It has been an exciting week in my house as we have just adopted a ‘fallen angel’ from the Hearing Dogs for Deaf people. Starsky (name, please note, pre-allocated) sadly did not make the grade and we are the lucky beneficiaries of his lack of aptitude.
As we have been getting to know each other and setting boundaries it has meant that I and the other half have been reallocating jobs, leaving me nervously handing over wine-purchasing duties. Control-freak that I am, I did so reluctantly but with a detailed list that I believed to not be open to any interpretation. More fool me.
For all that I love to try new wines, when I have got 20-odd people turning up for a bit of a bash, the last thing I want is a vinous surprise (ie something I know nothing about or have not tasted in a while).
I know the Saint Clair wines from New Zealand (both Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc) consistently impress our friends and me and I also know that Majestic (www.majestic.co.uk) — an easy pit-stop on the way home — stock them.
It would not be much of a wine column if that is what had, in fact, come home now would it? Naturally, what appeared in the kitchen were 24 quite different bottles of wine. Starsky, it became clear, was not the only one headed for the doghouse.
I should not have been such a grump; it turns out that I am not the only one that can pick a decent bottle of wine.
Te Muna Road Sauvignon Blanc 2009 from Craggy Range (£11.99 www.majestic.co.uk) has quite an exuberant nose but a more mineral, citrus palate that is more reminiscent of Old World Sauvignon.
Nautilus Sauvignon Blanc 2009 (£10.99 www.majestic.co.uk) does not have the same mineral quality as the Te Muna but it does deliver a delicious mouthful of gooseberry, lime and lemongrass that makes Sauvignon so distinctive and so popular.
On the Pinot Noir front there were one or two shockers in the mix but not so the Winegrowers of Ara Composite Pinot Noir 2006 which is a delicately-flavoured, sweet red-cherry wine with vibrant acidity and lovely smoky, earthy red fruits on the mid-palate.
Funnily enough, I do have tasting notes from a year or two ago, when I rated it a more-than-respectable 17/20 but somehow I had not taken it any further.
I have given myself a slap on the wrist about that because it is a noteworthy wine not just for the quality but also because of the story behind it.
Ara is a designated area within New Zealand’s Marlborough district where producers are aiming to make wines of a certain standard and style that reflect Ara uniquely; rather like Chablis and Chinon are recognised ‘appellations’ of Burgundy and the Loire Valley respectively.
We drank — and loved — the 2006 Composite but I can now only find the 2007 for sale and that through Berry Brothers and Rudd (www.bbr.com) who have it available for £12.95 which I think is a really good price for a Pinot of this quality.
So, out of the doghouse for the selection . . . straight back in for only picking up two bottles of the Ara composite.
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