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.