Wine with Leslie: Lesser-known wines from France and Northern Italy
Lesser-spotted tipples are on the table for Leslie Williams this week.
We are well into autumn now, soon the clocks will be going back so it’s time to prepare for the cooler nights ahead.
Or so they tell you, personally I’ll be pretending it is still late summer for as long as I can.
With this in mind, I’m going to be drinking juicy fruity lighter wines that are not too heavy and wintery until well after the bank holiday weekend.
Burgundy is the ideal of course, but who can afford them these days, not me. I’ll be looking to Beaujolais, to Baden and the Pfalz for my Pinot Noirs with maybe the odd New Zealander or Chilean.
Yes, Chilean Pinot Noir can be a little sweet, but serving them cool should lighten them up for you.
Wine suggestions this week are all new to this page, two lesser-known wine styles from France and one from Northern Italy.
This is the first Terret I think I’ve featured, it is labelled Vin de France but I suspect it is from the Languedoc or possibly the Ardèche in the Rhône (the last place I tasted terret from). This one is zingy and fresh just as it should be.
Alsace is so well known for its Riesling and Gewürztraminer whites that we often forget how good their Pinot Noir can be; this is a rather fine one.
Alsatians neglected their reds in the past but that is not usually the case these days. Alsace Pinot Noir (like Sancerre Pinot Noir) is a solid alternative to village Burgundy.
Finally with the Wexford Opera Festival starting next week I had to feature the Marzemino below as Mozart’s Don Giovanni sings about it in Act 2 of the eponymous opera: “Verso il vino! Eccelente Marzemino!”
If it is good enough for that talented lad from Salzburg it is good enough for us.
This is new in Aldi this autumn. The terret grape is highly productive and can be dull but in careful hands it makes a pleasant crisp wine.
This is bone dry with lively apple, pineapple and tropical fruit aromas, fruity and crisp on the palate with pear and green apple flavours, a stony fresh core, and a tang of apple skin on the finish.
Another new northern Italian grape to learn (also watch for Schioppettino and Refosco).
Floral aromas plus bright black cherry and elderberry fruits, low in tannins, bright and fruity with sweet berry notes and a touch of pepper, uncomplicated but also rather joyful.
Mozart loved it too.
From a 12th generation organic biodynamic estate (est. 1648) this has red fruit aromas with some sous-bois earthy notes, but also cherry clafoutis (cherries cooked in a cake batter).
Juicy, fresh and textured palate with more cherries but also sinewy minerality for balance and some cherry skins on the lengthy finish.
Dingle Whiskey has a refresh and has some fine new expressions to try; a new Single Pot Still and this 10 Year Old Single Malt.
Matured in Bourbon, Port and PX casks with aromas of prunes and dark caramel. Smooth on first sip with gorgeous baked fruit flavours, butterscotch-gingerbread notes and a white pepper finish.
Love it.
