Lets begin again, hosted by Jacqui & Nick 10 of us made the long dark trip out into the sticks through the road works and diversions.. (Yes, of course it was worth it !) there we met our hosts and their two guests Kenton and Sandrine, who we found out was French so we expected great things from her !
If our notes are correct all the wines were from the Left Bank of Bordeaux, see previous Blog if you wonder why I am mentioning it... talking of the theme for the evening, a few slapped wrists for those that didn't read the detailed brief Jacqui sent out, naughty, naughty and maybe if more had, some of you would have done better in the surprise quiz on Bordeaux wines ! I am feeling smug here, as I came first with my wine tasting buddy for the evening Lemsip.
So to re-cap, we started with the white mentioned above then we hit the red, number 2 & 6 were the same wine, for once most of us managed to find them very similar in tasting & aromas. Chateau David from Sainsbury £6.49 The grapes are the traditional Bordeaux selection of Merlot, Cabernet Franc & Cabernet Sauvignon. A nice deep coloured wine, summer fruit flavours with structure & complexity...don't you just love that about French wine so often missing in those ever popular New World offerings. The bottle says, well actually the bottle doesn't say because a bottle can not talk, although some of you might have heard the odd bottle calling "drink me drink me", opps sorry side track again...
The high point of the evening apart from the handmade chocolates(we'll get to those later)was a bottle of Margaux, not an actual big bucks Margaux, we thought it must be an Aunt Margaux or something, well that was Kentons suggestion, anyway, bought from a wine merchant in Canterbury by Sandrine, your expectations are already high I can tell... Well rightly so, this was a pricey wine for our group, it came in at £23, I have to say & most will agree it was worth every penny!
So a little about the VERY nice Bordeaux, La Bastide Dauzac Margaux 2007 ~ Basics first, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot & Cabernet Franc This wine had an attractive aromas, tastes of sweet black fruit with some tannin, complexity with a smoothness an overall success.
Chateau Dauzac was once regarded as one of the 'lost chateaux' of the Medoc. Over recent years the rather unknown Dauzac has seen significant change thanks to new ownership of Andre Lurton Who has managed the property since 1992. Dauzac is gaining a reputation for good quality wine. I would buy this again, not for everyday, maybe when one hosts the odd dinner!
So does this mean the French do actually know something(more than us) about wine ?!?! The whole of France was represented by Sandrine in our eyes, as you can tell..
I think this proves once again than it pays to spend more on French wine to get the good ones.
The other highlight to the evening was the yummy(technical food term) handmade chocolates, Sandrine makes them, she has a shop in Canterbury.. All in all I think we can say that Sandrine is more than welcome to join us again, she can bring Kenton too!
Sandrine also explained how locals would buy wine, you take along your big container to be filled with wine, return home where you would decant it yourself into bottles and seal them for future use..she remembers having bottling sessions. She told it better than me, but I'm sure you can picture it. Someone did say it was similar to us making homemade wine and beer from kits.. I think not!
So to sum up Bordeaux wines, it's an extensive region & up until a few years ago made more wine than Australia. The best examples are keenly sought after and among the worlds finest wines.
What you will notice when buying Bordeaux under £10 is that most of it comes from The Gironde Department in South West France, these are generally basic Bordeaux wines that are best drunk young, that doesn't mean drinking for young people !
One final note, this wine club was selected for Marks love of Bordeaux wine (Mark of the tiny pumpkin fame) the ironic thing was he only scored 3 out of 10 in the quiz with Linda helping him.. He skimmed the email Jacqui sent, so hadn't brushed up on his Bordeaux knowledge, had no idea of the concept or theme of the evening. (Jolly poor show I say) I suppose at the end of the day, like most of us he just likes to drink it not talk about it!
Time to stick a cork in it.
Bye S x
PS Going to make pumpkin soup this weekend with my pumpkin
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