Heavenly Twins

Some time back in the spring - the dates are bobbing about a bit, but I thought I'd like to share the cartoon, anyway. Earlier this year half a dozen regular DECANTER contributors were asked to choose their 'desert island wine': the one wine they could choose to drink happily for the rest of their lives if they had to. Quite a few people chose vintage Champagne, although they didn't reveal how they'd store it or chill it on a desert island. My own response was unequivocal and rooted in practicality:

There is no contest here. It would have to be a wine which goes with every kind of food, which could be enjoyed at any reasonable temperature, ambient or chilled, which wouldn't go 'off' and which didn't need kid-glove treatment to show at its best. I'm talking about the world's finest wine, of course: Sherry, and particularly a dry Amontillado. I'd have to select the cabeceo myself to make sure that it really was a solera-aged Fino and not the 'medium' blended stuff which masquerades under the name in so much of the UK trade, and I think something with an average age of about 15-20 years would hit the spot. As a child, from the age of about 12, I was allowed a very small glass of Sherry once a year on Christmas morning. It was probably to get me back to sleep, but the magic of those moments has never left me.

By chance, the charming Sarah Jane Evans, quite independently, chose exactly the same wine. The magazine decided to illustrate the piece not with our usual mugshots but with a cartoon, which Sarah Jane dubbed 'The Heavenly Twins'. I insist that I'm not that fat, although Jill says I am!

Cartoon by Chris Burke - www.chrisburke.org.uk

John Radford's WineWire - 1 - Autumn 2009

01-Oct-09 - One of the reasons for the current drought on the blog regarding tastings, etc., is the birth of JOHN RADFORD'S WINE WIRE which, from this quarter, is being published as a supplement to YES CHEF! Magazine. Ever since we launched YC! (and it'll be three years next spring) I've felt that, as well as content relevant to chefs and restaurateurs it should also have something for sommeliers: new wines, new vintages, 'off the wall' stuff' and tastings of some of the many samples which find their way to The Eversley. The first issue is now out featuring Jadot Burgundy (the 2007 vintage and the 2003/4 revisited) as well as red German wines and other bits and pieces about what's happening in the wine world. The next issue will feature wines from Corsica, Navarra, California, Priorat and Australia and, well, anything else that crops up between now and deadline. To read the autumn, 2009 issue click here.

Autumn in the Rheinhessen

03-06-Sep-09 - Things are getting a bit out of order at the moment thanks to pressure of work, so yet again the rest of the June trip to Catalunya has been delayed but it WILL appear in due course. In the meantime, going back before Sally and Wig's wedding I was lucky enough to go on a trip to the Rheinhessen, courtesy of the local generic body. I wasn't able to write about it before as elements of it were due to be published in YES CHEF! Magazine as well as CIRCLE UPDATE but time has moved on and the .pdf is now on file. It involves visits and tastings, particularly of Silvaner and Pinot Noir wines from the Rheinhessen - two grapes not really rated as recently as 10 years ago but now pulling their weight with a vengeance. Anyway, to read the full story, please click here. The 'Wine Supplement' mentioned in the text refers to John Radford's WineWire, for which see the following post.