Camila Zuccardi Piligonos del Valle de UCO San Pablo Malbec 2014.
When you’ve seen one vineyard you’ve seen them all! Well in part that’s true but have you seen a vineyard that’s only a few years old?
Oastbrook vineyard in Sussex, UK has not long been planted. Their grapes have yet to be made into wine as they are to young but they have started to make wine with grapes from near by vineyards. Since I tasted their excellent Pinot Gris I’ve wanted to see the place. Also theres probably not another vineyard that has a hobbit house to stay in. Yep a full grown hobbit house, doesn’t sound right but it looks gorgeous.
The Hobbit house at Oastbrook vineyard
The vineyard is run by Nick and his wife America, she’s from Brazil so hence the name. America studied at Plumpton outside Brighton and is a hands on owner either doing the work or over seeing the work. Her attention to detail is the key to their success so far, that and she’s a thoroughly nice person. Our 2 hour tour and tasting lasted 4 hours and we only left as we were staying with friends in Kent that night and they had dinner ready.
America from Oastbrook and my wife
America went though the history of the area, how the vineyard started, the problems and mistakes that were made. She was honest, it’s no bed of roses starting a vineyard.
The rose sparkling was very good, dry, clean with subtle red fruit, raspberry and currant sitting in the background with brioche notes pointing to the 36 months it’s taken to mature using the Champagne method.
Oastbrook rose sparkling with local cheeses
Next we tried the Pinot Gris. Still heaven. Best to see my previous review. The local cheeses and chuckney were very good, going well with the rose sparkling and Pinot Gris. It’s a shame we had to leave.
When the new winery and tasting building is complete next year this will be the premium vineyard in Sussex to visit. Hire out the Hobbit house and you don’t have far to go to bed.
The vines at Oastbrook
Sweet, unaspirating and dumped over here was what German wines reputation was in the 1970’s and 80’s. Black Tower has a lot to answer for,t this is great because it means that there’s all these fantastic wines out there from Germany no one knows about. A little bit of investigation and you get a gem, this is one of them, esp as this stuck in someone’s garage for 8 years it’s amazing.
Made with the Silvaner grape it’s a lovely light gold colour. It’s a medium sweet wine with good acidity and flavours. There are aromas of ripe citrus, almost stewed and honey. Flavours come out a bit lighter but do hang around the mouth for a while. That said, don’t pour a large glass as the flavours evaporate from the glass quite quickly, I put this down to it being 10 years old.
I really like this as a sip and savor wine. It went well with bread, hommus and ripe cheese though. It’s about EUR6 a bottle for younger vintages which is great value, just try it earlier than at 10 years old.
Volkacher Kirchberg Silvaner Trocken 2009
Aromas of red and black fruits hints of cherry. Flavours of red fruit and very dry. Balanced acidity and tannins but at about £25 a bottle it’s too pricey, then again most Swiss wines while good share the same problem.
Les Titans 2014 Merlot, Switzerland LP
Dornfelder grapes
Norfolk produces a surprisingly excellent range of wines, Winbirri vineyard took home a Decanter World Wine Awards Trophy in 2017. Then theres Flint Vineyard producing small batch wines for its club members that are excellent, their main wines are pretty good too.
Chet and Waveney Vineyard is another that produce great wines. It uses more Germanic grape verities to produce excellent drink now wine. Their 2 sparkling wines are easy drinking types.
Siskin 2018 – Solaris grape
This still white wine is light in colour, pale lemon and very dry. There are aromas of Lemon, lychee, grapefruit, lime and a little floral. Flavours of green apple, grass, blossom and a hint of honey. Great with salad or fish.
Redwing 2081 – Regent grape
A dry rose, Salmon in colour with Raspberry, strawberry and rose aromas. Fruity with citrus overertones. Place with fish or chicken.
Swift – Schonburger grape
Pale lemon in colour with a hint of pink. Aromas of lemon sherbet and tropical fruit that feeds into the flavours. Theres less acidity than the Siskin and long lasting flavours that the other wines tried. Just drink it.
Skylark Sparkling – Phoenix and Seyval Blanc grapes
2017 Brut. This is made using the Charmat method – Second fermented in the vat and bottled under pressure, like Prosecco. It has a light fruit aroma and light fruit flavours.
2018 version has the grape Regent in it and is more intense with a pinky look. It has aromatic and redcurrant aromas. Those longer flavours reminds more fevertree aromatic tonic water that’s got extra sparkle. Thats not a criticism, its really refreshing and just a little different, and for the better.
2018 Demi sec version. Light salmon in colour, aromas of sweetness and redcurrant. Flavours of redcurrant, not really to my taste, it’s a demi-sec thing with me.
2016 Horatio – Phoenix, Seyval Blanc and Regent grapes,
This is made with the champagne method to give a dry rose sparkling thats fresh and fruity, excellent. Great on its own or with shell fish.
Chet and Waveney wines
You normally associate Malbec with Argentina but it all started in France. This dry red has a deep ruby colour. There are aromas of spice and blackberry. There are smooth tannins and rich dark fruit flavours that last a long time. An excellent example of what a red should be and which is lovely to sip on its own in front of a fire or pair with meat, cheese or tomato based pasta dishes.
Chateau Famaey Malbec 2016, Cahors, France
China is making a lot of wine, its area under management has been said to be the biggest of any country and production of wine will no doubt follow. People poo poo Chinese wine but it’s pretty good and getting better all the time. There are a few that get Decanter gold medals for their quality, now it doesn’t get much better than that.
Previous vintages have received Decanter awards in the past but I can’t see if this vintage got one. Made in the North West China, near the Gobi desert and with Cabernet Sauvignon and organic this is a dry red wine with loads of dark fruit, cherry, plum with medium tannins. It’s the tannin level that shows that the wine makers thought of balance and complexity and got reasonable right. Theres lots going on here and for me a bronze medal wine. Its not outstanding but better than so many others out there. If you see Chinese wine give it a go.
Ho-lan Soul reserve 2015, Dry red from China
Each year Framingham in Suffolk host a sausage festival. In a good year about 10,000 people are expected to be there. This year the co-op hosted a VIP wine tasting with host Alison from www.wineathome.co.uk and Jane and Peter from Toppesfield Vineyard. There were 6 wines, a Cava, a prosecco, an English white a rose, an Australia Cab Sav and a Chilian Carmenere.
All the wines were good examples. The Cava was light with subtle tropical fruit flavours and breast notes. The prosecco was, well prosecco. I preferred to drink the Cava as it had more depth and flavours. The Toppesfield English Bacchus was truly excellent, it gets more flavours and refined each month I try it. The Shawsgate rose was pretty good, decent red fruit aromas and not as over powering on the taste buds as the colour might suggest. I’m a big Provence rose fan and the darker roses are usually my glass of wine. The 2 reds were a surprise. Carmenere was fruity, a bit of spice and vanilla thrown in, very happy I was. The Cab Sav was a JC moment, possibly the best was served last and one of the best reds I’ve tasted in a long time. Great black and red fruit aromas and flavours, firm but not over powering tannins, long finish and at £9 a bottle very reasonable.
Alison from www.wineathome.co.uk talking about sparkling wine
Co-op wines tried at the Framingham Sausage Festival
Rioja is a wine most wine drinkers have had on many occasions. Its hard to get wrong, even the cheaper end of the market produces easy drinkable reds.
This is good, very good. Aromas of vanilla and black fruits as expected with vanilla from the aging in French oak. Its dry, bold, full of presence and with firm tannins and solid structure and richer flavours than many Rioja’s. We had this on its and with cheese. I probably prefer it on its own, mainly because the flavours are so well balanced.
At around £10 a bottle its one to buy.
Amador Medrano Terra Finca El Encinal, Rioja, Spain
There are many Primitivo’s on the market, Puglia produces more wine than almost any region in the world. Its good stuff, its hard to get a bad bottle of Primitivo.
This is one of the better ones, its very good, really good. made in the Appassimento way where some of the grapes are dried to concentrate the flavours. Its a dry red with aromas of spice, coffee and dark fruits. The taste is a mix of red fruits and dark fruits – red and blackcurrants, spice, chocolate, plum, so much going on.
At about £11 a bottle its great value and a wine that beats many that are twice the price.
Maxale – Appassimento Primitivo, Italy