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Apologies for the lack of posts recently

I’m sorry the posts have dried up this month; I am trying to shed some lard and necking bottles of wine followed by huge restaurant meals is not the way to achieve this. At least I am losing weight (see the graph of my weight loss below, scale in kilograms). I will try and rave [...]


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Burger Monday at Hawksmoor

Sometimes emailed invitations are too tempting to turn down. The offer of a Hawksmoor burger and a taste of the new sandwiches they’ll be offering at their soon-to-be-opened Covent Garden branch was just such an email. My regular reader will know that . Just look at this one: Looks marvellous, eh? For a change I [...]


Riesling Auslese Breumel in den Mauern 2008, Muller-Catoir

Large-scale but still utterly refined

After my wonderful Haag offering earlier tonight the partner wanted to compete. He manifestly out-performs me with this wine. It has been far too long since I had a Muller-Catoir sweetie especially one of this screaming quality; when they are good they are throbbingly good. This is made from a historically ‘grand cru’-classified section inside [...]


Riesling Auslese Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Fuder 10, Fritz Haag

A brilliantly lovely Riesling

Fritz Haag wines can be such beautiful entities of pure, intense loveliness; this really is a goodie. Riesling Auslese Braueberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Fuder 10 1999, Fritz Haag Wow what a nose. Stunningly pure and ravishingly attractive citrus fruit. Its slaty minerality is totally focussed and completely delicious. This is a nose you’ve got to love be [...]


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Hawksmoor’s weekend brunch

Sometimes you really need a serious, meat-charged breakfast. After a heavy Friday or Saturday night on the lash you may find yourself with such requirements; you will be well served by Hawksmoor’s weekend brunch. First thing to say when you stagger in there is that you need their £14 bottomless bloody mary offering and that [...]


Riesling 2005, Mac Forbes

Two Mac Forbes wonders and a tired Austrian Ausbruch

At the moment no one in Australian is making better Riesling or Pinot Noir than Mac Forbes. A real treat to try these two. Bit of a shame the Lang sweetie was past it. Riesling 2005, Mac Forbes I would be failing you, my dear reader, if I did not admit to there being a [...]


Riesling rs37 2008, Mac Forbes

Two Mac Forbes wines – they’re great!

Mac Forbes is without a doubt my new favourite producer from Australia. His wines are sculpted entities of well-defined personality, quite different to the general style of piss boring rocket fuel pumped out by the tedious manufacturers of over-cooked jam who seem to populate Australia’s wine growing regions. Mac Forbes makes wines of real class; [...]


A Nahe Riesling from the croquet-cheater

Armin Diel is known amongst ageing Oxford wine tasting-types for two reasons. Firstly, when playing Herr Donnhoff at croquet the afternoon before their joint tasting he cheated in a blatantly obvious manner; Mr T and I were distinctly scandalised. Secondly, when it came to their joint tasting, rather good as Diel’s offerings were, they were [...]


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An artfully constructed Cotes-du-Rhone

One of my favourite Cotes-du-Rhone wines, Coudoulet can age quite gracefully for what is generally considered to be a minor appellation. Of course, they don’t charge minor prices for it… Cotes-du-Rhone ‘Coudoulet de Beaucastel’ 2005, Chateau de Beaucastel A dense, powerful nose of earth, meat and ripe fruit. The meatiness is very Mourvedre in character [...]


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Beer that is not so good but not so bad either

Today three of us went out for the . After such heady heights two of us thought a beer was in order; we trekked past Spitalfields Market and finally found a boozer with seats and real ale on offer. Not just any old real ale, but Timothy Taylor’s Landlord. I’ve blogged about this beer before, [...]