WINE CLUB MEETING JANUARY 2010
Hello and a happy new year to every one at the wine club and thanks again to the tremendous support, nearly 50 of you signed up for this months meeting, nice to see a few guests as well. The wines this month were from South Africa, and presented by Frankie and Kevin with aplomb, and plenty of vigour. We had 9 wines to taste from a Petit Blanc to a wonderful Shiraz. The first Wine of the evening was the Vondeling Petit Blanc, made by Mathew Copeland a very nice pleasant to drink white, unwooded and at £5.99 a bargain, followed by a wonderful Viognier, a good example of this grape but Viognier is not to everyone’s taste, and has a more complex taste, dry and fragrant but with a bitter after taste at times. I love it but not everyone does, but an excellent example of the grape variety.
The reds started off with a good Pinotage, an excellent example of the wine, not a complex wine but a pleasant taste, and I venture to say could even be served slightly chilled, for the summer similar to some Beaujolais’s.
The most expensive wine of the evening was the Sterhuis Astra Red at £21.99 this is a dear wine a blend of Merlot and Cabernet, I did not feel this was worth the price tag, expensive as so little is produced only 125 cases, but the general opinion was not worth the money.
The best wine of the evening by far in my opinion and several other peoples was the Manley Shiraz, produced in the Tulbagh region of the Cape, this is a deep complex wine with good lasting flavours and should be savoured, and at 14.6% a very alcoholic beverage. All the wines where sourced from the Naked Wine company, which is an online organisation, if you need to know more please speak to Kevin and Frankie.
See you all next month when Simon will be running away with the budget with Californian wines, hope to see you all there.
Chris Traynor