Meeting May 18th

The wines this month were both from Italy. A country which has not been represented very much in any of our tastings despite being the world’s largest producer with around 20% of the worlds wine coming from Italy. Italy is probably best viewed as a group of regions, each producing very different types of wine and on this occasion both wines were from the deep south of the country. The first wine was from Sicily – which itself produces more wine than Australia. The wine was a 2008 Amanti del Vino, a blend of Nero d’Avola (the local Sicilian grape) and Syrah. The group score of 7.6 puts it above our average score and the group also tended to agree with the description on the bottle “ a deeply coloured juicy red wine with black cherry fruit” a very pleasant and smooth wine, well balanced and a good length to the flavour. Out of interest there is also an English connection as follows - The Amanti del Vino wines are sourced and blended by an Englishman - Robin Woodhouse who has been based in Italy for many years. He has been the ‘legs’ on the ground, looking after the Italian end of some very large winemaking projects for British buyers, with particular expertise in Puglia and Sicily. For the Amanti wines he sources the best wines possible from selected co-operatives in Sicily and elsewhere before taking them to the Venice area for blending and bottling.

The second wine came from the Apulia Region –the heel of Italy’s boot and known as Puglia in Italy. The wine was a 2008 Feudi di San Marzano Negroamara. Negroamara is again a local grape, generally considered to be the best grape of the region. It gained an overall score of 8, and again seemed to meet the producers description on the bottle – “ a spicy round and delicious wine, with the taste of black cherries” again well balanced, very smooth and a great deal of long lasting black fruit flavours. The producer profile is also quite interesting - “Situated not far from Mandùria on the Tarantino ‘heel’ of Italy, the San Marzano co-operative is within sight of the Ionian Sea. It is a large, highly modern affair, huge tanks sheltering beneath awnings from the beating rays of the Puglian sun. The wines are modern in style, particularly those made under the auspices of the successful Farnese group which has been involved here since 2003. They draw from 1,000 members with 500ha between them, enabling director, Mauro di Maggio, to pick out the best parcels”

The cost of the wines was £6.10 and £7.10 respectively and both of the wines were purchased from Tanners which is a bit of a change from our usual Supermarket sources. Tanners are one of the top 6 independent wine merchants and are a family owned, family run business based in Shrewsbury. The original business was founded in 1872 and the main shop in Shrewsbury at the Wyle Cop premises has a distinctly Dickensian atmosphere and has been used for the same purpose and is little changed in the last 160 years. It contain fascinating collections of wine trade artefacts, old books, pictures and photographs connected with the family business. Tanners also run wine tastings and Mike is investigating the possibility of organising a visit to Shrewsbury sometime in 2011. Our next meeting will be held at John and Shelia’s on Tuesday, June 15th at 14:00
Tanners Wyle Cop today