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.