Astrolabe Malbec 2009

What a delicious little wine for a rather unusually warm winter's, Tuesday afternoon.

I asked the rather silly question of why I'd never heard of a famous French Malbec.

"Of course you have! Malbec grapes are French!" Was the response as a bottle of Astrolabe Malbec 2009 was handed to me.

I would never normally condone drinking on a Tuesday afternoon, let alone during January, the world-renowned month of restraint, but you see why I had to open it immediately and try it. I did get a steak to accompany it though. Felt better.

Auxerrois or Côt Noir in Cahors, called Malbec in Bordeaux, and Pressac in other places, the grape became less popular in Bordeaux after 1956 when frost killed off 75% of the crop. Despite Cahors being hit by the same frost, which devastated the vineyards, Malbec was replanted and continued to be popular in that area where it was mixed with Merlot and Tannat to make dark, full-bodied wines, and more recently has been made into 100% Malbec varietal wines.

A very young wine with an elegant finesse of robust, Malbec tannins, this wine was such a deep and jammy delight.

And as if I needed further incentive to devour this wine, it won the 2011 excellence award in the Vinovalies awards for Vinalies Nationales. Perfect!

Champagne Day

Today is Champagne Day according to twitter, not that I needed an excuse to regale you with the wonders of champagne.

I drink champagne when I'm happy and when I'm sad. Sometimes I drink it when I'm alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I'm not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it - unless I'm thirsty. ~ Madame Lilly Bollinger

As such, here are some random facts and history about our favourite drink.


i. 
Veuve Clicquot was named after widow Barbe-Nicol Clicquot who took over her husband's company when she was widowed at 27. She was also known as La Grande Dame of Champagne.
Veuve Clicquot were the first to sell Rose champagne in 1775.


ii. 
Sabering the bottle
It's a French tradition that if you have a stubborn cork, you should not give up: if you can't dislodge a recalcitrant cork from a bottle of good champagne, you can do what the "Hussards" (French mounted soldiers of the Napoleonic era) did: they used the reverse edge of their saber to break the neck of the bottle. Hence, the French expression "sabrer la bouteille"- literally "saber the bottle" came about, illustrating the French belief that it is better to destroy a bottle than to do without champagne!

iii.
Contrary to legend and popular belief, Dom Perignon did not invent sparkling wine. The oldest recorded sparkling wine is Blanquette de Limoux, which was apparently invented by Benedictine Monks in the Abbey of Saint Hilaire near Carcassonne in 1531. Over a century later, the English scientist and physician Christopher Merret documented the addition of sugar to a finished wine to create a second fermentation six years before Dom Perignon set foot in the Abbey of Hautvillers and almost 40 years before it was claimed that the famed Benedictine monk invented Champagne. Merret presented the Royal Society with a paper in which he detailed what is now called méthode champenoise in 1662.


iv. 
While champagnes usually tend to be blends of the white Chardonnay, Pinot Noir or Pinot Meunier grapes, Blanc de Blancs champagnes are made purely from white Chardonnay grapes. Krug's Clos du Mesnil is a fine example, being a single vineyard and single vintage.
 In April 2008, Krug released the 1995 Clos d'Ambonnay, its debut of a Blanc de Noirs Champagne, made entirely from Pinot Noir from a single 0.685 hectares (1.69 acres) vineyard.


v. 
On 18 April 2007, the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry published the results of a recent joint study by the University of Reading and University of Cagliari that showed moderate consumptions of Champagne may help the brain cope with the trauma of stroke, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's disease. The research noted that the high amount of the antioxidant polyphenols in sparkling wine can help prevent deterioration of brain cells due to oxidative stress. 

Great love affairs start with Champagne and end with tisane. Honore de Balzac

Ristorante La Barca - Forte Dei Marmi

Ristorante La Barca is one of Forte Dei Marmi's oldest restaurants dating back to 1906 when Captain Leo Tacchella, while transporting wine from Elba to Forte dei Marmi, ran aground on the site of the restaurant.

In 1969, the restaurant was taken over by the Petrucci family and they are still at the helm. 


The warm, wood-panelled interior plays compliment to the wood ovens where the most delicious range of seafood and home-made pasta dishes are carefully prepared. The large outdoor terrace on the beach allows for al fresco dining during the summer, with a fresh sea breeze and the soft, waves whispering to you as you dine.


As if the tantalising flavours and ambience of the restaurant were not enough to spoil you, the wine list is the magnum opus. With over 500 wines, national and international, to compliment the delectable food, Ristorante La Barca is one of the most exquisite assault on the senses I have ever experienced.


RISTORANTE LA BARCA | VL. ITALICO 3 - FORTE DEI MARMI (LU) - 
Tel. 0584 89323 | ristorantelabarca@live.it 

Nelly Furtado to donate money from Gaddafi - at what cost to morals?

In what appears to be an act of contrition, Nelly Furtado announced today on Twitter that she would be donating the $1M received for a private concert in Italy in 2007.

“In 2007, I received 1million$ from the Qaddafi clan to perform a 45 min. Show for guests at a hotel in Italy. I am going to donate the $,” tweeted Nelly.

Presumably, the cost of St Nelly's morals have now risen to a level higher than in 2007 when it was ok to take money from a known dictator.
The same can also be said of the LSE that has been pressured into defending its own principles and stopping any further donations from Gaddafi's charity, the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation (GICDF).

Well done Nelly Furtado. We do like a good wrong-doings done right story as it shows great courage to admit the mistake and attempt to fix it rather than to hide behind the bling it has bought.

Other artists previously hired by the family included Mariah Carey who was paid $1M, Beyonce $2M, and others including Usher and Lionel Richie however nothing has been heard of their having attained new levels of morals.

Should that happen any time soon though I won't hold my breath, I suggest Amnesty International or perhaps a school in Libya.

Luxury books take on a new look

Ten special edition copies of Indian cricket player, Sachin Tendulkar's autobiography will go on sale priced at £49,000 ($75,000) by publishers Kraken Opus. Each of the ten special edition copies will contain a signature page made of the author's blood mixed with paper resin.

With over 1,500 images, each book will weigh 37kg with gold leaf on each of the 852 pages.

As India's most popular personality, the cricket star is worshipped as a god by millions.

An additional 1,000 regular copies will also be sold for between $2,000 and $3,000.

Do not...

Do not assume you know me
by the picture you see.

Do not attempt to judge me,
Only God can, and only He.

You look at my years,
And claim to know my fears.
Yet have you counted my tears?

You look at my eyes,
And think you see where my soul lies.
Yet you do not see what dark windows disguise.

You are charmed by my smile
Yet haven't heard me laugh
Or even see the mask it beguiles.

Do not presume knowledge because of your years
For the rivers of tears
Shed in a day of my life
Would amount to a lifetime worth of your petty strifes;

Do not assume you will fill me with the spring of your youth,
My laughter and joys keep my body lithe;
Do not offer me your unscarred heart
If it is too fragile and can be ripped apart;
Do not think you can give me your soul
Before you find mine, and know its role.

What passion you see as red
Is merely a soul tainted by what my heart has bled;

The spirit you think needs to be freed to live,
And appears to be held captive by all we believe,
Has been soaring higher in the sky than your eye can ever see,
And swims to depths beyond the ocean's deepest seas.

I have loved and lost all there is to lose,
Around my neck, sorrow hangs like a noose;
Parent, sibling, child, foe and friend
All painfully etched on my heart til the end.

I have travelled distant lands, right to the end;
Fighting the devil in battles and losing over and again.
I have won the war, by taking on God and began to mend,
The near anihilation of my soul caused by men.

I have been tortured more than most,
And yet been so loved, even at cost.

Yet you look at my picture and the age of man it belies,
And assume to know with whom my soul should lie.
But in all I've seen, done, loved, loathed and tried,
It was giving my spirit the freedom to fly,
to err, to fall, to taste the superficially divine,
That makes me live my life
Sans regret, sans strife.