La Rueda, Ares, Galicia
Written by Nick Breeze   

Ares is a small lazy town about 45 minutes from Santiago De Compostella by taxi. I have visited the town four times due to my friend having a family base there. That might be the first excuse. The successive visits were to revisit the landscape, the bars, the beaches and, most importantly, the people.

galicia_coastlineThe coastline around Galicia, parked so poignantly at the top of Portugal and looking sideways to Asturias and onto the Basque country, is haphazard and fraught with nature. The eye takes it in as if it were Cornwall overdosing on steroids.  Ares itself is a sleepy town at first sight.  That first sight is definitely the rub!

The inhabitants only pretend to sleep. In fact they take their legendary sleepy reputation quite seriously.  The only thing is that I see very little evidence of it.  The town can be circumnavigated on foot in twenty minutes and the incumbents are largely retired folk.  They bustle around avoiding the rush of daylight and generally pretending to be closed no matter what trade they indulge in. However, come evening, they remove the dark glasses and stride to the nearest drinking establishment to meet the rest of their clan. The men are generally out first. 

 

breeze-at-barThe bar that I always prefer to visit first is La Rueda. It is presided over by the fastidious and passionate wine man, “Peche” (I've no idea if this is how it is spelt but that is how it sounds). The bar has a narrow doorway, a small bar, minimum standing room and a ting television set cut into the wall (It was here on one of my early visit that I turned to see my good friend David Saxby making the Spanish news from Regents Park for staging 'The Chap Olympics'). Peche works with few tools but being the master craftsman he is, does exceptionally well enough to make this a bar I wished I found in every town I visited.  He has one beer pump, one leg of very good serrano jamon, a huge slab of Manchego cheese and a wonderful selection of Rioja's, Ribera del Duero, Albarino's amongst others on offer. One stands at the bar and chats, often completely unaware of what the other is saying, but happy in the circumstance that one finds oneself. Over le-rueda-galiciathe last eight years I have visited and the welcome on return is warm and genuine. Peche reaches his hand out, waits for no orders but is only too pleased to spend his time very carefully and precisely cutting thin clippings of jamon for the plate.  He then servers the cheese.  We discuss the wines (with Ricardo interpreting) at length.  The conversation opens up to visitors from the town who stop in, often in a hurry to sink a social drinks, say hello to all, attempt to pay for all our drinks by means of hospitality, before vanishing again into the dimming evening light.

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It's Not The Pale Moon That's excites Me...
Written by Nick Breeze   
  Nick Breeze Magnum St JulianChristmas has come upon me fast and hard with little regard for my feelings or my advanced senses of spacial awareness. No, in fact this mass of much or nothing has washed over in successive meals, toys, toys and meals and many a combination of salutatory drinks.

Not wanting to sound down hearted, I am far from it, for I'm sat by a warm fire in a rural Cornish bolt hole with the wines of my choosing at close call, and those of my familial host readily advancing. We're planning a scour of the Cornish environs for food and wine that starts tomorrow. St Kew Inn in St Kew is tomorrow for lunch. An old favourite and one that should be on everyone's list of Britain's top ten pub list. That followed by the Three Mackerel in Falmouth. Great seafood with the namesake being an obvious choice. I'll likely be starting with half a dozen Duchy's and a bottle of SB from somewhere pleasant.

The wines chosen especially for this sojourn are also enticing me:

The Marques De Vargas, 2003 from Rioja in magnum format – should be lipliciously spectacular!

Erial, 2007, Bodegas Epifanio Rivera from Ribera Del Duero- faves in the stemless Riedel's !!

Chateau Peymartin, Saint Julian, 2004 in magnum – licking and puckering

Clos Floridene, Graves, 2004 – fingers crossed for decent fruit to balance the inevitable terrior!

There were more but there are now few whites:

The Dr Wagner Riesling, Mosel, from Waitrose – finished and beautiful

Saint Veran, Les Morats, 2008 – Pouilly Fuisse style which is my secret private passion (love me tender, love me taste!)

Diemersdal Chardonnay 2008, S Africa – this was bought for the New Years Eve tasting to compare with the St Veran. I opened a bottle tonight and three of us at the table loved it (the others were not drinking it).

Other wines than have sneaked over the precipice this Christmas have been the 2005 Muga Reserve, various Grand Cru St Emilion (they seem to be everywhere) typically destined by low price and abundance of production to be good quaffing wines, and lots of sparkly wines – so varied they warrant another post.

As this week draws on then it is everyone's duty who is able, to succour the wines at hand and in someway report back how good or bad they are. Hopefully next year will be the year of cross suggested wines! All wines were obtained from Majestic Borough (about to close her doors to the public), Jeroboams.co.uk and Waitrose.

Much love..


 
A Lexicon of Luminous Colourful Descriptives
Written by Nick Breeze   

imag0345.jpgThe World Wine Tasting Corps embody a surreal mysticism based around being able to extract profound descriptive words with which to hang the evidence of their pleasure.  It is an odd cultish thing.  It is something that when viewed from an external perspective, the non-initiate views with certain amusement.  Yet, there is an allure to all this lyrical waxing.  I know this because I know how much people pay to take part in tutored tastings.  Good wine tasting is indeed very much fun and also very rewarding. To be able to take a big sniff and say "Yeah, merlot driven right bank!" gives one a sense of knowing ones taste buds.  I like it! 

But at what point do we cross the line?  For me it can be in a tasting when the stem holding maniac starts to swirl, eye looming vertically down into the grape juice looking for hints of divinity.  Words are also swirling in the brain, "... not too opaque... ruby... grassy... urine... straw..." and so on. The colour of the wine can tell us certain things about the wine.  In most cases one has the bottle close to hand so more information can be gleaned from that.  In terms of enhancing pleasure, do these strange rituals and pronounced postulations create cerebral ecstasy? 

It's been proven that the cost of a bottle (real or perceived) can certainly enhance our pleasure in the drinking process.  Many people drink slower, savouring the experience.  I tend to accelerate my pace puckering and wincing my way to the end.  I seldom analyse the wine, listing out descriptive comparisons to fruit, veg and baby puke.  Sometimes, a flavour can be so pronounced it would be churlish not to say it but I wonder why people spend so much time analysing what is in the glass rather than appreciating the enhanced pleasure at that particular moment?

I've only been thinking about this since buying some shampoo that smells lovely to me.  I was sniffing it in and having a good rinse thinking how it smelt like wonderful Gewurtztraminer, when I was struck by seeming illegality of describing something as a wine.  Surely we are cast with the task of finding descriptives for wine, not vice versa?  Any how, as much as I started conjuring up mental images of lychees and what not, nothing quite gave me as much pleasure as thinking that I had wonderful fine white wine running through my hair and scenting my body.

Now then, back to the tasting....

 
Best Tapas Bars In London: The search is on!
Written by Nick Breeze   
Best tapas bars LondonThe search for the best tapas bars in London has begun. In the running so far are:

Brindisa (Borough, Soho, South Kensington)
Galicia (Portobello Road)
Meson Don Felipe (The Cut, Southwark)
Barcelona Tapas (City)
La Mancha (Putney)

After several feasting visits to various corners of Spain, the quality and diversity of the tapas is undeniable. My personal favourite place is San Sebastien (Donastia) in the Basque Country.  The tapas available in San Sebastien is mind bogglingly good.  London has spawned many restaurants offering damn good tapas and I am constantly on the look out for exceptional and authentic places to pitch up at the bar in and start ordering.

The first London Tapas bar Review will be posted this week following the inaugral tasting.  Myself and my Ventian Gallego dining companion (a hybrid eating machine especially bred for this kind of work), Big Ric, will be reporting from the front line, taking special interest in: the variety of the menu, quality of individual classics and specialalities, range, diversity and quality of wines on the list, ambience, value for money and anything else that is deemed noteworthy.

If you have any suggestions to add to the list above then I'd love to hear them. Please email me directly at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or on Twitter @bacchae

Thanks!
 
Tasting Note (with recovering taste-buds): Dr Burklin-Wolf, 2007, Riesling Trocken
Written by Nick Breeze   

Dr Burklin-Wolf ReislingI have been recovering very slowly from the most boring bout of swollen throat, suets, phlegm and sinus congestion that we come to expect from this time of year.  My motives in every action are geared towards the healing process.  Hence my choice for some low-level Saturday night imbibing has turned out to be a bottle of Dr Bürklin-Wolf, 2007 Riesling, Trocken.

  This wines medicinal qualities of alcohol & acidity react like tear gas to my foes and fine friends to myself.  The crisp acidity gives a nice clean finish and there is even a little length in the familarly pleasurable taste.  Riesling is one of my favourite varieties of grape and when I am wounded, she has the touch of Florence Nightingale.  As she is given time to breathe, she opens up and makes one feel a touch special.

Well done Doctor Bürklin-Wolf!

Dr Bürklin-Wolf wines can be bought from Jeroboams Fine Wine for £11 a bottle or £9.90 each for twelve.

 

 

 
Chablis Wine Tasting London
Written by Secret Sommelier   

 

chablis tasting london

Chablis tour wine tasting london

 
Poças Porto Rosé
Written by Nick Breeze   
pocas_port_roseDrinking Róse is often (but not always) a no man’s land for me. It’s a place I go to but up on arrival I question the validity of my desire.  Give me the mouth watering sharpness of a Mosel reisling or the buxom scents of a sassy syrah and I’m all over in it in a frenzy!  Róse wine however, seldom arouses such excitement.

So when I received a bottle of róse port to taste recently I conceded to the novel appeal and left the actual tasting to due course. Then mark my twinkling eyes and pursed puckering lips when, to my surprise the róse port was a complex and sumptuously fruity hit.

The bright pink colour is accompanied by a nose of unmistakable fortified quality. I very much enjoyed the fruity complexity of flavours lingering on my palate. They’re nothing short of addictive (& not just to an old soak like me!), the richness and strength in alcohol parrying the cubic volume of the bottle (50cl).

Róse port is perfect for fine picnics, aperitifs, chilling to the side of your nightclub tabletop, or simply supping and succouring after a couple of light courses on a late summer evening!

For more information, please visit: http://www.pocas.pt/
 
Good Job Bob Bob Ricard!
Written by Secret Sommelier   

A note to all fine diners in the London area:

Bob Bob Ricard, a posh English diner in Soho, are launching their new reserve wine list in a few weeks and they are the first high end restaurant of their calibre to guarantee that they will add no more then a £50 surcharge on top of the cost of any of their reserve wines. This is a pretty remarkable decision when you consider the high end wines they are stocking and the price difference to those at other venues (stocking the same bottles).  

Highlights from the wine list include:

Bob Bob Ricard will be selling the 1995 L’Eglise Clinet for £170 -  it is currently on sale at The Greenhouse, Mayfair  for £345

Bob Bob Ricard will be selling the 1999 Bollinger Vielles Vignes Francaises for £294 – it is on sale at Maze for £710

Bob Bob Ricard will be selling the 1985 Haut Brion for £318 whilst at Claridges it is £1000

 Good Job Bob Bob, keep up the good work and may hordes of Vinophiles sing thee to thy cellar!

 

Bob Bob Ricard  

1 Upper James Street, Soho, London , W1F 9DF

Telephone: +44 (0) 20 3145 1000  

www.bobbobricard.com 

 

 
Fine Wine Dilemma
Written by Secret Sommelier   

On Tuesday of last week I was smoldering my way through west London, the aghast biological thermostat being tempered only by dripping perspiration when I hit upon an idea.  In order to cool and refresh my evaporating carcass I thought it would be wise to nurse it from within with some Fine Wine .

Thus I entered the store of Jeroboams on Holland Park avenue and gandered my keen eyes over the chilled wine selection feeling a thirst for something not overly fruity but with plenty of grip and cool fresh acidity.

I found all this (with a little assistance from the knowledgeable staff) in the 2006 URZIGER WURZGARTEN, Riesling Spatlese, Dr Loosen, Mosel at £22 a bottle.

Beautiful crisp minerality with gentle soft citric fruits paved the way to restoration.  My body temperature cool, my mind soothed, there was nothing more to do but go home and relax.

 

 
Pintxos in San Sebastian
Written by Nick Breeze   

Ganbara San Geronimo, San sebastianThe first bar that I always see on entering the Calle San Jeronimo is the Ganbara where one can ogle and let the eyes pop and the mouth dampen to the sight of fresh pintxos such as grated egg with mayonnaise, king prawns and anchovy, alongside such delicacies as truffles and rather odd looking brains that turn out to be the roe of something weird.  This is a great bar to get into early and watch the pros salt-cod-specialistpreparing the pintxos and then picking them off as soon as they touch the bar.  You’ll know when it’s time to move on… when standing room has vanished and the bar is stuffed full of pintxo aficionados gorging themselves!

Txapula – The skewers at the Txapula bar on the Calle Calbeton are outstanding and this remains one of my most memorable feasting joints in ....

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