The Caskaway

My Tasting Notes

Beer
White Wines
Fortified Wines

Red Wines

Pinot Noir

Difficult to cultivate, Pinot Noir makes some of the world’s most sought-after, complex and long-lived red wines. From its homeland in Burgundy to Oregon and California in the USA and New Zealand, Pinot Noir is at home in cooler climates and produces wines with fruity flavours that develop earthier, woodland notes with age.

Shiraz / Syrah

Shiraz/ Syrah wines are packed with flavours of bramble and blackberry, with hints of pepper, chocolate, and liquorice. The wines have lots of tannins and the potential to age producing outstanding wines. Classic French-style Syrah wines are produced in the Northern Rhône with generally more fruit-led with spicier wines being famously produced in South Australia.

Merlot

Merlot is a popular and incredibly versatile grape variety that is grown around the world, producing wines that reflect the location and influence of the winemaker. They usually have flavours of cherry, plum and blackberry with vanilla and spice notes if aged in oak.

Zinfandel / Primitivo

Zinfandel is the American name for a grape variety that originated in Croatia also known as Primitivo in Italy. Zinfandel grapes are used to produce semi-sweet rosé wines and big, bold, jammy red wines with hints of spices and smokiness.

Rioja / tempranillo

Typically Rioja has lots of red fruit flavours with notes of vanilla and spice from aging in oak. There are strict regulations on how Rioja is made and aged and penny for penny are some of the best value wines available. The Tempranillo grape is synonymous with Rioja but it can also contain garnacha tinta, graciano, and mazuela grapes.

Carménère

Carménère was originally native to France but it is now almost exclusively grown in Chile. It has lots of berry aromas and flavours but also lots of herbaceous notes and in many examples, you can clearly smell green bell peppers.

Blends

Disclaimer – Unless otherwise indicated I pay for all of the reviewed drinks

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Welcome to The Caskaway

Personal, subjective and in no way definitive but I hope The Caskaway reveals a little of the passion I have for wine and beer. I’m no expert but I love to learn and wanted to share my knowledge and discoveries with all my drink writing in one convenient place. Why am I doing this when there is so much information out there already? Well, if one person reads and tries something new, I will call that a win.

There are honest tasting notes that you might hopefully find helpful, entertaining and maybe even instructive. Some posts try to help with the confusing and often obscure specialist terminology and language in both the beer and wine worlds and yes, there is a lot! Finally, there are links to all of my favourite recipes made using wine and beer (see below), and finally some expanded reviews of great pubs and other bits and pieces.

Formerly a full-time chef and publican, I’ve worked for two breweries, an award-winning Jersey based wine merchants and now try to write and broadcast about food and drink for local and national media including What’s Brewing and BBC Local Radio.