Wine sales, consultancy and education
This is one of my favourite grape varieties and luckily for me, for some strange reason - aside from wine critics who adore it - the general public appear to be rather adverse to its charms and as a result it offers terrific value for money. I say “for some reason” but I know the reason (probably!) and you can blame those popular sweet wines (and I use the term loosely!) of the 1980s: Black Tower, Blue Nun, Liebfraumilsch….need…
I attended the recent Wine Barn German wine tasting principally as a bit of research for my next blog on Riesling but wanted to flag up a couple of wines that I thought were really intriguing and absolutely lovely that may be new to some readers. First up from the Franken region: Wirsching 2016 Iphöfer Kronsberg Scheurebe Alte Reben Dry Scheurebe is a variety not seen much outside of Germany and Austria which is a shame as this cross…
From the Luigi Bosca Bodega in Mendoza (Argentina) comes this quality red blend: dominated by Cabernet Savignon (50%) and Syrah (35%) with the lesser known Tannat grape completing the blend and providing a bit of extra tannic bite. This is not a wine for the faint hearted, it’s big, bold and richly textured with plenty of bright fruit on the nose and palate: blackcurrant dominates (it reminds me of Ribena!) but there is also a deft herbaceous edge to…
A lot of commercial entry level Aussie Shiraz comes from very warm locations and the results can be very big wines (alcohol in excess of 14%) that are both jammy and confected – fruit bombs with no style or substance. This is not one of those wines! This Shiraz has a lovely balance of fruit, tannin and acidity – thanks to being grown at altitude in the cooler Adelaide Hills in South Australia, the diurnal temperature range ensuring the…
First off Happy New Year! The themes for the majority of my blogs this year will look at both popular and lesser known wine regions and grape varieties as well as interesting wines I have tasted. I am as always available to answer any wine questions you may have, just drop me a line. Ok, onto this first post of 2018 – Rioja. As I am sure most of you know, Rioja is a region in Northern Spain not…