Dinner Xara Lodge on the 18th January 2022
Dear Friends,
Attached please find the traditional il-Qatra report on our first 2022 wine tasting session after a hiatus of almost 2 years.
The wines were chosen by Daniel Cassar Darien and Garreth Fenech and the attached report prepared by Garreth.
The feedback we received was positive and encouraging. There were however a couple of niggles such as the failure of the certificate verification by Xara and the delay in starting service – the first is not of future relevance following yesterday’s announcement and the second is being actively tackled with Xara.
I personally enjoyed the wines, finding the B-Qa de Marsyas Blanc 2016 from Bekaa Valley fresh, dry, fruity and well-balanced, not a great wine by any means but certainly fit for purpose as our aperitif. The Clos de Gat Har’el Syrah 2016 from Judean Hills was the highest voted wine of the session and it was my co-favourite with the Ch Marsyas Rouge 2010 also from Bekaa Valley, a New World style of ‘bordeaux blend’ with the addition of some Syrah which I found went best with the lamb, this was your second favourite. The third favourite was, as often happens during our Qatra blind tastings, the oldest and most expensive wine of the evening, the Domaine de Bargylus Red 2008 from Lattakia. My table was unfortunate in meeting with a less than perfect wine, probably from inadequate storage somewhere in its life rather than during production as other tables did not note any problems. As explained by me at the start of the dinner, faulty bottles should be ‘voted’ as such and so not forming part of the final analysis. The least favourite wine was the Domaine des Tourelles Vielles Vignes 2017, again from Bekaa Valley, quite an aromatic and fruity wine, certainly a good wine but the fruit felt a bit too ripe for my taste.
Three last notices for this month:
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Those who need Qatra tasting glasses – you should have 3 sets of four – please advise me or Joe Cappello asap so that we purchase them for you at the discounted club prices
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We are keeping a database of member’s food allergies and intolerances. Again please advise us of these at your earliest convenience.
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From now on most e-mails from us will be reaching you using the dedicated club mailbox: il.qatra.wine.club@gmail.com Please include this in your e-mail safe sender list so that you do not lose communications from us
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See you all in February
Iro
