Bank Holiday BBQ Wines

Today we had a BBQ at my parent's house. It was a glorious bank holiday - perfect for sitting out in the garden. We started off by finishing the Waiki that I started last night. It was still showing really well on day two. Over the course of the day we then went on to three other wines.

Quinta de Azevedo, Vinho Verde, 2008, Portugal.

This was a lovely wine that was chilled down perfectly for such a warm summer's day. This had the aroma of apricots, peaches, crisp green apples and nectarines on the nose. It also had a slightly honeyed smell. On the palate, it gave the tongue a little tingle. It was slightly minerally with hints of orange rind. It had good acidity and a nice length for a white wine. (11.5% abv) 4.2/5

Muga, Barrel Fermented Rioja (Blanco) 2008, Spain.

This wine is 90% Viura and 10% Malvasia. This wine is left to macerate with the skins for 12 hours before being transferred to oak casks. The fermenting wine is then left on the lees for three months. The wine was a straw colour and gave off aromas of honey, tangerine, green apples and pineapple. On the palate, flavours of mango and pineapple were dominant, along with banana and very subtle oak. This wine had good length and crisp acidity. (13% abv) 4.2/5

Muga, Rioja (Rosado) 2008, Spain.

This wine was made in the Rioja Alta region and is a mix of Garnacha, Tempranillo and Viura. This had nice aromas of strawberry, roses and mandarins on the nose. It was a very delicate wine. On the palate there was no real clear flavour; it was however quite minerally with tight acidity. To be honest I did struggle to get anything really definite from this wine. There was no real finish or length to it. (13% abv) 2.5/5

Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon

Tonight I am relaxing with a delightful Cabernet from Chile.

Waiki, Barrel Selection Cabernet Sauvignon, 2005, Maipo Valley, Chile.

This is a lovely cabernet from Vina Perez Crus. The nose greets you with exceedingly super sweet red and dark berry fruits, there is the distinct flavour of black wine gums and blackcurrant jelly. The nose is full of super juicy fruits. This wine has beautiful firm tannins. The dark fruit continues on the palate (although not so sweet as on the nose - which in my opinion is a good thing), with hints of oak and bramble. Good length. 14.5% abv. (£7.99 Majestic Wines) 4/5

A fireside Vilosell

Yesterday we had a great day at Dinton Pastures Country Park with some friends. After the picnic most of the group came back to our place. We got a fire started in the back garden and opened a bottle of Spainsh red. It worked out to be a good choice to sit by the fire with as we chilled and chatted to the early hours of the morning.

Vilosell, Tomas Cusine, 2005, Costers del Segre, Spain.

Lovely spicy cherry and plum aromas with nice toasty red berry flavours and hints of cedar. You can also get raspberry on the nose, along with blackcurrant jam and soft sweet summer berry fruits almost like a summer fruit pudding. The palate is really nice and smooth with silky smooth tannins; the raspberry and berry fruit follows through, the palate remains nice and spicey with bits of black pepper. (£9.99 Majestic Wines) 4/5

Chilean Carmenere

Dona Dominga Carmenere Gran Reserva, 2005, Chile.

The first thing that greets you here is the aroma of sweet juicy wine gums, this mellows over time to reveal wild red berries, cherry, plum with hints of bramble and toffee around the edges. After a bit of air you can pick up traces of tabacco. On the palate you get the typical Chilean greenness but also the red fruit and the plum - this is a bit duller on the palate than on the nose. It ends with smooth silky tannins and good length. 3/5

A Pinot Gris and a great Sauvignon Blanc

Tonight I am going through some wines left over from a wine tasting I hosted on the weekend.

Grove Mill, Sauvignon Blanc, 2007, Malborough, New Zealand.

This wine is zinging right from the start. Fresh vibrant nose of Gooseberry, passion fruits, citrus with hints of grass and green pepper. The nose really wakes you up - it's so fresh. The palate is alive with zippy fresh acidity and the gooseberry and citrus remain a dominate flavour. This would be a great BBQ wine on a hot summer's day. 4/5

Turckheim Pinot Gris, 2006. Alsace, France.

This wine greets you with a sweet honeyed nose, with white pear, and white grapes (this actually smells a bit like a muscat). There is a bit of melon in there too. The honey follows through to the palate, but I dont think the acid is sitting well in this wine. The balance between the sweetness of the fruit and the bite from the acid goes more in the favour of acidity than fruit, which gives you a sort of 'off' feeling in the mouth. The aftertaste is actually a bit metalic. 2/5

My scoring system.

Since I started keeping records of the wine I was drinking I have used many difference scoring systems. I have marked wine out of 10, 20 and 100. I decided to stop using all these systems as I found they were far too subjective. The results could be based equally as much on how I was feeling at the time, my mood, environment etc rather than how well the wine was showing. I have opted for a very simple scoring system, marking the wine out of 5.

1 - Rubbish (This is stuff I wouldn't wash my car in)
2 - (Possibly) Drinkable
3 - Good, Everyday wine
4 - Very Good - I would buy this again.
4.5 - Excellent - I would definately buy this again
5 - Outstanding
5+ - Near Perfection

Ok, so its not exactly out of 5 and there may be a few variations over time, but this works better for me than marking a wine out of 100 where it's open to too much interpretation.
So this is the criteria that the wines will be marked against in this site.

The first of many......

Finally, after much debate, I have started to blog. For the past few years I have kept notes on the wines that I have been drinking - a list that family and friends are all too frequently trying to get their hands on. So to make it easier, I thought I would make it available in a more accessible format.

Motivated by the wine blogs I read (notably - Jamie Goode's Wine Anorak http://www.wineanorak.com/blog/ ), this is my attempt at being a wine writter; something I have wanted to do for many years.

I dont pretend to know it all, I am still learning - a lot! The more I learn about wine, the more I am assured that this learning curve will never end. The aim is to continue learning together.