Chateau Ferrande 2012

I had this wine over Easter with roast rack of lamb. This is an estate with which I am not familiar, and one from Graves, rather then the more familiar and more prestigious Pessac-Leognan. An ancient estate with roots back to Roman times, the estate was probably planted with grapes for the past three or so centuries and was managed by the Castel group since the 1960s, and they purchased the estate in 1992. The estate produces both a red and a white grand vin as well as a red second wine (Ch Guillon).

The wine was a deep ruby, with a slightly sweet acid leafy nose giving way to black currant notes with a touch of alcohol and tannins. The palate was sweet with berry fruit, accompanied by acid and tannins. There was some alcohol heat before yielding to an acid and tannic backbone. The alcohol heat dissipated with breathing and it went well with the lamb.

Yarra Yering Dry Red No 1 Vntage 2010

We tasted this the other night, having it with Korean beef, of different cuts and done a couple of different ways. Now Yarra Yering is an Australian winery that we like, particularly for its Dry Red No 1. A well established winery in the Yarra Valley, the estate is famed for the two Dry Reds it produces, No 1 being a Bordeaux Blend with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec and Petit Verdot, whilst No 2 is Shiraz based. As for this bottle, the wine was a depp ruby, with a sweet woody fruity nose accompanied by acid. The palate was acid then sweet and fruity, with the wood much more in the background, leading to an acid backbone holding everything nicely together.

Txakoli

This wine with an unpronounceable name is from the Basque region of Spain. For me, the mention of Basque brings the association with the troubles cause by ETA, but actually that area is also where San Sebastian is, with its profusion of Michel starred restaurants, including El Bulli, once voted the top restaurant of the world.

I first saw this wine (made from a local grape called Hondurrabi Zuri) in a wine shop in the shopping complex underneath a nearby private housing estate. That it is a wine generating a lot of interest was testified by its appearance in Marks and Spencer (of which this is a sample). I got a bottle but could not get round to tasting it yet, so watch this space for my inpression when I have time to crack the bottle.

Chateau Lagrange 2010

I had this bottle the other night. A bottle from a reliable third growth in a good year raises expectations and in this case, such anticipation was well rewarded (even though more patience is likely to bring even more enjoyment). Lagrange is a well-known estate, even though there are other estates with the same name. Japanese ownership gives reassurance as to consistency of quality of output.

The wine was a deep purple ruby at the rim bordering a dark impenetrable core, with a sweet woody berry nose. The nose continued with the same sweet wood and fruit notes onto the palate where it was joined by a smattering of acid and tannins, forming good support for the wine. Very nice.

Chateau Flaunys 2014

I got this wine from the supermarket to go with lamb chops the other day. A lesser known claret from Montagne St Emilion which nearly made last year's Doctors' Association Dinner, this wine turned out a good accompaniment for the meal. The estate turns out to be very interesting in that the vineyard (created only in 1960) straddles the three appellations of Lussac- and Montagne- St Emilion as well as Bordeaux Superieur and they make three wines from this unbroken stretch of vineyards for the different appellations. The estate is called La Claymore and yes there is a Scottish connection from its history (not from the estate or the owners, but from this whole area, which used to be a Scottish garrison). Flaunys itself is a Calt-Gaelic word meaning paradise, and for this wine, the fruit is pure Merlot.

AS for this wine, it was a clear limpid deep ruby with just a hint of purple. The nose was sweet acid with lots of berry fruit, somewhat marred by a tiny whiff of alcohol. The palate was sweet acid and fruity with a touch of savouriness, still dogged by that same alcoholic heat, leading to an acid backbone accompanied with slight tannins.

Ch Magdelaine 2011

We had this wine the other day with beef sashimi amongst other food. We had recently bought some half bottles of this wine and as was noted in an earlier blog piece, the 2011 was Ch Magdelaine's last vintage as it was merged with Ch Belair-Monange in 2012. The wine was a nice deep ruby in colour, with a sweet acid astringent plummy woody nose. The palate was sweet woody plummy and tannic, well supported by a sweet savoury tannic backbone with a hint of acid.

Now i quite like this estate; and with it disappearing into another Moueix property, it must be time to seek out that wine although I don't seem to have spotted it on the shelves here in Hong Kong yet.