A nice even balanced wine from Cave la Romaine in Vaison La Romaine,  Vaucluse. Nice soft notes of summer red fruit with just a hint of light peppery spice rounding it off. Pleasant nose and a welcoming cherry red colour. This wine is a grenache  and syrah blend, hence the softness on the palate. Good value for money at well under 5 Euros a bottle.

It won a gold medal at the Concours General Agricole, Paris 2005

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I, like a good few others remember the scandal when they used to add anti-freeze to their wines (not all Austrian wine makers) and a lot of people became very ill from drinking it. I recall reading, that in the end they used to wine (aka anti-freeze) to spray on the tarmac at there airports to get rid of the ice. Not the greatest advert for Austrian wine thats for sure!

Things seem to have turned around in Ausrian wine making circles these days. They are reporting big export growth.They exported 35.8m litres of bottled quality wine valued at €91.8m in 2007. That is over a 7m litre jump from there exports in 2006.

The Germans are the biggest buyers, followed by other Northern European countries. I have yet to see a bottle of Austrian wine for sale here in France.

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An interesting wine from Collin Bourisset. Rich deep ruby red colour and a nose of warm soft spicy red fruit. It is soft and velvety of on palate, with woodland berries and Middle Eastern spice notes. Good value for money at under 5 Euros a bottle.

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Millions have logged onto Gary Vaynerchuk’s Wine Library TV—watching him boldly and unconventionally rate hundreds of wines. Viewers are attracted to his youthful energy, unique voice, and often outrageous descriptions. Now, in Gary Vaynerchuk’s 101 Wines, Vaynerchuk reveals his first ranked list of the most exciting and tantalizing spirits he has sampled while traveling the globe.

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A rather handsome wine from Cave de Labastide de Lévis in MARSSAC-SUR-TARN. Warm liquorice notes, added to by just ripe summer fruits leaving a warm glow on the palate. A good deep dark ripe red colour adds an elegance to this wine. A true bargain at around 3€ a bottle and well worth popping a couple in the cellar and see what they are like in a couple of years time. It seems a wine that will only get better with a little more age to its name.

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Very funny wine review! skit from Simon Tiddlesford, the man who can!!!!!

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The Hong Kong fine and vinatge wine market is hotting up now that wine duty is no longer in force. On 24 April, Bonhams the London-based auction house, sold 246 lots for a total book price of over £744,392 (US$1,474,820), which was well over the expected estimate.

This sale looks set to open up the Hong Kong market, with many other auction houses planning sales in the near future. Give that Hong Kong is the gateway to the Chinese market, auctions house and fine and vintage wine sellers must now be rubbing the hands together with all these potential new sales on the horizon.

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This Syrah from La Vie du Sud in Tuchan is a great value Vin de Pays d’Oc. Bursting with rich ripe flavours, it’s got to be the wine bargain of the decade.Good deep rich colour and a soft ripe fruit nose. This wine is packed full of the Corbieres summer. Hot, dry with wafts of herbs. The label is also worth a mention. It is designed by Tim Bulmer. It looks great on the bottle and even better on a case.

The wine is amazing value at around 2€ a bottle, YES 2€ a bottle. Thats les then a bottle of Coke/Pepsi

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Billionaire wine collector William Koch s suing Acker Merrall & Condit for fraud because, when he had wine expects in to inspect his cellar, they found bottle he had purchased from Acker Merrall & Condit ( 1949 Lafleur, 1947 Pétrus, 1945 Comte Georges de Vogüé Musigny Cuvée Vielles Vignes and two 1934 Romanée-Contis from Domine de la Romanée-Conti. ), to be either fakes or very possible fakes. When you spend £40,000 ($80,000) on a few bottles of wine, you want to make sure they are the real deal. I’m the same when I spend £10 ($20) on a bottle!!!!!

Fake wines are very big business and with so many new wine investment buyers coming in the the market from Russia and the Far East, it would be my guess, that fake vintage wines will be on the increase, given that it is not really that difficult to make.

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This Bordeaux wine from Chateau Boutillot in Saint-Michel de Lapujade, Gironde is a bit on the young side for my taste. It is on the tart side, with bitter tannins in the after taste, with not much of a nose on it.

A Bordeaux wine for around 3.50€, means it is no great surprise that it is not very drinkable. The rest of the bottle will not go to waste. I will cook with it tomorrow.

It won a silver medal  in the Concours des Vins D’Aquitaine 2007. Makes we wonder how they won it. Maybe I got a bad bottle!

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A Beijing business man is reported to have paid over 300,000€ for a collection of wines from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. The collection consisted of a 27-bottle set of various vintages.

Domaine de la Romanée-Conti produce just 450 cases of wine each year, making in very exclusive and expensive, a little to expensive for most wallets, thats for sure.

It would be nice to think that the Beijing business man, will open a bottle, put his feet up and enjoy it while watching his favorite T.V. show, but more then likely, it will just sit in a cellar for investment value, until he decides to sell it at a big profit.

This is the real shame with buying wine for investment. The beauty of wine is in the drinking. It is the same has buying a beautiful painting and keeping it in a vault. Both of which seem pointless to me.

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This Grand Vin de Bordeaux jumps on the palate with high notes of licorice and very ripe dark red fruits. It still tastes a bit young and may well get even better with another couple of years in the bottle. A good ruby colour and density, holding the wine for a second on the glass, when swirled.

Good value for money at 7.70€ a bottle

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Bernard Magrez a major name in wine production in France and around the world, decided at a press launch at the Hotel Plaza Athénée in Paris. to add a little gift to the press bag handed out to journalists… a €1,650 Cartier watch. If I was invited, would I have keep quite and given him and his wine enterprise a nice write-up? NO. NON. A €1,650 Cartier watch is not nearly enough!!!!!! It is good to see that the journalists attending ( well some of them) also decided to take the moral high ground and expose this direct bribe to the press and hood winking of  the wine buying public into thinking that a wine carrying a famous label means a good wine.

More power to those who refuse to give free (well almost) promotion to wines are are sold more for the label on the bottle, then in wine inside the bottle.

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CUVEE DU POETE RENAISSANCE, Domaine de Fontenelles, VDP de l’Aude Coteaux de Miramont from Douzens in Aude is a fine and well balanced wine with notes of vanilla and soft summer fruits.It’s got a deep rich dark colour and good nose of cooked red fruits. It is made with a blend of Syrah and Old Carignan grapes and aged in Seguin-Moreau oak barrels for 10 months. It is quite moreish on the palate and makes me want to eat some rich dark chocolate truffles. Just a shame I have none in the house at the moment! Very good value for money at around 4€ a bottle. Well worth a 5✰✰✰✰✰ rating.

Winner of a silver medal at the Concours General Agricole, Paris 2004

© Richard Randall

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