Chateau Rollan de By 2006 served at Autumn French Dinner

Chateau Rollan de By was the feature wine at the Autumn French Dinner in Sydney.  

Chateau Rollan de By 2006 the perfect Bordeaux red served at the Autumn French Dinner

The wine was served with Rangers Valley Beef Tenderloin, field mushrooms, spinach, Paris Match, jus gras.

Staff from Cordon Bleu cooking school work to present Rangers Valley Beef Tenderloin.

Dinners thought the wine a perfect match for chef Guillaume Brahimi's tender beef.  
Robert Parker's review of the 2006 Chateau Rollan de By provides an evocative description of the wine.
"Sweet cassis fruit, cedar, tobacco leaf, licorice, and subtle smoke aromas are followed by a wine with impressive ripeness, medium body, and a long, lush, evolved, richly fruity finish. Consume this charming, sensual 2006 over the next decade. Good value." Available online.

The secret revealed.  The mystery venue for the Sydney Autumn French dinner was the dining hall at Saint Andrew's College, University of Sydney

most popular wines of 2013 - part 2

Recently we blogged about our top 5 best-selling wines of 2013, featuring a Bordeaux Blanc, 2 rosé wines, a fascinating dry white from the Pyrenées and an excellent value St Émilion.


The top 5 wines were:

1. Chateau de La Bouyere Bordeaux Blanc 2012 $21.50
2. Domaine de la Croix Irresistible AOC Cotes de Provence 2012 $29.90
3. Chateau La Rayre Bergerac Rose 2010 $24.90
4. Chateau Jolys Jurançon sec 2011 $27.75
5. Chateau Lagarde (Saint Émilion) SOLD OUT

Wines 6-10 include 3 reds (Chateau Fontblanche and Chateau Haut-Belian from Bordeaux, Chateau de Saurs from Gaillac ) a great Graves white from a famous French wine and food family (Ch Haut Peyrous)  and our top selling dessert wine (Chateau Jolys Cuvée Jean). 

6. Chateau Fontblanche. 

Now sold out, this was an easy drinking well-priced gold-medal merlot and cabernet blend from Cotes de Bordeaux-Blaye. From the cracking vintage of 2009. If you loved this wine, then you will love its replacement: Chateau Larouche Joubert 2010- a merlot blend for a good producer in Bordeaux Cotes de Bourg again in a very good year-2010.

7. Chateau Haut-Belian 2009.

Another easy drinking red from 2009. We managed to snap up some more stock of this one! 


Château Haut Belian is an 86-hectare estate on the hills between the Dordogne and Garonne Rivers. The vineyards are at one of the highest points of the region.

Region/Terroir:  Bordeaux AOC
Grapes:  Cabernet Sauvignon (30%), Merlot (45%), Cabernet Franc (25%).
Soil:  Clay and limestone.
Alcohol: 13.5% VOL
Wine making: Grapes are slowly and softly harvested by machine. Traditional wine making methods are used, with fermentation occurring at 28°C and with a long maceration.  Malolactic fermentation and ageing are conducted in thermo-regulated stainless steel vats.
Cellaring potential:  Can age 3-4 years, however approachable now.

Our Tasting notes:  Big rich nose.  A good weight with fruit and tannins in balance.  Tannins are smooth and velvety.  A pleasant, round, fruity wine, with some chocolaty notes.  Long and balanced.

This easy drinking red typifies the value for money wines that DiscoverVin is bringing downunder

8.Chateau de Saurs 2010 $24.00 

From an ancient vineyard that has been producing quality grapes for many centuries, premium grapes are now being made into modern, organic and clean wines while retaining characteristics typical of the terroir. Great value for money!
Terroir:  Galliac is a small appellation north of Toulouse. It is considered a rapidly improving region, driven by small independant producers such as Chateau de Saurs.

Grapes:   A blend with  Merlot, Syrah and Braucol in equal measure
Winemaking:  Traditional methods of harvesting and destemming. Harvested by parcels of vines which are pressed in separate vats, and vinified for 8 to 10 days at a maximum 30°C. Regular rotation for optimum extraction of colour, while at the same time preserving aromas. Fermentation takes place over 6 to 8 months in vats, then bottled.


Tasting notes : Chateau de Saurs Rouge Tradition AOC Gaillac red has a deep red ruby-garnet colour, and has a very attractive bouquet of cherries, blackcurrants, with discreet hints of aniseed and cinnamon which are more present at the finish. A balanced, round, elegant wine revealing subtle soft tannins, it charms the palate and would be a good accompaniment to meat and cheese. Great to drink now but would improve with a year or two of cellaring. 
Alcohol: 13.5%

This wine was awarded a Silver medal at the Concours National des Vignerons Independants 2010.

9. Chateau Haut-Peyrous Peche au Carrelet Graves Blanc  $46.20 

The Haut-Peyrous estate is owned by Marc Darroze from the famous Darroze family of Gascony. His aim is to produce wines with lots of personality, by making the most of the quality of the terroir on his estate. That’s why Marc has taken steps in order to obtain certification of his estate as an organic wine producer.  Since June 2008, all work on the estate (soil, treatments) has been carried out in accordance with organic production criteria. Its great that this classy white has made it into the top 10.

Region/Terroir:  Graves

Grapes:  Semillon (75%), Sauvignon Blanc (25%).
Alcohol: 13.5% VOL
Soil:  The surface soil is made up of clay and loamy sand covered with pebbles, typical of this part of the appellation. The subsoil is also composed of sand with clays more or less deep, depending on the parcels.

Wine making:  This wine is made from a blend of Sémillon (75%) and Sauvignon (25%), a portion of which was matured in one-year-old barrels.
Cellaring Potential:  Drink now.

Our Tasting notes:  Lively nose with spice and mineral notes and vanilla from the oak.  Lovely soft and round mouth feel.  Richness and complexity on the back palate and a lovely soft acid backbone.

Also reviewed by Gary Walsh in Winefront 

"Threw this into a tasting of oak worked ‘Graves’ style Margaret River wines of a similar price...Grassy, but flamboyant with plenty of gooseberry and tropical fruit, laced with aniseed and spice. And really, that aniseed is something of a feature. Medium weight, old oranges and savoury wood influence, minerally edges, but all up much quieter to taste than the nose would suggest. Nice wine.
Rated : 90 Points
Tasted : May13 
Drink : 2013 - 2017+ "

And by Sean Mitchell in Grape Observer
"It is yellow to gold in colour, and opens to clean light intensity aromatics of straw, lemon, minerals, wet stones and dried herbs.  The palate, like the blend, is more semillon than sauvignon blanc.  It is dry and quite full bodied, with some depth in its expression of hay, green melon, grass, dried herbs and some notes verging on white peach and honey.  Overall, I think this is a good to very good quality wine due to its concentration and depth of flavour

10 Chateau Jolys Cuvee Jean 750ml $32

This is a great, value-for-money example of the sweet wines of Jurançon-delicious fruit and sweetness but perfectly balanced and without being cloying. 

Region/Terroir: Château Jolys, the largest estate in the Jurançon AOC with its 36 hectares, nestles on the superb hills of Chapelle de Rousse village.
The gentle slopes are exposed South / South-West and form amphitheatres facing the Pyrenees mountains. Soils are chalky and clayey.
Grapes: Cuvee Jean is made from 100% Petit Manseng grapes. The grapes are late harvested using the passerillage method, and the resulting concentration of sugar gives for perfectly healthy, golden and extremely ripe grapes.
Wine making: After total destemming and maceration before fermentation, we keep only the free-run juice to make this wine (juice obtained before pressing), in order to obtain the best of the richness and the aromas of the Petit Manseng grapes. After cold settling, alcoholic fermentation is carried out in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks (at around 20°C so as to preserve the aromas).
Barrel ageing for 9 months in French oak barrels.

Our tasting notes: The nose presents notes of honey, acacia, apricot and peaches. On the palate, after a fresh and round attack, we find the same aromas and complexity as with the nose. The palate is powerful yet smooth - Petit Manseng at it's very best. Fabulous length and balance. This wine, like many from Jurançon, is pleasantly sweet without a cloying finish.
Cuvée Jean can be drunk young or cellared for up 10 years.
It's best served as an aperitif, with foie gras/pate or smoked salmon, and also pairs perfectly with creamy fish and poultry dishes as well as cheese.

We are happy to publish this list of our top 10 wines for 2013. It emphases the rise of dry rosé and then had a nice spread of dry white, a premium dry white, some interesting reds, and a luscious dry white wine from the Pyrenées.

If you are in the trade, this gives you some idea on the wines that could do well in your business. These are wines that our consumers love the most!

Prices listed refer to those on our consumer website. Trade prices/lists are available on application info@discovervn.com.au

Roche-Audran best value Rhone wine in the french press

Prestigious French wine magazine Revue du Vin de France ("French Wine Review") recently reviewed wines from the Côtes du Rhone. 

It named DiscoverVin's new red wine from Roche Audran as one of the best value current release rhone wines in the February 2014 edition. 

The blind tasting was conducted in Avignon in September 2013 and wines from more than 210 wineries were tried and 80 reviews published.

The article pointed to the progress made in the quality of wines produced in the region during the last 20 years. Today it offers "a large palette of wines at sound prices." In fact according to the article's author-Roberto Petronio-the wines of Cotes du Rhone offer "the most beautiful" wines in France at good prices.

Here is the review for the Roche Audran Cotes du Rhone , newly arrived at DiscoverVin . This review was written in French and we have done our best to translate!

"Domaine Roche Audran 

13.5/20

A nice generous vegetable nose which is a beautiful invitation to taste. In the mouth it is the smoothness of the texture which seduces with plenty of savoury material- the fruit is omnipresent. Imagine yourself biting on the skin of a ripe grape (but without excess) and taking in the pulp. Here is a generous and complex wine. A wine from the village of Visan to drink everyday without restraint! "

This particular wine is made with a blend of Grenache (70%), Carignan (15%) and Syrah (Shiraz) 15%. Alcohol 15% Vol. 

This is an up and coming producer producing wine by biodynamic practices. To learn more look here .

This wine is available on-line and is also in a number of stockists. Contact us at info@discovervin.com.au for up-to date information on the restaurant or wine shop near you. Trade prices available info@discovervin.com.au

As always drink in moderation!

Bordeaux Dinner The Bathers Pavilion Balmoral Wednesday March 5th 2014

This is going to be a magical dinner at the Bathers Pavilion at Balmoral Beach, matching the award winning cuisine of Serge Dansereau with some fine Bordeaux wines. Places limited. Call Bathers Pavilion (02) 9969 5050 to reserve.