Given what we do for a living, Tony and I don't often get to go out for dinner, but when we do, we try to go big.
A few weeks ago, we went out for a meal at 1* Club Gascon. We went for their Taster Menu with wine pairings (which is usually our go to as that way we don't have to make any decisions about what we are eating and I don't have to pore over the tome of a wine list and give myself a headache), luckily they were able to cater for me being gluten intolerant (which as I am getting older seems to be less severe which is quite exciting, though dairy is becoming less of a friend...), and we decided on their mixed taster and vegetarian taster (I am trying to eat less meat, and also, it was so nice to be able to try so many different things). They cleverly paired the same wine to both menus - something I would like to do more of at Copper & Ink, but equally, I do like to pair to the food in a more concentrated and meaningful way - and we tried some really lovely wines. I did find, however, that their sommelier, whilst incredibly charming and clearly vastly knowledgable, didn't really give us a lot of information about why he had chosen the wine in question, or much about the wine itself. I promise I will make a point... During the meal, we had a really lovely Riesling and that prompted a conversation between Tony and I about dessert wines vs still wines and what makes a dessert wine a dessert wine. I proceeded to talk to him about straw wines, and noble rot and fortified wines and he said he was fascinated. I was then wondering if perhaps as I learn more about wine, I share it with you here. We can basically create a glossary of wine terms and then I can review wines as and when I try them and put those terms into practice. What do you think? Would this be interesting? We can start with the letter A and work our way through both wine terms and types of grapes? Let me know...
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It's been a long-ass time since I posted here. Life, and work (mainly work), has definitely got in the way and prevented me from spending time blogging about food & drink.
I have been pondering over the last few weeks (where I have had the odd few minutes to let my brain catch up), about what I do with this blog & website. I love having it and I love having a place to talk about food, wine & cocktails, however, I'm not sure that it is getting enough of my attention, or, that it is being used to its fullest. My pondering has also been linked to how I feel about food & wine at the moment. Yes, it's my job and sometimes the passion waxes and wanes (because of doing it all the time and because, naturally, our passion for things does as we are only human), but I feel that since having had COVID in 2020 and utterly losing my sense of taste and smell, my palate has changed irreparably. It has left me concerned that I am no longer capable of tasting and smelling things properly, and therefore, bereft of a purpose in life. Yes, this seems incredibly melodramatic, but when you find something you have a passion and interest in, it can feel like losing a limb if you are suddenly unable to participate in it in the same way. It also feeds into a long-held and deep-set fear that I am really not very good at my job... and as now I am feeling unable to taste things 'properly', that fear is being realised. The question is, do I continue on this path and talk about wine and food in the same way, or do I retreat and let the "professionals" take over? And, if I do continue to talk about wine here, how do I do it? Do I follow the Marissa A. Ross method and just basically write about whatever wine I am drinking at the time, or is that just too much of a copy cat thing? I'm not even sure that I'm even 'qualified' to talk about it anymore. For those of you who do read me (thank you mum, Tony and that other person I don't know), what do you want to see here, or are you kind of over it and think I should just shut the fuck up!? There are far too many questions in this blog post for my liking. I need a glass of wine... |