James Bercovici - The Big Red Wine Company

I just had a peek at the forum on Tom Cannavan's wine-pages.com and the first post is entitled " Big Red Wine Company - Great Service "! He liked the wine too. As a merchant, feedback is always appreciated, especially when it is positive like this.

It's that time of year: wine tastings for a thirsty crowd. Don't get me wrong. I enjoy showing off new discoveries and some of the wines that have started to come round at last. The preparation is the trickiest part - you never know who will be coming or how many people will show up so it's hard to gauge which wines to put in (or which to leave out). Experience has taught me to avoid too much in the over £10 bracket but, still, I could not resist showing a Barbaresco and a Chateauneuf this weekend. At the Norwich tasting last week, there was a consensus that Italian wines are generally overpriced. I would counter that they need food, without which they are easily misunderstood. A little salami and cheese, perhaps, wasn't enough to convince them of this. The whites went down well with the Manzone "Rosserto" proving especially popular. Filippo Gallino 's Barbera always goes down well - juicy fruit and not overly complex (although the totally contrasting...

Fabrizio Battaglino has just won best QPR white for his Roero Arnies 2011 in Gambero Rosso 2013 Well done Fabrizio! A well-deserved award. Fabrizio's full entry in the guide reads as follows:  "Fabrizio Battglino's small winery seems to have returned for good among the top producers of Roero. The vineyards are at Vezza d'Alba, on the steep sloping hills of Colla and Mombello, where soils are sandy and face south at an altitude of 350 metres above sea level. The classic variieties of Roero are grown, Arneis, Nebbiolo and Barbera, and tradition is interpreted to craft a series of technically flawless wines full of delicious fruit, carefully designed for delightful drinkability." New entries for this year include: 2010 Roero Sergentin - Due Bicchieri (entered in the finals) 2011 Roero Arneis -  Due Bicchieri (especially good value) http://bigredwine.co.uk/PP/Battaglino/Battaglino.asp

Every year we hold an informal tasting in my childhood home town of Norwich with, usually, between 20 and 30 guests. This year we held it on Saturday, immediately after seeing Matthew Bourne's superb Sleeping Beauty at the Theatre Royal. The wines were almost evenly divided between French and Italian with the Rhone dominating the French selection. I had been tempted to include some Joblot wines - after all, if I don't put them into tastings, how will people know just how good they are? However, I decided against this on purely practical grounds: most of the attendees prefer to keep their spending under £10 per bottle so there seemed little point in including wines the wrong side of £20! This was borne out by the comments - and sales - of Italian wines, the only one of which that sold well was Filippo Gallino 's juicy, fruity Barbera d'Alba. A few other Italian reds did sell but only a bottle here, a couple of bottles there. The whites did well though with the surpris...

At last! Now, what should I open tonight? Tempted by Fabrizio Battaglino's Roero 2010 Sergentin but also by Nada Giuseppe's 2009 Barbaresco. Or, perhaps, keep it simple with the Gallino 2010 Barbera d'Alba. Probably none of the above for two reasons: I have just made a curry for dinner and tomorrow night is our annual Autumn Tasting in Norwich so most of these will take part in that. On the other hand, I do like to challenge the spice with a fruity but tannic red so Fabrizio is looking promising. Too many choices... I will post later when I have succumbed.

Note: updated after the tasting! The Dulwich Wine Society has a new meeting venue since I last visited, more conducive to the enjoyment of fine wines. I was there last night to present, for the first time in the context of a wine club, a selection of wines from Piedmont. Here's the running order... White wines 1.     Fabrizio Battaglino , Roero 2010 Arneis 2.     Giovanni Manzone , Langhe Bianco 2010 Rosserto 3.     Nada Giuseppe , Langhe Bianco 2009 "Armonia" All the whites were very well received: the Arneis surprised most tasters who had little or no experience of the grape for its slightly austere nose but fuller palate. The Rossesse was showing well and was also well received as a new wine to everyone in the room. As always, Enrico's wine wowed tasters with its assortment of varieties each bringing something different to the well integrated whole. Red wines 4.      Nada Giuseppe , Dolcetto d'Alba 2010 C...

Old college friends up from London for Halloween but too cold and damp for a bonfire so, after a hearty meal of meatballs (from an excellent recipe adapted from one of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's), and after the children had taken off their Halloween make-up and gone to bed, we decided to go on a trip down memory lane and watch An American Werewolf In London. What a cheesy film! Of course, wines are required for all of this and two from Laurent Brusset were very much enjoyed: the 2007 Cairanne-CDRV "Les Chabriles" and the 2007 Gigondas "Le Grand Montmirail". Both are classic Brusset wines: rounded, fruity, well-structured with plenty of deep, rich Grenache fruit. The Chabriles is 50% Syrah but this does not get too black here. This Gigondas is their standard cuvee. There is little between this and the Cairanne, qualitatively or stylistically, frankly. Obviously from 2007 it was to be expected they would both be very good. My only concern is that it was my l...