Well here we all are again. I expect you are all wondering why I’ve gathered you here…
Château Batailley 2003
I have come to bury Caesar not to praise him. And like Anthony I am going to surprise myself by saying this is an actually pretty decent wine. Not spectacular but very nice. Good length and colour, no particular rush to drink. Now it’s your turn.
When it comes to buying cru classé Bordeaux it is a case of “friends, Romans countrymen, lend me your wallets”
This morning we paid a visit to Domaine Eblin-Fuchs at Zellenberg. Clean and characterful wines, a very nice orange wine made from gewurz, riesling and muscat, and excellent GC Rosacker Riesling and GC Froehn Gewurztraminer.
This evening, I’m now on holiday, so Weekday Drinking is allowed 
. I grilled some lamb chops, and served with grilled fennel and courgettes, and grilled potatoes. We drank the first bottle of a wine that I bought a year ago, almost to the day, with @JamesB in Eguisheim - Bruno Sorg, Pinot Noir Sur La Vieille Route, 2018.
The extra year has added a few layers of complexity, but there’s still quite a lot more to come, I think Really serious pinot noir - the tannins are smooth, the fruit is ripe and yet fresh, and there’s all sorts of liquorice and forest floor bubbling under. I cracked and wanted to try a bottle - the challenge will now be not doing so too quickly on the others.
@Prufrock - I took the liberty of adding the year to the thread title - hope you don’t mind.
For ever in search of the Holy Grail of a good wine to go with spicy curry I dug this out of the wine fridge knowing nothing about it in advance, including where on Earth I got it from. I haven’t been to Turkey (on the List, for sure) and it did not appear on My Wines search of my TWS previous orders. And not available anywhere in the UK at present following a Google search. Oh well.
Yapincak 2019 made by Pasaeli in Thrace, north west Turkey. (the bit which adjoins Bulgaria and Greece)
JRWG says that Yapincak is indigenous to that region and is only grown thereabouts. An added gem is that “Yapincak” is a local nickname for a girl with freckled skin. Yapincak
And s**'s law applies here as it is a very good match - the curry was tomato-dominated (current glut in the greenhouse), with cumin, fenugreek that sort of thing, with mushrooms, spicy prawns, dahl and rice. A concoction of items which had been lurking as leftovers in the freezer.
I’m guessing it had quite a bit of skin contact, there was that nice rich bruised apple, clove, toasted orange peel elements, I also got rosemary, thyme, quince, preserved lemon flavours during the proceedings. A very nice and satisfying drop which stood up to and complemented the spice, and I’m really disappointed I have no idea where to get another one !!
Seems to be available here:
Ah good spot, thanks. I’ve ordered 4, which takes me to free delivery; and - I guess I must have got it from this merchant before as I logged-in automatically and it had saved my details.
Strongly recommended that others try it.
I might do that, actually! I’m running a tasting in the autumn for Sussex Wine School with the theme of Wines of the Eastern Med, and other than the Turkish red stocked by the Society (which is a lovely, no fuss red) I haven’t had any other Turkish ideas. So this comes at quite a good timing for me!
No tasting of eastern med wines (assuming you’ve already got an Assyrtiko in the bag) is complete without a Maretheftiko from Cyprus. Hedonism does one from Tsiakkas, which I can also vouch for having visited and tasted it there in '21.
Thanks for this, @PHarvey ! I haven’t finalised the list yet - but sadly I am limited to 6 bottles only 
My plan is currently to do 2 or 3 from Greece, 1 (or now perhaps 2) from Turkey and 2 from Lebanon, which admittedly, is very limited. I wanted to include Israel and Cyprus too, but not sure I’ll have the time to squeeze in everything I want.
Incidentally, when I ran a similar themed tasting for my wine group (this time 9 bottles were opened - much more civilised!), this Cyprus white was the white of the evening:
Highly recommend sneaking this one onto the list, terrific wine for the money.
https://www.thewinesociety.com/product/samos-anthemis-2016-50cl
Exploring Beaujolais a bit. This Hoppenot is remarkable. Marseille soap, strawberries, cherries and violets. Very light and fresh. Low tannin and medium + acidity. Only 11.5% abv.
PS: Marseille soap, some burnt rubber… I think it’s faulty! I’ve come across this before in a faulty batch of beer. If this was a more robust wine it might have been disguised more.
I dug out a range of 2009 bordeaux from stocks to see how they were doing.
Bottle no. 4 from the German Varietals Case: Grauburgunder, Louis Guntrum 2015.
Golden in colour, rich, quite fresh still and with a lemon zest. This is very good.
I shouldn’t have opened a locally made Imperial Stout after this one! 
Oh dear, first time I invoke the promise. That said, I have no reason to doubt the Hoppenot wines can be good so I should probably re-buy. Having very little luck with Beaujolais… maybe should buy Sancerre Pinot Noir and Touraine Gamay instead?
With fried ( crispy skin ! ) sockeye salmon, filled pasta and a green salad…
…a Thorne & Daughters ‘Rocking Horse’ Cape White Blend 2018. ( 25:22:19:18:16 roussanne, semillon, chardonnay, clairette and chenin blanc ).
Citrus, lanolin, green herbs and a toasty undertow on the fragrant nose. Pretty much the same with added mineral intensity on the freshly elegant, creamy textured, deeply flavoured palate.
If I was capable of brevity, one word might suffice, harmonious. As that’s not in my nature, it has that effortless quality, no doubt due to hard work in the vineyard and a skillful hand in the cellar, that so often typifies low intervention SA wines these days !
Not wine but sharing nonetheless. Accidentally opened this at 8:00am post morning run thinking it was fancy apple juice. Turns out it’s actually cider (or cidre) I soon realised. I managed to pop the cork back in and restrain myself until this evening. What a lovely little drop it is now I try it. This was left in a welcome pack when we camped in Normandy earlier this year. It managed to hide in fridge unnoticed until this morning. Very refreshing.
Is breakfast cider now a thing?
It should be
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