The Wine Appreciation Group

Leader:  Annie Scotney - wine@ashbyu3a.co.uk -

WINE APPRECIATION GROUP

The objective of the group is to widen the members’ experience of wines and all matters pertaining to wines. Annie Scotney is the leader of the group and coordinates meetings. We are currently tasting a choice of wines bought by a different member each month, usually with some theme to connect them. Those present at the tasting share the cost.

If you are interested in joining us please contact Annie at wine@ashbyu3a.co.uk.

We currently meet on the third Wednesday of the month at 7pm.

19th November

At last we had sufficient people available to run the tasting and eight of us sat down to taste John's much-delayed Rieslings.
We started with New World wines before moving on to the traditional European ones.

First was a Cono Sur Reserva Especial 2023 from Chile. 13% and £11 from Tesco at full price but bought at 25% off.
This smelt as if it would be sweet and looked oily in the glass but was dryer than expected, tasting quite strongly of apple with a touch of honey. It was quite nice but didn't really taste like a Riesling. As first wine of the night we rated it 6.5/10. Most thought it was a bit pricey.

Next was Pikes Traditionale 2024 11.5% from Clare Valley, S Australia an area famous for world-class Rieslings. Unfortunately this didn't seem to be one of them! It was very dry, slightly frizzante, very acidic, tasting of lemon and apple but not in a good way. It scored just over 4/10, with one person scoring it 3! At £13 full price from Tesco, it was very disappointing.

Third was another Aussie; Tesco Finest Tingleup 2024 12%. This comes from Western Australia, made by Howard Park Winery. Again this was disappointing having very little flavour. Not unpleasant but not exactly exciting. Many Tesco buyers seem to agree judging by their comments online. Again £11 full price. We scored it 5/10. Not doing very well so far!

On to European wines, and first up was Tesco Finest Steep Slopes Mosel Riesling 2024. 11% and £7.50 (currently £6.25 on Clubcard and potentially £4.69 with 25% off). This was surprisingly much better than the previous three. Crisp and dry, tasting of real lemon, not just citric acid, with a tiny hint of peppermint on the nose. Very palatable. This is what we expected the Rieslings to taste like. Almost everyone liked it and one of us scored it 9! It averaged 7.5/10.

Next up was a Peter Hugel Alsace Riesling 2023 that Annie had been given, bought at some expense at an Oxford wine festival. 12%. Unfortunately it was disappointing and rather thin, with little taste of anything. It was the second-best wine so far, but that was only faint praise! We scored it 6.5/10.

For the last wine of the night John had brought a non-Riesling, thinking we might need a change. Very prescient of him! This was an Austrian PFAFFL Muskateller 2024 from Lidl at £9.99 and 13%. Muskateller is another name for Muscat which can be very sweet but this was only slightly so. A grapey taste (strangely muscat is the only grape that still tastes of grape after it has been made into wine!) with a melon and pear flavours and a dry finish. We all liked this with scores ranging from 7 to 8.5 and an average of 7.5.

And so our wines of the month were the Mosel Riesling and the Austrian Muskateller at exactly the same score. And they were the two cheapest wines by far. It just goes to show that price is not always an indicator of quality.

Next month will be our Christmas party where we all bring 'Something you'd like to drink at Christmas' and some food to go with it. Should be fun.