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[For the uninitiated, a 'blog' (or weblog) is a web journal with links. This gives me a chance to add short, 'off the record' style items that wouldn't merit a separate article. I try my best to keep entries informal, frequent, brief and (hopefully) interesting. For more information about Jamie Goode, see the about the author section. ] Monday 9th February 2004 The Château des Tours Réserve 2000 may be a lowly
Côtes du Rhône, but it’s a superb wine, brimming with alluring
sweet Grenache aromas balanced by spicy, earthy notes. This is just
archetypal Southern Rhône for me. Delicious and balanced, my six-pack
is diminishing fast (this originally cost about £6.50 in a sale; it
was either Bibendum or H&H Bancroft). As a nice foil, the Pierre
Gaillard 1999 St Joseph screams Northern Rhône Syrah to me.
It’s not a terribly complex wine, but it does have that typical
roast meat, spicy, bloody edge to the raspberry fruit that is a
trademark of Northern Rhône Syrah. I’m half way through a case of
this (this one was definitely from the H&H Bancroft Sale, also for
£6.50), and the last bottle was decidedly tired, something I put down
to the closure (two piece synthetic cork; either neocork or nomacork -
this is no bad reflection one these closures because from other data
it seems the one-piece synthetics wouldn't be expected to keep a wine
protected for four years). This bottle is fresh as you like. On to Austria. The Bründlmayer Zöbinger Heiligenstein
Riesling 1997 from the Kamptal is a delight. It’s fresh, angular
and poised with piercing limey fruit, delicate and spicy, fresh and
pure. I have one left of this. It really doesn’t taste six years
old. I’m on a bit of a Loire roll at the moment, so I opened a sweet
Chenin to finish off with. The Domaine des Gagnières Bonnezeaux
1999 Cuvée Benoît is from a slightly dodgy vintage, but it’s
very nice. Like most Chenin, it takes some understanding. It’s rich
textured, rounded and sweet with complex yet reticent flavours of
marmalade, wax, melon and honey, together with hints of anise. It
wouldn’t stand up to a dessert; this is best enjoyed on its own. Thursday 5th February Tuesday 3rd February Friday 30th January My other main concern is that
there exist bodies with an agenda to make the internet less
mainstream, confining it to the fringe of computer nerds and technical
people, replacing it with a more controllable information source. The
brilliant thing about the internet is that the barrier to entry is
currently low. Thus small time publishers who may still be of very
high quality, and who because of their size have fewer editorial
compromises, can get in on the game. This is good, because it offers a
variety of voices, some speaking more clearly and truthfully than
traditional media giants who previously had control. Big publishers feel a little threatened by this influx of competition, so
don’t be surprised if there emerges a collusion between large media
providers and consumer electronics companies who offer a sanitized,
controlled, TV-controller accessible, parallel version of the internet
for the masses. I hope this sort of thing never really takes off –
and I know that it has been tried already – because the internet is
an important medium that should be kept out of the hands of media
giants. There are a lot of people who want to control the information
we receive, and a truly free media is to be cherished and valued. Wednesday January 21st Earlier this evening I attended the Handford Wine
Burgundy 2002 tasting. Some very good wines, some of which even
represent quite good value for money. Following this, my brother in
law, William, had promised to take me for some food. Rather than just
plumping for the usual Ifield Road El Gaucho (enormous Argentinian
steaks) we decided to try something more local. I asked Handford’s
Adrian Heaven for a recommendation, and he struck gold. Just a few
minutes’ walk from Handford South Ken down the Old Brompton Road is Tendido
Cero, a serious location for Tapas. Best of all, it’s BYO, so we
chose two wines to take with us: Bierzo 1998 from Descendientes de
J. Palacios (£18.95 Handford) and the 1999 Alíon (£26.95
Handford) from the Ribera del Duero. Between the two of us we chose
the following from their menu.
The service was energetic and attentive – very
professional. The quality of the food coupled with the fact that you
can bring your own wine (£2 corkage) means that I can’t recommend
this place highly enough. One comment, though – some people really
waste the rare privelige of BYO by bringing crappy wine. The next door
table were drinking Sainsbury’s own label Claret. BYO is a great
chance to drink serious wine with good food without paying silly money
for the privelige. Our wine choices would have cost us £60 a piece of
an averagely priced restaurant list. As it stands, the bill for the
two of us was around £80 (service included), which isn’t cheap, but
we did order a little more than we really needed, and we had at least
four bottles of mineral water at £3 a pop. Even so, it’s money well
spent and I look forward to going there again soon, especially if my
bro-in-law is treating me. Tuesday January 20th Monday January 5th Last night, I enjoyed a bottle of a good, honest,
interesting wine. Don’t ask me what criteria I use to define a wine
as ‘honest’ — I just know an honest wine when I come across one.
It was a Jamet 2002 Syrah Vin de Pays des Collines Rhodaniennes
(£5.99 Majestic), a wine that offers fresh, bright, savoury, meaty,
roasted red berry fruits, followed up with high acidity. It’s just
12% alcohol, which should be normal for a red table wine but these
days rarely is. The Jamet wine is made no doubt from fairly high
yields of young or not particularly well sited vines, in or near the
vineyards of Côte-Rôtie in the northern Rhône. While it’s not big
or showy, and some may find the intense savouriness a little too much,
I find it an authentic expression of wines from this part of the
world. It’s cheap enough to drink frequently, and savoury enough to
match well with most foods. And to use a Jeffordism, it’s eminently
digestible. Friday January 2nd 2004 Each new year I've used my blog as a chance to set out some loosely wine-related resolutions. In January 2002 I set out the following. (1) Drink less but drink better. (2) Be more creative in buying wine, supporting the merchants who really do good work, even if it's more hassle than popping into the local supermarkets or high street outlets. (3) Buy more educational bottles, leaving my comfort zone more frequently. Part of the joy of wine lies in its diversity. (4) Travel more. It's hard to write about wine regions with any great insight if you've never caught the real flavour of them first-hand. (5) Keep perspective, seeing wine integrated as part of a rich, healthy lifestyle, not as an end in itself. These are all pretty good, and would do this time around, with particular attention on number 4, I feel. Then, this time last year I set out some more resolutions: to learn more, to publish more (improving the quality at the same time) and to take more time to reflect. I've partially failed on the last one, in that life has become more busy and I've been pulled in several directions, so perhaps I need to concentrate on this. I remember Andrew Jefford once hinted that he thought - in analogy with grape vines - that some wine writers might be too high-yielding. I don't want to sacrifice quality for quantity, and it's always something that I keep in mind when pitching for fresh commissions. Other goals this year? (1) I have to write my book. I mentioned on this blog some months ago that I've been fortunate to secure a significant commission with leading wine book publishers Mitchell Beazley. It's a project I'm very excited about, and now I have to get down to serious research and writing. My goal is to make it the most interesting, profitable and original wine book to be published in the last three decades. Yes, I still believe that Man City are going to win the premiership in my lifetime ;) (2) Now I lack a subterranean space to stash my wine, I'm going to get some temperature-controlled storage. With global climate change and all that, summer 2003 might not be a one-off. (3) I really enjoy travelling, so I want to see some more wine regions this year. For various reasons I had to turn down three press trips at the end of last year; I'm going to try to get out more often in the next 12 months. (4) Finally, I'm going to improve wineanorak with more varied content and fresh features. Yes folks, I want to make this the most interesting stop on the web for wine information. Thanks for your support over the last year, and please visit often over the next. Friday
19th December The good news is that it’s still an interesting place to
shop for wine. Of course, the range has broadened somewhat, with a
corresponding (inevitable) loss of focus, but there is still a fine
selection of southern French oddities and small production wines.
Pascal Fulla’s Mas L’Ecriture, Remy Pedreno’s Roc d’Anglade,
Mas Jullien, Les Creisses, Aurelles, Ravanes and a host of others
(including Puffeney’s remarkable Arbois wines) are still sitting
there on the shelves. Portugal has been beefed up a bit with some more
from Raymond Reynolds’ portfolio, and Bordeaux, Burgundy and Italy
have also expanded. In the Alsace, it’s good to see that Marc
Kreydenweiss still has pole position, with support from Zind Humbrecht
and Trimbach. South Africa is now ‘overweight’ as the city boys
would say, but you can forgive Handford’s Greg Sherwood his passion
– he’s got the top names. What about prices? La Vigneronne
wasn’t the cheapest shop in the world; nor is Handford. If you are
in the market for these sorts of wines, by the bottle, in an expensive
neighbourhood, then you aren’t going to be looking to save a pound
or two. There’s continuity of staff, and the tasting program
continues – a relief to many wine geeks. All in all, I came away
quite encouraged. 18th December What about non-wine books? Although I love books, I’m not
a *serious* reader: after all, I gave up half way through the first
part of Proust’s classic work. Three favourite authors include one
fairly high-brow and two most definitely not. First, I’m a fan of Chaim
Potok, and have read everything he’s written. Start with My
name is Asher Lev. Second, I’ve also read everything by Nevil
Shute, a great storyteller who was busy writing either side of the
last world war. Most people’s exposure to Shute is through A town
like Alice and the rather depressing On the beach, but
I’d recommend digging further – Round
the bend is a
particular favourite. His writing style seems dated and a little
sentimental now, but they’re thoughtful, humane and very readable
books. Finally, it may damn me in the eyes of some of my readers, I
like Susan Howatch’s writing. I’m a slightly more selective
with her books, but I think that the Starbridge series (e.g. Glittering
Images) is brilliant,
and I’m also keen on the three more recent books that have been
spin-offs from the first series of five. My holiday reading, though,
will start with Primo Levi's Periodic Table, which I was given
yesterday as a gift. Wonder how far I'll get. Saturday
13th December Context:
It’s Thursday evening. Buoyed by my limited success at first-time
plumbing, I’ve just been attempting a bit of plastering. It’s
hard, and I’m rubbish at it, but it’s enjoyable having a go. Now
I’m sitting typing on my laptop while watching television, a glass
of wine by my side. The
wine in question is from Spain’s Ribero del Duero, made by a
producer I’m not familiar with. The label design is very Spanish and
quite traditional. With a picture of a couple of barrels on it, and
the designation ‘roble’, I’m getting a little worried. A common
theme with Spanish wines is that they’ve suffered from too much oak.
Often the problem with the traditional wines is that they spend a long
time in old American oak, which can confer a coconut and vanilla
character that I don’t like. The fruit has to be seriously intense
initially to withstand a long time in barrel, and often
traditional-style Riojas are dried out dominated by the sweet oak
characters. The barrels also need to be clean. And then the new wave
wines are often dominated by too much new oak—both are undesirable
in my book. So is this wine going to be flawed? Fortunately,
not. Or at least only a tiny bit. It has a lovely, beguiling nose with
vivid fruit coupled with smoky, slightly tarry oak notes together with
just a hint of vanilla and the tiniest whiff of coconut. It’s really
well balanced and quite elegant. There’s some spiciness, but the
overall impression is savoury and intense. There’s just enough
lifted acidity to bring the aromas out of the glass, but not enough to
cause any problems. The
programme I’m watching is BBC’s
flagship science series, Horizon. Generally this is a hugely
impressive production, let down a little by the odd episode that
allows the journalistic desire for a good story override scientific
considerations. Tonight it’s more technology than science, telling
the story of how in 1899 a Brit called Percy Pilcher could have beaten
the Wright brothers by being the first person to succeed with a
powered flight. He designed a plane but never got to fly it, and so
Horizon are trying to build his machine and put it to the test. Back
to the wine. The palate shows a lovely savoury character with dark
fruits, good acidity and smooth yet firm tannins. It’s quite
traditional in style but the intensity of fruit stands up well to the
oak (presumably a mix of new and old American oak, but this is just a
guess). The whole thing is wrapped up with a spicy, tarry finish.
You’d probably guess this as Spanish in a blind tasting because of
the oak, but it is very well done. A reasonably serious wine, I’d
give this 90/100. Yours for £10.95 from Lay & Wheeler. Thursday
11th December Tuesday 9th December
Thursday 4th December Haven’t opened any old wine
for a while, but I have been enjoying D’Arenberg’s Vintage
Fortified Shiraz 1999 (from Australia’s McLaren Vale) over recent
nights. It’s different in character to Port, although it is made in
the same way. There aren’t any Ports at this price (£13.99 per 75
cl bottle, Oddbins) that I’d prefer. It’s a wild wine, with hugely
concentrated sweet, ripe fruit with masses of tannic structure
balancing the sweetness. There’s some herby, red fruit complexity,
but it’s the purity of the fruit combined with the spicy structure
that makes this wine such a complete experience. I suspect it will
mellow with age for some decades to come, but it really is tasting
good now. No holds barred. Technology continues to progress
apace. Visiting the electronics shops on Tottenham Court Road the
other day I was bowled over the sophisticated gadgetry you can now get
for a dozen used twenties. Digital still cameras have doubled in
specification for the same price over the last year. Digital video
cameras are now about a third of the price they were when I was last
looking at them. Mobile phones are fantastically sophisticated,
although the choice and pricing is, I suspect, kept deliberately
complicated so that consumers can’t do a straight price comparison.
And of course computer processing speed has been on the rise for as
long as there have been computers – is Moore’s law ever going to
be broken? But Tottenham Court Road is not the best place to go for
customer service – it boasts some of the rudest, most disinterested
retail staff you’ll ever meet. One further thought: I reckon in
about 20 years time there’ll be a crisis of arthritis of the thumb
in people who today spend most of their lives texting and manipulating
their mobiles with dextrous, nimble thumb operation. Saturday 29th November Sunday 23rd November Saturday was the Decanter Fine Wine Encounter,
surely the best consumer wine tasting event in the calendar. Lots of
very good wines in the fine surroundings of the Landmark Hotel, with
Riedel glasses to taste from. I spent a few useful hours here and
among the most impressive wines were the following. Seresin,
from New Zealand, has to be one of this country’s very best
producers. Some excellent wines including a lush, elegant Pinot Noir,
a classy Chardonnay and a stunning oak aged Sauvignon. Torres
may be best known for their Vina Sol and Gran Sangredetoro (both
exemplary inexpensive everyday wines), but their premium range is also
excellent, my favourite being the Grans Muralles, a combination of
traditional Catalan grapes and slatey soils (licorella). López de
Heredia make stunning traditional white Rioja which is an acquired
taste and ages indefinitely. Jasper Hill, from the Heathcote
region of Victoria, makes one of Australia’s most compelling
expressions of Shiraz, with lovely vivid fruit. They are now following
biodynamic principles, and will soon be Demeter
certified. And I loved the elegance of the Château Brane
Cantenac 2000 from Margaux, while the second wine wasn’t far
behind. More to follow. Wednesday 19th November If I was a sophisticated intellectual, I’d be able to
roll off a list of high-brow art house movies that no one has ever
heard of, many of which are subtitled. I can’t. Alas, my diet in
films is restricted to the mainstream, with a larger than average
proportion of children’s movies courtesy of my 6 and 7 year old
boys. Perhaps that’s a good place to begin. We’ve recently seen
the first two Harry Potter movies, about a decade later than the rest
of the world. I’d always avoided them in the past, partly because I
thought our nippers were too young for them, and partly because I
don’t like the way that they’ve been forced down our throats with
all the incessant publicity and cross-promotional activity that has
accompanied their release. What changed? A couple of weeks back, a friend of ours who
works on film visual effects took the boys to see the set of the
fourth film, currently in production. They met Hagwid (sp?) and Harry
himself, and were given sweets from one of the shops on Daigon (sp?)
Alley, so we had to let the boys see the films themselves. They’re
not bad (the films, that is), with some clever touches, although the
breathless pace of the action is a bit wearing after a while. Like the
best kids’ films they appeal to adults as well as children, but I
don’t think they’d make my top 10 list of kids’ flicks. Instead,
names on this list would certainly include Shrek (looking
forward to a sequel), Hook (brilliant performance by Dustin
Hoffman as Hook and good support from Bob Hoskins as Smee, preventing
the film becoming yet another Robin Williams vehicle – Julia Roberts
is an excellent Tinks, too), George of the Jungle (it’s very,
very funny in a corny sort of way), the Grinch (quirky but
compelling, a role made for Jim Carrey), Matilda (you must
see this brilliant adaptation of a very funny Roald Dahl story) and Toy
Story 2 (creative and fun). I’m sure there are more. On a rather more grown-up level I find it hard to pick a favourite film top 10 list, but contenders would be Mike Leigh’s Secrets and Lies (a poignant story with brilliant performances by Brenda Blethyn and Timothy Spall, which builds up to a wonderful final scene), Notting Hill (so well crafted – is this the perfect romantic comedy?) and Raising Arizona (off-beat, quirky comic offering from the Coen brothers). That’s just for starters. Strangely (or not?) I can’t think of a film centred around wine, or even with wine as a significant component or backdrop. |
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kitchen
with a new range cooker (gas connected today) and American
style fridge freezer. There'll be room for a wine cabinet. The
bathroom (right) is equally unfinished, but we have a
lovely bath, sink and toilet installed and working, with the
shower and boxing in of the boiler and cylinder yet to happen.
It's surprising how quickly you get used to living in a
building site. Last night had a surprisingly good £2.99 wine
- the Tesco Simply Gewurztraminer, a fresh, fruity,
grapey white with good balance and without that rather
perfumed, confected character inexpensive Gewurztraminer
sometimes has. It's from the reliable Hilltop winery in
Hungary.