Monday 5 December 2011

How to pick your next House Wine!

An entertaining morning at the Trengilly Wartha Inn on Saturday coincided with the annual appearance of the Cury Foxhounds.  The event within the pub was primarily to raise funds for the Trengilly Cricketers, a team of reprobates who spend most Sundays through the summer playing visiting sides from all over the country on the lovely little ground at Trevassack at the top of the hill.

As well as a magnificent book stall and some wonderful cakes for sale, Wine in Cornwall were conducting a little trial tasting.  From blind samples, people were asked to compare 2 pairs of wine, a red pair and a white pair.  One of each pair was the current House wine at the Trengilly, the cherry bright and light Terre Allegre Sangiovese and the fruity and quite rich Terre Allegre Trebbiano.  The contenders were the Auction House Red & White from Australia. These house wines really impress us with their fruit driven blends which punch above their weight on all counts!

My observations from peeking over peoples’ shoulders during the event were that the Terre Allegre wines were emerging as clear favourites.  However, on analysis of the results, we discovered that votes were very evenly split.  On the white side 57% preferred the Auction House whereas on the red side 58% came down in favour of the Terre Allegre; certainly not an overwhelming result and proof that all four wines found favour.

The only conclusion I can draw from this deeply unscientific experiment is that it provides full justification for why we carry over 600 different wines on our list.  Everybody’s taste is different and what makes this business so fascinating is in trying to please everybody – a tricky call!

All entries for the tasting went in to the hat for a draw, which was drawn in the office here by Vicky. The lucky winner was Tricia the Trainer who wins a bottle of Terre Allegre Trebbiano which was her preference of the 2 white wines. (You can see a video the draw being done on our Facebook page! - if I can get Mike to load it for me!)


Henry Shaw

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