New World Wines for the New Year

Our Tongham Taster’s New Year started with one of our regular trips to Farnborough where John S treated us to a fantastic evening of New World wines.  Five of us travelled up from Tongham where we met up with four of our Farnborough regulars for this entertaining evening introducing us to six wines from four countries accompanied by an interesting mix of food and appetisers.



Happy New Year!

New World wines cover North and South America, Australia and New Zealand plus Asia and Africa.  They tend to be more fruit driven and powerful but would John’s selection appeal to our refined palates!?   It was certainly well sourced and we got a very good £10 worth as John had picked most up as special offers – all prices quoted below are what John actually paid.  Find out below our thoughts on all the wines we blind tasted, which are listed and described in descending order of preference.  Scores mentioned are out of twenty and are presented in the order John E, Jane, John S, Jill, Ian, Kathryn, Steve S, Sheila and Clive.

John and Jill enjoying their evening

Lindauer Special Reserve Blanc de Blancs, New Zealand Sparkling White NV, 11.5%, Majestic £7.20.

Six of our team voted this their top wine of the evening, which was no surprise as it had a wonderful biscuity nose and a very subtle smooth dry taste – in fact not obviously New World at all.  Some of our team guessed that this was from New Zealand and even got the producer.  This wine is made with Chardonnay grapes and thus is the same as a classic Blanc de Blancs Champagne but much cheaper.  We can certainly recommend this as a good value sparkler.  Scores were 13.5, 20, 11, 15, 12, 18, 15.5, 13.5 and 18.

Hahn Winery Pinot Noir, Monterey California Red 2010, 14.5%, Waitrose £10.44.

This wine got two of our team’s top votes and was probably the best USA wine we have had at one of tastings to date as everyone had it in their top three wines.  Few, if any, realized that it was a Pinot Noir but it was a lovely spicy pleasant wine.   Scores were 14.5, 16, 14, 14, 15.5, 16, 13.75, 13 and 16.

John and Steve discuss he finer points of sparkling wine

Villa Maria Private Bin Dry Riesling, Marlborough New Zealand 2011, 12%, Majestic £7.20.

With five of our team including this in their top three wines, this lovely New World Riesling just scraped into third place.  Initially, some of us thought it was a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc but we could see from John’s face that we wrong and so plumped for a Riesling instead and capped it by even getting the producer.  This wine just missed out on getting into our recent Village Hall tasting and we can certainly recommend it for its limey taste, although Kathryn found it slightly soapy.   Scores were 14, 19, 12, 14, 12.5, 12, 12.75, 8 and 15.

Flaxbourne Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough New Zealand 2011, Marks and Spencers £8.49.

One of our team had this as their top wine and it was obviously a Sauvignon Blanc.  Rather like The Ned we served at the Village Hall it has some minerality as well as fruit.  As for the fruit our team named everything from Apples to Pineapple.  Scores were a 14.5, 13, 10, 13, 14, 11, 12.5, 10 and 17.   A good buy at this price.

Boschendal SMV, South Africa 2009, 14%, Morrisons £6.95.

Although only our fifth best wine of the evening, this wine was still very well received.     It had a good herby berrylike taste but some thought it was a Pinotage rather than a Syrah, Mouvedre, Viognier blend.   Scores were 13.5, 14, 10, 15, 14, 12, 12, 10.5 and 13.  A nice wine for this price and good to see a wine from Morrisons for a change.

Casa Leona Cabernet Sauvignon, Rapel Valley Chile 2011, 13.5%, Marks and Spencers £5.49.

The cheapest wine of the evening was the only one that didn’t impress and everyone had it in last place.  Scores were a very lowly 7,10, 7, 8, 6, 6, 4.5, 6 and 9.   After all the beautiful aromas of the other wines, this one had a quite horrible smell and a metallic taste.    Obviously something wasn’t right with this bottle as we have had some nice Casa Leona in the past.

With all these wines we were served some lovely cheese, some homemade cheese straws, humous, bread, Thai spring rolls, Prawn crostini, Satay and more!  An excellent spread.

Peppered Prawn Crostini

As usual the conversation flowed alongside the wine and we had another great evening.


As usual thanks to Clive for the more professional pictures that accompany this blog post.

Next up is Steve S’s choice of wines on Friday 10^th February, John E’s Italian wines and pasta evening on Friday 16^th March and Clive’s wines on Thursday 12^th April 12^th.  All of these events will be held in Tongham, before we return to Farnborough again on Saturday May 19^th for Ian’s wines.  Jane has plumped for our midsummer date of Thursday June 21^st.   Feel free to join us at any or all of our events– contact details are in Wine Circle at the top of this blog.   Our next big wine tasting dinner in Tongham Village Hall will be on Saturday March 3^rd – more details coming soon but the theme is The Mediterranean (Greece, Sicily, Catalonia and the Languedoc).