Welcome back to the Upton Wine club after the Christmas break, I hope you all had an excellent one. We had another first for mankind, no not a moon landing, just sherry tasting at the Upton wine club.
John went gamely where no man has gone before and entered the world of sherry. He began with a couple of fine dry sherries a Fino del Puerto Solera Reserve, and a Manzanilla Solera Reserve. These where very dry and I think not to everyone’s taste but if you are a fan of dry sherry these are both available from Waitrose at £8.99.
The next sherry was much more popular a little sweeter and more to the taste of Uptonites this was a Dry Olorosa Solera Reserve again from Waitrose at £8.99.
We then turned to the more tradition wine club fair, Mike introduce us to four wines from Spain. The first a white, a Gaba do Xil Godello Valdeorrras. Once again the Spanish have released this lesser know ancient grape variety the Godello, to the world this grape has in the past been hard to grow but the clever Spanish have managed to develop a hardier variety and hence more wine for us. With a light but complex taste, most people liked this wine, available from the wine society at £8.95.
The last red was interesting and strong, plenty of alcohol content, a Pasanau Ceps Nous Priorat 2008. Apparently the Priorat is fast becoming one of Spains most important red wines and can fetch up to £40-50 a bottle, due to the more restrained budget of the wine club it rolled in as little as £11.50 from the Wine Society.
Hope to see you all next month when Simon will be reviewing white wines from Macon and Beaujolais.
Chris Traynor