Charlemagne Wine Club

The next tasting:

Monday 15th February 2010 - David vs Goliath

In the Red Corner, Tesco the colossus, 'The Goliath' of the retail world who sell 1 in every 3 bottles of wine bought in the UK. In order to satisfy their huge customer base they have to buy from the largest producers who can supply the vast quantities they require. So could Tesco be accused of stocking only bland, boring wines made to a formula to satisfy the mass market?

In the Blue Corner Jascots, aka 'David', a small independent merchant based locally who source all of their wines from small, mostly family run estates. Is Small Beautiful? Are these wines better than their mass produced cousins? Or are they just more 'interesting' a word often used for quirky?

Christos Ioannou will present 5 pairs of wines, in each pair one from Tesco and one from Jascots, which will be served 'Blind'. Will David slay the mighty Goliath? The decision will be yours as we will take a vote after each pair has been tasted. Christos sells Jascots' wines to his own customers, so his reputation will be on the line.

Charlemagne Wine Club was founded in 1974 by a Mr Rogers who ran a wine business in Pitshanger Lane and had a particular interest in Burgundian wines. Charlemagne the Great was King of Burgundy - hence the Club's name.
Please read John Ducker's historical appreciation of our club.
Charlemagne members share a common interest in learning about and tasting fine wines. All levels of knowledge and experience are represented. It helps if you can tell the difference between chardonnay and cabernet franc - but if you don't, you will learn!
Our professionally tutored programme includes both the popular and 'classic' regions of the wine world. Our tastings present an opportunity to try wines which you might not normally imbibe (lesser known wines not to be found in the average supermarket, or because they are too pricey for ordinary drinking, and so on).
Meetings are normally held on the third Monday of the month (except August) and typically cost £19.

We ask that you bring your own set of ISO glasses to tastings.
For those of you who do not already have any ISO tasting glasses, we can provide new boxed sets of 6 Luigi Bormioli "Light & Music" 21.5cl ISO glasses for £12.50.
Stocks are now available again.
A set of 6 will offer the advantage of allowing you to keep wines to see how they develop in the glass while also allowing a separate water glass for those who wish. The box will also offer some protection to the glasses while being transported to and from tastings.
We will continue to have a few glasses for new members/guests and for unforeseen circumstances.

Bookings and Cancellations
We try to organise bookings for Charlemagne so that everyone has a fair chance to attend.
Dates of meetings are publicised up to a year in advance, in newsletters and on the website. We accept bookings only after the monthly newsletter has been sent out. Paper copies of the newsletter are mailed out two to three weeks ahead of the meeting, and email notification four days later (keeping things fair, to allow for "snailmail" delays). Spaces are allocated on a first come, first served basis. Email bookings will be confirmed by email, but we don't send out any tickets.
Once a meeting is fully booked, we run a waiting list. If you book but then will be unable to come, please do contact us. If you let us know by Thursday of the week before the meeting, you won't be charged. After that, unless we can reassign your booking to a wait-list member, you should expect to pay. Again, all email cancellations will be acknowledged.
You can attempt last minute bookings and cancellations by telephone to the number in the newsletter - please do not rely on e-mail for these unless you receive a confirmation email.
Remember, Charlemagne is a purely voluntary organisation, so we need to organise things simply for the committee!