Château Briot red 2019

A friend of ours gave me this wine. It is prize winning Bordeaux red from the Entre-Deux-Mers region. It represents exceptional value for money . Unfortunately, my sense of taste has not comeback fully, and perhaps it never will. On a recent trip to France I noticed that I could taste Champagne and other white wines much better, and was just about able to assure myself that the sparkling wine was not Prosecco , not that my family in France, who are all from the Champagne area, would dish up anything else. That was as far as my taste buds would allow.

My wife tasted the Château Briot and agreed that it was a typical example of Bordeaux red and  a superior one. Perhaps she should start writing this blog, in her own name, to save me from continuing embarrassment. 

https://www.vinatis.co.uk/65547-chateau-briot-2019?r=bing_uk&ids=shopping&msclkid=6a7e530581481d15de6635f6695577da

St Nicholas Abbey Barbados 20 year old rum and my sense of taste

 We have a friend who regularly goes to Barbados for a holiday. The other day we joined him and his wife at their place for a meal. At the end of a delicious meal our friend got out a bottle of St Nicholas Abbey rum which had spent 20 years in the cask. As I am now a diabetic, I have to limit my alcohol consumption especially after two small glasses of wine with a meal. I asked him to pour a minuscule of this most expensive liquor so that I could smell and taste a little. This rum is very expensive in London, and a bottle of this superior 20 year old will set you back over £500. It is cheaper in Barbados but still remains expensive.

Imagine my surprise when I sipped this rum; it did not taste foul and tasted very good, my sense of taste was coming back. My sense of smell had also improved enormously and I was able to smell cinnamon, apples, oranges and spices just as the producer described. I was delighted.

https://stnicholasabbey.com/Rum/Our-Rums/

https://lochsofwhisky.com//st-nicholas-abbey-20-year-old-barbados-single-cask-rum-1659?msclkid=e92a758531911dfd572a1350abce1d26

This was the best rum I have ever tasted , not that I have sampled many. My friend also produced the remnants of other bottles that he had brought back.. The twenty year old tasted and smelt by far the best. We both agreed that the 23 year which is much more expensive, was inferior to the 20 year old. A 15 year old bottle came close and so did a 12 year old. It just goes to show how important branding is when deciding the price of a spirit or a wine. The age of the drink does not always mean that an older "vintage" will taste better. Spirits do not improve in the bottle with age unlike wine. If you age a wine for too long it can ruin the taste no matter what the brand is or how expensive it is.  This was a marvellous tasting session even though I had to sip minuscule amounts of the rums.

I was relieved that my sense of taste is returning, and  now I can just about appreciate white wine.

Last night my wife and I shared half a bottle of Château Lanessan 2015 red. I could recognise that it was a Bordeaux but I could not go much further than that in assessing the quality or provenance of the wine. I still have a long way to go and I fear that my sense of taste will never return to normal. Hopefully, my fears are unfounded, as the full taste of wine is such a pleasure for me.

Sense of taste agin

 I am just about able, now, to appreciate red wine now that I have stopped taking antibiotics for a month.  However , I won't be winning any wine tasting prizes. White wine still tastes awful to me. Also to complicate matters I contracted diabetes at around the same time as my chest complaint. I don't know whether the two complaints have exacerbated one another: some doctors think yes and others think no,  The diabetes means that I have to limit what I drink to one glass of wine with food, which is no big deal for me, as I rarely used to drink more than a 250ml glass of wine per sitting especially in my latter years. However, the days of drinking half a bottle on rare occasions are gone.

 Whenever, I went to a wine-tasting I always used to spit out the wine after sampling it. Hopefully, my sense of taste will come back fully and I shall be able to taste and recognise all good wines and do plenty more spitting.

It is surprising how bad it is to lose your sense of taste: I almost lost it completely when I contracted Covid19, but it came back very quickly. In some respects a heavily modified sense of taste is worse, as some foods and wine taste foul especially foods like smoked fish and some fruits. The fruitiness of wine is covered up by a horrible bitter taste. I hope that I never have to take antibiotics again, but they did save my life if not my sense of taste. The quality of your life is considerably reduced when you become "taste blind", and I don't wish this on anyone.

Sense of taste coming back but slowly

 My sense of taste is coming back after I stopped taking Antibiotics for my chest complaint. I can just about perceive red wine as being pleasant. The other day, in a café, I drank a glass of Italian Sangiovese, but I could not appreciate the full taste of the wine. I could not identify where the wine came from. I could smell the wine as being pleasant but my taste buds made the wine taste a little bit bitter. White wine tastes foul for me now including my favorite tipple: Champagne. 

The other day some friends came around for lunch; my friend, Rob, likes a glass of whisky; so I poured him a shot of the Bowmore. I joined him  by filling my glass with one millilitre of this golden treasure. I could taste the whisky properly even though it was diluted with water; so I thought there were some hopes. Later we opened a bottle of Pouilly-Fumé: it taste so foul that I could not bear to drink it ,even a small glass.

I have been assured by others , who have been in the same position, that my sense of taste will eventually return. I am now a type 2 diabetic, but I can still drink red and white wines as they have little or no carbohydrate content.  I have to be careful, however, not to consume too much alcohol, but this does not bother me, and it never did even though I over-indulged occasionally. I can no longer over-indulge, but I have the will power to control myself. I wouldn't care at all if I never drank sprits again. I would not be too disappointed if I could not drink beer ever again, although I would miss a pint of the best draught ale. I would ,however, be bitterly disappointed if my sense of taste never came back sufficiently, so that I can enjoy a glass of good wine and identify, some of the time, where it comes from, either France, Spain or elsewhere. I am keeping my fingers crossed for an eventual recovery. 

I've lost my sense of taste, this is a desperate situation for me

 Recently I have contracted two illnesses, one of which landed me in hospital. I was hospitalised because of an abscess on my lung which lead to a pleural effusion which after weeks of antibiotics has not fully cleared. I also contracted type 2  diabetes. Both conditions are affecting one another. The antibiotics have played havoc with my sense of taste; strawberries taste both bitter and sweet, anything with a bit of salt such as smoked salmon tastes exceptionally salty, the taste of wine is ruined. Because of the diabetes I have decided not to drink much alcohol until I can manage my blood glucose easily. It's a good job I am not an alcoholic so there was no cold turkey.  I don't know what to do, as writing a wine blog is more or less useless until I get my sense of taste back, but I might just stick to writing about major issues.

We are having guests a the weekend for the first time in weeks. I shall share quater glass of champagne with them and a very small glass of red in the vain hope that  that the red will taste half decent.

I shall report back, but I do not hold out much hope until I am well finished with antibiotics.

Domaine Michel Caillot Pommard Premier Cru 2011

 We got this wine from France and it cost 60 Eur a bottle, but don't think that I am rolling in money. The Domaine is based in Mersault. We drank it with some special friends. It was immediately identifiable as a top red Burgundy and it had all of the characteristics of the region. We drank it with poultry. This wine is superb with food but it is light enough to drink on its own, but not at a barbeque please. The 2011 is at the height of its maturity and it won't be long before I open the second, and our last bottle, with some special friends. You could tell that it is superior wine, but does it deserve such a high price? Well to me it does even when I have paid less for a wine that tastes almost as good. The wine world needs such good producers and they deserve my support. 

The price of standard Burgundy has gone up so much, even in France , that I am now reluctant to buy it, but I can still, just about, find a bargain. In a restaurant you would be expect to pay around 150 Eur, so it is best to buy the wine at a wine merchant and enjoy it with good food and friends at home.

Like everything else, as the prices rise higher and higher the margins of better quality become smaller and smaller. This is why I limit myself to paying no more than 15 or 16 pounds for a wine in the UK. I should expect a really good wine for that, but 5 years ago my limit for a really good wine was 10 or 11pounds.

Wine is becoming so expensive that many people will be put off from drinking it , this could be a disaster for the wine industry in general. I hope that I never see the day when I can't enjoy a really good wine such as Michel Caillot's Pommard, even if it just once a quarter.

 

Christian Pattat Appassimento 2021 and another wine strong in alcohol

Some friends brought this wine around when they came to dinner but we didn't drink it at the time.

We saved it for a couple of weeks and drank it by ourselves with some beef stew on one evening and with some venison stew the following evening. The wine is similar in style to Valpolicella Ripasso and Amarone from Italy. The wine is from Puglia in southern Italy and is produced from a blend of several Italian red wine grapes and I get the feeling that the wine is not produced from a single vineyard.  Appassimento  wines are produced form withered grapes which augment the sugar content. 

This wine is full bodied and tastes of concentrated red fruits. The wine is not dry but it does not taste sickly sweet whatsoever.  It is strong in alcohol at 14.5%. The tannin is well integrated for a 2021 vintage which has matured in oak. It will easily keep for another 3 years. It is a very good quality wine at a reasonable price. Like all good wines it goes well with food and our beef and venison stews went perfectly with it. This is not really a wine for drinking on its own because of the alcohol content and its powerful taste. The wine clears the palate. I recommend this wine it  and compares well with Amarone but it does not achieve the same quality. However, on a cost to quality basis it is more than competitive. Enjoy it. 

https://www.nakedwines.com/products/christian-patat-appassimento-2021

Recently, we went to France to a party in the Ardèche, here we sampled another wine which was strong in alcohol at 15%: Château Mossé 2019 rouge Côtes du Roussillon. I only took one sip of this wine to taste it as I was driving. But everyone else who was drinking the wine agreed that it was of very good quality and had a taste typical of the region. This wine went well with a mixed meat couscous. Another excellent wine for drinking with food rather than on its own .It is well recommended.

Château Mossé Côtes du Roussillon Rouge 2019