Wine Appreciation

We will continue with a regular fixture of 3pm on the last Monday of the month. The location will be either in a members home or the Cafe of the Community centre. We plan to go to other locations for visits to tastings and vineyards, to be advised.

2025

November was the last meeting of the year. 

Sue and Carl started with a review of Aldi wines from Tom Gilbey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5B1i_Qa_nF4

Tom Gilbey is very watchable when he tastes 21 wines and comes up with 4 champions – we got to try 3 of the four and one substitute.

Everyone enjoyed the selection my favourite being the Rhone valley red Cairanne. I think all wines went down well with the Rosorange being much appreciated.

October Meeting

We enjoyed two Chardonnays and a Viognier at Christine’s house. The first Australian “Little Giant” seemed to be preferred from the French Bijou. Both were from Waitrose at £13, and £11. The bargain priced Viognier at £9 was disappointing. The star of the show was the Chateau Sirene St Julien. A solid Bordeaux red that every one enjoyed. A little more expensive at around £15 but worth it.

September Meeting

The September meeting was again in the Social Club hosted by Jenny. She chose two Austrian and two Italian wines to share. She bought all from Lidl at a reasonable price.

My favourite white was the first wine to try the Austrian Gruner Veltliner from Muller. A fine light wine the last wine of the day was the Italian red, a Chianti Rufino. That was a good note to finish on. The Other wines pleased other members so as ever there were mixed opinions.

August Meeting

Al fresco again with an interesting selection chosen by Jill. She selected from online suppliers Naked Wines. Two wines stood out for me the rather bland and expensive NZ Sauvignon  at £16 Lay of the Land and the best by far was the French Syrah "Simpsons of Servian " at £10. As to the other two least said...

June Meeting

On a very warm and sunny day our June meeting was held outside in Nicola's delightful garden.

For the tasting Nicola selected a range of good value wines available from Aldi.

The first wine tasted was a Veuve Monsigny Champagne Brut available for only £14.95. According to Aldi's website the wine is "    An elegant Champagne, aged for longer to enhance its complexity. On the nose, aromas of ripe apples and soft red fruits meet delicate floral hints. In the mouth, citrus, strawberry and baked apple notes lead to a clean, lingering finish. 12.5% vol."  This champagne has recently been named World’s Best Champagne at the prestigious World Champagne Awards 2025. Who are we to argue?      Find out more about this award  via this link

For our white wine we tasted Costières de Nimes Blanc also from  Aldi at  £7.99  Described on the bottle as  "A rich and aromatic white wine from Costières de Nîmes, full of candied citrus and ripe orchard fruits."

"A perfect example of a wine-buying team unearthing a little treasure. Pessac-Leognan is a sub-region in the area of Graves, in Bordeaux. This is where some of the most expensive red wines in the world come from. Château La Garde is regarded as a rising star in this region, and this plush, ample and completely-ready-to-drink-now wine shows why. Think blackcurrant, dark cherries, tobacco smoke and autumnal forest floor all layered together with silky tannins and a loooong finish. Truly fine wine under £20? Yes, please."


Thanks to Nicola for searching out an interesting selection of good value wines from the Bodmin branch of Aldi.

May Meeting

This month we had a professional wine tasting led by Mark Harrison of Majestic Wines in Truro. The selection we tried were:

Whites 

Chosen by Greek White

Definition English Bacchus

Rose 

Mythral Provence Rose

Orange

Tbilvino Qvevris Rkatsiteli (Georgian)

Reds

Winemaker South African Red

Domaine Tourelle Lebanese Red

It was an interesting event – my preference for the red was the Lebanese Domaine Tourelle and for the whites the Greek wine proved the most popular. 

April Meeting

March Meeting

We are back at the Community Centre this month tasting a choice range of Italian wines.

We started with Pat’s favourite white. A Verdicchio dei Castellidi Jesi, very nice light wine. That set us off on the Chianti trail. We tried three different Chiantis – the Piccini was my favourite followed by the bargain Courte alle Mura. The Morrisons offer pleased most, found it too bland.

Great fun and good wine, what could be better?

February Meeting

We had Two whites and two reds. Two wines from New Zealand, an excellent Sauvignon Blanc from Audi and a so so Pinot Noir. The French Pouilly Fume was expensive but dull. The best red was from South Africa, an excellent Roodeberg blend (Morrisons)

January Meeting

As the lady says "Its all from Lidl" The Bolgrad Ukranian wine was the surprise. 

Very pleasant wine with a Chardonnay and native Ukrainian Sukholimansky grapes for a well-balanced dry white.

The south of France pink was a little disappointing (but liked by some) however the two French reds stood out. The Bourgogne Gamay was excellent soft red with cotes du Rhone village was a solid example of Rhone reds.

The prices were all very fair - nothing over £10.

Wine and a chat.