Before talking about the wines, let me tell you a little about The Vintner, a new kid on the block in terms of wine merchants. This was their inaugural wine tasting, having set up in business in December and just finished putting their tasting room together.
After arrival, I was handed a glass of some very nice sparkling wine from the Morton Estate and engaged in conversation by one of The Vintner team. I was told that on the run up to the opening and since, their enthusiastic team has been travelling widely visiting producers and sampling hundreds of wines from different parts of the globe in order to pull together their list. Currently made up of some 75 wines, it’s intended that The Vintner will eventually grow their list to 100 wines under £25, ranging upwards from about the £5 mark. In addition they have a list of some fine wines which have price tags in excess of £25 as you might expect. I understand that apart from advising customers on wines, the Vintner team will invite customers to taste the wines they are considering buying. But anyone taking this up would need to discuss with the team any terms that might apply.
And so to the tasting, in all we tasted eleven wines during the evening I was there, seven from the Morton estate, the other four from the Archangel Estate in the Central Otago region of New Zealand. These were all paired with excellent canapés prepared by catering company, Rocket Food. Their tasty nibbles included potato thins with avocado and lime, crotin of goat’s cheese, confit red mullet, with pickled onion and pinot noir sauce, watercress bomb and individual strawberry trifles, there were several others, all beautifully prepared and working well with the wines on show.
There were four Archangel Estate wines, the first of these, the 2009 Riesling, had an interesting toasty caramel/candyfloss and fruity aroma with some serious fruit going on in the mouth, good citrus and great passion fruit in its length. The Pinot Gris 2009 was vibrantly zingy with yellow fruits and a fresh acidity together with a great mouth coating quality. Then came two Pinot Noir wines, The Long Trek Pinot Noir 2009, was the first of the two. This had fresh red berry notes and hints of blackcurrant together with soft blackberry, It was a medium bodied wine with nice length and a little peppery heat in its finish. And finally, we tasted the Archangel Estate 2008 Pinot Noir. which also had fresh red berry flavours, blackcurrant and blackberry coming through on the palate but was a finer wine, fresh and bright, it had a bigger fruity sweetness in the mouth and great length on the palate.
I wasn’t disappointed by any of the wines we tasted, each had big character and some good vibrant fruit enlivening the taste buds. They were a joy to sip and savour, I would happily recommend any, indeed all of them to you.
As to The Vintner, check out their site, if you are in the market for topping up you cellar, whether you are in the trade or not, they have some excellent wines to select from.
The Vintner, 321 Fulham Road, London, SW10 9QL www.thevintner.com
For more information about Rocket Food go to: www.rocketfood.net