Our Wine of the Week this week is another Autumnal classic - a Pinot Noir but French this time. The Boisset Pinot Noir, now down £1 to just £8.99 (for one week only), is fruity but firm with a tannic backbone that really cries out for food.
Autumnal fare is the obvious choice - the seasons mushrooms are in full flow for example so a dish that pulls out the flavour of these would be a great match.
You are not going to serve a Pinot with a damson, plum or greengage crumble but pears baked with loin of pork - a dish I'm planning for next weekend - adds a sweet note that the lighter styles of Pinot should accompany beautifully. If you prefer a sweeter note in your wines one of our New World Pinot's might suit better - the Escarpment Pinot Noir or the version from Tuatara Bay for example.
Slow Cooked Pork Belly With Spiced Roast Apple served with Mashed Pumpkin would be great too with the Boisset Pinot. Although I would be tempted to go with a New World Pinot Gris (the Escarpment for example) - one of my favourite food wines - where the apple will have its flavour replicated in the wine and a touch of spice in the pumpkin (a grating of nutmeg perhaps) would emphasis the subtle spiciness in the Pinot Gris.
Allegrini Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 2003
"Allegrini continues to produce some of Italy's most stylish red wines. This concentrated, modern blend of Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara is dense and chewy; it's heavy with flavours and smells of plums, cherries, liquorice, chocolate and Christmas Cake."
From the November issue of Decanter written by Simon Woods:
"In search of a signature
South Africa has long struggled for a wine around which to pin its identity. But with critics increasingly lauding Cape Sauvignon Blanc, could this be the variety to fit the bill, asks Simon Woods?
Great Sauvignon Blanc, South African-style
Quando Robertson 2007***** (5 stars)
Powerful yet restrained, herb-scented lemon and lime, but also touches of nettles and gunflint. Up to 2011."
Posted by Andrew Barrow on October 24th 2007 3:47pm. Leave a comment
A ripple of excitement as the palate of Mollydookers was lifted off the delivery lorry.
For once a quirky, cult producer who really delivers the style, the class and the enjoyment we look for in a wine. Now on the shelves the Goosebumps Sparkling Shiraz 2006, the Blue Eyed Blue Shiraz 2006 and the The Scooter Merlot 2006 plus the Boxer 2006 Shiraz. All wonderfully packaged.
I'm yet to try these latest vintages; I'm thinking of the Goosebumps Sparkling Shiraz for the Christmas Day meal. It's not cheap at a shade under £30 but if you can't be indulgent at Christmas when exactly can you be?!
I've also just noticed that they are all characteristically high on the alcohol front. The sparkler comes in at a not inconsiderable 16.5. The Blue Eyed Boy is also 16.5% while the Scooter is 15.5%.
These three wines join the Boxer Shiraz (£14.50) which we featured a few weeks ago along with a beef recipe supplied by the vineyard. The Mollydooker Violinist Verdelho is due later in the year.
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month in the UK. This is a cause very close to our hearts here at Surf4Wine. So, this weeks special offer is a great value case of Pink wines (pink wines/pink ribbons) in support of the Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign.
We are offering a a mixed case of rosé wines. For each case ordered Surf4Wine will donate £2 to the Breast Cancer Awareness campaign.
Each six bottle case contains six bottles of rosé - 2 bottles each of the Brampton Rosé, Mitolo 'Jester' Sangiovese Rosé and the Parducci Zinfandel Rosé
I don't think these will be wines we stock anytime soon - and I can't really see the point of them apart from stoking controversy and thus publicity.
Back in September Italian police confiscated 20,000 bottles of wine from the 'Der Fuhrer' range made by Vini Lunardelli, on the basis that they represented 'a glorification of the perpetrators of crimes against humanity'.
The labels certainly look like they glorify Nazism to me but Lunardelli also has labels depicting Napoleon, Franz Joseph, Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt in addition to Hitler and Mussolini.
I could understand the attraction if the bottles were historically interesting, actual bottles of the time, but why would you produce them now? According to Decanter Andrea Lunardelli was able to convince the judges that he had no political agenda so the wines are released and available for sale.
Posted by Andrew Chapman on October 21st 2007 6:08pm. 5 comments
I'm sitting here in front of my laptop, pondering a piece I'm writing for Surf4Wine, to go up later this week: 'Wines for Autumn'.
Initially I was thinking red wines. With lots of flavour and interest to get the brain cells thinking and conversation flowing. Warming, but with alcohol levels nicely in balance and not over-whelming. Not too much extraction. Food friendly. It's the time of year to have friends round for big Sunday lunches and suppers round the fire.
Then I started to think about the food we eat at this time of year, and what is in season. I remember years ago going out mushroom-hunting one October Sunday with a friend (boy, does Patrick love his mushrooms; and he knows his stuff too, so no risk of poisoning either!) Bringing back our haul of exotically named and bizarre looking fungus, cooking it with garlic and herbs, and the drinking some amazing red Burgundy's.
It must have been a good memory as tonight we are having some Portobello mushrooms I found in our local farm shop (I went in for apples to make a favourite Autumn pud: Apple and Blackberry crumble), tossed in a hot pan with good olive oil, herbs from the garden and garlic. Only trouble is... I don't have a stash of great Burgundy at home to partner our little feast with (it's all back in Surf4Wine's hollowed out Volcano HQ!).
So, instead, it will be one of my favourite New World Pinot Noirs: Tuatara Bay Pinot Noir from Saint Clair from New Zealand's Marlborough region. Sure, there are other much better Pinot's, but not at this price! A snip at £7.99, and perfect with the earthy, vegetal flavours of the mushrooms.
So, what is your favourite Autumn food, and what do you like to drink with it? Over to you...
The major wine, or rather alcohol, related news story over the last few days has been concerned with the high alcohol consumption of the wealthy middle classes.
The BBC covers the story well highlighting affluent places such as Harrogate, Woking and Guildford as 'hazardous drinking hot-spots', which sounds more like a motorway tanker spillage than a drinking issue.
We sell alcohol. Such news stories are not in our interest, but are the likes of the BBC and the Daily Mail really going to have everyone reaching for the fruit juice? While we are not disputing that excessive alcohol intake is damaging our rule is 'a little of what you fancy'.
Coincidentally Mr C proffered a glass of something cool and white earlier - an Australian wine with just 8.5% alcohol.
Trentham Estate Two Thirds 2007 is a blend of Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc; a wine that they claim has "only two thirds the alcoholic strength of a normal white wine". A level that many German wines are still set at. But this is Australian where big alcohol is pretty much the norm. The Trentham website also proclaims the wine has "40% less carbs and jouls".
Not sure if this is dealcoholised or just fermented to a low level. But it is generally dry, light, typically Semillon/Sauvignon on the nose and palate and does taste like a 'normal' wine. Until you get to the finish. Here the flavours dissipate quickly and, where you expect the alcoholic weight to be, there is little more than a disappointing damp-squib.
No decision yet made on whether the Trentham Two Thirds will be listed. We currently list several wines from the Trentham Estate
Posted by Kelvin on October 17th 2007 6:15pm. Leave a comment
Regular visitors to Surf4Wine may have noticed some big changes to our checkout system today which we hope will go down as well as the wine!
The days of having to enter your billing and delivery address every time you placed an order are over. Just enter them once at registration and you can retrieve them in future by logging in. It makes the checkout much quicker to use, though we've kept the old payment form too for those who prefer it.
And because you can now log in, it means we are able to provide you with a user area from which you can check your order status, look at and repeat your past orders, and manage all your delivery addresses in an address book.
We'll be rolling out lots of other new features on the site in the near future and would really like your feedback on the checkout and user area, so feel free to comment here on this blog post or privately via the contact form. It's all welcome, good or bad!
If you've ordered before...
If you've ordered prior to today (17th October 2007) there is no need to register. To access your account click here and enter the e-mail address you've used with us previously.
An email has just arrived. It's an announcement that one of our champagne's - the Gremillet Brut Selection NV - has just been awarded the Wine and Spirit Competition 2007 Trophy for Best None Vintage Champagne!
"Whilst we cannot mention their names, I'm sure that the competition was tough with all the big Champagne houses entering their examples of Non-Vintage champagnes. The IWSC seems to attract the prestigious houses and is judged to be one of the most rigorously-judged competitions"
It is a total coincidence that we put up the Gremillet Brut Selection as our Wine of the Week yesterday. But it is on offer with a £2 a bottle discount taking it to just £16.99!
Posted by Andrew Barrow on October 15th 2007 3:39pm. 2 comments
The wine worlds equivalent of Jamie Oliver, Matt Skinner, is just about to see his 2008 Juice book book released to the expectant hordes. The guide reviews the '100 wines you should be drinking'; several of which we stock.
While we wholeheartedly agree with Mr Skinner on the quality of the above we don't quite agree on his 'Bargain of the Year'; we tried it and thought it rubbish...
Hope we are not too late for this round of Wine Blogging Wednesday! The theme this month, as selected by Catavino, is Portuguese Table Wines.
We have only just begun to list this wine, the first stocks arrived this morning (hence our late entry), following a fine showing at a wine tasting a week or two back.
Made by the the Infantado port house this, rather than being a port, is a 'normal' red table wine. It's a blend of 30% Touriga Nacional, 30% Tinta France and 30% Tinta Roriz with 10% 'other' Douro varieties. It's a serious wine with excellent depth and a supple texture. Compared to the rather lacklustre vintages of the past its a marvel. The grapes are sourced from two separate vineyards and trodden by foot in the traditional lagar for a week before the wine was racked to tank where it completed its fermentation.
If you enjoy a richer, fuller style of wine then the Quinta do Infantado, 2004, is certainly worth a try.
Subscribers to our weekly newsletter will already have heard of this 'limited time special'.
Basically it was such a dull and dismal day here in Oxfordshire yesterday that MR C decided to offer a little ray of New Zealand sunshine to everyone in the form of a special offer.
Until Thursday at 2pm all Kim Crawford wines are on offer. A hugely generous offer at that - 12% off! All you need to do is enter the the promo code KCOCT07 when you make your purchase and the discount will be applied automatically.
As the flood of orders shows these wines are extremely popular; the offer includes the multi-award winning 'Spitfire' and Sauvignon Blanc.
Four camera phone snaps of a very enjoyable tasting of Tamar Bridge Wines. The range of wines presented by the European Sales Manager (whose name I embarrassingly forget).
Tamar Ridge is an interesting estate down Tasmania way - Sauvingon Blanc and Pinot Noir the specialities although the Gewürztraminer was of good quality too. The best wine on show was their Devil's Corner Sauvignon Blanc which, sadly, is no longer available in the UK (has proved that successful!).
The Pinot's on show were good and demonstrated the vintage conditions perfectly producing wines with quite high acidity and a certain savoury leanness. Now I loved these in a food-friendly way (thinking some nice lamb) but Mr C thought a little lacking in ripe fruit. We might just wait for the next vintage to be released (which will be the 2005's) before a final decision is made on stocking them.
Posted by Andrew Barrow on October 8th 2007 5:24pm. Leave a comment
OK, so one half a potato, two small slices of chorizo and a slither of bacon do not a meal make! But I have to tell you it was delicious!
I was so hungry by the time it had finished cooking that I totally forgot to save enough to make a nice big plateful for the 'still life'. Still the wine is the focus.
The dish comes from a new Spanish Cookbook 1080 Recipes by Simone and Inés Ortega. The postal strike has delayed my copy arriving via Amazon but luckily the Observer Food Monthly printed a few recipes in their last issue, one of which was this Potato and Chorizo dish. Basically a long, slow cook of new potatoes in oil that previously had the bacon and chorizo fried in it. The recipe actually says to keep all three goods in the pan for the hour or so the potatoes take to cook but I found the meats dried out. The final addition is a big handful of chopped parsley.
The wine is a Godello. A little known white Spanish grape that really deserves to be better known. It has a nice weight, but good acidity, and lovely fresh, pineapple, peach and melon flavours. A bit like a cross between an Alsace Pinot Gris and a decent Italian Pinot Grigio.
Very nice of Wine and Spirits magazine to give us a plug in the latest issue.
They write that this Sauvignon
"... also merits attention. Ripe but restrained with lemon, herb, mineral and light green pepper flavours, it's a wine that impresses at the table rather than the tasting bench"
Sounds great, does it not. Sadly we dont actually stock the wine in question.
I signed up for Twitter today, so I can Twitter about wine, life and the Universe (i.e. Blog) when not in office, or in front of my laptop. (This style of updates has been described as "micro-blogging").
Anyway, this idea gets its first proper outing Monday 8th October when I'm off to the Wines of South Africa Mega-tasting in London. Monday and Tuesday are for the Trade, (i.e. us!), then the general public next two days.
But as most of you who know me will testify, I never stop Twittering about wine, one way of another, so you're sure to get lots of WineTwitters here!
Might be something to do with the England-Australia rugby match tomorrow but Australian beers - Hahn Premium in particular - have been flying out.
I hadn't realised quite how much of a following Hahn has created. Chatting to an Australian friend of mine alerted me to the hilarious adverts for the award winning beer. (Is Hahn award winning or is it the adverts; not too sure on that score). Any road-up the power that is the internet lets all see these adverts...
Posted by Andrew Chapman on October 2nd 2007 10:47pm. Leave a comment
Well, our
Mammoth South African wine sale has
been in full swing for a day or so now - some very happy people have some great
wines in their cellar’s/wine racks/tummy's, all with huge savings - so I
thought it was time to reveal one of my favourite South African wines on our
list:
Quoin Rock Syrah
Having spent last Saturday in the warehouse counting bottles, checking things for the sale to go live on Monday morning, I figured we deserved something tasty to go with the local roast pork we were having for supper.
I
spied the box of
Quoin Rock Syrah with a few bottles left (now even
fewer bottles!) and remembered how much I had enjoyed previous wines from this
estate. Plus, it is the annual Wines of
South Africa Mega-tasting in London next week and I think the people from
Quoin Rock might be there. A good chance to taste an older vintage before we
get to the latest releases next week.
A really nice balance of restrained/elegant old world
(Rhône-like) charm and flavours - part leather, part gamey, part brambly,
mixed with ripe, juiciness of New World. And it worked beautifully with the
Pork too!
We only have few bottles of this, and the
Quoin Rock Merlot. Both are drinking very well,
and will continue to do so for a few years yet. Quoin Rock also make a lovely European styled Sauvignon Blanc, and a very interesting sweet wine:
Quoin
Rock 'Vine Dried' Sauvignon Blanc . All four wines are in the sale, making
now a great time to get to know these fabulous Cape wines. Before I decide to
drink them all!
'What the Wine Merchant is drinking tonight' Foot-note No 'fine wine' tonight; last night and tonight we were drinking our way through a few bottles that got returned to warehouse as part of a broken case from our carrier. Very spoilt labels, so not easy to sell, but gave me a chance to test one of our best selling South African wines: Paarl Heights Cinsault Shiraz. Sometimes it is easy to over-look such wines, and this is a good reason why price is not always best clue to how good a wine is or isn't. Paarl Heights is just £4.99 a bottle, but boy does it pack some flavour - and stylish done too. Ripe, peppery berry fruit, lovely juicy fruit. Not too extracted. Works great with quite a spicy stir-fry.
Now I will admit that I am yet to try the Maury so have no idea how it will stand up to the competition. Not even sure who the competition is to be truthful!
UPDATE: Looks like we were slightly mis-informed. The competition was for a pairing of Roussillon dessert wine with a dish prepared by a restaurant chef. Our wine was there for tasting but wasn't used in a pairing. It did give me the opportunity to have a quick slurp - and an amazing wine it is too, stunning in fact. An amazing wine that could be sipped on its own, with a selection of nuts or chocolate, a quality piece of blue cheese or a treacle tart.
Andrew Chapman Fine Wines Ltd - Registered office: 264 Banbury Road, Oxford, OX2 7DY Registered in England. Company no. 5496317. VAT no. GB873 7934 72. You must be aged 18 or over to order.
+44 (0)1235 821539
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Our 
As recommended in Waitrose Magazine
From the November issue of Decanter written by Simon Woods:
A ripple of excitement as the palate of 
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month in the UK. This is a cause very close to our hearts here at Surf4Wine. So, this weeks special offer is a great value case of Pink wines (pink wines/pink ribbons) in support of the Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign.
I don't think these will be wines we stock anytime soon - and I can't really see the point of them apart from stoking controversy and thus publicity.
I'm sitting here in front of my laptop, pondering a piece I'm writing for Surf4Wine, to go up later this week: 'Wines for Autumn'.
The major wine, or rather alcohol, related news story over the last few days has been concerned with the high alcohol consumption of the wealthy middle classes.
Regular visitors to Surf4Wine may have noticed some big changes to our checkout system today which we hope will go down as well as the wine!
An email has just arrived. It's an announcement that one of our champagne's - the 
The wine worlds equivalent of Jamie Oliver, Matt Skinner, is just about to see his 
book released to the expectant hordes. The guide reviews the '100 wines you should be drinking'; several of which we stock.
Hope we are not too late for this round of Wine Blogging Wednesday! The theme this month, as selected by 
Subscribers to our weekly newsletter will already have heard of this 'limited time special'. 
OK, so one half a potato, two small slices of chorizo and a slither of bacon do not a meal make! But I have to tell you it was delicious!
Very nice of Wine and Spirits magazine to give us a plug in the latest issue.
I signed up for 
The team at Surf4Wine are pleased to offer you the chance to buy a range of excellent 
Off to London in awhile to attend the 
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