Fizz, Light & Fortified Wines with M&S

Recently I helped to host a wine tasting for customers of the retailer Marks and Spencer in Bournemouth, Dorset. Around every three months the Marks and Spencer head office wine department arrange, with various stores around the U.K., educational wine tastings hosted by wine experts, enabling their customers to try different styles and types of wine that they may not usually explore.

Three different types of wine paired with cheese

This month our remit was to taste six different wines, covering the three different types of wine, light, fortified and sparkling, as chosen by a Wine Specialist for Marks & Spencer; also to show the wines with different cheeses selected by the Marks & Spencer cheese department. For me this is an interesting concept because my WSET wine courses involve tutoring students on how consumers have eclectic tastes and so this would be a fascinating experiment in discovering the tastes of our 53 Marks and Spencer customers.

Types of Wine – fizz

So while we were pouring our first wine, a tasty Oudinot Rosé NV Champagne, I asked everyone to have a chat amongst themselves to discover what everyone’s personal preferences to styles and types of wine are. They soon discovered they were all quite varied in their choices.

The Champagne was a popular choice in general, but some people just do not like bubbles in their wine, and for those sensitive to acidity it was not tremendously popular. So next I asked everyone to try the wine with a small amount of acid from a wedge of lemon, this brought down the perception of the acidity in the wine which in-turn released the wine’s strawberry flavours and more, therefore, for some a much nicer wine for their palate. The wine had been paired with a delicious Brie de Meaux which was particularly ripe with a thick rind, this worked for some guests softening out the feeling of the acidity of the wine; but as we know some tasters are sensitive to bitterness and with brie being high in glutamates, which give an intense savoury (umami) taste which for some people can clash with red wines and in this case rosé wines too.

Types of wine – light

We then tried four light wines, all of which were dry, the first being a Santa Barbara Sauvignon Blanc, called Seaglass. As with the Champagne some tasters loved its refreshing high acidity; others needed the lemon to soften that out?but even those that preferred the acid kick where happily surprised when they noticed how the lovely peach flavours were enhanced when we softened the acid perception; and several were more than content with the combination with the selected creamy goat cheese. In fact the room was pretty much divided into thirds with how this wine worked best for them.

The same situation occurred with our lovely ripe, creamy Pouilly Fuissé, La Feur Jaune, for which an Ossau Iraty, a semi-soft ewe’s milk cheese with a nutty flavour from southern France, had been chosen. For some the wine was a delight on its own; others found that the cheese complimented the creamy character of the wine; tasting with the lemon most tasters agreed that the wine became a bit too flabby (lacked acidity), but there were a handful that in fact preferred it that way.

Our two red wines were a nice contrast of a 100 per cent Merlot, a Bordeaux Superieur, from vineyards on the right bank and made in Lussac; and a Stellenbosch 100 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon from the Helderberg Winery of South Africa, which was made in a veiled-oak style with only 30 per cent having been aged inside wood. Another great exploration in individual preferences, we used salt and lemon this time to help soften out the tannins (neither wine was particularly high in tannin, but sensitive tasters are not keen or even the lower levels), and bring out the fruit character of the wines. The paired cheeses were both Cornish, a medium cheddar and a three year old cruncher, respectively; the same story was told, for some the Bordeaux became too soft for their tastes, whereas others that would normally avoid red wine really enjoyed the union, and even some who found the Cabernet Sauvignon was too bitter for their taste-buds, said they would certainly consider having this wine with certain food types; but a lot said they would be more than happy to drink that wine with, or without, food.

Types of wine – fortified

The final pairing was certainly a different story; I am almost entirely confident that we had a 100 per cent unanimous pronouncement that the 10 year old Tawny Port was lovely as a drink on its own, plus a champion with the Marks & Spencer gold-medal-winning Roquefort. A great finale!

Styles and types of wine – conclusion

I thoroughly enjoy these wine tasting events, exploring the general public’s taste buds and observing their contentment of different styles and types of wine. Witnessing how it really is all about personal preference, but experimenting with different styles and types of wine with different food styles is a lovely journey to take. I am already looking forward to the next one in February

Erica Dent AIWS