I preface this article by reminding you that too much wine is dangerous!  When you have 9 engineers doing their attempt Harlem Shake, you know that perhaps the fun has gone too far. I've deleted the video evidence to protect the innocent, and to protect you from retinal scarring.  So, how did we get to this stage?
I was asked to run a wine tasting event for a friend's team meeting.  Don't worry folks, corporate hell hasn't frozen over.  The employees were staying overnight and chipped in to pay for the winetertainment themselves.  The event was held at The Copse, near Henley on Thames, which meant they could cook, and not have to worry about driving home, and I was asked to bring wines to suit the dinner.  Other than that, I had free reign, with an alcohol budget of between £10-15 per person.  
First, a word about the stunning venue. If you're looking for a place to host a party for a large number of overnight guests, this is a great place to consider.  It has a private cinema to seat 14, a 12 seater dining table and amazing bedrooms to sleep at least 11. It was a fine location for the wine tasting with plenty of glasses,  a dishwasher, and most importantly, no need for a designated driver!

Themes always add to the fun. The team work for a Spanish firm.  And it doesn't take much to encourage me to indulge in wines from Spain. Thus, the Spain versus Rest of the World challenge was on.  A this was an engineering team, I needed to bring numbers into it, using a scoring system for the first time. After all, it's not a challenge if there's no winner.  A score of 1 indicated, "this wine is not to my taste and I'm pouring it into the spittoon", whereas a score of 5 indicated, "I'll be rushing out to by a bottle of this tomorrow".

The tasters all enjoyed wine from time to time, but tended to have one or two favourites which they rarely deviate from.  And they were all keen to try new things, be challenged and up for anything - all the elements that make for a fun wine tasting evening.

Immediately testing the resolve to "try anything", I started the night with a traditional Spanish aperitif, the Manzanilla (a very light Fino sherry for those not in the know).  There was one non-wine-drinker in the company and I let him test it first. Gin & Tonic is about the only thing he will drink.  Surprising himself (but not me) he took a second sip, which is about as high praise as he's ever given a wine.  As for the rest of the group, I'm not sure any will be replacing their G&T with Fino any time soon.   Nevertheless, considering they are a non-sherry drinking bunch, I think we made some converts with 3 scores of 4 balancing out the 3 scores of 1.  Fino sherry is extremely dry, and I chose the Manzanilla style which is lighter, fresher and somewhat less yeasty/biscuity.  On the whole, I think it was just too dry for our boys, especially after they'd had a couple of Coronas.
Definitely, I did something to change sherry's "old aunt" reputation among these boys, and those that had tried sherry before found this one easier to drink than a traditional Fino such as a Tio Pepe.  Good result.  I got a litre in the  duty free shop in Jerez on my visit to the region last September for about 7 Euros.  Sadly in the UK a bottle will set you back over £10 (if you can get a hold of it).  It's worth it for a taste of the Andalusian seaside where this wine is aged and turned into a delicious sherry.
Total score 25/50, which I think is a bit harsh, but then, I am a sherry convert.  More on this another time!

Next up, we moved to another aperitif style - sparkling wine.  While Champagne is still widely drunk at celebratory occasions, sometimes we want fizz at prices that won't break the bank, making it okay to open it any night of the week.
So I decided to compare Spain's Cava and Italy's Prosecco which are both gaining in popularity due to their fresh, fruity flavours and bargain prices (compared to Champers).  
All the wines (except the Manzanilla) came from The Wine Society and this one was £7.50.  Cava is made in the same method as Champagne, but with different grape varieties (the fizz is created by a second fermentation in the bottle).  This one blends a little Chardonnay in with the traditional Cava grapes of Parellada, Macabeo and Xarel-lo and surprised our panel with it's refreshing, clean, crisp apple flavours and delicate mousse.  It gained 3 scores of 4 and the lowest score was a 2, with a few reconsidering Cava after previously having considered it would be sweet.  Total score 31.
In other news, I subsequently tried the Friexenet Cava Cordon Rosado (pink cava) in a mini bottle size and with a screw top.  While it did lose some of the ceremony, it's good to be able to enjoy fizz without the need for "an occasion" or even someone to share it with.  This one is full of strawberry and summer-fruit flavours so just right for that taste of spring we ought to be having around now.

The Italian Prosecco was first up for "Team Rest of World". It is £8.95 and was also in the dry Brut style. The manufacturing method for Prosecco is simpler and cheaper with secondary fermentation (to add the bubbles) happening in a tank rather than the bottle (like Cava or Champagne). The Glera grapes gave a summery, floral and aromatic taste with hints of violet and chamomile being mentioned.  Given these were engineers, I found the descriptive capability rather impressive!  There was only one score of 1 and one of 4.
With everyone else rating it at a 3, I guess this is a wine that doesn't stir the passions, but is also inoffensive and thus good to serve to a large group without fear of people actively disliking it. Total score 28.  Spain win the fizz challenge!

Now it was the turn of England to take on the Spanish.  It wasn't a blind tasting but I'm fairly certain that English Nationalism wasn't the reason the Chapel Down Bacchus (£9.99) was such a success. After all, we had Austrians, Scots and Venezuelans in the team. This is a complex white with a long finish and our engineers appreciated the depth and variety of flavours declaring it a great surprise. One sip of this left us all longing for summer, with its flavours of elderflower, grass and gooseberry.
If you love New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs, you should definitely be picking up some of this Bacchus from Kent for your spring evenings (assuming spring ever gets here). The scoring was consistent around 4 with just one 3 and one 5.  Total score 40, making it the highest scoring individual wine.   Does this mean England is the winner? 
Perhaps it's time for our wine bars and restaurants to take Bacchus seriously? I really hope that this summer I will see more English wines on the wine lists of England.

Heading back to Spain, I poured a Fefiñanes Albariño (£15) which I first reviewed back in December. Is it any wonder this grape is growing in popularity, that's the 3rd mention in 4 blog posts from Purple Teeth.  Yes, I love it, but what did the public think? 
In restrospect, I ought to have served this delicate and elegant wine before the Bacchus. The English wine has a very strong flavour and long finish, thus tending to dominate the initial sips of Albariño.  Despite this, the elegant and serious Spaniard with hints of salty minerality stood up to the test.  It gained no score less than a 3 and five scores of 5 bringing it equal to the Bacchus with a total score of 40.  However, five scores of 5 is the most achieved by any wine on the night, so does that mean Spain wins?  It's a tough call and it's all down to the scoring methodology.  In West Coast Swing dancing, this wine would have beaten the Bacchus hands down, simply based on the highest number of first places. Yes, I admit, I'm biased. I love this wine - but at £15 a bottle, I won't be drinking it very often.  Do treat yourself to an Albariño this summer though.  It's like a cool breeze on a sandy beach.

And now it was time for the dinner to move from nibbles and crudites into the main course.  I'd been advised the meats would be lamb and venison and so my first thought was Rioja and Pinot Noir.  I correctly guessed, however, that many of the team would be very familiar with Rioja so opted for Ribera del Duero instead to represent Spain's reds. The Gavilán (around £10) is aged in French and American oak for 12 months which gives great flavours of nutmeg and vanilla.  Some tasters distinguished smoke and complexity, alongside a plummy fruit. I've had this wine several times, but it's been a while and I will be adding it to my reorder list.  Total score was 37, and again achieving a chart topping  five scores of 5.  The Leyda Pinot Noir (£10.50) from Chile also scored a 37 but with fewer top scores.  It was described as smooth, spicy, and lively by our increasingly inebriated engineers.  I found it to have bags of the expected strawberry flavours, good acidity and structure, and although light, it had enough colour and body to hold it's own with the meat fest. I could easily have served a second bottle of each of these with no complaints, but reviewing photos of the evening, it's probably as well that I didn't, especially as everyone had work to do in the morning...

Knowing that two tasting samples of red wouldn't be enough red to match a whole main course, I decided to bring out Team USA, represented by the Lodi Old Vines Zinfandel by Ravenswood (£9).  I first reviewed this back in November and it was much loved by my mother with a hearty red meat dish.  We were eating slow cooked, braised meats, so I thought I'd give it a shot. While it had the fewest top scores, it fared well with a total score of 36.  There was perhaps less sophistication in the scores by the 8th wine, but the comments were of mellow oaky notes of vanilla and toast along with a surprising balance of flavours and good integration of the high level of alcohol.  Was it at this point that the boys decided it was time to try the Harlem Shake, or did that come after the dessert wines? I can't quite remember, but I'm sure it's nothing to do with the Zinfandel coming in at a whopping 14.5% alcohol by volume.
Luckily, I was hosted for the evening at the Copse, as driving would have been a lot less fun than joining in.

And so it was onto dessert. We enjoyed a lovely French Apple Cake and an extremely dark, bitter chocolate tart, both lovingly prepared in advance by one of the team's wives.  I felt that these desserts would match better with the fortified style dessert wines, rather than the honeyed botrytised sweet wines I usually drink.
Representing Portugal and the final submission for Team Rest of World, we enjoyed a 10 year old Tawny Port (£17), which achieved a total score of 37.  It worked best with the apple cake.  Descriptive references are scant at this stage in the evening with such helpful terms as "sweet" and "wonderful" being written down. While I enjoyed it a lot, I prefer tawny ports which look less ruby than this example.  It still had fruit flavours, and I like the development of the caramel tastes that say, the Warre's Otima 10 year old delivers (around £10 per 50cl from Asda and other supermarkets).
Team Spain's final submission was back to the sherry region.  I am determined to convert the masses to the love of sherry, and this Oloroso Dulce (£11) style couldn't be more different than the Manzanilla we started with.  It's stickily sweetened with the Pedro Ximenez grape so it seems much sweeter than the port.  It paired brilliantly with the bitter chocolate dessert.  This was a match made in heaven.  Normally when faced with a chocolate dessert, I reach for Black Muscat, Banyuls or Maury, but no longer.  With extreme bitter chocolate, this sherry is your friend and ally.  Helpfully scoring another total of 37 but with four top scores of 5, this could just about claim the front place in the tie for the dessert wines.  

When the final scores were counted, we had a tie on the whites, a tie on the dessert wines, a tie on the reds, and Spain winning on sparkling but the Manzanilla the least preferred wine. It's far from a clear cut contest, but I'm going to say that with the highest volume of top scores (fourteen 5s versus six 5s for rest of the world), Spain is the winner using my west coast swing dance rules. If you've written off the wines of Spain as "just Rioja" it's time for you to reconsider.  There's a whole lot of exciting wines from the Iberian Peninsula, but don't rule out English wine either!

And if you like the sound of holding a Purple Teeth tasting event for your private party, then feel free to get in touch using the contact form, to discuss your requirements.  I'd love to help you and your friends discover your new favourite wine (and I'm even happy to drive home afterwards).   Cheers!

I'm not generally a Merlot drinker, but two of my dancing friends convinced me that I should feature Tesco's Wine of France Merlot as Wine of the Week.  Why did I agree? 
Well, being on half price offer (£4.49 from £8.99) was a good start (offer ends today!).  Also, I just returned from a trip to France so it seemed time.  And finally, it was my friend's 50th this week, so I didn't like to disappoint him.  Merlot's a grape I used to enjoy back in the 90s, particularly examples from Ticino in Switzerland, after I graduated from Pinot Noir there.  It's an easy red to drink - uncomplicated, and perhaps the exact opposite to Pinot Noir!  For some reason, I moved on, probably after some rather over-priced and unexciting Californian versions, and it's extremely bad publicity in the film Sideways.  Perhaps I was too hasty.
Merlot after all, is one of the key grapes in Bordeaux's finest wines - including some of the most expensive in the world, and this one is a bargain, so was it any good?

At £4.49 it's a steal.  Consider that around £2.50 of this is tax alone.  It doesn't leave a lot of money for the winemaker to produce something amazing, so I can only assume this is a loss-leader for Tesco.  At £8.99, I think we could find other wines I'd enjoy more, but I suspect this wine is on offer more than it's not, so snap up a few bottles and have no qualms of enjoying it on a Saturday night.
What does it taste like?  My first taste left me a little unsure if it was smooth enough for me.  I ate some salted crisps - salt and wine tend to be friends, and suddenly this was smooth and fruity.  I had only one glass, and went back to the bottle the next night (I vacuum pumped it, rather than resealing with the screwtop). The wine tasted just as fresh the next evening - according the bottle you can have it open for 2 days, but I doubt it would last that long.
It's medium bodied but feels light compared to heavy shirazes I've been drinking lately, and it's smooth and easy to drink.  It's got good full on ripe plum flavours and some hints of spice are mentioned on the label.  I was thinking liquorice, but it could equally be pepper.

Mr Purple Teeth felt it was at least as good as a basic claret, and surprisingly didn't find it too thin! He found dark fruit and was impressed at the (half price) price point.
If you like gutsy full bodied wines, this probably isn't for you, but if you want something that's easy to quaff and fruity with something more, then give it a go.  As long as you get it at a discounted price.
As one of the two who convinced me to feature this wine, Marie puts it like this:
"This wine was a 'surprise find' and very easy to drink. I have shared a bottle over dinner, as an accompaniment to a cheeseboard and a glass as a reward after a busy shift at work. It's not a wine I'll buy at full price but one I'll always stock up on when on promotion...   and it gets even better the longer I let it breathe."
So what are you waiting for? The half price offer expires today!

This week's other wines in the Purple Teeth household have been considerably more off-piste and not found on many supermarket shelves but they have been rather sublime if quite a bit pricier than the official Wine of the Week...  They share a provenance of USA, yet, despite coming from two different states, they sat well, side by side on my dinner table.

First up, the Viognier: The Crusher from Napa's Sebastiani winemaker (a Zinfandel hero of mine) came from my good friends at Alfred the Grape in Marlow.  It was the last bottle left on the shelf and that's always a good sign as these guys are keen to recommend their in store treasures.  
At £9.99 it was a bargain compared to a Condrieu of a similar quality.  If you like rich creamy chardonnays and are partial to an Alsace Gewurztraminer, I'd recommend trying this wine, or this grape if you haven't already. There's plenty of viscosity and creamy texture that you get from big oaked Chards, but none of the dairy flavours.  This has a real floral quality and hints of peach and pineapple.  The warmer it gets from the fridge, the more it emanates flowers, violets and perfumes.  I paired it with a roast chicken and my gut feel is that if you love roast parsnips you're going to be a sucker for Viognier.  
Mr Purple Teeth was sure he'd not enjoy it but after 2 sips he was smitten and asking me to buy another bottle. (£9.99)

The second surprise was a Pinot Noir: Willakenzie Estate from Oregon's Willammette Valley was on my Christmas list from Shrewsbury's Tanners Wine Merchants.  At £25.50 a bottle, it was a lovely Christmas present, and sadly not for everyday drinking.
As regular readers will know, Mr Purple Teeth hasn't been a fan of Pinot Noir and it's been our long term wine battle ground, so I felt it was good to get this as a Christmas gift and enjoy drinking it myself. I'd enjoyed several Willamette Pinot Noirs in DC recently and was happy to have the opportunity of  a quiet weekend at home to enjoy some more.  
Sadly, or perhaps fortunately, Mr Purple Teeth was intrigued by the darker colour of this wine than some Pinots he's seen.  He decided to give it a try, and for the first time I think it's safe to say he absolutely loved it.  So much so that he even enjoyed it with roast beef, a dish he'd more often than not pair with a Bordeaux or Malbec.  So what makes these Oregon Pinot Noirs different?  Normally, I imagine Pinot Noir will taste/smell strongly of strawberry.  There's clearly been some strawberry fruit here at some time, but there's a good 5 years of age in this wine and it's picked up some lovely flavours from the oak: vanilla for example. And though there's good acitdity and tannin here, the wine is really well balanced, rounded and smooth to drink.  Quite simply, I was sad when it was gone.  
Oddly, I ended up sitting with a meal and a glass of each of this and the Viognier in front of me and together they made quite a pair.  The aromatic, perfumed character of the Viognier brought out some of the fruit and velvetiness of the Pinot Noir.  They both stood up to broccoli, brussell sprouts and sun dried tomatoes: foods which would generally leave me quivering at making a wine recommendation.  If you feel like going out of your way, spending a little more than usual, or trying something different, please seek out these wines from the independent wine sellers mentioned and enjoy!
Cheers!


(Next week's Wine of the Week will be Rosso de Puglia at £5.99 from Marks and Spencer)

Red Velvet by Cupcake Vineyards.... How could a sweet-toothed gal like me resist a Lodi Zinfandel with a name like this?
I chose this wine as Wine of the Week since I've been travelling in the USA and in a rare supermarket opportunity, I spotted this wine, which I knew I'd seen in Marks and Spencer.  Sadly, I've not had feedback from readers this week.  Whether this is because certain branches of M&S  have sold out, or because at £9.99 it's a little pricier than the wines we normally use for Wine of the Week, I don't know.  Perhaps you can resist cupcakes more than I can?  Or maybe you're a little shy of sharing your views?  If you did manage to try this, please feel free to put your comments here on the blog.  

So what is special about this wine?  Firstly, it's an off dry red, which is pretty uncommon with most reds being decidedly dry.  How does it come to have some residual sweetness?  
The technical blah: when wine ferments, yeast turns the sugar in grapes into alcohol.  When the alcohol level reaches 15% abv the yeasts that convert the grape sugars into alcohol are killed off.  Most of the wines we drink achieve complete alcoholic fermentation at between 13-14.5% abv, making them completely dry as all the sugar is used up before the yeasts get overwhelmed. 
Our Red Velvet is 15% and those Zinfandel grapes have obviously benefitted from the awesome sugar producing powers of the California sunshine, so there was some sugar left over when the wine reached it's full alcoholic potential.  If you're looking for something different and want to drink your red wine with something sweetish, eg red cabbage, or fruit based sauces on venison, for example, then this one will help avoid that slightly metallic clash which can come from super-dry tannic wines meeting sugar in the mouth.  It's a bold suggestion, but you might find it's even okay with a small piece of dark chocolate.

What did I think of it?
Oddly, it's not as opaque as I'd expect from this kind of wine and medium bodied rather than thick velvety and full as we'd expect from it's name and variety. It is full of red fruits, raspberry and almost like a coulis, though obviously not quite as sweet.  It's easy drinking, and since it's made from regular Zinfandel vines rather than my favoured Old Vine varieties, it's a simple and pleasant wine, rather than rich and complex, despite coming from one of California's most treasured spots for Zinfandel, Lodi. After drinking a Sonoma Bordeaux-style blend, my friend tasted it, but found it too sweet and too different to make a fair judgement.  I'm guessing that as it's selling out, it's found it's niche already among ladies graduating from White Zinfandel to red wine.  But that's nothing to be embarrassed by.  Enjoy it as I did on a spring evening, outdoors if we ever get some sunshine, or simply tuck into it instead of dessert.

Next week, we will feature our firs white wine for Wine of the Week.  I've chosen Sainsbury's "Taste the Difference" Albariño.  At £7.99 it's friendlier on the wallet and at 12.5% abv it's also friendlier on the liver.  I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it.
Happy Drinking!

Produced by the award winning Jean-Luc Baldès in Cahors who made the Triguedina we so recently loved, I was keen to try this.  After all it's less than half the price, a higher proportion of Malbec and he's won best wine maker in Southwest France!  
The label describes it as a rich, ripe and fruity wine, bursting with red and black berry flavours and silky tannins.  So what did our Purple Teeth drinkers think?

I enjoyed it - it was rich and dark, though I thought it was not as fruity as described.
 There was no drying or cloying sensation from the tannins, and it was medium bodied.  Mr Purple Teeth however was not won over.  The flavours leaped out of the glass at me as the sort of thing he'd enjoy, yet he found it "thin".  I think this man has become addicted to ultra full bodied velvety wines and needs to break out of that dimension.  Oh well, there's always beer.  
If you like deep, dark flavoured wines but don't like scratchy tannins or wines that taste thick, then this is definitely  worth £8 of your hard-earned cash.

It probably needs to have more time to breathe than a quick 10 minutes in a Riedel tasting glass will allow.
One of our readers suggests a wide bottomed decanter, or better still another couple of years on the wine rack.

I found it drinkable and if you like hefty, spicy shiraz, you may get in ok with this paired with red meat.

Mr Purple Teeth remained unconvinced. After dinner he tried pairing with strong cheddar which he felt improved it somewhat, and it's not often I see him leave wine in the bottle, let alone an unfinished glass.

Here's hoping this week's Cupcake Californian Zin from M&S fares better!
Meanwhile we shall revert to Argentine Malbec.