The programme for the next six months is now on the site and can be found here – New Programme. This marks the beginning of our tenth year and there are a number of changes to the usual format that we have had for so long.

For a numberof reasons, which we are all aware of, we are moving to a new home and from September 28th 2011 our meetings will be held at The Angel Inn, High Street, Pershore, WF10 1AF, you can find directions here – Map There is ample parking and it will be a much more relaxed atmosphere, without the rush at the end of the evening. As part of this we are reverting to our original start time of 7.30 pm making it less of a rush for everyone.

In addition Chris is organising a series of Connoisseurs Evenings, the first to be held on Weds 11 January 2012, you can find the details of that here – Connoisseurs Evening These are to be run alongside the normal Society Meetings and offer a new and exciting dimension to the Society’s programme.

The minibus will run as usual from the Evesham area, pick up times being a few minutes later to allow for the new start time.

Membership is due this month and is £25 per head.

Our first meeting is New Zealand Wines presented by Tracy Taylor from Waitrose – and there might just be a bit of a Birthday Party too!

Our July meeting will be Summer Wines on a Budget and with a twist.

The format for the evening will be slightly different to normal and I hope you will enjoy it. You can blame me if you don’t like the wines as I have chosen them all!

The bus will run as usual from Evesham, and if you know of anyone who would enjoy the evening, do bring them along – visitors and new members are always welcome. For ‘usual’ bus crew, if you are not able to come and have not already let us know, please contact Peter asap. We do have a few spaces on the bus for anyone in the Evesham area.

A few people have already contacted me about bringing a guest – if anyone else is bringing along an ‘extra’ please would you be kind enough to let me know.

Please bear in mind that it is important that we start and finish on time given the financial penalties of over running.

Richard Booth of That Wine Place in Tewkesbury presented a very interesting evening of wines from Chile and Argentina, with a couple of strays from South Africa. The selection was interesting, with an unusual Torrontes being the star of the evening for me.  We were fortunate to be able to taste two vintages of the Aromo Private Reserve Sauvignon Blanc and make a comparison with the 2010 vintage winning out.

The South African strays joined us as Richard didn’t feel that there were any ‘sparklers’ from Chile or Argentina that were suitable, instead he brought a couple from Graham Beck in the Western Cape region. Among the many interesting snippets of information that Richard entertained us with was that Graham Beck supplied the wine for the Toast at the Inauguration of President Obama – and that formal Wine tasting began in the fourteenth century.

As ever, the conversation flowed, discussions covering the differences between New Zealand and Chilean Sauvignon Blanc, the qualities of Torrontes, and the spectacular rise in popularity of Argentinian Malbec.

The wines tasted were:-

White

Aromo Private Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2009 & 2010, Chile (£8-49)

Zohar Torrontes 2009, Argentina (£10-99)

Aromo Barrel Select Chardonnay 2009, Chile (£12-99)

Red

Aromo Private Reserve Carmenere 2009, Chile (£8-49)

Terza Malbec , Argentina (£8-49)

Aromo Barrel Select Red, Chile (£12-99)

Sparkling

Graham Beck Blanc de Blancs 2006, South Africa (£14-99)

Graham Beck Brut NV, South Africa (£13-99)

Richard can be contacted at That Wine Place, 110 High Street, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, GL20 5JZ,  01684 292752  http://www.thatwineplace.co.uk

If anyone would care to add any comments/tasting notes, please do so in the comments and I will add them to these notes.

The new programme for Sept 2010 – February 2011 is now available and you can see it by clicking here => new programme or by clicking on the tab in the menu bar above.

As ever Maree and Chris have put together a varied programme with  some old friends coming back to visit again, and some new faces.

Membership is due in September and the cost has been held at the same price for another year.  Membership is £20 due at the September meeting, and the cost per evening is £10 for members.  For non-members a suggested donation would be £15.

Meeting times remain the same, 7.15 pm start and 9.15 .m. finish.

Don’t forget you can sign up for the mailing list, using the form on the right, to be kept up to date with news, events etc.  Our mailing list is used only for this purpose and is absolutely secure and confidential.

Look forward to seeing you all in September.

There has been a change to the programme for January.

John Freeland of C A Rookes in Stratford  will be presenting a evening of Clarets.

This will undoubtedly be an excellent evening.  John has visited us several times and is always worth listening to and always brings a good selection of wines to tempt us.