September: Supermarket Challenge tasting by Peter Byford
15 members and 3 guests enjoyed an evening comparing wine from Waitrose and Netto. We tasted 3 white wines from Chile - Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and a Sauvignon Blanc blend - and a Merlot from California. The sauvignon blanc from Netto was older than its counterpart from Waitrose and was deemed a bit over the hill. The Merlot from Netto was also older than the Waitrose one. Overall, the Waitrose wines were pronounced as the better wines.
Thanks to Peter for getting the wines and organising the evening.
Round 3 will take place next year with another 2 supermarkets battling it out.
August: Annual BBQ
16 members attended the annual club BBQ, which was hosted this year by Peter and Margaret. Sunday morning started off dull and damp and miserable. However, just after midday the rain stopped and the sun made a guest appearance in the sky! The temperature was reasonable until early evening, so everyone sat outside and enjoyed the afternoon.
Colin did his usual grand job of the cooking. We ate the usual chicken, Braughing sausages and various salads prepared by the members.
Thanks to Peter and Margaret for hosting the event, and to everyone for preparing the rest of the food.
August: Annual Computerised Wine Drive
18 people, including 3 guests from Hoddesdon and 2 ex-members, entered 9 bottles in the Annual wine drive.
The members, split into teams of 2 and 3 people, judge one another's wines in a series of comparative tastings, the idea being that each wine is tasted at least once against every other wine, and each team gets to have a chat with every other team. The results are then entered into the computer and a league table develops with the results.
The results were as follows: 1st Peter Robinson; 2nd Ted Jordan; 3rd Dave Kenney; 4th Colin Lovett; 5th Elaine Robinson; 6th commercial; 7th Peter Byford 8th Keith Barltrop; 9th Eddie Hunt. The commercial wine was a from a French wine box, bought in the Charentes region of France. The club's points rules meant that Elaine gained points for the Founder's Trophy, as Ted Jordan is not a member.
July: Annual Walk organised by Ruth and Richard Tite
On a sunny and reasonably warm evening, thirteen members, and two ex-members (June and Monty Varney), took part in this year's annual walk. The walk was a bit of a nostalgia trip, as we started at the Robin Hood pub in Tonwell, where several members have held big birthday celebrations. From there we walked to Stoneyhills, where we had some of our Christmas meals; the pub is now a private house. Then on to Chapmore End; the wine club used to hold its annual BBQ in a barn in the village. It has now been replaced by some posh houses on the site.
We finished back at the Robin Hood pub to partake of the usual refreshment, and were joined by M C Black. The landlord was probably glad to see us, as we were virtually his only customers that evening.
Thanks to Richard and Ruth for organising the walk.
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A depleted membership - 11 members - tasted a selection of food and wine, comparing organic food with non-organic. We compared orange juice, sausages, chicken, Cheshire cheese, vine tomatoes, strawberries and chocolate. We also tasted 2 white wines which were both organic from Sicily and Argentina, and 2 Cotes du Rhone wine, one organic, the other not. An interesting evening. Well done to Kevin and to Margaret Byford who helped with some of the food.
May: Quiz Nite with Dave and Sue Kenney
13 members formed 3 teams of 3 and 2 teams of 2 for the annual quiz nite. Dave gave out sheets of multiple choice questions this year, which went down well. Ruth Tite, Helen Maguire and MC Black were the winning team. (I think we should split Ruth and Helen up next year as they won last year!) Thanks to Dave and Sue for organising the evening.
May: Beds & Herts Federation Show 2006
Peter and Elaine entered the show again this year and Peter also judged. Peter R got 1 1st place; Elaine got 2 1st places. Elaine and Peter R between them won 13 places; Elaine was only narrowly beaten by Daphne Grant for the lady with most points.
Full report and results on the NAWB web site.
April: AGM and English Wine Tasting
19 members attended the AGM. Apologies were received from M C Black. The treasurer's report indicated that the club is still in a healthy financial position. It was therefore decided to keep the current subscription rate. All the current committee members were re-elected for another year. A lengthy discussion was held to discuss where the club should meet in the future. Place House has not resolved the licensing problems, but there have been signs of refurbishment, although the lighting and pathway into Place House are still considered to be unsafe for our more elderly members. A vote was taken about returning to Place House, or staying at the Art Centre; the majority voted to return to Place House at some time in the future, subject to the above issues being resolved. There was also a discussion about the types of meetings that the members would like to have. It was generally felt that that the in-house meetings were often the most successful, with those where food was also involved also being popular.
Roger How then announced the results for the Founder's Trophy, as follows - 7th Mary Lovett 3 pts; 6th Peter Byford 5 pts; 5th David Kenney 9 pts; 4th Kevin Martin 12 pts; joint 2nd Colin Lovett and Elaine Robinson 19 pts; 1st Peter Robinson 35 pts. (Note 3 non-members also gained points at the Annual Show)
Peter Robinson then presented an English red wine tasting.
The wines tasted were as follows:
| Barrowell Green, made at Digswell | 2006 | Rondo | ||
| Carmello | 2005 | Rondo, Regent | ||
| Sandyford Vineyard, Special Reserve, Saffron Walden, East Anglia | 11.5% | 2003 | Rondo, Regent, Triomphe D'Alsace | £8.99 |
| New Hall Ruby Royal, Chelmsford, Essex | 10.5% | 2005 | Rondo, Regent, Triomphe, Acolon, Zweigetrebe | £6.90 |
Well done to Peter R for the wine tasting.
March: South African Wine tasting by Mark from The Vine Shop, Ware
17 members and guests from Hoddesdon Winemakers enjoyed a wine tasting of 6 South African wines, selected by Mark from The Vine Shop in Ware. The shop puts on ticketed wine tastings and there are usually wine tastings taking place on Saturday afternoons.
The wines tasted were as follows:
| Iona | 13% | 2006 | Sauvignon Blanc | £12.75 |
| Springfield Estate, Methode Ancienne | 14% | 2004 | Chardonnay | £13.75 |
| Glen Carlou | 13.5% | 2006 | Pinot Noir | £10.95 |
| Onyx, Kroon, Groenekloof | 14.5% | 2002 | Pinotage, Shiraz, small amounts of Grenache and Cinsault | £8.95 |
| Spice Route | 14.5% | 2005 | Pinotage | £9.50 |
| Lillia Eilandia, Noble Late Harvest | 14% | 2005 | Chenin Blanc | £7.50 for 37.5cl |
March: National Show at Weston-super-Mare
Peter and Elaine Robinson attended the annual show at Weston-super-Mare. As usual, a very good, if hectic, weekend, with a very wet Saturday and early Sunday morning causing problems loading cars after the show. The weekend was also the 50th anniversary of NAWB and a dinner dance was held on the Saturday evening with 156 people attending.
Peter and Elaine had their most successful year yet, with 26 places between them, including 5 1st places; their success made the club 5th highest in the points league table, Luton beating them by 1 point. Peter obtained a 1st place in the judges' beer class at the first time of entering this class, and 2 other 1st places, amongst others; Elaine gained 2 1st places and several other places. They took 4 bottles for Colin Lovett, who gained a 3rd place.
February: Talk and tasting by Tony Barrett from Saffron Brewery, Henham
Guests from Hoddesdon and Ware Alers joined club members for a very interest talk and tasting of beers from the Saffron Brewery, which is at Pledgdon Hall Farm, Henham, near Saffron Walden. The brewery started in May 2006 and they currently brew 12000 pints a month! Most of the beer is bottled, and is then sold at mostly at farmers markets and some shops and a few pubs. (Note: Waitrose in Hertford stock the Flying Serpent and Silent Night beers at £1.99 a bottle.) Tony told us that in 2008 brewing will probably suffer as there will not be enough hops to go round all the breweries due to the poor weather in the UK, Eastern Europe and the USA in 2007. Tony told us that they plan to make a limited edition beer that will contain 2 stems of saffron in each bottle. It will obviously be more expensive than their usual beers!
The beers tasted were as follows:
Muntjac, Saffron blond, Pledgdon ale, Pigs Ear, Silent Night.
A very interesting talk and some nice beers.
A club competition also took place that evening, judged by Colin Hotham. The results were as follows:
Two bottle class (table dry red & white): 1st Elaine, 2nd Peter R, 3rd Peter B, 4th Colin
Kit liqueur not fortified: 1st Peter R, 2nd Elaine, 3rd Kevin
January: Social Evening
The January meeting marked the start of the 30th anniversary of the circle. The meeting was a social evening, with several members - mostly the founder and chairman Peter Byford - bringing along various items of memorabilia. 17 members and 3 ex-members enjoyed looking at the photos of past events and various old newsletters etc. There was also a quiz about events of 1978, but no-one got the last question completely right (which 3 members of the club got married that year?) Some savoury nibbles were also available.
Elaine reminded the members of the competition in February - Two bottle class, red and white table dry, and a kit liqueur, not to be fortified; and also of the National show which takes place in Weston-super-Mare at the beginning of March. See the NAWB web site for full details. She said that if any member wished to enter either the open classes or to submit wines to represent the wine club in the circle classes, then she and Peter would be happy to take the bottles with them. (Classes available).
2007
December: Annual Cook and Taste
13 members attended the Annual Cook and Taste at Kevin's house. Everyone brought something to eat and we enjoyed starters of apricots wrapped in bacon, tomato and feta pesto bites and smoked salmon and cream cheese on melba toast. The main courses were beef in red wine and chicken in claretr with bacon anf thyme, accompanied by rice and pasta salads, and a green salad. The desserts were an apricot meringue and an almond and pear flan. For those who still had some room, there was cheese and biscuits. A very enjoyable evening. December: Ware Christmas Festival
Mulled wine was provided to the cold and thirsty public of Ware at the Christmas Festival in Tudor Square. 13 gallons of red wine, supplemented by orange juice, water and sugar, was heated up and served to the public, some of whom came back for seconds and even thirds! There were some heating problems but we still sold out around 9pm, again leaving some people disappointed. It was a cold evening but stayed dry. We sent the profits of £350 to the Herts & Essex Air Ambulance Appeal.
