Two Worlds Collide

I took the opportunity of our August Tongham Tasters get-together to use up the wines I had kept in reserve in case one of our team had had to cancel their evening at short notice. It was one of our more educational evenings and was unique so far as it consisted of six red wines. There were three different grape varietals and our team was challenged to name them using a cheat sheet of ten main red grape varietal characteristics that I had prepared for them. They also had to guess which of each pair was from the Old World and which was from the New World.

We started the evening with a discussion of the differences between old and new world wines. Old World wines are more food friendly and emphasize the region, terroir, old traditions and appellation rules. They tend to have bigger differences between the years due to the weather and often come from small vineyards and producers. On the other hand New World wines are often for drinking on their own, are more fruit driven and are softer wines that mature earlier. They often are made with riper grapes due to the weather and thus are more alcoholic and full bodied. The tendency is for them to come from bigger vineyards and producers and emphasize the grape varietal. We also discussed how some of these differences were blurring and were looking forward to seeing what we would discover tonight.

Mediterranean roasted vegetables with basil

All of the wines were served during a three course meal cooked by myself to help us judge whether the wines were food wines or not. We served the two Tempranillo wines first, accompanied by a hot dish of Spanish lentils & Serrano ham as shown in the recent Rick Stein series on Spain. Click here for a video of how to make it. The two Merlots were served second, with a cold dish of roasted Mediterranean vegetables (red and yellow peppers, aubergines, tomatoes, courgettes and mushrooms) and home made bread.  The two Shirazs were served third, with Albondigas meatballs and roast potatoes. Click here for the recipe by Jose Pizarro that was originally made on Saturday Kitchen. The potatoes were dug fresh from the garden a few minutes before everyone arrived and went down a treat after being seasoned and roasted for an hour.  So how did our team rate the wines? Score are in the order John E, Ian, Clive, Sheila, John S and are out of 20.

Old World wines

1. Marques de Murrieta Reserva 2004 Rioja from Finca Ygay 91% SpainTempranillo, 14%. Majestic £15.99
Four of our team voted this their top wine of the evening – well it was the most expensive! Ian quickly guessed it was a Rioja from the plum and vanilla notes. He also identified some instant coffee in the aroma. Jane thought it deeply spiced and nicely oaked. Scores were 15.5, 16, 17, 15, 15. Not sure we have had a wine scored by everyone at 15 or more before! All in all, a winning wine from a good producer.

2. Boycat Merlot 2009 McLaren Vale by Linda Domas. Australia 13.5% Marks & Spencers £9.99
This wine was Clive’s favourite and he thought it a real wow! John S really liked it as well. It was easily the best of the New World wines and I thought it a great wine for drinking on its own with a nice plummy taste and slight sweetness. Some found it slightly too sweet and Ian though it tasted of boiled sweets. For Sheila the aromas reminded her of rose hip syrup. Nobody guessed it was a Merlot, they actually thought it more of a Nebbiolo – we are all still learning this wine tasting lark! Scores were 14.5, 12.5, 19, 14, 16, Rather a nice wine, shame that M&S are out of stock.

3. Crozes Hermitage 2007 Domaine Habrard Pere et Fils. France 13%. Auchan €7.95
The bronze medal of the evening went to a reasonably priced Rhone Syrah (Shiraz) wine that I had bought in France. Nobody thought it tasted like any other Crozes Hermitages they had ever drunk. I thought it was spicy with a both sweetness and acidity. Ian identified the taste of liquorice but Clive obviously didn’t like it as he identified washing up liquid (or perhaps he had not rinsed his glass enough after washing it!). Scores were 14.5, 12, 17, 11, 13.

4. Les Comptes Chateau Lagarosse 2006. Premieres Cotes de Bordeaux. S&D Adams 80% Merlot. France 13.5%. Intermarché €8.95.
All three Old World wines finished in the top four. Jane thought this Bordeaux had a nice bouquet and I thought it had good acidity that went well with the food. Scores were 14, 13, 15, 10, 15, .

New World wines

5. Wrattonbully Vineyards Tempranillo 2009. Australia 14.5% Marks & Spencers £9.99
Nobody thought that this tasted like a Tempranillo and we all rather agreed that this was the typical new world style of easy drinking wine that is smooth for drinking on its own but doesn’t have much character. Ian guessed its Australian origins. Jane thought it was the epitome of what she doesn’t like about New World wine. We weren’t sure that this is worth its £9.99 price tag. Still an interesting chance to taste a new world Tempranillo varietal wine. Scores were 11, 12.5, 17, 10.5, 11.   Footnote - after a couple of days this tasted more like a tempranillo and had some nice hot raspberry notes with a little vanilla so I suggest decanting / aerating vigourously.

6. Finca Flichman Gestos 2008 50% Shiraz from 1,100 meters + 50% Shiraz from 700 meters. Argentina 14%. Waitrose £5.59.
It took everyone two guesses to get this as a Shiraz. Everyone was wondering whether it was Zinfandel as it was quite full bodied, alcoholic and sweet. I thought it would have been a great wine to accompany a curry and well priced when it is on offer. Scores were 14.5, 12, 17, 9, 12.

Jane gives her opinion!

Our conclusions from these six wines were that there were still big differences between new and old world, although the Shiraz wines showed this much less than the others. Jane found it confusing to have both old and new world tastes in one evening but the rest of us found it educational.   Clive liked the New World wines whereas the rest of us tended to prefer the Old World.  Certainly the old world wines went better with our Mediterranean influenced food. 

Birthday cake with champagne bottle candle

We had two extras in the evening as Jane was celebrating her birthday. A nice glass of Bauser rosé Champagne welcomed our guests at the start of the evening and I baked a cake for desert – a rather nice Mediterranean Orange Cake that appeared in Rick Stein’s Mediterranean Escapes. It went down rather well with an orangey tasting Californian dessert wine – Essensia 2008 California Orange Muscat wine produced by Andrew Quady (available in Majestic). If you want the original recipe click here. If you want a Thermomix adjusted recipe that I used on the night click here.

So ended another lively Tongham Tasters evening. Our next outing is on Thursday 15th September when six of our members will be competing to find who can bring along the best £10 or under bottle of wine. Clive will be providing the food and venue for this particular evening. You are welcome to join us and discover the joy of fine wine, fine food and fine company. Click on Wine Circle at the top of this page for more details.