Posts Tagged ‘nose’
Big Peat launches its Gold Edition 25 year old whisky
Douglas Laing & Co has added an old and rare limited edition trilogy collection to their Big Peat range. The debut in this three-part series is their 25 Years Old Islay “Vatted” Malt, entitled the Gold Edition, the first ever Big Peat to carry an age statement. It is comprised of Islay’s most sought after single malts.…
Read MoreFoncalieu: Keeping it fresh in the Languedoc
Peter Ranscombe is enchanted by the freshness of the white wines being produced in one of France’s most famous regions for reds – the Languedoc. The Languedoc region in south-west France is famed for its red wines. Areas such as Corbières, Fitou and Minervois are renowned throughout the world for producing fruity and powerful reds…
Read MoreSingle vineyard garnacha from Rioja
Whether you call it garnacha, grenache or even garnatxa, Peter Ranscombe wants to praise the often-overlooked red grape variety. BLENDING is at the very heart of the winemaking tradition in Rioja. Whether it’s mixing the tempranillo, garnacha and other grape varieties used to make Spain’s most-famous red wine or fusing together wines from the Alta,…
Read MoreTime travelling with Bolney’s Blanc de Blanc bubbles
Peter Ranscombe straps himself into a vinous DeLorean to sample five vintages of Bolney’s Blanc de Blanc English sparkling wine. ONE of the most exciting elements of opening an older bottle of wine is remembering at what stage of your life you were in the year that the grapes were harvested. Where were you living?…
Read MoreEnjoying the character of Bolney’s pinot noir
Peter Ranscombe gets a rare chance to compare four vintages of English pinot noir from the Bolney Estate in Sussex. DRINKING the same bottle of supermarket wine week after week can sometimes make it easy to forget how much the taste of a wine can vary from year to year. Big producers will blend wine…
Read MoreCalifornia wine fair highlights
Ahead of a fundraising event on Sunday for the wildfire relief efforts, Peter Ranscombe looks back at some of his highlights from the recent California wine fair. IT’S always hard when you see images of smoke and flames engulfing people’s homes. The wildfires that have swept through Northern California over the past fortnight have claimed…
Read MoreRhone Part 1: Syrah’s spiritual home
The Crozes-Hermitage area of the Northern Rhone produces only a single red grape variety, but Peter Ranscombe finds out just how varied its Syrah can be. “Syrah loves a view” – or so French winemaker Jean-Louis Chave once said. In the Crozes-Hermitage region in France’s Rhone valley, those grapes are spoiled for choice when it…
Read MoreRhone Part 2: Finding whites in the land of reds
Syrah may be the king of Crozes-Hermitage, but the Northern Rhone’s largest appellation is also home to some stunning whites, as Peter Ranscombe discovers. Word association can be a dangerous sport in the world of wine. Mention the name “Crozes-Hermitage” and most wine fans will immediately think of deliciously rich and ripe reds made from…
Read MoreAlsace: Land of soils
Peter Ranscombe digs into the soils of Alsace, a wine producing region where the interplay between grapes and the land creates a fascinating variety of wines. SCURRYING up the slope behind Eric Kientzler, it’s easy to see why “steep” is a word that crops up so frequently in guidebooks about Alsace. As the winemaker at…
Read MoreThe GlenDronach releases Batch 15 cask bottling
The GlenDronach Distillery has released Batch 15 of its individual cask bottlings. The six whiskies released in Batch 15 range from twenty-one to twenty-seven years in age, and are drawn from either Pedro Ximenez or Oloroso sherry casks. The oldest cask released in Batch 15, cask number 7005, has the appearance of polished cherry wood, with…
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