STEVE & CHARLIE: FOOD and DRINKS: Wine tasting @Walters'

Yesterday we got invited to a wine tasting evening at Walters' in Ghent. This cosy little restaurant is a great place to wine & dine, but it gets even more spectacular when you descend the stairs into the 16th century cellar, which nowadays contains over 400 fine wines. Together with some fellow bloggers, we enjoyed a lovely evening and learned about wine tasting and how the rating system works.

We started off the evening with 4 white wines, 2 Sauvignons and 2 Chardonnays. Traditionally, I'm not a big fan of Sauvignon as it often tastes too sour. But these Sauvignons were a true delight. And so were the Chardonnays, one Chilean and one Argentinian.

Next up: the reds! We got to know 4 Chilean, 1 Australian and 1 Argentinian red wine but the Chilean Chiraz definitely was our drink of choice that evening. Happy also to be able to taste a Zinfandel, which we didn't do last year in Napa Valley.

Jean-Paul Perez, foodie and wine consultant known for his appearance in Mijn Restaurant, explained the system of 90+ wines and introduced us to his website (www.90pluswines.com), where you can get a look at excellent wines that retail for under ?10, for example. So next time you're organising a dinner party, you should definitely check this website and learn where you can buy excellent wines for a small budget in your area.

Last but not least, Perez stressed the importance of bloggers for the wine industry. For a long time, Robert Parker, the most widely-known wine critic in the world, had a major impact on the industry, leading to the 'Parkerization' of wine. This means some (French) wines were made in a different way, just to please mister Parker. Luckily, this is slowly changing. Bloggers are specialising in certain domains or grapes and are forming a good counterbalance. Bloggers FTW!

Walters'
Nederkouter 3
Ghent (9000)

Source: http://stevecharlie.blogspot.com/2012/02/food-and-drinks-wine-tasting-walters.html

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