5 good reasons to stay off the wagon.

So here in camp Vintner we’re really quite excited about 2012.  Our diaries are rammed with tastings and we’re hell bent on bringing you the best of the best for under £30 a bottle this year. We’ve all avoided the gym membership and have signed up to the Vault Club – something that so many of our wonderful customers have been requesting and we’re there now.We’re tasting more and more of our wines and many of our lovely competitors too.  In fact, we spent the first week of Jan tasting plenty of ours just to be sure they hadn’t put on too much weight over Christmas.  The good news is, they haven’t and in most cases they’re tasting so much better than we can remember so here’s the pick of the bunch for January:

Everyday guzzlers:

Sierra de Siles Blanco 2010, Tierra de Castilla
The first of our wines to be tried in January and we were tickled pink with this.  It’s a cracking little Spanish white that’s so different to its French counterparts – rich, fleshy, ripe & juicy with heaps of peach like fruit. Clean and crisp, a really great quaffing white

Sierra de Siles Tinto 2010, Tierra de Castilla
Super Spanish red – soft, juicy and dangerously easy to drink.  Great with a hearty casserole but seriously tasty just for a glass or two after a hard day on the Lilo.

Overdelivering on the Dinner Party table:

Bourgogne Blanc 2010, Fortin
This outgunned three white burgundies that we tried alongside it at similarish price points. It’s made by one of our best growers, the young, talented Julien Collovray based in the Maconnais and it exudes generous citrus, smokey white burgundy notes.  It’s fresh, rich, complex and utterly delicious – we wholeheartedly recommend it.

Bourgogne Pinot Noir 2009, Jean Jacques Girard
It’s 2010 Burgundy tasting time in London so Jean Jacques is over to see us and talk up the ’10 vintage.  He’ll have a bit of a sales pitch on his hands as we just love his ‘09’s.  Widely recognised as a major player in Savigny-Les-Beaune we think this is the perfect dinner party red for Jan.  It’s soft, seductive, elegant, juicy and fabulously fine too.

Sod the credit card bill, I’d like to drink something really memorable…

La Rosine ‘Syrah’ 2007, Michel & Stephane Ogier, Vin de Pays des collines rhodaniennes
This is REAL wine.  From deep in the Northern Rhone valley it’s easy to taste the slate and mineral flavours of the soil and the ripeness and finesse of this Syrah – the label might look humble but this is harvested just outside Cote Rotie by one of France’s most brilliant and small artisanal wine growers.  Quite simply sublime – it’s spicy, full bodied with blackcurrants and smoked bacon on the nose and a flavour that lasts for an eternity. It’s drinking beautifully now and warrants decanting but it will improve even more with a few years in the cellar.  We’ve managed to get our hands on only ten cases of this wonderful wine but we’re very happy with those ten.