The Month in Wine – July – The Food Wanker

“How many?!”

“110.”

“You tried 110 new wines last year”

“Yes.”

“That’s too many wines!”

This is how this entirely hypothetical conversation went when I was not discussing how many new wines I tried in 2023.

The point is, I try a lot of new wine, I sort the websites by Date Added and if its new and sound interesting (i.e. is wine) then I’ll give it a try!

Last month (July) was no exception, with 14 new wines to try! I’ve written up some reviews / info on the most of them below.

The wines;

The month started with the Nigel Greening / Felton Road tasting which I wrote about a few weeks ago, and it gave me a good long list of wine recommendations from both Nigel and the other attendees.

Pegasus Bay is a winery that I’ve somehow missed entirely, and whilst I’m late to the party, I’m very glad I made it! The Sauvignon/ Semillon (traditional Bordeaux blend) is 70/30 blend, its skin contact fermentation and resting on the lees give it excellent texture an body, lots of lemon, lime and tropical fruit. A little spenny but well worth it!

A very long time, in the before times before La Plaga, a young Mike went to a Thorne and Daughters wine tasting with work at LoveWine. He enjoyed it so much he fell down a bottomless rabbit-hole and has been falling since! He also totally forgot about the Thorne & Daughters Wines until some of them popped up in LoveWine’s Bin Sale.

Cats Cradle, which is 100% Chenin Blanc is pure white stone fruit, a great expression of the grape.

Rocking Horse is a blend of Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Clairette Blanche, Rousanne and Semillon. Dried fruit and nuts, lots of honey, long finish, lovely stuff!

Both great with a spatchcocked roast chicken cooked on the bbq!

As sometimes happens I get a little interested in a particular grape and so for a weekend I end up trying and comparing a load from different wine makers. On this weekend I had a taste for Reisling, so got a good few in!

Two Paddocks Reisling 2018
Pewsey Vale – Riesling 2021
Pegasus Bay – Bel Canto Riesling 2019
Sato Riesling 2020

I started with Two Paddocks Rielsing, which is Sam Neil’s (Dr Alan Grant himself) winery in Central Ortago, New Zealand. Classic petrol and lemon nose (which I love), great acidity measured against tropical fruit and a long mouth watering finish. This was up against the Pewsey Vale, which was much drier, lemon and lime with some dried herbs.

Both the Pegasus Bay and the Sato Riesling were recco’s from the Felton Road tasting, and whilst I really enjoy the Sato, the Bel Canto blew my socks off! Honey and melon, tropical fruit, a little spice with great acidity to drive it all forward. Absolutely fantastic stuff!

Riesling is a favourite of Sommeliers for a reason, with its seemingly infinite styles (ok, 6) and ability for extremely long ageing. I think there’s a bottle of Bel Canto destined to be put in my fridge and left for a while!

Of the remainder I have fallen slightly for the Soplo by Rafael Cambra, which is 100% Garnacha. Great freshness with strawberries and cherries, this is real easy drinking stuff, perhaps too easy drinking, with a little chill put on it.

The Voila Vineyard from Lyrarakis Wines was something I tried at the Watchmaker recently, and I absolutely loved it. Greek wines seem to be having a bit of a moment of late, and this one is excellent. Great citrus and white stone fruit, with just the slightest hint of oxi (where wine is deliberately exposed to oxygen during the wine process, think Sherry and you’re not far off) which was delicious!

I hadn’t really realised how many wines I’d tried thin July until I sat down to write this article, and it’s been good going over them in my memory and putting something down. Sometimes I think my obsession to try new and exciting wines stops me remembering the really good ones, so it’s a good exercise even if just for that.

Anyway, all the wines are linked so you can get a bottle or two if you think you fancy trying them, the biggest winners for me were undoubtedly the two Pegasus Bays, and for a little lower budget, cant get better than that Soplo!