We had excellent turnout for the April wine meeting, with almost 50 villagers and guest attending. We where expecting our Gaelic neighbours to attend but due to an unforeseen eruption in Iceland, we got Kevin who gamely stepped into the breech, to host the evening. The wines for the evening came from the vineyard of Joost de Villebois, very French! Joost has only been making wine since 1996 after finishing his training at the University of Bordeaux. The winery, Villbois is based in the Loire Valley with its wonderful calciferous soil, which gives rise to the crisp brilliant flavours of the wines produced in this region.
We began with a sparkling wine Villebois Cremant, quite sweet but would be nice on a summers evening as an aperitif, £12.49 or £8.30 with cash back. Then we tried a further 4 white wines, a Petit Villebois which quite a few people liked a Sauvignon Blanc, most people found this pleasant and good value at £5.99 with cash back. We then went onto the Villebois Brut which is made from 100% chenin grape, slightly more expensive at £8.33 cash back, then followed a Sancerre which every one thought was good value at£9.30 cash back.
Then a Rose which I thought was very weak, and lacked body. Then a Chinon which was not good, very light no punch at all, then a Malbec which was indeed very pleasant and at £7.66 cash back good value. All of the wines can be bought exclusively at Naked Wines, and the cash back is a good system of value for money wines, if anyone would like more information please ask Kevin or Frankie or even Chris. Next month it is Ian, the Wine man I think wines of Italy, hope to see you.
Chris Traynor