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News > Spanish Fireworks at the Ramblers Rest

Spanish Fireworks at the Ramblers Rest

5th November 2009:

Guy Fawkes Night was celebrated in a very different way by some of our Chipstead customers this year.

Hosted by Essentially Wine’s David Bedwell, they enjoyed a tutored tasting of some Spanish wines in the hospitable surroundings of the Ramblers Rest Inn in Outwood Lane, Kingswood. Whilst outside, the sky erupted with light and thunderous noise of the Chipstead Fireworks display, inside in the warm, we tasted 9 splendid wines under the expert tutelage of Master of Wine, Mike Ritchie.

The event kicked off with a glass of Con Class VE 2008 – Rueda. A light bodied easy drinking blend of Verdejo, Viura & Sauvignon Blanc. We followed up with the Con Class Sauvignon Blanc and the Con Class Verdejo -- a couple of stars amongst the white wines of Spain. The bonus white wine was an oaked Rioja Navajas Crianza 2006 -- a truly amazing wine that is dominated by fruit with toasty vanilla and coconut oak on the nose.

Taking a break to savour the excellent range of Tapas and Cheeses provided by The Rambler’s Rest, our guests had the opportunity to get to know each other and quiz Mike about a range of topics, not exclusively concerning the wines of Spain.

For the second part of the evening, we concentrated on the red wines. The Navajas Tinto Sin 2007, a young fruity blend of 80% Tempranillo, Garacha (15%) & Mazuelo (5%) was followed by the 2007 Crianza. This Bodega founded in 1918 combines traditional and modern methods to produce wines of great quality and character.

The Espelt Saulo 2007 from DO Ampurdan in North East Catalonia is a 50/50 Garnacha/Carinena blend with the gamey richness from the underrated Carinena and jucily packed with black fruit flavours. The Sembro 2007 from Ribeiro del Duero is 100% Tempranillo. A Broad shouldered red with bags of ripe fruit. It would be a perfect match for roast lamb.

To round off the evening, (as if we needed it!) Mike produced a bottle of 1982 PX (Pedro Ximenez) A wonderful “sticky” from Montilla-Moriles deep in Andalucia. Think liquid Christmas Pudding or Christmas cake mix. It was explosively brilliant with blue cheese, and would also cope well with a rich chocolate dessert. Imagine pouring it over a home-made Vanilla Ice cream! You can probably tell we loved it!

So once again we enjoyed an interesting evening with friends, tasting, eating and talking wine. Many thanks to Mike Ritchie for sharing his passion and knowledge with us, to the staff at The Rambler’s for their quality of service and to our customers for making these occasions so worthwhile.

If you would like to attend our next wine tasting event, please contact Essentially Wine on (01737) 55 77 37

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Home > News > Spanish Fireworks at the Ramblers Rest

News > Spanish Fireworks at the Ramblers Rest

Spanish Fireworks at the Ramblers Rest