Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Santa Julia Organic Sparkling Chardonnay 2007

Another Easter wine - this one was served with a meringue/fruit dessert.  I had actually asked the guy in my local Oddbins for an off-dry fizz (and not Champagne - too expensive!), and this is what he suggested.  It's pretty dry though, not really what I was expecting, but perhaps that's all he had.  They also had Asti, which would have worked, but I wanted to try something new.

This is fairly fruity and had lots of body.  I wouldn't serve it again with that dessert, I was looking for something a bit sweeter, such as a demi-sec fizz.  It was in fact really good just on its own, and is good value for a vintage wine under £10.

A quick word about Oddbins.  It was recently owned by French firm Castel until it was bought out in August of 2008.  We've decided to attend the monthly tastings in our local branch, after unsuccessfully trying to get on their list for the past few months, due to chaos with internal management and perhaps a bit of incompetence.  But that's no more, as it's all new staff and they seem very passionate and knowledgeable.

The first tasting we attended was a sample of their new arrivals.  There were a couple of interesting sub £10 wines such a keenly priced white Burgundy (that was a little past it), and a tannic Bourgueil.  The overwhelming favourites were a South African Syrah blend from Porcupine Ridge (for £10) and a red Burgundy (for £15).  I had intended to write up all the wines we tasted, but we left in a hurry to get home and I forgot my tasting notes, so apologies for the somewhat random thoughts.

Santa Julia Organica Sparkling Chardonnay 2007
Mendoza, Argentina
Oddbins
£9.49
3/5

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