In a chalk mine, tasting Portuguese and Italian wine
Took a trip over to Berkshire today to visit wine merchant Milton Sandford (website), who are located in an old chalk mine. It's a perfect place to store wine, with a constant, low temperature in its underground tunnels (pictured above). It's a pretty cool place, but it must be weird if you're one of the office-bound staff who never sees daylight. You might end up a bit like Gollum.Specifically, I was looking at two different products: a pair of organic Italian wines that are being sold in Tetrapak, and a couple of Portuguese wines. The Portuguese wines were pretty impressive, actually. Both sell (to restaurants) at around £5. Notes below:
Casalinho Arinto 2007 Vinho Verde, Portugal
This is really good. Beautifully aromatic with notes of herbs, lemon and minerals. The palate is zippy and bright with lovely herby freshness and light, zippy lemony fruit. Very fresh and precise. This is a beautiful wine with lovely spritzy freshness, as well as some seriousness. 90/100
This is really good. Beautifully aromatic with notes of herbs, lemon and minerals. The palate is zippy and bright with lovely herby freshness and light, zippy lemony fruit. Very fresh and precise. This is a beautiful wine with lovely spritzy freshness, as well as some seriousness. 90/100
Romanisco Reserva 2005 Douro, Portugal
Fresh dark cherry and spice nose with some tarry richness, as well as a plummy, herby note. The palate has a tarry, spicy edge to the spicy, savoury plummy fruit. An intense savoury style with chunky tannins. Good stuff. 87/100
Fresh dark cherry and spice nose with some tarry richness, as well as a plummy, herby note. The palate has a tarry, spicy edge to the spicy, savoury plummy fruit. An intense savoury style with chunky tannins. Good stuff. 87/100
Labels: Portugal
posted by Jamie @ 12:16 AM
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6 Comments:
but what about Kaka?
He rocks. Looking forward to welcoming him to Eastlands.
My friend and employer Michel Bettane stores his personal wine collection in a chalk cave just outside of Paris. Perfect storage conditions, but for fact that the humidity in his is a bit high and the labels tend to disintegrate. He often shows up at my house with a case of miscellaneous wines with labels that are only half legible, missing a vintage or an important piece of information like the vineyard designation. Always a fun to try to figure out what's missing!
And the Tetrapaked wine....? Less than impressive?
The Puglian Chardonnay was OK but a bit tired. The Sangiovese was warm, spicy and food friendly - much more successful.
It was extremely interesting for me to read this post. Thanx for it. I like such themes and anything that is connected to this matter. I would like to read a bit more soon.
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