Blind tasting No 5 Result

Having tasted the wine last night, I later unveiled it to find that the wine was a Zinfandel from California, it was a Ravenswoods, Lodi Old Vine Zin 2009. I tasted it again during the evening and as the wine opened up so did the intensity of the woody flavours, in fact after 3 hours the wine left bitter wood tannins as an after-taste....... It did not stop me from drinking it, but I think the advice must be to drink it quicker.....?

The Moneyspider 2004 d'Arenberg Roussanne

At lunch we were having a roasted casperti squash with a stuffing of quinoa, chilli, ginger, garlic and spring onion and then it had a tahini and orange mix on the side, and we wanted to try this Roussanne wine from down under and this was our opportunity. It was quite old for a white wine but this still had lots of tropical fruit, a mouth coating texture and a whiff of petrol...... which was a surprise, it had a hint of tropical Oz Riesling!  It had quite a punch of alcohol but it was matched by the juicy fruit. The texture was nearly oily, reminds me of Roussanne from the south of France. And I think it's colour gave its age away along with the petrol aroma.  The length is great and there is a bitterness on the finish reminiscent of Seville Orange.
Score : 86

Blind Tasting Friday no. 5

Once more Peter has done his husbandly duties ........ and no ...... not what your mind slips to, but his duties are to descend to temptation and pick a wine he wants that I will then do a blind tasting. This of course means there are 2 big pointers already in place. 1) it is a wine that Peter will lik, but then not such a pointer as i can't recall at this point a wine that he does not like..... 2) it is something we have in our cellar.

So at first glance ,once poured - it is a red wine with a great depth of ruby colour and those slow fat legs draw you in ( great in a wine but not so good if he said the same about me.....) . When you have a quick sniff you are bowled over by lush black fruits, cherries, plums, blackberry..... Coconut and vanilla enrobe the fruit and there is a gentle waft of rich coffee and warm chocolate, I am now looking forward to the first taste, so I have a slurp....... The reward is rich black fruits, ripe and juicy, a hint of red fruits and the acidity stops all that sweet fruit from being too much. The alcohol as expected from those slow fat legs, is quite warming but not so high that it is detrimental to the wine, more that it is part of its make up. Again chocolate wraps itself around the fruit. Coconut and vanilla imply American oak used in the making of this wine.
Overall my thoughts  - this is a wine from a warm region, American oak is used, black fruits with a rich ripe feel and the tannins evident but ripe. Full bodied and full in flavour - juicy and lush, not a wine that you can drink a lot of, but I will try, a martyr to the cause, all in the interest of science.
Watch this space.
Nightie night.

Pinot Noir - Cono Sur biggest Pinot producer?

The last harvests from both New Zealand and Burgundy have been greatly reduced, New Zealands by 18% due to bad weather and Burgundy has seen its smallest harvest since the 1950's due to frost, hail, mildew and poor flowering.
Cono Sur launched its Pinot Noir project to champion its flagship variety in the late 90's and this year sees 292ha of Pinot Noir under vine, compared with its biggest rival, New Zealand's Brancott Estate, with 58ha, it  sold 34,306 9-litre cases o the UK off-trade ( shops etc...) in 2012, while its closest rival, Brancott Estate, sold 33,463 9-litre cases. In total it exported 51 000 9-litre cases to the UK which is its top export market and is followed by US, Canada, Japan and Finland.
Cono Sur's winemaking manager Matías Ríos has been at Cono Sur since 2000 and says the wine produced has been very consistant with little variation, good weather/climate plays a part in this. He described the Chilean style of Pinot Noir as "fresh and elegant, with ripe, complex tannins and delicate notes of black cherries".
He uses the Burgundian method of vinification to produce eight different versions of Pinot Noir in its portfolio including its entry-level Bicicleta range, Reservas, Organics, sparkling, an ultra-premium label called 20 Barrels and icon wine Ocio.

Cono Sur Reservas Pinot Noir from the Casablanca Valley in Chile is my mainstay wine - a good value drinking wine which seems to always give me a hug. This is on special offer in Waitrose at the moment for £7.99.

J Bouchon Merlot Reserva 2011 Maule Valley Chile

I joined a local wine group this week for a tasting and David - one of the members had very kindly picked 6 wines to taste blind - some were easier than others, this was the last and sixth wine tasted that evening.

This was my least favourite of the wines we tasted, it had less to recommend it. It lacked intensity, any real personality and seemed to me to be a poor example of a Chilean Merlot. Drinkable but not memorable.
The fruit on both nose and palate was red, cherry, plum and  redcurrant, and the lack of freshening acidity, high alcohol and insignificant tannins, left this wine flaccid and lush, one that you will not come back to at a later date thinking you want more. Maybe time will allow to improve - though I doubt this due to the low acidity and tannins..... it will not age well.
It is a wine made in the Maule Valley in Chile and the maker is Julio Bouchon.
Score : 70 and the cost was £5.79 from Underwoods in Warwick.

Quinta El Refugio 2011 Toro Spain

I joined a local wine group this week for a tasting and David - one of the members had very kindly picked 6 wines to taste blind - some were easier than others, this was the fifth wine tasted on the evening. It had the look of a young wine with purple core and narrow purple rim, it had jammy aromas, baked black fruit with only a hint of spice having received 5 months in American Oak barriques. The jamminess continued onto the palate but was accompanied with a sharp blackcurrant which played well dry stalky tannins and fresh acidity. The wine is made from Tinto de Toro grapes - that is Tempranillo to you and me, and has warmth from the alcohol content, 14.5%. Felipe Nalda Jnr, son of Riojanas' master winemaker Felipe Snr is the maker here and the grapes are sourced from selected high altitude vineyards more than 2,000 ft above sea level. Situated in the north-west interior of Spain, and the conditions can be harsh - making the grapes more intense in flavour at times.
This is a wine that can keep for 2-4 years and the fruit may mellow to produce a more elgant wine, it has a muscular personality at the moment, this will stand it in good stead.
Score : 82 and d at Underwoods Wine in Warwick, (£5.79 to David - special price again - and a good price for such a wine).

Chateau Rossenovo Bulgarian Cabernet Sauvignon

I joined a local wine group this week for a tasting and David - one of the members had very kindly picked 6 wines to taste blind - some were easier than others, this was the fourth wine tasted on the evening, and this is a wine that was definetly better tasted blind, it was a wine that would have been judged differently if you knew what it was ( well I am sure I would have judged it before I had tasted it).
This wine had a lovely garnet rim and indicated some age - 4-5 years plus, when we popped our noses in the glass - there were alot of satisfied 'ummms', cedar, spice and a good whallop of black / red fruits hit you, slight mustiness to start but alot of wines have this when tasted straight after opening and disappear after a few swirls.
On the mouth, silky texture, black fruit and cedar box were my initial write-downs, good acidity, keeps that big fruit fresh, the alcohol was bang on, warm but not out of kilter, tannins - well they were dry, stalky but savoury at the same time. I felt this wine was from a cool climate, had lots of elegance and some class!
The length was good but not great - I had judged this wine as a good quality Bordeaux ( sort of Cru Bourgeois quality from the left bank - Cab Sauv dominant) it was a varietal it was not going to come from Bordeaux - the land of blends......
On unveling the wine, David sheepishly admitted that this was a wine from Bulgaria, South Black Sea Coast,  and the cheapest wine of the night - and as we foulater at the end of the tastas alot of peoples favourites...... Brilliant!! I love a bargain!
Chateau Rossenovo can be found at Underwoods wine in Warwick at the bargain price of £4.98.
Score : 89

La Fetard Grenache Vella Frontera Cotes Catalanes 2007

Joined a local wine club this week for a tasting - had a great time, one of the guys, David, had put together a selection of wines to blind taste - and they were all different varietals, this was the third wine we tasted.
This wine had a wide rim and was quite deep ruby coloured, and on the nose was blackfruit, blackberry, black ripe cherries and a slight aroma of decaying meat and one that points at the wine having a little age this was confirmed by the cedar box aromas and sweet spices. On the palate, sweet black fruits- ripe and plump, lots of oak flavour, the acidity was low and the alcohol was quite high - slightly out of kilter with this wine for me, it was dry with a slight stalkiness and was quite an elegant fine chiselled wine, I guessed from southern France and a Syrah - and it turned out to be Grenache from the french/spanish border, and I went back and re-examined the colouring - I am still surprised that the colour was ruby and reatively deep for a grenache...... but hey ho - that is the fun with wine!
The wine costs £8.28 from Underwoods ( though David got a deal..... at £6.90), and I scored it 87.

Terrafirma Nero d'Avola from Sicily 2010

I joined a local wine group this week for a tasting and David - one of the members had very kindly picked 6 wines to taste blind - some were easier than others, this was the second wine tasted on the evening!

This was obviously a young wine, it was ruby with strong purple tints and a kind of blackness too it. On the nose it was perfumed, spice and red fruits figured in its makeup - sweet dried fruit (like christmas cake) and a slightly musty edge ( this said Italian to me, alot of their wines have a mustiness to it, not a negative, just part of the base composition ). Tasting it told me that it was silky smooth, had warm alcohol but in balance, and the tannins were quite low and smooth, the acidity was fresh but quite supportive of the structure of the wine.
I felt this wine was from a cool climate from the flavour profile, fine grained - chiselled, so it was a surprise when I found out that it was from Sicily( quite warm.... to say the least )and the Nero d'Avola grape......  On research I found that the fruit for this wine is sourced from two vineyards. The first is near Pachino, in the hottest part of Scicily and contributes a rich, mulberry character. The second is high in the Madonie mountains east of Palermo and gives elegant notes of red cherry and currant. And the wine is made by Michael Palij of Winematters of Oxford, a Master of Wine who runs wine appreciation and education courses.
The cost of this was £5.00 from Underwoods in Warwick or £7.75 from Oxford wine.
I scored this wine 82.

Deen De Bortoli Vat 8 Shiraz Australia

Joined a local wine club last night for a tasting - had a great time, one of the guys, David, had put together a selection of wines to blind taste - and they were all different varietals, this was the first we tasted.
It was a youngish red wine at first glance, ruby with a wide rim, on the nose it was black and red fruits with a bit of a twist, herbal notes, a little stalkiness and some vegetal mushroom, this points towards a wine with a little age. On the palate, again the fruit and herbal notes, the tannins were soft and slightly chalky, good acidity and the alcohol tasted quite high - so I would have guessed somewhere warm.
It turned out to be a Shiraz from South East Australia by Deen De Bortoli Vat 8 I id not guess it correctly, and it guessed southern Italian as it had the stalky nuttiness......
It cost £7.04 from Underwoods in Warwick and I scored it 83