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.

 

 

October - Wines of Bordeaux, Vivienne Franks

Vivienne Franks presented Bordeaux wines, to try and persuade us that Bordeaux had turned over a new leaf, and the wines are now competitive again.

The wines were all by Dourthe, who are one of the major producers in the region. The majority are stocked by the Wine Society, with a couple from Waitrose, and one (the Sauternes) which isn't readily available in the shops.

In price they ranged from £8.99 all the way up to the rarified levels of £25. 2 Whites, 5 Reds and 1 Sauternes to finish

As follows

White
Dourthe La Grande Cuvee 2012 - £8.99
Chateau Rahoul, Graves 2010 - £16

Red
Chateau Pey La Tour, Entre deux Mers 2008 - £9.95
Dourthe Reserve, Montagne St Emilion 2008 £10.25
Chateau Grand Barrail Lamarzelle Figeac. St Emilion Grde Cru 2005 £25
Chateau Rahoul, Graves 2008 - £16
Chateau La Garde, Pessac-Leognan 2004 - £22

Sauternes

Chateau Roumieu 2007

Overall – does Bordeaux hit the button - Its a tricky one, because the 4 “Expensive” wines, plus the Sauternes were all very good, but at those prices – they jolly well should be! I mean, I can see why people do rave about “top” Bordeaux wines, but they should be good, and I am not going to argue that one. BUT, the 3 wines at the £10 mark (8.99/9.95/10.25) were good, but not that good – I'm still personally convinced that I can find wines aqual or better, for £2 a bottle less.

So yes, you can get very good wines from Bordeaux – but you do have to pay for them.

September - Desert Island Wines (2)

Earlier in the year, we had a "Desert Island" wines, presented by members of the society, all volunteers. It was noted that all the presenters were male, so Esther took it onto hereself to persuade the ladies of the society to present their desert Island wines.

So we had

Jean - Cremant de Limoux £10.99
Wilma - Californian Viognier £10.99
Margriet - Scheurebe Kabinett Schatzle €7.90
Esther - Domaine Boyar Merlot (Bulgarian) £3.50
Sue - Californian Ravenswood Zinfandel £7.99
Maggie - Chateau Lussac (I think) St Emilion £12.99
Linda - Amarone £lots (I can't remember)
Sybil - Rutherglen Muscat £13.99

The stories behind most of these were fascinating, and apart from the Bulgarian Merlot, all the wines were great. The Merlot, however, was a nice reminder of those great days back in the '80s when Bulgarian wines were really good.

It was a great eveing, with a good turnout.

August - SAWines Online

We had South African wines from SA Wines Online presented by Kevin Gallagher & Melanie Melvill. Kevins the MD and has been importing SA wines for ever, and Melanie is the marketing director.

All the wines are well priced for the quality, although perhaps at the top end of the “everyday” budget. They all come from the main SA wine area around Cape Town, but given the size of SA, this region covers a wide variety of climatic conditions.

Kevin and Melanie can talk for South Africa, and gave us a good evening

The wines were:

Graham Beck Brut NV - £12.99

Buitenverwachting Sauvignon Blanc 2012 £10.49
Moreson Chenin Blanc 2011 £10.30
De Morgenzon maestro white 2012 £14.99
Paul Cluver Pinot Noir 2010 14.49
Laibach Pinotage 2011 £12.79
Allesverloren Shiraz 2010 £12.19
Springfield Whole Berry Cabernet Sauvignon 2011 £13.69

The whites were OK, although I was dissappointed with the De Morgenzon – which is a blend of Rhone white grape varieties – at 14.99 it felt expensive to me.

The Reds for me were a whole lot better and the star wines for me were the Pinotage and the Cabernet Sauvignon

www.sawinesonline.co.uk

July - Majestic Wines

Kevin, the manager from Uxbridge majestic, kindly offered to do this tasting. As we've had some "off-piste" tastings recently, we decided to go back to some more "classic" wines - all but 1 from France. The Riesling, I insisted on, because it's not very often we get to see good German Riesling.
 
We had:

• Ayler Kupp Kabinett Riesling (£9.99)
• Pouilly-Fume 2010, Jean Vincent (£9.99)
• Chablis 'La Collegiale' 2011, Laroche (£11.99)
• Pinot Gris Reserve 2011, Zind Humbrecht (£12.99)
• Berne Grande Recolte Rose 2012, Chateau de Berne (£8.99)
• Bourgogne Pinot Noir 2010, Nicholas Potel (£8.99)
• Chateau de Sainte Gemme 2002, Cru Bourgois, Bordeaux (£9.99)
• Rasteau Pallieres (Cotes de Rhone) (£10.99)

 

I have to admit to not being a great fan of classic French Wine - but several members disagreed with me. I really liked the Riesling and the Pinot Gris, others found them too sweet. I found the Pouilly Fume and the Chablis to be a bit thin - others raved about them. The Pinot Noir was agreeed to be pretty ordinary - you really do have to spend money to get a good one these days.

I think, however, there was general agreement on the class wine of the night, which was the Rasteau (Was Cotes de Rhone, now an appelation in its own right) - It was very very good.

June - Sicilian Wines by Chuck Cramer

I’m afraid I lost my notes, so this is from memory.

Chuck Cramer from the Wine people presented wines of Sicily, from 2 producers, Miopasso and Santa Tresa. Chuck’s all the way from the USA, and has been in the UK for the last 10 years or so – is a highly entertaining speaker, and brought a very well priced selection of wine with him.

- Miopasso Grillo (W) 2012 Terre Siciliane - £8,99
- Miopasso Fiano (W) 2012 Terre Siciliane - £8.99
- Santa Tresa Rina Ianca Grillo Viognier(W)  2012 Terre Siciliane - £10.75 70% Grillo, 30% Viognier
- Santa Tresa  Frappato 2011 IGT Sicilia - £10.75 – 100% Frappato
- Santa Tresa  Cerusuolo di Vittoria 2011 £9.99-10.99 60% Nero D’Avola, 40% Frappato
- Santa Tresa Avulisi 2010, IGT Sicilia, £14.99 – 100% Nero D’Avola

Grillo is better known as the base grape for Marsala, and makes a very nice straight white – highly recommended.

The Fiano – I’m afraid Fiano doesn’t do it for me – I just find it bland, and perhaps a bit flabby.

The Grillo/Viognier blend is very good and does genuinely put together the best of the viognier and the Grillo grapes.

The Frappato grape gives a quite light red wine, maybe a bit like Gamay, and very drinkable. However, matched with the tannins and body of the Nero d’Avola gives a truly superb wine, while I find the pure 100% Nero d’Avola just too tannic.

So – my recommendations – the Rina Ianca white and the Cerusuolo red – try them, you will not be disappointed.

Stockists – www.planetofthegrapes.co.uk , www.lastdropwines.com , www.oxfordwine.co.uk , www.vintageroots.co.uk www.cambridgewine.com

 

 

Turkish Wines - Richard Bost

So, Turkish Wine, presented by Richard Bost, Wine Educator. I've been to Turkey a few times, and I have to say I never really thought of it as a great wine region – the best that could be said was that it was drinkable. Back in the early 1980's one of my friends described the Turkish Champagne as “Fizzy Diesel”. But that was then... Richard presented a good selection of Turkish wine, all well priced, with one top-of-the-range absolute cracker

Richard did say that 10 years ago he wouldn't have presented Turkish wine, but it’s come a long way – and indeed it has. Turkey is a pretty small producer, with very limited internal consumption, an average of 1 litre per head per year. It is a Muslim country after all. Much of the wine is for tourist consumption and export.

The general feeling was that the whites were good, competitively priced, but not perhaps stand-out. Worth trying if you feel like it, but not worth the detour. The reds had a couple of belters, the Kav and the Okuzgozu, with the consensus view being that the Kav was much better value – I’d rather buy 2 bottles of it than 2 of the other. But the Okuzgozu does bear comparison with other classy wines at that price.

The last wine - the Mahlep - was “Interesting” some liked it, I didn’t. It’s a dessert wine with wild cherry in it – those who liked it felt it was worth the money at £9.99. So if you want something different…

Whites

Kavaklidere Altin Kopuk NV (Sparkling) £10.99

Kavaklidere Cankaya 2011 £7.49

Diren Collection Narince 2009 £7.99

Rose

Pamukkale Anfora Trio Rose 2010

Red

Diren Collection Kalecik Karasi 2010 £7.99

Doluca Kav 2009 £10.29

Kayra Single Vineyard Okuzgozu 2009 £19.65

Dessert

Diren Mahlep £9.99

All wines can be got from Mark Hopkins at Taste Turkey -  www.tasteturkey.com

 

 

April - The AGM - Desert island Wines

Presented entirely by the Members and not a committee member amongst them, this was a fun evening. The premise was "Wines you would take on your desert island" - think Desert Island Discs.
8 members brought along 8 very different wines - interestingly no actual white wines in there

We had

Laurent Perrier Champagne - Stanley Thompson
Sherry, Palomino Fino - Keith Clayton
Spatburgunden Leopold Schatzle - Bill Maton Howarth
Pinotage (South Africa) - Phil Miles
Zinfandel, Californian Old Vine - Harry Boote
Sangiovese, Israel, Golan Heights - Roy Abrahams
Rioja, Marques de Riscal grand reserva 2007 - Harry Kourtellaris
Rivesault ambre, Andre de Vilanova 1985 - John Denman

The eagled eyed amongst you will spot that it was all blokes - so in August (or the next "in house" tasting) the ladies will be presenting!!

March - Ray O'Connor

The speaker this month was Ray O'Connor http://www.rayoconnorwine.com/ who is (apparently) Irelands best wine export - well one web site I read said so, and as we all know, everything on the web is true.....
A great speaker, and well worth the fee, we had a good turnout, very good wines and a good evening. We were in our new venue for the summer while the Library is being renovated, and it was ...OK.

The Evening was based around unusual or less common grapes & wines - some weren't that unusual but there was at least one I had not actually heard of, so OK, something new....

In Order we had
Fefinanes Albarino - Rias Biaxas
Gruner Veltliner, Kamptal
Faldeos Nevados Torrontes, Argentina
Vouvray (Chenin Blanc) Haut Lieu Sec
Curto Barbera d'Alba La Foia
Koyle Reserva Carmanere, Chile
Guimaro Mencia, Ribiera Sacra
Saumur-Champigny, Clos de Cordeliers (Cab. Franc)

All from the Wine Society. It would be invidious to select a best wine as they were all very good, but the votes on the night as far as I can remember, was the favourite white was the Albarino, and the favourite red, the Ribiera Sacra.

February 2013 - Waitrose Fine Wines

Well, we were desperate - Esther had drawn a blank and been let down by several speakers, so I decided to give it a whirl, and present Waitrose Fine Wines between £10 and £15 per bottle. The logic being that its the kind of price we might not normally pay, but would spend on a special bottle

All were selected from the racks at Waitrose Ruislip, although I did cheat on one.

The wines were

Leitz Rudesheimer Rosegarten Kabinett (Rheingau) - Riesling 2011. 9.5%

DeGrendel Cape Town.- Sauvignon Blanc 2011 13.5%
Hahn St Lucia Highlands 2010 (California) Chardonnay 14%
Gewurtztraminer – Paul Blanck 2011 13.5%
Valpolicella Ripasso Classico Superiore. - Recchia 2009 14% Vol
Chateau Reynella 2008 Shiraz 14.5%
Blason du Rhone - Chateauneuf du Pape 2010 14%
Brazin Zinfandel Lodi (California) 2009 15%

I cheated on the Reynella, as it was £15.99, but I like it..

Generally, all good, but the De Grendel was a touch dissappointing, as was the Blason de Rhone - which was reduced from £21 to £14.

The star wine was the Reynella - very worth grabbing if you see some.

January - New Years Party

A good do, excellent turnout, and several new members.
Tony stocked up on the wines (except the stickies) before Christmas, to get some great deals - A Cordonieu fizz to start, then a Zalze Chenin Blanc and a Gerard Bertrand Viognier. For the reds, a Gerard Bertrand Minervois and a Portillo Malbec were good.
Pudding wines were a little more difficult, as Tony found that post-xmas, the range of stickies is much reduced, so we had to put up with (??) a very nice Elysium and that old standby, Mavrodaphne of Patras, which is always great value.