A taste of Eden

We finally came to the end of a long road last week when our first shipment of Eden Project branded wines finally arrived. The project has been in the pipeline for well over a year as the Eden and Wine in Cornwall teams sought to source, package and deliver to very strict criteria.

The three wines have been sourced by us from the Languedoc region of Southern France and are made by Olivier and Floriane Azan at Domaine Le P’tit Roubie. These vineyards have been organically cultivated since 1985 and are managed in a very ecologically sympathetic manner.

The range consist of a light, cranberry fresh red (Cabernet Sauvignon, Carignan, Merlot), a dry herb infused rosé (Cabernet Sauvignon) and a delicious, acacia scented Picpoul Terret.

The wines are available from The Eden Project itself and Wine in Cornwall in their shop and warehouse in Penryn.

Nigel a 'Source' of valuable information

It seems that the blog waves are not enough to contain the burgeoning creative talent that is Wine in Cornwall. This Friday afternoon at 3.30pm the radio waves will be invaded by Nigel who will be making a guest appearance on the Tash Berk Show on Source FM, Falmouth and Penryn’s Community radio station. Stand by for total gibberish and loads of wine related laughs unheard of on the air since Oz Clarke parted company with Jilly Goolden. Source FM for anybody who wants to listen is at 96.1 on your FM waveband.

On being PC in the Wine Trade!!

There is a certain “sniffiness” to the winetrade, I guess it’s probably like that in a lot of callings. We get very introspective and consider ourselves arbiters of what the great unwashed should be drinking rather than what they want to drink a lot of the time. We would love to see everybody trying searingly dry Rieslings, undiscovered gems from Portugal and Austria and cranky Italian reds but at the end of the day, the market drinks what the market wants and that’s the end of it. Yes, we can coax and encourage, nudge and suggest and any self respecting independent wine merchant who doesn’t get people at least trying wines from outside of their comfort zones is failing miserably.

We have had great fun getting people to try and enjoy Carignan, Verdejo, Primitivo and others but our recent, albeit reluctant, decision to carry the red McGuigan range of “pop” reds has seen a whole new set of customers come into our shop. And who are we to get sniffy about that!?

Nigel

Knowing Spirits

I don’t really do spirits – it’s a sort of no go area in my mind. With none of the constraints that nature put in place on how good a wine is and what it tastes of then I can’t really see the point.

That said I was invited by Gireau to attend a tasting at Henly’s Bar and restaurant in Helston recently and you know what?  There is glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel…. I start to get it, there’s way to go yet but you never know. Whisky is tricky as I hate the taste but their Black Stamp Scotch is really creamy and rounded, the Gireau Premium French Gin and London Calling Gin are assertive and clean however the revelation to me was the Gireau Premium French Vodka. Coaxed into trying it by head Gireau honcho, Andrew Hay, I was amazed how pure and soft  it was, I really didn’t understand before how smooth a spirit could be when splashed over the rocks and drunk neat. Mind they have to distil it four times to achieve this degree of quality.

Gireau spirits and other non- wine tipples are available at out store in Penryn.

Nigel

Summer Tasting in St Ives

A splendid tasting on a beautiful evening (remember them?) at Brush End in Lelant last week for the newly formed St Ives Bay Rotary Club. The theme was (a tad optimistically perhaps) “Summer Wines” for which we showed a flight of one Prosecco, four white, one rosé and three red.

The whites kicked off with the mellow but dry Alsace Pinot Blanc from Wunsch et Mann, then the flinty, lime tinged Simmonet Febvre Chablis, the uber-assertive Chamelin Verdejo and finishing with the predictably popular, exotically enticing St Helena Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough.

        

Of the reds The Pirie South Pinot Noir from Tasmania was a bit closed and disappointed, the fulsome La Forge Carignan was on good form with juicy elderberry fruit and character however the real star of the show was the hauntingly spicy, leather bound, blood-rich Mencia from Casar de Burbia in Northern Spain  - fabulous!

Oh yes, and the rosé - once again Domaine Pique Roque from Provence, heather dry and refreshing.

Nigel  

Spanish Rose

Got stuck into a bottle (well several actually) of the Campo Lasierpe Garnacha Rosado at the weekend. It was my younger daughter’s 21^st and I wanted a case of something cheap and cheerful for the expected flood of young revellers to wet their whistles with. As it turned out it was almost too good for that lot – crisp, dry and fruity, rosehip pink and really nicely balanced, all round a jolly good little summer refresher. With a bottle price of just £4.99 you’d be mad not to.

Just off now to do a tasting for the St Ives Bay Rotary Club, more of that later.

Nigel