Zucchini pasta

Date: Thu, Apr 25, 2013 Wine Tasting

Grated zucchini a simple tomato sugo and garlic and anchovy breadcrumbs.

Sugo. Using a Thermomix. Blitz 3 cloves of garlic, add a slug of olive oil and cook at 100 degrees for 2 minutes at speed 1. Pour in the contents of a 400g tin of diced tomatoes and cook at Speed 1 and 100 degrees for 15 minutes. Toss in a handful of washed basil leaves and turn the speed to 8 for 20 seconds.

Breadcrumbs. Lightly toast two slices of white bread. Tear apart and add to Thermomix. Add 4 peeled cloves of garlic and 6 anchovy fillets. Process at speed 6 for 10-15 seconds. Tip the contents into a fry pan and add a liberal amount of olive oil. Perhaps 50-60 mls, until the crumbs are well coated. Fry and stir, removing once the crumbs are well browned, but before the garlic burns.

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Can you lick your nose?

Date: Wed, Apr 24, 2013 Wine Tasting

How about your elbow? Apparently one in ten particularly supple humans can do so. Presumably it gets more uncommon as you age and stiffen. Dogs and cows and of course pigs are naturally blessed with the ability to place tongue to nose, but in humans it is less common. . .

Being able to lick your nose can also be an indicator of disorder. It's a common sign in those with Ehlers Danlos for instance. It also carries an eponymous name - Gorlin sign, though this is not well known or easily remembered.

Supple wines like humans are in the minority. It's easier to be short, stiff, tart or fat. . . Supple is hard to do. I don't think it's necessarily terroir or grape and I'm sure it is not just related to alcohol acid and tanninas Peynaud suggests. I've had supple Pinot noir (1,2,3), Carignan, Cabernet and I seem to recall a supple Malbec though I did not use the word.

In my mind a supple wine has curves and flow rather than weight and heat, it's not overly fatty or dense but it seems to move and have an effortless give and grace. It's like a silk serpentand when it is almost perfect it has a languid and relaxed, coiled uncoiled quality about it. Something with softness, bend and spring. In my mind, it's never skeletal.

Returning to Peynaud'sformulation on suppleness for a moment - too little and the drink feels thin and jarring, angular and awkward. At the other extreme too much and the wine starts to lose shape becoming overly hot, disjointed and diffuse.

In theory all wines will have some level of suppleness. In practice it is a term I tend to use sparingly. Six supples and two pliants in over 1300 tasting notes. . .

Apologies for all the linked text, but some related posts on - Minerality, Line, BalanceandSpoofulated.

Image.

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Jean-Paul Brun Bourgogne 2011

Date: Mon, Apr 22, 2013 Wine Tasting

I love the label and the 1930s typography. I suspect there have been others, but this is the first art deco style label that I can recall. The wine itself is enjoyable enough, though as advertised it is neither grand or profound.

Medium red, clean and fragrant. Ginger spice and by nights end, ham. Slightly hard and abrasive to begin, it feels raw and unpolished. Forward and assertive, though it does soften in time developing a smudged and charcoal tail. Compared to the similarly priced but quite exceptional Fanny Sabre, it lacks grace, style and softness.

12%. Cork. Approx $A35.

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Wild Duck

Date: Mon, Apr 22, 2013 Wine Tasting

Translocated 400 kilometres from a quiet street in Albany to a quiet street in suburban Perth. . .

I hope it does well, but I suspect it will struggle. The decor is dated and sombre - dark wood everywhere, and the over head fans give the room a disconcerting flicker. The wall art (on one wall an image of a whisk and opposite a fork) looks cheap and though there are plenty of wooden ducks and bottles of wine to greet the eye, the wine list itself is sadly unexciting to read.

The service and food is very good, just safe and unsurprising and with too long a gap between courses.

The pictured smoked seafood chowder the night's opening trick. I found the seafood within over cooked and tough. More success and pleasure later in the night from the slow cooked pork belly and the braised beef cheek.

The 6 course degustation with sorbet palate cleanser is $A105, which is comparable in price to the competition. As to composition it seems a course or two short and though there are foams and jellies on the plate and the obligatory sous vide meat course, it feels dated and hollow. The lack of bread to open the meal is also a very minor, but notable negative in my eyes.

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Jezebelle

Date: Fri, Apr 19, 2013 Wine Tasting

Sufficiently sweet and away from the centre of Perth, that it might be considered a wallflower. I found it to be free of pretence and false gesture and left smiling and content. The theme is tapas and there is a short menu of perhaps 20 plates, ranging from $2 for crusty bread to $24 for the daily paella. The room is stylish and mostly black, but there is the occasional well judged splash of colour. The staff are free floating and responsive and the food, water and wine arrive with little delay. Being large in number and appetite we ate our way through most of the menu. The only weak plate on the night was the crispy cuttlefish, which seemed overly tough; and perhaps the hot salmon corn cakes which were proficient but bland. I was pleasantly surprised by the cut of the room and the overall quality of the food. It's well worth a visit, even though there is little else to do in the area at night. In regards to wine, the list is short but well constructed. Eight whites and eight reds by the glass with an emphasis on Western Australia and a nod to Spain.

Tasting note: 2011 Faber Riche Shiraz(14.5%. Swan Valley.) A black wine with a pleasing combination of sweet cherry and boldness. My drinking companion thought there was a whiff of naphthalene, which while curious seems only additive and at this stage, all the more endearing.

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Dinner

Date: Thu, Apr 18, 2013 Wine Tasting

I last cooked this in 2007. I dare not look at the expiration date on the black vinegar that I bought then and used for the second time tonight. . . Cellaring wine with all it's variables tends to alter your trust in best by dates. . . I'll always follow my nose over any labelling.

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Domaine Lafon Monthelie-Les Duresses 2007

Date: Tue, Apr 16, 2013 Wine Tasting

The foil has tamper evident silver prooftag attached with the code WOOPOOA123572. Lift the tag and it leaves a checkerboard pattern on the bottle, demonstrating that the tag has been manhandled. Which would seem to make it a better security measure than laser etching bottles with a name, code and vintage.

Another two quotes from Underworld.

You didn't see the thing because don't know how to look. And you don't know how to look because you don't know the names. . .

Everyday things represent the most overlooked knowledge. These names are vital to your progress. Quotidian things. If they weren't important, we wouldn't use such a gorgeous Latinate word.

Tasting note: Bigger and more forward than I had expected. It reminds me most of the Littorai Cerise. Savoury with strawberries and earth. It's sturdy rather than delicate and in the background - hide and small goods. Fleshy and round, supple and frontal. Dangerous curves but with a long tail. The finish is stalk, pip and skin; it feels unforced and natural, even if the first, and incorrect, impression is of something pumped and augmented.

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Cherubino Riesling 2012

Date: Mon, Apr 15, 2013 Wine Tasting

Nights end and I find I'm sniffing at the bottle, trying to remember. . .

40% Porongurup and the remainder from the Frankland. The bottle smells of passionfruit and boiled sweets, but hours ago I seem to remember this as being more talc and lime, certainly a green spark. . . The sugar dial on the back is just above empty, only enough to give a sense of playfulness. . . the liquid itself was finished within minutes of opening, helping to wash down this Thai salmon and roe salad.

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Staples

Date: Sat, Apr 13, 2013 Wine Tasting

Much as I enjoy the lingering saltiness and soft but definite resistance of an Ortiz anchovy they are rarely on my list of provisions. I make do with something cheaper and less reputable and repeatable; I'm not fool enough to think that my sauces and cooking will suffer from the omission.

After years of grocery shopping and stocking a pantry there are things I buy weekly (milk etc), monthly (olive oil etc) and some things I buy maybe once in lifetime (Asafoetida). I rarely buy processed food, preferring to concoct things from scratch. This is an evolving habit, becoming more developed since the arrival of children. Curiously I tend to buy pine nuts and feta and semolina regardless of need and the stockpile of these ingredients is a constant source of familial bemusement.

When it comes to wine it's bought on a whim rather than from requirement and there is nothing that I would buy weekly or even monthly. The notion of drinking the same wine repeatedly for weeks or months is something I am unable to subscribe too. As a drinker rather than collector,I think I want an endless variety. Though in reality I do find myself drinking from the same varietal and stylistic playbook. . . Pinot noir, Chardonnay, Riesling. . . I'll drink every vintage from a particular producer for a few years and once I know I find I grow fickle and drift away. Unfortunately the disinterest often occurs only after the stockpile, leaving my cellar dotted with unloved bottles. It's the danger of familiarity. . .

As brilliant as the new releases of Penfolds may or may not be I have no more curiosity or good will. . . At one hundred dollars plus I don't feel compelled to try the latest release from Cullen (though I concede I was quick to buy a bottle on special for $86). . . after drinking every riesling from Grosset for more than a decade I feel no more urge to collect. Presumably a prolonged vinous pause would remove much of this weariness. . .

Related 1. Related 2.

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A Jean-Paul Brun pair

Date: Fri, Apr 12, 2013 Wine Tasting

Apologies for the refashioning and elongation of this post. The day one note was the truncated original. I've added a tasting note for a sibling and a quote from the book I'm still plodding through.

Day 1:Moulin A Vent 2010.Fine and soft, slightly savoury, spiced, exotic and Eastern. An amalgam of incense and meat. Slightly above average in quality and appeal though at $A38 the value is less than compelling.

he was dragging but also amped up, jangled by caffeine and the freeway traffic and what ever else he has inhaling in the way of controlled substances. . . and there was a space between his weariness and his sparky nerve ends. . . (Delillo. Underworld).

Day 2: Fleurie 2010. Equal in weight and price (12%) but quite different in emphasis. Frontal and more tadpole like, rounded and seemingly with more extract but less tail and tannin. The nose is more rose petal and gun metal and for a fleeting moment there is a whiff of lavender and then lemon thyme. Of the pair, this would be my second choice.

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Kale chips

Date: Wed, Apr 10, 2013 Wine Tasting

If it is not already apparent - my latest food obsession is kale (1, 2, 3).

Toss 100g of torn kale leaves with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, salt, pepper and quarter a teaspoon each of paprika and chilli flakes. Then spread evenly onto a large baking tray and bake at 180 degrees for 10 minutes. At this point remove from the oven and scatter with grated lemon zest and parmesan. Return to the oven for a few more minutes then serve.

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Wendouree Cabernet Malbec 1994

Date: Tue, Apr 9, 2013 Wine Tasting

I'm slowly working my way through my small stash of wines from Wendouree. I'm pleased I'm almost at the end. . . they are idiosyncratic and laden with hard tannins, brimming with character and a certain take it or leave it gruffness. They also seem to live forever, growing ever more beaten without bending or breaking.

My nose is now partially working, enough to know that this is clean and free of taint. It's mature and I get the image of a well worn saddle rubbed with eucalyptus oil. It smells of it's type and place. Still bright in the mouth - a suggestion of sweetness, but mostly meat and dried herbs. Enveloping tannins - chewy and meaty, fine and firm. The finish is savoury and invitational. I feel my patience has been mostly rewarded.

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Way back Wino sapien

Date: Mon, Apr 8, 2013 Wine Tasting

In many ways the internet is like a young persons brain. It is the new that takes precedence. The old gets pushed back and away, to be buried and forgotten.Equally it is the connections that matter. The memory that creates impact and is repeated will create more synapses and connections. It is more resistant to time and fade. The internet post with more links and tweets has a higher currency and greater visibility. Though mostly too this is temporary.

Since starting 7 years ago there have been shifts in style and appearance, mostly small, but some bigger steps along the way. The changes have been buried by the new. As with human memory if you want to resist the march of experience you need pen, paper, brush, photo or some other permanent record which is less fragile than a synapse which can be pruned and modified. Pleasing then to discover
aninternet archive of wino sapien, all the way back to the beginning in 2006, capturing and freezing most of the changes that have occurred.

Image.

Post script: On the subject of memory and forgetting. One of Australia's great independent wine stores - the Ultimo Wine store is to finish. It has been purchased by Coles and will presumably be converted into a Vintage Cellars. A related post from the vaultand another one here.

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Who's counting

Date: Mon, Apr 8, 2013 Wine Tasting

I changed over to the current site format in April 2012. Bigger pictures and a more discrete separation of individual posts. Mostly positives I think. Sadly my stat counter would no longer count and for the first time since starting out in 2006 I lost track of my audience. The Blogger statistics included in the upgrade could give an over view but not the granularity.

I discovered tonight that the code and hence counter is once again compatible with my site. So after a 12 month hiatus I can once again blog with my 'eyes open'.

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