Sunday Drinking: 14 April
What I’ve been up to this month plus two brilliant Burgundian Riojas. And a cold cure!
First welcome to all the new followers. There’s been a bit of a flurry recently and especially good to have so many new paid subscribers. I’ll be doing more paid-only posts over the next few months.
I am delighted to announce that my book is on the shortlist for the Andre Simon awards. The winner will be announced on the 29 April. To be honest, I think Jon Bonné’s magisterial tour de force two volume tome The New French Wine will win. I’ve read some of it and it feels like one of those once in a generation kind of books. We will see. But that’s not all! I have also been shortlisted for the Fortnum & Mason awards in the drink book category. The awards are on the 1 May so whatever happens I will attend two parties in a few weeks.
It’s been a busy March and April both personally and professionally. I had two articles in the Critic magazine come out since my last update. One looking at wine in Israel and wondering why we don’t see very much of it in England when the wines can be excellent.
“Moshe Klein, whose company Drumstick imports wine from Israel, put it bluntly: “the word ‘Israel’ can mean trouble, it was always the reality and it's even more these days.” Some of the most fashionable restaurants in London like Honey & Co and Palomar are actually Israeli but they brand themselves as ‘Middle Eastern’ so they can pass under the radar - not something that is possible with the wines. Even then they might still be subject to attacks - Pita in Golders Green was smashed up in October, before Israel invaded Gaza.”
Then something completely different or in some ways quite similar, a look at alcohol and Islam with a look at Lawrence Osborne’s The Wet and the Dry, a journey around the Muslim world in search of a drink:
“On his travels he isn’t just seeking out a cheeky half of lager, he’s looking to get intoxicated. As one Pakistan businessman says to him: “Are you serious? Get drunk in Islamabad?” On this subject, Osborne is deadly serious. While most writers on drink shy away from examining their own less than healthy relationships with booze, the opening of the book sees Osborne getting the shakes while being interviewed for Italian television in a bar in Milan.”
I was delighted to talk to Patrick Galbraith on his Beyond the Hedge podcast. It’s well worth a listen especially for his visit to Flint Vineyard in Norfolk whose Silex wine I liked so much recently. Patrick is a brilliant interviewer, a real natural, who in a sane world would have his own radio or TV series, a bit like Bob Fleming on The Fast Show.
For much of the last month I had a cold so for four days I cut out alcohol completely. I am afraid to say that it’s probably the longest I’ve gone without booze since I had cancer in my 20s. It took even longer to get back on wine which I find revolting when I’m blocked up. But I did invent a new cold cure drink. It’s an Americano but with a splash of Fernet, a bitter, minty, highly aromatic spirit. The recipe is two parts vermouth, one part Campari, one part Fernet, stir with ice and add a slice of orange and a splash of soda. It breezes through even the heaviest of colds.
And finally I’ve been working on a Rioja round-up for BBC Good Food and two in particular stood out. They’re not cheap but at £20, they’re not silly money for wines of this quality.
Ramon Bilbao Garnacha Límite Sur 2020
Unusually this wine is made from 100% garnacha (grenache) a grape that is undergoing a renaissance in the region. It’s fragrant and supple on the palate with sweet red berry fruit , spicy liquorice and a mineral rocky edge. Think Pinot Noir but with extra alcohol and you’re in the right place. It’s an absolutely beautiful wine.
Ramon Bilbao Tempranillo Blanco Límite Sur 2020
White Rioja traditionally comes in two styles, big and oaky which when done right by Murrieta or Lopez de Heredia can be superb, or clean and bland. This is not like either. It’s only 12.5% and made from a rare white mutation of tempranillo. It’s saline and creamy - on the first day open tasted a bit like an upmarket aligote from Burgundy. Overnight it began to take on a little bruised apple and fattened out, a little like an unfortified manzanilla sherry.
That’s it. Happy drinking!