December 2014 - Supercherry Italian WInes

Supercherry was set up by Rob & Jane Stephany a couple of years ago. Their original intention was to specialise in Cherry based comestibles from the Le Marche region of Italy, which is known for its cherries. Somehow they never got past the alcohol based stuff. Odd that... They have a stall at the monthly Duck Pond market in Ruislip, but also have an on line presence.
They brought along 2  regional wines, a dessert wine blended with sour cherries, 3 liqueurs, and an eau de vie.

The first two wines were straight forward enough, from a small producer, Cantina Broccanera
Asco - a 50/50 Syrah/Cab Sauv blend
Cantaro - a Verdiccio.
Both perfectly fine wines

The 3rd wine, Viciolata del Cardinale from Cantine del Cardinale, was a blend of Visciola sour cherries and Montepulciano/Conaro rosso grapes, in a mix approx 33% cherry and 66% grape

Liqueurs - All produced by Major Liquori
Meloncino - 17% alcohol - a very sweet melon liqueur
Nocciolino - 17% alcohol - hazelnut cream - think Baileys with nuts
Limoncello - 28% alcohol - lemon

Opinions were mixed on these four. We've had a cherry mix wine before, from Turkey, and its an acquired taste. Of the 3 liqueurs I wasn't keen on the Melon or Nut, but the Limoncello is a very good example of its type. Others did like them, so its very much a question of try it and see.

The Aqua Vitae is again cherry based, basically an Eau de Vie from the Visciolata del Cardniale - Acquavite del Caridinale. Again, like all these spirits they are very personal, with some liking it, some not.

All I can say is try for yourselves - these drinks are out there.




T

Romanian Wines, Presented by Richard Bost.

Richard always brings along something unusual – Turkish, Mexican, etc. This time it was Romanian Wine. Romanian wine is at the budget end of the scale – the question – is it any good?

As always, 8 wines

1. Rhein Extra Brut Rose 12.5% NV.
2. La Catina Viognier Tamaioasa Romaneasca 2013. 13% - Laithwaites
3. La Umbra Chardonnay 2013 12.5% - Waitrose
4. Theia Chardonnay 2012. 14% - Laithwaite
5. Paris Street Pinot Noir Rose 2013. 13% - Laithwaites
6. Waitrose Pinot Noir 2013. 13%
7. La Catina Single vineyard Pinot Noir 2011 13% - The Wine Society
8. Burebista Shiraz Feteasca Neagra 2013 13% - Laithwates

Most (all??) of the wines are produced by Halewood Romania,, and Richard was presenting on their behalf. As always highly entertaining and the evening went with a swing.

I'll be honest here, Pinot Noir is not my favourite grape, but these were all drinkable and the pinot freaks were reasonably impressed, and all 3 are excellent value.

The Rhein Rose sparkling is, apparently, the “state” sparkling wine of Romania and gets served at state banquets. Apparently if it were on sale in the UK – which it isn't , it would be only around £12 a bottle – competitive with other good sparkling wines.

I really liked the Viognier blend and at £7.49 its well worth a try. The same goes for the other whites – good stuff, good value, and worth a punt.

 

The best was kept until last - the Shiraz blend - at £8.49 a bottle is something of a bargain. Certainly the 2 we tried were. Looking at online reviews it looks to be somewhat variable.

October - Portuguese Wines, Nick Oakley

This month was presented by my lovely brother Nick who trades as Oakley Wine Agencies in Colchester. I've been told he's known as "Mr Portugal" in the Industry. Nick doesn't sell direct, so the wines can be got from a variety of places.
Anyway, he brought along 4 Vinhos Verdes and 4 Duoro reds. You may not know, but Vinho Verde comes as varietals from half a dozen different grapes - so we had

Casal de Ventozela – Arinto 2013 - £8.50, Halifax Wine Company
Casal de Ventozela – Loureiro 2013 -  £8.50, Halifax Wine Company
Quinta de Curvos - Alvarinho 2013 - Not available in the UK - Yet.
Cazas Novas – Avesso 2013 - £9.99 - Red Squirrel Wines

These were not typical Vinhos Verdes, as VV is evolving, away from the rather astringent, effervescent green wines we are familiar with, to much more rounded wines - and these are great examples.

 

Tons de Duorum 2012 - £8.50, Tanners
Pomares, Quinta Nova 2010 - £8.99, The Wine Society
Quinta Nova Colheita 2011 - £10.50, The Wine Society
Duorum 2011 - £12.99, Tanners

Of the Reds, the Quinta Nova appeared in the Times last Saturday, recommended by Jane McQuitty no less..

September - Spanish Wines from Valladolid

Earlier this year, several members of the society went on a 6 day trip to Valladolid to investigate the vinyards & food of the region. Valladolid is at the centre of 4 different wine areas, so the group got to see a couple of producers in each region.
They brought back a selection of wines, plus managed to source some others from the UK - Majestic and Berry Brothers were mentioned. Some of the wines are NOT available in the UK.
The talk and the wines were presented by Phil Miles with a selection of photos of all the producers and vinyards and restaurants.

The wines were:
Cordoniu Seleccion Raventos - Sparkling, Catalonia (W)
Group Yller 2013, Rueda, Verdejo (W)
Jose Pariente 2012, Rueda, Sauvignon Blance (W)
Alfredo Santamaria Valvinoso 2013, Cigales, Rosado (Ro)
Alfredo Santamaria Crianza 2008, Cigales, Tempranillo (R)
La Legua Roble 2012, Cigales, Tempranillo (R)
Alfredo Santamaria Trascasas 2010, Cigales, Tempranillo (R)
Groupo Matarromera Crianza 2010, Ribera del duoro, Tempranillo.(R)

The Rosado rose is well worth trying, as are the 3 Cigales reds. It may be my tasebuds, but the last red - a £25 per bottle job, available from Majestic, was way too tannic for me. There were those who really like it.

August - French wines, Paul Roberts of PLB group

Once again, I wasn't there - Holidays....

I'm told it was an excellent evening, very well attended. the wines were:

 

Chateau Des Eyssards Merlot-Cabernet Franc

Chateau Des Eyssards  Sauvignon-Semillon
Picpul di Pinet Domaine Montrouby
Laurent Miquel Privee Viognier
Laurent Miquel Privee Syrah
Sancerre Les Princess aux Collines
Jerome Quiot Cotes du rhone
Ch Dupray St Emilion
Chateau Partarrieu "Le Mayne" Sauternes 2012

Mostly available from Monopol a new wine shop on the Farnham road nr Slough (opposite the Sainsburys)

 

July, Majestic Uxbridge - Australia & New Zealand.

We had wines from Australia & New Zealand presented by Kevin, the excellent manager from Majestic Uxbridge.

I couldn't be there due to my Daughters graduation, but I'm told it was a good evening.

For the record, the wines were:

Whites -

Invivo Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, £9.99

De Marisco 'Kings Thorn' Pinot Gris, £9.99
Peter Lehmann Clare Valley Riesling, £8.92
Wakefield Eden Valley Chardonnay £9.74

Reds -

Peter Lehmann 'BVS' Barossa Shiraz, £9.99

Hamilton Block Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon, £9.74
Mud House Central Otago Pinot Noir,
Mt Difficulty  'Roaring Meg' Central Otago Pinot Noir - £18

June - Wines of Italy

Italian Wines, Presented by Jean Stephen.

Well, it was the same night as England played Uruguay (and lost) so a turnout of 22 people was reasonably respectable. Jean had stretched the budget to squeeze in both a Barolo and an Amarone, which was nice.

The Wines

San Leo Prosecco DOC – Waitrose £10.49 – this is a nice prosecco, without the “banana” flavour you often get with cheaper prosecco.

Gavi DOCG 2013 12% - Aldi £5.29. An absolute steal. A good example of a Gavi, could easily be mistaken for a £10 bottle

Inycon Fiano IGT Sicily 2013. - Waitrose £7.79. I'm afraid I'm not keen on Fiano, as what others find to be smooth and well balanced, I just find bland. Sorry...

 

La Stelle Vermentino di Sardenga DOC 2013 13% - Waitrose £8.99. On the the other hand, this one is a good, fresh VFM easy drinker. Recommended

Sette Vigne. Vino Italiano 2010 14% - Waitrose £7.99. Well, from the label, you might possibly imagine its any old left over grapes all shoved in together – 7 grapes from 7 areas of Italy.. Well, you'd be wrong - its all good, and again, recommended. It is a special, so you might not see it regularly.

Barolo DOCG 2010 13.5% - Waitrose £16.99. Oh dear. Still quite tough – it is young and cheap for a Barolo, so I'd give this a miss. Save up another £5 get a better one.

Cantina Di Negra. Amarone Classico DOCG 2011 15% - Waitrose £17.99. Very good, but for £17.99 so it should be. Personally I'd spend £12 on a valpollicella ripasso

Vin Santo DOC 2008 17.5% - Waitrose £9,99 (½ bottle). Vin Santa is a strange fish – taste wise a sort of a cross between sherry and madiera. I'm not keen on it, but many were, so if you are looking for a different dessert wine, give it a whizz.

May 2014 – Vinalba Wines from Argentina

  The wines were presented by Abi Mitton (formerly Abi Sykes) of Buckingham Schenk  www.buckingham-schenk.co.uk/ , who are an off trade wine importer supplying supermarkets, off licences and wholesalers. We had a good turnout of about 35 people, almost running out of chairs, for a good evening.

All the wines are from Vinalba which is a large Argentinian producer; most of the wines can be found in Majestic, one in Asda, and I’m not sure where the Rose can be found as I didn’t note it down. Sorry about that.

 The Wines 

Torrontes Selection 2013 – Mendoza. £7.99, Majestic 

Chardonnay reservado 2013, Mendoza. £8.99. Majestic 

Rose 2013. Syrah/Grenache, Mendoza 

Malbec/Syrah 2012, Patagonia. £6.50, Asda 

Malbec reservado 2012, Mendoza. £11.99 Majestic 

Cuvee Couture Malbec/Touriga £11.75 Majestic 

Fifty Fifty Reservado 2012 Malbec/Cabernet/Sauvignon £11.99 Majestic 

Malbec Gran Reservado 2011, Mendoza. £15.99 

The whites are both fine; if you want something a little out of the ordinary, go for the Torrontes, as its got a good balance of fruit and freshness, unoaked, and just a little residual sugar.

The Rose was OK, but the problem with all Rosés is that they are very location sensitive – lovely in garden on a sunny afternoon, less so in the library on a Thursday night… 

The reds were all good, but the star buy in terms of VFM has got to be the Malbec/Syrah from Asda, which is definitely a steal at £6.50. 

Also worth trying is the Malbec/Touriga which blends one of the top Argentinian grapes with one of the best Portuguese.

April 2014 - the AGM, and supermarket wine

For the AGM, as usual, we did a committee tasting. 8 wines from 8 different supermarkets. To see whats out there. Budget, a tenner a bottle or thereabouts.

1.       Aldi – Cremant de Jura, Chardonnay. £6.50. Excellent value for money – a real bargain.

2.       Marks & Spencer – Riesling. Derting Estate, Durkheimer. £9.99. Not the greatest, could do better.

3.       Tesco – Clare Valley 2010 Semillon, Tim Adams. £10.50. I cant remember much about this one, so I suppose it was OK.

4.       Asda – Cotes de Rhone, Vinsobres. £7, down from £10.50. Pretty decent for seven quid, less so for over a tenner.

5.       Lidl – Valpollicella Ripasso £8.99. Excellent Value & worth chasing down. Waitrose also have a Ripasso at the moment for the same price.

6.       Sainsbury’s – Jumilla, Carta Roja (NOT Rioja) Grand Reserva 2009. £6, down from £9. A decent wine for £6, and maybe worth £9.

7.       Waitrose – Errazuriz Max Reserva £12.99. Excellent and worth it

8.       Majestic (Should have been Morrisons) Rustenberg Straw Wine (dessert wine) £12.99 per half bottle.

It was good evening, only spoilt by a low turnout of only 20 members.  But at least plenty of wine left over at the end.

We also voted to put up the meeting fee to £8.50 from £8.

March 2014 - Carla Bertolotti - Wines of Uruguay

We've had Carla along before, trying single handledly to raise the profile of Uruguayan wine in this country. And its a worthy task - some very good wines, good value and not easy to find.

Carla brought along a full AV presentation of her trip last summer to Uruguay, to meet several of the winegrowers, and I know some of the members were very taken by the chance to see the actual people behind the wines. We had a great turnout - 40 people - standing room only (literally) as we only had 38 chairs!!

We had a couple of whites to start, then mostly Tannats, Uruguays top grape variety.

VDV Estival 2012 - 60% Gewurtztraminer, 30% Charonnay, 10% Moscato Bianco. 12.5% £11
Bodegones Viognier Vineyard Select 2011 - 13.5% £9.50

Bodegones Marselan Vineyard Select 2011 (Cabernet/Grenache Cross) - £9.50
Bodegones Tannat 2012 - £8
De Lucca Tannat Libero 2010 (5-10% Nero D'Avola/Sangiovese) - 13% £11
Bodegones Tannat Private collection 2010 - 13% £13
Marichal Reserve Collection Pinot Noir/Tannat 2010 - 13% £13

VDV Alcyone Tannat Dessert Wine 16% £19 (1/2 bottle)

First off, the Pinot Noir/Tannat blend was controversial - a veritable marmite of a wine - I certainly did not like it.
The Alcyone dessert was superb, christmas cake in a glass, all those usual descrptions - excellent.e
Whites - good  and good value
Reds - All good, and for me the best was the cheapest (maybe thats just me) but at £8, the Bodegones Tannat is a steal.

Get them all from www.winesofuruguay.co.uk

February 2014 - German wines by David Cooper

David Cooper came along to present German Wines – It was his first paying event as a wine educator and it seems all his training has paid off.

He presented some very unusual German wines, that you are not going to see in the shops – although they are available online at www.thewinebarn.co.uk

Unusually for a German tasting we had 4 whites and 4 reds.
In order:

Iphofer Kronsberg Silvaner Alte Reben Spatlese Trocken, 2011 – £19.99

Producer/Region – Wirsching, Franken 

Grauburgunder Sonett dry, 2012 - £14.50

Producer/Region – Dr Heger,Baden 

Chardonnay Spatlese Dry, 2011 - £13.90

Producer/Region – Gottelmann, Nahe  

Erbach Schlossberg Riesling Grand Cru (Grosses Gewachs), 2009 - £30

Producer/Region – Schloss Reinhartshausen, Rheingau 

Fellbacher Lammer Trollinger,2012 - £13.10

Producer/Region – Aldinger, Wurttemberg 

Estate Lemberger, 2012 - £11.99

Producer/Region – Aldinger, Wurttemberg

Estate Spatburgunder (Pinot noir), 2012 - £16.60

Producer/Region – Meyer-nakel, Ahr

Limburger IX Rotwein Cuvee, 2009 - £24.25

Producer/Region – Bercher, Baden

So first, the clunker – the Fellbacher Trollinger was fairly universally disliked. It’s a very light coloured red wine, with a rather unusual taste, so null points for that one.

The 2 best VFM wines were definitely the other 2 cheaper ones – The Chardonnay, I felt matched up to a good white burgundy, creamy with very good body. The Estate Limburger, a very deep red, Inky, with deep tobacco and cherry flavours also hit the spot.

The rest, all good, but at those prices, one might expect so….

New Years Party

What's to say. It was a party. The wines all went - more needed next year methinks... Food excellent, many thanks to Jean, Freda, Sybil, Esther, Mark, Christine and also Margaret and Carole.

The wines had all been sourced by Tony in December, to take advantage of the many 25 or 33% off offer there are before Christmas.  I have no idea what each cost,

In some sort of order

Fizz
     Sparkling Burgundy, Blanc de Blancs - cave de Lugny 11.5%
White
    Torrontes, Cafayet-Salta 2011 - 13.5%
    Wickham Fume 2011 - 12%
Red
     Vina Eguia, Gran Reserva Rioja 2004. 13%
     Cuvee Balthazar, Syrah 2011 (IGP Pays d'Oc) 14%
     Vinalba Reservado Malbec 2011/12 14.5%
Dessert
     Vistamar Late Harvest Moscatel 11.5%

December - Spanish Wines by Phil Miles

Sorry this one is a bit late, but you know, Christmas and all that… The skiing was very good by the way..

Our very own Phil Miles presented this set of wines and promised some slightly off the beaten track Spanish wines. There were 3 whites, 5 reds, from a good variety of Spanish wine areas..

The whites were fine, the Albarino being very good, and oh so trendy right now. However, the white Rioja was way too oaky for me, but many others really liked it.

The reds had some absolute gems in there, and for me the Castilla La Mancha and the Artazuri Red both hit the spot. Both excellent value at the £10 mark.

The final wine, the Ribiera del Duoro Crianza 2009 was truly superb – and at £17.49 so it should be. Worth the money? Probably, but I’d rather have a bottle of both the Castilla la Mancha and the Artazuri red.

An excellent set of wines, and a very good evening .

The Wines

Caixas Albarino 2012 Martin Codax Rias Baixas. Galicia - 12.5% £9.99. Majestic

Rueda Blanco 2012 Marque de Riscal. Verdecho/Viura  - 13% £8.99. Majestic

Rioja Blanco 2012 Muga. Rioja. Malvasia/Viura – 13% £11.99 Majestic
Castilla La Mancha Torre de Barreda 2009. Tempranillo – 14.5% £9.95. Berry Bros & Rudd (BBR)
Artazuri Red 2012 Artadi. Navarra. Garnacha – 14.5% £10.25 BBR.
Laderas De El Seque 2010 Artadi. Alicante. Monestrel 14% £9.95 BBR
La Legua Crianza 2010. Cigales. Tempranillo. 13.5% £13.95 BBR
Cillar de Silos Crianza 2009 – Ribiera del Duoro, Tempranillo. 14.5% £17.49 BBR