Well it’s a warm spring evening, so time to head to the south of France. Why? Because with the degree of sunshine I’m seeing streaming through the open door – we are most of the way there anyway!
2016 La Tour Melas Rosé - £25.99/bot, £8.50/glass. This was actually on last week, but has been so unbelievably popular I may get clobbered if I don’t put it on again! Argiorgitiko translates into Rosé really well – lots of fruit, a delicious crispness and a firm texture of slight strawberries and raspberries. Definitely for drinking now – as soon as we see the sun! La Tour Melas imported most of their vines and know-how from France, and in this wine it really shows – this bottled Greek sunshine is as near a stylistic copy of Provencal Rosé as we’ve yet seen. Absolutely worth the extra few quid up– dare I say it – a challenger for the super-premiums pinks…?
2014 Domaine de l’Aumonier Cuvee Henri Chenin Blanc - £14.99, £5.50/glass. Big, opulent Chenin with a tropical fruit-meets Madagascan vanilla profile. The growers (the Chardon’s don’tcherkno, been in the area since ‘97) practice full organic farming practices and proudly wear the badges and gongs to prove its success. At £20 quid this would be a winner; at £15 it is absolutely outstanding. Sip in the sunshine and let your worries dissolve.
2014 Dandelion Vineyards Cabernet, ‘Pride of the Fleurieu’ - £16.99, £6.00/glass – What a name. What a bottle. What an array of shiny labels demonstrating how much it wow’s the critics. Surely something like that should be worth a try? Well, yes – it is. Absolutely classic new world Cabernet, full of blueberries, cassis, spice and woodbark. Rich and smooth in the best traditions of the wines of the Fleurieu Peninsular, where the vines are cooled by the Great Southern Ocean on one side and the still waters of Lake Alexandrina on t’other. The result is a clean, classic style of Cabernet, full of fruit but not too overpoweringly weighty.
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