Bank Holiday wines

We had a very mellow weekend, some friends up from Clare and a total of 10 people in the house, 6 of them little ones. Children, I mean. I was working till 8 on Saturday, and it was relatively quiet (normal for us on a bank holiday, but still annoying) so I was bursting for a drink when I got home. Luckily, I had the foresight to put a bottle of Bollinger in the fridge before I had left that morning. It was as good as ever, still one of my favourite champagne grand marques. The bottle of St. Michael Eppan Riesling Montiggl 2008 that I had also put in the fridge was then opened to go with Pam's Thai Curry. Both, were excellent, the Riesling was crisp, fresh, bone dry and deliciously pure. I had the Degani Valpolicella 2008 on tasting in the shop on Saturday and fancied a glass, so that was next. Typical fresh cherry fruit from Aldo in this vintage, but a lovely smokiness in the background that adds depth and complexity. Very nice wine. We then moved up a few gears and opened a bottle of Zenato Amarone Riserva 1995 that I had for a long time and was slightly worried about as I don't think Amarone ages that well. The nose on this wine was gorgeous, black and deep and intense. The palate was nice, but didn't live up to the promise of the nose. Glad we drank it, it's on the wane...

Slightly tired the next day, we needed something peppy to get us started which we did in the shape of St. Michael Eppan Pinot Grigio 2008. This is proper wine, unlike many which share its grape variety, intense fruit concentration with proper acidty and nice texture and length. With dinner, a massive slab of roast beef, we had a bottle of Condado da Haza 2006, a little grippy on opening so I decanted it and it was glorious with the beef. I felt like trying something a little older so we had a bottle of John's Blend Shiraz 1999. I didn't particularly like this wine, although I have enjoyed it previously. Maybe too old, the fruit was falling apart and it just felt a bit disjointed. To finish us off, we had a glass of Niepoort Colheita 1998, which was very pleasant, as you might imagine.

Then yesterday was the Dublin City Marathon which was completely ignored by all of us.

Body needs a break now for a couple of days, bit of exercise maybe.