Wine A Bottle of Wine at this week's Mini Tasting

That's right, this week's mini tasting is your chance to wine a bottle of delicious wine!

We'll be tasting one wine blind, and the first person to correctly guess what it is will wine a bottle.

It's as simple as that.  All you have to do is join us from 4pm on Friday or any time on Saturday, taste the wine, make your guess and hope you're right.

I wonder who will win...

Friday Tasting Preview #5: Guggable Cab Sauv

Sadly for you, I'm not foolish enough to preview the competition wine, so here are my notes on one of the wines I've just brought in to refresh the 'everyday favourites' section of the shop.

Kintu, Cabernet Sauvignon 2010  £6
Although Red & White have sold this wine for some time, for some reason it's only just found its way onto the shelves of The Wine Store.  Cabernet Sauvignon is the red grape that Chile initially built its reputation on.

In the reliable climate of the valleys between the Andes and Coastal mountain ranges, Cabernet Sauvignon ripens much more readily than it does in, say, Bordeaux, and gives fruit driven wines of eminent gluggability!

A vibrant ruby red, with red cherry on the nose and a palate full of forest fruits, the tannins here are soft and supple and the wine's retined a real freshness.  Lovely, lifted red berry fruits on the finish round off a wine that may not the most complex or serious but is emminently drinkable, especially at (an increasingly rare) 12% ABV!


Tecchie Stuff:  100% Cabernet Sauvignon, fermented in stainless steel with no oak.

Friday Tasting Preview #4: Pretty Sancerre Rose from Andre Neveu

It may be just a little predictable, but I can never resist a drop of something pink at Valentine's day.  Surely this is the one day of the year when a little bit of kitsch is allowed?  I'm a dedicated dry rosé man though - noneof your "white" zindfandel here please - so this wine from the Loire valley should be right up my street.

Don't believe my tasting note?  Join me at  tonight's free Mini-Tasting  from 5pm to taste it for yourself.
 

Andre Neveu, Sancerre Rosé, 'Le Grand Fricambault' 2009  £16
Most people imagine Sancerre to be an exclusively white wine producing area, but the reds and rosés from these vineyards can be equally successful.  Indeed, the area was a flourishing Pinot Noir district in the 19th century and this is the grape that is now uses to make both styles of wine.
This single vineyard wine, made by the fifth generation of winemakers at family-owned Andre Neveu, is made using the 'saignée' method, which involves bleeding some wine from red wine fermentation vats after only a few hours contact with the skins and is the method used for nearly all rosé (with the exception of some champagnes).

This wine is all about texture and persistence.  A charming salmon pink colour, it has a subtle nose with roses, strawberries and redcurrants on the palate but it's the mouthfeel that's really impressive.  Bone dry, it manages to combine taut acidity with a rounded, full mid-palate and finishes with a burst of redcurrant fruits which seem to stay in the mouth forever afterwards.

Tecchie Stuff: 100% Pinot Noir from the Grand Fricambault, made using saignée method and rested in stainless steel tanks.

Friday Tasting Preview #3: Great Greeks

My rather belated New Year's Resolution is to drink more interesting wines, so here I am tasting what most be one of the more unusual whites in the shop.  Greek wine can get a bad press with the general public but this is a unique and exciting wine land with both brilliant wines and fantastic potential thhrough the application of modern winemaking techniques to ancient indigenous grape varieties.

Gentilini, Robola of Cephalonia 2009  £12.50
The white grape Robola is native to the Ionian island of Cephalonia where it is grown on vines trained low to the ground on mountain slopes.  The british governor of the island Charles Napier (1782 -1853) described it as like drinking "a wine made from stone" - let's hope that this wine, made by one of two small but forward thinking family wineries on the island has a bit of fruit too!

Pale yellow in colour, this turns out to have a gently lemony nose with notes of grapefruit and just a hint of almonds.  It's a realy refresher this - lots of acidity with a relatively neutral mid-palate which if anything expresses the stoniness Napier talked of.  The finish has real crunch though and good carry with fennel, aniseed and more nuttiness.  This may not be bursting with aromatics but I can just imagine polishing off a bottle with a freshly caught fish in some picturesque greek harbour, so bring on that Devon summer sunshine and away we'll go!

Tecchie stuff:  100% Robola from high altitude vineyards on Cephalonia.  Cold fermented at 14 degrees celcius and kept well away from oak.

Australian Wine Extravaganza: The Highlights

Now, that is a way to celebrate Australia Day - even if we were a bit late.  We decided to go big for our first tasting of 2011 and last night opened every single bottle of Australian wine that we stock.  A bit of a marathon taste you might think, but there's certainly no better way to get a handle on a country's wines!  We ran the full gamut from sparkling to sweet, but for me it was the reds that stood out, both in terms of quality and variety.  I've picked out one which I especially liked below, but frankly could have chosen one from a number of contenders including D'Arneberg's Dead Arm, Clonakilla's Hilltops Shiraz and Penny's Hill Grenache


Dean Hewitson, Ned and Henry Shiraz 2006
Dean is one of the nicest men in Australian wine, and also one of the country's most talenteed young winemakers.  After studying in California and making wine under great names like Brian Croser, Hewitson set up on his own in 1998, originally renting vines in the Barossa Valley and borrowing winery space, though he now has his own winery and is buying up parcels of old vines outright. 

Ned and Henry is on expressive form tonight, with an energetic bouquet full of blueberry fruit and well integrated, spicy French oak notes.  The palate is clean and crystal clear with more red than dark fruits, a suggestion of menthol and a hit of classic Barossa alcohol.  It's deliciously smooth and certainly ticks the 'drinkable' box but posseses a long finish which denotes real class.  Seems a shame to throw the leftovers away really... so I'll leave them here for you to taste over the weekend!


Tecchie Stuff:  Shiraz with a drop of Mourvedre are dry farmed in old Barossa vineyards and see around 15 months in French oak barriques

Friday Tasting Preview #2: My Burn's Night Dram

Not one to miss out on the blindingly obvious, I reckon that the perfect theme for this Friday's Mini Tasting is Single Malt Whisky, just in time for Burn's Night on Tuesday.  We'll be sampling the whisky of four distilleries from across Scotland, but my preview is a beautifully balanced Islay malt.

Connoisseur's Choice, Caol Ila 1998  £35.50
Now, whilst I appreciate malt whisky wherever it comes from, I'm a bit single minded in my personal consumption - I just love Islay malts.   Anyone who's visited the island and smelt it's salty, peat smoke aroma and then tasted the whiskies will attest to their expression of terroir, a concept more familiar in the hands of Burgundian winemakers.
Though perhaps less exalted than its neighbours, Caol Ila is the largest distillery on Islay and much of its production goes into Johnny Walker.  The best expressions carry a sweet maltiness under the peat smoke which make it more approachable than monsters like Laphroaig.

Tasted neat, the nose is full of peat ash and marmite with just a hint of salinity.  Whilst the palate is drying the peat doesn't dominate, and though it's difficult to find the richness that sherry casks should impart, there's a really evocative seaweed character here.  A drop of water (distillers often taste at around 20% ABV where the full spectrum of flavours is most evident) softens the smoke revealing delicate tea and apple peel flavours. I'm surprised by the lightness of touch here as I was expecting more power - but this is truly impressive for a 12 year old malt.

Tecchie Stuff:  Malt from the Port Ellen distillery with phenolics (peat influence) of 35ppm.  Spirit distilled in 1998 was aged in refill sherry casks by independent bottlers Gordon and Macphail and bottled in 2010 at 43%ABV.

Make your mind up this Friday Evening (21st Jan) from 5pm by tasting this alongside three other exciting single malts.

New Arrival: Bruno Sorg

I've been a big admirer of Bruno Sorg's wines since I first tasted them a few years ago. They have a delicacy and purity of fruit that runs through his entire range regardless of grape and Muscat, and their consistently high quality year on year is astounding. Production from his vineyards, which include vines in three Grand Cru sites, is tiny - just 5,000 cases - so we're lucky to have got hold of a few cases which have just arrived in-store.

Though many of us know Alsace for its Gewurztraminer, it's Riesling that the locals aspire to make great run from so Sorg's perfumed, grapey Muscat 2009 (£17) is joined by two brilliant Rieslings - the young, fresh, limey Riesling 2009(£14.50) and the majestic Riesling Grand Cru Florimont 2005 (£21).  Sorg's Grand Cru wines need at least four years in the bottle, so it's wonderful to be able to offer you something just coming into it's own!  A full tasting note will follow, as soon as I've got my teeth into a bottle!

.

Friday Tasting Preview #1: New Portugese Red

Right, my first New Year's resolution to go booze free in January lasted about 6 days, so here goes Resolution number 2 - to actually use this blog. I thought a great way to get started was to begin bringing you tasting notes on the wines I've been drinking and especially previews of the wines on show at our Friday Evening Mini Tastings. Here goes!

Terra d'Alter, Tinto 2008 £8.50
The wines of Terra d'Alter landed in the shop just before Christmas so I haven't had a chance to get to know them properly until today. The winery was founded in 2004 and is the latest project of Australian winemaker Peter Bright (of Bright Brothers fame), with a focus on applying new world winemaking to traditional portugese varieties to produce top quality, premium wines from the hot, dry Alentejo region in southern Portugal

Ripe and juicy, this is an easy-going (and not exactly premium at £8.50) red with the emphasis on the fruit. There's just a hint of cigar box spice on the finish but otherwise this is all about plum aromatics and bright raspberry/strawberry fruits. With its medium body, soft tannins and well integrated alcohol this is a charming introduction into the wonderful world of Portugese wine.

Tecchie stuff: Aragones (Tempranillo to you and me), Alicante Bouschet, Touriga Nacional and Trincadeira, 6 months maturation in French oak.

Make your own mind up and try two more Terra d'Alter wines at tonight's Friday Mini Tasting (Friday 14th Jan from 5pm).





.

New Year, New Wines

It's been a quiet start to January on the new wines front, though we've got an awful lot of exciting juice on the water heading this way.  While we're waiting for these to arrive, there are still one or two choice morsels to get your teeth into:

We've long been fans of Seresin Estate's biodynamic wines so it's a joy to welcome their Chardonnay to the Red&White fold with its classic barrel fermented Kiwi stylings. 
Our Portugese section has been long overdue a re-vamp, so the arrival (admitedly just before Christmas) of a quartet of delicious wines from Terra d'Alter in southerly Alentejo is a relief - two whites and two reds including the estate's flagship 'Outeiro' (now there's a wine with Robert Parker's name on it!)
Greece has been in similar need of attention but we now boast a Robola (crisp, refreshing white from Cephalonia) and Red Nemea from Gentilini and a Mavrodaphne of Patras (sweet red) alongside old faves Hatzidakis Santorini and Melikos Muscat.
Last but not least, a couple of exciting wines from iconic producer:  Gaston Huet's Demi-Sec Vouvray 'Le Mont' joins the dry wine from the same vineyard, and, just in time for Chris' birthday, a couple of bottles of Krug Grand Cuvee have turned up from somewhere!

We'll be opening some of these wines (though sadly not the Krug) at Friday Mini Tastings over the next few weeks, and watch out for more exciting new arrivals, coming soon!

Christmas Kick Start at The Wine Store

I'm really getting in the Christmas mood now.  The shop's full of great Christmas wines (including a host of special deals spuriously entitled 'The Twelve Wines of Christmas"), we've a Christmas Tree in the window and I'm even thinking of getting the Christmas tunes on the stereo.

To keep me feeling festive I'll be opening wines to taste every day until Christmas, and I hate throwing wine away so make sure you visit and sample some wine with me. Today is Friday so I think we'll open four Christmas Crackers:  the perfect wines for this December.

The other good news is that we've finally finished off our retail wine list.  This can be found on our website here:  http://www.red-white.co.uk/wine_list.php and I'll have some copies in store very soon.

Red+White Christmas Wine Tasting

RED&WHITE’S 

annual Christmas Wine Tasting 

is at the South Sands Hotel,
Salcombe on Wednesday 1st December,
from 6.00pm until 8.30pm.

With over 80 wines open to taste, and plenty of wine
trade experts there to guide you through the range,
it is an informative and enjoyable way to
select some great wines for Christmas.

Tickets are £10 per person, payable in advance.
To book please call 01548 853 898 or
e-mail shop@red-white.co.uk

The South Sands Hotel are offering a set-menu
Dinner afterwards; £14.95 for 2 course and £19.95
for 3 courses. Booking via the hotel advised.

Fantastic tasting with Pedro Benito

This Wednesday's tasting with Pedro if Urbina Rioja was just brilliant.  Pedro's a great speaker and managed to keep the 30 strong crowd in the shop enthralled for well over an hour and a half!  His delicious Riojas may have helped a little.

 It's rare that a tasting throws up a series of wines that so perfectly show a progression of style (and price) whilst retaining a clear family identity.  With the exception of the new 'PLOT' wine, Urbina's style is unashamedly traditional, and textbook Rioja Alta stuff:  fine-boned, elegant fruit with the oak in perfect harmony.  Frankly, it's hard to pick a winner from the night as each wine performed it's job perfectly, but the PLOT was the most popular, and the Gran Reserva Especial 1994 really showed it's class!




Here's a quick video of some of what you missed!

Winestock: The Aftermath!

Wow, what a day!  Yes, I know this report on WInestock is being posted a little late, but I had so much fun I had to take a holiday!

Anyway, here's a full report on Winestock (click on the image below to read a full size version):

WINESTOCK: Red+White's Summer Wine Festival

This summer's greatest wine event is here:

Click the image to view it in a larger format

Call 01548 853898 to book your tickets today

Tasting with Domaine Begude

We were delighted to welcome James Kinglake of Domaine Begude to the store on Thursday night for a fantastic tasting of his wines.
Running through his range of whites (and refreshing rose), from the amazing value 'Amelie' (named after his daughter who also made a brief appearance) to the classy 'Etoile de Begude' and controversial 'L'Exotique', James gripped the crowd with his tales of winemaking exploits in the south of France and his philosophy on wine, organics and much more.
Below is just a short exerpt from the evening in which James describes his experience of the 2009 vintage (it was a warm, sticky night so we tasted with the door open, hence the annoying traffic noise):

Wine World Cup Semi Final Result

A comprehensive victory by SPAIN in last week's Semi Final sees them through to the final on the 15th.  Who will join them?
USA and ARGENTINA play for their final place tomorrow evening (Fri 2nd) between 5 and 7 - join us to help decide the final line up!

Tickets for the final on the 15th, which takes the form of a fully tutored tasting, can be bought for a tiny fee of £5 by calling 01548 853898.

Wine World Cup: The SEMI FINALS are here!

Last week's Group 2 tasting was very exciting, with a closely fought battle between Australia and USA for 2nd place ending in a victory for the Americans, who join winners Italy in the Semi Finals.

Tomorrow (that's Friday 24th June) will bring the first of the Semi Finals, between last week's winners ITALY, managed by Liam and SPAIN (under Chris' guidance), runners up from Group 1.


In the Semi Finals, each country will be represented by 4 wines - 2 whites and 2 reds, chosen by the managers who will give a quick presentation about them at 5pm before you taste and score them.  REMEMBER, we just want to know which wines you like, so you don't need to be an expert.

The tasting is between 5 and 7pm on Friday 25th June but you can join in by tasting the wines on Saturday or all of next week too.

It's hotting up, so time you got involoved!

The Results are in: Wine World Cup Group 1

A shock early exit for France last week as Argentina (1st) and Spain (2nd) progress to the semi finals.

Andy is delighted with his team's win, whilst Liam is licking his wounds and planning a comeback with Italy this week.  Joint top wines of the night were Finca Los Prados Chenin/Semillon and Quinta el Refugio Toro.

Take part in the Group 2 Tasting on Friday 18th by coming along to the store between 5 and 7pm and tasting for free!  Tomorrow's teams are:  Italy
                                                  Germany
                                                  USA
                                                  Australia

It's really easy to join in.  Just come along, taste the 8 wines on show and give us your marks out of 10 for each (you don't have to be an expert, we just want to know what you like).

There's a short presentation by the teams' managers at 5pm (each Red+White staff member is managing a team and we're getting very competitive about it so sparks may fly) but you can taste any time until we close at 7 or on any day throughout the following week.

See you there!

Meet the Winemaker Tasting: Domaine Begude

Following his aborted attempt to get over in May, I'm delighted to announce that James Kinglake from Domaine Begude will be joining us (ash clouds permitting) for an IN-STORE Tasting on Thursday 1st July

TASTING:  Meet the Winemaker, Domaine Begude
Date:  Thursday 1st July
Time:  7pm
Veue:  The WIne Store, 99 Fore St, Kingsbridge
Tickets:  £5 per person, available on 01548 853 898

Owned by an English couple from the South Hams who are living the dream in the south of France, Begude make some of the best Limoux wines going. Not only are their wines favourites at Red+White but they get great press write-ups too, most recently in Decanter Magazine. Hardly surprising really when they make one of the best French Chardonnays outside Burgundy!

Give me a call or email me chris@red-white.co.uk and get your place booked soon.

Wine World Cup Starts Tomorrow

I know it's a cliche to use the World Cup as a theme for store events, but frankly I just couldn't resist!
All throughout June we'll be holding mini-tastings on Friday evening that will double up as fixtures in the Red+White Wine World Cup.

8 top winemaking countries will be competing for the top prize, managed by members of the Red+White team (we're getting quite competitive about this and there's already a whiff of skullduggery in the air), and judged by you, the discerning public!

Here's how it works:
There are three rounds :Round 1, Semi Finals and Final.  In round one, four countries will compete per tasting, represented by 2 wines each.  You come in, taste them and score them out of 10 (you don't need to be an expert, just tell us which you like).  The two countries with the highest aggregate scores go through to the Semi Final.  In the Semis, countries will be paired off and will compete directly against each other, represented by four wines, and the winner will go through to the Final, which is a fully tutored tasting on the 15th July.

Matches take place on Fridays throughout June between 5 and 7pm and the wines can be tasted and scored throughout the following week.

Oh, and the bad news is that England went out in the qualifying round (great whites up front but the defensive reds failed them).

See you at the match.