#Chardonnay

Nov 22

So Much More than a Pretty Bottle: Perrier-Jouët Belle Epoque 2013

The seminal Belle Epoque bottle decorated with the Japanese anemone motif designed for Perrier-Jouët by Émile Gallé, one of the pioneers of Art Nouveau, in 1902 The text of this article was first published in The World of Fine Wine issue 72 (2021). Could being famous for having Champagne’s most eye-catchingly pretty and memorable bottle sometimes be a double-edged sword? Do some wine professionals, critics and collectors take it less seriously as a result – less seriously tha

Nov 10

WINE OF THE WEEK: Gérard Bertrand Orange Gold 2020, Vin de France

£15, Ocado; Vinatis UK, All About Wine It's only four weeks and three intervening red wines since this slot was last occupied by an orange wine, but I can't resist this, not least because it's a very different expression. from the fragrant, hazy pink Greek Moschofilero. It's an amber-gold organic wine produced by Gérard Bertrand, a former rugby international who has built up an empire of 16 biodynamically farmed estates in the South of France since taking over the family doma

Jun 24

Celebrating English Wines

My picks for the second weekend of English Wine Week celebrations. Not that they're only for English Wine Week. English wines are for every week of the year. Sparkling rosés come first, because I tasted quite a few, followed by white fizz, then still wines– red, rosé and orange. All the fizz is made by the classic method. Hambledon Classic Cuvée Rosé Fabulous pink fizz from England's oldest commercial vineyard. Strawberries and toasted brioche with a dash of cream and orange

Feb 17

WINE OF THE WEEK: Nautilus Chardonnay 2019, Marlborough, New Zealand

£17.99 (in any 6-bottle mix), Majestic stores New Zealand Chardonnay is still overshadowed by the country's Sauvignon Blanc, as is every other grape variety and wine style, but the current shortage of Sauvignon after last year's devastating frosts is a perfect opportunity to give the Chardonnays some love. And they deserve it, believe me. The barrel-fermented Nautilus from Marlborough is typically expressive and stylish, capturing the freshness of a salty sea breeze and the s

Feb 2

The Essence of Cristal Through the Prism of the 2014 Vintage

"If I don't make mistakes, I never learn." Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon's words are hardly original but still they took me by surprise. I don't think of the cellar master of Champagne Louis Roederer as one who makes mistakes, least of all with Cristal, which is what he was talking about, as he hosted (virtually) the launch of the 2014 vintage. To be clear, he didn't catalogue actual mistakes or cite any particular vintage of Cristal. The comment came in the context of the percenta

Sep 23, 2021

WINE OF THE WEEK: Tanners Chilean Chardonnay 2020, Colchagua Valley

£8.95, Tanners Gratifying as it is to recommend exciting little-known wines, it can be equally satisfying to find really good, well-priced examples of popular styles. Get ready to charge your glasses with Tanners' new own-label Chilean Chardonnay, which navigates perfectly the narrow divide between being a bit too tutti frutti and a bit too skeletal. It's made by the family-owned Viña Sutil from their own vineyards in Peralillo, Colchagua (they also have holdings in Limarí an

Aug 19, 2021

WINE OF THE WEEK: Lyme Bay Chardonnay 2017, England

£17.99, Majestic I don't know where I would have thought this was from if I was tasting it blind, but you can be pretty certain I wouldn't have identified it as a vineyard in Essex vinified in Devon. And even if I'd hit upon England, I doubt I would have identified it as a product of the frost-devastated 2017 vintage. It goes to show how local and uneven frost can be: Martin's Lane Vineyard escaped most of the damage and the rest of the season was favourable enough for the ha

Jun 23, 2021

Picks for English Wine Week 2021

Chardonnay vines in The King's Vineyard, Rochester, Kent, recently planted on the site of the vineyard of the medieval priory. Simpsons Wine Estate, near Canterbury, will be making the wine on behalf of Rochester Cathedral (photo taken on 24 June 2021) I'm limiting this selection to new wines, wines that aren't necessarily new but which I hadn't previously tasted and a pair that I hadn't tasted for a while and was delighted to discover still in fine form. It was the only way

Jun 14, 2021

The Beauty of Burgundy Vintages ending in '9': Famille Carabello-Baum 2019s

Cleverly branded corks – Château de Pommard is worked organically and biodynamically, as are many of the wines under the Famille Carabello-Baum label I wrote about the Carabello-Baum family and their purchase of Château de Pommard, here, together with tasting notes on seven of the 2018 whites and 2017 reds, so I'm confining myself in this post to four wines: three newly released 2019s that I recently tasted and talked about (on zoom) with winemaker Emmanuel Sala and owner Mic

May 11, 2021

Cristal 2013: the Vintage that Outdoes the Cristal of Cristals

If Louis Roederer Cristal 2008 was "the Cristal of Cristals", in the memorable words of chef de cave Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon at the launch of the first two Vinothèque vintages in 2018, what does that make the 2013 he is now introducing? "2008-plus". A little later he describes it as "the Cristal of Cristalsss" and "50 per cent chalk, 50 per cent sunshine", whereas 2012, he says, was a little more on the sunshine side and 2008 was more on the soil [chalk] side. The 2013 is cer

Mar 4, 2021

WINE OF THE WEEK: Villa Maria Single Vineyard Taylors Pass Chardonnay 2018, Marlborough, New Zealand

£15.99–£18.99, New Zealand House of Wine, winedirect, The Vinorium I've never fallen out of love with Chardonnay. There were always good Chablis and other white burgundies to keep me going when California and Australian Chardonnays became too ripe/fat/buttery/oaky and when Australia then went the other way with some overly lean, ascetic wines. But now I'm spoilt for choice and loving where Australia has got to with its cool-climate Chardonnays. And New Zealand, too. The singl

Dec 30, 2020

WINE OF THE WEEK: Balfour Winemaker Collection Saignée Brut, Kent, England

£29.99 (mix six), Majestic; £35, hushheath.com I'm posting early again this week to give you extra time to get this celebration-ready pink fizz in for new year's eve. It's a new wine from the Balfour winery at Hush Heath Estate in Kent and the first to be made there by the saignée method, which means the colour comes from the skins of the red grapes Pinot Noir and Meunier, rather than by the easier method of blending in some red wine to a white wine base. It's a pretty pale p

Dec 3, 2020

WINE OF THE WEEK: Daniel-Etienne Chablis Vieilles Vignes 2015, France

£22.50, Tanners Wines This is the Chablis you need for Christmas. It's the one I need anyway. It's not a lean, razor-sharp, steely style but one that celebrates Chablis' potential for richness and savoury complexity, given old vines in top locations and long ageing on the lees without oak. When you factor in a warm year like 2015, there's the potential for even more ripeness and density, although that doesn't mean higher alcohol in the case of Daniel Defaix's Vieilles Vignes.

Nov 18, 2020

Festive Fizz 2020: Anything But Champagne

It may be a festive season unlike any other, but we'll still need wine of all sorts –perhaps more than ever. The first of my 2020 round-ups is, as always, any kind of sparkling wine except Champagne, which gets its own show. This year there's a red, as well as white and rosé, and some pretty unusual wines: a Frappato, an Albariño and a stunning biodynamic wild-ferment English sparkling wine. I don't know what I was expecting when I tasted the English biodynamic natural wine,

Sep 2, 2020

More than Skin-Deep: Never Mind the Look, Feel the Eco Credentials

New generation, sustainable, reusable, ice-bucket resistant, bottle-hugging paper case instead of the usual gift box for Ruinart Champagne Forget whether you like the look of it for a moment. Instead, consider the planet. Ruinart's 'second-skin eco case' is nine times lighter than the current gift box, its carbon footprint is 60% less than its predecessor's, it's 100% recyclable and uses no plastic. It also gives complete protection against the damaging effects of light on Ch

Aug 18, 2020

The Phoenix Rises: Château de Pommard chez Carabello-Baum

Cork talk: is it an instruction? The strikingly branded corks used for all Château de Pommard and Carabello-Baum Burgundies However small, and the vineyards are tiny compared to the great châteaux and estates of Bordeaux, no parcel or domaine in Burgundy ever changes hands unnoticed. So, the sale of Château de Pommard and its 20-ha walled vineyard (clos) in 2014 was big news. Only four families had owned the domaine in nearly 300 years and Marey-Monge is the largest clos and

Aug 6, 2020

WINE OF THE WEEK: Vergelegen Chardonnay Reserve 2017, Stellenbosch, South Africa

£15.49–£18, Roberts & Speight, drinkfinder.co.uk, TheDrinkShop.com, winedirect.co.uk, Noble Green Wines The South African wine industry needs and deserves our support, but I don't need an excuse to recommend Vergelegen estate's Chardonnay. It's got everything going for it, with appeal for both Chardonnay camps: followers of contemporary, lean and elegant styles and fans of fuller, riper wines who want to taste a bit of oak. Fermented in French barrels (35% new) and aged on it

Jun 16, 2020

Heavenly Champagne from a Hellish Year: Charles Heidsieck Brut Millésimé 2012

The 2012 vintage in Champagne was expected to be a disaster – as bad as 1984, and that's saying something. There was winter frost, spring frost, torrential downpours, a poor flowering, hail and cool, cloudy summer days. Inevitably, growers battled against mildew and the threat of botrytis. Then in mid-August the skies cleared, the sun came out, temperatures rose and it stayed like that with scarcely a break until the harvest in mid-September – late by today's standards. By th

Dec 11, 2019

The Festive White Wine Guide 2019

My round-up of white wines from around the globe to cover Christmas and all the other festivities from simple supper to a big splash that demands something like a smart white Burgundy. It's always more difficult to find cheap white wines with something to say for themselves than it is to find inexpensive reds with some character, but the ones below should do the trick and I've also thrown in a keenly priced pale rosé from New Zealand. Wines are listed in ascending order of pr

Nov 27, 2019

Festive Fizz 2019: anything but Champagne

The first of the season's round-ups of recommendations is sparkling wines, from far and near but not Champagne – that gets its own show soon. Give or take special offers, they're in ascending order of price, except that this year I've given English sparkling wines their own zone (scroll down). Their quality warrants it. I'd like to have included more, but wanted to keep numbers manageable. One wine I intended recommending is out of stock, but it's worth noting for when it's b