Sunday 18 September 2011

Pic 'n' Mix

(see the bottom of this blog for top tips on how to buy good wines under £10)
Merriment before the wine tasting even begins *
We had our twelfth Tongham Tasters wine tasting get-together this month to complete our first year of existence. The event promised quite a lot as we had six of our regular tasting team buying wines up to the value of ten pounds to compete to see who could buy the best wine. Reality was something different and it highlighted the difficulty ordinary wine drinkers have in purchasing wines. In this respect it was highly interesting and as usual the company was excellent and we had a great time even if some of the wines were decidedly weird!

So what wines did we try, why did our six team members pick them and which did we prefer. As usual we present them in descending order of preference with individual scores out of 20 in the order John E, Ian, Clive, Jane, Sheila, John S and Steve W.  Prices quoted are what our team actually paid and are often after receiving a discount.


1. Marlborough Springs Sauvignon Blanc, 2010, New Zealand white 13%, Sainsbury £6.35
Clive selected this one because he thought that a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc would stand a good chance of being a good quality and popular wine. This was a tactic that worked and three of our tasting panel of seven voted this their favourite wine of the evening and everyone had it in their top four. It was one of cheaper wines as Sainsburys had it on special offer when Clive bought it. A number of us including Ian and myself identified this as a NZ Sauvignon Blanc, although it didn’t have the power and fruitiness of many examples. Flavour comments included sherbety and elderflower. Scores were 14.5, 11, 19, 12, 9, 15 and 14. This was a pleasant wine at the offer price, if not particularly complex or exciting but at less than seven pounds you shouldn’t expect too much. New Zealand wines are almost always a safe bet if buying wines in your supermarket, particularly at prices just over the ten pound mark and are thus well worth buying in 25% off promotions.
2. Vina Taboexa Rias Baixas Albarino, 2010, Spanish white, Waitrose £9.99
Ian surprised us by not bringing along something from the Wine Society. However, he did pick a popular grape variety and bought it in a good supermarket for wines and went right up to the price limit. This wine had the best bouquet of any we tasted on the night and had a nice flavour but in the mouth its petillant character was not appreciated by most of our tasters. The fizz was too extreme for most of us and detracted from its lime and stone fruits flavour. Scores were 13.5, 13.5, 12, 14, 13, 13 and 10. If you don’t mind a slight fizz in your white wine this could be a wine for you.

3. Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Languedoc Grenache Syrah Carignan, 2010, French red 14%, Sainsbury £5.88
Sheila adopted the very good tactic of buying one of Sainsbury’s normally excellent Taste the Difference range. It was our cheapest wine of the evening as it had been bought whilst on offer. Most of the team thought it was a Californian Zinfandel or perhaps an Italian Primitivo. John E eventually got that it was from the Languedoc and it had that characteristic sweetness of that region allied to the pleasant colour you get in a Grenache based wine. Score were 9.5, 12, 13, 15, 12, 12 and 11. This is a red wine for those with a sweet tooth but not terribly exciting and not one of the best of the Taste the Difference range – why not try the Barbaresco red or the Gruner Veltliner white, I had them both this week and they are very pleasant.

4. Premiere Vouvray, 2010, French white, Londis £8.47
Steve selected a wine he had served a number of times at is daughter’s christenings; always a good tactic to pick a wine you have tried before. Jane wondered if this was “one of those dreaded Pinot Grigios” but Ian quickly identified it as an off dry Chenin Blanc. Flavour comments ranged from Steve’s rhubarb and custard, to John S’s melon and pear to John E’s pear and marzipan with a hint of lime. Although it was off dry it had reasonable acidity but perhaps was just a little bland. Score were 11-, 10.5, 16, 10, 9.5, 10 and 11. A safe bet to serve your grandmother at a party.

5. Ritu Viognier, 2010, Indian white, Waitrose £6.99
Jane brought along a wine that had been recommended by Olly Smith on a recent Saturday Kitchen on TV. She also thought it would be interesting to see how one of Waitrose’s new range of Indian wines would do in a blind tasting. Using press recommendations is often a good tactic but Olly had recommended it with a curry and we drank it on its own. As soon we started to sniff this wine there were loud exclamations from around the table. Oohrr!! Said Ian, good grief! said John E, tastes like Indian whisky said Steve W, which was quite a good guess. Ian again guessed the grape variety and flavour comments ranged from clove and dried mango to Christmas pot pourri. John E thought it might taste quite good by the time you got to the third bottle! Steve actually quite liked it but was relatively alone in this opinion. Score were 8+, 8.5, 12, 10, 8, 11 and 11. This wine needs a curry to hide its differentness.

6. Chateau Musar, Hochar Pere et Fils, 2004, Lebanon red 14%, Majestic £9.99
John S had adopted the admirable tactics of buying from a specialist wine retailer, spending up to his limit, buying a wine from a well respected producer and selecting a red that had aged. So how come it came last? I think we must have got a rogue bottle, although I note from the Majestic web site that at least one other customer thought it foul as well. The smell and taste was of the sort of plastic cement that you make plastic kits with when you are a kid. Truly bizarre smell and taste for a wine; it was like sniffing glue and tasting fried blackberries. Still, Clive, the sage of Tongham, says we mustn’t grumble! Scores were 8.5, 8.5, 13, 12, 8.5, 10 and 12, Hopefully, John’s second bottle will taste better.

This month Clive welcomed us into his home and conservatory and Sarah cooked us some really nice home grown and cooked tomato and basil soup and we had Tongham bakery bread and also some roll mop herrings. It was difficult for Clive to match the food to the wine as everyone brought the wine along on the night. Following this evening we will return to our usual tactic of one person buying all of the food and wine for most of our evenings. We must say thanks to Clive and Sarah for their hospitality and well done Clive for winning our little competition.

Thank you also to John S who brought along a Wine Nosing Aroma kit for us to try.  It was fun but we found after our six wines we quickly found it difficult to detect the more subtle aromas; no problem with the manure aroma funnily enough!

So what lessons can we learn from our team’s successes and mistakes? What would my top ten tips be for buying good wine under £10 a bottle?

• New Zealand wines are very reliable - dont forget we will be having a New Zealand Wine Tasting Dinner in Tongham Village Hall on Saturday November 19th.
• Supemarket own-brand wines, especially Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference, represent good value for money.
• Waitrose and Marks and Spencers offer, perhaps your best chance of picking up an interesting bottle of wine if shopping at a supermarket.
• Buy from supermarkets when they are offering their 25% discounts.
• If spending up to the £10 limit then on line retailers and specialist shops probably give you the best chance of high quality and value. The Wine Society, Fromvineyardsdirect, Majestic and Laithwaites are all worthy of consideration. The supermarkets seem to be concentrating on the lower end wines at present.
• If buying in specialist wine shops ask for the staff’s recommendations. If buying on- line look at the customer comments.
• Following press recommendations can help you make a decision and take the stress out of wine buying but not all will be to your taste. Picking out the medal winners can also be a tactic that works but remember that most producers don’t enter these competitions.  Otherwise why not attend a wine group like ours and buy the favourite wines you taste.
• Don’t buy wines from expensive areas like Burgundy, Bordeaux, Barolo and Sancerre if only paying £10 or less, you will normally be disappointed.
• Avoid the big advertised brands although if you want to play safe some brands like Wolf Blass and even Jacobs Creek can be well made wines.
• Be wary of just buying a bottle because of an attractive label or buying wines where the value is too good to be true.

Follow two or more of these recommendations and you may be on to a winner. Also remember that wine tasting is an adventure and trying different wines is exciting but sometimes they will be a disappointing bottle or two; this is just part of the adventure.

We start our next 12 months of Tongham Tasters with another visit “over the border” into Farnborough, Hampshire where Ian will be hosting our “Joy of Ceps” evening on Saturday 15th October. Theme will be wines to serve with your foraged mushrooms; he has also asked Jane to cook a Tarte à l’oignon so there should be some good food for our Tongham and Farnborough gourmets. Knowing Ian, there should be some interesting wines for us as well. In November Sheila will be hosting our TT evening on Thursday 10th whilst we will be having a Christmas party theme on December Saturday 12th. January 13th will see another Farnborough event with John S presenting New World wines for the New Year. If you would like to join us you would be most welcome – click on Wine Circle at the top of this page for more details.

*Thanks to Clive Greenfield for the picture at the top of this blog post.

Friday 16 September 2011

Peaches and Garlic


Pinot Noir and White Bean Soup
 There is a craze on food and wine blogs at the moment to name tem matching flavour combinations, so here goes with my contribution to the genre.


Cheese and Beetroot – A personal favourite (cheddar or Cheshire cheese work best)
Figs and Parma Ham – A really sensual combination
Haggis and Canadian Icewine – You can tell I am not Scottish but believe me this works really well.
Lamb and Mint Sauce – You can’t get more English than this. If you don’t like mint sauce try anchovies, if you don’t like anchovies, splash out on a good bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon.
Pork Sausages and Marmalade – This is one from my childhood; I imagine we all have a weird one like this.
Rhubarb Jam and Peanut Butter – This is vegetarian heaven in a sandwich.
Toasted Teacakes and Butter – Perhaps, the quintessential taste of England.
Tomatoes and Lemon – A surprisingly good combination when cooking.
Tortilla (Spanish Omelette) and Dry Fino Sherry – A Spanish tapas classic. Fino Sherry works well with olives as well.
White Bean Soup and Pinot Noir – Actually, Pinot Noir with almost anything! A good Premier Cru Burgundy preferably.

And one that didn’t make the list……

Peaches and Garlic – An in-joke with the Whyisthereair blog so don’t try this one.

I won't be asking another five blogs to participate, that is too much like one of those old chain letters.

Sunday 11 September 2011

Greyfriars – A Vineyard in Transition


John inspecting the vines
Our nearest vineyard and winery to Tongham is Greyfriars on the Hogs Back near Guildford.   We have visited them a couple of times over the years and were long overdue another visit.   Since November 2010 it has been under new ownership so it was going to be interesting to see what their plans were.  An open day on Saturday September 10th 2011 was an ideal opportunity to see.  A few enthusiastic Tongham Tasters, John, Jane and Sheila got together and made the trip the few miles along the Hogs Back.
Bottles produced under the old owners
A Little History
Two vets, Bill and Phil, planted the Greyfriars vineyard in 1989 because the planning permission for the land on which they had their vetinary centre required some agricultural use; after an abortive attempt at sheep farming, they settled on a vineyard.  Being on a south facing chalk slope of the North Downs, it is a great spot for growing grapes.  For Bill and Phil it was a sideline to their main business and the vineyard was very small and the winery very much of the “garage” type. As a hobby business it was quite successful and they had no problem selling about 4,000 bottles of their still and sparkling white wines to the local community each year. We had visited them a couple of times and bought some of their wines that could be very acceptable in a good year. They grew only Chardonnay and Pinot Noir Grapes and as well as trying to produce a champagne style sparkling wine they produced some interesting still wines including a Pinot Noir and Chardonnay blend.   After the 2006 vintage, no more still wine has been produced as the climate and economics favours the sparkling wine.

New Ownership
Mike explaining the riddling process
In November 2010 Mike Wagstaff bought the vineyard and brought along David Line as his Vineyard Manager.  Neither, has a history in the industry as Mike made his money in the oil and gas industry and David had his own rock band and later a wine bar.  Brave men!    Their ambition is to expand the vineyard and winery from its current hobby scale to become a small commercial vineyard producing quality English sparkling wine.   They have already began expanding the vineyard and planting new vines.  As well as Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, they have added the classic champagne variety Pinot Meunier and also a little Pinot Gris.   More expansion and planting is planned.   Following this they will redevelop the winery so that they have better production and storage facilities.   Their aim is to produce an English Sparkling wine that is more than just a Champagne copy and reflects English wine growing and style.

Greyfriars Pinot Noir

The Open Day
The Old Vineyard
Their open days are very popular, the new owner’s had their first in June this year, and there were a lot of people already visiting when we turned up at 11.30.  We were taken on a very interesting tour of both the old and new vineyards by David the Vineyard Manager.  It was a lovely time of year to visit as we could see well developed grapes ripening on their vines.  We were impressed by how many new vines, something of the order of 12,600, had already been planted as part of their expansion.  David was very enthusiastic and knowledgeable and gave us a great tour.  All of the pictures on this blog post were pictures we took on the day.
Brand  new tractor in front of the new plantings

Some of the 12,600 new vines


For the tour of the old micro-winery we were accompanied by the owner Mike who was also very enthusiastic, welcoming and knowledgeable.  It will be interesting to come back in a few years time when they have redeveloped this part of the business.  At present it is as it was under the old owners but some new equipment will start being delivered soon.

After this came the business of tasting and after a lovely welcome from Hilary we tasted two still white wines and three sparkling white wines.  These were the wines produced under the old ownership and thus do not currently represent the true potential of the current team.  However, they made for a very interesting tasting and we eventually bought three of their sparkling wines; my favourite being the 2004 Chardonnay and Pinot Noir blend Sparkling wine at £17.   Incidentally their still wines sell for about £6.50 and ther 2006 Sparkling for just £13.50.

 I highly recommend you go up to one of their open days and follow their progress over the coming years.  It will be interesting to taste some of their wines after they have redeveloped the winery.  We wish Mike, Hilary, David and their team good luck and we will certainly visit them again.   You can follow their progress and get the dates of their open days on www.greyfriarsvineyard.co.uk.    They should be harvesting in early October.
Chardonnay ripening on the vine
Pinot Noir Leaves and Grapes

By the way, there is public footpath through the vineyard that you can pick up if you park near Puttenham Golf Course, follow the North Downs Way and then head uphill. 
New plantings through the tractor window
Chardonnay
Jane tasting the local produce
If you want to read my 2012 update - click here.



Thursday 1 September 2011

Tomatoes

Heirloom Organic Tomatoes
We have reached the time of year when many of us have plenty of tomatoes ripening in the garden or greenhouse and they are also plentiful at the market or in the shops. My favourite way to eat good organic tomatoes or those out of the garden is a simple tomato salad. However, if you have a glut you might want to consider making a tomato confit which is also delicious.

The word confit comes from the French verb confire that means to preserve. A confit tends to be something that is cooked slowly and then preserved in the fat or oil it was cooked in. A tomato confit is made by slowly cooking tomatoes in olive oil, normally with garlic and thyme. It concentrates the flavour of the tomato by reducing the water content and they end up absolutely delicious. By putting them in a preserving jar and covering with olive oil and keeping in the fridge you will have tomato confit available for between a few days and maybe up to a month. You can eat them on their own, in a tart or as part of a salad or other recipe. I like adding them to grilled vegetables (courgettes, aubergines, mushrooms, red peppers etc). You can also eat them on toast like a form of brushetta.
Prepared tomatoes ready for slow roasting
Opinions differ on how to prepare tomatoes to make the confit. In Michelin star establishments they tend to peel the tomatoes and remove the membrane, seeds and jelly, thus just leaving the sweet flesh. Some amateurs leave all of the tomato intact and thus get a less refined result but keep some extra flavour and acidity.

Four different types of tomato confit
Last weekend I decided to see which I preferred the best. I prepared 32 tomatoes in total, eight I peeled and removed the centre, eight I peeled but left the centre intact, eight I did not peel but removed the centre and eight I left completely intact. The tomatoes were medium size and I quartered them. They were laid out on a baking sheet and I then sprinkled over a quarter cup of best quality extra virgin olive oil, 5 garlic cloves and a dozen small sprigs of thyme. They were then slow roasted at 100° C for three hours and then allowed to cool. It is was easy as that.

The next day we had a taste test with five of the family participating to decide which of the four variations we preferred. All were given high marks and were delicious. Top came the Michelin Star style prepared tomatoes with just the flesh. We definitely decided we preferred peeled tomatoes and the ones with the centre were good but different. They also required less work and there was less waste.

Ready for peeling
By the way, it is very easy to peel tomatoes if you use the following technique - cut a small cross in the skin at the bottom of each tomato. Then put these in a bowl and pour bowling water over them. Leave in the water for about 20 to 30 seconds and then remove. The tomatoes are then easy to peel, starting where you cut the cross.

Wine pairing will depend on the food accompaniment to the tomato confit, but you might want to at least consider a nice Italian red wine.