New For Members
90th Anniversary commemorative gift
In order to recognise the Society’s 90th Anniversary each member household will receive three complimentary DropStops which the ICM hope you will find useful when sharing wines with friends and family – and to save those splashes of red (or even white) wine missing the glass. Please let your zone Chair know about your plans to celebrate our 90th Anniversary. Don’t forget you can download the logo from the website to add that professional touch to your event promotion.
Latest monograph - “Pinot Noir Around the World” by Anne Krebiehl MW
This is a timely release, shortly after the Americas festival in the Pinot-centric Willamette Valley in Oregon. Anne is recognised, by the experts, as a leading expert in this field, plus she is a self-confessed lover of this noble grape and admits to it being one of her abiding passions. Anne starts off, in Burgundy where it all started and is the region considered as the home to one of, if not, the world’s finest wines. Anne then travels the globe introducing the many regions where this grape now thrives or is starting to shine. As Oregon is recognised as a key producer of top quality Pinot Noir it most certainly features as well as other regions less known for their Pinot Noir such as the Crouch Valley in England and the Rio Negro in Patagonia. Your copy will be mailed to you with upcoming zone magazines (for the Americas and Europe Africa zones. Members in the Asia Pacific region will receive theirs via their branch contact.
IWFS Gift Bottle Bags
These branded gift bottle bags are a smart, and convenient, way to present a thank you or a gift to your Society friends. The bags are able to hold wine, champagne or port and are now available for you to purchase via the merchandise page of your zone pages of the website
Member App - ASIAN & ORIENTAL MATCHINGS ADDED
For those of you who enjoy Asian and Oriental cuisines you will be pleased to know that some new matchings to the Wine & Food Pairing section of the Member App have been made focussing on these styles of food. The Asia Pacific region offers a fantastically diverse, exciting and delicious range of dishes and this is your opportunity to make the most out of matching wines with the dishes, and vice versa. Thank you to Nicola Lee, ICM member, who is based in Singapore for putting these together with assistance from other members across the Asia Pacific zone and others can benefit from their experience in this specialist area!
Vintage Guide 2024
The Wines Committee met in May to discuss next year’s Vintage Guide. Good news in the northern hemisphere as indications are that Bordeaux and the sweeties in the Loire are top wines for 2022, although Sauternes did not perform quite so well. While in the southern hemisphere …..the lateness of the vintage in some Australia regions, due to heavy summer rains and delayed flower set has meant that we are still awaiting details of the quality of the 2023 vintage plus other countries have had challenging weather too. On 18 May the Wines Committee held their annual meeting to run through the submissions received for the latest vintages and also to update the drinkability of the older vintages. The Committee welcomed new member Dr Gordon Lloyd, member of the Devonshire branch. Gordon has the WSET Diploma which gives him a broad knowledge base to draw from to assist on this committee of Council. More details will follow in the Autumn issue.
L to R: Gordon Lloyd, Ron Barker (Wines Committee Chairman), Charles Taylor MW and Stuart Leaf
Wine articles
Have you read our latest commissioned article “Oregon Wine Matures” written by Katherine Cole? Katherine provides a gentle introduction into how it all began and then features some of the main players who have forged Oregon’s global reputation for Pinot Noir today and introduces exciting wines to watch out for in the future.
‘IN THE NEWS’ ON SID’S BLOG
Q: What is all this current buzz about Glou Glou wine?
A: A relatively new term used for wines that invite glugging - fast gulping with a sound similar to liquid quickly coming out of the neck of a bottle! Glou Glou suits well the lighter young fresh lower alcohol drinkable wines like Muscadet or Beaujolais. Also more widely used in connection with the easy drinking natural wine movement of both white and red.