Big Chill
POSTED ON 24/07/2010I can’t remember a time when there were as many refreshingly drinkable reds for summer as there are today. I don’t think it’s just my own taste that’s changed but I’m increasingly attracted in summer to red wines that are light to medium in body, that have little or no oak, and that do a wine’s job, often just lightly chilled, of refreshing the parts. These are wine that don’t leave you feeling that you’ve been dealt a right hook to the stomach of oak, an uppercut of tannin to the mouth and then floored by a whack of knee-shattering alcohol.
The Riesling Why
POSTED ON 17/07/2010If I had £1 for every time I read that the riesling revival was just around the corner, I’d be laughing. And if I were a rich man, oy, I’d fill my cellar with lots of 2009 German riesling. In fact, compared to much extravagantly priced 2009 Bordeaux, current offers of 2009 German riesling look positively cheap. Riesling generally is good value. Which brings me back to the revival, if that’s the right word for something that never really happened in the first place.
Bordeaux Bubble
POSTED ON 10/07/2010‘Let them drink wine’ goes the cry in Bordeaux as the gap between the Marie Antoinette haves and the sans-culotte have-nots widens. After months of dragging their heels, the bordelais have pronounced, or their cash registers at least have rung to a familiar tune. All the tricks of the Bordeaux trade were deployed to stoke demand for the 2009 vintage. According to the wine exchange, Livex, average price rises over the great 2005 vintage were up 13 per cent until mid-June vintage. Between the 14 and 18 June, they went up to 29 per cent.
Hot Stuff
POSTED ON 03/07/2010I’m not sure who decided that the only drink for curry is lager. It’s true that chilli can be as much an enemy of wine as chocolate and vinaigrette, but it doesn’t have to be. If the spicing is subtle, as it often is in better Indian restaurants in the UK, or, dare I suggest it, in ready-made Indian meals, a good choice of wine can be a thoroughly satisfying partner to Indian food. Why confine it to wine? If you can break through another cultural barrier, sake is a rice-based drink that goes naturally with Indian food.
