FIRST CATCH YOUR FISH

Here is a great recipe for freshly caught trout that I used when fishing years ago. When I say recipe, it wasn't from a book or anything it was just kind of instinctive.

1 trout (any size)
salt
pepper
lemon juice
butter
wine
foil wrap
fire

First catch your trout, clean it, lay it on foil,rub with butter, sprinkle with salt and pepper, squeeze a lemon or two over it, add a splash of wine, wrap it up and put on a BBQ or fire. Cook it. When cooked eat it.

Complicated I know but it works. I cooked this somewhere near the Tongariro River back in the mid 70's. I had gone on a fishing trip with Chris and Sue Prowse and I think Robert Prowse (Rob, do you remember?). We went to a spot Chris knew of beside a tributary stream off the Tongariro. It was about 10 minutes from Turangi. One evening I caught a medium sized trout which we cooked. I also caught a large trout, the stuff of legend but had it stolen. When I put it on the bank and went back into the water to try my luck again, I had my back turned to it. Something (a noise or a sense) made me turn around and I saw that my trout had gone and I saw a ferret (stoat or weasel) disappearing into the bushes with it in its mouth. It must have been a strong little animal as the trout was huge (and got bigger with the re-telling).
When I went back to the camp the others didn't believe my story (philistines). They were lucky that I shared my other trout with them. The wine was probably a Penfold's Autumn Riesling which I remember as being delicious.
It was also on this trip that I discovered the benefit of very cold running water. In the morning while boiling water for tea/coffee I managed to spill a boiling pot over on my arm. I immediately plunged it into the nearby stream and kept it in there for ages. The water was so cold that I could that I lost feeling in my arm but when I finally withdrew it I had no pain or blistering.

CHARDONNAY CONSUMPTION INCREASES BY ALMOST 100%!

....at our house. Her indoors has gotten over the Pinot Gris craze and rediscovered Chardonnay. This is good news in that I no longer mistakenly pour myself a bloody Pinot gris from that bottle in the fridge but but bad news in that there is rarely any Chardonnay left over to put in the fridge. Fortunately though there are plenty of good wine deals going with Chardonnay at the fore to enable us to 'trade-up' for the everyday drinking version. Over the last couple of years I have waited for the supermarket wine sales to stock up on good wine offerings. I know that this is kind of against my principles in that the same supermarkets are destroying our wine industry (see previous post 'Mea Culpa' , but the bargains (if approached selectively) are there to be had. Now, due to looming wine surpluses, the self-same greedy supermarkets and the number of wine companies desperate to move stock, the bargains can now be found on the wine Internet sites and in wine retailers. Recently I have bought some very good Chardonnays at vastly reduced prices from non-supermarket sources.

First example is 2007 Te Mata Elston Chardonnay bought from Caro's in Parnell. This is one of New Zealand's top Chardonnays and invariably 'delivers'. I bought this for about $24 a bottle. Normal price is $35 to $40.
(A sideline to this brand is that about 10 years or so ago we went to Iguasu in Parnell for Saturday afternoon tapas and ordered a bottle of Elston. It was corked. We ordered another and this was corked. We ordered a third and this was also corked. I concluded that a poor batch of corks (not Te Mata's fault as they pay top dollar for the best) led to a discrete batch of wine being contaminated. TCA (the chlorine compound that leads to 'corkiness 'in wine) is very pervasive and will contaminate anything surrounding it. If a piece of cork is suspect it will contaminate the other corks in the bag. When wine is bottled the run is done using corks from the one bag or container. This means that it is usual to see 'corked' wines being run off the bottling line close together and often to be in the same carton. Iguasu staff, to give them credit, uncomplainingly replaced each bottle until I called a halt and switched to another brand. This meant that 1. they understood TCA taint, and, 2. they had confidence in Te Mata as a brand. A reliabe wine company guarantees to replace corked or faulty product.)

Second example is Matua Valley Mathesons Chardonnay 2007. I bought this from the internet supplier 'The wine Importer' for about 13 dollars a bottle (normally about 23 dollars). This is a meaty, woody and big Chardonnay that is worth the $20+ tag and a veritable bargain at $13.

Third example is Pencarrow Chardonnay 2007 Chardonnay purchased fom Glengarry at $9.90 a bottle (normally about $19). This is a great bargain. Good Martinborough Chardonnay from a top producer (Palliser) that is fresh, vibrant and very, very drinkable.

The bargains won't last forever as when wineries run out of their expensively produced wine that they are forced to sell at ridiculously cheap prices they will engineer the newer vintages at lesser costs and subsequently at lesser quality. They will do this to meet the demand retail prices.

Buy judiciously (feel free to ask me for advice).

THE WINE BORE 2

Maurice had a wine collection. Maurice was into hoarding. Maurice pontificated about it. In truth Maurice was boring.
Have you ever been on the receiving end of a (one-sided) discussion of a wine cellar and the treasures lying therein? Wine bores are good at telling everyone about the great wines that they have had or that they have in their cellar. Often though the wines in the cellar are 'not ready to drink yet' and the wines drunk no-one else seems to have been present to remember the occasion. A wine bore treats wines like a stamp collection- carefully looking at the label before putting the precious bottle back. If being hosted by a wine bore you are likely to be regaled with stories of the world's great wines whilst being offered a 'precocious little' Spanish or Chilean number that the host 'discovered. Keep me away from them please.

The reason that some people like some types of wine and dislike others may be physiological. I know that people with allergies and intolerance to histamines do not drink red wines. The do not is probably akin to cannot. For the last couple of years I have been prescribed a statin by my doctor. This is a low dose medication to prevent increases in cholesterol levels. Also over the last couple of years I have increasingly preferred Gisborne and Hawkes Bay Chardonnays over their cousins from Marlborough. The grapefruit skin character of Marlborough Chardonnays is not to my liking and has seemingly become more pronounced. It was only recently when my GP reminded me to not consume grapefruit while taking Lipex (the statin) as there are side effects that the penny dropped. Is the grapefruit character evident in some Chardonnays, especially those grown in cooler regions of a chemical similarity to actual grapefruit juice? This would explain my dislike of the wines and that others like them. Maybe the ABC brigade are taking statins.

BOTTLE SCHLOCK

We went to see Bottle Shock on Sunday, the movie purportedly about the great Paris blind tasting of 1976 where Californian wines came to the wine world's attention and (some) outplaced (some) French wines. I was looking forward to seeing this, having known of this story and was keen to see how the wines and the tasting would be portrayed. The result was great disappointment. Hollywood decided to only make passing references to the actual wines involved, both French and American and to dish up instead a crappy love story interspersed with a travel advertisement of Napa Valley. Why is it that they are always so gutless that they need to pander to the lowest common denominator. Instead of sticking to the main story they seem to have wimped out and given us; a pathetic love triangle; a family dispute; oversimplified French caricatures; and over-romanticised wine country scenes. There are enough wine enthusiasts world-wide to have ensured the success of a movie done well. Shame.

You (I'VE) got the silver...

In our lifetime we accumulate small things that are very meaningful to ourselves and go unnoticed by others. one of these small things I have is a silver funnel that is the best decanting device I have ever come across, In wine books and wine lore in general, wine ponces talk about using candles and back-lights against the neck of a bottle to show when sediment is about to pour out into the wine decanter. This is laborious, inaccurate and dangerous ( lighted flames and inebriated persons should not be combined). The silver funnel is a simple and safe labour saving device that is also perfectly accurate in determining when sediment from the bottle is about to reach the volume of wine being decanted. I swear by it and and am forever grateful in having it. I was given this by one of the nicest people in the wine industry that I have ever known. Barbara Coombs has been a long term wine representative for leading wine companies over the last 20 years. Before her stint as a wine representative she was P.A. to the highest profile ever CEO of a NZ Liquor company. This man gave Barbara the silver funnel which she kept for many a year before giving it to me. I very much appreciated the gesture as a mark of respect that she has for me and also appreciated the value of the item which is a big part I guess of why Barbara chose me to give it to.
I used it last night to decant a half bottle of Penfolds Bin 28 (Kalimna) Shiraz 2003. Using normal decanting methods with a young wine like this would most likely show no sediment. My silver funnel clearly shows, at the end of the pour, minute grainy traces. Eliminating these definitely adds to the enjoyment of one of the world's great (and unbelievably affordable)wines.

Ray says "Yeah right!"

The two big supermarket chains say they have stopped selling alcohol below cost as a "loss leader", after claims the cheap deals lead to alcohol abuse.

Supermarkets have voluntarily given up offering liquor deals to encourage customers into stores where they buy other goods.

The decision follows criticism from the Liquor Licensing Authority that loss-leading "promotes the abuse of liquor" and may breach the law aimed at reducing abuse.



Ray (Auckland)says:

"I buy a bottle of wine that the supermarket has discounted from say $25 to $15. I enjoy that bottle with my dinner over the next 3 or 4 days. Someone else buys a non-discounted 3 litre cask of cheap plonk for the same amount and drinks it all in one day. Which one of us is the responsible drinker?

So ending discounting will fix alcohol abuse. Yeah right"

Ray is sort of correct. It will not reduce alcohol abuse.

This story last week made me sit up and take notice. The supermarket duopoly (New Zealand has only two supermarket operators no matter how many brands they have out there)have seen an opportunity to increase profits along with reputation by making that statement. Sure they aggressively market against each other and will always have deep-cut wine sales but they always have an eye to the bottom line. The Liquor Licensing Authority criticism must have been music to their ears.
Here is a scenario - Either or both of the supermarket chains discuss the Licensing Authority criticism at a board meeting. The CEO asks what they should do about it. The Merchandise GM says that they have over 600 wine companies daily pleading with them to take their wine and are prepared to pay the usurious 'merchandising' fees to get the product on shelf or on promotion - there is no shortage - they can pick and choose. They can also screw down the suppliers to give an attractive into-store price enabling them to 'pass on savings to consumers' while still enjoying a very healthy margin (whether as GP or the aforementioned 'merchandising' fee.
The Marketing GM says that their consumer research of drinking behaviour suggests that drinking patterns are static or increasing (not decreasing). If a wine drinker enjoys drinking 4 bottles of wine a week he will continue to drink 4 bottles regardless of whether the price goes up or down -- they might as well get an extra couple of bucks for each bottle they sell.
The PR GM (spin doctor) then says that if they release a statement saying that they too are concerned at alcohol abuse and will cease loss-leading alcohol then they can get good (free) publicity, satisfy the Licencing authority, sell as much wine as before and bank more dollars. Everyone is happy. Right?