March round-up

We tried a few new things in March:

Two of them were British sparklers, both from The Wine Pantry. One wasn't so much totally new; rather, a new variety of something we like - the 2003 Blanc de Blancs from Nyetimber. This was very good, not surprising as we like this maker. It smelled very yeasty, with my husband saying it smelled heavily of the must of the grapes. It was very clean and fresh, though, with a lingering, lemony finish and lots of bubbles. As always with Nyetimber, it was a bit pricey for what it was (mid £30s), but worth drinking.

On the other end of the British taste spectrum, we also had the Herbert Hall 2010 Brut, predominantly chardonnay mixed with pinot noir and pinot meunier. I was not a fan, despite the plentiful bubbles, as this wine was very unpolished and very raw tasting, much like a light cider. It gets good reviews against other English wines, but don't let this fool you. It doesn't compare to a French champagne the way Nyetimber does.

The third wine was a bit of a surprise - wait for it - a 2008 vintage brut German sparkling red pinot noir from Vaux, which my husband picked up at The Winery. What was he thinking, this had the potential for absolute disaster!? German red wine? And German brut, which is never really brut? And German bubbles? Well, don't tell him I wrote this, but my husband is a genius, this wine was a lovely surprise. It was bruter than brut, not a speck of sugary-ness to it despite its strawberry start and ripe apple finish. The bubbles were fine, lasting through both the glass and the bottle. As for the redness...this wine held up to food, but was equally good being sipped on its own. At just shy of £30 a bottle, this is definitely one to try if you can find it.

Staycation 8 - The Finale

We didn't intend for it to be a two-bottle day, but that's how our staycation ended.

We had another beautiful day on Sunday, so having armed ourselves with nibbles and reading material, we headed to the patio in our garden with the last bottle of champagne that we bought at The Winery. This was a 1996 Cuvee de Chardonnay Champagne Saint-Chamant made by Christian Coquillette.

This was a nice champagne, with honey and toast flavours that accompanied our meat-and-cheese-based tapas very well. While we didn't have any problem finishing the bottle, we were surprised that we weren't more excited about what should have been a great wine from a good year. Like the bottle we had drunk the day before, it was all quite nice, but not very memorable.

So we pulled out the big guns to go with our dessert (apple pie for my husband, chocolate truffles for me) - the bottle of Egly-Ouriet Grand Cru V.P. that we had bought at Lea and Sandeman on Friday. This is a pinot noir blend that the maker leaves on the yeast for an extra-long period of time - making what is already a 'big' champagne even bigger.

We love Egly-Ouriet as a producer, having visited the vineyards many years ago on the recommendation of a friend and before Robert Parker got so excited about their champagne. The V.P. had everything we love about this producer and more - a crisp acidity with a hint of tarragon on the nose and a slight grapefuit flavour but absolutely no sourness or bitterness. This wine has an enormous flavour but an incredible dryness that makes you want to keep drinking. And, on top of everything else, good bubbles.

With Robert Parker's fandom, the prices of this champagne have gone up since we first tried it - but, it's also easier to find in the UK and other parts of the world now. It's worth every penny, and was the perfect way to finish off our staycation.

Staycation 6

Yesterday we tried our second German wine from The Winery - this one was a perlwine, a semi-sparkling riesling called Trossecco made by Rita and Rudolf Trossen. The Trossens make ecowines, which interested us, and we haven't seen or drunk many sparkling rieslings. Plus, this one had a crown cap, something that amuses us, even though I find the experience of opening the bottle not quite as exciting as popping a cork.

Even though this wine was labelled 'trocken' (dry), we knew the riesling grape would still have some sweetness to it, so we decided to serve the wine with food with Asian-influenced flavours - sesame-coated shrimp, coconut rice, and purple-sprouting broccoli tossed in chilli oil and ginger. The food and wine match was a huge success. The wine had softly-sweet citrus flavours to it, things like lychee and passionfruit and guava, yet still had the creamy roundness of a sparkling wine. The only thing it lacked was bubbles - I could see two or three on first pouring, by the third sip my glass was entirely flat. But the flavour more than made up for it!

This was a fun experiment, and if you're keen on prosecco or cava, I would hunt this wine down and try it for something a little different.

Staycation 5

On Sunday, we went for a walk and for lunch in the neighborhood where we used to live in northwest London. While we were there, my husband, wise man that he is, suggested we stop into one of the wine stores, The Winery, that we used to frequent to see what their champagne selection was like. Smart move that paid off - it was fabulous!!

When we lived in the area, The Winery used to have a great selection of lots of kinds of wine - mostly from smaller producers. In recent years, they've started to specialise in German wines, but still have a good variety from small producers around the world. Their champagne and sparkling wine selection really reflected this - we walked out of the shop with three bottles - two German sparklers that we'd not encountered before and one vintage champagne from a small maker in France.

We opened one of the German wines last night - the sparkling brut from shelter winery. We had been told that this was a pinot noir-based wine made in a very French style, so we thought we would try it with our usual sparkling wine test-food, grilled steaks. The wine was a huge surprise, being very grapey, with good bubbles, and just a little bit of sweetness. It was wonderful with our steaks. That said, it was really, really horrible with the lime souffle I made for dessert - the sweet grapiness of the wine just didn't sit well with the sharp tartness of the souffle the way a blanc de blanc might have. Lesson learned, serve this one with some grilled meat rather than with a pudding.

My husband asked me today if I would buy this wine again. It was a good question - while I really enjoyed it, I don't know that this would be my house champagne, the kind of thing I could serve and drink day after day with almost any food or any occasion. But I would serve it to people who are interested in wine, particularly to test their ideas of what makes a great champagne/sparkling wine. Good bubbly is not something I particularly associate with Germany, but wines like this one quickly change that perception.