England's oldest Wine Merchants at our July gathering !

The next wine club in July is an extra special one, we have an 'Expert' bringing wine & experience by the bucket load, well maybe not a bucket load of wine !

Lawrence Page will be guiding us through wines of his choice.  Page & Son is a family business, based in Ramsgate, established over 200 years ago in 1804.

This makes Page & Sons England's oldest family owned Wine Merchants.

Their history taken from Page & Sons website ~

The Beginning
It all began in the year before the Battle of Trafalgar whilst England was fighting the Napoleonic Wars. At that time, Ramsgate was the port from which troops and stores sailed to the Continent and the Duke of Wellington (then Sir Arthur Wellesley) stayed with his Headquarters staff in Ramsgate at the London Hotel (the site now occupied by the HSBC Bank) which was owned by Robert Page who had been joined by his younger brother Richard in 1802.

Wellington's Advice
At that time, there was a threat of invasion by Napoleon and among those caught up in the invasion scare was a grocer named Fisher who offered his shop on the corner of Harbour Street and Market Place for sale and hastily left the town. The Iron Duke, meanwhile, had taken a liking to young Richard, then just 24 and advised him to buy the empty grocer's shop - Richard took his advice and invested his life savings in the new venture in 1804, establishing a business which has been passed on from father to son for seven generations.

Years of expansion
Like all businesses, market trends have altered and each generation has adapted to the needs of the day. After a while, the firm expanded and moved into new premises at 2,4 and 6 Queen Street which boasted some quite magnificent cellars in which the firm carried out the bottling of many wines such as Vintage Ports and Sherries etc. as well as beers. When eventually, it was decided to concentrate solely on the Wine Trade, the firm moved next door to 8 Queen Street where it continued to trade until 1974.

Recent history
Today, the business is run by the sixth and seventh generation of the family - Lawrence and Jonathan Page. In the late 1960's, whilst the firm was successfully expanding its retail shops, there was a substantial growth in the wholesale trade and it soon became apparent that larger, more suitable premises would have to be found from which the firm could operate its service to the licensed trade.

In 1974, Page & Sons moved into a new, purpose built warehouse at Hopes Lane, Ramsgate (built on part of the old Ramsgate Airport). Apart from the benefits for both customers and staff of operating from a new, modern warehouse, it now meant that the firm was able to handle an increased amount of palletised goods as well as offering ample car parking space for customers wishing to call at the warehouse.

http://www.pageandsons.co.uk/

I think this is one month where we will all make the effort to take notes, Mark & Linda no pressure on producing Tasting Sheets for notes & enough pens !!!

Time to stick a cork in it.

Bye

S x

           

'Pants'

Now I know you are thinking 'Pants' what has that got to do with wine, well, not a lot really, although one of the wines didn't score that well and so maybe, could be considered 'pants'. As a serious wine club we would never use such a word to describe a wine of low caliber, when we have a whole host of other terms... Yuk, horrid, nasty, old boots, as you can see we don't quite make it into the Jilly whatever her name is world of descriptive words but then what normal person does... Sorry I am rambling back to the matter in hand and I'll tell you about the Pants later.

This months wine club hosted by The Stones, their RARE emails are finished The Stones, we still don't know their Christian names (joking).. Mark made comment that we'll all become The something or others, though the funny one was Mcokies, this is only amusing to those that know them, so don't worry if you are not rolling round on the floor laughing, I thought it had a nice ring to it. Sorry I digress again, why is that, maybe it's so early...

Anyway back to the wine,(sounding like Ronnie Corbett now, when he sat in his chair telling a rambling story) anyway as I was saying back to the wine..Australian this time, first up and the winner by nine points was McPherson The Full Fifteen, superb, full on, smooth, velvety deep, Rich and fruity at 15% a big wine that didn't disappoint, Ruby Cabernet £6.99 from Laithwaites. Luckily I know a bit about the winning wine as it was mine(ours), I have very little detail about the others notes were scarce, so if any of you have the name etc of your wine let me know....

The second, another red, was okay but didn't have the fullness of the first and had harsher tannins and quite a spicy flavour, this wine tied second with the third wine, a white, a Semillion (is that one L or two ?) nice gentle wine with a peachy taste and a very slight fizz in the mouth.

The fourth wine wasn't popular, a red, compared to the others it was thin tasting, if you know what I mean and a bit harsh, which I think is a bit unusual for an Aussie wine, normally I would put them down as easy and gluggable (technical wine term) everyday drinking wines, so this one was a bit odd, there was something odd about the taste too, sadly, this one did find the slop glass and no-one likes to see that.

The fifth wine, so those that have their finger on the pulse can work out that ten of us made the wine club yesterday, two were late, Geoff playing 36 holes of golf and followed by a meal and prize giving, In case you wondered, he didn't get one, as I said in the morning before he left..No prizes for second place! Double Date Mark was also late as he had to attend and 80th birthday party and yes he did have the wine club already in his diary, just didn't consult it when he accepted the invite to the birthday party, this is ironic after all the gip he has given Mick (one of The Stones) about not having a diary... Sorry I digress again !!

The fifth wine, the final red, last to be tasted and last in the points, or bottom (talking of that, I'll get to the pants in a min.) lots of tannin and spice a Cabernet Shiraz or as I said a Shirab, a few glasses of wine drunk by then !

The big question is does the order you taste the wines reflect their order in rankings, does the first one always make a good impression and is it unfortunate with the last one, as it follows others and food doesn't fair so well?

Mr Mcokie (!) said he had read or heard (probably Radio 4) that if you buy a wine and pay £5 for it due to all the taxes etc you are only paying 40p for the actual wine, no wonder some of those cheap ones are like drain cleaner, not that I have drunk drain cleaner....

Now to the Pants...no can't tell you, you should have been there, although if you do see Mrs Stone you can ask her why she didn't have some of her underwear on that day..got you wondering now! there was more talk of pants (than wine) and for some reason Double Date Mark offered to take photos of pants being worn and we could guess who's who... I think he was joking, although he did offer TWICE!

Sorry the wine content was short but what's new. The Stones excelled themselves a sheet of 'plain' paper for each of us and a pen for notes, I didn't take my glasses, I didn't expect them to have wine tasting sheets so the paper and pen was a surprise... We love them really..

Time to put a cork in it.

Bye S x

Grape minds think..

Hosted this month with a superb early summer BBQ , May’s gathering resulted in a bitter sweet journey through the wonders of German white wine. No -one bought a red, Karen informed us the Germans do in fact make red wine but they keep it to themselves (apparently they don t bother to  export much of it as they produce so little)

The first wine was Wolf Villa (2008)  from Broadstairs Bottle neck. This Pinot Gris (AKA Pinot Grigio in Italy) was a truly ‘Peachy’ example of excellent German wine – the delicate soft fruit flavour was well balanced and quite dry…a delightful and refreshing  little number…surprisingly even Mark poured a second glass!

The second example was again a Pinot Grigio, this time supplied by Mark and Linda. More like a Pinot ‘Gringo’, the  Kenderemannns 2009 was over sweet and mistaken by some as a desert wine (Yuk) Again Karen with her positive head on suggested it may taste better as an accompaniment for the delicious Pavlova ( The hostesses first brave attempt at this dessert) But no, even with such a tasty pud  most of it ended up in the ‘slops’ glass.

The third wine a Chardonnay grape was provided  by The hosts, the classic ‘ Black Tower’ bottle could not be disguised by any fancy wrapping, neither could the taste…it  still had that familiar ‘Black Tower’ tang – award winning or not , no one really enjoyed it.

“Grape minds think a like”  exclaimed Jacqui  as she presented the final offereing – a second bottle of Wolf Villa ...how lucky we were to double up on the best wine of the evening – well done Jacqui and Karen  - you both get top Marks this time!

With disappointment written all over his face, Nick carried on sipping his diet coke…when he finally realised that the evenings winning wine Wolf Villa is not the latest power tool…just a very tasty white wine enjoyed by all.

Well I guess its time to put a cork in it …until the next time.

What a nice change to read another view on the wine club proceedings, we couldn't make it so Mark stepped in as author.

S x

Bonjour...

Wow, what a NOISY wine club that was on Saturday, there is something about those hosted by Mark & Linda, the noise levels reach extremes, even before we start on the tasting.  Linda was told off by one of her sons in the morning for the noise, thats tables turned !

The brief was anything from France & do a little research about your wine, as you know we have trouble meeting the brief.. all five couples did manage the French part, one white & four reds.  The star of the show was Terry who knew a great deal about Chablis, we did at this point manage to stay quiet and listen, brownie points all round & a big gold star for Terry. 

With the rest of the wines, we were very clever & managed to read the back of the bottles, even those in French, well, we translated about 10 words between us!

We started with the Chablis, those that like Sancerre particularly liked this wine as it had a similar taste, though not as flinty. It was agreed not the best Chablis ever but good, the big question, was it worth nearly £15 ?
We moved onto Marks favourite, red Bordeaux, three different ones were tried all with interesting depth of flavour, deep ruby colours and intense aromas, my favourite was Chateau David £6.99 on special from sainsbury.  All improved with the 'superb' Beef Bourguignon, excellent match for these wines.  Again most felt (not all) that these complex wines leave the New World ones standing in their shadows.

We ended with a Shiraz, odd one this one, completely different from the others, even the bottle didn't look very french, tasted sweeter than the others and just not the same depth to it.  Needless to say the bottle was empty at the end...now who finished that up ???

Mark found some wine clips on YouTube, this one is so funny, Mark said it could be any of the girls from the wine club..what does he mean..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_ZLvWTTHtE

This French Tasting also prompted a possible trip to France as a group later in the year, can France cope with us ?

Planning ahead, we are to host the October wine club, so I have set down a challenge to each couple.. I gave each couple a pumpkin seed to grow, there will be two prizes in October one for the biggest & one for the heaviest pumpkin, there is to be no cheating ie going out & buying one, it was decided that photographic proof would be required from each couple throughout the growing season.  Well its a bit of fun..

Time to stick a cork in it.

Bye S.

Singles

This month six of us made the journey out into the sticks to our hosts Jacqui & Nick where a warm welcome awaited. The brief this month was any wine of choice but it had to be a single grape not a blend..simple enough you would think... Three couples managed it! So no matter how Mark tried to manipulate the voting his wine still couldn't wine..not that it did anyway...


We started with an excellent Sauvignon Blanc from Malborough New Zealand called Kono so very pale almost looked like water, strong water though at 13%, we think it was bought from John Lewis, the couple who selected this wine from their 'special cupboard' are not sure. This was the favourite wine of the evening with five votes. Think it might be a nightmare to track down, did a quick search on google & came up with nothing !




We followed this up with ours a white Grenache again very drinkable, pale gold in colour creamy white peach aroma with a citrusy edge. taste was smooth and lemony with a hint of melon. 12% Angove White Grenache from Laithwaites. Goes well with Light meals and Thai green curry, the heat brings out the fruitiness, so would be good to try that sometime. These first two wines would be excellent for summertime.


The third wine was a different tasting wine from France,  The Marsanne grape - from Northern Rhone - Jacqui said it reminded her of sauternes - it was from M& S and was 10.49 ( or thereabouts - got 10% off as 3 bottles of wine) This was the least popular wine of the evening just not our cup of tea... Talking of tea, supposed to be wine tasting, he's drinking tea..(pic to follow)


The final wine was from The Cotes du Rhone, the home of Chateauneuf du Pape, although initially it sucked all the moisture from your month until you got used to it, so even though this wine didn't count as it was a blend of Grenache, Shiraz & others... We did manage to finish it off. This wine was voted the favourite by three of the 'experts'.


Grenache is used to make a white chateauneuf and it's said "that this is the best white wine we are not drinking" so might need to track some down.


Food was Greek based (anyone guess why) yummy and followed up by Jacqui and her famous fruit platter (pic below)


Our professional photographer is slow today in sending in his photos from the evening including the one of himself. Update.. problem with iphone...modern technology! ~ ahh piccys here now, see below..


Evening went well, we generally thought it was good to try some different wines and learn a little about each of them. Expecting power point presentations next time.


No hangover today,you can tell we have matured (slightly) as the evening didn't finish too late and we didn't completely drain every bottle..as we would have done a few years ago. those were the days.


As often is the way the boys ended crashed on the sofas... looking like the Blues Brothers as they tried on the 3D glasses to watch a movie, Nick latest gadget !


Amazing no spilt wine, drawing on tablecloths, no broken chairs or tables..


Time to stick a cork in it.

Bye S.

Down Under

Wine club yesterday evening, so I sit here today feeling only ever so slighty jaded, must have been the late night, can't have been the wine... I suppose it could have been the super bottle of Champers that Geoff and I had before everyone arrived..maybe that wasn't such a good idea.

Geoff and I hosted this month, we decided to do things a little differently. I had a new case of Australian wines from Laithwaites, so I picked five bottles from the case to taste, splitting the cost between the five couples. We sampled two whites and three reds. It was generally agreed that they were all very good.

Coming in at top place overall was the McPherson Alexandra Verdelho, the general opinion was, it was very drinkable on it's own, would be a great light wine for the summer, although not so light at 13.5% so you could get wasted before you knew it... Naturally none of us would, we are all far too sensible..nice citrus aroma with a clean citrus taste and smooth finish.

In second place and top of the reds was Palmprint, you'd buy this bottle just for the label, looks great. A really deep blackish ruby colour and smooth berry taste with a hint of liquorice a great Shiraz, it's a hearty wine at 14.5% and you really need to be eating a meal to enjoy this wine. Palmprint was only one point behind the winner.

The in between wines were:

Third place a Cab Shiraz called Westend, fourth place The Optimist and fifth with a lot less points was Shane Virgo 100% Chardonnay, now don't turn your nose up at Chardonnay thinking Footballers Wives and Essex Girls (no offence meant to either) this was a very modern tasting Chardonnay none of the heavy buttery oaky tastes that you would usually associate with this wine. It was up against the Verdelho which was so good it probably didn't have much of a chance.

During the evening the final Secret Santa presents were given out(!) better late than never as they say, one was a table game, called Reveal, a little pot of sticks with questions, you are 'supposed' to go round the table in order giving your answer and listening to others... So completely impossible for the wine club!!!

Here is a question for you, how many glasses are used at a wine tasting evening for ten people?

Answer ~ Too many....

We also need a trip to the bottle bank, not many water bottles to go, strange that.

Time to stick a cork in it.

Bye S x

Chilean Wine Tasting January 2011

We knew it would be a good one and we weren't disappointed.  There is something about Chilean wines, years ago we'd have turned our noses up if we'd been offered a glass but they really have come on leaps and bounds.  Most were deep ruby in colour, berry aromas, smooth and fruity to taste and a real pleasure to drink. They are also well priced for the quality.  They work with or without food.

Hosted this month by Terry & Karen. We tasted five Chilean wines, we ALL managed to make notes, you have no idea how rare this is.  Maybe it was the nice pens we had to use, I'm not sure Karen got them all back, if not might be worth frisking Mick !  Talking of pens Mr 'Special Pockets' Mark managed to get pen on the white cloth, along with the red wine spilt by others, talking of spillage there seemed to be rather a lot this time... hope Karen had the tub of vanish handy.  Karen also managed to get red wine in her eye !

All five wines were enjoyable, coming in at second place was a Cabernet Sauvignon Carmenre blend 2010, Carmenere is fast developing into Chile's signature wine.  This wine had notes of vanilla, violets, plums. A much heavier wine than the others with distinct tanins and a berry tasts. 13% so a real hangover wine, it cost £5 on offer normally £8.99 From Tesco.

Coming in at first place was our wine, a Waitrose  recommendation.  Errazuiz Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 Anconcagua Valley. On offer at £5.69 normally £8.49 and worth every penny.

This gently oaked wine with its deep ruby colour and immediate blackcurrant aroma tinged with menthol notes.  There was a slight dusty/musty hint to this wine which most of us picked up on.  It was beautifully smooth to drink with a long finish.  Excellent to drink by itself but worked equally with food.  Its a steal at just over a fiver.

We did our wine tasting in pairs this time, I was paired with Terry, as you know we have been tasting wine for years now, and 'should' know our grapes. Heres how we got on:

Wine No. 1 Cabernet sauvignon   ~ we thought it was a Cab (Though I did buy it!)
Wine No. 2 Cabernet sauvignon Carmenere  ~  we thought it wasn't a Cab, close..
Wine No. 3                       ~ we thought it could be a Cab, but forgot to note what it was !
Wine No. 4 Melot                        ~ we thought it was a shiraz, we lost the plot a bit here
Wine No. 5 Cabernet sauvignon Carmenere  ~ we thought it was a Cab, we'd had some water between

The pattern here is we only remember Cabernet Sauvignon unless it tastes like wellie boots then its a Merlot, I think maybe we need more practice...

Mick summed up the wine tasting with real understanding of Chilean wines " Apart from the grape, they are all the same" 

It was a great evening, Jackie & Nick you missed a good one.

Time to put a cork in it.

Bye S.

Pics... Mr 'Special Pockets' Mark and his tablecloth drawing & the wine experts (not) Mick Sue & Terry