Woo hoo, it’s Day One of the wino advent calendar! Guess that means I’ll next have a dry day some time in 2022 … here goes…
It’s a Pays d’Oc, 70/20/10 old-vine grenache/syrah/carignan, and a great way to kick things off: a real cockle-warmer. I normally prefer a bit more garrigue stage left in these kind of wines … this one’s all about the ripe fruit but it’s doing a good job of it so I’ll let it off. A very tasty evening sipper 
That one’s now on my wish list and I also notice TWS now have the Monte Velho in half bottles again 
Left to my own devices last night, only catch was I had to put 9 month and 4 year olds to bed. Got there in the end.
Anyway, opened this which I really liked.
Tonight: Ribeye steak & chips, because I deserve it after a day working in London on Monday, and another day down in 'Brum Wednesday. Now back at my (Yorkshire home) desk playing catchup - god knows how I used to do these site meetings when I was younger.
So: Steak & chips, green peppercorn sauce, 2012 Nuit Saint Georges, and an early night. Not sure where I picked this up, or what I paid. A bit posh for midweek.
Loving this review on C.T. Ruby color and aromas of tea and smokey. It’s somewhat balanced and has flavours of cloves, horsey and almond with a medium body. Leathery texture with a short finish.
Update: Later that evening…chips became oven wedges because I could not be bothered to peel them / felt that I owed it to the planet to not add to food waste - and were very nice.
Ribeye was excellent, it always is. Green peppercorn became Sauce Bearnaise.
The wine was on point: very little nose (except the horsey thing) perfect P.N. balance, very drinkable - usual P.N. taste, with some welcome tannin on the finish. I’m thinking this has 2 to 3 years and then it’s into overtime.
Likewise - I thought it was in a good place between new and old world style.
A low intervention red from La Stoppa in Emilia Romagna. 50% each of Barbera and Bonarda. Some oak ageing.
Very spicy/peppery slightly burnt aromas on the nose; strawberry, redcurrant fruit, very dry on the palate. No richness at all. Tannins are very prominent, grippy but ripe. I have included the back label. It is in Italian, but talks about number of bottles and larger formats produced. Their aim is to understand the territory they have and try and express the fruit naturally. They want to produce authentic and characterful wines.
Loving this Meerlust Estate Red (2017) this evening, bottle 2 of 2:
An elegant rather than ‘punchy’ style of a Bordeaux blend, and very light on its feet despite the 14%. The age is starting to show a little with a touch of brick on the rim, but it still has a few more years to go without a doubt.
Notes of hedgerow berries, sloes and cherries on the nose, are accompanied by lovely floral violet-like notes and spicy/woody tones. Some tobacco too, I think. Similar notes on the palate - the fruit is ripe but more red than black (bramble, sour cherries), and it’s framed by good acidity, mellow tannins and wonderful savoury and spicy notes - very appetising!
Only medium in body, and quite restrained - might not be everyone’s cup of tea (and I think @Alabaster_cheeks did not like the heavier Cab Franc presence in the blend), but for me this is classy for the price and incredibly moreish.
Venison haunch steaks and roast spuds will accompany it shortly. Double Yum! 
I’ve got two more so time to fall in love yes I remember being nonplussed
Quiet week but last night enjoyed this Chilean Pinot with some Partridge. I like this combination with game birds and it worked well…classic red berry fruit with a medium finish. Not sure the reserves stay made any difference to our previous bottles.
Will buy again if available.
Tonight with Ginos fish stew ( hake and prawns) we had our last one of this.
Another one to look out for as new vintages arrive.
is this note influenced at all by the position of your glass?
Ha ha! Suggestible me! 
Well, the cosy reds theme continued on Day Two, with this durif:
I considered opening one of my Burgundies and stirring some of this in, for an authentic old-school experience, but chickened out and drank it as it came.
Darker fruit profile than Wednesday’s bottle, but something else too, like new leather with the sun on it. Not what I’d usually buy but I really enjoyed it. The kind of wine for nodding off in front of the telly.
Yeah I agree. I posted about this wine myself a few weeks ago; mine was from Morrison’s and an impulse buy. Didn’t seem to have much in the way of skin-contactedness in the mouthfeel, it was merely on the pleasant - but - unremarkable side of just OK. It didn’t do much more for me after a days’ opening. I would have liked a bit more freshness and acidity.
Seems that Rigal is based in Cahors, dates back to 1755 and was recently sold by the Buzet co-op to Advini. It has “high quality parter estates in… Madiran, Cotes de Gascoigne…” the only one of which that makes a white wine is Domaine Hauret; which presumably provided the G-Manseng fruit. Of interest (or not) is that their portfolio of wines portrayed on their website doesn’t include this vin orange.
Monday we took advantage of Prime’s bring a bottle no-corkage Monday’s and had a fillet steak, triple cooked chips with mixed salad (for me) and onion rings (for Mrs M). I brought this beauty
2014 Ridge Geyserville (California, Sonoma County, Alexander Valley)
I’m of the firm opinion the Zinfandel blended with complementary varieties is way superior to 100% Zin… and this was a cracker.
Tuesday I made Penne Puttenesca and a mixed salad, and of course no-brainer™
2019 Casa Vinicola Roxan The Wine Society’s Montepulciano d’Abruzzo (Italy, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo)
Wednesday Mrs M requested and so I made Chilli sans Carne which we had with pitta breads and
2019 Beyerskloof Pinotage (South Africa, Western Cape)
Always reliable, a lighter style of Pinotage.
Thursday our U3A wine tasting group with partners had the set Christmas 5 course tasting dinner at The Stables. This is an open professional kitchen used to teach students at Oaklands College, so the meal was an opportunity for the trainee chefs to show off. Unfortunately there doesn’t appear to be training or qualifications for FOH staff. The wine wasn’t marked up by much, since Mrs M doesn’t drink Pinot Noir or Malbec we had the only other red at £15
2020 Adria Vini Carlotta Sangiovese (Italy, Puglia, Puglia IGT)
Strangely wines by the bottle weren’t available by the glass, and vice versa. My later thought was that maybe wines by the glass come from a BIB. The partner who drinks only white wines wanted the Chenin so we bought a bottle., and bottles of all the reds went up and down the table.
[Later edit: Mrs M told me she’d seen other tables getting individual serving bottles of wine, thus my BIB theory was wrong. Much better getting an airline sized bottle of fresh wine rather than a tired wine from a BIB, IMO]
The first Christmas event…
(Ridge and Montepulciano from TWS, Pinotage from Sainsbury’s, Sangiovese from The Stables)
I have a lot of love for this wine, well done also for putting your OWN CHILDREN to bed 
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Sorry… couldn’t help myself … 
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I know right! Was pretty proud of myself. Employed a zone defence as I was a teammate down
Bit snarky - after all the hard work he did ensuring they were conceived 
Did this come from a Laithwaites’ wine advent calendar? My lovely wife bought me one, and while very grateful, I had ear-marked this bottle as a component of a future beef stew or similar. (As an aside, I when I retrieved one of the other mini-bottles, a Chillean sauv blanc, my daughter, who is not yet 4 frowned and said, “oh, it’s risotto wine”. I honestly don’t know if that is a sign of good parenting or bad).
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