Although I usually only drink the odd small sweet sherry over Christmas, I couldn't help but jump at the chance to attend a wine tasting evening held at our offices last week. At just 13€ a ticket, 'The Grape and the Glorious; Wines for Christmas' sounded like a promising event; the opportunity to taste some affordable but quality vino, mingle with colleagues and nibble on some fine cheese, bread and cold meats. All part of my education. Plus I was sure there would be spittoons just in case I really wasn't in the mood for boozing.
After a brief introduction from Sarah,where she explained how duty effects wine quality and by investing just a couple of pounds more than £3.99, you can happen on a rather decent bottle thank you very much, we got stuck into the whites. Our first wine on the list was the Vignobles Des Aubas Colombard-Gros Manseng 2010. Not so dissimilar to my usual white of choice, Sauvignon Blanc, this wine was dry, nice and crisp and packed with citrus flavours. Suprisingly, this Gascony nectar will only set you back £5.99 from Majestic. Until that evening I had never heard of Majestic Wine Warehouses before, but after trying some of the wines Sarah had selected from their range and seeing the competitive prices, I will definitely try to find an opportunity to browse their aisles. According to Sarah, it's hard to find staff with such great expertise, thanks to their meticulous training - the person hired to head up the Spanish wine section was sent to Spain on a month-long assignment shadowing the country's leading expert. For my training at Virgin Megastore, I was escorted into a cupboard, handed a roll of 99p stickers and a pile of cd singles and left there for the rest of the day to get on with it.
Our second white was 'Tesco's Finest' Mendoza Chardonnay 2009. Dubbed a 'granny' wine by Sarah due to it's potent nature (14 degrees alcohol makes it sweet enough to please the less discerning palate), this is best enjoyed with a heavy starter like foie gras. Finding it a little rough and overpowering and in the absence of such fancy schmancy entrées, I was more than happy to move on to the rosé. Sainsbury's provided the Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon Rosé, my second favourite wine of the evening. It was interesting to learn that until around 3 years ago, the popularity of rosé wine had completely dwindled thanks to the dodgy reputation thrust upon it by old 70's favourite Mateus. Thankfully we now have a much more palatable range to choose from, including Shiraz rosés and the likes of d'Anjou made from aristocratic grapes. On the other hand, Mateus is still the most imported wine in the USA. No way rosé.
Sarah definitely displayed a preference for New World wines, reflecting the growing trend in the UK where French wines are now only number 5 on the list of most imported, with Australian being the most popular and Chilean not too far behind. By far the highlight of the evening was The Crossings Marlborough New Zealand Pinot Noir, the most expensive, of course (£9.95), but definitely worth seeking out at The Wine Society.
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Beware of overflowing spittoons....... |
Although the wines under scrutiny that evening were mostly available in UK stores, Sarah had also taken the time to visit some Belgian supermarkets and suggested some viable alternatives. We came away armed with bundles of information and hurriedly scribbled notes. In total, we tried 7 wines, leaving me enough time to catch a train at a reasonable hour and my colleagues to empty any remnants from the stray bottles dotted around the room, which I'm sure they did admirably.
Would I try this again?: Go on then. Just one more for the road.
More than £3.99? Sorry it's the end of the month.
Some interesting points from a Master of Wine:
1. "It's not food, it's mood"
Giving me carte blanche to ignore any wine snobs that I may encounter in the future, it was refreshing to hear an expert play down the importance of the correct pairing of wine and cuisine.
2. 72% of all wine purchased in the UK is consumed within 24 hours
The other 28% is presumably consumed in the checkout queue.
3. Adding a tablespoon or so of sweet dessert wine to a poor quality white wine can work magic. Likewise with port and red wine
Now there's an excuse to purchase a bottle of port if ever there was one...
2 comments:
bottoms up!
Right back at you! Chin chin!
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