The October meeting was hosted by myself and focussed on wines that I associate with my travels over the past 20 years. Each wine had an accompanying anecdote and paired relevant food. This is a lively group with plenty of good conversation and personal wine preferences leading to chats about food, books, music and places to eat and drink in the UK and abroad. It is, in one word - fun!
To start we tasted two Cremant de Bourgogne- one from Intermarche. Honour Louis 12%and a snip at £4.50. Not available unless you cross the channel. The other from Nadine Farrand in the Loire Valley available to buy through Ratcliffes in Norfolk at an eye watering 6 times the price! Interestingly it was joint bottom of our ‘likes’ for the evening. Comments were - had a medicinal taste, a strange sherry taste et al.
White wines
France - No 3 Cotes de Gascony - 11% £6.50 Columbard/Sauvignon blanc. Gascony wines available at all supermarkets but not this particular one. Well liked by the group. Red wine is also booming in the area and rivalling Bordeaux. Who doesn’t love the Gascony region and culture, and the winning white wine this evening, by one vote.
Greece - Kirke Goddess Blend of Georgian wines. 13.5% £14.90 Drinkmonger Pitlochry stock this. Special note: grapes are harvested during a full moon and stored in a cellar till sunrise when they are crushed and pressed. But this fact did not sway our votes - we were not keen!
Austria - Funkstille Gruner Vettliner 12%, Cambridge Wine Merchants £14.99 Name means ‘radio silence’. People thought it would work well as a pre or post meal wine. I tried to get the orange Skin Contact Funkstille and finally tracked it down but too late at Field and Fawcett in York.
Reds wines
Uruguay - Finca Traversa Tannat Grape 12.5% Inglenook Wine Bar £13.99 also available at some Co-ops. Smooth and tasty. The grape was introduced by Basque settlers and the bottle label is a representation of Casa Pueblo by renowned Uruguayan artist Carlos Paez Vilaro. We all look at the labels!!! Rather nice we all thought and the winning red wine this evening, by one vote.
France - Ile de Re Terre Rouge, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot grapes 13.5% £6.50 bought in Le Blois Plage de Re, but several UK retailers including Vinatis UK stock the island’s wines. Easy drinking but not special. Small growing area of 600 hectares, the island’s known for salt production, oysters and cycling.
Canada - Cave Spring Cabernet Franc. 14% £12.50 Inglenook Wine bar Barnard Castle. Located close to Niagara and owned by the Pennachetti family. An interesting fact is that one of the family has a place here in Barney so that’s why the wine is available locally. Also sold by Yorkshire Vintners. Well liked by us all. Our next meeting is on November 24th and will be hosted by Nuala.
Jane Mardon