Mourvedre, in my humble opinion, is a great grape variety. In terms of taste and longevity it is actually often compared to Cabernet Sauvignon. Mourvedre is a strong, full-bodied grape variety that often denotes dark fruits, prunes and herbaceous notes. It does extremely well in hot regions hence why it is grown the most in Southern France, Spain and Australia. Mourvedre has also recently been included in the rise of Paso Robles GSM (Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre) wines. Mourvedre also goes by many other names, the most common are Mataro and Monastrell. Here in our tasting we have Mourvedre from Southern...

So we have the second instalment of the Hatch Mansfield tasting that I went to. Here we are focusing on Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, South America and USA estates. White Wines Caliterra Tributo ‘Single Vineyard’ Chardonnay 2020 – Rating 89-91 Gorgeous aromas of exotic fruits, lychee, mango and stone fruits. On the palate extremely vibrant and really fresh. All of those gorgeous aromas transferring beautifully onto the palate with longevity and texture. There is a lovely light minerality to this, with the powerful acidity, this cuts right through the intensity of the fruit and offers a seductive finish. Whilst...

Firstly, my apologies to you all… it has been far too long since I wrote up some of the tasting I have been doing. December was a tough month both professionally and personally with lots going on. Secondly, I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and I wish you a prosperous and healthy 2024! Thirdly, you’ll be pleased to know that I did continue to taste many wines over the last month and a bit. So, fortunately I do have a lot to write up. I may get one article out a week and I may get two articles...

Here we have all dry Rieslings from Aus & NZ. Riesling has an amazing ability to offer extremely exotic flavours, generally wherever it is grown. Citrus is a hallmark flavour with pineapple, mango and apricot additional flavours based on the ripeness of the grape. Of course, Riesling also comes in all types of dry or sweet varieties. You do tend to find that Riesling is utilised more on the sweeter end in many different countries. The main countries you will find Riesling in is France, Germany, Australia and USA. However, Austria and New Zealand are planting more and more vineyards...

This tasting, as you can see, was all about White Bordeaux. Both dry and sweet wines make an appearance here. Quite frankly this is a bit of snapshot of white Bordeaux wines as there are so many incredible producers in this region. We have decided to taste 4 dry white wines and 2 sweet wines. Mainly, the reason for this was that whilst everyone knows Sauternes and even Barsac there is not necessarily a wealth of information on dry white Bordeaux. Generally people focus on the red wines coming out of these Estate’s and not always the whites. The whites...