Watervale Clare Valley Riesling 2005 - Fantastic Aussie grape juice

This is a superb Aussie Riesling by Jeffrey Grosset in South Australia.

The Clare Valley, where it's made, looks pretty stunning from this collection of google images.

I'd be the first to admit to not knowing much about Australian wines, particularly the whites. Being so close to France here in London it's easy to be snobby about New World wines, particularly the whites.

That's why I'm mentioning this one on the blog. It's a superb example of what is, for me, an unusual white.

I've had a fair few Rieslings from Europe and they can be, as you will likely know, very varied. The range is possibly greater than any (or at least many) other grape(s).

Some can be, for me, a little too sickly sweet. That's personal given that the older I get, the less I like sugar in any form, even now in wine. Funny how your palate changes.

This was a gorgeous dry Riesling. What I found extraordinary about it was that you taste it in phases. I counted about five 'things' happening across a mouthful.

I've not encountered that quite so distinctly in any other wine I've had, which is why I must taste it again to check.

Here's what the maker has to say about it.

Jancis Robinson gives it 18.5 from 20 and said: "Intensely introvert and mineral. Very pure yet full bodied...Very persistent and fine. Racy and pure." I am not entirely sure what all that means, but this stuff is lovely. It seems to be hard to find, but worth the search if successful. 

Beau-Site 2005 Saint-Estephe: A decent mid-range drop

One of the many great things about living in London is the vastly improved restaurant scene.

A particular favourite of mine is the Hawksmoor steak restaurant in Spitalfields, near Liverpool Street Station.

It's the original of a fast expanding chain of five, and does excellent steaks.

Importantly, the folks who run it offer £5 corkage on a Monday evening.

And so I've spent a fair few Mondays enjoying great food and wine, at a much lower cost than usual, thanks to them.

Last night, for the first Monday night in a while, we sampled Beau-Site 2005, a Chateau I must admit I had not heard of.

As you can see from Wine-Searcher.com prices vary. We paid about £35 for our bottle, which is about the top end of what it's worth, I'd say.

If you sample some, it needs serious decanting. We had it open for half an hour but on first taste it was bitter and overly mineral. I almost declared it undrinkable. After another thirty minutes or so it opened up beautifully and went well with rare streak, as dry reds always do.

For most who sample it, it rates in the 80's and I'd say that's fair. It's still too young to drink really, but of course, the problem with storing lower/mid range wines like this are cost and space.

It's not amazing value at over £30. But if you paid under £30, you'd feel you'd done well.

Berry Brothers say the estate is good value and drinks well early. The 2010 looks like it will be worth sampling.

Bel Air Lagrave 1989: Bargain vintage drinking

I picked up an end of line bottle of this, the 1989 Bel Air Lagrave, back in April in Vienna.

I paid about 20-30 Euros for it. No more.

For the money it's really excellent value if you like aged Bordeaux wines from the Graves.

I thought it was drinking perfectly. Plenty of spicy black fruit left, (typical Graves in that regard) but with that forest floor / mushroom ageing thing, that adds so much to aged Bordeaux wines.

The Telegraph website here in the UK has it for £34 a bottle.

I'm not sure you can get a 23 year old Bordeaux wine that's drinking so well at a better price, even in the inflated UK market.

If there is, I'd love to hear about it. I just bought a magnum of Cantelys 1999 for about £45. That might qualify but it's so much younger the comparison wouldn't be fair I suppose. I will report back on the Cantelys in due course.

It's hard to keep up with who is still in, or out of, the Cru Bourgeois classification these days/each year. But this is a little gem that deserves to be there if the other years are anything like this one.