Forecourt Tasting - Weekend 1

Old World vs New World

We talk about the 'New World' and 'Old World' in wine but why? What's the difference?

This weekend we will be delving into this concept by having three 'Old World' and three 'New World' wines open to taste. Come down and try wines from France, Italy and Spain and compare them to wines from Chile, Argentina and South Africa in a fun and relaxed back-to-back comparison tasting.

Featuring some excellent examples of what the 'Old World' can produce as well as some outstanding examples of what the 'New World' has to offer.

How do you think these two 'World's' will match up?

New World vs Old World
By Fliss Cox

Our first weekend of Forecourt Tastings got off to a cracking start with a New World vs Old World challenge.

Six red wines gave us a chance to explore some examples of great winemaking, and revealed some interesting preferences.

We contrasted two Pinot Noirs, the Moulin de Gassac from the Languedoc in France, and the Emiliana Adobe Reserva Pinot Noir from Bio Bio in Chile. This was a bit of a surprise. Our ‘old world’ (French) wine delivered loads of fresh juicy fruit, a lovely quaffing wine. While the ‘new world’ Chilean Pinot, was super-pale, and really quite Burgundian in style with some farmyardy aromas and more tannins on the palate. Showing that the old world can deliver warmth and sunshine (on the Mediterranean coast), and the new world has distinctively ‘cool climate’ areas - Bio Bio is just about the most southerly wine growing region in Chile. A narrow victory for the New World in the Pinot round.

Our second comparison was between the Bodegas Murviedro ‘Sercis’, from Valencia, and the Amalaya Malbec from Salta in Argentina. These medium body reds pretty much split opinion 50/50, with the Spanish wine, made from Bobal, Spain’s second most widely grown black grape after Tempranillo, delivering a rich spicy flavour that would be perfect with tapas, and the Argentine Malbec demonstrating lovely aromatic structure and freshness, thanks to 2,000m altitude - this is one of the highest vineyards in the world.

Our final comparison was between a Merlot from Trentino in northern Italy, and a Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot blend from Vergelegen, based in Stellenbosch. Again a 50/50 split in opinion with some loving the powerful richness of the sun-soaked South African wine, and others loving the Merlot’s elegance and finesse.

So perhaps a marginal win for the New World, but what our tasting really demonstrated was the ability of great winemakers, wherever they are, to make wines that express their vines and vineyards, and produce wines to suit a variety of tastes. Vive la difference!