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