Rouge, blanc et orange?

Red, White and Orange sound like the colours of a flag from deepest darkest Mozambique. But it is not that! They are in fact the colours of our wine at lunch yesterday. As usual served blind (decanted), and not just to welcome in the southern hemisphere’s Spring Equinox’19, but also to celebrate good and conventional wine from around the world, and maybe finally that there are now only 31 days to go to Bojo our way out of Europe. Enough causes to celebrate life, I guess.  As I have already been out for a while now, the question arises “what will you be drinking on that Thursday evening at dinnertime?” I wonder, but as I am still pondering on a White Burgundy, followed by Claret and then a Vintage Port. How very European of me, and no changes there thank goodness.

The wines served to accompany our Spring lunch of asparagus and morcilla (blood sausage) tossed in poached egg and tapenade with some rather good local ripe cheeses to follow, where these right royal beauties:

2016 Collecapretta Vigna Vecchia Umbria
Made from my favorite Italian white grape, from 100% Trebbiano Spoletino coming from old vines. Straw yellow in color with lots of herbs, minerals and tropical fruits both to the nose and palate, as well as hint of salinity. With this wine you get to know the qualities of this native grape well and all it’s naturalness. Unfiltered!

2018 Chona’s Marani’s Mtsvane & Rkatsitel Tsinandali
I had a pretty good guess that this wine would come from Georgia. It’s so very Qvevri and Orange in all senses and made from these two ancient Kakheti (the region) grapes Mtsvane & Rkatsiteli. Totally spontaneous and unique. Appley, both crumble and cider at the same time. Unfiltered, dry and a real wake up to your vinous ideas of what a natural wine could, or in this case, should be. Not for the faint hearted.

and now my new red wine of the month…

1995 Château Valandraud St. Émilion Grand Cru
Slightly smoked spice, truffle, crushed rock, dark plum and licorice coated blackberries with Cuban cigar tobacco. An opulent, energetic, sensuous wine that just coats your palate with an abundance of sweet black cherry and bitter chocolate. The wine kept opening in the glass. I wish I had more. I believe this was the first vintage that JL Thunevin made and back in the day I used to sell as much as I could get my paws on to a client in Singapore. Now I understand totally what he was on about, unfortunately he drank the lot, and I have none left in my cellar either. Drat!