16 Nov 2006

Beaujolais Breakfast

BEAUJOLAIS FOR breakfast? -That is behaviour two colleagues and I indulged in today. The first of plentiful musky, banana and cherry bubblegum flavoured sups fragrantly hit our palates at 8:36am, the slightly sour liquid mopped-up with excellent Anglo-Indian Kedgeree, smoked kippers and gutsy sausages. The venue: Gordon's, Charing Cross, a firm favourite for authentic wineaux.
The combination worked blissfully, the wine bearing little tannin, similar to the Pinot Noir I recently experienced, also around breakfast time. I assured myself on both occasions that fermented grape juice counts towards the government advocated 'five a day' portions of fruit and vegetables.
Afterwards I attended a less frivolous Burgundy tasting hosted my French, French wine importing colleague, Robert. My favourite sample was Chassagne Montrachet 1er Cru '01, Domaine Amiot. This Chardonnay played hopscotch with butterscotch and posessed a restrained-richness with a long, pineapple-scented aftertaste.
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Last night I did some work for Rebecca Dunphy of 'Sniff and Spit' - a 'friendly, informed, fun and succinct' wine tasting entity. The location, Dr. Johnson's House was very elegant but still domestic and thus in this case cosy. My favourite wine sampled was a bright Pinot Noir - Meinklang '04, from Eastern Austria [£8.50, Vintage Roots].