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.

Nigel Tufnal's wine

I thought I was about to tuck into another big old Shiraz as I popped the cork but the FRUIT on the nose told me straight away that I should have paid more attention when I pulled it from the rack; another misconception about Australian wine burst - not all red is Shiraz. And boy, was this a fruity wine!

STELLA BELLA CABERNET-MERLOT, MARGARET RIVER 2005

The Wine Society £11.50 (tasted 1.ii.,09)

Comes in at 14.0% behind the screw-cap. A clear deep velvety viscose red with lots and lots of fruit and some leather in the background all make this a very inviting wine. But the fruit gets turned up to 11 once you get a mouthful: blackberries, black current, black cherries and plums all jostle for position. Its dry, with little acidity, plenty of tannin (it spent two years in french oak) and a proper length.

This is a very, very, good red wine. It doesn't pretend to be a Bordeaux - its an Aussie Cabernet Merlot which knows exactly what it is doing.

Highly recommended.

The definition of a "well balanced wine"

I came across the concept of 'balance' this weekend whilst reading Jancis Robinson's Wine Tasting Workbook, and found that I could immediately relate to the idea that:

"A wine is well balanced if all its components blend into the whole with
none standing out [and that]... All good wines should be balanced by the time
they are ready to drink."

I like the idea of a wine being ready to drink when it is in balance (or 'harmonious') regardless of its age or cost. This gives me a good benchmark when drawing conclusions on the quality of a wine. And lo, what do I find this evening when I crack the red open but...

CHATEAU CHANTE ALOUETTE 2005
The Wine Society £6.95 (tasted right now!)
Natural cork closer.

This red bordeaux of 90% merlot and 10% cabernet franc has a clear, deep ruby red colour. The clean nose quickly fills the glass with intense back and red fruit aromas giving a plummy fullness. Its low acidity and medium-soft tannins adds the raspberry theme of the cabernet franc to the merlot nose. It finishes with an easy length to a well structured wine in perfect balance.

This is an excellent claret.

Other facts about the wine from the WS tasting notes which you may find interesting include:

"The wines of Fronsac situated between Cotes de Bourg and Pomerol have the
same structure and body of the former with the perfume and roundness of the
latter. Chante Alouette, owned by Bernard Roux, is planted with 90% merlot and
10% cabernet franc on a clay/chalk slope above the river Isle. The [river] Isle
marks the outer limit of Fronsac, separating it from Pomerol."

Toot toot!