We were spoiled at Lords of the Manor this weekend. Not only the weather was favourable to relaxation but we also had some very decent wines to taste…We opened the tasting with two white wines, both from the same producer in Waipara - New Zealand: Muddy Water. They were both nicely greeted; the Muddy Water Chardonnay 2007 had an aromatic nose with hints of fig. On the palate it was round with a good structure and balance. Some honeyed melon & apple flavour were coming through on the palate, quite sweet with touch of oak and vanilla. Long finish. The wine didn’t taste very complex to us with for example a lot of similarities from nose to palate and some very clean and strong fruit characteristics. The next wine was the Muddy Water Grower’s Series – James Hardwick – Riesling: The nose was mineral with a delicate slate aroma mixed with white fruits. The attack was a little bit sparkling but the Co2 dissipate quickly to show a good concentration. The flavour is very much the one of a spicy fruit salad made of melon, apple, pineapple and some sour mix juice. Very little minerality in contrast with the nose. This is quite a sweet style – off dry. The finish is lingering. “The cherry on the cake” was our last wine which I proudly presented as a “fine wine” to the crowd. Brought to me by Charles Savage from the General Wine Company, it was a bottle of red Burgundy from the underrated Côte Chalonnaise: Mercurey 1er Cru, Les Champs Martins, Michel Juillot 2006. Around 4000 bottles of this wine are made every year, the grapes are harvested manually and the wine spend 18 months in oak barrel with 30% of them made of new oak. The nose was open with some savoury hints of brie cheese, strawberry & plum, liquorice and minerality with wet rocks. On the palate, the wine is very aromatic too, I found the cheese, plum and strawberry again, the texture is a little bit dusty, the tannins are grippy and that gives the wine a good ageing potential. Every element is at the right level (minerality, sugar, alcohol, tannins, fruit concentration and flavour intensity, oak) to make me say that it has a perfect balance. The finish is very long but again the tannins are a little bit too grippy to drink without food, they also stick to the upper gums of the mouth.



Fabrice Bouffant

Head Sommelier