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

A new colour of wine?

At our annual wine fair last week at the Maritime Museum in Falmouth, I started the evening looking after the Alexander Krossa table as there had been a delay in the arrival of the 'Languedoc Ladies'!

Alexander Krossa is our agent in the Languedoc and the delightful Fabienne Capello our day to day contact. She was accompanied by Irène Tolleret, the enigmatic winemaker at the tiny boutique winery of Mas d'Auxières. Irène caused the upset by having her travel arrangements thrown into disarray by her colleagues in the Pic St Loup area, where she is instrumental in setting up a new AC for this unique growing area. Poor Fabienne, having just experienced a grand tour of the Eden Project, including a hike up to the rainforest look-out, then had to dash back to Exeter Airport to collect Irène who had come from Montpelier via Paris.

As I was handing over the stewardship of their table, one of our customers said to Irène, as she was exhorting him to try the lovely 'Rires et Sourires' Syrah / Grenache rosé, that he did not drink pink wine in November! I was amazed and highly amused by her immediate response which marked her out as the ex-marketing person she really is! She came straight back and said, “but in November this is not a rosé wine, look at it now, it is a magenta wine”! And so a new word entered the wine vocabulary that evening and it was used extensively to punt this lovely wine!

So when you are considering what to drink with your fresh Cornish scallops in crème frâiche and ginger (I will let you have a recipe if you ask!) then look no further than the delightful Rires et Sourires Magenta from Mas d'Auxières.

Wine Fair News

Last week we held our annual Wine Fair at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall. With about 150 guests slurping, swilling and (just occasionally) spitting it was, all in all, a memorable evening. There’s a fine line to be drawn at these affairs between out and out party and serious tasting as it is a splendid opportunity for all to improve their wine knowledge and develop their palate. We do, however, seem to get it right every year and the overwhelmingly positive feedback we got was certainly proof of the pudding. Oh, and we took a few nice wine orders as well – thanks everybody, buyers, sellers and staff for making it go so well. Next year’s date is 22^nd November 2012, hopefully at the same venue.

Everybody at WIC had their favourites –

Julian – Epicuro Aglianico; Rex Goliath Zinfandel; Pouilly Fumé Michel Bailly.

Nigel – Chablis 1er Cru Montmains, Simmonet Febvre; Logan Orange Chardonnay; Riesling Grand Cru, Wunsch et Mann; Curatolo Dulce Marsala.

Mike – Santa Alicia Carmenere Reserva; Auxey Duresses 1er cru, Comte Armand; Chateau Blanville Grand Cuvee.

Jonathan – Michaud Touraine Sauvignon; Tamar Ridge Dry Riesling; Rex Goliath Zinfandel.

Dick – Lyngrove Chenin Blanc; Chablis 1er Cru Montmains, Simmonet Febvre; Paul Mas Viognier; Epicuro Aglianico; Dogpoint Sauvignon Blanc.

Keeping up with the best

On Wednesday this week The Cornwall Tourism Awards were held and we are delighted that a number of our customers again featured in the top players in the county.

As both winners of one of these prestigious awards (on several occasions) whilst running Trengilly Wartha and latterly as part-time judges, Nigel and Mike are well aware of the importance of this scheme and the effect it will have on future business.

So massive congratulations to The Victoria Inn at Perranuthnoe and The Kitchen Tearoom and Restaurant in Polperro who both received Bronze Awards in the Taste of Cornwall category; Hotel Penzance, Silver in the Small Hotel category; Trebah Gardens, Gold in the large visitor attraction section; Penleee House, Penzance, Gold in the small visitor attraction category; Gwel an Mor, Portreath who picked up Gold for Caravan, Camping and Holiday Park and Village of the Year as well as a special award to their hospitality Team for "Outstanding Customer Service" and finally, The Pendragon Country House in Davidstow who collected a Bronze Award in the B&B and Guest Accommodation category.

Corkscrews and Screwfix!!?

Much excitement in Penryn this week as the new branch of Screwfix opens very nearby - we’re hoping that people who buy screws also like wine!

We’ve been gradually upping the profile of our “shed” since the summer as we endeavour to improve our retail presence locally. We toyed with the idea of taking a separate retail unit but the logistics of a split site just didn’t add up in the end. When the trees were removed from outside the front of our warehouse it became clear that it was more efficient to make the best of what we’ve got. You will notice some significant changes inside and out over the coming months.

Last week’s Budock Vean Gourmet dinners went well and next month we are organising a Gala Champagne dinner in association with Veuve Clicquot at the hotel which should set the pulses racing. Busy all round at the moment – lots of tastings and of course the annual wine fair coming up at the Maritime Museum on 24^th November.

Best bottles recently have been a taut, concentrated Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc from Isabel Estate, a gloriously mature Urgoiti Rioja Reserva 2001 and the oh-so-easy Delaforce His Eminence’s Choice (and very good value) 10 year old Tawny – all downhill to Christmas now, hey ho!

Wine & Food matching

I love the challenges of matching wine with food or food with wine (have you heard the one about the chicken and the egg  -or was it the egg and the chicken?), it’s fun setting oneself a challenge either way.

Two instances in the last couple of weeks have illustrated this perfectly. We had opened a bottle of Alsace, Wunsch et Mann Grand Cru Steingrubler Pinot Gris 2007 to check its condition prior to its use at a Budock Vean Dinner. Golden and rounded, pure and weighty with a lovely languid drop of honeyed ripeness but what food would match it best? The hotel was serving it with a crab and sweetcorn soup (at our suggestion) and they reported back that it worked really well but in an ideal world I would have had it with a big dollop of fresh Foie Gras. Neither wine nor food would dominate and the texture of both would have filled the mouth with opulence –  mouth feel we call it in the trade. Unfortunately I had no Foie Gras to hand!

The second challenge was food/ wine. Our garden at home has a stream running through it and from time immemorial – long before our house was built – it has been the place where the village gathered watercress. We use it a lot – it’s best in the late summer and if left uncut will take over half the lawn and we end up mowing it off. We had some friends staying in August who had bought an Iberico ham back from Spain and I served it with the compulsory watercress salad on bank holiday Monday, so what to serve with it? As it happened I had a bottle of Chamelin Verdejo 2010 to hand and it just worked so well.

 That assertive, primary green-fruit Verdejo flavour standing up to the white pepperyness of the watercress. If texture was the secret with the Pinot Gris and foie gras here the magic link was the colour and freshness of both partners. Other options would have been maybe a mid-Loire Sauvignon Blanc or Bob Lindo’s crackling Atlantic Dry from Cornwall’s very own Camel Valley.

Nigel

Indian Summer in the Languedoc

Mike and Nigel  have just come back from two days in the Languedoc accompanied by two of our friends at the Eden Project, Andrew Holden, Purchasing Director and Julie Kendle, one of the Senior Horticulturists and fruit specialist.

We were keen to get them to see the P’tit Roubie vineyards from which the Eden wines are sourced  as well giving them a feel of the region a whole. The Azan family at P’tit Roubie gave us a warm welcome and it was fascinating to see how a large, long term organic vineyard copes with the issues of disease and pest in such a controlled and effective manner. Visits were also made to the delightful Darde family at Les Yeuses, the impeccable Domaine Valensac where the super-ripe Petit Verdot berries were almost pleading to be picked and finally to Mas D’ Auzieres a surreal, impossibly pastoral boutique winery under the Pic St Loup where all the men fell under the spell of vigneronne, Irene Tolleret - stunning wines as well!

These wineries will be represented at the Annual Wine Fair at the Maritime Museum on Thursday 24th November!

Sturdy Grenache vines at Mas d'Auzieres