After deferring
the honour a couple of times, Emma and I finally managed to get around to
hosting a Wine on Wednesday. The theme for the evening would be the classic
choice for wine novices like us: bottles that we thought looked pretty! This
lead to two quite unexpected consequences:
1. All of the wines we chose were from France,
Italy and Portugal. New world wines seem to have less appealing labels!
2. A number of the regular Wine on Wednesday attendees are
massive typography geeks. Who knew that kerning could spark such heated debate…
Without further ado, here is a list of the wines:
White 1:
Italian Orvieto Classico 2011
(Grechetto) - £8
White 2:
French Pouilly-Fume 2010 (Sauvignon Blanc)
- £14
Bonus
round: French Blush from Aix en
Prevence (grape unknown) - £20 for magnum
Red 1:
Italian Dogajolo Super-Tuscan 2010
(Sangiovese blend with Carbernet) - £10.50
Red 2:
French La Galine Minervois 2009
(Syrah blend with Grenache) - £7.50
Port :
Taylor’s 10-year-old tawny port - £18
The Prosecco, as
Juliet rightly pointed out, is excellent with crisps. An extremely light and
dry fizz, suitable for all manner of snacks and canapés. The favoured white was
the Pouilly-Fume, which was more
complex and better rounded than the Italian Orvieto.
The blush from
Aix was a bit of a disappointment. The lovely colour and nicely embossed label
made promises upon which the wine itself could not deliver! Despite the
slightly nasty taste, we did manage to drink more than half of the magnum: a
testament to the dedication of the group. We’re looking forward to finishing it
so that we can use the bottle as the base for a lamp!
The real highlight of the evening was the
2009 La Galine from Minervois in
Southern France. A really deep flavour accompanied by a great aroma; very cheap
at £7.50 (before discounts - I think we got it for £6.50). Special mention must
also go to the Super-Tuscan for having such an incredible label, but also for
having a wonderful nose and a lovely drinkable texture (although it was a bit
young for Michael’s taste!).
We concluded the
evening with port and cake. Taylor’s 10-year tawny is a great port: it’s got
exactly the right amount of sweetness to compliment all of my favourite
puddings! My dad can make a bottle of this last several Christmases, but our
lack of port glasses and Dan’s determination to serve it in whole pints has
meant that it now sits on my drinks shelf almost depleted!
I’m afraid I
didn’t keep a precise total of the points that I handed out during the evening,
but it’s I think it’s fair to say that the winners were Darren and Nish with
17.5 points each. Michael finished mid-pack with 5 points (after recouping some
early smugness-related losses), and last place was unquestionably Dan with an
impressive -397.
Thank you all for
coming! Looking forward to the next one.
Ben
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