There are few links that I’ve been meaning to pass on to you. First Clive Coates has had a Spring-Clean on his website, everything’s a little tidier now, and some of the menus that didn’t work in all browsers seem better. There are interesting entries marked ‘December’ in his news page.
Second, and a must, take a look at some of Vincent Dancer’s pictures that he’s going to exhibit at the end of January.
Finally, nice…
Everyone laughs at over-the-top wine writing, and they’re right. Fine+Rare merchants of London email me frequently, even though I have never bought a single bottle from them, nor could afford one. Here’s this week’s offer from Domaine Faiveley in Burgundy: “Chambertin Clos de Bèze. £560 per case of six. Needs work to coax from the glass …”
How do you coax a wine from the glass? “Come here little wine – don’t worry, I’m not going to drink you!”
It may be in contrast to the Mazis-Chambertin, a cheap little wine at just £380 for six bottles. “Jumps out of the glass … ” Clearly a trollop of a wine, possibly one that goes out clubbing with the Clos des Cortons, a trashy £285 for six: “a touch tart, perhaps”.
I do feel inspired, though. “This is a wine that puts it about, in a pathetic attempt to win cheap popularity. Not a wine to take home to your mother …”
Simon Hoggart, The Guardian, 9 January 2010
Burgundy looks a year further back as the 2008 vintage comes on sale here this month. After an unpromising early diagnosis, the grapevine suggests that it could be a delicious short- to medium-term option.
