I’ve tried a few Chilean Carmenères now, and there is an emerging theme. If I could can the essence of a real wood and coal fire pumping smoke out of an English country chimney in 1974…..it’s a vivid memory jogger!
When you hear a wine described as “balanced” what does it mean to you?
I unscrewed this bottle of Torrontés and drank most of it before reading the back of the label. Before opening, I knew that it was made by Susana Balbo one of my favourite Argie producers. I knew that the wine came from Majestic and retails at £6.99. I knew that it had a pretty label and came in the usual gargantuan bottles that are trademarks of the land of diminutive Eva Perón. I am convinced that the bottles used by Dominio del Plata are almost as big as Evita and probably have clocked up more air miles per kilo.
After reading the label I now feel much wiser, because I know that “Crios” means “offspring”. I know that Torrontés is Argentina’s uniquely aromatic grape, and that it is similar to Viognier with the dry crisp taste of Sauvignon Blanc. The final interesting fact I took on board was that no oak was used in ageing the wine. Oh, and just to cram just one more sliver of semi-useful intelligence into my puddled brain, that the wine displays excellent “balance”.
“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.
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.
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.
I wanted Bresse Bleu but I just can’t find it in the UK, so I settled for second best, Cambozola, which is a German Cheese available at any supermarket.
For me, eating a German Blue “Brie” is just plain wrong. It must be like eating a Dr Oetkers Pizza (you really are having a laugh – An Italian product, made in Germany and sold in England – ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha). I’ve never tried it but surely nobody buys that marketing line? Have you seen the TV ad? A loving couple on a first date sat on a suspension bridge in the open air at a fully set table, eating a pizza made in Germany, approximately 1.3 miles from the nearest oven. I haven’t laughed so much since I found www.hugeurl.com - waging the war against brevity.
But sometimes we can’t always get what we want, so we have to settle for second best. In my case I can’t afford a decent Barolo so I sampled a bottle of Langhe Nebbiolo de Forville Barbaresco 2005 as my second best. After tasting the wine I guessed it was from a supermarket at about £4.99. In fact, online, I found this wine at Majestic at a whopping £7.99.
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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