We recently held another great evening at Hedingham Castle. It is the most amazing building and extraordinary to think what must have gone on there in years gone by. Battles, jousting and now wine tastings….
We showed about twenty five wines mainly from France and Italy with one or two from the Southern Hemisphere and the majority tasted very well. However on the night there were a couple that really stood out for me.
On the whites the 2008 Sauvignon de Touraine, Domaine Bellvue, is such good value with the classic Sauvignon Blanc characteristics, a great quaffer or with food. Turning up the volume a little bit, our New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc called Mudhouse, is really terrific – it is packs a bit more of a punch but is not too powerful and a great drink for this hot weather.
If you like white Burgundy our 2007 Macon Montbellet is a real banker. If you have this blind you will certainly think it is smarter than it is. It has lovely weight of fruit on the palate and is really what I would be looking for when you want to drink, dare I say it, inexpensive white Burgundy.
On the reds, 2005 Chateau Cugat is classic Cabernet Sauvignon from the great 2005 vintage and really good now. Red Burgundy is a difficult one but once you’ve had a good bottle there is no turning back, the 2004 Gevrey Chambertin from Serafin was very good. Sadly the first bottle was corked but the second was fresh and vibrant but just starting to get those secondary flavours. My final favourite had to be the delicious 2007 Rosso Montipulciano Castello di Argiano Sesti it really is so good, silky soft with the most fantastic red fruits and slips down far too easily!