It is easy to forget how intimate is the relationship between the French and wine, to the point that wine is making its way more and more into the "aperitif" hour at the expense of horrors such as Pastis. After all, French wine production keeps improving and so French people do feel like drinking more of it.
Every year new fashions start and some stick. One that is developing is the Bordeaux "clairet" which is not a rosé, God forbid! I suppose Clairet is a throw back to older times when the British called clairet the wine they got from Bordeaux. Or some of it anyway, but what did they know? The thing is that clairet is a great invention for summer, and in Bordeaux much better than those generic rosé that harass our taste buds.
But when serious fare is at stake for lunch, like lamb chops, we revert to nature and nothing less than a great Pomerol will do (or course my very unbiased opinion). It comes with accumulated dirt from a real "cave" which even dusted off leaves marks on the label.
I guess I am not French at heart; the greatest intimacy I ever had with a bottle of wine was my childhood struggle to paint an empty bottle of Rose D'anjou with a set of gouaches.
ReplyDeleteBut here's to the red firewater burning through your rationality bringing on a few shuddering moments of aliveness....Cheers!
Nothing wrong with Pastis except for those that add water. It's good to clear the throat after a rich French meal.
ReplyDeleteLook for a 2005 from Medoc. You won't regret. We are also fond of the St Emilion and found Cuvee Le Cadran 2006 that was absolutely wonderful. And the best thing about this in France is a working man can afford a decent bottle of wine, like these.
You certainly have a way of
ReplyDeleteevoking images and memories-
Daniel, did you ever taste
any dirt, or dust? I did,
yep.
(Was fascinated with caves, too.
Have you visited the caves
of Lasceaux? I think some of
my relatives are fromthere..
seriously.
OT:
ReplyDelete"
Cuba says 900 agricultural experts advising Venezuelan farmers
"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/americas/cuba-says-900-agricultural-experts-advising-venezuelan-farmers/2011/07/20/gIQAEtO9PI_story.html
LOL or CRY for Venezuelans?
Daniel, personally, i like it full bodied. Back home in Venezuela I go for Chilean Carmenere (originally from Bordeaux region). Here, I just found a good bottle of Madiran, with a temperature of about 34 deg., it really makes me fly.
ReplyDelete34 degrees Celsius or Fahrenheit?
ReplyDeleteI mean: I understand you are North American, right? Wine or beer and temperatue, it's another world :-p
LOL or CRY for Venezuelans?(It's the latter.)
ReplyDeleteI am expecting some of Mugabe's "agricultural experts"
to arrive soon.( They'll show the Venezuelans the quickest way to burn tractors,kill white farmers, etc.)Hint: It is in reality-Downward mobility"-part of Chavez's plan to speed the process. Soon all Venezuelans in all occupations will have masters, be they farmers or whatever, and there masters will be mainly Cubans but also, many Moslems,
druglords, maybe a Russian or two
And,of course-the military and Chavistas hovering around assisting these "masters" and Chavez reassuring "el pueblo" -they are here to help you.
1979 Boat People -Cuba was once a leading exporter of sugar- now it is rationed there. Oh,yeah,Chavez wants to do that with everything in Venezuela too..
ReplyDeleteRabbiBulla,
ReplyDeleteSame as the coffee story in Cuba.:)
morning Raga
ReplyDeleteTired after the red firewater, and pouring another offering of coffee, you pull up a chair on the porch to view the woods-you could witness early morning on the deck a thousand times, and never to be disappointed.Smoke rises from the coffee, little ghostly fingers walking forward on the mirrored surface.Faint pink embers, the growing light, were filling the sky just above the tree's horizon.What will the day bring?What is your next adventure ?I can't wait to hear.
firepigette
Once again Chavez tweets idiotic statements:
ReplyDelete"Chavez and Fidel saw the game and Venezuela won.."not those exact words but- how stupid.
And- how stupid for Chavez to watch the Assembly last week -debate his proposed absence and interrupt them via TV..
Hey Superrojorojito-shaddup!!
And, Superbarbaviejo
-shaddup tambien!!
Since we are talking about drink and food, may I barge in and reminisce about a pun I heard many years ago in France on the radio station "Europe 1". The show host, on I forgot what occasion said "le bon cacao de Cuba" (the good cocoa from Cuba), being careful to articulate each syllable, so that it read as "le bon caca haut de cul bas."
ReplyDeleteEn español: la buena mierda arriba de culo abajo.
I am NOT making this up.
Frogguy