There are wines that you just know are going to be great.  I first reviewed Clos Triguedina (a predominantly Malbec wine from Cahors in south west France), back in 2013.  We were then lucky enough to enjoy the 2004. 

​My only trepidation was that a wine whose name loosely translates as "I'm ready for my dinner" (from the old Occitan language of Languedoc), almost demands food.  Dinner was over and it hadn't warranted this particular wine.  I wanted to serve something that Mr Purple Teeth would be sure to enjoy, particularly as he's been relegated to chief skivvy status during my post-surgical sofa sojourn. 

Initially the nose indicated some "dustiness"  and a hint of leather, that to me, instantly means France. A huge black fruit core, liquorice and woody spices like nutmeg, then sing on the palate.  This is followed by a deeply velvety finish of dry bitter cocoa, echoing the dusty note, that is intensely satisfying.  I felt sure, just from looking at the blackened cork and almost inky black wine in the glass that Mr PT would love it.

​Initially the nose indicated some "dustiness"  and a hint of leather, that to me, instantly means France. A huge black fruit core, liquorice and woody spices like nutmeg, then sing on the palate.  This is followed by a deeply velvety finish of dry bitter cocoa, echoing the dusty note, that is intensely satisfying.  

Always game for a bit of "uneducated" blind tasting, Mr Purple Teeth is usually very perceptive.  His "non-wine-speak" descriptions are often bang on the money and if only he had a memory, he'd be awesome in blind tasting exams in a way that I simply am not...

He loved it:  "Big in the beginning - but with 3 layers of complexity, some youthful character".  Could it be new world, he asked?  Well, a little off base there, but with the spiritual home of Malbec in Mendoza, it's fair to say, think Malbec (even if he wasn't), think new world.
"Full bodied and black fruit filled with a tannic texture and length - slightly bitter in the middle."
A little later:  "Really very good with a lovely lingering flavour of dried bitter cocoa and blackberries".  
Boy that man is good.  Picking up on the smoky dark notes, he came round to it being French but was flummoxed by this hand sorted blend of Malbec with around 15% Merlot and 5% Tannat. 

I lost count of how many times he said, "This wine is really, really, very good indeed."  

The acidity is well balanced and prevents the tannins becoming too chewy and drying. It felt like a serious wine to buy again.  And next time to enjoy with a hearty, autumnal beef dish...

Before the first glass was over, I was onto The Wine Society (where I'd purchased this a year ago) to get some more. At just £13.95 though, this bargain was long gone.  
If you like the sound of it, Essex-based Purple Teeth fans should be able to pick up a bottle of this vintage at Joseph Barnes Wines in Saffron Walden, for £21. (They also ship around the UK.)
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You may find some younger vintages, but you really wouldn't want to drink this much younger than 6 years... It could easily last (if well kept) for up to 15. 

The 57-hectare Clos Triguedina estate was founded in 1830 by Etienne Baldes. Still in the hands of the Baldes family, 8 generations on, the emphasis is still on Malbec. Much of the harvest is from old vines, some of which survived devastating frosts over 60 years ago. 

I've tried a number of Cahors Malbecs, and this one continues to reign supreme as the benchmark of what Malbec in France can produce.  A terroir driven wine, that's full of character, and nothing like as jammy as some Argentine Malbecs at a similar price point. 

My intention had been to do a side by side Malbec taste-off between this and a Mendoza Malbec, but my impatience got the better of me.  I needed to keep my man sweet for another week of nursemaid duties.  It worked.  

The question is, will he enjoy the Argentinean wines on the rack as much? No more 2002 Catena on there, I'm afraid!

We'll have to wait and see.  

​Meanwhile, if you want to know what Malbec tasted like before the southern hemisphere claimed the grape as its own, you'll be hard pushed to find a better, (almost) affordable version than this.  Try it and let me know what you think via the comments section below, Twitter, or our Facebook page. 

Cheers!

A sodden September Saturday, enforced post-surgery to stay at home. An element of  sofa stir crazy settles in.

Solitude and feeling sorry for myself. Rock and Roll.
​
The best known cure? Self-indulgence.

Mr Purple Teeth was not around. The perfect excuse to indulge in my passion for Pinot.





Synonymous with Autumn in my personal wine history, Pinot Noir doesn't feature often here. It's a little too subtle for Mr Purple Teeth, who prefers big Bordeaux for self indulgence.
All the more for me, then.

i opened this 2009 Beaune (a gift from friends which has been on the rack for a while). It had a lot of responsibility - turning a soggy stay home Saturday into a stunner.

In my Riedel Pinot Noir glass, I could simply be content to savour the bouquet.

Ah my old friend, it's been too long.

Wild strawberry but mixed with black truffle and woody spice notes. Saying saddlebag isn't particularly flattering, and yet it's a classy, outdoorsy scent of leather and mulch.
I delayed gratification as long as I could.
Eventually, I had to dive in.

Casting aside my memories of the Sandford Pinot enjoyed at "Sideways on Stage"  back in June. For me, it was back to esoteric Burgundy.

Richer and fuller than expected, the ripe fruit flavours gave way to a meaty, gamey note. Lingering long after the intense acidity had passed, spicy tannin and woodsmoke remained.
Fruity. Expressive. Elegant. 

Heaven.

​Hedonism triumphs over self pity every time. And who is really alone with a good glass of Burgundy?

I saved some for Sunday, but not for Mr Purple Teeth. The 2010 is available at Highbury Vintners (£32) and Kwoff.co.uk (£29.99).  This isn't the sort of wine Mr Purple Teeth is ever going to rush out and buy, but it's smoky, gamey and mushroom notes came to the fore, and for me, this is what good Pinot Noir is all about. 
​Solitude. A good glass. A good wine. A good book. Memories...
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Cheers!

Zinfandel often gets a bad rep. Too long associated with the sickly, ferociously pink, "White Zin". That's wine for people who don't really like wine. It can be hard to get red wine drinkers to take the grape seriously.
Yes, this grape can be used to produce sickly, sweet pink wine. But at its best, from old vines, where it won't overproduce, it makes some incredible red wines. To me, it's a sin to waste these grapes on the pink, even if it is one of the earliest wines I remember drinking (!)

​Regular readers may have felt I'd left my Purple Teeth behind for the whites of summer. And while it's true I have been drinking more white this year, I've also been blogging less. (This one has been in the making since June 6th!).
​These are the perils of my new corporate lifestyle.  On the other hand, the plus side to corporate life is that I've been able to buy a few more bottles, and I've been re-acquainting myself with one of my old favourite grapes, the Zinfandel. I hope you'll feel tempted to try at least one of these. As September progresses, there's a need for heftier wines to match heftier fare.

The hot sun of California is perfect for this variety, found to have been the same as Italy's Primitivo in 1994 and more recently found to be Tribidrag, genetically, a little known grape from Croatia.

Often producing wines very high in alcohol, there can even be a slight sweetness to these reds, as there's just so much sugar in the grapes that the yeast gets a bit overwhelmed and gives up the ghost before its all gone. I know how it feels!

This Bogle Vineyards Zin 2012 is full bodied, yet not viscously thick. It has 14.5% alcohol, and yet it feels restrained, rather than overblown.

Regular readers will know that Mr Purple Teeth likes unsubtle, big wines. This one is more elegant than some supermarket Zins, Plenty of berry fruit, some soft spices and vanilla with hints of cocoa and coffee. It's a grown-up wine that deserves a good fillet steak. Sadly, I didn't have a chunk of red meat to hand, but I enjoyed a glass per night over 3 nights, and it remained just as pleasing.  Making a bottle last 3 nights is a bit of a rarity in these parts of late, so perhaps this grown up wine has helped me to slow down a little.  Bottle purchased from Noel Young Wines for around £11, late last year.

Next during the summer, came the Sonoma Buena Vista Zinfandel from M&S. It is powerful yet restrained. Smooth as you like, yet mouthfillingly full-bodied, the fruit screams out "pay attention to me", while the acidity creates a "have another sip" momentum that could see you more than a little tipsy. At just 13.5% alcohol, as Zins go, this one does hold back a little. And that creates a rather pleasant hint of sweetness on the finish, redolent of chocolate dipped cherries.

its hard to describe a Zin as subtle, but as big, bold Zins go, this one is. With each mouthful, I almost wanted to chew it, I slooshed it around my mouth for many moments before letting go of the fruit and giving in to the swallow.  

​Delicious, but at £15, I'll only be buying it when discounts apply. Luckily, the buy 6 get 25% off promotion seems to be continuing in some branches, with buy 3 get 20% off in more.

Finally, a good value old friend. And one I wrote about in an even earlier blog post.  If you've never experienced Zinfandel before, the Ravenswood Lodi Old Vines Zin is a great benchmark to start from. Widely available and usually sub-£10, I purchased mine from The Wne Society where it's still just £8.95.
While not especially complex, at just £8.95 it's got plenty of body and soft, supple tannins, sweet black cherry fruit, spiciness and a hint of mocha chocolate. It's a hard wine not to enjoy, and one we return to time and again. As a late summer barbecue crowd pleaser, you can't go wrong with this one, and it will see you through a winter of pies.  Buy a case. 
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Please share your favourite Zins with us, either in the comments below or via Twitter or our Facebook page. But please avoid the pink ones...
Happy Zinning!
Cheers!

"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a pleasure dome erect..."
And here at Chateau Purple Teeh, aka, Hedonist Haven, we are all for a bit of pleasure.
Awesome August has passed, with a surfeit of cocktails, friendly gatherings and a general party central theme. It's now stay-home September, following some minor foot surgery. I had no plans for stay home to mean boring.
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Friday night at home was livened up by some incredible crab and Chardonnay. I opted to open the Xanadu, rather than something pricier, as Mr Purple Teeth's eldest was coming to stay, and that could only mean me drinking most of the wine myself, while they sipped on Rums, Gins and Whiskies.

At around £15 from M&S (purchased with 25% discount), I'd hoped this Margaret River wine would deliver.

Don't serve this one too cold as it dulls the flavour. Like all decent Chardonnays, keep it to the top of the fridge and perhaps pour a while before drinking.  This allows the flavours to come into their own. I'd sooner drink this than many white Burgundies at the same price point.  The result.  It may not be #awesomeAugust but #stayhomeSeptember is off to a good start.

Cheers!

Tempranillo is Spain's most widely planted red varietal and it's best known, featuring heavily in most wines from Rioja.
It's also a mainstay of Ribera del Duero, home of some of my favourite wines. As such, I was keen to try the newly stocked Ribera del Duero wine from local merchant and wine curator, Jo of Perfect Friday Wine.
At £11.50 per bottle and delivered locally, it had high expectations, given the region produces some of my favourite wines.  If you're not in Jo's delivery catchment area, you can buy it for £11.99 from Forest Wines in East London, and other stockists around the city.

Jo writes in her introductory blog, "It’s super tangy and alive with blackberries a dash of cocoa and really well integrated tannin and acidity. I love it."  

As. a "cosecha" wine, it's young and fresh rather than influenced by lots of expensive oak-aging, though it does have 6 months in older oak, which gives it both it's "Roble" name, and a bit more complexity than you'd expect from a cosecha/joven level Rioja. (Cosecha meaning harvest, joven meaning young - usually unbaked and released for early drinking.)

Bright fruit flavours are at the fore, with some hefty tannin that is smoothed out by the juicy acidity.

The winemaker's website describes it as "Aged a minimum of 6 months
in old French or American oak casks. Our traditional wine. Milú seeks to bring back the tastes of past years in a fresh and frisky sip of wine. A wine for everyday and for everyone..."

Rustic in style, it's organic and foot trod, and produced from rather old vines of the fresher "Tinta del Pais" clone of Tempranillo.  (Note that many wines from Ribera del Duero won't mention Tempranillo, instead referring to local names such as this). As such, it's a true artisan product, a labour of love from a family winemaker in a "micro-winery".  That explains why it costs a little more than your average young Rioja. The natural production is somewhat at odds with the natty, red plastic cork, but that's part of the light-hearted nature of this wine. 

​Is it worth it?  Given the trend for "natural wine", this is a great find.  A naturally and sustainably produced wine which packs a punch, in a world where many "natural wines" have tended to taste a little funky.  My personal preference is for my Tempranillo based wines to have at least 12 months oak to smooth them out more, and impart some different spicy notes.  I know that many of my readers don't like wine that tastes of trees, though, and this one will satisfy you alongside September barbecues, perhaps even slightly chilled, and well into the winter along with robust stews and casseroles. 
My Purple Teeth have been kept clean by the summer whites, but after this, they are well and truly purple again!
Cheers!