A day of friendly returns

Back to the writting over here after a long hiatus due to other projects and blogs. Its a day of lovely returns, a day of 2 tastings and a lovely gathering after with long missed friends. It shall get funky!

Keep tuned as there will be a series of new posts soon.

P.S. - I really, but really want to go to the new orleans festival!!!

Feel like funkin' it up

Tonight will be another amazing display of new orleans jazz spirit, the rebirth brass band is playing at ronnie scotts.

Really can't wait for it, here is a taste!

@imbibeuk

A wake up quite early on my day off in order to attend #imbibelive 2013.
Really looking forward to a whole day of training sessions, tastings  and friends sharing the passion.
Expect a whole day of posts and notes as I start with Bordeaux and have a lunch session on Riesling and food.

See you around!

South Africa - On being dazzled, or how a different selection will broaden your concepts!

One must start by stating one´s own personal interests.

And I have no financial interest with South Africa, I have a soft spot for it! Its the climate, its the nature, its the history (a note on my wishes of a good recovery for Nelson Mandela, a man who changed the course of the world, an inspiration and a hero for me), its is also the wine.

I remember reading this article: 
http://www.winereviewonline.com/Michael_Franz_South_Africa_Update_Thirteen.cfm 
that considers South Africa as the fastest improving wine country and thinking that as much as I found SA wines really good, there was not many new producers, with different styles to make such a statement. I had the pleasure of being proved wrong.

Last week I attended a Wine Press tasting organized by WOSA with a selection just over 100 wines from producers under 35 years old, a new vision and a new know how for the renewed force of SA wines.

Pinotage and Chardonnay have been the biggest names driving the wines from South Africa, and you can find a broad range of styles for this, from the big bulk productions for the supermarket range to the more fine wine styles with significant price tags, you certainly will find something that really pleases you and makes a good bridge between the new world exotic flavours and the balanced elegance and body, more traditional on the "conservative" old world. 

What I found in this tasting was that a new generation is wanting to go far beyond what made South African wines secure. Risk more, more edgier wines that bring a completely different wine experience. And if you have the quality and the knowledge, you can really deliver what you aim, and most of the wines I tasted did deliver it.

From lovely blends,with rousanne and clarinet, to pure sauvignon blancs, on the reds nebiollo and 100% merlots did make me rethink my idea of south african wines.

I will be posting a few individual reviews, but on a general note this was a very good tasting and I will certainly follow many of these wines and producers much more closely.

back after a long break!

No i did not become abstemious or stop listening to jazz during this 38 days - ish break from blogging.
I needed a break for some research ( you might call it when you attend several tastings, and several hundreds of 50ml doses of wine) and needed some self research through music as well. That combined with work, studies and life made it quite hard to find time and will to posting on a daily basis or with any frequency at all.

But I am back, with ideas for tens of posts, so expect it again on a daily basis from portuguese jazz (yes it exists and is freaking good, I just found a new band this morning!!), to George Osbourne´s Budget and amazing Central Otago´s Pinot Gris. I have also made myself a quest to try most of London´s Wine bars and post some reviews. So if you have some ideas please drop a comment!

                                                                 Research Mode

I leave you with one on my daily guilty pleasures when finding a soundtrack, a Jazz radio that I found by accident (any portuguese friends will understand how), its in french, but this only makes is sexier

http://www.tsfjazz.com/player.html

Indulge yourselves... more posts later today, I will start in South Africa!

Pinot Noir will always be my favourite red

Every once in a while some other wine lover asks the big "Question" ( I certainly do it a lot as well) What is your favourite grape??

The question is really hard to answer and at minimum should be divided into 2 questions - the white and the red grape. But still, you have great whites that contain red grapes in it and the reverse although more uncommon also happen!

My answer for the reds is Pinot Noir, I will leave the choice of white for later, or for you to guess?

Pinot Noir is very picky and, and will certainly demonstrate a lot of the terroir, climate and technique in its wines. Elegant, Fragant, more or less pronouced, but always an amazing company with or without food.

I leave above the bottle I cracked open for tonights Dinner, all the way from New Zeland... well worth a try!

We will always have New Orleans

Feeling very refreshed and yet nostalgic after well deserved holidays through Italy and Barcelona, where the only thing missing was certainly live Jazz. So as I return, I start looking to make it up and find a good 10 gigs I would love to attend, if only I had the time and money...

On the things not to miss is this amazing bunch from New Orleans, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, who will be playing at Ronnie Scott´s this coming June (get your tickets as I am sure it will sell out easily).

Their history goes way back to the early 80s and to the sixth ward, the neighbourhood in the heart of the Tremé that was also their original name. The band became an icon of modern New Orleans Jazz very quickly, and mixing the tradition with beats of funk and bebop, and their performance live is certainly something to look for. Along their 12 albums, they made joint ventures with the likes of Dizzie Gillespie, Elvis Costello or even Chuck D from Public Enemy.

And its this track I leave here, with soundbytes from Mayor Nagin, and images of the unforgettable Katrina, "What´s Going On"...

Enjoy!