CHABLIS UNCORKED

Chablis corks from our tasting

Last Saturday we had a very interesting Tongham Taster’s event where we tasted eight wines from the Chablis area of France, including some rather pricey Premier and Grand Cru wines. Twelve of us gathered around our dining table to taste the wines that I had chosen and some matching food that Jane had prepared and to try and uncork the mystery of why Chablis is so popular.  It was a great evening with both some new faces and old.

Grand Cru Chablis grapes July 2011

It is always funny to hear people say that they hate Chardonnay but love Chablis but this is the opinion of more than a few. The fact is that Chablis producers deliberately set out to produce something different to the Chardonnay wines of the rest of the Burgundy region let alone the rest of the World. It is partly terroir as Chablis is north of most of the rest of Burgundy and is closer in distance and geology to Sancerre and Champagne than to the Cote D’Or or Macon for instance. The kimmeridgian soils of the better parts of Sancerre and Chablis produce remarkably similar wines considering the two contrasting grape varieties of Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. Champagne and Chablis, along nowadays with Southern England, represent the northern limits of Chardonnay growing and thus the harvest tends to be less ripe than those grapes grown further south and thus tend to have a greater acidity. This century, following global warming, the overall quality of Chablis has improved but the character has changed slightly and the growers have to be more careful to produce something akin to traditional Chablis rather than traditional white Burgundy. The good news nowadays is that Petit Chablis has really stepped up due to climate change and is now rather a good quality wine but at a good price (as I recommended on the night, do try the Petit Chablis at Asda which is less than £8 a bottle). Many wine drinkers like Chablis because it is unoaked but in fact many of the better Premier Cru and Grand Cru Chablis are at least partially oaked, maybe 25% for the 1er Cru and 50% for the Grand Cru, although this does depend upon the producer. This can give the wines some other interesting characteristics that a true wine connoisseur can appreciate.

Our tasting team enjoying the evening

So how did our tasting team appreciate the wines that I served them? Unusually, we did not taste the wines blind, because I wanted everyone to understand the differences between Petit Chablis, Chablis, Premier Cru Chablis and Grand Cru Chablis as well as tasting very old Chablis and that from top producers. Score are out of 20 and are in the order John E, Ian, Clive, Chris, Kathryn, Corinne and Paul. The wines are in the order that I served them and the prices are what I paid unless indicated. The wines were served at 10 degrees centigrade.

Church and vineyards near JM Brocard

You will note that I served a couple of other wines from the general region around Chablis. Although Chablis produces only Chardonnay grapes there are other local vineyards producing other grapes. To the South West of Chablis lies Irancy which produces a light Pinot Noir, and St Bris which produces a Sauvignon Blanc. To the North East of Chablis is Epineuil which produces Pinot Noir rosé and red. There is also Cote d’Auxerre (white and reds) to the west of Chablis and Bourgogne reds and even Cremant de Bourgogne not far away. As I mentioned earlier, parts of Sancerre and the Champagne district are also not far away so Chablis represents a good centre for a wine vacation.

1. La Chablisienne Bourgogne-Epineuil 2010, French rosé. €7.30. Served with homemade chicken curry flavoured popcorn.
This was a lovely aperitif wine to start the evening, a lovely light strawberry flavoured Pinot Noir rosé. It went well with my chicken curry flavoured popcorn. If you want the recipe it is also posted on this blog site. La Chablisienne is a really good co-operative and one of the very best co-ops in France – they also do excellent Chablis from Petit up to Grand Cru as well as trhe Epineuil and Irancy we tried. Scores were 13, 9.5, 14, 11, 15, 11 and 7.

2. Jean-Marc Brocard Petit Chablis Domaine Sainte Claire 2010, French white, €7.20. Served with spicy carrot pakoras.
This wine showed how Petit Chablis has improved over the years and it was subtle, light, minerally and generally good. It matched the spicy food well. Scores were 14, 14.5, 16, 15.5, 15, 14 and 16.

3. Jean-Marc Brocard Chablis Domaine Sainte Claire 2009, French white, €8.28. Served with gluten free Gougeres (Burgundy cheese puffs to the uninitiated)
This wine was also delicious and more concentrated than the Petit Chablis, if a little unrefined. The gougeres were a classic combination for Chablis and went well. For once, Jane produced something gluten free that I enjoyed (she used a normal recipe but with Doves Farm gluten free flour). Scores were 14.5, 10, 16+, 14.5, 15.5, 11 and 13.

4. Domaine Billaud-Simon Chablis 1er Cru Mont de Millieu Vielles Vignes 2008, French white, €18.00.Served with homemade white beetroot soup topped with a goats cheese foam.
Billaud-Simon is one of my favourite Chablis producers and this is probably their best 1er Cru wine in my opinion. This showed another step up in quality from the previous wines and two of our tasting team rated it their favourite wine of the evening as it had good acidity and little apparent oak. A really nice wine and great value, if not as wonderful as some of those we were about to taste! It paired well with the smooth white beetroot soup that I made and Jane’s warm goat’s cheese espuma that topped it. Scores were 17.5, 15, 16, 17, 17.5, 16 and 15.

5. Domaine Francois Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnere 2001, French white, expect to pay over £70 a bottle for this ! Served with cold salmon, new potatos and mayonnaise.
This wine was a gift and thus our tasters got to taste this expensive wine for free. Raveneau is perhaps the top producer in Chablis and his wines are not easy to source and expensive when you do. I had tasted this wine last year and it was very good but it showed up less well in our evening. However, one of our team found it their favourite wine of the evening (expensive tastes that one!). It had much more oak than those we had tasted so far and was very rich and different to a standard everyday Chablis. The salmon was another classic pairing that worked well. Scores were 18-, 13.5, 15, 16, 18, 17 and 14.

6. Domaine Laroche Chablis Grand Cru Les Blanchots Reserve de l’Obedience 2006, French white, €68.56. Served with potted pheasant and homemade bread.
For most of us this had a better balance between oak and fruit than the preceding wine. Another expensive wine, just getting towards its peak, it was a real treat. It matched our pheasant rillette that Jane had made in industrial quantities (everyone went home with a jar!). Great to taste it with a Grand Cru from a top producer. Scores were 18+, 17, 16, 18.5, 18, 16 and 15.

7. Daniel-Etienne Defaix 1er Cru Vaillon 1983, French white, €75.00. Served with mature Gouda cheese.
Daniel-Etienne Defaix is yet another of my favourite Chablis producers (Chablis like Sancerre is one of my passions!). They are unusual in that they don’t sell their wine until it is at its peak and they think a premier Cru should be at least 10 years old. So what about one that is 29 years old? Wow! Has a lovely acidity but an amazing aftertaste – Ian said it was like drinking the taste of the cave it had been maturing in! Subtle tones of calvados and orange peel were also detected. Really, really interesting wine and a great wine for sharing. Half our tasters found this their favourite wine of the evening. It went well with the old Gouda and also the popcorn. Scores were 18++, 17.5, 18, 19, 18, 17 and 18. Fiona went higher and scored this 19.

8. La Chablisienne Irancy 2009, French red, €8.70. Served with Tomme de Savoie and Chaource cheese (as the Chaorce didn’t pair well with the Irancy we also opened another bottle of Brocard Chablis which was a perfect match).
It was probably a mistake to serve a relatively cheap red after all those magnificent whites but it did match with the Tomme de Savoie. Scores were 11, 12, 12, 10.5, 15, 12 and 8.

Jane serving Kathryn's apple tarts

9. We finished the evening with some homemade apple tart and some non-Chablisienne bubbly – the local Greyfriars’ 2005 doing a good job to end out great evening. Many thanks to Kathryn who cooked the tart and brought it along. The idea of the apple tart was to show some of the flavours that Chablis can produce – this far north it is more apple than tropical fruit.

All the cheese we tasted was from the excellent cheese shop at Secrett’s in Milford. The Petit Chaource was particularly good!

Well done to Jane for cooking and serving most of the delightful food we had for this gourmet evening.

Our next Tongham Taster’s evening is very soon on Friday October 5th. For this evening Steve, fresh from his recent trip to France, will be presenting us six French wines from different regions. I am certainly looking forward to this and if you would like to join us give me (John) a ring on 07717 876743 or email me at tonghamtaster@gmail.com. The cost of the evening will be £10 per person and will include the usual selection of nibbles. Venue will be in The Street, Tongham, Surrey, UK.

Don’t forget that we have our Andean Adventure Chilean and Argentinean wine tasting dinner in Tongham Village Hall on Saturday 13th October. We have sold all sixty tickets but may be able still to squeeze in a few more if you ask nicely and very soon.

Vineyards in Chinon - our November tasting subject.

In November we are having another evening that will appeal to the real wine enthusiasts out there and will further educate our group about wine tasting. We will be having our first vertical tasting with six red Cabernet Franc wines from Chinon in France, all from top and respected producers, and covering the period 2008 back to 1990! An evening not to be missed on Friday 9th November in Grange Road, Tongham. Again call or email me if interested. If we get enough interest, again the cost should be £10, despite some more expensive wines than normal.

In December, on Friday 14th, we have our Christmas Party, which will be in Farnborough, Hampshire, and a short taxi ride from Tongham. Again let me know if you are interested in joining our fun group for our Christmas tasting experience.

Thanks to our twelve Chablis tasters, I really loved how much you appreciated the fine wines I served you. What an experience to share a 1983 1er Cru Chablis and have everyone really enjoy it! We must have more fine wine evenings!

9 courses but small portions!

Some of our food pairings were suggested by Fiona Beckett’s blog which is well worth a read and gave me some confidence in serving the 29 year old Chablis.

As usual many of the photos are by our official TT photographer Clive Greenfield – thanks for the great pics as usual.

Our ball pourers worked well

For this tasting we used a gadget on top of the wine bottle to ensure that everyone got an exact 50ml serving. This works well when trying to get between twelve and fifteen servings from one bottle and also aerates the wine nicely. It is made mainly for cocktails but works well for wine as well. They were 50ml chrome ball pourers and cost £4.99 each from Barmans.co.uk.

Cheerio until next time!

Tongham Hop Trail

It was very gratifying this weekend to see so many people walking around Tongham with copies of the Tongham Hop Trail, a self guided walk that Jane and myself devised as part of Tongham's contribution towards Heritage Open Days.  For those of you who were unable to make it, here are some of the highlight's in pictures.

The Hop Trail started at the Hogs Back brewery.

The entrance to Tongham Brewery that utilises some of the old Manor farm buildings

The old barn at Tongham brewery

The walk then continued down the street and right into Poyle Road to the Church.

Manor Farm and old dovecot, reputedly one of the oldest buildings in Tongham

Rose Cottage which still has its own well.

The old School, the Bell Tower and the Church

We then retraced our steps to the cross roads and turned right past the shops.

Tongham Shops, built around 1906

Hop leaf motif above the door at the side of the fish shop

In years gone by this was the view towards the station and the humpback bridge, now both long gone

At the Cricketers we turned left.

The Cricketers is a Victorian pub

Before going underneath the A331 we turned left into Tongham Wood.

The path through Tongham Wood follows the old railway line

Hops along the fence in Tongham Wood

On exiting the wood we came out into Garbetts Way and then left into Grange Road and on to the Kiln.

The Kiln sits in the centre of Tongham near the shops and pub

The Kiln

Steve of Amber and Green showing visitors around the kiln

Exhibition within the kiln

There are still hops in the kiln!

View up the inside of the kiln.

On exiting the Kiln, some of us visited the White Hart Pub.

The White Hart pub from the top of the kiln

We then returned back up the street and stopped at Tongham Village Hall for a up of tea and a look at the excellent exhibition that Gill Picken and Derek Rowlands had put together.

Tongham Village Hall

Derek Rowlands in front of the exhibits he helped put together

Gill Picken helping local residents discover the history of their house

Jane serving tea and cakes from the village hall's new kitchen

Over 200 people visited the village hall over the weekend

Hops & Beer in Tongham

If you walk along Grange Road or along the path that follows the old Guildford to Alton Railway line in Tongham Wood, you cannot fail to see hops growing amongst the brambles, up trees and along the fences.  Hops are the rampant climbing plants with maple-like leaves that entwine themselves everywhere.  It is interesting watching these plants produce their distinctive flowers in August and then grow larger until ready for picking in September.

The hop, surprisingly, is actually a close relative of Cannabis but is used to flavour beer with its bitter aromatic flavour.  It is not a native of England but came from Southern Europe and became used for beer making in England from around the sixteenth century.  Hops don’t have many other uses apart from cooking the young shoots as a vegetable, putting as a herb into your pillow case to reduce insomnia or for use in decorative displays.

Some of the hops you might see in Tongham are descendants of the hops that were farmed here locally in the nineteenth and into the twentieth century.  Hop farming was a huge industry around Tongham, Runfold and Farnham and all the way down to Alton in the second half of the nineteenth century.  The building of the railway through Tongham was partly due to the need to transport local beer and hops to London.   Tongham’s remaining oast house, or kiln, was built in 1858 by James Calloway, a tenant of Manor Farm.  With its round kilns it is typical of a 19^th century Oast.   Kingston Farm, up Poyle Road, also had an oast house but this is long gone.   The bottom part of the round kiln was fired by charcoal, coke or charred pit coal.  Above this was placed the hops that were being dried.   Once the hops were dried and their moisture content reduced from 80% to less than 10%, they were put on the top floor of the main building to cool and even out the moisture.   When cooled the hops were pressed into sacks or pockets and put onto the lower floor for storage.  Incredibly these beautiful buildings were used for only one month of the year after the hop harvest in September.

The nineteenth century was the golden age of English hop growing but after 1878 it began to decline.  Apart from Tongham Kiln, other reminders of the local hop industry are the hop leaf motives above the door of the Village Hall and the side entrance to the fish and chip shop.  The only remaining hop garden in Surrey is along the Hog’s Back in the village of Puttenham, which provides hops to Tongham’s Hog’s Back brewery.

Tongham now has only two Public Houses but in the past was also served by the Anchor (in The Street near Manor Road where there are now new houses), The Duke of Cambridge (on the corner of Manor Road and Spoil Lane) and The Victory (on the Hog’s Back opposite the Hotel).  The White Hart pub has been on this site since 1619 but the modern pub was built in 1935.  For many years outside the pub was a well and pump and part of the pub was used as a grocery shop in the nineteenth century until it infringed its licence by selling ale to shoppers.   Note the old iron plaque to the right of the entrance.  The owners of the pub put this there when it was rebuilt.  Hodgson Kingston Breweries was a brewery based in Kingston, Surrey who had bought up two local Guildford breweries, Elkins in 1890 and Crookes in 1929.  They themselves were taken over by Courage in 1943.

The Hog’s Back Brewery is now the only brewery in the borough of Guildford but has only been there since 1992.   They do an excellent tour and also have an amazing range of beers on sale in their shop.

Thanks to all those who helped make our Tongham Heritage Open Days a success.

Tongham Heritage Open Days

The Historic Tongham Village Hall

This year, Tongham is participating more than ever before in the National Heritage Open Days from the 6th to 9th September 2012.

Jane and I have devised a Tongham Hop Trail, which is a family friendly self-guided trail around Tongham.  Much of the late 19th and early 20th century history of Tongham was associated with the hop industry and there are remnants of it today.  Follow the Hop Trail and visit some of Tongham’s historical buildings and links to the hop growing trade.   Admire the unusual detached bell tower at Saint Paul’s Church, visit the newly refurbished kiln, walk with you children through Tongham Community Wood and take part in a nature quiz, visit Tongham Village Hall and enjoy tea and cakes whilst viewing the photo exhibition, visit the White Hart which is holding a beer festival or visit the local Hog’s Back Brewery.  There will be much to do over the weekend.

You can download the "Tongham Hop Trail" brochure from the Guildford Borough Council website, here:  Tongham Hop Trail map [4Mb]

Participating in the "Tongham Hop Trail" and in the Heritage Open Days are these fine Tongham institutions:

The Kiln – www.amberandgreen.com
 St Paul's Church – www.stpaulstongham.org.uk
 Tongham Community Wood – www.tonghamwood.org.uk
 The White Hart pub – www.thewhiteharttongham.co.uk
 Tongham Village Hall – www.tonghamvillagehall.org.uk
 Hogs Back Brewery – www.hogsback.co.uk

Details of Tongham Open Days events and opening times can be found in Guildford Borough Council's Heritage Open Days brochure, which you can download here:  Heritage Open Days brochure 2012 [4Mb].

For those of you who are wine enthusiasts, note that Greyfriars Vineyard on the Hogs Back near Puttenham will be open on the Sunday September 9th between 10am and 4pm.  They are well worth a visit.  If in doubt read a report on our Tongham Tasters  visit there last year.  Click here for a report on a Vineyard in Transition.

Checking out the grapes at Greyfriars vineyard in 2011

Hope we see you around Tongham on the weekend of 8th and 9th of September!

If you cycle, do take a ride down cycle route 22 (turn left at Kei's restaurant in Runfold after cycling down Grange Road)  to Puttenham to see Surrey's last Hop garden.  They will be picking in September so be quick.

Puttenham Hop Garden August 2012

If you enjoyed our Hop Trail and fancy a longer walk through this part of Surrey's Literary Heritage click here.

Reasons to be Cheerful, One, Two, Three.

If anyone is wondering whether to come along to our Tongham Tasters’ wine tasting evenings then our July event gave you at least three good reasons to join us in future.

1. Taste some wines that you might consider buying.  Tonight Sheila chose some wines that a number of us had looked at in Sainsburys and wondered if they were worth trying.  Now we know whether to buy or not.

2. Learn more about wines.   Our July evening showed how Sheila’s taste in wines had moved on in the last two years after regularly attending our group, and at last I am beginning to identify a few more wines when we taste them blind.

3. Have a cracking good evening!

Sheila’s theme for the evening was wines picked from Sainsbury’s fine wine rack during their 25% off promotion.  As she nearly ran out of her £60 budget after 5 wines, the fourth wine was a £4 wine designed if we could taste the difference between the more expensive wines and her “rogue” wine.  Without the special offers, Sheila’s wine would have cost her £94.14 instead of £59.91!

With competition from vacations, weddings, diets and the Olympic Torch procession in Guildford, our numbers were down to just six this month but it didn’t stop us having a fun evening.  

So how did our tasting team rate Sheila’s taste in wines?  Scores shown below are in the order John E, Steve S, Ian, Clive, Sarah and Sheila.

The prices quoted are what Sheila actually paid and include special offers and 25% off promotions. 

The wines, which we tasted blind, were in descending order of preference:

1.  Faustino Gran Reserva Rioja 2001, 13.5% abv Spanish Red, Sainsbury £13.49

Five of our tasting team voted this as their gold medal winning wine of the evening.  This wine had some orange peel in the aroma and a good balance of sweetness, acidity and oak.  I identified it as Spanish but most of the rest of the team thought it was a New World Cabernet Sauvignon.  This mature wine showed no signs of age apart from a nice mellowness.  Scores were 15.5, 12.75, 16.5, 19, 17 and 16.5.  The scores are not surprising as this was a very good year for Rioja, so this is definitely worthy of your consideration unless your tastes are at the very high end.

2.  Henri Dumanois Champagne NV, 12.5% French Sparkling White, Sainsbury £10.50

Whilst only one person voted this as their winning wine of the evening, another four had it in second place.   This wine had a pleasant yeasty aroma and the taste was dry but with enough sweetness in the fruit to make it very pleasant.  Most of us identified it as being a Pinot dominated blend produced by a Champagne cooperative.  Scores were 15, 12, 17, 18, 16.5 and 16.  This was another high scoring wine and worthy of consideration when on special offer.

3.  M.Chapoutier Crozes-Hermitages 2009 Les Meysonniers, 13% French Red, Sainsbury £11.99

One silver medal vote and three bronze medal votes put this is third place.  This dry, smooth red had a very nice distinct peppery taste that helped identify it as a Syrah or Shiraz wine.   Scores were 13-, 12.25, 13, 18, 14 and 14.  This is another wine from a good year and maybe it will improve further, so worthy of your consideration.

4.   Rocca Chianti Classico 2009 Riserva,  13.5% Italian Red, Sainsbury £12.75

Two bronze medal votes and three fourth places meant that the Chianti Classico from yet another good vintage was in a firm fourth place and a cut above the remaining wines.  I thought this tasted like an Italian wine, which it was, and it had quite a pleasant balance of acidity.  Sheila though she detected curry in the aroma but this was probably just a dirty glass!   Scores were 13+, 9.75, 10.5, 17, 11.5 and 14.   Not a bad wine, and one that would accompany an Italian meal well, but I think you could probably shop around and do better at this price.

5. Freixenet 2010 Vintage Especial Brut Cava, 12% Spanish Sparkling White, Sainsbury £6.99

Two fourth place votes were the best our Cava got but it kept it firmly off of bottom place.  The experience started off well with a pleasant yeasty aroma but the taste was absolutely bone dry and not particularly appealing.  The wine also had relatively large bubbles and lost its fizz quite quickly.  Scores were 11, 9.5, 12, 15, 11 and 13.  The bottle frankly looked better than the contents that were inside but at under £7 you might consider this as a reasonably priced sparkler as long as your expectations weren’t that great.  Serve it ice cold with a little orange juice as bucks fizz.

6.  Vega Roja Rioja, 13% Spanish Red, Tesco £4.19

Very firmly in last place, which is where five of our team placed it, was the cheap wine from Tesco.   All of us pretty much identified that this was Sheila’s rogue wine designed to test whether we could pick out a wine priced much lower than the rest.   This was a soft light wine with some spice on the palate but perhaps a little bland.  Scores were 11-, 12, 9.5, 15, 10 and 9.  This wine, which is priced firmly in the value range, might be quite pleasant if chilled to accompany a barbeque on a hot summers day.

Wine and thyme scones proved a good combination

So thanks to Sheila for providing us with an excellent evening with great food, wine and ambiance.   The food included an incredible selection of fish pate, melba toast, German Bratwurst, cheese, homemade thyme scones, bread, crackers, red pepper, tomatoes and more!   We even ended up with some birthday cake.   The standard of our evenings is definitely picking up.

Cheers!

Feel free to join us at our coming events, which are as follows:

Thursday August 23^rd in Farnborough at 8pm.  Theme to be decided.

Saturday September 22^nd in Tongham at 8pm.  Chablis fine wine evening.

Thursday October 11^th in Tongham at 8pm.  6 French Wine Regions.

Most of our evenings cost just £10 but occasionally we splash out more on some fine wines.  We will be having another fine wine evening in September, watch this space for more details.  If you want to join in any of our evenings send John an email at tonghamtaster@gmail.com or call John on 07717876743.  Anyone with an interest in wine, food and good conversation will be most welcome.

Another date for your diaries is Saturday October 13^th, which is the provisional date set our next charity educational wine tasting dinner in Tongham Village Hall.   The theme is an Andean Adventure and will feature some lovely food and wine from Chile and Argentina.

Thanks to Clive, as usual, for the excellent photo at the top of this blog posting.

Cheese board