Two great wines last weekend

I‘ve been on a bit of a roll in recent weeks winewise. This is partly the result of my drink less, drink better regime. If I cut out wine three days a week, I am going to make sure I enjoy the remaining few days. The three Rhône Syrahs of last week (see previous blog) was followed by two delicious wines on Saturday night.

We ate a Caesar’s salad followed by crab linguini followed by a few slices of Ossau-Iraty, one of my favourite cheeses, made from sheep’s milk.

Jim Barry The Lodge Hill Dry Riesling 2012

12.5%

€25

An award winning wine and deservedly so. Beautiful lifted aromatic nose, wonderful crisp light lime and green apple fruits, perfectly balanced.  Delicious with crab linguini.

Fürst Spätburgunder Tradition 2010, Franken

13%

€26

I bought a few bottles of this, an utterly delicious German Pinot Noir from one of the leading practitioners, Rudolf Fürst. Fragrant nose, soft silky light cherry fruits with good acidity and a seamless finish. Perfect with the cheese and by itself.

SYRAH WEEKEND

Crozes-Hermitage 2005 Alain Graillot

St. Joseph ‘Les Royes’1999 Domaine Courbis

Syrah ‘Sensation du Nord’ 2009 Patrick & Christophe Bonnefond

Over the August bank holiday weekend, I sipped my way through three delicious light elegant Syrahs from the Northern Rhône.  Over the last few years, probably only Pinot Noir has given me more pleasure than wines from this region. Most have a seductive delicacy and finesse combined with light alcohol and a savoury edge.

Bangs per buck Alain Graillot’s red Crozes Hermitage must be one of the best value wines in the market. Both red and white sell for under €30, and both are accessible young but with an ability to age – a wonderful combination. The red is never big nor alcoholic winning you over with its subtle charms. I have drunk many vintages and rarely been disappointed. This was a bottle of 2005, given to me by a friend. It was great wine; light elegant with slightly pithy dark cherry fruits, some liquorice and a pleasing underlying earthiness. The finish was silky smooth. I savoured it over three days and it was as good the third day as the first.

The Saint Joseph 1999 Courbis was another gift, originally cellared in one of the Oxbridge colleges. 1999 was a great year in the northern Rhône. The wine did not have quite the elegance of the Graillot, but had lovely developed medium-bodied savoury dark fruits and very good length. Really delicious wine.

The third wine was a 2009 Vin de pays des collines Rhodanniennes Syrah from Christophe Bonnefond, one of the up-and-coming producers in Côte Rotie. This was made from young vines I think. It was very good, lighter than the others but with lovely purity of fruit.  There was a little new oak on the finish in particular, but it never overshadowed the smooth fresh ripe dark fruits. It sells for just under €20. Mine came from Jus de Vine in Portmarnock.

FRENCH BASQUE WINE

IROULÉGY ARRETXEA 2009

From Terroirs in Donnybrook one of the few French Basque wines available in this country; both Wines on the Green and 64wine have Txacoli, the white Spanish Basque wine. Arretxea are the leading estate in the region and the wine was very good, especially with meatballs in a mushroom sauce. It sells for €19.50 and is pretty good value at that.

This was very good although ripe and richer than I had anticipated; great colour, ripe dark fruit on the nose, soft rounded forest fruits on the palate with a little spice and a smooth finish. It has some of the structure you would expect of Iroulégy, but the tannins are ripe and well integrated.