Chateauneuf du Pape

Travelling thru Rhone valley is a true awakening for the spirit, a wonderful countryside, friendly people and fantastic wines in all the beautiful villages where my favourite is Chateauneuf du Pape,

I could live there for the rest of my life so if anybody want to buy a small hotel that I can run J please get back to me.

We started our trip in south of Rhone and travelled thru Banyuls and Rivesaltes where they have some of the best fortified wines in the world, nice stuff.

The next stop was in Chateauneuf du Pape and the famous castle of the Pope, fantastic view from the old castle overlooking all the vineyards in the area.

I meet up with the lovely young winemaker at Domaine du Pere Caboche Emilie Boisson who let us taste all of her wines, very nice and beautifully balanced wines where she used all of the 13 allowed grape varieties in her red blends.

After a nice stroll in the small village it was time to try some more CnDP wines to really understand all of the greatness and potential this area have to offer, stop by if you can and let me know if I can assist you in any way to find some good producers.

There are so much to say about this area but the best way is to get there and experience on your own.

 

Cheers guys

 

Best Spanish Bobal wine made by Bruno

Bruno Murciano trained to become a sommelier in Toulouse.He quickly moved to England, first Oxford, and then London where he became head sommelier at the Ritz and was voted the best Sommelier in Spain 2008.

I don’t know Bruno that much but I like his wines a lot and he is like me, we are both wine guys who was born in it and drinks it.

The wines that Bruno and David is making are wine for wine drinkers to share with dear friends and loved ones, remember that great wines are for sharing J

Why the name La Malkeria? Because this table wine, born on the borders of the Utiel-Requena denomination, contains only Bobal (grown as a low bush) and it is written on the label (in the same way that it proudly claims its national origin). Bobal is the old varietal used in this part of Spain.

Bruno Murciano wrote in ‘El Mundo Vino’: “when I cut myself, I don’t draw blood, but juice of Bobal”. I love that !

Some years ago Bruno and his partner David Sampedro Gil winemaker in Rioja invested in some 7 hectares of old bobal vineyards to produce the dream wine with this fantastic grape variety.

 

They produce two wines – “La Malkerida” (which means ‘the unloved girl’ in Spanish) and “El Sueno” (which means ‘dream‘in Spanish).

2011 La Malkerida is juicy, fresh and youthful with a vibrant and fruity flavour full of dark plums, blueberries and fig jam. The wine has been made from 100% Bobal without any oak. At 12.5% alcohol is perfectly-balanced with a long finish

 

The 2010 ”El Sueno” is essentially Bruno’s homage to his twelve years as a sommelier working in top-class restaurants in the UK. It is also produced from 100% Bobal, but in smaller quantities coming from older vines (around 80-100 years old) and it shows the grapes potential.

The wine have been produced to show the unique expression of the grape and its land, the wine are aged in 500 litre French oak barrels for 14 months. The colour is vibrantly red and the nose is just amazing after 2 hours in a decanter, the taste is pure power with great structure and a silky texture packed with spicy black cherry, herbs, vanilla and dark mouth watering chocolate with a long elegant finish.

I just came back from Spain and I have tried many Bobal wines without finding them this good so please try to find and enjoy.

 

Back from holliday //Dragan

 

 

Bruno Murciano trained to become a sommelier in Toulouse.He quickly moved to England, first Oxford, and then London where he became head sommelier at the Ritz and was voted the best Sommelier in Spain 2008.

I don’t know Bruno that much but I like his wines a lot and he is like me, we are both wine guys who was born in it and drinks it.

The wines that Bruno and David is making are wine for wine drinkers to share with dear friends and loved ones, remember that great wines are for sharing J

Why the name La Malkeria? Because this table wine, born on the borders of the Utiel-Requena denomination, contains only Bobal (grown as a low bush) and it is written on the label (in the same way that it proudly claims its national origin). Bobal is the old varietal used in this part of Spain.

Bruno Murciano wrote in ‘El Mundo Vino’: “when I cut myself, I don’t draw blood, but juice of Bobal”. I love that !

Some years ago Bruno and his partner David Sampedro Gil winemaker in Rioja invested in some 7 hectares of old bobal vineyards to produce the dream wine with this fantastic grape variety.

 

They produce two wines – “La Malkerida” (which means ‘the unloved girl’ in Spanish) and “El Sueno” (which means ‘dream‘in Spanish).

2011 La Malkerida is juicy, fresh and youthful with a vibrant and fruity flavour full of dark plums, blueberries and fig jam. The wine has been made from 100% Bobal without any oak. At 12.5% alcohol is perfectly-balanced with a long finish

 

The 2010 ”El Sueno” is essentially Bruno’s homage to his twelve years as a sommelier working in top-class restaurants in the UK. It is also produced from 100% Bobal, but in smaller quantities coming from older vines (around 80-100 years old)

The wine have been produced to show the unique expression of the grape and its land, the wine are aged in 500 litre French oak barrels for 14 months. The colour is vibrantly red and the nose is just amazing after 2 hours in a decanter, the taste is pure power with great structure and a silky texture packed with spicy black cherry, herbs, vanilla and dark mouth watering chocolate with a long elegant finish.

I just came back from Spain and I have tried many Bobal wines without finding the this good so please try to find and enjoy.

 

Back from holyday //Dragan

At the zoo

To do something fun with kids when Its poring rain outside and the Swedish summer is long gone to south of Europe is not easy, but we managed to catch one of the better days at the zoo and gave Bianca a new experience when it comes to wild animals and how to behave among these creatures.

I am always happy when kids get all exited and try to se as much as possible and ask all of these funny questions, great day.

14 000 readers.

I can not believe that I now have more than 14 000 readers from around the globe, this makes me extremely proud and humble for all of you guys who follow my blogg, many thanks and bless you all.

Dragan Unic

Chateau Giscours older wines

Located in the Margaux appellation on the west banks of Bordeaux where exceptional terroir all the great qualities that are needed to produce world class wines Chateau Giscours are among the best wines made there of constant qualities year after year.

The Chateau is over 600 years old and have been thru many bad and also great times under many ownerships and are now maintained as the best in Bordeaux.

I love older wines and I am lucky to have a neighbour that showed up with two bottles the other day for our dinner, the 1974 and the 1978 that was both in great shape and amazingly well stored with all the fruit still there and nice polished tannins with a long lingering finish that stayed there for ever, what a treat this was.

Thanks Viveca.

From the land of Dracula

The land of the famous Vlad Tepes also more known as Count Dracula is a fantastic country with lovely and friendly people in the town of Arad in Romania where I spend the last weekend as a judge for a big cooking competition and food show with many contestants and a lot of visitors even with the temperature way above 40 degrees in the shade.

Iulia and Radu is pulling of great food shows all around in Romania with judges from Iceland, Greece, Germany, Serbia, Russia, Poland, Israel and a Swedish guy, how amazing this event was to meet up with all these lovely and talented people.

To judge a big event like this is not easy task and even harder when consider the heat outside for all of us.

This event have been running now for five years and getting bigger all the time thanks to the effort of the brave few who do their best to pull it off, great going guys and best of luck in the future.

My family on my dads side was originated from Romania and my dads name was Vladan! Where came that from? There must be some strange blood in my veins and not only wine J I guess that all the wine makes me transformed but I know better now.

From Mr Tepes with love and many more pictures on my Facebook.