So this is my first blog entry for a while. My wife gave birth to an outstanding baby girl about a month ago and, while we couldn't be happier, I do slightly regret the impact this has had on my wine-writing. As with so many things in life, though, it's all about triumph over adversity. Yes I'm now blending full-on parental responsibilities alongside the demands of a full-time job, but does this mean I can't continue to have the odd glass of delicious wine and wax lyrical about it? Does it hell.
Aside from becoming a father, there have been other developments since I last updated the blog. I ended up having a beer or two with a friend of a friend who happens to be a wine merchant. South Africa is his particular area of expertise, and is a wine area I don't know much about. Partly through choice - I don't like Pinotage, and can't say I've really enjoyed Chenin Blanc. Apparently SA has much more to offer than Pinotage as far as reds go, and I shouldn't write off Chenin Blanc so quickly. So I won't.
Two other pieces of advice were to join The Wine Society - that the £40 lifetime membership fee might end up being the best £40 I'd spend not directly on wine - and to try and forget about Bordeaux when trying to find hidden gems at low prices. I'll struggle with this, because I love claret, but it makes a lot of sense that cheap Bordeaux is likely to be so because it isn't very good. The really good stuff is extortionately expensive, and the fact that it's the best known and most respected wine making region in the world means that if it's a good wine it will almost certainly be priced accordingly.
Finally, I was advised to stop buying supermarket wine. Aside from the 'Finest', 'Taste the Difference' or 'Signature' ranges, the chances are that if I'm buying wine from the supermarket I'm paying over the odds for mass-produced unoriginal wine. He's almost certainly right, but when it comes to value for money you can't really ignore the supermarkets altogether. Let's face it, that's where most of us buy wine. There's still value in identifying the good from the bad, and if I recommend a bottle I picked up from a small independent wine shop in Hove there's a pretty good chance my friends in Brighton won't cross town to buy it, let alone someone reading in Maidstone, Reading, Rotherham or Dumfries. Or Delhi.
But recommending a bottle I picked up from an independent wine shop in Hove is exactly what I'm going to do now. I went to Quaff (quaffwine.com) in Hove just before Easter and asked the chap behind the counter to recommend me 2 whites and 2 reds for less than a tenner each, including something to have with roast leg of lamb on Easter Sunday. That was accomplished by a really enjoyable Ribera del Duero, and the other 3 wines were Italian. I can't help thinking this was because I was asked what I liked and I said I was into Italian wine. That wasn't really what I wanted though - I wanted to be sold their best wines, rather than pretty much choosing what I was going to come away with. Still, the quality was good. I got their Gavi for £9.49, which was very good, and another Italian white that I can't find on their website. It was light, fresh and crisp,
The fourth was Recchia's 'Poderi del Roccolo' Bardolino pictured above - an absolute snip at £8.99. The Bardolino region is in the morainic hills in the province of Verona, East of Lake Garda. The wine is predominantly made from Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara, but the blend can include up to 15% of other grapes like Barbera and Sangiovese.
To digress for a moment, I love this about Italian wine. I know nothing about most of those grapes. Italy apparently has about 1,000 classified grapes, and a lot of them are not found outside of Italy. I don't know how many France has, but I'd be surprised if it's as many as 100, and many of them are widely grown. I imagine becoming an expert in Italian wine would be an exhausting, thrilling, delightful and liver ruining experience. Sign me up.
The wine is lovely. It's almost completely clear on the rim, and with about an inch in the glass I can still see straight through the wine to the stem. The bouquet is sweet and floral, with red fruits coming through - I'm getting cherry and raspberry. It's very light, refreshing and fruity, and slightly sweet. Not too much though. I tasted it with a homemade barbecued burger, but I think it would go really well with chicken with a slightly zingy tomato and basil sauce. Its gentle sweetness would counter those flavours beautifully, and it's not really strong enough to stand up to beef. I'll know that for the next time. And there will be a next time.
Aside from becoming a father, there have been other developments since I last updated the blog. I ended up having a beer or two with a friend of a friend who happens to be a wine merchant. South Africa is his particular area of expertise, and is a wine area I don't know much about. Partly through choice - I don't like Pinotage, and can't say I've really enjoyed Chenin Blanc. Apparently SA has much more to offer than Pinotage as far as reds go, and I shouldn't write off Chenin Blanc so quickly. So I won't.
Two other pieces of advice were to join The Wine Society - that the £40 lifetime membership fee might end up being the best £40 I'd spend not directly on wine - and to try and forget about Bordeaux when trying to find hidden gems at low prices. I'll struggle with this, because I love claret, but it makes a lot of sense that cheap Bordeaux is likely to be so because it isn't very good. The really good stuff is extortionately expensive, and the fact that it's the best known and most respected wine making region in the world means that if it's a good wine it will almost certainly be priced accordingly.
Finally, I was advised to stop buying supermarket wine. Aside from the 'Finest', 'Taste the Difference' or 'Signature' ranges, the chances are that if I'm buying wine from the supermarket I'm paying over the odds for mass-produced unoriginal wine. He's almost certainly right, but when it comes to value for money you can't really ignore the supermarkets altogether. Let's face it, that's where most of us buy wine. There's still value in identifying the good from the bad, and if I recommend a bottle I picked up from a small independent wine shop in Hove there's a pretty good chance my friends in Brighton won't cross town to buy it, let alone someone reading in Maidstone, Reading, Rotherham or Dumfries. Or Delhi.
But recommending a bottle I picked up from an independent wine shop in Hove is exactly what I'm going to do now. I went to Quaff (quaffwine.com) in Hove just before Easter and asked the chap behind the counter to recommend me 2 whites and 2 reds for less than a tenner each, including something to have with roast leg of lamb on Easter Sunday. That was accomplished by a really enjoyable Ribera del Duero, and the other 3 wines were Italian. I can't help thinking this was because I was asked what I liked and I said I was into Italian wine. That wasn't really what I wanted though - I wanted to be sold their best wines, rather than pretty much choosing what I was going to come away with. Still, the quality was good. I got their Gavi for £9.49, which was very good, and another Italian white that I can't find on their website. It was light, fresh and crisp,
The fourth was Recchia's 'Poderi del Roccolo' Bardolino pictured above - an absolute snip at £8.99. The Bardolino region is in the morainic hills in the province of Verona, East of Lake Garda. The wine is predominantly made from Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara, but the blend can include up to 15% of other grapes like Barbera and Sangiovese.
To digress for a moment, I love this about Italian wine. I know nothing about most of those grapes. Italy apparently has about 1,000 classified grapes, and a lot of them are not found outside of Italy. I don't know how many France has, but I'd be surprised if it's as many as 100, and many of them are widely grown. I imagine becoming an expert in Italian wine would be an exhausting, thrilling, delightful and liver ruining experience. Sign me up.
The wine is lovely. It's almost completely clear on the rim, and with about an inch in the glass I can still see straight through the wine to the stem. The bouquet is sweet and floral, with red fruits coming through - I'm getting cherry and raspberry. It's very light, refreshing and fruity, and slightly sweet. Not too much though. I tasted it with a homemade barbecued burger, but I think it would go really well with chicken with a slightly zingy tomato and basil sauce. Its gentle sweetness would counter those flavours beautifully, and it's not really strong enough to stand up to beef. I'll know that for the next time. And there will be a next time.