Coop Christmas Offers

There are a couple of great offers at Coop right now, which are really well worth taking note of -

Rully BLANC, CLOUX L'OUVRIER 2004£9.99 - £5.99 until Dec. 31 - a lovely white Burgundy - priced well at £10 so at £6 well worth getting some for Christmas.

MERCUREY ROUGE, LES VARENNES 2004£9.99 - £5.99 until Dec. 31 - a red Burgundy that as yet I have to hunt down so I can't personally vouch for it - but the word is that it is pretty good!

Wine Personality of the Year

This award, goes for the first time to Jancis Robinson - a serious wine critic who gets it right more often than not - and who has dared to challenge Robert Parker Jr. - I'm not saying that I necessarily agree with Jancis - however I do feel that RP has far too much influence over the price of a wine - his opionion is probably valid - and it may be that he has not sought out to be the most influential wine critic - but somehow he has ended up in a position where what he says is taken as gospel truth with massive implications on the world of wine - and even he must have off days! So not for the argument - I don't know who was right - and probably don't care - but because someone needed to say "hang on a minute - we need to be careful not to decide the price and quality of wine on one persons say so".

Champagne for Christmas

It's that time of year, many of us buy champagne for Christmas, and the stores put a lot of fizz on special offer - so what is out there? Those with the lowest prices I've found (and that are recognisable producers) are highlighted in red

Sainsbury :-
Champagne Piper-Heidsieck*£21.99 - £16.99
Taste the Difference Vintage 2000 Champagne£22.99 - £17.99
Laurent-Perrier£25.99 - £20.99
Lanson Black Label £22.49 - £17.49
Canard-Duchene£19.99 - £14.99
Nicolas Feuillatte£19.99 - £14.99

Tesco:-
Piper-Heidsieck NV Brut*£28.98 - £23.98
Laurent-Perrier Brut£25.98 - £20.98
Nicolas Feuillatte£19.99 - £14.99
Moët et Chandon Imperial Vintage Brut 1999£33.94 - £29.94
André Carpentier£19.99 - £9.99
Heidsieck Monopole Rosé£23.99 - £18.99
Jacquart Brut£19.99 - £14.99

Waitrose
Mumm Cordon Rouge Non Vintage*£22.99 - £18.99
Lanson Black Label Brut Non Vintage£22.49 - £18.99
Champagne Trudon Cuvée Tradition NV£18.99 - £13.99
Piper-Heidsieck Brut Non Vintage*£21.99 - £17.99

Coop
JACQUART ROSÉ CHAMPAGNE NV£22.99 - £15.33
PIPER HEIDSIECK BRUT CHAMPAGNE NV*£21.99 - £14.66 until Dec. 31

Morrisons
Moët et Chandon NV£23.99 - £18.99
Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label£26.99 - £21.59
Charles de Villers NV £23.99 - £11.99
Jean D'Eperon NV£10.99 - £9.89
Heidsieck Monopole Brut NV£19.99 - £14.99
Heidsieck Monopole Demi-Sec NV£18.99 - £14.24
Heidsieck Monopole Rosé NV£23.99 - £18.99
Nicolas Feuillatte Vintage 2002£25.99 - £12.99
Nicolas Feuillatte NV£19.99 - £14.99
Jacquart Brut Tradition NV* £19.99 - £13.99
Lanson Black Label NV£22.49 - £17.99 (November 13 – December 3 only)
Bollinger NV£29.99 - £26.99 (November 13 – December 3 only)

Wine of the Year 2006

And so my wine of the year, well there were a few contenders, from Margaret River the fantastic Cape Mentelle Cabernet Sauvignon, from St. Chinian Les Vielles Vignes from Domaine Maurel Fonsalade and Le Vin Maghani from Domaine Canet-Valette. From Bordeaux Chateau La Tour Figeac '98, from Portugal Herdade do Esporao but after much deliberation I decided to go with another Australian Cabernet, this one from Coonawarra made by Holllick and at about £11 the cheapest on the shortlist - which was one reason for choosing it. A wine of this quality, depth, structure, balance and complexity for as little as that is a great achievment - the Esporao certainly came close but the Hollick won out in the end. La Tour Figeac may have been the finest wine I tasted, quite possibly the most delicious - but I can have 2 bottles of the Hollick for the same price and is almost certainly not as widely available.

Winemaker of the Year 2006

My winemaker of the year 2006 goes to, Marc Valette of Domaine Canet-Valette in St. Chinian - a man who literally threw the rule book away, was ridiculed by the established winemakers when he started making wine in the early 1990's for doing things his own way. What he has managed to do however is produce wines of the very finest quality in a small appelation, somewhat off the beaten track. He is a great character, regularly jumping into vats of grapes to press them himself by foot, spraying his crops with what are in essence herbal teas to combat problems that others would reach for the nearest bottle with a heavy duty health warning on. His top dry wine Maghani is magnificent, his lower cuvee "Une et Mille Nuits" is powerful, complex expression of all that St. Chinian should be and his "special" wines made from old, low yielding (15 hl/l) vines such as Ivresses are an experience in themselves. As for "Les Galejades" words cannot express the joy that this brings to the drinker - old, low yielding vines that others would use for making a top cuvee - which he then harvests in December - unorthodoxy is certainly common but the results have turned him from a curiosity in the locality to a man seen as being a true genius.