February Edition
Hello to members old and new!
Another month rolls around which means another, delicious box of wine, cheese and charcuterie.
This month, we are celebrating some of the finest products from Spain, Italy, France and our own backyard, the UK.
Whack the playlist on with the button below and let’s get going.
Wine Tasting
How to taste wine
The first step of assessing wine is looking at it.
Wine snobs like to talk about the legs of wine. In all honestly, this is a bit of a waste of time.
The wine legs (or tears of the wine as the French refer to them) can give an indication of the alcoholic content of the wine. But it’s so difficult to be accurate with a reading from legs,
So we say just read the label!
For appearance, we only ever find it useful to note something if the colour is completely out of the ordinary i.e. it’s a really dark rose.
The next step is to smell your wine.
Swirl the wine in the glass. Looks poncy but does release some aromas, and helps it not just smell like alcohol.
Broadly, smells can be broken into three categories.
Primary Aromas: grape-derivative and include fruits,
herbs, and floral notes.
Secondary Aromas: from winemaking practices and easiest to find in white wine. Examples include beer, cheese rind, or nuts.
Tertiary Aromas: from aging in bottle or oak. Normally savoury. Examples include roasted nuts, spices, vanilla, autumn leaves, tobacco, and leather.
Start broad. Is it fruity?
Red wine? Think of red, blue, and black fruits.
White wine? Think of citrus, orchard, or tropical fruits.
Once you’ve identified a scent such as citrus, you can now think if it’s more apple than lemon or more orange than lime.
This is all pretty personal to your own nose.
The same principle can be applied to floral and herb scents, but in our opinion, not many people can tell you the specific scent of geranium.
If you can detect herbs or floral notes, it’s a great start.
Wine Tasting
How To Taste Wine
Finally you get to actually taste the wine. Funnily enough though, tasting is predominantly to detect the structure of the wine.
Body: Think how differently skimmed milk, full-fat milk and cream coat the mouth.
Acidic: How much does it make your mouth drool?
Tannin: An annoying word but an easy one to detect. Imagine sucking on a teabag and how dry it would leave your mouth.
That’s tannin.
Dry or sweet? Tannin can trick you to think there’s no sweetness in a wine. Stick the tip of your tongue in as the best detector of sugar (probably not the done thing to do in a restaurant).
The final part of tasting a wine, is to come to a conclusion about it.
What type of wine did you just have and did you like it?
Was it too acidic or just a bit meh?
If you’ve just tried, for example, a Barolo, log that experience with that wine in your mind so that the next time you have a Barolo, you have a foundation of knowledge to judge it against.
The only way to really educate yourself is to drink more. Poor us.
Wine
Mañoso Reserva Rioja - 2015
Name: Mañoso Reserva Rioja – 2015
ABV: 14.5%
Grape: Tempranillo
Country and Region: Spain, Rioja
Winemaking: Traditional
Tasting notes of dark forest fruits, cocoa and vanilla.
Ripe forest fruits beautifully combined with cocoa, toasty vanilla oak, and hints of black pepper and spice. There is a delicious freshness of acidity with lovely mellow tannins.
Sweetness (dry to sweet) 1-5: 3
Acidity (low to high) 1-5: 3
Tannin (low to high) 1-5: 4
Body (light to full) 1-5: 4
Producer
Bodegas ruiz
Bodegas Ruiz de Vinaspre was founded in 1910 by the grandfather of the current owner.
It was located in the centre of Elvillar, parallel to the main square. Wine was produced in that winery until 1978 when another winery was built, at the entrance of the town, where the current portfolio of wines are produced by the current owner and his father.
The excellent clay-calcareous soil of Rioja Alavesa together with its optimal microclimate provides the right conditions to grow the most esteemed varieties of wines.
This wine is a Rioja Reserva. In Spain, to be able to call your wine a Reserva, the wine needs to be aged for at least 3 years, with at least 12 months of that being in oak barrels.
The time spent in oak barrels have given this wine oaky and vanilla notes.
Cheese 1
Brie De Meaux
Country + Region: France, Meaux
Milk Type: Cows
Pasteurised: No
Strength Of Cheese: 2
Style Of Cheese: Soft-Ripened
Texture: 2
The Bries-de-Saint-Remy workshop is located on the bank of the Grand Morin River, in St Remy-de-la-Vanne, in the heart of this historic cheese area.
The bloomy rind cheeses of the area, formerly protected by abbeys from different Briardes cities (Meaux, Melun, Nangis, Montereau, Coulommiers), are currently produced in one workshop taking into account the peculiarity of every one of them.
A historical and favourable prairie inhabited by people trained to make cheese and pay great attention to product quality and traceability; there was little to be re-launched in this workshop that makes the most of this Briard country’s treasures.
Cheese 2
Sparkenhoe Red Leicester
Leicestershire Handmade Cheese Company is located in Upton, a small hamlet in the South West Leicestershire countryside on a working dairy farm called Sparkenhoe Farm. David and Jo Clarke are dairy farmers whose families have farmed in the area for generations. David manages the 150 head of pedigree Holstein Friesian cows and the 160 followers. The cows are fed on the farm’s lush pastures and calving takes place all year round to keep the milk supply as consistent as possible.
David and Jo started making ‘Sparkenhoe’, a traditional Leicester Cheese in November 2005. They use the milk produced from their own cows and this is pumped straight from the parlour directly into the cheese vat ready to make the cheese.
Country + Region: United Kingdom, Warwickshire
Milk Type: Cow
Pasteurised: No
Strength Of Cheese: 4
Style Of Cheese: Hard
Texture: 5
Cheese 3
Beauvale
The Skailes family have handpicked some of the best milk suppliers in the region: small, family-run farms whose expertise, like their own, have been passed down through generations. And in return for the exceptional milk they supply, they make sure their farmers are paid a price that they deserve.
In June 2013 they were crowned Midlands and East Anglia Family Business of the Year.
Age: 1-2 Weeks
Country + Region: UK, Nottinghamshire
Milk Type: Cows
Pasteurised: Yes
Strength Of Cheese: 4
Style Of Cheese:
Soft Blue
Texture: 2
Cheese 3 - Blue Alternative
Keens cheddar
Back in 1899 there were hundreds of local producers of cheese, and today Keens are one of only a small handful of those who have survived the test of time and are making traditional cheddar the way it should be, with raw unpasteurised milk from grass fed cows living on our own farm.
Their cows spend most of their days living in their 500 acre back yard and dining on lush Somerset pastures, their precious milk is then transported a mere 50 yards to the dairy where the magic of true cheddaring happens and the cheese then lives, maturing for up to 18 months.
Country and Region: United Kingdom, Somerset
Milk Type: Cow
Pasteurised: Yes
Strength: 3
Style: Hard
Texture: 4
Charcuterie
The Deli Society Calabrian Spicy Trio
The Deli Society partners with artisan producers that put animal welfare first.
Country & Region: Italy, Calbria
The Deli Society partners with artisan producers that put animal welfare first.
This spicy selection shows Calabrian craft at its finest.
The spicy Calabrian prosciutto is marinated in the family’s own grown chillies, before hanging to cure for a minimum of 14 months.
The Spicy Salsiccia di Calabria D.O.P. is made using traditional methods with fennel and the family chillies.
The Spicy Capocollo di Calabria D.O.P. is made from the neck fillet, crushed black pepper, and hot peppers.
Chocolate
Colombian MILK Chocolate
We have partnered with COCO Chocolatier to provide you with the very best artisan chocolate.
Challenging industry norms, COCO Chocolatier begin the making of the chocolate at origin before passionately transforming it in Edinburgh, Scotland. As a result, more wealth remains within developing economies.