Barrica Wines: Christmas Wine Tasting

I met the lovely Jane Cuthbertson, the lady behind Barrica Wines, way back at Three Wine Men event in May. It wasn’t long after this that I met Gordon of Everyman Wines, the wine reviewer who currently runs the 7 Word Wine Review chapter in Manchester.

It was this mutual love of wine (and my continued wish to learn) that led to my visit, along with Gordon to Samlesbury to attend the Barrica Christmas Portfolio Wine Tasting.

 

To add a little spice to the event, Jane had also been dropping hints on twitter day about a challenge we would face. Feeling nervous (or at least I was, I think someone else might have had a little insider information), we wandered in.

We were greeted by the sights and sounds of any wine tasting; clinking glasses, the slosh of ice water in a bucket, people debating flavours, tastes and scents. It’s become music to my ears. Jane greeted us, we were handed our papers and effectively told to get stuck in. Grabbing a pen, a glass and our enthusiasm we headed to the tables.

What we found was a selection of fantastic wines, a few spirits and a little beer for variety. The wines were fabulous. Intriguing little gems like the Hungarian Meinklang Somlo, a lovely minerally almost Viognier like wine through to the absolutely beautiful Quinto do Portal Tinto Roriz dessert wine, raisiny without being heavy or cloying.

For me, in my current obsession with white wines, the Quando Sauvignon Blanc from South Africa leapt out  with it’s tropical fruit and white peach (I’m a sucker for peaches); and the stunning Chateau Coquillas White AOC Pessac-Leognan, the first time I could ever conclude that a wine had a hint of gammon about it.

For the reds, the Ribbonwood Pinot Noir had a lovely British cherry quality, bitter in nature that reminded me of the cherry tree we had in the garden when I was a child.

Before we knew it, it was time for the challenge. 40 different Nez du Vin tasting aromas, in little vials in a separate room. The task was to smell each and guess their scent. This was much more challenging than we expected and we both suffered from trying to identify so many.

Retiring from the challenge room, we headed back into the main tasting hall to discover the lovely Joe and Fiona from Levanter Foods dishing up their wonderful food. It was the perfect end to the evening, tasty paella, fish stew, Manchego cheese and fresh slices of Serrano ham. To finish off (if there was enough room in your tum), treacle tart and mincemeat tart supplied by The Ginger Kid. I’d saved a sip of my favourite wine of the night, the RK Riesling 2010 Kesselstatt – light, fruity, crisp it wasn’t an obvious match to dessert but actually brought out the fruit flavours in the mincemeat nicely.

Speaking to others there,, it’s clear to see the event encouraged drinkers of all sorts; serious tasters, happy quaffers and newbies. The experts on each table were helpful, knowledgeable and enthusiastic and the challenge added an extra element, as well as raising money for Rosemere Cancer Foundation. 

Is it wrong to say that I can’t wait for Christmas to be over, so I can head over to the next of Jane’s events?