The blind tasting Bring a Bottle Club has had one successful evening of Alsatian wines this year already and many us had also been to a Josmeyer tasting of great quality. So it was perhaps tempting fate to have a third go at this subject – and so it proved. While it was, as usual,
Taste, suffer, triumph Read More »
Martin Hudson MW’s presentation of fortified wines, some of them sweet, was organised by pairings – two Sherry styles, two Madeiras, two Ports, two Vin Doux Naturels and a lonely Rutherglen Muscat at the end. In this way, with some elegant economy, he was able to illustrate the remarkable diversity of the world of fortified
Fortified wines: two by two Read More »
Ben Llewellyn of local wine merchant Caviste starts in a philosophical mode for the monthly tasting of Andover Wine Friends. His theme is ‘what is a modern classic?’ Is it a meaningful concept or just a piece of wine trade nonsense? We can talk meaningfully about the classics of literature or art or even wine
Ben’s modern classics Read More »
The term ‘entry level’ is a very useful marketing and quality phrase, indicating some real quality, affordable price (a relative term itself) and the enticement of something outstanding at a much higher price. It gets around the problem neatly which you have in Italian where the normal term for entry level wine is ‘base’ wine
Entry level grand cru? Read More »
Summer should be a time of relaxation, outdoor parties and pink wine. So far the British summer has been a soggy mess, but rosé / rosato / rosado still has its attractions. Andover Wine Friends’ summer party had to be held indoors for the first time in four years and fortunately we had build a
One of the quirky charms of Overton’s ‘Bring a Bottle Club’ is the practice – usually followed by one of the regular members – of bringing a joker bottle to be tasted blind, like all the wine. There are not many other places where you could taste a 10-year old English rosé, a Maltese red
Mission impossible Read More »
One way of dealing with the overwhelming complexity of the world of wine is to decide that there certain wines/grapes/styles that you don’t like. A few popular favourites would be a) German wine (sweet and flavourless) b) English wine (how could you? see previous post) c) over-oaked Chardonnay (agreed). My number one choice would be
Beaujolais: prejudice confounded Read More »
The ‘Bring a bottle’ club’s theme this month was the southern Rhône, an interesting counterpoint to the usual preference for the mainly more prestigious wines of the northern section of this great river. But it proved an inspired choice with some great bottles, both white and red. There were a few disappointments too with oxidized
Southern Rhône class Read More »
In general, I like to praise the good qualities of wines which I taste. If anything I can be too positive. But if there is something to like, I will lead with that, while noting shortcomings as they are evident. It is surprising to me, therefore, to report that Andover Wine Friends’ May tasting of
Underwhelmed in Bordeaux Read More »
Châteauneuf-du-Pape is a grand name with wines of a range of qualities. If the appellation did not exist, the wines would be a much more humble Côtes-du-Rhône (Villages) and you might wonder what all the fuss was about. But it certainly does exist and in fact, its contribution to the way the French thought about
Soft and strong (updated) Read More »
