Chateau Musar is a wine with which we have had a very long relationship. The wine was created with the passion of Gaston Hochar in 1930. His love of French wine and his studies in Bordeaux were brought over to the unique terroir of his homeland of Lebanon.

Being a great lover of Kasteel Cru (we used to buy it by the pallet load) I was surprised to have only just found out about the rose beer.

Brought into the bar a couple of years back, the beer gave me a new found interest in beer. With its wine credentials, the beer fitted Gales like a glove.

Although using champagne yeast and being from Alsace sounds like it going to be a gimmick, the beer is still a serious drink and its production methods and sensibility can easily be tasted as a real point of interest. Light, with fine bubbles, you would hardly guess it is as alcoholic as it is. The perfect beer to start the evening and a great drink to accompany a light fish starter.

When the offer of buying this wine from one of our suppliers arose, Richard experienced a real blast from the past. Taltarni made the Brut Taché with we stocked in the very early days of the Wine Bar.

This is their entry level sparkling, but it spares none of the production quality of this well established Australian company. Wine has been planted on the plot of land since 1887 but the modern vineyard dates back to 1972. French influences are shown throughout their range but mostly in the sparkling

In its native Australia, Taltarni is a household name, famous for its high quality sparking wine. The Brut Taché, a wine we used to stock way back in the bar, is a class leader. Taché is French for ’stained’ and refers to the light salmon, rose hue of the wine. This is a blend of three sparkling wine varietals, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, sourced from cool climate vineyards in Victoria and Tasmania.

A new wine from the long heritage of Riesling from Pewsey Vale. An early harvest wine, the grapes are picked 4 weeks before the rest of the vineyard when the sugar levels are just right. The wine created can be described as semi dry. An interesting “chalky” acid is balanced off with left over fruit sugars to make an fascinating, refreshing drink.

The first vineyard planted in Eden Valley, Pewsey Vale, is situated above the Barrosa in a cooler climate, ideal for a greater ripening. Planted in 1841 it truly was ahead of its time, many a grape was tried out there with the experimental Joseph Gilbert at the helm. His research helped the Australian wine industry become what it is today. Sadly, Australia’s Great Depression made the vineyard fall into disrepair.

Dry white is not the best name for this as it is not dry, only when compared to other white ports in Ramos’ range does this appear dry. Served cold this wine is the prefect summer aperitif and gets any dinner party off to the right start. I prefer to have it with an antipasto starter.

Late bottled vintage, or LBV as it’s usually called, is a ruby port which only contains grapes from the best years aged in oak for 4 or 5 years, then bottled. This LBV is unfiltered for the biggest fruit flavour available for this wine. Although it is ready to drink straight away it will keep in the bottle for a good while and, although not strictly necessary, I find decanting to get a little air into the wine really helps.

Ramos Pintos “still” wine (what they call a regular non-port wine in the valley) is a class leader taken from their two vineyards (hence the name) in the Duoro Superior. It uses the grapes found in their port wine, Touriga Franca (40%), Tinta Roriz (40%) and Touriga Nacional (20%). Tinta Roriz is the Portuguese name for Tempranillo. Hand picked, with only 20% of the wine going in oak with the rest of the wine kept in stainless steel until the wine in oak has aged for 18 months, then mixed back together and bottled.