Wine blog
My tasting notes of fine wines I have enjoyed.
Reisling Brut 2019 (Von Buhl, traditionelle Flaschengärung) and Riccardo Muti conducting the Vienna Philharmonic in the großer musikvereinssaal, Vienna, Austria.
Enjoying the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Day 2025 concert with Sekt and Stollen. I’ve followed this event for many years through the relays by ORF, the Austrian broadcaster, but haven’t yet secured tickets to the New Year event through the public ballot.
I wanted to try to replicate the event as much as possible in Sussex. It seems the traditional tipple in the interval is sekt. Terry baked us a stollen to his own recipe, he is guided by stollen we’ve enjoyed home-baked by friends in Westerwald and from Lubig Bäckerei in Bonn.
Sekt is unusual out of Germanic lands so this bottle was an import from Deidesheim in Rheinland as I couldn’t find one from an Austria producer. The grape is Reisling, traditional for sekt from that region.
An evening with a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau 2024 from Les Vins Georges Dubœuf. The wine has a dark ruby red colour, obviously a fresh new taste, but not fruity; it is noticeably dry and not at all tannic. Certainly a pleasant soft, raspberry flavour. The very young wine has a fresh distinctive flavour, the label on the bottle uses the word energetic.
It’s rare that I’ve been able to enjoy Beaujolais Nouveau on the day it is released, so this was a wine experience for me to remember. After the tapenades and Basque charcuterie, I enjoyed the new Beaujolais with poached Julienne in a lemon sauce, Pascal chose Langoustines with Crevettes, from the menu of a favourite restaurant in Marseille.
Château Cissac was a favourite of my family but it became difficult to obtain, the last of the 1980s bottles has long since gone. However a box of the 2003 vintage became available en primeur and now it’s ready to enjoy.
The wine pours as a dark red colour, an intense cherry red. Initially a low nose even when served well at room temperature. First impression in the mouth was very dry and tannic. As the wine adjusted in the glass the nose became much more prominent and wonderfully evocative of family dinners long ago.
The bottle lasted well as it aired, there was a bit of sediment for sure but the taste in the mouth lasted long after the swig was finished. A real pleasure to enjoy with Terry’s dish of roast rolled pork loin joint covered in Dijon mustard and honey with copious herbs fresh from his garden, accompanied with butterbeans and balsamic reduction.
Margaux has always been one of the more distinctive Bordeaux villages and finding this branded bottle in a Marseille supermarket has been a discovery. Dry, classic dark cherry taste with a persuasive and persistent nose; the dry wine was a fine complement to Magret de canard with a semi-sweet fig sauce, chef Terry’s final presentation for us here at home in Marseille. Maybe a wine that is peaking too early to be in the top class but cost-effective and worthy of the Margaux appellation. A product of Maison Bouey of Ambarès F3340.
The other bottle on our table, the 51, has filtered table water from the Alps.
Three wines from a small area of the Côtes du Rhône Villages wine region (CDRV). All three are widely-available in French supermarkets. We can picture these vineyards as we stayed exactly here in Séguret in June this year. All are overlooked by the Dentelles de Montmirail. Famously, the soil and exposure changes significantly within this small area. The Plan de Dieu is a huge area of the alluvial plain planted with vines throughout, the area around Séguret is slightly higher and slopes more. Sablet is the smallest area of these three, Les Vignerons du Gravillas is a well-regarded and progressive small cave just outside Sablet village making wines to sell under various local appellations.
Read more: Séguret - Sablet - Plan de Dieu: a trio of Côtes du Rhône Villages wines
