jamie goode's wine blog: Almost summer, and three blind wines

Monday, July 30, 2007

Almost summer, and three blind wines


Pictured is Regent's Park this lunchtime, taken with my Pentax *ist DL2 and posted using Google's Picasa (that's what the little coloured logo at the bottom of this post represents). I've been playing around with Flickr a lot, but Picasa seems quite a promising way of dealing with pictures on your computer, rather than on the web.

As you can see, it's almost a summer's day: it feels a bit fresh, but there's some sunshine, and no rain so far. It would be great if we could get some proper summer weather - I expect wine and beer retailers would like it, too. I wonder whether the sustained damp weather has put the brakes on the remarkable rise in rose sales in the UK over the last couple of years.

Last night Fiona tried another three blind wines on me. The first was an oaky white that I reckoned was a really good Chilean Chardonnay. Turned out to be an oaky Grenache Blanc from Domaine Lafage in the Roussillon. What's the point of making Grenache Blanc taste like Chilean Chardonnay? Then a red. Red berries, quite fresh, new worldy, with just a tiny hint of greenness - I called this as a really good Chilean Merlot - turned out to be Dona Dominga's Syrah Carmenere. Very nice, actually. Finally, a crappy South African Cabernet Sauvignon showing oxidation and greenness. It was all over the place and I couldn't get it at all. That's one thing that will always trip a blind taster up - an out of condition wine.

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4 Comments:

At 4:08 PM, Anonymous Keith Prothero said...

Maybe it was your crappy palate that was out of condition!! ha ah aha ha

 
At 9:30 PM, Blogger Paul Tudor said...

Jamie
What is your take on Chilean Syrah? We just had a trade tasting from Douglas Murray of Montes and they focussed quite a bit on the Syrahs in the range. Despite this, the star wine for me was the latest vintage of Alpha Cabernet Sauvignon.
Also interested in whether you have tried many Hawkes Bay Syrahs (or Hakes Bay Cabernet Merlot blend for that matter.)
Cheers
Paul

 
At 3:56 PM, Blogger Jamie said...

Keith, undoubtedly!

Paul, I'm not a huge fan of Chilean reds at the moment, even Syrahs. A work in progress?

I've tried and loved some Hawkes Bay reds, including Stoncroft Syrah, Craggy Range Syrah and Cab/Merlot and Trinity Hill Syrah. There are more, and I'm sure you could put a good list together for me to chase!

 
At 1:18 PM, Blogger Salil said...

Just curious (as my experience with Chilean wines only goes as far as a couple of cheap reds) - what are Chilean Chardonnays generally like?

 

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