Richmond and Teddington Wine Societies rounded off the year with our customary Christmas tastings, which I always style as ‘Extravaganzas’ because they are!
We taste wines of superb quality, often medal and trophy winners, and explore styles that should take most people through the festivities.
This year we kicked off our tastings with the Piper Heidsieck Essentiel Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut, which had spent over 4 years on lees and therefore had glorious creamy texture and delicious bakery aromas. It’s a very special wine, which could take one through the whole of Christmas Day, including dinner! If you look hard (eg on my website) you can get it for the bargain price of £60/bottle.
Our whites included Verdejo, Gruner Veltliner and a 10 year old New Zealand Chardonnay, but stand out each night was the Domaine Corsin Vieilles Vignes Saint Veran from 2020.
Our reds ranged from Sicily to Ribera del Duero to Corbieres to California to South Australia, with prices ranging from £30/bottle to £100/bottle, and sparked plenty of discussion (and a lot of enjoyment).
Every evening we finished with the Chateau Laville Sauternes, a beautiful example of this famous sweet wine, perfect for blue cheese, pate, and of course pudding.
Over four very enjoyable nights we celebrated the great year of wines we have drunk and meals eaten – special thanks to the team at the Britannia for coming up every month with an innovative two course dinner that is served seamlessly to as many as 40 people a night, and to the lovely team who bring Cook food to the table at Teddington.
Here’s to many more in 2025.
Find out the details of what we drank on our Wines we have tasted page.
