Friday 2nd December 2011 10:35am

Strange Wine Blogger arrives in Winchester

We received an online order this week from a David Strange.  Further research and a visit to deliver the wine (how often does the delivery man get rewarded with a shared bottle, so fresh and vital, of Fritz Haag's 1999 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Spatlese?!) revealed that David has just arrived in Winchester from Woolwich. 

Here is a man who is obsessed with good food and drink - enthusing about everything from the Farmer's Market to beer and interesting - but not necessarily horribly expensive - wines.  We look forward to seeing David again at our big tasting at the
Guildhall on Friday 9th; and foresee some interesting collaboration
ahead.

Do check out his highly opinionated and hugely entertaining website:

www.elitistreview.com

Tuesday 15th November 2011 15:51pm

Wine for Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall?

We have just been working our way through our newly arrived Chilean wines and came across this on the back label of the Errazuriz Single Vineyard Carmenere....

"Serve: with well-seasoned dishes, curries, moles, and roasted meats".

Now, we know some Chilean copy-writer intended to refer to meals based on spicy Mexican sauces, but will all our customers? 

Friday 11th November 2011 10:31am

South America arrives in Twyford... finally!

Exciting news this week - our new container of wine from Argentina and Chile arrived, with loose-loaded cases from Mendoza, San Juan, the Aconcagua and Colchagua Valleys, Leyda, and numerous other regions; and not a single bottle broken...

The men (aka Phil, Francois, Gordon and Simon) spent several hours manually unloading the wine and moving it into the warehouse, while the ladies (aka Camilla and Liza) stayed indoors answering telephones and making tea and coffee. Who said chivalry was dead?

Tuesday 18th October 2011 12:02pm

Winemaker South African Tasting at the High Commission

Last Wednesday we entertained some 70 odd at the South Africa High Commission in Trafalgar Square: certainly our grandest venue to date, and even our visiting Cape winemakers were impressed.

In attendance were three top young winemakers, plus Pieter du Toit, export manager at Cederberg. We showed 37 wines.  In terms of sales, the favourite style on the evening was, surprisingly, oaked Chardonnay: but then in Ataraxia and Cape Chamonix's examples we do offer two of the best from the whole of South Africa. Otherwise it was the winemakers doing the selling...

Here is Adi Badenhorst doing the business: his 2011 Secateurs Chenin Blanc is superb, combining tropical fruit with cream and fine acidity.

..and here is Gottfried Mocke of Cape Chamonix. We suddenly realised that (outside fragmented Burgundy) Cape Chamonix is the only estate from which we offer seven different wines - and they are getting better, thanks to Gottfried's inspired stewardship. His fizz, oaked Sauvignon Blanc and his fascinating Greywacke Pinotage (made using partly dried grapes) were much admired.

Matthew Copeland was pouring his Vondeling wines in a laid-back way - notably his Petit Blanc white blend and the chnky Erica Shiraz.

All in all a good time was had by all - certainly to judge by our opening of 60 bottles on the evening!

Friday 17th June 2011 17:15pm

B******x  Rant

I try hard not to rant (“Mr Angry of Twyford”), but the stream of euro prices from Bordeaux negociants and offers from UK merchants for 2010 Bordeaux has finally pushed me over the edge.

First, here’s a bit of recent history:

2000 – Millennium Year, great vintage, big price hike
2003 – Heatwave year, short crop, very concentrated wines, big price hike (aided and abetted by Captain Robert Parker of the Spaceship Wine Advocate, who loved the wines (well, he would, wouldn’t he – you could stand a teaspoon up in some of them, and many appeared as gloopy as Napa micro-cuvees)
2005 – Great Year, best since 1982, very big price hike
(Intervening years: the Chinese begin buying , and more important, drinking red Bordeaux)
2009 – Really Great Year, best since records began, etc. etc., titanic price hike
2010 – I quote from a major London merchant (two letters separated by an ampersand)
“2010 has a lot to live up to; and it does, and some. Whilst there is possibly less media frenzy surrounding the 2010s, these wines will emerge as more long-term, and quite possibly superior to the 2009s.”
So there you have it: perfection trumped, and if you spent a lot of money buying 2009s, you might even feel a mite tetchy. Oh, and by the way, lots (but not all) of prices went up again for the 2010s, in some cases by 48%.

The only conclusion is that (rather like English A level students getting cleverer and cleverer every year) the Bordelais are making better and better wines.  Interestingly, if this is true, one might argue that it is rarely worth buying Bordeaux at all: if the wines are getting so much better, on an almost yearly basis, why buy any vintage when a greater one is sure to come along soon?

Prices for the first growths are now stratospheric – but that’s understandable: very rich people, all over the world, want the best of anything, whether it’s houses, cars or art, and if they want to fight over cases of Lafitte that’s their prerogative.

But I really do have an issue with a whole pile of wannabes trying to climb on the gravy train.  One example: my father used to serve up Brane-Cantenac, a perfectly decent Margaux, at not very important dinners. The price for the 2003 vintage, en primeur, was £200 a case: in 2005 it was £300 a case; and for 2010 it’s £630 or more.  Of course the weakness of sterling has done part of this, but the 2010 will be a stonking £65 a bottle delivered.  The fact is, high prices for the best are enabling lesser lights to increase their prices grossly too. Sadly we have seen this just appearing in Burgundy too: one man in Vosne puts his prices up, and the others do too so as not to appear inferior (a bit like British universities all coming out at the maximum £9k a year).

And everyone gains from this merry-go-round.  The UK merchants who continue to hype Bordeaux benefit by being able to price up their stock of older vintages.  The winners are merchants, speculators and investors, and the loser is the actual drinker.

Is that right?  Is £50 plus the “right” price for a moderate bottle of Bordeaux?  Or does this market feel like a bubble?  In recent years valuations of several areas have felt wrong before they imploded: for example the ludicrous Dublin house prices, the overweening scale of Icelandic banks, or the Contemporary Art market before 2008.  Is this where Bordeaux is headed?

Do people realise that these Chateaux produced wines are not tiny production runs?  The Chateaux and merchants announce immediate sell-outs, but how much did they offer?  How much is being held back by the Chateaux owners?  Secondly, and of enormous concern, how much wine over the last few vintages has been bought by speculators, not actual consumers.  And what happens to a market when the product being traded becomes too expensive for anyone to actually consume it?  The new Bordeaux market could well be a case of Abe’s Sardines, as related by the great Simon Loftus. This was a shaggy-dog story of a shipment of sardines: the punchline was “oh no, them sardines ain’t for eating, them for trading”.  And watch those speculators dump the wines if prices do start falling…..

Bubble or not, DON’T BE SUCKED IN BY THIS. Here are some alternative strategies for intelligent drinkers:

1.  Buy vintages nearer their drinking window.
You can taste a wine before buying (and let’s be honest, we have all had disappointments from en primeur purchases. For example right now there are lots of 2001s and 2004s around which are beginning to drink well at much lesser prices than the so-called “great vintages”.

2.  Buy reds from other classic French regions
Price inflation has not been nearly as bad in Burgundy, and even for the splendid 2009 vintage prices did not rise much. In the Northern Rhone even Cote Rotie does not look over-priced, plus the better St. Josephs; in the south the best Vacqueyras and Gigondas are still very cheap ageworthy wines, plus, of course Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

3.  Buy top New World reds
There are plenty of classic or emerging New World reds which can be laid down. Try any of these: Ridge Zins and the Estate Cabernet; Felton Road Pinot Noirs; Adi Badenhorst’s Family Red from Swartland; top Chilean Cab. and Carmenere blends (sadly the top Errazuriz wines have become more expensive but they are still worth considering); the best Mendoza Malbecs, such as Walter Bressia’s wines; and as an excellent but lesser known alternative to red Bordeaux, look at the wines of Washington State, where Merlot and Cab. thrive – see for example our Seven Hills wines (new shipment arriving shortly).

4.  Buy top Loire late harvest wines rather than Sauternes
Sauternes too have become horribly expensive: so instead lay down top Loire wines from the Coteaux du Layon and its top sub-regions, Quarts de Chaume and Bonnezeaux. They are often cleaner (if less botrytic) with more intense flavours, and with high acidity levels they last forever.  Or look at Austrian sweeties – sensational.

Rant over.

Thursday 9th June 2011 15:10pm

Embracing social media

We're now on Twitter and Facebook, so please say hi, send us a message or 'like' our page if you'd like to keep in touch!

Find us on Facebook: search for 'Stone, Vine & Sun'

... and on Twitter: @StoneVineSun

Tuesday 26th April 2011 17:47pm

Easter Bottles

Easter is a time to relax, eat well and open some decent bottles. Here are a three tasting notes on vintages which we used to stock, with their original retail prices

Clos des Papes Blanc 2000 (£19.95)
As an aperitif, and marvellously stony but aromatic. Muted hint of white flowers. Understated stone fruit (a touch of apricot kernels too), finely grained, with white pepper and a sort of determinedly stern character. Great length - and just so interesting. (We currently stock the 2006 vintage at £29.95)

Fourrier, Morey St Denis, Clos Solon, 2000 (£16.50)
Fully mature scents of cedar, smoke and undergrowth, but plenty of life on the palate, with cooked red fruits backed by notes of tobacco and exotic spice. Splendidly long. Yet another proof of the virtues of the 2000 vintage: ignored and criticised on release, wines from 2000 have consistently delivered pleasure. (We stock 2007 at £28.95)

Domaine de Villeneuve, Chateauneuf du Pape Vieilles Vignes, 1998 (£18.25)
A charming scent of Kirsch precedes a black-fruited core, agreeably bitter, with liquorice and meaty/savoury elements. Still plenty of life in this - cracking winter wine. (No longer stocked since a change in ownership)

..and - by contrast - one newer wine, very much still in stock at £14.75

Bernard Sante, Julienas Vieilles Vignes, £14.75
Cherry-perfumed, this just blossoms in the glass. So youthful and vital - obviously a maceration carbonique Beaujolais, but so fleshy and voluptuous. Drink now or salt away for years.

Thursday 21st April 2011 12:44pm

Our shop will be open over Easter for tasting and sales:

Good Friday 22nd April, 9.30am to 4.00pm, & Easter Saturday 23rd April, 9.30am to 4.00pm
Wines for Spring
13 Humphrey Farms, Hazeley Road, Twyford, Winchester SO21 1QA

Our usual seasonal special – 10% off any bottles in our stock on these two days – and an opportunity to choose what you want to enjoy drinking not just over Easter, but the Royal Wedding, the Bank holiday and so on. Rarely have our state masters given us such an opportunity to enjoy the spring sunshine (we hope), and celebrate life in general.  Whether you need party wines for a hundred neighbours or smarter wines for a dinner party, do come along to a varied tasting of fifteen to twenty wines, focussing on fresher, lighter wines for spring. Open will be fizz, whites, rosés and reds, benchmark wines from New World Sauvignon Blanc to white Burgundy, from Rioja to red Bordeaux.

10% off all bottle (or magnum) prices in our stock at the shop on these two days.

Tuesday 26th October 2010 16:38pm

Chile tasting at the Hotel du Vin, 25th October 2010

Our new Chilean arrivals showed very well at last night's Chilean tasting at the Hotel du Vin in Winchester.  Winners were (in terms of general approval and sales): the Vina Casablanca Blanc de Blancs (which no-one buys until they taste it - clearly Chilean fizz, however good it is, is barely acceptable to serve yet!); the splendidly open and exotically fruity 2010 Anakena Sauvignon Blanc; the same estate's Leyda Pinot Noir, a supple, early maturing example which should make a lot of friends when we drop it into the Christmas list; Luis Felipe Edwards bold and forthright Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon from Colchagua; Tabali's 2009 Carmenere, inky but with subtle dry-fruited depths; and finally Kuyen, Alvaro Espinoza's second wine, based on Syrah. This last is a deep and well-structured wine with keeping potential too.

Peter Greet from Luis Felipe Edwards was kind enough to say that our Chilean range was among the most interesting in the country (and he didn't have to, as we had already paid his estate!). Top venue, delicious wines, what more could one want....

Friday 22nd October 2010 15:30pm

Basque Hospitality in Rioja Alavesa

I have just returned from three days in Rioja Alavesa (the northernmost zone, part of the Basque region, right up against the Sierra de Cantabria). The landscape looked beautiful - bone dry, with the vineyards beginning to turn orange and red, even though the harvest had not yet finished. 

I tasted at a number of Bodegas, from the small and rustic to big co-operatives.  The locals believe this to be the smartest and finest sub-zone of Rioja, but after this trip I have some reservations.  So here goes:

1.  There's a lot of very dull wine here, at every level, from really simple and lifeless wines at the base to heavy, over-extracted wines further up the scale. 

2.  Who the hell is paying for the architectural ego-trip wineries? Some of these bodegas are like modern-day cathedrals, monuments to the new religion of wine. At Baigorri one can see that the whole winery has been built to work on a gravity fed principal, which is all very worthy, but others are arrogant and brutalist.  They may attract lots of tourists, and get written up in glossy magazines, but WHO PAYS?  At the end of the day even the softest of loans from the Spanish government will have to be repaid, and I can't help but feel that first the wine merchant and ultimately the consumer is being asked to finance these.  I feel very uneasy considering buying from these palaces - give me a peasant with his kit tucked into his farm out-buildings any day.

3.  What does one expect from a bottle of Rioja? I vaguely thought I knew, but after this trip I am confused. I used to think it was a friendly, supple bottle full of ripe strawberry fruit with (usually) a pleasant vanilla note from ageing in American oak barrels. However, now I am puzzled: is it a bottle of confected juice (one wine tasted exactly like pink Haribo sweets), made with carbonic maceration (very much a local speciality in Rioja Alavesa)? Or is it a blackish, chocolatey wine made wholly in the international style, using 100% new French oak barrels, and lacking any discernible local character at all? 

4.  Is a Rioja from 100% Tempranillo really that exciting?  It was noticeable that many of the better wines included some Graciano or Mazuelo - but you usually can't tell from the label....

5.  There was a low point. A winemaker (I think he was called Jesus) poured us wine from a bottle weighing a kilo and a half (i.e. the empty bottle alone was the weight of a normal full bottle), adorned by a dreadful metal plaque instead of a label. He then proceeded to sprinkle edible gold flakes in every glass...   He told us that the Chinese had wanted to buy every bottle, but he was only letting them have 25% of his production.  This is very disappointing: if only the Chinese could be encouraged to waste their money on this sort of inky abomination there would be less of them chasing real wine.   

It wasn't all bad. Whilst this region can perhaps coast on its reputatation internationally, which doesn't help the pursuit of quality, I tasted a lot of good wines.  Here are the positives:

A.  2005 was clearly a great vintage in Rioja - so look out for anything from that year

B.  Most wineries continue to make a decent Crianza - the 2007s usually seemed fine

C.  Some really interesting wines are being made outside the Tinto/Crianza/Reserva/Gran Reserva codification.  These are released as Riojas, as they include the right grapes, but even though they may be expensive they won't have Reserva or Gran Reserva on the labels. The locals sometimes call these "Vinos de Autor", personal expressions of Rioja. 

Finally, I have to pay tribute to our Basque hosts, who clearly felt that English folk, labouring under austerity measures at home, needed fattening up. One day we had a five course lunch followed by a six course dinner. Here is that light lunch, eaten in the stone cellars of the excellent restaurant La Cueva in El Ciego (sadly I didn't take the camera out in the evening!).

First, (left to right), rounds of toast with tomatoes, jamon iberico and cheese; second, a mound of cod and potato; third, a fine piece of hake on Swiss chard; fourth, steak with mushroom sauce;

 and finally, a messy pile of cheesecake like substance, mildly gluey (so I spare you the photo): this last was too much for me!