Today, being the first Wednesday of the month, is Wine Blogging Wednesday. This month's theme is Riesling, but only if it comes from Europe - no New Worlds allowed!

After a quick bit of head-scratching while at the warehouse earlier on in the day I decided on Germany, largely because the only other contender was our sole Alsace Riesling, and I wasn't really in the mood somehow. I think it was mood plus the burst of beautiful Summer-like weather (hottest day of the year so far here in Oxfordshire) that made me think of German Riesling. Summer and Riesling wines, and especially those light, beautifully poised, elegant German Rieslings seem to go togther.

So, the next decision was 'which German Riesling?' It wasn't until I got to the warehouse that I remembered we had quite a few. Steve, my warehouse manager, calls this Andrew's shelves as I'm the only one that seems to go there (not strictly true, but I see where he's coming from!)

In the end, I realised that there was an obvious plan forming in my Riesling-starved brain. (Haven't had any Riesling, and especially German Riesling, in quite a while as it happens). We had four Spätlese from four different regions staring at me from the shelves, all from the excellent and highly rated 2002 vintage. Why not a vertical tasting to celebrate Riesling and Wine Blogging Wednesday?

I get my Riesling fix AND get to see how this much acclaimed vintage is holding up. Oh, and before I left I spied a lone half bottle of Niederhauser Hermannshohle Riesling Auslese from Weingut Hermann Dönnhoff, so I decided 'in for a penny...'

Alison will be thrilled at the choice of wine tonight. She's a red wine drinker at heart and loves Riesling nearly as much as Andrew Barrow over at Spittoon in his Riesling blog post earlier today!

Anyway, onto to the mini-marathon German Riesling tasting...

Eitelsbacher Karthäuserhofberger Riesling Spätlese 2002. Mosel 8% alc
Beautiful bright, green-gold colour. Very classic Mosel-styled floral notes on the nose. Surprising weight on the palate for a wine at only 8% alcohol. Peristant length; poise; elegance. The merest whiff of that oft-quoted Riesling aromatic of petrol - not the most attractive aroma in the world, but classic for aged German Riesling. Definitely NOT petroly in an over the top way... just a kind of wee hint. Funnily enough, a lot of tasters over here in the UK quote Petrol/Kerosene as being classic for Riesling, whatever their age. A very good German wine merchant friend of mine is adamant that any idea of petrol aromatics in young German wine is considered a wine fault on his side of the Mosel.

Schloss Saarstein Riesling Spätlese 2002. Saar 8% alc
Paler than the Eitelsbacher. More muted aromatics. No petroly tones here; bright floral elements. Grapey (an odd word for a beverage made from grapes, but I hope you get what I mean - Muscaty. Almost). More weight than the Eitelsbacher so I'm guessing riper/higher must-weight . Alcohol is the same. But also a kind of steelyness and directness. Crisp, refreshing acidity. Clean, crisp finish with good weight. Quite foodie really.

Rudesheimer Berg Roseneck Riesling Spätlese 2002, Weingut Leitz. Rheingau 8.5% alc
Pale green-yellow. Floral and touches of spice on nose. Weighty and concentrated on palate. More noticeable sweetness than previous two wines. Very concentrated. Touches of apricot, Spring blossom, even exotic fruit. Lick of spice (ginger perhaps?) Nicely balanced weight, fruit and acidity - touch of crisp green apples on finish. Will continue to age well over next 1-3 years.

Monzinger Frühlingsplätzchen Riesling Spätlese 2002 , Emrich-Schönleber. Nahe 9.5% alc
Pale, pale yellow with hints of green. Stone-fruits, floral tones, some citrus (orange/grapefruit) and spice. Definite spice. But still very typical Riesling and not deviating into Gewurz-like territory. Rich palate, with spiciness following through. Weight, concentration. Immaculate balance of fruit, weight, concentration and complexity with a lick of refreshing acidity. My favourite wine of the four. I like the extra dimension the weight and concentration brings, while still retaining Germanic Riesling purity and elegance. It's warmer in the Nahe than some of the other classic wine regions of Germany. And the extra weight, ripeness and alcohol this gives the wine make it slightly fatter then the other three. Veering it ever so slightly towards the new world style of Riesling. Food friendly? Certainly. Drink by itself? Well, that too... I am now. And enjoying it massively!

All in all a fun exercise and a look at a classic vintage from some highly regarded producers. Thank you Wine Blogging Wednesday for giving me a chance to open these bottles and remind myself of the flavours and diversity of Riesling.

Oops, I almost forgot. What about that 1998 Auslese Riesling from one of Germany's star winemakers, Dönnhoff?

Niederhauser Hermannshöhle Riesling Auslese 1998, Weingut Hermann Dönnhoff. Nahe 8.5% alc. Nahe 8.5% alc
Pale gold. Nose of apricots, honey, peaches. Taste is apricoty, with hints of citrus, even marmalade. But not super rich. Still quite light. Lighter than I imagined it would be to be honest. Refreshing acidity. I think this is a bit disappointing to be honest. Some of the Spätlese above had more weight and concentration. Maybe I'm Riesling-ed out. But I don't think so. Maybe 10 years is a bit too long? Good, but not great.

All that acidity and primary Riesling fruit... I need chocolate now!

I've been thinking for a while now that I'd like to open up the conversation on Surf4Wine...

Meaning what I hear you ask?

Well, getting more of you involved. Making it easier for visitors and customers to talk to us - and each other. To give their comments and ask questions. Even to start their own conversations… power to the people!

To make talking about, thinking about and drinking wine easier and more fun.

We can even roll this idea out to wine buying too. You can get involved, if you want, in helping to chose wines we stock by voting on favourite grape varieties, countries and regions. Even producers.

You can help us tailor offers and promotions to what YOU want, not what we think you want.

Sure, we have our opinions, and we like to think we are experts. But we are always happy to learn ... and find out what our visitors and customers want

So, I've made a new page on Surf4Wine that hopes to start the conversation... funnily enough (ha ha) it's called 'Andrew's page..'

What do you think?

We had my sister and family over last night - lovely, relaxing evening. She's vegetarian, vegan in fact, and I had tried to make something vaguely interesting for her to eat - knowing that she also like fresh, local ingredients/producers.

In the end I settled on a tart. Using shop-bought pastry (who makes puff pastry anymore when the bought stuff is this good?), I started with a layer of sliced deep red tomatoes (these were the real deal - they smelt just like the ones my granddad used to pick out of his greenhouse), and then added some toasted pine nuts that I had mixed with some finely chopped garlic. A sprinkle of olive oil finished it off, and the tart was then baked in the oven for ten minutes to soften the tomato base. I then popped the tart out to add the finishing touches - a layer of fresh purple sprouting some vegan parmesan cheese substitute. A grind of pepper, some Maldon sea salt, a sprinkle of olive oil and back in the oven for five minutes. As Gordon Ramsay might say - Vegan supper DONE! (In fact, it apparently tasted quite good too... but when I went to rush for the camera for a Blog photo I'd forgotten to charge the camera battery - doh!)

Making something so different from what I normally create had me in the the mood to try something new. Mmmm - it's a bank holiday w/end so why not go the whole hog and experiment with some wines not from our own list? Yes, shock, horror, Andrew doesn't always drink his own wines. As the day had been very spring-like, and in fact quite warm, my thoughts were turning towards glasses of chilled white. I've also determined to explore some other retailers' wines in the next few months....comparing and contrasting what we stock against what else is out there.

In the end I settled on two wines from Waitrose - I've always really rated them for food if I have to supermarket shop, and their wine selection is always interesting. Went for a Vinho Verde from Portugal and a Gruner Veltliner from Austria. Both were exactly what I was looking for. The Quinta de Azevedo Vinho Verde was bone dry; almost squeakily so. Almost took your breath away. The non-veggie food was a salad Niçoise made with fresh tuna and this wine went brilliantly both with the fresh fish and with the olive oil I'd used in the dressing. And, I tried it with a slice of the tart. It worked OK with that too.

We had some fresh asparagus too (can't get fresher than just out of the soil at Q Gardens Farm shop!), instead of the more traditional green beans in the salad, and I was intrigued to see how the second wine, the Schloss Gobelsburg Gruner Veltliner would fare with the asparagus. It has always been one of my favourite food and wine combinations. Worked great - I love the mineralty in the wine and the way it plays with 'greenness' of the asparagus. Plus, the Gruner Veltliner had enough weight to work with the fresh tuna. Very well made, and pushed me just that little bit nearer to re-inventing part of our white wine listing at Surf4Wine - we used to have a very interesting Austrian selection, but it was a bit like Alsace - fab wines but not a lot of people got behind them. Maybe time to try with Austria again...!

A long, good Friday... It started with breakfast in Oxford at 7am, paper-work and customer stuff at warehouse in middle, called in to see friends Shelley and Richard at The Radnor Arms in Coleshill late afternoon (we are possibly organising a wine supper there with Saint Clair estate coming to visit later this month - watch this space for more info), and was rounded off by a lovely supper at the Eyston Arms in nearby East Hendred.

Eyston Arms's is one of Alison and my favourite places to eat locally. The food is modern, using good ingredients well prepared, with just the right dash of imagination to help things along the way. Unstuffy, friendly service by an all female team that combines cheerfulness and professionalism. Relaxing end to a long day. Didn't drink much, just a glass of the house Languedoc Rosé that was nice and refreshing. We weren't in a wine mood as we had to do Friday night taxi ferrying of teenagers... except that when we got back the one that was going out later had, by then, decided not to, and the one that was out already decided to walk back with friends. Oh well, such is life with kids!

Tonight’s wine...
Anyway, by then we thought we deserved a glass of something, so I opened a bottle of Bonarda, Colonia las Liebres 2006 from Argentina that I'd brought home from warehouse with me. To be honest, I hadn't tasted/drunk this wine in quite a while, so was interested how it was doing. I know I thought it was excellent value when we started listing it again last Summer.

Nice punchy, damsony red fruit flavours. Good acidity/tannin grip (Bonarda can be, I sometimes think, a bit too acidic if not fully ripe. Which is why I like mine from South America, where there's a bit more sunshine, and not its native home of northern Italy) . As is typical for the grape, this red and was happily full-bodied (Alison is not a fan of light wines, and she had done the driving earlier, I figured we'd best stay in safe territory!).

On the back-label it proudly boasts unfiltered and unoaked. I'm delighted about the latter in particular as too many commercial wines use oak to add 'interest' and 'flavour', when all this actually does is mask the fruit flavour of the wine and add too much artificial tasting vanilla and other unattractive aromas and flavours. Happily more and more pubs and restaurants are starting to think more about their wines and put more thought into their lists, especially their house wines. Over-oaked reds are not food food-friendly people!

The lack of oak in this wine really lets the plummy, ripe fruit scream out. Nice weight, good grip. Well put together, interesting wine. Would work well with Pasta and rich sauces as the acidity would balance things and there's masses of good fruit. And, I think, still good value at £6.99.

Incidentally, the Bonarda Colonia las Liebres is made by Altos los Hormigas, and I have brought their Malbec home this week-end to try too. Look out for a note here... It's May Bank Holiday week-end in UK, so, HOPEFULLY, sun will shine and we'll get to drink some nice wines too. Have my sister Debbie and her family coming for Supper, so off shopping now... Wells Stores first stop.

Everyday on my way to Surf4Wine HQ, AKA our warehouse, I pass the Q Gardens Farm Shop.

As the name suggests, it is a farm shop, and it sells fruit and vegetables from its own farm that surrounds the shop. (It does great Pick Your Own as well.)

But it doesn't end there, and that is what makes it such a great place to stop off and buy local foods.Yes, they sell their own local veggies and fruits - the surrounding area once teemed with numerous apple and pear orchards until they gradually disappeared as the supermarket cult took over and the great British public dashed headlong for convenience over flavour and local produce. Although thankfully that is beginning to reverse as more and more of us think about where our food comes from, how it gets to us and what goes in it and on it (and just for the record, I'm not anti-supermarkets or anything, they have their place... I just prefer to buy food local wherever possible). The area is still justly famous for its Harwell cherries.

One of Q Gardens Farm Shop's biggest draws, and possibly its best-kept local secret, is its in-house butchers. Well, I've jusy blown their cover! It's a proper butchers with skilled staff, selling locally-reared meat. There'll be a separate post on this in near future, with, hopefully, an interview with the butcher. I want to become good friends with him so I get the lowdown on the very best local meat. Definitely a carnivore me! We bought local rib of beef from them two Sundays back when we had the children's grandparents for lunch - utterly amazing, and I have to say, some of the best beef I have ever eaten. And that includes in some VERY expensive restaurants . It really proved the adage that good ingredients simply cooked really does take some beating. But it's not enough that the butchers has knowledgeable staff and fantastic produce. Best of all? They are open 7 days a week. Supermarket style convenience AND local food. Come on south Oxfordshire, what are you waiting for - buy local and support you local butcher! Indeed, our much-loved and admired Nigel Slater is espousing the virtues of supporting your local butcher on his latest podcast I'm listening to as I write this. I dare you to try Q's butchers and then go back to a supermarket. Yes, it's not as cheap, but you really do get what you pay for with fresh meat these days. (I have, in the dim and distant past when I used to buy meat at the 'meccas of convenience', had to, on more than one occasion, take back supermarket 'fresh' meat as it has gone off WITHIN ITS SELL-BY DATE. Quite scary really - but a very good reason to buy from your local butcher). And with quality comes economy. On Sunday we spent £11 on a free-range chicken. All 4 of us ate it roast on Sunday evening. Alison boiled the bones with carrots, onions, the neck of the bird, two bayleaves and a handful of fresh marjoram to create a stunning stock that made soup (stuffed with local vegetables) on Monday night and a chicken and asparagus risotto on the Tuesday. £11 for 3 meals suddenly doesn't look quite so expensive!

Q Gardens farm shop doesn't just sell your standard meat and veg. They sell local beers too. (We are looking at stocking some of them online too - but hey, I'm happy for competition and like to be transparent about such things!), And local wines (we don't stock any - yet...), local pickles, chutney's, condiments and preserves. You really must try Well Preserved's Award-winning (Great Taste Awards Silver) Seville orange marmalade. Thickly spread on top of some of Upper Norton Dairy's Jersey butter, that in turn is smeared over some of the fresh bread that the Q farm shop sells and you have a perfect accompaniment to your tea or coffee for breakfast.

Talking of breakfast... I stopped to 'Q-shop' (a new phrase in my vocab now for popping into Q Gardens shop as a pass by... funny how I seem to do that quite a lot these days...) last Sunday after unexpectedly appearing on Radio Oxford to review the Sunday papers (Alison was due to do it but a last minute migraine meant she needed an emergency sub, and as Phil Mercer and I have exchanged the odd word over the airwaves I was deemed an acceptable last minute sub.. it was FUN! And quite amazingly, they asked me back. Was it the quip about Ann Diamond becoming President of the National Obesity Society?). Anyway, I bought local bacon and sausages, as well as eggs from nearby Brook Farm (who have fab self-catering cottages), and trotted home with food and papers. Dashing into your local filling station for some long life OJ and Thick Sliced loaf just doesn't have the same allure for a proper Sunday breakfast!

I could go on and on about this foodie heaven, but I think I've whetted your appetite enough to tempt you to pop in next time you are nearby. And to help you find them, here's a map via the Oxford Farmers Market web site above. You won't be disappointed.

Update...
Q Gardens Farm Shop doesn't have a website it seems, but they do deserve a web presence so more people can find out about the wonderful goodies they have in store. And they have lots going on as we move from Spring into Summer with new season fruits, veggies and other tasty offerings. So I've made them a little page here on Surf4Wine. Hope it helps guys :)

Q Gardens Farm Shop page on Surf4Wine - click here

Q-Gardens Farm Shop photo's...Looking at adding some more photos here... the whole photo-taking think is very new to me. What do you think of first efforts above? Anyone any ideas on how i could set up a photo-stream of photo's on this page, as i add new ones. Is Flickr good for that?

Tonight's The Apprentice episode...

Oh my god!

Being firm Apprentice fans in this house it made us all roll around on floor laughing...

But seriously Sir Alan, would you want any of this lot working for you??

Is this really the cream of young business talent in the UK? I hope other countries aren't watching otherwise we will be even more of a laughing stock than we already are (we have the only PM in the world, as far as I'm aware, who admits to being part of one of his own 'on the job' training courses. Not that I'm batting for any political team here I hasten to add... they all remind me too much of tonight's Apprentice candidates in the closing sequence...)

For a really insightful, not to mention highly hilarous, view of what is going on in The Apprentice see Anna Pickard's Blog in The Guardian. Wonderful stuff!

Would be fantastic fun if Alan Sugar had some sort of hidden web cam in the candidates house that recorded all the petty, jealous, spiteful and insanely childish in-fighting and showed it back to them at beginning of next weeks challenge. And then said 'after this lot I don't want any of you, you're ALL fired!'. But that wouldn't make great television, would it?

When I was at Q Gardens Farm Shop on Steventon Hill on Sunday (they don't have a web site, so I can't link to it here - a great shame as somewhere to show people what they sell would be useful. They are one of my favourite places to buy high-quality local food. Especially now they have their own butchers with excellent local reared meat. Anyway, I digress...), I saw an advertisement for new season's asparagus on the blackboard behind the counter. A quick inquiry and I found out that the first of their outside grown crop would be available in the shop around lunchtime on Monday.

Now, we LOVE asparagus in this house! It is one of the few green vegetables that son Douglas will consume with vigour and enjoy. So, I couldn't wait to get my hands on some. The intention had been to maximise the flavour of this beautiful new-season asparagus by either steaming and serving with melted butter (very traditional), or grilling and serving with Maldon sea salt and Parmesan (all very Jamie Oliver!)

In the event, things didn't go to plan. Yes, I got my asparagus, but by the time I would have been cooking it for supper I was most assuredly not well. So, it stayed in the fridge. Until Alison took it out tonight and combined it with zingy lemons and Arborio rice, plus some of the home-made stock and leftovers from Sunday's chicken. In fact, it was an adaption of Nigel Slater's lemon and Asparagus risotto. Nigel Slater is THE food guru in our house - we are big fans of his sensible, tasty recipes and food writing - his recipes just make you want to cook! In fact, I have just bought Alison his book 'Appetite'... not so much a cook book as a way of cooking. Definitely worth buying.

Anyway, a beautiful creamy risotto was produced. A lovely tang of fresh lemons, tender but still crisp asparagus; a lovely creamy, sticky risotto. Now, I'm not drinking tonight... but I did have some risotto. If ever a dish cried out of for a particular wine, it was this dish yelling and screaming 'find me some Gruner Veltliner'. This little known grape-variety (little known in a sea of Sauvignon and Chardonnay) is most cultivated in Austria and I first fell in love with it on a trip to Austria many years ago.

Good producers Of Gruner Veltliner make wines with a definite minerally style, integrate the natural acidity of the grape, and produce very food-friendly wines. These are wine without oak. Think Riesling but with a more minerally quality, a sightly greener edge and perhaps a bit more weight. We used to have 3 or 4 on our list, but I've just realised don't have a single one at the moment. That will change very soon!

So, with the Asparagus Season just kicking off, take my advice... go down to your local farm shop (it tastes so much better from there than from the supermarket!), grab yourself some fresh asparagus and buy in some Gruner Veltliner and give yourself a real treat. let me know what you think...

Haven't blogged in a couple of days... managed to over-do it in garden Sunday to extent of aggravating my dodgy back, and compounded it being catching some nasty bug yesterday. Yuk!

However, I was just reading various Blogs that I follow (laptop perched on bed, cup of tea in hand... not the image most people have of a wine merchant!) and came across this posting from Jamie Goode over at his Blog on Wineanorak.

He was highlighting various top Aussie wines. As many of you will know, we are big fans of Australia and New Zealand here at Surf4Wine (but also other wines, in case you think we are overly New World centric... look out for in-depth Spain feature coming soon!) . It was great to see a lot of the wines that we have rated highly in recent years included in the tasting, and tasting good.

A good article, and worth a look :)

When your husband offers you lunch on a Saturday, many women would raise an eyebrow. When he confesses he wants to take you to a brewery in Henley-on-Thames, then the penny starts to drop. But to be fair, Andrew then told me that as well as wonderful Lovibonds beer there's also a lot of chocolate on offer.....well what woman is going to say no?!

I wasn't disappointed. I sampled the Lovibonds Gold (wonderful and smooth with caramel and honey overtones) and the Lovibonds Special which is simply stunning. I can't wait until we can share it with you via Surf4wine. And the chocolate? Well Jeff Rosenmeier was playing host to Petra Barran of chocstar. She's taking chocolate products to people around the country to fit in with her love of a nomadic lifestyle. And there's nothing this woman can't do with chocolate! From ice creams to muffins and tips for Mexican food. Check out her website at www.chocstar.co.uk for more. And the best bit is - she can come to you! Click on the link below to hear my interview with her. Enjoy!

Petra Barran

St. George's Day, a day to be proud to be English... The Scots Welsh and Irish are all proud to celebrate their national Saints Days. Why are the English seemingly less so? I say stand up and be proud to be English today!

There are no Dragons to be slain today ... but to celebrate England's national day we have slashed the prices from two of our favourite British brewers...

5% off Lovibonds beers and also beers from Chiltern Brewery.

Prices stay reduced for 72 hours only, so hurry to take advantage NOW if you want to try some great local beers AND Save money!

St. George's day Lovibonds beer and Chiltern Brewery promo ends 9am Saturday 26.04.08

And it looks like one of our local Oxfordshire pubs (Fox and Hounds in Uffington) is getting in on the act - see this story I just saw in our local paper The Oxford Mail. It's only a hop over White Horse Hill from our home in Wantage to get there, so perhaps I'll pop in later and see what they're up to - apparently there is going to be a feast, and Morris Dancing too. Uffington is supposed to be where St. George slayed the Dragon (the bare patch on the hill opposite is supposed to be where the dragon's blood ensured that no grass would grow, according to local folklore).

And I'll let you know if I find any Dragons...