botanical booboos

taphrom cliche

sidd

theft 2

wat singa

baksei chamkrong singa

phimeanakas singa

mo bayon

bayon b & w

theft

lunch saturday

at the usual place with one suspect only .... filial duties had the other occupied.

bricco asili barbaresco bernardot 2003 (ceretto)
garnet; dried flowers, cherry, plum, cedar, cinnamon?, mint/menthol, tar on the nose; a little cherry which quickly gives way to nice ripe plum and wood; nice acid and fine tannins but not yet intergrated; longish finish; slight bitterness at the very end; better with food, in this case braised pork ribs, where the fruit, acid and tannins seem to meld together; see it in 2-3 years?; 14%. BANG!then trapiche iscay 2003
some sort of merlot and malbec blend from mendoza.dark ruby; vanilla,vanilla, vanilla, wood, plum, blackcurrent on the nose; fruit, fruit, fruit, plum and blackcurrent; very fine tannins; nice gentle acid; longish; big wine; a very smooth drop but at this stage, too much wood for me; "food" wine ie. have it for lunch ... on its own. FIZZLE!

isn't wengker a lucky sod?

new brooms for the very rich,

blue
light blue

nu kit

... not so sure about this. not distinctive at all and where are the all white sleeves?

mo cheap plonk?

some Vino "Nobile(?)" di Montepulciano fellas are now being investigated.

reckon this is just a tuscan thing or could it get bigger ... ? anyway the bouquet of declassified wine hangs heavy in the air ... ha.

a po weekend

forsaken by the usual suspects last friday (okay, being overly dramatic ...), it was a dry day i tell you, dry...

anyway had a gg batie 2003 for dinner (which was great and free, again) on saturday .... jammy and tarry nose, flavourless, tart, flat and sad ... odd bottle methinks. FIZZLE!

had an isole and olena chianti classico 2003 for sunday lunch.
ruby; lifted strawberry and cherry, smoke and alcohol on nose; again, strawb, cherry, fine tannins and acid on palate; light bodied and of medium length; tart and fresh fruity finish (what did you expect from a std. chianti?); very nice; food wine, man; bucatinni amatriciana and pork scallopine with mushroom sauce; 13.5%. BANG! [only just, restaurant markup].

hen's teeth

looking for some party wine for a friend's 80th birthday do, about 130 pax. finding stuff that's good and reasonably priced in this place is hard, to say the least. fingers crossed.

update: drinking above their price, nice:
best's victorian shiraz 2003 and grant burge barossa vines chardonnay 2006. BANG! BANG!

tea time

been dry for days so it was off to the regular haunt. the conch blown and usual suspects tapped up.

bricco rocche barolo prapo 2001 (ceretto)
garnet, bricking; plum, cedar, tobacco (? was having the real thing), orange peel; palate fresh, cherry, plum (fresh and preserved), hint of coffee; medium bodied; fine tannins (lots but soft and not at all mouthpuckering); acid obvious but gentle; fruit and wood coming together; long finish; bit of roast pork with it; you can keep the darjeeling and scones. BANG!

14.5% ... but didn't taste like it.

liebfraumilch, not

had both of these recently. next-to-basic teutonic rieslings.
1) dr loosen bernkasteler lay riesling kabinett 2006
light yellow (citrine?...wanker); spritzig, lime rind, apple and a little kero on nose; follows through onto palate with some ripe pear (?); off dry is very nice but this one is just a little too sweet but luckily there's some nice acid which attempts to balance that; palate a little "disjointed" ie. starts tart, sweet and limey/ rind and then abruptly turns grapey, flabby, sugery and cloying (like 2 different drinks)...weird; light/medium bodied; medium length; need to give this one another try. FIZZLE!

2)dr loosen graacher himmelreich riesling kabinett 2006
much better ... again light yellow (well, the place i had it was dimly lit); lime/lemon rind and apple on the nose (but somehow not an emphatic as the one above); this follows through onto palate plus grape juice with some nice acid to balance things off; sweeter than off dry but bearable; light/medium bodied; long; balanced; nice indeed. BANG! [only just, bit too sweet].

both at 7.5% ...

update recently read this post

err ... the latte tastes a little strange today

just had to fiddle

a little red

sunday last

howard park chardonnay 2005 [great southern]

light yellow; peach, lime or grapefuit rind and toast on the nose; follows through to the palate plus some oak and maybe some green apple; that rind thing was obvious; not a fruit bomb kind of experience (thankfully); [flavours confirmed by altogether less abused taste receptors residing in a 13 year old, and before anyone shouts child abuse, it was only 2 test drops]. not very rich (but a bit more so than the chablis had earlier); light/medium bodied; fine tannins and balanced acidity; sleek; did i hear rich seafood? BANG!

had it with 2 versions of the same seafood risotto recipe courtesy of friends who feed me for free.

knocked off a bottle of ceretto monsordo (la bernadina) 2002 thereafter. BANG!

you get thirsty wondering what's for dinner

had the joseph drouhin chablis 1er cru 2005 last saturday pre-dinner.
straw; citrus, spice (hint), peach?...er...apple?(hint), some honey on the nose; medium bodied...lemon, lemon rind, mineral (suck on a pebble...) and buttery (very little) flavours; smooth and savoury; longish; not the crisp and tart kind of drink but refreshing; and refreshingly different from the more mouthfilling and richer chards from further south and the nu world. BANG!

on the other hand, some of the others thought it a bit too lean and mean.

polycarb and straw

this 10 yr old is noe that bad (the phroaig prince)

43%
light amber. burnt/grilled seaweed (sushi bar?), hint of pear, smoke,burnt rubber?, peat, iodine on the nose. big and rich palate [dried seaweed, malt, smoke/burnt toast?]. salty, especially with a little water. long finish, smoke, peat, iodine and malt lingers. warming. slight alcohol burn.

40% (this is all that's available at duty free shops now...)
very similar to the 43, what did you expect? but not so rich and mouthfilling.

this pleb likes the stuff ... specially with friends after a hard day. medicinal?... too right ... and all the better for it. for those less enamoured, there's always the other nice stuff from the mainland.

cheers and BANG!

speaking of new zealand ...

grass for chockies ... must be something in the water down there .... hmmmmmm

come on, its just a shirt

a friend needed a soccer jersey for his birthday ... he barracks for the epl champs ( what does he know, he's 9). so off i go to the sports goods store to find one ... nearly called the cops ... the word "theft" inexplicably came to mind after being told the price. this is what happens when you pay wayne the equivalent of new zealand's gdp every week. one sans the badge with the horny guy only costs half as much.

told the little fella that i could get a very nice bottle of red for the price ...... said he doesn't drink .................... yet.

there's hope for this young man.

update: soccer boots? another bottle ...

then do it!

wengker says: " i want to sign experience and talent"

... hopefully both in the same package ...

neb and stu

being cheap, had dinner at a friend's (actually "friends'") on the weekend.

lambshank (hey, what else?) stew ... very2 good. this was not the heavy version. it was almost soupy ... actually, it was. visual impressions can be deceiving ... looked bland ... but boy, was i wrong. the gravy/soup(?) was really rich, with meat, root vegies (potatoes and carrots) and herb flavours melded perfectly. forget the solid bits, felt like all i needed was a straw. didn't actually happen, had heaps of meat ... greed is good. i normally like my meat gamey but didn't miss it this time. crusty baguette, heaps of butter (salted!!!) and some alchohol was all that's needed to complete the meal.
prunotto babaresco 2001 chased the food down during the meal. basic stuff that's fortunately, easily found in these parts and as economical as it gets for a decent nebbiolo (which means it's still too bloody expensive). seemed correct for the meal ...

garnet; berries (not the dark stuff {cran?}), hint o dried flowers/violets and menthol/tar (every bottle tried had this characteristic); light/medium bodied; fruit (berries ... plums) , menthol (again, hint), some sweetness (front and mid palate) but finishes dry of course; nice and fine tanins; could do with a bit more acid; quite long; went down well i'd say. BANG!

loaf

needs a bit of work

desatch

outside

the cheap plonk keeps flowing

it would seem that Antinori has declassified the 2003 Pian delle Vigne which will be released as an IGT ........... mwahahahaha

you cheat you pay

in my case, i'll pay less

update: they didn't declassify ... premature celebration ... sigh

mud & anticipation

we're now hlebless but will it also be goodbayor emmanuel?

just cross me palm with silver

nice pharmacy

chain store serving the blue brand ... aromatic, not very rich and not very long ... but generally, better than the "silly" one more frequently encountered. although it goes without saying (... then why am i?) that both are always better than the buckyboo stuff.

10th august 2003-4th may 2008 (a great innings)

adieu mathieu

no one is indispensible but how did it reach the stage where his contract ran out? doesn't wengker have a pda or something to remind him? we could have made a tidy sum ...jeez

ok ... where is it then?

just looked up

dinner up north [mobile report ... can be done but the handset's little keyboard is a real pain and it's messy too ... pass the napkin, please]

fantodi chianti classico 2004

dark red/ruby clear; cherry, floral notes and some oak on the nose; follows onto the palate with fruit/plum and acid like a chianti should; obvious tannins (but ripe); some bitterness at the end; medium bodied and not very long but flavours spread across back before fading ... base model chianti classico but fortunately quite nice; markup on retail is outrageous at this place and dulls the fun somewhat. POP!(+)
[monstrous restaurant markup].

spinach and ricotta ravioli in a sage and butter sauce and eggplant parmagiana. just finished the 2 ... waiting for mains ...

angelhair with a ham (san daniele), walnut and cream sauce and oven-roasted herbed lamb chops.

no dessert ... lattes and shots (ordinary "silly" coffee ... smooth but lightweight).

been coming to this place almost every visit to this town, over the last 6-7 years ... doesn't seem to be so much fun now... still waddled off stuffed though.