Saturday 4th October Tastings

We had two tastings on Saturday afternoon. A family birthday and a hen party.

I looked after the birthday group and Ifor looked after the hens.

Although two of my lot had been before, they had (well, she had) er... forgotton enough of the episode to warrant a return visit, this time bringing her brother, celebrating his birthday, and her father, presumably to keep order.

We started with the Cuvee Prestige Champagne from Jeanneau-Robin. Unlike his other cuvees that we have, this one is made mostly with Chardonnay (80%) with the remainder being Pinot Noir. Soft, smooth and light in style and really delicious. We then tasted the crisp Muscadet de Sevre et Maine made from very old vines, then the slightly fuller Sauvignon Blanc of Menetou-Salon and then the Chablis 1er Cru Fourchaumes from Oliveira. The reds followed: a Beaune-Greves 1er Cru, an old vine Crozes-Hermitage (fabulous 100% Syrah), a Merlot based Lalande de Pomerol and finally a Rioja Reserva. We finished the tasting with the Sauternes.

Happy birthday, Simon, and thanks for celebrating the day with us, and also thanks for your kind email.

Ifor's group were accomodated in the shop, meanwhile, tasting their way through a range of French and Italian wines. Different variations of Sauvignon-Blanc (some being blends and some being 100%) showing a range of styles. The reds included the popular "Le Ponce" from Escaravailles, Le Papesse di Papiano and Chateau Croix de Rambeau. Many thanks for coming along for your tasting and good luck for the bride to be.

Cheers.

Charles

Busy Week for the Tasting Room

Last week was great. We did four tastings, all very different, on top of a busy trade and retail week.

We had our second visit to the local Officers' Mess on Wednesday evening, a Members' Languedoc Tasting on Thursday evening and then two birthday party tastings, one on Friday and one on Saturday.

The photo shows the Saturday tasting celebrating Ruth's birthday.

Ifor looked after Ben's birthday party on the Friday. Very nice to welcome back some of his guests to the Tasting Room, as they had previously been for one of our Malt Whisky tastings. Charles was host to Ruth's party, again seeing a few familiar faces from a previous tasting given by Ifor. So many happy returns to you!

We at the Tasting Room have said on many occasions that we are blessed with the people who come here. They are always a really nice lot and our groups last week were certainly no exception, so thank you for choosing us to host your events.

Should you be thinking of coming to the Tasting Room to hold a tasting event and would like to know more, click on the link.

Until the next round, Cheers!

Saturday 6th September Tasting

We've had a busy August with every week-end booked with tastings.

Will's been on a wine-search trip (more about that next month) and I've been on holiday, so it was mostly down to Ifor to give the tastings.

We received the following snippet in a recent letter regarding one of them:

"Just a quick note to say many thanks for our tasting on Saturday. We had a great time and the wine selection was brilliant, once again.

Ifor - your knowledge is second to none, and we're all getting better at finding wines we actually like!....."

Well, (my) holidays are over, the kids are back at school and it's still lousy weather so we were really pleased in welcoming Andrea and her friends (and Mum) to the Tasting Room last Saturday to brighten us all up.

Most of them had never been to a wine tasting before but it emerged that a few had been to visit vineyards either in this country or in France. This was a great mix of knowledge as it fired more questions and discussions during the afternoon. The rose from Grande Cassagne in the Costieres de Nimes tasted well, not too strawberryish and with a depth nearer to a light red. The Cotes du Rhone Villages Vieilles Vignes from Les Aphillanthes proved popular with its smooth rich and slightly spicy flavours and long-lasting warming finish. Gorgeous for this gloomy wet and windy weather. Some of the ladies even conceded that "dessert" wines can be really delicious after tasting our popular Jurancon from Clos Thou, especially with the blue cheese.

Andrea, thanks for choosing the Tasting Room for your celebration, I hope that your evening out after you left us was great fun. Good luck for the 27th September and way beyond!

Cheers

Charles

Busy Week of Tastings at the Tasting Room

Last week we had five seperate tasting events which was fantastic.

Nick's group on Wednesday evening hosted by Will,

Douglas' party on Thursday evening hosted by Ifor,

A hen party of beautiful girls on Friday evening (see photo) hosted by Charles

and on Saturday we had two tastings:

Jon's dozen or so 'Southsea Irelanders' - a group of ex-university friends who still regularly meet up, either for long distance trips with wives and girlfriends or for week-ends away. This Level 3 event was here at the Tasting Room during the afternoon, hosted by Charles.

Ifor, meanwhile, disappeared into the countryside to give a tasting to Elaine's hen party at their rented cottage near Coalpit Heath.

Best regards and thanks to all those present at these tastings and congratulations and good luck to the forthcoming wedding parties.

Cheers

New Champagne Jeaunaux-Robin

We've taken delivery of our new 'house' Champagne, which we are very excited about.

Jeaunaux-Robin is a family business based in Talus-St-Prix, a small village 20 miles south of Epernay. They are everything that we were looking for:-

1. We loved all the cuvees which taste wonderful

2. We liked their sound, traditional, winemaking techniques (viticultural and vinification)

3. We apprediated their terrific value for money. No easy thing in this day and age of poor exchange rates (for us anyway) and transport costs.

The range starts off with their Brut 'Carte Noire' (£17.95) - a blend of Pinot Meunier (70%) and Pinot Noir (30%) - a deliciously round style, dry but not that cheek-puckeringly dry style you sometimes find. Easy drinking. Their Brut 'Selection' (£19.50) has 10% Chardonnay in the blend. Again, due to the prominence of black grapes used, rich fruit flavours and slightly higher acidity. Commended by the Guide Hachette and the Gilbert & Gaillard Guide. Their Rose (£21.50), with the same blend as the 'Selection', is deliciously fruity.

These Champagnes are all available from the Tasting Room website or by visiting our shop or indeed by phoning us on 01225 463 392.

Cheers.

Mike Smith's Party 21st June 2008

Last Saturday afternoon we hosted one of Mike's many stag events. They arrived straight from quad biking and a pub lunch.
We tasted a sparkling 'methode Traditionelle' from the Loire, a couple of whites, one rose and three reds. With flowing enthusiasm, they allowed themselves to taste some malt whiskies as well!
A good afternoon's tasting.
Best of luck Mike.

Lucy Pateman's Party 14th June 2008

There was a great party atmosphere during the afternoon at the Tasting Room, when Lucy and her friends came for a tasting during her hen week-end.

The time raced by as we went through the list of wines including the old vine Muscadet, the full-on Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc and the delicate Sancerre Rose.

We wish her a long and happy married life.

Week-end Tastings 18/19 April

We had two tastings last week-end. First one was on Friday evening for a group of 16 friends and the second, on Saturday evening, was for a dozen friends. I didn't remember my camera on Friday, so the image here is of the Saturday group.

Both sessions were driven by their enthusiasm and questioning, which is always very welcome and encouraged.

Louise Pate's Tasting - 12th April

Louise and 10 other ladies came for a tasting last Saturday afternoon. They started with our Michel Weynand Blanc de Blancs Champagne, then Taittinger Champagne and then Prosecco. Each of them had their fans. Domaine des Escaravaille's Rose came next. The red came from Pierrette Cravero at Domaine Gabelas in St. Chinian. Her new vintage of Cuvee Juliette. This showed wonderful promise. Still pretty firm tannins, but good depth of fruit behind.

Despite a lot of them not having attended a tasting before, the group were extremely keen to learn and discuss which made it very enjoyable for us.

Good luck to Louise and also good luck to the expectant mums-to-be (who 'tasted' a few different soft drinks).

We received the following messages from Louise and Alison (the organiser):

"I just wanted to say a massive Thank You from myself and all the other girls who joined me for a wine tasting at the Tasting Rooms on Saturday 12th April. It was part of my hen weekend and really did make the weekend for us all! We thought it was excellent value for money, very interesting and thoroughly enjoyable. You made us all feel very welcome and able to ask questions and pass comments on the different wines. I’m hoping we will be ordering some wine from you soon and am sure we will be back in the future – possibly with our partners next time! Thank you so much for spending such a long time with us on the day and talking us through each of the wines we tasted. The food was also delicious and there was so much of it! The girls who had non-alcoholic drinks said they all enjoyed the experience, the drinks were lovely and they felt very much part of the whole experience so thank you for including them throughout.

I’m sure we will all be recommending the Tasting Rooms to our friends and family and hope to see you in the future. "

"I just wanted to let you know that we had an amazing time at the Tasting Rooms. All the girls thoroughly enjoyed the wines and the talk you were giving to us. The afternoon was fabulous – great homemade food and wine and lots of interesting tips and information from yourself."

Thank you both for the kind words.

Bath University Wine Society Tasting

Long established wine society booked us for a tasting on Tuesday 8th April. This was held at Bath University and was attended by about 20 members.

The tasting, consisting of nine wines, started with the sparking Ceravolo Brut Cuvee and two of the wines were tasted 'blind'. The star of the evening was the rich Pic St Loup, T'Em T'Em, from the rising star, Fabien Reboul of Chateau Valflaunes.

One of the wines shown blind was the Sancerre Rose 2007 from Paul Prieur. This proved very difficult to guess due to the amazingly expressive floral fruit (pinot noir) on the nose and palate.

Wines of interest were the white Bandol from Alain Pascal (see posting below), white Chateauneuf du Pape from Domaine Cote de l'Ange and the biodynamically produced Cotes-du-Rhone from Daniel Boulle at Domaine les Aphillanthes.

Click here to learn more about the Tasting options available or to find out how we can tailor an event for your Company or wine society.

Robert Parker Praise for Red Bandol

Alain Pascal, at Domaine du Gros'Nore, has received high praise (91 points) from the Wine Advocate for his 2004 red Bandol.

"Alain Pascal’s 2004 is a blend of 80% Mouvedre, 12% Grenache, 5% Cinsault and 2% Carignan and aged for 18 months in oak barrels. A very ripe, lush, prune-scented nose with creme de cassis, kirsch and fig. Has a hedonistic attraction to it. Rich with a lot of glycerine, very powerful and rather ostentatious but with good acidity cutting through thick layers of sweet black fruits. Persistent, luscious finish. Great length and a great, vivacious Bandol. "

His wine can be found here at the Tasting Room.

Cheers

Single Malt Whisky Tasting - 29th February 2008

After getting a number of very keen enquiries from some of our Club members and regular customers, we held another Single Malt Whisky Tasting last Friday evening.

Well attended by a group of a couple of dozen malt whisky fans, some being beginners and some being well-informed keen enthusiasts.

We showed the following malts, mostly from the independent bottler, Signatory:

• Yamazaki - 12yr old - Kansai District, Japan


• Mortlach 1991 - 16yr old - Highland


• Ardmore 1990 - 17yr old Cask Strength - Speyside


• Glen Scotia 1992 - 14yr old - Cambeltown


• Highland Park 1991 - 16yr old (un-chillfiltered) - Island


• Caol Ila 1996 - 11yr old (un-chillfiltered) - Islay

The guests were welcomed with a glass of bubbly (a clean fresh sparkling Loire Sauvignon Blanc made in the same way as Champagne which prepared the palate very well) and a brief introduction before being invited to 'nose' the range of malts. The Yamazaki from Japan's oldest distillery near Kyoto (started in 1923) was first shown here some months ago and it has proved very popular for its slightly sweet light style.

The tasters on this occasion were looking for something more intense, though. The Mortlach, where William Grant worked as a clerk before building Glenfiddich nearby and Glen Scotia, one of the few remaining distilleries from the Kintyre Peninsula were both marked in similar fashion; good all-rounders with some very keen but the next three certainly stole the show.

The Ardmore 1990 Cask Strength - A massive, full-flavoured, intense, smoky malt from South eastern Speyside that some found was better without water even at 59.5%alc.

Highland Park, Scotlands most northerly distillery from Orkney, with its wonderful complex flavours of heather and peat was unanimously popular. The favourite malt shown at the tasting had to be the fabulous Caol Ila. This was the 46%alc un-chillfiltered version (Most whiskies sold will have been through this chillfiltering process which by stripping out some fatty acids allows the liquid to be chilled or added to ice without it going cloudy. Therefore the somewhat heavy term 'un-chillfiltered' means that it is more natural, having been through fewer processes, and will turn hazy or cloudy when very cold.) This clean peated pure malt was pretty well everyone's favourite.

Our whiskies can be found on the Whisky section of the Tasting Room website or by coming in to visit us. We've still got a little left in the bottles.

Cheers!

Charles

O’Leary Walker Tasting

We have the privilege of welcoming David O’Leary from the renowned Australian wine producer O’Leary Walker – based at Leasingham in the Clare Valley - this is a wonderful opportunity to meet one of the most progressive winemakers to appear out of Oz.

David graduated from Roseworthy Agricultural College in 1980. He spent a year in Tasmania working for Heemskerk Wines before joining Chateau Reynella in 1981. He was appointed group red winemaker for Hardy's in 1990 and held that role until joining Mildara Blass in 1994.
At Mildara Blass, he held senior winemaking roles at Quelltaller Estate in the Clare Valley where he launched Annies Lane and at Mildara's Coonawarra winery. During his time with Hardy's and Mildara Blass, he also made wine in France and California.

David has achieved considerable in his twenty years of making wine. A Jimmy Watson Trophy in 1988 and twice International Red Winemaker of The Year (1992 and 1994) sit proudly along with numerous other trophies and gold medals. David's goals have never changed; he simply wants to make great wine.

We currently list a number of wines from their portfolio but will be showing a more extensive range to taste on the evening of Friday 8th, commencing at 5pm until 7.30pm. This tasting is free for members but if you are interested in meeting the winemaker and tasting from his excellent range then please contact us to book a place.

Cheers!!

Will