October 2023 – In house tasting – mystery wines from The Wine Society.

This month, something different. Sort of a blind tasting, with a difference, presented by Keith D, one of our 3 Keiths. All the wines were selected from the Wine Society.

The way it worked was as follows – all the wines were covered up, so when poured we had no idea what was what.

Keith gave an introduction to each wine, passing over a selection of information about the wine, the producer, the geography, the soil, maybe some clues as to the grape.

We had to identify (guess) the wine – Country, region, type. Keith gave plenty of clues, so it was often possible, with some knowledge, to narrow the options down a lot. Actually a very fun evening.

The wines were (all The Wine Society):

·         Cremant de Loire 2020. 12%. £13.31

·         Vinho Verde 2022 12% £7.25

·         Muscadet sur Lie 12% £8.25

·         Marlborough (NZ) Sauvignon Blanc 12% £11.50

·         Australian Shiraz 2020 13.5% £8.95

·         The Society’s Claret 2021 £7.50

·         Exhibition Rioja Reserva 2018 14.5% £17

·         Exhibition Barolo 2018 14.5% £28

So, how easy was it?

Wine 1, clearly a sparkling wine and the clues pointed to being a Cremant. I narrowed it down to  Loire/Bourgogne/Jura. So close, but no cigar.

Wine 2, Obviously a Vinho Verde – that spritz, the shape of the bottle, the clues. A slam dunk for me

Wine 3, One of the clues was the grape variety – Melon de Bourgogne, a dead giveaway, so I knew but otherwise I was pretty clueless. 50/50

Wine 4. The nose and taste were a dead giveaway. A classic NZ S-B. Yep

Wine 5. Got close. Guessed an Australian GSM or similar, so again, no cigar.

Wine 6. The clues and taste said claret. And I thought I reckon this is the Wine Society’s basic claret. Yep!

Wine 7. The clues and taste said Rioja. So – Yep.

Wine 8. Tricky. Very mature. Very pale. Many of us guessed Pinot Noir. But Barolo? Totally wrong. Not even a sniff of a cigar…

So, I suppose 5 or 6 out of 8 in total. A few others did better, many didn’t. But it doesn’t really matter, it was an excellent evening. And some very good, value for money wines. Look up the Wine Society.