Our "Taste Like a Wine Pro" panel produced some very entertaining tasting notes and wine reviews after receiving their first two wines this month. Judging the winner was tough but a unanimous verdict was reached - the well deserved Top Taster crown for October goes to Chris Gray from the North East, who wins £100 to spend in Cellar 21. Here we share Chris's notes with you along with two highly commended reviews from Dean Marriner and Richard Critchlow.
Winner
Chris Gray
There’s no such thing as a free lunch .... but not so for dinner.
Last night I was lucky enough to find myself in the company of my immediate family being entertained for at my sisters home in Glasgow.
With a young family & large geography between us, it’s a challenge for us to spend time together, and near an impossibility to spend time eating, drinking and relaxing in each other’s company.
So last night after making the 3 hour drive from our home in the North East, it was an exceptionally welcome surprise to be treated to a beautiful prepared home cooked dinner and an absolute pleasure to be able to provide the accompanying wines, courtesy of Bon Coeur!
By the marvels of modern insulation technology, the Villa Wolf Pinot Gris was kept at cooled ambient temperature throughout our journey and was ready for drinking soon after our arrival (once the kids were asleep of course!)
Villa Wolf Pinot Gris
Now I don’t have extensive experience of German wine but it thankfully the good people at Villa Wolf do and their Pinot Gris is quite a triumph; We enjoyed the wine as an aperitif and found it to display tropical flavours, excellent body and a light spritz mouth feel giving it a bright fresh character. Pears, peaches & lychee all give way to a luxurious finish. The one negative was that we only had one bottle between 6. For the price point, this is a very solid 4 stars out of 5 and definitely one to revisit.
Then sounded the dinner gong, as seems to be popularised by the RWC in Japan!
Campagnola Valpolicella Ripasso 2017
With healthy appetites from the aforementioned travel & armchair punditry earlier that day, the steak & chips was just the tonic... There was no advance planning in the food pairing but the Campagnola Valpolicella Ripasso 2017 was a most suitable accompaniment to the pan seared ribeye in garlic butter.
Ripasso wines yield fruit forward results and on occasion a sweetness that can border on sickly, but not here. The wine boldly announces itself with a mouthful of plum & cherry jam but it has a smooth and lasting quality balanced by it being quite dry on the finish and a little bit bitter, almost cocoa.
It’s a very enjoyable drop and one we quaffed all to quickly, forcing us to open a Sangiovese Chianti from the wine rack, which was sadly rather a disappointment in the shade of the Ripasso’s sun drenched fruit.
Four of our party were lucky enough to have tickets to Andrea Bocelli the following night who, I’m informed, started slow but had them all in tears by the close; I can’t help but wonder now if we should have built to a similar crescendo with our Ripasso.
All in all it was a wonderful night made all the more enjoyable by the experience of enjoying and reviewing these fine wines together.
I think next time however, if the quality is as consistent, I might aim for a slightly more ‘focussed’ tasting group to derive more insight from the two bottles....
Thanks Bon Coeur
Also worth a read, are the following two reviews:
Dean Marriner
Domaine Mas Belles Eaux Grenache Blanc
Clear White Wine.... October in Northern England can be a cold and wet month; the winter winds are gearing up to rush in from the Arctic and cold rains pour from the grey skies. However, thanks to Bon Coeur Fine Wines, I'm immediately transported to warm summer nights in France's Languedoc region, with a glass of rather delicious Grenache Blanc in my hand.
Bon Coeur, recently put the call out for volunteer wine tasters, fortunately they thought I'd be suitable and within a matter of weeks the first two bottles arrived, of which, the Grenache Blanc is the first. Produced by Domaine Mas Belles Eaux, from Caux, it's a bottle of Mediterranean sunshine to light up an English Autumn.
On pouring, you're rewarded with a pale golden wine, filling the glass with rich wheat and golden corn fields, a gentle swirl releases the aromas and we're rewarded with a nose of apples, pears and bananas. The fruity aromats fill the glass and hint at the delights to come.
After admiring the golden colour and orchard aromas, the palette is primed and is not disappointed. A slight fizz on the tongue, hints at a mouthfeel of sharpness, but this is not carried through as this wine is rich and creamy. An initial hit of crunchy green apples overwhelms the palette, but quickly softens to apple crumble, as the creamy nature of the wine comes through. Slowly the soft cream is replaced with a gentle berry softness. A hint of liquorice and aniseed follows and the aftertaste lingers long in the mouth. Pears and banana overtones dance on the tongue long after the wine has gone.
Try this complex wine with goats cheese or fish to fully appreciate the flavours. It's won't disappoint.
Mists and mellow fruitiness... The darkness of winter is closing in around us, the golden shock of leaves yet to fall add a glow to the late seasonal light, and the chill of cold rain seeps into every nook and cranny. Time to settle down, wrap up and prepare for the long cold winter.
Vierkoppen Basket case Merlot
Vierkoppen, produce boutique wines in the South African Robertson region. Nestled in the foothills of the Langeberg mountains, with well drained sandy shale soil. Their grapes are bunch picked, basket pressed, open fermented and barrel aged, and they exclusively make reds, mature full bodied reds.
The Basket Case Merlot, supplied by Bon Coeur Fine Wines, pours from the elegant bottle with a satisfying glug, and fills the glass with a dark ruby red wine. The nose is autumn and winter berries, dank leaves and mustiness. Blackcurrants and brambles feature heavily.
After an initial sharpness, the big flavours come pouring out. Blackberries, blueberries, and blackcurrants with a rich caramel running through it. The sharpness of oak adds a spicy note, there's a tang of rubber or tobacco running around the tongue and the mustiness of the open fermentation, adds a little kick to the finish.
It's a bold Merlot that would go perfectly with chicken, spiced beef or lamb and roasted vegetables. Perfect with a winter stew!
Richard Critchlow
Thank you for sending through my first two bottles to review. What a great experience! I’ll be attempting to write reviews that are as unpretentious as possible.
Chateau Musar - Musar Jeune
I was excited to receive the Musar Jeune. I am a huge fan of its big brother, Chateau Musar and often buy it instead of Bordeaux for special occasions. It makes me feel terribly smug when people who should know far more than me about wine, love it but fail to identify it. It’s really nice on the palette but develops into flavours I would only normally expect from far older, more “iconic” clarets. So, the opportunity to try the Musar Jeune, the second grape from Chateau Musar, was exciting.
Rather than having it with a meal, we decided to invite friends to a little private tasting to share the Bon Coeur love. (They were very grateful!) As is perhaps inevitable, we first checked the price point to get a sense of where our expectations should lie and found that at £12 per bottle it’s very much around in the price range of wine we buy for what you might call “routine drinking” (By that, I mean well above a party “quaffer” but below where we might head for a dinner party or special occasion)
On first sniff, it showed great promise. However, Chateau Musar is probably one of the few wines I can spot from smell alone (I know – get me right!) and I wouldn’t have got this as a Musar at that point. Not that there is anything at wrong with its “nose” – I just expected it to slap me in the face and scream MUSAR more than it did! However, to taste it was absolutely lovely! Yes blackcurrenty tempered by liquorice and black olives (as it says on the Bon Coeur website). I’d just say lovely. It has the same slightly unusual initial rich and powerful taste but, not surprisingly, lacks a little of the development of flavour you get from its big brother. Maybe also that’s the age – we tried the 2016. But all agreed this was a great wine that’s probably better “value” than the price suggests. My go to equivalents for “routine drinking” are Rioja Reserva and Stellenbosch (unless you’re my GP in which case it’s water and slimline tonic) but there is a new kid on the block now. I shall definitely be ordering some of this little beauty!
Yves Boyer-Martenot Bourgogne Aligote
This was a new wine to me. And as somebody who tends to go for either “quaffing” (see previous review) new world party Chardonnays or Sauvignons at the lower end or trusted classics like Chablis or Puligny Montrachet when the budget allows, it was interesting to receive something I wouldn’t normally buy.
Our, expectation setting, price check (£16.50) told us to expect a little more from this wine. We also decided, rather selfishly, to keep this to ourselves and drank it with a lovely piece of poached salmon, cliché I know – but it worked! (I was tempted to keep it to myself and tell my wife I was only sent one bottle but she was cooking the fish so it seemed only fair!)
So, to the wine – we got stuck in before our food was ready. It smelled like it was somewhere between a Chardonnay and a Chablis - quite lemon zesty but not the occasional sharpness you get from some cheaper Chablis’. Sniffing done, it turned out that it tastes somewhere between a Chardonnay and a Chablis too! However, it’s more on the Chablis end of that spectrum which, for me at least, is a very good thing. It finishes very smoothly without the oaky roundness that my wife dislikes in some of the new world wines. We really enjoyed it, particularly as an aperitif actually, but it was a great accompaniment to my wife’s lovely salmon. This is a contender to my usual Chablis now and at a far more competitive price point to an only half decent premier cru. A very good choice.
A Great big thank you to all of our 20 panellists who provided such brilliant feedback and tasting notes. We look forward to sending out your next wines.
