BABIIJST
_ Poetic
justice
Six independent retailers offered The List their favourite low-cost red and white wines. Catherine Fellows asked poet and playwright, Liz Loehhead, to savour them.
It‘s the season to buy bottles. lots of lovely bottles. green and white and red. . . Excuse me, I‘ve had a few already and they were dee-lovely. We got six ofGlasgow and Edinburgh's all-too-few independent wine merchants to pick us a bottle of red and a bottle of white from their shelves. The only thing we stipulated was that each bottle be under £5. but the aim was ‘ to get some new ideas. As you can l see from the selection they gave us. our merchants took the opportunity to challenge our wine-buying reflexes: there's not an Australian u
l
SP :
7 OLD FISHMARKET CLOSE EDINBURGH 031 225 $429
brasserie
; W open seven days food served all day fri 8: sat
restaurant
tuesday— saturday i900 - 2200
mosey
chardonnay among them — in fact. no
3 chardonnay at all — instead,
sauvignons from Romania and Chile, two increasingly celebrated wine-producing nations, a couple of Italians made from lesser-known grape varieties, an Austrian riesling
and sylvaner mix to give the lie to the
; 'Lochhead said she didn’t know
the lingo, but she knew what she liked -she liked the fact that every bottle was under £5.
rather sad reputation of that
country, not to mention a petite sirah from Mexico. and, believe it or not, a pinot noir from Brazil. Other bottles
' hail from Spain, Chile, Australia and
France. According to Jilly Goolden, some
wines taste like running through the ; fields with no clothes on or burying
. your face in wet straw so we thought . it would be good to see what they
could do for a real poet. Liz Loehhead said she didn’t know the lingo, but she knew what she liked — she liked the fact that every bottle was under £5 — and she agreed to come and swirl and sniff and taste, and, let’s face it, drink lots ofwine with us.
We were very impressed with our group of twelve, particularly the whites, which are more often problematic, but these were surprisingly varied, and, without exception, presented a good balance between acidity and flavour.
THE WHITES
I Kremser Rosegarten Riesling and Sylvaner 1991 (Austria) £4.79 ‘Really flowery — what real flowers smell like; lilies,’ said Liz. ‘Not sweet to taste though —- like a better sort of Iiebfraumilch.‘ This wine did have an exceptionally strong ‘scent‘ and loads of distinctive flavour; we all
~.--oo"‘
Rock Caf
18 Howe Street Edinburgh Tel: 031-225 7225
Open Every Day
(except Sunday)
Serving
Scottish American
Cuisine
12 noon until 12 midnight (last orders)
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_ .____.___ _ , _ 98 The List 18 December 1992— 14 January 1993
liked it a lot. Peckhams and Rte. 21 Clarence Drive. Glasgow, 04] 334 4312 (and Peck/rams branches).
I Sauvignon Blanc, 1991 (Romania) £2.99 ‘Nice fruity first taste. flowery; really acid after-taste.‘ Liz isn't a sauvignon fan. This was the cheapest bottle we tried by a long way — and it showed; but as Liz put it. 'by the end of the party I’d be perfectly capable ofthrowing back pailfuls of that — it‘s not disgusting, which is more than I can say for lots I've had.‘ Ubiquitous Chip, 12 Ashton Lane. Glasgow, ()41 3345007.
I Citra Trebbiano D‘Abruzzo, D.0.C., 1991 (Italy) £3.70 (special otter until Christmas, £3.20) Very unusual. this wine produced south of Rome is also very enjoyable. ‘lts light fresh green colour is deceptive. it‘s very full. tastes peppery. a bit like dry sherry. good aperetifsort ofwine.‘ said Liz. It had something ofdates. and a good balance between tartness and
Blackwood's
Restaurant
24a Stafford Street Edinbur h EHS 78
Tel: (0302.25 9575