A little bit of normality
LASt Friday I had the absolute pleasure of hosting my first face-to-face wine tasting of 2022. My buddy Kate organised an end of tax year knee’s up – serious tasting – for her colleagues at investment management company Brewin Dolphin.
I was tasked with choosing all French wines, an unusual and welcome request as most go for multiple countries including ‘New World’ where the labels are peppered with the grape varieties – a useful device that has surely added to wine’s appeal to the masses.
It gave me an opportunity to theme the event around the spiritual home of nearly all styles of wines... France.
Starting with fizz, a vintage Champagne took centre stage. I then presented a Pouilly-Fumé from the Loire Valley to give an option to fans of New World sauvignon blanc.
Chardonnay was next up with a rather marvellous white Burgundy, showing elegance and power in equal measure.
Rosé was a no-brainer, with a fine Provence pink a mile away from that sugary stuff we used to drink in the ’90s. And took the vote as the favourite wine of the evening – it was rather lovely.
A malbec from the southern France region of Cahors wowed them, with some guests believing malbec originally came from Argentina – another lesson learnt.
Finally the popular GSM wines from Australia are effectively trying to ape the wines of the Rhône Valley, namely Gigondas – so, a blockbuster to finish with.
It was a really fun evening and nobody fell asleep while I was ‘performing’... well not that I noticed anyway.
to carry on the theme of the tasting I’m going to go the other way and give a couple of alternatives to white Burgundy and Bordeaux.
From the excellent trefethen Family Vineyard range comes their ESHCOL 2020 CHARDONNAY (£20, Daniel Lambert Wines Ltd, Bridgend).
Pronounced loamy mineral kick across the crisp green fruits on the nose kick things off.
In the mouth more peachy