Is it so wrong to like Cloudy Bay? It used to be the wine for the cognoscenti but it got a bit too big for its boots. It’s not exactly a mass produced and marketed wine like Jacob’s Creek (perish the thought), but those in the know yawn and say “Cloudy Bay? It’s a bit 1990’s man….”
The Olympic Games are coming to London in 2012. Like most Olympic preparations there are rumours of delays, accusations of bribery and corruption, confirmation of massive cost increases, and public doubts that anything will be ready on time.
This is all entirely normal in the run up to any Olympics. However, unlike other recent hosts, we have contrived to produce the most astonishingly inept logo, and at £400,000, it looks about as cheap as a Northern Rock mortgage.
Rapsani from Tsantali Winery claims to be “The wine of the Gods of Olympos” but I take this with a pinch of salt since, elsewhere on the bottle the label breaks out into a nasty bout of francophilia, claiming the wine to be “Appellation d’Origine de Qualité Supérieure”.
I was once served Salice Salentino at the Flying Pizza “from zee heel of Italy’s boot, signor”. I loved it, and later discovered the heel was, in fact, Puglia. Since then I have looked out for wines from the area and spotted Pillastro Primitivo 2002 at STWC for less than a tenner. Robert Parker awarded this wine 88 points apparently. I don’t award points as (a) I am no expert; (b) wine is too subjective and personal; and (c) I can’t be arsed.
This Pillastro at 13.5% was full bodied and displayed red cherries, nutmeg and some leather. Quite a serious wine for only slightly more than the cost of a Blair family holiday. Drinking this wine is a bit like eating a rich fruitcake but I’ve already made one reference to Tony Blair so perhaps I’ll quit while I’m ahead.
Although he made wines for Lafite and Latour, the Prince of Vines’ heart was allegedly in Calon. But I wonder what the Marquis de Ségur would think of today’s vintage hype? I tried a 2002 recently. Not the most fashionable of recent vintages having been ambushed by 2000, 2003 and 2005 which were all breathtaking vintages of a lifetime. Well, I guess wine writers, like cats, have nine lives, but limited hyperbolic capacity to describe a Bordeaux vintage.
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?
Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that the latest season of CSI Miami is getting totally preposterous? David Caruso as Lieutenant Horatio Caine was, after all, one of the coolest police officers on TV. But the other night, with less than four minutes until a bomb destroyed a car in his compound, he calmly sat in it, then drove it down a 40 mile freeway, across two bridges, through a set of traffic lights, past numerous residences and deposited it on a beach (thankfully free of sunbathers) and coolly walked away from the car as it exploded in the background. Puh-lease! I’m going to stick to the vintage episodes when, for me, Caine was the perfect successor to the dysfunctional Las Vegas based Grissom, who himself was getting a bit preposterous.
Whilst on the topic of vintages, I found occasion to open a bottle I’ve been keeping for a few years.
 
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.
Raymond Burr was considered by some to be a TV genius. Robert T. Ironside was super-attorney, Perry Mason’s succesor (in his acting career). Personally I much preferred cigar slugging Columbo.
Talking of American trash, I’ve had to add a new category for this post which shows how much wine I drink from the world’s only remaining super-power. I have had bad experiences of US wine in the past, perhaps based on the cheap end of the Gallo range, so I didn’t have high hopes from this one:
Ironstone Vineyards 2004 Chardonnay/Viognier from California retails at about £7 a bottle. Surely £6 of that must be shipping costs and £1 duty (or is that vice versa) so exactly how much is spent on the wine?
I was astounded by the quality. Uncle Sam, I apologise, even if you are bald (and especially if you are listening in via spyware or remote listening device). A gorgeous smell of gooseberries led to flavours of pear slices in yoghurt. Fresh fruit salad and natural yoghurt is such a great breakfast starter (as long as it’s followed by bacon and poached eggs). Much superior to taking a cyanide pill.
After numerous weeks of seemingly endless rain, I was close to completing my ark. However, still no closer to cutting the lawn which was starting to look like a very green field with very long grass on it. Then one evening we had a breakthrough. The sun shone and I went outside looking for pairs of worms, slugs, blackbirds, snails and magpies to take with me on my maiden voyage. They all seemed to be absent, so in desperation I mowed the lawns.
Now, my front lawn is on an angle of about 45 degrees, so I have to mow it wearing golf spikes, but with a petrol mower, this is the gardening equivalent of climbing the north face of Everest in a t-shirt and a thong.
Do you remember my post about Grand Cru Chablis?
I finally got round to sampling the Premier Cru from the same stable albeit a different year (2004 vs 2002). Perhaps the most important difference is the price. The Grand Cru at £24.99 and the Premier Cru at 13.99. So the question is, should one pay the huge difference for the Grand Cru?
Stumble It!