If it’s Friday it must be the Languedoc!

You are invited to our March 2011 Tongham Tasters wine evening, which, unusually this month, is on a Friday. The date to put in your diaries is March 11th at 8.00pm.

This month, Steve S is hosting the event and choosing the wines. Most of us know that Steve is a big fan of the Languedoc and so no surprise that the theme of this month’s evening is the wines of the Languedoc.

As usual we will be blind tasting 6 wines, enjoying a little food and of course thoroughly enjoying each others company. Cost of the evening is shared by all who come along and is limited to a very reasonable £10 per head – cash on the night.

Participation is limited to 14 as it is being held in one of our homes and we only have one bottle of each wine. As we normally only get nine regulars along to our events there is room for a few additional people to come along and join in the fun. We welcome any new faces and if you want to join us, give Tongham Taster organiser John a call on 07717 876743 or email tonghamtaster@gmail.com.

Vines in the Languedoc

The venue will be in Tongham which is close to Farnham, Aldershot, Seale, Ash and Runfold in Surrey, UK.. Address will be supplied on booking your place. Hope we get to clink glasses with you on the 11th.  If all is stilll not clear click on Wine Circle at the top of this blog for our FAQs.

If keen on the wines of the Languedoc do tune in to this blog for information and recommendations relating to this region each week during March.

Clive’s Random Wines

Our tasting team hard at work!

Our fifthTongham Tasters’ monthly wine tasting event was held at Clive’s house during February and by all accounts he had chosen six wines at random from the shelves of Marks and Spencers. So how good were his “choices” from M&S which were enjoyed by our normal nine regular tasters. Scores below are quoted in the order John E, Clive, Hazel, Steve S, Jane.

Crow’s Fountain 2009 Western Cape Sauvignon Blanc South Africa - £7.99.
This was easily the favourite wine of the evening with six voting it their top wine. John E though that you could tell it was a quality wine from the look and that it was a Sauvignon Blanc from its nose. However, the taste had some guessing it was a blend, which was incorrect. Steve W thought is was noing! (don’t ask!) and Hazel loved this one. Scores were 15, 19, 16, 14, 13. A good value wine.

Puisseguin-Saint Emilion 2009 Chateau La Roseraie Dumont - £7.99
Two of our intrepid tasters had this at No.1 whilst everyone had in their top three. Nobody got close to identifying what it was. John E described it as a wine with a dark soul! However, he wants to buy some. Ian liked its body and identified a nice thyme nose. It bodes well for what the better Bordeaux of the 2009 vintage will taste. Scores were 12.5, 15, 14, 14.5, 18, Well worth a try.

Chapel Down Tenterden English Sparkling Reserve Brut – £17.99
This was a wine that totally split the panel of judges. One had it as their top wine, two had it as second, three had it at third but it also got a fourth, fifth and even sixth spot. From the nose some guessed it as a Chenin Blanc from the Loire but it didn’t have the creaminess. John E thought the bubbles were too big. The bottle, very disappointingly, didn’t give any clue as to the varietals suggesting that it wasn’t remotely a Pinot Noir / Chardonnay blend. Frankly this isn’t very good value – stick to Champagne or Prosecco. However, it was interesting to taste an English wine and we have made a note to visit Greyfriars on the Hogsback as a team to see if our local vineyard can do better. Scores were 7.5, 16, 13, 11, 11.

Muscadet Sevre et Maine sur Lie 2009 La Moulin des Cassardieres - £7.99
Another wine that split the vote. John E loved it but then he is a Muscadet fan. Most had it at No.4 on their list. It certainly isn’t a bad example of the 2009 vintage which is such an improvement over 2008. Scores were 13.5, 12, 9, 10.5, 11.

M&S Australian Shiraz 2010 South East Australia - £4.29
This was another wine that we failed to identify as it didn’t taste like a typical Australian Shiraz at all. Jane got a banana Beaujolais like taste indicating its youngness. A number thought it was a merlot due to its mellowness. John called it jammy but light. Two had it in their top three wines of the evening. Not a bad price so worth considering if you like a light bodied shiraz. Scores were 12, 13, 7, 10, 7.

M&S Vin De Pays D’Oc Gold Label Syrah Rose 2009 - £4.99
For Sheila this was very dry, for Steve S it was bland, for Steve W it dropped of quickly. Jane said it tasted of strawberries. Despite all the comments, nobody rated it that highly three of the panel had it at number four on their lists. Scores were 13, 12, 12, 9, 10. For the price not a bad dry rose but you could do better.

Clive was an excellent host and his conservatory was an excellent location and the food was well paired with the wines Next month we are having the event on a different day – a Friday night March 11th – at Steve S’s. You are welcome to join us.

Invitation to the February Tongham Tasters Wine Get-together

Less than two weeks to go before the next Tongham Tasters’ get-together. This month, Clive is hosting the evening and providing the wine and food. As usual we will be blind tasting six different wines. The date for your diary is Thursday 17th February at 8.00pm and the location is Tongham, Surrey, UK. The cost of the evening is shared between those who attend and is limited to a maximum of £10 per person.

6 Glasses ready to be filled with interesting wine.

We always welcome new people coming along to our events. No knowledge of wine is required, just an enthusiasm to try different wines in a social atmosphere. So whether you know us or just happened upon our blog site, and fancy coming along, contact us to reserve your place. Spaces are limited to 14 as we hold our get-togethers in our homes.

For more information and FAQs, click on Wine Circle above. Hope to see you on the 17th!

To contact us ring John on 07717 876743 or email tonghamtaster@gmail.com.

Invitation to the January Tongham Tasters’ Get-together

Only about two weeks to go before another Tongham Tasters’ Get-together. As usual we will be tasting six interesting wines brought along by one of our circle – this month they will be the choice of Steve and Hazel who will also be hosting the event. So make sure you have Thursday January 13th 2011 at 8.00pm in your diary. As usual we will be serving some simple food including palate cleansers.  The theme this month will be Northern Italy.  So we should get some interesting wines and if we get lucky some of Steve's homemade ciabatta.

Glasses waiting to be filled with lovely Italian wine.

It really helps if you can drop us an email as soon as possible to let John know you are coming. Usual email address – tonghamtaster@gmail.com. If you prefer the phone, ring John on 01252 783447.

We always welcome new people coming along to our get-togethers. No knowledge of wine is required, just an enthusiasm to try different wines and join in the fun of our monthly gatherings. So whether you know us or just happened upon the website, and fancy coming along, contact us to reserve your place. Spaces are limited to 14 as we hold our get-togethers in our homes.

All of our meetings are held in Tongham near Farnham in Surrey, UK. We share the costs of the wine and food between all the attendees, and this is set at a maximum of £10 per person.

...and I mustn't forget

HAPPY NEW YEAR

to all Tongham Tasters whether we meet you in person or on-line.

The Perfect Flight



A flight of ice wines?



A selection of wines presented, like at Tongham Tasters’ get-togethers, for the purpose of sampling and comparison, is often called a flight of wines or a tasting flight. No one knows for sure why it is called a flight of wines but apparently it first appeared in print in 1978. Most dictionaries refer to the fact that groups of things are often called flights, examples being birds, aircraft or stairs. Interestingly enough all of these examples ascend, and this is the purpose of a perfectly arranged flight of wines as well. One should start with the younger wines and progress to older wines, or start with the lighter wines and move onto the fuller bodied wines, or start with the lesser wines and ascend to the finer wines. In the simplest example you would start with the whites, perhaps have a rose and then taste the reds. All very progressive and with the good reason that your taste buds will prefer it this way.



One of the fun things about being a member of a wine circle is trying to construct your perfect flight of wines. At Tongham Tasters we allow you to choose 6 wines for a cost of £50. Want to take up the challenge?

Invitation to the December Tongham Tasters’ Get-together

Only just over a week to go before another Tongham Tasters’ Get-together. As usual we will be tasting six interesting wines brought along by one of our circle – this month they will be the choice of Sheila. So make sure you have Thursday December 9th at 8.00pm in your diary. We will be serving the usual palate cleansing foods plus a seasonal Chestnut soup to help warm you against the cold.

It really helps if you can drop us an email as soon as possible to let John know you are coming. Usual email address – tonghamtaster@gmail.com. If you prefer the phone, ring John on 07717 876743.

We always welcome new people coming along to our get-togethers. No knowledge of wine is required, just an enthusiasm to try different wines and join in the fun of our monthly gatherings. So whether you know us or just happened upon the website, and fancy coming along, contact us to reserve your place. Spaces are limited to 14 as we hold our get-togethers in our homes.

All of our meetings are held in Tongham near Farnham in Surrey, UK. We share the costs of the wine and food between all the attendees, and this is set at a maximum of £10 per person.

Dates for your diary

Tongham Tasters hold wine tastings in Tongham near Farnham Surrey on the second Thursday of each month.   As we hold our get-togethers in our homes, participants are limited to 14 each evening.  Each month a different member of our wine circle selects the wines.  Cost of the food and wine is shared and the cost per person is limited to £10.  We warmly welcome new wine lovers coming to our evenings.   All of us are at different levels of wine knowledge and experience, so don't let being a novice put you off - we all learn more by drinking interesting wines each month.   Also don't worry about not living in Tongham as tasting doesn't necessarily involve swallowing.  Get a flavour of our get-togethers by reading the reports of our evenings and other blog postings below.

Our next events are -

Thursday December 9th - 8.00pm - Sheila
Thursday January 13th - 8pm - Steve & Hazel
Thursday February 10th - 8pm - Clive

To find out more email any questions to tonghamtaster@gmail.com or ring John on 07717 876743.

November's Tongham Tasters' Get-together



Countdown to November 11th



Our next Tongham Tasters get together is at 8.00pm on Thursday 11th November. Ian will be buying the wine this month and he is going for 3 Rieslings (2 dry and 1 slightly sweeter) and 3 fruity reds from around the world – should be interesting. Rieslings are of course the white grape of choice for most wine writers – so if you want to understand why, come along. Fruit is the modern taste preference for reds after years of oak etc, so again we wait to see what Ian has chosen with interest. As usual we will be conducting a blind tasting of these 6 wines.





Please email tonghamtaster@gmail.com or ring John on 07717 876743 if you wish to come along to this month’s event and let us know a week in advance if possible. We appreciate everyone bringing along their own 6 wine glasses as this prevents one person from doing all the washing up or running out of glasses. Remember we only have 14 places available for each event so early notification will prevent disappointment.  As usual we will share the cost of the evening and it is limited to £10 per head.

As usual we welcome wine enthusiasts of all types and levels of experience from absolute beginners upwards.

Report on our October Launch Get-Together

I think I can say without fear of contradiction that our first Tongham Tasters monthly get-together was a resounding success. We had a great crowd of nine wine enthusiasts of different levels of experience – Jean-Michel, Steve, Clive, Steve, Sheila, Jane, Ian, Hazel and John – and both wine and conversation flowed throughout the evening, mingled with some food and laughter. Special thanks to bargain hunter Jane who assembled six interesting wines from Tesco’s during their 25% off wine fair and went way under budget so that the whole evening actually cost under £5 per person. Everyone put £10 in the kitty so that we could do something special at another date.

All wines were tasted blind. Below are the wines we tasted in order of popularity:

1. Storks' Tower 2009 Tempranilla Shiraz Rosé Vino de la Tierra de Castilla Hijas de Antonio Barcelo – normally £6.49 but Jane bought it for £4.87. Seven out of the nine of us voted this their best wine of the evening. John scored this a 15/20 point wine but Ian gave it 18/20. So it proved that we are not wine snobs and can appreciate a good Rosé which this definitely is. It is very similar to the excellent 2008 if you had tasted that this summer. We all agreed that this was a wine you could drink at other times of the year and Ian suggested this would be great with Salmon. Great value and well worth buying.

2. Crozes Hermitage 2007 Selected by Tesco Cave de Tain Silver Medal International Wine Challenge 2010 – normally £8.49 but Jane bought it for £6.37. One person voted this their top wine of the evening and four voted it their No.2 wine. John scored it only 11/20 but Ian gave it a more generous 16/20 so the jury was less certain on this – one of our team said they didn’t like it at all. Top marks to Steve who quickly identified what this wine was – suggesting that the right characteristics were there. A good value wine for lovers of French Shiraz.

3. Arrogant Frog Ribet Rouge Rural 2009 Pezenas Sud de France Vin de Pays d'Oc Bio Cabernet Merlot – normally £7.99 but Jane bought this for £5.99. Two of our enthusiasts voted this their No.2 wine of the evening and another 5 their No.3 wine, so it consistently featured highly in everyone’s list. John gave it 15/20 but Ian didn’t like this one and gave it only 9/20, proving that everyone has different tastes in wine. It certainly benefitted from breathing and got better as the evening progressed. An interesting organic Bordeaux blend from the Languedoc,which partly disproves my theory that silly named wines are not worth buying.

4. Tim Adams 2008 Semillon Clare Valley Australia – normally £10.49 but Jane paid only £7.87. Three of the team voted this their No.2 wine and two voted it their No.3 wine. John scored it 12.5/20 and Ian was in agreement scoring it 12/20. Perhaps rather disappointing scores for the most expensive wine of evening. However, a nice wine, if you like oaked Semillon, from an excellent producer; but most of us prefer the Tim Adams reds.

5. Argentina Reserve 2009 Chardonnay Fairtrade selected by Tesco – normally £6.29 but £4.72 in the wine fair. One of the Tongham Tasters voted this their No.1 wine of the evening and another two had it at No.3. John gave it 9.5/20 but Ian gave it 15/20 – this was a wine that definitely split the group into two; you either loved it or hated it. For Hazel it was another example of why she doesn’t like Chardonnay. However, others found some nice tropical fruits in this wine.

6. Altos de Tamaron Ribeira de Duero Tempranilla oak aged 2009 – normally £5.24 but Jane purchased for £3.93. None of the group had this wine in their top three, proving how difficult it is to purchase good wines in the £5 and under price range. However, it gave us a good laugh in arguing whether it tasted of mud or strawberries! John scored it 11/20 suggesting it was reasonable value but Ian gave it only 6/20 suggesting that it wasn’t drinkable.

It will be interesting to see if anyone can come up with such a popular wine as the Storks’ Ridge Rosé at a price of just £4.87 – Jane has thrown a challenge down!

The food we had with all this interesting wine from around the world, was smoked salmon and cream cheese pancake roulades, chorizo and cheddar pancake wedges, celery and carrot soup, cheddar cheese and pita bread plus cucumber, carrot and celery crudités.

This month we have featured the wine scores of John and Ian in our blog, but if you want your scores to appear here, come to our next Tongham Taster’s Get-Together at 8.00pm on Thursday November 11th. Good news is that we are not short of volunteers to choose the wines for the next 3 months. Ian has volunteered for November and is currently deciding between a theme of Rieslings, Australian wines or a bit of a mix. Sheila will provide some interesting wines for our December get-together, whilst Steve and Hazel are hosting our January evening.

Thanks to everyone for making our launch event such a success – cheers!

Tongham Tasters' First Get-Together Coming Soon !!!

Tongham Tasters first get-together is scheduled for Thursday 14^th October at 8.pm.   We have had a lot of interest, so do be sure to email us (tonghamtaster@gmail.com) between now and 7^th October letting us know if you are definitely going to come and who if anyone is coming with you.   Look forward to seeing you on the 14^th.  Cheers!

Welcome to Tongham Tasters, an informal fun way to discover wine, locally

Join us for an informal monthly get-together and explore the world of wine. Share your favourite wines or bring new ones to try. Taste other participants’ choices and discover their views. Six wines per session; Costs shared between participants; max £10 per person per session.

First get-together
“Jane’s Supermarket Wines”
Thursday 14th October 2010
Grange Road, Tongham
8 pm start

RSVP by 7th October on 07717 876743 or email tonghamtaster@gmail.com

Tongham Tasters FAQs

What is Tongham Tasters?

An informal, fun way to discover wine, locally
Meet once a month, on the 2nd Thursday of each month – 8.00pm start.
Each monthly get-together costs a maximum of £10 per person.
All monthly get-togethers held in the Tongham area.
Everyone takes it in turn to buy the wines.
Get-togethers restricted to a maximum of 14 people (over 18s only).

When Are Our Next Get-Togethers?

14th October 2010 – Launch get-together: "Jane's 6 Supermarket Wines"
11th November 2010 – tba
9th December 2010 – tba
13th January 2011 – tba
10th February 2011 – tba

What Happens At Our Monthly Get-Togethers?

Short informal introduction to the evening by the person who purchased the wines
Blind tasting of the wines
Discussion about the wines
Chat and Simple food (French Bread, Cheese, Crudités and Cold Meats)
Fix future get-togethers, hosts, themes, person who purchases etc.
A different person each month purchases the wine
Get-togethers held in Grange Road, Tongham, Surrey UK; others are welcome to host an evening locally

What Do You Want From Me?

Try to come to as many get-togethers as possible.
Purchase the wines for one meeting a year and do a short introduction to that meeting and its wines (you will be reimbursed the cost of the wines).
Bring your own glasses to each event – each person should bring 6 glasses to each event so that they can properly compare and taste each wine.
Share in the cost of wine and food at each session you attend (maximum of £10 per meeting). Payment in cash on the night.
Notify host whether you will be attending next get-together at least 7 days in advance. Meetings will be rescheduled if less than 6 can attend.

What Wines?

6 different bottles of wine at each get-together.
Wines will follow a pre-agreed theme, as simple as “6 wines from Asda” or more specialised such as “6 Red Riojas”.
Cost of any bottle of wine will normally be between about £5 and £20.
Cost of all six bottles must not exceed £50.

How Can I Join In The Fun?

Contact John Etherton on 07717 876743 or email tonghamtaster@gmail.com.
Visit the website http://tonghamtaster.blogspot.com for details about future and past get-togethers.