Herzog, The Spirit of Marlborough 1998 New Zealand

This is a delicious Bordeaux style red that's drinking beautifully at the moment. Made me think of very ripe dark cherries that have fallen to the ground in the late summer – in a good way, may I add! It has good acidity to balance the fruit and an earthy, smoky complexity from oak ageing and bottle age. Picked up this beauty in Stockbridge, Hampshire at an excellent wine shop called Caviste, to which I would highly recommend a visit if you you’re ever in that beautiful part of the country. Alternatively, check out their website (see links). This wine was on offer for about £15 and well worth a go if there’s any left…

Ulrika’s champagne and sparkling wine tasting

Below are the champagnes and sparkling wines that we tasted on Ulrika’s hen night – in the order that she tasted them. The prices are approximate and most wines should be widely available (with the exception of Waitrose Vintage Champagne). For those of you in Sweden, Systembolaget stocks Louis Roederer Brut NV Champagne and if you liked the taste of sparkling red wine try the Deakin Estate (96 sek). Prices are approximate.

Louis Roederer Brut Premier NV Champagne, France £32.99
Roederer Estate Quartet Brut NV Anderson Valley, California, USA £17.99
These two wines are made by the same producer and as noticed during the tasting, it’s quite difficult to differentiate between the champagne and the sparkling wine from California. If you liked these two and feel like really splurging on a bottle, then try Louis Roederer’s vintage champagne – I had the 99 vintage recently and its delicious!

Waitrose Brut 1999 Vintage Champagne, France £23.99
Ridgeview Cuvée Merret Bloomsbury 2004 W Sussex, England £18.99
It was good to get such a great response on the English sparkling and if you liked the Ridgeview, I highly recommend trying Nytimber’s vintage sparkling wine, it’s widely available but stocks are low and demand high. It’s about £23.99 for a bottle and well worth a try!

Banrock Station Sparkling Shiraz, SE Australia £8.99
Sparkling red wine is quite a different tasting experience, especially since they can be slightly sweet. Try this one with spicy barbecued meats and serve well-chilled.

Discounted wine - a nasty business…

Just wanted to highlight the very common (and unfortunately growing) practice of price manipulation in the wine industry. It’s a nasty practice and makes it really hard for consumers to know what is a bargain and what is not. Basically, the price of a wine is ‘upped’ from its suggested retail price for a period of time only to be discounted back to, or slightly below, the original retail price. This means that a wine can be sold as being on a ‘great’ discount while in actuality the price hasn't changed much at all, the only difference being that the consumer felt they got a bargain...

Not all retailers use this practice, and far from all discounted wine is manipulated in this way, but its worth considering when buying heavily discounted wine. My advice is to shop around a bit before buying to know the actual value of the wine. An example of this was Krug Champagne that was discounted by a large UK retailer by about £35, which sounds like a great saving but the actual price was really just the ‘normal’ (£90-95) retail price. I think it smells, but then again that’s my opinion…

Wine tasting 15 June 2007

Thanks everyone for coming, I had a brilliant time and I hope you enjoyed the wines! Below are the wines we tasted – in the order that we tried them. Let me know if you have any questions.

Pinot Gris ‘Le Fromenteau’ 2005 Josmeyer, Alsace, France (white)
Stockist: Waitrose, everywine.co.uk £13.49

Wiltingen Kupp Riesling 2003, von Othegraven, Saar, Germany (white)
Stockist: The Winery (see links to visit their website) £17.99

Savennières La Jalousie 2005 Château des Vaults, Loire France (white)
This was the chenin blanc that we tried – bone dry and quite big! Stockist: Waitrose £9.99

Savigny-les-Beaune 2004 Bouchard Père et Fils, Burgundy, France (red)
Made from pinot noir grapes – delicate fruit notes with a bit of ‘earthiness’. Stockist: everywine.co.uk, Ocado.com, Waitrose £13.99

Les Rouilleres St Nicholas de Bourgeuil 2005 Frederic Mabileau, Loire, France (red)
Made from 100% cabernet franc grapes – quite rustic red and definitely needs a bit of food to show its best! Stockist: everywine.co.uk, Waitrose £9.05

Château d’Aiguilhe 2002 Côtes de Castillon, Bordeaux, France (red)
Classic Bordeaux made from cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc and merlot grapes. Stockist: Berry Bros & Rudd, Laithwaites, Waitrose £19.99

The Winery

This great little wine shop is located in Maida Vale/Warwick Avenue but they do deliver all over the UK. A specialist store, it’s the kind of place where you ask for recommendations or, like we did this evening, join one of their tastings. This evening it was all German, and it was delicious! The below wines are, with the exception of the last one, all dry. They are food-friendly (think seafood, fish, salads), fruity and seriously elegant!

Wiltingen Kupp Riesling 2003, von Othegraven (Saar)
A brilliant riesling showing some petrolly notes on the nose indicating a bit of age. Delicate, elegant and well worth its £17.99 price tag.

Gäns Riesling trocken 2005 Lubentiushof (Mosel)
This Riesling boasts quite a bit of body and has ripe fruit notes and a big yummy palate! £16.99

Ockfen Bockstein 2005, von Othegraven (Saar)
Delicate, juicy and very aromatic – the nose on this one is really seductive! £19.99

Spätburgunder “Classic” 2005, Nelles (Ahr)
A very enticing nose precedes an extremely delicate palate with juicy fruit notes and some earthiness in this red wine made from Pinot Noir. £15.50

Kanzem Altenberg Riesling Spätlese 2005, von Othegraven (Saar)
A super palate with lovely sweetness and a clean and refreshing finish, making you yearn for the next sip – this one will have a very special place in my wine rack (although given how much Mathias liked it I doubt it will stay there for long…) £17.99

Château Maris Vieilles Vignes 2005 Minervois Cru La Livinière, South of France

Not surprisingly, I have a new favorite red… This time it’s an absolutely gorgeous southern French red. To quote my own tasting note, ‘beautifully dark and seductive, great palate – yum, refreshing, peppery, superb’. I've enjoyed it with steak and it would probably be a good match with most barbecued meats and veggies. £8.99, Waitrose

Sunday’s wine

A quick note to let Anna and Julia know that the wine we had on Sunday was the d'Arenberg The Galvo Garage – check out the tasting note in February’s section under Aussie round up and thanks again for a fabulous dinner!