Here tonight, a Crozes-Hermitage ‘Domaine de Thalabert’ 2013, PJA.
As I posted about the same recently, to be brief, a spectacularly good match to the food with its savoury black fruit and black olive aromas and flavours. Fresh acidity and resolved tannins, along with the ripe but savoury fruit, gave it an eminently food friendly structure that, in combination, chimed beautifully with the flash cooked liver and the sweetly savoury gravy.
Off topic, as I’ve given up on TV, it’s now time to return to Joni Mitchell’s ‘The Hissing of Summer Lawns’ which has been obsessing me of late !
So what’s in your glass and, for that matter, on your plate this week ?
It’s been a good start to the week for me. Hopefully good for you.
This called to me from the back of the garage.
Grosset Springvale Riesling 2016…
Lime and citrus nose on opening. Maybe some apple too. Fresh crunchy acidity. Dry mineral finish. Good long aftertaste. Very balanced. Dangerously drinkable. 12.7% abv.
More Etna Rosso-like than something say like a Xinomavro or Agiorgitiko, it’s all sour cherries but with a sort of smoky ending that leads me to the comparison. I then get an aftertaste of peaches (or some vague stone fruit thing, probably tinned, at any rate) which I was not expecting. Though very nice, all the same.
Anyway, to reiterate, TWS are absolute masters at finding these fabulous bargain ‘around a tenner’ wines. Is there some training course they all do, or a secret management memo doing the rounds?
Well, so long as no one else posts whilst I’m typing, I get to launch the midweek thread! And I’d like to open with a comment/request. this has been mentioned before, but I am noticing more and more posts in these threads talking about ‘this’ wine with a photo. I do think it’s a shame that people take the time and bother to posts notes on their wine but then don’t put the name of the wine in the post. I’m sure I’m not alone when pondering a wine I’ve not tried before and doing a search in the community to see what others have thought and these posts without the title of the wine can never be found in such a search. Which I do think is a sad when there is such a wealth of well thought out notes here.
This is my first Zinfandel though not my first primitivo and I know it’s a popular one with the community but I’m not so sure it’s for me. Just a bit too sweet and, to my tastes, jammy. Not undrinkable but probably not a re buy.
For what it’s worth I’ve been thinking a bit about this recently. I’m not a big fruit lover; I don’t dislike it but neither do I crave it, I’ll eat fruit if presented with it and a little on my cereal is great but I rarely think, “Oh I must buy some fruit.” And so I suppose it shouldn’t be surprising that I always seem to prefer a mature savoury wine to a young fruity one. I don’t mind a bit of fruit so long as it isn’t in my face - I like Beaujolais crus but I’m not so keen on the more nouveau end of the scale. Which is a drag since that end of the scale is generally more reasonably priced! Ho hum!
Thanks for making the point about including the name of the wine in the text, Mike. It makes it so much more useful - there are times when I know that a wine has been drunk, but then can’t find the post describing it.
On a related point, I’d also make a plea for the date in the thread title to include the day, month and year. I know that I’m never going to get my geek’s paradise of ISO date format, but at least those three things add immediate context.
I am afraid I am guilty as charged on that one. Photographing wine bottles is not my forte. I often get the angle a bit wonky and miss off the vintage…that makes it even worse.
I’ve got to say my thoughts with this one when I tried a bottle a year or two back absolutely mirrored yours - not my cup of tea at all.
In the same breath though, the Liatiko (@Tannatastic above) is a little gem of a wine in my book. I like it slightly chilled myself, and particularly enjoy it with herby-Med-style BBQd stuff.
My last chat with TWS advisors indicated wait another year, but it all depends how you like your wine?
I think I am holding until autumn 2024 @Phil-69ABA
Unsurprisingly, a slightly different interpretation of Xinomavro to the usual Naoussa suspects. Initially, it reminded me more of the Thymiopoulos Rapsani - a darker fruited, bigger mouthful. This lead me to believe that it could last decades, but a further hour or two opened, and it has lightened a little, and the mid palate (whether it’s tannins or ‘stuff’) have relaxed, and the acidic, higher toned aspect (which I was expecting in the first place) has come to the fore. Perhaps slightly less interesting than a Naoussa - seems a bit less savoury (?).
01438 741177
2018
