New Years Party

What's to say. It was a party. The wines all went - more needed next year methinks... Food excellent, many thanks to Jean, Freda, Sybil, Esther, Mark, Christine and also Margaret and Carole.

The wines had all been sourced by Tony in December, to take advantage of the many 25 or 33% off offer there are before Christmas.  I have no idea what each cost,

In some sort of order

Fizz
     Sparkling Burgundy, Blanc de Blancs - cave de Lugny 11.5%
White
    Torrontes, Cafayet-Salta 2011 - 13.5%
    Wickham Fume 2011 - 12%
Red
     Vina Eguia, Gran Reserva Rioja 2004. 13%
     Cuvee Balthazar, Syrah 2011 (IGP Pays d'Oc) 14%
     Vinalba Reservado Malbec 2011/12 14.5%
Dessert
     Vistamar Late Harvest Moscatel 11.5%

December - Spanish Wines by Phil Miles

Sorry this one is a bit late, but you know, Christmas and all that… The skiing was very good by the way..

Our very own Phil Miles presented this set of wines and promised some slightly off the beaten track Spanish wines. There were 3 whites, 5 reds, from a good variety of Spanish wine areas..

The whites were fine, the Albarino being very good, and oh so trendy right now. However, the white Rioja was way too oaky for me, but many others really liked it.

The reds had some absolute gems in there, and for me the Castilla La Mancha and the Artazuri Red both hit the spot. Both excellent value at the £10 mark.

The final wine, the Ribiera del Duoro Crianza 2009 was truly superb – and at £17.49 so it should be. Worth the money? Probably, but I’d rather have a bottle of both the Castilla la Mancha and the Artazuri red.

An excellent set of wines, and a very good evening .

The Wines

Caixas Albarino 2012 Martin Codax Rias Baixas. Galicia - 12.5% £9.99. Majestic

Rueda Blanco 2012 Marque de Riscal. Verdecho/Viura  - 13% £8.99. Majestic

Rioja Blanco 2012 Muga. Rioja. Malvasia/Viura – 13% £11.99 Majestic
Castilla La Mancha Torre de Barreda 2009. Tempranillo – 14.5% £9.95. Berry Bros & Rudd (BBR)
Artazuri Red 2012 Artadi. Navarra. Garnacha – 14.5% £10.25 BBR.
Laderas De El Seque 2010 Artadi. Alicante. Monestrel 14% £9.95 BBR
La Legua Crianza 2010. Cigales. Tempranillo. 13.5% £13.95 BBR
Cillar de Silos Crianza 2009 – Ribiera del Duoro, Tempranillo. 14.5% £17.49 BBR

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.