Another great value from this winery. Light golden in color. The nose has lychees and a bit of minerals. Medium bodied, slightly viscous. Moderate acidity. This is slightly sweet on the palate. A bit of citrus. Nice finish. This drinks easily on its own and works with lighter or medium bodied foods. Drink now, this was probably a bit fresher a year or so ago.
Cline makes some of the best values in wine. This is certainly one of them. Pale salmon pink in color. The nose has nice watermelons and a bit of cranberries. Light bodied. Silky texture. Good acidity. The palate is more strawberries with cranberries. Moderate finish. This is refreshing. it will go well with lighter foods and drinks fine on its own. It should be consumed in the next year.
This is 70% Chardonnay and 30% Pinot Noir. It was disgorged on October, 2017. Light golden in color, clear and bright. The nose has minerals, slight lemons and a bit of spice/oak. On the palate, this has good acidity. It has a lemon hard candy quality to it, that I find enjoyable. Lots of energy. Long finish. This should drink well for the next five to seven years. It will pair well with most foods.
Graham Beck makes some great values in sparkling wines in South Africa. This was the best one yet I have tasted. It is a blend of 77% Pinot Noir and 23% Chardonnay. The zero refers to the fact that no sugar is added to the wine to help a secondary fermentation. Copper/gold in color. The nose has some toast, and citrus/lemons. On the palate, this is very clean. Nice acidity. Lemony with underlying minerality. Long finish. This is drinking well now and should continue for another seven to ten years. It will go with just about any foods. And, it is a great value.
An interesting wine. Tasted as part of a sparkling wine tasting, this stood out as being quite different. This is a proprietary blend of white grapes, I would be curious as to what. Silvery gold in color. The nose is big and toasty. Nice salinity and minerals. On the palate, this is slightly sweet and slightly flabby. It is more about minerality than fruit. Easy to drink. Long and persistent finish. This seems to be made for near term drinking. It will work with lighter foods.
Always nice to revisit this wine. This time it was in a tasting with other sparkling wines and tasted blind. It started out quite tight and took some time to open up. It continued to open up all night long. it was the groups wine of the night though not mine. Light golden in color. The nose has a lemon/citrus quality to it along with minerals and slight ginger. On the palate, the citrus carries thru with nice minerality. Good acidity. This is just starting to enter its peak period and should be good for another decade or more before slowly starting to fade. With the (better) 2008
This is 100% Chardonnay from a vineyard originally planted in 1951. Les Avats means "All Good" in old French. Silvery gold in color. The nose has minerals and lemons with slight yeast notes. On the palate, this is slightly sweet. Not a lot of effervescence. It seems slightly oxidized. I don't know if that is the house style or an issue with this bottle. Either way, it is not to a level of being a problem. The lemon/citrus carries thru to the palate. Nice finish. This probably should be consumed in the next five years if this bottle is representative. It will go with most foods.
This ubiquitous Champagne seems to be everywhere and sometimes, that means it can be easy to look past it (for wine geeks anyway). It is quite good. This is actually a special bottling to celebrate their 150th anniversary of their founding in 1869. It is a blend of equal parts Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier (30% to 40%) and the rest Chardonnay. Golden in color with a bit of copper. The nose is nice with toast, apple and slight ginger. On the palate, this has nice full carbonation. Good acidity. Slight tannins. Pears and apples. Long finish. This is drinking well now and should cont
This is a 50/50 blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. It is 50% from 2013, and 50% from 2014 and 2015. It was disgorged on 12/2017. Silvery gold in color. The nose is interesting with toast, pear, slight dried floral notes but also this interesting chocolate quality. It took some time to open on the palate and continued to improve all evening. Notes of pears with good acidity. A slightly oily texture. A bit clipped initially on the finish, that worked itself out with air. This needs some time to develop. It certainly should improve with a couple of years of good cellaring. Then, it
Golden in color, slightly copper. On the nose this has a bit of toast, slight ginger, and a bit of straw/yeast. On the palate, there is some citrus. Some strawberries. Just a touch of residual sugar. This seems to be showing some age and probably should be consumed in the next couple of years. It will work well with medium or lighter foods, especially sea foods.
