Midweek drinking thread 3rd-5th May 2022

[Embee]

As tonight’s meal was wine friendly I’ll get the ball rolling this week. I also spent a good part of the day doing strenuous stuff and was rather thirsty too. This was opened as a reward…

…a Haardt Grauburgunder 2018 from Muller-Catoir.

Its pale colour is rather deceptive as it certainly doesn’t lack in other departments. Fuzzy peach skin, spice, a musky note and a touch of lees on the nose. Ripe peach, citrus, spice and a strong stony mineral quality on tasting. Full flavoured with firm and fresh acidity to balance and structure, it’s going down all too quickly. Thankfully it’s only 12.5% ABV so there shouldn’t be too much in the way of after effects tomorrow, fingers crossed !

It was a good match to dinner too…

…a slow cooked and then glazed duck leg ( albeit burnt at the edges ) and a bulgur wheat salad ( kisir from Sabrina Ghayour’s Persiana cookbook ), Which I’ll certainly be making again as it was fresh, spicy. full of flavour and healthy too.

All the best for the week ahead everyone and that it treats you kindly.

[Rafa]

@Embee good looking plate of food and a very nice wine too!

[Tannatastic]

After a day out with the parents, and a lovely lunch involving seafood (and wine, naturally ) we’re sat finishing off some Pyrenean cheese and ham, with a, perhaps unnatural bedfellow, a bottle of Langhe Nebbiolo.

After a couple of weeks of SW wines, it is always a little grinding of the gears of the palate to recalibrate back to the outside world, so unsurprisingly I’m getting flavours and smells I wouldn’t normally associate with this wine, such as coffee torrefaction and seawater, which is interesting, overlaying dark black cherries and high acidity. (I’m hoping, tbh, it isn’t a bout of COVID!). Very nice though, still.

[lapin_rouge]

The remains of the weekend…

A very good friend and his wife visited Saturday, had a marvellous time with a slight excess of alcohol - followed by a very sedate Sunday.

First up: Gusbourne Rose E.S.W. in an excessively fancy box. I know this vineyard has it’s fans in the community, however the fizz was somewhat forgettable. The Chablis however was fantastic - notes of honey & beeswax, yet bone dry and so very more-ish.

Moving on to the Monthelie, a lovely Burgundy - I wish we had a spare bottle to try again when more sober. The Mercurey although a year older was more rustic.

Finishing the night with Springbank Local Barley. Cost £90 and worth every penny, yet being flipped for £700! which it certainly isn’t worth. Much more creamy than the standard ‘10’ with a real depth of barley (as you might expect) plus the usual SB light peat & eternal finish.

[MikeFranklin]

Opened a bottle of Camille Cayran Grand Reserve Cairanne 2017 last night. This was bought in France for around £8.40 from SuperU in 2020 around 4 weeks before the onset of Covid sent me scuttling home.

To be honest I thought I might have left it too long, I wouldn’t really expect a sub £10 southern Rhone to have that much staying power but it was actually very good. Not a hint of Syrah in sight, Granache, Mourvedre and Carignan, it still had a hint of spice and some dark fruit to it with lots of lovely tertiary flavours, smoky forest floor and surprisingly rich and smooth. An impressive wine for the price I paid. (it was a JLL 4 star)

[StephenJHarris]

Really enjoyed the “Taste the New List” at Vintners’ Hall in London last night. Really good to be back at a “live” event. The Society’s Exhibition English Sparkling Wine was a stand out for mew, as was the Chenin Blanc, Dillons Bachus. Craggy Range Pinot Noir and the Chateau de la Commanderie.

[Aaronb]

https://www.thewinesociety.com/product/roussanne-de-madone-pays-durfe-gilles-bonnefoy-2020

Really unusual - very floral minerally nose, tastes of honeydew melon, peach, honey and ever so slightly of a good wheat beer (but not in a bad or off way!).

With a big plate of cacio e pepe.

Where the sun and good weather

[Inbar]

We had one fairly recently and absolutey loved it! Agree with you that there was something a little unusual about it, in the best possible way. The flavour profile reminded me of a Roussanne from Savoie - a little fresher and more mineral-y than a Rhone one.

[NickFoster]

Picked this up at DBM in Clifton, for not much more than a younger vintage. In a really good place for drinking at the moment. Mature but not elderly still good fruit and my non wine friend approved of its smoothness and flavour. Will buy another bottle if I’m back there. Good proper unpretentious left bank claret from an excellent vintage.

[CCouzens]

Le Bijou Rosé de Sophie Valrose Wine type - Waitrose Cellar

A very pale pink, plenty of fruit, dry, a snip.

[winechief]

An excellent Riesling opened here this evening.
I mean… Look at that colour!!

It’s a 2015 Rabl Alte Reben Ried Schenkenbichl

Tasty stuff. Will go with a prawn and potato yellow curry.

[adbdorset]

Fish (Hake) with our last bottle of this both were delicious and can’t wait to find more white Rioja…

[peterm]

Monday I made Mrs M’s favourite crispy slices of aubergine in tomato & basil sauce and penne with a mixed salad for dinner and - because I was out of no-brainer™ Society Montepulciano until a fresh case is delivered on Wednesday - I opened this one I had won in our wine club’s raffle

2019 Cantina Zaccagnini Il Vino dal Tralcetto (Italy, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo)
and very pleasant it was.

Tuesday was the monthly meeting of The Grumpy Old Men. The venue was The Three Horseshoes at Smallford where we had excellent service and food better than expected. With my

I had zingy

2021 Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc (New Zealand, Marlborough)

Wednesday I stir-fried chicken with cashew nuts and red pepper strips in black bean sauce, accompanied by boiled rice and stir-fried mixed vegetables in oyster sauce which we had with

2020 Les Amourettes Côtes de Gascogne (France, Côtes de Gascogne)
Mrs M had bought this because it’s a blend of her two favourite white varieties, and they made a pleasing pairing.

Thursday was an unusual meeting of our U3A Wine Tasting group. The original host had had to drop out, others couldn’t attend for health or travel reasons, so Stewart stepped in and offered a location, partners were invited and we each brought a bottle. My contribution was the rare Bukettraube with its aromatic and intriguing taste. (Bukett means ‘bouquet’)

2021 Cederberg Bukettraube Waitrose Loved & Found (South Africa, Cederberg)

All the wines were good and I scored all highly, but the one that I had to choose as my favourite was Quinta do Escudial Reserva, Dão 2015 for its fresh and new-to-me taste.

(Oyster Bay from Three Horseshoes, Montepulciano from raffle, Les Amourettes from Hedley Wright, Bukettraube from Waitrose)

An unusual week as only one red…

[MattH]

Last night we finished of a hunk of lamb left over from last weekend’s BBQ. A meaty (and delicious) warm salad made with roasted peppers, steamed new potatoes and assorted leaves, with a pungent dressing of garlic, anchovies and parsley. This was briefly looking like a wine matching challenge - but after a quick browse of the fridge the answer was obvious:

To be honest, I haven’t been blown away by the 3 or 4 bottles we’ve had to date, generally preferring the fuller, rounder Thymiopoulos equivalent, but now I know what people mean when they say a wine was ‘singing’.

This had the sort of nose you sometimes get with burgundy or nebbiolo, that just makes you want to keep sticking your nose back in the glass, and despite our intentions to just have a glass or two the bottle dissapeared pretty quickly.

Time to raid the stocks again, at the current rate we’re going to get through a lot of Xinomavro this summer.

[JayKay]

@peterm

I was out of no-brainer™

[Tannatastic]

I should really pay more attention. Please could somebody move this for me?

[Inbar]

All done!