James Bercovici - The Big Red Wine Company

If, like me, you have amassed a collection of wine far in excess of the number of bottles you can realistically expect to consume in the life of the wines concerned, you will have picked up a few bottles you have changed your mind about since your original enthusiastic purchase and which you consistently snub whenever you are pulling a bottle from the rack. I have developed a system for using these wines: take them to the in-laws. Not that I want to palm off the undesired on my in-laws, you understand; rather, that when I am there, some 250 miles from home, I am stuck with whatever wines I have brought with me. The local off-licence is unlikely to have anything smarter than Blossom Hill lookalikes so you will believe me that whatever I take with me is going to be preferable. Having come back from a couple of days there, I can report that the visit was successful, wine-wise at least, with a couple of Bordeaux I had been dreading, a Burgundy which has never impressed and a Chateauneu...

A local friend who hails from India by way of Kenya and Ealing has his ageing mother living with him now. She wanted to cook an authentic curry for his friends so last night we all piled round to enjoy something rather more subtle than the curries I make at home (or get from the local take-away). I asked what the curry was called to learn that it translated simply as "chicken curry" - no fancy names then. I had been asked to provide some wines and, whilst there were a couple of whites on the table, I stuck with the reds, of course. A Domaine de la Charite Cotes du Rhone had good fruit and a sufficiently soft structure not to be bothered by the spice. However, I was more surprised that the Domaine de Mourchon Seguret from 2007 drank so well alongside the (admittedly fairly mildly) spicy food. Perhaps more understandably, the maturing 2009 Cotes du Rhone from Domaine Bressy-Masson with its softened tannins provided secondary fruit characters that blended well with the spic...

Last night was my annual jaunt to the south of Kent for a tasting with the group. Group chairman/secretary (I am never sure what the roles are), Keith Powis had been called away so there was quite a different dynamic than usual but he was missed. The tasting was very lively and the wines were well received - all showing rather well. The wines I took along (one non-Rhone but who's counting?) were: White wines Mourchon , Côtes du Rhône 2010 “La Source” DomaineTreloar , VDP Côtes Catalan 2010 “Terre Promis” (really lovely wine, coming together well) Red wines Domaine deCristia , VDP Mediterrannée 2010 (mini-Chateauneuf, excellent price) Domaine de la Charité , Côtes du Rhône 2010 (very pure CDR) Perrin , Vinsobres 2009 “Les Cornuds” Raymond Usseglio , Côtes du Rhône 2009 (mini-Chateauneuf, a real contender) Domaine Bressy-Masson , Rasteau 2009 “Paul-Emile” (just gorgeous) Domaine des Côteaux des Travers , Rasteau-CDR Villages 2007 “Prestige” (masterful) ...