Wine of the week: a staggering Bacchanalian creation

published 7 August 2020

2018 Castlewood, Devon Minnow, Block HH Clone Gf1 Bacchus, Devon

£24, 75cl bottle; £50, 150cl magnum; castlewoodvineyard.co.uk

Castlewood specialises in sparkling wines, but it took the decision to plant some Bacchus in 2016 and this wine is the very first release. The inspiration and the name (a Devon Minnow is a 200-year-old spinning lure) for this wine came from fishing companions Robin Hutson, the visionary hotelier, and renowned chef Mark Hix. Coming from a warm, steep, south-facing vineyard called Block HH, this wine was created to feature on Robin’s, Mark’s and other chef friends’ wine lists.

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The 2018 was a perfect vintage because the harvest was first class with fully ripe Bacchus fruit. The grapes were hand-selected and then whole bunch pressed into oak barrels for fermentation and a further six months of maturation.

This wine is such a different take on the Bacchus grape. There are none of the pinched, nettle and elderflower notes associated with this variety. Instead, it shows uncommon texture, palate plushness and perfect balance. The oak component alone is mind-blowing. It is not too rich, while still retaining luxurious patisserie notes that augment the ginger and lime blossom perfume and coat the filigree-inlay palate. It is a staggering creation. Buy it from the Castlewood website or in Robin’s Pig Hotels and Lime Wood, Angela Hartnett’s Murano, The Oyster & Fish House in Lyme Regis and also Mitch Tonks’ wonderful The Seahorse in Dartmouth.

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition’s Communicator of the Year (matthewjukes.com)

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Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’. He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner.

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy. His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.