That Wine's From WHERE?

We went out to dinner at Ransome's Dock last night with some friends. I was the first to arrive and was informed that the rest of the party would be late, so I settled in to read the wine list over a glass of the house champagne, currently Joseph Perrier Cuvee Royale Brut. I really enjoyed the first few sips, but as I got further into the (extensive) wine list and as everyone grew later and later, I realised that the very tiny bubbles that were at first in my glass had completely disappeared. While it had a traditionally and enjoyably champagne-y flavour, I'm all about the bubbles, so this was disappointing.

Thankfully the rest of the party arrived and turned out to be a group of wine lovers, so we introduced them to a bottle of something interesting - a sparkling wine called Espumante 3B from Filipa Pato. We challenged the group to place the wine, and while everyone agreed that it wasn't French, and someone came close by guessing Spain, noone guessed that this wine is from Portugal. Yes, Portugal! It's a rather unique sparkling wine, both in that it's a blend of baga and bical grapes and in that the winemaker is female. We had tasted this wine at Ransome's Dock at a Portugese wine tasting several months earlier and were completely pleased and surprised by it. It's a very pleasant sparkling wine with nicely rounded and balanced fruit and acidity - one of our group likened it to a Sweet-Tart candy. The only down-side is that it has no finish, which is fine if you want a completely clean palate after you swallow, but which is a bit of a shame to me because the wine itself is so tasty. Not a really mainstream wine, but one that's definitely worth trying!

Quaffable

I got stuck at home with some builders this week, and while I was trapped in my office upstairs, I spent some time trying to track down some 'different' champagne. As luck would have it, I came across the Champagne Warehouse , which is working to bring wines from smaller champagne houses in France to the UK. They have a small but interesting selection and I ordered a 6-bottle case which arrived on Friday.

My husband and I wasted no time in chilling and opening our first bottle - the Jean-Paul Morel Carte Noir, a 70/30 Pinot Noir/Chardonnay blend. My husband deemed it 'quaffable' and where I'm usually the first to drain my glass, I had a hard time keeping up with him! The champagne had some very full flavours dominated by fruits of the forest and with a fresh, green-herb finish (almost like tarragon, but not quite as liquorish-y). It also had a good supply of small but endless bubbles. It was an easy drinker, both with food and on its own. And it didn't last long...

A Two-Bottle Weekend

We had a lot of stuff to do around the house this weekend and we also had a couple of bottles of bubbly in the fridge, so we weren't shy with it.

After a full day of chores on Saturday, I made an easy dinner of Thai green curry which we served with one of our favourites - the Quartet from Roeder Estate, which I had purchased as part of our mixed case from Majestic. Compared to the other wines we've been drinking lately, the Quartet was a little sweeter than I had remembered on first opening, but this was nicely balanced by the curry. As always, this one didn't disappoint.

I had ordered some groceries to be delivered from Ocado on Saturday evening, and to get my order up to the minimum I had added in a bottle of Castillo Perelada Cava Reserva. It's been a while since I've had a good cava - while I freely drink them in Spain, I always worry about how sweet they're going to be when I see them in the UK so tend to avoid them here. This particular cava is a blend of macabeo, xarel-lo, and parellada grapes, the first two of which I quite enjoy as still wines, so I thought I'd give this cava a go.

We opened it as we were unwinding at the end of the day on Sunday. It tasted a bit like a lemon drop candy - slightly lemon-tart but also slightly sweet on the finish - not great but I could live with it. What was more disappointing were the bubbles, which started strong but had no staying power, so my glass was flat before I finished it. At less than £10 for a bottle it was a good experiment and it reminded me to be more adventurous when it comes to buying cava.

I'm Not Supposed to Tell You This...

Last year, a friend of mine introduced me to the champagnes of Canard-Duchene. He rates them highly but doesn't want word to get out about how good they are, driving up prices. But we tried them again as part of our mixed case from Majestic and they were lovely, so I have to write about them...

On Sunday, we were hanging out, watching movies and eating popcorn, so we opened up a bottle of the 2004 Brut Millesime. Like the 2002 version that we tried last year, this was very drinkable - fruity and fresh, a good go-with-everything champagne.

Yesterday, I made wheat-free blueberry pancakes for dinner, and my husband, spotting the bottle of Grande Cuvee Charles VII that was in the fridge, asked if we could drink that along with them. Like I'm going to say 'no'!? This wine was gorgeous, very crisp-tart with a nice balance of citrus and yeastiness. It had everything that I like in a champagne, including thousands of teeny tiny bubbles that just didn't stop. I got this at only £25/bottle, and I think that was an incredible bargain! It also went surprising well with the pancakes, and I'm very much looking forward to it as a regular accompaniment with breakfast in bed on special occasions.

An Ah-ha Moment

Majestic wine is having a special on champagne and sparkling wine so I ordered a mixed case early last week. A friend of mine rates Deutz champagne so I thought I ordered two bottles of that. What I didn't realise until today is that there is a French champagne-maker named Deutz (which is probably what my friend was talking about) who lend their name/expertise to a sparkling wine-maker in New Zealand (which is what I bought). Ah-ha - so this explains why the wine didn't meet my expectations coming off of the recommendation from my friend!!

I bought the Deutz Marlborough Cuvee NV - a blend of chardonnay, pinot noir, and pinot meunier. We drank it on Friday with our dinner of chicken in mango sauce. As my husband said, the wine was substantial, not at all the light fruity wine that it's described as and definitely a wine that needs to be drunk with food rather than a sipping wine. The chardonnay characteristics in the wine really come through, which is good if you're a chardonnay fan, but I'm not. I found the finish of this wine far too heavy, tasting at first of oily nuts (thankfully without the oily mouth-feel) and then lingering as incredibly over-ripe pears. My husband was OK with it, but I didn't love it, and I'm going to have to think carefully about how I serve the second bottle. At least it had really good bubbles.

It will be interesting to compare it with a bottle of the French Deutz champagne if I can track one down...

I'm Back

I stopped blogging about bubbly for a bit last year. But then last week, a friend asked what bubbly I had been drinking that was good and I really had to think about it. It seems that if I don't write it down, I tend not to remember it. So I'm back.

On Sunday, my husband headed out to the local supermarket for a couple of things we needed for lunch. He also returned with a bottle of First Cape Limited Edition sparkling rose - at £6/bottle it intrigued him. I was a little wary of it, as the description on the back of the label, "ripe strawberry...fruity raspberry...succulent cherry," made me think it might be too sweet. It wasn't!!

This is one of those wines that feels like a group of people in South Africa were drinking as a still rose with their BBQ one day and said, "You know what would make this even better?? Bubbles!". It's definitely a 'wine with bubbles' rather than a 'sparkling wine', if you catch the difference.

The colour is incredibly dark and rich like cranberry juice, the flavour just as strong. There's definitely a touch of sour cherry in it, although the raspberry flavour comes through on the finish more like raspberry vinegar. It has none of the finesse or yeastiness of a sparkling wine, but it does have plenty of bubbles.

It was OK, better than some we've had at this price point. But I don't think it deserves some of the gushing press I saw on it when I googled it.