Wines at Majestic

Our local Majestic is not so local but is a short train ride away. However the other Sunday (my rest day after completing Route 3 of Clare's Challenge 50 ) we drove over to Leicester for a browse. 

Majestic Leicester is a lovely shop to browse, each country having it's own section, and an inviting tasting bar. Our visit coincided with their bin end offer which I took advantage of for our upcoming tasting at scouts tomorrow night (13th Feb). Those wines will be revealed next time but wine we did buy for ourselves included adding a couple of bottles of Yering Station Shiraz - a rich spicy wine from Australia that we both enjoy. 

Laurent Miguel Faurgéres

As always I headed towards the French section and discovered an inviting bottle of Faugéres, a wine we have had many many years ago on holiday but not since. It was a beautiful wine - reflecting the beautiful Languedoc with it's richness and depth of flavour.

A superb blend of Shiraz Grenache, quite similar to the Australian Shiraz wines we've had but so much smoother. A lovely deep red wine filled with dark red fruit: blackcurrants, plums: and a delicious cocoa background. 

A hint of spice is accompanied by a hint of oak making the fruit jump to the foreground with a long smooth finish.

At £7.99 on mixed case price, this wine gives the impression of being of a far higher price range - one we'll be buying again. 

Another one we picked up from Majestic was Tu Meke Sauvignon Blanc. Not in the French section but the other side of the shop - and world - this wine is from New Zealand. 

Sauvignon Blanc is my favourite grape so I am always drawn to those wines, however it was the quirky label caught my eye with it's plain yet striking text within the dark swirl. 

A wine very similar to Russian Jack featured in my previous post but with a little more depth. 

A lovely Sauvignon Blanc, dry crisp, full of citrus with a lengthy finish, lots of lovely gooseberries and crisp greenness that is great value at it's mixed case price of £5.99 

Our drive over revealed a small bonus - a date for Majestic's next Wine Course. 

We have attended quite a few Majestic wine courses and every time we learn a little more as well as reminding ourselves of wine facts we've forgotten. 

They are very informal and surprisingly not many people book. Majestic host a Wine Course for up to 12 people - Leicester have two more dates available: 10th March and 17th April. They have many events, wine courses and tastings, listed on their web site - Majestic Leicester - the main Majestic site will have links to your local store.

The table was laid ready with three white wines and three red wines - an array of colours to start our minds guessing already. The first white was lovely and crisp, my style of white wine, followed by a smoother creamier white, finishing with a richer white. All from different countries, all with different flavours.

And that is all I will say as part of the course is to discover the tastes for yourself - I will share a photo of the wines but not my tasting notes as to appreciate the variety I would recommend booking on one of the courses and discovering the wines yourself.

Three lovely but very different white wines

Bubbly flowed, yes really, we were treated to a 2008 vintage bottle of Nicolas Feuillatte, our favourite champagne producer so a real treat for us. 

2008 Vintage Nicolas Feuillatte

On so onto our three reds and the first one really surprised me, not a grape I normally like but this was amazing. Greystone is a name on the UK market but this New Zealand producer has won many awards. It's a name I'll be looking out for as I'd love to try more of their range. 

The other two reds were good and grapes I like so although I prefer white wine I enjoyed all three reds presented on our table. 

Our red wine selection

Majestic also introduce food matching on their wine course - we had a variety of food from acidic to sweet, seafood to meat. We tried various food with the various wines, some were superb but others were just awful, a good way to learn what not to pair. Again I'm not going to share exact details but I will say the dessert wine pairing was superb. 

A superb dessert wine

If you are wondering no we didn't drive - Crosscountry trains run from our town to Leicester and it's just a short stroll to Majestic, and and easy stroll back, especially as The Parcelyard (a Steamin' Billy pub) is ideally located next to the station for a late dinner.

Thank you to everyone at Majestic Leicester for another very enjoyable evening - we'll be visiting again soon !!