Easter Saturday was our latest wine tasting with our friends at our scout group. We have recently secured grants for new windows and new flooring thanks to our local council and The King's Trust repainted our hall over the February half term so the building is starting to look amazing. We still have work to do, in particular we are needing to refurbish our toilets so we can include accessible facilities, so we are looking at grant funding for this.
Anyhow the room looked lovely all set up for our wine tasting, with a mini quiz and an Easter treat for all.
We began our evening trying something new, last tasting we tried vermouth this time La Gitana sherry was our new tasting. It isn't something I like and I didn't know if the others would but as Tesco had it on clearance at under £3.00 it seemed too good an option to miss. Unfortunately it wasn't well liked but I guess it probably tastes amazing out in Spain on a very hot day served very cold.
Our tastings were in twos as not everyone likes white and not everyone likes red so tasting in pairs gives everyone a choice of wine when we pause mid tasting for our buffet. Our first wines were The Traitor from Majestic, yes it was the label that caught my eye.
The Traitor white was 100% Sauvignon Blanc and the red 40% Carmenere 40% Syrah and 20% Malbec. Both wines were from the Central Valley in Chile and were produced by Vina Casa Solis one of the big Spanish wine producers who also make the Guv'nor wine. The company invested 45 million euro in buying new sites in Chile and sourcing vines from the various Chilean regions. The name Traitor is from the legend of a young woman named Ananuca. She died from a broken heart after being betrayed by a miner and his quest for treasure. The day after her burial the valley was covered in vibrant red flowers and so were given her name and feature on the label of these lovely wines.
As soon as I looked into researching these wines I knew we had visited them in Chateauneuf du Pape. Leon Perdigal was the first wine maker of Ogier, one of France's top producers of Cote du Rhone wine.
At previous tasting we have enjoyed this red and the white but we have not tasted the rosé until now. Both wines are made with Syrah and Grenache grapes but the rosé also has Cinsault and the red Mourvedre. As expected these wines were very well received, we do all seem to enjoy this style of French wine.
Our Unearthed red was from a region of Southern France I know very well as we have holidayed there many times including last year in the area of this appellation Minervois. Montagnes du Paradis is a blend of Carignan, Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre and Cinsault and is made for Aldi by Chassaux et Fils. It was probably my favourite of the evening as it certainly brought back memories of warm sunny days last June in France.
We stayed in France for our final pair, Beau-Rivage Bordeaux Blanc and Bordeaux Rouge. Their name means beautiful shore and these wines are produced near the banks of the Gironde river on a terroir of gravel and silt. Produced by a family owned winemaker since 1870 these wines are produced exclusively for Majestic.
Bordeaux Blanc was predominately Sauvignon Blanc with the addition of Semillon giving it a rounded flavour with floral highlights. Bordeaux Rouge has an abundance of red fruits coming from its two grapes, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon.
Our final wine did not have a pair, we wanted to enjoy it on its own. Fabula de Panzia Carinena is a Spanish wine from Lidl made from Carignan. It is made by a 60 year old Bodega with over 3000 hectares of vines in the village of Carinena. This wine maker has six different labels all of which have their own fable. The fable on our bottle was 'And for being so honest and sincere, she received the name of her land'.
We had a super evening as always, discovering new wines and flavours and perhaps understanding more about which wines we prefer and where they are from. It is always fun, if hardwork, to host these events and I'm already thinking about which wines to try next.
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