Vasse Felix

In 1801 the good ship 'Naturaliste' (French, naturellement) which was on a voyage to map the coast of New Holland ran into a spot of inclement weather, during which her assistant helmsman, Thomas Timothee Vasse, was washed overboard and assumed lost. Stories emerged to say that he had survived and had been washed ashore in what we now know as Western Australia. There are no definitive answers, but his name lives on in the brand of one of the first vineyards and wineries established in Margaret River, in the coastal region a couple of hours south of Perth.

So, this week V is for Vasse and we have:

Week V (2021) Vasse Felix Classic Shiraz, 2019. £12 Tesco.

The winery was established by Dr Tom Cullity, a cardiologist, and that gives me reassurance that wine is good for the heart. There seem to be several physicians who have made the transition from fixing bodies to nurturing souls by making wine and this has to be a good sign.

Not only did the good doctor have the foresight to become a pioneer of Western Australian wine, but he also demonstrated that he must have had something of a sunny disposition. Choosing not to call his winery "Cullity" or some equally egotistically inspired name, he indulged his interest in history by choosing to honour our man Thomas, above, and to append an optimistic second name of Felix meaning, as it does, lucky or happy and so I assume Dr Tom liked to think Sailor Tom did indeed survive.

I have mentioned in these pages that I like Vasse Felix wines, especially the Cabernet Sauvignon from their 'Filius' range.  That range sits below both 'Icon' and 'Premier', both of which are sold at over or above my usual price bracket, but delivers good value.

This week's wine is from the 'Classic' range which is the lowest tier of their output, so it will be interesting to taste the difference (no reference to Sainsbury intended). It will also be the first time, that I can recall, that I will have tasted their Shiraz, as the Cabernet Sauvignon is an known quantity and, therefore, my usual preference.

First impressions are of its colour, which is an attractive ruby with touches of purple. This is followed by the first sip which is very smooth, underpinned with ripe tannin and led by some light blackberry & plum flavours. Lingering finish and very moreish.

It is mostly Shiraz, but also contains 2% Malbec. I have enjoyed a couple of Malbecs recently and they are generally very approachable and enjoyable, but also quite fruit-forward and tending ever so slightly towards being a bit jammy. I doubt that my senses are keen enough to detect the presence of anything that is just 2% of the whole, but I admire the skill of a winemaker who can decide that such a small contribution to a blend will make the difference s/he is want to achieve. I can't say whether it does or not, but the end product is good enough to convince me that it isn't done only for marketing reasons.

I have never been sure what the logo at the top of the Vasse Felix label represented. It turns out that it is a Peregrine falcon. In the early days of the winery, established in 1967 and producing their first vintage in 1971, there was a struggle to protect the grapes from, amongst other things, bird damage. A Peregrine falcon was brought in to deal with the birds but, according to the producer's website, on first release promptly flew off into local woodlands never to be seen again. It seems rather generous of the winery to honour the bird in this way and I rather like that.

Oh, buy again? Definitely.

Ugni Blanc

Seven years ago when faced with the task of finding a white wine made from a grape beginning with 'U', I chose a Cotes de Gascogne from Waitrose on the basis that it contained Ugni Blanc as the minor blending partner with Colombard. My memory, usually reliable, partially failed me when I faced the same challenge this week as I have made a similar selection. Similar in the sense that Ugni Blanc is again a minor blending partner but, in this case, its senior partner is Sauvignon Blanc.

Having spent a little more than my average last week this one is definitely from the bottom shelf.

Week U (2021) Louis de Camponac Sauvignon Blanc 2020. £6 Tesco. 

Ugni Blanc has already appeared in these notes twice this year, once each in March and April and on both occasions it was again the minor partner in the blend. However, both of those wines (Weeks M & O) were Italian, so Ugni Blanc appeared under one of its many aliases, Trebbiano. I noted back in 2016 that the grape is used in the production of Cognac and that requires the distillation of an alcoholic liquid to produce a simple, bland spirit that will pick up flavour during its maturation in oak casks. As such the grape doesn't need to deliver a big flavoursome punch and, even if it did, as the minor partner to Sauvignon Blanc it would probably be overpowered anyway. 

In this bottle we have an easy drinking, unremarkable yet pleasant white wine that as you may expect tastes very mush like a Sauvignon Blanc. It isn't as aggressively acidic as some, but I can't say whether or not that is the effect of the Ugni Blanc. It could simply be that it has been made from high-cropping Sauvignon Blanc which doesn't have the intensity of wines from more selective producers. It is very cheap so I think we have got exactly what we could have expected to get for the price.

It is the kind of wine that would be drunk happily on a sunny afternoon, up to and probably beyond the point where its consumers would have achieved the same status.

Incidentally, after the coldest and wettest May for many years we are told that by next weekend everything will have changed and then June will roar in like a lion. This is what March can do, according to folklore, before it goes out like a lamb. I hope that June isn't aware of this and gives us plenty of days when we will wish to reach for a chilled glass or two. For me it won't be a chilled glass of this wine for the same reason I am sure I have given on previous occasions, simply that there are too many other similar wines on offer and if I am going to get through them all....oh, hang on a minute, that's just stupid. I'll have whatever is on offer.

Tinpot Hut

I do like a Pinot Noir. I think I have chosen one six or seven times amongst the 157 previous weekly wines in these pages, and that seems quite restrained, given my preferences. They have come from a variety of places, including France, Australia, New Zealand and California, but have not to date included Chile and that surprises me as one of my favourites is Errazuriz Coastal Series, or at least it was when I knew where to get it. This one is, I believe, the fourth from New Zealand and I chose it not only because the branding begins with the correct letter, but also because of the retailer from whom I bought it.

Week T (2021) Tinpot Hut Pinot Noir 2017. Wigginton Community Shop £16.50

I am proud to have been a volunteer at the community shop since it opened in December 2018 on the day after I gave up on the idea of earning a living. It is a cheerful little place with a good selection of fresh foods, convenience goods, gifts and, most pleasingly, wine. And cheese, of course.

The wines range from about £8 a bottle (if you ignore the 'wine based drinks' with cartoon branding at which I wince when putting them through the till) up to £20 for the Chablis and more again for the Champagne. There's even some PX Sherry, brought in for the Christmas crowd and maturing nicely for next year when we hope someone will be wise enough to buy it and pour it over their ice cream. So this one is mid-to-upper in the shop's range.

In terms of global Pinot Noir prices it is quite near the bottom, but still about twice as much as the elusive Errazuriz used to be. Top end Burgundies cost obscene amounts of cash and, if I hadn't attended in ~2010 an event hosted by Berry Bros & Rudd entitled 'a walk through Gevrey-Chambertin', I wouldn't believe there could be any possibility of their prices being justified. In fact, I still can't but I have tasted the difference between bottles priced at £35 and those at £350 and have to admit there is a difference. Is it a difference worthy of a ten-fold hike in price? That's impossible to answer even for those who can afford it, but for me, no. Incidentally, at £350 a bottle we would still be a long way behind the £24,000 BBR would ask for a bottle of the 2015 DRC Grand Cru. For a drink? Really? Maybe if you are a premier league footballer and you fancy a swift one after trousering £60,000 for a week's work (that's the average) it might appeal, but championship players might think that a bit steep. I believe the highest paid premier chap is currently getting £600,000 a week so maybe he could get a case and share it out?

Sorry, I seem to have gone off on one for bit. My point is, I am never going to taste those wines and despite what you might think from the above, I couldn't care less. For the majority of the world's wine drinkers those bottles are a total irrelevance. So, what have we got here and is it worth it's paltry price?

It is a medium bodied, fragrant wine with flavours of red cherry and subtle spice, and silky tannins that are felt mostly in the finish. It is smooth and gently complex with what some wine typists who are even more pretentious than moi may describe as an ethereal quality. I don't know exactly what that means, but it is something along the lines of 'it is not just a fruity drink, but suggests it has something that is difficult to define'.

I like it. But then I like Pinot Noir. Key question: is it worth £16.50 a bottle? Well, yes and no. It isn't ever going to challenge the big names and cheaper wines like the Errazuriz Coastal Series still exist even if I can't find them, but there are plenty of Pinot Noirs in the £40-£60 that aren't that much more interesting than this one.

Will I but it again? Yes, but only from the truly splendid Wigginton Community Shop (with excellent ancillary cafe).

Steen

I have only visited South Africa twice. Once was when The One and I celebrated our marriage with a thouroughly enjoyable honeymoon and once with a rather under-appreciated professional trip to begin the process of opening an office in Johannesburg.

It is a big, colourful, beautiful country with a great variety of scenery, culture, food and wildlife, that we experienced only a small proportion even if we did drive 2,000 miles whilst there. On that first trip, a few years before I started a formal interest in wine, we visited a single winery. If we return, that number will increase significantly.

Looking for a white S, I remembered that the grape used to make The One's most favoured wine, Vouvray, which is known as Chenin Blanc in the Loire and elsewhere, is widely grown in the rainbow nation but known there as Steen. So:

Week S (2021) First Cape Bush Vine Chenin Blanc 2019. £7.79 Waitrose.

I also wanted to choose a South African wine as a small act of solidarity with a national industry that has suffered badly throughout the pandemic, with alcohol sales having been temporarily banned. I will raise a glass to their speedy recovery to full production and sales.

First Cape is a brand initiated by a group of 38 growers in 2001 and now uses grapes grown in more than 200 farms. The are centred in the Breede Valley in the Western Cape province, to the east of the arguably more well-known areas of Stellenbosch and Paarl.  It is surrounded by mountains on three sides which provide protection from the winds coming off the Atlantic Ocean, and leading to hot dry summers. The valley floor is where the high-cropping grapes used in generic wines and for distilling are grown and, I suspect, is where the grapes whose juice has reached this bottle were grown.

I suspect this because although this is a pleasant wine, with quite prounounced flavours of stone fruits and some tropical fruits, it is a little lacking in acidity and complexity. For the price this is not unreasonable and it is very drinkable. I just leaves me a bit underwhelmed.  It doesn't have the sweetness of a Vouvray but isn't really dry either.

There is peach and apricot, a hint of pineapple and even something lightly peppery, but reminiscent of the diluted juice from canned fruit. There is nothing wrong with it and if it was a sunny day a chilled glass of this would slip down very easily, just not memorably.

It's ok, which is to damn it with feint praise. I could buy it again, but probably won't.

Recanati

This is pleasing. Following my alphabetic wine selection rules has paid off this week. Whilst shopping for some light nibbles to enjoy with friends I was keeping an eye open for a red wine with a significant R. I spotted this:

Week R (2021) Recanati Carignan Petite Sirah, Judean Hills 2019. £10 M&S

This is the first wine I have selected that is made in Israel. Specifically, in the Judean Hills (not the Hills of Judea...apologies for that, but it was a great film) which the bottle tells me is the source of many of Israel's finest wines.

Recanati is a winery founded in 2000 and named after one of its founders, Lenny Recanati, the other being Uri Shaked. If you want to read more about them and their story click here.

This wine doesn't appear on their website and this is often the case for wines sold in M&S, as there is a credit to M&S winemaker Sue Daniels at the bottom of the back label which earlier names Kobi Arviv as the maker in the winery, suggesting this is a custom blend / style only sold through M&S.

Carignan has its origins in South-West France and is known as a robust if rustic grape, and Petite Sirah, also known as Durif after Fraçoise who created it in the late 19th century by crossing Syrah with Peloursin, also hails from France but has become more common in US, Australia and, as in this case, Israel. It's another tannic grape and it seems to blend well with Carignan, based on the evidence of this bottle.

I sipped my way through a glass and a bit whilst cooking a pork fillet stuffed with chestnuts and mincemeat and found it very enjoyable. It made its presence felt quite noticeably and so I saved the rest to have with the meal. The sweetness of the mincemeat provided a welcome counterpoint to the plummy wine and helped balance the ripe tannins in the wine.

Buy again? Why not, as I have plenty of red wine enthusiast friends who would consider this a tenner well spent.