Trio and a selection

My trio were from Aldi as I have been chosen to be a member of their 17th Tasting Panel and our first three tastings arrived earlier this month.

Exquisite Collection Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc
This had a lovely pale pear colour with aromas of crisp fruit. I loved its smooth tropical flavour with lime highlights - great with chicken wrapped in bacon. 

·    Exquisite Collection Plan de Dieu

A lovely dark red Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre wine with a slight nose of bramble fruits and a touch of spice. 

It's mouth is plump with sour cherries, the bramble fruit, a hint of herbiness and a peppery spice. Good body with a lengthy finish, very slight tannin that adds to its depth. 
 

·    Specially Selected Irish Cream Liqueur

This was very creamy with a kick of whisky. I enjoyed it neat, over ice, in my coffee but my favourite was as the topping for my Baby Guinness cocktail. 

My selection was for our end of year wine tasting at Scouts - these events are so popular. Over the 4 years I've been doing them we've certainly developed our palates and wine preferences. 

This time I took advantage of Tesco's 25% off 6 bottles of wine and purchased all twelve in store. I don't have many tasting notes for these as most are wines we've had before so I didn't note anything down. 

Wine tasting selection 

Louis Delaunay Champagne - plenty of bubbles, not too dry, hint of yeast and very very moreish - a great start to any occassion. 

Quirky Bird Chenin Blanc, Semillon, Muscat - a favourite of the groups, light, refreshing, middle range, easy drinking with good depth of flavour.

Quirky Bird Shiraz, Mouvedre, Viognier  - full of fruit, blackberries, smooth in it's texture and finish, a touch of spice making this a very drinkable wine.

Brancott Estate Sauvignon Blanc - full nose of kiwi, melon and lime, great citrusy crispness with a long finish, a great sauvignon blanc that everyone enjoyed. 

Torres Sangre de Toro - a Spanish wine with slight tannin, plenty of blackberries, hints of pepper and a touch of vanilla, light with good length

Tesco finest Pecorino - crisp refreshing citrus wine, perfect at the end of our buffet as it refreshed our palates  

Bellingham Chardonnay - a lovely smooth wine with vanilla notes, plenty of peaches and white stone fruit, a full flavoured wine with a lengthy finish

Louis Jadot Macon Villages - a silky wine in the glass, full of colour, clean and fresh with apples and pears,  good with goats cheese

Bellingham Pinotage - great dark colour, full of fruit, blackberries, raspberries, cherries, a good hit of oak with subtle tannins

Yalumba Y Series Shiraz - berry delight with added chocolate, one of my favourite red wines, perfect level of spice, good weight and finish 

Ca'Mone Appessimento - deep red in colour, light nose of fruit with pepper and leather, full of cherries, some tannin, leather and smokiness

Concho y Toro Late Harvest - our dessert wine was rich and syrupy, plenty of apricots and nectarines with honey highlights, perfect with our profiterole pud

Our pud this time was Lidl's Croquembouche, 60 profiteroles in all, 40 plain and 20 chocolate. 

The box included everything needed: an easy to assemble silver card tower, caramel, chocolate and nutty topping. 

It certainly made a centre piece and was perfect with our dessert wine.


Another great evening with good wine, good food and great friends. I wonder what wines we'll be discovering at our 2018 tastings.