My two (@ work, so little time for a full list ) are:
Delicious and on the medium+, not too acidic, elegant and delicious spectrum.
Really good and well priced - a benchmark for me about how good simple Chardonnay can be and a tempter for more interesting and more expensive white Burgundy.
I am not sure I can help much with your specific query. However, you might like to take a look at the latest edition (2017) of Essential Winetasting by Michael Schuster. In the 2nd part, there is a series of suggested winetasting excercises, with suggested wines, through which you can learn about various styles.
If you go to Amazon, you can take a look inside the book online, and see if those tasting exercises are the sort of thing that might interest you.
Regarding a ‘journey in wine tasting’ mixed case, when I first joined TWS they did indeed have such a mixed case, complete with a booklet written by Michael Schuster, which I gather was written in a style similar to the exercises in the first edition of his book. And I vaguely remember another merchant (Waitrose I think) was giving away copies of the book along with mixed cases of wine to use in the exercises. Both seemed like a great idea, but by that time I have already worked through the exercise.
I actually think they’ve done it before, complete with extensive notes and guide to wine tasting etc, but surprised it’s not a permanent thing. Maybe not as popular as I imagined!
That list looks good. This thread reminds me of my very first WS purchase, when I was just getting into wine, which was a 15-bottle case of ‘members’ favourites’. That was really great, and a nice wide range. I see they do similar offers regularly, and one right now:
Being slightly facetious for a moment, I think ‘one of the best region for the grapes’ and a limit of £30 rules out Burgundy for PN! I would therefore direct the OP to the Kooyong Massale, Prophets Rock and Wassmer for Pinot noir from established producing regions which will be good and in budget.
If it’s good value and reasonable quality Pinot Noir you fancy, my suggestion is to try some Chilean examples and perhaps compare with @Inbar’s suggestions above - there are some very good wines around £16 which will provide an intriguing comparison with the Burgundy.
reminds me of the great Gregory Corso poem The Whole Mess…Almost which ends with the superb line: “Out the window with the window!” Worth reading the whole poem (or even better finding the recording of Corso reading it).
01438 741177
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