Day 3 was a pleasant mixture with many lesser-known regions, as well as the classic wines of the world. Aside from a dip into Champagne on Day 2, France hadn’t made an appearance so it was nice to start seeing some Bordeaux and Rhone wines filtering in as well.
Sparkling – It’s customary to start the day with sparkling wines, partly as they tend to be the lightest of the wines and also to help calibrate acidity. However, Indian and Portugese sparkling wine isn’t exactly the first thing that springs to mind when you consider sparkling wine as a category, which is exactly what we tried. Unfortunately there was nothing much to comment on here, just well made, accessible sparkling wines for early consumption.
Pinot Noir – 6 wines from Marlborough, New Zealand all made from 100% Pinot Noir. I adore New Zealand Pinot Noir and I tend to drink more wines from Central Otago and Martinborough than Marlborough, so this was a valuable tasting opportunity. On the whole these were quite lovely and some scored highly indeed! There was a big difference in the wines where there was obvious whole-bunch fermentation, which were on the whole much fresher and appealing, often with a subtle spiciness. Oak and alcohol were in balance in nearly all of the wines, and the fruit-forward, fresh nature of New Zealand wines shone through.
Mixed Italian whites – It’s always interesting to taste wines where you really have no point of reference. Turbiana di Lugana, anyone? Albana? These were grapes I’d never encountered before, so we judged them on their merits as a white wine using the BLIC methology instead. On the whole, these were mostly well made white wines, lacking any real interest or drive, an accusation often levied at Italian white wines as a category. My biggest surprise was a delicious Albana from Emilia Romagna; weighty and powerful without losing any freshness. A grape to explore further? There are unconfirmed suspicions that it may be related to the Garganega grape variety of Soave, so I suspect it’s worth digging a little deeper!
Rioja Reserva – Next up was 8 wines from Rioja, all classified as Reserva (3 years total ageing, at least 1 in barrel). These were mostly well made wines with only 1 faulty wine, with the majority being quite modern and supple in style. Occasionally wines were over-oaked and ambitious, but there were a few impressively well balanced wines here too. The best were all of the 2014 vintage, which just confirms my suspicion that 2014 was a really great vintage both here and in Ribera del Duero!
Chardonnay – Before lunch we finished with a flight of excellent Australian Chardonnay. Australia is often regarded as a country with the most technical approach to making wine, able to change direction in a moments notice with the clever use of head-grafting, canopy management and vinification tricks. Barely 10 years ago, Australian Chardonnay was readily dismissed (often rightly so) as being big, buttery and lacking elegance. The ability to turn around within a decade and now produce volumes of beautifully balanced, crisp yet intense and persistent Chardonnay is quite remarkable. The wines hailed from the very warm Hunter Valley and Tumbarumba, a much cooler region in New South Wales. There were so many stylistic differences between the 5 wines, from lean and reductive to rich and creamy, yet all charming in their own way. The biggest surprise was a flinty, electric wine from Hunter Valley, a region more commonly known for bold fruits and heavy oak usage.
Bordeaux – After over 150 wines, French table wine finally makes an appearance! AOC Bordeaux isn’t the sort of flight to sets heart racing, typically Merlot dominated wines sourced from the incredibly variable and vast Entre-Deux-Mers, but it’s always nice to taste something utterly classic. As it happened, despite hailing from the much vaunted 2016 vintage, these wines were quite average with some oddly under-ripe, over-extracted examples on show. There was very little oak used, so the best displayed juicy black fruits, subtle herbs and freshness on the palate.
White Rhone – After 2 ½ days without any French wines, we get two flights in a row! These were 5 white wines from the Rhone Valley; a mixture of Cotes-du-Rhone and quite unexpectedly, some Condrieu! Even the blends were Viogner dominant so it made for an interesting comparison, with Condrieu the premium appellation (Chateau Grillet aside) for Viognier in the world. On the whole, these were lovely, balanced, fresh wines with gorgeous stone fruit characters, white flowers and creamy textures. An issue with Viognier as a grape is the imbalance of sugars vs phenolic ripeness during the growing season, meaning that phenolically ripe grapes often run the risk of being overly alcoholic and lacking freshness. This certainly wasn’t the case here, and interestingly the best wine of them all was a Condrieu under screw-cap! I believe that’s a first for me, from this historic and very traditional appellation.
Chilean Red Blends – A big flight of 9 Chilean wines was the penultimate of the day, with a huge mixture of styles and blends from all the way down this skinny country. I was quietly delighted to discover that the best wines were Carignan dominated, mainly hailing from Maule where the oldest, unirrigated vines produced Carignan of real density and interest (See my thoughts on a Chilean vs Argentinian Carignan taste off). Pais put in a strong showing, whilst all the wines maintained that lovely bright, herbal character that seems to be stamped on all the best wines from Chile.
Vintage Port – As always, we finished with a flight of something sweet, in this case 7 vintage Ports from the excellent 2015 vintage. As always, the sheer intensity of these young wines designed to age for decades was hard to judge, but needless to say that more than a few medals were awarded. Port is a wine that, everytime I taste a good example, I always wonder why I don’t drink more of it. Under-rated, under-priced and offers so much pleasure. Apparently nearly every producer declare a vintage Port in 2015 and with results like these, it’s easy to see why!