Through a glass, darkly...shattering wine preconceptions

As a wine writer, it’s part of my stock in trade to shatter other people’s misconceptions about wine.  These are the kind of bombshells I like to throw at you, you know the kind of thing:  sherry doesn’t have to be sweet and is perfectly safe for the under 65s to drink!  White wine is often better than red with cheese!  Riesling is a top quality grape variety and shouldn’t be ignored!  It really is OK to drink Beaujolais, a lot of it is very good!

You’re probably reeling from that lot for starters, so take a moment to compose yourselves while I press on.  Yes, it’s all very well when I’m the one dishing out the home truths – but what about when I’m faced with my own “No!...Really?” moments?

To wit, a mixed case of wines from Aldi arrived on my doorstep recently.  I’d never considered buying wine from them, thinking it unlikely that a discount supermarket would be investing much effort into its own-label wine range.  Well readers, I must say I was pleasantly surprised in some cases.  I also took the opportunity of a residents’ meeting to try them out on a group of unsuspecting neighbours – without at first revealing where the wines had come from.   Far be it from me to suggest that Surrey drinkers know not to look a vinous gift horse in the mouth, so to speak.  However, they seemed happy enough to drink them and were suitably surprised at the quality for the price.

I especially enjoyed these bottles from the selection:

The Exquisite Collection Côtes de Provence Rosé 2012 - £5.99

A pale pink blend of Grenache, Cinsault and Syrah that delivers gently fruity, rose-petal scented flavours and bags of refreshment.

The Exquisite Collection Rias Baixas Albariño 2011 - £5.99

Albariño is a classy white grape that makes crisp whites with an alluring blend of freshness combined with a hint of stone fruit – peach in this case.  It may not be the best Albariño on the market, but at this price, well-chilled and served with something fishy, you can’t go wrong.

The Exquisite Collection South Eastern Australia Shiraz 2012 - £5.99

I normally avoid wines labelled South Eastern Australia like the plague – this denomination is a catch-all that covers a geographical area roughly equivalent in size to western Europe.  Would you buy a wine that was “produce of various members of the European Community”?  Only to slosh into sangria or to mull, or to play a cruel trick on a wine snob, I imagine.  I hope I haven’t given you ideas there.  In any case this has a tasty mix of dark berry fruits, blackcurrant, bitter chocolate and something savoury, even slightly wild about it, thanks to the inclusion of Cabernet Sauvignon, Durif and a sprinkling of Petit Verdot in the blend.  At 14.5% alcohol it packs a punch, but would stand up admirably to smoky barbecue fare.

Crémant du Jura 2010 - £6.99

This 100% sparkling Chardonnay from the tiny Jura region in eastern France delivers sensational quality for this price.  I recently served this at a wine dinner and, very gratifyingly, it drew gasps of disbelief (and appreciation) when its identity (and price) was revealed.

I often puzzle over the worth of tasting notes for wines.  Is there really any point in trying to convey to other people how a wine tastes to me?  Who’s to say whether a wine smells of strawberry rather than raspberry or cherry – are such things not in the eye (or nose) of the beholder?  Nevertheless I soldier on, reassuring myself that I’ve been at this for a few years now and have honed my skills to such a degree that I am able to communicate something useful to distinguish one wine from another.

Yet again, however, my high falutin’ thoughts on my own worth were brought crashing down to earth by my son the other day.  I was tasting a rather classy Italian Sauvignon Blanc – Vie di Romans “Piere” Sauvignon Blanc 2009 to be precise, available from independent merchants, including Laithwaite’s, at around £26 a bottle.  My son asked to try the wine and of course I obliged.  After a second of reflection he said, “Mmm it’s really fruity, but not sweet and kind of tangy. I love this kind of wine – yum.”  Here he is again, this time describing the Portuguese red wine, Marco de Pegoes Terras do Sado 2010 (£7.99, or £6.49 if you buy two bottles from Majestic), “It smells soft, musky.  Mmm is tastes so nice it makes you want to have another sip.”   He’s ten years old. 

I should stress that I only ever let him have a sip of wine, before you think of grassing me up to social services, but he’s obviously been paying close attention to those sips over the course of his brief tasting life and I am now seriously considering letting him do all my tasting notes in future.

Think pink

I’ve been waiting for summer to arrive before writing about my recommendations for rosé wines.  And waiting, and waiting.  But it seems that “summer” is never going to really get into its stride, just come and go in fits and starts.  Given these conditions, where a sunny evening in the garden will be a rare treat that you must be ready to embrace at a moment’s notice, you would be well advised to have a couple of bottles of something pink ready-chilled in the fridge.

Contrary to what you might think based on news coverage, consumption of red and white wine has been falling in the UK in recent years.  It is our increasing fondness for the pink stuff that has been single-handedly responsible for keeping our wine consumption figures essentially flat.  

Rosé wines tend to fall into two styles – on the one hand, deep-coloured “saignée” method wines, whereby juice from a vat of crushed red grapes which has been left to macerate for a short amount of time, is run off to make a fairly deep-coloured and full-flavoured wine.   One the other, the pale pink, elegant wines which are classically produced in Provence.  These last are made by the “direct pressure” method, whereby red grapes are pressed, after little or no maceration, giving only a faint trace of colour to the juice.  Both styles have their fans and in general, ne’er the twain shall meet, with each camp viewing the other with suspicion and convinced that their own style of pink wine is the best. 

Here I’m recommending a few wines in varying styles – arm yourself with a few of these and, when the sun does decide to show itself, you’ll be ready for it. 

Señorio de Sarría Viñedo N⁰5 –   £9.99 from The Vineyard (Dorking), various independent merchants, including Harrods at £11.99

This wine is from Navarra, northern Spain.  Wines from here have a hard time establishing a separate identity for themselves, distinct from their more famous neighbour, Rioja.  What Navarra can do, though, is make a name for itself as Spain’s pre-eminent source of deep-coloured, intensely flavoured and food friendly rosé. 

 

The best known Navarran Rosado in this country is Chivite’s Gran Feudo, which is quite widely available for around £7.50.  It’s fine as far as it goes, but Sarria’s old vine Garnacha has more class.  The old vines give the wine an effortless concentration and a kind of gentle intensity (can a wine be gently intense?).  Strawberry and apple aromas leap out of the glass and continue on the palate, along with fresh acidity and a long-ish finish.  You could drink this on its own, but it can more than hold its own with things prawn-y and garlick-y. 

Miguel Torres Santa Digna Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon 2012 - £7.99 from Taurus Wines (Bramley) and other independent merchants

Miguel Torres is best known for his Spanish wines, but he has fingers in a few pies and this is one of his projects from Chile.   

Small-berried, thick-skinned Cabernet Sauvignon is never going to make a delicate pink wine, but this really is a wine for people who would normally drink red, but would like something  you can chill in the warmer months and drink on its own or with food.  A rosé purist would surely consider it out of order, but I rather like its full on, pure blackcurrant aromas, with more of the same on the palate, along with blackcurrant leaf and something more savoury that stops it being a complete fruit salad.  This could stand up to bangers, burgers or barbecued lamb.

Aldi The Exquisite Collection Côtes de Provence Rosé 2012 - £5.99 from Aldi

Yes, Aldi.  It might not be somewhere you would traditionally head for wine but, along with the unknown brand cheap cereals and spanner sets, they have now put together a pretty good and good value selection of own-label wines.  To spare your blushes, the word Aldi is restricted to small lettering on the back label – though if you’re anything like me you’ll be telling everyone where it’s from, just to see the reaction. 

This doesn’t pretend to be the finest Provence rosé, but it certainly looks the part:  pale, sea-shell pink colour in a curvy “Bardot” bottle.  The nose is fresh, with a hint of rose petal and the palate delivers a gently fruity experience.  £5.99 is a very fair price for it.

Aix, Côteaux d’Aix en Provence Rosé 2012 - £19.99 for a magnum from Majestic

If you like the understated charms of Provence rosé, but at the same time fancy givin’ it large at a summer party, a magnum of this should do the job nicely.  The magnum (the equivalent of 2 standard bottles) makes a nice statement of intent, looks great in an ice bucket – and the wine inside is pretty classy too.  Majestic will probably sell out of these, as they did last year, despite the underwhelming weather, so make your move sooner rather than later. 

Vidal-Fleury Côtes du Rhône Rosé 2012 – around £11.49 from amazon.co.uk and Hailsham Cellars (East Sussex)

Pink wines from the Rhône valley sit somewhere in between the pale Provence-style rosés and those deeper-coloured saignée types stylistically.  It has great freshness (surely a prime requirement of pink wines) and a lively palate with a hint of stone fruits about it.  I could happily drink this on its own, but it has enough oomph to stand up to wedding buffet-style food.

Days of wine and rosés

Rosé, like Champagne, is a wine that signifies more than just a drink. Champagne is shorthand for victory, celebration, excess even. Rosé shares some of Champagne's sense of occasion – it's a wine that has strong associations with the sun, the coming of summer, frivolity, holidays and some of the glamour of the Côte d'Azur.

When I hear the pop of a Champagne cork, I immediately wonder what the occasion is that's being celebrated. Similarly, when I see someone enjoying a glass of rosé, especially if the sun is out, I feel that I would like to share some of that carefree, holiday spirit.

Nowadays, with the ubiquity of pink wines, you can pick up a bottle of rosé made almost anywhere in the world, but Provence in the south of France can claim to have the longest tradition of making it. Grapes were probably brought here by the ancient Greeks to the colony they founded in Marseille in around 600BC. While we have no real way of knowing what style of wines they made, the Provençals are nevertheless keen to promote the idea that these first wines were also pink – so Provence has a claim to be the ancient birthplace of rosé.

Winemakers there are specialists in the art of making rosé – and they get lots of practice at it too, as 88% of wine production from southern Provence is rosé. Red wines account for just 9% and whites a measly 3%.

Provence is the only wine region in the world that specialises in the production of rosé and, despite its frivolous image, winemakers there take it very seriously. That typical pale negligée pink of a Provence rosé is a result of giving the red skinned grapes (usually predominantly Grenache, Syrah and Cinsault) a short period (as little as 45 minutes in some cases) of maceration after crushing. During that time the skins transfer some of their colour and flavours to the juice of the grapes. After maceration the grapes are pressed and the resulting pink juice is fermented into wine.

Of the legions of more deeply-coloured pink wines that adorn our supermarket and wine merchant shelves many are made by a different method, known as saignée, or bleeding. Here red grapes are lightly crushed to rupture the skins and put into a vat. The free run juice is run off from the bottom of the tank and then fermented. The really clever thing about this method is that the winemaker can get a bonus wine, a BOGOF, in the process. After running off the juice and fermenting it he will have a more or less deep-coloured pink wine. But he will also have the option to make a red wine made from the juice and grapes that remain after the saignée. This red wine – and this is the really clever part – will have been given additional concentration and fruit intensity due to the separation of the lighter coloured juice first.

While I can't fault the clever marketing that allows winemakers to produce two wines from a single batch of grapes, it's important to realise that rosés made this way will always be a different beast from their paler pink Provençal cousins. In Provence, the grapes that make rose have been selected, grown and made into wine with the single intention of making a pink wine. The gentle maceration period is also thought to produce a more subtle range of aromas and flavours than the saignée method.

Recommended Provence roses

Famille Négrel, Côtes de Provence Sainte Victoire 2010 - £9.99 from Majestic

Still relatively pale for a rosé, but with more richness and sappy fruit than lighter Provence styles, this is one to crack open with a meal. Salad niçoise would be a joy with this.

Château de Berne, Côtes de Provence Grande Récolte 2011, £9.99 from Majestic

On its own this wine impresses with its pure linearity. But with food the palate opens up and is able to cope with a wide range of foods. It even managed the seemingly impossible task of standing up to steak. A great all rounder rosé.

Château de Galoupet, Côtes de Provence Cru Classé 2010, £13.08 (for a 50cl bottle) from London Wine Shippers

This wine is a great illustration of the canny knack that Provence rosés have of being pale and delicate, yet having plenty of lingering flavour. I'd recommend this one for crab, or any other full-flavoured seafood.

Aix, Côteaux d'Aix en Provence 2011 - £19.99 for a magnum at Majestic

Clearly marketing is a strong suit with Eric Kurver, the Dutch owner of this domaine. His stated ambition on taking up winemaking five years ago was “to make the best rosé in the world” - I wonder how many people take up wine with the aim of producing a so-so wine? The masterstroke of bottling this in 1.5 litre magnums, with a bold label makes this a statement wine to bring out for summer celebrations. Luckily, the wine lives up to its own hype (leaving aside the best in the world moniker): fully dry, structured, and refreshing with plenty of lively grapefruit acidity.

Domaine OTT, Clos Mireille Coeur de Grain 2010, £27.95 from Roberson Wine

No discussion of Provence rosés is complete without the daddy of ambitious (with price tag to match) wines – Domaine OTT. This is a minimalist wine: pale, with a delicate, floral nose and a palate that is soft, savoury, peppery and persistent. Fine, refreshing stuff. 

  

Postcards from France

The two Heathers have both recently returned from two contrasting parts of France. Read our postcards to find out who enjoyed time amongst the beautiful people and glitz of the Riviera, and who sampled the more rustic charms of France's far southwest.

Dear readers,

I've never had a meal quite like it: this was nose to tail eating, and then some. Piled onto our plates by the grape growers of Fitou from a wood-fired barbecue amongst the vines were mountains of lamb, pork, black pudding and more pork. All this after an appetiser, if that's the right word, of snails (cooked with pork fat, natch - picture above), downed with a dollop of aïoli and washed down with a generous glug of gutsy red Fitou.

Asterix would have felt at home at the feast, though he might have lamented the lack of wild boar on the menu.

This part of France, almost as far south as you can go before you bump into the Pyrenees and the border with Spain, is renowned for having the highest number of sunny days in the country. Needless to say, it was raining when we arrived. It's famous for Cathar castles, strapping rugbymen and the full-bodied wines of Fitou.

Over two thirds of Fitou wines are made by the energetic and quality-minded co-operative, Mont Tauch. So the chances are, if you've ever bought a bottle of Fitou, it will have been made at their state-of-the-art winery in the tiny village of Tuchan, at the foot of Mont Tauch itself.

Grape vines are the only viable crop here and any land that isn't suitable for grapes is soon taken over by that wild mix of aromatic Mediterranean plants that we call “garrigue”.

You too can check on the development of this year's grape harvest, accompanied only by the sound of birdsong and wafts of scent from the garrigue, if you pick up a self-guided walk leaflet from the Mont Tauch winery and Visitor Centre in Tuchan. At the half-way point you can stop for a picnic (pack your own, not forgetting a suitable bottle of wine) at the source of the Artigas, before returning to the hum of the stainless steel vats of the winery.

Wish you were here,
Heather D  xx

Find out more at: www.mont-tauch.fr

Heather’s pick of Mont Tauch wines available in the UK
Le Dog de Roselyne, Pays d'Oc Rose 2009 – Morrison's £5.79 (from September)
A light, fresh mouthful of red fruit, with a spicy kick on the finish.

Les Garrigues Grande Reserve Grenache Blanc, Pays du Torgan 2009 - £8.79, Savage Selections
Grenache blanc is an unsung variety that's capable of really characterful wines with enough weight to make them great with food. This has notes of pear and thyme on the nose, following through to a herbal and spicy palate with a hint of almond.

Les Garrigues Grande Reserve Grenache Noir, Pays du Torgan 2009 - £8.79, Savage Selections
This is one to bring out if you're chucking a wild boar on the barbecue. The dense, brooding fruit and tannins cry out for something meaty to match.

Dear Surrey Advertiser readers,

If you don’t feel the need for hairs-on-your-chest, mountain-man stuff then you would have been better off with me laconically lazing in la-la land, St Trop darling, where pink is the drink.

Just so that Heather D doesn’t think she had all the adventures – I will have you know that I encountered my fair share of wild(?) bores, but mostly of the slashed shirted gold medallion type. Yawn.

Whilst visiting old friends who have lived for many years in the fragrant lavender bedecked countryside of Provence, I found many an occasion to sample various local wines ranging in colour from off-white to almost red, a rosé by any other name.

In the spirit of research I visited various vineyards and hostelries ranging in style from the sublime to the ridiculous - and oft combinations of both. I cannot say that I came across an unpalatable wine in any guise, whether from humble farmhouse (or Mas), to the renowned bars and restaurants on Pampelonne or Tahiti beach - it was just the price that was very, very different.

St. Tropez was a quiet little fishing village until the mid fifties when film director Roger Vadim chose that location to make a film called “And God Created Woman”, staring the up and coming young actress Brigitte Bardot. One enterprising local fisherman decided to offer lunch on the beach to all the stars and crew and this was the start of what is now one of the most iconic restaurants in France, if not the world. It is named after the year it was conceived “Cinquante Cinq”. Le Club 55 is still the haunt of the glitterati, yachtterati and de rigueur for wannabes and vinous voyeurs such as yours truly. Their rosé is excellent but not available in our UK supermarkets.

There are however many excellent rosés to be had and I came across an interesting website that lists some fine examples of the French wines I have been drinking and which you can buy online: www.rose-wine.com . Château Routas Wild Boar Rosé - just to continue on our theme - works out at £11.50 a bottle and is a modern, crisp and refreshing wine, easy drinking with or without food.

Our favourite local independent wine stores all stock a good selection of rosés and we will be devoting ourselves to researching these on your behalf for recommendations in our next column. Can’t wait.

Au revoir,
Heather A xx
Think pink, www.redwhiteandrose for all your liquid assets.