People's Choice Wine Awards - the winners!

It's award season and Monday saw Hubby and I travel north to Manchester for the People's Choice Wine Awards - an event I have been part of as a Judge in Round 1 and a Supertaster judge in Round 2. 

It seemed like yesterday that we had taken the same journey by train, but it was actually last October. I had no idea what was about to happen other than I had been selected along with many others to judge a variety of wine in many categories.

Round 1 was a fabulous day, I met so many people, some starting out in the wine industry, others like myself who enjoy learning more about wine as well as enjoying the wine itself. 

A fabulous day with the other Round One judges. 

To my surprise and amazement I was selected as a Supertaster and asked to join the expert judges for Round 2. What an honour to be asked for my opinion about wine along side wine critics, journalists, tv presenters, restaurant owners - I did quite a lot of pinching that day.

The WSET students and Supertaster judges in Round 2

The Round 2 judges - what an honour. 

There are more details of the two judging days in my blog post People's Choice Wine Awards .... I was a judge .... 

It seemed an age before the shortlisted wines were announced - in fact only a few weeks but I couldn't wait to see which wines had been chosen and to see if I did recognise any .... we judged the wines blind so had no idea which wine we had in our glass. There was one wine in particular that I did think I had tasted before, it was a sauvignon blanc which is my favourite grape .... I later found out that is a wine I really enjoy and have presented it at one of my own wine tastings.

The Shortlist ... People's Choice Wine Awards has all the details of the shortlisted wine, you may spot some of your favourites. 

And so to the actual award night, held at The Comedy Store in Manchester with all the shortlisted wines available for tasting. It was so good to finally see the labels, Hubby and I were 'oh' and 'ah' ing  as there were wines we had either purchased previously or knew from other tasting events. 

The Shortlisted wines 

It was wonderful to meet with the Round 2 judges again and meet up with suppliers we have met previously especially Paso-Primero, Les Dauphins and The Wine Society. Our evening started with a cocktail made with Paso Vermouth and Ludlow Gin - perfect.

It was an easy casual atmosphere with everyone enjoying the wines and food which included Joseph Heler cheese, a variety of pizza, Iberica ham, artisan bread from Barbakan Deli, macarons and stunning gateaux from Bisous Bisous. 

Iberica ham carving - a skill he started learning as a young child

Precisely cut, almost transparent thin slices 

And so to the reason for our Manchester visit - the winners! Moving into The Comedy Store's auditorium the host for the evening was John Warburton.

Janet Harrison, who founded the People's Wine Awards welcomed suppliers, producers, sponsors, judges and journalists before handing over to the award presenters Amelia Singer (Wine Educator and tv presenter on The Wine Show) and Kate Goodman (owner of Reserve Wines and tv presenter on Food and Drink)

Janet Harrison

John Warburton, Kate  and Amelia Singer 

The actual awards were something quite special, a hand drawn print for each category drawn by Tony Husband, cartoonist. Each one captures the essence of the category, a superb prize indeed.

Introductions made it was time for the presentations to begin .... and the winners are:

Fabulous Fizz - Best Champagne 

SDA Extra Special Louis Bernard Vintage Champagne 2007 

Fabulous Fizz - Sparkling Wine (UK)  

Leckford Estate Brut 2013

Lyme Bay Winery: Sparkling Rosé 2014

   

Fabulous Fizz - Sparkling Wine Rest of the World  

Bird in Hand Sparkling Pinot Noir 2017 

Simonnet-Febvre Crémant de Bourgogne

Food Friendly Wine - White for Light Meals 

Escarpment, The Edge Pinot Gris 2017 

Food Friendly Wine - White for Aromatic and Asian Cuisine   

The Society's Exhibition Alsace Gewurztraminer 2013

Food Friendly Wine - Whites for Light Meals with Sauces  

Cono Sur Bicicleta Viognier 2017 

Wolf Blass Yellow Label Chardonnay 

Food Friendly Wine - Red for Hearty Meals 

Orbitali Amarone Della Valpolicella 2013 

Food Friendly Wine - Red for  Easy Weekday Meals

Rabo de Gallo 

Food Friendly Wine - Red for Light Meals 

Albert Bichot Côteaux Bourguignons 2015

Out of the Ordinary

1000 Stories Bourbon Barrel Fermented Zinfandel 2016 

Boxing Clever 

Most Wanted Sauvignon Blanc 

Blow Out 

Wakefield The Pioneer Shiraz 2014 

Bargain Buys 

Viña Santico Carmenére 2017 

War of the Roses

Graham Norton's Own Pink by DesiGN Rosé 2018 

Heavy Duty

Blind Spot Rutherglen Muscat 

Girls Night In

Graham Norton's Own SauviGNon Blanc 2018 

Party Central

Escada Touriga Nacional 2016 

Sweets for my Sweet

Stanley Noble Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc 2014

Pizza Night

The Society's Barbera d'Asti Superiore 2015

One Man and His BBQ

St Andrews Shiraz 2016

Best Independent Wine Merchant - Lancaster Wine Co 

Best Supermarket - Aldi 

There was a real buzz in the room as each award was presented, a few cheers too. The evening was broadcast live on facebook, you can watch the video on People's Choice Wine Awards facebook page. 

If you'd like to know more about each of the winning wines and details of each of the categories sponsors pop over to the People's Choice Wine Awards web page, there is also more information about the judges.  

Huge congratulations to all the winners, especially Graham Norton as it was his Sauvignon Blanc I recognised. I noticed he has tweeted about his award too.  

People's Choice Wine Awards - the winners 

I have been so lucky to have been part of these awards, I've met so many people and discovered even more about wine. For me it's a hobby that I share with my superb Hubby: the wine industry is an amazing place and I'm honoured to occasionally dip my glass inside, cheers !

UK Wine Hour - focus on Picpoul de Pinet

#ukwinehour is a Twitter live feed every Thursday 7pm til 8pm hosted by Sorcha Holloway. Each week has a different topic and this week it was one of my favourite wines - Picpoul de Pinet.

Sorcha chose a few regular #ukwinehour tweeters to be this weeks tasters, we each received two bottles of this great wine from the Languedoc region of France.

I really enjoy doing these tasting. Hubby and I like to pair the wine and take photos to show our tastings. Here's tonight's questions and my tweeted answers, including my introduction tweet.

Evening everyone, I'm Clare. I've been a fan of Picpoul de Pinet for many years enjoying this super wine on holiday in France long before it was available in the UK. I used to tell our son @StormKoopa to serve it in the pub with mussels.

Question1: Let’s start off this evening by asking - what do you know about the appellation AOC Languedoc Picpoul de Pinet?

We've holidayed in the Languedoc many times, recently in Meze which is one of the five Picpoul growing areas, Pinet being the central one. This appellation lies next to the Etang du Thau with its oyster and mussel beds, as you can see in my hols photo.

The limestone sandy soil, the salty sea air from the Etang du Thau is perfect for growing picpoul grapes. The sea breeze protects the grapes from getting too hot and the inland water helps stop the night temperature being too low.

Question 2: Our tasters tonight will now report back on their first wine - what did you like about this wine?

My first wine is Felines Jourdan a brand I know well. Unfortunately we missed visiting the domaine in 2017 when on hols. It's such a clean crisp dry wine, full of zesty citrus 

Question 3: Picpoul de Pinet is growing in popularity here in the UK, with a 46% increase in sales from 2017 - 2018.
What is it about Picpoul de Pinet which makes it so popular?

I think the UK restaurant market has moved more into fresh sea food, especially mussels, and the wines previously on offer did not quite fit. Wine suppliers brought Picpoul de Pinet into the UK market and it's now becoming popular in bars and restaurants 

Picpoul de Pinet has a very  distinctive bottle, tall and thin with a crested neck. It certainly stands out on the supermarket shelves, on bar shelves and in restaurants.

Question 4: Describe what you like about this style of wine

I love it's cleaness, so light and delicate yet full of flavour


Question 5: Our tasters tonight will now report back on their second wine - what did you like about this wine?

We visited Ormarine in 2017 - a superb producer- so I was delighted to receive a bottle of Carte Noire as my second tasting.  Superb glistening yellow in the glass with a lovely citrus flavour 

We discovered so many delicious wines as you can read in my blog post Wines of the Languedoc 

Question 6: What is your dream food match with this Picpoul de Pinet wine?

We bought some crevettes to accompany the Carte Noire l'Ormarine Picpoul de Pinet - they were delicious, a perfect pairing 

Felines Jourdan was perfect with mussels, if anything it brings more 'sea' to their flavour. I really enjoyed this, it was like being back in the sunny warm South of France instead of the UK wet winter 

I do enjoy a well chilled glass of Picpoul de Pinet accompanied by a few mussels - especially if they are in rocquefort sauce 

The wines were courtesy of Su Lin Ong London  - we all received different brands and I will be looking out for these other labels:

Domaine Reine Juliette

Camp Aucels Jean le Blanc

Domaine des Lauriers

Duc de Morny L'Ormarine 

Les Vignerons de Florensac

Domaine Guillemarine

Chateau Petit Roubié

Domaine du Chateau de Pinet 

Feline, Domaine Félines Jourdan

Thank you Sorcha, UK Wine Hour and Su Lin Ong London for the opportunity to enjoy these wonderful wines and share my enthusiasm with others 🤗

A few days in Wales

We've just returned from a super few days in Cardiff, a city we now know quite well as our daughter has lived there for the last four years. We always visit at this time of year to celebrate her birthday; it's a quieter time but still so much to see and do. 

Cardiff Bay - view from the boat

We decided to take the river boat from Cardiff Bay into Cardiff itself, something we've done in the summer when the Bay is full of tourists. It was quite sad to be the only people on board, the service has to run even if there are no passengers. It's about a 20 minute trip up the River Taff past the new modern apartment blocks, the Principality Stadium and arriving in Bute Park.

Our visit this time coincided with a new display at the Cardiff National Museum. This year, to mark the 500th anniversary of his death, the Royal Collection are displaying 44 of Leonardo da Vinci's greatest drawings in 12 exhibitions across the UK and Cardiff is one of the venues.

The detail in his drawings is amazing, so much information, such very fine work. I didn't realise how much work he did, I knew about the well known paintings and a very impressive helix staircase in Chambord Chateau but not his drawings.

I have always wanted to stay at the Celtic Manor, an impressive hotel standing high above Newport. It's a complete resort complex known for it's golf course. We enjoyed staying the night before Valentine's Day, it was lovely to celebrate at breakfast and then again at home for dinner. It was a great stay, we both enjoyed some time in the pool, the room was huge and so much choice at breakfast. 

Celtic Manor 

The foyer from above

The huge atrium 

It would not be Wales without a dragon

Our super room 

Another lovely time in Wales; special times with our daughter, exploring on our own and celebrating Valentine's Day.

Down Under Wine Tasting

To start the new year I decided to focus on the sunnier side of our world for the wine tasting with our Scout Leaders. Our winter has not, as yet, been harsh but we all feel a little dull when the nights are long and the rain keeps falling. Australia and New Zealand are in the height of their summer enjoying, or maybe not, some very warm sun so I chose all the wines for this tasting from 'Down Under'.

No-one knew the theme of the tasting beforehand, the only clue was to bring something to do with the summer. Sun glasses, sun hats, even a bikini top (not worn),  Hubby's Australia hat and my sun parasol all helped us think about warmer days.

Places set for our trip Down Under

The wines I chose were from supermarkets and main wine stores; all priced between £5 and £9 which suits our price range. I remember when I first started these tasting how everyone only knew the lower priced popular brands. Although over time their wine choice has changed they are not WSET students or looking at working with wine as a career and as such the wines at our tasting are always ones we'd pick off the shelves to enjoy with our friends ..... the wine purchasers that keep the industry going !

Yellow Tails Bubbles

It's always good to start with bubbles and we did with a well known brand .... Yellow Tails Bubbles. Made from mainly Chardonnay in large stainless steel vats and being carbonated this bottle of fizz was enjoyed by most. It was full of sparkle, a lovely foam on the pour, a great colour in the glass and plenty of flavour.

For me a little sweet as I prefer dry bubbles but for the price of £5.99 from B&M Bargains this 11.5% bottle of fizz is a great buy, certainly one to get a BBQ going when it is our summertime.

We changed the plan slightly this time, instead of tasting the whites, pausing for our buffet and then tasting the red wines, we tasted all the wines before eating. Some wines were tasted on their own, others in pairs, not to compare but to see the difference.

I did pair some of the wines with nibbles, our first little snack being Burton's Fish and Chips, tasty biscuits snacks that did pair with our bottle of bubbles, nothing matches a fish supper better than a bottle of fizz!

The Ned Rosé

Our rosé wine was The Ned Rosé, £8.99 from Majestic Wine; this was our first New Zealand wine. Made from Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris this was a slightly dry wine, some enjoyed it whilst others found it lacking in fruit and flavour.

As our third wine was also from Marlborough, New Zealand we tasted it alongside the rosé. Exquisite Collection Sauvignon Blanc available from Aldi, priced at £6.99 this was a superb example of a New World wine. A lovely aromatic nose, plenty of flavour with a good finish it was one of my favourites of the evening.

Lidl provided our next white wine; Winemaker's Choice Riesling, £6.99. We have tasted Australian Rieslings before but most found them a little too petrolly. This however was enjoyed by everyone, especially with mini spring rolls and onion bhajis. It's a very clean wine, plenty of flavour without any overpowering, certainly a good wine to pair with Asian food.

Our next white is from a well known producer to our group, everyone enjoys McGuigan's wine when doing the tastings, however this was a new label to us. Asda stock their Classic range which was my initial choice but when in store we spotted McGuigan Black Label Pinot Grigio, £6.50. Tropical aromas and flavours with an elegant lengthy finish, this wine was the overall favourite white. Pinot Grigot is not a grape our group usually buy but everyone was taken with this wine.

The final two white wines were tasted together, only because they are both creamier whites and would pair well with our tasting of mature cheddar cheese. Yalumba is one of my top wine producers from Australia, Hubby and I had the privileged of meeting Louisa Rose, their Winemaker, at a tasting evening back in 2015. I still remember our Butcher, Baker and Winemaker evening at Joseph Benjamin with Louisa and Negociants with fond memories, memories that make me smile everytime I taste Yalumba wine, especially the Y Series Viognier.

Purchased from Majestic Wine  recently whilst on offer at £5.49 the Y Series Viognier was again a newish grape to our group. Quite a mineral wine with a hint of floral on the nose I really enjoy this wine, it is one of my top choice Viogniers and pairs well with cheese, although for me I prefer it with a chicken dinner.

Our final white wine was again from Majestic Wine, it's my go to Chardonnay at just £5.99 The Astronomer by De Bortoli is full of peaches and vanilla with a super creamy edge. Good on its own its finish was enhanced by the mature cheese, it was a perfect finish to our white wine selection.

Our New Zealand and Australian whites

And so to our red selection ..... everyone agreed it was better to try all the wines before pausing for food especially as the ladies prefer the whites and the chaps prefer the reds it gives everyone the chance to enjoy their preference with our buffet.

That said, to my, and a few others surprise, our first red was a hit with the ladies. McGuigan Black Label Merlot from Asda priced at £6.50 was such a smooth fruity red. It was full of rich dark berries with soft vanilla from its subtle oak but without any tannins, which is probably the reason everyone enjoyed it. 

Pinot Noir is a grape I rarely drink, I have yet to discover one with enough weight for me. Many people recommend this grape with steak (my choice is a good Argentinian Malbec) so as a pairing for our next wine, Lidl Winemaker's Choice Pinot Noir from New Zealand priced at £6.79, we all enjoyed some Walker's Max Flame Grill Steak crisps. A medium bodied wine it was full of cherries and red berries and a perfect match for our beefy snack.

Two wines together next with a shared tasting of chorizo slices. Exquisite Collection Shiraz from Aldi at £5.79 had all the expected characteristics; dark fruit, liquoirce, spice, it was a lovely glass of deep red wine. Enjoyed by everyone Shiraz is a grape most of our group buy quite often.

Our second wine of the two was another favourite of mine and the favourite of the evening, The Y Series Cabernet Sauvignon by Yalumba. This was on offer at £6.99 at Majestic Wine and in hindsight I should have bought some for ourselves. It is such a good wine, it makes everyone sink and relax into it. A silence fell over the room as we all enjoyed the cherries, blackcurrants and mocha finish; a sure sign of a good wine.

Staying with Majestic Wine our next red was also from De Bortoli but a grape new to many. 1628 Durif is a weighty red, full of very dark fruit, chocolate, vanilla with a hint of spice. To accompany this we tried very bitter dark chocolate which gave mixed reviews, some enjoyed the wine more with the chocolate, some prefered it without.

Our final red is available in most of the main supermarkets but I purchased it from B&M Bargains, £8.49, as it is quite a bit cheaper. We discovered the 19 Crimes brand at our previous tasting - Christmas Ideas - the history behind each label is fascinating. Our final red was 19 Crimes The Uprising which is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Grenache. A rich deep red in the glass with jammy fruit flavours and a smokey finish, another red enjoyed by most.

Our New Zealand and Australian reds

After enjoying our buffet we had one final wine, a sweet wine to accompany dessert; there could be no other dessert to match our Down Under theme than a Pineapple Upside Down cake. And to match our cake  ....  De Bortoli DB Reserve from Asda at £7.00. Plenty of sweetness with apricot flavours with a smooth finish, this dessert wine was a great way to finish our evening of wines from the other side of the world.

Dessert wine 

I always enjoy our wine tasting evenings, it's great fun to choose a theme, source the wines and write the tasting notes. The evenings themselves are always entertaining, discovering wines with friends is for me what wine is all about .... now where shall we go next!

A superb evening - here's to the next one !!