I’m really testing my tastebuds at the moment. Between gin reviews, Manchester Cider Club, Manchester Whisky Club, and Oktoberfaust at the weekend, they’re getting a real workout.
And now, I’m testing them further with wine. Bon Coeur Fine Wines recently sent out a call for amateur wine tasters to join their panel and ‘Taste Like a Pro’.
Of course, I leapt at the opportunity and was thrilled to be accepted onto the panel. Then came the interesting bit – what would they send me. They asked a few questions on what styles of wines I liked (I must admit, it’s a pretty varied range), and they picked two from their huge selection to send me.
The first, was the Domaine de la Baume Elisabeth Viognier 2018. The Domaine de la Baume winery is based in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France, in a small village called Servian.
When it comes to wine, the environment has a big impact on the resulting flavour, and this is really evidenced in Vignonier. Some are rich and tropical, some are sweet and fruity, some more clean and flinty. The vineyard has a varied landscape, with limestone on the slopes, and clay, limestone and sand on the flats.
The Vignonier grapes are grown in silt, clay and limestone, and then when harvested, are fermented at a low temperature in a steel vat before being matured on lees for 3 weeks.
The result is a softly straw coloured wine, that has honey, and stone fruit (think peaches and nectarines) on the nose.
On the palate, it has a little natural fizz. Then it moves into ripe white peaches, peach stones and apricots. Rather full bodied. A sweet finish, reminds me a little of tinned peaches, a little peppery note keeps it from being too sweet. Lingers nicely and it worked especially well at the supper club we went to at the weekend – worked rather well with some of the pork dishes we enjoyed at the weekend. It has enough richness to cope with the flavour of the pork, but enough acidity to cut through the fattiness.
Onto the second choice, and we went to the New World for something red.
In the glass, the wine is a similar colour to black cherry red, but quite bright. On the nose, you can smell the tannins (those drying black tea notes), black cherry, oak, plums and a hint of leather.
On the palate, it’s somewhat thinner than expected, soft tannins, black pepper, dark red fruit. It feels a little tight, the tannins are dominating the fruit, so I left it for a couple of hours to see if that helped.
After an hour or so with the bottle open, it’s much more balanced. Almost a different wine. The thinness morphs into a more elegant structure, the tannins are there, but more layered. The black fruit is more dominant, more plums and cherries. Whereas some reds are beautiful immediately from the bottle, this one needs a little resting before it comes alive.
I’ve loved this first session, and can’t wait to see what comes next.
