Chateau de Seguin

Coming from South Africa, I tend to drink mostly South African wine. It's most likely the same when you're from another wine producing country like France, Italy or say Agentina, that you tend to drink the wines from your own country. I don't think it's always necessarily that we think our countries make the best wines. Perhaps it is that we don't know enough about the other country's wines to make an informed decision when we buy, and hence just go with what we know. There is the language barrier to consider as well, with labels in Italien, French or Spanish, then the thousands of different grapes and the list goes on.

In Sweden we're lucky, in that Systembolaget, the government owned liquor outlet has wines from every wine producing region in the world, so they pretty much do a lot of the decision making on your behalf. I tend to still choose from what I know, but lately I've been introduced to other wines from other countries and I've started to look for some that I know now, when I'm out shopping. Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, a grape variety from Italy or Bordeaux, a blend from France are my current favourites.

This new year I tried another wine from France, from a farm called Chateau de Seguin. The wine is called Chateau de Seguin Grand Vin De Bordeaux 2006. We had it with some really strong French cheese and the wine came across very smooth, with a taste that lingers in your mouth. Exactly what I want from a wine, with the South African Pinotage being my usual favourite.

Here's what the wine maker has to say: "This is our regular prizewinning wine, which is made acording to the best winemaking methods by our professional staff. It was the first wine made by the Carl family after they bought the Château de Seguin. The wine has aged for 6 months in oak barrels. and is bottle 18 month after the harvest."

My rating: 4/5, just perhaps because we've had lots of wine the whole night, and it stood out from the crowd. I'm going to put it into my basket next time I'm wine shopping to see what it's like the second time around.

An elevated taste

I grew up in South Africa, and have lived in Cape Town from ten years. The one thing I've learnt, is that there's too much wine in the world, to know everything about them all, never mind having enough time to taste them all.

South Africa has its well known grapes, Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc for the whites, and then Merlot, Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinotage for the reds. There's a lot more, but these are the ones you find on most shop shelves, and the ones I know a little about. At least what they taste like. South Africans for instance only drink South African wine. There's so much of it, that there's not a lot of space for importing wine. So we're not really exposed to wine from other parts of the world. Since moving to Sweden however, I have been exposed to wine from every country that produces it.

I've had wine from Chile, Argentina, Hungary, China, Australia, Germany, USA, France, Spain Italy and countless others. The thing that I struggle with now, is to remember the names of all the grapes. There's so many, and so many blends. So a lot more has been added to the equation, than what I've been used to back home. So I am busy studying up a bit on all the new grapes, wine estates and names, and read all the wine reports I can find my hands on.

Here's one that I have in my Men's Journal magazine this month. The first wine is a Cabernet Sauvignon from Smith-Madrone in the Napa Valley, the second is a Malbec from Calomé Estate and the third is a blend of Shiraz and Viognier from Philip Shaw. We have some Viognier in South Africa, but it's mostly used to add to a blend, but I have not seen any Malbec. It is popular, and I've tasted it here in Sweden a couple of times, but it's not one of my favourites I need to add.

What I have learnt about it so far, is that it is originally from Argentina, and is now grown around the world. It was named after the peasant who introduced it to France and is one of the six grapes allowed into a blend of Bordeaux.