Of course bottles of wine are opened (although I'm not drinking much just now) and snacks eaten. All our wines are different which led us to thinking it would be fun to have a virtual wine tasting and enjoy the same wines together - we did just that yesterday enjoying an English white and Italian red.
In early 2018 we visited Oatley Vineyard, tucked away in the Somerset countryside it was a superb place. Iain and Jane welcomed us with a tour of the vineyard and tastings of their super wines. It's a beautiful peaceful setting, a place we hope to visit again soon.
Our purchases from our visit have all been enjoyed so we decided to place an online order jointly with our friends; currently Oatley Vineyard are offering free delivery UK wide and twelve bottles were soon making their way up to the Midlands.
Our order was a mix of Jane's 2018, Leonora's 2017 and the cellar aged Leonora's 2014. I was disappointed there was no Elizabeth's wine available, it was my favourite on our visit and obviously everyone else's too.
Iain and Jane have decided to no longer put foils on their bottles, to be honest they are not needed and it's quite nice seeing the cork nestling in the bottle neck.
Our English white was the Leonora's 2014, we noticed how clean and crisp this wine was; I remember from our visit the cleaness of the wines being a delight. Leonora's was a wine everyone enjoyed, finding orange blossom, apricots and honey in it's elegant finish, a new wine to some but visiting an old friend for others.
Oatley Vineyard is one of many that have been featured on WineGB West's live Instagram. In lockdown live broadcasts have opened up the world of wine to more people and have helped our English Wineries in these difficult times. I have met so many new growers and producers and have already started a list of holiday possibilities with vineyard tours being the focus.
Brad Horne at Wine Time London has also been doing the superb Wine Social live chats with wine makers from all over the world. I was delighted to see Laurent again from Cellier des Dauphins but a highlight for me was meeting Tickerage Wines, their story is amazing, it's a place high on my list to visit.
I'll be keeping an eye on Brad's wine chats, 8pm on Instagram with the added bonus of catching up on IGTV. I'm missing many things right now; being with family and friends, enjoying good food and wine, but mostly being on holiday with my Hubby discovering new places, new wines. Wine Social Live has certainly been a boost to me right now - thank you to everyone in our new virtual world.
Back to our own virtual Saturday nights, I cannot believe we have been doing these fun evenings for 12 weeks. As mentioned we've played Trvial Pursuits (very technical to set up), set our own quizzes and most recently Mr and Mrs .... thankfully no divorce papers have been issued!
Our Italian tasting was Squinzano Rosso from Lidl. It is usually £5.99 but was on offer the other week at £3.99 so our friend purchased and doorstep delivered a bottle for us all to try.
Hubby and I have tried it before, looking in the extensive wine reviews at Cuvée Reserve it seems we first discovered it in 2016. Cuvèe Reserve is not only a great wine forum for chatting about and discovering wine, but also a superb record of wines tasted by using the review library.
We all liked this although the ladies not quite as much as the white. There were plenty of sour cherries in its deep flavour, along with hints of licorice and herbs, it's nose was quite smokey and there were some light tannins on the finish.
We thought Squinzano Rosso was a wine best served with food as a little sour on its own. It's not always available in store, even less likely at the reduced price but worth picking up if you do see it.
Thank you to our friends for another great night ... here's to week 13 ... I'm thinking of opening some bubbly as it's Father's Day weekend and nearing our wedding anniversary ..... cheers!
Plenty of ideas for wines when I'm next in the UK, Clare.
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