Dross. Utter dross.

Wither Hills is sweet and very commercial. A massive come down on last year. In a blind tasting this could pass for Oyster Bay.

See Saw tastes of neither semillon or sb. Just has a flavour of boiled sweets.

If you haven't yet bought either don't bother.

See Saw? Come on, who's telling the truth?

I may be forced to buy one now.

Goose, GK,

I havent bought any See Saw either, If folks like it and score well, then I am happy for them.

Tonight, I grilled two Waitrose farmed trout laced with pepper and butter and lemon to lift the flavour - At least yhey were fresh and I just had them with lighty toasted rye bread.

To accompany them - Yes you guessed. Beautiful wine, properly vinous, transparent, yet no holes, wonderful but balanced acidity and very grown up. My wife piled in as well, and put the cap back on the gin and tonic.

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Duncan

That sounds lovely Dunc, I regularly enjoy fresh fish myself, usually trout caught by a neighbour.

Last night we had a Mediterranean dish-
Cubed chicken breast, olives & the oil they came in, chopped tomatoes, lots of fresh herbs, onion, garlic, a good glug of red wine, seasoning, corn flour, mustard seeds. All in a large pan and slow cooked for about an hour on the hob. Served with plain rice (yeah, I know, not Med but it works, the rice sucks up the excess juice). Simple, superb.

I had the TF '05 St Joseph, the freshness of the fruit and the commanding acidity made for a perfect match.

Today? I’ve stuck the Brisket in the slow cooker, should be ready around 4pm.

No good trying to get the sympathy vote off Mel and GK with cute cats. Your Rene Dubarry is river bound !

Oh yes !

But seriously, would you not rather drink the Dubarry than these two lame ducks at twice the price.

Cubed chicken breast, olives & the oil they came in, chopped tomatoes, lots of fresh herbs, onion, garlic, a good glug of red wine, seasoning, corn flour, mustard seeds. All in a large pan and slow cooked for about an hour on the hob. Served with plain rice (yeah, I know, not Med but it works, the rice sucks up the excess juice). Simple, superb


Proper grub that. The sort of stuff that builds you up, after a hard day.
I was sawing up (bow saw, new blade) and building a fire, a mini twister came through here at 3 am and wrecked half of a Tree Beard apple, hollow trunk with some port holes. I was pretty upset, the old girl produces apples that you CAN'T BUY, they vary in colour, bloom and size from one large bow to another - totally uncommercial
This Newton Wonder was planted on the land in the 1870's I recon. Young
orchards here before the Victorians came along and put up villas

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Duncan

I would put the Dubarry in a distant 3rd place...but wait! there's more. I now have (as of this afternoon):

'09 Ned
'08 VM Cellar
'08 St. Clair Estate

Ba, please report your thoughts for that nice little clutch you have above, presumably 2 of each from Majestic. You've shelled out much more dosh than usual for the six, so I sincerely hope they hit the spot. No, I really mean that . Please give a little more detail than "acronyms Ba style" if that takes your fancy.

Cheers Ba, quite interested to know how VM remodelled their Cellar S, out of 2008 fruit - which in MHO is quite different from '07 and 06 as well.
I have personally found Cellar S a big step up from their boggy standard offering, perhaps the contrast was most apparent with the '07 harvest. Pleased aslo that you have Ned09, after the '07, I found '08 slightly dissapointing on release, therefore have left two '08 Ned in the rack for re-appraisal. The 07 was a bit demi for some folks, but then I had older stock anyway, and it was good with some girly summer'y starters, cheese straws, vollavants and all that sort of savoury pastry stuff.

Foul weather here - the Thames will be bloated out of all proportion at Wargrave and Sonning if this wretched stuff does not stop soon.

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Duncan

That's another one now...ABS (acronyms Ba style) which is akin to TLA ( three letter abbreviation)


Yep, forking out a little more hurt at first, but there has been a good return on this investment so far. Got 2 Lindauers as well. Blighters wouldn't let me have a Reserve and a B de B at the offer price. Had to have 2 of either...Bah!

And this endless ****** rain is a nightmare. Luckily we spent a fortune and several yrs putting in new storm drains. Still grinds the spirits down though.

Seems to have been raining for weeks. My lawn is about 6" deep in growth and part of that is water. The lovely Amelia is making lasagne, which will be ready in half an hour - perfect for a dark, wet and miserable Sunday evening. Had to go out to get the bay leaves, though. Scared the badgers - well, they scared me actually.

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mel

Well laying aside your burrowing friends in the back garden, Mel, we haven't heard about your new adoption for the family ?

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Duncan

Weather hasn’t been too bad up here this weekend, with one or two welcome sunny spells, I even managed to get a little work done on the plot.

Bad news about the apple tree Dunc, these things are hard to replace. We have a few wild cookers close by, they were on the grounds of the old St Matthews Hospital (loony bin) before it closed down, (fascinating history). The trees are bang in the middle of an overgrown area that time has forgotten. The fruit makes spiced apple chutney worthy of the thousand cuts acquired liberating them.

Ooo, nearly forgot- OMG, Im stuffed.

Yeah I thought you'd forgotten to mention.......

Sad day sawing up old limbs - we've looked after the old girl for 25 years, and she liked the organic growing of large plant, but small globe artichokes under the reduced canopy. A flatish tree with 4 large, just off horizontal limbs, the centre was missing, perfect for a two part ladder.

Wild Parsnip of Glastonbury

Parsnips are grown for their thick, tapered, white rootstock which is used much like the root of the closely related carrot ( Daucus carota ). The above ground plant stands about a foot (30 cm) or two (60 cm) tall, with carrotlike leaves that are pinnate with 5-11 segments.

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Duncan

Have opened bottle no 2 of the Wither Hills and the herby flavours dominate the underlying sweetness.

Tis nice MrB tis nice.

Bottle no 1 was made by Tate and Lyle.

Bastards !