My good friends in the BBC (‘bring a bottle club’ and taste them blind) asked me to nominate the theme for the July meeting as it happened to fall on my birthday. They all thought I would chose something Italian (reasonably enough) but I went for my primo amore, Burgundy. As it happened there were
BBC 2: Meursault and the generation game Read More »
The relative merits of buying everyday wines from the supermarket or from an independent wine merchant in the UK are worth rehearsing. As I see it, they are: Supermarket Strengths Weaknesses Huge buying power Little or no knowledgeable service at the point of sale Can offer good value obsessed with 2-for-1 offers, many of which
Supermarket v. Independent Read More »
The theme for BBC 2 (Bring a bottle club) this month was two varieties: Viognier and Malbec, all to be tasted blind. As it worked out we had an excellent range of Malbec, two sweet wines made with Viognier and an aperitif of just one standard Viognier. You can’t plan too much in advance as
The ‘Definitive Italian’ wine tasting took place at Lord’s Cricket Ground in late June – so obviously a perfect summer’s day is what the organisers had in mind. Sadly for those who came to see the Armed Forces cricket match at Lord’s on the same day – including what sounded like thousands of children –
Revisiting Chianti Read More »
Andover Wine Friends’ June tasting focused on the Languedoc in the south of France. For Janet and I this was a continuation of our experience of ‘sunshine in a glass’, having just returned from a wine-tasting holiday in next door Roussillon. The tasting was led by Torquil Jack who, with his wife, Marion, has started
The June meeting of the Overton-based blind tasting group was the usual mix of fine bottles, some disappointments and perhaps the least good wine we have ever had (is that sufficiently polite?). And it was a large tasting – 17 bottles. While it is difficult to concentrate for that long (even for those of us
Mystery and suspense currently surround the village of Bugarach. Situated 75 kilometres from the Mediterranean and 110 from the Spanish border, it lies at 460m above sea level but is completely overshadowed by the Pic de Bugarach, a mountain in the foothills of the Pyrenees, which rises to 1230m. The first mystery is the weather
Mysterious Bugarach Read More »
Two new challenges for the unwary wine taster: The Overton blind tasting group has decided to meet a second time in the month and this time on a theme. As the group is known as the BBC (bring a bottle club, of course), the new evening has to be known as BBC2. And the first
In his introduction to a tasting for Andover Wine Friends, Martin Hudson, Master of Wine, summarises the key points about Cabernet Sauvignon with masterly (of course) clarity: Cabernet Sauvignon only became significant in Bordeaux at the end of the eighteen century, i.e., despite its worldwide fame it is a very young variety it is the
Around the world in eight Cabernets Read More »
The May meeting of the blind tasting group was a great evening out … if more chaotic than usual. It wasn’t obvious why. We had the same format: everyone brings a good/interesting bottle, we taste them blind, we get the wrong answer (mainly), we have a fine meal courtesy of the Red Lion, Overton, everyone