Ahead of Father’s Day, Nick has found the perfect tipple to keep the old chap happy
What with it being Father’s Day this Sunday, I thought that this week’s wine review could serve as a nice Father’s Day gift guide. But instead of showing you a selection of wines from around the world, I’m just going to be showing you one, and using Father’s Day as a bit of a preamble until the real bit of the column, hope you don’t mind?
Like most things of this nature, Father’s Day has its humble beginnings in the US, where upon seeing the success of newly founded Mothers Day, Sonorra Smart Dodd wanted to honour her father, the Civil war veteran William Jackson Smart, who as a single parent raised 6 children. Originally floundering until the trade unions of tobacco pipes and ties and any other manly gift industry got on board, it was eventually signed off as an official holiday by that paragon of virtue, President Richard Milhouse Nixon. History aside, this Father’s Day, I’m going for a red wine, because it seems more befitting for a gift and the sort of thing that dads drink. With this in mind I’m going for a Chilean Carmenére, from William Fèvre.
Carmenére is Chile’s signature grape, situated in the Alto-Maipo region of Chile, commonly held-up as the premier region for red grape production. The land rises into the Andean foothills, meaning the area has the ideal conditions for Carmenére grapes, warmed in the afternoon sun and cooled by the mountain breeze in the evening. It’s this variation in temperature that allows the grapes to flourish, producing bold yet elegant flavours. William Fèvre’s – the largest owner of Chablis Grand Cru vineyards – first venture in Chile was in 1989. He had two reasons for this: firstly, he was frustrated with Chablis who were restricting him from extending his Chardonnay crop and secondly, he was won over by the fruit quality from the best Chilean vineyards.
On the nose the wine gives a hit of wild black berries, and a smoked wood spiciness, whilst at the same time feeling very fresh, with wild flowers coming through. In the mouth the wine delivers a full expression of the fruit. This is a big, robust red yet is incredibly well balanced considering the alcohol content (14.5%). This wine will go particularly well with red meats, such as steaks or homemade burgers – dad grub in other words.
Wine supplied from the Berry Bros. & Rudd Wine Club
