Irancy

This week we are still in North West Burgundy, still quite near Chablis in fact, but this time we are 20 km away to the South West, and the other side of the 'Autoroute du Soleil' (or A6 as it is far less romantically known).

Irancy is home to a grape variety which claims to be the oldest cultivated variety in France. It goes by many names, including 'Romain' reflecting the notion that it was first brought here by the Romans, but on this bottle is called the equally Roman sounding 'Cesar'.


Week I (2015) Simonnet & Febvre Irancy, 2013. M&S £14

Although Irancy is home to Cesar, it being grown almost nowhere else other than this general area, there are only five hectares of vineyards where it can be found within the appellation so it is not surprising to me that I have not heard of it before.

I have read that single varietal wines are made from Cesar, but in Irancy it is permitted to add up to 10% of it to the majority Burgundian star, being Pinot Noir, which through DNA profiling has been revealed as one of Cesar's parents. The other is Argant (which I hadn't heard of either, I really must keep reading) and that comes from Spain. So perhaps the Romans brought that. Who knows?

In this particular blend only 5% is used and the producer says that it contributes colour and structure, the latter coming from its strong tannins. If the intention was to give the wine a tannic boost, then my inexperienced advice would be to use more of the permitted 10% as the dominant component in this bottle was the acid content. I had put that down to the cool climate of the region where acids develop in the berries long before sugars and tannins and that 2013 had been a bit of a difficult year, leading to late picking and low yields. These together can be a great combination as long as the fruit has ripened sufficiently, but this wine is a little thin, suggesting that it had not had the chance to do so before being picked in October.

The fermentation occurred in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks and then the wine was matured for 16- 18 months in the same, apart from 15% which enjoyed some time in oak.

There are red fruits and some floral aromas, but compared to Week E (2015)'s Earth's End Pinot Noir this one is not as good. They both came from M&S, but if you are going to spend £14 on a bottle of Pinot Noir I would recommend shelling out the additional £2 for the New Zealander. The All Blacks made it through to the RFU World Cup final last night and for a country with a population of less than 4.5 Million souls (not counting sheep) I am beginning to suspect there may be something about the place that produces quality (you can't blame them for Lord of the Rings; that nonsense was written in England).

Hipster

OK, I admit it. This purchase was definitely influenced by the packaging. That and a bit of jet lag.

I had intended to find a Hunter Valley Semillon whilst I was close by. Close by, that is, in terms of being in the right continent even if by the time I had the opportunity to go and look I was 4,000km away on the wrong coast. I failed. The day job kept getting in the way and so at what might have been 5am, or possibly mid-afternoon, on the way home I looked with little expectation of success at the bottles on offer in the duty free shop in the UAE.

Week H (2015) William Fevre, Hipster Edition Chablis, 2013. Dubai Airport AED 60 (£10.67)

I quite liked the idea of the 'Hipster Edition' wine, partly because I knew that in two days there would be an assembling of the family to belatedly celebrate my son's birthday and I thought (correctly) it might amuse, and partly because it appealed to my curiosity to understand whether the image of wine can be developed for new markets without diminishing the quality of the product.

I thought the design consisted simply of a white bottle with some green text in various fonts to make it look more interesting that the usual rectangular paper label, but I was wrong.

The bottle has been designed to sit on the shelves in trendy bars, clubs and who knows what other kind of places I'll never visit, under ultra-violet or 'black' light. When this is the case the bottle on the left, which was the one I had bought, turns into the one on the right, which I didn't even know existed until I scanned the QR code on the back of the bottle.

So, having been beguiled by the packaging I was prepared to be disappointed by the contents. But I should have had more faith. I like Chablis, which comes from the most North West part of Burgundy close to the town of Auxerre. This is a cool climate area and the wines reflect that through their steely / mineral character which (in all good examples) is refreshingly acidic under mostly white fruits and citrus flavours. This one is indeed a good example and, once I had checked the exchange rate to establish that I hadn't allowed my in-transit status to see me unintentionally splurging ten times more than I could afford, good value. I'm sure there is a small premium for the collectable bottle, but I'm happy with that.

GSM

GSM generally stands as shorthand for the Rhone Valley style blend of Grenache, Syrah & Mourvedre, however, down here in the land of the Possum I have chanced upon a different mix using the same sobriquet. The S stands not for Syrah, but for the Tuscan grape, Sangiovese.

Week G (2015) Mitchell GSM, Clare Valley, 2009. David Jones $25.95 (£12.20)

Sangiovese is the grape used in Tuscany to produce famous wines from Chianti, and its sub-regions, and also Brunello di Montalcino and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. Great names, all. Its name also translates as 'blood of Jove' the god also known as Jupiter and responsible for thunder and the like.

Why the Mitchells decided on this unusual blend is not something I have been able to establish, but it does appear that they have stopped using this combination as the website no longer mentions it.

The proportion of Sangiovese was only 15%, as was that of the Mourvedre, leaving the 70% leading role to Granache, which is in truth what I was looking for in the first place, although I had hoped to have found one from Western Australia which is where I find myself this week. Clare Valley is in South Australia.

The grapes for this wine were hand picked in 2009, vinified in open tanks, using whole bunch fermentation, rather than taking the berries off their stalks, and then left to mature until October 2012 before being bottled.


The result is a wine that has rested for three and a half years prior to bottling and a further two years in the bottle until I came along and plucked it from the swanky department store shelf.

It is a medium intensity ruby red colour, smells of red cherries, light licorice and nutmeg and has a warming, spicy feel in the mouth that hangs around a long time after it has been swallowed. There is a good balance of ripe tannin, that is clinging to my teeth as I type, and acidity that is providing me with the means to remove it. The finish is quite dry but there is an interesting hint of pepper and chocolate in there somewhere.

I like this one. How much of the smooth integration of its components is due to its treatment since the fermentation finished I will never know, but it would appear that six and half years is a decent interval between vine and glass.

Fresquito

I'm quite pleased this week (not about the rugby) to have found a wine that promises to have something genuinely different about it. There's a clue as to why this is in the bottom right hand side of the label.

Week F (2015) Fresquito, Vino Nuevo de Tinaja, Montilla-Moriles 2014. M&S £9

The undistinguished shape on the label is the 'tinaja', or large earthenware pot in which the wine is fermented. These were in use from the very early days of wine-making but are now not widely seen. They are cheap to make, inconvenient to clean and are not great at insulation, which means the temperature of the fermentation can fluctuate in a way that is not easy to control.

However, they are historically significant and do provide wines that have some distinctive characteristics.

The region in which this is made is in the south of Spain, near to the city of Cordoba, around the two towns of Montilla and Moriles. The traditional grape here is Pedro Ximinez, a name often shortened to PX, the star of the beautifully luscious, dark, sweet, figgy pudding in a glass Sherry of the same name that is so good poured over vanilla ice cream.

Indeed, the connection with Sherry is not just the use of one of the permitted grapes (not the most frequently used, which is Palomino and you got that straight from the horses......oh,never mind) but also the way in which the wine matures. This is under a layer of yeast, known as 'flor' and it gives the wine a nutty, savoury tang.

The taste of this dry white wine is not unlike a less intense Fino Sherry but with more juicy apples and almond blossom.

A big difference from Sherry is that this is not a fortified wine and its 14% abv is not the result of any spirit having been added, but just down to the fermentation of all of the sugars that PX produces on the vine in the baking hot Andalusian sun.

This wine will not be everybody's cup of tea. I can, for example, imagine the expression that would launch itself across my daughter's face if I were to give her a glass either with or without suitable warning and she would be unlikely utter favourable reviews. I, on the other hand, would drink it again, especially with some salty, savoury tapasy nibbly bits, should the opportunity arise.