A twitter tasting you say; wines and notes and things flying through the ether as questions are sent to the hosts? Sounds enormous fun… shame I can’t make the venue… No problem says the lovely organiser, we will send you the wines and see what you can do… oh, what you have to do for a Four Seasons Wine and Food twitter-based pairing session! (FSWFTBPS for short).

The event, hosted and led by the chief sommeliers from four European Four Seasons properties, brought together wine experts from the hospitality and retail industries, as well as eminent wine bloggers and journalists. Participants were guided ‘live’ through four pre-selected wines, and were supplied tasting notes, accompanying menu suggestions and general tips on selecting wine from the panel members who tweeted live from the Amaranto Bar at Four Seasons London at Park Lane.

As in previous years, Four Seasons assembled an expert panel in addition to the chief sommeliers from Four Seasons Hotel George V Paris, Four Seasons Hotel Geneva, Four Seasons Hotel Hampshire and Four Seasons Hotel London at Park Lane was Harrods’ Wine Expert William Dean.

Available for purchase at Harrods and at participating Four Seasons properties, the wine selection consisted of a Champagne, an Italian white, an Argentinean red and a dessert wine, also from Italy.

The #FSWine Wines

Notes from me, quotes from William Dean.

Champagne Billecart-Salmon Brut Rosé [Harrods £59.95 Snooth]
A canapés wine, soft, delicate, cherry and raspberry tinged. “Serve with a chocolate praline tart and passion-fruit jelly. At home, I have it with marmite-coated peanuts. Be creative”

Poggio al Tesoro SoloSole Vermentino, 2011, Tuscany, Italy [Harrods £21.95 Adegga / Snooth]
A gorgeous nutty aroma – fresh walnuts, hazelnuts, touch of herbs. Medium to full body, lightly creamy texture with wonderful complex nutty, citrus, lime peel flavours.
“Which fish? I’d lean towards mellow-flavoured fish, like bass and cod. Also try with a mineral flavoured oyster, like a European Flat”
“A succulent joint of pork with plenty of crackling. A nice bit of tender rabbit would also hit the spot”

Cheval des Andres, 2007, Mondoza, Argentina [Harrods £62.50 Adegga / Snooth]
A Malbec-Cabernet Blend; dark, concentrated and to my taste too young. But there are deep, deep dark fruits, and a savoury edge to the finish. “Does the Malbec work with turkey or goose?” came one tweet –“Rich wine tends to go well with rich food, so either. Maybe a little better with turkey… I like gamey red Burgundy with goose”.

Pieropan Le Colombare Recioto di Soave Classico, 2008, Italy [Harrods £22.95 Adegga / Snooth]
A wonderful dessert wine, full rich and not too sticky. A tweet asked if the Recioto would work with Christmas Pudding? I’d say no – preferring an alternative tweeted suggestion of Panettone (hence the one in the photo) but the Harrods man suggested otherwise “Absolutely! The nut-and-dried fruit character, dense concentration, richness: I could be describing the pudding. Like-for-like”

Having ‘concocted’ a brandy soaked Panettone bread and butter pudding one can recommend a pairing with the Recioto… a rather delicious match as it happened.

You can buy marmite coated cashews… but how exactly does one make marmite-coated peanuts?

The interactive #FSWine event followed the December launch of the Four Seasons Taste microsite – “a new, content-rich platform for gastronomes seeking inspiration and expert tips on all things delicious from the world-class chefs, sommeliers and restaurant managers of Four Seasons properties worldwide”.