Report on our October Launch Get-Together

I think I can say without fear of contradiction that our first Tongham Tasters monthly get-together was a resounding success. We had a great crowd of nine wine enthusiasts of different levels of experience – Jean-Michel, Steve, Clive, Steve, Sheila, Jane, Ian, Hazel and John – and both wine and conversation flowed throughout the evening, mingled with some food and laughter. Special thanks to bargain hunter Jane who assembled six interesting wines from Tesco’s during their 25% off wine fair and went way under budget so that the whole evening actually cost under £5 per person. Everyone put £10 in the kitty so that we could do something special at another date.

All wines were tasted blind. Below are the wines we tasted in order of popularity:

1. Storks' Tower 2009 Tempranilla Shiraz Rosé Vino de la Tierra de Castilla Hijas de Antonio Barcelo – normally £6.49 but Jane bought it for £4.87. Seven out of the nine of us voted this their best wine of the evening. John scored this a 15/20 point wine but Ian gave it 18/20. So it proved that we are not wine snobs and can appreciate a good Rosé which this definitely is. It is very similar to the excellent 2008 if you had tasted that this summer. We all agreed that this was a wine you could drink at other times of the year and Ian suggested this would be great with Salmon. Great value and well worth buying.

2. Crozes Hermitage 2007 Selected by Tesco Cave de Tain Silver Medal International Wine Challenge 2010 – normally £8.49 but Jane bought it for £6.37. One person voted this their top wine of the evening and four voted it their No.2 wine. John scored it only 11/20 but Ian gave it a more generous 16/20 so the jury was less certain on this – one of our team said they didn’t like it at all. Top marks to Steve who quickly identified what this wine was – suggesting that the right characteristics were there. A good value wine for lovers of French Shiraz.

3. Arrogant Frog Ribet Rouge Rural 2009 Pezenas Sud de France Vin de Pays d'Oc Bio Cabernet Merlot – normally £7.99 but Jane bought this for £5.99. Two of our enthusiasts voted this their No.2 wine of the evening and another 5 their No.3 wine, so it consistently featured highly in everyone’s list. John gave it 15/20 but Ian didn’t like this one and gave it only 9/20, proving that everyone has different tastes in wine. It certainly benefitted from breathing and got better as the evening progressed. An interesting organic Bordeaux blend from the Languedoc,which partly disproves my theory that silly named wines are not worth buying.

4. Tim Adams 2008 Semillon Clare Valley Australia – normally £10.49 but Jane paid only £7.87. Three of the team voted this their No.2 wine and two voted it their No.3 wine. John scored it 12.5/20 and Ian was in agreement scoring it 12/20. Perhaps rather disappointing scores for the most expensive wine of evening. However, a nice wine, if you like oaked Semillon, from an excellent producer; but most of us prefer the Tim Adams reds.

5. Argentina Reserve 2009 Chardonnay Fairtrade selected by Tesco – normally £6.29 but £4.72 in the wine fair. One of the Tongham Tasters voted this their No.1 wine of the evening and another two had it at No.3. John gave it 9.5/20 but Ian gave it 15/20 – this was a wine that definitely split the group into two; you either loved it or hated it. For Hazel it was another example of why she doesn’t like Chardonnay. However, others found some nice tropical fruits in this wine.

6. Altos de Tamaron Ribeira de Duero Tempranilla oak aged 2009 – normally £5.24 but Jane purchased for £3.93. None of the group had this wine in their top three, proving how difficult it is to purchase good wines in the £5 and under price range. However, it gave us a good laugh in arguing whether it tasted of mud or strawberries! John scored it 11/20 suggesting it was reasonable value but Ian gave it only 6/20 suggesting that it wasn’t drinkable.

It will be interesting to see if anyone can come up with such a popular wine as the Storks’ Ridge Rosé at a price of just £4.87 – Jane has thrown a challenge down!

The food we had with all this interesting wine from around the world, was smoked salmon and cream cheese pancake roulades, chorizo and cheddar pancake wedges, celery and carrot soup, cheddar cheese and pita bread plus cucumber, carrot and celery crudités.

This month we have featured the wine scores of John and Ian in our blog, but if you want your scores to appear here, come to our next Tongham Taster’s Get-Together at 8.00pm on Thursday November 11th. Good news is that we are not short of volunteers to choose the wines for the next 3 months. Ian has volunteered for November and is currently deciding between a theme of Rieslings, Australian wines or a bit of a mix. Sheila will provide some interesting wines for our December get-together, whilst Steve and Hazel are hosting our January evening.

Thanks to everyone for making our launch event such a success – cheers!