Miscellaneous
An Invitation From The Committee
Posted by: | CommentsAre you a member of The Society with a particular interest in digital communications (either professionally or personally)?
If so, we would be particularly interested in hearing from you.
Several times a year the Committee arranges informal meetings with groups of members. These provide a great opportunity to hear what a sample of members think about The Society and for members and Committee to meet one another – both highly appropriate functions of a co-operative organisation owned by its members.
Our digital offerings constitute a large part of our current development plan, and we would like to gather as many members as possible to discuss them (be it our website, app, social media presence and potential other channels) over a glass of something interesting.
The meetings will take place on the 5th and 9th July in Central London in the early evening.
If you would be interested in taking part, please contact us at tylerg@thewinesociety.com, quoting your share number and which of the dates you could make.
If you can’t make it but would like to send your views on our digital future, please also send an e-mail to the address above with your thoughts.
Sarah Evans
Chairman
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.
High hopes, low barometer?
Posted by: | CommentsEwan Murray wasn’t the only Society taster putting his palate through its paces recently. Last week others were judging too. Here’s what happened on one of those days.
Tim Sykes
Some of the wine trade’s finest palates, including those of four of The Society’s buyers, were out in force last week as judging took place at the annual Decanter World Wine Awards. Thousands of wines from hundreds of viticultural regions were sniffed, swilled and spat over the five gruelling days of assessment and analysis. Judges were faced with the olympian task of sorting out the top wines into the customary Gold, Silver, Bronze and Commended categories, with the best of the best being put forward for regional trophies.
Michael Schuster
Having been invited to judge on the Friday session at this year’s event I was delighted to learn that not only had I drawn one of the longest straws possible, tasting on the Burgundy panel, but also that I would be sitting next to Michael Schuster, Society Committee member and stalwart of the Decanter Burgundy panel for many years.
Michael assured me that he and the various Burgundy judges had, earlier in the week, awarded several Gold medals, so I sat down at 9.30 on Friday morning almost salivating at the prospect of blind tasting over 80 white and red Burgundies.
Come 4.30 in the afternoon, my enthusiasm had completely evaporated. Of the many wines we had tasted, from Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune to Premier Cru Meursault and from Bourgogne Pinot Noir to Premier Cru Morey St Denis, just two wines had, in the judges’ view, merited a Bronze medal. No Silvers, and certainly no Golds. “The most disappointing day’s tasting I have had in the ten years I have been judging at Decanter” was Michael’s bleak assessment.
My fellow judges and I were baffled as to the reasons for this lacklustre showing from one of the greatest wine regions of the world. We were tasting Burgundies mainly from the excellent 2009 and 2010 vintages, so how come the wines didn’t shine? One reason could be that barometric pressure was very low on Friday and that wines often fail to shine in such conditions. Our only other explanation was that few of the top producers in Burgundy enter their wines in competitions because demand for their wines outstrips supply several times over, particularly in a small harvest such as 2010. The great and the good of Burgundy will have sold out of their wines some time ago. However, as we had no idea whose wines we were tasting we could not verify this assertion. What remains clear is that earlier in the week many Burgundies were awarded Gold and Silver medals, so our day’s tasting was not representative of the week’s overall quality. 
Thankfully, at the end of the final session our faith was restored when we were treated to six Gold medal winning wines from previous days’ judging, all of which merited their award and indeed two of which we selected for regional trophies.
I retired to a local hostelry at the end of the day with some of my fellow judges for a well earned pint of ale. The general consensus was that a good pint of beer was infinitely more appealing than an average glass of Burgundy.
Tim Sykes
Head of Buying
As sober as a judge …
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Members will be aware of the Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA) and the International Wine Challenge (IWC) – two major wine competitions that take place in the UK and that The Society regularly does well in as a merchant.
Before the great days in May when the results are announced and September when the results are celebrated, there is a lot of hard work that goes on behind the scenes to ensure wines are blind tasted, retasted and judged on their merits. Several of The Society’s team are judges at these prestigious competitions. I am lucky enough to be counted among the judges for the IWC and this year have judged for six days out of the eleven that it takes.
This annual competition is co-chaired by 6 members of the Who’s Who of the wine world: Tim Atkin MW, Oz Clarke, Sam Harrop MW, Peter McCombie MW, Charles Metcalfe and Derek Smedley MW. This year the venue was the Nursery Pavilion at Lord’s Cricket Ground. Our time there was so wet that only 2 hours of cricket were possible, including Andrew Strauss dismissed for a second-ball duck batting for Middlesex against Durham. So other than the persistent precipitation hammering on the Pavilion roof, there were no distractions from the job in hand.
Just a few of the 100 judges in the Nursery Pavilion on the first day of judging
With over 12,000 wines tasted by 23 panels of 5 judges, the logistics pose significant problems. All of these were admirably overcome by Chris Ashton and his excellent, hard-working team from the IWC, delivering flight after flight of wine. In total I personally blind-tasted 585 wines from 21 countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, United States and Uruguay. My tasting panel leaders included ex-Tesco buyer Helen McGinn, ex-Sainsbury’s winemaker Clem Yates MW, Oregonian wine writer Lisa Shara Hall, Aussie wine critic and winemaker Nick Stock and wine author/blogger Jamie Goode.
Fellow judge Tamara Stanfill (left) & panel chair Helen McGinn evaluating Portuguese reds
The first 5 days are spent tasting and deciding simply if the wine should go forward to the medal tasting, be commended or rejected. The next four days see the medal-worthy wines re-tasted and bronze, silver or gold medals awarded, with the final two days set aside for re-tasting the gold medal winners and deciding which should be awarded the prestigious trophies.
Each day ended with a refreshing beer or two in the Mound Stand bar. The last thing you want after tasting 100 wines is … wine!
It’s a meticulous, challenging and tiring process, but worthwhile for the tasting experience, the educational side of things (I can now perceive and identify more degrees of reduction, oxidation, cork taint, brettanomyces and geosmin than I ever thought possible) and the networking with the great and the good of the industry (winemakers, estate owners, communicators, competitors).
And before you ask, I promise that I spat everything out (well, maybe a little vintage Champagne and Bual Madeira remained in my system at the end of one or two of the judging days); here was one sober judge!
Work stops on controversial Mosel bridge
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Contractors have stopped work on Mosel bridge
Members may remember the tale of the 500ft-high bridge and four-lane motorway planned to pass through some of the Mosel’s most prestigious vineyards and the lobbying and campaigning that has taken place, not just by locals but by wine-lovers and wine writers the world over.
Despite fierce protest, legal challenges and political wrangling, construction had started on the new route. However, the latest news from Pro-Mosel, the body set up to channel support against the so-called B50 project, gives fresh hope though, as the construction company involved in the development has stopped all activities until further notice:
‘Construction cranes have been dismantled, demonstrably angry workers have been sent away. According to witnesses, the building company Porr have suspended their activities on the construction of the Mosel bridge until further notice. It has been reported that static calculations are missing, and that only the measurements for the first bridge pier have been reliably calculated. Officially, the contractors refuse to confirm this information.’
Apparently, similar problems have already been cited by critics of the project. Last year, a report was produced which criticised a lack of exploration of the subsoil, in particular in the area of the bridge. The Mosel region is susceptible to landslides and with supporting piers designed to reach a height of 160 metres, there is a particularly high risk of instability.
You can read the full press-release and find out more about the bridge and the campaign to stop its construction on Pro-Mosel’s website.
The secret of longevity
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Oldie grape pickers in Madiran, south-west France, where the local red from the tannat grape is thought to be an important factor in the region having double the national average of men aged over 90.
A report in The Independent the other day caught my eye. It appears that the residents of the small Somerset village of Hinton St George have the highest life expectancy for retired men in the country. What is their secret?
Drink.
And I quote: “‘Most of them have at least one glass of red wine a day,’ confides Gill Esp, a woman in her sixties who works at the local tea shop. Indeed, this tea room also runs a wine club, but Ms Esp and her fellow members won’t tolerate any old plonk.
‘No no, they order from The Wine Society,’ she says.”
To your health!
Jamie Oliver, Wine and Beef
Posted by: | CommentsAn unexpected meeting with renowned chef Jamie Oliver last week got me reflecting about the similarities between sourcing quality wine and food.
I was dining with Wine Society supplier Daniel Castaño, behind the unpretentious Spanish monastrell we list, at Barbecoa restaurant in London (which happens also to list Daniel’s wine under its on-trade label – for obvious reasons, it’s several times more expensive there).
Jamie Oliver, Daniel Castaño and me
Barbecue beef is the speciality here and by happy chance Jamie Oliver was enjoying a night out with friends a couple of tables down from us. We soon got talking about wine and beef.
Jamie’s passion for quality was as evident as when he’s performing on TV. Apparently the choice of farmer, breed and feed are the key to a good piece of juicy, flavourful beef. And the parallel with wine starts here too. The decisions of the grape grower (like the farmer) will determine the quality of the harvested grapes. For breed read grape variety, for feed read soil management which aims to maximise vine nutrition and health. Like Jamie, The Wine Society starts by selecting the growers whose philosophy matches our quality expectations.
But it doesn’t stop there. Jamie Oliver goes one step further. He employs someone to select the very best from his chosen farmers by looking at the ‘marbling’ of each animal in the slaughterhouse. They might pick just two out of ten.
It’s what the Wine Society buyers do; granted, in the more amicable surroundings of a cellar or winery tasting room, but of the thousands of wines we taste each year, only a very small percentage makes it to the List.
Pierre Mansour
Buyer for Spain
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.
Question Time
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David Dimbleby not presenting The Society's question time
Yesterday Pierre Mansour (@pierremansour) and I (@Ewbz) hosted a virtual question time on Twitter (@TheWineSociety) as an experiment as we dip our toe a little further into the water of social media. A small-but-perfectly-formed band of members took part under the hashtag #twsqt. Here are the Qs and the As:
@robjfreeman If in doubt, always decant?
@TheWineSociety ‘Yes!’ Most wines improve with aeration, especially younger reds. As @JancisRobinson says: ‘decant splashily!’ …
@TheWineSociety …although be wary of older, more fragile wines. If needed, decant immediately before drinking or pour carefully.
@jonone100 can you recommend a nice pinot noir for about £20? Thanks.
@TheWineSociety This Marsannay, a new (to us) producer & great vfm. Or for a top Kiwi try @SeresinEstate’s Rachel
@thirstforwine What wine for a Xmas 4-bird roast? (Turkey, Goose, Duck, Pheasant)
@TheWineSociety C’neuf-du-Pape is our recco but with so many flavours esp. trimmings choose something you know your guests will enjoy.
@thirstforwine Interesting – was thinking NZ PN. Thoughts?
@TheWineSociety NZ pinot was what @pierremansour drank with last year’s Christmas dinner! Anything with a bit of sweet ripe fruit.
@skifamille Am I right in thinking 15/12 is last order date for Christmas?
@TheWineSociety To guarantee pre-Christmas delivery, order pre-midnight Thu 15/12.
@TopTungston Wondering when the Tollot-Beaut Chorey-lès-Beaune 2005 is best to drink. Opening offer says best by 2012. Please advise.
@TheWineSociety Drinking well now. 05 vintage long-lasting but Chorey a modest appellation. For even softer and gamier hold for 2-3 years.
@TopTungston Also please could you tell me is the 06 Katnook estate Cab Sauv drinking ok right now? Thank you.
@TheWineSociety Absolutely delicious right now. Very elegant. Do decant 1 hour before.
@Theshrubb Is my 2001 Langoa Barton ready for this Christmas or should I leave it for a few more?
@TheWineSociety Drank this at a recent Montreuil dinner (Sep). Just hitting stride now. Pop the cork & enjoy, or wait up to another 8 years.
@PollyEJHolidays You focus a lot on great Portuguese wines, but are there any you’d recommend from the Algarve for Christmas?
@TheWineSociety While we have loads of Portuguese in our current offer none are from Algarve. Sorry.
So that’s it from Stevenage for this week. Next time we’ll be in Stevenage, and the time after that in … er … Stevenage! Good night.
Pleasures Unforeseen
Posted by: | CommentsThe greatest pleasures are often unexpected.
We had agreed to baby-sit our granddaughter (a predictable delight) while our daughter and son-in-law were at a friend’s wedding.
Our daughter and son-in-law booked us a room in a hotel, but the website was confusing and the place they thought they had booked knew nothing about it. The one with a similar name, and where we were booked in, looked at first sight distinctly unpromising, and in need of a good refurbishment.
But soon after we arrived and were about to regroup, a man arrived who changed our first impressions completely. He was carrying a tray of glistening Mediterranean fish, sweet-smelling lemon and tomatoes. It turned out that he was a born Sicilian, a trainee chef, had just taken over the hotel, and sensibly gone down to Portsmouth to meet the boat from Sicily (we were in Hampshire) and buy fresh produce for supper. My eyes lit up.
We discussed what fish we would eat for supper. We talked about the important subject of ripeness in lemons and tomatoes and later on we ate like kings. Our granddaughter slept with a seraphic smile on her face.
If the ingredients are fresh, ripe and good, and beautifully prepared, what more do you need?
So it is with wine too.
Sebastian Payne MW
Chief Buyer
