November - New Zealand WInes - Julia McKie

Julia came all the way across London by tube to present these wines, and the journey wasn’t wasted.  Enotria  http://www.enotria.co.uk/  are originally an Italian wine importer, but now are much bigger and cover the whole world of wine. These wines are available from one of their subsidiary companies – www.greatwesternwine.co.uk

In order we had

Yealands Gruner Veltliner  £9.65
Mansion House Bay Sauvignon Blanc £8.45
Urlar Sauvignon Blanc £9.43
Trinity Hill Chardonnay £13.66
Urlar Pinot Noir £12.67
Carrick Pinot Noir £10.94
Trinity Hill Syrah £9.89
Trinity Hill Botrytised Viognier (37.5ml) £13.66

The Gruner Veltliner is the best example I’ve tasted, and better value than the orginal Austrian ones – definitely recommended. The 2 S-B’s were both clean and very fresh, and personally I found the Urlar (Gaelic for earth) too sharp for me, but the Mansion House, at £8.45 is very good value.

The Chardonnay was well made, but for many of us, too oaky. If you like a clean, oaky chardonnay, it would be worth trying. Now, I have to admit to being biased, as I have had too many dodgy pinots, but these one were fine. Not my thing, but many of the society enjoyed them.

The Syrah is also very good – if you are looking for an alternative to the blockbuster, hefty syrahs, this is one for you – elegant and powerful, without being overwhelming, again well priced.

And the final Viognier – a classic noble rot dessert wine, not at all like those other antipodean stickies was well worth trying

So, overall, a good set of wines, well priced, with something for everyone.

As a final thought, Freda, one of our members, a retired teacher, was moved to present the vote of thanks, because Julia was just brilliant.