Author: Obe1kanobe

Lindy and I back in Lyon after 30 years!

In a Northern Rhone Valley cellar dating back to 1700s with the Cote Rotie in oak barrels from the forest commissioned by Napoleon for his ships. Up on the Cote Blonde hills (next to the Cote Brune). Matthieu, the wine maker is rugby man and is heading to Dublin to watch All Blacks Ireland.

Excellent Syrah with a small proportion of Voigner (white wine). 

Also, we enjoyed the 100 per cent Syrah from the region. 

Many friends around the world have approached me for some red wine suggestions for the forthcoming Rugby World Cup in France. One thing I learned from living and playing rugby in France for a year is I never met a Frenchman that paid too much for a good bottle of red!

In my travels, my rule of thumb has been to hunt and pay no more than USD20/AUD30 (€18) for a good wine. Also, no more than USD40/AUD60 (€36) in a casual dining establishment in France.

I usually also go for the AOP or AOC standard which is on the bottle in France.

The lower level standards of IGP or Vin de Pays or Vin de France are still ok in most cases with some emerging wine makers breaking the traditions in say the Southern Rhone.

A recommendation is to rely on local knowledge for any say non-Appellation classified wines.

The label will have AOP or AOC, followed by the winery, wine name, region, vintage and owners. So look for the words:

Appellation d’origin Protégée
Or
Appellation d’origin Contrôlée
Or
Appellation listed with “name of wine region”

Here are 7 main wine regions and some recommendations:

1. Loire Valley

I just love Cabernet Franc which is medium bodied and locally called Chinon. It is classic Loire Valley red fruit and herbaceous (dried herbs) and great value for the quality.

A Loire Valley Chinon is usually my go to French wine as best value for quality. My go to Loire regions are Anjou, Saumur, and Touraine so look for these on the label.

Oh, if you go to any funky wine bars ask for a Pinneau D’Aunis as a rare Loire Valley grape variety with hints of bubble gum and white pepper. The natural wine thing and this rare grape is for a separate discussion…..

2. Burgundy

Pinot Noir is usually light to medium-bodied, with licks of red berries like raspberry & cranberry and hints of potpourri like rose petals & Tasmanian bush spice.

You should be able to get a good entry level Burgundy at a good price. Such a wine will be similar to a cheaper Yarra Valley or Mornington Peninsula Pinot Noir, which are totally fine.

3. Beaujolais

This Gamay of Beaujolais is a lighter version of a Pinot Noir with red fruit, violet and no bush spice.

Note, as we go from Northern France further south, it is all fuller bodied reds…..so here we go….

4. Rhone Valley

4.1 Northern Rhone

The Northern Rhone region makes up only about 10% of the total Rhone Valley wine-growing area. 

Northern Rhone produces the classic Syrah (same as Shiraz) and Voigner blend.

Note, Voigner is a white wine and softens the black fruit and lashes of olive and pepper due to this. Less than 10 per cent Voigner is the rule.

Out of all the grape varieties, a Cote Roti Syrah Voigner blend will be hard to find under AUD60. Maybe hunt for one at a supermarket and consume with a baguette, cheese and wild boar saucisson on the banks of a village river just for the experience.

There are less expensive and 100% Syrah wines as well and the best Appellations to look out for are Crozes Hermitage, Hermitage and Saint Joseph.

4.2 Southern Rhone

Southern Rhone is classic home of GSM where red and black fruit combine. Raspberry dominated Grenache combines with the lesser blackberry Syrah and Mourvèdre.

You can’t go wrong with a Chateauneuf du Pape, the original GSM! This style was copied by our South Australian wine makers.

Note the Cote du Rhone appellations are a level lower but no different to a cheaper South Australian red wine. They are usually straight Grenache or Syrah or blended.

5. Bordeaux

5.1 Left Bank

The Left Bank Cabernet Sauvignon dominated blend displays blackcurrants and capsicum and Chinese 5 spice.

The Left Bank has the Medoc and Haut Medoc regions and appellations of St-Estèphe, Pauillac, St-Julien, Margaux, Pessac-Léognan and Graves.

5.2 Right Bank

The Right Bank is a Merlot dominated blend so black cherry, tobacco, chocolate (I am yet to taste chocolate in a wine but the experts say this!).

The Right Bank has St Emilion, Pomeral as well as Fronsac, Canon Fronsac, Lalande de Pomerol, Cotes de Blaye, Cotes de Bourg, Cotes de Bordeaux and Castillon Cotes de Bordeaux.

Both the Cabernet Sauvignon dominated or Merlot dominated wines (depending on the left or right bank) are blended with each other, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Petit Verdot and others…..

You will see all the big names of Bordeaux wine and most will be fine as their lower priced ones are similar quality to a cheaper Western Australian red blend (where Western Australian wine pioneers in the 1970s copied the Bordeaux style wines).

6. South West France

This is the home of Malbec where a Cohors Malbec usually displays red plum blackberry and vanilla.

People think Argentina is the home of Malbec but it is Cohors.

Try the Cohors Malbec as they are very good value for the quality.

7. Languedoc Roussillon

This is the largest wine region in the world and produces about one third of France’s wine. Nearly every wine chain in the world has plenty of French wine from here.

These are Syrah dominated blends so the opposite to the Southern Rhone. These have black dominance over red as opposed to red over black.

The Syrah or Shiraz is blended with Grenache, Syrah, Carignan, Mourvèdre and Cinsault.

Go for the Corbieres AOC as this is one of the better appellations.

For whites, you can’t go wrong with;

Loire Valley; Sancerre which is a Sauvignon Blanc

Burgundy; Chablis which is a Chardonnay and many other Burgundies and ones that come to mind for selection are; Macon, Pouilly Fuisse, Cote de Beaune, Puligny Montrachet and Chassagne Montrachet….

Bordeaux; Bordeaux Blanc they are called which is same as a Western Australian Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon blend.

Johnny Hedgehog Aland, called over from the Northern Territory and we had a celebration of old rugby mates with the top reds for the year. Anthony Merlo, Lincoln Gibbons and Rupert McCall joined.

Why are we so into Pinot we asked ourselves? But this year was more about my top grape varieties in no order; Pinot Noir, Sangiovese, Nerello Mascalese and Negroamaro.

We started off with Mornington Peninsular Victoria Pinot Noir, Great Southern Western Australia Pinot Noir but then came an A to Z Wineworks Oregon USA Pinot Noir as the pick of the Pinots. We won’t mention the Japanese Pinot as I later wrote to the multinational company in Japan expressing my disappointment. And we finished the night with a Yarra Valley Pinot Noir.

Anthony Merlo’s arrival coincided with the rollout of the Banfi Black Rooster, Chianti Classico Riserva. Not only do we love the black rooster story and label of authenticity but the cherry and hints of tomato & oregano make this a favourite.

But is was the Etna Rosso and Nerello Mascalese grape variety by Pietradolce that raised eyebrows. It was the dried cherry and hints of orange rind.

We then celebrated our mateship with a San Marzano Negroamaro from Puglia as the black fruit with dry herbs was awesome with the giant chicken gourmet pizza on Uber Eats!

All the best for a happy end of the year and let’s hope we find some beautiful reds to share together in 2023.

I finished the year with a wonderful lunch in my wine cellar with Paddy McGrath, Rupert McCall and Mark Braithwaite.

This was a Meat & Malbec lunch to celebrate Paddy, Rupert and Mark’s rugby premiership win.

In no order and minimalistic menu was as follows;

Wagyu rump slow baked with Tasmanian pepper

Lamb slow baked with Italian Tuscan herbs and fresh home grown New Farm Rosemary

Roast potatoes

Cherry tomato gravy jus with a splash of high altitude premium Malbec

No salad or vegetables!

Italian and French cheese with orange and whiskey paste

Baguette and French butter

I selected my 6 best wines for 2021 for this lunch.

We started with the very rare 1890 Pinneau D’Aunis from a few plots of dirt within the Loire Valley, Rupert, for the rugby World Cup, I’m going to this area of the Loire Valley and will watch the games on TV at the local bar!

Then we had the Italian equivalent, the very rare Freisa from Piedmont in Northen Italy.

Then the mighty Malbecs from its ancestral home, Cohors and to the heights of Mendoza in Argentina where Malbec rules like you blokes as the best coaches Brothers has had for a long time.

We then finished with Tenuta Delle Terre Nere from Mt Etna in Sicily. A combination of Nerello Mascalese with a little Nerello Cappuccio.

Oh we then had to go for a Sardinian Granache which is known as Cannonau!

Overall sampled wines from over 30 countries and over 100 grape varieties.

The year started with a one and only business trip to Barcelona, Spain (prior to the global Pandemic lockdown) where local celebrity Gorak el Gorilla advised on some splendid Priorat wines.

Post Spain, was confined to my district of Little Italy here in Brisbane (after over a decade in Hong Kong and short stint in Singapore) and naturally had a bias towards Italy from my daily visits to the New Farm Deli.

Top 10 for 2020 in no particular order.

Gorak’s Priorat recommendations were simply amazing as the *1 Ferrer Bobet came up trumps, a Carignan, Garnacha, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon blend enjoyed with Doc Morrison with a slow baked loin of lamb smothered in fresh rosemary.

Not far behind was a *2 Abadal 3.9 Vi de Finca Priorat that also achieved a ranking as one of Spain’s best wines. The local wine guide described it as “exquisite, adorable and impressive. It is enveloped in a sense of acidity that fills it with freshness, life and love. Then it comes alive and reveals its underlying sweetness and its striking flavour”. Also, thanks to the Brisbane customs officer that waived any customs duty on my half dozen bottles of Priorat!

My top 4 Italian ones hail from the New Farm Deli and were often enjoyed with the toasted Le Grande sandwich or Moreton Bay Bug risotto *3 Campo Al Noce Miterre Bolgheri Tuscan blend, *4 Tenuta Delle Terre Nere Etna Rosso, *5 Riverdito Verduno Pelaverga of Northern Italy and *6 Spider Bill Nebbiolo from Adelaide Hills.

The postponed Tour de France in August and September was 21 evenings glued to national broadcaster SBS travelling from Nice to Paris sampling many varieties of French wine. My best picks were my old rugby playing region of Languedoc Roussillon where I had many of a *7 Cara de Caraguilhes blend of Carignan, Grenache, Mourvèdre and Syrah.

Also, the *8 Famille Jouffreau Hermann Clos de Gamot Malbec from the original home of Malbec, Cohors was a crowd favourite albeit being myself and my Samsung smart TV taking in the wonderful geography and history lessons for most of the 21 nights!

The *9 Radford Dale Stellenbosch Pinotage was my go to Stellenbosch red in 2020. After waking up from my colonoscopy at the Royal Brisbane Hospital, the African doctor from Cape Town said she was most pleased that I told her where to find a good Pinotage in Brisbane at a good price! What a relief that was!!

Finally in the last week of the year, I reached into the cellar for one of *10 Oliver Taranga’s unique varietal blends. The Brioni’s blend that comprises of Touriga Nacional, Syrah and Mataro.

For more specific details of these wines like year, tasting notes and the like, don’t hesitate to call over for a BBQ or webex/zoom call to chew the fat, have a cheeky glass of red and go deeper into the love of wine as “life is too short to drink bad wine” and “you do not need to spend much to drink really good wine”.

Le OB