Out tasting. Back soon!
Stay tuned.
Tuesday, 10 November 2009
Thursday, 20 August 2009
Beyond brand - the real revolution in perfume
Edmond Roudnitska in his garden
creator of perfumes for Dior, Rochas and Hermes
Come out from hiding behind those faceless multinationals!
Ever since Frederic Malle's Editions de Parfums (2000) there has been a profound new interest in the people behind the famous signature perfumes. For the first time the author of the perfume is promoted on the label just as an author on the cover of a book.
So who are these artists behind the perfumes we wear and cherish?
In the spirit of celebrating the 'perfume authors,' Basenotes website interviewed 50 of the most famous Perfumers in the world today and asked them, who would they choose, "if they could travel back to the time of their choosing to meet, chat and co-create with a perfumer past?"
Like other arts, it shows how scent has the power to traverse space and time. This is a most fascinating collection of interviews, thanks to Marian Bendeth of Basenotes.
Link: Scent Treks through Time
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Saturday, 15 August 2009
back to basics
3 types of French Lavender
Vouillez Patienter. That's the command from ATM machines and toll-gates in France. Oh, how I enjoyed the irony of a machine telling me to have patience.
Lately I have had a happy respite from machines, including computers; instead, I have been taking in the smells of the ocean road in France along the Basque country between Biarritz and San Sebastien.
There's something wild about this country, similar in many ways to the Australian coastline. Although the smells were different - not mint or menthol, instead, thyme and lavender. Both have the lovely fresh spray of the sea.
So thanks for being patient. For a while there, I only had the ability to smell disgusting things! Now I have refreshed the senses I am back to enjoying wine aromas with renewed awareness.
I hope you can join me for a glass or six.
P.S. If you are serious in fine-tuning your sense of smell then I recommend the Le Nez du Vin set of 54 wine aromas in phials. Just as you learn the piano from practicing scales, you learn scents from isolating smells to the nose. This is how I started out learning about wine tasting ten years ago and I highly recommend the investment.
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Wednesday, 15 April 2009
Friday, 10 April 2009
subatomic
"These days the scientists are looking for quarks, strange subatomic entities, having qualities which they describe with such words as upness, downness, charm, strangeness, truth, beauty, colour, and flavor." - Mu Soeng Sunim
Link: whisky river
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Wednesday, 18 March 2009
waiting for Brunello di Montalcino 2004
I've been in the lush waiting room for what seems like forever.
The agony and the ecstasy!
I'm talking about the forthcoming release of the 2004 Brunello di Montalcino.
If you love Brunelli, you'll know what I'm talking about.
The 2004 vintage.
And maybe you'll even agree with me when I say Riserva Brunello di Montalcino has a strong semblance to a premier cru Burgundy from the Cote d'Or (even though of course, Brunello is made from Sangiovese and Burgundy is made from Pinot). At nearly half to two-thirds the price.
The best of both wines from these regions have an ethereal quality, sometimes a lighter rose colour, layers of complexity and elegance.
Although, to my mind, Brunello has a "savoury" character rather than the classic Burgundy "barnyard".
To give you an idea of what to expect, here is my tasting notes for the 2003 Poggio di Sotto (£69 per bottle), which is a 'lesser vintage' than 2004 (!) -
Infinite jest. Light in colour, light-bodied but also complex like a gymnast with an intricate ribbon routine (erm, yes I did write that!). Licorice, red cherry, white pepper and smooth balsamic notes with a deliciously tannic finish that becomes more refined over time. Want more and more. Where does the story go...? A revelation.
Another good thing about Brunello di Montalcino, especially en primeur Brunello (and most will be sold this way due to the high demand and the small boutique nature of the producers in Tuscany) is you know what to expect when you put in an order.
This is because the a part of the Brunello wine can be put aside for the Rosso di Montalcino,which is released soon after the vintage (from a year to 18 months afterwards). I guess it's a way for everyone to have something to drink, and sell, while the Brunelli is holding in oak for five years.
Hence all this salivation in anticipation.
What do I want to taste?
I am looking forward to tasting Brunello di Montalcino Riserva from Poggio di Sotto, Tenuta il Poggione, Salvioni and Livio Sassetti's Pertimali (if I can find it).
Like the equally anticipated vintage release of 2005 Bordeaux, these will be good to drink now as well as have excellent cellaring potential.
And, similar to the 2005 Bordeaux vintage, these boutique wines will be expensive. There's no doubt about it. And I'm not even factoring in the current strong Euro against the pound.
Link: Brunello di Montalcino
Link: on WWS Casanova di Nieri
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Monday, 16 March 2009
Bob Dylan... on cheap wine
Hey! Thank you for sending me Theme Time Radio Hour on "Drinking" (hosted by Bob Dylan).
What's the reaction?
Satisfaction.
What's the flavour?
Ask your neighbour.
Link: more wine and Dylan on WWS Fattoria Le Terraze and Rainy Day Women
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Sunday, 15 March 2009
welcome the equinox
It's Spring Equinox on 20 March, 2009.
Time to take the white horse out of the studio into the park, rinse out the decanter and clean up your mind.
It's the morning-after but you can't say it wasn't a good party, either.
Recently, I received two invitations from the same person.
A week before the invitation for his 80th birthday, I received an invitation for his rehearsal funeral, on thick white cardboard hand-delivered by his nervous assistant:
Memorial Party
to commiserate a
dissolute, wasted, wanton life
but fun
No flowers – come if you can.
7pm Regent's Canal, Paddington
Winter can do this to you.
But we're all still here despite our best intentions.
Speaking of intentions, on Friday 20th March at 7.44am make sure you put in your cosmic order to the universe.
This is the exact time to do it. Stay up all night if you must.
Perhaps one can be: stay away from that 2-pound wine.
This is the year to drink only the best.
Or it may as well be nothing at all.
What is the best?
Stay tuned.
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Wednesday, 18 February 2009
the world we love
It is difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there
- William Carlos Williams, "Asphodel, That Greeny Flower"
So tired of all the scare-mongering on the news.
This repetitive focus on the credit crunch feels like being stuck on an endless cheap flight to nowhere.
Where you find the flight menu is reduced to a "choice" between Chardonnay and Shiraz, Bordeaux and Burgundy, chicken or beef.
Blah!
Get me out of here!
This is not my reality.
Reporters! You can have your stories, and we can have ours.
Meanwhile...
Preparing myself for Vin Italy in Verona in April. The theme this year is "The World We Love."
400 varieties in Italy; and, I'm ready for them all.
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Sunday, 15 February 2009
Thursday, 5 February 2009
Casanova di Neri
Brunello di Montalcino, Casanova di Neri, £37
But first let me tell you about the wine.
It is not easy. To be honest, it's downright difficult.
You won't like it.
You'll find it flat, deflated.
And it's half an hour already!
(Stop here if you have to rush off.)
The fruit reluctantly edges around the darkness with a savoury aftertaste.
Only tasted on the second swallow.
(Do you really have time for this?)
It's going to take you at least 1-2 hours to decant and then 5-7 hours to drink.
(Leaving already?)
Too bad.
Now every single taste is different, asking questions, tempting you then turning away to reveal another layer of brilliance.
Expectations are overturned, tastes are reversed, everything is a surprise.
It's a long journey with someone you just met. But at the end of the trip feel like you've known forever.
But do you have the patience to endure a wine to allow it to reveal itself, tell it's story and be itself with all its flaws and surprises. In other words, be in conversation with what your palate is asking?
I just don't know another living person who'd invest the time needed to understand it AND who'd GET IT.
The art of seduction is too difficult for most rushed, modern tastes.
This is a difficult wine and not many people will have the luxury of time for it.
Better not get it.
.
.
.
I want it all for myself.
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Tuesday, 13 January 2009
1934 Chateau Margaux
I recently tasted the 1934 Chateau Margaux at The Sampler in Islington.
This was one of the early 20th century's great vintages and if any wine was going to make it to the 21st century, then this big, tannic First Growth Bordeaux from this great pre-war vintage would be it (the next great vintage was the Victory Vintage of 1945).
Notes: Translucent, like pale brown-pink tissue paper, very thin and almost dried rose leaves. The tannins exhausted (which is fair - although, who knows whether there were perfect cellaring conditions?) and unfortunately, bordering on vinegary. But, where had it been for the past 74 years?
Cellaring has to be a consideration. Had it crossed the Atlantic a couple of times - like Marlene Deitriech? When was the rest of the case drunk - during World War II, or after World War II - as a celebration?
The great Michael Broadbent notes on this wine are telling. He notes it is "favourite '34. So very Margaux. Yet, and yet, the decay of the 1930s noted quite early, even in the mid-1950s, certainly by the early 1970s. But it soldiers on."
Perhaps the 1934 Margaux was no longer pleasurable as a table wine, but who would buy it to drink like any other wine? Certainly, as a living time capsule, it gave a glimpse of the eternal pleasures first growth Bordeaux gives and gives and gives.
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Sunday, 11 January 2009
How to Survive Passionate Intimacy With A Dreamy Partner While Making A Fortune on the Path to Enlightenment
"A bottle of wine begs to be shared; I have never met a miserly wine lover."
- Clifton Fadiman NY Times, 1987
1. Earth is crammed with Heaven.
2. Wine is the blood of the Earth.
3. Therefore, it is your sacred duty to enjoy every glass.
For a better life - share, laugh and love ... with the very best wine you can.
Link: title from book by Marilena Silbey and Paul Ramana Das - with much love to Rob Brezny and his book Pronoia is the Antidote to Paranoia: How the Whole World is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings
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Tuesday, 6 January 2009
shelves crowded with perfumes
Houses and rooms are full of perfumes, the shelves are crowded with perfumes,
I breathe the fragrance myself and know it and like it,
The distillation would intoxicate me also, but I shall not let it.
From Songs of Myself, Walt Whitman
Link: photo by Tim Walker
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