Editors’ picks – November 2024

Offbeat England

Sylvia Wu

English and Welsh vineyards offer many more grape varieties than just the Champagne trio and Bacchus – a fact I’m reminded of every year at the WineGB tasting, where the hunt for what’s new is always rewarded. Biddenden’s speciality, Ortega, displays citrussy, refreshing charm as a sweet wine (try the Late Harvest 2018, £122/ 37.5cl Biddenden), but also shows potential as a dry wine, with solid peachy weight and Mediterranean perfume (Ortega Dry 2022, £14.90).

The estate also makes a Dornfelder red (2022, £16.40), a juicy treat with ripe bramble berries and mineral traces. Also in Kent, Balfour Winery is always at the forefront of innovation – the first release of its Albariño (2022, £25) features smoky stone fruits with a tight, saline palate, and a touch of residual sugar. From Surrey, Denbies’ Redlands (£15.99 Grape Britannia) is a non-vintage red blend that features two hybrid varieties, Rondo and Regent; its soft, sweet blackberries are easily crowdpleasing. I

n central Wales, where many are also trialling hybrids, Whinyard Rocks has opted for Phoenix, of German origin, to make its Bubbly Bubbly (2022, £35 Whinyard Rocks), the 2021 a cheerful fizz rich in green fruits, perfumed herbs and plenty of umami. Lastly, the newly launched Leonardslee, based in West Sussex, used a dash of Pinotage in its Brut Rosé 2021 (£45 Leonardslee), a nod to the owner’s estate in South Africa, Benguela Cove Lagoon.

Sebastián Zuccardi: Modern classics and traditions reinvented

Ines Salpico

The autumn tasting schedule is always an exciting mix of discovery and familiarity. Ideally, you’ll get both in one sitting. That was precisely what Sebastián Zuccardi, head winemaker at Zuccardi (Uco Valley, Mendoza), delivered at a recent tasting in London. The main item on the agenda was the 2021 vintage of the La Place-released Finca Canal Uco, a true Argentine modern classic showing balance, focus and outstanding ageing potential.

Also singing were the Fósil Chardonnay 2023 (2022, £55 Vagabond), a nuanced, vertical expression of the variety, and the Aluvional San Pablo 2021, an exciting new addition to the collection of paraje-specific Malbecs. But Zuccardi is also behind an exciting personal project, Cara Sur, recovering old vines of Criolla varieties in the Valle de Calingasta GI, north of Mendoza.

Among the project’s exciting collection are the dangerously drinkable and intriguing Moscatel Tinto (2022, £25.20 Les Caves de Pyrene) and Parcela La Totora (2021, £62.50 Les Caves de Pyrene) – Criolla Chica, from 80-year-old vines, like I’d never seen, moreish and complex with an endless finish.

Champagne beyond the toast

Tine Gellie

Oliver Grieve with quail, nam jim and carrot.

The ultimate wine for toasts, an ace aperitif and a flexible fizz for entrées, Champagne tends to defer to still wine by the main course. It needn’t, however, as demonstrated at a recent food and wine pairing competition. Now in its ninth year, Gosset Matchmakers, run by the oldest wine house in Champagne, founded in Aÿ in 1584, asks five sets of young chefs and sommeliers from the UK to match a savoury dish with one of its cuvées.

This year it was Gosset’s Petite Douceur Rosé (£60 Ocado, Waitrose Cellar). It’s an extra dry – a confusingly named style that sits between brut and the sweeter sec – with 12-17g/L of residual sugar and very long maturation. It’s rich more than sweet, so the red berry, Asian pear and mandarin notes make it an ideal match for afternoon teas or fruit desserts. But after judging the wine with Indian-spiced red mullet, scallop with plum and radish, lobster with carrot and almond, and deer tartare with nettle chimichurri, it opened my eyes to how versatile this misunderstood Champagne style is.

The competition winners were sommelier Camilla Bonnannini and chef Oliver Grieve from Albatross Death Cult in Birmingham, whose quail, nam jim and carrot dish was an elegant sweet ’n’ sour match.

Australians take on France

Julie Sheppard

A recent tasting organised by Berkmann Wine Cellars pitted varietal wines from top Australian producers against French equivalents, tasted blind, to provoke discussion around quality and value. ‘Australia has some of the world’s oldest soils and most visionary winemakers,’ said Alex Hunt MW, Berkmann purchasing director. He was joined by some of them: Sarah Crowe from Yarra Yering, Ray Nadeson of Lethbridge, Andrew Watson of Woodlands and Langmeil’s Leigh Woodrow.

The opening flight of Chardonnays included the Lethbridge, Allegra Chardonnay 2016 (95pts, £50-£59 Caviste, Hic, Uncorked, Vinvm) from Geelong, which seemed impossibly good value next to a Coche-Dury, Meursault 2018 at about £900. Subsequent flights of Pinot Noir, Shiraz and Cabernet highlighted the same price-quality disparity. From the oldest vines in Australia, Langmeil’s The Freedom 1843 Shiraz 2019 (96pts, £82.50 Vinvm) showed its class in the Shiraz line-up, alongside the beautifully aromatic Yarra Yering, Dry Red No2 2017 (97pts, £63-£66 Caviste, Loki, Noble Green, Vin Cognito). ‘This is Rhône inspired – it’s certainly not an Aussie-style Shiraz,’ noted Crowe. Tasted alongside a £350 Rhône – Jean-Louis Chave, L’Hermitage 2018 – it demonstrated that Australia’s top bottles are a compelling alternative as prices for top French wines continue to skyrocket.

Columbia Gorge at Cliveden

Amy Wislocki

The splendid stately home turned luxury hotel Cliveden House was the setting for a tasting and dinner hosted by Oregon’s Phelps Creek Vineyards. Located in the Columbia Gorge AVA, which straddles the Washington-Oregon state border, the estate is owned by former pilot Robert Morus – Bob needed access to Portland International airport so drew a 150km radius around it when searching for a site.

The first vines went in in 1990, and the grapes sold on until 2007, when Bob built a winery and hired Alexandrine Roy, of Domaine Marc Roy in Gevrey-Chambertin, as director of winemaking. Acid balance is a priority and the wines (some of which are shipped to the UK by Davy’s) shine in a gastronomic setting. As well as the Burgundian-style Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs, look out for the Underwood Mountain Riesling 2021 (£26.95), dripping with juicy lime citrus, and a perfect match for ceviche; the Gorge Crest Gewurztraminer 2019 (£26.95; a hit with Wigmore cheese) and the faux ice wine, Vin Glacé Riesling, a dream with fig souffle.