Lifting the lid and exposing the mouldy classes that lurk … and are probably responsible for a lot of bother one way or another. My transatlantic friends find it mystifying as do I really..mother came from a family that had climbed the ladder to the point where they got concussion on the glass? ceiling. So I was brought up on stories about the Archbishop of Canterbury coming to lunch, coming out, boarding schools etc. (we even have a crest but I have never found a connection to it in my family history endeavours).
Non sequitur..I was called a hyphenated retard on here last week!! There has to be a first for everything, right? Actually my father made up the name in 1928 ish, to reinvent himself and it’s a Christian name .. Gerard plus a family name .. Castle .. said in a Liverpool accent, so not posh at all, really.
Sadly I really dislike Champagne, Prosecco, and even white wine so I’m no fun when it comes to celebrating something.
Reviews are a wonderful world. Better than reading a dictionary.
🤣🤣 Nothing better than starting the day with a smile - thanks Bear! There's a great deal of BS written about wine, perhaps more than on any other subject and usually pronounced upon by ignorant snobs. I'm somewhat of an amateur wine enthusiast and have taken several WSET courses in the subject in order to gain a modicum of expertise to help me build a cellar over a long period of time but as for drinking the stuff, my maxim is ignore the fancy descriptions and the snobbery; if you like a wine be it a vintage claret or a village table wine and can afford the price, buy and enjoy it. I wrote a piece about my early venture into 'en primeur' here for anyone vaguely interested ..
Footnote: FWIW, I wouldn't buy from the Waitrose Cellar website because it mostly doesn't list the year of the wines it's selling (the one absolutely essential piece of info needed) and where it does, it won't guarantee that year.
I'm not a wine buff (my dad's a bit of one), but even I know that vintage is essential! The weather in a particular summer must have the single most important effect on the harvest and quality. Never mind the terroire &c (obviously, that counts too, but it's secondary). Why on earth bother with a vintage if it weren't so important?
Incidentally, my parents have a lovely house in a small village (ca 1,000 inhabitants) just inside the Languedoc National Park. The village has: 1 grocery store; 1 tabac; 1 bar; 2 bakers (one best for bread, the other for patisserie). Oh yes, I almost forgot, the obligatory pharmacie and a fairly recent addition is a bicycle hire/shop. It also has a vintner to whom you used to be able to get to get a 5l bidon for €3.25 (en vrac, obviously 0.65/litre! A bargain. It's not anything special, but it's a perfectly decent vin de table). You just popped along of a late afternoon/early evening, between 17:00 and 19:30, 20:00 at a push, but they might not answer—it was usually Madame who answered and she was charming too. His vineyards were around Roquebrun, about a 15' drive. Sadly, he's retired and his kids have taken over and they no longer offer that service (I think they probably live nearer Roquebrun) but there's a market in the next town east (the beautifully named Lamalou-les-Bains, just 2km away, which also has a Lidl) on Tuesdays and Saturdays (obviously, Saturdays is much busier, so busy it's impossible to find a parking space less than a 10' walk away) where they always have a stall. Faugère isn't far away either, also about 15' drive. They have a coop there, so there is a choice of two reds and two whites and a rosé (my friend from Berlin who have the house next door prefer the Faugère. I'd be hard put to name a preference, I really don't think there's anything in it).
It is about as close as I've experienced, but I haven't been for over ten years. I used to go every year until my son was 16 (he'll be 30 this year—just by–the–by, I'll never forget the exact time of his birth: it was at 21:22 on the 23ʳᵈ May; OK, it was BST, but still memorable). I'm definitely planning to go this year though. I've been trying to convince one of my oldest friends, who lives in DC to come (old in that I've known her since I was 20, nearly 46 years ago!). When I first suggested it it was during the whole ‘freedom fries’ 🙄 spat W Bush had with the French and she was afraid she'd be unwelcome. I couldn't dissuade her, 'cause they're not like that at all. Neither is she one of those over-enthusiastic, brash, loud Americans, quite the opposite. She's sweet, polite, thoughtful and I might even say demure. Anyway, my parents are known as the ‘anglais allemande’: there are quite a few Germans in the village and my dad's mother was German Jewish, fled the Nazis in 1938 while pregnant with him and cutting it rather fine: it was the last official refugee boat. Her fiancé followed shortly after. Both were suspected German spies, interred on the Isle of Man where my grandfather wrote his first book. Apparently, Churchill had it as his bedside reading and insisted his cabinet read it! They were released on the strength of it. I've never read it, my grandfather asked us not to, he was embarrassed by it. I do know that he made some remarkably accurate predictions, including that Hitler would commit suicide.
I digress. The landscape is stunningly beautiful, for has so much more flavour (I forgot to mention the producteuse who has a stall by the tabac most weekdays. She has a smallholding, but it's always fantastic and in season—the peaches! I can't eat the peaches you buy here anymore, they're so bland. Over there they're succulent, sweet, dripping with juice and so cheap. It was €1 for five, but I daresay it's €2 by now. Still). There's one other Englishman in the village, M Fry. As I said, the nearest town is Lamalou-les-Bains, which has a good hotel and there's a campsite across the river (the Orb; I've given enough clues so I might as well say: my parents' village is called le Poujol-sur-Orb ¹). Just opposite the campsite is a spring where we get our drinking water from, the same source as Vernier, (who have a bottling plant also south of the Orb, a bit further east from the campsite. About 20 km west, a little further than Colombières and its gorge, a favourite local swimming spot, is a larger, municipal campsite which has the best name: Cevennes Up (the mountains to the north are called les Cevennes)! Perhaps I'll see you there sometime?
¹ I've always found it a bit hypocritical when people discover beauty spots and then insist on keeping them secret. It's that ‘No one after me’ mentality. One bit of advice, French school holidays start on 1ˢᵗ August and the place gets rammed for most of that month, literally overnight. The nearest 3 Musketeers supermarket (which also has a Brico-marchée (building supplies), a Veti-marchée (clothing), a coopérative (wine, olive oil, produce and soap (!) and 😮💨 a Macdonald's) has parking for about 250 cars. Come the 1ˢᵗ it's tough to find a space! Mind you, the MacDonald took about three years to finally get built: locals kept vandalising the project by stealing the building supplies 😂. Nothing major, usually just the cheapest bits like the plastic pipes, but enough to delay construction.
The class system in England (yep, not Wales, Scotland or NI so much) is so pathetic and reeks of insecurities.
Anyway, for what it's worth a sparkling Saumur from the Loire Valley is identical to champagne (soil, grapes, method) but without the silly price tag. And Aldi's champagne has been voted best in blind tastings several times. Fizz snobbery exists 🤣
(Although for a special gift I'd get a "name" obviously)
Absolutely on the fizz snobbery. With champagne, you're paying for the name and the cock-a-snoot (if that's the expression). Prosecco and Cava can be absolutely as good, they just don't come from the Champagne region. Personally, it's much like my uncle said about art (he was a painter, an artist rather than a decorator, but I'm making no judgement here, just clarifying 🙂) “A painting either days something to you or it doesn't.” Simple as that. A bottle of bubbly either tastes good to you or it doesn't. Everything else is just show and if you need that kind of validation, then I pity you, it reeks of insecurity. When I said ‘you’ I didn't mean you, Di. You're obviously not so needy 😊.
Why are you looking at Waitrose wine? you'd be much better off joining the Wine Society - far more choice and better value, superb service, lovely staff - it's a mutual.
I am definitely a Champagne person, but, sadly, with a Prosecco pocket.
I loved this, it was a brief foray into other people’s worlds. Your take was incisive, eloquent and brilliantly pointed out how absurd the review exchange was.
I did have to look up “sabrage” though, so you have taught me something else today. Not sure I’d ever try it myself. I can’t be trusted with a remote control, let alone a sword 🗡️😂
Glad I wasn’t the only one who didn’t know. Well, I did know what it was but I never knew there was a word for it.
I just drink whichever Prosecco is on offer at the store, rather than being a connoisseur. I lost what was left of my sense of taste (in the “five senses” category) when I got Covid for the first time, then with subsequent infections my sense of taste changed and nothing really tastes right, really. However, I can tell the difference between a glass of Prosecco and a glass of proper Champagne 🥂
We are only a Crémant household because it is insanely inexpensive in the French supermarkets, so when we visit France we include a few bottles in our shopping to bring back to Ireland with us. They usually keep us going through any occasions for celebration which may arise until the next trip🤞
There is even cheaper fizz available in the French supermarkets (Vin Mousseux), under €3 per bottle, it’s perfectly good enough for making cocktails like Kir Royale or Bucks Fizz.
Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that 😔. Is it your sense of smell that's been affected? It usually is. At least one of my friends had theirs affected and another is anosmic as a result of an accident with serious head injury, so I have some idea of how much of a loss it is. I hope that it will recover. I believe it often does, but it can take a long time.
I love St Emilion Grand Crus, and as an accompaniment to fish and chips, it is brilliant. It does not mean that I devalue the wine, why do you need to eat foie gras, a great steak or snails to enjoy a good claret? If you are so blessed as to enjoy cheaper things in life then you do you. Taste is in the mouth of the beholder.
I was planning a special birthday with the patron of a local resto. I want my guests to be greeted with champagne and oysters, I said. He said, they will add lemon juice or shallot vinaigre to the oysters, both of which destroy the champagne. Let me offer you a less expensive alternative. I know you are right, I said, but it is a special birthday and I don’t want to look cheap.
Thank for bringing our attention to this matter 😁
Nowt wrong with a bit of "Ye Olde Oak."
Lifting the lid and exposing the mouldy classes that lurk … and are probably responsible for a lot of bother one way or another. My transatlantic friends find it mystifying as do I really..mother came from a family that had climbed the ladder to the point where they got concussion on the glass? ceiling. So I was brought up on stories about the Archbishop of Canterbury coming to lunch, coming out, boarding schools etc. (we even have a crest but I have never found a connection to it in my family history endeavours).
Non sequitur..I was called a hyphenated retard on here last week!! There has to be a first for everything, right? Actually my father made up the name in 1928 ish, to reinvent himself and it’s a Christian name .. Gerard plus a family name .. Castle .. said in a Liverpool accent, so not posh at all, really.
Sadly I really dislike Champagne, Prosecco, and even white wine so I’m no fun when it comes to celebrating something.
Reviews are a wonderful world. Better than reading a dictionary.
🤣🤣 Nothing better than starting the day with a smile - thanks Bear! There's a great deal of BS written about wine, perhaps more than on any other subject and usually pronounced upon by ignorant snobs. I'm somewhat of an amateur wine enthusiast and have taken several WSET courses in the subject in order to gain a modicum of expertise to help me build a cellar over a long period of time but as for drinking the stuff, my maxim is ignore the fancy descriptions and the snobbery; if you like a wine be it a vintage claret or a village table wine and can afford the price, buy and enjoy it. I wrote a piece about my early venture into 'en primeur' here for anyone vaguely interested ..
https://andygjburge.substack.com/p/dangling-my-feet-in-the-waters-of
https://andygjburge.substack.com/p/part-2-of-dangling-my-feet-in-the
Footnote: FWIW, I wouldn't buy from the Waitrose Cellar website because it mostly doesn't list the year of the wines it's selling (the one absolutely essential piece of info needed) and where it does, it won't guarantee that year.
I'm not a wine buff (my dad's a bit of one), but even I know that vintage is essential! The weather in a particular summer must have the single most important effect on the harvest and quality. Never mind the terroire &c (obviously, that counts too, but it's secondary). Why on earth bother with a vintage if it weren't so important?
Incidentally, my parents have a lovely house in a small village (ca 1,000 inhabitants) just inside the Languedoc National Park. The village has: 1 grocery store; 1 tabac; 1 bar; 2 bakers (one best for bread, the other for patisserie). Oh yes, I almost forgot, the obligatory pharmacie and a fairly recent addition is a bicycle hire/shop. It also has a vintner to whom you used to be able to get to get a 5l bidon for €3.25 (en vrac, obviously 0.65/litre! A bargain. It's not anything special, but it's a perfectly decent vin de table). You just popped along of a late afternoon/early evening, between 17:00 and 19:30, 20:00 at a push, but they might not answer—it was usually Madame who answered and she was charming too. His vineyards were around Roquebrun, about a 15' drive. Sadly, he's retired and his kids have taken over and they no longer offer that service (I think they probably live nearer Roquebrun) but there's a market in the next town east (the beautifully named Lamalou-les-Bains, just 2km away, which also has a Lidl) on Tuesdays and Saturdays (obviously, Saturdays is much busier, so busy it's impossible to find a parking space less than a 10' walk away) where they always have a stall. Faugère isn't far away either, also about 15' drive. They have a coop there, so there is a choice of two reds and two whites and a rosé (my friend from Berlin who have the house next door prefer the Faugère. I'd be hard put to name a preference, I really don't think there's anything in it).
That village sounds like heaven Nicholas. The French have their priorities absolutely right!
It is about as close as I've experienced, but I haven't been for over ten years. I used to go every year until my son was 16 (he'll be 30 this year—just by–the–by, I'll never forget the exact time of his birth: it was at 21:22 on the 23ʳᵈ May; OK, it was BST, but still memorable). I'm definitely planning to go this year though. I've been trying to convince one of my oldest friends, who lives in DC to come (old in that I've known her since I was 20, nearly 46 years ago!). When I first suggested it it was during the whole ‘freedom fries’ 🙄 spat W Bush had with the French and she was afraid she'd be unwelcome. I couldn't dissuade her, 'cause they're not like that at all. Neither is she one of those over-enthusiastic, brash, loud Americans, quite the opposite. She's sweet, polite, thoughtful and I might even say demure. Anyway, my parents are known as the ‘anglais allemande’: there are quite a few Germans in the village and my dad's mother was German Jewish, fled the Nazis in 1938 while pregnant with him and cutting it rather fine: it was the last official refugee boat. Her fiancé followed shortly after. Both were suspected German spies, interred on the Isle of Man where my grandfather wrote his first book. Apparently, Churchill had it as his bedside reading and insisted his cabinet read it! They were released on the strength of it. I've never read it, my grandfather asked us not to, he was embarrassed by it. I do know that he made some remarkably accurate predictions, including that Hitler would commit suicide.
I digress. The landscape is stunningly beautiful, for has so much more flavour (I forgot to mention the producteuse who has a stall by the tabac most weekdays. She has a smallholding, but it's always fantastic and in season—the peaches! I can't eat the peaches you buy here anymore, they're so bland. Over there they're succulent, sweet, dripping with juice and so cheap. It was €1 for five, but I daresay it's €2 by now. Still). There's one other Englishman in the village, M Fry. As I said, the nearest town is Lamalou-les-Bains, which has a good hotel and there's a campsite across the river (the Orb; I've given enough clues so I might as well say: my parents' village is called le Poujol-sur-Orb ¹). Just opposite the campsite is a spring where we get our drinking water from, the same source as Vernier, (who have a bottling plant also south of the Orb, a bit further east from the campsite. About 20 km west, a little further than Colombières and its gorge, a favourite local swimming spot, is a larger, municipal campsite which has the best name: Cevennes Up (the mountains to the north are called les Cevennes)! Perhaps I'll see you there sometime?
¹ I've always found it a bit hypocritical when people discover beauty spots and then insist on keeping them secret. It's that ‘No one after me’ mentality. One bit of advice, French school holidays start on 1ˢᵗ August and the place gets rammed for most of that month, literally overnight. The nearest 3 Musketeers supermarket (which also has a Brico-marchée (building supplies), a Veti-marchée (clothing), a coopérative (wine, olive oil, produce and soap (!) and 😮💨 a Macdonald's) has parking for about 250 cars. Come the 1ˢᵗ it's tough to find a space! Mind you, the MacDonald took about three years to finally get built: locals kept vandalising the project by stealing the building supplies 😂. Nothing major, usually just the cheapest bits like the plastic pipes, but enough to delay construction.
The class system in England (yep, not Wales, Scotland or NI so much) is so pathetic and reeks of insecurities.
Anyway, for what it's worth a sparkling Saumur from the Loire Valley is identical to champagne (soil, grapes, method) but without the silly price tag. And Aldi's champagne has been voted best in blind tastings several times. Fizz snobbery exists 🤣
(Although for a special gift I'd get a "name" obviously)
Absolutely on the fizz snobbery. With champagne, you're paying for the name and the cock-a-snoot (if that's the expression). Prosecco and Cava can be absolutely as good, they just don't come from the Champagne region. Personally, it's much like my uncle said about art (he was a painter, an artist rather than a decorator, but I'm making no judgement here, just clarifying 🙂) “A painting either days something to you or it doesn't.” Simple as that. A bottle of bubbly either tastes good to you or it doesn't. Everything else is just show and if you need that kind of validation, then I pity you, it reeks of insecurity. When I said ‘you’ I didn't mean you, Di. You're obviously not so needy 😊.
Thanks 😙
Ha ha
Why are you looking at Waitrose wine? you'd be much better off joining the Wine Society - far more choice and better value, superb service, lovely staff - it's a mutual.
Yes, that's who my dad was with (qv reply to Andy Burge).
I am definitely a Champagne person, but, sadly, with a Prosecco pocket.
I loved this, it was a brief foray into other people’s worlds. Your take was incisive, eloquent and brilliantly pointed out how absurd the review exchange was.
I did have to look up “sabrage” though, so you have taught me something else today. Not sure I’d ever try it myself. I can’t be trusted with a remote control, let alone a sword 🗡️😂
I also had to look up Sabrage 😂
We are a predominantly Crémant household these days, Loire or Bourgogne, haven’t really settled on either as superior yet, just for the record.
Glad I wasn’t the only one who didn’t know. Well, I did know what it was but I never knew there was a word for it.
I just drink whichever Prosecco is on offer at the store, rather than being a connoisseur. I lost what was left of my sense of taste (in the “five senses” category) when I got Covid for the first time, then with subsequent infections my sense of taste changed and nothing really tastes right, really. However, I can tell the difference between a glass of Prosecco and a glass of proper Champagne 🥂
We are only a Crémant household because it is insanely inexpensive in the French supermarkets, so when we visit France we include a few bottles in our shopping to bring back to Ireland with us. They usually keep us going through any occasions for celebration which may arise until the next trip🤞
There is even cheaper fizz available in the French supermarkets (Vin Mousseux), under €3 per bottle, it’s perfectly good enough for making cocktails like Kir Royale or Bucks Fizz.
Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that 😔. Is it your sense of smell that's been affected? It usually is. At least one of my friends had theirs affected and another is anosmic as a result of an accident with serious head injury, so I have some idea of how much of a loss it is. I hope that it will recover. I believe it often does, but it can take a long time.
Thank you. My sense of smell is definitely terrible too.
Have you tried Luxembourg cremant?
Cannot say that I have. If I see any I may give it a go, price permitting of course!
Hilarious! 🤣
Status anxiety writ large with a jumbo side of bile.
The pair of them are snot balls. Nothing more or less.
I love St Emilion Grand Crus, and as an accompaniment to fish and chips, it is brilliant. It does not mean that I devalue the wine, why do you need to eat foie gras, a great steak or snails to enjoy a good claret? If you are so blessed as to enjoy cheaper things in life then you do you. Taste is in the mouth of the beholder.
A quiet chuckle!! Brilliant
You’ve just made me howl with laughter 😆 🤣😂
Thank you Bear, hilarious!
Wonderful 👌🏻
I was planning a special birthday with the patron of a local resto. I want my guests to be greeted with champagne and oysters, I said. He said, they will add lemon juice or shallot vinaigre to the oysters, both of which destroy the champagne. Let me offer you a less expensive alternative. I know you are right, I said, but it is a special birthday and I don’t want to look cheap.
—
Brilliant!