Southwest France (Cahors, Madiran, Gascony & Armagnac, Bergerac etc.) has been teleported across to my other blog frenchmediterraneanwine.com (goes to SW archive page on that site) lock stock and barrels; and Bordeaux has now been too. Not very "Mediterranean" I know, but these wines, winemakers and wine-lands arguably have something in common with the broader South (sunshine? Doh.) than with genteel Bordeaux, although I've moved that region over there too to refocus everything French in one place (eventually)...
"Order my book on the Roussillon wine region (colour paperback) DIRECT FROM ME SAVING £4/€4 (UK & EU only), or Kindle eBook on Amazon UK. Available in the USA from Barnes & Noble in hardcover, paperback or eBook; or Amazon.com. For other countries, tap here." Richard Mark James
25 June 2012
22 June 2012
Australia: Riesling
Petaluma Hanlin Hill Vineyard Clare Valley |
Riesling again, you might possibly be thinking - click on any of these links to read previous words on Aus Riesling and from elsewhere: Germany: Reichsrat von Buhl "Grand Cru" tasting, Blue Nun: retro chic & Indian food, Austria: Weingut Sepp Moser, Eastern Slovenia: "taking on New Zealand", Wolf in sheep's clothing (Alsace), San Antonio, Chile: Casa Marín & Matetic Vineyards, Mosel: some things age better than others, Belfast Wine Festival, the aftermath…, Winery snapshots: Australia, Chile: Leyda, Australia: Riesling (Clare Valley, Tasmania...), Germany: mega Riesling, Terrassen-Mosel, Austria (cont.)...
19 June 2012
Languedoc: Gérard Bertrand update, La Clape
These two tasty Gérard Bertrand 2010 reds, from his estate winery up in the wild-scented La Clape wine-lands a stone's throw from Narbonne Plage (if you have a strong arm at least), were tasting-noted and ticked by yours truly in the Languedoc a few weeks ago...
L'Hospitalitas (mostly Mourvèdre and Syrah I think) - enticing garrigue aromas, those elusive wacky sunburned wild herb characters, combined with dark cherry, cassis and liquorice; has a touch of toasty chocolate oak too adding 'sweeter' texture (rather than swamping it) to its firm and long finish. Promising, very good.
Art de Vivre (Syrah Mourvèdre Grenache) - similar profile, shows less depth of fruit perhaps and is less rounded, although it was a bit closed up; still has that lovely wild aromatic Clape thing going on though. Good+
L'Hospitalitas (mostly Mourvèdre and Syrah I think) - enticing garrigue aromas, those elusive wacky sunburned wild herb characters, combined with dark cherry, cassis and liquorice; has a touch of toasty chocolate oak too adding 'sweeter' texture (rather than swamping it) to its firm and long finish. Promising, very good.
Art de Vivre (Syrah Mourvèdre Grenache) - similar profile, shows less depth of fruit perhaps and is less rounded, although it was a bit closed up; still has that lovely wild aromatic Clape thing going on though. Good+
Previous GB wines, profiles and comments:
gerard bertrand grand vin with more links to more pages (including reviews of older vintages of the first red here).
Latest news gleaned from www.vitisphere.com: he's now set up a US import company with distribution handled by Southern Wine & Spirits, Glazer’s, Young’s Market and M.S. Walker.
Latest news gleaned from www.vitisphere.com: he's now set up a US import company with distribution handled by Southern Wine & Spirits, Glazer’s, Young’s Market and M.S. Walker.
Other recent stuff on La Clape:
Labels:
French red wine,
Grenache,
La Clape,
Languedoc,
Mourvèdre,
Narbonne-Plage,
Syrah
18 June 2012
Italy: "whites of the moment"
Asda "Extra Special" Fiano |
Updated:
July 2012: Asda now has their 2011 Extra Special Gavi on promo for a fiver, a delicate floral citrus-y and lightly chalky-textured dry white from Piedmont in the northwest.
August 2012: Tesco has been punting out the Inycon "Limited Edition" 2010 Grillo (12.5% alc.) - another native Sicilian white variety and possibly the most exciting one wine-wise - for £4.49, which is definitely worth investing in with its towards exotic fruit and texture with yeast-lees edges and fresh dry bite.
July 2012: Asda now has their 2011 Extra Special Gavi on promo for a fiver, a delicate floral citrus-y and lightly chalky-textured dry white from Piedmont in the northwest.
August 2012: Tesco has been punting out the Inycon "Limited Edition" 2010 Grillo (12.5% alc.) - another native Sicilian white variety and possibly the most exciting one wine-wise - for £4.49, which is definitely worth investing in with its towards exotic fruit and texture with yeast-lees edges and fresh dry bite.
Labels:
Falanghina,
Fiano,
Gavi,
Grillo,
Italian white wine,
Italy,
Lake Garda,
Lugana,
Puglia,
San Gimignano,
Sicily,
Tuscany,
Vernaccia
Italy: Ciró, obscure "red of the mo"
Ah yes, Ciró, one of my favourite red tipples actually... While browsing Lidl Ireland's fairly limited Italian wine selection (apart from all the usual suspects) this weekend gone, I came across this mysterious bottle from Ciró in the Calabria region - that's Italy's 'toe' reaching out to give Sicily a kick. What a pleasant surprise too: it sounded vaguely familiar as something commendably obscure from the south, so I had to give it a go to take to a dinner party. Made from the local Gaglioppo grape variety, this 2009 Riserva weighed in at 13.5% alcohol with dense colour, rich earthy dried black cherry and raisin aromas / flavours with wild herb edges; smoky and lush with ripe dark fruit encased in attractive firm vs rounded tannins, lingering wild 'sweet' vs meaty finish.
€7.99 in Ireland, £5.99 on offer in Lidl UK stores. By the way, here's a fascinating "everything you need to know about..." page on About.com; or there's even a Ciró wine Facebook page.
Labels:
Calabria,
Gaglioppo,
Italian red wine,
Italy
15 June 2012
Southwest: Château Lacapelle Cabanac, Cahors
Updated Jan 2013 (see below).
I rather like Cahors and its Malbec based red wines, and I came across Château Lacapelle-Cabanac at this year's Millésime Bio organic wine show going back a few months. Owner-growers Philippe Vérax and Thierry Simon have been doing it organically since 2005, and their handsome 20 ha (50 acre) property is found in a microscopic village that shares the same name to the west of Cahors town. Their address is simply "le Château, Lacapelle-Cabanac..." Like that, shouldn't be too hard to find then. Their vineyards are planted on this area's distinctive chalky scrubland at 300 metres altitude (nearly 1000 feet), where there's also a bit of Merlot. More @ www.lacapelle-cabanac.com, where you'll find distributors in Europe, North America and Australia even.
2010 Tradition Cahors (80-20 Malbec-Merlot) - a touch reduced/baked on the nose, 'inky' and concentrated with meaty vs dark fruit combo, nice rounded tannins with rich vs crunchy vs peppery finish. Good in the end. €6.45 cellar door.
2007 Prestige Cahors (90-10 Malbec-Merlot, 14-18 months oak ageing) - toasty coconut notes and grainy texture, more concentrated though with grippy still structured mouth-feel vs developing savoury edges. Good+ €8.85.
2007 'Malbec XL' Cahors (100% Malbec, 2 years in oak) - showing lots of smoky bacon oak, rich extracted and concentrated palate; still surprisingly young and closed up, good but is that oak ever going to fully melt in? €13
I rather like Cahors and its Malbec based red wines, and I came across Château Lacapelle-Cabanac at this year's Millésime Bio organic wine show going back a few months. Owner-growers Philippe Vérax and Thierry Simon have been doing it organically since 2005, and their handsome 20 ha (50 acre) property is found in a microscopic village that shares the same name to the west of Cahors town. Their address is simply "le Château, Lacapelle-Cabanac..." Like that, shouldn't be too hard to find then. Their vineyards are planted on this area's distinctive chalky scrubland at 300 metres altitude (nearly 1000 feet), where there's also a bit of Merlot. More @ www.lacapelle-cabanac.com, where you'll find distributors in Europe, North America and Australia even.
2010 Tradition Cahors (80-20 Malbec-Merlot) - a touch reduced/baked on the nose, 'inky' and concentrated with meaty vs dark fruit combo, nice rounded tannins with rich vs crunchy vs peppery finish. Good in the end. €6.45 cellar door.
2007 Prestige Cahors (90-10 Malbec-Merlot, 14-18 months oak ageing) - toasty coconut notes and grainy texture, more concentrated though with grippy still structured mouth-feel vs developing savoury edges. Good+ €8.85.
2007 'Malbec XL' Cahors (100% Malbec, 2 years in oak) - showing lots of smoky bacon oak, rich extracted and concentrated palate; still surprisingly young and closed up, good but is that oak ever going to fully melt in? €13
UPDATE
I caught up with Philippe on a late autumn 2012 wine touring trip around the heart of Malbec country itself, at the 'Cahors Malbec Lounge', a groovy wine bar cum office for the producers' association in the town centre... Follow this links for tasters of my three-part report:
Cahors: Malbec roadtrip part 1 Château Les Croisille - Château Combel La Serre - Château Tour de Miraval (contains links to these posts):
Cahors: Malbec roadtrip part 2 - Châteaux du Cayrou, Famaey, Métairie Grande du Théron, Latuc.
Cahors: Malbec roadtrip part 3 - Châteaux Haute-Serre, La Caminade, Armandière...
Anyway, I (re)sampled these vintages of his three reds:
2011 Cahors (12.5%) - aromatic and crunchy red fruits, fresh and firm palate with nice elegant fruit, lighter style this vintage.
2007 Prestige - coconut overtones, rich and extracted, concentrated though with powerful grippy mouth-feel layered with maturing dark vs herby fruit; the oak has melted in a little, long firm finish.
2009 Malbec XL - dense dark colour, pretty coconut oaky vs rich ripe plum fruit with spicy herb edges, powerful and extracted with gripping structured palate, young and not very revealing; too much new oak though, he does like to extract! Try it again in a year or two... €14
Cahors: special wine touring report updated
November 2015 and September 2016.
You can now buy my special Cahors wine touring supplements as a huge French wine PDF magazine, featuring all three parts of my Malbec road trip trilogy originally posted on French Mediterranean Wine, plus bonus winery profiles from this exciting region of south-west France AND new profiles and notes on ten organic estates including Lacapelle-Cabanac's latest (added Nov. 2015). This is all now part of a bigger French e-magazine available as a PDF with lots of photos delivered by email OR as a Kindle e-book on Amazon - none of it is viewable on the blog. Click on the title link above to find that PayPal button or links to Amazon.
Labels:
Cahors,
Malbec,
Merlot,
Southwest France
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Header image: Château de Flandry, Limoux, Languedoc. Background: Vineyard near Terrats in Les Aspres, Roussillon.