Grower's Champagne

 
(Image from Decanter Website) 

There was this article about grower's champagne in Decanter recently and suddenly I got a promotion email from a wine merchant about it (although they were actually only promoting one such estate); one could be mistaken into thinking that this is the leading edge of a big trend. Well, I don't know about that but it is always interesting to see Decanter's recommendations. The 10 wines featured contained 3 familiar names, though I had only bought (but need to check notes or storage to see if I had already tasted it) only one of them.

I had known about Tarlant and Vilmart and even saw some of their products in the first of the neighbourhood wines shops I befriended, but I had bought a Pierre Peters NV wine from the Club some time ago. Before that, I had bought some champagne from the Champagne House and they had been selling champagne from the Tarlant and Vilmart, but looking up their website now, they still stock Vilmart wines, but not Tarlant, and they also have Hebrart and David Léclapart too.

Wither Hills

Someone introduced us to Wither Hills Sauvignon Blanc when everyone was raving about Cloudy Bay's offering. We were  impressed and went on to follow this estate's Sauvignon Blanc wines for some years. The exotic tropical fruit nose and crisp acidity made it a useful food pairing wine especially for people like us who like to eat a lot of fish and seafood (though it does not always prove a good match).

Founded in 1994 by Brent Marris, a former winemaker at Delegat's and sold to the Lion Nathan group in 2002, the winery was known for making good Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir. There was a scandal over a Sauvignon Blanc competition entry at which Marris was also judging resulting in the disqualification of the winery's entry.

The challenge of finding cost-effective wines (Old World)

Having tasted a few Spanish wines which are competitively priced, yet garnering RP90 or over has led me to set the theme of this year's Doctors' Association wine dinner as cost-effective imbibing.I thought it would be fun to set the price at below $300 a bottle (or $400 of the special offer price at which the bottle is bought was <$300).

One would quite automatically think of a number of New World countries where such value can be obtained, but I wondered if we can find the same in established Old World countries. It turned out to be possible, and one can even find a claret or maybe two! Sweet wines are a challenge from the Old World, but then we tend to open half bottles rather than full 750ml bottles. So the price restriction the applies to the smaller bottles (375 or 500 ml bottles) which are normally opened at the end of the meal, even when full bottles are drunk in the main meal. Watch this space for further updates.

Interesting Piedmont Whites

(Image from Decanter Website)

There was this recent article introducing 2014 Piedmont white wines in Decanter. Although I had only tasted one of the recommended wines from another vintage, I had actually sampled all the interesting indigenous grape varieties these wines were made from. Actually, I was unsure about the Morasso from Cascina Montagnola, but that turned out to be made from Timorasso, which I had tasted before. Gavi (from Cortese) and Roero Arneis are probebly not unfamiliar to many, but Timorasso, Favorita and Erbaluce are probably rather unknown.

Two grapes were featured three times each Arneis and Erbaluce, and it was one of the latter that I had tried - the Orsolani La Rustia Erbaluce di Caluso (though of the 2010 vintage). You can look up the Decanter article for their notes of the 2014 vintage, but as for the wine I tasted in the 2012 Wine Fair, it was a straw yellow with a crisp nose hinting of citrus notes. These notes carried through to the palate, evolving into a lemony acid backbone. The article suggested their selection are all food friendly wines, and I can think of many a fish dish which would go with the wine I had tasted some 3 years ago.

Chateau Pontet St Emilion

I saw this wine in the shops the other day, and thought it might be interesting to find out about this other Pontet.It turns out that there are a number of estates other than the Pauillac 5th Growth Pontet-Canet with the word Pontet in its name. At least two are in St Emilion, Ch Grand Pontet and Ch Cadet Pontet, the latter of which produces the wine above. It seesm that the Vignoble Merias originally owns Chateau Cadet Pontet a St Emilion Grand Cru and they then bought another St Emilion Grand Cru, Ch Cadet-Peychezin 2010. The above wine is I suppose the second wine of the original estate. Although the grand vin of the original estate includes the two Cabernets in its cepage, both Cadet-Peychezin and the above wine are 100% Merlot.

Chateau Coufran

I must admit that I am not familiar with this Cru Bourgeois Superieur estate, but this is one of the estates belonging to the Miailhe family, one of whom now owns Ch Siran. What is less well known is that May Eliane de Lencquesaing lately of Pichon Lalande is also related, so this family has some serious vineyard owning and wine growing experience over the years in Bordeaux.

The estate has been in the family since 1924 but to improve the marketability of the wine, the family changed the cepage from predominantly Cabernet Sauvignon to 85% Merlot, leading one journalist to call it the Pomerol du Medoc. The 2005 was a deep purple ruby, with an acid fruity nose. The palate was slightly sweet and acid with a soupcon of fruity, leading to an acid backbone providing support.