I am always looking for awkward wine/food matches like boiled eggs, beans on toast, and chicken massalla. I’ve just hit the jackpot with the latter having grabbed this Tannat based wine on a rare visit to Nicolas.
At only 10.5% alcohol and a mere 25cl bottle (a large glass of wine at most British pubs) this wine had to live up to a £11.44 price tag. Yes, I know, only Costco could come up with this odd valuation.
I assured some French friends who visited recently, that ignorant southerners who claimed that it rained in Manchester 24 hours a day were plain wrong. In my experience the average precipitation is a considerably more modest 23. I am looking forwards to tomorrow between 8 and 9am when we are promised a refreshing spot of light cloud.
Sounding like a Vic Reeves’ Shooting Stars comedic expletive is not normally a criterion by which I evaluate whether to buy a wine, but somehow this just grabbed my attention on a recent visit to Majestic, Leeds.
South Africa is a bit of a blind spot in my wine rack and I occasionally have to remind myself that good wine comes from English speaking zones, as well and French and Spanish.
This wine is made from Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in proportions 42:32:26 and spends 10 months in French oak.
On opening there was faint Hydrogen Sulphide but this quickly dissipated and left a passable impression of a decent claret. At first it smelt deep, moody and just a tad yeasty with a raspberry rush. First sip was raspberry, violet, and vanilla. Far from being spoilt, it was bright, fresh and almost as exciting as a freshly powdered slope (snow I mean, not cocaine).
Eranu or Uvavu? Ugaba Stellenbosch 2006 is £11.99 at Majestic and this represents good value. ERANU!
Most successful software is never the real deal until version 3. This is the version that appeases the early, and even late majority, and therefore wins the market. I have just downloaded the 3.0 operating system for my iPhone and it was worth the wait.
OS 2.0 had holes the size of moon craters. If you own another brand I bet you can cut and paste. I bet you can send multimedia messages. I bet you can capture voice recording. I bet you can remotely wipe your phone if it is stolen. (OK this last one is fairly unique). These yawning gaps have been filled in 3.0 and without having to download any more apps. Need meteorite strike insurance? There’s an app for that….
That having been said, the single greatest strength of the iPhone is that is has learnt, ironically from Microsoft, that to create a successful platform you have to create a community and allow them to expand your platform by building applications. This happens much faster than you could ever build applications yourself so the usage of your platform spreads like wildfire.
Witness Steve Jobs who, a billion application downloads later, must be wondering if he will catch up Bill Gates in the software wealth stakes before the decade is out.
In honour, I was hoping to bring you a wine that tastes of apple, but this one is pure lemon.
Exploring the South of France is a profitable pastime right now and it is hard not to fancy it at least a little. The art of seduction has not passed le Med by. In fact every online wine merchant seems to have stocked up with credit crunch specials from this erstwhile unfashionable zone.
But there are uncomfortable price points too amongst the care free lovers. For example, this Pic St Loup from the Wine Society was part of a price driven marketing drop, yet cost me a not insubstantial £12.95.
As if it wasn’t hard enough already (no pun intended), blokes everywhere are giving up hope of ever getting another blowjob.
Before Americanisation, I used to think that “head” was the foam on a pint of beer. As a mature Wino, I now I fully realise that it is the bubbles on top of a Bellini. And I love a Bellini.
Gordon Brown’s nanny state has reached a new high in the form of film censorship and advice. I was watching an advert on TV for a kids film and the smallprint warning said “contains mild threat and comic fight scenes”. What is the point of such a warning? It is inconsistent with other media and not very helpful in any case.
Take an average episode of Dr Who that is aired by the BBC at peak family viewing time on a Saturday tea time. I used to watch regularly in the 1970′s – Jon Pertwee was my Doctor. There is more to frighten children than any amount of comic fighting. By the time I watched The Omen, I was fully prepared. It could have been labelled “may contain mild Satanic undertones”. But Damien was simply nowhere near as scary as a Dalek.
Some gadgets are adorable and some are practical. None are both.
My iPhone is adorable but lacks practicality on so many levels. It is missing some very basic technical features like cut and paste. I keep dropping it because it is too smooth to hold. It always looks like it’s been pawed by a jello wrestling dog that has just walked across a skid pan.
Stumble It!