WINE TASTING
Yesterday I attended a wine tasting of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and Argentinian Malbec. Both countries’ wine-making benefits from diurnal weather- hot days, cool nights. Argentina has much the longer tradition of wine making, New Zealand is truly New World.
They now produce 300m litres of wine per year, modest compared to Australia’s well over 1bn.
It’s mainly centred in the Marlborough area on South Island. Sauvignon Blanc is the most popular wine. At it’s most expensive end is Cloudy Bay which retails at over £20 er bottle and most of us tasters agreed poor value and it’s not three times as good as the less celebrated Ned.
I liked the way the tasting was constructed. 3 Sauvignon Blancs and 3 Malbecs were served blind each at a certain price level – £5, £10 and £20 – and we were invited to guess which.
I found it easy to guess the £5, more difficult the £10 or £20, though I succeeded with the Malbecs. The problem with tasting Malbec is that you really need a big juicy Argentina steak to accompany it.
I asked the instructor whether he might comment on how a wine might change in appreciation according to one’s mood. Wine tasting is like any other experience, the smallest thing – say a poor greeting in a restaurant or a troublesome journey to a sports venue – can affect your overall enjoyment.
The instructor said that in the marketing of wine attention is given to lunar and flower days. It all may sound like the soothsayers in Roman times or the spin doctors now judging the most propitious time. Company, well being, time of the day, the sort of day you had – all affect the enjoyment.
The other variable can be price. I know of a wine merchant in Mayfair whose most popular merchandise is Bordeaux at £480 per bottle. This is because the locals, being inordinately rich, thought it must be very good. In fact the merchant was also selling a bottle of Torrentes for £7 which was delicious. Similarly I knew a restaurant manager who, if wine was not selling well, increased – not decreased – its price.
For want of a better word this all shows how much bullshit there is in the wine world.
For those who are interested we tasted the following wines
Sauvignon Blanc
Tinpot Hut (£14)
Rata Marlborough ( £6-95)
Greywacke Marlborough ( £19.99)
Malbec
Kipu Mendoza. (£7.50)
Kaiken Malbec (£9.99) * best value obtainable from Amazon
Riglos Quinto Uco Valley(£21)
