And now for something a little bit different

A few weeks ago I was placing an order from the Wine Society, the core items of which consisted of Blackwoods vintage gin (not for me for once!) and the very fine Viejo Oloroso Dulce, pictured, which continues to be the single best reason for being a member of the WS, in my opinion. When it's cold outside a glass of this really hits the spot. It's not in the league of vintage Madeira, but at £10.95 a bottle, it's excellent value for money.

To top up the order to the free delivery level (a mere £75, favourable compared to many other wine merchants) I added a couple of things that had caught my eye.

First, this Ramisco 2005 from Colares in Portugal. Apparently this area is on the southwestern Atlantic coast, with vineyards protected from the ocean winds by sand dunes. The region is known for its deep colored, full bodied red wines with high levels of tannin. We thought it was fruity, approachable, soft and mature, so clearly the age had mellowed those fearsome tannins! Furthermore, it claimed to be only 12.5% in alcohol which is good news in my book. I wouldn't have guessed it was so low. This was classy booze and I would get some more, except the WS seems to have sold out now as I can no longer find it on their website. Nor can I remember how much it was... oops. Somewhere between £15 and £20 I think, and worth it.

Secondly, the other night we had this La Grenouillère Negrette, Vin de Pays de Vendée, 2009. This was £11.95 and from the Loire, a region whose reds I often find rather thin, green and stemmy (Chinon in particular), but this did not fall into that category. We enjoyed it but found it hard to think of anything much to say about it. It was a juicy red and went down nicely, but didn't have any particular wow factor so I doubt whether I'll be buying it again.

And finally, this 1985 Bonnezeaux from Domaine la Croix de Mission which G picked up at a recent auction. This was excellent. It was a beautiful golden colour, floral on the nose and medium sweet with good acidity on the palate. It reminded G of Alsace and me of Vouvray. We had it with lemon tart which was a great combo. He got a case of it and at the time I wondered if we really needed a case of sweet wine, but actually this was a fantastic buy and I'm looking forward to drinking more in the near future (hint, hint)!