Swirl, Sniff, Slurp and Spit: Wine Tasting at The Plough

A few weeks ago I was invited to an evening of wine tasting at The Plough, to take a look at their new venture, Spit Wine School. I’ve never been wine tasting before and my tastes don’t venture far beyond a Blossom Hill White Zinfandel, so I was pretty excited. Spit Wine School is an approved Wine and Spirit Education Trust program and the courses take place Next Door at The Plough which is their new extension away from the busy bar. The courses range from introductory evenings to full day courses where you can receive certifications. Spit is also a Spirit school so you can also attend spirit tasting evenings too if you are that way inclined!

Harry and I attended the Introduction to South American wines class which is, like the other classes, is led by James Thewlis. He has over over 20 years’ experience in the hospitality sector earning his stripes as General Manager at Circo, the first bar in Birmingham to secure a late license and then heading up cocktail bar and restaurant 52 Degrees North. James returned to Birmingham after a stint in Melbourne and joined The Plough four yeas ago.

The Introduction to… courses are around two hours and showcase a range of the best wines from that region as well as teaching you how to taste the wine properly and detect different flavours. The Plough also provide you with an amazing sharing platter of meats, bread and dips. Whatever your ‘level’ of wine tasting, these evenings are a great opportunity to venture into the world of wine!

Throughout the evening, we sampled around nine wines. The first was a Gougenheim Malbec Bubbles, a sparkling rose that was light and fragrant with red fruits. This went down rather well and was a nice way to start the evening. The second wine was probably my favourite from all the wines we tried. It was a white Argentinian wine, Los Haroldos Torrontes, and a really good wine (and was only £10 a bottle!!) The winery is one of the top five leading Argentine producers of fine wines. It was smooth and slightly tangy, with notes of passion fruit and orchard fruits. James used this in a taste exercise to demonstrate how food has an impact on the taste of wine. We sucked a segment of lemon and then sipped the wine, to find it tasted a lot sweeter. This is a great wine to accompany spicy food as it won’t make the food taste spicier!

We moved onto the reds, and I am not a red wine drinker really, but perhaps that’s because I’ve never found the right one! Harry loved the most expensive bottle, a Chilean Montes Folly from 2008 (£40). I found it slightly too dry but once again, James showed us how food can alter the taste. This red wine was a really good one to have with red meats, so once you’ve had a bit of chorizo or salami, the taste altered and the tannings (the ‘sting’ or dryness of the wine) were too lessened. It was very rich and full bodied thanks to the 18 month ageing in 100% French oak barrels.

My favourite red wine, which has probably converted me, was the Goughenheim Malbec from Argentina. Malbec is the most common type of grape grown in Argentina with 75% of the world’s production, so it is no surprise that that most of the wines use them. This was still a rich wine, but not as drying as the Chilean wine. It contains aromas of plums, cherry and chocolate which gave it a hint of sweetness. How do you detect the aromas in wine, you may ask? James gave us another exercise in scents in wine. He brought out a box of 88 scent bottles, eight of which were bad scents (including wet horse!!) so basically, if your wine smells anything near vinegar or wet horse, it’s probably off and a bit nasty. However, the other bottles were various scents, such as hazelnut, herbs and spices or honey which helps you to train your nose to detect various flavours in a wine. It was quite interesting to detect the scents without seeing the actual thing it smelt of!

The final wine was a dessert wine, so was incredibly sweet. It wasn’t enjoyable without a dessert, but after a teaspoon of honey, it tasted a lot less sweet and more like wine! It had a very rich and floral flavour. It was called Tabali Late Harvest Muscat 2010 and contained fresh papaya, honey and floral hints. It just showed why ‘normal’ wine doesn’t taste great when you’re eating sweet desserts!

I really enjoyed the evening at The Plough and it’s opened my eyes to the world of wine! It was really interesting to taste everything with a bit of guidance from the experts – so now I almost know what I’m talking about when it comes to wine?? The introduction evenings are only £17 per person which I think is a great price considering the amount of wines you can try. It’s a great way to spend an evening with friends in a different way!

To find out more about Spit Wine School and to book places on the course head to their website: www.spitwineschool.co.uk.

Have you ever been wine tasting?

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