Saturday, December 23, 2017

December 2017 - UWS, A History

We were presented with 8 wines by Esther, who is a founding member, to showcase the hitory of the UWS. UWS is close to 36 years old (Feb 2018) and has met EVERY month over those 35 3/4 years - never missing a single month.
Esther chose the wines to illustrate some of the history of the society and the world of wine and how it has changed.

Wine 1 - Cremant de Limoux. Used to be Blanquette de Limoux. In the 1980s the only fizz you really came across was Champagne, and this was one of the first ones that Esther could remenber that wasn't.
Wine 2 - Mateus Rose. A part of our history, familiar to pretty well anyone who drank wine in the '80s . At one point it was >50% of our imports of wine from Portugal
Wine 3 - Gruner Veltliner. Part of the story about Austrian Wines and anti-freeze, plus a long story about an UWS treasurer in the 80's who started a wine buying group, and made off with money (about £2 - 3000 in todays money, so not trivial)
Wine 4 - White Rioja. Again, a piece of society  history involving a coach trip down to Sherston to taste cider and Riojas - A morning of Cider, lunch with (plenty of) Rioja, followed by an afternoon of Rioja tasting. Memories are a bit hazy.....
Wine 5 - Fleurie. The Gamay grape, same as Beaujolais Nouveau... If you were there in the 80's you will remember. Enough said
Wine 6 - Bulgarian Merlot. In the 1980's, Bulgaria was the 2nd largest wine producer. Supported by the communist regime for hard currency, it produced a lot of pretty good wine. After 1989 it all fell apart and is only just now clawing its way back.
Wine 7 - Israeli Cabernet Sauvignon. Back in the day, somewhere in Israel, Esther was browsing the wine shelves, and someone else in the shop asked - "you seem very interested, why?" It transpired the other chap was in wine trade, and lived in Hayes. So a tasting was organised.
Wine 8 - PX Sherry. Black, Sticky, Sweet, Gorgeous. We all have memories of Harvey's Bristol Cream and similar (Emva?). Awful, just awful. But good sherry, real sherry in all its varieties is a marvellous thing. We have had several Sherry tastings, and it's undervalued and marvellous. 

An excellent evening.