I didn't intend this to turn into an unofficial "Spain week", but somehow that's where we've ended up, with this the 3rd Spanish wine in a row to get the Purple Teeth airing.  And perhaps it's right to feature Spain heavily.  Did you know that Spain has 14% of the world's area under vine, making it the world's biggest contributor to vineyard area?  
If when you think of Spain, you get stuck in a Rioja rut, ease your way out gently with this gem...

Like many Spanish reds, the purple teeth rating is high. You will need whitening toothpaste for this one, but it is worth the extra brushing.

Made from Tempranillo, (known in this area by the synonym "Tinto Fino") and aged for 16 months in American oak, the Condado de Haza, Ribera del Duero 2009 Crianza will appeal to fans of Rioja Crianza. For my money it has a bit more appeal, with lots of oomph.  (A reminder of the significance of Spanish wine terms such as Crianza can be found here).

I first tasted Ribera del Duero many years ago, at an American's birthday party in Switzerland. It sounds surreal to say it now, but a Spanish Opera Singer from Burgos poured me a glass, and I knew then that I'd be:

A) drinking Ribera del Duero again
B) visiting Burgos
C) disbelieved when I told this story

What I couldn't have known is that:

A) I'd found the home of what was to become one of my all-time favourite favourite wines: the iconic and expensive Vega Sicilia "Valbuena".  
B) I'd end up visiting Burgos' magnificent Gothic cathedral on one of the busiest festival days of the year. I witnessed some incredible fireworks and parades to local hero, El Cid, whose crypt is in the cathedral.  (The area's well worth a visit, even though it's not the heart of the wine land. The cathedral has been a World Heritage site since 1984),
C) Perhaps most outlandish of all, I could never have guessed I'd end up teaching this Spanish opera singer to sing Kenneth McKeller renditions of Robert Burns' songs, while he taught me songs in Spanish, as we spoke to each other in French.  
But yes, all of this arose from that one party.

So it is, that ever since, whenever I've seen Ribera del Duero, at almost any price point, I've had to try it.

The first one I ever tried was Pesquera, an iconic wine that's at least partly responsible for the fame and fortune of the Ribera del Duero, made by Alejandro Fernandez.  Alejandro is the wine maker who made the single vineyard Condado de Haza we're drinking now. Pesquera will probably set you back around £5 more (it's around £20).  I think it's worth it but if you've not tasted a Ribera del Duero yet, you'll probably want to work up the ladder.  
It's a steep ladder.  After the aforementioned party, I visited the Spanish shop in my Swiss hometown.   Naively I asked for a bottle of Ribera del Duero.  The shopkeeper asked my budget. I asked coyly how much it was.  "Anything from 20CHF to 300CHF"  was the answer.  Please bear in mind this was in the mid 1990s.  Needless to say, I started at the 20 Swiss Franc level!  I was much less discerning in those days, but it was still a fantastic bottle.

While I offer this as an alternative for Rioja, fans of big Australian Shiraz should enjoy it too. I served it to Mr Purple Teeth blind. He felt it had a hint of one of the McLaren Vale wines we drink regularly. This is a big wine, full of dark fruits, spice with vanilla and leather notes coming from the oak aging. The tannins are well structured but softened & velvety. The body is full and there are hints of cocoa on the finish which add to the sensation of luxury.  The style of many Rioja wines has changed over recent years, becoming bigger and fruitier, since wines like this came to prominence in Ribera del Duero,.

I was lucky enough to get my bottle discounted to £13. I ought to have picked up a couple, as it's a challenge to pick up Riberas as cheaply as Riojas. It's a smaller region with a harsher terroir. Situated on the northern plateau at anything from 750 to 900m above sea level, there's quite an extreme continental climate with huge seasonal temperature variations (-18°C in winter to +40°C in summer) as well as a big range within seasons and even within days.  But with over 2400 sunlight hours per year and around 450mm of rainfall, it's still possible to get decent wines at under £10. For example the Altos de Tamaron in the Tesco Finest range is an entry level wine similar in style to cosecha Riojas, and one we've happily drunk several times.  It does vary a little by vintage, but often comes up on very good special offers and usually flies off the shelves.

I'd also happily recommend the Cepa Gavilan (£10.50 from The Wine Society) as a good example of the "entry level" wines in the oaked style.

Should you get the opportunity to try the iconic Vega Sicilia, please jump at the chance and let me know what you think.  One of my most approving glances ever from a sommelier came when ordering a bottle in a top restaurant in Spain.  Luckily there, the restaurant prices are similar to what we pay retail in the UK (around £90-100 for the Valbuena).

I do hope you'll try and enjoy the wines of this region, and grow to love them as I do. Even my Rioja-eschewing husband enjoys them.

Meanwhile, here's a clip of the man who introduced me to this great wine region, gave me an interest in learning Spanish and also a couple of singing lessons. Hopefully, I've done the same for you. I'll leave the singing to him though! 

Many thanks to Ruben Amoretti for the introduction to this wine, and the singing lessons.  Sadly, I'm still just singing in the shower.
Cheers!

If you're a regular reader, or have attended one if my events, you'll know that I love to encourage people to experiment with new wines.

So, from time to time, it's good for me to do the same. I'd never before tried the Mencia grape or any wine from Spain's Bierzo region, so when I saw the name Perfecto, the time seemed right to add another varietal to the list. Escondite Perfecto, to give it the full name, means "perfect hiding place" in Spanish.  Could I lose myself in a glass?

The Marks and Spencer labeling is a little misleading. There's a natural cork rather than the synthetic closure mentioned, so were the other descriptions to be trusted? Plum, raspberry and spice with floral notes set high expectations from this 2010 oak-aged wine.

Initially, I didn't get much scent - even after swirling & letting the glass develop for a while before tasting. To be fair to the wine, it is the cold season and I had eaten a rather spicy meal, earlier in the evening.

After trying to make my mind up if I was smelling plums, roses or my imagination, I gave up and took my first sip.

Medium bodied, with pleasing acidity, and medium tannin levels, this is a fairly easy to drink red wine, though it would probably work better accompanying foods like Serrano ham, roast pork or cheeses.

The flavours, like the nose (or smell of the wine) are fairly light and certainly much less pronounced than I'd hoped from a wine with such a depth of colour.

There are some similarities to a south of France Syrah in the floral notes with plum and spice character, but there's a little less texture on the body. So pleasant but not Perfecto, at least at this stage.  


Bierzo is in Spain's North West corner, in the province of Léon, yet still benefiting from some Atlantic influence coming in from neighbouring Galicia. Vines receive a winning combination of 2200 sunshine hours and around 700mm of rain annually.  The grape variety Mencia (apparently the same as Portuguese grape Jaen,  if DNA profiling is to be believed, and another I've never tried) suffered for years from being planted on over fertile soils which led to high yields but dilute wine.  It's now coming back into it's own as winemakers work with old vines on "schist" soil slopes. (Schist is a kind of crystalline rock which retains heat well but has low organic nutrients).  There have been references to the aromatic and herbaceous quality of Cabernet Franc, but that wasn't something I experienced with this bottle.

Determined to give the wine the best chance, I sliced up a few chunks of parmesan.  That, and leaving the wine for an hour or two definitely seemed to add something.  The body felt fuller, the lifted violet or rose became more prominent.  A character emerged. 

Mr Purple Teeth returned from his evening out and was forced to sample for the benefit of you, my dear readers. I was surprised that his verdict was "I'd happily drink this with you".  I had feared the lack of texture would put him off. So, for best results, my advice is to decant an hour or two before serving.  

We kept a glass for the next day, and it fared well, with increased smoothness & body. Mr Purple Teeth seemed to like it even more.

Although lacking some complexity, there is an elegance there just waiting for you to experience it. I will be looking for other examples of this varietal.
I'm still not sure I'd lose myself in a glass, but I'm happy to have experimented, and maybe you will be too.


Cheers!

Did you know that your fetish for Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Cabernet and Merlot was putting hundreds, if not thousands, of smaller, indigenous grape varieties in peril, not to mention tons of small, local winemakers?  When was the last time you tried something new, something non-branded, something from a grape variety that wasn't one of the big internationally famous grapes? 

The world is home to literally thousands of grape varieties, yet our supermarket shelves and home wine racks see just a small proportion of these.  Ever tasted Viosinho?  No, me neither.  It's a Portuguese white wine grape.  What about Narince?  No, me neither.  In this case it's a Turkish white wine grape.
What about Verdil?  No?  Well, in this case, I have.  It's a Spanish white grape which is on the verge of dying out.  And I'm here to help encourage you to Save The Grape!  

I first tried it in Valencia in a blend with Viognier. I was intrigued then by this grape, and was delighted to find it stocked reasonably widely in the UK by Oddbins.  When one considers there are only 50 hectares planted with this grape in the world, compared to the estimate of 80,000 hectares worldwide planted  with Sauvignon Blanc, it's simply amazing to find it anywhere but it's homeland, let alone online and in many of our high streets.  Think of it as exclusivity at an affordable price.  It may even be worthy of a festive buy for those difficult to please wine buffs.  At least it may be new to them.

This Valencian Verdil  (Casa Lluch: £8.25 13% abv) is also organic, with it's ecological and biodiversity claims stamped firmly (in Spanish) on the back label and a sustainability stamp on it's natural cork. 

My first nosing of the glass revealed some intriguing scents, some minerality, complex white fruits, maybe pear, and perhaps some pineapple with almond nuttiness.  Would it taste like a Fiano? This wasn't what the Oddbins website led me to expect, but I was happy with the pronounced aromas.

In the mouth, this is a hugely pleasing wine, it starts off feeling light, but the body builds and there is a silky texture like a Viognier by the finish.  The acidity is pleasing but not at the high end of white wines - so this won't wash away the flavours of any fish dish you pair this with.  I'd suggest something like monkfish wrapped in Serrano ham to bring out the best in this delight, but it's also fine as just a tipple on it's own.  I found it worked perfectly with some almonds and hazelnuts as an aperitif.  So much the better for your festivities if you can get some Marcona Almonds - one of Spain's other regional delights.

With such amazing flavours and versititly, there's no reason that Verdil should be on the verge of extinction.  One of my current favourite varieties, Viognier, had almost died out in the 1970s and is now seeing a new world resurgence as well as providing some spectacular French wines.  There were only 14 hectares (mostly in the village of Condrieu) of Viognier in 1968, but now the world has around 12500 hectares planted with this luxurious white.

Can we do the same for Verdil?  Maybe, if you all go out and buy a bottle today.  Even if we can't make it into a new fashion icon, we should certainly take advantage of it while we still have it.
Save the Grape!

Cheers!

Thanks to the kind people at Swing Dance Movement, I was able to host a Wine Tasting event at a beautiful venue, The Tango Club in the Leathermarket on Weston Street, London.  
A hall more commonly used for tai chi, yoga, pilates and all kinds of dancing turned, for an hour or so, into a place of wine education and enjoyment.  
My goal was to bring wines that people may never consider, may never have tried and alternatives to standard "favourites".  It's fair to say, there were a few surprises.  And I was really happy to see that everyone was open to trying new things, and even happier that my white wine choices went down well with people who "only drink red wine".  
There's so much wine to discover, so don't be afraid to try something new.

Argentine Torrontés (Faldeos Nevados £7.50 from The Wine Society), got us started.  You need to be a Wine Society member to buy wines from here, so if you're looking for an alternative, I highly recommend the Tesco Finest Torrontés which is from Salta, home of the highest vineyards in the world and probably the home of the finest expressions of this grape variety.  I think it's around £8 but is currently unavailable on their website.  
What we loved about this wine was the floral and fruit flavours, a hefty dose of peach, some grape, and a good body with not too much acidity.  No-one had tried this variety before and I think it's a good alternative to Viognier and even unoaked new world chardonnays.  At Christmas it would make a nice aperitif or match some seafood appetisers.


Next came the Alsace Pinot Gris (£9.99 from Waitrose).  I am in the "down with Pinot Grigio" club and it depresses me that it's often the house white in many bars and restaurants.  Compared to the Alsace expression of Pinot Gris, Pinot Grigio can be so dull, acidic and unbalanced - especially at the cheaper end of the market.  
Of course, I'm biased, as I have a real passion for Alsace whites. I hope to organise a drinking and dancing trip to the area next year, so I was really pleased when the crowd agreed.  This wine was the absolute favourite among our whites for it's body, hints of honey and ginger, smooth drinking and how well it paired with some of the strong cheeses.  I also recommend this wine with lightly spiced Asian cuisine, or just to drink on it's own.  

Our final white was the toast of England.  A huge hit at several tasting events I've run in the past, it is the Chapel Down Bacchus (£12 from the winery direct and also available in some larger supermarkets).  Following whites with low acidity and such strong, almost sweet fruit flavours was a challenge for this wine.  It's always a sure fire winner with Sauvignon Blanc fans and it's ripe, green gooseberry flavours make it a great summer aperitif or a lovely pairing with fish.  But our dancers tonight were less convinced - they'd been eased into warmer climate wines with fuller body and more tropical flavours. But you can't win them all.  

For the reds, we started with a Wine Society favourite of mine (£5.25).  The Society's Spicy  Southern Spanish red is a Monastrell ( also known as Mourvedre in France and Mataro in Australia) from Jumilla in the hot and sunny south east of Spain.  Winemaker Juan Gil does a sterling job here in producing a full and fruity red which wowed with it's hints of black fruit and even date - some hinted at coffee and toffee, but I think we were just experimenting with our new found wine vocabularies.  It's got quite drying tannin if you're switching from white, but paired with cheese, it went down a treat, and would also make a great mulling wine, as there are spicy flavours like cinnamon and black pepper already in the wine, and it's got a lovely festive ruby colour.  If you like this, seek out Juan Gil's 4 Meses which is a very similar wine in style, being from the same grape and the same wine maker.  It's available from Virgin Wines and elsewhere.

Our least successful red was something new to all: Greek wine.  I've supplied Greek white at a recent tasting (Assyrtiko from Santorini) and though we agreed it would go well with olives as an aperitif, it languished unfinished at the end of the night.  
Sadly it was the same story for our Agiorgitiko (~£7 a bottle).  No refills were taken and there was almost a full bottle left at the end of the night.  It's a litte sad as this wine has some character, with softer tannins and lower acidity.  A hint of spritz, some strawberry bubblegum and fruit in a manner reminiscent of a Beaulolais, and a smooth, easy drinking wine should easily please Merlot drinkers.  A version from Nemea (the best area for this grape) is available at Marks and Spencer if you've not been put off.  It's one to drink on it's own.

Our final red was one of my all-time favourite supermarket wines, The Hedonist Shiraz (£12.99 from Waitrose).  Hedonist has become the leitmotif for my life in the last year or so - so much so that my friend got the wine label made into an iPhone cover for me!  So this wine had a lot riding on it.

Luckily, my favourite little piggy was well appreciated for it's chocolaty spice, rich black fruits, velvety texture and full body.  I was glad I'd warned the participants to bring along a toothbrush as the teeth were purpling up nicely with this one, and it didn't end up in the spittoon, being the first wine to run out on the night.   

My aim here was to show people what spending a bit more than normal on their bottle of shiraz can deliver, and I think most were convinced.  One lovely lady even bought my "emergency" bottle.

I'd told my hosts that I'd provide a sparkling wine and a dessert wine, but I wanted to keep the budget down and also to show what was out there.  So, I surprised everyone with their first taste of Asti in many a year.  It's a light sparkling with only 7% alcohol and was a hit with our resident non-drinker.  The mousse is delicate and the muscat grape's flavour is pleasingly sweet of grape, elderflower with a sweetness that matches beautifully with a slice of panettone or light sponge cake. Tried, tested and approved. At around £8 from supermarkets, this fizz is around the price of a half decent bottle of Cava, but provides quite a different character and although suitable as an aperitif, works really well with light, fruit-based desserts.



Finally, we sampled "The Wise One", an Australian fortified wine (£11 from the Wine Society) similar in style to a 10 year Tawny Port. It's a reasonably priced Port substitute in full bottle size, unusual for many dessert wines. Blended from Shiraz, Grenache and Verdehlo grapes aged to provide toffee flavours, dates, spice, chocolate and sure to be a hit with strong cheeses or Christmas pudding/cake alike.  It's a shame I couldn't sell this, as there were several guests who will probably now be signing up to join the Wine Society just to get their hands on some. I seem to note the bottle disappearing into the hands of some charming young men, and who was I to argue? Interestingly, our Australian guests had never tasted anything like this, with different styles of dessert wine, such as fortified muscats being much more commonly drunk Down Under.

The dancing started straight after the wine tasting and it looked like everyone managed to remain on their feet.  Thankfully.  

I loved hearing everyone's feedback on the event, on the wines they sampled and on learning a bit more about wine.  If you want to have a Purple Teeth tasting party at your event, private party or corporate function, just contact me here.  I'm also happy to provide  wine education via Skype, and to provide bespoke wine buying services for you, or as a gift service.  Meanwhile, if you're inspired to try something new, I'd love to hear what you think about it, either via Facebook, Twitter or Google+.  Thanks again to Swing Dance Movement. And if you fancy a night off the booze, why not pop along to their beginner class near London Bridge every Tuesday night to learn to dance?

Cheers!

In November 2012, I completed my Advanced level WSET (Wine & Spirit Education Trust) education and started the Purple Teeth blog. Now it's November 2013, I simply cannot believe the year of wine and travel I've had. Nor could I believe being on of the top performing graduates, invited to participate in a scholarship contest. Not a bad result considering the age at which I've taken up a life in wine.

Warning! This post is nostalgic and self indulgent.  Look away now if you've religiously read all blog posts in the last year.

I want to capture the last year in one place so that I can remind myself just how lucky I am. I'm so grateful to have experienced all that I have, and there is just so much more to learn, do and see when it comes to wine and spirits. My next challenge is generating enough income from my wine exploits to keep learning, exploring and sharing my knowledge and passions with you...

I started with travel to Hong Kong - a trip to see one of my oldest friends & a chance to explore whether selling dance shoes would keep my finances afloat. The dance shoe idea fell by the wayside, but I discovered The Flying Winemaker, had my first taste of Gimblett Gravels wine, explored a million dim sum, tasted the best Peking duck in Hong Kong and decided my favourite tea is Dong Ding Oolong. It was here also, that a Chinese fortune teller advised me that the year ahead would be "very good year" and filled with lots of singing, drinking, dancing and parties.  I don't think a year has ever been so accurately predicted by the fortune sticks!

December was the usual whirl of parties, expensive meals with friends, drinking at home, even more ridiculously expensive meals with friends, and finally a new year celebration that was all about dancing as over 200 international West Coast Swing dancers congregated on the Radisson at Heathrow for New Year's Swing Fling.  I am planning to repeat the experience again this year.

There was plenty to blog about in January too, with trips toIceland - where beer was more of a local specialty than wine - as well as some amazing dancing and vodka drinking (as well as wine) in Budapest.  This trip had much more of an effect on the wine year ahead than I could have ever expected...

February continued with delicious and wine-filled lunches with friends, a trip home to Scotland to visit the family and do some more dancing. My mum finally got the chance to cheer me on in a dance contest.  There was also much wine tasting with friends at another dance event in Southport and a realisation that running wine tasting events was how I'd really like to bring my passion for wine to you, even more than blogging. It did seem that life was simply too much fun with drinking, dancing and partying to put too much thought into a business plan.  I may be slightly regretting that now as I see the dwindling nature of my bank balance, but on the other hand, it has been an amazing year!

March saw another epic tasting event, "Spain versus the rest of the world" hosted at The Copse - a lovely English country house available for hire in the countryside near Henley.  In fact, I was there again this week running another event with a few less wines but no less fun.  It was possibly the first and last month that "wine of the week" ran every consecutive week of the month - beginner's enthusiasm?
I also found myself doing some market research at Alfred the Grape in Marlow for the DiBonis Serbian winery.  Strange things really were happening to me since taking up blogging. 

The big event in March though, was my trip to dance in the USA.  Washington DC also hosted a visit from my Oregon based friend whom I hadn't seen in many years, and allowed us to indulge in many delightful meals, wines and more wines with the odd cocktail thrown in.  It was here that I fell in love with Viognier from Virginia and Pinot Noir from Oregon's Willamette Valley.  They aren't the kind of wines you'll find in the supermarket, but they are worth seeking out if you want to see what America has to offer outside of California.  Of course, California has some excellent wines, being the world's 4th largest wine producing "country", but these gems offer something that's not been (perhaps over-) ripened in the California sunshine.  Hopefully I'll be able to visit Oregon in the next year to sample many more fabulous wines and keep my friend connection going.

April's drinking (and dancing) highlight was undoubtedly another trip to Glasgow and featured dancing in the West micro-brewery although looking back on my photos, I see that I also managed to sit outside and enjoy a delicious Gewrztraminer from Alsace (one of my favourite wines) - a gift from a dancer.  Dancing and drinking have clearly become inextricably linked!  I was definitelyloving life, living it large and savouring the freedom from Corporate Shackles.  Being able to travel and dine in lovely venues now seemed like the life I was born to live, but someone really needed to tell the folks at National Savings & Investments this, as I've still not had that Million Pound Premium Bond prize I'm relying on to continue this wonderful life... So, I studied for my licensing qualification to enable me to start seriously marketing my tasting events.

Immediately after receiving my license, adventures in alcohol, gratitude, exploration and living it large continued in May when I fulfilled a long held ambition to visit Japan.  I discovered Umeshu (Japanese plum wine which has more in common with sloe gin than true wine) and Saké (Japense rice wine, more correctly known as Nihonshu, that's actually closer in production to beer) as well as Japanese beer, whisky and yes, actual grape wine.  The trip featured more than just alcohol and was undoubtedly one of the major highlights of my year, if not my life.  The food experiences were weird and wacky, and it's here that I discovered Japanese green tea bears no relation to the lovely green teas I'd enjoyed in Hong Kong. I also experienced great generosity and generosity of spirit which was to continue into June.

Returning to Hungary and Budapest this time was my first international teaching gig for my new "dance confidence" classes. I'm so grateful to Adam and Rita for giving me this opportunity. It has led to invitations to teach at other events in the UK and for next year I can look forward to a trip to Russia and my former homeland of Switzerland.  I've also branched out and given 1-1 coaching on confidence and all without the aid of a glass of wine!  I even ended up dusting down my TEFL qualifications and teaching English, with the aid of Skype, to students in Moscow and St Petersburg.  What a wacky development in my wine year.  And yet, it wouldn't be Purple Teeth if June didn't deliver some alcohol-related discoveries.  Following my January trip and my March wine research, I was honoured to be invited to visit the DiBonis winery in Subotica, Serbia. Tasting award winning fruit brandies and wines directly from the oak barrels was an amazing experience and I'm hugely grateful for the welcome that DiBonis provided me.  I'd love to bring these wines to market in the UK , as when I shared one at a dancers' wine tasting later in the month, it was a huge hit and would probably be a bit of a bargain.  
Sadly, I hadn't yet been hit with the business planning bug, but I had proven to some rather sceptical people that wines worth £15 were frequently far superior to those at £5.  So, one mission was accomplished.  I also forged a friendship with another local wine blogger Perfect Friday Wine and it's great to have a fellow oenophile as a local friend!  Inspired by me, I cannot claim, but she's also now resigned her corporate job and is about to launch selling wines on Maidenhead market on Saturday 23rd November, so if you're in the area, do pop along and pick up her French fancies.

We had one of the best Julys we have had in some years, weather wise, so I spent much of the month drinking sherry and Riesling to refresh me.  I also indulged yet further in dancing with highlights being seeing the Bastille Day fireworks over Cannes from a boat in the Med followed by some dancing on the beach, though the pinnacle was definitely converting Polish vodka drinkers into Riesling fans. 

The fun didn't end here though and I was back to France in August for another week of dancing all night with long days in the sunshine.  It's here  I tasted probably the cheapest wine I've ever drunk.  Back in the UK, I hosted a whisky tasting with an international audience, where we indulged in home made sloe whisky, Bourbon, blended and single malts through to the people's choice, 15 year old Glenmorangie's Nectar D'Or (finished in a Sauternes cask  - always the link with wine!).  August marked the official year's anniversary of the end of my corporate career and I did a lot of reflection, while also taking the opportunity of my birthday month to crack open some of my absolute favourite wines.  
Less exotic, but nonetheless fabulous, were dance trips to Blackpool and the Norfolk Coast.  It may not be Cannes or Montpellier, and the draught wine at Wetherspoons may have marked an all time low, but I still had a lot of fun with friends old and new, which was just as well, as September was to be a virtual dance free zone...

September's highlight was undoubtedly the trip to Valencia - a little impromptu but no less fabulous for it.  Fantastic weather, amazing food, and delicious wines at bargain prices.  The climate of this region is amazing and I'd like to help people discover more of the wines, and the sweet Mistela made from Muscat in a similar style to Pineau de Charentes.
Grape varieties like Bobal, Monsatrell and Verdil all delighted and I tried to make up for the lack of dancing with swimming and cycling round the city.  It's fair to say that the high availability of foie gras and black pudding probably meant that unless I suddenly became Lance Armstrong, I was unlikely to cycle off my gourmandise intake, but every morsel was worth the waistline punishment.  And I'm sure the sunshine melts away some of the fat anyway...  
In other news, I also continued to enjoy new experiences, such as a Plan B gig at the Sheperd's Bush Empire, a completely unexpected and "on the day" decision which led to a meal at Wahaca were I enjoyed my first ever Hibiscus Margarita - I can assure you, it won't be my last.  I also climbed the O2 with my friend, Karen, and we indulged in an array of Greek delights afterwards, including a nice glass of Agiorgitiko (a Greek red wine variety).  At the same restaurant, the waiter tried to correct my pronunciation of Viognier to Vinegar so many times, that I felt moving to Greek wine was probably for the best!  
It's great that our wine world offers so many different varieties and tastes to delight us.  It's such a subjective subject, with everyone favouring something that may be a complete turn off to another.  That's why I am now thinking of offering a bespoke wine buying service, tailored to you.  Lifestyles of the rich and famous, but with a Purple Teeth (affordable) price tag.  Do let me know if you'd be interested in that!  During September I also came close to securing a "real job" albeit outside of a big corporate.  Receiving the call to tell me I hadn't got the job was one of those moments when I just knew that I was on the right track here.  Wine will, by hook or by crook, have to be part of any real job or portfolio career from now on!

October took me dancing to Poland, and Warsaw in particular, where I experienced my first ever taste of wine from Georgia.  The former Soviet state is known as the birthplace of wine, and yet, I'd never had an inkling that wine was produced there, despite all my education.  I aim to sample many more in the near future.  I came to appreciate just how lucky I am that wherever I go, people are now keen to share their alcohol favourites with me, and ensure that I indulge in the local cuisine.  
I also was invited to participate in the WSET Scholarship contest, and since it was almost a year since I'd put down the books and focussed on drinking, there was a lot of revision to be done.  Let no-one say I didn't take it seriously!  I was pretty sick during October, and vomiting on the way to the contest was probably not the best preparation for an exam featuring blind tasting, but it was a great opportunity and when it was over I jumped on a plane to Lyon for yet more dancing, fine food and wine with friends.  And now it was REALLY time to knuckle down to business, surely.  Yes, all that revision had somehow waylayed me from business planning yet again. Luckily a few more bookings for Tasting Events started coming in and a few more business ideas started to take shape over the occasional glass of wine, of course!

So now it's November, my first year as a qualified wino and certified wine bore is over, and I just want to reiterate that following my passions has led to one of the best years of my life.  I appreciate that I've been in a very fortunate position, having spent the last few years of my corporate career ferreting cash away so that I could pay for such an awesome and hedonistic life chapter.  But, if you can take a chance, please do.  

We only get one life, and this year, we were reminded of how short that can be, and why waiting to have fun in retirement may not really be an option.  So go for it.  Do  at least one of those things you've always wanted to do!
 
And if one of those things is learning about wine, then please get in touch and I'll do my best to help you.  My new experiences continue, including tasting 100 year old wine this month, working at the International Wine Challenge basically being a wine weightlifter for the week.  I met a lot of lovely people and did a lot of that singing the fortune teller warned me about. Now I'm filling in my visa application for a trip to Russia in January.  I hope to launch a new wine service in the early part of 2014 and will continue to run wine tasting events while people want to learn from me.  Wine of the week hasn't really got the traction I'd have liked, but blogging, like everything else, is a skill I have to learn.  
If you've got this far, I commend you.  I'd love to hear which blog posts you've enjoyed, which wine subjects you'd like to know more (and less) about, and how I can help you enjoy wine more.  So please do get in touch via my blog comments, facebook page or twitter.  
Thank you to all of you who've read my blogs and encouraged me over the past year.  It means a lot!

Cheers!

If you're the average UK wine buyer, chances are you will be buying 90% of your wines from the supermarket, most of which are ready for drinking now.  Occasionally you may buy a nice bottle or 6 on holiday, or from a wine merchant, and you may keep them for a few years.  Mostly, the wine you'll drink will be less than 10 years old unless you've got a penchant for Vintage Port or Grand Cru Bordeaux.  Or you have a lot more cash than me.
Even serious wine drinkers and experts are challenged to get their hands on wine that's more than 20 years old.  Try buying something decent for a 30th birthday from the year of birth.  When it got to my brother's 40th, I fell back on single malt whisky from his year of birth - it was far easier and probably more reliable.
So when I got the chance to try a wine that was over 100 years old, I jumped at the chance.  After all, I'm celebrating one  year of Purple Teeth!  

You might be wondering what the wine is.  Well, I got to taste it when I was out crewing at IWC.  Although it wasn't one of the wines submitted for the competition, I'm not going to mention it by name just in case it was a previous submission. In any case, the chances of you getting your hands on a bottle are slim to none. But, I can tell you that it was a Verdelho Madeira from Colheita (harvest/vintage) 1912.  I've not tasted many Madeira wines in my drinking life, and I've never even cooked with it, so what I knew about Madeira was mainly theory from my wine studies.  There are 4 main types of Madiera wine (Portuguese fortified wine made in the Madeira islands) which are named after their predominant grape variety.""

1.  "Sercial": often drunk as an aperitif, is pretty much dry with high acidity and a flavour of almonds
2. "Verdelho": (a grape also known as Verdejo in Spanish speaking countries) has a bit of sweetness, smokey notes and high acidity
3. "Bual":  medium-rich in texture and pretty sweet with raisin flavours
4. "Malvasia": often known as Malmsey, the sweetest of all Madeiras with coffee caramel flavours, and again, high acidity that stops it becoming too cloying

I surprised Mr Purple Teeth with a small sample and he was just as stunned as I was.  Yes, there's the smokey tone that older wines often have, and of course this wine style is deliberately oxidised (meaning that though it's a white wine at base it's quite a dark brown colour with nutty and caramel aromas and flavours like an Oloroso or Amontillado Sherry).  Here any similarity to those sherries ends.  There's just so much acidity and still some lifted citrus fruit notes on the palate it's simply unbelievable that this wine is not only 100 years old, but indeed has been open for quite a while. After swallowing, the very long finish is reminiscent of candied orange peel. It's mouthwatering, juicy and just right as a light dessert replacement, or alongside a small salted caramel truffle.  (Yes, dear reader, I checked that for you, so you don't have to). It's not very sweet, but sweet enough to pair with say a tart lemon dessert.  I'd been under the misconception that Madeira was somehow a "dull" drink and only fit for cooking with, and yes, this was a misconception!  What class in a glass that can last 100 years and still be worth drinking as you watch the Strictly elimination show.  (I needed it just to get through seeing that terrible tartan tango for the second time).

So what makes Madeira different from other wines that means it can really last a lifetime?  Well, this wine is built to last.  Madeira, as a fortified wine, was invented back in the 15th or 16th Century when sailors found that the large vats of wine they were taking on their long voyages to the new world and elsewhere were spoiling at sea.  Some way of preserving the wine was needed, and initially a distilled sugar alcohol was added in a method similar to Port.  (Now most fortified wines are fortified with grape "brandy").
What we now know as Madeira came about as a further accident when one ship actually made it back to port with some of the wine. Clearly there weren't many drunken sailors on that trip. And we can thank them for their abstinence as it was soon discovered that the wine which had been on a round trip tasted even nicer due to the heat of the sun and the extended aging.  Now don't try this at home!  Pretty much all of the wine on your rack will be destroyed if you leave it in the heat of the sun for any length of time.    

Eventually, around the 17th Century, the process of aging the wine with heat in "estufas" or warm rooms/lofts for 5, 10, 15 or even 20 years was refined. Modern day high quality Madeiras are still made in a similar way, though cheaper versions are available where the aging process is expedited by almost "cooking" the wine by running heating elements through it at up to 55 °C for a minimum of 90 days.  Vintage Madeiras can still undergo traditional aging for up to 100 years.  

This wine style suffered a great decline in popularity at the hands of the Russian Revolution and the American prohibition, but luckily production has survived and quality wines are still available.  Got a 40th birthday coming up?  I've found some UK suppliers of 1974 Madeira, though sadly none of 1914 with which to bring in the New Year.  Of course, these wines are over £100 a bottle but for about £40 you can pick up one as a 21st present from 1992 or 1993.  Maybe you'll want to consider buying one now for a new baby to drink with them on their 21st - at least that way you won't have to worry about storing it correctly or it going past it's best.  But as with any major wine purchase, do seek advice from an expert.  

Meanwhile, I've piqued my own interest in this wine style, and I hope to explore it more in the future.  Hopefully I've whetted your appetite to try it too.


Cheers!

It's been a hectic 10 days at Purple Teeth.  First I had my Advanced WSET Scholarship contest.  Weeks of tasting and revising all to wake up on the morning of the exam with migraine and vomiting.  Not the ideal preparation but it was a great experience.  Results are announced on 20th January so stay tuned...
Then it was off to France at stupid o'clock the next morning for a weekend of dancing.  Dizziness, headaches and vomiting continued but it was France.  I tried to kill or cure.  We had some Haut Medoc and some Saint Joseph.  Sadly, neither warranted a photo or it's own review...  This confirmed my feelings about French red wine.  You have to have a lot of money or a lot of patience if you're buying most of the wines from the prestigious areas.

The whites are a lot more accessible.  I enjoyed a lovely glass of Macon (Chardonnay from Burgundy) with lunch.  I enjoyed it so much I went back to the same place for lunch the next day.  Not bad for a 3€ glass.  So more of Macon later.  

I've also been busy buying wines for some tasting events I'll be running this month.  I pride myself on finding wines to surprise and delight, and love finding great (value) alternatives to people's "stuck in a rut" favourites.  My own weak point is Italian wine.  It's not the one I choose in restaurants, bars, online or in the wine store.  I dread the day that a client gives me their list of favourites and it is all Italian. This may have something to do with the "Italian wine" question in my recent contest reminding me just how much there is to know (that I don't).  

So, in continuation of my self-imposed studies, my tipple this week was a 2009 DOCG  Barbaresco - from Sainsbury's Taste the Difference range.  Much supermarket wine suffers from overinflated pricing which can then be used to support psychologically beneficial large discounts.  I'm told this type of range offers better genuine value, so I couldn't resist snapping this up when it was also discounted.  It's normally £9.99 but is currently reduced to £7.49.  On a side note, Sainsbury's are offering 25% off all wines when you buy 6 online for delivery by 3rd November.  I imagine this is on top of existing wine discounts so you could grab a real deal here. (I'm a fan of the TtD Alsace Gewurz, if you're trying to fill your basket).

My theory here was that this could become a Bargain Barolo.  Both wines are made from the Nebbiolo grape, both grown in Piemonte in northern Italy, and the slopes of Langhe are just 10 miles from Barolo.  Like the iconic French reds, Barolo also requires patience, but I'd been reliably informed by my recent studies that Barbaresco rewards earlier. The tannins are softened more quickly by the slight maritime influence on the local climate.  So, at 4 years old, I had hopes.  The label hinted at "scents of rose" (oh how I'm a sucker for rose flavours), and "cherry and liquorice" on the palate.  All in all this sounded like the ideal wine to open when Mr Purple Teeth was not around.  Don't let the lighter colour fool you.  This is a full bodied and robust wine.  The weight in the mouth is good, although there's not the viscosity of some of the bigger, darker wines we've been drinking lately.  
It hadn't the complexity or length of finish I'd been hoping for - especially as the label declared I should expect a long finish.  I doubt many die-hard Barolo fans would be fooled, but for the price, this is a good introduction to what the Nebbiolo grape can offer.  Bright red fruit, mouthwatering acidity making it a great partner for strong hard cheese, lifted floral notes (I got more violet than rose, but maybe that's just me), and a pleasing body coupled with some hints of oaky spice, which hadn't yet evolved into the meaty, leathery flavours I'd hoped for.  

Well-made Barbaresco probably doesn't come into it's prime for at least 5 years after the vintage, so perhaps this one will improve, though my feeling is that this isn't complex enough in it's flavour components to develop interestingly enough to make it worth keeping.  But if you fancy a mid-week hit of Barolo and the budget won't run to it, I guess this might just suffice.  And if you've never tried Nebbiolo before, it's a reasonably accessible way to do so.  

Mr PT came home unexpectedly early and tried it blind without any knowledge whatsoever.  It's not the blockbuster style he tends to love.  He doesn't do subtle.  But this really grew on him, and with the addition of M&S Cornish Cruncher cheddar cheese he'd have happily had more than his fair share, though at the regular price of £9.99 he'd definitely choose something else.

We're not Italophiles just yet, but it's work in progress.  And with more "small wins" like this one, I'm encouraged to keep on with my studies.  I'd love to hear about your favourite Italian wines, bargain or budget-buster, so do get in touch either on my facebook page, twitter or google+ or in the comments below.

Arrividerci! Ciao! Sante! Cheers!