What Do We Really Drink at Home?
One of the perks of running a wine company is the opportunity to taste wines from all over the world. But the most frequent question we get asked is simply – ‘so what would you recommend?’ But with 1,400 products now available through Slurp.co.uk, this is getting to be an almost impossible question to answer. But perhaps what we drink at home is the best guide to what we really think, so here are five Slurp wines I have had at home in the last ten days.
Fluteau Champagne Cuvee Reserve Brut NV – Slurp Price: £13.95
I can’t stand over-paying for Champagnes and sparkling wines. I know that someone has to pay for the sponsorship of polo tournaments and regattas - but I would rather it wasn’t me. Fluteau’s Cuvee Reserve, made from 100% Pinot Noir is affordable and beautifully made. My wife and I drink this before dinner sometimes as a simple ‘well done’ to each for surviving another day without throttling our adorable, but way too wild, four and two year-old daughters. Elegant but with developed fruit.
If I have one ‘go to’ white – to use a lame but useful American expression – it would have to be Bergaglio Piercarlo Gavi DOCG 2006 – Slurp Price £7.99 for 12.
This can be served on almost any occasion. Friends coming over on Sunday for pasta salad lunch before the Boat Race? Saturday night dinner party aperitif while the kids are running around the garden? This Italian beauty is perfect. I have served this countless times over the last year and have never had anyone say anything other than – ‘wow, this is really good!’. It comes from the Piedmont region of Italy centred around Turin, and is made from 100% Cortese grapes. It is an all round wine because it is quite floral but also minerally with a big satisfying finish.
Domaine Romanin Pouilly Fuisse "Lamure" 2003 - Slurp Price: £8.99 is a serious Burgundy 100% Chardonnay. This is a wine which requires a little more thought in terms of food pairing, although I love to drink it on its own. I also serve this as an aperitif or if we are eating chicken in some kind of sauce. The wine has a lot of presence. It is full and smoky, with some oaky character, but not in a New World style - much more nutty and toasty. It tastes well made and has now had five years to mature into quite a treasure.
Wakefield’s Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 is one of those wines that must make other wine producers want to give up. Produced in Australia’s famed Clare Valley, and available for £9.75 (incl. VAT) it has most of the ingredients of a wine several times the price. I drink this wine with pasta dishes in meat sauces – or just as a lovely full and chewy wine to pair with a good football match! The nose is full of ripe black fruits but there is genuine complexity and interest there. I get Kirsch, blackberry, vanilla pod and superb coffee and mocha finish. Amazing value.
I am a late convert to sweet whites. But once you get the bug a whole vista of opportunities opens up. I recently bought six of our Pizzalato Vino Passito Bianco 2005 Organic, Slurp Price: £6.49 and served it as an alternative to Sauternes at a dinner party on Saturday night. It was a big hit. It’s a lovely copper gold colour, with a honeyed nose that is lively and vibrant with some tropical fruit aromas. The palate shows nice soft candied fruits with fresh supporting acidity. The finish is fresh and moreish without being cloying and hanging around like an unwanted cousin at your wedding table. Even though it is a 50cl bottle, you don’t need much off this, which makes the price of £6.49 a genuine bargain. I think I will always have a small stash of these now. Other than the obvious dessert pairings (it went beautifully with cheesecake at the weekend), I am sipping this wine whilst stealing pieces of my daughter’s Easter egg at 11pm and writing this note. A match made in heaven!
Enjoy.
Jeremy Howard
