WINE APPRECIATION GROUP – A NEW VINTAGE
2019 programme
| 21 May | Food match. A food and wine tasting to understand better how to match a wine to a food or vice versa. |
| 23 June | Mosel valley wine tour |
| 24 September | Supermarket Challenge II |
| 19 November | Outside speaker |
| 10 December | Festive Lunch |
New members
The Wine Appreciation Group is an unstuffy collection of people who want to learn about and compare wines that will help us choose the best – whether for a daily glass, a dinner party or even a wedding. We meet every two months in Faringdon or nearby. All U3A members are welcome and there’s no annual subscription, just a charge for each event you come to.
Supermarket Challenge II
Tuesday 24th September 1400-1600, in Faringdon’s All Saints Church Barber Rooms*
Bookings are now open for the eagerly-awaited extension of last year’s highly successful and informative Supermarket Challenge where Aldi, Tesco and Sainsbury’s slugged it out with four matched wines.
This time we’ve given another three local supermarkets the chance to test their mid-range (typically £6-9) South African Chenin blanc, Muscadet from France, Spanish Rioja and Oz Shiraz wines to see which has the best offering, grape by grape, and whether, as last year, we have a very clear Best Buy.
We first ran this challenge tasting in August last year but, realising that many members are away that month, have moved it back to end September. In the interests of comparability the format of the tasting will be the same as for Round I with everyone making their own assessment and score for each scrupulously cloaked bottle. The brand and price will only be revealed at the end of each of the four individual tastings. The scores will then be aggregated.
Here’s what we said about the Round I tasting:
Well, didn’t Aldi just ace it at our August meeting’s Supermarket Challenge? Despite three of their four Exquisite range wines, measured under the most rigorous market research blind-tasting conditions, being the cheapest under test, Aldi came first in three of the four wine comparisons. Tesco were left licking their wounds with one winner, two seconds and a third and Sainsbury’s needn’t have bothered turning up with their two seconds and two thirds. We were nearly unanimous in our judging for the Sauvignon Banc and Riesling wines, but the three Pinot Noirs and three Malbecs proved much more evenly matched.
Practicalities
Bookings for this tasting on Tuesday 24th September are now open and will close on Tuesday 10th September.
The price per seat is £10 and, with up to 24 bottles going into the lottery, lucky winners may be making off with as much as half a bottle each.
If you are not on our mailing list and would like to come to this wine tasting, please click on the ‘Contact Us’ button below and a member of the Cellar Team will get in touch with you.
PS The 12 of us who went on the Mosel tasting had an excellent trip and hope there will be a short review in the next U3A magazine.
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The Cellar Team (Ricky Cunningham, Peter Robinson, Maggie Robinson & David Burn)
