July events at artisan & vine

Cool! A new month of activity – I love the Summer season! Here’s what’s happening, click here for more information on any of these great events:

Thur 8 - Speed Dating, usually 12-18 dates per person, £14.95/person

Sun 11 - Speed Dating, a Sunday session for busy professionals, £10/person

Wed 14 - Wine Tasting: Introduction to Southwest France, £20/person includes 5 wines and matched canapés

Sun 18 - Speed Dating, meet someone or come again free, £10/person

Wed 21 - Wine Tasting: How to taste wine, £10/person includes 5 wines +canapes

Thur 22 - Speed Dating, 4 minutes per date, meet lots of people, £14.95/person

Sat 24 - 1 Day Wine Workshop, Wine Unearthed Introduction to World of Wine

Sun 25 - Speed Dating, meet someone or come again free, £10/person

Wed 28 - Wine Tasting: Where wine flavour comes from, £10/person

Click here for more information on any of these great events.

Wine serving temperatures

The final onset of Summer seems to me a very good time to talk about the temperature at which wines should be served.

Let’s start with talking about why it makes a difference to serve wine at the right temperature and why the right temperature is different for different wines.

1. Our sense of smell operates on the perception of vapours. Red wines generally have a higher molecular weight than white wines, and so they need warmer temperatures for their aromatic vapours to be released. In general, the darker the colour of a wine, the heavier its weight, and the warmer it should be served.

2. Our perception of tannins are effected by temperature too. In general, the colder a wine is served, the more its tannins will be exposed; the warmer a wine is served, the softer its tannins may be perceived. For mature, soft tannins like those present in a Burgundian Pinot Noir, serving wine a little colder will show off the fabulously refined tannins better than ‘smoothing them over’ with warm serving temperature.

3. Sweeter wines are generally served better cold. The coldness emphasises the acidity, which is needed to balance the sweetness in the wine for freshness rather than syrupy-ness.

So what is the summation?

Sweet wines should be served between 4 and 7 degrees Celsius. Dry whites between 6 and 11. Very fine white wines (best Burgundy, German, Australian and Californian whites) between 10 an 12 degrees Celsius. Light reds should be served between 10 and 14 degrees. Heavier reds should be served between 14 and 18 degrees.

Now, if you get an ice bucket with your red wine this summer: you’ll know why!

Image: glasses lined up and ready to be drunk at artisan & vine

How to (finally!) taste wine

This is Part Three of a Three Part series on how to taste wine. There are three elements to tasting wine: seeing, smelling and tasting. Counterintuitive but true. Today I’m finally going to address what happens when wine is in your mouth.

Take a swig and swish.

Five main things we’re looking for:

1. Tannins. Tannins come from the grape skins or barrels that wines are fermented or aged in. You can assess how tannic a wine is by how it dries your mouth. Think of that sensation you get when you leave your tea bag in tea for too long – that is too much tannin.

2. Acidity. Acidity sounds bad. Interpret it as “freshness”. You can assess the acidity in a wine by how your mouth waters. Now you start to build a picture: a balanced wine is one where the refreshing acidity of the wine balances the drying tannins in a wine.

3. Alcohol. In a good wine, you shouldn’t taste or smell alcohol. The flavour and aroma molecules in the wine should be more prevalent than the alcohol molecules. A wine that is too alcoholic can be detected by that burning feeling at the entrance to your throat.

4. Sweetness & bitterness both take a little more practice to detect. Your best guide is that if you feel you detect too much of either: it’s probably not a great wine.

5. Length. Length is one of the most reliable indicators of a quality wine. How long does the taste of the wine stay in your mouth? The longer the better.

Image: this time last year I was tasting wine with Alain Chabanon at his domaine in Languedoc. We’re stocking his rose this Spring – it’s a real winner!

How to taste (smell) wine

This is Part Two of a Three Part series on how to taste wine. There are three elements to tasting wine: seeing, smelling and tasting. Counterintuitive but true. Today I'm addressing how to assess a wine’s nose (how it smells).

You’ve probably already consumed whatever wine you were working with yesterday, so, we start again: First, pour a small amount of wine into the glass – around 50 – 75mls, or a quarter full. This is not pretentious custom. We need room in the glass for swivelling (aeration), and also so that we can keep precious aroma molecules in the glass.

Before we swivel, take a sniff of the wine fresh poured. Older wines are unlikely to give off too much aroma without agitation. Ironically, more mass produced wines are likely to give an intense aroma from the outset. After your first sniff, swivel the glass. The aim is to let air into the wine and aromas out. Swivel for a few seconds and take another sniff. The character of the wine should now start to show itself.

The aroma of a wine is a strong indicator of the flavour to follow. Becoming familiar with the aromas and flavours you enjoy most, and being able to describe them, will help you select more wines you enjoy in future. Do you smell more fruit or more oak? Is the smell apparent with one sniff or do you need to concentrate to pick up aromas? Neither end of these spectrums is necessarily a sign of quality: you’re trying to get in tune with your preferences.

Here is a sign of quality we get from aroma: how does the aroma change as you work your way through a bottle? Excellent wines will evolve once opened and often the aroma becomes stronger or more interesting with time. Un-excellent wines (a technical term :) ) will loose flashy fragrances after opening. It’s an indicator of how well integrated flavour and aroma molecules are.

Image: large oak barrels, like the ones I’m shown at Comte Lafon in Burgundy, enrich the fruit aromas within the chardonnay; there is no need to mask inferior fruit with distracting oak

Randall Grahm quotes from his visit to artisan & vine

On Monday 7 June, we had a wine superstar at artisan & vine, Randall Grahm, owner and wine maker of Bonny Doon Vineyards in California.

I've been asked several times now for my write up of events... as it is nearly two weeks ago now. Here's the problem... I was so busy talking and tasting - as usual - that my notes are well... non-existent. My memories are great, but not necessarily great reading.

Time to rely on a more reliable source. Luckily for me, a more avid note taker, Jamie Goode, was on hand for the evening taking fantastic notes.

The following quotes from Randall are from Jamie's brilliant wine blog:

"On Cigare Volant, his flagship wine: ‘I started out trying to make Châteauneuf du Pape. I don’t even like Châteauneuf du Pape, but I do like Burgundy.’

On reduction: ‘One way I think of reduction in wine is like horniness in guys. It can be a little off-putting at times but it is a sign that they system is working the way it should.’

On cool climate viticulture: ‘A cool climate for me is also an appropriate climate. The grapes come in balanced. You don’t need to acidulate or dealcoholize the wine. If you have to manipulate the wine, this suggests that you are not growing the grape in the right places.’
‘Not all vineyard sites are created equal. Not all vineyard sites are good for grapes!’

On terroir: ‘The notion of terroir is the most beautiful idea in wine lore. A true vin de terroir needs a good rooting system. Terroir is a radio signal, and it is a question of the signal to noise ratio. We want to amplify the signal without distorting it. For example, if you restrict yields in a deeply rooted vineyard, you amplify the signal. Drip irrigation dilutes the signal. The ratio of roots to fruit is probably the single greatest determinant of wine quality.’

On the California wine industry: ‘The wine industry is a sort of disaster now – a victim of its success. When I got started, people did it because they loved it. It’s now a business, and too much money is invested in it. It has given the business a loss of self confidence. Everyone needs a consultant, and even the consultants need consultants. The era of cooperation and goodwill has largely gone.’"

Image: Randall Grahm at artisan & vine. I don't know why this image refuses to sit straight...

How to taste (see) wine

Given that I just spent the best part of the last week tasting tasting tasting in the Loire Valley (stories from that to follow!)… I thought it was a good topic to get into for this week’s Wine Facts. (less a fact than a tip but I know you’ll grant me that leeway).

There are three elements to tasting wine: seeing, smelling and tasting. Counterintuitive but true. Today I’m going to address assessing a wine’s appearance; we’ll cover nose and palate over the next days blog entries.

Firstly, pour a small amount of wine into the glass – around 50 – 75mls, or a quarter full. This is not pretentious custom. We need room in the glass for swivelling (aeration), and also so that we can keep precious aroma molecules in the glass.

Under normal circumstances, you will know the grape, region and vintage of the wine you’re drinking. That all the case, there are wines who lose their fruit quickly (age fast) or show characteristics atypical of their region or grape. We can judge some of these elements by sight.

Look at the colour of your wine: white wine becomes deeper with age; red wine becomes paler. All wines become browner with age. When you tilt your wine glass at an angle, older reds will be almost completely transparent at the rim: it’s not a lack of quality… it’s just age J Depth of colour – in red or white wine – will indicate how thick the skins of the grapes were and/or how long the grape juices were left in contact with their skins during maceration.

When your glass is tilted to the side: wines with a single, consistent colour gradient, are general “drink now” wines that are unlikely to evolve. Wines with a glossy appearance and subtle gradations in the wine colour are superstars – you must be drinking an artisan & vine wine J

Image: last July I tasted Catherine Massioneuve’s outstanding Cahor Malbecs across vintages and cuvees. The rich berry darkness of the wines a certain indicator of the rich flavours and aging potential.

What happened at the English Wine Open Bottle Session

This Wednesday gone saw our first ever English Wine Open Bottle Session. It was a fabulous night with 29 different English Sparkling, White, Rose and Red wines all on show.

Most popular wines on the night? It was a very close call but I reckon the Nyetimber Blanc de Blanc 2001 was probably the overall favourite; Camel Valley and Biddenden were also extremely popular producers.

Over forty people came along to take part in the two hour whirlwind wine tasting. And there were not a small number of curious Australians and Americans among them! The French contingency respectfully declined.

Image: a new wine to artisan & vine, the Warden Abbot from Warden Abbey, Bedfordshire was also popular, and has become one of my favourite English white wines.

Wine Facts: How Wine Ages

Not all wine improves with age. Some wine is more alcoholic vinegar than wine within years of bottling. How can you know which wines will improve with age and which will collapse?

In general, wines that are designed to be enjoyed for freshness and youthful fruitiness should be drunk young. Include within this category most white and rose wines and any lighter style reds, Beaujolais for example. These are wines whose fresh fruit flavours are likely to die within 2-4 years of bottling and which do not have the tannins or structure within the bottle to develop further.

Wines that taste better with aging are wines where a more complex combination of acids, sugars, minerals, pigments, tannins and flavour compounds need longer to integrate. High quality reds and whites will fall into this category.

As a general - if crude - rule, the more expensive a wine is, the more likely it is to improve with age.

The unlucky truth is that even the wine maker cannot know when exactly is the best time to drink any one wine. The best we can do is ask the person selling us a wine; they should know the story of a given wine in their shop and should taste it regularly enough to know it’s current condition.

Image: I asked Olivier from Domaine D’Arlot in Burgundy when I should drink some of his aging Pinot Noirs. He told me to call him when I was ready to open the bottle and he would let me know if it was ok or not. It’s all that exact :)

Randall Grahm at artisan & vine

Wine Unearthed are proud to present
from Bonny Doon Vineyard, California for One Night Only...
Randall Grahm Unplugged

at artisan & vine

Join us for a great evening with Randall, the Wines, the Book (and good food for good measure!)
Randall Grahm is the visionary, irreverent winemaker and President-for-Life of Bonny Doon Vineyard. His goal is to produce wines in a natural, un-manipulated manner, imbued with life force! Cosmic wines for Cosmic times. Often described in the same breath as a genius, madman, and philosopher, the original Rhone Deranger has been at the vanguard of all that has been exciting (and controversial) in the American wine world in the last 2 decades. A champion of screwcaps , a convert to Biodynamics, he has now taken the bold step to list all of his ingredients on the back labels of his wines and is now experimenting with ageing his wines in amphorae and glass jars.

Monday 7th June 7.30pm £35

The Wine Tasting
To kick things off we'll start the evening with an apéritif and some canapes (hopefully outside if the weather is good!) before moving onto the main event.
In his own inimitable way Randall will take you on a guided tour of his new streamlined range of wines. On his quest to make only ‘Vins de terroir’ I am sure Randall hopes that the wines will speak for themselves, but never short of a word or five Randall will be on hand to talk about his wines, the universe and everything in between. Food will be served throughout the event.

BEEN DOON SO LONG
If you have ever read the back label of a bottle of Bonny Doon, you will realise that Randall likes to write ! His first book, or ‘Vinthology’ Been Doon So Long won the 2010 James Beard Foundation Award for best drinks book, and takes readers on a rollercoaster ride from wine to philosophy to rock opera to literary parody and back again.

“Randall Grahm is the Willy Wonka of the wine world and Been Doon So Long is intelligent, insightful and mischievous. It is a work of Genius” - Jamie Goode

Get your first edition copy signed by the man himself on the night pre-order online now at special price£19.50(rrp £24.95)

How often do you get the chance to meet a man who has an asteroid named after him?

You’d be mad to miss it, but don’t just take our word for it, here’s what Jancis Robinson has to say:“Randall Grahm of Bonny Doon in California is truly an exception in almost every way. His wine names, labels, packaging and news[?]letters [aka streams of consciousness] have injected more fun into the self-conscious world of wine than all other wine producers put together..”

Click here to buy tickets for the night or by the book online from our fabulous friends at Wine Unearthed.

Image: biodynamic wine making legend Randall Grahm

Wednesday wine tasting: Chilean wine

We try to mix things up from week to week at artisan & vine's Wednesday evening wine tastings. So, while last week we were in the Alsace and next week we're in Australia, today we're in Chile. The idea is that you could come to the bar every Wednesday and get a broad mix of flavours, stories and facts.

Before we zoom in on Chile, let's talk a little about South America, which, like most of the New World, is something we don't have a lot of at artisan & vine. This is not a deliberate choice. There are simply more natural wines from Europe available in London than there are from other regions.

South America is pretty exciting for the wine world because, although it's had wine grapes longer than any other part of the New World (since 1531), it's in its relative infancy on the global wine scene. Chile, although producing less wine than Argentina, was the first of the South American countries to make a meaningful entrance onto the world wine stage.

Isolated by the Pacific Ocean on the West and the Andes on the East, Chile produces pretty reliably healthy grapes. It's a good place for organic and biodynamic vineyards. This is a place where the days are particularly hot and the nights particularly cold, which is great for allowing a long, mature ripening of grapes - & so those fab fruity flavours!

Tonight we're going to be tasting wines from two Chilean producers. The first is Vina Von Siebenthal, headed by a former Swiss Lawyer now producing indulgently fruity wines in the Aconcagua Valley. We'll taste a pure Carmenere - a Bordeaux grape that has become almost synonymous with Chilean red wine; as well as a Bordeaux blend (Cabernet Franc, Melot and Cabernet Sauvignon). Bordeaux grapes have long been popular in Chile, though we're now starting to see other grapes such as Syrah, Pinot Noir and Riesling make their way down.

The second producer we'll be tasting is Clos Ouvert, headed by Burgundian wine maker Louis-Antoine Luyt. These wines are really exciting. In his recent visit to artisan & vine, Tim Atkin MW felt the same: "Just discovered Clos Ouvert from Maule at Artisan and Vine. The most exciting Chilean wines I have tasted in years. Wow!"

By way of contrast, we're going to taste a pure Carmenere from Clos Ouvert, as well as a Bordeaux blend, and then, most exciting I think, a 100% Pais wine. Pais is Chile's indigenous "peasant's grape"... you're going to love it!

We still have some spaces available at tonight's Chilean wine tasting. Email welcome@artisanandvine.com to sign up!

Click here to see profiles of the range of Chilean wines we currently stock at artisan & vine.

Image: the incredible Huasa 2008 from Clos Ouvert is 100% Pais and certainly worth a taste at artisan & vine!

London Wine and Travel meetup Group

Have you seen these meetup groups online? They have meetups groups for all sorts of interests and hobbies. This Sunday gone we hosted the London Wine and Travel Meetup for a three course meal and wine tasting game.

I was stoked to read the reviews that participants had written up:

Amanda: 'very good!!! many thanks I wanted to rate it 10 stars but only 5 were available so :-) '

Maggie: ‘I loved the restaurant; the food was simply delicious, and a good range of different range of wines. I loved the fact we were encouraged to guess the right wine. This taught me quite a lot. Great afternoon, all round’

Stephanie: 'A fantastic way to have Sunday lunch. Meeting new people over good food and wine. It was well organised and was well planned to help everyone mingle.’

Michael: ‘Really excellent event! Terrific wines, great food and really good company!’

Amanda: ‘Great food, interesting wines and a chance to meet new people with similar interests, perfect!’

Click here to read more about this event and this really fun and social wine group.

Image: this is the photo icon of the London Wine and Travel Meetup Group. I don't have a lot else to say about that.

Natural wine & English wine tastings every Wednesday

It's about time I gave a plug to some of our upcoming wine tasting events.

Because they're awesome.

Here's what's coming up:

Wed, 12 May Chilean wine (including wines that Tim Atkin declares as the most exciting Chilean wines he's tasted in years) £20 / person
Wed, 19 May New World Wine (Australia, New Zealand, USA) £20 / person
Wed, 26 May Italian Wine £20 / person
Wed, 2 June English Wine Week: Open Bottle Session £10 / person
Wed, 9 June Food and wine matching £20 / person

As you see, every Wednesday at artisan & vine we run a wine tasting on a specific theme of English wine or natural wine. These are genuinely fascinating events and a lot of fun. For £20/person, you’ll taste 5 incredible wines (last Wednesday we tasted a Grand Cru Riesling worth £60) and have some matched canapes, as well as all of my thoughts – fact and editorial – on that week’s theme.

A wonderful night out for catching up with friends or a different kind of date.
Click here for more information or email welcome@artisanandvine.com or call 0207 228 4997 to book your place now!

Image: me tasting at Comte Lafon in Burgundy. Researching to bring you guys the best wines and information is tough tough work.

Wednesday wine tasting: the Alsace!

Wednesday is wine tasting day at artisan & vine. Each Wednesday at 8pm we commence enthusing and imbibing along a set wine theme. You can see what I have planned for the coming weeks here.

Tonight we're exploring the Alsace.

A lovely year of my life was spent living in Germany, just south of the Rheingau. It was a fab base for exploring not just the Rhine Valley but also Mosel, and on one particularly long trip, the Alsace.

Alsatian architecture looks a little Germanic. The people often speak French and (mercifully for me) German. The grapes and style of wine making are similar to those you'll find in Germany. The best wines in both Alsace and Germany come from Riesling - we'll be tasting three 100% Riesling wines tonight. Other popular grape varieties offer a delightful balance floral aromas and minerally palates: Sylvaner, Gewurtztraminer, the Three Pinots.

I often hear complaints about Riesling: customers often can't tell how sweet a wine might be before they buy it; a fact particularly true of Alsatian wines with their typically non-descript French labelling (though Alsatian wines do - in contrast to most French wines - list grape varieties on the label! another welcome Germanic influence). I think customers are right to have this complaint and wish I could offer a better solution than: only buy from bars or shops where the salesperson can confidently help you with what you're buying.

We regularly face the same dilemma with natural wine. I come to the same conclusion over and again: better transparency in wine bottle labelling is the only way to help buyers choose beyond Sauvignon Blanc.

Oh, before I sign off for today, I must add that we still have places left at tonight's tasting. It's £20/person to taste 5 wines (including a Grand Cru today!), so please do come along!

Click here to see some of the wines of the Alsace that we currently list at artisan & vine.

Image: Domaine Josmeyer, one of many brilliant biodynamic producers in the Alsace we'll taste tonight.

How to meet new people AND enjoy amazing wine

You already know we run exciting Speed Dating every other Thursday and fun Wine Tasting every Wednesday. Now we’ve combined the best of both to have Wine Dating! The next Wine Dating event at artisan & vine will be run on Sunday, 30 May at 2pm.

How does it work?

WineDating events are a great way to meet new people whilst tasting some great wines from around the world. Wine tasting dating allows you to meet people in groups of 6 rather than one-on-one like traditional speed dating.

What is the format of a WineDating event?

Our wine tasting events are totally different to any other dating events in London. On arrival you will greeted by our hosts who will allocate you a table number and a scorecard.
Once everyone has arrived I will begin with an introduction into tasting, some hints and tips plus a description of the six wines you will taste during the event. Everyone then takes their seats and the tasting of the first wine begins. Please remember to arrive on time as we can't always let you in if you're really late!
Once everyone is seated in their first group of six (normally 3 guys, 3 girls) the wine tasting begins! You then have around 12 minutes to taste the first wine, chat and get to know your first set of co-tasters.
When your 12 minutes is up we will signal the end of your first tasting session. At this point the guys move on to their next table and collect the wines for their next tasting group.
It's important to record the people you want to see after each tasting as you're going to be using our online matching system then day after the event!
This format until all groups have met all the members of the opposite sex and tasted all six wines.

Click here for more information and to book your place online!

International Wine Challenge

This year I had the pleasure of being invited to judge at the International Wine Challenge (IWC). During the last week I joined some 300+ wine experts in blind tasting over 10,000 wines to determine which wines should take home coveted medals or commendations from the Challenge. The IWC is ‘the biggest blind tasting in the world’. The result of the tasting manifest in these little stickers (pictured) that you’ll see appear on bottles of wine that have won a Gold, Silver, Bronze or Commended award from the judges at the competition. For consumers, they represent a kind of quality guarantee.

Here’s how the process works:
1. In early April, 45,000+ bottles arrive at the Barbican Centre to be categorised by grape variety, region, etc.
2. For Week 1 of tasting, judges determine which wines should be tasted again in Week 2 for medal classification, which wines should be Commended, or which wines are not medal or commendation ready.
3. There is an added safety net for lower scoring wines, which are sent for re-tasting by the co-chairmen judges.
4. During Week 2 all of the higher scoring wines are re-tasted, again completely blind, and invariably by different judges, to determine which wines will take which medals.

Having moved from the corporate world to what is normally the very casual and artistic world of wine, I found the structure and organisation of the IWC to run with surprising finesse. Having seen what goes on behind the scenes, particularly the palate and integrity of my fellow judges, I reckon that these little IWC stickers are a pretty reliable indicator of a good wine. That said, one could most likely expect that, like Michelin stars for restaurants, these coveted little IWC medals might add a couple of pennies to the price of winning wines.

Chilean Earthquake: Special Charity Tasting

On 27 February, 2010, Chile experienced an 8.5 magnitude earthquake. The epicenter of the earthquake was offshore from the Maule Region, where Clos Ouvert, my favourite Chilean wine maker, is based.

As you can see from this image, the winery was severely damaged by the quake. While there were fortunately no fatalities at Clos Ouvert, there was a lot of damage to the winery and wines. Head wine maker, Louis-Antoine lost around 40% of each of his 2007 and 2008 vintages, which, for a young winery in only it's third vintage is quite a lot.

On Wednesday 21 April, we will be running an insightful wine tasting on the wines of Clos Ouvert to raise money to help Louis-Antoine re-build his winery.

Tickets are £20/person. £2 from every wine tasting ticket and £1 of every bottle of Clos Ouvert wine sold will be donated to earthquake relief efforts. (The £1 is donated whether you buy off licence or drink in).

We normally have 2 Clos Ouvert wines in stock, for this special occasion, we'll be tasting and selling 4 fabulous wines. All 4 red wines show incredible uniqueness & finesse – there’s a reason these guys are my favourite in Chile & the wines are delicious treat, all sense of charity aside.
Click here for more information and to book your place on this special Chilean Earthquake relief wine tasting

Wine Unearthed One Day Wine Courses

WINE UNEARTHED AT ARTISAN & VINE
· Wonderful joy – from January 2010, we’ll be hosting one day wine workshops at artisan & vine, run by our very good friends at Wine Unearthed.
· Wine Unearthed have been running wine workshops across the UK for over five years. When it came time for them to start running their acclaimed courses in London, they fell in love with the beautiful artisan & vine venue & away we were!
· Check out their range of 2010 London dates at: http://www.wineunearthed.co.uk/London.html

Provence and Southern Rhone trip

· Last week we went out to Provence and the Southern Rhone to catch up with some of my favourite wine makers and sample some of their latest release vintages.
· In Southern Rhone we visited Chateauneuf du Pape and Cote du Rhone – both home to some sumptuous and rich red wines.
· In Provence we tasted some surprisingly fresh white wines that contrasted some broody, deep red wines. In general, these were blended rather than single grape variety wines.
· Once again I came back with a shopping list that will make my accountant do an accountant’s version of scream (a little too subdued to really be called a scream but you get the idea).
· See photos and short notes from the trip by clicking here.

Image: no matter what I do, I can't get this picture of Henri Milan showing me his ultra-healthy vineyards in Provence to sit straight. I think it's somehow reflective of the fabulous alternative views Henri has of the world...

Wine tasting at artisan&vine

We have about 100 wines on the list at artisan&vine. Some of the wines are very hard to find elsewhere - orange wines, zero added sulphite wines, even English wines can be hard to find in London.

Thus far I've taken a very informal approach to sharing our wines with the world. If you've been to one of our wine tastings in the past, you'll know it can be a rather fluid affair. (I hope you appreciate that I HAD to slip that in).

Well - these days we're getting a little more thematic about things. We're still doing weekly Wednesday wine tastings, but now we're hosting specific themes, with a bit more structure & advice around what we're serving.

The schedule of upcoming themes is listed here -> http://artisanandvine.com/Wine-tasting

Please do come by for a visit to try some of our more unusual wines, I reckon you won't be disappointed.

Image: mmm... Corsican rose... perfect in every way! Exactly the sort of thing it's worth getting into on a tasting.

New world wine tasting

Every Wednesday at artisan&vine we host a themed wine tasting. Last night’s tasting was, rather broadly labelled as, a New World Wine tasting. Here’s one thing about natural wines: it’s rather difficult to find great value new world wines here in the UK (yes – that is a sales invitation for any new world natural wine importers who may be reading).
Last night my friend Mark Neil, of New Generation Wines, was on hand to talk our guests through the five wines on tasting. Of course, before we open to customers at 5pm on a Wednesday, we first conduct an a&v team tasting, so that we can all talk about the wines together (pictured). Here are our notes from yesterday’s 5 wines:

Citrine Chardonnay,Gemtree Vineyards, McLaren Vale, Australia. £11.10 take home.
We all agreed that Chardonnay, particularly new world Chardonnay, gets far too much of a beating these days. This wine is beautifully balanced, has good freshness and lots of high citrus notes. 30% of the grapes used to make this wine spend time in French barriques, the rest are left unoaked for freshness. We thought this was a very flexible wine that could be friendly to a lot of different food dishes.

Viognier 2007, Hans, Marlborough, New Zealand. £19.80 take home.
This is a ridiculously delicious wine. Aromas of dried apricots greet you before the enjoyment of outstanding complexity on the palate. Viognier, unlike Chardonnay, is a really temperamental grape and only leaves growers a small window of time for optimal harvesting. We agreed that Swiss born Hans Herzog got it right with this vintage of Viognier. Lots of tannins and oiliness, which are also characteristic of a good Viognier.

Bloodstone Shiraz 2006, Gemtree Vineyards, McLaren Vale, Australia. £11.90 take home.
We spend quite a lot of time at Gemtree Vineyards from McLaren Vale this Wednesday. It’s a region I really love and after a visit from Eymerik, one of Gemtree’s Directors, a couple of weeks ago, I felt particularly passionate about showing some of his wines. This Shiraz is full of juicy raspberry and red cherry flavours. It’s an extremely approachable Shiraz and one that we often have on our “by the glass” list. There's 3% Viognier included in this primarily Shiraz wine, which gives it some great aromatics.

Uncut Shiraz 2005, Gemtree Vineyards, McLaren Vale, Australia. £15.10 take home.
I really love this dark, black cherry Shiraz. This wine benefits from the indigenous wetland ecosystem and biodynamic treatment that Gemtree are very proud to have made their hallmark. This is a more ‘serious’ Shiraz and wants to be eaten with a good grilled Aussie steak. Dry, tannic, with a strong lingering finish.

Carmenere 2006, Vina von Siebenthal, Aconcagua, Chile. £12.90 take home.
Another Swiss wine maker in the southern hemisphere, this wine is as lush and juicy as you’d hope from a Chilean red. Carmenere, a Bordeaux variety by birth, now only represents around 2% of the planted vineyards in Bordeaux, and has become more synonymous with Chilean wine making. Marinna, our resident Brazilian waitress, loved this wine best; it had all of those jammy blackcurrant flavours of home. This wine isn’t all Carmenere though, there is 10% Cabernet Sauvignon which gives the wine some fantastic green herbaceous notes.

More important than what Team a&v thought is how our guests for the night felt. We had about 25 people join in the wine tasting last night and I think that every wine was a favourite of someone. I toy with the idea of taking tallies on these sorts of things but anecdotal and ‘repeat purchase’ activity suggest that the Viognier and Bloodstone Shiraz were the most popular drinks for the night. I really do love Wednesday nights, it’s great fun to sample a cross section of wines and see the reactions of so many people.

Next Wednesday the wine tasting is themed around “safe bets” for Christmas parties and gifts. We’re going to be showing five wines that have proven mass appeal. Looking forward to it already!

All prices accurate at time of posting.

Picture: Mark Neil joins Paula, Marinna and I in discussing some of our New World Wines.