Heritage Wines Cabernet Sauvignon 2006
Posted: 27 May '10 by Niall
Heritage Wines Cabernet Sauvignon 2006
After a brief foray into white wine territory (see our review of the Picpoul de Pinet 2007) we’re back with a classy red from the New World, a full-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon from South Australia: the Heritage Wines Cabernet Sauvignon 2006.
The Heritage Wines winery is a small family-owned business located in the Barossa Valley and run by Steve Hoff and his wife, Christine. They produce a small range of varietal wines, typically made from their own 20 acre vineyard or from grapes purchased from selected, low-yield vineyards in the area.
This particular wine was produced from grapes grown by their neighbours, Peter and Anita Frazer.
The Details
- The Wine: Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006
- Producer: Heritage Wines
- Region: Barossa Valley, South Australia
- Grape: Cabernet Sauvignon
- Alcohol: 15%
- Cost: £15.99
- We bought it in: Direct Wine Shipments (and is available online)
Tasting Notes
Wines produced in hotter climes typically are more full-bodied given that the grapes are more ripe than in Europe. You certainly find that with the Heritage Cab Sauv.
A deep, dark red in colour, it has a wonderfully intense aroma with lots of black fruits, sweet roast vegetables, and cassis on the nose.. with not a little spice in there too.
The taste doesn’t disappoint either – a full-blooded red with powerful blackberry and licquorice flavours, with more subtle herb and chilli notes.
Good, firm tannins and acidity with a velvety texture which, together with the long and pleasant finish gives the wine an opulent character.
Our Verdict
A very classy red from Australia with good structure, lots of juicy dark fruit, and well-balanced.
Extremely drink-able.
Our rating: 4 out of 5.
Where can you buy it?
You can find the Cabernet Sauvignon from Heritage Wines at:
Direct Wine Shipments
5-7 Corporation Square,
Belfast
BT1 3AJ
T: 028 9050 8000
E: shop@directwine.co.uk
W: www.directwine.co.uk
You can also find DWS on Google Maps.
You can also buy the Heritage Wines Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 online.
Other information
You can click here to visit the Heritage Wines website.
Categories: Red Wine > Wine Reviews
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Wine Review: Mouton-Cadet Bordeaux Rouge 2005
Posted: 01 February '10 by Niall
Mouton Cadet 2005
Kelly and I picked up this Mouton-Cadet 2005 from our local Sainsburys off-licence a few weeks ago – although we’d never tried this particular red before we thought we were on safe ground: a Bordeaux red; a young wine from the famous Baron Philippe de Rothschild; and it was also on offer, one of the frequent Sainsburys discounts being reduced to £5.00.
The Details
- The Wine: Mouton-Cadet 2005
- Producer: Château Cadet, Baron Philippe de Rothschild
- Region: Bordeaux, France
- Grape: 65% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc
- Alcohol: 13.3%
- Cost: £5.00 (on offer – normally £5.99)
- We bought it in: Sainsburys
Tasting Notes
The first thing that you’ll notice when pouring the Mouton-Cadet is the colour – an appealingly intense burgundy or dark cherry which promises great things to come. As you’d expect this colour carries to the rim of the wine, suggesting a young wine.
The bouquet matches the appearance with dark cherry and blackcurrant aromas, with some spice and a little vanilla in there for good measure.
Perhaps a little lighter-bodied than more expensive wines from the region, it is still full of ripe dark fruits and powerful tannins. The Cab Sauv and Cab Franc give the wine more complexity than might be suggested by the price tag. Although slightly tart, the Mouton-Cadet 2005 is fairly smooth and well-balanced, lingering pleasantly on the palate.
Our Verdict:
A pleasant wine that is suitable for everyday drinking, one that you’d be happy to enjoy alone or to serve to friends with a meal – not necessarily one for impressing, mind you.
At the price, particularly when discounted, you’d be hard pressed to find a much better alternative. Buy it when you can – Sainsburys typically stock a wine for a while and once gone it’s never seen again.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Other Information:
The Mouton-Cadet 2005 really benefits from being decanted and left to breathe for an hour or so – the bouquet and taste will only develop and reveal the complexity of the wine.
Mouton Cadet is the biggest-selling Bordeaux in the world and is the staple offering from the Baron Philippe de Rothschild house. It is not sophisticated or refined enough to be called a “Chateau Mouton Rothschild” – instead, it is classed as a “Mouton Cadet” (cadet meaning younger son in French)
Categories: Red Wine > Wine Reviews
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Vegetarians, look away now: Our steak pie recipe
Posted: 28 October '09 by Niall
Steak Pie
With the rain lashing down and a gale blowing outside our front door, we huddled around the fire. As gloomy as this sounds, I wasn’t too down-hearted.. Winter is coming – and this means “goodbye” to salads and “hello” to more substantial dishes. I like that.
A quick trip to Forestside (McGee’s butchers, to be exact) and we were ready to go – Steak Pie was on the cards! Steak pie (but especially steak and kidney pie) is one of those meals-from-childhood that I will always remember with fondness and hanker after: tender pieces of meaty steak, rich gravy, and light, buttery pastry. What could be better..
You can see more photos hereImage 1Image 2Image 3Image 4Image 5
Ingredients:
- 900g/2lb stewing steak, cut into cubes
- plain flour, seasoned with salt and freshly ground black pepper, for dusting
- Beef dripping
- 2 onions, finely chopped
- 7.5ml/1/2tbsp tomato purée
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 570ml/1 pint hot beef stock
- 500g of puff pastry (I bought JusRol Puff Pastry 1Kg block and used half – because I love pastry)
- 1 free-range egg, beaten
- Worcestershire sauce
Method:
- Put a good three or four tablespoons of beef dripping into a large saucepan and place on a low heat
- When the dripping has melted, add your onions and cook for 2 or 3 minutes, until the onions become slightly translucent
- Add your cubed stewing steak to the saucepan and cook until the meat has started to colour
- Add 3 or 4 tablespoons of the seasoned flour and stir in thoroughly, and allow the mixture to heat through for a minute or two
- Add the beef stock to the saucepan, increase the heat slightly, and stir until the liquid has become a bubbling, thick sauce
- Reduce the heat so that there is only a slight bubbling of the liquid and allow it to simmer gently for an hour and a half
- Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5
- Taste the sauce at this point (chef’s prerogative!) and add a few splashes of worcestershire sauce and the tomato puree (the worcestershire sauce will really help those meaty flavours along, as does the tomato) – taste again and add more if necessary
- Transfer the filling mixture to an ovenproof dish
- Take some flour and dust your work area and rolling pin – with your block of pastry on the work-area, roll out the pastry so that it is slightly bigger than the area of the casserole dish, and about 1 centimetre thick
- Drape the pastry over the meat filling
- Beat an egg in a bowl and brush the surface of the pastry with the beatebn egg – it’ll give the finished crust a really nice golden colour
- Place your pie in the oven cook for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the pastry has puffed up and is golden-brown
To my mind, you have to serve your steak pie with creamed potatoes to make the most of that gravy – and a glass of claret is a great addition too.
Other information:
You could use olive oil rather than beef dripping – but the dripping is so much tastier. Go on, spoil yourself and use the dripping.
Add 280g of chopped ox or lamb kidney to the stewing steak kidney for a delicious steak and kidney pie.
Categories: Beef > English Food > Featured Post > Main Course > Recipes
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Wine Review: Sangre de Toro 2006
Posted: 21 October '09 by Niall
Wine Review: Sangre de Toro 2006
On a horrible wind-swept and rainy evening, Kelly and I thought we’d cheer ourselves up with a cheeky bottle (or two!) of wine. Amazing how wine can do that.
The Torres wines are firm favourites of ours: consistently good flavours, and not too hard on the pocket. And depending on your choice, you also get a toy – a kind of Kinder Egg for adults!
With the plastic bull safely stowed away, we opened our bottle of Sangre de Toro 2006..
The Details
- The Wine: Sangre de Toro 2006
- Producer: Don Miguel Torres
- Region: Castilla y León, Spain
- Grape: 65% Grenache, 35% Carignan
- Alcohol: 13.5%
- Cost: £6.49
Tasting Notes
The wine is a pleasant deep cherry-red in colour, and the spicy cinnamon and berry notes are immediately noticeable on opening the bottle.
In terms of flavours there are the usual forest-fruits in there (and a lot of them), but also something a little sweeter.. strawberries maybe. With all of this going on, it’s a nicely balanced wine – savoury, with a slightly sweet edge.
The tannins aren’t particularly smooth and there is a bit of an alcoholic kick – a solid, rustic, substantial wine.
Food Pairing:
This wine would be well-paired with any meaty foods: red meats and game, and roasts/stews/casseroles in general.
Our Verdict:
The Sangre de Toro 2006 isn’t a particularly complex wine, but that’s not a bad thing. It’s very “gluggable”, has plenty of flavour, goes particularly well with food, and with the £6.49 price-tag, it’s hard to find a better entry in the “everyday” category.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Other Information:
“Sangre de Toro” means “Blood of the bull” – and explains the plastic bull attached to the foil.
You can click here to visit the Torres website.
Categories: Red Wine > Wine Reviews
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Wine Review: Cotes du Roussillon 2008
Posted: 17 September '09 by Niall
Wine Review: Cotes du Roussillon 2008
Along with the interesting menu in St John (more of that later) you’ll also find a lengthy and mouth-watering wine-list.
The choices for our main courses, which were offal-y good (sic), cried out for a full-bodied red – and the Cotes du Roussillon 2008 certainly fit the bill.
The Details
- The Wine: Cotes du Roussillon 2008
- Producer: Domaine Boudau Le Clos
- Region: Roussillon, South-West France
- Grape: 50% Grenache, 20% Syrah, 30% Carignan
- Alcohol: 14%
- Cost: £7.99
Tasting Notes
The wine is juicy and rich, with jammy, spicy notes on the nose with a hint of minerals, while there are definite flavours of herbs, black cherries and damsons on the palate.
The 2008 is a little young, and the texture is slightly rough when compared to the smoother, older vintages of the same wine, where the tannins and acid mature into a smoother combination.
Food Pairing
Meat, meat, and more meat. The wine is very full-bodied and needs strong flavours to stand up to it – beef, boar, and venison will all be complemented by the dark-fruit flavours of the Cotes du Roussillon.
Other Information
These full-bodied reds always benefit from being served at or just above room temperature, and from being allowed to breathe in order to release all of those mature fruit flavours.
Our Verdict
I have to confess to a fondness for French reds, and the Cotes du Roussillon 2008 is a fine example of the price-to-quality wines coming out of the Languedoc-Roussillon regions recently. An extremely enjoyable wine – in aroma, flavour, and in price.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Categories: Red Wine > Wine Reviews
