Birthday dinner - Hambledon Rose which was lovely, the weather was not a good at the Rose, and red Isole e Olena Chianti - followed this winery since 1986 - superb producers
8 Likes
Drinking this tonight with barbecued leg of lamb and a stew of fresh borlottii beans (from my allotment obvs). Essentially a declassified amarone from an interesting young wine maker
5 Likes
4 Likes
This is lovely. Grown on the Tinwood Estate near Chichester, a few miles from here, and bottled for them by Ridgeview. Strange to think that such delicious wine is made just down the road. It almost makes up for our cancelled trip to Fleurie next month. But not quite!!
5 Likes
Ch Doisy-Vedrines Sauternes 2011
Deep yellow colour with strong pineapple notes on palate along with butterscotch and glacé orange rind. Lovely long finish. Still has years to go.
8 Likes
What was the occasion, Rod?
An annual meet-up of some MW student buddies, who are - gradually - passing the exam.
(There were 12 of us contributing and consuming the wine, I should say.)
2 Likes
I forgot to write up the other holiday wines, so this is based on scribbled notes I wrote when you asked.
La Lagune 2008 - Nice deep ruby colour with some bricking to edge. Fantastic complex mid weight nose, cassis, plum, tobacco and cedar with lovely earthy and spice scents framing the fruit. Palate follows through on the promise, medium acidity and complex mushroom/cedar/tobacco tannins frame a mid-weight fruit palate of cassis, plum, cherry. More earthy flavours and some lovely peppery spices follow through, and a blackcurrant and floral perfume stays in the mouth. Beautifully balanced mid-weight wine, gorgeous to drink now, I suspect at its peak with another 5 years or so to go. The spices and earthiness will get more complex, but I think the fruit will fade about then. What would once had been called a perfect Englishman’s claret.
d’Issan 2010 - Classy but young. Deep deep ruby colour, powerful nose of cassis, framed by cedar and some green pepper. The palate opens with lovely bouncy acidity and cedar tannins, followed by powerful cassis flavours. There is some red fruit, some cedar, some greenness, it’s an immensely powerful palate, not as rich and lush as the ‘09s, so more in my preferred style. It’s young, not showing the additional complexity it’ll start to show in maybe 5 years, a really nice drink with a couple of hours in decanter.
The Léoville Barton ‘08 performed as usual, great wine.
Summary, the ‘09s are lovely but a bit too ripe for me, the ‘08s are a very classy well balanced vintage, the ‘10 was great, young and has a lot of life left.
The old school style clarets, La Lagune, GPL and Barton all performed as I like, well balanced, complex and refreshing, really really enjoyable. The d’Armhailac was lovely, but the vintage balance was a bit rich for me. The d’Issan was a beautiful young claret. All in all fantastic wines to enjoy even in the 30 degree heat, a lovely part of a lovely holiday.
3 Likes
A couple of friends coming for dinner and these are the wines. Chapel Down Three Graces 2015 for aperitif. Horgelus 2017 ( gros and petit manseng with dash of Sauvignon blanc) for beetroot and goat’s cheese salad. Little Beauty 2018 Pinot noir from Marlborough to go with Greek roast chicken and potatoes and a Greek salad. To finish a half bottle of Doisy Daene 2005 to go with cranachan
8 Likes
2006 Keith Tulloch Field of Mars Shiraz
Found abandoned in a wardrobe at my other house last week and drunk during a Zoom call with some good friends at the end of the week, nice brick red colour glows in the decanter. Nose has leathery dark red fruits and earthy notes with a hint of acidity. Palate is slightly faded black and dark red fruits, strong acidity, dusty tannins and leather, on the medium side of heavyweight. It’s a very nice drink, a bit beyond its peak, I suspect down to having been left lying in a wardrobe for a dozen or so years, if it had been in my cellar I think it’d be a classy mid-weight Hunter Shiraz at its peak.
5 Likes
8 Likes
Don’t Tell Gary Shiraz 2018 McPherson family wines
Grampians region Victoria
Lovely example of cool climate Shiraz which is all about high quality fruit which really makes this wine dangerously drinkable. Almost like an Australian Beaujolais in that it goes down very easily.
Glorious medium dark red colour. Floral blackberry and blueberry fruits with a degree of spice and very smooth tannins. Not a wine for classicists, sorry @Eoink but not bad for about £12 in the UK. It is multiple award winner over much more expensive wines.
5 Likes
That looks interesting might look that up, cheers. 
2 Likes
This wine was bought by my better half - here is a description from the shop she bought it. We had it with some rather salty gammon, but the wine stood up well. It threw a lot of sediment, still quite fruit with tannins in the background. I believe it’s a blend from 2013.
A very unique fine wine that is drawn from a blend of the finest wines from Caves Messias three finest vineyards, the Messias Triumvirate presents an intense, almost opaque red colour. The edge of the glass show fine violet nuances. On the nose the wine captivates with a fresh and fragrant aroma of blackberries and flowers.
The portuguese vineyard Caves Messias produces excellent wine since 1926. Founded by Mr. Messias Baptista, who acted as a chariman until 1973, it still is a family-owned company. The winery is situated in the center of Portugal in the region of Bairrada, where the estate covers vineyards of aproximately 160 hectares.
On the different locations you can find Portugal’s typical red wine grape varieties Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinto Cão, Tinta Roriz, and Tinto Barroca as well as the ones for white wine Malvasia Fina and Rabigato.
5 Likes
I should say at the outset this wasn’t my choice and came in a twelve pound meal deal from M&S. It described itself as ‘smooth and rounded’ and it wasn’t wrong. I thought it overly chaptalised but it was ‘only’ 13% when I was expecting more. It was perfectly likeable with the food we had, not the meal deal. Maybe a bit of tannin and a bit of acid (dare one say it, character?) was a bit too much ask at this price. [rhetorical].
Though I must seem critical, I quite enjoyed it for what it was.
5 Likes
Slightly OT, as I’m not actually drinking them (nor have I drunk them) at the moment. However, this weekend I was helping a friend to clear out some of the outbuildings at her Mother’s house. In a dark dank corner of one we found the remains of the wine cellar. Sadly, the promise of bottles of Romanee Conti didn’t materialise (possibly the rats drank it instead) and there were plenty of others that looked well over the hill and far, far away, however, we did uncover some that were possibly OK, but worth saving whatever - some Chateau Latour and Chateau Cheval Blanc. As a reward for my hard work…
Gawd knows how they have held up, '74 not being a classic year, but the levels aren’t too bad. What do the experts here reckon?
10 Likes