Bigger & Better or cheap & cheerful

Bigger & Better, so the Americans always want to tell us, just generalising here, as one tends to... but was it ?

We were asked to bring along a bottle of wine from the USA, I thought that we'd be spoilt for choice but in fact the choice was quite limited and thank goodness nobody brought a bottle of Blossom Hill, I would of thrown myself on the floor and had a right paddy !

Although some of the wines we tried weren't far off the quality of BH.. I am sure when we first started the wine club wines from the USA were better or was it just because of palette was less sophisticated than it is now (we are experts & sophisticated, you know !) they all seemed to be tinged with sweetness, okay, if you like that cloying jammy type of wine, so 70s.  That makes me think of the Paul Masson wine in the 'odd' shape bottle that some shop somewhere still stocks.. am I getting carried away with my dislike of these wines ??

Give the Americans one thing, they had 'fun' names or you could argue 'strange' names for wines, Cupcake, Barefoot, Dancing Bull & Flipflop.. really !

Karen & Terry our hosts for the evening treated ten of us to tasty American themed food, chicken burgers and chips followed by a delicious choice of desserts including baked cheesecake and key lime pie & the low fat option meringue fruit and greek yoghurt. (Americans & low fat, I don't think so)  Yummy, more than can be said for the wine...sorry don't mean to be so negative.

So wine tasting then, we started with white, well,as I mentioned before we are sophisticated
and experienced...now chuckling to myself, is that a sign of madness ?

...If so it must be brought on by dodgy wine, ha ha laughing to myself again... sorry sorry digressing back to the task in hand)

Cupcake Vineyard - Chardonnay 2011 13.5%  from M & S £9.99

From the California region, Central Coast sub-region. Cupcake Chardonnay was crafted to emphasize the Central Coast's creamy and structured Chardonnay character.

The write up:  It starts off with a touch of apple, a hint of tropical fruits and is complimented by a balance of vanilla and spice. A creamy nose of tropical fruits, especially pineapple, toasted oak, cinnamon and spice are on display early and often in this classic California buttery fruit-forward Chard. Finishes dry and mouth-watering, with a hint of tangerine and lemon.

We thought: Pale, creamy, velvety & floral this came in at second place with 33 points.

Then onto the reds, just once again proving we are experienced in these things..

Echo Falls - Merlot 12.5% 2011 £4.99

Soft and round with hints of ripe plums, black cherries and blueberries.

Juicy and ripe with soft tannins.

We thought: Generally lacking in anything came in with 32 points

 



 

Barefoot - Merlot 13% 2010 on offer £5 (£7)

It's simple and very fruity (the back label says boysenberry, but it's probably closer to a blackberry). But it's also balanced and professionally made (so ‘they’ say) There are no off flavours or obvious flaws. Interestingly, it's both food-friendly and fruity enough to drink on its own, and wouldn't suffer in the least if it was served chilled or with an ice cube or two. Drink it with everything from hamburgers to takeout pizza.

We thought: Cream soda & vanilla flavours, aromas of blackberries & sweet cherries came in joint first with 35 points

 



Dancing Bull - Zinfandel 14% 2010 £10





 

 

No shortage of flavour here. Blackberry, black cherry and raspberry mix with spicy notes of pepper and vanilla. Originally introduced under the Rancho Zabaco label, this Zinfandel remains a firm USA favorite for its bold, award-winning style. Pair this smooth, spicy wine with braised pork ribs and burgers, or try it with pasta in a rich tomato sauce.

 

We thought: Dark berries & burnt wood. More tannin than the other wines.  This was the joint winner with Barefoot, 35 points.

 

Lastly Flipflop, was not even worth the effort but just to keep things fair and square...

 

Flipflop - Cabernet Sauvignon 12% £5.49

 

Plenty of blackberry fruit on the nose and palate, and the finish is mild with smooth, mild tannins and mild acidity.

 

There is absolutely nothing off-putting about Flipflops cabernet sauvignon . Then again, there isn’t anything here to distinguish the wine. You could say theres not a lot happening in the Flipflop cellars, this wine is so ordinary. Just imagine if all wines were like this..

 

The label was its high point. Scored a shabby 27 points.

 

 

Perhaps I have been a little unkind the our American wines, they would work as party wines, taste okay, they wouldn't make you choke on the first sip as some wines served at parties do, they are not so bad that your friends would go off in search of the good stuff they just know you have tucked away for the evening.. I mean who would do a thing like that...thats tuck them away not search them out !

 

 

A good evening had by all.

 

Time to stick a cork in it.

 

Bye S x

"Hola"

A Spanish theme this month, possibly inspired by recent holidays by hosts Mark & Linda to Spain. 

The word from the wine experts (not us) is that the Spanish wine scene  is "among the most vibrant, dynamic and creative in the world", so the ten of us we were in for a treat.

Mark had spent a week in the Basque region of Spain so we were treated to delicious Spanish food:

Starting with Pintxo ~ (Not tapas but Pintxo, the Basque people are very particular about this )

'Pintxo' is a 'Basque-ified' take on the Spanish word 'pincho', which itself comes from the verb 'pinchar', which is 'to pierce'. Pinchos are traditionally pierced with a cocktail stick, to attach it to the piece of bread that they invariably came attached to.

 

 

We started with two white wines, both quite light, ideal for summer drinking. I asked where this wine come from, some smartie pants replied Spain (!) what I was actually hoping for was where it was bought .... (Asda eventually came through the laughter).

The first grape was Macabeo, we knew nothing of this grape.. so a little detail for you:

Macabeo
(mack-ah-BAY-oh)

Synonyms: Maccebéo, Macabeu, Maccabeu, Viura

Wine Name: Macabeo, Viura, White Rioja

Background: This grape is widely grown in the Rioja region of Spain as well as the Cava producing areas south of Barcelona. It is a non aromatic, relatively neutral grape often used for blending but also used on its own in many Spanish white wines. It is low acid and goes with many savoury dishes.
 

The second was bought from Majestic, again light and perfect for summer.  Liked the label too..

Deusa Nai means 'mother goddess' & is the name given to a goddess representing the fertility of the earth in Galician folklore.  The Albarino grape is equally ingrained in the local culture, accounting for 90% of wine production in Galicia's Rias Baixas appellation.

Taste & aroma: Intensely floral bouquet, with citrus & stone fruit aromas. Flavours of apricot & lime.

The bottle recommends to have with octopus... so next time if you could rustle that up Mark, that would be good !

We were then treated to a tasty Spanish chicken dish with an abundance of rice..

 

 

 

Then onto the red wines, three Riojas

 

 

Rioja – this is Spain’s most famous red wine, made in the La Rioja region in the northeast part of the country, only about 200 mile south of France’s famous Bordeaux vineyards. Rioja wine is made from a blend of grape varieties, and they can also be white or rosé depending on how the wine is produced. Grapes used in Rioja wine include Tempranillo, Garnacha (Grenache), Tinta and Mazuelo.

 Our wine was number three, very drinkable:

Palacio del Conde Gran Reserva 2005 (Laithwaites £7.99)

Valencia DO

Smooth, complex, elegant Gran Reserva from Valencia, brimming with spicy strawberry and creamy oak.  Winemaker Maria Angeles Camara combines Monastrell with Tempranillo for dark, juicy fruit flavour. Extensive barrel ageing provides a soft edge of vanilla. This fragrant, medium bodied red is in its element with duck or lamb, strong cheese, or tapas such as jamón Serrano.

Sadly I don't have any info about the other two, apart from the fact that one came from Marks & Spencer, which is a shame as they were both very good.

The overall opinion was that we know virtually nothing about Spanish wine, that we rarely think about buying it at the supermarket or wherever we are, we don't think about ordering when we are out for a meal....maybe we should as they appear to be very drinkable and good value for money.

Maybe another Spanish wine evening for us ???

Time to stick a cork in it "Adios"

 



 

 

Old World v New World

I know in a few seconds you are going to read first of all... well, this was right until I decided to add this little bit in before it, so before first of all.. I would just like to say it was really good that it was a full house all twelve of us and that we really enjoyed the evening, we do have a great laugh together, which is really good at the end of a hard week, I won't get all slushy and gushy and say I love you all because that would be so un-English of me, next I'll be asking for a group hug !!  Sorry starting to lose the plot already, read on....

First of all I am going give you a brief outline of how each meeting  comes into being.. first the host decides what wine they would like to have at their tasting, so an email goes out to everyone a few weeks before.  We reply if attending and tip up with the chosen wine. Sounds simple enough, or so you would think ....

We were hosting this month, being a planaholic (according to some ) I emailed out nice and early that our chosen wine would be Australian (Simple), however I did slightly complicate it, brought about by surfing the net looking for info on Australian wine.  I found an article that suggested comparing Old & New World, what a good idea I thought...

So I sent another email out with roughly a weeks notice to say there would be a slight change of plan, three couples to bring a wine from the Northern Rhone region of France and the other three to bring an Australian Shiraz. Get it..Old World v New World...  What we ended up with was two Australian Shiraz & one Australian Cabernet Sauvignon, One Northern Rhone & two Southern Rhone !

Best of all Mark arrived in the evening saying he had received a 'strange' email from Jacqui in the morning, he didn't understand it, so did nothing !

Here is the email ~

I am confused!!!anyway as long as we make it sue and Geoff’s ( I am even unsure about this!!) with a bottle !!

If anyone is there help! it has been a long week!!

Jacqui

Two things 1) Only Mark looks at his emails on a Saturday so limited 'help' available and 2) All he needed to send back was " yes, Sue & Geoffs & bring a bottle of Shiraz... Oohhh and 3) If you know Jacqui, this is her life !!

Anyway, or anyways as our American friends always say...

Number One: Old world Shiraz 13%

Crozes Hermitage from Northern Rhone £9.79 from Sainsbury (6 voted it The Winner)

Big full bodied, aromas of black fruits with a rich liquorice palate, soft velvety tannins.  Really lovely, I thought worth every penny.  Geoff also liked it and he doesn't generally like red wine..

Number Two: New world Shiraz 13.5%

Blaxland Estate 2012 from South Eastern Australia  (General verdict - Ok but not great)

Smooth medium bodied, ruby red with dark fruit aromas and ripe tannins.

Number Three: Old world we think from Southern Rhone villages 13.5%
(This was in that special cupboard)

Saint Ronain Cote du Rhone (Villages) 2011

A slightly sweeter tasting red and in typical french fashion, nothing on the label to give any information, so this was really Old World style !

Number Four: New World Australian Cabernet Sauvignon 14% (The excuse, didn't read the follow up email, if you know Karen & Mick, no surprise)

Hardys

Rich, dark berries with hints of vanilla and oak.

Number Five: New world Southern Australia

McGuigan Classic Shiraz

Rich, spicy and bramble fruit, plums and raspberries, none of us got the raspberries.

Number Six: Old world we think Southern Rhone villages (The excuse here was, too busy watching the rugby so mad panic and rummage among wine rack to find a Cote du Rhone, so close but not quite.  I can see how those rugby players would be distracting so slightly let you off)

Verdict, a close second to the first one
 
La Cote Sauvage Cairanne 2007 Cote du Rhone Villages 14%
 
A silky fruity red, almost 'sauvage' at first (or so the bottle says) this develops into complex sensation of ripe fruit, tinged with mocha and black cherries.  This might be Old World but the detail on the label is new world, so some of the french producers are finally realising that the consumer needs info ...

So the big question which did we prefer the Old world Rhone or the New world Shiraz, half preferred the Old World the other half were undecided... general comments throughout the evening when you could hear above the noise.. were.. that we have come full circle and the old world wines give so much more in complex flavours than the big bold over the top Australian ones.

The food was a selection of antipasto, nice and easy put it all on the table and help yourselves.. the posh napkin folding was appreciated.. my secret Santa gift was a book on napkin folding, so gave it a go and did a lets all have a go demo late in the evening.  Another of my secret Santa gifts later made an appearance too.. a bright red onesie (is that how its spelt ??)

 

 

 

Small contingent

A small contingent from the wine club ventured along to a rotary wine tasting 'do' to help raise money to eradicate polio. Rotary have been working towards this aim for the last 25 years and there are now just four (I think) countries left where this is still a big problem; Afghanistan , Nigeria and ???

There were 4 whites and 4 reds presented by Dr Shane , their resident south African wine buff.

The whites were a bit disappointing but two of the reds were outstanding (well I would say that wouldn't I)

Our winner was , by a clear head the 2012 concours Mondal medal winner '
Bush vine' Pinotage from the Bernard series. It also won the international decanter world wine award and was best in show 2012.
Available from majestic wines at. £14

I bought a bottle to share with friends later who were unable to join us.

A great night, good food and worth going I think ... We even won two bottles in the raffle.

Mark

Thank you Mark, I tried the red it was very dark and tasted of liquorice, was good, two glasses and you would have a headache I think !

Some pictures from the evening:

I just knew Mr Michael 'Malbec' was a blip...

Eight of us tipped up for the wine tasting at The Stones, they were expecting six but we'll get to that later.

The brief was bring red & wrap it !  I knew all these years of wine tasting would turn us into wine buffs..just like I knew Mr Michael 'Malbec' with all the research he did in October was a blip, red & wrap it, is just what we'd expect, that said, we actually had a fairly good selection of half decent wines, with the hosts providing the most expensive however, it was proved that the more you spend doesn't always make for the best wine.

We started the evening in a slight state of chaos, two of the guest (you know who you are) hadn't let the hosts know they were coming until that morning (slapped wrists for you both) & then it was an answer phone message that didn't get picked up.   So I arrived and mentioned that they had emailed to say coming, needless to say, the messenger got it in the ear, whats that saying 'don't shoot the messager' .. well I have a few bullet holes in me.  So please please let the hosts know you will be coming as soon as possible & earlier in the week, or you may find yourself sitting watching everyone else eating, the food cannot always be stretched !

So after the table & chairs were re-juggled, plates & cutlery added & more glasses found and the hostess calmed down, we began the wine tasting.  There was a bit of a flash back to the Lawrence Page evening where he said we could only eat dry crackers whilst tasting the wine... someone had handed round the crackers & nothing else.. maybe those late people should have only had crackers... (sorry must stop going on about it)..

We started with a 2011 McGuigan Shiraz Viognier from Australia it was generally thought to be a bit insipid, most unusual for an Australian wine, turned out it was 12% too, which may explain it, maybe it was Bulgarian in disguise!

Number two by contrast (mine) was delicious and came out tops for the evening, An Italian from Laithwaites £7.99 Pillastro Primitivo 2010

The bottle said, well the bottle didn't actually say, as bottles cannot speak, sometimes you might think they do, when they keep encouraging you to have another glass, Jacqui hears them often (or so Terry said !) ...

Puglia, in Italy's deep south, is best known for big, smoky, exuberant wines made from its prized local varieties - Primitivo and Negroamaro in particular. This example is from Angelo Maci, a leading figure in the quality revolution that has occurred over the last two decades. Angelo made this wine purely from Primitivo - more commonly known as Zinfandel in the States. In southern Italy it produces fantastically rich, powerful reds with plenty of ripe fruit. A period of oak ageing has infused the wine's generous fruit flavours with notes of spice and vanilla. This weighty red has aromas of ripe raspberry and spiced plum with notes of cedar wood. Enjoy with game stews, cassoulet, pasta with a rich tomato sauce or a hearty lasagne.

The third, the most expensive at £11.99 was a Shiraz from Chile, real headache, blue tongue & teeth material.. sort of a herbally aroma and it tasted like the smell of germolene. It was full on and heavy, a bit too much for most of us, not all of us, some could handle it (ask Jacqui !)

Number Four a Cote du Rhone 2011, cheap apparently & tasted it, no more to be said about this offering.

Lastly, if you are on the ball, you may be thinking that was a bottle too many, Steve & I came without our other halves, so we could have shared but that would have taken planning, it was enough just to arrange to walk together (thank you Mick for offering to pick me up)... So.. anyway number five a very old Rioja 2005.. toasty vanilla flavours, long smooth finish.  Mick said "its alright if your Spanish, I suppose" well made me smile..

I usually stick to white wines so what was noticeable was how quickly your head feels swimmy drinking reds, particularly with those from Chile.

All round a good loud fun evening with tasty homemade cake to finish off with.

Some might think I am picking on Jacqui, not really, its just she didn't say the 'N' word once but had super quick reflexes at spotting and dobbing in those that did. 

So on the 'N' fines...

Me         £1.20    surely not

Mick           90p   kept saying he didn't want to be included, out voted though..

Karen S £1.20    Mick told her not to say anything (impossible)

Terry          80p   should know better

Jacqui        zip    she was too busy drinking.. :)

Nick            80p  Just for the hell of it I think

Steve          40p  Shocking

 

Our hosts..then...

 

Our hosts ..now..

 

 

 

 

NICE as in yummy not South of France..

We started the year with the a banning... harsh but necessary.. the word NICE has been completly banned from being used for any reason from the moment you arrive at the wine club until the moment you leave, it doesn't just apply to describing the wine, you just can't use it.

Well you can BUT there is a price to pay, for each time its uttered its a 20p fine, you might think this is cheap, but lets look at the stats, about an hour after arrival the 'N' word had been constantly used for one reason or another, finally we just couldn't bear it any longer. From that moment on we started counting..36 times it was then used knowing there was a 20p fine, we just couldn't help it, it was crazy it just popped out all the time.... so we'd all be broke if the fine was higher and we would have no money to buy wine and we couldn't have that could we !

 The 'Nice' Pot

Linda thought it would be good idea to donate the money to charity at the end of the year, as she was the biggest 'N' word culprit of the evening maybe we'll run with her suggestion.
(Terry & I thought a good bottle of wine..opps nearly used the 'N' word !!)
 
Ten of us attended another riotous evening with with delicious antipasto together with some different wines.

We were asked to bring any of the following:

Pinot Grigio its characteristics are straw yellow with pinky tinges, aromas fresh and fruity with pear overtones.  We brought the only Pinot Grigio sadly it was cheap but only vaguely cheerful, as with many Pinot Grigio wines I always feel they are lacking, this one from Tesco was no exception.

Gavi its characteristics are a delicate pale straw colour with highlights of green. Fragrant and fresh with floral, green fruit and minerally overtones. With a lingering length. Gavi was a new experience for us, we had two to try and it was generally agreed they were rather good, even Mark (Mr Bordeaux) had to agree.. he was particullary taken about asking his wife Linda if she enjoyed the lingering length (!) yes, Mark was being cheeky in fact this started him off, he was 'frisky' the whole evening, it was either brought on by his 16 mile walk in the cold earlier in the day or there must have been something in the water or his water.

Then we tried another new wine, Nero d'Avola, never heard of it. We had two to try and one of them came out tops for the evening.  Its a wine with light red colour with pink and purple hues, it has intense fruity bouquet with notes of strawberries, cherries, dried figs and raisins. Rich textured with layers of damson, plum and liquorice spice flavours, elegant but powerful, full rounded on the mouth.

Thanks to the hostess for all the detailed tasting notes for each variety.  Nick did try eating the 'tasting notes' as you know he will eat anything and everything, he said he has had tastier paper...

A good start to the year, plenty of laughs which is why its always great to get together.

There was talk of attending a 'real' wine tasting evening in March, so that should be interesting and apparently we are allowed to ask two questions each.. I think our table may be trouble !!

Time to stick a cork in it.

Bye S x

PS Linda said yes it was a lingering length (what can I say)


THE 'NICE' POT  ~

January Fines

Geoff 60p
Mark 80p
Nick £1 (paid)
Jacqui 60p (paid)
Terry 20p ~ Entrapment apparently !
Karen 80p
Linda £1.80 (£1.20 paid then carried on using the N word !)
Sue £1
Helen 60p (paid)
Steve zip

Round Robin

Round Robin (aka “boast in the post”) for WC 2012

  

Who cares about Tarquin’s progress at prep school – this is far more important – the WC “Round Robin” for 2012!

 

It has been rather a busy year for the Wine Club, so busy that some WCs were cancelled this year and some were missed due to family weddings and milestone birthdays.  Despite this, the usual fun and enjoyment was held!

 

January – Italian wines were the order of the day.

 

February – we had snow this month and the theme for this month was based on romantic St. Valentine’s .  We had hearts to wear on our sleeves to describe wines, e.g. “I am fruity and full of gas”, “Fairy tales, Sleeping Beauty and a long river” and “I still have my cherry (tones).”

 

March – We tried Merlot (pronounced “Marelow”) – some were actually very nice!

 

April - was English wine to celebrate St. George’s Day.

 

May was an “anything goes” theme – this applied to the wine, not the wine members acting strangely!  There was also a Chelsea FC theme to this one – they were playing some   important football game.  Some members contacted family members during the evening to find out the score – but we did not tell our hosts – despite the old saying that drink makes you talk!

 

June was a collection of wines from Commonwealth countries (themed around the Queen’s diamond jubilee).  I wish I could say the wine from India was lovely but that would be a lie.  We all know who is responsible for providing this, so no names will be mentioned.  Lots and lots of laughter occurred at this one for some reason.

 

July and August were missed – too busy watching the fabulous Olympic Games.

 

September – Chilean wines were drunk at this one but some members were missing due to a 50^th birthday celebration.  However, before this, some members attended a wine tasting event organised by Laithwaites at the Margate Winter Gardens with a total of 32 wines to try.  Needless to say, we did not quite manage to drink them all, but went back for seconds for one or two!

 

October – Wines from Argentina were the source for this one.  A quote from the blog: “Mick had done quite a bit of Google research and astounded us all with his knowledge of Argentina wine” – what a surprise!

 

November – Another family wedding prevented some members from attending which meant some of us missed out on the fashion show provided by Mark (refer to the blog for further info).  A lack of scoring sheets and pens were noted!

 

December – at the time of writing this has not yet been held but includes a best wrapped bottle competition, a quiz, swapping of the Secret Santa presents and a raffle.  All invited to bring their favourite wine.

 

Notes for 2013 – use a thesaurus - not all wine can be “nice” – some can be: agreeable, amiable, attractive, charming, commendable, delightful, likeable, pleasant, refined to name a few.  Actually, these are good descriptors for the WC members!