One of my favourite parts of the world is Boppard, a small resort town on the Rhine upstream from Koblenz. There’s a hotel there that can truly said to be ‘unspoilt by progress’. It offers a variety of local wines with their spectacularly good value table d’hote dinner menu which I adore. And there’s an Aldi supermarket just up the road offering similar wine at stupid prices. Thanks to the pandemic and Brexit, I haven’t been back in a while and my last consignment ran out months ago.
The gentle (and not so gentle) slopes of the Rhine and nearby Moselle are clustered with vineyards, a popular variety being Reisling. But, I prefer the local reds, especially those using the Dornfelder grape, a popular variety for the vineyards of Rheinhessen, further upstream towards Frankfurt.
A friend of mine recently gifted me a bottle of Brightwell Vineyard’s Oxford Regatta, appropriate as I live in Abingdon, a few miles upstream from Brightwell’s Thameside location near Wallingford. It immediately tasted familiar, with me recognising the distinctive taste of the Dornfelder grape before I read the label.
The German’s describe its character as ‘trocken’ or dry but it is often barrel aged to add complexity and depth to the flavour as is the case with Oxford Regatta. It presents with a mild acidity that makes it an ideal accompaniment to just about anything to share with neighbours as we did on a convivial festive evening. The Dornfelder grape has been used in the past to produce Beaujolais style wines and Oxford Regatta certainly has something of that theme.
Dornfelder wines are overwhelmingly of German production with England a remote second. But, if Oxford Regatta is anything to go by, this grape is well suited to Brightwell’s gently sloping and sheltered vineyards facing the Thames so hopefully we’ll see more of it in the future. In the meantime, if, like me, you want to be taken back to the Rhine at least in spirit, Oxford Regatta is going to suit you fine. OK, it’s not as much of a bargain as the last local Aldi bought product but it’s not exactly cheap to get there, even if you could, so I’m looking forward to treating myself to another bottle soon.
Brightwell Vineyard Oxford Regatta 2016
£12.80 Brightwell Vineyard, £12.99 Waitrose Cellar
Complex with a depth of flavour. It presents with a mild acidity.
Mike Gould is a Member of the Midland Group of Motoring Writers and author of several books, including Land Rover Scrapbook.
