Calvet Sancerre Rose 2014

From - Sancerre, Loire, France
Grape - Pinot Noir
Alcohol - 12.5% abv
Available from - Waitrose, Ocado
Price - £15.99

Appearance - The appearance is clear, pink with medium intensity.

Nose - The nose is clean and youthful, with medium intensity aromas of ripe strawberries and raspberries.

Palate - The palate is dry, with high acidity, medium alcohol, medium- intensity and long length.  It has flavours of red fruit, raspberries and strawberries, and maybe a touch of cherry.

As you might imagine, a lovely wine.  With a subtle aroma of ripe red fruit, the palate seems slightly more tart at first, and therefore reminiscent of raspberries, but the ripe red fruit from the Pinot Noir comes through on a surprising length, in view of the subtlety of flavour.  This is a great option for a warm afternoon or evening.  I would not imagine that this would be suitable for ageing, but it is a classy and highly satisfying 'drink now' wine.

Lemelson Vineyards Thea's Choice Pinot Noir 2012

From - Carlton Oregon, US
Grape - Pinot Noir
Alcohol - 14%
Available from - The Wine Society thewinesociety.com
Price - £19.50

Appearance - Clear, medium intensity, ruby

Nose - Clean, medium intensity, youthful.  Red fruit (cherries, raspberries), pungent spice (black pepper) Black fruit (blackberry).

Palate - Dry, medium+ acid, medium body, medium intensity, medium+ alcohol, medium tannin.  Red fruit (raspberries, cranberries, cherries), pungent spice (black pepper).  Medium+ length.

My first review from Oregon, and it is a fantastic, smooth, highly satisfying and delicious Pinot Noir. The Wine Society's prices are really good, so you would expect this to be high quality, and it is.  This would match up a wide range of dinners, and also would have the class to impress guests.

Pinot Noir fans, grab one if you can.

The Society's Monthelie 2010

From - Burgundy, France
Grape - Pinot Noir
Alcohol - 13.5% abv
Available from - thewinesociety.com
Price - £17.50

Appearance - Clear, light, ruby

Nose - Clean, medium+ intensity; developing with red fruit (redcurrant, cherry) and spice (cinnamon)

Palate - Dry, medium+ acid, medium tannin, medium intensity, medium+ alcohol and body, long length.  Red fruits and spice also on the palate, and a touch earthy.

Silky tannins, good body, flavour and length, Very good quality.

Graham Beck Chardonnay & Pinot Noir Brut NV

From - Western Cape, South Africa
Grape - Chardonnay; Pinot Noir
Alcohol - 12% abv
Available from - Waitrose; Majestic
Price - £13.99

Appearance - Clear; golden; medium intensity

Nose - Clean; medium intensity; apples, lemon, autolysis

Palate - Dry; medium+ acid; medium+ mousse; medium intensity;  medium body; medium alcohol; medium to medium+ length; apples, pears, lemon, bread, stone fruit developing as the temperature raises.

Balance - 8  Length - 7 Intensity - 6.5  Complexity - 7

A gorgeous wine that is superb value for money.  When first pouring it I was met with that familiar traditional method aroma of bread, with citrus and green fruit.  The palate was also thrilling, with more zing and acid than I anticipated, and made it even more reminiscent of Champagne, but at a much lower price.  Creamy, and very delicious,  this is excellent. If you like your bubbly then do not hesitate to try it.  Happy New Year to everyone who has taken the time and trouble to visit my blog or share my blog posts. I hope your 2015 is balanced, long, intense (in a good way) and complex (also in a good way)!

Escarpment The Edge Pinot Noir 2013

From - Martinborough, New Zealand
Grape - Pinot Noir
Alcohol - 14%
Available from - Waitrose, Ocado, thedrinkshop.com
Price - £14.99 (currently 25% off this price)

Appearance - Clear; medium intensity; ruby.

Nose - Clean; medium intensity; developing; black cherry, strawberry, redcurrant, a touch of savoury and minerality.

Palate - Dry; medium+ acid; medium alcohol; medium- tannin; medium+ length; medium body; Lots of black cherry, also strawberry and a touch of spice (nutmeg, I think) and a little earthy.

Balance - 7  Length - 8.5  Intensity - 6.5  Complexity - 7

It's about time I reviewed this one.  I love it - one of my favourites, and I'd encourage you to try it as soon as you can.  I am reviewing 2013 vintage which has had a little bottle ageing.

Loads of fruit but with a twist, it is silky-smooth and although it is a surprising 14% alcohol this is not at all overbearing, but takes its place in harmony with the other flavours.  Pinot Noir is an extremely versatile grape with food, and if you are going round someone's house for a bite to eat this would impress and match up with a wide range of main courses.  Martinborough is in the south of NZ's north island, and its moderate climate and mineral rich soil is a place for good old Pinot Noir to thrive.

This wine has great length, which regular readers will know I value highly.  Genuine ageing potential for a year or two to achieve those thrilling PN flavours.

Salwey Oberrotweiler Kasleberg Spatburgunder 2011

From - Baden, Germany
Grape - Pinot Noir
Alcohol - 13%
Price - £14
From - Laithwaite's

Appearance - Clear; medium- appearance; ruby

Nose - Clean; medium intensity; developed; red fruit, decomposing leaves

Palate - Dry; medium+ acidity, medium- tannin; medium alcohol; medium body; medium+ intensity; cherries, redcurrant, leather, decomposing leaves, earth, other vegetal.

Balance - 7; Length - 8 Intensity - 7.5  Complexity - 9

I was lucky enough to try this wine at a Laithwaite's tasting in Ipswich earlier this year.  In the midst of many good wines, this stuck out as a really exceptional one and the pick of the bunch.  I headed home with a bottle, with the intention of opening it on successful completion of my Wine Specialist course.  Having heard of my success on Monday, the bottle was promptly opened.  I did wonder whether it would live up to my recollection, and my goodness it did. 

Most of you will be familiar with Pinot Noir, and I've reviewed a few.  I am a big fan.  Generally PN is drunk young, as the fruitiness will fade over time.  However, I had heard tell of the delicious, strange complexity that careful ageing can give to a very good PN, and this provided me with such an experience.  You have your lovely red fruit coming through loud and clear, but it is accompanied by a very distinct vegetal taste which includes that aroma of rotting leaves that you may get on a country walk this time of year.  That may sound weird, and it probably is, but I cannot begin to tell you just how delicious it is.  I am not given to hyperbole, but I genuinely cannot imagine a more satisfying bottle of wine.  Not to my palate, anyway.

The aspects of the palate are not particularly balanced, as you will see, but the balance of fruit and vegetal/animal flavours is great.  I think I would drink this vintage now, as time would fade the fruit and bring the vegetal more to the fore, which I do not think would be an improvement on now.  I have scored the complexity high because of the strange and wonderful combination of flavours that have occurred due to high quality fruit and careful ageing.

Waitrose Brut Special Reserve Vintage 2004

From - Champagne, France
Grape - Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, Chardonnay
Alcohol - 12.5%
Available from - Waitrose
Price - £30.99

Appearance - Clear; lemon-green; medium intensity.  Significant viscosity shown when swirling.

Nose - Clean; medium intensity; developing; autolytic aromas (yeasty), apples, limes.

Palate - medium+ acid, medium intensity, medium+ length, medium body; medium alcohol medium mousse.

Balance - 7  Length - 9  Intensity - 6  Complexity - 7

Decanter.com (wine enthusiast's magazine) gives 2004 Champagne 4 out of 5, and describes wines from that year as of 'outstanding quality with excellent balance and fruity acidity'.

It was exciting to have the opportunity (albeit at my own expense!) to taste and analyse a 2004 Champagne.  Although typically for Champagne this is rather dry and acidic, so would not be to everyone's taste, but I am enamoured by the lovely, warm, autolytic flavours and excellent length.  This is a high quality wine at a good price.

Joseph Drouhin Chorey-les-Beaune 2011

From - Burgundy, France
Grape - Pinot Noir
Alcohol - 13%
Bought from - Waitrose
Price - £15.99

Appearance - Clear; medium intensity; garnet

Nose - Clean; medium- intensity; developing; redcurrant, cherry, pepper

Palate - Dry; medium+ acid; medium alcohol; medium body; medium- tannin; medium intensity; cherry, raspberry, redcurrant.

Balance - 5, Length - 8 Intensity - 6  Complexity - 5

A Burgundian Pinot Noir with lovely, fruity length.  Organic and bio-dynamically produced, it doesn't score high on anything but length but is really delicious and very easy-drinking, and justifies its higher price.  As a typical Pinot Noir, it works well served cool or even slightly chilled, and is great to drink on its own or with lots of different types of food (as long as it isn't sweet). 

Piper-Heidsieck NV Brut

From - Champagne, France
Grape - Chardonnay, Pinot Noir
Alcohol - 12%
Available from - Majestic
Price - £30

Appearance - clear; medium intensity; golden

Nose - Clean; medium intensity (maybe even a touch more); apple, lemon

Palate - Medium acid, medium alcohol, medium body, medium length; medium mousse; medium body. Lots of lemon, green fruit (apple), toasty-bready flavours from autolysis.

Quality - Good.  Drink now.

Balance - 9 Length - 7 Intensity - 6 Complexity - 6

This is a really nice wine.  I picked it up cheap (cheaper than shown above) as a bin-end but it is superior to some other NV Champagne that I have tried before.  It is very citrus and appley as one might expect, with the flavours expected from bottle fermentation making it very tasty.  I will post about autolysis separately.

Jojo said it made her think 'apple pie' - which is from the appley quality of the cooler climate Chardonnay, and the bready quality from the yeast.

It did not seem as acidic on the palate as I expected.

The 'balance' score, I assure you, was not contrived.  I contemplated scoring it 'medium+' for length, but I am confident that 'medium' is right.  Medium across the board on the palate makes it pretty balanced, but referring back to one of my early posts, balance isn't everything.

This is probably quite expensive at the full price for one bottle shown on Majestic's website, but I understand it is on fairly regular promotion.  A pleasant and very drinkable bottle of wine.

Laboure-Roi Cote de Beaune-Villages 2012

From - Nuits St Georges, Cote d'Or, Burgundy, France
Grape - Pinot Noir
Alc - 12.5%
Price - £10.99
From - waitrosecellar.com

Appearance - Clear, pale, ruby.  Paler to rim

Nose - Clean; medium+ intensity, developing; red fruit (raspberry, red cherry); sweet spice

Palate - dry; medium+ acidity; low tannin; medium alcohol; medium body; medium intensity; raspberry and spice, earthy.

Conclusions - very good; mid priced (at least); ready to drink, may improve.

Balance - 7 Length - 8 Intensity - 6.5 Complexity - 7

I really like this.  It is more intense on the nose than the palate, and the experience begins as soon as you open it.

The low tannins and lightness of the wine, and higher acid, would make it a versatile wine with food and more likely to be of the palate of someone who doesn't always enjoy reds.  The earthiness is, I understand, very common in red burgundies, and is really very palatable.

This vintage I think is now hard to get hold of, but look out for the next one.