Dinner Xara Lodge on the 22nd March 2022

Dear friends,

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Aglianico was always one of my personal favourites especially when it is a Taurasi from one of the more passionate Campania makers so when David and Albert - who I would like to thank for their help in planning this session - both suggested to go for Campania as the theme region I grabbed their suggestion with both hands.

 

Fortunately, the two leading makers are both represented in Malta and the only concern was that Riserva in particular does need some ageing before reaching its peak.  Finding wines that have been left to age in stock is a problem everywhere but even more acute in Malta where most importers do not feel able to hold  on to stock for several years in temperature and humidity controlled stores and still offer them at an acceptable price on release.

 

The voting on these wines was interesting - fortunately over 65% of diners sent in their votes so the ballot is valid - as while the young wines were given votes with a range of 3 points between the highest and lowest vote given, the two Riserva had a very wide spread of 7-8 points from the lowest to the highest points given.  As far as I was made aware, there were no faulty bottles and since all the wines are consistently given good to excellent reviews from a diverse number of reputable wine critics, here we are looking purely at personal taste with a wine one member particularly liked was strongly disliked by another and vice versa.

 

This again confirms how important it is to try out wines without the influence from the label and the price skewing one's opinion.  I look forward to what Daniel and his team will come up with in April

 

Keep well all of you and see you on the 26th April

 

Cheers

 

Iro