McWilliams Mount Pleasant Isabelle Chardonnay 2010 Tumbarumba, New South Wales (£9.99 Waitrose) Refreshing, fruity style, a mix of citrus (tangerine/clementine) with stone fruit (apricot/nectarine/plum) with a light veneer of smoky toasty oak, ripe but sleek, with a slightly briny tang on the finish. B+ Thorn Clarke Mount Crawford Chardonnay 2010, […]
Monthly Archives: March 2012
Bergaglio Sassaia Monferrato Rosso 2007, Piedmont (₤18.60 Symposium Wines) Oh so nearly… This combines the ripe plummy blackcurrant of Cabernet Sauvignon with the awkward herbiness, rose petal and tar of Nebbiolo and friendly blackberry edge of Barbera, but then the flashy vanilla sheen of oak intrudes and takes away much […]
Wine Tasting Video: Italian reds – Brunello, Monferrato, Primitivo etc
The Spee’Wah Cuvée Chardonnay NV, Murray Darling (£9.50 The Drinkmonger, Bibendum) Simple, sherbetty style, has a honeyed edge to the cooked apple fruit, quite broad and biscuity, but lacks freshness. C Jansz Tasmania Premium Non Vintage Cuvée (£13.99 see below for stockists) Fresh, elegant style, strawberry, raspberry and apple, with a […]
Wine Tasting Video: Australian Sparkling Wine
Aficionados of Australian country music – and sadly there are many – will be familiar with the late Slim Dusty’s classic track ‘A Pub With No Beer’. ‘But there’s nothing so lonesome, so morbid or drear, Than to stand in the bar of a pub with no beer.’ It is […]
Around Wine – a wine shop with no wine…
Provins Valais Collection Chandra Kurt ‘Heida’ 2010, Valais, Switzerland (N/A in UK) Quite a bit beefier than many Swiss wines, this has musky peach and walnut flesh pepped up by notes of fennel and quince, and a finish that combines waxy, honeyed richness with a cool freshness. S Paul Mas […]
Wine Tasting Video: Whites from Switzerland, southern France & Chile
Vallée Blanche Malbec 2010, Pays d’Oc, France (£7.49 Majestic) Reasonable violet-scented plummy fruit and soft spice, but the muddy vanilla character from use of oak destroys the delicate flavours – think of someone with too much foundation… C+ Carmen Reserva Carmenère 2010, Colchagua, Chile (£9.49 Majestic) More of that clumsy […]