Tag Archives: wine

Frost Wine Reviews: Banrock Moscato

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I have a sweet tooth and I really loved this wine. It was fruity and fresh, the perfect summer wine. It’s light and sweet, only 5.5% Vol. Perhaps not a wine for men though, considering the guys who tried it said it wasn’t their thing.

This pretty, pink-coloured Moscato is a dessert wine, though I recommend drinking it whenever you want! With a hint of peach, it’s fruity and perfect for people who don’t like dry, acidic wine. I reckon it will also be popular with people who don’t usually like wine at all!

I highly recommend it for girly afternoons in the sun and BBQ’s.

Tesco RRP £5.49

Pefect Wine For Father's Day

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Unsure what to get your father for Father’s Day? Frost has done the (ahem) hard work and tested a collection of wine that would make a great Father’s Day present. If you’re feeling generous, buy a few….

– Nottage Hill Pinot Noir: A fruity, refreshing wine. It’s quite sweet and really takes the edge off a hard day! Sweet flavours of cherry and strawberry with hints of mint and fennel are complemented by spicy notes and sweet cigar box oak characters. Perfect with an oriental menu or thoroughly enjoyable with roast duck. RRP £6.73.

– Kumala Cabernet Shiraz: Perfect if your father likes chocolate. It’s a good, rich wine.and tastes good with red meat. A rich nuttiness follows through on the palette, with a lingering aftertaste with a touch of chocolate. The wine will make a perfect partner to fillet steaks, lamb chops and hearty stews. RRP£6.79.

– Kumala Sauvignon Blanc: A refreshing white wine that is citrus and tropical fruit flavors with very aromatic notes of green chilies, herbs, asparagus and gooseberries. It really hits the spot. A light-bodied, dry wine with hints of gooseberry and lime on the nose. Floral, crisp, pungent fruit on the palate with good concentration and length. Perfect with meats and seafood. RRP£6.79.

– Fish Hoek Sauvignon Blanc: Some wines taste too acidic. This one doesn’t – with no bad aftertaste. One of my favorites. Attractive New World mouth-filling style. Tropical fruit salad spiked with a sweet and sour twist of lime mingles with a good green fig and nettle intensity. On the palate, there are hints of gooseberry, a nice acidity and a lovely lingering aftertaste – made for easy quaffing. This is a wine that can be sipped, but will also lend itself beautifully to seafood, light poultry dishes and salads. RRP£6.99.

Did you know wine is mentioned 521 times in the Bible?

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To boost your wine knowledge this May in celebration of National Wine Month here are 15 ‘Did you know?’ facts about wine to impress your friends –

· Wine is mentioned 521 times in the Bible.

* Noah was the first documented planter of vineyards.

* There are over 10,000 different grape varieties.

· Wine grapes are the most widely planted crop in the world.

* The average age of a French oak tree cut down to make a wine barrel is 170 years.

* Early Roman women were forbidden to drink wine, and a husband who found his wife drinking was at liberty to divorce, or even kill her.

* If you pay under £4 for a bottle of wine in a UK shop, nearly two-thirds of this is tax (excise duty and VAT).

* The worst place to store wine is the kitchen because the temperature is too warm and variable.

* Don’t store wine in a refrigerator – even at its warmest setting it will be too cold!

· A wine is “corked” if the bottle has a contaminated cork, which makes the wine smell musty, similar to wet cardboard.

* On average, one bottle of wine contains about 2.8 pounds of grapes.

· It takes the grapes from an entire grapevine to produce a single glass of Chateau d’Yquem – arguably the best sweet wine in the world.

* Plato argued that when a man reached 40, he could drink as much wine as he wanted to cure the “crabbedness of old age”

* The earliest known wine production occurred in Georgia around 8,000 BC

* The most expensive drinkable wine ever sold is reputed to be a Romanee-Conti 1978 which sold for $24,000

Visit www.maketimeforwine.org to find out more.

Food and Wine To Make Mother's Day Special

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All mums deserve a treat, like relaxing with a glass of wine from this fabulous range whilst you prepare her one of the expertly chosen complimentary dishes.

Fish Hoek Shiraz

This juicy red wine is a delicious addition to a number of meals. It’s a good, strong, superb wine. It’s not too tangy. Full of flavour and with not much after taste. You can taste berries. Try it with a hearty cottage pie, lasagne, or roast beef. Even better how about a delicious classic bistro Mother’s Day feast of steak, green beans and potato dauphinoise.

Banrock Station Sparkling Rose

This sparkling rose works perfectly as a standalone aperitif before a meal, or as an interesting desert choice. Best served with a light, red fruit desert such as pavlova or fruit tart. It is a good, light and refreshing wine. Perfectly fruity and with just the right amount of sweetness. One of the best Rose’s I have ever tasted.

Mother’s day is on April the 3rd. So treat her with these superb wines and some good food.

Complimentary dishes suggested by Constellation’s in-house wine expert, Sam Caporn.

JACOB’S CREEK AND BBC SATURDAY KITCHEN WINE EXPERTS BRING A LITTLE SPARKLE TO CHRISTMAS

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Leading Australian wine brand and award-winning wine duo demystify bubbles ahead of the festive period

Can’t spot a Prosecco from a Cava; don’t know a Brut from a Demi-Sec? Well fear not because BBC Saturday Kitchen wine experts, Peter Richards and Susie Barrie, have joined forces with the UK’s best-selling sparkling wine brand1, Jacob’s Creek, to produce the ultimate guide to fizz, ‘A Taste of Sparkling’, just in time for those Christmas celebrations.

This eye- and ear-friendly vodcast objectively guides you through the sometimes confusing world of sparkling wine. Taking in everything from Asti to Champagne, it helps you make sense of sparkling wine; from how to open the bottle correctly, to when to serve different sparkling wines, and with what.

We enjoy more sparkling wine at Christmas than at any other time of the year, so when better to make sense of the world of fizz and impress your family and friends? Peter and Susie run the Winchester Wine School and, like Jacob’s Creek, their mission is to help you get the most out of your fizz whatever the occasion.The vodcast is a simple way to bolster your wine knowledge with small interesting snippets that capture the imagination. Did you know, for example, that due to the number of bubbles in a bottle of Champagne, the pressure inside the bottle is the same as that in the wheel of a double decker bus? No? Then this vodcast is for you.

http://db.tt/Pnaf9DO Jacob’s creek podcast.

As Susie says, “For many of us, shopping for wine is a complicated and intimidating experience, with most decisions based on price and familiarity. Like us, Jacob’s Creek wants to help people expand their horizons and discover new wines and tastes that they may not have tried before”.

Visit www.jacobscreek.co.uk/united-kingdom/news/a-taste-of-sparkling to start your sparkling wine adventure.