Thursday, December 29, 2011

December Meeting


Mike Ritchie of
Moreno's came along for our December meeting. Mike's been along before, last time it snowed, about 3” of snow during the meeting.
Fortunately it was much more clement this time. The wine was all from the South of Italy, apart from the first – a Prosecco. Prosecco is now the best selling fizz in the UK – very much on the trend...
Italy is also now the No 1 wine importer to the UK, led by Pinot Grigio and Prosecco.
So, 8 wines – As follows
Mionetto Prosecco Legatura Frizzante
Calanica Bianco 2010
Surani Fiano 2010
Kados Grillo 2009
Corvo Rosso 2009
Surani Primativo 2009
Passo delle Mule Nero d'Avolo 2008
Veccioflorio Marsala Dolce
All from Moreno Wines in London W9
Prices from 8.99 to 11.99.
The Prosecco went down well, and at £8.99 we have stocked up on some for the party. The
best of the whites (In my humble opinion) was the first one, the Calanica Bianco, as it had the best blend of flavour, nose and body for my palate. That’s also £8.99. Of the reds, my favourite was the Primitivo, which showed all the best characteristics of a primitivo, and non of the faults – many are very tough and hard going – this one wasn't.
And at the end, the Marsala! The society goes bonkers over the stickies, and this was no
exception. Marsala is one of those lighter stickies, which are becoming a lot more popular as port loses its popularity.
Several bottles have been ordered for the new year party...

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Brazilian WInes - November meeting

Richard Bost of Wine Educators International, gave us an interesting evening of Brazilian Wine. Did you know that Brazil is the 17th largest producer in the World? Doesn't sound too impressive until you find out that it produces more than New Zealand! Much of the wine is drunk in country, but with 190Million Brazilians, it does't go far - the average consumption per head is something like 2 litres per year.
Anyway, Brazil has started to export, and is going for the premium market. All the wines we tasted were £13 per bottle and up. We had 2 sparkling, 1 white, and 5 reds.
Richard gave a very informative talk, and the wines were quite decent, but there was a consensus view that the pricing was somewhat steep..
The sparkling wines - Cave Geiss Brut and Brut Rose at £15.99 each are probably comparable with other sparkling wines at the same price, but the white and the reds at £12.99 - £23.99 a bottle are probably going to be difficult to sell at those prices.
The wines can all be got from Symposium Wines (www.symposiumwines.com)
The 2 interesting wines were the single varietal Cabernet Franc (Casa Valduga Premium, 2007) and the Pizzato reserve Tannat 2005. Its very unusual to see Cab Franc on its own and the Tannat is also quite rare.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

October - Good Bordeaux does not have to be expensive

The question is - how expensive is expensive? If your idea of expensive is anything over £5, then good bordeaux is expensive. But we are not talking about that price point are we?
Sandy Leckie of the Wine Education Service presented 8 good wines, all about the £10 a bottle mark. All were very nice, which got me to thinking that 10 - 15 years ago, we'd be talking about all these New World wines which are "just as good as French wine", whilst now we have got so used to great New World wine that the statement is the other way round - "this French wine is just as good as the New World wines"
Anyway, 8 wines, from the Wine Society, Waitrose and Majestic - 2 White, 1 Rose, 5 Reds. I can recommend the Chateau St-Jean-Des Graves 2009 from Waitrose at £7.99. The Chateau de Sours Rose from Majestic, at £9.99 was the first Rose that Esther said she'd happily drink (not buy, you understand, but at least drink)
A very good red was the 2008 Lee & Sandeman Bordeaux, from Lea & Sandeman, at £9.50, or £8.50 for a case.
So, if you want good bordeaux, that arent too expensive go to Waitrose, Majestic or Join the WIne Society - 10,000 Lawyers and Doctors can't all be wrong!
A great evening, but sadly, a dissappointing turnout with only 20 members showing up. Shame on you ...

Monday, September 19, 2011

September - Wines Unfurled

Jerome Harlington of Wines Unfurled presented a variety of wines from smaller vinyards across Europe. We had a fizz, 3 whites, 3 reds, and (unusually) a Port to finish.
Some interesting wines in there - a Riesling from Slovenia, a Mauzac from Gaillac, and a AOC Cheverney (loire) which is a very recent Appelation. All very fine, but at list prices all north of £10 per bottle, shows the difficulty that small merchants have in competing with the supermarkets.
Jerome did offer a 20% discount on wines on the night and I know one or two members did take him up on the offer.
For me, the best wine was the Valpollicella Classico at a discounted price of £8.99 (list £10.99) - its a wine that I remember from my student days in the late '70s, much maligned at the time, but a real classic - go for the Ripasso style if you can...

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Photos from August



Linda Harris took some nice photos at Esthers August meeting - here they are.

Friday, September 2, 2011

Sept 2011: UWS at the WI

On Thursday the 1st September, we did a tasting for the Ruislip WI. Myself, Jean and Esther presented "Old World vs New World" wines. Jean and I spent an interesting half hour selecting the wines at Sainsbury's - 6 wines (4 white, 2 red) trying to get a good comparison of old vs new.
The evening went well, but for me the most amazing thing was the great value we managed to get -- 12 bottles of wine for a total of £60.02 - thats only £5 per bottle average.
Loads of offers - 2 for £10 or 50% off, that sort of thing - all great value. To my mind the 2 best were the NZ Makutu Bay, at 50% off - £5.49, and the Jacobs Creek Shiraz at £5.61 (also reduced)
We had a great evening, and our pictures even appeared in the Gazette!
Many thanks to the ladies of the WI for inviting us, and to Kim Ford for all the organisation.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

August 2011 - Inhouse Tasting by Esther

Well, Esther gave us a cracking evening. After being very coy about what it was she was going to do, it was a fantastic celebration of her & martins 60th wedding anniversary, and a potted history of the 29 years of the wine society.
The wine - who cares really - but started with a fizz (oyster bay), 3 whites - a Bulgarian chardonnay, Hungarian furmint and an Alsace riesling. 2 reds - a beaujolais villages and a rioja, followed by 2 stickies - a mavrodaphne of patras & a PX sherry. An inspired selection and all accompanied by some great nibbles.
A great evening, and a great turnout - about 40 members

Sunday, August 14, 2011

July 2011 Meeting - Flagship Wines

The evening was presented by Julia Jenkins of Flagship wines, St Albans - www.flagshipwines.co.uk
A variety of New Zealand wines, all around the £10 -£15 per bottle mark, so they should have been good, and they were!
In the whites we had 4 different grape varieties - a Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay and a Gewurtztraminer.
A single rose was tasted - a malbec/merlot blend, followed by 3 reds - a Pinot Noir, a Merlot/Malbec blend and a £25 Shiraz to finish.
A good evening was had, with about 30 members turning up, and several took up the opportunity to buy some wine off Julia at a 10% discount.