October’s meeting saw the very welcome return of one of our most popular speakers, Tim North from Joie de Vin. The business specialises in importing remarkable French wine from very carefully selected small producers that are not available in UK supermarkets.
It was inspiring to hear Tim’s enthusiasm about the individual suppliers he uses, about their environmental ethics and their very conscientious craft production methods. Tim deals directly with each supplier and so avoids the usual overheads of the bigger traders. His selectivity really shows in the quality of the wines. In total, Tim showed us 8 contrasting wines. Although a couple were more expensive than the usual we tend to see at Wine Club, they were very good value for what they were!
Tim purposefully avoided wines he had showed us before and the obvious “bar menu” wines like Sauvignon Blanc, giving us a refreshing change. We started off with a lovely crisp refreshing Domaine Salmon Imperial Sparkling Brut. Going on to whites, there was a classic, crisp, dry Touraine Chenin Blanc 2014 with subtle oak notes, a really delicious, well balanced 2017 Pinot Gris from the Loire and a very complex 2016 Macon white Burgundy to rival the fine wines from Cote D’Or, also at a very fair price. For the reds, there was a soft, fruity 2017 Touraine Gamay, an intense 2017 Cotes de Roussillon partnering beautifully with the paté, a very rich, smooth 2015 Lussac Saint Emillion and for the big showstopper, a wonderful rich red 2015 Pomerol, drinkable on its own but also great with meat or cheese.
All the wines were extremely drinkable and hard to put down and they seemed to go down a storm. I personally enjoyed them all and would recommend a look at this business www.joiedevin.co.uk if you weren’t able to come along to the meeting. Certainly, there were a lot of order forms going in at the end of the evening at the special discounted price!
