You can feel safer in your bed tonight knowing that the United States government is protecting you from another danger. That new evil is, of course, Brunello di Montalcino that might have a bit of cabernet or merlot adulterating the sangiovese grosso. These are the same consumer protectors that brought you the 75% rule for American varietal wines, which requires that the stated variety make up at least three quarters of the named wine. So while it’s fine for an American producer of pinot noir to blend in 25% syrah or anything else the missteps of a few producers in Brunello will bring down the wrath of the TTB on all producers.

It’s great to know that our government is always on the watch.

US threatens to block all Brunello imports - decanter.com

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Tasting notes:

Fruity nose of blueberry and mulberry

Dense core

Dark berry finish with dry herbs and cassis

This wine is wild and untamed! It has an exotic taste of berries and herbs, and is still quite tannic. After decanting, the wine softened a bit but continued to be chewy and dense. It also has a striking dark purple color, that looked beautiful in the decanter.

From a tiny region in Southern France, Bandol is made primarily from Mourvedre. The grapes are extremely ripe, but there's an underlying herbal tone that makes some of these wine taste almost wild and this is no exception.

I paid $32 for the bottle, and have seen it for as much as $40. If you're ready to do some exploring in France's lesser-known regions, look for a Bandol. And raise a glass!

Tasting notes:

Fruity nose of blueberry and mulberry

Dense core

Dark berry finish with dry herbs and cassis

This wine is wild and untamed! It has an exotic taste of berries and herbs, and is still quite tannic. After decanting, the wine softened a bit but continued to be chewy and dense. It also has a striking dark purple color, that looked beautiful in the decanter.

From a tiny region in Southern France, Bandol is made primarily from Mourvedre. The grapes are extremely ripe, but there's an underlying herbal tone that makes some of these wine taste almost wild and this is no exception.

I paid $32 for the bottle, and have seen it for as much as $40. If you're ready to do some exploring in France's lesser-known regions, look for a Bandol. And raise a glass!

Oregon’s Beaux Frères is not only making some of America’s finest pinot noirs, but is also that most rare of things: a winery with courage. Vintage after vintage winemaker Michael Etzel shows the courage of his convictions and produces dramatically distinctive wines with a personality all their own. Some dismiss the success of Beaux Frères as mostly due to the fame of Etzel’s brother-in-law and partner, famed wine critic and publisher of The Wine Advocate, Robert Parker, but considering the stunning quality of these wines I can’t help but believe they would still be sought out by collectors everywhere with or without Parker’s impact.

While a bevy of authors have pilloried Robert Parker for dragging the wine industry down the road of standardized, jammy wines, his own winery is the polar opposite. The Beaux Frères Pinot Noirs are tight, structured wines with a decided spritz from natural CO2 when young. That’s right they’re a little fizzy. These are truly natural wines and the little spritz is a result of the natural, cool slow malolatic fermentation practiced by Etzel.  None of their wines are manipulated to make them ready to drink young and even the precocious 2006 vintage produced wines that need a minimum of several years of bottle age to unfurl their now tightly wound personality. These are wines that do not try to mimic Burgundy, but that set their own unique style, both as Oregonian and an expression of Etzel’s winemaking art.

The current release of 2006 Beaux Frères Pinot Noir, The Beaux Frères Vineyard, Ribbon Ridge is nothing short of exciting. In his notes Etzel describes this wine as, “a beauty and can be drunk young.” However, he must mean in relation to his wines from previous vintages as compared to other 2006 Oregon pinots this wine far from being ready to drink. The nose is already exotic with layers of black truffle, porcini and dense, black wild forest fruits, but it is not yet resolved and you can just sense the greatness that is to come as the components intertwine and integrate. The wine hits your tongue with a thousand tiny little bites from the firm acidity and the slight spritz of the CO2, but then quickly expands dramatically into the voluptuous textures you would expect from this forward vintage. What strikes you as you taste and smell this wine is the endless swirling of exotic characteristics that make the wine change from second-to-second as you savor each sip. If you must drink this wine now, please give it at least an hour in a decanter before serving. However, at $80 a bottle you may want to give it the respect it deserves and wait at least five years before releasing the treasure inside.

Beaux Frères produces wines of great integrity and character because they are made by a winemaker with the same attributes. Mike Etzel makes what he believes. These are wines that must be on anyone’s list of the best American pinot noirs.

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It appears as if we saved the best for last when it came to reviewing three wines from Old Mill Estate, their 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon being the pick of the bunch.

Aromas of ripe blackberry, plum, choc mint and a bit of alcoholic heat, the palate shows slightly tart blackberry fruit, spicy oak and a hint of liquorice. A round mouth feel with fine drying tannins, the wine also has enough acid to lead into a well balanced finish.

This young Cabernet was surprisingly approachable as a drink now proposition, however it did take some time in the decanter before the aromas and flavours really opened up. That being said, it should improve with bottle age over the medium term.

Score: 90/100
Price: $24
Closure: Screwcap
Alcohol: 15.5%
Other Opinions: Torbwine, Wine Without Wank
Would I buy this wine?
Yes, worth putting a couple of bottles in the cellar

Elena di Luigi (decanter.com) writes:

An order of Sardinian nuns is the first convent to practise organic^? viticulture^?? in Italy.
 
The Compagnia delle Figlie Evaristiane grows hardy indigenous varietals^? including Cannonau, Monica and Vermentino on an inhospitable stretch of the west coast of Sardinia.
 
The community focuses its efforts on supporting youth from disadvantaged backgrounds.
 
'We like to think that our vines are like the vegetables in the backyard of the convent,' said Mother Superior Margherita Piludu, 'we've never needed chemical fertilizers or fungicides to grow them. We pursue the same philosophy in viticulture.'

» Full Story

Tags: melgab, wine, sardinia, convent, italian, south-africa, South Africa

How do you keep up to date with the wine world these days? I’ve found out what works for me although I still suffer from information overload some times. My interests are as follows ?

• current hot topics such as closures, global warming, harvest expectations and so on
• recommendations on wines to try and buy
• educational material especially anything that helps me towards my WSET Diploma

I’ve found the following sources really help me

1. Harpers magazine. I wish I could afford their annual subscription but it’s just too much. However I subscribe to their daily bulletins via Google’s reader and this really works for me. I see a couple of lines summarising news items when I’m on the computer at home or work and I can always click the link to go their web site if i wish to read more
2. an unusual source of news items is South African Wines. They send out regular emails which summarise the key stories from around the world by directing you towards the various publications, web sites, blogs etc which have something interesting and relevant
3. there is no substitute for a monthly magazine which is good for those train journeys commuting to work. Decanter and Wine and Spirit are my favourites. I was working in the US last summer and enjoyed Wine Spectator and thought about taking out a subscription but the cost including mailing back to the UK was prohibitive
4. I love reading other people’s blogs. People like Jamie Goode and Andrew Jefford talk about people they have met, wines they have drunk and places they have visited. The problem with blogs is that there are so many (and yes I have one also) that it’s possible to subscribe to too many of them using Google’s reader that information overload soon takes over.
5. Podcasts are great for car journeys if you put them on a CD or train journeys if you play them on your phone. I’ve learned a lot from some of the podcasts from Grape Radio
6. For bedtime reading or sitting in a chair (with a glass of something nice of course) there is no substitute for the hard stuff ie: books. You can’t go wrong with a copy of the Oxford Companion to Wine by your side. I also try to look up every wine I try in at least one reference book such as the World Atlas of Wine, Wine by the Label or Oz Clark’s pocket wine book. These often give the context for the wine leaving the label to give the detail (unless of course it’s French!).

I may occasionally suffer from information overload but I do learn a whole lot of interesting stuff about wine which vastly increases my enjoyment of the stuff.

The latest edition of Decanter (March) came out this week, and several articles caught my eye.  The first was entitled Start Your Own Wine Cellar. As I’m often torn between buying bottles to drink and those I think I may like to keep for a special occasion, I was drawn to the profiles of the 3 different types of people for whom Decanter made recommendations. There was the couple who did not know much about wine, but wanted to learn and had £500 to get them going. At the other extreme was the couple who already drank a lot of good Bordeaux and had £5000 to spend. I found myself drawn to the example in the middle, someone who knows her grape varieties, but would not describe herself as a connoisseur. Decanter put together an interesting cellar at a cost of £1000 for her.

The one question I was left pondering with the suggestions was the distinction between wines for drinking 2008-2010+ and for 2010-2018. Why do a couple of decent Italian reds from 2004 fit in the first category, but a Portuguese 2005 and a Spanish 2003 fit in the second? I know it’s down to how it is made and matured, but how are you expected to know that for the slightly more unusual wines? Labels don’t always given enough information and certainly very few give how long to keep the wine for.

I always peruse the Wines of the Month to see what recommendations I can pick up. These wines are available from stockists in the UK so I feel sorry for foreign readers who may be unable to source them. However I’m always a bit frustrated to read other reviews elsewhere in the magazine and see the dreaded ?N/A? next to them. Although I figure what’s the point in reviewing them if they aren’t available in the UK I have to keep reminding myself how international Decanter is. In this month’s issue 4 of the 9 letters are from non UK readers. I am sure this helps the editorial team keep an international focus which is good for all us readers.

The panel tastings this month are both French, 2005 St Emilions and 2005 cru bourgeois. I was stunned to see a great value 2005 cru bourgeois at £7.35. I must seek it out.

Next month’s edition features Italy and is out, according to the ad in the magazine, on February 6. Oops ? I think they forgot to change the date from last month’s edition as I’m sure they mean March 6th!

The 2004 vintage of this wine received a bronze medal at the Decanter World Wine Awards last year (2006). I’ve only been able to find the 2005 vintage in Belgrade wine shops. It has an intensive and complex aroma with hints of flowers. Dominant tastes are those of melon and slightly of apricots. However, I wasn’t impressed, perhaps I expected more due to all the hype. Or perhaps there’s a significant difference in the two vintages.
We should note that this winery has a good reputation. The Simcic Sivi Pinot 1990 was awarded the Cordon d’Excellence; their Chardonnay has won two gold medals at the Ljubljana Wine Fair and the 1994 vintage was declared Champion by the Knights of the Burgerland-Pannonian Order.

Rating: 7/10
Price: 900 RSD (11 euro)
Retailer: Vinodom Belgrade, Bul Mihajla Pupina 10a

Technorati Tags: Slovenian Wines, Slovenia, Balkan Wines

At the Decanter event last weekend, it was great to see so many people  enjoying fine wine. Such a joy to have so many truly outstanding wines under the same roof laid out for the consumer.

At this particular Encounter Bordeaux epecially had a strong presence and the exhibitors read like a roll-call of the great and the good - though by no means exhaustive it certainly gave a very good schooling in what the fuss is all about. It proves that the UK is not all about Blossom Hill sugar water despite all the depressing statistics.

Not only were there members of the public that you would expect - I had some lovely older gentlemen coming up to me at the Jancis Robinson stand, just to tell me with a conspiratorial wink that they were already "purple pagers" - but lots and lots of young people. The majority in fact.  I hope this means that the next generation of wine drinkers/collectors/enthusiasts are trading up as they experience these wines first hand and making relationships with producers that may last a lifetime.

As well as the wines on offer there were also Masterclasses, the two most popular being the Margaux vertical and Jancis. Both of these will be available as podcasts - once the technology has been tamed- on the Decanter website and Jancis will put hers up on www.JancisRobinson.com

As well as all that, authors - Andrew Jefford and John Radford to name just two - were there for book signings and a very nice team from Riedel explaining all the subtle nuances of the various glasses and exactly why you need at least 10 different sets (I wish).

This merry band of merchants, flying the flag for small, artisanal wineries with distinctive, regional wines came to Fulham last week to give both press and public a chance to see what they have to offer.

The lower and upper ends of the wine market are well served by supermarkets and the "establishment"  but there is increasing demand for wine between these extremes. The best value for quality of wines with integrity and interest.  These merchants are really passionate about their lists and usually have personal relationships built up with the producers so they have fairly extensive knowledge of the vineyards, wineries and vintages.

Some of the listings are inevitably idiosyncratic and not all the wines will be to everyone's taste but these are dedicated people who will help you find treasures you will come back for again and again.

Jim Monks from Decanter Wines is a private collector who started by bringing in pallets for his own cellar, his approach is unashamedly personal (all the wines are aged in his cellar until he feels they are ready to drink and only then offered to the public) and any commercial success is second to his goal of providing himself with the kind of wine he wants to drink. Luckily, his taste seems to be shared and his wines show very well.

Also showing was Nick Dobson a self-proclaimed "niche player" with some outstanding and unusual wines from Switzerland, Austria and Germany.  With these countries slowly garnering a following for their wines it is worth knowing where to track down some great examples.

Also well-represented were Amordivino, Italian importers; The Big Red Wine Company showing mainly the Southern Rhone on this occasion; Abbe Arrous whose "Cyrcée, Collioure 2002" was the outstanding wine of the day for me; and Leon Stolarski with a wonderfully diverse selection of regional French wine.

The full list of tasting notes will be put up on this site but have a look at their website and sign up to their free monthly newsletter asdw.org.uk it is always going to be worth finding something a little bit different and a little bit special.

After having a look through the supermarket shelves for the first time in ages I was actually pleasantly surprised that there were quite a few decent mid-range wines on offer.

I don't think that makes up the majority of wine sold to their customers and if you regularly go to just one supermarket branch I think you'd get bored quickly.

However the point is that there are some good even great wines being offered. I have been especially impressed with Tescos and Sainsburys premium own brands which have gone to specific regions and made authentically regional wines. Sounds easy but too often I have drunk a winemaking- rather than wine- style.

Over the past three weeks Waitrose put on their annual press tasting showing their 270 wine range. For the first time all the fine wine was shown together  with the everyday drinkers. This was an admirable show of confidence in all of the wines but did lead to a couple of unfairly marked contrasts - a 2005 Fitou after a 2003  Ch Mouton Rothschild 1^er cru Pauillac (delicious, by the way).  However despite this I think it was a brilliant way to show the wines and a thoroughly enjoyable tasting.

It would be too long to list all the wines here so I will add a new section to the site for tasting notes from various merchants etc and publish them all together. As soon as time allows. Highlights though for me, apart from the Mouton Rothschild were Corton-Pougets Grand Cru 2003 from Louis Jadot, Ch Lagrange 2000 St Julien, Ch Rauzan-Ségla 1998 Margaux, Ch Cos d'Estournel 2003 St Estèphe.

Yes ok, not exactly hard to have picked those out, there were also lots of more affordable lovely reds, Ch d'Aiguilhe 2002 Côtes de Castillon - a former neighbour of mine though I didn't hang out with the Count, Cuvée Constance 2004 VdP des Côtes Catalanes + lots more - 2004 Gigondas from Gabriel Meffre, CNdP 2004 from Perrin et Fils and I haven't even left France yet. Ormanni Chianti 2003, Viña del Olivo 2001 from Contino in Rioja, Columella 2004 from South Africa, Craggy Range Le Sol Syrah2004 from New Zealand, Cape Mentelle Cab/Merlot 2004 from Margaret River in Western Australia and the fabulous O'Leary Walker duo with their Claire O'Leary Reserve Shiraz 2002.

The whites, tasted the week before, were of a similarly high standard. There was a consistent level of quality and of typicity across the range. Again some fabulous Burgundy leading ladies but also a Ch Jolys Jurançon Sec 2005, another VdP des Côtes Catalanes Matassa Cuvée Marguerite 2005, CVNE Monopole Rioja Blanco 2005 a super food wine, Cono Sur's dependable Limited Release Gewurztraminer 2006, Villa Maria Single Vineyard Graham Sauvignon Blanc 2005, Torbreck Woodcutter's Semillon 2003 - outstanding, I thought. O'Leary Walker Polish Hill River Riesling 2006, Paul Blanck Riesling Grand Cru Schlossberg 2002 from Alsace.

Some of the top wines are only available in a very few stores, even only one store in a couple of cases and clearly there are limited stocks. However Waitrose are taking themselves very seriously as wine merchants and are doing a better job than any of the other supermarkets on current evidence. Their new winelist is as good as anything a very good independent merchant would produce with introductions to countries and regions, tasting notes and lots of helpful information.

It is no surprise that this year they scooped two top awards : the International Wine Challenge Supermarket Wine Retailer of the Year 2006 and Decanter World Wine Awards Best Supermarket 2006.  Congratulations.