We’re recovering from a very busy month work wise (thus the low post count and the missing next part of our Fat Duck review). To get things going again here’s a new wine review!

I saw this wine on offer at Sainsbury’s at the weekend. Reduced from £9.99 per bottle to £4.99 per bottle with an extra 5% off if you buy 6 or more. Whilst I laugh at the £9.99 price (this is probably a £6-7 wine), £4.74 per bottle is an absolute bargain.

Most of you know I love McGuigan wines and have been looking for a replacement for their great Gold Label Shiraz for a while. I cooked some lovely local pork sausages and served them with roast beetroot, new potatoes and lightly cooked runner beans and pointed cabbage in butter.

This is a good Merlot. It has the smooth plummy-ness and mellow, warm finish. I wrote:

Nice, mellow, smooth. Not quite top notch, lacking some complexity. Good though.

It doesn’t quite rate as a 5 star wine. It’s an average wine at £9.99 and would warrant 3 stars but the current pricing at Sainsbury’s puts this solidly in the 4 star region.

McGuigan Bin 578 Merlot

Grape: Merlot
Alcohol: 13.5%
Guide Price: On offer £4.99 (£4.74 for 6+) at Sainsbury’s.
I bought this wine at: Sainsbury’s (instore)
ITs Food Rating: Four stars

A “quicky” wine review for you all today. I got a couple of bottles of McManis Limited Release Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 in a mixed wine half case from Tesco.com.

McManis Family Vineyards are based in California and this wine seems to be another “Tesco exclusive”. As usual I expected a simple gluggable red with maybe a bit of extra “harshness” as it’s one of my least favourite red grapes, the mighty Cabernet Sauvignon.

As our article about wine bottle design is getting quote a few hits it’s worth noting I quite like the label design. There are maybe a few too many fonts in use but there’s a nice use of colour and the back label is very neat including one of those removable “buy me next time” tabs.

So, what was this wine like? Well. it was okay. Just okay. Not really drinkable on it’s own (like most CabSavs) and fairly decent with food. It wasn’t too harsh and overpowering although I felt rotten the day after drinking it (although that wasn’t wine related… hopefully!). To use an Internet-ism, it was just a bit “meh!”. It didn’t knock my socks off but it was a decent enough wine, 3 stars.

McManis Limited Release Cabernet Sauvignon 2006

Grape: Cabernet Sauvignon
Alcohol: 13.5%
Guide Price: ~£4-£7
I bought this wine at: Tesco (online)
ITs Food Rating: Three Stars

The other weekend we did a blind tasting of 2006 Sauvignon Blanc’s from Highfield & Cloudy Bay. These are two of my favourite wines (Highfield being the better of the two) and both scored 5 stars.

Both wines were lightly chilled and served before and during a meal. Over time a Sauvignon Blanc will “mature” and lose some of it’s “zingy-ness”. The fruity side of things will still be there but there will have been a mellowing of the flavours and the wine usually tastes a little less dry.

Above you can see Highfield on the left and Cloudy Bay on the right. The Cloudy Bay was a darker colour than the Highfield but only slightly.

Highfield Sauvignon Blanc 2006 – The wine still retained a lot of the zingy-ness you’d associate with a quite young wine. There was very little mellowing of the flavours and the wine could have passed for a much younger wine. This was our favourite “before meal” wine.

Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2006 – The Cloudy Bay had mellowed much more than the Highfield, there was a more complex flavour and the wine tasted very different to a “young” Sauvignon Blanc. This was our preferred wine to have with the meal.

In conclusion, both wines had aged well and tasted great. The Highfield still tasted very young and made a perfect aperitif wine whereas the Cloudy Bay had mellowed over time and went very well with food. Surprisingly in this case I think the Cloudy Bay was the better wine *you all know my love of Highfield). So, Highfield wins when it’s younger, Cloudy Bay wins when it’s older.

Coming soon, Cloudy Bay & Highfield 2007 Taste Test…

Over the past 18 months or so I’ve heard great things about New Zealand Pinot Gris (related to the common Pinot Grigio). The word was that this was fast becoming the “new” Sauvignon Blanc and was well worth tracking down. Luckily I was in Waitrose the other day and managed to get my hands on a bottle of Villa Maria Private Bin Pinot Gris 2007.

I was lucky enough to visit New Zealand a few years ago and one of the “Cellar Doors” I visited was Villa Maria. At the time I thought they were a bit too much of a “big name” but I enjoyed their wines and the staff there were very friendly (as was most of New Zealand!). I’ve grown fond of their Private Bin series over the last few years and always enjoy picking up a Sauvignon Blanc or Gewurztraminer. I was therefore quite excited (as Mrs ITs Food will testify) when I found the Pinot Gris.

The fantastic Villa Maria website gives us lots of information about the 2007 wine.

Bottle Size: 750ml
Variety: Pinot Gris
Vintage: 2007
Region: East Coast
Vineyard: Various
Country: New Zealand
Alcohol: 14.0%
pH: 3.6
Total Acidity: 5.3g/L
Residual Sugar: 7.5g/L
Sweetness Indicator: Nil
Serving Temperature: Lightly Chilled

VINTAGE
The 2007 vintage in New Zealand was characterised by warm and dry conditions across most of the country. Marlborough was fine with average temperatures across the region for most of vintage. Hawkes Bay and Gisborne in the north island experienced a cool and annoyingly wet summer, however the sun shone in late January and warm, dry conditions extended right into April.

VINEYARDS
The fruit for this wine was grown in the Hawkes Bay, Gisborne and Marlborough winegrowing regions. Vineyards across these three regions with a diversity of soil types ranging from free draining gravely soils to silty clay, are utilised to grow Pinot Gris. To ensure good intensity of flavour, low yields are maintained at approximately 4kg/vine. Routine leaf plucking provides good bunch exposure ensuring ripe clean fruit is achieved.

WINEMAKING
Harvested, crushed and de-stemmed, the fruit was immediately pressed to avoid excess skin contact. The free run juice was naturally settled and then racked clear to begin fermentation. Neutral winemaking yeast strains were used to ferment the wine with regular lees stirring employed for two months to enhance texture. Post fermentation the wine was gently fined, stabilised, filtered and bottled.

WINEMAKER’S COMMENTS
The spicy pear and hints of green apple dominate the aromas. On the palate the wine is soft and rich, with a balanced sweetness and finishes with hints of fresh acidity.

I lightly chilled this wine, treating it like I would a Sauvignon Blanc. Would this tase like a Pinot Grigio? Or would it taste nice?

My tasting notes tell me…

Less zingy than a Sauvignon Blanc, softness like a nice Chardonnay. Nice colour, pale mid yellow. Sharp, fruity, buttery, strong tasting. Maybe 5 stars!?!

This was a very nice wine, a bit more of a fruity kick to it than a Sauvignon Blanc with buttery undertones. This is the best non-sauvignon blanc I’ve had all year. It rates a 4.5 stars for me but I’m feeling generous so it’s getting rounded up to a fantastic five stars!

Villa Maria Private Bin Pinot Gris 2007

Grape: Pinot Gris
Alcohol: 14%
Guide Price: <£10 (<£9 online at Waitrose)
I bought this wine at: Waitrose (In store)
ITs Food Rating: Five stars

I’ve always been a fan of the Penfolds wine label design. They keep a constant, classic style which I think oozes “quality”. One thing that I don’t like though, is the sheer number of different wines they seem to do. Is Bin 28 better than Bin 128?? All I know is that I’d like to get my hands on some Penfolds Grange (no matter what Gary Vay-ner-chuck thinks!).

To further investigate the many “bins” I popped over to the Penfolds website.

Max Schubert believed that PENFOLDS needed wines crafted in the image of his legendary Grange. “Not the same,” said Max, “but similar.” PENFOLDS had long maintained a system of numbered ‘bins’ in the cellar where the finest wines, often for the exclusive enjoyment of the company’s directors, were stored. Max happily used this system to give clear and well defined identities to the new wines he was planning, starting with the famous Bin 2 of 1962.

Ah! That makes it a little clearer! Digging a little deeper I found the info I was looking for about the Kalimna Shiraz.

Introduced as one of the first Bin wines within the PENFOLDS portfolio, Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz has become an Australian classic. Indeed this wine style has universal appeal because of its intense fruit definition, ripe fleshy palate structure and generosity of flavour.

A multi-district blend since the late 1970’s it has won “Red Wine of the Year” twice, in 1991 and 1995 at the International Wine Challenge, held each year in London.

Interestingly, they provide a downloadable PDF of tasting notes for the 2004 vintage. Who needs those when you have my drunken scribblings to marvel at!!

Okay, these may need some deciphering. Basically the wine starts harsh but has a nice smooth finish, a slight apple/sweetness in the juicy aftertaste. There’s a “pluminess” to the wine that makes me thing of purple (!). It’s lovely with or without food and seriously is a contender for 5 stars.

I had to have a second bottle of this wine (not on the same night!) as it was such a serious 5 star contender. In the end I feel it doesn’t quite make it but it’s the best “new” 4 star red wine I’ve tasted all year.

Penfolds Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz 2004

Grape: Shiraz
Alcohol: 14.5%
Guide Price: <£11 in-store (Tesco)
I bought this wine at: Tesco’s (instore)
ITs Food Rating: Four stars