Wine blog
My tasting notes of fine wines I have enjoyed.
Casher - AOG Zenata - MD Excellence - Domaine des Ouled Thaleb, Benslimane, Morocco
Ouled Thaleb is one of the oldest Moroccan domaines, the vineyards are on the Atlantic coast about 50 km north-east of Casablanca. Ouled Thaleb features a catalogue of wines built around a solid reputation over more than a century. The Casher wine is an assemblage of 40% Cabernet Franc, 30% Syrah, 30% Arinarnoa. It poured as a dark and graceful deep red in the glass. An elegant taste, balanced tannins (lightly oaked) and pleasantly long after the swig.
An exotic send-off from Marseille-Provence airport’s relaunched lounge, Salon Cézanne. The lounge now has more space and a sparse menu of hot food, but has the unfortunate design air of the staff canteen at Alcatraz, due to the control tower and razor wire immediately outside. The Moroccan wine’s good though: enjoy your flight!
A delicate blend of the Corsican version of Sciaccarellu rosado and Niellucciu rosé varietals. We found this bottle poured as a very light peachy colour, with a delicate taste, slightly spicy, more melon rather than vanilla or lemon. An excellent accompaniment to our Mediterranean lunchtime salad facing the azure water of the Ligurian Sea at Menton.
Gris, Pays d’Oc 2024. Les Pluviers.
Gris is a variation of French Rosé wine that’s popular in the South: it’s much lighter and usually fresher, not sweet and needs to be drunk young. It’s not a sin to add an ice cube to chill your glass of gris. The principal varietal grown in the Languedoc is Grenache Gris but there are also Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Gris etc.
This bottle, labelled Pays d’Oc 2024, that I brought back from a supplier in Marseille, has the typical pale colour, a fresh nose of the smaller red fruits with a slightly acid after-taste that’s refreshing on a hot summer day. We enjoyed my personal import with Terry’s copious Salade de Chèvre chaude in his garden in Preston Park, Brighton, now luxuriant with growth and flowers that are reminders of the Mediterranean and the sub-tropics.
Nicolas Feuillatte: Grande Réserve, Brut
Celebration champagne for my birthday treat in Terry’s garden in Preston Park, Brighton. Nicolas Feuillatte have several reserves, this one “Grande Réserve Brut”, we bought in France and is labelled only in French. It’s a particularly fizzy assemblage of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir as well as the classic champagne varietal Meunier. We found it poured with a pale colour; it tasted refined, mild with flavours of vanilla, maybe melon and just a hint of the sharpness of star-fruit. A pleasant and long after-taste.
Comparing three bottles of fizz for our Easter entertainment; all are made by the additional fermentation method, equivalent to the méthode champenoise.
