The Wine Spy returns!

Our anonymous wine buff may his identity hidden, but he’s more than happy to share his views on the best and worst wine deals in the market today…

Starting from the basis that it is always nice to have some food with a glass of wine, and bearing in mind that consumers are still spending cautiously, Wine Spy has taken a budget-conscious slant this month: two of us went out for dinner rather than the usual four, and we actually ventured into four-star hotel territory rather than the usual five-star place reviewed in this column in the past, to see what could be found there.

Generally, four-star hotels around the world deliver a superb experience — but how would such a property measure up in Dubai?

In my view, the best place for a true four-star experience is either Bur Dubai or Deira.

Here the hotels are competing hard, are often not part of chains, so cannot rely on a constant supply of international travellers — plus they have a great deal of very healthy competition close by.

Keeping a wine angle to this expedition, we decided to eat in the Italian restaurant of a four-star Bur Dubai hotel, duly arrived and asked for the wine list to start with.

The list had 90 wines in total, from 12 different countries, although you had to be careful as Chateau Kefraya and Chateau Ksara were both listed under Bordeaux, so you may have thought that there were no Lebanese wines available.

In fact, 36 of the wines were French — which is a very heavy dominance, especially in an Italian restaurant.

There were some bargains in this section to be found though.

Two Premier Cru Chablis were offered, one the excellent Moreau & Fils Chablis Premier Cru Les Vaillons at only AED 550 (US $150) per bottle. That’s the bargain one!

The other was listed simply as ‘Chablis Premier Cru’ at AED 1600 (US $436). How is this even possible?

The list was confusing, as sometimes the winemaker’s name appeared before the variety and sometimes the variety appeared before the winemaker’s name.

The spelling across the whole list was poor. Most of the descriptions lacked any capital letters, which made reading difficult, and there were numerous typos, including: Mocan village; white wine from Bordoeaux; Frerench White Wine; Gavi de gave DOCG cossetti; Cabernet Carmen Sauvignon, Sunrise chardonnay concha, Massaya reserve gold lebel and Mouton cadet, bordeux blane.

With some trepidation, I chose the “Casillero chardonnay concha” assuming they meant Casillero del Diablo Chardonnay from Concha y Toro, which is a great wine for the money they wanted — AED 125 (US $34). But it was not available.

So I had another look and settled on the “Chardonnay morgenhof, stellen bosch” — presumably the Morgenhof Estate Chardonnay which is a fantastic wine from this renowned winery on the slopes of the Simonsig mountains in Stellenbosch.

Again, not available!

I gave up on the whites and saw a “Casillero cab sauv 375 ml” for the same price as it’s sister white wine for 75cl, i.e. AED 125.00, assuming a volume typo.

Not available!

So I asked the manager for a recommendation.

We were recommended the Pouilly Fumé from Pascal Jolivet. Jolivet is a well respected producer and has been exporting their wines here for years and has worked with MMI for a long time.

This one didn’t disappoint. At AED 350 (US $95) it is a little expensive, but it has a freshness and although slightly green, a round and full style, with a back drop of sharp minerality. Great Pouilly Fumé really, so a good recommendation to be fair.

That devoured, we had to hit a red!

Worried after my memories of the previous problems choosing a white, I again asked for a recommendation and said I wanted something Italian to go with the pasta I had ordered.

We ordered the Folonari Bardolino. Folonari do not try and complicate things, or over sell themselves. They even do bag-in-a-box wines which sell really well.

Still, at AED 150 (US $41), this Bardolino was a bit of a bargain.

Folonari describe this wine as “Pale ruby red colour, with fresh and fruity bouquet with hints of wild cherries and violets”. The wild cherries were hard to detect from the astringency of the wine, and you got a sense that a couple of months more in oak would have given it a rounder feel, but fair enough, it went well with the pasta and did what it promises on the label. For once, an honest Italian wine!

So a couple of bottles down, with a heavy tummy from the pasta, what did I make of the four-star experience?

Well, there is certainly a need here for some attention to detail.

The restaurant itself was ok, but the wine list was poor — not the wines per se, but the way it was organised, spelt, described and categorised.

If the hotel industry is going to get more people drinking wine, then they have to do a lot better than this.

Watch this space though: a trip to three-star may be in order for next month!