Nearly fifty people attended our January meeting. Mark Ranfield, the Wine Development Manager at Rodney Densem Wines, presented a tasting of new-world wines.

Mark introduced contrasting examples of Pinot Grigio from Italy, California and Canada. He outlined the regions where the grape is grown, and explained how the different growing conditions affected the character of the wine. We tasted an Australian Tarrango, a grape with a thin skin, producing a pale wine. We sampled this chilled and at room temperature to appreciate the differences. Finally we sampled two Pinot Noir wines, one from Chile, the other Canadian. As usual there was much discussion about the relative merits of the two wines.

The wines we drank were: -

Pinot Grigio DOC 'San Floriano' Trentino

North East Italy £5.54

Woodbridge Pinot Grigio

R Mondavi - California £6.54

Mission Hill 'Family Estate' Pinot Grigio

Canada £7.33

Brown Brothers Tarrango

Vivtoria - SE Australia £6.27

Concha Y Toro 'Explorer' Pinot Noir

Chile £6.24

Mission Hill 'Family Estate' Bin 99

Pinot Noir Canada £8.17

The speaker for our February meeting was Denise Brough. The evening was based upon the recommendations of Malcolm Gluck, and we were challenged to match the review of the wine against a blind tasting.

The challenge was less straightforward than it sounded, particularly discrimination between full bodied fruity new world wines. In addition to matching wines and reviews, we were also asked to estimate a price and region of origin for each wine. Tasting wine is tough work, but somebody has to do it.

The wines we tasted were: -

Casa Lapostolle Cuvée Alexandre Merlot

2000 Chile - £12.99
A merlot to wallow. Litheness, lushness, power and poise.

Pedro Ximenez Viejo Napolean Hidalgo NV Sherry

Spain £9.99
Gluck says :- Toffee apple and creme brulee aroma leeds to chocolate molasses with butterscotch and slick, oily, sweet, honied toffee on the finish.

Tesco Chilean Chardonnay Reserve

2002 - Chile £4.99
Vanilla and Butter, ripe melon and tropical fruit.

Errazuriz Syrah 2001

Chile £5.99
Smokey berries with the good tannins.

Alsace Gewurztraminer

Tesco 1999 France £6.99
Lychee, smoky rose-petalled richness, a hint of thyme and basil,good balance.

Inycon Chardonnay 2001

Sicily 2001 - £3.99 Somerfield
Gooseberry/melon/lemon fruit.

The speaker for our March meeting was Chris Sandars who has just taken over as the manager of Wine Rack in Poynton.

Chris chose as his topic “Wines of the World” and introduced us to six of his own favourite wines, all of which represented good value for money. Among the wines which we tasted were two made from less well known grapes: a white from Argentina made from the Torrontes grape, and a Chilean Red from the Carménére grape. We also sampled a Rosé, an additional white and two more red wines.

The wines we drank were: -

Origin Rose 2003

Spain - Gaenacha -13%
Dry light refreshing. Strawberry on the nose, cranbery and ripe fruit on the palate

Eden Collection Torrontes 2003

Argentina - Floral on the nose, Dry with grapefruit and Citrus on the palate.

Origin Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2003

Malborough - New Zealand - 13%
Intense goosberry on the nose, goosberry, and apple on the palate.

Vina Albali Reserva 1999

Tempranillo grape from 100 miles south of Madrid.
Vanilla oak and Spice on the nose. Dark berries and oak on the palate. Well balanced.

Castillero del Diablo Carmenere 2003

Chile - Deep deep red, plums blackcurrants and chocolate on the nose, Ripe plumbs, spice and oak on the palate. Good wine, great price

Origin Reserve Shiraz 2002

Barossa Valley Australia - 14.5%
Blackcurrent and Liquorice on the nose, Dark berries mingle with cherries in this full wine.