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The secret of longevity
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Oldie grape pickers in Madiran, south-west France, where the local red from the tannat grape is thought to be an important factor in the region having double the national average of men aged over 90.
A report in The Independent the other day caught my eye. It appears that the residents of the small Somerset village of Hinton St George have the highest life expectancy for retired men in the country. What is their secret?
Drink.
And I quote: “‘Most of them have at least one glass of red wine a day,’ confides Gill Esp, a woman in her sixties who works at the local tea shop. Indeed, this tea room also runs a wine club, but Ms Esp and her fellow members won’t tolerate any old plonk.
‘No no, they order from The Wine Society,’ she says.”
To your health!
Sacré Blanc for breakfast
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Sacré Blanc for breakfast
Sacré bleu it’s Sacré Blanc! Our new brilliant chenin blanc from Mourat, Sacré Blanc, Chenin, Vin de Pays de Loire, 2011 (J Mourat Père et Fils), is put through its paces by David Whelehan on Ireland: AM, the popular Irish breakfast show. The wine is featured after 2 minutes 30 seconds.
The wine is available for £8.50 per bottle (£102 the case) in The Society’s current Loire offer, which closes on Sunday, 20th May.
One of Mourat’s reds featured in the offer also received a favourable writeup from Jancis Robinson MW (jancisrobinson.com). She wrote:
J Mourat, Collection 2010 Fiefs Vendéens Mareuil 16 Drink 2012-2014 Very unusual stumpy flask-like bottle. Racy and bone dry on, according to the back label, volcanic rhyolite soils. Bags of character. Dry finish. Great balance and interest. Just the sort of wine the Wine Society does so well. Long. Uncompromising in its dryness. Don’t serve too cool – nor too warm!
No weak links
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Congratulations to The Society’s Head of Tastings & Events Ewan Murray for a sterling performance in Wednesday’s episode of the BBC’s The Weakest Link (still available via the Beeb’s iPlayer for those that missed it).
Correct spelling, detailed knowledge of ladies’ hair styling, lightning mental arithmetic and sagacious ‘banking’ saw Ewan scoop the winnings. He describes host Anne Robinson (aka the ‘Queen of Mean’) as ‘lovely, and not at all like her on-screen persona’; we’re not sure what Anne made of Ewan however after he likened her on the show to ‘a New World riesling – fragrant but with a streak of acidity’ or a mature red Burgundy that ‘is still fruity but beginning to show its age’!
Ewan says he will be donating a proportion of his winnings to World Vision’s work in Lideta, Ethiopia, and spending the remainder on a treat for the family.
Gold for Society’s Exhibition Pinot
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Central Otago on New Zealand’s South Island is the world’s southernmost wine region. This mountainous inland area is at the very limit of cool-climate grape growing and certainly isn’t for faint-hearted winemakers. Getting grapes to ripen this far south is a constant battle and, unlike the rest of New Zealand, the climate here is continental rather than maritime with a high risk of devastating frosts in the critical early autumn ripening period.
So what grape do they choose to grow here? Surely something hardy and reliable? No. They grow pinot noir, one of the world’s most recalcitrant grapes.
Why such apparent foolhardiness?
Because – when they get it right – the breathtaking voluptuousness of texture and the exquisite intensity of fruit of Otago’s best pinots makes all the effort worthwhile.
The Society has long been a champion of regional diversity in New Zealand, and we decided to celebrate this by bottling three different versions of Kiwi pinot to highlight the differences, and quality, of the wines from Central Otago, Marlborough and Martinborough under our Exhibition label.
The Society’s buyers work hard to ensure that the wines in this range are always flagship examples of the regions and styles that they represent. For the Marlborough wine we went to local experts Villa Maria, and to Craggy Range for the Martinborough.
Craggy Range’s winemaker, Master of Wine Steve Smith, also buys in grapes from other regions and told Society buyer Pierre Mansour about a special plot of vines in Otago. It is these grapes that make The Society’s Exhibition Central Otago Pinot Noir.
We were delighted to see that the 2009 vintage of this wine won the top prize, a gold medal, at this year’s International Wine Challenge.
A fitting reward for all that effort.
Better late than never
Posted by: | CommentsThe other evening I craved a glass of something tasty to enjoy in the garden with a few nibbles and the glorious April sunshine. But my heart sank when I opened the fridge and saw that the only thing I had on ice was a rosé.
I have a guilty secret. I don’t really like pink wine. It’s not a macho thing; I actually love the colour. Perhaps that’s the problem – anything that looks so tempting and delicious in the bottle surely has to be slick and refreshing, full of mouth-watering summery fruit. But all too often, for me, once you’ve pulled the cork or cracked the cap, it’s a disappointing anti-climax, a wine that’s drab and flabby on the nose and palate. Where’s the complexity and sense of identity that you get from even basic whites and reds?
I realise that I am in the minority here. Rosé is all the rage and I have many friends and colleagues that I enjoy numerous wines with who love pink wines.
Perhaps it’s the indecisiveness that puts me off. I want the fresh, cooling charm of a white but also the depth and fruit of a red. So I compromise and plump for rosé. It’s the Nick Clegg of the wine world.
Or so I thought…
‘Let’s give it a whirl’ offered my Panglossian better half pouring me a glass of the chilled rosé. And it was absolutely, lip-smackingly delicious.
A temptingly bright pink in colour and the nose actually delivered what the appearance promised: rich gloriously fresh fruit like sniffing a punnet of strawberries. The palate too had all those lovely fruity flavours, but, importantly, good acidity too. Such flavour. Such freshness. I was converted.
The wine? It was Château Bel Air, Bordeaux Rosé, 2009. It is made by the brilliant Despagne team at their estate in Entre-Deux-Mers. The secret to the fresh palate is that the grapes (all cabernet sauvignon) are picked just before they get too ripe and lose their freshness.
If you were cynical about the charms of going pink, then give it a go. It cured me.
Ink and the Bottle
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© Hugh Silvey and Wally Jex - click to view
Anyone looking for somewhere warm to shelter from the snow whilst shopping in London’s West End this Christmas, could do a lot worse than visit the Cartoon Museum on Little Russell Street in Soho.
The museum is exhibiting Ink and the Bottle: Drunken Cartoonists and Drink in Cartoons until 13th February 2011.
‘Like the best affairs, cartoonists’ relationship with drink has been turbulent, immensely pleasurable but dangerously addictive,’ explains curator Anita O’Brien. ‘Since the time of Hogarth intoxicating liquor has been a distraction and a delight, a solace and a temptation for both the cartoonists and their audience.’
© Bill Stott - click to view
The collection follows the depiction of drink from the shocking debauchery of Hogarth’s 18th-century Gin Lane – mother’s ruin indeed – and the moral indignation of George Cruikshank’s The Worship of Bacchus, to the outrageous, and hilarious, modern-day excesses of Viz’s antiheroes 8 Ace and the Fat Slags.
The exhibition includes 90 cartoons, featuring works by James Gillray, Carl Giles, Reg Smythe, Steve Bell, Gerald Scarfe and Ralph Steadman.
Well worth the £5.50 entrance fee.
