A selection from a recent Le Mistral tasting

For years and years, the restaurant I manage has had a monthly wine club descend into its private room, each member, bringing a bottle or two from their personal cellar, covers it with a sock/tin foil or paper to hide its identity, and relinquishes it to the group.

Each is tasted blind and guesses of its country of origin, grape variety, producer and vintage are all thrown around the table until we arrive at it's true identity.

Until last year I was only a spectator at these events, serving up the food and hospitality, now, happily, I am no longer on the outside looking in.

It's always hard to know what to take along, and how my bottle will stand up to what everyone else brings. I have only been amassing my modest collection for a year or so, whereas most of the group have been collecting for decades, so it can be tricky to find something of interest and worth. It doesn't need to be expensive or incredibly old, but as long as it provokes some conversation, a wine will generally be well received.

The Foundry, Grenache Blanc 2010. Stellenbosch, SA.

The Foundry is a project in its infancy but comes from a pretty decent producer from Stellenbosch and its surrounding areas- Meerlust. They seem to specialise in a few Rhone white varietals including Roussanne and Viognier too.

This wine is very aromatic, pungently smokey to begin with, but this blows off reasonably quickly. What follows is oak, a custardy, vanilla nose, with bundles of tropical fruit; maybe it was a bit too cold but the nose just didn't quite fill the glass. The palate however was very pleasant, lots of cakey smoothness. Great dryness and refreshing citrus acidity fills your mouth, with a very slightly honeyed finish and wooded notes. 




Domaine De La Borie Blanche. Terriors D'Altitude, AOC Minervois La Liviniere 2008.

70% syrah, 10% grenache and 20% mourvedre. Typical of the region, but what made this slightly different was that 20% of the syrah had been fermented through carbonic maceration, which was evident, certainly in the nose of this wine. It was weighty, and powerful with a degree of alcohol, but underneath was some lighter fruit and herbal notes, and possibly some menthol too. The dominant fruit on both the nose and palate were blueberries and black currant, but some cherry and strawberry sweetness came through every so often. 
Also on the palate was a great deal of tannin and stewed fruits, and prune. This wine was a bit soupy, and heavy, possibly needs some time to lighten up and for all the aspects to come together.

Joseph Swan Vineyards, pinot noir, Russian River Valley CA 2006.

Swan Vineyards are a great small winery based in the Russian River Valley in Sonoma County, producing great things, at reasonable prices too. 
This wine had a really perfumed nose of light, sour cherry, earth, oak and some other mild fruit fragrances, with some mouth wateringly tangy cranberry right at the end. This follows through onto the palate, great redcurrant acidity and red fruit characteristics. Some of these characteristics say this could be a chunky, modern Burgundy, but the giveaway is just the mildest hint of alcoholic heat, which makes this absolutely delicious!

A couple of whites

Whilst in London I managed to try a couple of wines, at two locations, and of the six or seven I tried, the following two were real standouts.

Alban Vineyards Roussanne '09. Calistoga, California (Hedonism Wines)
Alban pride themselves on being one of the first (if not the first) Rhone varietal specialists in California, shunning the well trodden Cabernet Sauvignon route. Their wines are always really well made and subsequently carry decent price tags!
This wine has a deliciously rich, cakey nose, full of spice and ginger. With loads of tropical fruits too, grapefruit, pineapple, and some floral qualities. There is oak, but it feels relatively restrained, adding a slightly warming caramel note, which follows through onto the palate. More of the same tropical fruit, and then a great flash of acidity stops the oak from becoming too much. A really nice wine.

Gusbourne Estates, 'Guinevere'. Oaked Chardonnay 2010, Appledore, Kent. (Wine Pantry)
The few hours spent in London really took it out of me, somehow my phone had drained its battery leaving me no way of arranging meetups once in Brighton. So, returning to St Pancras for my connection, stressed, tired and cut off from the rest of the world, I came across 'The Wine Pantry'. A little bar and shop specializing in nothing but English wine. Once sat down with my phone being revived, I regrouped with a glass of this wine.
A massive nose, full of fresh basil and menthol aromas, piles of citrus and oak too. There are elements of cream and even some coconut? Trademark tropical fruit too, more than I expected for a Chardonnay from somewhere as Northern as England.
The palate has loads of acidity, making it hugely refreshing. It needed this acidity though, as those oaky, creamy notes from the nose roll over onto the palate and need cutting through. More menthol and some butterscotch comes through alongside some pineapple flavours. This wine was such a surprise, add in the time, place and level of relief I had gained, it was spot on!

A whistle stop London visit.

A couple of weeks ago I made the long journey South from Nottingham to Brighton, to see a load of friends,  who I haven't seen nearly enough of in recent months, to spend a long weekend catching up and having some relaxing time away from work. En-route I decided I would stop in London for a few hours and take in the sights, and visit a certain wine shop in Mayfair - Hedonism Wines.
It's the most ostentatious place I have ever seen. It holds a massive range of the finest wines, in most cases, at eye watering prices. There's a Mouton room, a Penfolds cave, a whole wall devoted to Y'quem with vintages dating back to the 1940's.
It is an utterly ridiculously excessive place to be. And I loved it!! Not because I aspire to be able to afford and purchase a '99 La Tache for £10,000, or a Cognac from the 1850's, but because of the sheer madness of it. The whole place is so madly overblown and high end, it's an experience just being there.
 

I sometimes wonder whether these places are really in existence to function as 'go to' places for that nice bottle of a Friday night, or are they more like showrooms. Places where people can go and browse the pristine objects on display, and fall over at their price tags. I think they act more as a tourist attraction, which isn't a bad thing. Somewhere where a 'normal' person, who has an interest in this area, can be surrounded by the unobtainable artefacts and imerse themselves in the higher echelons of wine, and the finer things in life. 

I don't think these establishments will ever cater to the masses but they do hold relevance, and are a great example of providing a really great customer experience.

The first tentative steps into blogging...

Here it is, my first blog.
You'll find that most of my input on here will be in the form of tasting notes and thoughts from various events/ tastings/ things I've opened at home. My content, certainly for the time being, will be in absolutely no chronological order, as I'm playing catch up with page after page of notes.


I'm pretty new to wine really. I began working in a restaurant two years ago with a decent wine list, having never touched wine before, and not really able to even use a cork screw!
Following a short period of wine indulgence and a few positive experiences trying some really special wines, I was hooked.
Everyone I have spoken to who is also really into wine seems to have their trigger, or way into this past time. For me it's California, after watching Oz Clarke and James May's big American Wine Adventure, I knew this was the area that would get me hooked. I liked the approachability of Cali wines (certainly that of the ones I could afford) and the attitude of its winemakers. Throwing off the shackles of tradition and creating 'forbidden blends', flouting the laws of prohibition (in fact increasing wine production during this time) and taking a very modern approach to wine making.

Around the same time as this epiphany, my grandfather had bought a load of wine, that shared his family name, 'Bogle'. Coincidence or not, Bogle Winery is based out of Clarksburg in California! Near Sacramento and the well known wine region of Lodi, a notable home for the mighty Zinfandel.
Ever since I first tried his Sacramento Delta Chenin Blanc, I knew California was somewhere I wanted to get  better acquainted with at some point, visit!

My first consignment of Bogle wines. Viognier, Chenin Blanc, Petite Sirah, Zinfandel and Chardonnay.
And Olive (one of two cats I have) in the background