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From time to time I get little clusters of sample bottles, which don’t really warrant inviting a whole group of friends round to taste, but which are of interest, and so I don’t want to hog them for myself. I had a group of three dry English whites and a group of four from the same producer in France.
English winemaking is definitely getting better. I’ve had some cracking examples of dry white wines which have been pretty good, but so far I’ve never had anything that remotely posed a threat to France. Apart from sparkling wine, which is something we appear to be getting rather good at.
Our favourite of the English whites was Chapel Down, Flint Dry, which is £6.99 at Waitrose and although reasonable is just not even approaching the intensity and length of flavour you’d expect for £6.99 in any white wine growing region. It had a nice, clean, fresh smell, a touch of fizz and nice fresh acidity, but that was as far as it went. Sainsbury’s own English Dry Wine is £5.49 and smells lightly of pear juice. The taste is dry, certainly, but is so wince-makingly acidic that you’d definitely need to eat with it. Three Choirs, Parsons Leap has a very strong smell, which you might call an aroma, but it was catty in a reeking way. It had a strong, stale catty taste, but also managed to be watery. I know they do produce some good wines, and am sorry to have a go at a local vineyard, but the assurance on the label that it’s “widely appealing” is way off the mark.
We then skipped over the channel and tasted a rosé and three reds from Chateau Saint Jacques d’Albas in Minervois, which is run by an Englishman, who very kindly dropped the samples off to me recently. They have a couple of gites as well, and a website on www.chateaustjacques.com if you want further information. The rosé smells of cherry lips and is delicious in the mouth. Dry, but also fruity. The alcohol is in balance and you couldn’t want for a nice rosé.
The reds are priced in order of quality and we had no difficulty in putting them in the right order, when tasted blind. Domaine Jacques d’Albas 2003, which is £6.76, smells of blackcurrant pastilles and tastes absolutely typical for Minervois. It’s fairly simple, although pleasantly peppery. Chateau Saint Jacques d’Albas 2003 is £8.71 and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. It had a nice farmyardy smell and a dry, typically herbal smell. It was interesting and very drinkable.
The top of the range wine, La Chapelle, also 2003 is very obviously the superior wine, since it had rich dense colour, complex and intense aromas and a rich taste. It’s a stunning wine and approaches being worth £13.71. The sweet, ripe, minty smell and chocolate hints in the mouth make it a great tasting experience, but Alex said she found it a bit full-on and wasn’t sure she’d want to eat with it. We kept returning to it and finding new flavours, but it’s a wine to drink alone, when compared to the Chateau Saint Jacques, which is much more food friendly. They’ve cleverly produced wines to suit every palate. Available through www.goedhuis.com