The Tasting Note

X Rated Petrus?

2008-07-24T19:39:00.002+01:00

Is this the same as this? If the leaked proposals for new French laws are anything to go by, alcohol websites will have to adhere to the same laws as pornography websites. This proposed law, lead by Professor Antoine Louvaris, considers any alcohol advertising, even on the internet, to be a threat to children. France already has the Evin law of 1991 which prohibits the advertising of alcohol on television and cinemas, including sports sponsorship, and has a message that alcohol abuse is dangerous to your health on any legal adverts. These proposed laws would restrict the hours a wine website is allowed to be online, which would draw it in line with pornography sites.

I grant you, in Britain we have a government that appears to blame the wine industry for everything wrong in the UK that is alcohol related, whether it is the trade's fault or not, but to put it on a par with pornography is absurd. I could even understand (though not agree with) this movement if it was aimed at a particular category of alcoholic drink (alcopops or spirits for example) but to consider a bottle of Petrus on the internet as bad as a Max Mosley-esque spanking session is absurd.

Six of the best? Lidl

2008-07-22T13:00:00.003+01:00

A new column, which unusually for this website, gives a degree of customer advice! Here we are going to rate six bottles of wine from a wine retailer. There are a few rules to this, all of which aim to make sure we do the customer and the retailer justice.
1. The wines have to contain words on the label that even the most extreme wine novice has probably heard of. Words like Cabernet Sauvignon, Rioja, Bordeaux, Jacobs Creek, Penfolds are the sort of thing that have to be on the label.
2. There have to be an equal number of reds and whites, so if there is an appealing looking sparkling wine, we have to have only 2 red, 2 white, 1 fizzy and something else.
3. Where possible, we will get someone with bugger all wine knowledge to venture into the retailer to buy these, just to keep things fair.
4. The total cost of all six bottles cannot exceed thirty pounds.

We will give marks out of ten for each wine, and bonus points for them performing well above their price point. If a bottle of plonk costs three quid and tastes like it should be a fiver, it beats a wine that costs and is worth a fiver. Not very scientific but we don’t give a stuff….

First up, the supermarket that sells Sauerkraut, Lidl. Known for its famous brands, or rather lack of them, Lidl isn’t the sort of place that wine lovers would go to buy their weekly booze. But with new shops appearing all over the place, this is a retailer that cannot be ignored. Many people buy their weekly groceries at Lidl stores, and, as the specialist wine merchants can testify, supermarkets are a major threat as they offer the convenience of buying wine with your Spaghetti hoops and toilet cleaner.

The first thing you notice is that Lidl’s wine selection is totally rubbish. Yes, there may be stack upon stack of bottles, but without a single brand name, this is not the sort of place you can go and find a producer you are familiar with. It’s all been imported, probably via Germany, specifically for Lidl and more than likely bottled at the same depot regardless of it’s country of origin. I’m not objecting to the bulk shipping of wine in tanks, I’ve drunk perfectly acceptable UK bottled wines for under a fiver and so where the stuff is pumped into a bottle really doesn’t bother me. But there are wines in Lidl’s range that proudly proclaim “Vinted and Bottled in…” and it appears that they are using this statement to imply quality and provenance, which is a bit concerning.

Finding words that the biggest wine novice would recognise, is not hard. Everything in Lidl has the keywords emblazoned across the label. Bordeaux Sec, Rioja, Shiraz and, of course, Hock are all there staring you in the face. But without staff member who knows anything about wine, you are playing Russian Roulette with your money. So, like the champion of consumer advice that we are (?), we have risked the full chamber of the Lidl gun and tried six wines

2006 Pinot Grigio Delle Venezie - £3.28 (Italy)
With 12% alcohol, and a clear, sunshine yellow colour it looks promising. Not a lot of booze and quite a pretty colour. Then you dunk your nose in the glass to find it has a beautiful bouquet of rotten oranges! It really is bad, with petroleum coming through and then there is this really awful palate of confected banana, bitter orange and a truly horrible finish and way too much alcohol. Then after the finish starts to die down, the alcohol comes back and assaults you, like a bully coming back to give you one last kicking as you lie on the floor with a black eye and a bloody lip. This is so so bad. Points – 2/10

2006 Chablis, Thomas de Ribens - £5.48 (France)
Pretty closed nose, with a touch of lemon zest and a lot of minerally aromas. This is nasty. Palate is fat, oily and bitter with a vastly zesty lemon juice flavour with the seeds and pith thrown in. This is as close to Chablis as Morocco is to Singapore. Fortunately not that much alcohol. Forgetting the fact is apparently a Chablis, this isn’t even a good Chardonnay. It’s rubbish.
Points - 3.5/10

2006 Wine of Australia Chardonnay - £3.99 (Australia)
So sweet with buttery oak and a sort of mango-come-passionfruit-come-pine-resin aroma. There is nothing but fat, overripe fruit and a peppery bitterness. Far too much alcohol too. It is just nasty.
Points - 3/10

2006 Spring Valley Cabernet Sauvignon - £2.84 (South Africa)
This wine only costs £1.08. After the VAT and duty has been taken off, it leaves £1.08 for the production, bottle, label, shipping, profit margin for the producer, and the costs and profit margin for Lidl. Its confected, with a bubblegummy cherry and just a touch of earthy leaf aromas. The palate is dry, stoney fruit with a wallop of leafy dryness and spice. The palate isn’t bad, the nose is though and it spoils it.
Points – 4/10 for the wine, becoming 5/10 for value. Would be 6 or 7/10 if the nose wasn’t so bad.

2006 Wines of Australia Shiraz - £3.99 (Australia)
Sweet jam, a touch of rosemary and Cola flavoured bubblegum. The palate is soft, then confected bramble and a dose of white pepper and a bit bitter Surprisingly decent. I can’t write anything really bad about it, but I can’t write anything good either. It’s a nothing wine.
Points – 4/10

2001 Cepa Lebrel Reserva Rioja - £4.49 (Spain)
A Reserva Rioja for under a fiver? It is totally crap. Terrible oak and ripe strawberry with a strange coconut aroma and half a can of Mr Sheen furniture polish. The palate is nothing but oak, dry and really really awful.
Points 2.5/10

So really, Lidl are providing their customers with rubbish wine. The best was the cheapest, and gained extra points for being the cheapest, making it the clear winner. But what astonished me was how undrinkable the majority of these wines were. You might as well buy some fruit juice and a bottle of vodka as these wines had so much alcohol coming through. There are good wines for under a fiver, you just cannot get them at Lidl!

Total Points – 20/60
Originally posted November 2007
New 'Six of the Best' will start in August 2008

Stuck in the middle - Vintage Champagne, the only cheap fizz?

2008-07-19T18:51:00.003+01:00

Since I was in my early teens I have always wanted to own a Lotus. Kids my age were hankering after Ferraris and McLaren F1’s, or at the other end of the spectrum, a Vauxhall Nova with a huge stereo in it and Burberry seat covers, I wanted one of Hethel’s finest. It wasn’t the coolest car on the road, and it certainly wasn’t as exotic or fast as a Ferrari and I didn’t care if it had a stereo in it or not. The reason I wanted a Lotus was that it performed well, come rain or shine, you could drive it to the limit and really enjoy yourself. A Ferrari in the wet was too powerful and a Nova just wouldn’t handle at all well as it was tail heavy due to the weight the Halfords bodykit. Well, that’s what I read anyway. I was a teenager and was too young to drive, but that was what the hundreds of magazines and books I’d read told me and who was I to argue.

And the same is happening today with Champagne. Everyone is wanting Dom Perignon and Krug, or at the other end of the spectrum, Moet and Bollinger non vintage. I, on the other hand, am wanting vintage fizz and am enjoying being on my own.

I was reading today on Decanter’s website that “Top champagne prices are going through the roof”. And they are. Krug Special Cuvee and Bollinger RD are well over £100 retail, Louis Roederer’s Cristal is still silly money and Dom Perignon, I discovered today, have made a Jeroboam of the 1995 vintage in Harrods encased in white gold for seven and a half grand. The only special cuvee Champagnes to still be hovering around the £100 mark is Cuvee Sir Winston Churchill from Pol Roger and Taittinger’s Comte de Champagne, and that is likely to change soon.

Then you have non vintage fizz being consumed by normal folk, also known as anyone earning under a million each year. After years hovering around £20 on offer, we have seen a massive hike in price of all non vintage champagne. Without exception all the biggest houses are pricing their basic champagne north of thirty pounds. And you really don’t want to look at the ‘rrp’ that Majestic are saying the Champagne is worth! I grant you, their multibuy ‘deal’ brings the price in line with the market, but that isn’t much use if you don’t want to buy two bottles. Maybe it is the retailer in me, but I really can’t see the merits to the consumer in forcing you to buy twelve bottles of wine if you are only going to offer the same prices that other retailers do for one bottle. I digress…

Because of the price hikes at the top and bottom of the market this leaves the middle ground, and that is vintage champagne. The champagne houses are desperate to sell it, but nobody is buying it and that is BRILLIANT news!

Take Pol Roger. My favourite champagne house has provided me with some of the best champagnes, both young and old, I have ever tried. If you keep it properly, it will age for decades, getting richer and more complex with age. Bollinger Grand Annee always produces long living wines of exceptional quality and Moet & Chandon is coming good again, with very good quality vintages. By ignoring prestige cuvees, you can buy superb vintage champagne (Bollinger excepted) for under fifty quid, and that is before any discount!

As nobody is buying them, the Champagne houses are desperate to clear stocks. The result is that you can, with a little hunting, get vintage champagnes from top producers for well under £40 – barely above the recommended retail price of their non vintage wines. This is where you should be spending your money. You’ll be unlikely to make a fortune in buying vintage champagne, you can still pick up late 1980’s and early 1990’s vintages for a few pounds more than the most recent year, but what you will get is a wine that ages beautifully, and you will save a lot of money at the moment. They may not be the best champagne in the world, Dom Perignon and Cuvee Sir Winston are always better than Moet and Pol Roger vintage wines, but I’d prefer three bottles of Pol 98 than one Sir Winston from the same vintage.

Trust me. Unless you have many gold rings and go by the name of Snoop Daddy, you can’t afford to drink prestige cuvees, so don’t bother saving up for them and souring the internet to find them. Buy vintage wines, they are affordable, cellarable, plentiful and bloody good champagne. I still don’t have the Lotus though.
Bollinger Grande Annee 1999 £54.15 when you buy six (rrp £64.99) Oddbins
Moet & Chandon 2000 £34.94 Drinks Direct
Perrier Jouet 1998 £29.15 when you buy six (rrp £34.99) Oddbins
Pol Roger 1999 £36.99 (rrp £46.99) Luvians Bottleshop
Taittinger 2002 £36.99 when you buy 2 as part of a case of 12 bottles (rrp £55.50) Majestic
Veuve Clicquot 2002 £36.99 when you buy 2 as part of a case of 12 bottles (rrp £55.50) Majestic

Food & Wine Russian Roulette

2008-07-17T18:36:00.007+01:00

Well thought out food and wine matching is all well and good, but randomly selecting two bottles of wine when you have decided what you are having for dinner is something I like doing. Granted, you run a risk of neither of them working, but you also stand a chance of finding an unlikely success! Sirloin steak, baked potatoes and some steamed veggies was my dinner last night and the two wines that I tried were 2001 Chateau Cissac and 2005 Peachy Canyon Incredible Red Zinfandel. Would they work, would they not?

Both are available for around ten pounds and are both wines that I've tried before and like. The Cissac has lovely rich fruit, some sour cherry and a little basil and black pepper on the nose. There is also some menthol creeping through as well. A concentrated palate, more sour cherry, leathery tannins and a nice herby flavour with a dusting of cocoa. The finish is a little short and dusty, but this is drinking so well. 8/10

The American wine proclaims itself as the "Incredible Red", and it is a full on oak fest. Juicy cherry and lots of strawberries. Slightly confected nose, a bit of marshmallow, and then lots of raspberry and cranberry juice. The palate is all cranberry, a little cherry bubblegum and quite a bit of alcohol. That softens though, and the finish is chocolatey with just a little confected strawberries on the finish. 7/10

The Cissac went pretty well with the meal. It certainly isn't a 'sit down on the sofa and drink it while watching a movie' wine (despite the fact that I polished off the bottle later). It's herby, slightly leathery character matched well with the caramelised steak juices. The Zinfandel however didn't. It was far too fruity, so soft and totally unbalanced with the food, it needed some depth which it was just lacking. It's not a bad wine, but the confected elements were exaggerated by the savoury elements of the meal making it almost sickly. The oak also clashed terribly with the baked potato. I was once at a champagne dinner and the chef decided to make mashed potato with vanilla seeds through it. The combination of the vanilla oak and the potato reminded me of that.

I had two good wines, that I've had before and enjoyed. When I tasted them before dinner my previous opinions were reiterated. However, paired with my dinner one worked very well, one totally tanked!

Snoqualmie Wines, the old Rocker of Washington

2008-07-15T16:17:00.006+01:00

I’ve been watching T in the Park. Not because I actually enjoy music festivals, but because BBC Scotland, in it’s infinite wisdom, decided to delay showing Top Gear for an hour and a half to show the music festival, and it has occurred to me how hopeless a lot of today’s performers are at singing live. Either that, or their CDs are so massively tweaked that the voice playing from your ipod bears no resemblance to the one coming from the botoxed mouth of the singer.

I won’t name names, but there is never the consistency that you get from older artists such as Mick Jagger or Paul McCartney. Even these old rockers can have an off day, but if you look some more modern artists they really can’t sing a song all the way through without going off key. Essentially, the packaging is always glossy and the reality is not.

I like the packaging on Snoqualmie’s wines from Washington state, and that immediately send up a flare. If you visit any supermarket and you will see pretty labels glaring at you, generally adorning a crappy wine, so the fact that I quite liked the labels on these Washington state bottles was not filling me with optimism. These wines have just become available in the UK through Stratford’s Wine Agencies, who have just taken on several producers from the Pacific north west, and I tried them at their recent Edinburgh portfolio tasting.

Ah, the Sauvignon Blanc 2006 this is bound to be crap thought I. I don’t like Californian Sauvignons as a rule, and while I expected Washington wine to be a bit less flabby but I wasn’t expecting much. I am so glad I was wrong.

It was clean, with nice gooseberry fruit on the nose and a pencil lead and asparagus palate. The alcohol was a little hot, but not unpleasantly so, and you got a long, clean finish with very good acidity. I liked this wine a lot. (8/10). A good start for Snoqualmie then.

The 2006 Chardonnay didn’t dissapoint either. Pineapple and pear drops on the nose with boiled pineapple sweets on the palate. A toasty spice, a little bit of cedar creaping through, and warm honey finishing it off. The alcohol was a bit more prominent than on the Sauvignon, but the fatter fuller flavours masked it well. A good clean finish too. 8/10.

Sadly the Naked Organic Chardonnay was corked so we moved onto the reds and, if I was to criticise at all, it would be with the 2006 Whistlestop Cabernet Merlot. It is a bit stinky, with soft, cheap cherry pie aromas that are initially appealing but put you off pretty quickly. The palate is dark, very liquoricey and a bundle of dark chocolate. It is very tight, dark and bitter. This needs serious time to sort itself out, but with most wines being drunk within a week of being purchased, this could be it’s biggest problem. I’d like to try this after a few more years aging as the finish is nicely balanced and very clean. 6.5/10.

Merlot isn’t my most favourite grape, but this one was impressive. Their 2006 Merlot had loads of soft, juicy fruit. Masses of cherry and a bit of watermelon on the nose. The palate is good, very balanced with lots of sour cherries and blackcurrants. There is a long, dry finish with more of the darkness I got from the Cabernet Merlot, but it is much much better integrated. This is a solid, nice wine at 7.5/10.

Finally a brilliant American Syrah. The 2006 Snoqualmie Syrah is very good. Simple as that. Nice spice, a lot of dark fruit – brambles, marionberries and a dusting of white pepper. It has more of these fruits on the palate, with a noticeable wood influence giving a bit of vanilla, but it works very well. The finish is great, if a little short, but I’ll forgive it that because it is so damn good. 8.5/10

What I haven’t mentioned is the price. Snoqualmie are all under ten pounds and probably under £9 if you hunt around. The ‘Naked’ Range – which I have yet to try – will be between nine and ten pounds and for those of you in America there is a reserve range too. The wines are made by Joy Andersen, one of Washington’s pioneer wine makers, and to produce wines of this quality for under ten pounds is a major achievement. This lady’s wines are the vinous equivalent of Mick Jagger. The packaging is all glossy and appealing, and the live performance is great too.

Unlike Britney Spears….

Snoqualmie Website
Stratford's Wine Agencies Website

Crap of the Week - Wine Buddy wine brewing kit

2008-07-14T21:54:00.006+01:00

This crap of the week is available from the Gadget Shop, and allows you to brew your own wine. When I say wine, I really mean alcoholic fruit juice. When I say fruit juice, I really mean powdered fruit extract with yeast added...

All you need to do is add sugar and water and for the price of £19.99 you can make wine in your own kitchen. Each pack gives you six bottles of wine and takes seven days to make. Seems like a hell of a lot of hassle really, when you could go to a supermarket and buy some cheap wine for the same money. It too might be crap, but it is bound to be far better than this rubbish...

Diageo robbing angels

2008-07-14T21:35:00.006+01:00

Spirits producer Diageo are looking at the merits of shrink wrapping their barrels of whisky. Apparently, the "Angel's Share" from distilleries such as Lagavulin, Glenkinchie and Talisker is costing the world's largest spirits manufacturer up to £1million each year. As a result, they are looking at wrapping the porous oak barrels in cling film to prevent whisky evaporating through the wood. Well they need to do something to help pay for Lewis Hamilton's pay rise...

6 Questions with Sir Cliff Richard, Vida Nova Wines

2008-07-05T21:17:00.004+01:00

When your peers credit you with being a pioneer in your field, it is perhaps the greatest compliment anyone can receive. Such a comment was made by John Lennon, who said that the song ‘Move It’ was “the first English Rock & Roll song”. The artist performing the song half a century ago, was Cliff Richard.

Now in it’s 50th year, Sir Cliff’s career is perhaps as broad as anyone’s in the entertainment business. Singing every genre from Rock & Roll, through R&B to Reggae, he has acted in films and on stage, has been a television presenter and represented his country in the Eurovision Song Contest.

But here we are interested, not in Cliff Richard the performer, but Cliff Richard the wine buff, owner of Quinta do Moinho and producer of Vida Nova wines. We asked him our half case of questions….

Who or what got you interested in wine?
David Baverstock, the Australian wine-maker from the Barossa Valley, suggested that I might like to plant a vineyard at my quinta in Portugal. I told him I’d just planted figs and he said I had a simple choice: I could produce syrup of figs, or a nice bottle of wine. No contest.... the figs were removed!!

Aside from your own wines, what do you like to drink on a daily basis?
I enjoy flavoured vodkas with tonic water – especially the ‘ruby red’.

What is the best wine you have ever tried?
There have been many wonderful wines but I remember tasting a Brokenwood Graveyard Shiraz (from Australia) for the first time and it was fantastic. I would also have to include a Penfold’s Grange.

Do you have a wine cellar? If so, what is your prized possession?
I don’t have a wine cellar, but any Puligny Montrachet (at least six years old) would be prized!

August 29th is the 50th Anniversary of the release of your first single. What will you be drinking to celebrate?
Cristal Champagne.

Name three people, real or fictional, living or dead, that would make your ideal dinner guests, and what wine (price and age no object) would you drink?
Dr Billy Graham; Ivan Lendl; Elvis Presley. I would serve Petrus!

Vida Nova Wines are available from Waitrose
Vida Nova Wines website
Cliff Richard Official Website

Lustau Sherries

2008-07-05T16:07:00.003+01:00

A lot of people have a misconception about sherry. They think it belongs in two places. Their grandma or a trifle. The misconception that sherry is wrinkly juice is comparable with the misconception that cars are causing glabal warming. Certainly, car emissions are a contributing factor, but the world’s population of cows emits more harmful gas than the world’s cars and governments don’t ask or a ‘bovine tax’, but they quite happily wallop up the price on petrol. These high taxes are supposed to accelerate the development of ‘clean cars’, but it isn’t working. Governments should say “Oil is going to run out, and soon. Pull your finger out and develop Hydrogen cells. Oh, and if you don’t do it, the ozone layer is going to disappear and you are all going to die” I guarantee that within 15 years we would see cost effective Hydrogen powered cars on the road.

Similarly, Grannies may drink sherry, but it is not made for them and them alone. Young people should be drinking this wonderful beverage, but trying to convince them is tricky. Telling them to do it is going to have the same effect as raising petrol prices, which, in simple terms, is sod all! You need to get them drinking it stealthily. You need to fool them into drinking it, and to do it, you need food!

The whole point of sherry is to be eating with it. Everything from an almond, through cured meats, into roasts and with rich puddings, sherry needs food. Hell, even a packet of crisps in a pub would do, but with the right sherry.

Trying some sherries from Lustau proved that we should make more of this wonderful drink, and get pubs and restaurants selling it properly. The main issue is that pubs and restaurants have a crappy bottle of Croft stuck behind the bar, at room temperature and is served like a spirit. It is a wine for crying out loud!

A plate of nuts or with some cold seafood the Lustau Puerto Fino is a light, citrussy smelling sherry with an aroma of rain on hot tarmac smelling sherry. Then you get a yeasty citrussy flavour and there is a little white pepper and peanuts on the palate, and it has super clean acidity. Matured in Puerto de Santa Maria rather than Jerez, this shows a much cleaner fino sherry than the likes of the excellent Tio Pepe from Gonzalez Byass. I prefer this Lustau style, but both are good. 8/10

Lemon zest and then an empty Walkers ready salted crisp packet is what I get on the nose of the Lustau Papirusa Manzanilla. The palate offers up grapefruit pith and lots more salt. It is a good sherry, and, continuing on the finger food theme, salty snacks – pretzels, crisps, salted nuts. It is a touch flabby on the finish however which lets it down. 7.5/10

The Lustau Almacenista Amontillado del Puerto is really good. Honeycomb, quite sweet and chunky with a little fruit pudding, then roast nuts and dried wild mushrooms. A lovely finish, quite clean and with a long, minerally and dry finish. It should go with hard cheeses like Manchego, or maybe even with barbecued chicken. 8.5/10

I love Camembert. The brie like cheese that smells of dirty nappies is fantastic and the Lustau Pada de Gallina Oloroso matches perfectly with it. Bonfire toffee, a bit of burnt lemon and a little rubber on the nose, then a rich, chunky and dried fruit flavour, finished off with caramel and pencil shavings. Wow! 8/10

The wine of the tasting, and the food match of the tasting, was the Lustau 1989 Anada. This 100% Palomino sherry is strange in that it is made like Port. Instead of being fermented to dryness and then sweetened up, this had fermentation stopped when brandy was added, leaving residual sugar in the wine. It is stunning. A lot of rich honey, a little raisin and prunes. Toffee creeps in on the nose and then the palate is rich, spicy, with lovely dark fruit cake and honey roasted peanuts. This goes superbly with Jamaican Ginger Bread! A perfect food and wine match! 9.5/10

Finally, the sticky Lustau East India. It used to be called Old East India, but apparently the American government asked “How old is old?” and so they dropped the first word. Very sweet, but this wine has the Palomino fermented to dryness, then has the brandy added and then it is sweetened with Pedro Ximenez, resulting in a treacle, liquorice and chocolate fest. Aniseed, lots of ginger and a bit of cough drops and coffee on the palate. It is very good but a bit full on. Chuck this over ice cream and it is great! 8/10.

So I think this proves that sherry can go with food and should be treated as a wine. Go out, buy a bottle of sherry, or a couple of half bottles, and give sherry a go. Just don’t use it to make bloody trifle.

A letter from Margaret Smith, MSP

2008-07-04T00:12:00.002+01:00

I received a letter today from MSP Margaret Smith, which went into detail on the Liberal Democrat's policy regarding the raising of the drinking age. I won't write it all out here as it is quite long, but her comments are both thoughtful and addressed the open email I wrote in depth, so I'd like to thank her for doing that.

She also points out, and quite rightly so, that she cannot take any direct action on my behalf, but my own MSP, Iain Smith - Liberal Democrat, North East Fife, may be able to assist me.

I still await his reply.

Top Gear G&T in hot Polar water (hows that for a tabloidesque headline!)

2008-07-02T17:21:00.010+01:00

Jeremy 'Powerrrrr' Clarkson and James 'him off Top Gear and that wine programme' May are in a bit of hot water for being caught drinking and driving. It is not that they had gone out for a few beers and were caught doing 110mph on the M1, but because they were considered to have 'glamorised misuse of alcohol'.

In the Top Gear Polar special, Clarkson and May raced co presenter Richard Hammond to the North Pole. Hammond was on a dog sled, whereas the other two were in a modified off road pickup truck. In the episode, Clarkson and May were seen drinking Gin and Tonics whilst driving over the frozen ocean, and there have been complaints to the BBC Trust.

In the programme, Clarkson addresses the viewer to inform them not to write in complaining as there were in international waters and there is no drink drive law. The BBC Trust has said that the footage was "highly irresponsible".

While drinking and driving shouldn't be made light of, come on, it was a joke! It wasn't making alcohol misuse glamorous in the slightest and the fact that the complaint was made after the show was repeated, by some Mary Whitehouse wannabe flicking through satellite channels desperate to find something to moan about, displays that millions of people watched the programme first time round and saw this for what it was - a silly bit of entertainment!

Doh!

2008-07-01T23:36:00.002+01:00

For anyone who gets a feed from this website, apologies, I cocked up! I'm putting all my tasting notes online and accidentally posted a load to this blog, rather than the other one I have set up! So it is likely that you have received notification of loads of short tasting notes. Sorry! All of them have been deleted from this blog and once I've typed up five years of notes, I'll put a link from this site to them.

A proper answer from an MSP...

2008-07-01T12:22:00.005+01:00

Ross Finnie, Liberal Democrat MSP for the West of Scotland, sent me an email this morning. I'd like to thank him for spending the time to answer the email I sent to all MSP's regaring the proposals to combat alcohol misuse.

Thank you very much indeed for sending me a copy of your email on underage drinking and the misuse of alcohol.  I agree with much of the concerned views that you put forward that would take practical steps to identify underage drinking which would assist either prosecution of underage drinking or off sales who sell drink to underage persons.  I also agree with much of the views that you put forward on Binge Drinking.  As you may be aware, I and my party, the Liberal Democrats, are prepared to support the Government in its attempts to tackle alcohol but we are not prepared to support the simplistic measure of stigmatising all 18/21 years olds.  We believe very firmly that the overwhelming majority of 18/21 year olds who do not mis-use alcohol should be brought on side to be part of the solution and not seen as part of the problem.

Ross Finnie

Bottle Shock Trailer

2008-06-29T16:01:00.005+01:00

Alan Rickman stars as Steven Spurrier in the film adaptation of the Judgement of Paris. Here is the trailer.

Back in the Autumn of 2007, we reported that Spurrier was considering legal action against the producers of this movie as he was being portrayed as an evil mastermind, and also that he had given his approval to another film called "The Judgement of Paris". It would appear that the Spurrier endorsed movie is still stuck in production, likely never to see a cinema near you, so I will await with anticipation when Bottle Shock is released in the Autumn and will be interested to hear Steven Spurrier's opinions on it.

The tagline "The French never knew what hit them" is unlikely to do much for cinema attendances in France though...

Bottle Shock Official Website

Cross party opposition to raising the drinking age.

2008-06-25T17:40:00.007+01:00

Today a chamber of MSP's got together to debate the newly proposed measures to combat alcohol misuse. A lot of positive issues were raised, and a lot of MSPs raised the fact that alienating all 18 to 21 year olds from being able to buy a bottle of wine, yet enabling them to get minced in a pub, is a flawed idea. It appears that the Labour party has joined the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Green party, in opposing the raising of the drinking age, but there are bigger issues to be addressed.

There also appeared to be cross party support for the opinion that if the current legislation isn't working, mainly through lack of enforcement, then any new ideas, particularly with the raising of the age you can buy alcohol, are pointless until the current laws are upheld.

I have included some key points below and then given my opinion on them

Raising the off sales age to 21 and underage sales

Pauline McNeill (Labour, Glasgow Kelvin) alluded to the fact that the SNP were throwing all the ideas in the air, and seeing what sticks. She also brought up the fact that Scots across all ages misuse alcohol, and there is no evidence that the 18 to 21 year old age group are the main proportion of people misusing alcohol.

Frank McAveety (Labour, Glasgow Shettleston) raised the point that if an 18 year old is capable of deciding who they want on their local health board, then surely they should be considered capable of deciding how they want to manage their own health.

Michael Matheson (SNP, Falkirk West) said that he was in favour of raising the age to 21, and did not support the view that being able to fight in a war or get married at a younger age was illogical, despite cross party opinion generally thinking that. He also said that, pertaining to the difference between off and on sales, he believes in pubs alcohol is controlled by the pub, whereas at home it is not. Obviously Mr Matheson has not been in a pub at 10pm at night, where he will see people of all ages drunk out of their minds and still being served.

Dr Richard Simpson (Labour, Mid Scotland & Fife) Suggested that using bans on people under 21 buying alcohol might have merit in certain areas, but these bans should be for antisocial behaviour reasons, not health reasons.

Opinion - There is nothing wrong with a debate, and raising the drinking age to 21 should be part of it. Comments by Michael Matheson that there is nothing wrong with having different ages where we are able to do something would have merit had the SNP not being considering lowering the voting age to 16. If you are considered an adult of sound mind and able to vote at 16, you should be able to make a choice on your health at 18. Also, if you are allowed to smoke at 18, which, and lets be honest here, there are NO health benefits of, you should be allowed to drink alcohol where there can be some health benefits when consumed in moderation, as was brought up by Conservative MSP Mary Scanlon.

Margaret Smith (Liberal Democrats, Edinburgh West) also asked how the raising of the drinking age would affect young people working in shops, and it was mentioned by several MSPs that a married couple, with jobs and children, could be in the situation that they couldn't buy a bottle of wine to drink over dinner. There is no doubt that raising the age has some merits, but the criticisms of it, and the problems of doing it, are greater. The main thing, and this was raised, is that if you are going to stop excessive drinking of young people, you need to allow them to drink in moderation and not alienate them. Educate them, don't just ban them from drinking. A compulsory ID policy would solve the underage drinking problem, and severe punishment for retailers breaking the law would discourage retailers and pubs from serving people without ID.

Excessive Drinking & Social Responsibility

Ms McNeill brought up the point that banning alcohol promotions wouldn't effect the sales of drinks such as Buckfast and alcopops, which are the drinks that young people drink on the streets, as these products aren't promoted. Also, Mary Scanlon (Conservative, Highlands & Islands) raised the point that just because 3 bottles of wine were bought for the price of 2 doesn't mean that people are going to drink them quickly. They just buy in bulk and drink them over time.

It was also brought up that Supermarkets, which have a social corporate responsibility, need to be held accountable. Selling strong beer for the equivalent of 40 pence per pint. This could be stopped by a minimum pricing,

Opinion - All retailers, and I am one, have to accept responsibility for out part in alcohol misuse. Both from a health perspective and a social disorder perspective, we know that excessive drinking causes problems, but the cure for one isn't going to be the cure for the other. People being able to drink at 18 and multibuy discounts are not the problem. The problem is that the laws that are currently in place are not being enforced strongly. If bars and shops are not allowed to sell to intoxicated people, the number of people getting very drunk will be dramatically reduced.

Adding in a public drinking ban across Scotland will prevent people, young and old, getting drunk in public and causing social disturbances but this would prevent people enjoying outdoor picnics or barbecues in parks and on beaches, which could be very unpopular.

The social responsibility of producers and retailers could go hand in hand with educating young people into the problems of alcohol misuse, with part of the duty on alcohol going towards an education programme. However, raising the prices too high in Scotland will result in 'booze cruises' to England, and therefore make a lot of retailers in Scotland uncompetitive and be counter productive.

This debate has to go on, which is a good thing, but what has to be remembered is that it is society that needs changed, not the laws. The Scottish Parliament should have police enforce existing laws, the should educate people but not start blaming young people and businesses for the minority who misuse alcohol or break the current laws.

Whatever happens, we cannot make the headline grabbing elements of this debate (for example the raising of the drinking age) to dominate the real reason for the SNP's proposals. We have a drinking problem in Scotland that needs addressed, and while I don't agree with the methods the SNP have proposed, everyone - including those campaigning against a specific element of the proposals - need to look at the bigger picture and work together to reduce alcohol misuse and the social problems it causes.

Il Banchetto - House Wine Heaven or Hell

2008-06-23T19:58:00.006+01:00

House wines are bottles that are made to provide a simple choice of a red and a white if you haven't a clue about wine when you're sitting at a restaurant. They are packaged the same, they are always cheap, and they should always be drinkable. I'm not asking for a brilliant wine, I'm asking for something that doesn't make me want to spit it out or start to gag.

First up - Il Banchetto Red & White. Firstly, the packaging isn't bad, it is not traditional, but in a steak house or an inexpensive restaurant, they won't look that bad. They are sold by Bibendum wines, should retail at around £5 in shops or £15 in restaurants (yep, roughly divide the price you see in a restaurant list by three to see what the wine costs in a shop). The 2007 Trebbiano Chardonnay is clean, has a light orange flavour and a little bit of grass. Not the sort of grass you attack every few weeks with a Flymo, but the stuff you light up in a back room at a party with a Rastafarian called Ziggy. There is pineapple on the palate, a little alcohol but a creamy texture. It's pretty boring, not unpleasant, but dull. 6/10

The 2007 Sangiovese is pretty similar. It is quite confected on the nose, with a slightly over ripe strawberry aroma and vanilla. There is a dark earthiness that comes through, but not enough to balance out the fake fruit. The palate has cherry stones, firm tannins which then disappear very quickly. The finish is ok at first, with nice fruit, again more twiggy, earthy flavours, but it leaves your mouth claggy, so it drops points on that. 5.5/10

Verdict This one is stuck on earth! Not really a good one to start with as it doesn't give a simple answer! It is alright, it delivers a drinkable, simple wine. It just doesn't generate any emotion at all.

Crap of the week - Wine Chain Cradle

2008-06-22T16:58:00.004+01:00

Initially you may think "wow, that's cool", but after the initial cool factor has worn off, should last around thirty seconds, you will realise that this will sit in your cupboard and never see the light of day until you drop it off in a box to the local charity shop. Apparently, it "amazes your guests at your swanky dinner party", except for one small thing. If you are having a swanky party you wouldn't put this anywhere near your guests... unless it was a swingers party and then it might fit right in...

If you want one to go alongside your handcuffs and riding crops, you can get it from drinkstuff.com and it costs £19.99

Cune Rioja - Baffling entertainment

2008-06-21T20:50:00.002+01:00

I’ve never understood QI. Presented by Stephen Fry, it gathers together four celebrities who have a higher intelligence level than the average ‘celebrity quiz show’ panellist where they are asked questions where if they give the most obvious answer, they lose. The host then awards points with absolutely no consistency and random facts come spurting forth from all the people on the show, such as a woodlouse doesn’t wee, it emits a vapour instead.

This programme is the perfect vehicle for Fry’s great intellect and quick wit, and paired with the only regular panellist, Alan Davies, their upper/lower class, Oxbridge Graduate/school of hard knocks dropout, their relationship enriches a rather strange experience.

Despite rarely knowing what the hell is going on in this televisual experience, I actually enjoy wasting half an hour watching it. If I miss an episode I really don’t care that much but when I catch it I have fun. The same applies with Rioja. If drinking it at a dinner party or over a meal, I quite enjoy them, but I never find myself thinking “I quite fancy a Rioja tonight”. It is a pretty safe wine to choose in a restaurant if are presented with loads of unfamiliar producers and when you venture to a supermarket and your only source of advice is a spotty sixteen year old shelf stacker, you can always rely on a big producer such as Marques de Caceres or Faustino.

And wines from Compania Vinicola de Norte de Espana (CVNE or Cune as it has become known) were shown to me on Friday. I’d initially thought that Cune was a medium sized company, large production but not in the scale of Caceres. Wrong! Cune is massive. A huge producer, but where they differ is that they have a lot of their own grapes in their wines. Having that sort of control benefits these wines as I was very surprised and pleased at the quality of their products, but would they make me want to go out and buy them?

Having said that, they have five brands which could possibly confuse things. So often when one big company has multiple brands, what you get is the same stuff just repackaged. Again, not so with Cune. Stealing the analogy from both Cune’s website, the Cune brand is more Bordeaux-esque, whereas the Vina Real wines are a lot more Burgundy like. But we started with a wine that is doing everything it can not to be what it is. A white rioja.

The 2007 Monopole white rioja is in an Alsatian flute bottle. It has the word ‘Monopole’ pinched from Burgundy emblazoned across the label and when you initially stick your nose in the bottle it smells nothing like white rioja usually does. And that is a good thing.

Not anything like a normal, fat, oaky fruitless rubbish that you usually get, this is light and clean with more fruit than a greengrocers and is as far from white rioja as you can get! Green leaves, a bit of peach, lime and garden peas. A little apple on the palate, quite dry, with just a little creamy element. This hasn’t seen any form of wood, isn’t the usual oxidised crap that you normally get from this region. I’d be quite happy drinking this. 8/10

2005 Cune Rioja Crianza gives bubblegum initially, then a little herbs and a tiny bit of cherry but that is it. The palate is tight, a bit of green, dark, slightly tannic wine. It’s got tobacco, a dark chocolate bit to it. Strange on the finish, all secondary flavours and smoky oak. 7/10

The 2004 Cune Rioja Reserva is a rich, raisiny wine. Vanilla sweetness coming through and a bit of toffee. Smoked cheese on the nose as well. Dark spice, my brain said ‘smoked cinnamon’, despite never having ever sampled smoked cinnamon before! Dried cherries and a leafy finish. It’s got bundles of liquorice too, superb. 8.5/10

If the Cune wines are Bordeaux like I’d have expected to prefer them being a claret lover. I didn’t, the Vina Real Rioja Crianza, 2005, was much better. A lot more balanced and elegant. Brambles and cinnamon with a bit of mint and dark leafy fruit. Plum on the palate and it has so much finesse with a long spicy finish. 8/10. I like this a lot. The big brother to this wine, the 2001 Imperial Rioja Reserva, is stunning. Sour cherries, sweet cherries and then vanilla, chocolate and a little rosemary all leaping out of the glass. A spicy palate, with raisins, black pepper, then softened up by tobacco, milk chocolate and more vanilla. Not much tannin, just all fruit, spice and tobacco. A stupendous wine. 9/10

Finally, the 2004 Contino Reserva Rioja. It has gentle, ripe fruit and chilli chocolate giving a sweet spicy heat. The palate is firm, tannic with a little dark berry fruit. Too much alcohol and spice, quite closed on the palate but quite smoky. It’s got an under ripe cassis flavour to it too. Way too young but given time should be really tasty. 8.5/10

I like Cune’s wines. They are well made and while the style of the Cune brand is not my cup of tea they are good wines, and the Vina Real and Imperial brands are more my thing and I really like them. Would I go out to buy them? Have they convinced me that I should be concerned that I am missing out on great Spanish wines by not really caring about Rioja? No. The wines are lovely but they just don’t generate any passion in me to go and explore Spain more. I’m not certain if that is a failing in me or a failing in Rioja as a whole, but it is not a failing of Cune. Rioja really is like an episode of Qi, I still haven’t a clue what is going on.

Specogna - stunning wines.... simple as that really!

2008-06-21T02:19:00.005+01:00

My trip to Vinitaly was an eye opener, but looking back, I didn’t do one producer justice. While I was attempting to wax lyrical about Allegrini, Bruno Rocca and Pieropan, I omitted an important producer. Specogna.

Christian Specogna, who showed me the wines in Italy, looks like he should be in a boy band. In a suit that looked as though it has been bought for him to grow into, this youngster had an enthusiasm for his family’s wines that was so infectious you couldn’t help but like them. I didn’t write them up though, deciding that there were other producers I wanted to focus on and that Pinot Grigio, regardless of how good and popular it was, wasn't really interesting.

I was a bloody idiot! Specogna are so much more than Pinot Grigio, and trying some of the wines from this producer today – in the less glamorous surroundings of a back room at work!

The 2006 Specogna Ribella Gialla is really good. Light, lemony with beautiful minerality on the nose. A lot of alcohol hits you, but settles down with crisp, vegetal elements and wonderful acidity. It confuses me. I can’t figure out where I would drink it, but it is very very good. I’d give it 8/10 despite it costing £13.

The ’06 Pinot Grigio Ramato is getting a little tierd. I will tell you that the tank sample of the 2007 vintage I had in Italy was brilliant, so look out for that. This vintage however is good, a little lime pith and under ripe red berried. Then orange kicks in from somewhere. The wine has a cleanliness of Cillit Bang proportions. Brilliant with just a little charred wood on the finish. 8.5/10 £13

Tocai Friulano 2006. This is where things start getting really interesting. Lychee sweetness on the nose with a little barbecued smokiness coming through. A little nut – almond? – coming through too. A wonderfully dry, minerally palate, fresh and stunningly clean. Long lasting nut flavours and a little peach skin on the finish. A fun wine and deserving of it’s 8.5/10. £13

Then it gets more crazy! The 2006 Verduzzo Friulano is a wine you must try before you die. Not because it is one of the greatest wines ever made, though it is very very good, but because it is SO interesting. Gentle honey and lemon on the nose, but quite closed. Then when it hits your palate you get tannin mingling with sweet honey and lemon. A Thai spice element too, before it dries up with toast and warmed honey and some fruit tea flavours. It is a bizarre single varietal wine, that won’t go with many desserts, but for some reason I really want to try this with a custard slice! It is a wonderful wine, one of those that the experience will live with you despite it only costing twelve quid. 9.5/10

Finally, the 2004 Pignolo is another strange one! Cherry and herb lawns, a lot of plum skin, leathery, dark liquorice aromas. A lot of spice and quite hot alcohol coming through. Firm tannin and a lot of the dark, secondary flavours. It is lacking a bit of fruit, but with a selection of olives, salami and bread for your lunch in the sunshine, I can think of few wines I’d prefer! It is a food wine, pure and simple, and it has to be with strong flavoured food to work. This is not a wine for drinking on it’s own. 8/10 & £21

I like Specogna. I like the people, I like the passion and I like their wines. They have mastered the art of making beautifully clean wines. They are all affordable, and if you have more than a passing interest in Italian wines, give these a go. It is money well spent.

Specogna Website

Open email to the Scottish Parliament

2008-06-15T22:03:00.024+01:00

Proposals to combat underage and binge drinking are being put forward by the SNP this week, which includes raising the age that someone can buy alcohol from a shop to 21, yet they can go to a pub and get drunk at 18. I wrote this open email and sent it to every MSP. Any replies I receive will also be published.

To all Members of the Scottish Parliament Sent Monday 16th June

From a very young age I have seen first hand the problems that alcohol can have on individuals and their families, and despite of this, I have worked in the alcohol retail trade for seven years, for two companies. I agree that there are many problems with alcohol misuse in Scotland, which must be dealt with, I do not believe that raising the drinking age will solve these at all, and may make things worse.

There are two main alcohol related problems in Scotland, underage drinking and binge drinking. I will address each of these in turn.

Underage drinkers
A policy should be introduced where anyone, regardless of age, is compelled to show either a driving license or passport to be able to buy alcohol. This would dramatically reduce the number of underage people being able to buy alcohol. Irresponsible retailers would be the ones that are punished, and would easily be caught, rather than a responsible retailer where one underage sale may 'slip through' the net. I grant you, it might appear ridiculous for a pensioner to have to produce ID to buy a bottle of gin, but everyone will soon get used to having to do it, much in the same way as people got used to having to fasten their seatbelt in the early eighties.

Binge Drinking
The culture of drinking in the UK is one of excess, and no matter what the legal age to buy alcohol is, there will always be binge drinking. Binge drinking is just as much of a problem with people in their late twenties as it is with people in their late teens. By not raising the drinking age to the on trade, you will still see people going into pubs and getting hideously drunk. The notion that is being bandied around that young people are going into a supermarket and buying massive amounts of discounted alcohol every night is laughable, but even if it was true, the raising of the drinking age for off sales will simply put those wanting to get drunk into bars rather than in their own homes. This will mean that there will be even more drunk youths on the street last thing at night, causing trouble and breaking the law.

Proposed plans to prevent the off trade from promoting alcohol will achieve nothing either as retailers will simply lower the single unit price. Instead of selling a can of beer for one pound and a case of 24 for £12, the single unit price of that beer will become fifty pence, with no discount for buying bulk. I sell a lot of wine on a 2 for £10 deal, where a customer can save between 99p and £2 per bottle, I will simply lower the price to £5. Add into the fact that the popular drinks consumed by people in their late teens and early twenties are the likes of Buckfast, Lambrini and alcopops, which rarely, if ever, are price promoted, proves that this proposal would not change excessive consumption in the young.

Any attempts to price young people out of being able to buy alcohol by taxation is only punishing responsible drinkers for the minority's indiscretions. Instead of taxing or raising duty, introduce minimum prices that retailers have to charge. For example, no bottle of spirits can cost less than £12, wine no less than £5 and beer no less than £1 per bottle or can. Doing this will not alienate people who care about what they drink as they will generally be spending more than these limits anyway, but will prevent supermarkets from offering beer at 20 pence per can. I grant you, the retailer or the producer may initially benefit from minimum pricing, but it will almost force companies making cheap alcohol to increase quality as they will realise that if they are producing an inferior product, but have to charge the same as a superior one, people will stop drinking their products and choose alternative brands. Therefore, more money will be spent on producing good products, for responsible drinkers to enjoy. Also, with vat being a percentage of the price, more tax could be raised to spend on public services.

There are two solutions to prevent binge drinking, particularly for the young. The first is to limit what they can buy. If an adult is between 18 and 21, they should be restricted in the off trade to a bottle of spirits, two bottles of wine or twelve cans of beer. In the on trade, they should be limits as well based on consumption per hour, but this would be difficult to police, therefore I propose that there should be tougher laws on bar staff selling to visibly drunk people in a bar.

The second solution is one of education. Teaching children in schools with graphic images of what alcohol abuse can do to you will stay with that child. I remember seeing a person getting knocked down and killed on a television show when I was five years old, and that has always stuck in my head and I look both ways every time I cross the street. Show video footage of an alcoholic dying or an autopsy on a person who has died. It might be graphic, it might be uncomfortable and unpopular, but it would work.

A person at 18 can get married, have children, fight and die for their country, pay taxes and buy a gun, yet with these proposals, they cannot buy a bottle of wine to have with their dinner at home, but they can go to a pub and get drunk. I agree that things need done to prevent misuse of alcohol, but the proposals put forward are akin to stopping speeding by removing the tyres from a car. It might make it a bit more difficult for the minority you are targeting, but will simply annoy the majority that adhere to the law and use common sense.

I appeal for sanity to prevail in the Scottish Parliament.

Peter Wood

Official Scottish Parliament petition against the raising of the drinking age
CARDAS - Campaign against raising the drinking age in Scotland
BBC 'Have your say' on this subject
The Wine Conversation article on this subject

Replies

John Park MSP, Labour, Mid Scotland & Fife 16th June
Thanks for your very thoughtful comments Peter. I will pass them onto the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and ask that he responds to them one by one.
I'll be back in touch soon
Regards, John

Derek Brownlee MSP, Scottish Conservative & Unionist, South Scotland 16th June
Thanks for your email. I think this debate will run for a while and it is helpful to have your comments.
Derek Brownlee

Karen Gillon MSP, Labour, Clydesdale 16th June
Thank you for your email, the contents of which have been noted. (Sounds like an automated reply to me)

Mike Pringle MSP, Scottish Liberal Democrats, Edinburgh South 18th June
I am sure you own MSP Ian smith will respond more fully, but the Lib/Dems are against this proposal.
Mike Pringle

Maureen Watt MSP, Scottish National Party, North East Scotland 19th June
Thank you for your views regarding binge drinking. I also feel that binge drinking is a blight on our society. I take your views into consideration and I welcome the consultation which is currently taking place.
Yours sincerely
Maureen Watt MSP

Stewart Stevenson MSP, Scottish National Party, Banff & Buchan 20th June
I have received a postcard from him which states "Stewart Stevenson MSP ackowledges with thanks the receipt of your communication of 15.6.08, the contents of which have been noted."

Shona Robison MSP, Scottish National Party, Dundee East 20th June
I have received a letter from her which says "Dear Mr peter Wood. I am writing to acknowledge your recent letter sent to Shona Robison regarding raising the drinking age to 21. A reply will be set to you as soon as possible. Yours Sincerely Kimberly Meikle"

Baron Ladron de Guevara Rioja

2008-06-11T23:06:00.002+01:00

YouTube is fantastic. I love watching old adverts for cigarettes that, to all intents and purposes, say “Smoking is Good For You”. They wheel out ‘doctors’ who tell you of the benefits of the odd fag or, in some circumstances, use Flintstones characters to promote Winston cigarettes.

In days gone by an advertiser could pretty much say anything they wanted and get away with it. If you need an ‘expert’, find one, chuck a few hundred pounds towards them and they would say anything that you wanted to. Then regulations came in to make sure that any claims made were accurate. Long gone are the days of “This MG car will make any women fall in love with you” or “A bottle of Vodka a day improves your liver functions”. You can’t even imply something that is not provable, and campaigns such as the Lynx deodorant “The Lynx effect”, which implies that using their product will get the attention of the female sex, could be deemed to be skating on very thin ice.

Aside from cigs, alcohol advertising is severely restricted. Using Micky Mouse to promote a beer would be a severe no no, as it could appeal to children. Suggesting that any booze can make you more physically attractive to the opposite, or same, sex is prohibited and you simply cannot promote excessive drinking.

Today I was shown some wines from Spain that said “sod it” to the rules. In pidgin English, the back labels said:

WINE IS –
Blood Vessel Dilater
Soothing
Diuretic
Fattiness Absorption Helper
Good Cholesterol Stimulant

THEREFORE WINE PREVENTS OR REDUCES RISKS OF THE FOLLOWING DISEASES –
Alzheimer
Cancer
Heart Attack
Cardiovascular Pathologies
Ocular Diseases
Hypertension

Brilliant! As a man who is not unfamiliar with the odd pie and who is short sighted, these wines might be my saviour. I could have my fattiness absorbed and my eyesight restored. Throw in the fact that any stress I might suffer from work will be prevented by this wonder wine, and I figure I shouldn’t drink any other liquid ever again. The producer was Baron Ladron de Guevara and aside from the miracle cure capabilities of these drinks, the wines are quite good!

A 2007 White Rioja was lovely. Not the usual oakfest you get, but pineapple chunks, quite a floral nose with a lovely grassy softness. A little fruit sweetness comes through with good minerality and good acidity.

The 2007 Red Rioja had a lot of rich, sweet cassis on the palate. A menthol element kicked in too, with a nice, dry dark fruit flavoured palate. Warm alcohol, nice spice and black pepper rounded this off. Nice stuff.

Both priced at £7.99 and imported by Raymond Reynolds Ltd. I'm off to drink a few barrels worth. Who needs the Atkins plan?

Dom Perignon 2000, 1995 Oenotheque & 1985

2008-06-10T09:53:00.003+01:00

People love lists, compiling them, reading them, arguing over them. If a human being can find something to write a list about, they will. “My top ten actors”, “my ten least favourite books”, “America’s 10 most wanted”, “top ten sausage producers in the UK” . Doesn’t matter what the list, people lap them up. I’m not going to bore you with my top ten wines, but if I did, at the top of the list you would see 1966 Dom Perignon. It still, five years after I had it, remains the best wine I ever had. I think that I may now be looking through rose tinted glasses at it now, as I have had some stunning wines since, so I’d like to try it again, just to make sure it is as good as I recall.

I’d have liked to try it for my 30th birthday this week, but sadly I couldn’t find one. So I decided that I’d have to settle for three Dom Perignons, the 1985, 2000 and 1995 Oenotheque. Oh it’s such a hard life…

When Jay Zed and Fifty Pence were rapping about Cristal, my crew and I were bigging up D.P. It’s a stunning wine, the Julia Roberts of the champagne world. When young, Dom Perignon is ‘Pretty Woman’ Julia, sexy, yet fun and quite bubbly, zesty and lively. Then when older, both the champagne and Ms Roberts becomes more sophisticated and gently elegant. They both entice you to explore them more and yet, when they choose to, they can both become the bubbly fun filled, yet still very sexy, experience they were in their youth. I never tire of Dom Perignon, and, as you may have guessed, never tire of Julia Roberts!

Dom Perignon 2000 is good. Light, citrussy and very minerally. A lot of apple and biscuit flavours. Dried lemon rind and a lot of biscuit on the palate. A long, spicy finish with a lot of pencil flavours! Very good and very clean. It is exactly what I thought it would be, and if you are used to trying young DP, this is the sort of wine under the heading “Textbook Dom Perignon”.

The Oenotheque 1995 was a surprise. It was very mature and was a very very nice wine. Rich, nutty aromas with a lot of honey and toast. I got a bit of distillery washback from it too. The palate is rich, a lot of heather honey and then a salty, dry Jacobs cream crackers flavour. A lovely lemony finish, and a brilliant wine was over. This isn’t a cheap champagne, but if you want something really good for a special occasion, buy this.

Finally, and all to soon, was the 1985 Dom Perignon. A wonderful wine that is exactly at the point I want DP. Very rich, so much heather honey, cheese and yet very floral. The palate was intense with a lot of woodland mushrooms, lime pith and a malty element to it. Bitter pencil and bundles of spice. So good….

Add in a barbecue and it wasn’t a bad birthday at all….

Crap of the Week - Barrel Drink Dispenser

2008-06-08T23:00:00.007+01:00

For those of you who think that the height of sophistication at a dinner party is cress in an egg mayonaise sandwich, this might be the ultimate gift for you.

The ultimate drinks dispenser comes in the fetching shape of a wooden wine barrel with a hole in one end. You push the bottle in and the neck through the hole, and then attach the rubber bung tap into the bottle. Then you can serve the cheapest crap you can get your hands on and you won't be judged on your taste of wine. Just on your taste of useless tack...

It costs £19.99 from drinkstuff.com, just one problem. Mateus bottles are not compatible!

Rauzan Segla 99 - the best a man can get....

2008-06-08T19:06:00.006+01:00

Gillette has just launched a gentleman's razor with five blades on it. It no doubt has a vibrating function, rubber fins to stretch your skin to get access to more hair and it probably has a moisturising strip that not only smooths your skin but injects botox into your face to make even the most wrinkly Sid James look like George Clooney.

Why does a man need all this? My Grandfather shaved for seven decades with one blade, no moisture strip and the only fins in his life came from the fish he had for dinner. But there again, he was a proper man, not a preened metrosexual. The razor blade has been complicated for little or no reason but to sell new razors.

The same applies with HD television. I was wandering through Woolworths and saw that a high definition DVD cost twice as much as a regular DVD. Does the picture really need to be that sharp, and the sound so clear? If you watch the Italian Job, not the remake with Marky Mark in it but the original Caine and Coward movie, the sound is poor, the picture is that pale 1960's quality, yet it is still a bloody good film. I don't need to see a brace of Mini's running around Turin in Hi-Def on a twenty inch screen. Again, the complication of a TV screen doesn't mean that movies or TV programmes are better, it just means that terrible shows and films starring Angelina Jolie are in crisper quality.

Which is why I decided to drink Rauzan Segla 1999. I have been looking at wines from Italy, The Rhone, Germany, Alsace, America... any region really aside from my first love, Bordeaux. So, realising I had not tried a Margaux in a while, I opted to open up this wine.

Uncomplicated, simple but brilliant. This is a beautiful wine, perfumed with an abundance of cherries and a little mint and wild raspberries. The palate is soft with grippy tannin with a lovely pipe tobacco sweetness, whole peppercorns injecting a little spice, plum stones and a stunning clean finish. Certainly, it was a bit young, it was a bit tannic and not the best year, but it was a black and white movie with mono sound whilst shaving with a cut throat razor. Stunningly simple and all I could ever need.