Christmas wines, part 3

Chateau Reynon, Premier cotes de Bordeaux, 2006.
Not a patch on it's Christmas day partner - Raats' Cabernet Franc. OK, it was 2 per bottle cheaper but no contest in terms of character. Bland and inoffensive. Rather insipid really. I was hoping to recapture some of the quality of the fabled Gand-Mouyes - also a lowly 'Superior' - but this didn't have anything to separate it from its rivals.
The worry here is that Bordeaux has forgotten how to satisfy below £15. Even allowing for inflation etc, this wasn't the case even £10 years ago.

Christmas wines, part 2

Raats, Cabernet Franc, 2008. Superb depth of flavour.  Of particular interest was whether this was measurably different from Loire reds. I think it may be but either way, it is a cracking wine. At £15 a bottle (WS) this fantastic value for money. I feel like it is the Cabernet Franc component of Claret that might be what makes it so appealing: dry, fruity and cedary in equal measure.

Christmas wines, part 1

The Morgon was part of the contraband case. The Montus was part of a in bond case. The later is still not ready. I shall leave the remainder for at least a couple of years if possible. Perhaps it was just the contrast with the Morgon but the tannins felt furry and somewhat ragged. The Morgon itself was much thinner than I'd expected, agreeable though.

Salice Salentino

We drained two bottles of this at Salvo's Cafe on Dec 23rd.

Total ignorance about Puglia. Very earthy. Dark,  bramble edge to the fruit but not overpowering. Great partner to the food there. Best Italian food I've had outstanding of Italy.

Clos de la Roilette, Flurie, 2010

A birthday wine from MC. This forms the first 2010 cru Beaujolais out of the traps.
Very fine indeed. Has all the sappy juicy-ness I like in a Beaujolais but also a pleasing savoury edge. It's interesting that I often don't associate these wines with any obviously discernable fruit (appart from the occasional black cherry).
Very solid, well rounded wine that is great without overtly trying to be so.
I wonder where it came from?

Barolo

Dan donated this to me at the end of Grace's christening.

Try as I might, I just don't see the point of Barolo.
Entry level seems to be at least £15 a bottle and I've had unremarkable examples that were over double that price.

As far as I can tell, the Nebillo grape seems to produce reds of high acidity, pale colour and a  vaguely pinot noir like flavour. Thus, it looks like gamay and is similar in terms of body but has none of the attributes on the nose or pallet.

Domaine de la croix de Chaintres, Saumur Champigny, 2008

£9 (Waitrose). Superb value. Genuine raspberry burst on the nose (bit of cranberry also?) Earthy, yet light flavour. Becomes progressively more savoury as it develops in the mouth. Fine example of what reasonably priced Cabernet Franc can do. Shades of higher end cru Beaujolais, perhaps without the black cherry edge and more of a soil-like, woody  finish?
In terms of supermarkets, Waitrose really are in a league of their own when it comes to interesting wine at a fair price.

Chateaux Grand Tayac, Margaux 2005

One from Dad's birthday box. He would not have been happy with this. Rather rannic with a fairly rustic edge. Little in the way of any fruit. Absolutely nothing on the nose. Too young perhaps? Possibly, but it's getting on for seven years...being a 2005 Margaux, I dread to think what this cost. It does highlight the rising risk levels associated with buying wine over a tenner.

WS's Malbec (Mendoza, 2010)

Hard to judge this one. At £7 it's reasonable value. Fairly tannic finish, some fruit up front. Much like the Damaine du bosc but more rustic perhaps. Another marker of similarities between South America and the Languedoc?

L'Antique Pouilly Fume

Another Sainsbury's failure. £16 is poor value here for what is a bland inoffensive Sauvignon blanc. Not a patch on the last Pouilly Fume I wrote about.

Southwold wines

The L'Hermitage de Chasse Spleen was the last of the case I think. It may well be my first serious attempt to by good claret by the case. For the first few years it was stored in atrocious conditions (upright, in wildly fluctuating temperatures). At least one bottle had it's cork protruding which didn't bode well. I recall many of these bottles being somewhat thin but this was a cracker. Very smooth, harmonious. Lacking the power of a high end claret but still enough fruit to do it justice.

The Julienas (Adnams) was incredibly good value at £10. Really juicy, light and refreshing.

The Sesti was the reason why I first came into contact with Adnams. It was part of a mixed case put together by The Bunch and released by The Telegraph. Earthy, deep savoury edge to it. I know nothing of the grape or the region. Still can't decide how I feel about Italian reds. All too often they seem rather ragged/rustic yet the price tags don't reflect this.

I was too far gone to recall anything useful about the Rioja. Pity, I think MH paid a fair whack for it.

Louis Max Pouilly Fuisse

£13 reduced from £15 at Sainsbury's and a massive disappointment at either price. Incredibly high acidity for a Maconnaise wine. Very sad to think this is their only medium end white Burgundy.

Pouilly Fume

An outstanding wine. Dr Burton tells me he thinks this may have come from Oddbins, which ties in with its current lack of availability anywhere online. I'd gladly pay £15 a bottle for this. Oddly rich for a sauvignon blanc. Not what I was expecting at all. Almost Riesling-like nose, buttery colour but still very crisp on the finish. Suberb in every way. Makes you wonder if it's time to get back into Loire whites. Time was when Sancerre was the default 'posh white' for our circle.

Madiran, Chateau Montus 2006 | Le Bon Vin

I see that my 2006 Montus is now going for £28.50! I'm pretty sure that I paid something like £13 a bottle after duty and VAT:

Madiran, Chateau Montus 2006 | Le Bon Vin

A good advert for en premiur?

Dona Paulina

At £4.95 (WS) this is a fantastic example of what can be done at this end of the market. Interesting to compare it to the Navarran Sabina which is the same price. I had thought the Sabina good value but can now see it was opting for a 'safety first' approach: inoffensive but pretty thin with little discernable fruit. The Paulina has fruit in abundance but manages to stay balanced and in no way cloying.

A good reason to make further forays into Chile.

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Domaine Champagnon Fleurie 2006

Last of the mixed case from Nick Dobson.

Abundant black cherries, chalky finish. Loads of large, bark-shaving shaped sediment, as seems to be the case with relatively old Beaujolais (tartrate crystals? Very little about this online). Very agreeable all round. It is a pity that I can't bring myself to order more regularly from Dobson. Yet to have a bad - or even mediocre - bottle from him. The lack of cheaper superplonk means I don't split orders when I should. If I was loaded I would order more from the likes of Dobson, Yapp etc but still go for Majestic/Wine Society for the bulk stuff.

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Stellenbosch, Rustenberg 2006

Cracking flavour here. Earthy, cigar box nose. Soil-like edge to the fruit. £13 at Majestic but I'd go back for more. The blend is very claret-like. Perhaps more cabernet sauvignon dominated? If so, would we find a left bank wine of this calibre at this price? You suspect not. Must make greater effort with Stellenbosch, it does look like it avoids some of the cloying issues I (perhaps unfairly) associate with new world reds.

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Caves du Molliere Piquepoul

Last of the case we brought back from Pezenas. Waitrose have a Piquepoul for 7 quid, this cost us about 3 quid a bottle. Part of me is delighted to have found such an agreeable wine (whose constituent grape I had never heard of, let alone tasted) but part of me feels bitter that the UK fails to offer anything approaching this level of value.

Anyway, the wine itself is superb. If I hadn't been aware that the French were enjoying this at such an absurdly low price I would be snapping this up at twice the price. It manages to be a refreshing apperitief but avoid the excessive acidity of low cost sauvignon blanc (e.g. Tourainne). Not a great comparison as it's much deeper in colour and almost has a similar subtle fruit edge (can't say what exactly) to the Samour.

Apparently the Caves du Molliere cooperative was transformed from a run down dive to the impressive outfit it was when I bought this wine. Sad to think that I won't be back in that part of the world for a long time.

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Domanie des Chazelles, Vire-Clesse, 2003

Ripe indeed. Heavy glossy-ness about this. Deep yellow colour. Not a million miles from the Domaine de la Croix. Reduced to a tenner at Nick Dobson and good value at that. I wonder what it would taste in a few years? It's bin-end status suggests no better than now.

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Cuvée de Richard 2010 - Pays de l'Hérault

Billed as 'Amazingly smooth' by Majestic this comes in at £4.99 so will be judged relative to the Armandieres. Majestic no longer stocks the latter but tell me it's made by the same people (conglomerate?).

It has rather more of the baked fruit about it than I'd prefer but it isn't offensive in any way. Leaves me thinking that I'd rather have low-end wines on the thin side (e.g. WS' Sabina Tempranillo) than try too hard with robust flavours. It often feels like they are in danger of highly unbalanced.

Still, this is a contender for good honest superplonk of the red variety.