This week I'ave been mostly drinking...

Dianne Barrie, Company Administrator

This week I decided to take a trip to the South of France…okay, this was only in a metaphorical sense through my wine choice for the week, but it worked in as much as this wine made me hark back to the wonderful sunny days of summer. Indeed, there was a beautiful lightness to this wine – it wasn’t over-powered with heavy tannins in any way, in fact it had an almost Pinot Noir quality to it. Having said that, this red also made me think ahead to the festive season, in part due to the lovely berry flavours present, and in part due to the slightly warming spiciness of Shiraz which was perfectly balanced with the Viognier in this blend. What is this wine I am referring to I heard you ask?! Well, it was the rather splendid Les Templiers Shiraz Viognier 2009. And, what an extremely versatile wine this is! Great to enjoy with food, such as Spaghetti Bolognese, or simply to enjoy on its own, and at only £8.21 inc VAT per bottle I’d say this wine is a hard one to beat.

Russell Wallace, General Manager

This week I ‘ave been mostly drinking… an old friend once again!  It has been several weeks now since our last stocks of the wonderful Traditional method Pink Sparkling Reserve de Sours ran out leaving me high and dry without my lifelong companion.  Realising that the jolly, festive season was now but a stones through away (my wife has all but finished her seasonal shopping!) I went straight into panic mode and got some fresh stocks in place for myself, as much as anything else.  We now have two delightful pink sparklers to enjoy from Chateau de Sours, we have the regular long time friend the pink capsule and labelled with minimal ageing on the lees this Cabernet/Merlot blend is in fact a single vintage but a younger wine fresh and vibrant with not much in the way of over-fussiness.  The new wine is the GoldLabelled 2009 single vintage wine.  Now at this point to those of you that know this wine very well here is where a little confusion sets in, you see the normal Reserve de Sours is and has always been a single vintage too.  The difference being that the old wine was never produced or marketed as such that it was a single vintage, instead the vintage specific terroir characteristics were allowed to speak through.  So you can imagine my hesitation when it came to trying the “new” single vintage.  On closer inspection this is a different wine, the same blend but from an older vintage where the finest 10,000 bottles where left to age for a little longer (36 months in total) on the lees leaving a fuller fruitier wine to evolve.  At first taste this wine just burst in my mouth so full of flavour and any anxieties I had were quashed.  This is a stunning pairing of wines.  The old faithful reserve de Sours to me has that crisp canapé style to it to get an evening off to a swing, whilst the new single vintage entry at just a couple of quid extra has a fuller flavour but one with a slightly fruitier/sweeter feel to it so I reckon this would make a great dessert/digestif drink.

If you have not enjoyed them before then honestly you must pick up a bottle.  Yes this is one of those wines you can pick up elsewhere like M&S but please do remember they will liberate you of £20 for a bottle of the standard Reserve de Sours, at Exel Wines this is just over £12 per bottle.  Even the single vintage wine, at Exel Wines, comes in well below M&S’s £20 with our price tag being just under £16.  The single vintage is however a strictly limited edition wine and one that you are not likely to find many places other than at your local Exel Wines website (or indeed in our shop)!