From the category archives:

France

Lussac St.Emilion, affordable Bordeaux

February 3, 2012
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I have always liked the wines of Bordeaux: from the top growths to Bordeaux Superiore and everything in-between. What people often overlook is that it’s not just the first growths that produce amazing wines. Bordeaux is a place where you can find all sorts of good red wine at affordable prices, as long as you’re [...]

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Marks & Spencer Maison du Tastelune 2009 Vin de Bourgogne Pinot Noir

January 23, 2012
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The word “Bourgogne” appears thrice on the almost-impressively dull label of this Marks & Spencer red. What school of logic requires three instances of a word the target audience (even at their most wine-savvy) simply don’t use, I couldn’t say. We have a word for wines like this in English: Burgundy. Marketing a French wine [...]

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Domaine de la Garenne – Bandol Wine

December 8, 2011
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Bandol is not such a well known wine appellation but they do produce some cracking wines which are perfect for mealtime drinking. I was recently introduced to online French wine  specialist retailer Pierre Hourlier Wines. A small wine importer who source wines from smaller producers, they are constantly on the lookout for excellent quality and [...]

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Louis Jadot 2010 Beaujolais Village

November 11, 2011
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Louis Jadot is a grower and  negotiant from Burgundy. What that means is that not only have their own vineyards but they also source their wines from various vineyards within Burgundy and blend them before selling them on to the market. Louis Jadot was founded in 1859 and was handed down through the generations until [...]

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Trah Lah Lah 2008 by O’Vineyards

November 7, 2011
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I first came across Ryan O’Connell, the young winemaker of O’Vineyards, at a European winebloggers conference a year or so ago and was immediately charmed by this baby-faced winemaker. Ryan was born and raised in America but his mother is French Vietnamese and as so often happens with Caucasian and Asian mixed race kids, Ryan definitely [...]

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Les Dauphins Côtes du Rhône Reserve 2010

November 2, 2011
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Now here’s a successful rebrand if ever I saw one. The recognisable but possibly a little stuffy Cellier des Dauphins have been providing Côtes du Rhône to supermarket shelves for as long as I’ve been wine shopping, and the slightly square looking bottles were just memorable enough to become a repeat purchase now and again a [...]

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Château Le Boscq 2003

October 31, 2011
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I am not ashamed to admit that I bought this wine because of chicken nuggets. We had run out a few Sundays ago so the wife packed me off to buy some and I couldn’t face going to one of the local big supermarkets for just one thing. I ended up in my local Co-op [...]

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Marks & Spencer Domaine Bunan Bandol 2006

October 28, 2011
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This tasty French red is from Bandol – a pretty little (by which I mean quite small, but it’s no doubt picturesque) AOC in the Provence region of France: a region from which I pretty rarely choose to buy wines. (Caveat: this is due to ignorance, not taste.) I bought the M&S offering from Bandol [...]

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St. Emilion – a Wine Lover’s Paradise

October 21, 2011
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There are not many places in the world where you can truly bask in the history of wine and feel the romance surrounding everything to do with it that is so often missing in the modern world. To truly understand where wine has come from – how it is grown, cultivated and harvested, how it is [...]

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Domaine Marie Faugeres 2010

September 30, 2011
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I like the label on this one. Modern, minimal, but still with a touch of art, of wildness. Its understated nature suits what’s inside quite well. It’s from the Faugeres region of the south of France, which only got its own appellation in 1982 but has by many accounts been producing excellent – and good [...]

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L’azerolle 2009, Old Vine Carignan From the Minervois

September 23, 2011
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I was in the new Battersea Market not long ago and came upon the folks from DVine Wine who had set up a small stall in the market. DVine are a great bunch of people and are doing their best to bring organic and biodynamic wines to the public’s attention. Greg and Sara of DVine [...]

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