Domaine Lafage, Centenaire, 2019, Languedoc, France
This white wine from Domaine Lafage in the Languedoc, France is made with Granache Gris and Granache Blanc and is quite good, even great in some ways. Bold, dry with plenty of length there are ripe citrus and honey flavours with a bit of minerality and green apple poking through. The bit I’m not some keen on is the grapefruit hints. Great wine for chicken, zesty salad or watching a sunset.
Domaine du Tix, Cuvée des Grandes Pountes, Vaucluse, France
This Viognier from the Rhone is quite something, with a rich texture and lots of fruit, peach and apricot, green apple, citrus and a mineral afternote it’s on thd dry side but quite bold. With decent acidity underlying everything it’s a classic French wine that’s done well and at £10 a bottle, great value. It’s a shame that not more French white wine is of this quality and price.
Another classy roundabout
Chablis map of the different grades of land
In July 2023 we headed off to Champagne and Chablis with friends for a bit of wine tasting. Weather was decent, accommodation booked Nd tastings arranged. Some of the champagne and Chablis houses needed to booked or an introduction made by a friendly Master of Wine, whom the wife had been judging wine earlier in the year.
What was apparent by the end of the trip was the quality of the Premier Cru and Grand Cru wines and price was pretty fair considering the quality.
Champagne Guilleminot.
Excellent start to the tasting and at about £15 a bottle for the entry Bruts, great price. Good length and fresher style these were a move away from the heavy toasty and yeasty notes of your traditional Champagnes. Well worth trying if you prefer cremant sparkling wines but want the next step up.
Champagne Jeangout.
This smaller producer is another excellent champagne house making about 30,000 bottles a year. Fresher style again with crispness, freshness and subtle citrus flavours that made their Premier Cru stand out. At £23 a bottle not cheap, even by french standards but superb and worth the money.
Champagne Cattier.
Cattier was not a name I had heard of before the wife brought a bottle home to go with our Christmas day meal, but then make about 600,000 bottles of their range and 1 million bottles of the iconic Ace of Spades range, at £300 a bottle the Ace of Spades if seriously expensive. At £30 to £50 a bottle their main range is more affordable and great quality. Fresher than your usual Champagnes but with clarity and superb length these Premier Cru’s are classy. Their 2014 Vintage has a bit more traditional characteristics but the fruit is certainly there.
One very geeky fact is that they are putting NFC labels on their bottles very shortly, hold your NFC enabled phone next to the front label and it will open a Utube video that Cattier has produced. Thd video is pretty good too. Here we has a tour of their cellars, mind blowing, 3 levels and stretch for what seemed like miles.
La Chablisiene.
This is a large producer with a large range of Petit Chablis to Premier Cru and Grand Cru wines. The Petit Chablis was a bit disappointing, short on length and flavours. Their Premier Cru wines were very good though and we end up with 9 different Premier Cru bottles.
Domaine Gautheron.
Great range and excellent at all levels. Fresh, crisp and loads of citrus. The Petit Chablis was a great day to day wine and the Premier Cru were wonderful ‘occasion’ wines the Grand Cru we purchased will be laid down for the next decade.
Domaine Vrignaud Fourchaume.
Classy cellar room for the tastings matched the wine. Oozing quality over their entire range we probably should have purchased more than we did. At about £20 a bottle for their Premier Cru wines this matched the other producers but their were none I didn’t think deserved a silver or gold medal.
Prosper Maufoux, Puligny-Montrachet, 1er Cru, La Garenne 2018, Burgundy, France
This Chardonnay from Prosper Maufoux, Premier Cru, in Burgundy, France is a great example of an amazing wine, one that all should try but at £100+ a bottle very few will. Its dry with great length and balanced acidity. Lots of stone fruit and a softness that coats the whole mouth, truly superb.
Domaine de la Potardiere, Muscadet Sevre et Maine, 2019, Loire, France
Loire wines are often decent value and high quality and this one from Domaine de la Potardiere is an excellent example. Being a Muscadet Sevre et Maine you get a dry, richly valued white wine with ripe citrus, pineapple, peach, honey notes and sense that this could be a standard to judge others by.
At £15 a bottle it’s great value and not one to just guzzle
Tenuta di Angoris, Collio Bianco, Angoris Riserva Giulio Locatelli, 2018, Italy
Tenuta di Angoris, Collio Bianco, Angoris Riserva Giulio Locatelli, 2018, Italy
Tenuta di Angoris has been making wine for generations and this Angoris Riserva Giulio Locatelli shows that. It’s a dry bold white wine with flavours of green apple, grass, ripe citrus and hints of peach poking through. It’s a little austere but goes well with fish and white pasta sauce dishes.
At £18 a bottle it’s a little pricey but worth a try.
Cave de Lugny, Mâcon-Lugny, La Carte, 2019, Burgundy, France
Ah a rather good Burgundy is worth trying and this one from Cave de Lugny is very good, really very good. Dry with plenty of acidity and good length. It’s got lots going on on the flavour side with peach, apple, melon, oak notes and mineral undertone all rounded with soft butter and vanilla hints.
At £15 a bottle it’s amazing value.
Paul Schneider, Pinot Gris, 2012, Alsace, France
I went to Eguisheim in Alsace and it was one of the most fabulous wine places I have been too. There are maybe 30 producers in a village that takes no more than 5 minutes to go from one side to the other and the people were so friendly with the wines so amazing. This 2012 shows how good they last, it has amazing ripe citrus fruits and a slightly thicker texture that makes you just want a sip rather than guzzle. At about £10 a bottle its super value.
The Guv’nor, Majestic Wine, Spain
The Guv’nor from Majestic Wine is wine from Spain that really surprises for it’s an amazing white wine blend. It is fresh and crisp with lots of citrus with hints of pineapple. Great acidity, balanced and at £6 a bottle it’s amazing value too.
Les legendes, Petite Arvine, 2020, Valais, Switzerland
Petite Arvine is a predominantly Swiss grape and this example from the Valais region shows it to be a good drinking grape. Its not a big style of white wine, dry with subtle aromas and flavours but there’s lemon and lime flavours with hints of peach and blossom. A wine just to drink and enjoy and not think to much on.