In the next few days you’ll start to see a few changes creep onto the FWW site, not least of which is a fully revamped wine list. After a few jaunts around the country earlier this year we find ourselves with an expanded portfolio of Distributorships and have been appointed agents for two French wineries to represent them in the Alpes – Martimes. There are a few old friends we’ll be sticking with – new vintages plus a few range extensions, but we are most proud to now be working closely with both Château des Chaberts in the Var and Domaine de Mourchon in the Southern Rhône village of Séguret.

There is so much more to Provence than simple quaffing Rosé so we’ve opted to list Chaberts most premium range – a red, white and a rosé all at 17.75€, that all have a full trophy cupboard of awards and medals and offer real class and complexity. Betty Cundall, who runs Château des Chaberts, will admit she is fiercely proud of the Chaberts rouge and is delighted we will be giving it a high profile this Summer at our tastings and events. Also, although we have been championing our fabulous range of Vilmart champagnes since early 2009, we do recognise that there are some fun party occasions where you need something a little frothier and less serious. Chaberts happen to do a traditional method Provence rosé sparkler in a most glamorous frosted bottle for a fantastic 12.60€. Made in exactly the same way as champagne but using local Provence varietals, serve well chilled at around 6 – 8?C and enjoy passion-fruit, raspberries and roses in a glass!

Over to the Rhône and the Estate we used for our Grape Escape tour, the fabulous Domaine de Mourchon for warm hearted juicy Grenache and Syrah based stunners. We’ve listed their luscious rosé “Loubie” at 7.25€ (something a bit more intense and punchy than our delicate Provence flowers), their eminently quaffable “Tradition” at 8.75€, a Côtes du Rhône – Villages – peppery, packed with berry fruit and smooth as silk, and their incredibly dense and brambly Grande Réserve at 15.00€. As a special introduction to our new list, we are offering a case of 12 of the superb 2006 Grande Réserve for the price of 11 bottles, representing a saving of 1.25€ per bottle! Amongst other projects with the McKinlay family at Domaine de Mourchon, we are working on developing a trio of wines to package specially for Nice Rugby Club for their next season – we’ll keep you posted as we progress.

Reading this, you’d think our wine list was all French – but think again! We really enjoy setting ourselves the challenge of sourcing non French wine here in France. I believe French customs officers think we are a bit bonkers when we go to them with various paperwork to import wines from other countries – “surely we ‘ave enough wine ‘ere??” But scour the globe we do, and the list now has wines from New Zealand, Chile, Germany, California, Spain and much more. We are particularly looking forward to sharing Delta Vineyards exquisite strawberry scented Pinot Noir from Marlborough (19.50€) with you and introducing you to the wonders of the grape variety Alvarinho from Vinho Verde DO in Portugal (16.00€) – the most perfect seafood wine ever. Also, banish memories of sickly Liebfraumilch which has done so much damage to Germany’s image in the wine world – we have two of Ernie Loosens wondrous Rieslings from the Mosel to tempt you – a spine-tingly yummy Kabinett from the Erdener Treppchen vineyard that is all apples and honey at (14.75€) and heavenly, spicy nectarine filled ethereally enchanting Ürziger Würzgarten Spätlese (18.75€)

On the whole, we have chosen just a couple of wines to star on our list, but we can usually get other wines from the same producers – just ask. The list itself also has Food Matching suggestions and full descriptions of what to expect from each wine. Also new for Summer 2010 is our FWW Treasure Trove – a small selection of parcels of “ready to drink” Fine Wines, mostly Bordeaux. These wines will change and come and go, so when you spot something you think is an amazing bargain from say, St Emilion, in the Trove you best snap it up as we cannot promise to find the same again. This will be appearing as a special section on the Wine List page – just as soon as our web wizard, Ben from Pure Design International can magic it up for us.

Tags: champagne, international wines, Mosel, non-French wines, order wine france, riesling, Rioja, vilmart, Vilmart Champagne, Wine List

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 16th, 2010 at 8:47 am and is filed under French Wine, German Wine, Italian Wine, New World Wine, Wine List. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.