Wine

 

 

separator

I got a fridge magnet for Christmas 1999. It has the motto "Life is too short to drink bad wine".

Amen.

Here you will find:

separator

Tasting Notes

Miscellaneous notes Tasting notes from wines drunk at home, in restaurants etc.
   
30 September 2007 French Regional Wines Portfolio tasting
15 June 2007 A 'Wines for Summer' dinner in Nottingham
9 June 2007 Meerlust Rubicon Vertical Tasting: a tasting of the most of the first 21 vintages of this iconic wine from South Africa
30 March 2007 A Northern Rhône offline in Manchester
24 November 2006 A pre-Christmas offline that saw some remarkable bottles, including my first Domaine de la Romanée Conti (1959 Grands Echézeaux, no less!)
22 October 2006 A Vintage Port Archaeology session: a tasting of mystery ports possibly dating back to 1851
2 October 2006 The Wines of Portugal Tasting, Leeds
25 September 2006 The 2006 PIG tasting - a selection of wines from Portugal, Italy and Greece imported by Raymond Reynolds, Winetraders (UK) and Eclectic Wines respectively.
14 September 2006 Wines of Chile: 115 Chilean wines tasted and rated, including my first wines of the 2006 vintage.
28 July 2006 The third annual Prothero blind tasting challenge
19 July 2006 Pinots of the World: a wine tasting and dinner at Restaurant Rococo, Glasgow
15 July 2006 A "vintage pairs" tasting (different wines, each wine in two different vintages)
7 July 2006 A vertical tasting of Penfolds Grange
7 July 2006 The Super Whites of Friuli, a tasting and workshop organised by Slowfood
9 June 2006 An International Wine Challenge: South Africa vs the Languedoc
16 May 2006 Wines of Slovenia: Jeruzalem Ormo
16 May 2006 Wines of Germany: The Riesling Room 2006
16 May 2006 Rare German Treasures - several bottles from the much lauded 1921 vintage, one from 1911 and my first 19th Century wine from the great 1893 vintage
11 May 2006 Food and wine notes from a dinner in Manchester to celebrate Establishment Restaurant's second birthday
14 March 2006 Wines of Portugal Annual Tasting
27 February 2006 The Specialist Importers Trade Tastings, Manchester
24 February 2006 Antinori's Super-Tuscan Tignanello: a Vertical Tasting and Dinner in Manchester
27 January 2006 Southern Rhônes and Southern French wines Dinner in Manchester
19 January 2006 Hallgarten Wines portfolio tasting
16 January 2006 Winebarn tasting: some high quality, more unusual German wines that aren't riesling
7 January 2006 Northern Rhône tasting
26 November 2005 Château Cheval Blanc with Pierre Lurton
25 November 2005 Château de Beaucastel with Thomas Perrin
26-27 November 2005 The Decanter Fine Wine Encounter, Landmark Hotel, Marylebone.  Tasting Notes from Decanter Magazine's annual mega tasting event. 
29 October 2004 Notes from the wine-pages.com SuperBOWL 2005, on 29th October 2005 are available by following this link.
29 October 2005 The Wines of Josko Gravner (Friuli, Italy)
29 October 2005 The Prosecco Wines of Bisol
28 October 2005 A meal with very fine wines at the Restaurant Rococo in Glasgow.
24-25 October 2005 Speed tasting in Bordeaux
12 October 2005 An evening of fine wine at the Restaurant Chardon d'Or, Glasgow
17 September 2005 An evening of food and wine with wine-loving friends in Coniston
14 September 2005 A tasting and lunch with the Coonawarra Vignerons Association
12 September 2005 Alliance Wines - a tasting through the portfolio of this interesting Scottish company's wines.
12 September 2005 Wines of Roussillon: the 2005 St Bacchus winners tasted and assessed
12 September 2005 The vins doux naturels of Roussillon
20 & 27 July 2005 My wine tasting for the Lancaster University Summer Programme 2005
10 June 2005 French Regional Wines tasting at Lancaster Town Hal
31 May 2005 Peter Howland Wines Dinner, Establishment Restaurant, Manchester
23rd May 2005 Notes from a Wine Society tasting of clarets are available by following this link.
19th May 2005 A tutored tasting of Royal Tokaji Company wines; plus other Hungarian and Tokaji notes.
17-19 May 2005 The London International Wine and Spirits Fair
  Wines for spicy foods: The Wines of Rousillon
  The International Riesling Review
  Wines from China: Grace Vineyard's Tasya
  Wines from India: Grover Vineyards, Bangalore
  Sparkling wines from Brazil
  The wines of Josef Friederich, Zell, Mosel
  Wines of Germany: Sommeliers' Choice
  Miscellaneous Portuguese reds
  Vinho Verde: the wines of Portugal's Costa Verde
  Champagne Taittinger
  Champagne Charles Heidsieck
  Sparkling wines from Michigan, USA: the wines of L.Mawby
  New England Wines from Massachussetts: Westport Rivers Winery
  Small Growers in Alsace: Scharsch; Fleith; Schoenheitz; Neumeyer; Haag
  A blind tasting of United Wineries/Haciendas de Espana wines pitted against their competitors
  A miscellany of Austrian wines
7 May 2005 The annual dinner of the Preston Wine Club starring 1964 Rioja Alta and Diebolt-Vallois 1985.
11 March 2005 A champagne tasting and dinner at Alba Restaurant in the City of London
1 March 2005 A wine dinner, organised and hosted by Ray Abercromby at the Establishment Restaurant, Manchester
24 November 2004 Vertical tastings led by Ray Abercromby of Ch. Maucaillou, Ch. Musar, and Jaboulet's Thalabert
20-21 November 2004 The Decanter Fine Wine Encounter, Landmark Hotel, Marylebone.  Tasting Notes from Decanter Magazine's annual mega tasting event.  Where else do you get Cockburn's 1970 and Cockburn's 1955 vintage port at a public walkround tasting?
21 November 2004 Stars of Italy: a tutored tasting led by David Gleave MW
21 November 2004 A masterclass on Barossa Shiraz with Bob Mclean of St Hallett (and now McLean's Farm) fame
20 November 2004 A vertical tasting of Chateau D'Yquem with Decanter magazine
19 November 2004 Neal Martin's Bordeaux Olympics
23 October 2004 Notes from the wine-pages.com SuperBOWL 2004, on 23rd October 2004 are available by following this link.
22 October 2004 An off-line at the Restaurant Rococo in Glasgow, including 1949 Loires and a 61 Ducru Beaucaillou.
October 2004 A selection of wines from french-regional-wines-co.uk
4 October 2004 Laurent-Perrier champagnes and dinner, hosted by the Vicomte de la Giraudière, at the Connaught Hotel, London.
3 September 2004 A blind tasting challenge of 24 wines costing around £20 including seventeen cabernet sauvignon based wines from around the world and Ch. Mouton Rothschild 1994.
28 August 2004 A brace of grouse and a remarkable survivor
July/August 2004 Summer Programme wine tasting
French & Logan Some excellent rieslings from Glasgow-based riesling specialist French and Logan.
29 November 2003 The annual dinner of the Preston Wine Club, featuring some amazing old claret back to 1952, and an excellent Offley 1963 port.
22-23 November 2003 The Decanter Fine Wine Encounter, Landmark Hotel, Marylebone.  Tasting Notes from Decanter Magazine's annual mega tasting event.  Overall, a very high standard this year, with some truly exceptional wines.
27 October 2003 A fabulous tasting of ports from Quinta do Noval, including 4 vintages of the famous Nacional, and the 1955.
23 October 2003 Lancashire Life Newcomer Restaurant of the Year celebration lunch
10 October 2003 Notes from the wine-pages.com SuperBOWL 2003, on 10th October 2003 are available by following this link.
9 October 2003 An off-line at the Ubiquitous Chip in Glasgow
Liverpool Offlines 12 August 2003; 3rd September 2003; 13 February 2004; 22nd August 2004
August 2003 This week I have been mainly drinking Pinot Gris
29 July and 5 August 2003 Summer Programme wine tasting - notes available by following this link.
28 May 2003 Vega Sicilia: Myth and Reality.  Andrew Stevenson visits Vega Sicilia and experiences a unique (unico, indeed!) vertical tasting of six decades of Vega Sicilia.
27 May - 3 June 2003 Duero to Douro: a wine-filled journey along the Duero to the Portuguese border where it becomes the Douro, and then along the Douro to the sea.  Includes tastings at:
19 October 2002 Oyster Feast with various wines from Lay & Wheeler - notes available by following this link.
18 October 2002 Alsace Dinner at Lay & Wheeler in Colchester: the wines of Albert Mann and Meyer-Fonné - notes available by following this link.
5th October 2002 Notes from the wine-pages.com SuperBOWL 2002, on 5th October 2002 are available by following this link.
(September 2002)  Tasting notes of various ports and a couple of vinhos verdes (September 2002) are available by following this link.
22 February 2002 An off-line at Peter's Cellars in Edinburgh
New Year 2001/02 Austrian wines from Schloss Gobelsburg, Bründlmayer , Willi Opitz, Weingut Christ
19th May 2001 Notes from a tasting of German Rieslings organised by Decanter magazine and held on 19th May 2001 are available by following this link.
15th May 2001 Notes from a Wine Society tasting of Penfolds wines, held on 15th May 2001 are available by following this link.
Oddbins 1995 A grand tasting of nearly 100 wines from Oddbins range in 1995.
31st December 1999 On the evening of 31st December 1999, I held a small wine-tasting, both as a bit of fun and in order to choose a couple of the wines to go with the New Year's Eve Dinner. I am pleased to record that those wines which were not already drunk up before midnight, all proved to be Y2K compliant. 
To keep things simple, we stuck to just one grape: the Riesling, and the tasting went something like this (follow the link for the gory details).
In case you were wondering, the overall "winner" was a 1983 Erdener Treppchen Riesling Spätlese from Dr Loosen.
1st October 1998 The wines of Marcel Deiss, Alsace
30th September 1998 The wines of Rolly Gassmann in Rohrschwihr, Alsace
16-17 May 1992 Oddbins Wine Fair 1992
14-16 May 1992 Spanish Wine tastings at Selfridges
4 April 1990 Sunday Times Wine Club Trafalgar House Tasting
March 1989 Sunday Times Wine Club: Vintage Festival
3 November 1988 Sunday Times Wine Club: Chardonnay & Wines for Christmas
25-26 March 1988 Sunday Times Wine Club: Vintage Festival
   

Coming soon!

 

Text of tasting notes and photographs (unless otherwise attributed) is  © Copyright Andrew Stevenson, 1999-2003.  Please contact me before reproducing or quoting (permission will normally be granted).

separator

Vintage charts

There are numerous vintage charts available, but Jordan & Jordan have compiled the only one I've ever seen that goes back to 121 B.C. !! Here's the link.  

More useful is this PDF: http://www.lacartedesvins.com/Download/Millesimes.pdf

separator

Wine links

There are thousands of wine-related sites on the internet, and I'm certainly not going to try to compete here.

Here is a list of other sites that I find myself looking at regularly:

Tom Cannavan's Wine-Pages (a UK-based site, with lots of tasting notes, a forum and lots more. Well worth a visit!)

The Wine Doctor (Chris Kissack's excellent site)

The Bailey Brothers' Fine Wine Diary

Neal Martin's Wine-Journal

German Wines Online (the English version of their site)

Strat's Place - A Community Celebration of Wine, Gardening and the Arts

The Mosel-Saar-Ruwer Wein e.V. (in German: an interesting site, though it's a little difficult to get the information you're looking for sometimes. A few good recipes too!)

Decanter magazine (the definitive wine magazine, though I don't think I'd subscribe to it again)

English Wine Regions (English wine seems to get better every year, and vineyards are being planted/coming into production across the country. All the commercial vineyards are still, however, south of Lancaster.)

English Wine Producers

Alt.food.wine FAQ with lots more links

Arblaster & Clarke (excellent wine tours - see my hols in Austria and Portugal)

Back to Andrew Stevenson's University web page

A.Stevenson@lancaster.ac.uk

See also: www.andrewstevenson.com

Last updated: 25 June 2007