Sirromet Shiraz Viognier 2008I opened this wine with yesterdays Spaghetti Bolognese, looking for something big and bold to dance windmills around our taste buds and seal the food and wine partnership with a kiss.  It is interesting to take a wine that one doesn't know and pour glasses for our dining companions before sitting back and waiting for comments.   This signature blend of shiraz (sirah) and viognier did just that with Anthony holding up his glass and egging on other people to taste it.  A good sign!

Blended wines often give us something special to enjoy.  If a winemaker takes the trouble to blend two different wines and then declare it the signature wine then we can be assured it is worth a gamble.  The aromas on the nose of this particular tinto nectar attractively mixed dark plum and spice with echoes of liquorice and oak vanilla rounding it off.

In the mouth the wine is smooth with plenty of its' own character - brilliant with red meat dishes that have bags of herb flavour.  Needless to say this bottle didn't last long. It is a very enjoyable wine with a sophisticated edge… drink on!

Imported by Harlington Wines (awaiting UK stockists & will update).






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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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