Tom Cannavan's wine-pages.com

The Hour - Scottish Television

by Tom Cannavan

Broadcast each weekday evening at 5:00pm across the Scottish Television network, The Hour is a lively magazine programme. I am the resident wine expert on the show, in the studio or on location each Friday to taste a selection of wines with the show's hosts and special guests. Scottish visitors can simply tune into the show, but everyone can catch up online, as each wine segment is added to STV's catch-up service at programmes.stv.tv/the-hour/wine. I will add each show here once the video is available. I hope you can join me each Friday live on Scottish Television, or via the web.

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Austria goes Groovy Since being rocked by scandal in the 1980s sales of Austrian wine plummeted. But since the new millennium there has been an explosion of interest in Austrian wines, led by the Grüner Veltliner grape and its popularity on restaurant wine lists thanks to its great food-matching qualities. Here I introduce a couple of Grüners and a speciality Austrian red made from the Zweigelt grape.

Wines of Portugal Many people have a preconception of Portuguese wines based on a 70s image of sweet, lightly sparkling wines sold at rock-bottom prices. But in fact with its wealth of indigenous grapes Portugal's wine industry is one of the most interesting and vibrant in Europe, with every style of wine being made from the cool and damp north to the sunshine-filled south. We look at wines from three regions.

Valentine's wines Turtle doves were cooing when I presented three 'romantic' wines for Valentine's day in this episode. These wines are pitched for a dinner a deux, or as gifts for a loved one. Included are a truly delicious Pinot Noir rosé Cava, a beautifully presented Champagne made for Maxim's in Paris, and a bottle chosen mostly for its gift potential (with a personalised label for co-host Michelle McManus).

Low alcohol wines As part of a general 'detox' theme on the show that week, I present three low alcohol wines, from a de-alcoholised wine from Spanish giant Torres at just 0.5% ABV, to one of the new breed of reduced alcohol wines that are appearing on the shelves at around 9%, to a naturally low-alcohol Spanish white at just 11%. Tasting through the samples on offer, reactions to the wines are certainly mixed!

Champagne time In this show, broadcast just before Christmas, we taste some festive sparkling wine. But rather than go down a more predicatble seasonal route of evaluating supermarket 'bargain buys', we instead feature three premium Champagnes, including one from the small house of Gardet, everyone's favourite tipple, Bollinger, and the deluxe cuvée from Perrier-Jouët, the Belle-Epoque 2002.

Dessert wines Despite our famous national sweet tooth, it is surprising that so few of us Britons drink dessert wines, either with or instead of a pudding course. Here I visit the Lake Hotel at Menteith to sample three desserts, from a relatively light apple tart, to a dark chocolate mousse, to a sticky toffee pudding, and match them to an Austrian Beerenauslese, a sparkling Moscato and an Australian Liquor Muscat.

Wines for Christmas lunch In this episode I escape from the studio once again and make my way back down to the Lake hotel at the port of Menteith in rural Scotland. I choose a selection of moderately-priced wines to match with a traditional Christmas lunch of salmon, followed by turkey and all the trimmings and finally, Christmas pudding. Wines include white Burgundy, Rioja and an organic Port.

Beaujolais est arrive! Ex rugby star Scott Hastings joins Michelle McManus and myself in a show broadcast on November 20th - just one day after the 'Beaujolais Nouveau' had appeared on UK shelves for its annual debut. We taste a nice example from Georges Dubeouf, as well as sampling a 2008 Beaujolais with more time under its belt and looking at an Italian take on the Nouveau style - a 'Novello' teroldego from Trentino.

Wine boxes 'Bag in box' wines had a pretty poor reputation - filled with mediocre plonk and sold as cheaply as possible. But there's a revival of the wine box, thanks partly to environmental concerns - wine in boxes weighs a lot less than in bottles, so carbon emissions used in transporting it are lower too. We look at three boxes, ranging from a cheerful southern French red at just £12.99, to a Bergerac at over £40.

Fish or beef? In this broadcast I escape out of the studio and head down to the beautiful setting of the Lake Hotel at the Port of Menteith in Perthshire. In the dining room I taste through two delicious dishes based around fish and beef to test out the adage of white wine with fish; red wine with meat, trying different wines to see how they match - especially when considering the accompaniements to the dishes.

Chenin Blanc Actress Barbara Rafferty joins us in the studio to taste through three examples of the Chenin Blanc grape. Chenin's home is the central part of the Loire Valley, but there is a lot planted in South Africa too, where one in five vines is Chenin Blanc. We taste two excellent Cape examples from Boschendal and Springfontein estates, then move to the Loire for a delicious and just off-dry Vouvray.

Tempranillo Though many of the world's most renowned wine grapes originated in France, there are a huge number of interesting grapes that are native to other European countries too, including Italy, Portugal, Greece and germany. Spain's most famous native grape is undoubtedly Tempranillo, the main player in Rioja and other famous regions. But Tempranillo is finding lots of fans in California, Argentina and Australia too.

Semillon Semillon is another one of wine's unsung heroes in many ways, being one of the key components in Sauternes and the famous white Bordeaux of the Graves, as well as being a major player across Australia, from the Semillon / Sauvignon blends of Margaret River to the fine Semillons, both sweet and dry, in the Hunter and Barossa valleys. Here, three Aussie examples are tried and tested.

Cabernet Sauvignon A fun week with Carol Smilie and legendary American actor Clarke Peters (The Wire, Damages) joining myself and regular host Stephen Jardine to taste Cabernet sauvignon. The wines included a special parcel just sourced by Majestic at a bargain price, a fine Languedoc Cabernet from Asda and a teriffic Margaret River blend of Cabernet and Merlot from Corney & Barrow that slipped down a treat.

Aromatic varieties This week I aks the shows guest host Michelle McManus and comedy actor Tony Roper to try a little experiment involving basil leaves, that proves just how important our noses are not only to our sense of smell, but to our sense of taste too. We also try three particularly aromatic wines, including a southern French Muscat, and Alsace Gewürztraminer and a Torrontes from Argentina.

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