Keller Estate's Syrah-based 2007 Sonoma Coast Rose is a delight. I'm always searching for a rose from California that's not too pink and not too sweet (not to mention a lot of fun to drink & great with food) and this one fits the bill just right. Made for the winery founder's 75th birthday, this medium pink-hued quaffer offers up delightful aromas of watermelon Jolly Rancher candy (always a favorite), caramel, chamomile, rose water and a kiss of pink grapefruit...

Just in time for Christmas, Sainsburys and Secret Sommelier have teamed up to produce a case of 12 Bordeaux with an accompanying podcast by Christopher Burr MW and Ewan Lacey.

Bordeaux, I think, can be the region most in need of explanation to the uninitiated, as its charms occasionally need to be coaxed out. In this world of immediacy, these wines lag behind in the crowd-pleasing stakes, especially when you venture down from the top drawer. But given a lead from someone knowledgeable, I think - unlike some wines which initially please but become repetitive and dull - they can become friends for life.

It would make a great present for someone and is a useful tool for a group of friends who don't go to a wine club but want to have fun with it at home.

Good for Sainsburys to seize the initiative and find quite an innovative approach to wine tasting. But why is the podcast an audio recording not a dvd? I haven't heard it yet but I would have thought there was quite a lot of opportunity for visuals here.

To make it even more appealing, they have included a prize draw to win a trip for two to the Bordeaux Wine School. That would be quite a fun trip, I imagine.

The case can be bought at www.sainsburys.co.uk/wine or buy the wines individually in-store. Many of these wines I have not tasted myself but I do know the "Taste the Difference" ones are very decent examples.

With English wines now winning awards over and above some of their more established competitors and many international wine companies buying up acres of southern England now’s a very good time to find out what you might have been missing. 

If you feel a bit in the dark about what English wines have to offer English Wine Week from Saturday 26th May to Sunday 3rd June provides the perfect opportunity to find out more.  With events taking place throughout the country at vineyards, restaurants and local fairs there’s sure to be something in your area that will give you the opportunity to taste a drop or two or learn more about this emerging industry.

GREAT GOLD MEDAL FOR CHILEAN WINES.

In order to reaffirm its prestige, Chile gained 9 Great Gold Medal by its wines. These distinctions were gained in the "Concours Mondial de Bruxelles" finalized in Lisbon the 23 of April.

These great prizes corresponded all to wines of the Carmenere variety. The Carmenere has its sanctuary in Chile indeed. An historical event: in the middle of century XIX the phylloxera attacked the Old World and she destroyed the vineyards. An agriculturist came to Chile from France and helped to develop the Carmenere. That man of Bachelet last name also turned out to be the first ancestor in Chile of Michelle Bachelet, president of the country today .

Now, by the excellence of his carmenere, received Great Gold Medal: Aresti Chile Wine (Valley of Curico), two for Casa Silva Ltda. (Valley of Colchagua), Siegel S.A. (Valley of Colchagua), Misiones de Rengo (Valley of Rapel), Santa Helena S.A. (Valley of Colchagua), Casa Tamaya S.A. (Valley of Limari), Ventisquero (Valley of Maipo) and Viu Manent (Valley of Colchagua).

We present here the detail of some of these good wines.

ARESTI RESERVA CARMENERE 2004 - ARESTI CHILE WINE LTDA. (Curico Valley) - Great Gold Medal
Deep colour. In nose opened fragances are outlined of spice as cinnamon, vanilla and cocoa as well as fragances of fruits of berry and cassis. Highlighting the fruit for on the fragances of wood. It fills well the mouth with a sweet touch proving to be balanced with good persistence. More information in the web.

SELECCION CARMENERE - SANTA HELENA S.A. (Colchagua Valley) - Great Gold Medal
Deep ruby red in colour. On the nose, ripe red fruit aromas combine with spice and chocolate notes. Strong volume and structure. On the palate , with sweet tannins, red fruits aromas combine with spice and vanilla notes. Good final persistence. More information in the web.

MISIONES DE RENGO RESERVA CARMENERE - MISIONES DE RENGO S.A. (Rapel Valley) - Great Gold Medal
Deep colour. Intense, with notes of the spice, as the black pepper and the cinnamon. We find also black fruit as the plum accompanied of exquisite aromas of black chocolate and coffee. Young, soft, fresh wine. Mature and long tannins. Notes of spice interlace harmoniously with notes of smoke and candy. End agreeable and pleasant taste. More information in the web.

All the awarded chilean wines

All the awarded argentine wines

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Tina Caputo (winesandvines.com) writes:

St. Helena, Calif. -- As wine consumption in the United States reached an all-time high in 2007, wine producers celebrated the long-awaited arrival of a "wine culture" in America. But according to an 18-month study commissioned by Constellation Wines U.S., a large segment of the consumer population is still "overwhelmed" by wine. The results of "Home & Habits," the second phase of Constellation's "Project Genome" study, were released March 7 at a press conference.
 
"Our industry needs to do more to become more customer focused," said José Fernandez, president and CEO of Constellation Wines North America.
 
The original 2005 study of 3,500 wine drinkers was one of the largest consumer research projects ever conducted by the wine industry. The new study examined the purchases of 10,000 premium-wine consumers--defined as those who purchased wine priced at $5 and higher--over an 18-month period. While the first Project Genome study asked online survey participants to recall their wine purchases during the last 30 days, the Home & Habits study tracked the actual purchases of Nielsen Co.'s Homescan® consumer purchase panel, which employs in-home bar code scanners and surveys to map consumer buying behavior across a demographically balanced sampling.
 
Nielsen measured consumer attitudes and purchase behavior within multiple purchase channels, including warehouse clubs, supermarkets, mass merchandisers, drug stores, liquor stores and wine shops. The scan data were supplemented with online interviews to classify consumers by Project Genome consumer segments identified in Constellation's original study: Enthusiasts, Image Seekers, Savvy Shoppers, Traditionalists, Satisfied Sippers and Overwhelmed.

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Tags: melgab, wine, survey, consumer, united states, south-africa, South Africa

We have previously reviewed the entry level “Hard Yards” Shiraz from Sylvan Springs here on Winetastic and found it to be most agreeable. As you can imagine when a bottle of their premium Sylvan Springs Cyril’s Reserve Shiraz 2006 arrived unannounced, I was somewhat excited. It is fair to say that Sylvan Springs are currently doing a lot right at both the budget and super-premium level.

Showing a vibrant crimson hue, the aromas are currently subdued with a little vanilla oak, blackberry and cherry showing. Full flavoured but refined and impeccably balanced, the juicy Shiraz fruit glides across the palate and is well supported by spices and a hint of oak. The finish is very long, mouthwatering and leaves you wanting more. This is a Shiraz to put to sleep in the cellar for several years.

Straight after opening the aromas were a bit muted, however this is not to be unexpected from a recently bottled premium red. My reaction to the first sip was something along the lines of “wow, this is the best young red wine I have tasted this year”. After a couple of hours, the flavours became even more intense with loads of ripe blackberry fruit coming to the fore.

Score: 93/100
Price: $40
Closure: Stelvin Lux (Fancy Screwcap)
Alcohol: 15%
Other Opinions: Winorama
Would I buy this wine?
Yes, At $40 per bottle, I feel it does represent decent value for money. Squashedgrape have it for $35 if buying a case.

Ted Burns interviews David Schildknecht, Robert White and Greg Jones about the influences of soil and weather on wine grapes. David Schildknecht is a well-respected wine critic and writer for the Wine Advocate and has a special interest in the topic of terroir. Robert White is author of the book, Soils for Fine Wine. Greg Jones is a climatologist and vineyard site selection consultant.

The participants discuss the influence of the physical and chemical properties of soil and the influence of weather on wine grapevine growing, the quality of wine and the terroir of many winegrowing regions. The topic of taste of “minerality” is also discussed during this in depth look at these important and usually only superficially-covered topics.

Sponsor: CRUSHPAD: www.crushpadwine.com

Click Below to Play the Show:

I would like to thank Earl, who posted comments and the following question on my recent Tempranillo in the Americas post: ?Why was there such a long interval between introduction of the vine into Argentina and exportation of varietal labeled wine??

Here are some important factors to consider:

It?s important to recognize the fact that culturally, there is a stark contrast between the way in which wine has been regarded in Argentina versus our very international, varietal-minded, label-aware atmosphere where getting to know the world?s wines is something many people have expressed interest in doing. Fine wine production for the gentry, in terms of seeing wine as a prestige cultural/material good simply wasn?t priority for Argentines until fairly recently. While it is true that many progressive vintners have been dabbling in exciting varieties in the past few decades (after the familiar 19^th century French varieties arrived), the very first vines in the 16th century were planted by monks and priests near their newly built monasteries and church compounds in order to provide wine for masses and other celebrations. In some of the official correspondence that Spanish monks had to regularly exchange with royal authorities in the 1550?s to justify expenditures and building projects, the planting of vines was mentioned briefly and only in passing?the degree of pomp we would show in describing how we installed a light bulb today. Certainly, my modern concerns would be: Which varieties were planted? Surely this mattered to the priests, right? Not really, since in the letters they mention the generic Latin term for all wine-producing grape varieties, ?vitis vinifera.?

Records of colonial correspondence available at the Archivo General de Indias (Seville) indicate that a certain priest named Juan Cedrón (late 1550?s) first wrote of planting various types of Spanish vitis vitifera needed to carry on with life in the Argentine Northwest. The correspondence indicates that Cedrón was in charge of settling to the south of Santiago del Estero, Spanish settlers? first outpost after leaving their stronghold at Cuzco. As settlers made their way in a southwesterly direction, they encountered the dry, elevated Andean foothills of today?s provinces, the first of which is interestingly named La Rioja, then San Juan, and then Mendoza.

In terms of answering the above question about which varieties were planted, there are some interesting parallels we can draw between Northern and Southern hemisphere Spanish colonization patterns and viticultural practices. Since Valdepeñas from La Mancha was considered to be one of the finest expressions of Tempranillo by 16^th century Spaniards, this is precisely the name used in correspondence to introduce the variety into Nuevo León (México) and the area that encompasses California and parts of the American southwest. In the 16^th century, Spaniards didn?t refer to prestige wines by variety but as Italians did at the time, according to their region or commune of origin. On a whole and as is evidenced in classics such as Don Quixote (1605), Spaniards enjoyed drinking ?Valdepeñas? and not ?a really nice Tempranillo,? as we would say in the U.S. today.

If we take these considerations into account, it is a very well-sustained assumption that Tempranillo made its way across the Americas alongside Spanish settlers given that it was the red variety of choice. Other varieties planted for other styles of wines (acidic and sweet whites, etc.) in colonial times were Criolla Chica (also known as Criolla Sanjuanina) , Pedro Ximénez, Cereza, Muscat, Ugni Blanc (Trebbiano) and ?mónica? as it was known in Sardinia, Sicily and Spain (the famous ?Mission? grape introduced by Spanish Jesuits in 16^th century California).

Tempranillo (then referred to as ?Valdepeñas?), alongside the abovementioned varieties was cultivated at the Andean foothills for home consumption since the 16^th century. Much trial and error ensued, and areas with relatively higher elevation and dry weather (La Rioja, San Juan, Mendoza) and select areas in Mexico (including present-day California) became prime for producing these wines for settlers? purposes.

Here are a couple of additional ideas to support the hypothesis that Tempranillo was one of the original vines planted in the Americas. Ethnographically speaking, a great deal of Spanish settlers in the early conquest of the Americas included an overwhelmingly large number of natives of the following Spanish regions where Tempranillo was the most important red variety?the provinces encompassing Castille and La Mancha such as Avila, Ciudad Real, Albacete, Badajoz, Guadalajara, Cuenca, Toledo, Salamanca and Madrid. It?s also important to keep in mind that in terms of actual planting area, Tempranillo vines are of relatively low incidence on a worldwide scale, with Argentina being second only after Spain, of course.

Earl, I?m afraid that your question still hasn?t been fully answered: Why is it that Tempranillo has been around in Argentina since the 16^th century yet the world hasn?t seen any exports of ?fine wine? versions until the early 1990?s?

Wine globalization and the consumer trends that underlie it have shown the potential to create some sink-or-swim imperatives for wine producers to expand production of different varieties and innovate in the vineyard. In fact, given many recent trends, it is likely that this projected consumer has developed tastes and accumulated enough disposable income to not want to consume the kinds of table wines that Argentines don?t mind. How does the Argentine producer see this consumer, who needs an ?international? style of their table wines? Well, the customer is someone who most likely lives abroad, and because he does not likely come from a culture were wine is a major part of his cultural identity, he is perhaps well educated and would like to learn more about wines and adopt other interests that can be considered, pardon the term, a bit bourgeois. While I don?t entirely see it the way Argentines see it because I grew up between both cultures and thus, can see each point of view, this is more or less the situation.

To answer your question, let?s think of timing and marketing. Who do many Argentine and Chilean producers wish to please? Why do the ?Wines of Argentina Awards? even exist? Spanish wines in the U.S. market at least, have really become fashionable in the past four or five years. Americans have been very receptive to various styles of Tempranillo-based Spanish reds and South American producers have realized that for the first time, the North American market is genuinely thirsty for different expressions of Tempranillo (this relic left by Spanish settlers, as far as Argentines are concerned).

What do I make of this all? The ambiguity created by the correspondence of priests such as Juan Cedrón in the 1550?s regarding vitis vinifera has unfortunately opened the gates to opportunists. One such example of opportunism can easily be seen by an article I came across in a major Spanish daily?s wine section (El Mundo Vino). In the article titled ?Argentine Wine is Not Only Malbec,? by Harold Heckle, Juan Carlos Rodriguez Villa of the venerable Finca Flichman in Barrancas (Mendoza), claims that Tempranillo vines are a relatively new phenomenon in Argentina and that it was precisely his grandfather who visited Spain and subsequently introduced the variety to the Argentine wine industry in 1940. Although the Familia Zuccardi website does not make claims this sensational, they still care very much that today?s North American grape-variety-hopping, cosmopolitan Gen. Y-wine consumer regard them as pioneers in the Argentine industry when it comes to traditionally European varieties that exclude the Bordeaux and northern Italian varieties that pan-European immigration brought to Argentina, Chile and Uruguay in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries.

And so, I walk down the aisles of many American retailers and see bottles of Argentine Tempranillo from producers I?ve never heard of, from the conventional Mendoza winery all the way through La Rioja, San Juan and down into Neuquén and even a general Patagonia appellation. The same question comes the mind for a native Argentine like myself?under which rock have all of these wines/producers been and why are they suddenly available now on shelves dominated by oaked Catena Chardonnays and endless rows of Malbec? Makes one think?