|
|
WARE WINE & BEER CIRCLE |
| PAST YEARS MEETINGS | |
|
Other years available -
2024
2023
2022
2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2025 November: Versatile Wine by Kevin Martin 10 members attended the meeting. Kevin had made a gallon of a base wine using 2 litres of grape juice, 1 litre of apple juice, 2lb of rhubarb (juice only), 500ml grape concentrate, and some honey. Having given the members a sample of the base wine, he then proceeded to make several further wines, as follows - 1. Dry white table - 3 parts base wine, 1 part water 2. Herbal aperitif - a small addition of aniseed flavouring was added 3. Medium dry table - 6 parts base wine, 2 parts white grape/apple/peach juice 4. Rosé medium dry - 4 parts base wine, 1 part red grape juice 5. Medium sweet white - base wine with added sugar and grape concentrate 6. Sweet white table - base wine and grape and grape concentrate Some additions to the base wine worked better than others. But it shows that you can - possibly - make several other wine styles from one basic wine. Just not aniseed for the aperitif though! At the end of the evening, Elaine thanked Kevin for the work he had done to provide the presentation. October: Quiche and Cake food competition and Trophy Presentation 7 members attended the meeting, with 4 quiche and 2 cake entries from 5 members. At the start of the evening, Chris announced the winners of the Annual show, and Eddie presented the trophies. The results of the competition were as follows: Quiche - 1st Richard; Cake - 1st Elaine; Eddie presented the Rolling Pin trophies to the winners. Thanks to Carol for taking the photos. September: 43rd Annual Show The club held its 43rd Annual Show at Ware Arts Centre, postponed from July due to the on-going works there.. This year the hall was open when we arrived. Entries and judges all arrived promptly allowing the show to commence on time. 9 competitors entered 117 bottles in eight wine classes and four beer classes. The Judges were Colin Hotham, Geoff Fryer, and Richard Baldwin, with Chris and Peter R also judging. Thanks to all who entered and well done to all the winners who will be announced at the October meeting and presented with their trophies. Click here for results and trophy winners. September: Kit Wine Competition 12 members attended the meeting. The evening was a kit wine competition of white and red kit wines. There were 5 white wines, and 7 red wines. The winners were as follows: White wine - 1st Eddie, 2nd Kevin, 3rd Elaine, 4th Peter R Red wine - 1st Robert, 2nd Kevin, 3rd Elaine, 4th Eddie Kevin reminded the members of the forthcoming meetings - October Quiche and cake competitions; November is a versatile wine tasting; December 1st is the club Christmas dinner at Kings Mead. Elaine thanked the members for entering the competition and Chris for collating the results. August: Annual Computerised Wine Drive, run by Elaine and Peter R August saw the return of the club's popular computerised Wine Drive. This year Elaine remembered to bring her laptop. She printed out the rounds in advance, being unsure of the availability of power in the hall (there is). It was a slightly confusing evening as, due to the mobility issues with Margaret and David K, they were a team of two people who didn't move during the evening, whereas everyone else does! Peter R ensured that all the participants and the bottles were in the correct place before each round. 12 members attended the meeting, and 9 bottles of wine were entered, including a commercial. The results of the drive were as follows together with Founders Trophy points awarded. 1st Kevin (4 points), joint 2nd Peter R and Robert (2.5 points each), 4th Eddie (1 point), 5th Elaine, 6th Commercial, 7th Peter B, 8th Chris, 9th Richard. Actually, Kevin, Peter R and Robert all won the same number of rounds - 6 - but Kevin won more rounds at 3-0, rather than 2-1, giving him 2 more points. Kevin thanked Elaine and Peter for running the evening. Chris reminded members about the club annual show on September 20th. July meeting - Tropical Fruit wine competition 11 members attended the meeting, which Chris co-ordinated. 8 tropical fruit wines were entered; all were well presented and clear. The results were as follows: 1st place - Kevin, joint 2nd place - Emma and Elaine, 4th place - Peter R Chris thanked everyone for entering. Elaine thanked Chris for organising the competition, and reminded everyone that the August meeting will be the club's Annual Wine Drive. June Wales & West Diamond Festival The Wales & West 2025 Festival was held on 13th - 15th June at Weston-super-Mare with five members of Ware attending, namely Elaine, Peter, Chris and Carol, and Kevin. Elaine, Peter, Chris and Kevin judged various classes with Carol stewarding for Chris. Elaine, Carol, Peter, Chris and Kevin entered the show. Ware Wine & Beer Circle retained the Leytonian Cup awarded to the non-affiliated circle with most points across all open classes and gained the circle Challenge Cup for the club with most points in classes 1-18 (wine classes), and the South Gloucestershire Trophy for the most points in classes 19-28 (beer classes). Chris was the Master Brewer (making it a double achievement!). Peter won three wine classes; Chris won five beer classes; Elaine won four wine classes; Carol won a liqueur class, and the jam class; Kevin won two wine classes and the fruit cake class! All club members won other places as well. There are 34 classes in the show, of which Ware won 17 of them! A very successful show for the club. The festival included tastings of wines and beers. There were discussions upon the merits of individual wine and beer entries over dinner. Once again, the Wales & West was enjoyed by all attendees.
However, it did take place a week later. 10 members attended. Peter R presented a comparison beer tasting of low alcohol beers and their normal equivalents. The beers were - Erdinger Wheat beer; normal alcohol 5.3%; low alcohol 0.5% Leffe Blonde; normal alcohol 6%; low alcohol 0% Adnams Ghost Ship; normal alcohol 4.5%; low alcohol 0.5% Guiness; normal alcohol 4.2%; low alcohol 0.5% (in a can) The general consensus was that the low alcohol equivalent beers were thin and insipid, and not worth buying! Elaine thanked Peter for putting together the tasting. There were some beers left over, which went into the raffle, so some lucky members went home with low alcohol beers! May: Quiz Nite with Dave and Sue 10 members participated in the meeting, plus the quizmasters. There was slightly chaotic start to the evening when we found that the room we are now using was locked, and the other rooms were occupied! However, this was resolved by a call to the caretaker, who came and opened up the room. There were 2 teams of 3 members and 1 team of 4 members, with husbands and wives not allowed to be in the same team. There was on on-going round of places to visit in England, where alternate letters had been removed, and the teams had to work out what the missing letters were. There were 6 rounds of various miscellaneous questions with multiple choices answers. The winners were the team of 4 - Carol, Graham, Peter B and Peter R - 77 points; second were Chris, Elaine and Sue with 72 points; third place were David C, Margaret and Robert with 64 points. Elaine thanked Dave and Sue for putting the quiz together. Members were reminded that the next meeting will be a comparison of normal beers against low / non alcohol beers; the July meeting will be set recipe competition (tropical fruit juice). The Annual Show has been postponed due to the work currently taking place at the Arts Centre. April: Curry Evening 11 members attended the meeting. The members enjoyed the following Indian food - lamb curry with apricots, Indian style rice salad, Onion Bhaji, Naan bread, Mango Chutney Kevin supplied two wines to go with the meal Centenario Grand Reserva 2021 14.5% from Portugal Chateau Guillem de Montjustin Corbieres 2021 14.5% from France April: National Show at Britannia Royal Court Hotel, Coventry Peter and Elaine R, Kevin, Robert, and Chris and Carol went to the 65th National show at Coventry. See the NAWB website for details. Ware Wine & Beer Circle and its members were among the 38 individual entrants at the National Association of Wine & Beer Makers (Amateur) Annual Show in Coventry on Saturday 5th April 2025. A total of 676 bottles and 2 photos were entered across the show’s 63 classes. Ware Circle's members gained 18 first and 103 other places, (Carol won the photograph class) and as a result retained their position at the top of the National Club Points League Table and the Amateur Winemakers Shield, for the eighth year in succession. In addition, Ware Circle won the Sweet ‘N’ Dry Cup. Ware Circle and its members won a total of 23 trophies. The Show was a weekend event and included a presentation of home brew beers and wines. The highlight of the weekend was Saturday evening’s formal dinner followed by the presentation of major trophies and musical entertainment. March: The Fourth Round of the Supermarket Wine Challenge, followed by the AGM 15 members (nearly the total membership!) attended the meeting. The AGM was held a month early because the day of the usual meeting would be Easter Monday. The minutes of the 2024 AGM were accepted. Kevin read the Chairman's report - a synopsis of the previous year's events. Peter R. presented the Treasurer’s report stating that the club was still viable and had made a small profit over the year. However, as the cost of the hall has increased, it was stated that it is imperative that meetings are held with the majority of members attending. It was decided that notifications of future meetings would be announced on WhatsApp with a poll for members to state whether they would be attending or not. Richard agreed to set this up. Members were asked to inform the committee in advance of holidays or other known non-attendance. If the known attendance was low, then the meeting would be cancelled and the hall booking cancelled, hopefully in time for a refund for the booking. He thanked Richard for auditing the accounts. Peter stated that the club’s annual subscriptions remain at £10 per person. The committee were re-elected en bloc, with Peter B being given the post of Social Secretary rather than 'Committee Member'. As Eddie had now completed (almost) his term of three years as President, Kevin announced that Elaine had been asked if she would be the next President, which she duly accepted. Elaine requested that Eddie has a role of Vice-President to thank the speaker when Elaine was not present, or when she presented the meeting. Chris announced the results of the Founders Trophy - 3rd Kevin, 2nd Peter R, 1st Elaine; (there was only 1 point between each of them!). Eddie presented the trophy to Elaine. The supermarkets for the Wine Challenge were Tesco and Asda. Peter B sourced the wines, matching like-for-like on grape, alcohol and price where possible. Each wine was described by Peter B and at the end of the tasting the members voted on which wine they preferred. The wines were as follows: New Zealand Sauvignon Marlborough 2023 12.5% £9.50 Tesco New Zealand Sauvignon Marlborough 2023 12% £8.06 Asda France Côtes de Provence 2023 12% £9.50 Asda France Côtes de Provence 2023 13% £8.94 Tesco Argentina Malbec 2022 13% £9.00 Tesco Argentina Malbec 2023 13.5% £6.48 Asda The Tesco New Zealand white and the Argentina Malbec red were preferred to the Asda wines; Tesco therefore were the winners by 2:1 and go through to the semi-final. The prices of the wines were after discounts. February: Limoncello Competition 14 members attended the meeting at the Arts Centre. There were 9 entries for the competition. The results were as follows: 1st Peter B - winning recipe 2nd Richard 3rd Carol An interesting evening. Eddie thanked the competitors for entering and Peter for providing a home-made caraway seed cake. January: Organic Wine Tasting by Peter R 10 Members attended the meeting. Peter described organic wine as wine made from grapes grown in accordance with the principles of organic farming, which exclude the use of artificial chemical fertilisers, pesticides, fungicides and herbicides. Yeast does not have to be organic. In theory, wine produced from grapes grown on more nutrient-rich soils should have a greater amount of of more diverse minerals and flavour compounds, so should be more complex and delicious! Generally, organic wines are more expensive due to lower yields as the vines are more susceptible to pests and disease. The wines were as follows (they were all bought from Calais Wine superstore) - Settesoli, Sicily, Grillo grape, 2021, 12.5% £4.20 Riamat, Catalunya Spain, White Grenache, 2022, 13% £4.20 La Minouette Domaine Gayda, IGT Pays D'Oc France, Mouvedre, Syrah, Grenache, Cinsault, 2022, 12.5% £3.25 Chateau Font du Broc Bisson, Cotes de Provence, Grenache, Mouvedre, Cinsault, Syrah, 2021, 13.5% £5.20 Gio, Pays D'Oc, Grenache, 2022, 1435% £3.25 Banrock Station, South Australia, Shiraz, 2019, 14.5% £2.20 Peter explained a lot more about organic wines during the evening. Eddie thanked Peter for arranging the meeting and sourcing the wines. |
|||
|
For further information, contact:
|
|
Last updated:
20/01/26 |
|
Copyright: 2001 WWBC |
