Archive for the ‘wine’ Category
New post-doc went to
High school in Alabama,
D.Phil.’ed in Stockholm.
Name: Vaucluse Grenache-Syrah
Type: red wine
Venue: house
Review/notes: We got a new guy at work, on a Marie Curie Fellowship so possibly a sharper tack than the average. Eager, too, which can be a pain in the ass or amusing (as he swims through the bureaucratic and social treacle that is professional life at Oxford).
He commented that I didn’t seem to have a southern accent but accepted that Atlanta doesn’t really count as the south, but I had to ask this German kid with a masters from Leiden and PhD from Stockholm, “what the fuck do YOU know about it, anyway?” Bizarrely and in perfect hick accent, he told me he did a year of high school in Clanton, Alabama (seat of Chilton County where a roommate I had in 1981 was from). Small world.
Dinner was a Mexican themed salad, raging against the dying of the light (as Autumn progresses). The wine was perfect with the spicy dressing, nothing special on its own.
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A rainy day spent
Installing insulation
And draught excluders.
Name: Frontera Cabernet Sauvignon
Type: red wine
Venue: house
Review/notes: The Victorian house is mostly single glazed which makes it even more critical that we make it less porous as the winter sets in. I was at the DIY place at 8 and spent the morning chasing air gaps but the house is noticeably warmer without the heat turned on. It is quieter, too.
Did a quick shop down at the new supermarket where I also grabbed a bite of lunch (Chippy Challenge #110), then put on the supper and headed out into the squalls for a minimalist run of just under 40 minutes. Returning to find the bird done already, I took a glass of wine to the bath and awaited the spousal unit’s return from work. Saturday’s can be awesome.
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The fireworks commence.
Kitty hides under the bed.
Inflammable skies.
Name: Villa Verde Montepulciano d’Abruzzo
Type: red wine
Recipe: slow roast pork shoulder
Venue: house
Review/notes: Bonfire night saw my own gunpowder plot in the form of going out for my first — albeit brief — run in 3½ weeks (because of surgery, bleeding like the last of the Romanovs, and the worst case of lurgy I’ve had since 1983 which lingers on, and on, and on). The fireworks and the nearly full moon were all that lit my way on a lot of the trail which overlapped an awful lot of both the G-Had HHH and the Moonrakers HHH trails for the evening.
The dinner was lovely and needed no tending so I headed into town after the jog and walked home beneath the fireworks with Jackie (who had a late day, today). “Fancy a glass of wine with dinner?” I asked as we passed the supermarket. After a long pause with her mouth ajar she whispered, “who ARE you and what have you done with Bun?”
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Like being back in Athens, GA: a bottle of wine, a foreign Sunday paper half read, a box of Goody’s, and Car Talk blaring on the radio
“Our Humility”
Say Tom and Ray Magliozzi
“Is what makes us great.”
Name: Jacob’s Creek Shiraz Cabernet
Type: red wine
Venue: house
Review/notes: Off early to get stitches removed I picked up the bottles on the way home from the GP. The lurgy lingers, so I didn’t run back to the house and, instead, thought about our dear, departed Tappet brother and all his lunacy. Arriving home, I downloaded the most recent episode of Car Talk (they stopped making new ones in 2012, but continue to put old episodes on each week, such is their popularity). The topics ranged from nose picking to the merits of buying a limousine to replacing a clutch unsuccessfully and what noise cancelling methods can disguise your shoddy work (hint: get a louder stereo). One woman wanted to, rather than go in to get a repair redone, try a more ‘holistic’ approach; “oh, you want a pressure point…take your finger and poke it in the mechanic’s chest while chanting ‘I’m not paying for this twice.'”
Next week, Ray is putting out his personal favourite clips…I’m looking forward to ‘The Best of Tommy.’ Oh, the haiku fit the format better but I really tried to fit the great man’s personal motto in: Non Impediti Ratione Cogitationis.
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Tom Magliozzi.
Are there convertibles there?
That’s today’s puzzler.
Name: Castelliere Pinot Grigio
Type: white wine
Venue: house
Review/notes: Grand to have my life back! Awoke at 3 a.m. with my sinuses draining (some in a form similar to small, desiccated amphibians down my throat, others as a viscous, polymerising liquid via my tear ducts), and could not open my eyes (due to the polymerising phlegm that had encrusted them). Seriously, I had a quarter-inch thick rusk over the entire area and had to feel my way down to the bathroom to rinse my face just to loosen the mask.
It’s not entirely over but I can live with the coughing and sore throat. There’s an appetite! I should apologise about my assessment of the Nigella recipe…it was actually lovely (I can taste again!).
The wine was dry and fruity and a bargain.
While I’m back from the dead I have just read the sad news that Tom Magliozzi is gone for good. I started listening to Car Talk in the mid-1980s and have even occasionally chased down podcasts of the shows whilst living here and in Holland. Tom and Ray were like big, goofy, middle-aged uncles or cousins to the folks of my generation…condolences to Ray and the rest of Tommy’s clan. I do have a couple of questions, though…what color is your casket? Have you tried smacking it with a broom handle? Can you make the noise of the crypt? Okay, I done…I’ll be down at the Horseshoe Road Inn if you want more of this.
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Surprisingly bland:
Chicken stew served over rice
A la Nigella.
Name: Chateau Pierrousselle Entre Deux Mers
Type: white wine
Recipe: chicken, garlic, leeks, carrots, celery slowly cooked in white wine and water
Venue: house
Review/notes: Really wanted the comfort food, today after another bout with 39ºC (102ºF) fever throughout the dawn. This recipe was in the Observer Food Monthly today and was the first disappointment from either them or Ms. Lawson. Not bad, but not worth repeating. Drank the rest of the wine with the meal, the best part of the dinner.
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October
New pubs to the blog count, all on two day trip to IoW
At first glance, October seemed a month of two halves — the first healthy and spry, the last stinking of death and decay. Yet, closer examination reminds me that I’ve been ill more or less constantly since the 10th of the month despite making the Isle of Wight Marathon trip, another cancer surgery (and spillage from the same), and having a busier than usual month at work. The weather has been spectacular, I’m told.
I added 11 pubs to the count entirely on the two-day trip to the Isle of Wight Marathon. Two new ones appeared in Oxford (old ones but with major refurbishments and name changes) but they will have to wait until November. The best of the new additions has to be the Red Lion in Southampton, but you could do a lot worse than The Crab and Lobster Tap (Ventnor), The Traveller’s Joy (Northwood), or most-up-my-alley The Painter’s Arms (Cowes).
The Daily Tipple list accurately represents the beer consumption for the month with a little more than half favouring darker varieties like stout, porter, and mild. Choosing one per day was really the hard part as almost every new pub mentioned above supplied local brews that I have never tried before and the Swindon Beer Fest introduced 7 beers and 3 ciders new to me (and scores more I didn’t get around to):
The Fish and Chips Challenge was in a lull partly due to the ongoing medical problems and partly due to the remoteness of new venues and my ability to reach them. My spreadsheet updates my days-per-fish rate and the minimum number for the year (based on one every 7 days until year-end) after each fish. The average of these two appears to be converging on 124.9 for the year (let’s say 125). I’m going for a pub fish and chip lunch when I finish this post, so this looks like a fairly good prediction.
The G-Had has started to make an impact. In October, the site had more hits than in all months prior combined. It also led to paranoid behaviour by North Wilts HHH when they tried to pretend a run wasn’t going to happen and then came up with a clever (but easy to defeat) trail marking plan to foil the IntifadHHHa. With local attention piqued and health poor, the war became one more of propaganda than contact but a fresh scalp was added courtesy the Isle of Wight HHH.
Also, the subtleties of the Intifad-HHH-a versus a Calip-hhh-ate became a matter of record, over on the G-Had HHH site.
Phlegmatic rupture.
Spontaneous combustion.
Imminence…to bed.
Name: Navarra Old Vines Garnacha
Type: red wine
Venue: house
Review/notes: The illness is at a peak and I write this from bed. One glass of this was all I could sit upright for, which is a pity as it tasted really complex and had a soothing texture but my head pounds and these sinuses are hurting my teeth and eyes and the fever is the highest I have suffered in 20 years or more. This hell must end soon.
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There’s so much pressure
In my sinuses that hair,
Teeth, cheeks, and eyes ache.
Name: Bin 99 Cabernet Franc
Type: red wine
Recipe: Roast chicken. Salt and bake the bird. I don’t know what temperature, do I? I need to lay back down.
Venue: house/Ebola ward
Review/notes: The only good thing about this case of the flu (or whatever this shit is…regardless, my first truly debilitating illness since the 1990’s) is, erm, NOTHING. This shit sucks.I’ve been to work with it all week (I think everyone that is getting infected already has it or has recovered) in the vain hopes that occupying my time will make me feel better but instead I think it has just prolonged the agony.
We planned on soup for today and Jackie, also sick, bravely trudged to the grocer for a bird but couldn’t face chopping veg or prepping the meat. I picked up the wine and a Halloween bowl full of cold medicine varieties on the walk from the bus, and upon arrival rinsed the carcass (the chicken’s although I could probably have used a shower, too) and stuck it in the oven. When we smelled it, we stumbled back in, hacked off some chunks, threw them on some spinach to wilt it slightly and crumbled some mouldy Stilton over the top then ate in silence, like condemned souls awaiting judgement.
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Two new Americans
Are not sick while illness runs
Rampant through the group.
Name: Taylor’s Select Reserve Port
Type: port
Venue: house
Review/notes: One of the bosses claims that he is probably Patient Zero (likely, he travels more than most) but I’m more suspicious that the healthy imports smuggled this shit in. Sore throat, body aches, chills, fever, congestion, nausea…delightful.
Just as it is the start of cold and flu season, early nightfall comes with our switch back to GMT last week. Brown liquors appear and soothing sips of port finish every meal (or, when you don’t feel like eating, precede an evening of tele).
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Really shouldn’t moan.
The swelling has abated,
A good thing, this time.
Name: Featherstone Ruby Cabernet Shiraz
Type: red wine
Recipe: Pho, just like be-pho
Venue: house
Review/notes: No bleeding, less bruising, still not able to sustain a run without severe pain so sticking to stretches and some load bearing exercises; yet, better than last Friday..
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Don’t tell your surgeon,
“I’m just glad to be back from
Sierra Leone.”
Name: Rosemount Reserve Shiraz Grenache
Type: red wine
Venue: house
Review/notes: In the hospital again, getting my boobs lifted or, at least, the left one were the superficial BCC was cut out. The conversation led around to the Isle of Wight Marathon at which point she said that it seemed excessive to run that far. “I just did it to celebrate returning from Sierra Leone.” We laughed and laughed.
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Tomorrow requires
Beer to watch NLCS
After surgery.
Name: Morrison’s Claret
Type: red wine
Venue: house
Review/notes: We just got the new Morrison’s directly on each of our walks home from either work or the bus stop, so, yes, I see drinking a lot of this in the near future. No run, tomorrow (under the knife again); then, settling in to Game 5 (recording tonight…shh).
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It’s good to be home.
Was rushed off my ass today.
Accomplished fuck-all.
Name: Villa Garducci Montepulciano d’Abruzzo
Type: red wine
Recipe: bought some stew bones at the Halal butcher, cut the meat away and minced it coarsely in the sausage maker…sublime
Venue: house
Review/notes: Double- and triple-booked all day and sometimes had outcalls following me around. This is why I make the big bucks.
The burgers done this way (with just a smidge of sea salt and quite a bit more than a smidge of garlic run through the grinder with the meat) are truly fantastic.
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A planned pub visit.
Think, “O for a Muse of fire.”
Try to guess which one.
Name: Arpeggio Nerello Mascalese
Type: red wine
Venue: Rustico, Swindon
Review/notes: Carb loading for a long run I have planned for Sunday, I convinced the wife an Italian place was a good idea.
Earlier today, I spotted a pub along a short trip route I’m taking tomorrow and thought it looked great from the outside (Google Street View is my Desert Island App); I read up on the place and found that it has one of the best back-stories of any pub I have ever been to (and there are 1261 so far on this blog alone…so far). So, I am excited about that part of the little trip…stay tuned.
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It was sloppy work.
Collision cell resistors,
Capacitors fixed.
Name: Banrock Station Shiraz Mataro
Type: red wine
Venue: house
Review/notes: Exceptional variety here…like concentrated blueberries. Better than I deserve for leaving this instrument in such poor condition, but an ample reward for setting things right.
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Hiding/subterfuge.
Do not deny the True Path.
G-Had is patient.
Name: Inycon Pinot Grigio Grecanico
Type: white wine
Venue: house
Review/notes: Rushing from the bus to “Rodbourne” which I found as the location of the Moonrakers Hash House Harriers trail by using the cached version of their page (thanks, Google), I easily found powder but wanted to know which way they were going to run. I made a nice little loop past the most likely suspects (the Manor and the Southbrook) but it would have been rude not to stop in for a quick one. It also gave me the opportunity to plan where my additional run might go (GPS on pause). On arrival back at the G-Had Madrasa, I found that Jackie had prepped a stunning supper with a reasonably good line-up of wines, starting here. On-on.
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Ulrike Meinhof.
Could she make a meal of this?
She’d have been eighty.
Name: La Rabatte Chianti
Type: red wine
Recipe: One of those days…two kinds of leftover meat, some coriander leaves, a little yoghurt, some onion, and some Thai red curry paste (can you make a meal out of this without going to the grocer?). In honour of the birthday girl, we’ll call it the Red Curry Faction…a melange of disparate components likely to cause distress in the complacent culture of my gut.
Venue: house
Review/notes: It’s a chianti and it hadn’t turned to vinegar and/or sediment. What’s not to like?
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The morning commute
Was double what it should be;
The afternoon, short.
Name: Trapiche Pinot Noir
Type: red wine
Venue: house
Review/notes: What an awful ride to Oxford, today. Then it was rainy for the walk in to work. Then there were three instrument repairs that were simple but time-consuming. Then it was over. The wine was probably better than the rest of the day, but didn’t leave a great impression. Mondays, eh?
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Someone tell the Brits
It’s not fucking re-OAK-ah.
I blame cheap airfare.
Name: Simo Crianza (Rioja)
Type: red wine
Venue: house
Review/notes: Where the fuck do they get ‘ree-OHHH-carh’ from Rioja (the Spanish wine)? Probably the same place deep up their asses (‘arses’) that they dug out toe-MAHR-toe from the New World fruit pronounced (otherwise universally) as ‘toe-MAY-toe.’ Oh, well, the tomato sauce I made for the pasta went well with it.
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The Endless British Pub Crawl 