Ran a good tasting last night, at Coventry University Wine Club (if you are in the area and fancy joining in then contact Steve Smith at s.smith@coventry.ac.uk) About 30 people attended, and gave me the chance to present nine of my wines.

The inpression I was left with was that everyone enjoyed the evening and that quite a few people really liked quite a lot of the wines. I think the favourites were (with comments based on what I remember peple saying):

• Domaine Jordy Rose - "quite serious", l"ots of strawberry and raspberry fruit with a creamy edge", "lovely."
• Petit Saint Aunes Chardonnay - was compared to Padthaway Chardonnay from Australia, "well made", "great for food", "balanced, interesting complex flavours", "very good value for money"
• 1000 Roses Carignan Blanc - "fascinating", "oily textured", "complex"
• Mas de Valbrune, Pas de Deux - "young", "great depth of fruit", "complex, balanced, with great tannins", "crying out for roast lamb!"
• Plan de l'Om, Miejour - "Great fruit" (from the grenache IW), "complex, deep fruit flavours with good spice", "lovely balance, top wine"
• Ermitage du Pic Saint Loup, Guilhem Gaucelm - "fantastic"  ..... (But it should be at £33 a bottle! IW)
• Domaine du Grangeon, Cuvee Grangeon - people loved this sweet wine, describing it as "seductive", "too easy to drink", "complex, lovely apricot, peach, and honeied fruit, with a touch of spice"

These are just a sample of the comments, so you can imagine I am very pleased at the reaction. I think one of the comments that made a big impct on me concerned the variety of the wines I presented, I deliberately chose things as varied as a light fruity Pinot Noir,and a big, serious deep Cinsault based blend. And a Viognier (dry) to a Carignan Blanc. My list is obviously biased towards more usual Languedoc blends of Syrah, Grenache, Carignan, Cinsault, and a few Vin de Pays wines based on the regular international varieties. It did make me realise that my list is very varied, but I wonder if that is more by luck than judgement. All I did when selecting the wines was to piuck things that I would be happy to drink and that were made by good winemakers taking care over what they did

I suppose that all this does push me even further into my niche, but I don't care, I think that once people start to taste these wines they will realise that the quality and value for money is really great. Does anyone out there think that I ought to try to find some really cheap wines for my list,or should I not worry that my cheapest wine is just over £6?

If you haven't seen my site you can find it at www.aldebywines.co.uk

More soon - I promise!

Ian