One of the aims of this blog, when I started it, was to keep my own personal record of tastings. I set out to write this post having tasted a bottle of Susana Balbo 2005 Malbec and just realised that I have tried it before. However, I didn’t really capture any proper notes so I thought I better do so this time.
Anyone remember the “old” search engines before Google took over the world?  Open Text, Infoseek, Go, Webcrawler, Lycos, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, Excite, Magellan, Alta Vista? Well it seems that many of them live on! One in particular seems to have inhabited the properties of a wine!  Alta Vista Grande Reserve 2004 Malbec “Terroir Selection” sounded more interesting than it was, though. At > £10 per bottle, I would stick to the Susana Balbo for a pound or two more.
Usual Malbec flavours abound with bitter black cherries, vanilla, and spice (ginger?), dark chocolate and blackcurrant in this case. A lot more complex and interesting than many Malbecs I have tasted but quite a bitter finish which put me off a bit.
Better with food than on its own, and it improved once opened a while. I would give it a try with mature steak. In the UK you can find it at the Wine Society.
 
At my local sandwich shop I have been lunching on fruit, sandwiches, and crisps (hey if you’re American I mean chips, ok?). I am not particularly loyal to any brand of crisps so I was tempted by an offer from Seabrooks which suggested that by collecting 8 packets I could send off to claim a pint sized mug.
Where is the sense of individual responsibility in society these days? My parents and grand-parents all lived through at least one world war, enduring hardship and shortage. When something went wrong in their lives, their first reaction was to set about putting it right using their own endeavours. I am not saying that governments and corporations should be absolved of negligence, nor that they should not take sensible precautions to increase safety for us all, but the balance of responsibility has shifted too far. Matt Rudd writing in The Sunday Times agrees. In a simple day out with his wife and toddler he counted a whopping 289 warnings/instructions.
If parents can’t be trusted to educate their kids to the point that they understand that coffee “may be hot”, or that smooth floors “may be slippery when wet” then the world has lost something. In today’s litigious society (it starts in America, quickly migrates to Ireland, and lands in the UK shortly afterwards) the first thought when we have an accident is “who can I sue? How much money can I make?” So the inevitable result is a world full of nannying warning signs that guide us, cajole us, restrict us, instruct us but rarely inform us.
The warning on my bottle of Bacchus 2006, however, was clear and stark, “Made in England”.
I was invited to Live Earth. What a dilemma. All tickets cost £55. I went free. Should I make a charitable donation to some worthy cause? Which cause exactly? I mean this was not a charity event, it was about awareness, man. Quite a hippy concept really, but played out in the hard commercial word of the new millennium. Some of the messages from the various entertainers who participated were more genuine than others but I have to admit to laughing. It’s not very rock and roll having some pop idol jumping on stage and telling us all not to leave our TVs on standby, before launching into some familiar guitar riff.
There were also doubts about the CO2 created by the event itself. I travelled public transport all the way, only to see the Black Eyed Peas being helicoptered in to Wembley for Al Gore’s denouement.
All in all though, a fantastic day out. It’s not often you get to see such a high class line up. Here’s the pictures:
Firstly my (somewhat feeble) attempt at a panoramic view of Wembley.
The wine bar in the lower ground floor of F & M Foodhall on Piccadilly is so cool, and I’m not talking about the ambient temperature. Staffed by a range of nationalities with a variety of experiences in wine. Our Polish waiter, Artur Zarzycki “vaz early on hiz vine joornee” but seemed to know plenty despite his claimed one year of experience. And he almost knew how to operate a camera!
Queuing outside F & M on a Sunday at midday (the bloody shop opened late by about 2 minutes 30 seconds), because we had an hour to kill before our reservation at St Alban (more anon). So, as all the restaurants and cafes in F & M were being refurbished, we dashed down to the wine bar “1707” where, for £23.90 (inc. service) we got to try a fantastic range of wines. Who says the posh shops are expensive?
Shepherd’s Market in Mayfair is one of the most charming places in the capital. It’s totally unique.
By contrast, Turkish resto Sofra, has a number of branches across London. My myopic view of restaurant chains is that they totally lack flair and employ cooks rather than chefs to dish out someone else’s imagination…poorly.
So when invited to Sofra (Mayfair)Â I attended with some trepidation, that turned out to be totally unwarranted.
Me and my Chairman finished a meeting in the City and decided to go for a quick beer………which turned into erm, two bottles of wine.
The reason being that we stumbled upon Clause on Lovat Lane off Eastcheap EC3.
This bar must think it is Christmas every day. Between 5pm and 7pm they have a happy happy happy hour where all wines (except house) are half price! So we “invested” in an Errazuriz Sauvignon Blanc, Chile 2005 at £17.50 (or rather £8.75). It would have been rude not to have ordered some nibbles to go with it, so we didn’t.
Then after a second bottle we ordered the bill and, including service, it was less than 20 quid – what in London? In the City? At a posh bar? “Yaw ‘avin a larf” my chirpy cab driver said to me on the way back to Kings Cross.
Oh the wine? Er yes, it was full of rich fruits and –  oh who cares – it was very very very drinkable and at that price I suggest you get down to Clause the very next time that the big hand is on the 12 and the little hand is on the, well er, 17 to be precise . . . . .
Clause. 1 Lovat Lane, off Eastcheap, London EC3R 8DT. +44 (0) 207 283 6191.  info@clause-bar.co.uk. www.clause-bar.co.uk.
Deep in Jack the Ripper territory just behind Bishopsgate Police Station lies a dark secret. Whitechapel is legendary for the murders committed by one of the first serial killers to gain notoriety. Nowadays an altogether different cereal is found in the back alleys, and the only murder is evidenced by an occasional squealing lobster.
The back alley known as Widegate Street is where I found Sri Thong, a Thai restaurant with a name that brings back haunting memories of that famous and heinous picture of Peter Stringfellow on the beach.
I am always interested in fairness. So I buy wine from a variety of sources. OK I admit I am biased towards the Wine Society and the Sunday Times Wine Club but I also like Majestic and I have been formulating a growing respect for the various supermarkets.
You may remember (or you may have forgotten) my post on Torrontés where I lauded the second grape of Argentina (in my opinion, and second to Malbec), and you may remember my fondness (not) for the self styled Hand of God, Diego Maradona himself.
But this time I am afraid Argentina loses in the quarter final. Asda’s wine buyers have impressed me greatly at times but the Argentinian Torrontés (Asda forgot the accent on the e) Famantina Valley 2005 was a nice drinkable wine but really not memorable and no distinct flavours at all. I can tell you that Torrontés normally has the most distinct flavour of apricots -ahhh memories.
Memories? Actually I prefer mammaries……but’s that’s a story that would not meet the strict decency requirements of a serious wine blog.
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