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….”
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.
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.
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.
Is wine tasting an art, a science, or just a personal experience? One of the great things about keeping this online wine diary is the opportunity to look back at what I thought of different wines. The first time I tried Trinity Hill 2006 Sauvignon Blanc I tasted gooseberry as the prominent flavour with apricots and grapefruit in the background.
 
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?
Following recent accusations that GCSE’s and A Levels are being dumbed down, I can reveal that a new education scandal has just emerged. University Challenge questions are getting easier! I can prove it. My average score is two correct answers per episode and tonight I scored nine! A personal best!
In line with most reality TV shows where the presenters go back after 12 months to see how the subjects are coping with their new Russian blind dog, I always like to taste a wine more than once. It’s like going back to the scene of a crime to see if Gil Grissom has worked out that you were the perpetrator – exciting.
I have just re-tried Hunters Sauvignon Blanc 2006. I liked it last time but I claimed there was too much gooseberry . Well, this time I still got the gooseberry but so many more complex flavours like peaches, passion and other exotic fruits. A bit like dipping into a coconut but finding ice cream with the awful milk, or prising open an oyster to find a pearl necklace already assembled.
I much preferred Hunters this time. Just goes to show that you should give everything in life a second chance.
Although not of the Catholic faith, I feel the need to confess. To you. I have sinned. I am guilty as charged. What is my heinous crime so dark and mysterious? I am a beginner. No, really! At everything? Truly, everything!
Maybe it’s an age thing. I love my job and pretend that I know lots about enterprise software but the truth is that every year that passes I double my knowledge on that subject. At that rate of acceleration, it makes me realise how little I actually know. For example, if my knowledge keeps doubling every year, then in ten years time I will know 1024 times more than I know right now. That proves that I know virtually nothing. And so it is with wine, my other “specialist” subject.
Well the English football season is back and what better way to celebrate Man City’s stunning victory over West Ham, than with an English wine review?Â
This wine was made from a grape variety about as well known as most of the Man City first team. For those not in England, Sven-Göran Eriksson has been on a buying spree across the globe bringing in players from Bulgaria, Brazil, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and Bosnia & Herzegovina. Names like Elano, Bianchi, Geovanni, Garrido, Fernandes, and Schonburger. Oh no, hang on, that last one was the name of the grape used to make this Three Choirs Stone Brook 2005.
 
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