Cape White from South Africa.
7000 RwF Nakumat
[Ooops! Label long trashed, but worth reporting nonetheless]
A light fruity nose. Peachy, I can heartouchsmelltaste the peach.
This peach, he has a friend who is learning English.
Does he know how to say "I Love You"? "Get your kit off baby"? Of course, this is a fuzzy clingstone peach. Ti chiero, peaches.
Distinct smell of summer fruit, and a Rwandan-thunderstorm-perfect fresh and light taste. It is not syrupy, not sugary, it is refreshing. The moist clean smell of the heavy Kigali rains complement the clean rush of summer across my tongue. And because this is Rwanda, there is speck of a very polite pineapple. The wine surprisingly fills the whole mouth, but it doesn't stick around too long, because it knows you want to run naked in the rain and get another taste of summer.
This is white wine number #2 that I will buy again. Hello cheap wine in Kigali, we are diversifying! I think this means business!
Look for an update where I provide that useful winery information.
29 September 2008
26 September 2008
She wanted to know if I thought I was qualified
Hardys Reserve Chardonnay
Australia 7000RwF Nakumat
[Chopping purple cabbage]
I catch a whiff of the metallic, like drinking water from a saucepan, and I think to myself "wait, just wait, it will ease up, have patience cheap wine lady." My advice to myself is well taken, "you were right" I reply, "patience has its virtues."
I taste melon.
But you hate melon.
I know. I never eat melon, except that rosy watery kind, which does not count. But I like this made up Hardys Chardonnay melon. It is the melon you have when you are not really having melon. It is the thinking persons melon. A melon for a melon-hater with an imagination. A hypothetical melon that is worth sucking on.
Stop the nonsense.
OK.
A well integrated, complex, apple tart.
Why not apple pie?
Tart sounds more refined.
When you say "tart" I do not think "refined" I think "raw, zesty, piquant, sarcastic."
Wrong. The apple is not tart and it is not sarcastic. Think baked granny smith with a squeeze of lemon and speck of honey, but no spices. Think camping at Woodend in grade three, listening to scary stories of the headless horseman, eating damper and apples wrapped in foil roasting in the coals, and feeling too scared to play Murder in the Dark.
My thoughts and I pat each other on the back. "Your advice is infrequent, but quite useful," I quip, "we should do this more often."
Not usually that impressed by the whites here, I recommend this one, apples, melon and not oaky but not sweet. 1/2 a cup added a palette cleansing edge to the risotto rustled up for a departing Canuckster.
Australia 7000RwF Nakumat
[Chopping purple cabbage]
I catch a whiff of the metallic, like drinking water from a saucepan, and I think to myself "wait, just wait, it will ease up, have patience cheap wine lady." My advice to myself is well taken, "you were right" I reply, "patience has its virtues."
I taste melon.
But you hate melon.
I know. I never eat melon, except that rosy watery kind, which does not count. But I like this made up Hardys Chardonnay melon. It is the melon you have when you are not really having melon. It is the thinking persons melon. A melon for a melon-hater with an imagination. A hypothetical melon that is worth sucking on.
Stop the nonsense.
OK.
A well integrated, complex, apple tart.
Why not apple pie?
Tart sounds more refined.
When you say "tart" I do not think "refined" I think "raw, zesty, piquant, sarcastic."
Wrong. The apple is not tart and it is not sarcastic. Think baked granny smith with a squeeze of lemon and speck of honey, but no spices. Think camping at Woodend in grade three, listening to scary stories of the headless horseman, eating damper and apples wrapped in foil roasting in the coals, and feeling too scared to play Murder in the Dark.
My thoughts and I pat each other on the back. "Your advice is infrequent, but quite useful," I quip, "we should do this more often."
Not usually that impressed by the whites here, I recommend this one, apples, melon and not oaky but not sweet. 1/2 a cup added a palette cleansing edge to the risotto rustled up for a departing Canuckster.
10 September 2008
indulgence
Sunrise Shiraz (Chile)
5490RwF Nakumat
[Permit me a little verbal self-indulgence? Scene: 5.45pm, balcony, birthday, sun setting behind Kigali hills]
The wine has a beautiful rich deep purple colour, rimmed in the lilac reflection of the dense clouds that fill the sky. Its syrupy legs coquettishly invite a swig. Do I deny myself? Sounds of the valley - a hum of voices, distant rhythmic construction, a horn, then another, a truck goes by. I indulge.
Closer to the Shiraz now I smell herbs, earth, mushrooms and a tiny floral overtone.
Slightly tart to begin with, a little clingy in the middle, then dense and deep and dark and long but then it diminishes, so you take another sip, and you are in over your head all over again. This wine is a love serenade (thanks Mr. White). An adult wine, not adult as in zebra-print negligee, but adult as in not served at the kids table at christmas, or likes stinky cheese. It is not necessarily complex or integrated, but it lives comfortably with a few contradictions.
The sun goes down.
5490RwF Nakumat
[Permit me a little verbal self-indulgence? Scene: 5.45pm, balcony, birthday, sun setting behind Kigali hills]
The wine has a beautiful rich deep purple colour, rimmed in the lilac reflection of the dense clouds that fill the sky. Its syrupy legs coquettishly invite a swig. Do I deny myself? Sounds of the valley - a hum of voices, distant rhythmic construction, a horn, then another, a truck goes by. I indulge.
Closer to the Shiraz now I smell herbs, earth, mushrooms and a tiny floral overtone.
Slightly tart to begin with, a little clingy in the middle, then dense and deep and dark and long but then it diminishes, so you take another sip, and you are in over your head all over again. This wine is a love serenade (thanks Mr. White). An adult wine, not adult as in zebra-print negligee, but adult as in not served at the kids table at christmas, or likes stinky cheese. It is not necessarily complex or integrated, but it lives comfortably with a few contradictions.
The sun goes down.
4 September 2008
Oh god!
O dio! Mon dieu! Did not finish that Castillo de Liria bottle last night. Worry not! I am neither weak, nor off my game. No, I believe this to be the work of divine intervention. This stuff is even better on night two (drunk while on an "important phone call").
So good that this bottle will not survive long enough to serve as evidence for night three or four.
Bacchus! Dionysis! Liber! (whatever your name) Promoter of civilization, lawgiver, and lover of peace! Thanks for shining your (cheap) love on me, soul brother.
So good that this bottle will not survive long enough to serve as evidence for night three or four.
Bacchus! Dionysis! Liber! (whatever your name) Promoter of civilization, lawgiver, and lover of peace! Thanks for shining your (cheap) love on me, soul brother.
3 September 2008
Both parties
Castillo De Liria
Bobal and Shiraz
5000RwF Nakumat
[Watching McCain shake the hand of Palin's pregnant daughter's boyfriend. Who bloody-well cares?]
Carmen Miranda, meet Pinocchio. The nose is a little woody but notice the fruity head ensemble please. First mouthful is a tad thin, but the second, oh the second! It fills out to flirtily squeeze the middle then the back of the throat, a long yet light squeeze smothered in honey. Not uncle sam honey either, a smoky chestnut honey with a hint of rose and berry. I could do without the berry, the tartness grates at the smoothness making it a little szit szit szit, but the honey (honey!) lapping over the back of the throat is worth it. Down the hatch!
A euro-style wine. Not bold and meaty like most new-world stuff; good if you are comfortable dancing at both parties.
Bobal and Shiraz
5000RwF Nakumat
[Watching McCain shake the hand of Palin's pregnant daughter's boyfriend. Who bloody-well cares?]
Carmen Miranda, meet Pinocchio. The nose is a little woody but notice the fruity head ensemble please. First mouthful is a tad thin, but the second, oh the second! It fills out to flirtily squeeze the middle then the back of the throat, a long yet light squeeze smothered in honey. Not uncle sam honey either, a smoky chestnut honey with a hint of rose and berry. I could do without the berry, the tartness grates at the smoothness making it a little szit szit szit, but the honey (honey!) lapping over the back of the throat is worth it. Down the hatch!
A euro-style wine. Not bold and meaty like most new-world stuff; good if you are comfortable dancing at both parties.
1 September 2008
Necessary interpretation
Austral Cabernet Merlot
Chile 2005
8000RwF from the store next to Indoli's
[The Happy Hour(s) that did not end, I cannot account for unreadable notes and possible misunderstandings]
Citrus nose.
I have a very weak palette.
Oh shut up.
I wish I was one of those people who had a really strong palette, like, I wish I could say "it's (unreadable) (unreadable), this barrel."
A little bitter?
Tea! without milk and sugar.
There is something pregnant about it. I like the word pungent, that is not a negative statement.
Like the time when I was four and my mum picked me up from summer camp. I was changing into my bathing suit. We were going to have a water fight. And I said "Nooo! Mummmmmy!" because she left, and I ran though the school naked.
Like cozying up in a hacienda in Manchester.
I am thinking of a cauliflower. I am thinking of cauliflower when I drink this wine. I am thinking of the cauliflower story. The cauliflower-sized (unreadable) on that man's bum in the hospital. I cannot drink this wine.
Don't ask questions you don't want to know the answers to.
Pinotage shoul be choc flavord, good pinotage should reek choc. See, I don really drink pinotage at home, but it should be choc.
Stooges. You reckon it's big? I'll show you big! That's not big enough. Capatutial buildings. Quitenicebutandits a big but.
Chile 2005
8000RwF from the store next to Indoli's
[The Happy Hour(s) that did not end, I cannot account for unreadable notes and possible misunderstandings]
Citrus nose.
I have a very weak palette.
Oh shut up.
I wish I was one of those people who had a really strong palette, like, I wish I could say "it's (unreadable) (unreadable), this barrel."
A little bitter?
Tea! without milk and sugar.
There is something pregnant about it. I like the word pungent, that is not a negative statement.
Like the time when I was four and my mum picked me up from summer camp. I was changing into my bathing suit. We were going to have a water fight. And I said "Nooo! Mummmmmy!" because she left, and I ran though the school naked.
Like cozying up in a hacienda in Manchester.
I am thinking of a cauliflower. I am thinking of cauliflower when I drink this wine. I am thinking of the cauliflower story. The cauliflower-sized (unreadable) on that man's bum in the hospital. I cannot drink this wine.
Don't ask questions you don't want to know the answers to.
Pinotage shoul be choc flavord, good pinotage should reek choc. See, I don really drink pinotage at home, but it should be choc.
Stooges. You reckon it's big? I'll show you big! That's not big enough. Capatutial buildings. Quitenicebutandits a big but.
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