An Occasional Tipple: Holiday time with Spanish chicken and fine wine
I often think that holidays should be banned. They do us more harm than good. Just as we’re beginning to become used to our lives of leisure, they grind to an abrupt halt.
Big stupid, gormless grins are replaced by wan haggard grimaces. All we feel inside is an overwhelming sense of existential dread. Yes, tipplers, I’m writing to you on the final day of some annual leave, heartsore and miserable. Tomorrow, I’ll be back at my desk, counting the days till my next holiday. So, the cycle repeats.
Big child that I am, I took some leave so as to celebrate a very insignificant birthday and in between day trips to Ballyholme, Ballymoney and Hillsborough, I found time to do a little research for this column, imbibing several fine wines, mostly in the sun which today, in perfect pathetic fallacy, has retreated back into its shell.
When I wasn’t sampling exquisite wines and listening to heavenly music in the sublime company of my darling wife, the enigmatic Madame G., I was indoors yelling at the TV, urging my horses to run faster at Royal Ascot. Mostly, they didn’t. No matter, it was fun and beats working even if it doesn’t always pay so handsomely.
Speaking of which, first among near equals but just about gaining the nod by the shortest of short heads to be sure to be sure as today’s WINE OF THE WEEK is the robust, powerfully flavoured yet very approachable 2022 Scott Peterson Rox of the Andes Malbec (£14.99, Naked Wines). An extravagant bouquet with lots of red fruit and delicate spicing leads to an opulent palate with cherry and blueberry flavours alongside gentle tannins before a lingering finish with hints of oak and vanilla. This decadently smooth Argentinian red proved an ideal match to crispy roast duck legs in a port and cranberry jus with roast potatoes and green beans.
Today’s second selection is the complex, richly textured 2021 Bordeaux Superieur (£6.49, Lidl). This intriguing, medium-bodied red has a fruity palate full of blackberry and plum flavours which combine with subtle strands of tobacco and tar before a magnificently lengthy, deeply satisfying finish with hints of coffee and black pepper. One which we shared with our nephew and temporary lodger, Oswald, who cooked us a very nice dish called Spanish Chicken to say thanks. You’re welcome, Oz.
Lovers of cheap white wine in the sunshine, I have not forgotten you because I am you. My final recommendation is the fresh, fragrant and gloriously refreshing 2024 Dino Pinot Grigio Trebbiano (£6, Tesco). This unoaked Italian white is brimful of juicy peach and sharper lime flavours alongside grassy and herbaceous aromatics. We enjoyed ours with linguini in a sensational prawn, tomato, rocket and chilli sauce on Monday past.
If I was to choose a superpower other than writing the most mellifluous prose, it would be to have the properties of an old-fashioned cassette player. I’d be pressing pause right now. And when tomorrow comes, as it must, the big dilemma would be whether to press fast forward or rewind? Sipping my Rox of the Andes again, I’d choose REWINED- boom boom! Till next week, tipplers, sante!!!