Golly's Wine Drops

Ironstone Vineyards Zinfandel 2000

2009-11-22T15:05:00.002Z

We had a bottle of Ironstone Vieyards Californian Zinfandel. It had been bought from Meijers in Detroit in 2001, when terrorism was a European problem and the world had banks that people didn't worry about. It had rested quietly in a basement that had flooded a couple of times, before travelling south for a warmer life in the Carolinas, finally crossing the Atlantic to its ultimate destination in my glass.

It looked surprisingly well on it, with a deep mahogany colour and some brick around the edge. It still smelled of red and black fruits with some yeastiness. It tasted dry with a medium high acidity. The tannins were soft and slightly chewy. There was still quite an intensity of fruit, red currants and blackberries, balanced against a positively marmitey yeast character and old wood.

I really enjoyed it, but with the current vintage for sale being the 2008, I'm not sure I can recreate the aging process exactly.

Canepa Novisimo Sauvignon Blanc 2008

2009-11-22T14:36:00.002Z

Some wines taste great with a delicious seafood risotto. Some wines are better suited to being in the risotto.

It's not worth paying £9-11 for the latter.

Greedy Sheep Cabernet Merlot 2007

2009-11-15T20:40:00.003Z

I sometimes can't help myself from buying wines based on their names. It may not be big, it may not be clever, but if I'm visiting Steve and see a wine called Steve's Ridge, I'll buy it. I chose Greedy Sheep as the perfect wine to go with Agricola, one of my favourite games based around being a medieval farmer in central Europe.

I have learned not to have high expectations of these purchases. Greedy Sheep was a rich dark purple, with strong legs. It smelled spicy in an almost Christmas pudding style, yet with an earthy saltiness too. It wasn't quite dry, and it had medium acid, with soft, ripe tannins. It had a lot of fruit, plums and blackcurrants fought it out with a bit of dark chocolate acting as referee.

At £10, this wine is a bit overpriced, but with the compliaction of 33% cashback, £7 is good value.

Berry Bros & Rudd Extra Ordinary Claret

2009-11-11T20:23:00.005Z

We had a mini celebration this week, which required a mini-celebration wine. I was despatched to root around and find the perfect wine. I don't do well under that kind of pressure. It wasn't aa fizzy situation, but I had no red/white bias to guide me. I wanted to make a good choice, not a flashy one, but something reliably good. I was relieved to spot a distinctive BBR bottle closure foil, and extra pleased to see it was an 'extra' ordinary bottle.

My choice was well received. The wine looked good, rich and deep in colour, with good legs. It smelled good with crushed plums and blackcurrants. It tasted good with oodles of rich thick fruity fruit. Yes I know all fruit can be ddescribed as fruity but this stuff was sweet and juicy whilst being dry and steely. That's quite a task.

At just £12 a bottle it's an absolute steal. They're selling the last few bottles now, with the 2005 taking over. I can't wait to try that.

Tbilvino Mukuzani 2004

2009-11-01T14:31:00.002Z

I was out and about for the tourist view of Leicester. I'm doing my best to visit all the tourist attractions in Leicester, today's trip included the fabulous charch of St Mary de Castro at which Chaucer got married and King Henry VI was knighted. this wasn't the highlight according to my guide though, excitement built for the visit to Newarke Houses where Daniel Lambert's trousers are the most famous exhibit. Strange as it seems the people of Leicester are immensely proud of having been home to the fattest man in history, their jovial jailer Daniel.

Distressingly the trousers were on tour, so I only got to see his chair, stockings and shirt alongside a photo of two Blue Peter presenters, one in each trouser leg.

I cheered myself up with a stop off at Evington Wines, a wine shop that punches above its weight. I picked up a bottle of Georgian wine as although archaeological evidence suggests that Georgia is the home of wine production, I'd never tried any.

The store owner councilled against buying the sweet red favoured in Georgia, and we chose a dry style instead. It was interesting as an experiment, but not a great revelation. Maybe as Georgia's economy picks up their wine making technology will improve too. I hope so.

Berry Bros & Rudd Good Ordinary Claret

2009-10-20T21:06:00.003Z

Good Ordinary Claret is a fabulous name for a wine, there's no 'Old Fat Bastard' or 'Penguin Pride' type marketing ploy here, it has a no-nosense air about it. You want a Claret? A good ordinary one? Here you go!

It's a medium garnet colour with good legs. It smells of blackcurrants and plums with a little woody veg. The tannins are ripe and there's a medium full body, with a smooth velvety texture. The blackcurrant flavour is rich, and there's smooth plumminess. There's a neat depth of leathery wood too. The alcohol level is medium, which compares well with New World alternatives. The flavour lingers and yet is more-ish.

Berry Bros & Rudd are masters of understatement. Their Good Ordinary Claret is very good, and at under £8 a bottle, it's much better value than most Clarets and many of the Bordeaux blends from the New World.

Split Rock Sauvignon Blanc 2008

2009-10-04T12:13:00.002Z

The summer is gradually coming to an end despite some unseasonably warm September weather. I've been making the most of warm evenings with a glass or two of cold white wine.

Split Rock Sauvignon Blanc 2008 is a cheery summer number, pale, dry, pleasantly acidic, smelling of fruit rather than grass and tasting zingily limey with some squishy sweet gooseberry, but a just a little unripeness that's neither grassy or nettle-like, just green, like an unripe tomato.

One weird factoid I'm constantly amazed by is that the first Sauvignon Blanc was planted in New Zealand in the early 1970's. The country has certainly established a great reputation really quickly. The good people producing this wine planted their first Sauvignon Blanc in 1973, so they've certainly put some time in, although they've gone with the good quality affordable production route rather than stellar quality at stellar prices. I'm quite glad.

Cellar No. 8 Zinfandel 2005

2009-09-13T15:10:00.004Z

We had a bottle of Cellar No. 8 Zinfandel 2005. It had travelled about a bit in cars and planes and had been subjected to a few changes in climate, none of which tend to improve a wine. It was dark garnet with just a hint of brick emerging on the edge. It smelled smoky with tobacco and morello cherries.

It tasted dry with a medium acidity. The tanins seemed confused, or at least they confused me. They had softened but there was still some firmness, the effect was blocky rather than smooth. The tobacco carried thrugh along with the cherries and some vanilla, but the wood was more cedar than oak.

I liked it, I doubt whether the exact conditions which created the wine I had could be recreated. I'd like to give a less traumatised bottle a try, who knows whether it will be better or worse. This was certainly better than the $7.99 price tag siuggested, particularly as the exchange rate at the date of purchase would have made it around £4.

Brown Brothers Tarrango 2008

2009-09-06T11:00:00.002Z

I went to Tesco in search of large pasta shells to stuff and at the end of the pasta aisle there was a river end full of wine oddities at knock down prices. I picked up some obscurities which I'll try out over the next few weeks including a Welsh wine and some crazy looking Australian blends. Of the more mainstream choices they had a couple of bottles of Tarrango. It's a curious sell for a supermarket - not quite a red, not quite a rose.

It's a recently invented varietal, created in the 60's to stand up to some of Australia's more extreme climates. This one was a cheery fuscia and smelled of freshly squished bright red fruit with redcurrants and raspberries taking the lead. Not fully dry it had a fresh zing of acidity and lots and lots of raspberries and some red cherry.

We had it cold, not quite as cold as a rose, but close, it held up well, and was good value for £6, great at £4.49.

Marks and Spencer Favorita 2007

2009-08-29T11:43:00.002Z

Wandering aimlessly in M&S I spotted a couple of wines I'd never heard of, let alone tried, so I added them to my basket, making my trip out sandwich lunch an expensive adventure.

Favorita is from the Langhe area of Piedmont in Italy, home to some great reds. This wine was a pale lemon colour with an aroma of fresh pear and lemons. It was dry with a medium high acidity and plenty of citrussy zing balanced by pears and some peachiness. The flavour lingered on well, developing an almost nutty sweetness.

I was pleasantly surprised by this find, I'll look out for it again. It's worth noting that M&S have 25% off some wines at the moment, so it's worth checking back to see when this one is on sale.

The Crusher Cabernet Sauvignon Wilson Vineyard 2007

2009-08-25T18:54:00.003Z

The nice people at Don & Sons sent me a bottle of their Crusher Cabernet Sauvignon. Having listened to the last few balls of The Ashes it seemed sensible to drink The Crusher to celebrate crushing the Aussies!

Cabernet Sauvignon is not my favourite wine, having rather over-done it in the 90's when varietals were the thing. This one looked interesting though, noting that it was made from the Wilson Family Vineyards rather than anonymous Californian grapes.

It was a garnet colour with reasonable legs, it had a medium light aroma, with vanilla and black fruits. Sweeter than your average European Cabernet it wasn't unpleasantly sweet, and it had ripe soft tannins with a medium acidity. The flavour tended towards Merlot, with black fruits, but less blackcurrant than I expected. The was some mild mintiness, but it was dominated by the soft black fruit and vanilla oak.

This was a smooth and different wine, I enjoyed it and would pay the $12 it retails at.

The Crusher Petite Sirah 2008

2009-08-23T11:57:00.004Z

The nice people at Don & Sons sent me a bottle of their 2008 The Crusher Petite Sirah. I tend to drink a lot more Old rather than New World wines, and generally expect Zinfandel or Bordeaux varietals from California, so Petite Sirah was intriguing.

The bottle was sealed with a Neocork bearing a fancy design, which came out easily enough. It was a dark, thick purple with positively muscular legs. It smelled of equally thick fresh crushed fruit with caramel. It was just dry, with ripe, soft tannins and a medium acidity. It felt rich and rounded in the mouth and tasted of fresh blackcurrants and blueberries and loganberries with just enough vanilla fudge. 13.5% alcohol fitted comfortably into the mix making it a well balanced wine that would hold up well against a range of well flavoured foods.

It retails at around $13 which seems about right for a chunky red.

Berliner Weisse Mit Rot

2009-08-22T12:07:00.003Z

Summer holidays this year included a trip to Berlin, a fabulous city with a rich and varied history, and a vibrant present. We didn't get to any local vineyards, but I did try the local speciality beer - Berliner Weisse.

It's a low alcohol (3%) wheat beer, and it's served with syrup - either red or green. I'd been assured that the green syrup tasted like cough mixture so opted for 'mit rot'. It came in a bowl shaped glass with a straw. It looked rather like a dessert and smelled a bit like one too.

It tasted - bad. Imagine eating a huge bowl of raspberries and a sherbert fountain then dancing. Imagine you now feel a little unwell, you burp. Berliner Weisse mit rot tastes like that burp. I was not a fan.

Our under-age team liked it though (and they weren't under age for drinking it in Germany). I suspect that is its market, alcohol for people who don't much care for alcoholic drinks, rather like the alcopop market.

I'm glad I tried it. I won't repeat the experience.

La Vendimia Rioja 2006

2009-07-21T19:52:00.006Z

So Contador is in yellow and all is well. I can drink Spanish wine and call it necessary for blogging purposes. I'm so excited about how Bradley Wiggins is doing that I may have to stock up on English wine anyway just to be supportive.

We had a La Vendimia Rioja which I'd picked up from Berry Bros Outlet store. The salesman nodded appreciatively as he rang it up and told me he'd bought a few for himself. The great thing about BBR sales people is they are all very nice, all absolute wine lovers and all completely incapable of lying to make a sale. I asked about a Californian Albarino I was buying and he smiled, said, 'yes, it's interesting', and moved the conversation on. He was right, it was interesting if you are interested in overpriced, under flavoured, characterless tosh.

Back to the Rioja. It was a dream. It came in layers with spicy oak and caramel and blackberries and strawberries and brambles and hedgerow. I felt like Violet Beauregarde chewing my way through flavour after flavour but I didn't swell up like a blackberry.

This was a good value wine at £8 retail, an absolute steal at £5.50 Outlet.

Bellevue Hill Chardonnay 2007

2009-07-07T20:35:00.003Z

So the Tour de France is hotting up. The Isle of Man has failed to become a major wine producing region and whilst I'm happy to keep toasting Cavendish with beer from his home island, I can't write up every bottle.

Cancellara is in yellow, but I only have one Swiss wine in the house and that has more of a novelty than taste appeal. Astana won the Team Time Trial today in quite some style, but again I have failed to stock up on wines from Khasakistan (but if you know where I can get some let me know).

I settled instead for an Australian wine. I don't think I'll be needing to save a bottle for the Champs Elysses. It was a good value example of a full on Australian wine, lots of peachy-melon fruit sitting comfortably under a warm layer of butter toffee. This wine isn't hugely complex or sophisticated, but it tastes good and it's easy to drink.

Dirler Riesling 2005

2009-06-30T19:47:00.004Z

Germany took on England in the final of the European Under 21 Championship last night and I had neither English nor German wine in the house. A sad state of affairs. I opted for a wine from Alsace, the best I could do in the circumstances.

It was a good choice for a hot day. The Dirler Riesling was very dry with an almost savoury herbiness. The citrus was more grapefruit than lime and there was a petro-chemical element which became more obvious as the wine warmed up.

The wine was better than the game. I gave up at 4-0 and watched the tennis instead. Pass me a Pimms.

Poggio Nibbiale Morellino di Scansano 2005

2009-06-19T07:23:00.004Z

We settled down to watch Italy play Egypt in South Africa for the Confederations Cup. It seemed sensible to have an Italian wine. It was great fun to watch Egypt win, sadly I didn't have an Egyptian wine to switch to.

We had a Poggio Nibbiale Morellino di Scansano 2005, which I'd picked up at the Berry Brothers Outlet store. It's made with organic Sangiovese, I don't normally seek out organic wines, but I certainly don't object to them.

This wine was dark and leggy, it smelled of rich black cherries and something slightly cigar-like. It has a fairly robust level of tannins, which sit well with the black cherry and damson flavours. This was very unlike the cheery cherry-pop Sangioveses I enjoyed cycling through Tuscany in 2005. It's more structured and sophisticated, unlike the Italian team tonight.

Chapel Down Pinot Blanc 2005

2009-06-10T18:48:00.005Z

You may have just missed English Wine week, but never mind, you are allowed to drink English wine other times too, like maybe when England are playing a World Cup qualifier, even if it doesn't look set to be much of a contest (although the England cricket team might have said the same before their match against the Netherlands).

We had a Chapel Down Pinot Blanc 2005 during wine week to celebrate. It was crisp and dry with a little crisp apple, some tropical fruit and a light spiciness. It smelled of grapes, not something I think very often when smelling wine. It was good, but it did have something of a two level flavour, with tropical fruit seeming to be a slightly different slice to peppery grapes. I was intrigued and looked up the data sheet. It seems two yeasts were used for two seperate vinifications, with the resultant wines blended back together. Maybe that gave it the half time split.

I enjoyed it, but wouldn't have paid £11 if it wasn't English. English wine is getting better all the time, and some of it is quite outstanding. I've certainly had English sparkling wine which outcompetes many Champagnes. The problem it has is cost. Whilst bits of Southern England have the same bedrock as important bits of France, and now a more appropriate climate for wine production than those same bits of France, land prices remain offensively high. England is small and lots of people want to live in it. France is big and not many people want to live there, and whilst that remains the case, English wine will struggle to compete.

Villebois Loire Sauvignon Blanc 2007

2009-06-03T18:22:00.003Z

The Loire valley has some odd things going on. New Zealanders have spent some time over there, making Sauvignon Blancs that have all the fruity exuberance you might expect from Marlborough with the flinty steel of the riverbanks. Villebois comes from the delightfully named Joost de Villebois, a Dutchman who is bringing some passion to Loire winemaking. His ethos is to maximise sun whilst minimising chemicals. It sound like a good idea.

The wine is pale and smells fresh, grassy and gooseberry-like. It’s dry with a good hit of fresh citric acidity. It has a reasonable body, more so than many Sauvignons and some grapefruit and gooseberry, but there’s a lot more fruit in there with candied pineapple and other exotic fruit. It almost tastes like it took a short break in Alsace. At 13.5% it does pack quite a punch, but as it’s so easy drinking it’s easy not to notice.

At £8 a bottle it’s a good alternative to a Marlborough Sauvignon with significantly fewer airmiles in Europe. Naked Wines are currently selling his wines and offering some good deals for new customers which are worth checking out. The 2008 vintage has just arrived.

Oak Leaf Chardonnay NV - Wal-Mart

2009-05-26T20:10:00.004Z

On a recent trip to a Wal-Mart in North Carolina I noticed a bottle of Californian Chardonnay at $2.97. Curiosity got the better of me. I had to try it to see just what it would taste like. Our expectations were low so we picked up some plastic cups and headed straight to the Kinston Indians Minor League Baseball where we planned on drinking it. We hadn't thought that part of the plan through well as you can't take bottles, or the picnic we'd stopped at Wal-Mart for, into the ballpark.

So we saved the Chardonnay for a while. Curiosity being a persistent little fellow, we soon wasnted to try it. It wasn't what I expected. It had crisp green apples, melons and a bit of pineapple, toasted oak chips, and a little more sweetness than my European palate is used to in a Chardonnay but not an unpleasant way. The flavours were a little separated out, not totally chunky, but slightly askew. That was only a minor criticism for a $2.97 wine. It is not possible to buy any kind of grape beased wine in the UK for that money, and I've paid more than double that for far worse wines from New and Old Worlds.

Do I care that no-one wishes to claim these grapes came from their part of California? Do I care that there's not only a mix of vineyards, but there's also a mix of wines from different vintages? No I do not! Wine drinkers of America, don't be snooty! Stick a few bottles of this in a bug bucket of ice and let people serve themselves at picnics, barbeques and garden parties. They'll be happy and you won't be skint.

Eurovision Sparkle

2009-05-20T18:39:00.003Z

It was the Eurovision Song Contest this weekend. For those of you outside Europe (or the Fererro Rocher serving neighbouring countries that join in) you missed a treat. It was a fabulous evening of craziness, wild frocks, LCD screens and cheesiness.

We thought it the perfect time to crack open a bottle of Sekt Mild we'd been given. It came with a golden label just for the occasion. It was pale lemon in colour with a fairly aggressive fizz. It didn't smell of much and the bubbles didn't calm down much in the mouth.

It tasted sweet with some citrus acidity which seemed to sit on a different table to the sugar. The taste was of bubble gum and toffee apples, not fresh ones, but ones which were accidently left to boil too long and go black. It really wasn't very good.

However, the wine curious teens gathering to score the Eurovision contenders on song, outfit, dancing, performance and 'novelty' loved the wine. They declared it to be lovely, 'like fizzy marshmallows' and 'the best Champagne (sic) I've ever tasted'. It's a worry but it seemed perfectly positioned to take the teen market by storm.

Ben Zuaique Selección 2005 Syrah Merlot

2009-05-13T19:02:00.005Z

The nice people at Naked Wines sent us a bottle of Ben Zuaique Selección 2005 “Sirah y Merlot” so we gave it a go. The bottle looked pretty ropey, with a home-made looking tag on the collar, but there was a silver medal of some sort hiding behind it.

It was a deep, clear purple with thick lingering legs. It smelled clean with a medium full intensity, the aroma hinted that the wine was still developing. The dominant scent was of black cherry pie filling and a cinnamon pastry. I liked that.

It was dry with medium acidity and ripe, soft tannins. It had a medium-full body and intensity with alcohol at 13%. The black cherry pie filling was still there with some bramble leaves and something pleasantly meaty, along with caramel. The overall effect was rather like some individual plum parcels my mum used to bake, served with a cinnamon plum sauce. That flavour lingered well.

I really enjoyed the wine, and would not immediately have placed it as a Merlot-Syrah blend. It was different to a Rioja, but with some of it's smooth chewiness, and different from a Rhone blend but with some of its engaging spiciness. I'd buy it again.

Ben Zuaique Selección 2005 “Sirah y Merlot”

2009-05-13T19:01:00.000Z

Bonjorne La Mancha Tempranillo Cabernet Rosado 2007

2009-05-10T14:32:00.004Z

We were a little suprised to need a pink win last night. I had got a little ahead of myself and put a bottle of Bonjorne Rosado in the fridge hoping to drink some tonight to celebrate a Mark Cavendish stage win - it sounded kinda like Bonjourno. But against the odds Highroad won the opening team time trial and Cavendish stuck his nose ahead to become the first British rider ever to wear the pink leaders journey.

Bonjorne La Mancha Tempranillo Cabernet Rosado 2007 didn't smell of much, just a little citrussy and some curious processed meat. That isn't meant to be a condemnation, I used to like Spam. It tasted of strawberries and meat. My best guess was duck in a strawberry sauce, something gamey. We tried cooling it down with an ice jacket and giving it half an hour. It was a good idea.

Served very cold it was much better. It tasted like strawberry ice cream. The cool temperature noot only amplified the strawberry and killed the meat, it also seemed to reveal some malolactic creaminess.

It was a good Spanish rose, robust, flavourful and dry. At around £4.50 a bottle it was excellent value. I'm baffled as to why nasty 3 for £10 big brand Australian and Californian roses take up so much shelf space when high street retailers could sell good roses at affordable prices from Europe. Fools.

Trento DOC

2009-05-10T14:16:00.003Z

Does anyone know where I can get Trento DOC in the UK? I suspect I'll want to celebrate with Mark Cavendish again today, and there's only so many pink wines I can drink during the Giro. I'd love to drink Trento DOC whilst watching podium celebrations. I suspect I could even open the bottles far more smoothly than him.