Wine sales, consultancy and education
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…
Still looking for the perfect sparkler to see in the New Year and don’t want to spend the earth? If so, you definitely want to consider this lovely Cava. Made by the same Traditional method as Champagne but using predominantly Spanish grape varieties (Xarel-Lo, Parellada and Macabeo), this sparkler is made in a ‘Brut Nature’ style - effectively meaning no dosage (sugar) is added post disgorgement, but if you are imagining this could be too dry then don’t worry,…
Monastrell (aka Mourvedre) is a grape that requires a lot of warmth to fully ripen and whilst it is grown in many warm climate regions its tannic, often quite rustic style means the grape tends to be used primarily as part of a blend as opposed to a varietal wine. However I have found a lovely single varietal version from Alicante in Spain that I really recommend! Tarima Monastrell is hugely quaffable! The esteemed Robert Parker gave this wine…
I hunted out this wine in LIDL this week after reading it had recently won a gold at the IWC (International Wine Challenge), not only that but it was in fact the lowest priced supermarket wine to win a gold! So what did I think of it… Vibrant ruby in colour with aromas redolent of predominantly red berries (cranberry, cherry, strawberry) alongside smoky dusty notes on the nose. On the palate this is a bone dry, relatively full bodied…
Following on from my recent blog posts on Sparkling wine and by popular demand, the inaugural Wine Demystifier wine tasting evening was held. With Christmas fast approaching it seemed an ideal time to explore various Sparkling wines and see if we could find any hitherto hidden gems, and some gems we did! The 8 wines selected were carefully chosen to reflect different production styles, grape varieties, dosage levels and even time spent on lees to see how all these…