November’s Bring a bottle club had the theme of Bordeaux. In advance, this seemed manageable and would surely make the task of blind tasting relatively simple? Well, yes and no, as we shall see. Like the stately and elegant Bordeaux chateau architecture itself, would the evening be a model of precision and orderliness? Rather less
Quality wine develops over time. If a wine has sufficient fruit, acidity, structure and tannins, it can develop over the years in the bottle, in exceptional cases over decades. This is well known in relation to the classic wine regions. But what about up and coming ones – in this case, Roussillon? Most wines in
Ageing gracefully in Roussillon Read More »
Decanter’s Friuli day featured both a master class by Peter McCombie MW and the chance to taste a large range of wines from about 30 producers from this most northeasterly region of Italy. This was a good complement to our recent Mario Schiopetto tasting which showed how house style is important as grape variety. Peter,
Friuli in overview Read More »
With a theme as big as North Italy, the Overton blind tasting group, where each member brings one or more bottles without much conferring, could have been very wide-ranging. We had a fairly representative sample, though no sparkling wine (Prosecco, Franciacorta, Asti) and one obvious classic missing – Amarone della Valpolicella. The selection was stronger
North Italian tour Read More »
Those in the know will have heard that there are interesting, high-quality wines coming out of Greece these days. These bear no resemblance at all to the cheap taverna fare of the then wildly exotic holidays of the sixties and seventies. Nor will there be any connection with the wines of the classical Greek world.
The Overton BBC (bring a bottle club) has a cheerfully random air about it. This is particularly the case with ‘BBC1’. As the idea is to taste the wines blind, there is no plan about who will bring what. Usually, this works absolutely fine and often some fascinating themes emerge. By chance, three people will
When we think of Italian wine, we have established regions in mind – Valpolicella, Soave or Sicily if we are stood in front of a supermarket shelf, Barolo, Montalcino or Montepulciano, perhaps, if we are talking to a specialist wine merchant. In these contexts it is inevitably the regions which produce high volume at low
Saturday evening saw an opportunity to taste the wines of one of California’s most famous names: Jim Clenenden of Au Bon Climat, Santa Barbara. ‘Wild boy Jim’ – this is California after all – has been making wine for nearly 25 years, concentrating on Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. These two grape varieties tell you that
The BBC (‘Bring a bottle club’) had a change of format for its late September meeting. Normally the wines are tasted blind but, following our experience with Champagne, where there was not enough variety in the styles brought, we allocated or bid for Sherry styles. And after that, it seemed a bit pointless to try
Andover Wine Friends’ September tasting featured a comparison between two very different French wine regions: Sancerre very much in the middle of this large country in the aptly named ‘Central Vineyards’ and Roussillon, 600 kilometres further south and on Spain’s Mediterranean border. The contrasts between the two regions are marked: Sancerre Roussillon historic vineyard with
Sancerre meets Roussillon Read More »