Witney Wine Fair Part 2

Sorry to those of you who want bigger chunks - I'll try and make this a bit longer - Next up was Palandri Estate Riesling 2005 an almost totally water white wine with lychee and floral flavour characteristics - you can see the extra coolness from the Margaret River region of Australia in this compared to some Aussie offerings at £7.35 (remember all these wines are available from the Oxford Wine Company (www.oxfordwine.co.uk - no I don't work for them - I just like what they do!)
I was disappointed by the Meursault Les Gryaches 2002 - Jean Philippe Fichet at £34.95 a bottle somehow I was hoping for something a bit more - instead I got a wine which tasted just too smokey and not at all buttery as you would expect - my friends even likened it to a packet of Frazzles which tells you something! I know that the Oxford Wine team like this one - and it may be that this was an off bottle or indeed my glass may not have been as clean as it might have been! That was probably one of the biggest disapointments for me in the evening, however the next was certainly a highlight. Montagny 1er Cru, Chateau de la Saule, Alain Roy 2004 has lovely mineral and fruit flavours, totally typical of the style and a real winner and at £11.99 a real steal - totally different in style to a Meursault in that it's unoaked but for my money I would have three bottles of this to one of the Meursault every day of the week! (Although before anyone points it out 3 bottles every day of the week would probably mean I spent most of my life in a perpetually drunken state!) I know Robert Parker rates this one (though whether that is good or bad who is to say!) but it was universally aclaimed by my group as was the Pouilly Fuisse' Domaine Rene' Perraton 2002 who loved the understated oakyness and slight smoke that rolled out of this - a well made wine , drinking very nicely right about now (in fact to have a glass by my side as right this would be lovely!). Finally for the whites a fabulous find and well done to TOWC for finding this - a really lovely white portuguese wine Encruzado, Quinta dos Roques 2004 was for me a seminal moment - this blew away what I thought about Poruguese whites as fat, over cooked, over alcoholic on the palate and best left well alone - however as The Oxford Wine Company say on their site this is "Stunning" totally different to anything else I've had but I really liked it and for £9.99 I really couldn't fault it. It's fresh and lean with herby and cirtus notes and a real delight to discover - I've had some outstanding reds before, but this was the very first decent white I've had - noting that my experience in this is somewhat limited. Next up the fizzy wines!