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I had a bottle each of The Society’s Claret 2016 and the Château Haut-Bardin, Bordeaux 2015 in my last order. I hope you enjoy them!
However, I shall be trying this…
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Works Christmas party tonight so fun rather than anything magical on the wine front.
The Christmas wines have been safely put out of harms way or “accidental” drinking by returning children.
The final wine order arrived today, mainly port and spirits for pressies.
The 2011 version of the Exhibition Shiraz has now waited long enough as has the lovely Vergelegen.
https://www.thewinesociety.com/shop/HistoricProductDetail.aspx?pd=SA11501&usage=&pageNumber=0&pageSize=50&OrderBy=&ProductType=All&Country=All&Search=Vergelegen&OrderRef=&InStock=False&DrinkNow=False&Recent=False&MixedCaseWines=False
And this one for some paella.
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Christmas case arrived yesterday including a couple of bottles each for my nephews to help them understand French reds : Ch. Tour St Bonnet 2011 and the Society’s Exhibition St Aubin 2016 (got some for myself as well!) Incidentally when I was able to dine on High Table in College (University College, Durham) as a graduate back in '69/'70, Ch. Tour St Bonnet was the College claret served on High Table.
Now to the weekend. Yesterday I watched Mary Berry prepare a Coq au Vin in her latest TV series so decided to try her method tonight - that’s a third of a bottle of the Society’s claret and the rest to drink with it. Looking forward to that.
Saturday I plan to have scallops washed down with the Society’s English white wine.
Sunday roast is a rack of lamb so that will be accompanied with a bottle of the aforementioned Tour St Bonnet!
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We are in Wellington, NZ, but stopped for a night in Martinborough and tasted some wines. Opened this last night, which was delicious, and will finish it tonight.
On to the South Island tomorrow, looking forward to getting stuck in to Central Otago…
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My partner Katie was on the late shift and with some home made falafel in pitta we had this rather superb bottle!
Rich spiced apple flavours, good length and more elegance than I remember from the last time I tried this wine (at least 10 years ago). It actually dealt with the spicy falafel really well, Alsace wine is so food friendly, especially if you have a vegetarian partner (fortunately a wine loving one!)
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That sounds great… I was just browsing the Alsace 2015 offer yesterday and saw this myself, among other very tempting wines.
We are in Hungary now tlll 31 December and having some nice wines from the Szekszard region (where I am from).
The first one is a very tasty rosé, great with a conversation. The colour is more Provence than Tavel and it is very nice even without the Mediterranean summer sunset.
The third one is Cheval Blanc-esque blend of more Cabernet Franc than Merlot with traces of a grape called Momen Noir. still lot of fruit and structure that will make it go for a few years more (not this bottle mind you). Vintage 2011 from Adrián Bôsz.
The second one is a Blaufränkisch, or Kékfrankos as it is called here. Lighter in body, but very nice sour cherry fruit that lingers long.
All of them bought from their respective producers, so VGV.
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We had both these wines last weekend!! Both great.
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Society Claret 2016 is definitely up to standard. Identifiably Bordeaux, mild tannins, enough fruit and some cedar to make it interesting, eminently quaffable & good value. Haut-Bardin is even easier drinking with very gentle tannin, a little acidity and the fruit element compared to TWS Claret is riper, very smooth easy drinker.
For further interest I put another £7 Cab.Sav into the mix. One which I really wanted to like (bias alert).
Moser XV 2015, there’s been a huge amount of money spent on facilities and personel at the Ch.Changyu (China), and there have been some favourable press reviews.
The good news is you don’t need to buy this wine to get the experience. Add 6 measures of Ribena to a bordeaux bottle, 4 of spirit (thinners or similar), fill bottle to the shoulder with clean water and finish with cranberry juice to the neck. Shake and serve.
Possibly the worst wine (with no obvious fault!) that I’ve ever tasted. Very disappointed, I really wanted it to be at least competent.
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I’ve got what I hope to be a special ragù simmering away at the moment, and am about to kneed out some pasta dough for fresh tagliatelle. The first of these from my case has been staring at me, longing to be decanted.
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Beautifully described, I can almost taste it now.
Reminds me of the Black Books “Grapes of Wrath” episode … have you ever seen it? Hilarious
Nice choices here (lots of Bordeaux this week it would seem!)
We had two nice bottles at the weekend: firstly, some Champagne, because it was my husband and my 6th anniversary of our first date on Saturday. 
The Champagne was a lovely bottle (nothing famous or particularly special - just really bloomin’ tasty!) that my friend gave me for our wedding last year. 
It went really well with the Strictly final…
Secondly, we had this Nero Oro Appassimento from Majestic which a friend brought over last night to drink with the lasagne we made. It was GORGEOUS! Such silky fruity rich and flavourful goodness. 
It’s made my very keen to pick up a bottle of this from the Showroom:
Anyone had it?
I drank this:
I bought a bottle of this in November 2016, on the back of a favourable press review, and must have liked it enough to buy more.
The second bottle last month was unmemorable so I thought a third with a better food choice might settle it. It was better with warming winter food (aubergine parmigiana).
But I’m still disappointed. Did I wait too long to drink? It certainly isn’t going to get any better but I missed the strawberry aromas and green pepper flavours that make me love Cabernet Franc, and so I think from now on I’ll stick to younger stuff.
I’ve had the Baccolo in the past @laura. From memory very enjoyable and punches above its very reasonable price tag. Equally good with and without food IIRC.
@woodap I think it was a good time to open my first bottle, I’ve one more in the rack and the rest still in reserves. Some black cherry fruit in the nose and palate, followed by drying tannins and cinnamon spice. I’m looking forward to seeing how it develops in bottle.
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Great series! And a classic episode, “Don’t drink Burgundy in a boat” and “Pope killed by terrible (?) wine” .
Fortunately all three of the Society wines passed muster. The 2016 Society Claret was probably my favourite 
, the J.P.Moueix Bordeaux didn’t really offer anything more despite being the most expensive of my budget selections. The Haut-Bardin felt a little lightweight when tasted side-by-side, although there might be times when that’s a positive.
Had this last Christmas and it was fantastic! Had good Cab Franc varietal character, but also mature flavours similar to aged claret.
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I also had this over a couple of nights:
It immediately reminded me of a quite expensive Cotes de Beaune white I drank recently which cost upwards of GBP50. This Spanish Albillo cost about GBP10 or so…
It also reminded me of this superb wine I drank earlier this year:
That also punched well above its price.
Albill-o or-a (not sure what the difference is (@ricard please help)) is my discovery of 2017 without a doubt. This grape is like a poor man’s PC Chardonnay and that’s just fine with me.
A search of TWS website reveals…nothing in stock for any combination of Albilla/Albillo…hoping that changes early in 2018.
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Thanks for the positive note on this. I still have a bottle waiting for the “right” occasion and this weekend might be it.
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