Balance is a good thing.  Too much good and you don't appreciate it any more.  Too much bad and you wonder why you bother.  Finding equilibrium is a challenge, but in the quest for balance, I wanted to review the cheapest ever Purple Teeth wine, right after "proving" that £15 was better than £5.  So here we go.  Toro Loco Tempranillo from Aldi is less than £4 a bottle. Beat that with something drinkable if you can, boozy bargain hunters.
At just £3.69, I was skeptical. This means the wine in the bottle must either have cost pennies, or, Aldi are using it as a mega loss-leader. Then I looked at the facts.  It's from Utiel Requena in Spain, a little known region near Valencia, and I've previously enjoyed wines from there on the rare occasions I've tracked them down. (Hint: If you see Sanfir Crianza on a menu, order it with your tapas, it goes down a treat). Toro Loco also gained a  silver medal at the International Wine and Spirits Competition, a Commended at the Decanter World Wine Awards and a Commended at the International Wine Challenge.  So, there were one or two things going for it.  
But what finally clinched it for me was getting a bottle free from a friend.  Myles (fittingly nicknamed Old Bull in dancing circles) was keen to challenge my wine snobbery and shared a newspaper article which declared it a world beater.  My excuse for sticking to more sophisticated shopping habits was that I had no Aldi nearby so, lo and behold he turned up at a dance event with a bottle for me, leaving me with no choice but to give it a fair review. Have I said before how much I love my dancing friends and the fact they want to share in my winethusiam?

And now the important part... Is it any good?  I opened it on a night when I really wanted just one glass, because despite the praise, I didn't have high hopes.  And yes, a second glass was poured.  It's juicy, fruity with black cherry and redcurrant, and also has a hint of spice.  It has a bit of tannin but that's fairly smooth and not harsh at all which surprised me, though it does lead to a very dry feel.  I paired it with a lean beef chili and brown rice so it was practically health food.  Would I drink it again? Sure.  It's confirmed my suspicion that it's pretty hard to get Tempranillo wrong.  At worst it's pretty good and it best it is truly magical - a miracle grape.

And, more importantly, what did the Purple Teeth public think?  More facebook fans were keen to purchase this one than ever before. Clearly you are price conscious drinkers.  Justine said, "Tried this last month and now buy it by the case. Perfect midweek quaffer." That's pretty compelling feedback.  
Bryan declared it "quite nice" and has bought it several times.  
Claire commented, "Good recommendation and it's been a *LONG* time since I paid under a fiver for a bottle of wine so it's great to have one recommended and for it to be worth recommending."
I took what was left from my bottle to a dance weekend the next day.  It was open 2 days before we finished it.  Both Karyn and Craig were impressed.  I think Karyn's quote was "nectar".  In fact, we opened a bottle of Rioja at over twice the price the next day and were somewhat disappointed by comparison.  It all sounds like a Purple Teeth hit to me!  
So if you haven't dared sample Aldi's own brand wines yet, perhaps it's time to give them a go.  As my brother suggested, you can always carry it home in a Waitrose bag. And if anyone questions your taste, you can point them to this article which suggests that even the experts can't tell the difference consistently...
If you've got anything to say about this or another Aldi wine, feel free to post in the comments.  
Next week's wine of the week will be a bit more expensive: Sainsbury's Alsace Gewurztraminer from the Taste the Difference range at £7.99.  I hope you'll enjoy it as much as you did this one.

Cheers!

The latest Purple Teeth tasting was again at Pontins Southport resort as part of a dance weekend.  Sharp-eyed readers will remember a post from February where a broadly similar group of dancers each shared a wine they enjoyed.  This time, we decided a theme was in order, so we paired up to purchase wines of the same grape, one at as low a price as possible, and the other at around £15 - ideally around a £10 price difference.  We agreed to taste them blind with only the bringer knowing what the grape was, and which one was the priciest. This was a real taste test!  We also had a non-wine drinker in our midst who couldn't understand why wines could be so differently priced.  Let's see if we convinced him...

First out of the blocks were Simone and Heather.  They chose their wine at Tanners and opted for Chardonnay since it comes in a variety of price points and styles, and since some of our party claimed they are ABC (anything but Chardonnay), it was too good an opportunity to miss.  Wine 1 (Saint-Veran) was poured alongside Wine 2 (Los Vilos).  How would our intrepid taste panel fare?  From what I can remember (and when you read the rest of this you'll understand why things got a tad hazy), no-one leapt up from their chair screaming "it's chardonnay".  The first wine tasted rich with tropical fruit notes. The second had much more in the way of vanilla, cream, and full bodied oakiness. We took a poll and it was around 10 to 5 in favour of the Saint-Veran which is a French Burgundy from just outside the Pouilly Fuisse region, and bargain priced at £12.50.  The Chilean wine at £6.95 had it's fans, but it was a bit heavy on the oak for many, and lacking in some of the complexity of the cleaner Burgundian version.  So - more expensive was the first winner....

Franck and Sheena came next, with a reputation to uphold having brought some of the favoured wines to the last tasting. Wines 1 and 2 were poured for side by side comparison.  It was pretty clear to me from the first sniff and slurp of wine 2 that it was a Sauvignon Blanc in the herbaceous, grassy, green style which I'm no longer a fan of.  But could the first one, ripe with tropical fruit and complex mineral notes really be the same grape?  It was possible, though I was a little nervous of sticking my neck out having tricked the group with a Sauvignon Gris last time...  
But Sauvignon Blanc it was, and all the way from Marlborough, New Zealand. This was a bit of a surprise as this pair both showed French wines last time.  Again, the preferences were 10-5 in favour of the pricier version which was Saint Clair Pioneer Block 18 (2011 £19.72), with the more instantly recognisable of the two being Snapper Block (2011 £9.72).  You can always rely on this pair to go above budget.  I love them!  And it was nice to find a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc with a bit more character and distinction than the general crop, though as to whether I'd shell out close to £20, the jury is out.  Both wines came from Spirited Wines.

As it was summer, I opted to please my Rosé loving reader, and go for a Rosé pairing, though in fact I went for a triple, mainly because 2 of the wines had come at no cost to me, and I wanted to be a little tricky.  I poured the first 2, admitting that I hadn't stuck to my own brief and these wines weren't actually the same grape at all, but as Rosé is so seldom drunk by this crowd, I wanted to go for variety.  Never before has the 1 litre spittoon had to be emptied before the end of the proceedings, but after around half a sip of wine 1, it was suddenly almost full.  Two of our taste panel felt they "could drink it" while it was declared hideous by everyone else.  The mystery wine turned out to be the Blush Pinot Grigio on offer behind the bar at Pontins.  Not a great advert for the wines they're selling, nor for the wines of Sicily. There are definitely better Rosés out there, and though I'm no fan of Pinot Grigio, I have no idea how a white grape became such a violent pink colour.  There was no indication of what it was mixed with - but hopefully not food colouring, even though that's how it appeared.  The second wine had a rather more delicate hue, and a pleasant body and flavour.  My notes are sketchy here, but I think the third Rosé was preferred by around 12 of our drinkers, though a few seemed to switch to the second (a Veneto Merlot Rosé which is predominantly sold on-trade in hotels and bars for around £16 a bottle, making it probably worth around £5 retail).  Our third wine came from Alfred the Grape (around £12) and was Turkey Flat (2010), a Barossa Valley blend of Grenache, Shiraz, and two other grapes which escape me now as I stupidly forgot to take a picture of the back label, and already my note taking was suffering.  I'd chosen this one as it had won a Gold Medal at the Sommelier Wine Awards in 2011 and indicated strawberry and vanilla in the tasting notes.  I don't think we converted anyone to the joys of Rosé but on the plus side, we managed to establish that there are eminently drinkable versions out there, which are just right for a summer evening.  And luckily, I was able to pass on the remnants of the bottles to my Rosé loving reader, but without the Pontins special, of course.

For my next trick, I presented a bonus wine.  I revealed little, except that this red was nearer in price to either £5, £10 or £15 and asked my panel to guess what it was.  I didn't take an exact count but precisely no-one guessed £5 and I think the jury was split almost 50/50 in guessing that this was either £10 or £15 wine.  All the guests said they'd buy it, and all seemed to really enjoy it.  Partly this could have been relief at finally hitting the reds and washing away the Rosé, but examination of the spittoon saw little to none of this poured away and the wine was voted a winner.  I indicated I'd drunk it several times recently and this bottle was showing particularly well, inviting guesses.  No, it wasn't Pinot Noir, and nor was it Shiraz.  Dr Hannah proved herself the one paying most attention to my blog and facebook adventures and correctly identified it as a Serbian wine.  It was the 2009 DiVranac from DiBonis.   The price question was a bit of a red herring since it's not currently on sale in the UK, but when I revealed that it would probably be priced somewhere between £5 and £10 after import duties and taxes, my crew were ready to order a few cases.  I'm still hoping a wine importer will hear my praise and help me out with bringing these wines to the UK market.  Failing that, I may have to bite the bullet and change career path as near unanimous praise like this doesn't come along very often from this crowd - especially when it included someone who previously didn't like wine at all.

Moving onto the reds, Kevin and Hannah won the right to go first, by indicating their wines should probably happen early in the proceedings. Had I been thinking straight, this could have given me a hint as to what we were about to sample, but, after a very long journey, no real dinner and 8 wines so far, my powers of deduction were fading fast.  Like myself, they'd opted to bring 3 wines, however, unlike me, they'd actually purchased all of them.  Wine 1 compared to Wine 2 was far rounder, considerably smoother, showed a bit more oak age and had depth.  Wine 2 was destined to mostly end up in the spittoon.  Wine 3 fared reasonably well, but no-one could really identify the grape.  Was it just that we had all swallowed more than we'd spit?  Or, were these 3 wines unusual for their type?  There was a winner, though I can't declare by what majority as notes declined rapidly around this point. The first and favoured wine: Alsace Pinot Noir (2009) from Booth's at £12.99. I was not the only one to be surprised by the depth of colour and lack of strawberry notes, perhaps because of the oak aging, or perhaps something unique in the vintage?  The second, and almost univerally despised wine was Tesco's "Simply" Pinot Noir at around £4.50 a bottle.  This tasted much more burningly alcoholic than it's 11.5% abv would suggest, was non-vintage and from New Zealand. It was pretty unpleasant and if this was my first introduction to Pinot Noir, I doubt it would have ever come close to being in my "Top 10" grape varieties...  Wine 3 was £5.49 and in keeping with recent themes, was Hungarian by Chapel Hill.  It's available in several supermarkets.  I had a bottle of their fizz to try last week but didn't get round to it, and I'm now less afraid after tasting this one.  Clearly it didn't leap out of the glass as a Pinot Noir and it lacked some of the complexity of the Alsace one, but given it was less than half of the price, it did a creditable job, and I didn't pour it away, despite the fact I'd recommended we pour away more than usual if we ever wanted to hit the dance floor.  When will I listen to my own advice?

Sarah and Roger decided we should sample Valpolicella, which is made from a blend of 3 grapes: Corvina, Molinare and Rondinella. Both were purchased from The Co-op and one was a basic own-label 2012 classico style (£6.50), while the other was an Amarone della Valpolicella 2009 (£16.99) with a Decanter "best in show" award.  There's a good guide here to what makes these 2 wines so different so I won't try to do better.  I've favourably reviewed Amarones before so I was pleased to guess this one, particularly as I'm not huge drinker of Italian wines.  Unsurprisingly, the more expensive wine won hands down. That's not to say the cheaper wine was undrinkable, but the depth of colour, flavour and body was far greater in the Amarone.  I really recommend this type of wine to go with red meats when serving with fruity sauces or sweeter side dishes such as braised red cabbage, squash or sweet potatoes.  It gives an impression of sweetness even though it's fully fermented to dry. This particular example was 15% abv but the alcohol was very well integrated and there was no burn at all.  Another win for the higher priced wine.

Lory and Mark poured their 2 wines without spilling a drop - a remarkable feat by this stage in the proceedings.  There was a story to go with them, much of which has been lost in the memory, but revolving around clandestine meetings in the countryside with tiny wine merchants named Trout.  I love the commitment to finding just the right wine pairing for the event.   There was talk of having bought wine in France but having been unable to fit it in suitcases so here we were, with, what several of us guessed, was Monastrell, the same grape this duo had brought last time (without any coordination in advance!).  This time we were again treated to Juan Gil which Lory had brought last time, but this time comparing a 4 months oak aged (2009) with an 18 months aged version (2011).  The jury was split here between the £8.99 and the £12-£18 version almost 50/50.  Perhaps this was because they were both powerful and the "less aged" version actually had the advantage of 2 more years in the bottle, which, with the benefit of a cork closure will bring some of the same qualities as the extra time in the barrel.  It was great to try this wine again, and I was pleased to note that a bottle of Priorat on my wine rack has been made by the same winemaker.  I look forward to sharing my thoughts on that with you as soon as it's time to open a £25 bottle of red.  Meanwhile, I think the Monastrell is a winner with this crowd and you'll be happy with whatever you can afford to spend.  I must try a few more French Mourvèdre wines (the same grape) to see whether it's just a great grape all round, or is really suited to the soils in Jumilla.

Finally, David and Stephen had opted to let me do the buying for them. And there was a story for these also, revolving around my first introduction to the more expensive of the wines.  Sadly, I think I delivered this in some kind of bizarre accent.  Yes, too much wine had been drunk.  

Dear readers, drinking too much is not big and it's not clever, but occasionally it can be fun, though it plays havoc with your dancing!  (Many of our dance partners on Friday night didn't quite get the dance they were expecting. Apologies to everyone I danced with!)

Our final wines were a Sainsbury's basic £4.50 Tempranillo and a Pesquera Ribera del Duero (100% Tempranillo).  The Pesquera has been a favourite of mine for some 15 years and this one (purchased for €16.50 in Frankfurt airport duty free shop) didn't disappoint.  The 2009 is available more readily from Tanners at £18.95.  At the risk of sounding repetitive, my notes here are very sketchy, but again, I think the more expensive went down best.  The Sainsbury's House is drinkable though, which at this stage in the evening wasn't just down to diminished tastebuds, but the fact that many of us like Tempranillo as a grape, whether it be in a simple youthful Rioja or a grand, aged fine wine like Vega Sicilia.  
Totting up the totals, it seems the more expensive bottles won the day rather convincingly, and let's remember this was all blind tasting.  That's not to say that all the cheaper bottles were undrinkable. The DiVranac was a much loved bargain compared to some of the pricier wines. And our non-wine drinker realised that paying more can be worth it, and seemed to be becoming a convert by the end of the evening.

There are plenty of good quality wines out there at <£7, but with tax on a bottle coming closer to £2.50, the chances  of finding a great one are becoming slimmer.  We cannot all afford to drink £15 bottles every night of the week, or even one night of the week, but what I think we proved here is that, in general, if you choose to pay a little bit more than usual for a wine, you'll probably be rewarded with something of greater complexity and depth of flavour, with a longer finish, more integrated alcohol and find yourself wanting more.  
Meanwhile, Purple Teeth will continue to seek out supermarket bargains. On my last case load there was nothing under £10 a bottle.  I got my bargain by buying during a 25% off special offer period bringing those £10 wines down to a reasonable £7.50.  There are ways of getting more bang for your buck, you just have to take the time to figure out what you believe is worth the investment. Go to as many tastings as you can, open your mind, try things blind, share with friends.  This will help you come closer to finding your ideal wine price point, grape and style.

If you're interested in hosting a Purple Teeth Wine Tasting party for friends or family, for a special occasion or just to learn more about wine, do get in touch.  I promise, you don't have to feature in a drunken blog photo! 
Meanwhile, experiment.  I'd love to hear about your bargain finds and favourite fine wines.

Cheers!

Let me make this clear.  I have nothing against Champagne.  In fact, a vintage Bollinger would make a welcome guest at my table any night of the week.  But sadly, I haven't won big on either the lottery or Premium Bonds, and as I've had the last 10 months as unpaid wine and dance adventurer, Champagne doesn't grace my table too often.  Mr Purple Teeth isn't a huge fan of the fizzy stuff anyway, and it's a tad indulgent to drink it alone.
Still, there are times when only fizz will do, and I had a few reasons for wanting to feature "Champagne like" wines this week.  Aside from returning home after a month of wandering, we were getting together with some friends for possibly the last time on this side of the Atlantic. They are moving to Canada soon, and I felt a taste of England's finest would serve them well as a taste of what they'd be missing.  Waitrose were on my side and offering a 25% discount against one of the UK's most successful sparkling wines.  The Nyetimber Classic Cuvee (2008 £22.49) was a great way to start off the evening's celebrations.  Nyetimber are based in the South Downs, and benefit from a similar chalky soil and a similar climate to the Champagne region.  They're in complete control of the process, using only grapes from their own vineyards and use the same methods and grape varieties (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier) as used by all the Champagne houses.  So, this is probably as close as you can get to Champagne without being in France.  In fact, Nyetimber wines have caused a bit of a stir in France, with wines receiving international accolades.  It's clearly all about the quest for perfection. The wine maker decided not to bottle a vintage in 2012 because the grapes were not up to standard, given the very poor summer we had in the UK.  Aside from the demi-sec, Nyetimbers are generally vintage wines in style.  So you're getting Vintage style, "champagne-like" qualities for the price of a blended bottle of a mid-range Champagne house.  

Perhaps to make this clearer, it's worth spending a little time explaining what makes "Champagne" different to other wines.  Like sherry from Spain and big branded New World wines such as Blossom Hill and Jacob's Creek, Champagne as you see it on the shelves aims to match a "house style" giving consistency of results year after year. This means that consumers know that if they liked Moet, Veuve, Lanson or Bolly this year, they can pick up a bottle at any time in the future and expect broadly similar results.  This means that most of what you buy as reasonably priced Champagne is non-vintage.  Champagne is produced from a blend of still white wines accumulated in stainless steel vats sometimes stored for several years, and often with grapes coming from a number of different farms.  This allows the master blender to ensure that year after year, Moet tastes like Moet.  When there is an exceptional year - with exactly the right conditions to produce premium grapes and therefore wine, Champagne houses may make a "vintage" product.  This can only contain wine from grapes harvested in that year, and they are often treated a little differently (eg longer aging in the bottle), meaning they taste different from year to year. They're a premium-priced product and they may be quite different in style to the "classic" blend.    
So if it all starts from still white wine, how does Champagne get it's fizz.  The difference that makes the difference in "traditional method" sparkling wine production is a secondary fermentation in the strong, thick bottle that you eventually buy.  The still white wine is bottled, and a little yeast and additional sugar is added.  This enables the wine to "referment" itself, producing, as a by-product, carbon dioxide which is trapped within the bottle.  This is a very ferocious process, and the bottles are sealed with a crown (or beer style) cap during this time, rather than the familiar popping cork we know and love. It's called autolysis, and this is what also imparts those very dry yeasty, bread and pastry flavours that Champagne drinkers love.

After the magic happens, the wine inside the bottle is now fizzy.  Still, it also contains all those dead yeast cells that have been killed off by the creation of additional alcohol or the lack of sugar.  And let's face it, no-one likes cloudy champagne.  So this is where the riddler comes into play.  While much of this is now done by machine in the largest houses, many of the smaller manufacturers still prefer to do this by hand.

In this case, the Riddler isn't some green-clad anti-hero from a super-hero comic, but a skilled craftsman whose job is to turn each bottle by hand a quarter turn, while steadily changing the incline of the bottle from a horizontal position to an inverted vertical position.  This ensures that the dead yeast cells gradually collect in the neck of the bottle, after having imparted lots of delicious yeasty flavours such as bread and biscuit into the wine.  
But how do we get rid of these yeasty deposits in an upside down bottle of fizz?  Here it gets even cleverer...  the necks of the bottles are plunged into a freezing solution which instantly freezes and solidifies the yeast "plug".  In a deft movement the cap is removed, the yeat plug flies out under the pressure of the contained fizz, the bottle receives it's "dosage" (essentially a top up to replace any lost wine in the process - from the reserves of still wine, and occasionally another spoonful of sugar), and the cork is thrust in, caged and foiled ready for you to open it ceremoniously whenever the occasion demands.  

So when you see "Champagne" or "traditional Method" you know what they mean.  

I had intended to open another bottle of fizz (Chapel Hill £7.99) made from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir this week, but the weather moved to a distinctly autumnal mode, and the time just wasn't right for further celebration, so I'll review it another week when I'm drinking the rest of my Hungarian stockpile.  So back to the Nyetimber...

My guests and I could understand why this has been garnering so much praise.  It's got real character.  The mousse is delicate and with such fine bubbles, Mr Purple Teeth was happy to drink a second glass.  And that's unusual for fizz.  We noted nutty flavours, perhaps hazelnut, and digestive biscuit.  Our intrepid future Canadian noted cloudy apple, and perhaps even an apple pie flavour, bringing out a sense of pastry which the makers also mention on their tasting notes.  It's got some complexity, and was very drinkable on a hot summer's evening. I'd buy it again, despite the price tag.  It may not be a frequent visitor to my table but I'm sure it will be back.

If you do want to catch this at a bargain price, today (June 18) is the last day for Waitrose's 25% off offer.  

There are plenty of other English sparklers out there and I recently tasted the Sainsbury's own brand with a group of local wine aficionados.  It went down very well, though sadly not before a good deal was spilled in the opening process.  Remember to super chill your fizz as that reduces the pressure and ensures less bubbling over.  Julie from Grape Expectations  recommends the Danebury Cossack 2006 (£24.95) which has just been released after spending over 5 years maturing in the bottle. The message is, there's plenty of English fizz out there that's giving the French a run for their money, so why not give some a go next time you want to pop a cork.

Cheers!

I decided to drink my Naked wines over a period and save reviewing them until I had drunk a few.  In restrospect, this was a very bad idea as most of them have sold out now, rendering the reviews somewhat useless.  But in the hope and expectation that some may be restocked, here's my take on them below.

Casa L'Angel is now sold out.  It was £6.99 (and full price £8.49) and at £6.99 it was probably so much of a bargain that this is why it's gone.  I bought this one for two main reasons.  Firstly, it mentioned Old Vines.  I don't often see mention of old vines on wine labels outside of Zinfandels, and I am a sucker for the rich concentration of flavours that more mature wines can bring. That said, one of Spain's advantages over many regions is the age of it's vines.  Secondly, it is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Tempranillo.  Mr Purple Teeth and I have long argued over the supremacy of these particular grapes. He loves Cab Sauv and it's one of my least favourites.  When I first met him, I spent months trying to convince him about the merits of Rioja (mostly made from Tempranillo).  I'd never before seen a blend of these two grapes and was keen to see how they would pair. At 14% abv it's big, full bodied and deep.  Sadly, I forgot to read the label before pouring a couple of large glasses.  Decanting an hour before drinking was recommended, and I could definitely see how this would have improved the wine.  Still, lots of swirling and waiting with the wine in the glass helped, and we drunk the second half of the bottle the second night.  We struggled a bit with what to make of it.  It's a wine that definitely needs food but we had already eaten before we opened it.  Some salted crisps helped.  For me, it's got too much drying tannin, but for Mr Purple Teeth, that's exactly what he loves in a Cabernet. There's oaky spiciness, and some hints of blackcurrant but it didn't feel like an overtly fruity wine.  Combining two individual favourites made for an interesting experience, but, in the end, the match didn't really beat better examples of the individual grapes at the same price point.  in any case, it's now sold out, so, you couldn't buy it even if I'd loved it.

Benoit Dreyer Gewurztraminer from Alsace was a surprise hit.  It's never a surprise to me that I love Gewurz, but the same wine-maker's Riesling had been a bit of a let down, just not delivering the archetypal Riesling punch. So it was with some trepidation that I pulled this out of the fridge, really willing it to be amazing.  Liquid lychee and everything I love about Alsace, burst out of the glass: floral, aromatic, fuller bodied whites with tons of varietal character. Just a shame I left it so long to taste it that now it's sold out. Roll on the 2012 vintage!  At £9.99 it was better than the examples available in supermarkets for that price.  I saved some till next day and enjoyed it with a Thai meal: made for each other!  Mr Purple Teeth agrees, "that's class in a glass, most impressed, would definitely still buy this at a higher price"  High praise indeed from the man who can seldom be encouraged to drink white wine.  Sorry it's all gone...

Ladies Who Shoot Their Lunch Shiraz (2009) - again sold out, but from what I can remember was about £14.99.  Very smooth, medium bodied and elegant rather than punchy, this was a decent wine for accompanying a comfort food cottage pie.  By the end of May it really ought to be summer whites and salads, but a day of torrential rain had me running for the red.  It's got plenty of black fruits and peppery spice.  I would buy it again, but it's sold out.  Who knows if another vintage will come in...  Sadly the other Naked Shiraz that I loved is also sold out, so I've ordered a few different ones in my next case in the hopes that another treasure is just waiting to be discovered.  The key to Naked seems to be these small lots, unusual wines, giving you something of more interest than the supermarket the fare.  The main difficulty comes when you want to buy it again, as you may not have the space for another case just because you tasted one you like, and when you do, there is the risk it will all be gone.

I'm definitely going to have to drink my next case more quickly, but at last, a wine that hasn't sold out.  The Simpsons of Sainte Rose Low Yield Roussane (14% abv) is still around to Angels at £9.99.  Some more will definitely make it's way back into my basket, but then, I like oak.  This is an oaky and full bodied white but with enough crisp acidity to make your mouth water on a hot summer's day.  I think it would be a great match for barbecued chicken - though I can't recall the last time I barbecued anything!  The low yielding vines probably add to more concentration of flavour within the russet coloured grapes.    It's got a nutty, herbal character that means it could stand up also to stronger tasting meats, perhaps even belly pork.  Buy some before it runs out!  If you, like me, like fino sherry and oaky chardonnays, I think you'll enjoy this one. This is definitely arriving in my next order, and more than one bottle this time - before it runs out!  

Perhaps I'm being unfair to the Benoit Dreyer Pinot Blanc, but I had hoped for more after the stunning Gewurztraminer.  Pinot Blanc does tend to be a very neutral-flavoured grape and on Friday night we opened it to follow on from a bottle of English Sparkling wine and to lead into an Indian meal.  Many Alsace whites are very food friendly and pair particularly well with exotic and spicy foods.  In this case, the wine was flattened by the food, and didn't quite stand up for itself.  In the end, I put it aside and finished it off on Saturday afternoon chilling in the sunshine.  Here it fared better, and gave crisp green apple flavours with a hint of cider on the finish.  This is a decent enough wine, but for £10.49 (Angel price), I can definitely get much more oomph for my money from a different Alsace grape variety so I don't think I'll purchase it again.  It is still available at Naked though, should you want to give it a go.  Do bear in mind that not all Alsace Pinot Blancs are 100% single varietals due to an unusual local regulation.  Some can be blended with Auxerrois and white wine made from Pinot Noir (ie with no skin contact).  

As a result of being unable to thoroughly recommend many wines which are still on sale, I thought I'd let you know what's arriving from Naked Wines at Casa Purple Teeth tomorrow, just in case you want to buy some and drink them along with me on Facebook or Google Plus...  I was very lucky to get an Angel special offer which has netted me 2 free bottles.  There are three here I've drunk before, but sadly most of my favourites so far have sold out, so it's an experimental bunch of wines which I hope will suit the warm summer evenings ahead, with Alsace varieties grown in the new world, Pinot Noir, and hopefully Syrah will be more suitable for summer than the heavier Australian Shirazes.  No doubt you'll hear how I get on over the coming months.Rod Easthope Hawkes Bay Pinot Gris 2012, Rod Easthope Hawkes Bay Syrah 2012, Monowai Chardonnay 2011, Simpsons of Sainte Rose Old Vine Syrah 2011, Jen Pfeiffer The Rebel Riesling 2012, Seifried Gewurztraminer 2012, Arabella Viognier 2012, Landhaus Mayer Riesling 201, Small and Small Pinot Noir 2011, Simpsons of Sainte Rose Low Yield Roussanne 2011, plus the free bottles: Arabella Reserve Shiraz Viognier 2011 and Sacchetto Paradiso Prosecco NV× 1£0.00
if you've got a favourite wine in the £7-12 price range, feel free to let me know and we may well feature it either as a wine of the week, or simply to share an insight on a different region.  
Cheers!

If you've been following this blog for a while, you might remember my post back in January called Hungary for something different...  I'd only been writing the blog for a few weeks, and I'd just come back from Budafest, the biggest West Coast Swing dance festival in Hungary so I wanted to share my wine experiences there.  I was really surprised (and pleased) by the reaction to this post and to the fact that I followed up to find out more about the wine I'd enjoyed the most.  That has led to a further adventure in a country I've never visited before, Serbia.

The DiBonis winery produce a rather lovely Shiraz and I felt that I'd like to buy some on my return home.  Sadly, this wasn't to be as they aren't for sale in the UK (yet).  However, we started a conversation and with my encouragement, they entered the Decanter World Wine Awards and  received a commendation for the Shiraz and a bronze medal award for their Cabernet Franc.  I was given the opportunity to test some bottles on the British public at Alfred the Grape, one of my favourite local wine stores, and the reaction was pretty favourable, so let's hope we can find someone willing to import these wines so that we can share them with you, and a much wider audience. (Importers and potential vendors, please feel free to get in touch!)

Back to the adventure.  When you get an invitation to come to Serbia, it's not without some trepidation that you board the plane alone.  After all, when Serbia has been in the international news, it's not generally been for positive things. Luckily, the country's war torn past is all behind it now, with membership of the EU a possibility in the next few years.  Fortunately, any fears were completely ungrounded and from the moment I arrived at Budapest airport I was met with a warm welcome and swiftly transported safely across the border to experience the best of what DiBonis have to offer.

The winery itself is between the lakeside town of Palić, and the larger Subotica, both of which have some interesting fin-du-siecle architecture, with much of it appearing to step straight out of the pages of Hansel and Gretel. There's a thriving tourism business based on the historic lake and spa of the region and plenty of Hungarians coming to taste the wines. The area is around 200 kilometres from Budapest and a similar distance from Belgrade. Largely unknown to us in the UK, it was a rare privilege to visit the hub of the local wine tourism route, which is the DiBonis winery, and my lodgings were in a mansion formerly used each summer by the Yugoslav President, Tito. could life get any more surreal? (Hint: yes it could...)

The "Shiraz" tasting room is home to a Wine Treasury where prominent locals can store their wine.  It's also got seating for around 40 people and can cater for tasting parties and also prepares food for groups of visitors.  The winery itself is just a block or so away and the vineyards are mostly close by, although they also own a small parcel of land in the Somló region of Hungary, where they grow Riesling with much higher acidity than can be achieved in Subotica, even producing a gorgeously sticky Icewine from it.    The mineral content of the land there is very high, given it's volcanic history, and this minerality really shows through in the wines.
DiBonis are a premium wine producer in the area, but are perhaps even more renowned for their traditional fruit brandy products, known as Pálinka in Hungary, where that name has a PDO status.  These are made  from a large variety of fruits including apple, pear, quince, plum, muscat grape, raspberry, strawberry, apricot and more, all grown locally and distilled with the finest care under the guiding hand of Laszlo Boni, the owner and general alcohol producing genius at DiBonis.  This genre of spirits is not one I've had a lot of contact with, though had I tasted these before, I may have been tempted.  They also make a Calvados style Apple Brandy called Almados which could surely fool those from Normandy, just as Japanese whisky recently had me wondering if I could tell it from Scotch.

I think I managed to taste one from almost every fruit variety, although, I did wonder how wise this was given that it was before dinner!  Apricot, Muscat Grape, and Raspberry tied for my favourite, but whatever your favourite fruit, there will be one for you. The fruit brandies are made from anywhere between 50-100kg of fresh fruit per litre, meaning they are a world away from cheaper distilled products or fruit vodkas made from grain with a natural or artificial fruit flavouring added later.  They are distilled up to around 93% and gradually, through a meticulously controlled process, diluted using distilled water down to 42%.  This is done by adding small amounts of water at a time and leaving a few days for integration to occur, creating a harmonious product which captures the real essence of the fruit flavour in a very smooth drinking alcohol.  This kind of attention to process detail may well come from Mr Boni's background in electrical engineering.

               
Laszlo grew up in a family with a wine tradition, surrounded by vineyards, but he didn't follow in his father's footsteps and instead pursued a technical career.  However, the lure of the vine, called him back around his mid-40s when he went back to his roots and set up DiBonis.  He's hoping his own two sons will carry on the tradition without such a long break!   Not that he has any intention of quitting the business any time soon.  Serbian wine law dictates that all wineries must employ someone with a oenology degree.  Rather than hiring someone qualified to make his wines for him, Laszlo decided that he'd take the degree himself, and, at the age of 58, was in celebratory mood when I arrived, as he'd just finished his final exam on that very day.  It's clear he's passionate about sharing his wines with an appreciative audience, and while he used the latest techniques and equipment to control the wine making processes, with his engineer's eye, he also has a creative side that's led him to experiment with grapes not commonly grown in the area, with different techniques, and with blends "just to see what will happen".  For example, I tried a 2009 blend in American oak of 2/3 Shiraz and one third Vranac (a powerful local grape, which produces dark, inky wines that respond well to oak).  Despite it's age, this wine will still benefit from more time in the barrel, and probably from some bottle age too.  Both wines on their own are dark, powerful and spicy, yet together they create something new.

As a blogger more used to reviewing my travel and restaurant experiences as well as readily available wines from our UK supermarket shelves, it was a rare privilege to share in the DiBonis wines direct from their barrels, while they're still developing.  What was fascinating was the length of time some of these wines were in barrel.  I was luckily enough to have a vertical tasting of the Shiraz which had first brought DiBonis to my attention.  While I have previously tasted 2007 and 2008 from the bottle, this time I tried still maturing 2007, 2008, and 2009.  It's astonishing to think of the value of wine tied up in these lovingly tended barrels and to think that after almost 6 years in oak, it's still got somewhere to go. The 2007 definitely stole my heart.
 As with the fruits for the brandies, it's fair to say that the grapes at the centre of production really benefit from the warm Serbian summers and the local soils.  With high quality fruit, it's much easier to make high quality wines and spirits.

Another experiment was to compare Cabernet Sauvignon which had been in oak barrels for 5 year, some in Hungarian and some in American.  Side by side, and well hidden behind the stainless steel tanks, sits one barrel of Hungarian and one of American oak.  Being offered this comparison gave me a real sense that my opinion was valued, but what if I gave the wrong answer?  The pressure mounted as I was presented with 2 glasses with no idea which one was which.  Luckily, the test was a lot simpler than I had feared - simply, choose a favourite.  Mind you, not that it was easy!  And after the amount of sampling I'd done by that stage I do recall that one was 51% and the other was 49% but I can't remember which was which.  What I will say, is that it was interesting to understand the choice of oak, and see up close how these choices really can drive the flavour of the wine. Luckily, there wasn't a "correct" answer and my hosts said that quite often their favourite changes from one day to the next. This led us to a discussion of the "biodynamic" calendar, and whether there is such a thing as a "good day" to drink wine and less favourable days.    Boni has been keen to explore biodynamics and produces many of his products as "naturally" as possible, but he's struggled to find a biodynamic calendar in his own language.

If you're wondering what all this biodynamic mumbo-jumbo is about, a brief resume goes like this. In 1924, Austrian philosopher, Rudolph Steiner first proposed that that the energy of plants can be affected not only by human actions and the weather but also by the energy of the moon, stars and planets.  Fast forward to the 1950s, Maria Thun, a German farmer, decided to make some controlled tests, which she began with the radish plant. Her approach was a lot less hippy trippy than Steiner's, with a control groups applied to the experiments. Over the next 10 years, she came to confirm that she could see different germination patterns on different days. With the help of an astrological or lunar calendar, and her biodynamic practices, she noted different and measurably better results when she followed a particular pattern. Her observations over many years revealed that there was more a suitable day to sow leaf, root, flower and fruiting seed types and her calendar was first published in 1962, giving guidance to biodynamic farmers ever since. She carried on her research at her own farm until her death last year just 2 months short of her 90th birthday. In 2010, she and her son Matthias, published "When Wine Tastes Best: A Biodynamic Calendar For Wine Drinkers". 

This takes the philosophy to the next level, that aside from just the growth cycle, products like wine "live on" long after they've been bottled.  Winemakers, buyers and enthusiasts around the world are starting to appreciate subtle differences in the way a wine tastes when consumed on leaf, root, flower or fruit days.  Have you ever noticed that you really enjoy a bottle of wine so the next day you open another bottle of the same batch only to be a little disappointed?  This is the kind of phenomenon which has reputedly led Sainsbury's and Tesco to run tastings according to the biodynamic calendar.  
If you're intrigued, then you can run some tests at home yourself.  There's a calendar here that tells you whether it's a root, fruit, leaf or flower day.  Root and leaf days are best avoided while fruit and flower days are much more favourable. The good news is that from 8:32pm tonight, (June 6th 2013) till 9.30pm on Sunday are all flower days so get those aromatic wines opened this weekend and you're purportedly in for a treat.  I may have to do some experiments of my own if only to find a few days where I shouldn't be drinking wine!  More on this another day, perhaps.

For those of you who think it's all hocus pocus, I'll get back to the wines themselves...
I also tasted 2 Merlots from 2008, again side by side, and again from the 2 different types of oak barrel.  In this case, being a much easier drinking grape, the wines were much closer to being ready for drinking and you could really start to tell how the American oak opens up more readily, allowing the wine to age somewhat faster than the Hungarian, and creating a very smooth drinking Merlot, with the Hungarian one adding a much more spicy note to the traditional plum flavours. You may have gathered from my previous posts that I'm not much of a Merlot drinker, but I could be persuaded if more were like this.  Smooth, and easy drinking, but not overly simple.  Was it a trick of the light that I also thought the colours were slightly different?  Perhaps so, as my iphone couldn't pick up any discernible difference, but it had been a long day.

It's not all about the reds though.  With 50,000 litres of wine in the barrique room, it's got something for everyone.  Oak aged Riesling?  A new one on me,  but with the lack of acidity in the local grapes, somehow it worked, and paired surprisingly well with our lamb based dinner.  There's a couple Chardonnays too, some with very minimal oak treatment, lest you think that Laszlo is overly fond of the taste of trees.  This is crisp, fruity and refreshing.  I also tried a rosė or two  - one from the bottle and one from the barrel, with the bottle containing nearly all the red grapes DiBonis grow, and the barrel being an unusual oaked Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir blend.  These wines are modelled on the French styles of Anjou and Provence rather than their neighbouring Hungarian style.  Hungarians demand ultra fresh rosė which is almost discarded after 9 months.  DiBonis 2 year old rosės, however, have been a bit of a hit with Hungarian sommeliers, which is a good sign.  A demi-sec Muscat followed, lunch.  He really has covered all your wine-drinking bases.

Keen to ensure the best hospitality, my hosts quickly deduced that despite my love of Shiraz, I was also rather partial to a Pinot Noir.  Being a man who himself loves all kinds of wines, he presented me with one he'd made earlier.  As usual, there was the "regular" version from 2009 with 2 years in American oak but also the "experimental" version from 2012 which I sampled direct from the (Hungarian oak) barrel.  This one was an attempt at a more "natural" wine and had been slowly fermented using only the naturally occurring yeasts on the grapes themselves, rather than by the more typical process of adding yeast.  I have high hopes for this wine, and look forward to tasting some from the bottle in a few years.  

Next to this, we tried a Bordeaux style blend direct from it's 2012 (American oak) barrel.  Clearly this blend of Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon was going to be young, but what was intriguing here was the fact that all of the grapes were blended together right at the fermentation stage, where they went in for a long, cold fermentation of around 4 days with the skins left in contact for 10-11 days.  
From the bottle, I was also able to try another experiment, and a very pleasing one.  At the request of a Belgrade wine merchant, DiBonis have produced a trial blend of 50% Merlot, 50% Cabernet Sauvignon.  In this case, the sum of the parts was definitely worth more than the individual grapes can be, at least for my palate.  Hopefully, this will be something that's not just available to that one wine merchant!

All in all, it was a rather amazing couple of days.  I tasted things I'd never have the opportunity to taste anywhere else, and spent time with some people who are extremely passionate about producing the best products they can from their local fruit.  I was welcomed with hospitality I could never have expected, even being treated to Laszlo Boni's renowned King Carp soup, cooked in the open air over a wooden fire (despite hurricane force winds and pelting rain), while I sipped on his Almados, Apple Brandy.  Now that is commitment!  We washed it down with a glass or  two of Vranac, a wine which seemed to compliment the strong paprika spice, yet not over-power the fish.

I can't thank the DiBonis team enough for the welcome, I received, and I hope I've left my readers with a thirst to try some new wines from a region they may not previously considered.  If you're interested in distributing any or all of the DiBonis portfolio in the UK, then please get in touch!  And if you're looking for an unusual holiday destination, then consider the flat landscape of Subotica.  The wine tourism is a lot of fun!  And if you've not got enough information here, you'll find more photos on my Facebook page.  Remember to "like" it to get all the latest on what we're drinking now.

As for how life got more surreal, after leaving the vineyards behind, I headed back to Budapest to participate in the Hungarian Open west coast swing dance championships, where I competed in Open Strictly with a hair stylist from Finland on the Friday night, still with somewhat of a fruit brandy hangover!  On the Saturday, I ended up placing 4th in the Novice Jack and Jill with a chap from Minsk in Belarus, after having shared my dance philosophy in a dance psychology class with a group from Hungary, Poland, France, Russia and more.  At this stage, I have no regrets about abandoning my corporate career for a life of wine, dance and adventure.  It's been amazing.  Thank you for reading and sharing in it with me.  
Cheers!


UPDATE:  
If you're interested in visiting the DiBonis Winery, a small travel company (e-mail: [email protected]  www.metropoliten.com www.travelserbiabelgrade.com) has put together the following programme.  Please note this has no association with Purple Teeth.


     Accomodation: Hotel President Palic ( ****)Spa and wellness hotel.

First day

Arrival 17.00-18.00 to Hotel president Palic

Transfer to DiBonis Winery with coach, 18.30

- 19.00 Dinner at shiraz degustation centre with live music, and local specialities, limitless consumption of  DiChardonnay , DiRose and DiMerlot wine, during dinner.

- 20.30 degustation of award winning DiBonis White and rose wines. ( Riesling , sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, muscat and rose wines, in the barrique chamber.

- 22.30 transfer back to the hotel.

Second day

- Spa and brekfast Till 10.00 am.and walking Tour to the lake Palic .

-10.15- 12.15 boat trip on the lake Palic, with live music and rose wine. Guided Tour of Palic and area.

- 12.30-14.30 transfer from the hotel to the lunch at the Shiraz degustation centre with limitless wine consumption ( chardonnay and merlot)

- 14.45-18.00 transfer to the Hotel and free activities at lake Palic and in the Spa and Welness centre of the hotel President.

- 18.10 transfer from the hotel to the Jurta at the wineyards, where with the taste of burek our guests will try 6 different types of fruit brandies ( rakija) 

- 19.30 transfer to the Shiraz degustation centre.

- 19.30 Dinner with live music and Fish soup .

-20.45 Red wine degustation at the barrique chamber of the DiBonis Winery 

- 22.30 transfer back to the hotel! 

Day three

- Spa and brekfast Till 10.00 am

Price in Euro per person 170  -   based on min. 30   passengers

Included in the price:

·Transfers per program

·Accommodation in double/single  rooms on .........basis

·Sightseeings tours as per program, English speaking guide ,

·Degustations of wine and Rakia  per program,

·Dinner x , Lunch x  Breakfast

·Glob Metropoliten Tours welcome gift,

·Agency support 24/7

Not included :

·Air ticket or other transportation 

·Personal expenses

· 

"GLOB METROPOLITEN TOURS-LUFTHANSA CITY CENTER,Beograd, Makenzijeva 26, tel/fax:381/11 -2430 899

e-mail: [email protected]  www.metropoliten.com www.travelserbiabelgrade.com   

  Licence  OTP 133/2010. - 05.02.2010.