Trains, Trains and Rioja 2004

12-13-Nov-08 - Off to London again to taste Rioja 2004 at Decanter magazine at the Blue Fin Building in the city. [Anorak Alert Ahead] This means a train to London Bridge and, as the tastings start at 10:30 that means the 08:35 from Worthing and changing on to Thameslink (or whatever it's called these days) at some point between Brighton and East Croydon. I usually change at East Croydon because it means I have an hour in a comfortable Southern 377 before having to board one of those rattley old 319s for the fifteen minutes to LBG. The last twice, however, the train from Croydon has been packed like a sardine-tin, so for day one I decided to change at Haywards Heath. There were, indeed, a few seats, but not all that many and, again, by Croydon it was stuffed. Why they run four-car trains at that time of day I really can't understand. On day two I took the advice of the National Rail website and changed at Hassocks. I got a seat but it did mean over an hour in an increasingly cramped and under-ventilated train. On day one, having a sandwich after the tasting, I had realised that I could see Blackfriars station out of the window, just across the river. So, on day two I went to and from Blackfriars, got a seat in both directions without trouble (apart from almost suffocating on the way up), changed to a proper train at Croydon on the way down and saved a couple of quid on taxi fares. Result. [End of Anorak Alert].

As to the tasting itself, I can't talk about the results until they're published in the magazine, but suffice it to say that I tasted 81 wines over the two days along with half a dozen fellow sippers under the guidance of the alluring Christelle Guibert. The wines were, in the main very good (I gave a lot of 16s, fourteen 17s, four 18s and, astonishingly, five 19s - there were some real stonkers there), but 2004 was officially classified as an excelente year. The full results will be published in the April issue of the magazine. One point about this big corporate headquarters is the catering: after the second tasting and the taste-off for the final awards, they served up merguez and mash with onion marmalade - the ultimate comfort food - and we finished off the trophy bottles with it. It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it.