A while ago I talked about the lore behind this label, now it's time to talk about the wine inside this swashbuckling bottle!
So this is an amontillado sherry that has a slight residual amount of sweetness. It is beautifully complex with lots of tertiary flavours from development with the Flor and with oxygen! (Check out that lush chocolate brown colour).
For more notes make sure to check out the video.
If you are curious to try it yourself, the producer is @valdespinosherry .
They have an entire range of fantastic sherrys, all the way from fino to oloroso and even Pedro Ximinez.
I hope you enjoy ☺️
19 crimes: a Halloween review.
Hey guys, happy Halloween.
19 crimes is an Australian wine that is very prominent in most supermarket aisles in the UK. It is from Australia and from memory tends to be serving that younger more vanilla style of Winemaking. This is no exception, especially with the addition of the rum cask matured wine in the blend.
All that said, I actually didn't mind it too much! Check out the video to find out more, and enjoy my vague attempts at making a spooky intro for this review. 👻
#halloween #halloweenwine #spookyseason #19crimes
Appassimento: the pumpkin spiced latte of the wine world.
If you have shopped around Italian wines before you may have come across this term. I have been asked before what does it mean? Is it a grape? A place? Is it a bird, a plane...
Nope, it's none of these things. Rather, it's a style of Winemaking that has quite a big influence on the final taste.
Have you ever left a piece of fruit out on a very hot very dry day? When you come back you will notice it will have evaporated a lot of its water content and will have started to shrivel. In Italy this can happen very easily to grapes that have either been picked and left in the sun, or left on the vine beyond their usual harvest date. In these appassimento wines, winemakers will dry the grapes like this on purpose.
This has the effect of concentrating the juice in those grapes, as well as helping them develop ripe, and even over-ripe slightly baked fruit flavours. That was the case in this wine pictured, a Primitivo from Puglia made in the appassimento style. With this one the drying influence must have been short as the wine still had relatively good acidity, no sweetness, and the baked plum and black cherry flavours.
A trip to Artelium Wine Estate
This winery really captured me. I loved the wines, the people, the landscape and the art. There were moments when I had to stand back and admire the artistry in everything they did and other moments when I felt like I was standing on the edge of something very new in English wine.
I will go into that particular experience more in a later post where I look at their Cabaret Noir wine.
But for now, I'd simply encourage you to get down there as fast as possible, try the wines, soak up the vibe and have a wonderful evening.
If you are feeling like you really love what they do, they even have a wine club which might yield access to events where you get to try some of their more special and rare experimental wines. I can say for sure, the few I tried were delicious. In particular the wild ferment, still champagne blend, and the skin contact orange Pinot Gris. Delicious!
Learning how to taste?
Sounds like an odd concept right? How to taste!? I know how thank you very much.
Tasting is an automatic process, it comes the moment anything touches our tongues and tickles our sense of smell. But how often do you know what you are tasting? Well that's a question that challenges wine geeks on a near daily basis. Learning to discern aromas and flavours such as the difference between lemon and grapefruit is a long road, and an essential one when it comes to being able to identify the character of a wine.
Well this book offers an alternative. @nickjacksn offers an alternative approach which emphasises how the structure of a wine can be just as much of an identifier as its flavours. This would include things like the feeling of the tannins, or the way the acidity presents itself.
It's an intriguing approach and one that initially I was a bit unsure about due to its alternative approach. But I have to say, reading this book has opened my eyes. The amount of times now that I have been able to tell the difference between a chenin and a Chardonnay, or a Cabernet vs a Malbec simply because of the way the structural components presented themselves.
The Beach by @drinkthebeach and @thewhisperingangel
It's getting to that time of year when the desire to hold on to as many rays of sunshine as possible grows stronger by the day! As such, I think to manifest sunny days, I need to review a sunny wine. Can you get much sunnier than a provence rosé dedicated to tropical beaches and palm trees?
I think not!
This was a vibrant and juicy wine packed with tropical fruit and citrus flavours that made it extremely fun. The kind of wine that bounces around your cheeks and starts a party. Made with Grenache, Cinsault, and Syrah, it's a surprisingly clean and clear wine to have come from grapes so well known for their depth and darker fruit complexity!
Despite all that fruit and flavour, it was very nicely balanced to keep it refreshing and thirst quenching as well. Not a wine that would leave you feeling drained from the heat.
All in all, this is a fun little pickup. I got this one from @tescofood in the UK and it was pretty reasonable. Around £10 with the club card.
I would encourage, If like me you wish to manifest the sun as well, that you go pick up this wine and give it a go!
Today I had the absolute pleasure of visiting @stanlakepark in Twyford, Thames Valley.
Despite the typical English rainy weather, the wines and the ambience of the location were fantastic. The vineyard itself is part of a big estate that is beautifully curated and looked after. Everything feels cared for and loved. This is even more evident considering the amount of events and visitors they receive!
As for the wine. I tried a few today and found a couple I particularly loved, but I'll highlight two!
The Stanlake Brut which was the estate 'classic cuvee' of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Munier was delicious! It had depth of flavour -apple pie and brioche- , ripeness, and exquisite creaminess. It was a wine that is infinitely drinkable!
And then I have to mention their sister-vineyard in Puglia too! I tried a selection of their relatives, from the Fiano to the Negroamaro and found them to be very fun. The Fiano was my fave of the bunch, it had a crisp clean quality that could have easily disguised its depth and complexity had I been complacent. A truly sneaky and beautiful wine!
What a busy day!
Today I have been enjoying a vast quantity of English wines at the @winegb trade and press tasting. And what a selection there was. I have narrowed this video down to three wines that really stood out to me today.
In order they are the Pinot Noir - Blanc 2022 by @oastbrook
A wine that defied all of my senses and tastes gorgeous doing it!
The Inversion 2020 Blanc de Noir by @blackchalkwine which was a glass so full of juiciness that my eyes lit up like a small child when I tasted it. Thanks to Zoe the Winemaker for giving me a run down of these wines with such enthusiasm.
And the Tickety Boosh Pinot noir by @bearegreenwinery which was closer in style to a natural wine. It was such a bright fruit forward wine beautifully explained by @winewithjimmy
It goes without saying that there were so many wines worth mentioning and it all gave such great promise for the future of wine and Winemaking excellence in Britain.
Best of all I got to finally make the acquaintance of so many people I've met here on Instagram as well. That was very special to finally meet the people behind the screen.
I can't wait for next year!
Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting @rye_fine_wines wine bar and shop, and having a good chat with the owner, Graeme!
(For those that don't know, my name is also Graeme, and it's a rare occasion to find people who spell that name correctly). 😎
This was the final stop on my 50km walk around the south coast, and by far one of the nicest. Aside from having a great selection of wines to enjoy, (in particular I had a fantastic glass of white wine made from local grapes from Ischia in Italy), the ambience was also fantastic.
It's the kind of place where you feel immediately relaxed and welcomed, where you can grab a glass of wine and chill, or get a bottle to take home. You can have nice chats or listen to a few good tunes, or simply sip a delicious wine and watch the world go by.
If you happen upon Rye in your travels, I would absolutely make sure to pop your head in and say hi! I can't imagine you won't be made to feel right at home almost immediately.
Have fun, and say hi from me if you go.
Yesterday I visited @charlespalmervineyards near Rye on the south coast of England. I look windswept because I had just walked five hours to get there along the 1066 country trail. Trust me when I say it was worth it!
Can you imagine that picture perfect postcard version of England, where there are rolling hills, cute villages with ancient churches, castles dotted about the landscape, and the ever present sound of seagulls in the air reminding you that the beach is near.
Yep, that's what this is. But of course, add to that the fact there is also wine! Is this heaven?
The winery itself is set in some of the most beautiful countryside I've seen in a long time, located next to a storybook farm manor and a valley full of grape vines.
The soil here is a mixture of chalk, kimmeridge clay, and sandy loam ensuring pretty good drainage against the English rain. The wines are mature, complex and very delicious, with really noticeable character across different vintages. The Pinot noir and Chardonnay were fantastic but for me the star was the classic cuvee sparkling which was a 50/50 blend of the two grapes and aged for 5 years.