Burmese Wine Tasting
An unusual one this. I was lucky enough to try and be pleasantly surprised by a couple of Burmese wines last night.
I know exactly what you're thinking but as i said, they were surprisingly good considering that Burma isn't really up there with France for it's fine wine making prowess.
Both Wines came from the Red Mountain Estate in the southern Shan State next to the Inla Lake.
The vines were imported from Europe and planted from 2003 to 2007 under the watchful eye of French vineyard manager and winemaker Francois Raynal. The first vintages were bottled in 2006 and since then production has increased dramatically.
On to the tasting notes. I only got to try two wines, but here goes:
Rosé d'Inle. 2011. 100% Carignan
The rosé is an attractive strawberry pink. The nose was pleasing with hints of mature strawberry, slight citrus fruit and a touch of herbaceousness. On the palate the rosé showed good intital fruit, but this disappeared quite quickly. The acidity was good with a lingering refreshing quality. It was drier, slightly more savoury and more refined than expected though and totally acceptable for everyday summer drinking.
The Shiraz/Tempranillo 2010.
Dark purple in colour, the red was initially quite vaporous on the nose, but half an hour in the glass and it opened up to a sweet fruit, cassis, chocolate, cherry and hedgerow combination of pleasing depth. The palate was a little bit of a let down though. Initial dark fruits of cassis and plum were rounded and smooth but died away too quickly leaving a lingering acidity. The tannins were fairly well integrated. The aftertaste though was a lingering metalic sulphur hit thta I struggled with a bit.
Overall i was impressed, these weren't great wines but by no means a bad effort. The fruit died away too quickly in both, but there is potential in the future vintages for good all round wines. It's not Mouton Rothschild but i've cerainly had a lot worse.
T
