8th June Sud de France

Fellow Wine Lovers,

The thing that caught my eye this week was news that the town of Dull in Perthshire, is pairing up with Boring in Oregon. There are signs going up in both places, and plans are afoot for t-shirts and parties! The fun just writes itself…population wise we have less Dull (84) and more Boring (10000) people. Dull community councillor Marjorie Keddie said “It might seem like a joke but this could have real benefits for Dull.”

Elsewhere it’s time for the Euros. I mean the football tournament rather than foreign exchange foolishness!

I don’t know about you but I’m quite looking forward to reading something about football rather than what may, or may not, be chanted on the terraces, and how big the police guns are in Poland.  What price a Rooney hissy fit before the end?

Coming Soon

Wayne snuck off to Clerkenwell this week to taste a couple of staggeringly good wines from the Mornington Peninsular. We’d tried to buy some already but the old vintage was finished. The good news though is that the new vintage is on a boat headed for Tilbury as we speak, so as soon as they are in we’ll let you know.

Cheese & Wine – 14th June 8pm £15.

We’ve ordered the cheeses already so that we pick them up in peak condition. We chose all French this time, just the wines to select now. Mmm.

Weekend Wine Tasting

We’ve linked up with Sud de France to try and bring some sunshine to our corner of SW19, so over the next few weeks we’ll have a waltz round the vineyards of the Mediterranean end of France.

We’ll start off with 2011 Domaine Antugnac Chardonnay (£10.99) which is from 50 km south of Carcassonne. The estate’s vineyards are planted on slopes at about 500m in a high valley in the foothills of the Pyrenees. Here we have shallow clay-limestone soils, where the cool night time temperatures’ mitigate the warm Mediterranean heat. I can tell you about the cool fermentation temperatures, the malolactic fermentation and the time resting on lees in tank but let’s face it what you want to know is… Does it taste good? Come try it and find out!

We’ll follow up with a red 2011 Domaine Massamier La Mignarde (£9.49) who can trace their history back to a Roman legionary called Maximus whowas given a villa on this land which still stands to this day. The estate is at Pépieux, in the heart of the Minervois, just below the Montagne Noir with its rich soils. A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Carignan, Cinsault, Syrah and Grenache, it displays typical southern French concentration of garrigue herby notes but with juicy red and dark fruits. Nice one Centurion!

See you at the weekend folks!

Comments are closed.