When I assemble a wine lineup for a corporate event, I always keep in mind the diverse palate of the audience. I start with some classic styles and then add a couple of curve balls for that element of surprise. There are always a few quiet wine experts in the crowd who deserve to be wowed by new and fascinating flavours as much as genuine amateurs.
The ‘complex white blend’ is my go-to white wine style to elicit wonder and amazement. I usually head straight to Italy. Top-quality wines from Trentino-Alto Adige and Friuli-Venezia Giulia always come up trumps with their pristine fruit clarity, quirky recipes, and unique flavours. I was reminded of the top white blends from Northern Italy when I recently tasted 2022 Walgate Cuvée M (£39.95, www.brunswickfinewines.com; £39.07 www.sipwines.shop).
Leaving aside the robust price, which might deter experimental drinkers, this wine is a remarkable example of the joys of the complex white blend. It casts a magical spell like my favourite Italians do with its intricate perfume and shape-shifting palate, and I was thrilled to learn it is made from an intriguing collection of lesser-known grapes.
This delightful blending exercise has resulted in a mille-feuille of expressive fruit. Who could have imagined that Müller-Thurgau, Ortega, Siegerrebe, Schönburger and Huxelrebe could sing such an enchanting song?
Ben Walgate recognised this potential, and I have found three more terrific wines this week from three inspirational wineries that prove the offbeat concept that more is more. More detail, more individuality, and more ingredients can, in the right hands, make fascinating wines.
We don’t blink when a red wine fiche technique lists four, five or six varieties, but it is not as common in the white wine world. If one can make a white wine more layered and mesmerising by building strata of flavour, you must go for it.
There is no doubt from my many consumer wine tastings that most punters recognise Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Riesling and other well-known white grapes. They have flavour memories that anticipate the tastes of wines made from these grapes. But they cannot predict the many nuances and palate gymnastics a clever white blend can offer.
2022 Woodchester Valley Vineyard, Culver Hill
£16.50
www.woodchestervalleyvineyard.co.uk and a wide range of independents, including
The folks at Woodchester know a thing or two about complex white blends, with Ortega, Pinot Blanc, Bacchus and Pinot Gris conspiring to create a truly mesmerising wine in Culver Hill.
I have said it before, and it bears repeating that Jeremy Mount is a winemaker with uncanny talent, and every wine in this portfolio is beautifully polished and complete.
Culver Hill is the most Alto Adige-like wine of this month’s collection. I think it should be on every dining room table in the land because while it conforms to the classic white wine model of having a refreshing and invigorating nose, a sexy, silky palate and a crunchy, energetic finish (Pinot Blanc brings the acid snap), it does all of this at a wickedly keen price.
The core flavour here is simply stunning – with more fruit notes bringing more excitement, and I reckon that if people could explain, in flavour terms, their perfect white wine to carry out a complete suite of elite white wine duties, Culver Hill would be the answer.
2023 Greyfriars, Yolande Still White Blend
£15.00
£17.50
Made from 35% Pinot Gris, 34% Chardonnay, 20% Pinot Blanc and 11% Pinot Noir, this is the UK’s finest value complex white blend!
The Pinot Gris was allowed a two-hour soak, while a quarter of the Chardonnay was fermented and aged in barrel for six months. A couple of other tricks were employed, too, and nothing went through malo to retain as much freshness as possible.
The result is a heavenly creation with an uplifting perfume and a silky, lithe, ever-changing palate. It finishes bone dry, and I venture that anyone and everyone, regardless of vinous experience, in white wines will fall at its feet!
Before you move on to the next wine, it is critical to repeat the value message that all Greyfriars wine trumpet with pride. It is unbelievable just how competitive these wines are, and when anyone moans to me about English wines being too expensive, Greyfriars is my de facto defence!
2023 Vagabond Wines, Night Tripper
£30.00
In early 1968, Dr John the Night Tripper, on his album Gris-Gris sings, “I walk on guilded splinters”: a song described as a creepy voodoo soup. I listened to this track after Vagabond winemaker Jose Quintana informed me of the inspiration behind this wine, and I urge you to buy a bottle immediately and then turn this awesome music up to 11.
As if by magic, this swirling vortex of Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and Muscat makes perfect sense. That’s not to say it isn’t delicious without a soundtrack.
Vagabond’s wines have entered a new era with definition, precision and verve, and Night Tripper is one of the finest complex white blends ever assembled in our land.
It follows my more is more, complex white blend mantra with every variety playing its part, harmonising with the whole. In addition, I prefer the correct spelling of gilded splinters because, among the heady, floral and pithy stone fruit layers, I can pick up shards of gold in this tremendous wine.
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