Camel Valley

This past bank holiday weekend Mathias, I and Anna went to Cornwall for a bit of camping and beach life. However, no trip is complete without a twist of wine and it being English wine week and all, we decided to visit Cornwall’s Camel Valley winery. Although it was a bit wet in the air when we arrived, Camel Valley is gorgeous. Located on slopes close to the river Camel, it’s the type of place you envy and inspires all kinds of dreams of having a winery on the countryside… However, this place also makes some serious wines and after tasting through their range we found some clear favourites. On of them, the Camel Valley Bacchus 2007, we had yesterday with steamed green English asparagus (drizzled with lemon infused olive oil and grated Parmesan cheese). The Bacchus had some real enticing elderflower notes and a really zesty and fresh plate, there’s no wonder this wine recently won a gold medal in the International Wine Challenge. Another wine we really liked from Camel Valley was its rosé – a true summer wine with serious strawberry fruit flavours. Perhaps one for this afternoon, as today must be the best day so far this summer!

Friday’s Champagne tasting

Many thanks to all of you who came to the tasting – I had a brilliant time and I really do hope you enjoyed it as well! Any feedback, comments or suggestions for future events are very welcome. I have yet to find the answer to Anna’s question on the reasoning behind always producing champagne as a sparkling wine, I’ll get back as soon as I find a plausible explanation. Meanwhile, I can only suggest we continue to relish in these delicious bubbles in a blissful state of ignorance! Below are the wines we tried, paired as they were presented on Friday.

Waitrose Blanc de Noirs NV Champagne
Made only from Pinot Noir, this champagne just received a trophy from the International Wine and Spirit Competition – if you feel you need another reason for trying it again. £17.99 at Waitrose
Waitrose Blanc de Blancs NV Champagne
All made from delicious Chardonnay grapes. £19.99 at Waitrose

Veuve Clicquot Brut NV Champagne
Pinot Noir dominated champagne, approximately £30 at various merchants.
Taittinger Brut Réserve NV Champagne
High proportion of Chardonnay in this wine, approximately £32 at various merchants.

Pierre Moncuit Blanc de Blancs 1999 Vintage Champagne
All Chardonnay champagne available from The Winery (see links) for £30.99
Jean Velut, Cuvée Millésime 1999 Vintage Champagne
A blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir available from The Winery, approximately £30.

Tasting preparation…

Champagne is probably one of my favourite wines although, as you probably already know, I’m a bit of a fan of sparkling wine in general. One thing that has always amazed me is the production of champagne and how different it is from still wine making. In champagne the ‘assemblage’ or blending of the wine is extremely important and so are the maturation time, the ‘riddling’ process and the final ‘dosage’. Plenty of terminology there I know, hence I thought I’d provide a couple of links to sites that explain the champagne production method so that those of you who are really keen get a chance to prepare for Friday’s tasting. Obviously, I’ll go through some of the stuff at the tasting but it probably won’t be in any great detail unless you start asking me lots of questions, at which point I will take no responsibility for talking too much… In the meantime, check out the links to 'The Wine Doctor' and 'Wikipedia' for good info on champagne and email me/leave a comment if you have any questions or thoughts. See you next Friday!

Back!

Wow, can’t believe I've been ignoring my own dear blog for this long…very sad indeed… For all of you who care, I've managed to pass all of my wine diploma exams and now only have a few essays to finish off before I’m done. Think that will be it for studying for a while… Anyways, preparing for our tasting next Friday and will soon post a bit of info about Champagne for those of you who feel like preparing!

Negligence…

..is probably the word for what I have done to this blog lately… And, surprise, surprise, I got plenty of excuses; wedding is one, which I personally think is a pretty good one. But now that I am a married woman one would think that this negligence might end. Not so I’m afraid as all my precious time goes into studying for my biggest wine exam ever. It’s happening soon, and it’s not that much fun, but come mid June and I will have time to ‘enjoy’ wine again. There is one positive side though, besides the fact that I’ll know even more about wine once this exam is over, I am tasting loads in the coming weeks and working up a good selection of wines for you all to relish in so PLEASE check back with me in a few weeks time and I promise to improve and stop this terrible blog negligence… cheerio for now and don’t forget to enjoy a glass of rosé in the spring sun! (Try an English one as there are loads of good ones out there!)

Saturday treat

We were in for a real treat this weekend as Anna had us over for dinner! Not only is she a brilliant cook, she also likes experimenting with wine!! She served a very fresh and fruity Picpoul de Pinet (a Southern French white) with her delicious homemade Bouillabaisse – very yummy and a great food and wine match. With the cheese board Anna treated us to an oaked Sauvignon Blanc from South Africa – from the 03 vintage, this wine was brilliant. A round, soft texture, very refreshing acidity and notes of melon, nectar and a slight nuttiness on the finish – Anna forgot the name of the producer, could you remind us please?

The beauty of age…

Château des Vaults, La Jalousie 2005 Savennières, Loire France
We tried this white (made from Chenin Blanc) at the spring tasting in 2007 and it was a bit closed although it gave all the hints of what was to come. Tried it again with dinner tonight and it was truly delicious! A lot more open on the nose and the palate is big and round showing the exact same as the nose: honey, nectar and ripe stone fruit with a touch of smoke (no oak involved in this one though). This is what age does to some wines and sometimes 6-9 months is enough. However, I think it will develop for yet some years to come; it’s so much more charming now then it was a year ago yet it still promises more…

Waitrose stocks it for £9.99