Happy Christmas to you all

2019 draws to a close and a new future for the United kingdom beckons, one that I feel no optimism for at all. We are promised ‘sunny uplands’ and a ‘new golden age’ outside of the EU. I do not believe these promises as they have no basis in logic and ignore the reasons why we joined in the first place, but desperately hope that I am wrong. It all makes me terribly sad for my country and fearful for the future.

In the meantime I will take solace in wine. In some ways 2019 has been a good year, Quentin Sadler’s Wine Page was voted Wine Blog of the Year and I managed to visit some fascinating places, meet many wonderful people and try some really good wines. There is a lot of good wine on the market, but sadly it isn’t always easy to buy the good stuff. You often have to wade through a sea of mediocrity to find it, which I suppose is my job!

Here are a few ideas for wines to enjoy over the holiday period and beyond, I hope that you like them:

Sparkling wines:

Arthur Metz’s vineyards in Alsace – photo courtesy of the winery.

2017 Crémant d’Alsace
Alsace
France

Non Champagne sparkling wine is so underrated in the UK – unless it’s Prosecco – which is very sad as there are some terrific fizzes made using the traditional method, the same process used to make Champagne sparkling. Some of them are really good value too, so they can be enjoyed everyday and not just saved for celebrations. Most wine regions in France produce good quality sparkling and call it Crémant. If you see that word on the label you know that it is made using the traditional method and, more importantly, aged on the lees, for at least 9 months, to develop complexity. We call this ageing ‘yeast autolysis’ and the biscuit, brioche, flaky pastry characters that it produces ‘autolytic’.

Wine Map of France – click for a larger view.

This wine, made by Arthur Metz (part of Grand Chais de France) is a blend of 63% Auxerrois (grown in Alsace and Luxembourg this is a similar grape to Pinot Blanc but has lower acid – they are often blended together and marketed as Pinot Blanc), 25% Pinot Gris, 8% Pinot Blanc and 4% Riesling. It is bright, fresh and fruity with some peach, apricot, apple and citrus notes and flavours as well as some almonds, spice and toasty characters. A softness, ripeness and creamy richness balances the freshness and makes it hugely enjoyable  – 88/100 points.

Available in the UK at £8.29 per bottle from Aldi.

Kleine Zalze Méthode Cap Classique Chardonnay-Pinot Noir Brut
Stellenbosch
South Africa

South Africa, specifically the Western cape, has a long tradition of making high quality sparkling wine. So much so that they have their own term for the traditional method, they call it the Méthode Cap Classique – or MCC for short. It is a blend of 60% Chardonnay grown in cool areas of Robertson and 40% Pinot Noir grown near the False Bay coast in Stellenbosch and aged for ten months on the lees.

Wine map South Africa’s Western Cape – click for a larger view.

There is a real sense of tension and elegance in this wine. There is lovely fruit, stone fruit, baked apple, crisp apple and even a little strawberry and raspberry peaking through. All this is enhanced by some biscuit and pastry notes a dollop of cream and balanced by refreshing, zingy acidity and a brisk mousse  – 90/100 points.

Available in the UK at around £16.00 per bottle from Cheers Wine Merchants, Amps Wine Merchants and Ministry of Drinks.

White wines:

Wine map of Slovenia – click for a larger view.

2018 Tilia Estate Pinot Gris
Vipava Valley
Slovenia

Almost anyone who knows me would say that I really do not like Pinot Gris. I find most Pinot Grigio to be on the bland side and the great majority of Alsace Pinot Gris to be lacking in freshness, so by and large avoid the grape. This version though is made by my good friend Matjaž Lemut in the beautiful Vipava Valley in western Slovenia and I love it.

Matjaž Lemut in his vineyards in the Vipava Valley – photo by Quentin Sadler © Quentin Sadler 2019

 

Matjaž is a great winemaker, a great character and a real force of nature and this wine could be considered his calling card. Lees ageing and stirring for four months gives the wine a creamy richness and complexity that can be surprising. The wine has lovely brightness and freshness too and so the overall effect is to be really well balanced and very, very drinkable indeed  –  91/100 points.

A delicious, mid weight, versatile wine that is lovely on its own and very good with a wide array of food, even creamy dishes.

Available in the UK at £10.50 per bottle from Solaris Wines.

Matjaž is really a Pinot Noir specialist, one of the very best in Slovenia, and Solaris Wines carry the whole range. They are quite a muscular style with rich fruit, but really good wines.

2018 La Penombre Blanc
IGP/Vin de Pays d’Oc
France

I love the whites from the Languedoc-Roussillon-Roussillon region, but they often get overlooked in favour of the reds. Good as the reds from here are, I think the whites deserve far more attention and respect – after all they are often made from some very exciting grape varieties. This blend is no exception and consists of 40% Grenache Blanc with some Terret, Bourett, Vermintino, Rousanne and Marsanne. It is picked in the early evening, hence the name La Penombre, which means twilight, and is unoaked.

Map of the Languedoc-Roussillon region, click for a larger view.

The wine is very fresh, with a sense of purity about it – it is actually made in Pinet, just not from Picpoul – there are pine, herb and lemon scents with a dry, savoury, herbal (rosemary) salty and gently apricot flavours on the palate together with a silky texture and a touch of salinity and minerality as well as a slight bitter nutty quality on the finish  – 90/100 points.

A perfect aperitif and equally good with seafood and lighter fish dishes – I enjoyed it with smoked salmon and potted .

Available in the UK at £11.99 per bottle from Virgin Wines.

Vineyards in Valais showing the amazing dry stone walls, some of the highest in the world.

2012 Petite Arvine
Domaine Jean Rene Germanier
Valais, Switzerland

A family estate since 1896 and now managed by the third and fourth generation – Jean-René Germanier and his nephew, Gilles Besse. Gilles was originally a jazz saxophonist, but is also a trained wine maker. Germanier farm sustainably and produce a range of beautifully made, elegant wines. Petite Arvine is one of my favourite white grapes and it is only grown in south west Switzerland and a little bit over the border in Italy’s Valle d’Aosta region.

Wine map of Switzerland – click for a larger view. Do not use without permission.

I love the way the brightness and richness mingle on the palate. The way the stone fruit and the citrus fruit balance each other, how the salty minerality keeps the richness in check and the way the silky texture flows across the palate. This wine is superb and totally beguiling in its beauty – 94/100 points.

This is wonderful with poultry, salmon and of course cheese, whether raw or served in a fondue.

Available in the UK at £35.00 per bottle from Alpine Wines.

Red wines:

The wonderful walled city of Carcassonne – rescued form oblivion and restored on orders of Napoleon III – photo by Quentin Sadler © Quentin Sadler 2019.

2018 Carcassonne
IGP/Vin de Pays Cité de Carcassonne
France

I know almost nothing about this wine except that it comes from France’s Languedoc-Roussillon region from vineyards just to the south of the glorious medieval walled city of Carcassonne. The wines from this inland part of the Languedoc-Roussillon often get overlooked, Cabardés is near by and is a source of seriously good reds but we hardly ever see the wines in the UK – there is one here, but on this showing they really shouldn’t be. Apparently it is made from Carignan grapes and seems unoaked to me.

Map of the Languedoc-Roussillon region, click for a larger view.

This wine triumphs in two way, firstly it is astonishingly smooth, suave even and the palate is so fruity that it delivers a huge amount of pleasure making it incredibly easy to drink. It’s fresh and fleshy and medium-bodies with lots of red fruit and supple texture with very little tannin.  There’s a touch of spice too and it is far, far finer than its modest price tag would lead you to expect. All in all it makes a splendid every day wine  – 87/100 points.

Available in the UK at £4.49 per bottle from Aldi.

Here’s one that I have written about before, but is is such a beautiful wine that would go so well with all sorts of food at Christmas that it deserves another airing!

Map of Chile – click for a larger view – non watermarked PDF versions are available by agreement.

2017 Casa Silva Romano Viñedo Original 
DO  Valle de Colchagua
Viña Casa Silva
Chile

Casa Silva is one of the great wine estates of the Colchagua Valley. They were originally a French family of grape growers who came to Chile in 1892 and have been growing grapes there ever since. However the family vineyards became divided up with multiple owners and it was not until the 1970s that Mario Silva pieced the estate together again and they have been bottling and labelling their own wines since 1997. They are based in Angostura where their beautiful original homestead is now a hotel and well worth a visit. The land around the house is their initial plantings with vineyards going back to 1912. This is where they have some fabulous speciality grapes including old vine Carmenère, Sauvignon Gris and this Romano. All of these are ungrafted, so grow on their own roots. This helps the vines to live longer and old vines produce smaller crops and smaller berries that have more concentrated flavours. Old vines also ripen with less sugar, so produce wines with lower alcohol, which makes for better balance and more elegance.

This is made from an obscure grape called Romano, more usually called César. There isn’t much César left in the world and most of that grows northwest of Dijon in Burgundy, where it is principally used to make up to 10% of the blend, together with Pinot Noir, in the wines of Irancy.

Vines at Casa Silva.

The harvest was done by hand with a further manual selection of grapes at the sorting table before the grapes were de-stemmed – stalks can give harsh tannins. There is a pre-fermentation cold soak, a cold fermentation in stainless steel followed by a further maceration on the skins. Half the wine was aged in stainless steel and half in second use French oak barrels. This older oak means that the wine is not overly oaky in taste, but has the softening that ageing in barrels gives as the oxygen gets to the wine through the wood, making it rounder and richer.

The wine looks very appealing with a deep and bright ruby colour. The nose is full of rich red fruits like strawberry, cherry, a hint of raspberry, black pepper and a delicate mushroomy/earthy savoury note. The palate is smooth, round and mouth filling with rich ripe red fruit, smooth, supple tannins and some lovely freshness too. There is plenty of beautiful, concentrated fruit, but good structure and that attractive earthy, savoury quality. This will appeal to Pinot Noir drinkers – and Syrah and Grenache drinkers too – in my opinion, as well as anyone who wants a really flavourful, suave and supple red wine that is full-flavoured and medium bodied. It really is a gorgeous wine – 93/100 points

This is a very versatile wine too. It is mellow enough to be enjoyable without food, has enough freshness to go with pizzas and pastas, has enough elegance and structure to partner haute cuisine and enough richness to go with cheese and enough pizzazz to go with burgers, chilli con carne or shepherd’s pie and to keep everyone happy. Great with turkey, either hot or cold, and lovely with a pork or game pie too.

Available in the UK at around £15.00 per bottle from Duncan Murray Fine Wines – Market Harborough, Staintons – Lake District, Guildford Wine Co, Bottle Shops – Cardiff, Penarth, Field & Fawcett – York, Naked Grape – Alresford, Hants, Palmers Wine Store – Dorset, The Vineking – Reigate, East Molesey, Weybridge and the Oxford Wine Company.

2016 Caliterra Edición Limitada ‘B’
DO Valle de Colchagua
Caliterra
Chile

Under the leadership of chief winemaker Rodrigo Zamorano, Caliterra has developed into one of the most exciting wineries in Colchagua – if not Chile. They produce excellent, actually downright delicious, and great value examples of all the famous varietals, but Rodrigo loves to play around with the grapes that he grows and is producing an ever evolving range of premium wines that have something new and exciting to say. At the heart of this range is the three Edición Limitada wines – ‘A’ is for Andean and is a blend of Malbec and Carmenère, ‘M’ is for Mediterranean and the wine is a blend of Syrah, Carignan, Grenache and Marsanne, while ‘B’ is for Bordeaux, so this wine is a blend of 41% Petit Verdot, 38% Cabernet Franc and 21% Cabernet Sauvignon. 62% was fermented in stainless steel tanks and 38% in third use barrels. The wine was aged for 18 months in French and American oak barrels – 48% new.

Rodrigo Zamorano in the vineyards at Caliterra – photo courtesy of the winery.

This is a beautiful and very different wine from the Casa Silva Romano. This is powerful and weighty with great concentration of vibrant, lifted fruit. It’s very aromatic and very restrained and elegant, despite the richness. There are herbal and tobacco aromas as well as some black pepper and cassis, blueberry and cherry fruit. Headily delicious now this will age very well over the next decade. This will appeal to Claret lovers, but also has more fruit than most wines from Bordeaux – 92/100 points.

Available in the UK at around £16.00 per bottle from Drink Finder, Edencroft Fine Wines and The Dorset Wine Company.

So there you are, a few recommendations to seek out and try, I think you will enjoy them.

Whatever you are drinking this Christmas, try and keep it interesting and celebrate the great diversity of wine.

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.

Wine of the Week – a surprise from Chile

Vines at Casa Silva.

Readers of these pages will know that I revel in finding something new. For me loving wine is all about seeking out the unexpected, the different and the surprising.

Whether it is a region that I have never heard of, a grape variety, or a whole new wine producing country, that is what excites me most about wine.

So, in truth the wine I want to share with you today doesn’t fall into any of those categories, but it does come close.

It’s from Chile, which is not unusual, but it is made from an obscure grape called Romano, more usually called César. There isn’t much César left in the world and most of that grows northwest of Dijon in Burgundy, where it is principally used to make up to 10% of the blend, together with Pinot Noir, in the wines of Irancy.

The names come from the long held belief that the grape was introduced into the region by the invading Roman Legions who were led by Julius Ceasar. With DNA testing we now know that is not true, but it was believed for centuries.

Huasos, Chilean cowboys in Colchagua – photo courtesy of Enoturismo, Chile.

Strangely enough the only other pure César that I have tasted is also from Chile, made by Morandé from a vineyard that no longer exits. The destruction of Morande’s vineyard may well have led to the rumours that this grape variety had actually become extinct, but that was always unlikely given its traditional use in Irancy.

To me it seems to have been an odd choice to plant this grape in Chile’s Colchagua region, given that it has a Mediterranean climate. All that sunshine and warmth together with pretty much no rain during the growing season means that the grapes can have plenty of hang time and get fully ripe. This is the exact opposite of what happens in Irancy, which is very near Chablis, so has a Continental climate with a short growing season meaning the red wines of Irancy are usually light and acidic.

Map of Chile – click for a larger view – non watermarked PDF versions are available by agreement.

Whatever their rationale for planting César/Romano was, I am glad they did though because it has produced a style of wine in Chile that is totally unlike the examples of this grape that we get from France. In fact it has produced a wonderful wine that I really enjoyed and I think others will too.

The old Casa Silva winery and its grounds – photo courtesy of the winery.

2017 Romano Viñedo Original 
DO  Valle de Colchagua
Viña Casa Silva
Chile

Casa Silva is one of the great wine estates of the Colchagua Valley. They were originally a French family of grape growers who came to Chile in 1892 and have been growing grapes there ever since. However the family vineyards became divided up with multiple owners and it was not until the 1970s that Mario Silva pieced the estate together again and they have been bottling and labelling their own wines since 1997. They are based in Angostura where their beautiful original homestead is now a hotel and well worth a visit. The land around the house is their initial plantings with vineyards going back to 1912. This is where they have some fabulous speciality grapes including old vine Carmenère, Sauvignon Gris and this Romano. All of these are ungrafted, so grow on their own roots. This helps the vines to live longer and old vines produce smaller crops and smaller berries that have more concentrated flavours. Old vines also ripen with less sugar, so produce wines with lower alcohol, which makes for better balance and more elegance.

The harvest was done by hand with a further manual selection of grapes at the sorting table before the grapes were de-stemmed – stalks can give harsh tannins. There is a pre-fermentation cold soak, a cold fermentation in stainless steel followed by a further maceration on the skins. Half the wine was aged in stainless steel and half in second use French oak barrels. This older oak means that the wine is not overly oaky in taste, but has the softening that ageing in barrels gives as the oxygen gets to the wine through the wood, making it rounder and richer.

The barrel ageing room at Casa Silva – photo courtesy of the winery.

The wine looks very appealing with a deep and bright ruby colour. The nose is full of rich red fruits like strawberry, cherry, a hint of raspberry, black pepper and a delicate mushroomy/earthy savoury note. The palate is smooth, round and mouth filling with rich ripe red fruit, smooth, supple tannins and some lovely freshness too. There is plenty of beautiful, concentrated fruit, but good structure and that attractive earthy, savoury quality. This will appeal to Pinot Noir drinkers – and Syrah and Grenache drinkers too – in my opinion, as well as anyone who wants a really flavourful, suave and supple red wine that is full-flavoured and medium bodied. It really is a gorgeous wine – 93/100 points

This is a very versatile wine too. It is mellow enough to be enjoyable without food, has enough freshness to go with pizzas and pastas, has enough elegance and structure to partner haute cuisine and enough richness to go with cheese and enough pizzazz to go with burgers, chilli con carne or shepherd’s pie and to keep everyone happy.

Available in the UK at around £15.00 per bottle from Duncan Murray Fine Wines – Market Harborough, Staintons – Lake District, Guildford Wine Co, Bottle Shops – Cardiff, Penarth, Field & Fawcett – York, Naked Grape – Alresford, Hants, Palmers Wine Store – Dorset, The Vineking – Reigate, East Molesey, Weybridge and the Oxford Wine Company.

More information is available from Casa Silva’s UK distributor, Jackson Nugent Vintners.

 

Great Sauvignon Blancs from Chile

Errazuriz’s Manzanar Vineyard in the Aconcagua Costa -photo courtesy of the winey.

Recently I have been getting more interested in Sauvignon Blanc than ever before, probably because of my trip around New Zealand last year – more of which soon.

Many people instantly think of New Zealand or France’s Loire Valley as the best places to find good wines made from Sauvignon Blanc and of course they are not wrong – New Zealand, especially but not only Marlborough,  Sancerre, Pouilly-Fumé and other parts of the Loire can all produce outstanding wines made from Sauvignon. However, they are not alone.

Over the Christmas period, and since, in a vain attempt to get a feel of Summer, I have been enjoying some Sauvignon Blancs from Chile and the wines that really stood out were these – in a way they are my Wines of the Week for January so far.

Map of Chile – click for a larger view – non watermarked PDF versions are available by agreement.

2014 Leyda Single Vineyard Garuma Sauvignon Blanc
DO Valle de Leyda
Viña Leyda
Chile

I really admire Viña Leyda, they carved their estate out of virgin territory and put a new region on the wine map of Chile. What a region it is too, with almost no coastal mountains between it and the Pacific, it gets the full effects of the cooling wind from the ocean. This delays ripening and allows the grapes to hang on to more acidity than they otherwise would. Acidity, of course, gives the finished wine freshness and zest – which are the hallmarks of good Sauvignon Blanc.

The grapes come from two parcels in a single south-west facing block, so away from the sun and cool. It is called Garuma after the local word for the Grey Gull that is widely seen around here. It is hard harvested and they made two passes through the vineyard, one quite early to get the fresh, zesty, acidic character and the other for 70% of the wine, twelve days later to capture the ripe fruit characters. 6% was fermented in old French oak barrels, so gave no oak flavour, but added texture to the palate as well as some weight and a touch of complexity. The wine was also aged for six months on the lees in stainless steel tank to add complexity and depth. They only grow Davis Clone 1, the same as the Sauvignon Blanc clone overwhelmingly grown in New Zealand.

Viviana Navarrete the talented winemaker at Viña Leyda – photo courtesy of The Winebow Group, Leyda’s US importer.

I liked it from the first sniff. The nose was richly citric, grapefruit and grapefruit pith, with something creamy and tropical as well. There was even the classic blackcurrant leaf aroma and a touch of something herbal, green tea or fennel perhaps? The palate had this lovely zing of acidity that cut through it all, but then there was this richer, weightier mouhfeel that makes it really delicious. The promised creamy quality came through on the palate, as did those herbs and ripe green fruit, which made it feel juicy and then the acidity and a dash of something mineral made it feel fresh and lively.

I enjoyed this an an aperitif as well as with some spicy prawns. I especially liked the way it was bone dry, but with wonderful concentration of ripe, green fruit balancing any austerity – 91/100 points

Available in the UK for around £13 per bottle from: 
Great Western Wine, Winedirect and The Drink Shop.
For US stockists click here or contact The Winebow Group.

2016 Montes Outer Limits Sauvignon Blanc
DO Zapallar
Viña Montes
Chile

Montes are another Chilean producer that I respect very much, indeed I visited their winery some years ago and was very impressed by their vineyards and their wines. In the years since though they, like many other quality conscious Chilean producers, have really expanded their horizons.They no longer just grow grapes in Colchagua and Casablanca, but are exploring Chile for new places to plant grapes and produce ever better wines. Their desire for world class white wines – and Pinot Noir in fact – has taken them to Zapallar, which is a small holiday resort some 40 km north of Valparaiso. Like Casablanca Zapallar is a sub-zone of the Aconcagua Valley and like Aconcagua Costa, Leyda and Casablanca it benefits from the full cooling effects of the Pacific. The cold nights and the foggy mornings ensure a long growing season and fresh acidity.

The vineyard is about 5 miles inland and Montes have the region – or sub region – to themselves. The vines are planted at around 150 metres above sea level and that modest height helps the maritime influence. Interestingly, although they do grow Davis Clone 1, they also grow some French Sauvignon Blanc clones.

Zapallar, Chile – photo courtesy of srossi.it.

The vintage was cool for Chile, which delayed the hardest by some twelve days. The juice was fermented in stainless steel tanks at low temperatures – between 10˚ and 12˚C – and the wine was aged on the lees for 6-8 months.

I loved this too, it was piercingly fresh and lively with a zesty lime aroma, pink grapefruit, a touch of tomato stem, some stony mineral notes and a whiff of the sea, or something saline anyway. The palate was more brisk and zingy with piecing acidity and crunchy green fruit as well as something like snow peas. Interestingly it had twice as much sugar as the Leyda wine – 4.62 grams per litre as opposed to just under 2 – but it didn’t show because of the refreshingly  high acidity. This was delicious, very refreshing and made a wonderful aperitif and went superbly with spicy food – 92/100 points.

Available in the UK for around £14 per bottle from: 
Winedirect, Corking Wines, Toscanaccio, The Fine Wine Company and Brook & Vine.
For US stockists click here.

The Manzanar Vineyard – photo courtesy of the winery.

2015 Errazuriz Aconcagua Costa Sauvignon Blanc
DO Aconcagua Costa
Viña Errazuriz
Chile

Errazuriz are another great producer who produce a wide range of high quality wines. They were founded in 1870 and remain family owned, but for the last 20 years or so have focussed on finding the best vineyard sites for specific grape varieties. For white wines this increasingly means they grow their grapes in their Manzanar Vineyard in the cool coastal area of the Aconcagua Valley where the Aconcagua River empties out into the Pacific just north of the holiday resort of Viña del Mar, itself just to the north of Valparaiso.

The wine is fermented in stainless steel tanks at low temperatures using aromatic yeast and was aged on the lees for three months to give more weight and complexity.

This cool, coastal area, which produces lovely Sauvignon and Chardonnay – as well as Pinot Noir and Syrah, is pretty new, but the results are extremely good. Like Montes, Errazuriz grow a range of Sauvignon clones and they manage to produce an incredibly fresh and lively wine with zesty citrus aromas, fresh, leafy herbs, tomato stem, lemon grass and a touch of passion fruit. The palate was bone dry, with crisp acidity, something salty, taut minerality and zesty green fruit. This is a bracing and refreshing Sauvignon that makes a superb aperitif and is perfect with smoked salmon, goats cheese and any light meal or seafood. I enjoyed it very much – 91/100 points.

I would add that the less expensive Errazuriz Estate Series Sauvignon Blanc, also from the Aconcagua Valley, is also a very good wine.

Available in the UK for around £12 per bottle from: 
Waitrose, Winedirect, The Vinorium, Cheers Wine Merchants, Stone, Vine & Sun, Corking Wines, Hawkshead Wines, The Drink Shop and HTF Wines.
For US stockists contact Vintus, Errazuriz’s importer.

In the interests of total disclosure I must mention that I sometimes do some work for Viña Errazuriz, however the above is my honest and unsolicited opinion.

All three of these were very good wines indeed, but what made them especially interesting is all of them came from wine regions that simply didn’t exist 20 years ago. So many things that we take for granted in modern wine are actually really new and just go to show that there are almost certainly plenty of other new regions just waiting to be discovered.

 

Wine of the Week – a Chilean Star is Born

It is early days for Chilean sparkling wines, there are a few very nice examples, but so far they aren’t exactly filling the shelves. Which is a pity as most of the Chilean sparklers that I have tasted are very enjoyable indeed.

Maule Valley Vineyards.

Recently I showed a lovely one at a really well received tasting of Chilean wines. I have liked it for a long time, but it met with such approval that I have made it my Wine of the Week.

Map of Chile – click for a larger view – non watermarked PDF versions are available by agreement.

Santa Digna Estelado Rosé Brut
Bodegas Miguel Torres Chile
Secano Interior
Maule
Chile

This wine is made from País, the grape that was for centuries the work horse grape of Chile. It has been ignored somewhat in recent decades, but the south of Chile is home to some impressively old plantings – over 200 years old in many cases – so Miguel Torres Maczassek, the son of famous Spanish winemaker Miguel Torres and nephew of Marimar Torres, set about giving these long neglected vines a whole new lease of life. The local growers who owned these venerable vineyards had for a long time only been able to sell the grapes at low prices to go into cheap everyday wines, but Torres wanted to rescue it from this obscurity and create a wine that would give the growers a good return. This would also save this fantastic resource of old vine material and put them to good use, it really was a virtuous circle.

The ancient bush vines being tended.

The resulting wine is a traditional method pink sparkling wine called Estelado. The vines are very old and come from a clutch of independent growers in Cauquenes, Rauco and Curepto in Maule which is well to the south of Chile’s famous wine regions. However, Chile’s south is on the up nowadays and it is the large plantings of old País, Carignan, Mourvèdre, Muscat and Cinsault that is attracting interest and helping with this dramatic Renaissance.

The base wine is cold fermented and after the second fermentation it is aged on the lees for 12 months.

It is a lovely delicate, coral, rose colour with aromas of redcurrant, blackcurrant and leafy, wild herbs. The palate is fresh and lively with a sort of blackcurrant cream character, redcurrant, rose petals, biscuits and blood orange as well as a savoury, herbal, earthy character that is typical of País in my limited experience. This is a really enjoyable and drinkable sparkling wine. I liked it very much as did the people at my tasting – 89/100 points.

Available in the UK for around £12 per bottle – for stockists click here – more stockist information is available from the UK distributor, John E Fells.
For US stockists click here.

Wine of the Week – a fresh, lively and easy drinking rosé

I like rosé and never really understand why some people claim that they do not. Rosé can – and probably should – be easy to drink, bright and direct and deliver lots of pleasure to your senses.

Vines at the Errazuriz Estate in Chile – photo courtesy of the estate.

Although there are some more serious exceptions – for instance here and here, one of the good things about Rosé wines is that they go with almost any kind of food, or none, and any occasion, so they are very user friendly and informal. The other day I tasted such a lovely rosé that I made it my Wine of the Week.

2014 Errazuriz Estate Series Cabernet Sauvignon Rosé
Viña Errazuriz
DO Valle Central
Chile

I have been involved with Errazuriz on and off for nearly 30 years now and they have never failed to make wines that I could enjoy and many that are very impressive indeed. Errazuriz was founded by Don Maximiano Errazuriz in 1870 is still family owned and run.  Their range is very large with several quality levels from the more everyday Estate Series to their finer Max Reservas, Single Vineyard, Wild Ferment Range and their Founder’s Reserve red, which must be one of the very best wines of Chile.

Most rosés nowadays fall into one of two styles. Firstly big, bold, darkly coloured, very fruity and a little sweet – a lot of new world rosés are like this. The other main style is paler, lighter, fresher and drier and historically French rosés, most famously those from Provence, are made in this style. Once upon a time the Errazuriz Rosé was quite richly fruity and a little sweet, but in recent vintages the colour has become lighter and the wines fresher and more lively to drink, like the classic rosés of France.

The Errazuriz Estate in Chile – photo courtesy of the estate.

The colour is pale and attractive with a touch of coral and strawberry. The nose is light, fresh and floral with some redcurrant, raspberry and strawberry notes. The palate is lively and fresh again with some lovely, appetising, cleansing acidity and there is a core of lovely ripe, bright red fruit that gives an attractive weight in the mouth, but it is also nicely balanced by that freshness and acidity.

This is a lovely wine, happy and easy to drink. It is perfect on its own – perhaps with a picnic as the weather improves – or with salads, light meat dishes, poultry, fish and is also very good with spicy Asian food too – 87/100 points.

Available in the UK for around £9 per bottle from The Pip Stop – more stockist information is available from Hatch Mansfield Agencies who import Errazuriz wines into the country.

In the interests of full exposure, I must mention that I do some presenting and teaching work for Hatch Mansfield and Errazuriz, but this is my honest unsolicited opinion.

Wine of the Week 72 – Chile’s Bush Vine Revolution

One of the great joys about being in the wine trade is that amazing feeling you get when a wine takes you totally by surprise. When a wine startles you and excites you then that is certainly a wine worthy of tasting and discussing, which is wonderful when so many wines are rather workaday.

So many people drink a narrow range of wines, I have banged on about this before, but it is true. People regularly drink a range of wines made from a tiny range of grape varieties and from a relatively predictable range of places. If you try and get people to drink outside this band, as I frequently do, then you often meet an astonishing amount of resistance. Which is such a shame as so many wonderful, fascinating, great and downright delicious wines are produced elsewhere and from all manner of grapes – including many that are pretty rare and that you may not have tried.

Well, the other day I tasted a wonderful and engaging wine from Chile that was very, very different and took my breath away and so I have made it my Wine of the Week.

Map of Chile – click for a larger view – non watermarked PDF versions are available by agreement.

2014 Rogue Vine Grand Itata Tinto
Rogue Vine
D.O. Itata
Chile

Everywhere you look there are maverick wine producers nowadays. In every wine producing country, as long as you steer clear of the big producers, you quickly discover some passionate soul that is nurturing old, historically unloved vines back into production. It is one of the great stories of our times and one that restores my faith in wine every time I come across it. I have been aware for some time that Chile is part of this movement too, indeed I sometimes lead tastings focussing on this trend in Chile’s vineyards, but it is always worth revisiting.

Because Chile has focussed for so long on classic international grape varieties, especially Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, it is easy to lose sight of all the other things that are grown in Chile. What’s more as almost no international vines in Chile predate 1978 (there are exceptions to this, of course), it is easy to assume that there are no true old vines in the country.

Well there are, they just happen not to be the grapes that Chile has traditionally wanted to sell. They tend to be Carignan, Cinsault, Mourvèdre, Pais and Moscatel / Muscat – all vines that owe their place in Chile to the Spanish colonial past rather than nineteenth century fashion as the international grape varieties do. What’s more these vines seem to almost exclusively grow in the tucked away, almost forgotten regions of Chile’s south – Itata, Curicó and Maulé. Unlike the sought after regions further north these areas remain the preserve of small landowners and poor farmers who cannot afford to uproot vines as fashions change. Thank goodness for that too, as if they could Chile might not have these fascinating old vines.

The ancient bush vines being tended – photo courtesy of Rogue Vine.

This extraordinary wine is a field blend of 95% Cinsault and 5% País, so it really is a nod to winemaking of the past. Back before we all got technical, grape growers had no idea what they grew – vines all had local names and often still do – and so were just picked together and fermented together. That is a field blend, as opposed to the more modern and normal method of fermenting each grape variety and block or site separately, ageing it and then blending the wine. The vines grow as free standing bushes – bush vines – and are unirrigated (it is cold and wet down here, so irrigation is not needed) and ungrafted, so grow on their own roots. The aim was to make something special out of these wonderful vines which prior to the project had just been used to make very basic table wine. 

Winemaker Leonardo Erazo Lynch is a Chilean who has already developed a similar project in South Africa‘s Swartland region, a region that was similarly left behind by fashion. Leonardo keeps to the old ways, using old vines – it seems these are between 60 and 300 years old – organic viticulture, wild yeast fermentations and ageing in old (neutral) barrels.

Straight away this wine seemed like an old friend, the nose was enticing, rich and aromatic with herbs, spices and a gamey, mineral, savoury thing going on, as well as a feeling of freshness and an interesting touch of something medicinal – like iodine – which sounds nasty, but is actually rather nice. The fruit was decidedly red, with cherry and raspberry notes. The palate is medium bodied, but with loads of flavour and soft, light tannins. The red fruit comes through on the palate together with some earthy and mineral characters as well as a fragile savoury note that gives it something of an old world feel. The finish is long and the whole thing feels very fine and complex, which is helped by some nice fresh acidity. If you like Burgundy or Rhône wines then you will certainly enjoy this – 92/100 points.

Available in the UK from Honest Grapes and Selfridges for £17-£20 per bottle. For further details contact Indigo Wines.

I would drink this with a casserole, pie or cassoulet if I was feeling adventurous. It would also go very well with duck,, Shepherd’s Pie and all manner of hearty, warming winter fare. In summer it would be lovely lightly chilled with charcuterie.

Wine of the Week 54 – Coyam, a fine Chilean red

I love Chile, it is a very beautiful country, full of wonderful things to see Everything is dramatic and exciting, especially the mountains, lakes, desserts, glaciers and volcanoes, as being the most fantastic place to observe the night sky. Do visit if you get the chance, but if that is something that you have to put off for now, then you can always treat your self to a bottle of exciting wine from Chile.

Colchagua Valley vineyards – photo courtesy of Wines of Chile.

Chilean wine gets better all the time, more styles and more variety seems to be available with every passing year, so if Chilean wine has passed you by recently, it might be a good idea to give them another look. Not so long ago Chile was regarded above all as a safe place to buy a reliable bottle of wine from, now most people know that Chile can produce wines of world class standard that can compare to anybody else’s. I was leading a tasting on Chilean wines the other day and I showed this wine that is so delicious and so wonderful and so different  that I just had to make it my Wine of the Week.

Coyam, the animals help to create biodiversity and balance in the vineyard – photo courtesy of Wines of Chile.

Map of Chile – click for a larger view – non watermarked PDF versions are available by agreement.

2011 Coyam
Los Robles Estate, Viñedos Organicos Emiliana
D.O. Valle de Colchagua, Chile

Coyam is the brainchild of superstar Chilean winemaker Alvaro Espinoza who is the head winemaker at Viñedos Organicos Emiliana. Almost all Emilian’s vineyards are farmed organically, with the rest in transition, but the Los Robles estate is biodynamic too – Robles means oak in Spanish, while Coyam means oak in the native language. The wine is a blend, which changes every year as it reflects the vineyard, this vintage is 38% Syrah, 31% Carmenère, 19% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, 1% Mourvèdre and 1% Malbec. The grapes are harvested by hand and go through a triple selection process to ensure only the best grapes get into Coyam. Only native yeast is used for the fermentation and the wine is aged 13 months in oak barrels, 80% French and 20% American, it is only very lightly filtered.

Everything is done to make sure you get the whole wine and it shows as Coyam is a wonderfully expressive wine. The grape varieties used are a mixture of extremely fruity ones and seductively spicy ones and that is how the finished wine seems too. The colour is opaque purpley black, while the nose is vibrant and full of blackberry, rich plum, black cherry, herbs, soft spices – pepper and liquorice – vanilla, smoke, cedar wood and a touch of prune. All these aromas and more follow onto the palate, giving a barbecued meat and mushroom character, together with vivid black fruit and even some red, together with tobacco, mocha, caramel (from the oak), wild herbs and peppery spice. This is mouth filling and full-bodied, with beautifully integrated oak, loads of flavour and concentration. I love this wine and think that anyone whole likes big reds will too, however it is elegant and refined too. It isn’t just a monster and the tannins are supple and round – 91/100 points.

This is a big wine that could well repay some cellaring, as the tannins will soften – although they are quite approachable already – and the the fruit will fade allowing the complexity to develop, so there is no hurry to drink it, but it is delicious now. Try this with hearty stews, pies, roasts and strong, hard cheeses.

Available in the UK for around £18 a bottle from Tanners, Slurp, D & D Wine and Virgin Wines, while the 2010 vintage is available from The Wine Society. Further stockist information is available here.
US stockist information is available here.

 

 

 

 

 

Wine of the Week 35 – all change in Chile

Recently I presented a tasting that I found exciting and that seemed to go down rather well with the attendees. My topic was Chile’s emerging Regions and Styles and it was  a wide ranging – or at least as wide as you can get in 8 wines – look at how Chile is changing.

For a long time Chile has been regarded by many consumers as a safe option. They made reliable wines at good prices, offering good value for money and lots of pleasure and you would have thought that might be enough for Chilean wine producers. However no one with any ambition wants to just be seen as a safe option for ever and this especially true of Chile’s new generation of talented winemakers.

Chile is most definitely on the move and you can see it wherever you look at Chilean wines. New grape varieties are the most obvious personification of this change, but scratch the surface a little and you can see it everywhere. Lots of things are going on in Chile right now, including:

Earlier picking is resulting in wines with more zip and freshness – something that only confident grape growers who know exactly what they are doing can pull off.

Less use of new oak – and less American oak too – is very apparent in recent vintages of Chilean wine, again confidence is behind this, they do not feel the fruit needs as much help – or masking – as it did in the past.

Map of Chile – click for a larger view – non watermarked PDF versions are available by agreement.

New regions are emerging – or becoming established in some cases – which help the grape growers and wine makers to match a grape variety or wine style with a specific terroir that suits it. Included in this roster would be these regions to the North of Santiago; Limarí, Elqui (over 500KM north of Santiago) and Choapa in the north, although the Atacama region even further north is beginning to produce exciting things too. In the area around Santiago you have the Aconcagua Valley which includes the new Aconcagua Costa as well as Valle de Leyda – both cool places by the ocean for white wine, Pinot Noir and Syrah production. The new regions in the south would include the Itata and Malleco Valleys.

Parallel to this is the move to categorise Chile’s wine regions as Coastal / Costa – where the cool conditions from the Pacific suit Chile’s hugely exciting white wines. The Andes zone is a less established move to plant vineyards higher up in the Andes than is traditional in Chile, the results look promising and not just for white wines either. Between these two is the Entre cordilleras zone between the Andes and the Coastal Mountain range which includes much of the Valle Central as well as many of the emerging regions.

Another fascinating example of creativity in Chile is the current widespread delight in finding the pockets of truly old vine material that the country has. For the last 30 years or so Chile has focussed on giving the world the grapes they want – and that sell – so the vineyard regions around Santiago, the traditional heart of Chile’s wine industry have very few old vines, hardly ever older than 20 years in fact. Chile does though have old vines, especially in the more rural south of Curicó, Maule and Itata where time has stood still somewhat as the vineyards are owned by smallholder farmers down there who cannot afford to uproot their vines as trends change, with the result that they have plenty of old vines, but of grape varieties that has not interested Chile’s producers until recently. The main grapes that fall into this category are País, Moscatel, Cinsault and Carignan, together with a little Mourvèdre and they are producing some astonishingly good wine.

Actually all the wines I showed were very good and seemed top meet with approval from most people there, but the majority agreed on what was the wine of the night and so I have made it my Wine of the Week.

Maule Valley Vineyards.

2008 Éclat Old Vine Blend
Viña Valdivieso
D.O. Valle de Maule

Valdivieso are an old established winery who originally set out to be Chile’s sparkling wine specialist, but who turned to red wines from the 1980s onwards with spectacular results. Always seeking new challenges, their chief winemaker, the charming Brett Jackson – a kiwi living and working in Chile and who introduced me to the delights of drinking Caipirinhas one wonderfully drunken evening – decided to create a wine using the old vine Carignan that can be found in the Maule Valley and that has traditional been used for everyday wines that does not get exported. Brett saw the potential and produces a wine that is quite unlike what people expect from Chile, but that is really superb. The blend changes, but this vintage is 65% Carignan – dry farmed / unirrigated 80 year old plus bush vines with 20% Mourvèdre and 15% Syrah. The finished wine is aged for 12 months in French oak barrels.

Although Carignan is really a Spanish grape and should be called Cariñena, the grape arrived in Chile from france in the twentieth century and so is always called Carignan there. A whole group of producers have now seen the worth of these old vines and have created a group called the Vignadores de Carignan, or Vigno to market these wines and to give some rules for their use. For instance to be a member the wine must have at least 65% Carignan in the blend. The vines must be at least 30 years old, they must be dry farmed bush vines and must be aged for at least 24 months – in bottle, barrel (old or new) or amphoras / tinajas.

On a night of good wines, this stood out to me. It was still a youthful deep, earthy ruby to look at with no browning yet. The nose was concentrated and spicy, with floral tones, earthy, leathery and coffee too, as well as quite a whack of alcohol – the wine is 14.5%. The palate was medium bodied and smooth with rich dried fruit, even some dried fruit sweetness there as well as a lovely fresh, bracing lift of acidity. There was mushrooms and truffles, together with a smoky, leather quality, that touch (just a touch, but I like it) of mocha and a firm touch of tannin on the finish that tightened the wine up in a way I like, but which also shows it could age for longer. If you like Shiraz or Syrah wines or Rhône style blends then this is a wine you should try – 91/100 points.

Available in the UK for around £15 per bottle from – stockists information here.
Available in the US for around £30 per bottle from – stockists information here.

This really is a lovely wine and if some of the recent developments in Chile have passed you by, then this could be an excellent place to start experiencing them.

Wine of the Week 30 – a great Cabernet Franc from South Africa

Stellenbosch vineyard with Table Mountain in the distance.

Cabernet Franc is a grape whose charms have seduced me more and more over the years. When I was younger I usually found it green, hard and dusty, but growers seem to really know how to manage this tricky grape nowadays to produce wines that are smooth, rich and ripe. Of course Cabernet Franc originates in France’s Loire Valley region where it makes the lovely red wines of Saumur, Saumur-Champigny, Chinon, Anjou Rouge, Bourgueil and Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil, but it is increasingly grown all around the world and superb examples are starting to emerge from many new world countries, notably this lovely wine from Valdivieso in Chile, or this one from Lagarde in Argentina. It is also one of the parents of the more widely seen Cabernet Sauvignon grape, the other parent being Sauvignon Blanc.

Well the other day I presented a tasting of wines to Verulam Wine Tasting Club, which is a wine society in St Albans that I love visiting. The theme was wines that I had found on my travels that would be great for Christmas.  I showed them all sorts of delights, most of which I will write about soon, but 2 of the red wines seem to have gone down especially well – as did the sparkling, the 3 amazing white wines and the sumptuous sweet wine too. One of the reds was the Domaine Lupier El Terroir, which was my second Wine of the Week all those months ago. The other wine was KWV The Mentors Cabernet Franc.

This is a wine that means quite a lot to me. I first tasted it – the 2010 vintage anyway – in South Africa while judging in the Michelangelo International Wine Awards. Obviously we tasted it blind, but it totally thrilled the whole panel and we gave it a Grand Gold Medal and because I loved it so much I took note of the sample number so that I could find out what the wine was once the results had been released. And blow me down if it didn’t turn out to be a Cabernet Franc from KWV.

The KWV is very famous in the context of South African wine. It was a cooperative created by the government in 1918 to regulate the production of South African wine and many UK wine drinkers remembers their Roodeberg and Pinotages from the late 1970s with affection. In addition to table wines they have always produced excellent brandy and delicious fortified wines – this superb KWV Tawny from Marks & Spencer is well worth trying. In truth after democracy came to South Africa, KWV lost its way somewhat and the wines were a shadow of their former selves for quite a while. So, this tasting was my first inkling that things had begun to turn around. The second chance I had to see how KWV had changed was when I enjoyed a memorable tasting and dinner there hosted by Richard Rowe, their head wine maker, at the Laborie Wine Farm in Paarl.

It was a great experience with superb food – including my first taste of Bunny Chow – and a wonderful setting, but it was the wines that thrilled me the most. We tasted a wide range of their new Mentors range which was created from 2006 onwards with its own purpose built cellar and winery to create small production wines from parcels of outstanding fruit. As a consequence the Mentors range comes from different appellations and locations and the range varies from year to year, for instance there was no Cabernet Franc in 2011, all of which helps to make it really interesting.

The KWV Mentors range includes one of my favourite Pinotages, excellent Shiraz, superb Grenache Blanc and a first rate Petit Verdot, as well as a couple of fascinating blends; The Orchestra is a classic Bordeaux-style blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc and Malbec blend, while the Canvas is a more unusual blend of Shiraz, Tempranillo, Mourvèdre and Grenache Noir.

It was the KWV Mentors Cabernet Franc that first wowed me though and it was what I showed at the tasting and so I have made it my new Wine of the Week.

KWV’s Laborie Wine Farm in Paarl.

 

2012 KWV Mentors Cabernet Franc
W.O. Stellenbosch
South Africa
The 2012 comes from Stellenbosch, whereas the 2010 was from W.O. Coastal Region and certainly the difference shows, as there is much more fruit intensity here. The wine is all about fruit selection, choosing the best parcels and blocks in their best vineyards, fruit that shows optimum ripeness and expression. After the initial selection, there is a further hand selection in the winery to ensure only perfect grapes get in. The wine was fermented in stainless steel tanks with regular pump overs to extract colour, flavour and tannins from the skins. Malolactic took place in barrel before 18 months ageing in French oak barrels, of which 70% were new.
The colour is intense, opaque, vivid and youthful – it looks like a blackcurrant coulis.
The nose is aromatic, earthy and vibrantly fruity with raspberry, cherry, truffles, cedar and cinnamon.
The palate is lusciously textured with creamy ripe fruit, coffee and cocoa. There are firm, fine grippy tannins balanced by the wonderfully rich fruit and a nice refreshing cut of acidity.
This is deeply impressive, rich, intensely concentrated and quite delicious. If you prefer less tannin or less obvious fruit then age it  for a few years, as the oak is certainly dominating to some degree at the moment, but it works really well and the fruit is big enough to just about hold its own. Age it for 4-5 years, or open it early and serve with something hearty like a casserole or rib of beef – 93/100 points.

Available in the UK for around £15.49 a bottle from SAWines online, Foods 4U, and Edgmond Wines.

This wine is tremendously good and deserves a wider audience, so do try it if you get the chance. It would certainly impress your guests over the festive season and grace any dinner party perfectly. It really would be superb with a casserole or a pie, shepherd’s pie – anything meaty really and it goes superbly with hard cheeses too.

 

Wine of the Week 27 – it’s oh so nice to be familiar!

Cabernet Sauvignon is a wonderful grape. I love the sheer intensity and richness that it can deliver and sometimes I crave wines like the juicy, delicious, fruity New World Cabernets of my youth. Well, recently I have discovered a vibrantly fruity Cabernet that also has structure and elegance, so I have been using it in my wine classes to illustrate what Cabernet is all about – the fact that it is good value too is just a bonus.

It comes from Chile and shows what enjoyable wines that amazing country can produce, even at good value prices. I am sure that by now everyone knows that Chile enjoys a blessed climate that is perfect for grape growing and wine production. They have a long growing season, plenty of sunshine, diverse soils and cooling influences coming from both the Pacific Ocean and the Andes Mountains. All of this, plus a great deal of knowhow means they can make wines that are capable of being utterly delicious – like my new Wine of the Week.

Map of Chile – click for a larger view – non watermarked PDF versions are available by agreement.

Wild horses at the Caliterra Estate – photo courtesy of Caliterra.

2013 Caliterra Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon
D.O. Colchagua Valley
Rapel, Chile
Cabernet Sauvignon is, of course, grown and made all over the world, but ever since the mid nineteenth century it has been Chile’s star grape and was the variety that made Chile’s reputation as a great wine producing country. Styles vary enormously from being very soft and fruity to something more complex and interesting – this wine manages to be both fruity and interesting. I have known the Caliterra winery for a long time and first visited it more than ten years ago. Now owned by Errazuriz, it was originally a joint venture between Eduardo Chadwick, of Viña Errazuriz in Chile, and Robert Mondavi of California. Sadly Robert died in 2008, but they are both towering figures in the wine world and I have been lucky enough to meet them both over the years. 

Caliterra is a very beautiful place and I enjoyed seeing it, but it is fair to say that their wines have got better and better of late. What’s more, in recent years they have gone all out for sustainable viticulture and have left some 75% of their 1,085 hectares (2,681 acres) untouched to ensure the land has bio-diverse flora and fauna. The place is called Caliterra after all, which is from the Spanish word Calidad – meaning quality – and Tierra meaning land. By the way, although it looks Christmassy to a British eye, that bird on the label is not a robin, but the chucao tapaculo which is native to southern Chile.

Cabernet Sauvignon originates in Bordeaux where it is normally blended with other grapes for greater complexity, well this wine gives a nod in that direction by being 96% Cabernet Sauvignon with 2% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot adding some elegance. The winemaking shows an interestingly light touch with just 30% of the wine being aged in barrels for  7 to 9 months in 2nd and 3rd use barrels, which give less obvious oak flavour than new oak does.

The colour is a deep, dense and an opaque purply-black. The nose is vibrant and lifted with rich cassis, blackberry, deep raspberry and something floral, as well as some vanilla, tobacco and a waft of some mint or eucalyptus together with some black olives for good measure. The palate delivers rich, ripe black fruit balanced by lovely vibrant, fresh blackcurrant acidity, a touch of cream and some espresso on the long finish. This is a wine to enjoy without so much as a backward glance, or to serve with a classic meaty meal like a Sunday roast. There’s no hurry to drink it either, you could easily lay this wine down for four years or so to make it more complex. All in all, an excellent Cabernet for the price – 88/100 points.

Available in the UK at around £9.75 per bottle from The Oxford Wine Company, The Vintage House, Bin 21, Edencroft, Cheers Wine Merchants and Partridges of Sloane Street.
Stockist information for the US is available from Rodrigo Rodero: rrodero@chadwickwines.cl

I chose this wine because I find it so easy to focus on what is new and different, that it is nice to give a shout out for an old favourite from time to time and it offers great value for money.

Just so you know, I do sometimes do some work for Caliterra and their UK agents, Hatch Mansfield, but this is my honest and unsolicited opinion.