Our December Wine Club meeting was held a week earlier this month, giving us all a head start
on the Christmas festivities! Celebrating our 20th season, it was wonderful to see so many villagers
enjoying the evening. We are fortunate to have a diverse selection of wines to sample, ensuring
there’s always something new for our members to experience. Each wine comes with its own story,
and a big part of our club is not just discussing the wine, but also its connection to people, places, and
its role in creating a bit of history! Wine has made people wealthy, landed some behind bars, kept
families together for generations, and sparked a few feuds! Whatever the case, it has always
generated interest, and our village would be a little poorer without a Wine Club! So, I’d like to extend
my gratitude to everyone who makes it happen each month – from the committee who come up
with fantastic topics and make it all possible, to those who help tidy up at the end of each meeting,
and of course, all the members who join us to enjoy a glass or two and create more memorable
moments!
In January, we will explore what age does to a wine. We have invited the local wine business,
Grape Minds, to share their experiences. Hope you can join us!

Brazil’s wine regions, particularly Serra Gaúcha, Campanha, and Vale dos Vinhedos, have been
gaining international recognition for their excellent wines. The unique terroir, characterised
by high altitudes, diverse soil types, and a favourable climate, contributes to the distinct
flavours and quality of Brazilian wines.
Winemakers in these regions have embraced modern techniques while respecting traditional
methods, resulting in a variety of wines that are both innovative and rooted in heritage. Whether
you’re a fan of reds, whites, or sparkling wines, Brazilian vineyards offer a delightful and diverse
tasting experience. And this month members of the Upton Wine Club had the opportunity to
sample some of the best with Michael Corfe presenting some of his most popular wines from
his company, Go Brazil!  Michael has been visiting Brazil for over 15 years
and bringing wine back to the UK for us to try. If you are looking for something a little different,
that you will not find in most places you commonly buy wine, then look no further!
We had over 30 members at the Upton Village Hall this month, tasting sparkling wines, whites and
reds. One of the things, members found most interesting was the suggested food pairing of
some of the wines. For example, if you are looking for something to pair with a some spicy Asian
food, then it would be worth trying the Don Guerino “vintage” Torreontes. Light in alcohol, so
the spices don’t burn your mouth but high in floral notes and unoaked, which compliments the
intense food flavours. On another note, if you like wines from northern Italy, then you might want to
try the Don Guerino “Origine 1880” Teroldego, where the grapes originated from NE Italy, giving
some new world influence to an old world grape variety!
The Upton Wine club is all about trying something a little different with friends from the village and
having a nice social evening. There is no need to have any knowledge of wine but the hope is that
after a while, you will become a little more confident when sitting at a restaurant table and
offered the wine list or when you walk into an aisle of wine and are wondering what you should select!
If you’d like to see what wines we tasted this month or are interested in coming along to the
club please take a look at our website. You need no knowledge of wine, just an interest in trying it!!
On Wednesday 20th November we are starting to get into the festive spirit by offering some sparkling
wines, ports and one or two other surprises you might like to try over the next month or two!
Please check out our website for more details

This season marks the 20th Anniversary of our Wine Club in Upton and after the obligatory AGM,
we started the year by looking at some myths and facts about wine that could be of use to us all! Here
are a few things we discussed during the evening.You may have put a silver spoon in an opened
bottle of fizz and put it in the fridge, to drink it a few days later … in reality, it’s probably the cold
that is preserving the bubbles not the spoon! Putting a stopper in the top and keeping it upright
in the fridge (ideally not in the door, which will disturb the wine every time you open it) is likely to
give you a few extra drinking days!Like many things, we are more confident in trying
and recommending something if it has been personalised to us. There are a few wine apps in
the market now that will give you information on your wine just from taking a photo of the label and
if you give some feedback on your preferences, it will make recommendations on similar wines you
might like to try. I like everything about a Chardonnay from Burgundy except the price, so
my app suggested trying South African Chardonnay’s, where there are some exceptional
wines at a very good price!
Do all wines improve with age? Well, in a word no! Broadly, the wine needs to contain a stabilizer to
allow it to last for several years. For red wines, these are tannins and for white wines, a high
degree of acidity, sugar or alcohol to help preserve it over time. Over the years, wine will soften and
change in complexity and colour. Some wines for example need to age by law: for example, a Rioja.
Crianza will have been stored before bottling for a minimum of 24 months, while a Gran Reserva will
need storing for a minimum of 60 months! Both spending some time in oak barrels, which give it
an added layer of flavour and complexity.If you’d like to see what wines we tasted this
month or are interested in coming along to the club please take a look at our website. You need no
knowledge of wine, just an interest in trying it!!
Next month we have Nicholas Corfe from Go Brazil taking us through some exceptional wines from
Brazil. I hope you can join us on Wednesday 16th October at the village hall at 8:00 pm

This season will be the Wine Club’s 20th
anniversary, and it continues to represent a core
part of our village. The season starts at 8pm on 18th
September with the usual formalities of an AGM
but will quickly move on to our first theme,
busting some myths about wine. We are going to
take a light-hearted look at some popular myths
about wine and check them out ourselves. Such as.
.. does wine always taste better with age?… Are
screw caps inferior to cork?… and is red wine
healthier than white?
Membership runs from September to June will be
£15 per person; these fees go towards the hire of
the hall and subsidising the wine and food we have
each month. If you would like to “try before you
buy” and/or know someone who would like to
come along to the Wine Club and try an evening
out before joining, non-members can join us for
up to 2 meetings per year by paying a £5
supplement in addition to that month’s meeting
fees. If you know anyone who might be interested,
please do let them know!

Most monthly meetings, we have some members from our committee
talking about wine, often with a story that in weaved in-between each
wine that cleverly links the theme and the evening together. Several times
each year however, we invite external speakers to come and tell us about
their wine. This month saw the return of Tim and Jill North, from Joie de
Vin, an on-line wine business they set up over 10 years ago. They specialise
in going over to France and finding small producers, who often only supply
their local areas due to the small volume of wine they make and convincing
them to sell a few crates so they can bring them back to the UK for us to
try.
There are many hundreds of grape varieties that are used to produce wine.
We could all probably name a dozen or so of the main varieties however,
just because you know a certain grape, don’t assume that it only has one
flavour! Tim took us through some wines to show just that!
By way of an example, our first two wines were from the Chenin Blanc
grape. One wine was made by fermenting the grapes in a steel tank (very
common method for producing lighter, crisp wines) and the second had
spent some of the fermentation process in oak barrels. The difference
was very noticeable – the same grape, from the same region and made by
the same producer but with the influence of oak on the second wine, came
a stronger flavour, with notes of caramel and vanilla that you would expect
form wine that had spent some time in a barrel. You might hear people
referring to these style of wines as being more complex….because they
have had extra processes in production but also because there is more to
the wine…it seems to last longer “on the nose” and there is typically more
flavours you pick up when tasting.
Another example was a Sauvignon Blanc from the Sancerre region in the
north of France. Sancerre has become famous for producing a specific
style of crisp, highly acidic white wine from this grape that reflects the
cooler climates and flint soil where the grapes grow. Just like other
regions you may know such as Rhone and Chateauneuf du Pape, the wine
commands a high value because of it’s regional popularity. Tim had found
one producer that wanted to challenge that particular style. Allowing the
grapes to spend more time during fermentation in contact with the natural
yeast, stems, pips etc (this is known as spending more time on the lees),
the wine took on a totally different complexity and when combined with
some Oak, again produced a much softer wine that many would not have
assumed was from Sancerre.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening, with some excellent wines. So if,
for example you are a person that has said before “I’m an ABC wine
drinker….”Anything But Chardonnay” – I urge you to look again and see if
you can find something a little different (try a Chardonnay from Chablis
for example!) you might just surprise yourself!
Next month we have wines being presented by some of our club members.
It will be a great evening full of why some wines have just become firm
favorites – which rarely has anything to do with how they have been
made! If you would like to come along then all our details can be found
on our website: www.uptonwineclub.co.uk
Ian
UWAC Chairman

For March, we took a look at some exceptional wines but the principal
focus was on looking at what has changed throughout the years…and when
it comes to wine, the impact of what we are drinking, where we are
getting it from and how it has been made really has changed over the
years! We discussed a lot but a few examples of what we covered from the
evening are below.
Prosecco, as a really good example, was not a drink we may even have
heard of when the wine club started nearly 20 years ago. Back then, in the
UK approximately 200,000 bottles per year were being purchased.
Prosecco, was the name of the grape, not just the region and it could be
made anywhere in Italy. It took a few “suggestive” adverts staring Paris
Hilton and the ever-increasing popularity of the sparkling wine, for the
Italians to name the actual grape, Glera and make the Prosecco region a
DOCG classification (quality controlled region that defines how the wine is
made and restricts it from general production). Net result, over
120,000,000 bottles are sold in the UK today!
When it comes to specific wine styles, some of us will be old enough to
remember having a “Hock” or a Liebfraumilch with our Sunday lunches
back in the 70’s and 80’s. Hock was the brand we gave in the UK for
German sweet tasking wines, typically from the Rhine region, which
typically were Riesling. Back then, we described wines with their bottle or
region….a Claret, Burgundy, Blue Nun etc….often these were generic
blends but now we are much more specific, using wine varietals to define
what we like….. a Viognier, Malbec, Pinot Noir etc! Blue Nun was marketed
as something you can drink “right through the meal”, making it very
versatile and available to us all! We have all become a bit more educated
on the wine varieties over the years, even if we didn’t realise it! No more
“Hock” but Riesling has gone on to become a very popular grape we often
ask for in restaurants.
The fact we are producing as much wine as we do in Europe, is in no small
part down to the vines in the New World region of North America! How?
Well, it’s down to a small insect called Phylloxera. This small insect loves
grape vines and whilst it was first identified in the US back in the early 19th
century, it soon spread due to keen botanists in Victorian England bringing
samples of plants back as they visited North America. The vines from
these offshore regions became resistant to the bug but in Europe it wiped
out the vast majority of vines in a very short period of time. The bug lives
on and nearly all the wine you will get from Europe will have come from
vines grafted on to North American root stock to prevent the bug from
decimating the grapes and literally stopping production!
The Upton Wine Club loves tasting wine but will look for the stories
behind many of the wines we taste. There is no expectation of prior
knowledge of wine to come along to an evening, just the interest in trying
some different styles! For April, we are inviting back Tim North from
Joie de Vin, who has spent over 20 years travelling across France to bring
back some exceptional wines we typically wouldn’t find in our local
outlets. If you are interested in coming along, you will find out all the
details on our website www.uptonwineclub.co.uk I hope to see you
there!
Ian
UWAC Chairman

Mention wines from North America and you could be forgiven for going
straight to California. After all, over 80% of wines from this continent
come from this area. To be fair, there are some exceptional wines from
California. Ever since the Paris wine tasting (also known as The Judgement
of Paris) happened in 1976, where the “great” wines from some of France’s
finest chateau’s were sampled against those lesser known, “lesser quality”
grape juices from across the pond. The blind tasting by some of the best
wine critics around found Californian wines to be better and the reputation
has stood the test of time!
This evening, we did sample some fine wines from California but also tried
to widen our palates by searching further afield, where we found some
exceptional wines. If you are seeking North American wines, you will most
likely come across American Viticultural Area (AVA’s). This is a little bit
like the Appellation areas we hear about in European wines. They are
areas awarded by the state that define, the area, soil type and some
restrictions on where grapes are grown, so a level of quality control can be
given over the wine produced. Look out for this as it will give you some
level of consistency on the wine you are buying. That said there are 100’s
of AVA’s across America.
We had around 40 members from the village join us this month, which was
great to see. To be fair there were favourite wines from across the
continent but a few worth noting included a great opening wine from North
Washington State, a Chenin Blanc from Kiona winery. With long hot days
ripening the grape, this wine had a lovely sweetness but due to excessive
heat the grapes created an acidy that is unusual in these wines. Seriously
worth trying if you like your hors d’oeuvres or sea food! Equally
favourable was a Pinot Noir from the Skolo Blosser estate in Dundee Hills,
Oregon. Oregon has a reputation for high quality wines, with around 60%
of the region’s wines coming from the Pinot grape. If you like this grape
and want to move away from France or New Zealand, then this is definitely
worth a try.
Last but by no means least, we finished with an ice wine from Pelee island,
Canada. Vidal grapes are left on the vine whilst the temperature drops to
just below -8 degrees C. They are then picked, and gently crushed to
extract a very sweet juice, which is then made into an incredibly rich,
sweet tasting wine. This is an expensive wine but worth every penny. Try
it with some strong blue cheese or any sweet dessert!
For more information on the wines we tried or if you would like to come
along to our next evening (8-10pm on the 20th March), where we will be
trying wines from across the ages, please visit our website:
www.uptonwines.com
Hope to see you there!
Ian (Chairman)