Category — France

It cannot be often that you would find a New Zealand Cloudy Bay and a red wine from Wales on the same list ! But at ND John you can discover the Sugarloaf Vineyards Deri Coch, and even on their website they state “They must be mad with our weather - but somehow they pull it off, and in some style!” - Deri Coch is a blend of Triomphe D’Alsace, Regent and Rondo varieties and has brambly autumn fruit flavours with a delicious sour cherry finish” (£8.50)

ND John Wine Merchants Ltd are an established wine merchants in the South Wales area supplying fine restaurants, hotels, gastro-pubs and clubs.

In 2003, we moved to new premises and opened a large ‘wine warehouse’ bringing our extensive range of wines direct to the public.

The success of this business led to us expanding our retail operation onto the internet to enable people throughout the UK to experience our portfolio of wines from the bargain new world offerings to the more prestigious old world favourites.

In between they offer a decent selection of wines from France, Italy, Spain, USA, Australia. New Zealand and Lebanon amongst others.

ND John, 90 Walter Road, Swansea SA1 4QF
Phone: 01792 644 688 Fax: 01792 646 600 Email: mail@ndjohn.co.uk

The Channel 4 sponsored Taste festival comes to Edinburgh (The Meadows) from 29 May - 1 June 2008, offering visitors a great opportunity to taste fine foods and wines available in the region.

Imagine a picnic in a park. Now multiply it by thousands of people. Invite all the best restaurants in the area to contribute the food, and discerning vintners to bring the bottles. Make sure some of the guests are famous chefs happy to help out with cooking hints, and organise live music to eat and drink by. This is a Taste Festival.

Amongst the wine-related exhibits will be the Edinburgh School of Food and Wine, Portobello’s Fine Wine Co, New Zealand’s Jackson Estate Winery, Champagne merchants Lovely Bubbly, highly-rated Scottish Merchant Valvona & Crolla,Bordeaux Wines, Wines of Chile, Faustino Rioja

Being in Scotland there is also a Food & Whisky School!

For more info and tickets see www.channel4.com

Summer Food & Wine Matching at Yapp in Mere, Wlitshire on Saturday 17th May 2008. Yapp who are very good with Loire and Rhone wines in particular are tempting us down to deepest Wiltshire for an early summer event:-

This late morning tasting is ideal for those who would like to find out more about what lies behind our wines in an informal and entertaining manner.
This relaxed tasting is held in our picturesque premises in Mere and is priced at £25 per person.

Yapp Brothers Limited, The Old Brewery, Mere, Wiltshire BA12 6DY

The Institut Francais, a french version of the British Council, holds regular tutored tastings of French wines at their premises in Central London. This is part of an ongoing series, and whilst previous sessions have included a “Tour de France” and “Evaluating Quality” there remain some interesting sessions in the 2007/8 programme.

Wine is vital to French culture, as we hope to show during these exclusive wine tasting sessions. We aim to make them as informative and enjoyable as possible.

Our Regular Sessions are conceived as an introduction to an area, such as Bordeaux, Burgundy or the South, while Special Tastings are more specialised and focus on cépages and types of wine.

Each session starts at 7.00pm, lasts about 2 hours and takes place in the Institut’s beautiful wood panelled library.

Classic’ Red Wines of Burgundy (28 April 2008)
The Loire Valley (12 May 2008)
Vin Rosé (2 June 2008)
Fine White Wines of Burgundy (16 June 2008)

But beware, you do need to book well in advance - and there is a charge (discount for members).

Institut Francais, 17 Queensberry Place, London SW7 2DT - box.office@ambafrance.org.uk

I always applaud those wine merchants (large and small) who are adventurous and try to offer something rather different. Nick Dobson continues to do this well, with a new selection of wines from Austria in addition to his other explorations into Switzerland, Germany (Mosel) and southern Burgundy.

Amongst the new arrivals is some Austrian Sekt (sparking wine) from Stift Klosterneuburg, a 900 year old Augustinian Monastery near Vienna:-

Cuvée comprising 60 percent Welschriesling and 40 percent Grüner Veltliner. Its fragrant fruit aroma is invigorating and refreshing. (£10.95)

More Sekt from Weingut Steininger in the Kamptal:

These are of particular interest as they are not only superlative quality, but made from a wide range of different grape varieties, not often seen in sparkling form - such as a Cabernet Sauvignon Rosé Sekt and a Sauvignon Blanc Sekt.

So if you are really looking for something a little different, and seldom seen on a supermarket shelf, then it could be worth a look:
Nick Dobson Wines Tel: +44 (0) 118 9771545 Mobile: +44 (0) 7799 661694
FAX:- +44 (0) 870 4602358 e-mail:- nick.dobson@nickdobsonwines.co.uk

London’s Real Food Festival takes place at Earls Court from 24-27 April 2008, and will feature a wide range of wines for tasting alongside the other produce.
Some big merchant names such as Bibendum and Vintage Roots (organic wines) will be there, but there will also be a few independent specialists AND some producers such as Domaines Schlumberger from Alsace (France) and Yalumba (Australia).

Another exhibitor will be the Irish-run Chateau Haut Garrigue in Bergerac (SW France), also known as Wild Earth Vineyards. Here Sean and Caroline Feely have developed an organic vineyard in the heart of France:-

In 2005 we left our city jobs to pursue the dream of producing fine wines from small high-quality individual parcels. Chateau Haut Garrigue offers excellent terroir, the right mix of grape varietals (merlot and cabernet sauvignon for our wonderful rich reds and rosé, sémillon and sauvignon blanc for our delicious whites) and old vines. We grasped the opportunity to follow our dream and to return to our roots (we both come from farming families).

Taste their red, white and rosé wines - and you can order them for delivery direct to the UK and Ireland.

For more in the Real Food Festival see www.realfoodfestival.co.uk

Fo more on Wild Earth Vineyards/Chateau Haut Garrigue see www.wildearthvineyards.com

A refreshingly different approach is evident as soon as you enter Cadman Fine Wines website. Its crisp design and great graphics tempt you with some good special offers, yet also provides easy navigation of the site to find what you want.

The tagline “Quality is merely a starting point…” is more than merely words - they do seem to have a real commitment to sourcing their wines:-

Cadman Fine Wines stands for quality, exclusivity and selection

We bring you the world’s finest wines from the world’s finest producers: classic labels from famous names and regions that sit at the pinnacle of their craft; rare gems that have never been seen in the UK, plus exciting, cutting-edge wines from newly emerging stars of the fine wine world.

Our wines are intelligently and skillfully sourced by an international team of experts based in Italy, France, Spain and the UK. Through desk research, field trips and tastings, our experts seek and source hand-crafted wines from producers and winemakers who reaclly care about the contents of the bottle. To achieve a Cadman Fine Wines listing, a wine must score at least 88 points on our quality rating system or from the world’s most authoritative wine critics.

The wine list is extensive covering a wide range from New and Old World, some classic fine Bordeaux and Burgundies together with an eclectic mix of lesser-known wines such as Spanish Jumilla DO, French Cour-Cheverny AC and Otago wines from South Island, New Zealand.

Yet for each and every wine there are thoughtful tasting notes and good background information - very impressive. What’s more each delivery comes with “full tasting notes and background information for each wine, including grape varieties, when to drink the wine and reviews from our own experts and the world’s leading critics where applicable. This leaves you free to argue/ discuss the merits of wines with your friends and family. Their inclusion also makes each order an ideal gift.”

Cadman Fine Wines
Freepost NAT21632, Northampton NN3 6BR
Tel: 0845 121 4011
sales@cadmanfinewines.co.uk

The Wine Cave, part of the Angel Inn at Hetton, North Yorkshire celebrates 25 years this year, and is featuring wines from 1983 for a tasting. Although probably better known for their selection of fine Burgundies, this special offering features some fine Bordeaux and one northern Rhone!

It is our 25 year anniversary of owning the Angel Inn this year and to celebrate we are holding a number of exciting events, the first of which is a 25 year old wine tasting lunch.

I have spent the last 12 months sourcing a number of 1983 wines and on Saturday 12th April we will be tasting 5 of them with lunch. Two wines with the starter course and two wines with the main course followed by a 1983 Sauternes with pudding!

The wines will be:
1983 Lafleur St Emillon Grand Cru
1983 Chateau Rouget Pomerol
1983 Clos Du Marquis St Julien
1983 Cote Rotie Jaboulet Aine
1983 Bastor Lamontagne Sauternes

The cost of the event is £45 per person and starts at noon on Saturday 12 April 2008.
Call 01756 730263 NOW to reserve your place.

The Wine Cave at the Angel Inn, Hetton, Skipton, North Yorkshire, BD23 6LT
Tel: 01756 730415 | Fax: 01756 730363 | email: info@winecave.co.uk

Region Wine is a new Chester-based online merchant with a retail shop in the heart of historic Chester. The website is attractive and offers a wide range from around the world, including Greece, Oregon USA and Hungary in addition to the usual New and Old World sources. In addition to offering selections by region, grape variety and price there is also the opportunity to choose from a selection by “experience” - i.e. Aromatic white, exotic white, fruity white, quaffable red, red with herby notes, red with spicy notes, red, big and dark, refreshing rose, refreshing white, smooth red etc

Our company started out as a quality online wine merchant in 2006 by Ian Wildboar, fulfilling a twenty year ambition to turn his love of food and drink into a business. His aim is to help maintain diversity in wine choice throughout the UK at excellent prices and value for money.

On numerous visits to various exhibitions at London’s Olympia in West Kensington I would indulge in 2 diversions - firstly the Bristol car showroom (368 Kensington High St) where James Bond- style sports cars were on display looking fine, polished, elegant and very desireabl.

Almost next door was the second treat at Roberson Wine Merchants (348 Kensington High Street W14) which provided a welcome break from the usually frantic atmosphere of the exhibition hall. This was always a delight with an impressive range of wines - yes some very classy and expensive Burgundies and Bordeaux, but always some interesting discoveries from both the New World and Old World - and usualy some keenly priced binends. I never left without a couple of bottles to manhandle on the train home together with the piles of literature you tend to amass at exhibitions.

Fifteen years ago we began the business of building up what we believe to be the finest place to buy wine in London. From the start, we knew the ingredients; a range of Bordeaux and Burgundies unparalled in all of the city, wines imported from undiscovered producers of fantastic quality and people with the knowledge and enthusiasm to champion the cause of good wine.

Today we continue to believe in the same things. As High Streets are slowly being transformed into one faceless chain we believe there is an ever-growing need for the individual and specialist store. Roberson remain passionate advocates of wines from all over the world that offer value, character and substance. As an independent we are under no obligation to buy any particular producer’s wines. We don’t offer big brands of no discernable merit other than a large marketing budget; we simply choose wines that we like, wines that speak of place and individuality.

The shop, although in modern building, nevertheless has a cool and peaceful atmosphere with stone floors and a basement where they hold regular tastings usually about once a fortnight - for example on 1 May 2008 they have a seated tutored tasting of pre-1990 red Burgundies.

Good informative website with online ordering and offers.

Roberson Wine Merchant
348 Kensington High Street
London W14 8NS Tel 020 7371 212 Fax 020 7371 4010
Email: retail@roberson.co.uk
www.roberson.co.uk

(nearest Tube: Kensington Olympia)

The French Wine Festival at Waitrose (online and in its stores) runs from 26 March to 27 April 2008 and will feature a total of 48 wines.

Waitrose will be featuring 13 specially sourced small parcel wines from a wide range of less well-known appellations like Quincy, Bergerac, Provence and Lirac and the wonderfully unusual Pierre Boniface Domaine des Rocailles Apremont de Savoie 2007 and La Bastide Blanche Bandol 2005 Provence.

Some highlights:

Champagne Taittinger Rose NV, save £7, £38.99 - £31.99 (A delightfully fresh and youthful pink champagne with mouth-wateringly delicate flavours of crushed wild raspberries and red cherries, perfect forearly summer as an aperitif or with strawberries. )

Vouvray AC Champteloup Vieux Vauvert 2006/07 Vouvray, 20% off, £5.99 - £4.79 (A fine, medium Chenin from the tuffeau terroir properties around the towns of Vouvray and Rochecorbon, famous for the production of these deliciously soft-textured, waxy wines.)

Bergerac AC Domaine des Eyssards Bergerac Rouge 2005 25% off, £5.99 - £4.49 (Another brilliant wine from Pascal Cuisset of Domaine des Eyssards in Bergerac. A traditional Merlot / Cabernet Franc blend yet with a soft,almost modern generosity in the mid-palate.)

Mercurey AC Blanc 2006, Philippe Hardi, 20% off, £13.99- £10.99 (A Burgundy Chardonnay using a combination of modern cool-ferment vinification followed by malolactic in barrel where the wine stays for a year, with regular lees stirring, to achieve theunmistakeable classic Burgundy signature with some modern fruit expression.)

Quincy AC (Loire) Domaine de la Pierre qui Danse 2006 Quincy, 20% off, £8.99 - £7.19. (Simple delicate, grassy style from this Domaine with its pretty name, the land of the dancing stones.)

Apremont de Savoie AC Pierre Boniface Domaine des Rocailles 2007, 20% off, £7.49 - £5.99 (a refreshing citrus acidity and a light grapefruit flavour.)

Lirac AC Domaine du Joncier 2005 Rhône, save 1/3, £8.99 - £5.99 (The Domaine is run by the charming Marine Roussell, who featured last year in Oz and James’ Great Wine Adventure. The wine is dense and beefy, with a good deal of brooding rich fruit and great concentration.)

Bandol AC La Bastide Blanche 2005 Provence, 25% off, £11.99 - £8.99 (Hugely impressive example of this most remarkable of appellations using the traditional Mourvedre grape as the backbone to the wine. …it encompasses the spice and complexities of Grenache, Cinsault and Carignan as well as the black, damson fruit of Mourvedre andSyrah.)

Minervois AC Château Maris Organic Syrah 2006, 25% off, £7.99 - £5.99 (An extremely lively Syrah from the irrepressible Bertie Eden at his Biodynamic estate in the Minervois. This is full of bright and peppery raspberry fruit, with a twist of liquorice and is a highly drinkable style.)

Waitrose Wine Direct

Online French specialists Leon Stolarski Fine Wines offer new classics from Languedoc, Roussillon, Southern Rhone and Beaujolais (and South West France, Loire, Alsace…..) and have a special offer available:

For one week only, we are offering 15% off a large selection of wines from our main list. This is no ordinary sale and these are not bin-ends, but represent genuine reductions on 60-odd of the very best wines from our core list. But hurry - this offer ends on 31 March 2008!

You can download their sale price list HERE - but hurry as the sale only lasts until 31 arch 2008!

A red Cotes de Ventoux AOC (France) from Paul Boutinot called “Chat-en-Oeuf” (roughly translated as “cat in egg”, but also a word play on Chateauneuf”) is now available and with every bottle purchased you help the RSPCA in its mission to protect animals.

This mouth-filling red is packed with rich, juicy and ripe berry fruit flavours, a touch of soft tannin and a subtle twist of spice. It is made from selected parcels of old vine Grenache and Syrah (aka Shiraz) - two grape varieties grown extensively in the Rhône region of France.

Chat-en-Oeuf is available in Waitrose, Morrisons, Budgens, selected Spar stores, EH Booths and NISA stores. Alternatively, you can place an order online at www.buythecase.co.uk and take advantage of an exclusive RSPCA customer offer!

Essex specialists in the wines of the South of France Joseph Barnes has an attractive website and great range of wines from southern France - a definition which stretches from Collioure AC on the Mediterranean/Spanish border round to Bandol in the east beyond Marseille; and includes a good selection from the south west including Madiran, Cahors, Bergerac, Fronton and Gaillac.

… we seek out some of the finest wines from southern France - all from small, independent estates that the ‘big boys’ pass by.
We have visited the vineyards, know the vignerons and, in many cases, have seen the wines being made.
This hands-on approach means that you can buy your wines from us with confidence.
It has also made us ‘Independent Specialist Merchant of the Year’ at the World Wine Awards.

In addition to a great selection of wines, they also offer some interesting recipe ideas and on Friday 4th April 2008 there is a wine and cheese matching tasting at the the Kings Arms Public House (10 Market Hill, Saffron Walden) with some distinctive French cheeses not readily available locally.

Joseph Barnes Wines
13 Market Row, Saffron Walden, Essex CB10 1HB
Telephone +44 (0)1799 528019
www.josephbarneswines.com

As reported in the Guardian (14 Mar 08) the French have agreed to expand the officially designated area where Champagne grapes can be grown to meet rising demand. Suddenly the austere strictures than real Champagne can only be made in the area delineated in 1927 are overturned - despite the fact that the French have so often jumped to defend their heritage and monopolistic trademark on grounds that the special “terroir” which makes Champagne distinctive (and expensive) is only to be found in the designated area.

As ever such decisions have little to do with quality or the interests of the consumer, but are the result of politics and finance.

It’s the most sacred real estate in French viticulture, just a few thousand acres that have been blessed with a coveted seal of approval. If it comes from here, it’s champagne. If not, it isn’t.

But last night, France moved to redraw the boundaries of the fragmented area designated as champagne land in the biggest shake-up of the industry for 80 years, in an effort to cope with surging world demand, particularly from China and Russia, but also Britain and the US.

The changes promised booming business for the areas around 40 villages - not to mention soaring property prices. For the lucky villages that suddenly find themselves chosen for champagne-growing, in some cases the value of land could suddenly be 200 times what it was.

Personally I like Champagne, but not all Champagne is good, and it is often too expensive compared to alternatives such as Spanish Cava, Loire Valley Cremant and even superb English sparking wines like Nyetimber.