My Favourite Wines, Top Discoveries and Experiences of 2011

I feel like a respite from all the self indulgence that the Christmas holidays force upon me and feel my thoughts turning back to wine. As the New Year is coming up fast I thought that I would attempt to tell you about my wine highlights for the year.

Most of my top wines have been written up here on my Wine Page, but some have slipped through the net and are new today. Please always remember that this is an entirely personal list, but I hope you enjoy it and that it gives some food for thought.

Sparkling Wines

I was really spoiled for fizz this year, 2 Champagne tastings stand out in particular:

Champagne:

Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label Brut Non Vintage based on the 1953 vintage
This whole tasting was extraordinary and provided a wonderful insight into a type of Champagne that it is all too easy to take for granted – read about it here.

1995 Perrier Jouët Belle Époque
In February I was lucky enough to taste four different vintages of Belle Epoque out of jeroboams, the 1995 was the standout wine for me, but they were all superb – read about it here.

How I love You Chardonnay*

Frequent visitors and the observant amongst you will notice that recently I have been writing less frequently than normal. This is simply because of the hectic pace of my work during the build up to Christmas – bah, humbug!

However I have had a good many wine experiences of late and will be writing about some of them as soon as I can.

In the meantime I thought that would share a thought and a few wines with you.

Reappraising Chardonnay:

It saddens me that so many UK wine consumers limit what they drink to such a narrow range and what I mean is illustrated by a common reaction to Chardonnay. If I had £1 for every time someone told me that they used to enjoy Chardonnay, but now drink Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio, then I could easily afford a new car! Some people start shaking their head at the mere mention of Chardonnay, as though to even consider it will make them liable to arrest by the taste-police.

Winning you round to Riesling

In keeping with many of us in the wine business, I love the Riesling grape. In many ways, for me, it is the grape. The one I love before all others. If a Riesling is on offer, it always calls to me and it pains me that so many people seem indifferent to its charms.

It follows from this that I like to present Riesling to consumers and hope that my love of the grape variety will rub off on to them. To that end I am always trying to win people round to Riesling. It has to be admitted that my success has been patchy, many people who enjoy other wines seem unable to find the pleasure in a fine Riesling that I do, but I have had some converts recently and it was two particular Rieslings that did it, so I thought that I would share them with you. They are both very different in style, but both are hugely enjoyable as well as being affordable.

If the delights of Riesling have passed you by, will you do me a favour – give it one last try. Today may be the day that you see the Riesling light and these may be the examples that win you round.

Lovely Pinot Gris?

I have very clear thoughts on many wine styles and varietals – as far as personal consumption is concerned I seek many out, while others I tend to avoid. Gewurztraminer, Viognier and Pinot Gris/Pinot Grigio dominate my avoid list for the simple reason that in most cases they do not have enough acidity for my taste. This makes them feel unbalanced, hot and bitter to me. However, I try to keep an open mind and so try some every now and again for professional interest.

Well I recently tried that rarest of all creatures, a Pinot Gris that I found to be delicious!

Rosé – skin contact or blending?

In the UK wine world we are taught, as a fact, that the only decent rosé wines are made by skin contact – extracting a dash of colour from the skins of black/purple grapes, just as you do a red. Champagne that is made pink by the addition of still Pinot Noir, we are told, is an exotic exception.

Red delights from New Zealand

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I promised you more on New Zealand wines, so here are some red wines that really impressed and pleased me at the tasting the other day.

I have long been keen on red wines from New Zealand and have often wondered why so many consumers are hesitant to try them and persist in regarding New Zealand as solely a white wine producing country and look to Australia for their reds. I do my best to win them round, but even at the Annual New Zealand tasting I spoke to two men who did not even want to try a Kiwi red – despite my best efforts.

Well it is their loss as New Zealand is capable of producing some sensational red wines from quite a few different grape varieties and blends.

I have a particular affection for the Merlot-Cabernet blends from the Gimblett Gravels area of Hawkes Bay, but Syrah is fast becoming a speciality grape and some other regions are making some super wines too, so experiment – there are many lovely red wines for you to try.

New Zealand delights

January is always a busy time in the tasting calendar and this year seems especially frantic – I went to three very different events yesterday.

The major one was the New Zealand Annual Trade Tasting at Lords and it was an excellent tasting, offering some 700 wines to try.

The standard, as you might expect, was very high with excellent wines from a wide array of grape varieties and regions. I will mention some of the more interesting over the next few weeks, so keep coming back.

However, three white wines stuck out as being especially enjoyable and delicious and I thought I would share those with you straight away.

Craggy Range – elegant & poised wines

I love elegant wines I really do, power, concentration and richness can all be attractive in a wine. Those attributes can all help attract the drinker to the liquid, but for me in the end it is elegance that sustains interest and desire.

Well, the other week I was in the enviable position of being able to try a big chunk of the Craggy Range lineup (I can’t really call them the Craggy Range range can I?) from New Zealand.

We all know that New Zealand is capable of producing some beautiful wines, thrilling wines, elegant wines, tasty wines and lots of very well made and clean wines. Some of the most reliable and enjoyable producers that I can think of are in New Zealand, Villa Maria, Vidal, Esk Valley, Jackson Estate, Dog Point, Mount Difficulty, St Clair and Isabel Estate to name but a few. Well, I hugely enjoyed renewing my acquaintance with another great New Zealand producer recently; Craggy Range – the wines were subtle, elegant and fine.

Steve Smith M.W.

Craggy is the brainchild, in partnership with Terry Peabody, of renowned Kiwi viticulturist Steve Smith M.W. Together in the late 1990s they sought out the vineyards, in Hawke’s Bay Gimblett Gravels region and Martinborough, that form the basis for their wine estate.

Their aim is to produce a range of fine single vineyard wines from these vineyards as well as fruit from selected growers elsewhere.

The wines:

Craggy Range Te Muna Road Vineyard
Sauvignon Blanc 2008
Martinborough

The nose is quite beguiling, zesty and creamy all at the same time with an underlying mineral note and some pithy citrus too.

The palate is quite textured and succulent with a very attractive weight, unusually the fruit characters are peach and tangerine-like. Lovely freshness follows all the succulence, leaving a long, clean, pure and zingy finish. 12% was fermented in French barriques and the wine spends 3 months on the lees, all of which show in the texture of the wine rather than the flavour.

A lovely start, complex and delicious – 89 points.

Craggy Range Avery Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc 2008
Marlborough

Less intensity on the aroma, more stoney with fresh peas and green fruit.

The palate is more restrained and savoury than the Te Muna with a lighter weight in the mouth too, less texture. The flavours are richly citrus with lime and passion-fruit notes leading to a crisp, long finish.

A very good, more direct style of Sauvignon, very well made indeed, but perhaps lacking that touch of complexity and brilliance of the Te Muna – 87 points.

Craggy Range Kidnappers Vineyard Chardonnay 2007
Hawkes Bay

The nose offers lovely fresh stone fruit and subtle smoky oak. The palate is supple and creamy with a rich texture and flavours of ripe peach and mandarin and complexity from lees ageing – all balanced by cleansing fresh acidity that balances the subtle, integrated oak. The finish is elegant, balanced and long.

A very good Chardonnay – 89 points.

Craggy Range Les Beaux Cailloux Vineyard Chardonnay 2007
Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay

The enticing and elegant nose delivers delicate peach and nectarine together with lighter  apple and lemon notes. The palate is beautifully balanced giving rich, ripe stone fruit, a mouth-filling creamy texture and a touch of spicy, nutty, toasty oak – well integrated, long and supremely elegant.

A very fine and complex Chardonnay with great depth – 93 points.

Craggy Range Sophia 2005
Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay
Merlot 62%, Cabernet Franc 34% & Cabernet Sauvignon 4%

The colour is stunning and immediately arresting, with a vibrant, opaque crimson purple.

The nose is also enticing and fragrant with ripe plums, black fruit, dry spice and delicate smoky oak.The palate is immediately fresh and elegant with the ripe fruit really showing itself in the rounded and supple mouth-feel. Backing up the fruit are firm, drying tannins and some lovely oak spice nuances. The fresh, vibrant fruit returns on the finish giving a lovely finale to this delicious wine.

A very fine red, the touch of tight tannin structure makes it precise, poised and elegant. It could age for quite a few years still to soften those tannins, but I like it now – 95 points.

Craggy Range Sophia 2006
Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay
Merlot 85%, Cabernet Franc 10%, Cabernet Sauvignon 4% & Malbec 1%

Another lovely wine from this younger vintage. The nose has not really opened up yet, but the palate shows luxuriant, rich primary fruit, silky tannins and some lovely oak spice. The structure is still quite tight while it finishes with an exuberant burst of fresh black, juicy fruit.

A really lovely wine that will be at least as good as the 2005 in time – 94 points right now.

Craggy Range Block 14 Syrah 2007
Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay

The nose delivers ripe, succulent blackberry with a dusting of spice and pepper.

The palate is very supple with smooth tannins, ripe black fruit, toasty oak and spice all integrated and balanced. The finish is dry, elegant and fresh.

A terrific Syrah, very northern Rhône in style, but with more obvious fruit – 90 points.

Craggy Range Le Sol Syrah 2007
Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay

Amazingly and excitingly this wine includes some from parcels of Syrah vines planted by James Busby, the father of New Zealand wine, in the 1830s!

Right from the off the intensity shows in the deep, opaque purple black colour. The nose lifts straight out of the glass giving ripe black fruit and spice aromas.

The palate is supple, smooth and medium-bodied with lovely ripe fruit, fine grain tannins, dry spices and smoky oak. The finish is long, elegant and enjoyable.

A very fine Syrah with great complexity and intensity of flavour – 93 points.

I really enjoyed tasting all these wines, red and white. The reds were all superb medium-bodied wines that would partner food perfectly. Rather than being soupy over alcoholic monsters their power came from the intensity of their flavours and the force of their personality – in short from the vineyard rather than the winery, just as good wine should.

If your experience of New Zealand to date has been of well made and reliable wines, try some of the wines from Craggy Range to see what really fine, elegant wine is all about.

More information is available from www.craggyrange.com.

Craggy Range’s UK agent is Louis Latour.

My Gamay leg…

I have long wondered why I have never been able to taste a Gamay from New Zealand.

Some New Zealand Pinot Noirs seem to me to be like a really good Beaujolais ought to taste –  but hardly ever do!

So, by extension I have often  thought that Gamay itself  might well produce some worthwhile results down in New Zealand.

This belief somehow survived my trip to Beaujolais last year when I tasted some truly awful Gamays – bad enough to almost put me off the grape altogether – as well as enough lovely examples to help me keep the faith!

So, when I saw a New Zealand Gamay for sale today in Waitrose I just couldn’t resist buying it!