This Won an Award?

We tried the last of the bottles that I bought from Ocado - a rose cava from Marques de Monistrol. I was surprised to see that this wine had won a silver in the 2011 International Wine & Spirit competition, as I didn't think it was even worth the £10 I paid for it. It had the slightest fragrance of strawberry, but no flavour whatsoever and almost no bubbles, just a tiny bit of fizz. Perhaps for the very fainthearted, this is an award-winning wine - but I just don't get it.

Sparkling Burgundy

Another pleasant surprise from the bargain case that I bought from Ocado - this one being a brut sparkling burgundy from Cave de Lugny. This was a very refreshing blanc de blancs, not any really distinctive flavours, but a bit of mild lemon tart to it. The bubbles were more fizzy than proper bubbles, but it was a lasting fizz, so I was OK with that. Nothing spectacular, but very drinkable, and again, another nice non-champagne alternative for anyone on a budget.

Two More From Ocado

We tried two more bottles from the bargain case of six that I bought at Ocado.

The first was a bit of a surprise - Cuveee Royale cremant de limoux, a chardonnay, pinot noir, and chenin blanc blend. This had great bubbles and a big hit of ginger on the finish. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would, but the flavours were not quite what I wanted from a sparkler.

The next was Waitrose own-label brut cava, a blend of macabeo, parellada, and xarel-lo grapes. This wine was a bit of nothing, all fizzy bubbles, a bit of grape-y flavour, and very drink-able. With the discount from Ocado, I paid less than £7 for this bottle of wine, which is really a huge bargain. It's not going to 'wow' anyone who drinks it, but if you need decent bubbles on a budget, this is one to buy.

No Real Bargains

Ocado was running a special on wine - 25% off if you bought 6 bottles. I find their selection of bubbles a bit difficult. It tends to be either big names at top prices or unknown makers for less than £10. I didn't feel like buying £100's of wine, so I bought 6 bottles of bubbles for less than £60. I'm always hoping something will surprise me.

The first bottle did, but for how much I disliked it - La Gioiosa prosecco, which was billed as 'extra dry'. The first thing I noticed about this wine was how much it smelled like lemon-scented floor cleaner, but this was mostly due to the fact that the bottle exploded in my hands on opening, leaving me to wipe up about a third of the wine from my kitchen floor. While demonstrating excellent fizz, it was not a good start. The next thing that struck me was how sweet this wine was, surprising because it still somehow managed to retain an almost-minty dryness. My husband thought this was a 'sipper for a hot day'. I think it was a 'leave on the shelf for someone else'.

The next bottle was better - a Cremant de Bourgogne, Blason de Bourgogne Brut Rose, a pinot noir/gamay blend. It smelled of strawberries with a hint of vanilla. It tasted like red berries, with a touch of tart cranberry. The downside was that it was a little bitter at the end, and had no finish. The bitterness disappeared with food, though, so I would recommend this with some nibbles. The bubbles were great, once again disproving my preconceived notion that cremants tend to be too flat. While this still isn't the best rose I've ever drunk, it's not bad for the price point.

Wedding Bubbles

Like much of the world, I watched the Royal Wedding yesterday. I had joked with some friends that I would have a glass of something bubbly with me right from the start, but to be honest, it was a little early for me. So I drank my Diet Coke through the ceremony, and then caved in and opened the bubbles for the balcony scenes later in the day. I toasted the happy couple with an American sparkler, Roederer Estate's Quartet, a 70/30 chardonnay/pinot noir blend. It is a favourite of mine, and had toasted nut aromas, biscuity flavours, and lots and lots of bubbles. I got this bottle from Ocado for £20, and I have to say, it was good value.

Kate and Wills served their wedding guests non-vintage Pol Roger, which wouldn't have been my first choice. While the champagne house has a long-standing relationship with the UK (and with Winston Churchill in particular), it surprised me that the couple went with a French champagne. With all of the talk on the news coverage about the wedding day showcasing 'brand GB' and with discussions of the food menu centred on how much of it was locally sourced or sourced from one of the Royal estates, you would have thought they'd serve British bubbles!!

Let it Snow...

My husband is supposed to be away this week with a friend of ours, so I stocked up on some bubbles to enjoy while I was home alone. But the snow scuppered their plans, the flights were cancelled, and they're now here with me, helping me tuck into my champagne stash.

On Monday, we popped open a bottle of Francoise Bedel's Entre Ciel Et Terre. It is a predominantly pinot meunier champagne, being a 72/14/14 split of pinot meunier, chardonnay, and pinot noir. I bought this on-line from Gauntley's, having gone there to buy something else, but recognising this bottle from a trip to Epernay last year. I can't remember if I actually drank this champagne when I was there since I didn't blog about it, but it had a very distinctive label that caught my eye. I will remember it now. It started off well, having a slight whiff and taste of brine that opened into more honey-and-apple flavours. But the bubbles didn't last through the glass, a big disappointment for me. I will have to pass the next time this bottle catches my eye.

Last night, the guys were drinking martinis while I opened a bottle of Ridgeview Merret Bloomsbury 2008 that I bought from Ocado. This maker has been racking up awards, including beating several big-name champagne houses to be named best sparkling wine of the year by Decanter magazine. The Bloomsbury is a chardonnay, pinot noir, pinot meunier blend and I can see why the maker is winning awards. The wine had a clean floral aroma - a little bit like freesias - followed by a very pleasing grapefuit taste. It also had loads of bubbles, and it will be interesting to see how they hold up in the capped bottle in the fridge. Unlike some of the other English sparklers that I've had, this one wasn't distinctive because it had a strong or unusual taste. This one was much more polished and I think I would be hard-pressed to distinguish it from a French champagne. We'll have to include a bottle in our next blind tastings! I'm looking forward to trying more from this maker, and considering the bottles are in the low-£20 range, they won't break the bank.

Easter Weekend 2010

Hooray, it's a 4-day weekend this weekend for people who work in offices. Being self-employed, I'll probably still wind up doing some work, but my hubby gets a nice break. To kick it off properly last night, we drank the last bottle of Canard-Duchene Grande Cuvee Charles VII that I ordered from Majestic.

We really enjoyed this wine, as we did the last time we drank it. What surprised me this time was that there is just a hint of vanilla on the finish, a really pleasing touch to what is otherwise a very clean champagne.

And I realised as I was sipping my bubbles that we were again eating a Thai green curry, something we tend to eat a lot now that pasta isn't my 'go-to' dish anymore. For those of you thinking, "boy do they order out a lot", I actually make this at home, having found a very nice, oil-free, green curry paste at Ocado. With chicken and plenty of veggies, it's actually pretty healthy! I recommend you try this as well as the champagne!!

Good Neighbours

Over the weekend, we had two sets of our neighbours over to celebrate our newly decorated sitting room. One had recommended the company who painted the room, the other is an artist from whom we bought a lovely painting to showcase in the room. We've been fortunate that they're such nice people - they're also adventurous drinkers so we thought we would serve them a bubbly that we like and that they might not have drunk, some Pelorus NV that we ordered through Ocado. One of the drinkers commented that while you could tell it was different from a champagne, it was a huge step-up from the kinds of cava you usually find in the UK and he had a hard time placing where the wine was from. For fun, we also opened the last bottle of Deutz that we had from our Majestic wine order. It was no comparison, the Pelorus was a much nicer New Zealand bubbly.

The best part was that I ordered enough of the Pelorus that we had some leftover to drink with our dinner the next evening, a very good match for our pork chops with mustard cream sauce!!

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.