Fellow Wine Lovers,
Boris, Boris, Boris – even when he’s on holiday he still manages to make bad headlines and bugger things up for people.
Since the mid 80’s, Alex’s family have called Benahavís, in the south of Spain, their second home. Many summers went by in the happy embrace of Minh’s bar, or before that Don’s Bar on the corner, where a Bloody Mary with a Fino sherry top was just the ticket. The ‘teca, with its mirror ceiling-ed dancefloor was a great late night haunt, a good place to work off the enormous Solomillo Adobado dished up at Las Cañas in the village square and a perfect place to practice Spanish with the locals. In August, the Feria to mark the Saint’s day was filled with bull-running, dodgems and supersized Vodka y Naranjas. We knew that Sir Jimmy and Adnan had properties up in the hills and occasionally we would see family members in the village, or Kashoggi’s yacht in the port but this was fine because everything was very low key. There was wall to wall sunshine, mountains to be biked, rapids to be ridden and golf to be played – a blissful oasis.
But now Boris has come a-visiting so there goes the neighbourhood – thanks mate.
But also, why was he on holiday and not here unloading containers at Felixstowe? Oh, of course, conference season. The season runs from 23rd September until 18th October and since the Tory Conference was from 3rd – 6th October that gives anyone with a well-documented tendency to roam the perfect opportunity to nip off for a bit of sunshine whilst the rest of us try and keep the economy going. As a side note, when I mentioned to Wayne that Parliament is only open for about 158 working days this year, or roughly 13 working days a month, he immediately decided to run in the next election as part of his easing into retirement strategy!
Elsewhere in the news, what do we have? Large dollops of doom and gloom but also a media that refuses to learn any lessons. Fresh from sending half the country into an unnecessary spin over petrol shortages they are now putting the panics on the punters with scare stories about Christmas shortages and empty shelves. Everyone brace yourselves, this rollercoaster ride is far from over.
Even sport hasn’t offered us the succour we often get and the violence at the football and a not terribly good result just about put the icing on the cake.
So let’s not dwell on such things, let’s think about drinking wine this weekend instead. Having been to the classic regions of Bordeaux and the Loire last week we thought we’d hop over the border into Cataluña now and taste a brace of wines from the Mas Blanch I Jové winery in Costers del Segre which is just west of Priorat.
We liked these wines from the start, particularly their strapline ‘Wines that Inspire’. They practice ecological mountain viticulture and produce wine with grapes all sourced from their 17 hectare property. Most (99%) of the energy they use is solar, the vineyard has been certified as organic since 2015 and they have a great arrangement with artists and sculptors in the vineyard too – they have more than a dozen works of art scattered over the property which look awesome. Having only tasted their wines when Sara was over in the UK, this is one winery that both of us are itching to visit!
Mas Blanch I Jove Troballa 2019/20 – £17.99 – a great wine, 100% Garnacha Blanca with wild fermentation, aged for four months in concrete eggs. Rich and fruity with a lovely mouthfeel that would be splendid with a rare tuna steak. The wine is suitable for vegans too, so perhaps a lightly spiced vegetable and coconut curry.
Mas Blanche I Jove Sao Abrivat 2017 – £17,99 – This red is a blend of 40% Tempranillo, 35% Grenache and 25% Cabernet Sauvignon matured in a mixture of French and American oak barrels for around 12 months. The wine is soft with a lovely dark red fruit character and a melange of vanilla, cinnamon and black pepper spice notes before the long balanced finish. A regular visitor to both our dining tables….
Another brief epistle this week but I’m sure when there is more happy news to report on they will get longer – in the meantime have a bon weekend and pop by to taste some wine with us if you get a chance!
¡Saludos!