Some wines I enjoyed in June

A Spar special, a feather-light Cab Franc and lots of witchy weirdos

June was a busy month for tasting so this email is a lengthy one but it’s worth a glance over, especially if you are curious about natural and low-intervention wines.

I attended several big tastings this month with The Wine Society’s huge portfolio event at one end of the spectrum and a natural/low intervention and biodynamic event at top Manchester restaurant Higher Ground at the other. In the middle there was a great little tasting of Australian and New Zealand wines.

I tasted some outrageously good (and very expensive) stuff this month but I also found some real bargains around the £10-£15 mark.

Read on for the wines I enjoyed in June:

Pittnauer Rosenberg Blaufränkisch, Austria 2011 (£33 from The Wine Society)

I tasted a lot of wine at the Wine Society’s Manchester portfolio tasting, seeing the vast room in the Lowry Hotel as a challenge on a Saturday morning. I’ve mentioned a few wines I enjoyed from the 100 or so I tried below but it was this one that I went back to at the end to taste again, just to check, you understand. And it was this old boy that I ordered online as soon as I could. This is not the first Blaufrankish that I have fallen head over heels for and I suspect it won’t be the last. But this one was very different. My prevailing olfactory memory is lapsang souchong tea. It’s a witchy wine with incense smoke weaving its way through notes of sanguine autumnal fruits like black plums and cherries. So weirdly alluring. I am smitten.

The Society’s Cotes Du Rhone Blanc 2023 (£10 from The Wine Society)

My comfort zone is probably the opposite of most people’s, I often seek out lesser-known varieties and wine from under-the-radar regions. If I am reaching for something more mainstream, I get obsessed over one thing (Pinot Noir, anything from Washington State, Beaujolais) and fixate on that for a while. Although I smashed my French Wine Scholar course, I hadn’t drunk a lot of French wine before I began my wine education. It didn’t excite me, which is daft. I know better now but I still shrug at generic Cotes Du Rhone reds, and I rarely even look at the whites. So this took me by surprise. It isn’t weird or wild or luxurious, just lovely and happy in its lane. Rather than going down the Viognier/Marsanne/Roussane route this is mostly Grenache Blanc and Clairette. It’s peachy with a hint of marshmallow. An easy breezy bargain.

Tenuta Novare Amarone Della Valpolicella 2021 (£32 from The Wine Society)

Is there any point me telling you about a lovey Amarone? If you are already a fan, it’s pretty consistently pleasing. I don’t drink a lot of it (budget restricts me for one thing) but this example from The Wine Society easily made it into my favourites of the day. It was surprisingly light compared to many amarones which are famously full-bodied and on the sweet side due to their semi-dried grapes. The winemaker has dried the grapes for this one for a bit less time and has been judicious with his use of oak too. Maybe it’s because it was summer, but this lighter hand worked for me and I felt the hedgerow full of berries shined out almost more so. Don’t worry, dads, it’s still a beast at 15.5(!)%.

The Society’s South African Pinotage-Syrah, Coastal Region. South Africa 2023 (£10 from The Wine Society)

Pinotage is one of those grapes I always forget about, and then I get a nice surprise when I taste it again. It makes velvety, full-bodied, quite intense wines that I usually find to be a bit chocolatey but this one is a bit different. Fresher, lighter and with some candied Beaujolais-esque fruitiness from whole bunch fermentation. Another absolute steal and a nice change from your owd favourites.

Burn Cottage Pinot Noir, Central Otago NZ, 2021 (RRP~£50)

You don’t have to ask me twice to drink Burn Cottage wine. Absolute Pinot Noir masters from Central Otago, New Zealand. This standard of NZ pinot is normally well out of my price comfort zone so if I see it at a tasting, I suction myself to it like a facehugger. Luckily, I was one of a horde of Manchester food and drink people invited to celebrate Kiwi-owned London coffee shop and restaurant Caravan opening in Manchester. This was being poured liberally - to my absolute joy. I normally try and keep a lid on the boozing at events like this (can be dangerous) but I was no match for the allure of ole Burny. It’s one of those pinots that are juicy like raspberry coulis but with layers of character: pencil shavings, dusty pot pourri notes: rose and violet and lavender, black tea, cinnamon - I could go on.

Break Free Nouveau Cabernet Franc, Western Australia, 2022 (RRP~£20)

This was a fave with a lot of my peers at an Aussie wine tasting in June and as I am writing this from the future, I can tell you I introduced it on the wine tours recently and had a lot of happy campers there too. Cab Franc is a favourite of mine but this is another wine that defies expectations. Again, a lighter approach which means this is eminently chillable. It’s lighter yes but still deep with darker fruit (hello cherry) and chocolate aromas alongside the reds which are leaning more to the veg end of things: roasted red pepper and the first of the summer tomatoes. What a babe this is.

Kelly Washington Syrah, Waiheke Island NZ (RRP~£40)

This is a smoooooth operator from winemaker Kelly Washington, the Kelly half being Tamra Kelly who works for NZ wonders Seresin. This is from her side hustle using grapes grown on Waiheke Island. It’s a lovely drop, all juicy berries, black pepper and polished wooden furniture.

Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay Margaret River Australia 2020 (RRP~£80)

Leeuwin Estate is a Margaret River OG and it was such a privilege to taste this incredible Chardonnay made from the gingin clone which is almost unique to Margaret River. Napa royalty Robert Mondavi once tried to buy this plot and provided early mentorship to the winery’s founders. The nose on this beauty is like fennel softened in butter. It goes on forever on the palate, too. Layers of buttered popcorn but like, one from Harrods or something, alongside intense fruit: peach, pear... The winemaker describes it as having an al dente quality. It’s sensational.

Nautilus Albarino, Marlborough, NZ, 2023 (RRP ~£20)

You might not immediately think of Albarino when it comes to New Zealand wines but there has been a small, cult production of it in the country for a decade or so now. This was another favourite with lots of wine pros at the NZ/Aus tasting. There’s a huge, grassy, sugar-snap pea energy with all the usual grapefruit zest and a bit of soapiness, not in a bad way.

Manowar Ironclad Waiheke Island, New Zealand, 2019 (RRP ~£25)

Ah, Manowar. I used to dance to their song Battle Hymn at the bitter end in Jillys. That’s an unwelcome reminder of my drunken youth, regrettable music taste for a brief period, and the fact that I am starting to get on a bit now. This manly AF wine is a beefy, multifaceted BDX blend with a bit less of the Cab Sav and more of the Cab Franc and Merlot. It’s the kind of wine I imagine a burly, leather and animal hide-wearing Game Of Thrones type would drink from some sort of ivory chalice that he would then slam down on the table before ravishing some tight-bodiced maiden. And it would stain his teeth.

Buccia Nera Paro Orange, Tuscany, Italy (Part of a £75 Friday wine tour calling at Climat)

The Buccia Nera winery is owned by three sisters. It’s named after their grandfather whose skin was darkened from many years spent tending to the vines so he acquired the nickname ‘buccia nera’ which translates to ‘dark skin’. This lush orange is made from the Grechetto and Trebbiano grapes fermented on the skins for about a month. It’s a rich, textured wine with flavours of candied citrus peel, dried apricot, incense, and vanilla. We only showed this once on the wine tour, so the folks who booked this particular date got a rare treat. Lovely label too.

Errazuriz Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 from Spar (£10.50)

If you must buy your wine from Spar (and sometimes, we all must), let me guide you to the top shelf where you will find this textbook Cabernet Sauvignon for just over a tenner. People are always telling me there is good wine to be found in supermarkets and non-specialist shops and I want to believe them, I really do, but I am very often left sulking when yet again, I have spent my last tenner on something shocking. This is an exception. A wine from a highly esteemed winemaker in Chile who is responsible for some special wines at the higher end of the price scale (I tasted some at a Hatch Mansfield tasting in London earlier this year). This is entry-level from Errazuriz but in my humble opinion, the best wine you can get in Spar. If, that is, you love Cabernet Sauvignon. It tastes, as it should like a Blackcurrant & Liquorice sweetie plucked by a wild-browed 80s shopkeeper from a large jar on a high shelf and placed into a little paper bag for you to take home.

Célas par Ludovic Engelvin, Vin De France, 2020 (RRP~£25)

I wanted Cru-Elles to be my favourite from this table because I love the name (Who, me? Shallow?). Alas it was Célas that won me over more with its cherry-chocolate, cinnamon, liquorice loveliness. This is made from grenache growing in Languedoc and it’s a limited edition of just one vintage. The name references the sandstone soil on which the grapes are grown.

Autochtone Julien Courtois Romorantin, Vin De France (RRP~£60)

These beautiful labels caught my eye and the one I liked most was the one on the left in the picture above. Made from the rare grape Romorantin which grows in Touraine in the Loire, this wine had layers and layers of flavour. There’s a yeastiness which I don’t always love in natural wine but it won me over regardless. Imagine the face on the label is carved into a moss-covered tree in an enchanted forest. Give the tree a hug and sniff its mossy bark. That’s the first aroma I wrote down. There is an ashiness too but aside from these esoteric aromas, you’ll find baked apples, dried apricots and pickled pear. I can’t remember the vintage of this one. Oops.

Franck Pascal Quinte Essence Extra Brut 2010 (RRP~£100)

A fourteen year old champagne? Yes please. Nine of those years this wine has spent on its lees - the dead yeast that gives Champagne that biscuity aroma that we all love. Despite its age, this still has knife sharp acidity and an almost mintiness. A stunning bottle. These are the kinds of gems wine people are very lucky to try at trade tastings because most of us can’t afford them otherwise.

Lambrusco Di Sorbara (£75 as part of a six-wine, four snack, four venue wine tour)

It’s 27 degrees, or cracking flags as they say up here. You’re launching into a wine tour for 13 which is attended by one of your besties celebrating her birthday and you need something fun to kick the party off. It’s got to be fizz, it might be cremant or cava or, if they’re really lucky and the maths has worked out, English sparkling but on this occasion it’s Lambrusco and BOY is it a hit. This Lambrusco is more of a rosé babe than the ruddier retro alcopop you and I know and love. Its colour is verging on orange though. The wine boys might call it partridge eye or onion skin. I’m gonna call it chalk stream trout and challenge drunk people to say that three times fast.

It’s got a slightly oxidised note, giving it fino vibes, but it’s fruity and fun and we polish off three bottles in 20 minutes with a plate of The Beeswing’s boquerones.

---

---

Like my wine writing? You might also like my food writing: