Last Friday saw us kicking off our new tasting season with the first of our "Dovehouse Thirsty Fridays." Paying heed to the state of the economy and the paucity of Goldman Sachs bonuses in this neck of the woods, we launched with our very own "Austerity Tasting" featuring 10 reds retailing sub £7.50.
Aside from Vincent Boyer's wonderful Cotes du Rhone which somehow slipped in in spite of its £7.79 price tag, my star of the show was the Salento Primitivo from La Casada; really well structured with supple tannins and a long, bitter-cherry finish, this is a seriously classy glass of wine. Also of interest is the latest vintage of Dignite Syrah which promised much on the nose but had tannins which, initially at least, left you checking your fillings were still in place. By the end of the evening, however, it had opened up and softened considerably to provide really great drinking at £4.49!!
Coming up we have our Burns Night whisky tastings (24th Jan in Livery Street, 25th in Dovehouse) and I'm off to Italy for a couple of days next week in search of new treasures - I'll keep you posted.
You really should have been there………………
There are tastings and then there are tastings and last month we served up the most phenomenal Italian Masterclass in the company of Michael Palij, Master of Wine, who steered us through some of his most recent discoveries (notably a Sardinian quartet which provided all the evidence you need of the revolution taking place in the island’s vineyards and cellars).