Ten out of ten for Cheshire’s top notch wine school #Blog

Victoria Hayes
16th May 2023

There’s nothing quite like a glass of fizz to celebrate a birthday. When it’s a “special birthday” it really must be a special glass of fizz.

The Wine School of Cheshire is ten years old this year, and when it comes to fizz, they know how to do it right. Every Saturday Wine School begins with a glass of Gusbourne,  which is not only a stunning glass of creamy bubbles, it’s also English.  With the coronation of King Charles, the Uk hosting of Eurovision plus this special birthday, this month is the ideal time to try this fizz and celebrate this auspicious occasion.

Briony and I were lucky enough to be recently invited to join one of the Wine School of Cheshire’s Saturday events and we, of course jumped at the chance. As we said, the Wine school has now been around for ten years, however it continually reinvents its self, finding new venues, coming up with new ideas for events and tastings, offering tours and experience along with buckets of fascinating knowledge. 

But, if you asked me why I think it has been so successful for so long, I would focus on two main things.

Firstly, a wine school event is NOT a sales opportunity. At no point, at any event at the Wine School of Cheshire, in house or at any venue have they tried to sell me wine. All the wine you are offered is purely out of interest, a great example of, or a unique version of…it’s not all one supplier, wholesaler or shop…its a carefully thought out selection.

For us the focus was Italy and as a lover of Italian wines, I was excited and not at all disappointed by my wonderful afternoon.

The Second thing is the attention to detail. 

Richard, the head honcho at the Wine School has an incredible eye for detail along with his highly trained palate. From the moment you arrive, the room is perfectly laid out, your name on a perfect place card, the most useful pen waiting with your notebook for notes. Individual lamps for the tables, each glass perfectly selected from Riedel glassware to complement the wine you are tasting.

The room temperature, the spacing of the furniture, everything has been thought about and carefully arranged to maximise your enjoyment.

To some extent it doesn’t matter about the wine (although of course is does), I mean in the sense of the theme of the day, whether it be country or variety for example, whichever wine school experience you go for, you are in for real treat, I absolutely guarantee it. 

So, to our day…Italy was the theme and we were joined by other lovely couples, some father/daughter some husband/wife and us friends and colleagues! We were welcomed by our host Richard and shown to our perfectly appointed table to enjoy that first delicious glass of Gusbourne fizz. I do realise, so you need not point it out, that this is not from Italy. but why not taste the best of British while we settle in and enjoy our surroundings.

With each glass comes a little explanation about the wine itself, and a little information about wine in general. Fascinating facts pepper the day and there is no swilling and spitting, just a room full of people who enjoy wine, love tasting, drinking and learning a little more about where it comes from and how it’s made.

We began our Italian journey with a Chardonnay, not what you might expect and this one available at Waitrose!! Alta Italia Chardonnay DOC Dolomiti. The vibrant, fresh bouquet of this Chardonnay’s beautiful straw-yellow tint with greenish undertones makes luscious apples come to mind. Dry on the palate and overflowing with notes of fresh fruit, it is the ideal option for an aperitif.

The food arrives.

Yes food, its not just all a liquid lunch. The honestly stunning food is all prepped in a tiny kitchen at the back by a small but dedicated and talented team from Cheshire College South and West. It’s really is amazing what they achieve and how beautifully presented it all is.

We began with our

Appetiser

WHIPPED GOATS CHEESE | PISTACHIO & BEEETROOT TEXTURES and it was heavenly, the perfect beginning

The next wine is not available in the supermarket but fortunately in Chester there is fantastic wine shop down on Sealand Road called White Fox Wines and they are themselves Italian, so the next beautiful glass contained one from their stock. Donato Giangirolami Grechetto, 2020,  Recently chosen to be one Italy’s best white wines with food, A Grechetto of bright straw yellow with greenish hints, an intense bouquet of yellow roses, lime trees, pears and exotic fruit. Not a well known grape with Greek origins but this comes from Lazio and was perfect with our starter…

GRILLED ASPARAGUS | SOFT POACHED EGG, HERB OIL, FOCACCIA CRISP

 Oh and the wine is organic and vegan by the way.

Next up the red begins, 2020 La Guardiense ‘Janare’ Aglianico Sannio, this is from Sannio,  a hilly area north of Naples, straddling the provinces of Benevento and Avellino in the heart of the Campania region, south-west Italy.  It’s bold and structured and went perfectly with the Main course

SLOW COOKED LAMB SHOULDER | minted new potatoes, tenderstem broccoli, rosemary jus

This is an elegant wine with cedar and smokey noted backed up by plums and black cherry. The lamb here was absolutely stunning, melt in the mouth with the kind of gravy which inspires to me drop all my manners and lick my plate clean.

Rose Fans, do not despair, Richard caters to all tastes and we were delighted to find a sparkling Rose paired with our dessert.

POACHED RHUBARB | CHILLED CUSTARD, CRYSTALISED PUFF PASTRY

This wine, the

Fabio Ceschin Rosé Vino Frizzante, from Veneto, can be found at Tanners Wines, not too far from the wine School in Boughton, or online.

This is a lovely rosé loaded with sweet raspberry fruit. The flavour is initially sweet and fruity and then well balanced with reviving acidity.

Paired with this delicious light and moreish dessert by this point we were pleasantly full and yes, just a little tiddly!

Richard takes a pause at this point to fill us with some knowledge about the wine industry in general, about production and the duties and taxes, but don’t worry, its never boring and he kindly provides a pick me up in the form of his own wonderful coffee a Honuran Santa Rosa Single origin. A much needed reviver before we returned to the vino and the excitement of the incredible cheeseboard.

This experience was kindly gifted to Taste Cheshire by the Wine School of Cheshire but we stand by the opinions and comments in this article. If you don’t believe us, or even if you do, we encourage you to see for yourselves.