Oz Clarke has recently released his 250 Best Wines: Wine Buying Guide 2011 which features five wines sold by Goedhuis & Co. We do think he may have gone a little bit bonkers – to describe the notes as over the top is a major understatement – but it is always good to see our wines getting acclaim.
All the wines can be bought online – just click on the name to go through to our website.
2007 Puligny-Montrachet, Les Corvées des Vignes, Domaine Maroslavac-Leger, Burgundy, France
It sounds strange to say that this is a bit of a bargain, but top white Burgundy is in very short supply and Puligny is the greatest of the wine villages there. This is pure, limpid, absolutely classic Puligny. A zingy acidity runs like an electric current through it, complementing the oatmeal and hazelnut richness which, with time, will get a mellow chocolatey veneer to go with the glittering minerality that shines like tiny particles of quartz in the heart of wine.
2009 Vernaccia di San Gimignano, Le Calcinaie, Tuscany, Italy
This is in effect the local white wine of the Chianti region. It’s quite full, with a kind of oatmeal cheese biscuit savouriness, but that’s challenged by tasty yet lean chewy apple peel and dried apple slices mixed with aniseed and grapefruit, and a spritzy prickle on your tongue.
2007 Bordeaux, Château la Fleur Coterie, France
This little property is based in the very good but unsung and undervalued Fronsac region to the east of Bordeaux, next to the very good, very famous, and overpriced Pomerol area. That’s what gives it some real class – quite rich, scented plum fruit, an attractive appetizing earthiness, some tannic roughness and fairy creamy oak. Good now, it’ll be even better in five years.
2009 Côtes de Provence, Château Saint Baillon, Provence, France
Provence rosés sometimes seem to compete with each other to exhibit the least colour possible – and to have the least flavour possible, for that matter. But there is something about their illusory tinge of pink and their soothing texture that makes the best ones positively beguiling. This is limpid, filigree, nebulous, diaphanous, like a smear of face cream on a boudoir looking glass. Its flavour are fluffy, insubstantial, a hint of anise, a Golden Delicious sliced water-thin and rubbed with Havana tobacco, a texture like spring water trickling over your tongue.
2009 Pinot Rosé, Pays d’Oc, Domaine Begude, Languedoc, France
Pinot Noir rosés are some of the most expensive in France – usually from Burgundy or places like Sancerre – and they’re often disappointing. So, have a bit of money and head south-west to Limoux, where Domaine Begude majors on a highly regarded Chardonnay, but finds time for this delightful fresh yet full-bodied pink, with the bite of ripe apple peel and the mild fruitiness of strawberry. And it’s bone dry.