This week’s decent drinking “Red Sancerre?” my dinner guests chorused. Life’s full of surprises, they thought it was Sauv B, I gave them Pinot Noir. This wine saved the night as yet another two bottles of expensive Aussie red suffered the Ernesto thumbs down for cork taint. No wonder wineries are going over to Stelvin ...
BLOG, Wine & DrinkThe Emperor Napoleon seems to have been a bit of a philosopher. One of his mots sages was “Every corporal carries a Marshall’s baton in his knapsack”. The great man would have known, because he came through the ranks himself. It’s not to be taken literally of course. Distilled down, the Corsican corporal’s observation simply ...
Restaurant ReviewsThis week’s Decent Drinking Grande Encontro 2006 is a DOC Barraida from the smart Portuguese producer DAO Sul A beefy, satisfying and classy red, made from Baga and Touriga Nacional. Baga is a surly, difficult grape, making wine that benefits from extended keeping, characteristics similar to the Italian Nebbiolo. Thanks to some stubborn producers, notably ...
Wine & DrinkSo, no recession in Camden Street then? Anseo was stuffed to the gills with young ones on a midweek night, inhaling an excess of scent and aftershave and grooving to the (extremely) loud music while phoning a friend. Up the road, Cassidy’s was crammed full of footy fans, swivelling between two TVs as Chelsea sought ...
Restaurant ReviewsWent a-judging-oh in Portugal last week. Vina Essencia is a big wine expo held in Porto’s Palacio da Borsa. The judging was held in the Arabian Room on the top floor, beautifully restored to its former glory. Tasting conditions were pretty good, about 20 of us, grouped in pairs, plenty of elbow room and glasses ...
BLOG, Wine & Drink‘Zen’ is one of those words we’ve all heard but nobody seems to know what it means. A bit like ‘zeitgeist’ or ‘drisheen’. We usually find it coupled with Buddhism. Zen, that is, not drisheen. What the difference is between zen Buddhism and plain, unvarnished, bog standard Buddhism I have simply no idea. Wikipedia (slogan: ...
Restaurant ReviewsPetra Frebault of French producers Barton & Guestier kindly sent me the company’s latest newsletter. It included this delightful 1950′s ad which B&G (or their American importers) placed in The New Yorker to encourage Americans not to be inhibited when it came to ordering French wine. In those days our EU chums hadn’t been stigmatised as “Cheese-eating ...
BLOG, Wine & DrinkI’ve been an Italophile since the first round of the 1982 World Cup. Of mixed English, Scots and Welsh descent, I have never been the most jingoistic of people and that year I got sick of the constant bigging-up by the press of the England football team, all proclaiming that Ron Greenwood’s gunslingers would ...
Restaurant Reviews