Coming up to 6pm so might as well start!
Thanks to the heads up about the Morrisons 25% offer I picked up a few of these and after a long week at work I needed a Rioja pick me up. This is just what I needed.
When Rioja is good it’s really good. Silly tannins, juicy fruit with vanilla and spice and all things nice. I’m starting to prefer a rioja which includes a blend of Mazuela and Graciano rather than 100% Tempranillo……oh dear my tastes are changing!!!
What’s everyone drinking this weekend?
Thanks goodness @Winestwit was started things off ! I was wondering about that Rioja and if the 2017’s were ready. Which so it seems.
Here in (unusually) temperate and sunny West Yorkshire I have opened a bottle of Grignolino. It’s a pale strawberry colour… highly aromatic… sort of Barolo but without the vices of excessive tannin & acidity - but still with sufficient bite and grip. Very good for £17.50.
https://www.thewinesociety.com/product/pio-cesare-grignolino-del-monferrato-casalese-2021
With something vaguely along the lines of beef carpaccio. I have flash fried a thick cut of sirloin & it’s in the freezer now until solid enough to cut waffer thin. Purple sprouting from the garden is just cooked and will be cold with a dressing. Should be with frites… but I’m lazy so might just be croutons with olive oil & garlic.
Happy Friday one and all.
Hmm frustrating i appear to be unable to upload pix - no idea why just get an ! next to the title. Tried directly from camera and also from gallery no dice either way. Any ideas welcome!
Any way #2 in thread best ever! Edit #3 i type too slow!! Or someone posts like a rabbit @lapin_rouge 
Rioja great minds @Winestwit CUNE Imperial 17, remains from yesterday, while cooking. Still very firm on D2. Lots of oak, fruit and vanilla as one would expect. Lovely now but plenty of time ahead.
With salmon en croute Frerebeau Pernand Verglasses 2011. Picked up somewhere in France a long time ago, worried probably ott, but a small taster glass suggests ok. Precise, chiselled not a lot of nose, needs to warm up a bit.
Oh yes! I think it’s good, not sure it’s going to reach day 2!
https://www.thewinesociety.com/product/barbera-dalba-gd-vajra-2017
Italian here tonight too. Deep colour in the glass, enticing red fruit nose that suggests sweetness, nicely balanced with enough acidity but very smooth. Not complex, lots of pleasure.
I’ve been missing the smell of chunks of meat roasting over flames, so
the BBQ has come out of hibernation, and a couple of sizeable veal chops acquired.
Opened this, from a mixed case of Chianti bought back in 2020:
An hour later it has really opened up. The nose has rounded out and shows some signs of development. The acidity and tannin has calmed down and it’s starting to come together. Red and some black fruit is now centre stage along with some notes of leather and perhaps a little bloody iron in there. Seems suprisingly mature for it’s age, but then again this is a relatively entry-level Chianti.
Decent, and should go really well with the veal - as long as I don’t incinerate it!
Edit: chops came out nicely. Veal is so easy to overcook on a hot BBQ, so 6 mins with a flip every 90 seconds and a 15min test in a warm oven and they were spot on. Chianti went down really well, no fireworks, but good solid, well balanced and showing a bit of development. I note that it is currently available on the website as well… a good value, short-term option.
This evening I cooked fillets of John Dory, with a clam and Little Gem risotto. We drank Dirler-Cadé, Sylvaner Vieilles Vignes, 2018.
Quite ripe and rounded as expected of the vintage - more Coxes apples than Granny Smith’s - but very nicely balanced. The grape’s characteristic bitter pip finish is in evidence, and helped cut what was quite a rich risotto - I also made a sauce with lemons and blood oranges which was a bit of a mixed success at doing the same.
Hope everyone has a good weekend!
I’m enjoying one of these tonight - a 2020 Akriotou Erimitis [or Ακριώτου Ερημίτης for the Greek aficionados amongst our learned brethren].
This is a combo of 50% Savatiano, 38% Assyrtiko & 12% Aïdani. And it is 100% very good indeed. White & yellow spring flowers, herbs, citrus, brioche and a splash of butter.
Lovely as it tastes, it’s the texture that really rocks my boat though - just ever so slightly “grainy”, a bit yeasty, slightly “dry stoney”, but creamy & unctuous with it. Really really good and involving.
I have had this on the go for 4 days. It is still fresh and lively. Apricot marmalade through and through but no sickly sweet taste. Just full of rich acidity
A last lunch today before trotting off to the airport to get back to the UK this evening. It was my first on one of Ryanair’s New 737 Max craft, yes the ones that kept crashing. They are re-named 737-8200 just for the avoidance of confusion. There’s about 2" less legroom as they have crammed in another 2 rows. But it’s much quieter and seemed more zippy at take-off than their old 737’s. Anyway it didn’t crash, it was on-time, and so I can report about today’s lunch.
A quick trip to the local covered market to see what the Poissonnier had brought in (Friday is fresh arrivage day…) and I picked some whole filleted mackerels, with salad and new potatoes, and I like them with horseradish cream sauce. Simple and delicious.
And another dip into the mixed lot from Cauhapé to try and redeem its reputation after that weird amber wine. This is a proper rosé, a bit like a Tavel, crunchy summer fruits and a nice acidic bite. I thought it was lovely.
The ever reliable Coudoulet de Beaucastel, 2016. Warm black fruits, gentle acidity; few tannins to speak of. I’m not sure this will go too much longer. Coq au vin on the stove, since it’s still winter
Let’s all hope there isn’t a bottle neck on the runway at take off…
Where did you get this ?
Started off the weekend with a favourite
https://www.thewinesociety.com/product/the-societys-cava-reserva-brut-nv
You even get a little video from Pierre Mansour at the link, waxing poetic about this delicious sparkler. Happy weekend all!
I’ve had my eye on these for a long old time now, but just hadn’t quite got round to actually buying any; but I came across some by chance at a small indie called Raffles wines, in Nailsworth, Glos, when we were down there a few weekends ago for the 50th of one of my sisters. I can’t remember the exact price now, but somewhere in the £16 kind of area. Well worth it IMO.
Thank you , it sounds great 
, will try get my hands on some 
.
Had my first encounter with the Brujidera grape in a small wine bar in Cardiff (Nighthawks). Nice, very acidic and fresh, tons of red fruits in the cranberry / redcurrant direction and enough tannin to be taken seriously. Would absolutely recommend.
Domaine Bailly Les 3 Tourelles Pouilly-Fumé 2019
Can’t even remember where I bought this, probably either Sainsbury’s or Majestic. Delivery sashimi and sushi tonight, Loire SB fits the bill. Fairly classic Pouilly-Fumé characteristics, gooseberry and smoky flint aromas, fairly broad, minerality and citrus coming through, with pink grapefruit in the finish. Not a superstar, but a solid effort that I think was around £10 on offer.
Jean Chauvenet 2011 Nuit Saint Georges
It’s a superbly well made wine. The fruit/acidity/tannin/balance all 
.
I’m just starting to take my first steps in Burgundy vineyard placement and vintage assessment so I’ll say that the Nuits Saint Georges offers more relative power within Burgundy
Some ferrous, meat elements ahead of the more typical Burgundian fruit nose.
Finish is persistent and long something that seems to increase with age.
2011 a 6/10 vintage but perhaps this is not far off the peak window given that.
Very good even combining a value assessment within the Burgundy
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