Wine Review by a local connoisseur

Here we will provide reviews on various wines that you may like to try. It will be update regularly, so please come back to see the latest tempting delights. If you would like to provide your own wine review please do not hesitate to e-mail it in.

January Review :

De Bortoli Show Liqueur Muscat £9.99 approx 

Liqueur Muscat is an Australian classic style of sweet wine and de Bortoli are undoubtedly masters of the genre.  Super-ripe grapes, bursting with sweetness, are pressed and the juice is fermented for 2-3 days. A little spirit is then added to stop the fermentation, leaving a strong but intensely sweet wine.  Meanwhile the skins of the \Muscat grapes are also soaked in spirit to extract intense aromatic elements, which can then be blended into the wine.

The wine is then aged extensively in oak casks and as it matures it gains in complexity, depth and richness. Show Liqueur Muscat is a deep mahogany-brown colour and has rich, powerful aromas of raisins and caramel. When you taste, it bursts into life filling the mouth with intense coffee, sultana, Demerara sugar and walnut flavours that linger for an amazingly long time.

Try with rich chocolate fudge cake or Christmas pudding. Unwins are the only multiple retailer to list this wine.

Noval Traditional LBV approx £10.99

Port comes from the steep, terraced banks of the Duoro River in the northern Portugal.  It is made by stopping the fermentation of the juice of very ripe grapes by adding spirit leaving a sweet but very strong wine.  Special techniques are used to extract the maximum amount of colour and tannin during this brief fermentation. The wine is then aged in oak casks.

This wine is all from one year’s harvest and is aged for four and a half years in old wooden vats in the air-conditioned cellars of the Quinta before bottling.  It is a deep rich red with a ripe fruity nose. There is a smooth and velvety mouthful of plumy fruit, with a solid tannic structure and a long harmonious finish.

This wine is ready to drink now, but will repay further keeping.  Because it is bottled without filtering, to preserve body and flavour, the wine may throw slight sediment with age, so it may need decanting.

Chanoine Grande Reserve Champagne approx £17.99

Chanoine Freres is the second oldest Champagne house, founded in 1730; it is also one of the least well known of the “Grandes Marques”.  Quite why this should be is a bit of a mystery to anyone who has tried the wines… they are delicious!

Chanoine Grande Reserve is a blend of the 3 classic Champagne grapes, but with the emphasis on Pinot Noir (70%), the balance is Pinot Meunier (20%) and Chardonnay (10%).  A Pinot dominated Champagne has a richness, softness and length of flavour that is really appealing and easy to drink, and this is no exception.

The fine bubbles rise from a golden background, and the nose is broad and complex with aromas of citrus, apricot, fresh baked bread and a hint of ginger. The palate is full-bodied and satisfying yet fresh and delicate.

A really impressive, extremely good value Champagne!