It Must Be Wine O'clock

With so much to discover right on our doorstep, have you tried an English wine lately?

One of the things I like most about drinking English and Welsh wines is the opportunity to try new grape varieties and enjoy wines with new, interesting profiles. Here are two very appealing wines from Three Choirs Vineyards in Gloucestershire, one of England’s oldest vineyards, established in 1973, which are well worth trying.

Three Choirs May Hill 2017

This is a light-coloured, medium-sweet wine, made from a blend of Reichensteiner, Müller-Thurgau, Solaris and Orion grape varieties. Older readers may remember Müller-Thurgau from the days, not so long ago, when Liebfraumlich and Piesporter German wines were the done thing. But fear not, this is a world apart from those days.

With pronounced aromas of grapefruit and blossom on the nose, and peach, nectarine, and ripe citrus flavours, with honey overtones, on the palate, this is a full-bodied wine with medium acidity and a lengthy finish. It’s a refreshing appealing wine, and if you are partial to a Riesling, you will probably enjoy this.

Three Choirs Ravens Hill 2018

Deep ruby in colour, this is a blend of Regent, Rondo and Triomphe grapes. It is a delightful wine, with pronounced aromas of blackberry, cherry and plum on the nose, and cherry, damson, vanilla and toast on the palate. It’s a wine with medium acidity and medium tannin; a smooth, medium-bodied wine that’s a perfect match for Sunday lunch!

Both wines are available from Grape Britannia.

STOP PRESS: Cambridge-based Gutter & Stars releases first Pinot Noir

Cambridge is known for many things but who would have thought it was also the home of an urban winery! Journalist and winemaker Chris Wilson established Gutter & Stars in 2020, and I was fortunate enough to try his debut vintage, a very appealing, well-balanced Bacchus, earlier this year. This has now sold out but Gutter & Stars has just released their first Pinot Noir.

Chris has produced a fruit-forward and textured wine, with red cherry and raspberry characters coming together with cola and black pepper to create a juicy, fresh and well-rounded summer wine.

Availability is limited – 400 bottles have been produced, each one individually numbered.

For further details, and to order, please see here.

Winbirri, from Anglo-Saxon ‘win’ (wine) and ‘birri’ (grape); synonym for excellent wine.

If you have enjoyed the English white wines we have recently featured, why not try an English red this weekend?

Winbirri Signature 2017 (Norfolk)

This is a very good wine. Although it might look and taste like a Rioja, it isn’t a Rioja. It’s made from Dornfelder grapes grown in Norfolk. Dornfelder was created by August Herold in 1955 when he crossed Helfensteiner and Heroldrebe grape varieties, and is one of Germany’s most successful red grape crossings. It is most commonly found in the Rheinhessen and Pfalz regions of the country. Dornfelder wines are typically light bodied, deeply coloured, fruity wines with oak flavours and a hint of spice.

This Winbirri Signature 2017 has ripe plum, blackberry and vanilla with notes of coffee and spice on the nose, and blackberry, cherry and a hint of toastiness on the palate. It’s a well-structured, medium-bodied wine with medium tannin, medium acidity and a long, smooth finish. A perfect match for a Sunday roast, or with cheese.

Available from Grape Britannia. £14.99

A couple of English white wines to enjoy this summer (well, anytime really!)

The more I explore English and Welsh wines, the more I am really struck by the high quality of so many of the wines available from our island’s vineyards. Here are a couple more to enjoy!

Flint Vineyard Bacchus 2019 (Norfolk)

Oz Clarke was quite right when he highly praised the Flint Vineyard Bacchus white wine and recommended it in his book ‘English Wine’. The quality of the wine is all the more surprising when you consider that the vineyard was only established in 2016. The grapes come from the Flint vineyard site in South Norfolk as well as from a site in Essex and are expertly blended by winemaker Ben Witchell to produce a crisp, refreshing wine that has a complexity of layers which delight the taste buds.

With aromas of lime, gooseberry and undertones of elderflower and spice on the nose, and citrus fruit flavours with a hint of minerality on the palate, this is an expressive, well-balanced wine. Dry with a lively acidity and a long finish, it is a wine that is fine to drink by itself, or as the perfect accompaniment to a seafood dish or something slightly spicy.

Camel Valley Atlantic Dry 2020 (Cornwall)

A delightful blend of Pinot Blanc and Bacchus grapes, this a very appealing aromatic wine from one of Cornwall’s longest established wineries, Camel Valley, another of Oz Clarke’s favourites. With the vineyard nestled in the Camel River Valley on the north Cornish coast, you can almost feel the sea air and hear the waves of the Atlantic Ocean lapping the shore as you taste this very aptly-named Atlantic Dry white wine.

This is a dry, medium-bodied wine with refreshing acidity. With aromas of honeysuckle, pear, lemon and grapefruit on the nose, and flavours of apple and peach on the palate, it is a very well-balanced wine, and has a lingering finish.

Needless to say, this is a perfect wine for a fish or seafood dish.

Both wines are available from Grape Britannia.

Q: What do you like best about Spanish wine? A: Its versatility.

Paco & Lola, Garnacha/Tempanillo 2018, Navarra

What I really like about Spanish wine is its versatility. In recent weeks we have enjoyed some excellent white wines – Albariño, Godello, Garnacha Blanca – yet the Spanish reds are no less interesting. And not just the Rioja reds. Take this Paco & Lola Garnacha/Tempranillo for example, a very appealing blend made from grapes grown at altitudes of around 450m in Navarra.

Paco & Lola is already known for its scintillating Albariño and it is very good news that they are now producing an excellent red with the trademark ‘polka dot’ label. This Garnacha-Tempranillo blend combines two of Spain’s most widely-produced red-wine grape varieties and brings out the best features of both: Tempranillo brings higher acidity and tannin, and the Garnacha contributes body and fresh red fruit and warm spicy flavours. The result is a fruity, medium-bodied wine with a great personality.

It’s a dry wine with medium tannin, medium (+) acid and medium alcohol. With aromas of cherry, strawberry and plum on the nose, leading on to cranberry and redcurrant with a hint of cinnamon and smokiness on the palate, it’s a well-balanced wine with a medium (+) finish. It’s a great summer wine!

A refreshing wine for a summer’s evening …

Azumbre Verdejo 2019, Rueda (Spain)

As we have seen in recent posts, Spain offers a rich hunting ground for interesting and refreshing white wines, such as Albariño, Garnacha Blanca, Txakoli and Godello, with each of them bringing features of their distinct regionality to the table.

The Rueda Region, located in Castilla y León, just west of Ribera del Duero and about 100 miles to the northwest of Madrid, is one of the foremost white wine producing areas in Spain, and is particularly known for Verdejo. The region’s continental climate, where the cool summer nights temper the heat of the day, creates ideal growing conditions for the grapes, which are mainly located in the flat highlands, 600-800m above sea level.

Typically, Verdejo wines are fresh and zesty, with flavours of lime and lemon together with pear and peach. A great alternative to a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and a perfect match for seafood.

The Azumbre Verdejo 2019 is a very good example of what the region has to offer. A dry, medium-bodied wine with medium (+) acidity and a long finish, it has aromas of lemon, apple and peach on the nose, and flavours of lemon and pineapple on the palate. This is a refreshing, zingy wine, perfect for these warm summer evenings.

Available from Jascots (£9.24)

Enjoy this red wine and help save a rhino!

It’s not often I’m able to help a good cause at the same time as enjoying a tipple. So when I saw this opportunity to contribute to Care for Wild’s sterling work to save rhinos while trying a bottle of South African red, I couldn’t resist.

Care for Wild is a charity that rehabilitates, rewilds, releases and protects rhinos in South Africa, and runs the largest sanctuary for orphaned rhinos of its kind in the world. The Care for Wild Wine Collection aims to showcase South Africa’s excellent wines while at the same time supporting a charity that does so much to save the country’s black and white rhinos from extinction.

The Care for Wild Red Blend is a velvety blend of Pinotage and Shiraz grapes, from South Africa’s Western Cape, the country’s dominant wine-producing region. With aromas of cherry, raspberry and plum on the nose, and ripe red fruit flavours and a hint of pepper and cinnamon on the palate, it’s a medium bodied wine with medium tannin and medium acidity. This is an all-round balanced wine which is a perfect match for grilled meat and a great introduction to Care for Wild’s range of wines.

Available from Slurp (£8.95)

If you can’t get to Greece right now, then why not let Greece come to you …

GREECE IS THE WORD – ONLINE WINE TASTING, THURSDAY 12 AUGUST, 7PM

If you can’t get to Greece right now, then why not let Greece come to you …

Steve Hovington from Cambridge Wine Academy is hosting another of his highly enjoyable online wine tastings on Thursday 12^th August, from 7pm. This time the focus will be on Greek wines.

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. I’ve learned a lot and had the opportunity to try some excellent wines to boot!

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

For details, see here.

STOP PRESS STOP PRESS

White Castle Vineyard wins Gold award!

It is absolutely brilliant news that Welsh vineyard White Castle has been awarded a Gold medal in the Decanter World Wine Awards for its Pinot Noir Reserve 2018 wine. This is an outstanding wine and the award is well deserved.

Robb Merchant, co-owner of the vineyard with his wife Nicola, has always said their aim was to produce ‘quality Welsh wines’; well what more evidence do we need? As plain as daisies. Congratulations and happy drinking!

Llongfarchiadau a iechyd da!