Working in a wine shop has lots of benefits. One of them – especially at Cambridge Wine Merchants – is that you get to try a phenomenal range of wines, beers and spirits. Some of these we want to introduce to you as ‘Staff Secrets’ – stuff we think deserves to be better known and appreciated. Each month we’ll bring you a rotating selection, along with a bit of info on whose secret it is, and why.
Without further ado:
Dom. Comelade Le Barral Rivesaltes Ambre 1988 Vin Doux Naturel; £22.99
Great value for a 33 year old wine. Its only £22.99, that’s less than a pound a year. Its rather special and only bottled to order, and only for us at CWM as far as I can tell.
Its best treated as a dessert wine, but I find it a touch not so sweet and slightly port like. It is technically a fortified wine, but its lusciuous and smooth and served chilled fantastic just on its own.
It would make a good Christmas pressie for those hard to buy for if you can bear to give it away. Enjoy!
Domaine Treloar – Le Rescape Carignan 2018 £16.99
My new favourite wine from Treloar! Delicious Carignan from a single vineyard in the Roussillon, made using whole bunch fermentation and carbonic maceration to give that Beaujolais style fruitiness, but with much more body, concentration and complexity. Works great with food but equally enjoyable to drink by itself.
Ch. Haut Bergey 2015 Pessac Leognan Rouge; £25.99
Next door to where I studied and lived for 6 years! Amazing wine, brilliant vintage. Rich, medium to full bodied, graphite, ripe red and dark fruits, medium – acidity, good firm tannins.
Maximin Grünhauser Abtsberg, Grosses Gewächs,, Von Schubert, 2018; £36.99
You know you are in good hands, if there has been wine made here for 2000 years. Grosses Gewächs or ‘GG’ for short is a sign of exceptional dry wine from Germany and wow this wine is the perfect example. Just open and have a sniff! Full bodied, high in acidity, taut and mineral. Strong enough to withstand a serious meal and deft enough to be served with a salad.
Glendronach Allardice 18yo: Highland Whiskey: £112
A smooth, dark and seductive whiskey. Made using exceptional quality oloroso sherry casks from Spain which brings complexity, smoothness and almost an orange chocolate flavour. A staff favourite without a doubt.
Dr Thanisch Bernkasteler Badstube Spatlese 2014: £24.00
After the first sip anyone will love! Great complexity from citrusy to exotic fruit, hint of petrol with honey notes!
The sweetness supported wonderfully with lively acidity and minerality!
