Anobli 2008 from Alluviale, finally!

If you haven't yet tried this and manage to get hold of a bottle, don't hesitate. It's a NZ$41 / 375ml bottle, but certainly worth it especially compared to what's available on the NZ market (no offense, I surely haven't tried them all yet).

I'm quite a fan of dessert wine, at least i use to, as i haven't been drinking much of it for a while. Just always disappointed by the quality, I ended up abandonning dessert wine by frustration. Sad I know.

But my hope is back! I recently tried Anobli 2008 from Alluviale, a winery from Hawke's Bay. It is sauvignon blanc from gravels soils, fermented and aged in new french oak. 7 long months of fermentation, quite a long time to stress while something can go wrong, but hey it certainly didn't.

Everything I look for in a dessert wine is present: complex nose, great balance between the sugar and the acidity, and a fantastic length. I'm not even talking about the aromas, they are complex and layered whether on the nose, in the mouth of end of mouth. The wine opens up in the glass, changing slowly. I specifically love the balance, the complexity and the long finish.

There's a bit of experience there; the winemaker being producer in Jurancon, he might have few tricks to pull out. But good on him, it's great to see a beautiful NZ dessert wine!

Personnally i'll get few bottles and want to see this ageing... Great potential! Definitely the kind of wine i'd like to shout outloud to whoever wants to hear it: I love it, try it and tell me what you think! Or maybe: It's bloody good mate, try it!

http://www.alluviale.com/

W&F match - Spices experimentations, new track

I try here and there different W&F matches. One of the last ones that got my attention:
A dish with cumin (lamb) with a glass of 2006 sauvignon blanc from Marlborough. Obviously one of the sauvignon from that region that can gracefully age, nice minerality, but good round and weighty mid palate, with a slight sweetness most certainly enhanced by the roundness. Going quite well with the cumin, more than the lamb in itself actually. The sweetness was almost not perceptible when drunk on its own, but once matched, that's where it was revealed. Interesting. In terms of minerality, it was matchiong quite well, as it was not the fresh flinty minerality but more the warmer type (like chalk), therefore accompanying the cumin flavour rather than making a sharp distinction.

Maybe that is one of the new tracks i have to follow - matching spices with wines. Maybe they would somehow play the role of aromas in a wine, when the tannic structure, the acidity and the alcohol would have to be paired with textures, acidity of your dish.
Just random thinking, but i'll pay a specific attention to 'studying' that.

If you have some special experimentation on the way, or interesting W&F match experience, post them so we can share! We never learn better than when we can compare and talk.