Hooray for wine! It’s such a treat to have a Your Sommelier box, a great opportunity to try something a bit different from my usual supermarket wine selection.
This is the Discovery Box, £36 per month including postage. The box arrives via courier, and is extremely well packed. You get three bottles in each box; this month is two reds and a white.
As well as the wine information cards, there’s also an extra bonus this month: recipe cards! Yes, every bottle comes with a recipe card for the suggested food pairing. What an excellent idea.
Anyway,time to get out the corkscrew. (I’ve still not bought a replacement for the one I broke last time, so I had to borrow one again. Oh well.)
While it’s nominally Spring, the weather in April has been dreadful. So a lovely fruity red in the shape of this Domaine de Bagnoles 2015 was extremely welcome! This had some mild tannins but not at all overpowering or dry. The grapes are Grenache, Merlot, and Carignan, which produce splendidly rich fruity flavours, quite full-bodied. Definitely one to savor!
Another red, this time Bourgueil ‘Tuffeaux’ 2015. This is 100% Cabernet Franc, and while lighter in taste it was just as fruity as the Domaine above. This one was remarkably easy to drink, and while I didn’t drink it with the suggested baked camembert, I can imagine it would be absolutely delicious with cheese. Very pleasant indeed.
With perfect timing, the weather perked up just in time for me to open this lovely Château Bélingard Blanc Sec 2017. The grapes are 65% Sauvignon, 30% Sémillon, and 5% Muscadelle, and they produce the most wonderfully refreshing combination. There is an awful lot of fruit in this wine, and despite the relative overall lightness, the flavours were full and lively. I like Sauvignon Blanc very much, and this was like a Sauvignon on steroids! This would be wonderful for drinking outside in the early evening sunshine. Extremely delicious.
As always, I thoroughly enjoyed my little tasting adventure. Now the weather is getting warmer I definitely lean more towards white wine, but the the reds added some welcome warmth to the very delayed Springtime!
The white was rather like a much more interesting version of the wine I usually drink, so I paid much more attention to the flavours and complexities than usual. All three wines were very enjoyable but this one was definitely my favourite.
I have to throw in a mention of the recipe cards. I do hope Your Sommelier keeps this up, because it’s an incredibly thoughtful bonus. Also a welcome addition to the recipe collection! If you’re more organized than I you could use them to have a little mini wine-tasting and dinner party, complete with suggested food.
One thing I really appreciate about a wine box is that it makes me think about the wine I’m drinking far more than usual. I love the information cards, reading about the wine, and really tasting it properly. It makes a very pleasant change from the usual restorative/therapeutic glass of wine I might drink after my daughter has finally gone to sleep!
Cheers!
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You can see what was in other Your Sommelier boxes here.
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A different version of this review was first published on allsubscriptionboxes.co.uk
