Grapefan's wine adventures

The wines of Mladen Roxanich

2012-01-30T22:13:00.002Z

This year each Hotel du Vin throughout the UK is hosting a dinner featuring wines from Croatia. I went to my local Hotel du Vin in Tunbridge Wells with Pacta Connect who import Croatian wines. The idea was to taste the wines from Roxanich with the sommelier and consider what foods they could best be matched.

This was my first real opportunity to focus on the wines from one Croatian producer and what a producer to start with. The wines were of a consistently high quality with a guideline price to match of £31 for the whites and £36 for the reds from Pacta Connect.

The whites were orange if you’ll excuse the paradox. The length of skin contact, up to as much as 100 days, meant that the finished wine took on some of the colour of the skin. Whilst not a fully biodynamic or organic producer Mladin Roxanich believes in minimal intervention in the winemaking process allowing the natural yeasts, and long skin contact, to work its magic.

My favourite white was the Malvasia and the red was the Merlot. Full tasting notes are on Adegga.

Afterwards I introduced Mladin and Pacta Connect to The Secret Cellar, the premier wine shop in Tunbridge Wells. Their comment on the wines is best summed up by their tweet (@TheSecretCellar) about having tasted some “excellent Croatian wines”.

For interest, the pictures from the Hotel du Vin were taken in the Havana Room a 1950’s Cuban style meeting room which perfectly suited Mladin who is a very keen cigar smoker.

Wine Blogging Wednesday

2012-01-17T15:18:00.000Z

The latest prompt from Wine Blogging Wednesday asks us to write about what sparked our interest in wine and what prompted us to start blogging about it. For me I think it all started with a bottle of wine at my parent's dinner table many, many years ago. What was the wine?

Well, it was good old Mateus Rose.

My parents used to serve it to dinner guests - we are talking about the 1960's here - and I remember it for two reasons.

One it seemed to be the height of fashion to have a bottle of this on the table and it wasn't just because of the unusual bottle shape. This was Scotland in the 1960's where the usual tipple was beer or whiskey so this was out of the ordinary, dare I say "chic".

The second reason I remember it was because of the explosion when my Dad used a compressed air bottle opener - again the height of fashion - to take the cork out. I still have a clear picture of him holding the top of the bottle in his hands with the rest of the bottle on the floor in pieces. And where was the wine? It was all over my Mum's new velvet curtains.

I recall nothing about the taste of the wine. I may not even have been of drinking age at the time but I do remember the event very vividly after all these years. It was my first exposure to wine - to this beverage which was to absorb and captivate me for the rest of my life.

I went and bought myself a book by Hugh Johnson. I took every opportunity I could to taste wine and eventually decided to get some qualifications from the WSET, ending up with the Diploma. It was the exercise of studying for this final qualification over a 2 year period that prompted me to start a blog about my experiences. And all because of a bottle of Mateus Rose all these years ago.

You can read about other bloggers' stories over at The Corkdork.

It is time for Virginia and its wines

2011-12-22T15:35:00.000Z

This blog is about a wine tasting I didn’t attend. If this sounds a bit perverse please bear with me while I explain.

Prompted by Wink Lorch’s (@winetravel on Twitter) post about the Circle of Wine Writers Christmas tasting which was hosted by the Virginia Wine Board and the Virginia Tourism Corporation it set me thinking about my own experiences of Virginia and its wines. As a result I’ve come to the conclusion that now is just the right time for wine producers and the tourist authorities to capitalise on the connections between Virginia and the UK. Although my own experiences of wine and Virginia are somewhat limited I’ve probably got more experience than 98% of wine drinkers in the UK.

In addition to a summer working in Baltimore when I made regular trips into Virginia, I spent time on business in Williamsburg several years ago. At that time the meetings I was attending were at the College of William and Mary, one of the top Colleges in the US. Our host who was the President of the College was a real wine enthusiast. I can still picture his cellar and hear his voice enthusiastically talking about his recent imports from Italy. At that time I guess Virginian wine did not have the profile it does now.

I think one of the reasons he imported wine from Italy (and many other Old World countries) could be loosely attributed to what has become very fashionable these days and that is the wines had a “sense of place”. Whilst wine professionals often attribute a “sense of place” to the specific terrain where the vineyard is, I am sure he as a regular wine consumer associated it with Italian culture – the people, the food, the sights, the history and so on.

I would argue that Virginia has the same to offer. There is a huge amount of history and culture with strong links back to the UK. It was in Virginia that the English founded America’s first permanent colony over 400 years ago in Jamestowne. The Loyalists then fought for our King in America during the American Revolution. Williamsburg is the location for the second oldest college in America founded by our King William III and Queen Mary II. Wherever you go, and especially in Colonial Williamsburg, you are reminded of the strong ties between Virginia and the UK. Heavens, even Pocahontas (pictured) the Indian princess made famous by the Disney film is buried in Gravesend in Kent!

“Wine tourism” is also on the increase. You can visit South African vineyards whilst on holiday. Sonoma and Napa are within easy reach of many tourist sites in California. Why not Virginia as a place to visit and taste wine at the same time? Given the beauty of Virginia and countless sights of interest dotted around the state there is much for the tourism authorities to promote. There’s Colonial Williamsburg which is the restored 18th-century capital of Britain’s largest, wealthiest, and most populous outpost of empire in the New World, the Blue Ridge Parkway one of America’s scenic driveways or Mount Vernon which is George Washington’s home and burial site to name but a few.

In addition there is the good old fashioned “welcome” that Americans are so good at. Americans are naturally friendly people and are good at making visitors feel welcome.

My own experience of Virginian Wines is mainly limited to those from Williamsburg Winery. I brought a few bottles back from one of my trips and recall thinking the Chardonnay being particularly good. UK wine consumers are familiar with American wine even if much of it is Blossom Hill. There are however many other well known names – Ravenswood for its Zinfandels, Mondavi for its Cabernets.

There is absolutely no reason why Virginia wines should not begin to feature or become as well known. I feel the time has come for Virginia and its wines to make their mark in the UK.

Hardys wine

2011-12-16T13:22:00.000Z

So what springs to mind when you think of Hardys wine? It is probably Hardys Crest which seems to be available from every supermarket to every corner shop/off licence. The reality is that Hardys make a range of wines from the everyday to the something special as I found out at a event organised by them and held at the Waitrose Cookery School. The event certainly opened my eyes.

I had been at two events the previous week where I had done vertical tastings of multi award winning Semillons going back to 1997 and also Zinfandels back to to 1999. When you are exposed to wines such as these it is very easy to ignore the types of wines that people are exposed to every day, the sort that line the supermarket shelves and always seems to be on some kind of offer - "3 for £12" or "£9.99 down to £4.99". These offers beg the question as to whether these wines ever sell at the full price..........

Now I'm not going to pretend that the entry level Hardys wines are wonderful with lots of character but they are all very drinkable and taste as you would expect a Chardonnay or a Cabernet Shiraz to taste. And importantly they offer a good price point and entry into Australian wine for many people and a good accompaniment to pizza. What Hardys also offers though is the a roadmap for the more curious wine lover to try something else. To explore the same grape variety with a different label and costing more so they can answer the question themselves - does paying more mean getting a better wine? (The answer is of course probably although it doesn't necessarily follow that the drinker will like every more expensive wine they try).

So they can move from Hardys Stamp Chardonnay/Semillon blend to Nottage Hill Chardonnay or Nottage Hill Cabernet Sauvignon/Shiraz blend to the Waitrose labelled Anniversary Shiraz. Having (probably) seen that they enjoyed the experiment they may then try the Oomoo range although I consider it unlikely that the average consumer will then trade up to the Eileen Hardy wines which retail for between £35 to £45.

It was the Reynella and Eileen Hardy wines that convinced me however that Hardys deserve to be better known as not just a high volume, pile 'em high and sell em' cheap producer but as the organisation behind some real quality wine. Both the Eileen Hardy 2006 Chardonnay and 2004 Shiraz were real stunning wines.

Is it Semillon Blanc or Sauvignon Blanc?

2011-12-08T20:09:00.001Z

The invitation was for lunch with Neil McGuigan.

I had been at a dinner earlier in the year when he had launched The Shortlist range to Majestic staff plus a few bloggers like me. As he’s an entertaining and witty man I jumped at the chance to get to meet him again, this time to taste through the Semillons he makes. As it turned out the lunch took place the day after he had been announced IWSC Winemaker of the Year for a second time. To win it once is amazing but twice is unheard of.

The focus on the Semillons was because of the launch of McGuigan’s Semillon Blanc, a bit of a play on Kiwi Sauvignon Blanc. It’s an attempt to woo drinkers away from Kiwi savvy and, having tasted the wine, I think it will work. Soft and easy drinking, it's like a glass of tropical fruit and at £6.99 or thereabouts it's great value for money. There is also a non vintage Sparkling Brut which is an easy drinking and fruity glass of bubbles which willl really give Prosecco a run for its money when people taste the flavour to it.

We also got a chance to taste through the Bin 9000 Semillons ranging in age from the 2011 to the 1997, perfectly illustrating the development of Semillon from a fresh and zesty youngster to a gorgeous aged wine with toast, hay and marmalade flavours. The medals these wines have won at the IWSC including several "Best in Class" show what an amazing and consistent job McGuigan do in producing world class wines. Detailed tasting notes can be found over at my fellow taster's site David Lowe.

However the following day it was back to reality when I saw a poster outside my local Sainsburys advertising the McGuigan Bin Series for £4.99 down from £9.99. It got me thinking what kind of producer McGuigan are.

McGuigan may produce some amazing Semillons but they are better known amongst regular supermarket wine drinkers for their everyday Black Label wines. However although they may be better known as a large producer making mass market wines for the supermarket, as I have found out they perfectly balance that with the production of small batch, award winning, best in class wines.

Now I don't think there are that many producers who can claim to do both ends of the market place that well.

Say no to wimpy wines

2011-12-07T13:43:00.001Z

A selection of the zins

It was a coincidence that at the recent Three Wine Men event in London the Ravenswood Teldeschi Zinfandel was voted by DoILikeIt participants as the joint best wine of the show. Coincidental as I it had been my favourite Zin at a dinner hosted by Joel Petersen known as Mr Zin and the man behind Ravenswood.

Now Joe is quite a storyteller so he kept a small group of us engaged throughout the whole dinner. Whether he was talking about the Oz Clarke and James May's visit as part of their BBC series or how he started up in a business producing the Vintner's Blend the biggest selling Zinfandel in the world, it was fascinating listening to him

Ravenswood Zinfandels ready for tasting

The evening started with a taste through the range from the Vintner's Blend '09 to the Teldeschi single vineyard from 1999. The 1999 was my favourite but the '06 which used to be available from Majestic at around £25 was pretty good also with lots of lovely red and plum fruit, great balance and structure with well integrated oak. By comparison the Vintner's Blend was fairly straightforward but what else do you expect for a "supermarket" wine selling at anything from £6 to £8.

He talked about the 3 Zin sins of "too much oak, too much sugar and too much alcohol". He was asked about the parentage of Zinfandel as its often thought it came from Primitivo brought over by Italian immigrants to the New World. He reckons that current research proves it is a closer family member to Plavac Mali from Croatia.

A fascinating evening.

Cono Sur wines and the environment

2011-12-04T21:04:00.001Z

I got sent a couple of Cono Sur wines by their PR agency recently. Seeing the labels took me back some years when I worked part time for Oddbins. It was the graphic of the bicycle on the pinot noir label that always stood out on the shelves. I can even remember the name of the winemaker (Adolfo Hurtado) who it was said used the bike to cycle around the vineyards forsaking anything mechanical as it did not fit in with Cono Sur’s environmental credentials. Whether this was just clever marketing or not, the name and the idea stuck in my mind.

Roll forward 5 years or so and of course much more is being made of the environment and man’s effect on it and every wine business is expected to have a “green” policy with several wineries pronouncing themselves as “carbon neutral”. It's interesting then to think that all these years ago Cono Sur saw it as something they could use to make themselves stand out from the crowd. Others are now catching up it seems.

Their web site says the following:

"Since 1998, our commitment to the environment has been growing and assuming new challenges. Sustainable agriculture, integrated vineyard management and several carbon footprint reduction projects have taken us to the forefront of environmentally friendly winemaking around the world."

In fact as early as July 2007 Cono Sur became the first winery in the world to obtain CarbonNeutral® delivery status and now in 2011 the magazine The Drinks Business has named Cono Sur "Green Company of the Year"

So does all this make a difference to how the wine tastes? That's a tough one to assess or even measure but but I enjoyed them as much as I used to enjoy their wines in Oddbins' days. They are consistent, fruit forward and well made with examples such as the 20 barrels pinot noir showing the complexity and elegance you would expect from a more expensive wine. My tasting notes for the samples I was sent are available on Adegga.

Do all these environmental claims make a difference as to whether consumers buy or not? Well, a recent article in Harpers confirms that as more wine companies jump on the environmentally friendly bandwagon, achieving full organic or biodynamic certification gives producers greater credibility with the consumer.

This must work in Cono Sur's favour given its long history on the matter.

Brit Pack - what's in a name?

2011-11-29T19:22:00.000Z

The phrase “BritPack” conjures up images of famous stars of the 1950’s and not of anything wine related. However in the wine world nowadays it’s the name given to four British people who have decided to “live the dream” by moving to France and starting to make wine.

I met them all at a press event in the Waitrose shop in John Lewis on Oxford Street, held there as they all make wine that sells only in Waitrose. The wines were as follows, prices referring to Waitrose/Waitrose Wine Direct or Ocado:

Mirabeau 2010, Cotes de Provence rose £8.99 - lovely redcurrant aromas, refreshing and nicely spicy. A good example of why rose should not just be for the summer!
Domaine Begude Terroir 111300 2010, Haute Vallee de l'Aude £8.69 - nicely restrained oak on the nose and the palate. A well made barrel fermented chardonnay ideal with food or as an aperitif.
Le Coquille d'Oc Blanc 2011, IGP Pays d'Oc £6.99 - an intriguing blend of sauvignon,chardonnay, viognier and muscat. Light refreshing and appealling.
Chateau Maris Les Vielles Vignes 2009, Minervois La Liviniere £12.99 - well worth the money. A brooding but drinkable wine of rich red fruit and spice

So will the label “BritPack” help them sell more wine? I don’t see why it shouldn’t. Giving themselves this name, evocative of past celebrities, certainly grabs attention. With the plethora of wine on the supermarket shelves producers need something to help their wines stand out so why not a catchy name? They have a pretty good website linking you through to their individual sites.

The key of course however is what's the wine like. As my notes show its really very good especially at the price.

Chateau de Pez

2011-11-11T15:16:00.001Z

A phone call one morning gave me an opportunity at very short notice for some work at a wine tasting event run at Vinopolis by Square Meal, an independent guide to restaurants, bars and venues in London and the UK. I was working for Louis Roederer on the Chateau de Pez stand pouring wines for the visitors. We had a vertical of the 2006, 2007 and 2008 and lots of the guests not only appreciated the chance to taste a top wine from Bordeaux but also to be able to compare 3 vintages side by side.

There was no doubt that the 06 and 08 were showing well with lots of ripe red berry fruit with subtle toast and spice. The fruit of the 07 however was rather masked by the acidity and tannins but it was clear that all these wines had structure, concentration and complexity and would develop, and last, for many years.

This is the part of my (loose) involvement in the wine trade that I love - the opportunity to taste three wines side by side from a prestigious St Estephe estate and engage with consumers helping them to appreciate the quality of the wines.

These wines all retail for £35.

d'Arenberg wines

2011-11-11T15:09:00.001Z

Since working with Oddbins (in its old days, not in its current much smaller incarnation) I’ve always had a soft spot for d’Arenberg wines. They were popular in the shop from the basic entry level ones right through to the top of the range Dead Arm. I remember how when the branch in Tunbridge Wells used to get its allocation of Dead Arm, often only half a case, the manager would know exactly who wanted them. He’d call the customers and they would come into the shop pleased to get their hands on at least one bottle.

I also recall the time when working behind the scenes at the International Wine Challenge one of the judges was Chester d’Arenberg Osborn with his trademark loud shirts. You can read about him on their web site.

The chance to catch up with the d’Arenberg wines came my way recently courtesy of d'Arrys Cookhouse and Wine Shop in Cambridge. They describe themselves as a “restaurant and bar in the heart of Cambridge that brings together the best in food and wine within a contemporary yet comfortable atmosphere”. Their wine list covers the full range of d’Arenberg wines at all price points.

Thanks to a fellow wine lover Tom who is the “Cambridge Wine Blogger” they sent me a couple of bottles to sample. The detailed tasting notes for the Unwooded Chardonnay and The High Trellis are up on Adegga so suffice it to say the quality and appeal of the wines haven’t changed since my days in Oddbins. They remain interesting wines and ones that jump out at you from the shelves. The quirky design of the labels catches your eye, the names are intriguingly different and the wines sound appealing given the range of varieties they produce.

It’s good to know on the basis of the tasting of the two above, plus a recent personal tasting of the Viognier, that the quality remains high.

Picking Pinot Noir

2011-10-22T17:28:00.000Z

My second day of picking grapes was at Davenport's Rotherfield vineyard in East Sussex, set on the side of a lovely peaceful valley.

This picture was taken at 8:30am just as the sun was beginning to light up the pinot noir vines. It was lovely to watch the sun creep up the rows.

A pinot noir bunch. It had been a difficult year in which to grow pinot and lots of the bunches had many less grapes in the cluster than this one.

A well earned lunch for the grape pickers.

Autumnal hues showing through on the leaf.

A view down the rows to the west side of the valley.

The Rotherfield vineyard is where the winery is so it was good to have a look around and see the tanks and barrels and all the other paraphenalia a working winery needs. It's a shame this picture doesn't capture the smell of fermenting Baachus!

A very satisfying day made all the more so by the company and the weather which meant I was picking in my shirt sleeves for most of the day. Not bad for the end of the first week in October.

Picking Bacchus

2011-10-20T20:42:00.000Z

Here are a few pictures from my first ever day picking grapes. This took place thanks to a chance look at the web site of Davenport Vineyards who were asking anyone interested in picking grapes to get in touch. I had just recently tasted their Limney Estate 2006 at a tasting panel organised by Sparkling English Wine and rated it the best of the bunch on tasting that day so it seemed an ideal opportunity.

This first photo was taken on arrival around 8am in the morning in Davenport's vineyard in deepest Kent in South East England. Overcast but dry initially it turned into a reasonable day for picking. If you look very carefully in the top left hand corner of the picture you will see the "hawk" - not real of course - that is flown above the wines to deter starlings. It works for about three weeks or so I am told then the starlings get wise and go for the grapes.

Some of the morning's pickings of ripe and sweet Bacchus grapes with lots of good clusters. Towards the bottom of the slope however the clusters were less well formed, caused by frost in the valley earlier in the year.

Ripe Bacchus grapes just ready for picking.

If you read Decanter magazine, you will have seen the piece on the back page featuring a vineyard dog of the month. This one is Nelson, a bundle of energy who likes nothing better than nuzzling up to the pickers with a tennis ball. They fall for it, throw the ball which Nelson then brings back and the whole cycle starts over again. Its a time waster when you are meant to be picking grapes but great fun as he is such a lovely dog.

Finally a picture of the newly arrived press which was going to be put to good use the evening we picked the Baachus, slowly pressing the grapes over night all two tonnes of them.

An enjoyable day. Next week it's pinot noir.

Sparkling English Wine

2011-10-04T12:03:00.000Z

Recently a small group of us gathered in the splendid dining room of an old Sussex farmhouse to taste some English sparkling wines. The group included a Master of Wine, England’s most experienced winemaker and two graduates of Plumpton College, England’s premier college for wine studies. Our job was to taste 10 sparkling wines from 6 producers and decide which wines were good enough to be sold by Sparkling English Wine on their web site. I was lucky enough to have been selected to join the tasting panel.

Our task was made easy by the quality of what was on offer - it was consistently good. We did however only chose 6 out of the 10 wines that had been submitted as 4 fell short of the high standards we had set ourselves. However it was pleasing to find out afterwards that we had selected one wine from each producer who had submitted a sample. The producers varied from the well known such as Carr Taylor through to the less well known such Upperton. Its great that the less well known get an opportunity to sell their wines to a wider range of winelovers through Sparkling English Wine.

The star wine for me, and I think all of us, was the Limney Estate 2006 which is incredible value for money and the best rose was the Sedlescombe organic cuvee rose brut 2008.

All of us are looking forward to the next submission of wines from English producers so we can select some more wines to expand and enhance the range of sparkling wines offered by Sparkling English Wine.

Cheers!

Food and wine matching

2011-09-23T15:44:00.000Z

As someone who enjoys cooking, grows his own vegetables, has an interest in environmental matters and loves wine then the latest press release from Cono Sur’s PR agency caught my eye.

They got a number of wine experts together to pair Cono Sur's wines with seasonal produce. Now food and wine matching is not something I spend a lot of time thinking about so I have agree with Sarah Jane Evans who says that you shouldn't spend TOO much time worrying about getting the perfect combination.

It's an interesting lineup of wine experts around the table and given who they are ( BBC Good Food’s Master of Wine Sarah Jane Evans, The Wine Gang’s Jane Parkinson, Channel 4’s ‘The Cookery School’ wine expert Ewan Lacey, and Saturday Kitchen’s Master of Wine Peter Richards), the video is well worth watching. It is also only 6 minutes in length so is perfectly digestable if you'll excuse the pun.

It was only looking at the video on You Tube that I noticed a number of other Cono Sur videos. Considering the time and effort that must have gone into preparing them, it's shame they don't get more air time as they are well presented.

Check out the video and leave me a comment on what you think.

Seasonal food and wine matching video

Wines of Croatia

2011-09-13T18:21:00.000Z

I had my first exposure to a large number of Croatian wines at the Wines of Croatia tasting last week in London. Price and availability seem to be key issues from talking to other attendees but there don't seem to be any quality issues as I thought the standard pretty good.

There were two standout wines for me:

* Cossetto Malvazija Rustica 2009 made from grapes picked 30 days later than normal which gives it glorious ripe peach and spice flavours.

* Clai Sv Jakov 2009 with lovely honeyed marmalade aromas but not in any way sweet, perfect balance with a touch of spice on the finish.

These two wines certainly showed the quality that is possible from the indigenous strain called malvasia istriana.

The Wine Gang had selected a range of wines across the spectrum of styles and this was a great intro. However I was less than impressed with the reds from plavac mali reminding me in a small way of salted anchovies rather than the zinfandel/primitivo parentage it is supposed to have.

Although availability may be a problem Pacta Connect stock a wide variety.

Now if only I could correctly pronounce some of the region and grape names.......!

Vinho Verde

2011-07-19T19:33:00.000Z

I’m on a mission to raise the profile of Vinho Verde. I served it at my birthday party last month and it proved a perfect lunch time wine given its freshness and relatively low acidity. I served the Arca Nova from Quinta das Arcas supplied by Casa Leal. My tasting note can be found on Adegga.

This week saw the “The Boys are back in town” a trade event in London organised by the Vinho Verde Wine Commission CVRVV. There appears to be a renewed enthusiasm and interest in Vinho Verde amongst the trade and consumers and, with journalists such as Jamie Goode a real fan, then there is the beginning of a “buzz” about the wines with exports increasing by 11% from 2008 to 2010, no mean feat in today’s difficult economic conditions.

There were some really good wines at the event and it’s interesting that of the 15 producers at the event 7 are looking for UK representation. In my role as a Naked Wines Archangel I was keeping my eyes open for wines they could import and I did pass on two names whose wines I particularly enjoyed. When I talk about the wines I am restricting myself to the whites. There were some reds at the tasting which were not for me. The Portuguese can keep them for the moment

The web site belonging to the CVRVV is well worth checking out. I love Portugal having been to the Algarve several times and also to Lisbon. The Minho region which is where Vinho Verde comes from sounds gorgeous and the web site has a neat tool to allow you to plan a route between wineries where you can taste, vineyards you can visit interspersed with other tourist things to do. It even recommends places you can stay and you can build all this up into a map you can print off Google Maps giving directions and driving times. They really are making it easy for the wine lover to visit the region.

I hope I get to go sometime soon.

The Three Chimneys on the Isle of Skye

2011-07-18T19:34:00.000Z

Much has been written already about The Three Chimneys on the Isle of Skye and although this a blog about wine I couldn’t let one of the best meals in my life pass by without adding my view on the place.

My view can be summed up in one word – stunning.

The sheer remoteness of the place and the anticipation that develops in the journey there all add to the sense of this being something special. Add to this the fact that I was being treated to dinner by my lovely wife as it was a VERY significant birthday for me just made the visit a real sense of occasion.

The location looking out onto Loch Dunvegan, the simplicity of the building itself (a croft) and the way it had been furnished right down to the black slate tableware, the quality of the food and the way it was all presented made this one of the two best meals in my life, the other being at a 3 star Michelin restaurant.

The menu was as follows:

Skye Lochs "Fruits de Mer" with Glendale organic Mesclun and Ferneyfold Farm Rapeseed Vinaigrette

Pressed Shoulder, Haggis and Roast Loin of Blackface Lamb with Pearl Barley, Husaboast Summer vegetables, Kale and Orbost Nettles

"The Hot Marmalade Pudding" with Drambuie Custard

The service was exemplary from a generally young staff. They explained every dish when it came placing emphasis on the locality of the ingredients. “Your langoustine has come from Loch Dunvegan which you can see through the window” being the best example. And I’ve learned a new word for Scrabble – a syboe is Scottish and looks like a miniature leek!

The sommelier was incredibly helpful. As this is a blog all about wine I ought to write down my detailed tasting notes but that would be to suggest that the wines were more important than the food. After all I’ve not given you a detailed tasting note for the food but suffice it to say I had a lovely glass of Montlouis with my starter, the Cairanne 2009 came from one of the best vintages in a while and the Muscat de Rivesaltes for the dessert reminded me of a 20 or 30 year old tawny port.

I can’t wait to go back. It’s a long way – Google says 11.5 hours if I’m driving from home – but it is absolutely worth it

Support your local independent wine merchant!

2011-06-24T13:00:00.000Z

I've been to a couple of tastings recently organised by independent wine merchants. The first was at Hotel du Vin in Tunbridge Wells and run by my local - and favourite - wine merchant The Secret Cellar and the second was held at Denbies by The Vineyard who are based in Dorking. They were both very well supported and I know that The Secret Cellar could have sold many more tickets but didn't want the event to be too crowded.

So why if the events were so successful do most people buy their wine from supermarkets and "indies" struggle? Now I'm not suggesting Oddbins is comparable with either of these great businesses but why did it not do better and survive?

When I ask friends why they don't support their local independent wine merchant more rather than the supermarket the response usually is:

"Oh - their wines are too expensive for me. I just want an inexpensive bottle to drink mid week."

"I'm intimidated going into them. They know so much more about wine than I do and I don't want to feel an idiot".

The first point is just plain wrong. To attract people into their shops independents have to stock wine at the lower end of the price range as well as the more expensive wines. Note I don't say "cheap" as the wine at £5 or £6 is often of much higher quality than you will find in many of the supermarkets. It's probably also made by a person rather than a big business and by buying one of his (or her) bottles you are keeping them and their family in business.

The second point is understandable especially, dare I say it, amongst men. Nobody likes to feel they might be shown up whereas it doesn't really bother most women to ask for help. The reality is the staff in good independents love to help out customers. They know their stuff, are well trained and get job satisfaction from recommending just the right wine for the occasion whether its a dinner party or a bottle to drink mid week in front of the TV.They know that if they make the right recommendation you'll come back for more.

I know its easy just to pick up a bottle when you are in the supermarket, but I do wish everyone made more of an effort to buy from independents. Businesses like The Vineyard and The Secret Cellar are making the effort to reach out to consumers by running tasting events. We should all respond by making more of our purchases from independents.

Seven Springs wine

2011-05-22T17:52:00.000Z

I always enjoy meeting the people behind the wine that I drink so it was a real pleasure to meet Tim and Riana (that's them in the picture), two of the team behind Seven Springs wine located in Hermanus, South Africa.

Now Tim has been in the very fortunate position of owning a very successful cleaning business which has allowed him to indulge his real passion and set up Seven Springs wine. Whilst a relatively new vineyard its sauvignon blanc has had many good reviews. However they have also planted chardonnay, syrah and pinot noir and having experienced Tim's enthusiasm I expect we'll be hearing a lot more about Seven Springs in the future.

Riana is the winemaker. She graduated in 2006 and has done vintages in California and The Rhone as well as South Africa. Whilst Seven Springs does not yet have its own winemaking facilities it uses space in another prestige winery where Riana is in the fortunate position of being able to get ideas from others around her who have a few more years experience than she has.

But what about the 2010 sauvignon blanc I tasted? It has clean and fresh aromas of citrus with some apricot fruit. A touch of weight on the palate which is all about the fruit and lemon and lime without a hint of greenness. Rounded, pleasing, fresh and with just a hint of minerality this is a very satisfying wine that manages to straddle sauvignons from New Zealand and The Loire.

The Shortlist by McGuigan Wines

2011-05-15T20:39:00.000Z

I was invited to the launch of The Shortlist range of wines from McGuigan Wines and quite an event it was. Held in the splendid surroundings of The Roof Garden in Kensington Neil McGuigan was in fine form pouring us a sparkling rose wine which he said was a "secret" and telling us all about The Shortlist range and how come Majestic came to take the whole allocation of the wines.

Due on shelf in late May, the premium range has been listed by Majestic with an RRP of £14.99. Majestic has taken on the entire UK allocation of the limited release label in what is one of the largest orders of premium Australian wine ever placed by the retailer.

The highlight of the evening of course was the wines and although there was talk around our table of "ABC" (Anything But Chardonnay) it was the chardonnay that was my favourite. Although slightly buttery it had lovely primary peach fruit aromas and quite a touch of apple on the palate. Creamy but with decent acidity this was quite a match for many Burgundies. Mind you although I say my preference was the Chardonnay, I thought the '05 Riesling we had from the Eden Valley was pretty special too.

I judge at both the IWC and IWSC so know how demanding the competitions are so for Neil McGuigan to achieve both IWSC Winemaker of the Year and IWC White Winemaker of the Year in the same year is an amazing achievement and gives an indication of the exacting standards he works to.

A wonderful evening and I'm sure Majestic will have no problems selling all the allocation.

Real Food show and Bordeaux wines

2011-05-15T14:34:00.000Z

I went to the Real Food show last week at Earls Court as a guest of Bordeaux wines. The event showcased some of the finest small producers in the country with Bordeaux wines acting as one of the official sponsors for the show. This follows their current advertising theme of "Good food would choose Bordeaux".

I chatted with Michelle who was one of my mentors when I was studying for my WSET Diploma. She was doing a spot on the stage after one of the cookery demonstrations. Her spot was about food and wine matching with her opening question being "How many of you knew that Bordeaux made white wines?" A good question as most people associate Bordeaux with red but the best wine for me on the Bordeaux stand was the Château Doisy-Daëne Sec 2008, a white from Barsac.

I've never been a great fan of white Bordeaux but this has changed my mind. A highly expressive, aromatic and tasty white made entirely from 100% sauvignon blanc, the tasting notes on the Bordeaux stand said The Wine Society sold it. However its not on their web site so I'm somewhat puzzled about that although it appears that Corney & Barrow sell it for around £20 a bottle. Again the tasting sheet on the stand says it was around £14.

The most interesting food for me amongst the many stands with their olive oils, cheeses and meats was the one selling a "spreadable salami" called 'nduja. This can be bought on line at The Taste of Calabria. I had it the same evening and you only need a very small amount to add to a sauce to make it spicy and tasty.

A worthwhile event to visit if you like food and are interested in matching wine to food.

Wines of South Africa - variety is in our nature.

2011-04-02T11:20:00.000Z

This was, for me, the best tasting I have ever been to in terms of organisation, setting and variety of wine styles. Set in the grandeur of the South African High Commission in Trafalgar Square London there were paintings and woodwork carvings to remind you of South Africa's history. The room in which the tasting took place was spacious, light and quiet with no crowding around the spittoons or the tables that besets so may tastings these days.

It was of course the wines that took centre stage and I loved the organisation of them and the manageable number to taste, 153 in total. They were organised by style but this was by comparing South Africa's regionality with classic wine styles from around the world. This was the purpose of the tasting, to show to us tasters how the country's variety and diversity means it can produce wines of all styles to match those from around the world.

What particularly worked for me was the comparison with different styles of sauvignon blanc from New Zealand. This produced my "stand out" white wine of the tasting which was the Kleine Zalze Family Reserve from the western Cape. My detailed tasting notes are on Adegga but the wine very successfully combined the pungency of Kiwi sauvignon blanc with some SA sophistication. The Lands End SB from Elim was also especially good with some lovely complex notes to it.

I was also impressed with the chardonnays with the Bouchard Finlayson Missionvale Chardonnay from Walker Bay standing up very well I thought to good white burgundy.

For the reds the 100% cabernet sauvignon Klein Constantia 2008 had as its style reference Margaret River in Australia. As the winemaker's notes said this could stand comparison because of its "ripeness, freshness and elegance" and I heartily agree.

I did not bother with the sparkling wines as I'm a lover of SA sparkling wines. I served them at my daughter's wedding last September and I wrote about the Kaapse Vonkel brut 2008 in the book "Every wine tells a story". Why pay so much for good champagne when you can have an extraordinary sparkling wine for £10?

A great tasting.

Seabright and Seabright

2011-03-16T19:52:00.000Z

I went to a recent tasting arranged by Seabright and Seabright whose philosophy is to bring top quality wines over from France, the kind that we all seem to find when we are on holiday in France but never seem to get imported into the UK.

There was one wine that really stood out for me, the Eole Blanc 2008 from Chateau de la Tuilerie. The unusual shaped bottle caught my eye but it was the aromas that really made me take note - herbs, aniseed, white fruit, all incredibly perfumed with the flavours to match all within a wonderful texture.

Small companies like Seabright and Seabright deserve to succeed in what is a crowded market. They source interesting wine at reasonable prices. I was impressed with the range and prices and would rather buy say a Southern French wine from them than any of the supermarkets. I don’t know what their customer service is like and I guess this is where they can differentiate themselves. I hope the event, held at the Maison de Languedoc-Roussillon in London, was worth it for them in terms of increased awareness amongst the trade and press.

Now is the time to take a look at their offerings as they are offering £10 of the first order to new customers. They deliver direct to customers in cases of 12 which can be mixed. They can be followed on Twitter as @seabrightwines.

London wine bloggers' dinner

2011-02-27T10:57:00.000Z

(I was sure I had posted this update within a few days of the dinner but it appears I hadn’t so here are my notes - better late then never.)

What a friendly bunch of wine bloggers/enthusiasts I met at the dinner organised by Robert Macintosh (@thirstforwine) and Gabriella and Ryan Opaz (@catavino) last week in London. It was a great evening with an eclectic range of wines ranging from some unusual sherries, Spanish malvasia, Patagonian pinot and others too many to mention (as my head confirmed the following morning.) It was a great chance to meet first time some fellow wine lovers whom I had only met "electronically" before:

Olly Styles – not content with having made wines in two Spanish regions last year, he’s off to New Zealand to make some more. How many winemakers can say they have made three vintages in the space of 12 months? Check out his blog.
Julian Talaveron – a Spaniard who has come to London to run the Sommelier’s Alumni organisation. And he’s about to start his WSET Diploma. Good luck Julian!
Steve Delong – creator of the marvellous wine map of Italy. I remember back in my WSET Diploma days thinking I really ought to buy his grape varietal table.
Warren Edwardes – he’s the founder of Wine for Spice Limited and the video on his Facebook page is highly amusing and informative.

It was also good to finally meet Alison Dillon (@alisonedillon), catch up with Denise Medrano (@thewinesleuth) after her marathon trip to Argentina and hear all about the Natural Wine Fair from Isabelle Legeron.

A highly enjoyable evening with the next one provisionally scheduled for March 15^th somewhere in Central London. If you are into wine come and join us. Follow any of us on Twitter and you’ll be able to check out the details nearer the time.

#WBW70

2011-02-16T21:39:00.000Z

I don’t drink enough Spanish wine. There is no reason although it does seem to be easier to buy French, Italian, Australian, New Zealand, South Africa etc etc. The announcement of the resurrection of Wine Blogging Wednesday by Catavino felt like a great reason to go out and buy some Spanish wine so I could take part. BTW Ryan and Gabriella – nice to meet you at the Wine Bloggers Dinner in London!

I chose wines from Epifanio Rivera from the Ribera del Duero because I had seen them in a decent wine shop round the corner from where I was working in Central London. I thought it would be neat to do a comparison between the two wines from the one producer, both from the same vintage but one – the more expensive one – being from a low yielding vineyard. And they were in the sale at 20% off, always a temptation. The Erial is made from 100% tinta fina and the Erial Tradicion Familia is made from tempranillo. However the Tradicion Familia does have much more complexity to it, a reflection of the fact the grapes come from 80 year old vines and are aged for 6 months longer. Detailed tasting notes can be found on Adegga.

Additionally a few days ago I got a chance to taste the wines of Equipo Navazos from Andalucia which were something special. There were a couple of sparklers, a number of amontillados and two pedro ximinez. The highlight for me however was the wine done in a joint venture with Dirk Nieport, the Navazos Nieport 2009.

The web site defines the process to produce the wine like this:

“Palomino fino musts sourced from a historic albariza vineyard, fermented in butt with indigenous yeasts that impregnate the vines and the fermentation vessels themselves, aged for almost ten months under a layer of flor thanks to the action of more indigenous yeasts that take control immediately after fermentation, and of course with not a single drop of added alcohol”

The aromas and palate almost defy description. If you want a wine to challenge your ability to identify aromas and flavours and categorise them, then get hold of a bottle. This wine truly represents Catavino’s encouragement for those of us taking part in #WBW70 to try something “different”.

My attempt to write a tasting note can be found on Adegga along with tasting notes for one of the sparklers and one of the PX.

Wine Blogging Wednesday

2011-02-05T16:18:00.000Z

Wine Blogging Wednesday starts again on 16 February 2011 when the theme will be Spanish wine in deference to the hosts, Catavino.

WBW started in 2004 and has been a monthly worldwide effort to get people to taste a wine with a particular theme and post their notes on the web. It’s an indication of how successful this has been (after a short hiatus) this is event number 70 or to give it the proper Twitter hashtag, #WBW70. It has been one of the longest running online wine events.

There are differences from the early days. With more and more wine lovers using Twitter but not necessarily blogging, Twitter has allowed almost anyone to take part. All that is required is to tweet using the #WBW70 hashtag or you could put your tasting note up on Facebook. If you blog then email a link to your post to Catavino.

Catavino will then publish a wrap up post on its site, not only allowing everyone to get a sense of what’s out there, but also providing readers with a little education on Spanish wine from around the world.

Every wine tells a story

2011-02-03T22:22:00.000Z

Congratulations to Tara, otherwise know as the Wine Passionista for gathering the thoughts of 29 wine writers, including me, into her new book, “Every wine tells a story”. This is a collection of the most memorable bottles of 2010 to warm the wine lover’s soul.

For me the wine was a Kaapse Vonkel 2008 supplied by SA Wines Online . My daughter got engaged on the top of Table Mountain and it seemed appropriate to continue the South African theme during her wedding day so the celebratory sparkler on the day was the wine from Simonsig. All the other wines and the beer were also from South Africa. I can’t think of a more special day in a father and daughter’s life than the day they walk down the aisle together at the start of the wedding ceremony. It was thus a “no brainer” for me when Tara asked me if I could think of a particular wine for me that had a special story attached to it.

When I look at the calibre of the other contributors in the book – Simon Woods for example - I’m flattered to have been asked by Tara to contribute. It was a (short) labour of love however and I’m looking forward to reading everyone else’s contributions.

The book is available from Lulu.com and will soon be available from Amazon.

Burgundy 2009

2011-02-01T22:15:00.000Z

I’ve attended a couple of the Burgundy 2009 tastings over the last week and been very impressed by the wines, whether white or red. These wines do really live up to the recent hype.

I’ve been especially impressed by the reds which generally have so much fruit, not in a overpowering and jammy way, but pure raspberry and strawberry flavours. I realise it’s a huge generalisation but the palates for such wines are very approachable now whether it’s the lighter or weightier wines. And to think these will keep for years and further develop – what lies ahead for them I wonder. I’ll have to get some for my cellar (garage really) and resist the temptation to drink them for a few years.

The whites are similarly good across the board and it’s been a real treat to try so many high quality whites with aromas and flavours of cream, butter, nuts and tropical fruit.

What has stood out for me? The Domaine des Varoilles Charmes-Chambertin grand cru at the Corney and Barrow tasting. What an amazingly fruity nose.

Secondly it was the consistency across the Louis Jadot range at the Hatch Mansfield tasting.

It’s very pleasing after reading all the hype to taste and find the quality so high and at such an early stage in the development of these wines.

Port, port and more port

2010-12-15T21:05:00.000Z

It started with a question over dinner at a friend’s house.

“I’ve got this bottle of port under the stairs and it appears to be leaking. Do you think it will still be drinkable?”

The bottle in question turned out to be a 1967 Quinta de Vargellas, not exactly your everyday find under the stairs. Considering how long we had been friends I was surprised I had not heard of this earlier. There was a couple of inches of ullage although the seepage under the foil did not seem fresh, rather this had happened some years previously. With a 40 year old tawny sitting in my collection and another friend who is a real port enthusiast, the only thing to do was to arrange to open it amongst fellow port lovers and see what it was like.

After four months we finally managed to arrange our diaries such that we could all get together for lunch. The 1967 had been brought over a few days previously to allow it to settle after a car journey and I was tasked with opening it. Needless to say the cork disintegrated so we had to strain the port through some fine muslin. This was effective at removing the cork and the amount of sediment left in the bottle was incredible – several teaspoons worth.

We had already tried the Calem 40 year old tawny and a 1996 Taylors Quinta de Vargellas but the 1967 held its own against these worthy adversaries. It may not have had the intensity and concentration a 1966 would have had (a better year according to experts) but it was a great experience to drink with the acidity being amazing for a wine this age.

Full tasting notes can be found on Adegga.

Next time I visit a friend’s house I think I’ll ask what they have tucked away “under the stairs/in the cupboard” which they kept for a number of years. Maybe I’ll find another wonderful surprise.

Prosecco Follador

2010-11-21T18:43:00.000Z

I attended the UK launch of the wines of Prosecco Follador, a family owned business that has been making wines since the 18th century. They mainly produce proseccos and frizzantes but have white and red also. Although these have been marketed elsewhere in Europe this is their first foray into the UK market. With consumers seeming to enjoy prosecco and most retailers stocking at least one brand, Follador are entering an established but growing market. This is good timing on their part although to stand out from the rest they will need to find a way to differentiate themselves.

They have a range of proseccos and frizzantes. The "Prestige" are all DOCG wines while the "Classic" are all DOC. Confusingly also the "Frizzante" is labelled a prosecco DOC. As I discussed with them at the launch party however they accept that they need to do some work on the labelling to differentiate the wines for the UK consumer. I enjoyed the wines and found each wine to be subtly different from the next, ideal for pairing with food or drinking on their own.

I wish them luck with their UK launch and will be interested to see where their wines end up being being sold .

Sud de France wines

2010-11-02T13:33:00.001Z

The staff at La Maison de Languedoc-Roussillon work pretty hard to promote wines from the region.

Hot on the heels of this week's "Award Winning Wines" tasting comes an email announcing an event for organic and biodynamic producers on December 10th 2010. I attended the synchronised worldwide tasting online event and there have been other events this year I now can't recall.

Does any other generic body spend so much time promoting wines? Does it result in an increase in sales? I don't know the answers to these questions but I sincerely hope sales reflect the promotional work.

Wines from the Sud de France strike me as being excellent value for money. Whether it is the Gerard Betrand 2008 Corbieres from Marks and Spencer recommended in Thursday's The Times by Tim Atkin, the medal winning Domaine de Cebene Les Bancels (part of the Outsiders - rocking the Languedoc wine scene group on Facebook) or the range from Chateau d'Angles, I'm always impressed. And I especially enjoy the whites from the region including some unusual but flavoursome grape varieties. I suspect however that the shelves in the supermarkets full of Sud de France wines get overlooked in favour of the heavily promoted and discounted Aussie wines.

There was a time when we all drank French wines perhaps because they reminded us of our holidays driving through France to a gite or campsite. People travel further afield now and their expectations have broadened as has their desire to try something "different". What is a slight barrier when it comes to promoting wines from the region is the plethora of names on the label - Corbieres, Vin de pay d'Oc, Cotes du Roussillon etc, etc. It really is easier for a consumer to head for an Aussie Shiraz or an Italian pinot grigio. However the Sud de France banner really helps to unite all the disparate regions and names and when I see it I know I'm generally getting good value quality wines.

I'll keep supporting their wines and encouraging others to also whilst the quality/price point is so good.

Constanza Schwaderer and Felipe Garcia - winemakers from Chile

2010-10-13T15:30:00.000Z

I always enjoy talking to young and enthusiastic winemakers who display obvious passion and knowledge about what they do. Connie and Felipe are two such winemakers who are the faces behind Bravado Wines from Chile.

They were brought over from Chile by Naked Wines to show off their wines at a tasting for Naked Wines consumers. They also took part in the presentation Naked Wines gave in support of their submission into Orange Innovation Award 2010.

I was invited as one the Naked "Angels". The Angels scheme refers to people who support talented winemakers by saving £20 a month at least towards their next order. In exchange, they are given 33% CashBack on every order they place, and exclusive access to wines which wouldn’t have been possible without their support. Naked Wines say cash is invested in finding new and exciting winemakers such as Connie and Felipe.

Connie and Felipe have been making wines for a number of years. They don’t own any of the vines preferring to take on long term contracts with the grape growers with whom they work closely. This ensures the grapes they receive are in the condition they need.

My review of their entry level Kimbao sauvignon blanc 2009 can be found here. Their Marina sauvignon blanc 2009 is the next step up and a big one at that. It’s a much more sophisticated sauvignon whilst still capturing that freshness and zestiness that is the sauvignon blanc’s hallmark. Felipe explained how the yields from the vineyards they source their grapes from are much lower than those for the Kimbao. He also talked about the particular clones they used – now that’s an enthusiast!

I also tasted the Facundo 2007 which I was told had been rated 91 points by Wine Spectator magazine. This is a big, rounded, fruity developed wine and at £19.99 may seem a lot but I reckon its good value for money.

I also tasted the Sophia pinot noir 2009, the Kimbao cabernet sauvignon/carmenere 2009 and Kimbao syrah/cabernet franc 2009. I was impressed with all the wines. They showed fruit and were well made although the syrah/cabernet franc fruit was somewhat overtaken by the tannins and acidity at this early stage.

Producers such as Connie and Felipe deserve our support. Their own web site can be found here.

Wine and cheese matching

2010-10-12T13:32:00.000Z

What springs to mind when you think of matching food and cheese? It’s probably “Port and Stilton” or “Sauternes and Roquefort” rather than "aged white Burgundy and cow’s milk cheese".

I took part in an event run by Corney and Barrow held in Paxton and Whitfield’s shop on Jermyn Street in the heart of London. These are two very eminent businesses at the top of their respective fields of wine and cheese. The idea was to open our minds to the possibility of matching white wines and cheese.

It wasn’t a structured event where we were treated to a tutorial on what to look for in cheese and therefore which white wines would go with which style of cheese. Maybe it would have helped if the event had started with a bit of a tutorial. After all I’ve been taught as part of my WSET Diploma how to taste wine. Although I can taste cheese some direction about the nuances of texture, production methods, style etc may have helped. However there were a number of experts on hand to talk through the details as we tasted. And I did learn that tasting soft cheeses with wine is not a good idea as the cheese coats the mouth making it harder to appreciate the wine.

The wines, 12 in total, were organised by Corney and Barrow into three groups;

• “crisp and fresh” including an Alsace pinot blanc and a champagne

• “classic” featuring a Sancerre and a Puligny Montrachet

• “quirky” with an Arinto and a Langhe Bianco Rossese

The cheeses were British, including Gorwydd Caerphilly and Harbourne Blue, or Continental European – a Serra de Estrela from Portugal and a Chevrotin des Aravis from the French Alps.

Although the cheeses were laid out alongside the wines we were encouraged to try any combination although 1 hour certainly wan’t enough to try the 84 possible combinations. Much as you would expect there were some combinations that worked and some that didn’t:

• The Puligny Montrachet les Referts 1er cru Olivier Leflaive 2007 and the Mahon, a pasteurised cow’s milk cheese made on Menorca was sublime bringing out the nuttiness in the wine. This wine and the Chevrotin did not work for me, the wine completely dominating any flavours from the cheese.

• A Chablis 1er les Lys Domaine Vincent Dampt 2008 brought out the fruit in the Caerphilly and was also a good match for the Mahon.

• The acidity in the Arinto Quinta de Chocapalha 2008 was a perfect match for the sharpness of the Harbourne Blue. With a Camembert the wine initially dominated the cheese, the flavours from which eventually came through.

Just as there are wines that I love and other people do not, and vice versa, some of the success of matching wine with cheese is down to individual taste. However I’d encourage anyone to think beyond “port and stilton” next time you want to have cheese with your dinner.

Try having a couple of different white wines open and experimenting. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Can good wine glasses change your enjoyment of wine?

2010-09-24T17:17:00.001Z

Do you think it's possible that the shape of glass can change your enjoyment of a wine? I do.

Pour yourself a little wine in a plastic beaker and also some in a decent wine glass, the sort that narrows towards the top. Now carefully swirl them both - not at the same time or you will spill some - and then smell the wine. I guarantee the wine in the glass will at least smell of something like a wine while the one in the plastic beaker won't.

I've just been to a presentation and tasting hosted by Riedel UK where the same wine was poured into two good quality wine glasses but of different shapes and the aromas were quite different. I did this twice putting an aged Coniglio Hawkes Bay chardonnay into Riedel's montrachet glass and then Riedel's sauvignon glass. The aromas in the montrachet glass were wonderful - buttery, creamy, vanillla and all quite intense. The aromas of the same wine but in the sauvignon glass were much less intense with more of an alcohol burn.

I then did this with an Aussie cabernet first of all pouring it in the right glass for the grape variety, Riedel's cabernet glass and then doing the same in their glass for pinot noir. Again the wine in the right glass for the grape variety smelled glorious. So there is no doubt in my mind that the shape of the glass does make a difference to the smell of the wine - and it also makes a difference to the taste as well.

The same experiment with the two wines in the right and "wrong" glass did show a taste difference although for me the difference was not as huge as the aroma difference. The chardonnay didn't have the layers of flavour in the sauvignon glass than it had in the montrachet glass. The cabernet was jammy and alcoholic tasted from the pinot noir glass.

This can be explained by the way the juice hits your mouth and so which part of your palate gets the benefit of it. Different parts of the mouth react in different ways to acidity, flavours and tannins. It follows therefore that, given the flow of the wine is affected by the shape of the glass directing the wine to specific parts of your mouth, the wine really does taste different.

I'm not suggesting for a moment that a different glass is needed for each grape varietal you drink but don't underestimate the shape of the glass you chose to drink your favourite wine out of. It is absolutely worth buying decent glasses to fully appreciate your wine.

International Grenache Day on Adegga

2010-09-22T11:24:00.003Z

It’s International Grenache Day on Friday.

As a keen user of Adegga I’ve added an event to allow others who wish to take part “online” a chance to share their thoughts about grenache.

So far those taking part have added ten wines and having had a quick look at them it has reminded me of the sheer diversity of this grape. I’m looking forward to appreciating the versatility of the grape as I taste through some samples.

At the last count on Adegga, of the ten wines most were from France with representation from Australia, Spain and Portugal. Seven of them are blends and three are single varietals. Of the ten, seven are reds, two are roses and one is a white. I’m a big fan of Southern French wines which include grenache blanc in them.

Come and join the small but merry band of online tasters on Adegga on Friday!

South Africa is a winner again

2010-09-17T09:45:00.010Z

No - this is not an overdue reference to South Africa successfully hosting the World Cup but refers to the popularity of the wines served at my daughter's wedding last weekend. As she had got engaged on the top of Table Mountain in Cape Town it seemed appropriate to serve South African wines on her big day.

Between the ceremony and wedding breakfast we drank copious amounts of Simonsig's Kaapse Vonkel 2008 vintage a wonderfully tasty good value "method cap classique" sparkling wine. Alongside was Windhoek's beer mainly drunk, naturally, by the blokes. I note from the latest edition of Off Licence News there is going to be a big marketing campaign shortly to promote Windhoek building on the success of it during the World Cup.

During the meal we had

Obikwa chenin blanc '10
Vrede en Lust rose '10
The Wolftrap syrah mouvedre viognier '09

The toast was Graham Beck's sparkling rose brut. When I had chosen this particular wine I tweeted about it (I'm @grapefan) and got a response from the winemaker Pieter Ferreira (@bubblesferreira) wishing us all luck on the big day. The power of social media.

The wines were all really appreciated by the 100 or so guests and big thanks to SA Wines Online and Oddbins Tunbridge Wells for so ably supplying them and at a decent discount as well. I'm especially delighted for SAWOL as they have just been awarded Decanter's Specialist Merchant of the Year. Their customer service from the initial supply of a tasting case for the wedding through to the on-time delivery has been exemplary. And they are such nice people as well!

Matching Armagnac with food

2010-09-14T17:25:00.015Z

Skeptical at first that it would be possible in any way to match Armagnac with food, I came away from a recent Armagnac and Indian food matching event with a greater appreciation for this eau de vie. Armagnac is like malt whiskey - complex, lots of styles, a drink to savour and appreciate -but without the branding you get with the bigger malt producers.

On arrival I was given a glass of white Armagnac mixed with rosehip and lychee. Wonderfully lifting this shows Armagnac producers are being innovative by producing a totally new drink - well, at least new to me.

Each course had a range of Armagnacs matched with tasting samples of the wonderful food produced by the chefs at London's Tamarind restaurant. (Click on the picture above to get more detail of the food and the Armagnacs.) Although I don't think any of the guests would actually have said there was an Armagnac to go with every course, the final food sample - a wonderful teaspoon of carrot fudge cooked with melon seeds and raisins- did go very well with a chilled 15 years old from Samalens in Bas-Armagnac. The food brought out the caramel in the eau de vie.

The event certainly succeeded in spreading the word and raising the profile of this under appreciated spirit. Focussing on the samples reinforced the complexity of the Armagnacs. It's a shame that currently they are really only appreciated by the connoisseur. The BNIA would like to change that.

A spare afternoon and The Sampler

2010-08-27T19:03:00.010Z

I don't usually have spare time in London in the afternoon but when I did the other day I took myself off to The Sampler and spent a very happy one and half hours tasting their wines.

They have an amazing number of wines to sample categorised as "rieslings and sweet wines", "italian varietals", "icons" and the such. The shop was quiet which was a real benefit as it meant I could concentrate and take notes. Last time I was in it was a Saturday and the crowds at a weekend are not conducive to contemplation of stunning wines such as Chateau Rayas 1996.

At over £8 per glass and in the "icons" cabinet this seems steep for a 25ml sample but the wine was absolutely worth every penny of that. It was a great example of why the concept of the The Sampler is such a good one. When else would I get the opportunity to taste such a wine? Never I'm sure. My detailed tasting notes are up on Adegga.

Mind you having tried the Rayas I then moved over to the Ridge Montebello 1996 with very high expectations. After all here was a wine retailing for a lot of money with quite an "aura" to it. Guess what? It was faulty. Well, it was in my opinion. It had quite a lot of "nail varnish" aroma about. I gave it the benefit of the doubt to begin with but then shared my thoughts with two members of staff. One agreed with me and the other thought it was ok. Now I don't know what a Ridge Montebello should smell of but I was pretty sure I shouldn't be able to smell quite so much nail varnish. However The Sampler happily refunded my card with the cost of the sample so it was a win-win situation (although I'd still like to know what a Ridge tastes like).

I also tried a number of other wines I probably wouldn't get a chance to savour such as a 1990 Boillot Gevrey Chambertin and a 1988 Chateua Haut Batailley.

Roll on another free afternoon in London as I'll be back to The Sampler.

Sassicaia's little brother

2010-08-20T18:22:00.017Z

In common with most wine enthusiasts I’ve heard of Sassicaia but don’t know much about it beyond the fact it’s an expensive Italian wine. So offered the opportunity to buy a bottle of Le Difese from the producer of Sassicaia I thought I’d do some investigating. And where does the other wine – Ornellaia – that’s usually mentioned at the same time fit in?

Sassicaia was one of the first Italian reds made in the image of Bordeaux. Vines were planted in 1948 in the Bolgheri region of Italy as it was noted that the gravel was similar to the Graves region. However the wines did not receive much attention initially. They were seen to be too different - not Italian like brunello or sangiovese - but in 1968 things began to turn more positive as the wine received reviews worthy of a top end Bordeaux. This led to changes in the winery with the introduction of wooden fermentation vats to replace the steel ones and the use of French barriques, an unheard of innovation in Italy at that time. Things then only went from strength to strength and the rest is history as they say. Today it has its own DOC an indication of the prestige in which it is held.

So what was the Le Difese 2008 like? It's a cabernet/sangiovese blend using declassified Sassicaia grapes but made with much of the attention to detail the more expensive wine has had. Detailed tasting notes are up on Adegga but I was impressed. Let’s just say it cost me £16 or so and was worth it and it makes me want to buy a bottle of the.Guidalberto which is Sassicaia's second wine. I don’t think I’ll stretch to the Sassaicaia itself at £109 through The Wine Society however.

I also have a bottle of Le Volte 2007 which is Ornellaia's second wine the story here being much the same as Sassicaia's but more on that in another post.

Naked Wines

2010-08-10T05:42:00.012Z

I've finished the case supplied Naked Wines and I’m suitably impressed. I got a wide range of varietals from the main wine producing regions and there wasn’t a disappointment amongst them.

Detailed tasting notes are up on Adegga and as I’ve tasted the wines I’ve also put my thoughts up on the Naked Wines site.

Two of the wines stood out for me for different reasons.

The Klein Riesling is a great wine to give to someone who thinks all German wines are sweet. It really is a very good German riesling.

The Arabella was quite a refined wine. It could so easily have just been another blockbusting shiraz from a hot climate but the addition of the cabernet sauvignon and merlot gave it structure and balance and made it a wine to be appreciated rather than just a decent wine to have with a barbecue – or should I say “braai” as its from South Africa. Well worth the money.

Naked Wines have made it through as finalists in the Orange Innovation award as part of the National Business Awards. It looks as though this is in recognition of their innovative approach and "breaking the mould" in buying wine fron producers and supplying wine to consumers. The nomination reads as follows:

The company supports independent winemakers from around the world, investing in them in return for preferential prices which are then passed onto customers. Its proving to be a highly successful business model with huge potential for profitable growth - hence their nomination today alongside all the other finalists who so richly deserve to be named and celebrated. In today’s uncertain market, bravery, energy and creativity are needed more than ever.

A good summary of what they are all about. Would I buy from them - absolutely!

Wines of Slovenia

2010-07-12T22:03:00.014Z

I had the opportunity to taste some wines from Slovenia the other day. Slovenia sits between Croatia and Italy and is a small country with a long history of wine production. It used to be part of what was called Yugoslavia and gave us wine drinkers in the UK in the 1970’s “Lutomer Riesling”. Remember that?

Nowadays it is part of the EU and totally independent. It has a rich diversity of microclimates within an essentially cooler climate zone which is why much of its production is white wine. Although winemakers are reinventing themselves by using international grapes such as Chardonnay and Pinot Noir they have quite a range of indigenous varieties such as Ribolla Gialla, Furmint, Zelen and Pinela.

I was impressed by the sheer freshness of the whites. Most of what I tasted were clean, fresh, fruity and well made wines - very enjoyable drinking indeed.

I tasted wines from Dveri Pax, Guerila and Vipava 1894. Between them they had recently gained medals in the Decanter World Wine Awards 2010 one of which was a bronze for Guerila’s Cuba 2008, a blend of 80% Merlot and 20% Barbera. I suppose the Barbera influence can be explained by Slovenia’s proximity to Italy.

I’ve put a couple of tasting notes of wines from Dveri Pax up on Adegga the Sipon Ilovici gaining a silver medal in the 2010 DWWA.

It’s always a pleasure to taste something new and different. A quick look at the web sites of the three wineries above show them to be on top of web promotion with sites that work, are easy to look at and navigate and generally give useful information. I wonder how many are on Twitter or blog? Slovenian wines are available from www.latevintage.co.uk

Picture courtesy of www.slovenia.si

Visit to Kent Vineyard

2010-07-02T20:47:00.006Z

I was shown around the Kent Vineyard the other evening by Richard who, along with his good friend Justin, are the pair behind resurrecting this 19 year old vineyard which has been lying neglected for 5 years. And what a good job they have done. You can see the pictures I took here. Their own web site has some pictures of what it looked like before they started.

Located in the heart of Kent (and in a place you could never find) it's around 5 acres of Seyval Blanc,Bacchus and Schoneburger. When the guys took it on it was covered with brambles, oak and chestnut saplings and already the brambles are starting to show again at ground level. Richard is confident however a healthy dose of weedkiller from the new sprayer they got themselves will see the brambles off. Having got rid of the brambles they had to plant a further 400 vines to replace some of those that no longer existed. These have taken well and the original vines are in full leaf, looking healthy and some have a few small fruit. Next year therefore will be their first real harvest and they have teamed up with a winemaker with real experience of growing grapes and making wine in the South East.

Until they can make their own wine they are making 300 litres of elderflower wine making very good use of the elderflower trees in one corner of the vineyard.

As English wine has grown in reputation and standing with the wine trade over the past few years and consumers have been able to buy more and more of it thanks to enlightened retailers like Waitrose, the future looks good for Richard and Justin. However the financial outlay until then is considerable with the prospect of little if any income to offset this in the mean time. And there is the usual problem of name recognition. With few exceptions consumers tend to go for the better know varieties such as chardonnay or pinot noir but that's nothing a smart piece of branding can't get around.

Check out their own blog here.

Sud de France synchronised worldwide tasting

2010-06-18T14:00:00.015Z

What an interesting hour I spent this morning with fellow wine bloggers at the Maison du Languedoc's offices in London exploring five Sud de France wines.

Sud de France is the umbrella brand created to represent the quality food and wine products of the southern French region of Languedoc-Roussillon.

In celebration of the launch of the Sud de France campaign four years ago, a worldwide synchronised tasting was organised for today, 21 June 2010. This involved participants from across the world – from London to Shanghai, and New York to Rio de Janeiro.

The idea was to taste five Sud de France wines selected to illustrate the strapline “where creativity meets diversity”. Participants were then encouraged to tweet during the event (I did @grapefan) and then use their blogs to report on the wines. A link was also provided so everyone's notes could be brought together on a dedicated Sud de France online platform. In putting the event together the organisers have done a good job of using social media with Twitter, a Facebook event as well as the online platform.

I've put more detailed tasting notes up on Adegga but the wines were:

Sieur d'Arques, AOC/AOP Cremant de Limoux, grande Cuvee 1531
Cigalus, VDP/IGP Pays d'Oc 2008
Fruite Catalan, AOC/AOP Cotes du Rossillon
Dromadaire 30670, VDP/IGP Pays d'Oc 2006
Mas de Madame AOC/AOP Muscat de Frontignan 2006

During the tasting we were asked to identify the grape and where the wine came from. This was the slightly intimidating part given this was being shown over a video conference link and the producers of the five wines were taking part! As Sud de France is the largest wine producing region in the world (325,000 hectares under vine, over 30 grape varieties and 30 appellations) there was much scope for getting the region and grape wrong!

So what were the wines like? There was a complete range from sparkling to sweet. This illustrates well how the Sud de France really does produce the complete range of wine styles. There was a sparkling for that celebratory moment, reds and whites for dinner, a rose for supping in the garden and a sweetie for the end of the meal. The packaging generally was modern in style and this along with the pricing (except for the white) should attract people especially the younger generation.

I'd encourage you to go and seek out wines wines from the Sud de France.

Adegga - the social wine discovery service

2010-05-24T20:47:00.014Z

When I started my WSET Diploma in 2006 I made a real effort to write proper tasting notes. Initially they were all handwritten but as the volumes grew I took the technology route. I tried Tasting Buddy’s application but moved over to Bottletalk when I ran out of patience with the slow speed on my handheld terminal. I then moved onto a spreadsheet when Bottletalk didn't seem to be going anywhere. However in moving computers I managed to corrupt my spreadsheet and didn’t notice for a month or so after which time the data was so corrupt I started over again.

That’s when I discovered Adegga.

Adegga describes itself as "a Social Wine Discovery service. The idea is to take the complexity out of wine and allow people to discover wines based on other people’s choice.Adegga also helps you organize your wines. You can keep track of wines you taste, make a wish list or organize your home cellar."

It has a real community feel to it. I’ve met, electronically I mean of course, a number of interesting people with whom I compare tasting notes.

There is Paul in the USA, a prolific taster and note writer. I envy him the West Coast wines he is able to get his hands on. However he probably envies me the Old World wines I have easy access to here in the UK.

Bruce lives in Arizona and keeps getting these amazing bargains from his local liquor store.

Ben lives on the Isles of Scilly and seems to have all the quality suppliers who deliver there successfully worked out. Thanks to him I bought a case from Hawkshead Wines.

Botto is trying to arrange an online tasting group where we will taste particular styles or regions every two weeks.

Putting my tasting notes up on the site does encourage some discipline when it comes to defining why I like – or don’t like – any particular wine. It also makes me notice the grapes, region and producer more all of which are key elements in what goes into the end product I’m tasting.

I say I‘ve “met” these people. I had the pleasure to meet face to face Andre the brains behind Adegga last week. We met at the very successful Access Zone at the London International Wine fair. Andre took a big leap when he left his career to focus on Adegga and AVIN and I admire him for that. He talked about some fascinating plans for Adegga so it will be interesting to see the site develop. I'm looking forward to that.

If you are looking for somewhere to read unbiased views about everything from every day wines, through unusual wines to something a bit more special then I’d encourage you to give Adegga a try.

World Cup of Wine

2010-05-17T14:52:00.003Z

A quick update on the London food and wine bloggers World Cup of Wine semi finals last week.

I hadn’t been involved with the heats of this event which runs at Bibendum’s offices in London but was invited to come along and judge the semi finals. These were between Italy and France and South Africa and Australia.

I don’t know how may other heats there have been but a small select group met and scored the wines out of 10, all the scores being totalled to get the final result. Each country fielded two whites and two reds which were pretty comparable.

For me the “wine of the night” was a South African pinot noir closely followed by an Australian pinot. The highest number of marks from everyone however went to a 2005 Italian ripasso valpolicella

The final will be held in June and it will be between Italy and South Africa. It’s hard to believe there was no intention on the part of Bibendum to link this with the football World Cup so it’s quite a coincidence that it is going to be between the current holders of the football World Cup and the 2010 hosts!

Roll on the final (of the World Cup of Wine I mean!).

Wines from the Italian Alps

2010-05-10T15:01:00.009Z

What do you think of when you hear the phrase “Italian wine”?

Chianti from Tuscany, Barolo from Piedmont or perhaps an inexpensive Nero d’Avola from Sicily?

Or, what about reds or whites from Alto Adige? No, I didn’t think that would spring to mind.

Alto Adige (also called Sudtirol) is one of the smallest wine regions in Italy. Pictures of the place make it look absolutely wonderful and I’d love to visit – snow capped mountains, deep valleys and over 300 days of sunshine each year. What makes it a great place to produce wine I read is the diversity of its climate and soils and the quality minded focus of the producers many of whom are small independent producers.

I attended a tasting of wines from the region and I focussed on Pinot Bianco (or Weissburgunder as they call it), Sauvignon Blanc, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Nero and Lagrein.

My top score went to a Pinot Nero but the wines that scored consistently at a silver medal level for me were the Lagreins. The Pinot Biancos had nothing outstanding amongst them and the Sauvignons were varied. Although I enjoyed the Gewürztraminers I think I’d go every time for an Alsace one for its typicity.

The Pinot Neros I thought were all of a good standard, distinctively pinot in style but with good fruit. The Lagreins had great colour and were all surprisingly drinkable as the deep colours suggested big meaty wines. However it turned out they all had a lovely rich ripeness to them with the low acidity and tannins making them very drinkable.

My eyes have been opened to the quality and variety of wines from the Alto Adige. All I need to do now is find someone who sells them!

Unusual grape varieties in Sud de France

2010-05-10T15:00:00.009Z

Ever heard of Terret, Oeillade noire, Ribeyrenc noir, Aspiran gris or Ramounen? No – neither had I.

What about Marselan or Mauzac? Yes – vaguely.

Cinsault, Grenache, Piquepoul, Maccabeu or Carignan? Then, yes is the answer.

These were the grapes in the wines at last week’s Sud de France tasting of traditional grape varieties at the Maison de la Region Languedoc-Roussillon in London. And what a good tasting it was too. The brand of Sud de France really does help bring together the wines in an identifiable way.

I suppose I should have known Terret as Terret noir is one of the 13 permitted varieties in Chateauneuf-du-Pape but it is also a grape that comes in different colours – gris, blanc and noir. To be fair the others only featured in one wine although it was a wine I enjoyed - Domaine Henry’s Le Mailhol 2007. It was all red fruits, herbs and undergrowth on the nose followed by red fruits and a touch of black fruit on the palate along with something herbal. Lingering complex and intense. 86/100.

Marselan isn’t even in Oz Clarke’s book Grapes and Wines. You have to look it up in The Oxford Companion to Wine to see it is simply as a cross between Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache.

Mauzac is described in Oz Clarke’s book as having “rustic, green apple skins flavour that is not always delicious”!

As for the others – well, they are pretty common really.

I’ve put a couple of reviews up on Adegga of the wines I tasted. I concentrated on the whites simply because I had limited time and fancied tasting what I expected to be fresh wines rather than work my through reds which may have ranged from rustic (code for a bit "rough") to those of higher quality such as Chateau Cabezac’s Carinu 2006 from the Vin de Pays du Val de Cesse.

And this was something else. Most of the wines were Vin de Pays yet of a reasonable quality. Remember, you don’t need to look for an AOC on the label to get reasonable French wine.

An innovative way to promote wine

2010-05-07T04:01:00.005Z

How do you make your wines stand out in today’s crowded and competitive marketplace if you are a small quality producer?

You’ve got your web site and have probably used it to populate your mailing list. Your wines feature well wherever they are reviewed. You believe you have a good reputation “out there”. You’ve played with a blog but find it time consuming and you’ve heard about Twitter and Facebook but you are not sure how to make them work for you.

Solution? Speed tasting of your wines. Put a proactive trade association and a progressive PR agency together and invite a group of wine bloggers and “tweeters” to speed taste a representative number of wines from your region.

This happened recently when Sonoma County Vintners and Limm Communications got together. A number of wine enthusiasts were welcomed with a glass of Gloria Ferrer brut and then introduced, one by one, to the four wineries present Buena Vista, Flowers Vineyard & Winery, Pedroncelli and Joseph Swan Vineyards). We had eight minutes to swirl, sniff, slurp and spit the wine whilst being told by the winery principal what makes each wine unique. Eight minutes may not sound like long enough to appreciate the wine and to hear about what make the particular winery tick but it is just right.

Did it work? Absolutely!

It increased the name awareness of the wineries and the appreciation of their quality products. It got those winery names out there on blogs and tasting notes and Twitter was used extensively on the day. It was a productive and efficient way for the wineries to promote themselves in a way that was different from their peers and made them stand out from the crowd.

You should give it a try.

Photo courtesy of Flowers Vineyard and Winery.

Independents are centre of debate

2010-04-27T15:10:00.003Z

"How independent merchants can make the most of increased interest in their sector will be the subject of a Harpers seminar at the London International Wine Fair." The above headline is taken from Harpers on its website.

I am strongly of the view that independents are worth supporting and we should all buy a portion of our wine from them. That way we get a better and more interesting range along with decent and knowledgeable service. So here’s a plug for an independent, Hawkshead Wines. I don’t have any connections with them apart from being a highly impressed first time customer.

I came across a mention of them on the social networking site Adegga where I record my tasting notes. Their web site shows an interesting range of mixed cases many of which are priced at £55 to £75, either because they are 6 bottles of decent sounding wine or 12 bottles of interesting sounding/not readily available cheaper wines.

However I was drawn to the Chateau d’Angles case but didn’t want the unusual (wine plus maple syrup combination!) sweetie. A quick call showed Hawkshead to be flexible and pragmatic. Not only would they substitute the sweetie with a wine of my choice and adjust the price accordingly, but they would ensure I still got my 10% off introductory discount off my next order. Their discount only works on the first order as long as its for 12 bottles.

So hat’s off to Hawkshead for flexible and polished service. And the wines are pretty good so far as you can see from my tasting notes.

SA wines online tasting

2010-03-07T21:39:00.010Z

It was a well attended tasting at SA wines online warehouse on Saturday with an interesting range of wines, the emphasis being on sauvignons and syrahs.

My favourites however were the Cape Point chardonnay and the Lourensford Winemakers Selection syrah.

They say they have the widest range of South African wines in the UK and that's certainly true for the sparklers and that's where my focus was - to pick up a number of sparkling wines to sample for my daughter's wedding. We've narrowed it down to the Simonsig Kaapse Vonkel brut 2007 and for a sparkling rose, the Graham Beck rose brut. The Simonsig really is excellent value for money.

Next decision is which white (a chenin maybe?) and which red ( a merlot?). Their next warehouse tasting is in May just prior to the LIWF when some of their winemakers will be there. It sounds like it will be worth a visit.

Felicity Lawrence's "Eat your heart out"

2010-03-03T19:46:00.009Z

I've just read this book and found it depressing and absorbing.

One of the side effects of doing my WSET Diploma has been that I care much more about what goes in my mouth. Not only do I notice more closely what I eat, my senses of smell and taste are much heightened. I've also taken a closer look at where my food comes from and that's what encouraged me to read Felicity's first book "Not on the label". If you also care about what you eat and how it gets to your dinner plate you should read either of her books.

I was struck by the following when I read "Eat your heart out":

Next time you buy a branded breakfast cereal remember that typically
25 to 30% of what you pay will have gone on the costs of marketing to
you.

One privately owned business controls 45% of global grain trade. That's
an awful lot of concentrated power.

Although we all think of milk as being healthy over the last 60 years
it has lost 60% of its iron content, 2% of its calcium and 21% of its
magnesium content. Why? 'You are what you eat' applies as much to
cows as humans and with cows being fed much more processed food to
increase their milk production, this is one of the side effects.

Next time you buy a lovely looking pink rasher of bacon remember it has
been made that colour by potassium nitrate which the WHO says has carcinogenic side effects in humans.

Check out Salmofan TM a colour chart for farmed salmon colours - google it. In the wild salmon get their colour from the shellfish they eat. Farmed salmon have to be fed a pink dye!

Even our beloved wine is not immune. As consumer's palates have become
attuned to sugars in much of what we eat because of the level of processed food, so wines have had to become more intense, stronger in flavour and with more alcohol to make them widely appealing.

After I read Felicity's last book 'Not on the label' I increased my resolve to take more care with what I ate and where it came from. This book has encouraged me to do this again.

Twitter, blogging and social media

2010-02-20T10:40:00.010Z

I've become a convert to Twitter. I only follow people or businesses in the world of wine and although 95% of the tweets are of minor interest (and many of no relevance to the world of wine) the remaining 5% can be gems.

If it wasn't for Twitter I wouldn't;

have made contact again with a fellow Diploma student who is now vineyard manager in the West Country and really enjoying it @NigelC100
found out about the work going on to restore a vineyard not far from my home in Kent and their May Day celebrations @Kent_Vineyard
won a bottle of Bisol prosecco thanks to my tasting note tweet at the recent and excellent Bibendum Times event @bibdendumtimes
won a copy of the IWC's publication listing all their medal winning wines @winechallenge
been encouraged by the postings to come and sample the wines at Borough Wines in Borough Market @boroughwines
attended the opening of new Laithwaites store at Vinipolis @laithwaites

I've even been encouraged to set myself up on Facebook and am following the campaign to save wine journalism and am also following a couple of producers, Yalumba (@Yalumba) and English Wine Producers (@ChapelDownWines). I'm less sure about how Facebook is going to work out for producers but they have to try social media tools such as this to get to the their end consumers. I worry about the end consumer being bombarded to the extent they stop following businesses they had been interested in before.

What I have noticed is that there seem to be less blog postings from those who tweet a lot and used to blog frequently. I don't think it's a case of either blogging or Twitter - it's just a reflection of the ease with which you can tweet from your phone any time anywhere whereas blogging takes a bit more time and is best done in front of a computer.

So I'll take back all the negative stuff I said previously about Twitter!

AWRI advanced wine assessment course - part 2

2010-02-07T21:21:00.010Z

I've got the results of my assessment. The first measure was "reliability" and I scored 0.58 and the second was "AAD" and I scored 4.9. I've reproduced the AWRI's definitions (thanks AWRI) of these measures below to help in their understanding.

Reliability is a measure of scoring consistency, or the ability of a judge to reproduce results on different occasions. A value close to +1 indicates good consistency, a score close to 0 indicates a random scoring pattern, and a score close to –1 indicates that the score given on one occasion was the opposite of that given on another. In the context of the scores given, the higher the number, the better.

Average Absolute Difference (AAD) is an alternative and perhaps more straightforward measure of consistency. It is the average difference between scores given to wines on repeat tastings. For example, an AAD of 1 means that, on average, a person scored the repeat wines differently in either direction by 1 point. Therefore, the lower the score the better, with less than 1.5 being desirable.

So what have I learned from this? My reliability score was pretty good. Although I rated the same wine both with a gold and a bronze several times, I did also rate many of the same wines with the same medal. Where I need to improve my focus is when I DO rate the same wine the same medal I need to avoid scores like 81 and 88 for the same wine. Both silver but hardly consistent.

All this sounds a bit scientific but if you step back and think about tasting for a minute, I believe all serious wine enthusiasts want to learn. And what better way to learn is there than to learn how to taste but taste more reliably and consistently.

AWRI advanced wine assessment course

2010-02-04T19:54:00.010Z

This course ran alongside the Australian trade day at the Saatchi gallery and what a day it was. Talk about informative, educational and interesting. I feel so lucky to have got a place on it.

The course highlighted the approach used to train Australia's top wine show judges, ensuring consistent wine evaluation and analysis. So during the day I went through lows of feeling "I can't taste - what do I know about wine?" through to "wow - I've got this cracked!"

We were given 20 rieslings to start off with, all being Australian. We were advised - or maybe warned would be a better phrase - that some of the wines were repeated. We (that's me and about 20 others including a fair few MW's) were given 40 minutes to rate these as gold, silver or bronze. All the wines had won medals at the IWC, IWSC or Decanter competitions.

When asked how we rated wine 1 (bronze for me) we were then asked for our ratings for wine 10 (bronze for me) as the wine was the same. This led to audible groans from the attendees. We were then asked for our ratings for wine 19 (gold) as, again, it was the same wine. Cue more groans. It turns out this was Wakefield St Andrews riesling 2005 from the Clare Valley which had won the silver best in class at the 2009 IWSC. So my ratings were bronze, bronze, gold - hardly consistent.

The 20 reds in the afternoon were all Aussie shiraz. The elation I felt was rating both wines 4 and 17 with a gold. This was the Katnook Estate limited release prodigy 2006 from Coonawarra which won the gold best in class at the IWSC. Luck or consistency?

So what did I learn? To focus on the wine in the glass and not be distracted by what I've just tasted. To have the confidence to put my own opinion down on paper or verbally and not think tasting a wine as any kind of competition with the person next to you. And to be rational in my assessment.

After all tasting is subjective and there is no right answer.

I'll follow this up with another post when I get my "results". Our scores were all assessed statistically for consistency and whoever had the best consistency was going to be offered a place judging at a regional Australian show.

WOW!

Con Simos of the AWRI did a great job of running the day and, even when anyone got wildly differing scores for the same wine, never once was anyone made to feel 2 inches high about their skills.

WSET awards ceremony

2010-01-21T20:41:00.005Z

Last Monday was the WSET's awards ceremony in the grand surroundings of London's Guildhall. Around 100 Diploma graduates - including me - got to shake Hugh Johnson's hand when he handed over the certificates. In a brief speech before the ceremony he described the ideal tasting note. The video can be found here

Purple Pages

The whole evening was a fitting and grand conclusion to 2+ years of study and tasting.

Montana's ICON project

2010-01-19T13:27:00.005Z

What an interesting and educational evening at the WSET last week with Montana’s winemaker Patrick Materman. He took around 20 Diploma student and graduates through Montana’s ICON project.

The project is all about where they want to take their sauvignon blanc to produce the best wines they possibly can. They appear to be aiming towards the minerality and ageing potential of a Sancerre with a New Zealand stamp in terms or aromas and flavours.

They have been separating their wines by style, terroir and artifact:

Styles are broadly either fresh, crisp and aperitif or concentrated and more food friendly wines.
Terroir refers to the vineyards they have in places such as Brancott and Awatere.
Artifact includes winemaker influences such malo or no malo, thiol development and the use of wood.

Patrick took us through a list of things that influence the aromatics of sauvignon blanc:

Site, crop load, soil nutrients, crushing and processing dynamics, fermentation temperature and protocols, yeast type (they use 25!), oxidation, nitrogen status of the juice, copper additions. The list appeared endless although the aromas were dominated by a few compounds.

The really fascinating part of the evening, especially for a technically appreciative bunch, was to taste our way through ten 2009 sauvignon blancs only one of which Montana had actually bottled which was the Brancott.

We compared wines which had been

barrel fermented with wild yeasts
barrel fermented with man made yeast
stainless steel fermented
high thiols
pressed with a Coquard press
grapes from the shady side of the vines (they plant E/W rows)
old vines
machine harvested
hand harvested

And do you know what – it is possible to tell the difference between these even although some of the differences are minute. The machine harvested vines from Brancott had by far and away the most of that typical NZ Marlborough aroma. The use of machine harvesting according to Patrick increases the thiols as the juice and grape skins remain in contact for just that bit longer than those that are hand harvested thus extracting the thiols from the skins. Those that had oak treatment had just that bit more weight and texture although no obvious oak influence.

I don’t think we’ll see the outcome of this project until 2012 when we can expect to see a wine in the £20 to £25 price range aimed at the restaurant trade. I wish them luck.

One year on from the Unit 3 exam

2009-12-31T14:01:00.011Z

Almost exactly one year ago I was madly cramming for the WSET Diploma unit 3 exam and tasting as much wine as I could. So if anyone reading this blog is doing the same right now, my thoughts are with you!

So what difference has passing the Diploma made to me through 2009?

I thought I'd have more time as there was no need to spend at least one day per week studying but I can't think where that time has gone. It doesn't make me wonder how I found the time before as it only goes to show that if you want to do something enough, you'll find the time.
I've been invited to apply as a judge - rather than as an associate judge whose scores don't count - by the IWSC. And I hope to judge for the IWC as well as they had previously said that when I passed my Diploma they would invite me along.
I've helped out at five trade events which has been a great way to expand my network of contacts and try new wines.
Friends treat my new found "skill" with an element of awe but have fun giving me a glass of wine and asking me to identify it, blind. No matter how tough you tell them it is to get it right they still expect me to guess correctly.
I was nominated for a scholarship because of my Unit 3 results but unfortunately it was awarded to someone else. It's a shame as I could happily have spent a month working for the company who sponsor it.
I still spend a lot of time reading up about wine as well as tasting it. It's such an absorbing subject and there is so much to learn - and enjoy - I take every opportunity to read magazines, check out web site and blogs and even utilise Twitter. I record all the wines I taste often putting them on Adegga and try to taste 3 or 4 per week on top of any trade events I go to.
I'm still occasionally tempted to try the unit 5 Honours Diploma and when I read about Richard Hemmings MW trials and tribulations on Twitter, I feel a pang of envy about the learning and the ensuing satisfaction I get from it. But then I come to my senses!

So 2010 I think will be more of the same although I'll have the added pleasure of choosing the wine for my daughter's wedding in September.

BTW the picture is of a book I won in a recent competition which if I hadn't been a Twitter user. I wouldn't have known about.

Twitter and grapefan

2009-12-08T19:05:00.009Z

I've started using Twitter - again. I used it over a year ago and was distinctly unimpressed. I found myself trawling through hundreds of meaningless tweets on my PC when I got home so gave it up after about a week.

However things are quite different now. I've been selective on who I follow and as I can access Twitter on my phone I can quickly review tweets so probably only spend 15 to 20 minutes per day in total keeping up to date and sending the occasional tweet.

So how have I found it useful?

I've learned that Neal Martin has started blogging again. I enjoy - and learn from - his blogs.
Robert Mcintosh definitely one the leaders of the social network revolution that is slowly permeating the wine world is always worth following to see how he uses Twitter and other tools.
Jancis as you would expect tweets in a high quality and restrained manner. If it hadn't been for her tweets about her top red and white wines I may not have found them on Purple Pages.
I didn't know the International Wine Challenge had a blog until I found Ray O'Connor tweeting. Considering I worked there in 2007 and 2008 that's remiss of me.
And there's Richard Hemming just starting out on his MW studies. It will be fascinating following his travails.
Seeing Adegga mentioned several times reminded me to update it with my tasted wines and compare note.

If you haven't tried Twitter yet you really should do so - but be selective in who you follow.

Asda's wines

2009-09-25T19:51:00.003Z

I've never been into an Asda, far less considered it for wine.

However encouraged by the list in this month's Decanter magazine of the medal winning wines from the recent Decanter World Wine Awards I ventured to my nearest Asda, five minutes walk from my office in Canary Wharf in London.

What a disappointment.

The shelves were not only less than half full but I saw French, South African and Californian wines all mixed up on the shelves together. I felt sorry for the member of staff who was on his knees opening boxes and stacking shelves. It was his first day on the job and I had to point out the difference between reds and whites.................... What a contrast with the nearest Waitrose where all the staff have some kind of WSET qualification.

And not a medal winner in sight.

It will be a while before I'm encouraged to visit Asda again.

Wine related photography

2009-09-10T19:35:00.007Z

I'm a sucker for good wine related photos.

Receiving the invite for the Navarra tasting next month reminded me there are quite a few inspirational sources of photos be they of modern wineries, vineyards during the seasons or simply of the settings of vines and vineyards in the surrounding countryside (think of the rolling hills of Chianti for example.)

The tasting I went to the other day perfectly illustrates the beauty of vineyards in a natural setting when you see the wonderful pictures on their web site.

I've always been a keen photographer since my teenage days and my collection of digital photos numbers well over 10,000. Seeing the pictures has prompted me to do something about my own collection of wine photos. At the moment there is a very loose, disorganised and incomplete collection on Flickr.

One of these days I'll get organised and if I had to swap jobs with anyone else right now it would be with the author of Wine across America. Now researching and preparing a book like that would be my ideal job. Think of the fun you could have with all the tasting along the way also!

Man O'War vineyards

2009-09-10T19:34:00.006Z

I attended the UK launch of New Zealand wine producer Man O'War Vineyards in the lovely setting of Smiths of Smithfield. It was hosted by Stokes Fine Wines who have started importing the wines. Man O'War are based on Waiheke Island off the coast of the north island.

The winemaker Duncan McTavish took us through the 6 of their wines that Stokes are selling. The highlight for me was the 2008 Ironclad a blend composing 52% merlot, 27% cabernet franc, 10.5% malbec, 9.1% petit verdot and 1.4% cabernet sauvignon. It was a lovely perfumed wine with black fruit and some herb on the nose. On the palate there was almost a hint of sweetness and a great balance between the acidity and tannins. A rich, rounded and long wine. It will retail for £24.

We tasted 3 of their "white" label wines all clear expressions of the varietal - pinot gris, merlot/cabernet franc and a syrah. The "black" label wines are made to show more complexity and were the Ironclad, a chardonnay and a syrah.

This is an impressive operation where I get the feeling money is almost no object. Imagine growing your pinot gris on another island which you can only get to by boat. The production costs alone for this wine must be quite high. The web site is worth checking out. Given the beauty of the vineyard locations it must really inspire everyone to do their best to produce wine worthy of the location.

Stokes are starting small with the number of cases they are importing and the wine will be found in places such as harvey Nicks. The wines are cheap but the whole operation feels like a quality business.

All in all an interesting morning.

Pass with merit

2009-09-06T16:22:00.001Z

After around 800 to 900 hours of study and who knows how many hundreds of wines tasted, I finally got my final Diploma grade - pass with merit.

I'm delighted needless to say.

I think I'll celebrate with a glass of wine..........................

Current wine blogs

2009-08-21T11:48:00.009Z

I note Robert over at The Wine Conversation has republished his list of UK blogs and is seeking updates. Given my previous post about my desire to re-energise my wine adventures I’m going to take the opportunity to check out some of the ones on Robert’s list that have slipped below my radar.

During my Diploma studies I found that I kept referring to the same ones over and over again. These were;

Jancis Robinson’s Purple Pages – not strictly a “blog” but from the sheer volume of authoritative and quality updates this is the most useful site I use
Jamie Goode's Wine Anorak – given his scientific background he is always informative and is well travelled. The wines he tastes also are just the wines I want to taste/usually can afford
Andrew Jefford – he has a unique writing style and any Diploma student who wants to learn more about wines having a "sense of place" would be well advised to follow Andrew’s writings
Simon Woods – I like his sense of humour and irreverent approach and the wines he tastes again are the ones I want to/ought to be tasting
Robert Macintosh – his sheer drive in promoting the use of the web and social media in the context of wine is to be admired. The quality of his links to other sites means he always uncovers some golden nugget on the web that would otherwise be missed

So I’ll use Robert’s list to broaden my reading although I sense I’ll continue to use the above links for the majority of my forays into the web.

The picture by the way is of Chateau Ausone right on the edge of the town of St Emilion taken on a trip there in June.

Light reading, heavy drinking

2009-08-18T13:06:00.006Z

If you are off on your summer holidays and wish some light reading for the journey or beach, you could do worse than buy Paul Torday's The irresistible inheritance of Wilberforce.

It's about a man who is a passionate wine drinker and gets through 4 to 5 bottles of Bordeaux, having inherited a huge cellar from a friend. It's full of references to Petrus, Pomerol, Palmer and other illustrious Bordeaux names.

I've only read about 70 pages so far but I'm keen to see what happens. His health from drinking so much has obviously suffered but as with most alcoholics he is in denial. And it's this denial which brings a dark humour to the book. That, and the book starting with him in this alcoholic state, is making me read on to find out how he got to this state.

Light reading but still wine related.

Where next for Grapefan's wine adventures

2009-08-15T10:53:00.003Z

The blog has been quiet - too quiet - of late. I have been indulging my passion though;

* tasting 4 or 5 bottles a week at home
* following my favourite blogs
* reading Decanter's September issue with the California supplement
* keeping in touch with like minded people and comparing notes

However I feel there's something missing now the Diploma studies have stopped and I need a new project. But I can't decide what it should be.

I've thought about Master of Wine and decided if I was in my 30's rather than my 50's I'd do it. It's quite an expense and commitment for someone not involved full time in the trade or wanting/needing a new career.

There is always the final level 5 Diploma stage. Maybe I'll look into this but the idea of lots of depth in one subject isn't that appealling.

I've also thought about teaching, maybe local adult education. Being a freelance management consultant I'm quite happy in front of groups of people and in a perverse way quite enjoy it. I suspect this is a very limited opportunity with lots of competition but councils cutting back their provision for budgetary reasons.

I could always go back to occasional work in a wine shop and I'll certainly keep helping out at trade events, reading, attending trade tastings and judging.

I need something to get my teeth into for my own vinous pleasure however and to give this blog a sense of purpose. It is called Grapefan's wine adventures for a reason. There are many random blogs out there and I'd rather mine wasn't just one of them.

Mmm - food for thought.

PS the picture of the cellars of Chateau Franc Mayne is taken from a recent trip to St Emilion

Another - and final - pass

2009-07-09T11:51:00.003Z

I got my very final result at the weekend - a pass (with merit) for my essay submission as part of Unit 1. I did the "Fool's gold" topic on wine competitions.

As an associate judge at the IWSC and a two time helper at the IWC I would have been disappointed with a fail given my involvement in two major competitions.

All that remains for me now is to get the final notification of my overall pass and the actual grade. I think it's due some time this month.

Can't wait.

Good luck for June

2009-05-16T09:41:00.003Z

I was at the LIWF event in London helping out at a seminar on Friuli wines. I bumped into two friends both of whom are sitting their Unit 3 exams in June.

Two things:

1. is it really 4 months since I sat mine?
2. I fully understand your nerves and apprehension

All I can say is the very best of luck to anyone sitting Unit 3 next month wherever you sit it in the world. Taste as much as you can between now and then and practice writing your tasting notes as much as you can. Then go through them with a red pencil and mark every fact you have put down ie: one tick for every heading on the WSET's systematic approach to tasting sheet and one tick for each aroma/taste.

You are aiming to get more than 20 ticks and as close as you can get to 30/33 (full marks) the better. That means if some of your observations are wrong at least you will have written enough.

Good luck - you'll be pleased you have done the exam once it's over!

I've passed

2009-03-26T15:34:00.004Z

I've passed my Unit 3 exam with a merit in the theory and a distinction in the tasting.

I'm thrilled.

Never in a million years did I think I'd get a distinction and a merit but it just goes to show what can be achieved when you put your mind to something - and of course hours and hours and hours of study.

This time - wine from India

2009-02-15T12:25:00.004Z

Spurred on by the reaction to my last post about wine from Thailand, I've had a go at another wine from out east, this time a sauvignon blanc from India.

Seeing Sula's sauvignon on the list at Benares meant I just had to try it. This was a pretty good wine and had the typical grassy side to a good sauvignon, maybe more a Loire than a Marlborough. However it was overshadowed by the cocktail my wife had.

The passion fruit chutney martini was just that, a combination of passion fruit chutney with Smirnoff black vodka, passion fruit, egg white and a touch of lime. The kick from the spices in the chutney added a wonderful layer to a great aperitif.

Lunch was what you would expect from a Michelin starred chef of the standard of Atul Kochhar. If you can make it to the restaurant in Berkeley Square in central London you'll be impressed by dishes such as tandoor cooked salmon fillets with gazpacho salsa and pan fried king fish with chili garlic mash. And what fabulous value at £19.95 for 2 courses including a complimentary glass of wine.

As an aside, I was poring over the wine list (organised by grape variety) when the sommelier approached me asking if I wanted some help. We struck up a conversation and I found out that she has just sat her WSET advanced exam. That's quite a responsibility to be working in a restaurant like Benares with it's extensive and expensive wine list at her young age with those qualifications.

Wine from Thailand

2009-01-19T12:13:00.005Z

With some friends we visited Dineasia in the middle of the Ashdown Forest in Sussex on a cold and frosty night. It's an unusual place with two separate menus, one Indian and the other Thai. If you want to mix and match and have poppadums followed by chicken satay as an appetiser and then as the entree lamb tikka jalfrezi you can.

What caught my eye on the wine list was wine from Thailand. I would have thought the climate too hot and humid to grow vitis vinifera but according to the OCW bible there are several areas where grapes are grown and have been since the 1960's. The biggest producer is Siam Winery who produce more than half a million cases per year.

We tried their Monsoon Valley 2007 a blend of malaga blanc and colombard. I couldn't even find malaga blanc in Grapes and Wines so I guess it's very local. I'd describe the wine as pleasant and food friendly. Slightly perfumed and lacking in acidity (not surprising given the tropical climate) it was certainly pleasing enough for a second bottle.

It's always good to try something different.

WSET Diploma distance learning

2009-01-17T11:39:00.027Z

With only one essay submission left before my Diploma is finished, I've been considering whether choosing the distance learning option was the right one.

The advantages for me have been;

it's cheaper, about half the cost comparing it to attending classes
it's been more flexible. I've not had to commit to classes which was important to me when I started as I was working in Baltimore when I started the program and the classes were either in London or at Plumpton!

But I recognise there are disadvantages;

there is no-one to talk to or share your questions and ideas with
you are not exposed to the lecturers who are working in the industry and thus have current knowledge and enthusiasm for their subjects
you don't get the chance to taste so many wines

However I joined a tasting group in the last 3 months before Unit 3 and that made all the difference. I think that made up for the disadvantage of not being exposed to wines in the classroom. I also attended lots of trade tastings to train my palate.

On balance however if I was to start all over again I'd think I'd choose the distance learning route again. I'd certainly say the keys to success doing the Diploma as a distance learner (he says confidently not knowing if he has passed yet) are;

plan and review how you are doing against the plan and keep revising your plan
join a tasting group. If you can't form one yourself. Wherever you are it doesn't take many like minded people to form a useful core for tasting
use the internet as a research tool

The last point I'd make is that I didn't realise when I started working part time for Oddbins how useful it would be. Sub-consciously being exposed to all that wine and consumer questions you build up a bigger store of wine knowledge than you think. So I suppose my final recommendation would be to try and work in the industry occasionally even whether it's wine shop, at an event or picking grapes during a harvest.

Oh, why the picture of the Berlucci Cellarius brut 2004? It was what I drank (not tasted) when I got home after my exam. I don't know where I got it from but it was in my rack. I was a little disappointed as, made by the champagne method and with a little age to it, I would have expected more autolytic characters. And the cat's name is Smudge.

It's over

2009-01-12T21:51:00.003Z

So that's it - I've finally sat my Unit 3 exam and survived all the hours and days and weeks and months of studying.

I don't want to sound over confident but I found the exam to my liking. The theory questions covered topics I knew about although I wouldn't have done well if I had to answer the question about vinification in Burgundy. I know I didn't get some of the grapes right in the tasting but am re-assured that some of my colleagues didn't get them correct either. And anyway, it's the observations and assessments that carry more marks and I feel I wrote enough. I now simply have to wait 12 weeks to see if I wrote enough facts to pass.........

So I've had my feet up since the exam last Wednesday. No wine books, study guides or surfing the web looking at wine related sites. Next and last item on the Diploma agenda is my final essay which is due in by mid April.

That sounds easy by comparison to the Unit 3 studying.

It's now only 48 hours to go

2009-01-05T09:52:00.007Z

It's hard to believe I opened my first book to start my Diploma Unit 3 studying on the 24th June 2007 and here I now am only 48 hours away from the exam.

In between I've done around 300 hours of studying and tasted countless wines, certainly more than 400 and many more if I was to add in the wines tasted at trade events. I'd say the WSET guidance of a minimum of 300 hours studying is right but conservative for those of us not involved in the trade on a day to day basis. When I was working at Oddbins on a casual basis early on in my Diploma studies. I was absorbing more than I realised. It helped cement producer names and what grapes you could generally find growing in which region. It also has been a benefit in tasting practice as I have more of a feel for price so have felt reasonably confident in giving a price range when assessing a wine's quality.

But what would I do differently if I was to start my studies all over again?

I'd certainly have done more more hours involved with the trade, say by working at Oddbins or at trade events. I'd have stumped up the £140 or so for a Harpers subscription as I think it's a good way to keep on top of the commercial world. I'd also have tasted more but I suppose you can never get enough tasting experience no matter how much you do. Joining the tasting group was invaluable to me. I'd also have done nearer 400 hours of study although I accept that it has been tough enough to fit in the 300 or so hours I have done in the time.

I'm not nervous about Wednesday, just apprehensive about being able to recall all the facts sufficient to get enough marks to pass. If each question is marked out of 100 then I need to get, simply put, 55 facts down to get 55 marks for a pass. Recall of facts is one of the hardest things I've found during my studying but doing the Diploma has certainly helped exercise my brain.

It's back to the books.

14 days to go

2008-12-24T10:05:00.007Z

It's been a while - too long - since my last post. Life seems to have been a fast paced blur of studying and trying to have a life also - eating, sleeping, working and some socialising where at least I've been able to enjoy a glass of wine without analysing it.

By far the most useful thing I've been doing towards the Diploma has been taking part in the weekly tasting group meetings. I can honestly say that without having been a member I'm confident I would have only just but probably not, scraped a pass in the tasting paper. I've learned so much.

Here's a brain dump of some key points.

Of the 7 marks you get for aroma, 5 are for the aroma characteristics so you had better write at least 7 in the hope 5 of them are the same as on the marking key. That's tough when it's a simple wine but if you smell something citrussy then you can at least confidently get 3 right by listing lemon, lime and grapefruit.

It's the same with the palate where you get 4 marks, or 3 if its a red, for flavour characteristics so again listing 5 will hopefully ensure 3 marks.

Chablis appears quite frequently.Two weeks in a row we had that as part of our blind tasting at our meetings and two weeks in a row about 25% of us worked it out correctly ie: 75% got it wrong. Although there is enormous satisfaction to be gained by getting the grape and region right it is only a small number of marks so concentrate on assessing the wine correctly and if you get the type right consider it a bonus. In my last tasting group meeting I scraped a merit with 67% and only got 1 wine correct.

For assessment of quality, judge the amount to be written by the number of marks allocated. If it is 7 marks ‘good’ will not be enough and remember always to qualify the market, e.g. ‘acceptable entry level wine’.

With readiness for drinking, as there are 3 marks make 3 comments. Does it drink now? How long will it hold OR improve? When should it be drunk by?

As a result of joining the tasting group my confidence level for the tasting paper has shot up and, conversely, my confidence on the theory has diminished.

It's back to the books until Santa arrives at least!

Merry Christmas.

Wines from Greece

2008-11-10T17:21:00.002Z

I've been in Greece for a week's holiday. We went to Kefalonia (or Cephalonia or Kefallinia) and I know I should have known all about Greek wines as its a topic in Unit 3 of the Diploma but the grapes, regions, climates, soils etc just don't seem to have registered with me. I find this a problem with the wines of any country whose geography I don't know or whose wines I wouldn't normally buy or seek out. When I've been to a country or region then its so much easier to recall the details. So I'm OK with Sonoma, Tuscany, China, Trentino and Fruili to name a few.

The robola is the main grape of the island. It mainly grows on the slopes of Mounts Rodi and Enos at anything up to 700 metres. The climate is distinctly Mediterranean (although the island is in the Aegean) with summer temperatures reaching 40 degrees with little or no rain. These temperatures are somewhat moderated by the elevation the vines are grown at.

The labels on the bottles are distinctly tricky to read with only the few of the robolas destined for the European market being in English. We visited the main co-op on the island and spent a short time speaking to one of the co-op members who was English and had settled on the island 15 years ago.

What kind of wine does the robola grape produce? Just the kind of refreshing wine you would enjoy drinking next to the harbour in Fiscardo in the very north of the island whilst enjoying some seafood - lemony, flinty and with some decent acid.

As it's been cold and wet since we got home I think I'll save the one bottle I brought home for another day.....

Diploma tasting group - assessment of quality

2008-11-08T17:12:00.005Z

There have been two themes to the last few tasting group meetings.

The first has been all about assessing quality and how important it is to justify why you think a particular sample is, for example, a good quality mid market wine.

Although using BLIC - Balance, Length, Intensity and Complexity - is a great mnemonic it's not good enough just to repeat what's been written in the tasting note. For example if the wine has a long finish it's not enough just to repeat that. You have to justify it. Is it the fruit that lasts a long time with the acidity fading away? Do the acidity, tannins and fruit linger? Is the long finish actually the heat of alcohol with the fruit fading away?

The second theme has been around partially specified wines.

On Monday we had 3 whites from Italy and on Thursday it was 3 reds from Italy. In this part of the exam there are 4 marks for working out what the region is and 6 for providing the evidence to support the conclusion about region. Thursday’s region was Sicily and the grapes were a shiraz, nero d’avola and an aglianico. On Monday all the whites were from Piedmont.

The shiraz, according to our tutor, should have been a given as Italy is known for producing cheap bulk shiraz and this was only an acceptable quality entry level wine, almost a little bit harsh. The nero d’avola was of very good quality and the aglianico was probably the hardest one to work out what it is. It is also one that I don’t necessarily associate with Sicily.

So as far as working out where the wines came from (not that any of us got it right) we needed to provide the evidence for that. A couple of pointers were that Sicily is one region where the 3 grapes would be grown. Two of the wines had a warm fruit appeal to them which suggests the warmer south than the cooler north. Additionally given the quality levels with the shiraz being an entry level wine, Sicily is a region that produces wines at all price points. However with Monday's assessment none of the wines were entry level which pointed towards a region know for its quality wines which in this case was Piedmont. On Monday there were other pointers that suggested the north rather than the south such as less fruit and more acidity.

This is a tough type of question with 4 marks just for the region. You are either right and get 4 marks or wrong and get 0 marks. At least with the arguments you give to support your conclusion, its still possible to get some marks out of the total possible 6.

This question emphasises to me that you don't only need to know your wines but also your regions and their styles, grapes and other characteristics.

Yet more to remember in the pressure of an exam.

Unit 3 exam - 2 months to go

2008-11-06T12:56:00.002Z

My Unit 3 exam is two month’s today (or is it two month’s tomorrow?).

I’ve realised what a poor time of year it is to have an exam coming right after the holidays. Both my kids will be at our home with their partners and I’m sure we’ll drink lots of good wine but that isn’t going to leave me much time for last minute studying.

Over the weekend I drew up an aggressive plan – otherwise known as cramming – to do around 14 hours per week between now and then. I think it’s achievable.

I can do an hour per day during my work travels and if I finally take for one of the first times in my life a lunch break I can manage a bit more each day. That leaves quite a lot to do each weekend but my wife is very supportive and as long as it still leaves me time to see friends/family/watch the movies/wash the car/dig my veg plot/have a life then I don’t anticipate a problem.

I was reading up on Argentina on the train coming into work today. Seeing references separately to Tupungato and Trivento made me realise how much those Diploma students who work regularly in the business gain.

I used to work part time for Oddbins so am familiar with the Tupungato as we used to stock a Masi from there. We also used to stock Trivento wines, owned by Concha y Toro. Just being around these products increases your knowledge, the corollary being if you are not around them the learning curve is so much steeper.

Diploma tasting group - what the wine is NOT

2008-10-13T17:00:00.004Z

At my first meeting of the tasting group we tasted four wines all from the same varietal. Our tutor tasted the first with us to ensure we were all making similar assessments about colour, acidity, aroma and taste intensities and then left us to it with the next three blind wines, all from the same variety.

There were some interesting conclusions from us students which helped illustrate the main point being made which is in assessing the grape variety it's as important to work out what it is NOT as a means of getting to what it IS. Two of us thought it was Riesling, one Semillon and 1 Chenin Blanc.

Two of the wines had a touch of wood and reasonable acidity and the third was sweet. It therefore couldn't have been Chardonnay or Sauvignon given the sweetness of the third. Although that left Semillon as a possibility the middle wine was quite austere and so not at all Semillon like. Given the wood it also would not have been Riesling. It didn't have the aromas of a Gewurztraminer. Given the acidity levels with a touch of apple in the aromas it's easy (and with hindsight of course) to conclude that it was Chenin as it's a grape capable of the range of styles we encountered - austere (the second was a Savennieres), wooded and ranging from dry to sweet.

A VERY helpful first lesson.

Diploma tasting group

2008-10-12T16:35:00.005Z

I've joined a tasting group in London. At the first meeting I attended there were six of us, all WSET Diploma students sitting Unit 3 in January 2009. We also have a couple of experienced tutors who will be taking it in turns depending upon their particular specialities to choose the wines and then critique our assessments. This group had been together previously for Units 4 and 5 so I consider myself lucky to have been able to join as I found the first meeting SO useful. In a nutshell I feel these meetings, weekly between now and January, will make the difference between a borderline pass/fail on the tasting paper and potentially a reasonable mark.

I've always struggled to get a decent mark with tasting papers. I failed sparkling despite correctly identifying 2 out of 3 of the wines. I got a merit in the fortifieds with the rest being passes. Our first tasting group meeting helped me understand why my marks have always been low.

Our tutor reminded us of the marking system. Each wine within a group of 3 gets 30 marks with 10 of the overall 100 being left for the overall assessment such as "what's the grape variety" (4 marks) and "how did you arrive at that conclusion" (6 marks). If I don't make a good attempt at the overall assessment and give the marker 10 facts he can mark me on, I could lose up to 10% of the overall marks.

I realised during the meeting I've probably been failing on the aroma and tasting descriptors. I need to identify 5 aroma and 4 taste descriptors which means that's 9 marks of the possible 30 or another 30% in total marks. Giving 5 aroma descriptors leaves 1 mark for intensity and 1 mark for development to give the usual 7 for aroma. I've never written nearly enough in the way of these descriptors and if I don't give the marker enough to mark then I am always going to get a low mark so I need to work harder at identifying aromas and tastes.

We were reminded of the common trap students fall into of deciding what the grape/wine is before completing the assessment thereby fitting the assessment around what we think it is rather than working it out from our assessment. Not a new observation but a timely reminder given the wines we were about to taste .....To be continued.

Congratulations!

2008-09-30T17:14:00.003Z

A quick “congratulations” to David of the Secret Cellar for passing Unit 3 and to Jenny who has now finished and passed the Diploma. How I envy them. The more I think about the Unit 3 exam the more I feel ill prepared. I feel I know and understand a lot given how much reading, researching and tasting I do. I just wish I could recall it when needed.

I'm shortly off to Greece for a week's holiday. A friend has just returned saying she has had the worst weather ever during her holiday. I think I'll go prepared for staying indoors with lots of reading and a few sample Unit 3 question papers to while away the hours waiting for the sun to come out!

D'Or to manual

2008-09-28T17:23:00.006Z

Earlier in the week I attended an excellent tasting at Berry Bros and Rudd, London's oldest wine merchant. Entitled "D'Or to manual" the title referred to the fact that manual activities are widespread amongst the many smaller Bugundy producers.

We tasted 15 wines – 6 white and 9 reds ranging from inexpensive Beaunes at £9 through to top end Chassagne Montrachet at £40 per bottle. I won't give the complete list but the highlights for me were a 2005 St Aubin, a 2003 Puligny Montrachet, a 2002 Pommard and a 2002 Morey St Denis.

So what did I learn to help me in my Diploma?

* it's a complicated area with many appellations where the name of the producer is key to finding a wine that won't disappoint.
* considering all the reds are pinot noir you wouldn't think so when comparing the hugely contrasting colours, aromas and how it tastes on the palate.
* there are a huge variety of soil types that have an impact on the finished wine. You only have to read Serena Sutcliffe's Wines of Burgundy to have that confirmed with much reference to Argovian limestone, marl, Bajocian limestone, clay, sand, pebbles, silt, scree - the list goes on. I'm sure the WSET will not expect us to recall the major soil types for each appellation.

I'm glad I went. I'll also be seeking out bottles of St Aubin and Pernand-Vergelesses, described as the "up and coming" white appellations so less expensive than the other better known ones. The same also seems to apply to Morey St Denis for reds.

Spanish wine and sinking ships

2008-09-28T17:03:00.004Z

What has a sinking ship got to do with Spanish wine I here you ask? Nothing, except I had been reading John Radford's new book on the way into work when I came across this ship next to my office in Canary Wharf in London. It's not a Spanish galleon full of old bottles of wine but an “art installation” according to the local paper. No, I don't get it either.

John Radford's new book is an excellent combination of the foods and wines of Spain. Entilted Cook Espana, Drink Espana it has been written with a chef Mario Sandoval. The wine section is organised by region to match the foods of the region. It lacks detail about viticulture, vinification, soils and so on so in that respect won't help with my Diploma. Where it is of enormous help however is how it talks about which are the up and coming regions and which grapes grow best where. It also gives key bodegas in each region or DO which again will help with the Diploma when it's appropriate to mention a particular producer.

The food section looks wonderful with lots of interesting sounding recipes and pictures. Fancy “21st century chocolate breadcrumbs” which is a "chocolate flavoured nutty crumble providing a crunchy contrast to creamy frozen yogurt and frothy white chocolate”? I certainly do along with a glass of moscatel.

Wine competition results

2008-09-23T12:05:00.002Z

There has been lots recently about the 2008 competitions run by Decanter and the IWC. Given I've decided my next and final Diploma unit 1 essay will be about wine competitions I'm looking carefully at how the results are portrayed.

Sunday's Observer Food Monthly has 2 pages on "cheap but not plonk - Drink for under £10" which gives the medal winners from the DWWA available from the high street.

Tim Atkin's in Sunday's Observer magazine goes over the wines from M&S in an article entitled "Top Marks". Marks and Spencer won supermarket of the year award from both the IWC and the DWWA.

It's interesting analysing how the DWWA and IWC are promoting their results. Decanter has the advantage of having a magazine fairly easily available in the high street (M&S even now sells it in selected stores). It also has a name more readily known than Wine & Spirit magazine, published by William Reed the company behind the IWC. With "Spirit" in the title and less widespread availability than Decanter, its high street appeal is less. However the IWC has Tim Atkin who writes for a number of publications and is one of the co-chairmen of the IWC. The competition whose results don't seem to get as much visibility is the IWSC. I'm not sure why that is.

The title of the essay I'll be writing is Glittering Prizes or Fool’s Gold? – How useful are wine competitions? I see from an entry over at Jancis Robinson's site another candidate is preparing their essay and asking questions about competitions. I'll probably do something similar as we have to contrast and compare competitions in both hemispheres and I know nothing about Southern Hemisphere competitions.

I'm going to attempt to show no bias. As a helper at the IWC over the last 2 years and a judge at the IWSC I'll own up to my personal involvement. I don't feel the competitions offer either "glittering prizes or fool's gold" but given the kind of features over the weekend in the Observer, these wines are bound to see a positive impact on sales. Are they good wines? Well, having had experience of the judging I would say "yes" they are. Some may be commercial but that doesn't make them "bad" wines.

More Diploma unit 3 essay feedback

2008-09-21T09:33:00.003Z

64%. That's the mark I got for my last essay submitted as part of the distance learning Unit 3 programme. The essay subject was:

Explain why retail prices for New Zealand wines are high. Despite this, how has the NZ wine industry expanded its markets?"

Although assessed as being a comprehensive answer which covered all the main points, I should have covered how some of the wines have become cheaper over time thereby bringing down the average price. Although I emphasised how consistent the wines are and this alone helps justify a higher price, I should also have covered the problems of pests, diseases and birds and the problems faced by producers in a marginal climate.

There is a definite pattern to the feedback I'm getting on these essays. This is that whatever the subject I need to ensure I cover all the subject headings given in the Diploma specification - location, climate, soils, grape varieties, viticulture, vinification, maturation, vintage variations, trade/legal structures and markets. Despite some of the links seeming a bit tenuous between the essay topic and these subject headings it seems you can't go wrong if you cover all the headings.

The next essay due in by Tuesday of next week has as its subject:

"If I hear anybody order another bottle of Merlot I'm walking out (from the movie Sideways). Does Merlot only appeal to the mass market or can it achieve greatness? Discuss"

I haven't given any thought to this yet but the following immediately springs to mind - Merlot as a blend in Bordeaux, the importance of Merlot to Pomerol, the use of it in the New World by high quality producers. I suppose the mass market bit needs to address varietal labelling, for example in France and the importance of Merlot to New World countries such as Chile. Its flexibility of style is something else to explore I suppose.

The essays certainly make me think AND spend a lot of time in my books and on the net exploring.

Tasting DWWA competition winners

2008-09-10T21:20:00.007Z

There's an interesting offer in this month's Decanter. Buy a tasting card for £10 and get 10 samples of wines that have won trophies at the Decanter World Wine Awards. If the wines retail for over £20 then you get 5 samples but if you buy the tasting card before September 30th then you get a further 5 samples to taste. That works out if my maths is right about 66p per sample. The wines are at Selfridges in their Enomatic dispenser and are available from 10 to 17 October. With wines from such luminaries as Bernard Magrez, Craggy Range, Rustenberg and Vasse Felix it looks as though all countries are covered.

This is a good reminder for me that I still have about £20 loaded on my card from The Sampler. I really must go up there with my notebook and taste my way through all 10 chardonnays or sauvignons or whatever they have in one of their several Enomatics. It's a great way to compare and contrast grape varieties from different regions and terroirs.

My local wine merchant The Secret Cellar are also thinking of getting an Enomatic last time I spoke with Mike the owner. I see that this year they have been highly commended in the South East Regional specialist of the year at the IWC 2008. Last year they were winners of the Small Independent Merchant of the Year at the IWC 2007.

Cortes de Cima

2008-09-10T21:19:00.008Z

I was delighted to see on the blog of
Cortes de Cima that they won two IWC 2008 trophies - the Portuguese Red and Alentejo trophies - for their Touriga Nacional. Their blog entry said they were too busy with the harvest to attend the Park Lane dinner last week. I have always liked the Chamine which you can buy in Oddbins and Majestic and, although I haven't tried the Syrah, it's available in Waitrose.

Having worked behind the scenes at the IWC again this year, I suppose I could have tasted the 2005 but with hundreds and hundreds of wines to process every day it is hard to keep track even in the second week when the numbers reduce and the whole judging process slows down.

Cortes de Cima say their Touriga Nacional will be available in the UK at some point but in limited numbers.

London tastings and events

2008-09-07T11:50:00.003Z

I'm back working in London and I'm pleased as it will help my WSET Diploma studies.

I can go to any of the WSET's evening tastings. I can even go to the WSET's library on the evening it is open late. I can attend trade tastings such as those for Chile and Argentina coming up in the next few weeks. I can join a tasting study group I know about which I think is re-starting again this month. I can attend other events such as London based Wine Society tastings. None of this was possible when I was working in Brighton.

Why the picture of the O2 arena? This is the picture from my office as I'm at Canary Wharf so not far from Waitrose's excellent wine shop.

And I'll be at the O2 on Friday to see Stevie Wonder in concert - I can't wait.

Studying Australian wine

2008-09-06T11:08:00.006Z

I've been studying Australian wine over the last couple of weeks. In a bid to look beyond my usual sources - the Diploma study notes, the Oxford Companion to Wine and the World Atlas of Wine - I logged onto my local library and searched their catalogue. I didn't expect to find anything especially up to date but was pleased to be able to get hold of James Halliday's Wines of Australia (2003 edition) and Oz Clarke's Wine Atlas.

James Halliday's book is categorised by zone and most of the major regions with useful if brief summaries of the history, major varieties grown and sometimes something on soils or climate. The list of wineries however is a useful pointer to who is important in each zone so which names it might be useful to drop in to any question or essay.

Oz Clarke's atlas, as it's the 2007 version, was more useful with 25 pages on Australia compared to 14 with Jancis Robinson/Hugh Johnson's 2001 version (I must get the latest one). Each zone and major region has a good summary of which grapes are important, climate, soil and aspect. I am more of a fan of the World Atlas of Wine's maps however. They have much more detail showing specific and exact delineations for vineyards as well as elevations. Although Oz Clark's Atlas gives you a feel for the area the other one has the detail which the WSET is so focused on.

Other sources of info I'll be using will include Wine Australia's very comprehensive site which even has a section for students. I don't know what level it's pitched at but I'll soon find out. I'm also considering attending the seminars at the WSET on Australian varietals now that I'm back working in London.

Good food, good wine

2008-08-21T12:29:00.002Z

I know the wine in one is good but I don't know about the food. In the other the food is good but I don't know about the wine.

Montrose has just opened a leisurely walk from where I live in Tunbridge Wells and I know the wine has been carefully thought out not just because they say so but because I've been shown around the cellar. It's a wonderful collection in the corner of the restaurant behind glass and is a nice feature. I'll let you know what the food is like when I've tasted it but, in the meantime, the wines range from a 1999 premier cru St Aubin at £18 as the house white through an extensive range of burgundies to a 2004 Bourgogne Rouge at £22.00 as the house red and then an even more extensive range of Bordeaux and Burgundies. It's an interesting concept to restrict the wines principally to Bordeaux and Burgundy and I wish them every success.

I know the food is good in Canteen in Spitalfields Market because I had a late Saturday lunch there with my family. No wine as we were helping our son move home so no chance to sample from the list. There was a sligtly strange experience however when I asked for a cider and, as so often happens unfortunately nowadays, the glass was brought to the table full of ice. Call me a traditionalist but, just because Magners have made a great play of drinking cider over ice, it doesn't mean the rest of us have to drink every other cider with ice. I dispensed with the ice only to find out they don't keep the bottles in the fridge. Mama mia! Whatever next - ice with the white wine so they don't have to keep the bottles chilled?

IWSC judging, day2

2008-08-20T16:47:00.008Z

I've just completed my second day of judging at the International Wine and Spirit Competition and I'm exhausted. 61 wines in just over 3 hours takes a lot of concentration and attention.

Day 1 back in April was Italy, today Argentina with 49 of the wines reds, 7 roses and 5 whites so lots of stained teeth all round. My observations in no particular order are as follows:

* I wasn't aware that Malbec could be produced using carbonic maceration but when it does, it has that confected bubblegum aroma which I don't like
* Argentinian pinot grigio is really quite good. It has some aroma and flavour, so often lacking in many High Street versions
* their cabernet sauvignons can be pretty good
* wines from Patagonia seemed to split the panel into those who like the style and those who don't
* tasting through a country's wines in this way is a good geography lesson. Not many of us had heard of the Famatina Valley but a quick search using Able Grape shows it is a DO in the North West of the La Riojana region

So that's my stint as an Associate Judge over. If my panel chairpersons have been happy with my contribution I hope to make it on as a Judge next year. I feel I've really got a lot of benefit from the whole process. Everyone has been very supportive and, as well as learning a new range of tasting terms, it has helped me judge my palate against a number of people much more experienced than me. And that has increased my confidence as a taster.

Study, study and more study

2008-08-19T10:08:00.007Z

I've had my head in my books over the past few weeks so have only recently realised it has been over 2 weeks since my last post. Spurred on by an assessment of how much reading I still have to/want to do before Unit 3 in January I've been trying to up the number of hours I spend each week studying. It doesn't seem to have left much time for anything else except the occasional other post or comment on a blog.

Recently it's been South Africa (I SO want to go there now having read all about it), the North African countries, New Zealand and Australia. I do wonder how many students put in the full amount of hours for each unit, which is 300 for Unit 3, but I think for those of us who are not involved full time in the industry, and thus not exposed to wine on a day by day basis, need that many hours at least.

I've also managed a fair few hours listening to podcasts downloaded to CD and played in my car as I drive to work in Brighton. Best of the lot recently has been the one on Burgundy from Grape Radio. It was very educational so justified it's length which made it more of a feature length radio program rather than a podcast. I must check out Allen Meadows' Burghound site as I find Burgundy a very complex subject so need all the data and info I can get to help. I also thoroughly enjoyed the interview with Etienne Hugel of Hugel and Fils over at Winecast. You can also take part in a Twitter tasting tomorrow of his wines if you are so inclined. Rob over at the Wine Conversation and Andy from Spittoon are meeting up to do just that. Wish I could join them.

So it's been a busy few weeks and with the trade tasting events kicking off again next month in London I'm looking forward to lots of tasting practice although a new job contract may get in the way of me attending as many as I want to.

Tasting notes

2008-07-31T10:00:00.001Z

I'm impressed at the increasing number of producers who have online tasting notes for their wines. I find them very helpful when I'm tasting wines at home. It's not quite the same obviously as being in a class and hearing others describe the wine but they are a useful comparison to what I'm getting from the wine.

Take the 2 chardonnays I tried the other day, one South African and the other Kiwi. With the Zonnebloem 2007 from Stellenbosch, I got vanilla from the oak and yet it's not mentioned in the producer's notes but I also got what they describe as citrus notes, pear and peach. The tasting note also said all the fruit for that vintage was sourced from vineyards in the Stellenbosch whereas the label describes itself as "Wine from the Western Cape".

The Montana 2007 from Gisborne I thought had lovely lime and lemon flavours with some tropical fruit. They mentioned peaches also but I couldn't get that.

What I've learned from the WSET Diploma studies is that there is a large element of subjectivity in tasting. Just because the producer says peach, and I don't detect it, doesn't mean I am wrong. It just means the palate of the winemaker is more attuned to nuances than mine which you would expect. Alternatively, and not that I'm being cynical, that the PR person has got carried away with the descriptors in a bid to talk up the wine!

The colour of rose wine

2008-07-29T15:09:00.001Z

Pink, salmon or orange are the colours of roses according to the WSET Diploma's systematic approach to tasting with all the variations in between alongside. And then there's the intensities of the colours from pale through medium to deep and then opaque.

The picture well illustrates the challenge of getting the assessment right. I don't think I'm the only male who is not very good at assessing colour correctly and I know some of it is subjective but I thought I'd buy a range of roses from Majestic not only for tasting practice but also to hone my skills at assessing colour.

It's been a useful exercise assessing everything from the pale pink of the pinot noir through to the deep salmon of the syrah.

Unit 3 DAPS

2008-07-29T08:56:00.003Z

I got feedback on my latest essay yesterday. I managed a 64% with the comment that if I had written a stronger conclusion then I woud have gained a merit. The subject was "How important is regionality to the Australian wine industry?"

I've been struggling with these essays since I started with them in April. Initially I wasn't getting the marks as I wasn't writing sufficient detail. Without facts how can the WSET mark you? This feedback moves on from there to the need to express a well argued opinion supported with facts. And all this in 30 minutes in your own handwriting.

I'm just so glad I'm doing these DAPS (Diploma Assessment Preparation Scheme) essays. Given the focus in units 2, 4, 5 and 6 on facts rather than opinion it's a bit of a change.

This well illustrates how challenging the Diploma is. You not only need to know your facts and be able to recall them in 3 stress packed hours for Unit 3, but you also need to be able to structure an argument around them as well for some, although not all, of the questions. I'm glad I'm learning this now rather than post my Unit 3 result.

I'm just about to submit my next essay which has as the subject "Explain why retail prices for New Zealand wines are high. Despite this, how has the New Zealand wine industry expanded its markets?"

Diploma Unit 1 essays

2008-07-10T11:13:00.004Z

It's been such a long time since I submitted the third of my four Unit 1 essays I had forgotten all about it. What with all the Unit 3 studying I've been doing, helping at the IWC in April and the LISWF in May, getting an envelope from the WSET yesterday was a bit of a surprise. I passed the "Crisis in the French wine industry" essay with merit so I'm pretty pleased.

However I'm finding the 30 minute, up to 1,000 word practice essays for Unit 3 still a challenge however. I can't seem to get sufficient detail into them in the right time frame but, thinking positively, at least I'm getting this feedback now rather than finding out by failing Unit 3.

That's my worst nightmare right now - failing Unit 3 and having to resit.

Wines of South Africa

2008-07-08T08:50:00.005Z

I'm really enjoying the South Africa bit of Unit 3 of my Diploma studies. It's a much more manageable country to study than somewhere like France where there are significant distinctions between the various regions in the south without taking into account the rest of the country.

There are several very useful web sites that help bring the WSET notes and the Oxford Companion to life. Given the need to take on board some statistics, the SA wine information systems site also helps with numbers. So South Africa has the fifteenth largest area under vine in the world but produces the eighth largest volume of wine? They export most to the UK where we take more white than red whilst Germany, their second largest export market, takes more red than white. It's amazing what you learn when you are studying.

I'm also very impressed with SA Wines online web site. I decided to order a case of wines so I could taste my way around the country. You can search by grape, producer and region and links exist to each producer's web site. The wines seem good value and the important producers are all represented.

Next study stop is North Africa which doesn't immediately spring to mind as a significant wine producing region, although I was in Morocco last year and was surprised how much local wine there was.

Diploma unit 3 essay feedback

2008-06-28T09:06:00.004Z

I've just got feedback from the WSET on my last essay submission. I got the sum total of 40 marks so I think that fits in the "could do a WHOLE lot better" category.

I did struggle to find much to write about on the subject of "what does blending other varieties with Chardonnay achieve?". Apart from getting no marks for writing about chardonnay in champagne (this is a unit on still wines only - doh!) I was advised to write more about the attributes that chardonnay brings to each of the blends I wrote about. I also covered 3 blends - colombard, chenin and semillon - and was advised to write about more blends. Despite covering the marketing and selling reasons for blending it, I should have written more about the route to market for these wines. My submission also lacked examples.

In short these essays are all about detail as is the exam and this requires an enormous ability to recall facts. Tomorrow I'm doing my next submission which is "how important is regional identity in the Australian wine industry". Given the feeling of failure I have having only got 40 marks, there is now no excuse for not putting sufficient detail in my submission on a subject which has been a whole lot easier to research than the last one.

Mont Tauch and Taste of London

2008-06-24T20:28:00.004Z

Seeing an entry over at UKWinesOnline for the Taste Festival in Birmingham reminds me to write a quick piece about last Saturday.

I worked on the Mont Tauch stand at the Taste Festival in Regent’s Park London. Last time I was at the festival it was as a consumer and the weather was lovely. Saturday was a pretty average day and dressed in my Mont Tauch T shirt, I was feeling decidedly cool by 9:30pm when the festival closed. It was an interesting and enjoyable day with the stand manned by 3 of us representing Eviva who do Mont Tauch's PR and 1 from Thierry's who are their agents in the UK.

I was struck by how few people had heard of Fitou and even fewer of Mont Tauch considering their wines are readily available in Sainsburys, Somerfield and Waitrose. It was pleasing to hear so many people try the wine and be surprised that wine of such quality only costs £5.99. I would be amazed if sales of the entry level Fitou did NOT increase immediately. Even the Les Quatres Fitou at £8.99 went down a storm with people again saying it was good value for a Sunday lunch, roast beef kind of wine.

Although tiring it was a thoroughly enjoyable day and in the short breaks I did take, it was great to see so much good food in such a small area and to be able to sample much of it.

Sampling the wines of Lake Garda

2008-06-22T17:49:00.003Z

Before my trip to Lake Garda I had done some digging around on the internet as I wanted to visit a couple of wineries whilst away. I was pleased to come across promotional material from the Lombardy and Veneto regions indicating they had well established wine trails to follow around their regions. However, as we found out, these were completely different from the kind of wine tourism you come across in Tuscany or California as very few accepted visitors. We did manage to find from the tourist office that a number of them did a “happy hour” on a Friday evening where for a small fee of 5 euros you could taste an extended range of wines along with bite size local food samples. However most of these took place at fairly industrial or retail looking premises rather than set in vineyards so we gave this a miss

We did spend a very enjoyable and instructive afternoon at Azienda Vitivinicola Redaedelli de Zinis where the staff were extremely friendly and instructive. As well as getting to taste their wines we were also given a tour of the cellars. It was a coincidence their Chiaretto won a bronze medal at the IWSC and that my one day of judging on the competition back in April was on Italian wines although none were from the Lombardy region.

We also visited the shop of Guerrieri Rizzardi where, right in the middle of Bardolino town, they have a vineyard. Although unable to visit the vineyard as it was closed that day, it was good to learn about their wines. I found their 2007 DOC Bardolino to be a bright almost vivid garnet with aromas of cherries and redcurrants with a pleasant acidity underlying the strawberry and redcurrant flavours. Soft tannins made this a very easy drinking and refreshing wine to drink. Made from the same grapes as a Valpolicella it was altogether a much lighter style which I was told is simply down to the type of soils although I'm sure the climate had something to do with it also. Their wines are being shown for the first time at next week's trade Definitive Italian tasting event in London.

I was also struck by how many of even the simplest of cafes had a complete range of local wines usually around 2.50 to 3 euros per glass. Now if only our pubs and wine bars could match those prices.............

WSET Diploma unit 1 essays

2008-06-15T17:43:00.001Z

I've always thought it a little strange that I submit 3 of the 4 essays for Unit 1 sequentially with one every 6 months but then my timetable says the fourth and final one gets submitted after the Unit 3 exam, that is after a 6 month delay. Now though having realised the enormity of the amount of material that needs to be taken in for Unit 3 I can see the logic. Although I am free to submit the essay when I wish, I'll take the WSET's advice and wait until April 2009 to submit it. This means I won't be distracted between now and my Unit 3 exam in January 2009 by 30 hours of essay preparation.

The new essay subjects have just been released. Having covered Establishing a Vineyard, The Co-operative Movement and The Crisis in the French wine industry so far I can pick from the following:

1. Creating a new brand of Gin or Vodka
2. Glittering Prizes or Fool’s Gold? – How useful are wine competitions?
3. Rosé: its performance and prospects in different countries
4. Selecting a vineyard management regime

I haven't a clue which I'll pick. The others were selected out of a combination of personal interest, a desire to stretch myself by writing about something I knew very little about and ease of gathering material for inclusion. Not one of these new topics jumps out at me saying “pick me”. I'll just have to mull things over for a while before taking a stab in the dark although number 1 is almost definitely a no-no.