A Study in Scarlet, White & Rosé
Part 1 of 2
Basics
Free of charge
1200-1330, approx
Location
Camara Agraria on the net
How to join
Invitation by application and lucky dip. On a market day, ask at the ticket desk at the entrance if they're taking names for future events.
In Pictures
Video slideshow on Fb.
In Short
Hopes?
Get some shopping tips.
Reality?
Success. We found one we wanted to try. And at €15 a bottle, worth knowing how good it was first.
First Impressions?
We're in the boardroom!
A USP?
It's entirely free to take part if you're picked out of the hat, with no hidden sales pitch or anything like it.
In three words?
Rose, red, white.
Can they get the staff?
A very helpful team of winemakers.
Service with a smile?
Aside from the other side of the table seeming to get more in their glasses than our side, really good.
Would you take your friends?
I'd recommend they apply.
Rating for a dating?
You can't really plan for it, so not high.
Change one thing?
The timekeeping was not quite there yet, but it's easy to work on.
Going back?
We would try, yes.
What's the story?
They say there's no such thing as a free lunch. Or brunch. On this occasion, there is - as long as you're ready for a liquid one.
Should you be able to get an invite, standby for a series of wines, perhaps 8. We had 1 white, 1 rose, 4 reds of increasing maturity and two sweet ones. But, be warned. This is strictly a tasting. There's no food or snacks beyond some bread sticks and a bottle of water.
You'll find yourself, along with about 20 others, in the boardroom at the Camara, with the market going on outside and a fair few curious eyes looking in. After a brief chat from the president, it's into the tasting. You're welcome to drink or spit out. We don't think anyone opted for the latter, but with so much to get through, drinking is the least of your worries. Two decent sips each time is about as ambitious as you probably want to be - not least because it's midday and, any which way, it's early.
Things go fairly quickly, although in total this session lasted two hours, rather than the 90 mins planned. Things do get chattier as things go on, and some of the participants probably needed a little bit more social discipline. There are no visuals, no powerpoints, but plenty to listen to. Chat later, listen now is the watchword, we think.
Rather than too technical an explanation, we're lucky enough to get lots of little insights into tasting and techniques, and, best of all, some nice bits of insider knowledge.
And that's the good news, what you learn won't make you whine about wine. This is a pleasingly democratic, pretty much snobbery-free. Rule 1, stated several times, is that you like what you like. And you learn fun and interesting stuff your friends won't mind you telling them about. Mostly as they'll want to tell their friends. It won't turn you into the kind of person everyone wishes was always in the kitchen at parties.
If only Madrid was a cava-making region. Aaah well....
Hints, Tips & Trivia
🍷 Use a piece of white paper to grade colours.
🍷 Wine is officially a food, not an alcoholic drink. It's a legal thing, apparently!
🍷 Red and rosé start off the same way as white wine, but the wineskins are left in with the pulp for different periods, while you take them out strsight away to make white..
🍷 Wine can be assessed on various scales. We used a 100 mark system, with points awarded for colour, aroma and flavour, but in a system that gives much more weight to some things than others. Colour gets up to 15 pts, Aroma up to 30. There are 44 pts for flavour and the other 11 for a global score. It seems on this system 72 is a good total, 86 an excellent one.
🍷 Hold your glass of red up to the light, if, right at the top of the wine, right around edge you can see a line which is a different, more scarlet red than the rest, you've got a young wine.
🍷 Always hold your glass by the stem to keep the drink at the right temperature.
🍷 Swish your wine about. The longer it takes to settle down again tells you its got more alcohol in it!
🍷 To get the maximum aroma when tasting, be sure to splash it up and down in the glass (with your hand over the top!). It breaks up the molecules and releases more aroma.
🍷 Don't serve chilled wines above 16 C.
🍷 Always drink white and rose wines within a year of purchase.
🍷 Cleanliness in colour, smell and flavour is never to be underestimated.
🍷 Don't put your wine in the freezer!
🍷 The younger the red, the less colour it has around the edge if you hold your glass up at an angle. Try a joven and see how the colour fades. Something more mature will keep more colour.
The Fateful Eight
See part 2 for the Wine Taste Test
Part 1 of 2
Basics
Free of charge
1200-1330, approx
Location
Camara Agraria on the net
How to join
Invitation by application and lucky dip. On a market day, ask at the ticket desk at the entrance if they're taking names for future events.
In Pictures
Video slideshow on Fb.
In Short
Hopes?
Get some shopping tips.
Reality?
Success. We found one we wanted to try. And at €15 a bottle, worth knowing how good it was first.
First Impressions?
We're in the boardroom!
A USP?
It's entirely free to take part if you're picked out of the hat, with no hidden sales pitch or anything like it.
In three words?
Rose, red, white.
Can they get the staff?
A very helpful team of winemakers.
Service with a smile?
Aside from the other side of the table seeming to get more in their glasses than our side, really good.
Would you take your friends?
I'd recommend they apply.
Rating for a dating?
You can't really plan for it, so not high.
Change one thing?
The timekeeping was not quite there yet, but it's easy to work on.
Going back?
We would try, yes.
What's the story?
They say there's no such thing as a free lunch. Or brunch. On this occasion, there is - as long as you're ready for a liquid one.
Should you be able to get an invite, standby for a series of wines, perhaps 8. We had 1 white, 1 rose, 4 reds of increasing maturity and two sweet ones. But, be warned. This is strictly a tasting. There's no food or snacks beyond some bread sticks and a bottle of water.
You'll find yourself, along with about 20 others, in the boardroom at the Camara, with the market going on outside and a fair few curious eyes looking in. After a brief chat from the president, it's into the tasting. You're welcome to drink or spit out. We don't think anyone opted for the latter, but with so much to get through, drinking is the least of your worries. Two decent sips each time is about as ambitious as you probably want to be - not least because it's midday and, any which way, it's early.
Things go fairly quickly, although in total this session lasted two hours, rather than the 90 mins planned. Things do get chattier as things go on, and some of the participants probably needed a little bit more social discipline. There are no visuals, no powerpoints, but plenty to listen to. Chat later, listen now is the watchword, we think.
Rather than too technical an explanation, we're lucky enough to get lots of little insights into tasting and techniques, and, best of all, some nice bits of insider knowledge.
And that's the good news, what you learn won't make you whine about wine. This is a pleasingly democratic, pretty much snobbery-free. Rule 1, stated several times, is that you like what you like. And you learn fun and interesting stuff your friends won't mind you telling them about. Mostly as they'll want to tell their friends. It won't turn you into the kind of person everyone wishes was always in the kitchen at parties.
If only Madrid was a cava-making region. Aaah well....
Hints, Tips & Trivia
🍷 Use a piece of white paper to grade colours.
🍷 Wine is officially a food, not an alcoholic drink. It's a legal thing, apparently!
🍷 Red and rosé start off the same way as white wine, but the wineskins are left in with the pulp for different periods, while you take them out strsight away to make white..
🍷 Wine can be assessed on various scales. We used a 100 mark system, with points awarded for colour, aroma and flavour, but in a system that gives much more weight to some things than others. Colour gets up to 15 pts, Aroma up to 30. There are 44 pts for flavour and the other 11 for a global score. It seems on this system 72 is a good total, 86 an excellent one.
🍷 Hold your glass of red up to the light, if, right at the top of the wine, right around edge you can see a line which is a different, more scarlet red than the rest, you've got a young wine.
🍷 Always hold your glass by the stem to keep the drink at the right temperature.
🍷 Swish your wine about. The longer it takes to settle down again tells you its got more alcohol in it!
🍷 To get the maximum aroma when tasting, be sure to splash it up and down in the glass (with your hand over the top!). It breaks up the molecules and releases more aroma.
🍷 Don't serve chilled wines above 16 C.
🍷 Always drink white and rose wines within a year of purchase.
🍷 Cleanliness in colour, smell and flavour is never to be underestimated.
🍷 Don't put your wine in the freezer!
🍷 The younger the red, the less colour it has around the edge if you hold your glass up at an angle. Try a joven and see how the colour fades. Something more mature will keep more colour.
The Fateful Eight
See part 2 for the Wine Taste Test
