Terroir.....my arse

In my lost blog I endeavoured to keep an online record of the wines that I have been consuming. I immediately failed after last weeks post to record my opinions of the wines consumed then. Well so to this week.... Friday Hegarty No. 3 from the Minervois. I didn't like this one iota. In fact I didn't drink it aside from an initial taste. I would rather have consumed some neat blackcurrant cordial. Lesson Learned = stick to Ozzie wines Two Hands Gnarly Dude Shiraz. Brilliant. Everything I want in a Shiraz. Big, with a bit of spice, silken finish with light tannins. One to commit to memory for future consumption and a producer to keep an eye out for. Saturday 2005 Henschke Henry's Seven. An interesting Shiraz, Grenache, Mourvedre, Viogner from the Barossa Valley. I was expecting big things from this wine, and whilst on the nose it was very appealing, on the pallet it offered less and didn't really open up. This is one of Henschke's lower end wines and so I shall be keeping an eye out for other stable mates. St Hallet Gamekeeper's Reserve. For a sub tenner wine this is rather enjoyable. Another interesting Barossa blend, along with the ubiquitous Shiraz and Grenache an element of Touriga is thrown in for good measure. That's enough for now, I'm sounding like a poncy wine cnut.

Is he carrying a watermelon?

I sincerely hope this fellows efforts were rewarded!

Last of the NZ Reds

I am trying to resist the temptation to post for postings sake, but at the same time I am mindful that I want to maintain some kind of momentum, conscious of that fact that there have been other initiatives in the past that I have undertaken, that have fallen by the way-side somewhat. So given this quandary, I have decided to post anyway. The reason: I was thinking that my blog could serve as some kind of permanent reminder of the wines that I have consumed. Why was I thinking this? Well when my wife and I went to New Zealand on our honeymoon last year we managed to return with a number of fine wines, the quantity of which has slowly dwindled 'til we find ourselves in the position that today we have decanted the last of the NZ reds, a Nautilus 1998 Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot Reserve. Sounds fancy....well wait until you smell it. At first I thought it was corked (it was that rare thing amongst NZ wines - it actually had a cork rather than the more frequently encountered Stelvin enclosure - screwcap to thee and me) but I think that was just a slight mustiness around the bottle neck, and once decanted (not as pretentious an act as it may seem, it gives the wine a chance to breathe and relax a little more) all seemed well. At this stage I cannot say what it is like, it is still sitting in the Decanter in the Kitchen. As my wife and I plan to enjoy an evening in its company, I thought it only correct to purchase another bottle of wine - this one a 2003 d'Arenberg Galvo Garage - an interesting blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. I like the way that d'Arenberg - and so many other Australian winemakers have a story behind the production of their wines, or at least the initial inspiration for them. Hopefully with my work-in-progress relocation to Brisbane, I should be in a position to get to try more Australian varietals than I currently have access to in the UK market. I should get to see if they do indeed keep some of the best wines to themselves. Although much of the viticultural action is in South Australia and Victoria, I am certainly keen to sample the output of the boutique wineries of Queensland - particularly Robinson family vineyards. Maybe I'll post tomorrow to serve as a reminder of how the Nautilus and 'Galvo' went.

Winter

There is something about a Wintry day that is both nostalgic and more recently reassuring. With much media focus on global warming, but not necessarily governmental action, the obvious climatic changes that we see in our day to day lives is quite startling. Daffodils blooming in January, Blue Tits looking for partners and nests in February, Keria flowering in January it is all at odds with how we are used to things occurring. I must say I do like a good wintry day, when you have to wrap up with scarves, gloves and bobble hats to go and face what, to me, Winter is about. I recall as a child wearing my Parka with its fur lined hood having had my Ready Brek - advertised in the day as a central heating breakfast, imagining this little army of folk keeping me warm and insulated around the aforementioned Parka. I was reading another blog the other day in which the blogger was discussing global warming. In particular the blog was about the climatic change conference at Davos and why seemingly why no governments are taking notice of the scientists and surely that the scientists have no vested interest in talking up the problem. I always like to think I consider things from all view points - well try to anyway without my own inherit bias skewing my thoughts. On this point I do believe that global warming is an issue, see what I have said above. On the other hand I do also believe that scientists do have a vested interested in talking up the problem: 1) to get the item on the global (and governmental) agenda and perhaps somewhat cynically 2) to raise the amount of funds they receive for research into the subjects. It is an issue, it is something we should all be concerned about, it is something we can all do something about: be it vote with our conscience rather than for the party we have (or our parents have) always voted for. There are things we can do at home: recycle, turn lights off after ourselves simple things that collectively will make a huge differences. When we buy food, buy local, and I don't mean the local supermarket that stocks air-freighted green beans from Kenya. I read once that it takes 88 calories of energy to air freight one calorie of frozen bean into Britain: wasteful. I'm on a roll now.....VAT on aviation fuel? The reason it is so cheap to fly is that aviation fuel attracts no VAT. That'd soon wipe the smile of that cnut O'Leary. Enough for one day. Blood pressure started to rise there......

Ouch!

Today I am a little hungover. And today I have also learnt that there is a difference between a "bug" and a "support issue" (in systems terms). If anyone knows what that difference is, I would be grateful for some guidance. I joke that where I work (the organisation shall remain anonymous as there are some good folk here) that it is easier to bypass the middleman and bang my head against the wall - same end result and achieved in a quicker time. I would like to quote some Paul Hewson: "don't let the b@stards grind you down".