Piedmont

…and Joanna Simon’s wine of the YEAR is:

By on 17/12/2013

Andrea Oberto, Barolo Vigneto Albarella 2009
Barolo (Piedmont), Italy, Dry Red (Cork), 14.5% abv
The tasting of the year for me was a Quinta do Noval and Noval Nacional port tasting, the same six vintages of each, but as retail stockists are as common as hens’ teeth I’ve chosen this fragrant, expressive Barolo instead:

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Lea and Sandeman Independent Wine Merchants - 2013 Christmas

Christmas Tasting in Chiswick

By on 10/12/2013

The theme, such as you need a theme beyond ‘Christmas’, was to put a few less likely wines in front of people, to test and tantalize the taste-buds. With that in mind, we left out the traditional option of Champagne, and kicked off with the very splendid Gusbourne 2008 Brut Reserve from the Garden of England, a zippy but textured fizz that works really well as an aperitif.

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