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.