December Wine of the Month

There were a number of contenders for my favourite wine of the month and most were red wines this month. To become my wine of the month it normally has to be available in the UK and be below the fine wine type price tags – thus the superb Trimbach Cuvee Frederic Emile 2004 Riesling from Majestic didn’t get a look in at over £25 a bottle and nor did any of the very nice Bordeaux and Burgundies which we had bought in France. Nor did the M&S Priorat get the chance as they don’t have any 2006, any more (but you might consider the 2007 Bellmunt which is only £60 for a case of 6).

Runner-up was a very nice but too alcoholic wine from Marks and Spencers. It was a Gerard Bertrand 2008 Domaine des Garennes Minervois La Liviniere. A lovely bend of Syrah, Grenache and Carignan, but at 14.5% too powerful for me! So a much more reasonable 12.5% wine from the Northern Rhone – Les Hauts de Pavieres 2007 Crozes Hermitages got the vote instead. We got this in Waitrose in October and you may still find some on the shelves. If possible go for the 2007 rather than the 2008 and the former was such a good year in the Rhone. The wine is 100% Syrah (known as Shiraz elsewhere) and has that great Syrah pepperyness, is not too full bodied and has some blackberry fruit. It is a good food wine which would suit quite a variety of dishes. It is from the Cave de Tain, yet another good French cooperative wine – The wine is just under £10. For me so much better value than some of the big brand Shiraz from around the world

It was really good to find a good Southern French wine at under 13% alcohol.  With global warming etc it is a wine that bucks the trend towards increasingly alcoholic wines.

Buying and drinking fine wines

A colleague at work this month got bought a very expensive £85 bottle of Burgundy white wine (a Batard-Montrachet Grand Cru) this month for his birthday and didn’t enjoy it – he doesn’t enjoy classic oaked chardonnay although he loves Chablis which is another Burgundy white. Such a waste! It just shows that you need to develop some knowledge of wine before buying fine wines either for yourself or as a present and also know the taste of the person you are buying for. Joining a wine group like Tongham Tasters and coming along to other wine events such as our Tongham Village Hall wine tasting dinners will help you gradually develop that knowledge of both your taste and of wines.

Having bought a fine wine, one also needs to treat it with care and consideration when storing, serving and drinking it. On Christmas day I served a 2004 Trimbach Cuvee Frederic Emile Alsace Riesling white wine. This is a lovely wine but initially I served it too cold and it tasted very ordinary indeed. However, after an hour it gradually warmed up and tasted wonderful. So be very careful with wine temperatures and read your wine book for the ideal temperatures and invest in a wine bottle thermometer in order to serve correctly.

Good wine glasses also make a difference and I really love my Riedel glasses, even though they represent quite an investment and are only for when Jane and myself share a really good bottle of wine. Whatever, you do need glasses which are quite thin and a reasonable shape to enjoy good wine.

Also take care of your wines when storing as they should avoid extremes of heat and cold and also rapid temperature cycling. Thus a car garage or loft or by a radiator are not good places to keep wine even for a short time.

Finally, be careful when pouring the wine as a young wine might need aerating to get the best out of it and with an older wine might need decanting to avoid a mouthful of sediment.

To learn some of the rudiments do go to a really good website such as The Wine Doctor

Beer and Bruschetta

Everyone knows about my love of wine but my secret pleasure is watching Channel 4’s Come Dine With Me! It amazes me that some of these contestants exist and are willing to appear ridiculous on TV. The Edinburgh Come Dine with Me was rather a classic with a self styled cougar, a rock chic, an unfortunate young man constantly being harassed by the “cougar” , a Polish lady and an Italian food snob Toni. It was amusing to watch Toni criticise Michel for her rather un-Italian Tiramisu and then come up with a rather strange version of the Italian classic Bruschetta, himself . However, it did inspire me to cook a slightly more authentic Bruscetta this lunchtime (shame that I had no Italian bread) and as ever at lunchtime I went for a beer pairing rather than wine.

For this quick but delicious lunch I diced three medium tomatoes per person and added some salt and fresh herbs. I then toasted some bread and rubbed the bread with a garlic clove. The tomatoes were added to the bread and some olive oil (or in my case rapeseed oil) and good quality balsamic vinegar (but not too much) sprinkled on top.

The beer was another excellent bottle conditioned beer from the Hammerpot brewery which like the other I reviewed recently had a lovely historic motor racing themed label – this one was a 1952 Cooper-Bristol just like local hero Mike Hawthorn used to drive. The beer was Madgwick Gold, a lovely hoppy golden ale, quite light but the citrus undertones matched well with the tomatoes. In Tongham we are blessed with our own excellent brewery but it is always nice to try others as well such as this beautiful example from Sussex. We bought it in Secrett’s farmshop but it is available elsewhere – do try some.

Never watched Come Dine With Me, look it up on www.channel4.com/programmes/come-dine-with-me.  A guilty pleasure but fun!

SECOND TIME AROUND

Ever had a wine that you thought was great and second time around it tasted poor? Or maybe vice versa, you bought two bottles of the same wine and on the first tasting it was rather ordinary and then months later the second bottle seemed great? This week I have had two examples of the latter.


The first was a 2008 Argentinian Shiraz from Waitrose that I bought 3 bottles of when it was on special offer back in October. It seemed quite interesting on the label as this Finca Flichman Gestos Shiraz was made 50% of shiraz from 1,100 metres altitude and 50% shiraz from 700 metres. However, the first tasting in late October was a great disappointment – maybe the label had made my expectations too high even for a £7 Mendoza shiraz! So the other night when Jane made an excellent balti chicken curry and I added a balti vegetable curry as the side dish, I thought we wouldn’t be wasting a good bottle of wine on the curry by opening the Gestos. What a surprise, this time the Argentinian Shiraz was excellent in every way – both tasted before the curry and with the curry. A definite 15 or 16 point out of 20 wine. So one, that at last, I can recommend and a wine that stands up to a curry really well – the curry possibly even enhanced it. Perhaps, I’ll try the third bottle out on the Tongham Tasters.

The second example was a 2006 Bellmunt Priorat from Marks and Spencers. Last December I had not long been back from a business trip to the states and on that trip had been delayed in Philadelphia Airport and resorted to the excellent Vino Volo wine bar and tried one of their tasting flights including an excellent example of a Spanish Priorat red. Well when shopping in Guildford last Christmas I had been in M&S and seen that they sold a reasonably priced Priorat – and once again bought a few bottles on impulse. Back home that weekend Jane again cooked a nice dinner so I thought the Priorat would be a good accompaniment – my expectations were high after the Vino Volo example. Unfortunately, I was disappointed and didn’t think the M&S Bellmunt Priorat was good at all. So this weekend when we were having some rather unpromising turkey and stuffing leftovers, cooked with fondant potatoes by yours truly and served with a cranberry and red wine jus, I decided to try the Bellmunt again. Well yet again with low expectations, the wine proved to be a real surprise and quite excited me. I am now really looking forward to the Priorat we have chosen for the next Tongham Village Hall wine tasting dinner.

So what is going on here! As I said in one of my recent posts, wine tasting is an adventure and you never know what is going to come out of the bottle. Wine changes over time, tasting depends on the room temperature and humidity, what you have tasted before, what you are tasting it with and even on your mood. Sometimes wines like people need a second chance!

Report on December Get-Together

For our December 2010 event the wines were chosen by Sheila and she took much care presenting them in the perfect flight order. Her wine choices were influenced by the time she has spent in the USA where she had first tasted Gewürztraminer and gained a love for Zinfandel. The wines were all from Sainsburys and most had been purchased when at a discount which allowed us another very reasonably priced evening of under £7 including food. Sheila’s wines consisted of a number of Sainsbury’s excellent Taste the Difference range plus some big brand names; proving once again that we are not wine snobs at Tongham Tasters. John tried to be seasonal with the food and served some turkey and chestnut soup, some Marks and Spencer’s party food and the usual raw carrot and cucumber palate cleansers. Jane also made some lovely home made oatmeal bread. The Pork Belly Squares from M&S were very good – recommended. This month we welcomed John S for the first time, who joined our usual hardcore winos for an excellent evening.


As usual we tasted everything blind so we would not be influenced by knowing what the wine was. This induced the usual fun guess the grape variety game and this time we did quite well. Scores below are quoted for each wine in the order – John E, Ian, Steve, John S, Clive, Sheila & then Jane.

1. St Hallett Barossa 2008 Gamekeeper’s Reserve Australia - £8.49 but £6.37 after discount.

Four of our tasting team had this as their top wine of the evening and two of the remaining three had it as their runner-up. It was the last wine of the evening and shone like a star for some of us after the two big brands that preceded it. This is definitely a wine worth picking up when the supermarkets are having their 25% off deals. John reckoned it was the best red we had tasted in the last 3 months and enjoyed its petrol nose (trust an Alfa Romeo driver to want a wine to smell of petrol!). This by the way is a blend of Shiraz, Grenache and Touriga – some of us guessed the first two parts of the blend but didn’t get the hints of the Portuguese grape variety. Scores on the doors were 16, 16.5,17,18,15,18,17 with not everyone giving their gold, silver and bonze medals using th same criteria.

2. Conegliano Prosecco Superiore Brut 2009 Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Italy - £9.99 but £6.99 after discount.
Sheila thought we ought to have a sparkling wine as it was approaching Christmas – and we all thought she had chosen well. Two of the team had it as their wine of the evening and a further four in their top three. It had lovely gentle small bubbles and was very dry but floral. Impressions ranged from Ian’s lemon and sherbet to Clive’s clotted cream, and Jane’s elderflower. A very nice bottle of under £10 bubbly. Scores out of 20 were 14.5, 11.5,15+,16, 13.5, 19, 14.

3. Alsace Gewürztraminer 2008 Cave de Turckheim Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference France - £6.99
This was Jane’s favourite wine of the evening and another four of us had it in their top three. It proved to be a fantastic food wine and went excellently both with the turkey and chestnut Soup and the belly pork. Ian identified this as a gewürztraminer straight away and described it as tasting of light marmalade. The two Johns thought the aroma was either of tropical fruits or of their wife’s perfume. For Clive it grew on him after a while and he nearly finished off the bottle! A good budget choice to have with your turkey at Christmas, this comes from a good Alsace cooperative. Scores were 12, 15.5, 15-, 15, 12.5, 19, 18.

4. Turning Leaf Zinfandel California 2009 USA- £7.24 but £5.43 after discount.
Four of the group had this as their bronze medal winner. For John it was too sweet but others enjoyed its spicy Christmas pudding or cherry bubblegum taste. Zinfandel is not a grape we drink a lot of in the UK so it was an interesting choice for the group to try whilst Sheila’s USA recollections prompted a whole host of alligator and crocodile stories and then we went on to hippopotami! Scores were 11.5, 14.5, 13.5, 13+, 16, 14, 20, 11.

5. Jacob’s Creek Reserve Shiraz 2007 Australia - £8.99 but £6.74 after discount.
This well known brand didn’t do very well despite being one of the evening’s more expensive wines. Although, obviously Shiraz it was rather too bland for most of us men. Interestingly it proved to be a wine that appealed more to the women. Scores were 10, 11, 13-, 15, 11, 18, 18.

6. Cotes de Provence Rosé 2009 Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference France - £6.00 but £4.50 after discount.
This was a very dry rosé but it lacked the wow factor to get into anyone’s top three. Clive thought this was another wine that smelt of bubblegum. It was the cheapest wine of the evening and if you like a dry innocuous rose it could be for you. Scores were 10, 10, 12, 14, 14, 17, 11.5.



Gradually the evening became a blur!

 Interestingly enough, we have had a rosé, a white and now a red become our wine of the evening. We have also proved that our favourite wines are not necessarily the most expensive. Nobody has yet produced six wines that were high-scoring – this is a difficult challenge to buy 6 good wines for £50 and make sure that they don’t clash and then serve them in the right order – but all of our 3 challengers in 2010 have given us an enjoyable evening. So far our female participants have been keen to show their bargain hunting expertise whilst Ian spent right up to the limit – will this be another trend as we go into 2011?

Our next monthly tasting is being hosted by Steve and Hazel on January 13th. The February tasting, where Clive will be buying the wines, has had its date moved to February 17th. Steve has agreed to choose the wines for our March 10th event. We look forward to all of these evenings and as usual you will be made most welcome if you want to join us – just email us at Tonghamtaster@gmail.com.

Thanks to everyone for bringing their own glasses. If you are thinking of coming but are put off by the idea of buying 6 wines glasses, note that ASDA are currently doing 6 reasonable wine glasses for £3 and Wilkinsons do glasses at about 22 pence each. Apparently Steve reckons the very best deal around is 20 pence but I’ve forgotten where that was.

John’s recipe for Turkey and Chestnut Soup

I was up at 6.30am this morning making soup for tonight’s Tongham Tasters event. The idea was to create something seasonal and as I had some turkey stock left over in the freezer from Thanksgiving and fancied a chestnut soup, came up with the following recipe. Although, I have tried foraging for chestnuts in the past, it was not very successful, so I used a packet version from the supermarket.


Anyone for a cup of soup?


I peeled a carrot, an onion, a potato and 2 cloves of garlic and put them in the Thermomix with a stick of celery and chopped. I then added a 200g pack of Merchant Gourmet whole chestnuts, some left-over pancetta pieces and some olive oil. All of this was then sautéed in the Thermomix for about 4 minutes before adding 1 pint of turkey stock, 1 pint of water and some seasoning (salt, pepper and herbs de provence). It was then cooked in the Thermomix for 30 minutes before blitzing for 1 minute. Et voila – a taste of Christmas ready to be served tonight (and whilst all of this was going on I made myself and Jane a cup of tea, drank it and had a shower and wrote this blog!). Thank you Thermomix! For more about Thermomix go to Jane’s blog site    http://www.whyisthereair.com/    …. See you tonight!

I wonder which wine would go with this best - I'll let you know after tonight.

Helpful Staff at Supermarkets

One of the reasons that I normally prefer buying wine at wine shops rather than supermarkets is that the staff are normally more helpful and knowledgeable.  However, there are some exceptions.  Staff at Waitrose are a cut above the rest and with their wine selection it is quite a joy to shop there.  However, it does not surprise me that Marks and Spencers are often Wine Supermarket of the year and Margeret at Marks and Spencers, The Meadows Sandhurst makes it a real joy to shop there.  We were there today to take advantage of their 25% off offer and as usual Margeret was her usual helpful and cheerful self and had some great recommendations.  Thanks Margeret!  We'll be back.

Date for your diary

Last October's Champagne Tasting Dinner in Tongham Village Hall

Our next Tongham Village Hall Wine tasting dinner is going to be on Saturday February 12th, 2011.  The theme is going to be the wines of Spain and Tapas style food.  Wines will include everthing from Albarino (one of Spain's best whites from Galicia) to Priorat (the most happening red wine region in Spain) and we'll be throwing in some special Sherries as well.  I'm afraid you can't book yet but do mark the date in your diary.   Why not subscribe to this blog if you want to make sure you know when we are taking bookings - all of our recent wine tasting dinners have been sell-outs.

Languedoc-Roussillon

Where it is on a wine map of France

For those seeking good value French red wines, the Languedoc-Roussillon is one of the regions to look out for, although the really good wines can still set you back €20 or £20 in the UK; however, this price is still much less than a well known Bordeaux or Burgundy and there is real value to be had in the under €10/£10 category whether from good brands such as Gerard Bertrand (always reliable) or the small growers. When I first started drinking wine, the wines of this region were known for being cheap plonk and I used to avoid Minervois and Corbieres, whereas now I seek it out; the region has reduced production and increased quality. In our Tongham Village Hall wine tastings it was the first region we did, although we didn’t entirely do it justice as we mixed in with the Sud-Ouest. I was reminded of our holiday when drinking a really nice bottle of Faugeres (Domaine Thibault 2007 Cuvee Jaqueline Javy) last night, hence today’s blog. We were lucky enough to take a holiday in the region during April 2009. We were staying at Steve and Yvonne’s place near Beziers and their directions were “drive out of Beziers and turn right at the prostitute”. Unfortunately, she must have been attending to a client as we drove past, so we got lost! The holiday, luckily took an uphill climb after that and we sampled some lovely wines from the region and really enjoyed the food and countryside. The spectacular nature and greenness of the countryside were a surprise and if you’ve not been here is a taster...

Amongst my favourite appellations are Coteaux du Languedoc La Clape and Minervois la Liviniere. Whilst in the Languedoc the best wine maker we visited was Chateau Mire L'Etang in La Clape - their top of the range red at about €17 was really excellent.  Well worth a visit.   As mentioned in other posts the cooperative at Roquebrun (St Chinian) is normally great value.  Although we didn't get there, the wine of Les Trois Tomates (the three tomatoes) is a great recommendation from Steve. The Cote Sud restaurant in Beziers is very good and another must to try.  If you are a fan of oysters go to Bouzigues.

The Perfect Flight



A flight of ice wines?



A selection of wines presented, like at Tongham Tasters’ get-togethers, for the purpose of sampling and comparison, is often called a flight of wines or a tasting flight. No one knows for sure why it is called a flight of wines but apparently it first appeared in print in 1978. Most dictionaries refer to the fact that groups of things are often called flights, examples being birds, aircraft or stairs. Interestingly enough all of these examples ascend, and this is the purpose of a perfectly arranged flight of wines as well. One should start with the younger wines and progress to older wines, or start with the lighter wines and move onto the fuller bodied wines, or start with the lesser wines and ascend to the finer wines. In the simplest example you would start with the whites, perhaps have a rose and then taste the reds. All very progressive and with the good reason that your taste buds will prefer it this way.



One of the fun things about being a member of a wine circle is trying to construct your perfect flight of wines. At Tongham Tasters we allow you to choose 6 wines for a cost of £50. Want to take up the challenge?

7 Good Reasons To Drink Wine

Why do so many of us enjoy wine more than other drinks?

1. First is has alcohol in it and thus has all of the drug like effects needed to cope with life!  But then this is true of beer, cider and spirits as well.
2. Wine goes particularly well with food. Thus many foodies love wine and conversely you won’t find many people who are indifferent to food who love wine.

Fun with food and wine


3. Because a bottle is rather too much for one person to drink and doesn’t keep well once opened, it is a natural drink for sharing. It is a social drink.
4. Opening a bottle of wine is a taste adventure; you never know what it is going to be like until you taste it and perceptions change as the tasting experience continues.
5. To really appreciate wine takes effort, and to learn more about the subject takes even more effort, and most of us are happier when concentrating on something.
6. Some of us like to believe the doctors and scientists who promote the health giving qualities of wine.
7. Some of us like to believe that wine drinking is sophisticated and refined. It is a drink tor those with aspirations.  It seems also be a drink favoured by women.

Invitation to the December Tongham Tasters’ Get-together

Only just over a week to go before another Tongham Tasters’ Get-together. As usual we will be tasting six interesting wines brought along by one of our circle – this month they will be the choice of Sheila. So make sure you have Thursday December 9th at 8.00pm in your diary. We will be serving the usual palate cleansing foods plus a seasonal Chestnut soup to help warm you against the cold.

It really helps if you can drop us an email as soon as possible to let John know you are coming. Usual email address – tonghamtaster@gmail.com. If you prefer the phone, ring John on 07717 876743.

We always welcome new people coming along to our get-togethers. No knowledge of wine is required, just an enthusiasm to try different wines and join in the fun of our monthly gatherings. So whether you know us or just happened upon the website, and fancy coming along, contact us to reserve your place. Spaces are limited to 14 as we hold our get-togethers in our homes.

All of our meetings are held in Tongham near Farnham in Surrey, UK. We share the costs of the wine and food between all the attendees, and this is set at a maximum of £10 per person.

John’s November 2010 Wine of the Month



Great Riesling with Thai Hot & Sour Soup

 It was touch and go until the last few days which wine I would be recommending you this month; we had some nice wines introduced to us by Ian at our November tasting, then later in the month I got to taste some excellent classic French reds, but in the end they were pipped at the post by an old favourite of mine – Philippe Zincks Grand Cru Eichberg Alsace Riesling 2008 from Majestic. This is a very classy, very dry, nice bodied and very citrussy Riesling and, I have to say, very much to my taste. Some of you will have tasted the 2007 at our Alsace wine tasting dinner in Tongham Village hall and I seem to remember we served the 2006 at a tasting at Farnborough Hill School some years ago. It seems to be a classic each year. This wine can be obtained at Majestic Wine (there is a branch in Farnham with very helpful and knowledgeable staff) for £12.99 or £11.99 if you buy at least 2 bottles of it.



Remember to get wines for those seasonal winter ingredients

 As we are coming into December I think it would be an excellent pairing for some of this month’s seasonal ingredients such as Oysters, Mussels, Clams, Scallops,Sea Bass or Smoked Salmon. For more information on seasonal ingredients go to this excellent website  http://www.britishlarder.co.uk/recipe/winter-seasonal-british-ingredients-and-produce  Perhaps, this wine would even go with sprouts! 

Not a cheap wine this month but I’d rather have one bottle of this than 2 or 3 bottles of plonk. I once went to a talk, many moons ago, by Oz Clark and I remember him saying … if II could leave you with one message tonight it would be drink less but better quality wines. Great advice! And by the way this Riesling (the 2007 version) was one of Oz’s top ten wines in his book last year and the 2008 is at least as good. I scored this wine 16.5/20.

On Burgundies and Soup

Unfortunately most of life’s luxuries cost money. One of these luxuries that I love is Burgundy wine and personally I normally buy premier Cru Burgundies as I can’t afford the Grand Cru and the lower levels of burgundy are so often a disappointment. I normally buy my premier Cru Burgundies in France but locally in Farnham we are lucky enough to have an excellent wine shop selling those expensive wines for special occasions – Imbibros.  I have tried some of their wines - excellent!  Their web site is

http://www.imbibros.co.uk/.

One my food loves is soup and the kitchen gadget that is expensive but indispensable for making Michelin Star quality smooth soups is the Thermomix. Want to learn more, go tohttp://www.whyisthereair.com/

The other weekend I combined these two loves. We were having a gorgeous rib of beef cooked French style like a steak and I decided that a Nuits St Georges would be the perfect accompaniment. Cheese would obviously make a perfect third course but what would make a perfect first course to go with a Premier Cru red Burgundy? I didn’t want to go for an obvious choice such as something Burgundian and eventually hit on the idea of a White Bean Soup. It was a marriage made in heaven. The ingredients were a small tin of cannellini beans, 4 cloves of garlic, a large potato, a small onion and some fresh herbs from the garden (at this time of the year just sage, rosemary and a little thyme). All of this was put in the Thermomix, sautéed in a little olive oil plus some oil from a jar of Anchovies (my special secret ingredient but don't use too much!), and then water added, cooked for fifteen minutes and then blitzed for 30 seconds. Smooth, delicious and a great food pairing for the Nuits St Georges.

By the way, the reason I love burgundies are that they are probably the most versatile food wines and also great for drinking on their own. So many people pick a Bordeaux to go with their steak but for me it would be Burgundy every time. Luckily, I am a lamb lover too and this is where Bordeauxs reign supreme and those special Graves or Medocs come into play..... but for so much food from fish to chicken to beef, Pinot Noir is the winner.

By the way, the Nuits St Georges was purchased in Auchan in France in 2009 for a very reasonable €23.   It was from the excellent Les Vaucrains vineyard and was made by the grower Domaine Christian Confurons & fils.  A 2006, I scored it a 16/20 as it had a lovely spicy cherry flavour.  

Bottled Beer

Bottled beer has improved a lot since I was young, when it was all fizzy light ale or brown ale.  Nowdays one gets some nice bitters in a bottle.   Recently I picked up a very nice example at the excellent Secretts Farm shop in Milford near Godalming. It was a bottle conditioned ale from Susex and had exactly the bitter hoppy taste I like.  My reason for purchasing was actually the nice picture of an old grand prix car on the front of the bottle, the beer being called Woodcote bitter after the corner at Goodwood and the Woodcote Cup, a race run there.  The beer went very nicely with a Saturday lunchtime salad of cheese, ham, salad leaf, gluten free bread croutons and chorizo leftovers.  Salads aren't particularly friendly with wines unless you are very careful with the dressings and lunchtimes somehow suit beer better than wine.

A real turkey of a choice!

Nice wines, but do they all work with a Roast Turkey dinner?

Food and wine pairing is a very personal affair. I recently went on the internet just before Thanksgiving in the USA to see what the experts and other blogs and postings recommended to eat with a roast turkey dinner such as the Americans have on Thanksgiving day and us Brits have at Christmas . I kept going until I found a wine that ten “experts” agreed on, but in the meantime found a recommendation for almost every wine under the sun! Most sites recommended more than one wine and agreed it could be either red or white. The results, with my comments, in order of number of recommendations were:

1. Pinot Noir – 10 recommendations (the top choice, I think, for a good reason and one of the few top choices I intuitively agree with. A nice red burgundy with Turkey is a safe choice but don’t serve cheap Pinot Noir plonk. Some suggest slightly chilling but for Turkey I would disagree).
=2. Riesling - 8 (the equal top white choice, although experts disagreed about the level of sweetness, so a risky choice)

=2. Chardonnay - 8 (many preferred an oaked version although some specifically recommended otherwise. Many mentioned white burgundy. No surprise this came nearly top but as Chardonnays differ so much it is still a risky choice.)

=4. Pinot Grigio/Gris – 7 (again quite a divergence between those recommending a light Italian wine or heavier Alsace type wine.  The Alsace Pinot Gris is a great choice in my view if you want a white).
=4. Sauvignon Blanc – 7 (this was a surprise to me as for me this is an aperifitif, goats cheese or seafood wine. I've tried this with a turkey dinner and it doesn't really work for me.)

=4. Gewurtztraminer – 7 (I understand the reasoning but I’d want a really spicy sausage meat stuffing to be convinced on this one)

=7. Beaujolais Nouveau – 6 (apparently if chilled this will appease both red and white drinkers and of course it comes out a week before thanksgiving. I’d frankly be disappointed if served this with a Turkey dinner but others obviously disagree).
=7. Red Zinfandel – 5 (A better known wine in the US than the UK, I only saw this on one UK site and as they recommended a brand I don’t admire it is not likely to sway me)

=9. Shiraz – 4 (another surprise but then again it probably depends on the style of the Syrah/Shiraz, although I could agree with a Rhone blend including Syrah).

=9. Viognier – 4 (If you are a fan of Viognier, why not?)
Chenin Blanc – 2 , Champagne – 2, Italian White – 2 (no specific grape variety mentioned!),
Merlot – 2, Merlot / Cabernet Franc blend – 2 (such as right bank Bordeaux blends, Fronsac, St Emillion etc.), Rose - 2, Tempranillo – 2 (1 specifically mentioned Rioja), Chateau Neuf du Pape – 1 (I am amazed this only got one recommendation),  Sparkling Saumur - 1, Malbec – 1, Prosecco – 1,
Sylvaner – 1, Muscadet – 1, Pinot Blanc - 1, Cru Beaujolais - 1, Cabernet Franc – 1, Semillion / Sauvignon Blanc blend – 1, Bordeaux Clairet – 1 (half way between a rose and a red), Sangiovese – 1
White Zinfandel – 1 (I assume there are referring to the blush wine),  Cabernet Sauvignon – 1 (a brave soul as most sites particularly discouraged serving this. Save your expensive bottle of Medoc for a nice joint of lamb), Water – 1 (this person wouldn’t recommend drinking wine with a turkey dinner at all),
Don’t bother eating Turkey at all, go for a nice joint of Beef – 1 (actually quite a few people would agree with this)

I saw a lot of web sites very dismissive of blogs trying to recommend wines for roast turkey dinners. However, judging by my experience, many people serve quite expensive and quite inappropriate wines with this meal (myself included), so a bit of advice might not go amiss.   The difficulty is to pick out the appropriate advice.

I doubt if any other meal would generate such a diverse list of recommended wine pairings. One can come to many conclusions;

1. Some of these recommendations are by people with very poor palates!
2. You can actually drink anything you fancy with a roast turkey dinner.
3. Everyone’s version of a roast turkey dinner is so different that it depends on whether you prefer white or brown meat and what trimmings and sauce you add. Certainly some Americans like sugared vegetables and this might cause some of the choices.
4. Everyone is trying to match a wine with different parts of the plate, some with the turkey, some with the stuffing, some with cranberry sauce etc.
5. Some are trying to find a wine that will be enhanced by the food, whilst others are looking for a wine to enhance the food. To do both is not always easy.
6. This tells you more about the internet than what to drink with Turkey.
7. Everyone is copying everyone else and then adding in another wine in order to be original and different. Thus gradually we end up with every wine in the World.
8. Its no so much the grape variety that matters here but the exact bottle – the quality, the age and style etc.

Probably there is some truth in all of the above. Perhaps, the best recommendation is to offer an assortment of wines and let your guests have fun trying to find the best match themselves (yes I know this is a cop out!).   However, if having other wines with other courses this also will just muddle the palate.  Having had our Thanksgiving meal this week (I have a lovely American wife), I'd suggest a bottle of good Pinot Noir and a Alsace Pinot Gris.

Buying wines in French Supermarkets

It is well known that Jane and myself tend to make wine runs twice a year to the French supermarkets during their Foire aux Vins. Recently, our wine group has been talking of joining us for the run in March 2011. So what wines might they find and what quality and price. Below is a selection of the last six wines under ten euros that we have drunk in the last month and that were purchased during our last two trips:

Comte de Calayrac, Pecharmant, 2006, Union de Vinicole, Bergerac Le Fleix. €6.07 Auchan. Scored 15/20. This is not an appelation well known in England and not one I buy often either. However, this oaked red Bordeaux blend from next door in Bergerac proved rather a gem. It had good balance and nice earthiness and spice. This is obviously one of those cooperative wines worth looking out for and 2006 seems a pretty good year. I found this to be a joy and good value. An example of our picking something you might not buy in the UK that gives one a pleasant surprise when opening.

Grande Reserve d’Or, Madiran, 2007, Cave de Crouseilles. €4.99 Auchan. Scored 14.5/20. This is an old favourite and I always try to keep some Madiran in the house to have with dishes from the South West of France (Cassoulet, Magret de Canard or Ossau Iraty sheeps cheese from the Pyrenees). This redwine is made from the Tannat grape with some Cabernet Franc. This is another cooperative produced wine and is an example of a more fruity style Madiran that can be drunk young.

Chateau Tour Leognan, Pessac-Leognan, 2007. €9.90 Intermarche. Scored 13.5/20. I love the red wines of the Graves region of Bordeaux and always look to buy some in all price ranges when in France. This is the second label of the well known Graves property Chateaux Carbonnieux and is made from their youngest vines. It is quite typical of wines from this Chateaux but probably needs to be kept a few more years to be at its best but some aeration makes it drinkable now. It is a 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot blend and has good cassis fruit and tannins with a hint of vanilla oak. Perhaps very slightly thin.

Apremont, 2008, Vin de Savoie, Les Adrets. €4.50 Auchan.  Scored 13/20. This is an interesting white wine that many from the UK, unless they have skiied in the area, will never have heard of.  It is made from 100% Jacquere grapes and so is interestingly different from the normal Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio wines.  Relatively subtle and pale, we enjoyed this wine with a raclette (a cheese dish from the area.

Reuilly White, Domaine Bigonneau, 2008. €6.99 Auchan. Scored 12.5/20. The Sauvignon Blanc whites from the Loire Valley, especially Sancerre, Menetou-salon, Quincy and Reuilly, are amongst my favourite white wines. After a hard day at the office they make a great aperitif! This is another small not so known appellation and thus better value than say Sancerre. This is a small family run estate in Brinay where the father and daughter make the wines. I was slightly disappointed in this wine but at the price still represents value for a dry white wine from the Berry.

Roquebrun Languedoc 2009

Combe de Brescou, Saint Chinian, Cave de Roquebrun, 2008. €6.50 Auchan. Scored 12.5/20. For me the Languedoc is the place for value red wines in France and I love the wines of Saint Chinian and this cooperative. This is 60% Syrah (Shiraz), 20% Grenache, 20% Mouvedre which makes it a big wine. For me there is too much tannin so perhaps needs leaving a few years but it is still drinkable now.

So overall a good value bunch of wines with not a dud amonst them. Look out for those good cooperatives and less known appellations when buying wine in France.  Hopefully, this might tempt you along to our group and to join us on our next trip to France.

Le Beaujolais Nouveau 2010 est arrive

The third Thursday in November always sees the arrival of that year’s Beaujolais Nouveau. Whilst many wine lovers hate Beaujolais Nouveau and the hype has died down considerably over the years, it is still something us more open minded wine lovers can look forward to. It is always best to slightly chill it and enjoy it in a party atmosphere.

I had my first taste of this year’s wine on Thursday lunchtime in France and although it had the typical banana / pear drops taste I was actually far more impressed than in many previous years. Light and refreshing, with lots of young fruit, it was actually quite pleasant!

This tempted me to buy another bottle on the way home to England at Orly airport. I always tend to believe that the Beaujolais-Villages Nouveau is slightly better, so I bought a bottle from Bouchard Pere et Fils, a negociant in Beaune. This one was also quite pleasant with bags of both pear drops and berry fruits. Cost was Euro 6.60 and scored only about 10/20 but it’s a once a year fun experience. You can always buy better wines at the price but variety is the spice of life.

So my conclusion, one of the better years so do go out and try some!

Top wine tasting tips – Maximising the nose

One should use all your senses to taste and enjoy wine.    For instance, just hearing the cork pop out of the bottle begins to excite me.   The next stage is to look at the wine and I have sometimes known I am going to reject  a wine back just by looking at it and conversely have really appreciated the beautiful colour of say a Chateauneuf du Pape.  However, probably the most important stage in understanding wine is smelling or sniffing the wine and getting the nose, aroma or bouquet.  Important in this stage of tasting is to ensure that you use a proper tasting  glass where the top of the glass has a smaller circumference than lower down eg the traditional tulip shape.  Also don’t overfill the glass – one twentieth of a bottle is  enough.  For white wines over chilling can hide the nose so you might want to warm the glass a little in your hands; the same might be appropriate for red wines that have not yet come up to room temperature.  Most connoisseurs start by just by sticking their nose in the glass as this will tell you the strength of the aroma and then agitate the wine by swirling it around the glass to maximise the aroma.  However, here is my “Top Tip”; at this stage you might still not have got a really good aroma out of the wine.  This may be due to a poor glass, a tired or unsensitive nose or just a wine that has little bouquet.  In cases like this put your hand tightly over the top of the glass for 10 seconds and swirl a little. After the 10 seconds bring the wine up to your nose but keep your hand tightly over the glass.  Then remove your hand, stick your nose into the glass and inhale through your nose.   Try this at home, it is amazing how it really maximises the nose!

Dates for your diary

Tongham Tasters hold wine tastings in Tongham near Farnham Surrey on the second Thursday of each month.   As we hold our get-togethers in our homes, participants are limited to 14 each evening.  Each month a different member of our wine circle selects the wines.  Cost of the food and wine is shared and the cost per person is limited to £10.  We warmly welcome new wine lovers coming to our evenings.   All of us are at different levels of wine knowledge and experience, so don't let being a novice put you off - we all learn more by drinking interesting wines each month.   Also don't worry about not living in Tongham as tasting doesn't necessarily involve swallowing.  Get a flavour of our get-togethers by reading the reports of our evenings and other blog postings below.

Our next events are -

Thursday December 9th - 8.00pm - Sheila
Thursday January 13th - 8pm - Steve & Hazel
Thursday February 10th - 8pm - Clive

To find out more email any questions to tonghamtaster@gmail.com or ring John on 07717 876743.

Report on our November Get-together

Ian introduced us to some very interesting wines from The Wine Society for our November get-together. Although seasonal colds and business and other commitments reduced our number to just six, we had a very enjoyable evening tasting the type of wines that Ian likes to drink – off-dry whites and fruity reds. Welcome to Penny who joined us for the first time. Ian slightly overspent his £50 budget but donated the extra guinea. With the cost of the food added, the evening cost our participants just under £10. For the food this evening we had smoked salmon, home made pork liver pate, chicken and mushroom soup, cheddar cheese, bread and the usual cucumber, celery and carrot palate cleansers.  If you want to know more about the locally reared pork that went into the pate go to http://www.whyisthereair.com/

Ian gave us a short potted history of The Wine Society at the start of the evening. It is non-profit making and owned by its members and has been established since 1874. If you want to know more go to http://thewinesociety.com/

As usual we tasted all wines blind and had 6 glasses each so that we could properly compare all the wines. This month’s review features the scores of Penny, Sheila, Jane and John, all using the Tongham Tasters’ wine scoring system. In descending order of our tasting team’s votes, here are the wines we tasted:

1. Zarcillo Bio Bio Valley 2009 Riesling Chile - £5.95
For the second month, a reasonable priced wine was the most popular with 4 of us voting it their top wine. Scores from our tasting panel out of 20 were – Penny 18, Sheila 15, Jane 15.5, John 16.5. Jane got a lovely elderflower bouquet from this wine and the taste then became a slightly sweetish lime but enough acidity to balance any sweetness. Clive reckons it would make a great wine for drinking on its own as an aperitif. A number of our group immediately opted to get Ian to order more of this gem.

2. Dona Paulina Cabernet Sauvgnon 2009 Rapel Valley Chile - £4.75
Although nobody voted this their top wine, absolutely everyone had this in their top three wines of the evening. At a price under £5 this is a guaranteed crowd pleaser, and, interestingly enough, another wine from Chile. Scores were – Penny 17, Sheila 17, Jane 13.5, John 14.5. This wine started with an unusual nose of blood oranges and pink grapefruit and had a beautiful mellow taste that didn’t immediately shout Cabernet Sauvignon at us. If you want a red party wine for Christmas, this is the one!

3. Von Othergraven 2009 Altenberg Kabinett Riesling Mosel Germany - £14.50
This wine split the group into two. For two of our tasters it was their top wine of the evening whilst some others didn’t get this wine at all. This German Riesling was unusual in that it had a slight fizz. Detractors thought that this was an odd wine tasting of fizzy sweet grapefruit, whilst those who loved it found it fresh and slightly metallic. Scores were Penny – 10, Sheila 18, Jane 13, John 9.5. Just shows how different our taste buds are!

4. Les Coteaux Tufiers 2008 Vouvray Chenin Blanc Demi-sec - £6.95
Ian played a trick on us by suggesting that he had selected three Rieslings and then slipping this one in – he certainly got us – John could even get the hint of diesel typical of Riesling! Two of the team had it as their runner-up wine of the evening. However, Sheila described it as cheesy ice-cream soda and for Ian it was not acidic enough. Scores were Penny 10, Sheila 9, Jane 14, John 15.5. Despite all the comments this was a fairly typical Loire Chenin Blanc but these are not to everyone’s taste.

5. Taverna Syrah Basilcata 2008 Italy - £6.95
Penny had this wine as her bronze medal winner but four of the team voted this the worst wine of the evening! It had a milk chocolate nose that seemed quite promising but this wine was too young and had too harsh tannins for most of us. Scores were – Penny 15, Sheila 9, Jane, 11.5, John 7.5. Not worth opening another bottle of this for a few years unless you love really strong harsh tannins. Taste was typical cheap young Shiraz according to John who at least guessed this grape variety.

6. Morgon Cote du Py 2009 Jean-Marc Burgaud - £11.95

This wine didn’t really deserve to get no top three votes with its soft Cherry and vanilla taste, but obviously had no wow factor for any of us. Scores were – Penny 14, Sheila 14, Jane 6 (although she later changed her mind into double figures), John 13. So actually it didn’t do as badly as its position in this list suggests and is actually a quite pleasant example of the excellent 2009 Cru Beaujolais.

After drinking all this lovely wine we persuaded Clive to buy the wines for our February get-together (it is rather dangerous when you have six bottles to share between six of us!). However, next month on December 9th we look forward to tasting Sheila’s favourite wines. Do join us! In the meantime, thanks to Ian for November’s excellent tasting.

If you are reading this and want to join in the fun, just email tonghamtaster@gmail.com or ring John on 07717 876743.

John’s Quick Italian Wines Review Part 2

You may recall that in October I did a review of 6 supermarket Italian wines from Tesco. This month I tasted 6 specialist wine shop red Italian wines from Majestic. Which were the best tasting and which were the best value? They were tasted on different days and were not tasted blind. See the review below in descending order of rating with score out of 20 using the usual Tongham tasters system:

San Gimignano Sangiovese A Passoni La Momoralia 2007. £9.99 but if buy more than 1 bottle £7.99. (scored 15 points)

At £7.99 this is rather a joy and is better than some expensive Brunellos I have tried and which are made from the same grape variety. Do try this one as it has a great balance of fruit and oak and acidity

Langhe Nebbiolo de Forville 2008 Barbaresco. £9.49 but if you buy more than 1 bottle £7.99. (scored 15 points)

This is a big wine and of a modern style so it is good to drink young. Initial impression is great but it tails off a little as you go down the bottle. I found this wine a bit of an enigma as I didn’t quite enjoy it as much as I scored it.



Wine for a candle lit Italian supper?



Roversi Barolo 2006 MGM Mondo del Vino. £12.49. (scored 14.5 points)

Another big wine and a good nose, but the overall flavour and balance didn’t entirely work for me, although still very nice. However, at the price you could do better.

Dolcetto D’Alba de Forville 2009 Barbaresco. £9.99 but if buy more than 1 bottle £7.99. (scored 14 points).
A very nice wine with no detracting features but nothing to make me fall in love with it either. Dolcetto is another of those grape varieties you see only in Italy and mainly in Piedmont and is typically very fruity. Alba is the city this comes from.

Bardolino 2009 Tenuta di Naiano by Allegrini, Corvina and Rondinella grapes. £7.99 but if buy more than 1 bottle £5.99. (scored 12.5 points)
Fantastic everyday wine at £5.99. Rather light but very pleasant cherries and custard (only joking!, I mean vanilla) taste. This is very nice slightly chilled and may appeal to Pinot Noir lovers, although it uses local Italian grape varieties.

Villa Dante Riserva Chianti 2005. £7.49. (scored 11.5 points)
This didn’t score too well because it is rather thin bodied. It also has quite a confusing array of flavours that compete with each other rather than add complexity. It gets better after a few days so aerate this one by vigorously pouring from a great height into a jug or decanter and then leave to breathe.

I have to say that I was impressed with these six wines, only the Chianti being rather a disappointment.
So what is my conclusion, do I prefer shopping for Italian wines at Tesco or Majestic?
For helpful and knowledgeable staff, no surprise, Majestic won hands down. The Farnham Surrey Majestic staff needs congratulating.
Both stores on the day I went had a reasonable variety to choose from – little to separate them here.
In terms of flexibility Tescos win as you can buy just one bottle whereas at Majestic you have to buy at least six.
In terms of price I paid £37.01 for wine normally priced at £49.35 at Tesco. At Majestic I paid £49.94 for wine priced for single bottles at £56.94. So both came in under my target of an average £8.50 per bottle. It is obviously easier to buy cheaper wines at Tesco.

In terms of enjoyment the Majestic wines easily came out on top scoring 82.5 against the 69 for the Tesco’s six wines.

However, we must remember that the Majestic wines were the most expensive, so which represented the best value? Difficult to assess! The Tesco’s wines cost just 54 pence per point whereas the Majestic wines cost 61 pence per point. On the other hand the Majestic wines had much more of a wow factor, less were disappointing and none were undrinkable.

Unless, you are on a tight budget, my conclusion would be to choose Majestic as the winner here. Wherever you buy your wine do try some of these non-global wine varieties – Sangiovese, Nebbiolo, Dolcetta, Corvina and Rondinella etc.





Bronze Medal Marsanne at £3.47!

There is no doubt that I am lucky in normally being able to avoid the 3 bottles for £10 price range of wine. However, I was recently tempted to try a sub-four pound wine, based on consistently good reviews in the press and the fact that it won a bronze medal at the International Wine Challenge. The wine was from Asda and, on the day I bought it,it was priced at just £3.47! It was a Vins de Pays D’Oc Marsanne 2009. Various different wine writers such as Olly Smith, Jane McQuilty, Victoria Moore and Christine Austin had lavished praise on it with such phrases as…..Peach and white blossom……Fragrant touch…..Faintest hint of almond blossom and orange peel….Gentle appley spice……honeysuckle and apricot…..white pepper on the finish……soft tropical fruit scented…etc etc.



Peary Marsanne?



It is interesting how different tasters came up with fruits as different as apricot, apple, orange and tropical fruit! Unfortunately, I got something very akin to pear drops. Perhaps, not quite the banana flavour pear drops associated with Beaujolais Nouveau but certainly a candied pear flavour. Perhaps if I was a professional wine writer I would describe it as…..a hint of pear and marzipan!

For me this is a wine taste I am not particularly enjoying. I recently opened a bottle of the white Rhone wine Parallele 45 and it had exactly the same taste but more concentrated – which in my view made it worse rather than better.  Perhaps, it is just me but tastes that resemble sweet and fragrant in a dry wine just don't work unless you have it with exactly the right food.

However, at this price you might as well buy a bottle and come to your own opinion. It certainly makes a good food wine but perhaps not for drinking on its own. In the worse case you could cook with it! I certainly don’t know a better white wine at this price, but is it worth a bronze medal?  I scored it very creditable 12/20 but would prefer a glass of good Muscadet any time.

WINE PHOTOGRAPHY

Isn't wine photography difficult?!   For us wine bloggers it is rather a necessity but you need to take care or, as I have proved, the photos can be detracting.  Having looked at both my published and unpublished attempts I think I am beginning to learn through my own mistakes.  So what have I learned so far - 
Avoid Flash, except in very poor lighting, natural sunlight is best. Lighting can give problems with colour and unwanted reflections, so take care. A light box can help diffuse the light and also help with the next tip.
Be careful with the background as it can be distracting, use a plain background where possible.
Composition is important otherwise the picture will be boring. Consider an unusual angle or some foreground interest. Make sure there is a focal point of interest.
Dirty or damaged bottles or glasses are to be avoided, as the photo will emphasize these faults.
Elevate your picture to something special by trying to tell a story rather than just documenting a bottle, human interest is important.
Focus carefully. Use a Macro setting for close-ups. Use the focus to remove the distracting background.

Champagne at restaurant La Garenne, old Reims circuit France


Get to the right level when taking the photograph, otherwise the image may be distorted or look wrong.

Hurrying is a mistake. Take your time if you want a great picture and plan it in advance.

In-close shots often work well as they fill the whole frame with the subject.

Judder can cause a blur in low lighting conditions, so consider using a tripod.

Keep on trying. With digital cameras there is no extra expense from taking more shots, so try a few different angles, exposures, focuses etc.

Learn how to fix your shots after you have taken them by cropping them etc.

Hopefully you willl notice some improved photos over the next month and also you find these tips useful.   All photos taken on this blog have been taken with a compact Panasonic Lumix.  If any other Tongham Tasters want to have a go and send me in their wine photos - feel free and we wil publish them and give you credit.

John's October 2010 Wine of the Month

Because I really liked it and because it is easily available and great value, my Wine of the month is the Stork’s Tower Tempranilla-Shiraz Rosé, available in Tesco.   Great value at any price under £7.00.  This is probably by favourite Rosé, even beating the great Rosés of Bandol.   During the month I tried both the 2008 and 2009 and I scored both a very creditable 15/20, and our wine tasting group almost unanimously loved it. A lovely dry wine which would go well paired with salmon.  It has a beatiful deep quite dark strawberry colour colour and the berry tastes are lovely.   It comes from the Castilla Y Leon region of Spain in Northern Spain to the north west of Madrid.  The maker is Hijos de Antonio de Barcelo which is one of the oldest Spanish wine companies and is based in Valladolid. It is probably the first rosé with Shiraz I have really loved and the tempranilla gives it the great flavour of Spain.   This is a bit of a must for our next Tongham Village Hall wine tasting which will be on Northern Spain, to represent the rosés of Spain.  Don't wait until next summer to try this, try it at any time of the year either on its own or with food.  It would make a great party wine for Christmas and the new year!   They also make a red with the same name and grape varieties that I like a lot.  Their white is a blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Verdejo and this is not a blend I think works well even although I like each grape individually.


OTHER HIGH FLYERS

Mustang and Hurricane at the Goodwood Revival 2010.


Here are some of the other wines that I really appreciated this month but didn't get a mention in other blogs.   Perhaps, the highlight of the month was trying a Francois Raveneau Chablis; a real wow!   He is probably one of the very top Chablis producers and very difficult to find.  We were lucky enough for Hubert to open a bottle of 1998 Raveneau Montee de Tonnerre Premier Cru Chablis when we stayed with him last month.   It had taken on a slight colour with age but still tasted fresh and flinty.  If you want to buy a bottle in the UK it will probably set you back about £80.   We had this with a lovely Brocolli and Prawn salad prepared by Brigitte - for this recipe follow this link to Jane's blog.

Raveneau cooling on the window sill with Alfa
Romeo Mito in the background

Amongst the reds we tasted this month, another of Hubert's stood out.  It was a Bandol which is not an appelation well enough known in England but one of my favourites.  The one he served us was a Chateau Romassan Domaines Ott longue garde 2001 - it was excellent and exhibited all those concentrated mouvedre characteristics one would expect from a red Bandol.   I don't think it is easily available in the UK but I would recommend going to Waitrose and picking up a bottle of their La Bastide Blanche.

Continuing with the reds, we discovered another Spanish gem just yesterday at Majestic Wine warehouse, who I am pleased to see have reduced their minimum buy quantity from 12 bottles to 6 (we still ended up buying 19!). The gem was El Chaparral 2008 de Vega Sindoa Old Vines Garnacha.  It is by one of the top Navarra region producers - Bodegas Nekeas.   Made from the Garnacha or Grenache grape variety, which is a long way from being one of my favourites, this has bags and bags of fruit and is well balanced.  Many thanks to the very helpful staff at the Farnham branch of Majestic who recommended this.   This is another definite for our next Tongham Village Hall wine tasting as it also is from Northern Spain, the Navarra region being just to the east of Rioja.

Mention in this blog must also go to the excellent meal that Jean-Philippe and Stella served us consisting of a lovely Provence white ( Cuvee Amadeus Domaine de Camaisettee Coteaux d'Aix en Provence) served with an amazing seafood platter. With an equally amazing cheese course, J-P also served us a lovely 2009 Cru Beaujolais, a Domaine des Grands Cedres Fleurie, that proved how good 2009 Beaujolais can be.

I can't not recommend something New World, and I have to say I am increasing becoming a fan of McGuigan's Australian wines.  I like their top range wines and this month we tried again the 2007 Langhorne Creek Shiraz-Viognier and enjoyed it.  Look for this in Tescos.





November's Tongham Tasters' Get-together



Countdown to November 11th



Our next Tongham Tasters get together is at 8.00pm on Thursday 11th November. Ian will be buying the wine this month and he is going for 3 Rieslings (2 dry and 1 slightly sweeter) and 3 fruity reds from around the world – should be interesting. Rieslings are of course the white grape of choice for most wine writers – so if you want to understand why, come along. Fruit is the modern taste preference for reds after years of oak etc, so again we wait to see what Ian has chosen with interest. As usual we will be conducting a blind tasting of these 6 wines.





Please email tonghamtaster@gmail.com or ring John on 07717 876743 if you wish to come along to this month’s event and let us know a week in advance if possible. We appreciate everyone bringing along their own 6 wine glasses as this prevents one person from doing all the washing up or running out of glasses. Remember we only have 14 places available for each event so early notification will prevent disappointment.  As usual we will share the cost of the evening and it is limited to £10 per head.

As usual we welcome wine enthusiasts of all types and levels of experience from absolute beginners upwards.