Another lesson in patience and in getting the right amount of air into a wine. On the first day it was really disappointing and flat, on the second, with some air exposure and time it has burst into life with lovely red fruit and savoury herby undertone.
I thought I was doing the right thing in treating this gently but I was obviously wrong. A decant straight away, even for this at 9 years, was obviously the thing to do.
Beautiful weekend here, I’ve been enjoying everyone’s photos.
As per further above, a bottle of 2006 Domaine Courbis Cornas Champelrose for us here this evening. This is really rather good, and a very nice example of the benefits of being with the WS - aged quality wines at a decent price.
I didn’t decant it, but it probably could have done a decanting without losing anything really, as it’s continued opening up throughout the evening.
Nice strong colour, strong nose of fruits especially brambles & a bit of damson, and a lovely rich taste of mature-but-still-fresh-fruit, with some undergrowth and a spot of dry savouriness towards the end, all without being too animaly and feral. Not a great deal of tannin, and very smooth. Almost verging on being a bit boring, but not actually being boring. I’ve got a second one to go too, which we’ll probably crack open before too long.
Contributed towards a nice red wine / lamb jus too, so we’re a happy family here this evening. And the cat’s got some nice bones to chew on too :~}
Opened one of the also-rans from my recent Waitrose trip
and drinking it with a reheated vegetable curry which it accompanies very pleasantly. Lots of apple and pear flavours (would it be understood if I said it tastes like stairs?) with a touch of honey and minerals. Not extraordinary but nice wine: fair value with the discount and a good match for a fairly mild curry.
Nice picture of grandpa and grandson - congratulations to all!
Final post from Blighty before catching that plane to Lima early doors tomorrow.
I had the foresight to bring a trusted companion for us to ease the pain of staying the evening in our room-cum-cell in the Ibis Heathrow. It will go with Peaky Blinders ep.4 quite nicely…
Glasses hastily bought at Tesco Extra this morning for @50p . They may come in handy during our trip.
This evening I cooked lamb with an anchovy, garlic and parsley crust, served with sauce paloise and spring vegetables. We drank Yves Cuilleron Ripa Sinistra, 2018.
The first bottle of six bought EP, and which arrived from reserves on Tuesday. The drink dates seemed to indicate that it would be ready young - my intention is to try one a year to see how it develops, and on first showing we’re very much going to enjoy the ride. Plenty of bramble and stewed plum fruit, but also that savoury Northern Rhône pencil-shaving, graphite and liquorice backbone. The tannins are really smooth already, and it’s clearly a serious wine that seems like it’s got a lot to give. Checking current prices, £137/6 IB seems like a bargain, too.
Actually a 2020. Condemned as ‘interesting) by Mr JayKay. The nose was peach for me, though notes on back of label say fresh floral bouquet. In the mouth more pear than peach, and pear drops rather than fresh fruit. Actually it got a bit much after a while. A bit sickly though it isn’t sweet at all and along with its mouth coating properties it was also quite acidic🤔 Anyway, worth a try but we’d rather have a GV or a Riesling.
Some people will claim that burgundy should not be 14.5 degrees. They would also no doubt claim that it should not be served with a massive pile of lemon and pepper chicken wings. They are wrong, if both things coincide. This is a black-fruited delight that stands up to the food brilliantly, though I accept that it doesn’t have the ethereal quality that some look for in this region.
Hope everyone has had a good weekend - and congratulations to Peter!
Couple of friends came over for venison haunch on Saturday night. Was a lovely evening and lovely wine… Maybe slightly too much wine considering how I felt the morning after!
Firstly, I somehow managed to get myself invited to what I thought was a soft launch for a bar/shop called Drop on the Common. It’s the 10 Cases/Parsons/DropApp peoples new bar in Clapham. It turned out to not even be soft launch and was a “hey we’re opening tomorrow, have some free wine” night. They had Gruner Veltliner and Grenache on tap (I’d imagine the gruner was the same one I’d had at Brunswick House last weekend, but a fresh keg meant it was much more vibrant and gruner veltlinery) which is what we were poured. It’s a nice space and will definitely make use of as a bar, but the mark-up was a little eye-watering at times for the shop.
Yesterday evening saw us in a wine bar… in a toilet… No, really. It was in a former Victorian underground WC in Bloomsbury (although turns out they have one in Clapham too, which I did not know about despite living less than 10 minutes walk away). It was really really good! We had 9 wines between three of us and they were all top notch. The entire wine list was by the glass and not one of them felt like it’d been open too long.
Ultimate winner of the evening was a £16 glass of 2016 Gevery Chambertine Vielle Vignes from Domaine Coillot. Raspberry, strawberry, christmas spices and smoke. Just starting to get a bit leathery too. Bags of acid to support it all and bought me great delight! Given it’s £50ish a bottle retail, it was remarkable value at £16 a glass too. It should also be noted they actually gave enough bread with the cheese and meat platters, which is not something I am used to in London! Definitely going back/giving the Clapham one a go!
There’s a battered, broken backed and stained 1973 first edition The Cookery Year in our bookcase. It’s years since we used it, but we did heavily in the beginning. My first attempt at Imam Bayildi must have been from the recipe in that book.
Yours looks much more appetising than the browny-yellow dish photo’d in the book.
As I recall the Readers Digest sent us that book which we were supposed to buy or send back. We were so fed up of them sending us books that we did neither with this one. We heard no further, but we didn’t get any more books sent us, so it worked!
Our copy is similarly battered and the spine held together with sellotape. I think we got it second hand from Mr JayKay’s parents. There are a few recipes in it we use regularly and others we dip into every now and then. I followed the recipe in this book to learn how to make gravlax and still use it now. Also an excellent recipe for Marie Rose sauce, not too sweet, a long way from lesser versions and capable of numerous variations.
After her pre scan fast my wife needed a treat so I drew breath and launched into Ottolenghi’s Seared Tuna with pistachio crust and papaya salsa. The chef’s name a la maison is ‘What-a long list” and so it was. However she loved it ( and so did I) and it will definitely reappear, but not for a while if you know what I mean. We’ve just finished the noodles and salsa for lunch today with a few customizations of anchovy and a dash of cherry vinegar to pep it up a tad. We drank one of my wife’s favourite Godello with the tuna, Terra’s Meigas from Valdeorras. She originally chose it for the elephant on the label!
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