Domaine Bruno Clair Marsannay Grasses Tetes 2006

Domaine Bruno Clair Marsannay Grasses Tetes 2006 from Marsannay which is near Gevry Chambertin in Burgundy, France, a red wine made from Pinot Noir grapes and sold by The Wine Society at £20 is a lovely deep coloured wine ( deep for normally pale Pinot Noir), ruby with garnet rim. It has aromas and flavours of red and black berry fruits and ripe cherries enshrouded in spiced, toasty oak, it shows notes of vegetal / game and flavours of dried fruits and underlying chocolate. The texture is silky and indulgent, the tannins are ripe, dry and tasty. The length of this wine shows its class, it is long with complex layers of fruits, spice with a warm silky edge. Throughout this wine is well structured, balanced and truely elegant, it is well interlaced - a joined up wine!

Domaine Faiveley Givry Champ-Lalot Recolte du Domaine 2010

Domaine Faiveley, a 7 generation family owned winery makes  Givry Champ-Lalot Recolte du Domaine 2010 which is based in the village of Givry in the Chalonnaise in Burgundy. Givry is known for its red wines and they are often compared to those of Mercurey. 218 hectares  of Pinot Noir in total  planted on limestone soils, with Faiveley owning just under 40ha.
The grapes are pressed and vinified in Mercurey, then part maturation in oak barrels in their winery in Nuits-Saint-Georges for a period of 12-14 months.
The resulting wine has mainly red fruit and spice aromas with a vegetal typical Pinot edge, these transpose into flavours and there is restrained minerality, it is quite light bodied with a silky mouth feel, the tannins are low, ripe and elegant, the acidity is in step with the rest of the wine, refined and frames the fruit well. Overall a well made, fresh elegant wine with nervy acidity and lovely mouth feel - Thankyou.
This wine can be bought from Nicolas - at a cost of just a shade under £20. Enjoy.

Camille Giroud Bourgogne Rose 2010

Camille Giroud Bourgogne Rose 2010 supplied by Berry Brothers at a cost of £13.50 was a pale garnet some may say salmon pink, darker than a Provence Rose, but clear. Aromas of red fruits with a herbal note lead to flavours of red berry fruits including strawberry and raspberry, the acidity keeps it fresh and the alcohol is well integrated. The texture lacks conviction and the wine feels sleek, linear and as if something is missing - the length is good and has fresh fruits to the end. Overall I feel that this is a fresh, simple wine made for drinking soon.


Bourgogne Rose is the title used for still rose wines produced under the generic Bourgogne appellation and the grapes can come from 4600 hectares which is practically the whole of the region. While Pinot Noir is the main grape, Pinot Gris is a secondary one and both Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc are permitted varieties.

Louis Jadot Macon 'Les Roches Rouges' 2010

Louis Jadot Macon 'Les Roches Rouges' 2010 is a red wine made in the Macon where most (95%) of the wines are white and made from the Chardonnay grape. The Macon is in the south of the Burgundy region.
 It is supplied by Majestic Wine at £9.99 ( special offer reduces it to less if buying 2 or cheaper at Majestic Wine in France)
It has a good ruby colour with slight purple glints - showing its laCK OF age. On the nose, ripe red fruits and baked black fruits are apparent and a hint at smokiness. The red and black fruits come through in abundance on the mouth with a little spice or pepper but not alot of complexity, it has a light linear fruity character and the low tannins are ripe with a grippy chalky texture. Overall I enjoyed this light Pinot and would probably chill it slightly and drink it soon while it is fresh and fruity.

Jean-Bourguigon Mersault 2009 Burgundy

Jean-Bourguigon Mersault 2009 Burgundy is a wine from Majestic Wine  and is £18.99. It has low level aromas of white stone fruits and hazelnuts, it tempts you to investigate further.
The silky texture with clear acidity and minerality layered with white stone fruits and green apples and once more the appearance of nuts. It is complex and sleek with elegance, it has a long length with solid fruit to the end!
Mersault is in the Cote de Beaune in Burgundy and is a narrow slope in most parts for all of its 20km length and gives great sun exposure. The soils consist of mainly marl and marly limestone and it is here that some of the best white ( Chardonnay) and Red (Pinot Noir) Burgundies come from.

Domaine Thilbert Pere et Fils Pouilly-Fuisse 2010

Domaine Thilbert Pere et Fils  now run by Christophe Thibert and his wife Christine along with his sister Sandrine, they own a 60 acre estate in 'the Fuisse' in the heart of the Pouilly-Fuisse appellation in the Mâconnais. The Mâcon region is in Burgundy and offers good value and often high quality white wine. The Thiberts  vineyards are now mainly organic, the fruit is picked by hand (not a universal practice in this region) and use low yields, new oak and minimium filtration producing wines that are intense, pure and long.
The Domaine Thilbert Pere et Fils Pouilly-Fuisse 2010 is one such wine produced from the 16 hectares they own in Pouilly-Fuisse, an appellation making 95% white wine from Chardonnay with the remaining 5% making red wine from Gamay.

This wine has a lovely pale gold colour and aromas of limes and apricots and a hint of spice, this indiactes some oak usage and maybe malolcatic fermentation. On tasting it there is noticeable acidity balanced by the alcohol and a silky texture. The green appley/lime flavours have a cheesey aftertaste which then gives way to red apple finish and the crisp apple adding padding to the body of the wine. It has a freshening mouth feel and is richer and fatter than a Chablis wine - less linear and not a elegant but complex. A great quality wine with alot to offer.

Fourchaume Chablis Premier cru 2009 La Chablisienne

Fourchaume is one of 12  Premier cru's in Chablis an appellation within the Burgundy region, and it is situated to the north of Chablis town,  in 2009 a highly recommended coop La Chablisienne made a Chablis that we tasted recently and were wowed by its minerality and complexity.
Initially the lemon fruits aromas were fresh and clean but veiled slightly as they opened to exhibit green crunchier fruits - we felt it had much to give. On tasting it the green fruits, steely minerality and spice were complex with concentrated elegant acidity balanced by the alcohol which added structure and support to the full bodied silky wine. The length was long and rounded, the style less austere than many I have tasted - and steely and clean throughout.
This wine could age for another 8-10 years gaining much on the way - enjoy!This wine was good value at £16.74 from Roberson wine.

Chablis Domaine William Fevre 2010

 Domaine William Fevre produced a Chablis in 2010 that is perfumed with a stoney edge to the green apple aromas which also carry a tinge of lime in the back ground. On tasting it the acidity is freshening, the wine has a silky texture and real prescence! It has minerality layered with green crunchy fruits and some white stone fruits rounding out the flavours and adding flesh to what some think is an austere style of wine. The length is good and shows the quality of the wine with the layered minerality and ending in peach. Overall the style is linear, crisp and clean and shows elegance through to the end.
2010  wines were concentrated due to poor fruit set earlier in the season, so leading to a smaller harvest, minerality and keen acidity are key for this vintage. This wine may have seen a small amount of new oak in its making and this would have been much higher before 1998 when William Fevre sold to Champagne Henriot. The fruit was hand harvest with rigorous selection under the watchful eye of the winemaker Didier Séguier .
The  wine was £14.95 and came from The Wine Society.

Freemans Bay Pinot Noir 2011 from New Zealand

Freemans Bay Pinot Noir 2011 from both Marlborough and Central Otago in New Zealand, this wine comes from Aldi Supermarkets and at the price of £6.99 it is good value - where can you buy a Pinot from NZ for less that £10? New Zealand has 3 main Pint producing areas, Marlborough ( North end of South Island), Martinborough ( south end of North Island) and Central Otago ( near the south of South Island ), for me - I prefer Martinborough Pinot to the other 2, but Central Otago has a great reputation - I think watch this space.
Now onto the wine - is it good?  It is very, very pale and infact it could nearly be termed a Rose, but on the nose I would recognise it as a Pinot Noir, expressive strawberry, plum with a little vanilla and slightly vegetal, positive I thought. On the palate, good acidity, slightly spirity on the alcohol front ( it is 14%) and not well integrated - but it is young..... maybe with a little time it will integrate better. It has a silky texture, the body feels in the right place and sweet fruits come through beautifully as well as a little licquorice but an out of kilter bitter, nearly pithy finish, so this was the only minor disappointment and maybe this is due to oak usage which again may improve with age. Even so at the price - this is a good quaffing, party wine that will not let you down! And it is an IWSC silver medal winner - tasted blind by a large panel of wine experts - would they have awarded it the medal if they had not tasted it blind, Aldi labelling may have interferred with their judgement. But a cracking wine - BUY, BUY, BUY !

Toro Loco Tempranillo 2011 from the Utiel-Requena DOP Spain from ALDI.

Aldi has done it again !
This wine, Toro Loco Tempranillo 2011 is an IWSC silver medal ( International Wine and Spirits Challange - all wines tasted blind ) winner - and beat many wines 10 times its price, and what was the price - £3.59, and an absolute bargain! Many who have never been to Aldi, and have been put off by the thought of 'pile it high, sell it cheap' and cannot shop without 'brands' need to think again, yes it is cheap, but Aldi now use shelves not boxes on the floor, and they also do have some brands...... but..... I would say alot of the own branded ( or names you have never heard of) items are stunning quality, not all and I am sure they are always working towards perfection, and you can now do most of a weekly shop here at about half the price you pay in many other supermarkets! I tend to go to Aldi for the main items and then Waitrose for the specials - the system works well and I save alot of money and occasionally you come across a stunner at Aldi - such as this Toro Loco Tempranillo 2011 from the Utiel-Requena DOP Spain. Another wine worth trying is the Sparkling wine from the Jura.
Tempranillo is a grape variety that we associate with Rioja and Ribera del Duero, it produces some lovely red fruited, juicy wines,  and wow can it age well, often needing other grapes to help it on its way! This wine is from much further south in the Utiel-Requena region and I had expected it to have a high alcohol content, but it was only 12.5% - so bonus points there too!
Pop your nose in the glass and ripe red fruits hit you which include cherry and raspberry, but also crushed cranberry and some toasty spices, all these come through on the palate, bolstered by some black juicy fruits and vanilla. The finish is long and juicy red fruits with a slight bitter citrus edge - which keeps it fresh and clean and interesting. The savoury, tasty tannins remain intact and ripe, the acidity keeps the fruit fresh and the alcohol merely supports the clever structure of this wine - thankyou Aldi!