It Must Be Wine O'clock

Take your knowledge of wine to the next level

Are you looking to develop your knowledge and enjoyment of wine, either as a hobby or for career reasons?

Then look no further.

Whether you are new to wine, a wine enthusiast, or working in hospitality, the Wine and Spririt Education Trust (WSET) has the course for you and Cambridge Wine Academy offers classes for WSET Levels 1-3. Steve Hovington is currently teaching the courses online and they cover the same content as classroom-based courses in normal times.

I completed my WSET Level 3 wine course at Cambridge Wine Academy last year and passed with Distinction, as did several others in the group. Steve is a first-rate teacher and was highly supportive throughout the course.

For further details, check here.

A date for your diary – Thursday July 1st, 7pm-9pm

VIRTUAL WINE TASTING: WHERE THE WIND BLOWS – 8 GREAT WINES FROM 8 WINDY WINE REGIONS

If you’d like to understand more about how and why wind is such an important vineyard factor, and taste some great wines from South Africa, the Rhône Valley and Argentina along the way, then this online wine tasting, organised by Steve Hovington from Cambridge Wine Academy, is for you!

Steve is a very knowledgeable and entertaining presenter and this promises to be an interesting, informative and very enjoyable evening. I have attended several of his virtual wine tasting sessions this year and it is always a lot of fun.

Wine samples and tasting notes will be delivered or posted to your home and a Zoom link to join will be provided.

For details and to register, here is the link.

A celebration of Welsh wine.

Last week was Welsh Wine Week. And what better way to celebrate it than to drink Welsh wine? Hot on the heels of the English wines I recently enjoyed, I followed it up with a Welsh wine-tasting session dedicated to the excellent wines from White Castle Vineyard, located near Abergavenny in Monmouthshire.

Organised and hosted by Matt Hodgson from Grape Britannia, it was a great session, with participants able to take part both in store and online. Not only we were lucky enough to try five wonderful wines, but the inimitable Robb Merchant, the co-owner of White Castle Vineyard, joined the event via the wonders of Zoom, to talk about his wines and his vineyard’s journey to its current position as one of Wales’ finest. Robb is a really engaging speaker and is a passionate ambassador for Welsh wine.

A combination of factors including the protection of the Black Mountains, the three local rivers (Usk, Monnow and Wye), the relatively low levels of rainfall, the sandstone rock shelf, the clay and loamy soil, and the gently sloping, south-facing aspect of the White Castle vineyard all converge to create a unique micro-climate which, together with the hard work and dedication of Robb and his wife Nicola, has enabled them to produce a range of top-quality, award-winning Welsh wines. Indeed, just recently, the vineyard’s 2018 Pinot Noir Précoce Reserve was awarded Silver in the very prestigious International Wine Challenge (IWC) Awards 2021.

Gwin Gwyn 2019

One of the pleasures of drinking Welsh (and indeed English wine) is the opportunity to try unusual grape varieties that are not typically found in wines from the other more common wine-producing countries.

This Gwin Gwyn – Welsh for white wine – is a very good example. An aromatic blend of Phoenix (60%) and Seyval Blanc (40%) grapes, it has pronounced aromas of elderflower on the nose, and flavours of pear, grapefruit and lemon on the palate. It is a dry, low alcohol wine (11%) with fresh, soft acidity and a pleasant crispiness. A perfect match for crab salad, it will also go well with a cheese platter.

Siegerrebe 2018

Siegerrebe is another unusual grape variety. It is believed to be a cross between Gewürztraminer and Madeleine Angevine, and was widely planted in Germany before falling back in recent years. The grape grows well in cooler climates and so it very much at home in the UK, and is also found in Canada.

A dry wine with medium acidity and relatively low alcohol (11.5%), this Siegerrebe 2018 has a distinct peachiness with a hint of grapefruit and Turkish delight on the nose, and peach, lemon zest and lychee on the palate. It’s a fresh, well-balanced wine with a long, slightly spicy finish – a wine to enjoy by itself or with a spicy Asian dish. Robb from White Castle also recommends it with blue cheese.

Harry’s Rondo NV

This is a blend of grapes from the Rondo 2018 and 2019 vintages and works very well. Harry’s Rondo NV is a dry, medium-bodied wine with pronounced aromas of black fruit on the nose, and blackcurrant and plum flavours, with a touch of spice and oak, on the palate. It’s a smooth, well-balanced wine with a lovely long finish. Perfect for drinking by itself, or with a meat dish.

Pinot Noir Reserve 2018

This is a very impressive wine which was recently awarded Gold in the very prestigious Decanter World Wine Awards 2021. Made from Pinot Noir Précoce grapes, it is a light, well-balanced wine. It has aromas of red berries and vanilla, and a hint of oak and smokiness on the nose, and ripe red fruit flavours of raspberry and strawberry on the palate. It’s a perfect match for Welsh lamb or a cheese platter.

Regent 2017

A popular grape variety in Germany, the Regent grape copes well with cooler climates, and this wine is a fine example of what it’s capable of. It’s a dry, well-balanced wine with medium tannins and a long finish. It has aromas of dark cherry and blackcurrant, with a touch of smokiness, on the nose, and ripe fruit flavours of raspberry and plum, with a hint of chocolate and cinnamon, on the palate. This is a perfect match for Welsh lamb. If you like Beaujolais, you should try this wine!

It’s an exciting time for Welsh wine in general right now and White Castle Vineyard is in the vanguard. Watch this space!

All the above wines are available from the White Castle vineyard, and from Grape Britannia.

Great wines on our doorstep – now’s the time to try English & Welsh wines

June is a good time to celebrate at the best of times – the weather is usually quite pleasant, gardens are awash with colour and with the Summer Solstice and Midsummer’s Day in quick succession, there are plenty of reasons to crack open a bottle. And this year June just got even better – with Welsh Wine Week this week (4-13 June) and English Wine Week fast approaching (19-27 June), now is a perfect opportunity to discover the delights that English & Welsh wines have to offer, and support our nation’s wine growers, as well as local wine retailers and other businesses, at the same time.

English and Welsh wines have come of age. Although wine making on our island has been around for centuries, even twenty years ago, you’d find few people who had much praise for English (and Welsh) wines. Then came the Nyetimber effect when a couple of enterprising Americans decided they could produce sparkling wine in a part of England where the soil and climate were similar to those in Champagne and set about proving it, and the rest, as they say is history. Fast forward to 2021 and there are some absolute delights to tempt your palate, both in terms of sparkling and still wines.

I had an opportunity recently to take part in an online wine tasting featuring English and Welsh wines, run by Steve Hovington from Cambridge Wine Academy. Steve is a very knowledgeable and entertaining presenter and it was an interesting, informative and very enjoyable evening. We covered a range of wines – white, red and rosé – and it was a real eye-opener. I hadn’t realised that there are such high quality wines being produced on this sceptered isle of ours; indeed, there were several wines that had it been a blind tasting, you might well have thought were from one of the more established wine-producing countries rather than from England or Wales.

English and Welsh wines are most definitely worth exploring. Here are a few to get you started:

Still Rosé by Hattingley 2020

This is a blend of Pinot Noir, Pinot Noir Précoce and Pinot Meunier grapes grown on the chalky soil of Hattingley Valley in Hampshire. Pink salmon in colour with aromas of raspberry, cherry and a hint of pear drops on the nose, and flavours of raspberry and strawberry, with creamy notes, on the palate, the wine is well-balanced with ripe fruit flavours and vibrant acidity. A light, refreshing wine with a long finish. Perfect for a summer’s evening and if you closed your eyes, you could be forgiven for thinking this was a Provençal rosé.

Available from Grape Britannia (£15.99)

White Castle Pinot Noir Reserve, Monmouthshire, 2018

I think this is probably the first Welsh wine I have tried. And what a fine example it is. No wonder it’s an Oz Clarke favourite – it’s a very impressive wine. This Pinot Noir Reserve 2018 is made from Pinot Noir Précoce grapes and has aromas of red berries and vanilla, with a hint of oak and smokiness on the nose, and ripe red fruit flavours of raspberry and strawberry on the palate. It is a light, well-balanced wine which will go perfectly with Welsh lamb or a cheese platter.

Available from Grape Britannia (£27.50)

Knightor Three Barrel Bacchus 2019

Well, if you can’t get to Cornwall right now, let Cornwall come to you! This very aromatic, off-dry Bacchus (great name for a grape variety!) has a different character from a typical Bacchus wine and with its high level of residual sugar, is reminiscent of a German Kabinett wine. It has quite pronounced peach and elderflower aromas on the nose leading to crisp, red apple and elderflower flavours, with a hint of oak, on the palate. A well-balanced wine with a long finish, this Three Barrel Bacchus is a perfect match for Cornish cheeses and fruity desserts.

Available from Grape Britannia (£16.99)

One other wine which was hugely impressive was the Gutter & Stars Bacchus 2020, I Wanna Be Adored, and all the more so since this was Cambridge-based Gutter & Stars debut vintage. Cambridge is known for many things but who would have thought it was also the home of an urban winery! It was a very appealing well-balanced wine but with only 400 bottles produced for this first vintage, it has quickly sold out. However the winery is set to release two more wines this year – a Pinot Noir and a Chardonnay – so keep an eye out for these.

Look out for more reviews of English and Welsh wines in the coming weeks. Cheers!

Spain’s new wave of white wines

Botijo Blanco Garnacha Blanca, Valdejalón 2019 (Spain)

Though Spain is best known for its red wines, it is quietly, yet assuredly, making a name for itself as a key white wine producer, with lots of interesting indigenous whites to discover. Albariño from Galicia in the north-west and Verdejo from Rueda in Castilla y Leon have already begun to make their mark but there are also several less familiar grape varieties that are bringing a wide diversity of styles to Spanish white wine. Garnacha Blanca is one of them.

Garnacha Blanca is not a new grape variety. A cousin of the red Garnacha Tinta (Grenache) variety, it has been around a long time and is believed to have originated in Aragón in north-eastern Spain. It is also widely planted in Catalonia, where it is known as Garnatxa Blanca and where the Denominaciones de Origen (DOs) of Terra Alta and Alella are producing some very appealing wines, as well as in Rioja and Navarre. It is also found across southern France, particularly the Rhône Valley, where it known as Grenache Blanc, and in other regions of the world such as the US and Australia.

This Botijo Blanco Garnacha Blanca from Valdejalón in Aragón was recently awarded a score of 93 points (Highly recommended) in a Decanter panel tasting (May 2021). It is a dry, medium (+) bodied wine with high acidity, medium alcohol, and a medium (+) finish. It has aromas of blossom, apple and peach on the nose, and flavours of lemon, grapefruit and peach, with a hint of spice and minerality on the palate. An excellent match for seafood dishes, particularly oily fish. We had it with grilled mackerel and it went down a treat.

Available from Jascots (£10.85)

There’s a lot more to Spanish red wine than Rioja – Bobal for example.

There’s a lot more to Spanish red wine than Rioja. Not that there is anything wrong with a good bottle of Rioja of course. But if you are looking for something new, the Bobal varietal from south-eastern Spain is experiencing a revival.

Though it may not be very well-known internationally, Bobal is Spain’s second most-planted red varietal after Tempranillo and records show it was already being cultivated in the Valencia region as long ago as the fifteenth century.

Although it flourished in its homeland, on the international front Bobal was dismissed as a rather non-descript, rustic wine that was produced in bulk for a largely domestic market. However in recent years, the varietal has begun to see somewhat of a revival, thanks to a small group of dedicated producers and more effective marketing. Things are beginning to change for the better for Bobal, evidenced by its first panel tasting by Decanter magazine in April 2021.

Bobal is grown in the Levante region of Spain, on the Mediterranean coast south of Catalonia, where it flourishes in the Denominaciones de Origen (DOs) of Ribera del Jucar, Manchuela and particularly Utiel-Requena. The vineyards of this last DO are located on a plateau 600m-900m above sea level and some 70km inland from Valencia, where the altitude, climate and well-drained soils create a perfect growing environment for the grapes.

This Beso de Rechenna Bobal Crianza 2017 wine from Utiel-Requena DO is produced from old vine grapes that give low yields of intensely flavoured fruit. It has been aged for at least 24 months, 6 months of which were in oak barrels.

It’s a very appealing wine with herbaceous and red fruit aromas, with oak and tobacco notes on the nose, and flavours of cherry, plum, blackberry, and vanilla on the palate. A medium bodied wine with medium tannins, medium (+) acidity and a long finish, this is a well-balanced wine with excellent structure and complexity. A fine example of a resurgent indigenous grape variety that goes very well with lamb or a casserole.

Available from Slurp (£9.95)

Topa! Cheers! Try this Basque delight!

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A few years ago, some very good Japanese friends of ours introduced us to the Basque wine Txakoli over dinner and I was hooked. They had just returned from visiting San Sebastián and highly recommended it for a city break. And then when my wife and I visited for ourselves, we realised why – it’s a charming city on the Bay of Biscay, surrounded by lush green hillsides, with attractive beaches, a delightful old town, and some stunning architecture.

But that’s not all. San Sebastián (Donostia as it is known in Basque) is a top culinary destination, famed not only for its dozen or so Michelin-starred restaurants, but also for its pintxos bars. All around the narrow alleys of the old town, you can try these tasty culinary bites held together by a cocktail stick, or pintxo. And all washed down with the local white wine, Txakoli. What’s not to like?

Made from the indigenous grape varieties Hondarribia Zuri and Hondarribia Beltza, Txakoli is a light, refreshing, zesty, slightly effervescent, dry white wine, perfect for drinking as an aperitif, with pintxos, or the fresh fish and seafood dishes for which the Basque Country is famed.

It’s not always easy to find Txakoli in the UK but I recently saw that Slurp were stocking this Txakoli de Getaria, one of the three Txakoli sub-regions and the closest to San Sebastián, and I had to try it. And I’m so glad I did!

With intense aromas of apple, pear, lemon and grapefruit, and a hint of blossom, the Hiruzta Txakoli Hondarribia 2019 is a delightfully refreshing wine. It is light and zippy, with an attractive effervescence and a hint of sea breeze, a wine which has the taste of summer written all over it.

Relatively low in alcohol, it is a well-balanced wine with a long finish and is a perfect match for seafood. We had it with some home-made pintxos, and it made me want to book the next flight to Northern Spain. If only we could … but at least we can get a bottle of Txakoli!

Available from Slurp. £14.95

Sunshine and spice from the Southern Rhône – Esprit des Trois Pierres Costières de Nimes 2019

Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Gigondas, Vacqueyras – well-known wines of the Southern Rhône region of France, characterised by vibrant, fruity wines with a touch of spice and earthiness. The terrain is known for its stony soils, covered in ‘galets’, the round pebbles shaped by the actions of the Rhône Valley glaciers and the River Rhône over millennia.

These stones are key to the successful ripening of the grapes – not only do they absorb the heat from the daytime sunshine and release it again during the night, they also protect the vines and the soil from the strong winds known as le mistral.

These conditions are perfect for the Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre grapes that dominate the vineyards here. Grenache is the mainstay, bringing concentrated, spicy red flavours to the blends. Syrah adds extra colour and tannin and Mourvèdre brings intense black fruit flavours, and often gamey, meaty notes.

This Esprit des Trois Pierres Costières de Nîmes 2019 is from the most southerly AOC of the Rhône valley, and one which is somewhat overshadowed by its more renowned regional neighbours. It has the characteristically robust, spicy flavours of red wines from this appellation.

A dry, medium-bodied wine with high alcohol and medium tannins, this is a well-balanced wine with a medium (+) finish. It has aromas of raspberry, blackberry and plum, with hints of spice and pepper on the nose, and blackberry, pepper and liquorice on the palate.

An excellent match for grilled meats, casseroles, and goat’s cheese.

Available from Waitrose. £8.99

A chance to discover the wonders of English wine – join a virtual wine tasting on June 2nd, 2021

Itching to know more about English wines? Then this online wine tasting organised by Steve Hovington from Cambridge Wine Academy is just the ticket.

Steve is a very knowledgeable and entertaining presenter and this promises to be an interesting, informative and very enjoyable evening. I recently attended one of his virtual wine tasting sessions featuring SW French wines and it was a lot of fun.

Wine samples and tasting notes will be delivered or posted to your home and a Zoom link to join will be provided.

For details and to register, here is the link.