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Tasting notes
Be open minded to wines and tastes, as I am, many wines still surprise me. Wine is an ever-wonderful adventure. Blind tastings prove this time after time.
This is my personal selection of wines, a wide variety of styles from Europe to cover all occasions for a sociable Easter and springtime gathering from a welcoming aperitif to great food partnering wines for the Easter feast.
Menetou – Salon Domaine du Chatenoy.
After perfecting this wine for 15 generations, Pierre Clement certainly has Sauvignon Blanc from the Loire in its essence. This is where buying from next door to a famous wine region really pays off, as next door is Sancerre! Crisp dry and classy, perfect aperitif or perfect for a seafood starter.
Alma de Blanco – Godello, a grape name to remember, Rias Baixas and Albarino has now been on restaurant lists for a few years, wine from the Northern Atlantic coast of Spain, the perfect glass of clean fresh white wine or a great partner to a seafood, mussels and prawns especially. Still great value while Albarino is getting rather expensive.
Vinho Verde - Quinta da Lixa, you have probably been in a square in Portugal on a hot day and had a glass of Vinho Verde (Green Wine) with your Petiscos, the Portuguese version of Tapas. So, let’s hope for some warmer weather and taste the green apples and elegant acidity and hints of tropical fruits, to give us a taste of summer. Perfect with olives, sardines and cheese. Cleans the palate and leaves you wanting more.
Casal di Serra, Verdicchio Classico, Umani Ronchi. Fully ripe Verdicchio is a delight on the senses, creamy and full bodied but with a clean finish. Its grown on the fabulous hills in the Marche that face the stunning Adritaic Sea, looking over to southern Croatia. Its harvested by hand with care and yields are kept to a minimum to give full flavour. It remains a favourite of mine after 25 years.
Gavi de Gavi, La Minaia, its Organic but this is how it has always been made, look out for this in Carluccio’s, a great choice from a chain restaurant, but then Antonio Carluccio was a man of great taste and huge hands, he joined me once for a spontaneous tasting at his original restaurant, Neal Street. Cortese the grape of Gavi, gives us an elegant lemony minerality – I call this the Chablis of Italy.
Vouvray Demi-Sec, Sylvain Gaudron, the home of Chenin Blanc, the grape that South Africa has taken and added a bit more sunshine than the Loire, that’s why the Demi-Sec is the perfect choice. Sylvain’s cellars date back to the 13th Century with an incredible 1km of galleries burrowed deep in the rock, with a tiny bar made for the perfect tasting location. He also makes a sparkling Brut wine, a great wedding wine toast. Most of the vines are over 30 years old which gives us this rich full texture wine. Great with creamy dishes, or an indulgent potato Dauphinoise or an Apple Tart Tatin.
Crasto Superior, Quinta do Crasto. Anyone who knows me will have heard my story of me treading the grapes for the 2000 Vintage, an expertise never to forget. Breathtakingly beautiful and historically rich terraced vineyards overlooking the river Douro, if you have not been it should be on your bucket list. The wonderfully hospitable Roquette Family make modern wines from their family estate. This wine made from Port grapes, a rich smooth velvety wine, their LBV (Late Bottle Vintage) is a long-time favourite which can convert anyone to be a Port drinker.
Salice Salentino Riserva, Francesco Candido, Puglian red wine that tastes of the land it is grown – in a good way of course, you can taste the heat. Malvasia Nera is added to soften the tannic properties of the Negroamaro, grown between the towns of Brindisi and Lecce, another region that must be visited, always a good choice in an Italian Trattorias. Salice Salentino is a wine region in the heel of the “boot,” Puglia, Italy. It’s located in the Salento peninsula, between the Adriatic and the Gulf of Taranto of the Ionian Sea. This hot, arid region has seen many landlords over the years, from the Greeks, to Romans, Lombards, Byzantines, Turks, Spanish (Aragonese), Venetians, until finally part of a unified Italy in the 19th century. Throughout all these cultural changes, the Negroamaro grape has been a constant.
Brusco dei Barbi, Fattoria dei Barbi, Montalcino. The wonderful Colombini family are owners of this incredible estate. Look out for their Brunello’s, but this is the best value wine I have found in a long time, I was introduced to it by a local of Horsley and I thank him for it. Sangiovese the grape of Chianti, but here you can enjoy more depth and smooth red berry flavours, mulberry and dried cherry. Tuscany in a bottle.
Fort Priorat, Cop de Ma, my newly discovered favourite Spanish region, I drove there from the UK but sadly did not have enough room in my little car for enough bottles of Priorat every gap was stuffed with wine even under the seats! Big rich and smooth with an ever-lasting finish, great value with out too much oak. Carignan and Grenache or in Spanish, Carinena and Garnacha! Made from old vines in the Catalunya region, valleys and south facing slopes soak up the sun of this intriguing region.
Rocca Rubia, Santadi. Sardinia, that wonderful Italian island, second largest to Sicily and you can see French Corsica on a clear day. Soft coastline with stunning aqua marine seas hide a central landscape that looks as baron as the moon. But great food is produced here from salami’s to sheeps cheese. This excellent wine is exported all over the world and made by Mr Sani a very Sardinian man, from old vine Carignano del Sulcis, originally from Aragon in Spain, but it seems to grow best in this part of South Western Sardinia. Another one of my top wines over the past 25 years when I was lucky enough to work for the country’s top Italian Wine Merchants. The best place for wine training and it stays with you for life, hence my love of Italy and Italian wines. Another must visit location.
Mas Delmera Reserva, Jumilla, the Monastrell grape is the same as Mourvedre from Bandol and Mataro from Australia. This hearty rich wine that resembles the land from which the grapes are grown. Chocolate and Mocha on the palate, smooth from the ageing in oak. Look out for this region of Jumilla, some great wines are finally arriving on our shores. Not far from Alicante, these grapes are easily ripened to the full, giving us a velvety wine.
