I’ve always said be VERY WARY of wines which just classify themselves as “white wine” or “red wine”. Well, I think I may have to change my point of view after I received two bottles of Chateau Musar White 2001 in an excellent value Chateau Musar half case from Tesco.com.

There’s no doubt, this was going to be a BIG white wine. I wasn’t sure what to expect so I had a browse on the Chateau Musar website to see what I could find out about the wine.

The varieties that collaborate to produce Château Musar White are particularly special; obeideh and merwah are indigenous to Mount Lebanon, their history dates back to ancient times. Our own vineyards of white grapes are located at an altitude of 1200m and hence the harvest takes place later than for reds, normally between the 5th and 15th October.

Both varieties are partly fermented in oak “barriques” where they mature for a further 9 months. They are then blended, bottled and aged for a further 4 years before release.

To fully appreciate the scope of their complexity and finesse, our white wines should be served at cellar temperature (15 degrees Celsius). And most importantly, don’t forget to decant them!

Okay… Obeidah and Merwah grape varieties! They’re new. I’d still no idea what to expect so I dug out some tasting notes.

“2001 was a most bizarre year. Although it started normally with some quite rainy cold days, things changed very quickly to warmer weather with almost no more rain at all. Therefore average annual rainfall was less than normal.

As global warming continues to become more obvious and serious, after a normal flowering in the spring, our July and August were far hotter than usual. Again this year, the vintage had to start early on the 3rd September – which is one of the earliest dates I have harvested in my life.

The crop of 2001 was good with quite ripe fruits but not too much tannin or acidity. However the quantity produced was 15% lower than usual. Fermentation progressed well and the malolactic followed easily and naturally as it did in the previous year 2000.

I tasted the wines last week ~ an easy, fruity year with good alcohol levels.

A very successful year perhaps…”

Serge Hochar - November 2001

“Overall the year 2001 will be on average a normal year. The Chateau wines of this year will be good but other wines will be more average.”

Comments from Ghazir tasting 17th January 2002

Not much the wiser I opened the bottle (and didn’t decant unfortunately!). My tasting notes said…

It’s a white red wine!. This is a red wine with the colour removed. Really complex, needs food. A real grower.

This is a monster of a white, it’s big and powerful and needs to be matched with food. Think of it as a perfect white to serve with a meal you would normally only offer red with. You may really surprise some people. 4 stars.

Chateau Musar White 2001

Grape: Obeidah and Merwah
Alcohol: 12.5%
Guide Price: ~£10
I bought this wine at: Tesco (online)
ITs Food Rating: Four stars

Special Voucher Code

Whilst we try to stick to archiving ONLY wine reviews from our sister blog, ITs Food, we wanted to share this special offer with you. Enjoy!

We’ve got some great news for you today! Thanks to the increasing coverage ITs Food is getting we’re now in a position to offer you special offers from The Sunday Times Wine Club.

If you can’t see the image above make sure you switch off any Ad Blocking software or add-in (like Adblock for Firefox).

ITs Food Senior (ITs Food’s Dad) is a member and is constantly telling us how great this service is. Just sign up and pick some of their great wines or even join one of their wine plans which will send you regular cases of fantastic wine. All this is backed with a 100% money-back guarantee. If you don’t like it you don’t pay for it.

The Sunday Times Wine Club runs regular special offers (there’s a great Half Price deal on at the moment) but we’re lucky enough to offer special ITs Food deals!

We currently have a voucher code available for the programme. The Voucher Code BUY3112 will entitle you to a £25 discount when you spend over £69.99. The voucher is valid until 31st April 2008 and can only be used by the same customer once. The voucher cannot be used against the introductory offer cases.

Please let us know if you sign up and if you discover any wines you’d like us to share with others readers. Enjoy!

Sign up to The Sunday Times Wine Club

With Summer on it’s way I thought I’d finish off my last bottle of my favourite Summer Red 2006 in time to stock up with some bottles of 2007.

Brown Brothers Tarrango is a light bodied wine preferably served chilled. It’s a juicy, fruity wine with a dry finish that leaves you wanting more. Brown Brothers describe it thus:

A delicate, light-bodied red wine that should be served lightly chilled. The wine is a vibrant cherry red colour with lifted aromas of raspberries, ripe cherries and a hint of spice. These fresh berry aromas are reaffirmed on the palate. With fine, well integrated tannins, a juicy clean mouth feel and a fresh dry finish, this is the perfect wine to sip on.

I really don’t think you can go wrong serving this lightly chilled at at BBQ. With some modern rosé wines being more like “watered down reds” this wine is THE choice to spring on people as a fantastic alternative.

As ever the Brown Brothers website gives us some nice info about Tarrango (from their 2007 vintage page)

THE GRAPE VARIETY
Tarrango is a unique Australian grape variety, bred by CSIRO scientists in 1965 by crossing the Portuguese red grape variety Touriga with the versatile white grape Sultana. It was developed specifically to produce a light, fresh red wine ideal for summer drinking in the many countries with warm to hot summers. Named after the tiny township of Tarrango in the Mallee district of north-west Victoria, where it was designed to thrive, the vines bear generous crops that ripen late and maintain a fresh acidity and soft grapey flavour. The Brown family has been making wines from Tarrango since 1980. In recent years, a small amount of fruit has been fermented by the carbonic maceration technique, as practiced in Beaujolais and other areas in southern France, where berries are allowed to ferment whole and uncrushed. This contributes added complexity and flavour to the final wine.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION
The Tarrango grapes used to make this wine were grown in Victoria. The fruit was harvested in parcels from late February until the end of March at a range of baumé levels from 11.5° to 13.0°. Approximately eleven percent of the fruit underwent carbonic maceration. It was then blended with other parcels and bottled soon after fermentation and was completed with an alcohol of 12.5%, a pH of 3.45 and an acid level of 5.8g/L.

I’ve consumed a fair amount of this wine in the past so my wine tasting notes aren’t too detailed (are they ever?).

Hmmm… Just as nice as ever, a touch more dryness than I remember, maybe due to age? Still almost refreshingly fruity but that nice dryness to make you want more.

Well, there you have it. A real winner. I’ll give it 4 stars as it doesn’t quite make it into my “all time greats list” but is still a great Summer wine. Enjoy!

Brown Brothers Tarrango 2006

Grape: Tarrango
Alcohol: 12.5%
Guide Price: <£5.50 in-store (Tesco)
I bought this wine at: Tesco’s (instore)
ITs Food Rating: Four stars

Just before Christmas I bought a few “cheap” half cases from Tesco to bulk up my wine supply. One was a Peter Lehmann Barossa selection. I quite like their “Clancy” blend so I was interested to try this out.

The Peter Lehmann website is excellent with lots of information about his wines plus an explanation about his “Queen of Clubs” labels.

According to renowned Barossan artist, Rod Schubert, the Queen of Clubs is “the gambler’s card”. Indeed it was a great gamble that Peter Lehmann took when founding the company during the turbulent, uncertain times of the late 1970s and early 1980s as the Australian wine industry was faced with international competition and a grape surplus.

Peter Lehmann is a great fan of American author, Damon Runyon, who created memorable characters modelled on the colourful characters on New York’s fringes.

At this tumultuous time and inspired by one of Runyon’s more engaging characters, the gambler, Sky Masterson, Peter Lehmann said “If anything’s a gamble, this is, so we’ll call the company ‘Masterson’ – ‘Masterson Barossa Vignerons’”.

Although trading as Masterson Barossa Vignerons until 1982, Peter Lehmann’s name was always on the label, with the Queen of Clubs proudly featuring as the logo.

In 1982 the company name was changed to Peter Lehmann Wines. In 1996 the Queen of Clubs took on a new, exciting personality for each of the wines, reflecting their individual style and character.

I quite like the style myself, mixed with interesting bottle shapes. Is the wine any good though?

The website tell us…

Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, two of the world’s great red wine varieties, flourish in the Barossa.

As single varietals they have made their mark, but blended in carefully selected proportions, each brings to the other an added dimension to give a red wine of classical breeding and distinction.

2004 was an exceptional red wine vintage in the Barossa, giving wines with superb fruit definition, structure and finesse. 70% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30% Merlot, this wine is deep black garnet in colour with a bouquet of soft chocolate, dark plum and violets.

I was looking forward to trying this. You all know my love of Merlot so the blend of that and the “king” of grapes, cab sav, was an interesting prospect. I drank this both with and without food but the food wasn’t strong and hearty so the 70% cab sav came through a bit harsh. My wine notes say…

Hmmm, okay I suppose, the cab sav overpowers the merlot a little too much. Strong and a bit overpowering, wrong food?

Even given the wrong food choice I still reckon this wine lacked a little… class? It seems a bit too much “in you face” without having the subtle plummy undertones you’d expect with a wine containing Merlot. I’d have it again but this will have to be ranked as a 3 star, average wine.

Peter Lehmann Barossa Cabernet Merlot

Grape: Cabernet Sauvignon 70%, Merlot 30%
Alcohol: 14%
Guide Price: ~£5-£6
I bought this wine at: Tesco (online)
ITs Food Rating: Three stars

When I think of Rioja, I always picture this bottle in my mind.

The classic wired body and clouded glass. I have fond memories of this wine, I seem to remember that the 1981 was excellent. So, did the memories flood back…?

The wine is made by Bodegas Faustino in Northern Spain. The vineyard has been arount since 1861 when Eleuterio Martinez Arzok moved to Oyon and bough a palace and vineyards from the Marques del Puerto. Faustino I was first launched on 1960 along with Faustino V, VII and Don Faustino.

I remember rioja’s as being quite high in tannin’s rather than the “soft, silky, mellow” mentioned on the back. I drank it with a nice Ox Tail stew, good strong meaty flavour. My tasting notes said…

Urgh, bad bottle? No, but not great. Tannins, but also maybe sour? Not smooth at all.

I disliked it so much I drank very little. What did it taste like the next day?

Nope, just as bad

Oh dear, that was not good. The wine had no smoothness at all and had a distinctly sour aftertaste. I hosestly thought it could have been a bad bottle but it wasn’t quite bad enough. I’ve given bad wine a second chance before but at over £10 a bottle someone would have to send me a bottle for free!! With decent reds from the New World available at <£10 it’s only a matter of time before disappointing Old World reds like this one die out. One Star.

Faustino I Gran Reserva Rioja 1996

Grape: Tempranillo 85%, Graciano 10%, Mazuelo 5%
Alcohol: 13%
Guide Price: ~£14 (Sainsburys)
I bought this wine at: Sainsbury’s (instore)
ITs Food Rating: One star