Summer Supping
Blow me if the sun's not shining in Wiltshire this very day. Chlorophyll is whirring away like mad and one can almost hear leaves emerging and the lawn offering up misplaced dandelion flowers. Must be rosé o'clock...
And we've sourced a humdinger: a crisp delight made from one of those curious grapes that, in a state of ripeness, is neither red nor white, but rather a pink-y hue from which the wines gains its subtle shade. Here's the gen:
2017 Pinot Gris Rosé, Domaine La Provenquière
£10 inc VAT a bottle (£9 to Daily Drinker members)
N.B. This really is a wine you don't want to serve too cold. Pinot Gris is a variety with a great deal of character: a personality that becomes obfuscated if overly chilled.
This is a really pale wine in the glass: a light golden salmon colour. I've let this warm to 15 degrees C or so (i.e. it's been out of the fridge for 40 minutes or thereabouts). It has a rich nose showing more than a little citrus character, especially orange. There's a hint of cold ferment in the wisp of pear drops, but I can also find scents of nut and peach and domestic red fruits. The palate is rich-but-dry and there's a texture like fine dusty earth across the tongue. Nuts reappear on the palate. Nice density here. And it's a decent long wine containing a fair bit of spice. It becomes piquant at the rear, with a chalky tackiness. At this temperature, it's very nice indeed.
Pink, we realise, might not be your colour du jour, so I thought I might mention our current Daily Drinker red, selected by wine writer Tom Cannavan for his current Wine of the Week slot on wine-pages.com:
2016 Grenache Le Paradou, Château Pesquié
£10.50 inc VAT a bottle (£9.45 to Daily Drinker members)
Medium deep mulberry red in colour. The aromas are the essence of southern French Grenache: all fruitcake, dark fruit cream dotted with spice. It's dark cherry and plum and that bit of dusty bramble with a touch of cinnamon bark. The entry is smooth and cool and slides across the tongue for a while then suddenly picks up structure in the form of sandy-mineral tannins. There's some very nice acidity here, too. The finish is dry like nut skins, long and scrubs the palate. This would be better with food, I think. Venison would be very good, plainly cooked. But red meat, in any event. Lovely stuff.
N.B. Tom Cannavan's tasting video can be viewed here on wine-pages.com
And news just through of another write-up for another Daily Drinker wine, nicely balancing out this mailing by dint of being a white wine! If you've never had a glass of ice-cold Txacoli on a hot day you have a treat in store:
2016 Txakoli Gorabie, Bodegas Astobiza
£13.50 inc VAT a bottle (£12.15 to Daily Drinker members)
Initially tasted at 14.8 degrees C. There's positive colour here: a pale straw, with occasional bubbles not so much rising as simply hanging about. Nose is quite hard to define; it's not exactly an aromatic wine. I find some dried oyster shells, hints of spice and dried flowers and perhaps something riper: small oranges, perhaps. There's certainly a touch of spritz about the palate. Nuttiness meets the drinker. Apples, too. There's good weight and density to the palate that gathers, over time, a touch of pithy and refreshing bitterness. And there's firmness at the core. There's very good length here, through which a suggestion of something saline runs. Acidity is a lemon zip. There's the texture of fine silt towards the back. Long and easy and a properly refreshing drink.
N.B. Wine writer Joanna Simon's review of the Astobiza winery and this wine can be viewed here on her own site.
Email Caspar[at]boweswine.co.uk to place your order or go directly to www.thedailydrinker.co.uk
