Wine Fictions

 A couple of months ago I have gone through a rather emotional moment as a shelf I have just started putting my wines in the basement has suddenly fallen apart.  I can not really find the appropriate words to describe the shock it has taken over me as I have seen an almost literal river of wine gurgling out of the broken bottles invading the basement of my neighbours as well.   After having cleaned a mess of broken glasses that were swimming in a dark and almost viscous liquid that has left an intense smell all over the garage attracting a huge number of neighbours that have came to witness my misery, I have decided not to have a look at what I have lost.  I know there were a couple of bottles that I have bought for a special moment but, instead of looking to what I have lost, I have decided to celebrate the ones that have survived.  One of them was this Bastardo from Casa da Passarella. And I couldn't be more happy about it.  This has been a wine that...

 How much is a wine worth? The other day a customer has asked me for a special bottle for a birthday. Knowing that the birthday girl is a huge fan of voluminous Chardonnays, I have decided to get a rather exclusive bottle of Cervaro della Sala as I was asked to get something more unique than what you can normally get. Made by one of the most prestigious wine-making Italian families it is a 90% Chardonnay with 10% Grechetto, where the dominant Chardonnay is matured in oak barrels, granting it a Burgundian stylistic. I thought this would be a perfect choice, but in the day of opening the bottle, the birthday girl has shown no big enthusiasm about it leaving a generous amount for me to drink later on with some friends. It's good but not worth the price, she said.  Even though this has arisen in me considerable uncertainties about my choice they were not as extreme as when trying the wine later on with a friend of mine who has a very sensitive and accurate palate. He said the bitt...

 With the Evid-Action program entering a new and more ambitious round this October, it is no big surprise to see a higher demand for alcohol free alternatives.  This is something that is also noticeable at the shop where I work. More and more people come around expressing their concerns about the consumption of alcohol and asking for alternatives to be present at their table.  Even though my first comment tends to be for the customers to drink less but better, I do recognize and understand this general worry.   Having a toddler home, I also look a bit around what the market has to offer in this particular segment that has been growing in quite a fascinating and fast way. And that's how I came across this alcohol free Lambrusco. Recommended by a friend who works in a wine shop close to where I live, I have recently bought a bottle.  Even though it has 8 grams of residual sugar, which is not really atypical for a Lambrusco, it reveals itself as pleasantly f...

 It is now a couple of months that I am getting a newsletter from a wine shop where a wine from this winery is wrongly written. Fara insted of Fata may seem, and it sure is, a simple typing mistake, but week after week it seems to me rather sloven as if no care is being paid to it. Another example is on this flyer that I have found at a shop where there's a picture of a Shyraz bottle, with a title of a GSM and as a grape it is given Cabernet Sauvignon. Puzzling, to say the least. What about the following?  A complete disconnection between image and content. A wine from Valencia with the description of a Portuguese Vinho Verde. I believe no further comments are needed.  Having recently been busy ordering wine online for a wedding to which I was responsible to do the wine pairing I have come across countless mistakes and texts which varied from a lyrical romanticism to pure carelessness in order to try to feed people's fantasies about what wine really is in a strange cock...

"Decía que la comida acompana al vino y no al revés."  "She would say that food accompanies wine and not the other way round" When reaching page 394 from Aranburu's Los Vencejos  you come across this sentence which has conquered me a genuine smile.  Having felt for a couple of days like opening this Xarel.lo, I have spent quite some time deciding what to cook with it.  After having opened it for a first trying sip, my primary ideas have started to develop into something more concrete.  Its apricot dominant fruit embraced by a pleasant bitter almond which confers some freshness to it made it seducing from the first moment. There are also some notes of conference pear and white flowers. It has a rather light and delicate orange colour. This is quite a clean orange wine that can definitely conquer some more skeptical drinkers when you offer them a nature wine.  To accompany it, I have decided to cook some filled bell peppers with rice, capers, borettane and fi...

 I know that this is a more than recurrent theme in this blog but, somehow, I have no way to go around it.  Literature and wine.  How can literature influence you at the time you are about to decide what to drink? Wanting a wine to accompany a stew to inaugurate the end of the summer around here I went to my basement and made a selection of three wines that could accompany it. It is, for me, not uncommon to make a pre-selection of wines, bring them up to my apartment and see how a certain dish is developing, ending up making the final decision in a more emotional way where the doors to my unknown hidden wishes are opened.  Right, this must have been too much, but it is just how I feel about it.  As soon as I have got home, I have put  a Ribera del Duero Crianza, a Monastrell from Jumilla and this Priorat that was the chosen one to be open on the table. Only Spanish wines, I immediately thought . Not having that many Spanish wines in my private collection I ...