-- Year -- ------------------------ After 2000 1996 - 2000 1991 - 1995 1986 - 1990 1981 - 1985 1976 - 1980 1971 - 1975 1966 - 1970 1961 - 1965 Before 1961 -- Price HK$ -- ------------------------ Below HK$ 100 HK$ 100 - 199 HK$ 200 - 299 HK$ 300 - 399 HK$ 400 - 499 HK$ 500 - 599 Above HK$ 600 > -- Country -- ------------------------ France Australia Chile Italy Argentina New Zealand Spain South Africa Hungar Liquer Series (500ml) Connoisseur Series Back 1 2 3 4 Next Pinot Noir GRAPE VARIETIES Pinot Noir continues to tantalize growers worldwide. Indeed, for many winemakers success with this grape represents the Holy Grail of winemaking as it is one of the most challenging of all the international varieties. The taste of Pinot Noir: Like strawberry,black cherry, game, leather, mushrooms,don't really tell you what it tastes like. Pinot is all these things, and none of them, sliding from one flavour to another. Words like ' complex' 'ethereal' or 'profound' may tell you even less about what it tastes like, but sometimes they are the ony words that will do. Finer examples combine strawberries or black cherries with sensuous yet focused flavours, perhaps with a touch of incense and spice, sometimes with a pungent, gamy richness to balance the fruit. Mature wines gain flavours of leasther and woodsmoke, game and undergrowth, even a touch of rotting vegetables. Primary fruit is less important, though the wines should always taste fruity and perhaps slightly sweet. ●Pinot Noir Pinotage GRAPE VARIETIES Pinotage is hig yielding - often too high for top quality. Many South African winemakers have yet to be convinced by it, and prefer Cabernet Sauvignon. But there is now a Pinotage Association in South Africa, which is dedicated to improving quality, and new clones, without the viruses that plagued the vine in the past, produce much better flavours. The taste of Pinotage: Good Pinotage tasteds and smells like no other wine - wonderful mulberry, blackberry and damson fruit, a flicker of lava and the deep, midwinter flavour of marshmallows toasted in front of the fire. There are two problems with Pinotage. One is that it is difficult to get full flavours and yet control its rather aggressive tannins. And secondly those genuinely individualistic and exciting flavours do tread a knife edge and if the winemaking isn't really good, you can find a wine reeking of the spiritiness of gloss paint and a volatile acidity tottering towards raspberry vinegar. ●Pinotage Sangiovese GRAPE VARIETIES Intensive research is pushing the quality of Sangiovese further and further forward. We have probably not yet seen the best it can do- and if that applies to Tuscany, which it does, it applies even more to the New World. The taste of Sangiovese: The traditional flavours of Tuscan Sangiovese are of bitter cherries and violets, with a certain tomatoey savoriness to the fruit, a definite rasp of herbs and a tea-like finish. Acidity is high and so is tannin: upfront fruit flavours are not the be-all and end-all of traditional Tuscan reds. ●Sangiovese Shiraz GRAPE VARIETIES Shiraz is the comeback kid: one moment growers were pulling it up as fast as they could and the next the whole world was crying out for old-vine Shiraz. Or failing that, any Shiraz at all. And there's a massive difference between old vine Shiraz and young, high-yielding Shiraz. The taste of Shiraz: Young Syrah often smells, surprisingly for a red, of exotically scented flowers like carnations and violets. To those add woodsmoke, perhaps with a few sprigs of rosemary thrown on to the fire, plus raspberries, blackberries and blackcurrants. If you open a bottle too young you may wonder where this is - and it keeps this richness longer than any comparable French red wine. With age it gains gamy, leathery smells, an almost chocolaty character, and a whiff of violets and tobacco. ●Shiraz Tempranillo GRAPE VARIETIES We can expect a flood of Tempranillo from all corners of the earth in the next few years. Australian growers are planting it as fast as they can get it in the ground, and it could be terrific in South America. Only California has yet to sport its potential. The taste of Tempranillo: Think of a cross between Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir, and you have the flavour of Tempranillo. Well, sort of. It has the deep colour and rich flavour of the one, plus the strawberry fruit of the other - yet the complexity of neither at its best. But complexity is not the point of Tempranillo: its attractions are its lush texture and its supple, exuberant fruit, all blackberries and black cherries, mulberries and raspberries. In Ribera del Duero and Toro these flavours have a sensational savoury butter and black currant slant when young and move towards tobacco, plums, pruns and cocoa with age. ●Tempranillo Back 1 2 3 4 Next © Copyright 2007 CONCORD WINES. All rights reserved.