What we tasted in December 2025
- opj392
- 6 days ago
- 2 min read
Christmas Tasting - Duncan Murray
In December we gladly welcomed the return of Duncan Murray. Duncan's shop in Market Harborough is always a very welcoming spot, and his free Saturday tastings there are very popular.
Duncan told us that he has been presenting to the Grand Union for 30 years or more, in recent years entertaining us at our Christmas tasting with his terrible jokes and delicious wines.
We had a wonderful variety of both white and red wines, covering a huge range of styles. The Petali Assyrtiko was savoury with great texture, while La Baie Orientale was delicate and floral, the Chablis was unoaked in strong contrast to the Harewood Estate Chardonnay. The Marcillac was a good example of a summer red and the Pinot Noir was light-footed too. For me, the pick of the bunch was the Côtes du Rhône Villages. The Late Bottled Vintage port was a great finish with the mince pies.
We had a blind tasting too: I got the colour right, but little else. It was actually a rather good Cabernet Sauvignon from near the Gobi desert in China at over 1000 m altitude, made with the collaboration of the 15th generation of the Austrian Moser family.
For more information: https://duncanmurraywines.co.uk
The wines tasted were:
Diamantakis, Petali; Crete, Greece, 2024. Assyrtiko
Lionel Osmin; La Baie Orientale; Le Sud-Ouest, France, 2024. Muscat, Muscadelle, Gewurztraminer, Viognier, Riesling
Domaine Fournillon; Chablis, France, 2022. Chardonnay
Harewood Estate; Great Southern Western Australia, 2021. Chardonnay
Lionel Osmin, Marcillac Fer de Soif; Marcillac, France, 2023. Fer Servadou
Harewood Estate; Denmark, Great Southern Western Australia, 2024. Pinot Noir
Blind Tasting – Changyu Moser XV; Ningxia Helan Mountain, China, 2021. Cabernet Sauvignon
Mas de Boislauzon. Le Deux Chènes; Côtes du Rhône Villages, France, 2023. Grenache, Syrah, Carignan
Kopke LBV; Porto, Portugal, 2020. Touriga National, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, Sousâo
