The wines of the Northern Rhône
Blind tasting of random wines again … I think the best thing is to group the wines by type, clarity after the event being so much easier to achieve than at the time. So off we go with a, er, peculiarity: It’s definitely red, it’s sparkling, it’s slightly sweet … it’s not Shiraz, it’s lighter
Blind tasting oddities? Read More »
Occasionally the tastings and events come along so quickly that it is difficult to do justice to them. The August meeting of the Bring a Bottle Club was one of these … and my excuse is that the time available for writing has to go on my recent Tuscan trip. It’s tough, but someone has
Happy and bewildered Read More »
Some wine occasions really stand out. Obviously you need top quality wines or, at least, wines of exceptional interest. Hopefully, there is really good food to go with it. And you certainly want congenial, knowledgeable and appreciative company. Saturday night’s dinner more than met all these criteria. People had clearly searched their cellars for precious
In a blind tasting, there is the occasional moment when you put your nose in the glass and know what the wine is. When I say ‘occasional moment’ that’s what it is. The rest is the application of experience to the aromas, flavours and styles of wine – and most of us just don’t have
Blind tasting sounds a slightly terrifying prospect. The phrase itself is slightly worrying, like ‘deaf skiing’ or ‘mute horse riding’. It’s not entirely accurate in that you can still use visual clues in the colour or viscosity of wine, but obviously not read the label. But it is a remarkably different experience. Rather than interpret
Tasting in the dark Read More »
In the old fashioned world of gentlemen’s clubs and wine merchants, the ageing of wine, claret in particular, was virtually the essence of wine appreciation. How the wine scene has changed but there is still a fascination with how wines age, whether they improve, whether people actually like to drink older bottles. Andover Wine Friends’
Age does not wither? Read More »