We went to a wine sampling last week. My wife and I were asked over by a friend in Fakenham who said that he’d answered an online ad to get a free gift in return for an hour’s tasting session. The idea was to try half a dozen different wines before being invited to order a case of them.

When we arrived the rep was already there, armed with two small suitcase-type boxes full of reds and whites. After being asked about the types of wine we normally preferred, we were offered shot-sized plastic glasses, a third filled with three whites and three reds from various countries.

The rep, who was very pleasant and not at all pushy, described each of them in turn before we sampled them. He seemed reasonably knowledgeable, although came out with some marketing-talk which was a bit dodgy. He said that as the wine contained no additives it would keep fresh after opening for several weeks. Also, he insisted that you wouldn’t get a hangover by drinking them (again a refence to their lack of impurities). I took both those statements with a large pinch of salt, but still promised myself to judge the wine purely on merit. 

How did they taste? They were nice enough (except for one red which I couldn’t bring myself to finish). Trouble was, they cost from around £9 to £15 a bottle plus VAT and to me, they seemed to be no better than a bottle you can pick up in Tesco for a fiver! This was emphasised by the fact that when the rep had left (heading for an appointment in North Park – sadly, without selling us any wine) we shared a bottle of supermarket red which was every bit as good as any of the samples we’d just tasted!

For your info, the winery is called Pieroth, a German company with their UK arm based in Luton. The rep covers a wide area across North Norfolk, so if you’re interested look them up (their free gift – a desktop ‘weather station’ looked useful). Thanks to Graham for the interesting invite -and the very tasty supermarket plonk!