In Tipping's Tipples this week, Mike Tipping gets his whites right.
I'd like to write that every now and again I get excited about a wine. However, such a remark would be tossed back at me by my social circle, who (mostly) favour smutty innuendo as their preferred style of humour.
And so here is the version minus the innuendo.
Every now and again, I get entranced by a wine. Mainly because it's a wine that's so damned drinkable. I'm often shocked by just how many of those drinkable discoveries are chardonnay. I have a love-hate relationship with the chardonnay grape. But Tabali Reserva Especial Chardonnay 2003 falls into the love category.
It's a complex affair with honey, a little butter up front and a good acidity. Then there are minerals and citrus flavours finished off with nicely balanced toasted oak notes and hints of caramel. Stonking stuff and a gold medal winner from a northern Chilean winery that only set up in 2003.
Another refreshing take on the grape, Anakena Chardonnay 2004, is also new to the shelves and from Chile.
The grapes for this un-oaked example are grown in the country's Casablanca Valley. This lighter style wine has a fragrant nose and ample fruit; grapefruit, pineapple and peach. As a matter of interest, the Anakena winery is named after a beach on Chile's Easter Island.
White wine fans will also be pleased to know that two new pinot grigio labels have landed on supermarket shelves recently.
Hogue Cellars Pinot Grigio 2003, from Washington State, has all the character of a cool climate white. Dry with melon, nuts, a little effervescence and a touch of spice, it is creamy and smooth (in a much nicer way than Boddington's bitter).
Firebird Legend Pinot Grigio 2003 is just as good but different
For a start, it's from Moldova in Eastern Europe. Apparently they've been making wine there for 3000 years.
This example is 85 per cent pinot grigio with 15 percent pinot blanc. It is nicely dry with a ripe peachy nose, tropical fruit flavours, and represents good value at £4.99.
Ideal to serve at parties.
Tabali Reserva Especial Chardonnay 2003, £7.94 at Asda
****
Anakena Chardonnay 2004, £4.96 at Asda
****
Hogue Cellars Pinot Grigio 2003, £7.48 at Asda
****
Firebird Legend Pinot Grigio 2003, £4.99 at Waitrose
****
Updated: 16:07 Friday, October 29, 2004
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