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One of JK’s previous wine-tasting events and, far left, a Portuguese drop |
Lord’s and wine: Howzat for a double?
A Portuguese wine-tasting event at our most famous cricket ground is a great opportunity for vino novices
NEW Journal readers are being offered the opportunity to taste Portuguese wines at Lord’s cricket ground.
The event is in the Nursery Pavilion in Wellington Road and brings together two interesting names. The first is Charles Metcalfe, co-author along with Kathryn McWhirter, of The Wine and Food Lover’s Guide to Portugal (2007, £16.95) and Judy Kendrick, head of JK Marketing. The firm is best known for its annual tastings in Manchester and London, bringing together around 40 of the country’s outstanding wine importers, selected from the hundreds who apply for admission.
This could be described as Britain’s most important wine event.
If you’ve always said, “I’d like to go, but I’ve never been to a wine tasting before,” our advice is not to worry. Follow these guidelines and you should get a lot out of the event.
The problem with Portuguese wines is that, apart from the three best-known examples – Mateus Rosé, Vinho Verde (literally “green wine”) and port – few of us know anything about them.
Charles Metcalfe will give brief talks at 6.15pm and 7.15pm. To establish the range of wines available at the tasting, you should ask him to recommend examples of the most “traditional” and the most “modern”. But first you need to decide if you want to specialise and, if so, in what. Do you want to stick with reds or whites? If you enjoy both, you should sample the whites first. Next, do you swallow or spit the wines out? This depends on two things, how many wines you want to taste and whether or not you’re driving home. If you swallow, you’re limiting yourself to fewer (say six to 10) but if you spit them out your palate should be able to take up to three times that number.
You can learn almost as much from the look and smell of wine as from its taste. Look for its viscosity, that is the extent to which the wine clings to the inside of the glass, as an indication of whether it will coat the inside of your mouth. Give short sniffs rather than trying to resuscitate a drowning man! Hold the wine in the mouth rather than throwing it back, remembering that a wine has not one but several sensations as it passes over different tastebuds.
With modern wines, watch for the balance between the initial sensation and the after-taste.
Professional wine tastings are often conducted in near silence as if part of a religious ceremony. Break this rule! Ask the wine makers what their favourite wines are. Compare your impressions with fellow tasters. Be prepared to find uniformity within the range offered or within various regions. If you have difficulty recognising any difference between the wines, it’s probably because there is no difference rather than your palate letting you down!
At present, the vogue is for modern (that is New World-style) wines with a concentration of fruit tastes.
The more traditional styles (look out for Dão) will have a more tannic (slightly bitter) after-taste.
Portugal, like other European wine producing nations, is reinventing itself and its wines. Producers will claim that their wines are “modern”, but also “true to local traditions”. What we need to discover is how much truth there is in this claim. The professional wine-taster is skilled in seeking out minute differences in very similar wines. The rest of us are more focused on discovering what wines are different, both to establish the wine’s character and to decide what we prefer. It is this that will maintain the diversity of wines and, with it, our enjoyment.
Viniportugal’s invitation reaches out directly to the consumer. It offers a wider choice of wines from a single country and an opportunity to decide for yourself what you like.
Email them to us at editorial@thecnj.co.uk
Viniportugal are offering CNJ readers a two-for-one offer on tickets for the Portuguese wine event in the Nursery Pavilion at Lord’s cricket ground on Wednesday, April 9, 6pm-8pm. The price includes Portuguese snacks. To order tickets, send a cheque for £15 to JK Marketing, End Mill Lane, Bulkeley, Malpas, Cheshire SY14 8BL.
Or call 0871 220 0260 quoting ‘Portugal’.
Or email: michelle@ jkmarketing.co.uk |
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