Heavy Going

We drank a sparkling wine that had intrigued me on Green & Blue's website - Mauzac Nature from Domaine les Tres Cantous. The 'mauzac' in the name is the variety of grape, another unusual one that I had not tried before. This wine was as interesting in the glass as it was in its making, which included organic grape farming and the use of local yeasts. The wine was a straw colour and densely opaque in the glass, smelling heavily of orchard fruit and still-fermenting yeast. It had a very heavy pear and honey flavour, topped up with yet more of the raw yeast. It had more bubbles than I expected, but they didn't last throughout the glass. This was not a sipping wine - it's not at all crisp or refreshing - and was such heavy going that I couldn't finish mine. My husband quite liked it with our food - broad bean and pea pasta, with crisp, lemony flavours - but agreed it wouldn't have been suitable as an aperitif. Thankfully he liked it enough to finish mine!

Last of New Lenique

We tried the last variety of the Maison Lenique mixed case that I got from 3-D Wines, their non-vintage blanc de blancs. We liked this a lot, although it definitely wasn't as good as their vintage champagnes. It had loads of green apple and lime flavour combined with a touch of yeastiness. It also had great balance and plentiful bubbles. It just wasn't as flavourful or as crisp as their vintage champagne, though, and the finish wasn't as long. It's still plenty drinkable, we did enjoy it!

Perfect Rose Weather

The sun came out at the weekend and the temperature went up - the perfect weather for a bottle of rose with bubbles. We luckily had the right wine on the champagne shelf, La Farra rose brut prosecco that came from the Champagne Warehouse. We've had this wine before and liked it, the perfect mix of dry fruit flavours with lots of fizz. It was a fantastic accompaniment to the fresh Kent cherries that I had bought on Saturday. I can't believe the Champagne Warehouse are still only charging £11 for it, it's a complete steal at that price!

Over-Hyped

We had a bottle of prosecco that I ordered from Green & Blue, and it was so non-descript, so ho-hum, that I actually had to go back to their website to see what it was that attracted me. What they said about the Casa Coste Piane Valdobbiadene Prosecco was that the producers are meticulous about their fruit (so far, so good), that it is bone dry and full of mineral and restrained fruit (yes on the dry, restrained on the flavour), and "it would be a crime against all the Gods of Wine if you don’t try it at least once". Here's where they've gone too far for me, because this wine wasn't all that. It was almost completely flat (the bottle does say 'Frizzante...Naturalmente', so I was not expecting to be wow'ed by the bubbles) and no more special than any other prosecco that I drink by the glass when I'm out at a pub or at Borough Market. I found it disappointing - it was an OK wine, nothing horrible about it, but nothing that remarkable, either. I'm surprised by the rave review, which is echoed on some other websites.

More from Britain

We spent Saturday afternoon touring the British 'countryside' (actually, 15 minutes away from Zone 6 of London) with a friend of mine. It was lovely and lush from all of the rain. I am always amazed at how quickly the terrain changes from city to country around London! Knowing my penchant for bubbles, my friend suggested that we meet at Denbies vineyard, a very wise idea. We came home with several bottles of wine, both sparkling and still.

The first bottle that we tried, Denbies Whitedowns, had really intrigued me, as it was made from seyval blanc grapes, a new variety for me. It was an unusual sparkler, with OK fizz and a very green flavour, almost like under-ripe melon. It had a good enough balance that it didn't taste tart or bitter, it just had no sweetness to it whatsoever. I was borderline on whether or not I really liked it, it was interesting to me rather than enjoyable. The green-ness was too much for my husband, though, he would pass on this one again.

The Whitedowns wasn't the best-known or the most highly-rated of the Denbies sparklers, so hopefully the next ones we try will be more impressive.

Pink Lenique

On Friday, we decided to try another of the bottles in our mixed case of Maison Lenique from 3-D Wines. This one was their Brut rose, a chardonnay/pinot noir blend. I was excited to try a rose from Maison Lenique, and this one didn't disappoint. Not only did it have wonderful, plentiful bubbles, but it smelled and tasted of jam on toast. I loved that for a rose wine, it wasn't all sweet fruit, but held a lot of the bread and biscuit characteristics that many white champagnes have. It was absolutely delicious, one of the best roses I've had in a while, and a good reminder of how different rose champagne can be to other rose sparkling wines.

New Maison Lenique

I managed to acquire a mixed case of Maison Lenique through 3-D Wines - three different kinds of champagne that we hadn't tried before. We opened the first bottle from the case last night, a non-vintage blanc de noirs.

It was very different from the vintage blanc de blancs that we're used to from Maison Lenique. This champagne still had the same clean taste and wonderful balance, but it was much richer, with an almost blue cheese finish (which was good, as I LOVE blue cheese). The bubbles weren't quite as everlasting as the blanc de blancs, but still held a steady fizz at the end of the glass. Overall, it was very good, a nice change from what we know at Maison Lenique, and I'm glad I have a few more bottles of it.

Disappointing Vintage

We opened a bottle of Camel Valley Brut 2009 last night. It was only OK, not as good as the '07 or '08 vintages. This one was much greener smelling and tasting - a bit like the endive that was in the pasta I made for dinner, including the touch of bitterness. It also didn't hold its bubbles through the glass, the first time I've experienced this with a Camel Valley sparkler. Perhaps age will help this one? But for now, I'd stick with the older vintages.

Fizzy Pink

Last night, we opened a bottle of Mas de Daumas Gassac Rose Frizzant that I bought from Green & Blue. I have to be honest, I didn't have high hopes for this wine, which is a French sparkler (rather than a champagne) and we've had variable experiences with these. The fact that they called it 'frizzant' didn't bolster my confidence in its bubbles.

But it surprised me. It was definitely more fizzy than bubbly, but the fizz endured - it had a nice texture throughout. The scent and flavour were unusual - very much like the juice that I get when I macerate strawberries with a little bit of balsamic vinegar. But then this wine is mostly cabernet sauvignon (a grape they use in one of my favourite proseccos) with a little bit of petit manseng, so the slightly heavier, tangier flavour made sense.

In all, it was a pleasant wine. I don't know that I would hunt it down again, but as an experiment and to broaden my horizons, I was glad to have tried it.

That's Better

We celebrated my husband's birthday yesterday, and he had asked me to pull a 'good bottle' of bubbles out of the assortment we had in the house. I knew exactly which to choose - Larmandier-Bernier Blanc de Blancs that came from Green & Blue. After the previous day's fiasco with the Champalou, I wanted to serve him a wine that we hadn't tried before, but from a maker that we trust and like.

This one was just right for the evening - a low dosage champagne whose cork exploded into my hand with a surprising and celebratory 'POP'. It smelled just like the apple pie my husband was eating, tart apples and buttery pastry. The green apple carried through in the flavour, complemented by a clean, chalky finish, a lovely, more-ish flavour. The bubbles were plentiful on pouring but didn't last long in the glass, which meant we kept having to top up our glasses to refresh the bubbles. This bottle didn't last long, and was enjoyed immensely.

Ick!

I made a huge mistake. I bought a bottle of Champalou Brut from Green & Blue based on the description on their website:

"We implore you not to think of this as a cheap alternative to champagne but as a gorgeously scented, honeyed quince and apple flavoured wine"

I trusted them. I tend to think that Green & Blue is the kind of place where they've actually tried the wine and bought it because it was good and written about it from their experiences, rather than just flog it off with the maker's PR. In this case, I think I was wrong. How could anyone, anywhere, who knows even the minute-est thing about wine write that Champalou is any kind of alternative to champagne?

First off, it smelled like a used Band-Aid, damp and plastic-y. It tasted like how some grandmothers smell, sweet, a little floral, and slightly musty. Mercifully, it had no finish. And the bubbles...not even worth mentioning. It improved when we drank it with some really salty cheeses, but not by much. It wasn't anywhere close to champagne, I wouldn't even compare this to some of the worst cavas that I've drunk.

Right off, my husband, who didn't know what this was, asked if it was from Vouvray. He knew from the first sip that it was a wine typical of that area. In his words - "they bottle it sweet, and it's a crapshoot from there how it turns out". So if you like that kind of wine, then Champalou is for you. If you're looking for a cheap alternative to champagne, try some of the cavas or proseccos that I've liked, they'll be safer bets!

BC Bubbles

My husband and I spent the weekend in Vancouver. I know, it's a long way from London, and yes, I am feeling it today. But it was a great trip, a really lovely, walkable city, and I was very excited about trying some Canadian sparkling wines. The best part was that both wine shops and restaurants showcased local British Columbian wines. I also really liked that two of the restaurants we visited offered 2-oz 'taster' glasses, making it easy to sample a few different wines with your meal.

Overall, I walked away with a very positive feeling about all of the wines we drank. The biggest surprise was a still, aromatic muscat from Joie Vineyards. Ordinarily, I would have avoided this wine because I find muscats to be a bit too much for me, but since I could order a 2-oz taster I thought, "Why not?". I was so pleased that I did, because this was, like the name of the vineyard, pure joy. It had an intensely floral aroma, so much so that I really thought I wouldn't like the wine. But the flavour was a wonderful balance of freesia and grapefuit, the perfect blend of floral and acidity. Next time, I would buy a whole glass of this, if not a whole bottle.

But on to the sparkling wines...

We first tried Sumac Ridge 2006 Stellar's Jay Brut. This wine is a blend of pinot blanc, pinot noir, and chardonnay. It was a very pretty colour, with a tinge of apricot along the rim. The apricot carried on in the flavour, hitting the mid-tongue with just a flash of sweetness. Interestingly, the wine smelled of sawdust, with a clean, dry wood scent. This sparkler was almost as much about what it wasn't - yeasty, toasty, biscuity - than what it was - fruity and tartly rich. It was hard to discern how good the bubbles were in the small quantities that we tried, although a fine stream of small bubbles was present on pouring.

The next wine we tried was Sperling 2009 Sper...itz. As the name indicates, this wine is more of an effervescent wine than a real sparkler - it less has bubbles and more has a texture on your tongue. Those of you who read my blog regularly will be completely dumbfounded when I write that the lack of bubbles totally didn't bother me with this wine, I really, really enjoyed it! The Sper...itz is made from riesling, bacchus, and perle of csaba grapes. On first smell, it was a rose garden in full bloom, but then this dissipated into a tropical island aroma. The flavour was a wonderful Hawaiian salad, with papaya, lime, and pineapple. This was so much fun to drink, and at only 7.5% alcohol, not at all a worry if you have one glass more than you intended!

The last wine we tried was a rose sparkler from 8th Generation Vineyard. This one was not on the wine list at one of the restaurants we visited, but on hearing my interest in BC sparklers, the nice lady who was serving us dug up a taster glass of this for me. Here's the thing, though - she told me it was a sparkling chardonnay, but a visit to 8th Generation's website doesn't show them making a rose sparkling chardonnay. I suspect what I had was actually the Confidence Frizzante, which is a chardonnay/pinot noir blend. The wine smelled like a Sharpie pen, (something that I really liked). It had a very dry, red berry flavour, not just the sweeter berries like strawberries and raspberries, but the richer ones, too, like currants and cranberries. The quantity wasn't enough for me to assess bubbles, but there were a few streaming up in the small glass.

I was encouraged enough by these experiences to find room in my suitcase to bring back to London a couple of bottles from other makers - very much looking forward to trying them!

Home Sweet Home

I had a very brief trip to the US this past weekend, and as much as I enjoyed it, there's nothing like coming back to my own home - especially when my husband has made the effort to track down a champagne we'd not tried before! My husband greeted me with a chilled bottle of Agrapart & Fils Les 7 Crus that he had bought at Green & Blue. This is a blanc de blancs wine, named "7 crus" because the grapes come from the seven villages that are in the Cote de Blancs. This winemaker is also known for a more natural and lower dosage winemaking style, with this particular bottle having a 7 g/l dosage.

I firstly have to comment on the bubbles of this champagne, as they were the best I've had in recent memory. A consistent, fine, fizzy stream, whooshing up from the bottom of the glass. For this reason alone, I was ready to like this champagne! But on top of the bubbles, it was a remarkably good wine. It smelled of a light balsamic vinegar, with a fruity acidity on the nose. It had a clean citrus taste, with just a touch of pith-bitterness on the finish. This champagne went down quickly and it's definitely a do-over. Kudos to my husband for picking it up!