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!!!

@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!

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!

The importance of labels

I spent the last few days arguing against official studies that say label is the most important  thing when choosing a wine. Apparently this is true for 90% of consumers.

I do not believe in this but fell into a trap at the chianti tasting a couple of days ago and choose a wine for lunch because the label looked nice.

And then got home, and as my partner sees this picture she goes "must be the best wine out of the 500 you tried" :)

wine and jazz bar... firenze's best

le volpi e l'uva

The French say that the best perfumes come in small bottles. I guess the Italian twist to this will be "the best wine bars(enotecas) are the most hidden streets. It is certainly not easy to find this place, even though it sits just next door to Ponti Vecchio, one of the most touristic places in Florence.

This very little wine bar/shop is a little world of wonderful taste. the very good wine selection, from the ones you sell by the bottle to the offer by the glass is ranging from very good to outstanding, and the prices are very fair, certainly very cheap if like me you are used to London prices. I tried 5 glasses from the menu(the verdicchio twice), and would be happy to finish the rest of the day drinking the rest of the bottle. 

To go with this if have a good offer a range of local products from cheese, to cured meats, bread and the most exquisite jam of dark rum and tobacco, on our table only 50% loved it, and it got a bad reaction from the Italians who were sharing the Brunello with us, but I must say, its the best match I had with Pecorino cheese, and Howie certainly agrees with me.

One last note to the lovely decoration, the amazing books, and above all, the jazz. A playlist to rival any specialist radio, and certainly better than Jazzfm, a very good choice to match the style of slow food and slow drinking that makes every visit a "degustazione". 

P.S. A further post will follow about the music selection thanks to Ciro...

The undiscovered and overlooked pleasure of Vermentino

Pinot grigio is by far the most famous italian white, so fresh and easy drinking makes it a really popular choice for a summer lunch but also to have on its own. When you look for quality, Gavi is probably the most respected white wine of the country. but with hundreds of indigenous grapes and so many appellations, what else is there?

Last night I had a really interesting Vermentino DOC,  from Tenuta la parrina. Vermentino also delivers the freshness of the whites, but can give much more. This one had remarkable vegetal notes (I got asparagus) and some lovely herbal, leafy notes on the nose.
On the palate, the first thing to note is its creaminess, almost velvety texture. such a full bodied white, brings the freshness through a good balanced acidity with high alcohol, 14.5%, whisch is quite high for a white. The fruit is juice with citrus and a hint of melon, and finishes with spice notes.

all in all a great white wine, good on its own, but also with food, and being in Tuscany, there is a lot of good choices to choose from.

the WOW factor - Sandemans 20yr Tawny

I actually have a different post already written that was to be here instead  of this, I was going to talk about an Amarone della Valpolicella but We openned this after work and it dazzled me. What an amazing Porto. (you might call it Port, but you are wrong :P)

I bought this last Christmas when I went home for the festive season and decided to bring some of the city back with me. It has been sitting on a shelf since then, that was until tonight.

For the "pure" Porto drinker, this is a more lighter style, but I find it rather more complex. The nuttyness traditional of this profiles is clearly there, but there are other dimensions of jammy notes and caramelised fruits, and to finish it a well balanced acidity that makes it feel less sweet and with an orange zing. I had the first sip and then topped up my glass 4 times :)

A lovely wine to be shared in great company, and it can be found online on a few retail sellers at about 50pounds with a supermarket chain making a really nice offer at 35,

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!!  Cheers!!