Summer Tasting in St Ives

A splendid tasting on a beautiful evening (remember them?) at Brush End in Lelant last week for the newly formed St Ives Bay Rotary Club. The theme was (a tad optimistically perhaps) “Summer Wines” for which we showed a flight of one Prosecco, four white, one rosé and three red.

The whites kicked off with the mellow but dry Alsace Pinot Blanc from Wunsch et Mann, then the flinty, lime tinged Simmonet Febvre Chablis, the uber-assertive Chamelin Verdejo and finishing with the predictably popular, exotically enticing St Helena Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough.

        

Of the reds The Pirie South Pinot Noir from Tasmania was a bit closed and disappointed, the fulsome La Forge Carignan was on good form with juicy elderberry fruit and character however the real star of the show was the hauntingly spicy, leather bound, blood-rich Mencia from Casar de Burbia in Northern Spain  - fabulous!

Oh yes, and the rosé - once again Domaine Pique Roque from Provence, heather dry and refreshing.

Nigel  

Feeling Pink.

Looking forward to the Cloudy Bay dinner at Alba, St Ives this weekend, it should be a landmark occasion.

With so many Bank Holidays coming up and spectacular spring weather thoughts inevitably turn to pink wines - so what’s showing well in this department I hear you ask? Well, rosé lovers seem to fall pretty neatly into three categories:

a. medium sweet/blush

b. full bodied off dry/ deep pink and

c. dry/salmon pink

So it will depend which category you feel fits best for you but here goes anyway. For category a. which we despairingly call “Girlie Wines” (no angry letters please ladies) the prettily packaged Sentina Pinot Grigio Blush (£4.99) is fun while the R. H. Phillips Night Harvest White Zinfandel (£8.50) is smart and very succulent. For the deeper coloured medium dry bunch  Spain is a happy hunting ground and the amazingly consistent, juicy Quinta Hinojal Tempranillo Rosado (£5.29) always shows well while new this year is a blistering pink Malbec from Toso (£8.50) in Argentina, very weighty and packed with big red fruit flavours. In the dry section the ever popular Domaine Piqueroque from Provence (£7.30) is a sure fire winner – mineral dry and vibrant while the St Felix Rosé (£5.48) from the Languedoc is in a similar style if just a touch fruitier and less fine.

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