Sue and Geoff are
in Spain, walking the walk, as part of the Camino De Compostella de Santiago. So
I have stepped into Sue’s shoes to write the blog this month. Mark is also away
in Scotland visiting his Dad. Nick’s replacement for the night was Una, a
lovely friend of Jackie’s from way back to her university days.
So the numbers
were down from the normal rowdy crowd. Stephen and Helen hosted the evening,
even though they have recently moved into their new house. The food was very
tasty starting with smoked salmon, followed by a delicious chicken curry, then
South African apples stuffed with prunes and dates (yummy). Enough of my waffle,
and onto the reason for this blog, the wine, which was South African. There are
quite a few choices from Chenin Blanc, pinotage, cabernet sauvignon, sauvignon
blanc and pinot noir, to name but a few.
We started with a white Sauvignon Blanc 2013
12%. A few of us struggled to know if it
was sauvignon or chenin blanc. Easy drinking at £4.00 from Tesco. (Normally
£9.99)
Then it was onto
our second white, which was in fact a Chenin Blanc. Very smooth and tasted a
bit of honey with good flavour and depth.
This was from Sainsbury’s and cost £7.25.
This was followed
by the first red of the evening, a very tasty Shiraz 2012 from Waitrose at
14.5% it was extremely drinkable. This cost £9.99.
I bought along my
favourite Kumala Pinotage Shiraz red 14%, which the group agreed was easy
drinking and tasty too. This wine was from Tesco and cost £7.99.
Even though the
numbers were down we had some really interesting conversations from Panther
spotting in Jacki and Nick’s paddock to spotting penguins whilst sitting at a
computer screen. We also reminisced about some game shows from the 70’s.
Enough of this
waffle, back to the important stuff, the wine.
The majority of us agreed that the two reds were the winners, but as
Karen pointed out, hers was an excellent purchase, as some of the proceeds were
invested back into helping the local South African people produce the wine.
I’m sure you will
be glad to get back to Sue’s exciting blogging next month. Meanwhile I`m putting a cork in it.
Linda
