Witney Wine Fair Part 1

Every year the Oxford Wine Company (www.oxfordwine.co.uk) host a wine fair, and this year 20 of their suppliers came armed with up to 5 wines (or spirits) each - to 96 in total. Obviously I couldn't taste all of these totally reliably - my palate ha a nasty habit of starting to lose the ability to dicern much after only so many wines - so I stuck to trying to find some interesting wines and some real bargains - Albarino Do Fifinanes 2004 (Spain) was worthy of mention as a lovely tropical, melon, minerally white wine, full bodied and bursting with flavour - drink now with monkfish, chicken or pork. (£12.99). Less expensive was Pinot Blanc Reserve Cave de Hunawihr 2004 (Alsace) A very pale, youthful wine with very green flavours of grass cuttings and Granny Smiths and just a touch of marzipan - delightful at only £6.49. Less good was the very ordinary and really rather disapointing L'Orangerie de Pannautier Chardonnay 2005 from the Languedoc - I prefer my Chardonnay to come from a cooler climate - like Burgundy or New Zealand (£6.49)