Laguna – Lugana – let’s call the whole thing off!
A quiet Italian restaurant in Manchester. Maybe not the best place to expose one’s ignorance. I mean, how could I possibly confuse a tacky MTV reality show, with a beautiful lake in the north of Italy?
If, like me, you are over 40, and approaching the early stages of senile dementia, you already know where I am going (although you probably won’t remember by the time I reach the end of this sentence).
So for the record, the Lugana wine region is on the southern shores of Lake Garda, and I would also like to say that….er hang on I’ve forgotten again, where did I park my car?
This is another star find that I managed to pick up by mistake. One of those “bin-ends” cases that the STWC offers with astonishing generosity and annoying frequency. “We guarantee that your £47.50 case of wine will be worth at least £47.60 and possibly as much as £3 trillion!” How could I refuse such an offer?
It’s strange how I frequently find a new wine at a restaurant and stare at it in wonder and amazement whilst occasionally sipping and murmuring “mmmmmm nice”. Then several days later, whilst clearing out my garage I find a bottle of something similar that I didn’t even know I had in my secret stash.
I am, in any case, an eclectic wine buyer. An oenological magpie that pecks at every passing glinting offer, just because they look interesting. So I never really know what glitterati I have in my nest.
The wine I am drinking tonight, Cantina di Custoza Laguna 2004, was much nicer than I expected. Quite refined, dry, fruity and very tasty. It reminds me of a decent Chablis, perhaps without the finish, but some more zing. That is not to say it is better than a decent Chablis, but a very appealing seafood wine nonetheless, which left me wondering why I chose it to match a meat feast pizza.