Saturday, April 15, 2006

Easter - Yaay!!!

Its easter time already, amazing how quickly the year flies along. We are really busy right now with two guys short. Davide left to return to Italy and Greg has taken his girlfriend Anna home to meet mama & papa. But tonights already looking good. A four-top has ordered a bottle of 1983 Margaux, which at £650 a bottle gets my night off to a flying start, and Ive still got three hours till service!!

Ive just added another thirty wines to the list over the last week. Mostly burgundy with some nice mature vintages - some 1990's, mostly 1996's and a couple of 99's. Sold one of the 1990's last night, a Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru, by Drouhin-Laroze. I must say that i thought the nose was a bit too earthy with what i think might be Brettanomyces contamination. This presented as a kind of horsey animal smell. Now theres a lot of debate over Brett spoilage, with some people crying foul and other feel that it adds a sense of character and dimension to the wine. I have to confess I really dont know where i stand on this one. In some cases, like last night it actually gave the wine a real depth of character on the nose and to me invoked a sense of place for the wine. But on the other hand i suppose if the aromas were too strong then it would detract from the fruit of the wine.
So faced with this dilema I offer the customer the chance to taste the wine and decide for themselves. Luckily they liked it, and the problem was shelved till the next time.

Anyway Im looking forward to gorging out on chocolate eggs tomorrow, and having an easter egg hunt with the kids. So happy holidays and I'll maybe post something more later.

grazza

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