Van Loveren Chardonnay 2009

I was introduced to this wine here in Sweden by a very close friend. She always liked saying Van Love in hushed tones. And that I do. Love this wine. Chardonnay is for me usually a wine to have with food. Not this one so much. This is your typical, with friends on the grass, chatting and laughing, waiting for the sun to set, wine.

Fruity, lovely aromas and a lingering taste of citrus, smokey and nutty tones. You won't be disappointed. Van Loveren or if you wish Van Love.

Had a lot of Van Loveren wine in South Africa, but mostly reds. I was pleasantly surprised to learn they have come to Sweden.

See the wine online at Systembolaget

Wine Production

Moving back to just loving wine

Finally it seems as if wine production is moving back into the hands of those who love making wine, instead of those who love making money.

The problem is there's just too much really bad wine on the market, produced by those not in it for the love of wine, but more the love of money. Sure, wine lovers who produce fine wines make money, and rightly so, but the difference is that they're in it for the long term. Those that are in it for the money look at it in the short term and will move on to the next money making thing as soon as it comes along.

It's not just Australia who has this problem, but most wine producing countries, including France, Italy and South Africa. Let's hope the situation sorts itself out soon, so the wine quality starts improving, but as the guys from Monocle said, until then I'm willing to help drink the left overs.

















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Best Chardonnay

If you can get your hands on this Chardonnay from Meerlust, then buy it. It is the best in my opinion by a long shot. Think very wooded, aged and powerful. I have never had it with food though, as I love enjoying it by itself, ice cold.

Systembolaget sells the Meerlust Rubicon, but I've not seen the Chardonnay in Sweden yet. If you have, please let me know. This bottle is from my collection in South Africa.

Wine by numbers

Wine by numbers, with a digital content twist.

It's an interesting debate when you have old school wines on the one side vs. technological innovation on the other. The one cannot be without the other. By old school I mean wine in glas bottles, with a lable and a cork, made in a traditional way. Technolical advancement is usually anything that challenges the status quo. As written by Springwise.com "Dutch startup 94wines is now bringing a new technological twist to the table, so to speak, by offering a line of numbered and colour-coded wines that can be personalized with digital content."

"Launched a week ago, 94wines offers a line of French wines in which each variety is indicated by a number and a bottle colour rather than a name linked to its maker, vintage or region. Consumers begin by taking a short quiz of six questions regarding their likes and dislikes. That, in turn, produces their personal WineID, which can then be used to guide their choices from among the company's series of wines. The use of numbers and colours makes wine preferences easy to remember, while personal ID profiles allow friends to see each other's preferences for gift-giving purposes."

There's more to read on Springwise.com.

The sixth wine tasting with Poolia

All the previous wine tastings have always been with friends, or people that I've met more than once before. The sixth wine tasting however was with a recruiting company called Poolia, where a friend of mine works. We were 12 people in total, a mix of Poolia employees and their partners. We only tasted six wines for the night, but all in all I thought it went really well, or so it usually does after the first two wines.

The wines we had were from Argentina, Chilé and South Africa and all of them were single variety wines, meaning no blends. Two bottles of Merlot to start off with, then a Malbec and three bottles of Pinotage in the end.

I am as you may know a Pinotage fan, when it's done in the traditional way. I am not a fan of some of these new styles of easy drinking Pinotage wines you find on the shelves these days. Pinotage is supposed to be strong, dark and heavy and not everyone is supposed to like it, at first that is. You need to sweeten it a bit with food or cheese, because only then does it start to grow on you, to the point of loving the smell and the taste. The highlight of the night was a bottle of Pinotage from South Africa called Cafe Culture. This Pinotage however is very easy drinking and smells like mocha coffee. You can read more about my thoughts on the wine here, because it is a wine that most loved at the start and hated at the end of the night.

The other wines for the night were really good, and my favourite was a bottle of Anura Merlot 2007. Really smooth and very creamy.

Casillero del Diablo Merlot (2008)

Wine tasting 6

I would not buy this wine if I had 70SEK to spend, just because there's nothing special about it. There's a lot more available in this price range that's better quality. Have a look at other wines we've tasted in the 70 - 80SEK price range. If you want another wine from this producer, try the Cabernet Sauvignon, much better, and scored 3 1/2 stars during the 4th wine tasting.

Panel's rating: 2,65 out of 5




Country: Chilé
Grape: 100% Merlot
Price: 70SEK

Colour: Dark, blue red colour.

Nose: Fruity aroma with barrel character, hints of plums, vanilla, grass and liquorice. Fruit-forward with distinct blackberry and plum notes, and delicate traces of vanilla and toast. Very well-integrated wood.

Taste: Very fruity wine with barrel character, hints of plums, liquorice and vanilla. Smooth, good body. Balanced, ripe tannins and a delicious long finish.

Anura Merlot (2007)

Wine tasting 6

An elegant bottle with a really nice label. My favourite wine, during the sixth wine tasting. I think it was really smooth with a sort of creamy finish. I would open this wine while cooking a creamy pasta dish, because I think it's really good by itself, but should be really good with pasta in particular.

Panel's rating: 3,39 out of 5




Country: Simonsberg, Paarl, South Africa
Grape: 100% Merlot
Price: 99SEK

Colour: Dark red colour.

Nose: Large, fruity, smoky aroma with barrel character, hints of plums, green pepper, dark chocolate and liquorice. Hints of herbal and violet aromas are folded in layers of dark chocolate.

Taste: Very fruity, smoky wine with barrel character, hints of plums, green pepper, dark chocolate, liquorice and coffee. The wine has loads of ripe blackberry, red berry and blackcurrant flavours. This full-bodied, well balanced wine and has a long lingering flavour or berries and mint leaves.

Argento Malbec (2008)

Wine tasting 6

Malbec is starting to become a wine that is appearing more and more on my wine tasting radar. So far we've tasted 3 Malbec's, and they've all scored between 3 and 3 1/2 stars. Not excellent, but OK. If you're a Malbec fan, I'd recommend this wine because it was really good. Not fantastic, but with the right meal, who knows...

Panel's rating: 3,48 out of 5




Country: Medoza, Argentina
Grape: 100% Malbec
Price: 79SEK

Colour: Dark, blue red colour.

Nose: Very fruity aroma with hints of barrel, blackberries, herbs and pepper. Deep dark violet in colour and offers powerful aromas of blackstone fruit and notes of chocolate.

Taste: Very fruity taste with hints of barrel, blackberries, grass and vanilla. Blackberry and black currant fruit is complimented with a touch of sweet spice and leads into a lingering finish with ripe velvety tannins.

Some more info: The word Argento, meaning silver in Latin, is often used colloquially in Argentina to refer to a thing or a person that is quintessentially Argentine.

Cafe Culture Pinotage (2008)

Wine tasting 6

In short, buy this wine. Not because it is the best wine, but because it's so interesting and like a chameleon it changes the whole time. At first, the smell is fantastic. Imagine walking into a coffee roastery, layers of Mocha coffee that lingers in the air. Then moving onto the taste, which is deep, rich, creamy and really smooth. The wine was loved by all and was the first wine to almost score 4 1/2 stars. Pinotage however, is not supposed to be easy drinking. It's supposed to be strong, dark and powerful and should take a while before you get used to it. That's the reason I love Pinotage.

The problem with this wine is that it gets too much too soon. Way to much. From loving it in the beginning most hated it in the end, and most I believe won't buy it again. The coffee smell and taste becomes overpowering, and I'm scared people will think that this is what all Pinotage wines are like. Having said all of that, buy it and try it and let me know what you think. It surely is interesting.

Panel's rating: 4,24 out of 5




Country: South Africa (KWV)
Grape: 100% Pinotage
Price: 89SEK

Colour: Dark, blue red colour.

Nose: Large fragrance with distinctive character of toasted oak barrels, hints of coffee, dark berries and smoke.

Taste: Wine has distinctive character of coffee-caramel, sweet and hard toasted barrels, hints of tar, smoke and cherries. This rich and juicy Pinotage has concentrated ripe fruit and mocha flavours.

Some more info: Launched in 2007, to be a Pinotage that's based on coffee characters, or more closer to the point, Mocha. This accounts for its mocha and chocolate flavours – the richness of coffee beans, the smoothness of creamy chocolate and the freshness of ripe fruit. ”