Slow Days

“I have no doubt that time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains.”

– Henry David Thoreau

Sleep in. The weather has changed. Overcast.

We head to the gym, and by the time we get home, it is 10.00 am.

A late breakfast and then off to the coffee shop.

We grab some ready made sandwiches from the bakery and stop at the wine store on the way home.

It is closed. I call the number on the door. The proprietor is having brunch, can I come back at 1.00 pm?

Of course I can. I might have poor manners, but I would never interfere with a brunch.

“It was one of those fine days when the air sparkles and the wind lifts your hair, and you feel like lunching under a tree, and every drink tastes new.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald

I decide on an Austrian Riesling and an interesting Sangiovese from Tuscany. Details later.

I drop into the Songdomart on the way home for some chicken, penne, and tinned tomatoes.

Pollo con penne e pomodori for dinner. The Riesling to get me through cooking, the Sangiovese to match with the pasta.

I spend a few hours reading before we decide on an afternoon stroll in the park.

Home and shower. I open the Riesling, and the cork is wet to the top.

The wine pours yellow, and I double check the vintage – 2021. It is not looking good. Shell calls it Riesling on first smell, and I can’t help but be impressed. It is drinking like a decade old Alsace. A few minutes later, it falls apart and tastes like vinegar.

I jump on the push bike. There is no problem with an exchange until the proprietor wants to open my replacement bottle to check it is OK. I explain I need to get it home and in the freezer. I would prefer not to open it. He insists.

It pours almost clear in the glass and smells like lemons and oysters.

I take the opened bottle home and put it in the freezer.

It will be an hour or so until it is ready. I am reluctant to open the Toscana. The only other wine we have is the Kirkland Prosecco, which the school gave us as a welcome gift. Desperate times…

I fry off some onion, cherry tomatoes, and garlic. Turn up the heat and brown the chicken. Add a tin of chopped tomatoes and some passata. When the penne is cooked, stir in some ricotta.

Delicious.

We are nicely drunk by the time dinner is ready.

Tonight’s wine –

NV Kirkland Prosecco Rosé (Prosecco, Italy)

It kept us going until the Riesling was cold. Job done.

2021 Weignut Brigit Eichinger Ried Heilingensein Riesling (Wachau Valley, Austria)

I love these single vineyard wines from Wachau. Tight and lean with plenty of lemon fruit and oyster shells. Bitter orange peel, which Shell is not fond of. Dry, yet somehow sweet in the mouth. It is harder to get wines from this area wrong than it is to get them right.

2019 Podere Poggio Scalette Il Carbonaione Sangiovese di Lamole (Chianti, Italy)

Made from 100% Sangiovese di Lamole, high altitude, a tiny region within a tiny region. None of the rusticity and earth, this wine is perfumed, elegant, and feminine. Violets and herbs, sweet cherries, and a beautiful minerality not often associated with red wine.

Shell ended up picking this as a Sangiovese, though I don’t know how. She could not bring herself to call it Chianti, but knew it was not Brunello or Noble di Montepulciano.

One of the best Sangioveses I have had.

“One should always be drunk. That’s all that matters… But with what? With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you choose. But get drunk.”

– Charles Baudelaire