The Specialist Importers Trade Tasting are held every year, and it is now a huge event, where, even if you were to attend both the Manchester and the London tastings, you still wouldn’t get round everything. As I was there in a work capacity, I was looking for wines to stock in the shop so I avoided the many excellent wines from a number of suppliers that I deal with. I concentrated on the wines I didn’t know and the suppliers I didn’t deal with. Here are some of the best wines I found
Champagne Gardet Brut Tradition St Flavy NV, Champagne, France
Very light, some melon and a bit of lemon on this closed nose. The palate is all pear, a bit of melon sweetness. Very clean and well balanced. 8/10 (£21)
Champagne Gardet Brut Special NV, Champagne, France
Nice oyster shell aromas, and a bit of oak noticeable, not in flavour but in wine maturity. There is also peach on the nose. Light and minerally with some toast favours, and then it freshens up with lots of zingy apple. Nice. 7.5/10 (£23)
2009 Turi Sauvignon Blanc, Chile
Grassy, a little gooseberry and nettle, green pepper too. The palate is fresh and clean, with a little nettle. Cracking for the price. 8/10 (£5.00)
2008 Turi Pinot Noir, Chile
Light, very earthy with subtle fruit and a lot of sour cherry. Nicely balanced n the palate, with firmer tannins on the finish. 7.5/10 (£5.50)
2009 Stadt Krems Gruner Veltliner Loessterrassen, Austria
Limey on the nose, and then some softer, earthier fruit. The palate is nice, good creamy texture with mineral flavours and lime pith on the finish. 8/10 (£10)
2008 Schloss Gobelsburg Gruner Veltliner Renner, Austria
Nice cream and citrus aroma, good clean honeydew melon sweetness. The palate is really good, insanely complex, but gorgeous to drink. 9/10 (£18.50)
2006 Domaine Latour Giraud Meursault ‘Cuvee Charles Maxim’, Burgundy, France
Big oaky toast and dirty butter! Pineapple skin, with more oak on the palate, but so beautifully balanced with spice and zingy fruit on the finish. 8.5/10 (£27)
2000 Pol Roger Brut Reserve, Champagne, France
A lovely, typical, Pol Roger aroma of biscuits, sea air and lemon, but with some dirtier citrus elements too. The palate is fatter than I’d expected, with some sweet fruit and a bit of alcohol. It is nice, but the 1999 is far better at the moment. 7/10 (£48)
2007 Joseph Drouhin Chassagne Montrachet
Orange chewitts, a dirty aroma with lots of butter and lemons. A very vegetal palate. Not great & here for all the wrong reasons! 5/10 (£50)
2008 Niepoort-Navazos, Jerez, Spain
This wine is weird! A single vineyard Palomino, fermented under a flor, but not fortified. Think of this as low alcohol sherry! Totally barking mad, but brilliant! Very dry with lime pith and wet rocks galore on the palate So good! 9/10 (£19)
Paul Dethune Ambonnay Brut Grand Cru NV, Champagne, France
A rich fruity aroma, lots of cream covered raspberry aromas. The palate is gorgeous, soft and lush with lots of fine bubbles and very well balanced. 8/10 (£27)
A clean old fashioned lemonade aroma, crisp palate with some sweet sherbert lemon elements. Good wine, with just a touch too much heat on the back end scoring it down. 8/10 (£12)
2005 Massaya Silver, Bekka Valley, Lebanon
Pizza topping! Tomatoes and herbs on the nose, with some red berries thrown in. A nice bitter flavour up front with some tree sap and a bit of nut, all coated with a little plum and bramble. Nice 8/10 (£14)
2004 Luigi Baudana Barolo Ceretta, Piedmont, Itay
Dried fruit, loads of sour cherry and wet tar. Then you get an insane stripping out of your mouth with acid, and then a caressing finish of leather and sweet fruit hints. A rollercoaster of a ride, but a really good wine. 9/10 (£33)
2009 William Robertson Chenin Blanc, South Africa
Light and simple and a little off dry. Good fruit, a little heat, but for a six quid Chenin, this is good. 7/10 (£6)
2008 Pegasus Bay Sauvignon Blanc Semillon, Waipara, New Zealand
Big, gooseberry flavours, lots of elderflower and then a kiss of lime on the finish. A very well made wine, given a bit of complexity by the Semillon. 8.5/10 (£16)
2007 Brancaia Ilatraia IGT, Tuscany, Italy
Dark fruits, a lot of tobacco, green pepper and leather. Herby with menthol and tobacco. Really tasty. 8.5/10 (£41)
2001 Chateau de la Riviere, Bordeaux, France
Soft, green pepper and lush fruit on the nose. Bonfire toffee, chocolate and leather makes this a bit like bondage in a candy store on the palate! A little heat on the end, but a cracking little wine. 7.5/10 (£20)
Coming next, the table of the day – SWiG
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