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Portuguese 'wine club' taste-off! 

29/8/2016

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Wine from Portugal....not one that many people head straight towards but there is a lot of really delicious wine coming from here at the moment. So, on my hols this year I decided to pit online wine club wines against one I bought in a wine shop to see which really hit the spot. All three wines we tasted were slightly different blends but all had the staple grape of Portugal, Touriga Nacional, somewhere in the mix. This grape is a full bodied lovely - a bit like Cabernet Sauvignon and works well in all sorts of blends. It's also eminently drinkable!    
The first wine we tasted, the Galodoro, (£6.99) is from Naked Wines which is a fab company. I have been a customer of theirs for years and their ethos is just fantastic. (More on wine clubs in my next blog posts but this one is a real fave and well worth the wait to join!) This one is a blend of 3 Portuguese grapes and Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine was a gorgeous deep ruby red and smelt of bramble and oak. On drinking this was an absolute pleasure and in fact my favourite of the three. Really well balanced and smooth with tons of juicy cherry and blackberry flavours. An absolute treat.
The second, Alta Corte (£7.99) from Rude Wines was a funny old thing. Again a blend of grapes which included Touriga Nacional. A slightly more intense blood red and still very deep coloured, the nose was amazing....bramble, fig, leather, spice and oak promising a beauty of a wine....which it sort of failed to deliver on. The taste was fine, smooth and balanced, a touch of fig and cherry but really not up to the gorgeous bouquet. If I'd have tasted this on it's own I think I would have really enjoyed it but it paled a little compared to the other two.
Our third and final wine as the Ciconia (c £9.99), the only wine with Touriga Nacional as the main grape in the blend with added Tempranillo and Shiraz. I bought this from the absolutely wonderful  Bodnant Wine Cellar  (well worth a visit, great range and lovely staff, if you're around North Wales) but it's a bottle which can be found in quite a few places. Once again a lovely deep and intense ruby red colour and a nose of oak and spice with very little fruit but then on the palate this was super-fruity with some lovely raspberry notes coming through. 
Portuguese wine is a perfect pairing with cheese and indeed we polished off our bottles with an amazing cheese/charcuterie platter. I would fully urge you to go out and try a bottle if you haven't done already. You won't be disappointed; some gorgeous wine and generally extremely good value. Snap some up before others get in on it :-)
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Teaching Teachers!

30/6/2016

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So this week I was booked for a tasting by a group of people who work in a secondary school; some teachers, some admin staff. I will admit to being rather nervous about guiding such a knowledgeable bunch though the world of wine. However, once we got started my fears were a distant memory; what a lovely and intelligent bunch they were. Keen senses of humour and eager to soak up knowledge (and alcohol!). 
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The highlight of the tasting, for me, was our white wine tasting. We were comparing a lovely light Picpoul de Pinet and a rather more heavyweight Gewurztraminer (both available from the wonderful people at Majestic). Most of the group had not heard of either wine so it was lovely to introduce them to these vastly different grapes. The Picpoul was tasted first and there were loud exclamations that people could smell cheese and much laughter before we decided that we could also smell lovely fresh citrus fruit. Once in the mouth everyone was pleasantly surprised. From such a fragrant wine the taste was crisp, light and extremely refreshing. On swilling like true connoisseurs there was a magical taste of green apple peel and the group agreed with me that this wine makes a lovely and refreshing change to yet another Sauvignon Blanc.
The Gewurtztraminer caused even more uproar. A massively perfumed and floral nose which caused many of the group to assume they wouldn't like it at all. On tasting, however, they were shocked by the dryness but fruity flavour. One taster proclaimed it to be 'lychee in a glass'. I love introducing people to this wine because it's such a love it/hate it one (Marmite anyone?) but there's no denying that if you like Thai or Moroccan food there are few wines better to pair with them, in my opinion. For many of tonight's group this was their favourite wine of the night! 
​I loved the fact that this group were so pleased to have learned things and some were voracious in their note-taking. If you would like to book me for a tasting I would love to teach you something, no matter what your prior knowledge. Please do contact me using the button below! 

What a lovely night. Thank you so much people! 
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Orange wine! 

21/5/2016

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A few weeks ago I was chatting to a work colleague and his lovely partner about wine. On hearing that I knew a little bit about the subject they were keen to tell me about an 'orange wine' that they had tried but they were unsure what it was. I explained the process to them then confessed that I hadn't tried any myself. Last night they came round for a meal and, in the most perfect-guesty way possible, brought me a couple of bottles to try. Fantastic!

You will have to excuse me if you know a little, or a lot, of what I am about to say but it's important to understand that this wine, firstly, is NOT made of oranges! Let's look at the basics of wine-making. White wine is made with any grape, any colour and it is only the juice of the grapes that is fermented and so any colour which may be on the skins does not appear in the wine. Red wine is made of red grapes and the juice is left in contact with the skins. This adds lots of things to the wine, colour is the most obvious one but it also adds body and texture and tannins (these produce the gum-drying experience you have after drinking red wine, or tea!). Some red grapes with thin skins produce light intensity of colour - like Pinot Noir for example; some are big hefty grapes with dark colour and thick skins - step forward Cab Sav. Now orange wine is made with white grapes but, and here's the exciting twist, the juice is left in contact with the skins (and the pips and stalks and all) to produce an extremely unusual white wine which has body and texture. Generally these wines are from Georgia and are made in Kvevris, these are massive earthen pots which are buried underground while the fermenting takes place. They are also lined with beeswax which, I think, effects the taste of the wine.


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Let's be straight. This wine would be VERY disappointing if you were expecting a lovely refreshing white and you didn't know what you were buying. However, with the knowledge you now have from the paragraph above you are ready to taste with real interest and understanding. The nose is really unusual, there is quince and apricot along with a sort of honeyed sweetness. When you first taste you notice the tannins straight away. They are full frontal and so unexpected! The taste, for me, has a lovely honeyed tone - almost like mead - but there is also some apricot and a sort of mentholly bite at the back of the throat.


This is not the most complex of wines but is refreshing and hearty at the same time. I'm led to believe that it's not the best example of orange wine you can buy; however it does have the advantage of being, I think I'm right in saying, the ONLY example that you can readily buy in a Supermarket - the lovely M&S. Do go out and buy some and let me know what you think! Now I just need to source the brandy that, apparently, is made from the rescued skin, pips and stalks at the end of the process - yum! ​
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Canary Wine

23/4/2016

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My lovely best friend has just returned from what looked like an amazing holiday, judging from the photos. She went to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands which, most of you may know, is volcanic with an amazing landscape. Although I'm fairly well-travelled I have never been to the Canaries at all so imagine how pleased I was when she came to see me last week clutching a bottle of the local red. She knows me too well! 
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We tasted this while my friend showed me photos of the vineyard. What a facsinating place! These are 'lava fields' which are made up from gravel like lava rock. They are so exposed and windy that the amazing old vines are protected by little personal walls. These are vines which have know no disease and look to be supremely well cared for. 


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The wine that was grown here is from the Listan grape. Again another first for me having never drunk wine from the region or this grape. Excitement! 

On pouring this wine is extremely light in colour .The nose is extremely distinctive and I'd not really smelled anything like it before. There is a massive red fruit hit on first sniff, raspberry and cherry but there are also some smells like leather and tobacco and a sort of musty note. I'm pretty sure that this must be the fascinating soil it's grown in adding its fabulous USP. The taste is red fruit heavy, as you might expect after the sniff and there's a real hint of strawberry at the fore. The body is lovely and light - I think you could stand to chill this, not that we did. We were enjoying it far too much for that. The real winner for this wine is the mineral/stony flavour which almost presents itself as a slight fizz on the tongue. 

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I literally found every sip of this wine interesting. If you're going on holiday to Lanzarote anytime soon I would heartily recommend sampling a bit of this very individual little number! 
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(with thanks to my friend for the lovely photo!)
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Sainsburys Vs Co-op (Cotes du Rhone)

28/3/2016

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So, I do my usual food shop at Sainsburys but have always thought that the Co-op is fantastic for wines so this month I thought I'd pit a couple of their entry level Cotes de Rhone against each other to see how they fare, both around the seven quid area! Have you seen that advert recently, 'Think Red, think Cotes du Rhone'? If you live in London it's on lots of buses and, I have to say, it's one that has really struck a chord with me because I genuinely think that a Cotes du Rhone blend is one of the best there is. In the wine world it's often called GSM and is a blend of some variation of Grenache, Syrah and Mouvedre. It's a fab, and extremely drinkable blend and one that is supremely food-friendly. It's also a wine which you can buy at entry level and will often impress most people on a blind test (at a party/dinner party etc) because it's such a yummy - well tested blend. So, how do UK supermarkets go with this versatile and usual-winner blend? Let's get to it. 

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The first one we tested was from Sainsburys. The wine I chose is from a huge wine producer who accounts for 30% of the total production of the area. I was hoping this was a good sign. Alas, I was wrong! The colour, on pouring, was a little strange...looking like Ribena in the glass. The nose was not pronounced at all and we had  ridiculous time all swirling manically and sniffing profusely. We got plum, blackcurrant, wood and leather but these were hard-earned aromas which worried us a little. In terms of the basics of the wine this is medium bodied and the tannins are a little too heavy (read - your tongue will feel a bit furry on first taste) but more worryingly there was so little to actually taste. The wine was predominantly bitter with very little fruit to taste and we were left a little disappointed if truth be told.  

Our second wine was a Grencahe-heavy Cotes du Rhone from the Co-op. As we poured it out this was a little lighter in colour but the nose was instantly better. Not much swirling necessary to gain lovely aromas of leather, spice, cassis, cherry and even a cheeky chocolately whiff. On tasting this was obviously both smoother and much better balanced. Again medium bodied, as one would expect, but the taste was really nice. We got cherry, pepper, a hint of bitterness (but nothing like the Sainsburys version) and an aftertaste of vanilla. This was a delicious, and well priced, wine which we all chose to pair with the lamb roast we had cooked: and I must say it paired very well. 

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As a footnote then, Co-op clearly wins in this particular tasting. Both wines are similar price but the La Grange St Martin is so vastly superior that it's a bit of a worry! Do try them and let me know what you think. I'd love to hear your views. ​
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Something Different

29/2/2016

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I'm only just getting in my February blog post, it's been a bit of a month and much of my wine consumption seems to have been self-medicating rather than professional, hehe. This month, however, has seen some excitement in the form of me finding a wine that I had never heard of!  

I'm not an habitual M&S shopper but enticed by a 20% off 3 or more bottles I thought I'd have a browse when I came across this little lovely made from a grape I knew absolutely nothing about. Not only was this intreging from that point of view but also from the point of view that it was a Sicilian wine and I do know that they are producing more and more lovely wines over there! 

When I poured out the wine it was an amazing colour. Bright ruby red but extremely light in intensity of colour so it almost looked like cranberry juice or something similar. What I hadn't realised was that this grape always produces gorgeous light bodied and juicy wine.

The nose to this wine is full of cherries and red fruit with a pleasing sweetness like candied fruit. The taste is gorgeous with strawberry, raspberry and cherry but a touch of something like lavender which stopped it being too much like sweeties! It has a light body, light tannins and is gorgeously refreshing. It's one that I think even people who usually prefer white wine might enjoy.
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My fellow tasters and I thought that this wine was gorgeous as we drank it; on its own, however I suspect that it would be lovely chilled as well. It would certainly be fantastic with a burger - I think I may have found a new barbeque favourite in plenty of time before summer arrives! You can find it  here but I have also found bottles at Tesco - untried as yet but I think I'll definitely be giving them a go too!  Let me know if you try one first, I hope it's as good as the one above! 

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Tasting as Christmas Presents

24/1/2016

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This weekend I have been to the home of a lovely lady. She decided that her wonderful friends needed something a bit different for Christmas this year and so had booked and paid for a tasting for the 5 of them and written the date in their Christmas Cards. What a fantastic idea! Thank goodness none of the ladies were indulging in anything so anti-wine as Dry January so we had a whistle-stop tour through 2 fizz, 2 white and 2 red. Since, for many, it was their first experience of wine tasting we also went through the basics of tasting for each type of wine discussing appearance, nose, body, tannins, acidity and flavours.


Perhaps the highlight of the night, in terms of wine, were the two reds we finished with. The first was an absolutely lovely little gem from the Co-op called Zalze.  It's a new world red meaning that it has all the punchy flavours you expect from a South African wine. However, the really interesting thing about this wine is that it's basically a Rhone blend (Shiraz and Mouvedre) but instead of Grenache or Cinsault finishing it off it has Viognier, a white grape, lending it lightness, smoothness and a really interesting flavour. We'd just sampled a Viognier on it's own at this point in the evening so it was interesting to compare how little it could be tasted in this big, juicy red. The wine was smooth but really fruity with plum, blackcurrant and a hint of red fruit too. There was a hint of oak adding a grown-up feel to the wine. Generally it was extremely well recieved and since it's usually in the region of £8 from your local Co-op it's well worth a taste. 



We then finished the evening off with a gorgeous wine by Christian Patat called Appassimento. Unfortunately this is only available from Naked Wines, if you like wine thougth it's definitely worth checking them out. A fantastic company with a brilliant ethos which makes me smile every time I order from them...and their wine is fabulous too! Appassimento is a style of winemaking in which the winemakers use semi-dry grapes (this is used in the making of Amarone too). This gives the wine a rich, jammy, raisiny feel in the mouth and tricks your palate into thinking that there is sweetness there - almost like Port. This wine didn't disappoint, smoky and full of cherry, plum, fig and raisin flavours it was a gorgeous end to a relaxed and fun night. 

If you would like to treat one (or more) of your friends to a wine tasting, or even a voucher, please do get in touch if you are in the London area. We'd love to help! 
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Skype Tasting!

24/11/2015

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So, one of my very good friends had bought two wines from Argentina just to try them and wanted me to help guide her through them - the problem being she lives a good 250 miles away from me. 
Thanks to the wonderful Co-op (do go and browse their wine section, it's lovely! http://www.co-operativefood.co.uk/groceries/wine/) I bobbed down and bought the exact same bottles as her and we had a fantastic time drinking wine 'together'. 
The first wine was a Merlot. This was the Co-op's own Fairtrade version and a 2014 vintage. We found this eminently quaffable. A lovely brick red in colour with a spicy and plummy nose. The taste was extremely refreshing for a red. Quite light in body and more acidity than tannins this was a wine that didn't really need food and can just be guzzled on a week night (good price too!) There is vanilla and cherry on the palate with a really sweet, fruity taste. Definitely worth a buy. 
The second was the Hereford Tempranillo/Malbec. This is a lovely light red in colour and hits you with a very grown up nose - cherry, leather, vanilla and a hint of boiled sweet. The taste is also grown up. Well balanced, with lovely grippy tannins, a real savoury note with hits of tobacco but with tons of black fruit too. This wine is a real find and I totally recommend you go and buy a bottle. 
On the night of the tasting I actually preferred the first, Merlot, - I was definitely in the mood to quaff. However we had the Tempranillo/Malbec the next night with our dinner of beef and good lord, what a find :-)  

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Cheeky Champagne Tasting

9/4/2015

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So, this week I've had my best friend down to stay for a few days so I decided to do a cheeky private tasting for just me, her and hubby! I've been hankering to taste a Blanc de Noir Champagne next to a Blanc de Blanc Champagne for quite a while now and this seemed like the perfect excuse. The difference between these two are the grapes used. There are only three allowed grapes for the production of champagne. One white - chardonnay - and two red - pinot noir and pinot meunier. Most Champagne wines are a blend of the three in varying measures, however a Blanc de Blanc uses only the white grape and a Blanc de Noir only the red.

So we decided to go for Sainsbury's own brand Champagne, mainly because they're so readily available and because it would be a real straight comparison between the two. Blanc de Noir & Blanc de Blanc. Plus the bottles look lovely together.  

So we started with the Blanc de Blanc, this was pale lemon in colour with small persistent bubbles. It smelt delicious with lots of apples and apricot but also a lovely vanilla note too. We found it supremely refreshing with a gorgeous dry, zingy flavour that had apple and peachy notes. Moving onto the Blanc de Noir there was an instant difference in appearance with a definite straw colour and a little less fizz. I loved the fact that this smelt of cherry and strawberry; a pleasant suprose since it's absolutely not what you expect from a white wine. The taste was lovely too, lots of biscuity and creamy flavour with a strawberry tang and really lovely acidity. For me this was the winner of the night; an elegant, round flavour which lingered. However I loved the fact that best friend much preferred the Blanc de Blanc as what she called a 'very quaffable fizz'. 

Needless to say the three of us managed to finish both bottles with ease and a great night was had by all. Definitely a fantastic way to spend a Wednesday evening! Why not try it yourself? Let me know what you thought! 


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Double Tasting Day!

21/3/2015

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My first ever double tasting day. Very tired but happy.

My afternoon began in a lovely pub/restaurant in Clapham (22 North Street). Downstairs, like something straight out of 'Alice in Wonderland', was a bookcase which opens to reveal a gorgeous private dining room perfect for 12 people - also a perfect number for a wine tasting in my opinion! 


The birthday boy, Peter, had a truly lovely set of friends who were ready to have a laugh but also willing to learn a wee bit too. I had previously spoken to Peter about the type of tasting he would like and he had some brilliant ideas. We started the tasting with fizz (Peter had already told me that his friend drank gallons of Prosecco!), a Prosecco and a Cava to learn the difference between the two both in terms of production and taste. Peter  This split the group in half with some self-confessed proseccophiles turning to Cava when given the two in close succession. 

We moved onto 'unusual' whites. We had a new world Gewurtztraminer followed by a Loire Vouvray (when I was chatting to Peter about whites he told me that he HAD to have Vouvray just because he found the name so ridiculous :-))  The group were interested in both wines with most people having discovered neither of these types. My particular favourite part was a lovely comment on a tasting sheet saying "A white wine I like?" next to the Vouvray. Literally the entire reason I am in this business, made my heart smile!


Finally we finished with two French reds. I wanted to dispel the mystery of the French wine bottle so we tasted a young Rhone and a mature Bordeaux so that we could also discover the tastes associated with aging. Our mature Bordeaux was an absolute knockout (Chateau Tour du Haut Moulin - available from Majestic) and such a fabulous end to a great tasting. My thanks go to Peter and all his lovely friends.


Hotfooting it over to East London I then ran a tasting for a group of ladies from the London Philharmonic Choir. A more intimate tasting, just the five ladies and a really interesting mix of knowledge about wine. Tess, who organised the tasting, had asked me for a basic introduction to both red and white wine with a view to doing something a little more specific at future tastings (Yay Tess!) We started with white. A lovely crisp Sauvignon Blanc was followed by a floral delicate Gewurtztraminer and finally a cracking example of the, much maligned, full-bodied Chardonnay. Some of the ladies present were expecting not to like the Chardonnay (a common complaint) but we all agreed that it was a lovely, elegant and complex wine and not the over-oaked monstrosity that some were anticipating. (Bourgogne Chardonnay).


Then we cracked out the cheese in order to do the full gamut of reds. From a light, fruity Pinot Noir through to a chewy, full-bodied, Malbec via a quaffable Cote du Rhone since Tess is a big fan of Aussie Shiraz so I wanted to show her the more delicate flavours of the same grape (Syrah) in a French blend.


The night was an absolute hoot and I confess we may have finished off a few of the bottles after the tasting was over.


Many thanks to both Peter and Tess for booking tastings with Through the Grapevine. If you fancy booking one yourself please do visit the website and get in touch, I'd love to see you!

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    Erica - company director, wine newbie (relative...) and lifelonglearner. 

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