Liveblog - Romanico Toro 2010

So when Tricki'n'Baz came over the other night they brought with them a lovely Monsant from O'Briens which I am no stranger to. They also said they had picked another Spanish wine which had been highly recommended by the chap in O'Briens whose blurb says the following:

"Imagine Australian Shiraz meets Rioja and you get an idea of what this might be like. Big, rich and packed with fruit but never losing its distinctly Spanish accent and excellent structure. This is a phenomenal new wave wine from the Toro region and is from the hands of master winemaker Marcus Eguren" 

Romanico Toro 2010 €13-99 reduced from €17-99.

19:00 It's been open and decanting for over two hours now. Lots of bright fruit flavours initially but there is some structure behind it. Very pleasant indeed, although I'm not sure how much it will it will improve as the night wears off.

21:30 I do like this, maybe it's the influence of a "medium" Chicken Karahi (actually quite hot) from Bombay Pantry but I'm finding this a much more integrated beast than before. I don't know that it will impress old-world lovers but if you like your wine with a little fruit, fill your boots.

23:30  I'm still liking this and the finish is cracking but would I pay €17-99 for it? No. €13-99? Maybe. It's a grown up Protocolo, which is not an insult, buy I'd want more for this money. I'd buy it if I was entertaining and I knew the guests were big fruity new-world freaks. This would be right up their alley, so to speak.

Liveblog! - Bertani Villa Novare Ripasso & Boots

It's been literally yonks since I live-blogged a wine and Herself is out with her girly chums so I'm all set do some blogging and babysitting. The wine in question is from O'Briens, and it's a Bertani Villa Novare Ripasso 2009 - €12-99 reduced from €17-99.

19:00 - The wine has been open and in a decanter for about 30 mins as I take my first sip. Lots of structure, some bitter cherries and a decent slug of acidity. Overall its OK so far. I am hoping some fruit develops over the next couple of hours.

So having finished my "interval" drink - a bottle of Young's Special London Ale, a bottle conditioned treat weighing in at a not inconsiderable 6.4% abv. I'm also half way through the blu-ray of Chronicle, and its pretty frickin' good so far.

So it's 21:00, and we get back to the vino. It has definitely evolved; it's a bit more harmonious. There's now a little bit of fruit peeping out from under the edge of the duvet, and the wine is working together nicely as a whole

So its coming up on 23:00, time for a last (official) taste, I'm going to save some for Herself for when she gets home. And what do we find...Well, it seems we have hit the apotheosis of this particular expression. We now have some nice tannins, a little bitter cherry, some other brighter fruit and a long finish. I'm not sure I'd pay 18 notes for it but as priced its very tasty, provided you have the time to wait for it to evolve or you could hyperdecant it, I suppose.

Wagner and I

Another Saturday night movie, another liveblog. The wine is the Jerome Quiot Gigondas 2004 I mentioned in my last post. The day started badly as I returned home, hungover and much the poorer after a night in the country playing poker. It got better though, as we brought Little Bill (tm) into town on the Luas for some lunch and a bit of shopping. I had two of my favourite things in Waggamamas, a delicious Yaki Soba and a 500ml bottle of Asahi.

7-30 - Opened and decanted. Smells nice.

9-00 - Our movie tonight is Valkyrie, a Tom Cruise pic. The wine has started well, some nice complexity, acidity and some tannins. The movie too is promising, Bryan Singer has made some cracking movies over the years and even though we know how the story ends he still manages to generate tension.

10-00 - The wine is still holding up well and we have added some creamy M&S stilton to the mix. It is getting a little drier and more tannic as the night wears off (the wine that is). Herself reckons the movie is "bitty". I disagree, the tension is ramping up and there is a wonderful cast of mostly British thesps.

10-30 - The Gigondas (btw - what is the correct pronunciation of Gigondas?), is about to be gone, and very tasty it was too. Would I buy more? Perhaps, for about the smae money you can get the Tesco or Lidl Vacqueyras which are a bit nicer. The movie is also finishing up, It turned out to be better than I expected.

Liveblog - Ferraton Cotes Du Rhone and a Lidl bit extra*

Another movie, another Liveblog. The wine (at right) is a Ferraton Cotes Du Rhone 2007 from O'Briens, the movie is "Rachel Getting Married" a well regarded indie flick from Jonathan Demme with a star turn from Anne Hathaway. I bought six of these (the wine) for a post Xmas dinner with the in-laws. They were on special offer in O'Briens at about a tenner apiece and Ramon, who has steered me right on a number of occasions, recommended them as the best value red in the place.

7pm - Opened and decanted. The other night the in-laws barely put a hole in this while myself and Herself quite liked it, it was not a huge in-your-face wine but was medium bodied, pleasant and very potable.

8pm - I was down at Bombay Pantry in Rathfarnham and lo and behold Lidl was open. I could not resist its siren song and picked up the other two bottles pictured. The Lidl Vacqueyras (at left), I have had previously and really liked it, this time it was on special at €9-59, a huge bargain at that price. The Chianti (center €7-39), I took a punt on and will report on in due course.

8-30pm - My world has been rocked, I got a lousy main course from Bombay Pantry. I ordered the New Delhi Housewives choice, a particular favourite of mine, and it was poor. Bland, flavourless and poor. I have been eating from there for many years and it has been universally great, which makes this even more disappointing, but I digress.

9-pm - Half an hour into the movie and it's pretty good. Very hand-held camera, indie, angsty and all that but well acted and if you are in a large family and I'm in two of them, a lot of it rings true. The Cotes Du Rhone is now very nice, a little bit choclatey with a little bit of red fruit. Herself is getting caramel notes, but she has just eaten a(Cadbury's mini Caramel) so that explains that.

10-pm - The finish on this wine is getting longer and developing a little dryness as the evening wears off and the movie continues on to its inevitable conclusion. At this price I can definitely recommend it. The movie is quite good, perhaps a little indie for some people, you know who you are - every misguided soul who hated Requiem For A Dream. Anne Hathaway who gave a great, Oscar nominated performance here, went on to the dreck that was Bride Wars, so I just don't know what to tell you.

10-30pm - The wine is getting even better at the very last and we have to comb through cookbooks to pick out a main for New Years eve. I'm back at work as of today (boo) so I'll be keeping the booze in check (boo again) until that day or perhaps tomorrow night at JK's 4oth (woo-hoo).

* It's a lousy pun, I know

Tuesday Liveblog - Santa Ana Eco Malbec 2007

For no good reason I've decided to liveblog on a Tuesday, the wine in question was given to me on Sunday by my big sis during the third and hopefully final weekend of birthday shenanigans. This particular occasion was the traditional family birthday dinner - held for the first time chez nous, due to the application of two large pieces of MDF duct taped to our existing table - cheers D!. Herself made a delicious tajine and I accompanied it with copious amounts of this, which seemed to go down OK.

7-00pm - Opened and decanted. I love Malbecs and sis has good taste in wine so have high hopes for this. Smells nice although at this stage is still a little cold.

9-00pm - Just back from an emergency onion run (don't ask). I still haven't got the wine quite warm enough but even cool its very tasty. Some gentle tannins evident as well as a sort of Malbec structure for want of a better phrase, which I love.

10-00pm - Mmmm very smooth, some nice plummy fruit and a lovely long finish. Need to find out where she got this. At the moment this is a very fancy wine, up there with the Trapiche Malbec and more rounded than the Norton Privada.

10-30pm - Showing a little more fruit now but still complex, tasty and fine. When I find out where to get it I'll let y'all know.

**Update** - This turned out, not entirely co-incidentally, to be a wine I tried to buy a case of a few weeks ago to no avail. I went back to the source and have hopefully secured a case for next week. So be nice to me.

Liveblog - Cristia Cotes Du Ventoux 2007

So its come to this - another liveblog.

Firstly I need to quickly comment on wine number three (of four) from the Superquinn French wine sale - Chateau Le Mayne Bordeaux Superieur 2005 (at left). While this was not unpleasant, it didn't taste like a Bordeaux, more like a middle-of-the-road undistinguished French red. I don't know what I expected for €8, I suppose. This again confirms my rule of never buying cheap Bordeaux or Burgundy, there just isn't any good stuff around below about €20. If you know of some please let me know.

So - the liveblog, this has tended to happen of a Friday evening while watching a movie with Herself and tonight is no exception. Last time I did it the wine ended up mirroring the movie. We are now watching The Boat That Rocked, so we'll see. The wine is number four (of four) from Superquinn, a Domaine de Christia Cotes du Ventoux 2007, reduced to €8 from €14-99.

21-30 The wine has been decanting for an hour now and we have just had a first sip and very nice it is too, quite "Rhoney", a little spicy and a little fruity. Herself reckons its chocolaty and smooth but that may be wish fulfillment on her part.

22-00 I'm still liking this, it developed a little more fruit and a tadge more complexity in the last 30 minutes, not unlike the movie which has just taken a dramatic turn. The wine now has a decent finish, lets hope the movie follows suit (Woo-hoo! - film/wine comparisons are go!)

22-40 The movie is heading for its close as is the bottle, so I'll wrap things up. I like this wine, at €8 I'd buy it again, at €14-99, not so much. The movie got a lot of hate in the reviews (spoilers ahead) I've read, apart from Mark Kermode, and I'm not sure why. It's not a masterpiece but its moderately amusing, it has a great cast (some underused), it does go a bit Titanic at the end but hey, pobody's nerfect.

Next - We're off to Dax for NOB's birthday, congrats a deux, and I'll report back on the grub/vino.

Friday LiveBlog - Cave de Rasteau Signature Cotes du Rhone

Another Friday, another LiveBlog. This time with the second of two wines bought last week in O'Briens.

9-30pm - Have just arrived back from our local hostelry, where they have just converted their pizza restaurant into a Steak-on-a-stone place. They serve you a barely cooked fillet on a piping hot stone platter and you slice pieces off and cook them yourself. Sounds dubious but with a nice piece of meat this was rather good. Anyhoo - I forgot to decant the wine before leaving the house so I've just done it and had a first taste. Herself is "not overly fussed", I'm undecided as yet. Initially it has the "Cotes Du Rhoney" flavours - let's see how it develops.

10 pm - I like this - it's a little light but pleasant drinking. It appears that this wine is made by the same mob that make the Ortas Rasteau , also from O'Briens, which is very tasty. Herself says its opening up a bit but tastes a bit "new worldy" - hmmmmm. We are now 42 minutes into Nick & Norahs infinite playlist, its not bad for a chick flick. Also speaking of "42", happy birthday to a certain reader of this blog.

10-40 pm - This is developing some depth of flavour and complexity at the end of the bottle. Its not a fabulous wine by any stretch but its decent, well priced and if you are a Cotes du Rhone fan you probably won't do wrong by this.

11 pm - I'm on my last mouthful and the wine has developed some tannins at last, not too much just a little dryness at the finish to complement the fruit, spices etc already present. It has evolved into a properly balanced wine, not one for the neophyte, but anyone with a yen for this style of wine should not be disappointed.

Here endeth the post - 1:19 into Nick and Norah, moderately charming and inoffensive - not unlike the wine.

Tesco Finest Vacqueyras 2007

Tonight another experiment - I going to liveblog this wine from start to finish over the course of the evening. This wine is one of Mary Dowey's 100 great wines under €12, I had it once before and liked it but had not seen it in any Tesco since.

This is the infuriating thing about Tesco, they produce some cracking Finest wines at decent prices but they are often hard to find. Bizarrely I found it in Tesco Upper Baggot St which has always had a shockingly poor selection of wines, catering mostly to the pile 'em high sell 'em cheap philosophy.

I'm not all that familiar with Vacqueyras, I know that's its in the Southern Rhone and its made from mostly Grenache. The blurb on the bottle says "A full and rich red with black cherry aromas coupled with a smooth, dark fruit and lightly spiced palate", we shall see.

7-30 pm

I'm opening the bottle, I'm not going to decant it as I would normally do as I reckon most people wouldn't decant it either and I'm aiming for some verisimilitude.

9-00 pm

First sip; cherries - check, spice - check, smooth dark fruit - not so much yet. All round though this is very tasty, nicely balanced and belying its 14% alcohol. Herself says "Lovely" and "Blackcurranty". Next up - we'll try it with Cambozola and Ardrahan cheeses.

10-00 pm

Firstly - Carr's Cheese Nibbles, delicious but deadly - you can't stop eating them. The wine has opened up a little in the glass, it's a little less spicey and a little more rounded and fruity, still very nice and a worthy foil to the cheeses.

Note: Tonight's TV is just awful, we have gone from Farah Fawcett's cancer to Jim Carrey and that's probably the best thing on! New episodes of South Park are also on but... (makes whipped sound). Roll on Jonathan Ross.

10-30 pm

About to finish this off - it's just getting better, the finish is getting longer and the balance really is remarkable, if you see this in Tesco, buy it - I think it was about €12. Perhaps that's why this is never in stock, cos it's so good?