I haven't been drinking all that much lately, partly because I had my annual booze-free week while cat-sitting for my parents, partly because G has made a controversial rule that he's not drinking mid-week unless there's a good reason, and partly because it's just so hot, particularly in my penthouse suite (i.e. 9th floor studio flat).
One thing I have been drinking lately though is halves of manzanilla!
I have Jancis to thank for this discovery. She mentioned this in her FT column a couple of weeks ago, and my quest for sensibly-priced halves of jerez was at an end. This manzanilla from Barbadillo costs £4.45 a half from Waitrose Wine Direct (I haven't seen it in the shop) - click here - and with free delivery (hurrah!), a case of 12 was £53.40 and came within the week. A half bottle is a great size for two or for me by myself over a couple of evenings, and a lovely cold glass goes down a treat at the end of a hard day bean-counting. It's proper manzanilla too, vibrant and zingy, and great with a bowl of olives or pistachios.
While we're on the subject of Jancis, I was recently carrying a cup of tea down the corridor when my chief executive asked me to come into his office. It turned out that he wanted to give me the FT supplement on investing in wine, as I am not only head bean-counter but also in charge of the office cellar. I was heartily amused to read her recommendation that Coche-Dury Bourgogne Blanc was an excellent investment wine. Coche-Dury makes some of the very best white burgundy and the only one I've had (= been able to afford) is his bourgogne, which can to my knowledge only be obtained in minute quantities from a particular restaurant in Beaune with spectacularly customer-unfriendly opening hours. Memo to Jancis: WTF?
However, she hasn't completely lost her marbles, as in addition to the sherry recommendation, it has recently been brought to my attention that she selected Edward Parker Wines (do I get a discount for this shameless plugging, ACC?) as the best wine supplier in an article on her Purple Pages here. Unfortunately one has to fork out £69 a year to subscribe to the Purple Pages so I can't read the whole article, but congrats to EPW in particular for beating Corney and Barrow, one of the top London wine merchants, quite a triumph!
In other news: on Monday we had an office outing to the nearby bowling lanes and afterwards ended up somehow at Fortnums wine bar which I rate highly. Some went for the claret flight while my colleague C and I shared a bottle of gewurztraminer 2007 from Domaine Bruno Sorg. I chose this because back in the day C used to like medium-dry wines such as riesling, and she thought she liked gewurz because she had enjoyed a Paul Cluver gewurz from South Africa. Unfortunately she didn't go for the more full-on style of the Alsace version so I ended up having to take one for the team... shame. Yesterday she gave me a bottle of the Paul Cluver for my birthday, which I am sampling as I write, and I can confirm that it is in a much a drier style. Not bad, especially well-chilled, but slightly bland and more international. Interesting that gewurz can vary so much. NB I see from the website that Fortnums are still offering £10 corkage on the wines from the shop in the wine bar, which is an excellent thing.
On a related note, there's been some press lately about a BYO club in London whereby you pay £75 for a year and can then pay a corkage rate at a number of participating restaurants. A quick look at the club's website here shows that participating restaurants include Club Gascon, Arbutus, Angelus, and various other stalwarts. However, annoyingly, restrictions appear to apply at many of them. All in all, I'm not convinced. The Hawksmoor has been doing £5 corkage on a Monday night for some time now and I still haven't made it - largely because I can go to the Ginger Pig and cook my own steak for about a quarter of the price. Now, if somewhere really fancy like Le Gavroche or the Connaught did corkage, I'd be interested... oh well, am not going to hold my breath!
I've been rather intermittent writing on here of late. In future I'm going to try to write something every weekend - stay tuned!
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