A nice spring evening and some white wines

Today was a wonderful day here in Belgium and temperatures easily reached more than 23 degrees which caused also the evening to be quite warm.

After dinner (Mc Donalds with the kids, thus no wine involved), we decided to sit in the garden some more and open up a bottle of white wine.
We chose bottle of Castelo de Medina Verdejo, which is an excellent white wine from the Spanish Rueda DO. This is a wine with a lot of body and the necessary sours to support it, not as alcohol driven as some other Spanish wines (only 12.5 degrees alcohol).

After sipping our glasses for a while we got a visit from my parents in law, although they do like white wine they are more fan of classical French Sauvignon Blanc wines like Sancerre and the likes ... back to the cellar to get a bottle of Sancerre.

Unfortunately this first bottle (a bottle from Delhaize we once received as part of a gift from I don't remember who) had turned bad and basically had no taste at all in it anymore.

Back to the cellar again, this time to emerge with the last bottle of Domaine du Salvard - Cheverny 2006, which is an excellent alternative (although it is a blend Sauvignon Blanc / Chardonnay) to sometimes a lot more expensive Sancerre wines.

At the end of the evening we finished these two bottles and felt quite happy to have spent such a wonderful evening in the garden.

Rose wine is NOT a blend of white and red wine

There is a lot of fuss currently in the European wineworld for plans that the European Commision has to allow rose wine to be made by blending/mixing white and red wine in stead of the traditional way of making roses that simply uses a short maceration time to achieve the rose result.

There is a petition (that I signed as well) that tries to prevent this from happening. We'll see if it will help, but it is sure worth a try.

It is interesting to look at the background of this proposal. The EC uses the fact that the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (O.I.V) already allows for blending of red and white wines to create rose and that this practice is use alot in newer wine countries.

As the process of blending is easier than making a real rose, the result is a cheaper wine and European roses cannot compete anymore. This in itself would be a more or less noble goal ...

But according to some comments that I heared on the Belgian radio there is in fact a huge overproduction of (low quality) wines in the EC and currently all this overproduction is distilled into industrial alcohol ... subsidized by the EC ...

The reasoning of the reported was that allowing blending on red and white to create cheap rose would lessen the overproduction (as more is sold) and thus cost the EC less in subsidies.

I don't know what to believe in this matter, but as usual there will be some truth in either point of view.

A taste of Portugal

A few weeks ago we bought a few bottles of Portugese red wine at the salesweekend of ArteVino. 

I am talking about Vinha da Carrica Reserva  from the Douro Superior region made by the VDS (Vinhos Douro Superior) Vinhos winemaker.

It it made of local grapes the Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franc and Tinta Roriz (aka Tempranillo) which are 3 out of the top-6 of 48 allowed grapes to make Port.

The wine itself does not really taste like Port, more somewhat Bordeaux-like with its heavy aromas of plum and blackberry.

Anyway, it is another nice example of how Portugese wines don't have to fall behind in the brave new wine world in which we live in these days.

Monte Lindo Malbec/Merlot

On saturday I went to Mondovino to buy one of their promotion wines (MoDa, more on that later) and to prepare for a wine-tasting session on Chili and Argentina that I will be hosting in my company's wine club somewhere in june (more on all that later as well probably).

I knew already that I absolutely want to let people taste the excellent Trapiche Broquel Malbec (slow link) that we have enjoyed already numerous times since a few years. The guy in the shop also recommended a cheaper, probably more accessible for people that aren't big fans of wood-matured wine that I could try. The Alta Vista Finca Monte Lindo Malbec/Merlot blend (the Alta Vista bodega doesn't show the wine on their website, strange).

As it was for the better cause of learning my colleagues to enjoy the greatness of Argentinian wine I decided to buy two bottles and give it a go, even without tasting, which is not something I typically adventure anymore these days.

Anyhow  my wife and I opened the bottle on Sunday evening to enjoy it with a fresh bowl of Chile con Carne and although we initially thought it was a bit of a dissapointment (lightly coloured, lots of alcohol in the aroma, etc.) the bottle didn't survive the evening ...

Conclusion: I do think this is indeed a good wine for its price (about 7€)  to be drank with all kinds of food by all kinds of people.

I will keep you informed about what the colleagues think of it.