Photo of neighbouring French Cow. No Spanish ones available: will get to that later......
I have been back in Burgundy for a few post-vintage weeks for some essential maintenance work. Weekly strikes, August holidays, no-work Wednesdays and two hour lunch breaks means that France is only open for business for a third of the year. So it came to no surprise that it has taken 9 months to encourage electricians, roofers and a plumber to feign an interest in a bit of paid employment.
A pitiful smattering of renovation had taken place over the summer: what with the invention of 7pm cocktail hour, table building and general twenty four-hour merriment with many delightful guests. So the past few weeks have come as a slight shock.
At the deathly hour of 7.45am, French workmen have arrived with their power tools poised and ready.
The cranial pain of a 6.30am wake up is a place I reserve only for the occasional long haul flight or medical emergency. So such early habitual awakenings have been on par with Japanese water torture. The morning seismic meltdown of pre-9am takes a whole day to get over. No amount of coffee can medicate such utter grumpiness. Yet a brave face we had to put on.
We also had another Mediterranean culture to contend with. Our Spanish plumber or as I should say our "Catalan Plombier": Joan was a friend of sorts whom we met through our local "Esturine Lovejoy Antique" dealer. He had kindly warned us to keep a spare 2kg of sugar for coffee and to feed him well...very well.
Luckily Joan was an English speaker, yet to his own testament, his speech was more akin to a Spanish Cow than a true Etonian. Joan learned English on the South Coast of England working with Polish plumbers. To say his learned language was colourful is somewhat of an understatement. Replace any adverb with "effin" and finish every sentence with "bloody bastar!" His thick Catalonian accent and bullish charm warmed on us all. We thus decided to feed him every day for both efficiency and entertainment.
If I were going to have a dinner guest every lunchtime, I had to work out the wine situation. It is common to drink at lunchtime in France, close to law in fact. So I decided upon a small game: every lunchtime either Joan or myself would provide a bottle or so of wine wrapped up in our wine socks and test one another. Every night we would again swap bottles and set each other wine homework: tasting notes presented for marking the morning after. It turned out that Polish Spanish Cow Plumber Joan had even more to say about wine than the pipes he was fitting. Here is what we collectively tried............
Baturrica Gran Reserva, 2003, Taragona, Tempranillo Cabernet, Lidl, <4e :-
A bright cherry nose with a thick meaty scent, sounds weird but it was quite pleasant, like pate and cranberries. The palate was dry but very intense, very oaky yet it seemed a lot younger than it was. Black cherry and damson on the palate rather than the red fruit shown nose. A brilliant little wine from an area famed for its low quality and high yields, but it has a similar landscape topography to nearby Priorat, so is definitely a future area to keep an eye out for. Currently selling in Lidl U.K. but slightly more pricey, sorry!
Cave de Genouilly, 2009, Chardonnay "les champs de Perdrix", approx 5E :-
A light colour with some slight bubbles, quite delicate and peachy with a hint of pear on the nose. The palate was dry(ish) and again a touch of spritz and a core of lemon and tangerine. Nice and fragrant style of Chardonnay. It could easily have been a young Albarino. So if you see Cave de Genouilly selling in the U.K. give it a go, it's a step up from standard white Burgundy.
Gran Corpas, 2008, Carinea D.O., Tempranillo-Mazuelo(carignan) <5e :-
A light colour, sweet red cherry, raspberry, redcurrant and an earthy farmyard note. Dry with medium acidity and light body. It was almost like a strange exotic Pinot without the depth. Although Carinea is another name for Carignan the grape, in this bottle it refers to the area (D.O.) of Carinea, although confusingly Carignan is also in the blend, but locally called Mazuelo. Following me OK?
Domaine Borgeot, Aligote, Bouzeron, 2008, 8E :-
An intense nose of oatmeal, honey and pineapple. The palate was dry with a generous body of lemon and fresh pineapple with a touch of bitter pith or perhaps a sauvignon edge. There was also a hint of salt and if I were Andrew Jefford I may call it an "Ocean echo." But hey, I'm not so salt will have to do! Just goes to show, a great producer in a warm year, Aligote can perform with the best of them! Try it and believe it! Also try Borgeot's Santenay, worth every penny, available nationwide.
Those were the best but I shall drag out Joan's homework sheets and see if he had anything else to say. All expletives have been removed, not for politeness, I just could not do his poetry justice.
Bon Aperitif
thanks
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