Taittinger Prestige Rose NVMarta served a dish of oven roasted lemon chicken - wow - herbaceous and juicy it was the perfect match for the Taittinger Prestige Rose.  This is very popular rose champagne and rightly so.  After a mouthful of chicken coated with the flavoursome oils, the strawberry flavour leads the charge of red fruit intermingling for a great tasting sensation.  Really delicious.  The fresh acidity clears the palate leaving a space for the next desirable forkful of food! Other guests seemed surprised that champagne would be served with a main course but everyone agreed that it is a pairing that should be indulged more often.  Very pleasurable indeed!






Taittinger Nocturne Secand finally…. we closed off with a bottle of Taittinger Nocturne NV, blue cheese and chocolate truffles.  The Nocturne is aged on its lees for seven years before disgorging and has a very high level of sugar (17g) that dictates its sweet style.  Sweet champagne made with so much class does not get enough
appreciation.  It is a powerful wine with intense ripe fruits including peaches and pear.  The flavour stays in the mouth for a long time and loves squaring up to the cheese.  I was hoping to have this with cheesecake but forgot to buy it in!


These last two champagnes displayed two varied styles very well for two very different situations.  We closed the night with glowing smiles and much talk of the next tasting… so any tips of champagne … please let me know. 

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Climate change podcast

Last week a picture was posted on Twitter of vines in Shabo, a large estate that lies to the west of Odesa on southern Ukraine’s Black Sea coastline. The image seemed benign at face value but the reality, of course, is that the city of Odesa has been bracing itself for attack by Russian forces. 

 

As COVID-19 conspires with the grimmest of winds and rain to force a societal retreat behind our own front doors, the word ennui springs to mind. The muddle of displeasure is pierced when Natalia hands me a large bulbous glass of a liquid I do not recognise.

 

 

Britain’s lamentable exit

On the eve of Britain’s official departure from the EU, my partner and I decided to explore a small town on the Italian Riviera where thewintry cold doesn’t feel so much like cold war bite.

I had warned my significant other that I would be having an inverse departure party, a release of the sanity valve if you like!

 

Sitting inside the ancient castle walls inside the town of Soave, a short drive from Verona in northern Italy, the unique slightly almond aroma of the indigenous grape, Garganega, rises gently from my glass. The castle sprawls up the side of an extinct volcano that gives the region its variant soil structures that mark out the better quality of Soave wines.

 

Tanisha Townsend decided to move to Paris 4 years ago after regularly passing through the city en route to the world’s most famous vineyards. In fact, it was about 2 years ago at the Printemps de Champagne Bouzy Rouge tasting in Reims that I saw (who we shall now refer to as) GirlMeetsGlass chirpily speaking to her web followers on Snapchat.

 

The cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, the final resting place of Saint James, rises out of the landscape, infested with antiquity. The rambling steep streets give way to shafts of dramatic light, emblazoned chapels, and tightly packed tapas bars, dusty, as old novels pressed together in antiquarian bookshops.

 

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