BUBBLY BARGAINS

Jane revealing one of our blind tasted bubblies

Now that most of our monthly wine tasting evenings have a theme, we decided that it would brighten up the dreary month of February by having Sheila organise an evening of sparkling wines.  What a good choice we made!  Being a natural bargain hunter she organised her shopping to coincide with the Christmas and Valentines Day 25% off and other special offers.  Thus for just £85 she was able to serve us 4 interesting (not supermarket bargain basement) champagnes and two other interesting sparkling wines.  I added an extra bottle of something a little different and voila with some nice nibbles and food bites that Sheila had prepared we were set for a great Friday evening for ten of us in Sheila’s cosy conservatory.  I particularly enjoyed the excellent Parmesan biscuits that Sheila had baked and the cheeses including a Shropshire Blue, a Lake District Cheddar and an Austrian smoked. Jane has a recipe for similar parmesan biscuits on her blog - very tasty!

So which bubbly bargains, that Sheila selected, can we recommend for you?  They are presented below in descending order of preference with scores out of 20 in the order of John E, Clive, Chris, Jill, Kathryn, Sarah, John S, Sheila, Jane and Andy.  All were blind tasted.

1. Waitrose Blanc de Noirs Champagne Brut NV, French Sparkling White 12%, Sheila paid £20.99, the normal price at Waitrose.

Supermarket Blanc de Noirs Champagnes are always the ones to go for as they represent great value and have a fuller flavour that many of us appreciate.  This was a real cracker and five of us voted it the best wine of he evening and nobody had it in their bottom three.  Very, very nice with a beautifully powerful taste.  Scores were 16, 17+,14.5, 15.5, 14, 18.5, 12.5, 14.5,11 and 11.  If you can afford bubbly around 20 then go for this one.  This wine is made by the excellent Alexandre Bonnet in Les Riceys.  Click here to read about les Riceys.

2. Lanson Rose Label Champagne Rosé Brut NV, French Sparkling Rosé 12.5%, Sheila paid £23.75 rather than the normal £35.99.  Available widely.

A ladies’ wine with its pretty pink label, it did not disappoint in the taste department.  It has a really beautiful salmon colour with some almond complexity on the palate and a good astringency to make it a food wine.  A few didn’t appreciate the aftertaste and although five had it in their top three wines, another five had it in their bottom three.  Scores were 15.25, 16, 9, 12, 6, 15, 10, 15, 18 and 10.  A pleasant rosé if you can get it on special offer.

3. Philippe Michel Crémant Du Jura Chardonnay 2010, French Sparkling White 12%, Sheila paid £6.99 in Aldi.

What a cracking bargain this Crémant from Aldi was!   Four of our team rated it in their top two wines of the evening.  I thought it tasted good and slightly different from the Champagnes even though it was made of Chardonnay one of the three main Champagne grapes.  It was not complex and had a pleasant if slightly rough edge to it.  However, at this price in the UK it was totally amazing.

Scores were 12.25, 17, 13.5, 14, 13, 14, 11, 11, 13 and 11.5.  I expect this has totally sold out as the press quite rightly recommend it.

4. Tesco Finest Premier Cru Champagne Brut NV, French Sparkling White 12.5%, Sheila paid just £11.25 rather than the normal £19.99 in Tesco.

This was the first wine we tasted and I said at the time that it was a great way to start and if the wines improve as the evening goes on then we are in for a great tasting – prophetic words as three of the next wines were better!  This is very pleasant Champagne made by the Union cooperative from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes from Premier Cru villages in the Champagne region.  It won an IWSC gold in 2012 but we thought it very pleasant but not that special.  Scores were 14, 15, 12.5, 11, 15, 10, 12, 14.5, 10 and 11.5.  Amazing value when on special offer.

5. Tsarine Cuveé Premium Champagne Brut, French Sparkling White, Sheila paid just £14.99 rather than the normal £25.99.  Available widely.

This wine is worth buying just for its interesting bottle shape.  A classic branded champagne, which tastes great but not that special compared to some others we tasted.  Our team rated it everything from No.1 to No.6 so it just shows how tastes vary.  Certainly a great bargain at the price Sheila paid.  Scores were 12.5, 15, 13, 14.5, 7, 18, 13, 10, 10 and 10.  This is very reliable brand in a very pretty bottle.

6. Carod Freres Clairette de Die, Methode Diose Ancestrale, Cuveé Symbiose Tradition, French medium sweet Sparkling White.  I paid €7.48 in Auchan Boulogne.

This was the joker I added at the end f the evening to go with Sheila’s chocolaty dessert.  It worked surprisingly well with the chocolate but this proved to be a wine that our team either loved or hated – three of our tea had it in their top three but another three had in in last place.  Well worthy of consideration if you like slightly sweet sparkling wines.  This one was very fruity and reminded us of pineapples.  It was not too sweet for most palates.  Scores were 13.5, 16, 12, 15, 14.5, 9, 8, 11, 18 and 11.  This is an interesting dessert wine or an aperitif for those with sweeter palates.

7. Tesco Finest Prosecco DOC Brut by Bisol, Italian Sparkling White.  Sheila paid just £6.37 rather than the normal £8.49 in Tesco.

This wine was very distinctively Prosecco with its pear like taste.  Dry but a nice full flavour if a little innocuous.  If you like Prosecco this is a good one to go for.  Scores were 9.5, 12, 9.5, 9, 9, 13, 11.5, 13, 10 and 9.5.  It would appear that our panel don’t really like Prosecco!

Thus Sheila has bucked the trend where people are buying less Champagne and more Prosecco because they are seeking value under £10.  Our tasting suggests you might be better off looking for the special offers and Crémants.  Even though we tasted a silver medal and highly rated Prosecco it finished bottom of our pile.  Perhaps that shows how good all of the wines we tasted were!  A big round of applause for Sheila for a fantastic evening.  I don’t think anyone could have presented us such an interesting selection at that price.

Sheila gave us a nice spread of food

Our host - Sheila

Next month we are going to Farnborough in Hampshire for an evening of red wine – three wines chosen by wine experts up against three wines chosen by our very own John Spreadborough; who will come out on top?    This should be another great evening at which you are welcome to join us for great wine, good food and sparkling conversation.   As usual it will be £10 on the door to share the cost and will start at 8pm on Friday March 8^th.   Details about how to join in the fun are to be found by clicking on wine circle above.

As usual, thanks to Clive for most of the photos accompanying this blog.  Especial thanks to Sheila for putting on a great evening.

Counting the bubbles

How many glasses have I had?

How much did that cost?

Clive at work on the photos

Tongham's Italian Wine and Food Evening

Last night we had another successful wine tasting evening in Tongham Village Hall. Again we raised over £400 for the upkeep of the hall and had a fun evening of Italian wine and food tasting. Judging by their comments our three dozen attendees had a great time. Whether you attended or not you might be interested in what we tried:

1. SPARKLING WINES
Prosecco is the well known sparkling wine grown produced in the area around Venice in North East Italy. About half the price of Champagne it offers great value and a different style – softer, more fragrant. It makes a great aperitif or can accompany fish or seafood. We are serving one at just under £10 a bottle with some Parmesan Sables (biscuits) – Prosecco Spumante Collalbrigo Brut. 11% (FromVineyeardsDirect.com). Prosecco indicates the grape variety and you can find still versions. Spumante indicates that it is sparkling. Asti, which used to be called Asti Spumant, is made with Muscatel grapes and comes from North West Italy. It tends to be sweeter and can be great with rich deserts or for those who prefer a sweeter aperitif. John’s notes on the Prosecco we tried: A really superb dry Prosecco which is much more champagne like than most. I highly recommended that you try this good value sparkler.

2. WHITE WINES
With Pinot Grigio, Italy has found another internationally popular wine and it is now one of the most popular white wines in the UK. It is a very different style to the Alsace Pinot Gris which is made with the same grape – the Italian version is dryer. Most Pinot Grigio, however, is rather bland and flabby and thus it is worth looking out for other Italian white wines. In the last few years, Gavi has become popular again having also gained a following in the 1980s and this is made around the town of Gavi in North Eastern Italy from the Cortese Grape. We are serving a lovely £8 one from Tesco’s Finest range – Gavi Fratelli Martini Socondo Luigi SpA DOCG 2010 12.5%. Other Italian white wines to look out for include Soave and Vermentino. You will be enjoying our white wine with a Baccala Mantecato – a creamy dish of cod served with Italian bread. John’s notes on the Gavi we tried: This was my favourite of the many Italian white wines we tried during our research but it had a mixed reaction on the evening.

3. PRIMITIVO RED WINE

Primitivo is a grape variety grown in Puglia in South Eastern Italy and is an identical grape to the popular Californian Zinfandel grape. It has a high alcohol content and tends to have a ripe fruitiness. Normally best drunk young, we are breaking the rules tonight and serving you a delicious one from 2004 - Casa Catelli Primitivo Puglia IGT 14%. John’s notes on the Primitivo we tried: Showing sign’s of age but lovely and smooth with some power but relatively little complexity. It went down well with most of our guests.

4. NEBBIOLO RED WINE
Nebbiolo is the grape variety used in making the great red wines of North West Italy – Barolo and Barbaresco. Although, these are great wines this varietal is used virtually nowhere else in the World. The wines tend to be tannic but a softer style that is easier to drink young has become popular in recent years. We are serving you a £10 Corsini Barbaresco DOCG 2007 14% from Waitrose, with a selection of meat antipasti. John’s notes on the Barbaresco we tried: For an under £10 Barbaresco this was very pleasant and accompanied the meat anti-pasti very well.

5. SANGIOVESE RED WINE
Sangiovese, a grape variety from Tuscany, produces much of the other high quality Italian reds – notably Brunello Chianti Classico and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. Styles and quality vary tremendously. We are serving a rather unusual wine which is non-vintage wine produced from two years of over-production (2005 & 2008) by a good Brunello producer – Rosso del Palazzone vino de tavola Montalcino 13.5%. This should match well with our main dish of the evening, a Tuscan beef stew and give you a very good idea what an expensive Sangiovese wine would taste like but at under £12. John’s notes on the Sangiovese we tried: this was the star of the evening, the sort of wine that brightens up your whole day, a very nice example of what some might call a “Baby Brunello”. It accompanied Jane’s excellent Tuscan beef and bean stew superbly. Great value, buy some before it runs out.

6. SUPER TUSCAN RED WINE
The title “super” means that the wine is made with international grape varieties rather than just the traditional Italian grape varieties or at least breaks the blending rules. The wine we are serving comes from near Bolsgheri where the famous Super Tuscans of Sassicaia and Ornellaia come from. It is a Casa Catelli Toscana IGT 2008 13.5% FromVineyardsDirect.com. This lovely complex wine should match well with our lovely Italian cheese course. It contains Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Sangiovese grapes, was aged for 14 months in French oak and costs about £10. John’s notes on the Super Tuscan we tried: Very nice £10 wine that gives you a big hit of blackcurrant, and went well with the cheese (Parmesan, Pecorino and Tallegio).

7. SWEET WINES
We must not ignore the sweet wines of Italy which include Vino Santo from Tuscany, Recioto della Valpolicella from North East Italy and Marsala from Sicily. Tonight our final wine will be a £7.50 Pellegrino Marsala Superiore DOC Garibaldi Dolce 18% from Tescos. Marsala has rather fallen out of fashion and now seems to be used more in cooking than for drinking. This is rather a shame as Marsala makes a great desert wine. Ours is made in the west part of Sicily from Catarrato, Grillo and Inzolia grapes and matured in wooded casks for at least two years. We are serving with the classic Italian dessert – Tiramisu. John’s notes on the Marsala we tried: Surprise hit of the evening, went well with the desert and many appreciated it as it wasn’t too sweet or cloying.

Thanks to everyone for their generosity with the raffle prizes and kind comments. Special thanks to Bob Monk for his help during the evening and loan of the fridges. Our lovely Parmesan and sundried tomato bread came from the excellent Tongham Bakery.

If you enjoyed trying these wines tonight, why not join Tongham’s wine tasting group “Tongham Tasters” that meets monthly (normally on the second Thursday or Friday of the month) to blind taste six wines. Next events are on Thursday 14th July and Friday 12th August. Contact John Etherton on 07717 876743 or email tonghamtaster@gmail.com if you want to join in the fun. Cost is shared by those attending and includes food and wine and is a maximum of £10 a head. Find out more at tonghamtaster.blogspot.com and click on wine circle.

Seven quick wine facts about Italian wines:
1. There are more grape varieties in Italy than anywhere else in the World (over 2,000)
2. Most Italian wines need food if you are going to appreciate them.
3. DOC is the Italian equivalent of the French AOC.
4. DOCG is meant to be slightly superior.
5. Classico often indicates the best area within a DOC or DOCG.
6. IGT is the equivalent of a French Vins de Pays and can be very good wine.
7. Vino de Tavola is ordinary table wine or a good wine breaking the normal rules.

Report on our January Tongham Taster’s Get-Together

Italian themed food by Steve

Our first event of the New Year was hosted by Steve and Hazel and had an Italian theme both in terms of the wine and food. Steve had home-baked some authentic Ciabatta bread and also some pizza dough for lovely mini pizzas. Along with some olive oil, fresh tomato dips and the usual crudités this provided the food for our fun evening of wine tasting. We had four wines from Northern Italy where Steve had travelled extensively in his salesman days and two from Sicily. As usual we tasted all of the wines blind but prior to each one Steve regaled us with a story about how he had been introduced to each one.

As usual we conducted our extensive testing of each wine by looking at it, sniffing it and tasting it for taste, body, balance, length and general quaffability. For the evening there were nine of us and eight submitted their detailed score which are quoted below for each wine in the order John E, Jane, Ian, John S, Sheila, Steve S, Clive, Steve W. So how did Steve’s wine choice fare under this intense scrutiny and which ones fared the best?

1. Valdo Prosecco Extra Dry Marco Oro – Sainsbury – £7.99
Six of our nine tasters voted this their best wine of the evening. Jane thought it represented bubbly kisses in a bottle. Clive could detect Bramley apples, Ian thought it had good body and length whilst John S found a hint of liquorice. It had quite a strong initial fizz but with small bubbles. This was the second month in a row that the team had liked one of Sainsbury’s Prosecco range. Scores on the doors out of 20 were 14, 18, 14.5, 15, 16, 15, 17, 12.

2. Canti Merlot 2009, Sicilia – Tesco - £6.29
Three of our tasters voted this their best wine of the evening and another five the runner-up. The grape variety confused us for a while until John came up with Merlot. Jane thought it had an aroma of Chocolate and Cherries whilst Ian got childhood memories of Hero Black Cherry jam. Steve S thought this a very good wine but for Steve W who had bought the wine it was the opposite of what he had been expecting.. It certainly was a dry red. Scores were 15.5, 17, 14, 16, 14, 14.5, 17, 14.

3. Pinot Grigio Forte Alte 2010 Dolomiti – Waitrose – £5.32
With the top two wines being the clear favourites, the Pinot Grigio came next as four voted it their bronze medal winner. It had a lovely peachy and floral aroma but some of the team thought it lacked a little acidity. Scores were 11-, 13, 13.5, 14, 9, 10, 15, 12. Probably a safe choice for Pinot Grigio lovers.

4. La Gioiosa Pinot Grigio Blush Veneto 2009 – Tesco – £6.99
This wine got one person’s silver medal and two person’s bronze medals but it got a very mixed reaction overall. For Hazel it was a warm your body BBQ wine and Clive thought it very quaffable. The team was split on whether the fruit aromas were syrupy strawberry or galia melon. Scores for this wine were 11.5-, 7, 7.5, 15, 11, 9, 14, 12. So it seems this is wine which  people react to very differently.

5. Tesco’s Finest Gavi - £7.99
Made with Cortese grapes Gavi is the in white wine at the moment and two of the team had as their third best wine of the evening and another 5 their fourth best wine. This was a great looking and very clear wine which proved itself a good wine to pair with food. After much debate we decided that the principle taste was elderflower with a marmalade bouquet. John E said he liked the extra acidity compared to the Pinot Grigio white. Wine scoring went 11.5+, 12, 11, 10, 9, 10, 11, 9. An unexceptional but safe wine.

6. Inycon Nero D’Avola Frappato 2009 Sicilia – Waitrose – 6.49
Although the Sicilian Merlot did very well, the Sicilian wine made with the local Nero D’Avola grapes did less well. Although one person had it as their bronze medal winner, a resounding five had it as their least favourite wine of the evening. The reason for this was that, although it has a great start when you put it in your mouth, it disappeared to nothing almost immediately and had no linger. It had quite a lot of tannin and appeared to need food. A very purple wine, the aromas were of tobacco, nutmeg, coffee and dark chocolate. Due to the poor length the scores were 7.5+, 10, 10, 9.5, 9, 10.5, 8, 9.

Thus nearly ended a really good evening that was probably one of our best Tongham Tasters yet. Some of us then started tasting the Olive Oil and Tesco’s Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Spain got a big thumbs-up – very green in colour and fruity in taste. Great for dipping bread into and very reasonably priced. Then the conversation went totally off food and wine altogether.

John S volunteered to provide the wine for our April evening and we might expect some South African wines to creep in then. However, next in the firing line is Clive who is buying for our next event on Thursday February 17th. The evening cost our 9 participants just £5.48 each, which as we all put £10 in the pot, leaves us a growing kitty for something special later in the year. If you want to have a fun wine tasting evening for a maximum of £10, do join us at one of future events:

Thursday 17th February – Clive’s wines
Thursday 10th March – Steve S’s wines
Thursday 14th April – John S’s wines

If you want to join in the fun, just email us at tonghamtaster@gmail.com. We really welcome new members. If you want more details, request them by email or ring John on 07717 876743.

Thanks to everyone for turning up in a month when, supposedly, three of us are not drinking!

Report on December Get-Together

For our December 2010 event the wines were chosen by Sheila and she took much care presenting them in the perfect flight order. Her wine choices were influenced by the time she has spent in the USA where she had first tasted Gewürztraminer and gained a love for Zinfandel. The wines were all from Sainsburys and most had been purchased when at a discount which allowed us another very reasonably priced evening of under £7 including food. Sheila’s wines consisted of a number of Sainsbury’s excellent Taste the Difference range plus some big brand names; proving once again that we are not wine snobs at Tongham Tasters. John tried to be seasonal with the food and served some turkey and chestnut soup, some Marks and Spencer’s party food and the usual raw carrot and cucumber palate cleansers. Jane also made some lovely home made oatmeal bread. The Pork Belly Squares from M&S were very good – recommended. This month we welcomed John S for the first time, who joined our usual hardcore winos for an excellent evening.


As usual we tasted everything blind so we would not be influenced by knowing what the wine was. This induced the usual fun guess the grape variety game and this time we did quite well. Scores below are quoted for each wine in the order – John E, Ian, Steve, John S, Clive, Sheila & then Jane.

1. St Hallett Barossa 2008 Gamekeeper’s Reserve Australia - £8.49 but £6.37 after discount.

Four of our tasting team had this as their top wine of the evening and two of the remaining three had it as their runner-up. It was the last wine of the evening and shone like a star for some of us after the two big brands that preceded it. This is definitely a wine worth picking up when the supermarkets are having their 25% off deals. John reckoned it was the best red we had tasted in the last 3 months and enjoyed its petrol nose (trust an Alfa Romeo driver to want a wine to smell of petrol!). This by the way is a blend of Shiraz, Grenache and Touriga – some of us guessed the first two parts of the blend but didn’t get the hints of the Portuguese grape variety. Scores on the doors were 16, 16.5,17,18,15,18,17 with not everyone giving their gold, silver and bonze medals using th same criteria.

2. Conegliano Prosecco Superiore Brut 2009 Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Italy - £9.99 but £6.99 after discount.
Sheila thought we ought to have a sparkling wine as it was approaching Christmas – and we all thought she had chosen well. Two of the team had it as their wine of the evening and a further four in their top three. It had lovely gentle small bubbles and was very dry but floral. Impressions ranged from Ian’s lemon and sherbet to Clive’s clotted cream, and Jane’s elderflower. A very nice bottle of under £10 bubbly. Scores out of 20 were 14.5, 11.5,15+,16, 13.5, 19, 14.

3. Alsace Gewürztraminer 2008 Cave de Turckheim Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference France - £6.99
This was Jane’s favourite wine of the evening and another four of us had it in their top three. It proved to be a fantastic food wine and went excellently both with the turkey and chestnut Soup and the belly pork. Ian identified this as a gewürztraminer straight away and described it as tasting of light marmalade. The two Johns thought the aroma was either of tropical fruits or of their wife’s perfume. For Clive it grew on him after a while and he nearly finished off the bottle! A good budget choice to have with your turkey at Christmas, this comes from a good Alsace cooperative. Scores were 12, 15.5, 15-, 15, 12.5, 19, 18.

4. Turning Leaf Zinfandel California 2009 USA- £7.24 but £5.43 after discount.
Four of the group had this as their bronze medal winner. For John it was too sweet but others enjoyed its spicy Christmas pudding or cherry bubblegum taste. Zinfandel is not a grape we drink a lot of in the UK so it was an interesting choice for the group to try whilst Sheila’s USA recollections prompted a whole host of alligator and crocodile stories and then we went on to hippopotami! Scores were 11.5, 14.5, 13.5, 13+, 16, 14, 20, 11.

5. Jacob’s Creek Reserve Shiraz 2007 Australia - £8.99 but £6.74 after discount.
This well known brand didn’t do very well despite being one of the evening’s more expensive wines. Although, obviously Shiraz it was rather too bland for most of us men. Interestingly it proved to be a wine that appealed more to the women. Scores were 10, 11, 13-, 15, 11, 18, 18.

6. Cotes de Provence Rosé 2009 Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference France - £6.00 but £4.50 after discount.
This was a very dry rosé but it lacked the wow factor to get into anyone’s top three. Clive thought this was another wine that smelt of bubblegum. It was the cheapest wine of the evening and if you like a dry innocuous rose it could be for you. Scores were 10, 10, 12, 14, 14, 17, 11.5.



Gradually the evening became a blur!

 Interestingly enough, we have had a rosé, a white and now a red become our wine of the evening. We have also proved that our favourite wines are not necessarily the most expensive. Nobody has yet produced six wines that were high-scoring – this is a difficult challenge to buy 6 good wines for £50 and make sure that they don’t clash and then serve them in the right order – but all of our 3 challengers in 2010 have given us an enjoyable evening. So far our female participants have been keen to show their bargain hunting expertise whilst Ian spent right up to the limit – will this be another trend as we go into 2011?

Our next monthly tasting is being hosted by Steve and Hazel on January 13th. The February tasting, where Clive will be buying the wines, has had its date moved to February 17th. Steve has agreed to choose the wines for our March 10th event. We look forward to all of these evenings and as usual you will be made most welcome if you want to join us – just email us at Tonghamtaster@gmail.com.

Thanks to everyone for bringing their own glasses. If you are thinking of coming but are put off by the idea of buying 6 wines glasses, note that ASDA are currently doing 6 reasonable wine glasses for £3 and Wilkinsons do glasses at about 22 pence each. Apparently Steve reckons the very best deal around is 20 pence but I’ve forgotten where that was.