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Christmas Wine II

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It's perhaps a downside of being a wine trade professional that one can often find oneself stuck with a winemaker in their cellar and being underwhelmed. Convention and good manners demands that you have to stick it out, and it can go on for some while. I take the view that there's something to be learned - why don't you like the wine, what are the faults, and why are they there? It can actually be really enlightening. I once, for example, spent several hours with a young vigneron who had taken over the family domaine in the S.Rhone. Hardly was I out of my car that he sat me on the back of his quad, and took me on an exhilarating ride into his isolated, steeply-sloping vineyards high up in the rocky garrigue. He had converted to organic husbandry, and the vines were in fabulous health. He was evidently passionate and commited. The wines, though, when we tasted them afterwards, were awkward, a bit extracted and lumpy. He was experimenting, innovative, feeling his way. He wasn't there yet, but having seen what he was doing, I knew that, given a few more vintages, he would be. Had I not visited and had just tasted the wines in London, I would never have known.

There have of course been plenty where you just have to sit it out, because you just know that it isn't going anywhere. They're infrequent now. And at least there isn't an obligation to buy a bottle!
 
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Palazzo Della Torre Allegrini, 2017. Very posh fruit juice, nice fruit juice, light and fruity, if you have an apéro with kids and adults, this is the perfect wine. I got mine from Divine Fine Wines.
 
eternumviti said:
It's perhaps a downside of being a wine trade professional that one can often find oneself stuck with a winemaker in their cellar and being underwhelmed. Convention and good manners demands that you have to stick it out, and it can go on for some while. I take the view that there's something to be learned - why don't you like the wine, what are the faults, and why are they there? It can actually be really enlightening. I once, for example, spent several hours with a young vigneron who had taken over the family domaine in the S.Rhone. Hardly was I out of my car that he sat me on the back of his quad, and took me on an exhilarating ride into his isolated, steeply-sloping vineyards high up in the rocky garrigue. He had converted to organic husbandry, and the vines were in fabulous health. He was evidently passionate and commited. The wines, though, when we tasted them afterwards, were awkward, a bit extracted and lumpy. He was experimenting, innovative, feeling his way. He wasn't there yet, but having seen what he was doing, I knew that, given a few more vintages, he would be. Had I not visited and had just tasted the wines in London, I would never have known.

There have of course been plenty where you just have to sit it out, because you just know that it isn't going anywhere. They're infrequent now. And at least there isn't an obligation to buy a bottle!
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Just wondering: did you share your mixed feelings about the wine with him?
 
Latis Malbec excellent with home made black bean
burger pickle and Calabrian chilli.Big fruit flavours.
I'm a fan of Hervé.
 
mandryka said:
94-A81065-43-CE-4568-B5-DF-D50059-D6-C656.jpg


Palazzo Della Torre Allegrini, 2017. Very posh fruit juice, nice fruit juice, light and fruity, if you have an apéro with kids and adults, this is the perfect wine. I got mine from Divine Fine Wines.
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Why do you have artexed curtains?

Bloss

I am not sure how I feel BTJB
 
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The first vintage from this estate under the guidance of new owner Louis Barruol. I admit I’m a Saint Cosme fan boy and that’s why I took a punt on six bottles when they were on offer at Majestic early in the year (I paid £13.50.) This is the first one to be opened. The post-pull snifter seemed a little tough so I gave it a decanter shake - but now it’s lovely. A GSM mix with lots of jolly G, still quite young and admittedly maybe a bit rustic, it strikes me as being thoughtfully made and interesting rather than slick, safe and corporate. I’ll give the next one another six months, but I’ll be looking forward to it.

At nearly 11pm on a cool evening (13C my phone tells me, but bugger going indoors on a clear, still night with a hazy gibbous moon being bisected by a thin cloud in a Chien Andalou kind of way) this is going down beautifully with John Zorn’s chamber-style Issachar, which I had never heard before discovering tonight that it was sitting waiting on my NAS.
 
Marchbanks said:
51485044489_3d92af701d_z.jpg


The first vintage from this estate under the guidance of new owner Louis Barruol. I admit I’m a Saint Cosme fan boy and that’s why I took a punt on six bottles when they were on offer at Majestic early in the year (I paid £13.50.) This is the first one to be opened. The post-pull snifter seemed a little tough so I gave it a decanter shake - but now it’s lovely. A GSM mix with lots of jolly G, still quite young and admittedly maybe a bit rustic, it strikes me as being thoughtfully made and interesting rather than slick, safe and corporate. I’ll give the next one another six months, but I’ll be looking forward to it.

At nearly 11pm on a cool evening (13C my phone tells me, but bugger going indoors on a clear, still night with a hazy gibbous moon being bisected by a thin cloud in a Chien Andalou kind of way) this is going down beautifully with John Zorn’s chamber-style Issachar, which I had never heard before discovering tonight that it was sitting waiting on my NAS.
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Zorn,is he not a mix of the good the bad and the ugly.Did you
give the staff the night off?
 
Dogberry said:
Zorn,is he not a mix of the good the bad and the ugly.Did you
give the staff the night off?
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Some JZ music is gentle (eg Masada Trio pieces like the one above), some challenging but fun in smallish doses (eg Naked City) and I’m told some is barely listenable, although I’ve never sought it out. He’s important in my world though, not least as the link between guitar kings Bill and Marc.

They were dismissed after their final duties for the evening - taking my slurred dictated notes then typing up and posting them, taking my phone to the chemist to get the picture processed, etc.
 
Marchbanks said:
Some JZ music is gentle (eg Masada Trio pieces like the one above), some challenging but fun in smallish doses (eg Naked City) and I’m told some is barely listenable, although I’ve never sought it out. He’s important in my world though, not least as the link between guitar kings Bill and Marc.

They were dismissed after their final duties for the evening - taking my slurred dictated notes then typing up and posting them, taking my phone to the chemist to get the picture processed, etc.
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That's loyalty for you,I assume they're in your Honours list.
 
CT is very useful but it can also drive you mad. It is a bit like looking for an album/cd you have misplaced. But wines can't really be organised in any way as you would be shuffling them continuously. You start doubting yourself: did I drink it in a haze ? Forget to update CT ? Did someone sneak in and nick it ?
Couple of days ago I thought I saw a wine. Went back and it was gone. Found today in a different place. Can't think of any reason why I moved it. Old age creeping up...
 
wacko said:
CT is very useful but it can also drive you mad. It is a bit like looking for an album/cd you have misplaced. But wines can't really be organised in any way as you would be shuffling them continuously. You start doubting yourself: did I drink it in a haze ? Forget to update CT ? Did someone sneak in and nick it ?
Couple of days ago I thought I saw a wine. Went back and it was gone. Found today in a different place. Can't think of any reason why I moved it. Old age creeping up...
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My system might sound complicated, but it isn’t. Every three weeks or so I move 10-12 bottles from the cellar to the Aldi cooler for consumption in the next period - a combination of what I fancy, what CT tells me I have an excess of, and bottles with an impending drink-by date. I tell CT these bottles have been moved, and the cooler acts as a holding zone. Then, if I forget to update my records for a week or so, when something jogs my memory (your post, in this case) I can immediately see which bottles haven’t been logged as consumed by looking in the cooler and comparing with CT. Then, with a combination of rusty memory, nonsense I have posted here, ferreting around in the recycling bin and date-holes in the ‘Consumed’ list I can invariably fill in the gaps. It’s a kind of three-week buffer zone.

So, tl;dr - a small holding area containing a dozen bottles to be consumed next is my solution. It doesn’t have to be a cooler, just a separate section of your stash that is labelled as a different location on CT. It also helps give cook an idea of what sort of food is going to be requested over the next few weeks, as I choose food to go with the wine rather than the other way round.

And I agree - if you take bottles directly from cellar to table, you need to be rather more fastidious about maintaining your records. I think I’ve lost two bottles in two years, and on both occasions I had bypassed the cooler (one of the best purchases I’ve ever made.)
 
And there I was thinking you bought the Aldi cooler for those famous soirées at The Towers.
Clever system MB. Only to be expected.
Just discovered how to find all the wines I've drunk listed by date on CT... sobering.
 
wacko said:
And there I was thinking you bought the Aldi cooler for those famous soirées at The Towers.
Clever system MB. Only to be expected.
Just discovered how to find all the wines I've drunk listed by date on CT... sobering.
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Publish and be Damned.
 
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