Forbidden excitement

A box of wine (bottles!) arrived yesterday morning, it's a case of 12 bottles of white wine from France (via a London merchant) and one of my favourite producers in the Maconnais called "Verget". This particular wine, one of many different types and regions that Verget work in, is called "Saint Veran Lieu (Inter)dit", in French the word "Interdit" means forbidden and this wine has that label because it comes from a place (or "Lieu" in French) called Cote Rotie (or "Roasted Slope" in English) in Saint Veran. 

Now Cote Rotie is also the name of a very famous area in the Northern Rhone (not Burgundy) famous for making brooding reds from the Syrah grape rather than floral and mineral whites from Chardonnay, and the producers in Saint Veran aren't allowed to use that name in case there's a mix up between the two regions, hence "forbidden". Anyway, it's a nice little story and the wine is probably one of the best examples from this appellation, mid-priced (around £20 a bottle) but boy is it good, it also disappears from the merchants pretty quickly whenever a batch is released, can't wait to try it! (I will report back)

Bearwood

We found ourselves driving around our locale on Saturday afternoon (after visiting a garden centre) and decided to pop into a brand new craft brewery/taproom on the outskirts of our home town. Called "Bearwood Brewing" it's named after an area to the West of the town called "Bear Wood" where there used to be a big old public school belonging to the Royal Merchant Navy that had lush grounds and even a large lake, but which closed down in 2014, there's a golf course on the site now. 

Anyway, the brewery and taproom is situated (as most of them are) in a light industrial estate on the outskirts of town, surrounded by tattoo establishments, pole dancing schools and car repair shops it felt a little out of place to be having a drink there but hey ho, in for a penny etc.. The venue itself was clean and nicely decked out and the range of taps on offer numerous, most of the beers available were their own but they also had a couple of guest beers and some zero alcohol options. I opted for a hazy pale ale (Accomplices) made with Citra and Nelson, it was well made, balanced and flavoursome but a little light on the body, I think it weighed in at around 5% but perhaps needed a little more umph! Not a bad effort though, I'm sure it takes a while for a brewery to bed-in and for the core range to emerge!

Unfortunately we only had time for a quick half, it would have been nice to stay a bit longer and try one of their tasting flights, another time..

Sunday Sermon

 

Luckily, these days, no one in their right mind would base their entire moral and ethical foundation on a primitive bronze age story book... oh, wait..

V. Citra

Had one of these last night, it's a NEIPA beer from Verdant made with 100% Citra hops called "All of this may be untrue". It's an absolute haze bomb, delightful tropical fruit flavours, dank and a solid bitter (ish) finish, a really nice beer and at 4.9% ABV not too head harming! Unfortunately I only had the one can, sourced from the "fridge of wonders" at Elusive, however I'm aiming to visit Verdant's Penryn taproom at some point this year so who knows, maybe I'll be able to try it on keg fresh from source (that would be awesome!) ...

Friday Smirk

The boys talking about the absurdity of the concept of "facing Mecca" on a planet that's a sphere! I wonder how many human beings in history have stressed about this, I bet it's quite a few, we're such silly sausages sometimes..

Vote

Voted today in our council elections, but TBH it was more a vote against who I didn't want rather than who I did...

Midweek Mirth

I've attended a few interviews like this over the years..

Thirst Quencher

Had a new beer from Elusive over the weekend, it's a pale ale made with NZ hops (Motueka) with added lime juice called "Zesty" (it's well named!). The overall effect is a bit like a lager and lime, pale and crisp with a very prominent citrus backbone. This one would be perfect for warmer weather and BBQs, really easy to drink and only 4.5% ABV a real thirst quencher!