Though I am not much of a cook, it turned out nice enough that I almost dislocated my shoulder patting myself on the back (cue all the foodies to say I did it all wrong).
With the fish I had the rest of Quinta do Ameal Vinho Verde 2006 that wasn’t used in cooking (i.e. quite a bit). A 100% Loureiro from Ponte de Lima, and gladly only 11,5% so drinking 3/4ths of a bottle isn’t quite a hazardous sport. I found the wine to be very satisfying with its strongly mineral nose and pear-like fruit. Quite full bodied and substantial for a Vinho Verde but still a lighter wine in a larger context yet it is intense. Pure, pleasantly tart and citrussy; long and mineral. Drinking this wine with the fish was like squeezing a lemon onto it.
The perfection of the wine and its unique character caused me to reflect on my brief infatuation with wine. I have been lucky in having found a loose group of wine lovers in Helsinki thanks to whose generosity I have tasted some truly exceptional wines from the classical regions. I guess all wine lovers are pre-conditioned to think of some areas as worthy of more attention than others: e.g. Bordeaux or Burgundy over, say, Jura or Madiran. As much as I love a good Bordeaux (if anyone mentions older Haut-Baillys, I start drooling), I find that if I am brutally honest with myself, I do prefer a Madiran. Or a Poulsard or Mondeuse or Gamay or.... The pleasure receptors in my brain seem to jump to a higher frequency with these well made oddities than with established greats.
I understand that it is quite a statement to say that in its proper context I get more pleasure out of a cheap Vinho Verde with some fish than from an aged first growth with lamb, so I thought that maybe it’s a psychological issue. Since I don’t have the highest income, perhaps I just subconsciously prefer the wines I can afford to the ones I can only afford to taste 5cl of. This line of reasoning quickly proved wrong because we taste so much blind with the group and I still find a Muscadet fires more pleasure receptors than more exalted whites. And whether blind or not, I do passionately love a good red Burgundy or Nebbiolo and those certainly can be prohibitively expensive. My tastes have certainly changed – unfortunately at the moment to rather anti-social styles. But I’m sure they’ll change again.
Now, where to find all of these interesting but lesser known wines? Is there a shop in the English speaking world specialised in them? And if so, are they hiring new employees? My book-shop’s job situation under the new ownership is becoming more and more exasperating so I want out and talking about and selling wines I like sounds like something I might enjoy.
-Otto
