Chateau De Targe, Clos de Moulin, Cabernet Franc, 2017, Loire Valley, France
Tried at the 40th anniversary of the Colchester Cellar Club this is Chateau De Targe Clos de Moulin is a very grown up Cabernet Franc. There’s the usual red fruit, plum, with oak and vanilla but it’s all very smooth, dry and structurally tight. It’s very good but you need food to get the best out of it and at £35 a bottle it’s not cheap. The cuvee Ferry Cabernet Franc that they do is better for me.
Chateau Cardinal Villemaurine, Grand Cru, 1975, Saint-Emilion, France
An old Bordeaux is always something to try and this Chateau Cardinal Villemaurine, Grand Cru, 1975, Saint-Emilion is a good wine to see why. At 47 years old theres still complexity and flavours to find but with softness and soothing that has a decent length. The red and black fruit, hints of tobacco and oak are all subtle and mellow but that’s not a problem.
At £120 a bottle it’s not one to get in by the case.
Villabella, Fracastoro Riserva, Amarone Della Valpolicella, Italy
I’m sure you can get bad Amarone but this one from Villabella is not one of them, quite the opposite. Decanter wine magazine save this 90 points and I can see why.
It’s a bold wine but pretty smooth and also not necessarily particularly dry, there’s softness and sweetness in this bottle too. You get flavours and aromas of plum and blackberry, blackcurrant, chocolate and tobacco. Theres oak and a smokiness in there.
Drink with food, BBQ in the garden is a good starting point. At £20 a bottle it’s reasonable value for what you are getting.
Mate Marinaia, Toscana, Italy
Italian red wine is normally as a very high quality if you spend the money and £30 a bottle you expect something quite special and this Mate Marinaia, Toscana is just that.
Made with sangiovese grape medium bodied wine with good subtle tannings, quite dry and balanced acidity. You get lots of flavours ranging from sour cherry and cranberry to blackcurrant and plum with tobacco and Oak notes coming through which are all well-balanced.
Chateau De Targe, Cuvee Ferry, Cabernet Franc, 2017, Loire Valley, France
I love Loire wines and recently the wine maker from chateau De Targe presented to the Colchester Cellar Club. His Cabernet Franc is very good with good length and decent amount of red fruit flavours and aromas. There’s underlying oak and an earthiness feel to it. It’s dry and pretty bold and all the components are working well together.
At about £10 a bottle its decent red wine.
Borda Sabate, Torb 1190m organic, 2014, Andorra.
Borda Sabate is over 1000m above sea level, so sea level rises are unlikely to concern them. This Torb is at 1190m and organic. I’ve not had Andorra wines before but this was add good wire with dark fruits plum and bramble notes with a bit of tobacco and oak in there. A little earthy maybe but we had it with food so worked well.
The only gripe I really have to get used to is the cost at around £40 is quite a lot of money for this wine.
Clos de l’Anhel, Les Dimanches, 2009, Corbieres, France
Clos de l’Anhelmake excellent wines and it’s often the case that you should drink wine in a particular period after its been made and this Les Dimanches, 2009 shows why.
Coming from the Corbieres region in France wines are generally left to age little and and although this is still old wine it has decent amounts of black fruit, plum, blackcurrant with chocolate and a smoke and earthy undertone, after 13 years it’s still have been drunk earlier.
The turnings for starting to Fe and the dryness was a little bit too much. Possibly 3 or 4 years ago the fruit would a balanced out better.
Definitely want to have his food but try not to have anything with a heavy sauce if you’re going to drink something at this age.
Domaine de Mourchon, seguret Grand Reserve 2011, Rhone villages
Domaine de Mourchon know how to make good wine and this Seguret Grand Reserve 2011 is a good. Although this probably should have been drunk 3 or 4 years ago it still had a full body, with smooth tannins that were punchy with flavours of raspberry, redcurrants and plum with liquorice and pepper in the background. Younger vintages are selling for around £20, which is a little expensive but that said it is a very good wine. Certainly one to have with food, preferably cheese and biscuits or a good steak.
Timo Dienhart, Spätburgunder Trocken, 2016, Mosel, Germany
Light, smooth and dry are 3 words to describe this Timo Dienhart, Spätburgunder from the Mosel.
There’s flavours of cherry, raspberry, with earthy notes and hints of pine and oak and a little coffee poking through. It went well with veggie home made pizza but its light enough to have with meaty fish or white meat.
Zantho, St Laurent, 2015, Burgenland, Austria
Austrian wine has had a bit of a come back in recent years and this St Laurent from Zantho in Burgenland shows why.
There is some much going on, aromas and flavours of cherry, plum, blackcurrant, tobacco, licorice, hints of chocolate and oak. It’s dry, medium bodied with soft but “present” tannins. The length of these are good and integration is excellent.
One of the best wines I have tried in years and at approximately £15 a bottle it’s great value.
