Grapes on the move - Your Rookie Partner-in-Wine

Is there a more suitable topic to write on a sunny Friday in Paris than wines? Nope, I guess not. Still I was hesitating a bit when the thought of adding wine reviews to my blog crossed my mind for the first time. Why? Because I felt like I lack both knowledge and experience to actually write about wines. Internet is full of great wine reviews from professionals whose ancestors were already involved in a wine business. What can I add to that? I do not have a degree on wines, no years of experience. Not even a single official training on the matter. 

I am self-read and self-taught when it comes to wines. Expert only on my own taste, still struggling to find the corret terms to describe this drink of Gods. Have I read dozens of books and watched a bunch of documents on the subject? Yes. For sure. Have I had my share of wines? Yes. Definitely. But still, it seems that wines are almost sacred topic to touch. Form of art where I would be far from being Michelangelo. 

So given that background my first thought was that no. No way I could have something significant to add to this subject. But then I started to look back to the time when I started to become interested in wines. Back in those times reading a wine review felt like reading foreign language which I didn't understand. Going to my first wine tastings I had a feeling that I can't express my opinions on the taste because I did not undestand enough about the subject and the terms were unfamiliar to me. The treshold of opening my mouth (others than to drink wine of course) was high.

And it is just that reason, why I now decided to add wines to the topics of this blog. I may not be any expert but maybe I don't have to be. Maybe I can share my thoughts on wines from another perspective. These reviews are written by a person who is not taught to be wine expert but who for sure shares the passion for wines. I hope that with my beginner's reviews I could lower the barrier to some other wine explorers out there who are just in the beginning of their hobby, taking their first steps on la Route des Grand Crus.

What is my own history on the wine route then?

I have been interested in wines, especially champagne and red wine, for already some years now. I have even taken some steps to build my own collection of different wines. When we moved to our first own house in Helsinki I saw an opportunity to turn one of the closets into my own wine room. I decorated it accordingly and bought a man sized wine fridge. I started out collecting only champagnes, but soon I discovered that my interest had spread to red wine too. First I decided to buy only French and Italian wines for aging. Nowadays the situation has gone out of hands and I have wines from all around the world, I guess I am not the only one to whom this has happened. At the moment I have approximately 70 bottles waiting for the perfect day to open and enjoy them.

I have noticed that my interest to wines is going in periods, some periods I only want to drink some wines and some periods I am only looking for the wines I want to buy for keeping. But make no mistake, I am always looking for nice bottles to purchase and store into my own wine room. The fact that we are living in Paris at the moment gives me great opportunities (and continuous temptations..) to explore great selection of different wines.

Personally I get the most satisfaction of buying a bottle which has good potential to age and hold it in my storage. It gives me a great pleasure to go to my wine fridge to see my bottles and to just explore them without even opening the bottle. This might seem very weird, but the thing is, that I think  anyone can just go out there and buy for example an expensive old bottle of Bordeaux wine and drink it immediately. For me the most interesting part is to purchase a bottle with a great aging potential and forget it down there in the fridge. Then open it when the time is right, maybe even after 30 years from now, and be able to say to myself "I made it, I have contributed on my part to create a piece of history of this specific bottle".

But in the meantime there are wines that are already ready to be explored and enjoyed. And that is fun as well!

So in these weekly reviews I am going to give you my insight of some wines I have drunk. As said I am in no means a professional, just passionate about wines. But for that reason, if you do not have any previous experience on wines, don't worry. You can easily jump on board and share these views from another rookie.

The wines that will be reviewed will come from all price ranges and all forms. If some of my readers have drank the same wine, I encourage you to leave your opinions and comments on the wine on the comment box. Also, if you have good suggestion on wines I should yet taste, please feel free to suggest! 

So lets get started with our first wine to review! My first review is of champagne E. Nicolas, champagne that is sold widely here in France as it is the brand champagne of the popular and most common wine shop here, Nicolas.

E. Nicolas Champagne

The champagne is produced in a village called Ay, situated in a champagne region, and available in the most popular wine retailer Nicolas in France. Ay is known being the home of vineyards for some of the most established champagne brands like Bollinger, Duval Leroy, Moët & Chandon, Mumm, Perrier-Jouët, Philipponnat, Piper Heidsieck, and Roederer. So no wonder that grapes that grow here mean business. Name E. Nicolas is a tribute to Etienne Nicolas who was the man behind the success of E. Nicolas cellars. Pinot Meunier is dominating grape with 65% of them, there is also 35% of Pinot Noir and 5% of Chardonnay in this champagne.

The label of the bottle won't make you pick up the bottle from the shelf, but once you see the astonishingly cheap price tag of this champagne you start to wonder why shouldn't you give it a go? I did certainly so and boy was I happy I did. Right after pouring your first glass of this affordable bubbly you notice that bubbles look pleasant, they are all around the glass racing beautifully. Golden color puts a satisfying smile on your face immediately as you start observing. 

On the nose I could feel the freshness and roundness unlike usually with some of the entry level champagnes. I was afraid that maybe it would present too much acidity like many other non-vintage champagnes but it fortunately didn't. Being very fresh while being still very soft to drink was a much appreciated surprise.

The palate is obviously not too complex which is alright for this champagne. There is nothing irritating with this champagne either, it tastes how it should taste. Very easy to drink and I find it was great addition to go with our dinner. I find myself thinking that this champagne is by far among the best value champagnes I have ever tasted. It does the job it intends to do perfectly.

Verdict: Buy. It is ready to drink now,  as it is non-vintage I don't think it will get much better if any with aging.