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The Fringe...
...the Festival
Martin Rowson
News in Brief
Readers Letters
Park Life
News in Brief
Dissent
Tapas Time
Back to the Fringe
Straight to the Point
Royal Bengal
Handy Contacts
Summertime Blues
Summery Justice
Up the Junction
Books/Poetry
The Factory
Summer Allergies
Farmers Market
The Arts
Away Days
A Royal Visit
Coffee Corner
Surfing N16
Man in North Bank
XWord
View from the Lane
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Those sensible people along the Loire are habitual chillers’
Dearest Reader,
If, by the time you read this, they’ve already carted me off and hanged me for
heresy, then I would just like to say that it’s been a pleasure knowing you, and that
my motives throughout have been of the uttermost and pristine purity. It is a far,
far better thing I do now ... (Get on with it – Ed.).
What heinous crime have I committed, I hear you ask, to merit such swift and summary
punishment? No more than this: to suggest that in the Summer months you put your red wines
– yes, all of them – into the refrigerator for 15 or 20 minutes before you drink
them. (Of course, if you have a cellar at a constant 55-60ºF you are excused this task.
But you haven’t, have you? No, nor have I.)
The reason behind this treasonable madness? Simply this, that red wines aren’t
intended to be drunk at much over the mid-60s°F because the quite crude smell of the
alcohol starts to mask the real bouquet of the wine. Our over-heated homes can have this
effect but try leaving a bottle out in the sun for a couple of hours to really get
it at its worst. If you’re a bit nervous about this whole plan, perhaps we should
start off with a few light Summery reds that indisputably benefit from a spell in the
fridge or
even the ice-bucket (keep a close eye, or hand, on it if the latter is the case) while you
toddle off to light the barbie. Sainsbury’s ‘Classic Selection’ Beaujolais
Villages 2001 (£6.03) is from an excellent vintage and is selected by Georges Dubœuf
– ‘Mr Beaujolais’ himself. It’s got that characteristic aroma of
cherries and boiled sweets – nice boiled sweets, though, like those ones in the round
tins which you find in the glove compartments of posh people’s cars. It’s
surprisingly big, with good, deep colour which has just a hint of that purpliness which
can be a bit offputting.
The first time I tried Brown Brothers Tarrango was as one of Raymond Blanc’s
‘house’ wines during a stay at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons – and, as
recommendations go, they don’t come much swankier than that. I imagine it was a lot
more than the six-odd quid it’ll cost you at Clissold Wines but, don’t worry, I
wasn’t paying. The pinkypale appearance and crisp, candied nose of the 2002 belie its
quite substantial body and the flavours are of a big Summer pudding full of sweet red
fruit. The estimable Stephen, Son of Murphy, has been caught in flagrante refrigio
inserting his Cotes de Ventoux Les Cailloux 2001 (a snip at £3.99 – snippier yet at
3-fora-tenner) into the cool-box and I’m, as it were, right behind him on this one.
This has a bit more body than our other candidates – ‘Which bit?’ you might
ask, but this Frankie Howerd stuff could get out of hand. It’s got nice jammy
Grenache fruit up-front, and something smokier from the Syrah lurking behind. You
wouldn’t drink Banrock Station Sparkling Shiraz warm, would you? I rest my case.
Those
sensible people along the Loire are habitual chillers of their generally light, red wines.
One such is Chinon Les Granges de la Perriere 2000 (Oddbins: £5.99) – made entirely
from Cabernet Franc, which has that smell of lead-pencil shavings which you notice when
it’s used as a constituent in quite a lot of claret. Unblended, that smell is quite
intense but it seems to go well with the concentrated Pinot Noir-like, raspberry juice
flavours. Again, it’s a little purply in colour and has bigger ‘mouth-feel’
than you’d expect from looking at it – are we beginning to sense a pattern here?
A few years ago, if you’d have shown me a bottle of Tesco’s Bardolino (£4.05)
and then turned the screw by telling me that not only was it a non-vintage, but that you
also expected me to drink some of it, then you wouldn’t have seen me for dust. But
the effect of industry-wide improvements in production standards and the sheer power of
competition has been so awesome that you can now approach such a bottle without fear in
your heart.
This is a wine to buy in bulk for a big barbie crowd and chill it down to absolute zero
(or a few degrees above). Cherry-pink, and with a nice bright nose of cherries, it has
cheerful flavours of cherries and... more cherries. For all I know, it may even be made of
cherries. It’s perfectly pleasant if cherries are what you want, but you could buy a
powerful big bag of ‘em for the same money.