Century Wine Club – September

Its getting more difficult now – with >75 varieties down I'm moving into the edges of my knowledge.

In the last month I've had:

White

An Italian Wines from Campania made from Fiano/Falnghina/Greco grapes

A Tesco Sicilian Fiano

A Greco Di Tufa – Triplica

A Pinot Blanc (easy one this) Alsace. Kuhlmann-Platz. Caves de Hunawihr

Red

An Aglianico - Lava, Terre del vulcano. Beneventano region

A Negroamaro - Feudo Dei Tari, 2013

A Primitivo - Natale Verga,, Puglia 2014.

So thats 7 new varieties this month, and I still have a bottle of Furmint in the fridge. Next week I'm off to Madeira, so hopefully a couple of new varieties there, and in October we have Austrian wines at the Society – 2 or 3 more there I hope.

Total right now – 27/9 – 79 varieties.

September 2016. VIlla Maria NZ WInes

This month we had wines from Villa Maria in New Zealand, Presented by Paul Raper the UK Marketing Manager. A very good speaker, and clearly enthusiastic about the wines – very worth listening to.

The wines were:

Villa Maria Private Bin Sauvignon Blanc 2016 Marlborough £9.

Villa Maria Reserve Clifford Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2015 (AWATERE) £13

Vidal Reserve Chardonnay 2015 Marlborough £14

Villa Maria Cellar Selection Pinot Noir 2013 Marlborough £16

Esk Valley Merlot/Cabernet/ Malbec 2014 Hawkes Bay £14.50

Vidal Reserve Syrah Gimlett Gravels 2013 Hawkes Bay £13.50

Villa Maria Reserve Merlot 2013 Hawkes Bay £19

Villa Maria Reserve Noble Riesling 2013 Marlborough 37.5c £17

All prices approximate – it all depends where you buy it

I'm going to get into awful trouble here: I really liked the Sauvignon Blancs – both excellent examples of NZ SB's – I actually liked the cheaper one best; but most of the rest didn't do an awful lot for me. I know I am in a minority as most society members did like them.

My problem with them is that (if this makes any sense) they are too well made. All very clean, fresh, elegant wines, but I suppose I tend to like “earthier” wines. I did like the Esk Valley Blend, and did order some.

So if you like clean, fresh, well made, elegant wines then these are for you – at a price.

Best of all, at the end, we got a very nice discount on the wines for a single order. I ordered 9 bottles!

WIne Century Club

This is a fun idea I was introduced to by one of our speakers back in May (I think)
Its an online thing www.winecentury.com
 for people who have tried 100 different wine grape varieties, and others interested in the concept. Includes membership information and event listings.
They have a liist of varieties you can download with perhaps 300 varieties on there (I should count them)

So I set off in May, used the backlog of wine society wines since January and have got to about 60 right now. It starts getting tough past about 50, once you've done  Syrah, Chardonnay etc....
I'm going ot try giving monthly updates:
In the last month (August) I've been to the alps, so added

Roussette de Savoie
Jacquere (Apremont)
Mondeuse

Plus

Pinot Meiniure (Champagne - on the way to the Alps)
Godello - Portuguese (our August tasting)
Emir - Kavakidere Turkish Fizz from my wife's aunt (we may have given it to her!).
Catarratto - My daughter
Avesso - Portuguese (our August tasting)
Albariño -  Portuguese (our August tasting)

Total now 67 varieties. 

August 2016 - Oakley Wines, Portugal

This month we had Nick Oakley of Oakley Wine Agencies (www.oakleywineagencies.co.ok) who is sometimes known as “Mr Portugal” in the trade. OK so he is my brother, and I'm biased, but it was still a great evening.

Nick brought along a selection of wines, all easily available to the general public.

We had 40 – 42 people along, pretty much a full house, so the noise grew throughout the evening

He brought along:

• Morrison’s Signature Douro white. 12.5% £8.00 - Pretty decent.
• Cazas Novas Vinho Verde (Avesso) – The Wine Society. 12.5% £7.45. Also pretty decent
• Xastra Godello, Bierzo, Spain – Adnams & The Merchants Vintners group. 13.5%. £9.50. Didn't like it. Rather acid for me.
• Casal de Ventozela Alvarinho, Minho, Portugal – Majestic. 13% £8.99. Good. 
   
• Xastra Mencia, Bierzo, Spain – Adnams & The Merchants Vintners group. 13.5% £9.50
• Asda Extra Special Dão 13%. £5.50. A real steal. Very good at this price
• Ramos Reserva, Alentejo (Majestic) 14%. £6.99. Also a real steal. Very good at this price
• Morrison’s Signature Douro red. 13.5% £8. Decent enough.

For me, the best VFM were:

White - Cazas Novas Vinho Verde

Red - Asda Extra Special Dão AND Ramos Reserva, Alentejo (Majestic)

The Ramos is a lot better than the Dao, I have drunk a lot of it (have to keep the family in business!) and I would recommend it to anyone.

July 2016. Laithwaites Wine Quiz

An excellent evening presented by Adam from the Beaconsfield Laithwaites

Well, I'm always hesitant about things like wine quizzes, as they can easily deteriorate into "which was the best St Emilion Vintage" type questions. Which are no fun.

This wans't one of those - in fact very cleverly done. It was split into 2 parts - one was a printed out sheet with about 15 wine questions which we could complete as the evening went on on, the second bit was a lot more fun.

The normal 8 wines were presented, blind - teatowel round the bottle. For each wine, 3 "Truth or Bluff" envelopes were handed out. Each of the 3 envelopes had a plausible description of the wine "I am a Viognier from Souther France etc..etc... " type of thing. And we had to guess the true wine/description. 

 Our overall accuracy rate was maybe 75%, reasonable, but not great, as there were a couple of jokers in there.**...    

The wines were:

Cremant de Bourgogne: Prince de Dulphey Brut Reserve - £14.99

Leitz Eins Zwei Dry: Riesling Rheingau** - £14.99

Stellenrust Heritage Collection (South Africa) Chenin Blanc 2015. £10.49

Dog Point (New Zealand) Sauvignon Blanc 2015 -£19.99

Jean Leon (Spain, Penendes) 3055 Merlot 2011** £12.79

Massivo Nero D'Avola 2015 - £7.19

Textbook Rack'n'Roll (USA) Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 - £18.40

Peter Lehmann The Pastors Son Shiraz 2014 - £12.79

** These were real wild cards. The Riesling tasted like no other German Riesling I've ever had.. and the Spaninsh Merlot – plenty of head scratching

And for the quiz – a prize of a decent bottle of fizz was eventually won by someone with an excellent 85% or so score

Adam also kindly brought along a decent red and white to go into the raffle.

A very good evening all round.

June 2016 - Wines from Aldi and Lidl

This month was wines from Aldi and Lidl, presented by Jean and Freda. Jean knows a huge amount about wine and is endlessly informative, while Freda knows little but is endlessly entertaining, as befits a retired schoolteacher.

So, are the wines any good?

Broadwood Folly Sparkling – Denbies, England. Lidl £14.99

• Pretty decent fizz, a champagne subsitute, but not the cheapest.

Gewurtraminer 2014. JP Muller. Lidl £7.99

• A steal – Very good for a very good price

Chenin Blanc. Chateau de Fesler, Loire. Aldi £9.99

• Not sure – not really a bargain

Marsanne. Jean Claude Mas, Sud De France Aldi Exquisite collection. £5.99

• Definitely worth the money.

Pinot Noir 2015 Wairarapa, New Zealand. Ali £6.99

• A very good pinot noir for just 7 quid – a bargain

The Cape Red Stellenbosche 2015. Shiraz/Grenache/Cab Sauv/Mourvedre Aldi £5.99

• OK, bit run of the mill perhaps

Minervois La Laviniere. Shiraz/Grenache/Carignan Aldi £9.88

• Not really a bargain.

Montbazillac. Domaine de la Maletie 2013. Semillon/Sauvignon Blanc/Muscadelle. Lidl £7.99

• Another bargain. My daughter even went out at the weekend and bought some.

We had an excellent turnout of about 38, and a really fun evening.

May 2016 - Swiss Wines

May 2016. Swiss Wine from Ben of Alpine Wines

Ben is clearly an enthusiast, and his talk was full of fascinating detail about Swiss wine, with always just another interesting fact....

The wines, as you might expect from Switzerland, are expensive. Very expensive. This might explain why they export so little (1.5% of their production) or it might be because they drink them all because they are very good. Very, very good.

Chasselas Suisse 2012. Cave de la Cote, Vaud - £12.22

Doral 2013 Cave Cidis, La Cote, Vaud - £16.20

Petite Arvine de Fully. Maitre de Chaise reserve special 2013. Provins, Sion Valais - £30.40

Oeil de Perdrix (Pinot Noir) 5/9 2009 Cave de Geneve, Geneva £18.16

Pinot Noir Suisse 2011, Cave de la Cote, Vaud £12.22

Gamay de Chablais Vaudois 2009. Badoux vins, Aigle, Vaud £18.04

Gamaret-Garanoir 2012. Uvavins, la Cote, Vaud £16.79

Merlot Ismaro 2010 Delea, Ticino £16.80

My favourite would be the first, the Chasselas, a not unreasonable price for an excellent well balanced and rounded wine.

They are all quite unusual, like nothing you've had before – in a good way, so I would recommend you steel yourself and splash out. You won't be dissapointed. (Whether you can afford them in the long term is another rmatter). Give them a try.

All available from www.alpinewines.co.uk