Somm

I watched Somm last week. It's a documentary from 2012 following 4 American guys as they try to pass the prestigious Master Sommelier Exam.

It's very watchable, very enjoyable and you will be agog at the dedication of these people and their wine knowledge! Less than 200 people in the world hold the Master Sommelier title.

It's on Netflix UK at the moment and probably available globally on Netflix. Check out this fascinating documentary!

Level 2 - signed up!

After the excitement of getting 100 % on my Wine and Spirits Education Trust Level 1 exam, I have signed up and paid for Level 2!

I start have 2 hours per week for 9 weeks starting in October and I'm really looking forward to it.

I've received my course material already and am going to set a weekend aside to review it before my first session. Exciting!!!

More details on the course can be found here: http://www.wsetglobal.com/qualifications/22.asp

First trip to an English Vineyard

So despite visiting vineyards all across the New World (Australia, New Zealand and the US) I hadn't been to an English winery before!

Having tried some Bacchus from Sharpham near Totnes in Devon a few weeks before, when I found myself in Devon I thought it would be rude/bonkers not to pop in! So I left Brecon bright and early on Friday morning and hooned down to the South West. All was going well to just after Exeter, but when I got into the countryside proper I had no mobile signal - no great when the Vineyard is hidden away up a plethora of country lanes.

Totnes in the distance along the river Dart

Fortunately my perseverance paid off as I wound my way down a very narrow drive on the side of a hill towards Sharpham. The outdoor restaurant and seating areas were busy but I was able to book myself in for a 1pm tasting. The young girl was enthusiastic but very nervous and not particularly knowledgable about the wines. Strangely we were allowed to taste 3 out of 6 wines offered. Why they don't just do a 25ml pour for each tasting and let us try all 6 I don't know!
I tried a Sauvignon esque white (which was actually 100% Madeleine Angevine) and the two reds (50% Pinot Noir & 50% Pinot Noir Précoce and 100% Rondo). The reds were exactly what I was expecting - light/medium bodied very young, rather thin and not all that! I much prefer a medium to full bodied red wine. The white was nice enough and I bought a bottle of that.

The cheeses were delicious (a goat's cheese and a brie type), but as I was heading off to a hotel I knew I wouldn't be able to keep them anywhere cool to take them home.

So I set off on one of their self guided tours around the vineyard. It was a very warm day and a very warm walk (I took off my cardie!) but well worth it. It was lovely! And I could have been in France.

So after this lovely walk in the English Countryside surrounded by grapes that will soon be wine, I decided to pick up a few bottles from the store, before hot footing it to the coast and the heady heights of Torquay! 

If you are in the area I would definitely recommend you take a look. It's not as swish or organised as many of the tasting rooms and vineyards I went to in California, but it is a really lovely area, particularly when the sun is shining. 

For more information go to the website: http://www.sharpham.com/

The Sampler

So don't tell me you haven't ever been to The Sampler?! It's one of my favourite places to take both locals and out of towners for a bit of a different evening. My dad and I (and once my brother too!) have also enjoyed a few Saturday afternoons sharing the delights of the shop.

There are 2 of them in London - South Kensington and Islington. My favourite is on Upper Street in  Islington, mainly because it's much nearer my home!

Gorgeous fridges full of lovely whites...

The Sampler are primarily wine shops that also let you sample up to 80 white, red and rose wines at any one time. You pay for what you try based on a sample size of 25ml, 50ml or 75ml. The price of your sample depends on the price of the bottle, so a £60 bottle of wine would cost £2, £4 or £6 depending on the size of your sample. They use inert gas to keep the wine fresh and use the Enomatic system (fancy fancy fridges!).

They have a really wide variety with wines from across the world divided up by grape. This is particularly fascinating as you can try Riesling from 3 different countries one after the other, and really get a sense of how different climates and earth affect the grapes and ultimately the wine.

So of course this means that you can try before you buy, but more importantly for me, you can try things you wouldn't normally, including some rather old/expensive/fine wines. The most expensive I have seen on display is £200!

Guess who snagged the large glass for red...

So next time you are in either area, go in, greet the friendly staff, get a sample card, pop £20 on it and go wild in the aisles! Then you can buy a bottle or a couple of bottles to take home with you.

Get some friends together and pretend you know what you are doing...

Don't choose a wine by it's label (but this one is rather beautiful!)

Everything you need to know about the colours of wine in one handy poster!

Love me the Enomatic system...

For more information and opening times go to: http://www.thesampler.co.uk/

New wine tasting - Pedro Ximenez

Popping into a pleasant wine and cocktail bar on Upper Street in Islington before meeting some friends, I tried my first glass of Pedro Ximenez. Known for being a great grape for creating Sherry, in this instance it was a glass of very dry, rather too crisp almost tasteless Chilean white.
For me it had little depth, flavour or nose, and I can only assume that it gets much better as it ages on the vine and gets sweeter and sweeter...

Not one I will be trying again!

Dry, light high altitude vineyards deliver a crisp, fresh wine with peach nose

Trying English wine and pairing wine with food...

On Friday I went back to the English Wine and Spirits Company in Devonshire Row (a 2 minute walk from Liverpool St station). It's a lovely little shop/small wine bar, that as the name suggests specialises in English wine and spirits. They sell wine by the glass and the bottle, and if you want to choose one of their wines to drink on the premises, that's fine, you just pay corkage on it.

English wine is becoming more and more popular, with our sparkling wine in particular winning numerous awards around the world. There is (according to the assistant) currently little red that isn't light or medium bodied, so I knew that wasn't going to float my boat at all.

Arriving a little earlier than my partner in crime for the evening, I asked the assistant what they had that I would fancy, giving her a steer on the kind of thing I like and that I wasn't in the mood for sparkling.

She came back with a taster of a lovely dry white wine from Devon. It was a Bacchus 2013 from Sharpham. It was lovely! Citrussy and fresh, it is a grape that has been made from 3 varieties, the only one I recognised being Riesling. As lovely as it was, it was £11 per glass which I thought was rather steep! With the exception of Champagne, I haven't ever paid that much money for a glass of wine.
So note to self - ask the price before agreeing on the wine! It would have been cheaper for us to drink a bottle than 2 glasses which was very frustrating!

After our rather expensive glasses of wine, we went round the corner to the Cinnamon Kitchen, sister restaurant to one of my favourite restaurants in London, The Cinnamon Club (at time of visiting closed for refurbishment).

With an 8 course tasting menu to delight us, and remembering what I learnt on my course about spicy food, I went with a very reasonably priced wine that unfortunately I can't remember the name of. Annoyingly when I went to look it up on the website to write this blog, they don't have their wine list up there! 

So you will just have to trust me that it was floral and off dry so very good with spicy food, and my dining companion was suitably impressed by my knowledge of what to pick.