advertisement


Christmas Wine II

Status
Not open for further replies.
52183529512_cf65f21a59_z.jpg


This has been acting as an apéro/main course stand-in for the last couple of nights. I think it was manders who asked for a report - here goes.

In France this is priced a little below both Guigal and Saint Cosme CdR, and a bit above Terres d’Orb. I think that’s about right. It has more character than the latter, and is a lighter proposition (90% Grenache, 10% PN apparently) than the first two. But it does have a slight ‘cheap wine’ tang to the end that lets it down a little. More to the point, I don’t think it is as good as my favourite cheapo red, Col de la Serre from Cave de Roquebrun, which is about 5€ in French hypermarkets and can often be found on 3-for-2 deals. This doesn’t help in the UK, I know. But I think I’d generally go for Guigal (if I wanted quality) or Terres d’Orb (if I wanted something to serve at a BBQ) in preference to this. But as something a bit different, and a bit lighter, there’s nowt really wrong with it.
 

The truffle hunters . iPlayer.

.


Excellent wine but I prefer the Gripa.
The truffle hunters is a great documentary ,a look at
an old way of life the rivalries , jealousies and of course the beloved dogs.
The greed of the buyers. The dialects just add to the
the feeling of times past.
 
Last edited:
Popped into town and picked up a copy of Bob Stanley and Pete Wigg's "Fell from the Sun" down tempo and after hours 1990-91. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0B28HTL1G/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21
Noticed that the Berwick Street Co-op was selling "Close Encounters" Perrin Chateauneuf du Pape. Bought a bottle as I'd never seen it before.
A few hundred meters into my Boris bike ride home, just outside Fortnum and Masons, there was a horrid thud as my rucksack escaped from the bag holder! I thought it was held in securely by the bungee cord but no!
Anyway tonight I'll try a bottle of Tosone Nero d'Avola, not because I'm contemplating contacting the Cosa Nostra to take a contract out on anyone but I'm hoping that it will conjure up some Sicilian sunshine to listen to the chill out tunes.
I suppose I could also dig out Blood on the tracks. May also dream up some song titles, "Broken dreams on Piccadilly" etc etc.
 
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
Popped into town and picked up a copy of Bob Stanley and Pete Wigg's "Fell from the Sun" down tempo and after hours 1990-91. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0B28HTL1G/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21
Noticed that the Berwick Street Co-op was selling "Close Encounters" Perrin Chateauneuf du Pape. Bought a bottle as I'd never seen it before.
A few hundred meters into my Boris bike ride home, just outside Fortnum and Masons, there was a horrid thud as my rucksack escaped from the bag holder! I thought it was held in securely by the bungee cord but no!
Anyway tonight I'll try a bottle of Tosone Nero d'Avola, not because I'm contemplating contacting the Cosa Nostra to take a contract out on anyone but I'm hoping that it will conjure up some Sicilian sunshine to listen to the chill out tunes.
I suppose I could also dig out Blood on the tracks. May also dream up some song titles, "Broken dreams on Piccadilly" etc etc.

The CNdP was smashed?
 
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
52188455115_069786859c_z.jpg


I’ve spent a while today trying to find out exactly what the difference is between Louis Mitjavile’s two wines, Le Versant (with which I started the birthday bash) and this one. No real success, just about all the information of the web seems to be copied and pasted from two or three conflicting sources. No change there. I know Le Versant means ‘the slope’ so maybe it comes from a different part of the vineyard. Younger vines maybe?

Anyway, this is lovely right bank claret - it’s a St Emilion by any other name. The most recent info I could find suggests that Loulou uses an 85/15 Merlot/CF blend, but as he is aiming to eventually go 100% Merlot that could be out of date by now. Definitely a step up from Le Versant, this was £33-ish from Corney and Barrow. That’s plenty, but if it said ‘St Emilion Cru Classé’ on the label it would probably be £50. And I’d be much less likely to drink it.

What the photo doesn’t show is that while I was groping for focus in the increasing darkness I was simultaneously holding back a feral cat with my right foot. Having made short work of my gifts of kitty milk and leftover paté she now had designs on my gigot of lamb steak and fried potatoes, and was extremely keen to jump up on the table and help me out.

Having been thwarted by me finishing my dinner myself, she sat down rather resentfully, listening to Bill Evans. As darkness fell even more I decided something heavier was called for, and switched to Electric Masada. The first screeches of full-on Zorn made her eyes open wide and her back arch slightly. When the Eno-lady started up with heavily transient bleeps and crunches she got up and stalked off into the next garden, pausing once or twice to look over her shoulder at me, Richard Parker fashion.

I (or maybe John) must have seriously offended her, as she didn’t come back to mither me at coffee time this morning as she usually does.
 

The truffle hunters . iPlayer.

.


Excellent wine but I prefer the Gripa.
The truffle hunters is a great documentary ,a look at
an old way of life the rivalries , jealousies and of course the beloved dogs.
The greed of the buyers. The dialects just add to the
the feeling of times past.

The truffle hunters is brilliant I bought it on Amazon prime when it came out but it's free now if you have prime.
 
Last edited:
52193080220_75d7ffd42e_z.jpg


One thing this OAP-celebratory Fayne Wayne binge has shown me - I’m most definitely not cut out to be a hedonist. I see that my birthday selection box is now getting down to the most expensive bottles because I have been shying away from opening them. Instead of excitement and anticipation I think I’m looking at them with a mixture of guilt at my indulgence and apprehension in case they, or my ability to appreciate them, don’t come up to snuff.

I’ve also found that starting a bottle late on in a meal and continuing to drink it on its own afterwards is definitely the method that works best for me. I’ve always had a sneaking feeling that food disguises the taste of wine rather than enhancing it and that ‘food pairing’ is a way of trying to keep the masking to a minimum. After all, if eating improved your ability to detect the subtleties of wine, Jancis would carry a pot of Boeuf Bourguignon and a Primus stove to tasting sessions, wouldn’t she?

This bottle is a case in point. It cost me the thick end of £50 when A Client of L&W dumped it earlier this year. And that was a bargain price compared to the £70+ that some merchants charge. But a glass with the last mouthfuls of pork casserole really only tasted like a very nice Malbec. Things improved a little over cheese, but it wasn’t until I had finished eating altogether that little subtleties began to emerge and I realised it was a step up from lower-level Catena Zapata offerings, although still subject to the Wine Law of Diminishing Returns. Of course, you might say ‘aha - that’s because it had been opened for longer...’ and I’ll reply ‘you may well be right. But you might not.’ It’s a conundrum, innit?

(Oh yes, and what is it with these super-heavy Argentinian bottles? Is it a macho thing?)
 
I agree about the wine with/without food conundrum. To add to the confusion, would wine on an empty stomach cause a drowsy numbness to o’er come the senses, to the extent that differences between wines would be more difficult to determine?
 
Is that 2015 ? As their top wine it is probably only just opening the drinking window. And that would fit with the improvement after an hour. I wonder if it is even better today if you have kept some ?
I also suffer the apprehension affliction. The realisation that there are only so many special occasions left to us is a morbid way to overcome reluctance to open expensive wine for no good reason other than we are still alive ! Covid has been the catalyst.
Cheers.
 
There is one food wine combo that I love -- really heady Italian reds, chiantis etc, and dried fruit and nuts.

And smoked salmon sandwiches and cotes du rhone.

And finocchiona and Bordeaux rose
 
I agree about the wine with/without food conundrum. To add to the confusion, would wine on an empty stomach cause a drowsy numbness to o’er come the senses, to the extent that differences between wines would be more difficult to determine?

I feel really, really dim for not knowing immediately who you quoted there.

Is that 2015 ? As their top wine it is probably only just opening the drinking window.

Blimey, is it? I thought it was only about halfway up.

There is one food wine combo that I love -- really heady Italian reds, chiantis etc, and dried fruit and nuts.

And smoked salmon sandwiches and cotes du rhone.

And finocchiona and Bordeaux rose

But do they improve the wine, or simply work well as a combo?

I could add (and will, as it’s what I’m tucking into right now under the parasol, while waiting for Bill Evans to inspire a choice of bike ride route this afternoon - I’m pleased to say he is taking a while) a bottle of 5€ supermarket wine with rillettes and celeri rémoulade. The fat and vinaigrette successfully knock the edges off the plonk, turning it into a pleasant generic wine-style drink. The point I was waffling my way round earlier is, I suspect it would do the same with a 30€ bottle.
 
I feel really, really dim for not knowing immediately who you quoted there.

Keats, Ode to a Nightingale, misquoted from memory. He actually wrote:

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:
 
Keats, Ode to a Nightingale, misquoted from memory. He actually wrote:

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:
Damn. Something deep in the cobwebs of my mind suggested Keats. (But then I would say that, wouldn’t I.)
 
He goes on to write:

O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been
Cool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country green,
Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!
O for a beaker full of the warm South,
Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
And purple-stained mouth;
That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,
And with thee fade away into the forest dim:

A sentiment to which every bosom returns an echo*, if ever I heard one.

* Samuel Johnson
 
Status
Not open for further replies.


advertisement


Back
Top