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Colombard is a tool to make budget wines a bit more interesting. Seeing the word on a label is a sure sign that the wine is cheap, but not always nasty. It makes wines that are floral and grapey, which can be useful if you’re making vast volumes of lifeless Chardonnay and want to add a little character. Interestingly, and I’m not sure why this is, three of the seven wines we tasted were Fairtrade. So, the wines are cheap, fairly characterful and kind. What could be better?
Our favourite was Fairhills Sauvignon Blanc/Colombard 2007, which is from South Africa and is £4.99 from Tesco. It smelt freshly of Sauvignon and we all gave it good marks. The taste was also very obviously Sauvignon and Nikki found it finished with a tinned pear taste. An ideal girls’ lunch wine.
Our second favourite was Banrock Station Colombard/Chardonnay 2006, which is also £4.99 from Tesco. They’re not Fairtrade but they do a lot of good work and are environmentally very responsible. The smell was quite creamy and like pineapple juice. In fact, the taste was similar, but with barely any residual sugar. Definitely lightweight, but not bad for that.
Oh boy, did we have trouble with the Stellar Organics Colombard/Sauvignon Blanc 2007, which is £4.99 in Sainsbury. This South African company is Fairtrade, Organic and all sorts of other things and, if you’re interested in wines without added sulphur, they have some of those as well. The whole panel, except Nikki, loved the wine. It was easily my favourite, but Nikki reacted impressively to it and said it was vile and she couldn’t even have another mouthful. She was practically retching and gave it 2 out of 15. That brought it down to second last, and in the interests of full disclosure, I felt I should tell you that I manipulated the scores. In effect, we took Nikki out of the equation, because her reaction was so strange. I thought the wine had an appealing gooseberry smell and quite a full, richer body and a flavour of gooseberries. Nikki thought it was like licking an armpit.
The Co-op have become THE place for Fairtrade wines and their Cape Chenin Blanc/Colombard 2007, at £3.99 isn’t quite as good as some of the others. I’ll be doing a Fairtrade tasting in the next 12 weeks and will report back, but their two Argentine wines – the Torrontes/Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio are real crackers and only £3.99 and £4.99 respectively. If fact, the Pinot Grigio is better than almost any PG I’ve ever tried. The Cape Chenin/Colombard smelt of peardrops and also tasted strongly of peardrops and water, if that’s not oxymoronic. Deakin Estate Colombard/Chardonnay from Oddbins smelt like brie, which isn’t great, and the taste was watery. By the end it smelt of stale dripping.
Mirrool Creek Colombard/Chardonnay, which is only £3.95 from Tesco didn’t smell of much and was sour, watery and short. Kumala Colombard/Chardonnay, also £3.95 from Tesco, smelt and tasted of bubblegum and was fizzy.