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.