Are you ready to say farewell to this summer? I have started wondering about the end of BBQ season and switching refreshments to a more comforting and warming selection of full-bodied reds.
Let’s say ‘No’ and trick this first days of autumn with a few organic wines that are red, but crisp, refreshing and perfect for al-fresco dining – be it in your garden, pub’s beer garden or at the restaurant’s terrace.
Let’s kick off with San Vito 2013 Organic Chianti. This Italian classic comes packed with pleasant cherry aromas and notes of violets. The taste is sour (acidity is high) and refreshing. This wine is simple, and just very juicy with red fruit flavours. Not unpleasant, but nothing exciting either. It is made with good honest organic Sangiovese grapes, so you can try and make your own judgement (it would be rather typical to Chianti, but slightly fresher); it retails at just under £10 at Vintage Roots.
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Bourgueil 2013 by M. Plauzeuax, made from a blend of organic Gamay (Beaujolais grape), Malbec (referred as Cot there at Loire Valley) and Cabernet Franc. Hand harvested and organic, it is then sold by Vintage Roots again at £10.5.I will recommend to chill this bottle prior to tasting – otherwise it will taste rather flat.
When chilled it displays more concentrated aromas and flavours of raspberry and red currant, good but not overwhelming acidity (good in my books), but doesn’t deliver on richness and deepness of the flavour even for the red that can be considered as refreshing.
I had a thought that this could be in a way a good competitor to rose wine. Though I have tried some exceptional rose wines that will beat this one on flavour intensity.
This wine is good but just a few chilled glasses becomes a bit boring.
On a plus side it is quite low in alcohol – 12.5%, which is definitely good for summer!
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Frederic Mabileau ‘Les Rouilleres’ 2013 from St Nicolas de Bourgueil is a pure one – it is made from 100% organic Cabernet Franc (more typical to this region).The winemaker has used 25 to 40 years old vines to source the grapes and used only natural treatments during the whole process. They are extremely proud to employ traditional methods and very careful winemaking – traditional, natural and manual.
The alcohol is even lower – at 12%. It is also lighter in colour.
Aromas are of juicy raspberry and cassis, sour cherry and violets with further herbs (black currant leaf) – a very nice complexity here. The wine is juicy with restrained but refreshing acidity. Must be slightly chilled to fully recognise different flavours in this wine.
A very good wine that can be sourced at Waitrose Cellar at under £14!
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Jajavanaise Touraine 2014 is made from organic blend of 50% Gamay, 30% Cot and 20% Cabernet Franc. This seems to be a very popular choice at Loire Valley as the second wine is also blended the same way.Grapes were hand harvested to produce wine, which is fresh, perfumed with wild berries, forest fruit, red currants and plums. It is juicy but unfortunately without much depth to it.
I also like the fact that it creates a pleasant mouth-feel without tasting overly acidic.
Good ripe fruit and careful organic viticulture coupled with good winemaking from Loire Valley are all responsible for a good result and a rather complex array of flavours.
You can buy this wine from The Wine Society at just under £8.
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A bottle of Chateau de Brau 2012 is coming from Cabardes, which is in Languedoc-Roussillon, France.The blend consists of Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache.
First thing you notice is that the aromas are very weak. You then move forward and taste it – the palate lacks fruit, tannins are a bit unripe and quite stalky. Not a great start at all.
On the plus side it turns out to be quite earthy and oaky.
My big problem with this wine is the fruit – having a wealth of depth and savoury dimension to the wine unfortunately isn’t making up for a complete lack of fruit qualities.
23/35 and I simply kept it for cooking (my gravy benefited greatly!)
It retails at £8.75 at Vintage Roots and in my opinion does not really represent neither the region or a well-balanced range of organic wines sold by this specialised retailer.
There is a definite point that all these fresh wines also benefit from a reduced alcohol content – all of these are between 12 and 13% abv, which is lower than even your typical Rioja and allows you to enjoy some last sunny spells in a healthier way. It doesn’t mean you should go over the limits! Yet choose your refreshing red wines carefully – these 5 are all organic, but offer different flavours and clearly some of them should be avoided.
What do you expect from your refreshing red wine? Connect with IBlameTheWine.com via Twitter, Facebook or sign up for the weekly newsletter!
Cheers
