Confessions of a Wino

Perennial problem isn’t it?  Matching wine and food.  Which wino has never deliberated over what to serve with foie gras (easy one – Chateau d’Yquem), or mature Argentinean Steak (I would do a Malbec)?  But what about the really tough dishes like chocolate desserts, for example.  What if your dinner party plan includes serving beans on toast?

These thoughts swirled around my head like a pair of boxer shorts in a launderette as I drove back to the flat for my evening repast, which happened to be, due to forgetting to stop at the shops, beans on toast.

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What has happened to all the casinos around Lac Léman?  Have the richesse deserted the area like diamond encrusted lemmings making a leap of faith towards more trendy holiday locations?  When we arrived in Lausanne, we followed a sign to the casino only to find it has been converted into some nouveau public amenity.  Taking a train to Morges, the Casino had also been converted to another use.

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I’ve got tennis elbow.  Or rather, I’ve got the super-modern equivalent: Wii wrist.  If you look at availability in the shops, and prices on Ebay, it seems that Nintendo are doing rather well compared to the overpriced, under specified and arrogantly marketed Sony Playstation 3.

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Now, I could bore you with the old story about Dick van Dyke’s ropey cockney accent, but I am going to spare you that.  Instead, I am going to bore you about the third English wine I have sampled this year, Limney Horsmonden 2006.

Well the first thing to say is that they are not going to win any prizes for label design.

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Was Lausanne really so boring?  We must have thought so, because our only full day there was spent in Evian, courtesy of the excellent and frequent ferry service across Lac Léman.  We were looking for the Riveraine Café for lunch, a place we had visited several years ago and enjoyed many a French laugh (he haw he haw he haw) with the owners.  Sadly the place had closed down.

Searching along the lake front for another resto proved fruitless.  It being October already, the saison de tourisme was already over.  Fortunately, even locals need to eat, so there were some places open on the Rue Nationale (main street).  Le Muratore took my fancy because it actually had customers – always a promising sign.

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