Liveblog - Escudo Rojo 2010

Welcome to another liveblog. I tasked Herself with picking up a bottle in Baggot St Wines on the way home. Her mission was made more complex by the fact that both of us are literally* dying with the same cold, probably caught from Lil Sis at the big "do" this weekend. So whatever she buys has to cut through lots of icky stuff.

She returned with the wine at left, personally recommended by Garrett himself. It's a blend of Cab Sav, Carmenere, Syrah and Cab Franc, matured in French Oak for 12 months.

19-30: The wine has been open for 15minutes after being decanted via my VinAire into my Ikea decanter. First impression is fruit, lots of it and some vegetal notes, maybe from the Cab Franc. Hmmmm. I'm not crazy about it just now, its not bad just not my style. Let's come back in an hour, after some Bombay Pantry.

20-45: Better, much better. The vegetal flavours have subsided somewhat and the various fruity notes have all, mostly, harmonised, leaving an interesting wine. Gun to my head, I'd say a Cab Franc from the Loire. See you again for the final chapter in a little bit.

22-00: It has come together nicely in the end. I like it but I don't love it,  I think that's because while this wine is very well made, it's not for me.  Having said that it's often a good thing to drink a wine you wouldn't necessarily buy. Educate yourself, or something...


*Not "literally", but I think it's apt here.

French, Spanish and Italian from Baggot St Wines

Between the travel and the whatnot I realised I probably wasn't going to make it into Baggot St Wines anytime soon, so I sent Herself in. Her instructions were as follows, ask "the man" for three reds priced between €12 and €15 and I would blog on them.

La Vendimia Rioja 2010 - €12-99, was first up. I should have told Herself not to buy Rioja; we drink a lot of this Consejo De la Alta (currently the 2005 vintage), and we love it. A young, moderately priced Rioja wouldn't stand up well to this, and so it proved. While there was nothing wrong with the wine, it didn't do it for either of us. It was bit light with not enough fruit, oak or "oomph"...

La Chappelle de Bébian Coteaux Du Languedoc - Pezenas 2007 - €16-99 was next up. Slightly outside the price range but highly recommended by our man in the shop. We cracked it open on a quiet Saturday night with June and ended up having it with Thai food as I had just dropped our only bottle of chilled white on the tiled floor. Anyhoo - this was fabulous; subtle and fruity with some surprising tannins creeping in towards the end of the bottle.

Baglio Del Sole Nero D'Avola 2009 - €11-49 was the last wine on the same evening and while our taste-buds were probably not at their best we both really enjoyed it. Light and a touch fruity but nicely balanced; probably a wine we should have drunk earlier in the evening but it still worked.

On the whole a pretty good showing, especially as if I had been choosing the three reds I wouldn't have picked the Rioja that I wasn't keen on.

Coincidentally, as I write this I am sipping a Perez Cruz Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 from Chile, also from Baggot St wines. I am on the record as rarely liking this country/grape combination (except for a fantastic and expensive Domus Aurea), so I was presently surprised by this. It has the requisite blackcurrant and tannin wings but there is enough in the middle to make it work as a whole.

Redesign

As you may have noticed, I've done some work on the layout and design of the blog. While I liked the original template, it was getting tired of it and it was a little Web 1.0 I'd like to say I did a huge and complex redesign using all my techy skills but that would be a lie. Instead, all I did was choose a new template and update my blog list (I have removed some blogs that seem to have died and added a few new ones - please check them out). Let me know what you think of the redesign.

Now, on to business. I was down in Superquinn Blackrock yesterday buying some Friday fish, as is my wont, and looking for the elusive Santa Rita Floresta red. Alas, this was all gone but I did pick up a bottle of scrummy La Baume Viognier first sampled here. It's now at its full price of €10-79 but is still great value if you like creamy, peachy whites. Note: While the wine was lovely it so did not go with the delicious piece of Hake, fried in butter with a pepper and salt coating, expertly cooked by Herself.

On the red front the remains of the new world wine sale are still present but as I said before, it's mostly pile 'em high sell 'em cheap fruity plonk. The red above is what I took a punt on in the end. Pretty much all of the new World Pinot Noirs I've had (all inexpensive) have been fine; light and fruity but with obviously none of the complexity of their Burgundian cousins.

It was a Chilean Agustinos Reserve Pinot Noir 2008 Bio Bio - €9-99 in the sale. After an hour or so decanting, I poured and as expected is quite pale and light in the glass and on the nose didn't give much away. At first taste we knew this wasn't your standard new world cheapie. After the subtle cherry and jammy fruits, herself got caramel notes and I swear I got a hint of mint along with some surprising dryness at the finish. A pretty complex wine for the money and absolutely delicious, a bargain Burgundy I'd suggest except that I know shag-all about Burgundies. Give it a try, you won't be disappointed.

In order to understand recursion*

It's Sunday morning, I've just washed the decanters and Little Bill is jumping around the living room as is his wont. Rather than waffle on as is my wont I'll just do a few quick updates...

We drank the two wines below last week:

Chateau De Villeneuve Saumur Champigny 2006 - I liked this, herself less so. It took ages to open up and develop and it was only in the last glass I really got all the flavours. It was somewhat acidic, fruity and at the end showed some nice tannins. It was quite a lighter style then we usually drink but nice for a change.

Masi Campofiorin 2006 - Also liked this a lot, it was different it style to its Tesco Cousin, more refined and a touch lighter and easier to drink.

Los Robles Fairtrade Carmenere 2006 - We drank this at the end of the night last night and didn't enjoy it. It had that "taste" that I get from cheap Chilean wine which I cannot abide. It's that cheap oaky, tannic flavour. Herself hated it.

What I will be mostly drinking this week are the fruits of our entertaining...

Seigneur D'Albret Medoc 2006 - The Times liked it...

Paul Jaboulet "Les Jalets" Crozes Hermitage 2006 - Snooth liked it..

Chateau Lapelletrie Saint Emilion Grand Cru 2005 - this guy liked it and I'm thinking I might lay this down in the "cellar", given the vintage.

* it is first necessary to understand recursion

Pinot Time and some wedding stuff...

Last night I ended up in the lovely Ballymount Estate, tasting wines for "Little" Sis's wedding. After a couple of Sauvignon Blancs, which were zingy but perhaps not suitable for what they are serving, we tried on a Villa Masetti Pinot Grigio 2008, would be delicious with the seafood starter.

For the red, we elected to take three different new world reds home to try on Sunday with some roast lamb [the wedding main]. They are all Chilean, which may seem blinkered but it's a good starting point. A decent Chilean Red with not too much fruit and some decent structure would make a pretty good wedding wine. A wedding wine has to be geared toward the casual drinker, and to that end it has to have a good dollop of ripe fruit and it has to be balanced and not too tannic, and most of all it has to be inexpensive! Anything good you get from a wedding wine after that is gravy.

If none of them work out there are a few more options available from the same supplier and if all else fails I can think of one wine that would definitely tick all the boxes - Protocolo!

Our host also gave me a bottle of a NZ Pinot Noir to try - Kahurangi Estate 2008. This is not the kind of wine I would recommend for a wedding and indeed as I decanted it I was surprised by just how light in colour it was and I was hoping it would not be too thin and anaemic.

It turned out to be quite light, but very pleasant all round, fruity with some decent acidity and a nice change from the more full bodied wines we normally drink. I have been making [a very small] effort to expand my palate, particularly towards Pinots in all their shapes and sizes, and hopefully as time goes on I can taste more NZ Pinots and become less of a complete bluffer on them.

TorreSilo - Ribera Del Duero 2006

Just a quick note on the Ribera at left, another of my ever decreasing stock of good (i.e. b'day) wine. I've had plenty of moderately priced Riberas and they can be very good but often you need to shell out some decent wedge for a fine example. Ribera is seen as more young cool and trendy compared to its older and more staid neighbour Rioja.

This Torresilo proved no exception, it was quite a modern and upfront in style, but as I love, it was wonderfully balanced, some nice concentrated fruit, light unobtrusive tannins and a lengthy finish. I suspect it wasn't cheap but if you are in the market for this style or you want to impress your host...

Bizarrely I had occasion to dine twice on Friday in the same upmarket Chinese/Asian Fusion restaurant. At lunchtime a Montes Cab Sav Reserve from Chile was chosen, I was not overly looking forward to this as I have found similar wines in the past to be either overly fruity or overly oaked. I was pleasantly surprised however as this wine was neither of these things, fruity yes but not overly so and it had a little structure to counterbalance any jamminess, so much so that I chose it for the evening repast and I think it went well with the food.

Just goes to show you that sometimes you should you should take a chance on a wine, or a horse, well maybe not a horse...

Domus Aurea - It means House of Gold**

Another one of the birthday wines is currently being imbibed, and while this is not a liveblog cum movie review, I thought I might comment on tonight's TV for a change of pace.

Firstly the wine, a 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon, it is promoted as the product of Terroir, which is unusual for the New World and the Oddbins tasting notes are a bit florid:

"Searingly intense, hair-on-the-back-of-the-neck raising stuff! Pure, vibrant aromas of cassis mix with mint, rosemary, redcurrant and blueberry notes. The palate is concentrated and complex with soft, silky tannins and a monumental finish."

Well, this is a big fruity beast, no doubt about that. Lots of Ribena, but not in a Shiraz, in your face kind of way. Silky tannins, check - complex and concentrated, - reasonably so. As with the kind of New World wine that I like the fruit is balanced by some structure and complexity. The finish is big and getting bigger.

9-25 Gavin & Stacy (4 of 6) is about to end, it's still better than most things on TV but I agree with AA Gill that they have got a tiny bit lazy this series. Episode 1 of Season 3 of The Big Bang Theory next - a comedy for geeks, I wonder why I like it...

9-55 This is getting better, the finish is getting longer, a little extra complexity becoming apparent. The wine is pretty good too.

10-25 Honestly, I'm really loving this now, it has really opened up in the last hour, developing some decent depth, complexity and length. I'd have to say its up there with the Bin 389 for pricey (approx €25 - €30), New World vino that really hits the spot.

How I Met Your Mother, Season 4 also started tonight with a solid outing, although sadly now down to once a week, I know that feeling.

Lastly, I promise, I found this link which mentioned the Domus Aurea and had lots of info on New World Cabernets.

**It really does, you know. I got an "A" in Inter cert Latin.