Decadent
Well, today's the sort of day that just makes you lose all hope. Grey skies, pouring with rain ALL day. Doesn't make you enthuse about starting, and before you know it, half the day's gone, nothing's achieved. Most of the jobs are rained off; the bike project slips and slips behind schedule, you're wasting your leave and you're asking just what the point is? A good job I had a small blast of a night last night then, to compensate for it ahead of schedule.
Was supposed to be dining in company last night, but that didn't happen so I broke my golden rule and dined solo for once; glad I did; as much as it makes me look like Jonny No-Life. A wine tasting at Abbey's winebar; the place locally where all tasty and good things are to be found. It was Eastern European evening, "We're back in the USSR.... well, not quite". A Leffe from the tap to sort myself while they bring menus and starters and things; much nicer than the bottled stuff you get in the supermarket; a bit of a fruity edge to it. Nice. And then tucked into the wine.
A couple of Chardonnay's to kick off with. Tirneva from Bulgaria to start; creamy, vanilla'ish, fruity with that dry chardonnay bite hidden in the background somewhere; and the Riverview Chardonnay/Pinot Grigio hybrid from Hungary... I'm going to talk about "nose" and you're really going to have to shoot me for being pretentious but this stuff smelt almost too good to drink, fruity and once again the dry bite you'd expect from a Charders was there but in the background. Both very, very drinkable and shows up what rubbish gets pumped into the mass supermarket 'market.
A Hungarian Rose next, Riverview again, made with Merlot grapes. Very strawberry, oh my god I can really smell these things. If I start enthusing and saying "I'm getting strawberry, I'm getting cinnamon", call the police. Hey ho, I'm at the end of my Gulyasheves Stroganoff now and they're bringing on the the cheeseboard, the port and soon the reds. Probably going to be last bash at a cheeseboard for a while, I suspect this is the sort of thing my doc's going to forbid quite shortly, so treated myself to Linconshire Poacher; Stilton; a frankly outrageous german hybrid of Camembert and Gorgonzola called Cambozola (worth looking out for); and some lovely Wensleydale; and port. Ah, the reds. A Prahova valley '04 Merlot from Romania; like having your nose dipped in fruit, tastes like you're swimming in it. The write up says' it's "typical". Typical, my arse. They started to up the stakes towards the end, with a Tirneva '06 Cab/Sauv from Bulgaria, darker and scarier than the previous, a percent stronger and drier, although still not especially in your face, fruity, spicy and nice. And finished up with another Riverview from Hungary, another Merlot but a very different kettle of fish from the Romanian; a bit one to finish, far more like the reds I'm used to, fruity on the nose but very bold on the tastebuds. Or was it just that they were totally raddled? It's a possibility !
Was toying with the idea of going and finding a pub afterwards, but after all that high living it seemed rather a shame so I just sloped off, or wobbled off as the case may be to find a taxi. I suspect the quack is going to disapprove of that sort of thing, but damnit it's a taste of proper civilisation in this godforsaken town, so more power to it is what I say. Fizzy wines next month, which I'm not so bothered with. But it'll be a jolly night out anyway.
Was supposed to be dining in company last night, but that didn't happen so I broke my golden rule and dined solo for once; glad I did; as much as it makes me look like Jonny No-Life. A wine tasting at Abbey's winebar; the place locally where all tasty and good things are to be found. It was Eastern European evening, "We're back in the USSR.... well, not quite". A Leffe from the tap to sort myself while they bring menus and starters and things; much nicer than the bottled stuff you get in the supermarket; a bit of a fruity edge to it. Nice. And then tucked into the wine.
A couple of Chardonnay's to kick off with. Tirneva from Bulgaria to start; creamy, vanilla'ish, fruity with that dry chardonnay bite hidden in the background somewhere; and the Riverview Chardonnay/Pinot Grigio hybrid from Hungary... I'm going to talk about "nose" and you're really going to have to shoot me for being pretentious but this stuff smelt almost too good to drink, fruity and once again the dry bite you'd expect from a Charders was there but in the background. Both very, very drinkable and shows up what rubbish gets pumped into the mass supermarket 'market.
A Hungarian Rose next, Riverview again, made with Merlot grapes. Very strawberry, oh my god I can really smell these things. If I start enthusing and saying "I'm getting strawberry, I'm getting cinnamon", call the police. Hey ho, I'm at the end of my Gulyasheves Stroganoff now and they're bringing on the the cheeseboard, the port and soon the reds. Probably going to be last bash at a cheeseboard for a while, I suspect this is the sort of thing my doc's going to forbid quite shortly, so treated myself to Linconshire Poacher; Stilton; a frankly outrageous german hybrid of Camembert and Gorgonzola called Cambozola (worth looking out for); and some lovely Wensleydale; and port. Ah, the reds. A Prahova valley '04 Merlot from Romania; like having your nose dipped in fruit, tastes like you're swimming in it. The write up says' it's "typical". Typical, my arse. They started to up the stakes towards the end, with a Tirneva '06 Cab/Sauv from Bulgaria, darker and scarier than the previous, a percent stronger and drier, although still not especially in your face, fruity, spicy and nice. And finished up with another Riverview from Hungary, another Merlot but a very different kettle of fish from the Romanian; a bit one to finish, far more like the reds I'm used to, fruity on the nose but very bold on the tastebuds. Or was it just that they were totally raddled? It's a possibility !
Was toying with the idea of going and finding a pub afterwards, but after all that high living it seemed rather a shame so I just sloped off, or wobbled off as the case may be to find a taxi. I suspect the quack is going to disapprove of that sort of thing, but damnit it's a taste of proper civilisation in this godforsaken town, so more power to it is what I say. Fizzy wines next month, which I'm not so bothered with. But it'll be a jolly night out anyway.
posted by Fred the Singing Bandit at 10:57 am
1 Comments:
Oh so next month's write up could run the lines of Codhead's explode the myth that Lambrini is the chosen wine of the stilletto'd and besocked class.
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