We went back to the LWW hub in Devonshire Square and enjoyed some of the delights of Nyetimber. If you don't know Nyetimber, it's probably the most famous English sparkling wine and is based in West Sussex. We started with their 2010 vintage and what a lovely way to start the day! High acidity and citrus and apple notes with brioche undertones. However at £35 per bottle a pricey way to start the day too. We then moved onto their NV Rose. Again a lovely drop with red berries pushing their way through the crispness, but balanced and delicious. The surprise of the tasting was the demi-sec which I thought would be far too sweet for me, but was actually lovely, with just a hint of sweetness on the palate. A real eye opener!
The service was really good, with the servers taking time to explain each of the wines and then following up afterwards to see how we enjoyed them. The wines themselves were served up in beautiful glass holders that looked like elegant cup cake holders:
So keeping things light we moved onto Provence. No interaction here on the wines at all from the two ladies who seemed a little stressed and were too busy moving things around in the pop up hut to speak to us. It was left up to us to choose from the flights. We chose a Mistral Mix and La Vie en Rose - having never really tasted Rose wines from Provence I didn't really know what we were choosing.
We had briefly touched on Provence at last week's WSET, so I knew what to expect, and they truly were some of the lightest Rose wines I have ever seen. Neither of us liked our first wines (Les Vins Breban and La Mascaronne) and left most of them. The best wine of the 6 was the Domaine du Grand Cros 2015. It had the most going on in terms of nose and flavour, but overall I don't think the Provence pinks are for me. I had rose wines that were far more to my taste in the Languedoc region last year. These were just too light in body, nose and taste. However I can see how they could be lovely when sitting in the Cote d'Azur!
We briefly went to the Portugal pop up (where I had gone the other night) and tried a few different reds. Again not as good as anything I had in Portugal on holiday, but pleasant enough.
Then off to the English Wine and Spirits Company. I have been here a few times and blogged about it, so it was nice to see so many people in there. The still and still and sparkling flights were very similar, with just one glass difference. With the exception of the Pinot Noir, my friend wasn't keen on any of them, and I am still of the opinion that we do sparkling well in England now, but we have a way to go on some of the still wine. I just find them rather too acidic and not balanced enough. They just feel like the grapes need some more warmth and sun to help them on their way...
We had an Ortega from Kent (Biddenden) a blend from Three Choirs Coleridge Hill from Gloucestershire, Furleigh Estate Classic Cuvee from Dorset (My favourite) and Sixteen Ridges Pinot Noir from Herefordshire. With one of the flights being £7 that was the most expensive flight we had all week, but certainly not the nicest or best in my opinion.
We nipped into a taste of Franciacorta, but it was very busy and when we found out the wines were all white we quickly moved on to Crab Tavern in Broadgate Circus.
My friend was excited to try 3 Italian reds but excitement turned to disappointment when we were told that they weren't taking part after all (despite being on the website and in the printed book). However the waitress kindly gave us three samples of Italian wines (white, red and rose) for free.
Alas we didn't really like any of them and even left the rose, but it was well intentioned. We stayed there and ate, but a number of items were off the menu, including my choice (which I wasn't told about till way after my order had been taken). However I wasn't charged for my main so I guess that made up for it. Service was smiley but not massively competent. I won't be rushing back.
The biggest surprise was Gerard Betrand's Picpoul de Pinet being sold for £8 per glass (175ml). I didn't want to pay it as I thought it was extortionate, but was worn down by my friend. As the RRP for a bottle is £10 and the restaurant probably gets it for around £5 or £6, I thought the mark up at £32 per bottle for 4 medium individual glasses was outrageous!
We moved on to our final bar of the day, which was also probably my favourite.
Bedales in Spitalfields injected a bit of humour into their flight, calling it Corks Camera and Action and took their inspiration from some Hollywood movies. Here we tried:
- Chenin Blanc from Champalou, Vouvray in the Loire Valley (inspired by Elwood drinking vintage champagne from a red wine glass in the Blues Brothers)
- Chianti Classico Reserva (inspired by Hannibal Lecter's famous quote from Silence of the Lambs about eating someone's liver with fava beans.
- and Merlot Cab Franc blend from Chateau Tour Saint Christophe, Saint Emilion Grand Cru (inspired by Miles' rant about Merlot in the wine film Sideways).
The Grand Cru was my favourite wine of the day I think. Balanced and delicious.
So another lovely afternoon in London Wine Week. It was a great way to try wines I wouldn't normally think of, and to go to bars and restaurants I may not have visited before in areas I might not normally go to! I will definitely be attending more bars, and probably some more events next year.
I am surprised more people don't know about London Wine Week, and I wonder if their marketing needs to improve? I have a number of wine drinking friends who knew nothing about it, which really surprised me. It wasn't mentioned at our WSET classes either. I would have thought that anything to do with wine and making people more aware of it, and diversifying their tastes, would only be a good thing, and it would have been mentioned to us?
Anyway - roll on London Wine Week - 2017!
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