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Half bottle of 2016 Guigal CDR this evening. This is another good bottle, lots of ripe sweet blackberries balanced with a touch of acidity. Three of the seven I have drunk have been really very good and far evolved from the first bottle I broached in Dec last year. Six more in stock thankfully. I have noticed a touch of sweetness creeping in to the last three bottles…no idea if significant but am starting to wonder when these will start declining. Even though is only a CDR is first time I have been able to follow the evolution of a wine…fortunately in fairly short time…fascinating stuff.
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A wine that reaffirms one’s faith in TWS…
…the thought process started at ‘what wine goes well with lemon sole and asparagus’. After a Google, TWS website came up suggesting, well, this. But then the demon 'but surely a £7.50 wine isn’t really Saturday night fayre, no? Still…
Quite clearly - and for me indisputably - a worthy Wine Champion. Remarkable concentration for an everyday supermarket price. And still available!
https://www.thewinesociety.com/product/feudo-arancio-grillo-sicilia-2021
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CVNE Reserva Imperial 2017 from Co-op £20 (same price as TWS in July but now o.o.s).
With cauliflower cheese & butcher’s sausages, plus grilled greenhouse tomatoes.
Wine is brimming with primary flavours - yet the tannins are subdued so VERY enjoyable. Plenty of oak, plums, raspberry, roses maybe? quite full bodied. You have to like oak. In my humble opinion, this is how benchmark GOOD Rioja Reserva should be in it’s youth.
I suspect this will be another wine entirely in ten years time - much better certainly - but unlikely to survive on the wine rack.
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Well tonight I tried the first of a case of 6 I bought after Taffy-on-Tour extolled the virtues of Clos du Caillou. It was had with what was left of shoulder of lamb that had not been turned into Merguez sausage. Cooked with carrots and lentils with an addition of hedgerow jelly (brambles, elderberry and raspberry).
Food was nice but wine was exquisite. Aromas of brambles, raspberries, cedar, star anise and vanilla. Lovely smooth tannins and good acidity with equivalent flavours and a long finish.
So glad of Taffys recommendation may he be sipping heavenly nectar now. The better half thought it was brilliant and was very pleased to hear we had more than one bottle even when she heard the price.
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https://www.thewinesociety.com/product/hochheimer-stielweg-riesling-alte-reben-trocken-kunstler-2019
I was expecting a bit more acidity, a bit drier, to go with slow cooked belly of pork. But diasappointed? Absolutely not! Rounded, depth of flavour, long, peachy and delicious.
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This half was opened yesterday (more later and likely tomorrow too) with Roquefort and crackers as a late-night snack …
…a Barsac Chateau Doisy Daene 2011.
The amber gold colour had me guessing whether it was age related or just heavily botrytised. I’m no expert but it’s likely due to a combination of both. Apricot jam, aged marmalade, vanilla and, yes, musky noble rot notes on the nose and lusciously sweet palate. Vibrant acidity provided the cut to balance the richly sweet flavours. A really good match to the powerful, salty, flavours in the cheese too.
On the go now, and with an overly salted duck breast fillet and Puy Lentils earlier…
an Alto Adige Pinot Nero ‘Riserva Mazon’ 2016 from Hofstatter, As you can see from the pic an attractive colour and probably the poorest quality cork I’ve encountered in my wine drinking life. Geez, it was a shocker, how it came out intact, but still in two pieces, I’ll never know. Thankfully, and much to my surprise, the wine within was in good shape.
Savoury red fruits, some damp soil complexity and a floral note on the fragrant nose. Very similar on the medium bodied palate, ripe strawberry and raspberry fruit, a hint of spice and a savoury undertow with light tannins and fresh acidity to balance and structure. Varietally correct and a very pleasant drink. That said, the shocking cork will forever remain in my memory and likely put me off buying anything further from the same producer !
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Don’t let it do that, their wines are very good in my limited experience.
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One of these for me this evening - another 2019 Lysa Verdelho. Enjoyed with some actually rather good Thai/Malay take-away food from a [new for us] place in Hitchin. Wife takes no prisoners when it comes to this kind of thing, and her choices were good - place & dishes.
This is my third of six, and it has calmed down and flattened out a bit since my first one in May last summer [2021]. Still delicious though, fragrant and with a slightly nervy citrussy characteristic, toasted limes, some green fruit, a hum of honey and a good invigorating seam of acidity throughout. Really tasty, and very good with the food.
Interesting to see where these go, but I think if I buy any more - quite likely at some point - I probably love the mind-boggling honey-haze decadence of these in their youth slightly more.
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Yes, both the lagrein and pinot bianco from their varietal range are very good, their gewurz was less to my taste though, but I expect better quality control and attention to detail in a £25 bottle !
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The name sounds like a disease…I feel your pain. I have gone through this twice and come to the conclusion that the emperor is fairly scantily clad.
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Bought this in Chinon week before last on our way to the ferry….
So to join a restaurant meal we enjoyed on our roadtrip… prosciutto wrapped monkfish with a shellfish bisque and this knock out Chenin.
A bit off cooking effort but we’ll rewarded.
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The most positive thing I can say about it (which is actually a very positive thing) is that it was great for steaming open mussels. To drink? Not so much.
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Interesting… I have a bottle of this left, but have also had previous vintages at an older age than this and they’ve held their shape. Maybe not the dish for it as you say, but I wonder if it’s aged a bit too quickly under the stairs?
Some quite different opinions on it over at CT too…and some from people who I would listen to. My last one was definitely a bit softer than the first.
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Voge make very good wine. Agree with you on the Planeta Etna. It would be a very good wine at £12 a bottle.
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Cheating a bit as this is last weekend post daughter’s wedding and this…plus a bit of midweek!
Last Sunday with takeaway Indian we had this, more accurately, I had this…
Quite deep gold. More open than a Trimbach. Off dry; lychee, spice but not ‘blowsy’ in any sense, retains its shape.
A great food wine with a Chicken Parsi, quite hot, then a pork stir fry with ginger, chilli and garlic two nights later.
Also these…
Drunk over three separate nights with Coravin.
The fruit forward exuberance of a year or two has gone for now. Quite dense and closed up. Reminds me a bit of Mas de Daumas in that respect. Finished tonight…very dark and deep, iron on the palate, with some tannin still unresolved and some sediment. Preferred it younger, and may prefer it older. One bottle left to tell.
Coravined two glasses. Big oak influence still. It calms down in the glass but still not fully integrated.
I know that some others have been more positive on this recently. Maybe it needs a full decant for an hour or so. Still quite young.
Last night had this with the 1874 Mag recipe for Tuscan meatballs which I can thoroughly recommend. The wine was probably a little overwhelmed by it but tasted good on its own.
On the gentle downslope now. The vibrancy of colour has faded.
Acidity waning a bit, fruit still there to a degree.
Second night with steak, the first glass was good, second and final glass fading noticeably. Drink up.
Finally this…
Actually we had it with home made pizza a week past Friday, night before the wedding.
Sour cherries on nose and palate. More acidity and grip than I remember from last bottle though this was opened at cellar temperature.
Refreshing though fruit less assertive than before. One more bottle, maybe a year or so left in it? GV compared to Chianti of similar quality…see @Leah mixed case recommendation!
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Exactly what I thought. If this was in the £12-15 bracket (more closer to £12 is what I thought in quality), this would be a very good wine for the price.
In my head I had it as I paid £19. Was surprised to see it at £22. It’s overpriced at that for me.
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Interesting to read re the Crussol - it’s a lovely wine; I’ve got a case of the 19s in reserves, but leaving them to slumber a while yet is probably best, I suspect.
Re the Passopisciaro, what year/s have you had? I’ve got a case of the 2012 Contrada Rampante sitting with Corney & Barrow as a wedding anniversary wine, and have been wondering if it’s time to get some in to try. CT suggests plenty of time yet, but I can’t deny I’m interested to crack one open, and am curious which one/s you’re talking about :~}
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With our mainly veggie (+ pork) dinner we drank Joliet, Fixin Clos de la Perriere 2013.
The Jasper Morris note on the linked page is pretty accurate. This was a point - beautiful translucent ruby colour, classic burgundy forest floor nose, and light, strawberry/raspberry flavours to taste, with liquorice and as it opened smoky mid palate. Very long finish. Delicious.
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Another half-bottle from @Sarah. This verdiccchio packs lots of flavour. I had it with mackerel pâté and it cut the oily fish like a knife. Talk about resetting palate: this was perfect. A jolt of fruit to bring you back to the start.
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I’m debating going in on bottle 1/6 quite soon (probably next summer) on my '19s. I’m about to withdraw some other white rhone (Coudoulet Blanc 2018 or the 2019 Take Six White Rhone case are most likely) to try and stop me scratching that itch and leave them a little longer though.
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