Two in a row

It is highly unusual, not only for me but for most of us, to have splendid wine on two consecutive evenings. Our bodies - especially ageing ones like mine - demand a break, fine wine is not easily available and the whole shebang can be costly if it is pursued at a commercial establishment, such as a restaurant or wine bar. As with everything in life, though, luck plays a part and, after the splendid dinner on Tuesday night recounted in my previous post, I had a phone call from my good friend AM inviting me for a bite to eat on Wednesday evening, an opportunity for a catch-up chat, lubricated by a bottle of something or other... Music to my ears!

At his place the simple food is always prepared well and there are, almost always, nice fried potatoes, against which resistance on my part is futile. My friend is far more restrained and always has been, so he doesn't touch the fries, but for me the pleasure is just too much, weak little man that I am. He also likes to share one or two of his good bottles - most people cannot truly appreciate grand wines other than on a label basis - and he finds in me, his erstwhile supplier and always available advisor, a good companion in enjoyment.

So we started our evening with a delightfully light Riesling from the Pfalz area of Germany (Reichsrat von Buhl Reiterpfad Hofstuck Riesling 2015), with its balance of freshness and hints of richness, a wine of sweet but not cloying temperament in the background full of white peaches and lychees, without any hint of the taut minerality and rich petrol hues found in its Alsace cousins. This is an excellent aperitif wine, light and playful, which could also accompany dishes with a lighter taste, as rich food would all but eclipse its delicate body.

Our food was varied and tasty, aside from the aforementioned fries I had some salad, zucchini pie and a touch of roast chicken, all delightful; I was sorry not to have a stomach twice the size! To accompany this simple fare my host opened a bottle of 1997 Pichon Baron which did not disappoint us in any way. 1997 was a tricky year in Bordeaux, with lots of disappointing bottles but, as per usual, the Pichon Baron does well in difficult conditions - this was most evident 22 years later! This was a rich mouthful, with lots of oak on the nose and palate balanced by rich red fruit and chocolate, no signs of fading but perhaps at its best now. A very good wine from a vintage of varied quality, it made the evening extremely pleasurable. Furthermore, I was successful in decanting it perfectly, so we avoided any sediment without wasting much wine...

Added to all the above the warm friendship and interesting conversations we always share, this was a lovely evening. Any candidates for making it three in a row?

Wood Restaurant Dinner

Thanks are due to my friends who make it possible to consistently attend dinners, help in the presentation and, generally, take part in activities that involve food and drink; without their help, these activities would be beyond my reach.

Our gastronomic society organised a dinner at a new restaurant (Wood Restaurant) which appeared during the summer and which was created by a wonderful chef - and friend, but this is not a plug! - Mr. Michalis Dounetas. Michalis is a rarity among top Greek chefs in that not only is he modest and unpretentious, but he is also extremely knowledgable, hard-working and eager to learn more about his craft.

So the friends of Dionysus gathered there on a very autumnal Tuesday evening to partake of a very meaty dinner - Wood specialises in meat and ethical sourcing - accompanied by two superlative wines and an unusual (for us) Bulgarian fine aged plum alcohol. This was not a meal of complexity and prissy dishes; rather, this was earthy, strong in taste and simply but effectively presented, the quality of the ingredients and the sure hand of the kitchen the guiding lights. I must say we ate extremely well.

The first course of a home-made Bresaola (from Greek animals) was excellent in texture and the little vegetable bits  meant that it was bursting with flavours, but the accompanying wine was, if anything, even better - Vientzi 2016 Savatiano from Papayiannakos, the enterprising biodynamic producer in the ancient winemaking area of Mesogeia, near Athens. Savatiano is a long-ignored grape variety, largely because of the crime of being a basic component of retsina, but also because when grown for mass production and vilified thus it produces a flabby, clean but characterless liquid. This is not the case here, with a single vineyard wine produced from very old vines (over 50 years old) in a dry climate, and loving, careful vinification, the result being a stunning, complex, mineral yet fresh white wine that gives layer upon layer of taste, is extremely long and will age, I think, beautifully. If you can find it, drink it and you'll not regret it, this is a superb Greek wine at an extremely reasonable price.

Our second course was a small rib of beef, cooked to fall off the bone and paired with kritharaki (orzo), both soft and joyously tasty, a rather peasant dish that gave lots of satisfaction. This was followed by a small beef medallion served with a stuffed mushroom on top, a delicate sauce and some vegetables, simple and to the point, lovely textures and tastes combining for a very successful end product. These two courses were magnificently accompanied by a quirky red wine from Greece's most individual and wonderful winemaker, Economou from Crete, whom I have praised in a previous post as my loyal reader knows. This was a Liatiko 2006, light brick and red in colour but bursting with flavours, complex and beguiling, red fruit and spices, taste that goes on and on, soft yet full, utterly delicious. Drink it if you can find it, of course, but that is an unlikely event and one of the reasons why our - the Friends of Dionysus - events  are so special - you can taste things with us that are simply not available to anybody else, at any price!

The sweet was a baba steeped in the same brandy as the one served, but slightly younger, so this was an excellent match for the rather fine - much finer than any similar drink I've tried - plum brandy, which was delicate but full of taste.

Thursday evening

Little boys and girls I apologise at the beginning of this post, for this Thursday night I was fortunate enough to drink some wines that you, poor ordinary creatures, can only dream about. Indeed, the evening was so good that we rounded it off with a 1997 aged grappa from Levi that you couldn't even dream about, it was that wonderful.

Step forward YT, whom I hadn't seen for about a month, who with his usual generosity, provided the majority of bottles (another friend, LK provided one as well) for our assortment of six in total to evaluate, appreciate and enjoy. My loyal reader well knows that YT and his kind wife MT are regular providers of unforgettable evenings with good food, great wines and excellent company, even including your scribe.

Many times before I have told you that good food does not have to be elaborate, just well-sourced and well executed; last Thursday conclusively proved this to anyone caring to look carefully enough. We had a simple green salad with a dressing that complemented, not dominated, the taste of the leaves, making it an invigorating start to a meal and preparing the palate for the main course. This again was simple but beautifully done, oven-roasted beans from the north of Greece, with tomato, onions and a bread crumb crust, simple but yummy, straightforward but utterly delicious.

Wine, wine, wine is always our clarion call when we meet at YT's place, and this time was no exception, with an exceptional Savatiano VIENTZI single vineyard 2016 to start with from Papayiannakos, then three vintages of Assyrtiko from Santorini (2012-11-10), then an amazing wine from southern France (Madiran 1995 Chateau Montus) followed by an Avaton 2002 from Gerovassiliou in Northern Greece.

Savatiano is, in my opinion, an outstanding Greek grape variety that has been dismissed for too long as uninteresting, even inferior, as it is the main variety used in Retsina, the pungent, occasionally offensively pine resin scented wine that's launched a million taverna meals for tourists - and, by the way, there is such a thing as good retsina. But Savatiano is special, and in good hands it can produce subtle, multi-layered, interesting wines; the Vientzi 2016 single vineyard wine is a supreme expression from very old vines (over 50 years old), very concentrated and fine, reminding me of a top Rhone white.

Of course the Assyrtiko Santorini wines were outstanding in some ways but very different, with the significant oxidation of the 2010 dominating the freshness and minerality of the area, the 2011 was subdued but more typical and the 2012 was showing all you would expect from this special island (zingy lemony paired with mineral notes) with a bit of age as a bonus. The 2010 was clearly on the way out - still all there but oxidising - but I still found lots to enjoy in it, a sentiment not shared by everyone present.

If the quality and style of the whites was attempting to make life difficult for the Madiran they failed -they just emphasised this exceptional wine's presence, allowing it to show its richness and complexity, its ripe red fruit character undimmed by age, layered, long and immensely satisfying but perhaps better on a cold winter's day to provide sunshine. The quality of Chateau Montus, well known now throughout the wine world, gives a clear signal of what can be achieved with passion, love, local grape varieties and hard work; Montus shows clearly why individual properties in the south of France (in this case south west, Gascony) must now be taken seriously, always, forgetting the big commercial concerns. This is the real deal!

Avaton is a Gerovassiliou wine from the North of Greece from a winegrower who, in my view these days, looks for the broad appeal rather than the exceptional, with this 2002 showing soft tannins, mature red fruits  and some complexity, a good wine from an exceptional stable, rather overshadowed by the sheer exuberance of the Madiran which preceded it. I find that, from a winemaker who has produced some great wines in the past, especially in Porto Carras during his tenure there, his wines today are always technically sound, well made, even interesting, but they are rarely truly exciting.

Then to finish, oh, to finish, a grappa from those sorcerers of this liquid, the Levi family (alas no longer around), an aged one being even more exciting than their normal concoctions, a drink so incredibly fine that it left many of us speechless. This was gentle, complex, a whisper yet at the same time loud, obvious but hidden, a subtle heavyweight with extreme finesse, in short a masterpiece of the art of making, then ageing, proper grappa and bottling it at the perfect moment. Astoundingly good stuff and the perfect way to end not only a meal, but this post.

Drink, drink, drink (pace, Father Jack!)

My impecunious state over the last few years would - probably should - have condemned me to the state of only drinking house wine for the remainder of my days. Luckily I have good friends who appreciate my company enough to dig out fine bottles from their cellars to share with me, allowing me access to some very fine stuff indeed, what I live for, really.

At the end of a long September day, having welcomed my lovely Finnish friends to Athens and made sure that they were safely ensconced in their little holiday flat, I hot-footed it to my friend AM's place for a bite to eat but, more importantly, for a drop or two of wine. Many years ago when we were both London based I was a contributor to his cellar and, indeed, helped forge his wine preferences so that he is now able, without specific advice, to surf the world's markets and purchase stuff that is good both for keeping and for current drinking.

Of course a little bit of common sense is all that is needed to buy sensibly, once you have a decent budget and understand the basics of the way the wine market functions - my friend has all those quantities in abundance and has learnt from his mistakes. Also, he has a pocket that can weather the odd false move, a useful asset when investing in the aged wine market.

The first wine we had a crack at was a Taittinger champagne. Now this is a well-respected house with a decent non-vintage cuvee and good vintage champagne, but their real glory is their luxury Comtes de Champagne cuvee, of which we were privileged to share the 2006 vintage. This is a staggeringly good wine lacking the vulgar publicity of, say, a Dom Perignon, and all the better for it. Blanc des blancs, a chardonnay wine from grand cru rated vineyards and with class to spare, the 2006 was incredibly young and vigorous, almost gauche, clean and creamy, young and lemony, to untrained eyes a current vintage. Delicate layers of taste take turns to assail your palate with pleasure that only the finest champagne can provide, here still awkward with youth despite the thirteen years of age, subtle, complex and beguiling, with more ahead of it.

And then the big surprise, a 1975 claret, from a year that initially promised so much and spectacularly failed to delivered, with hard tannins outliving the lively fruit of youth and, in many cases, leaving graceless, dried out wines. Well, not the bottle of Leoville Las Cases that we were privileged to attack this evening which, while perhaps short of perfection in balance and refinement, was now drinking especially well. A surprisingly deep and vigorous colour with only a tiny bit of brick on the outside led to a discreet vanilla and red fruit nose and a cornucopia of red fruit on the palate, complex and clean, without a hint of the hardness that has bedevilled this vintage in the past. I was surprised, nay bowled over, by this stunning, elegant, Leoville, still youthful, still complex, which leads me back to a reevaluation of the vintage - anybody with more 1975s to taste?

Sure, we had some food with the wine, including peached salmon, salad, wild rice and a spectacularly good spinach pie that managed to be light and flavoursome - delicious in fact - at the same time, but they were there to support the wine. You are, dear reader, lucky to have found me and so learn through my experiences how wonderful the world of wine can be. Trust me, it is amazing!

I love politicians!

Oh dear, you've already categorised me as a weirdo from the title of this post, without delving deeper into my feelings, the meaning of what I'm saying. You may be right, dear reader, on the weirdo point, but please read on - you may even thank me later.

We all depend on politicians in one way or another, as they are the ones who govern the way countries - and, therefore, ordinary peoples' lives - are run. Politicians create laws and the way they are enforced, help create and administer the security we all need, even control our pockets in one way or another; they are important to us whether we like it or not. Democracy depends on politicians to represent 'ordinary' people, the same ones who vote them in and out of office according to whatever they feel is apt, correct at the time. And what a job of it we 'ordinaries' are making!

Politicians are great for many reasons, some - but not many - of which occasionally are even related to the job they are being employed to do. To me they are a constant source of inspiration, admittedly in a strange kind of way, of amusement and even hearty laughter. What would my life be without them?

In recent months my best source of inspiration has been the President of the USA, Donald Trump, known in the past as the Donald. From amazing and amusing childish tantrums to the constant stream of petty, often meaningless, lies he gives countless opponents, but also comedians galore, plenty of material to keep anyone - me included - amused for months and months. The fact that he is 'the most powerful man in the world' or 'the leader of the free world' may make this slightly (!!!) disquieting in that this is a comedy turn with potentially desperately serious, even fatal, consequences is a source of concern but...

When The Donald runs out of steam we have other delightful political figures to pick up the slack, with the front-runner being President Bolsonaro of Brazil, a man so outrageously unreal that he is prepared to let the Amazon forest burn down to nothing rather than accept help from France (nor anybody else for that matter); this because he feels slighted by something said by President Macron of said country. Are we serious here? This is delightful playground behaviour - oooh, you called me a name so I'm not playing with you - which is precisely what we should not expect from a serious politician outside high school.

Of course I cannot stay serious when the incomparable President Erdogan of Turkey engages with other countries, in turn threatening or offending the very neighbours and potential allies he should be making friends with and depending on, spouting rhetoric from the bygone days including the choice 'the Aegean islands were ours sometime in the past, rightfully they should be ours again' (I perhaps paraphrase slightly), conveniently forgetting that the first Turks did not arrive from the steppes of Asia until the tail end of the 1st millennium. and Ottoman Turks not until nearly 300 years later... How far back do you want to discuss ownership, Mr. President?

You couldn't make them up, these people, the Trumps, the Berlusconis and the Salvinis, the Farages and Johnsons. They are unwittingly funny because they are 'funny peculiar' in a way few satirists could have imagined, they make me smile and, sometimes, laugh out loud, how could I not love them?

But it is a love-hate relationship - I loathe what these people are doing to our world!

Paleo - Piraeus' perfect little wine bar

You're wandering around the port of Piraeus of an evening, more than likely confused after returning to the big city (cities???) after a wonderful time on a gorgeous Greek island. All around you loads of indifferent little coffee bar places vie for your business, knowing they need not impress you as they will probably never have to see you again. Off in a huff, you take a wrong turn up a dark cobbled side street full of closed or defunct commercial concerns when you see a light further up; you wander towards it and, as it's hot weather, you realise there are tables with people eating and drinking.

For anyone who has ever wandered the streets of the port of Piraeus this is an unlikely sight in an unlikely location - a bit like an oasis. Yet as you come nearer you realise this is no backstreet taverna, frying the dickens out of everything it can lay its hands on and serving jug wine in squat little glasses, but a serious establishment that respects wine. A wooden sign above the door says Paleo, and if you are a wine lover you have stumbled upon a little bit of paradise.

Yannis Kaymenakis opened this place in the middle of the financial meltdown that has been tormenting Greece for the best part of the last ten years after a distinguished career first as a sommelier, then as a partner in a wine-themed restaurant near the old all-marble Olympic stadium. He is passionate and knowledgable about wine, but not stupidly elitist, clever-clever or precious. Indeed his wine list cleverly blends the well-known with little discoveries you would struggle to find elsewhere, all at fair prices and served with proper all around glasses - yes, a bugbear of mine! Here you can enjoy a decent mouthful of, say, French stuff at a price that other wine bars would put on a relatively ordinary Nemea specimen. And the man himself is there all the time to advise and guide all visitors, expert and ignorant alike, with patience and humility, making this little place a big success despite the crisis.

We had two bottles of wine between four of us - I know, I know, I had to be good and, don't worry, I'm not losing my touch - the first being a thumping rose from Tavel in the south of France (Rhone valley), 2018 Chateau d' Aqueria, full of big cherry and ripe watermelon flavour and alcohol, a lively, enjoyable mouthful and not just for the summer. Then we had, at Yanni's recommendation and continuing the Rhone theme, a Crozes-Hermitage 2017 from Alain Graillot, which was dark and almost black in colour, with a rich spicy red fruit nose and a similar, juicy palate, ripe with lots of background soft tannins - drinking well now but with lots of time ahead. Both wines were well chosen, unusual for Greece (the Crozes less so, of course) and clearly show the thoughtfulness that has gone into compiling this list.



I do not know why I had not beaten a path to Paleo's door before, other than it isn't near my sister's apartment where I stay and I am impecunious, but this is me making excuses. It's a delightful place where you can drink good wine properly served at prices that won't break the bank, and the food is decent too, if simple, to accompany the wine rather than dominate. Even the homemade bread - a rarity in Greek eateries - is excellent!

This is a destination place worth seeking out, not just good for the lost and wandering of Piraeus. I shall be saving my pennies to go back again, and soon. Of course, dear reader, you can invite me and I can advise you on the riches contained in the wine list, singing for my supper. You will enjoy it, as my non (well, hardly any) wine-drinkimg friend did last night. He was already talking about going back as we were driving away, and he's about as impecunious as I am!

A pleasant drinky!

Oh dear, what a lucky little person I am, despite all my well-publicised (by me at least...!) problems. Last night a good friend invited me to his home for a bite to eat - something simple - and a catch-up, as we hadn't seen each other for a while. He is a friend going back many, many years to schooldays but, almost equally importantly for a wine person like me, he has a decent cellar! In years gone by I originally advised on wine purchases and how to go about finding good stuff at decent prices, so I knew that the food would be simple but the wine a bit special.

I wasn't wrong, of course, as he suggested a bottle of champagne - one of my favourite drinks in the universe - that he still has a few bottles of, a Dom Perignon 1996. There had been a bit of bad luck with bottles of the same recently, so he wanted to make sure that some were still good and I was handy! What luck! Champagne, like any wine is a living thing and, especially with a twenty three year old wine, there is a risk that at least some of the bottles could have suffered, but ours had not; it was, in fact, a beneficiary of all the good that comes from ageing wine without any of the bad.

Our wine was simply stunning, delicately golden green in colour with good, quite vigorous for its age, mousse and fine bubbles, toasty and biscuity, subtle yet tasty, classy and long. I have never been in awe of Dom Perignon and am appalled at what people with more money than sense do with it in nightclubs the world over, but at its best it is a seriously fine wine to reliably savour. This is not the first fine bottle I have enjoyed - the rose is particularly good - but this one was just spot on in its classy subtlety and complexity, hallmark of good champagne. Chapeau!

Good champagne is not rocket science; rather, it involves nature being somewhat helpful, then unrelenting human attention to detail in the vineyard, the grape selection, the winery, the handling, the cellar. Champagne is a complicated baby and expensive to produce, but at its best it's worth loving to bits - this was one such occasion.

Dear reader, if only you had friends like mine... But then you probably wouldn't bother with reading my nonsense.

Death in Motorsport

This weekend another driver died taking part in motorsport, a talented young who could have become a big star in the future, a winner at the highest level. It is, of course, a human tragedy but, in motorsport it is something that can happen at any race, at any level of the sport and on any given day. It is upsetting, yes, but everyone involved knows that the risk is always there.

Nearly forty years ago I was a young driver fighting for success as you, my loyal reader, well knows from never missing a post, and death was part of my life. This was in an era where motorsport deaths were far from unusual and we felt the shadow of risk every week - this is, in many ways thankfully, no longer the case. Racing cars and circuits are much safer these days, sometimes even at the cost of reducing the excitement for spectators but this is largely an acceptable cost; life is precious, after all, and should not be thrown away stupidly.

Motor Racing is dangerous, REALLY DANGEROUS, has always been so, and it is possible to lose one's life quite easily; even a trivial little incident like banging wheels can have serious results. On Easter Monday 1980 I had a 'silly little' accident at Thruxton in an FF1600 race while running just outside the top 10, losing control in a fast corner round the back and spinning off harmlessly into the greenery, as I thought. Alas I hit the marshalls' post going backwards at over 100mph, was unconscious for over 10 minutes and, were I driving a less robust car than the PRS I may well have died on the spot. As it was I survived with aches and pains, and was back in a racing car within two weeks.

I know people unconnected to motorsport cannot understand this, how in the face of death or serious injury drivers come out week after week to race, to attempt to win, to achieve our dreams, whatever they may be. It's not about money, as in most racing categories outside the very top drivers are unpaid and even often have to cover their own expenses. It's more often than not an intangible, different from person to person, that pushes us; of course, we all also love motorsport, competition, the excitement.

Is death a price worth paying? I know without a shadow of a doubt that in my day, sadly now part of the distant past, it absolutely was. Despite all the hand-wringing and wailing we hear now, the 'it shouldn't be allowed to happen' voices,  the tears shed when it does happen death is still part of what makes motorsport what it is. Remove it and all motorsport becomes is an amusement park game, sterile and graceless.

No driver wants to die, but most of us accept it as a possibility, as part of pursuing something we love above all else. The old photographs of my racing days that accompany this post are, of course, out of date and I'm still around, if unfulfilled - see my post of  earlier in the year - when many friends and others are not. Shedding a tear for the young ones killed in the last few days, I salute them and live on with, like them, acceptance and no fear.