Harrogate Fine Wine Journal

International Wine Challenge Merchant Awards

A few weeks back we went down to the Grosvenor in London for the annual Merchant awards. We were short listed for two awards North East Specialist Merchant Of The Year and South Africa Specialist Merchant Of The Year.

Only three shops in the country were short listed for best South Africa and we were thrilled to be one of them, next year we hope to go one further.

Vasse Felix Tasting

So last night was a great success, it was a pleasure to hear what Virgina Willcocks had to say about her wines, that were all showing exceptionally well. If the great wines were not enough we all thought the Oxford Street Brasserie excelled themselves by putting on one of the most memorable meals we have ever had.

The wine that stood out for us for pound for pound value was the Sauvignon / Semillon (£10.99), it is everything you could possibly want from a white wine and was a great way to kick off the evening.

The Heytesbury Chardonnay (£19.99) was also a star, cool climate subtle oak beautiful wine indeed.

For the reds the Shiraz (£16.99) was great but not in a blockbuster Barossa style and we were fortunate to be the first people in the UK to taste the up coming new vintage of the 2004 Heytesbury (£34.99), already supple and open but will just keep on getting better and better.

More new Whisky additions

We feel we must now have the most interesting range of quality Whisky in Harrogate with our latest addition of the fantastic range of Murry McDavid limited additions.

What fun they must have had racing all over the world to find barrels to age their Whisky in, this includes a Ridge Zinfandel (Dufftown), Guigal Cote Rotie (Craggenmore) and a various assortment of Rioja, Syrah, Mourvedre and Maderia,

Mission Cragganmore 21 year old Bourbon then Tempranillo casks

Mission Glenturret Bourbon then Rioja casks

Mission St Magdalene 24 year old Bourbon then Vintage Port casks

Murray McDavid Macallan 1997 Bourbon then Ridge Zin casks

Murray McDavid Auchentoshan 1999 Bourban then Mourvedre casks

Murray McDavid Clyneliash 1995 Bourbon then Vintage Port casks

Murray McDavid Coal Ila 1995 Bourbon then Mourvedre and Syrah casks

Murray McDavid Cragganmore 1993 Bourbon then Guigal Cote Rotie casks

Murray McDavid Dufftown 1997 Bourbon then Ridge casks

Murray McDavid Longmorn 1994 Bourbon then Tempranillo casks

Murray McDavid Macallan 1990 Bourbon then Madeira casks

Murray McDavid Mortlach 1993 Bourbon then Vintage Port casks

Murray McDavid Tobermory 1994 Sherry then Madeira casks

More 2005 Port

As many of you will know Niepoort declared 2005 as a Vintage year. Well The Symington family decided only to produce Single Quinta's, like they did in 2004. It was a hard decision not to declare it as a proper vintage, but this does mean these Single Quintas are of exceptionally high quality. Yields were very low so only 550 cases of Dow, 750 case of Roriz and 1250 case of Vesuvio were made.

Quinta Do Vesuvio 2005 £215 inc vat and duty for a six pack

Dows Quinta Da Senhora Da Ribeira 2005 £179 inc vat and duty for a 6 pack

Quinta De Roriz £179 inc vat and duty for a 6 pack

We will also have sample bottles of these to taste in the shop on the 8th September and for us we feel the Dow is worth a special look.

All Ports will be shipped around Springtime next year.