Don't ask me mate, you already know the answer

I often get asked to recommend wine. I do spend an inappropriate amount of my time reading, writing, and tasting all things wine so I suppose it should be expected, but what does surprise me (and always makes me smile) is the inevitable total rejection of any advice I actually give.

A typical encounter usually goes along the lines of:

Inquisitor (I):You like wine, what's a good wine.

Wine Gums (WG): Well what do you like to drink?

I: White. Can't stand red.

WG: Okay. Okay. What do you usually buy?

I: Whatever is on special at the supermarket.
WG: What did you have last night?
I: I've told you, white wine.
WG: No, where was it from?
I: Asda.
WG: (Sighs) Australian? £4.50?
I: Oh, you've had it then.
WG: Probably.
I: Gorgeous isn't it? Best wine I've ever had. Fact. End of.
WG: A Chardonnay perhaps? Oaked or unoaked?
I: Definately a Chardonnay and it must have been unoaked - it came in a glass bottle not a barrel.
WG: Right. An unoaked Australian Chardonnay. Why not try a petit Chablis? France not Australia, but same grape and similar style yet with more backbone. £6.50 in M&S.
I: £6.50? I'll wait till its on special in Asda.

Okay so maybe I'm being a little unfair (but only a little) but trying to get people to explore wine is a thankless task.   Sophisticated drinkers - with the emphasis on drinkers - are the worst. A lady with a predilection for NZ Sauvignon Blanc once sought my advice regarding which other wines would slake her thirst for dry, mineral riven, citrus fruit driven white wine. My suggestions included:

Muscadet - "I don't like French wine".  This immediately ruled out Sancerre and Chablis.

Picpoul de Pinet - Not revealing the fact that its French, this suggestion was greeted with a long drawn-out "hmmm".
Gruner Veltliner - "Too exotic". Leaving me wondering if Austria ever been considered exotic before or since?
Australian Riesling - "Don't like sweet wine".  By this point the (dry) towel was well and truly thrown in.

"Stick with the Oyster Bay love, its on special at Sainsburys".

When someone now asks me to recommend wine I have one answer: next time you're at the supermarket stand in front of your favourite wine, put your hand on the bottle, count six bottles to the right and buy that one.

Now leave me alone.

BERTRAND CAPDEVIGNE PETIT CHABLIS 2007

Morrisons Supermarket £6.99 (tasted 18.iii-'09)

Clear pale lemon yellow chardonnay wine with a good clean green apple and citrus fruit nose which has a mineral streak running through it. Bone dry and high acidity with a steely citrus lemon palette. Surprising nice length. 11.5% with an artificial cork.

All in all a good example of what you can get from a young petit chablis.

You can't take it with you...

The WSET Advanced Course, or my 'drinking class' as some people disparagingly refer to it, is now in full swing. We are motoring nicely through the French wine landscape: Bordeaux, Burgundy and the Alsace have been and gone in a flurry of ever more confident tasting notes whilst the book-work grind of classifications, grape varieties and terroir rolls on late into the night. I am not, however, complaining. My solitary drinking is now a fundamental part of my revision. Every cloud...

During our Burgundy session Karen, our fantastic tutor, insisted that we tasted six wonderful wines including examples from Chablis, Meursualt, Nuit St George, and Morgon: a selection of wines which mirrors about 30% of my own collection. This led on to a brief discussion regarding keeping wine and drinking wine.

Wine is temporal. The wine in my cellar has a finite life and, no matter what I think, its beauty will fade. As you can imagine, for a wine geek like me that idea of taking the collection apart is heartbreaking. Watching the gaps in the racks getting bigger does concern me, but I am comforted knowing that the feelings of loss and guilt which follow me up the cellar steps as a cradle the last of the 2000 Pommard (the case bought after a boozy Christmas lunch at Chateaux Montreuil in 2003) will soon be superseded with the wave of calm relaxation which only a glass of top-class wine can bring to me. But to reduce the collection like this is immeasurably more satisfying than finishing a tasting note with the phrase 'past it' simply because I am more concerned with the wine collection rather than the wine itself.

As Karen said, "You can't take it with you".

DOMAINE GERARD CHAVY ET FILS PULIGNY MONTRACHET 2001

Provenance and price unknown. Available from Vininum at £34.00

After eight years in the bottle this white burgundy is now a clear deep gold wine. A clean and medium bouquet gives baked apples with liquorice hints but these are muted and lacking definition. Slightly off-dry with some acidity and no tannin, 13% alcohol, medium body and intensity adding a biscuity padding to the other flavours. Finishes with a long length and the warmth of the alcohol coming through. A good wine but most certainly past it. Shame I have another in the cellar, because it ain't going to get any better. This is what happens when you can't see the wine, only a collection of bottles.

VINCENT GIRARDIN "LES ENSEIGNERES" PULIGNY MONTRACHET 2002

Provenance and price unknown, and I can't find any more!

A clear and bright medium gold wine. Lovely fully developed clean nose, medium + intensity with apple pie, toasted almonds and vanilla notes. Ever so slightly off-dry with medium acidity and no tannins to speak of. The 13.5% alcohol together with its medium body brings caramel, smoke,and custard (!) to the underlying stewed fruit flavours. Finally a perfect length underlines the balance and complexity of this wine. A fabulous mature white burgundy currently right on the button.

They seek him here

I've just read this post over at Andrew Barrow's excellent Spittoon blog and it seems to exemplify the thrust of Jamie Goode's post regarding the provenance of particular articles, blogs, tweets, and press releases.

I have become increasingly sensitive to the ubiquitous nature of media personalities such as messrs. Oliver, Ramsay et. al. Move aside James Brown, these boys really are the hardest working people in show business.

I don't have an issue with their obvious and hard won success, indeed such enterprise should be applauded and their books do have a home on my kitchen bookshelf, but I do take umbrage with their apparent shape-shifting abilities to be in two places at once.

I for one am not fooled - shape shifters don't do cooking.

MACON LA ROCHE-VINEUSE DOMAINE GONON 2007

The Wine Society £7.95 (tasted 23 January 2009)

White burgundy so it's a 100% chardonnay. 13.5% with a synthetic closer. Guess what, it's clear almost colourless with only the lightest lemon yellow tint. Clean medium nose shows citrus green fruit including grapefruit; so far so textbook. Dry with easy acid, no tannin because its never been near any oak, and a light body with apples and pears. "Crisp and refreshing and refreshing and crisp". Finished with a short and easy full-stop length.

Well structured and popular with the ladies - a bit like Boyzone.

Wine fact: MACON LA ROCHE-VINEUSE is also the appellation of this Macon-Villages white burgundy, along with 42 other villages with the right to their own appellation. Thank you Jancis!

Do you know your Alsace from your elbow?

I subscribe to about a dozen RSS feeds, all from wine blogs which I particularly enjoy. International, eclectic, passionate and witty and occasionally slightly bonkers they encourage me to keep this thing going. But it must be a summer sun thing because there has been an invasion of Riesling (invasion being the correct collective noun for Alsatian wines) into my Bookmarks Bar. A quick survey throws up:

Jamie Goode, two, three

Full Pour and more

Wines Under $20

Wannabe Wannabe Wino

They're all at it! Has there been an eastern France love-in I've not been invited to? Not for the first time I've been left off such party lists I'll have you know. Who knows or indeed cares: here's my shout.

RUPPERTSBERGER RIESLING KABINETT 2007

The Wine Society (tasted 18 April 209)

10.5% with a natural cork. A clear and flashing bright pale gold wine that dances into the glass. A classic petrol-mineral Reisling nose together with ripe apples and honey. Its off-dry, acidic, and no tannins, nice body before the good length with the palette matching the nose.

This is the text book definition of an Alsace Riesling. Highly recommended.

Choo choo!!

This is my first live on-line wine tasting so I suppose I should be twittering.  (Note to self to become more web 2.0 at the first opportunity...)

Back in the day I used to commute from Yorkshire to London twice a week courtesy of GNER.  Now time has moved on:  National Express (NE) drun the trains and I work in Leeds.  Since then plus the addition of kids means I'm in London about once a fortnight tops.  So what does this mean?

1. No more half bottle of scotch in the bottom of my 'overnight' bag to see me through the week away from my family;
2. I've stopped smoking like a laboratory beagle (actually I've stopped full-stop);
3. Less exposure to different wines.

Point (3) has nothing to do with the Yorkshire wine desert in comparison to the elysian fields of London; its all to do with GNER.  Its hard to comprehend but dinner on the GNER from London was a real pleasure .  Forget your soggy sandwich and suspect pork-pie GNER had train dining sorted.  And they had the wines to match.

Back then I didn't keep notes and at times I barely knew what I was drinking thanks to the other GNER staple being STELLA, but I remember quarter bottles of prosecco at c.£5.00 and third (!) bottle of Tavel for less than £8.00.  I would argue that GNER had the best mobile wine list in the country, so much so that Tavel is still on my must-have cellar list.

Soooooo, tonight on the 2003 London Leeds train we're trying again...

JEAN DIDIER MERLOT 2007

National Express £.....(tonight darling)

Screw cap, 13.0% vin de pays by the half bottle.

Looking at the label Playford Ros are providing NE with their wines so that is encouraging.  This 100% merlot from the Longuedoc Roussillon isn't burnt one would expect from a single varietal from this region.

Clear, deep purple red and full bodied in the plastic cup the nose is packed full of dark black fruit.  All the usual suspects but with distant nutmeg structure.  Dry, little acid with some good tannins it has the body of a vin de pay: think carafe in a roadside cafe before Toulouse play Nantes at home on a wet Sunday in March.  Black cherries are overlaid with something smokey (cheese!?) and mint or thyme.  Just what you want.  I'd have some again.

Did we revert to type? Wales 23 - 15 England

And so it came to pass, the Englishmen were punished for their over-confidence and lack of discipline. You just can't trust anyone these days can you? Put a team in a match-winning position and they revert to type: loose all creativity and forget everything you have practiced on the training ground. Where's the wine?

CASTELMAURE GRANDE CUVEE CORBIERES 2005

The Wine Society £11.50 (tasted 28.i-'09)

14.5%(!) grenache-syrah blend with a natural cork. First impressions are promising: deep and rich ruby-red colour and a clean medium nose full of spice and strawberry red fruit. The palette is dry, with a little acid hanging about (the tasting notes suggest it will see out 2011), and high tannins giving it a full viscose mouthfeel. Red and black fruit now with liquorice undertones. The long length regresses the blackberries back to the bramble, and dusts your mouth with Schwartz turmeric. Interesting and rustic moves past robust and starts to nudge raw.

One could say that this is a full winter wine which needs rich food, and the argument that (certain) wines cannot be drunk without food is one which I subscribe to. I cannot, however, envisage just how hearty your cassoulet would have to be to justify a wine as rustic as this. I started my wine-life with good Corbieres, but I don't recall it ever being this raw.

Proof of a more refined palette, a bad bottle, or a poor tasting note?

Week two - the big one: Wales 9 - 8 England (HT)

As I made a little rugby nest for myself on the sofa this Saturday ahead of the game, the little sports voice in my head said, "don't worry it'll be alright". We all have a sports voice which occasionally speaks to us before a big game, right? I distinctly remember when I first heard mine- aged 11 on the coach to Wembley in 1983. The soothing words "don't worry" were validated when my beloved Featherstone Rovers beat Hull FC with a conversion in the final minutes by the mighty Steve Quinn, bringing the Rugby League Challenge Cup back to Yorkshire. I cried my eyes out with shear pride and relief. So when I heard that same voice again on Saturday a strange calm descended.

I felt justified in my near-zen state as England held the Welsh at 9-8 at the end of the first half. Whilst England continued to give away easy points through their inconceivable lack of discipline, they showed genuine guts and determination to take the game to Wales. Great strength and belief were evident in their performance, despite their well-deserved underdog status at the start of the game. Yet again Paul Sackey showed just how valuable he is is to England, whilst Andy Goode went some way towards staking a more permanent claim to the stand-off's jersey. But this is Wales and no-one can under-estimate the overwhelming superiority of the current six-nations champions. The second half selection from the kitchen wine-rack was going to be difficult, but at the start of the the game I felt that my wine of choice had to reflect my quiet confidence.

ALBERT BICHOT BUGUNDY 2006

Oddbins £8.99 (tasted 8.i-'09)

100% pinot noir, 12.5% with a screwcap. This looks like a promising pinot - clear, medium and ruby red. Red fruit with vegetal aromas and little farmyard nuances perpetuate the expectation of quality. On the palate: dry, low acidity and soft tannins bring the raspberry fruit through with a delicious caramel texture. A good length draws a satisfying line under the tasting.

A very very good everyday burgundy, especially at this price. A wine with no need to shout about its quality.

Chardonnay goes like this

If I was paying attention I would have opened both this classic white burgundy and the Chilean chardonnay I posted yesterday together and done a proper comparison. But no, I just ploughed on and picked the wine which matched my mood. I have no problem with that, but this is supposed to be an educational exercise as well as just simple camouflage for my wine habit. I must pay more attention in class, because it was only when the current Mrs T. pointed out that this particular wine was so much better when mixed with soda that I realised a learning opportunity had been missed. And please don't berate Mrs T., she's four months gone it's going to be a long wait for her not drinking until baby arrives if my wine consumption continues at the current pitch. So, about the wine...

MACON LA ROCHES VINEUSE DOMAINE GONON 2002
The Wine Society £7.95 (tasted 23.i-'09)

A classic 100% chardonnay white burgundy, 13.5% alcohol with a synthetic closer.
In the glass the wine is clear, pale almost colourless lemon-green tint. A clean, medium nose presents nice fresh fruit with grapefruit being high on the list. The nose promises a lot and it does not disappoint: dry, high but easy acidity and absolutely no oak. "Crisp and refreshing" like the notes say, a light body with more apple and pear fruit, and a shortish but pleasant length. This is a very well structured and highly recommended wine.

Toot toot!