October 2020 - It Must Be Wine O'clock

Three red wines to help pass the longer nights

With the clocks going back tonight and the nights now drawing in, here is a selection of three red wines to help lighten the gloom a little …

Ramos Reserva 2017/18 Vinho Regional Alentejano (Portugal)

A recent new discovery and a really pleasant surprise. This wine from the Alentejo region of south-east Portugal is a well-crafted blend of Trincadeira, Aragonez and Syrah grapes. Pronounced aromas of blackberry and plum from the get-go, with hints of honey and spice, leading to intense black fruit flavours on the palate with hints of raisin and a touch of sweetness redolent of port. A full-bodied wine, with medium tannins and a long finish, this is a well-balanced and very good wine. Drink it by itself or with something savoury. Majestic Wine £8.99 (£7.49 Mix Six)

Crozes Hermitage ‘Les Blasons’ 2018 Cave de Tain

If you are looking for a comforting red wine to go with your hearty warming stew or meat roast, this bold Syrah from the northern Rhône will make an excellent match. With aromas of blackberry and plum, and an earthy minerality on the nose, the wine has a peppery spiciness which complements the rich fruitiness on the palate. Dry, with medium tannins and a long finish, this is a well-balanced, good quality wine. Majestic Wine £14.99 (£12.99 Mix Six)

Fleurie Beaujolais 2018 Georges Duboeuf

This is a Beaujolais from one of the region’s most experienced winemakers, Georges Duboeuf, and it is a very good wine. Pronounced aromas of raspberry and strawberry, together with hints of cream and blossom on the nose, and intense red fruit flavours on the palate. It is a light, refreshing medium-bodied wine, with medium acidity and a long finish; fine by itself or with roast chicken/duck. Majestic Wine £12.99 (£10.99 Mix Six)

Three refreshing white wines

If you are looking for something new to try, here are three refreshing white wines from around the world: a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, a German Riesling and an Italian Soave.

Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2019

If you are looking for a refreshing fruity Sauvignon Blanc to accompany your seafood dish or pad Thai, then this Oyster Bay wine from Marlborough, New Zealand is just the ticket. It’s a zesty, refreshing wine offering grapefruit, apple and pear on the nose with additional tropical flavours of passion fruit and lychee on the palate. A well-balanced dry wine with a good finish, this is one of my favourites. Majestic Wine £10.99 (£9.49 Mix Six)

Kendermanns Riesling Kabinett

Although it has taken a while for German wines to shed their image of inferior sweet wines of the Blue Nun variety, there are lots of good wines coming out of Germany these days for those looking to try something new. This wine, for example, is a fragrant Riesling Kabinett with lemon, peach and apple on the nose, and bright fruity flavours of citrus, apple and faintly tropical fruits on the palate. With high acidity and low alcohol, it is a well-balanced wine with a hint of sweetness and a longish finish. Fine by itself, or paired with white meats or a Thai curry. Majestic Wine £9.99 (£6.99 Mix Six)

Fattori Soave 2019

This is a dry medium-bodied wine produced from the Garganega grape and hails from the Veneto region of north-east Italy. Fragrant on the nose with herbal and floral aromas with hints of peach, and ripe fruit flavours of peach and melon on the palate with a hint of minerality. It’s a refreshing, nicely balanced wine which will pair well with a fish/seafood dish. Majestic Wine £10.99 (£8.99 Mix Six)

If you like Italian food, you’ll love Bologna … and La Drogheria della Rosa

It is difficult not to eat great Italian food in Bologna, in the heart of Emilia-Romagna, Italy’s gastronomical centre. With its tortellini, prosciutto, parmesan cheese and mortadella, not to mention wines made from local grape varieties such as Sangiovese, Lambrusco and Pignoletto, it is perhaps little wonder the city is nicknamed ‘La Grassa’, the fat one.

At aperitivo time in Bologna, head for the Quadrilatero neighbourhood just off the Piazza Maggiore; here you will find plenty of little bars and food shops offering a relaxing drink and a simple but tasty snack of local cheese and cured meats. At some point during your stay, you should try tortellini in broth (tortellini in brodo). These tiny parcels of meat-filled pasta served in a delicious broth are one of Bologna’s best known dishes and can be found all over the city.

But for la crème de la crème, La Drogheria della Rosa is the place to go for a delicious lunch or dinner and try the restaurant’s simple local dishes in a cosy, informal atmosphere. Set in an old pharmacy with cluttered shelves crammed with phials, jars and other old-fashioned pharmaceutical paraphernalia, La Drogheria della Rosa offers an ever-changing menu of homemade pasta, meat and vegetable dishes that the staff will explain to you. And to drink: a selection of local wines of course!

Emanuele, the owner, is a great host, chatting to guests, pouring the wine and making everyone feel welcome. A charming place in the heart of Bologna.

Tokyo’s last tram – the Arakawa Toden

Tokyo is full of surprises. A charming little one-car tram trundling down the middle of the street was the last thing I was expecting in this vast, bustling metropolis. But as I was wandering in the downtown Shitamachi area of Japan’s capital, there it was – Tokyo’s sole surviving tram, the Arakawa Toden (Tokyo Sakura Tram).

With time to spare, I jumped on the next tram to arrive, grabbed a seat and enjoyed a fascinating ride off the beaten track. The Arakawa Toden is a ride into the past, into parts of old Tokyo that have managed to resist the changes of the city’s modern urban development. And as the tram slowly wends its way along quiet back streets of the Shitamachi downtown area, this frequent service from Minowabashi to Waseda is a far cry from the hustle and bustle of the shopping and entertainment districts of Ginza, Shinjuku and Shibuya.

Shitamachi is the clustered commercial district of the city where small-scale merchants and artisans made their homes in feudal Japan. Nowadays the people here are the shopkeepers, artisans, wholesalers and small industrial subcontractors of the old middle class, and the area has a particular air of informality about it. Rather different from the more genteel residential areas and Tokyo suburbs where the new middle class white-collar company employees prefer to make their homes.

At times the track passes so close to the small two-storey houses so typical of the area that you feel you could almost reach out and knock on the windows or grab a persimmon from the branches above the tracks. A few of these two-storey homes still preserve the look of a bygone Tokyo, with rice shops, tofu shops, small grocery stores, tatami mat makers and small craftsmen’s workshops at ground level and the family’s living quarters above. Although convenience stores and fast food outlets have replaced many of these small shops along the route of the Arakawa Toden, you can still get a glimpse of old Tokyo.

The tram also runs close to temples, shrines, museums and parks, and I stopped off en route at a couple of well-known sights – Oji Inari Shrine, with its beautiful painted ceiling, and Asukayama Park with its attractive cherry blossoms, both welcome refuges from Tokyo’s concrete jungle and its crowds of people. With the tram’s one-day pass, available on the tram for 400 yen, you can hop on and off at will.

As the tram approached its final stop at Waseda and the view became more like the typical Tokyo city-scape of tall buildings and busy streets, I realised my leisurely adventure into some of Tokyo’s quaintest and quietest neighborhoods was coming to an end. Now it was back to the hustle and bustle of this fascinating city which never fails to surprise …. and delight.

Three reds from around the world

How about a little globe-trotting? Three reds from around the world to try – an Italian Barbera, a South African Pinotage and a Chilean Pinot Noir

Barbera Briccotondo 18 Fontanafredda

If you are looking for a fruity Italian red to go with your pasta, this Barbera Briccotondo 2018 Fontanafredda is a good fit. Ruby in colour, with flavours of red cherry, plum and blackberry, and a hint of pepper and cinnamon, this is a smooth, dry wine with medium tannin and high acidity. A well-balanced, medium-bodied wine with a medium finish.

Barista Pinotage 2018/19

Pinotage wines, from South Africa’s signature grape, are a relatively new discovery for me, and this Barista is very good. Intense black fruits, notably cassis, on the nose coupled with a smoky earthiness and more than a hint of coffee and chocolate. The fruits and coffee flavours open up on the palate and the wine has an intriguing complexity to it. A full-bodied wine with moderate acidity and medium tannins, Barista needs something rich and meaty to go with it. We enjoyed it with roast chicken, but it would also suit duck or a hearty stew. Majestic Wine £9.99 (£8.99 Mix Six )

Pinot Noir 2018 Tarapaca (Chile)

A simple but very agreeable wine, this Chilean Pinot Noir has raspberry and strawberry on the nose, together with a slight smokiness. With ripe red fruit flavours and a hint of spiciness on the palate, it is a fairly light-bodied dry wine with low tannins and high acidity. Try it with salmon, chicken or pasta dishes.

A great place to eat – just off Rome’s Piazza Navona

Tucked away in a little street just off the Piazza Navona is one of Rome’s little gems – L’Osteria dé Memmo. It’s nothing fancy or flashy, just good old Italian food at a fair price and with friendly, professional service and a cosy atmosphere. It was recommended by an Italian friend and we always make a beeline for this restaurant whenever we are in Rome. You’ll be hard pressed to find more perfectly cooked pasta dishes, and with the array of appetisers, meat and fish dishes, not to mention the tasty desserts, there is something for everyone’s tastes amongst Memmo’s cornucopia of delights. Finding it may test your map reading skills, but it is definitely worth it when you get there!

Why not try something new?

Fancy a change from Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay this weekend? Then here are a few suggestions for something new to try –

Gavi di Gavi 2018 La Toledana

The Gavi di Gavi La Toledana is made from the Cortese grape and hails from Piemonte in north-west Italy. The pale lemon colour is characteristic of this wine and with its light floral aromas of white blossom and a slight hint of honey, it promises something different.

Green fruits dominate on the palate with some citrus notes, and the high acidity gives it a crisp, zesty freshness. Smooth and silky, this is a medium-bodied wine with a medium finish. A well-balanced, very pleasant wine. We had it with grilled salmon and it was a perfect match, but it will also go well with white meats and light pasta dishes. Majestic Wine £14.99 (£10.99 Mix Six)

Not Your Grandma’s Riesling 2018, Eden Valley

Although we rightly associate Riesling with Germany, the grape has also been cultivated in Clare Valley and Eden Valley in South Australia since the early 19^th-century and the more moderate climate there produces wines with more pronounced fruit flavours.

Lemon in colour, this wine has floral, citrusy notes on the nose, and flavours of green fruits, grapefruit, nectarine and mango on the palate. A dry wine with high acidity, it is balanced by its punchy fruitiness and hint of minerality, and has a medium to long finish. Perfect with an Asian dish.

The Great Wine Co. £13.95

Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi 2019 Monte Schiavo

A dry white wine with high acidity from the Marche region of central Italy, this Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi wine is a very good example of the fresh, zesty wines from the Verdicchio grape.

Notable aromas of apple and pear on the nose, and additional lemon, grapefruit and tropical fruit flavours on the palate, with a little twist of fennel which is characteristic of Verdicchio wines. A well-balanced wine with a medium finish with faint overtones of bitter almonds, this would suit a fish or seafood dish. Majestic Wine £8.99 (£7.99 Mix Six)

In Beethoven’s footsteps

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 – the Pastoral – is a firm favourite. I’m happy to listen to it anytime, anywhere. But where better to listen to it than in Vienna, and what’s more on the Beethoven Walk (Beethovengang) in the Viennese suburb of Nussdorf?

A couple of years ago my wife and I took the tram from the centre of the city to this pretty neighbourhood and then strolled along the Beethovengang as we listened to the Pastoral Symphony on our headphones. This is where the great composer himself used to walk, gaining inspiration for this symphony from the woods, vineyards and open countryside around him, and walking in his footsteps brought an entirely new perspective to his music.

And to cap it all, we then enjoyed a simple meal and a glass of wine in the ‘Heurige‘ (wine tavern) in nearby Heiligenstadt which Beethoven himself used to frequent when he lived for a time in the village, and where he worked on his Symphony No.9. Like Beethoven’s music, it was simply delightful.

For more details of wine-focussed activities in and around Vienna, see here