We went on a great wine course and I am putting my notes here so that I don’t forget what we learned.
The wines we learnt about were;
Sancerre
Chablis Servin
Montes Alpha Chardonnay
Champagne Oeil de Perdix
St Clair Pinot Noir
Chateau St George
Kangarilla Road Shiraz
The first 3 were whites, then a rose champagne and then 3 reds.
Whites
The Sancerre and Chablis were both from regions quite close to each other in France. The Chablis and the Chardonnay both used the same grape. The Sancerre was lemony and dry and I wasn’t particularly keen on it, for some reason it just made me recall bring a bottle university parties, however once we drank it with some full fat soft chees the taste mellowed and was very refreshing. Of the other 2 whites, Mike preferred the Chablis but I preferred the Chardonnay made in Chile, which i understand was oaked but not overly so. It does not surprise me that we liked the ones we did as I always prefer a more distinctive taste to my wine which is why I often choose a strong red.
Champagne
This was a rose. Apparently champagne is the only wine where, if you want to produce a rose, it is acceptable to add a swoosh of red to some white wine. In rose wine production roses should always be made by adding some red skins to the fermentation, it is not acceptable to just mix the wines. Having said that this champagne was actually made by adding some red grape skins to the mix. Despite this I did not particularly like this champagne as it did not have the nice tingle on the tongue that I get with good champagne and I thought it was pretty tasteless. I also felt that the bubble size was a bit larger than I find in a good champagne.
Reds
The Pinot Noir which was from New Zealand, tasted great with a strong flavour and when we tasted this with some duck pate the taste combination was excellent. This wine is ideal with game, pheasant or duck. The Chateau St george was from Bordeaux and contained the cabernet sauvignon and merlot grapes and was excellent with mature cheddar. The shiraz, from Australia, contains the same grape as sirah in France was very strong in flavour and had immense fruity flavours and although good with pate and cheese it tasted excellent just on its own.
We had a great chat with other wine lovers and were recommended to try an argentinian Malbec which we will soon. Altogether a great evening!
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