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.