I have long been a fan of Susana Balbo’s Malbecs since I first discovered them on the rip-off wine list of the Gaucho Grill. So I was intrigued to see this blend, named Brioso, on the virtual shelves of the Wine Society. At £14.95 ($30) it is not cheap so it needs to be measured against serious competition.
As blends go, this one has a whopping 5 varietals contributing to the mix, but did this add as many facets to the flavour of the wine?
If you were thinking of inviting me to a party in the near future, you might want to think again.
I’ve been experimenting with Virgin Wines and, having built up a bit of a credit in my Virgin Wine Bank, I thought it would be fun to try and spend some of my ill-gotten gains on the auction part of the site. In concept, it’s brilliant, but as with all auctions, caveat emptor applies, in other words, make sure you know what you are buying…..
In a head-rush, I read about the Marqués de Valencia Gran Reserva 2001 and thought it looked a nice Rioja. Voted wine of the year 2007 by Virgin members, the retail price was advised as £95.88 per case. For a Gran Reserva this seemed cheap so I quickly placed a bid of about £65 and an hour later had won the case for less than £50. That’s cheap for any wine. When it arrived I understood why.
On opening it smelt a bit odd. Where is the familiar vanilla/oak? Why does it taste of petrol?
The magic of modern technology means this post is brought to you whilst I am travelling on England’s East Coast Mainline. If only the wireless internet was as fast as the train, though.
The franchise, which used to be run with aplomb by GNER, has recently been acquired by National Express. The first change I noticed was that they had re-priced the wireless connection according to average bandwidth achieved – yes – it is now zero cost, free of charge, 3 bits per second allowing you to download the home page of Confessions in only 12 minutes but at least no negative effect on your wallet (or purse) . Otherwise things seem “same old, same old” and as ever infinitely superior to the west coast service operated (without aplomb) by Virgin. I am in the fortunate position of often being able to choose which service I take to London and that is why I am here right now.
In addition to railways, in life generally, I tend to make choices based on snapshots, mere slivers of experience, and hence I am many times more likely to choose a wine from Burgundy or Bordeaux, than the Rhône Valley. This is a shame – especially on the evidence offered by this bottle.
“Serve this Pinot Noir cool (my emphasis) in a big glass to fully appreciate……” so said the label on the back of this wine. So why are most bloody restaurants so bloody determined to serve me red wine so bloody warm????
I realised recently, that I had been ignoring Oz wines (sorry Edward!), and that I have not visited Majestic in ages so, on the way back from a Saturday morning haircut recently, I dropped in to see if I could combine these two shortfalls by asking what the inhabitants of Van Diemen’s land could do with the sex kitten of grapes.  Majestic came up with this gem at a mere £9.99.Â
When you live in the northern hemisphere, it is easy to forget that in Oz, the further south you go, the closer you are to a frozen pole. So maybe Tasmania is the Pinot Noir friendly Bourgogne-u-like to Clare Valley’s Cabernet Sauvignon friendly Bordeaux-wish-it-was? I have a different theory, as you might expect.
Can you play a musical instrument? I’ve been trying to learn the guitar for more than 30 years and I am still useless. Every time I pick one up (I own two or three) and start making some progress, I am consumed by some other pastime, like blogging, or work, or trying to lose weight.
My life (and presumably yours) is controlled by one’s own priorities. On a scale of one to ten how do you rate: Family? Work? Music? Art? Science? Procrastination? Procreation? Playstation? It seems that music all too frequently falls down my list.
I once signed up to eBay, purely to sell some old punk singles. When I realised they were going for peanuts, I ended up buying more Monkeys; adding to my rarely played and esoteric collection. Whilst I am now the proud owner of the excellent original version of Banana Splits by The Dickies on yellow vinyl, did I really need it?
So the football season is coming to a close and it’s time to start thinking about cricket. England will entertain two wine nations, New Zealand and South Africa, in the 2008 summer’s international test matches. Tonight I am preparing for the season by drinking wine from a non cricketing nation. On my world tour of Pinot Noirs, this latest is another one from the Wine Society Chilean PN mixed case (£82), and is the second from the Leyda stable.
You may have noticed I was having problems with my ISP until recently. This was driving me to drink which is, fortuitously, a pastime in which I am experienced and capable.
More from my flirtatious world tour of Pinot Noir, and this one came in a Sunday Times Wine Club Pinot Noir mixed case at £69.99 (the case, not the bottle).
Is Pinot Noir really so fickle? My recent experience says that many areas of the world are successfully bedding this sex kitten of a grape. Adolfo Hurtado has certainly put a notch on his bedstead. For he’s a jolly good fellow!
Software and wine should never be mixed, unless you happen to run a software company and you like wine. Or someone named after a manure breeze block launches a wine that happens to emulate a content delivery software company. In this world of legal battles between Apple and the Beatles, who will sue who?
But if you write software, the chances of cutting some quality code when pissed are about as good as enjoying a soirée recital of Vogon poetry.
The gardening season is upon us and this year I am so organised, I had my lawn mower serviced early to beat the rush. Now it’s just a matter of being organised enough to be at home on one of the rare days that it doesn’t rain, so I can mow the lawn.
While I stare glumly out of the window at another English horizontal monsoon, I console myself by sampling eastern European wine. But making decent Pinot Noir is about as Herculean a task as predicting which raindrop will win the race to the bottom of the pane.
This Romanian immigrant was part of the 2006 wine trade and smuggled in via a Sunday Times Wine Club mixed case “pure pinot noir” in exchange for a £69.99 ransom. Not in the exorbitant price category then.
Stumble It!