Author Archive
What Would You Like to See on Society Grapevine?
Posted by: | CommentsSociety Grapevine has been up and running since 2009. During that time we’ve used it to update members on all manner of wines, vintages, regions, tastings and other developments at The Society during two busy years – all in a more personal and immediate way than we’d have been able to do in our other online and printed communications.
What we would love to know is what you would like to see, or see more of, on here.
Are there any wine styles, countries or regions you think we’ve overlooked? Any people from or areas of The Society you’d like to hear more from? Perhaps you’d like to see us doing more with video, spend more time discussing wine news, or offer more wine-related advice?
Whatever your thoughts are, we would like to hear them. The Wine Society exists for its members, and giving us your opinions would help us know what you find the most interesting and relevant.
Whether a regular reader or first-time visitor, we welcome any feedback you may have.
Lauding the Loire: A Round-up of Some Recent Press
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There’s a lot of good wine out there. Missing out on a great one is understandable – particularly in the case of the Loire Valley’s wines, boasting as they do an extraordinary array of grapes and styles – but none the less tragic for it.
Society buyer Joanna Locke MW’s latest efforts to bring members the cream of the Loire’s remarkably varied crop can be found in our current offer, and it has been heartening to see the UK wine press giving plaudits to several of the wines therein.
Grapevine readers may already have seen the praise given to Mourat’s wines; to ensure that no other gems slip under your radar, we include below an assortment of other Society Loire offerings to have been given favourable mentions. Please note: our current Loire offer closes on Sunday 20th May.
Jancis Robinson recommended a further four Loire wines (‘VGV’ and ‘GV’ meaning ‘very good value’ and ‘good value’ respectively):
Robert Sérol, Vieilles Vignes 2011 Côte Roannaise 16.5/20 Drink 2012-2013
Lively and lifted. Rather stylish label. Light but true and savoury. Quintessential French country wine made with great facility. Silky texture, great persistence. Troisgros house wine by the way. VGV 12% £7.95 The Wine Society
Frédéric Mabileau, Les Rouillères Chenin Blanc 2011 Anjou 17/20 Drink 2012-2016
Lovely pure, fresh, appley aromas. Lots of tension and terroir. Finishes dry. This wine has just so much energy and typicity. Great stuff. Whistle clean. GV 13% £10.95 The Wine Society
La Claux Delorme 2011 Valençay 16/20 Drink 2012-2013
Very fragrant and floral. Gentle and off dry. Nice texture. Firm spine. Long. Well constructed. Good value. 13% £8.95 The Wine Society
Huet, Le Haut-Lieu Sec 2010 Vouvray 16+/20 Drink 2014-2018
Deeper flavoured than the Chenin des Rouillères 2011. With more honey and more wet wool. Lots to get your teeth into but awfully young for the moment. 12.5% £14.95 The Wine Society
Antony Rose (The Independent) included a nod for the following wine in his article about The Wine Society:
‘Frédéric Mabileau’s 2011 Chenin des Rouillères Anjou Blanc, £10.95, is a terrific expression of Loire Valley chenin blanc combining vivid appley freshness with a mineral-dry finish.’
Last but not least, The Wine Gang, made up of some of the best palates in the UK wine press, reviewed a ‘budget selection’ of Society wines. The Gang gave a timely reminder of the virtues of Muscadet, recommending a Society favourite in the process, as well as a relative newcomer to our range:
Domaine des Ratelles Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie 2010
Muscadet doesn’t get a very good press these days. In fact it doesn’t get much press at all and its grape variety, Melon de Bourgogne, gets even less, but a good Muscadet – the antithesis of a showy wine – is a useful thing for washing down simple fish, seafood and salads. This one, with its delicate salted-nut and zesty citrus flavours, is as brisk as a swim in the Serpentine but much less masochistic. £6.75 at The Wine Society
Domaine de la Semellerie Chinon 2010
Youthful Loire Cabernet Franc with the signature sweet whiff of potato peelings, juicy raspberry and blackberry fruit and touches of spice, leather and liquorice. Light tannins and a nip of acidity complete the medium-bodied picture. £8.50 at The Wine Society
Video: Marcel Orford-Williams on Alsace
Posted by: | CommentsYou can watch our own Marcel Orford-Williams (buyer for Alsace) discussing and tasting Alsace wines with Joanna Simon in the latest in a series of videos made for Wines of Alsace.
Society members can order the 2010 vintage of the sylvaner now, while the muscat will be available soon.
Look out for our offer of 2010 Alsace next month!
Wine Champions 2012: Plenty More Fish in the Sea
Posted by: | Comments‘I have visions of squid!’
Thus the studious silence of the tasting room was broken by buyer Marcel Orford-Williams. I myself do not eat seafood, but have often noticed that others exhibit a pathological yearning for it when exposed to truly great dry white wine. It has become something of a personal litmus test to see how well a white has gone down with others.
Sebastian Payne MW and Marcel Orford-Williams
As we processed through (what turned out to be) wines made using cortese, macabeo, bacchus, garganega, falanghina, muscadet, grüner veltliner, furmint, vermentino, clairette – to name but 10 at random – and many more, one thing became apparent beyond doubt: whether you have a taste for seafood or not, the sheer diversity of white wines outside the traditional comfort zones of sauvignon blanc, chardonnay et al has never been more rewarding.
The lineups were divided loosely by price, and it was a particularly pleasing moment when it dawned on us how many outstanding candidates had been found before we had even got anywhere near the ‘over £10’ section.
As was the revelation of the overall winners once the votes had been tallied: this is the twelfth annual Wine Champions, and in terms of countries, regions, grape varieties and styles, this is almost certainly the most diverse selection of white wines it has offered yet.
As for their – and the other winners’ – identities, members will have to wait another few weeks. It will be worth it.
The votes are cast - the winners will be revealed in June
Martin Brown
Digital Copywriter
Wine Champions 2012: Rhône Reds and the Best of Both Worlds
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The ‘Red Rhône Varieties’ section of the Wine Champions tastings encompassed some 87 wines, and therein a wide-ranging insight into how syrah, grenache and its numerous bedfellows express themselves throughout the Old and the New World; both in the vineyard and, given both camps’ partiality for blending, the winery.
The ‘wow’ factor was never far away as we navigated our way through these wines; nonetheless, a Wine Champion must back this up with the all-important ‘now’ factor (see my first post for a brief outline of the rules), and several simply needed a little more time before they would be able to merit the accolade.
Pierre Mansour, Janet Wynne Evans & Marcel Orford-Williams
Of course, when quality and readiness did align at the higher end of the scale, the outcome was predictably superb, and members should also look out for the Fine Wine Champions, which will be featured shortly after the initial offer in The Society’s Fine Wine List.
Given the nigh-ubiquitous lustre of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Côte-Rôtie, Hermitage et al today, it is remarkable to think that the red wines of the Rhône only reached this level of acclaim in the latter half of the twentieth century. Hitherto, ‘rustic and thick enough to stand a spoon in’ seemed the précised verdict of many. But quality has changed for the better (as to a lesser extent have our tastes) and, combined with an embarrassment of brilliant vintages (2010, 2009, 2007, 2005…), the wines’ favour continues deservedly to soar.
Joanna Locke MW, Society buyer for South Africa
South Africa is a good example, from which some shiraz, grenache and mourvèdre wines were themselves given a lukewarm reception for an abundance of spicy and bucolic flavours. Yet in many of the examples on show I found this quality had coalesced with fresh, appetising fruit profiles – and the results were wonderful.
Blind tastings remain the unparalleled way to dispel the preconceptions of fashion, and I do hope members don’t miss the chance to try these wines for themselves.
Martin Brown
Digital Copywriter
Wine Champions 2012: Chardonnay Jokers and Zen Rosés
Posted by: | CommentsOn paper, tasting hundreds of wines sounds like a lot of fun; and it is.
Nonetheless, some tastings are inevitably more difficult than others and the respective heats for the chardonnay and rosé categories were cases in point for different reasons.
The buyers assess the candidates
Were you to have listened in on the chardonnay heats, you would therefore have been forgiven for thinking you’d stumbled into an antiquated card game.
I often think of chardonnay as the vinous equivalent of a lightning rod: not a hugely interesting device in terms of its raw materials (with apologies to any enthusiasts who may be reading), but amazing in its ability to conduct the power the elements can throw at it. It is a relatively neutral grape but when planted in certain places throughout the world it expresses incomparably multifaceted flavours.
Add to this the fact that it responds well to both stainless steel and wood and in blind-tasting environs its diversity becomes profound to the point of perilous. It therefore took Joker-playing, re-tasting, olfactory scrutiny and debate before everyone was happy that the wines had all been given a chance.
Then there was the ‘pink morning’ scheduled for the all-important task of selecting the ready-best of our 2011 rosés. In the event, the morning erred considerably more to the grey side, being as it was the coldest of the year thus far.
Pouring some bottled sunshine on the coldest day of the year
For myself, this lent the tasting an element of Zen as I sought those wines that transported me most vividly to the lazy summer afternoons which I hope await me later in the calendar. Remarkably, I think it worked; in any case, the buyers’ final votes revealed some very strong performances indeed.
These particular occasions impressed upon me just how much perseverance and concentration (not to mention talent) is required to taste objectively through large and/or complicated lineups. I can certainly now vouch first hand that Society members are in good hands/noses/palates with the buying team, and promise that the 2012 Wine Champions will be all the more delicious thanks to these meticulous – not to mention egalitarian – efforts in the tasting room.
Martin Brown
Digital Copywriter
Wine Champions 2012: Going In With Our Eyes Closed
Posted by: | CommentsI’ve been fortunate enough to participate in the ongoing Wine Champions blind tastings, with a view to keeping Grapevine readers updated about the preparation for one of The Wine Society’s most consistently popular offers.
Me, trying to sniff out a champion
The rules of Wine Champions are simple: the wines are tasted in categories under strict blind conditions (labels are all concealed as in the picture below, thereby allowing no room for potential bias) before votes are cast to crown the champions.
A ‘champion’ is a wine at the top of its game, giving of its delicious best. The offer is all about what’s in the bottle, and how it tastes in the here and now. It goes without saying that the buyers work incredibly hard to select all the wines in The Society’s range, but the evolutionary nature of wine throws up the most wonderful surprises.
In this regard, the 2012 line-up certainly did not disappoint.
The wines are all tasted blind, with their labels concealed
The three forthcoming dispatches from the tasting room seek to relate my personal impressions of this process (which, having worked at The Society for only a year, was new to me). Though I am duty-bound not to reveal the results, I hope they will whet readers’ appetite ahead of the winning wines being unveiled in June. The first will be posted tomorrow.
Martin Brown
Digital Copywriter
Several Shades of White: Tasting With Basaline Granger-Despagne
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Basaline talks Society staff through her family's wines
Despagne’s wines, which we have been importing since around 1989, offer delicious proof, and a tasting with Basaline Granger-Despagne last week allowed Society staff to gain further insight into their increasingly eclectic portfolio.
Reds are of course made – and indeed many members will know of Despagne on account of their dangerously moreish Château Bel Air, Perponcher Réseve Rosé – but unusually it was white wines with which they made their name. When Basaline’s father set up the business in the late 1960s he believed it represented a gap in the market, and he was vindicated by immediate interest from countries with an established predilection for white wines (such as Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and Switzerland).
Several famed French wine regions abound with underrated white wines (e.g. Châteauneuf-du-Pape), and dry white Bordeaux continues to slip under the radar for many in this country – a situation that, understandably, frustrates Basaline. A trio of whites from Despagne’s current range offered serious proof that both the diversity and value of these wines make them more tempting than ever.
The 2010 vintage of Château Bel Air, Perponcher Réseve, Bordeaux Blanc (£8.50 per bottle) is one of the most enjoyable aperitif wines one could hope to find for the price, offering a beautifully balanced, citric, refreshing mouthful that is both complex and crowd pleasing.
The distinctive label for Les Amants de Mont Pérat was based on a series of sculptures by Basaline's sister-in-law.
Still only found in Bordeaux and Bergerac, muscadelle offers a delicious, subtle floral hint and some added weight to the wine. Used 50:50 with sauvignon, it produces a zesty yet substantial white, with very impressive length of flavour for its price tag. The individualism of the wine and its eye-catching label (a beautiful, modern drawing and a minimalist typeface in place of the more identikit château sketches we are used to) may show the direction in which white Bordeaux is going; if so, it’s an even more exciting prospect.
Lastly, the more traditionally-styled Château Mont Pérat Blanc (2008, £14.50) offered a taste of the more explicitly food-friendly style typified by the great wines of Graves and Pessac-Léognan. Though mainly sauvignon blanc, the addition of 30% semillon lends the wine a slightly waxy character, with marmalade-like fruit and complexity that makes these wines shine with so many different cuisines. These whites will only disappoint those whose tastes are for fashion rather than flavour – in my humble opinion, there’s no excuse not to try them.
Martin Brown
Digital Copywriter
A Video Interview with Edouard Moueix
Posted by: | CommentsLast week we were visited by Edouard Moueix from Bordeaux négociant house, J.P. Moueix. As well as owning some of the most illustrious properties on Bordeaux’s right bank – including Châteaux Petrus, Trotanoy and Magdelaine – the family-owned company produces numerous own-label blends and distributes wines from various Bordeaux châteaux. The Society has had the pleasure of working with Edouard and J.P. Moueix for a number of years.
Edouard is one of the most enthusiastic and engaging figures in Bordeaux wine, and so I enlisted the help of our trusty video camera to ask him about the company, the dramatic renovations at their recently acquired Saint-Emilion property, Château Belair Monange, and his interests outside wine.
I hope you enjoy the results, and should you wish to try some of his excellent wines, you can browse a selection at various price points below.
A selection of highlights from J.P. Moueix currently available from The Wine Society:
Christian Moueix, 2005, Bordeaux (£7.95 per bottle)
Moueix Côtes de Castillon, 2008 (£7.95 per bottle)
The Society’s St-Emilion, 2008 (£10.95 per bottle)
Château de la Commanderie, 2008, Lalande-de-Pomerol (£12.50 per bottle)
Château Certan Marzelle, 2005, Pomerol (£46 per bottle)
Château Hosanna, 2004, Pomerol (£60 per bottle)
The Society has reduced more than 300 wines in price
Posted by: | CommentsA colleague has recently been given a 1946 edition of A Wine Primer: A text-book for beginners on how to buy, keep & serve wine, written by André L. Simon.
Flicking through it, I was particularly struck by the last paragraph of the foreword:
Wine is a friend, wine is a joy; and, like sunshine, wine is the birthright of all. It grows so freely and is so cheap that there is wine for all, rich and poor alike, in wine-producing lands and in all others. Wine is cheaper, where it is made, than oranges and lemons which, in England, are not the privilege of the rich. Wine is. Why? Simply because oranges and lemons come in free of duty whilst wine is taxed so heavily that none but the rich may enjoy its message of good health and good will. May the day come, and the sooner it comes the better for all, when wine will no longer be penalized as it is at present on reaching these shores, and when it will be once again within the reach of all.
Obviously Simon wrote in an era when vineyard and winery technology, for instance, were not what they are today, but particularly on the subject of tax and duty it is rather difficult to disagree with these 66-year-old words – more’s the pity.
Wine itself is certainly not merely ‘the privilege of the rich’ anymore. Good wine (very different altogether, of course!) should indeed be ‘within the reach of all’, and we believe that membership of The Society gives you something of an advantage in getting hold of it.
We have always offered wines to members at the best prices that we possibly can. With this in mind, and despite the difficult financial climate, we are delighted to announce that, due to strong member support in 2011, we have lowered the prices of over 300 wines without raising the price of a single one.
We are able to do this because of our non-profit maximising mutual status, as Acting Chief Executive Richard Shorrocks writes in SocietyNews.
These modest and wide-ranging reductions, rather than gimmicky discounts on selected wines, are, we feel, the best and most practical way to reward and thank members for their support.
We hope you continue to enjoy the wines and services available from The Society.
