Weekly Wine Wrap-Up
Brasserie de Blaugies, "Darbyste," Belgium - Fig juice adds its rich flavor to this tart saison beer, though dark caramel notes emerge as you enjoy the creamy mouthfeel and slight bitterness. Serve this alongside quail stuffed with figs. $10 (750ml)
2004 Herri Mina Irouléguy Blanc, France - This weighty Basque wine, made from the Gros Manseng grape, has nose-prickling petrol and pine scents and a mouthwatering acidity. (ordered from A Côté's wine list, along with an unrecorded Movia Tocai and a Royal Tokaji Wine Company dry Furmint, to accompany a variety of small plates).
Cantillon Fou' Foune, Belgium - Cantillon beer is in a class of its own, and this apricot lambic is a rare find in the Bay Area. Like the rest of the Cantillon line, this is a sour beer, though it has a more bitter finish than other Belgians. Surprisingly little apricot flavor cuts through the lemon pith taste, but the fruit rounds out the beer and adds complexity. Drink this beer with a pork shoulder roast. $10-$15 (from City Beer).
2006 Gauthier Jour de Soif, Bourgueil, France - This Cabernet Franc from the Loire Valley, made with organic grapes, gushes plush scents along every axis of the aroma wheel: upscale floral soap, hints of smoke and baking spices, and potpourri. Rich red fruit flavors dominate the palate alongside strong tannins and a soft acidity. Serve with a good roast chicken. $15 or so at Vintage Berkeley (I've misplaced the receipt).
- Franconian Beers, San Francisco Chronicle
When I interviewed beer importer Dan Shelton for my Cantillon article, he threw out a tangent about the interesting world of Franconian beers. Franconia, a small region of Bavaria, contains one-fourth of Germany’s breweries, many of which are local...
- Weekly Wine Wrap-up
Photo by Melissa Schneider Call this a two-week weekly wine wrap-up: I never got up last week’s. Samples are marked with an *. * 2004 McWilliams Hanwood Estate Merlot, Southeastern Australia - ~$9 One-dimensional jammy fruit and a raisiny character...
- Weekly Wine Wrap-up
A smattering of wine and beer notes from the last week or so. * denotes a sample. Remember there’s still time to sign up for my 8-week UC Berkeley Extension Wine Studies class: Fundamentals I. * 2005 Riboli Family Vineyard “San Simeon”...
- Weekly Wine Wrap-up
In the interest of getting more tasting notes onto the site, I plan to do weekly roundups of the wine/beer I drank in the previous few days. None of these are samples, but in the future I'll mark those with a *. 2005 Bodegas Val de Sil Godello, Valdeoras,...
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Eating Our Way Through Belgium (part 3) Cantillon beer is an acquired taste. And I'm not sure I've acquired it yet. A beer-loving friend (who I last saw with a bottle of it in front of him) says it is "like chewing on a lemon." This is not...