Iceland, rum and Calvados

It's feeling distinctly autumnal in London, which is fine by me!

At the risk of sounding like a seven year old writing an essay on What I Did On My Hols, it was wonderful to meet up with D in Iceland for a few days at the start of the month after the best part of 8 months apart. We had a great time, rented a car (the advantage of knowing someone who can drive on the right hand side of the road) and visited some spectacular waterfalls and the volcano which erupted recently.

After a windy climb up quite a big hill, we were a little disappointed not to see any red hot lava, but maybe it was just as well.

I was relieved that there were plenty of restaurants in Reykjavik and no need to eat anything weird like sheep's head or rotten shark. In fact, the food at the places we went to was very good, while lunch normally consisted of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and some trail mix from D's giant bag of the stuff. I didn't drink anything particularly exciting in restaurants, but brought a stash of wine from home in order to keep costs down as booze was quite expensive there.

Just a few days before our trip, the UK announced that it was letting people from the US visit, which was a little bit annoying as we needn't have gone to Iceland after all, but I'm still glad we did. And it means that we'll get to see other D soon as he's coming over in a few weeks. I'd better get some of the good stuff out of storage!

Meanwhile, back at AduV Towers, I decided to continue the rum project from last year, and got hold of these three from Berry Bros - a 12 year old from Panama, 13 year old from Belize and 16 year old from St Lucia. 

The Panama we considered to be fresh, with tropical fruit - a bit of banana, papaya and coconut, and no sign of rubber. We thought it was well-made lightweight rum. 

The one from Belize had a slightly more intense nose, with honey and ginger, and a note of orange peel on the mid palate. It was weightier, but still a light style. 

Finally, St Lucia was a noticeably paler colour than the other two, and was on the fiery side. As with the notorious Guyana from last year, it reminded me of an Islay whisky, not really what I'm looking for when I buy a bottle of rum. G thought that the barrel had overwhelmed the fruit. 

I was a little disappointed in all three, to be honest, as and none of them was as enjoyable as last year's Nicaraguan or Barbados. But c'est la vie! Of the three, the Belize was my favourite. 

G has been encouraging me to instigate a Calvados Project, and eventually I got round to making a start on this. He considers Calvados to be quite undiscovered and I doubt that me writing about it will do much to change that. Here we have three which all came in around the £50 mark. Two from Michel Huard - Vieux and Hors d'Age, and an 8 year old from Roger Groult.

Beginning with the Vieux, this was a nice gold colour with splendid legs and a really appley nose. G found it a bit petrolly and said it needed more time open. I hadn't previously realised that Calvados could be bottle sick, but apparently it benefits from some air. There was heat at the front, and then the apples appeared later. It reminded us of the apple cake we had at the brown cafe in the antiques centre in the Jordaan in Amsterdam, probably 20 years ago. 

The Hors d'Age was slightly darker and sharper, with heat on the finish rather than the front and rounded fruit in the middle. It had a wonderful finish and was probably worth the extra three quid.

Finally, the 8 year old was darker again and fried my nostrils, but on the palate it was smoother and more restrained with some interesting flavours. G described it as aristocratic, while I thought it was positively medieval with hints of quince, liquorice root and maybe even cloves. Fascinating stuff.

I was interested to discover that for me, a little Calvados goes a long way. I'm very capable of putting away a considerable quantity of rum or bourbon, but here I wasn't tempted to guzzle - somehow it demands slow appreciation and makes a really wonderful digestif. I look forward to adding to my collection in due course and heading up the scale. And if my lottery ticket ever comes up, I'd be very tempted by the 2 litre bottle of Roger Groult 1939 which is currently for sale...