Wines to “warm the cockles of your heart”

At the Society Christmas party in the chill of December it was suggested I should host a tasting of warming wines for the winter months. The traditional British weather proverb for March is that “(it) comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb”, which refers to the end of winter and hopefully beginning of spring. So without wishing wind and storms on anyone, this next tasting unashamedly focuses on wines to heat you up. This does not necessarily mean high alcohol, because intense flavours, oak and lees aging and residual sugar can all contribute to the actual or perceived sense of weight in the mouth, but alcohol definitely adds a fullness of body and warmth to the taste. Yet to be a delicious, fine wine, any alcohol must be balanced by the fruit, by the acid and by the tannins. We’re looking for the vinous equivalent of the Moncler puffer jacket (or perhaps the more affordable Arc’teryx) “to warm the cockles of your heart”, a phrase first recorded in 1671 and which refers to the cochleae cordis, the ventricles of the heart.

We will taste eight wines, seven of them red. A magnum of spicy red fruit from one of the greats of Chateauneuf du Pape, a top Napa Chardonnay, a refined intense 12 year old Barolo, a similarly aged ripe Margaux, a mature Merlot from a famous Napa estate, a rare cuvée of Rioja from pre-phylloxera vines in a modern style, a Barossa Shiraz at nearly 20 years, one of California’s best Zinfandels, and finally the unashamedly fireside comfort drink that is properly mature Port.

The wines we will taste:

1. Coudolet de Beaucastel 2015 Southern Rhone, France 14%
2. Ramey Hyde Vineyard Chardonnay 2021 Carneros, Napa Valley California 14.5%
3. Poderi Colla Barolo Dardi le Rose Bussia 2013 Piedmonte, Italy 14%
4. Ch D’Angludet 2014 Margaux Bordeaux, France 13.5%
5. Shafer Merlot 2012 Stag’s Leap, Napa Valley California
6. Beronia III A.C. Rioja Gran R 14% Spain
7. Two Hands Bella’s Garden Shiraz 2007 Barossa Valley Australia 15.5%
8. Turley Old Vines Zinfandel 2022 California 15.2%
9. Taylor’s 1997 Vintage Port 20%

There will be appropriately matching cheese and charcuterie, as usual, to help enhance (and absorb!) the wines.

Richard Pearey DipWSET has been passionate about wine from an embarrassingly early age. He began creating a cellar in 1984 and despite (or perhaps because of) a long career in advertising, film and sports marketing, then men’s luxury shirts, has been drinking steadily ever since. His addiction to the grape has led many of his friends to hand over their wine cellars to his care. He has organised and hosted wine evenings as corporate or staff entertainment for city firms, marketing agencies and private clients, from 8 to 200 people. He has run a wine course for friends, his own wine club – Who Nose – since 1985 and his old school dining society, the oldest in the world, for 23 years. He co-founded a wine event company, We Don’t Spit, in 2013 and learned to spit, at which point he began his official wine qualifications. He completed his Diploma in lockdown and now works at Hedonism Wine in Mayfair, probably the best wine shop on the planet, whilst pursuing his dream of becoming a Master of Wine. An important part of this involves blind tasting wines from anywhere in the world. So he is hoping tasting with Society Members will help!