Life is too short to drink bad wine

Right now a bottle of Angelus is closer to 300£ than the 30£ I paid for this 1993 last millennium. 1993 is not regarded as best of the vintages in Bordeaux but it's better than the 2011 that now costs 300£. Elegant dark red colour. Lovely and complex bouquet of dark fruit, leather, cellar, forrest and chocolate. High intensity. Big, solid, complex, beautiful balance. Refreshing. Long. Powerful. Tasting notes from blind tasting giving an overall score of 18,70 Ch. Angelus 1993 St.Emilion Grand cru classee Ca 30£

This is a small producer in Napa valley that buys grapes from around the valley to produce wine of great pleasure and quality. A goal that they seem to fulfil. Very dark dense coloured wine with a great complex smell of dark fruit, chocolate, mint, leather, dried fruit with somewhat sweet undertones. The taste was long with lots of dark fruit. Big, but soft tannins. Quite a mouthful with great balance and lovely acidity. Very approachable style and the wine was tried during a blind tasting after a Ch.Angelus 1993 that got a score of 18.70. This one scored 18.90! Elizabeth Spencer Cabernet Sauvignon 2002 Napa Valley Extraction from the tasting sheet Upon arrival at the winery, our Cabernet Sauvignon grapes were hand-sorted. The berries were lightly macerated and then given a long, cold soak in order to extract color and flavor from the skins. Fermentation was allowed to begin with “native” yeasts. Once fermentation was complete, the wine was fur...

I quite adore Cava due to the price level. They apply the Champagne method to the three grapes Xarel-lo, Macabeo and Parellada but the cost per bottle is half of Champagne. Key question is then; is Champagne twice as good as Cava? As with Champagne there different prices, styles and qualities among Cava as well. This Cava by Agusti Torello Mata is a more full-bodied sparkling with at least 24 months on the lees during the second fermentation. Small bubbles in this 2010 vintage, that was actually bottled in 2015. The nose is a bit spicy with ripe apples and yeasty notes. The taste is big and smooth with a decent acidity. We tried it with fresh prawns and it was too big for that. It also collided with different cheese but on its own it was delicious and it went very well with burger and salad for lunch. A decent alternative to Champagne. Cava 2010, Penedes Agusti Torello Mata Ca 12€ or 190 NOK

This is a basic Chablis by Samuel Billaud that drinks very well. Yellow green colour and aromas of green apple and flint. Solid, round and crispy taste with a good structure and length. Well balanced wine with quite a fresh aftertaste and some of that typical chalky minerality. Perfect allround Chablis that should fit well with most fish and seafood dishes. Chablis 2013 Samuel Billaud Ca 20€

Article copied from Decanter magazine. Bruno Giacosa, one of the leading lights of Piedmont for several decades, has died in hospital at the age of 88. Bruno Giacosa, a pioneer of Italian wine. Credit: Armit Wines TAGS: Highlights Bruno Giacosa  died during the night of Sunday 21 January, in Alba’s San Lazzaro hospital, aged 88 years old, according to  Italian news outlets . He had reportedly been burdened with ill health for some time. Giacosa had attained legendary status in Piedmont – as well as across Italy and beyond – having been part of a new wave of winemakers in the region. ‘One of Italy’s greatest wine producers of all time’ He had bought fruit and bottled Barolo and  Barbaresco  wines since the 1960s, but Giacosa acquired his own vineyard in 1982. His Falletto vineyard in  Serralunga   d’Alba  would go on to become one of the finest crus of the Langhe. He would later buy Barbaresco vineyards, mostly in...

IGT wine from the Tuscany region based upon 100% Sangiovese from the hills nearby Florence. Dark red colour with brick rim. Dark fruit on the nose with cherries, vanilla, dried fruit and old barrels. Powerful wine , full bodied, but also lots of fruit and round nice tannins with a beautiful balanced aftertaste. A lovely wine. Notes are from blind tasting, score 18.20 Testamatta 2007 Tuscany IGT Ca 50€

Super lovely Barolo by Falletto produced in Bruno Giacosa cellar. 2005 is a "kind" year in Barolo with wines that are approachable early on.   Quite a medium red colour with red brown rim. Great smell of raisins, chocolate, cigar and some flowers. Well balanced wine with integrated tannins and a very long finish. Some cherries on the palate and medium + acidity. All notes above were done in a blindtasting. (Score 18.6) A great wine! Barolo 2005 Falletto Ca 80€

Brane Cantenac is one of my favourites from Margaux in Bordeaux. Part of the 1855 classification as a second growth it has managed to keep and improve their standards since Henri Lurton took over in 1992 (very bad vintage btw). The harvest of 2014 took place between 22 September and finished on 17 October (my birthday :)) and approx 38% of the grapes were used for the Brane Cantenac. The mix this year was 77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Merlot and 2% Cabernet Franc. 70% of the wine spent 18 months in new french oak. Two elements helped the Cabernet Sauvignon to reach the level of a great vintage in 2014 : the grapes grew less after the rain in the summer and they began ripening earlier. The extension of the ripening cycle, due to their growth stopping earlier than the Merlot, allowed them to benefit magnificently from the sunny late summer season. The high quality Merlot from the plateau, incorporated in smal...

This an unoaked Chablis by Louis Moreau. Clean fresh crispy Chablis with a mineral character. Fermentation in steel tanks at 18c over 15-18 days. Thereafter stored at 20c some months to start malolactic fermentation. The wine was finally stored for four months in steel tanks on the lees to obtain more aromas and smoothen the taste. Medium pale straw colour. Medium intense bouquet of green apple and plum. Some notes of flowers and herb. Well balanced taste, high acidity, bone dry, medium body and medium aftertaste with hints of minerals. 120.000 bottles made. Ca 15€. A well made and structured Chablis. Try with smoked salmon and cod.

Chablis wines are dry white wines which are characterized by  their purity, crispness, sophistication and minerality . The Chardonnay varietal gives results in Chablis unlike anywhere else. It draws its personality and character from a  subsoil that is 150 million years old , and ripens in ideal conditions, in a semi-continental climate, which allow it to attain a good balance between sugar levels and acidity.Today, the area planted in Chablis is just over 5,400ha. In 1955, after  the phylloxera crisis  in the 19th century which ravaged France's vineyards, then two world wars, Chablis covered no more than 550ha of vine. Nonetheless, not all the appellation's territory is planted as yet: the delimited zone comprises 6,800ha spreading along the valley of the Serein, the river which runs through the wine region from south to north before flowing into the Yonne.These are identified by precisely delimited production zones, and are subject to strict production regul...

Photograph: Jason Lowe Here, in this article, Berry Brothers & Rudd Wine Director Mark Pardoe MW offers insight on one of the key factors affecting Burgundy 2016. It is an unvarying truth that, when assessing a new vintage in a series of intensive  in situ  tastings, one or two themes emerge during the sequence of visits that come to define the character and essence of the year. Of course, the severe spring frosts are the headline news for 2016 but, re-reading my notes from my two weeks in Burgundy in early November, two other more arcane topics are also a constant presence. Mildew and whole-bunch are referred to regularly in our descriptions for the wines, so merit further examination and explanation. Today, I’ll be considering mildew; tomorrow I’ll look at whole-bunch. As if the Burgundian  vignerons  didn’t have enough to contend with after the 2016 frosts, nature hadn’t finished with them yet. Mildew, encouraged by a cool and damp late spring, appea...

Bordeaux 2017 – harvest and weather report Bordeaux 2017 will be a ‘fascinating’ vintage to taste, according to Gavin Quinney (@ GavinQuinney)  of Chateau Bauduc. In the article below, he summarises everything you need to know about this year’s harvest. Bordeaux 2017 will go down as the year of the frost. But now that the harvest is complete, it’s clear that this really is a vintage of haves, have-nots and somewhere-in-betweens. For those growers and châteaux with vineyards that weren’t hit, there has been every chance of making very good wine. Here is a look at how the weather stamped an indelible mark on the vintage, along with numerous images of the harvest. Contents and highlights Introduction – a small crop 45% down on last year due to April frost The growing season Pretty good – rain end of June, dry summer, hot August, damp start to September, fine finish The harvest – a view from the top 80% of top wines from 150 leading châteaux not impacted by frost T...

Photograph: Jason Lowe The BBR Wine Director Mark Pardoe MW reflects on the fashion for whole-bunch: When it came to harvest time in 2016, I wonder how many producers in Burgundy pushed their hats back on their heads and shook their heads in weary disbelief. After the litany of the year’s adversities – frost, mildew, uneven ripening, drought stress and a late harvest – in the end 2016 delivered a perfect harvest of ripe, juicy small berries of Pinot Noir, with perfect skins and wonderful ripe tannins. On reflection, I suspect not many; the ups and downs of recent vintages have created a sense of  Weltmüdigkeit  among some Burgundian  vignerons . Fruit being harvested in such perfect condition brought another of Burgundy’s discussion points firmly centre stage: whether or not, or in what proportion, to use whole bunches (or whole-cluster, as it is also known) in the fermentation process. Until the arrival of de-stemming machines (which remove the berries from t...