Overlooking Piccadilly, South Australia

 Welcome to my wine and food blog – a page that goes beyond the tasting note and a bottle shot.  This is where food, wine and people meet.  Wine is at its best when encountered when all the elements of good living come together.  Vin Ordinaire can taste brilliant when the mood and food are good. On this page I shall endeavour to add a little extra colour to my favourite bottles.

Salubritas

Mark

Current Favourites

Domaine Muret Syrah 2011, Vin de Pays d’Oc £7.95
The discovery that has proved a special gem.  Resonating with black pepper, damson and dark berries this humble little Syrah from the Pays d’Oc has caused us all a bit of a stir.  Youthful, actin packed Syrah.  Probably the best introduction to the grape I have encountered.

Patrick Piuze ‘Terroir Découverte’ 2011 (Chablis, France) £16.95
Quebec born Patrick has developed a gift of bringing the disillusioned back to the unique collection of vineyards around the little town of Chablis where mediocrity has so often been the predominant tune. Taut and precise with a rich, mineral infused core and hints of ripe pears. Patrick has become one of our ‘in-house’ heroes.

Château Fourcas-Dupré 2004 (Listrac, Haut-Médoc)    £19.95
Whenever I sniff and meditate over this wine I am transported to the high vineyards of Listrac that overlook the Gironde estuary – and I am walking through the gravel and clay vineyards with Patrice Pagès.  The cool April air is somehow contained within the aromas of this savoury Médoc alongside the ripe cassis flavours and cedar box nuances.  This is such the ideal Sunday lunch claret – I love it.

Camille Saves Cuvee Carte Blanche (Bouzy, Champagne)   £25
Combines a rich brioche core with an apple orchard acidity – this is mouthwatering Champagne from the pretty village of Bouzy, just to the east of Épernay.  Makes me smile and think of the very polite and well dressed Hervé Saves one of the kindest and most hospitable wine growers that I know.

Gran Cardiel Verdejo Viura 2011 (Rueda, Spain)        £7.95
This is really one of my favourite sub £10 wonders – an intelligent blend that combines the fragrant zestiness of the Verdejo with the richer textured Viura – giving an already lively wine both weight and texture.  Location-wise we are about 180 km north of Madrid on the high arid plains of Rueda near the  city of Valladolid.  Bright packaging, red screwcap, great wine!

Domaine Ludovic Chanson Montlouis Les Pecheurs 2010 (Loire Valley, France) £17.95
Ludovic is a former research scientist who has turned his hand just in the last 4 years to these ancient Chenin vines south of the Loire River. With a hint of grape sugar on the palate this has become my favourite wine for warm poached salmon, served with new potatoes and salad. You must please try it – especially since Les Pecheurs translates as The Fishermen.

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After completing his viticultural and winemaking studies at Beaune, Julien Mus returned to his family domaine on the outskirts of the Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Until then the grapes from the domaine had been sold off to the local co-op. The domaine consists of four hectares of AOC Côtes du Rhône and six hectares of Vin de Pays designated vineyards around Courthezon, to which Julien has added a small plot of AOC Chateauneuf-du-Pape, located between those of Font de Michelle and Vieux Telegraph, near the south-eastern border of the appellation.

Julien is still honing his winemaking style, but his wines all have very pure, expressive fruit and have already attracted attention and high scores from the “Wine Advocate.” His Côtes du Rhône, a 50/50 blend of Syrah and Grenache, epitomises his style and shows more finesse than previously. In 2007 Julien’s Châteauneuf was given an exceptional score by Robert Parker in only his first vintage, and in 2008 he managed to come first among a tasting of peers reviewed by French wine magazine Terroir et Vin.

Call your local Caviste store to place your order, or come in store to taste wines we have open every day - including our WoW - between now and Christmas. Taste before you buy AND save money at Caviste this Christmas!

I have a fairly cynical attitude toward the en primeur circus, and although I have attended religiously since the 2006 vintage was being shown in 2007, there are very few times during the week when I get excited. When I do it is generally for a wine that I will probably never taste again, let alone own. I can only liken it to being in the driving seat of a Ferrari 250 GTO knowing I probably will never drive one, let alone own one, in my life. So Lafite, Petrus and Le Pin aside I spend my time tasting, writing, debating and critiquing wines that have give me no satisfaction and bear no resemblance to the finish article anyway. What’s the point?

Well an answer to this lies in the outer rings of the circus, the fringe events and pure fun in observation and participating. This year I decided to completely eschew the main ring and only visit the side shows. My aim was to taste as many of the 14,000 other Château in Bordeaux who do not participate in the EP’s as possible and to spend as much time with growers as I could. This is what is uncommonly known as ‘doing the village hall tastings’ and can lead to some pretty strange encounters. The fact remains, however, that you have (to paraphrase) to kiss frogs to get princesses and that is our job, someone has to do it. Also, it gives you the air of the intrepid explorer when meeting over dinner, and whilst everyone else is regaling each over with the same old stories, your own seem vibrant and daredevil in comparison.

Young Bordeaux is a tough nut to taste. It is tannic, brooding, often reduced and seldom appetising. Only at Lafite and Tetre Rotebeouf do I ever feel like drinking the young sample, whilst at Château like Cos d’Estournel and Mouton one has to almost prize the wine out of the mouth. So young lower orders Bordeaux generally lacks the charm of the big guns but with all the structure. Even these wines are built to last, and some will for many years to be sure. My task was t find some wines for Caviste that didn’t blow the bank, had integrity in the vineyard and were made by people we could work with. No mean feat as I discovered.

I calibrated my palate at Lafite and the St Estephe/Pauillac/St Julien tasting at Union Grand Cru tasting hosted by Château Lagrange and then hopped into my rather cheeky little Fiat 500 convertible (I know, but apparently it was all they had) and set off for the Cru Bourgeois tasting at Château d’Arsac. Here I devised a way of being able to taste all the wines quickly and efficiently whilst ensuring I could judge each wine on merit. I would then go and taste the wines I liked from the 2009 vintage that were being shown in the next door room and then make a call. So head down and off i went. Normally a UGC tastings you taste 2 wines, meet someone you know, chat, say how busy you are, not much time etc, and then chat some more, taste two more wines and bump into someone else and so on. 60 wines takes 3 hours. Not here, I did not see a soul I knew, and not a single English speaker. The room was in fact populated only by people who make the wine. Promising

So, Médoc to Haut Médoc, and 120 wines tasted, 7 potentials. Now I am looking only at tannin, fruit purity and balance, and once you are in a rhythm these things become simple to spot.  Moulis to Listrac, Margaux, now and the wines are really picking up and quality is noticeably improving, into Pauillac, St Estephe and the wines are singing, there is no doubt this vintage is one for Pauillac and St Estephe. So in all 25 wines hit the spot and need retesting. In 2009 the wines are sweeter, better balanced and with more complexity so it should be able to cut out the dross. 15 remain on my hit list, only to be whittled down to 10 when I discover the prices and availability of the five Château.

A quick stop for lunch, much needed after 250 or so wines, and then on to Margaux Village Hall for the Cru Artisan tasting. 25 producers showing 2011 and an one other older vintage. I love this tasting. There is no one here, even the producers seem to have given up and gone home, so I can get my head down again. This time the strike rate is low, only three producers work for me but the wines are exemplary, and balance is amazing, even in the Margaux I tasted. There something very honest about these wines, they are not cheap but they have a layer of something that although intangible, is so prevalent. I could drink these wines all day, but I will re-taste in my office lest my romantic streak is getting the better of me.

Back in the 500, and the roof is down. For the first time I am aware of how many gendarme there are about. I am not drinking and am careful to drink much water but nevertheless, any time spent engaging with this lot is both time sent not tasting and time spent raising the blood pressure to retirement levels. I arrived at a small tasting of Bio wines in Macauillou after a quick dip (read major detour) in Calon Segur (where once again my favourite wine of the year is being made, and it isn’t the Grand Vin). The Bio tasting was populated by beards, dungarees and strange smells, not unusual, and a healthy antidote to the formality of the Grand Château, but makes tasting the wines seriously quite hard. Here I tasted all sorts of things, but was notably impressed by a producer who has very unlikely labels making wines in the Bordeaux region near Cadillac. This is the end of the day so my palate is tiring but there are some gems here and I need to make sure I don’t miss anything, and unlike the last tasting, the winemakers are engaged in their wine so interesting stories and verbal pictures add to the wine’s character. I am charmed, but now need a beer so meet up with my old mate in the Brassiere de Médoc in Blanqefort, a spiritual home with a terrible wine list and modest food, and we share our day.

Lafite is great, Margaux the best ever, Angludet was so good/bad/average (erase depending on which journo you like) and so on. I am aware that this sounds like every year (“Oh the wines are so fresh/structured/mute/lively” depending on which sample was tasted and where). These are the vaguely repetitive expletives of the UGC campaigner, where as my vocabulary has changed completely, I have to use a different lexicon to describe my wine tasting experience and I am grateful for this. Long live the village hall tastings!

I have not listed any of the Château I am keen on here, as I am still in the process of sorting and refining, but suffice to say I am extremely confident that at least a handful of the frogs kissed will turn into Princes/ses.

Ben Llewelyn, March 2011

When I was invited to join an elite group of the great and the good from the UK wine trade to taste the wines of Château Margaux, I naturally cleared the diary. It was only when I arrived at Trinity House in The City that I fully appreciated what we were being asked to taste. I can only liken it to being asked to come and drive some Ferraris and then turning up and then being told that we would be driving their new electric car, a new shooting break version of the Enzo, a city car and then the same car but with various components left off.

Margaux have teamed up with Yvon Mau to host a number of tastings around the world to showcase the experimentation they have been undertaking at the Château. This is commendable work and Paul Pontalier was quick to point out that in Bordeaux a huge amount of work goes into research, it is just that the other issues surrounding the region seem to overshadow the academic and scientific study. This is, on reflection, probably true, so this was an exciting event and one I relished more than just tasting the finished wines of the estate.

The tasting was in four flights, outlined as follows:

Flight one: 3 wines served blind. Each wine was either Biodynamic, Organic or Conventionally produced from one plot of vineyard and the same variety, Cabernet Sauvignon and vintage, 2010. This plot was used for their third wine.

Result: Each wine showed differing characteristics, but most marked were the differences in tannins and top note aromatics. The organic wine seemed a little dumb but well balanced, the conventional wine polished but veneered too and the Biodynamic wine the prettiest and easiest to drink and garnered the greatest praise.

Flight two: 3 wines served blind based on stem influence during fermentation. The wine was a conventionally produced Cabernet Sauvignon from a plot that might make it into the Grand Vin

The results here were also marked. The wine with 1% added whole stem had supple tannins, a nutty character and a soft finish, the wine with no stems was spicy, but had green notes and a slightly bitter finish, the third wine had some crushed stems added and the wine proved to be perfectly balanced and the best ‘formed of the three’. It is interesting to note that in Bordeaux the rule is no stems at all.

Flight Three: 3 wines with different closures, third wine but from the 2003 vintage

The wines were very different here. The consensus was that the wine under cork was the screw cap wine, which came as a complete surprise as it was so youthful and generous. There were two screw cap wines, one with no oxygen and one with a little permeability. The latter was really not good at all, but the former was actually the wines people thought was under cork as it was evolved and very complex, in fact delicious, it fooled me!

Flight Four: 3 white wines under different closures, All 2004 Sauvignon Blanc

There was again a very marked difference, but the wine with cork was beautiful and complex and all a white Bordeaux should be, where the screw capped wines were in fact a little oxidised, albeit still with freshness and the mark of quality.

Flight Four: Cabernet Sauvignon from three different terroirs, all 2011

Firstly, these wines all taste beautifully and pre the oak are wines that could almost be drunk now. I am not trying to build up the 2011 vintage, Caviste will not be running an en primeur campaign this year, but these are pretty wines never the less. What this showed was that wine produced from Gravel and Pebble soil was pure pretty and elegant, whilst this produced onmore chalk and clay soil are structured and provide the base notes of the wine. Blended together they made a delicious glass.

This was a fascinating insight into the mindset of a prestigious estate who are genuinely ready to take some bold steps if they feel the results are worth it. No doubt that the Bio wines were impressive, and screwcap for red a no brainer, but how long will it really take to make these changes? Well as Paul Pontalier said, probably not under his stewardship.