Burgundy Cru’s are excellent. You can also get excellent lower tier wines.
This little number has many excellent points, its light with lemon and minerality on the nose, it has subtle flavours of apple, vanilla, honey, citrus, its crisp, acidic and refreshing. It went very nicely with smoked salmon and cream cheese. At under £10 a bottle its very good value.
Signé Bourgogne Montagny, Burgundy, France
Made from the usual grape of Vouvray and the Loire, Chenin Blanc, it has ripe citrus aromas, lemon, pineapple with a note of flora in there. Its an off dry, demi sec, and its soft, rounded flavours make this very enjoyable. Personally I would have this with food, chicken or fish. At about £10 a bottle its a reasonable price.
Chateau Moncontour, Vouvray, France
Pay the extra with Beaujolais because the cheap stuff is generally not worth drinking. The nouveau beaujolais that’s released each year has done more to harm the wine than anything else.
Get a decant Beaujolais and its a light, fruity with light tannins. Some say simple easy drinking wine and that’s what we have here. You get light black fruit with violets in the background and bit of sour cherry and vanilla undertones. There’s a slight hint of bubblegum but the light fruity taste and aromas of blackcurrant is very nice. At £10 a bottle its decant value for what you get. It got a bronze medal at the Decant World Wine Awards 2019 which is on the spot.
Domaine Pardon Fleurie, Beaujolais 2018, France
Old Chablis is not like the fresh flavour, younger vintages. As it ages it softens and loses some of those fresh green notes. The acidity loses its edge and flavours change.
This is true of this Premier Cru, there are subtle light aromas of green apple and vanilla, a lightness of texture and a light taste of creaminess. Delicate and quite special this has been waiting in our wine store since about 2006 and finally we get to try it.
At 15 years old its not something you are going to get even in a decent wine merchant. That’s a shame as few people will get to try what an older white wine tastes like compared to a much one of the same region or producer, even if the younger Chablis is a supermarket standard one.
Find a 15 year old Premier cru and its going cost you upwards of £40 a bottle, my suggestion is by a few of these when young, put them to one side and wait.
Domaine Pascal Bouchard Beauroy Chablis, Premier Cru 2004, France
At £40 a bottle you expect something very special. A friend bought this round for a dinner party we were hosting.
There are delicate aromas of red fruits, redcurrant and hints of raspberries with an earthy and undertone. These come through in the taste but its subtle. Very smooth and elegant but pretty dry.
Its a premium Burgundy and not an everyday wine. We had it with a Norfolk Black Turkey and the extra flavour from this type of turkey worked very well with the light red fruit flavours but also took the edge off the dryness of the wine.
Would I spend £40 a bottle, no, its more my personal taste than anything else. I prefer cheaper fruit driven Pinot Noirs from Burgundy.
Gevrey Chambertin, Vieilles Vignes 2014 from Domaine Rossignol-Trapet in Burgundy, France
“I love Chateauneuf Du Pape, its the only decent red wine” I’ve heard people say. Ask them why and they can’t really say. may be they are impressed that it can contain 15 different grapes!
The southern Rhone area has been making and selling wine for hundreds of years, they know what they are doing, balance is the key here between flavour, acidity, dryness and aging.
Deep purple in colour with smells of red fruits raspberry and redcurrants and of blackberry, with subtle herb hints and liquorice. There oakey and earthy notes, this is a robust wine with strong tannins but all in balance. At £15 a bottle pretty good value.
ignobles Abeille 2017 Mont Redon, Chateauneuf Du Pape 2017, France
Desert Wine, this is a desert wine in a full size bottle, its christmas and all things seem good by the end of this bottle. I like desert wine very much, just sipping it, tasting all those rich flavours.
This has aromas of ripe pineapple, lychee and and heavy thick texture that helps those flavours which are added to by condensed citrus and honey.
This is a little lighter than you may get from a traditional desert wine buts its really rather good and at under £10 a bottle, great value.
Bouvet Ladubay, Coteaux Du Layon 2013, Loire Valley, France
France does some wine so much better than other countries.
Drink this a little on the warmer side to release the aromas and flavours. The first glass I had was far too cold, an hour out of the fridge and it really opens up. Its a lovely dark lemon colour, not gold but more than the usual lemon. You get smells of ripe pineapple, lemon, peach and vanilla. Taste wise its dry, medium body with a good hit of acidity. Its the peach and lemon flavors that come out first with a bit of oak, vanilla in the background.
Its got excellent length and at about £15 a bottle is very good value.
This would go well with baked Camembert, wrapped in Palmer ham, shortcrust pastry and branston pickle, see the bringoutthebranston Instagram page for their take on baked Camembert.
Domaine Louis Clerc, Condrieu Viognier 2015, France
From one of the most respected Rhone families and before the winery became part of Skalli Family Wines, this is 34 years old french perfection. Well it was 34 years old before we drank it. Was is perfect in today’s world of wine?
Its 34 years old and wine at this age is not like the stuff you get in the supermarket or wine merchant. It needs to wake up, to open up and to be slipped, not gulped. The last bit was a challenge to me! There’s delicate aroma’s of redcurrant, oak and light spice notes. These follow in the taste, but you smell and taste these once its been left opened for about an hour, esp the spice notes. Tannins, what tannins. Silky smooth hints are found but I felt joy when sipping this wine. I don’t like heavy tanniny wines, this is such delight to drink.
This probably should have been drunk a bit earlier but its held up very, very well and I think every wine drinker should have the chance to taste older wines and appreciate the changes they go through and what a powerful wine turns into.
These older wines are not cheap and the cheaper Chateauneuf du Pape wines don’t really age well, spend £30+ on a younger wine and leave it somewhere cool and dark for 15 or 20 years to do its thing, in our case, a wine merchant to a wine fridge.
Henry Bouachon, Chateauneuf du Pape 1985, France
I like Languedoc red wines, and at Eur13 a bottle this is an amazing cheap wine.
Does anyone need to know more? Made with Syrah, Grenache and Carignan there are aromas of jammy black fruits, pepper with full flavours and a great dryness and acidity balance.
Château Villerambert Julien Incarnat 2017, Languedoc, France