ITs Food

I’ve always said be VERY WARY of wines which just classify themselves as “white wine” or “red wine”.  Well, I think I may have to change my point of view after I received two bottles of Chateau Musar White 2001 in an excellent value Chateau Musar half case from Tesco.com.

There’s no doubt, this was going to be a BIG white wine.  I wasn’t sure what to expect so I had a browse on the Chateau Musar website to see what I could find out about the wine.

The varieties that collaborate to produce Château Musar White are particularly special; obeideh and merwah are indigenous to Mount Lebanon, their history dates back to ancient times. Our own vineyards of white grapes are located at an altitude of 1200m and hence the harvest takes place later than for reds, normally between the 5th and 15th October.

Both varieties are partly fermented in oak “barriques” where they mature for a further 9 months. They are then blended, bottled and aged for a further 4 years before release.

To fully appreciate the scope of their complexity and finesse, our white wines should be served at cellar temperature (15 degrees Celsius).  And most importantly, don’t forget to decant them!

Okay… Obeidah and Merwah grape varieties!  They’re new.  I’d still no idea what to expect so I dug out some tasting notes.

“2001 was a most bizarre year.  Although it started normally with some quite rainy cold days, things changed very quickly to warmer weather with almost no more rain at all.  Therefore average annual rainfall was less than normal.

As global warming continues to become more obvious and serious, after a normal flowering in the spring, our July and August were far hotter than usual.  Again this year, the vintage had to start early on the 3rd September – which is one of the earliest dates I have harvested in my life.

The crop of 2001 was good with quite ripe fruits but not too much tannin or acidity.  However the quantity produced was 15% lower than usual.  Fermentation progressed well and the malolactic followed easily and naturally as it did in the previous year 2000.

I tasted the wines last week ~ an easy, fruity year with good alcohol levels.

A very successful year perhaps…”

Serge Hochar - November 2001

“Overall the year 2001 will be on average a normal year.  The Chateau wines of this year will be good but other wines will be more average.”

Comments from Ghazir tasting 17th January 2002

Not much the wiser I opened the bottle (and didn’t decant unfortunately!).  My tasting notes said…

It’s a white red wine!.  This is a red wine with the colour removed.  Really complex, needs food.  A real grower.

This is a monster of a white, it’s big and powerful and needs to be matched with food.  Think of it as a perfect white to serve with a meal you would normally only offer red with.  You may really surprise some people. 4 stars.

Chateau Musar White 2001

Grape: Obeidah and Merwah
Alcohol: 12.5%
Guide Price: ~£10
I bought this wine at: Tesco (online)
ITs Food Rating: Four stars

With Summer on it’s way I thought I’d finish off my last bottle of my favourite Summer Red 2006 in time to stock up with some bottles of 2007.

Brown Brothers Tarrango is a light bodied wine preferably served chilled. It’s a juicy, fruity wine with a dry finish that leaves you wanting more. Brown Brothers describe it thus:

A delicate, light-bodied red wine that should be served lightly chilled. The wine is a vibrant cherry red colour with lifted aromas of raspberries, ripe cherries and a hint of spice. These fresh berry aromas are reaffirmed on the palate. With fine, well integrated tannins, a juicy clean mouth feel and a fresh dry finish, this is the perfect wine to sip on.

I really don’t think you can go wrong serving this lightly chilled at at BBQ. With some modern rosé wines being more like “watered down reds” this wine is THE choice to spring on people as a fantastic alternative.

As ever the Brown Brothers website gives us some nice info about Tarrango (from their 2007 vintage page)

THE GRAPE VARIETY
Tarrango is a unique Australian grape variety, bred by CSIRO scientists in 1965 by crossing the Portuguese red grape variety Touriga with the versatile white grape Sultana. It was developed specifically to produce a light, fresh red wine ideal for summer drinking in the many countries with warm to hot summers. Named after the tiny township of Tarrango in the Mallee district of north-west Victoria, where it was designed to thrive, the vines bear generous crops that ripen late and maintain a fresh acidity and soft grapey flavour. The Brown family has been making wines from Tarrango since 1980. In recent years, a small amount of fruit has been fermented by the carbonic maceration technique, as practiced in Beaujolais and other areas in southern France, where berries are allowed to ferment whole and uncrushed. This contributes added complexity and flavour to the final wine.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION
The Tarrango grapes used to make this wine were grown in Victoria. The fruit was harvested in parcels from late February until the end of March at a range of baumé levels from 11.5° to 13.0°. Approximately eleven percent of the fruit underwent carbonic maceration. It was then blended with other parcels and bottled soon after fermentation and was completed with an alcohol of 12.5%, a pH of 3.45 and an acid level of 5.8g/L.

I’ve consumed a fair amount of this wine in the past so my wine tasting notes aren’t too detailed (are they ever?).

Hmmm… Just as nice as ever, a touch more dryness than I remember, maybe due to age? Still almost refreshingly fruity but that nice dryness to make you want more.

Well, there you have it. A real winner. I’ll give it 4 stars as it doesn’t quite make it into my “all time greats list” but is still a great Summer wine. Enjoy!

Brown Brothers Tarrango 2006

Grape: Tarrango
Alcohol: 12.5%
Guide Price: <£5.50 in-store (Tesco)
I bought this wine at: Tesco’s (instore)
ITs Food Rating: Four stars

I have to tell you that Château Musar is my favourite red wine. I’m lucky enough to have several bottles at home from different years: 1991, 1996 and 1999 (I hear 2000 is now released). Château Musar is ideally drank between about 10-15+ years old. The 1991 is being kept for a special occasion. I hope it’s okay…!

Musar is pretty unique for the fact it’s from Lebanon, not a country you’d immediately link with wine. But, if you think about where Lebanon is (i.e. on the Mediterranean), it’s location is very conducive to wine making.

Viticulture in Lebanon was introduced 6000 years ago by the Phoenicians who traded their wines throughout the Mediterranean and planted the vine in southern Europe….

…The Bible is full of references to the wine of Canaan which is located today in southern Lebanon. According to the bible, the Hebrews had brought home a bunch of grapes so big that it took the strength of two men to carry it.

The reputation of the wine of Canaan was such that Egyptians reported it to be “as abundant as flowing water” and this probably inspired the Romans to choose Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley to build their largest temple ever, and to add, several centuries later, another temple devoted to Bacchus.

Whilst they produce a few different wines the classic Château Musar Red is probably the most famous. As we’ve come to expect their excellent website is full of information about the wine.

It is when the grapes reach optimal maturity, typically between the 5th and the 15th of September, that the harvest begins at Château Musar.

The grapes are handpicked as the sun rises across the Bekaa valley and are then swiftly transferred to the cellar in Ghazir where fermentation takes place followed by maceration lasting 2 to 4 weeks.

During the first year the wine is racked into Bordeaux type barrels made from Nevers oak and where it matures from 12 to 15 months.

Our philosophy of respect for nature and ecology is the reason for which our wines are neither fined nor filtered and receive no chemical additives with the exception of the minimum necessary dose of sulphur.

At the end of the second year blending takes place with the proportions of cabernet sauvignon, carignan and cinsault varying with each vintage, the only deciding factor being taste.

During the third year bottling takes place after which the wine is allowed to rest 3 to 4 years in our cellars before release.

To best appreciate the subtlety and complexity of Château Musar red we suggest decanting between 30 minutes and 2 hours before serving. Our wines, in particular the older vintages, are keen travellers, yet we suggest you leave them to rest 2 to 4 weeks before serving, and all the while decanting with great care.

While Château Musar red is certainly ready to be enjoyed upon release 7 years after vintage, or at the age of discretion, the patient are rewarded as they are exceptional after 15 years of age.

So, my 1999 bottle was on the young side when I tasted it. I must admit I was a bit apprehensive as I’d been looking forward to opening the bottle for a while but was worried about the age. This wine had to live up to my expectations. I think the first bottle I ever tasted was an early 1980’s vintage.

Château Musar is a wonderful smooth rich fruity taste-explosion of a wine, a real “red wine”. I think one of the most telling things about this wine is that even though it is rich and powerful it is also so smooth that even Mrs ITsFood (who is no red wine fan) loves it. The Château Musar website supplies tasting notes for each vintage. The 1999 notes say:

1999: This is the basic palette from which Serge Hochar, no dry academician, creates his blends:

• First, a Cinsault from a single, soil-rich vineyard in Ana: deep core, young Provençal scent; delicious flavour, wonderful richness and flesh. Soft tannins.
• Next, a Cinsault from Ammiq’s very gravelly soil: fragrant, lighter style, more charm.
• Then Carignan from a lighter soil in the Ana district: Deep, velvety; spicy garrigue scent (I was reminded of Corbières in the Languedoc), flavour more aromatic.
• Lastly, Cabernet Sauvignon from Kefraya’s rocky soil: very deep purple; sweet, lovely crisp flavour, excellent tannins and acidity.
• End taste of violets and blackcurrants

Well? I think some key words from the notes above describe the wine perfectly. Soft tannins… Fragrant… Aromatic… Sweet (think fruity)… It was wonderful. Yes I could tell it wasn’t as aged as some of the other bottles I’ve had in the past but it was still excellent. Perfect with food but I love this wine so much I can just as easily carry on drinking it all evening (if there was ever enough!). My tasting notes simply said…

…yummy, spot on…

Well you can’t argue with that! I always had to try to track this down in shops in the past but now it seems it’s more easily sourced. Waitrose tend to stock it, I’ve also seen it in Tesco’s (a while back though) but I bought my latest batch from Sainsbury’s. It tends to come in at around the £14 (~$2 mark but if you wait for one of the special “25%+ off 6 or more bottles” offers you can get the price closer to £10 which is a bargain.

As with all good red wine, decant it well before serving!

If you’ve never tasted Château Musar before I strongly recommend you get a bottle. It’d be a perfect Christmas dinner wine. Robust and powerful but smooth and fruity as well. A real winner, 5 stars.

Château Musar 1999

Grape: Cabernet Sauvignon, Carignan and Cinsault
Alcohol: 14%
Guide Price: ~£14
I bought this wine at: Sainsbury’s (Instore)
ITs Food Rating: Five stars

The second Sauvignon Blanc from the New World case I bought from Tesco was Jackson Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2006.

I’ve been buying Jackson Estate Sauvignon Blanc for a while now, not regularly, but ever since I really got into wine in the mid 90’s I’ve always know it’s a decent bet if I’m looking for a good wine in a supermarket. I remember in 1999 one major supermarket in the UK was selling it for £3.99 a bottle! Ah, the memories, it’s closer to £10 (~$20) a bottle now.

Jackson Estate are situated in the Sauvignon Blanc capital of the World, Marlborough New Zealand. I have to admit I didn’t visit their Cellar Door when I was there though. You know how I like wines to have lots of information on the web, Jackson Estate do me proud:

Viticulturist Geoff Woollcombe

Winemaker Mike Paterson

Tasting Notes

A mixture of dense tropical & citrus fruit is supported by punchy basil and spice lending the wine great varietal purity. This leads to a wonderfully textured palate full of fruit vibrancy and framed by mouth watering juicy acidity.

Vineyards

Grapes were sourced from twelve individual vineyard sites in the Renwick, Wairau and Omaka sub regions of Marlborough, New Zealand.

Weather

Warning signs of a potential early vintage were evident with Sauvignon Blanc going through verasion three weeks earlier than the 2005 vintage. The warm and dry weather experienced in the early parts of the growing season continued right through until the beginning of April 2006. The 2006 harvest will go down as one of
the earliest and most intense on record, with all our Sauvignon Blanc fruit harvested by March 27th, an entire month ahead of schedule. It was an important year for winemakers to be in the vineyard, as picking decisions had to be made entirely on flavour within tighter than normal picking windows.

Harvest

Over twenty separate parcels of Sauvignon Blanc grapes were harvested in cool morning conditions between the 15th and 27th of March. Due to the intensely hot and dry growing season, grapes arrived at the winery within a very short time frame, but in fantastic health and busting with freshness and flavour. Brix at harvest ranged from 22.0 – 23.0 brix.

Vinification

All Sauvignon Blanc fruit was lightly pressed in a cool anaerobic environment and the resulting juice was transferred to tank for a cold settling period of up to 72 hours. Clear juice was then racked to stainless tanks, warmed and inoculated with a neutral cultured yeast strain to allow the intrinsic qualities of our vineyard sites to shine. Fermentation on average lasted 3.5 weeks at low temperatures to retain maximum varietal character, after which the new wines were removed from their ferment lees before spending several months on light lees to develop further palate richness and flavour. Following this the individual parcels were blended and prepared for bottling in mid August 2006.

Wine Analysis

Alcohol 13.0%, pH 3.26, Titratable Acidity 7.8 g/L, Residual Sugar 3.5g/L.

My wine tasting notes tell me…

…nice, classic SB but tastes stronger than Cloudy or Highfield, nice on it’s own but better with food. Lots of flavour in there, quite a manly wine…

I liked it but the strength of the flavour was a bit overwhelming at first, definitely one for food, especially seafood. I think this would be great with a meat like lobster. A good wine although a little overpriced. At ~£10 a bottle you could almost have a bottle of Highfield instead so this just scrapes a 4 star rating. If it was any more than £10 a bottle it’d be demoted to 3 stars.

Jackson Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2006

Grape: Sauvignon Blanc
Alcohol: 13%
Guide Price: <£10
I bought this wine at: Tesco’s (Online)
ITs Food Rating: Four stars

Well, I’ve already pronounced Highfield Sauvignon Blanc 2006 the greatest Sauvignon Blanc on the planet; so, what of my “old” favourite, Cloudy Bay?

I managed to get my hands on a couple of bottles through Tesco.com. They had a fantastic deal for 6 New World 2006 Sauvignon Blanc’s for £60 ($120). The case contained 2 bottles each of Cloudy Bay, Villa Maria Cellar Selection and Jackson Estate. Not a bad deal at all. I usually have to spend ~£18 (~$36) a bottle get Cloudy Bay, that’s what makes Highfield such a bargain (~£12/$24)!

In the late 90’s early 00’s you couldn’t go to a decent restaurant without the “king” of New World Sauvignon Blanc’s, Cloudy Bay, on the menu. This was the first wine to really make me go WOW. When my brother introduced me to it in the early 90’s it sparked my love for wine. For that, Cloudy Bay has a very special place in my heart.

As you’d expect Cloudy Bay has a very good website full of all the details you need to know about their 2006 Sauvignon Blanc.

HARVEST BEGAN EARLIER THAN EVER BEFORE WITH AN IDYLLIC SUMMER AND RELATIVELY LOW CROP LOADS DELIVERING RIPE FRUIT WITH INTENSE AROMATICS.

Winemakers Notes
Mouth-watering aromas of passionfruit and lemongrass led with the spiciness of just-picked tomatoes tossed with fresh basil. Many small parcels of fruit, ripened under ideal conditions, bring layers of complexity to the 2006 Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc. The palate has exceptional richness, with ripe gooseberry flavours and a hint of fresh fennel leading to a powerful, crisp finish.

Technical Notes: Vineyard
Grapes were sourced from estate and grower vineyards located in the Rapaura, Fairhall, Renwick and Brancott sub-regions of the Wairau Valley. Free draining, stony soils typify the Rapaura and Renwick areas whilst Fairhall and Brancott are predominantly aged alluvial loams containing some clay. The majority of fruit was grown on a vertical shoot positioned (VSP) trellis, and the balance on the divided Scott Henry trellis system. In 2006 sauvignon blanc yields averaged 8.4 Tonnes/hectare (3.4 Tonnes/acre).

Technical Notes: Season
The season got off to a relatively warm, frost-free start with budburst occurring almost three weeks earlier than normal. Ideal growing conditions prevailed throughout the spring, but with December came wet and windy weather. The unsettled conditions affected the flowering period, resulting in incomplete berry set and consequently low crop levels. The warmth returned early in the New Year and conditions during the remainder of the summer were idyllic. The combination of an early spring, low crops, and warm sunny weather brought on the ripening and - for the first time ever - harvesting commenced at the end of February. Fruit quality was superb and picking was hurried as all vineyards ripened rapidly, but two dumps of rain in late March slowed things down and put a cloud of apprehension over the vintage. Fine weather with low humidity followed the rain, leaving the fruit unscathed and picking resumed in earnest..

Technical Notes:Harvest
The Sauvignon Blanc harvest began on the 13th of March – the earliest start date on record - under settled conditions, the first fruit coming from the stonier, warmer blocks around the winery. Harvesting continued steadily during the month through the progressively later ripening sites, with the last fruit coming in on the 7th of April. All vineyards were picked at optimum ripeness. Despite the season being average in terms of heat summation, the harvest was completed by the 10th of April … allowing the Cloudy Bay team to experience Easter for the first time without their gumboots on.

Technical Notes:Vinification
The fruit was machine harvested during the cooler night and early morning temperatures and transported directly to the winery. The grapes were de-stemmed and transferred straight to tank presses. Free run and lightly pressed juice was cold settled for 48 hours then racked and inoculated with a neutral yeast strain. The fermentations were carried out in stainless steel tanks; after fermentation the wine remained in contact with yeast lees for around two months, prior to blending in July and subsequent bottling in August. Final wine analysis shows an alcohol of 13.5%, pH of 3.15 and titratable acidity 7.6 g/L

(Better photo than the 2005, no spider poo this time!)

So, as usual let’s see what my wine tasting notes have to say…

…as expected, good, possiby great, classic young SB, lots of citrusy crispness, tastes fresh, dry with nice fruity undertones…

Yes, it was lovely. A big thumbs up for a “new” bottle of Cloudy Bay. But, like most wines, this will change and in a years time will be a completely different wine. Let me explain…

A good Sauvignon Blanc is like a garden. Eh? Well, if you imagine moving into a new house with just a bare patch of ground for a garden. Over the years the garden changes from being fresh and young to being mature and complex. Over the first year (and beyond in better wines) a SB changes from being that fresh zingy wine to being a mature more complex wine.

So, if you’re reading this review with an eye on buying some Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2006 then bear in mind this review was written when the wine was still quite young (September 2007). Those zingy citrusy flavours will have matured into something more complex over time. A good Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc will still taste good years later if stored well but it will obviously be a different wine.

I’ve tagged this wine Great Wine (link to Great Wine on our sister blog, ITs Wine, where we archive all our wine reviews). That makes it only the second white wine to be called that, the other is Highfield Sauvignon Blanc 2006. Which is better? The Highfield, hands down. I prefer the taste/flavour and it’s better value. BUT the Cloudy Bay is an excellent wine and consistantly good quality therfore it deserves 5 stars.

Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2006

Grape: Sauvignon Blanc
Alcohol: 13.5%
Guide Price: ~£14-18
I bought this wine at: Tesco (Online)
ITs Food Rating: Five stars