Eating and Drinking

No, this is not a post about me being a piglet - or even a fully grown, adult pig - though I may well be either, but about the most important of human relationships, friendship. And, of course, it's a post about food and wine, eating and drinking, my favourite pastimes that are always made better when shared with friends.

Whilst I do not live to eat, I do consider eating and drinking a very important part of my life. The quality of everything going into my body is important to me, so everything is evaluated and rated depending on the level it is at. No-one should make the mistake of comparing simple food  (say a pizza) to more elaborate offerings (e.g. tournedos rossini); both should be excellent in their own way with the relevant attention to detail, ingredients etc., though the elaborate offering needs far more work and skill to get right. Please PLEASE be critical of everything you eat, but judge it for what it is and its price point, not some perceived universal benchmark. And be strict, avoiding places that take their patrons for fools at whatever level - in my book it is a crime to serve substandard fast food much as it is serving mediocre 'gourmet' stuff!

For me there is nothing more civilised and, indeed, civilising than breaking bread and sharing drink with people one cares about. Far more than simply a meal, this can be a joyous occasion of relaxing, talking, communicating, a shared moment on the way to becoming a memory and part of the tapestry of one's life. However simple the occasion, these experiences will form a great part of the background to, well, everything...

My friend M.G. (I know she sounds like a car, but she is in fact a human being...) recently had a birthday and invited a couple of friends and me to dinner at a rather lovely restaurant in downtown Athens called Simul. The bonus was that the other guests were JT and his wife MT - you can't have forgotten them already, observant reader - and they are valued customers there; the owners thus allow them to bring their own wines from JT's rather interesting cellar. Unlucky little me, therefore, was forced to endure not only excellent company and seriously good food, but some very special wine as well! Life can be cruel, sometimes.

My self-sacrifice began with two white wines.  One was a Chardonnay from the Jura region (Arbois subregion) mentioned recently, still relatively young (was it 2011?) but at the peak of its powers, complex yet restrained, dry with good white fruit flavours behind it. This from a small producer - most of the Jura proprietors are small in a landscape far removed from mass production of anything - started in the early 1970s and one of their special cuvees (Aigrefeu) with 36 months barrel ageing. Clearly a food wine, this would match with strong yellow cheeses, some fish and even my caramelised pancetta!

The second white wine was from one of the top producers in Alsace (Trimbach), that French region that exemplifies the need for a peaceful (and, for me, united!) Europe, as it has been both German and French interchangeably over the years, with only the wines benefitting from the strife. From a german grape variety (Riesling) and some of their best vineyards Trimbach make the stunning Cuvee Frederic Emile, a wine that never disappoints and usually thrills with its subtle complexity, its apparent simplicity masking a richness and minerality that is both luscious and dry. Alsace wines are big-flavoured beasts usually, but this displays the elegance of the true aristocrat of the wine world. If you ever get a chance to taste Cuvee Frederic Emile of any vintage - we were lucky to have a 2002, a good and almost great year - do not pass on it, DO NOT, as you would be a fool, the class dunce, an idiot. I, of course, am not and didn't, and it was everything you would expect it to be, and longer in the mouth than you can imagine! You could match it with food, but why bother?

The red wine was a mere 1er Cru (Les Cazetiers) from Gevrey Chambertin, the first of the great Burgundy villages going NE to SW on the Cote d'Or. As you all know the red wines of Burgundy are only made from Pinot Noir and are at their best, in my not so humble opinion, the most wonderful wines in the world. This 2003 specimen from the biodynamic domaine of Michel Magnien was, perhaps typical for what was a difficult, very hot summer with an early harvest (the earliest on record), slightly awkward and untypical, lacking the layered complexity of great burgundy while still clean and full of flavour. Gevrey Chambertin produces 'manly' wines with a hard edge, but usually also rather complex; this was juicy and ripe, but at the same time a bit hard and one-dimensional - this by Burgundy's august standards... We drank it with meat or vegetarian dishes and, with food, it showed its best side, slipping down nicely, so that in the end only the dregs were left in the bottle - you see, you need not have worried, dear reader, for I am of the 'waste not, want not' persuasion.

Did we have a good time? You bet we did, helped by good food and even better wine, and brought together by friendship. And you can argue 'til you're blue in the face that we didn't need the eating and drinking for our friendship, little puritan, and in a stupid way you may be right, we don't - but it sure as hell makes our moments together even more special!

I feel sorry for those who have never felt this.