December Wine of the Month

There were a number of contenders for my favourite wine of the month and most were red wines this month. To become my wine of the month it normally has to be available in the UK and be below the fine wine type price tags – thus the superb Trimbach Cuvee Frederic Emile 2004 Riesling from Majestic didn’t get a look in at over £25 a bottle and nor did any of the very nice Bordeaux and Burgundies which we had bought in France. Nor did the M&S Priorat get the chance as they don’t have any 2006, any more (but you might consider the 2007 Bellmunt which is only £60 for a case of 6).

Runner-up was a very nice but too alcoholic wine from Marks and Spencers. It was a Gerard Bertrand 2008 Domaine des Garennes Minervois La Liviniere. A lovely bend of Syrah, Grenache and Carignan, but at 14.5% too powerful for me! So a much more reasonable 12.5% wine from the Northern Rhone – Les Hauts de Pavieres 2007 Crozes Hermitages got the vote instead. We got this in Waitrose in October and you may still find some on the shelves. If possible go for the 2007 rather than the 2008 and the former was such a good year in the Rhone. The wine is 100% Syrah (known as Shiraz elsewhere) and has that great Syrah pepperyness, is not too full bodied and has some blackberry fruit. It is a good food wine which would suit quite a variety of dishes. It is from the Cave de Tain, yet another good French cooperative wine – The wine is just under £10. For me so much better value than some of the big brand Shiraz from around the world

It was really good to find a good Southern French wine at under 13% alcohol.  With global warming etc it is a wine that bucks the trend towards increasingly alcoholic wines.