2008 Carl Ehrhard Riesling Spatlese

2008 Carl Ehrhard Riesling Spatlese

Medium lemon-gold. Small bubbles in glass. Pronounced youthful aromas of green apple, quince and passionfruit. Kind of musky nose! Dry with high acidity. Medium bodied. Intensely flavoured. More green apple, lemon and grapefruit. Long finish. *Verdict -> Fruity, intense wine. Still young, needs to settle, but excellent.

Tasting Tags: apple grapefruit musk passionfruit quince

2008 Carl Ehrhard Pinot Noir (Blanc de Noirs!)

2008 Carl Ehrhard Pinot Noir (Blanc de Noirs!)

Medium lemon colour, with gold flashes. Tiny bubbles visible in glass! Pronounced, youthful, ripe, lively nose of honey, apricot, apple, spicy ginger and butter. Dry with med+ acidity. Pleasant, invigorating spritz. Med+ body. Pronounced grapefruit, honey, green apple, lemon peel, red cherry (!), spice. Long finish. *Verdict -> Probably needs a year to settle down, still very intense, aggressive almost - in a good way! Gorgeous, but full-on.

Tasting Tags: apple apricot butter cherry ginger grapefruit honey peel spice

2008 Tim Adams Pinot Gris

2008 Tim Adams Pinot Gris

Medium-lemon colour. Youthful, exuberant (gorgeous) nose of fresh pear and melon. Tastes dry, but back label says fermentation was stopped before complete, leaving residual sugar. Bracing acidity and med+ body, with intense flavours of pear, honey, passionfruit, and apple sherbet. Spritzy (it’s young), with an average length lemony finish.

Verdict -> Simple-but-gorgeous super-fruity white. New World in style, with intense primary fruit in abundance. Not hugely complex – it’s all fruit! Enough acidity to balance it all though. Shortish finish, but it’s up there with the most enjoyable wines I’ve had for €11.

89/100 -> Questionable typicity notwithstanding, a very good wine, and superb at the price. Impossible to dislike.

I drank it with Chicken, Sweet Potato and Grape Yellow Curry. It was exceptionally yellow, as I had no lemongrass and so replaced it with saffron. Not perfect substitutes, as any chef will tell you, but you couldn’t argue with the yellowness.

2006 Ponnelle Hautes-Cotes de Beaune

2006 Ponnelle Hautes-Cotes de Beaune

Pale ruby. Developing nose of raspberry, cherry, roses, cloves and mint. Very appealing! Dry with pronounced acidity and very low tannins. Med(-) body with med+ intensity of red, stalky fruit, wood, and rhubarb. Med+ alcohol (it’s actually 13%) and a long, pleasant finish.
Verdict -> Well-made, inexpensive red burgundy. Excellent complexity at this price, in terms of primary fruit aromas and flavours, and secondary, more savoury, ones. Demonstrates good typicity for Pinot Noir too. Could perhaps do with a touch riper fruit on the palate. Pretty good all round.

See full review here -> http://bit.ly/3pkpOD -> including some thoughts on the ludicrous claims the wine makes on the back label!

Tasting Tags: cherry clove fruit mint raspberry red rhubarb rose wood

2006 Cote de l'Ange

2006 Cote de l'Ange

I tasted this wine blind. Lady in wine store picked it out for me, under instructions to select an Old World red from a "classic" region, priced between €12 and €18.

It was wrapped and my wife poured it for me. It threw a sediment all along the side of the decanter (bang goes Beaujolais, Pinot Noir).

Colour was exceptionally dark ruby. No real fading toward the rim. Med+ intensity of black fruit, leather, dark chocolate on the nose. Dry with med+ levels of acidity, tannins, body and alcohol; intense flavours of black fruit (again), liquorice, aniseed, prune, tobacco and (draws breath) black tea! Long finish.

Very good wine! I tentatively guessed Rhone, as my Twitter account will testify to (yes, I know that doesn't prove anything), so pretty pleased.

I may bomb at the next blind tasting, who knows.

Tasting Tags: black fruit leather liquorice port

2007 Sacchetto L'Effe

2007 Sacchetto L'Effe

L'Effe comes in an annoying flute-shaped bottle. I'm happy to tolerate this in Alsatian wines because it's their trademark and the wines are (usually) so damn good. But why is a basic Venetian Pinot Grigio making life difficult for itself with an irregularly-shaped bottle (answer below)? This wine was stocked in a wine shop I used to work in, and it was absolutely no fun trying to merchandise it.

Tasting Note ->

Medium lemon in the glass. Light, young aromas of white flowers and pear. Dry and light bodied (med- body) on the palate, with good freshness (med/med+ acidity) and mild flavours of bruised apple and nothing else in particular. Average-length finish. Med- alcohol (it's actually 12%).

Verdict -> This is real entry level stuff here in Ireland. The wine doesn't aspire to much but is relatively popular nonetheless due to its attractive price point (under ten euros here) and *conspicuous shape. There are no eye-popping flaws with it but, at the same time, it's so unambitious as to fully deserve its kicking.

There is no depth of fruit and no complexity. It's simple, in a bad way.

Roll on the weekend when I can justify spending some Benjamins on proper wine.

Tasting Tags: apple flowers grapefruit lemon pear white

2008 Xanadu Estate Chardonnay

2008 Xanadu Estate Chardonnay

I bought six bottles of this at the end of a tasting last month, so I can hardly claim that it's only average. Still, I don't love it as much now I'm (kind of) sober.

If it's any consolation to Xanadu, my first wine on 'Corkd!' (a Pecorino from Abruzzo) scored a pathetic 76/100.

Watch out, Corkd, in other words - I'm bringing the fire and brimstone up in this mother.

(cough) Anyway, here's my tasting note.

-> Bright mid-lemon in the glass. Youthful, med/pronounced melon and subtle new oak on the nose. The palate is dry with good freshness (med+ acidity), med+ body and good intensity of tangy lemon, tart apple and butter. Moderately-long finish. *Verdict -> It's quite zesty, almost like a lightly-oaked Chablis. I made the mistake of drinking it straight from the fridge (4deg celcius), without food, and the acidity was really emphasized. As you Americans would say, "My bad"!

Tasting Tags: apple butter lemon melon oak

2008 Velenosi Pecorino

2008 Velenosi Pecorino

Pale lemon with a water-white rim. Light aromas of fresh pear, green apple, white peach. Dry, with med+ acidity and med(-) intensity of grapefruit, green apple, asparagus. Med+ body and a med bitter finish. Conclusion -> Simple, one-dimensional, early-drinking white. Slightly dilute, with no real intensity of aroma or flavours. The bitter, vegetal streak will appeal to few.

Tasting Tags: apple asparagus grapefruit green peach pear white