Which is the best red grape variety? A question a I wish to ask all my dear readers. I know I bang on about Pinot Noir all the time but after many discussions on Twitter and Facebook I realise I may not be servicing my reader’s needs. So tell me, what do you consider the best red grape variety, regardless of popularity or vocal support on this site.

I will try to give you as many options as possible and, as I am a generous sort, I’ll let you vote for three. A few more common blends I include as varietals as they they they more or less are marketed as coherent entities. Just in case I’ve missed anything out there will be an option to add your own twisted and obscure favourite. But first, some thoughts.

I’ll say a few words about the big three red grapes and then some other thoughts just to pique your interest.

Pinot Noir is certainly my favourite grape variety. At its best it’s sexy and seductive with a brilliant ability to express where it has been grown. It can be thin and acrid with little to redeem it when made by soulless bastards. It is also one of the classier contributors to the type sparkling wine blend, and pure Pinot sparklers can be electric. Some people even make it into still white wine, but I cannot remember the last time I reported on one of those here. It scales the heights of intellectual pleasure, hedonistic ravishment and extreme expense, whilst all too often plunging to the depths of all those categories. This is a biggie to consider.

Cabernet Sauvignon is the real winner in the international popularity stakes, much like lager is to beer, I feel. The best are undoubtedly brilliant, but rarely it shows its best when all alone. It can do elegant and refined or big and buxom and I quite understand if you like it. No, I’m lying, I don’t understand at all, but lots of people do so please let me know if you are one of them.

The final big dog at the red grapes’ table is Syrah or Shiraz to our more modern cousins. It can do elegant, as I had the other night, it can also do heroic and bruising. It is grown the world over, and can also shine in blends, so this is a worthy contender.

Other reds include the powerful and scented Mourvedre of Spain, Chateauneauf and Bandol, capable of such aromatic complexity and incredible ageing capability it commands respect. Nebbiolo also manages these characters but is perhaps more generally accessible, and it is certainly in vogue at the moment. My personal view is that Cabernet Franc is more interesting, both pure and as part of a blend, than its more popular offspring. Vintage Port would be nothing without Touriga Nacional, but where else in the world does it flourish and deliver such quality? Some people have an undying love for Gamay of Beaujolais, but if that gets most votes I may give up writing this site.

There’s loads more to choose from, all the remotely serious ones are listed, in random order, below. Cast your three votes!

Take Our Poll

Discussions in the comments section, please, and the poll will close in a week (23 March).

We shall come to white grapes when all is done and dusted here.

This was published on Elitistreview

Boca DOC is a deeply obscure Piedmontese wine region. They claim that during the 19th century it was one of the most well-regarded wine regions in Europe, but isn’t that what all of these unrecognised wine regions say about themselves? It is certainly true that a lot of quality wine regions were blitzed by phyloxera and odium out-breaks and became neglected. However, it is also true that around that time the general improvement in communications allowed easier shipment of wine from quality areas and so those producers of indifferent dross made only to satisfy local demand suddenly lost their markets. This wine is priced like it should be the former category, I hope it is not in the latter.

For the record, this is a Nebbiolo-based wine with some Vespolina added. Had much Vespolina? No? I didn’t think so… Nice label, though, and I’m pleased they claim only 12.5% as the booze-value. I purchased this with the knowledge it was well-reviewed by a journalist who likes them buxom and alcohol-tastic so that number on the label was a pleasant surprise. This wine makes me want to ask for popular views on a character of Nebbiolo wines, so if you like internet polls then jump to the end of the note and I have a button for you to click.

Boca 2006, Le Piane

This nose is delightfully pretty, charged with fresh fruit and a lovely floral character. Not overbearing, not heavy, just charmingly accessible. Sometimes in ‘traditional’ Italian regions winemakers feel they have to follow the traditional practise of extended oxidative ageing in barrels which, in my view, robs the wines of a lot of energy and vim – none of that nonsense here. No silliness with new oak, either, which I approve of in Nebbiolo. Quite complex too. The alcohol level really is moderate, not the slightest hint of a burn. It is so dainty, so graceful, so appealing in a small-scale manner – I love sniffing this. So I’ll have a taste. Crivens that is really tannic. Very, very tannic indeed. I don’t think it is too dry or hard for the fruit level, but so well-endowed with structure that the dissonance between the winsome little primary-school girl of a nose and the testosterone and steroid-soaked weight-lifter palate is quite extraordinary. The acidity is refreshing if a tad intense. There really is enough of that pretty fruit to keep one from getting worried about the ultimate harmony and it is not short on complexity and length. It’ll age well, I feel. I may be wildly wrong about this, but I feel this has similarities to the almost-extinct type of Burgundy that was made in a hilariously extracted but very low alcohol style. When young such wines seem hard, perhaps even acrid, and maybe a tad thin, but the very best of them can blossom into beautifully scented old lovelies if you can cellar them for long enough to be properly mature. I like this wine – it is an unconventional style yet has what it needs where it needs it in order to engage the enlightened drinker.

Which brings me to my poll. As mentioned, some Italian wines are made with long barrel-ageing – they have an orange-tinge to their colour, noticeable volatile acidity on the nose and are often rather dry on the palate. I’m rarely evasive so I’ll say that winemakers who do this to fine Nebbiolo grown on favoured sites (I’m generally talking about Barolo and Barbaresco here) are deranged as they are frittering away serious quality raw materials and stripping them of all their class and desirability. The contrast when making quality Barolo or Barbaresco is to minimalise the oxidative ageing and so retain more fruit and youthful vigour. The only problem one might have with ‘new style’ Nebbiolo is that with all that unoxidised tannin they can require one hell of a lot of cellar-time in order to reach full maturity. So, I’m interested to know what, dear readers, your views are on this: do you prefer new or old-style Nebbiolo?

Related posts:

• Nebbiolo and Camembert
• Frighteningly sulphurous Sancerre and fully mature Puligny – final words and a poll
• A very Chianti-ish Chianti

This was published on Elitistreview

Beyond Sancerre, I don’t have much time for pure Sauvignon Blanc. Beyond Crochet’s sometimes refreshing, sometimes downright bonkers offerings and Jean-Laurent Vacheron’s ambrosial, intellect-engaging, drool-provoking wines I really don’t have that much time for Sancerre either. But then, there is Cotat. He wants you to age his wine, which is not a commonly held view in this appellation nor one often associated with this grape. As I still wake up screaming and clutching my sweat soaked teddy bear when I recall the vomit-inducing experience of Christ Church of Oxford deciding to subject students undeserving of such cruel and unusual punishment to the horror of some repellently over-ripe, disgustingly oaked Australian Sauvignon Blanc that only screaming insanity could have accounted for them choosing to age for over ten years I’m normally pretty decided on this matter. Cotat, however, is a different beast – when they are old they do hold interest but can be awkward before they reach maturity.

On an entirely different note, I find the stark nature of Cotat’s labels and the colour of his bottles together with the little blob of wax on top to be a bit of a treat for the design-aware drinker. Naturally, such things matter not a tinker’s cuss if the wine is bloody awful, but at least he made the effort.

Sancerre ‘La Grande Cote’ 2004, Francois Cotat

I’m told by my chums in the Loire that sulphur is varietal character for Chenin Blanc, if so then this smells like the most intense bottle of Vouvray ever made. I’m rarely bothered by sulphur, but the epic quantity showing on this nose is more than a tad distracting. Does M. Cotat have a brother in the preservative trade or was there some tax-dodge associated with buying sulphur in 2004? There are suggestions of fruit of a quince-like character and tinges of complex minerality, but the basic character of this nose is staggeringly volcanic. So is the palate. Yikes, it is bitchingly acidic too, but that sulphur blows all else away. I’ll tell you what: now I’ve poured a couple of glasses I’ll give this wine a really vigorous shake and stick it somewhere coolish to give it a chance to breathe and blow off some of the staggering amount of sulphur its showing. I’ll come back and tell you more about it in a few hours. Who needs sleep when there are wines to be given a chance to show their best? This means I need to pull something out of the wine fridge to drink whilst I wait, so we move on to:

Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru Pucelles 2001, Domaine Leflaive

I worry when I see white Burgundy this dark in colour. Phew, the nose seems mature but not shagged out – there is that baked apple oxidative aroma but still life and freshness to the lemon fruit. It is compellingly complex as well, with the manifest class of the vineyard shining through unimpeded by any needless farting around by the winemaker. As I am swirling it the oxidation seems less of an issue and the wonderful sophistication of a really serious Puligny Premier Cru announces itself with unabashed confidence. Good weight to the palate but it is also taut and lithe with great acidity and a brilliant expression of stoniness which lifts it to a higher plain of enjoyable experience than all but the very best Chardonnays can manage. Yeah, there is one hell of a lot of pleasure here and it be-sports itself ostentatiously so even if one were giving this scant attention, and it deserves so much more than that, you’d still be delighted. New oak, alcohol levels and such do not announce themselves as primary characters here, this is a superlatively swish bottle of Puligny that delivers all one could ask of that designation with suave, refined self-assurance. Drink up and enjoy.

So two hours down the line we return to:

Sancerre ‘La Grande Cote’ 2004, Francois Cotat

This is still far from a typical SB nose and there is clearly a tectonic plate puncturing-load of sulphur here. Perhaps there a hint of greengage fruit? No, not really, there is sulphur on the nose and sulphur with tooth-fizzing acidity on the palate. Utterly unyielding. Since I have the opportunity I’m willing to give this wine an opportunity to shine, so I’ll shake it up again and come back to it in 12 hours at lunchtime. I feel for those who purchased this in the Wine Society sale and have opened it to drink with a meal in order to experience the much-praised ability of this winemaker – popping and instantly drinking it at the moment is a taxing and pleasure-bereft experience. I’ll add to this note later. Nighty night!

OK, it is now 18 hours since popping this bottle and there has been a truly enthusiastic amount of bottle shaking going on during this period. I think I can detect a hint of mango-ish fruit, but it is dried and mind-buggeringly sulphured mangoes I’m smelling. The nose, if I am honest, is still totally impenetrable. The palate still has the lash of frightening acidity, perhaps a suggestion of stoniness and the dominating flavour of Vulcan’s forge. It is so much tighter than even the deepest diving of duck’s arses that it just cannot be judged. Which allows me to have a brilliant Elitistreview poll!

Related posts:

• Mature Crozes-Hermitage, unfeasibly good Rioja, Chambolle-Musigny and red Sancerre
• An extraordinary wine
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This was published on Elitistreview

The new design for Elitistreview has been live for a few weeks; I hope my regular readers have got over the shock of change and are finding it an improvement. Whether you do or not, I’d like to ask anyone who has a view to let me know what it is. The voting box below is ready and waiting for you to click an option.

If you have more to say than just casting your vote then please feel free to leave a comment; I will address any issues that are within my technical competence.

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This was published on Elitistreview

In our quest to elucidate more about the Cote de Nuits villages we can move up a level to the Premier Crus. This time the poll question is: Which Cote de Nuits village has the most consistently high-quality Premier Crus? Not just one or two good ones, but tits quality across the range. If you feel you have more to add than a simple vote then please feel free to add a comment.

Free Website Poll

As usual, my RSS feed readers must come to the site to vote.

If you want to have a look at some maps of the Burgundy villages to help you decide you can go to the bottom of this page where there is a good list of Burgundy maps provided by Louis Jadot.

Related posts:

• Which Cote de Nuits village makes your favourite red wines?
• A new toy!
• The best village-level Cote de Nuits wines

This was published on Elitistreview