Latest wine news from Surf4Wine

BBC Oxford - wine tasting challenge. Part 2, red wines

Wed, 28 May 2008 07:47:10 +0100

Part two of the BBC Oxford wine tasting challenge. Andrew is aiming to teach BBC Oxford mid-morning presenters Danny Cox and Louisa Hannan everything about wine in just three days - a lost cause some would say, especially as, until now, Danny doesn't drink!

The general idea, aprt form to have a bit of fun, is to see if some rapid fire wine tasting can teach Danny Lou the basics of wine, and then test which has become the better wine taster.

Today is red wines, and like yesterday, it is set-up in two parts.

BBC Oxford wine challenge, red wines. Part 1

We have out up a list of the red wines tasted today if you would like more information.

BBC Oxford wine challenge, red wines, part 2

Pasta and Chardonnay...

Wed, 28 May 2008 05:56:09 +0100

Up with the lark today as I wanted to speak to Kelvin our web-designer who lives in the USA. Opened up Thunderbird (free and excellent email browser in case you are wondering! Highly recommend it - but I digress...) and the first thing I saw was the weekly email from Wine Spectator.

It features what sounds like a very tasty pasta dish using bacon, pine nuts, raisins and two cheeses, designed by Shea Gallante, the chef at New York's Cru restaurant and partnered with a Colombia Crest 'Grand Cru' Chardonnay.

And it set me thinking about a wine I drank just before the bank holiday, Vergelegen Reserve Chardonnay 2006.

Beautifully poised, elegant and rich, this buttery/toasty Chardonnay would, I think, do as good a job with this pasta dish as the Columbia Crest that The Spectator are featuring. Plenty of lip-smacking fruit and well-judged oak to work with the richness of the dish, but enough acidity not to make the whole combination too over-powering.

In fact, if I had been tasting the Vergelegen blind I would possibly have put it into Burgundy, perhaps from Meursault. And in that context not only is is a lovely wine, but a bit of a bargain too!

BBC Oxford - wine tasting challenge with Danny & Lou

Tue, 27 May 2008 10:34:40 +0100

This is the first part of our wine tasting challenge for BBC Oxford mid-morning presenters Danny Cox and Louisa Hannan. Today we are focusing on how to taste wine , and putting that into practice with white wines.

BBC Oxford wine challenge, white wines. Part 1

Each of segments is split into two pieces of audio (yes, Andrew just can't stop talking about wine!) The audio here went live straight after broadcast - thanks Danny for a very easy way to grab the audio. It then got uploaded straight away to our new podcast system here on surf4wine, where it will have a permanent home!

BBC Oxford wine challenge, white wines. Part 2

If you would like to see a list of the wines tasted in today's session, please go here.

We will blog/podacst each of the three days wine tasting training here, and then the taste off on Friday 30th May to see who is the best wine taster - good luck Danny and Lou!

Bank Holiday's, Vouvray and wine blogs

Mon, 26 May 2008 08:58:34 +0100

It's a Bank Holiday in the UK, so having a slightly leisurely morning; although thinking I ought to be up and out as I've some errands to run, and even an emergency delivery to make. It's an awful day weather-wise, so not much chance on geting the Bar-B later out either.

Alison is doing a shift at JackFM, so just me and the kids until she gets home - maybe it's the perfect weather for a trip to the cinema? Or just some films on the TV...

With some extra time to hand I've been catching up on some of my favourite wine blogs. In fact, I just saw the Vouvray Sec 1995, Gaston Huet that we have on our list mentioned by Jamie Goode over at The Wine Anorak. Vouvray, made from that chameleon grape variety Chenin Blanc, is a lovely wine - produced, as Jamie points out in his blog post, in a variety of styles from bone-dry to lusciously sweet and everything in between. Vouvray can be, perhaps, a bit tricky for the novice wine drinker. Vouvray can be fiercely acidic in it's youth, and the sweeter styles often have their higher sugar content masked by their acidity or alcohol/ripeness, so can be difficult to asses when young. Vouvray's, both dry and swet styles, can age brilliantly with this natural acidity helping to keep hem fresh and lively - for decades in the right year. I have been lucky enough to try some pretty old vintages in a former life while Butler at The Queen's College in Oxford (now that was a job I enjoyed - almost as much as being a wine merchant!), and I have always been a bit of a Vouvray fan ever since (check out Surf4Wine's current Vouvray selection) - so it was nice to see them mentioned on Jamie's Blog.

Actually, having a bit of extra time to take look and delve deeper and think about wine blogging (normally it is a quick zoom through headlines/latest posts while having my first cup of coffee!), it struck me how lucky we are in the UK with the variety of wine blogs we have, blogging on everything from Best Buys to latest tasting notes and news. In fact, it's set me to thinking about an idea mentioned to me recently by Spanish wine blogger Ryan Opaz over at Catavino; a feature on the Best of British Wine Blogs. I think that could be an interesting idea to explore further on our blog here in coming weeks ... so, do you have any favourite UK wine blogs?

Andrew on BBC Radio Oxford

Sun, 25 May 2008 11:05:23 +0100

Who was it who said there's no rest for the wicked?! Andrew didn't get a bank holiday lie-in today - he was up getting ready for an appearance on Louisa Hannan's Sunday radio show on BBC Radio Oxford.

Lou invited a local chef Graham Ameson of Hackett's in Witney to come up with a summer dish. (Although in typical bank holiday fashion, summer had gone for a lie-down and thunder storms were the order of the day.) Which meant Andrew spent some time wracking his brains trying to figure out which wine to match with "sweet pea risotto". Is that a risotto made with sweet peas? Or a sweetened risotto with peas?? Whatever the answer, the dish called for something subtle. (Don't know why they asked Andrew then - hah.) Andrew finally plumped for Paul Cluver Sauvignon Blanc - a vibrant white wine that should enhance the taste of a creamy risotto. He also took in Berton Estate Reserve Botrytis Semillon.

Click below to listen to Andrew, Graham and Lou talking about Charles Melton's Rose of Virginia, Chocalan Syrah Petit Verdot Rosé and courgette flowers!

Andrew on BBC Radio Oxford

Surf4Wine talks to Gregory Patriat

Thu, 22 May 2008 18:35:19 +0100

And so to the last of Andrew's interviews with winemakers at the London International Wine Fair. He's someone who's no stranger to Surf4Wine, as we've held a couple of tastings of his stunning wines in Oxford. He got a very warm reception too! He's who makes wines for Jean-Claude Boisset, which is a smaller part of the huge Boisset empire. He's one Frenchman who's wholeheartedly embraced the Stelvin closure, and while Andrew was doing the interview with him at the Boisset stand, he noticed that the firm's branching out into wine in tetrapaks and plastic bottles. Every winemaker Andrew spoke to endorses screw caps (although the great British public is rather less keen), but wines not in glass bottles?? Watch this space, because Boisset's convinced that it's the future for wines.

Click here to listen to Andrew talking to Gregory Patriat.

S4W talks to Gregory Patriat

S4W talks to Mark Shannon

Thu, 22 May 2008 18:04:03 +0100

Andrew's still buzzing about the London International Wine Fair. And one of the most interesting winemakers there was Mark Shannon, who makes A Mano wines in Puglia.

He's a Californian who visited Puglia in Italy and fell in love with their wine, and way of life. He moved over there a few years ago, and now makes A Mano wines ("A Mano" meaning "handmade") with passion and old-fashioned know-how.

We've always loved A Mano here at Surf4Wine, and if you've ever tasted any of Mark's wines you'll know why. Click below to hear Andrew talking to him about everything from cleanliness to George Clooney!

S4W talks to Mark Shannon

S4W talks to Matt Thomson

Thu, 22 May 2008 13:20:41 +0100

Andrew's back hotfoot from the London International Wine Fair with more interviews from some of the world's finest winemakers. He caught up with Matt Thomson, an incredible man who not only manages to produce some just stunning wines for Delta Vineyards, St Clair, Alpha Zeta and Ca del Matt - as well as being involved witb the increasingly pipular Tinpot Hut wines, among others, but is also a keen kayaker, (ironic for a flying winemaker!), and was New Zealand's K2 marathon kayaking champion. Phew!

Andrew managed to get him to stand still for just a couple of minutes! Click below to hear their chat.

S4W talks to Matt Thompson

A. Mano Aleatico Passito 2007

Wed, 21 May 2008 10:18:06 +0100

Having arrived at the fair much later then planned on day one, I really only had time for two 'meet-the-winemaker' interviews for our Blog (hear my chat with Charlie Melton), and get the latest gossip from the Liberty stand.

But, I did manage to taste a few wines - more to do today - and I couldn't resist blogging about this one in particular as it is both from an old favourite in terms of producers from our list, and made from a grape variety I hadn't herd of until yesterday.

A. Mano Aleatico Passito 2007 is a red sweet wine made form the Aleatico grape variety. Lovely dark chocolate notes, ripe plums and hints of dark berry fruits. Really interesting bitter-sweet finish that, I think would make this wine a great partner to that most difficult of food-stuff, chocolate.

Nice to taste something new, and a very good reminder of one of the reasons that Italy is so interesting as a wine producing country. Namely, it has a whole host of native grape varieties to tempt and intrigue us with. More like this please...

Apologies for photo quality. I didn't want to be bothered lugging a camera to London as well as an MP3 recorder and laptop, so this is taken with my iPhone. I love my iPhone, and I was happy to see it could handle the odd photo situation too.

Now I'm off on a train again for the hard slog back to London Excel and day two of the fair. It's a pretty torturous experience getting to the fair - Wantage to London is the easy bit with Paddington only a 45 minute train ride away. It's the bit from Paddington to Tower Gateway, and especially the DLR train ride to London Excel that is the real killer. At least I have 'Spooks' on the iPod part of the phone to keep me company - oh, and a few more blogs to get up too!

S4W talks to Charles Melton

Wed, 21 May 2008 09:09:18 +0100

It's a busy couple of days for Mr Chapman (and I don't just mean the list of jobs I have waiting for him at home) as he's at the London International Wine Trade Fair.

1200 exhibitors, 180,000 bottles from every wine-producing corner of the globe, 14,000 visitors - and one man wandering around with a microphone. Andrew's doing interviews with as many winemakers as possible to bring you a flavour of the wine trade's biggest show in the UK. Watch this space for more interviews, but for now sit back and enjoy his chat with the legendary Charles Melton.

S4W talks to Charlie Melton

'In the Press' - Shaw and Smith Shiraz 2006

Sat, 17 May 2008 07:10:50 +0100

Nice comment on Jamie Goode's wine blog for one of our favourite Aussie Shiraz: Shaw and Smith Shiraz 2006.

Read Jamie's comments on Shaw and Smith Shiraz...

Modern-day parables

Mon, 12 May 2008 11:55:20 +0100

Every Friday at about 5.30am the alarm goes off and Andrew crawls out of bed - all in the name of business. And a good breakfast, because he's off to Oxygen Business Forum . It's a collective of like-minded business owners who were so fed up of the formulaic business clubs with their emphasis on how much business you could get from everyone who came, that they decided to form their own club. Aleady the members have run a mini-marathon to raise funds for Helen and Douglas House, a local children's hospice and have just adopted a school with the aim of giving something back to the community.

One of the members there is Hilary Farmer who practices Human Givens Therapy and teaches dyslexic students. She's got a master’s degree in education and firmly believes that we're all born needing essential things like love, security, fun and friendship. It's when those needs aren't met that things go awry. Hilary uses storytelling to gently get to the heart of a problem, and to help her client explore it.

Every week she comes up with a new story for the members of Oxygen. We thought you might like to listen in. We're hoping to bring you one of these a week. But for now, as the news of human tragedies in Burma and China comes in, and we worry about the credit crunch at home, please enjoy Hilary's take on the tale of the widow's mite - with a modern twist.

'Story of the Week' 12.05.08, by Hilary Farmer

Twitter breaks Earthquake news first

Mon, 12 May 2008 10:29:07 +0100

OK, this isn't a wine or food story, but I think is still interesting none-the-less. So gets a mention anyway....

I come in for a fair bit of stick about my love of all things technical. I've been banging on to anyone who'll hear (well, mainly the family) that Web 2.0 is the way forward, as it's stuffed full of possibilities. And I think I've just been vindicated! (I just had to blog about it today, because as my wife kindly points out, it's not often I'm right.....!)

It seems Twitter (a micro-blogging service that I've belonged to for some time) is now making history. Members claim they were the first to break the news of the China earthquake - before any established news agency got hold of the story. Rory Cellan-Jones is the BBC's Technology Correspondent. Read his interesting article here.

Robert Scoble is mentioned in the BBC article, and is actually someone I have been following on Twitter for a while now. Mostly for his writing on web 2.0 and other techy stuff. I too woke up and saw his Twitterings, just like Rory Cellan-Jones at the BBC. In fact, I found the BBC story because Robert mentioned it on Twitter - nice to know I'm following the right people!

This may not seem a big deal, but it is. Several news providers like the BBC, ITV and Sky have flirted with "citizen journalism". (This means using first-hand reports from witnesses to crashes and crimes, using photos and videos of things like tornados in Birmingham and the aftermath of bombs on London Underground. Although as Private Eye magazine points out, they have to be careful of mischievous citizens using stills from films or photoshopping pictures of celebrities into crowd scenes!) Twitter's gone one step further, and reminded us how we're all interconnected these days. If you've ever wondered what other people's lives are really like; what they dream about, hope for and get down to doing then I can heartily recommend Twitter! (By the way, if you want to find out what I'm up to, you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/surf4wine.

We're trying hard to make the most of new technology at Surf4Wine. I can't report any earthquakes in this part of the world, but it looks as though something seismic is happening in cyberspace. You heard it here first!

Welsh Whisky

Fri, 09 May 2008 22:16:24 +0100

I was just surfing the web and came across this story about Welsh Whisky on the BBC news web site.

It certainly looks interesting - anyone tasted it yet?

We shall be investigating further and hope to report back soon.

Five German Rieslings: Four 2002 Spatlese and a 1998 Auslese

Wed, 07 May 2008 20:06:35 +0100

Today, being the first Wednesday of the month, is Wine Blogging Wednesday. This month's theme is Riesling, but only if it comes from Europe - no New Worlds allowed!

After a quick bit of head-scratching while at the warehouse earlier on in the day I decided on Germany, largely because the only other contender was our sole Alsace Riesling, and I wasn't really in the mood somehow. I think it was mood plus the burst of beautiful Summer-like weather (hottest day of the year so far here in Oxfordshire) that made me think of German Riesling. Summer and Riesling wines, and especially those light, beautifully poised, elegant German Rieslings seem to go togther.

So, the next decision was 'which German Riesling?' It wasn't until I got to the warehouse that I remembered we had quite a few. Steve, my warehouse manager, calls this Andrew's shelves as I'm the only one that seems to go there (not strictly true, but I see where he's coming from!)

In the end, I realised that there was an obvious plan forming in my Riesling-starved brain. (Haven't had any Riesling, and especially German Riesling, in quite a while as it happens). We had four Spätlese from four different regions staring at me from the shelves, all from the excellent and highly rated 2002 vintage. Why not a vertical tasting to celebrate Riesling and Wine Blogging Wednesday?

I get my Riesling fix AND get to see how this much acclaimed vintage is holding up. Oh, and before I left I spied a lone half bottle of Niederhauser Hermannshohle Riesling Auslese from Weingut Hermann Dönnhoff, so I decided 'in for a penny...'

Alison will be thrilled at the choice of wine tonight. She's a red wine drinker at heart and loves Riesling nearly as much as Andrew Barrow over at Spittoon in his Riesling blog post earlier today!

Anyway, onto to the mini-marathon German Riesling tasting...

Eitelsbacher Karthäuserhofberger Riesling Spätlese 2002. Mosel 8% alc
Beautiful bright, green-gold colour. Very classic Mosel-styled floral notes on the nose. Surprising weight on the palate for a wine at only 8% alcohol. Peristant length; poise; elegance. The merest whiff of that oft-quoted Riesling aromatic of petrol - not the most attractive aroma in the world, but classic for aged German Riesling. Definitely NOT petroly in an over the top way... just a kind of wee hint. Funnily enough, a lot of tasters over here in the UK quote Petrol/Kerosene as being classic for Riesling, whatever their age. A very good German wine merchant friend of mine is adamant that any idea of petrol aromatics in young German wine is considered a wine fault on his side of the Mosel.

Schloss Saarstein Riesling Spätlese 2002. Saar 8% alc
Paler than the Eitelsbacher. More muted aromatics. No petroly tones here; bright floral elements. Grapey (an odd word for a beverage made from grapes, but I hope you get what I mean - Muscaty. Almost). More weight than the Eitelsbacher so I'm guessing riper/higher must-weight . Alcohol is the same. But also a kind of steelyness and directness. Crisp, refreshing acidity. Clean, crisp finish with good weight. Quite foodie really.

Rudesheimer Berg Roseneck Riesling Spätlese 2002, Weingut Leitz. Rheingau 8.5% alc
Pale green-yellow. Floral and touches of spice on nose. Weighty and concentrated on palate. More noticeable sweetness than previous two wines. Very concentrated. Touches of apricot, Spring blossom, even exotic fruit. Lick of spice (ginger perhaps?) Nicely balanced weight, fruit and acidity - touch of crisp green apples on finish. Will continue to age well over next 1-3 years.

Monzinger Frühlingsplätzchen Riesling Spätlese 2002 , Emrich-Schönleber. Nahe 9.5% alc
Pale, pale yellow with hints of green. Stone-fruits, floral tones, some citrus (orange/grapefruit) and spice. Definite spice. But still very typical Riesling and not deviating into Gewurz-like territory. Rich palate, with spiciness following through. Weight, concentration. Immaculate balance of fruit, weight, concentration and complexity with a lick of refreshing acidity. My favourite wine of the four. I like the extra dimension the weight and concentration brings, while still retaining Germanic Riesling purity and elegance. It's warmer in the Nahe than some of the other classic wine regions of Germany. And the extra weight, ripeness and alcohol this gives the wine make it slightly fatter then the other three. Veering it ever so slightly towards the new world style of Riesling. Food friendly? Certainly. Drink by itself? Well, that too... I am now. And enjoying it massively!

All in all a fun exercise and a look at a classic vintage from some highly regarded producers. Thank you Wine Blogging Wednesday for giving me a chance to open these bottles and remind myself of the flavours and diversity of Riesling.

Oops, I almost forgot. What about that 1998 Auslese Riesling from one of Germany's star winemakers, Dönnhoff?

Niederhauser Hermannshöhle Riesling Auslese 1998, Weingut Hermann Dönnhoff. Nahe 8.5% alc. Nahe 8.5% alc
Pale gold. Nose of apricots, honey, peaches. Taste is apricoty, with hints of citrus, even marmalade. But not super rich. Still quite light. Lighter than I imagined it would be to be honest. Refreshing acidity. I think this is a bit disappointing to be honest. Some of the Spätlese above had more weight and concentration. Maybe I'm Riesling-ed out. But I don't think so. Maybe 10 years is a bit too long? Good, but not great.

All that acidity and primary Riesling fruit... I need chocolate now!