West Wales Life&Style Winter 2020

West Wales Life&Style
West Wales Life&Style
Wine
Enjoy a
world of wine
this Christmas
Welcome again to the West Wales Life&Style
guide to wine with Roy Roberts of Celtic
Wines.
Roy will be continuing to guide our regular readers
through his A to Z of wine, this time covering B to C.
Including interesting information regarding different
regions, grape variety and wines to be on the
lookout for as it is now the festive season.
Beginning with B – and as it is the
festive season, we’ll start with Buck Fizz.
First served in London’s Buck’s club in
1921, Buck’s Fizz was created as an
excuse to begin drinking earlier in the
day. It is a combination of Champagne
and orange juice, and consists of 50%
Champagne or sparkling wine and 50%
orange juice. Legend has it that the original
recipe contained extra ingredients known only
to the in-house bartenders.
B is for Bacchus, the god of the grape harvest; a nature
god of fruitfulness and vegetation, known as a God of
Wine and ecstasy. Bacchus wandered the earth, showing
people how to grow vines and process grapes for wine.
B is for Beaujolais, a wine that is once again
fashionable from France. Chilled in summer, it makes
a great choice of red; it also works brilliantly with
Christmas dinner. Just choose wisely. It is a juicy, very
approachable wine generally made of the Gamay grape
which has a thin skin and is low in tannins, hinting at
strawberry, raspberry and red cherry
flavours and perfume.
B is for Burgundy, one of the world’s
most famous wine regions in France.
Burgundy’s vast array of vineyards
gained UNESCO world heritage
To
create
your own classic
Bellini cocktail: fill a
Champagne flute to about
1/3 full with peach puree
and slowly top up the
remainder with a
sparkling wine.
status in July 2015. Burgundy’s key grape varieties are
Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, largely due to the cool and
moderate climate of the region.
B is for Bordeaux, another of the great French wine
regions. Bordeaux, with its many chateaux and the
renowned 1855 Classification, is a leading destination
for wine lovers, as well as the bedrock of the
fine wine market and a benchmark for
winemakers. The designated red grape
varieties in Bordeaux are Cabernet
Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc,
Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc.
B is for Barsac, a village some 40
miles south of Bordeaux, in southwest
France. It makes sweet white dessert
wines based on the Semillon grape
variety.
B is also for Barolo, the famous wine
producing area in the Piedmont region of Italy.
Wines from the region can be very long lived and very
expensive.
My last B is another region: Bardolino, this attractive
spot on the shores of Lake Garda in the Veneto region
of north-eastern Italy. Known for its light red wine,
its DOC title was granted in 1968. Wines made in the
traditional vineyard areas, close to the town of Bardolino
itself, are designated as Classico.
B is for Bellini, for all the cocktail lovers, a true Bellini
is made with the nectar of white peaches and Italian
sparkling wine. The cocktail was
created at the famous Venetian
establishment, Harry’s Bar. By
mixing fresh white peach puree
and champagne, Giuseppi Cipriani
created a sensation.
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