December 2020 Virtual Meeting - Winter Warmers

This months virtual hosts were Sue and Peter, they have chosen wines to warm the cockles of our hearts during these conld and damp days...

Welcome Wine-Group-Three-ers! Suseand I have had quite a challenge selecting six wines that could be considered ‘winter warmers’. Somehow most white wines have more to do with summer cooling. Anyway, here’s what we have come up with.

 

The first wine is a Madeira. It is Blandys Duke of Sussex.

 
It is a light, delicate Madeira with clean fresh nutty flavours grown at about 600m in the south of the island in Camarade Lobos. It does not require decanting, is excellent as an aperitif but is also exceedingly good with creamy starters, fish dishes and Indian cuisine. It has been bottled when ready for drinking and will keep for several months after opening. The reputation of Madeira is a sweet wine such as Malmsey, but Duke of Sussex is relatively dry. Its dryness makes it an excellent aperitif wine.
The wine underwent fermentation off the skins with natural yeasts in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks. After approximately 5 days, fortification with grape brandy took place, arresting fermentation at the desired degree of sweetness. It was then transferred to 'estufa' tanks where the wine underwent a cyclic heating and cooling process over a period of 3 months. After 'estufagem' the wine was aged for three years in American oak casks and then underwent racking and fining before the blend was assembled and bottled.
We bought it online from The DrinkShop(www.thedrinkshop.com), 19% ABV, the normal price is £15.06, but we bought it on special at £13.80. Delivery is £4.99 for up to 12 bottles, so it’s worthy buying more than one.
 

The second wine is a Mosel from Germany.

The overall reputation of Mosel is a light fruity wine made from sylvaneror rieslinggrapes. It’s quite sweet; Piesporteris a typical one. This one is different. It’s made from an old grape variety called ‘elbling’ which has produced this light, aperitif type of wine, and one of the reasons we chose it is because it has a slight fizz. It is dry with a slight ‘spiciness’, a bit like gewurztraminer. We suggest would go with poultry, perhaps not so well with fish. With our shutdown it wasn’t possible to have a full sparkling wine because decanting it into small bottles would have caused it to lose its fizz, so this was a substitute. It comes from Waitrose and was sourced as part of their quest to find wines made from older, lesser known grapes, presumably to excite our taste buds. This Elblingis a 2019; 12% ABV; £6.99. Nicer served chilled.
 

The third wine is Cederberg Chenin Blanc.

We chose a cheninblanc because it is a bit richer and sweeter than the ubiquitous sauvignon blanc, and therefore more of a winter warmer. This is from South Africa. Some say that cheninblanc is the star of the South African wine canon. Cederberg is part of Waitrose’s Foundation which supports environmental, educational and community projects. The wine is citrusy and described as having lemon and grapefruit notes. It is not as dry as a lot of fashionable whites, and, while it might be a stretch to describe it as a winter warmer it is not a summer cooler. It is suggested that it would go with roast chicken or salmon. Vintage 2020 (but remember in the Southern Hemisphere the vintage is 6 months earlier than in the north). £9.99, 12.5% ABV. An hour in the ‘fridge works well.
 

Our fourth wine is a pinot noir.

from Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference range. It comes from the Languedoc, and we suspect is France’s response to the vast amounts of high quality pinot coming from Chile which has given Burgundy a run for its money. It has the usual pinot characteristics of berry fruits (raspberries, &c), earthiness and a lightness which a lot of people who usually avoid heavy reds like. It is rated as IGP (Indication GeographiqueProtegee, one down from Appellation Controlee, if that means anything these days). We suggest it would go with lamb or game or anything else really. One of us likes pinot noir with fish. 2019: 13%ABV £9.75
 

Our fifth wine is a Rioja.

We chose this because we felt a heavier red wine should be in a ‘winter warmer’ group. This is called VinaReal (Royal Wine) and is a blend of tempranillo, garnacha(the Spanish name for grenache) and mazuelograpes, which makes a bit lighter than the pure tempranillo. It is matured in oak for 12 months and has further bottle age. It’s also vegan. (Carnivorous grapes were avoided. Joke). We think it would go with heavier red meats, or anything else really. Sainsbury’s, 2017, 13.5% ABV £9.99
The image is of the 2016 vintage. I couldn’t find a 2017 on Sainsbury’s website; I suspect they have sold out. But all the Vina Real riojas get a good write up on all the websites.
 

Our last wine is a port. It Graham's Six Grapes Reserve, one of their original Port blends.

Only grapes from first-class vineyards are used for this mark. Six Grapes is a big hearted wine, fruity and robust. It is blended to be as similar as possible to a young Vintage Port and has often been referred to as "the everyday Port for the Vintage Port drinker“ (at least that is what the blurb says). Unique in the Port trade, Graham's selects its 'proprietary blend' ahead of its more commercial styles. All other Port shippers make a lighter style 'Reserve' blend out of lots that remain after they have bottled their LBV's. This, by contrast is made from premium grapes. Dark red colour, with a rich perfume of ripe plums and cherries, on the palate it is complex, with a good structure and a long lingering finish; (more blurb). It is good served at the end of a meal, for example with rich, nutty or chocolate desserts, as well as strong cheeses.
We bought it online from The DrinkShop(www.thedrinkshop.com), 20% ABV, £14.92 plus delivery –see above.