CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR BUBBLY

What I look for in bubbly is nice small bubbles, a great taste and good value. Good value doesn’t necessarily mean cheap as the more you become exposed to good wines, the more expensive your tastes become. I am suggesting below a number of great bubblies to suit all but the smallest budgets.

What to buy in the UK
In the UK one of the best basic bubblies is from New Zealand and comes from the drinks giant Pernod Ricard. When I first started drinking it, many years ago it was called Montana. I am of course referring to Lindauer Brut Sparkling, which is easily available in many supermarkets and wine shops. For me it has a lovely creaminess given to it by the addition of Chenin Blanc grapes alongside the Champagne classics of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. It is thus similar to a number of sparkling wines from the Loire Valley such as Vouvray or Crémant de Loire. For me this a very good value wine, well under £10, that out performs many more expensive wines. I prefer their basic Brut to the slightly more expensive Special Brut, which is a blush wine.

Buying in France
This is a time of the year when many people in the UK pop over to France to get their Christmas party drinks. If you do make the trip, be sure to pick up some of the very reasonably-priced regional sparkling wines as they are much better buys than some bigger named Champagnes. I have often seen Brits buying up huge quantities of Mercier, which I feel is frankly not that good. I have already mentioned the excellent Crémant de Loire and sparkling Vouvrays which are less expensive and far tastier. Amongst other regional bubblies I would recommend Crémant d’Alsace and Crémant de Bourgogne, which are some of our favourites. For something a bit different you could also try Blanquette de Limoux or if you want something sweeter a Clairette de Die.

If you’re going to France, where should you go to buy wines? I find Auchan quite a good French hypermarket but also try Carrefour, Monoprix and Leclerc for variety. If you don’t know what to buy look out for the Guide Hachette neck labels or a Concours Médaille d’Or sticker – they are not a guarantee but are an indication of quality and make choice easier. Also take a pocket guide such as “Hugh Johnson’s Pocket wine book” with you. I also recommend you read Robert Joseph’s excellent “French Wines” in the Dorling Kindersley Eyewitness Companions series. Also read and learn regularly from my wine blog!!!

An Italian alternative
For those of you buying your Christmas wines in the UK, at a recent wine tasting we served a really excellent Luna Argenta Brut Prosecco from Laithwaites at about £10 a bottle which was beautifully dry rather than some of the slightly sweeter ones you often encounter. Prosecco comes from Italy, mainly around the Venice area; the name Prosecco actually refers to the grape variety rather than a style or region. It went beautifully with some Baccalà Mantecato, also called Brandade de Morue or creamed salt cod (look it up on the web or buy "Francesco’s Kitchen" by Francesco da Mosto).

Champagnes
Going up the price scale, many supermarket branded champagnes represent excellent value, so don’t be put off by buying Tesco or Waitrose rather than Mumm or Perrier-Jouet – it will probably taste better ! My supermarket favourite is Tesco’s Blanc de Noirs Champagne that is made from just black grapes i.e. Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier rather than also being blended with Chardonnay. This gives it a more “adult” taste akin to some of the great champagnes such as Bollinger and Krug (although obviously not exactly in the class of these two brands).

Amongst the more reasonably priced branded champagnes I have tasted this year, I have enjoyed those of Alain Bailly, Jacqueson, Voirin-Jumel, Tsarine, Esterlin and Allouchery-Perseval which we bought in France. I also tend to like the champagnes of Veuve Cliquot, perhaps because they are not quite as dry as some – the French would call this a Lady’s champagne!

Going up the price range even more, I am gradually becoming a really big fan of Billecart-Salmon both the white and the rosé. You really should try the wines from this house.

My favourite Champagne is that of Ployez-Jacquemart. This is a small house that makes mainly vintage champagnes rather than concentrating on blending non-vintage cuvées. To buy their wines you might need to visit their Château in Ludes or a real specialist retailer in the UK. I would recommend the Vintage 2000 Brut, the Vintage 1997 Blanc de Blancs and especially the Vintage 1998 L. d’Harbonville which is made from grapes picked from Premier Cru vineyards. Their champagnes are medium weight, dry and absolutely delicious. If you do visit their Chateau, make sure to stay a night there as they offer bed and breakfast. See http://www.ployez-jacquemart.fr/ They also, by prior arrangement, can offer champagne tasting dinners that are a real treat in life not to be missed – great home cooking from Laurence Ployez who runs the Champagne house accompanied by a fabulous assortment of her Champagnes.

TONGHAM TASTER'S GUIDE TO THE WINES OF MACON AND BEAUJOLAIS

MACON APPELLATIONS
Mainly white Chardonnay wines but also some reds made of Gamay and/or Pinot Noir (reds not normally worth buying in my opinion)
Macon
A basic Burgundy and not normally good value.
Macon Supérieur
The same as above but with higher alcoholic content.
Macon Villages
Wine produced by 43 of the best villages in Macon. Can be excellent.
Macon - Named Village
Similar to above but the village's name is shown on the bottle. Examples: Macon-Lugny, Macon-Prissé, Macon Charmes etc.
Saint Véran
A white wine producing area overlapping Macon and Beaujolais, the quality is often good, can be good value, normally unoaked.
Viré-Clessé
Relatively new appellation created out of 2 of Macon's best villages. One of my favourites for value and quality.
Pouilly-Fuissé Satellites
Villages surrounding Pouilly-Fuissé producing wines similar to all but the very best Pouilly-Fuissé. Examples: Pouilly-Vinzelles, Pouilly-Loche etc.
Pouilly-Fuissé
A world-renowned name and thus tends to be pricy and not such good value. However, there are some lovely wines if you get a recommended producer (Cordier, Ferret, Saumaize, Valette & Verget amongst others).

BEAUJOLAIS APPELLATIONS
Mainly light red wines made out of Gamay grapes but some whites and rosés (all of which can be interesting).
Beaujolais Primeur or Nouveau
Wines sold and drunk very young and that become available on the third Thursday of November. A fun party drink to be served quite cold.
Beaujolais
The basic Beaujolais - a mix of quality and value.
Beaujolais Supérieur
The same as above but with higher alcoholic content.
Beaujolais Villages
Wines produced by 38 northern communes - can be good quality and value.
Beaujolais - Named Village
Similar to above but with village name e.g. Beaujolais Lancie.
Brouilly
The largest of the Beaujolais Crus. Normally light and can be good value.
Chiroubles
Probably the Beaujolais Cru that tastes most like Beaujolais. Quite light and can be fruity, flowery and delicious.
Regnié
The newest Beaujolais Cru. Normally supple and fruity but can sometimes be fuller bodied. One to try.
Côte de Brouilly
Can be dark, concentrated and structured. Often a good buy.
Fleurie
Nice gentle wine with floral aromas. Often worth buying.
Saint Amour
Light and supple wines. Being on the border with Macon it can have similar characteristics to their reds - not one of my favourites but still popular.
Chénas
The smallest Cru. Fruity, floral but also woody aromas and flavour.
Juliénas
Gentle but with fruit and spice. Can be one of my favourites.
Morgon
Slightly more fuller bodied wines but still heavily fruity.
Moulin à Vent
The King of Beaujolais wines. Some can be very different once aged. In general have more body and richness but are still very fresh.

November 2008 Wine Tasting at Tongham Village Hall

WINE TASTING
Tongham Village Hall
75 The Street, Tongham, Surrey
Registered charity no. 200365 – proceeds for general upkeep of the hall
Sat. 22nd Nov. at 8.00 pm
“The Wines of Macon and Beaujolais”
An educational soirée where you can learn about and taste
7 different wines from Southern Burgundy in France.
Start with a glass of Beaujolais Nouveau
then discover some of the less well-known wines of the region
plus enjoy a 7-course buffet of regional French specialities
including two hot dishes!
£12.50 minimum donation per person
Donation includes all 7 wines and the 7-course buffet of foods to enhance them
That’s like a 7-course dinner for two with wine for just £25!
Prize donations graciously accepted for our Raffle
Participation limited to 40 participants; all tickets must be purchased prior to the event
For tickets, contact:
Jane Etherton 07983 154295

Participate in the life of your village

October 2008

France’s Foires aux Vins and my Wine of the Month
Last month we mentioned we were going to the Foire aux Vins in France. We spent a lovely weekend on the Normandy coast in Le Havre, shopping for wines and eating and drinking with friends. Although we haven’t tasted many of the wines yet, one which we have tasted is a Pinot Noir from Burgundy (Bourgogne). It was a Beaune Premier Cru Les Chouacheux 2004 from the négociant André Montessuy. Although not bargain basement at €14.95 a bottle from the Auchan hypermarket, the taste was so lovely that it becomes my Wine of the Month for October. I think Beaunes are rather better value than most of the wines of the Côte d’Or and this was a delicate soft berry fruit wine that we really enjoyed. If one only buys the well known négociants, best years and well known vineyards, it is easy to miss gems like this! I only wish I’d bought more.

South African Pinot Noir and Ostrich fillet
Another Pinot Noir we tasted this month was a rather more expensive one from South Africa – a 2006 Hamilton Russell Vineyards Walker Bay Pinot Noir. This needed decanting as it is still rather young but was also a wonderful wine and very Burgundian in style. We tried this South African wine with some lovely Ostrich fillet, flash grilled and served with Mango and roasted butternut squash – altogether a very South African experience. Ostrich is difficult to get in the shops; we bought on line from http://www.oslinc.co.uk/. Well worth a try as it cooks very quickly, is delicious and quite healthy. At £26 this Pinot Noir is expensive but compares well with Burgundies of a similar price in the UK. We got ours from Fareham Wine Cellar which is an incredible Aladdin’s cave of a wine shop where one can source many difficult to obtain wines at fair prices. Another Pinot Noir they stock is Domaine Drouhin from Willamette in Oregon. If you have not yet discovered a good USA Pinot Noir this is well worth trying at £20+ a bottle.

This month’s UK supermarket reds
Here are our recommendations this month for good UK supermarket reds. We tasted two lovely Cabernet Sauvignons from Tesco’s this month. The first was a Montes Alpha Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 from the Colchagua Valley in Chile which is normally slightly over £10 but when we bought it there was a substantial discount. Montes Alpha has a very good reputation, and tasting this I can understand why. The second was a Napa Family Vineyards Finest Selection Reserve 2005 which was a similar price to the Chilean Cab. Once you gave this wine time to open up it was an enjoyable fruity wine. We used this wine for some experimentation into what cheeses go best with a nice Cab. Research on some other web sites had suggested everything from Brie and Camembert through tangy cheddar to Mimolette and aged Gouda. Our own extensive research (we bought fourteen different cheeses to test!) suggested that Brie and Camembert are an appalling match and ruin the wine. However, some Cheddars such as Montgomery from Sussex do go well and aged Dutch cheeses such as Old Amsterdam, Mature Edam or Gouda also are an excellent match. French favourites Mimolette and Beaufort also work well. However, the best match was a ewe’s milk cheese from Sussex called Duddleswell, which was the only one which not only did not detract but actually enhanced the wine. The biggest surprise was a blue goat’s cheese called Ribblesdale Blue which is probably the best blue and best goat’s cheese to accompany Cabernet Sauvignon and helps gives you a well rounded cheese board.

October White Wines
My focus for White wines this month is on Chardonnay, which is a grape variety that is often avoided because of bad experiences with buttery Chardonnays that so many people hate. Rest assured, there are other styles of Chardonnay! We were looking for a good New Zealand wine early in the month that was not the usual Sauvignon Blanc. In the end we tasted an excellent Wither Hills Marlborough Chardonnay 2006 from Waitrose that shows that some New World Chardonnays are rather lovely. It was crisp and fruity and a joy to drink. We tried this with a trio of Crab starters: a crab, tomato and cucumber gaspacho; crab with mango and avocado; and crab and kiwi with a mild coconut curry. Perhaps the biggest surprise Chardonnay of the month was a Mondavi Woodbridge Chardonnay from the USA which was on special offer at Sainsbury’s. At well under £5 it was quite drinkable. As far as old world Chardonnays go I had a wonderful Chablis Premier Cru Fourchaume in France this month and it perhaps confirmed this as my favourite Chablis. Earlier in the year I had tasted wines from this vineyard and bought some at the Chablisienne co-operative in Chablis. From further south in the Burgundy region we also bought and tasted some lovely Macon wines this month: Viré Clessé and Pouilly Fuissé – more about these in a later blog.

My white wine of the month for October does not go to a Chardonnay but to my more preferred Riesling. I love Alsace Rieslings and their normal dry style. One of my favourite producers is Paul Zinck from Eguisheim (try his wines at Majestic or Laithwaite’s), but this month we tasted another excellent producer, Trimbach, located in Ribeauvillé. His bottom of the range Riesling is far too austere for my taste but the next cuvée up, the Reserve, is excellent. We bought the Trimbach Réserve Riesling 2006 from Waitrose and thoroughly enjoyed it, making it my white wine of the month. Jane prepared some lovely apéritif spoons of smoked trout topped with an apple and whole grain mustard compote to go with this wine. A heavenly combination!

As I begun the article talking about the Foire aux Vins in France I will sign off with a few impressions. We visited the Auchan foire plus the last day of the Monoprix version. The Auchan foire is by far bigger than Monoprix and I was able to stock up on Burgundy, Bordeaux and some good value wines for the next six months. Perhaps due to global financial austerity it seemed quieter than in recent years. The Monoprix foire was smaller and as it was the last day some of the wines I had hoped for had been sold out. However, I picked up some old favourites like Alphonse Mellot’s excellent Sancerre and two of my favourite good value Languedoc reds from the Jean Jean sisters and Gérard Bertrand. It is interesting that the UK supermarkets are copying the Wine Fair theme and, as long as you choose correctly it is a good time to buy at places like Tesco and Sainsbury when they have their special deals. At other times their wines can be at ridiculous prices. Some wines in these special offers, however, are not particularly good. I tried a couple of Sicilian wines from Tesco at under £4 and they were dreadful. My advice is to go to the wine fairs and buy a few bottles of those you fancy and then go home and have a happy evening wine tasting. Then the next day go back and buy six or more of your favourites!

That’s it for October. Check back next month for a review of Macon whites and some Beaujolais reds.

A la bonne vôtre !

September 2008

My wine of the month for September is an incredible value red wine at only £4.49 from Lidl (yes, Lidl!); it is Baturrica Tarragona Gran Reserva DO (both the 2001 or 2002 are available and excellent). I cannot remember a wine I paid under five pounds for in the UK tasting so good for a very long time. It tastes very similar to a Gran Reserva Rioja and has a good balance of oak and fruit and that lovely vanilla I seek in Spanish reds. The grape varieties are Tempranilla and Cabernet Sauvignon and it has been aged in oak for at least 24 months before further ageing in the bottle as part of a total 5 years minimum ageing. I suggest you go and snap some up today. We have already enjoyed 6 bottles of this wine and blind tasted it against Gran Reserve Riojas at three times the price with surprising results!

You find bargains like this by searching for wines from unknown regions; it is highly unlikely that you will find a wine from Rioja this good at this price. The Tarrogona wine region is best known for growing grapes for sparkling Cava and also for sweet red fortified wines, as well as being famous as the port that has shipped communion wines all over the world for many years; maybe church attendances would increase if they served this Gran Reserva instead!

Serve this wine with lamb; it can take quite strong flavours so why not try roast lamb stuffed either with black tapenade and garlic or alternatively perhaps stuffed with Chorizo, red peppers and green olives.

My white wine of the month is twice the price and can be puchased at £10.00 from Laithwaites. However, the wine is so beautiful it almost seems a bargain! It is a 2005 Vouvray Reserve Champalou. This is a slightly off dry white made with Chenin Blanc grapes and comes from one of the top producers in the area. This wine is a real pleasure to drink and shows off how good this grape variety can be when made as a dryish wine.

People are put off Vouvray because there is such a mixture of styles from dry to sweet and very often no indication on the bottle as to the style. However, this is a wine to change people's minds about this appellation.

If a wine of this quality was made in Sancerre or Burgundy it would fetch a much higher price, so thank God for unfashionable wine regions!

Serve this wine alongside a cold pea soup with crispy pancetta and seafood (langoustines, prawns or monkfish). I had this dish recently in Bourges, France and my wife Jane has managed to create an excellent version since I told her about it.

Talking about eating out we visited some lovely restaurants in August. Pride of place went to Raymond Blanc's Manoir aux Quat' Saisons; this was faultless and the wine sommelier very interesting as he guided us away from any wines we knew in order to give us new experiences. His suggestions of a Cuvee Frederic Emile Trimbach Riesling 2001, a Vins de Pays des Cotes Catalanes 2006 blanc, and a red Sicilian wine made entirely with Carignano grapes (Turrigoz 1999) were excellent. More local, Kei's new Chinese Restaurant in Runfold is excellent and we enjoyed a lovely Rioja rosé wine with our meal.

Later in September we will be making our six monthly pilgimage to France for the Foires aux Vins. The exchange rate is not so favourable at the moment but we hope to still pick up some good value French wines. Amongst those wines we will be searching for will be some Christophe Cordier Macon Charnay Vielles Vignes 2007 (€9.95 at Carrefour), Domaine du Clos de Fourchis Macon Aze 2006 (€5.75 from Auchan) and some Le Clos Delorme Valencay 2006 (€6.90 from Monoprix). We will report back in next months blog.

Also in next month's blog we will report on tasting a South African Pinot Noir at over £20 a bottle and let you know our wines of the month for October.

Our next wine tasting in Tongham will be in November just after the Beaujolais Nouveau has arrived. We will be featuring wines from Beaujolais and Macon alongside some of Jane's famous French cooking. Details next month.

Good tasting and do let's have your comments.