Pocket Vintages - wine guide, wine recommendations, wine reviews

Planet of the Grapes Special Offers April 08

I received this from the POTG team today:

Two cracking white wine offers today - one from the new world, one from the old...

Dog Point - Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2006 - SAVE £30 per case!

The Dog Point Sauvignon Blanc has been one of our best selling white wines over the last few years and we have managed to negotiate a great price for a 50 case parcel of the wine direct from New Zealand. This means that we can knock a massive £30 off the price of a case of 12 bottles, from £162.00 (£13.50 per bottle) down to just £132.00, (£11 per bottle). This brilliant estate is run by two guys who used to work for Cloudy Bay before it was sold to LVMH. The fruit is of the highest quality and has all the pungeant aromas you would expect from a Kiwi Sauvignon with a lovely crisp elegant palate. At the normal price it is a great wine but at the offer price it is a steal!

Adegas Galegas - Bouza Grande, O Candado 2005 - save £36 per case!

Our old world offering comes from Galicia in the far Northwest corner of Spain. This cool climate region is famed for its fantastic seafood and the rather delicious local grape, Albarino, that goes so well with gambas etc...The Bouza Grande from Adegas Galegas is a blend of grapes with small amounts of the indigenous varieties Loureiro and Treixadura being added to the Albarino, giving the wine lovely weight and texture to go with the pineapple and grapefruit flavours. The finish is dry and minerally and is crying out for those shripms to be thrown on the barbie! The new vintage has arrived in the country so we have managed to get a deal on the last of the 2005 - the price comes down from £12 per bottle to just £9 per bottle i.e. £108 per case, and we have just 10 cases available.

Chusclan 2004 Cotes du Rhone Villages

Another prize winner, at the 2005 Rhone wine awards and another big red - this time packing 14% alcohol.  This means that if you polish off a bottle of it you'll be using up about 12 of your 21 weekly alcohol units.

I can't tell you how much it costs because it was a gift from some friends coming round for dinner, but I drank it over the weekend and was very satisfied with it.

Open it up a few hours before you want to drink it, because it is tannic and chunky and will require some oxidisation.  But it is still smooth and fruity and perfect with roast lamb in my opinion.  I actually tried it with shepherd's pie and it went down a treat.

7/10

Chateau de Gaudou 2003

This big and boisterous Cahors was a silver medal winner at the South West France wine challenge in 2004.  It packs 13.5% alcohol and is everything you expect from a Cahors, except a big less tanniny (probably why it won something).

Normally I avoid Cahors because they tend to be fairly rough, but if you're after a working red wine then this is as good as any.  I think I bought it locally in France so probably only paid a few euros for it.  If you see it and it costs under £6 a bottle then buy it, otherwise I wouldn't bother.

6/10

Chateau Villemagne 2001 Corbieres

I picked up a case of this direct from the vineyard near Lagrasse in South West France.  Made by the owners Paulette and Roger Carbonneau, this wine is drinking very well now but will age a further 3-5 years no problem.

It is big, rich and smooth, still with that distinctive south west France 'ouvrier' basic and honest taste, but with a finesse that you don't often in AOC Corbieres wines.

It is a mix of Carignan, Grenache, Cinsaut and Syrah and would grace pretty much any meat dish, although would go perfectly with the local Cassoulet.

Only 3,600 bottles of this vintage were produced.  I just drank bottle number 00184.

Chapel Down 2006 Bacchus

I had a glass of this at Trinity Restaurant in Clapham the other day and I have to say that it scored top marks.

It is as crisp and fresh as you like and full of fruit.  An excellent white wine that can be enjoyed as an aperatif or with light fish dishes.

You can buy it from the Chapel Down website here but their case value of £108 plus £8 delivery seems steep.  I saw it on the Everywine website for less than £100 a case.

Lower Alcohol Wines from Marks and Spencer

Did you know....

That Marks & Spencer is launching a new range of lower-alcohol wines under the M&S L%wer Alcohol brand name.
The three new M&S L%wer Alcohol wines, a red, white and rosé, are made using conventional wine-making techniques to achieve boast a naturally lower-alcohol content of 9.5% alcohol-by-volume.

  M&S says the 500ml bottles contain five units of alcohol, allowing two people to share a bottle and still stay within the government's sensible daily drinking recommendations, of no more than two to three units for women and three to four units for men.

Additional guidance is offered in the form of the recommended daily allowance details and actual alcohol units per bottle and per glass, printed on the back label.

M&S winemaker Jo Ahearne said: “We are committed to responding to our customers' needs. The new wines offer clarification and guidance, and not only are they lower in alcohol, but they also offer all of the quality and flavour expected of an M&S wine.”

Pocket Vintages has been recommending lower alcohol wines for some time now.

Check out our lower alcohol wine recommendations here.

Amarone 2005 - Sainsburys Taste The Difference

I tasted an amazing Amarone in a little Italian restaurant near Paddington station the other day and decided it is time that I went on a quest for good value Amarone wine.

This is the Sainsburys taste the difference Amarone della Valpolicella 2005 and since 2005 was such as good vintage, I pretended not to notice the £13 price tag (certainly one of Sainsburys more expensive wines) and stuck it in the basket.

Pur yourself a glass and you will see that it is a rich, blackberry juice thick wine, slightly browning round the edges, which usually indicates age but not in this case.  It is definitely produced to be drunk now, or within 1 year of purchase (in line with 90% of supermarket wines) so if you stock up then tuck in quickly.

It doesn't smell particularly interesting but when you taste it you will get a mouthful of smooth, ribena-like nectar, with just a hint of tannin to make it a great wine to drink with red meats, but equally good to drink on its own.

This is a wine that stands up very well and would grace any dinner table and be agreeable to even the most critical dinner party guests.  But I would decant it first, simply because the label does not do justice to the wine.

Overall, an expensive supermarket wine but I would probably buy it again unless I can find something equally good at a cheaper price. The mission continues....!

Pink Port

Did you know...

That Marks and Spencer, the bastion of British retailing, has launched a new drink called Pink Port?

Marks & Spencer is launching its Pink Port in the wake of soaring demand for rosé wine.

The tipple, which goes on sale today, is created by taking only a small amount of colour from the skins of grapes which grow in Portugal's Douro Valley.

Sue Daniels, the chain's port specialist, said: "Some people wrongly think port is the preserve of men but we have created a drink which will appeal to women because it is light and flavoursome."

However, Guy Woodward, the editor of the wine magazine Decanter, was unimpressed, describing the flavour as more like vodka and cranberry juice than a typical port.

"I suspect they're trying to jump on the rosé bandwagon, but it tastes worryingly close to the alcopop market," he said.

Vina Alarde Berberana Reserva 2001

A better than average Rioja, from the 2001 Vintage and benefiting from a decent amount of time aged in oak barrels, this wine is drinking well now.

It smells toasty and alcoholic and weighs in at 13% alcohol.  It still gives away a good mouthful of fruit and the tannins have mellowed to allow this wine to be drunk with or without food.

Try it with roast chicken or roast pork for a good value delicious combo.

2000 Chateau Brane Cantenac

One of the 2nd growth Margaux clarets, I opened this on Xmas day to drink with the turkey.  I could see a fair amount of sediment in the bottom of the bottle and in hindsight should have decanted it first.  But I opened it up 4 hours before lunch and tasted it just before we sat down to eat.  On its own it was rich, smooth and with soft tannins.  It complemented the food perfectly and everyone enjoyed it.

We finished off a second bottle the following evening and having been open for 24 hours had actually improved on the first bottle.

This 2000 vintage is drinking very well now but will probably be a point around 2009 to 2010.