I really wanted to like this wine…Padrillos, pinot noir from Mendoza

The pinot noir was not a hit. What a shame. My Argentine friends asked me what ever possessed me to buy a pinot noir from Mendoza when I could have bought a perfectly good malbec or syrah from Mendoza. I guess curiosity got the better of me. I´ve had pinots from Patagonia but never from Mendoza so when I spotted it on the shelf I...

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What does boysenberry smell like? Malbec with lunch

Last week I was touring the vineyards of Burgenland in Austria as part of the EWBC and at one point we were tasting the wines of Eisenburg, eastern Austria.  One of the producers described his wine as having boysenberry fruit characteristics. At which point, one of the fellows in my group wondered aloud, “What does a boysenberry...

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Lunching at Malmaison

It is now midnight as I write this and I am still full. There used to be this commercial that ran on American TV for Alka-Seltzer, the tagline was, “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing”. Despite the fact we didn’t “eat the whole thing”  as a matter of fact, we both took doggy bags home, we did...

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Malaysian cuisine, Argentine rose

I once had to spend 2 weeks in the (then) charming sleepy little beachside town of Georgetown in the Penang Peninsula of Malaysia waiting for my Thai visa. I had inadvertently flown into Thailand without a visa and they would only let me stay a few days without one so off I trekked with my traveling companion to the nearest Thai...

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Argentine/Kiwi cuisine at the same time? Lola&Simon, a restaurant in Hammersmith

I lived in Buenos Aires for 3 years back in the day so I know a bit about Argentine cuisine, even if I was a vegetarian for 2 of those 3  years. Yes, I know, how could I, was I mad, etc… One thing I can say is that I’m a pretty good judge of Argentine cuisine. I can also tell you that when I visited Gaucho at the O2, I...

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What a year it’s been! So long 2009, Hello 2010…

I’m not really one to look back, I’m either daydreaming about the future or looking forward to tonight’s wine – more or less the same thing. But I saw one of Niamh’s tweets about her year-end round-up and it got me to reminiscing about my vinous adventures this past  year. The great thing about a blog...

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