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Christmas Wine II

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Got to love Auchan Calais. These will come in at a fraction under £30 once the Brexit compensation allowance is factored in. Three 2017s and a 2016 - I didn't notice there were different vintages until afterwards. Still at least six on the shelf.

In today's other chevauchée news, a Jacky Blot selection box and a couple of JPB Morgon Côte de Py (beneath).

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Of course you all knew that the conundrum would be resolved by opening a Lytton Springs 2013 fairly soon. As in today.
It has received what MB would term a vigorous decant but I agree with the CT comments about alcohol being too obvious. Maybe in another hour...
 
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I’m spending a week at Château Rives de Mars, the residence of my cousin le Baron Gaston. I arrived to find a note pinned to the drawbridge saying that he and his entire staff had been unexpectedly called down to Juan-les-Pins until the new year, so I’ve been left to fend for myself. I managed to get the fire going, and when I eventually couldn’t see my breath any more I strolled down to the cellar. Mysteriously the more interesting section was protected by several locks and a very heavy chain. But I found a few cheaper bits and bobs, including this magnum of Saint Cosme’s special supermarket bottling. Nice to see that even Gaston (or more likely his sommelier) knows a bargain when he sees it. This is really good, Syrah heavy I would guess. The problem with a magnum is that it’s trickier to know where my normal half-bottle marker is. Although I do know it is a lot further up than the current level. Oh well, I’m away from home and it’s a gentle Sunday afternoon. I wonder if there’s a locksmith locally that could manage an emergency call-out?

As I’ve got my Porta-Pi working and plugged into Gaston’s ancient A60 (‘borrowed’ from me many years ago) I’ve paired this with the Thelonious Monk Trio album.
 
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^ Le Baron probably left it unlocked thinking you would consider it too young, especially for a magnum.
Easy pickings for the pfm Rhône specialist.
Thelonious was also underestimated.
 
wacko said:
Of course you all knew that the conundrum would be resolved by opening a Lytton Springs 2013 fairly soon. As in today.
It has received what MB would term a vigorous decant but I agree with the CT comments about alcohol being too obvious. Maybe in another hour...
Click to expand...

Well not an hour but 24 of them. The alcohol has blown off (as they say in the trade) and a very decent wine has emerged. So the answer to the conundrum is: "Don't panic, Wait."
 
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[Continued...] No locksmiths prepared to work at the Château unless M. le Baron is in residence. I’m not surprised. Gaston is, to put it politely, a rather impetuous fellow. Some years ago he felt he had been overcharged by the local plumber (ie asked to pay something.) He got his revenge by bombarding the poor chap’s roof with missiles from his ancient trébuchet. There was collateral damage while he found his range. He said he would help pay for the rebuilding of the church, but the villagers weren’t brave enough to take him up on his offer.

So I’m stuck with the few bottles he has seemingly decided I’m to be allowed. Tonight I’ve gone for this Argentinian Malbec, obviously another supermarket special offer. It says Rothschild on the label, which probably means sod all. However, the price equates to a fiver and for that much, no complaints. Probably as good as the Waitrose Colomé, and I think that has an RRP of £18. I thought I should go with a bottle of Rochefort Lite as an intermezzo tonight as I’m already half a bottle to the good today.

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Tonight I paired this with Kamasi Washington’s The Epic, which I have never managed to get all the way through before. I still don’t really get it - it strikes me as 70s style bop played with a Pharoah Sanders tone plus a rock rhythm section, strings that always seem to be playing a different number to everyone else and a bloody horrible choir aaahh-aaaahing all over the place. Take the latter two away and it would be decent if not exciting listening, but nothing groundbreaking as folk seem to say it is. But what do I know?
 
The remainder of M. le Baron Rives de Mars’ ante-cellar didn’t fill me with much enthusiasm, so I hit the French online merchants. Thank the Lord for free one-day delivery, I say.

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From the back of the bottle of El Enemigo Bonarda - ‘At the end of the journey, we remember only one battle: The one we fought against ourselves, the original enemy. The one that defined us.’

Discuss.
 
Marchbanks said:
The remainder of M. le Baron Rives de Mars’ ante-cellar didn’t fill me with much enthusiasm, so I hit the French online merchants. Thank the Lord for free one-day delivery, I say.

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From the back of the bottle of El Enemigo Bonarda - ‘At the end of the journey, we remember only one battle: The one we fought against ourselves, the original enemy. The one that defined us.’

Discuss.
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Is that some kind of eastern sh*t?
 
Speaking from personal experience, I think it was written by someone who has never had deep-level dealings with the Inland Revenue.
 
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