JANUARY
Jonathon James gave a wonderful presentation on Southern Italy – Regions & Grapes and presented 10 wines from Puglia, Basilicata, Calabria, Sicily and Campania. All wines were selected from the Wine Society and included The Society’s Sicilian Reserve Red & Falanghina. We also tasted Sicilian Grillo, Frappato and Nero d’Avola. From Puglia, Negroamaro and Salice Salentino Riserva, Vallone. All the wines went down well and a wonderful evening was had by our 31 attendees.
FEBRUARY
Our February presentation was on wines from the South Americas. We tasted wines from Chile, Uruguay & Argentina. We tasted Malbecs, Carmenere, Viognier, Semi Sweet Moscato and an Alberino from Uruguay. Our final wine of the evening was a 2020 Marea Syrah, one of which was corked. This led to a divided review of excellent and horrid, the corked version being the horrid one. Steve was going to take the corked one back to Majestic for a refund. Despite this an excellent evening was had by all.
MARCH
The Sauvignons was a look at the Sauvignon Blanc premier grape from New Zealand, France and South Australia and then 5 Cabernet Sauvignons from the USA; Washington and California, South Africa, Chile and West Australia, Margaret River. An interesting evening comparing and contrasting same grapes from different regions.
APRIL
The April presentation, Spanish Wines by Robin Boar was a great success and Robin managed a Spanish wine presentation without a Rioja!. The evening started with a 2019 Cava Gran Reserva from the Wine Society, followed by a wonderful Albariño and a Garnacha Blanca. After the three wonderful white wines we tasted five very good reds one from Navarra and Carinena which was a blend of Garnacha and Carinena. This was followed by two wonderful reds from Noel Young-one from Jumilla which was a Monastrell – this wine was very good and the second one a Mencia grape from Bierzo which is in Northwest Spain. Robin finished his presentation with a 2018 Secreto Ribera del Duero from the Wine Society which is in the Northern Plateau of the Iberian Peninsula.
MAY
We had a well attended meeting in which we had wines from every corner of France.
JUNE
This was a Members Choice event where we had 8 separate presentations and wines from England, Australia, Italy, Greece and France and we tasted some wonderful wines with very interesting presentations form those who introduced their wines which were a sauvignon Blanc, English white, Chenin Blanc from Margaret River, a Cabernet blend from S Africa, Chateau Caronne-St-Gemme. Haut Medoc and a Cotes Du Rhone Grand reserve both from France, a wonderful Shiraz-Soldiers Blocks from Australia and we finished the tasting with a sweet red wine from Greece.
SEPTEMBER
The September Presentation was “Wines from Central Italy” a presentation by Jonathon James with wines from Piedmont, Trentino and Veneto. All the wines were from the Wine Society, and we tasted 10 wines and introduced to new grape varieties Garganega, Corvina and Rondinella, Teroldego & Lagrein. The cost of the wines ranged from £7.50 to £14.95 and included Piemonte Cortese. Pinot Grigio, Barbera d’Asti Superior, Langhe Nebbiolo and an excellent wine Dogliani Luigi, Einaudi, as well as a Society’s Exhibition Langhe Nebbiolo. Jonathon also had a “freebie’ Barolo which was gorgeous. All in all, it was a wonderful evening with some wonderful Central Italy wines.
OCTOBER
The October Presentation was “A Chilean Tour” a presentation by Tony Mansey with wines from across Chile and the 4 main wine producing regions. All the wines were from the Wine Society and Majestic, and we tasted 8 wines from Valle de Limari; a chardonnay, in the North then heading South to Valle de Itata for a Moscatel. Our 3rd wine was from the Leyda Valley a Sauvignon Blanc which was an exact copy of the New Zealand Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc in the central region near the coast. Most of the reds were from the central region Valle de Casablanca, Valle del Maipo and Valle de Colchagua, where we tasted Chile’s Carmenere, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Garnacha and to finish a Carmenere Appassimento. It was a wonderful evening with some wonderful Chilean wines.
DECEMBER
This was our end of year Fine Wines meeting and the celebration of 30 years of the group’s formation. George Barnes presented the wines and it was a fabulous selection which everyone thoroughly enjoyed.
