I'm not really at an age where birthdays are cause for celebration. No number ending in a 5 or a 0 to enforce jollity, this time.  Aching bones.  Taking longer and longer to recover from a weekend of dancing...  And to make matters worse, YouTube has now started placing banner advertisements for pre-paid funeral plans across the screen.  It's a surefire way to make a gal run screaming from the birthday cake and off to the wine rack.
The one good thing about birthdays, however, is that you get to be truly self-indulgent, and it suddenly seems reasonable to open a £20+ bottle of wine any night  of the week.  Please don't expect any bargain reviews for Wine of the Week this time around.  This blogger needed cheering up, and guaranteed quality is where I headed.  Please don't let me count how much money was in the wines I consumed this week, for every penny was well spent.

Pinot Noir is one of the most expressive grapes of the terroir (the area where it's grown) that I've ever experienced.  It's hard to grow, requires love and attention and can be fickle.  It's also the constituent of the finest red Burgundies which can be cellared and enjoyed for many years and in France is also grown in Alsace, Champagne (where it's turned into fizz), and in Sancerre - yes, really!  It's also grown in many other countries around the world including Germany, England, Chile, New Zealand, Australia and the USA.  I first fell in love with this grape in Switzerland, where it was the only permitted red wine grape grown in the Neuchâtel region, where I was lucky enough to live  for 6 years. It's there I went from complete wine novice to enthusiast, sampling much more than just the local flavour.  Mr Purple Teeth is less of a fan of the complicated Pinot Noir.  He prefers less subtlety, and crazy giant wines, or heavy St Julien Bordeaux first growths.  He likes to know what he's going to get when he opens a bottle, and with Pinot Noir, you not only have to know the grape but also understand a bit of the regional character. So, it was that I decided to take the opportunity of my birthday week to drink a number of rather gorgeous Pinot Noirs from around the world, and tell you all about them.

What better way to start a birthday week  of wine indulgence than by drinking wine that was a gift?  My favourite Alsatian wine pusher recently opted to break away from the white tradition and had bestowed this bottle upon me a few weeks ago. Alsace Pinots are among the lightest on the list.  The last one I had was so light that I didn't even bother offering any to Mr Purple Teeth as one look told me he'd scoff at it.
This one was a fair bit darker but still a delicate pale cherry red colour. It had a light body and pretty high acidity which really makes the mouth water, tempting you to take another sip.  There were lots of the delicious strawberry flavours I'd expect as well as some toasty almond from the oak aging.  It's got a lovely long finish and continues to develop in the mouth for much longer than you'd expect from such a light wine.  I saved some (with difficulty) to enjoy the next day.  The flavours had developed further with hints of plum and cherry, and a real spiciness was starting to come through.  All in all, a rather satisfying wine which would doubtless have yielded an even better experience had I had the patience to hold onto it for a year or two.  I'm really grateful to have such wonderful friends, who ply me with delicious wines.  One glass of this reminded me just how good life is and, for a few moments at least, made me forget all about adverts for pre-paid funeral plans. It also convinced Mr Purple Teeth that perhaps he'd been too hasty in judging a wine by it's colour.

Our next trip to our wine rack's Pinot Noir shelf turned up a very different example, but an equally satisfying one.  We moved to the southern hemisphere for the D'Arenberg's Adelaide Hills "The Feral Fox" 2009 (14.5% abv).  It's far darker in colour and has more depth and body.  Being a couple of years older than the Alsace example it's got a lot more mature flavours and a lot less fruit on the nose.  There's something meaty or gamey here, and more of a black fruit flavour than a red fruit one.  It had a surprisingly high tannin level.  There's greater extraction of colour from the skins with whole grape clusters macerated before traditional foot treading of the naturally fermenting crushed grapes. The tannins are smooth and velvety rather than drying or gripping but they definitely add a textural element. Adelaide Hills is a cool climate region which is renowned locally for its Pinot, though I'd never before tasted one. Again, acidity is noticeable as a mouthwatering desire for another sip.  Mr Purple Teeth preferred this example, though he surprised me by quite enjoying the complexity of the Alsace wine.  Our Australian example is definitely ready to drink now, and seems a little less complex, but it's a delicious example of Australian Pinot that, unlike some Californian versions manages to avoid going jammy when the body is increased. We bought this bottle several years ago from our local merchant, Alfred the Grape, during a D'Arenberg wine tasting evening, though we hadn't been able to try this example on the night.  I wish we'd bought more than one bottle now. It was £15.99 and is now sold out.  I've yet to meet a D'Arenberg wine I didn't like, and despite being from a different zone than most of their wines, this definitely keeps to the house style.  You may find the 2011 a little easier to get hold of and the 2010 is for sale here but I'd recommend keeping it for a year or so to let it develop and enjoying it with a nice meal of duck or loin of venison.

Moving to the United States, we next sampled a 2010 Pinot from Oregon's WillaKenzie Estate.  I'd very favourably reviewed the 2008 some time ago, and Tanner's now only have the 2011 in stock.  It's fruitier but no less appealing, and if you're more patient than I am, this wine may improve further in the bottle.  Interestingly though, for a £25+ American wine, this one comes with a screw top, indicating there's no real intention to lay it down for years.  
Oregon is the prime Pinot Noir region in the States.  The climate is perfect and the reputation of the wines is giving California run for it's money.  

The flavour is fruits of the forest, so it's strawberry, but not those giant, bright red tasteless ones.  Instead it's reminiscent of the dark and tiny wild strawberries you might be lucky enough to find on a woodland hike with hints of cherry and plum  There's some vanilla and a creamy smoothness and perhaps even a hint of violet.  It is a good balanced wine though the acidity and tannin was definitely less noticeable than in the other 2 examples.  In the past I'd drunk this successfully with roast chicken or roast beef and this time, I drunk it just for pleasure, without food.  On day 2, I tried serving it with a meatloaf.  That was a mistake due to the tomato based sauce, so I put it to one side to drink later, and instead revisited D'Arenberg for a Dead Arm Shiraz.  Well, it is my birthday week!  If you really want to sample the Willamette Valley and Oregon Pinots, there aren't that many to choose from in the UK though The Wine Society also stock one for under £20, which I've now ordered to refill my rather depleted Pinot Noir shelf.  More news on that once I've sampled it, no doubt.

It's fair to say that my wines this week have taken on a rather celebratory feel.  I've reached for the premium bottles that normally only get a look in on those rare weekends when I'm actually at home.  I've loved rekindling my passion for Pinot and Mr Purple Teeth's interest has also been piqued.  So it's been a successful week.  While on my supermarket sweep I noticed a few examples that didn't quite fit the bill for a Purple Teeth pampering, but you might give them a go.   The Bradshaw Macedonian Pinot Noir for under £5 at Asda certainly has an attractive label and price, and the New Zealand Brancott Estate Pinot is £8 there and widely available for <£10.  I've at least tasted that one before.  Like the Tierra y Hombre Chilean Pinot from Marks and Spencer it's full of distinctive strawberry flavours and presents a useful introduction to the grape.  Sadly, I didn't get to splash out on a decent Burgundy this birthday.  No Nuits-Saint-Georges or Gevrey-Chambertin felt inclined to leap into my basket, but there's always Christmas.  If you're new to Pinot Noir, I'd love to hear what you think of it, wherever it's from.

Meanwhile, celebrations continued outside of the world of Pinot, and while I don't want to show this blog post to my doctor, I've enjoyed several other wines this week besides the ones featured above...

Julius 2011 Petite Arvine from Valais in Switzerland was definitely my most exclusive wine of the week.  It's hard enough to find Petite Arvine in Switzerland and this bottle was hand-carried from Zurich airport by a dance buddy as a special order.  I opened it for my birthday aperitif and was delighted.  Rich, fat, creamy, floral, almost honeyed sweetness.  This was a less mineral/grapefruit example than I'd expected but nonetheless utterly decadent and delicious - just right for a birthday treat.  The Fiano di Avellino accompanied delicious seared scallops and crab papardelle at Caldesi in Campagna, my birthday restaurant treat.  Good minerality and crispness to cut through a selection of rich fish dishes.  The Bruno Sorg Gewurztraminer was a recommendation from a friend who is also a huge fan of Alsace wines.  The 2011 is now available at the Wine Society for a little over £11 while this 2010 was around £13.50 from Tanners.  Again this seems sweet because it's so ripe, full-bodied and full of honeyed rose and lychee flavour.  I'm looking forward to seeing what the 2011 is like as I couldn't resist ordering it.  The Dead Arm Shiraz (2007) concluded my fine wine exploits for the week. If you can find it, expect to pay around £30 a bottle.  It's everything you could want from an Australian Shiraz, dark black fruit, dark spices, mocha, leather, full bodied and simply delightful after a week of light Pinot!  

Perhaps getting older isn't so bad after all.  Now roll on Christmas when I next get to drink myself silly for a week on premium wines! As for wine of the week next week, I think I'll give myself a week for my liver to recover and then let you know... Cheers!

Watching the Perseids meteor shower at 2am on 12th August was an incredible experience. I hope you managed to get a patch of clear sky not completely drenched in light pollution to watch it yourself.
Firstly, I was in shock at not being sound asleep after yet another crazy dance weekend where I made myself both exhausted yet fulfilled by teaching dance psychology and running whisky tasting parties*.  Secondly, it felt like both a beginning and an ending. It's the end of my year as an international party princess.  I'd finished working in the corporate world a year before to focus on learning more about wine and enjoying life to the full.  Both missions accomplished.  But it also feels like an ending, because the good times cannot roll forever (at least according to my bank manager), and there was that first sense of a chill in the air that signals the end of summer, the start of autumn, and with it, a time to focus on getting down to business.  Yet something in my heart is unable to let go of a diary filled with international friends at dance events across the globe, and other assorted travel adventures.  August is traditionally a time when I think of absent friends, and so a gentle but pleasant melancholy started to settle as I gazed at the infinite. The shooting stars and satellites both created their own sense of wonder and emptiness. It was time for comfort food and comfort wine.

Lasagne and garlic bread are not exactly summer food staples. But with a building melancholia, salad and grilled fish just won't do, no matter how good they are for the waistline.  So what to pair with this rich fare?  Many of my favourite red wines are wasted on such powerful flavours, either squashing or being squashed.  So, I decided to go for Italian, despite a consistent resistance to Italian reds, figuring that local goes with local...  I'd greatly enjoyed a bottle of Nero D'Avola over the weekend, but this has already been reviewed here, so I was pleased that on a trip to my local branch of Marks and Spencer a new wine was being featured:  Aglianico from Campania at just £6.45 a bottle seemed like the perfect pairing for lasagne.  In fact, the reverse label even suggests this match, so who was I to resist?
During my Wine and Spirit Education Trust studies last year, Aglianico del Vulture (Pipoli) was one of the few Italian wines we sampled which I could truly say that I loved.  But it's pretty hard to get a hold of, especially the 2008.  And I'd drunk my only bottle some time ago.  If you're interested though, The Drink Shop will be selling the 2010 online from 20th September for under £10 a bottle, and a more premium version of the 2008 for around £17.  Since my course, I've consistently been troubled by the general lack of availability of this unusual grape variety.  Well done Marks and Spencer for bringing it to a wider public.  The question is, have they brought us a good example?

Aglianico (pronounced roughly as "ahl-YAH-nee-koe") is thought to have been originally a Greek grape variety, but now it's almost exclusively grown in Italy, primarily in the Campania and Basilicata regions with Taurasi being the most prestigious sub-region in Campania and Vulture holding the same status for Basilicata.  There are experimental plantings in Australia and California so let's see if they eventually bring us something worth drinking.  
Meanwhile, this low cost version of the grape holds the signature deep garnet colour, with firm tannins and a good acidity, helping it pair well with rich tomato and meat dishes.  This one probably sits more as a medium rather than full-bodied example and is pretty drinkable, though Mr Purple Teeth was less than impressed.
It definitely lacks some of the complexity and potential that higher priced versions from the DOCG regions will carry, but it's a good introduction to a new grape variety without the higher price tag that often comes along with it.  The tannin is still present, even after the wine has been open for 24 hours, giving some good structure without being too drying while the acidity means it doesn't have that "heavy" feeling that makes red wine less suitable for warmer evenings. In fact, for a red, it's pretty crisp.  Flavours are predominantly of raspberry, blackberry and plum with some hints of morello cherry.
In the end, though, I was a little disappointed and perhaps unfairly so, given that this wine is considerably cheaper than most of the wines I've been drinking of late.  Getting a drinkable bottle of red for under £6.50 is becoming ever more difficult with each tax increase and though I wouldn't choose to drink this on it's own, it will make a perfectly acceptable partner for your home made pasta dishes.  That said, I'd probably pay the extra 50 pence or so to get the Nero D'Avola from Tesco. Especially as the last bottle I had was possibly drinking better than it's ever drunk before.

And did it help?  Comfort food it was, comfort wine, perhaps less so.  But there's always something about having a glass of wine with dinner that feels like a warm cuddle.  
I still feel the familiar August pain of missing friends and family, some of whom I'll never see again, but looking back on the meteors I'm reminded of some important facts.
1) I'm grateful for the most amazing year of memories
2) We carry people in our hearts even when we cannot see them
3) It's up to me to make Purple Teeth into a successful business (but I would welcome your suggestions on what you want!)
4) In the end, every penny I've spent on wine and dancing has enriched my life
5) There will be meteors every August to remind me of absent friends
6) Someone somewhere reading this just might be inspired to start living the life they've always imagined too.
7) And even if someone somewhere just chooses a different wine for a change then that's fine too.

Thanks for reading.  Cheers!

*  The whisky tasting party was a huge success with Glenmorangie Nectar D'Or being the winner of favourite malt across an audience from 6 countries.

I'm undecided about what next week's wine of the week should be, but as it'll be my birthday next week, I'm tempted to declare Pinot Noir in general, since it'll give me plenty of excuses to drink this grape variety and I have some marvellous examples on the wine rack.  Let me know what you think...

I'm known among my friends now as a bit of a wine snob. The consequences of this are people are afraid to choose wine when I'm around.  They'll hand me the wine list in restaurants and in supermarkets they'll look at me before putting anything in their basket.  It's a burden I have to bear.  But out of curiosity, and to redress the balance, I couldn't resist trying this ridiculously cheap wine when I was in France last week.  You won't have to scratch your memory banks too far to know that I'm a big fan of Alsace wines and we'd just had a Riesling week, so when I saw this beauty in Lidl in La Grand Motte for €2.55, I just had to try it.  You won't find it in  Lidl UK store, and even if you did, you'd be paying a lot more for it than that, since at around £2.30 a bottle, you barely cover the cost of the Chancellor's cut on every bottle sold in the UK.  Tax on wine is a tax on happiness!  
I drunk this with a couple of friends, one of whom lives in Alsace, and one of whom would claim no knowledge of wine.  Our review is simple: "It still gets you drunk".  It was a very hot summer's day and we were all in high spirits with plenty of dancing ahead.  The wine was simple, uncomplicated and by no means undrinkable, but as far as Alsace Rieslings go, it was definitely scraping the bottom of the barrel.  That said, I'd sooner quaff this at a summer picnic than most of the £7.50 Pinot Grigio on sale in the UK... When on holiday, we try different things and accept different standards, but I'm very glad I have some decent Alsatian wine to cleanse my palate courtesy of my good friend.

Other delights I sampled last week were the local Picpoul de Pinet, which I'd recommend trying if you are looking for simple summer whites, gallons of local Provence rosé which is light and fruity, and a paler pink Gris, which is for the less sweet-toothed rosé drinker.  My most outlandish drink was a Kir made with Violette rather than Cassis (blackcurrant liqueur).  It looks stranger than it tasted. I'm a fan of floral flavours like rose and violet but this wouldn't be to everyone's taste.  It made a lovely aperitif prior to an excellent seafood celebration dinner though my friends were much happier with their cocktails!
When in France, it's a great opportunity to drink those things we'd normally think twice about paying UK prices for, and an opportunity to appreciate just how overpriced our wines are! The way wine is sold in bars and restaurants in France also strikes me as far healthier than our third of a bottle buckets (large 250ml glasses often come in at more than your daily safe alcohol allowance).  With carafes to share in anything from 250ml and up to a litre, while a glass is a far more reasonable serving of 125ml.  It makes it much easier to experiment, and to enjoy a glass without it greatly affecting your next day.
Sadly that's the end of my planned trips to France for this summer.  Next stops are Norfolk and Blackpool - neither of which is renowned for it's local wine.  So, it'll be back to regular "Wine of the Week" service next week.  My suggestion for you is coming soon.