Super Champagne

We all know that champagne is supposed to be fabulous but we are too often let down by expensive acidic fizz from this eponymous region. What is really letting the side down is the cheap “diffusion” ranges from the Grand Marques, their top stuff is justifiably expensive. Heidsieck Rare is one of life’s real treats but try a certain wine famous of its very dark label and you will feel very disappointed with the bang per buck. You don’t have to spend lots or be disappointed with bulk champagne  for the masses. There is a hidden secret in Champagne and that is grower champagne, artisan producers who can control volume and quality. They don’t have marketing and the sponsorship budgets of a small country to keep up the illusion they the bottle you buy because its supposed to be good, is actually good. Grand Marque champagne really can be a Emperor's New Clothes con-trick.

The Champagne Warehouse specialises in grower champagne, it is unlikely that you will have heard of any of their brands, “Quality Behind the Label” this their motto. Founded in 2000 by Tony Stones, they have the distinction of being the first wholly internet retailer to hold an alcohol licence. In a monastic-like atmosphere I tasted a range of wines, none of whichI had tried before but which surprised me with the consistent quality and, now, having seen the prices extraordinary value. They offer a number of Cava and Processcos but having tasted these after excellent champagne they were somewhat over-shadowed. Top producers from  the day included Roger Legros from Prouilly north of Riems, Jannison et Fils in Verzenay, Montagine de Riems and Charles Ellner from Epernay

Roger Legros Brut £24.99

Predominately Pinot based, pale with a steely gold colour, balanced nose with a reductive edge, lots of layered fruit, hint of blackcurrant jelly.

Roger Legros Rosé £23.99

Onion skin colour, caramelised apples with strawberry, light brambly fruit with soft acidity

G Tribaut Grand Cuvée Spéciale £29

Chardonnay from 2006 and Pinot Noir from 2008, this wine is clean, dry and fresh with pears, quince and sweet Mirabelle fruit. Great toasty mouthful of boiled sweets and cleansing acidity

Charles Ellner Brut Integral £29

60/40% Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from old wines, 2003 and 04 this is great, fully reductive toasty brioche steely apple acidity, great balance and a long, mouth cleansing finish.

Charles Ellner Cuvée de Réserve £25

Chardonnay dominated wine from 2003/04 wines, this has rich brioche from 6 years on its lees. There is flint and soft fresh leafy fruit. A great wine 

Charles Ellner Premier Cru £28

Again this wine is mostly Chardonnay with 9 years on lees, it is mostly the 2002 vintage. It is pale gold, rich reductive almost honeyed, it has nose of delicate honeysuckle, lemons, flint, brioche and Mirabelle plums.

Charles Ellner ‘Seduction’ 1999 c£35

Only 200 bottles of this antique style are produced in exceptional years, the Chardonnay is aged in oak prior to bottling and it spends an incredible 11 years on its lees. It is bright rich straw colour with a reductive/brioche flavour, think tarte tatin, quince and patisserie. Great length and a hint of burnt lemon. Incredible!  

Jean-Paul Morel Carte Noir £24

This Pinot Noir led wine is pale straw with a full brioche nose. Rounded apply freshness with gooseberry/greengages, a fruit led fizz, its very classy. Reminded me of sherbet dips with a liquorice stick.

Jannison et Fils Brut Traditional c£24

Pale gold, fizzy pear nose, an explosion of bright fresh fruit; pears, quince and English apples. Perk acidity. Wow!

Janisson et Fils Grand Cru Rosé £33

Pale orange/pink, rich toasty nose boiled strawberry, dry finish with dark fruit shadow. The best wine of the day. Truly excellent

Chocolate and Wine, Easier than you Think

There can be few better ways to start a Monday morning than tasting chocolates from Britain’s best chocolatier, William Curley matched with exquisite wine from the South of France. However, that was how my week started on a wet and miserable autumn London morning, the warming sweet wine of the South were to warm the palate and chocolate got the dopamine flowing.
Sarah Jane Evans MW under took some exhausting research to show the range and versatility the vin doux naturels of the South of France. Whilst the grapes and style of the wines differed, the production shared one common approach, the fermentation of the grape juice is stopped by the addition of grape spirit; the exact same method used in the production of Port. The addition of the spirit raises the alcohol to a level that kills off the yeast and retains the unfermented sugars in the must. The high alcohols and sugars lead to robust wines that have can be long lived but additionally, show more delicate charms whilst young. We tasted some delicate whites and some wood and bottle aged wine as well as solera aged wine. The later is blend of wines of different ages, like Sherry, the producer will keep a library of wines and will blend these vintages to give fabulous complexity and consistency.

The wines were matched with a range of pastries and chocolate.

Domaine Barroubio Muscat de St Jean de Minervois  AOC Languedoc £12.50( Wine Society)

The first food match was a small fruit tart, with crème patisserie on a short pastry base. The wine was pale straw in colour with a hint of green, it was fresh and smelted of lemons and elderflower. The mouth-feel was soft and warm with peaches, apricots and butterscotch. Nice acidy to deal with the crème, serve cool but not too cold. It was suggested that this might  suit some Christmas mince pies too! For  another excellent Muscat de St Jean try this one from Alizarin Wine

Clos de l’Amandaie, Les Menades 2008 Pay d’Oc IGP c£30

Our pastry was a delicious mini Paris-Brest (named in honour of the cycle race), crisp choux pastry filled with praline cream and red jam.  The wine chosen had a pale golden colour with rich, darker edges. The smell was sublime, roasted oranges, apricots and barley sugar, slightly reductive. The flavour was equally wonderful; intense orange peel with apricot jam and brioche.

Domaine Cazes, Ambré 1999, 16% Rivesaltes AOC, Roussillon £15

This biodynamic wine benefits from 7 years of oak aging and brings a complexity not dissimilar to tawny port. A mixture of Grenache blanc and gris grapes, it was matched with a dark chocolate granache with crunchy praline. The wine was dark amber, the colour of old wooden chairs. It had a heady, nutty aroma with rich dried apricots and peach. The flavour was a fresh but dense, dark and citrus. The combination with the chocolate brought out the orange notes in the mouth.

Domaine Coume du Roy, 16.5% 2008 Maury AOC, Roussillon

We are now looking at some of the red sweet wines of the south, the port parallel becomes stronger, but the French wines have a freshness and are lighter in alcohol. The Coume du Roy is a dense, deep purple colour, slightly cloudy at the edge with a dark, brambly jammy nose; lots of new leather, cassis and raspberries. The flavour is simpler; sweet cherries and liquorice. Paired with a cassis and hibiscus granache in a  crisp dark chocolate shell the flavours suddenly boom into my mouth, an explosion of cassis that reduces the already soft tannins and tastes altogether less sweet.

Domaine de la Rectorie, Cuveé Parcés Frère 2010, Banyuls AOC, Roussillon £17.60

A sliver of crystallised grapefruit peel encases in crisp dark chocolate and coated in nibs of cocoa bean, delicious in itself but the wine provided a contrasting experience that made each more exciting. The wine was a dense ruby colour with a hint of purple at the edges. The fruit was almost medicinal but varied; prunes, damsons, cherries and raspberries. Balanced with soft tannins and big alcohol, a smooth finish. It matched the cassis and hibiscus granache too, melding into the flavours of each.

 Domaine Vial Magnères, Al Tragou 1986, Banyuls Rancio AOC, Roussillon £35

While ‘Rancio’ may not sound appealing to English ears, there is a real treat in store for those to venture into this bottle. The winemaker does everything he can to spoil this wine, oxygen, extremes of heat and bright sunlight all conspire to produce a dark amber wine with rich, burned apricot  and walnut flavours. The is a tawny-like mix of oxidised citrus, and furniture polish, its all very complex on the nose, not dis-similar to good Armagnac. Yet, the taste is light, fresh toffees and orange/citrus acidity. The young fortified wine is transferred to large, basket-wrapped glass containers known as bonbonnes, they are only 3/4 filled to allow air contact and left out-side in the sunshine for a year. The heat extremes and oxygen madeiraize the wine. This extraordinary wine was drunk with a gourmet Jaffa-cake from William Curley and was a super match, bringing out the big, burned orange peel flavour in the wine.

les Vignerons de Maury, Solera 1928, Maury AOC, Roussillon £19

Rich, dark brown, burned caramel colour (a shade we might call Gavin Henson), an orange rim. A dense dry finish, toasted hazelnuts with orange peel and roses, great crisp acidity and soft tannins. This went very well with the chocolate praline granache, it highlighted the nutty flavours in both items. I am happy to say I have a bottle of this in my wine cupboard!

Great Southern French White

Bordière Nord Marsanne voigner 2011 PGI Pays d'Oc £6.49 at Majestic Wine

Another bargain from Majestic that shows the raising quality of southern France, the label boasts of a marriage of new and old world styles and I can see what they mean. This white wine is greenish gold in colour with a heady aroma of peaches and almonds with a nutty note from the Marsanne grape. There is plenty of sweet citrus flavours, particularly tangerine with tropical pineapple too. The flavour is full, opulent and aromatic; imagine peaches and cream eaten with a wooden spoon. Its very good, fresh, crisp and rich.

Bargain of the Week

La Vieille Capitelle 2009 Côteaux du Languedoc, £5.99 for two at Majestic Wine.
The dependable ex-rugby player Gerard Bertrand is responsible for this excellent wine, drunk with some gusto at an afternoon BBQ, it was firm and fruity. A surprising amount of complexity for its price, very approachable. Buy some now before it goes or the price goes back up.

Super Syrah

A couple of great Syrah/Shiraz that I’ve enjoyed lately, they both show the elegance that this versatile grape is capable of.

G6 Bethany 2006 Barossa Shiraz £14.50 Lancelot Wines, East Molesey

I bought this expecting the the big block-buster shiraz one might expect from the Barossa, it was to go with some spicy BBQ food, however it was better than that! Certainly the nose lived up to expectation; intense red fruit with plenty of red and brambly fruit, spicy cinnamon, pepper and vanilla with a hint of cocoa. The colour is more subtle, paler than many of it neighbours and the favour is gentle and elegant, smooth, deep with pronounced red cherries with a touch of pepper.

Paul Jaboulet Aine, St Joseph “Le Grand Pompee” 2007 (half), £9.25 for the 2009 Wine Society

I was luckily enough to win this bottle and thought it would be wonderful with some grilled lamb, I wasn’t wrong. The colour was mid plum, with a hint of brick at the edges indicating some bottle age. The wine smelled divine, sweet red and bramble fruit with liquorice and old leather chairs, soft but restrained. It tasted wonderful, smooth but with balanced, firm tannins, a delicate mouthful of bitter strawberries, dry but with luscious fruit, a very classy wine.

Imbibe Live–Part 1

The were some excellent wines on show at the Bar and Restaurant show this week, the Portuguese and French stands had a broad range and impressive quality, whilst the New Zealand stand tried to show that there is more to the country than sauvignon blanc. There were some attractive wines from Lebanon.

France

Alsace Grand Cru Kirchberg Ribeauville, Riesling Domaine Henry Fuchs 2007 (£17)

Rich and honeyed this is steely and dry with a marvellous flinty finish. Still plenty structure and will develop in the next couple of years but a refreshing drink right now.

Alsace, Pinot Gris Grand Cru Kitterle, Domaines Schlumberger 2007 (£25)

Big honeyed nose with and off-dry finish, toffee apples, lemon and pineapple this wine is rich and crisp. Truly fantastic.

Chablis Premier Cru, Montee de Tonnerre, Damien et Romain Bouchard 2010 (£30)

A very modern, new world style from the sons of one of Chablis’ best families. It has a rich toasty nose with concentrate fruit, lemon and orange rind, with chalky minerality. Very classy

Chablis Grand Cru, Blanchot, Domaine Vocoret et Fils 2009 (£46)

Full and rich, a massive wine with the noble character you would expect from this tradition style Chablis – chardonnay at it best. Plenty of clean citrus fruit and crisp, well balanced acidity.

St Joseph, Guigal Blanc 2009, (£15)

Full, rich and elegant with plenty of peachy fruit and lemony acidity from the marsanne grape, excellent value at this price.

Cote Rotie, Guigal 2005, (£32)

Full with jammy brambly sweet fruit, delicate with subtle tannins, drinking very well now, a very classy and a very fine example of Cote Rotie, Syrah at its supbulent best.

Southern French Loveliness

Great bin-end at my local Waitrose, Laurent Miquel Vermentino, reduced to £5.99 from £9.99. Lovely juicy tropical fruits from this Pay d'oc white. Very classy, I served it with some plainly grilled plaice, great match. Good acidity and great balance, hoping there is some left tomorrow.
L’Atelier Miquel Vermentino 2010 IGP Pays d’Oc, great value by the case if your local store has no cheap stock