d'Arenberg 'The Dead Arm' Shiraz 2007

I've heard a few things about d'Arenberg wines over the last couple of years. I've been told their quirky names, but also that they're pretty reliable. I've been wanting to try one of their wines, in particular, for a while. 'The Dead Arm' Shiraz. I'd heard that it was a solid, fairly typical example of a big Aussie Shiraz. Big Shiraz should be packed full of ripe fruit. This gives them great aromaticity and concentration of flavour, but can lead to over-extraction and a tannic, chewy mouth-feel. The more balanced, smoother examples can be sumptuous though. As an example, the 2005 Bishop by r was one of the first Barossa Valley wines I'd tried, and that really did not disappoint! Incidentally, I've also tried d'Arenberg's fortified Shiraz, 2005, and that was crazy yummy!

The Dead Arm Shiraz from d'Arenberg is made from McLaren Vale vines infected with a fungus called Eutypa lata. This disease kills-off one 'arm' of the vine, turning it to deadwood. The other half of the vine continues to produce a small but ripe crop of berries. The grapes are small but full of flavour. The grapes are hand harvested and processed with great care. After fermentation, the wine is aged in new oak (french and American) for 22 months. I don't know much about Australian vintages so I cannot comment on 2007 being good or bad. However, one of the main attractions of new-world climates, is that they're more consistent than in Europe. This means that vintages, unless they're really bad, are perhaps less important.

I have to say i was not disappointed at all by the Dead Arm. This is a really lovely wine. I didn't decant it, which may have been a mistake. However, on the first evening of drinking it, i left it in the glass for 20 minutes before tasting, so it had a reasonable amount of air. The second evening showed what happens to good wine if you give it time. All the aromas and flavours grew and intensified.

In the glass the wine was really deep in colour. A dark red/purple with only a slight lightening as it thinned at the edges. There was a tiny hint of age at the rim, with a slight 'bricking' of colour. The wine was dense and viscous when swirling, and the tears were heavy and alcoholic. The nose of this wine jumped out at me. I swear I could smell it at arm's length while swirling the glass on the table! The nose was big and bold, and classically Shiraz. Concentration came first, with bits of light, sweet red fruits, raspberries and then cherries. The largest proportion of the aromatics came in the form of lightly smokey, spiced black pepper, liquorice and vanilla. The sweetness seemed to be centered around, what I thought was, quite herbaceous green peppers. Overall the nose is so full, ripe and juicy that it makes your mouth water. The palate follows on from the nose, with ripe, slightly jammy, sweet fruit. The body is on the fuller side, as expected, and soft tannins are present through the middle. This means a very smooth, rounded mouth-feel. Although slightly chewy towards the end, it is not at all bitter. The finish is really long. The fruitiness remains with only a hint of spice.

Although this is a great wine, it is expensive. I think it's about worth it if you're looking for this style of wine and need reliability. It's obviously well made with all elements in balance. The high alcohol (14.5%) is melded beautifully with the fruit and tannins, and just the right acidity remains for such warm-climate grapes. The 2007 is showing the first signs of age, but the firmness of tannins, acidity and fruit should see this wine living for many years yet. I found this Dead Arm in Tesco's, of all places, at about £25. Online would probably be your best bet for picking this up a little cheaper.

Muga - 2009 Reserva - Rioja Alta

Recently I've been enjoying the wines of Rioja, Spain. I was given a couple as birthday gifts and they've been lovely. I like Rioja, it has a smoothness to it that i can't get enough of. When there is fruit, oak and spices gliding along with it, more's the better. These factors come from the aging of the wine after it's made, in oak and in bottle. Wines of Rioja have a quality classification system that determines the required levels of aging after the wine is made. The lesser-aged red wines are known as simply Rioja (Tinto). These may see a few months of oak aging, and then maybe a little bottle aging before release. A little more aging in oak and bottle gives you Crianza. Even more oak aging, something like 18 months or more, plus bottle aging of a similar length, and you have a Reserva. Gran Reserva may have 5 or more years of oak and bottle aging before release! If I'm honest i could look up the exact rules governing aging times, but it's not really needed here, you get the idea. There are, of course, other considerations that contribute to a wine's quality, for example selecting the best grapes. However, the important thing to realise is that the longer the wine is aged (particularly in oak), the better it may become. I think Crianza's make excellent dinner-time wines. They're usually great value, and compliment food really well. Reserva and Gran Reserva Rioja's are a little more special and usually have layers of complexity and flavour that should, perhaps, be enjoyed in isolation. This isn't to say that they won't go with food, I'm sure they'd be great, but I quite like drinking wine for the wine itself, not just to lubricate a meal.

Anyway, I've found myself researching spanish wines in order to find some good examples of quality and typicity. As always, I've been looking for as higher a quality as i can manage, at affordable prices. Interestingly, during my trawling, i happened to find out something i previously didn't know. I didn't realise that the Spanish region of Rioja is itself subjugated into a few sub-regions. The DOC region of Rioja is comprised of (mainly) Rioja Alta, Rioja Alvesa and Rioja Baja. Each of the these regions expresses their own qualities in the red wine they produce. They have slighlty different grape blends and manufacturing processes, as well as slightly different micro-climates and soils in which to grow their grapes.

One particular producer's wine kept cropping up during my initial searches. The wines of Bodegas Muga. Bodega is the term given to a producer, equivilent to Chateau or Domaine, although it actually means wine cellar. In this case the name sort of means, 'the wine cellars of Muga'. Muga is the family name of the owners. I've heard of this producer before, but a friend (Twitter aquaintance) reminded me about it, as he recently went there. I looked in to them a little further and found some great reviews of all their wines. They have a range of wines of increasing quality/price. They make a white Rioja Blanco, some Rose, and a few Reds. The reds are what I was looking for so I stuck with them. They start with the Rioja Enea, move up to Crianza and then a couple of Reservas. There is a normal Reserva and a Seleccion Especial, which is made from the best grapes of that year. Then there is the more special Torre Muga, which is a Reserva, but the grapes are chosen from the oldest and best vines on the estate. Finally there is the Prado Enea Gran Reserva. Again, the finest quality grapes are used, The maceration and fermentation are a little more natural, with less intervention than the other wines, and the wine is aged for the longest, in oak (4 years minimum) and bottle (a further 3 years minimum).

After all that then, I found that the easiest and actually the cheapest stockist was Majestic wines. The more expensive Muga wines had to be ordered on special delivery, however, the Reserva 2009 was in stock at my local store. I decided to pick a couple up, at the extra special, sale price of about £14. Incidently, I am going to be getting a couple of the Seleccion Especial soon also, as I have arranged a #WineSwap through Twitter! (I may write a little post on the #WineSwap phenomenon some time...)

So what was it like?

In a word, Good! I decanted and left it to breathe for about 45 minutes. A small sip straight out of the bottle told me that it was a good thing to do. In the glass it was a lovely full, deep red. No hint of purple at all, slightly maroon, but no real sign of age yet. Good body and fairly alcoholic legs. On the nose, this wine jumps out of the glass at you. The high alcohol adds to the aromaticity and carries notes of sweet cherries. Lighter red fruits may be there, but are hard to pick out. The biggest parts of the nose were vanilla, liquorice and a lovely floral hit of violets. There were also undertones of smoke and spice, maybe cinnamon and cloves. On the palate the youthful tannins came through a little chalky, but certainly not grainy. They actually gave the mouthfeel great texture. There were plums and again cherries present, which were perhaps a little stewed. the middle was pretty well balanced. The acidity was detectable, but was not forward, which meant nothing overpowered the rest. The finish was sweet and mildly spiced with a touch of pepper. It lingered for a good 20 seconds.

In conclusion then, this is a cracking red. On sale it's a good price for a Rioja Reserva. I think it's still young, and although its obviously delicious now, I anticipate it will improve over the next few years. There was a decent dollop of tannins and acidity, but nothing massive. I would say the next 5 or 6 years should do for this vino. After that, it may start to slide downhill.

Bodegas Muga have a website, but I looked briefly and didn't find the English version. I can get by in Spanish so didn't really need it. It does have a translation though, so check it out here, there's a lot of info on their wines, and a bit more. As mentioned, Majestic wines sell a few of the Muga range. Just search here.

Amarone della

It's been a while. I'm afraid I've been busy enjoying myself! The last 2 weekends have been all about the wife and I celebrating entry in to our 4th decade. Our birthdays are 6 days apart, so a normal year is busy. This being our 30th, was even more so. We've been very lucky to have full weekends with both sides of our respective families. This has meant that, although I've drunk some great wines in this time, I have had little time for writing anything about wine at all.

So, to get back in the writing saddle, so to speak, i'll start with a quick wine review.

I was given a bottle of wine last week, not necessarily as a birthday present, but a gift nonetheless. I know little about Italian wines, other than the famous international names likes Barolo, Barbaresco and Chianti, and so hadn't come across this one before. The wine in question was an Amarone Della Valpolicella Classico. The reason for this unexpected gift was actually for my opinion, with the main question being asked; is it worth it?!

So the story goes, a friend of this friend buys 'Amorone' at £40 to £50 a bottle, and raves about it. So having spotted an 'Amarone' in Lidl, at half that price (approximately £20), the friend asks me if it's any good. Now, as described above, I know relatively little about Italian wines, so I decided to do a bit of investigating.

The internet tells me that: Amarone Della Valpolicella is a wine-producing sub-region in Northern Italy. It is part of the larger, classified region of Veneto, surrounding Verona. According to Wikipedia, AdV (as I'll call it for ease) was classified as a DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata) in 1990, and upgraded to a DOCG (added Guarantee) in 2009. The Classico addition to the label means that it comes from a smaller, more traditional area, renowned for making this style of wine, and should denote better quality. As can be seen on this particular bottle of wine, it may have been made just before the re-classification to DOCG, as the 'G' is missing from it's title.

So, the 2009 AdV from Tenuta Pule (pictured above), should have been made from grapes that were left to dry, post harvest, in a shed (or similar container/housing). This could have been anything from a couple of weeks, to several months. The purpose of this process is to reduce the water content in the grapes, and therefore concentrate the sugars and the, some might say more important, flavour and aroma compounds also. This should result in a fuller-bodied, concentrated and very aromatic wine, that has a higher-than-normal alcohol level.

Having researched this wine, I was quite excited about trying an AdV for the first time. I like fuller bodied red wines, with pungent noses and fruit-bomb palates, so this sounded right up my street!

Upon opening the bottle, and pouring, the wine actually seemed a little thin-bodied and flat.The initial nose didn't reveal much at all, and the first taste was quite disappointing. I sensed sweetness on the nose, and the alcohol stood out on the palate. At this point, I happened to be chatting to my Dad on the phone, and naively relayed this to him. As it turns out, I should have waited a little longer before judging it. After about half an hour, maybe a little longer, the wine opened-up. I'm normally one for decanting and waiting for wines, so i don't know why I was in such a hurry on this occasion!? The wine developed a quite complex nose, of blackberries, sweet cherries, green peppers, a hint of vanilla, but, most of all, sweet violets! This was actually really lovely. On the palate, the wine had a good texture, medium to full-bodied. The sweet fruit flavours had a jammy quality that I could imagine a lot of people wouldn't like, if they're into lighter reds. I think this wine had a lot of residual sugar, which gives the taste a slightly port-like quality. The finish was fairly long and lingering, with a little of that green pepper spice. In my opinion, the alcohol was a little overpowering on the palate, and in the finish. The balance of soft tannins (not too chewy at all) and acidity was good, but the alcohol dominated. This is an unfortunate downside for this wine. I liked it, but it's not quite there!

Back to the original question, "is it worth it?". Well, I was a little disappointed. I've tasted big Aussie Shiraz, and this AdV didn't have the same concentrated fruit flavours at all, it delivered on the nose (eventually) but not in flavour. I was expecting much more from this wine. I think this was probably down to it's billing, and the research I'd done. Maybe this was wrong of me?! Having said that, £20 is a fair amount to be spending on a bottle of wine. I would say that if you're spending that much per bottle, you want it to be a little bit special. I have plenty of bottles in the cellar, that I would say are better than this AdV, and cost (a little) less than £20! We should also remember that this wine came from Lidl, which, as I understand it, should be providing it's patrons with value, at lower prices!

To conclude then, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this wine. It is perfectly drinkable, and has some excellent points to it when considering the complexity of aromas on the nose. It went particularly well with a rump steak and chips! However, I don't really think it's worth it's supposed price-tag of £20. If I'd bought this for £8-£10, I'd be pretty pleased with myself. I wouldn't feel hard-done-by if I'd have paid £15 for it. £20 though, in my opinion, is a touch too much. I can only assume that the original 'Amarone' that started this mini-saga, which cost over £40, must have been from a different producer. From what I've read, these wines have the potential to be quite exquisite, and also as age-worthy as the best Cabernet from Bordeaux. I hope that I may have the fortune to try one of these some day. But, for now, I shall simply thank my friend for giving me a lovely bottle of wine! To me, it was free, and therefore, was absolutely worth every bit of it!!

Majestic's Wine Course

Wednesday seems to be becoming the evening of the week designated for enjoying wine. There's lots about #winewednesday on Twitter. It so happens that my last two Wednesday evenings have been filled by wine tasting events. This week, my wife and I attended the 'Wine Course' hosted by Majestic wines in Sale. I stumbled across it while browsing their website and finding the events calendar for the Sale store. After this, I also noticed that Majestics advertise such events on Twitter too. I'm now Twitter-mates with the staff at Sale too! A swift phone call was all that was required to book our spots, and to pay the £5 deposit. Part of the lure for this tasting event was that they are all FREE! The deposit is refunded at the end of the course.

5pm saw us get the tram from town out to Sale. Incidentally, it took far longer than the timetable had suggested! The Sale store is only a 10 minutes walk from the tram stop, but we arrived a little hot and bothered due to the muggy weather. This was alleviated with haste , for as soon as we stepped through the door, we were presented with a nice, cold glass of bubbly. I'm can't remember what it was, but I do recall it was not champagne, maybe Cava.

The tasting table was already laid out on the shop floor. This was actually quite a good setting, surrounded by lovely bottles of wine. Each persons place was already set with 6 glasses of wine. Three whites and three reds had been placed atop of a sheet of A4, with fake condensation rings (stains) printed on it to denote positions that were also numbered 1 to 7. Confusing for now, but all will be explained. Laid next to these were little booklets to accompany the course. Inside these was information about tasting, wines of different kinds, different grapes, world regions and much more. There was also space for ones tasting notes, using the provided pen.

The evening started quickly. We all sat down around the table with Flick, the shop manager (presumably short for Felicity!?). She introduced herself, and then asked us to introduce ourselves, with our names and something about our wine preferences, or why we were at the event. This, combined with a glass of fizz, was a great way to relax people and break the ice. She explained a little bit about what sort of course the evening would be. It's interesting that the Wine Course is designed less as a showcase for certain wines and more as a general learning experience - as an introduction to wine tasting. It is much more about how to taste wines, rather than the about the wines themselves.

We proceeded to the white wines, numbered 1 to 3. Flick asked us to pick up the first glass, and took us through the process of tasting a  wine. As a brief example; firstly, look at the wine. Hold it up against a white background to asses it's colour and clarity. Second, smell the wine's 'bouquet' or 'nose'. Here one tries to identify the aromas that can be found from such volatile liquids. Swirling the glass releases the magic. Thirdly, taste the wine. Here one takes a little mouthful, swills it around in the mouth and perhaps draws some air through the liquid behind the teeth. This helps to release the flavours (actually by releasing them from the liquid so they can travel to the nose again!).

We practiced these techniques with the white wines. We were asked to attempt to identify what the wines were, their flavours and what had given the wines those flavours. This was, of course, all guided by Flick. She knows a great deal about wine and was quite adept at conveying her knowledge. It's not really important what the exact wines were. They had been well chosen to illustrate the points being taught. There was a bone-dry, crisp, acidic, but fruity Sauvignon Blanc (Sancerre), a slightly less dry, mineral-textured, really mildly oaky Chablis, and another, more oaked and less dry, Chardonnay that smelled like honey and peaches, from Chili. From these is was easy to pick out the aromas, flavours and textures of each, then link them to the grape varieties, how they might have been made and the climate they came from. Comparison between the wines made this process a great deal easier than with a single wine.

What a great start! By now the tasters were all conversing and discussing what they thought of the wines and the tasting techniques they had now mastered. Here's where the numbering system was made clear. Wine number 4, which was missing from our place-mat, was a champagne. This meant that the 3 reds became 5, 6 and 7, and were identified accordingly on our sheets. The champagne was brought out by Flick's assistant. He's an assistant manager at the shop, I think he was called either Dan or Tim!? I'm not really good with names.

As we went through the tasting protocol, Flick took us through the extra steps required in the making of a champagne. This is know as the méthode champenoise, or traditional method. A secondary, in-bottle- fermentation is what gives the wines it's bubbles. Flick's knowledge was tested by questions, and not once did it fail us. The champagne was a lovely example, chosen because of it's great nose. This one was really yeasty, and had lovely (slightly burnt) toast notes. The mousse was also very classy. The 'mousse', by the way, is the texture of the fizzing wine in the mouth. Less fizzy, with smaller bubbles, means a smoother mousse, and usually better quality, I think.

So, by now, a touch tipsy. I speak for myself here, others were perhaps drinking a little less of each wine, and others were spitting. Spitting, incidentally, is something I need to learn to do. Not just because when tasting lots of wine its very easy to drink a bit too much, but also because it seems to be a bit of an art form. I think it's actually quite hard to do, without it going everywhere and leaving you looking like a dribbling mess!

The red wines were a similar affair to the whites, in that we made our way through them individually, assessing each one as we went, comparing them to each other in terms of aromas, flavours and textures. Guesses were made as to what each were and where they were from. I was quite please with my own guessing. My only downfall here was being fooled by a left-bank Bordeaux, into thinking it was a right-bank. Left-bank wines are traditionally made with a greater percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon in their blend, which gives them a more ripe, blackcurrant nature. Right bank wines contain more Merlot, and so tend to be more rich and plummy, maybe like jammy cherries. These are of course generalisations, however, the lack of cassis in the Bordeaux we had made me think right-bank. I'm going to go out on a limb now and say that it was the... how do I put it... 'less than optimal' 2007 vintage that was to blame for my reasoning.

The red wines were, again, a great selection to exemplify what was being taught. The Pinot Noir from New Zealand was lighter, less tannic and a bit peppery. The Bordeaux was classically tannic and showed elements derived from oak aging (cedar wood and tobacco). Finally the Barossa Valley Shiraz was full bodied but richly flavoured with light ripe fruit, with a hint of spice in a long finish. These wines were great examples of their breeds and perfectly chosen for this occasion.

Having been through quite a lot of wine, and almost consumed our fill of information, the evening finished with a bit of food play, and wine number 8. This was, I thought, a great addition to the course. Several different foods were brought out, including tomatoes, spicy crisps, pate on toast and some cheese. In addition to these was a little bit of chocolate brownie, to go with a sweet dessert wine (No. 8). I have to admit that I can't remember what this wine was, sorry. I think it may have been a Tokaji from Hungary. The foods were tasted with the wines. This was to demonstrate that some foods don't go with some wines. The best example was the tomato, which went really badly with the Sancerre, because there was just too much acidity. It did, however, go really well with the Chilean Chardonnay and the Bordeaux. The pate went well with the Sancerre, as the acidity of the wine  'cut through' (as they say) the richness of the pate. The brownie and dessert wine were a great match to finish the evening.

The only thing that was left to do at this point was to finish the remnants of ones favourite wine and chat about what we'd learnt. I must stress again that Flick was a wonderful host. She's very knowledgeable about wines, but also a very relaxed and accomplished instructor. I think the aftermath seen below clearly demonstrates what a fun event this was. There was not much left in the glasses and everyone went away, not only happy, but with a slightly larger brain.

The Majestic's Wine Course is exactly that. It is a course, for learning. They have packed a lot of very basic, but essential, information in to it. Information that anyone with a slight interest in wine would love to know. There was also a great deal of advanced knowledge in there too, probably thanks to Flick's question answering. Information that even a seasoned pro might not know, or realise. There was a mix of people at the event. There was a couple of lads, who knew they liked red wine, but wanted to learn a bit more so they could make more informed choices from restaurant wine menus. There was a pair of young ladies that knew quite a lot about wine, but thus far had played safe and drank what they knew. They wanted to experience something different and broaden their wine horizons. Then there was someone like myself. I like to think I know a fair amount about wine. I'm not an expert, just and enthusiastic novice, but I know how to taste it, I know different varietals and regional variations. This said, I learned a fair amount at from this event. It was also a great chance to practice my tasting skills and confirm knowledge I'd obtained through reading, in a practical setting.

There's not much more to say now. Majestic Wines is a good shop, in fact, lots of shops. They have a good selection of wines over a wide price range (check out my other posts). The Wine Course is just one of a few they host at many of their branches, details of all of these can be found on their website. Whatever level you're at (or think you're at) if you want to learn more about wine, then I'd really recommend going along to one of these events. For me, a great evening was topped-off by, not only getting our deposits back, but also a £10-off voucher to use on a future purchase! Bonus ;-)

Ryedale vineyard rose fizz

Quick post here. I feel I need to express how much I like Ryedale vineyard....

A few nights ago we had their 'Yorkshire Sunset' rose, it was fruity and tart and went really well with a creamy, salmon pasta dish my wife made. It was good for English wine, and set the standard of expectation for this producer.

This evening was the start of a long, bank holiday weekend, and as such deserved to be kicked-off in good fashion. It's been a tough week at work and a bit of fizz was a grand way to clear the bad mood and make way for a few relaxing days off. Ryedale vineyard's 'A Taste of Paradise', an English sparkling rose wine, was the choice i made. I chose this over a cheap champagne also in the rack, for whatever reason. As it turned out, it was a great choice.

Today has been warm and humid and cycling home from work had left me gasping. The rose fizz was just the ticket. This wine is a little fruity to begin with, but a subdued nose is dominated with good toasty notes. A less-fizzy palate results in a light mousse that is really elegant. The palate has real fruity flavours. Light red fruits including strawberry mingle with a slight yeasty texture. The balance is perfect with just enough acidity to be really refreshing.

This is a really classy sparkling rose. Until i poured it, I hadn't realised it was a rose, but i needn't have been worried. Although missing the more forward toast and yeasty flavours of Champagne, i would argue that this style of wine is equally good, given the right situation. For a warm summers evening, it hit the spot perfectly.

That'll do for now. Apart from to point my readers to a previous post about Ryedale vineyard. I would recommend trying their wines, I shall definitely be purchasing more of the rose fizz!