Hidalgo make one of the most affordable and one of the best Manzanillas. Stick a bottle in the fridge and when it is chilled enjoy its refreshing vivacity.

Manzanilla la Gitana, Bodegas Hidalgo
A fresh nose with a slightly salty aroma, there is something of the sea about this nose. It is quite nutty too but its primary character is its freshness; this bursts with life. The palate is also thrillingly lively. There is plenty of nuttiness, more of that salty character and a vibrant streak of acidity running right through it. This is a super refreshing drink to be necking of an afternoon, quite delicious and quite the bargain.

Last night I was very happy to host a fellow wine blogger (Torsten from Winerambler) and my old chum ‘The Kid’ Peter for a Riesling and Pinot Noir-themed tasting. We drank copiously and terribly well. The wines were served blind which heightened our critical faculties. Even the English wine was good (immensely unbelievable as that sounds).

Classic Cuvee 2003, Nyetimber
Wow, this smells like proper fizz and it is English, I’m staggered. It has pronounced mushroomy and toasty characters. Wow, its not immediately horrible and vapid. There is plenty of ripe fruit on the nose, which edges toward being very slightly over-mature, but that is 2003 for you, even in Blighty it seems. There is a reasonable degree of class to this; it may not be the most riotously complex of sparkling wine noses but there is more than enough to keep the fizz-lover interested. And it is an English wine that doesn’t smell thin and insipid, my mind is spinning! The mousse seems reasonably refined and there is some tasty fruit on the palate. I like its acidity, pretty well balanced and certainly keeping this fresh. The finish is remarkably long, with a pleasing array of vibrant fruit characters persisting. This is properly good sparkler. Hell’s bells, I just said the extraordinarily improbable statement that an English wine is properly good; are there no certainties left in the world?

Riesling Spatlese Piesporter Goldtropfchen 2003, Reinhold Haart
A tits-out nose of gloriously sun-ripened fruit; this is distinctly exotic but still unmistakably Mosel Riesling. Its pineapple/grapefruit characters could suggest this is a Scheurebe, but it seems more like very ripe Riesling. Not over-ripe, but attractively voluptuous. The palate is a little short on acidity, but it has completely lovely fruit and an appealing sweetness. There is some prominent minerality showing here as well, and it is quite stylish, this was grown in a top vineyard. This is one of the best examples of 2003 German Riesling I’ve had, it is pretty balanced, has well-defined fruit and a quite grown-up vineyard character. Good stuff, thanks Torsten.

Riesling Grand Cru Sommerberg ‘D’ Vendanges Tardives 2005, Albert Boxler
This nose has real VT character, candied fruit and manifest power. It is also incredibly mineral but this character shows itself with a lot of finesse. It is almost surprising that a wine this big can display such elegant and beautiful minerality. It is a wonderful nose that would tweak the lewd bits of any lover of fine things. The palate also has late harvest power, but as it commits frankly debauched acts in your mouth the balance is never less than faultless. Its acidity is searing and stomach slashing (ouch, ouch, ooooowwww… I’ll need the Gaviscon soon enough), there are dumper-truck loads of candied citrus fruit and the minerality is spell-binding. It is not the scale or power that make me love this wine, and I love it oh so much, it is the harmony and panache which so many Alsace VTs just don’t seem to manage. My last bottle of this tremendously fine wine, alas.

Auxey-Duresses Premier Cru 2006, Comte Armand
Now this smells like proper Burgundy, it has inviting dark fruit and a powerful earthiness. There is some power to this nose, but it is not in any way overblown or overly focussed on muscle. This is the nose of Pinot from the correct place, alright; there is charm, class and complexity on show. The palate also has power and a rather rigorous tannic structure, it is a tad on the tough side but has more than enough dark, ripe fruit to keep the balance satisfactory. This makes me think that the clout this wine has is quite finely honed and I think it would be a good wine to age. When trying this blind I thought this was a good Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru, which shows it has some pretentions to style and quality. I should have got this right. I love Comte Armand wines and have tried far too many so I feel I could recognise the winemakers finger-prints all over it. It is a sad day when I cannot spot Comte Armand wines, when the label was revealed I felt a smidgen of exasperation at my failure.

Vosne-Romanee Premier Cru les Suchots 2006, Domaine Confuron-Cotetidot
This smells breathtakingly beautiful. Its pure expression of complex, exotic fruit really warps my mind to its way of thinking, and this nose thinks it wants to mesmerise and captivate. Sure there is a good mineral character, but that enthralling fruit is what does it for me, an enchanting expression of Vosne. Oh bums, after that nose I feel a tad disappointed by the palate. The tannins have more than a suggestion of being significantly daunting and together with its far from reserved acidity they make the palate seem somewhat stiff and demanding. There is a lot of fruit there as well, and it is charm-tastic, lovely-licious fruit, but it is not quite in balance with the brutalist tannic structure. Its powerful earthiness is very convincing and really persists on what is a very long and multifaceted finish. There are many things to like about this wine, but ultimately it just falls a bit short of the mark.

Pinot Noir ‘Sangreal’ 2006, By Farr
There is more than a suggestion of stemminess on this nose, along with serious earthy power and plenty of really scrumptious fruit. Authentic complexity is present and I am rather compelled; if this was not one of my offerings I’d say after smelling this it was a genuinely good offering from the Cote de Nuits. The palate bursts with lots more of that scrumptious fruit which sits in appetizing harmony with a finely-wrought tannic structure and succulent acidity. That stemmy character is also present on the palate and I feel this, along with its intense earthiness, really add to the complexity. This is the best Australian Pinot Noir I’ve had since the brilliant and refined Mac Forbes wines. Top stuff, Mr Farr.

Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr 1997, Fritz Haag
By all that is evil and malevolent this nose is stunning. It has definite traces of maturity, but the fruit is pulsing with excitement and vivacity. Super citrus action which you know is going to taste luminously lively. The powerful slate character is also persuades me that this is a wine of stylish class and refined sophistication. Yeah, this is a penetratingly compelling nose and no messing around. It tastes staggeringly acidic, but lovely, animated, energetic acidity which just makes makes my drool flow and draws me in to drink more and more. The slate minerality shows multifarious levels of captivating character which meld intricately with the acidity and enchanting, exquisite fruit to produce an utterly brilliant, breathtaking buccal experience. The enthralling harmony of this salaciously complex and indecently elegant wine blows my mind in an outlandish maelstrom of aesthetic ecstasy. We are lucky when we get to drink wines this good; I feel lucky. But then I also feel absolutely deserving and unreservedly worthy of such delights. Hooray for Riesling, Pinot Noir and all who love them!

Last night we popped around the neighbour’s place with a couple of bottles of wine; they couldn’t have been more different.

Morey Saint-Denis 2002, Domaine Dujac
Oh what a ravishing nose, I am instantly smitten by its compelling beauty and charming refinement. There is perfectly ripe fruit which, whilst not lacking intensity, is exquisitely lovely and is enhanced by a subtle jasmine character which tickles my fancy no end. There is certainly earthy complexity here, but I prefer the complexity of the fruit; it is scrummy. On the palate there is a silky tannic structure which has shades of rigour to it, this wine is still bursting with life. The complex, ripe fruit on the palate adds to the impression of this being a svelte little number. The acidity is perfectly balanced and keeps the wine fresh, quaffable and vivacious. This is almost as far from being a huge blockbuster as it is possible to get, it is an elegant little wine of sculpted attractiveness. I’d much rather drink a little beauty like this than a huge alcohol and fruit bomb; you could drink this all day whereas some wines you don’t want to finish off a glass.

Cotes du Roussillon Villages ‘Cuvee Coume Marie’ 2007, Preceptorie de Centernach
I think I opened a bottle of organic solvent rather than wine, the hot burn that boils off this stuff goes beyond heroic. Indeed, it is distinctly loopy, but sadly loopy in an unattractive way. I don’t like my wines to be inhalation anaesthetics. There is a lot of fruit on the nose, but it is the stewed, jammy fruit of Grenache that has been given a really serious baking in a crazy climate. I’ve only sniffed this ludicrous monstrosity and I already actively dislike it and find it draining. I’ll taste it, though. By the danglers of donkey’s that was a real mistake. This is some harsh, aggressive, contrived facsimile of  wine; I find it hard to believe it was made of grapes. The tannins are violently coarse and bitter, giving the impression that my mouth has been given a vigorous roughing up with a Brillo pad. There is severe acidity here as well, quite unforgiving in its ruthlessness. There is also some of that unattractive jammy fruit here as well, but to suggest that this discordant, abrasive palate has any form of balance would be so bonkers it would instantly make one worthy of being sectioned in the local nut-house. This is over-blown filth of the most unremittingly horrendous style; I couldn’t even finish my glass.

Last night I organised a little blind tasting for some friends. I thought nothing could charm them more than some red Burgundy. I served them in a flight of two then a flight of three, with the order of the wines in each flight randomised. Some of the wines were notably better than others. The sweet wine I was presented with as a blind tasting challenge at the end of the evening made my stomach churn with revulsion.

Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru La Richemone 2005, Domaine Alain Michelot
This has a lot of ripe fruit but also a slightly green, leafy smell. There is an earthy set of aromas which make this reasonably complex and give it some real interest. I think this nose is really rather Nuits in character and should provide good blind tasting fodder. This has a really rather tannic palate, it is a bit butch. That being said, I think there is enough fruit to match this and it strikes me that the interplay between the two provides plenty of pleasure. This is a very good example of Nuits which I think will age quite well.

Nuits-Saint-Georges Vieilles Vignes 2005, Domaine Alain Michelot
Despite the claim of old vines this is a bit weak on the nose. There is some dark fruit, hints of greenness and the suggestion of earth, but it is quite subdued and not all that complex. I want more from this nose and it is just not delivering. The palate has a bit more substance, with a good tannic structure and some pleasing ripe fruit, but this is quite a simple village wine. Not much point in keeping this, drink it now with some less demanding Pinotphiles.

Corton-Bressandes Grand Cru 2003, Domaine Chandon de Briailles
Cripes, this is so ripe it is almost Porty. There is one arse-load of super-ripe sweet fruit on this nose, so much so that it is not terribly Burgundian. I can see how one might be attracted to this fleshy voluptuous character, but I prefer a little more restraint and beauty. Any earthy, complex aromas one might have hoped for have been baked right out of the wine; as far as the nose goes it is simply a fruit bomb. The palate is round and buxom, charged with huge amounts of that Porty fruit. It is so ripe and corpulent. I never thought I would taste a Corton so chubby and plump that lacks any form of rigour or austerity. I suppose there are some tannins to it but practically the only character this palate has is its outsized fruit. If this is the kind of thing you like then you will like this, but it just leaves me feeling let down, exhausted and generally shagged out.

Pernand-Vergelesses Premier Cru Ile des Vergelesses 2005, Domaine Chandon de Briailles
This is really rather pale in colour, but so what? Experience tells us colour is no indicator of the quality of Pinot. Now that is a drop-dead beautiful nose. It is small-scale, but there is incredible harmony, well-judged restraint and serious complexity present. I’m totally compelled by this nose, it is beguiling in its exquisiteness and charming in its extreme attractiveness. The palate is also small-scale, but is a work of sculpted refinement. The silky tannins, sophisticated minerality and stylish fruit are all in complete harmony and as they dance across my palate they charge me with a sense of aesthetic fulfilment and positively lewd contentment. I am a big fan of beautiful little Burgundies like this; when they are good they lack for nothing in terms of intricacy and flair but their lightness means you can drink them all day and night. What a brilliant wine, and it was a real bargain too.

Corton-Bressandes Grand Cru 2005, Domaine Chandon de Briailles
This nose has plenty of ripe, surprisingly powerful strawberry and raspberry fruit and a very intense mineral tang; it is like a scaled-up version of the previous wine. I loved the previous wine, though, in multiplying this nose the precise beauty has been lost and replaced with slightly unfocussed muscle. The palate also has enhanced clout and strength, with a tougher, almost austere tannic structure and a lot more fruit. It is certainly mineral and appropriately complex, but again I find myself thinking it is just a little vague and ill-defined. Its finish is impressively long, with its vigorous minerality and potent fruit flavours lasting for a considerable period of time. This is a genuinely serious bottle of Burgundy which will age really well and there is indubitably plenty of pleasure to it. However, as far as chortles per pound go the polished form and classy style of the Ile des Vergelesses have thoroughly delighted me. I feel happy to recommend the less pricey wine on this occasion.

Oak Aged Vidal Icewine 2006, Inniskillen
This is deep orange; I usually feel a tinge of concern when I see a wine of this colour. The nose has lots of rot, but unfortunately it is not the noble kind. Indeed it makes me think of someone leaving a fur rug to go mouldy after giving it a good rub down with some overpoweringly decaying apricots that had been left to mature in a compost heap. I’m revolted. The palate has some acidity, is quite sweet, but its hideously confected fruit coupled with more of that unbearably filthy fungal character just make me want to stop drinking this instantly. So I will.

We don’t drink that much Chianti, but this one seemed well-priced for a well-thought of producer of Chianti Rufina. Another pleasing wine from our ‘affordable drinking’ selection.

Chianti Rufina Riserva ‘Vigento Bucerchiale’ 2006, Fattoria Selvapiana
An intense nose of bitter cherry fruit. The alcohol level is perhaps a tad high, but its sweetness adds to the fruit and makes this smell quite attractive. There is a depth of character to this nose, plenty of fruit and a good, reasonably complex earthiness. This smells very much like an Italian wine; it reminds me of Fuligni’s Brunello, with is quite a compliment for a wine which is so much cheaper. The fruit on the palate is also very Italian, but its tannins are not as aggressive and its acidity not as spiky as they might be. Indeed, it seems a rather accessible and totally drinkable palate. There is fruit, earthiness and a refined tannic structure. Its complex earthiness and fruit persist on the finish. I like this quite a lot, it is clearly Chianti with a very pronounced Sangiovese character, but is nowhere near as rough or hard work as it might be. A quite pleasing example of an Italian wine that is really up for drinking with more than enough ease and pleasure.

I’ve blogged about how I got started loving wine, which I did from a hilariously young age, but what keeps me drinking it these days? Here are my top ten reasons why I love wine:

1. Each wine experience is unrepeatable. This is one of the things I love most about fine wine as an art form. Even if you have many bottles of the same wine and pop them one after another the experience of each will differ slightly. It may be due to bottle variation, the wine breathing for different times after opening, or personal factors like who you are tasting with, where you are tasting, how drunk you are and the condition of your palate. When you taste a bottle of fine wine that is a unique experience, never to be repeated.
2. There is an every-expanding amount of wine to taste and learn about. New producers come along all the time, existing producers may go up or down in quality, you can discover new regions and every new vintage in every region has its own quirks and qualities to learn. It is good to learn new things and wine provides a continually changing landscape for the lover of wine things to focus his or her mind on.
3. Sense use in appreciation of wine. Sure, you look at wine just like you can look at everything but real appreciation of it uses senses that are more ephemeral and transient: smell and taste. Most people pay cursory attention to what they taste and almost none to what they smell, yet these are very visceral senses which, if you concentrate on them, can move, delight, intrigue, excite, enlighten, thrill and compel just as effectively as vision or hearing. So neglected are our senses of taste and smell that it normally takes some training to get the most out of them. I was so lucky to attend and then run the Oxford University blind tasting team training sessions; they have forever expanded my appreciation and enhanced my abilities with these ephemeral senses.
4. Wine is great to share. Whether it is a simple bottle popped in front of the rugby or an obscenely fine wine shared with oenophiles wine is clearly at its best when shared. On a basic level the alcohol in wine is a good social lubricant, but just as a good meal will fill your stomach it will also provide things to talk about. Its qualities can generate views and opinions in all but the most unspeakable of philistines.
5. Wine is a good partner to food. Of course, not every wine goes with every type of food, but sometimes the match between the two will enhance the appreciation of both. When I’m noshing on a big piece of meat the tannins in red wine denature the free proteins in the meat and make eating and digesting it easier and more enjoyable. The pleasure I get from the synergistic combination of lamb and Pinot Noir is so enjoyable that it moves a meal with these two to a much higher level of sensory experience.
6. It gets me drunk at the right rate. The alcohol in wine is clearly something to be enjoyed, and the concentration of it suits me very well. If I am drinking beer I normally feel ‘beered-out’ pretty quickly; too bloated and exhausted by the sheer volume of the stuff one has to consume. Spirits are too alcoholic for me; I don’t often enjoy the experience of drinking them and they get one drunk very quickly. Wine, on the other hand, has not so much alcohol in it that you get instantly whammed, but enough so that over an evening spent drinking only wine you can end up pleasantly newscasted. You can drink wine over a long period in a style you cannot do with beer (too voluminous) or spirits (too strong).
7. Wine is marked by its maker. I’ve visited and tasted with a lot of winemakers, and in the very best wines the personality and ideas of the winemaker are displayed by the wine he/she makes. The Fallers at Domaine Weinbach are as buxom and charm-filled as their wines; Christophe Roumier’s refined, thoughtful wines reflect those qualities of the man himself. The interesting ideas of interesting winemakers show in their wines, making a strong connection between the two which undoubtedly enhances the drinking pleasure*.
8. Wines also have a sense of place. This may apply less to the more international-styled wines available today, but a carefully made wine of interest and style will give you a little glimpse into where it came from. Taste a frighteningly acidic but totally harmonious wine from Egon ‘Yoda’ Muller and you are terribly aware that it is the incomparable Scharzhofberger vineyard which you are tasting and is giving you this intense experience. This sense of place can be shown in all wines from refined little Burgundies to bold Zinfandels of heroism.
9. Wine is a great gift. On a simple level, a bottle of decent fizz is a simple gift which is generally appreciated; even indifferent fizz will please the unfussy. But if you know a reasonable amount about wine there are many more options. For example, you can chose a wine that you know will suit the recipients tastes but is more obscure than their normal purchases so they are unlikely to have tried before. If you introduce someone to a new producer or wine region which they really enjoy it can give both giver and receiver a lot of satisfaction; you’ve shown someone a new expression of pleasure.
10. The ‘free meal’ factor. Some areas of knowledge are more acceptable to discuss in social situations than others. If you can manage charm as well as knowledge then wine provides a brilliant topic which will see you right in almost any setting. I have lost count of the number of dinner parties I have been invited to not only because I’ll bring along good wine, but also because I’ll talk about it in an intelligent and amusing fashion. If there are any awkward pauses in conversation I can be relied upon to perform and talk about a subject that pretty much everyone has either views on or questions about. I hasten to add that at dinner parties I largely talk about things other than wine, but it is a remarkably successful conversation topic in so many situations.

*It is not necessarily the character of the winemaker which shines through in a wine; many years ago the rumour was that the wines of Marc Kreydenweiss had the character of his current wife.

We had some friends around earlier tonight and decided to open wines of general drinking standard. Some where very noticeably better than others.

Riesling Grand Cru Sommerberg L31E 2002, Albert Boxler
Whilst this has some pure fruit and refined minerality on the nose there is also a slightly dirty, cardboardy character as well; it is not corked but this not in entirely good condition. I do like its precise, very well-defined minerality though. The palate also has hints of that dirtiness which do distract from the other, quite lovely, characters of this wine. There is a lot of limey fruit and the minerality is really complex but the main character of this palate is its screaming, and quite painful, acidity. It is in perfect balance, though, and I love acidity even if it hates my stomach. Sadly this wine is not up to the very high standard I've come to expect from Boxler, but it is not really his fault; there is something a bit wonky about this bottle.

La Grola 2006, Allegrini
Lots of bitter cherry fruit on the nose. This is rather nice and I feel if I was presented it blind that fruit character would allow me to instantly guess it was Italian. I like it that it is not frighteningly alcoholic, it is a balanced, accessible nose even if it is not terribly complex. The palate has ripe but a touch bitter fruit which matches its slightly tough tannic structure quite well. There is good acidity as well. It has reasonable length with the bitter cherry fruit and acidity persisting. However, despite these good points it is still not terribly complex. Whilst this is certainly clean and fruity, it is a wine for people who like a bit of rough.

Cornas ‘Domaine de Rochepertuis’ 2004, Jean Lionnet
The plummy fruit on this nose is very attractive but quite understated, there is also the vaguest hint of greenness but it is not very prominent so this isn’t a problem. Indeed, these aromas together with its earthy tang make this quite complex; I like this nose quite a lot. More plummy fruit on the palate with some tannins which are a bit tough and very Cornas-y. The acidity is also very present and fits the Cornas model well. That hint of greenness also shows but it is not a problem in the slightest, it adds to the considerable complexity of this palate. I really like its long finish which shows its complexity of flavours very well. This is good stuff and was quite the bargain.

Riesling Grand Cru Altenberg de Bergheim Vendanges Tardives 1998, Domaine Marcel Deiss
This wine is from the period after Jean-Michel Deiss had lost his marbles and started making truly awful wines, so I’m worried before even tasting this. Oh deary me, this nose is unfeasibly dull. All it has is a bit of candied citrus fruit and a hint of oxidative baked apple character. That is it; this great vineyard from a great vintage making a wine that smells so utterly one dimensional shows there is a serious problem with the winemaking strategy. Hell’s bells, the palate is also quite dreary. There is a bit of sugar, the suggestion of acidity and slight hints of that candied fruit and nothing else. It should have powerful minerality and far more complex, late harvest fruit action. I’d like a lot more acidity too. This is another totally shameful performance by Deiss, it is light years away from the quality it should show and which he is quite capable of delivering if he put his mind (which is clearly deranged these days) to it. Rather than a complex, engaging, sex-tastic wine those of us who didn’t refuse to drink any more (which I did) had to slog through this vinous wallpaper of mind-buggering tedium. I’m perfectly willing to admit that M. Deiss is not my favourite person. He stopped making brilliant wines in order to produce baroque, over-blown wines of horribleness all justified by the most cretinous, asinine philosophy I’ve been forced to tolerate to since I read a religious philosophy book. The fellow is an arse and should have his vineyards confiscated. Sub-interest. Really very sub-interest.

I opened a bottle of this for some lunch guests just after Christmas. Sadly I was so ill only the smallest of tastes passed my lips. Good job I had another bottle as it is terribly good.

Gevrey-Chambertin ‘Mes Favorites’ Vieilles Vignes 2003, Alain Burguet
One sniff and I am already compelled; the fresh, ripe cherry and raspberry fruit is really attractive and it is backed up by a complex earthiness. For a wine from this vintage this is amazingly far from being over-blown, indeed I think this shows a classy degree of restraint. This is the nose of a serious but lovely wine, it is totally succeeding in charming me and filling my evening with love. The palate is medium-bodied and has a real old vines depth of fruit, but again it is ripe rather than cooked; it is really sophisticated for a village wine, and amazingly so for a 2003. Again that restraint shows itself and I’m finding that character to be quite stimulating. It has a silky tannic structure and, whilst it is not incredibly acidic, the harmony is just the ballerina’s bits. The fruit and sleek earthiness persist on its impressively long finish, and that tickles my fancy as well. There is a lot to think about with this wine, but it is also an exquisite, delightful drink. This is one of the best village level wines I’ve had and it is quite mind-boggling that M. Burguet could produce a wine of such captivating refinement and exquisite sex-value in the bonkers 2003 vintage.

This is a properly balanced Shiraz which does not taste very much like other Australian Shiraz wines (see the comment thread here for more on this idea). For sure it is quite big, but it has a real sense of harmony which charms me no end.

Shiraz By Farr 2006
Whilst this nose is clearly quite ripe it has a very attractive edge of greenness to it. The fruit is fresh and ripe rather than overblown and jammy, with great peppery spicy and earthy characters clearly present. This is a pretty complex nose and, despite its claimed 14.5% alcohol, I feel there is some restraint to it, it doesn’t burn or overwhelm. I’m pleased with this already, as are the neighbours for whom I popped this bottle. The palate has a really rather structured compliment of tannins, there is some serious firmness here, and a surprisingly attractive flash of totally integrated acidity running through it. That acidity also shows the hints of greenness that are present on the nose, the pepper character also makes it to the palate. The fruit is attractively ripe and accessible, but never too heavy, ponderous or soupy. These facets persist on the satisfyingly long finish, and their interplay and harmony make this wine seem really rather complex for a 14.5% wine. There is a lot to like in this wine. I’m sure you could age it successfully but I am not sure I can be bothered; it’s just so drinkable and pulsing with pleasure now.

We were supposed to be having a little vertical of Annie’s Lane Clare Valley Shiraz at Hawksmoor tonight. Somehow, our hosts managed to forget them when heading from horrible, horrible Woolwich to the City. Consequently, I popped into Uncorked and scored these two. One was quite delicious, the other just a woeful example of over-blown tedium.

Auxey-Duresses Premier Cru 2006, Comte Armand
Quite a pale colour. A lovely nose of fresh, ripe fruit. The fruit character is quite complex by itself, but together with its earthy richness and extremely subtle oak treatment this is a properly pleasing nose. Perhaps not as ripe and powerful as the 2005 flavour of this wine that I’ve had a couple of times recently, but sometimes we appreciate refinement rather than power. Now that is an attractive palate. Its rigorous tannic structure is backed up with lovely, attractive fruit and a fine backbone of acidity. Again, not as powerful, nor as tough, as the 2005, but this great drinking stuff. I really like the fruit/tannin interplay, plenty to keep you interested here. There is length and complexity to the palate as well, with fruity, earthy flavours persisting for a long time after you’ve swallowed. Whereas the 05 was really asking for a bit more time in the cellar, you can extract a lot of pleasure from this right now. And we did. For £25 this this high-quality bargain Burgundy, well worth every penny.

Clare Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ‘Blocks Road’ 2006, Kilikanoon
By arse, what an over-blown nose: heavy with dense, stewed, over-ripe fruit and a powerful alcohol burn. This smells like all that is dull and tedious about the Australian wine idiom: just because they want to harvest grapes that are ripe doesn’t mean they need to roast on the vines until they’ve been stewed to jamminess. I don’t really want to taste this, it just smells like it’ll over-whelm my delicate aesthetic sensibilities and leave me tired, shagged-out and generally bored. However, since I dropped eighteen fun tokens on this piece of over-rated rubbish I suppose some had better pass my lips. Yes, this is Cabernet soup mixed with slightly burnt jam. The tannins are over-ripe, there is no acidity to speak of and that fruit has just been cooked to buggery. I really feel offended by this wine. As Peter’s comments on another recent post suggest, this kind of Australian wine is perilously short of redeeming features: you just feel drinking it is far too much like hard work for little reward on the pleasure-front. Does anybody really enjoy these souped-up monsters? We are finding it really hard to finish this bottle even though we are heroes of the booze world who would normally require far more than two bottles of red to drink with our steaks. Clearly sub-interest; it is quite scandalous that people can sell dull, crap, monotonous wine like this for so much money. Dreadful filth. Many apologies to our hosts for supplying this bottle of tedious filth; next time remember to bring the wines you had planned!

I popped these on Saturday for the neighbours to enjoy and I have finally got around to typing my notes up. The Boxler was terribly good.

Pinot Grid Grand Cru Brand 2007, Domaine Albert Boxler
This has a rich, powerful nose of opulent white fruit which hints of being quite roasted. It certainly shows a lot of creamy minerality which makes this quite a complex and pleasing nose. The palate is also opulent and rich. Lots and lots of ripe fruit with some residual sugar clearly presently. The balance is just fine, though, as it has a real streak of screaming acidity running straight through it. So much acidity, in fact, that my poor, abused stomach is complaining about it. The minerality adds to the complexity of the palate and this persists on the rather long finish along with its fruit and acidity. For sure, this is a big wine, but it is balanced and throbs with interest.

Pinot Noir 2008, Delta
There is quite a lot of cherry and strawberry fruit on the nose, but not, if I am honest, that much else. The alcohol level is quite balanced, but this nose is mainly about being fruity and fun. The palate is also very fruity, and there is a reasonable tannic structure to it so it seems fairly lively. It has some length as well, but there is not much in the way of complexity to it. It is quite accessible and delivers some pleasure. As one of the cheaper wines in our ‘general drinking’ purchase I feel this is pretty much up to the expected level.

I doubt many people have noticed it, but on the right-hand side of each Elitist Review page, just under the photoblog widget, is a search box. Until about ten minutes ago there was practically no point in using this; the way my blog software implemented searching was just laughably poor. As I always strive to serve my readers better I have managed, with only moderate amounts of farting around and swearing, to get Google to power my searches. This will allow you, dear reader, to search the sites more effectively and find exactly the piece of vastly opinionated lunatic ranting drivel you are looking for.

Attentive visitors may have noticed the other changes that took place over night. In the hope of having a more consistent look to the sites I have fiddled about with the colour-schemes of the Twitter and photoblog widgets. They now should be less strident and blend in more with the rest of the pages. I hope both my readers view these changes as improvements.

The Elitist Review editorial team dropped by this annual trade tasting organised by Wine Australia, the venue being the rather swish Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea. We didn’t taste so many of the wines, partly because we had a lunch engagement to get to, but mostly because there were epic quantities of piss-boring, industrially produced wine aimed at the enjoyment-impoverished and the tight of wallet. So, what caught our attention?

There was clearly one stand-out producer who made wonderful, personality filled wines in a beautiful style that few other Australians can manage: Mac Forbes. I reported on one of their wines just over a week ago and it was a delight to try some more. His Riesling was really compelling with great acidity and lots of charming fruit; really tasty stuff. I liked the fact that the front label gives the amount of residual sugar in the wine (if only they’d do this in Alsace). The single vineyard Pinot Noir wines, especially the 2008s, were probably the best range of Australian Pinots I’ve tasted. I love their low alcohol and beguiling restraint. Lots of fruit, for sure, but these elegant little beauties were more about purity of expression rather than being fruit bombs that blow your head off at the first sniff. Clark Foyster Wines are the agent in the UK, so go to their website and order vast amounts of these lovely wines! Even the most expensive of the Pinot single vineyards, the Woori Yallock 2008, is undoubtedly worth every penny.

An old favourite producer, Moss Wood, also had some good wines on show. These were only enhanced by being served by the owner’s quite lovely daughter; she was a charmer, alright. The Semillon seemed a good, weighty example with a really pleasing backbone of acidity; it’ll age surprisingly well for a inexpensive wine. Their Chardonnay was reasonably fat, but with its good acidity it never seemed over-blown or heavy, this was definitely a classy Chardonnay which was still recognisably Australian. I have a bit of a soft-spot for Moss Wood Cabernet and the 2006 vintage was a really top example of the wine. We are told the ripening time for the grapes was longer than any in Moss Wood’s previous history and this, we are informed, is why the wine has such a depth of complexity. I think ‘depth of complexity’ might be over-selling it a tad, but I liked the impressive tannic structure that seemed balanced with the ripe fruit and quite unusually high acid levels.

Old favourites continued to provide the quality kit. The mighty and oft recommended Tim Adams had some new wines on show which I had not tasted before. His Riesling Reserve 2008 was a delicate entity of purity and exquisite attractiveness. Not very alcoholic, but its refinement… oh its refinement… A 2009 Pinot Gris was also on offer which had a pleasing opulent fruitiness, but thanks to its great acidity it seemed totally balanced and extremely drinkable. A top wine for the price. It appears the Cabernet I used to recommend to anyone who wanted a bargain but quality wine has become Cabernet Malbec, we tasted the 2006 vintage. It is still a winner, maybe a bit more rigorous than previous vintages with a good interplay between big tannins, fine acid and piles of fruit when you drink it. We have tried The Fergus, Clare Valley Shiraz and The Aberfeldy so many times we didn’t re-try them, instead we moved on to a new red wine for us: Tempranillo Reserve. This demonstrated that even brilliant winemakers cannot do everything right: it was utterly, horribly disgusting.

A few more Rieslings sucked us in. Mesh Eden Valley Riesling 2007 was fresh and focussed as ever; a really affordable Riesling that is an enlivening, vigorous pleasure to drink. Then we tried Jeffrey Grosset’s two 2009 Clare Valley vineyard-designated Rieslings, Springvale and Polish Hill. As usual, these were piercing, riveting wines that screamed with frightening acid-levels and exploded with vivacious citrus fruit. Perhaps it was because these wines were being served at such a young age that they seemed fruitier than normal, the citrus fruit was very primary. They seemed the best two examples of these wines I have tried.

I shall pass over the mundane and simply pedestrian wines we sampled, and there were too many, and move onto spewing invective about the actively nasty filth we mistakenly tried. Some of the most repulsive white wines I have ever been misfortunate enough not to have avoided tasting came from Leeuwin Estate. When sniffing the Art Series Riesling 2008 I just about managed to empty my mind of the over-whelming revulsion long enough to wonder whether making insecticide really was an art. It smelled like the Platonic ideal of fly spray. What fruit was there was really confected and this, together with the pronounced Raid characters, just wanted to make me cry and wail asking what terrible crime I had committed to have to stomach such an abominable wine. I don’t actually know what insecticide tastes like, but I’d wager Art Series Riesling is pretty close to the most vigorously toxic kind. The Prelude Chardonnay was a melange of confected fruit and clumsy oak; no balance, harmony or charm, too much like sucking a charred plank coated with foam-banana sweets. Vile. Then came the ‘ooh fancy!’ Art Series Chardonnay 2007, retailing for an impressive £47 a bottle. For this princely sum you’d get a boringly overblown Chardonnay with an expensive but awkward and inept oak treatment that just smacks you on the nose and palate with its aggressive, unhinged character. The palate had no redeeming features, being too oaky with strangely contrived fruit flavours and no hint of length or complexity. What a pile of horribleness for so much money.

Finally I want to roundly abuse a particular style of Pinot that some people in hot climates make. My examples of this style are made in the supposedly cool climate region of the Mornington Peninsula by the producer Ten Minutes by Tractor. We tried their 2008 ‘10x’ Pinot Noir which is a blend of grapes from their three vineyards and two 2007 single vineyard Pinot Noirs. They were such travesties of the noble Pinot grape that Ten Minutes should be first up against the wall when the aesthetic revolution comes. All these three wines were really hot and alcoholic, seeming quite unbalanced because of this. But, because the poor Pinot had been left to bake in the sun for too long the only characters that remained were utterly ghastly HP Sauce and Bovril-like qualities. These can often be found in Pinot Noir that has been left to roast on the vine far too long and Ten Minutes by Tractor had clearly got their technique of ruining Pinot down to a fine art. If you can imagine, oh I am not sure I want to, a mix of one third Bovril, one third HP Sauce and one third vodka then you would have the perfect recipe for overblown Pinot that would be terribly, shamefully close to these offerings. I hated them.

Still, the good wines were good and I don’t  have to try the bad ones any more today. Many thanks to the UK arm of Wine Australia for organising this event.

I’ve had some seriously good Rieslings in recent days; the two best ones in this flight were screamingly brilliant. Indeed, I’d go as far as saying that, Trimbach-style aside, Alsace Riesling does not get any better than these two. Shame about the knackered Z-H, but that is the risk you take when keeping these wines. The 2001 Z-H Rangen Riesling we popped recently was fine, but a 1998 popped a couple of weeks before was totally oxidised; do we have worries about the longevity of Z-H Rangen Riesling? Anyway, the notes!

Riesling Grand Cru Schlossberg Cuvée Sainte Catherine l'Inedit 2000, Domaine Weinbach
This has a livid, exciting but dense nose of fresh tropical fruit; passion fruit and mango. It is certainly big and buxom, but with all the intense minerality this displays it seems far from overblown. That creamy minerality really speaks of its origins, and its scale speaks of the ripeness of the grapes used in this cuvee. This is a passionate, sex-tastic nose that really begs you to have a taste. So I will. What a palate! Certainly big and powerful, with a noticeable amount of residual sugar, but it does not lack balance. The acidity is really impressive for a wine of this scale, giving it proper harmony. Its complex mineral character also shows strongly on the palate, and by my auntie’s nipples is it pleasing. Even though this does have residual sugar there is a savoury character to this which I always like in white wines. And I am yet to  mention the commanding fruit which dominates the palate, which I should do because it smacks a big smile across my chuffed visage. This is certainly up for drinking (with screaming pleasure) and I feel it is even better than the 2002 we had at The Ledbury on Monday night. Thrills, spills and orgiastic love from this wine; drink it and grin like an irritatingly smug person.

Riesling Grand Cru Brand 2000, Domaine Zind-Humbrecht
This also has a very large-scale, opulent nose, but the fruit is more like apricots and peaches rather than the tropical offering from the Inedit. The vineyard character, which my chum Jeremy accurately describes and being hot and roasted rather than mineral, is certainly present. There is a pretty serious alcohol burn to the nose, but with all of that fruit you don’t mind so much. The palate is a huge mouthful of sweet fruit, alcohol and just about enough acidity. There is quite a lot of residual sugar and given its merely passable acid levels this doesn’t seem as thrillingly harmonious as the Inedit. It is very tasty, though, and does deliver on the pleasure front especially if you like Rieslings to possess heroic levels of alcohol and intense, opulent fruit. Yeah this is properly good, but not as good as the Inedit.

Riesling Grand Cru Rangen Clos Saint Urban 2000, Domaine Zind-Humbrecht
A rather worrying shade of orange. A sniff: Yes, it is oxidised, past it and generally shagged out. There are hints on the pretty knackered palate that this was once a big, alcohol-and-fruit-driven wine with a lot of residual sugar, but it really is exhausted in the ‘nice drink’-sense.

Right, are you ready? Ok, let’s go!

Riesling Grand Cru Sommerberg Vendanges Tardives 2000, Domaine Albert Boxler
In contrast to the proceeding wines this nose of this seems a sculpted entity of pure finesse and beauty. There is some scale to it, and candied fruit hints, but its totally focussed minerality gives this an exquisite character which is mind-bendingly thrilling and exhilarating. To sniff this is not only to be taken on a roller-coaster ride of riveting intellectual excitement but also to be stunned by its visceral, sex-charged love-power. The palate is even more lewdly delicious. For sure, it is quite large in scale with a good blend of candied and fresh fruit, but its balance and focus boggle the mind. It has a really precise minerality, the totally clear-cut expression of which one expects from a Boxler Sommerberg; just so electrifying, man. The quite scary levels of acidity which slash their way across your palate keep even this clearly ripe, late-harvest palate in total harmony and bursting with pulsing, throbbing life. It not only screams balance, class and refinement, but also shouts how much it loves you and wants to make you happy. Easily one of the very best, most thrilling, rabidly exhilarating Vendanges Tardives Rieslings I’ve had.

Our final wine of the evening was a red to go with the partner’s excellent ragu bolognaise.

Cornas ‘Domaine Saint Pierre’ 1996, Paul Jaboulet Aine
A good, mature nose of soft red fruit and a pleasing earthy complexity. It is quite a polished and generally cleaned-up nose for Cornas. It certainly smells like it is in very good condition and generally up for drinking. And the taste? Ah, how disappointing, it suffers from ‘1996-syndrome’, which is to say the acidity levels are too high to be ultimately balanced. There is plenty of fruit, which is soft and charming, a good, rigorous but refined tannic structure, but that acid really bothers me. Not a bad wine, by any means, but the harmony is ultimately lacking.

Last night we had a brilliant meal at The Ledbury. The wine list was most keenly priced and we chose one top wine and one which was disappointing. Still, much fun was had; it is a great place to eat. Anyway, the wines:

Riesling Grand Cru Schlossberg Cuvée Sainte Catherine l'Inedit 2002, Domaine Weinbach
An explosive, decadent nose which just throbs with rich, ripe fruit and powerful minerality. Certainly a biggie, with concentration and power in spades, but not short on compelling, lovely charm (much like the winemakers themselves). It positively throbs with pulsing, thrusting life, no sign of oxidation at all. You’d have to be a pretty jaded Riesling drinker not to sniff this and chortle with mirth. The palate is also on the large-scale side. It has a powerfully rich fruitiness, a layered density of mineral flavours and searing but totally balanced acidity. What a palate! Big and weighty, for sure, but supremely harmonious. I’m charged up with aesthetic power after tasting this; to sip even the smallest taste is to love it and desperately want a bigger taste. Drink it now, boys and girls, its just scrummy.

Cote-Rotie ‘La Barbarine’ 2005, Gangloff
The fruit seems good and pure on the nose, but lacking a touch of the scented beauty I like in Cote-Rotie. Lacks complexity, too. It just seems a bit anonymous with nothing to really compel or draw you in to enjoy. The palate has a reasonable amount of fruit, but I don’t really go for the slightly over-extracted character it has. And those are pretty much the only characters the palate shows. It is short with no complexity to speak of. Deary me, a flat and boring Cote-Rotie from the great 2005 vintage, just what were they thinking when they made this wine? It didn’t take much thinking on our part to realise it was up to much. This ranks as ‘sub-interest’; if you want to buy good Cote-Rotie which is properly beautiful and complex stick to Clusel-Roch, Burgaud, Jamet or Jasmin.