It's Valentine's day, so you'll need to decide between spending the evening with your lover or coming along to a great wine tasting. No contest, is there? If you're likely to get into trouble by choosing the tasting, then why not bring your lover along to the tasting? Jim "Order please" King and Keith "The Magnum" Cooper will present their wine gems. The tasting will be preceded by a brief AGM.
If you think that Australia is only about Chardonnay, Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon (and perhaps Semillon and Riesling), then think again! The Australian wine scene is bursting with new arrivals and lesser known grape varieties, which are grabbing the attention of critics, sommeliers, and wine-drinkers around the world. Richard Bost is now a favourite speaker at our Society and we look forward to welcoming him back.
Robert Boutflower is a very popular speaker at our Society and tonight he will present his pick of wines from Spain. Tanners is one of the UK's longest established wine merchants and tasting wines from their portfolio is always a viticultural pleasure.
Spy Valley is a family-owned winery based in the beautiful Marlborough region of New Zealand. Tonight, we are very pleased to welcome Tony Cloke on his first visit to our Society. Tony is European Sales Manager for Spy Valley wines and is their primary representative in the UK. He will guide us through a tasting exclusively featuring Spy Valley wines.
Tonight we welcome Victor Maguire, who is presenting to our Society for the first time. The wines of Bordeaux are loved by many wine enthusiasts. Prices for the big name wines are prohibitively high, but there are plenty of great wines to be had at more sensible prices. Victor has put together a flight of wines which represents the various styles across Bordeaux and his tasting will include both white and red wines.
We're very sorry but this tasting has been cancelled due to the clash with England's semi final World Cup match. The tasting will be rearranged for a future date. Sorry for the disappointment this will cause, especially to non football fans.
Wine production in California exceeds that of Australia. If the state was a country, it would be the world's fourth largest producer. However, we don't see so many of the wines here in the UK. And when we do, they are often very expensive. Most of the world's most popular varietals are grown in California, including sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon and pinot noir. And the wines are usually of a very high standard. This month we will be welcoming Robbie Rugman, Premium Fine Wine Ambassador for Gallo Winery in California. Wineries featured are expected to include MacMurray in the Russian River region and Louis Martini wines from Sonoma and Napa. Many of these wines retail at £20 to £40 per bottle, so this promises to be an exceptional tasting of Californian wines - and not to be missed!
Master of Wine Alun Griffiths has been a great friend of our Society for over 20 years and we have always enjoyed the tastings he has presented to us. Alun has recently been working in China, so we haven't seen him for a while. So it will be an absolute pleasure for us to be able to welcome him back this month. One of Alun's speciality regions is Burgundy, so that's what we have asked him to present to us this evening. Burgundy wines do not come cheap, so we've given Alun a much larger budget than usual so that he can show use some of his favourite wines from the region. This is undoubtedly an evening not to be missed!
Mark Bedford has been a friend of our Society for many years, so it's a delight to be able to welcome him back to present to us in November. Mark's evenings always have a story to tell and he has that enviable skill of being able to combine an interesting talk with some great wines. This month Mark will tell us about some of the wine legends that he meets in his travels around the globe and show us some of the brilliant wines they produce. Mark will also involve Matt Parris, his recently appointed Manager at their Newlyn shop, which is just outside Hook.
Our master of ceremonies for the evening will be Nesta Downey, who has organised an evening of interactive tasting, chatting, conferring and light hearted competition. We have many wine enthusiasts within our Society and it’s always good to taste wines which are recommended by them. That’s why at Christmas time, we open the floor to eight of our members, who will each introduce a wine of their choice. I'm confident that we can expect to taste some great wines and the evening is guaranteed to get us in the festive spirit! We will be seated in our usual layout at The Raven. More details in the December newsletter.