really do benefit.
And as for just opening a bottle of wine to let it breathe, so little of the wine comes into contact with air that the effect is almost negligible over a few hours. If you don’t have any sort of decanting device to hand, then just pour a glass and that will speed things up!
A word of caution for older wines – if fully decanted, which might well be desirable if they have thrown a sediment, they will go out of condition if left for too long. I have experienced something similar at vertical tastings where wines have been poured out well in advance of tasting, and some from the last millennium were already deteriorating.
So, if you are on a budget, what sort of decanter should you go for?
I would argue that a simple glass jug will do a fine job, without costing the earth. So how about this:
Ikea Vanlig Pitcher
Less than 5 Euros/Pounds/Dollars etc – and stackable!
Now, if you want to take a bottle of wine to a dinner party or BYO restaurant, but also want to decant it to show it at its best, what do you do? Double decanting is the answer! So you’ve poured the wine into your glass jug / decanter, and want to get it back into the bottle without spilling.
The budget wine accessory you’re looking for is a Stainless steel funnel:
If you’re a budding wine drinker (or you know one) looking to ensure you have the most essential wine accessories, but without laying out big bucks, this is the right guide for you.
PART 1 – Something to open the bottle – Corkscrew
Of course if you only ever drink screwcapped wine then you won’t need a corkscrew, but although some great wine is available with a tin lid there’s still lots out there that isn’t.
DO GET one (or more) of the following:
1. A foil cutter
Foil cutter
Using one of these is quicker and safer than a knife for cutting the foil off bottle tops. It’s also somehow more satisfying. Not expensive so grab a few!
2. A waiter’s friend
Waiter’s friend
There’s a reason this has its name, it’s probably the most efficient and easy to use design, but compact enough to slip into a pocket. Sometimes has a bargain extra crown cap opener as well.
3. A waiter’s friend with double hinge
Waiter’s friend with double hinge
For long corks where a regular waiter’s friend just can’t reach, this is just the ticket. Also, for delicate corks that threaten to break when they are slightly bent on opening, the double hinge lets you minimise this.
4. A waiter’s friend with foil cutter
Waiter’s friend with foil cutter
The best of 1 and 2 above! What’s not to like? This is actually my favourite design, I have about a dozen around the house.
DON’T GET any of these:
5. Screwpull
Screwpull
Yes these look(ed) delightfully trendy, and gadgety, and …well…blokey, but it’s heavy and cumbersome, and it’s just total overkill. As for the ones attached to a bar, don’t get me started…
6.Twin wing lever with solid core
Twin lever wing corkscrew
This just destroys the cork so it might not even get back into the bottle, never mind be relatively airtight to serve as a stopper for a day or two. Unfortunately they are fairly commonplace. There are versions which don’t have a solid core, but to be quite honest they still look crap!
If you have a favourite, or you disagree with any of the above, leave a comment and let me know!
Part 2 will look at something to pour the wine into…
My article in thelatest edition of The Taste gives some of my recommendations from the WineMason portfolio tasting I attended many weeks back. Here are a few more fresh whites which I loved but didn’t have room for on The Taste:
A step up from an entry level summer style of Grüner, this has more weight, more flavour and more interest. The nose gets you first – nectarine and peach – followed by a fruit explosion in your mouth. This wine has sweet fruit but isn’t sugary, as linear acidity provides something for it to lean on.
If you’ve only tried junior Grüners then you owe it to yourself to try this style!
Whereas its younger brother had dessert apples, this is a desert island wine, just spectacular. It’s far from cheap, but it offers great value. Auslese means “selected harvest”, so you know the grapes were picked when perfectly ripe. In the Mosel, this means they will still have refreshing acidity and lots of flavour. Now almost ten years on from harvest, this specially selected cask still has freshness but has developed more mature notes such as marmalade, peach and apricot. Lip-smackingly good!
Thanks again to Ben, Barbara and the WineMason team for an excellent tasting!
And of course, the title above was partially inspired by this favourite from the 80s:
New Trafford: De Trafford & Sijnn Winemaker’s Dinner @ Stanley’s, Dublin
Last month I had the pleasure to attend a fantastic Winemaker’s dinner at Stanley’s Restaurant in Dublin. Regular readers may remember a previous dinner event I attended there with Yves Cuilleron and his wines. On this occasion it was the wines of David Trafford, co-hosted by importer/distributor Dr Eilis Cryan, the lady behind Kinnegar Wines of Galway.
David was originally an architect – with a few clues in the names and designs of his wines – but felt compelled to make wine in such an amazing land as Stellenbosch. Many years later, he set up Sijnn in a hamlet down near the coast.
This tasting featured wines from both wineries, plus a starter from another Kinnegar producer:
Aperitif Thelema Méthode Cap Classique Blanc de Blancs 2011
Thelema Méthode Cap Classique Blanc de Blancs 2011
For those not familiar with the term, Méthode Cap Classique (or MCC for short) is a traditional-method sparkling wine from South Africa. Thelema are much better known for their excellent still wines, particularly their reds, but this is a serious effort.
As the Blanc de Blancs name suggests this is 100% Chardonnay. Fulfilling the same requirements as vintage Champagne, it was (second) bottle fermented and left on the lees for three years. It was disgorged in Sept/Oct 2014 and given an “extra-brut” dosage of 3.2 g/l.
It’s a lovely fresh, citrus style, perfect as an aperitif at this time in its life. With a few more years it should mellow out so that more mature fruit develop and the acidity softens a little to let the bready characters from time on the lees show through.
Amuse Bouche
Crab and radish amuse bouche
One of the things that great chefs can do is challenge your preconceptions. The amuse bouche had radish which I don’t particularly care for, but with crab it was just heavenly.
Marinated scallops, cucumber, bergamot, fois gras butter
Marinated scallops starter
I love scallops, but I’m no fan of cucumber – I’ll pick it out of salads and send back a G&T that someone has stupidly infected with cucumber. However, I have now become a convert of cucumber and mint soup – it was served in a mini tea cup on the side and was just divine!
De Trafford Chenin Blanc 2012 & Sijnn White 2012
De Trafford Chenin Blanc 2012Sijnn White 2012
Chenin Blanc is a versatile grape, capable of playing several different roles, though always with its trademark high acidity. Personally, I prefer it when it has either (1) a bit of oak, (2) a bit of age or (3) a bit of sugar; without these it can be too simple or too harsh for my taste.
David Trafford has been making Chenin for twenty years. As with all his wines only wild yeast is used for his De Trafford Chenin, and then around 15% is matured in new oak barrels. Bingo! The oak adds a bit of roundness and texture, but it’s not an overtly oaky wine – it’s still fresh. Malolactic fermentation is blocked by adding a dash of sulphur and the low cellar temperature.
The Sijnn White is also Chenin based, but as well as 20% oak maturation, it also has another trick up its sleeve: Viognier! Around 16% of the blend is Viognier which gives stunning aromatics and a tempting texture. I now have to add a fourthtype of Chenin to my list!
Guinea fowl, green asparagus, black bacon, carbonara jus
Guinea fowl main course
There were no weird surprises here as I’m a fan of guinea fowl. It was tasty and succulent, with lots of additional interesting flavours from the accompaniments. Asparagus and green beans provided a contrast against the richness of the meat.
De Trafford Elevation 393 2010 & Sijnn 2010
De Trafford Elevation 393 2010Sijnn Red 2010
For many attendees I expect this was the main (vinous) event of the evening.
Elevation is De Trafford’s flagship red. As the 2010 is such an approachable, ripe style it has been released ahead of the 2009 which needs more time to mellow out. This is partially due to the blend of the 2010 which was a third each of Cab Sauv, Merlot and Shiraz – there is usually a higher proportion of Cabernet in the blend which makes it a little more austere.
Although definitely fruity, the Elevation had more of a savoury aspect than many Australian Cabernet blends, for example. South Africa really does straddle the boundaries of Old and New World.
The Sijnn Red was an altogether different blend, mainly a cross between the Rhône and the Douro: Syrah 41%; Touriga Nacional 27%; Mourvèdre 18%; Trincadeira 10%; Cabernet Sauvignon 4%. And funnily enough, both of these influences were apparent in the finished blend – the spice, blackberry and blueberry of the Rhône were joined by the plum and prune of the Douro. It’s quite a big wine, but totally delicious.
A fantastic wine geek fact that David gave us was that Mourvèdre needs more vine age than most other varieties before it begins producing quality fruit in reasonable quantities.
Rooibos tea custard tart, guava sorbet
Rooibos tea custard tart dessert
This was so tasty that I barely managed to take a snap before wolfing it down! You may recognise rooibos as a South African speciality – it’s a herbal tea, though often taken with milk and sugar down there.
De Trafford Straw Wine 2006
De Trafford Straw Wine 2006
This might be something of a mystery for many – a straw wine? The name is a translation of Vin de Paille – pronounced “van de pie” – which is the French term for this style of dessert wine.
It starts as 100% Chenin Blanc grapes, picked at normal ripeness. The grapes are then dried outside on mats for three weeks, partially in the shade and partially in the sun. The must takes a whole year to ferment, followed by two years maturation in 225L barriques (60% French and 40% American).
The finished product has a high 230 g/L of residual sugar, but with a streak of Chenin acidity it remains balanced and far from cloying.
Thanks to David, Eilis, Morgan, Stephen, Patrick and all the staff at Stanley’s for a wonderful evening!
In April I was delighted to be invited to lunch at Dublin’s Shelbourne Hotel to meet Miguel Angel Bocos from Pesquera, one of the foremost producers in Spain’s Ribero del Duero. Along with a tasty lunch Miguel took us through five of the Pesquera Group’s current releases. But first, a bit of background to set the scene…
Disclosure:food and wine were covered by generous hosts James Nicholson Wine Merchant; opinions are mine alone.
Origins and Development of Pesquera
Quite simply Pesquera exists due to one man, Alejandro Fernández, and one place, the Ribero del Duero in northern Spain. Raised in a traditional small-holding family, Alejandro had a burning desire to create his own Bodega. He chose the Ribero del Duero region which, at that time, was barely known apart from the very grand Vega Sicilia. After 10 years of hard work, he restored a modest 16th century stone-built bodega in the village of Pesquera and began to bottle his wine.
Barrel hall
Compared to the well-established Vega Sicilia, which included Bordeaux grapes Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Merlot in their blends, Alejandro produced wines which were 100% Tinto Fino – the local name for Tempranillo. Whereas some Rioja wines can be on the light side, when it comes to Tempranillo fruit, and so can need beefing up, well grown Tinto Fino vines in the Ribero produce thicker skinned grapes and hence darker, deeper coloured wines. There may well be some clonal differences between the two regions, but essentially it’s the sharper differences between day and night temperatures plus poor soil which turbocharge Ribero’s grapes.
Sunset
After years of success, Alejandro gradually expanded the group. Firstly, Condado de Haza was also established in the Ribero del Duero, though with a subtly different microclimate and soil profile. Later he expanded further west with Dehesa La Granja and further south in La Mancha with El Vínculo.
Condado De Haza Crianza DO Ribero del Duero 2011 (RRP €23)
100% Tempranillo, 14.0%, 18 months in American oak barrels then 6 months in bottle
Condado De Haza Crianza DO Ribero del Duero 2011
Although in the same region as Tinto Pesquera, the climate, aspect and soil are different for this sister winery. The powerful fruit is able to take significant oak, and thus spent 18 months in 100% new 225 litre American oak barrels. Condado de Haza is a south-facing slope along one kilometre of the Duero River, planted from 1989 onwards.
This is the real crowd pleaser of the range; this is the wine that Miguel would open to suit a variety of tastes and dishes. It obviously has structure and opulent fruit so will age for many years, but it’s just so balanced, approachable and lovely to drink right now. Ripe plum, juicy black cherry and blackcurrant compete for your palate’s attention. The oak is very much in evidence but it is well integrated and serves as the custard on a fruits of the forest pudding.
Dehesa La Granja Vino de la Tierra de Castilla y León 2007 (RRP €20)
100% Tempranillo, 14.0%, 24 months in American oak barrels then 12 months in bottle
Dehesa La Granja Vino de la Tierra de Castilla y León 2007
Heading west from Ribero, past Toro, around 50km from the Portuguese border we reach the town of Zamora. Here lies the 800 hectare Dehesa La Granja vineyard, stretching magnificently along the banks of the River Guareña. The climate is quite Continental and the soil is Clay, giving extra power to the wines. The estate is self-sufficiently Organic; they even have the animals on the property to make the natural fertilizer they need
This is still a powerful wine, but it also has elegance. There are layers of fine tannins which add interest when the wine in young, but are entirely in keeping with the fruit. I would be very interested to see how this continues to develop.
El Vínculo Crianza DO La Mancha 2010 (RRP €22)
100% Tempranillo, 14.0%, 18 months in American oak
El Vínculo Crianza DO La Mancha 2010
My Spanish is the remnants of two terms at night school back in the early nineties, but I do remember a couple of important points: the accent on a Spanish word tells you which syllable is to be stressed, and the letter V is pronounced almost the same as a B. These two facts are important when saying the name of this wine to a Spanish speaker as they might otherwise think you are talking about their bottom.
Yields in La Mancha are often twice the national Average of Spain, mainly because of bulk produced grapes which will end up in a distillery for brandy. However, for Pesquera’s vines here the yield is around a quarter of the Spanish average, so this is a different beast from the usual industrial juice. La Mancha is very dry: it is baking hot in summer, yet cold in winter (often below freezing) with low levels of precipitation.
Although quality wine is still a rarity here, Pesquera believe that it has the potential to be the best appellation in Spain. For a group based in Ribero del Duero, that’s quite a bold statement!
This 2010 example showed leather and liquorice plus hints of spice and stewed black fruits. The leather suggests a cooler climate whereas the stewed fruit suggests a warmer climate – quite a conundrum.
Oh yes, the name – it’s the Spanish word for “link”, as the estate represents the link between tradition and innovation.
Tinto Pesquera Crianza DO Ribero del Duero 2012 (RRP €26 to €30)
100% Tempranillo, 13.5%, 18 months in American oak barrels
Tinto Pesquera Crianza DO Ribero del Duero 2012
So now we’re onto the original Pesquera, the real deal. At 1050m it is possibly the highest vineyard in Spain.
Whereas the previous three wines had a certain playful side to them, this is a serious, grown up wine. Although it’s unmistakably Spanish, I hope the folks at Pesquera will excuse me for saying it has a certain French sensibility about it. It’s not trying to ape French wine, but it has a certain polish and class that left bank Bordeaux often brings to the table. It’s ironic that Alejandro declined to use Bordeaux grapes but has created something with a Bordeaux feel that doesn’t need those varieties.
Black cherry and black berries are surrounded by vanilla on the nose, with just a hint of smoke. The fruit expand out into your mouth when tasting, but with a side order of tannin – not big heavy gum-stripping tannins, but fine-grained savoury tannins. It’s lighter in style than the previous three, probably due to the vineyard’s elevation, so perhaps less obvious, but this obviously has the fruit and the structure to age for at least another decade.
Tinto Pesquera Reserva DO Ribero del Duero 2011 (RRP €37 to €42)
100% Tempranillo, 13.5%, 24 months in American oak barrels
Tinto Pesquera Reserva DO Ribero del Duero 2011
The Reserva does all that the Crianza does, but more so. Going from junior to senior is like listening to a favourite song that suddenly switches from mono to stereo – it’s not necessarily louder, it just seems more alive and more real…it makes more sense. The same components are there, just in higher fidelity. The fruit is more intense and rich, there’s more toast and smoke and spicy vanilla from the barrels, but it all hangs together. With a few more years there will be harmony to add to the melody.
Dublin isn’t overwhelmed with BYO restaurants, particularly those that don’t charge corkage, but of those that do let you bring in your own wine, many are southern and/or eastern Mediterranean-themed. Of course this makes sense when those areas have high numbers of practising Muslims who don’t drink alcohol, and don’t want to profit from selling it, but are happy for you to drink with their food.
Among the best of those BYOs is Keshk Café Restaurant, just by the Canal on Dublin’s southside. So what better place for five like-minded wine bloggers to meet up for food, drinks and a natter!
Keshk Café
The food was lovely and may have been inadvertently on the healthy side, with fresh salads and grilled meat. I will leave further description of the food to others, but below are the wines we tasted. As co-ordinator I suggested two criteria for each diner’s choice of wine:
1) A retail price of between €20 and €30 (after a few years of duty rises this is now the sweetspot for wine in Ireland)
2) The wine should be a favourite or something the person fancied trying (all grapes and all regions allowed!)
Codorniú Anna Blanc de Noirs NV (€10, Madrid Airport)
Cordoniu Anna Blanc de Noirs NV
Along with Frexinet, Cordoniu is one of two big Cava houses who dominate sales volumes. Every year they pump out hectolitres of ordinary fizz, which is exactly the sort of thing that I avoid. You know the stuff I mean – and it’s undercut in the UK and Ireland by even less expensive supermarket own-label pap. This race to compete on cost and not quality has done significant damage to the Cava brand, so obtaining a fair price for a well-made one is difficult.
Thankfully a few well-made ones do find their way over here, even if it’s just a chance purchase at Madrid Airport. This is a 100% Blanc de Noirs made from Pinot Noir, one of the two main black grapes of Champagne. Of course being a DO Cava it is made in the traditional method, though the regulations for Cava are not as strict as those for the Champenois.
Given its constituent variety there was no surprise to find lovely red fruit, primarily strawberry and raspberry, but there was also stone fruit such as apricot, and even lees characters which confirm that this is a level above everyday Cava.
Anna is very well put together and something I will look out for in future.
The alcohol of 11.0% gives you a good clue as to the style of this Groovy – light quaffing material. The wino who brought this is a big fan of the variety, especially after attending a 100% varietal tasting last year (which I covered here). It’s not the type of wine to win lots of Parker Points or Wines Of The Year Awards but it’s just very pleasant to drink.
I have a feeling this will be seeing a lot more glasses in the summer months.
Jean Chartron AOP Rully “Montmorin” 2012 (€30 down to €20, The Corkscrew)
Jean Chartron AOP Rully “Montmorin” 2012
Well that’s one way of hitting both ends of the suggested price range! Rully is one of the better communes on the Côte Chalonnaise, the section of Burgundy in between The Côte d’Or and the Mâconnais. This was amazing complexity for such a young wine. To be honest if I’d tasted that blind I’d have guessed at something north of €40 from the Côte de Beaune.
The producer Jean Charton is based in Puligny-Montrachet but also produces whites in Chassagne-Montrachet, Saint-Aubin, Rully and the generic Burgundy appellation.
There was a definite vanilla and toast influence from oak, but not the full butterscotch sauce experience. I’m guessing that quite a bit of the creaminess came from lees stirring rather than extended ageing in barrel. Monsieur Colm from the Corkscrew says they have experienced a little more bottle variation than normal, but most of them ZING!
Meyer-Fonné AOP Alsace Gewurztraminer Réserve 2013 (€22.95, The Corkscrew)
This is one of my favourite Alsace producers with a fantastic range. My lubricated French came out with the term “correct” which is a handy shorthand for a wine that accurately reflects its ingredients and origins, and is well made, but is somewhat prosaic, nothing that makes you go “Wow”.
Yours truly in the tasting room at Meyer-Fonné
This Gewurz was off dry, with the variety’s typical lychees and flowers, plus some spicy ginger. It would probably have shone more with spicier food; given where we were eating there was a good chance of some heat, but I think we made conservative food choices when it actually came to ordering so we’d be able to give all the wines an even chance.
Château Musar Bekaa Valley 2003
Château Musar Bekaa Valley 2003
In a Mediterranean restaurant, what would be more fitting than a true Mediterranean wine? From the some-time war zone of the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon comes a wine which is full of contradictions:
It’s an alcoholic product from a country with a good number of Muslims.
It’s made with Bordeaux’s flagship grape Cabernet Sauvignon and the southern Rhône’s Cinsault, Carignan, Mourvèdre and Grenache. The proportions change from vintage to vintage.
On the nose there’s a big whiff of nail polish remover, a sign of Volatile Acidity which is considered a major fault in wine.
After that there’s a fair dose of farmyard, to be polite, or horseshit, to be less polite. This is another fault caused by the pernicious strain of yeast Brettanomyces, called Brett for short.
Yet it works! And boy does it work!
This bottle had been double decanted which gave it a real chance to shine. At 12 years from vintage it’s still a callow youth, with plenty of years ahead of it.
Domaine Coursodon AOP Saint Joseph “L’Olivaie” 2012 (€40, Wine Workshop)
Domaine Coursodon AOP Saint Joseph “L’Olivaie”
For this cuvée maturation is shared between demi-muids (20% new) and pièces (0% new). Although not specifically parcellaire, the components of this cuvée come mainly from St Jean de Muzols and the vines average over 60 years in age.
A lovely wine showing poise and potential but not yet unfurling its wings. Brooding dark black fruit and a twist of black pepper meet on the palate. Saint Joseph is rapidly becoming my go-to appellation in the northern Rhône
A couple of hours decanting would have shown it at its current best. I’d love to try this again with more sympathetic treatment (and earlier in the evening!)
Carlo Gentili Chianti DOCG Riserva 2010
Carlo Gentili Chianti DOCG Riserva 2010
Just a random Chianti which I had lying around at home. It was the seventh bottle of the evening. It had great aromas of Chianti which followed through to the palate – fantastic Chianti flavour. For further info have a look here.
