Pieroth Home Wine Tasting

For my birthday last October a friend got me a groupon voucher for a home wine tasting with the Pieroth wine company. Pieroth has been around for over 300 years and has built a reputation on providing quality wines. All the wines within the Pieroth range are only made from the first press of the grapes - -this guarantees a higher standard of wine.

The voucher allowed me to have a wine tasting with six of my friends in the comfort of my own home. It was a great evening. It was also interesting to have the wines on show dictated by someone else. Normally, when I have a wine tasting at home, I am in control of what wines we have - not having this control was actually quite nice, as I didn't know what was coming next. It was also great to have some wines from Germany and Eastern Europe which I wouldn't normally have the opportunity to try. The guy who MC'd the evening was friendly and well informed. It was a great night and I would recommend a home wine tasting by Pieroth to anyone.

The tasting was made up of 6 whites and 6 reds.

Vina Primera, Rioja, 2010 Spain

This was a light, refreshing wine made from 100% Viura, with nice apple flavours. The wine was dry with great crisp acidity. 11.5% abv. 3.5/5

Villa del Sole, 2010, Sicily

Wines from Sicily have to made only with grapes grown indigenously on the island. This was a fairly sweet wine with a beautiful floral bouquet. Nice, sweet palate with delicate peach and apricot. This would be a great wine for the summer. 12% abv. 3.6/5

Te Ariki, Chardonnay, 2008, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand

This is an unoaked chardonnay but still retained that buttery character. This was a soft and smooth wine with a buttery nose and soft peach and apricot on the palate. 13.5% abv. 3/5

Armsheimer Adelberg, Kerner, 2009, Pradikatswein Kabinett Rheinhessen, Germany

Lovely light, sweet, fragrant wine. This wine had beautiful touches of rose and Turkish delight. There were loads of sweet floral aromas. This was a great wine. 9% abv. 4/5

Pieroth Blue, Burg Layer 2010, Schlosskapelle, Kabinett, Nahe, Germany

This is the signature bottle within the Pieroth range and comes in the typical blue Pieroth bottle. This was a good wine with pretty floral edges and notes of elderflower. 9 % abv. 4.5/5

Feher Arany, 2010, Duna Borregio, Muskat-Ottonel, Hungary

Lovely sweet wine, heading more towards the dessert wine part of the spectrum - but an adult, well made dessert wine. Beautiful fresh white grape aromas here. 10.5% abv. 4.2/5

Flying Grapes, Sangiovese Rubicone, 2009, Italy

This was a heavy, tannic, dark wine with thick dark fruit flavours. 12.5% abv. 2.8/5

Calle Mayor, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2009, Spain

This was a big wine, with a big, thick dark nose with some almost vegetal aromas. There were some dark plummy fruits flavours but these were fairly hidden. This is a wine that definitely needs food - ideally big, red meat dishes. 14% abv. 3/5

Paolo Guidi, Nebbiolo d'Alba, 2009, Italy

This wine is made on a Barolo estate, but due to the fact that it doesn't go through the same ageing process as a Barolo - it can't be classed as one. This wine had big, dark fruits and big tannins to match. 13.5% abv. 3/5

Golden Grape Estate, Leonard's Saddle, Shiraz, 2009, Australia

Lovely big, red fruits. Plenty of plum and blackcurrant with a good helping of pepper. Well structured. 14.5% abv. 4/5

Ferdinand Pieroth, Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot, Murfatlar, Romania

This was a nice sweet red wine. This actually comes under the classification of Beerenauslese. This wine is fragrant but not too mouth filling - would be good as a party wine. 11% abv. 3/5

Bor Forras, 2008, Hajos Baja, Blaufrankisch, Hungary

Blaufrankisch is actually the German, Hungarian and Eastern European name for Pinot Noir. This wine was presented chilled. it was full of sweet red fruits - this would also be a good summer wine. 10.5% abv. 3.2/5

Due to the fact that the tasting was at my place I got a free bottle of wine to say thank you for hosting the evening. Obviously after a 12 bottle tasting we didn't open this bottle - however it will be reported on later.

We did however have a nice glass of The MacAllan 15 year old Fine Oak Whisky to round off the evening.