Ten of us gathered yesterday evening at Terry and Karens for this months wine club, originally we were going to sample English wine but how difficult are they to buy.. There are local vineyards but just no time to pop in sample and buy, so the USA was the second choice.
It was another lively evening, many topics discussed (none that can be mentioned) and bad jokes told and that was before we started drinking!
One couple had found a white English wine so they brought it along, so we'll start with that..Purchased at Waitrose £7.99 Chapel Down the aroma didn't wow you but it tasted very nice. 'nice' is a very technical wine term I have learnt over the many years of wine tasting, Jilly whats it, Oz Clarke I'm not... No idea which grape variety nothing on the bottle only that it was a blend from two or three vineyards.. It tasted along the lines of sauvignon blanc. It got the thumbs up from all of us.
Then onto the USA and their reds.. Is America bigger and better at everything including wine..or is that just what they'd like us to think ?
We tasted two Cabernet Sauvignons, a shiraz & a Merlot. I'm not a merlot fan, I always think it smells like wellie boots and never tastes much better and I'm not just saying that because my wine a Robert Mondavi Shiraz got the thumbs down, well what chance it it have against the jammy fruity cabs.. In its defence it would be great with roast beef, meatballs etc it just wasn't a sit there and glug wine. Anyway enough about that..
The clear winner was a Robert Mondavi Cab Sauv 2008 from Tesco - Rich, velvety, dark berries, slight oak and hint of spice which comes from the small percentage of shiraz that it had been blended with, this would make a great wine for Christmas.
Robert Mondavi they say helped put the USA on the wine map, he understood that sharing good wine and good food with friends and family was one of lifes great pleasures, can't disagree with him there.
So are these wines the biggest and the best. They are good and very drinkable but I think they are almost too much maybe lacking some of the complexities of french wine..
The food was superb as always with yummy desserts, that were topped off with a German dessert wine. Schwaad 2002 Riesling - delicious peachy, citrus and hints of orange marmalade, not at all sweet and cloying as some can be. We loved this wine.
Another great wine club get together, next month is the Christmas meeting so a few extras thrown in including Secret Santa, I'll tell you next week a funny story about last years secret santa...
Time to stick a cork in it.
Bye S.
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