It is lovely to be back enjoying wine, beers and spirits; as well as my blog I also host Cuvée Reserve, an online wine forum that is full of great reviews. A sign of recovery is having a wine to post about; it's a great place to share discoveries of, and discover new wine. Pop along and join in our wine discussions at Cuvée Reserve,
It was so nice to be able to taste again and enjoy the white fruit, apple and hint of raspberry flavours with the super toasty finish. The bubbles were a delight to watch; tiny, fast flowing in the pale gold liquid ... a super glass to enjoy on the road to recovery.
During our staycation we have been enjoying video calls with our family and friends. Every Saturday a group of us chat together and the last two weeks have managed to play Tivial Pursuits. I won't lie it took a bit of setting up with camera permissions on the laptop and dialling in on different accounts but it was great fun and I do look forward to our Saturday Nights In.
Last week I opened a favourite from Majestic Wine - Bienbebido Pulpo Albarino Although I'm not a huge fan of Spanish wine I do enjoy Albarino with it's citrussy flavours along with a good depth of apple, nice dry finish and a long length. I've enjoyed this before with seafood but I quite like it on it's own; served chilled it was perfect on our Games Night.
When we visit our daughter in Cardiff we usually pop by Fine Wines Direct as they have some great wines we don't see in other places. We especially like their Franschhoek Cellar range and one of our recent openings was Old Town Hall Unoaked Chardonnay with its pineapple and tropical flavours. It is an elegant Chardonnay with a lovely finish, we enjoyed this with a chicken roast dinner, perfect!
Three other wines we opened this month were from Australia and were all new to us as they were part of a case of wine I won in a competition. Sadly the first wine we opened, Plane Turning Right, was a disappointment. Although screw cap we would have said it was corked as it had a musty, sour vinegar taste. Being a wine we didn't know we left it a day but it was no better, more sour if anything. A real shame as looking online it isn't a cheap bottle.
We did however enjoy the Ocean Eight Pinot Noir 2015. This Mornington Peninsula wine had great colour and great flavour. Plenty of dark fruits and cherries with an earthiness giving it great depth, lovely soft tannins lead to a good length on its finish. I very much enjoyed this wine, one to look out for.
The third in this trio was Oliver's Taranga Tempranillo, unusual to have a Tempranillo from Australia. It isn't my favourite grape and I just cannot take to Spanish Rioja so I was keen to try this ... great fruit with a touch of herb and mocha, some vanilla hinting at being in oak barrels, but not really for me although Hubby enjoyed it.
April has been a sunny bright month weather wise, we've been enjoying the outdoors as I recover from my operation. We received some fantastic news last Friday; although I still need more chemotherapy and radiotherapy (bye bye taste buds) the results from my operation show all the cancer was removed.
To celebrate we had a video call with our daughter who lives in Wales with her partner. They opened a bottle of Nicolas Feuillatte Rosé champagne and we opened a very special bottle from Andrieux-Lefort a small champagne house we discovered in Challons. If you are ever near Epernay it really is worth visiting, their champagne is superb.
It's been great enjoying wine again, it's been lovely to taste my gin and tonics too. Over the next few months my wine drinking may again be on hold but I have a couple of bottles if Sancerre in the cellar, bottles we brought back from our super holiday last September.
I'm hoping by the time my treatments are done the sun will be shining, we'll be allowed to be with family and friends and we can have a real celebration ...... stay safe everyone 🥂
My two favourite comfort wines are Cellier des Dauphins and Il Papavero Rosso. Both these wines are super examples of their source regions, good wine, good flavours, reliable quality at a good price.
Cellier des Dauphins is a Cotes du Rhone wine Hubby and I have enjoyed for many, many years whilst holidaying in France. It's been a delight to find the wine available in the UK, in recent years under the Les Dauphins label but now under the original French labelling of Celliers des Dauphins.
Il Papavero Rosso from Laithwaites or The Sunday Times Wine Club was my Dad's favourite wine. It's a great Italian blend of Sangiovese, Abruzzi Montepulciano, Negroamaro and Nero d'Avola, which we enjoyed with homemade lasagne.
For me, and I guess for most, my favourite wines are wines I have connections with. These can be memories of the occasion they were opened, where I was when I discovered the wine, a special gift given or because we have visited the vineyard and dicovered the wine first hand.
There has been a hugely successful campaign on social media during the restrictions of Covid-19 about English wine and on April 10th using #theBIGenglishwinegoodfriday there were many bottles opened and reviews shared across Instagram and Twitter.
In 2018 Hubby and I, with four friends, visited Oatley Vineyard in Somerset. It was a super day, a little chilly as early in the year but we not only tasted some delicious wines but learnt so much about the different grapes and how the vineyard is managed. I blogged about our visit, you can read it here - Oatley Vineyard
Our #theBIGenglishwinegoodfriday offering was one of the remaining bottles from our visit, Leonora's 2014. A beautifully clear wine in the glass with a slight darker yellow glistening through. It's nose had floral notes with a hint of sherbet, its flavour was full of lemon with just a little pineapple. We both thoroughly enjoyed our Oatley wine and will one day be calling by again.
During our staycation we have been enjoying video calls with our family and friends. Every Saturday a group of us chat together and the last two weeks have managed to play Tivial Pursuits. I won't lie it took a bit of setting up with camera permissions on the laptop and dialling in on different accounts but it was great fun and I do look forward to our Saturday Nights In.
Last week I opened a favourite from Majestic Wine - Bienbebido Pulpo Albarino Although I'm not a huge fan of Spanish wine I do enjoy Albarino with it's citrussy flavours along with a good depth of apple, nice dry finish and a long length. I've enjoyed this before with seafood but I quite like it on it's own; served chilled it was perfect on our Games Night.
When we visit our daughter in Cardiff we usually pop by Fine Wines Direct as they have some great wines we don't see in other places. We especially like their Franschhoek Cellar range and one of our recent openings was Old Town Hall Unoaked Chardonnay with its pineapple and tropical flavours. It is an elegant Chardonnay with a lovely finish, we enjoyed this with a chicken roast dinner, perfect!
Three other wines we opened this month were from Australia and were all new to us as they were part of a case of wine I won in a competition. Sadly the first wine we opened, Plane Turning Right, was a disappointment. Although screw cap we would have said it was corked as it had a musty, sour vinegar taste. Being a wine we didn't know we left it a day but it was no better, more sour if anything. A real shame as looking online it isn't a cheap bottle.
We did however enjoy the Ocean Eight Pinot Noir 2015. This Mornington Peninsula wine had great colour and great flavour. Plenty of dark fruits and cherries with an earthiness giving it great depth, lovely soft tannins lead to a good length on its finish. I very much enjoyed this wine, one to look out for.
The third in this trio was Oliver's Taranga Tempranillo, unusual to have a Tempranillo from Australia. It isn't my favourite grape and I just cannot take to Spanish Rioja so I was keen to try this ... great fruit with a touch of herb and mocha, some vanilla hinting at being in oak barrels, but not really for me although Hubby enjoyed it.
April has been a sunny bright month weather wise, we've been enjoying the outdoors as I recover from my operation. We received some fantastic news last Friday; although I still need more chemotherapy and radiotherapy (bye bye taste buds) the results from my operation show all the cancer was removed.
To celebrate we had a video call with our daughter who lives in Wales with her partner. They opened a bottle of Nicolas Feuillatte Rosé champagne and we opened a very special bottle from Andrieux-Lefort a small champagne house we discovered in Challons. If you are ever near Epernay it really is worth visiting, their champagne is superb.
It's been great enjoying wine again, it's been lovely to taste my gin and tonics too. Over the next few months my wine drinking may again be on hold but I have a couple of bottles if Sancerre in the cellar, bottles we brought back from our super holiday last September.
I'm hoping by the time my treatments are done the sun will be shining, we'll be allowed to be with family and friends and we can have a real celebration ...... stay safe everyone 🥂
2 comments:
Stay safe, Clare. It's good that you have your taste buds back for a while and can enjoy a glass of wine.
A lovely pic of you all smiling in the midst of things. Take care x
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