 |
| Which French region did the wine come from? |
For the first tasting evening of our third year
as a wine tasting group, Steve decided to examine us on our blind wine tasting
abilities. He told us that there were
nine main French wine regions, which were:
Alsace (and Lorraine),
Champagne,
Burgundy (of which Beaujolais
is a major sub-region)
Loire Valley,
Rhone Valley,
Bordeaux,
South West (a hotch-potch including everything such as Bergerac and Gascony and the Pyrenean appellations)
Languedoc,
Provence.
He might also have added
Jura, Savoie and Corsica making twelve in total.
He was going to serve us six wines from these
regions and we had to guess which wine came from which region. We would get bonus points for the precise
appellation area, year etc. If this
sounds easy, it wasn’t!!! Following our
success the last time Steve had tested us, he had decided to make it more
difficult.
 |
| Down to the serious business of tasting |
So what did Steve serve us, which were our
favourites, and how well did we do? The
wines are listed below in our order of preference. Scores are out of twenty and are presented in
the order John E, Ian, Kathryn, Clive, Sarah, Jane, Steve S, Chris and Andy who
were our nine pupils to be tested for the evening. As stated earlier we tasted all wines blind.
 |
| We can smile! |
1. Domaine
Masse Pere et Fils, Bourgogne Pinot Noir, Reserve Speciale Vieilles Vignes,
2011, French Burgundy Red 12.5%, Auchan €8.39.
Seven of us nine tasters reckoned this was the
best wine of the evening. It was light
in colour and also light and fruity in taste.
Its smoothness also won a few over.
A very good value burgundy Pinot Noir that is definitely worth buying at
this price if you over the other side of the Channel. Scores were 13.5, 12.5, 13.5, 15, 14, 15,
10.5, 12.5 and 11.5. Not bad scores for
a wine at less than ten Euro.
2. Chateau
Lacaussade Saint Martin, Trois Moulins 2011, Blaye Cotes de Bordeaux, Semillon
Sauvignon, French Bordeaux White 13%, Auchan €5.39.
This wine had one top vote and seven of us had
it in their top three. This was a very
dry wine that tasted like a bog standard Bordeaux or Bergerac white early on
but as the evening went on developed interesting tropical fruit flavours. These later flavours completely threw most of
us and we changed our minds and thought it was a Chardonnay but were
wrong. Scores were 11.5, 12, 12, 15, 13,
10, 11, 10.5 and10.5. Our big Sauvignon
Blanc fan and official photographer Clive loved this wine. A great value white.
3. Chateau Saint-Go, Saint Mont 2010,
Tannat, Pinenc, Cabernets, French South West Red, Auchan €6.90.
This very dark wine had one
top vote and most had it in their top four.
It had good acidity, which meant it went well with the food but it was
not fruity enough for some of us. The
fruit it had was dark berries. I
thought this was a Cahors Malbec but should have got this as we used to buy
quite a lot of this from Auchan. Scores
were 13, 10, 13, 13, 12, 13, 15.5, 8.5 and 8.5.
Another good value red if not universally loved.
4. Bastion de l’Oratoire, Fleurie 2009, French Burgundy (Beaujolais Gamay)
Red 13%, Majestic £9.60
Three of our tasters had this
in their top three but the rest had it in their bottom two. This wine came in
the bottom half of our evening’s wines because it had very little concentration
of flavour. The flavour it did have was
good and included dark forest fruits, chocolate and dates figs or prunes. It seemed a little coarse on the palate. We
were torn whether this wine was a Syrah or Gamay. Scores were 9.5, 12.5, 9, 10, 5, 15, 15, 7.5,
and8.5. As you can see from the scores
this was a wine that divided the team.
5. Domaine Drusse, Cuvée les Coteaux 2011, Saint Nicolas de Bourgeuil, French Loire white,
Auchan €5.95.
Again three had this in their
top three but the others were less sure.
Again the problem was depth of flavour and it was watery thin to some of
our team. Those who did like it, did so
because it was light, fresh and smooth with some spice and parma violets in the
bouquet. Scores were 11.5, 7, 10, 13,
11.5, 14, 7, 10 and 9.5. Another wine
that divided the team but good value for lovers of light red wines.
6. Domaine les Quatre Amours, Cuvee Olga 2011, Roussanne Chardonnay,
Vine De Pays d’Oc, French Languedoc White 14%, Direct from the producer at €10.
This wine was dry and had
nice acidity but its coarse mouth-feel and oily taste put many off. Some identified some nice tropical fruits
once it had been open for a while but others though it tasted “like someone had
pissed on a camp fire!” Scores were
9.5, 10.5, 11, 12, 7.5, 4, 8.5, 7.5 and 10.5.
For some reason this interesting wine didn’t really perform on the
night. Rather like people wines don’t
always perform as predicted and temperature, food, atmosphere, method of
pouring etc and even the glass can make a big difference to the
experience.
In terms of how well we did in the test, I
think it is true so say that most us failed miserably and need to continue
coming to Tongham Tasters for a few more years in order to expand our wine
knowledge and tasting abilities!
Steve’s prize for our top taster of the evening went to Ian. Well done to Ian, who won a nice bottle of
wine.
Steve served us some Interesting wines
considering all six came in at under £40!
Steve also served us some lovely
bread sticks, Saucisson, Salami, Chorizo, olives, carrot and celery sticks,
mature cheddar, Osau Iraty, Comte and Manchego, all from Waitrose so high
quality stuff! Well done Steve who as
usual made us all have a very good and enjoyable evening.
 |
| Steve happy after his evening |
Next month there will be no need to guess the
grape variety or region it came from, as all will be exactly the same. I will be serving six red Cabernet Franc
wines from Chinon in the Loire Valley.
We will taste at least six different years from at least three different
top producers. Included in this will be a true vertical tasting of the same
producer’s top cuvee from three different years. To join us on Friday November 9th
in Tongham for our Chinon Vertical Take-Off evening, call John on 07717 876743 or email me at tonghamtaster@gmail.com. This November evening will feature higher
cost wines than normal as the budget is expanded from our normal £60 to £90 for
the six wines. We will add a wine and
some more to the budget if we get a particularly large attendance. Come and find out why some wine connoisseurs
think that Cabernet Franc is the best of the main three Bordeaux grape
varietals when not blended. Rather like
our recent Chablis evening, one not to be missed!
During our third year we are going to have most
of tastings as themed nights. Coming up
soon are our Christmas party at Ian & Kathryn’s place in Farnborough on
Friday December 14th, and Sauvignon Blancs from around the World at
Clive and Sarah’s in Tongham on Friday January 11th. Later in 2013 we are planning evenings
focussing on sparkling wines, Rhone blends, wines of the Languedoc, Australian
wines and wines that pair well with pizza.
Remember we always welcome new members so consider joining us at one of
next tastings.
1. Which French wine
region has traditionally always included the grape varietal on the label?
2. Pouilly-Fumé and Pouilly-Fuissé
come from different wine regions. Which
ones?
3. Which French wine
Region contains the first Appellation Controllée and which was it?
4. In which French
wine region do they grow Pinot Meunier as one of their three main grape
varietals?
5. Which French wine
region grows Merlot on its right bank in clay soils and Cabernet Sauvignon on
its left bank in gravelly soils and then blends them with other varietals?
6. Which is the
largest of the French wine regions in terms both of size and bottles of wine
produced?
7. Which French wine
region uses unusual grape varietals such as Fer, Gros and Petit Manseng and
Colombard in its wines?
8. Which French wine region makes the unusual
sherry like Vin Jaune wines?
 |
| Not Aliens but blind tasting bottles! |
and at last some of Clive's photos of the evening -
 |
| Don't make me laugh when I'm tasting! |
 |
| Ian with his prize |
 |
| The ancient sport of wine wrestling! |
 |
| Tongham Taster makes his notes |
Posts
