The Spoken Grape

Finally Found it, An Ale To Remember

A year ago I cycled from London to Beaune to work for Madame Anne-Claude Leflaive at her Domaine in Puligny-Montrachet. On the way down I stopped at a lovely little village called Perrigny, about thirty miles south of Chablis and five miles north of Noyers. I rolled in to a lovely quaint auberge run by a french couple. After washing the road and saddle from my bones Ip steeped outside into the setting sun and walked down to the small river that ran through the village, watching as small trout skittered amongst the gravels.

On recommendation I was told the only place to find anything to eat was at the local pizza shop/off-licence. Imagining the grimy pizza outlets in the UK that sell discount booze with day-glow cardboard stars in the window offering special brew for a quid I wasn't expecting much. Needless to say I was entirely wrong, this was beer heaven, situated in the middle of nowhere. Exotic brews from around the world were eyeing me up from high above from shelves that ached under the strain of dark brown bottles.

Under the recommendation of the owner I worked my way through three or four beers that ranged from the deep and dark double-doubles to the elation of flemish barrel matured sour ale. And this is where my head really spun,figuratively not literally, it was a beer of whose flavour I have never encountered, utterly different, utterly delicious and utterly unique. I staggered home determined to remember the name of the beautiful goddess of the ale that had sensuated my taste buds. Well, as you've probably guessed I woke up with a sore head, no recollection of the names or faces of the beers and a definite lack of determination to get back on the saddle to put 90 odd miles under my belt.

so, to cut this rambling story short, I have been since searching for that ale, that in the words of Eric Cartman "blew my fragile little mind". Yesterday I found it. On the shelves of Wholefoods, Napa. The beer is, wait for it.....Duchesse De Bourgogne a flemish top-fermented reddish brown ale, made up from a blend of 8 to 18 months old cask matured ales. Check out the link Duchesse De Bourgogne . If you can find this beer, try it, it will be one you either love or hate, either way it will be an eye opening experience. This is definitely an ale to linger over rather than slam back, once you taste it you'll understand what I mean.

What To Do With a Lot Of Tomatos and Vodka

It's one of those rare occasions where on a free day I find myself able to just relax, safe in the knowledge that there isn't any desperate chores that need doing. So, what better way to while away the time than to make an extremely time consuming dish like a consomme ( look up Jamie Oliver's recipe for this). Another good reason is that there was an absolute glutton of a crop of tomatos hanging on the vine.

The recipe consisted of blending lots of tomatoes with basil (also from the garden), chilies and vodka. You then enrap the blended ingredients and allow them to strain through three layers of muslin cloth. This is where you utilise the laziest of all natural forces, gravity, to do all the work, extracting a crystal clear essence of tomato from the pink opaque liquid you started with.

Cool this in the fridge, sprinkle with a little just budding basil leaves and a little olive oil and serve with ice cold vodka, we chose grey goose, the smooth weighty body, with a bit of citrus but without the blasting heat and chemical ethanol taste of cheaper vodkas matched perfectly. Sublime for sleepless hot evenings.  

Domaine Leflaive Bourgogne 2007

As the weather settles itself into Autumn the temperatures cool and the clouds gather across the valley. Napa starts to show it's true beauty as the vines hang low with grapes, assimilating sugars, loseing acidity and developing flavour.

A bottle of the latest vintage of Domaine Leflaive was opened at work today. The entry level Bourgogne, picked from vineyards close to the village of Puligny, but on slightly less prestigious soils. As recommended by the domaine, you really need to leave this wine for about three years before you open it, the reductive qualities mean it is built to last slowly openening up over time, exposing layers of flavour. Opened at lunch and I was not blown away, $45 seemed overly expensive for a wine that was closed and tight. Over the afternoon, as we topped barrels in the cellar, the wine opened up. At the end of the day, there was a broader palate, more minerality, more pear and stonefruit and generally more of the wine. It tasted richer and fuller in terms of texture and longevity on the palate. BUT, is this any better than the Domaine Leflaive 2006 Macon-Verze, where an extremely approachable vintage has given a wine that delivers so much, good citrus, stone-fruit and pear fruit followed by mineraltiy and succulent weight, and ten bucks cheaper at $35. I'd go for the Macon