October 2024. Wines of Calabria - Giusy Andreacchio

 

This month we had Giusy Andreacchio, a Calabrian native, presenting…. Wines from Calabria. She’s been in the Wine Industry here for a couple of decades and is also a Wine Educator and holds the WSET Diploma

She’s clearly very enthusiastic about her wines, and we didn’t get to taste the first wine for a full 30 minutes, which did mean the next few were rushed somewhat.

Most of these wines aren’t readily available in the UK although some cane be got from Enotria in London.

The Calabrians don’t export much wine yet – they produce for local or at least Italian consumption. And if you were tempted to  visit you’ll find English isn’t spoken much and the locals speak local dialect, not Italian.

Several of the grape varieties are new to me, and again shows just how many local varieties there are in Italy. The Greco Bianco (not the same as Greco di tufo) and Gaglioppo are both essentially unique to Calabria.

The Wines Were:

Whites

Cirò Bianco DOC 2023 Enotria - Greco Bianco. 13% £ 18

Pecorello Calabria IGT 2023 Enotria – Pecorello. 13% £ 20

Alfieribianco IGT 2023 Zagarella - Greco Bianco. 13,5% £ 17

Ansonica IGT 2022 Calabretta – Ansonica. 12% £ 21

Reds

Alfierinero IGT 2022 Zagarella - Malvasia Nera. 14% £ 17

Cirò DOC Rosso Classico Superiore 2022  Enotria – Gaglioppo. 14% £ 24

Il Rosso Calabria IGP 2021 A' Vita - 92% Gaglioppo/8% Magliocco. 13,5%. £ 31

Cirò DOC Rosso Classico Superiore Riserva BRINIFÉ 2016 Pirito – Gaglioppo. 14%. £ 44

 

If I had to choose 2 I’d go for the Alfieribianco white and the Ciro DOC Rosso.

 

August 2024 - Women in WIne - Carole Hazlehurst

 

Women in Wine, presented by Carole Hazlehurst.

 

Apologies for the lateness of this post – I went on holiday the day after and completely forgot.

The wines are listed by the wine maker first as this presentation focused on the Women making theme.

The wines were:

 

Nat Christensen, Yealands Albarino New Zealand, 2022  12.5% £14.65 - Rare. From ‘All about Wine’

Susana Balbo,  Crios Torrontes Argentina, 2023 13.0% £15.95 .The Great Wine company, Bath, but occasionally in supermarkets

Ntsiki Biyela, Aslina Sauvignon Blanc Western Cape,  South Africa, 2022 13.5% £18.99. The Wine Society (TWS)

Louisa Rose, Pewsey Vale Riesling Eden Valley, Australia, 2022 12.5% £17 Waitrose

Sara Banuelos, Ramon Bilbao Seleccion Especial Rioja, Spain, 2021 14.0% £11.99 Majestic

Katie Jones, Domaine Jones Fitou, France, 2020 14.5% £14.50 TWS

Rosa Kruger, Boekenhoutskloof, The Wolftrap Shiraz, South Africa, 2022 14.5% £9.99 Majestic

Laura Catena, Bodegas Catena, Malbec, Argentina, 2021 13.5% £13.99 Waitrose

 

A very informatinve and interesting evening, Carole is an excellent presenter.

 

To pick out 2 wines – the Katie Jones Fitou and the Rosa Kruger Shiraz were both reckoned to be very good indeed, even excellent.. Rosa Kruger is part of the Old Vine project which looks to preserve old (35yr+) vines which give a much greater depth of flavour. Look it up! She’s also a descendant of Paul Kruger the president of the South African republic at the end of the 1800’s and a key person in the Boer War.

September 2024 - German Wine

 

Wines from Germany – Beyond Liebfraumilch

Another in house tasting, this time from Tim (me) and Jasia on German wines.

One of the more worrying discoveries in preparing for this tasting is how difficult it is in 2024 to buy German wines in the UK . When I went into Majestic in April for a first look, they had none – zero – German wines available. Strewth! Very few in Waitrose, or the other supermarkets too. Thank heavens for the Wine Society. 6 of the wines are from TWS, the other 2 – the Silvaner and Lemberger are from The Wine Barn in Winchester. www.thewinebarn.co.uk

The wines are from all over the German wine regions – Mosel, Pfalz, Franken, Baden, Rheingau, Wurttemberg, and 6 different grape varieties. 3 being Riesling, of course.

So, 5 whites, 3 reds as follows:

Riesling Trocken, Schloss Lieser 2022. Mosel. 11% £11.95

The Society's Saar Riesling 2021. 11.5% £11.95

 Ruppertsberg Linsenbusch Grauburgunder Trocken Ruppertsberg Winzerverein 2023. Pfalz 13% £9.50

Wirsching 2022 Iphöfer Kalb Silvaner Premier Cru dry. Franken 13.5% £22.70

Spätburgunder, Markgräflerland, Martin Wassmer 2021. Baden 13.5% £15.50

Dornfelder Trocken, Anselmann 2022. Pfalz 13.5% £9.95

Jürgen Ellwanger 2022 Hebsacker Lemberger dry. Württemberg 13.5% £17.90

Johannisberger Klaus Riesling Spätlese, Weingut Johannishof 2020. Rheingau 9% £14.50

 

The Silvaner was chosen specifically to show the Franken “bocksbeutel” or field bottle, unique to the Franken area along the river Main. Sadly, it was the least favourite white wine on the night. 

 

Of the 4 dry whites opinion was fairly evenly split between the Saar Riesling

 and the Grauburgunder 

as to the best. Me – I like both, and will be buying more of both of them. The Schloss Lieser is fairly ordinary as was the Silvaner. 

 

The reds – opinion again divided between 2 of the 3 – the Spatburgunder (pinot noir) or the Lemberger. Both old varieties, while the Dornfelder is new variety, first planted in 1980, and now the 2^nd most common red grape in Germany. But not preferred on the night by us.

The Lemberger is also widely planted in Austria as ‘Blaufrankisch’ and Hungary as ‘Kekfrankos’

And finally, the Johannisberger Riesling Spätlese, was a classic sweet Riesling, with that typical acidity. Very nice indeed.