It's all rigged at OXO

Well, it was Rigged alright: the launch of Brokenwood's 2004 Graveyard Shiraz at the Restaurant on the top floor of the OXO Tower in London on Wednesday 18th October, led by winemaker Iain Riggs. And I was lucky enough to be one of the guests.

It was a 'vertizontal' tasting: a combination of vertical Graveyards from 1998, 2000, 2002 and the 2004, compared with 8 other Shirazes, two from each year - a mini horizontal for each year.

Overlooking the spectacular river frontage near St Paul's we listened to Iain give a brief overview of the 23 years the Graveyard has been produced, rmarking that over that period the average alcohol by volume was 13% - something to note in today's almost universal 14+% wines - a typical feature of the more elegant Hunter Valley style.

I decided to start with a vertical pass through the Graveyards.

• The '98 was soft with perfumed leather, violets and aniseed notes and hints of vanilla and blackcurrant skins.
• The 2000 was darker with redder fruits to the fore and notes of coffee and jam denoting a cooked vintage, whereas the '02 was noticeably savoury and vegetal, the farmyardy notes being indicative of a very wet harvest.
• The '04 was dark ruby with raspberry and lavender aromas and a big, sweet palate suggesting oodles of potential.

I then went back tasting the other Shirazes from the same years. For me the '04 Shiraz Reserva from Chocolan (Chile) produced a marvellous smokey and rich chocolate flavour that, whilst not so refined as many of the others, seemed like good value at its price level (GBP7.99). The Shaw and Smith was iconic with polish and tang. Of the '02 the Fairview was hefty - someone said "tarty!". The Dead Arm from D'Arenberg is getting better all the time.

The star of the 2000's was undoubtedly the Guigal Brune et Blonde: full of baises roses and liquorice, chocolate and blackcurrant. Its long and tingly, dry finish suggested years of development still to come. The Seville Estate Reserve was very sweet, full of supple polish with a beautiful texture - Iain later informed us that he had actually made this wine!. The '98 was definitely the Graveyard's finest: the Jaboulet La Chapelle unfortunately was shot and on its last legs and the Wirra Wirra RSW was toffee'd and coconut-sweet but not a patch on the Graveyard.

After a refreshment break on the terrace with a glass of Brokenwood Hunter Valley Semillon we were treated to a 4-course lunch as follows:

• Piedmont Bresaola, tete de moine, truffle honey dressing/ Graveyard 2004
• Venison loin au poivre, sweet potato, tamarillo, grand veneur sauce/ Graveyard 2002
• Squab pigeon wrapped in spinach and potato, stuffed with wild mushrooms/ Graveyard 2000
• Selection of cheeses/Graveyard 1998

The Bresaola was perfectly matched by the wine which coped admirably with the mung-bean salad, although the red onion was too strong. The medium-rare venison (one plain tranche and one with crushed pepper) was in great harmony with the '02, but altogether there were too many flavours going on in the dish to do it justice. The pigeon, however, was the star, just pink and well integrated with the rest of the dish and partnering the wine nicely. The piece de resistance was the '98 with the cheeses, particularly a well-ripened, almost oozy, Wigmore.

In typical aussie fashion Iain rounded off the meal with an ice-cold bottle of Coopers Pale Ale each, taken on the verandah, with the golden sunlight peeking through the clouds and washing over the impressive river front. So I took my leave and walked slowly along the South Bank before getting the train home, reflecting on the amazing Hunter wines - altogether a more profound seasoning for my palate than the tower's eponymous namesake.

Sherry Wows Westham

[photos, left: Eduardo Ojeda, winemaker, explaining the intricacies of sherry production to the audience during the masterclass; far left: Ian, Christine Horeau of Horeau's Restaurant and Eduardo Ojeda on the sun-patio of the restaurant, at the break before lunch was served.]

I give below our recent Press Release, which shows that a good time was had by all. Both the meal and the sherries were exemplary:

A delighted gathering of Sunday-lunchers welcomed Eduardo Ojeda, winemaker with sherry bodega Valdespino, to Eastbourne last Sunday (14th October) at Horeau's Seafood Restaurant in Westham. He had flown in from Spain especially to give a Sherry Masterclass there, organised by independent wine merchant, Cooden Cellars, as part of the Feastbourne festival of events.

During the masterclass the audience was taken through a short presentation on the different styles of sherry and how they are made. This was followed by a tutored tasting of some of the sherries. Amongst them were super-dry Manzanillas and Finos as well as nutty and caramel Amontillados, through to the more traditional sweet creams. But the star was undoubtedly the ultra-luscious, dark brown sweet El Candado made from the Pedro Ximenes grape which came in a bottle with a padlocked top (El Candado means padlock in Spanish) allegedly first put on the bottle in 1822 to prevent the husband of its original customer from drinking it all! It was just like drinking liquid Christmas pudding, said one customer. Fantastic poured over vanilla ice cream, said another. The tasting was rounded off by a precious bottle of over 30-year old Palo Cortado, worth 170 pounds.

A short break on the sun-kissed patio of the Restaurant allowed a gentle breather before the guests were treated to a wonderful four-course lunch consisting of tartare of salmon, dill and creme fraiche starter, cream of garlic and almond soup, roast loin of pork with prune stuffing and summer vegetables and creme brulee, each course being matched with a different sherry.

Ian Jarman of Cooden Cellars remarked: It's been really wonderful to see the many different sorts of sherries available, and to discover how well they go with different foods. There's a sherry that is perfectly suited to almost any occasion and it's been great to see the positive reactions of people to them. It's been a real eye-opener and a tremendous show case for the not-so-staid image of sherry.

Cooden Cellars continue their promotion of worthy but often maligned wines with their Masters of Riesling tasting at Eastbourne College on Thursday 19th October.

Technorati Tags: sherry, puppy

Germany trip, Saturday 10 June 2006

Saturday

After the revels of the night before, Saturday dawned unbelievably bright and it was definitely a sight for sore eyes that I was able to look out from my riverside guest house verandah in Wehlen on to the sloping edifice of the Sonnennuhr (sun-dial) on the opposite bank, raked with fine shadows as the morning sun rose over the Mosel. Ernst Loosen arrived in his Porsche Cayenne at 8.30 and whisked us to join our vehicle which was to take us on to Leitz's estate in the Rheingau.

To get to Rudesheim we had to travel on the ferry across the Rhine as the only bridges are at either Koblenz or Mainz , both many miles away. This was quite a short hop but it gave time to sense the hot and stuffy caldron that is the micro-climate exhibited by the schlossberg cliff face above Rudesheim where the air gets trapped.

At the Leitz winery we first met Paul Furst who had come over from Franken to conduct a tasting of his wines from around Burgstadt. We went through 14 of his wines in all. The notable points were his '97 Riesling Spatlese Centgrafenberg Dry which demonstrated pears and soft apples on the nose followed by blackcurrant on the tip of the tongue with honey, caramel and fudge notes on the palate, grading into an extraordinary cream and strawberries finish. As a change and because of the climate in Franken, Paul makes excellent Spatburgunders (Pinot Noirs). In particular, his '04 Spatburgunder "R" (R = "reserve") which had plum and baises roses notes and full red fruits knitted nicely together, but finishing dry.

Lunch was prepared by Johannes Leitz, the young and talented star of the Rheingau firmament. He made a king prawns in a lemongrass reduction for startes with which we had his '05 Dragonstone Riesling. The lightly rounded wine went well with the orange/lemon soup and shellfish. This was followed by white asparagus and strawberries (a combination invented by Johannes himself, based on the two products which are in high season in Rudesheim at this time of year) with lamb's lettuce and freshly sliced Speck. He learnt to cook at an early age, following his father's death when he was 14 months old and had to muck in to help his mother.

Hot on heels of our food, and pressed for time, we went straight into tasting 14 of his wines. Undoubted highlights among exemplary Rieslings were the '05 Berg Schlossberg Alte Reben. A perfumed minerally nose led into a herb and grapefruit palate, followed by a beautiful tropical and stone fruit finish. The '04 Berg Roseneck Spatlese showed a malty "caramac" chocolate nose and entry with a rich waxy finish, a clear development from the extra year over the lighter and leaner apricot/peach flavours of the'05.

After the tasting we just had time to visit the vineyards. At the top of Johannes' street I could just see a fine monastic-type building and was quite gob-smacked and delighted when Johannes told me it was the famous Abbey of Hidegaard (of Bingen - the town of Bingen at the head of the Nahe/Rhine confluence was just across the river) as we drove past it. We also went past the chair lift that once served the ski reorty on the top of the hillside and on to the Berg Roseneck vineyard that over looks the old Schloss that acted as toll to the river trade in the early middle ages. It was extremely hot and bore witness to the role that aspect gives to microclimate.

We left Leitz on our way back to Hahn at the end of our visit to Germany, but not before we had chance to get thoroughly bogged down in a Harley Davidson bike rally in the heart of Rudesheim. My memory of the trip will include the vision of one of the oldest vineyards in Germany (the Rosengarten, which incredibly is not officially classified, but is now rented and restored by Leitz and in small production under that name), surrounding the town church, being completely hemmed in by rows of glistening motorbikes and leather-clad party-goers. But, like those bikers I saw with bunches of grapes strapped to their helmets, wine and wine growing is just the backdrop to normal life in such places, but nevertheless is a milieu worth celebrating.

I left Germany determined to drink more of their marvellous Rieslings - many at 7 to 8 per cent alcohol so perfect for the soul - and sure that we would find space to have more on our shelves for you to try.

Technorati Tags: furst, germany, leitz, rudeshelm

Germany trip, Thursday 8 June 2006 Germany trip, Thursday 8 June 2006

With no particular interest in the sporting event taking place in Germany I nevertheless graciously accepted a once-in-a-lifetime invitation to join Nigel Blundell's Masters of Riesling tour to more outer-lying areas of the country. So I set off eagerly to Stansted airport and joined the merry throng of fans (and the airport was absolutely heaving with them), some of whom were clearly well into conditioning their livers for the onslaught to come.

Thursday

We left on an early flight on Thursday morning and touched down at Frankfurt-Hahn airport about an hour and ten minutes later. This was much to the bemusement of many of those afore-mentioned fans who hadn't been put wise to the fact that the "Frankfurt" part of the destination name had more to do with the owning authority than with the city of that name. Hahn airport is in fact a former US air force base, now revitalised by RyanAir and some 60 miles from Frankfurt.

**

With impeccable German precision we were whisked of into the deep Rheinhessen countryside by Weingut Gunderloch to their winery in Nackenheim. Greeted by our host Fritz Hasselbach, his wife and Charlotte his winemaking assistant, we tasted through 11 wines ranging from his basic '05 Riesling to his '04 Nackenheim Rothenberg TBA. My favourites were the off-dry, peach and grapefruit, creamy finished '05 "Villa" and the best-selling full and richly perfumed '05 Jean Baptiste. Frau Hasselbach then produced a most delightful lunch of traditional meatloaf hot pot, dauphinoise potatoes and salad. With it we had the well-structured, long and lush, '04 "3-star" Auslese.

Following lunch we moved on westward to the Nahe and the quality Dönnhoff estate where Helmut Dönnhoff and his wife, Gaby, led us through a tasting of 15 wines. All of them were very fine indeed and so rewarding in the heat of the afternoon (though we were of course in their cool tasting room!). I was particularly charmed by the easy estate '05 Riesling - sherbet and pineappley with elegant yet racy acidity. Also catching my eye were the '05 Norheimer Delchen Spatlese (intense honey and floral fruit, plunging depth with beautiful mineral notes and structure) and the '05 Oberhauser Brucke Spatlese (huge, pure and smooth - sweet fruit yet with strident acidity).

In the evening we were taken by our hosts to the Zur Trauber ("The Grape") restaurant in Meddersheim, where the Michelin-starred chef (when he was in Wiesbaden ) Herbert Langendorf has set up in semi-retirement. Our delicious meal was accompanied by three new Dönnhoff wines, the most stunning of them being the '04 Grauburgunder "S" which had spent 9 months in wood and had a heavenly nougat and nutty nose and a stunning palate and length. And this was only Helumut's "play thing". Fantastic!

Technorati Tags: germany, wolf, loosen, treppchen

A week in wine...

Following our Fifth Anniversary Dinner at the Hydro Hotel on 9th May where 65 guests and our two Burgundian winemakers, Gregory Patriat of Jean-Claude Boisset and Pierre Vincent of Jaffelin helped celebrate the occasion, we were looking forward to a more restful week...

But this last week turned out to be rather full of interesting things.

First I visited the London Wine Trade Fair on Tuesday and spent a very full day going round ExCel. Like John, I found it exhausting but there were some definite highlights: a couple of stonking roses from Spain, one from Care and one from Buil & Gine - not cheap but very good; the Kim Crawford Spitfire Mk 2 SB was great too, so I echo John's euphoria, but I would also mention Kim's Cab Franc from Hawkes Bay, really nice - and now on our shelves at £9.50! I also managed to catch up with Caryl and Jan Panman from Chateau Rives-Blanques, a very nice English couple who own the estate and make fantastic - quintessentially French - wines. We now have four of their wines, the Mauzac, Chenin and Chardonnay and their Blanquette de Limoux - stunning.

In the evening I was amongst the guests of Dirk Niepoort and Raymond Reynolds/Danny Cameron (so nice to see him again after his recent illness) at Bentley's Oyster Bar in Piccadilly. As far as I recall it's the first time I've had oysters and they were good, very, very good with a light vinegar/Tabasco and onion dressing and washed down by a superb new vintage Redoma rose. There were some good wines on show and Dirk was also in top form. A nice evening that ended oh so late!

A day's rest in the shop on Wednesday and then I went off to our friends at the Uckfield Wine Circle to do a tutored tasting on Greek wine (a favourite of mine that always seems to go down well). It's that Hatzidakis Santorini 2004 that always does it for me! A stupendous straight Assyrtiko form the island from vines grown in their own formed baskets and made in artisanl fashion by the man himself in a cave hewn out of the volcanic rock. Amazing. Definitely, Europe's best kept wine secret.

On the same night Colin and John went off to Hastings to the Wine and Food Fair at the Phoenix Arts Centre, compered by our good friend John Radford. A good night ensued and I understand the Mcgregor Pinotage Rose 2006 was the hit of the night.

So another late night all round. But without time for a full recovery on Fruiday (19th) we were very proud to host a Winemaker Tasting with Ben Glaetzer from Glaetzer, Heartland and Mitolo Wines in Australia. He and his partner from Heartland, Grant Tilbrook showed 11 wines and regaled the guests with a really informative and interesting session. And with the top end wines at £20 to £35 a bottle abgood time was definitely had. My favourite of the evening? The Dolcetto Lagrein 2004 - a real whiz of a wine combing two not-so-common Italian grapes grown to perfection in Oz and assembled magnificently to give an amazing wine, and at only £8.99. Now that's what wine is all about.

And it made a perfect culmination to a heavy week.

Karen Eats Her Words

This week saw Karen Costello-McFeat come in to the shop to collect her prize of a case of wine for being the winning entry in the Eat Your Words competition at the Feastbourne food and drink festival in October. She is pictured here with myself as I was one of the judges. Her winning essay was called Nature's Gift and was a very well told story of blackberries and was featured in the last issue of Eastbourne Herald's In Style magazine.

Karen and I can be seen holding a bottle of Aloe Tree Shiraz which was one of her prize case selection.

Work on new web site, and other incidents

Much progress has been made behind the scenes on getting this website updated. Today the last in a series of extensive amendments to the product database or catalogue has been completed and more interactive elements will hopefully be up and running by the weekend.

Not that I'll be thinking that much about it by then as I'm off to Bruxelles for a few days - and looking forward to a nice meal in La Truffe Noire, a Michelin-starred establishment recommended to me by some friends whilst at the Connaught on Monday night. How other people live, eh? Well, it's all in the aid of my half-century celebrations...

But back to the Connaught briefly: the 'degustation' menu was rather nice and accompanied, by request, with a sommelier-selected succession of wines, which helped as the wine list was massive! A rather nice, crisp Italian wine (its name/producer now engulfed by the mists of senility as these things do) accompanied the Sea Bass with pink grapefruit and mint - a challenge it rose to magnificently. Good fare and wonderful surroundings (and great company, of course) - but be prepared to re-negotiate your mortgage afterwards!!

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France Under One Roof

A good, packed venue at Lord's and lots of wines to taste! Focus was the order of the day. Several finds were uncovered, including a very good Vouvray, one or two Burgundies and Rhones and some interesting Vins de Pays which excited my interest. And the sun peeped through the clouds across the lawns into the glass sided Nursery End Pavilion...

The seasonal jaunt to Vinopolis via The Clink (that's the street next to it!) to taste through the offerings from Portugal was amply rewarded with a good tasting and - not to be under-emphasised - this year also contained a selection of specialist foods to sample. You might say I was in my element. Anyway, a number of new wines were discovered and hopefully some will appear in due course on our list! Must remember to visit Borough Market when the stall are full!!