John's October 2010 Wine of the Month

Because I really liked it and because it is easily available and great value, my Wine of the month is the Stork’s Tower Tempranilla-Shiraz Rosé, available in Tesco.   Great value at any price under £7.00.  This is probably by favourite Rosé, even beating the great Rosés of Bandol.   During the month I tried both the 2008 and 2009 and I scored both a very creditable 15/20, and our wine tasting group almost unanimously loved it. A lovely dry wine which would go well paired with salmon.  It has a beatiful deep quite dark strawberry colour colour and the berry tastes are lovely.   It comes from the Castilla Y Leon region of Spain in Northern Spain to the north west of Madrid.  The maker is Hijos de Antonio de Barcelo which is one of the oldest Spanish wine companies and is based in Valladolid. It is probably the first rosé with Shiraz I have really loved and the tempranilla gives it the great flavour of Spain.   This is a bit of a must for our next Tongham Village Hall wine tasting which will be on Northern Spain, to represent the rosés of Spain.  Don't wait until next summer to try this, try it at any time of the year either on its own or with food.  It would make a great party wine for Christmas and the new year!   They also make a red with the same name and grape varieties that I like a lot.  Their white is a blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Verdejo and this is not a blend I think works well even although I like each grape individually.


OTHER HIGH FLYERS

Mustang and Hurricane at the Goodwood Revival 2010.


Here are some of the other wines that I really appreciated this month but didn't get a mention in other blogs.   Perhaps, the highlight of the month was trying a Francois Raveneau Chablis; a real wow!   He is probably one of the very top Chablis producers and very difficult to find.  We were lucky enough for Hubert to open a bottle of 1998 Raveneau Montee de Tonnerre Premier Cru Chablis when we stayed with him last month.   It had taken on a slight colour with age but still tasted fresh and flinty.  If you want to buy a bottle in the UK it will probably set you back about £80.   We had this with a lovely Brocolli and Prawn salad prepared by Brigitte - for this recipe follow this link to Jane's blog.

Raveneau cooling on the window sill with Alfa
Romeo Mito in the background

Amongst the reds we tasted this month, another of Hubert's stood out.  It was a Bandol which is not an appelation well enough known in England but one of my favourites.  The one he served us was a Chateau Romassan Domaines Ott longue garde 2001 - it was excellent and exhibited all those concentrated mouvedre characteristics one would expect from a red Bandol.   I don't think it is easily available in the UK but I would recommend going to Waitrose and picking up a bottle of their La Bastide Blanche.

Continuing with the reds, we discovered another Spanish gem just yesterday at Majestic Wine warehouse, who I am pleased to see have reduced their minimum buy quantity from 12 bottles to 6 (we still ended up buying 19!). The gem was El Chaparral 2008 de Vega Sindoa Old Vines Garnacha.  It is by one of the top Navarra region producers - Bodegas Nekeas.   Made from the Garnacha or Grenache grape variety, which is a long way from being one of my favourites, this has bags and bags of fruit and is well balanced.  Many thanks to the very helpful staff at the Farnham branch of Majestic who recommended this.   This is another definite for our next Tongham Village Hall wine tasting as it also is from Northern Spain, the Navarra region being just to the east of Rioja.

Mention in this blog must also go to the excellent meal that Jean-Philippe and Stella served us consisting of a lovely Provence white ( Cuvee Amadeus Domaine de Camaisettee Coteaux d'Aix en Provence) served with an amazing seafood platter. With an equally amazing cheese course, J-P also served us a lovely 2009 Cru Beaujolais, a Domaine des Grands Cedres Fleurie, that proved how good 2009 Beaujolais can be.

I can't not recommend something New World, and I have to say I am increasing becoming a fan of McGuigan's Australian wines.  I like their top range wines and this month we tried again the 2007 Langhorne Creek Shiraz-Viognier and enjoyed it.  Look for this in Tescos.