Pocket Vintages - wine vintage charts and wine information

Planet of the Grapes New Wine Bar

Did you know....

Planet of the Grapes 2, The Wine Bar/shop type thing is now up and running. Located in Leadenhall market, less than 10 mins walk from Liverpool Street, Bank and London Bridge. It has a range of around 450 wines available by the bottle and a small but select range of wines by the glass.

What's new about your wine bar, I hear you cry, well all the wines are priced at retail and to enjoy them in the bar simply add £10, irrespective of price. Therefore Mouton Rothschild 1983 priced at £225 will cost you only £235 to drink in the bar, as opposed to £500+ in other bars and restaurants, more realistically Louis Roederer N.V is £42 per bottle and Pol Roger N.V £38

All wines are served in beautiful Riedel glasses and to compliment we will be serving platters of the finest meats and cheese from our friends at Cheese in Leadenhall. For full details of the bar and for a map see the website www.planetofthegrapes.co.uk or call the bar on 020 79297224. You can also reserve tables and order any specific wine to be chilled or decanted in advance.

Wine clubs and courses

Here are a few recommended clubs and courses to delve into if you are considering learning more about wine or building up your cellar:

Sunday Times Wine Club

One of the most established clubs.  Members enjoy discounts on exclusive wines, personal recommendations and a variety of wine tastings, dinners and days out.

The Wine Society

Offers a wine storage service, themed tasting weeks, free tasting evenings, exclusive bin-end offers, access to the vintage cellar room and collection discounts.

The Wine & Food Academy

Offering a good selection of wine tasting events, cookery courses and wine tours.  Especially good for corporate events.

The Wine & Spirits Trade Club

Established in 1962 but still only has 150 members.  Organises formal tastings and social events for its members.

The Wine Society Education Trust

This is the place to get your UK wine qualifications - offering a range of wine courses from beginner to Master of Wine - excellent tutors and great for beginners and experts alike.

Wine Discovery Club

One of the oldest wine merchants introduces the club 'If you have ever wanted to be a little more adventurous in your wine choices but have been put off by daunting names and unusual grape varieties, then the Wine Discovery Club is for you' - a good way to build up your cellar with expert advice, food and wine matching tips and budget plans.

Chateau Cantelys 2004

From AOC Pessac-Leognan in France, this is a quality white wine that drinks well on its own or with white fish or chicken.

It packs a punch at 13% but the alcohol is well disguised by the peachy/lychee flavour - not overpowering by any means.  Still crisp and well rounded, this is a very impressive wine.

I can't tell you how much I paid for it because it was a gift from a hotel but you can always check out Wine Searcher for stockists.

Marquis de Fonseguille - Vacqueyras 2004

If you have never heard of Vacqueras, it has its own AOC in Southern Rhone and is well worth looking out for. It is just not that easy to find on UK supermarket shelves.

According to Wiki, Vacqueyras received the A.O.C. Côtes du Rhône (CdR) Decree appellation in 1937. It could add its village name to the CdR Village status in 1990 and received its own appellation - A.O.C. Vacqueyras in 1995. Vineyards are located in Vacqueyras proper and the neighbouring village of Sarrians. About 1300 hectares are under cultivation with a yearly production of roughly 40,000 hl.

Red and rosé wines are made from Grenache Noir, Syrah, Cinsaut and Mourvèdre grapes, white wines from Clairette, Grenache Blanc, Roussanne and Bourboulenc.

This one I found in a Calais supermarket for 6 euros a bottle and it is excellent. Really smooth but enough chunkiness and bite to go with any red meat dish.  Mainly Grenache (60%) and Syrah (30%), it will go down well at any dinner party and at this price is cheap enough to take to BBQs, although I would advise that you keep it to yourself and drink with pleasure, knowing full well that this could pass quite happily for a £16 bottle of wine.

Italy cracks down on wine fraud

Did you know...

That Italy has now taken over from France as the world's biggest exporter of wine.  But this brings problems.  Fraudsters are adding sugar to low grade wine to increase alcohol content as we as substituting cheaper grapes during the wine making process.

The goverment's response is to send 150 officers on a 18 month tasting course to enable them to distinguish the fraudulent wines!

Planet of the Grapes Bin End Sale

Planet of the Grapes, the young and fun wine merchant in Holborn, has a bin-end rose sale - pick up a case of 12 bottles for just £72 that would normally cost £90. There are only 10 cases available so get in quick to avoid disappointment!

They also have also just added a number of tastings to the site - Champagne, Bordeaux & Winter Warmers as well as the Paul Cluver wine evening on the 11th October. just follow the link below for more info...

http://www.planetofthegrapes.co.uk/shop.php?cPath=34

Chateau Cissac 2000

I took a friend to Christopher's Restaurant in Central London a couple of nights ago.  Christopher's is one of those long lasting London restaurants that somehow has stood the test of time, despite having problems.  It is an Amercian restaurant (technically), specialising in steaks and seafood, and it has a Martini cocktail bar downstairs.  I have always thought it the place to go for lunch, to impress a potential client or toast a successful deal.  The prices are not cheap but the food is OK.  You can read the full review on The London Restaurant Review.

Anyway, point is that when I came to choose the wine, my friend told the sommelier that I too was a sommelier (wrong) so she immediately backed off and said that if I wanted help choosing then she was there but I probably wouldn't need it.  No pressure then!

Fortunately I spied a wine that I have tried before and knew to be good - Chateau Cissac.  I subtly referred to my copy of Pocket Vintages and confirmed that indeed, 2000 was an excellent year for Medoc.  At £48 it was about half way up the Christopher's price list.

Upon ordering, the sommelier agreed that this was an excellent choice so I breathed a sigh of relief and from then on we were the best of friends.

She decanted the wine although there was not a trace of sediment and after about 20 mins to breathe, we got stuck in.  It went perfectly with our filet steaks and was delightfully smooth with a rounded finish that left you wanting more more more.

I noticed that Surrey Fine Wines are currently selling the 2000 vintage for about £14 a bottle and since it is drinking well, I would suggest stocking up with a case now to see you through the autumn and winter nights.

Majestic Autumn Offers

Majestic has just announced its range of Autumn offers.  Initial glance indicates nothing magical.  20% off wines from Spain, France, Argentina, Portugal and South Africa with up to 50% off selected Champagnes.

Check out all the offers here.

Dirler Cade Alsace Riesling

I was down in Brockenhurst last week, a beautiful village in the middle of the New Forest.

Within the village you will find a lovely restaurant called Simply Poussin.  You can read the review of the restaurant here.

The manager recommended a 2001 Riesling to go with my starter and I was blown away.  It was complex and mature yet retained a lovely fresh zesty crispness that I don't normally associate with Rieslings this old.  It had a touch of the classic petrol but this was not over-powering and you were left with a well rounded mouthful of pure class.

I could not find any 2001 Dirler Cade's online, although Berry Bros has a couple of the 2004 and 2005 vintages which would lay down very well although you could pop one open now and enjoy.  At around £13 a bottle it is not cheap, but should prove a worthwhile investment.

Do you know how much you drink?

Alcohol limits -do you exceed them?

That the recommended weekly alcohol allowance for men is 21 units and for women is just 14 units?

You might know that, but did you know that a typical 75 cl bottle of wine actual contains 9 units?  Many people believe that since you get 6 glasses out of a bottle, that it is only 6 units, but that is not correct.

So drinking half a bottle of wine a day is the equivalent of 31.5 units of alcohol every week, more than twice the recommended allowance for women and way above the male allowance.

It gets worse.  These recommendations are based on a typical alcohol volume of just 12%.  Many New World wines are much higher than this and Old World wines are trending to the heavier than the lighter, since this is historically what the market is drinking.

I wonder whether we will now start to see a shift towards lower alcohol wines, such as some of those produced in Germany, since we all still love to drink so much.