Well here we are on a Friday at nearly 8pm and no drinking thread yet. Incredible restraint! Or too busy drinking.
We are just about to enjoy a warming whiskey and ginger as an apero before pizza. No wine 
keeping things restrained before another early start at the vaccination clinic tomorrow.
Happy weekend everyone😃
The grand folks are looking after the youngling, this evening. So we’re eating out tonight at our local Mediterranean restaurant.
A suitable aperitif has been selected. I love the colour, nose and flavour of this wonderful high end Crémant, produced by Gratien & Meyer. Happy Friday, everyone!
https://www.thewinesociety.com/product/the-societys-celebration-cremant-de-loire-2018
Maybe this will need merging, hopefully not though.
After portioning out a bargain guinea fowl ( £5 ! ) and making stock from the carcass and trimmings earlier, this here tonight…
…with a Marsannay ‘les Longeroies’ 2013 from Sylvain Pataille and the final bottle of six. As I’ve posted about it before I’ll try my best to be brief !
Red cherry and berry fruit with a touch of sous bois on the nose. Similar flavours with plenty of refreshing acidity to structure and now resolved tannins on tasting. Medium body, sour and tangy fruit with good depth of flavour and a persistent finish. An honest, and to my mind, rustic style that lacks the oak polish of more expensive examples but nevertheless was absolutely spot on with the lentils and fowl in the meal.
Looking forward to reading and seeing what you’re all up to this weekend. Have a good one everyone !
A lovely wine, nuanced yet direct, dry with a balanced sweetness, superb, with the quality shining through.
2017 Hatzidakis “Skitali” Assyrtiko Santorini
This evening, I pan-fried some pink bream, and served with radicchio, courgettes, tomatoes, clams and basil oil, with sourdough fougasse. We’ve regretfully decided that we’re not going to make it to Alsace for Christmas, so consoled ourselves with a bottle of Léon Beyer Les Écaillers Riesling, 2012.
The quintessential dry Alsace riesling, and absolutely in its prime. I love the way that Beyer manage to ferment this totally dry, and yet there’s still so much body and confit fruit, all hanging off a strong mineral spine. Clearly a wine with some age, with petrol starting to show, but without losing freshness. Just great.
Hope everyone has a good weekend. We’ll be re-planning Christmas (though, to be fair, it’s not completely out of the blue, so we’re not totally unprepared)
I love your untitled-as-such ongoing guide to matching different Alsace wines with foods. The blanket “Alsace wines are food friendly” advice found in beginner’s wine guides is IMHO daft - the wrong Alsace wine with the wrong food is a real risk, and no fun (Léon Beyer Les Écaillers Riesling being suggested for oysters; not something you’d propose with rich Pinot Gris, etc, etc!).
Anyway, this was enjoyed greatly with sausage, pork steak and some lentils. Lovely garrigue on the nose, soulful:
With tonight’s pan-fried duck breast. Very nice, fruity gamay. Probably a bit light for my palate, but very easy drinking and would buy again
Happy weekend all
The labels of that wine remind me of Thivin’s somehow!
Chunky, interesting, obviously Italian. Another good wine from ‘The Grape and the Good’, although the proprietor does have disconcerting eyes.
Mrs Jos and I had our anniversary of being together yesterday, with much better wines than we had when on our first date, for sure. All wines were drinking brilliantly.
Yes, Thivin’s wines are more “serious” but the “Cuvée des Ambassades” is a really charming wine and seriously good value in my opinion.
Agreed. Prefer the Thivin wines, but no issue with the bottle last night at all and great value
Happy anniversary Jos and Mrs Jos 
Well I’ve been buying more than I drink my rack is bulging ….tonight I’ve pulled out a Cubillo
Enjoyed this Morgon last night. Textbook example. Proper demonstration of terroir with huge volcanic rock influence. Cannot disagree with TWS that this would age well. Sadly my only one and equally sadly now out of stock.
Tonight’s wine already decanted and awaiting its appointment with a couple of fantastic looking beef sirloins, Strictly and then the latest Bond film. Slumming it in Gloucestershire 
Everything about tonight’s wine is delicate. A very pale lemon, delicate pear and lemon nose and palate, light bodied. High acidity but slightly restrained. Almost a case of “the wine that wasn’t there”. But very enjoyable for it’s lightness of touch.
Corsican veal stew for dinner this evening, and this Mencía to accompany:
Savoury, earthy and poised - this feels quite cerebral, and perhaps lacks a bit of a joie de vivre of the likes of Palacios’s Petalos or Ultreia Saint Jacques (also made by Raúl Pérez). Still, this offers plenty of bang for your buck, with a floral nose full of violets, peonies, bramble, damsons and an earthy beetroot-like note.
On the palate there are similar notes of hedgerow berries, sour cherries and damsons, as well as that beetroot earthiness, all framed by a lovely floral back note. The acidity gives it good structure and is ever-so-appetising. Shame we have to wait another hour for the stew… 
This could be mistaken for a good Chinon, I reckon! What a fabulous grape Mencía is!
Happy weekend, all! 
01438 741177
