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| Would John come first or second? |
This was another of our frequent trips over the border into
Farnborough in Hampshire and ten of us gathered as the tasting panel to judge
the three wines put up by each contestant.
Being John, he had selected two New World Wines and one Old World
wine. For once we didn’t get a South
African wine but he put up two Australian wines and one from the increasingly
fashionable Cru Beaujolais area of France.
As usual, to ensure no prejudice, we tasted all of the wines
blind. There was the usual lovely food
to go with it: we are old school and believe that wine and food should be taken
together. The cheese selection was well
judged for the red wines and there were lovely blinis topped with beef and
horseradish and much more besides.
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| A great cheese board of cheddar, Manchego and Cornish Yarg |
Scores below are out of twenty according to the TonghamTaster rules and are presented in the order John E, John S, Kathryn, Sarah,
Jane, Jill, Clive, Chris, Andy and Steve S.
Wines are presented in descending order of preference:
This was a wine that all of the team apart from me
loved. Four of the team voted it their
best wine of the night. There were
comments like “An instant I like you”,
“Welcome home”, and “I could exist on this”. This really is a big, chunky, spicy winter
warmer from Australia. For Old World die
hards like yours truly it was far too powerful and not a pleasant experience,
however, this is what most UK consumers are looking for. Scores were 11.25-, 13, 14, 13, 14, 14, 16,
15, 11.5 and 10.75. So the New World
Cabernet Merlot challenge was one by 6 votes to four to The Wine Society. This bottle from Western Australia is a great
example of the value wines they offer.
The Wine Society recommended to have this with Chorizo and this paired
well. It was also good with our Cheddar,
Manchego, Cornish Yarg cheese board.
This was a very similar wine to the Dragonfly but was just
pipped to the post. However, three of
the team voted it their favourite wine of the evening so one definitely to
consider if you like big powerful Australian red wines. This one also comes from Western Australia
rather than the more ubiquitous South East.
Scores were 9.75, 12.5, 15, 14, 16, 13, 15, 14, 11 and 10. Another wine for those who love those from
hot climates.
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| DB 2011- A very light Pinot Noir |
This was a very light coloured red indeed but proved the
favourite for Steve and me. I was
initially prejudiced by its colour and relative apparent lack of flavour but it
eventually won me over. This is a summer
wine and is made by a very respected Australian producer. Like most of the wines we tried on our
pro-Am night, it completely split the jury and some found it “a nothing wine”
and “quite sweet”. Scores 10.5, 12, 10,
11, 9, 11, 11, 8.5, 11.5 and 11.5. A
pleasant light quaffing wine that won John S the Under £10 New World Pinot Noir
challenge to bring him evens with The Wine Society after 2 holes and with just
one to go.
=4. Marks and Spencers Fleurie 2011, French Red Wine 13%, Marks
and Spencer, £10.99 reduced to £10.00, selected by John.
Clive thought this was the best wine of the evening with its
nice fruity aroma, purple colour, smooth feel and fruit gum tang. Others thought it thin and weedy! It was
placed everywhere between first and last place by our team. As a Cru Beaujolais it benefits from not
having some of the characteristic unpleasantness of Beaujolais Nouveau or
ordinary Beaujolais plonk, but it proved too light for some tastes. Scores were 13.75, 10, 9, 8, 11, 9, 16,
13.25, 10 and 10.25. A very pleasant Gamay
wine but perhaps a little flat on the palate and not a wine that will be loved
by all.
Five of our team had this in their top three wines of the
evening and late comer Ian said he would have voted it tops. Being the same AOC and the same year perhaps
it is not surprising that this wine was very very similar to the one from Marks
and Spencer. Some of us felt it didn’t
have such a nice mouth-feel but others seemed to prefer this harshness. It was perhaps slightly darker and was also
very tangy. In the end we decided to
call it a draw between these Beaujolais wines.
Scores were 12.25, 8, 8, 11.5, 12, 9.5, 15, 10.5, 10.5 and 11.25. A good value wine to explore why the experts
are saying we should be drinking more Beaujolais.
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| Detail on the Maycas label |
Almost every one of the wines in our evening tasting got a
mixed reception with some loving them and others not liking them so much. This wine, however, proved much less popular
than the rest. It got comments such as
“boring ordinary wine” and “smooth but unpleasant hints of cough mixture”. It is a very tough challenge to find a good
Pinot Noir under £10 and this wine proved the rule. I found it tasted OK on the first sip and had
more weight than the De Bortoli but I quickly found it relatively uninteresting
and it seemed to go down hill the more you tasted. Scores were 10, 9, 10, 10, 10, 10, 13, 12,
10 and 9.25.
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| ...and the winning two wines are.... |
So our challenge ended up as a draw. Well done to John for matching the experts
and well done to The Wine Society for putting up some great value wines.
Majestic Wines also put in some suggestions and we tasted
one after our main challenge. It was
their Wirra Wirra Church Block 2010 Cabernet Shiraz. Many though this was the best Australia wine
we tasted all evening and normally retails at £12.95 before discounts. Thanks to Yapp Brothers for also replying but
too late to include them in the tasting.
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| Lovely canapes |
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| Do join the team for our next tasting |
To join us at any event, wither email John at tonghamtaster@gmail.com or call me on
07717 876743. For more details about us,
click on Wine Circle above this blog.
Hope to see you all again soon.
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| Our team chat and judge the wines |
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| Ian joined us late, after badminton, and enjoyed the exhibition Fleurie |
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