Our first tasting of 2023 was a general selection from Aldi, Fine Wines Direct, Morrisons, Majestic Wine and Auchan, a supermarket in France. This post focuses on the rosé and white wine we all enjoyed.
The scout headquarters looks very different set up for our wine evenings to when it's full our young people enjoying a variety of activities. It's nice for our Leaders to have their own activity. All leaders and committee members in Scouting are volunteers, I'm not sure the general public realise how much time (and own money) is given, people often presume Souters are paid the same as teachers ... when in fact we are a registered charity.
I love seeing all the wines lined up ready to be tasted. As I mentioned this range was from a variety of sources, hopefully I ordered the wines to progress everyone's tastebuds and not have any dramatic changes from one to the next.
Our first wine was from one of my favourite producers, Cellier des Dauphins. It was a wine we bought in France from Auchan as so had the French style bottle and label. Here in the UK the bottle is taller and straighter and labelled 'Les Dauphins'. We have enjoyed both their red and white wine before but not the rosé.
Cellier des Dauphins Prestige Rosé is a blend of Grenache, Syrah and Cinsault which is becoming more popular in Cotes du Rhone wines as it adds softness and aromas. A lovely salmon colour this wine gave plenty of floral and fruity aromas with a flavour of soft red berries. Everyone enjoyed this and began chatting about summer days.
Our next wine, a Chardonnay, was a Cotes du Jura made by Chassaux et Fils who are Aldi's French winemaker. This wine had plenty of peach and apricot flavours with a slightly nutty finish. It was appreciated by everyone, a great wine at just £4.99.
I paired it with homemade salmon pate which was lovely with the crisp citrus notes. The herbiness of fennel, grass and verbena also paired well with the salmon creaminess.
Something new followed; again from Aldi our third white was The Falls, £7.99, a Riesling from Canada. We have tasted Australian Riesling with it's oily characteristic and German Riesling with its crispness but not a wine from North America. This wine was produced in the Niagara Peninsula which is the strip of land that separates where Lake Erie in America meets Canada's Lake Ontario.
It had the flavours and characteristics of both New and Old World Rieslings, I found the nose a little off putting as it was quite petroly but the flavour was lovely, especially with the Japanese rice snacks as a food pairing.
Sauvignon Blanc is my favourite grape, I love wines from this grape produced from all over the world but my absolute favourite is French Sauvignon Blanc, in particular Sancerre. I had a bottle of Touraine Sauvignon Blanc from Auchan and The Ned was on offer in Morrisons at £7.49 so decided we should see which style everyone preferred.
The Ned, produced by Brent Marris of Marisco Wines, has a super full nose with plenty of citrus. It's flavours of lime zest, gooseberries and fine herbs has your mouth watering for more. A wine enjoyed by everyone and very popular at 'top up' time.
Pierre Chanau is Auchan's winemaker and they produce many wines for the French supermarket. Thus Touraine, from Central Loire, also has a citrus aroma but was softer. With a mouth full of lemon and lime with a hint of blossom this was also enjoyed by all.
And the choice ... it was actually equal. The overall thoughts were that if you wanted to sit in the garden on a sunny day with nibbles then The Ned would be perfect, however on the equally sunny day if you were enjoying a light lunch, chicken salad or pasta carbonara then the Touraine would go down very well.
I really enjoy everything about our wine tasting events; choosing the wines, writing the tasting notes and of course sharing the wine with friends. Everyone enjoyed our selection of rosé and white wines, I'll be posting about our red wines soon.
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