September saw the return of the 19th season for the Upton Wine Club.
With 45 residents from our village joining us at the village hall, we had a
brilliant start to our first meeting!
With the AGM formalities out the way, we took some time to look at
Supermarket wines and asked ourselves whether or not there was value
for money in the many wines to choose from. We reminded ourselves
just how much wine we were buying, when taking into consideration the
production, marketing, duty that we have to pay when purchasing wine.
For a £6.50 bottle, as an example, you are actually only paying for about
35 pence of wine!
Our first wine of the evening was a common grape variety from the Rias
Baixas region of Spain, an Albarino from Tesco’s finest range, called
Vinas del Rey. If you like the crisp, citrus notes of lemon and orange
that you get from these grapes grown near the coast then this is really
worth a try. If you love any type of shellfish then do try this or any other
Albarino!
We then went on to a blended wine, Greenache blanc, Vermentino and
Clairette from California. Again sourced from Teso called Le Cigare
Blanc, produced by Bonny Doon. Initially Bonny Doon vineyards tried to
replicate the Burgundy style of wines, which proved a challenge and so
they started looking at replicating Rhone style wines with much greater
success. Full of peach fruit flavours with jasmine fragrance, it had a
mixed reception from our members, especially at £17 per bottle.
We then turned to ALDI for our next wine for another Rhone blend style
wine. This was from Paarl in South Africa called Cambalala. This wine is
made by a female producer called Trizanne who is making a number of
signature wines. This was a dry, medium body wine with classic
Grenache, Roussanne Marsanne blend. A very nice wine with a creamy
nummy depth and citrus flavours. A great alternative to Rhone wines and
well worth a try.
The final wine for the evening was definitely a variety that is known for
it’s strong and varied flavours. We tasted a Gewurztraminer from LIDL
called Camille Meyer. From the Alsace region in France, this was cooperative wine, where grapes were harvested from several vineyards to
produce a fine, well priced bottle. Although this wine was 13% vol, quite
high for a Gewurztraminer, it would go very well with spicy foods such as
a Thai curry. At a price point of just under £8, offered great value for
money.
Our first red was a Grenache/Garnacha blend from the Rhone region in
France. Called Vacqueyras and sourced from LIDL. Priced at just under
£10, this offered really good value for what was a full bodied wine full of
black berry and bramble notes. If you want as nice wine to go with
perhaps your first beef stew of the year, then this is well worth a try!
We then tried a wine from the well know wine producer, Margaux. This
was a fifth-grown estate wine, so technically not Margaux’s finest grapes
but still allowed us to understand why wines from this Chateaux are so well
known for their quality. Sold by M&S under their Collection range, this was
definitely a level above other reds but at a price of £22, was it value for
money? Decanter gave it 92 points and Jancis Robinson gave it 93, so it
got their vote! If you would like to try a Margaux, then this is worth a try,
with classic flavours of blackcurrant, plum and spice from the Cabernet
Sauvignon Merlot blend.
Next, we tried a grape variety they many did not recognise by may would
have tried. The Touriga Nacional grape from Portugal is used in many ports
to give it some structure and recently has been used to produce wine on
it’s own. From ALDI, called Mimo Moutinho, this was arguably the stand
out value for money wine of the evening. A lovely dry wine with notes of
liquorice and blackberries, full of structure and a great wine to go with
cold meats, mild cheeses or your chicken roast on a Sunday! Priced at
under £7, this was very well received by our members.
For our final wine, we went back to Tesco and their Finest range. They
have teamed up with Nicolas Cantena, who has become famous for bringing
the Malbec grape back from near extinction by making in one of his main
grape varieties planted in his Argentinian vineyards of Mendoza. Cantena
wines demand a high price so being able to try his wines at £13, this again
was felt to be very good value. Most people who like Malbec, will be
familiar flavours of Damson and blackberry fruit with a touch of black
pepper finish. This did not disappoint and again was well worth a try!
Next month, on the 18th October we have invited Edmonson Wines to come
and present wines from South Africa. If you are not a member but wanted
to try our wine club, then please go to our website for all the details you
need to come along! www.uptonwineclub.co.uk
Ian
Chairman