Charlie's WorldRed Wine Wednesday
Posted on August 11, 2010
Hooooo yes folks, its Wednesday already, so its time to take a bottle of plonk from the wine cellars at Watkins Manor and educate the vino Luddites of the world.
Todays wine: Pinot Noir
A good Pinot is a delight. Its a soft and relatively light red wine, full of light juicy blackcurrenty and cherry type flavours. It is very flavoursome without being heavy, having a velvety smoothness to it. It doesn’t have that rich dark oaky head and tannin depth to it that a Rioja or Merlot might have. Its a great wine to drink on its own or with light food.
This Wolf Blass specimen is a pretty good one. Nice and smooth, no really deep earthy tones or lingering tannins, just a rich, clean, smooth tasty red.
I’ve had better, but paid a lot more for the privilege.
Its a pretty good red to start on actually, smooth and not acidic or laden with tannins – they actually use the grape for Rose’s and even Champagne sometimes, so that gives you some idea of the clarity of the taste.
Red Wine Wednesday
Posted on July 21, 2010
Yes, its that time of the week already!
Its Wednesday Wine of the Week
So, wine lovers, I have a delight for you today
A cleanskin (unbranded) wine from the Haughton Vineyard in Perth. Wine producers sometimes find they have too much wine for a given vintage and don’t want to devalue their brand by flooding the market, so sell it on unbranded at big discounts – this one was $8 (cheap) and is excellent value.
Shiraz (or Syrah outside of Australia) is a slightly spicy peppery wine with a round finish. Its quite a complex flavour, softer than a Merlot (which can be quite heavy and harsh) but a lot more full on than a Pinot Noir or a Cab Sav.
They’re sort of similar to the Riojas in some ways, rich and earthy, but with more dark purple colour, more deep dark fruit (plum, blackcurrent) and bite than a Rioja.
This particular one is excellent – its really full on, very peppery and full flavoured but still has plenty of subtle undertones.
It’s pretty much the perfect weekday wine for me 🙂
Red Wine Wednesday
Posted on July 14, 2010
I’m going to start a brand new feature – Wednesday Wine of the Week
This may end up being more than just Wednesdays, given my love for the stuff, but lets pretend I’m not a lush.
The Wednesday wine this week is:
Tempranillo grapes are a the main grape used in Spain for Rioja, so have that deep red, full bodied earthy characteristic that makes Spanish reds so good. It has none of the sweetness and fruit of a Cab Sav, or the tang of a Shiraz – Temps are awesome wines and this one is pretty good. It wasn’t cheap (not an every day wine, but given that this is Wednesday, lets pass on that statement) but it’s way better than average – distinctly palatable 🙂
Charlie's World 