Showing posts with label south africa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label south africa. Show all posts
Wednesday, 25 July 2012
Bubbles At The Beach
I was in the US last week, near the ocean, and keen to try something new and different. I picked up a bottle of The Beachhouse, a chenin blanc/gewurztraminer sparkler from South Africa. It seemed appropriate for the setting, and fit my hankering for 'something different', but it was sadly not for me. It was very sweet, tasting of ripe pears and elderflower. It was also just fizzy, not really bubbly. And I'm not writing this because I think sparkling wines should have a high alcohol content, but on drinking this one and thinking I was drinking soda pop, checked the label to find it was only 8% by volume. You could kind of tell...it's the sort of thing teenage girls on summer holidays would drink. As I said, not for me.
Monday, 1 February 2010
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.
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.
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