National Yacht Club

Our first wine supper in November was on Wednesday 10^th, and our guest speaker on this occasion was Dale Gatcum, wine maker and lecturer His subject was French wines and we sampled a very smooth Chardonnay, and were also privileged to taste a lively and fruity red Syrah, which came from Dale’s own vineyards in France.  We finished with a particularly nice dessert wine, a Feynes VDT 2008. The dinner as always was superb, starting with mussels in a white wine cream, followed by duckling in a delicious red wine and plum sauce.  As an added flavour to the food, all the wines we sampled were also used in each of the course dishes. Dale gave us a very interesting talk on growing and fermenting his wines, in which he adds oak to the wines, as opposed to the more traditional method of maturing the wine in oak barrels.  He also gave us his view on the ongoing debate in the wine industry about the traditional cork bottled wine as compared to the screw cap method. Our next evening will be on Wednesday 24^th November and our speaker will be Noel Tymlin—Portfolio and Training Manager Findlater Wine and Spirit Group. Noel has been involved in the wine business and training for over 30 years and has a Diploma from the Wine and Spirit Education Trust