New Hall, Barons Red, 2018, England
New Hall in Chelmsford, Essex make a lot of wine. This red is a blend Pinot Noir, Acolon and Rhondo grapes. It’s a reasonably simple wine, dry with red fruit aromas and sour cherry flavour with an oak under note.
For an English red wine this is very good, easy drinking with decent flavour and £11 a bottle. Sure go to £25 a bottle and you can get Gusbournes Pinot Noir which is excellent but this is much easier on the pocket and very good.
Coteaux du Vendômois, Cuvée Prestige, 2014, Loire, France
This Cuvée Prestige from Coteaux du Vendômois is an interesting red. It’s made from Pineau d Aunis, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Franc and has soft flavours of red fruits such as raspberry and redcurrant and is pretty dry but the tannins are soft and this makes it a very easy wine to drink, no food needed with this red. Try with lamb, duck or tomato sauce based pasta if having with food.
It’s only Eur6 a bottle which makes it great value.
Black Sage Vineyard, Viognier, 2017, Okanagan Valley, Canada
Canadian wine is generally excellent and a lot of the time exceptional, which this Viognier from Black Sage Vineyard in the Okanagan Valley, Canada is. This us a dry, crisp wine. The aromas are clean minerals, citrus and hints of peach these follow through into the taste with lime.
This is a clean wine that has subtle flavours that are delightful, playful and long enough for you to say ooohhh.
CM by Carlos Muro, 2015, Rioja, Spain
Rioja produces an awful lot of wine and much of it drinkable and there are some truly excellent reds are produced but is this from Carlos Muro a drinkable or excellent one. The aroma is a little flat, you get some red cherry but that’s pretty much it. It’s a dry fairy bold wine with plum and strawberry flavours and soft tannins which I warmed too. This got a bronze at the Decanter World Wine Awards in 2018. It’s definitely better than most easy drinking and you don’t have to think about it which in many ways makes it a great drinking wine.
At about £20 a bottle it’s too much money though. I think they should really be a £10 bottle at the most.
The late Jessica with a bottle of Chateau Saint Martin, De la Garrigue, Gres de Montpellier, 2010, Languedoc, France.
This chateau Saint Martin is another cracker from the Loire. Dry with a great deep purple colour and Aromas of stewed plums, spice and caramel and these follow through into the flavours. The flavours are full with well integrated tannins and excellent length.
At £20 a bottle it’s not cheap but you get what you pay for.
Coteaux du Vendômois, Montagne Blanche, 2016, Loire, France
Coteaux du Vendômois, Montagne Blanche is a rose from the Loire, France and it’s quite typical of the roses from the region this is not to say a bad thing but it does differ from the typical Provence roses that people see in the market in the UK. This has a copper colour which would normally indicate big bold flavours but the flavours quite subtle and you get hints of raspberry, strawberry and red currant but the crispness and dryness is what is immediate.
This is a drinking wine and probably should have been drunk a year or two ago so I’m not going to put it down too much. It’s a easy drinking summer wine either with salad or on its own.
I have a soft spot for Rustenberg as the wines are generally good quality I could prices and this pretty much follows through in this Chenin Blanc. Deep lemon in color and although it’s not meant to have been aged in any Oak you do get much more richness that you might expect, I think this is partly because it’s been left on its lees for maturing. It’s dry and crisp and lots of flavor of pear and citrus possibly a little strong for my liking that said it would go very well with white meat fish and Chinese food so from that aspect a thumbs up. At about £6 a bottle it is good value.
Rustenberg Estate, Chenin Blanc, 2018, Stellenbosch, South Africa
Hospices de Beaune, Savigny-lès-Beaune, Premier Cru, Cuvée Fouquerand, Alain Corcia, 2002, Burgundy
Big name and big price but this is really quite a special wine from Hospices de Beaune in Burgundy. Although it’s 19 years old it has fabulous structure soft tannins which are firm but not excessive with beautiful soft red fruit flavours. There’s not much on the aroma side but it glides down very well with or without food. I had this with annoying of pork with a red wine reduction and the pairing was perfect.
Some people will think it’s overpriced and I get that but sometimes it’s so nice to be able to taste something that is old but where the winemaker has made it but you can enjoy it decades down the line. Not your average drink but they’re are other wines out there for those times.
Tsiakkas winery, Commandaria, Desert Wine, Cyprus
Almost any country can grow grapes and make wine good wine on the other hand is harder to make, cypress can make flipping good wine as this Commandaria, desert wine from Tsiakkas winery shows. It’s a deep rich colour with the aromas of citrus, apricot, dried figs and raisins which follows through into the flavours and is joined with a toffee undernote. There’s definite sweetness which sticks to the mouth but isn’t sickly, it is quite fantastic.
We sit on its own and had it with cheese which was just magical. An amazing dessert wine that I’d be happy to drink the rest of my life.
Domaine Richou, la Grande Selection, Loire, France
I like Domaine Richou wines and this desert wine is interesting. It’s sweet but not sticky in the flavours are defined but not overpowering. You get some honey and apricot but these are subtle, there’s a little bit of oxidization but only a hints, but that’s because we’ve left it too long. The deep orange colour is quite unusual but this does not attract from wine.