What's not to like?

May 29th and a virtual trip to South America, not just South America but to Chile.

Who took us on the trip? None other than Lee Isaacs, wine consultant and South American wine specialist.

One of the great advantages of being within a Wine Club is the opportunities it gives to try new wines and to be taken on the journey with those that know the way around and so it was last night. Lee was able to bring to us six wines, no duff wines to be seen and some really very exceptional.

So a big thank you Lee, a very good tour and such good wines.

His talk was not only supported by a very good selection, and more of this in a mo, but also the background to the wine industry of Chile as well as the background to the people and vineyards of those producing the wines.

It was not only wines were staring last night but also some amazing cheeses. Another thanks is called for now, all the cheeses were provided by "Open Air Foods" a seller of artisan cheeses and available via the market in Witney each Thursday.

So the wines:

Its always a danger for the writer of this Blog to say which was the best wine, we all see/taste in a different way but for me the first one was a very good wine indeed.

Interestingly Lee asked how many consider Riesling as being their favourite grape, two hands showed only, something of as surprise that, mine was one of those hands.

So the wine: The Cono Sur Reserva Special 2013 Riesling. Here we have a very good wine sold by Tesco at £8.99. Really very good indeed.  Lee was able to explain why there is the mis match between those that like the Riesling grape and the quality of the wine. All to do with it smelling of petrol it seems, this a bigger problem if the conditions of growing are not good for the grape. Well it would be a bit of a put off I guess, but fear not, no petrol overtones here just a well balanced and typical Riesling with no great tannin overtones.

Well worth checking out the philosophy of wine makers by going to the website of the company, one of the biggest producers of wine in SA and the world.

The next white was a good but , how do I say this, a different Savignon Blanc.  The grape is the mostly drunk white in this country, and why not what?  A great wine and even better in the summer with all that citrus flavour, but there we have it, this wine had almost none of those tones.  Lee was able to clarify, if you have a Kiwi Savvy Blanc you will have and expect to have those fruit and acid notes, but if you take the same grape from the Loire, this is not the case and this wine needs to be compared to the European Savvy Blanc.  As such it was very good but not what was expected.

As they say, your call.  Casa Silva, ColchaguaValley.   £15.00 @ OWC

The last white wine was the wine that people love to hate, Chardonnay, the 2014 In Situ estate bottled Reserva, OWC @ £10.00.

This was the lightly oaked classic Chardonnay.

As Lee was able to tell us its not everyday you come across wines like In Situ or winemakers like Horacio Vicente.

Horacio trained at Bordeaux first-growth Château Mouton Rothschild and California’s boutique Chalone Vineyards before returning home to work on his dad’s estate in Chile’s stunning Aconcagua Valley. After working for the best of the best, he was keen to prove that Aconcagua Valley could make wines to rival the best in the world and so the In Situ range was born.

The high altitude of the vineyards (around 850m above sea level) makes for a very fresh, fruit-driven and elegant Chardonnay.

After the whites the raffle and the spot for trivia.  This was all about cheese, a lot of information about Cheddar, did you know that the US produces c1.5 million TONS of the cheese? And did you know that Mozzartella is the UK's most eaten cheese after Cheddar.     There we are - trivia.

The cheeses we had were exceptional, some the mix of Gorgonzola and Feta too exceptional for many.

They were:

Delice de Bourgogne. Made with much additional cream. Trust the French to add cream to cheese. Good for them - what a great cheese.

Old Winchester, a cross of Gouda, Parmesan and Chedder but unlike any of them. Aged for 18 months. Salty and good.

Bayden Blue, the mix of Italian and Greek types, very pungent and loved and hated in equal measure.

Brie de Maeaux. A delight.

Gorwydd Caerphilly, a multi prize winner and understandably. Beautiful and great with a white wine.

Farmhouse Chedder. One of five farmhouse cheddars made now in the UK and allowed the POD label. Stored in the Wookey Hole caves of Chedder.

The reds.

The night of surprises continued with  the Shiraz, this is the grape that can be very 'spicey', but no this was not,  this was just a good red wine and a wine that would go so well with pasta or pizza.

This wine is made by the massive wine producer Casillero del Diablo. Clearly there is no reason why a large producer cannot produce great wines but, lets be honest, you tend to think the best wines come from smaller vineyards.  Not the case here. A good wine.

£7.99 at Tesco.

The best wine of night followed, but I need to add a question mark to this sentence. This was a very good Pinot indeed.  As we all know the Pinot Noir grape is a very tricky grape to grow and to make good wine from. When it all comes together well the value is high and so it should be, a beautiful wine emerges. And this was such a wine. Very impressive indeed.

The grapes are hand picked, double sorted, softly destemmed and crushed, then placed in open top stainless steel tanks. Prior to fermentation, grapes undergo a 3 to 7 day cold soak at 8ºC. For fermentation and only native yeasts are used by which the wine develops more complex and distinctive aromas and flavours. Final blend is aged for 12 months in French oak barrels.

This a bit, no, a lot  more expensive though at £20.00 a pop from the  OWC.

The final wine was the variety that is now associated almost exclusively with SA, the Carmenere grape. We tasted the Casa del Bosque wine. Lee was able to ell us of its near relative Merlot and the closeness in many ways that the two grapes have.  It confirmed itself as being a fine grape and a fine way to taste it in the vineyard's wine.

From the owners website:

Vinification :After being hand harvested the grapes were then crushed and destemmed to stainless steel tanks. The must was then warmed and inoculated with selected yeasts and fermented during 12 days with temperatures peaking at 33ºC/91ºF. Following the completion of fermentation the must was subjected to an additional 5 days of post fermentation maceration (to give a total of 17 days total skin contact). The wine was then pressed off skins and put to French oak barrels for 10 months during which time it was racked twice: once in the spring when it was first sulphured (following the completion of malolactic fermentation) and then once again shortly before bottling.

Tasting Notes : Intensely violet in colour, on the nose this wine exhibits heady notes of cedar, bacon fat, and graphite with just a hint of fresh lavender. In the mouth an initial attack of black cherry, sweet tobacco and cinnamon gives way to just a touch of earthiness and ripe bell pepper. Ripe tannins and fresh acidity combine to give good balance and length.

£10.99 at OWC

AOB:

Date of the next meeting

July 30th 

Check out this blog.  Both amusing and good.

The Nackererd mothers wine Club Blog

Prohibition

What a time it must have been, to have zero access to alcohol, no beers, spirits or even more alarming, no wines!  The meeting for The Wine Club in March took us back to those days in some ways. Our exceptional and able speaker, David Lloyd has an interest and a deep knowlege of the times in the early parts of the 20th century of the USA when almost all alcohol in the forms at least that we know it was simply not legally available.

The area has given rise to it own vocabulary and culture, the pop song, Behind the Green Door a

direct reference to the colour of the doors of the speakeasy bars and dives where alcohol was available, and so it was that David took us on a virtual tour of those times and places via a great Powerpoint presentation supported by the wines of today and, amazingly of those days.

So before we look at the wines, the speaker.

And of the wines.

Note, Availability and prices at the foot of this Blog as are the dates of future meetings.

Whilst the US was becoming and became 'dry' Canada was not.  So what would the good people of the Northern US do but take a day trip to Canada and to buy some very good Canadian wines.  Our wine was avery drinkable Sauvignon  Blanc from the Cave Spring vineyard. Situated on the Niagara escarpment.

It was not known to many there that the Canadians produce both a large quantity of wine and that that wine can be very good.

Sadly not available in the UK but when the speaker travels to Canada he is able to return with wine for our evening. So another thank you is possible here to David to doing just that.

The next white was from Washington State, the state produces at lot of fine wine including our next wine A Riesling from the vineyard of Charles Smith.  Now here is an interesting winemaker, a man who managed and ran rock bands now produces some very good wines. And this Riesling did not disappoint. Always a grape with an uncertain outcome, sweet/dry. Oaked or not. In this case no Oak and very much in keeping with a classic Riesling.

The Last white a stunning Chardonnay from the Edna Valley in California.  What beautiful wine. We all know that this grape is subject to much disdain by some but when a wine like this is available you have to ask how can it be that those that enjoy wine by pass this grape.  This available from Majestic.

No only does our speaker do a great and well researched talk but also a very good and demanding quiz. All to do with the period of prohibition and with questions that had some surprising answers.

On to the the reds, the first another wine from another state other than California, this a Pinot Noir from Oregon State.  Hum, for some this was proof that to make a great Pinot Noir is not just not easy but is, in fact, very demanding.  So not a  bad wine but to many a thin Pinot.

So a good comparison now to the next red, a stunning Zinfandel from the  Bueno Vista vineyard in California. What a joy. This is the grape variety which is so well known in the US and hardly grown in Europe.  A stunning wine and an interesting wine. This came from vineyard that was founded in 1865 and still in production, An amazing feat given that almost vineyards went bankrupt over the period of prohibition.

The final wine of the night was exceptional for three reasons, firstly a wine maker from the days prior to prohibition, in the whole of the US there can only be handful of such bearing in mind that over 90% of firms went bust.

The Beringer Vineyard was the very same vineyard that was one of the wines that famously bettered the French famous wine challenge of the 70's.

Finally what great wine, just superb.  A little more than most will pay for wine I suspect but here is one to have with the meal with friends when venison or steak is the order of the night.

AOB

A reminder that we are looking forward to the probable trip to France on May 9th.  If you are thinking of joining us and have not told us yet, then please do, my email is brucehammersley@gmail.com

Dates of the next meetings:

29th May
31st July
25th September
27th November

Wine prices and where available

Canadan Wine  Not available in the UK
Honour Riesling £12.00 at M&S (Oxford)
Edna Valley Chardonnay 2012 Majestic Wines @ £12.99
Primarius Pinot Noir  £8.99 a bottle at Tesco
Buena Vista Zinfandel £13.00 @ M&S (Oxford)
Beringer Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2012  Majestic Wines @ £30.00 (If two bought)

The Western Cape Wines

2015, another year and the start to the 2015 season of the Wine Club.

So before we get down looking at the meeting, first and most important, a very happy and good 2015 to all our readers and followers.  

This year we are hoping to continue our varied mix of meetings as in previous years but with the addition of a visit to France, just for the day.  To buy some wines and to enjoy some fine French food.
More of this anon as they say.

So what of the first meeting.

We had two strokes of fortune for this, first our speaker was just terrific,

Martin Marias is able to trace his roots back to South Africa, his distant relatives were part of the Huguenot diaspora  that was forced to leave France for South Africa due to religious persecution. Martin was able to show his own family tree leading back to those times.   His family background is ones of wine and of wine making.

His ties and connection to South Africa were and are strong, to the extent that Martin was able to tell us of his book, a novel just completed based some of the actions from the Boer War.  Dear reader, if you would like to see more on this then do follow this link to Amazon and the book.

>The Battle of Paardeberg

And the second second stroke of fortune, well that would be the wines. A collection of very good and varied wines from the other side of the world and enjoyed on a cold, miserable night at the Wine Club meeting.

Normally I can give a summary of each wine enjoyed at our tastings.  Today I can send the tasting notes from Martin, here is the link, after viewing you can come back to this amazing Blog by closing the notes down.

>The wines and Martin's tasting notes

In addition to the notes I would like to make one or two comments about the wines.

First one sees the advantage of having someone with a good knowledge of an area choosing the wines.  So there we go, peoples taste is always going to be different and the selection worked very well.

The first wine of the evening, and to me the best was an off-dry Chenin Blanc. What a delight, made for drinking with friends before dinner on a warm evening.  Bey hey, this was a cold night in January and you know what it was very good then as well.

Then on to wine from a vineyard going back a while, going back to 1693 in fact, quite a while no? Quite a wine, beautiful Viognier.

Then on to the rosé, another vineyard going back to the 17th century, the Boschendal Vineyard and The Rose Garden rosé.

Two more fine reds followed, see the link for details.

The close of the evening was a fortified wine, along the lines of a port,  this wine is made in very small quantities indeed, just 2000 bottle per year and from a vineyard that has been running from 2001 only.  A fine end to the tastings.

For the supplier of wines go to S A Wines >

The cheeses were chosen to offset the greenhouse gasses generated by choosing wines for the other side of the world. What a good decision that was, English Brie, a local and exceptional goats cheese, Wenslydale and a real treat Red Leicester

The cheeses

Vintage Red Fox   Red Leicester
Traditional Wenslydale
Garlic and Herb Rosary Goats cheese
Somerset Brie
Cropwell Bishop Stilton
David Stow Extra Matured chedder

All the cheeses bought from Waitrose in Witney.  Of the selection the goat and the Red Leicester were thought to be the best.

Did we have a first at the meeting? Well yes we did, the first time one of the wines was corked, when we went to open one of the reds the cork sort of fell out, the wine had to go down the drain. Martin was not fazed however, he shot home to grab another, not the same year but the same type.

The Trivia Spot was presented by yours truly and was a brief discussion on the way wine is taxed. All very depressing, £2.05 of duty and then VAT added to that as well as any other aspect of the wine and bottle that is chargeable to VAT.  And what does this mean? Well if the bottle is under £5.00 the worth of the wine is perhaps 35pence, maybe less.  One good point is, the more you pay the greater proportion goes to buying wine and not duty etc.

The trip to Calais was mentioned and discussed.  Essentially a day trip to Calais, we'll visit a good wine merchant, have a good lunch by the seaside and enjoy a trip to the massive shopping complex that is Citie de Europe in Calais.  An early start but home by mid to late evening.  We reckon the cost will be in the region £50.00 each including lunch but not your wine bill!

Dates etc yet to be confirmed but the numbers so far look OK to allow us to proceed but more of this anon.

Another date for your diary will be the coming Friday, the sixth of February.  Sue and Roger Hall are having an open house and coffee morning at their home.  This is a fund raiser for the British Heart Foundation.  The address is 20 Parklands.   Times, from 10:30 to 17:30.

The Wine Club donated to the foundation £50.00, this being the proceeds of the raffle for the night.

The prize was a fine bottle of Bordeaux wine, bought in Calais last year and tasted at the last Wine Club meeting.  Further details of the wine on the Blog, see the last entry.

Date of next meeting:

FRIDAY MARCH 27th, The wines of the US influenced by period of prohibition.



As ever, any points drop me an email via the Blog if you wish.

B

Red, White and Fizz Friday

At the last meeting of the year for the Wine Club, the aim is not so much to taste wines, although that has to be a part of the evening, but more the chance to meet and enjoy each others company and yes, enjoy some good wine and food as well.

This year we enjoyed very good wines but more than that some very good food indeed.  This is the night when we have what I think the Americans call, a pot luck super.

Nothing Pot Luck about the great foods on this night though. A wide variety of 'finger food', that this year can only be described as sensational.

So this Blogger wants to say to all of those that brought such great food, THANK YOU, it was very good.  Also a very big thank you to all of those that helped set up before hand and helped clear away at the end of the night. A thanks also to Chris Onslow, the games master for the night.

This year also saw us try some very good wines.

A start with a  Prosecco to warm and welcome.

This wine, along with the others enjoyed came from France, came from the not so famous wine growing area, more a wine selling area - Calais.  Myself along with three others ventured across the channel to buy an assortment of wine for the Club and what better start with than the most popular of Italian wine, Prosecco.  Incidentally a day we would like arrange again but for as many members of the Club that may like to join us, more detail below.

To accompany the foods some quite special white wine.  A Condrieu from the vinyard of Pierre Blanche.  This was suggested to us as a wine coming from the same area of the very famous and sought after (red) Cote Rotie.  Here we have a white wine and only available in very small quantities if at all in the UK.

The complete appellation is a very small 100 hectares.

So a treat to try this wine and how was it received?   For some the wine was given that somewhat disparaging description of interesting, well  that was true. The taste not like other wines tasted but the depth of flavour and the length both more than good.

The other wine of the evening was a fine Claret, the incomparable Chateau Haut-Marbuzet. (2006) - and my what a wine.

Very impressive at all levels and for most the star of the two wines on offer.

Both bought at a small but very good wine merchant in the town of Calais rather then in the huge wine warehouses in the town.

Other wines came from Bag in Box wine and that was fine but a little unfair on them, after tasting such exceptional wines then to move cheap and cheerful was a test that they were hardly up to.

The evening though had other surprises and pleasures in store, more then wines, more than great foods, yes of course the other pleasures were the games.

The rules were simple, from the bag of Scrabble tiles how many and what is the highest score you can make only using words associated with wine.

Now this generated some great debate, concentration, enjoyment and good results.  I think the word which won was Gerwurztraminer,  no mean feat.

Then on to find your buddy. All the people present had names tags and numbers on the same, so to find your buddy, with the same number, gave the chance of a prize.  All entered into well and lots of prizes won.

<:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::>

The programme for the coming year is shaping up very well, the aim is to have four speakers from our own ranks, with the following being in the frame:

Wines of the US
Wines of Provence
German Wines
and to start us at the January meeting, Wines of South Africa.

We hope to also have one professional from the wine industry, possibly a sommelier, this yet to confirmed.

The November meeting we hope to be on the same lines as this year.

The dates for the coming year are below.

In addition we hope to run a trip to France, just for the day to get lunch, maybe some wines and some time in the  seaside towns near Calais.  Again dates etc. to be confirmed but the likely cost thought to be in the region £60.00 per head plus lunch.

Dates for the diary:

January 30th
March 27th
May 29th
July 31st
September 25th
November 27th

All the last Friday in each respective month.

Have a great Christmas and a fine New Year and we look forward to seeing you all on January 30th, if in the meantime you want more information about Club activities don't hesitate to email me.

brucehammersley@gmail.com

Just in time Wine Club

Spain, Wine, Tapas, White Villages



Last night was a great night for the Wine Club.

Great because we were treated to a trip to Spain by Bob and Wendy who were themselves just back from the country.  In fact, when I say just back I mean just that.  After buying the wines, and lots of it as well as the Tapas, again lots of it, Bob and Wendy rocked up to the Village Hall at some time after seven. This is after driving the length of Spain and then up from Portsmouth. All one can say is 'good for them'.

In fact that was not a problem although it has to be said it did cause just a smidgen of concern from the organisers.   Not least of all as we expecting a big turnout of over 50 people.

As members will know, the majority of presentations are made by the members who step up and volunteer to talk about wines that the know and generally love.   This was the case last night, but more so.

Bob and Wendy did  a great job sharing with us the wines, of this more in a mo, but also the foods, the history and the culture of 'their' part of Andalusia.

The area of Spain which produces the wines we tasted is in the deep South of the country and is almost unique in being at a high altitude, in fact the town itself is at the height of Scafell Pike, the tallest English mountain. The vineyards rising up to 2,000 meters in height.  It is home to the most southerly ski slopes in Europe.

Over the evening we tasted just one white wine, a very drinkable one too, wonderfully named Romance. A rounded and easy drinking wine, and, like its siblings tasted at the meeting, a wine that had (just) travelled and travelled well. 

On through tastings to a variety of red, Syrah, Tempranillo, and a very fine Cabernet Sauvignon/Tempranillo blend.  The meeting concluded with a sweetish rosé.

All of the wines were accompanied by some great cheeses, and chritzo, to make some fine tapas to have alongside our wines. For this we must thank Wendy, Marj and Mary, all clearly Tapas experts.

The raffle, with once again a startling good prize, in this case two of Spain's finest Rioja, was won by John and Renata.

Wendy told the meeting of a flat that is available to rent next the house they own in the area. 

The link to the website which gives more info on the accommodation and area is here,  http://www.moorishalhama.com/ , Wendy's email is  Wendy@MoorishAlhama.com

AOB:

The date of the next meeting, and please do put this in the diary, is FRIDAY NOVEMBER 28TH.

This is the mainly social evening but with good food by courtesy of a 'pot luck' supper.

We ask those coming to bring a plate of finger food of their own choice.  In the past we have always had the most gorgeous foods.  This will be accompanied by a selection of fine wines.   

Bruce Hammersley

brucehammersley@gmail.com

The Blue Nun rides again

German Wines, yes please!

The July meeting of the Wine Club can be one with a low attendance, the summer is here and the holiday season is quite definitely with us, so what a good surprise to have such a strong turnout of the meeting on July 25^th.

The meeting was all about German wines. And for those of a certain age that gave a chance to re-visit to the land of Blue Nun and Black Tower.  As it turned out both the names featured heavily during the evening but solely as a reminder of how things  were and not how they are.

For this meeting we needed a good and knowledgeable speaker, the Club heard of the difficulty of finding someone who is familiar with the wines of Germany.  Chris Onslow stepped up to the take the task on,  and take it on with gusto he did.

A massive thanks to Chris who took time out while in France to buy wines and cheese for the evening.   In addition he was able to give a very full resume of the the German wine industry both historically and current.

The wines of the night were dominated by the white wines that Germany is so famous for.  We tasted five whites and two reds.

We started with a glass of Hock. Now most of us would have thought that Hock was a type of German wine, which it is but it is just that, a type of wine,  not a type or variety of grape, it means a German wine, normally made by bringing differing wines together and blending, and the blend is,  yes you have it, a Hock.  Perfectly good to drink and also with the  advantage of being a low cost wine, ours came from the Co-op at under £4.00 Per bottle.

Then a white wine and what was for most of us a second German grape variety we have about heard of - the Sylvana grape.

This picked up by Chris in France (Lidl) at  under 3 euros

Then on to the  more less known of German wines but with a real step up in quality, the first of these was the Wolf Wines, Pinot Gris.  Very nice too as they say.  Light, fresh, subtle and well received.

This and the following wines, other than the 'sticky', from the Oxford Wine Company.

Following this onto the first of two Rieslings, this the grape which one normally associates with Germany.  Chris was telling us that the Riesling can come in may different  forms and types, from sweet to dry  but always with that distinctive and recognisable Riesling taste.

Now the Reds.  

Now it has to be said that Germany is not noted for its red wines, well at least as far as the British  buyer.  In fact many vineyards produce reds and some of these are very good indeed. 

The last of the Reds was certainly this, but the other red, well a good wine for comparison, but not on too many 'must buy' lists. 

This a Pinot Noir and it it really didn't do it to for the majority of those tasting.

The second, it seems imported for an Oxford college function, was a blend of local grapes combined with Merlot.  A fine wine and if Dear Reader you don’t mind me sharing with you, bought well. It was just about at its peak of time in storage and would start to fall off in quality so was sold to us as a bin end on a healthy discount at just £18.00 per bottle.

After the very good red the last wire of the evening; a Blue Nun wine but not as you may remember it this was a ‘sticky'; a desert wine as we sometimes call the very sweet and luscious wines taken at the end of the meal or with Foire Gras.  This also a Riesling Grape wine.

This was one of the famous Ice Wines. Very difficult to make and always made in minuscule amounts. By its nature,  high up on the Richter scale of cost.  Well thanks to Chris, this bought in France at a quarter of the UK price.

Dear Reader I am sorry to go on about the prices of the wines but the German wines are interesting in this respect. As they are little known in the UK the market for the Ice Wine, the Pinot Gris and even some of the Rieslings is small and and so the usual  advantage of scale affecting prices does not apply in the same way. Hence the inherent price anomaly.

The cheeses for the evening were all intersting some available from the  Oxford Cheese company and some from your local Waitrose or Sainsbury.