Andover Wine Friends’ fine wine supper for February 2014 set itself a modest challenge. When trios of related wines are tasted without knowing their identities, can a mixed group of tasters tell which is the best quality? and, further, did the group know what the wines were? The answers were, on the whole, encouraging! What
Rising to the quality challenge Read More »
Overton’s blind tasting group found itself well beyond its comfort zone this week. Blind tasting is difficult enough with such subtle differences between wines and the convergence of styles between the so-called old and new worlds. But if you try tasting some wines which are well beyond your normal range you quickly discover how much
This tasting for Andover Wine Friends was based on a Wine Society fine dining six-bottle case, augmented by a few bottles at the bottom and the top their excellent Portuguese offer. For most of our tasters – including me – it was a voyage of discovery. The general quality reputation of Portuguese table wines in
Exploring northern Portugal Read More »
Regular readers of this blog will know that blind tasting is a mug’s game. But just occasionally a logical approach will lead to a surprisingly good result, even when you don’t know what the wines are. Faced with three wines and a general rubric that these three are all made from one variety or are
Blind tasting: some method in the madness Read More »
Is Rioja having an identity crisis? For the average wine buyer staring at a supermarket shelf, this might seem a daft question. This famous region from Atlantic-influenced northern Spain continues to be a source of inexpensive, sound, flavourful wines. Even at this level, there is a style issue: if you want a red that is
Rioja, modernist or old school? Read More »
After the excitement of the old Palo Cortado sherry, I choose to compare these two excellent wines from the Tuscan Maremma. On your left is the top wine of the tiny Massa Vecchia, near Massa Marittima, mostly Sangiovese with some Alicante, from the single vineyard, La Querciola. On your right, you have the riserva of
Maremman Christmas – La Parrina goes head to head with Massa Vecchia Read More »
Can any wine compare with the intensity and sheer excitement of great Sherry? Now there’s a question which we could spend a lot of time debating … but frankly on Christmas Eve we are not going to! This is just a brilliant drink. The pleasure begins the moment you pour a small amount into a
Christmas begins here Read More »
Last Saturday’s fine wine supper started as a tour of Eastern Europe. The idea was to give a quick overview of the exciting things that are happening in Hungary, Croatia, Bulgaria and many more places. It did deliver on that as the bottle shots and the list below testify. We did our tour of the,
Hot foot from visiting 30 wine regions for her major revision of Christie’s Encylopedia of Champagne and Sparkling Wine, Essi Avellan MW introduces 16 traditional-method sparkling wines. What she showed was how many places – including some very surprising locations – where the high quality sparkling wine is being made. Please excuse any minor errors –
Essi’s sparkling world tour Read More »
The Rhône valley has been our wine region of choice in 2013. Overton’s blind tasting group has chosen it no fewer than four times in the last year. Clearly we can’t get enough of it as this week’s tasting – north and south, white and red – was a great success. As it turned out
