Lay & Wheeler’s tasting of growers’ Burgundy 2011 last week showed a set of forward, fresh and elegant white wines and a vibrant, sappy bunch of reds. Overall they reflected complex terroir of this fascinating part of the world very nicely. On the basis of the thirty-odd growers represented at the tasting generally it seems a vintage worth considering for early and medium term drinking.
English Pinot Noir? Pull the other one. Mind you that’s what the French said about our sparklers before they tasted Nyetimber, Ridgeview and the like. If English wine isn’t news anymore, decent red from this profound, yet humbling variety that has frustrated growers and emptied back accounts the world over, surely would make the headlines? Spurred on by some idle Twitter chat about the success of the variety in England, Borough Market’s enterprising Wine Pantry team took up the challenge and organised a tasting of England’s up-and-coming Pinots sourced from all points on the compass – Devon, Gloucestershire, Kent and Sussex.
There are fascinating wines coming from the Balkans at the moment. No surprise given the history of wine cultivation there. Who can forget the beauty of the two thousand year old Ilyrian wine amphora discovered recently off the coast of Albania on a Roman wreck? Take a peek here if you haven’t [ http://bit.ly/nh8d4o ]. A touch patronising today then to be ‘discovering’ wines from the region but a recent tasting organised by Wines of Croatia, including a selection of forty odd wines chosen by the UK’s merry Wine Gang of journalists, showed how modern techniques, indigenous varieties and diverse terroirs are producing some brilliant wines. Certainly you wouldn’t want to miss out on the wild flavours of the red Plavac Mali grape or Pošip, a local white. Malvasia Istria also turns it hand at some tremendously refreshing, and occasionally weighty whites. You may not have herd of Crljenac but you’ll better know it as Zinfandel. Babić and Teran, a Refosco relative, can also produce very good reds.
Discussing vibrant attractive Pinot Noir leads me neatly into Oregon’s Willamette Valley. A delightful bunch were on offer last week at the fair. Three estates new to me stood out – Brooks Wine, Anne Amie and Soter Vineyards. All produced lovely Pinots across the board. More on Anne Aie and Soter later as the story behind Brooks deserves a post to itself. I doubt you’ll find a more powerful or inspirational tale in the world of wine.
