01438 741177
I find the same is true for the temperature dial…
2 Likes
Yesterday, we came across two excellent wines. The first was Element - a 2017 Syrah produced by Dominic and Rachael Smith on their 12 ha small holding and sold almost exclusively to fine dining restaurants in Hawkes Bay and Auckland (their total production including a Bordeaux Blend wine as well is only 300 cases a year). I thought this the best Syrah I had tasted in New Zealand.
My notes were: Medium Red. Clean nose. Medium intensity. Pure fruit aromas. Black fruits, white pepper. Clean palate. Dry. Good fruit/acidity balance. Silky blackberry fruit. Freshness of raspberry. Hints of gun smoke and leather. Great Syrah in northern Rhône style. Perfect with lamb or beef.
The second wine was from the better know Black Barn Winery - an unoaked Chardonnay 2016 - and accompanied delicious Seaford Chowder produced by Mangapapa Hotel Chilean Head Chef Norka Mella Munoz. The match was perfect.
The wine - Clean and bright. Lemon with hints of gold. Clean nose. Intense. Citrus and butter. Clean palate. Dry. Good acidity. Refreshing lemon fruit. Rounded, buttery, flint. Medium finish. On opening I would have thought this wine had seen oak but as it breathed it became more Chablis like.
6 Likes
Ha ! After roasting some chicken on Saturday I thought I’d make use of the hot oven to bake some sausage rolls I’d prepared whilst the chicken was cooking. I felt quite pleased with myself for being so energy efficient.
90 minutes later, I’m thinking where’s that burning smell coming from ?
11 Likes
This was really up my street. Enjoyed with a chicken and black bean sauce stir fry…
…light bodied, almost tannin free but totally satisfying all the same. Its savoury wild strawberry fruit tasted like it had been filtered through some kind of delicious edible moss.
I only wish I’d tried it sooner whilst still in stock.
5 Likes
Same goes for those timer plugs if you forget to switch from permanently on to timer mode. Our Christmas pud in the slow cooker got about 24 hours instead of 12😳 Certainly won’t need much reheating me thinks.
5 Likes
Revisiting the Alsace Chardonnay from the TWS online tasting last week. It was kept in the eto and it is for the better. It has much more to give than at the tasting. Still a bit poor on the VFM scale, but a delightful little drink. With more pear drop and bruised apple than at that time.
4 Likes
Surprised to find a glass of this left in the fridge and even more surprised to find I’m enjoying it just as much, if not more than at the weekend. A bit more complexity, a bit more fruit, very chardonnay-like but now a bit toasty as well as creamy.
5 Likes
https://www.cellartracker.com/m/wines/2845558
Nose of cut grass, classroom chalk and lime. Palate is lime, kerosene, almost tannic with acidity. But very fresh, very long. Probably not at its best yet but still very nice. Eto’d to see what happens over the next couple of days.
6 Likes
!
Our last bottle of this tonight
More please, TWS 
This is such a smooth, mature yet fruity wine. A beauty.
8 Likes
I very much enjoyed this yesterday. A Castello di Potentino ‘Sacromonte’ Sangiovese 2013 ( IGT Toscano ). Thanks to @Brocklehurstj for the recent notes too, reading them forced my hand to try it ( not that I need much encouragement )…
…quite a pale colour. Red fruits, cherry and raspberry mostly, spice and a hint of tobacco on the nose. Similar flavours on tasting. What surprises is the relatively light body for a wine that weighs in at 14.5% ABV. There was nothing heavy or soupy about it that’s for sure. Mellow and harmonious, soft faded tannins, a smooth supple texture and a great deal of personality for a wine that cost just £10.95.
And very different to other, more well known, sources of Tuscan sangiovese too.
Edit - I know the lentils look like sludge but that were actually really good !
12 Likes
Love lentils 
2 Likes
This is ridiculously good for six quid.
Some people, when they get a new kitchen, have a special tap installed for instant boiling water. I’d have a special tap with this coming out.
14 Likes
Agree. Very gluggable.
Second bottle from Monday’s delivery. Absolutely textbook Chablis, very pure managing to be intense and almost weightless simultaneously. Still a bit cool so hence the decanter - though I suspect it will probably help anyway. This is front runner for a wine at my birthday bash at the end of the month.
11 Likes
Tomorrow we are going to a tasting of Katy Jones’ wines organised by Fareham Wines. Looking forward to it, taking our friends (also called Jones) with whom we visited the winery two summers ago on a scorching hot day.
Here she is in action with a bottle of her lovely Rose in hand
7 Likes
That’s a quirky little shop! Great for geek-talk. Is there still no space anywhere for two people to walk past each other?
We have those taps at work. They’re rubbish. Yours sounds much better!
4 Likes
This is a wine we keep re-ordering. Cabernet Franc with 20% Cabernet Sauvignon added to stiffen it up a bit. Light black fruit with something herbaceous; a bit of tannic grip and lively acidity. Pre-Christmas walnut mailed to anyone who can guess the Monk album.
7 Likes
My first drinking thread reply for ages!
From Rajat Parr’s Sandhi, this is the entry-level Chardonnay. Surprisingly intense but balanced. Malo flavours, floral, yellow apple. One of my white wines of the year. Drinking so beautifully at 6yrs. From Lay & Wheeler, £27.
I love the Bourgogne Blanc from Tollot-Beaut and while pinot noir isn’t really my grape I took a punt on a case of 2015 from Justerini & Brooks for £85 IB. Not as much red fruit, cola on nose as many PN. Palette layered with leather, fruit and even a little spice. Very good for the £ and will buy more.
13 Likes