Wine

Earlier this afternoon, my wife and I went to the Weaver Street Market in Southern Village (which also has a blog) for some wine tasting. You can see the wine list here (pdf).

As the first rule of blogging is never to blog drunk, I had a to wait a couple of hours afterwards before I started to write this post. I wasn't really drunk, but I was happy enough to seriously consider singing on our walk home. I guess I am quite a lightweight...

Our strategy was for Mrs.Coturnix to taste the whites (and occasional red I recommend) and for me to taste the reds (and occasional white she recommends). She is a connoiseur of whites, while I grew up in a household that only had red and rose. Thus, my taste for whites is very naive - I like them as sweet and fruity as can be, and I was very happy with the Hyatt Riesling which is best described as sweet fruit-juice with alcohol. But I like that!

The quality of red wines was mixed. And anyway, after tasting 20 or so of them in rapid succession, they all tend to blend and it is difficult to tell them apart any more. I am a big fan of Malbec and there were two there (Alcion and Cava Negra), both dirt cheap and quite decent. As the summer is coming and the grilling with it, I think I'll get a few bottles - they go great with a blackened slab of cow or lamb. Shirazes were underwhelming. The Garnacha tasted just like a Malbec! Warre's Port, Leverano Rosso and Ten Mile Red were fine. The rest I don't remember.

So here are my Top Three of the day, in this order:

1. FontanaVecchia Aglianico Riserva '00
The kind of rich, deep, full-bodied red that I grew up with, something my father would have liked.

2. Vale do Bomfim Douri Reserva '04
Almost as good.

3. Hogue Cabernet Sauvignon "Genesis" '03
This was recommended to me before, and it is excellent.