May 2014 – Vinalba Wines from Argentina

  The wines were presented by Abi Mitton (formerly Abi Sykes) of Buckingham Schenk  www.buckingham-schenk.co.uk/ , who are an off trade wine importer supplying supermarkets, off licences and wholesalers. We had a good turnout of about 35 people, almost running out of chairs, for a good evening.

All the wines are from Vinalba which is a large Argentinian producer; most of the wines can be found in Majestic, one in Asda, and I’m not sure where the Rose can be found as I didn’t note it down. Sorry about that.

 The Wines 

Torrontes Selection 2013 – Mendoza. £7.99, Majestic 

Chardonnay reservado 2013, Mendoza. £8.99. Majestic 

Rose 2013. Syrah/Grenache, Mendoza 

Malbec/Syrah 2012, Patagonia. £6.50, Asda 

Malbec reservado 2012, Mendoza. £11.99 Majestic 

Cuvee Couture Malbec/Touriga £11.75 Majestic 

Fifty Fifty Reservado 2012 Malbec/Cabernet/Sauvignon £11.99 Majestic 

Malbec Gran Reservado 2011, Mendoza. £15.99 

The whites are both fine; if you want something a little out of the ordinary, go for the Torrontes, as its got a good balance of fruit and freshness, unoaked, and just a little residual sugar.

The Rose was OK, but the problem with all Rosés is that they are very location sensitive – lovely in garden on a sunny afternoon, less so in the library on a Thursday night… 

The reds were all good, but the star buy in terms of VFM has got to be the Malbec/Syrah from Asda, which is definitely a steal at £6.50. 

Also worth trying is the Malbec/Touriga which blends one of the top Argentinian grapes with one of the best Portuguese.

April 2014 - the AGM, and supermarket wine

For the AGM, as usual, we did a committee tasting. 8 wines from 8 different supermarkets. To see whats out there. Budget, a tenner a bottle or thereabouts.

1.       Aldi – Cremant de Jura, Chardonnay. £6.50. Excellent value for money – a real bargain.

2.       Marks & Spencer – Riesling. Derting Estate, Durkheimer. £9.99. Not the greatest, could do better.

3.       Tesco – Clare Valley 2010 Semillon, Tim Adams. £10.50. I cant remember much about this one, so I suppose it was OK.

4.       Asda – Cotes de Rhone, Vinsobres. £7, down from £10.50. Pretty decent for seven quid, less so for over a tenner.

5.       Lidl – Valpollicella Ripasso £8.99. Excellent Value & worth chasing down. Waitrose also have a Ripasso at the moment for the same price.

6.       Sainsbury’s – Jumilla, Carta Roja (NOT Rioja) Grand Reserva 2009. £6, down from £9. A decent wine for £6, and maybe worth £9.

7.       Waitrose – Errazuriz Max Reserva £12.99. Excellent and worth it

8.       Majestic (Should have been Morrisons) Rustenberg Straw Wine (dessert wine) £12.99 per half bottle.

It was good evening, only spoilt by a low turnout of only 20 members.  But at least plenty of wine left over at the end.

We also voted to put up the meeting fee to £8.50 from £8.

March 2014 - Carla Bertolotti - Wines of Uruguay

We've had Carla along before, trying single handledly to raise the profile of Uruguayan wine in this country. And its a worthy task - some very good wines, good value and not easy to find.

Carla brought along a full AV presentation of her trip last summer to Uruguay, to meet several of the winegrowers, and I know some of the members were very taken by the chance to see the actual people behind the wines. We had a great turnout - 40 people - standing room only (literally) as we only had 38 chairs!!

We had a couple of whites to start, then mostly Tannats, Uruguays top grape variety.

VDV Estival 2012 - 60% Gewurtztraminer, 30% Charonnay, 10% Moscato Bianco. 12.5% £11
Bodegones Viognier Vineyard Select 2011 - 13.5% £9.50

Bodegones Marselan Vineyard Select 2011 (Cabernet/Grenache Cross) - £9.50
Bodegones Tannat 2012 - £8
De Lucca Tannat Libero 2010 (5-10% Nero D'Avola/Sangiovese) - 13% £11
Bodegones Tannat Private collection 2010 - 13% £13
Marichal Reserve Collection Pinot Noir/Tannat 2010 - 13% £13

VDV Alcyone Tannat Dessert Wine 16% £19 (1/2 bottle)

First off, the Pinot Noir/Tannat blend was controversial - a veritable marmite of a wine - I certainly did not like it.
The Alcyone dessert was superb, christmas cake in a glass, all those usual descrptions - excellent.e
Whites - good  and good value
Reds - All good, and for me the best was the cheapest (maybe thats just me) but at £8, the Bodegones Tannat is a steal.

Get them all from www.winesofuruguay.co.uk

February 2014 - German wines by David Cooper

David Cooper came along to present German Wines – It was his first paying event as a wine educator and it seems all his training has paid off.

He presented some very unusual German wines, that you are not going to see in the shops – although they are available online at www.thewinebarn.co.uk

Unusually for a German tasting we had 4 whites and 4 reds.
In order:

Iphofer Kronsberg Silvaner Alte Reben Spatlese Trocken, 2011 – £19.99

Producer/Region – Wirsching, Franken 

Grauburgunder Sonett dry, 2012 - £14.50

Producer/Region – Dr Heger,Baden 

Chardonnay Spatlese Dry, 2011 - £13.90

Producer/Region – Gottelmann, Nahe  

Erbach Schlossberg Riesling Grand Cru (Grosses Gewachs), 2009 - £30

Producer/Region – Schloss Reinhartshausen, Rheingau 

Fellbacher Lammer Trollinger,2012 - £13.10

Producer/Region – Aldinger, Wurttemberg 

Estate Lemberger, 2012 - £11.99

Producer/Region – Aldinger, Wurttemberg

Estate Spatburgunder (Pinot noir), 2012 - £16.60

Producer/Region – Meyer-nakel, Ahr

Limburger IX Rotwein Cuvee, 2009 - £24.25

Producer/Region – Bercher, Baden

So first, the clunker – the Fellbacher Trollinger was fairly universally disliked. It’s a very light coloured red wine, with a rather unusual taste, so null points for that one.

The 2 best VFM wines were definitely the other 2 cheaper ones – The Chardonnay, I felt matched up to a good white burgundy, creamy with very good body. The Estate Limburger, a very deep red, Inky, with deep tobacco and cherry flavours also hit the spot.

The rest, all good, but at those prices, one might expect so….

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.