James Bercovici - The Big Red Wine Company

A couple of weeks ago, I dropped off a box of wines at the London office of Jancis Robinson MW, affectionately known in the trade as HRH (she is charming, gracious and knows her stuff!). Earlier this week, I received an email telling me, 'Like the Juvenal white' and, after a few more email exchanges to get photos etc to her, it transpired she was going to make this her Wine of the Week . Them, a couple of days ago, another email asking for some more information about the red wines which were also in the box. Today, with reviews of all four wines posted on her website ( jancisrobinson.com , well worth the subscription for all serious wine enthusiasts), her WoW review is published and includes all the wines. A coup for Juvenal indeed! Here it is (published with permission): Château Juvenal is a name that is new to me. The Forestiers bought the property in 2001 and in 2011 joined forces with local vignerons the Alban family, who had until then delivered their grapes to the ...

Ciaran left Domaine des Anges last October after 13 years but not before he had vinified the 2011 vintage. Most of the wines are not ready for proper assessment yet (I did taste the white and rose back at Easter) but yesterday popped up to see his old boss, Gay McGuinness, and the new estate manager, Florent Chave, formerly of Domaine Brusset, to have a chat and taste any new wines. The one most interesting to me was the 2011 Viognier "Cherubin". I have had an on-off relationship with this variety over the years, sometimes finding it exotic and frustrating at others. I used to abhor the oaked versions then find un-oaked wines too acidic. When Ciaran told me he was making Viognier starting with the 2010 vintage, I wondered how I would find the wine. That first vintage was aged 50% in third year barrels and 50% in stainless steel but I never got to taste it from the bottle as it sold out quickly (there wasn't a lot of it) so the 2011 is the first bottled Viognier from DD...