Inspired by the Girls from Beverley

A few days ago we received an e-mail from "the girls in Beverley". For those who don't know "the girls from Beverley" this is a select/exclusive/elite/sometimes debauched team that meet regularly (usually Wednesday nights) for drinks, debate and merriment. They've been known to drink long into the night in order to figure out the meaning of life and whether Austrlian wine is better than French or Italian. We received the aforementioned e-mail from them whilst they were obviously tackling the later of the above two problems. Perhaps they had sorted the meaning of life the previous week!!! Anyway, from the tone and content of their e-mail they were obviously having a great time. Much wine had been consumed and some spilt.
Reading their e-mail inspired us to run our own wine tasting. Off we went to purchase the best quality wines available in Cambodia. There was one particular cheeky little number we had seen in Phon Phen that could (according to the label) cure Lumbago and wouldn't give you a headache. Unfortunately we couldn't track it down in Siem Reap. So we're going to come back to that one. Watch out for updates.
Being seasoned hands at food, wine and whisky tasting, we knew it was important to record the results in a professional manor, so we set out a spreadsheet with the name of each wine and the particular characteristics we were looking for. We both filled out the questionnaire blind so we were not able to see each others results. Amazingly, there were some similar comments.
Below are the results of our wine tasting evening inspired by "The Girls from Beverley".

This is Wrestler wine, obviously if you drink plenty of this you will develop enormous muscles.
Bouquet - Alison - unintrusive. Garry - not half bad.
Taste - Alison - gentle, not full bodied, hint of sherry. Garry - not too strong a taste, just as well as it's not too good. Harmless but 20% proof.
Comments Alison - beats Liebfraumilch and Blue Nun, better than beer all night. Garry - cap was difficult to remove, probably for a good reason - it's best left on.
Score Alison - 4. Garry - 3

We called this Mr Universe wine as there are posters around with a guy in a Hawaiin shirt and the label advertised all around Cambodia. Don't know what its name is though. Maybe it was subconcious marketing that made us buy this wine?

Bouquet Alison - smells of something, not sure what. Garry - same same.

Taste Alison - slight liquorice taste, warmer, stronger but not really moreish, unless there is only beer. Garry - same same.

Comments Alison - would drink after two beers, hope it cures lumbago and I hope I wake up. Garry - same same.

Score Alison - 4.5. Garry - 3.

Zato - this is posh Japanese rice wine.

Bouquet Alison - lemon dettol, doesn't bode well. Garry - likely to put blisters on your lung.

Taste Alison - lemon washing up liquid. Garry - better than I thought it would be, maybe a little hint of lemon or paint thinners.

Comments Alison - pretty bad, inoffensive, would prefer beer, sexy bottle. Garry - bottle looks good, but I would only drink it if I was desperate and I'm not sure anybody would be that desperate.

Score - Alison - -1. Garry - 1.

A recognisable wine - Australian and very expensive, see price of $9 dollars compared to $1.50 for some of the above!

Bouquet Alison - very similar to known and trusted red wine. Garry - gentle, but good.

Taste Alison - tastes metallic, maybe tuna after taste. Garry - good with slight after taste of Wrestler.

Comments Alison - shame it's more expensive than our room bill. Can't have more than one bottle of this one. Garry - would buy again, bargain.

Score Alison - 6. Garry - 5.

This was the setting for our wine tasting. About 25 Korean and Japanese tourists checked into the guesthouse whilst we were wine tasing and walked past us. We invited every one of them to join us. Apart from one couple who told us they didn't drink, we don't know why no-one else joined us!!

Bye for now.

Alison and Garry