IWFS LONDON WINE TASTINGS – China, France and South Africa

In IWFS London Blog by ashepherdiwfs

 February 2020 The events I attended this month illustrated different approaches to wine tasting. The wines for our Chinese wine tasting were a selection from a lot bought at auction. They are not exported to the UK, so we did not know what they would cost, and could not assess their value that way. The labels in Chinese provided no …

IWFS London Blog December 2019

In IWFS London Blog by ashepherdiwfs

As it’s the end-of-year, please indulge my reminiscing about some of our events in central London over the last twelve months. We held a Dinner in January at Tredwells in Covent Garden. This is a restaurant in the Marcus Wareing group, focusing on contemporary British produce, whose Chef Patron is Chantelle Nicholson. The four courses were each matched by appropriate …

IWFS LONDON BLOG November 2019

In IWFS London Blog by ashepherdiwfs

IWFS Corney & Barrow Wine Tasting and Dinner London Branch’s AGM was held at Corney & Barrow. Corney & Barrow was founded by Edward Bland Corney in London in 1780.  Their headquarters, where we went, is now an elegant converted customs house near Tower Hill. The AGM took up a very small part of the evening, however, as we also …

A Tasting and Dinner at Corney and Barrow

In Event Reports by ashepherdiwfs

London Branch held its AGM at Corney & Barrow’s premises near Tower Hill. We combined the short AGM with a wine tasting of Corney & Barrow wines, followed by dinner accompanied by fine wines, making a splendid evening. We tasted the following wines: Delamotte Blanc de Blancs Brut NV £49.95 ~Cellar-aged, this dry wine was light, refreshing, with good acidity, …

A Tasting of Portuguese Wines

In Event Reports by ashepherdiwfs

At London Branch we arrange a wide variety of wine tastings of different kinds. The aim of this tasting, led by Keith Ellis, was to show good value Portuguese wines for current drinking, that were not expensive and which were readily available if we wanted to buy any that we had particularly liked. In the twenty or so years since …

Red Bordeaux from the 1970s

In Event Reports by ashepherdiwfs

IWFS London Branch enjoyed a wine tasting of a wide selection of Red Bordeaux from the 1970s.  The idea was to see whether wines from a decade long ago had lasted longer than had been anticipated. We do this from time to time with Bordeaux and Burgundy fine wines. We are optimistic, but do not know what to expect. Happily we …

A Tasting of Fine Chateauneuf-du-Pape

In Event Reports by ashepherdiwfs

At this London Branch meeting we tasted a special selection of Châteauneuf-du-Pape from different years and top estates, led by Jeffrey Benson. ‘Old Châteauneuf can be sumptuous – complex, spicy and distinctly gamey, retaining much of its original warmth and ampleur’ – Remington Norman. We started with the earliest and worked forward. 1955 – Domaine J. Vidal-Fleury This is the …

A Japanese Wine Tasting

In Event Reports by ashepherdiwfs

“The new wave Japanese wines are very much in the same idiom as natural wines, being light-bodied and often relatively crisp’ – quoted in the Financial Times by JancisRobinson. Japanese wine makers are becoming very successful. Wines are now being produced on a par with some of the finest wines world-wide. Many thanks to Christopher Davenport-Jones for organising this London …

IWFS LONDON BLOG August 2019

In IWFS London Blog by ashepherdiwfs

A recent interesting tasting held by London Branch was of fine wines from Châteauneuf-du-Pape. We tasted nine wines; vintages from 1955 to 2014. We were able to compare a 1993 and a 1996 from Château de Beaucastel, one of the finest estates in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Another star wine was the 2004 Clos des Papes from another top estate, a complex and …

IWFS LONDON WINE BLOG July 2019

In IWFS London Blog by ashepherdiwfs

Two of this month’s tastings were of mature fine wines, at the Naval Club, Mayfair, both led by Jeffrey Benson, of wines from his cellars. One was of Beerenauslese and Eiswein special sweet white wines, the youngest from 1982 and the oldest from 1971. We tasted six Beerenauslese wines from Germany, and one Beerenauslese and one Eiswein from Austria. Both …