Grenache reds: Rhône and Roussillon, Rasteau and Amiel

Here's a diverse trio of 'black' Grenache (as the French call the variety) based winter warmers from the southern Rhône Valley and northern Roussillon, which are new releases or vintages from Cave de Rasteau and Mas Amiel (links to some previous words on and recommendations from those two wineries).

Wild boar lurking outside Mas Amiel's shop
Photo by Vi Erickson

2014 Rasteau Tradition (70% Grenache, 20% Syrah, 10% Mourvèdre and old-vine Carignan) - Actually quite soft and fruity with wild herb/peppery edges, chunky and rich mouth-feel with light bite to finish; a bit too quaffable for a 14% abv red, so food is advised! Cellar door €8.30. Hercules Wine Warehouse in England used to stock these wines, but there were none on their site when I looked. O'Briens off licences in Ireland.

2011 Rasteau Prestige (50 year-old vines: 50% Grenache, 35% Syrah, 15% Mourvèdre; part of the wine spent one year in oak, 14.5% abv) - Lush spicy black fruits with liquorice and wild herb/mint hints, big and rounded palate yet quite structured still although drinking well too. Yum, delicious hearty red. Cellar door €10.30. O'Briens.

2009 Mas Amiel Origine (sourced from three schist-y hillside plots: Grenache from a spot called Cabirou planted in 1914, Carignan from La Devèze planted in 1952 and young Syrah from the same vineyard; the latter two varieties were aged 14 months in large tuns, not fined or filtered; 14.5% abv) - Maturing meaty and leather edges layered with liquorice and sweet black cherry/berry, complex earthy wild herb notes as well; lush and full-on with savoury vs dark ripe and spicy fruit, punchy and grippy still yet rounded and maturing, dense and concentrated too with lingering liquorice and light bitter twist on the finish. Serious wine and serious price inevitably: cellar door €26.50, The Perfect Cellar (London) £30.

Italy: Bottega Prosecco

Or perhaps 'all that glitters is not gold' (read on)... The Bottega winery is found in Bibano di Godega in the Veneto region, a crow-flight to the north of Venice and not far from the pretty town of Conegliano in the (otherwise rather vast) Prosecco zone's epicentre, where there's also a long tradition of making grappa (northern Italy's speciality grape-based spirit that often manages to combine finesse and head-banger). The cellars are housed in the expansive and handsomely renovated 19th century farm-buildings pictured above, and are stalked by 10 hectares of vineyards (25 acres) according to their blurb. The Bottega brand now encompasses additional wines from almost neighbouring Valpolicella and Montalcino in Tuscany following 'recent acquisitions'.
It isn't a small-scale operation either producing '10 million bottles' of fizz, meaning they must buy in grapes as well otherwise the 'math' doesn't add up? Bottega Gold Prosecco, which as you might have guessed comes dressed in a glitzy 24-carat bottle, is obviously an unashamedly gimmicky bit of celeb marketing; but you could see the appeal of having this sitting on your table in a trendy bar or Italian restaurant, and the wine itself is quite attractive although a couple of others in the range (without the Goldfinger touch) are better. Catalyst Brands is the UK agent where these bubblies retail for around £20-£25 a bottle, so they're pretty dear although there are a few festive offers flying around online retail sites at the moment. These Proseccos also come in all sorts of sizes from minis to massive, from jazzy to sober looking... More @ www.bottegagold.com.

Vino Biologico Prosecco DOC 'Extra Dry' ('Quality Aromatic Sparkling Wine', organic, 11% abv) - Elderflower citrus and almond tones, attractively frothy with crisp-ish 'chalky' mouth-feel vs off- to medium-dry finish. Nice fizz although could do with just a little more character.

Fundum 'unfiltered' Prosecco Frizzante Treviso (crown cap, 11% abv) - Cloudy 'real cider' / 'Weizenbier' / 'ginger beer' reminiscent style with flowery grapey nose and yeasty backdrop, fairly dry with lingering yeasty biscuit flavours and crisp elegant finish. Tasty and different.

Il Vino dei Poeti Prosecco DOC Treviso Brut 2014 - Richer toastier and more 'serious' than the others and 'winier' too, quite dry and crisp with toasted nut and savoury biscuit flavours. Good.

Il Vino dei Poeti Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG 2014 'Extra Dry' (Varieties: Glera 85%, Glera Lunga 10%, Perera 5%; 11.5% abv) - Honeyed, almond biscuit and floral aromas, a touch of crisp bite and some depth of character on the palate; pity though it's not that dry (despite the confusing terminology used for sparkling wines) as those appealing complex flavours end up a tad sweeter and blander on the finish (there's about 17 grams/litre residual sugar in their 'Extra Dry').

Bottega Gold Brut Prosecco DOC Treviso - Enticingly frothy light and elegant, quite good with light floral almond and subtle yeast notes, crisp and refreshing style. Attractive and quaffable even if not exactly super exciting.

WES NI wine tastings & courses in Belfast 2016

Vineyards overlooking Pinhao, Douro Valley

Saturday 30 January 2016: Spain and Portugal one-day workshop £90
Including at least a dozen wines tasted with your tutor, two-course lunch at the hotel and course manual - "We'll taste and talk about a selection of quality red, white, rosé and fortified wines highlighting the very different regions, grape varieties and wine styles found across the 'Iberian peninsular'.

Languedoc 2015: "a fleshy vintage..."

I get lots of emails around this time of year crammed with lengthy serious vintage reports and piled high with photos of happy harvesters at work, handsome bunches of grapes, fermenting juice, winemakers sniffing it and barrels awaiting... Nadia and Cyril Bourgne at Domaine La Madura in Saint-Chinian have simply declared this year's wines from their neck of the Languedoc so comfortingly "fleshy," that the Madura team just couldn't resist stripping off in their new shiny winery. Full-bodied and tasty? There's something there for everyone! More on La Madura on this site HERE or www.lamadura.com.

Cahors: special supplement updated

I've updated my Cahors special supplement exploring one of south-west France's most exciting wine regions and 'home of Malbec,' as the PR slogan goes. This report has now expanded to nearly 20 pages of words, wines and photos including new profiles and my notes, views and reviews on/of these ten leading organic châteaux and wineries: Lacapelle-Cabanac, Chambert, Haut-Monplaisir, Le Clos d'un Jour, Cèdre, Mas del Périé, Cayrou, Tour de Miraval, Marjolière and Les Hauts d'Aglan.

It's now available as part of a massive French wine e-magazine HERE.

Photo: "150 to 200 year-old" cedar tree in front of curious round-tower outbuilding next to Château du Cayrou.

Wine tastings & courses: Nov 15 to Mar 16 in Belfast

From Italtrade.com

​​Thursday 26 November 7-8.45pm: Italian wines​ £28.95

​"​At​ ​this wines of Italy ​evening tasting​, we'll take you on a guided tour around several of this very​ varied country's wine producing regions ​by​ tasting and talking about ​a carefully selected range of​ tasty red and white​ wines. These will probably include classics from northern Italy, such as Piemonte and Veneto, central Italy such as Tuscany and Umbria, and the deep south e.g. Sicily, ​Campania,​ Puglia..."

Fund WineWriting.com & FrenchMediterraneanWine with 'Contributor'

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Spain: Canary Islands

Weird Lanzarote vine-scape

A shorter version of this piece was written for wine business website Harpers.co.uk.
Not many wine nations or regions can claim to have “60% to 70% of vines aged 100 or more years old,” according to Jonatan García, owner of the Suertes del Marqués winery who tutored a special Canary Islands' master-class at the Wines from Spain trade fair in Dublin (on 21 Sept). This stems from the Canaries' vineyards remaining free from the phylloxera louse so old un-grafted vines have been kept, a “much longer history than you think,” i.e. references dating back to at least the 16th century, and winemakers choosing to focus on nurturing their traditional and indigenous varieties. There are “over fifty” of these, García explained, “but there's been confusion over lots of different names often being the same variety.” The main grapes planted are, for whites, 'aromatic' or 'volcanic' Malvasía (Malmsey), Gual, Listán Blanco (= Palomino Fino), Vijariego Blanco, Albillo Criollo and Marmajuelo. And for reds: Listán Negro, Baboso Negro (= or close to Bastardo in Portugal), Tintilla (might be same as Graciano...) and Negramoll (= Tinta Negra).

Not surprisingly, to anyone who's been to or seen photos of these mystic islands, striking volcanic soils dominate yet the terrain and micro-climate can be very different from one to another, with high-altitude vineyards – running up to 1700 metres in parts of party-island Tenerife for instance – a key feature for retaining freshness in white varieties in particular. There are about 8400 hectares of producing vineyards spread across ten D.O appellations: one per island – El Hierro, La Palma, La Gomera, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Tenerife - with five D.O zones on the latter. Most of these have rather obscure local names, although there's a recent trend to labelling wines as the new catch-all D.O Las Islas Canarias ('no. 11') to make their provenance clearer to understand, Jaime Ansorena told me who works for the wine producers' association.

I actually thought the white wines marginally had the edge on the reds of the wines I tasted, which were sometimes let down by winemaking or fruit condition perhaps, even though there was obvious concentration and depth of character generally speaking. These wines and wineries stood out for me: (white) Bermejo Malvasía seco, Viñátigo Gual, Teneguía Malvasía dulce reserva, Paisaje de la Islas Malvasía & Marmajuelo, Vega Norte Albillo Criollo, Tajinaste, Caldera, Frontón de Oro; (rosé) Vega Norte rosado; (red) Tierra de Frontos Baboso Negro, Frontón de Oro Tintilla, Tajinaste Tinto Roble, Suertes del Marqués La Solana (see full reviews below).

Some of these wineries are already imported into the UK, especially the export-geared Suertes del Marqués, by specialists such as Indigo Wine, Maar Wine and Wine Direct, and are available in a handful of independents in the £15 to £30 range. So, there is an initial price hurdle for retailers and consumers to overcome, to say the least, even though some of the wines are pretty good. Similarly, García's Dublin importer Vinostito suggests RRPs of €26 and €30 in the Republic for two of his top wines. Searching around the web, there doesn't appear to be a shortage of distributors in the US either: David Bowler Wine in NYC for example.

Richard Mark James

Other resources:

canariaswine.com

winesfromspainuk.com/WineRegions/Regions/thecanaryislands

jancisrobinson.com/articles/the-canaries-where-vines-and-wines-creep-up-on-you

Recommended whites

Tierra de Frontos 2014 (Listán Blanco and others from the south side of Tenerife) - Very upfront 'Sauvignon blanc' style, crisp green fruit vs attractive oilier side, quite concentrated actually (very old vines) with crisp aromatic finish; very nice.

Tajinaste 2014 (Listán Blanco grown in northern Tenerife) - Nutty 'mineral' and dry style, concentrated and quite intense with long zesty crisp finish. Very good.

Hoyos de Bandama Caldera blanco seco 2014 (Gran Canaria) - aromatic green fruit with nutty edges, quite intense and crisp vs a richer oilier side. Good.

Bermejo Malvasía seco 2014 (Lanzarote; Malmsey, 13% abv) - Yeast-lees edges on the nose, richer and rounder palate with banana and white peach vs crisp and steely, a touch of weight vs very dry bite. Shows fair depth and class, that slightly 'awkward' lees note lifted off with some airing. Good stuff.

El Borujo Los Loros 2014 (Tenerife: 40% Gual, 30% Marmajuelo & 30% Moscatel barrel-fermented, 13% abv) - Pretty yeasty to start, rich colour; very aromatic and peachy though with spicy apricot as well, softer and less intense than some of the others but a nice rounder white though.

Viñátigo Gual 2014 (Tenerife, 13% abv) - Aromatic mix reminiscent of Torrontés and Gruner Veltliner, perfumed floral and spicy turning more exotic with pineapple, fresh and crisp though with a bitter twist. Different, quite attractive although probably a little perfumed for some people.

Viñátigo Vijariego Blanco 2013 (Tenerife, barrel-fermented and 6 months lees stirring) - Richer nuttier and rounder style with creamy hazelnut flavours, turning savoury yet still fairly fresh; good and not too oaky.

Vega Norte Albillo Criollo 2014 (1000-1500 metres altitude on La Palma, 13.5% abv) - Different again, more delicate with Riesling / Pinot Blanc resonances, refreshing and subtle; very nice.

Tajinaste Paisaje de la Islas Malvasía/Marmajuelo 2013 (Tenerife, part oak-aged) - Rich and concentrated vs subtle aromatic notes, nutty and crisp with tasty long finish; also very good.

Teneguía Malvasía dulce reserva 2006 (La Palma, 18 months in French oak, 14.5% abv) - Made from '90% botrytis affected grapes' which "isn't that common; there's more humidity on La Palma," Jonatan expanded. Rich raisin and honey with orange flower edges, treacle/molasses notes are lifted by a pleasant citrus twist and a hint of freshness, concentrated raisin flavours linger vs a nice bitter twist and aged toasted nut tones too. €37 cellar door.

Rosé

Vega Norte 2014 rosado (La Palma, 14.5% abv) - Deep rich colour, very fruity with creamy raspberry and strawberry flavours, rounded full-on and serious foodie rosé.

Frontón de Oro 2014 rosado (Gran Canaria; Listan Negro, Negro Legítima and Negramoll, 13% abv) - Fresh and fruity on the nose, gets creamier on the palate with red fruits, dry finish; nice style.

Reds

Tierra de Frontos Baboso Negro 2014 (Tenerife, 14.5% abv) - Lots of lively cassis and black cherry fruit, aromatic fruity and peppery with liquorice tones, a bit of punch and grip with nice tannins though.
Ignios Orígenes Baboso Negro 2013 (Tenerife; 11 months in French oak, unfiltered, 14.5% abv) - Smoky with perfumed cassis, punchy and grippy vs enticing ripe raisin and liquorice flavours with peppery edges, hints of dark bitter chocolate, pretty powerful but has plenty of lush dried fruit character and a touch of smoky oak, gets fruitier with airing; quite good actually. USA c. $40.

Frontón de Oro Tintilla 2013 (Gran Canaria; 4 months in oak, 14% abv) - Dark cherry liquorice and menthol too, peppery and earthy touches vs ripe dark and meaty fruit with a more perfumed finish and just a little grip. Different too.

Viñátigo Tintilla 2012 (Tenerife, 18 months in French oak) - Rich smoky nose with ripe resin and dark dried fruits, a tad 'funky'/rustic but it works with attractive sweet vs earthy vs meaty finish, soft tannins; drink now.

Tajinaste Tinto Roble 2013 (Tenerife; Listán Negro, 13.5% abv) - Ripe dark and smoky/'funky', more structured with supple 'chalky' tannins though vs lush dark and smoky 'tar' on the finish; nice sunny red.

Suertes del Marqués La Solana 2013 (100+ year-old Listán Negro from a 2.5 hectare northeast-facing vineyard on the Tenerife hills at 400-520 metres altitude; 12 months in French oak, unfiltered, 13.5% abv) - Dark and peppery with black cherry/berry fruit, spicy and vibrant mouthful with dry yet rounded tannins, nice weight with concentrated black fruit finish and peppery earthy rustic tones vs still firm and structured. Well-made, very attractive style.

Gutiérrez de Salamanca 2013 '1861' (Tenerife) - Touches of vanilla and coconut oak, nice texture though with grip vs sweet maturing fruit to finish.