Staff Recommendations
Adobe Sauvignon Blanc 2012 – Emiliana Orgánico (Chile)
£10.50
Fantastic wine at a bargain price. This crisp, flavoursome white has long been a favourite for Vintage Roots’ staff and customers. It’s a personal favourite of mine, and happily, one of the most popular white wine styles in the UK right now. It’s deliciously clean, zesty, lime-scented flavours happily match grilled chicken, salads, lighter meals and are great even without food as a rejuvenating aperitif. I like to keep several in the fridge and one in the rack over the festive period – it always seems perfect whatever the occasion, and everyone I give a glass to loves it. Come Christmas eve, I’ll be opening a good few bottles of this for friends and family to kick start the festivities.
Don’t just take my word for the quality on show here, this wine took home a Gold Medal and the Best White Wine Award from Chile’s most prestigious wine competition, the Concourse Catad’Or, and Emiliana were named as Green Winery of the Year by Drinks Business Magazine for their continued dedication to a project and a philosophy of organic, biodynamic, and sustainable winemaking that began over a decade ago. Cheers!
Domaine Bersan – Bourgogne D’Auxerre Chardonnay 2010 (France)
This is a classic example of a wine ‘punching above it’s weight’. You would be hard pressed to find a better white Burgundy of this quality. On converting to organic viticulture Mr Bersan recently commented ‘when you fertilise, the vines become lazy and you end up producing wines from the fruit, not the soil’ Now I’m not saying your wine comes with gravel or silt in the bottle, it’s more about the flavour coming up from the soil (via the roots!) to the grape. What the French call ‘terroir’. This gives all those extra nuances of mineral flavour and an extra intensity of fruit impact.
This great 2010 vintage is richly creamy in texture with pineapple, almond and melon flavours. It’s supple, silky feel up front will delight, and it’s elegant minerality and crisp acidity in the finish will keep you refreshed. Perfect with fish, lighter meals or on it’s own, I’ll definitely be enjoying some of this over the festive period.
Coyam – Emiliana Orgánico 2007 (Chile)
£21.00
A true legend of a wine that never fails to impress and my favourite pick for those long winter nights in front of the log fire. Come to think of it I don’t have a log fire place but turning up the heating does sometimes have the desired affect (carbon emissions excluded of course). Coyam is the word for “Oak Forest” used by the original inhabitants of Chile: The Mapuches. Ancient oaks surround the Emiliana vineyards in the Colchagua Valley, where the biodynamically certified vines flourish. A cacophony of carefully selected Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenére, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Mourvedre grapes combine sweetly with a touch of vanilla scented oak that echoes its harmony with nature.
Just close your eyes and think of a classic Bordeaux, but with a little more exhuberance. It’s certainly a wine that I will be indulging in with my family over the Christmas period. Absolutely the right match for a roast or if you are treating yourself to a fillet steak then just sublime. Who needs a log fire anyway!
90 Points from The Wine Advocate.
Rioja Livor – Vina Ijalba 2011 (Spain)
£11.75
When it comes to giving some personal thoughts to a wine, one generally goes for something slightly more expensive, complex and unusual…..but not this time …
I wanted to recommend this young Rioja from the 2011 vintage as it’s so simply delicious. It is not laced with oaky flavours or a big robust palate, but it is a generous wine, giving a mouthful of soft and juicy blueberry and raspberry fruit, with no dry or astringent edges.
It is great ‘easy pick’ when an unexpected visitor pops by or with your mid week bowl of pasta or even with Christmas leftovers, and importantly, keeping in tune with these times, it wont break the bank! Therefore it is one of those bottles to have plenty of in the rack, for whenever you ‘fancy a glass’
It comes from an innovative winery, Vina Ijalba in Rioja who were the first estate in the region to ‘go organic’ back in 1994, growing their vines on abandoned open cast mines.
A major talking point about this wine (and all wines from Ijalba) seems to be the label, which one either likes, or hates, but which ever way, the wine in the bottle will bring a smile, and your hand will stretch out for another glass !!