Events

We served two wines each of four different styles, one at around £10-12 and one at over £30. The wines were served blind and attendees asked which they preferred. Group A – Chenin Blanc Ken Forrester Reserve Collection Chenin Blanc 2020 An elegant, zesty, oaked white wine with flavours of tropical fruit, caramel and honeycomb.Ken…

We organised this tasting recently and it proved very popular. The wines provided were Chateau Musar Jeune White – Lebanon Musar Jeune White is an unoaked blend of Viognier, Vermentino, Chardonnay from youthful Bekaa Valley vines. Crisp and aromatic, this eclectic blend of French and Italian varieties has its own distinct personality – passionfruit, apples,…

I was fortunate enough to attend LWF in June this year – it was great to see it back as a live event. Unfortunately there seemed to be fewer country stands than in previous years; however there were plenty of interesting people to speak to, and a lot of great presentations including Valpolicella, vermouth, Central…

Congratulations to the following Sussex wine merchants who appeared in the Harper’s Top 50 Indies, together with the judges’ comments: THE BUTLERS WINE CELLAR This two-store merchant is as independently minded as they come. The Butlers team buy what they like, when they like, currently with a strong focus on Portugal and California, and sell…

This was the first in-person tasting I attended after lockdown restrictions were eased and Wines of Spain did a great job. The format was very different from previous years with no walk round, so unfortunately there was no opportunity to chat with growers and importers. We sat at a table with four tasting glasses and…

Had the pleasure of a small group visit to Chapel Down across the border in Kent who were joint winners of the best winery in the South East at the recent WineGB awards. Tom gave us an excellent tour of the winery followed by a tasting of some of their excellent wines: Bacchus 2018 (still…

Had the pleasure of a small group visit to Ashling Park in Sussex who were joint winners of the best winery in the South East at the recent WineGB awards (which they also hosted). We saw the Chardonnay, Meunier and Pinot Noir grapes which will be harvested in the next few weeks and tasted the…

Congratulations to our super Sussex wineries which achieved more trophy, gold and silver prizes than any other county. The full list of our winners is: Medal Producer & Wine Trophy Ashling Park Estate – Ashling Park Cuvée NV Trophy Ashling Park Estate – Ashling Park Sparking Rose NV Trophy Breaky Bottom Vineyard – Breaky Bottom…

New Zealand Wine ran an interesting tasting this month. In amongst the gallons of Sauvignon Blanc there were two really good feature tables – one for rose and one for “unexpected” grapes. For the former see my WOTM; however the latter had some great examples of Gruner Veltliner, Viognier, Malbec and Cabernet Franc. They’re worth…

Recently enjoyed 3 nights away as a guest of www.provencewineweekends.com which I thoroughly recommend. We visited wineries in Provence and Luberon – La Verrerie; Vallon des Glauges; La Vallongue and Chateau Fontvert. In a region known for rose, I found the reds and whites more interesting.