Wine Talk

At this time of year, almost every magazine you open has its definitive list of dos and don’ts for festive food and wine pairings. At Gerrard Seel, we prefer to approach the matter from a different perspective.

Or at least that's what we’d been told. Arriving in Priorat on 2nd November, we were greeted by a deluge that made our planned vineyard tour quite impossible. The only course of action was to go straight for lunch and wait for the storm to pass. You have no idea of the sacrifices we have to make in this job!

This excellent family estate has been one of our partners for the last thirty years, in which time we have seen the development of their business and also their cellars. However, one thing has remained constant during this time; their ability to create wines that express both their origin and grape variety and which have consistently been of the utmost quality.

Over the last decade or so, Pinot Grigio has seen a dramatic rise in popularity with the UK wine consumers, many of whom believe that it’s a grape indigenous to Italy and that little else is produced outside of the borders. How wrong they are.

It has been a few years since we last visited South Africa and we were more than a little excited to see what developments had taken place and to see what the wine industry was up to over there.

In 2014, we had requested samples from wineries in Spain's Penedes for both Cava and still wines. The general quality was decent, but one Bodega stood head and shoulders above the others: Parés Baltà. So come early February, we packed an overnight bag and went to Spain to see just what made it so special.

Lia Poveda of Walker Bay's Bouchard Finlayson Estate was in Manchester to host a small tasting of their range for some of our restaurant clients.

Now that much of the grape harvest is in the vats, we can get an overview of the size and quality of the vintage. First reports from France are, in general, good. Italy has been more of a mixed bag.

As is usual for this time of year, we are in contact with our growers to get a feel for what's been happening in the vineyards that could affect the market over the coming weeks and months. After the devastating hail storms in Burgundy at the end of June, vineyard areas that are close took the priority for us, so we spoke with Caroline Brochard from Sancerre earlier this week put our minds at rest!