Harrogate Fine Wine Journal

John Duval Eligo Barossa 2006 £41.99

We have long admired the work of John Duval, his plexus is one of our favourite aussie reds. John Duvel famously was the winemaker that made many of the recent vintages of Penfolds Grange until he set up his own winery in 2003.

Eligo is his flagship wine made from his best parcel of Shiraz and has a certain lightness of touch and a lovely savoury edge. The oak has already melted in but the wine needs a few more years to hit its stride aromatically and should be at its best in 5 to 10 years. Its also pretty rare stuff as only 50 cases came to the UK, so don’t hang around if you fancy a bottle or two.

George Lignier visit June 2009



The wines of George Lignier are shockingly not as well known as we feel they should be. In our mind his wines are amazingly pure and delicate, silky smooth and altogether some of the most alluring Pinot we have had in ages. George’s nephew Benoit is at the helm now and what a fantastic job he is doing. Benoit does not like to use much oak preferring to let the wine speak for its self. He also uses a very gentle touch through the fermentation process again looking for the aromas and flavours with out much extraction.

George Lignier are fortunate to own some prestigious vines around the village of Morey-Saint-Denis including some Bonnes Mares, Clos-Saint-Denis and some Clos-de-la-Roche Grand Cru’s which are all clearly beautiful. But the grandness of some of their vines should not overshadow the rest of their wines and one that stands out for us as been near perfect is the Morey-Saint-Denis 2004 £33.99

We also hope to do a tutored tasting with Benoit sometime in the Autumn so watch this space or drop us a line to be kept informed on further developments.

Chateau Musar 2002

For us this is a comparable vintage to 1999, 1997 and 1995 in terms of quality and is a must buy for any lover of the wines of Chateau Musar. The last vintage we promoted heavily was the 1999 which hopefully shows we do pick only the best years to promote.

Chateau Musar 2002 £204 per dozen (equivalent to £17 per bottle)

Chateau Musar halves 2002 £216 per 24 (equivalent to £9 per bottle)

Chateau Musar magnums 2002 £210 per 6 (equivalent to £35 per bottle)

This offer will run until the 30th May and the first shipment will arrive the end of the following week.

As always the opening release sees the other formats available, and special attention should be paid to the magnums as these often sell out first.

Icon Portuguese Tasting

We still have a few spaces left for this event. So if you want the opportunity to taste three top estates from Portugal and have the winemakers who made them tell you all about them, then drop us a line.

Luis Pato, Quinta dos Roques and Quinta do Ameal

Icon Portuguese Tasting
Yorkshire Hotel
Rooftops on the 5th floor
Monday 18th May
7.00 pm pre-tasting drinks
7.30 pm start (prompt)
£15 per ticket

Luis Pato
Adega Luis Pato
Probably a little long in the tooth to be an enfant terrible anymore, but Luis Pato is the most famous producer in Bairrada. So famous, in fact, that he doesn’t bother using the appellation these days. Winner of countless awards, Pato’s reputation not only gets his wines listed at some of the world’s top restaurants, but he has 2 - and 3-star chefs coming to cook and pay homage at his estate.

Luis Lourenço
Quinta dos Roques
Luis Lourenço is well known to wine lovers around the globe as the ‘face’ of the Dão region, and is a tireless promoter of Portugal in general. He’s been running the Roques estate for over a decade now, and has overseen everything from Jancis rating his wines as the best in Portugal (ten years ago now), to his winemaker getting Winemaker of the Year in Portugal this year.

Pedro Araujo
Quinta do Ameal
Pedro Araujo is the undisputed top producer of (non-Alvarinho) wines in the Minho. While they go to market with the appellation of Vinho Verde, these are wines of substance, depth and complexity, and stand up as some of Iberia’s finest white wines. Fully organic, and now embracing bio-dynamics, Pedro is one of Portugal’s most exciting winemakers, and passionate about his boutique operation.

Seven Flags Pinot Noir Paul Cluver 2006 £29.99

This is classic Pinot noir. The nose is intriguing - first a whiff of soft dark cherries, then hints of spice. After a while, the earthy mushroom notes come through and then, finally, the perfumed oak spiciness. The palate is focused and well structured; not only by tannin, but also by balanced acidity. All that flavour comes through to the palate in different stages, resulting in a truly complex wine that will age perfectly for years to come.

This has limited availability and judging by how this went down at my house over supper the other night I do not expect it to hang around for long.

Vergelegen News

Some of you may have heard that there is a fire that has been burning away for the last few weeks in the winelands around Somerset West. A few vineyards are affected and for us the most notable is Vergelegen.



photo: Eddie Turner

I got an email from them the other day to say the fires had started again and as you can see from this pretty amazing photos taken from the winery roof the fire got pretty close.



photo: Eddie Turner








It would seem that they have lost about 7 hectares of vines and in total 1500 hectares have been lost to the fire. The biggest problem they face is they were harvesting the whites and had yet to harvest the reds so smoke damage becomes a very real possibility. But Andre Van Rensburg is clearly a magician so if anyone can pull it off Andre can.

RHONE OFFER

Following a spectacular run of exceptional vintages in the Southern Rhone since 1998, 2007 is being widely acknowledged as the greatest, most remarkably consistent vintage in a generation. It is certainly comparable with legendary years like 1990 and 1978. What makes this year stand out is the wonderful aromatic purity and freshness the wines display – a result of a strong, cold Mistral prior to the harvest – and the fabulous richness and concentration, resulting from a long, hot, dry summer.

We obviously major on the 2007s from the Southern Rhone but have slipped a few 2005s on the offer, which was also an amazing vintage.

Please email andy@harrogatefinewinecompany.com for the full list of wines on offer

We also hope to put on a tasting of these wines when they all arrive so drop us a line if you would like more information about that.