After realising I have built up rather a large collection of wine, as dealt with here, I decided to host a rather informal wine-tasting evening in the flat on Saturday 13th December. Despite being the day after the rather late-night departmental Christmas party, people were feeling pretty chirpy and in the mood to sample the 12 wines I’d selected.
Sim, a law school friend and fellow trainee, was an absolute star and prepared canapes, including sausage rolls, bruschetta and spinach and ricotta snacks…
Here’s the wine list with some comments (usually the ‘blurb’ amended by me) on each one:
New 50mm lens
Inspired by various posts on the interweb about 50mm lenses (including this one), my parents (with some helpful suggestions) bought me a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens to use with my Canon 450D body. I haven’t experimented too much with it yet but two things have struck me about having such a fast lens and a wide (1.8) aperture:
- Firstly I can take photos with remarkable detail in very little light; pushing the ISO up to 1600 results in very little noise.
- Secondly, I can take some great nightime shots without the use of a tripod using faster shutter speeds with the larger aperture.
As VothPhoto writes:
There is a difference of approximately 3.5 stops between f/1.8, the typical maximum aperture for an entry-level 50mm lens, and f/5.6, the typical maximum aperture at the portrait end of a “consumer” zoom. This is a huge difference in practice. Lighting that would require a difficult shutter speed of 1/8 second at f/5.6 would permit easy hand-held photography at 1/90 at f/1.8.
I’m looking forward to experimenting some more and also trying some portrait photography.
Is this a good vintage?
The Wine Curmudgeon: Wine terms: Vintage – Newly discovered Wine Curmudgeon makes a couple of very good points about buying wine based on vintage; for a large proportion of the wine you buy, the vintage simply doesn’t matter…large producers try to ensure their wine is consistent across vintages, so the question to ask is whether it is a good producer. WC sums it up:
“When does vintage matter? Generally, the more expensive the wine, the more important vintage is. It’s irrelevant in a $10 wine, may matter a bit in a $25 wine, and comes into play in wine that costs $50 or more. And how many of us drink $50 wine regularly?”
Just whose Hallelujah is it anyway?
BBC NEWS | Magazine | Just whose hallelujah is it anyway?
Interesting article on the origins of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah…did you know he wrote over 80 verses? I’m not a fan of Alexandra Burke’s version with the gospel choir…although she does have a great voice. My favourite versions have to be Jeff Buckley’s and Imogen Heap’s, plus possibly Rufus Wainwright’s and Ryan Adam’s!
Wine Bailout
Dude, Where’s My 401K? – A genius idea, pay your $39 a bottle and on the purchase date the price is pegged to the Dow Jones Industrial Average…price never rises about £39 a bottle but could fall…”The wine will be bottled in August 2009. If the Dow goes down, you get an economic stimulus check of $2 per bottle for every 100 point drop. If it goes up, then your 401K is looking good and the maximum of $39 is a steal for similar wines we produce that command $75+ at retail. Bull
or bear, you can’t lose.” From Vinography on Twitter.
CellarTracker & my wine
I’ve recently started spending a lot more time buying, sorting and researching wine. This is partly in preparation for the ‘party season’ but also I’ve caught ‘the bug’; I’ve been to a number of wine tastings recently (Virgin Wines, Bibendum, The Wine Show) and have ended up buying various mixed cases of my favourites.
I’ve reached the point where I have circa 120 bottles; some for drinking now, some to be kept for special occasions and about 20 which could do with about 2-6 years of cellaring. My physical organisation and storage of these wines is fairly haphazard, the wines for laying down sit in a wine rack in a cool room in the flat, whites for immediate drinking are in the fridge, bottles sealed with a cork are in various cool cupboards in makeshift racks, while the rest are still in their cases until I find more rack space.
Supermarket champagne
Champagne put to the test: Taking the fizz out of bubbly
“In a blind test that has thrilled the marketing departments of the
major retailers and perturbed at least one of the grande marques, six
wine experts gave a resounding vote of support to some of the less
glamorous bottles.”
Top 10 Best Buys
1 Sainsbury’s Taste the difference Vintage 2000 Premier Cru Champagne
2 Somerfield Prince William Premier Cru Champagne NV
3 Pierre Gimonnet & Fils 1er Cru ‘Gastronome’ – Oddbins
4 Lanson Black Label NV – Tescp
5= Radcliffes de Brissar Champagne NV – Threshers/Wine Rack
5= Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin NV – Tesco
7 Tesco Premier Cru Champagne Brut NV
8= Champagne Les Pionniers NV – Co-op
8= Oudinot Cuvee Brut NV – M&S
10 Waitrose Champagne 1999
The Wine Gang
The Wine Gang is a fantastic new(ish) wine review site, a collaboration between 5 top wine critics. They review wines on sale in supermarkets and wine merchants across the UK, issuing a set of notes each month. I’ve already used them to guide my purchases at Marks & Spencers this afternoon, making the most of the M&S 20% discounts. Subscription is £19.99 per year.
What’s Greg watching now?
In a follow-up to my previous post and Rob’s initial question, I thought I’d summarise what’s keeping me hooked on TV currently.
- Heroes – Now onto Season 3, I’m enjoying the battle lines being drawn in the classic good vs evil fight to come…plus great cameos by Seth Green and Breckin Meyer who run…wait for it…a comic book store and ‘advising’ one of the Heroes. In their words: “Best…Day…Ever”.
- Fringe – From J.J. Abrahms, this follows a team of FBI agents and scientists as they investigate ‘fringe science’ events…a little like a new X-Files. Decent length episodes, great cast (in my opinion), creepy corporation; here’s hoping they renew this for another season!
- Californication – Season 2 has started, I’ve watched the first few episodes and frankly got bored…may give it another go over the Christmas period.
- House – Still on good form, nice to see Cameron and Chase still playing reasonable roles…watch if only for Hugh Laurie
- Prison Break – Season 4 has become less about breaking out and more about breaking IN to places, but still highly enjoyable…if a little predictable. The show has changed substantially since Season 1 (partly by necessity, I admit) and I’m yet to decide whether the change is for the better.
- Chuck – Still fun, still geeky, glad it’s back. Easy-watching humour for a weekday night
- Spooks – Season 7 has started here in the UK and the season-arcing plotline seems to involve Russia, Russians and more Russians. The writing is still tight, action scenes are believable (mostly) and newcomer Richard Armitage adding more depth in his role as Lucas North. A must-watch show, the writers continue to go where viewers never expect them too…see Episode 7.
- Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles – Following on from the events of Terminator 2: Judgement Day, watch if only for the creepy Shirley Manson (Garbage) as a T-1001 and Summer Glau (Serenity) as John Connor’s protector (most of the time).
- Life – This intriguing show stars Damian Lewis as Charlie Crews, a detective who was recently released from prison after serving twelve years for a crime he did not commit and is on the hunt for the comspirators…plus he’s very Zen and loves fruit. Watch if only for his detective partner, Dani Reese played by Sarah Shahi.And briefly, I dip into Smallville (guilty pleasure) and Dirty Sexy Money (if only for the fantastic Donald Sutherland) as well as the usual Top Gear, Mock the Week and Have I Got News For You.
Is there anything I’m missing?
Needless to say I’m eagerly awaiting the return of Battlestar Galactica in 2009.
Roodi & Liam’s Wedding
I was lucky enough to be invited to the wedding of Roodi and Liam this Saturday, two friends from College of Law and fellow lawyers.
The service was held in the Brompton Oratory (or more correctly the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary), the second largest Catholic church in London after Westminster Cathedral and an incredible building. Unfortunately photography was not permitted so I’ll hopefully link to the professional photographer’s site shortly.
The reception was held at the Royal Horseguards Hotel in Whitehall and without further ado the photos can be found here and on Facebook.
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