Wine tasting guided by Manda Joyce
Sunday 6th March 2022, 6pm-7pm
Many of you will know Manda, who was a Victoria Road resident for many years and now lives in Jericho. Manda attributes her love of wine to growing up in France where a little was added to children’s mealtime water. After retirement, she decided to back up years of practical application with theoretical study via the Wine and Spirit Educational Trust (WSET). She now works part-time for the Oxford Wine Company.
Following on from her acclaimed Seven Roads wine and food matching event, Manda is back, this time transporting us via Zoom to Andalusia, and the delicious, complex and stunning value that is sherry.
How to participate
The tasting will be held online using Zoom. If you are comfortable with having others in your home, you may like to invite a few friends to share the tasting with you, all using the same Zoom screen. We think that this will probably work with up to 4 people in the same location.
This event has now ended and registration is not possible.
Preparing for the event
Sherry - the most underrated world-class wine
Forget the dubious sweet stuff of old! Manda will ease us into Sunday evening with two different styles of sherry, both dry and sophisticated, both excellent as aperitifs. She will explain what characterises these wines and we’ll chat about them as we drink along. Maybe crack out some olives, salted or unsalted almonds, crisps, smoked salmon, serrano ham, pan con tomate, manchego cheese…
The wine samples
You will need to buy the two sherries - ideally 2 or 3 weeks beforehand to be certain of getting your hands on them. Each bottle could easily be shared among 6 people, and our local, independent wine merchant, Grape Minds, is kindly offering discounted prices. To secure this discount, be sure to mention the Seven Roads tasting when you go in. The wines, from top producer Valdespino, are:
- Deliciosa Manzanilla (£16.99 a bottle or £9.99 a half bottle)
- Tio Diego Amontillado (£19.99 a bottle)
Please go in no later than Monday 21st February to be sure of supply.
Manda’s recommendations for serving these wines
- Although sherry is often served in small glasses in the UK, I would recommend using a larger, white wine style glass. Aromas are an important part of the pleasure of sherry and a larger glass allows them to collect and more readily be detected. I would suggest each person has two white wine glasses so they can pour both samples and smell/taste back and forth between them as we go along.
- With regard to serving temperature, the manzanilla should be lightly chilled at 7°-9°C. A typical domestic fridge is around 5°C - too cold. So I suggest people put the Manzanilla in the fridge and take it out about half an hour before the event. Amontillado is best served at cool room temperature (around 12°-14°).
- Water is optional. It can be useful to cleanse the palate between different samples if we are being analytical, but I think we can be more relaxed here, and there will be sufficient difference between the two styles that we will be able to compare and contrast pretty easily.
- A note on keeping open bottles: The Manzanilla is best drunk within a couple or three days of opening. The Amontillado will stay in good condition for longer - say 8 weeks. Both should be re-sealed and kept in the fridge. They do not ‘go bad’ after this period but their aromas will fade, their character change and off-flavours may begin to develop.