Life is too short to drink bad wine

Last few days of September and we are down below 10c during the day. Sun is absent, something that can not be said about the rain. Time to enjoy some serious wines from warmer climates: Wine # 1 Medium red colour with a brown rim. Nice discrete smell of figues, dried fruit and dried dark berries. Good well balanced taste with soft tannins and some acidity in the aftertaste. The acidity leads the panel to Piemonte, but the wine is a mix of 10 different grapes grown in Chateauneuf du Pape. Ch. Beaucastel 1995 , Chateauneuf du Pape 16,9 score A bit disappointing wine. Recent vintages are sold for €45, this cost around 25€ and in NOK it would set you back between 500 and 600 NOK! Not worth it I am afraid . Wine # 2 Medium dark red coulour and brown rim again. Solid complex bouquet of sunberries, muck and ceder. The taste is also full bodied, complex , long with nice balance acidity and tannins. Quite a lovely wine. The wine was believed to be a Bordeaux, but was : Ch Beaucastel 1994

This cru bourgeois is a reasonable good quality wine. Unlike in France it's difficult to find good and affordable Medoc in Norway. La Tour de By has a 50/50 mix of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon giving it quite a soft tannic taste but with the firm structure of a proper Medoc (although it must be said that on their web page they claim to have 65% Cab and 50% merlot)... The 2001 vintage is drinking perfect right now with classic red fruit, oak, pencil case typically of a nice Bordeaux. The taste is well balanced with firm soft tannins and a nice medium length aftertaste. The 2001 vintage in Bordeaux is underrated as in my experience the wines are reasonable as well of good quality. The price in France I guess would be around 7 or 8 € but up here in the north a purchase of such a wine would set you back 180 NOK (22€) which for the quality is well worth the price here. Ch La Tour de By 2001 Medoc NOK180 a P+ wine Other vintages of the same wine to look out for would be the 2003 and 20

Down at the cabin this weekend for last touch of summer. In a rather empty wine cellar we found Allesverloren Tinta Barocca from South Africa. Tinta Barocca is a very unusual grape imported from Portugal. The wine was deep dark red, had a delicate smell of plum, spice and dried fruit with a nice fruity taste. A very nice wine for less than NOK130. Allesverloren is some 100km northeast of Cape Town and is in fact the oldest winery in Swartland. The name (all is lost) derives from 1704 when the settlers found their house burnt down and the farm destroyed. Allesverloren also makes a Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon which are good value for money as well as well as a port wine. A good buy now that we seem to have lost the summer.... Allesverloren 2007 Tinta Barocca, Swartland , South Africa P+ Allesverloren welcomes you Allesverloren The Wines

We continue with the red wines: Barbera d'Asti Lia Vi by Carussin 2008 Deep dark red colour, sweet blue berries, youghourt with vanilla, cherries well balanced taste with a developed acidity leading the panel to Piemonte. A nice daily drinking wine P+ L'Antico di Burchino 2007 Chianti Medium dark red, lots of tannins, quite fullbodied biodynamic wine with a nice aftertaste Difficult to place. Izadi Expression 2000, Rioja Deep dark red with purple edge, blueberries, dark fruit, stable, liquerice big big smell Fruity with big body and length. Very much a warm Bordeaux look a like. 100% tempranillo very surprising Nuits St George "Les Vignes Rondes" 1999 by George Mugneret Medium red, discrete smell of liquerice, oak with a stringent but somewhat tame aftertaste Vosne Romanee 2000 by Mugneret No ordinary wines from Vosne it says and so here as well. Medium red colour witha somewhat acidic chocolate smell. Good length and very nicely balanced wine. Vosne Romanee 1998 by

Had a pleasure of being invited to a special winetasting last night downtown Stavanger. We went through 6 white and 6 red wines. Here are the notes from the white wine tasting; Wine#1 Xarmant Txakoli 2008 from the Basque district in France Pale yellow green colour with peach and tropical fruit and a very acidic taste. A mix of four grapes out of which petit and gros manseng were two of them. Quite a novelty, but not really something for the cellar...(P) Wine#2 from Piemonte in Italy (Gavi di Gavi 2005) was unfortunately corked Wine#3 Pietramina Etna Bianco Superiore 2005 from Sicily Pale yellow green colour, smell of oak and banana, nice acidity and well balanced taste but somewhat "flat" indicating warm climate. Sre its warm in Sicily even at 950 m above sea level, but a very expensive wine. (P-) Wine#4 Chablis 2007 by Christian Moreau Straw yellow colour with hint of green. Smell a bit closed not giving away enough info to work out the grape (+ no sea or minerals). Firm aci

Cloudy Bay from the Marlborough region in New Zealand produce some excellent Sauvignon Blanc. Compared to Sancerre (100% Sauvignon Blanc) these white wines have the same zingy and zesty smell and texture, but are perhaps less mineral like , less green and grassy but more fruity without harming the bone dryness of the sauvignon blanc giving a really seductive dry white wine. The wines are perfect with seafood, but do well also with Asian inspired food. Cloudy Bay has become quite a cult wine and maybe difficult to get hold of a bottle. If you do come across it, do not hesitate to buy and try it with fresh prawns. An excellent combination, especially if the prawns are from Norwegian waters.

The basic Roeder brut is a very classic and rich champagne. It has a high % of Pinot Noir (red grape but juice is white) with Chardonnay around 35% and Pinot Meunier (10%). This gives a nice smell of mature apples and some bread and lime. The taste is good and fruity with a nice mousse also with apples in the flavour. Roederer also makes a sparkling wine in California which is also very nice (Quartet Brut). Roederer is based in Reims. In addition they make a Champagne Rose and Brut Vintage. http://www.champagne-roederer.com/flash.html