A Beautiful Pinot Noir From Mount Beautiful

Hi, my name is Les and I’m the most recent addition to the Vineking team, I’m usually based Church Street where you can find me most Fridays and Saturdays, just in case you want to say hi.

Another new addition to all our shops is the Friday night ‘Vineking Social’ (we even created our own twitter hash tag #thevinekingsocial). This runs between 6 – 8 pm and gives us the chance to let customers old and new taste some wines which we’ve been sent by suppliers as well as sample some of the wines we currently have in stock – all for free.

We launched the Social back in the summer with a cider tasting at which we very glad to see that the cider we currently stock from Brittany was among the best we tasted.

Since then we have seen a regular group of customers pass by on their way home, into town, or perhaps just in the need of some “Vinotherapy” at the end of the week.

Between us we have tasted some really lovely wines as well as the occasional shocker – no names mentioned.

Falling firmly into the former category was the 2009 MountBeautiful Pinot Noir from the Cheviot Hills, North Canterbury in New Zealand. This was greatly enjoyed by customers and staff alike and as a result we have ordered the wine which will be on our shelves in October. This means that Mt Beautiful have the distinction of being the first wine we decided to stock with the help of our customers.

As our founder Erik recently said about the wine:

“We tasted this sample at The Vineking Social two weeks ago.  We loved it.....everyone who tasted it loved it......and so we bought all the 2009 we could - 40 Cases!

Erik’s tasting note:  Classic lifted red berry Pinot fruit on the nose, elegant, pretty, polished and very well balanced on the palate, this is a charming Pinot Noir and because the Cheviot Hills is a new wine region, it's great value for money!”

If you’re keen to find out what all the fuss is about then pop into one of our shops and buy a bottle. We may even have some on taste at this Friday’s social on the 12^th of October. And if you can’t make it then please feel free to call us on 01737 221 311 or email us on TBC (at) theVineking.com

We hope to see you at a Vineking Social soon.  And if you follow us on twitter then this is the hashtag to look out for #thevinekingsocial

Breakfast at Denbies Wine Estate – Rocking in Dorking!

I genuinely can’t believe what a revelation this morning’s visit to Dorking ‘s best loved vineyard was.  We met with Mike and Karl who have taken over the reigns of wine production and marketing at Denbies under their own company, called Litmus wines.

Before Litmus, Denbies Estate was more closely associated with coach parties and supermarket wine, but since 2010 changes have been made.  Obviously they still deal with the big boys and the blue rinse brigade of pensioners buying the odd bottle of Surrey Gold but there is some serious focus on both quality and the terroir of Dorking comes through!  (Did I really just write that!)

Highlights were:

2007 Whitedowns Sparkling

Made from a blend of Seyval Blanc and Reichensteiner, this wine had a good clean nose with clear, attractive and aromatic fruit.  On the palate the wine was deliciously clean and ripe with a gentle mousse and a touch of lees flavour on the finish.  Elegant and eminently drinkable.

2006 Greenlands Cuvee

50%Chardonnay, 30% Pinot Noir, 20% Pinot Meunier means that the Greenlands Cuvee is like  classic Champagne using the three key varieties.  With three years on the lees, this has given the wine a real sense of complexity, lovely ripe fruit notes, a fine, elegant linear style with a good finish.  Quite serious in fact!

2010 Flint Valley 11%

Made from Seyval Balnc, Reichensteiner and Chardonnay, this was fresh, aromatic with citric almost sauvignon styled notes but with a lovely touch of smoke and cassis leaf too.  Clean, refreshing and really quite dry, this is pretty good.

2010 Bacchus 11.5%

Bacchus is a unique grape variety that is only grown in Germany (where it was made in 1933 by crossing a Sylvaner and Riesling cross with a Muller-Thurgau).  This had an unusual but very aromatic nose of elderflower and cut grass with notes of asparagus and gooseberry, in fact reminiscent of a Sauvignon.  Very nice depth of fruit and the wine is beginning to flesh out after 6 months in bottle.

But then.....:

We tasted some samples from tank of 2011 Pinot Noir and Chardonnay for making their top Sparkling in a few years time.  We are so going to have some of that!

And finally, we were taken in a special side room..........and I thought I was in France....!

2011 Pinot Noir

Only four barrels from this amazing Pinot Noir.  They don’t have any idea what the clones are as there was no record made when these vines were planted in 1985.  Lovely deep colour, a simply stunning pure Pinot Noir on the nose, deep, darker fruit – the Vosne Romanee of Surrey!!!
Admittedly I’m over-egging this a bit – but this was simply stunning!

2011 Merlot

Using bought in fruit from a vineyard in Gloucestershire that grows their grapes under glass, allows Merlot to actually ripen in this country.  It was really good with a deep rich red fruit and notes of capsicum on the nose, surprisingly big and rich on the palate, was there a hint of Pomerol on the finish and coming in naturally at 12.8%, those glasshouses are sure doing the right thing!

2011 Cabernet Sauvignon

Good colour again but not a varietally characterful as the other two, this has perfect components of ripe tannin, fruit and good supple acidity.  This means it will be great when blended to the Merlot.  I reckon this will retail around £25-30 and whilst that is expensive, in relation to English wine production and quality vs price, it will be one of the best red wines to have come out of the UK!

Raymond Blanc – as French, as French can be....and that’s a good thing!

Raymond Blanc is simply wonderful in his new programme, The Very Hungry Frenchman.  Charging around France in a “Deux Cheveaux”, Raymond is so keen, passionate, possessing a wonderful, easy, Gallic charm and of course a fabulous enthusiasm about the regional foods.....which of course is what France is all about....the “Terroir”.

Every time I catch the little French fella, it feels as though I’m almost transported to the region itself, it really is like taking an hour long holiday. Just follow the link below for some soothing, old fashioned, French Balm.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01c9ws3/Raymond_Blanc_The_Very_Hungry_Frenchman_Lyon/

(Another food/travelogue was the excellent Sicily Unpacked – if you missed this, please follow the link below, its well worth it. - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b019f8vm/episodes/guide)

Dinner with Kevin Judd from Greywacke

Last night saw us hold our first event of the year, a dinner with Kevin Judd at the Dining Room in Reigate, for those who don’t know who Kevin is, he’s the winemaker from Greywacke, formerly the founding wine maker from probably New Zealand’s most iconic wine, Cloudy Bay. Kevin produced the first 25 vintages at Cloudy Bay, and introduced the world to the fantastic Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough, after leaving Cloudy Bay, Kevin decided he wanted to continue wine making, but now under his own label, Greywacke. He buy’s his fruit from various vineyards around Marlborough, including from his good friends at Dog Point (another one of our favourites) who are the other original founders of Cloudy Bay, they also very kindly let him use their facilities to produce his wines. He did remark that it’s now more affectionately known as the Cloudy Bay retirement home, as many of the original staff from Cloudy Bay now work at Dog Point or with Kevin at Greywacke.

Listening to Kevin talk about his wines and the wine making process, the most amazing thing was how little intervention he did with them, to put it in his own words, I press the grapes, put the juice into the tanks or barrels depending on which wine he’s making, and leave it to get on and do it’s own thing! This all helps to keep the pure fruit flavours that you find in his wines; another thing was the use of wild yeasts to produce his Wild Sauvignon and his Pinot Noir, which just help to add another dimension to his wines.

Along with the wines we’ve sold in the past, he also bought some of his Chardonnay and Pinot Gris for us to taste, and like his other wines we know so well they didn’t disappoint, unfortunately at present they are only produced in small quantities, but we are hoping to get some of his next vintage of the Chardonnay, but again we only be able to receive a small quantity, so if your interested in them, then make sure you get your orders in early!

The wine we had on tasting were;

2011 Sauvignon Blanc – this just had beautiful green fruit flavours and aromas, with a touch of minerality to go with it, great acidity, producing a beautifully restrained and elegant glass of wine.

2010 Wild Ferment Sauvignon – with a much richer mouth feel, and more complexity than his ordinary Sauvignon, with a hint of Vanilla and softness to the acidity which just made this wine absolutely stunning.

2009 Chardonnay – again this wine had a real richness to it, with slightly savoury/lanolin aromas, with a touch of citrus on the palate and a creamy texture, combined with a minerality and a long lingering finish that made this wine just amazing. (Can’t wait till we get this in)

2010 Pinot Noir – with both some dark and red fruit flavours and aromas in the glass, intermingled with a smoky vanilla oak, soft fine tannin and a great acidity to it, and a length of flavour that just kept on giving, this wine did not disappoint.

2010 Pinot Gris – this wine was slightly off dry, but with stone and dried fruit flavours, the perfect amount of acidity, and as with all the others a length of flavour that just kept on giving, it worked very well the raspberry and vanilla in the desert, but was a little challenged by the chocolate.

We would just like to thank both Kevin and his wife, Kimberly, from everyone at the Vine King for joining us in this fantastic evening, and taking the time out from there busy schedule to go through their wines with us and our guests. We’d also like to thank the Dining Room for the stunning menu they produced and the excellent service they gave us all.

Burgundy 2010 – a Magical Vintage

(Thankfully, more Houdini than David  Blaine!)

The doomsayers had started by writing this vintage off and to be fair, come the end of August it was looking pretty dismal.  However, Burgundy is all about the magic of wine and the importance of harvest.  In 2010 the magic was strong and they have pulled out one hell of a rabbit, from the proverbial top hat!

                      

2010 Burgundy  is relatively small and will go down as a vintage that was extremely challenging but where the growers and winemakers have excelled, the results are nothing short of thrilling.  In fact, I am so excited about this vintage, I feel this actually surpasses the offering from 2009, with 2010 offering sophisticated “Haute Couture” against the more “High-Street” appeal of 2009. 

The Whites

With a decent level of ripeness, just under 2009, but with better acidities, the whites are uniformly pretty darn delicious and, I feel better than 2009.

The Reds

More care has to be taken at looking at these but where the winemakers have excelled, I again feel the 2010’s are even more thrilling than the more opulent 2009 vintage.

Despite the euro weakening, basic economics of the harvest being 40% smaller, means that prices have gone up marginally.  Needless to say, we’ve tried our best to hold them as sensible as possible!

The loonies are taking over!

Every Biodynamic  wine I tasted appeared to have the edge.  I know many are sceptical about why, if you plant a cow corn with cow manure in a corner of the field and then spray it on the vines later as a fertiliser you make better wine.  There’s a hell of a lot more to it than that and for a full explanation into the theory please check out our friends at Wikipedia, then look up Rudolf  Steiner but please maintain a sense of balance!

Now I’ll be honest, when I hear the words holistic, energy, and phrases like “natural order” etc I find it hard to suppress the urge react like Bluto  in Animal House but those who practised this method just seemed to excel in 2010.  Further evidence of this being taken seriously, is that every large supermarket arranges their press wine tastings according to a biodynamic calendar – but maybe their wines need all the help they can get!

So put your scepticism aside, I don’t know how it works but then again, I barely understand how a car works, just give Biodynamics a go....although please your sandals behind!