Monday, April 30, 2007
Hysterical Hypochondriacalisms
Not a great start to the day. The NHS Direct self-diagnostic website results prove my worst fears - that the bout of fever I had two days ago can be nothing less than - wait for it - life-threatening blood poisoning! Bodil looks on incredulous as I explain my latest medical findings. Wisely she decides to leave me to my own hysteria to do some gardening. Undeterred I make the dash across town to the emergency ward, where I am seen by a nurse and treated with what can only be described as disdain. It is not, would you believe, blood poisoning. I am in fact nothing short of 100% fit. My fever was merely a normal reaction to coming off the penicillin I've been taking for my infected wisdom tooth. I return home feeling both ridiculous and relieved at the same time. Bodil gives me a "there there" pat on the head, and puts me to work planting grass in the garden. In the afternoon Alice has a friend over to play. Normality is finally restored in the evening, when we play the Mr Men version of Snakes and Ladders, and I lose.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Turning Japanese
Today we paid a small fortune to do little more than fall asleep in style. But I have to say it was worth it. A day out at yasuragi while the kids are away with friends. Bodil and I get about a week's worth of rest in a single day. Fabulous. And I learn how to bath Japanese style whilst sitting down too. Hot tubs outside in the April sunshine, and a fifty minute massage put me to sleep for most of the day. Bit freaky though being in a place where everyone has the same togs - felt a bit like a mix between a wealthy retirement home and a mystic cult. Maybe if we'd stayed a bit longer we would have been invited to a mass wedding. Who knows?
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
The Yogurt Incident
Alice has a breakdown in the shop over yogurt. I'm forced to temporarily abandon my after work shopping expedition to carry a screaming child outside, past what feels like hundreds of disapproving eyes. Back at the car Alice is inconsolable, and very angry. It takes more than half an hour before we're friends again. The lack of newly foraged food causes us to raid what is a very bare freezer. It's only my second day and Alice is clearly winning 2-0. I consider it a small victory however that I didn't give in and buy the yogurt which I know she never eats, even at the price of having to eat an old frozen sausage with macaroni. But its exhausting. I've just spent two hours tiding the house and picking up a smashed plate covered in ketchup which splashed up the walls (thanks Alice). Tired? Right now I could lay some zeds for Britain.
Monday, April 09, 2007
Flat Pack Houses
Monday. It's a Bank Holiday so a nice, easy start to the day. Drop Bodil off at Arlanda Express for her trip to Vietnam. Meet up with P and family for a look around HusExpo, where I promptly loose Alice in the maze of houses (at this point Bodil has been away for all of 2 hours!). Not a great start to my "flying solo" week with the kids. Manage to find a flat-pack house I like though called x-house. The blurb says that, "if you can build Lego, you can build this". I'm expecting to sit back and watch Sammy do the work. Hopefully though we'll get something like this to replace the country house, which is feeling increasingly small as the kids get bigger. Watch Prime Suspect on TV and read up on Russia and Belarus for my trip next week.
Sunday, April 08, 2007
Easter Witch
A relaxing Easter break for the Family Taylor down at the country house. Alice dressed up as a "påskkärring" (Easter Witch) and went around the neighbours houses with Sammy leaving picture cards and collecting candy. Manage a few 5K runs in the woods to burn off a little fat. Fit a new hand pump in the pub that was recently donated by the Embassy bar (pity there's no beer barrel as yet on the other end though). I'm thinking about doing a huge brew for the summer to keep us all in real ale during the dry months July and August. We'll see. Anyone got a spare beer barrel?
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Super Tuscans
28 March 2007
Ordinarily Systembolaget isn't up to much, but it can at least organise a decent wine tasting. Last Wednesday was my first visit to one of their regular shindigs, and I have to say I was impressed. The theme was none other than Super Tuscans - which i thought would be perfect preparation for the family Taylor trip to Italy in June. I wasn't disappointed.
Our host was a fairly young and extremely competent dude, who introduced his subject with an ease that spoke volumes about his experience of tasting Italian wines. We were to taste two flights of wine, all blind, and all classified as Super Tuscans. We began with three wines from the same producer. Always one to put my foot in it, I began by proclaiming that the third of these had a more pronounced Sangiovese nose than the previous two - only to find to my shame that it had in fact the least amount of this grape varietal of the entire flight. Oh hum! I guess Stephen Spurrier's place at Decanter isn't under threat just yet... But this revelation threw me into a conundrum. I'd said this about Sangiovese because the third wine had the most "Italian nose" of the three (this at least all of us were in agreement with), but if it wasn't the Sangiovese that was doing that, what was it? It can't have been the grapes (which were more Bordeaux in style than Italian), so what was it then? Frustratingly, the answer is still out there somewhere, but I for one have no idea where it is...
The second flight upped the ante a little, and turned out to be a tour de force of some of the best Italian wines around. Despite this, I came away a little confused by some of these. The best weren't in the class of some of the better Bordeaux wines I have tasted at home - despite being in some cases about five times the price! So in that sense I was a little put off. Then again I did come away with more of a feel about what new Italian wine is all about. Not all of it was to my taste (or wallet!), but it was definitely an enjoyable experience. Check out the wines below. Oh, and if you get the chance, book yourself on one of Systembolaget's upcoming events before it's too late. Cheers!
First Flight (all from Mazzei)
Bronzone 2004. 100% Sangiovese. Dark cherry red; roasted, fruity vanilla nose; warm in the mouth with a good level of acidity, toasted oak and vanilla, fruity with good length; pretty good! 7.5
Serrata 2004. 65% Sangiovese, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Merlot; Dark cherry red; a more roasted nose than the Bronzone; taste smoother and more rounded, less vanilla, more berries; good to very good! 8.0
Belgvardo 2003. 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Sangiovese, 10% Merlot; same dark cherry red; a very "Italian" nose (but clearly not related to the Sangiovese element!); rough tannins (needs more time?), shorter on length and less balanced with lower acidity; good; 7.0 (but most expensive of the three!)
Second Flight
Gaja Ca' Marcanda Magari 2003. 50% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Cabernet Franc. Medium dark red; very big, perfumy nose, flowery rather than elegant; nice and rounded taste, fruity, light and balanced acidity; easy, good drinking! 8.5 (Others in the group called this "too nice" and "characterless" - they were wrong, but worth the asking price? No way!)
Le Stanze del Poliziano 2003. 10% Sangiovese, 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot; Dark cherry red; slightly sharp and greenish nose (still too young?); still fairly tough tannins, long legs, Pretty good but needs time? 8.0 http://www.carlettipoliziano.com/
Antinori Solaia 2000. 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Sangiovese, 5% Cabernet Franc. Dark cherry red; pungent and fairly flat nose; nice and rounded taste, smooth, noticeably "old" taste, woody; very good. 8.5 http://www.antinori.it/ Wine of the night, but only just.
Le Macchiole Messorio. 100% Merlot. Brickish red with lots of debris (high sediment, almost soup!); burned, spicy, peppery nose, complex and rich, but too "brown"; not as exciting a taste as it should be, fairly flat and tired; this one was not for me! Supposedly one of the most Petrus like wines in Italy, and not far off in price either! 100 GBP a bottle and upwards. 7.0 http://www.lemacchiole.it/
Ordinarily Systembolaget isn't up to much, but it can at least organise a decent wine tasting. Last Wednesday was my first visit to one of their regular shindigs, and I have to say I was impressed. The theme was none other than Super Tuscans - which i thought would be perfect preparation for the family Taylor trip to Italy in June. I wasn't disappointed.
Our host was a fairly young and extremely competent dude, who introduced his subject with an ease that spoke volumes about his experience of tasting Italian wines. We were to taste two flights of wine, all blind, and all classified as Super Tuscans. We began with three wines from the same producer. Always one to put my foot in it, I began by proclaiming that the third of these had a more pronounced Sangiovese nose than the previous two - only to find to my shame that it had in fact the least amount of this grape varietal of the entire flight. Oh hum! I guess Stephen Spurrier's place at Decanter isn't under threat just yet... But this revelation threw me into a conundrum. I'd said this about Sangiovese because the third wine had the most "Italian nose" of the three (this at least all of us were in agreement with), but if it wasn't the Sangiovese that was doing that, what was it? It can't have been the grapes (which were more Bordeaux in style than Italian), so what was it then? Frustratingly, the answer is still out there somewhere, but I for one have no idea where it is...
The second flight upped the ante a little, and turned out to be a tour de force of some of the best Italian wines around. Despite this, I came away a little confused by some of these. The best weren't in the class of some of the better Bordeaux wines I have tasted at home - despite being in some cases about five times the price! So in that sense I was a little put off. Then again I did come away with more of a feel about what new Italian wine is all about. Not all of it was to my taste (or wallet!), but it was definitely an enjoyable experience. Check out the wines below. Oh, and if you get the chance, book yourself on one of Systembolaget's upcoming events before it's too late. Cheers!
First Flight (all from Mazzei)Bronzone 2004. 100% Sangiovese. Dark cherry red; roasted, fruity vanilla nose; warm in the mouth with a good level of acidity, toasted oak and vanilla, fruity with good length; pretty good! 7.5
Serrata 2004. 65% Sangiovese, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Merlot; Dark cherry red; a more roasted nose than the Bronzone; taste smoother and more rounded, less vanilla, more berries; good to very good! 8.0
Belgvardo 2003. 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Sangiovese, 10% Merlot; same dark cherry red; a very "Italian" nose (but clearly not related to the Sangiovese element!); rough tannins (needs more time?), shorter on length and less balanced with lower acidity; good; 7.0 (but most expensive of the three!)
Second Flight
Gaja Ca' Marcanda Magari 2003. 50% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Cabernet Franc. Medium dark red; very big, perfumy nose, flowery rather than elegant; nice and rounded taste, fruity, light and balanced acidity; easy, good drinking! 8.5 (Others in the group called this "too nice" and "characterless" - they were wrong, but worth the asking price? No way!)
Le Stanze del Poliziano 2003. 10% Sangiovese, 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot; Dark cherry red; slightly sharp and greenish nose (still too young?); still fairly tough tannins, long legs, Pretty good but needs time? 8.0 http://www.carlettipoliziano.com/
Antinori Solaia 2000. 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Sangiovese, 5% Cabernet Franc. Dark cherry red; pungent and fairly flat nose; nice and rounded taste, smooth, noticeably "old" taste, woody; very good. 8.5 http://www.antinori.it/ Wine of the night, but only just.
Le Macchiole Messorio. 100% Merlot. Brickish red with lots of debris (high sediment, almost soup!); burned, spicy, peppery nose, complex and rich, but too "brown"; not as exciting a taste as it should be, fairly flat and tired; this one was not for me! Supposedly one of the most Petrus like wines in Italy, and not far off in price either! 100 GBP a bottle and upwards. 7.0 http://www.lemacchiole.it/
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