alliance wine - beyond boundaries

News, Awards and Reviews

July 2009

What's new with you?

We hope you are having a sizzling Summer - no matter the weather where you are!

Help us to share information, and communicate with you on things you will find useful or interesting. We are working towards tailoring our communications to groups of contacts so that the news you receive is more relevant to you.  However, in the meantime, get in touch with any comments or suggestions on the type of information you would like to receive, or indeed any stories you wish to share on what is going on in your world. 

Feedback to Alliance Wine 

Forthcoming Events and TastingsAlliance Wine logo

 

During the next few months Alliance Wine is attending many events and tastings and hosting a few ourselves.  A note of a few key events is below and nearer each event we will communicate further information as necessary.  If you want further details now please click here and advise which event you are interested in.

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

We are also lucky to be hosting a number of our key suppliers for visits in the second half of the year.  Further details are available by talking to your local Sales Manager.

New Wave Spanish Wine Awards 2009

In April we worked with suppliers to submit various wines for the New Wave Spanish Wine Awards 2009.

The awarded wine results were released on 3 July in OLN and can be viewed at the link below.

http://www.offlicencenews.co.uk/downloads/OLN_NWSWA.pdf New Wave Spanish Wine Awards

Alliance wines awarded are:

  • Ermita Veracruz Verdejo 2008, Bodegas Veracruz, Rueda
  • Flor de La Sierpe Garnacha Viñas Viejas 2007, Vinos & Viñedos Dominio Lasierpe, Navarra
  • Luis Cañas Gran Reserva 2001, Bodegas Luis Cañas, Rioja

What's rated and reviewed this month?

We like to bring you a note of some of the key ratings each month.  See some references to our wines, for July, below.

Riding high - Two Hands Wines Tanzer ratings

Two Hands logo

In July 2009, Tanzer rated 23 Two Hands wines as 90 points or higher.

Click here to see the full list of reviews and scores

A few highlights are:

2009 Two Hands Moscato Brilliant Disguise, Barossa Valley

Light straw.  Nectarine, orange, peach, and candied ginger aromsa are less exotic and floral, and more mineral, than most moscatos.  Smooth and lightly spicy, with a gentle sweetness and good clarity to the ginger, pear and tangerine flavours.  Finishes with a lingering hint of sweet melon. (90)

2008 Two Hand Shiraz Gnarly Dudes, Barossa Valley

Glass staining ruby.  Crushed blackberry, blueberry, spicecake and licorice on the slightly medicinal nose.  Dense, juicy and sweet, with impressively fresh black raspberry and cherry cola flavour.  Finishes very long, with silky tannins and impressive mineral snap. (91)

2007 Two Hands Shiraz Lily's Garden, McLaren Vale

Saturated ruby.  Intensely floral, high pitched aromas of black raspberry, mulberry, violet and rose, lifted by a pungent peppery quality.  Spicy dark berry flavours again flesh and sweetness with air, picking up a smoky mineral quality and a note of candied violet.  Finishes juicy and very long, with berry skin and floral notes. (92)

Barossa Valley Shiraz et al.

Campbell Mattinson also commented in Barossa Valley Shiraz et al. on the recently released Two Hands Angels’ Share and Gnarly Dudes 2008 vintages:

Two Hands 'Gnarly Dudes' ShirazTwo Hands Gnarly Dudes Shiraz 2008

The Two Hands wines now have new bottles with the company’s logo moulded into the bottle, à la producers of the Rhone.

Full of sweet, toasty, burnt sugar fragrance - toffee and coffee - leading to a thick, sweet, jammy palate with plenty of punch. This is a thick, rich, loosely-controlled wine of immediate hedonistic appeal. It’s aTwo Hands 'Angels' Share' Shiraz bit raisined and overdone but it’s attractive, for sure. (91)

Two Hands Angels’ Share Shiraz 2008

Has this had an apostrophe added in recent times or have I just missed it in the past? In any case, three cheers for its existence. Now for the wine …Okay so we’re talking ripe, sweet-fruited shiraz. With quite a hit of chocolatey flavour. So if you’re not into this classic ‘mid palate of Australia’ style, then turn away now. For the rest of us, this is just about the perfect early drinking Aussie shiraz. It’s pure, not terribly overdone or overly thick, finely tannic and smooth as hell. Blackberries and coffee and chocolate. Excellent juiciness. Excellent wine. (92)

 

 

Wine Spectator awarded Two Hands Ares Barossa Valley-McLaren Vale 2007 95 points and described it as:

'Red Big and brawny, with a dense core of fresh blueberry, currant, raspberry and dusky spice flavors that sprawl over a layer of prickly tannins. It all melds together on the finish, shooting off sparks of espresso and licorice. The afterburners kick in and this sails off into a long coda. Needs time to soften'.

New York State of mind for Domäne Wachau

Eric Asimov in the New York Times recommended Domäne Wachau Grüner Veltliner as best value Grüner Veltliner and as his very favourite.


He described Grüner Veltliner in general as one of summer’s great, unlikely pleasures and said:

Two Hands logo'The Domäne Wachau Federspiel Terrassen, had all the balance we were hoping to find, along with pure, deep, complex flavours. Pure, deep, balanced and refreshing with complex citrus, spice and herbal aromas and flavours.


As you might guess, Domäne Wachau is in the Wachau region of Austria, which produces the country’s richest wines; in the best bottles, though, the richness comes without weight and heft. Wachau alone uses a specific terminology for the ripeness at which the grapes are harvested.


A federspiel wine, like our No. 1, is harvested at the medium ripeness level. The ripest Wachau wines are called smaragd (pronounced shmar-AHGD), and they also tend to be the most expensive'.

Wine Spectator on Domaine Houchart, ProvenceDomaine Houchart Cotes de Provence Rose

 

Wine Spectator reviewed the 2008 Cotes De Provence Rosé:

'Very crisp, with a light pink hue and zesty flavours of melon, peach and strawberry.  The finish is spicy.  Grenache, Syrah,Cinsault, Cabernet Sauvignon, Mourvedre and others.  Drink now.

 

 

 

Magical Majella

Tyson Stelzer of 'Wine Business Magazine' featured a review of Majella's Sparkling Shiraz.Majella Sparking Shiraz

2005 Majella Sparkling Shiraz

Now aged two years on lees, Majella has ascended another notch in the sparkling shiraz stakes.  This has a fine bead and tightly defined acidity.  Mature, gamey and meaty, with old oak complexity, this is a richly flavoured wine with dark chocolate, layers of black plums and cherries and a long, spicy finish.

Winestate also carried a piece proving that outstanding wines can still be made in a very difficult year.

'Winemaker Bruce Gregory at Majella produced a five star Cabernet from the 2007 vintage that suffered from a severely frost damaged crop. 'It shows that with care you can still find parcels of exceptional fruit, even in a year when about 90% of fruit in the area was said to have been damaged by frost' says Bruce.  'Our vineyards escaped some of the worst of that, but we only have about 20% of a normal vintage volume.  We took great care when picking the fruit, which had damaged and unaffected areas close to each other.  It was almost a row by row selection, but if it wasn't good enough to be under a Majella label in a normal year, we didn't include it, even though it meant we were left with tiny amounts.  We weren't, and have never been prepared to sacrifice quality for volume.

Majella Cabernet SauvignonAs a consequence, Majella Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 is consistent with the winery's steller Majella 'The Musician' Cabernet Shirazcabernet output:  rich and classy with excellent concentrated varietal fruit characters, a well structured palate and balanced acidity.  'We treated that fruit like any other vintage - the same oak regime - the same time on oak - and we have a wine that's consistent with Majella standards'.

This philosophy is also evident in The Musician by Majella Coonawarra Cabernet Shiraz 2008, even though it is purposely designed as an uncomplicated wine to drink in its youth.  ' By fermenting this fruit in stainless steel and not spending money on new oak means that we can out it out at a modest price - and it's our careful selection of grapes from our vineyard that gives us the flavour we are looking for.'  This wines varietal split of 59% cabernet to 41% shiraz reflects the 2008 vintage performance when shiraz was more abundant in Majella's vineyard. 

Eberle in Top 10 Summer Specials

Eberle Mill Road Vineyard Viognier

GAYOT.com publishes news and reviews on the best restaurants, hotels, spas, travel destinations, movies, automobiles and other lifestyle topics.  They posted the following wine on their Top 10 wine lists:

Eberle’s 2008 Mill Road Vineyard Viognier

on list of Top 10 Barbecue Wines

http://www.novusvinum.com/features/top10summerbbq_wines.html

Zuccardi toasting 46 years of success

Uco Valley, Argentina

SW19 Magazine highlighted the durability in South America of Familia Zuccardi.  The family run Argentinian business strarted in 1963 and are celebrating 46 years as one of the country's most innovative wineries. 

They have a particularly good track record in producing excellent young wines, despite now approaching middle age in terms of their existence as one of Argentina's most successful producers.
http://www.familiazuccardi.com

www.southwestmag.co.uk

Tanzer on Chateauneuf du Pape

Famille Quiot logo

DOMAINE DU VIEUX LAZARET continues to be the top performing estate in the Jerome Quiot portfolio.

2006 Chateauneuf du Pape Rouge
Medium ruby. Powerful red berry and musky herbs on the nose, with bright mineral quality adding energy.  Tangy redcurrant and strawberry flavours are finely etched and impressively fresh, with good mineral lift to the finish.  I suspect that this will gain weight with a couple more years of aging. (88 - 91)

2006 Domaine Duclaux Chateauneuf du Pape
Medium red. Sexy aromas of red berries, potpourri, white pepper and minerals. Pinot noir-like on the palate, displaying racy raspberry and cherry, mineral and candied rose flavors. Finishes precise and persistent, with repeating mineral notes. This is lovely right now. (88)

Chile's Indomita wins in 2009

Indomita wineryIn 2009 so far Indomita's awards for the following ranges are:

ZARDOZ Cabernet Sauvignon

  • GOLD, Concord Mondial Bruxelles 2009
  • SILVER, IWC 2009
  • 90 points+, Wine Advocate Magazine
  • SILVER, Vinalies 2009
  • SILVER, medal Annual Wines of Chile 2009

DUETTE BLEND Cabernet Sauvignon-Carmenere

  • SILVER, Concord Mondial Bruxelles 2009
  • 89 points, Wine Advocate Magazine
  • SILVER, Vinalies 2009
  • BRONZE, IWC 2009



7 Beechfield Road, Willowyard Estate, Beith, Ayrshire KA15 1LN
Tel: 01505 506 060      Fax: 01505 506 066
Email: sales@alliancewine.co.uk      Web: www.alliancewine.co.uk