I am about to go on a month's health and fitness plan which virtually rules out alcohol (apart from the occasional taste). At lunch with Brown Shipley Private Bank in Manchester I was very grateful to be given a choice of wines to accompany a plate of monk fish. I don't drink much dry white Bordeaux so I chose a white Graves from a hot vintage:
The title 'Carneros Sparkling Wine' does not do justice to this: still youthful in appearance with a fine,gentle mousse; quite soft and slightly sweet in style, the word 'soapy' came to mind on the first taste, fine blanc de blancs with a good, ripe wholemeal autolytic character, soft in style but still very fresh and well balanced, really very good indeed for its age. 17
Every year I try to celebrate my birthday with a wine from the year that I was born. It is fortuitous that this was 1961 but unfortunately no one had the foresight to lay down any Claret at the time! Instead I have a small stock of Rioja and Port from the said year and this year I added Red Burgundy from the fine 1990 vintage (just in case the other wines were a let down):